Farewell aught 8

Well this is the final post of '08. We are going to play some games to ring in the new year. We got to go sled riding a little today, because it finally decided to snow. I also updated the songs for the new year, a little auld, 9 of 'em for '09. Happy New Year Everybody!

Post Christmas 2008

Well only 363 more days until Christmas, and I think we have finally opened just about everything that the kids got this year. There are still a few odds and ends that kind of got lost in the shuffle. Yesterday we had to go and spend our gift cards that we got for Christmas. I got an oil change (yeah), and the kids got some more toys, like they needed that. Sophie and I are almost out of room and will probably be taking up residence in the play cabin out back, oh wait I think it is full of outside toys. Perhaps we should have spent that gift card on like a tent or something. Anyway it was a very good Christmas, the best the kids have had so far and that is probably the best thing about it. They really enjoyed it and we were up by 7:30 which is a new record in the Helfen household. I think Peach could have slept another 2 hours or so as Christmas Eve finished pretty late. Church started at 8:00 PM then we went to Sophie's Mom's house for dinner. Then we opened gifts. So far I would say Sampson's favorite is his guess who Marvel game and his Star Wars figures, and Peach's favorite is her Barbie head that she can put make-up on. Kirk got a new game Resistance 2, so check back for a review, and some UFC videos of the first 4 UFCs. Sophie's favorite is her crockpot so she can cook us all good food, ummmmm. That may not really be her favorite. Well Merry Christmas, a little late, hope you had a good one.

2nd Annual Helfen Christmas Letter

I guess the best way to describe this year for the Helfen's is to say it was a year of firsts. For all of us we went to Idlewild for the first time as kind of our vacation this year. A good time was had by all as we were able to spend the entire day there. The kids got their tastes of first as Sampson started to kindergarten and started going to school everyday. Sophie and I also had our first parent teacher conference which went very well. Sampson also played T-ball for the first time and played flag football where his team, the Purple Riders, won the Championship. Peach started at 'butterfly' school, for dancing and is enjoying it very much. She also got potty trained this year, which made Mommy and Daddy very happy. Sophie started her own myspace and is having a good time keeping up with people. Kirk got started on Fantasy sports for the first time and it has proved to be quite addictive. I finished 4th (according to yahoo, but if you count ALL the games I finished in sole possession of 3rd place) in fantasy baseball, and was the commish in fantasy football. Currently the Wreckers are the #1 seed, but my opponent had the Colts and scored 40 some points last night between 2 players. The Ankle Breakers are also in first in the basketball league. They were named due to an injury that Kirk incurred during the summer, where he severely sprained his ankle playing basketball and was on crutches for 2 weeks. This was actually the third time I have sprained my ankle so basketball may be over as I turn my attention to cornhole in 2009.



As far as seconds go, I got severed from work for the second time in 3 years, and have been scrambling a bit here in the last month or so. I think the Helfen family will be OK, for next year but in this economic climate I doubt that anyone can say with 100% certainty that they won't have any problems. Well best wishes for everyone for the new year.

Love,

The Helfens

Mid-December Fantasy Update

As of right now the Dream wreckers and the Ankle Breakers are in First place. Playoffs start next week and as long as I don't give up a ton of points tomorrow it looks like I'll have the #1 seed. We'll see if that helps or not. Sammy Morris and Bernard Berrian have really come on lately to help out the old Wreckers. As for the Ankle Breakers I have made some moves to help out the team and I also got over some of the injury problems. I dumped Arenas for someone that would actually play during the month of December and I think that roster spot really made a difference. Also the other thing I have noticed about fantasy basketball is that time on the court is very important, so if a team has an injury to a player the other players benefit, ala Ramon Sessions, however once the starters come back you can dump 'em and look for the next best pick-up. That's all for now, all I want for Christmas is a Fantasy Football Championship... and some other stuff, but a Championship would definitely be nice.

Merry Christmas

I changed the layout of the blog for Christmas. I even added Christmas Music (where available). Sometime this week I will add the Helfen Christmas Letter.

Out of my Control

I think the big reason I don't like my current situation at work is because it is out of my control. I don't really feel like I have any say it what is going on and even though I am going to land on my feet (at least for a while) I don't like that feeling. I am a bit of a control freak. I have to have some say in what is going on in order for me to feel comfortable. That is just who I am. I don't like being out of control and I don't even mind dealing with difficulty necessarily but the not being able to have any input to influence what is going on makes it hard. I know that there is nothing I can do at work now that will make things any better for myself. I just can't do much, but I don't enjoy that finality, especially with everyone else at work still scrambling to find jobs. Some people can retire, some will go back to school and some will find jobs before the severance runs out. But some may not find anything and that is a hard thing for me as well. If I just could have had a say in trying to keep the plant running, a stay of execution if you will, that may have helped. As it was I really didn't understand the decision or why we didn't ask the state for help before we shut the doors, but now we have to do an emergency repair in order to make six months worth of material for a customer. Go figure. I really wish there was something more I could do, or that I could at least enjoy myself, but I can't right now. I'm sure I will get things back in my control someday.

Final MMA post of 2008

This is my final MMA post of the year. There is still one big event on the 27th that I hope to watch, but I may not get to comment on it. This week there were two big free events on Spike, the fight for the troops and the Ultimate Fighter Season Finale. Both were really good and the fight for the troops was really special because it was generating money for a new facility to help troops who had suffered brain injuries or post traumatic stress disorder. It seemed like a really good cause and you can also buy a UFC shirt with all of the proceeds going to the troops. Kudos to UFC for this effort, the execution of it and the fights that they had on the show. Josh Koschek had one of the better KO's I've seen and Steve Cantwell actually broke a guy's arm. So it definitely didn't lack for action.

As far as the finale, it wasn't quite as good, but it was still entertaining. As always the UFC does a good job of filling the time and they had all the fighters on that I wanted to see. I thought that the polish experiment wasn't going to be on, but after the light heavy weight contract fight his fight was on. He won and Junie Browning won, which was good because he got a chance to apologize to Mir, so it probably won't be the last we see him in the UFC. Efrain ended up winning the light weight contract and Bader the wrestler from ASU ended up winning the Lt. Heavy weight contract. The way that Bader won looked really funny as he threw a punch that kind of glanced off of the other guy's hands, but ended up dropping him, then he was able to just kind of jump on him and TKO him. Efrain Escudaro won via decision over Nover who some were comparing to Rush St. Pierre. He has a lot to work on from the wrestling stand point if he wants to be anywhere near St. Pierre.

The last event of the year I expect Forrest to defend his belt against Evans, Mir to upset, and Rampage to avenge early defeats to Silva. Will see how I did next year. Have a happy new year.

A day I will not soon be Forgetting (Home)

