Mike and Chuck, part deux

At dinner last night with AdHom and the K-Man it was revealed that there is a campaign ad out there that features Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris. After 2 seconds of searching YouTube, I found it.
Enjoy.

Take that, Barbara and Oprah

There's big news on the campain trails. It doesn't have anything to do with illegal immigrants cutting grass ["who knew?"], Iran, fun with Chinese paint, or elementary school essays on the presidency. Nope, this is bigger; much, much bigger. Mike Huckabee just picked up an enormous endorsement.

So Barrack can have Oprah. Hillary can have Barbara Streisand. Rudy can kick it with Pat Robertson.

Mike Huckabee has Chuck. Not Chuck Bartowski [voila].

Mike got Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris. He of Walker, Texas Ranger and the Missing in Action franchise fame. And countless Internet references. A pretty cool soft drink commercial. And of course, the Chuck Norris Action Jeans. I remember these jeans from when I took karate in high school. The studio [call it a 'do-jo'
if you wanna poke fun and/or mock people who know 23 ways to hit you from the wrist down] got magazines that sold equipment, gear, weapons, etc. In them you'd always see an advertisement for the Chuck Norris Action Jeans. The "secret" of these jeans is that they stretch in the crotch [make your own joke here]. This allowed you to move freely in them. Why, you could even kick above your head in them; if you're Chuck, this meant your kicks could almost reach a normal man's waist [see Chuck is what is know as a bit undersized in the business...much like Sly Stallone.].

Evidently Chuck feels that Mike is the best hope for the country [or at least the party], and so they had a nice little press conference to announce his support for Mike. By the way, Yahoo!!!! is reporting that searches for Mike Huckabee have gone up an astounding 457% since this endorsement. Read about it here.



Here's Chuck explaining why he supports Mike:














And here's Mike, already following Chuck's lead with the arm extension:


If this copying continues, I'll expect to see Mike on basic cable, either roundhousing some schmuck or dragging an American soldier out of the jungle. Both of those should add points to his polling numbers. And I expect that Mike will be able to stay in shape on the campaign trail by using Chuck & Christie Brinkley's Total Gym.

By the way, you know that this endorsement has won Mike Huckabee at least 10 votes in Iowa, if for no other reason that there are people who will think it's funny to vote for Chuck's guy.

No good deed...

...goes unpunished. So I was sitting in Stats class Wednesday [that's 'Experimental Design : Stats 2'] listening to a lecture on Nested Models in experiments when I noticed a girl to my left struggling to pick up a pen that had fallen off her desk. I waited for a bit as I watched her lean over to reach it. It seemed to be about 3 inches too far for her to get. Her desk was leaning...leaning...leaning...and I was sure she'd tip over if this continued. Let it be known, by the by, that nobody around her was offering any assistance, including the guy seated directly beside the pen. And let it be known as well that I, I was raised better than this. One helps in this type of situation, right? Like opening the door for someone on crutches, or giving up your seat to a pregnant woman, one must act. I had to act.

So I got up and walked the 1o feet over to help her before her desk tipped over. Magically as I arrived she was able to put her fingers on the pen. This left me like Paul Baumer in the middle of a classroom no man's land as I stood near her desk for no obvious reason. Seeing as she had the pen, I turned to return to my seat. Right at that moment, I heard a loud crash behind me. Everyone in the room turned with me to look at the source of the noise. Much to my chagrin I discovered that the noise was my binder crashing to the floor, vomiting its 200 pages of notes in a pile around my desk. And there I was, standing randomly in the middle of the class during a lecture.

So I walked back to my desk with everyone in the room staring at me to pick up a semester's worth of Stats Powerpoints. The girl whom I had tried to help apologized a bit [and laughed], and I sat down and tried to reorganize the unorganizable sheets of paper. Thankfully at least some of the people around me knew what I had tried to do, which made it a little bit better.

This lesson taught me that sometimes good deeds do not go unpunished. Did I make the right call? I think so. I'm sure that the K-Man would have done the same thing, too. He's classy like that.

French teenagers riot....again

Ironically the teenagers stole the show from the adults over in France last week. While the adults were busy in a massive strike to protest common sense reforms to the socialist state [e.g. not allowing certain workers to retire in their 50's with full benefits, maybe reexamining that 35 hour work week, maybe even looking at the practice of two hour lunches and five weeks guaranteed vacation], the teenagers took over with a little riot of their own. By the way, it was by all accounts an impressive strike. The transportation services were virtually shut down, much like they did in 2005 and 1995.

Seems while les adultes were out on the streets railing [get the pun?] against this massive bout of common sense, two teenagers north of Paris were killed when their motorbike rammed into a police car. The end result of that tragedy, bien sur, was to declare war against the police. Thus began a few days of attacks on cops, in which the rioters used hunting rifles to snipe at the cops, hurled Molotov cocktails at police, and burned and looted countless stores and even an elementary school. It appears that the worst is over now, but this riot did steal the thunder from the greves of the past two weeks.

More on the strikes later, including some stories from my experiences during the unbelievable strikes of 1995 that I got to see first-hand when I was living in Paris. I know Mitch is looking forward to that.


By the way, here's what the metro in Paris looked like during the strike.; actually this looks pretty normal for a Metro stop. Black is a pretty popular color over there in Pay-ree.

*Extra points if you can find Santa Claus in civilian clothes.

Ricidulous

Last week a 26 year old UVA graduate, Jayne McGowan, was murdered in her home here in Cville. Two men — 22-year-old William Douglas Gentry, Jr. and 18-year-old Michael Stuart Pritchett, both of Caroline Street — have been charged with capital murder and are being held at the jail.

What is ridiculous is how many people are using this senseless tragedy to further their own political goals. Head over to cvillenews and read the comments page. It's filled with discussions of pro- and anti-death penalty advocates trying to make a point. Few are discussing Jayne as a person. It's ridiculous.

It's too soon to hijack this woman's murder for your own beliefs or political stance [if there is ever a time when that's appropriate]; her funeral was today. Those who have done so, regardless of stance, should be ashamed of themselves.

"It's pretty barbaric, isn't it?"

Got the nose reset yesterday. And by reset I mean re broken. This was infinitely worse than breaking it the first time, if for no other reason than I knew it was coming.

According to my experience, the manipulation procedure follows these basic steps:

1. Stick some kinda hose up nostrils, inject anesthetic, wait
2. Stick cotton gauze with anesthetic up nostrils, wait
3. Inject anesthetic with big needle on bridge of nose uncomfortably close to eyes five times, wait
4. Stick large metal letter opener-looking device in nostril, stir frontal lob twice
5. With hands braced on patient's [victim's?] head, use fingers to break nose.
6. Repeat breaking. Try to get sound of breaking bones louder and louder.
7. Change hand positions, repeat breaking
8. Smooth out nose with finger, try to make breaks "line up"
9. Report progress and show patient his nose with a ladies' hand held compact
10. Say to patient : 'It's pretty barbaric, isn't it?' Ignore glaring from patient.
11. Decide to fine tune, position hands on head and 'manipulate' some more
12. Lose the little respect you had for the patient as he desperately tries to squirm away to make an escape, hold head harder, break a little quicker this time
13. Lie and say it's almost over; repeat steps 4-9
14. Lie again, repeat steps 4-9 "just to make sure it's right"
15. Tell patient he 'really did a number' his nose because there's lots of breaks. [I resisted the urge to explain there were fewer breaks before we started]
16. Cover patient's nose with tape and a plastic splint
17. Try to leave without giving any recommendations for pain relief. When cornered, write prescription for narcotic and take off. Go next door to manipulate the nose of a recently caught Al-Queda member as part of a Q&A session.
18. Charge patient $40 for session.

So this wasn't necessarily a pleasant experience. Interestingly enough, it's one of the few times that a doctor has healed me solely by his bare hands. This guy would make an excellent masseuse.

I'm kicking it with the face split for a day or so, and then I get to go back next week for an evaluation. Lot of fun.

