Sports Sunday - Fathers and Sons

This week my dad and I are headed to Durham to watch the Blue Devils play Temple at Cameron Indoor Stadium.  This is like seeing your favorite band in concert.  Maybe going to Broadway and watching that show you've always dreamed of seeing.  I want to say it's a trip of a lifetime.  That may be a little over the top.  Duke isn't that far away and there is a chance we could always go again.  Now, seeing them play in the Final Four in person, that would be a trip of a lifetime.

I've never travelled anywhere with my dad before, just him and I.  Not that I can remember anyway and definitely not as an adult.  I mentioned in my last Sports Sunday post that the reason I love the Blue Devils is because of my dad.

As a son you are desperate to find something to bond with your father about.  My dad is a fantastic father, he leads by example and I've learned how to be a father by watching him and learning from him.   But he's a fixer.  He can fix things around the house, he's very mechanical.  He's been in the Navy and worked for the Coast Guard working on massive guns on ships.  Me, I'd be hard pressed to do the most basics of things.  Now me, I'm a techie and my dad can't work the remote control on his TV.  When he first got a new cable service I was down there every other day helping him use it.  I tried to teach him how to get to the on-demand stuff and I might as well been explaining quantum physics to him.   But to this day if there is something broken in my house, he's the first one I call.

But when it comes to sports, we are on the same page.  We can not have talked for a week, pick up the phone and carry on a conversation about sports like we were just talking 5 minutes ago.  He often calls me during Raven's games (when we aren't watching in person) to yell about what's going on.   My dad is a funny fan.  When things are going well, he's all in.  When they aren't, they are all bums.  We connect on most all sports and share a love of the Orioles, the Ravens and the Blue Devils.  I can't get him to watch soccer or nascar but he loves golf.

Now, I also have two sons.   Jonathan, above, is going to be 14.  He's really not into sports.  As he's grown up, we've put him into every sport imaginable.  Baseball, basketball, soccer even karate and swimming, he just didn't take any of them.  When I watch sports on tv he may sit there for a couple of minutes but then he's off to do something else.  He loves going to games though and I'll keep buying him jerseys in hopes that it will rub off.   That doesn't mean I can't bond with Jonathan on different things though.  The kid is a techie as much as I am and we can spend hours blasting Zombies on the XBox.  He also loves Sci-Fi movies and TV and books.  We spend hours watching cool stuff on TV that I could never get Brigid to watch.

Nick is going to be my sports kid.  I can see it already at three.  When football is on, he's fascinated and stares at the screen.  He even knows when to yell TOUCHDOWN.   He loves to throw the ball around and keeps telling us that basketball is his favorite sport.  He will sit with me when a basketball game is on but will barely sit still when I try any other time.   When Brigid isn't around I talk to Nick about sports like he's 30.  He mainly just looks at me and says "Uh-uh" but I think the wheels are turning.  

One day I hope the three of us can go on a trip and share in a great sports moment.   But in the end it really doesn't matter.  Sons want to bond with their fathers, it's my job to make sure that it happens.

Thursday's Interview - Happiest

Happiest time of your life..ready..set..go...

I know people are going to say things like when I got married.  Or when my kids were born.  And those are some pretty good events to have in a lifetime.  But those weren't my happiest moments.

Brigid and I got married in a fantastic ceremony at the Elkridge Furnace in before about 100 family members and close friends.  It was an outdoor wedding in May and I was sweating like crazy on the alter.  Brigid looked beautiful, I looked like a big wet floppy mess.  Then to add stress on top of the Brig wanted a dance.  Not a stand together and move around in a circle first dance.  A real life, let's take dance classes dance.  No I don't like to dance.  And it's not that I don't think I can dance, or that I don't like to dance.  It's that I'm 6'5" tall and I stick out like a sore thumb.  I think if I could hide amongst all the other goofy people dancing I would have a great time.  So we went and took our private dance lessons and I was worried about it the whole day.  I didn't want to step on her dress, I didn't want to fall down, I didn't want to look like an idiot.   So up until the point that the dance was over, I was so stressed ABOUT the dance that I wasn't as happy as I should've been.

