The Life and Times of Andy Vogel

Closing it Down

2008-08-04T12:50:00.002-05:00

After nearly five years of blogging here, I've decided to close this blog down. It won't go offline, but I will stop writing new posts. As you can see, that's pretty much what's been going on anyhow, but I'll make it official today. It's been good, but I've put my Internet energy into other things like my real website d3wrestle.com which will continue to be the best source for information about NCAA Division III wrestling.

If you've read this over the past five years, I hope you enjoyed it.

My New Favorite Sports Team

2008-03-10T22:18:00.001-05:00

Call Me Creeped Out

2008-03-01T18:05:00.001-06:00

Have you seen this Obama campaign video released in anticipation of the Texas primary? It's creepy.

They did you a favor, New England fans

2008-02-03T21:13:00.001-06:00

Just as you were on the cusp of becoming as insufferable as Yankee fans, the Giants saved us all.

Like the swallows returning

2008-01-11T09:11:00.001-06:00

It's January, so it must be time for the annual Captain Jimmy rant against mild winters. Why don't you head on over and check it out?

She had a coupon

2007-12-05T21:19:00.000-06:00

Mmm...doughnuts

2007-11-23T15:02:00.000-06:00

Stupid Ankle

2007-11-01T10:24:00.000-05:00

So, I sprained my ankle at practice last night. I had the brace on and everything. Now it's going to start turning purple, but hopefully the swelling will go down enough to allow me to walk ok for this weekend.

Janet is the true Guitar Hero

2007-10-21T18:05:00.000-05:00

Keep the streak alive!

2007-10-18T08:43:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd let you know that the last seven times I watched Jeopardy!, I got the final question right. Seven in a row. Everything from dime novels to Adam Smith. Hopefully I won't blow it anytime soon.

Code Monkey

2007-10-09T21:21:00.000-05:00

Go Here, and click "Play this Song" It's pretty funny. Janet showed it to me, because she likes Fritos.

The Clarks show

2007-10-06T00:17:00.000-05:00

The concert was great. These guys, they don't mess around. They play the song, rock out, and then play the next one without fooling around. No breaks or long winded stories with no point. Just good music. Here's lead singer Scott Blasey.

Why is it a good day?

2007-10-05T10:59:00.001-05:00

1. The Clarks concert tonight with Janet and the Captain
2. Indians thwacked the Yankees 12-3
3. I managed to wake up in time to be at the scheduled 6:30 run this morning
4. First week of practice in the books, and it was good
5. Janet cooked dinner last night (seriously)

At last! The elusive groundhog!

2007-10-01T21:44:00.000-05:00

This is "our" groundhog. He lives in the backyard under the porch. I named him Biscuits.

Say what now?

2007-09-29T14:59:00.000-05:00

Up is down, black is white, cold is hot, dogs and cats hanging out......and the Cubs are in the playoffs?

Posterized

2007-09-14T10:49:00.001-05:00

I may have won a big prize

2007-09-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

Almost every day, I am informed that I have won an international lottery, either in the UK or in Africa. It's funny, since I don't remember entering these contests. They seem to want some banking information so they can deposit my prize. I may just get in touch with one of these people and give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen?

You think you're tough?

2007-08-29T07:46:00.001-05:00

You're not that tough until you do this like my aunt.

It's been good so far

2007-08-26T13:52:00.000-05:00

Two weeks in, and I'm still glad I took the job. I guess that's a good thing. Class starts at Gettysburg on Monday, and my first meeting is Tuesday, so that's when things will really start to pick up. My main goal for tomorrow is to get ready for that first meeting with the team, and helping them to see how excited I am to be there.

Starts Tomorrow

2007-08-12T22:02:00.000-05:00

I start my new job tomorrow at Gettysburg. I'm nervous and excited. I think I'm ready to do a good job, but I'm certain this year will be a series of learning experiences.

Pennsylvania Bound

2007-08-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

So, we're off to Pennsylvania in fits and starts beginning tomorrow. Janet feels irrational loyalty to her job, so she is staying until the last possible instant (as if the place will collapse into Lord of the Flies style anarchy if she leaves too soon). I'm taking off tomorrow to begin the two day journey to Pennsylvania to assume the head coach position at Gettysburg College. Janet will follow on Friday. On Saturday, we'll hit up the Stum-Cardin wedding. Spell checker is ok with Cardin, but doesn't like Stum one bit. I don't like him either. No, I kid. Geoff Harner gets a punch in the neck when I arrive, as does Tony.

I'm pretty fired up about the opportunity to have a team to run. I'm ready to call all the shots and do the best I can to make sure my wrestlers are the best prepared athletes in any match. It's a lot of pressure, and Gettysburg has placed great confidence in me that I can do the job, but now I have to execute.

The Simpsons

2007-07-26T12:28:00.001-05:00

Here's my self-created Simpsons avatar, as designed on the Simpsons Movie website. Go ahead and get your own.

I can see your house from here

2007-07-24T16:57:00.000-05:00

Windows Live Maps is pretty cool. It can do pretty much everything Google Maps can do, but it has this neat bird's eye view feature in certain areas. Consider the picture below. That may be Tim and Kathi Hillner's house. I say "may be" because the accuracy on addresses isn't perfect, but it gets you in the ballpark.

You can even rotate to get views from other directions. See if you can find your house (if you live in the Cove, don't bother).

Yup, this is my college

2007-07-21T07:22:00.001-05:00

Soccer?

2007-07-14T07:47:00.000-05:00

OK, so this Beckham guy is coming over here to play soccer, and some think this will make soccer more popular in this country. I'm not convinced. Soccer is just not a mainstream sport at the professional level in the United States and probably never will be. If you like soccer and like to watch it, that's fine. I'll never tell someone not to enjoy a niche sport. I'd be quickly out of a job if everyone stopped enjoying niche sports. All I'll say about Beckham is that one aging player with diminished skills cannot make soccer popular here no matter who he's married to.