Usual Sunday: played soccer, broke bone

In an ignominious ending to an expensive season, yesterday I played my last soccer game for the fall. Having started the season with a broken tibia ["slightly broken"], I decided to go out in style. My hope for another trip to the ER was realized with a nice head butt to the nose from one of my own players.

Seems that we were both involved in the play when he, frustrated about life and $3 gas, turned and grabbed my shoulders for a full force WWE smackdown head butt to my nose. Actually that didn't happen and it wasn't that clear what did, other than I was running and he turned suddenly and knocked me cleanly to the ground. Great hit-wish he had gotten someone else.

The nose can bleed a lot; it looked like a red fountain. After some nice moments of concern and help from my teammates, including a lot of gauze from people's 1st aid packs, I decided to head to the ER.

Diagnosis: Broken nose. I've got an appointment coming up to 'manipulate' it back into place [nice verb they use in that field]. Until then I'll ramble on and hope that nothing else will happen.

This has been the most expensive season I've ever played of soccer, with one major and one minor injury. I've had 2 trips to the ER in the past 7 years of playing soccer here in Cville; unfortunately they've both come in the last 2 months. There's already a movement afoot to end my playing career by certain women in my life [Mrs., mom, mom-in-law], but I can't do it. I can't be chased away from adult rec league soccer.

I'm sure that there will be more posted on this later...

The Police

Quick recap of last night's performance by The Police here in Cville:
It wouldn't be too cliche to say that most of us had waited our entire lives for this performance. The band broke up back when most of us were still trying to color inside the lines in elementary school, and for two decades the thought of seeing them perform live was one of those wishful thinking moments I'd have as I listened to one of their songs. But then they surprised a lot of us by getting back together, and then they flat out shocked almost all of us by bring their world tour here to Cville. Really? Charlottesville, in Virginia. The Police. Here. Like they were in London, NYC, etcetera.
With that amount of hype I'm sure it's tough to live up to it. Overall I found it to be a good show. Not a great show, but a good one.
I'd say it was more like hearing a band playing their songs in person as opposed to, say, a rock concert. [And by 'rock concert' I mean an entire experience. To get a feel for this, see U2 in concert. Anytime. Mesmerizing] They've definitely mellowed with age; many of the songs were slower or more 'chill' last night. Gone was a lot of the high energy feel that they had that defined them and a generation of music from the UK in the 1980's.

Overall I'm giving it a solid B+. They received a B for a somewhat subdued performance and mellower versions of their songs. They get the + because it's still The Police, reunited, and in Cville. I mean, we had dinner at the Guad and then went to see Sting in Cville. Not bad for the old 22901.

Dida..what was he thinking?

So the Brazilian goalkeeper Dida did something pretty funny last week. It's funny for us for two reasons: it looks so silly once you realize what is going on, and he got fined really heavily for this.

The gist is this: a fan ran on the field and lightly touched Dida as he ran by. Dida decided to give chase, and then flopped on the field as if mortally wounded. He even forced the training staff to carry him off the field on a stretcher [double wha?]. Here's a video below and an article on the aftermath can be found here.

Bubb Rubb an Lil Sis

This is an oldie but a goodie. This is a real news story from California that discusses whistle tips. Those are the little attachments that are welded to exhaust pipes that cause them to whistle as the car drives by.

Evidently some junior grade reporter stumbled upon a gold mine when she found Bubb Rubb and his buddy Lil Sis. These two have been Internet sensations for a couple of years, and their trademark "whooooo" adorns many t-shirts.

Watch and learn [or cry]; you'll never be the same again.

Hop a long no more

So I got the MRI results back and the news was great: no ACL or meniscus issues! I've got a deep bone bruise and a tiny fracture to one of the tibia. This is the best possible news I could have had in a bad situation.

Evidently when I hyper extended the knee the knee cap went far enough forward to hit one of the tibia. This caused the fracture and the bone bruise, which was painful but never too bad.

Right now I'm kicking it in a stylish Donjoy brace [the 'Playmaker'], which looks cool as it's all black and thus attracts the labs' hairs. Donjoy is the company that keeps such notable athletes as Carson Palmer and Dustin Elliot [world champion bull rider] playing with their products, so I'm in good company.

I'm walking again [no more crutches or hopping] and looking forward to walking, then running, and the playing soccer. I hope to salvage some of this season, maybe in the next few weeks.

Kerlon update

The guy in the Kerlon video below who absolutely levels him as he's making the 'Seal' move just got banned for 120 days; the story is here.

Nightmare

Wow. I never expected this result. Currently Brazil is beating the USWNT 4-0. This is an unbelievable result, one that nobody outside of the Brazilian locker room thought would happen.

Couple of points-

-Expect a ton of criticism about Greg Ryan and his coaching. He benched his #1 keeper, Hope Solo, for Brianna Scurry and it created an intense focus on the team. In addition he made very questionable subs, as he replaced defenders with defenders while the US was down 0-2 and 0-3. We needed goals, not defenders. Even I knew that.

-There most likely was a serious break in team chemistry that started with the keeper move.

-The US never got going in any kind of rhythm, especially up top with the forwards, who didn't received quality services because the US lost the midfield.

-Marta from Brazil played an absolutely amazing game. Both of her goals were ridiculous.

-The second yellow card on Shannon Boxx was the worst reffing call or mistake that I have ever seen. Boxx was tripped from behind, fell and was carded. It was an atrocious call, and changed the entire game since the US had to play with 10 for about 60 minutes of the game. With the headsets and instant communication that the refs have between each other, it was simply inexcusable that this happened. I have included the picture of the ref above just so we all know who made this horrendous call.

-To be honest and fair, the Brazilians would have won this game without the red card. I think they would have won it 2-1 or 3-2. Without a doubt, they simply were the better team today and they deserved to win.

-The SportsCenter guys immediately after the game stated that Greg Ryan's keeper switch was the worst coaching move in recent memory. Wow.

-Irony, thy name is Nike. In an unfortunate bit of timing, the Nike ads celebrating 'the greatest team you've never heard of' ran right after the game. 'Twas a little odd to watch the team crying and sad, then to cut to a commercial and see them cheering with Dwight.

A coaching meltdown?

Here's is Oklahoma State coach Mike Grundy going after a reporter who wrote an article about one of his players. ESPN has the background in this article.

This never gets old...

Enjoy.

The Seal Move

It's oft been said that Brazilians would rather lose a game that's played beautifully than to win a game played "ugly." I don't know if that's true or not, but it kinda makes sense the way that they love to play 'the beautiful game.' Any quick search of youtube will yield thousands of videos showcasing Ronaldinho et al and their ability to dance with a ball, usually around hapless defenders.

So Kerlon, who's Brazilian, has perfected a new soccer move that the Brazilians actually hate. Dubbed the 'seal,' it entails him dribbling a ball on his head, much like - and wait for it.........- a seal.

The video below is funny for two reasons. First, the move is pretty funny to watch in a game setting. However, funnier than that is the reaction of a defender near him, who absolutely levels Kerlon and starts a brawl between the teams. And the best part is listening to the play by play in Portuguese. Also worth watching for is the other playing leaning over Kerlon, who's sprawled on the ground in pain, and who must have said something like 'you deserved this.'




Who said soccer wasn't a full-contact sport? Here's an article on Kerlon and the other team involved in this fight.

Oh yeah...

So Monday on the way home from the student health center I decided to stop by Blockbuster to rent a movie to watch whilst on my bum. After 30 minutes of traversing through the aisles, I was in agony. The crutches were absolutely killing my armpits. When I mentioned this to the MrsColonel later that night, she showed me my problem: I was using them wrong. Turns out that you're supposed to push down with the hands, and not let the armpits absorb all of the weight. This was, I believe, an important concept that a) I wish the nurse had bothered to tell me, and b) something that I wish I had known about 8 hours earlier.

