Star Wars starring my family

Holy lol. Julian helped create this masterpiece.

http://starwars.jibjab.com/view/6ut1eJlfk3HGKKyZyqcH

Yankees fan OWNED

Dear cellular phone user,

It is highly annoying when you use your cellular phone in public places. Please cease such activity or else there may be appropriate action taken.

Regards,

Karma

Rubberband ball, week 1

I have a pile of rubberbands on my desk that I can't use. They're too big to use for my paperwork and if I try to double band something it causes the paperwork to fold in half. That's no good. Rather than throw the rubberbands away, I decided to start up a rubberband ball instead. I'll be posting status updates of said ball once per week for my own entertainment and possibly yours. Please keep in mind that this is a very inexact science. I don't add a specific number of bands per day, nor do I make sure the bands are of equal length, size, etc. Without further delay, here is the first picture.

Have you tried the vuvuzela button yet?

I just did, and I love it. If you haven't, queue up a youtube video and press the soccer ball icon. Having the ability to drown out ANY video on youtube with vuvuzela sounds is fantastic. A+ job, youtube!

Father's Day

I celebrated my 5th Father's Day yesterday and I think it was the best one to date. I was happy when posed the question of "what did you do for Father's Day" because I had a blast. I didn't get a free pass to do whatever I want with whomever I want. That means I didn't go anywhere lavish or do anything extravagant. So what did I do for Father's Day? I'll tell you the response I gave to my dad as we were exchanging warm wishes over the phone yesterday.

I happily told my dad that I'm sitting at home with the kids while Lizette is hard at work. You see, she had to work this weekend even though she wanted to take at least Sunday off. You know, so I could go somewhere lavish or do something extravagant. She had to put in a 12 hour day at the hospital, however, so I was more than happy to stay at home with the kids all day.

I won't pretend that I do back breaking work at my job. I have a nice desk in a nice office and I crunch numbers all day in the accounting department. I'm not working the floor as a CNA like my wife. If there's someone's work ethic to be admired, it's hers. But for 40 hours a week I do my job and it takes its mental toll. I love nothing more than being able to unwind selfishly after a hard week of work. Truth be told, it's more strenuous taking care of my kids than it is punching the clock.

That said, this past weekend was going to be spent watching the kids rather than maxing and relaxing. Come Monday morning I felt even more exhausted than when I started the weekend, but I also felt very accomplished. The kids and/or myself didn't destroy anything around the house and for the most part the weekend went smoothly. So when I sat down and was asked to recount what I did for Father's Day today at work, I didn't have a story about going anywhere special or doing anything out of the ordinary. I got to talk proudly about what's special and ordinary to me - doing my best to be a good father to my two boys and also being a good husband to my loving wife. Happy belated Father's Day to all you dads out there.

Quite possibly one of the greatest post-game interviews EVER

Brought to you by - Ron Artest.

What were you doing 16 years ago when this broke out?

I was watching the Knicks/Rockets game when it got interrupted by the most ridiculous non-chase I've ever seen. The entire state of California was chasing after that damn Bronco. And OJ was running because... He was innocent.

Cross-post: FM10 2013/2014 end of season review

Here is my starting 11 at the end of the season:




This motley crew achieved the unthinkable by winning promotion in our first season of League 2 play. The main thing to take note of is that we had four key loan signings that will need to be replaced/renewed going into next season. I'm hopeful that our ascension to League 1 will give us access to equal or better talent either via loan or preferably via transfer signing.

Here is the final league standings at the end of the season:



Exceeding expectations doesn't come close to defining our season. We made our first season in League 2 our last with a performance that was good enough to clinch an automatic promotion by a comfortable 10 points. You can see that we were more opportunistic than dominant with our goal differential to end the season. Our +22 was the worst of the top 3 auto promoters and 4th best of the top 7. We won when it mattered.

Carlo Nash was rewarded with the League 2 Manager of the Year award after leading Exeter to a dominant 2nd half that concluded with a 1st place finish. I was 2nd in voting for the award after our spectacular run and Richard Naylor of 3rd place Rushden was 3rd in the voting.

