And since I'm boring you with fantasy football stuff...

This is my new logo.



Because... it's all falling into place.

Every freaking season!

I'm playing fantasy football again this season. I don't expect to set the world on fire, but it's an enjoyable pastime and a chance to insult several male relatives.



You know, bonding and stuff.



With my very last pick in the draft, I went on a flyer that someone would sign Terrell Owens, but Yahoo! says he is no longer to be saluted, so I went to pick up another wide receiver to replace his useless ass.



Instead of being clever, I chose "wide receivers" and clicked on "sort by fantasy points 2010" The best free agent at this position using our league's scoring system was... Danny Amendola.







I had Danny Amendola my first season, picked up as a free agent.



I had Danny Amendola my second season, picked up as a free agent.



As Al Pacino says in the only quotable line from that piece of crap Godfather III: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."



In correspondence to me, he must be referred to as Danny Fucking Amendola.



Thank you for your kind attention.

Johann.

My sister Karla recently had some of out childhood photos restored by my friend Alan, and it's great to see them all. I put up the picture of my mom, Karla and me, and then the one of Karla and me on the rocker. The one I have been saving is of Johann, my childhood dog.



A lot of the family will tell you Johann was their dog, but technically, Dad and I brought him home, taking him from his family in Berkeley, and I was the one who chose him. His brothers and sisters were locked behind a short wall in a pantry and all the other pups were making one heck of a racket when we came to see them, but Johann was asleep. I picked him up, he woke up for a moment and licked my nose, then fell back to sleep as I held him in my arms, close against my chest.



As you can guess, my decision was made because I was in love. My dad was worried that he was the runt, and he likely was. But still, I had done what my dad asked of me reading all the books, so he let me choose Johann, soon known to nearly everybody as Yoyo.



It ranks among the best choices of my life.



Johann was a stunningly clever dog. When we walked across the street, he would show his sheepdog instincts and push at the heels of the youngsters, especially my younger sisters. His mom was obviously a Corgi, but dad may have been a hound that climbed over the backyard fence. Besides herding skills, Johann loved to play fetch like a retriever. It was my brother Michael who taught Johann to fetch a tennis ball, bring it back and drop it so it could be thrown again. He loved playing fetch so much, he would play until he was exhausted, and after exhaustion, he would chew the tennis ball until the cover was off. We used to joke that like the Native Americans used all parts of the buffalo, Johann used all parts of the tennis ball. As I recall, as much as he loved to chew stuff, he chewed tennis balls almost exclusively. He wasn't a chewer of shoes or baseball gloves or any of the other stuff we left lying around, as children are likely to do.



He also like playing with a soccer ball, but he was not big enough to get it in his mouth, so instead he pushed it around with his snout and shoulders. Once at the park, some kids had a soccer ball and Johann decided it would be fun to play, so he went and stole it. Well, he didn't really steal it, because once the kids started chasing him, he stayed in the general area, circling back towards them so they could keep up. He even decided to go straight back at the mob, so he nuzzled under the ball, flipped it up in the air, turned 180° caught the ball on his nose like a seal and plowed back through the crowd of screaming kids.



I have seen dogs that do more behaviors than Johann did, but in his defense I must say we didn't know much about training dogs. We never gave him any treat greater than our praise when we taught him something new to do, and trusting, loving soul that he was, he never knew about the whole "do something cool, get a tasty treat" racket.



He learned some amazing games with very strange rules. One was Sand Monster. Karla, Jenny and I would start screaming "Sand Monster! Sand Monster!" while we ran around the front room, and Johann understood he was this previously undescribed Sand Monster. It was a game of Tag and he was not allowed up on furniture for the duration of the game, though we did jump on the furniture, which was behavior we were not usually allowed. As we ran from couch to couch, he would chase us and growl, and if he bit our pant leg, we had to fall down and crawl to the nearest base, dramatically fearing for our lives. (You should be able to tell from the picture that Johann was a little dog, and even if he grabbed a pant leg as hard as he could, he did not have the stopping power to down the smallest of us. It was part of the game.)



