Life and Times in Cleveland

My House saga

2012-01-22T21:32:00.000-05:00

*I wrote this up about a month ago, right before the buyer came back with the notarized paper we've been waiting on since July. We are supposedly in the final stages of the sale, my guess is it either happens this week or it doesn't. I also received a note from the bank this week advising me that they've accelerated the loan and instructed their attorney to start foreclosure procedures. I had been holding back posting it as I wanted to see how things played out and there was a part of me that was being superstitious but given the time this ordeal has taken, I decided that there wasn't any logical reason to keep it under wraps.

It takes a lot to break me emotionally, and I've come close to that point recently. These last 14 months have been a roller coaster ride in terms of emotions and it's probably about time that I broke down some of what has been going on.

There is going to be a lot of opinion in this piece related to my current situation, I make no apologies for my subjective view. I will say that I consider myself average in the total population, so to me it wouldn't be a reach to apply it to others that you hear about in one bizarre way or another.

I'll try and recap as detailed as I can get, there is still a side of me that prefers to keep things a bit vague, due to the nature of putting information out on the internet.

My wife is a social studies teacher, prior to 2010 she had been a substitute for 4 years and had been looking for a full time job for those four years with no luck in the Cleveland area. She would typically get 1-2 interviews a year and considering the number of candidates they told her they had, it was a pretty decent accomplishment. She was never able to get any of those jobs though. 3 years ago she did get an offer in Florida, we heavily considered it. The housing market had just collapsed and it was apparent in talking to multiple realtors that there weren't many options available. We bought our home in 2002 and having so few years in the house had no real equity on it. After much discussion and heart break we decided that the move was just not something we could risk at the time.

We purchased the house for $87,000, our balance was about $77,000 in March of 2011. I can still remember the mortgage broker telling me that we could afford a much bigger house at the time of purchase based on my salary. I'm fairly thankful that I ignored him, knowing then, that the house we chose was the best case we could find in a decent area and if we wound up as a one income household as we soon would after moving in, then we could handle it. I hit it right on that estimation.

Cut to the summer of 2010 and the market was still depressed, but I had been keeping my eye on it. Home values had plummeted further but there was more information available for homeowners on what you could do if you needed to make a change. My wife also got offered a job in Columbus, a much easier and less expensive move for us. We decided to go for it and made the move, putting our house on the market.

We selected a realtor my brother used and who at that point was familiar with the short sale process, many realtors I talked too weren't very familiar with it. We secured a townhouse for rent in Columbus and did the typical cosmetic repairs on the house for viewing. In addition to that we had to have the city review the house for violations. We went through and corrected all of those violations the city listed, including the need to paint the house, not exactly a minimal expense, but required by the city to be corrected in 90 days from their review.

As expected we had no interest in the house for the first 8 months, our realtor correctly handled dropping the price through the process and as it finally got to $25,000 we had some interest in the house. We got two offers on the house and I preceded to call my bank. I should note that previous to the offers, I had talked to the bank and they wouldn't even discuss a short sale option without an offer on the house. Since we were trying to buy ourselves time, we had been paying our mortgage up to that point and our rent on the new place. We essentially were net zero for new income on the move because of it and if you factor in moving costs, upkeep on the old place, and the crush of debt we had already accrued through 4 years of unemployment, well you get the picture.

I did come to find out later, that since our house was an FHA backed mortgage, we could have applied and been pre-approved as a short sale candidate as soon as 90 days after we had the house on the market. I chalked up the bank's responses at that point as ignorance and moved on.

Once we had the offers, the examination began, where the bank asks you to send them your first born, and they apply alien probes to them. (Oh wait, sorry hyperbole). The bank requested a stack of papers on our financials that we provided to them and we were pre-approved for a short sale, except for one point, we couldn't proceed as our mortgage was current, we had to be in default. Crap, the offer came in 2 days after I paid my last mortgage payment and knowing now what I do, I probably should have asked them to back draft it. However, I didn't, perhaps that was my mistake, anyways, we had to wait until June 1 for us to be technically late on our payment and qualified for a short sale. That seemed like more then enough time for everyone (buyer, realtor, and bank) to have things confirmed and then be able to proceed.

It was plenty of time for things to be done, the house was appraised by the bank at $21,000 and our offer was above that, a key point in short sales which should mean there was no discussion necessary. By this point with the bank, we had been passed between about 4 people during the process, which at the time seemed a bit excessive, but knowing how big companies are, not overly concerning.

As June 1 hit, I followed up with the bank and my file was submitted to the negotiator, that's suppose to review the offer, the appraisal and the paperwork and then make a decision. That is supposed to take 5-7 business days once it's been assigned to them, as of June 16, and multiple calls from me, we still had no responses on it. Finally they came back in the last week of June asking for an updated offer as the one they had, had some unreadable parts (their words) due to the passing between entities and they asked for the buyer who was with an LLC to provide a notarized list of the LLC partners. They asked for a number of other documents over May and June too, but we had no issues in turning those around. (proof of funds from buyer, arms length affidavit, notarized response that liens county assigned on the property were not mine, etc)

The bank rejected four different copies of the agreement, saying they were unreadable, the buyers also became unresponsive in the request for the LLC notarized list.

We proceeded to have the negotiators now who were too busy to review the file in time the bank advised on, kick the offers out of the cycle and back into the queue. Starting the process over again each time and with new contacts. At this point my bank assigned a single point of contact for me, who never returned my calls, never answered her phone, and had a voice mail that was often full. They would finally assign me to a new contact over the next couple months that had same issues, and then finally assign me to a third, that I've actually been able to communicate with. Now mind you my single point of contact is basically a message taker, they effect nothing on the results or reviews, they read messages on the system to me, the negotiator is not supposed to be in contact with me, just the realtor. The Realtor advised they went through multiple negotiators as well in that period of time due to unresponsiveness etc.

In the meantime we have a buyer and their realtor who seem to be unable to come up with this rather critical piece of information, as it drags on into September, the bank comes back and says they are submitting my house to the Deed in Lieu (DIL) of Foreclosure office for review, since it appears that we cannot proceed with this offer.

The DIL comes back and says that there are a number of liens on the property and they can't proceed without them being cleared. Part of the problem with a fairly common name and living in a large county, is that you run the risk of having someone with your name around and the Cuyahoga county government will attach a lien to a property at the request of a debtor even if they aren't the same person. There were 5-6 liens attached to my property from the state and federal governments, that an affidavit stating that they weren't mine, wouldn't suffice on. We had to have the entities provide documentation that they weren't mine. So we had to hire a title company to handle the work. Which they remarkably were able to in the time we had to do it. I say remarkably, as the title company's response to me when they provided the information, was "We are so glad we could help, we run into many situations where we can't get this done".

At this point, our buyer is also back and sends over an updated readable offer and asks us to have the house re-approved by the city for sale (we only have 1 year from their 1st review). The buyer wanted to ensure there were no violations, so we paid for the review and scheduled it with the city and luckily only had a minor fix we needed to do this time.

Our buyer sends over the offer and a state of Ohio certification on their LLC, we send it off to the bank. Bank advises negotiator will take 5-7 days to get back to us, after 1 week we get a response from the negotiator asking for 2 papers, that realtor and I quickly provide. Another 2 weeks with no response from the negotiator. Finally I email the negotiator asking for a status and he responds two days later that he's working on it. Another week passes with multiple phone calls to my contact, which finally escalate enough for the negotiator to send a note to my realtor, asking for a host of other corrections and information. One of those is the LLC notarized list. My realtor requests additional insight into the negotiator's requests with no responses to his calls or voice mails and my attempts at having it escalated do no no good either for a response, as of yesterday, they've reassigned it again to a new negotiator. I've lost track of how many negotiators we've dealt with.

In addition to the bank's inability to work on the requests, we have the buyer who has been unable to provide a key document the bank has requested and pulled their offer last Saturday. The buyer's response that it's just not possible to get all of the LLC members together is laughable, all they need to do is sign a list and each could have it notarized, sometimes I do wonder how people are able to do anything sometimes.

So that leaves us with no offer and a mortgage that is now 7 months past due. I should also point out that my credit limits dropped as soon as we missed the 1st mortgage payment and the wife was laid off from her job. Talk about missing the mark on this plan. Phew.

As it sits today, we did receive a lowball offer, that I don't have the amount for yet, but I expect is below 10k, which we'll submit to the bank, can you imagine buying a house for less then 10k. A house that's not in a demilitarized zone that's in move in condition, with a pool and a fairly new furnace and central air system. Bizarre I tell you. There is no guarantee the bank accepts the offer, and I'm guessing they won't, they'll also be considering Deed in Lieu I guess, but at this point I almost don't care anymore. After reviewing some more forums and seeing how many are experiencing similar issues, I sort of welcome the aspect of foreclosure, and a chance to have the courts review the issues and come up with a decision (Ohio is a judicial foreclosure state). At least when it happens, I can put this whole mess behind me and try and start focusing on how to put things back together. In today's discussion with my point of contact, he mentioned, that he has 25 short sale clients assigned to him, since I'm sure there are at least two others that do a similar job, it's absolutely mind boggling to think of how many cases there are that are similar to this, just at my bank, and instances I'm sure repeating across the board.

I suppose there are those that might think it's wrong to have the debt default as it did. I struggled with it at first, but given the market parameters and how business was being done, I believe I proceeded with the right intent and have gotten nowhere with it, factor in that the wife lost her job and the deficiency amount on the house is too much to overcome due to credit being closed up due to having to deficient and I view it as a vicious circle, that I'm happy to get out of at some point.

The thing that gets me though, is I don't think we as a society really have and idea on what's going on right now in the housing market. My neighborhood wasn't the best, it may have been one step above the city, but we've seen almost an 80% drop in home values, and possibly more. The city I'm in now has at least 20 houses with for sale signs out on the yard and these are just the ones with signs in the winter, when we know no one buys in this part of the country.

The impact from this is still going to be felt, as these properties are bought off the market by investors or whoever can purchase it and the tax dollars drop due to the sale price. These municipalities are going to run into serious issues. I read a report the other day that my old city's school hours were cut to 5.5 per day because they didnt' pass another levy.

I wish I could tell you the answer to this problem, but I have no idea what it is. I see people bagging on occupy Wall Street people and I wonder if they really have an idea of what's happened to many aspects of the marketplace that these companies are in control of. While they dismiss the occupiers as a fringe hippy protest, I know that many of them are also part of this due to similar stories like mine.

At the end of the day I'll point out a couple other points as well, my bank has no incentive to sell my property short outside of convenience and time, my loan was an FHA loan, so any money I default on will be paid by the government, in addition to that they've handcuffed the realtors into ridiculously low amounts that they make from these sales, there's little to no incentive for them to get the work done. Especially considering the work is now 10x more and takes about 6-7x as long. How this system makes sense I'll never know.

There is a part of me that will be happy that it ends one way or another.

Creating Christmas Magic

2011-12-25T04:39:00.004-05:00

I'm not a religious person, I've attended Christmas eve mass a handful of times in my life at best. I do love Christmas though, to the extent that it's pathological. I love the gifts, the food, the planning, the decorations, and the time with family. There's magic in the season for me, and I try and take as much advantage of it as I can.

I'm sitting here up at 4am on Christmas morning, simply taking in the ambiance of a lighted tree with presents spilled underneath it, and stockings stuffed beyond good measure sitting on the table. I've just lit the two holiday candles I bought to add a bit of ambiance to the room and will likely kick off the Christmas tunes around 6:30, or about the time I expect my daughter to venture out of her room. (I actually think she's still sleeping).

I'm nearing 40 years old and could only manage to sleep for about 4 hours, before I knew that there was no use in doing so and if by some chance I was successful, I would miss this wonderful time of the day. See I've been getting up like this (and earlier) since I was about 8. As a child I used to torment my brother who seemed to be immune to the effects of Christmas, I'd wake him up out a deep sleep and force him to engage with me on speculating about what might be downstairs. We played board games together (which likely never happened outside of that night) until we felt it was safe to go downstairs and peek at the tree. We'd spend about 30 minutes quietly moving up and down the stairs listening closely at the door to see if Santa was still there. At about 5am, we'd usually venture out into the living room and peek. Even then I was directing the play, as I'd reprimand him for touching anything or looking too long at that point, we were there to get our stockings and get back up stairs.

From there we'd sit and open our gifts and indulge in a couple treats. We'd usually pass another hour by playing with our toys and then we were back down stairs. At that point, we'd both take a seat. On a good year, that meant having your feet up on the chair, as there wasn't room to put them down, as we had a small living room, and my parents had a knack for spreading presents out from the tree, like it was a Macy's store display.

Eventually as dawn broke, we'd make our way into our parents room and try to rouse them, I can't say we ever jumped up and down on the bed to wake them up, but the hurricane that awoke them from their slumber was at least a category 4. I can remember my father rolling out of bed, grumbling as he rose. By getting up, he let my mom get out of bed a bit slower and started getting coffee ready. Eventually my mom made her way out of the room. In many cases back then, they used to host some family on Christmas Eve, so my parents were usually getting done with presents at about 2am, coincidentally about the time I started waking up.

We spent the next couple hours unwrapping gifts, enjoying hot chocolate, candy, cookies and whatever and just spent the time together. I'm not sure there was a more perfect time spending with my family. My father passed out gifts, as he pointed to things my mother would say, "Yes or No" as she directed the morning. We never found it weird that she was directing Santa's gifts too. After we finished, we headed off to my father's parents and spent the afternoon and evening.

There were a couple years in my teens and my 20's where I didn't have much interest in the whole Christmas phenomenon, but it changed once I got with my wife, slowly I found myself methodically organizing and planning how many gifts to get, what to make, how many wrapping papers was appropriate (and the how they look together under the tree). It was good practice for when we had our daughter, and the first years with the daughter were great, but the subtleties are lost on an infant and even a toddler.

My wife just laughs now, as I explain that there is Santa paper and our paper, and that it would show a lack of effort if there weren't a multitude of different papers to use. I am also a present architect, laying the gifts out under the tree, to ensure it gives off the effect it of a full bounty, and to make sure that the contrast of the papers, meets the mood I'm in (Some years presents that are wrapped in the same paper can be next to each other, and other years, it's an absolute no-no).

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, isn't just the line from a book, while we no longer have a chimney, I can assure you, ours are meticulously stuffed. Fitting in as many components as possible is critical, along with taking advantage of the contours of the stocking design (the round base). There are bonus points, if you secure some stocking stuffers, that are perfect for the top of the stocking, that you can see as it sits or hangs, giving you a feeling like you know part of what's in there.

And that's where we sit, the presents and stocking are out, and I'm awaiting the little one to wake out of her slumber. I'll of course be dictating today, what can and can't be opened, as my mom will later today as well.

I understand that many of these things are a result of the commercialism of Christmas that so many hate, and I won't necessarily disagree. However, when they are shaped up and laid out with family, I believe they can become magical. I will say this to all of the devoted Christians out there that are offended, I would remind you, that most of my favorite activities of Christmas are based on pagan traditions (of which I'm rather fond). These traditions were associated with the birth of your savior in order for you to integrate cultures into Christianity (by less then peaceful ways in many situations). At the end of the day too, it's best parts are the memories I have with my family and the new ones I'm making, likely the greatest gift there is.

So to all those out there, Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays (for whatever holiday you celebrate with your family and friends), may you have one as filled with magic as mine.

Another news story I find interesting.

2011-12-05T15:46:00.002-05:00

I was reading over stories today and found another 'interesting' story or in this case legal issue, that's currently in process. I thought I'd put down a few thoughts on it. Civil rights suit against Cheney Secret Service Agents.

I don't have a side that I feel right about in this one, I'm leaning toward the side of the citizen, although I recognize the Secret Service agents have a very difficult job.

Here are the problems I have with what I can read from the story.

1. At no point does it appear anyone thought that the citizen touched Mr. Cheney in a threatening manner, the issue seems to be whether he admitted to having done so. I'm not aware of the law that states that a person cannot touch someone on the shoulder, regardless of who is being touched.

2. I realize the agents have a difficult job, but I'm not fond of saying that just because their job is difficult they have the right to violate the civil rights of another citizen. The argument that they shouldn't have to worry about being prosecuted for something like this is bs. Many, many people in different occupations have to deal with situations where they could ultimately be prosecuted. Being a Secret Service agent is a great responsibility and there are things that are just part of the job, this to me sounds like one of them.

I'm not excusing the behavior of the citizen in this case, it seems from the quotes in the article that he had every intention of making a scene, and while he does have the right, I do not agree with his approach in doing so. There is a respect for the office, that I believe most Americans forget nowadays, and asking the Vice President "How many kids have you killed today" is meant to be an emotionally charged inflammatory statement.

There is a level of responsibility that I think the aggressor has here as well, and I think he failed at being responsible. I'm not a fan of Dick Cheney, but I can respect the office he occupied, and there are far better ways to disagree and voice displeasure.

Writing this out, I think I've come to a decision on how I feel about this. Bad decision on the citizen's part, he got himself detained and embarrassed by it, which is punishment that about equals what should happen when you make a bad choice. Bad decision on the agents part, and one that needs to be constantly monitored and discussed (as they treaded a very fine line here with probable cause and insinuation of intent to harm). With no charges pressed, I'm not sure the citizen's freedom of speech was violated, so I'll call this a wash.

It's finally happened, they took everything

2011-11-02T13:58:00.004-04:00

I remember my parents telling me when I was growing up, that I should be prepared to deal with people in this world that would take anything they could, no matter what it was.

I better understand that now, thanks to Ann Coultier, and her recent statements. According to Ann racism in politics only exists in reference to conservative African-Americans, which means that the Republican party now owns political racism as well.

I can hear my parents saying "I told you so" right now.

Figure this one out

2011-10-28T12:18:00.002-04:00

Parents fighting to have their children returned.

I don't know where to begin with this one. Obviously if there has been physical abuse, it's an open and shut case. What exactly entails emotional abuse in a situation like this? Is a name enough?

This article/situation disgusts and fascinates me on many levels. I consider myself a staunch libertarian, with a mindset of live and let live; however, I'm very sensitive to prejudice and injustice.

There is a part of me that says if these psycho's want to raise their child in this manner and name them as such, then they have a right too.

There is another part of me that's horrified by that thought. I'm not horrified easily.

It's not illegal to give your child a horrible name or to teach your child to hate. While I despise both of those things, I do not want to live in a world where our government is tasked with 'fixing' these types of things.

Which means, as I look at this situation, I have to wonder what constitutes emotional abuse, is it the name, the things they are teaching, or something more? Can we consider ignorant teachings as emotional abuse and if we do, what kind of precedent are we setting?

I think the majority of people that look at a situation like this would think there is enough justification (just from the article) to taking the children away from the parents, I doubt many of them consider the implications of such actions. This would be a great argument for a debate class or any number of subjects, I just wish it was hypothetical like most of those questions.

(My discussion here makes major assumptions in relation to this situation. My main assumption is that the state is considering the abuses to be the children's names and/or the parent's teachings. The argument does not apply if there is any other type of abuse that would be considered typical in situations such as this.)

Friday Thoughts 10/28/2011 Still alive and kicking

2011-10-27T13:37:00.002-04:00

Every time I start a blog post, I end up saving it and putting it to the side for later. I have five in process right now, many of them are emotionally charged, scatter pieces, talking about everything from politics to what's going on in my personal life now. I've said before I'd rather not commit to future content, but since I seem to be having large gaps between updating the blog, I thought it would be beneficial to anyone reading it, that it's something that's still on my mind and that I'm trying to come back to.

Anyway, here's my newest Friday thought list, hopefully less emotionally charged then where I'm at currently.

1. The big one, my wife was told last Friday that 10/28 is her last day at the school, they are laying her off. This probably wouldn't be as big a deal if we hadn't uprooted our lives to come down here for the job and weren't still in the mud with selling the house in Cleveland (and some of the things that needed to be done that means we have to sell it). Needless to say, it's been a somber mood around here as we try and figure out the upcoming months.

2. We are one month out from Black Friday, wife's job be damned, I'll be out again and I'll probably provide some mobile content to the blog. I can't wait to start game planning the chaos.

3. I'm a big fan of Halloween, but it doesn't look like there will be any grown up activities this year. I did however, come across an interesting article relating to Halloween costumes. A group of students at Ohio University are protesting racially insensitive costumes. I'm not sure what my position is on this subject. I can understand their point of racial insensitivity, but I also would point out that, in most cases, we are talking about humor, which is a complex subject in relation to insensitivity. I'll acknowledge that my view maybe tinted as my demographic (heterosexual, white, male) isn't a minority and I'd love to hear people's thoughts in regards to the issue.

4. Gadhafi is dead. As a person born in the 70's, he's in many cases a more significant figure then Osama Bin Laden was to me. The change in the Middle East over the last couple years is significant and I wonder what further affects some of these changes will have. Although I'm a bit concerned about the new Libyan government's initial communications on how they intended to run their government.

5. It's rare that a new show catches my eye enough for me to watch it and rarer that I like it once I do, but FX's American Horror Story is pretty good so far. I recommend people check it out and on Monday 10/31, they are running a marathon of all the episodes aired so far.

6. That Lohan family is kind of f'ed up.

7. Beavis and Butthead are back tonight, I don't know whether I'm excited or sure that it's an indicator of the upcoming Apocalypse.

8. Last weekend we had a chance to visit for the second time "All Hallows Eve" at the Ohio Historical Society, it's really a fantastic time for a family night out. The event is capped by a live telling of the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" which includes a visit by the Headless Horsemen. If you near Columbus during the last two weeks of October, I highly recommend a visit. They also do a Christmas/Dickens event, that I hope we'll get to visit this year.

9. I guess I should weigh in on Steve Jobs, as everyone else seems to have done so. I can appreciate what Mr. Jobs brought to the IT industry and there is a fair amount of design genius that he championed. However, I have a bit of an issue with those that seem to be deeply affected by Mr. Jobs passing. While he had many admirable qualities from a business standpoint, he was an asshole. He walked over people, demeaned them, and would never have been considered modest. While I have mixed feelings on whether the uber-rich should contribute to charity, Mr. Jobs in comparison to other billionaires was not known in any way for his philanthropy. I find it bizarre that he could be so endearing to people, given many of these traits.

10. I have no facts to prove it, but I have to believe that bars (at least in most of the mid-west) that close at 2, hate the fact that daylight savings time changed the schedule a couple years ago. Having it fall on Halloween weekend, had to mean huge additional profits from just that one hour and full house. If I was an enterprising sort, I'd probably promote that as one of the reasons we are in the recession and blame whatever party was occupying the Presidency or House at the time.

Bonus: Halloween and October overall make me miss so many of my friends that I hung out with during my college years. We had so many good and drama filled times. If any of them are reading this, Hi, and stay safe this Halloween.

Baseball Predictions 2011 American League Follow-up

2011-10-03T15:29:00.004-04:00

The regular season ended for Major League Baseball, so let's see how I did in predicting things this year.

AL Predictions.

NL Predictions

Indian's Predictions

American League:

Starting with the East, I'd say I didn't do well. I predicted the Rays to win the Division and the Red Sox to finish in second and take the wild card. The Rays did make the playoffs and the Red Sox didn't. The only point I'll make is I did say the Red Sox would be better then the Yankees due to their pitching, the Yankees got a big boost from some youngsters this year, that evened the score. (side note: CC Sabathia is still going strong and 300 is going to be talked about here in the next year or 2)

Moving to the Central, my predictions stunk. I was as wrong about this division as I could be. The White Sox and Twins got off to bad starts and never recovered. The Tigers got off to a mediocre start and then pummeled the rest of the division. We'll get to the Indians in a bit.

The West saved me from a total disaster of predictions in the American League. (but I'll be honest, it was a fairly easy prediction for this one.) The two top teams are pretty good, the two lower ones are pretty bad.

Surprise team: The Blue Jays, not a bad pick, although given how horrible we expected the Indians to be, maybe not the best pick. The Blue Jays are rounding into a contender though and even in a very tough division will probably get there before the Indians do.

MVP, Cy Young, AL Rookie: The awards haven't been announced yet, but this prediction to me is more along the lines of how well the player you did predict actually performed during the season.

MVP: Oh god, Joe Mauer was my prediction, what the hell was I thinking. The Twins will be lucky if he moves to second base and puts up Craig Biggio numbers for the rest of his career after giving him a bloated contract.

Cy Young: Justin Verlander, keep picking one of the most talented pitchers every year as your Cy Young candidate and you are bound to be right at some point. An excellent year for possibly the best pitcher in the game right now.

AL Rookie: Kyle Drabek, decent year for the son of Doug, but not Rookie of the Year worthy. Not an impressive year for the American League for rookies. Mike Trout of the Angels probably will win this and should win it. He replaced Kendry Morales and carried that offense in many ways for the Angels.

Comeback Player of the Year/Most Improved Player: I didn't pick a comeback player, but instead picked two to improve. Gordon and Butler had very good years and finally came around to what scouts had been predicting for them for years.

Manager of the Year: Joe Maddon was my prediction and given how the Rays got into the playoffs, he proved to me at least (again) that he's one of the top 3 managers in the American League.

American League champ: Let's just pretend I didn't predict this, yikes, the Twins .

I'll follow up with thoughts on the Indians and the National League in future posts.

Anxiety and life today

2011-09-29T09:51:00.002-04:00

There are few things I hate more then unknown situations. I despise the anxiety that comes with the unknown and much of what's going on in life now is unknown.

I'm still in the thralls of selling the Cleveland house, with the buyer responsive one day and absent the next 10. As the days tick down, inevitable outcomes linger on the horizon, ones I'd rather not contemplate.

I've recently taken a new job for the company I work for. It's been 5 years since I had a change in positions, it's technically a promotion, although in today's world that doesn't come with immediate compensation. In the meantime I'm tasked with understanding a new business and how I fit in, in addition to the organization going through a massive transformation that's going to leave it looking differently next year.

The last bit of anxiety comes from watching my daughter adjust to kindergarten. In some respects she is doing fine, she's taken to the learning quickly and is making huge progressions in comprehension and reading. On the other hand, I've noticed a change in her demeanor and she doesn't appear to be having a ton of success in the social aspect of kindergarten (or her new pre-school class). It's upsetting her and it's upsetting me, as like the roller skating teaching, there is little I can actually do, it's all about teaching at this point and hoping she adapts. It doesn't ease the frustration.

Given all of that, I just haven't had a lot of time to update the blog. My whining about this stuff is the best you are likely to get for a while. Apologies for that, as there are a ton of topics I'd love to be writing about in today's world, hopefully by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, I'll have a better handle on things.

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but being a singer is currently on hiatus as well, the guitarist of the group I was with, decided that he had too many personal things he needed to spend time on and the bassist and drummer, just didn't have the heart to try and find another guitarist, so I'm an 'unemployed' musician again. It's bittersweet as it means I'll have to find another group to sing with, but nice as I could see myself mentally exploding from adding it to the balancing act I already have going on.

Until next time take care, and here's my thought for the day: Banning books is never an acceptable practice!

Patrick Henry was right

2011-09-13T14:00:00.004-04:00

I haven't had time to put a blog post together on my thoughts about September 11th's anniversary.

However, I'd be remiss if I didn't offer some type of commentary on it, so I'm directing those that are interested to read this blog post , by a woman detained on September 11th on one of the flights that was escorted in by military jet escort to Detroit's airport.

We lose our identity as a nation if we allow ourselves to take away each other's civil liberties. The rules allowing our law enforcement to impede on our citizen's civil liberties because we are afraid is no way to live.

The quote attributed to Ben Franklin, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" rings truer to me everyday. My outlook doesn't allow me to write off those that want to give up our liberties. I accept the fact that they cannot understand what they are doing. They cannot grasp the concept that rights and liberties apply to all of us and that when they point out someone because of their race while they are blinded by fear they perform an act that assists in destroying one of the most important foundations of our country.

Patrick Henry was right.

2012 NFL Season projections

2011-09-08T13:32:00.003-04:00

With the first NFL game here, I thought I'd run through projections for the season. I know I haven't given much time to the blog lately, unfortunately life has gotten in the way rather heavily. It probably will be pretty sporadic posting over the next couple weeks.

Playoff teams AFC:

North: Baltimore Ravens (close call with Pittsburgh, but offense is improving for Ravens)

South: Tennessee Titans (Manning's hurt and Houston still scares me. I'm going with the Titans as they are left with the best player in the division and a savvy veteran QB)

East: New England Patriots (I don't bet against Tom Brady)

West: San Diego Chargers (last year was an aberration, this team is the most talented in the division and enough so that even Norv Turner can't screw it up too many years in a row.)

