I spend most of my blogging time making snarky comments and pursuing various tomfooleristic endeavors. Life has a funny way of putting things in perspective for you whether you like it or not.

Buckeye nation lost a true warrior last night after an 11-year battle with breast cancer. Stefanie Spielman was a champion for cancer research earning millions of dollars through her fund the Stefanie Spielman Foundation.

Stefanie, the wife of Buckeye and NFL great Chris Spielman, was an integral part of the Columbus community selflessly giving her time and limited energy to raising awareness and money for breast cancer. Plus, she put up with Chris which has to put her in line for sainthood consideration.

I’m deeply saddened by her loss and want the Spielman family to know they are in our collective thoughts and prayers.

With the 3rd week of college football nearly finished (I’m watching the end of UCLA-Kansas State, it’s a sickness), the 2009 Ocho will premier this week.

We’ve got a new poll up over there—->

Get your vote in before Saturday, and feel free to use the “Other” button if you need to vent a little bit…

We’re just barely back from the seventh circle of Dell hell. The mainframe is nearly back up, God willing. I did catch a lot of football and will have loads of reports once we’re fully restored.

The site’s been down for the better part of two days- the source of that still isn’t exactly clear. After going back and forth with our host a dozen times, the issue seems to be cleared up. Sorry for disappearing. New posts to follow.

I’m in New York City for business and stumbled across this sign in Grand Central Station. Not just in Grand Central Station, but in the bathroom at Grand Central Station. Take note of the second restriction. Gotta’ love New York.

You’re welcome.

I received the following today in response to the grotesque display put on by Keith Olbermann and Janeane Garofalo last week. Consider it an open letter to MSNBC:

*****

I saw your post and watched the interview on MSNBC. I am sick to my stomach at the unbelievable characterization of Republicans. Our brains are not working correctly, we have become the party of white power, we are all racists, and on and on.

Trapped in her own self-important world where she and Keith are the only two sane people in an insane world, she doesn’t realize who she is talking about. My husband and I are 40 and probably considered upper middle class but I won’t apologize for that because we have worked hard and sacrificed to get here.

We go to church, why is that such a big deal? Guess what? A large portion of America does. We take our kids to soccer practice and teach them to be good people. We also love this country because we believe in everyone’s right to an opinion whether we agree with it or not.

When did we become “racist rednecks” because we aren’t in favor of massive deficit spending or because we tune into Fox News? You’ve probably passed millions of people like me shopping at Target or riding bikes with our kids on the weekend. We are not stupid, crazy because we believe in God, or racists.

It is possible to disagree with someone’s policies based solely on their merit and not the color of their skin. They give Americans so little credit. They have so much contempt for average Americans. There are crazy people in every crowd, but please don’t dismiss an entire political party out of hand because of a few people out of thousands waving a sign at a protest. You don’t know me and don’t pretend you do Janeane. How dare you.

People who have such contempt for others are the real danger. You may not agree with us, but let us have our opinions like we allow you to have yours. By the way, Republicans and “right wingers” and conservatives make up close to half of this country. The majority of us are intelligent, hard working, caring people who cannot sit quietly while you belittle us on national television.

I know the news cycle on this has already passed but some of us can’t watch the news eight hours a day because we are living in reality. We’ve got real things to do with our time unlike Ms. Garofalo and Olbermann who spend all day practicing their witty, self-important banter so they can make us feel like bad people when we turn on the t.v. at night.

I worry what my kids will think when they are old enough to hear us called extremists and mindless racists by citizens of our very own country. We may be faceless to them, but we are out here living our lives and we matter. I am so disappointed in MSNBC for allowing such hate filled rants and embarrassed of the crude remarks referring to “teabagging.” How is this acceptable journalism? Grow up and leave the good people of America alone. You don’t speak for us.

*****

You’re welcome.

Late Saturday night North Korea launched a missile in what is another step toward finalizing their long-range weapons program. North Korea claims the launch was for a “space satellite” which is now orbiting and transmitting patriotic North Korean music as well as data back to Earth.

U.S. officials have denied North Korea’s claims stating “nothing went into orbit” and “stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean.”

It’s in that light that we are pleased to announce the launch of our own space satellite into orbit over the weekend. Our satellite is broadcasting a loop of Seinfeld episodes, Guns ‘n Roses, and Rachel Ray clips and is pointed at North Korea’s satellite.

You’re welcome.

In case you happen to be standing in the spot in this picture anytime in the near future, you’d be wise to read the note. Love the creativity and love the vague Napoleon Dynamite reference.

You’re welcome.

If you can read this, your computer survived the conficker worm. Congratulations and welcome to the rest of your life.

You’re welcome.

The website has been down for a few days courtesy of Windows Vista. We had to do a complete re-installation of the operating system that is only marginally more stable than Brittany Spears (thank you Microsoft). Don’t believe us?- here’s the reliaibility monitor just prior to the final blue screen:

Anyways, we’re back up and running and will get caught up over the next couple days.

AP photo

According to a Fox News report, up to 10 people a week are being treated for Wii-related injuries. Apparently, most of the injuries are related to sudden movement, resulting in tendon stretching or tearing. Doctors refer to the injuries as “Wii-itis” or “Wii-knee”.

Most of the injuries are being reported in the U.K., which has prompted U.K. doctors to issue Wii-warnings, and which also confirms my suspicions that the British are getting softer.

