AWESOME!!!

last night, I waited in line and went and saw Harrison Flowerpot, Quest for the Dandelion at 3AM in IMAX... it was everything I thought a movie could, would and should be.... the ending where Flowerpot, a 42nd level Mage, cast a burning bush spell upon himself was surprising, but I hear that there is yet ANOTHER book in the works by some random writer from Belgium...

do they know it's.....

98.9 has wound up the Xmas songs fulltime, a full week ahead of Turkey Day... and the 24/7 list of songs doesnt apply until you hear "Do They Know It's Christmas Time at All"? at least three times, which I have 3 times within a 4 hour period.....

But I have been reflecting on Christmas this year and the Holidays in general... seems that the "adults" in my family and friends have opted to only do gifts for the children in our circle, which is cool. But I do want to make a concerted effort to at least get together with people for dinner, or gatherings, during the holidays.

...that being said, Santa has been done with "toy making" for almost a month now... I do hope to stress the meaning of Thanksgiving and Cristmas more with the twins this year as I think they are a bit more able to understand the true underlying meaning of the actual holidays, and see past the Gift -O- Rama that this time seems to be for them, especially with their birthday being wrapped into the season too...

Unless UNC or (gulp) Clemson has an awesome season in basketball, I might have to just skip the season and wait for NASCAR and Baseball come March, because it is looking like all ESPN is going to do is hype Duke 24/7 all season... its already in full swing... and unfortunately, they will actually be good (for college level) and therefore the hype will be in full effect....

Per Lou Holtz, everyone needs 4 things in life:

* First, you have to have something to do. Stories of healthy individuals who die within a few years of retiring are too numerous to list. It’s also true that prisoners serving life sentences sleep for 12-14 hours a day because they have nothing in their lives that compels them to get out of bed.

* The second thing you have to have is someone to love. We are put on earth to love other people. Those who don’t have anyone exist without happiness.

* Third, you have to have something to believe in. I’ve always said that not believing in a god is not an option for humans. You might not believe in the Heavenly Father, as I do, but everyone has a god. It might be the quest for power or material gains; it might be a cause–environmentalism, conservationism, global socialism, or one of countless other isms, or it might be the search for peace–but everyone has a god.

* Finally, you have to have something to look forward to. In his famous book Man’s Search for Meaning, Dr. Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, made some interesting clinical observations in the midst of the horrors of Auschwitz. Dr. Frankl noticed that prisoners who had nothing to live for and nothing to look forward to died quickly of starvation, fatigue, or abuse at the hands of their captors. But those who survived shared one thing in common: They all had something to look forward to. Often the survivors lived for the thought of rejoining a relative, or escaping to another country. Sometimes they hung on in the hopes of exacting revenge on the Nazis. But whatever the reason, those who survived the greatest atrocity in history were those who had something to look forward to.

dude... its bad when your staunchest supporters bail...

..but they are making a case that theoretically makes sense. I am not sure that it would play out exactly as these guys would hope....

Had quick jaunt down to Monticello and got to go to the FSU/Clemson game with John... great seats and a great view... it was unseasonably cold... but a great time... also got to grab lunch with Billy McGee during the week and we are going to have to get together with our families... still no Julie though....

What it takes to be number one

Winning is not a sometimes thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. you've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization - an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win - to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don't think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there - to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules - but to win.

And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

I don't say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has to work his heart out in a good cause and he's exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.

Vince Lombardi

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes". - Charles Swindoll

last weekend saw Halloween and all the candy that comes with it.. finally had to hide the candy buckets after a couple days of piles of candy wrappers all over the place... also spent time with Brandy and Aj and the kids all did the trick or treat thingy together... hit up Skytop orchard too...

"Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you"

Looking at some photos this morning of the twins that must have been when they were not evena year old... i look at these and I do not have a clue as to where, what, when they were taken. I do not remember... I have no clue where they clothes they are wearing came from. I dont even remember the clothes. It is scary in that i see these pics, i see that they are my children but I have no memory of this event. weird...

flat soda

so... it seems my daughter has some sorta issue with putting the top back on ANY drink bottle and while I actually like flat Diet Coke, it seems her mother doesnt. Of course, we never actually see her drinking anything... but since I-Man only thinks he can sneak Capri Suns into his bedroom, we know it aint him leaving the bottle top barely screwed on....

so who was the Nerd the Miami Heat had coaching them last night? Did they seemingly pull a Kevin Arnold wannabe out of his fantasy league at the local bar to coach that team? Who is this guy?

