Friday, May 9, 2008

Simply the best

Brandon Webb.

Go ahead and try to hit his sinker. It drops straight down at 90 MPH. Good luck!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Love and Manhood, NFL style

Ron Wolfley, a 4-time pro-bowl running back in the NFL, recently became a daddy for the first time and ushered his daughter, Savannah, into the world. The event left him overcome with emotion, leading to this blog post/account of events. While the entire post is really neat and worth a read, I found a new respect for the man when I read this...

"I have always believed the true measure of a man can found in his capacity to love. I now know this to be true. There is no greater strength, nothing more virtuous, no greater motivator and no emotion more fierce than love. People will die because of it and sacrifice for others in the name of it.

There are those that will think I’m soft, that tears aren’t for men and love is somehow not cool. My reply is simple: step outside, cave-dweller, and find out why the Spartans fought so fiercely."


I have long believed that real men feel, and the strongest men feel strongly. While I suspect anger/hate is probably the strongest emotion, love is the *GREATEST* emotion you can feel and the greatest choice you can make, for the man that can avoid succumbing to the strongest emotion and instead love some something to that same extent is great indeed.

Best of luck to you and yours, Ron, and thanks for your perspective!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Yup, they're for real


And they're here to stay for a while, too. This team is good, and scary good at that for a team this young because they *should* get better. I'm not saying they're going to win it all this year, but I am saying anything less than a .667 win percentage this year would be an underachievment.

The thing I'm scared about is the early success they're having. No pro baseball team can sustain this type of record over 162 games...just won't happen. While the Dbacks are in a position this year where they almost HAVE to do well right now (22 of their first 25 games are against division opponents, and 22 in a row at that - you don't get these games back), it's not how they start that I'm really concerned with but how the finish. And since they ARE doing so well right now, don't be surprised if they have something of a *slump* midseason. Teams will figure them out, slowly but surely. Their youth will show it's head on occasion. I just hope that come mid- to late-August and through September they return to this form and carry it all the way through the post season.

Regardless, this team is going to be exciting to watch for a few years to come. They're young, they're talented in many areas, and everyone in the lineup is willing to do the little things to win a baseball game.

I never thought it would happen, but WoW!

I swore I'd never play it. The communities were too juvenile. It was akin to rooting for the Yankees or the Lakers. My machine wasn't powerful enough to run it well (at the time, that was too true). Playing WoW would suck the life away from me.

And yet now I have a Palladin for me, a level 1 warrior as a dedicated auction house alt, and a Hunter to go leveling w/my wife, who elected to play a Mage.


*oops!*

The community isn't as bad as I thought and I have a nice new pretty beefy machine to run the program. I do feel a little dirty playing it, though...I've never been a big fan of being a part of an evil empire-ish organization or team, and I do feel a touch bad about leaving my old game. Ragnarok has had a fantastic run, though, and after 6-7 strong years it's really coming towards the end of its life. As for it sucking the life out of us?

My wife said she wanted to play but was hesitant because she didn't want to become addicted to the game (something, by her own admission, she can fall into with video games pretty easily). I said I wouldn't allow it to cut into her reading or her love of books. The result? She's actually been reading more than she has in a long time, and I'm actually reading at all. We've travelled enough in the past few months to have already earned a free night, which we'll be redeeming in May when we head south to TucSuck for a couple days. Sucked the life out of us? Not at all.

If you WoW it up, drop me a line sometime and let me know what server you're on!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Danica's win does not deserve an asterisk

I've heard some people commenting on Danica Patrick's recent IRL win, claiming it was, "only won on fuel mileage," so it basically doesn't count.

Uh...what?

Wasn't the Daytona 500 won on gas mileage/fuel strategy this year? I didn't hear anyone taking anything away from Ryan Newman after that one. In fact, he was applauded by many for making a gutsy call and then pulling it off. I realize that IRL isn't NASCAR, and NASCAR isn't Formula 1, etc. But really, it boils down to this - it's a race to X amount of miles, first to finish within the rules wins. She did that. To say that she "only won" on mileage is to say that knuckleball pitchers "only won" because they throw a pitch slower and weirder than others. But it's legal. And it works - IF the pitches are better than the batters they're facing. And Danica was better than the other racers/teams that day. I don't get why people are trying to take anything away from her and this win (actually, I do get it, and they're dumb). It's not like she took anything away from them...oh, except for the trophy that she earned by beating everyone else in the field that day.

Is she a better racer than the rest of the field? No, I don't think so. That's what the season points championships help to point out. Does driver weight have something to do with gas mileage and therefore puts her at an advantage, everything else being equal? Possibly...I'm not knowledgable enough of a race fan to know. But she and her team won that day and replaced the monkey with some hardware. For those that don't like it, they should go beat her in a race. That's why they play the game, folks!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Conversation at work

Me to Co-worker: "I don't like you very much right now."
Co-worker to me: "Huh?"
Third party to co-worker: "What he's saying is that he's not getting any pleasure from you right now."

*insert puzzled look here*

Ummm...Sprechen Sie WTH???? This is why techies many times aren't allowed to also provide direct support to the end user. Things just get lost in translation somewhere.