When your kids are born should also be one of your happiest moments.  Both of mine were terrifying. Maybe the third time is the charm.  With kid one I didn't have a clue on how to take care of a baby.  And when kid two came along I had the pleasure of seeing my wife almost die and the baby spend 2 weeks in the NICU.  Not exactly happy moments.  But everything has worked out, kid one is now a teenager and doing great.  Haven't ruined him yet and kid two is wicked smart and knows how to push every single button I have at the age of 3 1/2.

So Gundar, what exactly is your happiest moment?

 

This is my happiest moment.   This picture was taken on our honeymoon almost 5 years ago.  We were fortunate to get to go to Hawaii and we had the best time.  Even with Brigid getting sick in the middle of the week.  That day I had to sit by the pool and look out at the scene below.

Poor me, right?











We got to see waterfalls and scenery that I had only seen on TV.   We actually went swimming at the bottom of a couple of falls.  Very cold water, let me tell you.

It wasn't just the scenery and the travel that made it my happiest time.  It was because it was just Brigid and I.  We didn't have to worry about work or daycare.   We didn't have to worry if the roof was going to leak or the basement was going to flood.  We had each other and could wake up and get some breakfast.  Or not.  Who cared?  We saw what we wanted to when we wanted to.

It's important to remember that your happiest moment is yours.  No one can take that away.    We'd be better off if we could bring a little of that happiness to our everyday lives.  Man, that water was cold.

Wildcard Wednesday - Hello Tiger

Seems that WCW wants to do some sports today so we'll do sports.  Above is Tiger Woods.  Now if you don't know who Tiger Woods is and what he has done to himself and his family, where the hell have you been?  I'm not going to recap all that mess because it's been done to death and frankly I just don't care that much.  He slept around and got caught and it cost him his family and a boatload of money.  Moving on.


Since all this went down, Tiger hasn't been playing great golf.  Heck he's not even playing average golf.   But in a Yahoo! article that I read just 30 seconds ago said this, "I still feel I can win golf tournaments," said Woods, who has won 14 majors among 82 titles around the world. "I'm not that old. I figure I've got some years ahead of me."


I'm not that old?  Quick to Wikipedia.  Tiger is 35 years old.  Hmm.  He's 7 years younger than I am and he figures he still has "some" years ahead of him.   I guess your time as a world class athlete is short but to me that's quite a defeatist attitude to have.  


I think that attitude is in more people than would like to admit it.  "I figure if I can get to the weekend, everything will be all right".  "If I can make it to my next paycheck, things will be better".   "If we can last until the kids are gone then our marriage might improve".  Stop waiting for things to happen to you....happen to them.  

Tuesday Review - Friday Night Lights

This is my favorite show of all time.  There I've said it.  It's the show that pushed Quantum Leap out of the number one slot.  Let me tell you that took a lot of pushing. 

I was hooked from the second I started watching and kept telling my wife, "You have got to see this show".  She ignored me until about halfway through the third season.  She, of course, was hooked and made me buy the first two seasons on iTunes.  Which I happily did.

I went to Orlando last week and on the plane I watched 3 or 4 episodes from season 1.  They were every bit as riveting as they were when I first watched them.  I can remember watching this when it first came on and rooting for the team to win.  Not in the way of, it would be cool if they could win.  I mean standing up and ROOTING for them like they were real.  

That's what this show does so well.  It makes these characters real.  When Jason Street gets hurt in that very early episode you already want him to get up.  Later he comes back in his wheelchair at homecoming and the team walks behind him with 15000 fans going crazy and I defy you to not tear up.  Thank goodness that airplane was dark and the guy sitting next to me couldn't tell.  

From Tim Riggins to Coach Taylor, Smash Williams to Tammy Taylor, they aren't characters on TV.  They are friends, people you'd like to meet and talk to.  People you want to protect. 

The later seasons get away from football a little more than I would like.  But that's what happens in life.  Other things become more important.  Your family grows up, friends move away, jobs change and you have to adapt.  This year is going to be the last season that we look in on Dillon and I'm going to be sad to see it go.  You don't find too many shows like this on TV anymore, I'm so glad I stumbled upon the Panthers 4 years ago.  

Clear eyes, Full hearts, Can't lose.  

Sports Sunday - Love them Blue Devils

It is Super Bowl Sunday and I really don't want to watch the game.  I'm probably in the minority because this day is as close to a national holiday you can get without actually being one.  But I hate the Steelers.  Hate them.  Hate them.  Hopefully I'm getting my point across.  Why do I hate?  Because I'm a fan of the Ravens and the Steelers are always standing in the way of the Ravens reaching the promised land of the Super Bowl.   There is not a single player on the Steelers that I like.   You take any player off that team and put them on the Ravens and I would be hard pressed to root for them.   If Hines Ward ever put on a purple jersey (shudder the thought) I would cheer for a TD because it's the team that matters.  But I hate that smiling face.