The man himself

2007-07-10T21:19:00.001-05:00

We went to Frontera Grill today for lunch. This restaurant won the James Beard award this year given out to the best restaurant in the United States. It's moderately priced, given the honor. The owner and executive chef is Rick Bayless, author of several cookbooks and host of Mexico: One Plate at a Time which airs on PBS.

You never figure guys like that are ever at their restaurants, let alone at 2pm on a Tuesday. Yet, as I sat waiting for the waiter to bring me my receipt to sign, I looked up to the right and saw the man himself standing there. Then he walked behind Janet and over to the kitchen to talk to some of his staff. I told Janet to look to here right, since I didn't want to point, so of course she looks over and wants to know why I'm having her look at a guy on his Blackberry. I did eventually get her to look at the right guy. It was cool. If I had my Mexican Everyday cookbook with me, I'd have asked him to sign it.

Rick's brother, incidentally, is Skip Bayless, a completely unbearable ESPN personality. Rick is clearly the good brother.

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-04T20:12:00.001-05:00

This is what I did to Janet today to celebrate:

Let me tell you

2007-07-02T14:56:00.000-05:00

When I put a dollar in the machine and push the button for Cherry Coke, I am not a happy camper when bottled water comes out. If I wanted water, I would go to the drinking fountain. Sure, it was better for me, but this just means I'll have to eat an extra chocolate iced eclair later.

Ok, fine, here's a bonus video
Jedi Baseball

Been Camping

2007-07-02T08:09:00.001-05:00

Wrestling camp was fun. Lock Haven University's facilities don't match up to those at Messiah either in terms of air conditioning or food, but it was livable, if only for five days. If I'd had a fan, things would have been better, but I didn't really have room for one of those in my luggage, and my plan to have a roommate with a fan backfired when all the staff had their own rooms. Finally, with the weather cooling off, on the last night I dragged my plastic mattress (it was like sleeping in a crib) off the frame and plopped it right under the window to catch some of the cool air that could not penetrate any further. Thus was I able to actually get some good sleep.

It's always a ton of work, and I leave exhausted, but I always want to go back. This year, the wait is shorter than most as the Messiah College camp kicks into gear in just two weeks. You should go.

Star Wars Homage

2007-06-20T18:07:00.001-05:00

It's long, but brilliant. Sit back and enjoy.

Simpsons Quotes

2007-06-17T13:39:00.000-05:00

I added the Simpsons Quotes thing to my Facebook (be my friend), and one of the first quotes it gave me was a good one.

"Yes, yes, I know the procedure for armed robbery. I do work in a convenience store, you know."

The key here is to imagine him saying it in his Indian accent.

Shadow Cat

2007-06-14T08:11:00.001-05:00

Not Bad

2007-06-08T12:45:00.001-05:00

The iPhone:

Thanks to TechCrunch

In your Facebook!

2007-06-07T11:32:00.000-05:00

Facebook is really way better than MySpace. Only your friends can see your profile, no one can force you to listen to some crappy song like a version of Blue Monday done entirely by cougars and turkeys, and they can't gum up their profiles with a bunch of garbage HTML, transparent text, and endless slideshows of them and their closest friends getting totally faced (we'll pause while my mom tries to figure out what "faced" means...ok, moving on). Everything is neatly organized, and I can easily send messages to all my closest friends. Here's a sampling (click to view):

Gah!

2007-06-04T13:25:00.001-05:00

Do you ever just feel like your head is going to explode?

Just Spreading the Word

2007-06-02T17:36:00.000-05:00

By Ralph McCausland
Head Wrestling Coach
Eastern Illinois University

Due to the Eastern Illinois University administration’s decision to eliminate the intercollegiate wrestling program after 59 years, I feel compelled to make a personal statement in response, especially in light of the extraordinary outpouring of support I have received from my family as well as from both the wrestling and the EIU community. Their response has been nothing short of overwhelming and truly heartwarming, particularly so now that I find myself dealing with a gauntlet of emotions ranging from anger, sadness and mourning to betrayal and a sense of having been deceived because of no warning whatsoever.

As the wrestling coach at Eastern Illinois University for the past 24 years, I can say with honesty and humility that this job is, and has been, the occupation of my dreams. I have been blessed to be part of a wrestling program with a proud and successful tradition of 59 years. Even more importantly, I have been part of a University community that has always valued, as I have, the education of its student-athletes more than the number of victories in the won-lost column. I fear that with this decision that defining EIU ethic and tradition is now being reversed.

The real victims of this decision, of course, are the student-athletes themselves. As a former EIU All-American wrestler, I have witnessed first-hand over the years the many opportunities afforded the college student-athlete in wrestling. My joy was to pass on those same opportunities to other wrestlers, since I know that without the avenue of sport, many young men and women would not have the opportunity to obtain a college degree.

To quote Yogi Berra, this feels like “déjà vu all over again.” Once before in 1995 the EIU athletic administration attempted to eliminate both the Panther wrestling and men’s swim teams under the guise of federal Title IX mandates, the VERY FIRST collegiate programs in the nation to be “temporarily” cut due to Title IX laws. Of course, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has always asserted that eliminating participation in sport is not, and never was, the intention of Title IX. As a result, both sports were reinstated but not without serious negative effects.

The wrestling program at EIU has never fully recovered its scholarships or budget status prior to the Title IX compliance review of 1994-95. One result is that a cloud of uncertainty has been hanging over the program ever since. The numbers tell the tale. In 1994-95 wrestling had a budget of $26,750 and 6.4 scholarships (9.9 NCAA maximum). In 2006-07 wrestling had a budget of $18,740 and 3.8 scholarships (9.9 NCAA maximum). Adjusted for inflation, the numbers reveal a program attempting to struggle to survive. Yet the program has thrived in my 24 years despite the ever-shrinking support—at least one wrestler has participated in the NCAA National Championships each of the team’s 24 years, including 60 NCAA national qualifiers, 6 Division I All-Americans, and 5 Academic All-Americans.

