Explosive Amnesia

It's been such a long time...

2013-05-30T10:16:00.002-05:00

Wow, it has been a while. Life sure moves fast. If you don't stop every once in a while, you might miss it.

Close enough, Simone.

We love movies. Often, we will just randomly pick a movie and watch it, but what we love to do is show the kids movies from our childhood and hope that they will like them. So far, the favorite in the clubhouse is Son in Law, with Pauly Shore. The kids loved that movie. So far, the worst movie we have watched would have to be Malibu's Most Wanted with Jamie Kennedy. Universally disliked by all. We also have a tendency to go on actor kicks, albeit unintentionally most of the time. For example, we will watch the Lion King and then watch Wargames, which has the same actor in it (see above for a clue, if you missed it).

Well, another school year concludes today. As of this afternoon, I will have a 5th grader and a senior in high school. Yep, Chandler graduates next year. This blur that keeps blowing past me is life, and I don't know where it goes.

I miss the heck out of my dad. It has been almost three months. The hardest part is coping with baseball season. The Cubs have been pretty bad this year, but I sure do get sad when good things happen and I don't have anyone to really share it with. I miss hearing the joy in his voice when we talked about baseball, and he was one of the only people that I could really talk at that level with without going crazy. It is like there is this whole fountain of discussion bubbling up inside of me, and I can't get rid of it because I don't have him around to talk about it with.

If you are reading this, I implore you to find me and add me to your circles on Google Plus. It really is so much better than Facebook, but I miss the interaction sometimes. I need people on there to talk to! The ads and app notifications on the book have just gotten to be too much for me to handle. Not to mention the pages that people start that are just Reddit sharing machines. That ain't cool.

Pretty good movie alert: Jack Reacher. Sure, it wasn't the best movie, but I am a sucker for movies that have a great investigator, and that is Cruise's character in this one. Fun movie with some pretty good action, but I love the whodunit aspect and how he goes about investigating it.

Horrible movie alert: Killing Them Softly If you want to be bored out of your mind, give it a watch. There is almost no plot. Two guys rob a poker game, and they get shot for it. Yep, that is it. Sad part is, it was based on a book. Insomnia cure, right there!

Enjoy your summer. Spend time with your kids, because before you know it, they will be looking for jobs and rolling their eyes at you every 5 minutes. My kids have become Liz Lemon, and yours will too....

Where to begin?

2013-03-21T13:55:00.000-05:00

It's funny, all the little twists and turns that life takes. Things can change so quickly, and it really makes you examine the word forever. We use that word a lot, and it really takes something life changing to appreciate what power that word has, and how often we misuse it.

My father passed away on Saturday night, March 16th. While it wasn't a sudden surprise, it wasn't exactly like we planned for it. My father has always had "health problems", and I put them in quotes because they weren't what you would normally refer to as such. My dad had beaten cancer three times in his life, only had one kidney, and was generally a medical miracle. We had prepared for his death back in 2005 when he found out he had kidney cancer, but he bounced back from that one, too.

So, when I heard he had gone to the hospital with fluid in his lung, I kind of figured that this would just be another round of visiting him in the hospital, he would get better, and then go about his way. It wasn't in the cards this time, though. When he got to the hospital, it was determined that he had experienced a minor heart attack the night before. He then proceeded to have another heart attack while in the hospital. He basically decided at that point that enough was enough, and told the doctors and nurses not to resuscitate. He was sent home on hospice and died a few days later at the age of 62.

The point of this post is not to gather sympathy from anyone. The goal is to really make sure you understand the meaning of the word forever. I will never get to tell my Dad I love him again. I will never watch another Cubs' game with him. He will never read another funny email I forward to him. I will never like another of his Facebook posts. The list goes on and on of things that won't be shared by us or anyone who knew him. Everything reminds me of him at this point in time. Any time someone says the word "Dad", it gets me just a little bit. I see pictures of my friends with their dads, and it gives me just a pang of jealousy. I watch TV and little things remind me of him, and it hurts just a little.

