no more bedhead

It's been three years now.

You know what I'm talking about.

It's the dog.  Still here.

Here's my annual nice thing I'll say about the dog:

He is nice and warm when he curls up on the couch with us on those cold winter nights.


But, he drools all over my lap when I take him to the bank drive-through as he almost leaps into the teller window knowing they're going to give him a dog biscuit.  So I guess it's even.

Wow!!!! That was totally amazing!!!

When I was working right after college I was able to head to New York City on several (borderline many) occasions.  I would always pick up a copy of the Village Voice while I was there, just to get a feel for what was going on in the city and maybe find something fun to do.  One thing that I saw often was advertisements for Blue Man Group. Unfortunately, whenever I was there I didn't have the time or the means to go see the show.  Except for one time, when everything fell into place - that time, naturally, Blue Man Group wasn't performing.

The upshot is - I've never seen them, despite having had the means, motive, and opportunity.

Fast forward, ahem, 20 years or so, to last night.  As a birthday present to Beenie (who is as into the Blue Men as I am, and also hasn't seen them live) we went to see Blue Man Group in Cleveland.  It was, as I mentioned above, totally amazing!!!  The sights, the sounds, music, action, humor, and social commentary. I couldn't have asked for anything more.  Probably the two things that I first saw the BMG perform on tv/video was the Drumbbone and the Paint Drums. To give you an idea of the show, I'm adding a video that shows both of those pieces. The other thing you will notice in the video, that I was unaware of, is that they are accompanied by a live band. The band is behind what appears to be a metal scrim so you can't really see them unless they are lit properly.  However, they perform under blacklight, and their costumes and instruments are covered in fluorescent paint, so that they look like cartoon/stick figures.


But...the best part of the evening was after the show was over. Beenie and I had already left the theatre, when he informed me that he had to make a pit stop before the hour long drive home. We turned around and headed back to the theatre, and were able to re-enter.What did we discover but the Blue Men milling about in the lobby, greeting patrons.  Beenie was able to get in and have his picture taken with a Blue Man, who then wiped some greasepaint off his head, and made a thumbprint on Beenie's cheek.  Way too cool!

I saw Neil deGrasse Tyson last night. His lecture didn't have a title (that I know of) but he said that by the end of the evening we would understand that this was The End of America as we know it.  He actually talked about how the failure to focus on science leads to the downfall of the society as a world/intellectuall power.

It was a fascinating lecture, where he talked about the importance of science in the cultures/countries around the world.  He pointed out that the "golden age of Islam" was from 800-1100 AD, and Baghdad was the scientific center of the world, where people of varied religions (including atheists) could come and discuss scientific and mathematical concepts.  From this came huge advances in science and math, while at the same time in Europe, they were killing witches.

 Here is a good video of Dr. Tyson talking.  It's not the subject of the lecture I saw, although there is a lot of it that was the same. Like all his stuff, it's really good.  It's an hour long (and there are a couple of commercials) but it's well worth your time.





After the presentation, it was announced that Dr. Tyson would be autographing copies of his book(s) in the lobby.  I didn't have any of my copies with me (didn't think this one through), but decided to get in line anyway.  When Beenie found out that I would be going, he asked me to ask Dr. Tyson a question for him. I told him that I didn't think I would get that chance, but had him write it down anyway. Here was that chance.

I got in the (huge!!!) line, and waited patiently.  When I got to the table, I asked him Beenie's question - "If you were to send uranium into a black hole, would it spaghettify and cause a nuclear explosion?"  Dr. Tyson told me that it would spaghettify, but it wouldn't cause a nuclear explosion.  I then asked if he would autograph the question for me to give to Beenie. He said of course, and to make sure that I continued to encourage him in his scientific curiosity. He even volunteered to answer the question in writing on the paper for Beenie.

The thing I found the most interesting is what Dr. Tyson did next - he felt the paper. Determining the texture of the paper, he then selected the appropriate pen from the several he had on the table and signed the question.  Very cool.

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but finally purchased some Atra razor blades for the old Atra razor I got as a freebie in college (surprised it's not fallen apart with age!).  The Atra is a (gasp!) 2-blade razor.  I've been using the Mach 3 which is a, unsurprisingly, a 3-blade razor.  Believe it or not, the difference between the two is tremendous.  (Not so much the difference between 3 and 4.)  Because I have an entire head to shave (and pumpkin-sized, to boot), I am concerned about the quality of the shave, and the Mach 3 blows Atra out of the water.  But...the blades are at least twice the price.  So, I opted to go back to Atra for at least a little while.

