The Smart Girl's Guide to SPORTS

I have a delimna. I was reading this book and enjoyed the first chapter about basketball. The author had some stuff in the book that I didn't know yet and she has a witty way of writing. So I looked forward to the next chapter, which was about football. The second paragraph of this chapter turned me off and I have not been able to read any further. I know it is petty, but I dislike what she said and now cannot get past it. It has been two or more weeks and I still cannot get past this.

This is what offended me:

"One could argue that you have to be a little dumb to play a game where guys who can weigh 300 or more pounds - most of it muscle - come charging at you with all their might to bash into you and knock you down. Human instinct would compel you to run for your life in the opposite direction. But the truth is that football is too complex to be played by dumb players. Of course, some player are smarter than others. (But this is also the case with our esteemed presidents. Need I remind you that our current president has trouble staying conscious and eating pretzels at the same time?)

I cannot even read any further. This seems like a very cheap shot. I don't like the reference. Up until now, I have enjoyed her wit, but this is not witty. It is mean and untrue. It is like laughing at someone who trips and falls and goes into a coma.....okay that is extreme. But anyone can choke on something they are eating, and passing out is the normal consequence of having your airway cut off by something that you are eating. Geesh. I don't know if I will ever be able to finish reading this book. Maybe I will get over it....maybe.

ncaa dance

This blog is for the men that might be reading this. Hubby Dave wrote an editorial about the NCAA selection that some may find insightful or just funny. comments welcome.

http://www.macreportonline.com/Vindication.html

putting myself in others shoes

Sometimes I thimk I have a gift...at least I think it is a gift. Or maybe I just think way too much of myself. I think I am like the Counselor Deanna Troi from Star Trek, the Next Generation. ( Counselor Deanna Troi, a half-human/half-alien (Betazoid) empath with the ability to read emotions and sense what is happening around her. "Deanna is also a very wise person...) There have been times in my life where I think (and hope) that my ability as an empath has helped someone else. I think that I am able to tell (fairly accurately) what someone's mood is.

The problem is that I also take on the mood of the other person way too easily. If Dave is in a bad mood, then it is hard for me to distance myself and let him get himself out of the bad mood. I remember Mindy and I talking about this "ability" to take on the mood of others. We both lamented that it was hard to learn to recognize when we were taking on the feelings of the other person and getting upset ourselves. This also is why I cry so easily at movies and when reading books. I have trouble watching violent movies because I can sometimes physically feel pain when watching. I have noticed lately that when I see someone on TV fall on concrete or something like that, that a jolt goes through my body as if my body just fell also. It is a very uncomfortable feeling, although the jolt doesn't last long, so it is tolerable. I have not heard of anyone else having this same thing happen to them.

I have been able to help people with their relationships with other people, because I can sometimes articulate to them what the other person is feeling or thinking.

Just recently someone was talking to me about the child whose mother just recently died. They said that this 7-year-old boy was not talking and was having problems at school. His mother died the day after his 7th birthday after a year of fighting cancer. He is the oldest of the three children and his father doesn't want to talk about his wife's death. He wants to move on. The person who I was talking to has been asked to talk to the son.

Now maybe some of what I am going to tell you, you will tell me that it is just common sense and that I didn't say anything that anyone else would have told her. If that is the case, please do comment about this. Because if I do not have a special talent, but just an ordinary human response, then I need to know, so that I can stop thinking I have a gift or stop using my imagination, if that is what I am doing.

While she was talking, I sort of could imagine what the boy looked like...I still feel like I can when I think about his situation....although I doubt I will ever know what he looks like. But it seemed so clear to me immediately that he is mad at his mother for leaving him. I think that he might have made a birthday wish to make his mother feel better and then she died the next day. He feels anger and hopelessness that his wish did not come true. Also, he is angry at himself for being mad at her because everyone around him is saying how wonderful she was and how much they are going to miss her, but he is mad because she isn't around to take care of him. All his friends have a mother, but he doesn't.

On top of that he is confused about what happened to his mother. He saw her body in the coffin and then the coffin was put in the ground. He is scared for her.

Lastly, his father doesn't want to talk about his mother. He hasn't really told his son that, but the boy can sense that his father doesn't want to talk and that he shouldn't ask questions.

Well, the person I was talking with is going to try to talk to the boy and will let me know if any of my insight is valid. I think it will do the boy good to have someone to listen to him, especially if he feels he can say anything and not have that person get mad at him. I gave her some suggestions to start him talking and I hope that all goes well with them.