Today was an exciting day at work, you'll see. When I got home we had dinner and I did some computer stuff and then went to the rest room to read the old ESPN the magazine, when Sophie started yelling that someone was at the door, and they were trying to get in. So I hurried up and ran up stairs and she was pointing at the back door and yelling 'who's there?' She was really freaking out. I turned on the back lights and opened the blind and here it was our neighbor. Unfortunately he is an elderly man with Alzheimer's, so I don't know if he knew where he was or how long he had been outside (at least it was in the 40°'s tonight and not freezing). I threw open the door and all he said was 'please kill me'. I was shocked, I was just at a loss for words, so I tried to get him in the house and I told him that I wasn't going to kill him. Well he was just shaking and talking about how his parents were dead and he should have been home, like it was some recent event. I don't think he wanted me to kill him because of his physical state I think he was more troubled by not being there when his parents passed. It is an interesting glimpse into a person's mind when everything is striped away names, dates, abilities and the things that are most prominent are the memories of regrets. These ideas that have been burned in over the years, real or imagined, the reality is only what we make of it and how long we dwell on certain things. Usually the bad supersedes any good in our life, often we dwell on the passing of loved ones, but rarely on the good events that actually make up our lives like weddings or child births. I can remember thinking about my Dad passing for everyday for the first two years after he died. I don't remember when the first day was that I didn't think of him, but I remember very clearly the next day walking across campus back to my apartment thinking that I had actually gone one day without thinking about my dad. Last year was the first year that the anniversary of his death passed and I didn't really think about it, January 17th. But it is an event that is very deeply burned into my mind and I wonder if I ever end up in a similar state that one of the things I dwell on will be my father. Life shouldn't be like that, but I guess it is up to me to really make that difference. You don't really concentrate on the good things because they are good and don't require a lot of attention, and that is unfortunate. I guess if you just took a few minutes a day or on the commute home or to work or school and concentrated on the good things, the real blessings that have come into your life, maybe the day will seem a little better and the 'good' things will get burned in to your mind. Anyway after we got him in the house and I got him to set down he asked God to kill him and then he asked the 'why me' question and what do you tell someone in that predicament. Not to be rude, but the answer will likely fall on deaf ears other than your own and your left with the rationale that God has a purpose for all of us. Maybe my sole purpose was to be here in this house on this night in order to keep my neighbor from wondering into the street or taking his life into his own hands. Or perhaps to be touched by this moment so profoundly that when I write it, I know eventually it will be read and that is what will affect someone to change their life. Whatever the reason I can live with that. After Sophie had been able to track down his wife, and alert her, and we got him back home he seemed to be a little bit better. As I helped him to the couch and he had a seat, he looked me in the eyes and thanked me, and I told him he was welcome, we shook hands and it was a heart felt moment. On the way out Sophie and I hugged his wife and sympathized with her as much as possible, but unless you have lived that life it is impossible to understand exactly what either one of them is going through. Afterwards, there is a period of self reflection and you just kind of wonder what will happen and how well off will you be. Why does our body and mind fail us at the time when we need them the most? All this time spent working out and reading and trying to better ourselves, will it all fall apart in the end and if it does who will people remember - the you when you mattered to you, or the you when nothing matters to you except your regrets? I don't know that there is any type or dose of medicine that could possibly help at this point, but watching is difficult, not as difficult as being there everyday, and writing this is difficult. I guess all we can do is focus on the good and help each other through the bad. Well this was a little sad for Christmas and all, but maybe just maybe it will make things a little better. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for everyone.

Zuffa's Mistake

After watching Torres destroy Tapia, I came away with a few impressions. #1 - on a pound per pound basis Miguel Torres may indeed be the best fighter in the world. He completely dismantled his opponent on his feet even though that is potentially the best area Tapia had a chance to win. Torres even did this spinning axe kick, that I had never seen in a fight. It was like a Jackie Chan movie where Jackie is doing all this crazy stuff and the other guy is just kind of at his mercy. Anyway I was very impressed by Torres.
#2 - I think that Zuffa made a mistake by trying to make the WEC all about Bantam through Welter weights. I think they should have kept the middleweight and light heavy weight divisions active. Because you had a forum where people could care about the likes of a Brian Stann or Doug Marshall and now these guys are going to have to try and compete in arguable the deepest division in UFC. I just think they could have left in alone and kept in like the minor leagues of MMA. The bantam and feather weight divisions would be the top in world and the other divisions would kind of fill in the show. An entire show of bantam and lightweights just isn't that entertaining for me, sorry. There are a couple I like to see, but there are also a couple of guys that were coming up in the upper weight classes that I also liked to watch that like will disappear onto the under cards of UFC events. Although I did see Cantwell's name on the card in January, but so far he is the only one. Chael Sonnen was already in the UFC and didn't fair that well, but was entertaining and one of the better middleweights in WEC. I think they could have treated in like the minor leagues, or the truck series where you work your way up to the championship and if you make two successful title defenses you automatically move up to the UFC and move within a fight or two of fighting for the title. Then they could have another title fight for the vacated title between the top two contenders. It would also be a platform for quality guys that couldn't make it in the UFC or are in the twilight of their career, ala Jens Pulver. That would give the WEC 5 titles, and they could have at least one up every show and then if someone completes the double defense the title could be right back up for grabs again at the next show. I would like to see MMA gain some exposure, but I think they ruined a good opportunity for more quality shows by combining these upper classes. Now you have 3 belts up for grabs and all of the fighters are lighter weight guys in the WEC. It just seems like a blown opportunity to me.

Recommendation Letters

Finished my first letters of recommendation tonight. It is tough recommending someone for a job outside of where they have been for the last 25 - 30 years. Not because they aren't good people, but just because it isn't right that after working for a company for 25 years people should have to look for another job. Oh well, it is the least I can do for those guys, I just hope it does some good.

MMA Tomorrow

I am getting excited about some of the upcoming MMA battles, including the match up tomorrow of Miguel Torres (one of my fav's) vs. unbeaten Manny Tapia. Tapia's power is an equalizer of sorts as he could stop Torres in much the same way Faber was stopped by Mike Brown, but I hope Torres wins. I have been looking at the pound for pound rankings a lot lately too and it seems there is real debate about who is better between Fedor or Silva. My personal choice is Fedor, because he really has never been beaten so it is impossible to say that his game has any weak points, at least to the point where someone has been able to exploit them for a victory. His only "loss" was due to a cut by an illegal elbow, that normally would have resulted in a no-contest, but since it was a tournament someone had to win and since Fedor was bleeding badly he couldn't continue. Even though he probably could have ended the fight in 60 more seconds if he had to. Silva on the other hand has been beaten 3 times legitimately and even though he is on a roll now I still don't think he is unbeatable like Fedor is. Fedor has already beaten the #2 ranked guy twice as well as put a beat down on the former UFC champ Sylvia in 36 seconds. So yeah he is a pretty bad dude. The only other argument I would make is for BJ Penn if he beats St. Pierre, which I think he will, because he would be the belt holder in two different divisions. Which pound-4-pound speaking is pretty impressive. I think the 'Prodigy' will beat 'Rush' because he lost to 'Rush' via split decision the last time they fought, so I think he'll be more motivated and also BJ is a better striker and is really trying a lot harder than he has in the past. He just seems more focused to me and baring a catastrophic mental collapse I can't see him losing. Plus this time it is 5 rounds.

Browns find new way to lose

Just when you think the Browns could possibly pull out a victory against a Colts team that basically refused to make field goals and move the ball they find a way to blow it. Apparently all they had to do was have Derek Anderson drop back and fumble the ball when he was hit. Then instead of jumping on the ball they let one of the defenders pick it up and take it in for a touch down giving the Colts a 10-6 lead. They could have challenged it because his hand might have been going forward, but that could have cost them the loss. Here I thought they were going to win, but their usual strategy of just run, run, run apparently wasn't good enough when they were up at the end of the game. No, now let's try to pass. How dumb. Just run, the Colts couldn't do anything against our defense, but noooooo. Let's do something stupid. I am going to start rooting for someone else. I am open to bribery, if you feel I might be too big of a jinx, just send me some cash and I will avoid 'rooting' for the team of your choice. Or I could just abandon football all together I become a hockey fan. I do kind of like the Penguins, but i can be persuaded to not root for them if the price is right.

My first "Brawl"

