The case of the missing Dew...

So, today was Tuesday, and as is my custom (okay, so it's not my custom, but I do do it quite frequently, either by myself or with a friend), I went down to the cafeteria in my building for "Taco Tuesday". On Tuesdays, they make a really big taco salad, which is really pretty good, and not a bad price for amount of food you get. It's one of the few foods at the cafe I both trust to be good, and am willing to pay for.

Since I was alone today, I got the meal to go, and headed back up to my desk. I went down to the soda machine on my floor (the fountain sodas at the cafeteria are massively overpriced, and I don't really want that much soda normally anyhow) to purchase a can of Mountain Dew. Now, given the title of this post, I'm sure you're all assuming you know what happened, but I'm betting you don't! You see, we've all had the vending machine malfunction where you either don't get a soda at all, or you get the wrong kind of soda. That is not what happened to me today. I put in my change, hit the button, and a can of Mountain Dew was vended.

However, it didn't quite sound right when it came down. The characteristic "thud" was lacking somehow, and when I picked up the can, I understood why. From its weight, it couldn't have been more than half full, if it was even that. More bizarre was that it was a sealed can, with no holes or leaks in it. Somehow, this can only received half (or less) of its allotment on the line, was sealed up as usual, and made its way to our vending machine, where a worker slid it in without noticing.

The can was unopened and intact, but it did have a few dents in it. Given the location and grouping, my assumption was that it was damaged in the vending process, without the soda providing structural stability as it normally would. However, there was no way to be sure of this, and let's just say a half-full, dented can of Mountain Dew is not something I was interested in trying out just to see if it was okay.

So, somewhat bewildered and out of available change, I walked back to my desk and showed off my discovery to my bemused co-workers. I put the can on my desk, where it will likely either ward off, or attract, evil spirts due to its mystical nature. Then, I got some more change, went back to the breakroom, and this time spent the extra money to get a 20 oz bottle of Mountain Dew from the other soda machine. This is one where you can actually see the soda bottles before and as they vend. I think I may have trust issues with concealed vending machines for a while after this...

Saying farewell to a legend

This is about a week old, but it happened right before I went home for the holidays, and I just couldn't let it go without comment.

Last Tuesday was a sad day for Messiah College soccer. I'm sure most of you already know, but for those who hadn't gotten the news, Messiah's head coach of 12 years, Dave Brandt, announced his resignation, and accepted the job at Division I Navy. (Story here) Now, there is absolutely no bitterness here - Coach Brandt has proven beyond all doubt that he has mastered D-III, and if he desires a different challenge, I wish him all the best. I'm a Navy soccer fan as of last week, and I have no doubt that Coach will do many, many positive things there.

Still, I can't help but feel saddened for what Messiah just lost. I don't know Coach Brandt personally (other than as my racquetball instructor the fall semester of my senior year), and I only know his coaching from a fan's perspective, but what he did in his 12 years at Messiah is the stuff of legends, and it was made even more special by the way he did it. His early departure from Messiah, which keeps him from racking up the kind of career victory numbers that others have, is likely the only thing that will keep any discussion about who the best D-III soccer coach ever from immediately ending with him.

Let's do some quick rundowns, shall we: Messiah compiled a 246-26-12 record during Brandt's 12 years at the helm, averaging 20.5 wins a game. I don't believe any single Messiah team had won 20 games prior to his arrival. His winning percentage is the highest among any coach in NCAA men's soccer history. Messiah never missed the NCAAs in his 12 years, went to 8 Final Fours, and won 6 national championships, the most of any single school in D-III history. This is where it gets crazy, however. Often, in college circles, coaches aren't really evaluated until they've gone through 4 years, at which point every player on the team was recruited by the coach and the seniors have had 4 years in the system. Brandt's 4th year at Messiah? 2000 - the year Messiah won it's first title. So, in the 9 years that the team was "fully" Brandt's, they won 6 titles, and went to the Final Four 8 times. The most impressive stretch in there would have to be 2002-2006, in which they won 4 of 5 titles, including 3 straight from 2004-2006, and had a 5 year unbeaten streak in NCAA tournament play (the only time they didn't win the tournament, they were eliminated on penalty kicks in 2003, which goes in the books as a tie). Twice in Brandt's tenure, the team reeled off 31 consecutive victories, the 2nd including a perfect 24-0 season in 2005. By my quick math, Brandt's teams were a staggering 42-4-3 in NCAA tournament play. (Did you catch that? Brandt won more NCAA title games in his Messiah career than he lost NCAA games, period).

What made this all the better was how Brandt's teams racked up these amazing numbers. As a rabid sports fan of a variety of professional and college teams, I'm used to having to root for teams that exhibit behavior I don't particularly approve of, basically just conceding that to be part of the reality of sports. With Messiah, there was no such problem. I can probably count on a couple fingers the times that I was dismayed by the conduct of a Messiah player or team. Brandt's teams were crazy talented, but they were also disciplined, passionate, and sportsmanlike. They demonstrated that you could play hard, tough, and physical, but do so (largely) within the rules, and without dirty intent, even in the face of dirty intent from the opposition. Brandt coached an attractive, flowing, team-oriented system that is rather uncharacteristic of college soccer in this country, at any level.

I have little doubt that whomever takes over the helm of the Messiah men's soccer team will carry on all of these traditions, and do so with success, though likely not as much success as Brandt had. (Let's be realistic, even Brandt was unlike to match his first 12 years over the next 12 years, but who knows, really?) Coach Brandt's imprint will no doubt be on the program for as long as it continues. However, there is no question that the program has suffered a loss, and only time will tell us just how big it was.

So, Coach Brandt, thank you for the memories, and the best of luck in your new challenge. Go Midshipmen, and of course, Go Falcons!

Praying for spring...

Of course, given that today is only the 2nd official day of winter, that does seem a bit futile right now.

Man, it's cold, and I'm just not ready for this kind of cold - negative wind chills this morning.  I'm just thankful that Monday is the day I drive to work and park a few feet from the door, as opposed to the rest of the week, where I have to stand and wait for the bus.  I think had I been taking the bus today, I would have waited for the later bus, which takes a slightly different route which allows me to watch for it from my parked car and get out right as it arrives.  That wouldn't have been helpful this afternoon, however, because I can't do that from my building, and it was still only in the low 20s, and very windy at that time.

And I love my dog dearly, but if I have moments of regret regarding getting him, they are on days like today.  No matter how much I want to stay inside, I still have to take him out - or let him ruin my basement carpet.  These are the kind of days where the latter at least momentarily sounds a viable plan.

I'm not sure there's much that beats coming home on a day like today and stepping into a warm house - a luxury all too easy to take for granted (as I learned last winter during an overnight power winter power outage).  Well, yes, there is something that beats it, and that is coupling it with a nice steamy mug of hot chocolate, with a blanket over your legs and a warm, furry dog laying beside.

(But I'd still trade all of that for an early spring)

 

More mailbox adventures

You might remember my rant a while back about the parking habits of some of my neighbors around our development's mailbox center. It's not at all rare for someone to pull right up beside that thing, without really getting out of traffic, and also making it difficult for someone (me) who did the proper thing and parked in one of the visitor spaces right next to the mailboxes, to get back out. Well, today someone did something that had me longing for the good ole days where that was the most inane thing I had to deal with.

Let's start at the top, however. The eventual culprit pulled into the development right ahead of me as I came home from work. He slowed down almost to a stop going into the entrance, because there's been some recent digging done there and there's a bit of a ditch in the paving. (I'm almost positive that slowing down actually makes the impact worse, in this case). Then, predictably, he did the same at the speed bump a few yards further in. And after that, he preceded to inch his way along the road. Now, let's put this in perspective for you. The speed limit in my development is 10. And, while I don't always totally adhere to said speed limit and might be a bit annoyed by someone going exactly the limit, in order for me to rant about someone's slow driving, they have to be going noticably BELOW the limit. He was. So, I'm already a bit annoyed at this guy, and when he turns up like he's also headed to the mailboxes, I start thinking to myself "He's going to the mailboxes, and he's going to park right alongside them too."

