After selling out countless arenas this decade, U2 are heading outdoors this year with their first U.S. stadium tour since 1997’s PopMart Tour. The band members, who release No Line on the Horizon on March 3rd, haven’t yet announced dates for the tour or details about what they’ll play. But they hope to keep ticket prices unusually low, and they’re already planning an innovative setup that will allow for 360-degree seating around the stage, which will be moved closer to the center of the field than in any other stadium show. “It’s an engineering feat that creates this real physical proximity to the crowd,†Bono tells Rolling Stone, adding that the band wants to maximize space in the enormous venues to accommodate the many young fans it has made this decade with hits such as “Vertigo.†“We’re going outdoors to try to meet that audience.
Since the Texas Rangers aren’t going to win this thing anytime soon, I thought I would get a picture with the trophy when I had a chance.
Facts about the trophy I did not know:
It’s made by Tiffany & Co, just like the Super Bowl’s Vince Lombardi Trophy.
It weighs about 30 pounds and is made of sterling silver.
There are 30 gold painted flags, each representing a MLB team.
The latitude and longitude lines symbolize the world, but you can’t see them in this picture.
The baseball contains 24-karat vermeil baseball stitches.
And yes, I actually had to look up the word vermeil. The only vermeil I knew was a guy that coached in the NFL.
So far I’ve taken my picture with the Stanley Cup, and now this trophy. I’ll see if I can find that Stanly Cup picture and post it. Jerry won’t let me in his office to get a picture with the Super Bowl trophies. Snob.
Not everyone is comfortable about bathroom talk, but it’s a topic I’m about to talk discuss. So if you aren’t comfortable with bathroom talk, skip the section below in blue. It’s my blog, and I’ll blog what I want to, so before you rake me over the coals for writing about such a topic, please consider I didn’t have to warn you in the first place.
Yesterday I made a comment about people that wipe standing up. Yes, I’m talking about what you do after you go poo. Well, some readers were too shy to comment, but several Standers emailed me. They were completely perplexed as to why someone would actually do such a thing sitting down as they didn’t want to touch the toilet seat or get their hands near what’s in the toilet. But off hand (no pun intended), and I don’t know how to delicately put this, I just think standing makes things messier by the smearing when cheeks come together and the possibility of stuff running down the leg. Now it turns out one of the Standers is Canadian, and he took an informal office poll of the male office workers and just about all of them are Standers. They thought maybe it was just a male thing to do. Perhaps this is a regional or Canadian thing? I did search The Google and this forum on Yahoo! Answers was the cleanest one I found, and offhand I would say 80% are Sitters. I’m emailing Gordon Keith of The Ticket about this.
Tom Selleck was on the Daily Show the other night and talked about his ranch and how his family got really attached to this one cow. The cow died and he had it cremated so he could spread the ashes, and was actually surprised that when the ashes came back there in in a very large container about the size of a pop-corn bucket.
I can’t recall the last time I wore cowboy boots, probably back when I was in elementary school.
Nope, I remember, it was for a high school play called Roaming Joe and Julie.
I can’t recall the last time I wore a pair of Wrangler jeans, I’m thinking it was elementary school.
The last time I wore anything corduroy was in middle school.
I think it was the same for a netted shirt.
I haven’t posted a random TV show intro in a while, but no one has said anything, so I guess that wasn’t a real popular feature.
I once sat in Don Ho’s lap.
I once wrote a letter to Donald Trump. A reply was sent back to me, but it wasn’t from him.
It was almost 90 degree yesterday, but this weekend the temperature should be in the low 60’s.
I wasn’t popular in high school, but I wanted to be included in one of those “Most Likely to” or “Best” or “Worst” categories, so I campaigned to be the “Worst Driver.” When the results were tallied up, I was tied for “Most Friendliest” and “Worst Driver.” I was so friendly, I turned down the “Most Friendliest” so one of my friends could be in a category and I am now known as the Worst Driver of the the class of 94 from Mineral Wells.
I never had to wear glasses or contacts.
