The Bravo Blog: Hobbies

Still here

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:44:48 GMT

I just posted some photos from a 3 day weekend my co-workers and I went on over Dragon Boat festival, a couple of weekends ago. We traveled across the longest bridge in China and out to the countryside and mountain region home to many waterfalls and villages. We visited 3 areas, XiangShan, NingBo, and XiKou. Most of the time it rained, its the rainy season here in China and over the past 14 days there has been only 1/2 a sunny day and rain at least every 24 hour period. We saw many beautiful sites and I did get some great photos, but being the only English speaker on a tour presents its own issues, so I did miss one photo op, but that is ok... I did learn quite a bit because I left the camera on the bus. Now if only I had time to retouch all my digital photos with the editing software I have...

I really have to say I am very satisfied with my Nikon D40x. Because of the rain it got soaked many times. I would try to keep it dry but it never fogged inside and worked flawlessly the whole time. I did break it down to clean/dry it and the lenses 3 to 4 times a day but it held in there and is still working perfectly. While we become more and more dependent on technology there are times its durability fail us, I am glad to see items today are more rugged and durable then 10 years ago. I hope they keep this up. My laptop is 3.5 years old now and only has issues with really new games, the keyboard is worn but it still does what I want and despite some software glitches its like new (screen has no scratches and besides some light spots is still beautiful to watch) and has only had issues twice, both over heating. Cell phone was doing good, but the camera lens got scratched on the beach, my fault. So far I have been quite lucky in my tech purchases. I hope I can keep that up.

I really want to jump into some topics but time is very limited. My job is becoming much more demanding, I am logging about 60 hours a week now, and my wife's new job is requiring her to travel once a month - minimum, so I have all the regular things to do on my own as well. I am working on some recaps and hope to get them out before their relevancy fades; like Obama's fatherhood speech, price insanity from food to gas, the unraveling of our social fabric continuing, as well as observations of thing here in China and of things in the news back in the US and Europe (good job Ireland!). The world keeps spinning and unfortunately all the things that need to be done keep growing but the day stays the same length.

Photo Quota reached... Again!

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:05:34 GMT

I have reached my monthly quota again; unable to upload any more photos until March. I will have to complete the Downtown Shanghai album (showing a panoramic view of Shanghai from a unique vantage point, I will discuss when the album is done. I also have some shots of fireworks on the last night of Chinese New year as well as the festival at Yu Garden I will add after that. I was planning a trip to Osaka Japan to see the cherry blossoms in March/April but getting my wife a Japanese visa has become too problematic and seeing the atmosphere towards Americans there at this time, it is best to not go there.

Castro handed over the government to his brother, no big surprise there. He is vowing to continue the revolution. Forgive me for being a little off struck here, but how can a revolution last for 50 years, and with the past government overthrown and opponents executed... isn't the revolution over?

Ralph Nader is running for president, again. Billary Clinton stated that is unfortunate and a waste for everyone. Funny how the possibility of a third party is met with such cynicism and distain. I though America was about choice and options, not just the mainstream flavors of the year. Now yes, Nader did get 19k votes in Florida and Bush had only a 500 vote lead over Gore in 2000 so the Dems feel he cheated Gore from the White House for it but hey, that is water under the bridge and is it really fair to blame your lack of generating better votes for your party your candidate’s problem and not the third party candidate who is offering a different vision, not just the vanilla or chocolate we are told to chose from? Nader will be negligible in this year’s election, but we the people need to decide who we vote for, not just the two ruling parties who want to control the political process and keep it out of our hands.

Congrats to the US Navy for not only striking, but demolishing the failed spy satellite last week. We accepted the mission and executed it flawlessly. The modified SM3 may cause the ‘deck apes’ problems as it scorched the paint job, but a large Bravo Zulu to GM’s and Weapons Department onboard the USS Erie! While the mission was clouded in speculation as to why, it was done, done right, and proved the effectiveness of our anti-missile/satellite capability and again shows the world that we can do what we say we can. Yes the Chinese did the same earlier, but now they know we can also do it too.

The torching of the embassy in Belgrade was unfortunate and while the country is going through the motions to look like they are trying to bring justice to those who did it, we all know this is just a dog and pony show. Russia is now threatening to stir up trouble in Georgia in retaliation. Let’s hope that we can put cold war policies aside and work this out diplomatically for once.

