All posts by Duf

Chris and Phil got the boot last night.  I was ok with it but would have preferred if it was Chris and Lakisha.  Even though Phil is dorky looking he did a great job on Tuesday night and he seems like about as nice of a guy as you can get.   It was ironic that he went down singing Blaze of Glory. His repeat performance was great.

During the show they had a band that was fronted by Alan Thicke’s son.  He looks like his dad.  However when he started to sing it was atrocious.  He sings in some high, made up sounding voice that is just ridiculous.  I told Ali he sounds like Stewart the man baby from the Mad TV skits.  It was soooo bad.  Supposedly the song he sung is topping the R&B charts.  I have no idea how.

I remembered a dream I had the other night.  I was at our old house in Gouglersville and there was no one else there but me.  I was my current day age but the house and land was in my childhood days state. No additions, big landscaped areas or renovations had occurred.  I was throwing and punting two footballs around, the ones we had as kids, a conventional one and the Wilson Indestructo. (that I still have to this day)  I just would throw the balls, walk to them and throw/kick them somewhere else.  It was late in the day and the house was dark.  I continued doing this all the way until there was only a trace of light in the sky.  That was it.   Who knows what it means.

Well my knees are still cracking as an aftermath to my vball tournament.  This is my theory.  The MRI I had said that the meniscus tear I had in my left knee was below the surface.  So I am assuming the healing process resulted in some sort of scarring.  Then when I do prolonged impact activity on it, it flares up again, swells and causes the very unnerving snapping sound when I stand up.  The thing is it really isn’t painful except for certain angles that I try to straighten from where it will almost feel like something is getting hung up and pinches.  So now it is a waiting game to see how long it takes for this to go away.

I migrated my volleyball tip list to a youtube video.  To go through them all takes almost 12 minutes.  The font got shrunk down during the conversion so if you have bad eyes or run at a real high resolution you will have a tough time reading some of it.  I know it is less than stellar but the primary objective of it is to direct people to my site where they can read them at their own pace.

We have a trip up to our timeshare planned for next weekend.  We are taking mom with.  I am hoping to check out Cape Canaveral and all the space related stuff while we are there.  I don’t think we will be doing a lot of Disney stuff though.  It would be cool with me to just have some down time as well.   It will be a cool, different way to spend Mother’s Day.    

Somehow my blog entry about the african situation must be hitting on some search engines.  I have gotten a couple comments from the outside world about it.  When I wrote it I expected to get flamed, instead all I have gotten are people in agreement. Oh and I also got linked somehow into this woman’s blog because of my affinity for pop tarts, funny.

Let’s see how far I can get with this.

I was nervous Friday night about the tournament on Saturday.  I had no idea how it would go, it’s been almost a full year since my first real tournament action.  I went through my night before ritual.  I pulled out my big volleyball bag and got everything ready.  I cleaned my decade old M-frames, I got my food supply together which consisted of some nutrigrain bars and a few slices of apples.  My hydration would consist of gatorade and red bull.  I packed towels, extra white socks (not for me, for people that never heard of sand socks) and enough changes of clothes for an entire weekend.

I actually woke up without the alarm Saturday morning at 5:15, guess I was ready to go.  I quickly slammed down a power breakfast consisting of chocolate fudge pop tarts, a zone bar and a glass of skim milk and then quickly whizzed through the normal morning routine.  I was on the road by 6:15.  The tournament was in Deerfield Beach which is north of Fort Lauderdale.  Even though I didn’t have any traffic issues, I didn’t arrive to the site until almost 8:30, it was a long haul.

I walked up to the beach and took a survey.  Deerfield Beach is nice, I had been there once or twice before.  They have a long fishing pier like Naples, except this one you have to pay to go out onto.  There is sort of a mini-boardwalk in front of the beach, minus the boards.  Instead it is a strip of bricks in front of a number of open air eating places.  Anyway, I quickly saw a couple familiar faces.  I didn’t see Randall however so I sat my stuff down.  I got out my sunblock and started applying it, something that is a must anymore since I have had two chunks cut out of my head now.  I spotted Jeremy and shortly after that, Randall walking down the sidewalk towards us.  I still had my shirt off from putting sunscreen on.  Both of them knew about my 300 workout thing and both of them who haven’t seen me since January said they noticed a transformation.   I was surprised they noticed anything but at the same time thought it was cool that the fruits of my labor in the gym are actually producing visual results.  It gives me good motivation to keep pushing.