I wish. There was this glimmer of hope when he continued on past the actual mailboxes, and then, shock and dismay. There are 4 parking spaces right beside the mailboxes. A car was parked in the one furthest from them. This guy stops his car across the front of the remaining 3, still squarely out in the street, and blocking my path to 3 perfectly good parking spaces, rather than parking in one of them. I was reduced to parking about half my car in the first parking space, and the other half in the "no parking" area between the spaces and the mailboxes. Let's just say I had some not so neighborly thoughts, but I bit my tongue, got my mail, and got out of there. It really boogles the mind though.

Still not going green...

but it's getting a lot harder to make that argument since I'm now carrying around a debit card with the word "GreenSense" and a picture of a tree on it, that was made from recycled plastic. I can explain, really!

I'm not going to run through the long story of why, but I decided last week that I needed to open a secondary checking account - a basic, no fills account to handle a relatively small amount of money. Given that choice, I was faced with deciding between any number of banks with various similar account benefits. Rather than spending a ton of time sorting through them all, I decided, as a loyal Phillies fan, to go with Citizens Bank, the official bank of the Phillies and the namesake of the Phillies ballpark. Go Phillies!

Once that decision was made, I was left with opening a "Green" checking account. That's the name of Citizens Bank's basic free checking account, the only one that doesn't require a minimum balance of any kind to avoid a maintenance fee. Once you have that checking account, the GreenSense program is a free option. What is the GreenSense program? Well, you agree to enroll in online banking and get electronic statements rather than paper. I do that with virtually all my accounts anyhow, because the paper is a hassle and online banking rules. Then, they give you ten cents everytime you pay for something out of your account without using paper (a check). That's right, everytime I use my debit card, or make a payment online, or anything like that, they give me 10 cents, up to $10 a month. So, I could opt out of the program, if I don't like being paid for things I'm gonna do anyhow.

This, by the way, is how "going green" should work. The program really isn't an incentive for me to be more eco-friendly, because I prefer to do the things I'm getting rewarded for anyhow, just for the sake of convenience. However, from the perspective of Citizens Bank, it saves them money to not have to send a monthly statement, or process a check, or other things like that. So, rather than just preaching the benefits of "going green", they pass some of that savings on to their customers in order to incent them to buy into those programs.

I think Amanda commented on my last "not going green" rant that it would be much easier to get people to "go green" if they stopped using that terminology and just started educating people on the personal benefits that many "green" decisions have, and I have to agree. The term has been stigmatized with a lot of people. I'm far too practical to be scared off of something like this just because it has "green" attached to it, but I know people that aren't. Of course, maybe Citizens Bank figures the number of people who would be attracted by the word is greater than those repelled by it, and they might be right. I, for one, will stand confident in the knowledge that I have a "green" debit card for my benefit, with collateral environmental benefit just being bonus!

Follow up on yesterday's events

I didn't have a ton of interest in writing a long entry yesterday, so I left my soccer report at the bare facts, but I have to comment on how the men's game finished, because it's totally everything I love about sports.

If you were to peruse the tournament info, you would find that Messiah's senior GK Nick Blossey was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Were you to look at a box score for the title game, however, with no other information, you'd probably scratch your head. Blossey is in there, but with a 0:00 under the "Minutes" column, with junior teammate Jared Clugston having logged 110 minutes, the full regulation and both overtimes. If you go back to the semi-final game, you won't find him in the box score at all. In fact, the last box score you'll find him in with any minutes to his name would be the November 8th Commonwealth Conference championship game against Widener. Yes, that's right - Nick Blossey was named the Outstanding Player of a tournament that he didn't log a single minute of official playing time in.

Crazy, right? Well, not so much. You'll also notice that the game went into a penalty kick shootout. There's nothing that says that the goalie who plays in the regular game has to be the goalie for the shootout. It would seem counterintuitive to put your backup goalie in with the national title on the line, but that's exactly what Messiah did. Blossey is noticeable taller than Clugston, and according to Messiah coach Dave Brandt is probably a better pure shotstopper, though Clugston possesses other skills that make him the choice for the job during a normal game. Even factoring in those advantages, it still seems kind of crazy to bring a cold (literally, it was in the 30s in Greensboro) goalie off the bench at the pivotal moment.

But man, was Blossey up to the task. You'll see that the final score of the shootout was 3-0 Messiah. Yep, Blossey didn't allow a goal in a penalty shootout. If you don't really know soccer, you probably don't necessarily appreciate what that means. A penalty kick places the ball at the center of goal, 12 yards away, with the goalie on his line and not allowed to move forward off that line (to cut down the shooter's angle) until the shooter touches the ball. Penalty kicks are supposed to go into the goal, especially at this level. In order to make a save on a properly struck penalty shot, without cheating forward, a goalie basically has to guess correctly where the shooter is going to go with the ball, dive and hope. You'll often see a shooter just rip the ball right where the goalie is originally standing, assuming they are going to go one way or the other. Misses in a shootout more often result from a shooter trying too hard to fake out the goalie, or trying to place it too perfectly, and they just miss the goal, than from a save. Messiah's lone miss of the shootout was an example of this.

However, Blossey saved all 3 attempts he saw, guessing right each time and deflecting the ball safely away from the goal. And none of these were cheap saves. I'm sure the Stevens shooters did something wrong, like I said, PKs are supposed to wind up in the back of the net no matter how good the goalie, but these were very well placed shots that Blossey had to fully lay out for. A truly transcendant performance.

By the way, I hate PK shootouts. They are probably the worst way any sport of note resolves tie games. I felt this way when Messiah somehow always lost them, and I still feel that way though they've won a couple at critical moments over the last several years. However, in this case, they afforded the opportunity for one of the best stories I've encountered. You just couldn't even write this if you were trying. The guy spends his entire career as a backup (I believe he's made about 5 starts in 4 years), doesn't play a minute in the NCAA tournament, and then gets thrown in at the absolute pivotal moment and comes up with an all-world performance. Let's say it again - Nick Blossey's participation in this year's tournament lasted all of 5 minutes, and didn't even register as a minute for the stats, and yet he was named the Outstanding Player of the tournament, and I don't hear anyone arguing. Were soccer a more prominent sport in the US, and had this happened at a higher level, Blossey would probably already be fielding calls from Disney to secure the movie rights. (If only this had happened last year when the finals were actually AT Disney World)

It's hard to even wrap your head around it, and this is why, to me, sports will always be the best "reality tv". (Even though this wasn't technically on TV...)

My alma mater can play some soccer

For those of you scoring at home, today both the Messiah men's and women's soccer teams took home NCAA Division III national championships in Greensboro, NC. The title was the 6th in 9 years for the men, and with the 6th title, they broke the record for most by one school. The women won their 2nd title overall. The games were polar opposites, with the men beating Stevens Tech on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie through regulation and 20 minutes of overtime, while the ladies blew the doors off of 2 time defending champion Wheaton, with a 5-0 victory, avenging last year's title game loss to Thunder. (BTW, on the year, the Messiah ladies out scored their opponents by a total of 119 to 9, wrap your head around that).

In doing this, the 2008 Messiah teams became only the second from the same school to win both men's and women's titles in the same year. The first? The 2005 Messiah teams, also in Greensboro.

I was following the action via live video streaming over the internet, and one of the announcers mentioned that he had seen a Messiah fan with a t-shirt that referred to Greensboro as "South Grantham", and at this point, it's pretty apt. The men's and women's Final Fours have been held in Greensboro now on 3 occassions, meaning 6 titles have been given out, and Messiah has 5 of them. The teams are a collective 10-1 at MacPherson stadium, the lone loss coming by the women, to Puget Sound, in the semis in 2004. (Since the girls played first that year, that means Messiah teams are currently on a ten game winning streak at that field, pretty wild stuff)

Anyhow, nothing particularly insightful here, just wanted to take a chance to brag on the alma mater once more. With the Phillies winning the World Series, I'm not sure what to do with all of this winning by my favorite teams...

8 things to know about me

Okay, so my good "buddy" Jeff has seen fit to "tag" me, which means if I want to play along with this particular game, I need to tell you 8 things about myself. Like Jeff, I'm unimpressed with this particular tag, because it's so open ended and as such involves a lot of thought. I've seen others that I found more entertaining, but such is life. Jeff has been warned that I will start ignoring these things if they become a trend (and he's apparently taking the same stance with the guy who tagged him). I'm uncertain whether I will tag anyone else. I'll decide after this post, or maybe even tomorrow or the next day.

