Archive for January, 2009

Blackwater Ordered Out Of Iraq

The Iraqi Government revoked the operating license of security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and as a result, the company’s personnel are being ordered out of the country. Blackwater provides private security contracting services for the US State Department and other US government agencies, and has come under fire because its employees have been accused of being somewhat trigger happy. Blackwater founder Erik Prince told Mike Baker of the Associated Press, “Our abrupt departure would far more hurt the reconstruction team and the diplomats trying to rebuild the country than it would hurt us as a business,” while Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told the AP, “They have to find a new security company.”

Which brings to mind a question. Whatever happened to the security company the State Department used to use? You know the one.

Saddlebacking: A New Word Enters The Lexicon

FAIR WARNING: If you’re easily offended, you should probably skip this post. If you aren’t, then take the jump.
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Weigh-in: 411.4 pounds

Stepped on the scale this morning, thought I’d post it just to post. I’d love to get under 409 pounds this week, so that I can be past the 20-pound mark. We’ll see what happens.

Tonight’s “The Biggest Loser”

So, finally, the teams are reunited. The challenge this week struck me as interesting. Up until now, this season’s challenges have been tilted towards the more athletic contestants. The black team and green teams have been the beneficiaries of this. This week, the less athletic contestants could “team up” to eliminate the stronger players, and as a result, the pink team’s Helen was able to grab immunity. But the real drama came at the weigh-in, where the brown and orange teams fell below the yellow line. Out of all the contestants, these two teams have the most interesting stories, in my opinion. The orange team’s Dan is a relentless optimist who is the heaviest contestant ever on this show, while the brown team’s Ron is a father who is watching his son follow in his unhealthy footsteps. The fact that Ron has had bariatric surgery and regained all the weight has been an incredible story as well. I’m not going to spoil it for you – go catch it online.

Free Mysto & Pizzi Download From GEICO

If you’ve turned on a TV lately, you’ve seen GEICO’s “Kash” spots, wherein Kash, a silent bundle of bills with glass eyeballs balanced on top unsettles some person in a meeting, restaurant, or subway car. The music for these spots is a remake of Rockwell’s 1980′s hit “Somebody’s Watching Me”, and GEICO has made the entire track available for free download here. GEICO’s commercials have a history of using some music that is off the beaten track, so to speak. Their “Caveman” spots feature music by Royksopp, and they used Alexandre Geindre’s “Lonesome Magic Vice Harvest” in a popular spot featuring dogs. However, as far as I know, this is the first time that GEICO has actually commissioned a track for a spot, and then made that track available for free download.

Don’t feel like downloading the track without listening to it first? Well, here ya go:

h/t to Digital Inspiration for the MP3 player embed code.

The Soup: Staines The Dog

This was silly, but I had to share it. h/t to The Soup Blog.

Weigh-In: 412.0 Pounds!

Wouldn’t ordinarily do more than one weigh-in over the weekend, but I stepped on the scale this morning and was pretty happy with what I saw. No real commentary here, just glad the numbers are decreasing.

Weigh-in: 415.2 Pounds!

I lost a little over two pounds last week. Not bad for a week where I blew the diet twice. However, I know I can do better. I want to be back under 400 pounds before the end of February, and under 300 pounds by the end of 2009. As long as the numbers keep going down, though, I’m still happy.

Nerd Test Version 2.0

Just for fun. h/t goes to Erica Henderson (no relation).

Product Placement in NBC Shows?

I’ve been watching NBC tonight, and I’ve heard references to Madden ’09 and Xbox 360 in two very different shows (Knight Rider and Law And Order). A coincidence? I know the NBC is a partner to Microsoft in certain ventures. Still, wouldn’t it be easier to just run a commercial?