Anyway, Randall and I caught up a bit and lugged our junk down to the far end where the lowly BB players play.  I pulled out my quickly deteriorating vintage XFL black football and we threw it around for awhile.  Randall has taken to a few of the weird volleyball tips/habits I have come up with over the years which I appreciate.  We set up his pop up shelter and got ready for the day of battle.  Earlier I was able to find one of the few vioxx pills I had left which I took to minimize swelling I was sure to encounter throughout the day in my knees.  It had an expiration date in 2004, I didn’t care.

The one team playing in our pool consisted of a guy from Poland and another guy that I had seen on the tournament message board but never met before.  I had posted a link on the message board linking to my list of over 200 funny volleyball tips.  I was surprised to hear that some of the guys took the time to read all of them, cool.

We played in the first match and it was against my least favorite type of team, kids.  Well they weren’t little kids but I doubt either of them was much over 16.  Playing a team where I am older than their combined age always bums me out.  They were both lanky kids with lots of energy.  They plain wore us out.  Even though it was the first game, the combination of blazing heat reflecting off the hot sand and trying to out scramble these kids had both Randall and I sucking wind.  We had a number of back and forth scrambles and the kids seemed to come out on top each time.  We wound up losing the game something like 21-15 or 21-16. 

Even though we lost, overall we didn’t play bad and physically I didn’t feel too bad.  The net on our court was a bit low and the sand wasn’t overly deep so I was able to actually do some hitting which felt real good.  After the match I didn’t do any sulking, I was just happy to be there.   I was on the beach playing ball and enjoying it, there was nothing to complain about.

Our second match was against the guys I described earlier, the polish guy and Tabby.  They have much less experience than Randall and I and we were able to win that game pretty easily.  Again I had some nice hits, even one that went off the guy’s chest. We were in the winning column.

Somewhere around that time a woman showed up that we assumed was Mac, the polish guy’s girlfriend.  We later found out they were just friends.  Her name was Magda and she was from Poland as well.  She has only been in the US for a couple years and her accent is very heavy.  However she had a great personality and cheered on Mac’s team as well as ours the rest of the day.  She was really cool.

Our third match was against Jeremy and his partner.  They had only played together once before but had good results when they did play.  However, today they weren’t having much success and we continued that trend beating them without much drama.  Ironically during the last two matches I felt less tired than the first one.  The sun was hiding behind some clouds now and then which cut us a bit of a break.  So now we were 2-1, our last match was against yet another young team that was undefeated.  We were already in the playoffs, even if we lost this last game.  Randall did some figuring before the match and said if we won the game and held them to 13 points or less we would take 1st off the net and also earn a first round playoff bye.  I thought that would be nice but didn’t hold out much hope of it becoming a reality.  These kids took care of everyone they played. 

Well the match started and we played good ball.  We started getting more hustle/scramble points and made very few unforced errors.  We somehow had them down like 19-11 or something like that.  Wow, we could actually do it.  We had a bit of a let down but still won easily, 21-14 but I thought that our dreams of 1st off the net had passed.  It turned out that Randall miscalculated and we still took first off the net, sweet!

Pool play had started to take it’s toll on me a bit.  My knees were feeling a bit sore but not bad enough to have a severe affect on my game.  The sand was scorching hot.  I had my sand socks on early, the second game.  Randall has sensitive feet and borrowed one of the pairs of white socks to wear under his sand socks.  I loaned out my other pair of white socks to Jeremy’s partner whom didn’t have any sand socks.

It had been a great day at the beach so far.  Our volleyball results had been good and the beach was full of activity and was good for people watching.  I had a funny thing going on with two women that were maybe 30 feet behind the court.  During the one match a ball rolled over and hit them, doing no harm, just startling them.  I went over and retrieved the ball and said “Sorry bout that..”  They said it was fine but I owed them a beer with a laugh and smiles.  I laughed back and said no problem, just playing along.  Later another ball came their way and they told me I was up to two beers, when it happened a third time it was up to a six pack.  Of course I never delivered any alcohol to their location but I knew the direction they were leading me to.  It was fun to at least play the role.