I thought I'd drop that information out on the interwebs, so I tweeted this:


I included a shout-out to Gillette in there just to pass along the frustration at the cost.  A little while later I got this response from Gillette:


Well, now.  Yes, your new ultra-fancy 4-blade razor with extra batteries and gold plating and diamond-encrusted handle may be the new standard in head shaving, but you missed the point. I'm sacrificing the quality shave in favor of the price. 

Let's look at the price, just for kicks.

• Atra Plus - 10 blades - $11.49 - $1.15/blade
• Mach 3 - 5 blades - $12.99 - $2.60/blade
• Fusion - 8 blades - $26.99 - $3.73/blade
• Fusion Pro Glide - 8 blades - $33.99 - $4.25/blade

(prices from drugstore.com - comparable to what I pay locally)

As you can see, instead of sympathizing at my cost issues, Gillette wants me to buy blades that cost almost twice what I was using, and almost 4 times what I switched to.  Of course, they are a business, and their job is to make money, so what else are they going to suggest?  But I was a little ticked.  Although this isn't why I was tweeting this information, what I think Gillette should have done (what I would have done if I was in Gillette customer relations) would be to offer to me:

• Coupon for Mach 3 blades
• Coupon for ProGlide blades
• A ProGlide razor

I don't think any of these are unreasonable, as they put coupons (and razors) in all those "back-to-school" boxes. In fact, that's where I got my Atra razor, my Mach 3 razor, and my Fusion razor. Just sayin'.

And yes, I've tried the 4-blade Fusion.  While it's nice, I don't see a huge difference between that and the Mach 3.  Certainly not worth the price.

Since it's World Cup time (yay!), I guess I should report on how Blue Albatross FC did this fantasy season.  If you'll recall the last time I reported on the status of the team's performance in the English Premier League, we were (temporarily) in first place.  True to form, we dropped back to third (gasp!) the following week.  There we sat for the next couple of weeks, although we managed to climb up into second place going into the final week of competition.  Surprise of all surprises, we pulled out of the week scrabbling up into the number one position, and that's where we finished this year's EPL campaign!
Now, as for the Champions League, and the Europa League, well, we didn't fare as well there.  Finished 6/23 in the Champions League (although only 13 points separated 4th and 7th places), and finished 2/7 in the Europa League.  I consider those to be pretty good, as I really don't have a good handle on who the decent players are in those leagues (especially the Europa League).  And, for the record, these rankings are for the leagues in which I was participating.  Overall, I finished thusly:

English Premier League: 491,826 out of 2,322,686 with 1,975 points
Champions League: 44,015 out of 349,293 with 543 points
Europa League: 1,232 out of 52,013 with 593 points

It was a good campaign, and I look forward to signing up again in the fall.

And, yes, Blue Albatross FC is represented in the FIFA World Cup Fantasy League.  Wish us well!!

It's been a while since I posted, so I'm taking the easy way out.  Twice.  That's right...it's a video two-fer.  But be warned, one of 'em will make you cry.

Mandalas: Buddhist monks making a mandala over a 6-day period




Leave Me - the story of a broken camera


Leave Me from Daros Films on Vimeo.

I've had a passing interest in archery for a while.  I even was shooting with a club in Cleveland for a couple of years.  I'm not very good, but I have fun, and maybe my techniques are improving a little bit over time.  So, when the local Rec Center sent flyers out to the schools announcing that they would be offering an archery class, I was very excited.  So were Beenie and Keke.  Beenie had shot before - up at the club in Cleveland for a while, but Keke was very excited to learn to shoot.

So, we've been doing this since the fall, in a series of classes that run for about five or six weeks at a time.  For this past session John, our instructor, decided that the kids would be shooting for the prize of a gold, silver, or bronze arrow.  (As I am the only adult in the class regularly, John lets me just shoot, but works with me on my technique when I ask him.  The focus of the class really is the kids.)

The idea was this, John would keep track each week of how many arrows each kid shot into the gold circle(s) in the target.  Each kid would get one point per gold, and he would make a note if the shot landed in the middle 'x' ring.  The person with the most golds would get the gold arrow, the second most would get the silver, and the third most the bronze.

Long story short: at the end of the course session John totaled up the scores and Keke came in third!!  She actually tied with someone, but she had more 'x' shots which John used as the tiebreaker.  She won an actual arrow (bronze in color) that hangs from a signed framed certificate she can hang in her room.  She is very excited!!


Nice job, Keke!

I'm posting this because I don't think it will ever happen again, and I'm pretty excited about it.

I have made it to #1 overall in my English Premier League fantasy league.