“Basketball can serve as a metaphor for ultimate cooperation. It is a sport where success ... requires that the dictates of community prevail over selfish impulses.”
-- Bill Bradley

So this video starts the NBA conversation today.... i am going to cast my lot with the team of my childhood (notice a theme here) and stick with the Celtics... one last hurrah!... and they will get to play without the bullseye this season. That sits squarely on the Heat and Lebron. It will be an interesting storyline until May, when the NBA season starts....

"A lot of fans were drawn to me because they knew that whatever the score was, I was going to run as hard as I could on every play. You don't have that now, you have guys waiting for next week or even next year." - Walter Payton

this applies on so many levels it isnt even funny....

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". - Chinese Proverb

As the song goes..."Today was a good day..." I-Man had two soccer matches. The team has improved considerably and while they probably will complete this first half of the year winless, they no longer are a seemingly lost cause. Today they lost 0-2 and tied 0-0, which is a HUGE improvement. Defensively, this team is somewhat stout with I-Man as sweeper and a strong goalie, with all the girls really providing capable play in midfield. Only one true forward is on this team, and he has to run himself silly the whole game and it wears him down... but I anticipate that the league will assign the best newcomer in the spring to this team, which might take a team that is basically a solid defensive team and make them dangerous to the other teams in the league...

.... Nanna and Papa came into town to see I-Man play (and see Ryles too) and they then spent the day carvin pumpkins, getting new shoes, eating pizza, watching How to Train a Dragon, grilling hotdawgs, hambugers and bratwursts and then celebrating a pair of Birthdays.

So.. all in all... a good day as I always the twins to spend meaningful time with their Grandparents... I hope to have them go spend a night with Grandma sometime in the next two or three weeks. I think that time is valuable to the twins in many ways....

Really? has it come to this?

Seriously... Juan Williams was essentially fired from N Frakkin PR after making some comments (his opinions, mind you) on Fox News... he basically said that if you get on an airplane and see someone who is looking like a Muslim (dressed like it, looks like, it, whatever), you kinda get a little bit apprehensive. Well, I know I have done it... taken a second closer look. And anyone reading this who says they havent done the same... is lying. But somehow, the PC world some people wanna think is actual reality is getting out of control... I will bet this to my friends: the next time there is a terrorist event ( and you KNOW there will be a next time, right?) and the people who perpetrate the event are NOT Muslim, I owe you a chicken dinner from Popeyes. I feel pretty safe that I wont have to be opening my wallet. because you all know that the next car bomb, foiled airplane into tall building, SUV in Time Square, gunman in a crowded building, foilled WHATEVER plot will have a person responsible who is... wait... Wait... WAIT... WAIT FOR IT!!!!... a MUSLIM. Extremist? probably.... but we keep hearing that most Muslims dont condone this sorta stuff... but yet you dont hear anyone standing up and denouncing it... (oh, I am sure you can read of some small blurb on the back page of some newspaper somewhere by some random cleric)... and here is the dirty secret... no "moderate" Muslim is going to say ANYTHING, else he takes the risk of ending up on YouTube getting beheaded by his fellow supposed peaceful Muslim Buddies. but back to my point... if he walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck and keeps blowing up things in the name of Allah, well... it must be a Muslim. Until i have to pony up my Popeyes chicken strip dinner with honey glazed biscuits, i will keep thinking that the OVERWHEMING majority of people are thinking EXACTLY the same thing when they get on a plane and see someone who is a Muslim... " are they going to try something? Am I getting ready to die?"

Sorry PC people... that is the way most people see it...

now... Of course 98 percent of practicing Muslims aint thinking about doing any harm to anybody. But until you start seeing cleric after mullah after Imam standing up and denouncing this from the top of ALL the mosques, it will stay the same...

"Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the house in blackjack". ~Adam Morrow, quoted in Bill Simmons, "Letters from the Nation," 20 October 2003

THIS is what I am talking about....

my guy will have the best looking car on the track in 2011... all the Junior fans must be having a cow as this is what so many of them clamoured for for years.... yes... watch this be the souvy truck to be at... by the way, tentative plans to camp out at ALL STar Race in May so reserve that weekend for a party... Ha!!! well... maybe it will just be me sitting by a tent and small firebowl by myself... but that's ok. Gives me something to look forward to and shoot for....