Here is the transfer table at the end of the season:



Different day, same song. I moved my transfer budget to my weekly wage budget and didn't spend a penny on transfers. We ended the season roughly 1k p/w below our wage budget and that proves my point - we aren't in a strong enough financial position to make a splash on the transfer market. We're better off served with paying for the talent we have, seeking out smart free transfers, and working on our loan partnerships.

The beautiful game

In about 10 minutes, Brazil and North Korea will be kicking off in the World Cup. Do yourself a favor and watch some soccer the way it's meant to be played - http://atdhe.net/20319/watch-brazil-vs-north-korea

For once, I don't like something Google is doing

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/10/google-celebrates-bing-day/
Why? Why celebrate some bullshit that Bing does annoyingly well enough on its own? When I use a search engine I use it to search for something. I don't use it because of the background image(s). It's cool when google pays homage to various special occassions by sprucing up it's logo - such as the playable pacman game to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary.

Celebrating Bing? That's like celebrating an annoying neighbor. Or mosquitos.

Whoomp, there's my President

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/07/obama.music.video/
At first I thought Jim Rome was just trying to bring back a badass blast from the past. Upon further inspection, however, it turns out that there's an Obama clone in the video for Tag Team's iconic song - Whoomp, there it is. For the record, I know in my heart it's Obama in the video.

McDonald's is trying to kill you

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mcdonalds-to-recall-shrek-promotional-glasses-2010-06-04?reflink=MW_news_stmp
Even though the food is delicious and undoubtedly part of a healthy lifestyle, I will be reducing my McDonald's intake. Last time I checked, the RDA of cadmium is zero percent. You know what else contains cadmium? Another healthy choice - cigarettes.

European football

My love for european football has been growing for about two years now, and I'm looking forward to watching as much of the upcoming World Cup as possible. Beyond cheering for my adopted Premier League team, Manchester City, I'm also a big fan of the Football Manager video game series. Check out my running blog on fmscout.com. I'll probably cross-post my season ending reviews here too. They're that awesome.

Looking forward

Lizette's grandfather was in town this weekend. I hadn't seen him since he last came up for Jimmy and Carly's wedding and despite his quirks I was looking forward to his visit. Maybe it would have been a different story if he were staying at our house rather than just spending a few hours hanging out. Regardless, I always enjoy the company of family and close friends, and we had a bbq planned at our place.

Last time he and his girlfriend(?) Dee were in town, Julian was only a year younger but he's so much more advanced this time around. He can conversate better and he enjoyed talking with his great grandpa. In fact, he spent a lot of time hanging out with him. It was cool watching Julian spark the youth in Harold. I don't know his exact age off the top of my head, but Harold is definitely no longer a spring chicken. I found out that this most recent trip to visit is also going to be his last. He's moving back east to be with one of his sons and that's going to be his final destination until he passes away. We didn't tell Julian this, of course, because he wouldn't understand it beyond feeling the loss of a friend.

Another perspective came in the form of an ex-wife (Lizette's grandmother and Sandi's mom), who recently had some medical complications. I don't want to get into details but she has been moved from a typical adult family home to more of hospice care environment. She too, is getting up there in age. Unlike Harold, however, it's very difficult for her to enjoy the company of her great grandchildren - or anyone, for that matter - because she suffers from alzheimer's. I haven't taken an opportunity to meet her, but from what Lizette says she's really having a hard time identifying anyone these days.

These things got me thinking about the finality of life. Lizette was talking about how it feels odd to rekindle these connections with her grandparents only to find out those connections are fleeting ones at best. I've begun to think about that as well, and it really makes me feel the distance between my family (mom, dad, grandma) being down in California. And while my brother lives 5 minutes away from me, we don't get to spend nearly enough time together because of time constraints with both of our daily schedules.

It's probably a little odd and/or unnecessary for a 30 year old to worry about not having enough time left, but I really ought to make more time for my family. Beyond the phone calls, emails, and text messages. Maybe not so much because I don't have enough time left, but I know that my parents and grandma won't be around forever.