Tattoos

First it started with my wife thinking she wanted a tattoo for/around her birthday. Then I chimed in saying if she got one, I'd get another. Then we got her brother in law involved...he's in. Now her sister is in the fold...

That's how you know you're family, baby...bound by ink and blood!

Time

There never seems to be enough when you want it, and there's always an over-abundance when you want it to go faster.

Things have settled down at home to a semi-normal state at home now, and I find myself wanting about 4-8 more hours in the day. I'd really like more time to be lazy and enjoy more, but with work being slightly less than an hour away (and no chance of that changing is anywhere in sight) and the responibilities that come with marriage (enjoyable though they may be), I just don't have enough time in the day, it seems.

The reality, of course, is that if those extra 4-8 hours were actually available, they'd probably get filled by some entity demanding my time versus used for things I'd prefer. And so it goes...

Oh well!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

John Daly - - - -X- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Tiger Woods

I could make a whole series of posts on what I think is wrong about golf, but for now I'll just focus on this - it needs more John Daly-like people, and less Tiger Woods. And lest I be misunderstood, let me clarify that I don't think Tiger Woods is bad for the PGA or golfers, as the exact opposite is true.

While he's gotten much better in recent years, most common people couldn't relate to Tiger. So few people in this world come from his family's money, achieve his level of success, have his mental toughness (while he's on the course, at least...no idea about how mentally tough he is elsewhere), or anything like that. And I'm pretty sure he's a double-minority to boot, so you know he's encountered some racial bias in the South (if not elsewhere). John Daly, on the other hand, is closer to the common man. The common man isn't addicted to alcohol and nicotine, mind you, nor has the common man been married and divorced as many times as him. He's shown so little focus on his game it's basically mockable. If there's such a thing in golf, Daly is the representation of the common, mainstream sports fan in America.

Both have won multiple majors. Both have had their day in the sun. Both have devoted fans. Both have attributes that are good for the game. But here's where the big difference comes in - in the most common man-friendly tournament on the tour - the Phoenix Open - you won't see Tiger Woods. It also just so happens to be one of the most attended golf tournaments - if not THE most attended golf tournametn - that's not a major championship. It could be because of the AZ weather in February. It could be because of the snowbirds. It could be because AZ is known as a major golf state. Or it could be because there's a huge potential fanbase out there that just wants to have a little beer and a ciggy with their golf instead of a polo shirt and slacks in the sun. Relaxed. Accessible. A familiar, comfortable experience.

Tiger isn't really any of these on a wide-scale basis. Daly is. Screw your Buicks and your Gillette's. I want to see someone sponsored by MGD and Dodge/Ford/Chevy.

Better to remain silent

People blog for many reasons, I 'spose. We started blogging as an easy means of communicating to our related communities what's going on in our lives. I jumped on as something of an experimental, bandwagon blogger and just kept on going, picking up some fairly loyal readers and friends along the way. I use it now mainly to vent thoughts of all types, silly to serious, mundane to insightful.

Blogs are what I'd call "huge"now, and influence politics, sports, and all other sorts of opinions that don't matter...and some that probably do. One area I wish there wouldn't be a blog is the online newspaper *sigh*

Not all that long ago AZRepublic started allowing readers to register w/their site and post blogs. That's not so bad, but it also allows them to comment on the articles directly after the articles. What this has led to is the idiot-with-a-microphone syndrome on the masses. For those that haven't experienced what I'm talking about, when you give an idiot a microphone, typically one of the first things they do is prove their idiocracy by saying something into the microphone, be it gibberish or some stupid comment (are those two really qualitatively different?) at a louder-than-normal volume which then gets amplified even more by the mic so that you can't really ignore it.

These posts are the cyber-equivalent of shouts of gibberish into a microphone.

As an example, the following message was posted after an article discussing potential cancer-causing health concerns at a local high school (at least five teachers and multiple other students have developed brain tumors in the past 7-9 years; others have had unexplainable respiratory problems; mold and CO gas are present):

"Don't doubt it from Corona. Crappy school in the 80's, guess it hasn't changed much. Tempe High all the way."

WTH??? Is this guy Uncle Rico or something??? What does the school potentially being "crappy" twenty years ago have anything to do w/their health concerns, and how does Tempe High potentially being better relate to that? Maybe this is his way of saying San Dimas football rules?

I don't claim to be smarter than the folks that post such things (although I probably am and, if you're reading this, chances are you are, too), and I don't claim that my opinions are always right (unless my opinion happens to be contrary to that of my nemesis, in which case I'm right by default). I just don't want to be within eyeshot or earshot of such stupidity. If you don't like my blog, fine. Don't read it. But I need to read the news somewhere, and it already has enough bias/spin. Please don't make it worse by proving you have equal or less intellect than Bill and Ted.

If only the games ended at halftime

It looked for a half like Georgia really did belong in the tournament. Then the reall Georgia showed up (along w/the real Xavier) and the 2nd half happened. ASU may not have belonged in the NCAA - I'm one of the ones that thinks the NIT was the correct bid for them - but Georgia and UofA definitely didn't belong in there, either.

