Festivus 2007

Today was the annual Festivus holiday at the homestead. As you may know, we use Festivus as just another reason to get together as a family and friends. As usual the menu consisted as the traditional Festivus meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. This year we had 30 guests arrive for the holiday and we even added a birthday song for Butch after we sand the Festivus song.

As an added benefit, this years feat of strength revolved around how many deviled eggs one could eat. Bruce was able to eat 25 of them followed closely by Umberto’s 22… Eduardo was a distant third with 7.

After the airing of the grieving we settled down to a rousing game of Texas hold em’… that’s a stretch for our family. Fe Man won first prize at his own game…

If you have never been to a Festivus celebration you should hold one yourself next year. All it takes is an Aluminum pole (which has a high strength to weight ratio) and a few friends. In this part of the world Festivus always falls on the Saturday between Christmas and New Years.

Who's Hotter Winner

Week two had the sister Ashlee and Jessica Simpson facing off. Age along with talent and looks wins over "brains" as Jessica Simpson moves on to the next round.

Who's Hotter

The competition continues as this week we have another set of beauties competing against each other... Only you will decide who will advance. In case of a tie, the Ms. Firestarter rules committee will cast the tiebreaker ballot.

Jennifer Aniston or Selma Hayek

Championship Caliber Teams

That is what I call both the Detroit Red Wings and Pistons.

You might be thinking....Wow... that's a big boast. The answer is simple. Let's look at the wings first. Over the past ten or so years if you were to ask a casual fan which is the best team in the NHL your answer was probably the Red Wings and you wouldn't be wrong. These guys have been good for so long that they are now expected to win every time they step on the ice. The Wings are once again on top of the NHL. They have reformed themselves from the New York Yankees of the NHL to a young, energetic and explosive team to watch. So who are these guys? They have two excellent goalies in Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek. On the blue line they still have the reigning Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, and newcomer Brian Rafalski. Up front they have a great mixture of youth and experience. They have arguably the most valuable line in hockey where center Pavel Datsyuk is flanked by Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom. Check the statistics… Zetterberg has been the best two way player for over a year and Holmstrom is the best at what he does and that is owning the area just in front of the goalie.

Meanwhile just north of the Motor City resides the Palace of Auburn Hills where the Pistons call their home court. Since the 2002 season, the Pistons have been the best team in the Eastern Conference over that stretch of time. They have assembled the best starting five players and the bench is much improved. They seem to be bored at times, but never count these guys out. Ask the Boston Celtics who has the best team in the East.

The metamorphous took place the year Grant Hill wanted to leave the Pistons in favor of a warmer climate and better team. As a Piston fan, I was disappointed with his decision to leave as I thought it was going to be the end of the Pistons. I was rudely awaken at just how shrewd Joe Dumars was when he acquired some little known short pivot man named Ben Wallace and some throw in Chucky Atkins to make the trade possible. Both eventually started for the Pistons while Hill played only half of the games due to another injury. Dumars is just as quick at change the coaching staff for the team. George Irvine was replaced with Rick Carlisle who brought credibility back to the team.

Carlisle had very little talent on the team but the team played hard nosed defense and made the playoffs and quickly lost. The following year Joe Dumars knew that he had to upgrade the talent on the team. He acquired Chauncey Billups via free agency and Richard “Rip” Hamilton in a trade for Jerry Stackhouse. They also drafted Tayshun Prince that year. The next year they traded for Rasheed Wallace and won the NBA championship.

So what makes these guys what they are? It’s got to be the General Managers. Ken Holland of the Red Wings and Joe Dumars of the Pistons have brought their teams to greatness is completely different manners. Ken Holland has transformed the Red Wings from a powerful star studded team to a salary cap savvy team. He and longtime front office guru Jim Nill along with their scouting staff has come up with tremendous late round draft picks and every once in a while bring in a veteran that to improve their team. Joe Dumars has done a completely different way. His drafts have not been anywhere near as profitable as Holland’s but he is an excellent evaluator of talent as it becomes a part of the Pistons. He has shipped guys out of here and still gotten valuable assets in return. Since the NBA has a soft cap, Joe Dumars has the advantage to improve the Pistons via trades for expensive players or jumping into the free agency market. This is what makes Joe great. He doesn’t waste time pulling the trigger on a trade.

So we are living a dream in Detroit where we have tremendous teams helmed by great leaders… oh wait… there is that one team that shall be nameless.

S. P. I. T. N.

Welcome back to Stupid People In The News...