This week the Terps were playing Duke and I caught a lot of flak for being a Duke fan.  How could anyone in Maryland root for the Blue Devils?  I was compared to a *gasp* Yankees fan for just liking the best team.  Well, I'm not.  I've always liked the Blue Devils.  My dad has always been a Duke fan and I can remember watching games when I was 12 or 13 years old.   Just a few years after Coach K arrived at Duke and right when they were beginning to make the tourney on a routine basis.   I remember them losing to Louisville in the finals in '86.   Then came the string of Final Four appearances and a huge blowout loss at the hands of UNLV in 1990.

But the glory days were right ahead.  Back to back National Championships followed and the '91-'92 team has to be my favorite of all time.  Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley & Grant Hill made up one of the best teams in college basketball history.  That year the Blue Devils were the first team to repeat as champs since UCLA in late 60's to early 70's.  And of course that was also the year of this:



Still gives me chills to watch it today.  Duke won the National Championship again last year and had another close call.



So, I'm a Duke fan.  Get over it.  I didn't jump on the bandwagon last year or even 5 years ago.  I couldn't love them anymore if I were actually from North Carolina or had been lucky enough to attend Duke.

In a couple of weeks I get to take my Dad to Cameron Indoor Stadium to see Duke play live.  It's one of those once in a lifetime trips that you often don't get to share with your dad.  So if you hate me for loving the Blue Devils, I'll deal with it.  You often hate the ones you most want to be like.

Saturday Fun

This video isn't HAHA funny but it is WTF funny.



Poor guy, just pulled off on of the most amazing stunts of his life and it was a complete accident.  He couldn't do that again without breaking his neck and I'm amazed that he didn't.

Then this got me to thinking.  Have I ever done anything in my life that was a complete accident but turned out pretty cool?  Well kid #2 not withstanding.  Kidding!!

The best I can come up with happened a long time ago in during one of Maryland's wonderful ice storms.  I was going down a hill in my Jeep and I started to skid to the left.  The road was deserted, fortunately, and the skid turned into a full out spin.  I held onto the steering wheel and tried to turn into it, like video games taught me, and then must have hit a non icy patch because the car spun all the way around.  In my lane, pointed in the direction I was going.

TaDa!

How about you?  Anything that started out as an accident but then afterwards you wished you had it on film?

Wildcard Wednesday Fails

I didn't expect a winner every week. I know it's going to be impossible for me to even find something that I want to write about all the time. But after getting Ghostbusters 3 a couple of weeks ago, I had high hopes of getting something good this time.

Nope.  Today Yahoo! gives us Penelope Cruz.

You may be asking yourself. Why is Penelope Cruz in the news? I know I was asking myself.

Granted she's beautiful.  But she's had to have done something special to be at the top of Yahoo!'s buzz list, right?  She had a baby. That's cool and all but are we so starved for entertainment that celebrities having babies are news?

Sorry, I forgot, we are.  And in some cases just because you had more babies than you should you actually become a celebrity.  Doesn't that seem wrong to you?  Does to me.

It's not a clown car people.

Tuesday - The Zombie Review

I hate zombies.  I love zombies.  I'm afraid of zombies.  I'm afraid not in the way people are afraid of vampires or ghosts.  Those things aren't real.  Zombies scare me because they can be real.  Not otherworldly real but horrible disease gone wrong real.  Zombies are all the rage it seems, replacing vampires as the go to monster.  I'm going to touch on three zombie related items that have been my favorite.

Movie - Zombieland

I have watched this movie at least a half dozen times and I never grow tired of it.  It could be Emma Stone but I'm not sure.  If you have not had a chance to watch this yet.  Do it.  It's not scary at all so don't use that as an excuse.  It is a little gross, there are zombies running around after all, eating people.  And any movie that has Bill Murray dressed up like a zombie earns a big thumbs up from me.







