Last weekend’s WIHA roller hockey tournament in Irvine brings us a lesson in hubris . . . My kid plays for Revision Devil Dogs, a 16U AA team. Unfortunately, the 16U teams showing up for WIHA tournaments this season haven’t been providing a lot of competition for the boys so they’ve played up the last couple of tournaments in the 18U AA division. In this one, they found themselves in a situation where if they won their fourth and final round-robin game against AKS by at least two goals, they’d finish in a three-way tie for second and would, based on a complex tie-break formula including goals against, get to play in the final. A Devil Dog loss, tie or even a one-goal victory would put AKS in the final. AKS is a good team. They beat the Devil Dogs easily in a tournament in February and seemed to be… Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Twitter: 2010-04-05
RT @QualityFrog: I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. – Thomas A. Edison # RT @chelsealately: Lady GaGa-AHHHHH: Lady Gaga doesn't need anything but her mind… http://bit.ly/aHk8dR # Read more →
The Lion in Winter
The Lion in Winter arrived from Netflix . . . “That doesn’t sound too gay,” my son says sarcastically. “What’s gay about it?” I ask. “Lions aren’t gay. Winter is not gay.” “It’s the combination of the two,” he says. Read more →
Fresh Strawberries
My car smells like fresh strawberries today! And I don’t mean some phony air freshener, I mean my wife gave our boy a bowl of fresh strawberries to eat while I drove him to school this morning — and he didn’t eat them. They’re still sitting on the front seat of my car. Ahh, but the strawberries that’s . . . that’s where I had them . . . Read more →
Lemme Ask You Something
Do you have a side-by-side refrigerator-freezer like we do? You do? And have you ever been standing in front of it but not really looking at it because you’re talking to someone in the next room and you reach to open the refrigerator but you grab the freezer handle by mistake and instead of opening to the right like you expect, it opens to the left and throws you completely off balance? Me too! Read more →
Late Starts
Every Wednesday, the Irvine high schools have a late start — 9 a.m. instead of 8. Also: a few times a year, like today, they have something called a Super Late Start day, where classes don’t start till 9:50. My wife brings up a good point: Why don’t they ever have Super Early Start, where we drop the kids off at 6 a.m.? Read more →
April Fools
Every month, I present web site metrics to our Web Steering committee. Since this month’s meeting fell on April 1, I took the opportunity to mock up and present a set of fake charts showing all of our key metrics falling off a cliff. LOL! OK I know what you’re thinking — not as funny as cling wrap on a toilet seat. You’re right but chart pranks are more cerebral . . . Read more →
Hot Enough for You?
All of us tend to think of our own circumstances in terms of a narrow range and to feel that other pastures are greener. . . . My suspicion is that in Heaven the Blessed are of the opinion that the advantages of that locale have been overrated by theologians who were never actually there. Perhaps even in Hell the damned are not always satisfied. — Jorge Luis Borges, “The Duel” Read more →
Your Morale is Too High
The Erasers
The Erasers is a combination detective story and Greek tragedy, about a murder investigation in which the victim, unbeknownst to (almost) anyone, is not really dead. It’s also about multiple perceptions of the same events, all of them perfectly reasonable and all of them wrong. And it’s about the inevitablility of fate, which despite your best efforts can lead you to an unimaginable deed (cf. Oedipus). Highly recommended! Read more →
Easter Bunny Inc.
Twitter: 2010-03-27
I thought Butler University was for butlers, like Clown College for clowns. # Read more →
No Bars at Home
No bars at home? AT&T to offer $150 fix — USATODAY.com I’ve got a bottle of tequila and some ice. I don’t think that qualifies as a “bar” but it didn’t set me back $150 either. Read more →
March Madness
I got 28 out of 32 in the first round, then KU lost to Northern Iowa and now I don’t care anymore. You know who else picked Kansas to win it all? Hitler. Read more →
Overheard
Twitter: 2010-03-23
RT @Aimee_B_Loved: "This is a Big f-ing Wheel!" – Joe Biden, age 4. # Read more →
Tweets of a Bomb Defuser
tweets of a bomb defuser #4- Okay stand back everyone, I have developed Parkinsons and had a fight with the wife this morning..stand back.. — Eddie Pepitone Read more →
Angered by Trivia
people are strange: they are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice . . . — Charles Bukowski, “wandering in the cage” Read more →
Mexican Vacation Bargains
My boss is vacationing in Cabo San Lucas next week. With all the Mexican killings in the news recently, I hope he got a good deal on the room. ¡Olé! Read more →
Don’t Touch My Stuff
“Anyone who knows me as well as you do,” I say to my son, “knows that one thing I really hate is when I put something in one place and somebody moves it to a different place, so the next time I need that thing I can’t find it. Which brings me to the topic of the DVD remote . . .” “I put it to the left of the TV,” he says. “Are you sure you didn’t put it behind the TV where no one would be likely to find it?” “Did you find it?” he asks. “No — Mom found it, and when I asked her where she found it she pointed behind the TV.” “Hmmm . . . I would say it was to the left of the TV.” “Let me ask you this: Why did you move it at all?” “It was in my chair.” “That’s… Read more →