This week we have this little ditty. You just can’t make this kind of stuff up…

A man taking his four grandkids to the drive in, was pulled over and given a verbal warning because his grandchildren were not properly secured in his vehicle.

"Fe Man... what's the big deal… that happens all the time," as Paul W. Smith would say… but now, the rest of the story.

The man may have gotten away with it had the Beckley, West Virginia police not be tipped off that the man was driving... wait for it.... a lawnmower with a motorboat hooked to it with the four children ridding inside the boat. The man was later found by the police department at the King Tut Drive-In where the man stated that he wanted to take his grandkids “out for a spin” and to treat them to food at King Tut. The man was not cited, said police officer Blume, as he was not believed to have willfully put his grandchildren in danger. However, he was given a verbal warning since the children were riding unsecured and near an area known for heavy traffic. He was also driving an unregistered vehicle on city streets.

Zotime Congradulates the Twins

No... not those twins, but the twins on the Biggest Looser. Jim and Bill Germanakos who combined lost 370 pounds in 15 weeks on the TV show The Biggest Loser.

Bill, who is a medical salesman, stands 5-feet-8, and took home the $250,000 grand prize by going from 334 pounds to 170 over the 15-week series. Twin brother Jim, a Freeport police officer from Massapequa, earned $100,000 for dropping from 361 to 175, and losing 132 of those pounds at home after his fifth-week elimination.

Bill described the defining moment of his life as an obese person. He stated that he took his daughter to an amusement park and waiting in line for an hour to ride the front car of a roller coaster. “And I didn’t fit. They tried so hard, it was painful, when I got up and we had to walk away with everyone looking at me.”

He said that after the show’s reveal party, “We went right back to the amusement park, we got right on the roller coaster, and I proceeded to bring her on every roller coaster.”

I think that everyone has that magic moment when they say to themselves... enough is enough and set the wheel in motion to improve themselves. I know for me that moment was seeing a picture of myself. In it I was smiling and looked real big. I had never been so big before and I was having problems with most of my dress pants. I came to the fork in the road... I either had to buy a whole new wardrobe or had to loose weight to where my clothes would fit again. I choose loosing weight.

Google

Have you Googled yourself? The answer is probably yes, as apparently about a half of us have. A recent study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Live Project stated that 47% of the adult U.S. internet users have looked for information about themselves. That is nearly twice who did just 5 years ago.

Mary Madden (a senior research specialist for Pew) was not surprised that this was the case. Mary stated that “yes it's doubled, but it's still the case that there's a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of plugging their name with search engines, Certainly awareness has increased, but I don't know it's necessarily kept pace with the amount of content we post about ourselves or what others post about us.'

Now for some of the standard useless information that should be obvious… The study showed that Americans under 50 years old and with more education and income are more likely to self Google.

One point that I found interesting is that women are more likely to look up information about someone they are dating. I heard that this was the craze recently and it makes sense from the aspect that if you had a chance to find out if that certain someone is actually what they claim to be wouldn’t you? In my mind, it is just a confirmation of the credibility of an individual. So, if you have not done so, go to your favorite search engine and type in your name. You might find some interesting information that may shock you how visible it.

Who's Hotter Winner

Week one had Jessica Alba facing off with Jessica Beal.

In a close finish, Jessica Beal moves on to the next round

Who's Hotter

The competition continues as this week as another two striking beauties competing against each other... Only you will decide who will advance.

Kate Backinsale or Eva Longoria

What does it mean…?

A fell asleep after coming home today and had a dream….

The dream was about me being at a train. There was a party going on and I was milling about it walking around it. I walked from train car to train car and I wound up in a train car that was also a store. There were all kinds of things for sale but I kept walking through the car looking at things. I got towards the end of the car and there were a group of people that I needed to walk around to get to the end. When I got past them there was a drum set all set up and it was nice. It’s an old school drum set. Not one of those electric kinds that are all a rave now. I asked one of the people that were in the group how much it was and they said something like “why would you want that?” I said that I liked the drum set and I wondered if I could try it out… They giggled and say to go right ahead and try it out. I walked around towards the back of the drum set (it was a blue pearl coat and it glistened in the lights).

I move the drum thrown a little to make room for my legs and the drum set is perfect… double bass drums, zildjian cymbals, and enough tom toms to make Alex Van Halen envious. The group giggles again as I move some of drum pieces around and make some clatter. I pick up the drum sticks that are laying on one of the floor toms. They feel light but at least they aren’t warped. I start by with a very quiet drum roll on at the edge of the snare drum. I pick up the tempo and intensity of the drum roll and I hear the train in the background. The drum roll gets louder and louder and the group gets quiet as they listen the rhythm of the beat. As the beat gets to a boiling point, I suddenly weak up from my dream in a cold sweat…

What does it all mean?

