finally!

I have had this sweatshirt on my mind for a long time. I have been checking and checking NFL.com for what seems like years, waiting for the price to come down. The retail price, $75, and I am not paying $75 for a sweatshirt. So while I was doing my normal "stalking" of the sweatshirt, I came across a 30% off sale on NFL.com. I could now get the sweatshirt for about $20 off. Now it becomes reasonable. I placed the order last week and today my sweatshirt came. It is very comfortable (still not worth $75) and much darker than the picture indicates, but I could see why it was priced so high. Of course now that I have the sweatshirt, it guarantees that the weather will be in the 70s very soon.

Strep Throat

Owen has strep throat. To find this out we had to spend 2+ hours at the physicians care office. I am not a usual germ-a-phobe (I think Renea has made me that way) but the whole time we were there it gave me the willies thinking about all of the sickness floating around. When we finally got the call to move from one waiting area to the next waiting area I decided that it would be best to pass the time with a little game I like to call Latex Glove Balloon. Owen really enjoyed this, as did I. Renea, not so much.

Renea usually gets a little aggravated with me in Dr. offices. I have a tendency to play with the Dr. things, never hurting anything just to help pass the time and to lighten mood. Renea always thinks we are going to get into trouble. As Owen and I were passing the latex glove balloon Renea gave Owen and I a dirty look, so I had to bounce the balloon off her face. She never saw it coming and it gave all three of us a big laugh.

There are laugh out loud moments when you have kids, and it is true that they will say some of the darndest things. Owen said something today that reminded me of something his uncle Adam would have said about that same age. He found a dollar I had laid on the table yesterday. I was in our bedroom upstairs and he came up and said, "Dad, can I have this dollar I found?" "No." I said. Then in a sad little voice, his acting chops emerged. "But Dad, it will make my throat feel better." What a player.

Streak is alive

A whole week with posts. Not even in the hayday of blogging did I complete a feat like this. Let's see if I can keep it going. Watch out Cal Ripkin!

• Owen had swim lessons today. His teacher has been working with him on his freestyle and he is coming along well. They were working on his breathing and she was asking him to swim to the wall, then all of a sudden he broke out a breaststroke that I hadn't ever seen him swim before. They hadn't even worked on that in class. Needless to say his kick was close to flawless. Which, if you know anything about swimming, the breaststroke kick is the hardest for kids to get (unless he is a natural) cause they want to do a scissors kick. It must be in his genes cause I was a pretty good breaststroker in my day. I was floored.
• Before class Owen was sluggish before lessons and his throat was a little red. We asked him if he wanted to go to swimming and he said he did, so we went. Afterward Renea and I were going to Subway to get something to eat when Owen said his stomach hurt. Luckily Renea had the foresight to take home outside . . . where he puked in the parking lot. Crisis semi-diverted.
• While sick today, Owen has watched Garfield, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bolt and now Star Wars. Thank god for the NCAA tournament.
• Took Lucie (black lab) for a walk today (3.5 miles). I swear that dog is nearly impossible to wear out.
• While blogging, just witnessed our cat Ziggy attempting to roll around on the bed and threw himself off the side and fell off. Of course he tried to fake like that was what he was trying to do.

Guilty Pleasure

Love my Sirius radio. Love the fact that I can listen online (at least until my subscription is up in December), and a couple of months ago I ran across Cosmo Radio, sponsored by Cosmo magazine and specifically the morning show Wake Up with Taylor. Taylor is a 26 year old female living in New York and she has 2 co-hosts sitting in with her, Victoria and Kenny. Now typically I like my talk radio more so than music in the mornings so I think this is one of the reasons I started listening. I know, I know, it is Cosmo and it's for girls. See that is where you are wrong. They definitely cater to the female demographic, but it is more of a "relationship" show that also has some pop culture discussions as well. Now there have been plenty of times where I have turned the channel when they discuss getting pedicures or shoe shopping, but for the most part I find them pretty entertaining and the male perspective provided by Kenny mirrors my thoughts most of the time. It is good entertainment and I find myself cracking up at least once a morning. Give them a try, it may not seem like the "manly" thing to do, but it is good radio.