I like writing with a cheap Bic pen, preferably black.
I simply cannot wear tube socks with shorts.
I think the last time I had tube socks with stripes was in elementary school.
There was a span in my young adult life that I just didn’t really care about my appearance and would show up to work with bed hair.
Life would be so much better if I could take my dog to work.
In high school a lot of friends carried around a beeper/pager. I never really understood the reason for it.
I’m thinking about cooking a brisket this weekend.
The best potato salad in the world is found in a restaurant in Abilene.
I often think I’m not living up to my potential.
I don’t have any tattoos.
I never thought I would live to see the day, but Pat Robertson’s Regent University now has a young Democrat group. Article I don’t think such a group existed at my university, and don’t know if one was formed since I left. But the Young Republicans were a popular group on campus. I never knew such as thing existed until a saw a bunch of college students wearing a t-shirt of Ronald Reagan in front of an American flag saluting.
My cell phone is falling apart, I wish the Palm Pre would already release.
Widmore made mention that Locke’s parents had a sense of humor with his name, so he made sure his alias also had a bit of humor to it as well. Both names, John Locke and Jeremy Benthan, represent two opposing thoughts of two 17th and 19th century western philosophers – natural law verses Utilitarianism. If you really want to check out something kind of creepy about Benthan about how he wanted his body preserved after death, read this Auto Icon section. Yup, that Widmore is a funny fella.
I didn’t really get the whole Locke introduction, where he was dressed up like an Jedi. But the way this show has been going, I wouldn’t be surprised to seem him wield a lightsaber. If you are looking for a better sci-fi connection, I’m thinking Spock from Star Trek III The Search for Spock. And since I’m on a Star Trek kick, remember Spock’s quote at the of the second Star Trek movie? “The need of the many outway the need of the few.” Utilitarianism at its best.
Frank Lapidus was able to land Flight 316 pretty much in one piece on Hydra Island? Maybe he’s related to Sully. Remember, Hydra Island is a small island off the shore of the The Island.
I think Locke wanted to sit in that wheelchair as much as he wanted to be put in a coffin.
So Widmore use to be President Other and was replaced by Ben. Other than a power trip, I wonder what’s the reason for the takeover.
Ben killed Locke, but not before getting more precious information out of him, but I’m sure Ben knew that to get back on The Island he would need Locke to get back there, and that once back on The Island he would run into an alive and well version.
It was nice to see Walt, but I think Locke just couldn’t bring himself to bring the kid along much like he didn’t want to contact Sun.
You know, if I died and came back to life knowing I was prepared for burial and put in a coffin, one of the first thoughts in my mind would be . . . who has seen me naked?
I wonder if Locke’s ex is really dead.
Did you notice the name of the hardware store Locke bought the extention cord from? Pic
Virgil Griffith, popularly known for the Wikipedia Scanner that detects where the Wikipedia edits are coming from, maintains another very interesting project that maps musical tastes of college students with their intelligences levels (determined by their SAT score).
The x-axis represent the SAT score while the colored boxes indicate the music genre and the artist / composer.
Truth be told, my SAT scores are off the charts, well, this chart at least; and I don’t mean in a good way either. But then again, from what I write and post, you probably could have guessed my SAT score.
The Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church – the two largest Christian communions in the country – have joined the ranks of mainline denominations in reporting membership losses, the latest church yearbook shows.
After years of continuous growth, membership in the Roman Catholic Church dropped by 0.59 percent and the Southern Baptist Convention decreased by 0.24 percent, according to the 2009 edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, published this week.
Although the percentage losses are small compared to the total membership of the churches, the yearbook pointed out that the two communions had “grown dependably” over the years and “now they join virtually every mainline church in reporting a membership decline.”
The link above provides the top 25 largest churches, but here’s the top ten.
1. The Roman Catholic Church
2. The Southern Baptist Convention
3. The United Methodist Church
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
5. The Church of God in Christ
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.
9. Presbyterian Church (USA)
10. Assemblies of God
I’m quite amazed at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church itself is only about 180 years old and is the fourth largest church. I wonder what things will look like in the next two hundred years, especially since they like to have many children and are very good when it comes to missions.
