The finals of the National Spelling Bee just took place, and that reminded me of a great article I read a few years back. The article was written by Bill Simmons. Simmons writes a sports column for ESPN ( He's also done comedy writing for Jimmy Kimmel. ), but whether you're a sports fan or not, I think you'll be impressed if you click on the link below:
Bill Simmons' Spelling Bee Column
In the column above, Simmons does the impossible. He somehow manages to make a spelling bee entertaining.
If you found that Bill Simmons article entertaining, I'd also recommend the following three articles:
Thoughts on the most dreadful - This is a great article about 9/11.
One final toss for The Dooze - This article is about the death of his dog. If this doesn't get you choked up, then you must not have a heart.
Getting deep sixed - This article may be stretch for those of you out there who are not sports fans ( particular those who don't know much about baseball ), but if you really want to understand the feelings of a passionate sports fan, you should read this article ( Personal Note: This article is about 1986 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets. Simmons is one of the biggest Red Sox fans in the world, and I'm probably one of the biggest Mets fans in the world. The Mets won that World Series ( the only time in my life one of my favorite teams won a championship ) , but the Red Sox would have won it if not for a extremely unlikely series of events at the end of game 6 of that series. Depending on how you want to look at it, the end of game 6 represents either the greatest comeback victory in the history of baseball, or the most crushing loss in the history of baseball. Simmons ( and every Red Sox fan in the world ) was devastated by this game. As a Mets fan who was absolutely euphoric after game 6, it was fascinating to read such an eloquent and passionate description of the "other side of the coin". Simmons frequently points out that he was only 17 during the 1986 World Series, and writes that the moment that the Mets tied the game on a wild pitch was "one of the five or six worst moments of my life". I was only 16 at the time, and I don't think I've ever experienced as much pure joy as I did right at the moment the Mets tied that game. I know it sounds silly, and in retrospect, I would have to say that my wedding day and the birth of my children were greater moments, but I can't really understate just how much the New York Mets meant to me as a 16-year old boy. I had sooooo much emotionally invested in that team. There was no doubt in my mind that the Mets were going to lose that game I was absolutely crushed. After the second out was made in the bottom of the 10th inning, I sat in the corner of my couch at home, clutching on to a pillow with a death grip. I was petrified. I couldn't move, and I could barely breathe. Even when the Mets started a rally and managed to get the tying run to third base, I still didn't believe a Mets victory was possible. Each time the pitcher released the ball, I knew that pitch could end the Mets season. I sat there petrified, waiting for the guillotine to drop. Then the wild pitch happened. Even after the ball got past the catcher, I was still worried that Kevin Mitchell ( the runner at third ) would be thrown out at the plate. When he crossed the plate to tie the game, I finally dropped the pillow, and flung myself across the room. The next thing I knew I was on the floor, pounding my fists and kicking my feet in a spasm of ecstasy. ).
I know that Bill Simmons seems like a rather odd subject for a column, but if not for Bill Simmons, there wouldn't even be a MoLewis57 blog. Bill Simmons is the first link in the series of events that led to this blog. The chain of events is as follows:
1) Bill Simmons provides a link to the video below in one of his columns:
2) After watching ( and loving ) the video, I feel compelled to respond to some of the stupid comments made on the video. I soon discover that I need a YouTube account to make a comment, and the MoLewis57 YouTube account is born ( The video below has the details of why I decided to create the MoLewis57 YouTube account ).
3) I start using YouTube more frequently so I can save videos of old Sesame Streets clips to the Favorites under my new YouTube account.
4) The video below gets featured on the front page of YouTube. I click on it and discover communitychannel.
5) I become a huge fan of communitychannel, and I am eventually inspired to start making videos of my on ( see this link for more details ).
6) Katy Perry records "I Kisssed a Girl".
7) Natalie ( communitychannel ) makes the following brilliant "I Kissed a Girl" parody.
8) The lyrics to Natalie's parody included a reference to scones. While reading through the comments on Natalie's video, I notice that a lot her viewers have no idea what a scone is. This inspired me to make video response below.
9) Natalie enjoys and favorites my "Scone" video. Naturally, the video starts to get a ( relatively ) huge amounts of hits after that. The video gets noticed by lots of people who wouldn't have noticed it otherwise. One of those people is Shweta, who comments on my Scone video from her munchkinhugs YouTube account. We converse a bit via comments on the Scones video, and I eventually I discover Shweta's blog.
10) After a while, Shweta's blog inspires me to create my own blog.
So, all of the stuff above leads us to YOU reading this blog post right now. So, if you enjoyed this post ( or my blog in general ), you can thank Bill Simmons ( along with Natalie, Shweta - and to a lesser extent, Katy Perry ). If he doesn't provide that link to the Brady video, this blog post never happens.
Oh, and BTW, to add one more twist to the whole "Butterfly Effect" angle, the Brady video probably never happens if the NFL referees get the call right on the play below:
Yes, so this blog was really brought to you by "The Tuck Rule".
Wow, what a positively link-y blog post.
Rich
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Losing My Faith in Humanity
Sometimes you see something that kinda makes you lose your faith in humanity. In the last few days, I've seen 3 things:
#1
Over Memorial Day weekend ( a big time for driving in the USA ), I must have seen/heard about 20 commercials like the one above for the "Click it or Ticket" campaign. What does it say about people in general when threatening people with a ticket is apparently the most effective method to convince people to wear seat belts? There are actually a significant amount people out there for whom saving a few bucks is more important than saving their lives? Good Lord! I'm embarrassed to be a member of the human race sometimes. Personally, I really don't think the government should be in the business of coercing people to wear seat belts. People who don't wear seat belts aren't harming anybody but themselves, and if you're too stupid to wear a seat belt ...
... well let's just say I believe in the concept of "thinning the herd".
OK, maybe I'm being a bit harsh - but c'mon, how could the fear of getting a ticket trump the fear of getting thrown through your windshield?
#2
According to the commercial above there are two ways to avoid a hangover. You can ...