We referee’d the first playoff round.  After doing so it was our turn to play the winner’s of one of the matches. Of course it was yet another set of high school kids.  These kids were annoying.  For some reason they expected us to come up and play on their net.  Randall and I immediately corrected them and said they play on our net since we were the higher playoff seed.  They then went into a whine-fest complaining about our net, they wanted to play on theirs.  Again we firmly reiterated that we were playing on our net, that is how it works.   Randall even resorted to doing comparisons with pro sports scenarios to drive the point home.  Then after all of this explanation, the kid says “Ok Ok, but let me ask you this, why don’t you want to play on our net??” like he wasn’t even listening to what we just said.  Now I was angry and angrily said once again that the match was on our net.  Finally they begrudgingly complied and came down to our net.  While they warmed up they were laughing at how the net was low and how they could hit over it without jumping.  What had been a totally good natured day of volleyball had now in my mind flipped into a grudge match.  I wanted to beat these f’rs bad. And guess what, we did.

It was a tough back and forth match but in the end we nudged ahead and stayed there, winning by two or three points.  Of course as I slapped hands with them and said “good game” I internally was very smug and felt like saying “damn you couldn’t beat us old guys on a low net even….”  Back to school…

So now we were in the finals.  And once again, we are playing yet another team of high school kids! This time we were the lower seed so we had to go to one of their nets and unfortunately they picked the worst of the bunch.  It was one of the permanent courts that was severely bowled out and had a high net.  Both Randall and I were rather pooped out from our prior match against the smart ass kids.  Running up hill for every approach was not exactly what we were looking for at that point.  Well we gave it a go.

We got down a bit early.  Unlike earlier matches, we made more unforced errors. Between Randall and I, i think we hit 5 or 6 serves out.  The higher net and bowled out court also resulted in several hits into the net for both of us.  Even so, we battled back to near even several times throughout the match.  At the end we were serving, down 20-15 and I got a big block on the taller kid, rejecting it with authority.  On the next play, again he got the set, I went up again, unwilling to allow him to swing away on us, and this time he wimped out and dinked over me, out of Randall’s reach for the win.  It was a tough match but these kids were good.  For second place Randall and I received luxurious FBVT visors along with 20 dollar gift cards to some beach shop.

Through out the day I employed various tips from my list.  Each match I changed something about my appearance, different shirt, no shirt, baseball hat, visor, I had more costume changes than a showgirl.  Randall and I huddled up and acted like we were talking strategy when in reality we just mumbled and pointed.  I would ask for blocking calls and act surprised even though it would be the same thing that was called all day.  I was even considering putting in my fake earring.

After the match we hung out for a little while, enjoying the fruits of our efforts.  It was a good day of volleyball, something I had not had for quite a long time.  I was tired and a bit sore but certainly not devastated like I was after the Rumble.    Randall was going to a U of Miami baseball game that night so we packed up and shoved off.

Ideally, it would be nice if I was able to throw an ice pack on my knee right away to cut down on swelling.  Instead I sat in one position more or less for the 2 hour drive across the state which makes for stiff joints.  When I got home one of my first orders of business was to ice up.  Ali was proud of me for doing well after not playing for so long.  I was too.  I still got it, at least some of it.

My Sunday was low key.  Both my knees were cracking every time I stood up but they didn’t hurt terribly so I suppose that is a good thing.  I had a small list of things to get done, Ali had already did a good chunk of the housework during the day Saturday.  Later in the day I watched Hope Floats with Ali.  I downloaded it for her after I deleted it off the old Tivo prior to her watching it.  She had no intentions of me watching it with her since it is a hardcore chick flick.  However I offered to sit through it.  Ali certainly sits through enough movies with me.  Wow this certainly was not a very happy movie, it’s about an ugly divorce, adultery, dying, old age and other obstacles to happiness.  Sure they turn up the happy meter in the end but geez….  Ali cried several times throughout, I did not.  I guess it would get a B-.  