With all this going on, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before lawyas in the U.S. fire up a couple class action lawsuits toward Nintendo, thus driving up the cost of Wiis and the related accessories. I suppose Congress would eventually come up with a Wii rescue plan, but who knows how long that could take.

As a preemptive move, I call on all Wii-loving Americans to do your American duty and, should you injure yourself playing a video game, play through the pain. No grimacing, no missing work, no cortisone treatments- suck it up and swing that controller. Do it for your country.

You’re welcome.

Red Renee wishes you and your family a very Merry Christmas. Red’s taking the day off to hang with the family but will be back on the 26th. We hope the holiday finds you healthy and happy.

End of the year and catching up on a few odds and ends. You may recall back in early October I invested $50,000 of virtual dollars in some undervalued blue chip stocks. I did so according to the principles of buy low, sell high, or more to the point- “when there’s blood in the street, invest”. The market was imploding and it made sense to snatch up some stocks.

So far the investment hasn’t paid off (shocker). Thanks to Co-Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama, the market still hasn’t fully recovered, and my virtual portfolio reflects that. My original $50,000 is down to about $46,796 for about a 6.5% loss. Just for fun, I’ll continue to keep tabs on it throughout the next year.

You’re welcome.

In honor of the Rod Blagojevich disaster this week and his magnificent helmet full of hair, I present to you the four stages of my hair (the four seasons if you will). One disclaimer in case my hair should read this: I kid because I love; thanks to those of you that have stuck around this long.

In order:

1. Too short
2. Lookin’ good
3. Toupee
4. Chia

Unfortunately phase two only lasts about 8 days.

You’re welcome.

It’s official now, it it wasn’t before. According to reports, Oklahoma RB DeMarco Murray will have hamstring surgery and will miss the national championship game against Florida. In Murray, the Sooners lose the 1a running back (their primary break-away threat), their 5th leading receiver (31 receptions), and their leading kick returner. He’s also the leader on the team in all-purpose yards and second on the team in touchdowns. Time for Chris Brown and Mossis Madu to step up.

Add that on top of Sam Bradford now being vexed with the Heisman curse and Florida’s a lock to win the national championship. If you’re a farmer, bet the farm on the gators by 10.

You’re welcome.

Today is our two-year anniversary for the site. It’s still not a profit-making venture, but we’re eternal optimists and have plenty left to vent so don’t expect us to close up shop anytime soon. In honor of two years of toil and trouble, here’s the very first post we put up on November 29, 2006.

Scour the country… someone has stolen the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In its place on Thanksgiving morning was an insufferable combination of bad lip-syncing, uncomfortable emceeing, and an endless parade of interviews with NBC “stars” promoting their “hit” shows. This whorification exhibited by NBC is inexcusable. What’s on tap for next year, splitting the screen into quarters and running “Law & Order: Thanksgiving” on three sides?

If anyone happens to find the real Macy’s parade, call NBC immediately. I’ve got some leftover turkey I’ll offer up as a reward.

Little bit under the weather the last couple of days so posts have been pretty quiet. We’ll have some college football posts Saturday for what should be a defining weekend.

Had a little extra time this weekend so I was able to get Feedburner back up and running. If you’d like to get posts e-mailed directly to your inbox, enter your e-mail in the box on the right hand column and click “subscribe”.

We’re turning over a new leaf (ever so slightly) at Redrenee.com today. Over the two years this blog has been up, we’ve never hidden our affinity for the Buckeyes. Partially because we need more content, and partially as a feeble attempt at trying to lure over more of Buckeye nation, starting today we’re going to feature more Ohio State content.

We’re not going to focus any less on the rest of college football. We’ll continue to provide as much unbiased analysis and information that we can, but will definitely be “Buckeye heavy” during college football season. We expect you to to call us on it if we’re drinking the scarlet and gray Kool-Aid by leaving a comment.

Our motto continues to be- go ahead let it out. It’s good to vent.

You’re welcome.

We’re certainly not in support of hurricanes, the Red Renee world headquarters was without power for two days after Ike, and Galveston is pretty well destroyed (real sensitive to list Galveston second, I know). However, should there be a few more peaceful, harmless hurricanes in the Atlantic, we’ll see a Hurricane Rene. They’ve left off an “e” but we’d be honored to have a hurricane named after us, but only if it plays nice.

By now you know that Anheuser-Busch was sold to a foreign company (InBev of Belgium). Help me in boycotting Anheuser-Busch since they are sellouts.

Drop your beer off at my house & I will dispose of it. We’ll teach those bastards.

We’ve had some more technical difficulties, this time with our web editor. We’ve had to change the look of the site a bit while we figure out what the hell happened. Sorry for the visual inconvenience.

Red

We’d like to take a moment and give a shout out to a good friend of the site- Don Morris. Don’s currently serving in Iraq with thousands of other brave men and women.

It seems arbitrary to only have one day per year dedicated to all those that are serving and have served, but nonetheless, it’s important to stop and give thanks. Thanks to all the men and women like Don who risk their own safety to keep this country safe and allow schmoes like me to run silly blog sites.

Feel free to leave comments or well wishes below in comments section for anyone you know serving.

Red

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we’ve been down for almost two days now. Apparently our web host didn’t take too kindly to us not paying our bill on time (again). I guess they decided to send us a message by railroading our money-losing venture for a couple days. Well, message sent. We’ll be looking to switch hosts here in the near-term and will try to do so without any more disruption.

Sorry for the abandonment, hopefully no permanent damage done.

The Management