Book - Feed


First of all, I'm not inclined to change the picture to match the line of Zombieland.  I'm a) lazy or b) don't know how.  I found this book on in the bookstore on my iPad.  I downloaded the sample and was hooked immediately.  It takes place in the future and you guessed it, the zombies were created because of someone trying to cure something.  The story takes place in 2039 and the zombies have been contained, to a point.  The world has turned to bloggers to provide the news because the mainstream media was unreliable during the initial outbreak.  The story focuses on three bloggers as they are picked to cover an up and coming presidential candidate.  So yeah, right in the middle of the a zombie book, a political thriller breaks out. If only there had been time travel if would've been the perfect book for me.  This is the first in a trilogy of books and I can't wait until the next two are published!




Videogame - Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare

And again the picture doesn't line up.  Just pitiful.  Anyway.  This is a FPS that takes place in the old west.  It's a add-on to Red Dead Redemption which itself was a blast of a game.  In that game you basically rode around on your horse, shooting bad guys, robbing trains and pretty much doing anything you wanted to.  You could go anywhere you on the map and little missions would pop up that helped the story line along.  Undead Nightmare is the same except um, there are zombies.  Lots of zombies.  And it's kind of unnerving to be galloping along on your horse only to turn the corner and run into 25 zombies milling about.  It's easy enough to gallop away most times but if they grab you off your horse you could be in trouble.  I think what gets to me the most about Zombies is the noise they make.  That groan just sends shivers up my spine and there have been a couple of moments in this game where I yelled at the tv for the zombies to just leave me alone, while running away.  Not exactly bad ass cowboy behavior.

But zombies are scary.

Money Monday - Fair and Balanced

No, I'm not writing about the Fox News Channel.  I'm writing about our checkbook.

Wait, we really don't even have a checkbook anymore.  We only write checks for Nick's daycare, everything else is paid online.  But old lingo never dies.   I still tape stuff on my DVR.  I digress.

Every morning I fire up Quicken and my bank's web page and I balance all the transactions from the day before.  I know what our checking account balance is almost to the penny.  I'm not a control freak, really. I don't tell my wife what she can and can't spend money on.  We have a budget for that.  :)  The point is nothing surprises me.  I know where the money is coming from and where it is going.

Speaking of where it is going, my Quicken balances out until the middle of April.  Hmm, maybe I do have a problem.   It gives me a great peace of mind to know that all of our bills are paid and our food, clothing and household budget are all funded.

By paying attention and watching what is happening, it feels like we have more money on a weekly basis.  And who doesn't want more money?

Who needs Power - Computer Friday

I'm waiting for wireless power.  But it will probably get here about the same time my flying car does so I'm not holding out hope.  I had two customer calls this week where their computer and monitor just stopped working.

Imagine that, just poof, no more computer.  Most people would freak out I suppose.  Scratch that, most people do freak out.   Then they call tech support.  I'm happy to help out but this isn't something that I can fix over the phone so I pay a visit to them in their office.

Complaint #1 - My monitor won't come on.  User has rebooted (Twice, got to give them points for that) and is now just sitting and looking longingly at one dead monitor.  I do the first thing any good tech will do, I check that it's plugged into the wall.   Trust me on this, it happens.  I find that it's plugged in good and tight so next I check the plug on the monitor itself.  Viola!  We have power and I am greeted by a nice picture of her kitten snuggling with her bunny.  Sigh.

Complaint #2 - My computer just stopped working.  It was working fine all morning and then, POW, nothing.  Really?  It made a pow noise?  That's weird.  Be right there.  I get to the office and sure enough the computer is not on.  I crawl under the desk, (my most favorite part of the job) push two pair of shoes and a bag full of clothes out of the way and take a look.  No lights anywhere.   Plugged into the wall?  Check.  Plugged into the computer?  Oh, now I see the problem.  Yeah, your big hobbit feet must have kicked the plug out of the back of the computer. Stop trying to use it as a foot rest.  Sigh.

This next little story goes back awhile.  I got a call from someone that was setting up a new office and in the process of hooking up the computers before the staff arrived.  There was one computer left and they couldn't get network connectivity.  So I had them check the normal stuff and yes it was plugged in.  Next was a check of the closet where all the cables went to hang out and the computer was plugged in there as well.  I suggest we log in and try running a few commands, all of which indicated that the computer in fact had no network connectivity and couldn't get to the internet.  This probably went on for about 20 minutes as I tried everything I could think of.  Finally, it was brought to my attention that, oops, the network cable was in fact not plugged in.

