Since the beginning of the year, I have heard several options for what to do at the site of the fallen WTC towers. Rebuild? Make it a 16-acre memorial? One company has a new plan design for a new version of the WTC. I do have to admit, it is cool looking. But their explanation for why it would be safe from all airborne attacks is flaky at best.

Personally, I think NYC should move the Yankee’s to the site of the fallen WTC towers. Let the Yankee’s build a baseball stadium to end all stadiums. What better way to remember America than to go see America’s game, eat America’s food (hotdogs), and start off by singing America’s song (the National Anthem).

Ebay has announced that it will now offer health insurance to people who use the online trading site as their primary source of income. For some, trading has become a job as people take their antique stores online. Some of left their jobs and are now “professional” online traders.

In that vein, SpittingLlamas, LLC90210, is now proud to announce that those individuals that spend more than 35 hours a week on our site will get more verbs and fewer dangling modifiers. We don’t have much money so we can’t offer you a t-shirt, and unfortunetly, the spelling errors will have stay.

Robert Kelly is upset with critics and detractors. In a new song entitled “Heaven, I Need A Hug,” R. Kelly sings “you smile in my face and tell me you love me. But then before you know the truth you’re so quick to judge me.”

Maybe we have been too hard on him. Sure he’s settled other civil cases regarding similar subject matter. And it’s true he denied being in a videotaped sexual encounter with an alleged minor while his lawyer claimed the woman was at least 18. And, you’re right, he did secretly marry a girl who was barely in her teens.

But what about the people who let it happen? The mothers, fathers, and entourage who had to know the guy was a sexual predator. Aren’t they the ones on whom we should focus our attention? Don’t fault Kelly. He’s just a poor pawn in the big, old mean system. Right?

That’s why he sang, “”Voices in my head be telling me to come to church, saying the Lord is the only way for you to stop the hurt … and how I used to go to church on Easter Sunday … instead of throwing stones at me, somebody pray for me.” Of course, he also wrote “Feeling on your Booty”, so you decide.

Wanna stop those annoying X10 camera popups? Well, you don’t need to mess with getting a popup stopper or other app. Make fun of Microsoft all you like, but they did include a way to stop popups in IE.

Next time you open your browser, click on Tools, then Internet Options. Next, click on the Security tab. Then click on the icon that says “restricted sites.” Once there you can add sites that you want to restrict. Add these to the list.

• x10.com
• doubleclick.net
• doubleclick.com

That should stop popup advertising from X10 and doubleclick.

Personally, I use Opera as my browser (yes, I paid for it.) You can do the same thing in Opera too. They have a quick preferences, under file, where you can just set the browser to block all popups no matter what. That’s nice, but it’s a bit of a pain if you are ordering something online and the order form is in a popup. But if you go to the full preferences in Opera, then select privacy, you can set the filters for certain servers. From the drop down, select Refuse from Server, or Refuse from Domain, and then add in the domains listed above. In fact you can add those domains in for both Refuse from Server/Domain. And there you go boys and girls. Popups from those domains will be shut down.

Let me know if you know of any other domains or servers that create popups. We can keep a running list here for reference.

If you are a bit more computer literate, try making a host file. In fact, you don’t have to make one, you can download the mother of all host files from Stephen Martin.

Can I get a booyah?

I saw Vanilla Sky over the the weekend and I couldn’t quite figure out why no one liked it. Maybe because the movie-goer was forced to think? Not only did you have to think, but it made you think about things like reality and your place in it.

The movie certainly dabbles in Science Fiction with a twist at the end that is unexpected and very interesting. But I started to think about it in terms of our own reality. At what point are we all just making our own reality? We do it all day long.

When it comes down to it, we all live in our own reality that we construct out of our perceptions of what is happening. Someone doesn’t say good morning to you and suddenly you can think of 4 reasons why you think they don’t like you or things you have said that might have made them mad. Your boss gives you one project instead of another and you wonder why you were given that particular one and your co-worker the other. Someone cuts you off on the freeway and suddenly they are a jerk of terrible proportions with only self-centered attributes.

Do you get what I’m saying? Are any of us living in the “real” world? Or do we just construct our own little reality based on our perceptions of what we see about us? And given the chance, would you want to wake up so that you had to face the reality as it was? Or would you rather just stay in your own world, making the puzzle pieces fit how you may?

The Robotech game for the Xbox won’t be out till next year. Until then, maybe this will hold you over.

A writer for Beijing’s most popular newspaper will soon be fired. Or, should be. This sad, hapless fellow apparently reported a story from spoof tabloid the Onion as real news. What ‘news’ item fooled this grizzled journalistic veteran? It was this: Congress is leaving Washington unless the government builds a new Capitol building with a retractable dome.

Now, I’m not sure how things are done in Beijing. I’ve never been there, never studied the culture, nor could I tell you the best travel routes. But here in the old U.S. of A., that story is called satire. Especially when House Speaker Dennis Hastert is quoted as saying the current Capitol is “no longer suitable for a world-class legislative branch” because “the sight lines are bad, there aren’t enough concession stands or bathrooms, and the parking is miserable.”

Though it is possible that baseball players’ penchant for Viagra commercials and politicians’ tendency to strike out and commit errors have blurred the lines between sport and politics.

Last night while flipping around the 9,471 stations provided to me by my digital cable provider, I discovered a program depicting athletes of various sports getting hurt in funny ways. I dig shows like that. They make $10 million a year. Why shouldn’t a few of them get embarrassingly mauled for the pleasure of the middle-class, trying-to-make-ends-meet fan? Eventually the program turned towards Bull Riding.

First, how anyone can call it Bull “Riding” is beyond me. It’s more like Bull-Hang-On-and-Try-Not-to-Shit-Bricks.

Second, it occured to me that this “sport” could have only originated in some inbred farm country by stupid white assholes that got drunk and dared each other to do the stupidest shit they could think of. Which is why I greatly enjoyed watching “rider” after “rider” getting their faces bashed in by bulls.

Picture this: two farm boys are behind the barn drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon. After about 36 or them (you have to drink that many to even get a buzz), Billy dares Hank to hop on the back of the bull on the other side of the fence. Hank, who looks just like his sister, cousin, aunt, grandfather, and mail man, while enjoying his fresh Pabst buzz and lacking any brain cells, hops the fence with glee.

I figure the bull has every right to be pissed. If a skinny dude with chaps ever hops on my back, he’s going to get one hell of a ride too, as I kick and flail about. And if I knock that moron off, you bet I’m going to take a few swipes at him on the ground. As far as I can tell, every bull rider deserves to get a bull hoof to the junk. One, because idiocy like that deserves it, and two, it would keep them from ever enjoying reproduction.

What other dumb sports can you think of?