Second realization of my stupidity was going to Blockbuster in the first place. With ITunes et al, I could have just downloaded a movie for a little bit more, which would have been well worth the price that day. And my third moment of [un]greatness was when I was having problems getting up and reconnecting the TV to play a DVD [it's wired separately on the TV and requires changing wires behind the TV]. Instead of going through that hassle, I should have just watched the movie on the computer that was sitting in my lap. Oh yeah...

What movies, you ask, did I rent? 'Zodiac' and 'To end all wars' with Keifer Sutherland. Good times.

US WNT advances, knee lingers

Today the US WNT [Women's National Team, as in the team comprised of the best American female soccer players in the country] won their 3rd and final game in the group stage. The game was literally decided in the 1st minute after a deflection goal by Lori Chalupny [variously pronounced]. With the win, the team improved to 2-0-1 in this stage and won the 'Group of Death.' Every World Cup has a group of death, but this one was pretty legitimate. The USA is ranked #1, Sweden is ranked # 3, and the Korean team [northern or 'Democratic People's Republic']
is #5, while Nigeria holds it down at #24. It's pretty amazing that 3 of the top 5 teams in the world happened to be placed in the same 4 team group, from which only 2 teams can emerge.

The US, despite playing what in my opinion looked like sleepy soccer, somehow managed to win the group today and thus advances to the next round. They will face England on Saturday in the knockout round; from here on it's win or go home. [Side bet-an announcer will have a burst of creativity and reference either the War for Indepence or the War of 1812 while calling this game; e.g. "It's a battle out there today, a real war. You think they were reliving the Battle of Yorktown on that pitch!"].

On other fronts, the knee is not getting any better and actually appears to have worsened. I'm going back in to see a doctor tomorrow; my fear of serious damage to the ligament[s] is looking more and more likely. I hope I'm wrong...

Feeling kneedy

Had a great weekend all the way up until Sunday. Friday night was spent with the good people of Greene at a cook out, which featured some of the some best ribs I've had in years.

Saturday featured an early rise to watch the Tots-Gunnars EPL game with K-Man and Ad Homs. Though the Spurs lost 3-1, it was still a good match and a great way to start the morning. After that it was a nice long run to prepare for the upcoming Clarke 5K and random errands around the house. Saturday night included a nice dinner with couples from the church.

Sunday was when it all started to get interesting. We had a very busy day with multiple meeting and events stacked on top of each other, including a fun baby shower for Flash and MediaWhore. The end of the day featured the first soccer game of the fall season with a new team. We left the shower and headed to the game, already in progress at that point.

I enjoyed playing with the new Greeners, and was having a lot of fun until...I got fouled and tackled from behind as I was running for a ball. I heard and felt a pop, and I went down. The knee hurt, but after about 10 or 15 minutes I could lightly jog on it and so I decided it was ok.

Unfortunately it turns out it isn't. Though the student health people weren't the most helpful [at all] I've found out that the knee has a possible ACL tear; we won't know until next week. For now that means a knee immobilizer, which is as much fun as it sounds, and crutches. The crutches are poorly designed and a creating more pain in my armpits than in my leg. Walking a dog is a whole new game with these two new attachments.

What are some of the most frustrating things about this? In no particular order:

-Getting hurt in the first game of the season is ridiculous.
-Getting hurt because some guy fouled you from behind is even more ridiculous.
-Walking on crutches is currently brutal and painful.
-The knee doesn't so much hurt as it does ache.
-Missing out on the Clarke 5K is very, very frustrating.
-Slipping out of the shape that I've been trying to get into is frustrating as well.

Hopefully there'll be a quick recovery and I'll be out and about soon...

Check this out

Michael Yon, a former Green Beret, is independently covering the war in Iraq. I highly suggest you read his dispatches on his site:

Clark 5 K Super duper Achiever

Training has not started for the annual Clark Elementary Super Achiever 5K Run/Walk on September 23rd. This run benefits the school's 4th grade scholarship fun.

We're looking forward to our first race since, well, the last one back in the summer. Here's looking at setting the bar fairly low and struggling to reach it!

I highly recommend that everyone participate in this event, even if it is "only" to walk it. See you there!

Details can be found here.

Dwight as Jim Mike

In case you missed it, Dwight Schrutte from 'The Office' is the star of some new ads from Nike for the US WNT.

They're pretty funny, if only because they combine my love of soccer and 'The Office' in a quick and original way.

The Police!

Utter amazement. That describes my reaction in finding out that The Police were coming not just to Virginia, but to Charlottesville as part of their reunion tour. We tried to get tickets during the first leg of their US tour back in the summer, but we were blocked out. As a life-long fan of this band, whom I never expected to see in concert [much less in my home town], it was a no brainer to get tickets.

Thanks to my subscription to the 'Keeping up with the Joneses' email list, I was able to buy tickets during the pre-sale period. I doubt that there will be many tickets left when they go on sale to the public on Saturday. Though I have to wonder about the price point: $50, $90, and $220 or so, with most of the bottom being $220. Guess they're trying to make up for lost revenues during the 20 years they didn't tour.

I am thrilled about seeing this band in concert. I've been listening to my 'Message in a Box' compliation to get ready. And I can already tell I'll wind up buying whatever $30 t-shirt they'll be selling.

Ridiculous

Dennis Kucinich is campaining for the Democratic nomination for president, and he took a ridiculous stance the other day to garner some attention [by the way, it worked, as seen here on this blog and the news coverage].

He refused to vote in favor of a symbolic House resolution to honor the victims of September 11th because "the Bush Administration launched a war against Iraq, conflating the true tragedy of September 11 with lies about weapons of mass destruction." [his words]. He was the only one of the 400 plus Representatives in attendance who voted against it.

This is a reprehensible, purely political act on his part. He should be ashamed of himself. There's a time and a place for this type of political discourse and debate, and this was neither the time nor the place.

Red headed giants

This one's for you, big man:

Quick recap of MNT

The cliche [variously pronounced] that the box score often doesn't tell the full tale works here. This was a very good game for the US MNT, who looked impressive against the best team on the planet; they certainly didn't look like the #17 team in the world facing the consistent #1. Yes, they still lost, but they didn't get blown out and actually held their own for a lot of the game. A loss like this to Brazil is commendable compared to their recent results.

Couple of things, in no particular order:

Who'd a thunk it that we'd score first?

The unfortunate own goal by the USA to go 1-1 wasn't anyone's fault but still stung.

The lack of a penalty kick called when Josh "Hungry like the" Wolff was tackled in the box was ridiculous and would have changed the entire game. Good to see him playing again.

The free kick that Ronaldinho pulled in was exactly what you'd expect from him. Very few players can perform that consistently at that high a level.

Tim Howard is a beast.

It was funny to watch the 20 year old reserve US keeper as he frantically warmed up after Howard's injury. His face said it all: "I'm going in as goalie against Brazil?"

Clint Dempsey's goal to go 2-2 was absolutely beautiful and indicative of what a goal at this level of play should look like.

Mike Bradley's foul in the box was a legitimate PK, though unfair if it's not being called both ways. And he looked good in the center vs. Brazil.

Eric Wynalda does not like Bobby Convey and proves to be an entertaining announcer if only to listen to his biased and arrogant calling of the game.

The Brazilians played a real squad for most of the match, subbing out KaKa around the 70th minute with a 2-1 lead and Ronaldinho in the 84th minute. Course their bench players would most likely be our nation's best player in the past 20 years.

All in all a good showing for the US. Now they need to rack up some more wins, especially as they begin to qualify for the next World Cup.

2 hours to kick off

USA vs. Brazil, soccer, today at 3pm. It's going to be a great to watch, especially if you're not, say, rooting for the USA to win. If you are a 'fan of the game' [MW] then you'll love this one; how couldn't you with a real Brazil squad composed of Kaka, Ronaldinho, Silva, etc?

I hope that the players and staff learn a ton from this great experience [especially since it's only a friendly and doesn't really "matter" in terms of tournies] and that the USA keeps it close.