Hans scored some tickets to the Pitt vs. WVU game, which is commonly referred to as the 'Backyard Brawl'. Clever huh. I didn't realize how much bad blood there was between the teams, but they really don't like each other. We were sitting behind a row of WVU fans and as the pre-game ceremonies were going on the one guy was flipping off the band and some of the parents there for senior day, class stuff. So natural when they started yelling the 'Let's goooooo, Mountaineers' chant I felt obliged to join in or else suffer the consequences. Then the game was starting and these dudes were still standing up and since I don't really care about either of the teams I wanted to stay seated, so Hans and I did a little 'reverse seat stealing' and we moved all the way up to the top of the stadium to the last row of seats. At least we could see the field now. I don't know that the top was any colder than the three rows below where we would have been, but it was definitely cold and the wind was blowing. About 10 minutes before halftime the stadium really started filling up though and apparently the seats we had taken belonged to someone else, and they actually wanted them back. I guess they had tried the old regular seat stealing method and it didn't work so they were coming back to get their seats. Well we decided to go ahead down and get some Quaker Steak and Lube wings, before the half ended. I got the hot wings (they really weren't all that hot) and Hans got the L.A. lickers (no real point in me mentioning this I just wanted to write lickers). Anyway during halftime we went and sat with Hans' dad and Uncle who we had come up with us. We sat next to them until we got kicked out again and then we went inside and ate. After we finished we debated going all the way back to the top of the stadium, but we had decided to try the ramp at the open end of the stadium so we could at least watch the game on the way up. We got up the ramp to where we could see and basically stopped there and watched the rest of the game. It was extremely windy where we were at, but at least we could see. We missed Pat White's run while we were on the ramp, but I did catch 'Shady' McCoy running into the endzone with less then a minute left. That was neat, then we got out of the there to beat traffic. I know, 'what if WVU pulled off the most amazing comeback and I missed it because we left early'. 'Oh well' - I guess, because fortunately WVU was able to lay down and take another beating for the second year in a row. Another thing I didn't realize was that Pitt had some affinity for the song 'Sweet Caroline', where during the chorus they yell 'Let's go Pitt' and also 'Go Pitt, Go Pitt, Go Pitt', pretty hardcore stuff. One final impression about my first visit to Heinz field. I was kind of surprised by the structure at first as it looked very minimalistic it is design, because it wasn't completely boxed in like some stadiums, in fact on the side facing the river where the score board is there is no wall at all, allowing the wind to just rip right through the stadium. Aside from that all of the Steeler stuff made me want to hurl all over one of the terrible towels that was hanging around. What a dump. It looks pretty on the outside, but that is about it, the one ramp is terrible because you can't see anything and the other ramps are terrible because you get tore apart from the wind. Three Rivers was much better. Way to go Pittsburgh you deserve this stadium.

Live sporting events over the Break

Sampson did so well at school during the first 9 weeks that he got a free ticket to the Nailers game on Wednesday, Dad's ticket however was not free. It was a good time though, and I think he would tell you his favorite part was the mascots. In between periods they would come out and throw t-shirts and Frisbees into the crowd and he would yell and scream to try and get their attention, but we didn't get one. I liked the atmosphere as live hockey is completely different from hockey on T.V. When you are watching you can look at whatever you want to see all the line changes and you can just get a much better feel for the game. I don't know that I could ever get into hockey, but I would like to sit next to the glass one time and bang on it when the opposing teams comes through, I think that would be fun. Maybe when they have a $5 night or something I will get the family over there.

Happy Thanksgiving Day 2008

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Today we were watching the Macy's parade and I saw the best thing. There was a float for Foster's Home of Imaginary Creatures - a show on the cartoon network - and they started to sing a song and then all of the sudden Rick Astley appears out of the float and starts singing. It was like they 'Rick rolled' the entire parade. How genius. I was just laugh hysterically because I doubt many people grasped the concept until after the little guy on the float said that he loved 'Rick Rolling' . In case you missed it click here.

Sorry about that try this one here.

Ok seriously here it is.

haha here it is.

This is probably the biggest Rickroll that will ever be pulled off, I think the only thing that could compare would be the Super Bowl halftime show, and even though that would be bigger it would still pale in comparison to this pioneering effort. Also Rick rolling will no longer be cool.

Dream Wreckers Win the Triple C Championship

The Dream Wrecker have won the first and mostly likely ever Triple C championship. With last week's win I went to 2-0 vs. inner office staff and this week is merely a formality as I control the tie breaker even if I lose. Originally we weren't planning on doing anything for the winner, but since I actually did win I am thinking about maybe making a trophy or buying a prize for myself, you know really do it up right. Maybe a gift card or something, whatever it is I do you can rest assured that it will be special. Now the only thing left is to take the overall title. This week should be interesting as it is the last game versus someone at work and he is also in second.

Sampson's First Square's Game

Sampson won his first square's game tonight 11-9 against old Dad. I was all out of sync from this weekend so I couldn't concentrate. Anyway I'll challenge him to a rematch, I won't take so easy on him next time. As a side note: It sure is neat to watch your kids experience stuff for the first time.

A Weekend of Illness

Well this was about the least fun weekend you could imagine. I got sick Saturday morning at about 2 in the AM. Yeah, all the nasty stuff and then Sophie got sick too. Then Peach started vomiting, but Sampson was OK, so he will probably get it on Thanksgiving. Anyway we are finally feeling a little better now, until I watched the Browns play and they made me sick again. They should just trade Braylon Edwards now. Then Brady Quinn got yanked in only his third start, so that Derek Anderson could come in and fumble and throw a pick. Well I guess we'll get a new coach next year, thanks for the memories Romeo.

Dream Wreckers still in first

Man, it has been a good run for the old Dream Wreckers. We are still in first and have just completed the first leg of winning the Work Championship. Dean Markum fell prey to the Wreckers last week as his hopes of a championship, were, well Wrecked. This week will be a steeper challenge as it is for all of the marbles so to speak. If I lose, the work championship will be lost, of course we're all out of job so it is kind of moot anyway. Well if I lose it is moot, otherwise I'm the Champion.

The Progress of Sampson pt. 1

Today Sophie and I had our first parent teacher conference with Sampson's teacher. I was a little anxious myself being on this end of an evaluation of my offspring, but the report was very good. She said he is one of the first to raise his hand to answer questions (Sophie denies that this trait could be due to her, but that is OK as I will take responsibility). She also said he gets along well with others and has done very good at passing his reading tests. I guess it is true, you do what you know, and since he doesn't know any different from testing out of books in kindergarten he doesn't think it is too hard or anything. Perhaps Mom and Dad will reward him for doing such a good job. Perhaps.

The bailout explained

Hopefully this will help people who have been having trouble understanding the bailout. This is probably exactly how the discussions went down in congress.

First Snow

We actually got our first snow this year on Sunday the 16th. Which seems really early, but I remarked this week that the first snow is always really nice and you marvel at the beauty of it, then after about 2 months you get really sick of shoveling snow and scraping ice and you can't wait for the stupid snow to stop. But hey, I'm not there yet, it still looks really pretty. It just cold, very fast that's all.

Random Thought #8

If your ever in space and you happen to drop your tool bag, forget it about 'em cause man they're gone.

Sampson wants 6 figures.

I include this because it is funny and right now I need a little humor.

Sophie made the comment about how much she should make last weekend and I said something like 'how much do you need, 6 figures?' Then Sampson said 'I can't wait to get 6 figures, that is 3 more 2 packs.' Here he thinks the figures are the little toy figures that he plays with. Sorry buddy, but remind me to never let you negotiate for me.

New Epiphany

I heard a good epiphany the other day, ' sometimes you're the stick and sometimes you're the puck'. Definitely feeling like the puck right now.

Severed, Again

Today was 'S' day. Yesterday was Veteran's Day and I would just like to give a heart felt thank you to all the Vets who have served in the military and fought for this country. But today was Severance day. Why do I choose to share this, well why not. Being severed sucks! That is the only way to put it to be honest. They tell you that you've worked hard and they appreciate the job you did, but in the end it just wasn't enough. Oh and by the way you are going to lose your job in the next 60 days or so. We still you need you to show up, thanks. There is no other bigger de-motivator than to tell someone you are 'going' to lose your job. No prospects to even continue employment there, it is just over. It is like someone stabbing you with a knife, plunging it in as deep as it will go, but it doesn't hit any vital organs. Instead of an instant death the knife is slowly moved back and forth until it does hit an organ or you just bleed out. The only solution once the knife is in is to pull it out yourself. I will probably feel sorry for myself for a day or so, but that won't help me. I have to find another job now or contemplate a move to another part of the country or both. I am going to put my trust in God hands and allow him to show me the path I should take. The most disturbing thing is that the first time I was severed I could understand the logic - to operate the rolling metal of the metal had to be cold charged and it was extremely expensive to operate the mill long term like that. That at least makes sense. This time I have no good explanation. There is no transparent answer that is indefensible. Just a few vague descriptions of over capacity and slowing demand. The difference between Korean leadership and American leadership is easily distinguishable. Koreans will not shut down capacity in order to make a bottom line 'look' better and I emphasize the word 'look'. Americans are too short cited, and too eager to make a buck. Sometimes you have to take a hit and stand back up, it is the only way to get stronger. I just can't understand how the region could be profitable last qtr. and we spent 6 figures on a turn around just 3 weeks ago. I just can't wrap my head around the idea.
Oh and I was almost in a car accident on the way home. I honestly don't know how I made it out with out getting hit. I think my guardian angel must of defied the laws of physics. I was just listening to the radio too, I wasn't doing anything else like talking on the phone or texting, it was the closest I have ever been to being in an accident. Perhaps I was a little distracted by the events of the day, I do worry about the guys that have worked there for 20 or 30 years and have only done the jobs at that plant. In the end I believe that Sophie and the kids and me will be Ok, just sometimes I wish I knew what God's plan was ahead of time, but that would make it too easy.