Over here there has been quite a deal of flack over Steven Spielberg’s decision to quite the Olympics. First the Chinese are shocked, then offended, now they say he never signed the contract on time so he technically was never employed! Which is it! If he had not quite would it had been an issue if this document were not signed? Frankly his decision to quite was his own and the Chinese people have to deal with it. He can do what ever he likes, that is part of being a free and fair person. He had an issue with his employer, the Chinese government runs everything here so they were employing him (not just the Olympic Committee), and he decided to quite. My question to the Chinese people is this, why Stephen Spielberg? As they are now getting a Chinese artistic director to design the opening and closing ceremonies, why not do this from the beginning? So what if he is famous, he is a movie director, he is American, and he lives in the left wing Mecca of US, Hollywood. Why not John Woo, Ang Lee, or Zhang Yimou just to name the most famous and well known outside of China? One thing China needs to learn and learn quickly, if you are to be a super power (like the US or Russia) you will have all of your decisions, policies, and actions aired on public opinion platforms all over the world and most of it will be negative. Remember all the criticism of US policies you have shouted out over the past 50 years, well now its your turn to receive it. When you become an economic, political, and military powerhouse you invite criticism and denouncements on everything you do. This is just the beginning, trust me.

Finally some inspiring news to record. The ISS, International Space Station, has a new lab, the European Columbus module is installed, powered up, heated, and beginning operations soon. Next up, the Japanese Kibo module (the largest) to be ferried up to by the Endeavour shuttle next month. As the ISS grows, getting back to the moon accelerates, thanks to the Asian Space Race, and continued data from Mars rolls in we will have better things to do with our time then start conflicts over petty matters and quarrels better left to theologians and diplomats. The ISS will hopefully allow us to overcome the long term space exposure issues so we can begin to take our first real steps beyond our current womb of Earth.

New Photos

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:48:52 GMT

I posted 4 new albums, re-arranged some for better cronological order of events. For those in Shanghai last night's abrupt fireworks at midnight were the ending of the traditional Chinese New Year lunar month, the whole next day will be fireworks all day and night. Last year at this time the apartment above us caught on fire, hopefully none of that this year! Obama and McCain won Wisconsin and Hawaii... now the media has to buy into the fact they were backing the wrong horses. I hope people enjoy the photos and I still have 1 album left, photos from a mystery location, but one you can see all the famous downtown sights from, including the tallest 2 buildings in the world.

Talking about Halloween Myths Quiz - MSN Encarta

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:57:01 GMT

Another Halloween, another quiz

Quote

Halloween Myths Quiz - MSN Encarta

I got a 9/10 on this one, (Results here http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/quiz/quiz.aspx?QuizID=283&qpt=results)

Some things about this quiz... (Spoilers so don't read below until AFTER you take the quiz!)

I enjoy taking these quizes, testing usless information is a hobby of mine. Besides trival pursuit there is little else this welth of usless information comes in handy for!

I was in Detroit when this was going on in the mid 1970's, and yes the emergency rooms were flooded with parents x-raying candy the following years, the media picked it up and it went national for many many years following that
This is just silly
Classic ghost story covering a morality theme to discourage kids from 'parking'
I guessed and got it right, America is too full of idiots
Urban legend
Anyone from the 1970's and 1980's knows this
Very tricky, technically can't happen, however medical advances over the years have lessoned this, as well as embalming!
Urban legend
Well, publicized every year
See #4 (I got it wrong because with 2 of the same I spilt the difference so to get at least 1 right, tricks on me!)

Sports jinxes and news update

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 20:55:36 GMT

People in sports believe in jinxes, it was just this week or so that some news organization found 40% of baseball fans believed in them. Now I can’t remember the outlet or the date but I do remember hearing it. Any sports fan will fear a jinx, and will try to avoid them at all costs. Well, I have been living on the not so safe side of the tracks for most of my life so here it goes…

After just over 1/3 of the NFL season and I am batting .667 in my Lions picks, and batting a smoking 1.00 for the record of wins vs. losses thus far. Now I have been out of the US for 2 football seasons, and missed 2 drafts, and have not been exposed to the flapping heads at ESPN or ESPN radio, but a little common sense and knowledge can go a long way.

I got a pig-skin my last trip to Chicago and have been teaching Coco how to pass and catch. She is doing pretty good I must add, much better at catching after just 2 lessons then most jr. high kids I have seen or played with when I played at that age. Her passing is about where it should be, and it is improving, she can even throw decent spirals now and up to 20 yards!

On to other things, the mortgage mess is continuing to snowball, most peoples stingers, kickers, or whatever they are called kicked in this month and will continue for the next 6 months, doubling many peoples mortgages and causing this housing problem to grow. The real problem is this. So many of peoples mortgages are no longer held at the banks but have been sold, resold, repackaged and sold, and then finally resold yet again so there is no one to talk to talk to to try to get keep your head above water and your house off the auction block. I hate it for all those folks, but lets not forget, who signed the sub-prime mortgage in the first place and the reason so many had to use them was because the bank would not finance them because of their credit. There was a reason for that and just because you found a lender does not mean you deserved the house at that moment of your life.