I hope that Brazil respects the team and starts their real starters, i.e. doesn't put Kaka into the game in the 2nd half.

My prediction: Brazil 3, USA 1.

If you don't like Charlottesville...

then it's your fault. After two consecutive great weekends in town, I remain firm in my belief that if you don't like Charlottesville, it's your fault.

A brief recap:
Friday August 31- Sparky's Flaw at Friday's after Five. What a great time we had, seeing tons of friends and watching the boys perform a great set. The great weather and venue only added to the fun. Even the two attempts by the sound guys to ruin the show by stopping the sound didn't diminish the performance. If you haven't heard of Sparky's Flaw, check them out here; they're a great band that keeps getting better. Capped off the evening with a quick dinner at Guadalajara [variously pronounced] off the mall with some great friends.

Saturday- Took the dogs swimming and walking on the Rivanna Trail over at Riverview Park. Great times were had by all, especially the pup, Hazel, who is still learning that she's a labrador and is supposed to love the water. Finished off the evening with a nice quiet dinner with the Cletuses, our neighbors to the north.

Friday September 7- Another Friday saw us heading to the Mall for the last Friday's after Five. The weather cooperated again and helped round out a great evening watching SGGL return to Cville. This week featured sound problems again. The UVA marching band showed up -early, by the way- to kick off the UVA home opener pep rally, which was supposed to follow the concert. Following a concert is different from interrupting a concert, which is what they did. SGGL was still playing it's 2nd to last song ["Rocking in the USA", and old Cougar song from the 80's] and was gearing up for its finale and quick encore when the marching band appeared and literally marched down to the stage. It was kinda surreal to watch SGGL on stage, still playing and trying to have fun with what was happening, as the marching band marched and drummed its way to the foreground; by the way, it's a big band of ~300 people. That they were loudly drumming and playing as they marched down to the stage was somewhat comical, but mostly it was rude and annoying. They took over the area where people were dancing and drowned out the band on stage, who waved good night and left the stage. It was a shame that the band came early and had such poor PR skills.

Saturday September 8 Saw us getting up and heading to the Cville Farmer's Market to wonder around and to buy some produce. We had a great time browsing, though it was a bit hot in the sun. We skipped the UVA game b/c of school work concerns, though it was fun to see everyone gearing up for it. An afternoon working led into a stint at the pool, which unbelievably remains open. After making some home-made salsa with the new produce, it was off to our second installment of Starry Nights at Veritas Vineyard. The weather was fantastic [there's a theme here] and we enjoyed being with good friends as we picnicked listening to the band.

All in all these two weekends have provided a lot of fun in activities unique to Cville, and solidified my belief that if you don't like Charlottesville...

Sympathy for the K-Man

Heart-felt sympathy goes out to the K-Man, who suffered three losses and a tie this weekend in various levels and types of football. To recap, last night CHS lost 56-0 to Amherst in football. Today Virginia managed to lose to Wyoming by 20, and Michigan then lost to Appy State [who?] in one of the biggest upsets in college football history. And to top it off, the Spurs managed to wrestle a tie from the jaws of victory to finish 3-3 with Fulham. So to recap, no matter what the league [local HS, college undegrad, grad school] or definition of 'football' [American football or English football], the K-Man went 0-3-1 on the weekend.
Here's to you, K-Man; it can only get better from here.

Nickel Creek

From the ever-expanding youtube archives, three live videos of some great songs.

"When you come back down" [complete with fans yelling at the beginning]:



"The Fox" with "The Weight" by The Band in the middle:



"Toxic" by Brittany Federline:

More fun with youtube

Go to youtube and type in "kishore." This gem, "Kishore dance clip 1," is your third option. Enjoy.

Mikey does like it

So he did do it, and then he lied about it to his team, prosecutors, and the NFL Commissioner. Uh oh. Check it out here [and every other news site].

And here's a good clip on a past Michael Vick issue.

McLovin it

Interesting article

First off let me say that I love dogs. Growing up we had at least one dog, sometimes two, and I've had three dogs while living here in Cville [Bailey 1, Bailey 2.0, and now Hazel]. Let me also state that I like deer. Not necessarily the deer that leave raisonettes in our backyard for the dogs to roll in and snack on, but the deer that I've hunted. That's right, I hunt[ed] deer. This will be the theme of an upcoming post, but let's get back to the topic at hand.

Michael Vick is alleged to have organized and participated in dog fighting at one of his properties. The public outcry, mostly organized by PETA and other animal rights groups, has been loud and constant against him. There's talk of banning Vick for 1 year from the NFL and cries that he be banned permanently from playing in the NFL. Not for rape, or murder, or buying crack, but for dog fighting.

While it's terrible if he did what he's accused of, it is utterly ridiculous that there is this level of outcry against brutality towards animals when there has not been the same level of emotion concerning violence against people. Take, for an obvious example, the level of outrage following the charges of rape of a 20 yr old placed against Kobe Bryant; while he was booed and picketed, it wasn't to the same degree as Vick has been getting. Not saying that Kobe did it, or that Vick did it, but rather that public reaction against the two disparate charges didn't make sense in light of what they were accused of.

All of this is a lead into a well-written article over at yahoo on this topic written by Michael Silver. It's not the most damning article, but it does begin to put some of this into perspective. You can find the link here.

Editorial free speech

I try to stay as au courant as possible with current trends in America. Because I am lazy, I do this mostly through reading the op-ed pieces that I can find on-line; one of usual haunts is Yahoo!'s section [located here] b/c of the large number of writers that it includes.

Today this article jumped out at me for being overly dramatic and a bit offensive. Entitled "GOP Declares Open War on Brown People," the author [Pachacutec ?] takes a very narrow and biased look at how the Republican candidates are beginning to discuss illegal immigration. Some of the phrases and ideas that I found offensive included the title [the party hasn't declared war on anyone, and "Brown People" is an offensive term when what is really at the core is illegal immigrants, not all Hispanics], the phrases "the White House's announcement last Friday that they will cooperate with larger efforts to rally the bigoted GOP base" and "the decades-old pancake makeup covering the hateful racist core of the GOP has flaked so hard it's falling right off, and we're about to witness quite the Klan rally for the soul of the Republican Party heading into 2008."
I also disliked the last sentence of the article, which was simply "Jackboots de rigeur." This is of course a reference to Nazi fascists, who wore the boots while persecuting and murdering millions during WW2. The author is trying to create a relationship between Nazi Germany and the Republican party, who is "against brown people."

I completely disagree with the article and find it intellectually dishonest to equate being against illegal immigration with being against immigrants or Hispanics. Are there people who are against illegal immigrants who are also hateful bigots, or who hate Hispanics, or who want to "close the borders" to all immigrants? Absolutely. But just because someone is against illegal immigrants does not mean that he or she hates "brown people" or has "declared war" against them. That's just taking it too far.

Articles like this only inflame what is already a volatile and controversial topic. This issue deserves better and more responsible debate from both sides instead of a crude attempt at gaining support by outright lying and fear-mongering.

Beckham scores, Ronaldo follows Zidane

Ronaldo, playing for ManU but more importantly playing on my fantasy team, did something really, really dumb Tuesday night. Tuesday he got a red card late in the game, which keeps him from playing this weekend and also earned an amazing -2 pts for the fantasy cause. ManU finds itself in somewhat unfamiliar territory, with 2 ties and 2pts earned after 2 games. Everton finds itself tied in first place with Chelsea and Man City, while there are five teams ranked at the bottom with 0 pts after 2 games.

In MLS action, David Beckham started his first game and scored his first MLS goal. He scored in the 1st half with a free kick that he - wait for it....bent- over a wall and into the side netting. Here is a link to video footage of the goal. Two highlights of the video are Posh aka "Victoria" Beckham's enthusiastic celebration and the utter frustration of the keeper [was he surprised that it could happen to him?].

