tsk...tsk...

Clemson and its weak mentality reared its head again last night. The entire Clemson community as a whole suffers from this, as i see it. And the football team exemplifys it over and over. Hit Clemson in the mouth and instead of hunkering down and fighting, Clemson folds and starts fighting with itself. Once again, toughness was an issue at the line of scrimmage and it doesnt matter who runs the ball or passes the ball, when the offensive and defensive lines are as weak as they showed last night, no coach or player can consistently win against superior competition. Last night, Clemson gets down early and the band fell silent...the cheerleaders started standing around the as usual, the Clemson fans in attendence started pouting and the players looked around at each other. instead of pulling together, Clemson pulls apart. EVERYTIME..... as I have said before, there is a "play not to lose" mentality at Clemson. And you see it in every major sport. In football, if the team gets down by 10, the fans start bitching. In basketball, a missed free throw brings an audible groan from Clemson fans, and the pressure mounts on the players. In baseball, it has always been the releif pitching and the World Series... Ever notice that the big time college programs hunker down in adversity situations and fight? ever notice that when its all falling apart for Duke basketball on the road, they band together and fight thru it. they may lose, but they dont just give it to you. But Clemson will just roll over and start crying if in a fight... and its sad. The band stops playing and gets quieter even if exhorted to play by the directors. The fans start moaning about Danny Ford and visibly turn on the players. the players stand around with that look in their eyes. And thats the reputation Clemson has nationally. And Clemson will continue to see what happened last night happen again and again until it changes. Oh...they will roll for the next three games or so..but..on the road at Fla State and at Wake, they will attempt to simply run straight at Clemson and say "are you man enough?" and unitil EVERYONE in Clemson Nation stands their ground and answers the question "Yes, I am " and punches back, all the talent and coaching in the world will be negated.

...oh, and I wonder what fools are sticking around in New Orleans this time. Oh, i am sure there will be some fools who stay despite being told a week ago that this storm is coming, and that there will be NO SHELTER or HELP. and you will see them blame Bush when they are sitting on top of their house in a couple of days. And I will say now as i said then. You.. are.. a.. DumbAss...

more random musings....

I heard this morning where they banned a 9 year old from participating in a Little League baseball league because he threw too hard????? WTF??? they disbanded his team and wont let him play. Because he is better than everyone else. This is about as lame as lame can get. If my son goes out and he strikes out 4 times in one game against this kid, I would say "tough going son, go try again. Guess what???...wont be the last time you strike out. Gotta keep tryin...." Tis is very much a part of this EVERYONE WINS crap that even I-Mans soccer league kinda prescribes to. Whats funny is that even though they didnt keep score last year, the kids knew EXACTLY what the score was. But I found it profound and refreshing that while they knew what the score was, about 5 seconds after the final whistle they didnt care. And it was on to the playground, snacks or McDonalds. Didnt matter if they beat the crap out of the other team or lost by 10 goals...they were having fun. Its the PARENTS who ruin the whole thing. And this kid who is smoking it by his peers has learned that to excel at something is not good. I can guarantee that this kid will be caught up to in a few years and the fact that he is throwin 85 miles an hour wont mean a thing. Just ask that kid Almonte from the Bronx who is toiling away in the minors with little hope of ever making it big to the majors...

and by the way, to all you racists who might be thinking that to kill Obama will keep a black man from being president.... you are only making sure he DOES get elected. Or that the next black man who gets to this point becomes a landslide winner...dumbasses...

...I am proud that Obama is at this level and if he is elected, i willbe proud of that fact. But I will repeat again that I beleive that voting for Barack Obama should be about his issues, not that he is black or that he reads speeches well. And that is what I will base my vote on. The fact that he is black has nothing to do with the fact that he is essentially a Socialist in his thinkings (or at least what has been spouted by his Kool Aid drinkers). If he wins my vote, the fact that he is black will be a bonus on a somewhat personal side, but only after the fact. But... as i said above, and is part of an ongoing conversation between Brown, Andrea and me... is that we are slowly starting to see the racial overtones become more and more apparent, and this latest threat of assasination is probably only the tip of what is to come. tsk tsk tsk...they better make sure they do the job because their rhetoric is only going to make sure he gets elected. Somewhat ironic, I think...

by the way...