I urge you, if you have someone in your life that you haven't spoken to in a while that you need to, please do it. They will appreciate it. Sometimes it is just that one of you needs to make that little bit of effort to break the ice. I was fortunate. I didn't leave anything unsaid. There is not one ounce of regret in my heart about my relationship with my dad, and it certainly made this process easier. It can happen quickly, and a lot of people don't get the opportunity to sit with their loved ones for an hour and just talk about life. I got that opportunity, and I will be forever grateful.

There have been so many wonderful people that have made this process as good as it could have been. The list goes on and on, and I am so appreciative at the outpouring of support my family and I have received during this time. It means the world to us, and it will not be forgotten.

Compilation of goats hollering like humans

2013-02-15T12:40:00.001-06:00

Compilation of goats hollering like humans:
This is bizarrely hilarious…

Scandalous!

2013-01-23T09:05:00.000-06:00

So, Tim Brown and Jerry Rice: You are telling me that a Head Coach of a NFL team, while on the cusp of the greatest achievement one could attain in their field, decided to lose the game on purpose? Seriously, that might be the dumbest thing I have ever heard.

If you don't have a WaterPik, I highly urge you to get one. They are fantastic.

I am currently digitizing our home movie library. Not our DVD Movies, but the home video tapes that we have collected over the past decade and a half. I have way more than I realized....this could take a while.

Bought myself one of those chin-up bars you put on a doorway. I am going to be so ripped! (Not really...I will probably give up after three days, but who notices that?)

Zero Dark Thirty: Go see it. Awesome flick. Great story, enjoyable sequences...and no extraneous crap to muck up the main narrative. Every second of the movie is about how they caught and killed Bin Laden. Who knows how much of it is accurate, but it seems to get the main point down pretty well. Highly enjoyable.

97% of my web traffic comes from Barry's blog. Thanks, Barry!

American Taxi Driver Psycho

2013-01-11T14:32:00.002-06:00

As is common for me when I need movies to watch, I like to go to the ol' internet and find lists...Top 10 Movies every Guy Should See, or The 30 Movies that mention Elastic Waistbands, etc.

So, I found a list and was intrigued by two movies. First, American Psycho starring Christian Bale. Bale plays Patrick Bateman, who works on Wall Street in the late 80's. He is a pretty typical schmuck, as movies from that time period tend to depict...except that he is a murderous psychopath behind his mask of "normality". I thought the movie was very well shot, but I was very confused at how the film played out. I was left with quite a large question mark over my head as to the resolution of the film, and there seem to be a lot of people who agree with that assessment on the interwebs. Overall, it failed to resonate with me but I plan on reading the book to see if I can gain further clarity.

The second movie I watched was Taxi Driver, a "masterpiece" starring Robert DeNiro and directed by Martin Scorsece. I have noticed that there seems to be a time period of movies that I don't get, and this falls squarely into that time perieod. This movie is considered to be one of the greatest of all time, and personally, I thought it was prettty awful. Maybe I don't "get" older movies, but they tend to fall very flat for me. I watched Chinatown a few months ago, and can't remember being more bored with a film...until I saw Taxi Driver. The only interesting part of the movie for me was trying desperately to remember Harvey Keitel's name. Other than that, I only watched the rest of the film because I was sure that at some point there would be a point to the movie. Maybe I am wrong...maybe there is something that I missed that was critical to tying the film together, but whatever it was, I missed it big time. I was confused the whole time as to what the hell was going on, and there really wasn't much of a plot to latch on to. Was he going to kill Palentine? Was he trying to date Betsy? Was he trying to save Iris? Who knows? I would love to talk to someone who "gets" this movie and have them explain it to me, and why I am so wrong, because lord knows I am not going to come to that realization on my own.

Can one of you help?

Deceptive Movie Titles

2012-12-03T09:31:00.002-06:00

I will readily admit, I judge books by their cover. I have long since learned that I don't have the time to give every book, movie, and album a fair shot. I would be backlogged for years and never get out of it. So, I have to judge things by my immediate reaction (quick aside, you should read the book Blink by Malcom Gladwell about that subject. Great stuff.). This inevitably leads to me missing the boat on some great stuff, but it also leads me to finding things that I thought weren't going to be great and turn out to be fantastic.

