So I recently discovered an exceptional comedian. I guess it wasn't recently...I believe someone in the grad program told me about him and showed me part of a dvd of him early my first year here at UT. At the time, I guess I didn't think much of it or pay that much attention since I figured it'd be something that I wouldn't find funny or feel like watching. As it turns out though, someone from church earlier this year mentioned the name, and with my lack of memory I completely forgot that I'd heard of him before. I went and found his live cd online and had a listen. It is really incredibly funny and actually clean comedy. If you're looking for some laughs, I'd recommend giving this guy a chance. As a point of reference, here's his website which has a few clips on it.
The UEFA Champions League semi-finals took place Tuesday and Wednesday, and let me say that the game on Tuesday between Manchester United and AC Milan is one of the best that I have seen in recent times. The game was exciting, there were great goals, solid play all around, and basically an exhibition for why soccer is the sport of choice in so many areas of the world. So for you, Paul, I'll be sure to have the last half of the season of House and more than likely the 2 legs of the Manchester United/AC Milan games whenever you get back to the states.
Speaking of something related to the word house, my parents are currently remodeling a little of their house. They're replacing our front and back porches, as well as making a storage shed for lawnmowers and outdoor stuff. They're also putting a room so that they can put their hot-tub back inside and get it running and usable again. It should all turn out to be quite nice by the time they're finished, but it's going to be a while I think. Although, in my mom's mind, she thinks they'll be finished here in the next few weeks. We'll have to see how things go though.
Well, that's about it for today. Here's a little brain teaser to keep you occupied.
Water in the Cup:
A man in a restaurant asked a waiter for a juice glass, a dinner plate, water, a match, and a lemon wedge. The man poured enough water onto the plate to cover it.
"If you can get the water on the plate into this glass without touching or moving this plate, I will give you $100," the man said. "You can use the match and lemon to do this."
A few minutes later, the waiter walked away with $100 in his pocket. How did the waiter get the water into the glass?
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Makes Me Wonder
It's sad when there are so many bad things that happen that take up so much of the media time and public thought. Of course, all you have to see is Philip's post to see that there are just as many bad things that nobody cares about as much as who gets Anna Nicole Smith's baby. I mean, seriously people. But then I guess this is the point of our society today. How sad.
In addition to the events around the world, a man from our church passed away this past week due to cancer. He was probably one of the first "old" guys around the congregation that I got to know well. I worked out on his farm about 4 years ago for a summer helping him paint his farm-house, clearing out the woods that surrounded it, and generally keeping everything in order and clean around the place. It was a beautiful tract of land out in the country, and you could tell how much he loved being out there. He was always talking about it and riding around on his tractor out there. He was one of the kindest men that I knew at our church, and he will be missed.
In some happier news, my middle school B team one their first game yesterday. They fell behind to an early goal (inside the first 3 minutes), and then had a PK blocked in the last minute of the first half. This happened because the kid that I wanted to have take it apparently misunderstood my yelling, and told someone else to take it, who promptly shot it right at the goalie. At halftime we made some adjustments and got a goal within the first 5 minutes. Then we scored again just a few minutes later. The other team had this girl that was throwing elbows and fouling all over the place, so I got yelled at by the ref to keep it quiet since I was pretty furious that she injured one of our players and got nothing for it. They eventually scored a second, so we were tied 2-2 with about 5 minutes remaining. In what was essentially the last play of the game, we got a quick break, came down 4 on 3, got a good cross in to the box, and eventually one of our players got a foot on it and put it in to the goal. They were all pretty excited, and you could see it in their faces about how happy they were to have won a game. i have to say, I was pretty pumped myself.
This weekend is looking to be pretty good. Tomorrow Mandi and I are going to follow my parents to the place where they're having the Highland View Spring Retreat which is what we used to call the Family Retreat way back when. It's essentially a weekend at a state park where there's hiking, games, fun and fellowship. Mandi and I will go out there for the day and enjoy the outdoors and fun to be had hanging out with some of the members from Highland View. Sunday looks like a day for some disc golf since I don't have any soccer game that day, so we'll have to wait and see.
One of my poignant moments from tonight at the funeral? Seeing the family. They weren't bitter or angry. They weren't even sad. I guess I mean that they weren't the kind of sad that you have when you think you've lost something forever. The overwhelming feeling of the entire family was that they were happy for Harold. They were happy because they knew that he had gone on to be with God, and this was a testament to them and Harold and their belief in God. For us as Christians, funerals, while they are times of grief and mourning, are also in a way a time of celebration. We celebrate their being with God. We celebrate the fact that we know when Christ comes we will all be reunited. We know that it's not really goodbye. We will see them again.