...with all the stars on the Olympic basketball team, I still say that Dwayne Wade is THE MAN in the NBA. HE was far and away the most valuable player on that team....

been thinkin.....

...Great to see John and Pam this weekend with their new daughter. I am sure they are aware of the change they are going to experience in their lives. But...this is a good change.

...and i FINALLY got my text int the middle of the night. Biden really does nothing for me. Its who Mccain is going to pick I am more interested in. For that will be a factor in whether nor not I give him any consideration. But.... if Obama and his campaign are so much about change, why did they select a Veep who is about as "inside" an insider can be in Washington? If he is so much about change, Biden surely is OPPOSITE that rhetoric he constantly puts out there. And I assume Biden will be the guy attacking for Obama, which is what I would do too. But it just seems that we have been fed a pack of lies by Obama...and the more i think about it, it probably is his Kool Aid drinkers who have been feeding it more than him. Biden is a definite political move designed to get him elected NOW. But...here is what i dont understand.... Biden has been summarily rejected on a national stage by Democrats a couple of times as a Presidential Candidate. (and now that i think about it...so has McCain, but...i digress...) thinking long term would assume that 2016 would see Biden running as the Dem Nominee. Do people really think he will have a prayer then? No way, I say...and I see this move as a purely WIN NOW and WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW THEN move. pick Clinton and the might have very well had the office till 2024 at least. who knows... but I sense a tad bit of desperation that perhaps wasnt needed by Obama. I think he has definitely shown a thin skin that again makes me see him as "weak" but... man... this just reminds of sports in so many ways...Obama now in a prevent defense playing not to lose... McCain throwing the ball with abandon because he has nothiing to lose...

Ok...this drought thing is gettting a tad bit out of hand.

WTF?

WE LOST IN SOFTBALL????? HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE????!!!!!!

anyway, I was getting ready to head to bed early last night when...whoa...wait...what's this???? USA vs. Guatamala in World Cup Qualifier. Awesome...gotta watch this... but...its like the game was played at the Tiger Band practice field, except with worse lighting and 20,000 people. Honestly...it looked like they rolled in some of those portable lights you see in the parking lots for the night games at Clemson. I had to keep standing 2 feet from my TV to see what was happening. But...USA wins and gets out of the country with a win....

Yesterday was the First day of school for the twins. First day of First Grade. FINALLY!!!!!! Places them into the graduating class of 2020. its always weird as I dropped them off at school...they hop out of the car and they're gone about their way... its strange that they essentially have their own little world that i am not really privy too on a hourly, daily basis.... no cell phones though....

This gymnastics stuff...part Deaux....

...OK...first of all, watching this supposed competition makes me really wonder just how this crap is judged...the american girl does her vault and while not perfect, she at least lands on her feet, bounces a couple of times and walks away with dignity. The Chinese girl goes and vaults and lands almost on her face...landing on her knees and hands. And gets a better score. Dont give me that higher degree of difficulty crap. Shouldnt you at least have to actually land with your senses? given this whacked reasoning, I should be able to squeeze into some tights, and go down and throw myself into the air spinning and twisting in some vault that has the highest level of difficulty, land on my face breaking my neck, get carted off to some Chinese dungeon beneath Tiananmen Square and score better than the American girl. RIGHT? Right? RIGHT?!?!?! well this would be like John taking Laurens Junior High 7th and 8th grade band students and having them march at State Marching Band Festival and... well...since they are playing Flight of The Bumble Bee on upside down instruments...well...they score a 98.7 since their level of difficulty is out the roof. I am not following it... I think I'm just going to ignore this stuff till they figure out a way to be fair about the judging. I dont really care if the USA people win or not. well, maybe not true. I probably do care. But if the judging is fair, well it's all good.