You may wonder if I got mad and went off on the user since one of the first questions I asked was if the computer was plugged in.   Nope, I married her.

Here's a little Windows 7 Tip for you.  We have enough junk laying around and our desktops are the same way.  Windows 7 gets rid of the extra windows that are behind your active window. Just hit the Windows+Home key to minimize all inactive windows. To restore the windows just hit those same keys again.

And for my Mac lovers, I don't have any tips.  I don't use my Mac that much.  :D

Little computer humor for you..

Gundar is my alter ego. Almost like the Hulk but I don't turn green and smash things.

Sometimes I smash things.

A long time ago, I used to play computer games a lot. I still play computer games but no where near like I used to. There was a computer game called "Neverwinter Nights" which was a D&D like game. The hardest part of games where you create a character is naming the stupid thing. Fortunately this one had a little auto name generator built in so I kept hitting the generate name button until one time...

GUNDAR WEZ

I was awestruck. What an insanely cool name. So I took it. And now it's my name everywhere. When I play poker online, it's Gundar. When I'm on the PS3. Gundar. So what does Gundar look like? Glad you asked.

Pretty bad ass, no? He shows himself sometimes when people frustrate me. There is a desk drawer in my office full of broken keyboards, mice, mother boards and such. He had to have done it, I would never break things up like that.

He also rises to the surface when things are supposed to work but they don't. And in traffic.






Don't get me wrong, Gundar isn't just angry Mike.  Gundar has a great sense of humor.  Especially when he sees things like this.


Jaw unhinges, loud guttural noises come out and tears stream down his face.  He's a funny guy.

Wildcard Wednesday DELIVERS

All day long, I would bring up the front page of Yahoo! and just be utterly depressed at what the trending topic was. I told myself that at a certain time, the topic would lock in. So I kept looking and kept seeing Miley Cyrus. Close browser. Open browser, Miley Cyrus. Crap, really WW? You are going to make me write about Miley Cyrus. Sigh. Browser closed.

Browser opened...GHOSTBUSTERS 3!!!!! WOOHOO

Ghostbusters is one of my top 5 movies. Right up there with Back to the Future, Tombstone, GoodFellas and Star Wars. Ghostbusters 2 was ok but nothing to write home about.

I could quote Ghostbuster lines forever, it's such a quotable movie. Like this for example:

Dr. Peter Venkman: So, she's a dog...

or this little exchange

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.

You get the point.  There has long been a rumored Ghostbusters 3.  But would it be new people?  A reboot of the franchise like so many others are doing?  

According to what I'm reading now Ivan Reitman and the rest of the crew have all signed up to reprise their roles in the new movie.  It's a great story with all the old characters plus a bunch of new ones.  The script is waiting on Bill Murray to give it his stamp of approval and then they can move ahead with filming.   This really gives me goosebumps.   The film is scheduled to be released in December of 2012.   Check out the trailer from, are you ready, 1984!!

You have to be excited about the prospects of GB3.  Or you can't read my blog anymore.

Just kidding. 

Review Tuesday? What was I thinking?

I don't know how to write a review. I should have put more thought into this whole schedule thing. When I don't know how to do something I turn to my good friend Google. In the handy search box I typed, How to write a review. Google never lets me down. First link took me here.

So for my first review, I'm going to review....this article!!! I'm so clever.

Step 1: Start with a category.

That's easy, this is a self-help article on how to write reviews. That I found on the Internet. Not much more to say about that.

Step 2: Develop clear criteria.

Not really sure what that means. Let me look at the examples. Hm, no examples. Wait, yes there is. "What makes it good?" What makes this article good? It was easy to find. It's short. Probably not what the author intended as good points but who knows.

Step 3: Make a judgement.

Another easy one. This article sucks. What kind of helpful hints are these? It's like saying, if you want to know what the weather is like, look outside. Thanks. Very helpful.

Step 4: Gather evidence.

The article is 5 paragraphs long and most of the page is taken up by ads or links to related articles like "How to write a thesis." If the thesis article is anything like this one, I feel sorry for the poor sap that follows its advice.

Step 5: Sum it up.

While looking for an article on writing reviews, I found this uninspiring article at Suite101.com. The author put forward some pretty vanilla thoughts. They could have made more of an impact though if presented with a couple of helpful examples. The website was hard to look at with the myriad of ads for flat bellies and work at home opportunities and I felt it took away from the legitimacy of the article. I should have searched a little harder for a more helpful article. Maybe my review would've been better.