A new low

Excuse #7,823 why I hadn't kept up with the blog:

Since the end of the summer when I was at my heaviest weight I have been ratcheting up the workouts, trying to eat more healthy and finally lose some weight. Today I was at my lightest down 22.5 pounds. What has helped? The book and program behind Cheat to Lose and also I really think by adding swimming 3 days a week to my workout. I was stuck at one weight for a long time after the first 15. Since then it has been a slow going, but I think the swimming has kick started things. If I use the weight I am right now and set a new goal, 10lbs would be it, although I would prefer 15. HA

Playing Catch-Up

One of the simple little perks in life is the DVR (covered before as one of the best inventions ever), and one of the things that Renea and I do with the DVR and our favorite show LOST is that we record it, and then start to watch it about half-way through the live broadcast in hopes that we don't catch up to the actual broadcast. It is like watching the show in the same amount of time (9:00 -10:00), but never having to sit through the commercials. I am not sure what makes this fun, the thrill of maybe getting away with something, or just trying to play a mini game of "keeping the triangle behind the green line." Either way it is a fun little game that adds to watching our favorite show.

Now to clear up some confusion of the earlier post:

1. No, the drawing is not what my student came up with as a logo, it is just an example of what the client thought her logo looked like (it didn't look anything like that)
2. We haven't given new designs to the client, so there are no updates.

Brutally Honest

So I have a student designer working on a logo for a summer camp/thing. The camp is for kids in high school so we thought it would be good to create a "fun" looking logo that would appeal to the high school kid. Well the initial draft was sent to the client and was returned with the comments that the logo didn't look classy enough and needed to appeal to 15-16 year-olds (which is tough to do . . . classy but appealing to that age group). So I emailed the client to dig a little deeper, to find out what exactly they didn't like about the initial attempt by my student. This usually helps to get a little closer to exactly what the client wants . . . well, the response was:

"To be blunt ...They didn't look classy. They looked very elementary - like they were drawn by an 8 year old in about 10 minutes."

Well I am glad she didn't sugar coat it. I appreciate her honesty, but again, not much to go on. Did she hate the font? Did she hate the sun with the logo? Did she hate the colors?

This is the problem I have with people critiquing work. Give me specifics. Not just, "I don't like it." or "I don't like that color." Why don't you like it? Why don't you like the color? You have to have reasons to not like it, just as we had reasons to design it that way.

So currently we are in the process of giving her just "classy" and we will see where this leads us.

I will keep all three of you reading this blog updated. I am sure you will be on pins and needles.

Free Stuff

I love when you stumble upon free things. One of the things I got this morning was music and I didn't even download it illegally (because downloading music illegally is morally WRONG and is something I would never, ever do).

Barenaked Ladies is one of my favorite bands and recently their lead singer Steven Page, got into a little trouble and then quit the band. Well they played a concert at Universal Studios a few weeks ago (a free concert), their first as a foursome and put the whole concert up for download on their site.

Just a little bonus this morning. Gotta love the free stuff.

This is hard work

Ok, so I am feeling guilty about this dead blog that keeps popping up in the back of my mind. One reason is my Aunt Jan.  Apparently the only person who has missed the continuous updates that I used to post. Every time I see her she gives it to me about not having a new post.  "Someone hasn't updated their blog since October." I told her to follow me on twitter. She didn't like that suggestion too much. See she likes the old blog days, when I had time to write and something to say. I have a lot to say, but it just doesn't seem to make it here to the blog. I have the podcast, the facebook, the twitter and this blog.  The blog, unfortunately is last. I like writing, I like updating, but the activity of actually doing it is keeping me from keeping it updated.  I think it might have to be with my standards for the blog. I somehow feel like I need to write long winded stories to justify a blog post, when in actuality it could be a couple of lines. So I need to drop that mentality and just blog already! Lately (and I mean in the past year and past 4 blog posts) it seems like I write more about me NOT posting something that actually posting anything. Ok, so enough.  From the magic show we saw last night at Marietta High School.

• We took Owen to the magic show last night.  It was a good time, although it lasted waaaay too long (2+ hours). Owen seemed to enjoy the 90 minutes, then he kept asking, "Is it over?" 
  
• Two of the three magicians were "ok." One was very good. Obviously we aren't talking big Vegas production. But it was entertaining. 
• Out of the three of them, the host may have been the worst of the three. He had one assistant who had to be in her late 80's (no I am not exaggerating) and the other looked so unenthusiastic you would have thought she was doing community service.
• The good magician, I believe his name was David Kaplin (and a quick Google search confirms that), was really talented, funny and worth seeing. I could have watched him all night.
• Owen tried to volunteer every time one of the magicians requested a volunteer, but never got picked. The kid is such a ham.
• On our way home, Owen called his Me-Maw to tell her about the show. In describing what he liked best, he said he like "When they cut a little boy's head off." Obviously no kids heads were cut off, but it is funny he remembered the illusion that way.

