On the Bright Side
The Worst Movie Year Ever?
Coming soon to a theater near you: absolutely nothing you want to see.
Go into a movie theater any day of the week and watch as the audience sits listlessly through a series of lame, mechanical trailers for upcoming films that look exactly like the D.O.A. movies audiences avoided last week.
Twitter: 2010-07-31
- The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. — Bertrand Russell #
- RT @kausmickey: Just had flash that I maybe I could go to law school. Then realized I've already been to law school. #fb #
One Eye on the Path
A young but earnest Zen student approached his teacher, and asked the Zen Master: “If I work very hard and diligent how long will it take for me to find Zen?”
The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years.”
The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast — How long then?”
Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.”
“But, if I really, really work at it. How long then?” asked the student.
“Thirty years,” replied the Master.
“But I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?”
Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”
Twitter: 2010-07-29
- RT @eddiepepitone: wikileaks is releasing the video of me giving the finger to mother teresa. #
Happy 17th Birthday
My son turned 17 today at the NARCh tournament in San Jose and he went with his teammates to Applebee’s for dinner.
The boys know that he doesn’t like to be the center of attention for things like having “Happy Birthday” sung for him in a restaurant so I’m sure they made every effort to prevent that from happening . . .
NARCh – Day 2
Two more round-robin games on Day 2 . . .
Game 3 – Mississauga Mission Rattlers
Remember when I said Mission Black Ice is the best 16-and-under team I’ve ever seen? I may have spoken too soon on that.
I’ll be shocked if the Rattlers and Black Ice don’t face each other in the final to find out which team is really the best in the universe.
The Devil Dog goalie was great yesterday but not today. He gave up eight goals, should have stopped about five of them, but didn’t get much help from his teammates either.
Final Score: Rattlers 8, Devil Dogs 0. Ouch.
Game 4 – Colorado Dynamite
Both teams came into the game with a good chance of slipping in to the playoff round as the fifth and final seed with a victory.
It was a very even game — too even. The game ended in a tie, which eliminated both teams from the tournament.
Final Score: Devil Dogs 3, Dynamite 3
Day 2 Wrapup
I thought the boys did great for their first time playing Platinum at the NARCh level.
They’re not ready to win it yet but they I think they showed that they belong, and they got a chance to see what it takes to be the best in the land at their sport.
As a team, there are things that they need to improve on and individually, they need to get stronger and faster.
There are two teams — Black Ice and Mississauga Rattlers — that look clearly better than any other team in the 16-and-under age group. Unfortunately, the luck of the draw had the Devil Dogs playing both of them in round-robin games.
Except for those two teams, it looked like the Dogs could compete with anyone. They were one goal away from making the playoff round, had they been able to win one of the two games they tied.
I really enjoyed watching the kids play this season.
Casey’s been teammates with most of these kids for three years now. They’ve improved as players from A to AA and now AAA.
A couple of kids who as recently as last year were the poster boys for not having your head in the game — on or off the rink — have actually developed some leadership qualities, so they’ve improved at things other than hockey as well.
That’s it. See you next season . . .
NARCh – Day 1
The Devil Dogs played two round-robin games on Day 1 . . .
Game 1 – Mission Black Ice 93
Black Ice is from New York. They’re a great team. Best 16-and-under team I’ve ever seen. In fact, they’re better than any 18-and-under team I’ve ever seen. What a juggernaut!
The Devil Dog kids looked nervous. They looked tight. They didn’t handle the puck cleanly.
Black Ice was ahead 3-0 after the first period. The Dogs tightened things up and played a scoreless second period.
I wanted to say something encouraging to my boy after the game. “You played them even the second period,” I said.
“No we didn’t,” he replied.
“Well . . . on the scoreboard you did.”
Final Score: Black Ice 3, Devil Dogs 0
Game 2 – Colorado Kodiaks
The Dogs matched up better physically with the Kodiaks than with Black Ice although the Kodiaks also had some incredibly fast players.
The Kodiaks went ahead 2-1 with about three minutes left in the game when a player tipped in a shot in front of the net.
The shot was high. Sean, the Devil Dog goalie, thought it was too high — you’re not allowed to tip a shot that’s above the crossbar — but the referee disagreed.
Sean was mad. He took a swing at the puck like he wanted to fling it into outer space, whiffed it, and smacked the referee in the foot.
Normally when you smack a referee with your stick, you’re going to get a penalty. The ref stared at him for a long time, told him to calm down, but didn’t call the penalty.
Thanks, ref!
A couple of minutes later, with less than a minute left in the game, the Dogs scored a late goal to tie the game.
Final Score: Devil Dogs 2, Kodiaks 2
Day 1 Wrapup
Black Ice played their second game against The Gong Show, the best team in Northern California. Black Ice won 10-2.
The Kodiaks played their second game against another California team, Mission Axiom, winning 6-1.
The Devil Dogs are playing Platinum for the first time and didn’t get a lot of respect in the draw.
Based on Day 1 results, it looks like the best teams in the division are Black Ice, Kodiaks and Mississauga Mission Rattlers. The Dogs played two of those teams already and their next game is against the Rattlers.
I think the Dogs are pretty obviously better than The Gong Show and Mission Axiom, but they’re not going to play either of those teams.
They should make the playoff round if they win their final two round robin games but that is not going to be easy . . .
10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life
A Bad Start
The tournament is off to a bad start and the boys haven’t even taken the rink yet.
One boy showed up yesterday with a 103 fever. I’m hearing this morning that his parents took him to urgent care. Nobody knows right now if he’s going to be able to play.
Hang on, it gets worse.
I don’t know who knows it yet but another boy went home late last night. His mom, who wasn’t at the tournament, died in her sleep. She wasn’t the healthiest person but she was about the same age as I am and wasn’t expected to die.