Wrap up of 1st weekend

Quick wrap up from yesterday's EPL games:

ManU managed to rescue defeat from the jaws of victory, finishing 0-0 [that's 'nil-nil' to you Yanks] against Reading. Pretty amazing, in my opinion, for the defending champions to tie a team that is in its second year of the EPL AND not score any goals with a lineup that includes Ronaldo, Giggs, and Rooney. Give due credit to Marcus "I'm an American, too" Hahnemann, who had a fantastic game with 5 big saves that earned him the shutout [and won Mitch the 1st week of fantasy EPL].

As I'm sure has been noted somewhere, there is a sad bit of irony in having 3 Americans [Fridel, Hahnemann, and Howard] in the world's best league where they're getting world class coaching and development and they're all playing the same position, which is a pain for the US National Team. Even with Friedel officially retired from the USMNT, it's still a shame; think if they were midfielders or defenders...oh well.

Wayne "Osteoporosis" Rooney broke his left foot right before half yesterday and sat out the 2nd half of the game. He's previously broken his right foot 2 times. In keeping tradition, Rooney breaks his foot only right before England desperately needs him for an important match or tournament [say, for example, Euro 2008 qualifiers, Euro 2004, and the 2006 World Cup]. Yahoo has a decent article about this here.

Mitch is running the table in our EPL league, almost doubling up everyone else's points. I wish I could say something witty here about this, but I can't; it's too painful for a Yankees fan to win in EPL football, even if it's fake.

Found a good guide to the EPL for Americans, located here, that is worth checking out.

David Beckham is still sidelined, which is frustrating many fans. To be fair, he's here for five years and he's hurt right now. Let's give the ankle a bit of time to get better and let him play a few matches before we dismiss him. If you've ever sprained an ankle, you understand how hard it is to come back to this at 100% before you're truly ready. People need to prepare themselves that this season might be a wash, but that it's going to pay huge dividends over the years...we hope.

[By the way, check out Mitch's site [here] for some great links and funny videos.]

The EPL started this weekend

The English Premier League officially kicked off its 2007-2008 season this weekend. I've been eagerly awaiting this season since the last one ended [or as Ad Homonym stated, "I've missed the EPL tremendously over the long, arduous 3-week offseason."]. One of the reasons I've been looking forward to this is because I'm playing Fantasy Premier League. Organized by the K-Mish, this is the second year we've had a private league. However, this will be my first year playing for more than 1 week. Last year I somehow got distracted after the first week and forgot to keep my roster and team up to date. One of my better moments was keeping Captain America, Claudio Reyna, not only in my lineup but as my team captain for the entire season. This was a bold move on my part, especially since Claudio switched not only teams but leagues [from the EPL and Manchester City to MLS & the NY Red Bulls].

Right now I'm watching the clinic on ball possession being put on my Manchester United. Theoretically they're playing Reading today, but as of this point [58 minutes in] the other team is largely defending with their lives and not really attacking. If you don't like soccer, this would be a very boring game for you as it's currently 0-0 despite the fact that one team is completely outplaying the other. Games like this remind you of how difficult goals are to get, especially in the EPL. Side note: Ryan Giggs is underrated, if there is such a thing for a man who captains the Red Devils. He's very solid and is a workhouse on this team filled with some superstars [Rooney and Ronaldo come to mind].

Funniest comment of the game so far has to "They should charge Van der Sar [ManU keeper] a spectator fee b/c all he's doing is watching this game today."

Christiano Ronaldo is as good as you've heard; he's in his own league out there against some of the best players in the world. His technical ability and his tactical knowledge [when to use his skills] are changing the play of this game.

Of course all of this is [so far] for naught; the score remains locked at 0-0 at this point. Selfishly I hope that Ronaldo or Rooney score, which would really help my fantasy points this week. That could almost help make up for Carlos Bocanegra giving up a penalty goal.

Dave Kitson, a substitute in the game, has just earned a red card for a "rash and hard challenge." This coming after being on the field for exactly 45 seconds, which is the current record for quickest red card this year. This dismissal and man advantage should open up the field and game a lot for ManU.

The other fun moment of the day was watching Jens Lehmann give up a silly, simple goal to Fulham. I'm sure you can find it on YouTube in a few hours. If today is any indication, it's going to be a long & exciting season to watch, especially since I kept up our Fox Soccer Channel subscription so I can watch the games live.

Matt & Gunnar, under the stars in Nelson

Last night we had a great time in Nelson county. Located to the southwest of Cville, the county is home to Wintergreen Ski Resort, the real home of 'The Waltons', and Veritas vineyards, and it was named after Matthew and Gunnar Nelson of the band 'The Nelsons' ("the ONLY family in history to have unleashed THREE successive generations of #1 hitmakers!"). With Matt & Gunnar providing the tunes, we headed out to Veritas for their "Starry Night" concert and wineapalooza.

We decided to go last minute with some neighbors, so we missed 1/2 of the evening, but the final half that we did make was fantastic. The vineyard puts this concert series during the summer that features a live band, catered food, and a bonfire. You're invited to come early and picnic along the grounds [you can bring your own food], which is what the other half of our group did. With a new puppy [see here if you hadn't heard of this not-so-recent development], we figured we couldn't do a five hour evening, so we decided to grub here and catch the tail end of the fun.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this far exceeded it. There must have been at least a thousand people there when we arrived at 8:30 [doors at 6:30]. For $10 a head you got admittance and a cool Veritas wine glass. Wine was, of course, on sale there for somewhat reasonable prices, and the lady and I split a nice bottle of the house Viognier. The neighbors were incredibly hospitable, making us feel welcome and sharing their leftover food; this only added to the enjoyment of the evening.

The band for the evening was Ban Caribe, a blend of Carib & Latin music from Richmond. They were a good option for the not-so-hot evening, as they played a good mix of hits. Besides, who doesn't like a steel drum at an outdoor summer concert? My favorite thing about the band had to be the percussionist. Last night the 7 members of the band were older [50's ish] black musicians who were very talented; sitting in the middle of them, however, was one person who didn't appear to be with them band. He was a white kid with flaming red hair in a fro who probably is still gearing up for his senior year [of high school]. He was playing the bongos and other drums, and he was having a blast and was very talented. Lots of people around us remarked that they never would have expected a red-headed white kid to be the percussionist for this band, but he seemed at home in the middle of the group; he made us smile all night.

After a couple of hours of fun, we had to head home to release the dogs for the night. Surprisingly we encountered no traffic on the way home, which was amazing considering the amount of people in such a small venue with limited access to main roads.

All in all it was a great night, and I have to give credit to the Mrs. for pushing me out to this fun and unusual event. The next one appears to be in September; maybe we'll round up a group for an evening of fun under the stars.

Slow down

New posts coming soon. But wait, you say, it's only been 5 weeks since your last one; shouldn't you kinda pace yourself?

Former student grows up, goes to Rwanda

Cool story and plug:

One of my former students and players is heading off to Africa for the summer, and she's keeping a blog about her adventures. Now a senior in college, she's going - alone, by the way- to Rwanda for the summer to volunteer there. As you do.

She's a fantastic kid and I wish her all the best, especially this summer. You can keep up with her travels and experiences on her blog located here.

Music, part 1

This is the first of a series of posts on great music sites out there on the Internet. The first site we'll visit is much, much bigger than just music, but in keeping with our theme that's what I'm concentrating on. Why should you care? Read on.

It's called the Internet Archive, and you find its main homepage here. Its motto is "Universal access to human knowledge." It is basically a storage site for free digital media, including music, pictures, movies, websites [redundant, I know], and software. This is one of my all-time favorite sites. You really need to spend some time here just poking around. In addition to tons of free movies [including this cool WW2 propaganda piece right here], you'll also find an entire live music archive. Thus our focus today.