Buh-bye, Bulldogs.

(Sorry, Trevor. They just aren't an NCAA team this year.)

The anti-team

With 3:12 left in the first half, perenial powerhouse Kent St. has 8 points on 4-20 shooting. Eight. Ocho.

If I was their player, I might not come back for the 2nd half. If you're their coach, you have to be embarrassed. I mean flat out, painfully Billy-Donovan-Style-After-Florida-misses-the-NCAA-tourney embarrassed. Of course he also has to take credit for their lack of performance, but still...

Only in a game like WoW...

...can you have a two-handed mace, two-handed axe, a sword, 5 vials of oil (presumably glass vials which, magically, don't break), a piece of wolf meat, and 3 apples in a...

"small blue pouch."

WTH??? Have you seen these things?? It's the size of a freakin' COIN PURSE that hangs off your belt. Assuming that all that crap *could* fit into a super-elastic, high shearing strength coin purse, how would it look haning off of your belt? It'd be like a giant, flopping, multi-bladed tumor jangling off your hip.

God forbid you sit down wrong with that thing hanging off your waist!

Friday, March 7, 2008

You got SERVED!!!

A while ago I realized that I *really* like being served. No, Kiki, not the type of service I'd get just outside of Clark County. I mean good service at a restaurant or something like that.

I've previously ranted about freakin' fast food places not being able to get a simple order right ("Dude, I'm asking you to do LESS work by NOT putting cheese and pickles on my hamburger, but apparently your work ethic is so high that you couldn't possibly live with yourself if you let that hamburger get out the window without them,"). I think I had to go through multiple bad experiences before I realized how much I appreciate the good ones.

It finally sunk in when I was at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Liddell/Silva fight in December w/my ol' pal Sonny. We normally get pretty good service here (and it's a GREAT venue to watch most major sporting events, particularly professional fights) but that night it was off. The place was busy, sure, but the liquor was flowing. Mad tips would be had. You figure that more tables = more tips, but we watched two servers look at us, ask us who was helping us, and then walk away having done nothing after we told them that we hadn't been helped yet. WTH??? The third lady finally got it right ("Hey, more tips for me! Sorry about the long wait...what can I get you boys?") and we were fine from that point on.

There are three elements of service that need to be there for a positive interaction. In order from easiest to hardest (or, I guess most common to least often found)...

- Observe/listen
- Respond
- Humbly submit yourself/subordinate yourself to the entity you're serving

It's those places that do all three well and consistently that will continue to receive my business when I'm given the choice.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Increasing the effectiveness of birth control

If you want to help increase the effectiveness of any birth control measures currently being used by a couple who's never had a child before, simply show them the prices of diapers and formula.

I've never purchased any baby maintanence items before today, when I ventured down the baby isle at the store to pick up some items for the church's community needs ministry. Let me just say that the jaw hit the floor and I might need some denture work. I have no idea how long 40 diapers will last a newborn...maybe a week? Regardless, I saw the prices of diapers and envisioned taking a quarter out of the child's piggy bank every time they took a crap (not that I'd actually do it...but I'd want to since that's basically "disposable" gold it's pooing on). Then I saw the price of formula which, if it didn't give me an even more solid reason to question having children, definitely did give me a reason to keep any prospective children on that natural teet for as long as reasonable for the child's development.

Oh, and before the question comes out from y'all (since they were already asking it even before we got married out here), we don't know if or when we'll have kids but we know it's not a priority at the moment, nor a gigantic desire. We'll see as time goes on but right now we're quite pleased and content to have a family household of 2.

New position, same issue

I like my new job in IT (which is actually pretty fun so far), but I have to get up at 4:30am to get to work by 6. That warrants a giant :-( At least I beat the majority of the bad traffic.

I don't know that mornings will ever stop sucking. I mean, if the military couldn't beat it make a morning person out of me then I don't think much else has a chance.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

I'm back(ish)!

Hi all! After basically six months of blogosphere silence I'm back in the game...sort of.

No, I didn't commit suicide after OSU lost the national college football championship to an SEC team (as well as their third major sports championship within two years, all of which were lost to friggin' SEC teams), and as you can see I'm still a fan. So is my wife.

Trust me on that.

I know I want to keep blogging and hope to continue to do so with similar regularity as before the break. As most of my readers should now know, the reason for the break was focusing on engagement/wedding plans, then continued into the post-wedding changes. Since contact has been limited w/most of you, I'll summarize all that's new since the new year:

- New job
- New computer desk
- New wife and family
- New home
- New tires
- New church
- Soon to be new computer
- New blog layout (man, that last thing was hideous)

And while this excitement was going on, we also sprinkled in two surgical procedures, three illnesses, two family birthdays, a few holidays, and a partridge in a pear tree.

All of the posts above could fill up a blog post or three. Some I'll get to, some will be delayed, and some may simply be lost in the pile. I'll try to keep up my random musings along w/updates on my life, just as before.

Glad to be back, everyone. Hope all is well!!!