1) Not Drink
2) Take Chaser while you drink
God, I don't even know what to say here. They should just rename this "Chaser" product "The Alcoholic Enabler". I don't mean to be too much of a prude, but a hangover is really your body's way of telling you that you have put too much poison in your body. If you find you are getting hangovers all the time, it's a really good clue that you should stop drinking so much. It really depresses me to know that we are such a nation of boozers ( or perhaps a world of boozers ). There are so many people out there that can't even conceive of having a good time without drinking. The fact that there is a market out there for a product like "Chaser" is really sad.
#3
I read this New York Times Magazine article today. Apparently, there are still places in the American South where high schools have two proms - one for white kids and one for black kids. So much for Obama's America.
OK, I know this was rather cynical post. I'm actually quite happy with life. There's a lot of good out there, but sometimes I can't help buy dwell on the stuff that sucks.
Rich
#1
Over Memorial Day weekend ( a big time for driving in the USA ), I must have seen/heard about 20 commercials like the one above for the "Click it or Ticket" campaign. What does it say about people in general when threatening people with a ticket is apparently the most effective method to convince people to wear seat belts? There are actually a significant amount people out there for whom saving a few bucks is more important than saving their lives? Good Lord! I'm embarrassed to be a member of the human race sometimes. Personally, I really don't think the government should be in the business of coercing people to wear seat belts. People who don't wear seat belts aren't harming anybody but themselves, and if you're too stupid to wear a seat belt ...
... well let's just say I believe in the concept of "thinning the herd".
OK, maybe I'm being a bit harsh - but c'mon, how could the fear of getting a ticket trump the fear of getting thrown through your windshield?
#2
According to the commercial above there are two ways to avoid a hangover. You can ...
1) Not Drink
2) Take Chaser while you drink
God, I don't even know what to say here. They should just rename this "Chaser" product "The Alcoholic Enabler". I don't mean to be too much of a prude, but a hangover is really your body's way of telling you that you have put too much poison in your body. If you find you are getting hangovers all the time, it's a really good clue that you should stop drinking so much. It really depresses me to know that we are such a nation of boozers ( or perhaps a world of boozers ). There are so many people out there that can't even conceive of having a good time without drinking. The fact that there is a market out there for a product like "Chaser" is really sad.
#3
I read this New York Times Magazine article today. Apparently, there are still places in the American South where high schools have two proms - one for white kids and one for black kids. So much for Obama's America.
OK, I know this was rather cynical post. I'm actually quite happy with life. There's a lot of good out there, but sometimes I can't help buy dwell on the stuff that sucks.
Rich
Saturday, May 23, 2009
More Swooning
As those of you who have been reading my blog regularly already know, I swoon for Amanda Terkel. However, the start of the French Open reminds me that I also swoon for defending French Open champion Ana Ivanovic.
Actually, what really reminded me what this video I saw attached to a news article last week. Ana's just sitting there in a pink T-shirt, but she looked so stunning that my jaw dropped to the floor.
The crush I have on Ana is certainly different than the "smart girls with glasses" crushes that I usually have. However, I have a history of being attracted to athletes, particularly world class athletes. Actually I usually only swoon for a pretty female athlete if she's one of the best in the world at her sport ( I could never really get into Anna Kournikova, because she could never manage to win a tournament ).
Specifically, over the last 33 years I've had crushes on 4 female athletes, who at one point or another have been ranked #1 in the world in their sports. I made a video about about these 4 athletes about a year ago.
If you don't have time to watch the video above, I'll just tell you that I got my first big "Sports Crush" during the 1976 Olympics ( when I was 6 ), and I've gotten a new Sports Crush about once every 10 years. My 4 crushes have been ...
1976: Nadia Comaneci
The 80's: Katarina Witt
The 90's: Mia Hamm
Now: Ana Ivanovic
I discovered Ana back in November of 2007. I was flipping through the TV stations when I came across coverage of the Madrid Open on ESPN. Ana was wearing the blue outfit you'll see in some of the photos below. After I picked my jaw off the floor, I Googled her, and I've had a Sports Crush on her ever since.
So, I was happy when she won the French Open and attained the #1 ranking in the world last year. Unfortunately, things haven't gone as well for her since then, and she still doesn't really get the attention that other supposedly hot players like Maria Sharapova get.
Now, I guess it is kinda fair that Sharapova gets more attention and endorsements. Maria is a bit more accomplished. She was ranked #1 for a longer period of time than Ana, and she has won 3 grand slam titles while Ana has only won 1. Maria also beat Ana head-to-head when they met in the finals of the 2008 Australian Open.
However, it seems like there are more guys who drool over Sharapova. I dunno, maybe it's the blonde thing, but Maria is just a tall fairly pretty girl, while Ana is simply stunning. If any of you guys reading this doubt me, take a look at the photos below:
Yes, I know that's a lot of photos, but hey, I only have 5 blog followers, and posting a bunch of photos of Ana Ivanovic might be a good way to get a few more hits to this site ;) .
Anyway, if you're a guy reading this, and this is the first time you've ever see Ana Ivanovic, I have just one thing to say ...
Your Welcome.
EDIT: BTW, I changed my blog template simply because I noticed that the previous template was chopping off the right side of embedded YouTube videos.
Actually, what really reminded me what this video I saw attached to a news article last week. Ana's just sitting there in a pink T-shirt, but she looked so stunning that my jaw dropped to the floor.
The crush I have on Ana is certainly different than the "smart girls with glasses" crushes that I usually have. However, I have a history of being attracted to athletes, particularly world class athletes. Actually I usually only swoon for a pretty female athlete if she's one of the best in the world at her sport ( I could never really get into Anna Kournikova, because she could never manage to win a tournament ).
Specifically, over the last 33 years I've had crushes on 4 female athletes, who at one point or another have been ranked #1 in the world in their sports. I made a video about about these 4 athletes about a year ago.
If you don't have time to watch the video above, I'll just tell you that I got my first big "Sports Crush" during the 1976 Olympics ( when I was 6 ), and I've gotten a new Sports Crush about once every 10 years. My 4 crushes have been ...