In addition to the events around the world, a man from our church passed away this past week due to cancer. He was probably one of the first "old" guys around the congregation that I got to know well. I worked out on his farm about 4 years ago for a summer helping him paint his farm-house, clearing out the woods that surrounded it, and generally keeping everything in order and clean around the place. It was a beautiful tract of land out in the country, and you could tell how much he loved being out there. He was always talking about it and riding around on his tractor out there. He was one of the kindest men that I knew at our church, and he will be missed.
In some happier news, my middle school B team one their first game yesterday. They fell behind to an early goal (inside the first 3 minutes), and then had a PK blocked in the last minute of the first half. This happened because the kid that I wanted to have take it apparently misunderstood my yelling, and told someone else to take it, who promptly shot it right at the goalie. At halftime we made some adjustments and got a goal within the first 5 minutes. Then we scored again just a few minutes later. The other team had this girl that was throwing elbows and fouling all over the place, so I got yelled at by the ref to keep it quiet since I was pretty furious that she injured one of our players and got nothing for it. They eventually scored a second, so we were tied 2-2 with about 5 minutes remaining. In what was essentially the last play of the game, we got a quick break, came down 4 on 3, got a good cross in to the box, and eventually one of our players got a foot on it and put it in to the goal. They were all pretty excited, and you could see it in their faces about how happy they were to have won a game. i have to say, I was pretty pumped myself.
This weekend is looking to be pretty good. Tomorrow Mandi and I are going to follow my parents to the place where they're having the Highland View Spring Retreat which is what we used to call the Family Retreat way back when. It's essentially a weekend at a state park where there's hiking, games, fun and fellowship. Mandi and I will go out there for the day and enjoy the outdoors and fun to be had hanging out with some of the members from Highland View. Sunday looks like a day for some disc golf since I don't have any soccer game that day, so we'll have to wait and see.
One of my poignant moments from tonight at the funeral? Seeing the family. They weren't bitter or angry. They weren't even sad. I guess I mean that they weren't the kind of sad that you have when you think you've lost something forever. The overwhelming feeling of the entire family was that they were happy for Harold. They were happy because they knew that he had gone on to be with God, and this was a testament to them and Harold and their belief in God. For us as Christians, funerals, while they are times of grief and mourning, are also in a way a time of celebration. We celebrate their being with God. We celebrate the fact that we know when Christ comes we will all be reunited. We know that it's not really goodbye. We will see them again.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Lost
The past few days have been pretty action packed. The soccer teams that we coach both lost on Thursday. Our A team to a clearly superior team from Farragut, and our B team to a team that outplayed them. The A team lost 3-0, while the B team gave up two late goals to lose 2-1. Not bad showings, though, since they played hard. All in all a much improved performance from Monday, especially for the A team.
The highlight for the week is definately that Mandi's friends Emily and Rachel from Harding came in to town. We spent today touring around some things that I hadn't been to in quite a while that are in the area. The first stop in the morning was the Mayfield Dairy Farm. Now, this might not sound like much, but it was fairly interesting. You got to see the bottling plant where all the milk is processed, as well as how they make the jugs and get everything together. Mayfield is apparently the last dairy to use this machine that boils the milk in order to get the bad flavors out of it. I don't remember the name of the machine, but it was a pretty neat little contraption. The dissappointing thing was that we weren't able to see the ice cream plant since they are only operational during the week. We did, however, eat some ice cream, as they had a double scoop cone/cup available for $2. I had myself some strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cream pie ice cream. The chocolate cream pie is a new flavor that they're trying out, and I have to say that it was quite good.
Our second stop was at a place called the Lost Sea. It's the largest underground lake that is known about. You go in to the cave, and go down some 500 feet. They have a nice tour that walks you around the cave and points out the interesting features and everything, and then you go down to the lake, which they say is about 4.5 acres in size. You get in a boat, and they drive you out and around on it. The water was low today, as they say that it's down about 15 feet from the average. You could see the calcium line on the rock around the edge of the lake, and we were able to drive back farther on the lake then they normally do. In fact, part of where we were under is usually under water when the lake is at normal levels. They also have an all night tour where you essentially go caving and spend the night in one of the larger caverns that they have down there. Pretty cool stuff, and one of the cool things that you might not find out about in the area of East Tennessee.
The highlight for the week is definately that Mandi's friends Emily and Rachel from Harding came in to town. We spent today touring around some things that I hadn't been to in quite a while that are in the area. The first stop in the morning was the Mayfield Dairy Farm. Now, this might not sound like much, but it was fairly interesting. You got to see the bottling plant where all the milk is processed, as well as how they make the jugs and get everything together. Mayfield is apparently the last dairy to use this machine that boils the milk in order to get the bad flavors out of it. I don't remember the name of the machine, but it was a pretty neat little contraption. The dissappointing thing was that we weren't able to see the ice cream plant since they are only operational during the week. We did, however, eat some ice cream, as they had a double scoop cone/cup available for $2. I had myself some strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cream pie ice cream. The chocolate cream pie is a new flavor that they're trying out, and I have to say that it was quite good.