So, here they are, 8 things you just HAVE to know about me.

1. I took a break from writing a a fairly comprehensive personal financial plan I want to implement for myself by and during the new year to write this post. (Okay, a fairly boring start, but it was easy and I needed something to warm up with)

2. I scored the first in-game goal in the history of organized soccer in my hometown when I was in elementary school. At least I'm pretty sure it was. I was involved in the first youth soccer program we had. I was at/in the first game that happened and we got shutout. The second game night, there was an older team and a younger team both playing, as I recall. I was on the younger team and scored our only goal of that match, and I believe the older team was shutout again. Oddly enough, that was also the ONLY goal I ever scored in a live game at any level.

3. Probably as a result to the lack of athletic prowess my previous item hints at, I was a crazy serious Bible quizzer in junior high, high school, and even my first two years of college (after that I was too old). My church won 2 denominational championships while I quizzed, and I was the top scorer at the denominational finals each of my last 3 years. The BIC isn't exactly a large denomination, so it isn't THAT impressive, but it was something that defined a good portion of my teen years.

4. I have only fractured one bone in my body (well, at least that I know about, there may have been a finger or toe that I didn't go to the doctor for and thus don't really know about), and that was my nose, and it occurred at... high school marching band practice. My first one ever, to be precise, the summer before my sophomore year. A couple of us were goofing around during the break. I made a joke about one of the guys, another guy thought I was talking about him and put me in a sleeper hold. Those things actually work in real life, and not just on pro wrestling! Unfortunately he didn't REALIZE his sleeper hold had been successful, and he let go, allowing me to fall face first onto the floor. The first thing I remember was pushing myself off the floor, seeing blood drip out of my nose, and hearing someone else say "Hey kid, you're bleeding!" Thanks, fella. But, diehard that I was, I got the bleeding stopped during the break and finished the practice, allowing my mom to freak out when she came to pick me up. My oblivious band director didn't even really know what had happened until my Dad called him the next day.

5. I was a two time National Geographic "Geography Bee" champion at my school, once of the elementary school in 5th grade, and once of the junior high in 8th. You're probably getting the picture now: I was, and probably still am, a total geek. (I too, like Jeff, was on the math team)

6. I have a wide variety of sports memorabilia from my various favorite pro and college sports teams, but my most prized piece of memorabilia is the bracket I filled in for the D-III men's soccer tournament in 2000, the first year Messiah won it all, which I was able to get signed by the entire team. 4 (and hopefully 5 after this weekend) more titles later, there's still nothing that tops that first one.

7. If I had to subsist for the rest of my life with only one kind of junk food available to me, it would the blueberry cake donut from Dunkin Donuts.

8. I have holiday candles sitting in the middle of my dining room table. Why is this noteworthy you ask? Because I haven't done any holiday decorating yet, and they are still sitting there from last year.

Okay, I'm done, and I still haven't decided whether I'm going to tag anyone or not. You can't just make such decisions rashly, you must mull them over, sleep on them, and such.

In the meantime, if anyone is really dying to be tagged, you can let me know.

Another Thanksgiving in the books

Upon reflection, Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday of the year. There are a number of reasons, which I shall endeavor to list.

#1. The food. I know everyone eats big at Thanksgiving, but I find it hard to believe that many people do better than we do annually at the Benedict family Thanksgiving. We have all the traditional things for dinner, and then transition into dessert, with the choices usually including at least 4 different kinds of pie (black raspberry being the choice of this writer), a ridiculous coconut cake, and perhaps another dish or two.

#2. Family. I love getting to spend time with my immediate family, and I'm also a big fan of the most of my extended family that I run into over Thanksgiving. I don't even sort of dread the holiday family gatherings like you hear about from some people. Thanksgiving also has the advantage over Christmas in this area, in that I don't have to dent my wallet buying gifts for them, not that I mind such things :-) I also live only an hour away from my Thanksgiving destination, so I don't have to bother with the headaches of long trips.

#3. Extra long weekend. Now that I work at the state, Thanksgiving means a mandated 4 day weekend, as the day after Thanksgiving is an official state holiday. We don't even get an extra day at Christmas, no matter where it falls (well, we haven't yet). Thanksgiving also has a distinct advantage over other holiday type weekends, in that the holiday occurs at the beginning of the long weekend rather than the end. So, rather than having the big gatherings on the last day before returning to work, and losing some of the effect of the long weekend, my typical Thanksgiving involves a very busy and hectic, but fun Thursday, and then 3 days to recover by relaxing with the family and watching the various sporting events that come with the weekend.

#4. The food. Wait, did I already mention that?

So yeah, Thanksgiving rules. This year, however, was an exception to some of the norms I laid out in #3. It was, in fact, busy from the get go, and I had to crash on Sunday evening to recover prior to heading back to work.

The highlights:
Wednesday night: Got home from work, handled some errands, and then packed myself and Chaser (this is something of an ordeal) up to head home to the parents' house for the weekend.

Thursday: We left at around 11, stopped off and spent some time with Mom's side of the family before they had their dinner, and then headed on to my grandpa's house for Thanksgiving dinner with my dad's family. This is usually a massive production, but even more so this year. My Dad is from a family of 8 children, but only 4 of them are typically in the area for a Thanksgiving. However, this year, my uncles from California and New York were in with their family, as was my aunt from Montana, so the gathering was a bit larger and a bit more exciting. Lots of eating and talking, home at a relatively reasonable hour.

Friday: Got up and hung out with Mom for most of the day while Dad worked. Since so much of the family was in, we headed back to the farm in the evening for dinner - shrimp, oysters (not for me) and steak, along with all the leftover pies and cake from Thanksgiving, and a new addition, an incredible raspberry cheesecake. This particular extravaganza didn't break up until about 10 pm.

Saturday: Got up and ran some errands with the folks before getting ready to head to Harrisburg for my cousin's wedding in the afternoon. Nice wedding, more time with family (this time mom's side) at the reception, all very fun, but also very draining. Headed home around 9, in bed around 11.

Sunday: Church in the morning with the folks, as well as my sister and brother-in-law who were in New York with his family over Thanksgiving (he was also taking care of my uncle's farm so they could come down here). Lunch afterwards. Quick nap back at the folks' house before once again packing myself and Chaser up and journeying home. Arrive at about 4, unpack, crash.

So, there you have it, the dime tour of my Thanksgiving weekend. All in all, it was a blast, it just wasn't my typical Thanksgiving. I hope everyone else had a great holiday!

A different perspective on the snow

So, as you all saw, I ranted about the early snow on Friday.

Just a few minutes ago, I got conclusive proof that there are always two sides to these sorts of thing. I believe in my past posts I've mentioned my Thai friend Silk. As a quick refresher, Silk is a native Thai who became a Christian back as a teenager while the first wave of BIC workers were in Thailand, in the Bangkok area. As a natural connection upon their arrival, she became very close with my friends who are serving there now, and is actually in the process of formally joining their team. As part of that process, she is in school for a year here in the States, at the Global Awakening school in nearby Mechanicsburg.

It doesn't snow in Thailand, and though Silk had been to the US on two previous occasions, both times were in Florida. So, though I didn't think of it at the time, last Friday was her first time to see snow (actually she saw some on Thursday too, but it didn't REALLY snow until Friday). She just sent out an update to friends and supporters, and man, was she excited. Lots of exclamation points. Let's just say she was probably the polar opposite of my attitude.

It's just really interesting to think about that, and how your own experiences completely color the prespective from which you see the world, such that the exact same event is perceived and reacted to in completely different ways depending on the person. For me, the snow was a source of complete frustration, for Silk, a source of complete joy. The reality of how everyone views the world through a very different lens is one I've been very aware of for a long time, but tonight it just stepped up and slapped me in the face. It's something to think about, whenever you see someone overreacting to something, or doing something that seems irrational to you. There's a good chance (I mean, a really good chance) that they have some experience from their life that is coloring that event, one that you don't share, and therefore don't understand. Whether we see it or perceive it, or even understand it, there's always a reason why we do what we do and feel how we feel.

So, I guess, retrospectively, I can be glad for the snow and glad for the joy that it brought my friend. However, Silk did mention in her e-mail that she's praying for a LOT of snow. We may have to have a chat about that one next time I see her...