One of the great differences between me and my wife is that she will watch anything. We give Redbox way too much business because she will watch pretty much every DVD that they put out because she just doesn't care. She just wants to watch something for 2 hours and be done with it. Movie watching for me is much more personal. I need to feel involved, like I am part of an experience. I don't watch movies for watching's sake. I want to be invested in the experience. So, I am pretty picky about what I watch.

Both of these points lead up to the next bullet, which is how movie titles can drastically affect which movies I watch. A great example of this was the movie "Dinner for Schmucks" with Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell. I knew the basic premise of the movie (rich guys bring morons to dinner and pick a winner) but not much else. After watching the movie, I was actually a bit upset because the title was flat out wrong for the movie. The film was about Paul Rudd finding one of these "morons" for the dinner and how he kind of ruined his life. The "dinner" was the last 20 minutes of the movie. I felt a bit betrayed. I truly believe the movie would have been a bigger success if it had been called "A Week with Barry" or something similar. I judged the movie by its title, and it betrayed me a bit.

Ok, so final point: One of the movies that has snuck past me for several years is the movie "Donnie Darko". The reason that it got by my finely honed filters is that it sounds like an Italian gangster movie (to me). I thought it was just another movie like Goodfellas or Carlito's Way, and I can't stand gangster movies. Seriously, I don't think I have enjoyed one movie like that, save for The Usual Suspects. So I never watched it.

When I travel, I like to load up on movies, and I often can't think of movies to load up on, so I go online and look for lists. 100 MOVIES EVERY GUY SHOULD SEE, or 10 BEST MOVIES ABOUT GIANT BUNNY RABBITS...you get the idea. One site mentioned Donnie Darko, but it had one element I hadn't seen before...and it was the picture above. "Wait a minute! Italian gangsters don't have demented bunny rabbits with them!" Turns out, the movie is about a high school boy (Jake Gyllenhal) with some pretty severe dementia, and it has to do with time travel, fate, destiny, insane private school teachers, and the like. It was a great, great movie. I really, really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it. I won't say that it changed my life (there are a lot of people online who say this...just check the IMDB comments), but I was very happy to have found one that slipped through the cracks.

I am a firm believer that movies find you. If I haven't had some sort of inkling that a movie is going to be good, I usually end up not liking it. A good example is "Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". That movie was terrible, and I should have known. If no one has recommended a movie to me, or I haven't had my interest piqued by something online or on the radio/tv, I almost never like it. But movies like Donnie Darko will keep that fire alive that tells me to watch a movie in spite of my best efforts to not like it.

Key and Peele: Dueling Hats

2012-11-30T08:59:00.002-06:00

Comedy Central

If you haven't had the pleasure of watching Key and Peele on Comedy Central, you can thank me later.

Test

You are predictable

2012-11-16T08:57:00.001-06:00

You are predictable:
Take this simple test if you don’t believe it…

The best medicine...

2012-11-12T15:12:00.004-06:00

If you had to pick the one video (viral or otherwise) that made you laugh the hardest consistently, what would it be?

This would be mine:

40 Behind The Scenes Photos From Classic Horror Movies | The Roosevelts

2012-10-29T12:37:00.001-05:00

40 Behind The Scenes Photos From Classic Horror Movies | The Roosevelts

Great slideshow of some behind the scenes photos of scary movies. Really takes the sting out of the "horror" to see Pennywise the Clown taking a break on the porch of a house...

Sir...Can you please stand up?

2012-10-25T10:31:00.000-05:00

The next installment of the "travel blog" has to do with a very kind old man taking a weird turn. On my flight to Chicago, I was seated next to an older gentleman (probably early 70's) who was polite for the entire flight. No problems whatsoever. He got up to use the restroom in the middle of the flight, and we shared a cordial laugh when he had trouble locating his seat belt. Perfectly normal interaction for a flight.