Our second stop was at a place called the Lost Sea. It's the largest underground lake that is known about. You go in to the cave, and go down some 500 feet. They have a nice tour that walks you around the cave and points out the interesting features and everything, and then you go down to the lake, which they say is about 4.5 acres in size. You get in a boat, and they drive you out and around on it. The water was low today, as they say that it's down about 15 feet from the average. You could see the calcium line on the rock around the edge of the lake, and we were able to drive back farther on the lake then they normally do. In fact, part of where we were under is usually under water when the lake is at normal levels. They also have an all night tour where you essentially go caving and spend the night in one of the larger caverns that they have down there. Pretty cool stuff, and one of the cool things that you might not find out about in the area of East Tennessee.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Right Now
So as I type, I sit here in the astronomy lab waiting on students to show up and finish their make-up labs that they've missed. The apathy on show is quite remarkable, as people that have 4 or 5 labs missing just won't show up to finish them. It's not like they're going to pass with a 60 or anything. They're going to get an incomplete and have to either take this class over or take another science credit since these always serve as electives. Oh well, it's not really my problem that people could care less about their education. They'll just regret it in a few weeks when end of term grades come out and they don't quite get to move forward like they thought they would.
Reading a post like Philip's where the weather reached 80 degrees, I wonder if they would enjoy a cold snap like we've had here. It's been in the 20's overnight, lots of wind, and little sun. Not exactly my idea of what spring should be. Then again, I guess there's always the "Blizzard of '93" that came even later in the year and had us out of school for a week with the huge snowfall amounts. All I've got to say is that if it's this cold for a week in the middle of April, at least send us some snow to have some fun in.
The week that should have been progress in the lab turned out to be quite anti-climactic. After fixing the problem with the machine, another problem with the computer came up in that I couldn't run the program that controls everything. So most of Friday was spent attempting to fix things in LabView only to be continually stifled in those attempts. I emailed my supervisor who is in China, and through the wonder of the internet and remote connecting, he was able to solve the problem and hopefully fix everything that I couldn't. If there's something that I hope doesn't happen this week, it's that something else doesn't break on me. If everything stays good, I should have some good data by the end of the week. Here's hoping.
Tonight my middle school team is back in action. The A-team won their game last Thursday 2-0. I think that we've kinda figured out a good formation for them to use that gets our good players in positions to make plays and puts our supporting players in places where they can excel. It's essentially a 3-4-1-2 (in soccer, you don't specify the keeper, and you start from the defenders and work forward) giving our better dribblers the middle of the field and putting some people in the middle of the park where a lot of teams are still prone to go. Tonight will be a good test of it as we'll be playing a team that's pretty good, so we'll get to see how well it works out in a little bit more strenuous environment. The B-team lost 3-0 but played well, showing hustle and winning balls in the air. I was quite impressed with their performance, except for the inability to do a throw in correctly. I think we had about 6 turn-overs on throw in mistakes. How sad is that? That has got to be corrected today.
The riddle of the day is Coenobita Confusion:
I love to climb up high in trees,
digging holes, and feeling the breeze.
I eat eggs, apples, carrots, meat,
even peanut butter, is a treat.
Around the world, my kin are found.
"Chirping" is our signature sound.
So, what am I?
Also, I don't know how many of you have seen any books on visual tricks, but they are generally quite impressive. Take a look, and see what you think of this picture. If you're confused, use your mouse to trace out one of the spirals. You may be surprised by what happens.
At any rate, I'm not in to my last 2 hours of teaching lab as a TA, so I should probably go help the student who just showed up. Oh, and props to Josh and Amber. Congrats guys.
Reading a post like Philip's where the weather reached 80 degrees, I wonder if they would enjoy a cold snap like we've had here. It's been in the 20's overnight, lots of wind, and little sun. Not exactly my idea of what spring should be. Then again, I guess there's always the "Blizzard of '93" that came even later in the year and had us out of school for a week with the huge snowfall amounts. All I've got to say is that if it's this cold for a week in the middle of April, at least send us some snow to have some fun in.
The week that should have been progress in the lab turned out to be quite anti-climactic. After fixing the problem with the machine, another problem with the computer came up in that I couldn't run the program that controls everything. So most of Friday was spent attempting to fix things in LabView only to be continually stifled in those attempts. I emailed my supervisor who is in China, and through the wonder of the internet and remote connecting, he was able to solve the problem and hopefully fix everything that I couldn't. If there's something that I hope doesn't happen this week, it's that something else doesn't break on me. If everything stays good, I should have some good data by the end of the week. Here's hoping.
