Going Out On A Limb

I haven’t written much about controversial issues since the election. There are many reasons for that, many of which are related to our pathetic media, which is focused on partisan screamfests and the TV version of shockjocks rather than interesting and intelligent debate of actual issues that matter. I’m not sure if the fact that the best place to get thoughtful discussion of current events where both sides can speak without yelling is a comedy show (The Daily Show) is a good thing or bad thing.

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I Have No Class

My 20 year high school reunion is this weekend. Those are some of the scariest words in any language. When I turned 30, I was excited. I felt like I was finally old enough where people would take me seriously. Turning 30 gave me a new sense of confidence, as if I had finally arrived at true adulthood after years of trying to figure out if I was a grown up or still a kid.

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How Times Change

I started reading Bill Simmons again recently (and listening to his podcast). For various reasons, I’ve rarely read him over the past 2-3 years. It’s fun to find an old friend again. I just finished his summer NBA two-parter, set to quotes from his pick for top movie of the decade, Almost Famous. It reminded me of the day back in the spring of 2000 when I was bored at work, scanning espn.

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Birthday Girl

M. turned five on Saturday. In some ways time has flown, and in others that night five years ago when S. called down to me and said that her water had broken* seems like ages ago. I’m pretty sure being a parent for five years ages you something closer to ten. Especially when your first-born (and second, and potentially third) is as head-strong as M. is. (My classic response, “Are you sure?

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Le Tour

You might wonder why I’ve not written a word about the Tour de France this month. After all, the Tour was a staple of my July posts during my first three years as a blogger. With Lance back on his bike again, why haven’t I been writing about it? To be honest, I still don’t know what to think about Lance riding, nor what to expect from him. Is this a triumphant return or simply a ride driven by ego and hubris?

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Gym Wrap Up

If I’m not mistaken, I never shared how our final sessions with our trainer went. I believe the last time I offered an update was in May. So we have some ground to cover. Our final three or four sessions were focused on strength and then power. The strength weeks were pretty straight forward: heavy weights for low reps, generally 4-5 sets of only five reps. I have to admit the testosterone kicked in during these weeks as I started throwing some heavy weights around (or more correctly struggling to gently move them from a resting position) and I was feeling pretty good about myself.

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"I Want To Live, Breath. I Want To Be Part Of The Human Race."

I’m kind of fascinated by the coming copyright wars. That may be a bit dramatic, but there’s no doubt that the digital age and the explosion of the Internet are ripping apart all the current copyright laws. The old media companies take their heads out of the sand only long enough to entrench themselves deeper in the old system and maybe punish both their customers and the agents attempting to help ease their path into the new age along the way.

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R's - Why Bother?

I’ve been searching for reasons to continue to pay attention to the Royals between now and the beginning of football season. It would be easier to spend my evenings listening to the Cardinals or Red Sox or Dodgers or some other contending team so the nights were full of entertainment rather than misery. I must admit, though, it is kind of like an auto race at this point. I’m just watching for the accidents.

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Little Sister

Part Two of the B. girls update. L.’s full of tricks, too. She’s crawling like a mad-girl, all over the place and getting fast enough to be dangerous. A week or two ago you could put her down on the floor, run to the other side of the room and get something done. Now, she’s on your heels the entire time. I had to pick her up and move her back to the living room three times tonight when I was doing dishes.

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Big Sisters

A long-overdue update on my crazy daughters, part one covering M. and C. The last month has been dominated by swimming lessons and a new gymnastics class for the two big sisters. Each class reinforced much of what we already know about M. and C.’s personalities: M. is cautious to a fault while C. has no fear of anything physical. For example, it took M. over three weeks of the four week swim lesson class to finally put her face in the water consistently.

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R's - Midseason Ugh

There’s not much to talk about that hasn’t already been covered on the real Royals blogs. The team sucks - this weekend they managed to not score when Bannister went 7+ giving up only one run and lost, scored nine runs the next night and still lost by six, then were shut-out again on Sunday - and at times it looks like some of the team is giving up. I was listening to games over the weekend and you can almost predict when someone is going to boot a room-service ground ball or toss a potential inning-ending double-play ball into right field.