Beijing was hit by record breaking smog today, airports closed, old people and kids told to stay inside, fog and smog so thick visibility was down to 40 yards all over the city. Not a good thing to have happen 10 months before a ‘green and clean’ Olympics. Long time readers will notice I quite blogging about air quality here in Shanghai. The beginning of the year was pretty bad, the air quality here the first 4 months of the year was really bad, some days spiked above 3 times the highest limits of the highest threshold. In the remaining 6 months however, the air quality has dramatically improved. The number of green days, low air pollution, have far exceeded the yellow days, moderate air pollution, and the there have been no orange days, heavy air pollution or red days… don’t ask.

Space shuttle Discovery has passed her preliminary heat shield check and is working on getting Harmony installed and moving one of the solar arrays from its temporary position to its permanent location on the outboard truss. This will make way for further expansion with the EU Columbus and Japanese Kibo scientific modules. China joined in the big show by launching a lunar explorer satellite just as Japan’s began orbiting the moon and surveying the surface.

People like to live in nature, beautiful views and peaceful surroundings. Unfortunately these views come with a price. In Florida there are lightning strikes and hurricanes, in northern California its earthquakes. In the Midwest its tornadoes and seasonal flooding. In southern California its wildfires. Years of drought and stopping the practice of controlled burns due to housing developments being placed in areas where the danger was the most. Urban sprawl is biting back, and in a very costly and tragic manner. The moment we lose respect for anything is the moment it will bite us in the butt.

53 man roster

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 09:54:36 GMT

Well, the NFL preseason is over, and despite all the news some football did get played. My Lions went 2-2 on the preseason, winning the first two, losing to the Super Bowl defending champ Colts, and then not ceasing a close Bills game. Next up, Oakland Raiders in California. Roger Goodell has taken the spotlight away from the game in the preseason (and before) and rightly so. He is sending a strong message, although a little mixed in the Vick case, and continues to do so. He insists the NFL be THE sport all others are measured up against in all facets. It is about time someone took responsibility and cleaned up a pro sports league in America. So far only Golf has a cast of morale and decent athletes to whom controversy is seen as just bad manners by most people.

From Tank Johnson to Michael Vick the path has made headlines while the actual game took back seat. Of course its preseason and the games doesn't mean jack, and are only there to put the rookies through their paces, rub the rust off the vets, and work the kinks out of the new playbooks and evaluate the coaching staff's performance. Well boys and girls those days are behind us now and the focus has to shift away from crashing Lamborghinis into light poles and coaches getting suspended for obtaining and taking banned substances, no matter the lame reasons given. Fall is here, temps are dropping, harvests are being brought in off the fields, the moon is bigger, and sound of plastic colliding and men grunting under physical combat raises in the air from high-school grid irons to college and pro arenas alike. It is football season and all the hype and distractions of the preseason need to stop as put up or shut up time is here.

The Lions have a mediocre schedule, but one I predict will see more losses then wins. Yea, I know historically this is a safe assumption to make, but Detroit can not have a .500 season this year, their schedule it too aggressive for a rebuilding team. Of these I am making my predictions, realistically less optimistic then Jon Kitna (I can afford to be as I am not the offensive leader trying to spark optimism and confidence), and here they are:

Oakland, win
Minnesota, win
Eagles, loss
Chicago, loss
Washington, win
Tampa Bay, win (after a bye week)
Chicago, loss and just because
Denver, loss
Arizona, win
New York, loss
Green Bay, win
Minnesota, loss
Dallas, loss
San Diego, loss
Kansas City, loss
Green Bay, loss (its at Lambeau)

There you have it, 6 and 10. Better then last year, by a few games, but less then the 8 and 8 Kitna predicted. Detroit has some major offensive potential this year, but that has not shown up on the field since Barry Sanders was in the backfield. Detroit's D will get picked apart, and the decision to let some experienced corners go will come back to bite the management in the arise, count on it. The draft was not sensational, the coach is not battle tested, so that leaves the offense as the only weapon. Detroit will not be able to out score the likes of Chicago, New York, and Kansas City, and without a good pass defense they will get lit up like a Christmas tree every Sunday. The bye week is week 5, part of why my last 8 games only have 2 wins, the defense will be so battered and the offensive plan so well known it is a fools folly to imagine anything else.