I've bopped around the standings in this 20 team league, ranging squarely in the middle for most of the season.  I started to creep up recently, going back and forth between #3 and #4 for a few weeks.  All of a sudden, I jumped up.  I noticed, after the first round of games this gameweek, that I was sitting in #1 position, barely.  Keeping my fingers crossed, there was one game left - Man City vs. Wigan.  I have one player from Wigan in my reserves, and the #2 guy has one player from Man City on his team - Carlos Tevez - as his captain (double points).  I started the game yesterday ahead of him by 12 points.   I knew that if Tevez played the whole game that would be 2 points (4), and if he scored two goals that would be another 6 points (12), and I would be back in second place.

The first half went well, with a 0-0 draw.  Then the second half.  Long story short, Tevez scored three goals.  Oh well.  I spent the rest of the day figuring that I was back in second.

Plot twist - I had picked Didier Drogba to be my captain, but he didn't play.  That meant that the captaincy automatically shifted to the next highest value player.  That player - Frank Lampard.  Turns out Lampard scored 4 goals and an assist, for a total of 28 points.  Since he became my captain, those points got doubled to 56, and I am still sitting in first place!!! (By 5 points, but I'll take it!)

Aaaaaaaaalllllllllll-batross!!!!

Here's the proof:

...well, we've already got a Eurovan and a New Beetle.  A hacksaw, an acetylene torch, and some duct tape and we can modernize this baby!!

Tonight was the Regional Spelling Bee.  This bee covered the four counties in our neck of the woods, and the participants were the winners of the school spelling bees from the area.  As I mentioned earlier, Beenie was one of those participants.

Sixty-nine spellers started the tournament, and Beenie was number 45, so we had to wait a while for him to spell.  In the first round, he spelled:

• metagnomy

which was pretty funny, as none of us had ever heard of that word before.  He did a fantastic job of asking for pronunciation, origin of word, sentence use, etc., and actually used those clues to determine how to spell the word.  I was impressed.

At the end of the first round, 48 spellers had been eliminated, so they started round two with 21 spellers.

Beenie's word was:

• liquefacient

another word I had never heard of.  Again, he used his questions wisely and figured out the ending correctly.  However, he didn't quite get the beginning of the word, substituting an 'i' for the 'e'.  In both the school bee and tonight, I was writing down the words as he was asked them, and I wrote down this one exactly the way he spelled it, so I would have been out, too.  It was a tricky one - do you go with "liquid" or "liquefy"?  Oh, well.

He said before the bee that his goals were to have fun, and to get through round one.  He succeeded on both counts!

So, after the second round, there were seven spellers left.  The first one spelled her word correctly, then all six others missed.  When she went to spell her "championship" word, she missed, too, so all seven spellers were brought back and the round done again.

Again, six spellers missed, and one got it correct.  When he tried the championship word, he missed.
In the next round, six spellers missed, and one got it correct.  Then he missed the championship word.
Once again, six spellers missed their words, and one got it correct.  This time, he spelled the championship word correctly and was named the winner.  The other six were declared co-runners up.

So, I say that Beenie made it to the penultimate round of the tournament, because everyone else left standing at the end of the round in which he was eliminated were named winners.

It was a great experience for Beenie, and for us.  It was a lot of fun to see it in action, and the difference in difficulty of words between the school level and regional level was noticeable.

Edit 3/7: Beenie just pointed out that I spelled a word incorrectly in this blog post.  Good start for next year!  (I fixed it.)

After coming in second two years in a row (link), Beenie finally won the middle school spelling bee!!!!  I'm so excited and happy for him - especially because this means that he gets to compete in the Regional Spelling Bee, the winner of which gets to go to Washington, DC, for the big Scripps Spelling Bee finals!!!

However, that doesn't mean that I didn't have heart failure along the way.  Here's what happened:

The words he spelled:

• calibration
• examine
• consonant
• denominator
• scruple
• oblige
• patience
• palatable

At this point, it was down to a final group of three.  The other two spellers missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

• enfranchise

Now, by the rules of the spelling bee, he had to spell one more "championship" word to win.  His word was:

•  circuitous

and, he missed it. So, what that means is that all the spellers from the previous round come back, and we do it again.  The two others missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

•  omniscient

Then, for the championship word:

• analgesia

And, he missed it again. So, we did it one more time. The other two missed their words, and Beenie spelled (correctly):

• vengeance

Then for the championship word:

• photosynthesis

And, he got it!!!  I was an absolute nervous wreck during the championship word rounds.  I'm sure I was more nervous than he was - or at least than he appeared to be.

So, he got a big honkin' trophy, and he's on his way to the regionals in a month!

It's a little old, but it's making the rounds again. And I just love this video. Enjoy!