So why is the EIU athletic administration once again attempting to eliminate a program with a long and successful history? Once again, they are invoking an NCAA program, this time the Academic Progress Report (APR) program, which can have dire consequences for the entire athletic program if a sports team repeatedly fails to make minimum scores. And once again, EIU is the FIRST University to eliminate a sport due to a struggling APR number. Sounds like “déjà vu all over again.” As explained by Rich McDuffie, EIU’s athletic director, “…we could not take the risk of affecting the whole athletics program.”

But according to the NCAA, there were any number of avenues short of program elimination available to the administration, which they chose to ignore. For example, there is a detailed procedure set up by the NCAA for teams to recover from low APR’s, yet our administration chose to deny our wrestlers the opportunity to recover. Furthermore, there is a grant funding program developed by the NCAA to give financial assistance to programs which fall below the minimum APR score. Rather than seek those grant funds to help its athletes, the EIU athletic administration chose instead to drop the program suddenly and without warning to the team and the coach. As I was told by a staff member from the NCAA, “It was never the intention of APR to be used to eliminate athletic teams, but rather as a tool to help improve retention and graduation in athletic teams.” Nonetheless the NCAA’s APR program has provided useful cover for the administration’s axe just as they tried to use Title IX before.

Let me state emphatically and without equivocation that I support the APR. Student-athletes go to college to earn a degree first; sports are secondary. This is especially true at a University such as Eastern Illinois University. But when your program has as few a number of scholarships as wrestling, it takes only a few individuals to penalize the program. Indeed, just one out of five will put the program in jeopardy—not a problem for teams with many scholarships but potentially problematic for teams with few. We have 3.8 scholarships to offer.

Perhaps most offensive and ethically indefensible is the administration’s timing of the decision to eliminate the program. The athletic administration allowed us to actively recruit and sign student-athletes to scholarships and national letters of intent on April 11, 2007. They killed the program knowing that just the night before I had received several verbal commitments from student-athletes that would have helped us both academically and on the mat. Either they made their decision on the spur of the moment or they knowingly let us make commitments to student-athletes that they knew would be empty ones. Either is unconscionable for a University such as Eastern Illinois.

I ask only that Eastern Illinois University do the right thing. The NCAA guarantees us two more years to recover. We made a commitment to these kids who chose EIU Wrestling rather than programs with better budgets, more scholarships and support staff. Let the wrestlers prove their mettle and save their program. The incoming recruiting class is very promising, the schedule is complete, spring fundraising is finalized, everything is in place for a successful next season. The only thing missing is the moral courage of the administration to reconsider a hasty and ill-advised decision.

Facebook Drinking Game

2007-06-01T13:20:00.000-05:00

I saw a link to this, and thought I'd paste it in here, since I'm not sure about the appropriateness of the rest of that site. Here you have it, the Facebook Drinking Game. If I drank, I could play (If I played, I would have to take only one drink).

PROFILE PICTURE

Take 1 DRINK if your profile picture is a blank expression looking away from the camera

Take 2 DRINKS if your profile picture is you when you were a cute little baby

Take 3 DRINKS if your profile picture is a blank expression looking away from the camera when you were a cute little baby

BONUS: Do a chaser if your photo is also an artsy black and white shot or taken in front of a famous landmark like the Eiffel Tower or Golden Gate Bridge

FRIENDS LIST

Take 1 DRINK if your Friends List has someone on it who you don't know and have never talked to, but you don't want to delete them because you're not sure if they'll find out

Take 2 DRINKS if your Friends List has a platonic friend jokingly listed as 'You hooked up once'

Take 3 DRINKS if your Friends List has someone on it who stifles your entire Facebook existence, such as your an ex-girlfriend, your boss, or your real-life mom or dad

BONUS: Do a chaser if your mom or dad is listed as 'You hooked up once'

PHOTOS

Take 1 DRINK if you have posted a Photo Gallery called 'Random' or 'Misc'

Take 2 DRINKS if you have jokingly tagged an inanimate object in one of your photos with something like "Chair Darrell puked on"

Take 3 DRINKS if you have ever posted an as-big-as-possible 60-photo album covering one three-hour night out with your friends

BONUS: Do a chaser if you've ever removed a tag of yourself from a picture and silently prayed nobody saw that old picture of you with glasses, man-boobs, and a side-part

GROUPS

Take 1 DRINK if you're in a charity group such as "For every 1000 people who join this group, I will donate $1 towards finding a cure for traffic jams"

Take 2 DRINKS if you're in a group for graduates of your elementary school, but you don't know anybody else in the group and whenever you visit the page you just get depressed

Take 3 DRINKS if you're in a group dedicated to bringing somebody else onto Facebook such as "Jessica Durk, get on Facebook already bitch!!!"

BONUS: Do a chaser if you've ever created any of the above groups

PERSONAL INFO

Take 1 DRINK if you have posted a quote from Yoda

Take 2 DRINKS if you have posted a quote from Napoleon Dynamite

Take 3 DRINKS if you have posted a quote from Nietzsche

BONUS: Do a chaser if you have a quote from yourself

FACEBOOK HABITS

Take 1 DRINK if you've ever written "Wow! Never thought you'd join Facebook!" on someone's wall

Take 2 DRINKS if you've ever felt guilty when reading a lengthy Wall-To-Wall conversation between two people who are better friends with each other than they are with you

Take 3 DRINKS if you've ever checked the size of someone's friends list and felt superior that yours was bigger

BONUS: Do a chaser if you've ever checked the size of someone's friends list and felt indignant that theirs was bigger, thinking to yourself, "Well…they probably add people they don't even know! Nobody has that many friends!"

Fifth Year

2007-06-01T10:53:00.000-05:00

Duke's lacrosse players were granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA in light of missing most of last season as a result of false rape accusations. I think this is ridiculous. Duke canceled the lacrosse season eight games in of their own decision and without any coercion. Essentially, the NCAA bailed them out of a rushed and wrong decision. I'm happy for the players, since none of this was in their control, but I think the actual decision by the NCAA is wrong. Duke could have continued the season last year and played on without the accused players, who were no longer in school. The school caved to public and media pressure, and then asked for a do-over, which they received. It's such a unique situation, that shouldn't set a precedent, but that still doesn't change my mind about the rightness of the decision.

