The problem with reinventing Offline Adventures is...

I don't know how to reinvent myself.

My orginal idea was to focus a new and improved Offline Adventures on crap going on around LA, or crap that I'm doing. Alas, I find myself wanting to write all about "PlameGate" instead.

As a result, I've written close to nothing. Part of me thinks I shouldn't care about an audience and write whatever I feel, while perhaps the overlyambitious yet procrastinator side of me wants to actually generate some solid traffic here. No offense to me five loyal readers.

Tony Pierce, I'm sure, would just say write and not give a shit about anything else. He's also encourage me to post more pictures. That is, if I merely wanted more hits. (and thanks to Mr. Pierce for featuring my pics on his daily specials a few days back).

Nickerblog, on the other hand, has dropped me from his blogroll, and I can only imagine that its from my lack of posting. Being included on his tight roll was an honor, so the drop was definitely a wakeup call.

Alas, the ironic part is that work looks like its about to get insane over the next few weeks, so this could mean more posts... meaning, I'll likely procrastinate work paperwork and post instead.

Should make for some good pics though - I'm double booked next week, working for the sports network on their annual extreme sports championships, and for the shoe company launching a new rock and roll inspired promotion.

In the meantime, thanks to Simpleton for the accolades, and Reverse_Vampyre for the debate

If you're a "Lost" fan like me...

...do NOT watch this BBC promo for the show.

The end of Halloween as we know it?

Ever since I was a kid I remember Halloween having a creep factor that was perhaps subconciously brought on by the fact that it got so much darker suddenly before the holiday. And, indeed, besides shorter days and longer shadows that always creep upon us between the summer and winter solstices, there was the manmade Daylight Savings Time to thank for that, where the clocks would make it darker one hour earlier beginning the last Sunday of October.

Now some pansies in our government want to extend Daylight Savings Time and wait a full week, after Halloween, before we get the extra hour of darkness in our evenings.

I'm sure today's soccer moms will be happy that their kids can safely trick or treat even longer in broad daylight so as not to be scared on the only day invented where you're supposed to be scared... but what they don't know is that this means the boogeyman gets to sleep in an extra hour before terrorizing the kiddies...

CNN.com - Lawmakers move to extend daylight-saving time - Jul 22, 2005

Offline Adventures run amok!

The irony of this blog's title hasn't escaped me - that most of what I post on here is about stuff happening ONLINE, other bloggers, and news commentary.

So, I've meaning to change this, and to post more. Much more. And to post more about actual offline adventures.

To start, I've posted some pics I took Wednesday on the red carpet of the 2005 ESPN Espy Awards. My brother will kick my ass for not knowing the names of most of the people in the pics there.

Who most people won't know, but should, are two of the guys prominent in a lot of photos: Steve Levy, host of ESPN's Sports Center, and Michael Kennedy, currently floor announcer for the Sacramento Kings. Both of these guys were hosting the red carpet for the fans in the bleachers.

My gig here was "red carpet production manager", a cake walk since both Steve and Mike are pros way beyond needing my supervision, and the rest of my small crew had worked on this with me for the past few years, so everyone was dialed in. I kicked back, took some photos, and wonder sometimes why I'm paid for my job.

Oh - and you'll see the pics begin on the homepage of the new www.offlineadventures.com. More changes in days to come.

Karl Rove = Traitor?

Per the Drudge Report, its being reported that the "anonymous source" who told Robert Novak the name of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame was none other than Bush's Brain, Karl Rove. Not even going into the reasons why Rove would reveal to a journalist top secret info, Rove's actions spell treason. Add to that perjury if he had been questioned by a grand jury investigating who leaked her name. And it gets bigger, especially if more people in the Bush Admin knew and orchestrated a cover up. Bigger than Watergate, really. For those who've followed Rove at all, nobody has a light opinion of him. Either he's a political genius or a diabolical madman using Bush as his puppet. Maybe both.

As for the motivation for leaking such a name, it goes straight to the top of the stack of "Bush lied" bullet points:

At issue is the story of a CIA-sponsored trip taken by former ambassador (and White House critic) Joseph Wilson to investigate reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from the African country of Niger. "Some government officials have noted to Time in interviews... that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said Cooper's July 2003 Time online article... The leak to Novak, apparently intended to discredit Wilson's mission, caused a furor when it turned out that Plame was an undercover agent. It is a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA official.

-from Newsweek, July 11th issue

In short, Rove leaked Wilson's name because he knew that Wilson would return from the trip discounting claims that Iraq was trying to get uranium from Niger, one of the many fabrications the Bush Admin was relying on to gain support for the war with Iraq.

I don't think many journalists or commentators will show much shock that Rove was the leak - they will express surprise that he was actually caught.

On the Bush Admin's side right now is, conveniently, the fact that this story broke on the cusp of a three day weekend while everyone is away from the news.

On the liberal's side right now is, this broke just as Bush needs to pick a new Supreme Court Justice... and this might be the time to appease those calling for a more left leaning moderate on the bench.

take a gander at the I Love Karl Rove blog.