After regaling us with meetings and newsletters telling how well the company is doing, and how they expect business to pick up this year, my company put out a memo this week saying they had no choice but to lay people off or let them go completely.

That's it. They haven't said what departments or branches or whatever will be cut back on. I know I always am busy, but they could cut me and have someone else do my work.

So we don't know until they get around to saying who's cut... Since I haven't been there two years, I don't qualify for the severance pay. Also, if they go by seniority, I'm closer to the new end.

Of course, they have claimed they are going to start doing random drug testing. If they cut a lot of people and keep those with "seniority", they'll be keeping a lot of people that won't pass a drug test. Some of these people make little effort to hide the fact that they smoke pot on breaks and at lunch. If they dump a lot of people, then do testing, they'll be short handed.

I would drug test everyone now. They would save money, because the people who fail can be seperated "for cause" and don't need to be given severence pay and the company would not have to pay for unemployment compensation.

That's whaqt's going on at my work.

Sometimes it's better when your favorite team is on tv, to listen to the radio broadcast. The national broadcasters are really anoying in many sports. When the Penguins are on NBC or Versus, I'm often annyed at the commentary. Steelers games are another where the local radio broadcasting team far outshadows the national talking heads on the TV broadcasts.

Now, you can just play the radio audio while watching it, but it is several seconds out of whack. It's much worse if you have satelite TV, because satelite signal lags even the over the air TV signal.

If you tape both the radio and TV broadcasts, you can sync them up, but you have to wait until the game is over to start watching, and if you fast forward in a commercial, you have to re-sync it each time.

What would be nice is a dvr-radio reciever combo with the capability to delay the radio signal, then if you pause the game, it would pause both audio and TV, leaving it in sync when you start it back up.

Well? Anyone else have any ideas or solutions?

I just bought a new DVD player. Not a portable, but the one for in the living room by the big TV. 29.95 I paid. I paid a couple of hundred dollars for my first DVD player. I paid a couple of hundred dollars for my first CD player in fact.

It boggles the mind how the prices drop on electronics.

I remember paying $279 for a 52mb hard drive... Sheesh... I guess that makes me old...

Sidney Crosby, one of the finest hockey players of all time scored a goal and three assists tonight, getting a point on all four of the Penguins goals in a 4-1 win against Toronto.

On the first goal by Pascal Dupuis, Crosby's assist was his 200th career assist.

He assisted on Miroslav Satan's goal (the game winner), this was Sid's 300th career point.

Sid scored the third goal of the game, which was his 100th career goal.

On top of all that, Evgeni Malkin assisted on all four goals, including his 200th career point!

Woot! Congratulations boys!

Today's big news is Evgeny "Geno" Malkin was named Alternate Captain for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now he still doesn't do interviews in English, but teammates say he speaks pretty good English when no one has a microphone. He's a fine team leader and has on ice skills to inspire.

He will be a rotating "A" spot. They didn't say who he would rotate with. This is apparently the "A" slot that Ryan Malone filled last year.

Brooks Orpik will be named Alternate as well, apparently in a permanant spot.

Daryl Sydor remains as Alternate and of course Sidney Crosby will be the Captain for many years to come.

Mr. Paul Newman passed away today. I enjoyed his films, enjoyed watching his race cars and didn't care for his spaghetti sauce or salad dressing.

I always enjoyed seeing him on Letterman, because they would both try to avoid speaking about Indy Car racing, even though it was a favorite topic of both men. (Newman was co-owner of Newman-Haas Racing and David Letterman is co-owner of Rahal-Letterman Racing)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was an early favorite of mine.

He'll be missed. Rest in Peace.

This is a headline I just read, claiming that the Chinese government are tightening security now that some Americans have been stabbed to death at a popular tourist site in Beijing. Now, I seem to recall many objections people put forward to allowing China to host the Olympics, and visitor's safety was one of them. We were promised the safest, most organized Olympics ever. Now we are told they are tightening security... Because Americans getting stabbed in a public place was previously considered acceptable, apparently, no they are going to tighten it up!

Further, does anyone buy the notion that the stabber "committed suicide"? In totalitarian police state nations, anyone who dies in police custody is listed as suicide.

As to "organized", perhaps playing the entire national anthem of a gold medal winner's country would be in order. On the other hand, NBC seems to have gotten around that by just not showing most medal cerimonies.

Otherwise, good Olympics so far!

Tony Snow, who has been a TV News Anchor, Political Commentator, Radio Talk Show host and Press Secretary for President G.W.Bush, passed away yesterday after fighting colon cancer for several years.

I used to enjoy his radio show, and always found him to be "fair and ballanced". One thing I hope he will be remembered for is an inovation he introduced to the job of White House Press Secretary. Instead of just passing on information to the media, he did his best to explain issues and made it clear he actually understood what he was saying, and was interested in making sure reporters understood it as well. He had a knack for relating difficult concepts in every day language, cutting through the beurocrat-speak that is the norm for all levels of government.

Rest now, Tony.

The Penguins signed New York Islanders free-agents Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko.

For those of you not in the hockey know, his name is pronounced "sha-TAN".

Well, the Pens seem to be losing so many players that it's good to see them sign a few new guys. I know Fedotenko will make a good linemate for Geno Malkin.

The Penguins played poorly, and the refereeing has been lopsided. Now two games in Pittsburgh and they have a chance to tie the series up. Tonights clash will see the Pens come out on top. I hope the referreeing is a bit more even, and the Pens top players go to the net more.

I'm counting on Ryan Malone, Sid and Geno to really ratchet things up. Scoring from Jordan Staal and Max Talbot is important too...

The glorious Pittsburgh Penguins, one of the finest hockey teams of all time, are in the Stanley Cup Finals after a six nil thrashing of the Phladelphia Flyers! Wooty woot!

It's all good! Sid Crosby leads the league in playoff scoring, Marion Hossa and Evgeni Malkin are tied for second... (woot again)

Now to the west, Dallas won two in a row, and can tie the series up at three tomorrow night!

Hockey is good!

Danica Patrick, in her 50th start on the IRL circuit, won the Indy Japan 300 race, at the Twin Ring Motegi track. She has been accused of being a Kournikova, due to her high endorsement value without ever winning an event. But now she is an official Indy Car race winner! Woot! Woot, I say!

Hey folks, tonights win over the Philadelphia Flyers gives the Pens their first division championship in a long time!

Very exciting. Now if they beat the Flyers again on Sunday, they should get the Conference banner as well!

DAPPER DAN AWARDS

The Dapper Dan Awards awards given in Pittsburgh voted on by the public in many catagories. This years coveted Sportsman of the Year went to Sidney Crosby. Mario Lemieux picked up an award for greatest Pittsburgh athlete of all time, and Bill Mazeroski's World Series winning home run in 1960 was named the single greatest sports moment in Pittsburgh history!