McCarty/Lemieux Interview

The first interview with Darren McCarty and Claude Lemieux and they talk quite candidly about the various fights...very interesting to those fans that got to enjoy this rivalry.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

It's Hard to Kick Against the Goads

A couple days ago I was reading the Bible and came across the Acts 26:14 where Paul retells about his conversion. The phrase that God said to him was

"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads."

This immediately reminded me of the Johnny Cash song "When the Man Comes Around," which quotes part of this phrase.

"When the Man Comes Around" - Johnny Cash
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Till Armageddon, no Shalom, no Shalom

I knew before this morning how to use goad as a verb, but I did not know what it was as a noun. So this morning when I woke up with the song in my head I looked it up in dictionary. Turns out a goad (also called a prick) is simply a cattle prod...a stick to push cattle where you want them to go. So in Acts God was telling Paul to stop resisting "The Way" (early term used for Christians) as it is part of God's plan to use him.

Now with that knowledge looking at the Johnny Cash song I realize he was saying that he will not have peace until the end of time because he feels he is going against the path God had laid out for him. I hope that he stopped kicking against the goads and now has his peace.

2010 America Cup

Congrats to BMW Oracle for winning the America's Cup for the United States this past Sunday for the first time since 1992.

Conan O'Brien

Like Colt McCoy, Conan O'Brien showed some amazing class and character at a very difficult time. Here is his speech given in his final moments as the host of the Tonight Show.

Microsoft Office 2007 Update

After months of giving Microsoft Office 2007 a chance and doing my best to learn how to use their stupid new settings....it still sucks. Clearly Microsoft decided that its users are idiots and the only way they can operate software is if the software can actually guess what the user will do. They constantly force their own formatting while making it extremely difficult to find "advanced" settings to change things. For example I have spent the last 20 minutes trying to add error bars to a plot...simple error bars. After trying to find info in the help I finally gave up and just decided to click on every tab available. Finally I found a button that said "error bars". Phew, finally the saga was going to be over...oh wait, for some reason it doesn't comprehend why someone won't want to put horizontal error bars. Furthermore, they don't even give me an option of how to specify how large they should be...they simply add vertical error bars that stretch between each point. If you haven't begun to waste your life trying to figure out Microsoft Office 2007 I highly recommend you go and find a different software package to use...it is garbage. I've decided to continuously send message to Microsoft reiterating how they completely failed at their "improvements" to the program.

Ok, rant over...I'll get back to work now.

Colt McCoy

I've never been much of a fan of Texas and as a result I haven't paid any attention to Colt McCoy during is rather successful college career. However, I caught this interview of him after the National Championship game where his team lost and he was knocked out of the game in the first quarter. There are three things that impress me (1) he clearly cares that he didn't get to play but kept himself under control, (2) he's a Christian and apparently a mature one that understands that he is part of a bigger plan, and (3) he showed great respect for the champions (Alabama) never taking anything away from their victory because of his injury. Colt, you were a great example here...well done.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

I recently became interested in searching for some covers of Nirvana songs, but this has proved to be a bit more challenging then I had anticipated. The problem is that today's youth have no idea why my generation liked Nirvana, but they know that they were something great. Unfortunately they were great not for any talent (poor singing and basic guitar playing), but because Cobain but such raw emotion into his songs and made songs that were for the most part nothing like anything else that was out there at the time. As a result if I go to YouTube and search for covers of Nirvana songs it's an endless supply of kids playing and singing exactly like Cobain did (or worse), which is nothing special. However, thanks to 107.1's Acoustic Brunch I have found a sweet cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Rhythms del Mundo featuring Shanade. If nothing else at least Rey should enjoy this.

Happy New Year

Thanks to an infection (we believe) in a cut between two of my teeth that became incredibly painful on Dec. 31 we rang in the new year at home. I don't think either of us were too disappointed, but we did want to hangout with our friends. Fortunately a few hours before midnight the medicine we got from the doctors kicked in and the pain in my mouth finally went away. Thus allowing us to celebrate the new year in style.