What is odd are the assumptions that every year for every team is a rebuilding year. This is because of free agency, performance demands, and pressure to succeed with limited resources in record times. When Bill Belichick could be fired for a bad season who can build a franchise team anymore? I wish the madness would stop, but it won't. Teams will be in a constant state of flux season in and out from now on because its more exciting. It also gives the flapping heads at the sports networks so much to talk about they seem like experts and we follow them as gurus of the pig skin. No one with any degree of certainty can say what January will hold, but that is what makes it all exciting. Gone are the days of Barry Sanders and 300+ yard games in offense. As the Bills showed, even if Detroit jumps out to a quick lead, without a good defense that can at lease cause havoc for the other team, you can't win. The best offense is a good Defense. Bill Ford and the front office should be fired, everyone in Detroit knows that, but the likelihood of that is slim. Instead someone needs to take a gamble, pick a side and commit 100% to that plan. If you want a high scoring Offense, build up the line so the QB can have a good 8 seconds to think, get the receivers in place, a solid QB core built and damn the torpedoes. The St Louis Rams took this philosophy to the Super Bowl some time back, and they slowly built up a defense, but when you are scoring 5 to 7 touchdowns a game who cares as long as your D can be half way competent.

New pictures

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:24:09 GMT

Spring is here! It is getting warmer and I can leave work when it is still a little light outside! Customary to my past few years on this blog I am changing the colors and themes to reflect the new season. The little one is almost 7 weeks old now and she is beginning to get a distinct personality. She is way ahead in some milestones, gripping objects, holding her head up when on her stomach, turning over on soft surfaces, and even trying to imitate speech, sort of. She is smiling more then ever and we decided to take advantage of that and share some photos. Hope everyone enjoys as much as we do.

Photos of Guangzhou

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:58:42 GMT

I finally have the pictures up from the trip to GZ, from the 24 hour train ride down and our little mini adventures we had around Coco's home town. Guangzhou is an old and large city. Coco is still doing fine, although neither of us really likes being seperated. 6 weeks is all the time it is susposed to take. I remember in high school 6 weeks seemed like forever, for the past few years six months was a drop in the bucket... we will have to see what version it will be this time.

Enjoy the views of Guangzhou in December, as it may be cool there but still green and flowers are still blooming. A very nice change of pace for the rest of the places it is cold and gray.

Changing seasons

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 04:04:27 GMT

I have changed the background of my blog again, as the seasons change. While it is not cold and snowy in my home state or Shanghai (no snow in either place most of the winters) my last state of residence, Wisconsin, has had freezing evenings so I thought it apporpriate to get rid of the leaves and switch to the pre-snow theme. For the first time in 8 years I know I will not have to deal with snow, slush, frozen what ever on my windshield in the moring (no car and no snow/dew/rain/whatever).

The winter thus far seems very much on par with that of Virginia Beach, damp and windy making for a biting cold that is hard to shake. Time will tell how this goes. Other minor adjustments are in place and while the wife is away I hope the long lonely winter nights will be spent with me compleating a good music list, tieing in my MSN Group and finally organizing and making backups and a PDF version of my early works and relevant present ones into a sort of 'life lessons learned' guide. Speaking of which, I have learned how to add custom graphics into MSN Groups so hopefully I can upload some and get a more logical and orderly structure then it currently is, then again hosting in Hong Kong is pretty cheap but I doubt I have that much ambition or time with a new job, new family member on the way, and new year all to deal with in about a months time.

New Pictures

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:08:07 GMT

I have posted 2 new photo albums as I see they tend to be the most popular things on my blog. My wife wants me to begin a series of themes with my photos, currently we are working on all the luxury car dealerships in downtown Shangahi. Lamborghini, yes there is one here and not too far from my office too, BMW, and Porche are all that are left form the exotic market, well I haven't found any British dealers yet so Austin Martin, Bentley, etc will be left out unless I get really serious about the theme thing.

I saw an interesting program on Chinese screen writers and directors, the 5th Generation, and it had quite a bit of dialoge from Martin Scorscasie, yes I misspelled that but will fix it later,. One thing that struck me was a line he said that takes me back to my film class. The director shows you things on purpose. The camera is a tool and a window used to show only a part of the whole picture, so it is always very important what is in this window. He also stated Chinese directors use different camera angles and lighting, that I was aware of, and this got me to thinking about my pictures. I know how to frame a still, and how to offset something to make it stand out and more interesting. However I have never taken any photo classes, thank god, and feel it has worked out the best. I take pictures to remind myself of places, people, or feelings at that time. I often take too many pictures now that I have a digital camera, but it has only allowed me to explore some more creative shots.

I miss using my 35mm, it is here and collecting dust at the moment which is a shame. Hopefully I can do what I was intending on doing from the get go, use the digital for reference, then the 35 for actual shots. Ok so this is pretty self centered and rambling so far so let me get back to the point.