1976: Nadia Comaneci
The 80's: Katarina Witt
The 90's: Mia Hamm
Now: Ana Ivanovic
I discovered Ana back in November of 2007. I was flipping through the TV stations when I came across coverage of the Madrid Open on ESPN. Ana was wearing the blue outfit you'll see in some of the photos below. After I picked my jaw off the floor, I Googled her, and I've had a Sports Crush on her ever since.
So, I was happy when she won the French Open and attained the #1 ranking in the world last year. Unfortunately, things haven't gone as well for her since then, and she still doesn't really get the attention that other supposedly hot players like Maria Sharapova get.
Now, I guess it is kinda fair that Sharapova gets more attention and endorsements. Maria is a bit more accomplished. She was ranked #1 for a longer period of time than Ana, and she has won 3 grand slam titles while Ana has only won 1. Maria also beat Ana head-to-head when they met in the finals of the 2008 Australian Open.
However, it seems like there are more guys who drool over Sharapova. I dunno, maybe it's the blonde thing, but Maria is just a tall fairly pretty girl, while Ana is simply stunning. If any of you guys reading this doubt me, take a look at the photos below:
Yes, I know that's a lot of photos, but hey, I only have 5 blog followers, and posting a bunch of photos of Ana Ivanovic might be a good way to get a few more hits to this site ;) .
Anyway, if you're a guy reading this, and this is the first time you've ever see Ana Ivanovic, I have just one thing to say ...
Your Welcome.
EDIT: BTW, I changed my blog template simply because I noticed that the previous template was chopping off the right side of embedded YouTube videos.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Split Rock Resort
Back in the early April, my family and I went to Split Rock Resort in the Poconos ( BTW, that's in Pennsylvania ). I've posted a bunch of pictures from the trip below:
( Drawing on the lessons from my wasted youth, I show Michael the proper way to make a billiards bridge )
( Peter pumping up )
( Muscleman Michael )
( Michael jumping from lily-pad to lily-pad. Click photo for close-up. )
( Michael before his big surf )
( This would be the Split Rock. )
( It snowed while we were there. )
( Movie Time! )
( Michael drew WALL*E )
We also shot a few videos:
( Drawing on the lessons from my wasted youth, I show Michael the proper way to make a billiards bridge )
( Peter pumping up )
( Muscleman Michael )
( Michael jumping from lily-pad to lily-pad. Click photo for close-up. )
( Michael before his big surf )
( This would be the Split Rock. )
( It snowed while we were there. )
( Movie Time! )
( Michael drew WALL*E )
We also shot a few videos:
Monday, May 18, 2009
Gotham Hall
Ruth and I went to wedding on Saturday night at a place called Gotham Hall. It was really an architecturally fascinating place. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures ( Ruth left the house without her camera, which is kinda like Superman leaving the house without his cape ). However, if you click on the link in the first sentence, you'll see what I'm talking about. The place looks like a Roman Temple. The room is a huge oval ( probably about 75 feet by 125 feet - It's hard to tell - you can check out the pictures on the website and judge for yourself ), and it had 70 foot high domed ceiling ( see photo from the website below ).
I also couldn't help but notice that there were a bunch of aphorisms carved into the walls. What I found odd ( initially ) was that almost all of these sayings has something to do with money. For example:
“Waste neither time nor money but use both for your own and your neighbor’s good.”
“There is no gain so sure as that which results from economizing what you have.”
“It is what we save rather than what we earn that ensures a competency for the future.”
So, I'm sitting there during the wedding ceremony, trying to figure the story behind this place. As I said, the place looked like a temple, but it seemed to be a temple to money. It was like a giant, opulent, secular temple of wealth.
Eventually, I found out that the place was a former bank. It was actually the former main branch of The Greenwich Savings Bank ( built between 1922 and 1924). So that explained the aphorisms of wealth, but I was still fascinated by just how impressive the architecture was. You really don't see impressive architecture in modern bank buildings . Of course, it isn't really that unusual to find impressive architecture in old bank buildings. I think those old banks were designed to be impressive in order to inspire confidence in prospective clients. Back in the early days of banks, I'm sure it was a rather radical idea to hand your money over to a stranger for safe-keeping. I'm sure lots of people thought that keeping their money in a mattress at home would be a safer option. So, banks spent lots of money to build incredibly impression structures in order to convince people that a bank was safe place to put your money.
Of course, there was no FDIC insurance back then, so people who put their money in mattresses in 1924 ( 5 years before the Great Depression ) probably made out better than those who put their money in the impressive-looking banks ( I'll let the reader decide how this might related to what's happening in the financial world today ).
In any case, Ruth and I had a great time. We love being with the boys, but it's nice to have a night out every once in a while ( Ruth's Dad looked after the kids ). There was all sorts of music played at the wedding, and one song in particular reminded me a story from my youth. I made a YouTube video about that story, so you can click on the video below if you'd like to hear it.
Rich
I also couldn't help but notice that there were a bunch of aphorisms carved into the walls. What I found odd ( initially ) was that almost all of these sayings has something to do with money. For example:
“Waste neither time nor money but use both for your own and your neighbor’s good.”
“There is no gain so sure as that which results from economizing what you have.”
“It is what we save rather than what we earn that ensures a competency for the future.”
So, I'm sitting there during the wedding ceremony, trying to figure the story behind this place. As I said, the place looked like a temple, but it seemed to be a temple to money. It was like a giant, opulent, secular temple of wealth.
Eventually, I found out that the place was a former bank. It was actually the former main branch of The Greenwich Savings Bank ( built between 1922 and 1924). So that explained the aphorisms of wealth, but I was still fascinated by just how impressive the architecture was. You really don't see impressive architecture in modern bank buildings . Of course, it isn't really that unusual to find impressive architecture in old bank buildings. I think those old banks were designed to be impressive in order to inspire confidence in prospective clients. Back in the early days of banks, I'm sure it was a rather radical idea to hand your money over to a stranger for safe-keeping. I'm sure lots of people thought that keeping their money in a mattress at home would be a safer option. So, banks spent lots of money to build incredibly impression structures in order to convince people that a bank was safe place to put your money.