When we stopped screaming and we petted him and told him he was a good dog - and he most certainly was - the game was over and his ferocious Sand Monster persona was forgotten as quickly as it was put on.



Now that I think of it, screaming kids were exciting and fun for him.



His worst habit was probably barking, but my dad recalls that once he came home, Johann would stop, since the Alpha of our pack had returned and our safety was in his hands.



I could reminisce about Yoyo for days on end, but let me close here with something I said hundreds of times, and I meant it every time.



Good, dog, Johann. Good dog.

Penrose pattern #10 : The Big Star #3

Title: The Big Star #3

Date: 28 August 2011

Type: Pattern

Number of tiles: 430

Color breakdown: 215 yellow, 130 blue, 85 purple

Shape breakdown: 270 kites, 160 darts

Kosher Penrose tiling rules: no

This is what it looked like in the room with minimal color fixing.

Is this a natural behavior or a silly cat trick?

How much do I love Maru?



Are you new here or what?



But I have a question for cat owners about this latest video. Maru walks into a thin gap, a completely natural and obvious cat behavior, and then he does a back flip.



Three times.



I never saw a cat do this move. It's hilarious and his little winks to the camera make it even better. (I have no idea how the person running the camera doesn't crack up on every take.) But I'm wondering if he kind of did it by accident and then mugumogu gave him a treat to make him repeat it.



So, cat owners, have you seen this kind of kitty flop before? I'm sure if you have, your cat was adorable doing it, though probably not as adorable as Maru, the greatest silent comedian stunt artist since Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.



I'd be glad to hear from you.

Agreeing with Republicans. Or at least one.

Bruce Barlett, a domestic policy and economic adviser to both Ronald Reagan and George Bush the Greater, has called current Texas governor Rick Perry an idiot. Karl Rove, chief toady to George Bush the Lesser, is also not in love with Rick Perry.



Bartlett now considers himself an independent, and his poor opinion of Perry is not that surprising. The minions of Bush the Lesser consider Perry to be a braggart and buffoon and, more importantly to them, the opposite of a compassionate conservative.



Perry is not afraid to run his mouth and in many circles, this is seen as a plus. He's said that if Fed chief Ben Bernanke came down to Texas, "we'd treat him pretty ugly." Some say this is just an example of running against Washington. People whose ears are more attuned to the talk of the South hear a dog whistle of anti-Semitism against a Jewish banker from the Northeast.



I might agree with Bartlett's assessment, but as we saw with both Reagan and Bush the Lesser, being an idiot is no bar to elected office in this country.





But calling names is cheap and easy. I am much more interested in Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah and current second tier candidate for president. Instead of insults, he has made a call to arms for reason. Last week, he tweeted "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."

Jake Tapper of ABC News asked, "Were you just being cheeky or do you think there's a serious problem with what Governor Perry said?"

Huntsman's response: "I think there's a serious problem. The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party - the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012."

I'm not a Republican because I disagree with many of their beliefs of what the major problems are facing our country and what the solutions should be. But most importantly, it is a damn shame that this country should have a party so ready to overthrow the best ideas science has on important topics, both in terms of human progress and public policy. I understand the push against evolution, since Biblical literalists think this means denying the word of God. But the push against the science of global warming is just the petulance of ill-bred seven year olds who will not give up their toys.

As long as this is the position of one of the two major parties in this land, we have nowhere to go but down.

Penrose patterns #9a and #9b: The Big Star

Title: The Big Star #1

Date: 21 August 2011

Type: Pattern

Number of tiles: 430

Color breakdown: 130 yellow, 100 blue, 200 purple

Shape breakdown: 270 kites, 160 darts

Kosher Penrose tiling rules: no

Title: The Big Star #2

Date: 21 August 2011

Type: Pattern

Number of tiles: 430

Color breakdown: 145 yellow, 85 blue, 200 purple

Shape breakdown: 270 kites, 160 darts

Kosher Penrose tiling rules: no



I shrink the pictures down so they don't take forever to download, so it's hard to get an idea of the scale of these. You'll notice the tips of the final points of the outside stars are not purple, and this is because I only have 132 kites in each color. Because of all the empty space, this is one of the largest patterns I've created so far, several feet in diameter.