Tonight my middle school team is back in action. The A-team won their game last Thursday 2-0. I think that we've kinda figured out a good formation for them to use that gets our good players in positions to make plays and puts our supporting players in places where they can excel. It's essentially a 3-4-1-2 (in soccer, you don't specify the keeper, and you start from the defenders and work forward) giving our better dribblers the middle of the field and putting some people in the middle of the park where a lot of teams are still prone to go. Tonight will be a good test of it as we'll be playing a team that's pretty good, so we'll get to see how well it works out in a little bit more strenuous environment. The B-team lost 3-0 but played well, showing hustle and winning balls in the air. I was quite impressed with their performance, except for the inability to do a throw in correctly. I think we had about 6 turn-overs on throw in mistakes. How sad is that? That has got to be corrected today.
The riddle of the day is Coenobita Confusion:
I love to climb up high in trees,
digging holes, and feeling the breeze.
I eat eggs, apples, carrots, meat,
even peanut butter, is a treat.
Around the world, my kin are found.
"Chirping" is our signature sound.
So, what am I?
Also, I don't know how many of you have seen any books on visual tricks, but they are generally quite impressive. Take a look, and see what you think of this picture. If you're confused, use your mouse to trace out one of the spirals. You may be surprised by what happens.At any rate, I'm not in to my last 2 hours of teaching lab as a TA, so I should probably go help the student who just showed up. Oh, and props to Josh and Amber. Congrats guys.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Dismantle. Repair.
So after the bad news of yesterday, today actually worked out alright. The lead guy in the group has been helping me out, and he spent some time yesterday getting the ice plug out of the machine. In order to do that, he placed a copper rod (which conducts heat) against the ice plug and let it slowly melt the ice. After a while, he could then break through it. Of course, this left ice in the machine, so all night he ran some dry air through the apparatus, hopefully getting rid of most of the moisture. We can't know for sure if it's all gone...but hopefully it is.
I came in this morning and got a sample run started, and the cooling process seemed to work fine, the needle valve didn't seem to get clogged, and everything seemed to be in order. The only way we'll see how things go is with time and just letting things run and seeing if anything else comes up that doesn't seem right. We'll know a lot more when I go back in the morning as to whether everything is working well depending on how the temperature control holds and keeping that vacuum chamber sealed. There was promise, however, and it certainly helped to make today a good day.
Tomorrow is the Cedar Bluff Middle School B team's first actual game, and I will be coaching them, with the other two coaches taking the A game that is running along-side it. I have a feeling it's going to be a problem getting them to understand positioning and not chasing the ball. In all honesty, a lot of it looks like some very young age AYSO soccer with the way everyone just clumps up around the ball and ball-watches. So getting them to play positions for 70 minutes will probably be quite difficult. We'll just have to wait and see. I haven't worked with the B team for the past week, so maybe they've gotten some things worked out in those couple practices. Here's hoping.
The Champions League tournament in Europe had some good games the past two days. It was leg one of the 2 leg home and away series that will be completed next Tuesday and Wednesday. Liverpool demolished PSV Eindhoven 3-0 away from home, virtually guaranteeing themselves a place in the semi-finals. The winner between those two teams will play the winner of the Chelsea-Valencia tie which has to be advantage Valencia after they managed a 1-1 draw away from home. In the other half of the bracket, AC Milan and Bayern Munich played an exhilarating 2-2 draw giving the advantage to Bayern as they were the away team. Bayern scored the tying goal with 10 seconds left in injury with virtually the last kick of the game. 10-man Manchester United lost 2-1 to AS Roma away from home, where the away goal could prove to be a vital lifeline. Next week will bring the conclusion of these ties, and move everyone one step closer to the final.
Today's riddle is named "Seven". Philip had the correct answer to yesterday's, although I'll leave it to you to decide whether it was coffee or cocaine which was the correct answer.
I came in this morning and got a sample run started, and the cooling process seemed to work fine, the needle valve didn't seem to get clogged, and everything seemed to be in order. The only way we'll see how things go is with time and just letting things run and seeing if anything else comes up that doesn't seem right. We'll know a lot more when I go back in the morning as to whether everything is working well depending on how the temperature control holds and keeping that vacuum chamber sealed. There was promise, however, and it certainly helped to make today a good day.