The United Methodist Reporter has again been named the best national newspaper by the Religion Communicators Council, an interfaith organization of more than 600 religion communicators across the country.
I found an article in Christianity Today called Memo to Worship Bands. It actually starts out a bit funny:
Can you hear me? You can? I’m sorry if I am shouting, but I have just spent half an hour in a church service with a typical worship band, and my ears are ringing. I’m sure to be fine in a minute. Or hour. Or day—I hope. Why does everything every Christian musician performs nowadays seem to require high amplification?
My thoughts vary regarding worship music. I hear a lot of traditionalists tell me they prefer the old hymns because they have proven tried and true over the years. I have to admit, there’s something beautiful about the old hymns and I certainly appreciate them, but at one point they had to be considered new music and they were created to be sung to the musical instruments of that period. I see nothing wrong with the evolution of worship music as new songs are added with the addition of today’s musical resources, and I’m sure one day some of the new stuff we listen to now will be considered classics. The church I attended the most growing up only used a piano and organ, and I can remember the first time I worshiped in my new church in Abilene that came complete with drums and an electric guitar. It was a bit of shock and awe at first, but I felt energized and connected with the contemporary words. But then I started to visit other churches, and sometimes it seemed as if their music wasn’t up to par, and I felt bad comparing worship music because the emphasis should have been on worship, not entertainment. There have been a few churches I have visited over the years and felt that it’s more production than worship, and as of late, I have a hard time with musical worship and spend my time reflecting, praying, or just reading instead of singing. I rather try to connect with God than just go through the motions if that makes any sense.
I do find it interesting how people will choose a church based upon worship music. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, but I do find it interesting.
I do remember some of my closest times with God were at Abilene Christian University on Sunday nights. Students gathered in a large chapel, someone would spontaneous start singing a-capella, everyone would join in, and this went on for about 40 minutes. To me, it was a glimpse of what worship in heaven might be like.
I don’t want to sound like Mr Pious, so I will also add I enjoyed visiting the ACU campus to check out the girls. They were much better looking than the girls at the university I attended right down the road. Now that I think about it, I may have gone on more dates with ACU girls (unbeknown to my friends) than Hardin-Simmons girls, but I always had to get them back before curfew. Yes, ACU had a curfew.
In a way, Christmas music is very comparable to church worship music. Some people only prefer to listen to the classics because of the quality of the songs and artists and the connections and memories they bring. At one time that music had to be new, they weren’t always classics. And over time, some of the new songs are now considered classics.
The cafeteria at work had about eight Guitar Hero stations set up.
When I was at Costco the other day I noticed that you can buy 35 days worth of food from NutriSystem (35 breakfast, 35 lunch, 35 dinner, 70 desserts) for $285, per the package, that’s less than $2 a meal. That’s almost tempting.
It was an interesting Lost, and I just think the guy that plays Ben is one heck of an actor. I’ll see if I can post some random lost thoughts soon, but for now it’s time to prep for class and hit the sack.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – American Express Co (NYSE:AXP – News), battered by mounting credit card losses, is offering $300 to a limited number of U.S. card holders who pay off their balances and close their accounts, the company said on Monday.
“We sent the offer out to a select number of card members,” said Molly Faust, a company spokeswoman. “We are looking at different ways that we can manage credit risk based on the costumers overall credit profile.”
The company did not say how many card holders would receive the offer and did not disclose the total of their card balances.
Since October 2007, a small group of demonstrators has visited 20 Westchester churches during Sunday morning services, silently unfurled banners of protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and waited for a reaction.
They have received scattered applause in a few churches and have been invited to stay for coffee in several.
But they have been thrown out of other churches – often with anger and sometimes with a touch of force – and have been called communists, narcissists, morons, pinkos, wackos, fools and words that can’t be printed.
Some church pastors support the group’s anti-war stance, if not their methods of protest, while others condemn the unannounced visits as tactless intrusions on worship.