If you have flown on a commercial airliner in the past 10 years, you probably are aware of the etiquette of how to deplane. When the seatbelt sign turns off, several people immediately stand up (I can't, for the life of me, figure out why, but that is a different story) but most people remain seated. People start to file out of the plane, row by row, until you get to your row. Then you stand up and get your bag and leave.

Which gets us to me. I was on the aisle seat, waiting for our row's turn. There was no room for me to stand up because the aisle was full of other people. There were still about two rows in front of us that hadn't stood up yet, so it wasn't even close to my turn to stand up. This is where it got a bit odd. The older gentleman next to me says, "Sir? Can you please stand up?" as if I could have stood up, but was choosing not to. He wasn't rude...he actually said it very politely. I was just floored at what I could have possibly been doing for him to assume I wasn't going to stand up as soon as I could. Trust me, I wanted to get off the plane as soon as I could. I turned and looked at him, momentarily stunned while trying to imagine what scenario he was running through to say this to me. It really took me aback. I looked at him, and said that I was going as soon as I could, trying very hard not to sound annoyed...but in reality, I was a bit annoyed.

There always seem to be a couple of people on every flight who think that the flight is their own personal vessel, and they can't be bothered with all of these other people. The best example I can think of is the person who is in the row behind you, and uses your seat as a way to pull themselves out of their seat or out of the row...causing your seat to lurch backwards violently as they huff and puff their way towards the restroom. Or, the person who violently moves their seat back as quickly as they can, launching anything on your tray table on to the floor. It just amazes me how people operate in their own little cocoon, oblivious to the world around them.

Most of the time, people are perfectly gracious. But every once in a while, you get something that happens to you that just floors you...and I will keep telling you about them. :)

Dave's Travel Blog

2012-10-24T10:38:00.001-05:00

I travel a pretty fair amount for work, so I get to spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. If there is a better place to people watch, I don't know what it is. You get such an amazing cross section of people that it never fails to make me wonder how we survived as a species. I figure I can start to document some of the things that I have seen, because some of them are just too good not to share.

Flight to Chicago O'Hare:

Seated in the row in front of me are an older couple (probably late 50's) and what appears to be their 10-11 year old grandson. Gramps is in the aisle seat, Grams is in the middle, and blondie boy is at the window. It was a pretty uneventful flight, and we were seated near the front of the plane. Upon arriving at O'Hare, in the two second window between pulling into the gate and the pilot turning off the seat belt light, Grams tears off her seat belt, leaps over Gramps and attempts to make it to the back of the plane (probably 30-35 rows worth of people) to get to the bathroom. She made it all the way to....my row before realizing that she would never make it back to the bathroom.

Has this person ever flown before? How could she not know that before the seat belt light even went off that there was no way she was going to make it back there? Hell, you could be seated three rows in front of the bathroom and have trouble making it back, but she wanted to traverse 30 rows of passengers, 5 to a row in less than .3 of a second? I could only shake my head in disbelief.

Next blog post...The impatient old man seated next to me...

Refine Edge

2012-10-17T09:08:00.001-05:00

Refine Edge:

Jennifer Aniston’s leaked security camera footage confirms terrible rumors

2012-09-20T12:15:00.001-05:00

Jennifer Aniston’s leaked security camera footage confirms terrible rumors:

(via Tastefully Offensive)

My Blackberry Trials...

2012-09-14T10:31:00.001-05:00

Last November, my work allowed me to purchase an iPhone 4s for my daily use. It was easily the best phone experience I have ever had. Everything worked very well. Of course, there was the occasional hiccup, but overall, the experience was as close to perfect as one could get.

