- We are using the word 'guru' only because 'charlatan' is too long to fit into a headline. — Peter Drucker #
Twitter: 2010-04-07
Playing Up
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 clowning around the whole time. I’m sure they gave zero thought to the possibility of losing this game.
The AKS coach obviously hadn’t bothered to work through the tie-break scenario because after coming back from 5-2 down to 5-4, he pulled his goalie with about a minute left in the game, allowing a Devil Dog player to score an empty-net goal with 11 seconds left and knock AKS out of the final with a 6-4 win.
The Dogs lost the final 2-1 to top-seeded Reebok HB — still a good result for playing up in a higher age bracket.
Next up: NARCh regional qualifier in two weeks.
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 #
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.
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 . . .
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!
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.?
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 . . .
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.
Don’t Underestimate Me
Now, each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true,
And if you don’t underestimate me,
I won’t underestimate you.
My owner and I took a walk tonight and we saw a woman we’ve seen many times before. She is about 40 years old in human years and a little bit chubby.
Tonight she was playing with a volleyball in front of her house with her kids and another girl. She was very good! She was bumping and setting with aplomb!
“I underestimated her,” my owner said. “She looks like a chubby housewife but she’s also a good volleyball player.”
That happens to me a lot too. As you can see in the photo, I’m not very big compared to some other dogs but I have the heart of a much larger animal.
— Lightning 
Your Morale is Too High
The Census is Unfair to Dogs
My owner filled out the census form for our whole family except me. He said he was sorry but there are no questions on the census about pets.
I think that’s not fair because dogs bring a lot of love and joy to peoples’ lives. If they don’t count us, how will they make sure that we have adequate access to veterinary services and rawhide treats?
— Lightning
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!
Easter Bunny Inc.
Twitter: 2010-03-27
- I thought Butler University was for butlers, like Clown College for clowns. #
No Bars at Home
No bars at home? AT&T to offer $150 fix
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.
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.
Overheard
Thomas Jefferson on the Health Care Bill
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
My fellow Americans —
This is a glorious day in our great nation! No, I’m not referring to that tragedy of a health care bill, which I’ll get to in a moment. I’m talking about Free Pastry Day at Starbucks! Who doesn’t enjoy a tasty scone with his morning coffee?
Now, on a more somber note . . .
Goodbye, representative democracy! Farewell, consent of the governed!
President Obama today signed into law a far-reaching measure that will affect everyone living in these United States, now and in the future. It is opposed by most of the country and it is now law.
I would never have believed that the government I helped to establish would one day engage in this kind of forced sodomy against its own people.
We know what is right and we will do it, regardless of whether you want it done to you or not.
If Karl Marx were here, he would no doubt make a case for trading off liberty in favor of whatever it’s called when a centralized authority redistributes your income in the interest of “equality.” If you know even a little bit about American history, I guess you know which side of that fence old Tom Jefferson is on.
Switching from politics to economics: People with insurance use more health care resources than people without. Put another stitch in my head, doc! I’ve got insurance!
If more people have insurance, it will increase the demand for health care, which in turn will increase the price.
Now imagine that everyone has insurance. I got your health care reform right here: We’re going to drive the price of health care through the roof, then spend a titanic amount of money helping poor people afford it.
I have no (proven) living descendants and for that I say — Thank God! The next generation of Americans is going to be crushed under the burden of paying for this misguided vision of government.
Yours in sadness and in hope,
Tom
Twitter: 2010-03-23
- RT @Aimee_B_Loved: "This is a Big f-ing Wheel!" – Joe Biden, age 4. #