The live music archive [here] is an enormous collection of free concerts of hundreds of bands. Here's the website's own description:

"Welcome to the Live Music Archive. etree.org is a community committed to providing the highest quality live concerts in a lossless, downloadable format. The Internet Archive has teamed up with etree.org to preserve and archive as many live concerts as possible for current and future generations to enjoy. All music in this Collection is from trade-friendly artists and is strictly noncommercial, both for access here and for any further distribution."

What this means is that fans have taped tons of shows and posted them onto this website. You can identify a band and then search through the archive to find specific concerts and songs. And it's 100% free. They've got a ton of bands that you can see listed here. And once you find a band, you can search through the listings by date, date the concert was added and the average rating of the concert. You can listen to it for free as streaming content, or you can download it and add it to your music collection [even to the old Ipod]. Amazing.

Let's try an example together. Say you loved the 90's and one off your favorite bands was Toad the Wet Sprocket. You go to the artist page, which allows you to see all of the artists who are listed, and you select the Toad the Wet Sprocket page. You see that it contains 85 taped shows, which isn't bad for a band that hasn't been touring too much lately. Once there you can search to find the most recent recording or even the one that is the highest rated concert by other users [that would be this one, the 5-4-1995 show recorded at the Sony Studios in NY, NY. Now you can listen to the show as its streamed, or you can choose to download it to your computer to have forever. You can also choose to download the entire show or select individual songs to grab.

One of my favorite options is to search for shows based on the location, which in our case is of of course Charlottesville. There are around 170 shows that were taped here in Cville, mostly at the Pavillon and Starr Hill.

Of course the sound quality on these is about what you'd expect-it's live music, after all- but it's still pretty amazing. And it's free! And for the legal eagles, all of the bands have agreed to do this, so there's no Napster-starved cop coming after you and your hard drive.

Check it out and let me know what you think...

Weekend recap

Woke up early on Friday to run with the Cleet. 6:30am on a Friday is almost ludicrous, not only to be awake but also to be exercising. We had a great run, though Little Cletus did take me towards the end. I had enough gas for 30 minutes, though the Cleet was good for another 5 minutes, so we split up towards the end. It was a great way to start the money, and great to catch up and talk with a good friend. My next goal is to the same thing, though with the K-Man.

Friday evening we hit the pool for a quick dip before heading out to dinner on the Downtown Mall. What a fantastic night. Joining us for the evening's activities were HB, MDubs, Cleet, DevilWoman and Mr. Rodgers. First we had a great time walking down to the Pavillon to hear the band at Friday's after Five, where we ran into lots of good friends down there and enjoyed a quick beer. Next up was dinner at Rapture, where we feasted on over-priced nachos and then fish n' chips. During the dinner we listened to a street percussion band and people watched, like we were in Paris. Following dinner we strolled along the Mall eating our gelato from Splendora.
It was one of those great nights where if you don't like Charlottesville, it's your fault.

Saturday night saw us in Belmont for some bar b que, followed by a return trip to the Downtown Mall for a showing of 'Knocked Up.' What an absolutely hysterical movie; it's easily one of the funniest I've seen in a long time.

Today featured another return trip, this time to Ivy to see our new puppy. More pictures of the pup are coming [no worries, K-Man...]. Their eyes just recently opened, and they're about 2 pounds now.

The race, part deux

The horn sounded and we were off...or not. Because of the large number of people and our decision to be in the middle of the 1000 person pack, the horn sounded and we got to stand for a while until there was enough space for us to move. The fact that nobody was moving around us yet and there was no space didn't stop the nice lady behind me from starting her race; she somewhat plowed into me before realizing that the race had started, but we hadn't. Then some space opened up, and we were off.
Starting a race like this is fun: there's lots of energy, people are cheering, you feel fresh, and it's fun. Most of this went away after about half a mile. We had set a very realistic goal for our first real race: to finish without walking. Thus we set a nice, easy pace; we didn't so much run this race as we did jog it out. Still, we managed to finish it without stopping and I ran -voluntarily, mind you- farther than I ever had in my life before.

Some of the notable sites and sounds of the 3.1 loop:

-The many kids around us, most of who copied a puppy's two speeds: all out and stop. These kids would sprint for 40 yards, stop, run back towards their mothers and then just stop in the middle of the course. Then they did it over and over again [lather, rinse, repeat]. Kinda fun to watch what a sugar high looks like in a 7 year old.

-There was this awful, and I mean awful, high school garage band at the one mile point. They were bad musicians to begin with, but they also sounded liked they looked: garage band meets ridiculously early wake up call on a Saturday morning. These guys ruined such notable hits as Steve Miller's "The Joker;" as we approached them I heard those famous opening lines: "Some people call me the Joker, some people call me the Space Cowboy, others call me the gansta of love...". Yep, the 'gansta of love.' The nice thing about it was that they were distracting enough that they kept us focused on them instead of the pavement for a good 6 or 7 minutes.

-We never did catch this annoyingly fit mom in front of us. She was about 20 yards ahead of us and she was pushing a baby in one of those yuppie stroller-runner things. No matter how hard we tried, she always remained just out of our reach. Nothing humbles you more than chasing someone like that and never being able to catch up, especially when you realize that she a) recently gave birth, and b) is pushing something in front of her and you're not. I felt like a greyhound chasing the mechanical rabbit around the track, except much, much slower. I even passed on water just to get an edge over her, but to no avail. I even thought of sprinting past her, but then realized that that would mean I'd end up walking at some point and she'd probably run me over with her stroller.

-I was feeling pretty good about our pace until the race leaders passed us during the loop. Those guys [and girl] were humming along. They would have lapped us if the race had been long enough.

-The last hundred yards or so were fun, especially since we had conserved enough energy to finish strong. We double timed it through the gates, and we crossed the finish line together at just over 30 minutes. Even though we finished at the same time, the race results had me ahead of the Mrs Colonel [not true].

-After the race we met up with some of the Mrs C's friends from L-burg, and I ran into [pun intended] an old friend from H-SC. During the post-race pep rally and award ceremony, we found out that a local high school had partnered with the race directors and had fund raised over $70, 000 for the Autism Society of Central Virginia. During this same ceremony, the dorky MC [some anchor from CBS 6 in Richmond] yelled out "pork chops!" while he was announcing. Since we were talking and not paying attention, we don't know the context of the comment, but it was pretty random and did follow the trend of yelling "pork chops!" at races that we've run this year; for those of you playing along at home, that's two for two and counting.

-According to the official race results, we finished in the mid 300's out of ~900 people who ran/walked the race. Not too shabby, though it leaves plenty of room for improvement. By the way, we both finished in the top half of our age groups.

-I call BS on one of the race results. According to the age breakdowns, there were six people who finished the race who were "90 years +." Not a chance. And even worse, three of those six allegedly had times that were faster than ours; one finished the 5K in 24 minutes. Again, no way. I didn't see anybody who looked over 70 either walking or running [or standing around, for that matter]. There's absolutely no way that anyone who remembered the Great Depression outran me or the Mrs C. I hereby declare the race results null and void, and ask that they be stricken from the record.

-After the race we had a completely average breakfast at Panera with friends of the Mrs. C. FYI: Panera is not the best choice for your post-race breakfast. While quiche is nice, it wasn't the breakfast burrito with a side order of swine that I deserved.

There are no current plans for any future races this summer, though we need to get one lined up soon. I think that 1 a month for a while would be a good pace. There is talk of running in the Clark Elementary Super Achiever 5k in the fall. All in all we had a great time and a great first real race, and we were able to support a good cause at the same time. It was a great beginning for what could be a fun hobby.

And here we go, Mitchell...part un

So we're now runners. I know, it's pretty shocking to me, too. To find a race that fit our schedule, we ended up driving all the way to Richmond. We were looking for a race that fit some basic criteria: easy, fun, flat and for a good cause. That's how we found ourselves at 7:30am on a Saturday lacing up the shoes at Innsbrook for the Central VA Autism 5K Run/Walk. There were a lot of people there, and most of them looked eerily in shape. Many of them, however, were running through the parking lot in short bursts, arms pumping and knees high in what appeared to be some kind of pre-race ritual; there was, however, very little stretching going on. Also interesting for me was the abundance of lycra in flamboyant colors [why wouldn't you wear neon yellow sleeveless lyrca, really?].