Of course, there was no FDIC insurance back then, so people who put their money in mattresses in 1924 ( 5 years before the Great Depression ) probably made out better than those who put their money in the impressive-looking banks ( I'll let the reader decide how this might related to what's happening in the financial world today ).
In any case, Ruth and I had a great time. We love being with the boys, but it's nice to have a night out every once in a while ( Ruth's Dad looked after the kids ). There was all sorts of music played at the wedding, and one song in particular reminded me a story from my youth. I made a YouTube video about that story, so you can click on the video below if you'd like to hear it.
Rich
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
More Neil Finn / The Wiggles
As I mentioned in this post, I recently learned who Neil Finn was. Well, I was flipping through the TV stations late on Saturday night, and all of a sudden I spot Neil Finn. "Hey, I know that guy!", I said to myself. "That's Neil Finn, and those guys on stage with him must be the rest of Crowded House."
So, I watched about 30 minutes of a Crowded House concert on TV that night. Two things I noticed:
1) I recognized all of the songs they played. However, before watching those 30 minutes of the concert, I wouldn't have known that half the songs were Crowded House songs.
2) I could tell it was a recent concert, because Neil Finn looked about as old as he did in the Google images I looked at back in March. However, he didn't actually look old while he was singing. He seemed old when he was just talking to the crowd between songs, but as soon as he started singing, he seemed about 15 years younger.
Speaking of Australian bands, I will soon be a Wiggle for a day ( or at least for about 30 minutes or so ). On June 14th, we are having Peter's 4th birthday party ( he turns 4 on June 12th ). Peter loves the Wiggles, so Ruth and I have convinced 3 of my friends to do a Wiggles act with me at his birthday party ( Of course, we'll all be wearing shirts with the proper Wiggles colors ). I'm going to play the role of Greg ( yellow shirt ), so I'll be doing most of the singing. Assuming this isn't a complete disaster ( and probably even if it is ) photos and videos will follow.
Rich
So, I watched about 30 minutes of a Crowded House concert on TV that night. Two things I noticed:
1) I recognized all of the songs they played. However, before watching those 30 minutes of the concert, I wouldn't have known that half the songs were Crowded House songs.
2) I could tell it was a recent concert, because Neil Finn looked about as old as he did in the Google images I looked at back in March. However, he didn't actually look old while he was singing. He seemed old when he was just talking to the crowd between songs, but as soon as he started singing, he seemed about 15 years younger.
Speaking of Australian bands, I will soon be a Wiggle for a day ( or at least for about 30 minutes or so ). On June 14th, we are having Peter's 4th birthday party ( he turns 4 on June 12th ). Peter loves the Wiggles, so Ruth and I have convinced 3 of my friends to do a Wiggles act with me at his birthday party ( Of course, we'll all be wearing shirts with the proper Wiggles colors ). I'm going to play the role of Greg ( yellow shirt ), so I'll be doing most of the singing. Assuming this isn't a complete disaster ( and probably even if it is ) photos and videos will follow.
Rich
Monday, May 11, 2009
Best Actor
I think I deserve to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. Take a look at the picture below. It's a picture of me riding a camel with Michael and Peter at the Bronx Zoo on Saturday ( I don't have time to post a bunch of Bronx Zoo photos yet, but I'll post some more photos eventually ). I've never really wanted to ride a camel, but Michael wanted to try, Ruth wanted to get a photo of Michael and Peter together on the camel, and Ruth and I were both afraid that Peter might fall off the camel. So, I decided to ride the camel with the boys. In the picture below I look pretty happy, but that's just my great acting at work.
You see, the picture below was a posed shot. I knew Ruth was taking a picture. The candid shot below tells the story of how I really felt during that camel ride.
Why was I making a face like that? Let's just say that the camel ride was bumpy, that hump is harder than it looks, and it's unlikely that I'll ever be able to father children again.
;)
Rich
You see, the picture below was a posed shot. I knew Ruth was taking a picture. The candid shot below tells the story of how I really felt during that camel ride.
Why was I making a face like that? Let's just say that the camel ride was bumpy, that hump is harder than it looks, and it's unlikely that I'll ever be able to father children again.
;)
Rich
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Quick and Random
Haven't really had time to blog the last couple of days, and I may not have time this weekend. Thus, I just wanted to write a quick little random post.
I feel pretty worn out these days. Work has been tough. I won't say any more, because I really shouldn't be complaining about having a steady job in this economy, but things have been tough. I keep finding myself thinking about September 5th, 2018. That's when I'll be making my last mortgage payment on the house. When that time comes, I might just be able to afford to change careers ( Or maybe not - still got pay for the kid's college education. We had stocked the kids 529's ( college funds ) pretty well, but they've really taken a beating lately. I might have to work at this job for a bunch more years after 2018 if the 529's don't recover a lot over the next 9 years ). I still think about getting into politics ( working for campaigns - not actually running for office ), or teaching, or writing, but none of that is going to happen until the mortgage is paid off.
Actually, if money was no object, I think my dream job would be working at a daycare center. I'd just love to work with little kids all day. Maybe I'll volunteer at a daycare center someday when I'm an old retired guy. All the little kids could call me "Gramps". That would be nice.
Hmm, that last line just reminded me of my Grandfather ( my Mom's Dad ). He was such a great guy. Perhaps I'll describe him in detail in another post ( he deserves more time than I have right now ), but let's just say that he was the kind of guy the everybody would call "Grandpa". Every little kid he met would just automatically call him "Grandpa". He died back in November of 1990. I still miss him sometimes. I really wish he could have met Ruth ( He would have really loved her! ), but Ruth and I didn't start dating until April of 1991. He would have really loved to meet Michael and Peter. He was so great with kids.
Speaking of people who are no longer with us, I was really sorry to hear about Dom DeLuise. I think my brother and me watched The Cannonball Run about 50 times when we were kids. We had taped it off of HBO, and we watched that thing over and over again. He was also in the opening scene of The Muppet Movie, so thinking of Dom Deluise always brings back a lot of good childhood memories.
