I'm completely stymied by this...Longmire, the A&E Network's original series based on the mystery novels by Craig Johnson, will not be returning for a fourth season, as Warner Horizon reportedly gears up to aggressively shop the show. 

In a statement, A&E said “we are incredibly proud of what we have achieved together.” I can imagine so. After all, Longmire was the most-watched original drama series in the history of the cable network. Even with a drop to 4.9 million viewers a week in the third season, the show was the channel's second most-watched, trailing only Duck Dynasty.

There has been a recent trend with the cable networks to own their own original programming. Both Longmire (Warner Horizon), and the previously cancelled The Glades (Fox TV Studios), were both produced outside the house. These cancellations, along with a thin slate of upcoming original projects and a major reduction in the scripted division at the executive level, it appears A&E is going back to the reality show crutch. 

And what a damn shame, really. While the numbers may have been dropping (admittedly, I was an avid first viewer, but got caught up with stuff and lost track), but at the same time, a lot of networks would kill for nearly 5 million viewers a week, original show or reality show nonsense. Creativity requires guts, and that seems to be a lost concept with the networks anymore. Hell, I'm waiting for the day a network announces creating a VP of Reboots/Remakes position. For every Almost Human that gets the axe, somehow we get a show based on Weezer founder Rivers Cuomo going back to freaking Harvard to finish his degree. How very.

Can't wait to see where Longmire lands, and how many shows A&E runs through before finding another that matches its numbers. As always, I'm holding out hope for a show about a gay midget couple that train pit bulls  while their 19 kids run a pawn shop, a tow truck service, a tattoo parlor, and a cupcake bakery. You laugh now, but you'll shit when it happens...

What a roller coaster week it has been. The stress level has been building around the household, nothing earth-shattering, but enough of a temporary upheaval to probably start turning some shit grey, and at the moment, I am perfectly fine with just my eyes being the predominantly grey feature on my body.

Still a bit pissed about Monday's season opening forfeit for the softball team I play on. There were an awful lot of assumptions and epic fails along with the legitimate absences, but to forfeit the season opener is bad karma, in my opinion. That, and despite a rough first inning, I did have two good follow-up innings in the unofficial scrimmage game that did happen. 

So far, the highpoint has to be the ...folded... pre-order announcement. Unlike pretty much every other thing I've published, there's an actual marketing budget and plan for this release, so unlike pretty much every other thing I've published, I am more optimistic than hopeful coming into September 23. I am even hopeful to earn my third straight Kindle Bestseller, despite wading into a much broader category than marketing. 

Despite the slight increase in my posting on here, which is as good a sign as any, I still have the projects open I have mentioned in past months. I would say officially two novels, a probable novella, and one or two shorter works in various stages of first draft, along with my next business title. Once I get past the temporary upheaval, I'm going to attempt to craft a rotation and try to get back to work on at least two projects a day. 

One of those projects has its roots in a conversation I recently had over the past couple of weeks with a friend on the East Coast. Unfortunately, I can not divulge the content nor the reason the conversation had to draw to a conclusion, but I can say it was the kind of conversation I needed to get the creative juices flowing again. I'm hoping to bring it in somewhere between 5,000-7,500 words, maybe use it to kickstart the longer works. That is one part of the eBook revolution I still have the occasional problem wrapping my head around- you don't necessarily have to hit a homer with a novel, you can have success with a steady supply of singles.

But then again, it's only Humpday, and Humpday is almost over. Now the challenge of making it through the next couple of days begins, before what is going to be a massively busy and probably highly irritating weekend unfolds in front of me. Maybe I'll get lucky and knock out five or six pages.

...folded..., my first collection from DasUberBlog!, will hit the Kindle Store on Tuesday, September 23. 

Available now for pre-order, ...folded...not only marks my first collection of commentary and editorial work since 2008's The Devil's in The Details, but my first stand-alone collection since 2007's Hungover on Tuesday. 

In addition to pop culture, entertainment, politics, and society in general, ...folded... also contains the content from the blog's award-winning 2011 publication year. 

Since the blog now reflects the lack of access to this material, order up your copy now! Order one for a friend, a relative, someone you barely know. It's not like they have ever heard of me, and you don't even have to leave your house- it's the very best of impulse buying, and I don't even have a hotline to give you, should you take it too far (and God bless you, in advance, should that happen).

Well, some seasons start out that way...I guess. After Mother Nature rained us out last week, the Major Leaguers were set to hit the field tonight at Anderson Park to kick off the 2014 New Albany Parks & Rec/NSA Fall Season.

Well, a fair portion of us were, at any rate. After not having enough fielders to take the field officially against the Wannabes, we followed up the forfeit by playing an unofficial scrimmage, losing 14-2. (Pitching: 3 inn, 1k, 1bb, 9r 7er. Batting: 0-2, reached on error) Now that we are a sterling 0-1 to open the season, hopefully the remainder of the Son of Jobu will be with us next Monday night.

Has Tony Stewart's notorious temper finally gotten the better of him? In a still-developing story, authorities with the Ontario County (N.Y.) Sheriff's Office are investigating an incident Saturday night at Canandaigua Motorsports park in which Stewart, a three-time Cup champion struck driver Kevin Ward with his sprint car after an altercation during an Empire Super Sprints series race.