Wild card 1: New York Jets (2 bad teams in Miami and Buffalo mean the Jets get 4 easy games. Add in the fact that they've got a fair amount of talent and a whole lot of attitude and I like them for the wild card spot)

Wild card 2: Pittsburgh Steelers (see above for Jets, 2 bad teams in division in Cincinnati and Cleveland, make it much easier to be a wild card, although I think Cleveland will be improved )

Playoff teams NFC:

North: Green Bay Packers (this team at the start of the season is better then last year's team that won the Super Bowl.)

South: New Orleans Saints (Philly got the hype in the off season, but this team made some great moves. They are reloaded for another run at the Super Bowl)

East:Philadelphia Eagles (The Giants and Cowboys have a number of questions, I see no reason the Eagles can't repeat, even if Vick gets hurt, they have one of the better backups in the league at this point and if Andy Reid gets through to him, look out.)

West: Arizona Cardinals (The Rams will give them a run for their money, but this is the Cardinal's division to lose, with no quarterback last year, they still almost won the division.)

Wild card 1: Detroit Lions (Matt Stafford has to stay healthy, if he does, watch out)

Wild card 2: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (I like this team more then the Falcons, based on what I saw last year when they played the Browns. The Falcons still have issues on defense in my opinion and a stronger schedule is going to show that. The Bucs are younger and I think have more room to grow, whereas the Falcons I think, already think they are there as a team.) (Besides Atlanta never makes the playoffs two years in a row, ever).

NFL MVP: I hate this award, at least they could separate it by conference. Oh well, I'll go with Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers0

NFL Offensive Player of the year: blah, see my comments on MVP. Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinals) with a qb that can throw him the ball again and settled on a contract, he puts up Jerry Rice style numbers in the prime of his career.

NFL Defensive Player of the year: Ndamukong Suh (Detroit Lions) just a monster at his position. He's going to hurt a lot of quarterbacks this year.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Mark Ingram (New Orleans Saints) They didn't trade up to get him for no reason, and it's possibly the best offense in the league, he'll put up big numbers.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Jabaal Sheard (Cleveland Browns) Why not, most pundits are going with Von Miller, a very solid choice, but sometimes its fun to just be different and Sheard's name continued to pop up on plays during the preseason, a very good sign.

Thoughts on the Cleveland Browns: The Browns are getting better, it appears they've had another successful draft and there is talent being accumulated on this team. Their big issue is that they have no depth. This has been a common problem in the 10 years they've been back. It's not unreasonable to think this team could get off to a 4-2 or 5-1 start especially with Peyton Manning likely to miss the Colt's game. That would be huge for this young team and give them a chance at 8 or 9 victories on the year. The second half of their schedule is harder, but as injuries pile up on teams, that belief could change very quickly.

The key for the season will be continuing to develop the offense. Since Bernie Kosar left in the early 90's this organization hasn't had a pro style offense (see Bill Belichick with Metcalf up the middle searches). In the years they've been back, they've only glimpsed a true pro style offense briefly during the 2007 season.

The defense is very much a work in progress. It will work if the offense puts up points, if they don't then it's going to be a long season. They have a couple of pieces, but very little depth and the 'special' talent they have is young and difficult to judge on how quickly they'll hit their ceiling. In my opinion it's being set up as a bend, don't break unit, which if the offense can take time off the clock, will be a good fit. Depth on defense is worse then offense in my opinion.

Friday Thoughts 8/12/2011

2011-08-12T10:04:00.003-04:00

After a dreadful Monday, the type that had one thing after another go wrong, the week hasn't turned out too bad. Here are my current thoughts and ideas for the week.

1. I'm halfway through typing it up, but my Monday personified Murphy's law. A sprained ankle in the morning, first day back to school for wife and day care for daughter, my bike stolen, you name it and it seemed to happen. What a rotten day.

2. As you probably are aware by now, the S&P downgraded America's credit rating. It's nice to see the U.S' credit rating matching many of it's citizens especially over the last 3-5 years.

3. The Indians made a bold move at the trading deadline and acquired, Ubaldo Jimenez from the Colorado Rockies. My first thought on it, was that they gave up too much, but if you consider Jimenez to be a number 1 or 2 starter (and I believe he is) then even if Alex White and Drew Pomeranz are successful (and the odds say they both won't be) you only lost one prospect, as you traded one successful starter for another. The other two players they gave up were inconsequential.

4. I'm 2 weeks into quitting smoking (regular cigarettes) I've only had one minor relapse, a couple on Monday night, but the personal vaporizer (or e-cigarette) has been fantastic. I've had no cravings for real cigarettes and can already see the improvements in breathing, energy, and outlook. Given my previous attempts to quit with all of the products out there have been met with constant cravings, thoughts on when I would be going back, etc, this is truly an amazing development.

5. I remember sitting around drinking coffee and talking about useless things when I was younger. One of the things we used to get into discussions about was what actor would play us in movies (or we'd actually think of who would play other people we know). Anyway, given it was a fair number of years ago and I'm guessing some that read this might have done so too, who would you choose to play you now? For the record, I have no idea who I would choose now.

6. I think the new Smurfs movie looks stupid. Although I will likely take my daughter to it at some point as she's enamored with them.

7. There are times when it feels like the death penalty is completely justified. Anthony Sowell's case seems like one of those times.

8. I mentioned in point 1, that my bike was stolen on Monday, that's not exactly true, at about 7pm I went out back of our townhouse and noticed my bike was missing (and presumed stolen) at midnight when I decided for some reason to check out back again, my bike was back in the spot I had previously left it. So it wasn't stolen, rather it appears to have been 'borrowed'. I still have no idea who borrowed it. It's now back in the basement.

9. In reading the Plain Dealer (cleveland.com) recap of the sentencing, they mention that Sowell delivered an 'unsworn statement' to the jury, prior to their deliberation. It also mentions that due to this being an unsworn statement, the prosecution was not allowed to cross-examine him. I've never heard of this and my web searches so far are turning up very little. I wonder if this is common, or what type of parameters are around such a thing. (Most references I've found seem to be either about the trial, or based on Australian and English law)

10. I love fall weather, the evenings here in Columbus are already reminding me of it. Kind of nice, since we've had such a hot summer, which was great, but fall weather in Ohio is the perfect weather in my opinion. Have a great weekend.

Having my cake and eating it too!

2011-08-03T11:00:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to pop in for a quick update. As of today, I'm smoke free for about 5 days and am in the best spot ever after quitting. Patches, gum, and lozenges have all failed miserably for me in previous attempts. I'm very happy to say that the e-cig that I picked up last week is working like a charm. It's working so well in fact, that even after trying a regular cigarette the first night after I started I completely hated the taste of it. An extremely significant event for me, who upon quitting every other time couldn't even be around someone else smoking without craving it badly.

I have no idea whether the e-cig ultimately will have negative affects, all I know right now is it's working for moving me off of regular cigarettes. Perhaps I'm trading one bad habit for another, but given the absolute nightmare quitting has been in the past and the relative ease it's been so far, I'm more then willing to make that deal at this point.

The e-cig I picked up isn't even one that I wanted or that was rated better by those that switched, it wound up just being a generic one the tobacco shop had, but so far it's working. I'll be picking up a backup and some other supplies here at some point, but for now I'm thrilled with the results.

My previous best for quitting smoking was one month, I'm a ways away from that, but I'm thinking that will be an easy goal at this point. Even for that quit, I never had a day where I didn't crave a regular cigarette. At this point, I have no craving for a regular cigarette.

Friday Thoughts 7/29/2011

2011-07-29T09:03:00.002-04:00

Nothing gets me back in the mode of regular writing, like spewing out 10 miscellaneous thoughts and rants.

1. It's one day late, but my wife and I celebrated our 10th anniversary yesterday. Holy crap, that's a pretty long time and it's been quite a ride through those years. If anyone ever tells you marriage is easy, they haven't been married, but at the end of the day it is worth it.

2. You know those commercials that talk about Dyson vacuums never losing suction, while that maybe true, I'd like to raise a large middle finger to Mr. Dyson. While your vacuums may not ever lose suction, the fact that I have to replace a complete clutch for one belt snapping, means I truly hate your bright yellow product.

3. Sad news from the TV world last week, TNT's "Men of a Certain Age" has been canceled. This truly sucks. I realize the show didn't relate to a broad audience, it's writing was excellent and covered growing older in a way I'm not sure many shows have ever done. It will be missed.

4. To our elected lawmakers on the National debt issue, I totally feel your pain in managing crushing amounts of debt. Oh wait, I'm not supposed to empathize with you, it's supposed to be the other way around. Jackasses.

5. Yes, I'm a bit surly today.

6. I'm truly sorry that Amy Winehouse died from an overdose, but last weekend's major news story should have been about Norway. The fact is when you compare a tragedy like this, to a self inflicted tragedy like Amy Winehouse experienced, there really is no comparison. Both tragic, one by a measurable difference.

7. Ahh, Glenn Beck, I always kind of thought you were an idiot, but you do continue to impress me. The fascinating thing to me is that you are pretty bad at what you do. Some would assume I think you are an idiot for the views you present, and while I certainly disagree with them, I can understand why you present the ones you do. Except when you so blatantly go over the line of good taste, that I have to wonder if you are truly mentally handicapped, as you did with your Norway comments. I probably should thank you, as you do try to ensure that reasonably minded individuals don't ever take you seriously or bother to listen to your drivel.

8. I'm off to purchase my first e-cig today, or at least shop locally for one. I've been looking over everything on the web that I can find to try and make the first decision easier, we'll see how it goes.

9. Traveling seems to throw my workout schedule out the window. It's been about three weeks since I had a solid workout and getting over that hump and getting back to it is the biggest hurdle. Tomorrow I think I need to go for a morning bike ride. It's also probably time to set a new goal for workouts in a period of time.

10. August is here (well almost). Enjoy the last month of what we consider summer, even if it's hot and humid, we'll be crying for this weather 6 months from now.

Shaking off the cobwebs

2011-07-26T11:10:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to check in and post a few updates, as I anticipated this stretch of summer has been brutal for writing and many other activities. The plate is completely full at the moment and the anxiety level is high on so many levels. I'm hoping things cool off in parallel with the temperature here soon.

The short sale on the house is still in progress. We are in the final phase with the bank (again) the hold up at this point has been the offer sheet which has some difficult to read text due to multiple scanning and faxing. I'm trying to stay positive and am using all of my optimism to believe it's going to finish up this week.

I'm also in high gear with the new band, after some discussion with them, we decided to rename the group to "Deadringer". It looks like our first show is September 23rd, at Bethel Road Pub in Columbus ($3 at the door). I'll have some more thoughts on this as the next month goes by, I'm really happy with how things are going so far. If you are interested, the band's fan page is here.

In addition to the above, we are still waiting to hear whether my wife will be renewed for full time for the school year (they originally were going to renew her full time, but had some budget issues). On top of that, I'm on track for a new job myself, that I'm waiting for some confirmation on. I tell you when it rains it pours.

That's enough for now, the next couple weeks will be spent enjoying the Ohio State Fair and hopefully some of the other summer fun things to do down here.

Happy Anniversary 40th anniversary, Mom and Dad!

2011-07-11T14:24:00.005-04:00

I wanted to take a moment and send out Happy Anniversary wishes to my parents. They celebrated their 40th yesterday. I couldn't ask for better parents and I'm going to tell you why.

My parent's anniversary was yesterday and I forgot to call them and hadn't picked up or mailed their card. I always get the dates confused with birthdays and anniversaries. I just can never remember the actual dates, I know what month they take place in, but jumble up the dates every year. (This year for some reason I thought their anniversary was on the 14th., I woke up this morning realizing their anniversary was the 10th and a bit giddy that I was right and that the 10th hadn't passed yet, that is until I looked at the calendar July 11, crap).

It's very possible that I'm a horrible son, but considering my brother forgot the actual day too, I'm guessing it's something else. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it's their fault.

My parent's never made a big deal out of their anniversary or birthdays, it just wasn't their style. They approached those days with some celebration, but it never was something over the top. They celebrated every day as if it was their anniversary and they taught my brother and I to do the same.

They taught me to have an appreciation for everything in life, whether it was good or bad. Over the course of my life, I can remember periods of desperation like my father losing his job at the Cleveland press with as much fondness as I remember vacations to Disney World (or Autorama, dear Dad what were you thinking?). They had their moments I'm sure where they were scared, angry, or tired of the grind of life, but they never gave up, they always found the bright side of things. During my father's unemployment, I remember he decided to be a den parent for our school class and made styrofoam snowman ornaments for our Christmas party. I still have one of those ornaments and hang it every year. He also during that unemployed period helped coach my peewee football team. Things he didn't always have time for when he was working.

My mother worked night shifts until I was 7 or 8 years old in order for her to be home with her boys. I have no idea when she slept as she came home my father was leaving and it seemed like she went to work as soon as he got home. I'm sure they hated it, but I don't remember them complaining. It also didn't stop my mother from selling candy to co-workers at Christmas time for more money, not to mention the thousands of treats she made regularly.

My father even when regularly employed also took on a newspaper route at an apartment building for more money for a couple years. Sunday mornings were spent as a family in the lobby of an apartment building as we put the papers together, as my father came down to collect more and deliver them. This was perfectly normal to me.

My parents always found time for us even while working 9-5 jobs, which were more like 7:30-6:30 jobs if you include commute during those days. There level of participation in our lives is mind blowing to me. I think about it regularly when I dread taking my daughter to dance class and while I work a fair number of hours, I work from home.

Most of our vacations were spent camping in a small pop-up camper. It seemed like we camped every weekend of the summer and often into fall, my brother and I hated it then, but I look back so fondly on it now, as we spent so much time together and had so many good times. (Although my father still gets upset if we mention Swamp Fever, which is what my mother, brother, and I decided we had after his booking of a Space Campground in Florida that smelled of swamp gas.) We might have mentioned it a few times during that trip to Florida and on the way home.

The lesson I learned is that you make do with what you have, it doesn't mean you can't have a vacation, it just means that sometimes it's different. What my parent's lacked in money, they made up for with smarts.

Let's take another area of how special my parent's were, although there were times as a child, that I remember meals for weeks being what flavor of Campbell's soup we were going to eat. (Bean with Bacon being the regular serving). It never felt like we were tightening our belts. I know there were numerous reasons for belt tightening, but I also know that they still managed to make Christmas special, or get a special birthday gift, or 1000's of other things that children desire. They also weren't afraid to talk to us about some of the things they were doing to provide, whether it was soup for meals to save, or other things, we were a family and while I'm sure they didn't share anything, they did make us a part of things and the discussions.

When my parent's bought their dream house that was being built and then fell horribly behind schedule, they moved us to the new city for the school year (and because our old house sold). At the time they only thought we had a month or two to spend in the apartment, so they got a one bedroom and decided to sleep on the fold out couch. We wound up being in that apartment for close to a year. They had their share of fights as the pressure of things was getting to them during that time, but they taught me a lot in how they handled that crappy living situation. Talk about downsizing, two teenage boys, and two adults in a 400sq ft. apartment after living in a 3 bedroom house for the past 15 years. Add in a new city and it wasn't exactly a wonderful year. The fold out they slept on was a piece of fabric on metal bars, it was serviceable for one nights sleep, not for a year. They fought a lot that year, but they worked through things and eventually when we moved into the house, we were all a bit more closer and more aware from that experience living in that apartment.

Moving into our house was likely the quickest move ever, as I'm sure we sprinted things into the new house in order to abandon the apartment. We moved on my 16th birthday, and my parent's forgot that it was my birthday that day, which gives me much joy in bringing up every once in a while. Although between you and I, I completely understand their forgetting the day, as we were at the end of a grueling marathon and their focus was on moving into the house, I just like to be a pain in the ass.

I learned from my parents how relationships can bend and sometimes feel like they are cracking but with work and understanding they can survive. When I see my Mom and Dad, I see how they fit together, I also see that they weren't always a 'fit' there were a lot of tools used to make them fit. They taught me that through the years and I'm a better person for it.

Throughout my adult life, my parents have always been there for me and my family. They rarely say no to a request and often times go out of their way to assist if they think it can help.

They created an environment where we could talk about anything with them and continuously through my youth beat into my head that I needed to treat my brother better and that relationship has turned out very nicely as well. They never stood in the way of our development, they nudged and pushed at times, but they always let us make our own mistakes and were right there to help pick us up if we got knocked down. I can honestly say that without their influence and teaching, I would find it very unlikely that my brother and I would be working at the company we do and for 10 out of the 20 years or so that we've worked there, one of us has been rated in the top 5% of the companies employees. A feat many never even achieve once.

I understand that this is not necessarily the most polished piece of work, as I started to write this, more stories and thoughts came to my mind and I tried to work many of them in where I could. It's has some rough edges, but I think the heart is there, which sort of symbolizes my thoughts about my parents.

I've tried to tell you how influential they've been in my life, but even as I wrote this, I know I'm incredibly short of conveying that message. Their support, understanding, and wisdom have been invaluable to me through my life and I wouldn't be who I am today without them.

Thank you Mom and Dad, congratulations on 40 years of marriage , I love you!!

Favorite Baseball Notes

2011-07-10T07:06:00.004-04:00

These are some odds and ends of some of my favorite memories of watching baseball. They aren't in any order and although I tried to hit my normal 10, I felt after #8, that I'd just be throwing things in there, if I remember something later, I can always come back and update. This post is inspired by Derek Jeter getting his 3,000th hit. The player that to me is the #1 reason the Yankees have been so good for close to the last 20 years. (and the reason I'm so sad the Cleveland Indians drafted Paul Shuey at #2 that year)

1. Jeter's Flip, this play to me is the type of understanding and hustle that a great player does to separate himself from the good ones. (It doesn't hurt that it was in the playoffs)

2. Kirk Gibson's pinch hit home run off of Dennis Eckersley. Eckersley was beyond dominant that season, Gibson was a wreck after the LCS. The video is fairly long but the only one that captures a bit of the drama of him actually coming to bat. (Fast forward to about 3:30 to get close to the clip) This home run changed the series and the Dodgers quickly disposed of the A's.

3. Knoblach/Gagne fake tag from '91 World Series Game 7. This was Jack Morris' masterpiece, but it would have had a very different ending if not for Knoblach and Gagne's fake double play move to freeze Lonnie Smith. (8th inning of game seven at 4:50 in video)

4. Jack Morris pitching 10 innings of scoreless baseball in game 7 of the 1991 World Series. For the recap of the series see the video under #3 above. An amazing performance in a sport that doesn't often get a chance to let a player put it all on the line for one game.

5. Albert Belle and Tony Pena's home runs in the 1995 Division series Game 1 against the Boston Red Sox. Unfortunately I couldn't find any video. This was the first playoff game for the Indians in my lifetime. Belle hit his homer in the middle of the game after the Red Sox had an umpire confiscated his bat for testing (for cork) at the request of the Red Sox. After the home run, the cameras caught Albert in the dugout pointing at his bicep and yelling over to the Red Sox "Cork this!" Pena hit his home run in the bottom of the 13th and ran so fast around the bases that if you blink you missed him. Since this was a 5 game series (the first year of division series) this let Cleveland fans breath a huge sigh of relief.

6. Kenny Lofton's 1995 Game 6 ALCS performance.. Cleveland fans were terrified of Randy Johnson as was the most of baseball in 1995. Luckily the Yankees forced the Mariners to use him a lot in the ALDS, which allowed the Indians to get a few less looks at him. Lofton in Game 6 of the ALCS with a moment inspired by the movie "Major League"

7. Orel Hershiser's 59 1/2 scoreless inning streak. 1988 was all about Orel Hershiser, in what I consider one of the most dominant seasons by a pitcher ever.

8. Ken Griffey Jr. hitting. One of the most perfect swings to watch. This was homer #629.

This was homer #100, grace in hitting.

At the end of their careers it will be very hard to decide who was better all time. Ken Griffey Jr. or Albert Pujols. Although as a left hander, Griffey's swing was far better to watch.

It's never to early to plan

2011-07-08T08:34:00.004-04:00

We are probably 10-13 years away from this blog becoming really interesting, which would be about the time that boys really starting entering my daughter's life. If there's one reason I can point to that makes men prefer to have sons over daughters (outside of hoping they become professional athletes) its the issue of their daughters having to date someday.

Since I'm an obsessive planner and the only hope I have in combating this is to utilize the time I have now when she's a child, I've started to get to work.

Please realize that there is a good deal of this that is tongue in cheek (although the degrees of that are open to discussion).

I'm in the group that believes that no boy/man will ever meet my expectations for my daughter. Having said that, I also realize that it is my issue not hers. So I accept the fact that I can't dress her in a burka, lock her in a room, or feed her fried twinkies until she's pleasantly plump enough that I don't have to deal with the issue.

She's going to date someday, she's going to have her heart broken at times, and she's going to make her own choices at some point.

I see two ways of approaching this, one I can take the stereotypical path and become a curmudgeon (Dungeonkeeper) and make life impossible for her as a teenager or I can work to prepare her for what the world has in store for her and maybe add a bit of psychology to the mix.

I have to admit the idea of being a curmudgeon is appealing, bolting windows, forbidding her to see boys, and barring her from wearing certain outfits all seem like perfectly logical things for me to do, and we are still about 10 years away from those issues (imagine what will feel right then). I also know that if I have that mentality, it will cause huge fights, she'll lose respect for me, and she'll probably do the opposite of what I forbid anyway. That's not an appealing scenario.

That means I have to take an alternative path. That path entails preparing her for the world at large and developing a strong relationship with her. My hope is that the relationship will make her comfortable enough to talk to me about difficult situations that are going to happen. (I hate being the grown-up sometimes)

Now, you might be reading this and thinking, "Oh how sweet, you are such a good father". Thank you (if you are), but don't get ahead of yourself yet.

From day one, my goal for Bronwyn has been to fill her with love and help her find her own confidence. I fully expect to continue on this path, but I've also come to realize I have a highly manipulative side to me as well (my family reading this, just rolled their eyes and said 'no shit, Sherlock').

Which is why over the weekend, I had a bit of an epiphany in regards to the "dating dilemma". I realized how I was going to approach this issue and I was a bit ecstatic that I've already been doing some of the work.

About 6 months ago, I was joking (kind of) with Bronwyn, that any boy she brought home, I was going to throw in the garbage can. She didn't say much at the time, but on a visit to her grandmother's (my mom), she shared with my mom her fear that I was actually serious. This is wonderful news and the hook I needed to enact my master plan.

My master plan is that there will be no fights over boyfriends or dating, it will be my responsibility to get her to recognize how strong and smart she is and to help her her understand what she should be looking for in a boy. It will be her job to choose the boy based on those things.

The reason I say there will be no fights is that, with the hook I've set in place I won't need to fight with her. All I need to do when she brings a boy home, is sigh, slightly shake my head in the negative, or make eye contact with her in a disappointing way. At that point her subconscious will be dumping those boys in the garbage. The date will go fine, but within a week the nagging feeling of trash will surely extinguish any interest and she'll move on. It's simple and brilliant! I can only imagine the cartoon like sequences that will be playing through her mind and the subsequent disinterest towards the boy that will follow.

This is not a fool proof plan (unfortunately). It's conceivable (although unlikely) that I'll be reasonable and not sigh or shake my head disapprovingly at every boy. It's also possible that she'll have enough confidence in her decisions to not care about my approval (which would be very good) or that she'll catch on to my subversive ways (which would be very bad). There's also an outside chance that I'll turn her into Ally McBeal where she regularly suffers from humorous hallucinations brought on by emotional situations.

Assigning blame: A person is smart, people are dumb

2011-07-06T09:17:00.002-04:00

If you are involved with any kind of social media, then yesterday afternoon, you likely saw the crush of opinions on the Casey Anthony verdict.

I knew of the case, but I didn't follow it at all and really wasn't aware of any details of the case. Even as a bit of a news junkie, the media around it smacked of sensationalism and I just didn't care to hear about it.

Much of the public's outcry over the verdict is aimed at jury. (For a very good piece on thoughts on the jury, please check out craAAKKer). It's misguided and stupid to do so. Out of all of the parties involved in this case, the jury is the last group that deserves any blame. They took what was presented to them and within the guidelines provided by the judge came to a unanimous decision.

Think about this for a moment, 12 people who don't know each other except for the time they've spent over the past weeks, reviewed the material presented to them and unanimously agreed to acquit Casey Anthony on murder and manslaughter charges in less then a day. You have to appreciate how difficult it is to get 12 people to agree on anything, much less in trying to balance justice for a 2 year old child against the life of it's accused mother. Think it's easy? take something that's obviously not as serious and try to come to a decision with 11 of your friends (or strangers). Maybe decide on a vacation spot and dates for everyone to go together or whether man actually landed on the moon.

If there is blame to assign in relation to the case. It has to be laid on the prosecution and law enforcement. Ultimately it's their failure, not the jurors. We sometimes become so caught up in having to blame someone, that we forget who is ultimately responsible (I blame the current political climate for fostering this, but that's another post). This isn't to say that the prosecution or law enforcement could have done anything more, but it is to say that the failure in this instance rests with them.

So remember, when you get upset about this verdict, what you know and what the jurors were presented with are two completely different things, in addition to that, their responsibility was in ensuring that guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt and they ultimately decided it wasn't.

The larger the group of people, the stupider they are as a whole. Take an issue to 1 person (or 12 in this case) and they are able to apply reasoning to something that a massive group cannot.

There is no doubt there was no justice for Caylee Anthony and there likely never will be, that doesn't mean we have to ignore the facts of something though, because we want it to be right. Doing so would be disastrous.

So much to do and so little time!

2011-06-29T12:07:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to put some thoughts down to paper, since I seem to have a slight break in what's turned into a crazy summer schedule. I have a ton I want to write about, and also a bunch of things standing in the way of doing so. Here's some quick hits on what's going on in life right now and what I'm thinking about getting up on the blog in the near future.

1. I went to the 20 year reunion, and it was kind of a dud from a turnout standpoint. I was glad that a couple people I hadn't seen in 20 years did come out to the mixer and we got to talk, but the reunion itself was pretty boring and I didn't really see anyone there I was interested in talking too. I'm glad I went though and I have some thoughts on it as a 'rite of passage' of sorts as I think it was a bigger mental milestone then I understood.

2. The Disney trip has come and gone and it went very well. My daughter had a great time and was doted on constantly by princesses. I have so much I want to write about the trip, everything from how Disney's resort/park business does things that no one is even close to achieving, to watching my daughter for the week, to dealing with the first family vacation. The one interesting piece I'll leave you with now is: Prior to my trip we measured my daughter's height, she measured at 44 1/2 inches. Disney's highest ride requirement was 44in for Space Mountain. Prior to the trip we watched some of the videos on Disney's website and my daughter had her heart set on riding Space Mountain. She did in fact ride it and I can honestly say she had no idea what she was getting herself into (as evidenced by her look after the ride). I'm extremely proud of her though for riding it and how she held up at 5 years old though, and even more impressed that after a day break, she decided she wanted to ride it again and did.

3. My house sale has driven my anxiety off the charts. I'm hopeful as of today and some conversations I had that we may actually be at the finish line for this, fingers crossed, once we do finish, I'll write up some thoughts on it.

4. Tonight is my first official practice with my new band, "So What". I'm looking forward to it, but as usual a bit anxious and expect to be until I settle into a routine with the group.

5. Right before my reunion, I attended a big company anniversary party/session. I don't talk much about my company, and even though I'm fairly confident there is nothing on here that would be an issue, I'll still keep it's name out of the blog. Anyway, as I sat in the session, a lot of thoughts crossed my mind about the company and how I became a part of it. In addition to that, I also thought about what it means to me to be a part of the company I am now. This one is far down on the list of to do's but it's something I want to explore at some point. My company has been around for a while and I just celebrated my 12th year with them in April. It was only about 2-3 years ago, that I got over the disbelief that I'm working for who I am, especially considering I started with them in Cleveland (not exactly Silicon Valley). If you had told me when I was a teenager or even when I was in college that this is who I would be working for, I'd have assumed you were drinking more then me at the time.

That's it for now, need to go prep some songs for the practice tonight.

Let it rock! Columbus's newest cover band singer!

2011-06-13T23:55:00.005-04:00

I got my hopes up and got rewarded in this case, I received a call tonight from the bassist for "So What" that they liked my audition and wanted to offer me the spot as their singer. I eagerly accepted.

Now the real work begins, the band is playing out their last three gigs this month with their previous singer, whose moving on to other projects, and in the meantime we'll start putting together a new set list and learning tunes we each will be bringing to the table.