RIP Dom. :(
Anyway, see ya all later. I'll be going to The Bronx Zoo with the family this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some cute photos to post next week.
Rich
I feel pretty worn out these days. Work has been tough. I won't say any more, because I really shouldn't be complaining about having a steady job in this economy, but things have been tough. I keep finding myself thinking about September 5th, 2018. That's when I'll be making my last mortgage payment on the house. When that time comes, I might just be able to afford to change careers ( Or maybe not - still got pay for the kid's college education. We had stocked the kids 529's ( college funds ) pretty well, but they've really taken a beating lately. I might have to work at this job for a bunch more years after 2018 if the 529's don't recover a lot over the next 9 years ). I still think about getting into politics ( working for campaigns - not actually running for office ), or teaching, or writing, but none of that is going to happen until the mortgage is paid off.
Actually, if money was no object, I think my dream job would be working at a daycare center. I'd just love to work with little kids all day. Maybe I'll volunteer at a daycare center someday when I'm an old retired guy. All the little kids could call me "Gramps". That would be nice.
Hmm, that last line just reminded me of my Grandfather ( my Mom's Dad ). He was such a great guy. Perhaps I'll describe him in detail in another post ( he deserves more time than I have right now ), but let's just say that he was the kind of guy the everybody would call "Grandpa". Every little kid he met would just automatically call him "Grandpa". He died back in November of 1990. I still miss him sometimes. I really wish he could have met Ruth ( He would have really loved her! ), but Ruth and I didn't start dating until April of 1991. He would have really loved to meet Michael and Peter. He was so great with kids.
Speaking of people who are no longer with us, I was really sorry to hear about Dom DeLuise. I think my brother and me watched The Cannonball Run about 50 times when we were kids. We had taped it off of HBO, and we watched that thing over and over again. He was also in the opening scene of The Muppet Movie, so thinking of Dom Deluise always brings back a lot of good childhood memories.
RIP Dom. :(
Anyway, see ya all later. I'll be going to The Bronx Zoo with the family this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some cute photos to post next week.
Rich
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Tag, I'm it.
Yup, I've been tagged.
Tagged by Shweta.
Tagged by Shweta as part of one of these games where you've got to give facts about yourself - in this case, six facts.
Gee, haven't I done this before? Didn't I give you all 16 facts just a few month ago? Didn't I once do a 5 facts vlog? Didn't I answer 55 questions, 65 questions, and various other random questions? Crap, what else is left? I seriously might be running out of random facts about myself. But hey, I respect the tag. If you're going to be online, ya gotta respect the tag. I'm not even sure what the 6 things are going to be yet, but I'm going to start by stealing the idea from the first thing on Shweta's list. I'm going to start by talking about my own issues with body image.
1. Some people are going to groan when they read what I'm about to write. If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that anybody who has ever struggled to lose weight hates listening to skinny people whine about their inability to gain weight. Being naturally skinny is a blessing and people who whines about it are idiots who don't appreciate how good they've got it.
I'm sorry to say that I was once such an idiot.
OK, well maybe I actually didn't whine a lot about my inability to gain weight ( I was never much of a talker ), but I certainly fretted about it a lot. I was always a skinny kid, and I always felt really self-conscious about it. I thought skinny=wimpy, and I really didn't like the idea of looking ( or being ) wimpy. Of course, I became uber self-conscious by the time my teen years came along. By the time I was a 15-year old high school Freshman, I was 6 feet, 1 inches tall, but only weighed 120 pounds ( Yeah, I know most of my readers are from the metric part of the world, but it's 12:08 AM, and I'm too tired to do the conversions right now. Deal with it folks. ).
At the age of 15, I embarked on a rather intense workout regimen. I started working out with weights 4 times week ( Intense free-weight workouts that often ended with heavy weights pinned to my chest when my muscles gave out. I did all these free-weight workouts without a spotter - I was quite nuts. ), I rode an exercise bike 3 times a week ( to get my legs stronger for basketball ), and I started doing 300 sit-ups a day ( because I didn't want to have a physique like Shaggy from Scooby Doo ( Skinny guy with a bigger gut than chest ) ). By the time I was a Senior in high school, I had tripled my strength, but I still felt like I was far too skinny. By that time, I was 6' 1'' ( Never grew past the age of 15 - there went my hopes of being a basketball player ) and weighed 150 pounds ( I weigh 165 now, and most people still consider me to be quite thin ). I had gained 30 pounds of muscle, but it was hard to tell that it was there. Sure, I was as cut as a person could be, and my muscles were like slabs of granite, but they were like really small slabs of granite. My pectoral muscles were probably only about a cm thick ( there ya go, metric folks! ), so you really couldn't see them unless I flexed with my shirt off ( I'm ashamed to admit that I spent a fair amount of time posing in front of a mirror with my shirt off in those days. It's hard to work out a lot without getting at least a little bit narcissistic ( Why do you think they have so many mirrors in gyms? ) ).
So anyway, I was certainly a lot stronger, but I wasn't big. I really wanted to be BIG. I wanted to be the exact opposite of the skinny guy I had been all my life. Sure, I wasn't big yet, but if I kept working out with a fierce intensity, I was sure I would eventually get BIG.
But then I hit the wall. After three years of getting stronger at a steady pace, my workouts stopped yielding results. I was no longer getting stronger - I was no longer getting BIGGER. I responded by working out harder than ever. I worked out all the time. I felt sore all the time. I found myself alone in my basement with huge weights pinned to my body all the time ( This was getting really dangerous, because by this time the weights weighed significantly more than me ). However, no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to get any stronger.
