Taking bribes According to the Nigerian Football Association it is OK for a referee to take a bribe as long as it does not influence the decisions on the field. This is a fine policy. This sound like it is OK to cheat as long as you do not get caught or it is OK to rob from the rich if you give to the poor.

If there is going to be game fixing or officials on the field who are biased at least let the paying customer think that the game is not pre-decided. How many people want to pay their hard earned bucks to watch something that will not be decided on the field of play. We could just post the results and declare a Champion.

Fanny Amun, acting Secretary-General of the Nigerian Football Association, said at a soccer seminar earlier this week, “Referees should only pretend to fall for the bait, but make sure the result doesn’t favor those offering the bribe.”

Maybe this explains why the policy was stated:

"Despite a high-profile campaign to stamp out graft in the impoverished African country, Nigeria consistently ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world -- and soccer is no exception."


Go here for the article.  ¶ 10:44 1 comments

  Visit from Apple I mean Apple Computer and not Apple records. I mention this only because the two are currently in court fighting over whether Apple has the right to be in the music business.

But here is the proof of the vist:


Sadly the picture looks great in Photobucket but it is too big and Blogger is shrinking it some even at the "large" setting.  ¶ 07:24 0 comments

  New Courville Just to let those who know the Courvilles know, last Thursday they welcomed Luke Mausethe Courville into this messed up world. He is perfectly healthy and so is mother - even though Luke needed a C-section.  ¶ 20:11 5 comments

  Britney Spears Naked Yep, I am going for huge hits.

Here is a link to the hottest news on the interweb. Ms. Spears, in statue form, naked - and pregnant - on a bear skin rug ready to give birth.

If this is not the strangest sculpture I have ever seen then I simply cannot remember the one that is stanger.

Here is the Pic too:

  ¶ 20:07 1 comments

  Col BB So the gambling world has eliminated 61 teams from the year's biggest gambling tournement. From the reactions at the water cooler at work the Final Four teams seem to be a bit of a shock. Now, there are 4 groups of 16 teams seeded as such. In the history of this tourney there has only been one time when there has not be a single #1 seed in the Final Four teams. This year makes the second time.

I can only imagine that the bookies around the world are just so happy. Sure there are a 2, 3, and 4 seed remaining but the dark horse is the 11 seed who knocked out a 1 seed. To be fair all of the remaining teams knocked out the 1 seed so they are all deserving, but the only winners this year, other than the kids playing, the schools, the conferences, and CBS are the bookies.

Before the tourney started I read an article that theorized that if there were no gambling the annual tourney would be only middling interest in the games. Based on what I experienced last year in Vegas this may no longer be a theory.

Good night, and good luck.  ¶ 18:47 1 comments

  Baby Baker It seems like you can add the Bakers to the ever growing list of people who will come late, bring way too much stuff, always talk about the baby, leave early, and generally be no fun at all.

OK, that is just the down side.

I am actually quite happy and, other than being incredibly tired, Kate is doing very well also.

It would seem that the Martin's, Digennero's, and Baker's will all have kids about the same age.  ¶ 07:22 8 comments

  23/5 part duex As posted on 8-Jan-06:

"start and stop often, so with gas prices at their current level it is so progressive of the city to make us use more gas."

This remains true to this day. The speed humps remain on the streets that I would drive daily if I did not have an alternate route. But the last part of the post leads me to another thought.

There are some in this country that follow the racing series Formula 1. In F1 this year they have institued a next qualification process. I could expound on it here but other already have and you can read about it here if your fancy runs that way. The crux of the matter is that the final stint of qualifying is an exercise in fuel wasting.

The ten fastest cars from the previous round of qualifying have 20mins to set the fast time. The rub is that they must start the 20mins with the amount of fuel that they want to start the race with. So in order to get the fastest time you want the smallest amount of fuel in the car as possible. For example, each lap of Bahrain requires 2.75kg of fuel. If you put enough fuel in your car to run 15 laps then you have 41.25kgs of fuel on board. So you run around the track burning off fuel to get to next to nothing so that you can have the lightest car possible and therefor go as fast as possible. Needless to say this wastes fuel like no one's business. But then again auto (Kate says that I pronounce it otto) racing is essentially a waste of all kinds of resources for the sake of entertainment.

Oh well, I suppose all the speed humps in the world would not equal the amount of fuel wasted in auto racing.  ¶ 20:21 0 comments

  Remote Blogging This is a first for the Villenke blog...we are coming to you live from a remote location.

Today's post comes to you from Mezze Cafe & Cabaret as we wait for the weekly belly dancing. I must agree with Kzoo J-dawgs long ago post of truly enjoying the idea of being out on the town, immersed in the local culture and feeling like I am not some old codger. I've got my glass of Edmund Fitzgerald, my Harry Potter un der Gefangene von Askaban, and my fake Apple computer and I'm listening to some live acoustic guitar.

There are some couples out on dates, there are some friends meeting for a drink, there are people bellied up to the bar, there are some friends of the guitar player, and there is me.