Meanwhile, can't we find any fast black boys and girls to run track anymore? Where are they all?...trying to make Rap records? We got Jamaicans running at half speed blowing kisses to the crowd kicking our ass. Do we need to get some better steroids? Man... so what are we left with now?.... Womens soccer..barely. Men"s basketball...barely. Beach Volleyball? Volleyball? One robot we have disquised as a swimmer? womens basketball... womens softball? where did the boxing go? where are our rap artists running track? now that I think about it... i am starting to wonder if I would really care if Clemson went 14-0 and it was discovered later that the players were getting 100 dollar handshakes. Not like it hasnt happened before, huh?

The gymnastic stuff....

...is a little confusing. First, the scoring is whacked. They take deductions for stuff that I just cant figure out. And neither can the people commenting either. Its like if I was to go to Solo and Ensemble , play a 4 minute song, miss one note and squeak once, and get a III. I dont get this stuff... and is it me, or am I remembering things a little different from when I was growing up...used to be I'd watch this gymnastics stuff and you NEVER saw anybody fall, slip, take a step...whatever. may a small step here or there or something. But now you see people crashing into the horse, landing face first into the mats and stuff... same with ice skating. people fall now. Used to never see it. Maybe Wide World Of Sports was just cutting that stuff out or something. And dont give me that "degree o' difficulty" crap. they are all doing stuff I cant dream of even attempting, much less doing....

And I still dont get the 6 year old Chinese chicks... they crash, bobble and get near perfect scores...Everyone else does all these twist, triwls, death defying crap and they have 17 different deductions....

We regret that in the August 13th issue of this blog, i used the word "erstwhile". What was actually meant to be printed was the word "Great" and we retract that statement and ask that you place "Great" instead of "erstwhile"

The Redeem Team is doing what they are supposed to do...took care of business against the dastardly Greeks. Next up, the comedians from Spain.

So..while reading the esrtwhile friend from Florida's comment below, I was flipping thru the cable checking out the extra HD channels that NBC has going for extra Olympic coverage. Whoa....WHAT THE FRAK?!!!!! WEATHER CHANNEL HD!!!! wow...and it looks awesome. Also Animal Planet (who cares), Discovery Channel (cool), TBS (why?) and The Learning Channel(even cooler) all in HD...they kinda sneaked them in... well, i did get an email about it but i think I dismissed it quickly into the trash on the Curve. Of course Ryles immediately started pictching a fit when I turned away from some inane show on the Animal Planet. I can see where this is heading already and that direction aint good. Luckily the first day o school is on the horizon... kinda ironic when my daughter warns me about not messing up her "house" (made of pillows,blankets and cushions from the couches) while I am trying to clean up the house. ah...i then think and wish I could go back in time and be their age again and have no worries or responsibilities except for having to stomach brocolli or green beans during dinner.

...did i mention that The Weather Channel HD looks specatular?...

in related news, the temps are slowly cycling downward...but we have now officially had water restrictions placed upon us. No watering plants and yard basically. Yard already was toast but I might have to continue to sneak in the watering of plants. I have always said that this is the most ideal place to live in the US, and continue to think so, but this drought thing is a little annoying.

As John mentioned earlier, i will chime in...I too wonder why it is that Foxnews covered the John Edwards deal 2 weeks ago and that all the networks sat on this for essentially months. I wonder if the outcome of the primaries would have been different for Clinton if Edwards wasnt in the race during those early contests. Wonder if the media sat on this to keep Edwards from retiring early. With the polls showing the Obama/McCain race virtually tied, i find it amusing to see Olberman and Mathews trying to paint a spin on how this isnt important or that they dont need to report it. But if it was a Republican, they would have been 24/7 with it. Obama will need to come out of Denver smoking hot on the campaign trail becasue if he isnt up by at least 10 percent in the polls come November, we know how this all turns out. It will be 51-49 McCain in the popular vote and McCain will win the electorate.