I'm extremely excited about the opportunity and can't wait to write more about it as we move forward. The next two months maybe a bit slow in putting things together as I have two weeks away and the drummer has a two weeks in July he's gone too, but considering how much we were able to accomplish in the audition, I'm hopeful we'll be looking at something for mid to late August.

I'll have more details as things go along and will be updating the blog with all sorts of band related stuff, including set lists, struggles, and gig reviews. I also have to go find a microphone I like, which means likely giving a call to my former drummer and getting his insight.

I knew this jacket I bought last weekend as it was 90 degrees outside was meant for something.

Although that isn't the exact style, it's pretty close.

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!

Friday Thoughts 6/10/2011

2011-06-10T09:15:00.002-04:00

1. Besides being my favorite post to write up to date, it appears that my Ginsu knife post has also drawn a lot of traffic. Considering traffic to my site is usually like traffic on a dirt road, I may have to come up with some new things to try.

2. The wife is back on the yo-yo in regards to her job. As it turns out, her letter last month was commitment to sign contract once presented, however the school hasn't reached their necessary enrollment numbers yet, and while they believe they'll clear that easily, she won't be getting a contract until July. After the last couple years, I'd really like to just see a 5 year period or so where we don't have to worry about jobs.

3. My 20 year reunion is next week, I'm glad to say that my goal of 44 workouts before my reunion that I started 11 weeks ago is nearing completion, I'm currently at 42 and expect to have no issue reaching the 44th. I will say that I haven't gotten the exact results I've hoped for, but I've seen some definite improvements. The lull in workouts after moving down to Columbus was far longer then I've gone in 20 years and the effects were pretty substantial. I cannot afford at this age to have a period of inactivity like that again.

4. In trying to keep my balanced outlook and refrain from bashing on Sarah Palin or Ann Coulter this week, I'm trying to decide who's actually worse. John Edwards or Anthony Weiner. Actually there is no comparison in my opinion. Edwards wins in a landslide, terminally ill wife (check), baby with mistress (check), hide in bathroom from National Enquirer (check), make staff member take ownership of child and harm his marriage (check), and pay out of campaign funds to mistress to keep her quiet (check). Outstanding work there John.

5. Last week, there was a lot of buzz on the child's sign in Texas, where he offered his piggy bank to the Ranger that hit his brother. A lot of the discussion was on whether the parent's were bad parents. I won't say they were bad parents, but I cannot for the life of me understand for one minute, why they allowed their child to put up a sign like that. It's definitely a case of bad judgement on their part, who let's one of their kids put a sign like that up in public 'targeting' their other child.

6. It looks like Florida is in process of passing regulations requiring welfare applicants to take a drug test. I can understand why they are doing it, and I understand why so many people are in favor of it, but I'm against it. As I am with any kind of drug testing, as I believe it's an infringement on an individuals privacy. It amazes me how quickly people are eager to allow the government to take civil liberties, when they think it's being taken away from someone else.

7. Over the last week or two, I noticed some articles that talked about ending the "War on Drugs" and taking a different approach in how we spend the dollars supporting it currently. I didn't note any of the links and I'm not having much luck in finding them, but I would consider them sort of mainstream articles, not fringe web sites. The reason I mention this, is I think we will come to a point someday where we end the "War on Drugs" and stop spending millions and billions of dollars on enforcement, incarceration, and everything else we spend on it and rather redirect some of those funds to continued education and rehabilitation programs. To this point, I don't think that sentiment has been anything other then a fringe suggestion, it's going to take some time for it to be brought to the American mainstream consciousness, I think the thought is getting closer to becoming a subject we'll see average people debating over here in the near future.

8. My opinion is that ending the "War on Drugs" is the way for the country to go. There would be an adjustment period to doing it, but in the end I think prohibition in this case is far more costly then allowing it. I think the important message that those supporting the end of prohibition is that legalization does not mean 'has to use'.

9. After a soggy beginning to spring, I'm extremely happy that we jumped right into July and August style heat. It's a welcome relief from the winter, and with the pool at the complex here, very easy to head over to it for a quick dip or a relaxing weekend day.

10. This will probably be the last Friday Thoughts for a couple weeks, we have our first Disney vacation coming up here soon and I'm guessing I won't be doing many blog posts at all. I hope to recap some of the trip in the blog when I return.

For those about to rock

2011-06-09T08:35:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I had another audition with a band looking for a lead singer. I have to say I think it went pretty well. We met at a studio the band practices at, which was nice as it was a more neutral site for me and the studio itself had a great setup.

Lately, I've been very picky in looking over potential bands, there are a ton of factors for me that are important and I'm looking for in order to make this kind of commitment to playing. One thing I've learned during my brief 'career' as a singer, is there are just way to many variables affecting a band for you to not try and find a situation that works from the start.

Having said that, I've only got a small sample to choose from. A couple auditions here in Columbus and Cleveland, my time with Tornn, and a couple sessions with a group down here. So this is what I'm looking for.

1. Similar musical interests. I'm not a heavy metal guy, but as I've found out when playing with that band briefly in March, I am a rock and roll guy, and I need some music with energy and tempo.

2. People that enjoy playing. This has got to be fun, I want guys that play because they love it. I can appreciate those that are looking to make their place in music or earning a living playing, but that's so far removed from what I'm looking to do, it would just not be a good fit.

3. The group should like each other. There's a ton of time that gets spent together, who has time to deal with people they don't like. This is a bit more difficult for me coming in, as I have no control over whether the band members like me, but I do want to see that they like each other.

4. Open to new things, this could be categorized in a number of ways, but going back to 'this should be fun' I'm looking for a group that has a fairly diverse set list and a lot of interests, it doesn't hurt that they are open to new things too. This fits my mindset and as I've found out while singing, most of my favorite tunes at this point, are ones someone else decided they wanted to play/explore. (which may just mean, I suck at picking out good tunes for me to sing)

After getting an email last week about the audition, I started reviewing my song list and working on some tunes they asked me to do and some others that I was familiar with and had saw on their set list. After struggling for two days and wondering if I forgot how to sing, I listened to the demo tracks I did with Torrn and found my voice again. I ran through 2 completely new tunes they had asked about and about 7 or 8 songs that I knew, but had never tried to sing before. In addition to that, I had about 10 songs that I have done previously that they also knew.

The plan as far as I could tell was for me to just play with them through the studio time they had, so I wanted to be as ready as possible. I was actually thinking I didn't have enough ready and was beating myself up over the fact, that I wasn't able to pick up another new song they had asked about. (I looked it over, but with all the other preparation, it just never got to the point where I was comfortable putting it out there for an audition).

I met the guys and we got started. I have to say there are a lot of things I like, they tune down a half notch for every song, and the difference for me was incredible. A couple tunes that were always pushing the bar for me, fell right in line, with just the half notch down. We rumbled through about 2 hours of songs. They liked the fact that I pulled a number from their set list out to try and I liked the fact that they winged a couple other tunes that I had done before. The nice thing was we just seemed to have a really cool time playing for the evening. The stress of an audition, always makes me a little hesitant to just give something a try, as I know it takes a number of takes before I can hit it out of the park. The problem for me is, I don't like to be hesitant in that spot, I'd rather put it out there and let it be a bit sloppy, as I'd rather at least take advantage of the playing opportunity then worry about whether someones going to judge the flaws in the first or second run.

The atmosphere was right to give some of the stuff a try and I think it sounded really good. I picked the order, so I was able to mix in the new stuff, with things I knew really effectively, and by the time I told them I was out of ideas, I got the impression they were fairly impressed that we had went through 2 hours of playing.

We talked for a bit afterwards and I have to say, I like the guys, it's a nice group and they seem to really fit with my personality. They let me know afterwards, they had one more audition coming in, but expected to be getting back to me soon. I typically don't want to get my hopes up, but unfortunately after the nice session, I already am. This would be a very good fit if I'm the choice. Of course if things work out, I'll be talking about it here. If nothing else, I'm feeling a bit re-energized in my pursuit of a singing spot if they decide to go in another direction. I questioned before this audition whether or not my heart was still in it, but after last nights session, I'm convinced I still have a lot of passion to sing.

"But wait, there's more!" Ginsu knives!!

2011-06-07T09:05:00.008-04:00

Before Billy Mays and OxiClean, the catchphrase in the 1980's of TV infomercials was "But wait, there's more." In the early 80's you couldn't watch TV without seeing an ad for the Ginsu knives. They were the decade's "Snuggies" of kitchenware. As a child of the 80's, the Ginsu knives hold a special place in my memories, along with "Where's the Beef" and Michael Jackson being black.

The Ginsu knife commercials were as over the top as the 1980's were. The knives could do everything and there was no need to sharpen them, ever. Here's a commercial I found on YouTube for the 90's version of the Ginsu knife.

Imagine my surprise then, when a couple of months ago, I noticed one of my steak knives was the legendary Ginsu 2000.

Unfortunately, this is the only one of its kind in my collection and in truth I have no idea how it got there. After discovering this treasure, I realized that I was in a unique position to test this wondrous creation. I have not bought or sharpened a knife in at least 10 years. I know this because, prior to living with my wife, I'm not even sure I owned knives and it's been 12 years since we moved in together. I also know we haven't bought or received any knives since at least our wedding shower, which was over 10 years ago as well. This is the opportunity I've been waiting for my whole life. I'm going to get to see if the Ginsu knife can cut a can after 10 years of wear and tear and never having been sharpened.

Here's our victim.

Not a clean cut like the commercial, but the knife made it through, and definitely 'cut' the can. But wait, there's more.

I was out of tomatoes, so I ran the knife through an apple. It cuts the same as it did before I cut the can. "Amazing"

Truth in advertising!

I can now put this childhood memory to rest, safe in the knowledge that the decade of the excess (the 1980's) was an innocent decade rife with technological advances like the Ginsu knife.

*side note* No, I wasn't going to try and cut a nail or a lead pipe, are you crazy? This is the friggin' Ginsu knife. Of course it can cut through a lead pipe or a nail, it probably would slice through my finger too if I tried to cut those, just out of spite for taunting it. :)

Retraction for Cleveland Festivals

2011-06-07T08:36:00.003-04:00

As I've pointed out before, I'm more then willing to admit when I'm wrong. Last Friday in my Friday thoughst post, I praised the Columbus Asian festival for its authenticity and took a shot at Cleveland's typical festivals (at least the ones I regularly attended).

I made a broad generalization in saying that most Cleveland festivals I attended often lacked vendors that fit with the theme of the festival. I was called out on it and referred to the a link for the Cleveland Asian Festival, which appears to be organized in a similar fashion to the Columbus festival and certainly looks like the organizers have done a great job on engaging local Asian businesses for participation and maintaining their theme throughout the festival.

So, if you are in Cleveland or Columbus in May and have a craving for some Asian food, now there are two places you can go.

Ever wonder how things would be?

2011-06-06T09:25:00.003-04:00

Over the weekend, I seemed to have many dream filled sleep sessions, and while I can't remember specifics of those dreams. I can remember waking up Sunday morning, with a question, I thought I'd write about.

It's actually a couple of questions.

1. How would everyday life change if something epic happened?
2. What would the coverage of said event be like?
3. How would the world change?

The first thing I need to do is define what I mean by epic. In this case, I'm talking about something that defies rational thought, something spectacular that has the ability to change our perception of the world. In this case I'm not referring to catastrophes (Hurricane Katrina devastation, Japan tsunami, or nuclear meltdown) or acts of war (September 11th attack or Oklahoma City Bombing). Those things definitely change the way we think and act, but not in the way I'm wondering about right here.

What I mean by epic, is something akin to finding out the world isn't flat or isn't at the center of the universe, but in a more significant way.

Here's an example of some of the things I'm thinking about.

1. What if some religious miracle happened and was completely visible?
2. What if there was some confirmation of aliens, whether by contact or some sort of attack?
3. What if something happened to the earth that made the scale of Japan's tsunami or Hurricane Katrina pale in comparison? (i.e. a global event)

There are a ton of other epic style events, I'm sure people could come up with. I wonder how the world would react and how life would change, if it did at all?

I know a lot of it depends on the act and the fallout from it, but it's something I used to wonder about as a child/teenager and I was just thinking about it this weekend.

Personally, I'd find it fascinating to see how things develop, I have a strong affinity for chaos in social systems and something epic would be the epitome of this on a global scale.

There is a part of me that believes that not much would actually change though if something happened, or at least not much in the day to day life of the masses. From my view, large change to the social conscious is something that takes some time. That time can be affected by the size of the event; however it's still a fairly slow change.

Anyway, that's my random, irrelevant question for the day. Feel free to share any thoughts in comments.

Friday Thoughts 6/3/2011

2011-06-03T08:46:00.005-04:00

I find myself growing increasingly busy and it' s not looking good for the next couple months. So while I have a number of posts that I'm thinking about, I'm afraid all I have time for at the moment is a top 10 of thoughts.

1. Jim Tressel, coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team, resigned this week. On a personal level, I could care less, college football has never been one of my favorite sports. From a sociological level, I've been fascinated by the town's reaction and sports talk discussion. I'd say before the resignation there was a definite feeling in the Columbus community that he should either be fired or resign. I must say I was shocked by this sentiment. For a town that lives and breathes based on Ohio State Football in a similar way to what Cleveland does with their pro sports teams, I couldn't understand why they'd be so quick to dump the coach that led their team to a championship. The best assumption I can make is that they care far more for the program then the coach and cannot fathom the possibility of big sanctions against the program. That seemed to be the argument in favor of getting rid of Tressel. Compare that with the mentality in Cleveland, where we idolize players and coaches and make them our own, no matter what type of trouble they get into, and if they are really good or win us a championship, the town adopts them as a permanent icon. Cleveland's the town that after Albert Belle came back from his alcohol problem and then proceeded to hit a fan in the chest with a baseball, gave him a standing ovation the next day (and we loved and protected him until he turned his back on us). The list of flawed superstars that we take as our own is fairly long, Jim Brown, Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle, Bernie Kosar, Robby Alomar, Art Modell, and Lebron James. Jim Tressel if he won a championship in Cleveland, would have buildings and roads named after him immediately and I can guarantee most of the talk there wouldn't have been he needs to go (unless of course he turned his back on us, like a large number on the list above). I must admit I find this difference fascinating and a bit disheartening, Cleveland may have a lot of things wrong with it, but the fans loyalty and passion aren't one of them.

2. My daughter graduated pre-school yesterday. At first I thought it was sort of a ridiculous to have a ceremony for pre-school graduation, but as I sat there and watched them do their songs and show a slide show of pictures of the kids, I began to appreciate it. It's another step in her growing up, something I continue to not want to think about, but a thought that constantly drives me to make the most of the time now. In honor of her graduation, here's one of my favorite pictures of her.

This was a dress up evening, wearing her witch hat and Cinderella outfit. There's an innocence I think I captured in her expression.

3. I can't say enough good things about the pre-school my daughter has attended. The program they run there exceeded my expectations in every way. During college I worked as a child care admin. for a number of places. You learn a lot from the inside, including the fact that turnover is a huge issue for the programs and that organized teaching plans are often talked about and rarely implemented successfully. My daughter's pre-school does an excellent job on both fronts. Her main teacher has been there for 10 years and much of the staff has been there for many years as well, that's a tribute to their director, who has been there for 21 years. I couldn't have asked for a better setting for my daughter to learn in.

4. Dr. Jack Kevorkian died, for those that are old enough to remember, one of the most controversial people of the 90's, Dr. Kevorkian was the poster boy for physician assisted suicide. In my personal opinion, I believe physician assisted suicide should be allowed; however I've always been a bit repulsed by Dr. Kevorkian as I believe he had ulterior motives in his assistance. I believe he was a bit of a ghoul and took far too much pleasure in his actions. Of course this is all based on readings I've done and there is no shortage of personal bias in many of the articles I did read on him, however based on how I review things, my gut instinct tells me that Dr. Kevorkian had an agenda for himself in addition to 'assisting' others.

5. Uh oh, bad run for the Cleveland Indians right now. Here's hoping they pull out of it, or at least get some less then .500 teams to play against. Even with their bad run, they still own the best record in baseball (see what a good start does for you). On a lighter side, check out this story from the Onion, let me just say that whoever wrote this, captured the mentality of the Cleveland fan perfectly.

6. I have another audition scheduled for Wednesday, another one that I'm cautiously optimistic for. These guys definitely seem to have it together and there style is very similar to mine. I'm almost fearful of writing about this, as if I don't I can keep from getting my hopes up. There is a part of me that really wants to get something going with a band and another part that really hates the potential rejection. At least for now I still seem to be able to overcome the side that wants me to do nothing due to possible rejection.

7. Memorial day weekend was interesting, it was the first summer bbq weekend we have had down here in Columbus. It was kind of sad on some levels as we couldn't head over to see friends and family for an afternoon, and on the other hand it forced us to try and find some new type traditions to do. We wound up heading to the Asian Festival here in Columbus. I have to say it was pretty cool. The festival was laid out in the park by the conservatory, with stages set up for dance routines and martial arts. In addition they had two areas of vending set up, one with food and one with items for purchase. The food vending section was very impressive. If for no other reason then they had such a variety of Asian cuisines available. One of the things I used to hate about festivals in Cleveland, whether it be Irish, Italian, or any other nationality is that when you got there, there was a horrible selection of food representing the festival. You'd wind up with the same 4 gyro trucks at every festival and if you found something Italian it was usually pizza or Stromboli. Every vendor at the Asian festival had something interesting and there were a ton of Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese choices. The only bad thing about it, was the fact that it was about 95 degrees, a temperature that severely curbs my appetite.

8. Based on our enjoyment of the festival, I can see us going to a lot more of those over the summer, especially since there isn't a lot of room at the townhouse to relax and just hang outside. I will say that getting into Columbus is relatively easy and the festivals tend to be spread out all over the city, the one negative though is parking in downtown Columbus sucks.

9. I ordered four bottles of my favorite rum from online this week. My Cruzan Blackstrap has arrived, now the summer can officially begin. It's a great mixer for summer cocktails, although I like it straight up too, although I will say that most rum reviewers don't consider it anything special.

10. You would think after all of my drivel for the first 9 that coming up with a 10th point would be easy. You would be wrong. Oh wait, I guess this is my 10th point. Have a great weekend everyone.

Friday Thoughts 5/27/2011

2011-05-27T11:30:00.000-04:00

1. Well no rapture last Saturday, but wait, Harold Camping says he got it wrong (again) it's supposed to be October 21, 2011. Sometimes I just can't help but feel sorry for some people.

2. I've been debating all week whether to write a post about this or just include it in a Friday thought. I figured I've already droned on enough about my choices in clothes and current battle to get back in shape, so I decided on the Thoughts list. Anyway, I'm trying to decide whether I'm happy or sad, that I'm just a bit too large to fit into the suit I wanted to wear to my reunion. The suit is easily 10 yrs old and from a size standpoint, I'm just out of range on the pants, where the shirt fits fairly well and the jacket is just a bit tight. Considering that's 10+ years of maintaining, I'm thinking it's not bad. However, that may just be me rationalizing things. I don't think three weeks is going to be enough time to get into the shape I need to be in to fit in it, so it looks like I'm shopping this week.

3. More metrosexualish issues. In my new townhouse, I've found that the air conditioning and the heater are extremely dry, to the point, where I think my face maybe snakeskin. While I'm not quite at the point where I'm obsessing about it, it was starting to bother me. I have a rather high level of disdain for lotions, they always feel oily and seem to clog up my pores rather then moisturize them, even the branded Vasoline Mens lotion stinks, in my opinion. While stumbling over stuff for summer, I noticed a bottle of Aloe Vera. Voila, works perfect to moisturize, no clogging of pores causing me to relive my teenage pimple years, and it's not oily. I swear I look 5 years younger already a week after use. I swear it was about the dry skin, not the fact that I continue to age before my eyes.

4. The Indians lost a rough series vs the Red Sox this week and have another 9 tough games coming up. Sorry Dad, who has been chastising me for my posts on them, but this is going to be a rough stretch for them. The schedule has laid out perfectly for them so far this year. Although they are building a big enough lead to ride it to the end of the year, forcing other teams to play under a bit more pressure, I can't see this team making much noise if they make the playoffs.

5. My daughter started reading this week. I should say my daughter has been reading for my wife this week, every time I sit her down and see how she does, she pretends to not know what she's doing.

6. I still need to find a new hobby, I'm back playing poker once or twice a week and through 6 months, I have a very small negative amount invested. It's nice in that it takes my focus away completely from other things while I play, but I really only enjoy the tournaments for the way the area is made up and an early crash from a tourney means either play cash (which on some nights is nice, others not so much) or find something else to do.

7. I'm hoping June is a fantastic month for a lot of reasons.

8. I may have shared this before, but here's a nice sunny day cocktail. Cut and puree 4 mangoes (make sure they are soft and ripe). Add a bit of sugar to the puree. Freeze puree in ice cube tray. Take cubes and blend with vanilla ice cream and rum. Add ginger ale after initial mixture is blended.

9. I've found the choices in ice cream in Columbus to be woefully behind Cleveland's choices. This is very disheartening news for a hot summer.

10. This weekend marks the opening of our complexes pool, I intend to take advantage of it, if for no other reason then the fact, that I needed to do nothing in preparing it for use. (as opposed to the countless hours I spent prepping our pool for use in Cleveland.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Friday Thoughts 5/20/2011 Rapture edition

2011-05-20T12:05:00.005-04:00

It's been awhile, so here are my latest Friday thoughts.

1. The Indians continue to win games, but I'm starting to get real concerned that they have an issue beating good teams.

2. Spring is about 2 months old and for here in Ohio that's meant about 60 straight days of rain. 30 more days, and I'm heading to Home Depot in order to get supplies to build an ark.

3. I'm highly disappointed that Columbus seems to be surrounded by farm country, yet we seem to have no type of farmer's markets or stands that have quality produce. It's bizarre.

4. If you watch "Fringe" and haven't seen the season finale, you may want to skip this one, but I'll try and talk without providing any spoilers.

If you watched the finale, what are your thoughts on it? I will say this, if the character that appears to be gone from the show truly is, then I think the show loses it's essence.

5. So Rapture is tomorrow 5/21/2011. As a heathen I'll either be remaining behind or sent to some fiery domain. It's definitely something that I could get upset about but then I realized I'm likely to be with a fairly large amount of family and friends.

6. If you actually believed it was Rapture tomorrow, what would you do tonight? If it was me, I'd be worried that I'd oversleep and miss the 'event'. I'd also be a bit pissed in not knowing what time it was supposed to start tomorrow. It's no different then the guy who never sets the time for his party to start "Oh man, come over any time it's cool" you know it pisses you off for a simple party, think about what it means for end of times.

7. One tip to Kirk Cameron. If you are going to argue with one of the greatest minds of our century in the media, then it's probably a good idea to think about what you are going to say to the media prior to doing so. Your emotionally based incoherent response to Stephen Hawking's statement that included obscure references to John Lennon was magnificently idiotic in it's content.

8. If the Rapture actually happened and 200 million just up and disappeared tomorrow. I don't care what this articles says, the economy would benefit. Evangelists would be all over the place selling things. Also think of all the food and gun sales and all of the advertising dollars talk radio, CNN, and Fox News would get. If it does happen, I'm starting my new job as an Evangelist on Monday. I may be doomed to hell but if I am, I'm going out in style.

9. For the next cool world event, I'm hoping Velociraptors make a comeback.

10. Just in case my sarcasm hasn't come across in my writing, I don't actually believe tomorrow will be the end of the world or any Rapture event. And in closing, I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Things I think about: Outfit choice for 20 year reunion

2011-05-19T11:46:00.006-04:00

I'm a shade under 30 days until my 20 year high school reunion. I've already documented my new work out plan that I've been on for the past month, which is still going very well; however, I have a new dilemma.

What the hell do I wear? Anyone familiar with my blog or me, has probably noted that I'm a bit of nutcase when it comes to clothes. It's not that I have to have designer brands or anything, it's just that I'm very particular in my style.

The reunion is stressing me out for a number of reasons.

1. It's in the summer, and I really hate summer clothes. Due to the fact that I have monkey arms that appear exaggerated when I wear short sleeves. It is a semi-casual event and it's at night, so I can probably get by wearing long sleeves and will, but my choices are still limited due to it being summer, my favorite clothes are best fit for fall and winter.

2. I'm guessing that this is a semi-formal affair (what the hell does that even mean?). The invitation doesn't seem to specify, but I remember reading it somewhere. I have no doubt that many will show up in business casual attire. My business casual style is typically a bit heavier then average, and my semi-formal is likely to be as well. The key here is trying to refrain from going over the top with things. I'm used to and comfortable being 1 level above others, the potential here is to be 2 levels above though, which is not what I want to do.

3. I know the reason I'm stressing about this. I've documented it before, but to say I was a nerd in high school would be putting it mildly. I remember my outfit choices being decided on what was least likely to get picked on and what I was most comfortable in. (I was 320lbs at that point and a late bloomer, so in truth there was very little I was comfortable in). I know there is a pressing desire to be a bit extravagant in this case. Extravagant isn't really my style, so I need to guard against it. This adds to the pressure of striking the right chord.

In truth, I have very little concern for what everyone else might think of my outfit, but it matters to me. I want it to convey a message of who I am now and I want to be comfortable in the outfit. It sets the right tone with me and should allow me to be comfortable in having discussions during the evening.

So what am I going to wear? I have one outfit that I'm hesitant to try on at this point, which is a dark blue sport coat and matching pants, that I can pair with a dark shirt (sort of a signature). I'm hesitant to try it on, because it's been awhile since I wore it and if it doesn't look right, I'm back at square one. It's also potentially a bit too formal, although it's nice enough that it can appear a bit more casual (if that makes any sense).

I'm likely to try that outfit on today to get a feel for it and make a decision. If it's adequate, I have half of the issue solved, the other half will then be what to wear to the casual mixer the night before. (Crap!!!)

I should note if I haven't already in another post. This reunion isn't really important to me in the same manner it probably is for most of those attending. I only knew most of the people in my class for 4 years due to us moving prior to my entering high school. I don't have the same emotional investment many of my friends have that grew up with some of these people and spent 20 yrs with them and then lost contact. I also have kept in contact with a fair number of people over those 20 years. The reunion itself is more of a milestone for me, almost a transition or a rite of passage, to hopefully let my mind wrap itself around the fact, that I'm not 20 yrs old anymore.

Personal Nature: Thinking about tattoo(s)

2011-05-16T09:35:00.002-04:00

I've been looking over some tattoo designs lately. I currently don't have one, but I can remember wanting one since high school. I'm getting very close to finding the design that I want for it.

I realized something as I was looking over designs, it happened when my wife mentioned that she was ready for her second tattoo. I realized that our processes on deciding tattoos was extremely reflective of some of our personality traits.

Let me explain.

My wife got her first tattoo a couple years ago, it's a small symbol on the side of her back. It's a small conservative tattoo; however to my wife it's her pushing the envelope. I should note my wife doesn't entirely agree with me, to her, the size of her tattoo is relative to her size, and I'm not disagreeing with that fact. I did point out to her, that she did choose a basic symbol about the size of the quarter in a spot where she can't ever view it without a mirror. If you know my wife, it's what you would expect from her. It's my wife's attempt at being 'edgy', however much like her personality it still comes off as cute. She can't help it, she's cute and doesn't really have the mentality to be 'edgy'.

So let's move to me. I've been thinking about this for years, however I've only gotten serious about it in the last couple years. There are a couple reasons for this:

1. There is a real possibility that this is the only one I will ever get or want.
2. It needs to be almost perfect, meeting all of the things I want it to express.
3. It needs to be fairly large and bold.
4. I'm expecting it to be fairly intricate.
5. I'm almost 40, if I'm going to do it, it needs to be done now.

As I've looked at this, I realized that this is exactly how I go about large decisions to which I would consider 'risky'. (Note I use the term risky for this situation due to not knowing how I'll feel about having one, so for it being my first, I assign it risk)

Since there is very little time pressure on the decision, my decision making process for something that's a big deal (to me) is exactly how I would expect it to be. A slow, comprehensive process, with the end results expected to be perfect, bold, complex, and noticeable. Now whether that actually comes through or not, will depend of course on the tattoo. It should also be pointed out, that this whole discussion just adds fuel to the argument that I can elevate a seemingly simple decision into something epic. I'm well aware of this character flaw, but as you can see I rather enjoy indulging it.