Wow

2007-05-31T22:57:00.000-05:00

I mean, wow. I just watched LeBron James pour in 48 points to lead the Cavs over the Pistons in game 5 in double OT. He scored the Cavs final 25 points. He was the only Cav to score in either OT and the last 2 minutes of the 4th quarter. It was a performance for the ages, and he'll need to do it again on Saturday to get his team into the NBA finals at the ripe old age of 22.

Whoa

2007-05-29T14:52:00.001-05:00

File this under "Things I Thought I'd Never See Again."

This probably isn't healthy

2007-05-29T11:50:00.001-05:00

Every day, I sign into Yahoo! and check up on my man Joe Mauer. Joe is the starting catcher on my fantasy baseball team in the Messiah Wrestling league, Career Wins Leader. He's had an injured leg for a while now; in fact, he's been on the DL since May 5th. He may be back on Friday, but who knows? I really want him to come back, since he's the best catcher in the league, and was hitting .353 when he went down with his owie. But seriously, I check every day, since I don't want to have to deal with Paul LoDuca as my catcher any longer than I have to. LoDuca is an ok enough catcher, but he's no Joe. Should I care this much about Joe Mauer's leg? Most definitely not. Even if he is dreamy (as a side note, what the heck is Ryan Seacrest on this list for?). Anyways, I'm hoping Joe gets healthy, since my team needs to make a run toward the top of standings, and the return of Joe Mauer would be a perfect kickstart to my upcoming surge.

Check out my photo gallery

2007-05-25T22:45:00.000-05:00

If you head on over to my new site and click on Photo Gallery, you can see a nifty trick when you click on a picture. Go ahead, try it. You'll also notice that the sidebar on the right displays a different picture every time you refresh the page.

Merchandise

2007-05-23T10:18:00.000-05:00

Now, you can have your very own d3wrestle.com shirts. See the link on the main page or go directly to the store.

New Website

2007-05-22T15:04:00.000-05:00

I started a new website dedicated the NCAA Division III wrestling. You can find it at www.d3wrestle.com. It's a little sparse right now, but things will pick up. I built it using WordPress, which allows a lot of flexibility and automates a lot of database stuff to make it really easy to use. Take a look.

We're all professionals here

2007-05-20T12:09:00.003-05:00

It takes a few seconds to get to the good part, but it's totally worth it.

Thanks to Hardball Times

Vomit Comet

2007-05-18T19:22:00.000-05:00

Just check out that graphic right there. That's Apple losing $4 billion of market cap in six minutes. How, you say? Tech blog Engadget received an email from an Apple employee stating that the iPhone and the next MacOS would be delayed. Their post triggered the massive sell off. The only problem is that it's not true. Someone hacked Apple's email server and sent the internal email to several employees. Once the error was found, Engadget (and everyone else) posted retractions, and Apple got it's market cap back in 20 minutes. You can read more about it on the Engadget site.

Regarding yesterday's Apple news (Engadget)

Attention Baby Namers

2007-05-18T14:16:00.000-05:00

If you are reading this and of childbearing age, you should read this list for names to avoid for your newborn son or daughter. They will thank you later.

Top 10 Baby Names 2006

Suspension Update

2007-05-16T13:33:00.000-05:00

I guess I was wrong. Horry got 2 games, while Diaw and Stoudemire each got 1. Some reactions here.

Suspensions?

2007-05-15T13:12:00.000-05:00

After Robert Horry bodychecked Steve Nash into the scorers table last night, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw stepped onto the court as if to defend their teammate. This much is not in dispute. NBA rules mandate a minimum 1 game suspension for leaving the bench to get involved in any sort of dispute. Diaw and Stoudemire are two of the Suns best players, and to lose them for game five would all but guarantee a win for San Antonio. While we wait to get an official ruling from the NBA, I'm going to say that I doubt they will suspend these start players before a pivotal playoff game. I'm not sure what the rationalization will be, but I just don't see it happening. I could be wrong, but we'll just have to see.

Get off the Shedd!

2007-05-13T23:08:00.000-05:00

We went to the Shedd Aquarium with Janet's parents on Sunday. Janet's classmate, Deb Sting, works there and is able to get free tickets, which is nice, considering that saved us $27 per person. Some of the pictures are below. When we were in the penguin room, some people walked in there as some sort of special deal or something, and the penguins were not even a little bit scared, since they see people all the time. A few of them came up to the one guy and one took a few nips at his pants. Then, after the people left, those same penguins walked all the way over to the door, as if they were sad the people had gone. It was pretty funny.

Komodo Dragon - "If this rock weren't so warm, I'd eat you for lunch."

Beluga Whale - I think it's looking at me

Penguins - Two feet tall, but don't mess with the eggs

She Did It

2007-05-12T01:22:00.000-05:00

Sleepin'

2007-05-09T22:40:00.000-05:00

A lot of people can't even spell grammar

2007-05-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

My middle school and high school drilled proper grammar into us with machine-like precision (As I write this, I'm hoping I don't make any grammatical errors, since that would be pretty embarrassing). However, my school was somewhat rare in this respect. It must have been, as I constantly come across writing and people who have little grasp of the subject. The link below has a few common mistakes and how to correct them. I will now also add a few of my own:

1. Using an apostrophe for a plural. It boggles the mind that I still see people doing this.
Right: I have three dogs.
Wrong: I have three dog's.

2. Spelling the words "definite" or "definitely" wrong
No explanation needed, just get it right

3. Using the expression "try and." You'll see this one in newspapers and edited websites even. If you think about the individual words, you'll see it makes little sense. This one is a personal pet peeve of mine, and it's very common.
Right: Try to open that door.
Wrong: Try and open that door.

4. Misuse of the word "literally."
Wrong: My heart literally broke when he said that.
Perhaps you need to go to the hospital.

