Where Did My Brain Go?

Milwaukee television station, WTMJ has reported that Green Bay Packers have offered Brett Favre $20 million over ten years if he does not report to training camp, and stays retired.

Packers President, Mike Murphy, said he hoped Favre would maintain a “long–term relationship with the Packers.”

Green Bay Press–Gazette and ESPN published similar reports.

ESPN also reported that Favre has filed for reinstatement, but NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said:

“The commissioner is taking no action today. He wants to give both the Packers and Brett an appropriate amount of time to make decisions, including decisions impacting the team’s roster and salary cap. When Brett is reinstated by the commissioner, we will announce it.”

The $20 million figure sounds even sillier, when you realize that Favre will earn $12 million this year, once he is reinstated.

Milwaukee Journal–Sentinel reports that Packers are negotiating with Vikings and Bears. Darrell Bevell, Favre’s former Quarterback coach, is offensive coordinator of Vikings, who are reportedly Favre’s first choice.

I would love to see Favre go to Vikings, who are also in NFC North, and will play Packers twice.

Favre, who has played in 275 consecutive games and has a career QB rating of 95.5 has to be looking forward to playing Packers.

After losing last year’s NFC Championship game to Giants, Favre said:

“I was disappointed that the last pass I threw was intercepted”

Favre doesn’t have to be disappointed anymore.

Jayne would have been 55 today. <sigh>

I asked our daughters, Maxine and Audrey, to write something this year, but since it is almost midnight, and I don’t see anything, I guess it is up to me to say something.

How Many People Get Colon Cancer and Rectal Cancer?

American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 108,070 new cases of colon cancer and 40,740 new cases of rectal cancer in 2008 in the United States. Combined, they will cause about 49,960 deaths.

They also say that death rate is dropping, as more people get screened. Unfortunately, considering that Jayne was a physician, who always had an annual physical, screening does not always work.

What Can Be Done?

Donate whatever you can afford to American Cancer Society. Donate more to Gilda’s Club, because cancer affects families, not individuals.

Vote for honest politicians (if any exist) who believe that curing cancer is more important than Iraqi Freedom Fund, or anything that happens overseas.

If you are feeling lucky, pray that you do not spend the last year of your life in a hospice, like Jayne.

On A Lighter Note

You can always read what I wrote last year about how I met Jayne, when she was young, and healthy.

I have been writing about Bear Grylls for over a year, and thought I knew everywhere to look for news and information about him.

Therefore I was surprised, when researching my previous post, to discover another resource.

I learned that Bear Grylls has an outstanding photo gallery on Google’s British Picasa Web at:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/beargryllsphotos

Picasa and Picasa Web

Picasa Web is a free service, which provides one gigabyte of public, or private, photo storage, to anyone with a Google account. It was originally designed to work with Picasa software, which can be freely downloaded from Google.

Basically, you just install Picasa, and it creates a searchable catalog, of all the images on your computer. Then select photos, and click once, to upload to Gmail or Picasa Web.

My favorite feature was collage which Google describes as:

“Select a group of pictures, choose one of the beautiful templates, and Picasa will create a collage that expands your creative horizons.”

When I still had Windows, I used to use collage to make “instant greeting cards” by selecting a few photos, and setting it to print on half a page. Fold the paper in half, and Voila! you have a blank card. The same process can also be used to make a screensaver.

Unfortunately, Google does not offer a native Linux version. Linux users must install WINE, a Windows emulator, to use Picasa, which seems silly to me, because my Linux system never crashes, and I want to keep it that way.

Getting Started

Indeed, Google only recommends Picasa for use with Microsoft Windows. Be sure to check out known issues before downloading Picasa, or signing up for Picasa Web.

Incidentally, my tests with Firefox 2 and User Agent Switcher showed that Picasa Web does not work with Opera either.

Bear Grylls has done it again!

Grylls, 34, who set his first Guiness World Record in 1974, as the youngest Brit to summit Ama Dablam, and followed it up the following year, as the youngest Brit to return alive, from a climb to the summit of Mount Everest, now holds the record for longest continuous indoor freefall, by staying aloft for an incredible 97 minutes. This event was held at Airkix Wind Tunnel in Milton Keynes, UK.

Bear Grylls was joined for this event, by Al Hodgson and Freddy MacDonald.

Al Hodgson, who lost both his legs in an Irish terrorist attack, cofounded Amputees in Action, an agency which supplies amputee extras to films. Hodgson and his wife, will be representing UK next week at World Parachuting Championships in Maubeuge, France.

Freddy MacDonald is an instructor for Airkix, which operates this indoor wind tunnel.

About Indoor Skydiving

America’s ridiculous military budget funded construction of the first indoor wind tunnel in 1964. The first public facility was opened in Orlando, Florida in 1998. The Airkix tunnel was built by SkyVenture, which has sold more vertical wind tunnels than any other company in the world. Its features include a net, which instructors can stand on, next to clients who are suspended in the air. The Airkix tunnel, is the first one built which recirculates the air.

What Was It Like?