Based on this experience, I think I understand why some guys take steroids. I think that every person has a natural genetic limit to how strong/big they can get naturally. After 3 years I hit that limit. I very much wanted to go beyond that limit, but my body wouldn't let me. I'm not the kind of guy who would ever take steroids ( I'm "Mr. Natural". I'm a computer programmer with 2 little kids, and I don't even drink stuff with caffeine. My wife's a doctor who can get me any drug I want, but I won't take medicine for an illness unless I get really really sick ( I figure this will make my immune system tougher. ). ) , but I can see why some guys would. If a guy is working out as hard as he can, and his body is no longer responding, I could see why a guy might feel like he deserves the extra boost that steroids would give. It's certainly not a healthy thing to do, but I could see why a guy would do it.
Anyways, steroids were not in the cards, so I never really got any bigger after the age of 18. This frustrated me until I heard the following 4 words during my Freshmen year at college:
"Don't get big, Rich."
Those words were uttered by CG#1, and as you might imagine, that changed everything. I think I had mentioned my workouts to her ( because as much as I might have wanted to do it at the time, ripping off my shirt and flexing in front of her would not have been social acceptable ), and she told me "Don't get big, Rich. I think it's gross when guys get big".
Now, I didn't stop working out altogether, but I was no longer obsessed with getting big after that. I finally started to realize that lots of girls were more physically attracted to guys with thin athletic bodies ( the swimmer type ) than guys with big burly bodies ( the football player type ). Eventually, I wound up marrying just such a girl. Back when Ruth and I started dating, Patrick Swayze was considered to be one of the hot guys on the Hollywood scene. When I asked Ruth about seeing some Patrick Swayze movie, she made a face and said that he was "too beefy". Now Patrick Swayze was certainly in good shape back in the day ( see image below ), but I never thought of him of being a big burly football player type.
If Ruth thinks that this fella is "too beefy", then I guess it's good that I never got as big as I wanted to get.
Anyway, I'm now at the point of my life where I'm very comfortable being a skinny dude. I still work out regularly, but I work out for me - not to impress anybody else.
2) Baseball is by far my favorite sport. I follow almost every Mets game on TV radio, and I've probably been to at least 200 games in person ( I probably went to 100 games from 1997 to 2001 ). Unfortunately, I could never play baseball to save my life.
Specifically, I couldn't judge the flight of a fly ball ( when a high fly ball was hit to me, I was never sure ( until it was too late ) whether I should run in to catch it or run back to catch it ), and I couldn't hit. I'm still not sure why I was never any good at baseball. Anyone who has ever watched me shoot a basketball, catch a football on the run, wield a ping pong paddle, or juggle various objects, knows that I have good hand-eye coordination, and decent athletic ability. However, I could never get the bat to meet the ball consistently when I was at the plate. I played little league baseball for 5 years, and if you looked at 100 of my plate appearances at random, you would probably see the following results:
10 hits
10 walks
70 strikeouts
10 outs which were not strikeouts
So, I was pretty much a strikeout machine. Part of the reason why that was the case was that I subscribed to the "swing as hard as you can in case you hit it" philosophy of hitting. This was probably because my favorite player on the Mets when I was a little kid was Dave Kingman. Kingman was famous for hitting extremely long home runs and for stiking out a tremendous number of times. My baseball stats were just like Dave Kingman's, but without all the home runs ( Well, in my 5 years of playing, I did get manage to connect solidly enough to hit 1 homer, but hey - even a broken clock is right twice a day ( and I was only "right" once in 5 years ) ).
So yeah, I love baseball, but I pretty much suck at it.
( In the time between writing items 2 and 3, I played in the backyard with my kids )
3. I just discovered that while I might not have been much of a baseball player, I just might be an effective coach. I was playing baseball ( Not hardball - we used a plastic ball and bat ) with Michael a few hours ago, and let me tell you, the little guy can rake ( For non-baseball fans: Urban Dictionary defines rake as 'Baseball slang, a concise way of saying "hits extremely well."' ). I started to teach Michael the proper way to hit about a year ago. He was too young to understand when I first started teaching him, but now it seems like everything is starting to click. He certainly doesn't have prodigy-like bat speed or power, but what he does have is great form. His swing looks like it comes straight from the Ted Williams' book "The Science of Hitting" ( It should - everything I've taught Michael about hitting comes from that book ). I started out by pitching to him underhand today, but after hitting a few pitches he asked me to pitch overhand. So, I start throwing overhand, and he's making contact with every pitch ( he hit a few way over my head ). So then I decide to really test him. I rear back and throw him an inside fastball ( as fast as I could throw it with good control - I didn't want to hit him with the ball ). He swings and hits a line drive right back at me!
He's never hit that good before, so today could have been a fluke - but I think he's finally learned to swing the proper way. :)
4. The first grown-up album ( stuff other than Sesame Street ) I had as a kid was the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. I loved that album. When I was 7, I used to play that album in the basement of my house and do all the John Travolta dance moves.
( Right after I finished writing item 4 above, Michael ( who had been napping on the couch ) started making "I'm gonna puke" kinda noises ( parents know this sound ). I picked Michael up and tried to get him to the kitchen ( which doesn't have carpeting ) before he puked. I was a little bit too late. He still got a little puke on the living room carpet, and a whole bunch of puke on himself and on the kitchen floor. Poor Michael. I just spent the last hour cleaning up the rooms and giving Michael TLC with Ruth. )
5. I had a crush on the same girl from 4th grade through 8th grade. However, I never really thought about her once I got to high school ( we went to different high schools ). I found the girls at Stuyvesant High School so attractive, that I forgot about all the other girl's I had liked up to that point. So, I guess it's no surprise that I wound up marrying a Stuy girl ( BTW, to answer a question EZ asked in a recent comment, CG#1 was *not* a Stuy girl. ).
6.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
You other brothers can't deny
OK, that's actually not true, but I always have been amused by lyrics to Baby Got Back.
I've actually considered making a YouTube video based on those lyrics. I was thinking of dressing up like Alistair Cooke on Masterpiece Theatre, and introducing a show called Masterpiece Poetry. I would then anounce that was I about to read a work by the great poet Anthony Ray ( Sir Mix-a-Lot's real name ) - a poet so great, that he was knighted for his work.