Over the weekend, I think it was Saturday night, I was awakened early in the AM by the joyous sounds of buttons heaving.  Instinctively I quickly reached around looking for a suitable projectile to throw in the direction of the sound but found none.  Buttons heard the movement in the bed and ran out of the room, but not before adding to the hundreds of stains on our carpet.  A few days later, one of the cats was nice enough to leave yet another pile of half digested food under my computer chair.  God I hate them.

On Monday, I was hoping to get another 300 workout in since I missed last Friday.  My knees were still cracking and my leg muscles were still very tired feeling from Saturday.  Initially I wrote it off and figured there was no way I could do it. As lunch time approached, I talked myself into trying it anyway.  I will give it a try and if I can’t do certain things, I can’t do them.  It was probably the toughest session yet.  The first leg/knee test were the deadlifts.  After the initial crack on the first trip down, my knees quieted down after that.  The box jumps were a very long road.  I managed 25 reps but that was with lots of pauses for the last 10-12.  Some exercises I stayed the same, I did one fewer wiper than the last time.  When it was all done I managed to break the 200 rep barrier, amassing 202 total reps.   I was so damn tired afterwards.

I was so tired Monday night that I didn’t even stay up to watch Heroes.  I saw it on Tivo last night.  It was f’ing awesome.  The writers on the show have just done an incredible job of writing a plot that is so compelling that the viewer laments the passing of each hour episode and craves the next one.  Last night’s episode put the timeline 5 years into the future.  This episode answered a lot of questions about a lot of things and opened up a whole lot more.  This may be the first show I would actually consider buying on DVD.

The NFL draft was this weekend.  I, like everyone else could not believe the Eagles picked a QB with thier first pick.  It didn’t make a lot of sense unless they know something we don’t regarding Donovan.  I never heard of any of the other draft picks either although supposedly, draft experts say they are decent.  It certainly didn’t excite me at all.

I know there were various other things that I was going to blog about, I can’t remember them.  Work is hellishly busy right now and will be for a good period of time to come.

I don’t have time for a regular entry even though I have lots to say.  Cliff notes version:

Got second in the vball tourney (very surprising) and came out of it hurting but not wrecked (more surprising) I should be able to give it another go.

Watched a movie, had a strange dream and various other thoughts danced through my increasingly confused mind. 

Did the 300 workout today even though I had two noisy knees, tired legs and aching shoulders.

I may not get a full entry in until mid-week.  Crazy busy right now.

My home number finally swapped over to Vonage yesterday.  That means I was finally able to sever the cord from Sprint (now known as Embarq)  It feels good.  Ever since I moved to Florida, Sprint local telephone service has been a thorn in my side.  It’s nice to not be financially contributing to their ineptitude any more.  Now instead of an answering machine we have voice mail for our home number.  If we get a message it gets emailed to us as a wav file which we can retrieve  and listen to wirelessly on our Treo’s, ultra-geek.

Since I am playing volleyball tomorrow I decided it would be wise to not do a 300 workout the day before.  I am a bit bummed about missing a day, especially since I am only two reps away from 200.  Hopefully I won’t be too beat up to resume on Monday.

I am both excited and apprehensive about returning to the volleyball court.  I really enjoy playing, I enjoy the people that play, enjoy competing and enjoy the whole feel of a tournament. I don’t enjoy getting hurt.  I am crossing my fingers that whatever has been nagging me deep inside my knees has healed.  Unlike the last time I played months ago, I haven’t been running to pile on the wear and tear.  This will be the first tournament I have played since last June in the Rumble, 10 months, wow.   Of course I have no false expectations of me playing anywhere near well.  This is more of a science experiment to see if I am physically able to get through a tournament at this point. 

The days of me staking my short term emotional happiness on the result of that weekend’s volleyball tournament are long gone.  Playing volleyball used to be a big part of how I defined myself.  From my late 20’s to early 30’s it was probably the primary focus in my life.  Even though I was never a great player, I took it seriously.

  I remember the one summer, Rich and I were on a tear.  I think during that stretch we lost only a handful of games while winning 30 or more.  We always clicked together well, but that year we clicked like never before.  Rich was a perfect compliment to me as a player.  I was more of the one dimensional player that tried to hit and serve hard.  Rich was more well rounded plus had the ability to scramble and chase down balls like few others.  The fact that we were both lefties used to confuse a lot of opponents.  However probably the best part of our time playing together was the time off the court when we would just be observing, joking and making nicknames for the other players on the court.  Our years of playing also resulted in a huge list of satirical volleyball “tips” that would make even a person that never played the game laugh. Since Rich stopped playing I have tried to keep adding to the nickname and tips list, but my heart just isn’t into it. It’s not the same.