Of course the worst fashion accessory we saw was not clothing but man's best friend. The dogs
in their own strollers were somewhat cute and almost understandable. You want to walk with the dog, it's a race the prohibits dogs on a leash, and so you find a legal and reasonable compromise. OK. But the dog in the BabyBjorn carrier was over the top. Seriously, a woman carrying a toy dog, the dog's legs flailing out in front of it while looking like it's wearing a fancy Swedish diaper, was too much. It was silly looking and frankly embarrassing for the dog.

About 900 people participated in the event, with many more in attendance to watch and cheer. The race started off with a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by a mother of an autistic child. What was fun about that moment, however, was that the race organizer announced that there was no flag, so instead we should all "kinda turn towards that way and pretend there's a flag over there." During the song I couldn't help but think that this was just like Francis Scott Key would have wanted it.

After the anthem, we headed over to the starting gate. There a man wearing a full body cycling suit complete with sponsor patches [and again, why not?] yelled for people to move to the back. After getting no response from the crowd, he then stated that "unless you run a five minute mile, move to the back of the line." And that got things moving right along as a bunch of people moved to join us in the back of the line.

And then we heard the loud beep and we were off...more coming later...

Preview of things to come

New post coming soon, including the oft-asked post on the weekend race...

3.2 and counting

Today rocked a lot earlier, as we woke up before 7am on a Saturday to run in the 1st annual Starr Hill-Westhaven 2 miler. This was a benefit race for the Westhaven Medical Clinic, which serves Cville's oldest housing project. Fittingly, not only was today the first for the race, but it also happened to be our first race together of the season. We decided last minute to do this as a warm up for the 5K next week in beautiful Richmond.

Two miles equates to 3.2 kilometers, and if those miles are in Cville you know they'll contain at least one hill. The race directors decided to put that big hill at the beginning of the event to ensure that I'd be chasing my breath for the rest of the course [mission accomplished]. The Mrs. [#7 finisher] beat me [#8 finisher] by a solid 10 yards to win our first-ever race together.

A special added bonus were the many familiar faces in the crowd who were participating, including the Media Whore, Flash, and lots of staff from CHS. There were also lots of students from the high school who were volunteering. To honor their commitment to get up early to volunteer for this race, I rewarded most of them with a memorable showing of their former teacher flailing his arms and legs while attempting to keep up with his fleet-footed wife.

After the race, we continued the morning with a delicious breakfast at Belmont's La Taza, where we sat outside and sipped leisurely on some great coffee. We also enjoyed seeing Daniel, who was walking his enormous Great Dane, Tyrone, through Belmont.

All in all it was a great morning, especially considering that it's UVA graduation weekend and we did not encounter any traffic or delays. There are an estimated 30, 000 extra people in town this weekend, but we certainly didn't see them. Now it's on to the K-man's 80's party extravaganza.

Congrats to the K

As has been noted [see here] I recently lost in our Fantasy Premier league. In my defense [or defence], I wasn't really playing for the past 3 months or so, mostly because I forgot.

So it wasn't ignorance, but rather sloth and apathy, that cost me the title. Still, it was a bold move to keep Claudio involved on my team. It was a gutsy decision that did not go unnoticed over at E-pony:

"Congratulations to everyone on a great season! Extra special kudos to the Colonel who insisted on keeping Claudio Reyna as his captain even after Reyna left the EPL and moved back to the states. If that's not dedication to American nationals, I don't know what is."

The Europeans are coming to a Galaxy near you.

In Los Angeles. Seems that Portuguese Abel Xavier, an English Premier League player, will be joining Major League Soccer's new millionaire's club, the LA Galaxy. Xavier, a defender, was most recently with the EPL's Middlesbrough. Well...sort of with them.

Seems that he has failed to reach a contract with his former team. They're his former team because he just sat out a one year ban for "having performance-enhancing drugs in his system." He was, by the way, the first player to do this, which is an accomplishment in its own right.

He will, of course, be joining David "Posh" Beckham in LA. He of the ~$250 million contract to leave Real Madrid and to move to Hollywood to jump start soccer in America. Or at least get rich trying. These two European players will get to play against another former EPL'er, Captain America himself, Claudio Reyna, when they play against New York.

While it's great to see these world-class players moving over here, I do have to wonder if this was the right decision to "lure" Xavier away from the EPL. He was found guilty of doping, and he was the first player to be banned for a year for drugs. Couldn't the coaches do better?

My favorite quote, the one that makes me just scratch my head in confusion, is this one by the LA Galaxy coach about Xavier joining the team and MLS:

"This is a terrific signing for us and he will bring so much experience, leadership and ability to the team," Galaxy coach Frank Yallop said.

"People of his quality are not often available for us to sign, so we are really happy that he is going to join us."

He's right; there are only so many banned players from the EPL. Then again, as has been noted by others, the Galaxy will field the best hair in the league with Xavier and Beckham.

Quick recap: the week in semi-review

Great weekend was had by all at QuotiCville. Friday night featured a fun road trip to Richmond to catch Carbon Leaf [yes, that band again, Daly] perform at Brown's Island. They were opening the 2007 season of Friday Cheers, and it was a great evening and concert. There were about 10, 000 people there, and the weather was fantastic.

Saturday rocked a little earlier, as the Midlo gang had our semi-annual reunion that started at the ridiculous hour of 10:30am. Ten years ago we had this party at 10pm. Another major change was that we had ~26 people, but only half of them are [currently] potty trained.

Saturday night we went to a fare-ye-well party for Jen and Matt [and Jay], great friends who are [sadly for us] heading home to Vermont. The Northeast's gain is definitely Cville's loss as these two are simply fantastic in every way.

Sunday went great as well, as we made an early trip to Culpeper to surprise the Mrs.' parents. Sunday evening we went to dinner at one of my professor's homes. He had our research team over to celebrate the end of our year supporting the Darden-Curry Partnership. It's been a lot of fun getting to know them throughout this experience.

Lots of fun, but it was a pretty frantic pace that kept us from relaxing. Oh, and I painted. The bedroom wall. Light green. Pretty fun.

More later...Jack is trying to save the never-secure CTU from the daily influx of terrorists. Again.

April reading list

In a big nod to the K-man with his monthly recaps of what he's listening to on his Ipod, here's what I read in April. This does not, of course, include the scholarly works for graduate school.

Here we go with a shorter list:

The Husband by Dean Koontz. Pretty good, though it's more of a beach book and I read it here in Cville mostly inside due to the rain.

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. Rereading this great book on Bryson's trips to Australia. Full of humor and interesting facts on Australia, it's a book worth picking up.

U2 by U2. Fantastic book on one of my all-time favorite bands. It's written as an interview with the 4 band members, so it reads more like a conversation than a book. Some great pictures in it as well.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. No surprise that one of my favorite authors had 2 books on this month's cycle. This is probably the best book on science that I've ever read; it's much more interesting and informative than any book or article I've ever read on biology, chemistry, geology or any other science. A must read, and I recommend the special illustrative edition.

Naked by David Sedaris. One of my other top three authors, Sedaris writes hysterical "non-fiction" about his life, travels and time in France. The highlight of the past few months was an evening with David Sedaris at the PAC that The Mrs. C gave me as a Christmas present [one of the best and most thoughtful presents I've received in a long time]. I read our newly-autographed copy that we got when we met him after the show. You can read more about the show here on the other blog.

Gargantua de Francois Rabelais. C'est le deuxième roman de François Rabelais. Publié en 1534, il fait suite au succès du premier livre de Pantagruel, probablement publié en 1532. L'auteur a retravaillé le texte ultérieurement.