Last month, my work (who was purchased by a much larger company) told me that I had to get rid of the iPhone and switch to the generic phone offered to all employees, the Blackberry Curve. It has been one of the worst months of my life (#firstworldproblems) as far as phones are concerned. I will skip, for the most part, my displeasure at a multi-million dollar company giving their employees the crappiest phone available. Having said that, here are some of my observations of note:

First of all, I have really small hands for a guy. Seriously, my hands are only slightly larger than the average woman's hands. I have an egregiously hard time typing on this sucker. The buttons are too small, they aren't very responsive, and I spend more time going back and correcting words than I do actually typing out the message.
Work forces me to have a password on the phone, which I understand. What I don't understand is that basically, the Blackberry is locked down and you can't do ANYTHING without typing in the password. You can't set the phone on silent, you can't adjust the volume, you can't even start up the camera without putting in a password. That is about as far from a good user experience as you can get.
The web surfing experience makes me want to shoot myself in the face. It is terrible. Nothing loads smoothly, the scroll button is inconsistent at best, and the back button doesn't work consistently.
I have dropped the phone three times on accident. All three times, the back has popped off and the battery fell out, forcing me to restart my phone.
For a phone that doesn't do anything, the battery life is pretty bad. I have unplugged in the morning, and had the battery run out in the evening several times. What could possibly be draining the battery? I don't talk on it that much...
Bing is the default search engine. That should tell you enough about the user experience.
App support is abysmal, but I can't blame developers. It is like retrofitting the Titanic. Spending any significant amount of time on app development for the Blackberry would be counterproductive.
One thing that I really miss about the iPhone is the iPod part. The Blackberry, for lack of a better term, blows in this regard. I think I have attached a pair of headphones to it once, and it was such a horrible experience that I just gave up.

With all of the attention paid to Steve Jobs in the last 5 years or so, you would think that there would be some attention to detail that would float to the top, but there are so many little things that I notice that I would consider unacceptable in a product design. For example:

The USB cable gets plugged into the side of the phone. This is a bad choice for a couple of reasons. One, it makes the phone hard to use when it is plugged in. The cord sticks out awkwardly and forces you to only use it on one ear. Second, if you have a desk, you better hope you can plug in in on your left hand side (of the desk), because it won't work on the right hand side.
This is a tiny detail, but one that didn't get by me: The plug has a little Blackberry logo on it. When you plug the cord in to power up the phone, the logo is on the wrong side of the plug. Jobs wouldn't have let this happen. :)

It isn't all bad, though. There are a couple things that are at least useful:

Google Voice is somewhat integrated into the OS, so at least that is easy...but the Google Voice app is barely functional, so you trade off a bit.
It is a good phone...

I do see why companies still use Blackberries. People who use BB don't use data, so it saves them a ton of money on data plans. My data usage has probably dropped 90% since switching. It is unfortunate, though, because no one I work with likes their phone. They look at it as a detriment, and in some occasions, feel embarassed to use it when in high-stakes sales situations because it is a bit of a status hit.

It is amazing to me how phone companies haven't tried to steal Apple's business model. Make one kick ass phone and that is it. You look around and you see every phone company making tons of devices to fit all different customer types, and none of them are really succeeding. HTC has taken a nose dive in the last year. Samsung is paying Apple a billion dollars for copying the design of the iPhone, and Motorola still hasn't figured out how they are going to do anything since Google bought their mobile division. I bet there is enough talent at RIM left to make one really great phone that people will like. Sure, you aren't going to put a dent in the Apple juggernaut, but you could at least create some forward momentum.

If you are fortunate enough to have a job that provides you with a phone that you like, make sure to tell them thank you. It could be much, much worse.