Oh well, the point of this long diatribe is this weekend may be finally closing the book on 15 years of volleyball memories or perhaps extending it for just a little longer.

I had yet another big virtual achievement.  When they released the expansion pack to WoW, they raised the maximum level a player could reach from 60 to 70.  Well I got my first character to 70 earlier in the week.  Reaching 70 allows you to buy a new form of transportation, a FLYING mount.  Up until 70 you are relegated to only flying on locked in, pre-defined routes between different areas in the game.  But now you can fly anywhere, well anywhere in the expansion areas.  You can not fly in the original areas of WoW, which sucks.

   Well the ability to fly is definitely cool.  It allows you to reach areas that would be impossible otherwise.  Plus you have the advantage of straight line travel between points instead of having to follow twisting roads while avoiding bad guys.  Right now I only have the standard flying mount which is rather slow.  There is a super fast model that costs about 6000 gold.  In real world terms, compare it to saving for a Hyundai versus a Ferrari.  It takes a long time to amass 6000 gold. I’m working on it though.  I have been leveling various characters simultaneously so I should have two more level 70 characters shortly.  Impressive, huh?

You can add appliance repairman to my credentials for the resume.  The parts arrived on schedule yesterday.  Installation of the hi-temp thermostat and thermal fuse required a bit of dexterity but wasn’t too challenging.  I was nervous that I would get them installed, run the dryer and have them pop again right away.  I ran the dryer through about an hour and a half of testing and it seemed to be ok.  Mission accomplished.

Last night was the American Idol Gives Back two hour extravaganza.  They loosely rolled a results show into a two hour telethon that was focused on helping needy children in both the US and Africa.  The show featured a bunch of celebrities speaking, dancing and singing.  Let me first comment on the acts that I didn’t fast forward through.

El Divo.  This is a group of four guys that Simon Cowell supposedly scoured the globe looking for.  To me, they may be the most over-hyped group I have ever seen.  It’s almost people treat them as though they are elite singers because Simon thinks they are.  To me, using Simon’s words, they are rubbish.  Don’t get me wrong, they are entertaining to watch, not because I enjoy their singing, I enjoy the lunacy of their performances.  The funniest guy is the oldest one that has eyebrows that he can’t keep still.  His performance is so over the top it is ridiculous.  He loves himself very much.  Normally when you hear El Divo sing they are doing it in some foreign language.  For some reason this is supposed to add to their hipness factor.  Last night they actually sung in English. However, even though it was in my native language, I had a hell of a time making out what they were singing.  I think they suck, plain and simple.  Ali agrees.

I saw Kelly Clarkson for the first time in a long time.  The last time I saw her she seemed to be embracing her fame and as a result had started shaping up and was sporting a modern, hot hair style.  Last night she looked to have reverted to her roots.  She colored her hair mud brown and looked like she may be bigger than when we first were introduced to her during her Idol run. Too bad.  She still is a great singer.

The “television history” as they described it of Celine Dion performing with Elvis was incredibly moronic.  Yay, we saw this stuff in Forrest Gump, it’s not cool anymore. 

Most of the other performers we FF’d through.  The producers did a nice job of yanking our chain about a shocking result which they lead everyone to believe was the ousting of the best contestant left, Jordin Sparks.  The trick was on us though, they decided to not let anyone go this week.  Those rascals.

Ok so now let’s get to the reason for the show, the charity work.  The show was jammed full of video montage after video montage of children both home and abroad in horrible living conditions.  They basically featured, Katrina victims, redneck children from Kentucky (an odd choice) and kids in Africa. (biggest share)  As I saw scene after scene of the people in Africa living in filth, disease and desperation, of course my initial reaction is to feel bad for these children, they are the innocent victims of their parents ignorance.  You want to help them.