Remind me again... why is global warming a bad thing?

In order to set the mood for those of you who do not not live where I live, here is the view from out my back door:

For further reference, I live outside of Harrisburg, PA, and it's November 21st. This should not be the current view from outside my back door. In this part of the world, at least in my lifetime, we rarely seriously have a good look at a white Christmas, let alone a white Thanksgiving (I think it's going to get just warm enough in a few days that we will avoid that fate, but still). It's like we almost completely skipped fall this year. It stayed warm for a while, then got unseasonably cold for a bit, then was unseasonably warm for a long stretch, and now we're getting full on winter weather in November. Boo.

And this had to have the most annoying way to get an inch or so of snow in history. It was snowing quite hard this morning when I drove to get the bus, it was snowing quite hard (and the wind was blowing pretty hard as well, from the direction I was watching for the bus in) while I was waiting for the bus and while I rode the bus back to my car and then drove home, while almost no snow fell while I was at work, and it quit shortly after I got home. That's like the exact opposite of how I want snow storms to operate!

Oh, well. You win this round, nature.

Read the sign!

There's a good chance I've already ranted about tonight's subject in the past, but I'm too lazy to try and find out for sure, and even if I have, it's worth mentioning again. So here I go.

Anyhow, I was at Wal-Mart tonight. Now, I know that I've ranted about various ridiculous human behavior that I've witnessed at Wal-Mart and other stores like it in the past, so a trip to Wal-Mart is always quite likely to yield blog material. And tonight's trip did not disappoint, because I suffered through what might be my single biggest pet peeve. I'm serious. Those who know me know that I'm fairly mild mannered. I might get short or terse, or give someone attitude, but it's very rare that I get upset enough to yell, and I really can't recall ever going off on someone in public. However, were I ever to get crazy fired up and go off on a random stranger, I would almost GUARANTEE it would be because of this one thing: someone going into an express checkout with dramatically more items than you're supposed to have!

It happened again tonight. This guy had raided the toiletries section and had two levels of a mini-cart lined with soap, shampoo, travel size stuff, etc, and he was scooping it up to the register, and the cashier was ringing it up, like nothing was wrong. That, I might add, is what makes this situation particularly frustrating, because there are two people involved, and I can never figure out who I should really be mad at - the person who saunters up to the register blatantly ignoring the rules, or the cashier who refuses to tell said person to go pound sand (or, if they insist on being polite, telling them to go to a different aisle).

Let me be clear, I'm not the item Nazi here. I personally count to make sure I'm under the limit if I'm not sure, but if you're a couple items over, that's not really a problem. Most of these express lanes say "About X items or less", so they give you some wiggle room. There was no way this guy thought he only had 20 items, and no way the cashier thought that either. I think tonight I was more upset at the cashier for not simply saying: "Excuse me sir, this is the express lane". It's a more serious problem at Wal-Mart than some places, because their express checkouts are designed for that sole purpose. They don't have the conveyor, so when someone has a ton of items, it takes extra long.

This behavior has become more widespread in recent years, at least to my eyes. I would like to simply pass it off on the ever increasing self-centeredness of our society, and I'm sure that's part of it, but I see another culprit as well - the mini-carts. It pains me to say this, because I love the mini-cart, but I think people seem to have this belief, conscious or unconscious, that if they are using the small cart, they can use the express lane, no matter how many items they've crammed into the thing. It seems to me that the most outrageous violaters are always mini-cart users these days, which is a change from when I used to see the typical express lane violaters as those who had stuffed a bunch of small items into a basket.

So, please, if you're a violater, think about what you're doing next time, and obey the rules. And if you're a cashier, have the fortitude to enforce the rules. You'll both contribute to make the world a better place. Well, at least a better place for me, anyhow.

Does this stuff happen to you?

So, I was thinking on the way home today that it had been a while since I had blogged, and that I should probably write an entry tonight, but that I didn't really have anything to blog about. Well, upon arriving home, I had something to blog about, and I think I would rather have thrown something together out of nothing.

Anyhow, here's the story. I live in a townhome development. Like many developments of our kind, we don't have individual mailboxes at our homes, but rather a neighborhood mail station where we all have our own mail slots. This presumably is to save time and walking for the mailman. The mailboxes are on the other side of the development, and it's not a long walk, but it is a walk. My usual routine is to drive up there after I come home from work. However, since I don't work on Saturdays, that doesn't work out. So typically, if I don't end up going out and coming back after the normal time for the mail to come, I'll just let the that mail set until Monday, unless I'm expecting something, in which case I'll make a special trip up. I don't really get time sensative mail, so it's not a problem. This past Saturday was one of those days. I actually did go out after the mail would have been gone, but it was to the grocery store, so I came right to the house.

So this afternoon when I come home, I pulled out the mail and found a letter from the property management company that handles the finances for our homeowners' association. Without even opening it, I knew immediately what it was. I had forgotten to send in my association dues for the month. (To be fair, I didn't totally forget, when I went to pay it a couple weeks ago, I couldn't find my coupon book, and I just never got back around to it) Not a big deal, really, just ten dollar late fee. Here, however, is the problem. The 10 dollar fee is if they don't get the fee on or before the 11th. If they don't get the fee on or before the 19th, there's an additional 50 dollar fee. Now that stings. Astute observers will note that today is, in fact, the 17th. And, the mail had already gone for today, which meant that if I put the check in the mail now, the best case scenario was that they would get the check on the 19th, which is the last possible day. Rather than risking the slightest of delays, and being forced to call the homeowner's association and beg for mercy, I raced around to get the check ready and then took off to the post office to get it out with today's mail. That seems to have gone off without a hitch, so hopefully this is all resolved.

This is probably the first time in several weeks that I've left the mail sit on a Saturday, and wouldn't you know that it's that one time when I get something that's actually very time sensative. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. I have no idea by whom, or to what end, but it's definitely a conspiracy.

PS - After going to the post office I ran over to the grocery store to pick up an item or two I had forgotten on Saturday night, and on the way home I nearly got into 2 seperate accidents, one of which would have been totally my fault, the other, not so much. I think I'm just going to start being thankful when things are so uneventful that I have nothing to blog about :)

A day long awaited...

If you've been to or seen pictures of my basement, you know that the walls are adorned with various memorabilia of the various sports teams I root for, from my favorite pro teams, to my favorite major college teams, to the local minor league baseball team, to my alma mater, Messiah College. Well, there's a space that was purposely (and somewhat conspicuously) left empty for quite awhile, and after I got my mail today, I was finally able to fill it in, exactly how I had hoped to:

That's right, amongst my various pictures, pennants, and the banner commemorating the only team (aside from Messiah College soccer) that I cheer for that can be deemed as perennially successful (Duke basketball), there now hangs a Philadelphia Phillies World Series Championship banner.


It's likely that I would have at least posted the picture under any circumstances, but there's a somewhat bizarre piece of this story which mandated the post. I mentioned at the beginning that the space the banner currently occupies was intentionally left empty, and it was, for the purpose of being eventually occupied by a banner for the next Philly team to win a title. You'll notice, however, just how perfectly the banner fits the space (excluding the wrinkled part on the left side that needs to fall out), and that is the truly interesting part. I bought the Duke banner and hung it where it is now very shortly after I moved in, so probably about 3 years ago now. The top picture to the right of the banner is a commemorative picture of Lincoln Financial Field that my Dad got me a while back (not sure how long ago, probably in the vicinity of 2 years, however) When I put that picture up where it is, I determined (based on looking at the Duke banner, that the remaining space was probably about right for another banner, so I resolved to leave it clear for such a purpose, which is why the bottom picture, which is a team picture honoring the Phillies 2007 NL East championship, is lined up directly below it. So, I never actually measured the space or looked at any banners, until after the Phillies won.

When I was shopping online, the first (and only) banner I looked at was listed at 27 inches wide, so I measured the space. 27 inches, exactly. Weird, huh? I know it's just a bizarre coincidence, but I find it amusing anyhow. And yes, I'm fully aware that there's space to the left of the Duke banner, you'll just have to trust me that I didn't move the thing for the sake of this story :)

Getting ready for "Country's biggest night"

If you've watched anything on ABC over the last several weeks, you know what the title refers to. Well, perhaps that's not accurate. If you've watched ABC at all, you've heard about that to which the title refers, whether it ever registered with you or not is a seperate matter.

