Behemoth Droppings

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. It is also the year of the Scout Jamboree, which happens every 4 years. When I saw this in the news, I started thinking about my Scout days, all the fun I had, and everything I learned.

Then I saw that Mr. President, Barack Obama, decided that he would not attend and speak at the Scout Jamboree (something that the past three presidents have done). Instead, he went and appeared on “The View”. After getting over my disgust at this (I could make a HUGE post about this), I started thinking about the Scout Oath. For those that don’t know, it goes:

On my honor, I will do my best:
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

I had never really thought deeply about the oath, even though I’ve quoted it a million times. The more I thought about it, the more the first line stood out to me.

On my honor, I will do my best

I promise I will do my best! That’s all it’s saying. Not to be perfect, but just do my best. I’ll do my best for my God and my country. I’ll do my best to help others whenever I can. I’ll do my best to keep myself healthy, sharp, and moral.

I think a lot of time in life we judge ourselves to perfection, and we always fall short. We need to just go out and do our best. If it’s the best we can do, then it’s enough!

I didn’t get around to posting my bracket before the tournament started, so all of the online brackets that are easy to fill out and post had the winners already listed. So to get my bracket up, I had to save a PDF file as a JPEG and edit the picture. Sorry if it doesn’t look that great. As in years past, after the first day it’s already a mess. Go Big Blue!!!

Well this is, yet another, long overdue post. So in a nutshell, here’s what’s been going on:

I finally was able to get to play basketball in our church league. There always seemed to be something that kept me from playing. This is the first time I’ve really played basketball since college. Yeah, beside being out of shape I was also out of practice. It was almost embarrassing how bad I was playing. Luckily, it’s coming back to me pretty quickly.

Since I’m on basketball, I guess it would be worth noting that I got to meet John Calipari this past week. We had a big event for the Fine Arts Fund, and Coach Cal stopped by, gave a quick speech, and signed autographs. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera and the cell phone didn’t take a good picture. But at least I got an autographed picture from him!!!

That was a pretty eventful day. Before going downtown to meet Coach Cal, I donated blood at work for our Hoxworth blood drive. This was the first time I had ever donated blood. I was told back in high school that I couldn’t donate because of my diabetes. That turned out to be completely false. A diabetic can’t give blood if they have ever used bovine insulin, for fear of Mad Cow disease! Luckily, by the time I was diagnosed they only used insulin synthesized from human insulin.

Being a diabetic, I’ve never had a problem with needles or blood, so I didn’t expect any problems. Was I wrong!! I was fine after they hooked me up and started drawing the blood. After about 5 minutes, I started getting light-headed and the tunnel vision started setting in. They reclined me, and threw some cold wraps over my head and kneck. As quickly as it started, it went away and I was fine. I’m assuming it was the rate I was losing blood, as I filled my bag a lot quicker than people who started before me. Despite the little episode, it was a good experience and I’ll probably give again.

Well, that’s enough for now. Hopefully I’ll get some more posts up in the near future. Oh, and for the few people that come to my site, and the fewer that have smartphones…I have installed a mobile theme making it much easier to visit my site from a phone (sorry, mobile device)!!

This year is going to be a busy year!
This year is going to be a stressful year!!
This year is going to be a great year!!!

Remember I said that, especially the second one. What a year 2010 is shaping up to be. It started with Leslie’s car. We knew it wouldn’t be long before she needed a new one, but we didn’t think it would happen now. I had to get the front differential on her car replaced last year. Less than a year later, the 4wd went out again. I took it in and had it fixed (the part was under warranty), and the very next day after we got the car back it broke again. Turns out her Tracker had “design flaws”, and to fix it a lot more than the differential had to be replaced. I didn’t think it was worth it, so we went out and bought her a new Kia Rondo. She’s happy now!

Next up is our big family vacation. We are heading to Disney World in 5 days and will be spending the full week at Port Orleans – Riverside! It’ll be a blast and the first of two big vacations for us. I’m looking forward to the 70 degree weather, that’s for sure!!

Later in the year we will also be taking a vacation to Gatlinburg with my family. This will be the first time in a long time that my family will be getting together for a vacation. I had originally planned this vacation as an outing with friends last year, but those plans fell through…twice. Instead of rescheduling I thought it would be a great opportunity for a family vacation. It’ll be a blast, and I’m sure we will be needing this one come June!