Those are just a few. As a final gesture of goodwill, I want to encourage everyone to go to Mozilla.org and download the latest edition of Firefox. It has built in spell check. Spell a word wrong while typing something, and Firefox underlines the word in red. You can even add words to the dictionary, if you don't want it to underline your last name or something. This spell check works in Blogger, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, and most anywhere else you can type stuff. You'll never spell definite wrong again!

10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid - ZDNet UK

Name School

2007-05-06T22:15:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking lately about the value of a "name" school. Places like Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Williams, or anywhere that has a program ranked #1 or #2 in the U.S. News rankings. I was thinking about it because Janet is planning to go to library school and she has applied to the University of Illinois. Illinois has the top ranked Library Science program in the country, and this is a draw for Janet, since she can pay in-state tuition to do their well-regarded online program.

We've gone back and forth about the value of a top-rated program. At times, I've thought that it really helped getting a job to be able to say, "I went to Cornell," or something like that. I've since decided that it might help you get an interview, but not necessarily a job. You'll get your job based on who you are and what you've done, not where you went. Janet will get her next job just like she got her last one, because she's good at it. The fact that she went to little Messiah College makes no difference. She found this out at Loyola. She was one of the smartest history students at Messiah, and nothing changed at Loyola, just like it wouldn't change anywhere else. The same abilities that cause you to excel in school will transfer to your job, and a smart interviewer will base their decisions on that rather than the name at the top of the diploma.

So, I conclude that the best college choice isn't the one with the name, but it's the one that is the best fit for you and will let you accomplish your goals. College really is what you make of it.

SAM 543 - Sports Administration Class Paper

2007-05-05T18:25:00.000-05:00

I just turned in my latest grad school paper. It's a little over 16 pages long, and you can read it at the link below.

Title IX Compliance: Options for a Difficult Task

Short on Cash

2007-05-03T12:35:00.000-05:00

This article has nothing directly to do with height, but it does quote the book Blink, which I've read, in terms of discussing earnings and height. Generally speaking, correcting for age, gender, and weight reveals that every extra inch of height is worth about $789 in salary. Good thing I'm in wrestling, where more people are short.

Digg Down Deep

2007-05-02T12:29:00.000-05:00

Digg is a news aggregator site where users submit links which are then "voted" on by other users. The higher voted stories get pushed to the top of the page. In the last day or so, someone posted a story about cracking the Digital Rights Management for HD-DVDs. Digg took the link, an others like it, off the site in response to a cease-and-desist letter from some lawyers. Digg's users weren't too pleased and went to town on the website, submitting the deleted information over and over again until it was pretty much all that was on the site. In the face of this outrage, Digg relented and decided to quit deleting stuff and deal with the potential consequences. Read the story HERE.

Playoffs, Baby

2007-05-01T23:59:00.000-05:00

I don't watch a ton of basketball, and I write about it even less, but I watched the last three quarters of tonights Warriors-Mavericks tilt and it was pretty enjoyable. Dirk Nowitzki has had a rotten series for someone who might win the MVP award this year. Baron Davis is everything he's been made out to be. The game, though, was something. Dallas was up 21 at one point, but then was down 9 with about 3 minutes left. Then, Nowitzki scored 12 of 15 as the Mavs went on a 15-0 run to take the lead for good. Nowitzki wasn't getting it done all night, and I was ticked, but then he turned it on when it counted and put the game away almost single-handedly. I say almost because Golden State started taking terrible shots with less than 3 minutes left. No selection, rushing unnecessarily, stuff that makes you the #8 seed that they are. It was kind of startling. They were definitely doomed after Davis fouled out. Everything they do runs either off his actions or is a result of Dallas having to keep track of him all the time. If you like basketball at all and can afford to stay up for a game with a 10:30 Eastern start time, you shouldn't be disappointed. I may make an effort to watch it here in the Central Time Zone.

Planet Earth

2007-05-01T08:58:00.000-05:00

I've been watching Planet Earth on Discovery HD for the past few weeks. This week, the cat was sitting on Janet's lap when the birds came on. She perked up turned around, saw a bird on the HDTV and jumped down to go check it out. She had her paws up on the TV stand, and looked ready to attack the screen. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that, but what I've got will give you an idea. I always knew she was a killer. She also spent some time looking behind the TV for the birds as well.

PJ

2007-04-29T16:05:00.000-05:00

What I Read

2007-04-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the websites I regularly peruse for reading material. Many of them are delivered automatically via RSS to my Google home page. In no special order:
ESPN.com - needs little explanation
Baseball Prospectus - the best baseball site out there
Intermat - wrestling news and results
Pinstriped Blog - yeah, it's about the Yankees, but not just them, and Steven Goldman is a very good writer
Lifehacker - productivity and software blog
TechCrunch - internet products and companies
Woot! - one item for sale each day at a ridiculous price
Football Outsiders - like Baseball Prospectus, only with football
Slate - online newsmagazine
Deadspin - irreverent sports news blog

Where do you like to go? Leave it in the comments.

Leah is on TV!

2007-04-24T11:18:00.000-05:00

I'll let her take it from here

My friend Charlotte who lives in Milwaukee emailed me today and said "Was that you I saw on TV in an American commercial"?. So I looked online and my commercial is on tv now! :-) I'm actually in two of them. Go to http://www.americantv.com/ad.do and you can watch my commercials. Scroll down the page to where it says current television ads. Click on and watch the one that says "0% interest for 36 months" and the one that says "Mattress Sale". You'll see my pretty face lighting up the screen.

That's Messiah College's finest right there.

Wait, what year is it again?

2007-04-23T16:12:00.000-05:00

Students attend school's first integrated prom

I thought it was a joke at first, but it seems pretty real.

Wheaton Highlight Video

2007-04-21T15:16:00.000-05:00

Don't Click

2007-04-16T16:22:00.000-05:00

Do not, under any circumstances, play this game unless you've got a spare hour to kill.

UPDATE: If you play the game on Medium or above, after you finish, enter your score into the group name LifeAndTimes. Make sure you type that exactly right. Then we can compare scores.

Thanks to TechCrunch

Video Tutorial

2007-04-13T18:26:00.000-05:00

I know you're dying to know how to do the Bow and Arrow:

How About That

2007-04-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

Monica Goodling went to Messiah College.