Maybe.

Money money money money

Money is always at the front of my mind. It affects darn near every decision I make and surely affects my mood. Money and I have a strange relationship. When I was younger I spent everything I got my hands on. Heck, I worked for it, why not spend it. Even through my late 20's, I got married, bought a house and just spent and spent and spent.

I don't spend so much anymore. Not that I don't want to. Don't get me wrong. I'm a techie and love new gadgets. I love to give my wife and kids things. Heck, I would love to be able to give money to charities that call the house every night. But I can't. It's like waking up on New Years Day with a killer hangover. All those years of bad behavior eventually catch up to you.

While my wife and I currently make a great income there never seems to be enough to take that great vacation or heck even do something like home repairs. But before you start feeling sorry for us, please stop. We live in a nice house, drive two nice cars and eat plenty. (Check out my waistline.) We don't really NEED anything. We still have plenty of wants though.

That's where the difference between being a grownup and being a kid (in grown up clothes) lies. We can delay this pleasure for now. It's hard. Really hard. But when we look back at the last year and see that we paid off over $18,000 in debt it makes you realize it's worth it.

Debt is forefront on our fight with money. I won't let it beat us. It had a good hold on us but I can see that light at the end of the tunnel. A couple of years ago I was looking for a book to listen to on my commute to and from DC. I stumbled upon Dave Ramsey's, "The Total Money Makeover". And it made me mad. I remember hitting my steering wheel with my hand when I realized how foolish I had been with all the money that I've come into contact with in my lifetime. So I changed.

We got on a budget and we laid out a roadmap of where we are headed. We are half way down that road now. There is no turning back. Well that's a lie, we could get new car payments, more credit cards and it would feel good for about a month or so. But then we'd have to start writing those checks again. That never feels good.

Sunday - It's playoff day!

The Ravens are getting ready to kick off their playoff game against Kansas City. I thought about holding off this entry until later but if they lose, I'm not going to be in a happy mood and then there would'vebeen no blog. And, I have a schedule to keep.

I mentioned that my loyalty mainly lies with 3 teams. Two hometown, one not so much.

I'll concentrate on the Orioles today. The fact that I go to them first should tell you what I feel about them. I can't remember a moment in my life that I wasn't a fan. I love baseball. I'm a big nerd and I love all the numbers. But this recent run has hardened my heart against the black and orange. They made a lot of moves this year and my heart is jumping up and down going, "Hey, nice job!" My head is going, "Shut up." Head wins for now. I have witnessed some great events in my lifetime. I was at Memorial Stadium for the last game in 1982 when Earl retired and the O's had won three straight to force what was essentially a one game playoff with the Brewers. When the game was over, this happened.

And I'll never forget it.

Oh speaking of never forgetting, I was here too....

I tried to find some video but all I could get my hands on were people taking video of their television. Not the best quality there.

When Cal did the lap around the field, this grown man cried. A little. Hey, it's allowed.

I watched this on TV and it still hurts. Deep deep hurt. That little bastard stole an out and helped the O's lose a playoff game against theYankees that they might have won. That was 1996 and I don't think they've been the same ever since.

I'll never stop following them. I'll never give up on them. But why does it have to be this hard to root for a sports team?

Everything is running on schedule

Or it will be at least. I think that if I want to continue this blog and have people read it, I need to come up with a schedule for myself. I know every Thursday at 9, "The Office" will be on NBC. Or that football games on Sunday start at 1 & 4. So I'm going to lay out a schedule and hopefully keep to it. Mark it on your calendar and come back for your favorite days. Better yet, just come back every day. See, I'm here to make your life easier.

• Sports Sunday - I'm a big sports fan. The Ravens and the Orioles are my favorite major league teams and I'm a big time Duke Blue Devil basketball fan. 2 out of 3 isn't bad right? I do follow other sports but I don't have a vested interest in any other teams. So on Sunday you'll get a whole bunch of sports goodness.
  
  
• Money Monday - Don't roll your eyes. Everyone needs to think about money. This probably won't be the biggest of my weekly entries but I do think about money. A LOT. Not in a get rich sort of way but in a how can I pay off my debt and still take my family on a cool vacation way.
  
