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Troubles worsen for big energy trader SemGroup
SemGroup had sold short NYMEX crude oil futures to protect its 500,000-barrels-per-day oil trading business against a fall in crude prices. But as crude surged from less than $96 a barrel at the start of the year to a record above $147 in mid-July, demands for cash to cover its losses on the futures market began to overwhelm the fast-growing company.
I wonder if Tom Kivisto read The Black Swan
The upgrade has killed Gallery2 apparently. Ugh.
http://www.thehoopspool.com/masters/
The deadline is coming up fast. Entries must be postmarked by this Wednesday, April 9th.
It is time for The Masters (April 10th - 13th) and as such time for us to do another Masters Tournament Pool. Last year was a record turn out for our Masters Tournament Pool (104 paid entries) and we are hoping for an even bigger number of participants for 2008. Entries into the Masters Tournament Pool can be made from Tuesday, April 1st through Wednesday, April 9th. So please get your entry in ASAP and start recruiting people to join the pool because the more people in it the bigger the prize payout. Please see the Rules of the Pool for complete details.
As we have done for many years now $2 from every entry fee will be used for a charitable donation. This year the donation will be split between two different charities, The Texas Children’s Hospital and The Maisey and Jake Lowe Children’s Fund. In May my son Gehrig was diagnosed with a heart defect known as coarctation of the aorta which required surgery to repair his damaged heart. Gehrig was 4 years old at the time of his successful surgery at Texas Children’s hospital. Maisey (9) and Jake (6) Lowe are my niece and nephew and they live in Fairbanks, Alaska. This past January their father, my brother-in-law, Jimmy Lowe died in his sleep as a result of heart condition. Jimmy was 37. As you can see both of these charities are very important to me and any extra donations to these charities will be greatly appreciated.
I can believe it (from Steve)
“People have accused me of being so far up Tiger’s arse that he can barely make a full swing, but I maintain that he is a special person. There’s no one else on the planet who can do what he does or even think of doing what he does. I’ve often thought, instead of showing Tiger’s reaction to a shot he’s hit, we really should show the reaction of those around him.”
But here is the next best thing. “I’m walking down the 18th fairway at Firestone Country Club with Ernie Els and Tiger, who has popped up a three-wood about 40 yards behind Ernie into some wet, nasty, horrible, six-inch rough,” Feherty says. “Tiger’s cursing and taking clumps out of Ohio with his three-wood. And, of course, we’re not showing this on TV because we want to be able to interview him later. Ernie and I walk past Tiger’s ball, and it is truly buried.”
“Ernie is tied with Tiger and he’s in the middle of the fairway. I’m standing with Ernie and my microphone is open. Ken Venturi [in the CBS booth] sends it to me and I say, ‘Tiger’s got 184 yards with two big red oaks overhanging the green. He’s got absolutely nothing. With a stick of dynamite and a sand wedge I might be able to move this ball 50 yards. Steve Williams [Woods' caddie] tells me [with a hand signal] that he’s using a pitching wedge.’
“Tiger takes his swing. Every muscle in his body is flung at the ball. It looks like he’s torn his nutsack. The divot went as far as I could hit the ball. I’ve got my microphone at my mouth thinking, what the hell was that! The ball sails over the trees, lands behind the hole and backs up to about six feet from the flag. I open my microphone and Ernie turns and says, ‘Fuck me!”
“My producer comes on in my earpiece and says, ‘Was that Ernie?’ I say yes.
He says, ‘Fair enough.’
“I could have described that shot for 15 minutes and not done as good a job as Ernie did with two words. This is one of the best players in the world talking, and you wanna know how good Tiger is? Ask Ernie Els.”
Seems Oprah’s Book Club has finally stumbled onto Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road‘ this month (OMG, I just linked to Oprah’s web site, somebody tackle me). I read the hardcover edition late last year on a whim while browsing the Dallas Love airport bookstore (and I had seen it climbing up the NYT Bestseller List in USA Today).
From the book cover inset:
The searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food–and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
One of the most striking things about this book (besides his brilliant writing) is how McCarthy uses his own stylistic punctuation and absolutely no character identification in the dialogue (think A Million Little Pieces). Some readers may not like this, but I think he pulled it off wonderfully.
Checkout the October 8, 2006 New York Times review (warning, some mild spoilers on page 3).
The Final Four is set and it’s a close race in the fam’s NCAA pool. According to the ‘what-if’ generator, a Georgetown win in the semis will lock it for me. Otherwise, an Ohio St. win creates a showdown between Dad (Ohio St.) and Brandon (Florida) for the bragging rights. Go HOYAS!
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Looks like Ken is firing it up again after a three year layoff. Same entry fee as before ($20) and a progressive scoring system where you pick players from three different tiers based on world ranking standings. Entries must be postmarked by April 4th. |
The Masters starts on Thursday, April 5th and the final field for the tournament will be set Sunday, March 25th. Entries for the Masters Tournament Pool can start being entered on Monday, March 26th. The entry fee is still $20, no inflation here. Please review the Rules of the Pool for complete details on how the pool works. Remember this is only a four day tournament so get your team entered and payment in the mail as soon as possible so that we get your entry fee before the tournament ends.
Just trying out the new posting feature from Microsoft Word 2007…You can now edit your posts directly from Word and publish them without having to login to the Wordpress web interface. It even supports selection from your predefined categories and image uploading as well.
Sometimes I want to do this to my driver…
Blankman apparently does not rate here…
You are Spider-Man
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You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.  |
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