I heard about it this morning from one of the other dads, who’s a friend of their family. He heard about it last night when the boy’s dad woke him up with a phone call.
My son doesn’t know about it yet. He’s still asleep.
I’m trying to think if any of his friends have lost a parent before. I can’t think of anyone.
I wish my wife was here. She’s 10 times better than me at dealing with people and situations. She’d do and say the right things without even having to think about it.
What a shock. Rest in peace.
Twitter: 2010-07-27
- RT @PetrosAndMoney: Pola is the best coach ive ever been around and a better person and a dear friend…he can make great backs-p #
Hazing
My son’s a high school senior. He’s been playing in a basketball summer league with the school team.
When we hear about the Dez Bryant hazing story on the car radio, he says, “We made Norman [a sophomore] put our dishes away at the San Diego tournament.”
“Why him?” I ask.
“He talks a lot. Pierce [a freshman] is quiet.”
Twitter: 2010-07-26
- RT @joshcomers: May take up smoking again just as a way to get out of terrible indoor conversations. #
Leaving Tomorrow for NARCh
We’re heading out tomorrow morning for NARCh in San Jose — the grand finale, end-of-the-season roller hockey tournament.
The tournament’s actually been going on for a week and a half but Casey’s division — Bantam Platinum — doesn’t start till Tuesday. Bantam is the 16-and-under division, with a DOB cutoff date of December 31, so this season’s Bantam players are kids born in 1993 or 1994.
The Platinum division is the AAA division. Most tournaments call the skill divisions A, AA and AAA, but NARCh calls them Silver, Gold and Platinum. So Bantam Platinum is 16-and-under AAA.
In order to play at the NARCh final, your team has to play in a regional qualifying tournament. Based on your results in the qualifier, the tournament committee either assigns you to the Silver, Gold or Platinum division, or — if it’s a close call — they assign you to two divisions and let you pick which one you want to play in.
That’s what happened with Casey’s team, Revision Devil Dogs. They seeded Platinum/Gold in the qualifier and elected to play Platinum. Three other Bantam teams at the Irvine regional also seeded Platinum/Gold and they all elected to play Gold.
Since the Bantam Gold division played last week, we already know how those three teams fared:
- AKS 93 – Eliminated in the round-robin competition.
- Reebok Jr. Ducks Eschelon – Seeded third after round-robin games. Lost in the quarterfinals.
- Tour Raw Steel 94 OG – Seeded seventh. Won the tournament in a 1-0 final vs. Tour Outcasts 94, an Arizona team.
Should the Devil Dogs have elected to play Gold instead of Platinum?
I have to say I’ve never heard of a team seeding Platinum/Gold and deciding to play Platinum. The obvious line of thinking is “Let’s play Gold because we’ll have a better chance of winning.”
But that logic is being employed at regional qualifiers all over the U.S. and Canada. Most teams don’t want to play Platinum if they can play Gold instead.
So the Gold division is easier to win than Platinum but you’re still going to have to beat out a lot of good teams that could have played Platinum but didn’t. If you think you’re just going to show up and collect your medal, you’re wrong.
I think the Devil Dog kids are making the right decision.
They’ve come to a fork in the road. They can stay where they’re at and be AA players forever or they can challenge themselves to compete at the highest level of their sport, even if they don’t light the Platinum division on fire the first time they show up to play it.
It’s an honor to play Platinum.
“It’s not an honor if we get killed every game,” Casey says.
He already knows that Raw Steel won the Bantam Gold division and that Raw Steel and Devil Dogs are pretty equal teams. (The Devil Dogs lost the finals of the Irvine qualifier to Raw Steel in overtime, 2-1.)
“We could have won Bantam Gold,” he says.
“You could have won it,” I reply, “but that doesn’t mean you would have won it. Raw Steel seeded seventh so there were at least six other teams in there that had just as good a chance to win it.”
“We would have won it,” he says. Now he’s trying to be funny.
I’ve got my fingers crossed for these kids. I think (hope) they’re capable of being competitive and maybe stealing a game or two . . .
Fight or Flight
One of my owner’s friends is talking about the fight-or-flight response . . .
I don’t have a fight-or-flight response. I have something like a fight-or-flight response, but without the flight.
Grrrrrrr!
— Lightning 
Twitter: 2010-07-24
- RT @flowingdata: 7 Basic Rules for Making Charts and Graphs http://datafl.ws/yi #
- RT @margaretcho: Why is gordon ramsay always screaming and kicking shit its just fucking food #
Twitter: 2010-07-23
- RT @eddiepepitone: I am so not connected to reality today, but I do have a gun! #
Pat Haden
Patrick C. Haden, acclaimed civic and business leader and USC alumnus, will become new athletic director effective August 3, 2010.
Pat Haden — athlete, scholar, businessman. He’s a lot like me, except for the athlete part.
“You’re not a businessman,” my son says.
“I’m kind of a businessman.”
“No you’re not,” he says.
“Okay. So Pat Haden’s a lot like me, except for being an athlete and a businessman.”
The 6 Most Misguided Causes Ever Made Famous by Celebrities
Via Cracked.com.
The Lord Moves in Mysterious Ways
My eyes were severely burned by a toxic poison.Hospitalized Mon.Excruciating pain.Now home.Pray my sight loss is restored
The Lord moves in mysterious ways, e.g., blinding a mega-pastor.
Call me a skeptic, but if I were blind and in excruciating pain, I wouldn’t be sending Twitter updates. These guys like to exaggerate and call attention to themselves.
Update: Doctors have determined that Warren was unable to see because he had his eyes closed. I’m not kidding.