Big Fat Meh

2012-09-05T11:41:00.001-05:00

All of this recent uproar of "surviving the zombie apocalypse" had me thinking....wouldn't most people in the world have to be zombies for there to be an apocalypse? Just thinking about the odds of becoming a zombie would deter me from "preparing" for it. Chances are, all of the people who are super prepared would probably become zombies themselves, making their preparation irrelevant.
The Google Nexus 7 tablet looks fascinating, but there seems to be one point that everyone isn't mentioning. App Sharing. In my family, there are two iPads, two iPhones, and each of the kids has their own iPod touch. When I buy an app through iTunes, everyone gets the app for no additional charge. But with Android, I don't think that is the case. This will REALLY deter me from buying an Android tablet, unless they address this.
Since everything is tied to your Google account, there is too much separation for a family. I can't believe no one thought of this...or if they did think of it, they certainly don't seem to care.
It is funny how different parts of the country are the same, but totally different. I just got back from a few days in Maryland and Delaware, and everything works the same, but nothing looks the same. I guess I am just used to the way Texas is laid out, because nothing felt right while I was there.
I am nervous about the Cowboys' season this year, because I do have reasonable expectations. Last year wasn't so bad because I expected them to have a down year. This year is different from my vantage point.
I have noticed that my life is significantly less busy and easier to deal with if my teams are terrible. I am a wreck if the Cubs are in the hunt. I haven't had much to worry about for a few years. :)
I watched the pilot to the new show, Revolution. Apparently, something happens that makes electricity not work anymore, and we go back to being farmers and such. Even though the trailer was directed by Jon Favreau and has Gus Fring from Breaking Bad in it, it gets a big fat meh from me. Way too much sword fighting and arrow shooting. It was like the producers watched the Hunger Games right before they filmed it. Give me STORY, not fighting! Give me characters, not blood!

Talkative teen is a hilarious sweetheart while hopped up on anesthesia

2012-06-15T10:05:00.001-05:00

Talkative teen is a hilarious sweetheart while hopped up on anesthesia:
This had me laughing throughout and got a couple awws out of me, too…

Ultra-cool audience member knows exactly when the camera goes on him

2012-06-01T12:10:00.001-05:00

This seriously cracked me up...

Ultra-cool audience member knows exactly when the camera goes on him:
Unfortunately, they cut right away from him as if he isn’t the best thing about the show…

(via Reddit)

A short history and explanation of why Pluto is no longer a planet

2012-05-30T09:06:00.001-05:00

A short history and explanation of why Pluto is no longer a planet:
From C. G. P. Grey…

Previously from Mr. Grey…

Use a Strip of Tape to Help Hang Pictures Perfectly Every Time [Clever Uses]

2012-05-03T12:40:00.001-05:00

Brilliant tip...Something that definitely falls into the "Why didn't I think of that" category.

Use a Strip of Tape to Help Hang Pictures Perfectly Every Time [Clever Uses]:
Getting a picture perfectly hung on the wall is already a difficult task, but it's made even harder when the frame requires two screws or nails. To mark the length between the hangers, DIY blog It's Overflowing recommends using a strip of tape so you can measure the distance and drill the holes straight.
Grab a piece of cheap tape (painter's tape or masking tape work fine) and stick the tape between the two holes on a frame. Now you have a good gauge of the distance between the holes. Next, take the tape and stick it on your wall, check to make sure it's straight with a level, and drill your holes. It's an incredibly simple way to ensure your holes are drill right or your nails are in place. Just don't forget our tips for hanging pictures without destroying walls before you start drilling.
Simple DIY: Creating a Window-Pane Mirror | It's Overflowing via Reddit

Yanking a table cloth out from under a stack of wine glasses…with a yo-yo

2012-04-23T11:21:00.001-05:00

Yanking a table cloth out from under a stack of wine glasses…with a yo-yo:

(via BuzzFeed)

Mariners fan steals second, earns moment with dad | MLB.com: News

2012-04-16T12:58:00.001-05:00

Mariners fan steals second, earns moment with dad | MLB.com: News

If this doesn't reach into your heart and pull some strings, there is something wrong with you.

Like the corner of my mind...

2012-04-13T14:04:00.001-05:00

We have all read the posts about the demise of certain things. One in particular, I enjoyed:

I was thinking about this today as I listened to a song from the past, but I will come back to that. I recently finished reading "It's So Easy (and other lies" by Duff McKagan, bassist for Guns n' Roses. GNR was a BIG part of my love of music growing up, so I enjoyed the book, even if it did follow the exact same pattern of every other rock star bio that I have read in the past. Seriously, they all start out with what they did as a kid, how the band met, and then talk about how much drugs they did. They get clean, and move on. They really all follow the same formula...but I digress.

