A Mind Stretched

Mr. Incredible on Halloween

2009-10-31T19:57:00.001-05:00

Mr. Incredible on Halloween

2009-10-31T18:27:00.001-05:00

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2009-10-01T18:15:00.000-05:00

I got her.

Michael Crabtee should get what he deserves

2009-09-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

I believe that Michael Crabtree should get exactly what he deserves, which is not what he thinks he deserves.

What Michael Crabtree has done is get drafted 1oth and turned down money for 10th. He's still holding out and may possibly re-enter the draft next year.

I think there should be a new rule that a player who holds out an entire season cannot be drafted in the same round that they were drafted in previously. That would make the 2nd round the highest he could be drafted, and his pay after next years draft would reflect a 2nd round pick. That would deter these college athletes who haven't done anything to prove that they can play in the NFL from being able to turn down $20 Million offers in the hopes of $30 Million offers. That's just flat out wrong. Ask the millions of people who will never see that kind of money.

Suck it up dude. Take the $15 Million or so being offered to you and get to work. After all, don't you have to make some money so you can make a living, or did your college find a way to pay you under the table?

Cutler is to blame

2009-09-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Bears lost the first game, and I think everyone last night was clear on what the problem was. Jay Cutler made mistake after mistake. However, listening to 670AM "the score" this morning the radio guys are ripping on the defense secondaries.

My take is this. In a game where the offense lost the field position battle big time by giving away the ball on 4 interceptions and a fake punt, the defense still managed to get a safety, and keep Green Bay to very few points. The defense played so good that with as bad as the Bears played they still won the time of possession battle and had more yards offense. That's pretty impressive.

The Bears lost simply because of Jay Cutler. Sure I think Ron Turner is partly to blame for calling so many pass plays when the quarterback was clearly not settled. But even with a pass play being called Cutler consistently threw off of his back foot and threw to his "favorite" receiver despite him being double, triple, and even quadruple covered. Throwing to someone else, checking down, or throwing the ball away would have been a better decision many times yesterday.

Bears, any receivers coming?

2009-09-10T17:07:00.002-05:00

The Vikings release Bobby Wade, their best receiver the past 2 years and Marvin Harrison is still unemployed. Any chance the Bears pick up a receiver with some quality and experience?

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2009-09-09T11:06:00.000-05:00

His first day of preschhool.

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2009-09-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

Maybe I can be in the next nightmare before christmas.

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2009-09-03T16:26:00.000-05:00

I put my hands like this to help me hop (on one foot)

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2009-08-29T17:09:00.000-05:00

First sleep over

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2009-08-28T23:11:00.000-05:00

He is unique and we love him for it.

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2009-08-21T16:30:00.000-05:00

A smiling boy.

Weight Loss Workouts continue

2009-08-18T21:24:00.001-05:00

I did not give up on my weight loss workouts, between them, working overtime, and trying to keep up with my wife at Farm Town on Facebook, I haven't had the chance to blog much. Plus I haven't had anything exciting to say.

I have been running more consistently. Today I even ran 2 miles. I have occasionally ridden the exercise bike. And I have been in the mood for weight training so I have done some light free weight and body weight exercises. Nothing extensive and I'm not following a program, but I am still feeling good about losing weight and being consistent with doing something.

Harpists playing people to death

2009-07-27T08:44:00.002-05:00

I remember cartoons with harpists floating along the dismembered soul floating up to heaven, but do we really have to play people to death?

What would it be like if you were in the hospital, and the guy next door had a harp start playing for him, would you think "Oh crap, I'm going, I'm not ready to die!!!" That's what I'd think.

Ontario Announces Rebates of Up to C$10,000 for Plug-in Electric Drive Vehicles

2009-07-15T12:30:00.002-05:00

Ontario Announces Rebates of Up to C$10,000 for Plug-in Electric Drive Vehicles, but more exciting is that they have a goal of getting 5% of the vehicles on the roads to a plug-in hybrid or all electric vehicle by 2020. To help this 20% of all new government purchases will be one of these forms of electric vehicles.

Since there are currently no mass produced plug-in hybrids, I'm guessing this is going to be a backloaded goal, however, the rebates will just about guarantee good sales of the first plug-in Prius in Canada.