Wedneday Morning Quarterback for McCain

Well the '08 presidential race is finally over and Obama his our new president. Congratulations, and I do hope that he does well and doesn't try to do too much right off the bat (i.e. Finish Iraq right, don't just pull out, and don't raise taxes). Anyway after watching this political season unfold and seeing the end result I would say there are several things that cost McCain and the Republican party a shot and the presidency. The first thing is McCain. Really he probably shouldn't have won the primary if the Republicans wanted a shot at the presidency. He has a great story of service, but he is also plagued by his past. How he left his first wife and the resulting fall out, and his overall age. It is difficult to elect someone who would be the oldest president ever elected to his first term. The party needs to redo their primary contest, not in the manor of the democrats though, they need to make so that if someone gets more than 50% of the votes in a state then they get all the delegates, if the total is less than 50% then everyone gets their equivalent share of delegates. Do away with the Caucus. Caucusing is outdated and if they don't get ride of it then delegates need to be awarded according to percentages. It doesn't make any sense that Romney can win Utah 95% to 5% and get all the delegates for that state and then McCain can win South Caroling 34% to 30% (Romney) to 27% (Huckabee) and McCain can win all the delegates for South Carolina. If that didn't happen I think the primaries end up completely different.

What cost McCain is several factors. First I think Palin ended up being a net negative. At first she really energized the republican base and maybe even some of the female voters that followed Hillary and were disappointed that she wasn't the democrat nominee for V.P. In the end though, McCain strongest point was his experience and he several undermined that with Palin. She still did better than Ferraro. I also think the economy became a huge issue that was completely unexpected. I thought McCain did well it putting the campaign on hold in order to help address the issue. In the end though, the economy was just not that strong of an issue for McCain. His strong suit was foreign affairs and leadership, which weren't that high of a priority because Iraq had become a non-issue due to the positive way things were going over there. Which is a credit to the people working on the ground over there, like Stevie and Sapper. I'm not saying that he would won if he had Romney, but I think it would have helped more. Hard to really say that though. Also I think he spent to much time in Pa. Republicans should just leave that place alone. If you can have someone say that they are bitter and cling to their guns and religion and elect him and then have a congressman call his own constituents Racists and Rednecks and they re-elect him, there is just absolutely no hope for that area. Those people are definitely the dumbest voting block in the country, congratulations. If he would have spent the same time in Michigan maybe he could have gotten it to go red, but that wouldn't have been enough after losing Florida, Ohio, Indiana and Virginia. It is easy to nit pick now, but even up to the final day I think you had to think he had a chance because you just couldn't be certain how things were going to fall. Also the media didn't do him any favors, which is unfortunate, because that stuff should be unbiased. Only blogs and talk radio are biased. Ha Ha..

Sophie gets a 'Hair cut'

Today Sophie went to get her hair done because it was really bothering her, so she went to the beauty school since it is a little cheaper. Well I wanted her to have a relaxing time so I took care of the kids (not babysitting). She got there and the first time, yeah the FIRST time they tried to color her hair they foiled her hair or should I say her scalp because it turned her scalp white. Then they blow dried it and said it was OK. The teacher came to check it out and said, foil it again - this time with brown. So they did the brown and the result was gray hair. I'm not what you would call an expert on women, but I am pretty sure that gray was not the desired hair color for the 30-ish mother of two. So then they had to put a 'balance' on it to balance the gray. Then they put a toner on it, and then another. Then she got her hair dried again, only to notice a patch of Green, that is right GREEN hair. It total it was 6 washings, 2 blow dries, 5 color treatments all for the bargain price of $30, in just a shade under 4 hours. Sophie said it is funny to read, but not funny to sit in the chair, as her blood began to boil.

Sampson and the Young Republicans

On Tuesday, Sampson said they took a vote at the school of who would win the election and Obama won. Sampson was upset because he voted for John McCain. He knew a John in his class and also McCain had more pets. I told him that was good, he needed to have some principles behind his vote. We were watching the coverage Tuesday night and he was upset when they wouldn't show the results from Ohio because he wanted to see daddy's vote. They finally did show it and he was able to go to bed. When he woke up on Wednesday and found out that Obama had won he was really mad. Sophie tried to calm him down by telling him that other people mommy and daddy voted for had won. She told him that we voted for Domenick and he won, and he asked if he was a republican. 'Well no' Sophie said, then he said 'I thought you only liked people with an R by their name?' Not all the time buddy, sometimes you vote for the people that you think will do the best job. His passion reminds me of a young Michael J. Fox (or Alex P. Keaton) on Family Ties. Someday you'll make a good republican buddy, someday. . .

Election '08

Well this is it. I haven't really kept too close tabs on the election because who can you trust? No not the politicians, the media. Everybody is trying to spin stuff one way or another and you get to the point where you really don't care anymore sadly and you just want it to be over. I don't know if McCain can win, but the liberal news media has really held back any inflammatory stories on Obama and I get the feeling that unless people have really tried to look deep they don't really know who he is. Same can be said for McCain though. I just can't in good conscience vote for someone as liberal as Obama, someone who has said they would cut the military and if people wanted to build coal fired power plants he would bankrupt them, plus the people in PA cling to their guns and religion. No I just can do it. And also I can't vote for issue 6. Casinos in Ohio. I don't think we need that, plus it isn't real revenue anyway because the casinos don't make anything. All they do is take money, and as long as you go in with the attitude that you are paying for entertainment it could be OK. But too many people think they will beat the house and end up losing more than they can afford. I feel bad for those people, I used to work with a guy that would spend just about everything he made on the slots at the Island. He had done it for so long and anytime he won he just looked at the amount he won not how much he actually had to pay to get it. Also they gave him 'free' buffets. Casinos are fine for entertainment, but making them the staple of the economic landscape is just bad business. My opinion anyway.

Also in the local elections I won't vote for anyone named Wilson, never will. Other than that I think most of the local elections were decided in the primary, as virtually everyone who runs in this area runs as a democrat, so the primaries are pretty hotly contested and then that is it. Oh well, good luck tomorrow.

Oh also check this out. Sorry BHO...

Video

Not.

Peach's dance Class

Today Sophie and I got to watch Peach's dance class. She really enjoys her class, but I don't think I could ever teach anything like that. Teaching 3 year-olds to dance is like herding cats. She did very good though and it was neat to see her do tap and acrobatics. The acrobats is neat because they learn their colors and ABC's plus do their acrobatic stuff. (check that out 'stuff', sometimes I marvel at my own wordsmithyness)(Sophie says 'Shouldn't that be wordsmithiness?' Well no, I just made up the word so I can spell it however I like.) Anyway, she did very good and I think people are going to be very happy with her recital in June. Something to look forward to.

Been a while

Well I've been busy running my own country and so far I am doing pretty decent. My efficiency is over 200 and I have successfully joined the ODN. I have started a tech deal and purchased about 5 improvements. If you want to try your hand at being your own virtual overlord check out http://www.cybernations.net .

Sampson Wins at FF

Sampson's team won the Flag Football Championship today. The game was postponed from yesterday, but the Purple Riders were able to handle the Steelers. I'm not sure what the final score was exactly, but Sampson has definitely progressed nicely during the season. He was blocking people to the ground and shedding blocks quite nicely. Overall it was one of those good sports weekends: Sampson Won, the Browns Won, and the Steelers Lost, and OSU Lost. It may be the only weekend like that all fall, but it sure was nice to see. You know at least for me. Tony didn't win the race though, I didn't even really follow it to be honest. I flipped to it for a little bit saw that he was down a lap and then didn't pay much attention until the end. I did get to see Jimmy make his way up to second thanks to a caution with, guess how many laps, yep 10 laps to go. How predictable. The only way there wouldn't have been a caution is if Jimmy was up front. One other complaint about HESCAR (oh yeah carl Edwards won), they need to come up with a plan to get qualifying in. Even if they do it on Saturday morning, this constant getting "rained out" is bad for competition. I don't even care that much about the starting position, but at least have a draw for pit boxes. It really isn't fair to have Jimmy get the best spot every week when he doesn't get a chance to earn it. Just let the top 12 draw the top 12 spots and then let the rest of the guys pick. That way the guys other than the H and the E will have a chance to win a race.