Going forward, I'm considering this a fairly useful tool to apply in my thought process in meeting people and trying to understand how they approach things. It's certainly not an exact science, but as a student of human nature, I find it a potentially valuable piece of information, that I maybe able to utilize someday. I also have a reference point in comparison to myself and my wife, that I didn't have from basic stereotypes for those with tattoos, which is the reason this is something I could potentially utilize going forward. Without that reference point, I probably wouldn't use it at all, as stereotypes tend to be far too general to apply to understanding of an individual, in my opinion.

Just for the re-clickers

2011-05-10T13:02:00.006-04:00

One of the problems with having a blog that has a format of day in the life, is that updates suffer when either there is nothing to talk about or there is too much to talk about. I'm sort of in between both of those things right now. There's a lot going on, but not much to write about. I also hate going to long without posting something, since I know as a regular reader, I'd much rather read random updates then see nothing new.

So for all of you who follow, here's what's been happening lately.

I'm just beginning week 6 of the workout challenge. I'm at 22 workouts at the moment, about 1 ahead of pace of what I had planned (4 workouts per week for 11 weeks). I was ahead by 3, but ran into a sinus infection last week and a trip up to Cleveland that threw me off schedule. Luckily I had a little cushion. The workouts are going well, but not exactly seeing the results I hoped for at this point, which means I was worse off then I had anticipated, hopefully I'll be un rounding into shape here soon. I did scrap the 10 workout before shave criteria. The stubble was bothering me after about 5-6 days and since I was on schedule, it seemed like an unnecessary motivator.

The family received some good news this week, the wife had her contract renewed for the 2011-2012 school year, so for at least another year, we'll be here in Columbus. We are still working out whether we are going to stay in the townhouse or try to find something different, my bet is we stay in the townhouse. It's not the biggest place, but we do have some room to breathe here and the neighbors are entertaining, although not as much as my former street in Cleveland.

Car troubles seem to be the biggest current headache, still trying to find enough time to get our car that was hit an run on the driver's door into the shop for repairs. On top of that, my wife hit a pot hole (trench) last week, that destroyed the tire and rim. Since I decided not to take it to the dealer, due to the ridiculous prices I saw from them on last tire replacement, I now have 1 new rim and 3 factory ones on the car. (I seem to be adjusting to life in Grovetucky very well. It should be noted that the term Grovetucky is what residents of Columbus, proper, have told me that my current city is called by most) (The good news is that the new rim looks great on the car and once I have the money to get the other three put on, I may force the wife to drive the older car :) )

The news that I've been keeping 'secret' for some time now and that has been consuming a large part of my daily life (and anxiety) is the fact that we are in negotiations with our bank on our house in Cleveland for a short sale on the property. If it gets completed, it will be a huge deal for us and I hope to write more about it at the conclusion of the process.

That's it for now, the weather's starting to turn nice, which will likely correlate with the number of posts I manage to get to, we'll see how things go.

My thoughts on the death of Osama Bin Laden

2011-05-02T00:14:00.002-04:00

5/1/2011: The president of the United States comes up to the podium and announces that United States military forces, stormed a compound in Pakistan and killed Osama Bin Laden and took possession of the body which was confirmed as Osama Bin Laden.

We are close to the 10 year anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the United States in New York and Washington. (I put flight 93 under the Washington column, but that's a topic for another day). Within days after September 11th, Osama Bin Laden was pointed too as the leader of Al Qaeda and the person who ok'd the September 11th attacks. It was the first time the average American became aware of who Osama Bin Laden was or Al Qaeda for that matter.

Over the course of the next 9 years, we put a 25 million dollar bounty on his head, had rumors of close captures (Tora Bora), and a variety of other news related stories, but we failed to capture or kill him during that time.

I'm very happy that the US Military was finally able to kill Osama Bin Laden. The fact that they recovered his body and did it with troops on the ground is also a testament to an understanding that PR was as important in this case as was the mission itself. It's the best scenario the US Military could have hoped for outside of killing him in the same manner 6 months after the September 11th attacks.

I'm watching the news coverage and I see a huge crowd outside of the White House celebrating the news and I'm a bit concerned. Osama Bin Laden was a face of terrorism, but a large part of him being that face was due to the American Government's interest in him, in many senses we assisted in creating this 'legend' of sorts. (I won't go into the details of Bin Laden being trained by American forces for the guerrilla fights in Soviet occupied Afghanistan). My concern is that the average American thinks of this as a bigger victory then it is. This isn't like killing a leader of a nation or ending a war with atomic bombs (like Japan and WWII). Al Qaeda itself is a loose based organization that takes direction from different people, Bin Laden just happened to be their most famous member. My fear is the average American doesn't realize this and thinks something has ended.

It hasn't, while it's a victory for sides against terrorism, it doesn't stop it and might even provoke more acts of terrorism in retaliation. Maybe I'm just difficult to please. Maybe it's the fact that I feel like we as Americans don't pay enough attention to things like this before they happen in a situation like September 11th. The fact that the US Cole attacks were associated with Al Qaeda, the previous World Trade Center attempted attacks were Al Qaeda driven, or the fact that Osama Bin Laden was fairly infamous already before the 9/11 attacks. (President Clinton authorized at least one missle attack against a compound where they believed Osama Bin Laden was).

As I said, maybe it's just me over worrying things, it wouldn't be the first time I did something like that, but there's something about seeing people jump up and down outside of the White House like WWII just ended that sits wrong with me. I feel like there is too high a possibility that in the days that follow they are ultimately going to be disappointed as in the scheme of things, I don't think this is going to have a big impact on terrorism, Al Qaeda, or any other terrorist organization. I hope I'm wrong in this case.

I'm happy about the news, and I'm glad other Americans are happy too, a lot of things over the past couple years are directly and indirectly related to that day, so it is nice to have something to 'celebrate', I just don't hope people realize that this is only a small part of things that still need to be done (in relation to terrorism, I really hope they know the other things need a lot more work)

Cleveland Indians Fast Start

2011-04-18T11:16:00.002-04:00

The Indians are off to a fast start and making my predictions look bad. As a fan of the team I couldn't be more happy. I want to qualify some things though about this fast start.

The Good

1. This team is fundamentally sign, possibly the most fundamentally sound team I've seen in all of the years that I've followed the team 30+. Manny Acta has done a tremendous job of getting the players to buy into the philosophy of playing fundamental ball and Mark Shapiro should be given credit for emulating the Minnesota Twins organization as this team looks a lot like successful Twins teams of the past.

2. The starting pitching has been very good. The good starters have been great and the fringe starters have been good. A lot of credit goes to the organization and coaching as not only are they showing that they can manage big league pitching (Masterson's career progress looks a lot like Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona) they are showing that they can repeat the process. Big kudos to Tim Belcher who seems to have the pitchers following his guidance.

3. The stars of this team aren't hitting yet. Shin Soo-Choo and Carlos Santana have not gotten off to good starts and Grady Sizemore is just coming back. This is a perfect scenario as Choo and Sizemore should hit and when the fast starters fall back to earth some, this team should continue to hit, which means they should at the least play .500 ball at that point. That's good news.

4. Confidence is one of the most important things a baseball team can have. Good starts and things going right lead to more confidence and create an environment where talent can come through. A good start does wonders for players like Matt LaPorta, Carlos Carrasco, and Michael Brantley allowing them to press less and adjust to the big leagues. This is a huge plus for a team like this.

5. Chris Perez is a month or so away from being considered an elite closer. The organization hasn't ever had one (Doug Jones who was not anything special is the best closer in team history). Perez is bringing a dominance to the back of the bullpen that is allowing the team as a whole to relax. Perez is shortening games for this team and truly coming into his own.

6. Great April starts give teams chances to be competitive throughout the year. Pundits swear that April means nothing, they lie. April means a lot and part of it is confidence and part of it is the nature of a long season. 10-15 games above .500 at the end of the month would be huge for this team. The likelihood that they are a .500 team in talent means that it's just as likely they play .500 for the rest of the year as it is that they regress to 15 games under .500. 15 games above .500 in the Central Division puts them squarely in the playoff race. It's also a lot easier to be in front of teams in the standing then it is to be behind. Want an example, a 7 game lead for a team means that the chasing team needs to go 21-0 vs the team in the lead going 14-7 over a 21 game stretch, even if you draw it out farther it's harder then it seems to make up ground. Baseball is typically played in 3 game sets and if you play hot baseball taking 2 of 3 from teams over a long stretch (.660 win %) you still need the team you are chasing to completely fall apart because if they win 1 of 3 for a period of time, you still need 21 games just to catch them. That's close to one month of the season and assuming those things happen. Not an easy task.

Now let's talk about the bad.

1. This team has little depth a couple injuries and it could hurt them a lot. There already is a potential problem with starter Mitch Talbot. Another starting pitching injury would really hurt this team especially since it's unlikely that the 3, 4, and 5 starters aren't going to continue this pace.

2. The haven't played very good teams yet. The two good teams they've played they are 2-4 against. It's great they are playing 9-0 ball vs bad teams or teams in slumps but that can't continue. This isn't overly concerning though but they need to play .500 ball against good teams then beat up the bad teams.

3. A number of players are off to fast starts that aren't sustainable. Justin Masterson is unlikely to win a Cy Young this year, it's inevitable he falls back to earth, the same with Asdrubal Cabrera, the good news though is that there are some stars that can pick up the slack, but that's still speculation that they will.

In conclusion there are many more good things then bad things right now to talk about. Manny Acta is earning my respect for the way he is handling this team and it was absolutely necessary for the team to get off to a fast start. (Eric Wedge managed to get his teams off to a fast start once and even then it was only a decent start and they made the AL Championship series). A fast start will let them build confidence and should bring fans to the games which will help the demeanor of the team and allow the pressure to remain low, a great thing for a developing team.

I'm cautiously optimistic, although disappointed I can neither watch or listen to the games as I'm currently running a streak of my own, when I listen on the radio or watch the game on TV the Indians are 0-4, when I only check the score after the game they are 11-0. Far be it for me to stand in the way of progress, so until they lose without me watching, I've resigned myself to the fact that I can only view from afar. 158-4 here we come.

Friday Thoughts 4/15/2011

2011-04-15T09:09:00.002-04:00

A lot of thoughts running through my head over the last couple weeks. Nothing large enough for a full post, which means I'll cheat and fit them in on Friday Thoughts. Apologies in advance for being cryptic or not going into detail on a couple of the things, but I'm being cautious on a couple things that are happening right now, I'll share more as they resolve.

1. We have some movement on the home front in Cleveland. This is the issue I'm going to be cryptic on but we are in process on some things and I hope to share more as things resolve. I can say it's driving the anxiety level up quite nicely.

2. I seem to have developed an addiction to mangoes lately, they are quite awesome. A good reminder to try something new and to try something again after not liking it the first time as you might not have gotten the best product.

3. Workouts are going well. Once I go this afternoon, I'll be at 10 workouts over 2 weeks, and expect to go tomorrow too, so I'll be +3 two weeks into my schedule, I like having the buffer of a couple days ahead of schedule in case something happens. The sad news is I'm not seeing results as quickly as I was hoping for, realistically I know the reasons why, it's just that I was far worse off then I would admit for where I was physically.

4. I try to stay balanced on the blog in regards to political issues, and I'm not going to change now, but I would like to point out to all of those that go into an uproar as soon as they hear the word tax, that all taxes are not created equal. It would seem fair for a company to pay a fair share of tax on 5.2 billion in profits wouldn't it? G.E balanced tax article

5. My brother brought up a good point in discussions this week on income taxes and whether raising them is a good idea or not (particularly for the 250k+ earners). One thing to consider when those taxes are raised for that bracket, people tend to spend more then on things as they fund their write offs in order to bring the tax burden down. When they have that percentage they retain for doing nothing, that money does not in fact trickle down, they keep it in their pockets. Interesting theory and I can't say I disagree with it. As an added twist I'll point out my brother tends to lean Republican in his views and I Democratic. Our discussion was in amazement to people we know that aren't pulling in a lot of income that seem to have an opinion on whether a raise in taxes for 250k+ is a good idea or not. I can also confirm that my brother and I aren't in that level either or close to it, so it's easier to say it should be raised for someone else, but it's some food for thought.

6. Sticking to the tax issue, most I hear arguments from seem to believe that they essentially should pay nothing, I do wonder sometimes whether they realize what they are arguing and about the fact that there are services they benefit from for the taxes. A person making $25k a year would seem to be benefiting from services that exist today that I'm not sure there income equates too, so I do wonder whether they actually understand their position on whether some taxes should be increased.

7. Back to something dopey, we watched "Tangled" last weekend, daughter and wife had saw it already but it was my first time seeing it. I have to say it's probably my second favorite Disney movie of all time. The first would be Aladdin, maybe it's the fact that the story focused on male characters as much as female or the females in both movies were more real to me, but either way I enjoyed it.

8. I was rejected for another internal position this week. I've been going through numerous interviews and applications internally for some time now and haven't caught a break with it. The recession messed up the typical three year and move cycle, so I'm really hoping something breaks though here soon. In other news I celebrated my 12th year with my current company this week. I'm sort of amazed by this fact as it's a company I would have never imagined I would be employed by and as things go, I fully intend to retire with the company and likely have a good opportunity to do so. Not exactly something that exists a lot anymore. 13 more years until my gold watch.

9. I've written before that I'm a pizza snob and have been highly disappointed in the Columbus offerings so far. So much so that my default is Pizzeria Unos, and while it's a chain, at least I know what I'm getting and I enjoy it, they also offer a fantastic takeout deal down here. Two large deep dish with three toppings for $20, and while they aren't true deep dish it's a pretty awesome pizza.

10. I find it interesting to see who the opposing parties march out for elections against incumbents. Typically if you look at things, they aren't particularly fond of putting their strongest candidates forward. It appears that's going to be the case this time as well. I can tell you this there is no way Donald Trump or Newt Gingrich win the next presidential election and if they are the Republican candidate, then the Republican leadership knows they can't win it anyway. I'll also add God help us all if Donald Trump ever became president, although I'm guessing political cartoonists would be very happy and so would Saturday Night Live, can you imagine the skits??

Cue the music!

2011-04-05T08:49:00.003-04:00

I've made references before to my 20 year reunion coming up and for those that have read my blog from the beginning, you maybe aware from my writing that in high school I wasn't exactly in shape. (I was a shape it was round)

As of today I have 73 days left to my reunion, a little longer then 10 weeks. This last week I finally signed up for a gym here in the area and I made my first visit yesterday. I've tasked myself with 44 trips to the gym in those 73 days. A trip would be classified as an hour at the gym. My routine is typically where I visit for about and hour and a half, a trip like that would count as one visit. The hour minimum is to allow me to take it a bit easier on some days where I just do 60 minutes of cardio vs any weight work.

I'm counting on the fact that since I left high school, I've probably spent 9 months out of every year since then in a regular workout routine on average. The nice thing about that is it makes it easier to get back on schedule and I have a fair amount of muscle memory from that time, that I'm counting on to get me into a good place after this 10 week run.

To make the training interesting and to try and inspire(punish) myself a bit, I've decided that I will allow my beard to grow in tribute to Rocky through the training. I'm adding the stipulation that I can shave it after 10 workouts throughout the 10 weeks. (and of course I'll have it shaved prior to the reunion.) I despise the unshaven look and can't stand the feeling of it, so I'm looking at this as some negative reinforcement. Of course I have not shared this with the wife yet, so it maybe more negative reinforcement then I expect.

I also will be shying away from weighing myself through this training period. In truth I don't care much about what I weigh anymore. After doing this for so long, I know that I'm only going to obsess over the weight and this really isn't about this. I know how hard I need to push to start losing the weight I want and I know what I need to do to start tightening up the other areas. It doesn't hurt that I know by feeling, what a 'good weight' for me is or how well the training is helping me re-develop.

I'll be updating the results in my Friday posts unless something more interesting comes up in the meantime. Maybe I'll even throw in a pic of the beard.

My brother told me years after I set out to lose my weight, that he couldn't believe how driven and focused I was on the task. I'm trying to recapture a bit of that for this, if I can't capture it for this, I'm not sure I'll ever capture it again for working out.

Baseball Predictions for 2011 (NL)

2011-04-04T14:03:00.000-04:00

National League

Eastern Division Winner:

1. Atlanta Braves
2. Philadelphia Phillies
3. Florida Marlins
4. New York Mets
5. Washington Nationals

The Atlanta Braves are my pick to win the division. The combination of young players with super star ability along with some savvy veterans makes them my pick for the division. The Phillies pitching staff is good, but it's not exactly young, one or two of these pitchers could break down rather easily. The rest of the Phillies offense has similar issues in regards to age. Florida continues to develop talent and every couple years they put it together for a World Series championship, it won't happen again this year, but there are some interesting players to watch on the team. New York is a mess right now and the Nationals are making some progress to being a professional organization that develops talent and might even compete in 2-3 years.

Central Division

1. Milwaukee Brewers
2. Cincinnati Reds
3. St. Louis Cardinals
4. Houston Astros
5. Pittsburgh Pirates

The top three spots in this division is a toss up. I put the Brewers there based on their aggressive off season moves. They've worked to acquire some pitching to go along with their powerful lineup. Unfortunately for the start of the season some of that pitching is hurt, if it comes around though, this will be a tough team to beat. The Reds are continuing to get better and based on the talent and age of this team, they should be here for the next 5 years. They still need to have their pitchers develop a bit, but this is the team no one wants to see in their division for the next couple years with their lineup. St. Louis lost their ace in spring training for the year, this hurts, but Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan always manage to cope with putting a pitching staff together and this team will score runs if only because of Albert Pujols. Houston and Pittsburgh are afterthoughts, I was tempted to place the Pirates higher then the Astros, but as one of the three worst organizations in baseball over the last 10+ years, I just couldn't do it.

Western Division

1. Colorado Rockies
2. San Francisco Giants
3. Arizona Diamondbacks
4. Los Angeles Dodgers
5. San Diego Padres

The Giants are defending champions and the Rockies are up and coming. I'm going with my gut here and picking the Rockies, the lineup has two of the best players in the division (Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez), they also have a bunch of young fireballers in the rotation that are in various stages of development, with Ubaldo Jimenez on the brink of a Cy Young season. The Giants by virtue of their World Series win and their young pitching staff and ROY Buster Posey are very dangerous, but I have concerns that their patchwork offense can work the same magic again this year and give the nod to the Rockies. The Diamondbacks and Dodgers both have some pieces, but they also have a lot of holes. The Padres are rebuilding, last time they rebuilt they were one win away from making the playoffs. It won't happen this time, but this organization does know how to rebuild quickly.

Wild Card team:
San Francisco Giants: the Phillies get a lot of buzz for their rotation, but the Giants rotation is better, plus the Giants put it all together last year. Count on the Giants young hitters continuing to get better and the Phillies hitters to continue to get older and more nicked up.

Surprising team:
Atlanta Braves, they win this spot as they beat out the consensus team for their division championship in the Phillies. The Braves have once again retooled and their pitching isn't even at the point of where it could be. Watch out in a couple years for a couple of their pitchers, they may make another 10 year division run in the East.

Upcoming team to keep an eye on:
Cincinnati Reds, there is a load of talent on this team in it's lineup. Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, Joey Votto and potentially Drew Stubbs all could be high end All Stars for many years. Add in a mix of young pitchers and you have the recipe for a nice long run for a mid market team. If the pitching doesn't develop, they'll have trouble, but considering they won the division last year with average pitching, they can do a lot if the players develop beyond average.

Most Valuable Player:
Prince Fielder, Milwaukee Brewers: he doesn't get the recognition Albert Pujols or Ryan Howard does, but Fielder is one of the top players in the NL in a contract year and a very solid lineup around him. Look for him to put it all together this year.

Cy Young:
Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado Rockies: Jimenez lost the Cy Young last year, he wasn't beaten for it. He started out with a 15-1 record and dominated hitters and then had a very bad run to end the year which pushed him behind Roy Halladay. Halladay had a very good year and a lot of media focus due to his trade before the season. Young pitchers tend to have things like this happen at times though, so outside of an arm injury, look for Jimenez to put a full season together.

Rookie of the Year:
Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds: Chapman is starting out the season as a reliever and based on the fact that he might average a strikeout an inning that still might be enough to win him the award. Last year had a great crop of rookies and most came through very nicely. This year has some nice candidates (Brandon Belt SF and Freddie Freeman ATL) but I'm taking a shot that those two might struggle a bit, leaving the door open for someone with impressive power numbers, which Chapman should have. This pick is a total shot in the dark though based on a hunch that Belt and Freeman struggle and no one else breaks out.

Comeback/Most Improved Player of the year:
Carlos Beltran, New York Mets: I'll choose Beltran as the comeback player of the year, based on his talent and the fact that he's been sidelined for so long.

Manager of the year:
Fredi Gonzalez, Atlanta Braves: Gonzalez gets the nod over Jim Tracy of the Rockies, due to the Braves recapturing the NL East and beating the Phillies and knocking them completely out of the playoffs.

Friday Thoughts 4/1/2011

2011-04-01T10:02:00.003-04:00

1. It's opening day in Cleveland, I'm taking a half day off work and heading up to Cleveland for the weekend, should be a fun time. We won't be going to the game, but we will be out in the city for the afternoon/night.

2. My baseball NL preview won't be up until next week. Too many work things got in the way. I'll tease my division winners though. East: Atlanta Central: Milwaukee West: Colorado

3. I have some more father dilemma stuff to right about. My daughter had her first run in with being laughed at for something. I have a ton of thoughts on this, just have to find some time to get them down.

4. I turned 38 this week, why am I still having such a hard time believing I'm that old. I have some thoughts on that too if I ever get around to it.

5. Senate Bill 5 was passed in Ohio by the legislature this week. Now it's up to the opponents to gather 240,000+ signatures from 40 different counties by July 1 in order to make it a referendum on the ballot for November. I don't think that's going to be a problem and there's still a lot to come in regards to this issue.

6. Things like Senate Bill 5 and the struggles of some of my friends right now, had me feeling like the Rebellion at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

7. VCU and Temple being in the Final Four for college basketball is good for the sport in my opinion. If one of them wins the Championship, I think others may come around to that thinking as well.

8. Is ESPN relevant to sports discussions anymore?

9. My two favorite writers for baseball are Peter Gammons (MLB.com) and John Heyman (SI.com). Gammons I consider to be one of the most knowledgeable baseball columnists around, you can learn a lot from reading his columns. For those in Cleveland your best bet for baseball knowledge is on the radio with Greg Brinda (ESPN-850 WKNR).

10. I had to remove a couple blog links to the right. I've had some confirmation of one writer, who's decided to take some time away from blogging and another friend who I believe is focusing on a book rather then the blog.

Baseball predictions for 2011 (Cleveland Indians)

2011-03-30T08:37:00.003-04:00

(This post is pretty rough and I've had no time to go through and take a look at it's formatting or layout, so bear with me, I'll be cleaning it up in a couple days or so, but I wanted to get the content out there prior to the start of the season and then get working on the NL preview, so my apologies for the sloppiness of it, but at least I wanted to let you know I had a reason for doing it this way.)

My home town (well previously) team, the Cleveland Indians. I've followed them throughout my life and experienced the awful years between 1978 and 1990. It was truly bad then. Thankfully there have been a lot of good years since 1990, a lot of excitement and a lot of talent that has made it's way through the city.

I'll get to the team, but let me start with the front office. Hank Peters came in during the early 90's and changed the face of the organization. He focused on implementing the "Oriole" way (which Peter Angelos has ruined during his ownership, but that's another discussion). The "Oriole" way was meant to build an organization, develop it's own coaches, managers, front office people, and to apply a philosophy to the minor league development of players. John Hart was Peter's hand picked successor to his spot and Hart continued to build on that philosophy and did some amazing things that many small market teams utilize today to stay competitive. They built a strong organization as evidenced by the success during the 90's and 00's and by the number of players and organizational people that have passed through the Cleveland and branched out to other Major League teams. (Dan O'Dowd, Neal Hunnington, Bud Black, John Farrel, Josh Byrnes, Eric Wedge, Buck Showalter, Paul DePodesta, etc.) Now some like Showalter were not developed by the organization or given their chance by the team, but they came through and were advisers, scouts, coaches, or front office people and were used to contribute their knowledge to the organization. Here's a 2007 article on the disciples of John Hart.

When John Hart left, he appointed Mark Shapiro as his successor. Shapiro's teams have had some limited success on the field and he has continued developing front office people for other organizations. Shapiro moved up to Vice President last season and looking at the organization right now it's readily apparent that the success of this team was due to a couple of very successful trades and mostly the strength of the minor league organization during Hart's tenure. The minor league organization under Shapiro has been a complete disaster, the pipeline for talent to the majors is as bad as it was during the 80's and while there is some hope that it's improving, it's no where near where it was during the 90's. Add in the fact, that the biggest trade where Shapiro was successful involved Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, and Cliff Lee acquired for Bartolo Colon and the fact that the Indians completely fumbled the development of Phillips and lost him for nothing and almost screwed up the development of Lee and did the same and you have to seriously question the ability of Shapiro to run a team.

Right now, we are seeing a new wave of prospects in the organization, I have some reservations on whether they are high ceiling prospects or merely average major league ball players. (average players would be a step up) This is supposedly do to some changes Shapiro made with his president of Minor League Development a couple years ago. If they can start developing some players it will help, but I do believe they are still focusing on the wrong type of player.

In my opinion the organization seems to shy away from what I consider "power players" my definition of a power player is a hitter with potential for major league power or a pitcher that has the physical tools to throw with power. The team seems to focus on drafting players that have other talents (left handed pitchers, who typically throw slower, but are a commodity since they throw left handed, contact hitters with some speed and average power, and right handed pitchers that have success in college, but don't necessarily have good major league 'stuff')

If they draft power players, they do so in low numbers and hold out hope that those players will make the major leagues (Adam Miller). Never mind the development issues they have with those types of players (Adam Miller). The fact is most minor prospects do not make the majors, many get injured during their minor league career, some wash out, and some don't develop as they are supposed to. The way you get around this is to draft greater numbers, and if you draft greater numbers of players with high upside in the power categories, you have a better chance of seeing those players get to the majors. The reason I suggest they focus on the power players is the fact that those traits are a commodity at the major league level and if you wind up with too many prospects at one spot, then you can trade those prospects for greater returns then you can for a soft tossing right hander or a slap hitting contact hitter.

It will take a couple years to see whether the current changes to the drafting philosophy makes a difference, I'm not optimistic at the moment though. Players like Lonnie Chisenhall, Jason Kipnis, and Hector Rondon seem like possibilities, but in looking over their minor league progression so far, there is nothing that jumps out at me that says future star. Chisenhall especially is getting a lot of press, but as I look at him, I see a slightly above average hitter with a little bit of pop and bad defense. He's Shin Soo Choo without as much power. And that power makes a difference when you are playing a corner infield spot and if you don't have it you need to be spectacularly defensively. There are some bright spots, after 10 years of failing on 1st round picks, it appears that Alex White and Drew Pomeranz have the type of talent you expect to have from 1st round picks, now it's a matter of the Indians developing them and keeping them healthy. For some more thoughts on the Indian's prospects, here's an interesting list fromm Baseball America, note that only 3 of the top 10 Indian's prospects were drafted or signed by the team. On top of that, on other lists I respect, those top 10 outside of Carlos Santana aren't making a the Top 50 or 100 lists of prospects in baseball. I will also note that the Baseball America article lists the last 10 1st round picks of the Indians, it's a fairly disgusting list. They've hit on 0 of those 10.

My last rant on the front office, there isn't a lot of discussion about how bad things have been it seems like most reporters view the current front office as good. I'm encouraged that at least one writer isn't drinking the Cleveland Kool Aid. The current power rankings by Sportsline take a shot at the front office and although a little late to the party Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has come around to understanding that there have been severe draft problems by the team. (I do wonder why Terry Pluto's 3/27 article though isn't listed in his most recent columns though, see that detail here)

Enough of a rant on the organization, let's talk about the current season. I have little optimism for the current season, in order to be a decent team the Indians are going to need to have a number of players develop into major league quality players, in order to contend for anything they are going to need a minor miracle.

The Outfield: Shin Soo Choo is the only proven piece right now that is healthy and established. Grady Sizemore is attempting to comeback from micro-fracture surgery and Michael Brantley has yet to translate his talent into a quality major league season. The reserves are garbage, filled with the likes of Travis Buck, Austin Kearns, and Shelly Duncan. The front office continues to talk up Travis Buck, like there is something for the fans to be interested in, he's a former prospect that finally had a mediocre year last year for the Oakland A's and in reality has very little upside. Kearns and Duncan are the definition of journeyman and wouldn't be on the roster for a contending team. There is little to no imminent help in the minor leagues. If Grady Sizemore isn't able to fully come back, this might be the worst outfield in baseball (Oakland gives them a strong run for that distinction).

