NaBloPoMo 2009 Day 23 -- Final Home Game

This is the end of an era. Saturday, the Florida Gators host their in-state rival, the Florida State Seminoles. In any given season, this game is huge for both schools. Like Auburn-Alabama or Georgia-Georgia Tech or Oregon-Oregon State or USC-UCLA. It's rivalry weekend all across the nation.

But in Gainesville, this week is the last home game for Tim Tebow. The Heisman-winning quarterback that many Gator fans like to call Superman will run out of the tunnel at The Swamp one last time. All season, Tebow has run out last in an effort to soak in his final season in a Florida uniform. It is senior day this weekend, but the crowd will be there to watch the guy who will go down as the greatest Gator of all time and perhaps, the greatest football player in college football history -- at least the greatest to this point.

The reality that this is the last home game for Tebow hit his coach today at Urban Meyer's Monday press conference. Below are the highlights of the press conference, but at about the 2:10 mark, he comments about the impact that Tebow has had -- not only on the football team, but also on him as a person. Coaches build strong ties with their players in all sports, but rarely does a player have an impact on a coach off the field. In Tebow's case, his consistent, unselfish, God-centered lifestyle impacted Meyer so much that he took his family on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Those things don't happen every day.

We can debate Tebow's abilities as a quarterback and whether he can succeed at the next level, but you can't debate the young man's ability to inspire his teammates, coaches, fans, friends, and even complete strangers.

NaBloPoMo 2009 Day 19 -- Irish Eyes Are Crying

The World Cup is in South Africa next summer (well, it'll be summer in the northern hemisphere anyway). On Wednesday, the last major group of teams qualified for the tournament. One match that has received a considerable amount of attention is the match between France and Ireland. It was actually the second match between the nations. They played two games, and the first one was in Ireland. The French won that match on Saturday 1-0. In Wednesday's match in Paris, the Irish captain, Robbie Keane, put his squad up 1-0. In the world of international football (i.e., soccer), that meant that the teams were tied 1-1 on aggregate with both teams having an away goal. At the end of the full 90 minutes, the teams went to overtime.

Overtime in these matches is two 15-minute halves, and they are not sudden death. Just before the end of the first half of overtime, France scored a goal to tie the match 1-1 (and go up 2-1 on aggregate). But as you can see in the clip below, Thierry Henry, the France captain yesterday, handled the ball -- twice -- before he passed it to William Gallas to head in from about 2 feet away. Anyone who's ever played soccer knows that only the goalkeeper can touch the ball with his hands.

Everyone on the Irish team saw the handball. The Irish coach saw the handball. Henry admitted after the match that he handled the ball. But somehow, the referee and the linesman missed the whole thing. From the replay, it does look like the ref was shielded by the Irish defender covering Henry, but the linesman looks to have a clear view of Henry from the other side of the field. I'm not an advocate of the conspiracy theories running around, but it is very odd.

There are many in Ireland and around the world calling for a replay of the match to make it fair, but even if you take away Gallas's goal, the score was 1-1, and there was another half of overtime to go. France could've scored in the second half. A tied result at the end of overtime would've led to penalty kicks to decide the winner. I'll take France at home in any such shoot-out. It's an unfortunate end to the match, but it's not the first time a handball has played a huge part of an important international match -- Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal comes to mind from the 1986 World Cup. Perhaps the Irish fans shouldn't have enjoyed that Argentina victory over England so much. (Soccer karma perhaps?)

NaBloPoMo 2009 Day 11 -- Veteran's Day Tribute

Yesterday was the 234th Anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps. Fittingly, today is Veteran's Day. I cannot put into words my appreciation for the sacrifices made by all the soldiers who have served and are serving to defend the freedoms that we enjoy.