The New Crisis

Well the old world is in a little bit of a financial crisis. The Dow Jones continues to fall and oil and gold prices are crashing too. But as one of the guys at work said it isn't a time to cry it's a time to buy, well hold off until the market finally bottoms out. If you have any money left that is. So is the threat really as bad as it seems? Unfortunately whether it is or not the end will be a self fulfilling prophecy, I fear. The 'bailout' hasn't seemed to help anything, yet, and I don't know if it really will or not. The whole situation is a little depressing and you just have to hope that at some level people continue to purchase things rather than just hold on to their money, because if people quit spending all together then we are going to get launched into a major recession. I think the whole thing goes back to banks and credit cards. Our society is much different than say Japan. We will buy and buy and buy on credit where the Japanese will only buy stuff if they have the money. I'm sure most people in this country have a net negative worth because of school loans, house loans, car loans. I know I am in that boat, but I at least have a plan to get out of the situation. I guess I am fortunate that Sophie and I share the same mentality when it comes to bills. There are a couple of things that we are willing to carry debt on, but we don't want to be late on bills and we won't charge anything on credit cards that we can't pay off at the end of the month. I learned that last item from my mom who always paid her cards off every month, if you don't, you can end up paying for things multiple times because of the high interest rates. That's all for now have a fantastic weekend.

New Obsession

The new obsession is cyber nations, and it could prove quite long lasting. The only things you 'have' to do on a daily basis is pay bills and collect taxes. But you can also buy infrastructure for your country and what not, and then go into an alliance. There where about 30,000 different little nations and things on there and you have to at least collect taxes once every week or two weeks or they delete your nation. But for the daily requirement of not more than 5 minutes I think I could last at it for a while... at least 2 months. It kind of takes fantasy to a whole new level, because now I can control a whole nation instead of just a team.

If you play come check me out at Helfenland. I am trying to join the Orange Defense Network.

Sophie goes into Time Out

Sophie inflicted "time out" on herself yesterday. It actually could be a quite effective technique as it keeps the children at bay. "No don't talk to me don't ask me for anything, I'm in time out." Unfortunately I have to wait until the weekend to find out why she had to put her self in "time out", because she said her "punishment" won't be over until then. She said she is also keeping herself on a tight leash and if need be she'll put herself right back into "time out". Sampson was thoroughly confused by these events.

The Mayo Diet

I got my results back for the blood I had taken on Tuesday when I got my shot and it turns out that the old cholesterol was 176. The peanut butter, mayonnaise, and diet Mt. Dew diet is definitely paying dividends. I told you science said mayo was good for you.

Flue Shot

This year I got a flue shot because I can never remember if I get sick when I don't get them or if I get sick when I get them. So this year I'm going to remember and if I get sick I'll know. Then I'll know not to get one again.

Sampson Passes his First Book

Sampson passed his first reading test today. He read a book about a box, he even it read it to me, although his memory is so good it is hard to tell if he is actually reading or just reciting the words from memory. Tomorrow is 'data folder' night and Sophie and I can't wait to go and see what he has been learning and working on. On a side note check out old Dad's IQ score on the left there... That can't be right, can it?

Sophie Goes Green

Sophie is hitting the recycling pretty hard and I am really proud of her effort. Since she is taking Sampson to school she has been loading up the van every once and a while and dropping off the recycle at the local recycle shed. I am also trying to do some recycling at work. There are some easy things people can do to 'recycle' that you may not have thought of, because recycling isn't just gathering up stuff and dropping it off.
1) Reuse the water bottles. Fill 'em back up with water, lemonade or kool-aid and every time you refill it, that is just like it completing a full cycle in the recycle circle except you avoid all the energy costs.
2) Use the plastic grocery bags as a liner in small garbage cans. Saves a garbage bag.
3) Reuse glass containers for nuts and bolts, or other things maybe even buttons and stuff.
4) Use those old boxes to store your recycle cardboard in. That way your not using an extra garbage bag.

Browns Win The Super Bowl ...

Well sort of. They beat the defending super bowl champs, the NY Giants 35-14 in their return to Monday Night Football. They looked really impressive too, so much so that if you would have had Braylon Edwards and Derek Anderson on your fantasy team they would have scored about 45 points between the two of them.... One of the broadcast members did make a good point (which is odd because normally the MNF crew is terrible) that Crennel and Phil Savage feel obligated to Derek Anderson since his great play last is essentially the reason they are still around Cleveland. So for all those folks who are waiting for Brady Quinn it just ain't gonna happen, unless Anderson's arm falls off or something. But please do enjoy the Subway and EAS commercials.

Getting ready for a little M-N-F

For those of you who are unsure that is Monday Night Football, and the Cleveland Browns make their return versus the Super Bowl Champion NY Giants. Well it should be interesting, I expect the Giants to go up by 2 or 3 TD's and then Brady Quinn will lead the Browns back to within 4 points before finally losing. On the fantasy side of things if J. Lewis runs for like 10 yards I will beat my nephew in Fantasy football by over 50 points. Also if Eli Manning and Brandon Jacobs combine for 60 fantasy points, Hans will pull of the most incredible come back ever, but for that to happen the Browns would have to be competitive and force the Giants to try and score about 50 points. Well I guess that they could score 50 anyway even if the Browns weren't competitive. Fear not though I think the Browns actually could pull the upset with all the time off from the bye week.

Tony Hosed one more time by HESCAR

HESCAR is really starting to get ridiculous with the blatant penalties against Gibbs and Toyota. This week with less than a quarter of the race to go and the teams going through their final green flag stops, HESCAR penalizes Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch for 'too fast on pit road'. Tony was 'clocked' at 50.83 miles per hour 0.83 miles an hour over the speeding limit buffer. They never said what Kyle was clocked at, but when the race leader is coming in and there is less than 25% of the race left don't come in and impose penalties that are dependant on the equipment given an error less than 1.6%. Human error can account for 5% alone in most instances, but by-golly not in HESCAR. Not with old Jethro there with his stop watch and laptop. No sir. I can't recall this season when Jimmy, Jeff, Carl, or Dale have gotten a speeding penalty, but I know of at least 2 instances where Tony has gotten 'caught' late in the race that could have potentially cost him a win. If Burton or somebody doesn't win this thing I doubt I even care next year.

Flag Football Update

The old Flag Football season has flown by. Sampson has had his first three games already and is adjusting to the game. It is neat to see him learn because obviously he has had no training in the game and really doesn't show an interest in watching. He hasn't done too badly for a first year kid, he is really over shadowed by some of the older kids who have played already and really know what they are doing. He hasn't gotten a flag yet or carried the ball in a game. When he has carried the ball in practice he has gone in the wrong direction, thus the need for him to play on the line. He is definitely going to have to work to get better, but he is on a team with really good coaches and they have really worked with the kids to get them better in their first three games. We ran around in the back Saturday and he had to 'touch' me down and he made me force a fumble or else he scored a touch down. We also played around with the heavy bag and a trash can where he had to push the trash can out of the way and rip the 'flags' off the heavy bag. Anyway we are down to playoff time, and we got the first round on Saturday and then the following Saturday is the Championship. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

Fantasy Triple Threat

Stevie has asked me to join in his fantasy basketball league, so Saturday I made my team, the 'Ankle Breakers'. You can take that several different ways. This will kind of be like a tie-break since Stevie won baseball and then I thoroughly dismantled his efforts in football. I don't know how I feel about the basketball season though. I don't really follow it and I'm not sure how the stats will shake out. Either way it should be an interesting fill-in until baseball season starts again. Man, I can't wait...