I would then proceed to read the lyrics to "Baby Got Back" ( Starting with, "I like big butts ..." ) in a serious and reverential tone of voice.
I still might try something like this, but ...
1) I don't really have Alistair Cooke style clothes.
2) There isn't a spot in my house that even remotely resembles a stately British den ( Cooke was always in that type of setting on Masterpiece Theatre. ).
3) I think it would take more than 5 minutes to read the "Baby Got Back" lyrics in that fashion, and it would probably only be funny for the first minute.
4) Somebody has already done something similar ( Baby Got Back - Gilbert and Sullivan Style ) on YouTube.
Anyway, those are my 6 things. Now, who should I tag? Well let's see, I have 5 blog followers, and two of those folks have already been tagged in this game. So, let me start by tagging my 3 other followers:
Raysel
Paxomaniac
Loghum
I also know of 2 people who are not on my official Blogger following list, but comment quite a bit on my blog. I'd also like to tag those two folks:
EZ
Rochelle
I think I'm supposed to tag 6 people, so I'll close this post by tagging YOU.
Yes YOU.
YOU, that person out there who reads my blog but has never commented before. If YOU are out there, YOU are now tagged.
Rich
Tagged by Shweta.
Tagged by Shweta as part of one of these games where you've got to give facts about yourself - in this case, six facts.
Gee, haven't I done this before? Didn't I give you all 16 facts just a few month ago? Didn't I once do a 5 facts vlog? Didn't I answer 55 questions, 65 questions, and various other random questions? Crap, what else is left? I seriously might be running out of random facts about myself. But hey, I respect the tag. If you're going to be online, ya gotta respect the tag. I'm not even sure what the 6 things are going to be yet, but I'm going to start by stealing the idea from the first thing on Shweta's list. I'm going to start by talking about my own issues with body image.
1. Some people are going to groan when they read what I'm about to write. If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that anybody who has ever struggled to lose weight hates listening to skinny people whine about their inability to gain weight. Being naturally skinny is a blessing and people who whines about it are idiots who don't appreciate how good they've got it.
I'm sorry to say that I was once such an idiot.
OK, well maybe I actually didn't whine a lot about my inability to gain weight ( I was never much of a talker ), but I certainly fretted about it a lot. I was always a skinny kid, and I always felt really self-conscious about it. I thought skinny=wimpy, and I really didn't like the idea of looking ( or being ) wimpy. Of course, I became uber self-conscious by the time my teen years came along. By the time I was a 15-year old high school Freshman, I was 6 feet, 1 inches tall, but only weighed 120 pounds ( Yeah, I know most of my readers are from the metric part of the world, but it's 12:08 AM, and I'm too tired to do the conversions right now. Deal with it folks. ).
At the age of 15, I embarked on a rather intense workout regimen. I started working out with weights 4 times week ( Intense free-weight workouts that often ended with heavy weights pinned to my chest when my muscles gave out. I did all these free-weight workouts without a spotter - I was quite nuts. ), I rode an exercise bike 3 times a week ( to get my legs stronger for basketball ), and I started doing 300 sit-ups a day ( because I didn't want to have a physique like Shaggy from Scooby Doo ( Skinny guy with a bigger gut than chest ) ). By the time I was a Senior in high school, I had tripled my strength, but I still felt like I was far too skinny. By that time, I was 6' 1'' ( Never grew past the age of 15 - there went my hopes of being a basketball player ) and weighed 150 pounds ( I weigh 165 now, and most people still consider me to be quite thin ). I had gained 30 pounds of muscle, but it was hard to tell that it was there. Sure, I was as cut as a person could be, and my muscles were like slabs of granite, but they were like really small slabs of granite. My pectoral muscles were probably only about a cm thick ( there ya go, metric folks! ), so you really couldn't see them unless I flexed with my shirt off ( I'm ashamed to admit that I spent a fair amount of time posing in front of a mirror with my shirt off in those days. It's hard to work out a lot without getting at least a little bit narcissistic ( Why do you think they have so many mirrors in gyms? ) ).
So anyway, I was certainly a lot stronger, but I wasn't big. I really wanted to be BIG. I wanted to be the exact opposite of the skinny guy I had been all my life. Sure, I wasn't big yet, but if I kept working out with a fierce intensity, I was sure I would eventually get BIG.
But then I hit the wall. After three years of getting stronger at a steady pace, my workouts stopped yielding results. I was no longer getting stronger - I was no longer getting BIGGER. I responded by working out harder than ever. I worked out all the time. I felt sore all the time. I found myself alone in my basement with huge weights pinned to my body all the time ( This was getting really dangerous, because by this time the weights weighed significantly more than me ). However, no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to get any stronger.
Based on this experience, I think I understand why some guys take steroids. I think that every person has a natural genetic limit to how strong/big they can get naturally. After 3 years I hit that limit. I very much wanted to go beyond that limit, but my body wouldn't let me. I'm not the kind of guy who would ever take steroids ( I'm "Mr. Natural". I'm a computer programmer with 2 little kids, and I don't even drink stuff with caffeine. My wife's a doctor who can get me any drug I want, but I won't take medicine for an illness unless I get really really sick ( I figure this will make my immune system tougher. ). ) , but I can see why some guys would. If a guy is working out as hard as he can, and his body is no longer responding, I could see why a guy might feel like he deserves the extra boost that steroids would give. It's certainly not a healthy thing to do, but I could see why a guy would do it.
Anyways, steroids were not in the cards, so I never really got any bigger after the age of 18. This frustrated me until I heard the following 4 words during my Freshmen year at college:
"Don't get big, Rich."
Those words were uttered by CG#1, and as you might imagine, that changed everything. I think I had mentioned my workouts to her ( because as much as I might have wanted to do it at the time, ripping off my shirt and flexing in front of her would not have been social acceptable ), and she told me "Don't get big, Rich. I think it's gross when guys get big".