Tonight is the Country Music Association (CMA) awards, and they'll be broadcast on ABC from 8 to 11. Get those DVRs ready, baby! Okay, so I know a decent chunk of my readership doesn't share my passion for country music, but I absolutely love the CMAs. I really don't care that much about who actually wins the awards, but no one puts on a better award show than the country folks, that is if you like actual performances as opposed to tons of random fluff and filler. The acts that perform on CMA night are ALWAYS a veritable "who's who" of the current country crop, and this year is no different. Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Keith Urban (meh, but he's at the top of country right now), Sugarland, Taylor Swift, and of course, Carrie Underwood, who is also sharing hosting duties (in HD, at least in my house. Sweet, glorious Carrie Underwood...), among others. The one notable exception in terms of the current super-hot acts is Rascal Flatts, and I'm pretty much okay with their absence. These are all great singers and great performers, and I expect nothing less than an incredible show this time around as well.

So, I'll be glued to my TV later tonight. And, I'd encourage any of you who sit firmly in the "I hate country" camp, but who haven't actually really listened to any country in years to take a quick pit stop while channel surfing. You might be surprised. Did I mention that Carrie Underwood will be live in HD? Because she will.

I'm still not going green...

Or am I? Not really, but I am trying to save energy due to it's benefits to me!

Lost among last week's shuffle was the fact that I got what was my lowest electric bill in at least the last 2 years (the electronic records only go back that far) According to the bill, my usage was down by more than 10% over my previous low month in the last 2 years, and more than 25% over every other month.

There are a few reasons for this, one of which has little to do with any efforts on my part. My current roommate is easily the one who spends the least time here amongst the roommates I've had, and thus uses the least energy. I'm not sure how big of a difference that is making, because he still does the major energy consuming activities here, he just doesn't watch TV, have the lights on in his room, etc. as often.

But the fact is that I have been making efforts to conserve energy along with that. Back this summer, when I actually had two roommates, my electric bills were way down from the prior summer because I kept the thermostat a degree or two higher. This winter, I'm shooting for reduced gas bills by keeping the thermostat 2 degrees lower than last winter - we'll see how that one goes, I started out at 3 degrees lower and quickly surrendered :)

October is a pretty neutral month, however, not much heating or cooling, so the big difference had to be my latest adjustment, and the reason I'm bothering to mention this at all. About 6 weeks or so ago, I broke down and replaced all the bulbs in my house that I could stand to with compact flourescents. I had always been hesitant to do this because I didn't like the light that those things put off back when I first encountered them, but they are much better now. I was kind of uncertain how much of a difference they would make because I didn't have a really good grasp on how much electricity I actually used for lighting, but now it's pretty clear.

I also like the compact flourescents, because in a couple places, they allowed me to get some extra light out of a fixture where I had wanted more light, but the fixture wasn't rated for the heat that higher watt incandescents would put out. They also appeal to my lazy side - it should be years before I have to replace any of these bulbs again, which is awesome!

So, yes, I ride the bus to work, and yes, I have a house that uses noticibly less electricity than the average similar house (that's according to the electric companies online tools), but am I really going green? I'll leave that up to someone else to decide. And if I am, I guess I'm going to have to be okay with it.

I "threw my vote away", and I feel fine.

I know it's almost a week after the election, but last week's hectic schedule left me little time for blogging, and I didn't want to let this go.

I've detailed on this blog over the last weeks and months my status as a registered Libertarian, and my reasons for being such. However, as of last Tuesday night, I went from a registered Libertarian to a voting Libertarian, and I'm pumped about it. That's right, critics, I went "all idealistic" and "threw my vote away" by voting for someone who had no chance to win the election, and I ENJOYED it :-)

You know, I'm not about to spend a lot of time convincing someone to think Libertarian. I think most people either resonate with that set of political ideals from the get go, or they don't, and I've already given the reasons why I do on this blog in detail. What I will spend some time discussing is what is, in my opinion, the fallacy that you have to vote for either the Republican or the Democrat in a big election for your vote to count.

I personally contend that there are only 2 ways to "throw your vote away", and neither of them involve voting for a non-viable 3rd party. The first one is obvious, and that is simply to not vote. The 2nd one is less obvious, and that is to vote for someone you don't really want to be President. I personally feel like I have thrown my vote away in one of the 3 Presidential elections I've voted in, but it wasn't this time, it was in 2004. I voted for George W. Bush fairly enthusiastically in 2000, but by the time 2004 rolled around, I was no longer impressed. I was (and remain) convinced he was better choice than John Kerry back then, so I voted for him again, and have spent the last 4 years watching the guy I voted for frustrate me again and again. To quote a rather important person in my life, I was "disappointed, but not surprised." I got pretty much what I expected from President Bush, because it was pretty much what we got in the first 4 years. Anyone who voted for the President in 2004 expecting something significantly different from what we got might want to direct themselves to Einstein's definition of insanity. About 2 years ago, shortly before the 2006 mid-term elections, I told myself I wasn't going to do that again - if neither of the 2 major parties gave me a candidate I could expect much better from, I was going to find a better choice - even if that meant that in some way, I was "helping" to elect a candidate who fell even further from my ideals.

As all of the candidates I could really resonate with (there were maybe 2 or 3) fell to the wayside in the primaries, I knew I was going to have a decision to make. I gave Sen. McCain a good long look, and determined that if I voted for him and if he won, I would be setting myself up for another 4 years of "Yeah, that's terrible, but what can I say, I voted for the guy". The weight of that particular decision was made less when the fallout from the economic upheaval made it clear that Sen. McCain was going to lose regardless of whether I voted or him or not, but I'm pretty sure the decision was made before then.

So, I did it, I "threw my vote away" (as, by that sort of definition, did a number of McCain and Obama supporters in various solid red and blue states, if the definition of throwing your vote away is voting for someone who has no chance to win, since the national Presidential election actually is nothing more than 50 state elections plus one in DC), and I'm cool with it. My true voice was registered in the election this year in a way that it wasn't 4 years ago, and I'm pleased by that fact. Here's me hoping that more people begin to join me in voting their true feelings (wherever they might fall on the political spectrum) and as a result we might begin to move toward real change.

(Note: This will be my last post related this election, for those who were worried. My views on rescuing the health care system in this country can wait until President-elect Obama becomes President Obama and starts pushing his fixes through, at which time they will be much more topical)

Weekly recap

Well, it was a fairly eventful week for me. Here are the highlights:

Tuesday: My friends Lynn and Amy, who have been serving in Thailand, returned back to the States. Lynn continues his battle with ALS, and it has progressed to the point where they need to be back here. Right after work, I raced to vote and change before joining a group to meet them at the Harrisburg airport. It was a very tough experience, because as much as I was glad to see them, the fact that they were having to come home, coupled with seeing how much more Lynn's condition had worsened in the 4 1/2 months since I was in Thailand was very discouraging. I still have faith that Lynn will be healed, and have not wavered in that, but it hurt a lot to see him as he was.

Wednesday: Despite the fact that Sen. Obama won the election, the sun came up, which I believe was a surprise to some people I know, at least listening to the way they were talking prior to the election. (There were others I know who gave you the same impression about a potential McCain election.) I tried to catch the earlier bus home from work, and it either came insanely early or didn't come at all. Chaser had a vet appointment in the evening, and for those who have met Chaser, that is everything you can imagine, and perhaps more. He's not bad or aggressive, he just rarely stops spinning like a top. The vets are always really good about dealing with him, but I got a new one who really enjoyed Chaser, was as patient as you can be, and even gave me some tips on handling him in general. His summary report on Chaser: "He's young and healthy". Heh, yeah.

Thursday: Not a particularly eventful day overall, but I did have a meeting here at the house that took up the evening pretty well.