An interesting connection

I could honestly careless about the presidential election at this point as my cynicism is in full bloom along with the autumn leave color change. How do we pick between two people who can't accurately tell who the leader of the largest country in the world is? Anyway I have been doing some searching on the Internet and there is a very interesting 'conspiracy theory' that the Bill Ayers that everyone is trying to link Obama to, actually wrote or ghost wrote part of Obama's first book. At the minimum it is a very interest idea, at the max it could be a very interesting look at some of the truths Obama has tried so hard to hide during this campaign. Check out the article if you dare...

Click here to read the Article

Blog names new official mustard

This weekend Sophie and I bought the best mustard in the world. We have been getting a jar of the "Up the Creek" brand mustard every year at the local Oktoberfest, but this year we are going through it like crazy. Mustard on sandwiches, in potato salad, used as like a dip, even at breakfast. Ok maybe not that last one, but man is it good stuff. Even the kids like it. Fortunately the guy who was selling it said we could pick some up at Heavenly Ham or order it online. I would highly recommend the pepper mustard, not the hot hot, just the regular hot, and if you don't like it you can send it to me as it is the new official mustard of the blog.

Wreckers suffer first defeat

The Dream Wreckers suffered their first defeat this week at the hands of the evil Buck U. team. I am now in second, but have the most points. I'll probably lose a couple of more along the way because of the bye and what not, but it is all good as long as I beat Stevie. And everybody at work...

Tony Wins!!! @ Dega

Well all you Tony fans enjoy this one. It snapped like a 43 race winless streak and was his first win at Talladega in 20 starts. Congrats Tony, (it maybe the last time you win with Gibbs). I guess the way Tony races he could always have a shot at the restrictor plate tracks, but I really doubt he completes in the other 32 races. The HESCAR season isn't over yet Tony creeps up into seventh spot. After the Season the HESCAR standings will be pushed to the bottom until next season... you know if I still care by then... I wonder if there is a cornhole widget....

New Tunes

Check out the new tunes. If you don't like it there is a little red player located to the left you can pause and pick different songs. The site is www.myplaylist.org you can check 'em out and make your own list. Pretty neat stuff. I'm thinking of maybe having a couple of different lists depending on what mood I'm in.

Survivor Picks - Gabon

It's Matty (Kirk's Pick) VS. Marcus (Sophie's Pick) in the latest version of Survivor. I will let you know how I fare. Just one time I gotta beat Sophie. Last time was kind of a split since we each picked a fan and a favorite. But this time I got her.

Presidential Debate '08 - #2

How scary and depressing is it that neither candidate realizes that Dmitri Medvedev is the president of Russia. Putin is now the Prime Minister not the president. They essentially swapped positions in May, but no big deal, I mean Russia isn't really that big anyway... oh wait, yeah it is the largest country IN THE WORLD. That's ok though, I'm sure after one of these guys gets elected Russia will still refer to George Bush as President....
It is also very annoying how these guys side step questions and make one sentence answers into multiple paragraphs. Just once I'd like to see a politician answer a simple question with a simple answer. I know there are no simple questions when it comes to a debate like this, but just one time. You know what, whoever is able to give the shortest answer should be president. Well perhaps that isn't the best method for picking a new commander and chief, but allowing these guys to talk for an hour and a half and show how little they really know can't exactly over impress the rest of the world either. There is an hour and a half you'll never get back.

Kimbo gets Sliced

This is the best title out there for what happened Saturday night. The hype machine that is CBS, no not for there unadulterated support for Obama, has over hyped Kimbo slice since he first appeared in prime time after only two fights. He had a lot of hits on his internet fight videos, but anyone who has watched MMA thought that if he got into a real fight with someone who had some experience he would get beat. I just don't know how many people would have thought his 15 minutes of fame would end after only 14 seconds. It was actually more like 12 and it wasn't pretty at all. Kimbo kind of charged in on Seth Petruzelli and got hit with a jab then Seth hit him about 15 more times while Kimbo rolled over and laid on the ground. The ref had no choice but to stop the match. For a little history, he wasn't supposed to fight Seth, he was supposed to fight Ken Shamrock who used to be a great fighter, but is way way passed his prime. Anyway Ken suffered a cut the morning of the fight and couldn't get clearance to fight so CBS and Elite XC scrambled to fill the void. Petruzelli was taken from an under card fight, presumably lt. heavy weight because he was only 205 lbs., and Kimbo wanted some extra money to take the fight. Which I think he got, but after getting destroyed the easy cake ride is likely over. See I like what UFC did when they had a stud heavy weight come on board with Brock Lesnar, they actually made him fight. And after his first two fights he was 1-1, but was a legit threat. Now he is set to face Randy Couture, one of the best heavy weights to ever fight, and he could actually beat him. At least I don't see him losing in 14 seconds. It is MMA though and that could happen. As for CBS this was a huge blow. I think it is actually good for the viewers though because now they know what fighting is all about. Kimbo may have been good enough to beat Shamrock, but now we know where he ranked against mid level fighters in lower weight classes. Although I think it is important to note that Seth's predominant style is Karate, which I believe is hardest for MMA fighters to defend. Normal stand up is either boxing or kick boxing and when the karate guys through those front leg kicks it is a real odd angle that I think they aren't used to defending unless they specifically train for that element. Obviously Kimbo had no training for this opponent and probably should have asked for someone else at least more traditional. If want to see a real Karate master in MMA look at Lyoto Machida he is pretty awesome and also currently undefeated. Kimbo is going to have to work his way back up now and really needs to dig into the training if he wants to amount to anything in MMA. I don't know what this will do for the other event CBS was looking to televise before the end of the year. In all likelihood Slice wouldn't have fought in it, but even if he came back to fight again on Saturday nights he shouldn't be the main event. Seth could have actually cost himself some future paychecks by beating Kimbo so bad. Oops. Don't get me wrong I like Kimbo for his story of coming from a homeless guy to the bright lights of a main event, and from what I understand he loves his children and really enjoys them, but he is going to have to work extremely hard to be where everyone thought he was. Man there sure our a lot of commas in this post, too many if you ask me.

New Number Stuff

Good news, they found two new Mersenne prime numbers. I know you where waiting on that news. Which makes the largest prime number known (2^43,112,609) − 1. They actually found this one in August and one smaller than it in September. Yeah!

There was some other math stuff I wanted to post, but I forgot what it was. I will post here when I remember.

Passing the Bailout

After talking with the chairman of my company I understand that the bailout bill needed to pass, so that banks would start to free up the lending. However, this bill went from 3 pages when it was introduced to 110 when the house voted it down Monday to over 400 pages by the time the final bill was passed. What the congress managed to do was add a bunch of pork and "tax breaks" for very specific companies. You know if make arrows in Oregon or Rum in the U.S. Virgin Islands, regular folk stuff. Anyway I see why we needed it to pass, because banks were not going to lend any money until the gov't did something, or decided to let it go. But to me this was clearly not what we needed. What was funny was after the Dow took a huge plunge on Monday when the initial bill was voted down, the next day it recovered. Not all the way, but more than half. The gov't keeps saying that this is better for "main street", but I seriously doubt that. The money that has been approved will go to buy mortgage back securities from troubled banks so the gov't will become the owner of the distressed properties. We won't actually get any money to help keep our house or anything. The only possible good thing that could happen for regular people is that business will be able to secure money and more people can get into the job market, because companies will create more jobs and expand their business. I don't see that happening until at least November though. One last thing if the opposite of pro is con then what is the opposite of progress...


http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/26b0d09397

Methane Gas Leaking

They have found an area in Russia where the Permafrost is subsiding and Methane (aka Natural Gas) is leaking into the atmosphere. Why is this a problem? Well, Natural Gas is 20 times stronger as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Here is the good news though, we could just set all that methane on fire and let it combust to carbon dioxide. Problem solved. Well sort of. Hey where is my Nobel Prize?