Style = sparkling wing, cheese & crackers, penicillin, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

Oh...don't forget the summer sausage.

Yeah, that makes for a fun evening.

Go ahead Dick Clark...welcome me to yet another year.

Christmas 2009 - Part 2

The second half of our Christmas vacation was spent in Pigeon with my parents. Once again the primary focus was on relaxation, but we squeezed in a few other activities. We went to church, played Sequence (congrats mom on winning the championship), went to the movies, did Jillian Michaels' workout, hung with family, went to my dad's uncle's 90th birthday party, toured my dad's future office, and opened some gifts (round 2). This time I only have pictures from when we got home from church.

Us all dressed up for our first Christmas as a married couple.

The parents looking sharp.

We decided to get some photos of me looking distinguished.

I wasn't sure what pose to use.

I think I'm getting farther away from the goal.

Christmas 2009 - Part 1

The first part of our Christmas vacation was spent up north with Dem's family. The number one thing we did was relax...which we both enjoy very much and are plenty deserving after a busy year. We played games, did stupid Jillian Michaels' 30-day workout (its actually really good), hung with her family, and obviously opened some gifts. I only have pictures of the opening of gifts.

Dem excited about opening one of her gifts...I think that is what the look is.

Cal (the dog) got a chance to open up his gift....plus attempt to open up other's gifts as well.

By the end Cal was pretty tired.

Christmas Prep

With Christmas just ahead I figured I would share a few photos, as usual, of Dem prepping for Christmas...the difference is now we are decorating OUR apartment. There are several key items that must be pointed out to illustrate why this is a great picture: (1) my beautiful wife, (2) our awesome green couch, (3) our Christmas tree up and ready to be decorated, and (4) the Red Wings young, good goaltender Jimmy Howard giving an interview after the game.

Me looking good in my Simpsons pants decorating the tree.

Our first Christmas as a married couple.

2009 APS Meeting - Minneapolis

My yearly tradition of missing out on Turkey Lurkey with my friends and attending the APS-DFD meeting continues. This year I got to visit Minneapolis, which is a very nice city. Unfortunately since my schedule was pretty full I did not get to see much of the time. Basically I saw the Hilton hotel I stayed at, the Convention Center, a few bars/restaurants near the convention center, and any site that could be viewed from the Skyway that connected my hotel and the convention center. As a result I don't have much to share, but I did take a few pictures...unless anyone would like a recap of the talks I went to.

The Hilton hotel where I stayed...my room is the 5th floor corner room, which is the first visible floor in the picture.

Half of my room with the window facing where the picture above was taken from.

The other half of my room.

The Convention Center.

A Lutheran Church that I could view from the Skyway.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, as usual, was great. Dem and I went to my parents house for Thanksgiving Day and then the following day went up to her parent's house. It was great spending time with both families. Unfortunately I only have pictures from my family, which I got from my mom and sister.

Wife, parents, sisters, grandpa, and chad.

See caption above, replace Chad with Tom.

Rey and Tom brought the dogs...only have a picture of Rhino.

Tom got a couple deer over the break.

My grandpa did not...but he was able to get spent some time in the woods with Tom.

Still Got It

For those of you, like myself, that have been wondering if I can still dunk, the answer is yes I can. I was starting to think that it might not be in me anymore, but tonight in spite of doing almost zero activity for the past few weeks I gave it a try. To my own surprise I actually managed to do it on the first try...there was no additional attempts.

FYI: My dunk tonight was not as good as this one.

Detroit Marathon

I am so behind on my blogging that I am only now finding time to write about the Detroit Marathon, which took place a month ago. I went to my first marathon because Dem ran in it as part of a fiver person relay team. She ran her leg at a great pace that she would have been very happy with last year when she was running more frequently (good job dear). Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me, so I'm forced to steal pictures from our friends that we went with (thanks Betsy, Ali, and the Swishers).

It started the night before when a bunch of us crammed into a car and drove to Detroit to register for the race. We also went out to eat together, which was nice since these friends are ones that we don't get to see much.