The Infield: I have nothing positive to say about the infield. Matt LaPorta has been bounced around like a yo yo by this organization and needs to play a full season to see if he can turn his minor league success into big league success. Outside of him the infield is filled with light hitting, average fielding (that's a generous statement) players. Asdrubal Cabrera could potentially start for other teams in the league, but after being billed as a solid contact hitter and potentially spectacular defensive player, we've come to find out he's a fairly average defensive shortstop. Second Base and Third Base are filled with more journeyman, Orlando Cabrera and Jack Hannahan. The Front Office in the preseason talked up their plethora of options at third base with players such as Jason Donald, Jason Nix, and possibly Lonnie Chisenhall. Donald and Nix wouldn't make the roster of most bad teams in the league and Chisenhall while considered a prospect by the Indians and publications has a lot to prove still and appears to me to be a decent contact hitter, with light power, and poor defense. Kipnis appears to be another prospect, again with decent contact numbers, little power, and average defense. That's not a prospect it's a utility player.

Catcher: I separated catcher from infield only because I don't want to lump Carlos Santana in with the rest. He's potentially a special player. I don't necessarily believe he should be a clean up hitter, but like Eric Wedge before him, Manny Acta is intent on putting the potentially best hitter on the team in the number four spot, rather then in the traditional number 3 spot in the order. I'm less disappointed in this move since Choo or Sizemore will likely bat third, I'll get to my thoughts on the batting order in a bit. Santana could potentially be one of the top three offensive catchers in the league. The issue I have and one that has plagued this front office, is that Santana as a catcher is a spectacular hitter, in other positions he might only be above average and if your other positions are average or below average, having a spectacular hitting catcher is sort of like having a sports car with no gas in it, it doesn't do you a lot of good.

Pitching Rotation: There is some potential here, which is more then I can say about other parts of the team. Fausto Carmona has shown at times that he can be dominant and if he can continue to improve, he has Cy Young ability. This is absolutely required for a small market team such as the Indians, having a true ace takes tremendous pressure off of your staff. The other members of the staff are all projects. Justin Masterson is at the point where he needs to establish himself as a starter, he started his major league career as a reliever and the book on him said he didn't have enough pitches to be an effective starter, he had a decent year last year as a first year full time starter, and I believe he has enough talent to be a solid #2 or #3 starter over his career. If he continues to progress as he did last year, this is a very good thing. Carlos Carrasco, Josh Tomlin, and Mitch Talbot round out the rotation. Carrasco has the highest ceiling of the players and it's time he's given a full chance to succeed or fail in the major leagues. There is no reason that if healthy he should not be allowed to pitch 150 innings this year as a starter. He needs the work to figure out how to pitch in the big leagues and develop and this team isn't going anywhere anyway. Carrasco has a lot of talent that hasn't translated at the big league level yet, but he's very close to being permanently categorized as a reliever or bouncing between organizations as a potential salvage job. The Indians need to let him mature this year. Tomlin and Talbot are innings eaters, for those fans of the Indians in the 1980's I've dubbed them Scott Bailes and Rich Yett. Players that are on a major league roster, but really only on the roster as the talent in the system stinks.

The Indians pitching prospects in the minors is a mixed bag, the two they are relying on most from trades Nick Hagadone and Jason Knapp have had some injury issues and still need a ton of seasoning before they make it to the majors. Players such as Alex White and Drew Pomeranz have potential but are still big question marks. There is a lot of buzz on Drew Pomeranz and as a large hard throwing lefty he has tools to succeed, but he's also never pitched an inning of pro baseball.

The Lineup and Manager: The lineup like the minor leagues lacks power hitters. The Indians consider La Porta, Santana, Choo, Sizemore, and Hafner their power hitters. Hafner hasn't been a power hitter in 4 years, Sizemore's game isn't based on power, La Porta has had little success in the majors and Choo and Santana project to about 25 homers in a career year. This stinks and will not put a lot of fear into opposing teams plans. Power in a lineup is about forcing teams to make adjustments and make mistakes. Even one bona fide power hitter would make a huge difference in this lineup. A bunch of contact hitters with doubles power is nice, but even the Twins as an organization (who Shapiro clearly thinks his organization is like from previous comments) have always had a tent pole style power hitter in the lineup. (Morneau, Hrbek, and they wanted David Ortiz as the bridge between those but he never developed there). Matt La Porta absolutely has to develop into that power hitter and dangerous bat. If he can, a lot of the offensive woes go away, because he can slot into the 4 spot. Here's potentially what this lineup should look like, and I've added commentary of traditional baseball thoughts as well.

1. Michael Brantley: Potentially a prototypical leadoff hitter. He needs to learn to get on base more, but his speed and contact ability are what you look for in a number one.

2. Asdrubal Cabrera: perfect spot for him, he's an above average contact hitter, that allows you to start runners and advance runners by hitting the other way. He also doesn't strike out a lot and has the skills necessary (bunting, taking pitches) to thrive in this spot.

3. Grady Sizemore or Carlos Santana, Sizemore is the preference here, he's an established hitter, good on base percentage and has decent power, he could up the average a bit, but if he's put here and allowed to adjust to the role, he should fill it nicely. This is the spot you want the best hitter on the team. Santana still has to develop, but based on his minor league numbers (great average, decent power) it's a good spot for him especially if Sizemore has to go back to leading off if Brantley fails.

4. La Porta or Hafner. Hafner's done, but outside of La Porta he's the prototype here (at least what he was). La Porta's power makes a difference here with three of your high on base % players in front of him. It sets up to put people on the bases and gives him more fastballs to hit over the fence. This is baseball 101. La Porta needs time to grow though, so I'll forgive the team for batting others here for the time being. Hafner is only mentioned in the outside chance he returns with the ability to hit 30 home runs and .280. (Unless Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds trainer is available, I doubt that's going to happen)

5. Shin Soo Choo, he's perfect for the number 5 spot. A dangerous enough hitter that can hurt a team that decides not to pitch to the #4 batter. He's a perfect fit here.

6-9 this is for players developing or playing because they are defensive players, put them in any order you like.

Manny Acta did ok in his first year, he doesn't have a lot to work with but the consistent year by Carmona along with the development of players like Choo and Santana is a positive sign. If he can get players like La Porta, Brantley, Carrasco, and Masterson to further develop he's done his job. I stand by my statement last year that he's keeping the seat warm for Sandy Alomar. I do hope the Indians understand how important it is to their fan base to retain a candidate like Alomar and what he could do for the perception of the team. In addition to possibly being a very good manager for many, many years. (Something rarely seen in this town for any sports team).

My prediction for this team is that they finish in 5th place this year, there are just way to many question marks on the team. The Front Office needs to allow Manny Acta to play the players he needs to and allow them to develop. Even if the team stinks, the front office and ownership need to remember that the fans have no interest in seeing journeyman lose, we'd much rather see players get their licks in and start to come around. There is a strong disconnect between the team and the fans and it's partially due to the fact that we haven't developed any players for the fans to follow and the ones that were here were traded away before they became too expensive. A baseball team and it's players is something fans associate with and that relationship develops over time, continuing to bring in players by trade or free agency means there is no bond developed and it's even worse if you are losing, as you lose the fans interest. All fans in Cleveland want is something to get excited about. 1994, the year before Jacob's field opened, fans saw talent coming and they wanted to be a part of it. Take a lesson from that, that minor leagues and drafting matter for reasons other then it's how you get good.

Baseball predictions for 2011 (AL)

2011-03-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

Every year, I like to take a post and take a look at the new baseball season. I've found it helps me keep up on the league overall, although I find myself struggling to keep up on all the rookies and young players. Years ago I could have told you the top 10 list of prospects for each team. Now I'm lucky if I can give you the impact rookies for a team. Getting old and having more responsibilities suck.

American League

Eastern Division Winner:

1. Tampa Bay Rays: Did you know the Tampa Bay Rays won the division last year, or that they've won it 2 of the last 3 years? It's hard to believe for those that have followed the franchise since their inception in 1998. Their first 10 years ranked up there with some of the worst organizations in baseball. Unfortunately for them, they still can't draw regular season crowds to their stadium. Forget about what the pundits are telling you, this team is still dangerous and is my pick to win the division.

The pitching staff even with their youth is still potentially the best staff in the American league and with some experience will potentially be one of the best seen in baseball in sometime (yes that includes the current Phillies). They have two potentially spectacular hitters in Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton, and they have who I consider one of the top 3 managers in the Major Leagues Joe Maddon. Last year the team struggled to get their offense running through the year and that was when they had Carlos Pena and Carl Crawford, neither of whom had a spectacular year. Upton is poised to break out in a contract year and Longoria is on the verge of being the best player in the American League and with some others aging a bit potentially the best hitter in baseball. There are some holes in the bullpen and lineup but this farm system has talent in it and with a manager like Maddon who has a knack for figuring out how to fit talented players into those fringe spots, this is the team that will win the division.

2. Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox reloaded over the winter, they brought in first baseman Adrian Gonzalez from the San Diego Padres and they signed free agent outfielder Carl Crawford.

There still could be offensive problems on this team though. David Ortiz continues to have long slumps where the media speculates about how he's at the end of the year, and then he breaks out and puts up serviceable numbers, those numbers though appear to be happening when the pressure's off, which leads me to believe he's not hitting good pitching, but taking advantage of mistakes, which is fine for numbers and bad for winning.

Crawford is looked at as a Top 10 player and I disagree that he'll have that kind of impact in Boston. Crawford's game is based on speed, a concept that the Red Sox have never been well known for (save Jacob Ellsbury over the past couple years). The Crawford signing looks like a team trying to put a round peg in a square hole, I think it's an attempt to out Yankee the Yankees and instead of signing a player that fits their profile they went after the shiniest object on the shelf.

The trade for Gonzalez is a different story, he should help and provide some stability and fear to the lineup that has not been there since Ortiz and Ramirez were tearing things up. I do have some concerns though whether Gonzalez is going to make a smooth transition though, there are many career National League players that get over to the American League to find that pitchers throw a lot less fastballs and even though the park he's playing in now has shorter dimensions then his former park, I have a hunch that Gonzalez's numbers could look similar to his last couple years of .300, 30hr, and 100rbi. Not awful, but I think the feeling in Boston is he'll hit 50 in that park.

The other hitters on this team are mediocre in my opinion, while they get a lot of hype due to being in Boston, the fact is Pedroia, Youklis, and Ellsbury are nice parts, but on other teams they wouldn't be considered stars, they'd be considered above average players.

The pitching staff is getting better. Lester and Bucholz have developed nicely, however this teams championship aspirations hinge on Josh Beckett, if he has a big year, they'll go far, if he doesn't they probably won't. I don't think it's a coincidence that Beckett's two best years have coincided with his teams winning the World Series (Marlins in 2003 and Red Sox in 2007).

In the end, I give the Red Sox the edge for second place over the Yankees due to their stronger starting pitching.

3. New York Yankees: The Yankees are always perennial contenders and this year will be no exception. This team still fields arguably the strongest lineup in baseball with Alex Rodriguez and Mark Texiera leading the way. Robinson Cano would potentially be the best offensive player on a lot of teams but is overshadowed here and the other hitters on this team complete the lineup nicely.

Texieria had a down year last year in his second year with the Yankees and it's entirely possible that what we saw last year is what we are going to see in the years to come. His average was down over the previous years and so were his RBI and Home Runs, but they still fell in the upper echelon of hitters in the league.

Alex Rodriguez doesn't hit 50 home runs anymore, as a matter of fact, he's never come close to his explosive numbers since he admitted using performance enhancing drugs (albeit for only one year according to him). Whether Rodriguez's numbers during his prime were a result of the drugs or his talent, it's evident that he's slowing down a bit as a hitter. However, he's still extremely dangerous and has enough pop to carry this team during the season.

The pitching staff starts with C.C. Sabathia and pretty much ends with him as well. Every other spot in the rotation is a question mark. A team like the Yankees though can go along way with their hitting and it makes things a lot easier on a staff that potentially could give up a lot of runs. This works well for the long season, but is exactly what you don't want in the playoffs. The bullpen should be solid and it will need to be as it's going to get a lot of work through the year.

(Side note, C.C. Sabathia will win 300 games in his career. I've always been amazed that after Maddux got his 300th victory everyone bemoaned the fact that there wouldn't be any others. It's not easy nowadays with 5 man rotations, focus on bullpens, and so many teams in the league, but Sabathia has the combination needed, advance to big leagues at young age, superior talent, and be on good teams throughout most of your career)

4. Toronto Blue Jays: The Blue Jays are getting better and they are young, if things develop as they expect them too, this organization could potentially win 2-3 pennants during the 20teens.

Over the past two years, management has done a fantastic job of moving bad long term contracts out of town (Alex Rios and Vernon Wells). By doing this they've provided the organization with some financial flexibility and they've opened up the positions where they have some of their best prospects. Young hitters such as Adam Lind, Travis Snider, and Aaron Hill have the potential to be very good. Add in likely performance enhancing drug star Jose Batista with the potential of catcher J.P Arencibia and this offense is potentially very exciting.

The pitching staff is young, but a number of the players have a high ceiling, prospects such as Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek project as potential aces, add in Ricky Romero, Jesse Litsch, and Bret Cecil, who have all gotten their feet wet already and their is the potential for a very solid pitching staff over the next couple years.

This team is still a year or two early to be put in the mix for great teams in the American League, but if you are a Blue Jays fan I'd be very excited.

5. Baltimore Orioles: The Orioles are getting a lot of press, they made a number of acquisitions in the winter (Vladimir Guerrero, Derek Lee, JJ Hardy, and Mark Reynolds) and they have some young talent (Brian Matsuz, Nick Markarkis, Adam Jones, and Matt Weiters). The team should be better, but I'm not entirely sold on the acquisitions having big years or for their kids ready to turn the corner.

The ceilings of their prospects looks a little low too, until they wind up with a bona-fide star that's brought up through their system, I don't think they'll turn the corner.

Final result, teams making progress, but still too many question marks.

Central Division

1. Minnesota Twins:

The Twins are my pick to win the Central based on their solid star base (Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and up and coming Delmon Young) along with the fact that their five starters are the best in the Central division.

The Twins will hit, this team is built around Joe Mauer, but the rest of the lineup is very solid players like Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyler, Delmon Young, and Justin Morneau all have solid pedigrees and they are young enough to still improve. Add in the fact that the Twins as an organization preach defense and fundamentals and this team is dangerous with average pitching.

The pitching staff is better then average. The starters are for the most part young and they have a potential Cy Young award winner in Francisco Liriano. Players like Nick Blackburn, Kevin Slowey, and Scott Baker are still growing and potentially could break out this year.

This team has too many pieces not to be the prediction to win the division. They are the most complete team in the division, and if they don't win the division, I'd say it's more a matter of them losing it rather then someone else winning it.

2. Chicago White Sox: The White Sox have a lot of maybes. Maybe their hitters click and have good years, maybe their pitching stays healthy, maybe outspoken Manager Ozzie Guillen doesn't say anything to awful this summer.

The hitting is a mix of pieces parts, they've added Adam Dunn, which for a team that already had a fair amount of power hitting, but potentially has contact issues is a strange addition in my opinion. Paul Konerko needs to keep putting off father time, previous to last year he seemed to be on the downside of a nice career, but he rebounded with very solid numbers. It's time for Alexei Ramirez, Carlos Quentin, Alex Rios, and Gordon Beckham to live up to their potential and do it on a consistent basis. (As a side note on players, I do believe in three years, Gordon Beckham will be a super star.)

The pitching staff continues the theme of having a lot of question marks. There is a lot of talent on this staff, but there are some players recovering from injuries, some getting older, and some that have yet to show they can be consistent on a year in year out basis. Jake Peavy is a huge key to this staff, if he can come back from injury and regain his Cy Young form, the pitching staff's effectiveness grows exponentially.

This team has a lot of parts, I'm just not sure they all fit together, there seem to be too many question marks at this point to think they'll win the division or do any damage in the playoffs. The team certainly has the potential to win it all, but a lot of things have to fall right for that to happen.

3. Detroit Tigers:

The Tigers are like a firecracker, there are a couple big pops and then just smoke. The talent level on this team goes from one extreme to the other. At the high end you have players like Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander. At the low end you have players like Brandon Inge, Jhonny Peralta, and Carlos Guillen. As good as Cabrera and Verlander are at their positions the others are as bad as it gets at theirs.

Hitting wise the Tigers should be fairly good, Miguel Cabrera is the type of offensive powerhouse that makes everyone else in the lineup better by default. Adding Victor Martinez in the off season will help, as Victor is a highly competent hitter, although over the last couple years he's been subject to power slumps. It also should be noted that catchers tend to age in baseball terms faster then other positions, so Victor could approach the downside of his career faster at an earlier age, the fact that the Tigers are planning to have him do little catching should help. The other players worth mentioning here are Austin Jackson and Magglio Ordonez. Ordonez continues to decline, but seems to have enough left in the tank to make himself a better then average starter. Austin Jackson is a young player that needs to continue to improve.

The pitching staff is good, it's lead by Justin Verlander, who is the ace of the staff and one of the best pitchers in the American League. The rest of the starters, save Brad Penny, are young and have been considered medium to high range prospects over their careers. Max Scherzer is a fireballer who has Cy Young level talent and based on his year last year, he could be at that level as early as this year. Rick Porcello has had some troubles, but he is still very young and was rushed a bit early to the majors leagues, which has impacted his development. He still has a load of talent though and should develop over the next couple years.

This team will score runs, Miguel Cabrera maybe the second best player in baseball and is a special talent. He's the type that comes along once a decade and is a triple crown threat every year. Last year he kept his personal problems in check, he had a set back early this year, but if he can keep his issues in check, he's a perennial MVP candidate. Pitching is anchored by Justin Verlander who is coming into his prime. When you have two superstars like this in pitching and hitting, it's fairly easy to build a team around it, the only problems are the question marks of the low end talent, which I worry may not be enough to let the Tigers complete at a high level.

4. Kansas City Royals: The Royals last won a World Series in 1985, since then they've been the dormat of the American league. That's about to change. This team has built an impressive farm system with high potential players through out, add in a fair number of young players that still have not lived up to expectations (and potentially still could and you have the makings of a future powerhouse).

Hitting wise, the Royals have begun to purge their team of the average players that have been put in place to hold the positions for the youngsters, they have some players on their last shot at making it in the big leagues (Jeff Francouer, Melky Cabrera) mixed with players who haven't fully blossomed (Billy Butler and Alex Gordon) who at one point were considered some of the best prospects in the minor leagues. Add in rookies like Kila Ka'aihue who has tremendous power potential along with OF in the minors that have the same and this lineup while not great this year is shaping up to be.

The pitching staff is currently made up of journeyman veterans (Jeff Francis, Kyle Davies, Bruce Chen) and for this team to round into a contender the minors are going to have to provide some quality arms. Trading Zach Greinke was probably required due to the fact that he would likely either leave by the time the hitters are ready or become cost prohibitive. A couple of the current staff probably have a chance of sticking around in a couple years (Jeff Francis and Luke Hovechar) but ultimately they will need to find some top of the line starters either by development, trade, or free agency.

There is a lot to look forward to for the Royals, it's just not going to happen this year. I've put them in fourth based on potential, although they easily could finish in the cellar again. I'll admit that part of my pick here is due to my disappointment with the Indians organization and the fact that the Royals potentially have a lot more to look forward to.

5. Cleveland Indians: I'll post a link to my thoughts on the Indians, but I'm not thrilled with the organization or the team at the moment, there are some bright spots, but a lot of question marks.

Western Division

1. Texas Rangers: The Rangers won the American League Pennant last year, in the meantime they did lose their ace Cliff Lee. It's important to remember that Lee was only there for half the season though, but he was a significant part of their run through the playoffs.

The Ranger's lineup is one of the best in the league, led by Josh Hamilton, who has overcome a lot of personal issues and become a superstar. He's the type of hitter that makes everyone around him better. Although he's 29 he may only have begun to tap into his talent, which is scary as he's an MVP candidate right now. Add in established players like Ian Kinsler, Nelson Cruz, Adrian Beltre, Michael Young, and Mike Napoli and the lineup has a lot of pop and a lot of potential to score runs. They also have a power prospect in Mitch Moreland at first base, that has the opportunity to ease into a lineup and bat low in the order, which should provide him with an easier path to development.

The pitching staff doesn't scare you, but it's very serviceable. The team relies on solid starters to get them through 6 innings and bludgeon their opponents with their offense. They will miss Cliff Lee as their ace, but I anticipate it will affect them more in the post season then during the year.

The Rangers have a collection of hitters that's unparalleled in the Western Division, their home park also caters to hitting and is the reason they are my pick to win the West this year.

2. Los Angeles Angels: I constantly wonder why this team is not regular contenders for the American League pennant. Their farm system is constantly stocked with players, they spend money on free agents and they always seem to have a core base of players to rely on. Fundamentally they are sound and they have perhaps the best manager in baseball in Mike Scioscia. The reason they aren't constant contenders though is the fact that their prospects aren't typically developing into stars and they spend money on free agents that are poor fits.

Their lineup is a bit of a mess, their outfield has players that at one time were stars (Tori Hunter), but have either regressed over the years or put up big years in contract years and never managed to duplicate (Bobby Abreu, Vernon Wells). They are serviceable players and their is hope that Vernon Wells resurgence last year in Toronto is what they should expect this year, rather then the 2-3 down years previous to 2010. Kendrys Morales makes this team go and he's still recovering from a broken leg. The offense crumbled last year without him and likely will struggle if he can't return to 2009 form. The rest of the infield is a mix of prospects that are either raw or approaching the point where they just aren't going to make it as major league ballplayers.

The pitching staff has two very good starters (Jered Weaver and Dan Haren) one potentially good starter (Ervin Santana) and some question marks (Scott Kazmir and Joel Pineiro). Jered Weaver is the staff ace and continues to get better every year. Dan Haren has had some consistency issues during the past couple years, but is still a top starter, although not necessarily an ace. Santana still has a load of potential to harness and Kazmir is working his way through issues, since a great start to his career.

Morales and Weaver give this team a chance to compete as they are stars, add in some career type years from a couple other players and this team could make some noise, but it's absolutely necessary for this organization to start getting their prospects to develop into major league players.

3. Oakland A's: I think Moneyball is dead. That is if Moneyball ever in fact existed if you consider the A's success during the Moneyball hey day had a strong correlation with three outstanding pitchers they had at the time. (Mulder, Hudson, and Zito). The lineup and position players for this team seem to be filled by cast offs and rejects from other teams. The pitching staff is the big difference and gives the team the best chance to win.

The outfield for this team is full of cast offs that in most cases were third or fourth outfielders on other teams anyway. The infield is average at best, there's just not a lot to get excited about here for hitting.

The pitching staff has a lot to be excited about, Bret Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill, and Dallas Braden are the front four starters. Cahill, Gonzalez, and Anderson have high end talent.

If the offense hits a little bit, this pitching staff can carry them along way. As the team is set now though, I don't expect much more then a second place finish.

4. Seattle Mariners: This team is in bad shape, they are at the point where they are adding small time flawed free agents (Jack Cust, Brendan Ryan) and believing it will improve the team. They need an influx of talent across the board and it's going to take some focus on drafting and development to get them there.

The one positive for the team is the fact that it has possibly the best pitcher in baseball in Felix Hernandez. He's young and depending on how long the team takes to rebuild, could conceivably lead a rejuvenated team in a couple years. Finding an ace with Cy Young talent is the most difficult piece of the puzzle, now the Mariners have to provide the other pieces and get this team back in contention.

American League Wild card: Boston Red Sox, they finish behind the Rays but manage to knock off the Yankees, White Sox, Tigers, and Angels for the wildcard spot.

Surprising team: Toronto Blue Jays, most sports pundits have singled in on the Orioles and they will be better, but I still think they are farther away then the Blue Jays. With the Yankees having pitching problems, it's not inconceivable that the Blue Jays make a strong run this year in the Eastern Division or for the wild card. They'll need a couple things to fall their way, but this should be an exciting team to watch.

Most Valuable Player: It's hard to pick against Miguel Cabrera or Josh Hamilton, possibly the two most talented players in the league. I'm going to go out on a limb though and predict a big year for Joe Mauer. Mauer's done things in parts over his career, great average one year, power the next, he's also had to deal with injuries as most catchers too, I'll make the prediction that this year he puts it all together in one monster year.

Cy Young: I believe I picked Justin Verlander last year, I'm going to choose him again. Felix Hernandez, Jered Weaver, and CC Sabathia should round out the other top contenders. Verlander has a team with a ton of offense and he's always been on the brink of dominance. This year he puts it together.

Rookie of the Year: Some of the best potential rookies may not make it up to the majors this year. Since this is an award for the rookie that has the best year rather then who will have the best career it's a bit difficult to predict as well. As a shot in the dark, I'll choose Kyle Drabek. I think the Blue Jays are going to hit a ton and based on their commitment to their young players, Drabek should get a full season of work. Look for 12-14 wins, a 4.00 era, 175 innings, and 150 strikeouts.

Comeback Player of the year/Most improved player: I've added most improved player to this list, as I don't see many comeback player candidates. I think Alex Gordon and Billy Butler of the Kansas City Royals are about to make the jump from average major league players to stars. Look for both of them to improve greatly on their previous offensive numbers.

Manager of the year: Joe Maddon, outside of Mike Scioscia, I think Maddon is the best manager in the American league. Big surprise that he used to serve as Scioscia's bench coach. The Rays has lost some players over the past year and they are completely rebuilding the bullpen. Add in the fact that they've brought in some unique personalities (Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon) on the downside of their career and that the core of this team is still young, and Maddon has a pretty large task ahead. My prediction is he'll have this team in shape by the 1st of May and through out the summer they'll be one of the better teams in the league.

American League Champion: Minnesota Twins, the Twins problems over the last couple years is that they can't beat the Yankees, remove the Yankees from the playoff picture and it opens the door for the Twins. They are the most balanced team in the American league and potentially have 2-3 super stars to drive them toward the pennant.

Friday Thoughts 3/25/2011: (100 things 2 of 10) Oops and Fear

2011-03-25T07:34:00.000-04:00

In looking over other blogs I've seen other blogs do posts with lists of 100 things about me. It loses my interest at 10 or 20. However, I like the idea of it, so I'm going to break it up and merge it with my typical Friday list. (side note, the 1st of the 100 can be found here)

1. As a child, I was hit by an icicle in the face, which required 6 stitches, it's actually made a nice scar as I've grown up, right above my lip on the right side of my face. I was collecting icicles and used a shovel to knock one down, which turned into a launch ramp for the icicle right into my face.

2. As a child, I bit a live electric cord, clamped down on it and once I hit the connection I couldn't let go. In retrospect it's sort of fascinating to be electrocuted, as you lose the ability to move muscles (unclench the jaw) and your eyes shut and you experience a rainbow of colors. Luckily the cord shorted out, and I just was pale white as I walked into the room to see my mom, and had a burn mark on my lip. I have a scar on the inside of my lip on the lower right side where I was burned the worst.

3. I have an unusual fear of getting my hands or fingers cut. The thought freaks me out. I attribute this to punching a glass window as a child when I was upset at something and completely cutting up my hand (none serious).

4. I wasn't the brightest child on the block (as evidenced by my first three reveals). I'm pretty sure I prematurely aged my mother as well.

5. I'm still experiencing a mid life crisis, or fear of getting older, I obsess over it at times.

6. I despise millipedes and centipedes, anything with that many legs is simply unnatural. (It should be noted, that using the term despise here is just my clever, masculine way of saying, I'm terrified of these things."

Look at this sick looking thing, blech.

Image taken from here: (Arizona Bug Company)

7. I fear that which I cannot control. One of the things I've found over the years is that part of my obsession of planning and research is due to the fact, that I have a fear of failing in things I cannot control. My planning and research are my counters against this and an attempt to control things.

8. I wonder sometimes whether I'm going down the correct path, whether the choices I'm making today are good or whether I'll pay for them in the long run. There are times I recognize that the hard choices I make today will result in consequences down the road, however I also realize that those consequences are inevitable or a better option then the alternative.

9. I'm often concerned that I don't do enough for the people I care most about. I do wish at times I was more open and engaging with people. I wish at times I could be 'happy go lucky' and let things in life bounce off of me, I'm constantly working on letting go of my inhibitions when it comes to things like this.