But then there is the logical, cold side of me.  I actually paused the show to talk to Ali about it.  At what point do we allow nature to take it’s course?  Aids is rampant in Africa.  The reason aids is rampant in Africa is because the people reproduce like animals, engaging in unprotected sex.  Ali said to me that is because they are uneducated and do not understand the repercussions of their actions.  I asked her if I was supposed to believe that the people in Africa do not know that they are dying of aids?  It isn’t like AIDS is some unknown secret, it has been around for almost 25 years, a full generation of Africans have come and gone in that time period.  Yet, ignorance is still the culprit? Either these people are incredibly ignorant or they just don’t care and choose to continue on their self destructive path.

It just doesn’t register with me.   If this collection of people are unable to comprehend the end result of reckless sexual activity then how are we supposed to save them?  Is it just nature thinning the herd?  Maybe it is.  There are woefully inadequate resources there to support the population.  Even with the huge human loss in Africa and disasters elsewhere in the world, as a whole, world population is exploding.  Something has got to give. 

I tried to run scenarios through my head.  How do you feel for a lifetime smoker that develops lung cancer?  Of course you feel bad for them for the suffering they endure but you certainly don’t think they didn’t map their own path to their demise.   Same goes for obese people that struggle with health issues, you made your bed, sleep in it.  Now of course these kids don’t have a choice in the matter, however it is these same kids that grow up and repeat the same behavior, continuing the suffering. 

Maybe I am just being too analytical about it.  I just can’t get past the idea that unless these people are willing to help themselves first (by not f’ing like rabbits) all we will ever be able to do is put a small band aid on a huge gushing wound. 

I get a lot of emails forwarded to me.  Most of them are lucky to get three seconds of attention before they meet DELETE key heaven.  However I actually looked this one over.  Evidently it was something Andy Rooney said during his commentary recently.  I have to say I agree with the vast majority of it. Although I would argue a few things.

  I have no issues with gays and could care less about the use of God on our money even if I don’t follow those idealogies.  Guns don’t make you a killer but they sure make it easier and more convenient to do so.  I don’t hate rich people but I sure think a lot of them are assholes.   

 Here ya go (so you don’t have to forward it)

I don’t think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the UnitedCaucasianCollege Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens…Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.

I have the right “NOT” to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the Law of Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!

My father and grandfather didn’t die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.

I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can’t understand the word “freeze” or “stop” in English, see the above lines.

I don’t think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.

I don’t hate the rich I don’t pity the poor.

I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn’t stop you from watching them.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that’s better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn’t take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say “NO!”

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don’t pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don’t want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!

I am sick of “Political Correctness.” I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa ; so how can they be “African-Americans”? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don’t go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe . I am proud to be from America and nowhere else

And if you don’t like my point of view, tough…

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

I was asked to send this on if I agree or delete if I don’t. It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having “In God We Trust” on our money and having “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don’t we just tell the 14% to Shut Up and BE QUIET!!!

The only thing I can think to comment on is the reality tv we watched last night.  Heather Mills got kicked off Dancing with the Stars.  I was fine with her going.  She had something about her that rubbed me the wrong way.  Maybe it is the underlying resentment about her raping Paul McCartney financially in the divorce settlement.  Her appearance was odd.  It had nothing to do with the leg.  Sometimes she would look attractive, but more often she looked haggish.  I have no idea how old she is.  Very few of the costumes she wore were flattering.

Of the final 6 singers left in American Idol, there are 3 that I think are real good and 3 that aren’t.  Phil, Chris and Lakisha should be the next to go in my opinion.  Lakisha has an attitude like she is now a diva which is ridiculous.  There are a boat load of big black female singers with big voices out there, we don’t need another.  Chris is a poor man’s Justin Timberlake, don’t need that either.  Phil is just too damn geeky with that big bald head.  He looks like he is 40.

Melinda, Blake and Jordin are my top 3.  Melinda is just a great singer although she doesn’t really have the persona or image that one would think a winner should have.  Blake is very unique and has great style but I don’t think he is a good enough singer to carry it to the end. Ali doesn’t like the shape of his mouth.  Jordin is my pick to win it all.  With a few packets of slimfast she would be the total package and she is only 17 so the best is yet to come.  I am pretty sure even if she doesn’t win it all, she will be the one to emerge as the most successful out of this cast.