And the big kicker…we may be getting a new house. Well, I wouldn’t say new…but we may be upgrading to another house. I’ll have more details about this later.

So there you have it. A lot of big plans crammed into one year. Actually, they will probably all be crammed into 6 months! 2010 should definitely be an exciting year for us, and hopefully we don’t hit any unexpected bumps along the way.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Take time to realize what we really should be thankful for, and then enjoy the food, family, and football!!

And you knew these were coming:

Leslie and I awoke this morning to a pretty big boom that shook our whole house. We had no idea what it was until we got up and looked outside. At our next-door neighbor’s house, there were several fire trucks, police cars, and an ambulance. As we gathered our senses we discovered that their house had burnt.

The initial report was that an oxygen tank of the elderly lady that lived their had exploded and injured a firefighter. They also said the lady had minor burns and was taken to the hospital. I later found out there were two firefighters hurt in the explosion, but that they are going to be OK. The elderly lady, however, had been suffering from lung cancer and passed away at the hospital. Her son, who lives with her, got out without any harm. Please keep this family in your prayers. I couldn’t imagine what they must be going through.

This post is just to say thanks to all the troops who have served, or are serving, their country. Especially a big thanks to my big bro Capt. Charles (Chuck) Hill, commander 223rd MP Co., who has served two tours in Iraq.

Throughout the year we take for granted the sacrifices our troops make. At least on this day, take the time to remember those that have fallen in battle and say thanks to those who served and came home.

Dear Rich Brooks,

Mike Hartline still sucks. Despite all your off-season gibberish about how he has improved, he has only looked half-way decent against one team. And that team is worse than some high-school teams I have watched. He isn’t accurate, he can’t throw the long ball, and watching him scramble out of the pocket and try to make a decision is the most painful thing in all of sports to watch. Please, make a change!

Dear Joker Phillips,

We only throw the ball down the field after we are behind by 20 points? Really?!? The announcer said you and Rich are happy to gain 2 yards on first down, 2 yards on second down, and have a manageable 3rd down. 3rd and 6 is manageable? Really?!? Really-really?!? With our offense?

OK, I’m done…at least I had the game DVR’d and could fast forward. Man, this is gonna be a long season. I can’t wait for basketball!!

Well, the Bungals season has started, and it seems like every other year since Mike Brown has taken over the Bengals. Here is an excerpt from WhoDeyRevolution that pretty much sums it up:

Bengals Futility – By The Numbers

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18 – Years since the Bengals have won a playoff game

0 – Total number of playoff wins in Mike Brown’s tenure as owner

.349 – Bengals regular season winning percentage since Mike Brown took over as owner (101-187-1 in 18 seasons)

19-34-1 – Record since 2005 playoff game vs Steelers

6 – Seasons the Bengals have lost their first six games since 1991. No other team has more than two.

0 – Teams North of Cincinnati without an indoor practice facility

10 – Players arrested in a 14 month span from 2005-2006

32 – Mike Brown’s ranking, out of 32, of the “Best Owners in the NFL” by Michael Silver of Sports Illustrated in 2007

458,000,000 – Amount, in dollars, that Hamilton County Taxpayers paid to build PBS

2032 – Year that Hamilton County will have finally paid off its debt on the stadium deal

3 – Total number of non-clerical employees employed in the Bengals scouting department, lowest in the league

747,000,000 – Amount, in dollars, paid in free agency by the Bengals from 1994 – 2005, second worst of all 28 teams in existence for the duration, behind only Arizona

118 – Ranking, out of 118 professional teams, of the “Worst Franchises” in professional sports, as ranked by ESPN the Magazine in 2003.

97 – Ranking, out of 98 general managers in all four major sports with three or more years of experience, of Mike Brown’s performance as a GM, as ranked by Forbes in 2007.

In light of the recent embarrassment that has happened in the NY senate (if you don’t know, the democrats refused to stand during The Pledge of Allegiance), and since it is Independence Day weekend, I felt it was a great time to post an American classic from Red Skelton. In these times we need to stand together, as Americans! I hope everyone has a great Independence Day!!

“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.” – Joseph Stalin