Tomorrow is the Cedar Bluff Middle School B team's first actual game, and I will be coaching them, with the other two coaches taking the A game that is running along-side it. I have a feeling it's going to be a problem getting them to understand positioning and not chasing the ball. In all honesty, a lot of it looks like some very young age AYSO soccer with the way everyone just clumps up around the ball and ball-watches. So getting them to play positions for 70 minutes will probably be quite difficult. We'll just have to wait and see. I haven't worked with the B team for the past week, so maybe they've gotten some things worked out in those couple practices. Here's hoping.
The Champions League tournament in Europe had some good games the past two days. It was leg one of the 2 leg home and away series that will be completed next Tuesday and Wednesday. Liverpool demolished PSV Eindhoven 3-0 away from home, virtually guaranteeing themselves a place in the semi-finals. The winner between those two teams will play the winner of the Chelsea-Valencia tie which has to be advantage Valencia after they managed a 1-1 draw away from home. In the other half of the bracket, AC Milan and Bayern Munich played an exhilarating 2-2 draw giving the advantage to Bayern as they were the away team. Bayern scored the tying goal with 10 seconds left in injury with virtually the last kick of the game. 10-man Manchester United lost 2-1 to AS Roma away from home, where the away goal could prove to be a vital lifeline. Next week will bring the conclusion of these ties, and move everyone one step closer to the final.
Today's riddle is named "Seven". Philip had the correct answer to yesterday's, although I'll leave it to you to decide whether it was coffee or cocaine which was the correct answer.
There are seven parts to this riddle,
Each is part of a greater whole.
You see most of these,
Everyday as you please:
First is what I did to a book yesterday,
Second mixes with apples.
Third is a shout, then "ouch" you say,
Fourth shares the sound of mean.
Fifth is what the wind had done,
The sixth is often skipped.
The last and final can be called by two names,
If roses are this, then which is the blue one?
Each is part of a greater whole.
You see most of these,
Everyday as you please:
First is what I did to a book yesterday,
Second mixes with apples.
Third is a shout, then "ouch" you say,
Fourth shares the sound of mean.
Fifth is what the wind had done,
The sixth is often skipped.
The last and final can be called by two names,
If roses are this, then which is the blue one?
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Break Me
Today was quite the disappointing day. You know, there are just some things that don't seem to work right when you need them to. I went to the lab today expecting to have about a 3 hour job of getting the machine set up and ready to go with some measurements. It turned out that I couldn't even get started. Something happened that is definitely not a good thing to have had happen. The inside of this machine works by having a pump that puts in a small amount of liquid nitrogen to the inner chamber where the sample is being held. What then happens is that the temp of the sample space heats up the liquid nitrogen, and so by a process of equilibrium you get everything to slowly cool down.
What appears to have happened, however, is that the vacuum chamber from which this liquid nitrogen is pumped had gotten some air in to it. Now, one might not think that this is such a bad thing, but the problem with air is that it will invariably have some moisture in it. Now, when you put 60 K liquid nitrogen in to air, you freeze the water that's inside of it. Now, this needle valve which shoots in the liquid nitrogen in to the sample space seems to have frozen over, along with some other areas within the chamber. So what's happening now is we're going to have to warm up everything, which will take a few days, and then pump helium through the space to try and clear everything out. It's going to take a while to see if anything works right or not...but we'll just have to wait and see.
I liked Paul's choices for the letter matches. I guess it does probably take about 90 minutes and then some to get anywhere in A.S. So I'll say that's a good answer, even if it's not the correct one, although if you can't get it after what Paul had... Today's question is called "Take A Break" in the theme of breaking things...sort of.
Discovered in Africa, I spread like a tide
To become a hot staple known the world wide.
A necessity to some, a treasure to many,
I'm best enjoyed among pleasant company.
Some like me hot and some like me cold.
Some prefer mild, others only bold.
Some take me straight, while some like to savor
My essence to which has been added a flavor.
So put down your cares and sit awhile with me;
I'll send you back refreshed and full of energy.
What appears to have happened, however, is that the vacuum chamber from which this liquid nitrogen is pumped had gotten some air in to it. Now, one might not think that this is such a bad thing, but the problem with air is that it will invariably have some moisture in it. Now, when you put 60 K liquid nitrogen in to air, you freeze the water that's inside of it. Now, this needle valve which shoots in the liquid nitrogen in to the sample space seems to have frozen over, along with some other areas within the chamber. So what's happening now is we're going to have to warm up everything, which will take a few days, and then pump helium through the space to try and clear everything out. It's going to take a while to see if anything works right or not...but we'll just have to wait and see.
I liked Paul's choices for the letter matches. I guess it does probably take about 90 minutes and then some to get anywhere in A.S. So I'll say that's a good answer, even if it's not the correct one, although if you can't get it after what Paul had... Today's question is called "Take A Break" in the theme of breaking things...sort of.