Bear Grylls said:

“By 1hr 30 I was beginning to hallucinate. Several times I started to loose control and Freddie had to help me regain control. By 1hr 35 we were all at our limit and I was fighting to hold it together for a precious couple of minutes longer. At 1hr37 on the dot we all crashed together in a pile. We had broken the record by a matter of a few seconds! It had been touch and go but we had done it.”

“I could hardly walk for an hour afterwards, I am still stiff 3 days later and my nose is still pouring with snot from the wind damage to my sinuses! But together we did it – just.
”

Congratulations

Congratulations to Bear, Al, and Freddy!

This event also raised money for Global Angels Foundation, which describes itself as, “an innovative international children’s charity championing the needs of children around the world.”

Bear, Al, and Freddy deserve extra props for selecting a charity that “promises that every dollar that we receive directly from public donations will go directly to projects working with children at grassroots level.”

Now that I have a category for idiots, I feel obligated to write about this particular stupid person.

Daniel Allen Everett, age 33, of Clarkston, Michigan, was arrested on Tuesday (July 15) for using the Internet to arrange a meeting for sex with a minor. Using the screen name “danmichelle2004”, Everett arranged to meet an undercover agent posing as 14–year–old girl for sex.

Everett was charged with two felonies, Child Sexually Abuse Activity and Using the Internet to Commit Child Sexually Abuse Activity. He faces up to 40 years in prison.

Even Stupider

Everett (shown in photo), was inexplicably wearing a “World’s Greatest Dad” t–shirt when he was arrested, as “Internet Predator 198” since Michigan began counting them in 2003.

He could have read about Michigan’s previous sting operations, if he had visited just michigan.gov. Indeed, Google found 408 matches, for “Internet Predator” on michigan.gov. And almost all of them are about arrests. He could have also read about Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative and how they arrested 11 miscreants on May 22.

The Weirdest

Daniel Allen Everett is the weirdest Internet predator of all time. What was he thinking?

Whatever he was thinking, he will plenty of time to think about it.

Once in awhile, I will open a spammy email, which annoys me enough to complain about it. This happened recently, what appeared to be an innocent message from Microsoft, could have unleashed a virus. It looked like this:

The original email also contained an MSN logo. It fooled me until I examined Click Me! which linked to a Windows executable file.

Send In The Clowns

I had just received this annoyance, so I immediately notified the company which gave us Windows 95 and Bob, hoping to reduce the workload of some beleaguered support person.

Microsoft’s remarkable reply arrived in a few seconds. It began:

Thank you for reporting spam to the MSN Support Team. This is an auto-generated response to inform you that we have received your submission. Please note that you will not receive a reply if you respond directly to this message.

Unfortunately, in order to process your request, MSN Support needs a valid MSN hosted account.

Microsoft Math

If that message infected 1000 Windows computers, around the world, but only one MSN subscriber is affected, then it really only infected one computer.

I stopped writing much for Where Did My Brain Go? recently, because I wanted to take the SCWCD (Sun Certified Web Component Developer for the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5) exam on Jayne’s Birthday, July 30^th. But I just postponed it for a month or two, so I can have other interests.

There is more to life than Java programming.

Meanwhile, I have collected a gigabyte of stuff to write about. Plus, I have to get warmed up for New York Giants, right? So get ready, I will be back tomorrow, with my gigabytes.

About Photo

That’s me, photographed by Larry Steur in May 2008. I was just unable to connect to Larry’s Photo Gallery, but I will provide a link in the future.

My shirt is a copy of a painting of virtuoso guitarist Ed Gerhard performing in Japan. Unfortunately, I was just unable to connect to Ed’s site, and I will investigate that too.

Oh well, they should have hired me to to take care of them.

On This Date

My Dad would have been 91 today, and I miss him.

Also on this date, I once extended my own life, when I stopped drinking. I would like to write about that in the future. But not tomorrow, because I don’t want to remember those years now.

Join me and 3500 others, in downtown Lexington, on July 4^th, for the Bluegrass 10,000. This 10 kilometer race begins at 7:20 A.M. — followed by Crank Wheelchair Division at 7:25, and Wheelchair Division at 7:30 and 8:00.

Before anyone gets excited, I must explain that I will not be running the entire distance. Apparently, running is optional, and there are plenty of folks who are any running at all.

This is known as a “fun run” — defined by WordNet as:

a footrace run for fun, often including runners who are sponsored for a charity.

Mid–Life Something

I wish I knew why I did not try this a few decades ago.

But I only quit drinking years ago, and smoking (again) recently, because I want to age gracefully. I want to be able to do this, in 10 or 20 years too.

I also want Maxine and Audrey to have a Dad, who is able to to be an active participant in their lives.

My Dad was active into his eighties, assisted by a a great diet, which I have modified. In about two years, I cut my cholestrol in half, from 340 to 170, eating mostly oatmeal and salmon. You get sick of it, just like trying to do situps, and walk a few miles everyday. But I want to be the last Dad standing!

Back to the Race

My first race is just like my first salmon salad. It’s a good start!

For more information on Bluegrass 10,000, call: 859–288–2946