The pictures were from last weekend as we enjoyed a blue sky day and one of the last days of summer out side in the sun. I love buildings and it shows, there are plenty of them here. A theme I have in mind is the concrete and glass forrest of Shanghai, what do you think? I hope you find them interesting and enjoyable as they were fun to take. If the weather holds out we might get to go to the zoo this weekend too!

New Photos

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:07:01 GMT

As some may have noticed I have posted some photos of my recent trip to China for Chinese New Year Celebrations. These are primarily of fireworks and a few of decorations found in Shanghai and Guangzhou and also of Coco and her friends and myself. Being an amiture photographer and extremly shy I seldom like to get in front of the lense. I must admit the Cannon SureShot A620 I got did a pretty good job with the minimal amount of fuss. Set the camera to Fireworks mode and that is about it. I was susposed to be using a tripod and have the camera pointed at only one place so some of the photos came out shaky (the shutter stays open for 1.5 to 2 seconds) but as you can see, some of the smoke trails are crystal clear and in perfect focus. Trailing the fireworks was harder, but thanks to the big and bright LCD screen on the camera it made it much easier then trying to follow them up through the viewfinder. Timing the explosions was hard and not always perfect but I think I did an ok job for my first go at it.

As you will notice the pictures came out pretty good, and the editing software that came with the camera is not too bad either, but I hate the red-eye reduction part, it is a pain in the you know what, to get it to do what you need it to. I am happy at the 7.1 MP resolutions. After a few printouts I must admit it is hard for me to tell the difference between my Pentax K1000's color 4x6's and the Cannon's when printed out on a high quality photo printer (which I do not have unfortunately). There is very little noise in the blacks which is the real test to a good digital photo. The ones I uploaded on this blog were compressed so you may notice some noise but that happens when you compress a 4 MB photo down to something the web can handle. I would say in total I took around 275+ pictures this trip, which is about 150 more then the last time I was in China. Having a 1GB memory card is a big help. It can hold around 750 hi-res pics or well over 1000+ med-res pics. The movie capability is ok, the noise is a bit bad but hey it is just a digital camera. I was impressed at the video it did shoot, as for color and light sensativity. I recorded some night video and action video and it did better then I was expecting.

With that being said here are some of my glimpses into Chines New Year through my lense. I will be adding some other pictures from the trip soon. I hope everyone enjoys them, and as my DM says, how ofter will others get a chance to see such a thing. I am thinking this digital camera will inspire me to get back into taking photos of more and more things in the future and also to begin experimenting and comparing it with the Pentax, especially in black and white, and using the filters verses the built in filter settings. Oh one really cool feature of the Cannon, it can stitch a photo, take two parts and put them together to create a panoramic shot, like the ones I took in New Orleans a few years back, see the blog archive for scans of them. It was a fun trip and I am thinking of making another one this spring, we will see what Shanghai holds for photo ops in the spring months!

Fantacy Football - Week 13 Reacap, Week 1 of playoffs Review

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 05:17:29 GMT

Well, the bracket is set now, and my 8-5 Kamikazes, tied in the West Division lead behind the 8-5 This TeamSucks (who own the tie breaker over me) are going up against the powerhouses of the Eastern Division, 10-3 Giants and the 9-4Scrubs (owned by my best friend!!!). And the brackets look like this.... Game 1, bracket 1, me against the league jugernaunt the GIANTS! this is a team with 989 points scored so far, with a win streak of 5 games, and some of the best consistant players in the league. Then there is loley ole me, with 978 points for the season and after dropping 3 in a row, was able to pull one win off... and with spotty players at best.

Thats right boys and girls, it does no look good for the away team! On the flip side, my friends team the Scrubs, has exploded in the past 4 games and has scored a scoarching 1054 points, #2 in the league, and had a 4 game win streak halted last week by a very close game. His opponent, my rival now, is the division leader with 988 points and I happened to be the next to last victum in a 4 game win streak. Good match up.