Myself the Poet (circa 1988)

My dad found this somewhere and brought it over to me a few weeks ago. I really don't want to hold onto the paper version of this so I thought I would post it here. I don't really remember writing it or what it was about, but the date on it 2/12/88, Period Seven.

THE GAME

The shadows of the past raced through his mind
He remembered when he once tossed a ball on this floor
He remembered the noise the ball made as it trickled through the net
He remembered how his career was shipwrecked on this floor
He always was driving to do his best
His spirit was always strong, he would never give in
He always had that winning sparkle in his eyes
His hustle trumpeted every time he walked on the floor
He loved the game like it was a dear friend
But his dear friend scorned him into tireless games
To where he didn't get anymore enjoyment from his friend
This turmoil was ended when he sought a new friend

Trying to get back into the swing of things, but I am making no promises

Ok, so I may be addicted to a little site you may heard of . . . facebook. Yes I am in my 30's and yes I know that many people (including my bro Adam) think that it is a total waste of time, but regardless it has hooked me.

The thing is, now that I am involved, is that I don't fully understand why this is so popular with college and high school kids. The site is great for reconnecting with old friends, ones from high school and college, but for kids already in high school and college, I am not sure I see what the attraction is. They see most of their friends on a daily basis and with cell phones and text messages they should be able to stay in contact with each other, so there should be no need to "facebook."

For me and my friends, who live hundreds and thousands of miles apart, and in some cases haven't talked in . . . oh lets say about 20 years, it provides a place to reconnect, see photos of our grown-up friends and their families, and get updates and for me in particular schedule our 20th high school reunion.

Yea I spend more time on there than I should . . . I am "Johnny Facebook" according to Adam and I do have some friends that I have never talked to, but all-in-all it has been fun. It has been nice to travel back in time a little and chat with old friends and teammates.

Weird Headline

Saw this today on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It made struck me funny.

I know, I know, people were killed and it is overall a sad story. Lives were changed and broken, but still the people at the PP-G have to do better at headline writing. When I saw this I thought of Yosemite Sam and his wife getting into it. And really, didn't the marriage end way before the "shootout?" I doubt that the shooting was the actual end of the marriage. It ended lives, but not the marriage.

Shoveling Snow Theories

I have a theory when it comes to shoveling snow.

It goes something like this: When you are trying to get a car removed, or create a path to walk (when the snow is over a foot). Shoveling snow is fine. When it comes to a few inches shoveling snow is NOT and I repeat NOT necessary and in fact can be very dangerous. Let me explain.

When you shovel snow that is only a few inches deep, what you have done is remove the "traction" you get when you walk (like down steps or down driveways). This especially happens when you first get freezing rain or if you know you have ice under the snow. Ever slipped in a parking lot where they have removed the snow. This is what has happened. When you remove the snow you actually make it easier to create a nice sheet of ice for someone (mainly me) to fall down on. All traction is lost and people can die.

So anyway I have attempted to explain this theory for years to Renea. "Don't sweep or shovel the snow. It will just make it more slippery." and over the oh, let's say 12 years, she has ignored me, and this past weekend it almost cost me my life.

Renea mentions that the back steps are icy. I don't ask if she has cleared them off, knowing that she doesn't subscribe to my shoveling theory and has probably cleared them off anyway (which is the reason WHY they are icy). I head out the back steps to the car, knowing that they are icy, but not expecting miniature ice rinks on each step. I hit the first step and that is the last step I hit with a full foot. The next 9 steps only pieces of my boot hit and bounce off the steps as my arms are flailing about trying to keep me upright and hanging onto the railings. I look like Bambi on ice as I hit the concrete last step and amazingly I am upright. I am sore today and my back felt like giving out all day, but I survived.

Now I am convinced that Renea is trying to kill me. It is a slow painful way she is attempting to do it, but she is doing it. Trying to slowly drive me crazy by not listening to the shovel theory and also by trying to make me crack open my melon on some large ice steps as I leave the house . . . I forgot to mention that her and Owen came out the front of the house huh. Yea she is trying to kill me.

Swim’min

So it is March already. You know what that means!!!! Madness in a few weeks.