House for rent

Well, Dave and I checked out a house for rent that is on Merriman not far from 7 Mile. It has three bedrooms, finished basement, two full baths, and two car garage. Nice yard. Rent is within our budget. We are filling out the application. I so want this house. It is so cool. The landlord seemed nice. He and his wife lived in the house for about 15 years and then they bought a larger house. Dave has to keep telling me not to get my hopes up, but I am already trying to figure out what furniture will go where. There is a deck and the yard is landscaped. All the appliances are there. I feel like it is just what we wanted. Dave doesn't want me to be disappointed if we don't get it, but I told him that it is too late...I will be disappointed no matter what. But I can handle the disappointment. I will just focus on the next thing if we are turned down. I like to dream and plan.

A new hairdresser

I am still in search of the best hairdresser for me. I thought that I had found a really good place. Back in November you may remember I wrote about Manny. Well, their prices were very high. The haircut was pretty good, but really, with me working from home, I don't need to have a pricey haircut. Well, in the same plaza where I get my nails done (which by the way are looking just the way I like them, kind of short, pink and white, gel, shiny) is a new salon. So I walk in last night to see if they take walk-ins. I am such a spur of the moment person, it is hard for me to make appointments ahead of time. Well, the place is all fixed up with white doilies and painted pink, red, and black. Patricia greets me warmly. I ask if she has time for a haircut. She says that she does in about 30 minutes or so. I said that I had to get my nails fixed and that I would be back. I had broken a nail at the final game of the basketball championship....a ball came rolling under the table where I was at during practice and somehow the gel nail cracked when I tried to push the ball back out. Don't know how. Anyway, when I came back, she had me come in, sit a table, chat, gave me some water. She had other people she was also working on, her mother and one or two of her friends. The shop just opened last week. She had nice music on. Patricia is Irish and had long, curly red hair. She was probably around my age. I had to wait quite a while to get my haircut, but while I was waiting, I read my book. Periodically, Pat would wash my hair, put a "treatment" on my hair (free because of their grand opening), have me sit under the dryer. The whole atmosphere reminded me of the movie, Steel Magnolias. I was wondering to myself, "Is this the place for me? Do I fit in? Can I see myself coming here over and over again....making friends....relaxing? I hope she cuts my hair okay, so I am not embarassed to go out." Well, finally it is my turn to sit in the chair. She asks if I have ever had my profile read? What? No, I guess not. She shoves my hair all to one side and hands me a mirror to look at my profile. Supposedly I have a good profile that many hairstyles will work with. Good. Then she wonders if I like to take a lot of time with my hair or just like to dry and run. Of course, I am dry and run, no mess kind of person. So she cuts a little bit, uses the razor a little, and voila (vwä-lä), I am done.

Well, now at home, looking at my hair, it looks pretty good. Definitely I will go back and try again.

Home again

We are home safe and sound. What a great time we had. We have ideas for getting sponsors for MAC Report Online and we met a lot of new friends. What an exciting time for us. I constantly tell myself to not get worked up because things are not happening fast enough with the MRO. I tell myself to just enjoy the journey.

Championship Game at the Q

Well, I will try to update this post as the game goes on. Dave and I are at press row, but this time we are in the front row at the end near one of the baskets. They are just now announcing the players. Cool lighting and effects. Crowd is really excited. ESPN2 is covering the game. Is anyone watching?

Toledo vs Kent State - I forgot to say.

I expected a bigger crowd, but Dave says it is because it is Toledo and Kent. If Akron was playing Kent, then there would have been more people. Well, what if by some weird chance it had been a Michigan school? Then there would probably be even less people. The championship will be at the Q for the next five years, so maybe a Michigan school will be in the finals one of those years, and I hope I am here to see it.

I haven't had to take pictures because a guy from Kalamazoo is taking them for our website. His camera is a little bigger than mine, but still not as big as everyone else's.

Something that amazes me, although it probably shouldn't, is how well run this whole thing is. Everyone seems to know exactly what to do and as far as Dave and I can tell, there have been no snafus.

The roar of the crowd is deafening

Tonight I have my laptop here at the Quicken Loans Arena, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Watching the first game of the night, Akron vs Ohio (U). The arena is packed and this isn't the finals. The crowd noise is awesome. Dave and I are sitting in the second row of press row, right in front of some very boiterous fans. At each time out and halftime, Dave lets me update the website with the current score. Last night we didn't get back to the hotel until midnight or later.

We are staying at the Renaissance, and I might have written about this yesterday, but there is a walkway between the hotel, through Tower City (shopping and food) and then to the Q Arena. I estimate that it is at least a mile from our room to the arena, although since I have been so sedentary of late (work and poor weather), it feels like 3 miles at least. Of course, too, I want to be slightly stylish and am wearing my hush puppies, which are suppose to be comfortable, but after my feet have swollen to twice their size, they aren't.