Discovered in Africa, I spread like a tide
To become a hot staple known the world wide.
A necessity to some, a treasure to many,
I'm best enjoyed among pleasant company.
Some like me hot and some like me cold.
Some prefer mild, others only bold.
Some take me straight, while some like to savor
My essence to which has been added a flavor.
So put down your cares and sit awhile with me;
I'll send you back refreshed and full of energy.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Star of the Show
Props to Paul. He got to the answer quite quickly for yesterday's riddle. Well played. Today's is called "It Helps to Know You're Sport". Here it is.
90 M + I T and E T = G T in a S M
So we opened up our middle school soccer season today. I have to say that I'm quite proud of our team. They stepped up to play with more heart and hustle today than I think I've seen from them in the past 3 scrimmage games combined. They were winning balls in the air, they were going in hard in the challenge, they were hustling hard all over the field, and they gave their all for their teammates. It was really exciting watching them play that way when it's been so hard to get them to that point. I don't know what clicked today to turn the tide that way. Maybe it was that it was a 'real' game. Maybe it was the fact that they got their new jerseys today and were able to wear them. Maybe they've just not been playing as hard all along. I don't really know. I have to give them credit for today though.
The sad thing is, however, that the star of the show wasn't a player for our team that scored 2 goals, it wasn't a team that played their heart out, it wasn't even the other team which ended up winning the game on a well-taken free kick. It was, in fact, the referee (who had a daughter who was a friend of probably half the team that we played). So, as you can well imagine, all the calls went for the other team, our player got a yellow card when the other team player pushed him to the ground, and they scored the game winning goal on a foul called for grabbing when their team had been doing nothing but pushing, grabbing, and holding everyone all over the field. Myself and the other coach both got warned by the referee for our yelling, but when you're trying to defend your players from getting man-handled, I think that it's worth it. It's a good thing the game was almost over when he warned us, cause otherwise I think we'd both have been told to leave.
If there's one thing in the sport of soccer that I cannot stand more than anything else it's when there is a referee who feels like the game is for him. He's out there to do what he wants, and to make the decisions that he wants made so that he can be the focus of attention. He's not out there to let the kids play the game and to let them decide the outcome. What got us both the most was that he was clearly a friend of their whole team. How do you get a ref who is a part of the school that he's refereeing to be the decider in a game? There's a reason that in international tournaments they don't let any referee from a region where the teams are playing from be a ref in any form during that particular game. It would inevitably bring up the question of integrity for the refs should anything be construed to go in favor of the team that he hails from. It's no different here. I hope that ref never does another game for us. But if he ends up doing one for us, he'll not ever hear the end of our yelling to defend our players, and he can tell me to leave the field before I'll let my kids get run over and mauled by a team that he supports while I'm there.
90 M + I T and E T = G T in a S M
So we opened up our middle school soccer season today. I have to say that I'm quite proud of our team. They stepped up to play with more heart and hustle today than I think I've seen from them in the past 3 scrimmage games combined. They were winning balls in the air, they were going in hard in the challenge, they were hustling hard all over the field, and they gave their all for their teammates. It was really exciting watching them play that way when it's been so hard to get them to that point. I don't know what clicked today to turn the tide that way. Maybe it was that it was a 'real' game. Maybe it was the fact that they got their new jerseys today and were able to wear them. Maybe they've just not been playing as hard all along. I don't really know. I have to give them credit for today though.
The sad thing is, however, that the star of the show wasn't a player for our team that scored 2 goals, it wasn't a team that played their heart out, it wasn't even the other team which ended up winning the game on a well-taken free kick. It was, in fact, the referee (who had a daughter who was a friend of probably half the team that we played). So, as you can well imagine, all the calls went for the other team, our player got a yellow card when the other team player pushed him to the ground, and they scored the game winning goal on a foul called for grabbing when their team had been doing nothing but pushing, grabbing, and holding everyone all over the field. Myself and the other coach both got warned by the referee for our yelling, but when you're trying to defend your players from getting man-handled, I think that it's worth it. It's a good thing the game was almost over when he warned us, cause otherwise I think we'd both have been told to leave.