Friday: We had a prayer meeting for Lynn at my old church back home in the evening. I took advantage of the opportunity to come early and see the folks, and also get my Mom to cook for me - score! Contrary to the discouragement of Tuesday night, the prayer time was an incredibly encouraging time, even though nothing changed from a physical perspective. Afterwards, Lynn and I spent some quality time chatting about and revelling in the Phillies' World Series victory. I don't know if I mentioned it on here or not, but Lynn is a huge Phillies family (his entire family is, tracing back to his paternal grandmother, of all people) and early in the playoff run he had sent an e-mail out to pretty much everyone in his address book that he knew to be a Phillies fan, which led to a running e-mail dialouge throughout the playoffs. He's got a brother in Florida, a cousin in Russia, he's in Thailand, etc, so it was a really cool to be sharing in the fun with folks around the world.

Saturday: I pretty much got a break in the schedule. I had a breakfast meeting, after which I picked up a small bookshelf at Wal-Mart and assembled it as a more permanent stand for my HD antenna, and so I could set my living room back in order from all of that. Then, after some football, I went out bought the new James Bond game for the Wii, and then watched more football.

It's almost over!

That's right, tomorrow is election day! The long, winding road is finally over with, and I can stop being bombarded with radio ads every break during the day, and stop having to run from various TV commercials. I can't tell you how bitter I am that, due to my DVR's automatically starting to record a minute before the scheduled time of a program, my recording of the Phillies' glorious World Series clinching Game 5.5 victory will forever have a minute of Obama's message to the nation on the beginning of it. (And I feel the same way had it been McCain, no politics with my happy World Series moment, thank you)

Other than the radio ads, I'd been able to keep myself relatively insulated from the maddness, until last week, when the one other place I couldn't really defend began to be bombarded - the mailbox. It's been insane. Multiple print ads everyday, on the national races, local races, etc. Last Thursday, I got 4 different ads for the same state house race on the same day. There was one from each of the candidates, and then two from other groups supporting one of the candidates. Craziness. Not to mention I've gotten 3 variations of the exact same Obama piece stuck into my door in the last month, and then there's the near daily flyers from Republican entities on various levels telling me about the evil Democrats who want to destroy me, or something like that...

I partially blame myself for this, because I believe that, at least on some level, this is a result of my change in party affilitation. When I was a registered Republican, I typically seemed to only get the standard Republican get out the vote materials, and the Democrats left me alone. Now, as a Libertarian, the Democrats apparently think I'm fair game (silly them), and the Republicans are going full out on me (ironically, doing a great job of affirming my decision to end my association with them in the process). Enough already.

Oh, and a quick note to the Republicans - that whole "fear the other guy" tactic only works when you can sell the status quo as a good thing. In case you haven't noticed, that's a REALLY hard sell right now. I personally think Sen. McCain would make a better president than Sen. Obama (though at this point I don't plan on voting for either), but he's been a terrible candidate for president, and in general, I've found the Republican efforts to be pathetic. Whether you agree with Sen. Obama or not, he at least has a vision and he's selling it. McCain and the Republicans as a whole have largely been selling fear of the Democrats, rather than anything positive about themselves. Not that they don't have a valid point or two in those arguments, but I don't like that tactic in general, and it's totally ineffective in the current environment.

Still Phils Good!

Well, as Amanda deftly inferred from my previous post (and most people probably knew anyhow), the Philadelphia Phillies are the 2008 World Series champions, and I am loving it!

That's right, 28 years without a baseball championship, and 25 years (and 100 sports seasons) without a pro sports championship of any kind came to a stunning halt last night, with the Phillies' 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, in the longest World Series game ever - started on Monday night, finished last night after being suspended for almost 2 full days due to the whether.

More importantly, however, is that my favorite of favorite teams gets its first title that I can actually remember (I was 6 months old the only other time the Phillies won the title, that just doesn't count).

I'm putting together a more sportswriter-ish entry that should be up on Peanut Vendors later tonight or tomorrow, but over here I'm just going to lay out some personal reflections.

I'm not sure why I'm a Phillies fan, particularly. Unlike some of my good friends, I don't come from a long line of Phillies fans. In fact, I'm essentially first generation here. My Dad was always a big fan of sports, but not so much connected to any particular team. He (and my Mom) are now Phillies fans because I am, not the other way around. I don't even really know when it started per say. I know that my first real baseball cards were a 1987 Topps Phillies team set, and I also believe that '87 was when I saw my first Phillies game. I just never remember being aware of major league baseball and not being a Phillies fan. I can tell you one thing: I didn't become a Phillies fan because they were good. Despite their great success VERY early in my life, by the time I became aware of them, they were mediocre, on their way to really bad. In that 1987 season, they went 80-82, which was the best they would do in my first 6 seasons as a fan. Then, there was the glorious season of 1993, the last time the Phillies went to the World Series before this season. As much fun as that season was, it ultimately ended in heartache, when "Wild Thing" Mitch WIlliams first blew a massive lead in Game 4 of the series, and then gave up the famed World Series ending home run to Joe Carter in Game 6. After '93, it was back to business as usual, as they went through another 7 straight seasons of losing more games than they lost.

In 2001, the variety of heartache and frustration changed. They went from not good at all, to pretty good, but not quite good enough. I think that's actually more frustrating over an extended period of time. They had winning seasons in 5 of 6 years, typically finishing just a couple games out of the playoffs. Until last year, and the glory of their comeback to win the division over the NY Mets, which was followed by getting swept by the Rockies.

I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. It's one thing to be a Phillies fan, but for them to be my favorite of favorites? Oh well. I will tell you something though, it all paid off last night. I have nothing against fans of perennially successful teams. (Okay, so that might be a half-truth...) However, I will say I don't think it's possible for, say a Yankees fan, to get the level of joy from a championship that I experienced along with so many Philadelphia fans last night, or that Boston fans experienced in 2004, or that Cubs fans will experience if they manage to win one before the end of time... Repeated success is not a bad thing, but I think it becomes really easy to take it for granted.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take winning over losing any day. But in this moment, at this time, the losing and disappointments along the way, they all serve to make the final victory that much sweeter.

It was worth the wait...

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all for tonight. I'll try to elaborate tomorrow!

Waiting is the hardest part...

So, it would appear that I chose to commemorate the one year anniversary of the re-launch of this blog with the longest posting drought in it's history. That's just how I roll.

Really, however, I blame the World Series. For most of the last week, I've either been getting ready for, watching, or napping to recover from watching late the night before, the Series. If the weather hadn't intervened, there would be a fair chance that it would be done right now. However, if you're paying attention, you know that Monday night's Game 5 was suspended due to rain, and is just set to resume tonight, in the bottom of the 6th, with the game tied 2-2, and the Phillies holding a 3-1 Series lead. So, assuming that there are no extra innings, the Phillies are either 3.5 innings away from their 2nd World Championship, or 3.5 innings away from a plane ride to Tampa for Game 6 tomorrow night.

I gotta say, I thought the individual tension of the games would be the worst thing ever, in terms of sports fandom, but it hasn't been so much. This wait, however, has been absolutely killer. The series has just been sitting in limbo for almost 48 hours. I can't wait for it to get started, so that the Phillies can either get this done, or at the very least, move on to their second chance to clinch in Game 6. I don't know that I've ever experienced anything quite like this. I suppose the closest equivalent situation in recent World Series history would have been the 11 day delay in the '89 Series between Oakland and San Francisco, which was caused by a major earthquake in the Bay Area just as Game 3 was about to start. That, however, had a couple things that I'm sure made it much different for the fans of those teams. First of all, Game 3 was not a deciding game, and hadn't started. And secondly, a major earthquake in your area does things to take your mind of off sports that a little bit of wind, rain, and cold just doesn't.

So, hopefully this game will get played tonight, and hopefully the Phillies will win and the Series will end. Regardless, I think the return of truly regular blogging on this site may have to wait until the Series comes to a conclusion. Hopefully, that won't be long at all.

Has it been a year already?

In fact, it has. On this day (not this date) last year, this blog was launched. Okay, well, I guess technically it was re-launched, but can you really consider 4 posts in 2 years from the first go-round an actual launch?

Well, regardless of whether this is in fact a launch or a re-launch, the simple fact is that this time has been much more successful than the last, whatever it was. This is post 241, meaning that I posted 240 times in the last year. This represents roughly a 12000 percent increase in my blogging productivity over the prior 2 years.