Who's Hotter

This is a simple little poll that I'm conducting. At the end of this poll we will crown the new Ms. Fire Starter.

The question is simple... which Simpson is hotter?

Ashlee or Jessica

Do the Lions stink???

I know I should be typing this right now, but I’m sick of it… after 50+ years of ineptitude I just can’t stand it anymore.

The Lions had a chance to win a big game today. After the Lions started the season 6 – 2, they have managed to loose 5 straight games. So what seems to be the matter with these guys? The answer is simple… not enough heart. Shawn Rodgers, arguably their best player they have on defense, seems to only be able to play half the plays since he is so out of shape that he gets winded every few plays. As the Cowboys were driving down the field for their come from behind 28 – 27 game winning touchdown, Rodgers was so tired that he couldn’t button his chin strap. He basically was saying that I’m tired and please get time out of here.

Don’t get me wrong… they all didn’t stink, just enough of them did that Ford Field had the aroma of a cattle farm. The offensive line played their best game of the year, and the offence as a whole played good enough to win.

I know some of you are going to say that they got shafted with some of the referee calls or a bounce here or there they would have won easily. Let me just tell you that a team makes their own breaks. A good team earns a call here or there and it seems that they get a lucky bounce go their way as well. So after another one of those games, the Lions look at the scoreboard and see that the visitor score is higher then theirs.

William Clay Ford Sr., will you please look at what the other Detroit pro sports teams are doing? The Wings are in first place… again. The Pistons are in first place… again. The Tigers are on their way to putting together another great team. When can we expect to see the Lions climb out of the cellar in the city? I’m a football fan first and want to cheer my team on to victory…

Itchy and Scratchy Saturday

It's another big Saturday around our house as both Itchy and Scratchy showcase their talent in varied competition today.

Itchy is playing basketball again today as the undefeated Shamrock team is on the court again, and Scratchy’s Techno Tadpole FLL team is competing in the state finals to see who goes to Atlanta to represent Michigan.

You may remember from last week that our tadpoles qualified for the state finals and this week they are at it again. The Technology Tadpoles invaded the Rock Financial Showplace hoping to get their feet wet and improve upon their “gauntlet” best score. Scratchy has been learning to pilot the robot this week and she has done well enough to make a pass at the gauntlet. This week the Tadpoles take on 50 other teams in hopes of qualifying for nationals. On a good note we got a whole extra half hour of sleep this week as the state meet didn’t start as early as last week. (6 am) As I’m typing this the Tadpoles are in the judging rooms going over the technical aspect of their robot and research. This should be a good boost of confidence for them as this is also where they scored the best last week.

It seemed that they did fairly well during the judging and we hope that this will help them with their overall completion. It’s off to the Gauntlet. Scratchy is piloting the first run of the Mutant Cricket. That’s what the kids are calling the robot.

The Mutant Cricket had some issues with the first run and didn’t compete as well as it was doing during practice. This puts the Tadpoles behind the 8 ball. After the run, the kids check the program to make sure there isn’t anything wrong with it. It checks out and their off to for the second run. During the second run, it didn’t the Mutant Cricket doesn’t fare any better and only picks up a few points.

We eat lunch and it’s time to split the parent team capabilities… I take Itchy to the basketball game while my wife keeps cheering Scratchy team on at the State meet.

Itchy is starting again and her team looks confident. They start off slow with not many of them playing any defense while two of the Shamrocks have some nagging injuries that they are playing through. Lucky for them the other team can’t seem to find the basket and at the end of the first quarter they are tied 0 – 0…
During the second quarter the second team comes in and at least they find the basket, but the other team finds the basket more. As halftime approaches they are down 10 – 4. Starting the second half the Shamrocks start on a roll as they pick up the pace and start to cut into the lead with a few minutes left in the game they tie the game at 12. At this point, they seem to run out of gas and their composure and end up loosing the game 18 - 14. Itchy played well…

We head off to see the end of the FLL State meet. As we walk into the arena, there is load music blaring and all of the teams are line dancing to it. When the music stops, the teams head into the stands and the closing ceremonies get started. The arena looks like a bowl of M & M’s with all the different colors scattered about the stands. The competition is scored on 4 different categories…. Technical, Project, Team Spirit, Teamwork and The Gauntlet. As each category was revealed, five teams were nominated and a prize was trophy was given for first and second place. Our Tadpoles were nominated for both the Team Sprit and Teamwork awards and won the Teamwork competition.