I started swimming again in an excercise-type manner and now I know why I waited so long in starting up again after almost 15 years of not swimming in any sort of exercise way. I got 1,050 yards in in about 30 minutes last Tuesday. My arms felt like two 30 pound weights were attached to them. I didn't sprint (or even think about it). My whole goal was to get 1,000 in (or 40 laps) and I hoped to do it in 30 minutes, which I did. This is going to take some time to build back some stamina and get back into some sort of swimming shape. Last Thursday was easier and even this Tuesday was a little easier as I got 1,200 (48 laps) done in 30 minutes.

Usually there are at least 2 other people there, none of which I know, so the fact that the pool isn't crowded makes it easier to feel relaxed about the situation. I know it is stupid to worry about what other people think of your tired and flailing freestyle, but for some reason it makes me a little self conscience, but I am slowing getting over that aspect realizing that no one is even paying attention to me. I know I am not paying attention to anyone else, I am too damn tired to be looking around the pool. I am just trying to breathe.

Oscar shoud wear Phone Fingers

Phone Fingers
My friend Tim keyed me into one of the most bizzare products ever for your iPhone. If you EVER see someone wearing these while using their phone, you have my permission to take a shovel and smack them up-side the head. I am not sure if I am more disturbed by the product or by the photo gallery on their web site. Good news is . . . no more messy fingerprints at the crime site.

Oscars Smoscars
So the Oscars were on last night. Yea hardly even watched them (neither did anyone else). When you haven't seen any of the films and never will (I am talking to you Atonement and There Will Be Blood) and haven't even seen the movies of the people nominated for Best Actor and Actress, you don't have a lot to watch for. So I watched (10 minutes) for John Stewart and even he couldn't do anything to make me interested, so I moved on to . . .

Dexter
Oooooh. Now this is a show that I could watch. It lives on Showtime and has set up duplicate residency on CBS (kinda like Rich Fraudriguez). For those of you who are pay-cableless, you might want to give it a try, although I will warn you . . . it is pretty graphic. It is about a CSI-type lab guy that investigates serial murders in Miami, but the twist is is that Dexter is a serial killer himself. For example, last night there was a guy who killed a kid when he was drunk driving and for some reason he was released on some technicality and Dexter did some research on him and found that he had done this numerous times before, so he took justice in his own hands and murdered him. So as you can see it isn't like he kills people just to do it, he justifies it to himself that he is 'helping' society by getting rid of the people no one will miss that have done bad things. I will keep watching, as long as I can remember it is on Sundays at 10, which reminds me I need do the DVR now.

Sleeping, Tipping and the College Perspective

Tipping
Adam over at his blog is trying to set some sort of record for comments at the end of his blog and instead of giving in and feeding the ego I thought I would just write my comments here and he can come over here to my blog to read them (although you need to look at his blog as it contains a cute video of my nephew Drew).

Tipping at curbside pick-up? Do you or don't you. First if I have to walk in (a la Bob Evans and pick up my food. Definitely no tipping. They didn't do anything except put my food in a bag. No tip for that. If the person has to come out to my car and they are fast about it, I will tip but usually just a 10%, I mean all they did was walk it to the car. The person getting the tip here should be the dude who cooked it. To save that awkward moment when a server is trying to rob you of more money for a tip I pay with the debit card, almost always. Just to save myself from having to get those $4 in change back only to leave $3 smackers.


Good Description of College
Tony Kornheiser in referring to the students and faculty protesting the Presidential situation at William and Mary.

“Gotta love that. That is what college outta be. That is what they outta do. Totally out-of-touch adults and self-indulgent children.”

This is a great quote and anyone working on a college campus knows that he hit this EXACTLY on the head.


Owen Catching On
Remember when, just a few blog posts ago I talked about Owen and waking up in the middle of the night. Well no one can ever accuse him of being dumb. After I answered his calls of "Mommy!" for a couple of days, only to follow them up with unsympathetic views at 3:00 a.m., apparently the boy needed to clarify who he is really calling. So now when yelling for "Mommy" at 3:00 a.m. he calls out for "Real Mommy." which is his way of saying "not you daddy and your attitude at 3 a.m." Which is fine for me, cause when Renea finally snaps (oh and she will snap) that little guy will suddenly be calling for his "Daddy!"

Clinton Visit and More

Presidential Visit
Former President Bill Clinton was on campus last night, campaigning for his wife. There are some cool things I have had the opportunity to do in this job and getting to see a former president close up is one of them. Agree or disagree with his politics, under his leadership the country was as good as it ever was and compared to the latest regime it makes it those 8 years even greater than it was. This was my vantage point for the shoot.