Dem and Betsy in the back-back seat.

The next morning we all drove together in the same car early in the morning. The picture below is hard to make out but I'm glad we have it. After waiting in traffic for quite awhile my friend Colleen and I let the runners start running from the highway to their start point while we drove off looking for a place we could park. Dem and Dan (Colleen's husband) had to sprint from the car to a bus that would take them to their start locations...they made it with minutes to spare.

Dropping off the runners on the highway since the traffic was backup for miles.

Colleen and I found a parking spot close to the starting line (next to Comerica Park) and then realized we had many hours ahead of us with nothing to do. After wandering around in the dark for awhile we finally decided we would try and walk to where our spouse's starting positions were...4+ miles one way.

Picture of Detroit skyline in the early morning.

We made it Dem's starting position and said hi before she started, but then we decided not to go to Dan's spot since the extra two miles seemed a bit much for us. It was actually really fun walking around with Colleen since she really loves running. Spending time with anyone that really loves something always makes you appreciate it a little more. It was so great seeing people cheer on those struggling, kids joining their parents to finish the last mile, and the joy in the faces of those having a good run.

The lead group including the winner, Nicholas Stanko, whom Colleen knows.

Sadly after we walked ~11 miles we actually screwed up the timing and ended up missing Dan finish (as well as all our friends). After some confusion we finally found everyone and pictures were taken of the runners. Then it was time to head home.

Dem, part of her team, and part of a second girls team...good job ladies.

Interestingly on our walk back to the car we spotted these tanks...apparently they are shooting some kind of military movie in Detroit.

Productivity

This most accurate Phd Comic strip I have seen.

Stupid Microsoft

My brand new computer has a lot of pros, but what Microsoft did to both the operating system (i.e. Vista) and Office is absolutely horrible. I have used Microsoft products my entire computer-life and consider myself an expert user of Office products...well I'm totally lost trying to use Office 2007. Way to screw up the only things you really had going for you Microsoft.

My Wife's Art

Dem recently made some art for our walls...she cut out the shape and framed it. I might be bias but I think its pretty awesome. Even though it is sitting on our floor in this picture it is actually on our wall now...one of the first items we put up.

Fun Times

I have several posts that I want to make but my time is extremely limited right now...plus when I do have some free time I like just relaxing with my new wife. However, I will start posting things real quickly just so that I'm keeping my blog up to date. I'll start with a picture of Matt, his cousin, and I at the Tigers game (alright its a little old...this was the rain out of the 2nd to last game with the Twins). It was super fun even though the game didn't happen.

Dave Matthews Band & Willie Nelson

Two weekends ago Dem and I made a one day trip to Chicago (actually Tinley Park) to see Dave Matthews Band (DMB). All summer we have looked for a chance to see them (by Michigan or Memphis). We really wanted to see them because this is the first tour after the release of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, which is their first studio album in 4 years and first performance since the death of their saxophonist LeRoi Moore...good chance this was going to be an amazing tour. Due to schedules we missed the chance in Michigan and were pretty sure all hope was lost.

Then one day we were watching football all day and they kept playing clips from the DMB tour (we actually thought it was a weird way to advertise bands...turns out it was the perfect method). This inspired to look over the tour dates once again and then we noticed a date at Tinley Park near Chicago...next thing we knew we had purchased obstructed view tickets to see DMB, Tim Reynolds, and Willie Nelson. All I can say is that I was in amazement for 3 straight hours...at one point the awesomeness level was so high I could only stare dumbfounded at the stage. From the first note to the last it was just impressive.

Fortunately someone just in front of us took some video and posted it on YouTube so we can share just how horrible our partially obstructed seats were...and by horrible I mean so perfect that if a security guard turned his back for a second I would have been on stage singing with Dave.

Willie Nelson opened but did come out to play Gravedigger with DMB, which was awesome.

We were so close that we could actually see the hole in Willie Nelson's guitar.

Willie Nelson's guitar, Trigger.

Oh what the heck, why not one more video :)