Unfortunately for the Tadpoles their robot just ran into programming issues and didn’t perform as well as the team expected… what can you expect when you name it the Mutant Cricket?

So Itchy and Scratchy learned valuable lessons today. Sometime, it just doesn’t matter how well you plan and practice, you just never know how well you’re going to perform. Great job kids, I’m real proud of you.

Tigers Heat Up Detroit

The Winter Baseball meetings are over and the team that made the biggest splash is none other then the local team from Detroit. The Tigers made a HUGE deal during the meetings, acquiring LHP Dontrelle Willis and 3B Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins in exchange for RHP Burke Badenhop, RHP Eulogio De La Cruz, RHP Dallas Trahern, LHP Andrew Miller, C Mike Rabelo and OF Cameron Maybin.

So what makes this deal so huge? The Tigers gave up the two promising players and an untouchable players on their 40-man roster.

The Mariners got Andrew Miller, who is a left hander that is not in the traditional left hander mold. He throws in the high 90’s and has explosive movement at the plate. He was named the second-best prospect and rated as possessing the best slider in the Tigers organization following the season by Baseball America.

Eulogio De La Cruz is a relief pitcher that has major league ability. In 2006, he was named the sixth-best prospect and rated as possessing the best fastball and curve ball in the Tigers organization following the season by Baseball America. Remember that Joel Zumaya is still part of the Tiger organization and he hits 100+ mph on a regular basis.

The jewel of the trade was Mr. Untouchable… Cameron Maybin. He was named the top prospect in the Tigers organization and second-best prospect in the Midwest League following the season by Baseball America. Maybin has all the tools and is borrowing a few tools from Neifi Perez. In the encyclopedia under can’t miss there's a picture of him. In 2006 the Tigers, just off a run at the World Series, had a chance to add Alfonso Soriano to their team for Maybin straight up and the Tigers didn’t pull the trigger on the deal. He has been compared to Ken Griffy Jr. and Vlad Gerrero for his combination of speed and power. The Marlins got a gem with him.

So what did the Tigers get in return for all this talent? They got arguably the two best players in their prime from the Florida Marlins… period.

What the Tigers gave up is three young potential all stars for two young current all starts. Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera are only 25 and 24 years old. It’s not as if they are going to be filling for Social Security anytime soon. Miguel has comparable numbers to A-Rod in his first five years of being in the big league. Just think how potent he is going to be when he gets the protection in front of him and behind him in the batting order. In Florida, he was the man and most teams pitched around him. You’re just not going to be able to do that with the slew of bats that are swung by guys like Gary Sheffield, Edgar Renteria, Magglio Ordóñez, and Carlos Guillén.

The D-Train brings with a lot of heat. Dontrelle will blend right into the Tigers rotation as he gobbles up 200+ innings. Even with his sub par year last year he still has a 68-54 win loss record with a 3.78 ERA. Remember this guy is only 25 and he will get a lot of help with his former catcher Iván Rodríguez.

Welcome to the D D-Train and Miguel you should fit in nicely.

Top Ten Good Things about Downsizing

1. It’s easy to find great parking spots in the morning.
2. Bathroom stalls are never full.
3. You don’t have to say good morning thirty times before you get to your desk.
4. Lunch lines are short.
5. Plenty of seats left in the meeting rooms.
6. Able to swap out your broken desk chair with the guy that was just let go.
7. Plenty of Diet Coke in the vending machine.
8. Extra bagel on Friday.
9. It’s easier to decide where to go for lunch.
10. At the end of the day you can easily find your car in the parking lot.

New Feature Added To Zotime

Check out the little feature added to the links. The link is provided by GasBuddy.com and all you have to do is type in any zip code to find the cheapest gas in that area. Very useful in these times and best of all it works and it's free.

If you have a cool website that you want to share leave a comment.

200.6

Why do we gain weight each year during the holidays? That has been the question that a lot of us have tried to solve. There are a lot of research that concluded that there are a number of factors that go into our weight gain.

