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!