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R's - Maybe Things Aren't So Bad

Note: I had to hang on to this for a couple days after the Royals ripped off three straight wins. Fortunately, between losing in Detroit last night, trading for Ryan Freel, and keeping Tony Pena, Jr. on the roster, things are quickly getting back to normal. Not much to say about the floundering Royals. Their cold streak turned into a cold month, into two cold months, and now they’re officially right back where they’ve been for most of the decade.

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Casey Hangs Up His Mic

Even a long-time Casey Kasem fan like me was surprised by this news. Not the fact that he was retiring his countdown show(s), but that he was still even doing a countdown. Casey Kasem ending his run on radio this weekend - “Hosting various versions of my countdown program has kept me extremely busy, and I loved every minute of it,” Kasem, 77, said in a statement. “However, this decision will free up time I need to focus on myriad other projects.

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Reader's Notebook - June 2009

Books completed: Road Work - Mark Bowden Redemption Song: The Ballad Of Joe Strummer - Chris Salewicz Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland Books in progress: Best Music Writing 2008 09-9 - Road Work - Mark Bowden. Mark Bowden is one of the best long-form journalists we have right now. He is most famous for Black Hawk Down, his book upon which the movie of the same name was based, and for his recent The Best Game Ever, about the 1958 NFL title game.

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Another Classic (With Bonus U2 Bashing)

So much for last year’s Wimbledon men’s final being unmatched. Sunday’s Federer - Roddick final was pretty damn epic as well. The 16-14 fifth set was one for the ages and the perfect ending to a fantastic match. Yet, I kept thinking it didn’t quite match the drama of a year ago. Last year had the rain and the race to beat darkness. This year had perfect weather and an open roof.

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Genius Social Experiment

Give a 13-year-old a Walkman for a week and see what happens. I remember my first Walkman well. It was actually a knock-off, since those early Walkmans were quite expensive. And it was the obvious knock-off: had some crazy decals on it and, worse, a pull-out antenna for the AM/FM tuner. But I loved that thing. Giving up my iPod for a Walkman When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.

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Cyber Stalking

As I’m sure you can imagine, I’ve been thinking about Michael Jackson the last few days.* I’ll have some thoughts on the self-proclaimed King of Pop eventually, I promise. That third kid really is affecting my blogging, no? (Yeah, yeah, Farrah died too. And Billy Mays and Ed McMahon for that matter. I was about two years too young to really get the Farrah thing back in her prime. I remember a neighbor who was a couple years older being very proud of his Farrah poster and me thinking, “She’s pretty and all, but what’s the big deal?

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Pacers Draft Preview

Normally this time of year I’m busting out my NBA Draft review, Bill Simmons style. In fact, that was how version 1.0 of site began. I’ll mix things up a bit this year. I’ll admit I’m not nearly as interested in this year’s draft as in the ‘08 selections. Some of that has to do with the fact there are no Jayhawks in this year’s draft where there were at least 50 in last year’s.

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El Viaje

Yeah, so the trip was pretty spectacular. Good friends in Michigan put this trip together, and of the nine or so couples they invited, six ended up heading to Cabo together. We knew two of the couples. One of the couples we didn’t know lives here in Indy; the other in San Francisco (half of that couple is a KU alum). What about couple #6? Well, they are newlyweds and we’ve known the bride for years, but the groom was new to us.

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Back On The Ranch

We have returned from Cabo, tanned, somewhat rested, and very happy. We had a great time and agree this was probably our best vacation ever. We arrived home at midnight last night. S. had to be at work first thing this morning; the girls and I had to leave for swim lessons shortly after. So no time to ease back into the normal routines at all. Combine all that with a fussy baby who demanded to be held all day today, and I'm quite tired.

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