As I have indicated on this blog before, I love the Band of Brothers mini-series that HBO produced a number of years ago. Not only does it do a great job of telling the story of Easy Company and its journey through D-Day and the end of World War II, but it spends time talking with surviving members of Easy Company. The clip below is the last 7 minutes of the mini-series and talks about what happened to some of the soldiers in Easy Company, including some final comments from the men themselves. They say it best about what it was like to serve. All I can say is "Thank You."

The people that produced Band of Brothers (Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, etc.) will be bringing another mini-series to HBO in March 2010 called The Pacific. I look forward to learning more about that part of the war that often gets lost in the shuffle -- if that's possible -- when compared to the drama of the D-Day invasion. Here is a preview of that forthcoming production. NOTE: some violence in this.

R.I.P. Paul Benedict

Before he was Bentley on The Jeffersons, Paul Benedict was the Mad Painter on Sesame Street.

This is one of my favorite Mad Painter shorts that I remember growing up as a kid.



R.I.P. Paul Benedict

Time for a little humor

I thought with the seriousness of yesterday's post, we could use a little levity. I saw this guy the other day on YouTube. Funny stuff. His name is Jeff Caldwell.

Day of Days

64 years ago today thousands of U.S. soldiers descended on Normandy and the surrounding beaches in the name of freedom. We should always remember those soldiers -- today especially.

Here is a glimpse of what those first moments were like for a group from Easy Company in the 101st Airborne Division. These guys trained in Toccoa, Georgia before leaving for England.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

As promised, here are the song stylings of K-Man! This will make your heart smile.

Catching up with K-Man

Keegan is growing like a weed. He no longer resembles the baby he once was. His legs seem to get longer and leaner every day. We walked up to the Jonquil Festival today with Kee in the stroller, and his legs were practically hanging off the front. Thursday night Kee's school had an art show, and we were treated to Kee's interpretation of a pig and a pumpkin. Clearly, he is not wedded to the realism of Winslow Homer. But his enthusiasm comes through nonetheless.

K-man's athletic interests continue. He bounces from the basketball hoop to the tee-ball set and back again. Jen's parents were in town this week and picked up a small soccer ball for him too, so we'll be able to work on some kicking too.

Keegan has also treated us with a tune. His song of choice? Row, Row, Row Your Boat. It's priceless. (We'll have to get video of that to share.)

We do have video of Keegan at the keyboard. He enjoys when Jen plays ragtime pieces, but he also gets on the keys and works on his finger technique all the time. See for yourself.

Handling telemarketers

Telemarketers are annoying. Thank the Lord for caller ID. But what is the best way to handle them? Many of you may recall the bit that Seinfeld has about telemarketers. It showed up in one of the earlier episodes of his show. Here's the clip.



But yesterday, we found a good second option. It requires a 2-year-old whose language skills are good but not great and who hasn't mastered volume control -- even within the same word. And a parent in the background spoon-feeding words the kid knows. Here's how our call went yesterday.

Jen noticed the "out of area" notice on the caller ID -- dead giveaway for the telemarketer. So she handed the phone to Keegan after pressing the "talk" button.

Jen: Say hello.

K-man: Hello HEY!!

[Brief silence]

Jen: Say marshmallow.

K-Man: Marce-YALLOW!

[another beat]

K-Man: Bye-BYE!

It's been a while since we laughed that hard! Can't wait to spring him on some more unsuspecting souls. If they want to try and out-flank the Do Not Call registry, we'll be ready for them.

Introductions

If you've ever had the responsibility of introducing someone at an event or a speaking engagement, you know that it is not the easiest thing to do. Now, I wouldn't want the responsibility for this introduction, but I wouldn't mind being in the audience when it happens.

Play Doh Advert

Back in July, I posted about two ads for the Sony Bravia television that are genius productions. The folks at Sony have done it again with their latest installment. For a high resolution version go here and click on the link to watch the Play Doh Ad. Below is one of several copies that are available on YouTube. They used 2.5 tons of play doh to make the ad.

Mr. Roboto

Just an attempt to assuage any withdrawals you may be having with no new episodes of The Office.