10. I still have a fear of being overweight again, while I'm not svelte by any measure, I'm in relatively good shape I suppose, and very good shape considering where at times in my life I've been. I am sort of amazed that at times I'm comfortable with the weight I'm at and at other times despise it, I suppose that is actually progress though. I'm in a period right now where I've not been in my regular workout schedule and I'm planning on starting up again next week (birthday gift of gym membership).

Liar, Liar

2011-03-22T12:59:00.003-04:00

I have a tendency to lie. It's not something I'm proud of, but it's something I do.

Wait, stop! Let me start over. I lie, I find it a useful tool, and I've done it for as long as I can remember. I encounter too many situations where lying is far to valuable to discard as an option.

My lies are not intended to be sinister, they serve a purpose, whether it's to spare feelings, make someone feel better, save time, or for the occasional small personal gain. My intent while using them is not to harm. Whether or not they actually serve the purpose I believe they do would be an interesting topic for discussion another time. I recognize that my belief on their value and whether or not they are harmful is purely subjective and possibly rationalized.

I'm not here to talk about my burning pants though, this post is about Boof and a characteristic I see developing.

Recently Bronwyn has been caught in two lies, the first one was when she decided to take a pair of scissors to her jeans and then claimed she got a hole in them when she got up from kneeling by the cupboard and they caught her pants on the corner and ripped. The second is one where she didn't technically lie, she asked for her allowance after helping me around the house, the day after her mother told her she wasn't getting one for the week due to something she did wrong. (I wasn't aware that her allowance had been taken away for the week). There have been others over the past couple of months, but these two stand out as the most recent and most interesting examples.

If I haven't stated it before, my daughter is an emotional child, that's not to say other children aren't, but I'm convinced my daughter's excellent behavior is due to the fact that she doesn't want to disappoint people, rather then just from having inherently good manners. She's well behaved to the extreme and while she has moments of child like fun, she's never disobeys or argues in a child like manner(to the point that I get worried sometimes). In her five years of life, I can only remember one temper tantrum and it happened around 2 years old, so I chalk that up as an aberration.

At the points where she would make what I would consider a misstep, where I discuss with her why she should do something a certain way, she's burst into tears more times then I can count from making the 'wrong choice'. I could almost understand this behavior if the environment she was being raised in was militant, but in truth the wife and I take a very conversational approach to raising her, believing there is more value in helping her understand situations then just punishing her for it. (very hippy like, I know)

This is why I'm intrigued by her recent lies. The two situations were self serving for her, which is a bit of a new trait for her. For the first one, she definitely anticipated she would get in trouble by her mother if she admitted to what she did and she was well aware that she did something bad. The second situation she was very aware that she wasn't suppose to get her allowance this week, but decided that she wanted it anyway. (She has an unhealthy love of money for a 5 year old). The intriguing part for me is how naturally she performed the lies. I just would not have expected it to be so fluid at her age. In the case of the jeans, I wouldn't have expected her to come up with a story to explain the hole.

It makes me wonder if this is an inherent talent or whether I'm nurturing the skill in her? If so, I wonder if it's a bad thing. I mentioned before that I find it a useful tool although I do think there are parameters needed around it. I do know for the development years and for the time being the message to her has to be that lying is wrong, it's not going to be tolerated, and that I'll have to punish her if it continues. (There are far to many situations a child could experience where truth is absolutely a must) I'm guessing though that she won't stop doing it, and I'm fully expecting her too, maybe that's how she'll develop the parameters and understanding of when it could potentially be ok to tell a lie. I need to learn to keep a straight face I think.

Friday Thoughts 3/18/2011

2011-03-18T12:59:00.003-04:00

1. Thoughts and (prayers) go out to Japan. Horrible situation across the board and I hope they are able to get things stable and take care of those affected quickly.

2. I did decide to drop out from the band I got together with last week. In the end their taste in music was just far too different from mine and the fact that they practice weekend afternoons, wasn't my idea of the best way to spend the weekends anyway. I'll probably be looking for more opportunities here over the next couple weeks.

3. I love the pass the buck mentality our Governor is doing with the budget over the next two years. (Read this with a sarcastic droll). He's essentially putting the burden on localities to raise their taxes and fund education as we continue to spend on other programs that should be cut during a budget crisis. And the newspapers wonder why Ohio's population still decreases. Here's a hint, property tax on $80,000 house last year was $2,700. We also have state income, sales taxes and all the other goodies. North Carolina property taxes for same price house, $700. They also spend less on gas and such during the winter. Not hard to understand why people who are able to be mobile continue the exile.

4. We are trying out the Melting Pot in Columbus tomorrow, I haven't told the wife where we are going yet. I'm excited to give it a try, I rarely get excited for restaurants anymore, and I think it's due to the fact that most dishes at restaurants don't excite me anymore and with a little work I feel like I could make a fair facsimile.

5. I posted this on my Twitter and Facebook accounts, so apologies if you are subjected to it again. My daughter was very excited to wear green for St. Patrick's day. She woke up Thursday and when she realized I wasn't wearing green, gave me a very sour face and told me that she was going to have to pinch me. I tried explaining to her, that she and I were of Scottish heritage and really should wear orange. She shrugged as she ignored me and pinched me. Upon dropping her off at school and waving to her at the window to her classroom, she made pinching motions in between waving goodbye, sigh.

6. I've booked the hotel for Disney our summer trip, we decided to stay at one of the Disney resorts for the trip, now I have to try and navigate the mounds of information on the internet about things to do at the park.

7. As much as I would miss NFL Football in the fall, there is a part of me that loves a good train wreck, and the current labor issues are definitely a train wreck at this point. There is something extremely satisfying in watching millionaires and billionaires argue about money, especially when their arguments are so public and potentially could cause them to lose revenue if fans get sick enough of it. This is like the appetizer for the NBA lockout, which promises to be much more entertaining, I'm hoping Latrell Sprewell is consulted by players for how to comment during the lockout, or perhaps Patrick Ewing.

8. Cleveland Indian's opening day (at home) is two weeks away, can't wait to be downtown for the day.

9. There isn't much I enjoy more at this time of year then opening up the windows at the house and getting some fresh air in during the work day.

10. For the first time ever I did a couple brackets for the NCAA tournament online, not sure why I've never done them before as I watch a fair number of games in the tournament. Not a bad start, 14 out of 19 on 2 of the 3 I did. I have UNC winning it all.

Senate Bill 5 in Ohio

2011-03-16T15:07:00.004-04:00

Wisconsin's got all of the headlines so far for their lawmakers assault on collective bargaining rights for public workers. In the meantime lawmakers in Ohio have been planning an assault of their own. In Ohio, it's referred to as Senate Bill 5. Here's an article with background information on the bill: Senate Bill 5

I have no idea on whether this will help the state balance the budget or whether this is just a Republican agenda to harm unions, I post my thoughts here in order to answer some of the rhetoric I've heard on the issue. I believe that the issue has become more about the political parties agenda (as is typically the case nowadays), rather then about the government arbitrarily taking current rights away from people.

I will make the following disclaimer in regards to my views on unions, my father was a Teamster for his entire career. My wife is currently a school teacher employed by a state school, however, she is not a member of the union as the union does not support teachers at the school where she has employment. My only membership in a union was for about 2 years in high school at a local retailer.

Some of the rhetoric I've heard and my responses

1. If I walked into my bosses office and demanded higher pay and better benefits, I'd be looking for a job.

This maybe true, but collective bargaining doesn't allow it's participants to march into their bosses office and demand those things either, as a matter of fact, they typically only get to negotiate those things when their contract is up.

2. Public servants should be rewarded based on performance rather then collectively.

I didn't realize this was the average person's decision to make. Electing to join a collective bargaining organization requires you to put aside performance based bonuses, it's the trade off, unless of course your organization is savvy enough to negotiate that somehow into the contract. This one also perplexes me in the sense that they think the government would be any better then companies for 'rewarding' performance. I'd love to ask the people that use this as an argument about how much they trust corporations to do the right thing by their workers.

3. Public servants make too much money, the unions hold the state hostage in negotiations.

I might agree with this logic if we didn't constantly find areas where the states invest millions of taxpayer dollars on outdated programs, unneeded contracts, and a variety of other expenditures. The fact is the states and the localities have been part of each and every one of these contract negotiations, in the end if the public servants are making 'too much' the only people to blame would ultimately be the negotiators who failed to do their job.

4. I don't have a union, why should anyone else have one.

This is similar to number 1 above. The fact that you don't have something, likely has to do with your choice of profession, just as you can change jobs like a public worker can, you can also choose to go into a line of work with unions or attempt to organize your workplace.

Final Thoughts

I cannot for the life of me understand how individual citizens have come to begrudge other citizens of their rights to join a union and feel it's somehow right for our government to remove those rights. Why in the world shouldn't a group of employees have a right to collectively bargain? There's not one argument I've heard that tells me why someone shouldn't be allowed that right. The government can't even answer that question, all they are saying is that this would lead to balancing their budget. Doesn't that mean there is something wrong here?

Anytime the government decides they need to infringe on something already in place, my ears perk up. Isn't the fact that the government has failed to successfully negotiate with these groups the real issue? If you want to control salaries for employees you have a chance every couple years. You know how you do that? Negotiate better. This is failing leadership at it's best. The government can't successfully complete a task that's a part of their jobs so they decide to just legislate the problem away. This isn't how it's supposed to work. Which is why I ask all of those in favor of this bill, why would you support a government that acts in this manner? Our expectation from our elected leaders should be for them to do their jobs correctly, supporting the government in situations such as this, just tells them it's alright to fail and then legislate the problems away. That's not the type of leadership I want in office and I think most people would agree.

Just a couple of footnotes, most of my argument here assumes that our leadership is telling us the truth and their intent is to balance the budget, not to bust unions or cater to the anti-union lobby. I think there's a better then average chance that this issue is being driven by these reasons, but for arguing the issue, I didn't want to get involved in that and I think there is plenty of reason to oppose this issue without getting into either side of the political spectrum.

March updates

2011-03-15T08:53:00.002-04:00

It's been a very busy month, which is the reason I just haven't gotten around to blog updates. I thought I'd drop in and give a quick summary of what's going on though. I'm in the midst of trying to plan the family's first Disney vacation, which is taking much more time then I expected, as every time I make a decision on a part of the trip (where to stay, dining plans, etc) I'm still left with another one. It doesn't help that I'm currently overwhelmed with information from fan sites and forums as well, as that just means I have more things to read for my idled brain.

I also had my first practice with the new band last Saturday, although after practicing with them, I fear my initial thoughts that I had from the auditions in November are true. It's just not a group I fit well with, it's a combination of things, but personality and musical interest mismatches are the biggest hurdles (and pretty much the most important thing for a hobby like this). I think before it goes any further I need to put an end to it. I just can't put my heart into something that I'm not excited about and I can find nothing exciting about singing with this group at the moment.

Outside of those activities, I'm trying to get back on track with a workout schedule, the 20th high school reunion is less then a 100 days away and I'm behind schedule on getting back in spring shape. I'll have some more thoughts on the reunion and my annual depression (i.e birthday at the end of the month).

Hope things are going well wherever you are.

Friday list:10 everyday things that make me happy (100 things 1 of 10)

2011-02-22T12:38:00.007-05:00

I was thinking about this topic the other day, and I thought I'd put it down and see if I could come up with 10. The list is certainly not all inclusive and it's in no particular order. I also should point out that this is intended to be a fairly superficial list.

1. McDonald's McChicken sandwich: Not the spicy one they serve west of the Mississippi, the one east of it on the dollar menu. Just the right amount of spice, mayonnaise, and size. Awesome and reminds me of my childhood, when I used to get them. You could also add McDonald's french fries to the list, pure awesome.

2. Rainy days: I love a good rainstorm, I prefer it when it's warm out, but even enjoy it when it's fall. There's something about the dreariness that I like and actually puts me in a better mood.

3. The perfect grocery shopping trip. The one where I've got a set of coupons or all of the sale items are exactly what I need, and don't require me to go to 4 stores to take care of my list. Bonus points for super loss leaders that come available when I run out of something and can stock up on it. Free money.

4. Finding a new author or series to read. I go through them so quickly I run out of authors. It also sucks as I have no channels right now for finding new authors.

5. New gadgets, the computer nerd in me still loves when I get a new gadget or new computer. I've gotten to the point, where I make do with what I have for long periods of time, but it doesn't stop me from getting "Night before Christmas" like excited when I turn something on for the first time.

6. Time to myself, oh how I love this, no worries about when to be somewhere, how long to stay, or factoring in someone else. Pure, selfish me-time.

7. Not being disappointed in something I've either planned for or waited for. Whether it is a book conversion to movie, or a night out that I've been looking forward to for weeks, I get a bit giddy when something meets my expectations. I also get bent out of shape when something falls short of it. (I think this one has a lot to do with number 6)

8. Learning something new. In trying to evade an old man's mentality, I continue to try new things and learn things I know nothing about. I also get a huge thrill out of accomplishing something completely new and I know nothing about. For an example, last year my garage gutters decided they wanted to fall off and I new less then nothing about what to do with them, after some thinking, a visit to the hardware store and a fully day of work, they were up and serviceable. Amazing feeling.

9. Sound sleep. Days when I wake up where I'm fully recharged tend to be rare, to the point that I wonder why I actually sleep some nights. Since so many nights are bad nights sleep, a good one is truly treasured.

10. Baking, my hobby definitely makes the list. I love trying to make new things, improvising and having success, and just the act of creating something (if only to see it disappear quickly as it's eaten). Hopefully, some day I'll be able to turn this hobby into some type of career.

*Post post edit, I decided I wanted to do a series on 100 things about me, broken up into a list of 10. So this one became the first one.

Friday Thoughts 2/18/11

2011-02-18T10:48:00.004-05:00

Some topical and some personal notes this week, enjoy the ones your prefer.

1. It looks like my audition with the band from October has produced some results. I received an email this week that they want to get together, and just hadn't been doing much over the winter. I'll post more thoughts as I have a couple sit downs with them, but I'm a bit excited to see how things go.

2. My favorite part of this article is the quote from the General Motors worker. Especially considering that United Auto Workers has never negatively affected the Automobile companies. I'm embarrassed by the nature of society in relation to something like this, where individuals rallying against collective bargaining rights for public employees effectively forget the fact that they are talking about 'removing' individual rights, rather then an entity. Wisconsin and Ohio at Center of Collective Bargaining battle

3. Legislating 'solutions' such as the removal of rights of workers to collective bargain is not a libertarian philosophy. So any tea party members that like to consider themselves libertarian, please stop now, otherwise I'm likely to slap you if I hear you say something like this.

4. Detroit is getting a Robocop statue. Interesting, I think. Unfortunately for Detroit, it still won't be as cool as Philadelphia and Rocky. I do wonder what will happen around the statue in Detroit once it's erected. Rocky fans were able to run up the stairs to the statue, playing the theme song in their heads. What the hell are Robocop fans going to do? Take potshots at the statue, go on random crime sprees? Nevermind, I forgot it's Detroit, that stuff happens all the time anyway.

5. My daughter came down with Strep throat last week, which meant we had to skip a week of Roller skating class. Since it's only a four week class, that kind of sucks. She'll resume falling again tomorrow.

6. I can confirm through a friend that if you negatively post that the Cleveland Indians are mediocre at best, and at worst "nothing to get excited about" then they will in fact remove you from their Facebook fan group. I wish they worked this hard on drafting players.

7. February has always been a weird month, the fact that it's typically 28 days, Groundhog day, the fact that in states like Ohio, we ultimately view it as the finish line for spring. This February hasn't disappointed, what a weird friggin month. I can't tell if I'm on a roll with good things happening or in the dumps with bad things happening. It has to be the most uneven month I can remember in quite some time. Just bizarre, and most of the ups and downs are fairly inconsequential I suppose in the grand scheme of things. It's just that I'm used to seeing things either trending positive or negative rather then back and forth.

8. Chalk this up to February (see above), or social media, getting older, or any other reason, but the intelligence and thought process of many people has scared me to death this week.

9. For at least one week, spring seems to be here. Thanks for not seeing you're shadow you chunky, smelly, little furball.

10. I'm usually not one to react harshly to things, but two words come to mind, when I read this article (Baghdad wants U.S. to pay 1 billion.) they start with F and Y.

Dear Governor Kasich;

2011-02-17T09:22:00.005-05:00

I came across this article on Cleveland.com about our new Governor's recent remarks about a police officer in the Columbus area. Governor calls officer "idiot" Here are some of my thoughts.

Dear Governor Kasich;

I admire what I think you were trying to say here. I think there can be more accountability from our public servants to the taxpayer. You've also intrigued me a bit as despite the backlash from this, you are attempting to continue to promote your message outside the sensationalism of the headlines. I like the fact that you aren't backing down in this case, and if you are sincere in what you are promoting, you are making me a fan.

However, I'd be negligent if I didn't point out some things I think you are doing wrong here. In your position you can't call a police officer an idiot. Even if he was, you can't use that type of term in referencing him, I'd suggest working on the language here a bit. I'm also a bit concerned that maybe you let your emotions get the better of you in this case due to how you referenced the officer and seem to eagerly repeat this reference. Tone it down a bit and focus on your message. You aren't doing police officers any favors and you really are just allowing the press to cover your opposing party opponents and turn them into a quote machine.

If you want to lead, do so. Elevate the discussion, and while I can understand why you used this experience as a reference, you have to know when to back down, rather then letting the conversation move to a point where your message is being missed. There is nothing wrong with saying things that people don't agree with, but make the discussions productive rather then these types of sideshow acts that seem so common in today's political world.

Please disregard this note if in fact you aren't committed to adhering to being more accountable to taxpayers.

Also please be aware, I haven't been much of a fan prior to this speech, as a matter of fact I don't know much about you at all prior to your run for Governor. My opinion, after watching your campaign and reading about you, is that I considered you just a mirror image of Governor Strickland, with a different political outlook. I hope I'm wrong in this opinion as Governor Strickland proved to be a legislator unable to lead. While I'm sure there are a number of policies of yours I will disagree with (your current desire to eliminate collective bargaining for public workers being one of them), I am hopeful that you are in fact a leader and can provide some direction for this state. Currently, there are too many serious issues facing the state of Ohio for us to worry about political ideologies, I'm hopeful that you'll come to see that in your time served as Governor. Good luck to you, as your success would greatly benefit the state.

Sincerely,

Me

Learning to let go: Another chapter in a Father's dilemna

2011-02-09T12:00:00.007-05:00

I signed my daughter, Bronwyn up for roller skating lessons. Last Saturday was the first lesson. We arrived early in order to get her fitted for skates. It was a bit chaotic as there were a number of people there and they couldn't seem to find the right size for my daughter. We finally got her a set just as they were kicking off the lessons.

I held her hand as I got her toward the center area where they had gathered the group for instruction, to say she was adjusting to being on wheels would be an understatement but we made it there. (she only fell once)

I decided at that point, that I was going to take a large step back and let her engage in the instruction. It's hard to describe the feelings I was experiencing. This was a class of 30-40 students and 2-3 instructors, and it's in a fairly large roller rink. I've mentioned previously that Bronwyn can have lapses in attention, so I was curious to see how it would go. She did well paying attention to how to get up properly and how to fall properly. They then took them on the carpet and had them march in their skates, she was first in line for the first trip around. (Picture below was a second or third trip).

She did pretty well starting out, marching and keeping pace, as she tried to increase speed, she wiped out quite a bit. I think she was getting concerned about keeping pace and trying to hard to do better too quickly. (A trait she shares with her father)

It was agonizing watching her fall, and my first instinct was to run over and assist her, it didn't help that the amount of falls continued to increase. I watched as other parents walked side by side with their child and held them up rather then letting them fall. In some cases both parents aligned themselves on both sides of the child and practically carried them through the walk thru. I can understand why they did it, but I don't agree with it.

I viewed this as a good way for Bronwyn and I to learn. I need to learn over time to let go and let her experience life on her own. She needs to learn how to overcome struggles by herself. This in my opinion is the perfect environment for this. She experiences something difficult that she needs to overcome and I have to allow it, but I'm close enough to intervene if absolutely necessary. (It isn't a bad thing that the average result of a beginning roller skating session would be a sore behind, although there is the possibility she could hurt herself more seriously, it's a rather small chance in my opinion)

This means I sat for an hour in a highly anxious state watching my daughter fall multiple times and silently berating myself for letting it continue. After the lesson was over, the children were allowed to free skate and Bronwyn indicated she wanted to. The original plan was for me to rent a pair of skates, but given she was still struggling with it, I decided to save that for another week. I helped set her up on a course where she would skate across a quarter of the rink using the half wall if necessary, get off and then skate on the carpet back to her starting point.

She took off and while moving fairly slowly at first, began to pick up speed and move further away from the wall. I will say I did have to intervene a couple times as being a Sagitarius, she sometimes ignores the flow of traffic and heads off on her own course, which usually meant against the flow of oncoming skaters. She also had one fall where she really took a tumble and burst into tears, that I grabbed her from the floor on and brought her back to the table. I could tell at this point she was very tired and possibly had enough for the day, but I really didn't want her to end on her fall. I was debating with myself how I was going to handle getting her back on the floor when she told me she wanted to skate more and was ready to go again, she went for another hour.

Words cannot capture how proud of her I was for the day, while she has a long way to go, she took the direction of the instructors well, continued to apply herself when things weren't going her way and after a big fall, got right back up on the proverbial horse. I tried to capture the look of determination on her face as she skated by me a couple times, but every time I tried, she'd compose herself and smile for the picture. (well kind of a smile)

I have no idea whether she'll ever see this blog or have an idea of how proud of her I was on Saturday, but I hope deep down she knows it. I also know I took a step toward letting her go on Saturday and I take comfort in the fact that after 5 short years she's starting to build the skill set she needs to succeed in life.

Friday Thoughts 2/4/11

2011-02-04T11:26:00.002-05:00

Let's see if we can get the ball rolling again.

1. A lot going on in World news, especially in Egypt. For those that aren't paying mild attention to it, I'd urge you to familiarize yourself with what's happening there (take the 5 minutes away from Facebook and pull up a couple AP articles). It's this type of thing that you benefit from understanding when things happen in the world at a later date.

2. The Browns hired Pat Shurmur, if I had only gotten my coaches preview down for the 2nd part before the decision was inevitable, I could blow my own horn a bit more. I will say that Brown's fans shouldn't despair, as hiring Dick Jauron as Defensive Coordinator was one of those things that needed to happen too. If Shurmur takes direction from Mike Holmgren like I think he will, it's probably the best type of hire for this organization. At the very least we still have a true general manager in Tom Heckert and considering the outstanding draft he had last year, I think there is reason to be optimistic.

3. I'm in the process of updating links to the blogs I read and removing some that aren't active anymore. I think I need to find some new ones to read too, so any suggestions, feel free to leave me a comment. I'm a bit sad though as 3 of the blogs I followed closely seem to have closed down.

4. Speaking of blog business, I'm trying to decide how I want to rename this blog, since I'm not in Cleveland anymore, I think it's time for a rename. I'm just trying to decide when (probably not til summer and wife's job re-ups) and what (I need something less location specific, as this blog has been extremely Cleveland deficient for one with it in it's title).

5. I'm now 4-10 in cashing in poker tournaments, a 40% cash mark isn't bad in my opinion although that has 3 low cashes and only 1 win. I think I'll be taking a break though, as I have a Vegas work trip scheduled for the end of the month and I'd rather take discretionary income there anyway. Although I may actually sit down and play some poker in Vegas, if I can get past my constant need to do something there.

6. Rollerskating lessons start for my daughter this weekend, I'm extremely excited, I'm kind of surprised that I've come across so many roller skating rinks here in Columbus, in Cleveland I wasn't able to find any since the one I skated at as a kid closed down. I'm not sure if I'm actually excited for the daughter to learn to skate or the fact that we can free skate for 2 hours after the lessons and it gives me an excuse to roller skate some. (Not exactly a regular hobby for most middle aged men)

7. I think I'm going to start working again on my Vegas blog:

http://vegasoutsider.blogspot.com/

I have some ideas on what I want to do with it, my biggest concern to this point is I didn't want just another review site, especially since I don't take many pictures on my trips. I think I've identified a niche though that I can fill. I did come across a post I accidentally put over there, that I'm moving to this one, as it was my update of when we moved. Oops. This will likely be the last cross promotion I do with the Vegas blog, as similar to my life, I like to keep things compartmentalized and ultimately keeping them separated appeals to me for a level of anonymity.

8. Spring training opens up here in a week or two and I really would like to right up a baseball preview, but I have little desire to do so at the moment as the Indians truly stink. That's one of the benefits of being a blogger vs a writer, no requirements.

9. I think I've decided that I think American Idol jumped the shark with Taylor Hicks, it's just taken so long to realize it.

10. With a weekend of little planned, I'm thinking it's a perfect weekend to do some baking and making some snacks for the Superbowl. Being down here in Columbus means there isn't a party to go to or anything else and it's been almost 2 months since I baked anything. On track for this weekend is cheesecake.

Have a great weekend, except that is if you are rooting for the Steelers, in which case I wish you a miserable weekend of weather followed by your team losing by double digits or 3 points in the last minute of the game.

Life and Times in Columbus (post from after the move)

2011-02-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I posted this to the wrong blog. Anyway, here were my thoughts right after the move to Columbus from Cleveland. We are at about the 5 month point, so I'll be following up with some thoughts here in the near future on the this.

*******

Ok, so we are here. I'm currently sitting in a stuffed to the gills townhouse, with all of our worldly possessions, some of which are packed still, some aren't. I managed to clear some spots last night in the living room, so we could actually sit down.

The weekend didn't start out very well, as my wife's purse was stolen from her car on Thursday, which lead to a rather full day for her in cancelling all of her cards and the varying tasks that go along with it.

The move took two days with us loading the truck on Saturday and then driving down on Sunday and unloading it.

While the townhouse is smaller, there are some benefits to it over our house. The first noticeable thing is the rooms are laid out for more modern living. Meaning the sizes and dimensions are much more friendly for organizing furniture. My house built in the 20's has a horrible layout that ultimately leaves a lot of empty unusable space. Add in the fact that my 1920's house has one outlet per room on the second floor and you can only imagine the organizing nightmares. Every room here has 3-4 outlets.

We won't know whether or not this better layout equals out the space we give up from moving from the house until everything gets unpacked. I'm trying to stay positive though, and believe me at moments it's hard.

I would describe my mood as surreal right now, I have very little (if any) knowledge of the area and everything at the moment seems different, tv stations, radio stations, road layouts, living on top of others, light switches, etc. Add in I'm exhausted from the move and that I still have a laundry list of things to do (here and back in Cleveland) and I'm wondering how long my sanity is going to hold. I'm hoping as the chaos that currently sits in the townhouse becomes more managed that my mood will as well.

I'm sure this whole post jumps around (more then usual) and maybe a bit difficult to follow, as holding a complete thought right now is proving a bit difficult, my apologies if it's of poor quality.

Say a little prayer for you

2011-01-27T10:00:00.002-05:00

Note: I'm going to use Facebook as a reference, but this applies to direct conversation too.

Every now and then, I'll see something on Facebook posted by a family member or friend to 'say a prayer for so and so' or I'll see a response to someone's status post that says "my prayers' are with you. I don't have anything wrong with either post, I'm just lost as far as what to say to someone if I wanted to show my support. I suppose I could say the same thing, but it wouldn't be true, I won't be praying for you so I feel like it would be lying to say it.

As reference, here is dictionary.com's definition of pray.

to offer devout petition, praise, thanks, etc., to (God or an object of worship)
to offer (a prayer)
to bring, put, etc., by praying: to pray a soul into heaven.
to make earnest petition to (a person).
to make petition or entreaty for; crave: She prayed his forgiveness.
to offer devout petition, praise, thanks, etc., to God or to an object of worship.
to enter into spiritual communion with God or an object of worship through prayer.
–verb (used without object) to make entreaty or supplication, as to a person or for a thing

For the purpose of this post, I'm going to assume that the majority of people consider praying for someone to fall under #6 or #7, in that you are asking for a higher power for intervention.

At this point, I should clarify some things as well.

1. This isn't about whether other people should pray for someone (I have no real opinion on whether someone believes in it themselves).
2. I will gladly accept someone else's prayers for my family or me and won't think twice of you stating yourself in this manner. (if my family or I were experiencing something difficult, I have no qualms in accepting support any way I can get it and if your God can intervene, all the better).
3. I'm bothered by this phrase, as I really want to show support to someone, but I hate the language required to do it.