I must admit I am nervous. My first go and I am in the playoffs, and against the most winning team in the league. However on papaer we seem very evenly matched, but performance wise, no contest. I need this week to be a breakout week for my guys and a flop for his! Without further adu:

QB M Brunell of the Redskins, playing the Cardnials Ranked #13

RB L Johnson of the Chiefs, playing the Cowboys 6

RB S Jackson of the Rams, playing the Vikings 11

WR L Fitzgerald of the Cardnials, playing the Redskins 4

WR J Jurevicius of the Seahawks, playing the 49ers 26

TE A Gates of the Chargers, playing the Dolphins 1

D The Bengals, playing the Browns 9

K S Graham of the Bengals, playing the Browns (#2 kicker used due to matchup) 4

My Opponent:

QB M Hasselbeck of the Seahawks, playing the 49ers Ranked #8

RB C Taylor of the Ravens, playing the Broncos 44

RB T Barber of the Giants, playing the Eagles 4

WR C Johnson of the Bengals, playing the Browns 2

WR L Coles of the Jets, playing the Raiders 39

TE J Shockey of the Giants, playing the Eagles 2

D Giants, playing the Eagles (who were shut out last week!) 3

K R Bironas of the Titans, playing the Oilers 12

There are still trades and waivers pending so time will tell if these two line ups will be the final ones! Time will tell. Average points favor my line up, but the real world matchups favor the Giants. I need luck to take this one, and make it into week two of the playoffs with a shot at the big game!

Pictures, phase one in

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 01:51:59 GMT

New Pictures to post... but bad news. A whole roll of film was exposed by the customs people and their X-Ray machines, so I HAVE to go back now to get those back! I hope you enhoy. I will be posting Pics of Down Town Chicago too! So Enjoy!

Fantacy Football Week 8

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 20:35:42 GMT

Last weeks contest pitted me against the league commissioner! My 2 of my 3 highest scoring players were on bye weeks and the health of another weapon was questionalbe. My quarterback, Mark Brunell of the Washington Redskins, had a devistating game which netted me no points and puts his durability into question. Despite all this I walked away victorious yet again. And after 3 weeks no need to shift around any more players. The season is almost 2/3rds over now and there are only two teams at 6-2. A division rival and myself. I own the first game between our two teams but he has a better combination of players.

Yet again time will tell how well I can manage my pieced together team of dark horses into high scoring routes like last week. This marks the second week I have scored more then 100 points, but it also seems my Divisions scores are rising making no game a given. Next week I face the only team in the league with a 0-8 record, and I do not want to be their only win, or the begin of a late season spoiler game. My best running back/receiver is on a bye this week, Steven Jackson of St Louis, but I get Corey Dillon of New England back, rested and proven, and Kevin Barlow of San Francisco can fill in for another week, I just hope he has another breakout game again. I will have to pick the Bengals defense against Baltimore over Detroits against the injured Vikings, Detroit has to play an away game, and despite an broken QB they are playing in the metrodome, and that might be enough to give the offense a good game. Baltimore looked good last night, but their offense made some key mistakes and this is a short week for them, so the Monday Night hangover, coupled with a key AFC contest weighs in Cinncinattai's favor. Of course I am too pre-occupied this week and will not know what happened until the following week so who knows, let's hope the football gods have pitty on my players and bless them all with good games and maintained health for the playoffs!

Fantacy Football Week 7

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:04:47 GMT

The offical results are in from last weekends matches, and I have come out with another win, soundly! My new picks picked up the slack of my beat-up starters and delivered an astonishing 104 points, making me the highest scoring team by 15 points. I have lost the least points scored against title, but I am not too concerened as that is a bogus stat in fantasy football anyway.

So now I am sitting at 5-2, sharing the league with only 2 other owners with the same record. I am playing a division game this week and against one of the other 2 5-2 teams, so hopefully I can pull off the one remaining win that will gurentee me a playoff bearth. If I can maintain a hold on the division I will play the weakest team and hopefully my players will stay healthy and continue to average double digit results each week.

As I stated before, I do not expect to win it all, or even come close, but better understand how this fantasy thing works and how to manage a team and players in a way to pick good matchups each week. This is the real secret to the game, know the matchups, health, and teams your player faces each week, and make an educated guess as to who will have that break-out game and put them in the line up. I will admit it is fun, of course any game you are winning in is fun. The season is in its down swing now, so we will see in the last few weeks of the season.

Fantacy Football Week 6

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:21:11 GMT

Well, I dropped to 4-2 this last week. It was not much of a contest as I was beaten by 38 points. My opponent is in my division, but had an overall record of 2-3 so I am still in control of my division and no in a co-tie for the best record in the league. My big scorers are now off their bye weeks, and I made some good acquisitions, dropping the Raven's defnese (who ended up stinking and averaging only 1.5 points a game) and picked up my beloved Lions defense (ranked 12th and average 12.75 points a game). I also picked up a better running back and a good quarterback in case my started gets taken out the way my last two did.

As long as I can win 2 more games I am gurenteed a playoff bearth, and sharing the lead helps... espically seeing I am new to this, don't have ESPN to obcess on, and so forth and so on. Only time will tell...

