Okay, Michael Vick, having recently pleaded guilty to Federal Charges of running, funding and participating in a dog fighting ring, including the torturing and killing of dogs they were unhappy with, FAILS a drug test. Now, keep in mind he still has to face state charges on many of the same issues that he already admitted guilt to in Federal court.

Some folks have said they are making a big deal about the pot thing, because if he had been getting drunk every night, they would have over looked it. See here, the problem is not the level of intoxication. Alcohol is legal pot is illegal. While awaiting trial on serious freakin' charges, it's not a good idea to INTENTIONALLY BREAK THE LAW. His claims of finding religion and turning his life over to God are shown to be completely unbelievable when he follows it up by spending the time smoking illegal herbage instead of studying the Bible.

I hope he spends a lot of time in prison. Maybe if he starts a prison football team, and OJ does the same there might be a big TV audience for the game! I can see it now the "Bad Newz Dogz" vs "The Real Killers" a prison football game to end all prison football games.

Hey folks, did ya notice? I've fianlly stumbled into level 51!

It took approximately FOREVER!

I'd like to thank my parents, my teachers, everyone who has accepted my submissions and of course my good friend, Xander, for rubbing my feet from time to time and being glad to see me when I come home!

Today we're all thinking about two things. The upcoming hockey season, and the 9/11 tragedy. They are tied together because the NHL is the only major sports league that lost people that day. Garnet "Ace" Bailey, the head scout for the Los Angeles Kings, along with his assistant, Mark Bavis, were on their way back to LA for the start of training camp. They were on United Flight 175, the second airplane to strike one of the World Trade Center buildings, and the which was caught on film doing so.Ace was one of the few people to call out on an air phone during the flight.

During his NHL career, he won two Stanley Cups with the Boston Bruins, and also played for Detroit, St. Louis and Washington. His final year as a player was with the Edmonton Oilers (in the WHA) where he took the ice with a young kid named Wayne Gretzky. He was a scout for the Oilers for 13 years (during which time they won Lord Stanley's Cup five times) before becoming head scout in Los Angeles.

Every interview or bio I've read or heard mentions how much he loved food. One teammate said that he would sneak food into the locker room if they had a weigh-in, so he could eat after dieting. His signature dish to cook was called "Bailey-baisse" which included chicken, pork, beef and sausage.

Well folks, today is a sports triple.

1- Steelers open the season today against Cleveland. Starting with a division foe is exciting, and hopefully a good trouncing of the Browns will set the tone for the season!

2- After the Steelers game, it's IndyCar racing! The last race in the IRL series finds only a three point gap between the top two contenders. With Dario Franchitti jumping to NASCAR next year, it would be exciting to see him go out with the championship.

3- The last game of the Canada-Russia "Super Series". The Canadians are 6-0-1 up in this eight game series pitting the Junior National teams of these countries. If the Russians can win this last game, they can go back home knowing that they got thier butts kicked all around the planet, but not ultimately humiliated. If not, they will go home in humiliation. Doesn't look good as a gauge of the current status of Russian hockey. This should get the Russian Federation to quit whining about money. If you're not producing the product, you don't get the cash, Ivan!

Tomorrow - NHL training camps open! Woot!

Well, I was in Somerset County (the one in Pennsylvania) to find and photograph ancestor's graves. I had a fine day and got some good pix of my forefathers and whatnot. Before returning home I went to the Flight 93 crash site and looked at the temporary memorial. A very emotional place. Upsetting and calming at the same time. The emotional or spiritual or karmic (whatever you want to call it) residue of a passenger jet slamming into the ground at a 40 degree angle while going 565 miles per hour still hangs in the area even six years later. The forty human beings on that airplane are honored and deservedly so. Take a look at these pictures I took.

Two interesting announcements in the world of museums in the Pittsburgh area this week. It seems just outside of Pittsburgh (in North Huntington) a museum dedicated to the Big Mac opens today That's right a whole museum, not for McDonalds' products in general, but just the Big Mac! Apparently it was invented by a local fellow and originally sold only in Western Pensylvania. What I find ironic is that todays Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that when the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh finishes work on the worlds third-largest collection of dinosaur bones, they will be raising admission prices a tad... from $10.00 to $15.00!!! That's right, a 50% increase. They speculate on if attendance increases, and everyone pays the extra $5 how much more money they will make. Apparently they notion that the increase might turn people away hasn't crossed thier minds. The FREE admission at the Big Mac museeum suddenly seems like a more reasonable day out... especially if there are multiple people in your family. Hmmm.

Big Mac Museum story

Dinosaurs charge more story

I can't load TV.com

I tried several browsers. Sometimes I can get the home page, but I can't get to my profile.

I'm over here on Filmspot though. I'm blogging from Filmspot with no problem.

Did they try to "fix" TV.com again? Anyone else stuck? Go to MP3 or Filmspot or Gamespot if you are having trouble with TV.com.

Today is the first day in about a week without rain. Thursday we had massive violent electrical storms. Three of them, in fact. Our power was out for a full day. It was still hot and humid, but with no AC or fans, so sleeping was a hard thing.

Some folks power is still out, and several roads are closed due to mud slides and runoff water undermining the serface.

Xander wasn't bothered so much, but he was happy to get to go outside all day, he's out in the yard staring at stuff now.

Apart from that, everything's fine. The Steelers play a home pre-season game tonight, so that's exciting. Hockey will start in a month.

Well, yesterday was my birthday, but it was also the birthday of two esteemed individuals:

- Sidney Crosby, 20

- Alan Keyes, 57

So happy birthdays to those two men and best wishes and so forth!

As many of you know, I spend a lot of time photographing and looking at bridges. There are many bridges in Pittsburgh (more than any other city in the world, in fact), but now that there is emphasis on what bridges have problems, and need work. We also have more bridges with structural problems than anyone else.

The death toll is lower than initial estimates, and that's good. What is bad is that this was the most travelled bridge in the Minneapolis area. It will cause havoc with the traffic for a long time to come.

Well, I've never seen or photographed this bridge, but here is a swell picture another guy took of it, if you want to see the bridge when it was standing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80651083@N00/148124998/