Weight loss week 3

2009-07-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Weight 241
I'm disappointed that all of the additional exercise this week did not translate into weight loss. I'm not sure of the reason. I didn't eat more junk food, but I may have had larger portions of food. I definitely felt hungrier. I'm satisfied with the amount of exercise, but I need to control my food intake better.

Sunday - I rode the exercise bike for another 15 miles.
Saturday - I rode the exercise bike for 15 miles today, and then before bed I ran 3 miles. It was a ton of exercise, but I really needed to get the distance in for the lazy man I am doing.
Friday - I took a day off after a couple of good days of exercise.
Thursday - I rode the exercise bike 15 miles. It was a great exercise with lots of sweat.
Wednesday - I got up early and rode my bike 3 miles, then ran 1 mile.
Tuesday - I got up early and ran 3 miles
Monday - I didn't do anything on Monday, I was a little disappointed in myself.

Weight loss week 2

2009-07-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Erin signed me up for a Lazy Man's iron man in July. I have to run 26.2 miles, bike 112 miles, and swim 2.4 miles. I did the same thing last year, and despite worrying about the swimming, it was actually the easiest part last year.

Weight: 240 - Down one pound from last week.

Sunday - I put Jaden in the bike trailer and pulled him for 4 miles. That was a lot harder than just getting myself over the distance. Plus the heat, I felt sick for the next hour afterwards.
Saturday - I ended up going in to work today to get caught up on things and didn't exercise.
Friday - I stayed home and spent most of the day working on the computer. I didn't exercise.
Thursday - I was able to get up early today and run/walk for 2 miles before work. My legs are a little tired, but I felt really good.
Wednesday - First day of the Lazy Man. I meant to get up and run in the morning, but I was up too late last night. I walked 1 mile at lunch.
Tuesday - I got up early and rode the exercise bike for 15 minutes, not much but something. I walked 1 mile in about 20 minutes at lunch time.
Monday - I left for work at 7:30 AM and didn't get home until 11 PM. I did not get to exercise.

Palin resigns early

2009-07-03T15:57:00.001-05:00

Sarah Palin has resigned, I don't understand the reason, but this is definitely putting her in my do not vote for President pile. At the very least I want a President that will finish out the office that they were elected for, when the Presidential election will not happen in the middle of that term.

The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building

2009-07-02T19:00:00.000-05:00

The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building: Redefining the Practice of Sustainability (Sustainable Design) has been released to help builders learn how to make buildings greener.

I find it ironic though that this 416 page tome is not offered in an electronic format. They'll tell us how to make our buildings green, but they aren't offering a way to help us cut down on the paper, and all of the water and energy that goes into producing a physical book.

Stop providing public smog

2009-06-30T19:00:00.000-05:00

I think all of the major cities should switch their trains and buses to Fuel Cell vehicles. Fuel cells already work and are viable in larger vehicles (although not cheap). However, one of the biggest issues with large cities is air quality. The government should not be another contributor.

No public transportation should be emitting these pollutants. This comes with the benefit that since major cities will be using hydrogen on a larger scale, there will have to be refueling stations in the cities. The refueling stations will provide a place for consumer purchased fuel cell vehicles to fill up.

I also think the new vehicles should not be fuel cell only. We know that hybrids reduce the amount of fuel that is used, that should not change with fuel cells. The hydrogen may be cleaner and not produce pollutants, but it will still need to be filled up. Using hybrid technology that is already being used should be able to be used in conjunction with the fuel cells to make the vehicles travel farther on the same amount of hydrogen. This will also help to alleviate the amount of hydrogen that needs to be produced to fuel the public transportation system.

Once the large cities have it working, the medium sized cities could then also get on board.

C'mon government. You want to say you are building an energy driven economy and fighting global warming at the same time. Stop taking useless 3 or 5 mpg increases over 10 years, and jump into removing all gasoline use from public transportation. Get the buses, public, then school switched over. Then mandate Tractor Trailers switch and get the biggest fuel hogs immediately off of gasoline. The smaller vehicles will continue to get more efficient, or will make the jump to fuel cells. Make that happen!

Summer weight loss

2009-06-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

I've let myself get fat. Too fat. I've moved up a pants size and if it weren't for expandable waist pants, I would be up two sizes.

I plan on posting a once a week update on where I'm at and what I did in the previous week to exercise.