Gargantua est sans doute le texte narratif le plus célèbre de la Renaissance française. D'un structure comparable à celle de Pantagruel, il conte les années d'apprentissage et les exploits guerriers du géant Gargantua. [en francais de la 16eme siecle].

You should try the original 16th century French version; it's much, much funnier and actually quite dirty. The modern English version is actually missing ~ 1/5 of the original book because it's a little too graphic for our modern sensibilities [which I find curiously ironic].

Those are the highlights of what I read over the past few weeks. Merci.

Run, quotidians, run!

Looking for another sign of the coming apocalypse? Or are you looking for something to make you chuckle a bit? Either way, this post should satisfy you.

On Saturday May 26th, we are running in a 5k. In Richmond. Really early in the morning. And we chose to pay to do this.

And it's a real race, with organizers and water people lining the sides and everything. It evens comes with a free t-shirt for your donation of $15. We're running to support the Autism Society of America. Because I'm new to this whole running thing, I'm not really sure why we have to drive to Richmond to pay to run really early on a Saturday, but I'm sure I'll get an answer to that one day.

It's only a 5K, but that's 3.1 miles here in America. And that, my friends, is farther than either of us has run intentionally in a while. And by a while I mean a long time.

Now for some of you, 3.1miles is nothing, something that you do as you warm up for the 'real' run. For others, 3.1 miles is something that makes you think that running is something that 'other' people do, people who are fitness buffs and who wear those funny windy shorts. Unfortunately for me, I find ourselves solidly in between these two camps, in sort of a runners' purgatory or no man's land. For me right now I think running as something that other people do [ironically I often feel like this when I'm running], and yet I feel like we're getting better and better and working ourselves up to something bigger. It's somewhat fun to be in the center between the two extremes [filtered water on this side, Coke on that; protein smoothies with whey powder here, Blizzards on the other; five apples to the left, Five Guys to the right] but it's somewhat lacking a real position or definition. It's a lot like politics in this way.

Right now I feel comfortable only using the verb but not the noun. We run, but we're not 'runners;' at least not yet. Maybe one day we will be 'runners,' and then again this could prove to be just another fad, like flannel shirts or Jessica Simpson.

The training has been good and actually encouraging. We run longer and farther each week. We are of course in no danger to break any records or anything. Our goal for the race is fairly simple: to finish. I like to think that this allows a great bit of freedom in the results, but the Mrs. C is hoping for a respectable and solid finish. Something about finishing withing the 45 minute time limit, which sounds doable until you, you know, have to do it.

We're no Sunday Runners, but maybe one day we will be.

By the way, best reaction so far at this news:

"Really? Well, I never really thought....um...that's great. My son, the jogger. Well, I'm sure you'll be fine."

This little piece of encouragement was of course delivered by none other than my mom. Happy Mother's Day.

Carbon Leaf, K-man style

Last Wednesday the Mrs. Colonel and I got to see The K-man's favorite band, Carbon Leaf, live and in person...and for free. They were playing at the Plan 9 store before their concert at Starr Hill later on that night.
It was a pretty fun show, or EP as I like to think of it seeing as how they played 6 songs [it was free]. It's an interesting venue for a live performance, as the stage isn't too big and actually ends at the curtain; the band had to be careful or they would have fallen back because there's nothing behind it. There was a pretty good crowd for a 6pm show, with about 30 of 40 people there. One fun side note was it seemed like if you were a Carbon Leaf fan, married and in your 30's with at least one kid, you came to this show. Oh, and you dressed your newborn in Carbon Leaf clothing, like hats and t-shirts, which was pretty cool. It was a nice moment I'm sure for these families, who couldn't make the band's "real" show later on since it started at 10:30; it also gave it a different kind of feel instead of your average rock concert.

Also, standing in the aisles of Plan 9 listening to a band while people are trying to buy stuff is pretty funny. The guy trying to get to the Easy E cd didn't appreciate me standing there in the A-F aisle of "Rap, Gansta." Oh well.
It's been really fun to watch these guys as they've grown over the past 12 or so years. I first met them my freshman year at HSC when I was a pledge moving their equipment into our fraternity. ["Wait, you were in a fraternity?" Yep. I was as fratty as the K-Man. Beta Theta Pi. Good times, good times. But that's for another post some other time, most likely when the Mrs. is out of town and I can post it without her permission...]. Back then they had just started out, and they'd play for us 2-3 times a semester for ~$300 and beer and pizza. Later I got to know them fairly well, as I was social chair and I'd book them [and pay them at the end of the night]. Since then the band has continued to do really, really well. They even won the 'Best New Artist' award at the American Music Awards a few years ago, and they regularly sell out fairly impressive venues.
Their new material over the past two years is great, and it's only a matter of time before they make it even bigger...maybe like Jack Johnson [that's the 3rd shout out to the K-man, which is a new record]. The greatest thing, though, is that they've stayed the same down to earth, humble and nice guys that they've always been. Never too busy to talk to the fans, they're genuinely talented musicians who are also just great people to be around. By the way, the guy in the green, Barry, looks like a Seattle-based grunge rocker in these pictures. He's usually much cleaner.

Here's a link to more pictures of the show here.

A trip back to the alma mater...

This past weekend I sneaked back to my "nourishing mother," Hampden-Sydney, for a great afternoon and evening of meetings and dinners. Hampden-Sydney, founded in 1775, is America's 10th oldest college or university, and if you've ever heard of it [few have; it's too small and tucked away in the middle of nowhere], it's most likely because it's one of the few all-male schools in the country. Here is a nice article from a few weeks ago by the Richmond T-D on its status, including a list of notable alums, including Stephen Colbert but unbelievably missing US President William Henry Harrison, Hampden-Sydney Class of 1791. Harrison? Yes, that one. The guy who died of pneumonia after his inauguration...'Ole Tippecanoe' himself.

I serve on the board of the Wilson Center for Leadership, a program that I was a part of as a student that seeks to prepare young men for a career in public service leadership. Originally called the James Madison Leadership Program [after the US president and HSC co-founder], it's been renamed after Lt. Gen Sam Wilson, the president of HSC during my years and one of the greatest public servants still alive today. "Why that's a bold claim," you say to yourself. Indeed. But it's also true. Here's a link to a couple of biographies and newspaper articles on this fascinating man, who at the age of 84 still teaches, writes, consults and advises leaders across the world. Here is an excellent article on General Wilson written by Joe Galloway, esteemed reporter and author of the best-seller We were soldiers once...and young. General Sam, as he's known to his students, enlisted at the age of 16 in the US Army during WW2, and served with distinction with the famous Merrill's Marauders in Burma. He then rapidly rose through the ranks, moving from private to 3 star general in his 30 years. He also worked clandestinely for the CIA, including a stint as the station chief in Moscow during the Cold War. Some of the stories he told in the course I took with him entitled 'National Intelligence' are still technically classified, including his work to steal a Russian jet from a Russian air force base outside of Moscow [he speaks flawless Russian, and said that it "came in handy" when he was at the base impersonating a Russian general]. He later rose to head the Defense Intelligence Agency and commanded the famed 82 Airborne. I got to know him through his class but also from church; he taught a Sunday school class at College Church and invited us back to his home each week for an amazing Sunday brunch. Of my time at HSC, my best memories are mostly centered around being with General Sam. And now I get to sit on this board with him, so I can continue to stay in contact. It really is a win-win.

Here are some pictures of HSC's beautiful red brick campus, which is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

A view of Morton Hall, where I worked on my Political Science and Public Service degrees. The bell tower in the foreground is used to start and end classes; legend has it that you must streak it before you graduate...











Cushing Hall, my dorm my first year there. This is America's oldest dorm still in continuous use, as it was built in 1820. I lived on the right side of this picture, third window up from the ground on the front. At one point most of the college was located in here in the four passages. An interesting design note is that it's actually four separate buildings of four rooms on four floors, ie you can't walk from one end of the building to another but rather must exit and enter each of the four passages.




More pictures can be found by going here.