Stewart is scheduled to start 13th in today's Cheez-It 355 at the Glen at Watkins Glen International Raceway, and at present still plans on competing. It was confirmed earlier this morning by Charlotte Observer racing reporter Jim Utter that Ward, 20, was dead on arrival at Thompson Health, and that the District Attorney's office had been notified, but the investigation is obviously still ongoing. Stewart has been cooperative with Ontario County Sheriff's officials, and had returned to Watkins Glen at the time of the updates on Ward's condition. 

Tyler Graves, a sprint-car racer and friend of Ward's, told Sporting News what he witnessed from the Turn 1 grandstands: "Tony pinched him into the frontstretch wall, a racing thing," Graves said. "The right rear tire went down, he spun on the exit of (Turn) 2. They threw the caution and everything was toned down. Kevin got out of his car. … He was throwing his arms up all over the place at Tony for most of the corner. "I know Tony could see him. I know how you can see out of these cars. When Tony got close to him, he hit the throttle. When you hit a throttle on a sprint car, the car sets sideways. It set sideways, the right rear tire hit Kevin, Kevin was sucked underneath and was stuck under it for a second or two and then it threw him about 50 yards."

Sometimes, you just have to love how the free market works. Walgreens, which recently decided against reorganizing in the United Kingdom for lower corporate taxes, found out the old rule about making the "right" decision, and how can it can come back and bite you in the ass, no matter what you do.

With the continued controversy over "inversions," where companies merge with or buy a foreign company to come under that country's corporate tax rate (which is usually a significant saving versus the United States' 35% corporate tax rate, the highest in the entire industrialized world), one would think that a brave company going against the trend would be met with praise. I mean, at the end of the day, Walgreens is still a U.S.-based company, headquarters and all, so that's a good thing, right?

Nope. For all of the yelling and screaming, weeping and gnashing of teeth, and wringing of the hands while hyping petitions to pressure Walgreens, the "victory" was met with a 4% dip of the stock price on Tuesday, when the decision was first announced, and a 15% plunge the following day. See what patriotism gets you, at least as far as Wall Street is concerned? I'm sure people whose pension plans or 401(k) that are invested in Walgreens (NYSE ticker WAG) don't mind losing roughly $16/per share in value since the outrage began. Just maybe skip them the next time round when you have a petition built on breathless panic.

Inversions have become a recent cause for squawking from Capitol Hill, as President Obama and various members of Congress complaining how the practice damages America by siphoning off tax revenue. You know, tax revenue they can put to work by building military aircraft that rusts away unused in the Nevada desert or giving sweetheart loans to dubious energy companies. Never mind the fact there have been nearly four dozen of these "inversions" in the last ten years, but I didn't start hearing a lot about this problem until a company actually decided to stay put.

Talk about the fucking you're taking being worse than the screwing you're getting. Not only did Walgreens buck the trend, they themselves admitted that they didn't even think the Internal Revenue Service was even going to approve the move, and yet, they get spanked like a four year old at Kmart over it. All this tells me is the next company on down the line is going to look directly at this situation, and then say hell with it and relocate anyway. It's not like the IRS can really or truly block a company from making such a move. If the tax code and its 70,000+ pages have shown us anything, it's that there is a loophole around damn near every single part of the code, just so long as you have a healthy-enough bottom line, or are backing the right party in charge at the time.


A final bit of disclosure- While I am not a Walgreens shareholder, I may change that outlook now that the fainting couch crowd has knocked a good-sized chink off the price. I am a Walgreens shopper, however, and hit my local store to pick up a fresh pack of cartridges for my Blu e-cigarette. That way, when I blow a mouthful of smoke in the next petition-waving idiot's face, it will be a bit easier on them. Hope they like vanilla.

As anyone who knows me can tell you, I'm a big sports fan. Since the market on baseball cards is pretty much  in the crapper, I decided to find teams to buy stock in. I like the technicality of minority ownership. I mean, for some reason a few media outlets made a big deal of Jay-Z owning like a billionth of a percent of the Brooklyn Nets, so why shouldn't I enjoy that same level of ownership, and with a lot less press coverage.

Among my holdings is a share of Manchester United, a no-brainer since they are not only the most valuable sports franchises in the world (according to Forbes), but one of the few that are publicly traded. A little ironic, also, as I am not universally known as a soccer fan. As my first full season as a minority shareholder kicks off, The Red Devils went out and brought Daddy home a trophy to put in my virtual case, even if it is an upstart preseason tournament.

With a come from behind 3-1 victory over Liverpool, Manchester United won the second International Champions Cup (pictured above center), which will look nice in the virtual case next to the 2014 NHL Eastern Conference Championship my New York Rangers brought home recently.

I love shit like this...talking with Access Hollywood Live, she admitted she was embarrassed to do the first Sharknado film, refusing to do any promotion for the surprise 2013 Syfy TV movie hit, fearing the film would end her career.

Dear Lord...where do I start? First, that movie was a hit, and you didn't have to remove a stitch of clothing. That meant you actually had to act. And yet, the movie worked, as goofy as it was. Besides, and more to the point- your very next credit was in The Hungover Games. You weren't embarrassed by that...but you couldn't swallow Sharknado? Although, if you had perhaps swallowed one in Sharknado 2 (which I noticed she was not particularly embarrassed to appear in), then Sharknado 3 (which you goddamned well know there's gonna be now) would be even more epic than it will be in all probability. With or without Tara Reid.