Having made those points, let's take a look at number three which is the basis for this whole piece anyway. The statements "My prayers are with X" or "We are praying for X" are inherently stronger in meaning, then saying something like "All my best" "My thoughts are with you" "Hope things turn out well". There are a ton of other statements that could be used in exchange for a prayer statement, but they all (in my opinion) lack the certain force that one of the prayer statements has.

This bugs me to no end (hence the blog post). The worst part is, I'm really not sure what I'm going to do about it. I've tried crafting a number of statements, and either they wind up too long or they don't convey the meaning intended. And considering that written statements are about 100x easier then being in front of someone and trying to find a statement that makes sense quickly that conveys the right meaning, you can see this is not an easy task. I realize that this is just a word obsession and probably doesn't make a lot of difference, but as you can probably tell on some levels it bothers me. I guess I'll just have to keep working on it.

Are we really surprised?

2011-01-19T14:34:00.002-05:00

From the news headline this morning:

New Ala. gov: Just Christians are his family

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_alabama_governor_christians

Can anyone really say they are surprised? I mean it's not like Alabama has been know throughout their existence for their understanding of differences and compassion for others. As a matter of fact, I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing that it's not exactly a hot bed for travel or relocation for Jewish, Muslim, or Mormon people anyway.

Having said that, it's still a disappointing thing to see how small minded and ignorant the governor is in this case, clearly he's not a supporter of the Constitution or even a well practicing Christian. Considering that promotion of one religion by the government is sort of a no-no for the Constitution and Christianity at it's core preaches compassion and understanding for others.

I will say there's a part of me that prefers this small minded prejudice type, while I find his thought process reprehensible, at least I know where he stands, much easier to deal with then the one that hides it and still proceeds under an agenda fueled by that.

Friday Thoughts 1/14/2011

2011-01-14T11:43:00.003-05:00

With the new year here, perhaps it's time to break out another Friday top 10, here's what's on my mind over the last couple weeks.

1. I've recently been playing poker in a local club here in Columbus about once a week, I've played poker casually before, but always been a bit hesitant to get used to a structured game. It's going well so far and giving me an opportunity to talk with adults outside of my wife on a weekly basis. The thing I like most though is that I'm getting comfortable in the structured game, as I'd like to have some experience prior to the casinos opening in Cleveland and Columbus in the next year or so. I can imagine the Columbus casino having some dead money on the table on weekends from some of the college crowd.

2. Terrible tragedy for Congresswoman Gifford, I hope she is able to make a full recovery. And to all of those that lost loved ones that day to the shooter, my heart goes out to them as well.

3. Sarah Palin is an idiot. I've met strippers that I'd consider geniuses compared to her. Please just go away Mrs. Palin.

4. Found out there is a possibility I'll be going to Madrid, Spain, this coming spring. Since it's a work conference, I'm so hoping it's not true, as my work tends to schedule 12 hour sessions and sequesters us in the hotel of their choosing, not exactly worth it for the long flight and no chance to see anything in the city.

5. For Cleveland Browns fans, it can't get much worse this week in the playoffs, three of the four AFC teams we despise for one reason or another, assuring us at least one makes it to the Championship game. Here's the reason we hate them: Pittsburgh: no single reason, it's just that their fans are idiots, their women are ugly, and their city is gross. Baltimore: Art Modell and moving Cleveland Browns, all that needs to be said. New England: Bill Belichick, I don't care what he's won, he's still an asshole and borderline sociopath.

6. There is a part of me that is fascinated of the middle name phenomenon for infamous assassins, attempted assassins, and accused assassins (Jared Lee Loughner) although the middle names don't always stick for reporting, more often then not they do. I remember reading when I first became aware of it, that one reason that the middle name was referenced was to try and avoid damaging other people's reputations. I do find it a bit unusual that in most cases it's only used for what we would consider assassinations or attempts After all someone like Timothy McVeigh was not typically referenced with a middle name. Perhaps for mass murders we have different rules.

7. Each year, my company makes us go through a process and review guidelines for handling business transactions, it's an ethical and legal review of best practices. I find it fascinating that each year, I see more and more circumstances where these things apply in every day life and wonder how far away I am from a situation where there is some scandal and how close it might actually be to me or people I work with because they don't follow the procedures. I guess what I'm saying is I continue to be fascinated with the fact that I just can't wrap my head around the fact that I'm a professional adult sometimes, that the article I'm reading on Mr. J.P. Smith from Podunk, Kansas that's involved with insider trading, illegal transactions, or a host of other things is me in just a different situation. I hope this makes sense, not saying that I do anything outside of the rules and procedures, just that I work in that space and I still have a hard time visualizing myself on the same level as someone like that.

8. My 20 year high school reunion has a date on the calendar for early summer. Thankfully I have plenty of time to drop the holiday pounds and over stress about what I'm going to wear to it. (it's my metrosexual side coming out, for those not familiar with me). After all, I didn't drop from 320 lbs in high school down to 200 only to get to the 20 year mark and come back in at 230 or so. 210's the goal and if I was betting I'd bet on me making my target weight by then.

9. I'm really starting to enjoy the fact, that we get about 1/4 the snow of Cleveland during the winter. The temperatures are the same, but I'll take a win where I can get it.

10. I'd like to take a second and send best wishes out to all of my friends that maybe struggling through things right now, as I mentioned in my previous post. I'm pulling for you and if there is anything I can do to help, please reach out to me. (Although I don't think you read the blog, at least I know you know you can reach out to me as I've told you personally).

Have a great weekend, and here's hoping January gets over with already, as we are only about 30 days until pitchers and catchers report, the true beginning of spring.

4.

Depressed in Cleveland

2011-01-12T11:08:00.004-05:00

I've stated it before and I'll state it again, I love my hometown of Cleveland. With that I write this post with great sorrow, the city is in dire straits.

I visited last weekend for my brother's birthday celebration. Now some of my feelings are shaded by personal relationships, which I'll get to as well, but from a city standpoint, driving around the area where I lived and some other areas of town depressed me as well.

What I found in my neighborhood was more houses on the market, many appeared to be due to foreclosures. What was striking about this was many would have been the neighbors you least expected it from. Add those to the already bloated numbers of homes in the suburb where we lived that are on the market and you begin to wonder about how long this 'recovery' of the housing market is going to take. Driving around it didn't get any better as I drove by businesses that had shuttered up, nothing surprising, a Quiznos that served badly prepared food, a Blockbuster, who's parent company is in shambles, and a restaurant that was located at an ill advised location. While not surprising, it still was a bit depressing, as all of those businesses are within a mile of the house, I wondered how many I didn't notice as I was driving or how many were closing in areas further away.

After being in Columbus for a number of months, I have to say my mood around our nation's economy is much different then it was during my last year in Cleveland, while there are still struggles in the area, businesses seem to be fairly solvent including a fairly large amount of small businesses in the area, it's refreshing and encouraging. This last weekend really brought the differences to my attention.

Having said all that, I need to share some personal slant that I'm sure affected my views of the area around me. After a couple months of getting on track with the new income, adjusting to day care costs, additional living expenses, and finally being further away from the move costs, our economic outlook in this house is pretty good, even considering we are still paying on our mortgage of our Cleveland house. It's a fairly bright future even if the house in Cleveland doesn't move anytime soon and I'm sure this association makes me look at Columbus a bit differently.

Seeing friends that are in difficult spots financially and emotionally due to relationships definitely flavored my views. It's rough to watch those close to you struggle with those kinds of difficult situations, especially when they balloon from rough spots to critical spots and there is only so much advice you can give them or assistance. I've mentioned before I have a couple friends who are either going through or are recently divorced and the toll it's taking is alarming to me when I see or talk to them, add in a number of friends that seem to be what I would consider scraping by (i.e. maintaining today, but with no real outlook to the future) and I begin to wonder how some of these relationships are going to be in 10 years as we close in on 50, as my world and theirs maybe two incredibly different things? It's scary to think about and not something I've gave much more then casual thought to over the previous years, maybe its the fact that I've always sort of ignored the differences in jobs or education that developed over time and the move to Columbus has only gone and shed more light on it. It's something I'm going to have to think about more.

Cleveland Brown's coach search Part 2 of 2

2011-01-05T12:18:00.004-05:00

I promised that I would get to my thoughts on the Cleveland Browns head coach search and here they are.

The first thing I think we needed was something that resembled a standard front office for a football team. Thankfully 10 years after the team returned, we appear to finally have a front office and some people with football knowledge (whether or not they will succeed is another discussion).

Since we have a front office, that means we don't need a football czar as a head coach. A coach that demands full authority in all football matters, including talent selection and in some cases financial decisions. This rules out someone like Bill Cowher and possibly Jon Gruden, although I think there is still some debate on whether Jon Gruden wants/needs full control of a team or is content to 'just coach'.

To me that leaves us with three other types of coaches, a former head coach, a coordinator or position coach, and a college coach. There is of course overlap in all of these, but for the most part that's how I see them breaking out.

I don't currently think there is a college coach out there that fits the Browns needs. At the point where this team and organization is, I don't think they can take the chance of hiring a college coach. There are too many question marks in the adaption process to the NFL for most college coaches and currently the Browns are exactly a position that makes head coaches at the college level want to leave their established programs for.

Former head coach: I think there are some interesting candidates out there that probably fit Mike Holmgrens philosophy. Steve Marriuci, Brian Billick, and John Fox come to mind. If they go with a former head coach, I feel like they have to go with someone that has had some success at that level and perhaps has had a number of years away from being a head coach to recharge themselves. Ego level comes heavily into play here with an established team president and a general manager that seems to be growing very well into his position.

Coordinator or position coach: I lumped these two together as within the last couple years there has been hirings from both positions. Some of the candidates from here would be Pat Shurmur, and two that fit the former head coach profile too, Mike Mularkey, and Marty Mornhinweg. In my opinion, I'd prefer the Brown's stay away from a re-tread head coach that's reestablished themselves as a coordinator. If they are going to go the coordinator route, do it with someone that they like the philosophy of and has a chance to develop into the kind of coach that can lead the franchise once Mike Holmgren or Tom Heckert move on. Head coaches that go back to being coordinators are usually not hired back right away as a head coach for a reason, if the other teams in the league aren't breaking down the doors to get to them, why should we.

I know I'm all over the place on this post, but since it appears Mike Holmgren will make a decision this week, I wanted to get something down to complete my thoughts.

If the Browns go with someone with head coaching experience, I think it's crucial they go with one that's had some success and either has had some time away to reflect on the next job, or left on their own terms. Re-treads like Mornhinweg and Mularkey are just not a good fit in my opinion. While circumstances could have made their previous engagements bad, there's a pretty solid chance they are just really good at taking direction and putting their gameplan together as a coordinator should do.

If the Browns go with a position coach or a coordinator that's never been a coach, then I think it's imperative that the organization assists them in getting some quality coordinators on this team. Not only quality experienced coordinators, but ones that are able to check their egos at the door. A coordinator with previous head coaching experience is a double edged sword here, one with the right mentality would be a boon for a new coach (see Mike Tomlin and Dick Lebeau), but if they don't have the right mentality or lose respect for the new head coach, there could be significant turmoil on the staff.

I think coordinators are the biggest need of this team, one of the issues this team has had since they have been back, is their coordinators have been less then stellar. This team desperately needs offensive and defensive philosophies and mentalities, they also need to be effectively coached, as the team has gotten younger, the need is for coaches that aren't always learning on the job and that can hold the respect of the players.

Believing that coordinators has been one of our biggest holes for years, I think the hirings come down to either a young coach with good potential that has the full backing of the organization and assistance from Mike Holmgren in finding coordinators that fit or an experienced head coach that had success in the league, that can persuade coaches they know to leave or already have an idea of position coaches they want that would make good coordinators.

I think the organization will wind up with a young coach, and my guess is it will be Pat Shurmur. He has a similar path to what Mike Holmgren and Andy Reid have gone through and similar philosophies, while Holmgren doesn't have a lot of familiarity with him, he does with Reid and Reid is a big proponent of Shurmur. I also believe Holmgren understands the need for strong coordinators here and is doing his best to assist in that area too, word is they are looking at Dave Wannstedt for the position, who is the type of coach a new head coach can rely on to assist, and Wannstedt should be removed enough from his head coaching failures to want to re-establish himself as a coordinator and build back up his resume in the meantime without getting in the way.

If things work, it winds up being a similar scenario to Mike Tomlin who relies heavily on Dick Lebeau to maintain order in his clubhouse. And in truth since someone like Jon Gruden declined to be interviewed, I'm not really sure there are any other candidates that made a lot of sense for this organization. This choice won't be received well by Brown's fans, but in my opinion is the best course of action for the team at this time, let's hope if they hire Shurmur, that he's up for the task.

Cleveland Brown's coach search Part 1 of 2

2011-01-05T09:14:00.005-05:00

The Brown's are looking for their 5th head coach since the 're-introduction' of the franchise in 1999. During that time, we've had Chris Palmer, Butch Davis, Romeo Crennel, and Eric Mangini, not exactly a who's who of coaching excellence.

I'm making this a two part post, the first part handles some thoughts and history of the coaches that have been here since "the Return". The second part handles thoughts on what they need and my guesses on what they will do.

Part 2: What I think they need and what I think they'll do.

Part 1 the History (as I see it):

Prior to this hiring, this organization has consistently done things backwards when it comes to hiring coaches, let's take a look at some of the gaffes.

1. When the Browns returned, Carmen Policy (great speaker, knows nothing about football) and Dwight Clark (maybe the worst GM ever) decided that they had to have Brian Billick as a coach, they waited during the Minnesota playoff run and were absolutely convinced that their offer to Billick would woo him for the job. It turns out it didn't work, Billick went to the Ravens, and Clark and Policy had not done the full vesting process for a coach search and wound up with Chris Palmer. Add in the fact that the list of candidates they had was not exactly great anyway (hard to find good people, when you aren't really that good at your job) and you have a recipe for disaster. Considering the organization had such a short window to put team together and that the head coach was brought in a bit late, Chris Palmer actually did a fair job in his time here.

2. Butch Davis was coming off a turnaround of the Miami Hurricanes program which had fallen into disarray since Jimmy Johnson had left and his pedigree as an assistant coach for the Cowboy's Super Bowl teams were typed up and broadcast all over the Cleveland area. Butch arrived and for the first two years didn't do half bad with the team, going 7-9 and 9-7 in the first two years. Then the third year came and Butch's faults shined through, huge problems from the playoff loss to the Evil Empire (Pittsburgh Steelers) led to a quarterback controversy and the next season had Butch Davis high fiving with Randy Lerner after they signed Jeff Garcia. (you see why we are so depressed as Cleveland Sports fans). Luckily that season also lead to Butch's resignation.

3. Romeo Crennel was hired prior to the hiring of a general manager. The reasoning was that he was a hot coordinator and we'd miss out if we didn't hire him. Mind you, Romeo was defensive coordinator here under Chris Palmer and hadn't been a head coach yet in his 30+ years in the league. His stock was up though as the Bill Belichick machine was running on all cylinders at the time and everyone was blinged out on new rings. Phil Savage was brought in as GM after the Romeo hire. Randy Lerner after letting go of Butch Davis seemed to indicate the desire to put an organization together and spent a couple trips visiting Philadelphia and New England, and then essentially went against conventional wisdom of letting the GM pick their head coach. Romeo wound up with one good year (10-6) where they missed the playoffs, the year itself was heavily based on a very weak schedule and some nice play by Derek Anderson, who wasn't named starter out of training camp and had a lot of success at throwing a deep ball, by the time other teams bothered to game plan for him, his numbers started to become heavily mediocre. The year following the 10-6 record, Romeo's team came out of the gate flat against a tough schedule and due to the bad start, he completely lost the team, and led to his firing. Phil Savage managed to wind up getting himself fired as well, showing in many cases that he acted like a petulant child.

4. Eric Mangini was next, after swearing that he would learn from past mistakes and go about the process correctly (i.e hiring a GM to hire a coach). Randy Lerner went out and fell in love with Eric Mangini and bid against himself in hiring him prior to hiring a GM. The coach that he couldn't let get away that no one wanted a the time. They then hired George Kokinis to be a pseudo GM, as it turned out, he had less power then we anticipated, lost a power struggle with Mangini and was quickly fired by the Browns in the new season. (Groans of uh-oh were murmured in fan's homes everywhere). After firing Kokinis quickly in the season, it was also evident that maybe Eric Mangini shouldn't have all the power in the organization. Randy Lerner at this point was constantly being asked for comment, and since no one would work for him or was in any position above Mangini, answers were few. It didn't help matters that Lerner claims to have anxiety about being interviewed and being on camera, that shows he has some understanding that he's mentally challenged when it comes to anything to do with the Cleveland Browns. (besides soccer is Randy's true love . Lerner during the middle of the season decided he needed to hire a Team President or essentially someone that could answer questions for the franchise that he had no interest or ability to do. He embarked on a search, was rejected by Ernie Accorsi and Bill Parcells and finally persuaded Mike Holmgren to take the reigns as team president.

Mangini one his last four games with some smash nose football, showing that he had at least gotten through to the players and seemed to have them on the same page. He did this while the QBs for the team managed to throw for about 10 yards a game. It was rather impressive and I think the city was sort of energized for the smash mouth football they were playing. Based on this winning streak and meeting at the end of the year, Holmgren decided to keep Mangini around.

This season, Mangini's team started off slow, but they kept games close and there seemed to be a foundation being built, something that hasn't existed in the time the team had been back. In the middle of the year, the Browns beat the Patriots and the Saints in back to back games, with the Patriots win being a very sound thrashing. All of the talk of getting rid of Mangini died down in the area, until the next losing streak happened. At that point, the critics came out and were calling for his head. With four games remaining, most felt that if he could win 2 of the 4 and play tough for the 2 losses it would be a positive step for the franchise. That didn't happen they lost all four games and the team looked like it had regressed from the beginning of the season, which lead to Mangini's firing the day after the season.

Part 2: What I think they need and what I think they'll do.

Help us Mike Holmgren, you're our only hope!

2011-01-04T09:05:00.007-05:00

These are dark times for sports in the City of Cleveland. The evil Galactic Empire (Pittsburgh Steelers) defeated the Cleveland Browns to end the 2010 NFL regular season for our heroes. Months ago the evil mercenary LeQuit James double crossed the city and it's basketball team leaving them in a state of disarray while baseball still sits incarcerated under the incompetent but malicious owner of the Cleveland Indians Grand Moff Larry Dolan.

Due to his failure to make any progress for the Rebel Browns, Admiral Eric Mangini was jettisoned into space yesterday, destined for Hoth, where most of his antagonists (including Hannah Storm and Adam Schefter of ESPN http://tinyurl.com/2d59s5h) hopes he finds his regular living accommodations in the belly of a Ton Ton.

All is not lost for the Rebel Browns though, their lone Jedi Master is the guiding light during these dark times, continuing to advise us to believe in the Force and his intellect. He has advised us that he will in fact find the correct coach and develop a winning mentality for the franchise. Not since Master Yoda and Darth

Sidious' battled in the Senate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inTbUf5Swfc) have we been so hopeful for a victory for the Light. Let us hope that our Jedi Master is successful in the task at hand.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T13:57:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Here in Columbus, we've got a freezer full of frozen junk food we'll be cooking up along with a couple Wii games, we are living large for the night. I'm actually looking forward to a casual evening, it's been a long time since we didn't go out for New Years and although I'll miss spending time with my family and friends from Cleveland, I'm looking forward to just relaxing at home.

Be safe if you are heading out tonight!

Of Cats and Men

2010-12-29T11:25:00.002-05:00

I love animals, I really believe I do. I'm a bit perplexed though at my thoughts over the last day or so and thought it would something interesting to write about.

As I may have mentioned before, we live in a townhouse development that has a couple hundred units. Over the course of a couple months we've developed a bit of knowledge of the houses and occupants in our immediate area. Things like who has dogs, what cars people own, and who and how many people live in certain houses. (The last bit of knowledge leads to questions like, "How the hell do fit that many into the house?"). On occasion during the warmer months, we'd see cats roaming around, but figuring out what home they belong to is about impossible.

Last night as we were standing outside smoking (I know, bad habit, I'm working on it). We heard a rather large meow coming from about 2 units down. We looked over and a fairly skinny (scrawny) orange and brown cat made its way over to us. It was about 20 degrees last night and has been that way for a number of nights. It was obvious the cat was cold and while not typically 'cat friendly' he did make his way over to us and start moving through our legs.

My first instinct was to walk away and back in the house. (Horrible, I know).

Of course, my wife was having none of that and was feeling extremely sorry for the cat.

Our conversation went like this:

Her: Oh, poor little kitty, it must be so cold.

Me: I'm sure it's fine, looking away from cat and wife. (Hoping ignorance would work here).

Her: But look how he's walking, he's already cold, I bet he can't find his home.

Me: I'm sure he'll find his home, cats do that all the time.

Her: Poor thing.

Me: (thinking: uh oh!)

I took a walk around the complex to see if anyone was looking for a cat, no luck there. The wife then took another longer walk to see and ask some neighbors that were outside if they knew of anyone looking for a lost cat. I followed her progress peering out the window at her. After her rounds, she came home and brought the cat in. We decided to put the cat in the basement in the dog's crate for the night. She tried calling an animal warden (advertised as 24 hours), but had no luck. I told her the best thing we could do would be to keep it over night and then she'd need to take it to a shelter in the morning. We got it some dry cereal and water, but it wanted neither and just proceeded to meow as it was locked in the cage.

I really didn't want the cat in the house and I wish I fully understood why. I definitely felt bad for the cat once I thought about it and realized that we needed to do something for it, but I had little desire to do so. My best guess as to why I wanted to ignore the problem is that it can just lead to complications. The cat could have been feral and caused a problem, bitten my wife or me, taking the time to find a shelter to take it wouldn't be a piece of cake, and once we took it in, in my opinion we at least had an obligation to get it somewhere. Pile all of those up in addition to life's regular stressors and I was able to successfully remove myself from the emotional side of it.

This isn't a post to try and defend my position, I was wrong for that line of thinking and my wife was right. While it took extra time and the cat maybe in no better situation, as the shelter she found that eventually took it, euthanizes after a period of time. At least the cat has a fighting chance for either it's owner to find it (if they are looking, which I doubt due to no collar) or for someone to adopt it. It's certainly a more humane situation then letting it freeze out in the cold.

After examination the shelter definitely felt like it was a house cat, not a feral cat. So we'll put up a couple signs in the area for it too. In truth there is a part of me that would have liked to keep it, he was very friendly, fairly young, and had a beautiful color to him, but with the additional price of vet bills, additional security deposits to the complex, and monthly rent for him, it just wasn't going to happen. It doesn't help that we already have one pet, who happens to have very buggy eyes, that I just don't want to take the chance of getting scratched up by a feline.

I'm going to have to work on the feeling issue still it seems, my decision making process in this case was devoid of emotion and it's not ultimately who I want to be. Emotionless decision making can be an extreme benefit in certain situations, but I also expect it makes you a little less human.

Good luck to the cat, and if someone in the Columbus area is interested in it, shoot me an email or comment and I'll get you the information on the cat.

Christmas dilemna

2010-12-29T11:00:00.001-05:00

I took Bronwyn to see Santa Claus at the mall about three weeks before Christmas, she had already seen him once or twice before, but she was adamant that she wanted to see him again. I conceded, even though I knew it mean an hour long line on a Sunday. After holding her as she napped on my shoulder for a good part of the hour, we finally made it up to the big man. Where she asked for what she wanted for Christmas. (I should note, we already had a fairly lengthy list of things wanted, and thought we were quite familiar with the Santa Claus requests).

It's at this point, that I hear her mention Pixos for the first time, which are another one of the many crafts out today with billions of small pieces and requires regular refills, in some senses the perfect toy for today's capitalistic world. She didn't know I overheard her conversation with Santa, and she was fairly nonchalant in her conversation with me after her meeting with Santa, to the point, where she essentially avoided my questions on the subject.

We made our way to the food court for a quick snack before setting home and came across a fountain. Bronwyn asked for some change to throw in the fountain to make a wish. Of course in today's day and age, it's rare that I have any money on me, much less change. Luckily for her (and me), I picked up our snack with cash and wound up with some change, so I gave her a quarter for her wish.

She took a moment or two, close her eyes, and launched the quarter, it plunked it's way into the fountain. Immediately she asked me whether I wanted to know what her wish was, but that I couldn't tell her mom. She then went on to tell me that she really wanted Pixos for Christmas, but that mom said she couldn't have them as they were too messy and since we had less room in the new place, there were too many chances our dog could get them if they dropped. She also advised me that she was just pleading her case to Santa on the matter.

This means I had a dilemma, I was very familiar with my wife's argument, but at the same time my personal belief that requests within reason at Christmas are essential for providing a bit of magic during childhood. I talked with the wife about my concerns, and she stuck to her position, that it would be better as a gift for next year, since we'd likely be in a bigger place (hopefully). I told her I understood, but that I'd still have to think about it. (Notice I made no such promise to go along with the her line of thinking).

After some contemplation, I decided to get the Pixos, at worst it's a $20 loss and I figured it was worth it for some wish fulfillment regardless of the outcome with my wife. I wrapped it up and in the spirit of "A Christmas Story" strategically placed it partially under the tree skirt and delivered it as a last gift.

A bit to my surprise, the wife caught up in the moment of Christmas morning, shrugged it off and my daughter was bit less enthused then I expected (I blame it on gift overload). This just proves that working yourself up with anxiety over a dilemma such as this is really not worth it.

I'm hopeful that someday the little one will remember that Santa did come through with Pixos though when she really wanted them.

Friday Thoughts 12/17/2010

2010-12-17T20:43:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I've done one of these. Hopefully that means it won't be boring.

1. I've probably said it before and I'm not the last person that's going to say it, but the fees ticketmaster charges are beyond ridiculous. I purchased some tickets for Disney on Ice last night for the three of us. Tickets were on sale for $6.50/each which was half price. My fees were $6.50 per ticket. Now considering that the majority of Ticketmaster's work is handled by their computer systems, I can't see where they can justify this price. I mean compare the fact that this travelling skating show pays talent, movers, creative teams, promotions, licensing, etc. and still comes in at the same price. Unbelievable and gouging to the extreme in my opinion. No wonder why no one wants to go to any events any more, add in crowds, parking, and expensive concessions, it's just not worth the hassle.

2. I should point out, I really don't care about the total price of the tickets, $13 per person for Disney on Ice isn't bad at all. The thing that irritates me though is that half of the dollars are going to an entity that does nothing, and keeps the revenue from those that are performing. I'm not in favor of paying companies or people that aren't performing much work significantly higher then their effort requires.

3. We had a birthday party for Bronwyn last weekend at Chik-fil-a. It was a chance to meet some of the parents of her friends from school and the kids could play in the indoor playground and have a lunch. It was a nice time and the prices were very good for a small birthday party (under $4/head for the kids). Plus we wound up with a fair amount of space and were well taken care of by the staff. It was also nice to meet some of the parents, partially because my days outside of phone conversation are limited to conversations with my daughter and wife, there are just times when some adult conversation is necessary. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to set up some play dates or dinner dates with the families in the future.

4. Sunday, we were invited to one of Bronwyn's friends birthday party at Bounce City. Bounce City is an indoor facility with those large inflatable play areas. It's actually a lot of fun, and they let the parents play on them if they want, for the price of a child, since it was a party Bronwyn got in as a guest. There parties are a little expensive, but you are allowed to invite 15-25 kids depending on the package. We thought about holding Bronwyn's party there, but considering we didn't know whether anyone would show up, we thought it might be better to do something more low key this year. And if you are wondering, yes, I did get on some of the inflatables and it was pretty crazy. The slide they have has to be three stories tall and one of the fastest drops I've ever experienced.

5. Today's the last day of work and then I'm off all next week on vacation. Usually I take this past week off, but with Laurie having Christmas break and Bronwyn in day care it only made more sense to take this week or next off (next week was already locked up). I don't think I've had the week before Christmas off since I was in school, so it will be a bit different of a vacation for me.

6. During my shopping this year, I've been able to find small gifts for people, that I think they'll like. These are typically people I might not give a gift too, only because we don't typically exchange them or for the fact that finding something they want is an exercise in futility. I won't say what it is though in case they read the blog. I will say it's sort of fun when you can find something relatively inexpensive that should make a nice gift for someone and is a bit personal.

7. So far Columbus seems to avoid a good deal of snow that Cleveland gets. We've only had one mild pass through of snow so far and considering what my family and friends have dealt with over the last two weeks in Cleveland, it's not bad at all.