More Free Stuff

2007-04-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

I saw this on Lifehacker the other day. It's a list of some of the best totally free software. Check it out here.

RSS

2007-04-05T21:31:00.000-05:00

I've known about RSS for a while now, but just recently put it all to work for me. I have a Google home page where I collect RSS feeds. Now, I don't go to a blog unless my page tells me there is a new post. I don't have to open a dozen Firefox tabs to do my daily reading. I've got a page for blogs, one for sports news...I even set up a feed through Yahoo! Pipes to keep track of the players on my fantasy team (check it out here). Even Blogger is in on the action. If you look at the sidebar there you'll see a video section. Every time I post a video on YouTube, it will show up over there in the sidebar automatically. Finally, I set up a Yahoo! Widget with an account at MeeVee to let me know when the TV shows I watch have new episodes. Today, it let me know that The Office was all new. I have it set to tell me on the day the show is supposed to air whether the episode is new or not. No sense getting excited about House if it's a rerun thanks to stupid American Idol and the no-talent hacks it features. I'm really just at the tip of the iceberg with this RSS thing. Someone used Yahoo! Pipes to find the top ten downloads on iTunes and then automatically search YouTube for the music videos.

She Passed

2007-04-03T20:24:00.000-05:00

Janet passed her comprehensive oral exam today at Loyola. This means she gets to graduate, provided she is able to make it from now until the end of her two current classes. She bought a Loyola t-shirt today, so now she's a real Rambler.

2007 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship Highlights

2007-04-03T07:31:00.001-05:00

Old Teammate

2007-04-02T22:47:00.000-05:00

Harry Lester is a world class Greco-Roman wrestler. We were teammates back in high school, and he is clearly the best athlete to ever come out of Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. The U.S. Nationals for wrestling is this weekend, and there was an article about him last week. He's been pretty dominant over his countrymen the past few years, and he won a bronze at the last World Championships. He's also only 23. At this rate, I'll be able to say I know an Olympian.

O-H-I-O

2007-04-02T22:36:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, dismal three point shooting led to the demise of the OSU basketball season. Greg Oden turned in an excellent performance in what is probably his last college game, but the fact that the returning champs brought back the whole starting lineup that won the first title turned out to be too much for the rest of the Buckeyes. I admit, I hadn't seen what all the fuss was about with Oden, since he spent most of the tournament in foul trouble, but he does some things very well and had the chance to pull them off tonight 25 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks. Perhaps he wanted to silence the criticism that has built up over the past three weeks and perhaps convinced some that fellow freshman Kevin Durant was worth of the top pick. I think I'd have a tough decision between the two if I had the first pick in the NBA draft. Durant does some special things, but Oden is huge and just scratching the surface of his immense talent. Anyhow, congratulations to Florida for tacking the NCAA Basketball championship onto the BCS title from January. Wouldn't Billy Donovan be crazy to walk away from Florida and go to Kentucky?

Read the Comment!

2007-03-28T19:10:00.000-05:00

Everyone needs to read the comment on my previous post so you can get, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story.

The Number 4

2007-03-28T11:25:00.000-05:00

I was homeschooled once. Back in 2nd and 3rd grade, I stayed home to learn and work and get done at noon and start summer vacation in May. It wasn't a bad life. Anyhow, I'd like to relate an argument I had with my dad back then. It involves the number four. You see, I wrote the number four like this:

Actually, I still write the number four like that, but it absolutely drove my dad crazy. I have no idea why it bothered him so much. He wanted me to write it like this:

We had some spirited discussions about this slight difference, with me demanding to know why it mattered if there was a little tail at the end of my four. I don't recall ever getting a satisfactory answer, since I still can't think of a single reason why one way is better than the other. How do you write the number four?

Long Goal

2007-03-27T14:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this appears to be turning into a video blog as of late, and I'll try to make a post of some literary significance or something in the near future, but watch this guy kick the ball into next week:

Peyton Manning on SNL

2007-03-26T16:56:00.000-05:00

This skit was pretty funny.

Thanks to Deadspin for posting the video

Free Software!

2007-03-25T10:42:00.000-05:00

SoftwareFor.org collects a group of free software packages and makes them available for download. Almost anything you use the computer for can be done with a free program. There are alternatives that do at least 95% of the work for 100% less money. Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, Macromedia Dreamweaver, and others can all be replaced with the available free software. It's worth a look.

Bears!

2007-03-23T21:58:00.001-05:00

It sounds made up

2007-03-23T11:05:00.000-05:00

But it isn't. Read the story of O.J. Mayo, the top basketball recruit in the country, and his "recruitment" at USC for next year. Check it out here. You may have to login, so go here to get a login and use it. Trust me, it's worth the effort.

50

2007-03-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

Today is my dad's 50th birthday. Call him up and ask him about his new speakers and newfound appreciation of jazz.

Service Economy

2007-03-20T09:14:00.000-05:00

I think sometimes we only focus on the bad in customer service, thus giving the impression that there isn't anyone out there who can do a good job. In actuality, we probably get adequate or even good service most of the time.

For example, I was in the grocery store yesterday. Oftentimes, the workers there don't seem happy to be there, and I imagine there are parts of that job that aren't a lot of fun, but yesterday I was standing in line and one worker came over and opened a new register, invited me to go over there, and was very friendly and helpful. There was nothing exceptional about the service or even necessarily the friendliness, but it was nice to see what a trip to the store is supposed to be like, and I thought it was worth mentioning.

Burning Questions with Andy Vogel

2007-03-12T23:15:00.000-05:00

1. If you found out that Fallout Boy and All-American Rejects were the same band, would you be surprised?

2. Did you know that the first season of the Cosby Show was pretty much a cast doing Bill Cosby's standup act?

3. Did you know that only 16 of the teams in the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament have wrestling as well as basketball?

4. Would you ever guess that this guy is the best college wrestler in the country?

5. What percentage of people in this country do you think can describe the concept of specific heat? Better yet, how many would know if water has a high or a low one?