Now, I didn't stop working out altogether, but I was no longer obsessed with getting big after that. I finally started to realize that lots of girls were more physically attracted to guys with thin athletic bodies ( the swimmer type ) than guys with big burly bodies ( the football player type ). Eventually, I wound up marrying just such a girl. Back when Ruth and I started dating, Patrick Swayze was considered to be one of the hot guys on the Hollywood scene. When I asked Ruth about seeing some Patrick Swayze movie, she made a face and said that he was "too beefy". Now Patrick Swayze was certainly in good shape back in the day ( see image below ), but I never thought of him of being a big burly football player type.
If Ruth thinks that this fella is "too beefy", then I guess it's good that I never got as big as I wanted to get.
Anyway, I'm now at the point of my life where I'm very comfortable being a skinny dude. I still work out regularly, but I work out for me - not to impress anybody else.
2) Baseball is by far my favorite sport. I follow almost every Mets game on TV radio, and I've probably been to at least 200 games in person ( I probably went to 100 games from 1997 to 2001 ). Unfortunately, I could never play baseball to save my life.
Specifically, I couldn't judge the flight of a fly ball ( when a high fly ball was hit to me, I was never sure ( until it was too late ) whether I should run in to catch it or run back to catch it ), and I couldn't hit. I'm still not sure why I was never any good at baseball. Anyone who has ever watched me shoot a basketball, catch a football on the run, wield a ping pong paddle, or juggle various objects, knows that I have good hand-eye coordination, and decent athletic ability. However, I could never get the bat to meet the ball consistently when I was at the plate. I played little league baseball for 5 years, and if you looked at 100 of my plate appearances at random, you would probably see the following results:
10 hits
10 walks
70 strikeouts
10 outs which were not strikeouts
So, I was pretty much a strikeout machine. Part of the reason why that was the case was that I subscribed to the "swing as hard as you can in case you hit it" philosophy of hitting. This was probably because my favorite player on the Mets when I was a little kid was Dave Kingman. Kingman was famous for hitting extremely long home runs and for stiking out a tremendous number of times. My baseball stats were just like Dave Kingman's, but without all the home runs ( Well, in my 5 years of playing, I did get manage to connect solidly enough to hit 1 homer, but hey - even a broken clock is right twice a day ( and I was only "right" once in 5 years ) ).
So yeah, I love baseball, but I pretty much suck at it.
( In the time between writing items 2 and 3, I played in the backyard with my kids )
3. I just discovered that while I might not have been much of a baseball player, I just might be an effective coach. I was playing baseball ( Not hardball - we used a plastic ball and bat ) with Michael a few hours ago, and let me tell you, the little guy can rake ( For non-baseball fans: Urban Dictionary defines rake as 'Baseball slang, a concise way of saying "hits extremely well."' ). I started to teach Michael the proper way to hit about a year ago. He was too young to understand when I first started teaching him, but now it seems like everything is starting to click. He certainly doesn't have prodigy-like bat speed or power, but what he does have is great form. His swing looks like it comes straight from the Ted Williams' book "The Science of Hitting" ( It should - everything I've taught Michael about hitting comes from that book ). I started out by pitching to him underhand today, but after hitting a few pitches he asked me to pitch overhand. So, I start throwing overhand, and he's making contact with every pitch ( he hit a few way over my head ). So then I decide to really test him. I rear back and throw him an inside fastball ( as fast as I could throw it with good control - I didn't want to hit him with the ball ). He swings and hits a line drive right back at me!
He's never hit that good before, so today could have been a fluke - but I think he's finally learned to swing the proper way. :)
4. The first grown-up album ( stuff other than Sesame Street ) I had as a kid was the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. I loved that album. When I was 7, I used to play that album in the basement of my house and do all the John Travolta dance moves.
( Right after I finished writing item 4 above, Michael ( who had been napping on the couch ) started making "I'm gonna puke" kinda noises ( parents know this sound ). I picked Michael up and tried to get him to the kitchen ( which doesn't have carpeting ) before he puked. I was a little bit too late. He still got a little puke on the living room carpet, and a whole bunch of puke on himself and on the kitchen floor. Poor Michael. I just spent the last hour cleaning up the rooms and giving Michael TLC with Ruth. )
5. I had a crush on the same girl from 4th grade through 8th grade. However, I never really thought about her once I got to high school ( we went to different high schools ). I found the girls at Stuyvesant High School so attractive, that I forgot about all the other girl's I had liked up to that point. So, I guess it's no surprise that I wound up marrying a Stuy girl ( BTW, to answer a question EZ asked in a recent comment, CG#1 was *not* a Stuy girl. ).
6.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
You other brothers can't deny
OK, that's actually not true, but I always have been amused by lyrics to Baby Got Back.
I've actually considered making a YouTube video based on those lyrics. I was thinking of dressing up like Alistair Cooke on Masterpiece Theatre, and introducing a show called Masterpiece Poetry. I would then anounce that was I about to read a work by the great poet Anthony Ray ( Sir Mix-a-Lot's real name ) - a poet so great, that he was knighted for his work.
I would then proceed to read the lyrics to "Baby Got Back" ( Starting with, "I like big butts ..." ) in a serious and reverential tone of voice.
I still might try something like this, but ...
1) I don't really have Alistair Cooke style clothes.
2) There isn't a spot in my house that even remotely resembles a stately British den ( Cooke was always in that type of setting on Masterpiece Theatre. ).
3) I think it would take more than 5 minutes to read the "Baby Got Back" lyrics in that fashion, and it would probably only be funny for the first minute.
4) Somebody has already done something similar ( Baby Got Back - Gilbert and Sullivan Style ) on YouTube.
Anyway, those are my 6 things. Now, who should I tag? Well let's see, I have 5 blog followers, and two of those folks have already been tagged in this game. So, let me start by tagging my 3 other followers:
Raysel
Paxomaniac
Loghum
I also know of 2 people who are not on my official Blogger following list, but comment quite a bit on my blog. I'd also like to tag those two folks:
EZ
Rochelle
I think I'm supposed to tag 6 people, so I'll close this post by tagging YOU.
Yes YOU.
YOU, that person out there who reads my blog but has never commented before. If YOU are out there, YOU are now tagged.
Rich
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