Two weeks to gameweek and to see if Clemson makes a run. Alabama SHOULD be a win for Clemson. However, Alabama will come to play, and it wont surprise me if Clemson loses. Alabama has too much talent and pride to simply toll over in this type of game. If the game was in Clemson, i would have no doubt. In Obama/McCain fashion, Clemson needs to come out and take control of the game and put their foot on Alabama's neck, else the longer Alabama stays in the game, the worse the outlook will become for Clemson. And i wont even begin down the Fire Tommy crap that will come out. I will say this...I would much rather have a chance to win like we do now that not have a chance to win like we did before.

We have these lights that come on after dark at our house that light up the place like daylight. we had a storm come thru a couple of weeks ago and for whatever reason, 2 of them were not working. Had the power company out here for the second day working on them and you would have thought that we had asked them to work under whips. the look i got from the guys working when I went to lunch was so " i hate you for making me work on this meaningless task" like... but I assume they are working. we shall see tonight, I guess. They left and didnt say a word.

Seems like yesterday it was Dora... suddenly it became The Backyardigans....went to Hanna Montana...now its The Wizards of Waverly Place and... Phineas and Ferb. Where did the time go?

"Shake and Bake!" - Cal Naughton, Jr.

So...watchin this Olympics thing. One of those Chinese guys is amazing, especially on thos e them there rings o fire or whatever it is they do.... but it just kinda seems that sometimes all the Chinese guys do is hop, skip and jump and they get this gigantic score....

Bernie Mac, then...Isaac Hayes. Who next?... Eddie Murphy... or how bout Chris Rock? Goodness...

The Kids start school officially for good in a week. First Grade!!!! FINALLY!!!!!

We got this boat in the backyard now. Its the old Sunliner from Jessica's family that they have had since the late 80"s I think. It should be fun...we plan to take it out some and take advantage of doing some different things on Saturdays this Fall, for a while. Speaking of which, I talked to Dr. Spede and confirmed that the Brooks Parking lot is no longer available for parking unless you cut a check to IPTAY for some football tix.... and it better be more than $350.00 too... and it will probably take a special Tiger Band hangtag to get to the spots above the Brooks Center too. I may not get over to a game til Homecoming or at least South Carolina. But of course, that usually changes once the season starts and since I can always get a band field pass, plans might change.

I guess I could pile on John Edwards, but... since someone once mentioned something about glass houses a ways back, I'll lay off... but it sure does make you wonder about the judgement at that level. Like...dude...you are running for President. Dont you think that sorta stuff might get noticed in todays climate? Not like you can simply walk out your door and go down to the Stop-and-Shop and pickup some Pringles, a Dasani grape soda and a Powerball ticket and it not get some play on MSNBC...

a kick to the stomach

Yeah...I know...for most of you, if not all of you, will think this is a little bit dramatic...but...Skip Caray passed away today in his sleep doing a nap. Who is Skip Caray? well, he was the voice I listened to as a kid, then teen, then adult on the Braves radio broadcasts. if ever there has been a constant with radio broadcasts for me, it was Skip Caray. Even more than Jim Phillips, for my Saturdays once highschool started found me mostly doing band events until a few years ago. But Skip Caray took me back to the late 70's listening to a rickity radio out the backyard while I shot baskets until it was too dark to see, then to sleep late into the night. He is a part of why the Braves are my NUMBER ONE TEAM, period. How many nights did i fall asleep listening to 1600AM while the Braves were on the west coast???...losing yet again.... countless..... so the broadcaster passed away today, and I am reminded that as a fellow diabetic, I have to do a better job of taking better care of myself. At any rate, i will miss hearing his voice on the Braves broadcasts.... flipping thru stations and automatically stopping when I recognized his voice out of the blue. Kinda reminds me that we are not guaranteed tomorrow....

Holiday Road!!!!

Everytime we go somewhere touristy or vacationy, I get this song in my head by Lindsey Buckingham...from National Lampoon's Vacation...If you have seen the movies, you know what i am talking about....

Sorry folks, park's closed. Moose out front shoulda told ya.