6. If this didn't exist, could you have come up with it?

7. Would you feel comfortable sending your child to a school founded and named for a guy who claimed to have raised the dead and once said that if he didn't raise $8 million, God would "call him home?"

Photo Fun

2007-03-11T14:40:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how to use my camera. F Stop, shutter speed, white balance; I don't really get it all. I'm sure I could learn if I felt like it, but instead I end up playing around, seeing what works, and then enhancing it in Photoshop. Here are two pictures I took of a blooming christmas cactus.

National Anthem

2007-03-07T14:36:00.000-06:00

Continuing in our theme of posts dealing with my trip to Iowa:

During the initial playing of the national anthem on Friday, the sound system cut out somewhere around "rocket's red glare," but the fans in attendance picked it up almost without hesitation and finished it off strong. It was actually pretty cool to be a part of. I think an interesting idea at a sporting even would to plan for the fans to sing the national anthem. It's never done, and this proves that it can work. Have someone up there to get things started and then hand it off to the crowd. It would be memorable at least.

DIII Finals Recap

2007-03-06T12:43:00.000-06:00

I posted this on a message board, and I'm sharing it with you:

DIII Finals Recap

125 Hansen (Luther) dec. Flodeen (Augsburg) 3-2
Both wrestlers had a rocky road to the finals. Hansen was taken down twice in the first period by Heilman of Cornell but won by scoring a defensive fall off a far side cradle. Flodeen defeated Helvey of Wartburg when Helvey got his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cautions all in a row with 12 seconds left to put Flodeen ahead by a point. Quite the mental breakdown. The finals was a ho hum affair with Hansen getting the sole takedown in the first period. They traded escapes frome there and Hansen won 3-2.

133 Morgan (Kings) dec. Vanier (Augsburg) 4-3
Both guys tried almost nothing for the first 6 minutes of the match and both were warned for stalling twice. Morgan finally took a shot to the left and immediately executed a lightning quick peekout and scored the match's only takedown. At the end, Vanier never really attempted anything as time ran down. Morgan is the first champ ever from King's College. His brother was 2nd at 141 in 2003.

141 Osborn (Augsburg) dec. LaForge (Delaware Valley) 7-3
Both wrestlers handled everyone else in the bracket to get here. LaForge knew the underhooks were coming with Osborn and capitalized with a first period fireman's carry. LaForge failed the escape in the second, and Osborn got two with a tilt. Osborn picked neutral, got a takedown, and rode LaForge hard, getting a stalling point while ahead. LaForge finally got out, but it was too little, too late.

149 Pyle (Luther) pin Roush (Mt. St. Joseph) 2:04
Three former champs at this weight and none of them were the #1 seed. Roush beat Evans and Larsen each 2-1 to make the final while Pyle was dominant in beating everyone, including Pflug. A quick snap and spin scored the first takedown (if I remember right), and Pyle used a tight waist and arm bar tilt followed by punching his arm bar fist to the mat to turn Roush and secure the fall. Pyle was named OW in the toughest weight in the tournament.

157 Anderson (Augsburg) dec. Galante (TCNJ) 5-2
After going 0-2 last year as the #1 seed, Galante stormed to the finals. Anderson had a rematch of the regional final against Gingerich in the semis. They felt each other out for the first period, and then Galanted scored an explosive takedown in the second. As time ran out in the 2nd, Galanted was in on a double leg (I thought it was 2) but in the ref's eyes, Anderson fought it off. In the third, Galante chose neutral with the score tied. Anderson timed a single leg to the left perfectly with a mistake reach by Galante and scored the winning takedown and rode him out.

165 LeVesseur (Augsburg) dec. Guenther (TCNJ) 3-0
LeVesseur dominated Knipp (who was still wearing his ISU headgear) 10-2 in the semis. Guenther won in the quarters and semis with a cement mixer. Guenther is also enormous at that weight. LeVesseur seemed content just to win and make sure he finished his career undefeated. The one real shot (a double) he took, he scored with, and it was obvious he could have done that whenever he wanted, but I think he saw Guenther's previous matches and didn't want to screw things up here. He finished his career undefeated and the first 4xer in DIII. ISU transfer Knipp ended up 5th, losing also to Palmer of UW-Lax.

174 Chelf (UW-Lax) maj. dec. Vanderhyde (Olivet) 9-0
Chelf put the hammer down on Vanderhyde in this match. He scored single legs in each period and never gave up an escape, getting a stalling point in the third to punctuate his dominance. On the first takedown, he shot to one side, got to his feet, popped his head to the far side and took Vanderhyde off his feet. It was nice.

184 Madden (Hunter) dec. Sair (Cortland) 3-2
Sair (1st @ 174 in '06) was one of the three best athletes in the tournament (along with Pflug and LeVesseur IMO), but Madden wasn't far behind. Madden took out Lulloff to make the finals, while Sair handed Djoumessi his 2nd loss of the year. Lots of pushing in this one. Each guy fought off a serious takedown threat in the first two periods, but Madden was able to make one stick in the third. Three different finals featured one wrestler in the two piece uniform. TCNJ, Hunter, and NYU all were wearing them.

197 Miller (Wartburg) maj. dec. Strandberg (Buena Vista) 11-3
Miller dominated all year and had the unseeded Strandberg in this one. Miller scored with a banana split and some nice shots. The outcome was never really in doubt, but Strandberg had a great tournament and did make Miller work for it. After the match, coach Jim Miller jumped into his (much larger) son's arms.

285 Gillis (Wartburg) dec. Kmetz (Baldwin-Wallace) 4-0
Gillis was a 3x runner up to Allen of UW-Lax. Kmetz was the biggest heavyweight there. Tall, strong, low body fat, but Gillis is a very good wrestler, if his 3rd place finish at the Midlands didn't convince. Gillis was able to ride Kmetz and scored a reversal in the third and rode him out again. No takedowns in this one as a fairly underwhelming final session came to a close.

As usual, the All-America round on Friday night was one of the most exciting parts of the tournament as guys left it all on the mat.