Fantacy Football Week 5

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:17:16 GMT

Well, all I can say is.... I love beginner's luck! Game 5 in the books and I am not at 4-1, leading the division and am sharing the W column with a team I beat in week 1 for the whole league. Following a 100 point week 4 game I was able to muster 89 points this week. I could have made some better positional placements but feel I have the hang of the weekly analysis of the teams and what they will face. I did pick up Washington's QB to patch the hole in my offense from 2 huge injuries in week 3. It appears the QB decission was a good one, he did a good job again this week. I am leading my division if points, but the other division is still dominated by 2 teams who average 108 points a game... I can't compeate with that.

So unless most of my players fall apart, or I grossly miss-manage the whole process I should cruise into the playoffs, and then get eaten alive by one of the scoring machines. One thing I can say, it is better to know the game by having played it, even if only in high school, then it is to try to understand it on the fly. Time will tell, now if only the Lions could do this well.... maybe I sould apply to be their GM, can't do much worse!

Fantacy Football Week 4

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 03:01:38 GMT

Ok I did not report on my losing week, got a bit lazy and a bit busy at the same time. Week 2, win. Week 3 Loss, bad loss. I had 2 quarterbacks get season ending injuries, 1 receiver get suspended for drug offenses, and whole bunch of under preformers. Ahhh, but the bright spot... my defense, well one of them anyway. I picked the Raven's and the Bengal's. I picked the Bengals for no pictular reason, but they have ended up being my best pick. I have build a good offense around my two running backs, and this week, got 100 points.

Now I am 3-1, leading the western division and thanks to the only undefeated team left losing I am 4th is points scored. I know the lineup I have will not hold out for the rest of the season, many of the players are old or on teams with hard schedules and a good chance of injuries, but hopefully I can get enough of an early push to make my first year of fantacy football a really good one. I was at the commissioner's house this weekend and a few other owners were there, we did not talk football at all, kind of odd, but kind of cool... being my first year and I am doing better then people who have played for years. Of course this could be beginners luck, but I doubt that.

Next week I get to play yet another high scoring team, I just hope my line up has another good week and I can get the first half of the season past me with only one loss. I have no illussions of winning the superbowl, but I do want to make the playoffs, espically after listening to the commissioner and a few other owners about my 'bone headed' acquissions and dropping good players. I would love to just smile and shake my head when we all get together at the end of the season knowing I did better then they did.

Well, in fantacy football, the season looks good

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:33:36 GMT

Well, I am offically 2 - 0 in my fantacy football league, the only undefeated team in my division, and one of only 3 in my league. This despite a luckluster preformance of my players, still haven't had all 8 players score points for me, and this week I face the second highest scorer in the league, not expecting to come out on top come tuesday morning. I do have the the least points scored against, it it were a real football team I would have the #1 defense. With the tipsy turvey state of both the NFC and AFC this season it is anyones guess how things will go, in reality and fantacy. My beloved Lions are top the NFC North only because they have 2 divisional wins so far, and going into a bye week they better turn things around. After getting hammered by the Chicago Bears I feel they will be playing catch up with them all season long.

Are You Ready for Some 'Fantacy' Football

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:13:02 GMT

Ok for the first time in my life I have fallen into the American male gaming craze. Fantacy Football. I am in a free league, yes some people pay to play allbeit the winner gets 1/2 the pot, and it is through ESPN so most of the hard work is done automatically. We had our draft last Sunday, part of the reason of my recent tardiness. Our draft was an automated draft, which is easy for a novice like me. This measn every person in the league ( 12 teams make up one league, split into 2 divisions of 6 teams each ) filled out a position sheet of which players they wanted the most, in numerical order 1-824. My draft position was 11, very bad! However on the secound round I was second, not too bad. The draft is for 16 positions so there are 16 rounds. My initial team was not too good, so as any good owner I cut all the players who will not likely play or do very bad, and got free agaents to take there place.

A fantacy football team is comprised of 8 positions and 8 backups, for bye weeks and injuries. The positions are 1 Quarter Back, 2 Running Backs, 2 Wide Receivers, 1 Tight End, 1 Kicker, and 1 Defense. The backup spots can be any combination as long as there are only 8. So how does the game work? Well it goes like this; you pick a player, who you are confident, will play and de very well each week. His statistics are taken from the game he playes on Sunday or Monday and then complied by a formula into points. Each player's points are then added into a score. The team's schedules are aligned by the commissioner much the same way as it is done in the NFL and the team with the most points against their opponients wins for the week.

Each owner then has to see if each player is still going to play the following week, what the matchup is for the real teams next, and make projections as to which real teams will will and do better. The owner then alighns his fantacy players for those teams into matchups that will provide the best statictics for that player. Basically it is a guessing match spanning the entire NFL for each real team your players are on and there real opponents. The matching and educated guessing of fantacy football is very time consuming and to a degree work.