If there's one thing in the sport of soccer that I cannot stand more than anything else it's when there is a referee who feels like the game is for him. He's out there to do what he wants, and to make the decisions that he wants made so that he can be the focus of attention. He's not out there to let the kids play the game and to let them decide the outcome. What got us both the most was that he was clearly a friend of their whole team. How do you get a ref who is a part of the school that he's refereeing to be the decider in a game? There's a reason that in international tournaments they don't let any referee from a region where the teams are playing from be a ref in any form during that particular game. It would inevitably bring up the question of integrity for the refs should anything be construed to go in favor of the team that he hails from. It's no different here. I hope that ref never does another game for us. But if he ends up doing one for us, he'll not ever hear the end of our yelling to defend our players, and he can tell me to leave the field before I'll let my kids get run over and mauled by a team that he supports while I'm there.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Sugar, We're Going Down
So this weekend was the big sailing adventure. It was quite an enjoyable couple of days spent hanging out with Josh, Amber, Tara and Matt, playing a little Wii Sports (that Wii is quite addictive...), hanging out on the sailboat, and even playing some throw-back old-school Mike Tyson's Punch Out for the NES. I was so horrible at that game way back in elementary school, so I had to prove to myself that I could get past the first couple guys in the game. I can. It's brilliant.
The sailboat was quite the ride. At least for the first hour or so. And then, my penchant for motion sickness started to kick in and I suddenly was enjoying it a lot less. Everything was kinda spinning, things looked not quite so inviting, and the general feeling was wanting to get the incessant rocking motion to stop. But, with Amber to the rescue, dramamine came in handy and a couple hours later I was good as new. One word of caution, however, is to try and avoid talk of spewing, losing the lunch, throwing up, or anything else while feeling sick. It generally doesn't help in keeping one from leaning over the edge.
That's actually Josh's second attempt at getting me to lose my lunch while on a trip or ride of some kind. The other was when he took some of us flying in their family's small plane while at Harding. Apparently I don't do well with heights or small aircraft or something, cause man...I was pretty out of it for that trip. He says that I wasn't really myself for a number of hours afterwards...I don't think I was myself for quite a while longer. I guess I need to just keep the dramamine close by whenever I'm going on an ocean vessel or a small plane. Although, I don't really think that I'll be on either of those types of vehicles in the near future.
Seriously, though, it was a fun weekend. The boat really was incredible, and having not been on a sailboat before, was quite the experience with putting the sails up, leaning all the way to one side to walk since the edge away from the wind was practically in the water, and basically just enjoying the peacefulness of being out on the water. The first time the wind caught the sail and the boat took off, I was kinda caught off guard when the whole ship tilted to one side. Then the boat kinda held it's position, and I thought that I'd be alright with it running along like that. Then, I noticed that the boat wasn't moving. Apparently we'd gotten stuck, but after some work with the motor and all of us standing on one side to lean the boat, we got unstuck and back on our way. Then I got the real feeling for how the boat runs in the water. I'd seen sailboats before, but I didn't realize that they ran so low in the water in the direction that the wind is going. I'd have to say, if there were some larger waves with the wind, I wouldn't be surprised for water to be coming up over the edge. But we didn't end up sinking, despite my early beliefs to the contrary. Overall though, I can see why they went touring around all summer in that thing just hanging out. Props to Josh for letting us get out on it and both he and Amber for entertaining us for the weekend.
For those of you that might not know, Mandi has gotten herself a job working for Bechtel as a Primary Contract Specialist. That's about all I can tell you about her job, because that's about all she can tell me about her job. The funny thing is, she is on her way to Nashville for a conference with the company execs without ever having worked yet. She gets back Tuesday night and will have her first day in the office actually learning the job on Wednesday. But mad props to her for owning the interview and getting hired the exact same day. Now it's my turn to have that kind of interview at some point.
I guess the riddle from two posts back about hunting has got people stuck, although some of the answers were quite humorous, and I would have thought they could work. If I actually made these up, I would select Philip's answer to be correct. The "official" answer however, is lice. Who would think of that? I don't know who did in the first place. But that's what they said. Amber, here's you're chance to be proven as a genius! Today's riddle is more of a logic puzzle called Anniversary Discount:
A fancy restaurant in New York was offering a promotional deal. A married couple could eat at the restaurant for half-price on their anniversary. To prevent scams, the couple would need proof of their wedding date.One Thursday evening, a couple claimed it was their anniversary, but didn't bring any proof. The restaurant manager was called to speak with the couple. When the manager asked to hear about the wedding day, the wife replied with the following: "Oh, it was a wonderful Sunday afternoon, birds were chirping, and flowers were in full bloom." After nearly 10 minutes of ranting, she comes to tell him that today was their 28th wedding anniversary."How lovely", the manager said, "However, you do not qualify for the discount. Today is not your anniversary, you are a liar". How did the manager know that it wasn't their anniversary?