Here at Mezze we have caberet seating...which means that they will seat strangers at the same table. If you have ever been to Europe this is the norm and not the exception. Every time I come here, since I am alone, they warn me that they may seat others with me and I must assure them that it is quite OK with me.

Next week Kate's mother and step father are supposed to come and watch the belly dancing. The following week, which may be the last if the contract is not renewed, a bunch of people from Kate's fraternal side are supposed to come. That should be a great time and if it ends up being the finale then at least it will go out on a high note.

Cheers from Mezze.


PS.
Now down under the Mac(e) XP into OS X you will find my Adsense. I plan on making enough money from this to retire in a 4th world country very uncomfortably.  ¶ 20:04 3 comments

  Southpark Avatars Just for fun Kate and I did these.

Here is what Kate wanted to look like:





















And here is what Kate was happy with for me.  ¶ 22:32 2 comments

  More Flight Woes I was out of town a few days this week. I had to go down to Scotsville, KY for Dollar General and the new conveyor line I work with. The work went very well and we were all set to come home Thursday. We boarded the plane to come home at 8am in Nashville. After closing the door and pushing off from the gate we got word that we had a mechanical. This turns out to be the hydraulic pump for one of the engines. This apparently is not an item that they stock in Nashville so we had to wait for a replacement.

I could make this very long. Needless to say they said that we would leave at 11:30. After that time passed we got no further updates. I attempted to rebook on other flights but everything out of Nashville was booked. So I finally get back on my fixed plane at 3:30pm....7 hours later.

When we get out onto to runway the wind has kicked up and they will not take off until the crosswinds get under specified levels. Then when we get to Detroit we have to wait 10 minutes before someone can get the jetway to the plane. Naturally, to make my connection I had to go all the way across the terminal. Then I am not actually booked on my connection, which I was assured that I was. Finally, my luck broke and I was able to get the last seat, due to someone else's bad luck - dentained in customes coming back from Nasau, and made it into GR at 8pm.

The worst part was that I was too tired to make it to Kate's weekly belly dancing.  ¶ 18:11 1 comments

  The Screw
I thought that you all might like to see the screw that was previously inside me. You cannot tell from this particular angle but it is a stainless steel self tapping screw.









From this angle you can see that the screw is a hex drive. I can just imagine the surgeon in the OR with a cordless Bosch drill and a rack of hardware to choose from.

I'm still amazed that this thing was inside me.  ¶ 10:04 5 comments

  BYBO Here are the pics of the BYBO. I do not have any from the brewing but here is how it looks in the workout room in the basement.
This the the 5-7 gallon plastic conical fermentor and the 5.5 gallon glass carboy. Both are filled with BYBO.
The conical is nice because it has a wide mouth for yeast harvesting, a valve on the side of the cone for samples and keg filling, and a dump valve on the bottom to remove trub and to, yes, dump the mess when it is done.







Here is a closeup of the carboy and head that is thrown up from the yeast.


Here is a closeup of the carboy and the mess that is made from the hops. All of this is filtered out before it goes into the keg. It just goes to show that, like most foods, you do not want to know what goes into them to make them taste good.  ¶ 22:04 0 comments

  Worst Blog Ever I do not intend this to mean, because I truly do value the J-dawg, but in the paraphrase of Comic Book Guy....

Jason's blog is the, "worst blog ever!"



C'mon man....post something.  ¶ 18:05 5 comments

  Surgery I was scheduled for a 1:10pm surgery. The hospital called at 10am saying that if I could get there soon they might be able to fit me in sooner.

I was already showered and preped so I was off immediatly and was in the prep room at the hospital by 10:30. Then I wait for 5 1/2 hours before the surgery.

Thankfully it was a local anesthetic so I did not have such a long post-op recovery. Unfortunatly, I was completely asleep and do not remember much past them pushing the drugs into the IV. I have a brand new screw and another piece of footware. Already, and surely I am still under pain medicine, but I know that things are better.

OK, it is now many hours past surgery and I am still quite fine. I have not taken any medication and the foot feels fantastic. I can even roll my foot to the big toe side with no pain. This is wonderful. Three cheers for screw removal technology.  ¶ 17:58 2 comments

  Confirmed...I am Screwed But I am soon to be un-screwed. (un-screwed...is that a word?)

Today at the doctor (surgeon) we took some more Röntgenbilds. She was quite happy with how everything looks and said that the bones look well healed.

Then she asked me to walk for her and I immediatly said that I could not. It hurts too much. So she looked at my foot and was pressing around. When she got to the area described in the previous post I did the "don't touch me there it hurts" flinch. She said that is not right. She admitted that the screw was long but did not think that it would bother me. She said that we could take it out if I wanted. Of course I do.

So she left the room. When she returned I was set up for screw remove tomorrow at a little past 1pm. I will be bandaged up until Sunday and then I should be able to start walking on it and wearing normal (if very loose) shoes.

Plus I get to keep the screw.  ¶ 16:20 0 comments