Each year millions of us gain anywhere between 3 – 7 pounds and we wonder what happened? The answer is simple… the holidays are meant to be fun. They are filled with going to friends houses and eating and drinking in excess and so our waistlines expand. But there’s more… we get bombarded at work as well. Your coworker comes into the office bearing some treat that their wife or mother has just concocted. They ask you if you want a slice and we are obligated to give it a try. A few minutes later someone else walks by with brownies or a batch of holiday cookies and we put on a few more hundred calories. You walk to the office of a coworker and they have a jar full of Hershey’s kisses on their desk. While you stand there and talk, you eat one or two… or three what the heck their small. Then let’s not forget the office party. Here is where we really see the slacks starting to fit snug around our waists. We give this a try and that a try and the next thing you know is that you’ve eaten enough for a week while just walking around the party and talking with coworkers. And just in case you don’t eat enough at the party you wash it down with that delectable tasting concoction of eggs, whipping cream, sugar and rum, better known as eggnog.

This is culminated with the holiday meal. This smorgasbord of culinary creativity is only compounded by the fact that we seem to attend three of these all you can eat buffets during one week. For Pete’s sake, is there a way we can spread out some of these eating frenzies so that our bodies can cope? By the end of the holidays, I feel like I have a good shot at some of those competitive eating events. I mean, who wouldn’t like to take a shot at Sonya Thomas’s record of 11 pounds of cheesecake eaten in 9 minutes?

So in closing I wish you a healthy and happy holiday. Oh, by the way, the 200.6 is my weight only two weeks into the holiday season I’m half way to my five pounds already. Yikes!

Who's Hotter

This is a simple little poll that I'm conducting.
The question is simple... which Jessica is hotter?

Biel or Alba

Tadpoles Take Over Town

This morning The Technology Tadpoles are in Monroe for their first competition.... and I'm blogging remotely for the first time.

I know what your saying... what the heck is a Technology Tadpole, where the heck is Monroe, and why are they there? The answer is quite simple... Scratchy is a team member for a First Lego League.

First Lego League (FLL) is a robotics program that stimulates science in kids ages 9 to 14. Each year FLL teams are faces with a new challenge that the kids have to solve using technology, science and their skills. The team is guided by a few adults and a few high school students. The kids then research and solve a real-world problem based on the Challenge theme, present their research and solutions. Finally they build a robot using engineering concepts out of Legos and an electronic engine that moves the robot and actuates arms to complete tasks.

Monroe High School is where the competition is being held at this year. I remember Monroe High well from when I was in High School. They weren’t our biggest rival, (that honor was reserved to crosstown rival Edsel Ford) but they were the only team within our division that were our equals. Luckily enough for me, we never lost to them in Football, but they had a much better Swim Team and the other sports were evenly divided. Anyhow... enough about that.

So the kids came down to Monroe to not only show off their skill, but hopefully also score well enough to move on to the state tournament. I give Scratchy a lot of credit; even while spending what amounts to a minimum of ten hours a week since the beginning of the school year doing FLL, she has maintained her grades and is really enjoying what she is doing. This experience has been immeasurable. The things that she has learned (teamwork, leadership, science, robotics, competition, etc.) she will carry with her for years.

As I write this 10:53 am, The Tadpoles have completed their practice run and they were the seventh best team and are about to start their first run....

... Things didn't turn out to well for our little Tadpoles as the big bucking Broncos came in to stomp the competition. The Tadpole robot design is build for speed but it is predicated on the run going flawless. I know what your saying when has anything run flawlessly...yep your right... things don't run flawlessly, but hey, I didn't design or build the robot the kids did. So halfway thought the first round and the Tadpoles are in the middle of the pack. Their run was fast but they had problems finishing some of the requirements which cost them points. The good news is that they have a second shot at the run later on. One of the mentors, let's call her Lesley said that "the robot was real fast, but it wasn't so accurate."

Now it is off to the presentation. The Tadpole presentation is based on an academy awards show where the different energy saving ideas square off against each other. The idea is great and their presentation is polished and looks high tech and the information that they present is exact. Unfortunately, we can't go into the auditorium, but I will get a first impression when they walk out of the auditorium.... One of the watchers stated that they were incredible. That's a good signs for this portion of the competition.

Next up is the technical judging followed up by the teamwork section and the competition ends with a second run of the gauntlet (which is what I’ve dubbed it)

Unfortunately my laptop battery life is starting to dwindle and this post is getting long. I'll update you all as to their final place in the competition.

Update #1 The Tadpoles finished the first round of “The Gauntlet” in twelfth place out of twenty teams.

Update #2 The Tadpoles improve on "The Gauntlet" but so did everyone else. They finished sixteenth overall. The great news is that they did so fabulous on everything else that they qualified for the state tournament. They even took the top spot in the programming and showed excellence in all the judging event.