Other Notables: Augsburg had 9 AA's and won the title. UW-Lax had a disappointing tournament, and their fans came off as not that knowledgeable, booing when Larsen lost to Roush when there were no controversial calls, chanting "East Coast Timeout" during blood time (when the wrestler was from Ohio, to boot) or when a kid's headgear broke. I can't fault their enthusiasm, though. Eight #1 seeds won championships. The other two #1's didn't make the finals (Evans and Lulloff). Chambers of Platteville placed two years after spending a season chasing insurgents in Iraq. Swenson was coach of the year. The Five Flags center was a good venue with two full warmup mats and plenty of seating, though the fact that the nearest reasonable airport is 90 minutes away isn't great. The tournament is in Cedar Rapids next year, so all you Hawkeye fans should tear yourselves away from your Big 10 live updates and go see some actual wrestling next March.

Ok, go!

2007-03-05T23:55:00.000-06:00

Type the names of all 50 states in under 10 minutes. I had 4:54 left when I finished, and the last state I remembered was Minnesota, thus guaranteeing it won't be the last one you remember.

Update 3/7: I beat Janet.

DIII Nationals

2007-03-04T20:11:00.000-06:00

Just got back from the Division III National Tournament, and it was some good wrestling. Unfortunately, Messiah's Derek Ricker failed to place din this his senior year, but he had a good career nonetheless and sits at #3 on the all time wins list.

That aside, it was a good trip where I got to see some friends I don't see often enough, especially since a move back to Pennsylvania doesn't seem to be in the near future. I guess I'll have to make the most of the chances I get. It would have been better if Tony was there for me to punch in the neck, but I had to live without it.

Some Highlights

2007-02-27T13:38:00.000-06:00

Instead of driving myself crazy making a whole team highlight video in one fell swoop, I'm taking the piecemeal approach and doing individual videos that can then be sliced and diced into a whole team version at a later date. Here's the first one

It Had to be You

2007-02-25T17:24:00.000-06:00

I was scanning the radio, and "It Had to be You" came on. Of course, I can't hear that song without thinking of the following

What did you do to her?
We just gave her a dress.
Yeah, and a lot of liquor.
Come on Marla, let's go.
But I'm singing to Nelson. Ain't I, baby?
You sure are.

Senior Citizens will MESS you up

2007-02-23T13:20:00.000-06:00

U.S. Tourist in Costa Rica Kills Mugger

...with his bare hands, mind you.

Ah, the good old days

2007-02-21T17:38:00.001-06:00

Barry Zito and Wrestling

2007-02-20T11:44:00.000-06:00

Yes, that Barry Zito; the one who just signed with the Giants. Apparently, he's developed an interest in wrestling, and I'm glad to see the sport portrayed in such a positive light. Read about it here.

quality test

2007-02-19T14:09:00.000-06:00

Look at these two videos for a few seconds and let me know which one looks better to you. I uploaded the same video to two different sites and I'm contemplating a switch for my Wheaton College videos next season unless YouTube's quality improves.

1.

2.

Ugh

2007-02-16T09:09:00.000-06:00

Anna Nicole Smith has been the top story on CNN Headline News all week long. Yesterday, they led with that, then reluctantly switched to a story about a plane that was currently having trouble getting it landing gear down and was circling the airport trying to figure out what to do. You know who isn't talking about this non-story in the Bahamas? The Daily Show and Colbert Report. The fake news isn't supposed to be more responsible than the real news!

Lentil Soup

2007-02-13T19:30:00.000-06:00

This recipe is very delicious...and very good for you.

CCIW Championships

2007-02-10T20:27:00.000-06:00

Wheaton placed third today out of five teams in the CCIW Championships. Last year, we placed last, so this is a serious improvement. Also, head coach Seth Norton was named CCIW coach of the year, no doubt due the the recent improvement of the team. We had two champs, a 2nd, and three 3rd place finishes. Next week is the Great Lakes Regional, and two weeks following is the NCAA Championships hosted by Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.

Practice Today

2007-02-06T21:28:00.000-06:00

I was in charge at practice today with the head coach having other obligations, so at one point, I decided to play a little game. In the last minute of live wrestling, I told the team that whoever got the most takedowns could sit out the following minute. After the first group went, the record was 2. The next group, including me, went out to wrestle. I scored three takedowns in about 50 seconds on our 165 pound wrestler, figuring that would win me the contest, and then I could make them all do the next minute (ha ha ha). Then, I find out another wrestler got three takedowns as well. I think his opponent gamed the system and let him get that last one, but what really matters is that I should have wrestled that last 10 seconds.

To the Bone

2007-02-05T22:31:00.000-06:00

It is Vermont-level cold out there, and has been for the last week or so. Our apartment leaks like a grand jury, and the heater in this building isn't quite up to snuff, so it's been pretty darn frigid in this apartment. It was 58 inside today when I woke up, and the heat is set as high as it goes.

To the rescue today is a space heater that was going unused in the church office. Now we will be warm and perhaps we can avoid the icy (ha!) glares from the cat as she demands to know why we make her freeze so.

Things to Blog About When You Can't Think of Anything

2007-01-30T20:17:00.000-06:00

1. Post pictures of yourself or pets

2. Post fun videos on YouTube

3. Tell an amusing, if mundane, story - like this one

4. Complain about something stupid - see the entire Since My Life is More Than Shoes

5. Quote song lyrics...that's a joke. Don't ever quote song lyrics without any context. Annoys the heck out of me, if you care.

6. Tell us about your favorite band/book/song/tv show/movie of the moment. For example, you all need to get yourselves some of The Clarks.

7. Write an episode of your favorite show:
House, M.D.
Cuddy: Your patient is dying, and stop taking those pills.
House: But I want to. And, nice low cut blouse.
Cameron: I love you.
Foreman: You're an idiot.
Chase: Look at my hair.
House: Now, about that patient. Your ideas are all stupid, this is what's wrong. Now send him home.
Wilson: You need people, by the way.
[cue indie music clip]
[roll credits]
THE END