It occurred to me that it had been a year over the weekend, because it was Homecoming Weekend at Messiah, and I starting posting again after last year's Homecoming, and my 5 year reunion. Oddly enough, this year's Homecoming was the first since my freshman year in 1998 that I did not set foot on the Messiah campus. Not even for the soccer game! I'll give some of you a moment to recover from that particular shock, and then I'll tell you that I have, in fact, not been to a Messiah soccer game yet this year. Are you back up off the floor yet? It's not intentional, it's just worked out that way. I expect that will change before the season ends. Really, my attendance has been gradually slipping since I moved to this house and went from being roughly 5 minutes away from campus, to more like 20. It's more of an effort to go, and since my level of personal connection to the team has been naturally slipping the further I get from my college days, it's just the way things progress.

Anyhow, at the one year anniversary of the blog, I've been reflecting a bit. Shaking the cobwebs off the blog was part of an overall plan to make more productive use of my time. At the centerpiece of that plan was a dramatic cutback in the amount of TV I was watching, with a commitment not to turn the TV on until at least 8 pm on weeknights. The extra time was to be spent reading, blogging, and doing other more productive things. I've tried cutting back on TV before and failed miserably, but a year later, I'm still feeling pretty good. Other than the implied exceptions for things like the NCAA basketball tournament, the Olympics, and Phillies playoff games, I've kept that commitment very well. It seems somewhat ironic that I'm writing about this days after I finally gave in and bought an HDTV (The Phillies are in the World Series, that doesn't happen every day.), but at the same time, it felt good being able to make that purchase knowing I wouldn't be going back to allowing TV to completely dominate my time.

As you've probably noticed, there has been a recent drop-off in my blogging frequency, and my reading is down too. There's a number of factors at play there - a stretch of rather irregular schedules, my initial "honeymoon" period with the Wii, the Phillies playoff run, and a spell of apathy being chief among them. However, I've got a new book pulled out and ready to go, my schedule should return to normal shortly after the World Series, and I anticipate things getting closer to the old norm in the weeks to come.

My continued gratitude to those of you who think it worth your time to come by and read what I have to say on a regular basis! I look forward to what will happen in the next year.

I should be sleeping...

After years of no playoffs, and then one year with a ridiculously quick playoff exit, my beloved Philadelphia Phillies are making a deep playoff run this year, and stand one victory away from their first World Series apperance since 1993. My head and my heart are loving this, and going absolutely nuts right now.

The rest of my body, however, is not so thrilled. The playoffs are not an easy time of year to be an East Coast baseball fan. You see, during the regular season, baseball games typically start at no later than 7:30 pm in the time zone that they are being played. And, due to the way the schedule is set up, eastern teams like the Phillies play about 90% of their games in the Eastern and Central time zones, which means you'll very rarely see a game start much later than 8. And on those rare West Coast swings, none of which occur in the last month of the season, the reality is that each game is only one out of 162, so it's pretty easy to go to bed before or shortly after the 10/10:30 pm EST start time. Couple that with the fact that a regular season 9 inning baseball game typically runs not much more than 3-3 1/4 hours, and it's not at all difficult or physically demanding to be a fan during the regular season.

The playoffs, however, are a different animal. And even in the division series, the Phillies managed to dodge some of this, because there's was not perceived as having the national draw of some of the other series, and thus they were relegated to afternoon/early evening start times. Now that we've hit the NLCS, however, they've got the primetime games. And at this stage of the game, there's a clear national following, and thus the typical 7-7:30 EST start times go out the window in favor of 8:30, which allows the West Coasters a chance to get home (or to the stadium) from work prior to the first pitch. When you couple that with the fact that, due to extended TV intrusions, more micromanaging of the pitching staffs, and a more generally deliberate pace of the game, postseason games tend to last at least a half hour or more longer than their regular season counterparts, it can be a real beast to be both a fan and a productive member of the American workforce.

Take last night, for example. The game started at 8:22. I relocated my viewing location from my basement to my bed at around 9:30. At around 10:30 (about the 6th inning), I became frustrated and turned the game off, thinking I would just go to sleep at this point. But the fan in me took over shortly thereafter, and I followed the game through to its exciting Phillies victory, which occurred after midnight. At that point, all jacked up from the outcome of the game, I exchanged some internet correspondence with some friends of mine whom I knew were in the same condition, and then I finally turned in for maybe 5 hours of sleep prior to the sounding of my alarm. Fortunately I have a conveniently located soda machine at work!

If the Phillies are to win this series, I really need them to do so by winning tomorrow night's game, so I have plenty of time to rest up for the World Series!

When is insurance NOT insurance?

The answer: when Senator Obama is calling the shots.

I think you're all aware that, despite my recent saga in which I explored my political leanings from a big picture perspective, I have done my best to stay largely insulated from the barrage of coverage surrounding the 2008 Presidential election. There are a number of reasons for that. First of all, I already know enough of about one of the major candidates (Senator Obama) to know that I will NOT be voting for him. Secondly, media political coverage generally just makes me simultaneously angry and depressed at the state of politics in America. Thirdly, you don't really learn that much from the standard media coverage anyhow. The fact of the matter is that at some point in the next couple weeks, I will conduct my own thorough examination of Senator McCain's record and proposals and determine whether I can bring myself to vote for him or not - at the present I'm leaning toward yes. If the answer is no, I will then explore the 3rd party candidates that will be available to me, and if I can't vote for any of them, I will spend some time brainstorming the most amusing option for a write-in vote. I trust it won't get that far.

But you can only insulate yourself so much if you aren't willing to forgo all traditional forms of media for months on end. And for the last several weeks, I'd been hearing an ad for Senator Obama with a piece in it that I couldn't believe was actually intended to mean what it said. So finally, this evening, when I got home, I went to Mr. Obama's website and did some quick searching. And there, as one of the points in his health care reform platform was this statement, that his plan would: "Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums."

Since I'm posting about this, you're probably assuming that I disagree with this portion of Mr. Obama's plan. And you would be wrong. I can't disagree or agree with it, because it's complete and utter nonsense. And I don't mean nonsense as in wrong or mistaken, I mean pure gibberish. This is the political equivalent of "goo goo, ga ga".

You CAN'T insure against a pre-existing condition. It's just not logically possible. You can only insure against an event up until the point at which it actually occurs. Once it does occur, all you can do is deal with the consequences. Let's make some real simple comparisons here. This is the equivalent of signing up for a car insurance company to sign you up today and then pay for the accident you had last week. It's the same as buying flood insurance and expecting coverage for damage from the hurricane that came through a month ago. Try going to a life insurance company and taking out a policy on your grandmother who passed away yesterday. The laughter will be good for your agent. If you want milder examples that still illustrate the point, change it to getting flood insurance with the waters already rising towards your house, or getting life insurance for a death row inmate who has a death warrant signed for tomorrow. If something has either already happened, or is a certainty, you can't insure against it - period.

I'm sure you know generally how insurance works, but I'll give a quick refresher anyhow. You go to a company and ask them to agree to cover the expenses if event A happens. The insurance company then crunches the numbers based on the likelihood of event A happening, how much it would cost to cover the expenses, etc and comes back to you with a premium. They are playing the percentages that even if event A happens to you, they'll make more than enough money from those for whom event A does not occur to meet their agreements to you and continue to make a profit. That's why it's more expensive to get homeowner's insurance in a flood, hurricane, earthquake, wildfire, etc zone, because the likelihood of the dreaded event A is much higher. Insurance is all about risk, the more risk the insurance company has to assume, the more you have to pay,m and vice versa. Most people come out on the short end of this deal over time, meaning they pay more in premiums than they ever receive in benefits. This is self-evident, because if it weren't the case, the insurance industry wouldn't exist.

So, if someone with a pre-existing condition A comes and wants insurance to cover the treatment for condition A, the probability of condition A occurring, is of course 100%. So, if the company is required to cover the treatment for condition A, then they are not, in fact, insuring the person against condition A, they are becoming a middle man and providing a payment program from the treatment of condition A. Which makes their costs equal to the cost of the treatment from the provider, plus whatever administrative costs they incur. So, in order to maintain a viable business model, the company has 2 choices: #1 - They can either simply pass the cost of the treatment and their administrative costs over to the customer in the form of premiums that will cover both entirely. Of course, this makes zero sense to the consumer, because they are now paying more for the plan than it would cost them to pay for the treatment. #2 - They can subsidize the cost of paying for this treatment by increasing the premiums of clients who do not have pre-existing conditions, which means that everyone else is now paying for their insurance, plus a portion of the cost of the pre-existing condition payment plan the company has to offer.