Today: 241 pounds.
Previous week.
Sunday: 3 mile bike ride. 1.5 mile run.
Saturday: Some pushups.
Friday: Walked to the library and back about 1.75 miles
Thursday: Funeral in the morning. Run at night about 1.5 miles.
Wednesday: Visitation - standing around for 5 hours, no exercise.
Tuesday: On vacation at waterpark. Walked some.
Monday: On vacation at waterpark. Walked some.

My goal is for next week's exercise to look a lot more consistent.

What smarter grid?

2009-06-22T08:33:00.003-05:00

Everything I've read about a smart grid is based on houses being able to run without electricity, with the electricity being supplied by a PHEV. However, if I'm driving a PHEV and lose power at my house, I don't want to use my car to power my house, then also run my car dead. I want to be able to take my car and leave without it causing my house to break down again.

Instead, the smart grid technology should be giving houses their own battery. Then my house is not broken if I need to go somewhere in my car. Also houses could be cycled and not all run off the grid at the same time. If every house has their own battery, then only half would have to be on the grid charging at a time. This would immediately cut the electricity need in half. It's much more realistic to have clean energy generated when the demand is only half of what it is now.

If you take RMI's approach and make houses even more efficient, then we wouldn't even need half the power that we need now.

Let's get some of the battery technology that we have been trying to build for cars, and take advantage of the cost improvements, in order to make houses able to run without the grid.

Baseball game 5

2009-06-12T23:00:00.000-05:00

Game 5 and the 3rd this week.

The kids did good again. We got another putout on the bases. And Chloe, the youngest on the team, nearly got a hit. She it the ball and ran to first. But the other team was able to beat her there and get the putout. I was so excited and hollering "run, run, run" I may have scared her some, she's the 2nd fastest on the team and was slowing down as she got to first, she was also still holding the bat. It was awesome, and sad at the same time. If she'd have dropped the bat and ran then she would have made it.

We hit the ball well, but were unable to score. We just couldn't get enough hits in a row. Zion, the oldest on the team had two rips into the outfield (actually on the grass), the first was a double, the second was on the first base side so he only got a single out of it.

I'm still waiting for Ady to get a hit. Her swings tonight were a little weak, she moved her arms through the motion, but the bat pointed straight down. I definitely need to work with her more on how to swing the bat.

Baseball game 4

2009-06-10T22:38:00.003-05:00

Game 4 from 7:30 PM tonight.

Wow! My kids going into 1st and 2nd grade vs a team that is 7 and 8 year olds. I chatted with the other coach and 8 of his 10 kids were in the 8 year old category, while my team is all 6 and one 5 year old.

We lost, and we only played 3 innings in the one hour time limit. The other team scored 17 runs.

However, our team scored 4 runs, and we hit the ball a ton. We didn't make any outs on the bases, but we came close a few times. The older girls were just too fast for us.

The lowlight of the night was before the game started and Ady was taking batting practice. She hit the ball twice really well, then hit it with her finger. It smashed her finger, the same one she had smashed previously.

Fortunately I was blessed with many highlights. A couple kids got hits that haven't been hitting. We scored 4 runs. And Ady played really well, even after having smashed her finger before the game. I am a very proud coach.

Baseball game 3

2009-06-10T08:33:00.001-05:00

Game 3 was tonight at 7:30 PM. We lost.

Last week the pitching machine went bad enough that the other coach and I agreed to pitch to the kids ourselves. That was probably the biggest mistake. Despite pitching to the kids all the time in practice, I could not get them a good pitch to hit, and the limit of 3 strikes was really a problem.

We did get our second putout of the season when the pitcher picked up a short hit ball and ran home and touched the plate before the running attempting to score. The very next batter she had a second chance to do it again, but didn't because the umpire had moved in front of the plate to remove the dropped bat for safety. She was visibly upset that she could not make another out at the plate.

While game 2 was great because all of the kids were focused, game 3 was riddled with distracted and tired kids. I was constantly telling kids to stand up, something I have not had to do yet this season, and telling them to put their gloves back on. I even moved the girl playing pitcher out of pitcher after having told her several times to keep her glove on. Pitcher is probably the only position that a ball will get to on a fly, and I didn't want her to get hurt.

Sadly, one of my parents called and said her daughter would not be playing softball anymore. She wasn't having fun and they aren't going to make her go to it. My team now officially has 10 kids on it.

Game 4 is tomorrow night at 7:30 PM. Hopefully the kids are a little more alert.