Big Al's Call to Arms

Well the Peace Prize winning Al Gore has finally made a call for people to use "Civil Disobedience" against coal fired power plants. Actually just the new ones, that will replace old inefficient coal burning and reduce the amount of other harmful gas (i.e. NOx and SOx) emissions. Tell you what Al, come around here to where the coal miners are and the coal fired power plants and tell them you want to shut them down using "civil disobedience" and let's see how long that synthetic hair stays attached to your head. I really wish that Democrats in this area would realize that their party has been high jacked by Environmentalisticly (oh yeah check that word out) minded liberals who don't care about coal, coal fired power plants or even really union workers. It has become really blatant in the last 5 or 10 years that the democrats no longer hold close the ideals of the democrats of the 60's and before. Oh they still like social programs, health care for everyone and what not, but they don't really care about working class people anymore. If you aren't on welfare or didn't come here illegally they don't care about you. On a federal level the democrats are controlled by people like Nancy Pelosi from San Fran, the Clintons from New York, and Obama to some extent. Do any of these people really have the best interest of the Ohio Valley in their heart, Doubtful. And by sending more democrats to Washington we are just giving the left leaning side of the party more voting power. Yesterday Charlie Wilson voted for the Bail out plan. No Thanks, Charlie. I'm not sure who is running against you, but they are definitely getting my vote. That bail out plan is not going to help any individual, it will only help banks be able to give out more money. That's it. They still aren't held accountable for their actions and their poor decision making isn't even stopped. It would just be replacing bad loans that the gov't buys with more bad loans. I fail to see how that helps anyone. Well this post went all over the place, but the point is Al Gore should fight Charlie Wilson in a vat of coal and whoever loses gets set on fire. No wait that would produce to much CO2, how bout just shoving a piece a coal in each of their mouths. Wow I'm angry about this stuff. I'm going to go calm down now.

Range of Emotions

Fantasy hits real life as I wrestle with the emotions of the end of the season. Oh sure its over, but I mean the way it ended was heart breaking. I have appealed to the commish, but Stevie says, "no sense crying over spilt milk". Well this is not spilt milk my friends, this is milk that never got put into the dang on cup. After the end of season debacle I don't know if want to play anymore, but at the same time I have learned so much and now I really want to just crush the tar out of him next year. We'll see what my young nephew commish says, then I'll decide. To play or not to play that is the question.... No I'm gonna play and I'm gonna kick the buttkickers butt.

Made in the USA - #300

Well it has been a long journey to get here and it is nice to know some things are still made here in America. I made a special effort to find some boots for work that were made in the USA and the only ones I could find were Red Wings. But even some of the Red Wings are being made over seas now so you really have to look at the label to make sure. The total cost was close to $150, but I thought the statement was worth it, plus I get a really good pair of boots. I hate seeing stuff not being made here in America and I really want to try and make a difference so that my kids have something. Not that I really have any problems with stuff made over seas or south of the border but I would rather see us do well. You see we got to the point we are at by making our own stuff and buying our stuff and now the other countries are starting to grow and eventually they will catch up and be buying their own goods and won't need to sell to us. Then the price will sky rocket and we won't have the infrastructure to support ourselves or our kids won't have it. So I think we need to support what we have to keep it from going away and let those companies know that we like stuff made in the USA and if you give us an option we'll buy the USA stuff. Also I will not be buying Hanes because they are shipping jobs out of North Carolina and into other regions. Right now I'm not sure what other garment makers are doing, but I do know that this moves makes me sick. Sorry Hanes you just lost a customer.

"Eagle Eye" the movie - A Review

It was an Okay movie, but I'd save my money, well if I were you I'd save your money, mine is already gone. It is kind of like a cross between 'I, Robot" and "The Matrix". The action scenes though were the worst I have ever seen for a picture of this magnitude. They were the hand held variety and they were cut together really fast. Usually I would say this was to make a scene look like it was really chaotic, but was done cheaply because the movie was a crap fest, but I thought this movie was probably pretty expensive to make so it just made an expensive movie into a crap fest. Enough about the cinematography, it was just really disappointing because it was a Spielberg fim, the rest of the story was kind of like a 1984 big brother deal where big brother takes over and starts getting civilians to do its bidding. I won't ruin the movie for you just in case, but I thought the acting was average at best. I really like Shia Lebouf, though, he has an everyman quality about him and tends to "act" like a regular person would if these things happened to them, but he is funny at his core. Basically his twin brother dies at the beginning and he was a military guy who was good at everything he did, and Jerry (Shia) was not. Then Jerry gets a ton of cash deposited in his account and all kinds of explosive goodies show up at his door which is a red flag for the FBI and they come and arrest him. Well he has no idea why this is happening and an unknown voice is directing him on what to do to get out of stuff. So the next hour is watching him and his love interest follow the direction of the voice and the FBI trying to catch them. As the movie goes on you learn who the voice is and why Jerry is needed. The whole thing comes to a head in the capitol building during a State of the Union address (who said those things were boring). Anyway it is a decent movie, but definitely not worth seeing in the theatre.

Rating 3 out of 5, wait to rent. Also Sophie said she gets to pick the next movie and where to eat since I got to pick both. But there was no way we could make the movie waiting at Olive Garden for a half hour. So I suggested Bob Evans and went with the Bob-B-Q pulled pork knife and fork sandwich, which is awesome. I was going to do the Philly one, but the peppers on the mashed potatoes just didn't look right.

The End of Fantasy Baseball

Fantasy baseball is finally over, and like any good fantasy game this season ends with a bit of controversy. You see the lazy programmers over at Yahoo have neglected to keep up with what the other fantasy leagues were doing. On ESPN and Fox Sports the leagues counted the make-up games being held on Monday the 29th, but not Yahoo. No big deal, you say, the season is already decided and nothing can be made up on the last day. Not so fast my friends. As it turns out I had one last bullet in the chamber with Gavin Floyd. He started today and won the game which would move me into a tie win 80 wins, because I would pick up 0.5 points in the standings, but he also only gave up 1 run in 6 innings so he lowered my ERA to 3.70 which gives me another 0.5 points and puts me into 3rd place by myself. But there were no stipulations about games being played after the "final" Sunday and due to the restrictions in moves and games played at each position, you gotta give me something here. So Stevie won the league but I should at least get third. Yahoo may only remember me as 4th, but I'll know better. I almost wish Floyd would have laid an egg instead, but now he will always be on one of my teams thanks to the performance today. What ended up costing me the league was the injury situation in the last month and a half with Carlos Lee going out, Wagner getting hurt, and Figgans, Upton and Taveras not playing although they were never officially put on the DL. I also spent too much time and too many moves on catchers. Next time I would like to see about a 60 move limit. That way you can still manage around injuries and maybe do some crazy things down the stretch if you still have moves, but you can't do crazy stuff the whole season because you can run out of moves. We'll see, I'll have to wait and see what the commissioners ruling is on this season. I should at least get a freebie in next year, right?

Brown Out

Sophie had been plotting on her brother Ricco for some time. She had a plan to go down and decorate his house with some Browns' stuff before they played the Bengals. So she got her other brother Hans and his girl friend Alicia to come and help. We took pictures and video of the event and can only imagine what the reaction was when he got home. Well the Browns actually won so we may have to do this ritualistically now. But Hans came up to Ricco's to watch the game and was wearing a Bengals jersey. Say What!?! Maybe his house will be next....



Yeah that is Sampson as the human torch.

