Monthly Archives: December 2005

Four Dings Meme

FOUR JOBS YOU’VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE:
1. Tuxedo Specialist, DuBois Formalwear
2. Boathouse manager, UW Memorial Union
3. Professional Programs Coordinator, US Soccer
4. IT Manager, Washington State Youth Soccer
FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
1. Blade Runner
2. Conan the Barbarian
3. Star Wars
4. Fellowship of the Ring
FOUR PLACES YOU’VE LIVED:
1. Green Bay, WI
2. Madison, WI
3. Chicago, IL
4. [...]

Half-Full or Half-Empty?

English Premier League Table, Half Way Through

Rank

Team

Pld.

W

D

L

GF

GA

GD

Pts.

1

Chelsea

19

17
1
1
41
9
+32

52

2

Manchester United

19

12
5
2
36
16
+20

41

3

Liverpool

17

11
4
2
25
9
+16

37

4

Tottenham

19

9
7
3
27
18
+9

34

5

Wigan

19

11
1
7
25
21
+4

34

6

Arsenal

18

10
2
6
27
15
+12

32

7

Bolton

17

9
4
4
22
14
+8

31

8

Manchester City

19

8
3
8
27
22
+5

27

9

West Ham

19

7
5
7
26
25
+1

26

10

Newcastle United

18

7
4
7
18
19
-1

25

11

Blackburn

18

7
3
8
21
24
-3

24

12

Charlton

17

7
1
9
21
27
-6

22

13

Aston Villa

19

5
6
8
23
29
-6

21

14

Fulham

19

5
5
9
23
28
-5

20

15

Middlesbrough

18

5
5
8
23
28
-5

20

16

West Brom

19

5
4
10
19
28
-9

19

17

Everton

19

5
2
12
10
30
-20

17

18

Portsmouth

19

3
5
11
14
31
-17

14

19

Birmingham

18

3
4
11
13
27
-14

13

20

Sunderland

18

1
3
14
14
35
-21

6

Pld=Played, W=Wins, D=Draws, L=Loss, GF=Goals For, GA=Goals Allowed, GD=Goal Differential, Pts=Points (Win x 3, Draw x 1, Loss x 0)

Observations

The league would be a lot more interesting if Chelski weren’t in it. Anyone with any sense [...]

The Year to Come

During the holiday season a lot of people spend time reflecting on the year that was but I’m focused on the year to come. I feel like I’ve gotten a number of things squared away in my head and I can move forward with nothing but writing in future months.
2003 was the year I [...]

The Darkest Day of the Year

John Graham Mellor
Born: August 21, 1952
Died: December 22, 2002
Better known as Joe Strummer

I’ve got two choices here: either I can write a long, rambling, near-incoherent essay on what Joe Strummer means to me, complemented by link after link to brilliant lyrics; or I can keep it really, really short. I’m going [...]

What’s In the Hopper

Minutes ago, I just shipped my fourth story of the week — goal met!
That makes it eight floating around right now and there are at least two more that are within a week of being done. Best of all, of these eight stories most of them have either zero or only one rejection which [...]

Steve’s Sins

Still listening to “Wolves of the Calla” by Stephen King. My patience is growing thin but I think I’m through the longest digression from the main plot.
Here’s a snippet of a 3-star review by Eileen Rieback (a Top 500 reviewer!) off Amazon:

Where the story line falls short, and earns the book only 3 stars, [...]

The Cold Hard Truth

Jim MacDonald talks hypothermia over at Making Light.
Discussions of this sort make me realize how little the average Joe knows about survival. As I started reading I thought, “C’mon, this is common sense.” But then I started thinking about it and realized it isn’t. In fact, I only know what I do [...]

Man’s Best Friend

Athena and I went for a longish snowshoe trip this afternoon. It was sunny and crisp (about 12 degrees) but we didn’t get cold even once. Here are some shots of our day.

Here we are trying to take a timed photo with the digital camera balanced precariously in a tree and a dog [...]

Dare To Dream (with Artistic License)

The other night I watched a documentary on the US Women’s National Team called Dare to Dream and thought it was pretty good. A bit distorted somewhat in my humble opinion, but pretty good nonetheless.
I worked for the United States Soccer Federation from 1997 to 1999 which pretty much marks the three years the [...]

Fifteen Statements on Books

There’s this thing circulating in the blogosphere where you say 15 things about books. Clarion homies John Schoffstall and Dr. Phil have already compiled theirs, and Phil challenged the rest of us to do the same. Since I’m a lemming, here’s mine.

Classics Tend to be Classics for a Reason – Not enough people [...]