Winter Weekend
This weekend we had Winter Weekend, which is basically a homecoming in February for people who played winter sports. We had an alumni basketball game that usually ends up being a good time. Seeing old friends and even people you don't really know, but have that 'basketball' connection with as we are part of a smaller faternity of former players.

I have been working out for the past few months, but NOTHING gets you prepared to run up and down the floor in an actual game. I got tired in a hurry, hit a few 3's was short on a few more, but our team ended up winning.

What was especially fun for me was having Owen there to watch. He really hasn't seen his old man in any 'action' (at least that he remembers) so it was nice to have him there.

Taste the Smoke?
FOX used this promo to advertise for the 50th Daytona 500. The promo is well done, the special FX are awesome, but Taste the Smoke as the tag line? Really? That is what you want to go with? Who came up with that line? Taste the smoke . . . and while you are at it how about Licking the Ashtray. Ewww. There has got to be better taglines that that. Come on FOX you paid all that money for NASCAR rights and all you can come up with is "Taste the Smoke?" BLECK

Snow Day

So when did we get to be such big babies about snow? Seems like every time there is just a few inches of snow school gets called off. Now it isn't that I am not about being safe. I want kids to be just as safe as the next person, but come on. I remember it was a treat when we had a snow day, and now it seems like every other day there is a 2 hour delay or school is called off. I seriously doubt that the weather has gotten worse in the past 20 years (remember global warming) so it has to be that the people in charge are babies and "don't want the kids to suffer in the cold and snow." Man-up and make these kids go to school. Unless the roads are impassable then send the rug rats to school and quit teaching them that when the weather is bad you get a day off, cause once you hit the real world there are no 2 hour delays cause it is 10º outside.

Fans
I know WVU fans are getting a bad rap nowadays, but I don't mind. Lump us into that catagory with Philly fans. I don't mind, and as bad as WVU fans look a petition by Patriots fans to have the Super Bowl played over actually makes us look good.

Blah Blah Blah

You call that a hot wing
So I tried the KFC "hot wings" yea there is a problem with these and it is kinda big problem . . . they aren't hot. I am not talking about them being 'mild' or 'medium' or that the hotness of them is just at a low level for me (since I love hot stuff). I mean there is no hint at all that these contain any type of spice. They are PA-THE-TIC. Basically they are the 'wing' version of the KFC extra crispy. DO NOT BUY THESE. Awful. Now I know that in the fast food world that 'hot' has a different meaning than at a sit down restaurant where they can say things like 'death wings' and make you sign a waiver, but come on people. At least make me feel like you made an attempt to make them hot. Geez after eating these I don't even feel like they tried. Chicken LOSERS.

Tiddy Bear
This is real. Seriously. This is a real product. Don't you want to make driving fun again?


LOST
So if you watch LOST keep reading. If you don't, why don't you? Don't give me that crap that you missed too much to catch up. They play recap shows all the time, plus all the seasons are out on DVD. Nuff excuses watch this show. ok. moving on.

Things are really getting good for this show. One of the things that makes the show good is that we now know when it is ending. They have an end game in mind. There are 46 episodes left and for some reason, now more than ever the show has a ending in mind and you know that every show is pushing you towards that ending. I think sometimes with TV shows they walk around aimlessly (with filler shows, we had a few of those with LOST over the years) while having success and never drive you to an ending. Especially when they don't know when/if the show will end. It is sad that LOST only has 46 episodes left, but it also allows the viewer to expect and know when the ending will come. Much like a book or movie rather than a show like Friday Night Lights or Hanna Montana (that is for you Adam).

I have been a bloggin fool lately, thanks for coming back and reading after much time off and inconsistent posts. As the fiber commercials say, I will try to be more regular in my posts.

Super Bowl Ads kinda sucked huh?

Trent, Adam and I were discussing the super bowl ads last night on the podcast (Episode 124), and we were in agreement that for the most part the ads were average or below average at best. I gave them a B-, C+ and both Trent and Adam believed they were worse than that. (I guess that is why my students must like my grading.) Anyway there is a funny article here that discusses the 10 Lamest Super Bowl ads.

I actually think the best ad surrounding the Super Bowl was the Perfectville ad that ran the next day with the ’72 Dolphins:

But of course in my opinion this is a rip off of one of the best campaigns ever, the Nike Welcome to Bracketville Ads, "Stay as long as you can." (I looked everywhere for a video of these ads and couldn't find one of them) I am always amazed at March Madness time they don't continue to break those ads out. One of the best ad campaigns over the past 10 years.