  
• Tuesday's Review - Tuesday is when new DVDs and games come out. It's the perfect day for a review segment. It won't always be the newest stuff. I may review a TV show that I watched in the last week or a even a book I'm reading. Could be a movie I saw with Brigid or a PS3 game that I can't stop playing. I'm out of control. I've never really reviewed anything before and I hope I'll be able to muster something other than, "True Blood is awesome, you should watch it."
  
  
• Wildcard Wednesday - Wednesdays suck. It is the middle of the week. Last weekend seems so far away, next weekend is equally as far. On Wednesday, for no good reason, I'm going to open up Yahoo and comment on whatever is the top trend at the time. Yeah, how's that for a wildcard?
  
  
• Interview Thursday - I'm a husband, father, son and brother. I have a great core group of friends and I have a job that I do quite well. But what's going on deep inside? Got me. I'm one of the least introspective people you'll ever meet. So I'll think up a question and ask myself. And then I'll answer. See how that works? Like an interview. Clever.
  
  
• Computer Friday - I restarted the blog on a Friday with a small rant about something that happened in my job as a Desktop Engineer. (Fancy title, right?) So I think I will keep computer Fridays. It won't alway be about my job. It may be about....yeah it's probably going to be about my job.
  
  
• Stupid Saturday - No, I don't think Saturdays are stupid. Quite the opposite, I love Saturdays. It's the one day of the week that I feel is the least filled with stress. (For the most part.) I'm going to browse the web and find the something that makes me laugh or makes me shake my head in disgust. It's going to be hard work, surfing the web in search of funny or disturbing things. But I'm up for the challenge.

And to prove it, here you go.

What I love about this is that he really tries the first two hurdles and knocks them both down. Then he just starts Hulk smashing his way through the rest of them. Near the end when one of the hurdles gets wrapped around his head and knocks him off track into the next lane, he destroys those hurdles too. The poor guy that was running next to him has no idea what to do so he just sort of fake half jumps over the broken hurdles. And at the very end of the clip he actually trips on the little ledge that surrounds the track. I'm thinking the hurdles are not his strongest event.

Computer Friday - Patches didn't break your stuff..

I hear it all the time. "IT installed patches and now my computer is broken."

Yeah, right. First of all, I install patches. Well I have a big server that does it for real but I push buttons like no one's business. So, I know what the patches are capable of. And on a side note, when a person out there in cube land says "IT" do they know what the heck they are talking about? My experience is no. Anyway, I digress. About these patches. See everything needs to be patched. The operating system, your programs and even hardware. So it's a necessary evil. Like staff meetings. A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away, (ok IT folks are a little nerdy) patches could and did break stuff. But that day is long gone. I still test my patches because I like to be safe but haven't had patching break anything as long as I can remember.

So, patching is necessary. It fixes and enhances and protects your computer. It's going to happen so just relax and let it happen.

Here is what patching won't do.

• Cause your voicemail not to work. Adobe acrobat has nothing to do with your phone.
• Cause your laptop to change your password. Um, I don't patch your laptop. Especially not your personal one.
• Cause your emails to disappear. Maybe if you didn't click on the sort button and sort your emails from oldest to newest, then you'd see your new emails. Just saying.
• Cause vision problems. Stay with me on this one, it's like a little play.

"IT installed patches and now I can't see anything on my monitor."

"Is the computer on?"

"Yes, well I can see something but there is a glare coming in through my window from the sun."

"Wait, you can't see your screen because of sun glare?"

"Yeah, this just started happening after IT installed a patch or something this weekend."

Or it's just that the time changed and the sun is in a different position now when you come to work. And you just need to lower the blinds in your office. I really am a computer genius.

Back from the dead

My blog is now a zombie. It's been dead for over 2 years now while I was off doing so much exciting stuff that I couldn't possibly put all my adventures into words. All right, I'm lying. I just got bored with it after a few posts and left it to rot.

Does this mean I'm going to be a posting machine like my beautiful wife, Brigid Kemmerer? Yeah, probably not. But who knows, maybe I will. Maybe I will become famous for my witty posts. I will have hundreds, no THOUSANDS, of followers hanging on my every word.

What's probably going to happen though is this. I will blog about crap that is going on for about 2 months. Then the zombie blog will die again.

Only to see daylight in 2013. ggrrrrrrrrrr. (that's the sound zombies make in case you didn't know.)