Saints & Sinner

I'm going to stick with the sports theme here, seems to be a good one this week...

I really used to like Tom Benson. He seemed to be really proud to be a New Orleanian, and part of the Saints franchise. Seems like that may have just been part of his umbrella pumping, bead throwing sideline act though, as it seems he is trying to move the Saints to San Antonio permanently.

Some days I tend to get a bit down on my fellow man, especially when it's someone I used to respect, and today I am down on Benson. That city, as broken as it is right now, needs that team. It is the only thing that most of those people have to hold onto anymore. Shame on him for selling out to the almighty dollar. I just am very dissapointed. Sometimes it's more than just the money, it's integrity.

Mayor Nagin blasts Saints owner for trying to move team

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Ray Nagin disparaged Saints owner Tom Benson on Wednesday for working with San Antonio officials to permanently keep the NFL team in Texas.

The mayor's comments came after the departures of two top Saints executives who were supportive of keeping the Saints in Louisiana. Nagin is concerned that San Antonio officials said publicly that Benson is working with them to relocate the franchise to Texas.

"We want our Saints, we may not want the owner back," Nagin said while attending the reopening of Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter.

"I'm ready to go to the NFL and to [commissioner Paul] Tagliabue and say, 'Give us the Cleveland plan,'" Nagin added, referring to the league awarding Cleveland an expansion team almost immediately after the Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1995 season. "Whatever the Saints want to do, you let them leave, but they can't take our logo, they can't take our name, and you give us a promise to give us a franchise when this city's back."

A Saints spokesman did not return a telephone call and e-mail seeking a response to Nagin's comments.

"For them to be openly talking to other cities about moving is disrespectful to the citizens of New Orleans, disrespectful to the Saints fans who have hung in with this franchise through 30-something years under very trying times," Nagin said.

The Saints joined the NFL in 1967. In 1986, Benson was part of an ownership group that bought the team to ensure it would stay in Louisiana. Benson eventually bought out other members of the group.

During Benson's ownership, the state of Louisiana has built him a new headquarters, including spending $6.75 million for an indoor practice field in 2003. The state also has paid for repeated improvements to the Louisiana Superdome at Benson's insistence during the past two decades.

On Monday night, Benson fired Arnold Fielkow, the team's top business executive since 2000. Fielkow had overseen a 36-game sellout streak at the Superdome and negotiated an unprecedented stadium lease that called for the state to pay Benson $187 million in direct subsidies over 10 years.

But Fielkow has said he believed the Saints needed to be leaders in New Orleans' rebuilding process after Hurricane Katrina and repeatedly praised Saints fans in Louisiana as the best and most loyal in the NFL. Fielkow has since said that stance led to his dismissal.

On Tuesday, Conrad Kowal, senior director of marketing and business development, also resigned.

Nagin called Benson's recent actions a "doggone shame."

Signs of the apocalypse

I know, I know, but it's kind of funny...

GO CARDINALS!

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/

I owe a post

I've been mucho-busy the last week or so, but I promise i'll have some new stuff up soon. So until then....here's some wholesome fun with wee folk.

Nomar credited with saving two from Boston Harbor

I knew that Nomar was the man with landing Mia and all, but this all but proves it...

BOSTON - Former Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra rescued two women who had fallen into Boston Harbor late last week, his uncle and a witness told the Boston Herald.

Garciaparra, traded to the Chicago Cubs on July 31, 2004, was in his Charlestown condominium with his uncle at about 10 p.m. Friday when they heard a scream and a splash, said the uncle, Victor Garciaparra.

As soon as the All-Star shortstop and two-time American League batting champ ran out the door to help the woman, her friend also fell in, hitting her head on the pier, said Victor Garciaparra, who oversees his nephew's business and charitable ventures.

Victor Garciaparra jumped from the balcony to the water 20 feet below.

'I swam towards them and by the time I reached them, Nomar was already there holding the girls up,' he told the newspaper. 'But he couldn't get them up without help.'

One woman had a large lump on her head and appeared to be unconscious, he said. When she came to, the first thing she said was: 'Are you Nomar?' Victor Garciaparra said.

The two men pulled the women from the water. Their husbands arrived and whisked them off to the hospital before the Garciaparras even got their names, he said.

Johnny O'Hara of Natick witnessed the incident from his boat.

"A bunch of us came running over and sure enough, pulling the two girls from the water was Nomar," he told the newspaper. "It was crazy. Nomar was like jumping over walls to get to the girls and the other guy leaped off the balcony. It was unbelievable."

Nomar Garciaparra was unavailable for comment, his uncle said.

Sometimes you just gotta give props

A coworker sent me a link to a cool little 70's "PBS Style" music video this morning. It's pretty funny in a rediculous way. You can check it out here. When I get these little links I always like to track back to the site's root directory - that means that I delete the URL back to the .com or .net and see what the main site is...

In this case it's http://keithschofield.com/. This guy is a genius when it comes to directing these videos. As a designer, I have come to appreciate all forms of media - especially video. It's hard to do creatively. If Keith ever checks a link back from me - let me say "Keep it up my friend, from one artist to another, that sh!t is dope".

I miss the 70's

Doesn't this give you a bit of a nostalgic feeling? I especially like the uncordinated green guy....

Squirrels go nuts on crack

The latest terror to hit the earth. Poor little critters, all they want is their next tweek...

The Sun (U.K.) Squirrels are getting hooked on crack cocaine — hidden by addicts in gardens.

They are digging up the stashes and eating the mega-addictive drug, which comes in small chunks.

Several have been spotted behaving bizarrely in Brixton, South London, since a police blitz against pushers and users.

One resident said: “My neighbour said dealers had used my garden to hide crack.

“Just an hour earlier I’d seen a squirrel digging in the flower-beds.

“It was ill-looking and its eyes looked bloodshot, but it kept on desperately digging. It seems a strange thing to say, but it seemed to know what it was looking for.”

Other residents have seen squirrels become unusually aggressive.

The RSPCA said: “These animals are big foragers. They are attracted by smell and will dig up what they fancy.

“If a squirrel did open a bag of crack and start consuming it there is no doubt it would die pretty quickly.”

Crack squirrels are a recognised problem in America. They are common in parks used by addicts in New York and Washington DC.

They have been known to attack park visitors in their search for a fix.

the new prime mover

I've been wanting to do this for awhile, and finally had a free bit to design and code my blog how I want it instead of using the templates that Blogger gives us.

Deciding to learn how to code CSS is not for the faint of heart, I consider myself a seasoned developer, and more than my share of thinking "Why the hell am I learning this?". But as you can see, the new look is here, and if I do say so myself - it turned out rather nice. However, I am still working out a few minor bugs though, so if you find any problems just holla back.

I highly recommend that you view it in Mozilla Firefox, I was able to integrate PNG alpha transparancies that are STILL NOT SUPPORTED by Internet Explorer... that will allow some smoother effects and elements. It's some cool shiat.

Let me know what you think!

Congrats to Kat & Karl!!!

I never thought that I would see the day when Kat would have a dog - let alone two! Good job Karl...

we're excited!

In case that we haven't let anyone know, we're pregnant! We had out first ultrasound last week and saw our baby's heartbeat for the first time! We're due the first week of May 2006. Here's a pic of the kid:



Admittantly, you can't really tell much right now, but it's our baby blob ;)