Getting madder about the "boring" financial crisis

The more I learn about this crisis and the strategy to fix it the madder I get. The Dow has lost about 26% in a little less than a year, in 1987 the Dow drop about 36% in less than 3 months. Different from what happened before, not as drastic and yet there was no drastic bail out before. Do you remember Reagan trying to force through legislation for billions of dollars in the wake of the 1987 crash. Me neither. Of course I wasn't really paying attention at the time I was 10. Anyway I actually agree with the congress right now in not just passing this stuff blindly. I don't know that this is going to send the right message. It is going to be a real high level bail out where at risk mortgages are purchased from institutions in order to improve their liquidity so that they will feel like giving out more credit. Which when you think about it, is that really a good idea? These institutions are the ones that made the bad decisions to give credit to people who couldn't handle it anyway. It is like giving someone matches and watching them burn down their house and then hurrying up and getting them a new house... on me and you. I mean these people need to learn a lesson and if the federal gov't steps in and saves them then what lesson did they learn. They took really high risk mortgages and thought they could make money on it, and if they would have made money do you think they were going to share the money with us tax paying folk? Heck no! That's their money, but since they made extremely poor decisions, now they are going to show huge losses and it is up to us to bail them out. Well not this time. I say bring on the consequences for everyone, because it is going to happen eventually anyway. The next president is probably going to deal with double digit inflation or at least needs to in order to genuinely turn the economy around. This is sink or swim time. Eventually people have to be responsible for themselves and their decisions. It just isn't right that people try to follow the rules and do the right thing and then end up footing the bill for the people that either can't or don't care to be responsible. The problem still goes back to the banks and part of the answer going forward needs to be stopping where people can get a house with only 5% down. Move it back to 20%. The only thing here is if people wanted to put enough effort into it they could put the 5% down at one bank to get a loan for 20% of the house and then take that money and put in down at another bank. So that is why people can't be allowed to take out house loans for more than a total of 80% of the house. There needs to be transparency so that other banks have easy access to credit records so someone can't back door them and if a bank circumvents the rules then they assume the entire liability and the loans can't be insured. With the 20% minimum PMI is eliminated and the AIG problem goes away. And most of the bad loans will go away because it will be more difficult for people who can't handle to get the initial down payment. Hey I know I benefited from it, but there are just way too many stupid people out there that are screwing it up. This is where we need an actual leader to step in and say we'll take a look at a case by case basis, but make $700 billion available seems like a huge mistake to me, or at least drastic overkill.

Have you seen Stevie?

If you are in the desert in Iraq and you see a taller guy with like a beard and longer hair wondering around going,'I should have played Ronnie Brown, oh why didn't I play Ronnie Brown. I could have won, but instead I lost by 20 points'. That is Stevie, if you could bring him back in and get him some water or something that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kirk

HESCAR

Oh also all I got when I gave blood was a Greg Biffle key chain. I know what you're thinking 'but he won the last two races'. So what, he can't win a championship his name isn't Johnson, Edwards or Earnhardt and those are the only guys that HESCAR is going to let win. That is my new name for NASCAR and any reference to NASCAR from here on out will be in the form of HESCAR (Hendrick Earnhardt [or Edwards] Stock Car Auto Racing). Since all HESCAR wants to do is throw fantasy caution flags late in a race so that Jimmy can stay out front or take power away from Toyota, even though it is obvious that they have spent the most time on the new car and have made the most improvements. I will continue to root for Tony Stewart this year, common baby just one more win, and Greg, and the other Gibbs drivers, but that is it. And if HESCAR lets me down, well I could be done watching for good. Then I will focus all of my energy on competitive Cornhole.

Busy Monday

Today was typical, somewhat, of what our days have become. I left work a little early, about 4:00 PM (only 9 hours today) to go give blood and then go get Sampson at Football practice. In the mean time Sophie took Sampson to school picked him up and took Peach to "butterfly" school. Got home about 7:30 ate, got Sampson his bath, watched some TV and blogged a little bit. Sampson has his first game on Saturday, so I have to get some stuff done this week during the week so I can film the game on Saturday. Well I gotta watch Heroes.

Fantasy Football Week 2

Well Stevie took a butt whooping, but he could have won, Hah Hah Hah. It turns out that Ronnie Brown had one of the best days in Fantasy history, over 40 points by himself and Stevie had him on the bench. This is so funny. So he he ended up losing by 20. Ha ha ha.

And in baseball the Ninja Frogs are back to within 6 points or so of the baseball lead. Alas I'm down to my final 4 days at 3rd base and utility with about 7 games left. It is probably too much to overcome and Stevie will win the baseball prize. But we'll always have football. The day when Stevie took the big defeat.

Fantasy Update - the last week

I made a bunch of crazy moves in Stevie's other leagues because all of the pitching was used up. I got about two more tricks to try, but I think a couple of the leagues are out of reach. The Ninja Frogs are in second, 6.5 points out of first. Stevie is out of moves and feeling the pressure. I would have had a decent chance to catch him I think, but Figgans and Upton have been hurt for the last week. On the Football front the Dream Wreckers are in second, but are 1-0 and face a weak team in week two. It is actually Stevie's team and their name is 'Mom's 2nd fav son'. He did change it to 'Mom's fav son' but that isn't how it was set up. Either way he's going down.

Sampson's home remedies

Got an itchy butt, try tooth paste. This is a good reason to learn to read. Sampson finished his bath and I let him dry off, well he decided he wanted to do some self medicating, but instead of grabbing the A&D ointment he grabbed Sophie's tooth paste. Sophie noticed that the cap was off and the tube was squeezed into a funny shape later that night. She asked him what happened and he confessed putting the medicine on. Needless to say the tube was thrown in the trash, also his butt didn't feel any better, but it was minty fresh.

The "boring" financial crisis

This week the federal government bailed out some financial institutions. First it started with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which where already tied in with the government so no big deal, other than the complete lack of leadership and control exhibited by those companies. Lehman Brothers then went bankrupt, but the gov't didn't do anything then AIG went down and the gov't stepped in and bailed 'em out with tax payer money. So where did the problem start. I think if you back to 9/11, we lost 210 floors of business and over 3,000 hard working intelligent people directly tied to financial institutions. This wasn't the problem though the answer to the attack was the problem. Right after the attack the fed lowered the interest rate. Seems like a harmless move, but then President Bush wanted to make the attack on terrorism more personal so to speak. And what says freedom like owning your own house. So while the gov't made a move to make it easier to get a house. Well actually they made it easier to get your hands on money that you could use to buy a house. Banks started handing out money with little to no down payments now, (this is how the Helfen's came into home ownership with a 80/15/5 piggyback loan done avoid PMI). But I think the rush to get people into houses without having to have down payments and good credit actually lead to more problems than solutions. Before people wouldn't even think of getting a house without 20% to put down and banks wouldn't even consider a loan. I have heard many talk about waiting 10 years or long to scratch and save enough to get a house and now that was wiped out. It actually happened before 9/11, because we got our house in August, but I think the flood gates really opened after that and people where willing to take on massive amounts of debt in order to live in the 'now'. Unfortunately, 'now' is over and people are paying tomorrow prices for stuff they got yesterday (that may not make any sense, but it sure is fun to say). Anyway when the gates where opened the restrictions were lowered and all kinds of people could now get homes. Even people that had bad credit and unstable jobs. Good for them, bad for the banks. There is a reason some people are called 'high risk' and with the low interest rates even when the banks tacked on a extra percent or two it was still worth the risk. The problem is when the defaulted instead of default on 80% or less of the house now, they were defaulting on 95%, which is essentially an extra 15% the banks had to eat. I believe there was a lot of corruption on wall street and now the risk is being assumed by the tax payers which isn't really right, but I think we have back ourselves into such a corner that it has to be done. It really isn't fair when someone plays by the rules and tries to take care of their bills and then has to bail out people that have no business being allowed to get their hands on that much credit. The thing to do now is kind of roll back the legislation or rules that made it super easy to get housing credit, 20% down no exceptions, unless you've already owned a home or something, and keep the interest up. 1980 inflation is coming.... Also I think the crisis is closer to the collapse of 1987 or the economics of the late 70's. I don't think it is like the great depression the unemployment was in the 30% range and we are around 6%, plus wall street rebounded this week. So the dynamic are different here. Whoever inherits the white house likely will get a recession, funny how that happens ever 8 years.

Random Thought #7

A wise man will admit that he knows nothing.

The "Experiment" at 6 weeks

I still have some pain in the ankle especially like the last 4 or 5 days. I finally mowed yesterday. I was really lucky/blessed that I didn't have to mow for 6 weeks at the end of summer.

Fantasy Update

The new obsession continues to grow. We drafted our fantasy football teams on Saturday, and my team looks pretty decent. I had to draft in the middle of the rounds and I didn't care for that very much. Other than that it was pretty neat. Well see how I do, scoring starts next week.

On the baseball front the Ninja Frogs have climbed all the way to second and remain about 4 to 6 points out of 1st. I am completely out of moves and 1st place Stevie is down to his last move. His best player got hurt last week too. It could get close down the stretch, but Randy Johnson missed a start today and I could see the wheels coming off the pitching bus late here in the season. Just hold together a little longer... please.