So, I went back and listened to some of my favorite GnR songs from Appetite for Destruction, which is probably the most amazing and complete debut album of any band ever. I am sure some of you would disagree, but you can start your own blog and talk about it there. One song in particular that really impacted me was "It's So Easy", which was written by McKagan. It is a great song, but I remember it more for the amount of "f-words" that littered the song. As a 7th grader, this kind of stuff sticks with you. :) I listened to that song, and that song only this morning.

Walking around my house, I noticed that I was humming a different song. "Nighttrain", which is another great song from the album (who am I kidding, they are all great) was what stuck to my brain. I realized I hadn't listened to that song in years, but it was the one I was singing to myself. I thought, "Now, why would that song be the one I am singing?". Then it hit me...that was the next song on the album after "It's So Easy". My brain had automatically transitioned from one song to the next because that was the song that played on the cassette that I had. Then I got sad, because I realized that this particular phenomenon is gone forever. Nobody listens to albums that way anymore...song after song...we all set our iPods to shuffle and move on. We are no longer conditioned to hear the next song in the album the way it is intended to be. My kids will never know what that is like.

Part of the reason I enjoy music as much as I do is how immensely personal it is. Songs invoke feelings and memories. I can't hear "Welcome to the Jungle" without thinking about blasting my dad's stereo in our tiny living room and worrying that my neighbors were going to complain. I can't hear "Look What the Cat Dragged In" by Poison without thinking about riding in the back of my mom's minivan on a long road trip with that tape on repeat. I am so fascinated thinking about how the digital music and the way we consume it will shape the future of music and how it affects people. I certainly hope that my kids will have emotional ties to music, and I am pretty sure they will. It is just a matter of them having life-changing experiences while they listen to music.

It is funny how our brains work. I would be interested to know what songs are tied to your memories.

How to embarrassingly lose a foot race and yet still win the crowd

2012-04-06T09:32:00.001-05:00

How to embarrassingly lose a foot race and yet still win the crowd:

(via Tastefully Offensive)

I think we got something here...

2012-03-28T16:48:00.001-05:00

About 2 years ago, my family had a dilemma. We were struggling to find something "athletic" for our daughter to do. See, her brother has always been a natural athlete. He played, at one time, baseball, soccer, basketball and football. He just trasitioned from one to the other with no problems. our daughter, on the other hand, really struggled with finding a sport. Now, when I say sport, I use that term loosely. We tried soccer (she HATED it), t-ball (didn't care at all), basketball (tough for a girl to stay focused at her age) and, yes, even cheerleading. Now, to me, cheering doesn't count as a sport (bring it on) but it was something mildly active where she got out of the house and did something with other people. She eventually grew tired of it, and we certainly didn't want to deal with the politics of cheerleading for the rest of her life. So, we thought we were out of options.

Until we found swimming. We found out there was a small group of swimmers that meets at the high school near our house, and we thought that would be great. Her grandmother was a swimmer, and I was always in the pool growing up, so it seemed like a natural fit. So, we signed her up.

Let's just say she took to the water like...well, a fish to water. She loved it. She enjoyed the people, the swimming, the exercise, pretty much everything about it. So, we were loving it...and she started doing meets. We didn't know what to expect with the meets...they can be overwhelming at first, but we stuck it out. She would swim her three or four events and we would go home. Her favorite part about swim meets was going to Subway afterwards, which is our "tradition".

Then she started winning...a lot. I won't say that she was destroying the field, but she was placing in 75% of her events. And it happened again...and again. All of the sudden, I am going from "hey, this is a neat hobby" to "she might actually be good at this"!

Her last meet, which is called a "CHAMPS" meet (think of sort of a district meet), was a few weeks ago. She was competing against some of her strongest competition ever. There were a million kids there, and it was crazy. You may recall my previous post about it. Anyway, she did great. She won a few of her heats (which is all we ever ask her to do) and we left, knowing that it was a good meet (and yes, we went straight to Subway).

Well, we found out yesterday that she kicked some serious butt. A first, a fourth, and a fifth place in her division. So, needless to say that I am extremely proud of her. Hopefully, she will continue with this attitude and enjoy herself at the same time. My only goal is to prevent her from burning out on it (which will be tough as she practices 4 nights a week).