The highlights for the coming week? Going crazy at ORNL with sample running in the machine for my thesis work, the start of the season for the soccer team that I'm coaching, the start of the MLS soccer season, the Champions League returns to action in the quarterfinal stage, and my lab section has their last day of lab, meaning my teaching is almost finished at UT. All brilliant stuff, and all to be looked forward to. For now, though, it's off to continue my reading of The Chronicles of Narnia. The current book is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I'm glad that I've picked up reading them again after the long break since I quite (last summer, I think). I figure, though, that I'll have a lot of time to read in the coming weeks while I wait for those samples to cool and warm up, so they should be finished soon. I'll have to find another book after that though. If anyone has some suggestions of good books, I'd love to have them.
The sailboat was quite the ride. At least for the first hour or so. And then, my penchant for motion sickness started to kick in and I suddenly was enjoying it a lot less. Everything was kinda spinning, things looked not quite so inviting, and the general feeling was wanting to get the incessant rocking motion to stop. But, with Amber to the rescue, dramamine came in handy and a couple hours later I was good as new. One word of caution, however, is to try and avoid talk of spewing, losing the lunch, throwing up, or anything else while feeling sick. It generally doesn't help in keeping one from leaning over the edge.
That's actually Josh's second attempt at getting me to lose my lunch while on a trip or ride of some kind. The other was when he took some of us flying in their family's small plane while at Harding. Apparently I don't do well with heights or small aircraft or something, cause man...I was pretty out of it for that trip. He says that I wasn't really myself for a number of hours afterwards...I don't think I was myself for quite a while longer. I guess I need to just keep the dramamine close by whenever I'm going on an ocean vessel or a small plane. Although, I don't really think that I'll be on either of those types of vehicles in the near future.
Seriously, though, it was a fun weekend. The boat really was incredible, and having not been on a sailboat before, was quite the experience with putting the sails up, leaning all the way to one side to walk since the edge away from the wind was practically in the water, and basically just enjoying the peacefulness of being out on the water. The first time the wind caught the sail and the boat took off, I was kinda caught off guard when the whole ship tilted to one side. Then the boat kinda held it's position, and I thought that I'd be alright with it running along like that. Then, I noticed that the boat wasn't moving. Apparently we'd gotten stuck, but after some work with the motor and all of us standing on one side to lean the boat, we got unstuck and back on our way. Then I got the real feeling for how the boat runs in the water. I'd seen sailboats before, but I didn't realize that they ran so low in the water in the direction that the wind is going. I'd have to say, if there were some larger waves with the wind, I wouldn't be surprised for water to be coming up over the edge. But we didn't end up sinking, despite my early beliefs to the contrary. Overall though, I can see why they went touring around all summer in that thing just hanging out. Props to Josh for letting us get out on it and both he and Amber for entertaining us for the weekend.
For those of you that might not know, Mandi has gotten herself a job working for Bechtel as a Primary Contract Specialist. That's about all I can tell you about her job, because that's about all she can tell me about her job. The funny thing is, she is on her way to Nashville for a conference with the company execs without ever having worked yet. She gets back Tuesday night and will have her first day in the office actually learning the job on Wednesday. But mad props to her for owning the interview and getting hired the exact same day. Now it's my turn to have that kind of interview at some point.
I guess the riddle from two posts back about hunting has got people stuck, although some of the answers were quite humorous, and I would have thought they could work. If I actually made these up, I would select Philip's answer to be correct. The "official" answer however, is lice. Who would think of that? I don't know who did in the first place. But that's what they said. Amber, here's you're chance to be proven as a genius! Today's riddle is more of a logic puzzle called Anniversary Discount:
A fancy restaurant in New York was offering a promotional deal. A married couple could eat at the restaurant for half-price on their anniversary. To prevent scams, the couple would need proof of their wedding date.One Thursday evening, a couple claimed it was their anniversary, but didn't bring any proof. The restaurant manager was called to speak with the couple. When the manager asked to hear about the wedding day, the wife replied with the following: "Oh, it was a wonderful Sunday afternoon, birds were chirping, and flowers were in full bloom." After nearly 10 minutes of ranting, she comes to tell him that today was their 28th wedding anniversary."How lovely", the manager said, "However, you do not qualify for the discount. Today is not your anniversary, you are a liar". How did the manager know that it wasn't their anniversary?
The highlights for the coming week? Going crazy at ORNL with sample running in the machine for my thesis work, the start of the season for the soccer team that I'm coaching, the start of the MLS soccer season, the Champions League returns to action in the quarterfinal stage, and my lab section has their last day of lab, meaning my teaching is almost finished at UT. All brilliant stuff, and all to be looked forward to. For now, though, it's off to continue my reading of The Chronicles of Narnia. The current book is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I'm glad that I've picked up reading them again after the long break since I quite (last summer, I think). I figure, though, that I'll have a lot of time to read in the coming weeks while I wait for those samples to cool and warm up, so they should be finished soon. I'll have to find another book after that though. If anyone has some suggestions of good books, I'd love to have them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