So, like I said, I can't agree or disagree with this part of Senator Obama's health care plan, because it's not possible to insure pre-existing conditions. You can call it that all you want, but it isn't what is actually happening. Now, what you could do is require insurance companies to offer payment plans for treatment of pre-existing conditions that are subsidized by the profits from their insurance plans. That's actually possible, and accurately represents what is being required. It's also the same thing as mandating that apple orchards to start to grow oranges and sell them at less than cost using the profits from the apples, which is why no one is ever going to call it what it is, but that's beside the point (sort of). That is, however, a proposal I can agree or disagree with, and not total gibberish. Another proposal that is similar and at least possible is to require insurance companies to insure individuals for treatment of conditions which are made considerably more likely due to a given pre-existing condition. I would disagree with that as well, but again, it's at least something you could do in theory. The same is true of socialized medicine where you just have the government run/pay for everyone's health care.

So, don't be deceived - Senator Obama does not have a plan to insure pre-existing conditions, no matter how often he says it! Oh, and by the way, Senator, another piece of your proposal gives a goal of reducing health care costs for employers. Requiring insurance companies to take on guaranteed new expenses strikes me as counterproductive to that goal. To be fair, having done some corresponding research on Senator McCain's plan, I'm not totally on board with it either. I like the general direction, but I don't think it goes far enough.

In the near future, I will lay out my own solution to the health care issues in this country. Okay, it's not my own, I saw it on TV, but I really liked it! The difference between it and the plans you're going to hear from any national candidate is that it will actually attack the core of the health care problems in this country, rather than just putting a band aid over them by giving people extra money towards their insurance in one fashion or another. And the reason you'll never hear a major candidate run with it? It's not a quick fix, there will be an adjustment period that will be quite painful for a number of people, and there's no way to sugarcoat that fact. Such realities are generally not popular in today's American society, and thus promoting such a policy is not conducive to winning an election.

Back in Detroit...

Well, my trip has come full circle, and I'm sitting in the Detroit airport waiting for my flight home to Harrisburg. It's quite the contrast in experiences really. On Thursday night, I had the enthusiasm of getting my trip started and seeing my friends in front of me, coupled with the excitement of following the Phillies game as they broke out to a nice lead against the Brewers. Today, the trip is sadly behind me, and it's just a dreary Monday morning/afternoon in Detroit, no excitement there. (Though I'm very excited that the Phillies next game will be on Thursday in the NLCS!) That's the thing about trips like this - you look forward to them for months, and then its all over in 3 days.

Yesterday was a good way to spend the last full day of the trip. I joined Tim and Amanda at their church, and got to put some faces to a few names I'd "met" over on their blog. After church, it was a typical lazy Sunday afternoon of napping, following football games and fantasy teams, and following along as the Phillies clinched their NLDS with a win over the Brewers. (Okay, so the last part isn't exactly "typical", but it was freakin' AWESOME!). In the evening, I broke out the Wii, and Tim and I engaged in some tennis, and some serious Mario Kart action. Amanda has those pictures, maybe they will make it up onto their blog at some point. Although, they just got rid of me in time for another house guest, as Amanda's Dad is out for a visit, so I wouldn't put that on her right away :-) Nathan was quite the enthusiastic fan of our Wii activities.

Then it was off to bed, and up this morning for goodbyes and the ride to the airport. Nathan, in his sweet toddler way, did his best to make leaving as hard on me as possible. I've given Amanda some mock grief in the past for bragging on how adorable her son is, but it is only that, mock grief. Nathan might not be the cutest kid EVER, but he's got to be a finalist for the honor, especially since he's got such a sweet personality on top of his adorable appearance:-) Tim, Amanda, whatever you're doing, keep it up!

But, much as I would have liked to stay, I had to be on my way. The flight from South Bend definitely set a few records for me and commercial flights. It was definitely the smallest plane (exterior prop engines, and it seated 34, I believe, the very definition of a puddle-jumper), and also the shortest flight (about 40 minutes). I believe it was also the first time I've boarded a commercial plane in the US by walking out to the plane and climbing the ladder into the door, rather than through a standard tunnel gate. I could be wrong about that though, I'm having vague recollections of doing that on a flight out of Harrisburg. Then, once I got into Detroit, I got to do a couple laps of the concourse. My boarding pass said the flight was at B-15, and there wasn't anything to check right near where I got off the plane. The first place I saw to check was having issues and the board where the Harrisburg departures should have been wasn't working. When I got almost to my gate, I looked up and the only Harrisburg flight listed was for C-16, which was right next to where I had come from, so I turned around and started walking back. Then, it occurred to me that the departure time for that flight might have been much earlier than my flight, so at the next opportunity I looked at departures again, and there were 2 Harrisburg flights listed on that one, an earlier one that had been delayed (which was the C-16 flight) and my flight, which was in fact listed as B-15, so I turned around again.

So, here I sit back at B-15, with probably another 90 minutes before I can get on my last flight. While I'm sad to see my trip end, I am looking forward to getting back to my house, my dog, and my own bed. Going back to work tomorrow is another story, but I'm sure I'll survive :-)

Waking up the echoes...

Well, I certainly won't say it was the purpose for this trip, but perhaps the initial inspiration for the trip was the chance to catch a football game at Notre Dame Stadium, and that is what I did today. I dragged Tim along as well, and I think he enjoyed himself despite being neither a Notre Dame fan in general, nor a particularly big fan of American football, in general. We made the 15-20 minute walk from the Ritter house to Notre Dame. (This, by the way, is easily the best form of transportation to a major sporting event. Now I just need to go about making friends that live within walking distance of all the major venues I'd like to attend events at...) Tim was also quite helpful in knowing how to get around the campus. We didn't do a ton of touring, but the first obligatory stop was the fabled Golden Dome:

Due to our location and the timing of our arrival, we stumbled upon the assembly point from which the Notre Dame marching band, guard, cheerleaders, etc, started their trek to the stadium:

While I am a Notre Dame fan, and a serious sports fan in general, and certainly appreciate the college football history that's represented on the Notre Dame campus, I don't typically find myself getting crazy nostaglic about venues and such as it relates to sports. However, as we were heading on into the stadium, the band was also marching along, and when they launched into the Notre Dame Victory March there in the shadow of the Dome, I have to admit, I had a bit of a moment. It was really pretty awesome. And then, right outside the stadium, the band nearly ran over us. Well, not really, but somehow we had found ourselves in front of them and in their path, and the security personnel clearing the way for them yelled at us to move. Our seats were in the end zone, at the very top of the lower level. Prior to the expansion back in the mid-90s, we would have been about 1 row from the top of the stadium. Still, a very nice view, and I had another bit of a moment as the Irish came out of the tunnel through the band to the Victory March.
It was an absolutely incredible fall day for a football game. Bright, clear skies, and temperatures in the mid 60s. It felt much warmer than that inside the stadium with the sun beating down on us and thousands of people pressed around us yelling and such. Tim and I both came back with some sunburn (who thinks about packing sunscreen for a trip to Indiana in October?) There were two unused seats next to us, which was quite useful. Most of the stadium is bleacher seating, and at least in the lower level, the amount of space allowed per person on the benches was not allocated with the size of the average modern day American in mind, if you catch my drift. Tim and I were appropriately sized for these seat widths, but there were many in our row who were not. Anyhow, it was a great day for the game, and the game wound up being pretty exciting, after looking like a ND blowout, and still wound up with the favorable result.
On the way out, we got a good look at the famous "Touchdown Jesus". This mural is actually partially visible from inside the stadium, but we were sitting with our backs to it.
After the game, we made our way back to the Ritter house, eager to just have a chance to sit down again in a chair that had a back to it. So, all in all, a great experience and one I'd be very excited to repeat in the future.

That being said, Notre Dame could have lost by 50, and I still would have had my entire trip made for me today. One of Nathan's favorite phrases these days is "Amazing" followed by either Mommy or Daddy, depending on which parent he's sucking up to at the moment :) During dinner, I received an "Amazing Scott", for the absolute highlight of my day. That little train was the best money I've spent on this trip :)