8. The car battery on my Stratus went this week. (Those 5 degree morning temperatures will have that effect on an old battery.) And lucky me to find out that the battery on Dodge cars are located in the driver side wheel well. WTF??? After a wasted day of trying to figure out where in the wheel well it was, I was finally able to get it done the next day. Needless to say I'm not a car guy, this is about the extent of my automotive expertise.

9. As usual, I've been baking up a storm. I think I've settled in on four staples for every Christmas and have come up with a new one this year, chocolate peppermint cookies. The taste and texture turned out well on them this year, but they didn't look quite like I wanted them too. I'm hoping to come up with about 2 more and then just have 6 I can make every year.

10. Happy Holidays to everyone, be safe, and enjoy yourselves!

Happy Birthday Bronwyn!

2010-12-16T21:40:00.004-05:00

Forgive me for a self indulgent post, but I'm taking a moment to wish my daughter, Bronwyn (or Boof around here) a happy 5th birthday.

I can honestly say nothing has changed my life like her being here has, there are days I can't even fathom what life was like before she got here.

She's becoming quite the little lady as well as her personality develops, and it's so much fun to assist in providing experiences and watching her grow.

We held a party for her and some of her daycare friends over the weekend that went well, and today, she got a special trip to the Donut shop this morning for a treat and then the three of us went out to dinner. (Her choice Chik-fil-a, mainly because it has an indoor playground, her addiction).

Anyway, it was a great day and I'm glad she had such a good time. To close out, I'll share one of my new favorites from the massive photo collection we have of her.

Happy Birthday beautiful!

Update on latest audition

2010-11-30T13:34:00.003-05:00

I got an update from the band yesterday about the audition on Sunday. Drumroll please............

They rejected me.

Yes, it kind of sucks, and I have to admit yesterday when I heard it, I was sort of bummed, but that feeling was gone within a couple hours. I've never been good with rejection and was thinking yesterday how I was going to write up a whole piece on it, but then the feeling subsided and I was sort of in a good mood, especially once I realized I seemed to have learned to deal with rejection in cases like this relatively easily.

Let me explain, I don't mind rejection when it comes to things I can logically rationalize, applying for jobs and things like that, I understand it. Having said that, I have always had an issue with rejection when it comes to things where I put a part of myself out there, to this point that's meant friendships, relationships, and in this case my fledgling music career. I hated the possibility of being rejected based on me being me, it's hung over me for a long time, even as I built up my personality and developed into I am, I've carried that irrational fear. I really became aware of this again after getting the boot from the first band and it took a bit to climb back out from that one, in a lot of ways it felt like recovering from being dumped.

A good portion of my life has been spent avoiding situations where rejection is a possibility, I'd either avoid the situations or so work to control the outcome in my favor, that I'd only put myself in positive situations. So after the first dump by the band it took a while to get back out there, I've had two auditions now, the first one I wrote about but haven't heard anything back and assume it's a rejection, the second one came quick and as I said earlier I was a bit upset. After all I put it all out there and gave it my best shot and for what they said they were looking for I'm pretty sure I was a good fit. When I found out they were going in a different direction, the doubt and self loathing started to seep in. Am I good enough? did I f*ck something up? Say something stupid? all sorts of questions plagued through my mind, with negative answers to those questions bombarding my internal discussion.

Then I thought about it, who gives a f*ck, so they didn't like it. I know I can sing a little bit, it may not be perfect, but I'm as good as some singers in cover bands I've seen out there. If it doesn't work out this time, maybe it will next time or I'll try something else.

I can't tell you how refreshing a feeling this was. The only hangup at the moment is that I'm a bit sad that it's taken so long to overcome this irrational fear, life would have been very different if this was resolved about 20 years ago. Even though it's late, I'm still happy with the accomplishment, I'd rather have it now then never.

The rest of Thanksgiving weekend and a singing update

2010-11-29T11:58:00.003-05:00

The other highlight of the weekend is that we took Bronwyn to the youth ballet performance of the Nutcracker at the Midland Theater. (www.midlandtheatre.org) in Newark, Oh. It was about 45 minutes away and is a very nice theater. Being a youth performance the price was right as well for a 4 year old that is challenged by sitting too long (aren't they all?).

The performance was nice, the stage backgrounds were fairly elaborate for a youth production and the performance itself while not professional quality was worth an afternoon. There were definitely points when you felt like you were watching a school production and for the price it wasn't worth it, but there were occasional scenes that were very good that made the whole experience worth it. Based on all of that, I'd highly recommend it to take a child too, a professional production is probably not something a 4 year old could appreciate yet, so I viewed it as a nice introduction at a good price and it kicked off the Christmas season nicely.

The other highlight of the weekend was a singing audition I had Sunday, I came across a band ad, that I responded to and they got back to me on Wednesday. I was a bit excited as I had seen this band advertising for a singer when I first moved down but at the time I didn't have time to try and do anything and by the time I was ready, their ads had been pulled, but I came across a new one last week and got in touch with them.

Their set list and my previous experience matched up nicely and by the time we were setting things up we had about 25 songs we could run through if time permitted. As it happened their other auditions pulled out, so we just jammed for the afternoon. They had a great setup at the bassist's house, full basement with a stage area and a lot of equipment, a great amount of space and area for it. They are a 5 piece group (2 guitars, drums, bass, and singer). We went through about 20-25 songs, a couple that were really rough first attempts for me, that I thought I'd have a chance to review over the weekend, but barely was able to find time to get the lyrics out on them, but they didn't go bad. All in all it was a good afternoon, but the guys weren't very talkative, so I have little idea on their thoughts at the moment, so we'll wait and see what they want to do. It was nice at least to get out and sing for a couple hours, and I'm pretty happy with how well I sang and how I felt the day after, especially considering I hadn't gone through a set like that in a long time. I'll have some more thoughts if we move forward on it, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

That's it for now, hopefully with these updates I can keep the blog active and find enough interesting things to write about.

Black Friday 2011

2010-11-29T10:02:00.006-05:00

The next big part of Thankgiving break is my obsession with Black Friday. If you aren't familiar with my exploits, I did some live blogging last year, you can find the first post here http://lifeandtimesincleveland.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-ready.html and then go forward from there.(Friday morning's line at Walmart checkout, the positive they were passing out bottles of 5 hour energy as samples)

This year I decided against live blogging as I hadn't updated in so long, but for those that follow twitter there were a number of tweets I had on the night.

The sales this year were very good, better then last year in my opinion. On top of it, companies seem to be doing a better job of stocking inventory. I still think it's best to stay away from most high end 'doorbusters' as the number of units per store is usually very small, but stores are getting better at at least having a fair amount of product on hand and a number of deals available where you don't have to completely get shut out at a store.

My plan was to get a couple hours of rest Thursday night, get up around 2 or 3 and then head out. I changed my mind about 10pm, as I realized Walmart was starting at midnight, anticipating about 2 hours there, I knew I could then hit Kohls at 3, Target at 4, and then a couple other stores at their 5am openings, depending on the haul from the first three. I had a fairly large list, but there was nothing on my list I 'had to have'. I believe this is a great way to approach Black Friday, if you go out having to have something, it's so easy to get disappointed if you miss it. Most of the things on my list were probably genuinely 30-50% off at least with a couple things that were much better deals as well.

I had done a large amount of shopping in the week leading up to Black Friday, Target had some outstanding deals during the week and I had also been able to pick up two large gifts at Best Buy that were at Black Friday prices earlier in the week. Price wise these were big items that in my opinion would have been difficult to get on Friday without waiting in line at a store hours before it opened, which just doesn't interest me. I also hit two stores on Thursday morning that had Thanksgiving deals. I was at the stores by 6am and home by 8am, typically hours that I would just be relaxing anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to hit them quickly. I do have a bit of a problem with these stores being open so early on Thanksgiving and what it means for the employees and I debated on whether to shop there or not. In the end I did decide to go, as the items I picked up were essentially loss leaders and did no good to the store in the long run, so I viewed it as my way of protesting the stores working their employees on that day. Take it for what it's worth though.

With all of the shopping during the week, it definitely meant I didn't have a ton of wants or needs for Friday, but I had a couple of nice items I was targeting. My planned worked out nicely, I did wind up spending about 2 hours in Walmart (with about 80 minutes spent in line), and then I hit Kohls, Target, Big Lots, Staples, and Home Depot before heading home. I wound up with a trunk load full of stuff for about $200 and probably averaged $30-$40 profit per hour for the effort. I missed a couple things that sold out, but for the most part did get most of what I wanted.

I tend to find that many of the things I wind up buying on Black Friday are things we use around the house, so while technically I am shopping for Christmas, I'm guessing 50% of my spend is for things like towels, throws for the living room, network components, and other things, it's a nice refresh once a year for things that typically aren't discounted to that level during the year, and they tend to not sell out so for a little effort it's worth it in my opinion.

The last point I want to make on Black Friday is my personal opinion of who does the best job as a company in handling it.

1. Target: Far and away the leader in how to do things. Here are the high points in what they do right.

Great sale week prior to Black Friday with many prices that beat Black Friday prices and for many items that no one had available on BF.
A fantastic job on laying out the store, they place their sales items in well traveled spots without creating a lot of traffic jams. They also do a very good job of displaying items with the proper price and visibility.
The sheer number of items available is the typically the best of any store. Many stores have 'lots' of things on sale, in my opinion though Target has lots of 'things' you want or can use. What this means is even if you are shut out on a deal, you probably will wind up going home with a couple things that you had on your list.
Line management and employees. Target has things organized and down to a science with this, I've never left their store feeling like they were overwhelmed. It's easy to feel that way at other stores.

2. Big Lots: I'm not a huge fan of Big Lots, but there are times when they have items that are quality and on sale, and since they aren't a big retailer, crowds aren't usually bad for this store. This year, I had some toys to pick up for the daughter that they had at very good prices. Management at the store was outside 30 minutes prior to opening, passing out tickets for some of their high end items, they were also very helpful in advising where other items were on the floor and were asking people to refrain from rushing the store as it opened. ( I don't think the crowd was ready too, but the manager handled a potential situation early and did a nice job in doing so). They also opened the doors 5 minutes early and considering it was 6 am and many had been out for a while and it was friggin' cold it was a nice gesture. There were only about 20 people in line, so it wasn't like they were about to get swamped in the store. The only negative I have is noticing some cashiers were allowing people to 'gorge' on items that had limits listed in the ad. I would have no problem with someone buying, leaving and coming back or splitting them up with someone else, but if the ad says limit 4 it should be held too. Now they didn't have a big enough crowd to sell out in the first hour, but it's the principle of it. With stores doing a better job of getting stock in for the sales, I believe there is a consumer responsibility to allow others to have the opportunity at those deals too.

3. Staples: They only had a few things I wanted and I was luckily enough to get here about 10 minutes after they opened (thanks to Big Lots for letting us in 5 minutes early, this is the type of thing that matters on BF), which meant no standing in line outside, but early enough to not miss anything. They were passing out tickets to all items on Page 1 and then you took the ticket to the back of the store where they gave you the merchandise, this was a great system as it kept the front of the store open and was very organized. They also had a community line they were directing people from to the registers, so there was no chance of getting in the 'bad' line or trying to queue up in a mess. Both of these actions were greatly appreciated. Staples also seemed to have a very solid supply of their advertised items, after seeing some stores that have 1 or 2 of something in an ad, this is a huge positive. The one issue I had with Staples was that they were passing out tickets at the front door, which meant it appeared to be a line to go in and you couldn't tell what they were doing until you got to the desk. I'm guessing they announced this prior to opening, but a free standing sign or something along those lines would have done wonders for this. It wasn't a big irritant as this location wasn't as busy as others I had heard about, but it is a small thing they could have improved upon.

4. Walmart: Ahh Walmart, the big dog on the block. As usual they have very solid deals and a large selection of inventory. No issues there. This year they opened at 10pm with deals starting at midnight and then another set of deals starting at 5am. This I presume is to try and eliminate the stampede issues they've had before. This did make for a huge cluster though in the store. People arriving at 10pm attacked pallets of product that weren't supposed to be opened (per store staff) until 12pm, which meant there was a ton of boxes, shrink wrap, and pallets that were not cleaned up by staff and added to the mess that the store appeared to be in. Considering Walmart had employees down almost every aisle to direct traffic and ensure no rowdy customers, I definitely think it wouldn't have hurt to put some on cleanup duty, as the clutter made a crowded store even worse. Add in the fact that there was a fair contingent that camped out in electronics and through the store, having grabbed the 5am items at 10pm and just camping for the 7 hours and it had the feeling of a homeless shelter at times. I did like that Walmart seemed to have a large amount of product and I liked that they had it out on the pallets, their signing on most of it was pretty bad though and there were a number of things that made no sense in where they were placed. Plus the pallet layout meant a mess if people were looking for a certain type. (Children's PJs come to mind). Their line management was atrocious as well, I referenced earlier that I spent about 80 minutes in line and was only able to get out as I moved lines finally as the line I was in leading up to 4 self checkouts, was the cause of the issue, as it appears that people are unable to use the self checkouts correctly. I will give Walmart props for passing out free bottles of 5 hour energy as a sample, it's the type of Black Friday weird thing that makes the day kind of fun. (Photo: Walmart electronics section at midnight)

5. Kohls: I like Kohls as a store, they tend to have some interesting things and their ads are always jam packed(although most of their 'bargains' aren't really as their original price is high). They tend to have some unique things at times and they also can get some standard items in especially at Christmas. I was able to get the three things I wanted at Kohls with no issue, and they had sent me a 15% email coupon prior to the sale, which I was able to use with no Kohl's card or any other provision which was nice as well. The issues I have with Kohls though, really make me think about whether I want to go back next year on Black Friday.

They have way too much merchandise on the floor. It's ridiculous the tiny amount of space that is available in aisles, in the rack section or anywhere else. Way too much stuff for the size of their floor. This is fine for non-BF days, but add in a large crowd and it's absurd. The sad part is I'm not even talking about the displays of Ad merchandise, this is just typical stock merchandise that is the problem
I was asked no less then 6 times while standing in line outside in the cold on whether I wanted to sign up for their Kohl's charge card. No means no!
One of the perks for applying for the card was jumping ahead in line, at first they advised these people would be going to a customer service desk for checkout, turns out that wasn't the case, they had a specific line for credit card applicants, although if you were in the back of the store, it appeared they were inserting them in front of the main line people as well. I can understand making a perk for applicants, but you need to do it somewhat fairly in this case, if the applicants were jumping the whole line, it's unacceptable in my opinion. It didn't help that I was asked another 10 times in the checkout line to apply for their card and asked again as I got to checkout. While I know the checkout clerk 'has to' I sort of rolled my eyes at this, as if I was going to apply, I probably would have done so when I could have skipped the line.
No carts at Kohls (well at least not many) if you are going to buy more then 2-3 things, forget it, combined with no room to move (because of the aisles). Navigating around Kohls as a solo shopper during BF is a major headache.
Kohl's had a bagger and a cashier at each spot (a very good thing). However the person in front of me had their bag go off at the security settings (tag on jeans) and my bag did as well, tag on dress for the wife. This is unacceptable, since the baggers only job is to bag and remove security tags. If it was just one I could understand, back to back is a problem.

6. Home Depot: Not much to write on Home Depot, the employees were helpful and I know Home Depot wishes they can drive some BF traffic, but it's just not going to happen. The good news is I got a great flashlight set for around the house and a Poinsettia for a dollar. It was also the only store where the clerk said "Merry Christmas" which while I know is a bit against political correctness, sort of made sense for Black Friday shopping and it was a nice touch at the last stop of the morning.

I wanted to hit Macys and Gap (Gap was offering 50% off all merchandise in store on BF). However by the time I finished at Staples and had basically spent the amount I budgeted for the day, I didn't have the energy to continue (especially considering the 10pm start with no sleep). Macy's sale was a bit lackluster although there was a pretty nice watch at a discount that I thought about buying for myself, but I decided to wait on that.

My final thoughts on BF.

Stay away from Best Buy, unless there is something you have to have, you are going to spend the bulk of your morning there and considering their doorbusters have a limited amount you are likely to get shut out anyway. Bite the bullet and find a deal there on another day or somewhere else.
To all the people with 2-3 carts and literally grabbing stacks off the shelves in order to just reduce at the register. I understand the importance of a 'good' deal, but there is such a thing as gluttony, really did you need that 4th shop vac. or are you just buying it because it's a 'good' deal.
Is it really necessary to bring children/infants and the whole family out especially at midnight. While I understand that it might be beneficial to shop with someone or a couple people, its not the type of day to just 'hang' out for shopping especially for kids, find a baby sitter, or send one spouse out.
Since the stores have gotten better with inventory, I think the onus is on the shoppers now. Do you really need those 25 blankets at 1.99 (I'm talking to the hillbilly and another woman at Kmart Thursday morning who almost came to blows as one looked in the other's cart thinking it was a store display). If there are limits on the item, pay attention to them, and remember if you leave them for someone else to get, you probably benefit if they do the same for another item. I don't mind if you buy the 4 you are limited to, take them out to the car and come back in for another 4 if you choose to do so, at least it gives someone else a chance to purchase them in the meantime.
Stores, you have to do a better job at managing the crush of people, registers should be open with baggers at them for the big stores and you have to think about dynamics of lines and aisle space for shoppers. It wouldn't hurt to put people on cleanup duty too so your store doesn't look like a war zone.
The last point is to remember it's not the end of the world if you don't get something, have fun with it, try and save some money and remember it's just stuff, if you don't get something you'll live and at worst if you really need it someone else probably has it on sale for a couple bucks more.

Thanksgiving Break updates and some food porn

2010-11-29T09:14:00.007-05:00

Well if you took a look at the blog, it would be safe to assume I've been rather busy. Or at least busy enough to neglect the blog for a while. It's a typical situation for me, go out of town for a couple days and the whole 'routine' of life takes about 2 weeks to get back on track. Add in Thanksgiving and Black Friday and you have a real mess.

Anyway, I'm taking this opportunity to try and get back on track to some regular posts. While they may not be interesting, I'm hoping they spur some interesting posts down the line. There's no better way to inspire oneself then to write something, so apologies if this is a bit bland for the near future.

A quick recap of interesting life things over the past week or so, Thanksgiving was very nice, we decided to stay down here in Columbus this year rather then make the drive back and forth up to Cleveland and only get to spend a couple hours with family. While I missed being around family, I think it was a good choice as it let us enjoy the long weekend, and since the move, it's been awhile since we had a number of consecutive days together. I made most of the dinner and it turned out pretty well, although I did make a mistake in purchasing oven bags that were too small for the turkey. Of course it didn't help that I didn't realize the oven bags take off 2-3 hours of cooking time easily with my roaster, which meant that the Turkey was done a bit later then I had anticipated. Thankfully I did brine the turkey the day before, which saved some of the moisture, otherwise it would have tasted like sawdust with such a long cooking time. Even with the brine, I was a bit disappointed in how it turned out from other years, I'd call it average at best, where in years past it's been close to my view of perfect.

I also did my normal assortment of baking, pecan pies and pumpkin cheesecake. The pecan pies were average, but the pumpkin cheesecake was easily the best rendition of it I've ever made. Perfect consistency, right amount of crust and perfect cooking time, I was extremely happy with how it turned out.
Needless to say, I'll need some time on the treadmill over the next couple weeks. I'm going to break up this post to a couple others, so this is where I'm going to finish up for now. Next up is Black Friday.

That perfect feeling

2010-11-08T12:48:00.004-05:00

I'm a big believer that the enjoyment of life is made up collectively from experiences. Both the ones given and experienced by a person. I'm highly sensitive of this when it comes to my daughter, I think that comes from the excellent job my parent's did in guiding me through a safe, fun, exciting childhood.

The weekend before I leave for a couple days, always makes me a bit sad and that's where I was at heading into Friday evening. I knew the wife had some things to do at home on Sunday, so I thought it would be a good day to take Bronwyn out and spend some time with her before my trip. I decided to take her to Dave and Busters, as I had some credits in my card. She had never been to one and was excited when she saw all the games. We had a great time, regardless of how she remembers it, I'll always have this in my memory.

The spoils of the day, sometimes it's good to be the Dad.

Update from Friday audition

2010-11-08T11:47:00.003-05:00

Not a lot of time today, but I thought I'd check in and write an update from Friday's audition. After driving out to the middle of nowhere, about a 1/2 south of Columbus with nothing but farm land around, I finally found the 'city' and then the house for the practice.

I met the guys and we headed to the basement to give it a shot. They had a nice setup, pro equipment and a nice layout. Unfortunately their drummer wasn't able to make it out, but we managed without him, although that's not really an easy task. We played for about an hour, the first three that we set up the audition with went really well. After that it was a bit of a struggle as I had put together a couple sheets of lyrics based on stuff they advised they could play. Not knowing their arrangements, along with no drummer, and some unfamiliarity with certain parts of the songs made it a bit of a challenge, but I thought it went pretty well.

Overall, it was a lot of fun getting back behind the microphone. If nothing else it was well worth it just to shake off some of the cobwebs.

Now, let's talk about my thoughts, the guys are nice, and talented, but I think even if they call back and want me to come back out for another audition or with the offer of the spot, I think I'm going to turn it down. It's hard to put my finger on why, but I think it breaks down to the stuff they play, it's just not heavy enough for me, plus it tends to skew more towards 60's and 70's music, which I don't mind mixing in, but I don't really want as the majority of the set. I'm sure it's a bit premature as I haven't been offered anything yet, but those are my thoughts after a weekend of thinking about it. So I'll be back to looking for a new group, the good news though is the confidence continues to develop for it. I feel like a singer as I get ready for the audition and I know it's coming across in presence too, which is pretty good considering where I started out at.

Friday audition

2010-11-04T09:46:00.003-04:00

Well, it's confirmed I have an audition on Friday, with Rewind. There are 3 tunes we'll be doing and then taking a look to see if there are any more that we know.

3 tunes currently on tap:

1. Smooth (Santana/Rob Thomas)
2. Summer of 69 (Bryan Adams)
3. Twist and Shout (Beatles)

The nice thing is I can do those three in my sleep. I'll be spending the evening listening to some of the other songs they sent over and printing up some lyrics.

If nothing else it should make for some interesting writing.

Weekend recap!

2010-11-03T14:35:00.002-04:00

I so wanted to come up with something clever for the title of this post, but alas I have nothing. Besides since it's so difficult to sit down and knock out posts lately, I didn't want to break my mojo spending time thinking about it anyway.

This whole post is just a random collection of thoughts on the weekend and what's going on in life right now, it's probably going to be a disjointed, but regular readers will be used to that.

Anyway, I packed up the car on Friday afternoon, grabbed the kid from day care and headed up to Cleveland. I was feeling great, thinking I beat the Columbus rush hour (which at times makes Cleveland's seem tame). That is until I hit the outskirts of Columbus near Polaris, where there was a massive 5-6 car wreck, that put traffic at a stand still for an hour and a half. This is the third time in the past two months, that an accident has blocked up a three lane highway, that I've been on for an hour or more. It's insane, especially if you consider most of my drives consist of the 1/2 mile or so it takes to get to the store or my daughter's day care. I'm not impressed with Columbus drivers to this point. Blah.

The traffic jam meant my 2.5 hour trip turned into a 4 hour trip and I was pretty tired at that point, but being in town and on the same day that my former band was playing www.torrn.net I decided to tough it out and head over for the show. They were doing a Friday Halloween show at Slam Jams in North Olmstead. I've been meaning to get out and see them for a while, trying to put the whole 'kicked out' thing behind me. I'm glad I did get to go, they sounded great, and I got a chance to say hi to everyone and talk during their break in sets. As disappointing as the change was, I still had a great time practicing and playing over the 4-6 months we played together, and I'm very thankful for that opportunity and the friendships I made. Plus I learned a ton of 'band' social norms, which is helping immensely as I'm looking right now for a new gig. (more on that later). So if you are in the Cleveland area and are looking for a great night out, check their schedule out at the website.

Saturday, meant finishing up the laundry list at the house, and it went much quicker then expected, cleaning garage, appliances, yard work, and another stab at the garage door (getting it primed for painting). All of that went well and I'm happy to report that the house passed with no further issues on the inspection on Monday. There's still one small thing left to do, but they passed me anyway, so that load of anxiety is off my back. We also dropped the price again in talking to the Realtor. Considering we haven't had one call or look, it's justifiable to the bank from what I'm told and considering the difference it probably doesn't matter much at this point anyway. I do wish I had some pictures from when we bought it 7 years ago to see the differences in it now, considering I'm not the handiest person around, every time I was finishing a project, I'd think of all the things that were done to the house while we lived there, a pretty significant list.

Saturday night was my brother's Halloween party and I convinced my friend Will to come out from Niles for the night, as we decided to hit the party and then go to The Boneyard in Mayfield for their Halloween party. It was a lot of fun seeing my brother and sister in law and my friends before we headed over to the Boneyard. I'm hoping to post a couple pics of my costume and maybe some of the others, but we'll have to see if I can get things ever connected to the laptop to do it. The Boneyard was packed and it was a trip seeing all the costumes and hanging out with Will, my other good friend Aaron showed up after work as well and we finished out the night.

Sunday was spent sanding down the garage door and repainting it (for about the 5th time in the past two months) and then over to my parents to take my daughter out for her third trick or treating night of the week. I spent a couple hours over there visiting and I was so thankful to have some home cooked food at that point. One of the problems of spending time in an abandoned house means there's no pans, plates, or microwave, so you wind up cooking nothing and reheating nothing, which means a lot of restaurant style food or you just skip it. Boof had a great time trick or treating with her cousin Erica, although the week seemed to finally catch up to Bronwyn, as she was definitely showing signs of fatigue. Considering she had three trick or treats, a school costume party, two drives up to Cleveland in two weeks, Erica's birthday party, and a visit to the Columbus zoo over the last week, I can't say I was surprised, but I will say I'm impressed, she definitely has my motor. Of course after a good night's rest Sunday, she was raring to go on Monday, right about the time I was exhausted.

Sunday night, my friend Aaron came out to Cleveland and we went and watched the football game and bs'd for the night. We called it an early night at about midnight, but it was a lot of fun. One of the other negatives about staying at the old house, being there makes me want to be out of it when I'm not working on it, so nights are usually spent going out for drinks or hanging out (inevitably drinking). Which I don't mind, but along with sleeping on an air mattress at the house, it wears me down after a bit.

Then Monday was a quick run to the dealer for the car checkup, the house inspection, and then the drive back to Columbus.

It's weird to think it might be Christmas time until I'm back in the area and that it's likely I won't see a number of people until my brother's birthday weekend in January. I guess that's pretty standard for this time of year anyway, just seems weird when thinking about it. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone over the course of the weekend, and I still miss Cleveland dearly, although I find myself thinking of Columbus as home, more and more in reference.

I mentioned earlier that it looks like I have an audition coming up if the band and I can find a good day for it. They appear to be a bit lighter on material then Torrn, meaning a bit more pop, but it looks like they are fairly established and have liked the demos I sent them, so we'll see how it goes. It looks like they are typically a 5 piece group, keyboards, drums, lead guitar, bass, and singer. I'm sure I'll have a variety of thoughts on this as things progress. I'm going to miss some of the rock if I do get the gig, but it will be interesting to try some of the more poppy stuff, if that's truly the case.

That's enough for now, a full weekend of rest coming up which seems like the first one in months, and then a work trip scheduled for late next week, which will give me another break from Columbus for awhile. There probably won't be a lot of interesting stuff coming up for posts, so perhaps I'll get back to some 'thought' style write ups. Until then, take care.

Still kicking

2010-10-28T12:10:00.002-04:00

Sorry, for the lack of updates lately, October tends to be by far my busiest scheduled month ever. The last couple weekends have been jam packed, as we got to visit one of Columbus' most notorious Haunted Houses, visited Ohio Village for their Hallow's Eve festival, ran back up to Cleveland for my niece's birthday, and visited Columbus Zoo's Boo Bash. That's just been the last couple weeks, add in multiple trick-or-treat days (3 by last count) for the daughter and going back up to Cleveland this weekend for a Halloween party at my brothers and a ton of work around the house (hopefully to complete everything I have to do there).

Anyway, that's just a long way of saying, I haven't had much time to write anything. The beginning of November probably won't be much better. At some point I'm hoping to write up a review on some of the things we did in October, but we'll see how that goes (I know I'm breaking my rule on not promising future posts).

Until next time, hopefully your Halloween costume turns out perfectly, you get to indulge in a ton of candy or adult spirits and you have a safe Holiday.