Friday, April 29, 2011

Most Useless Machine Ever

I'm suffering from Writer's Block, so instead you get a view of this little invention:

Friday, April 22, 2011

Real Salt Lake Home Coming: 21 April, 2011

It's great being right out on the tarmac.







Ready to cheer on the home-coming heroes.







The only two I can readily identify: Paulo Jr. (First one off the plane); Will Johnson (In the black shirt).







Look at those smiles. You can tell that they played well in Monterrey.







The only purpose for the barrier was to keep us away from the planes, not Nat Borchers.






Yep, Will Johnson's dog was excited to see him.






Jamison Olave had some camera time.






Coach, Jason Kreis, was a little hard to get a hold of him. But I caught a quick shot on his way out.






Leo, Will, and the cutest dog in the hanger (oddly enough, he wasn't the only dog in the hanger).

Friday, April 15, 2011

After Years and Years of Running . . .

I had a roommate that was trying to improve his running. He found a book and it listed the four types of runners (or non-runners): Type I - Those that don't have the desire, or the ability; Type II - Those that have the desire, but not the ability; Type III - Those that don't have the desire, but do have the ability; and Type IV - Those that have the desire and the ability.

We were quickly able to ascertain that my roommate trying to kick up his running was a Type II, my other roommate was a Type I, and I was a Type III. The only one we were missing from our group was the elusive Type IV (I would've figured that anyone having the desire to run would be elusive). The only running I really did at the time was in Frisbee games, and I was happy to keep it that way. (Speaking of which, it's getting to be that season again! Anyone know of some groups getting together?)

A short while later I met a girl, turns out that she's the Type IV. Apparently it only took a cute girl to get me into a little running. It's been over three years and 100 miles since I married that girl and to be honest, I'm still not the biggest fan of running (I'd much rather be running for a touch-down), but I keep doing it. Why? Oddly enough there are a number of reasons.

For one, it keeps me in shape for trash kicking in Frisbee (I love being able to out run the teens and twenty-somethings). Another, running actually does keep me in shape. Yet another, there's always great stuff to see when I'm running. In the summer I get to be outside and seeing all the nature around. In the winter I get to watch ESPN while I go a couple of miles on the treadmill. However, probably the biggest reason why I keep running is because it's quality time with that Type IV girl I met a few years back.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Who to Root For, and Why!

I'm not turning this blog into a sports central, but it's just what's prevalent in my mind right now. Don't worry, the requested blogs are being worked on and will show up in the near-ish future. For those of you that didn't realize this, you can make requests in the comments area. (You could try telling me face to face, but most likely I'll forget what it was you wanted me to write about.)

So, on to today's topic: There are always rivalries in sports, it just makes the games more interesting. Many colleges take advantage of this by having rivalry cups, buckets, wheels, or other odd trophies. However, to my knowledge only one pro sport has actually turned this wonderful idea to a real marketable practice.

In Major League Soccer there's about nine rivalry cups (according to Wikipedia): Atlantic Cup (D.C. United/New York Red Bulls), Brimstone Cup (Chicago Fire/FC Dallas), California Clasico (Los Angeles Galaxy/San Jose Earthquakes), Heritage Cup (San Jose Earthquakes/Seattle Sounders FC), Honda SuperClasico (C.D. Chivas USA/Los Angeles Galaxy), Rocky Mountain Cup (Colorado Rapids/Real Salt Lake), Texas Derby (FC Dallas/Houston Dynamo), Trillium Cup (Columbus Crew/Toronto FC), and the Cascadia Cup (Portland Timbers/Seattle Sounders FC/Vancouver White Caps FC).

These are actual trophies that reside at the reigning winners stadium for all to see. Each season it's a big deal for the fans to have the cup in their team's possession and the rivalry games are usually some of the best attended.

Now many people will take these rivalries as an excuse to hate the opposing team and hope nothing but the worse for the entire season. But then how does this benefit your team? The best logic is to support your team and their rival team in all other endeavors. Because the success of your rival only increases others' views of your own team's success (assuming your team won the cup). There's nothing impressive about winning the cup if you took it from the lowest team in the league.

Let's put this into perspective. The top team in the MLS is the Colorado Rapids. They're doing great starting out having won all 3 games they've played and I expect them to make a good showing against FC Dallas to stay on top. After that game they get to come Rio Tinto Stadium and face off against their Rocky Mountain Cup rivals, Real Salt Lake. I'm planning to be there cheering on RSL the entire time hoping for a blow-out. Now tell me, could it be any sweeter than getting a solid win against your rival -the top ranked team in the league? I submit to you that it can not! Just some food for thought.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Shout-Out to My Peeps!

In this episode, I'm just going to have to give out a few congrats.

Congratulations to my sister-in-law and her Pinoy boyfriend.

The Pinoy is no longer her boyfriend, he is now her fiancé. He's a good guy, served his mission in the Philippines; give me good competitions on the foosball table; and doesn't enjoy playing Rock Band. What's not to like aobut this guy?

Congratulations to Real Salt Lake.

What was supposed to be a Clash of the Titans turned out to be “clinical, undeniable, dominance” by RSL. Unless Galaxy gets their rhythm soon, they're going to drop from Supporter Shield favorites to middl of the pack and just hoping to make it into the playoffs. Then again, Real might just be that good.

Congratulations to Diggity.

I wish I had mor information on this one, but Diggity is terrible at responding to any of my inquiries, so I'm only giving the information I have: On the 29th, Bungie released their Action Pack Playlist for Halo, and his SkeeBall map is on it! They duplicated the entire map and put it back to back for teams versus.

P.S. Apparently writing from Open Office and transfering it to the blog doesn't work well, so I've been working on making it presentable, but that ain't happening. So live with it, and I'll try again next week. (I might have it figured out now . . . )