So how is it fun and rewarding? Well one of the larger components of fantacy football is 'talking smack' or boasting over your players and your ability to always pick winners and your opponents lack of both. This combined with the huge scores you can rack up against your opponent with doing good homework and haveing some luck make the following Monday much more rewarding. It is a challange as you have to check the condition and status of each of your players to get the right combination on the roster. Fantacy football is not so much you against the other owners, but more you ability to know the ins and outs and neuances of each team and how they match up each week.

Week 1 is done, the deadline for submitting your roster is early Sunday, 11AM EST. How did I do the first week, well I scored 83 points, pretty good but not spectacular. My opponent only got 52 points, so yep I won my very first game. I am hoping to win this week, as my opponent for this week only massed 45 points last week, but I am hoping to top my score and hope to get 95+ points. I now have to study all the real NFL matchup each of my players are in and evaluate how well they are going to do. Its basically a crap shoot but with any luck my research and insight will prevail yet again.

FORE!

Wed, 14 Sep 2005 04:17:10 GMT

Over the Labor Day weekend my best friend and I finally decided to follow through on a long discussed activity. The activity is golf. Yes, a way to ruin a perfectly good walk or the silliness of men chasing little white balls around on grossly large tracks of land.

It all started with the deal of the decade... at the flea market. Here in southeast Wisconsin there is a place known as 7 mile fair. It is a huge in-door/out-door flea market. As we walked past the vendors we found one selling drivers for $10 a piece. Not a bad price. For those not familure with golf, a good driver will cost from $100 to $300. Well we decided to check else where and maybe try to talk the price down at other tables, these clubs were not in great shape. As it goes I found a table with several drivers and inquired on the price and was pleased to hear $8. So I said I would like to purchase 2 drivers, well I was shocked when the reply was 'no the bag and all the clubs are $8.' Well, I jumbed on the deal because two of the deivers were in good shape and the graphite rods made the deal even better.

We next spent two days on the driving range trying to find out swings. I had taken golf as a PE requirement my freshman year of college so through my knowledge, and more importantly copying the good golfers around us, we were able to learn how to hit the ball farely straight and with modest distances. Now we were both psyched over our quick performance so it appears we now have a hobby... golf.

Golf is huge in the business I work for, many million dollar deals are sighned on the fareways so all the salesmen and some of the support staff golf. I have found the community is pretty accepting of new comers and everyone is more then willing to offer pointers and advice. I have also doubled my original club count with no longer used hand me downs. I nearly have a full bag of clubs now for the total investment of under $20. If we decide this is a hobby we are willing to stick with I can sell off what I have and get a full bag of matched clubs, if it isn't I'm out very little money. That is of itself is very satisfying. Now golf courses require each golfer to have there own bad, don't have a clue as to why, so after I solve the second bag issue (I think one of the managers at work is bringing an older beat up one tomorrow) then we will be set! I hope to get 9 holes in before winter just to see how bad we really are. Who knows... golfers can make ok money and its way easier to be a pro golfer then a pro corner back or outfielder!

More Photos!!!!!

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 02:50:46 GMT

I got home from work, decided after clean up I wanted to scan more pictures. One shoe box down, one to go, and then the 5 photo albums and I will be done, with the lo-rez pics anyway. The good ones will get the hi-rez treatment later on. I like how the sunset album is turning out. On the topic of pictures I did drop off my 2 rolls of film and requested them on CD so I don't have to bother with this scanning thingy anymore.

I picked up some organic rice at the store and must admit it was perfect! I usually screw up rice when I cook it, but this time it came out perfect. A side note as I am getting a little hungry again. Speaking of odd things while going through my logs I noticed people from cities in Chile I have been too are visiting this site! Now that is too weird, wonder if I passed them by while snapping pictures or crusing the clubs????

I am thinking I will slow down the lesson plan to 2 postings a week. I am realizing I am tasking myself a bit too much, must pace it out better. I am going to complie those posts with a comprehensive outlin on my MSN Group site, so follow the link to the left and it will be there in a week or two. I do have the outline for 201 and as promised it is a doozy! Ok the 'ole brain is warming up and it is still a bit early so I'm switching grears and posting the intro and outline!

New Photos just added

Sat, 09 Jul 2005 22:16:32 GMT

For those curious to see, now you can. New albums covering a wide varity of pics, even the camera shy Bravo himself. These photos span over 10 years, some 15 years! Sorry my scanner isn't the best quality but it does a good job and I'm not looking to fill up my space with huge hi-rez photos anyway. Take a peek, have a laugh, just don't pick a pic.