1st day at MAC Basketball tournament

Well, we got to Cleveland last night. We were suppose to be at a meeting for the MAC News Media, but that wasn't well attended. We did run into a bunch of Eastern employees that we knew and also one of our internet competitors. It was a late night. We were staying the first night at the Super 8 motel, so we went back there last night. Then this morning, we headed into downtown Cleveland. We valeted our car at the Renaissance Hotel and put our things at the concierge's office. We will be checking in later.

The first two games were intense. The first one, Toledo won and the second Akron one. There are two more tonight. Dave will be writing his first article soon. I will probably go check us in to the hotel.

I am very tired and there are two more games. Whew!

My people will be extinct

Yes, my people will be extinct. Society will kill off all of my people. Natural selection will slowly make so that no one who looks like me will be around. It saddens me. Blondes will be extinct in 200 hundred years. What can we do to stop this decline? Forget that blacks, asians, mexicans, and others are being overlooked and downtrodden. Soon there will be no blondes. What am I to do? I feel that I need to raise awareness for this. Infomercials will probably be the best way to get my message out. But first, I probably need to write a true story book to help bring together the few blondes that are left in existance.

Please, please, do not kill any more blondes, as you are killing my people.

From Geraldo at Large Blog (click on my title above to view full blog):
"According to a study just published in The Journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, blondes are about to stop having more fun.

Reported this weekend in both the London and New York Times, the study maintains that it's because blondes have become obsolete. Flashback to the end of the last Ice Age in Northern Europe: 10,000-11,000 years ago, times were tough. The only real food available was the herds of wooly mammoth, reindeer, bison and horses. But hunting the critters armed with at best primitive weapons was dangerous, sometimes deadly work — and a disproportionate number of the mostly male hunters were killed.

That made for intense competition among women for the scarce men. The study authored by Peter Frost of St. Andrews University in Scotland maintains that blonde, blue-eyed ness, which began as a rare mutation then caught on. Every cave man wanted one, and as they selectively sought them out, increasing numbers of Northern European women evolved with blonde hair and blue eyes with which to stand out from their darker female rivals — kind of a Darwinian makeover to help them score that hard-to-get caveman.

But Mother Nature's roots are showing!

Because relative to the entire population too few people carry the blond gene, natural as opposed to bottle blondes are likely to be extinct within the next 200 years. According to the study, the last natural blonde is likely to be born in Finland in the year 2202.

See, you thought you just had global warming, or Iran getting the bomb to worry about."

Monk

A new Monk was on last night. That is just the best show. Kind of dorky, but very entertaining. I find that I am a little like Monk. If I see someone who has their collar eschew, then my fingers itch to fix it. When I am at a restaurant, I have to line up the salt and pepper shakers and other items on the table so they look nice. But in other ways, I am nothing like Monk.

MAC basketball championships

Next week, Dave and I head to Cleveland for the MAC basketball championship games. I look forward to this. One it gets me out of the house and it is sort of a vacation. Two, I like watching live sports. I will be trying to take some good pictures and post them on the website. Dave and I will have media credentials, so we will have access to places at the arena that the average person does not have access to. Last year, Dave just had media credentials and I was left to fend for myself in the bleachers.

We hope to make connections with certain people this year besides covering the games:
1. The MAC news media association is going to have elections for president on Wednesday and Dave is hoping to get elected. The elections seem very informal, so he may have a chance. This will get him (and I) recognized in the media for the MAC and we will develop more connections.
2. We will be talking to someone from the MAC office to see if there is a way we can promote the weekly radio show, maybe get it syndicated and/or sponsored.

There will be some interesting games at the arena. Toledo and Kent State are two teams to watch. Eastern probably will not be there again this year, but hopefully their program will start turning things around and maybe next year they will make it to the tournament. They have another game on Saturday.

Dave announced the MAC Report Online basketball awards and received a lot of discussion on his picks. He picked a WMU player for one of his picks and the WMU website immediately put that on their page. Then on Sunday night, the same night that he announced the awards, Kalamazoo Channel 3 did a newscast about it. So we are getting some recognition. It is slow going and we are learning as we go.

I have signed up our website to be an affiliate with a few websites. We have Google adsense on our website and so far we have earned a whooping $35 dollars. (so if you check our the website, help us out by clicking on a google ad - ) Sirius has approved our site for affiliate status, so if someone registers with them and even buys their hardware we earn money. Lastly, we get points if people download the Firefox browser or the Thunderbird email client. These are good alternatives to Internet Explorer and Outlook. They aren't as prone to hackers causing problems through IE and messing up your computer.

Well, as you can see, it is 3:30 a.m. and I am finally getting a little tired. I had about two hours sleep and then woke up with a very stuffy nose. I must have forgotten to take my allergy medication this morning and this is what I get.