The dryer parts are supposed to arrive today.  I am crossing my fingers this fixes the problem.  Yesterday we got two drip bottle things that we stuck into each of the big planters out front.  They release water slowly over time to keep pots from drying out.  So far the big flower pots have been doing great and we want to keep it that way.

Ali made some rice pudding from scratch on Sunday.  It turned out much better than I expected.

Ali received a post card from some national health care place that is looking for dietitians.  It had a bunch of locations where they were looking for people, two that caught my eye were California and Idaho, believe it or not.  I said something to Ali last week how I wouldn’t be against using some of our massive amount of timeshare points to go see some remote state like Idaho or Montana.  Living in a sparsely populated area holds a degree of appeal to me.  The older I get, the more I get sick of traffic, strip malls and hordes of people.  What a change of life that would be.   If we sold our place here we surely could live like kings in an area like that.  Not that it would happen anytime soon but it definitely is a thought that is rolling around my head.  There are many issues in our area, mostly tied to it’s popularity and location, that really bug me at times.  Hey wait, it gets cold in Idaho doesn’t it….

There is a big 3000+ acre brush fire out towards the Everglades.  The winds have shifted and now the smell of smoke is very strong in town.  You even have a pretty constant flow of ashes falling from the sky.  Wild stuff.

Finally Heroes is back on the air.  I don’t know what the deal is with TV shows nowadays.  They put these huge gaps in the middle of the season with no new shows for some reason.  It sucks.  Anyway, the show last night was great as always.  My complaint is the same one as always, the show is just too damn short.  There are sooooo many commercials jammed in there it is ridiculous.  I bet the one hour show has 35 minutes of actual content.  It’s awesome now because we are deep enough into the story that we see super powers being used on a regular basis.

I committed to play volleyball this weekend with Randall.  It will pretty much decide how what is left of my volleyball career will go.  If once again, after months of time off, I immediately have a recurrence of knee issues then that will probably be about all she wrote.  No Rumble and no aspirations for playing competitively in the future.  If I get through the day relatively unscathed then playing the Rumble in June becomes a possibility even though I still may bow out.  The cycle of injury is just getting too damn frustrating to continue.  

I entered week 4 of the 300 workout.  Today I finally plateaued with the pull ups, only managing 18 again, same as Friday. I should have squeaked out a 12th pull up on my last set but didn’t.  I am only 2 reps away from 200, a big accomplishment for me.  I actually am considering playing volleyball this weekend with Randall.  My thinking is if my knees are holding up to this, jumping in soft sand should be a walk in the park, right?

I got a comment in my blog over the weekend to the post I made months ago regarding those pieces of shit, timesharesbyowner.com .  Evidently this guy found my site through the wonders of search engines.  Evidently, he too has been shafted by these assholes.  His comments sounded very similar to mine, big promises with zero results. Yes I still have not had ONE inquiry from their worthless service.  Anyway, unlike myself whom threatened to contact the better business bureau, media outlets and whomever else to make these bastards pay for their deception, this guy supposedly is really doing it.  Good for him.  My effort went as far as emailing the consumer fraud person at the local tv station but I never heard back from them and I dropped it from my active annoyance list since then.  I would however be happy to detail my experience for anyone that would want to know.

 I went through a lengthy email barrage with these jerks which ended after I sent this, the guy refused to respond to me afterward.

Perhaps your memory is not serving you well. I will repeat. Your sales person indicated the property would “absolutely rent” within two weeks.  This same sales person is no longer with your company and is in fact selling his BS for another rip off organization similar to yours.  

It’s good to know that you have no issues with deception and lies being used to convince people to sign on for your worthless service.  I have contacted other people that have listed on your site and have heard similar stories of discontent, lies and exaggerations coming from your sales staff.  

All of this information is being included in what I am forwarding to the appropriate agencies.  I may be out the money I gave to your company but I will do my best that more people do not get pulled in to your scheme. 

His reply: (I left all of his contact information in there just for fun!)

This is the end of any such correspondence… if you want changes to your ad, I am happy to oblige!… I will no longer discuss the issue of a refund with you!Kevin White
Consumer Analyst
Timeshares By Owner
(888)707-8463 ext 117
(407)396-6252 ext 117
E mail: kwhite@timesharesbyowner.com