Quick post Saturday

Not much to post today. Have a couple of links to post, and I may add more throughout the day. Hope everyone is doing well.

• An AP article about the world's last ninja, Grand Master Masaaki Hatsumi.
• Ever wanted to change jobs, but would really like to "try before you buy"? You may be ablwe to.
• Chicago Bears Draft Central
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers Draft Central

Death of the Dream

Before I move on to the subject of today's post, I just want to point out that I've finally activated my homepage link over there on the left. My homepage is really what I would consider a "beta" at this point, but I wanted to activate it so people can at least look at some of my vacation photo albums. I recommend the galleries of Japan 2005 and California 2003.

Death of the Dream

For those of you that know me, you know that I like all kinds of sports. Back, oh, about 10 or so years ago a friend of mine, Don Bolton, got me to go out bowling with him. I wasn't very good then, but we were both extremely competitive so it became a kind of competition between us. We started meeting up every Thursday night at a local bowling alley, Tampa Lanes, and we would bowl a couple of games before going home. Before long, we had most of our friends coming along with us and it became a kind of excursion. Not everyone bowled, but we were all there together to have fun and enjoy each others company. It pretty much became tradition that we would all meet up for bowling Thursday night at Tampa Lanes, and this continued until we all dispersed out to college and on with our lives.

Once I had graduated from UF and moved back to Tampa, I joined with a new group of friends and it wasn't too long before I brought back the bowling tradition. Just like before, not everyone bowled. It became a chance to catch up with people you may only get to see that one time a week, since we all worked now and didn't see each other in school. It would be rare that you would not see the likes of myself, X, Badstar, JerseyStrangler and others at Tampa Lanes on a Thursday. In fact, I think in the last 5 years I may only have missed about 10-15 bowling nights. On our best night of attendance I think we had about 12 people and we had taken over 4 lanes. Some might consider this sad, but I've been to Tampa Lanes for so long they reserve lanes for me on Thursday nights (without me even asking) and I know most of the staff on a first-name basis. But as time has passed, people have gotten busier and busier and now pretty much no one is left to join me on Thursday nights. I would stop going, but I have promised myself that as long as I stay in Tampa I will continue to be there on Thursdays. But the times of getting the my whole gang of friends out there, they seem like a dream. So much, that I adapated a Tenacious D sketch for the end of this rant. I've already gone through all the stages. Anger, Denial, Door-to-door Rocking, Temp Job, and finally Acceptance.

The whole bowling mythos is a lie! It'll lead you nowhere. It's like when you believe in the Easter Bunny or the Sasquatch. Let the dream die! LET THE DREAM DIE!

Let it die ...

Links, links and more links

Just a quick post today. Some links to sites or stories that piqued my interest. Most of these were pulled right from Slashdot, so if the links don't work you can always look there.

• NASA has launched a new educational site targeting children in kindergarten through fourth grade.
• Listing of Firefox extensions, hacks and keyboard command guide. Geared towards the average power user and web developer.
• The International Herald Tribune is reporting that the European Space Agency is planning to send a spacecraft to peer at Venus.

Also, that Gaineville landmark known as Burrito Brothers opened their new location here in Tampa, FL. I was there at opening, of course, to make sure things tasted just like I remembered. Everything tasted great. Some poor-looking camera pics from the store below.

Stronger, faster, better

So, this week was not unlike any other but I had a pretty bad Wednesday. My day at work seemed to really put me in a poor mood, and I found myself getting annoyed pretty easily with pretty much anything. I went to the gym after work, hoping that I could work out some frustrations. But it seems that I was fated to have a bad day overall. I went to the Blitz, and it was time for my monthly weigh-in. I had been doing decent in reducing body fat % since I started in January, but Wednesday was simply not my day. I weighed in at 179 lbs. which was 5 lbs. heavier that what I had been. My body fat % had ballooned back up to 22.4% from 20.8%. This was worse that what it was when I started! With the way the day had gone so far, I was not too surprised that my scores were bad so I didn't hang my head or leave or anything. I worked out like always, and pretty much resigned myself to living through a bad day and getting a new start the next morning. But I'll tell you, inside I was pissed off! I had a goal in mind with my workouts and now I had just suffered a major setback. I'm not giving up, nowhere near that. I am thinking of ways to change my routine (thinking that my body may have gotten use to my workout regiment), planning on eating healthier (wasn't eating that bad to begin with, and hadn't made any eating changes in the last month, but why not be a little more diligent), and maximizing my efforts during my workouts. We'll see how I do in this next month.

2006 NCAA National Champions

Gators 73 -- UCLA 57

UF, 2006 National Champions!

Bleeding Orage & Blue

Well, you get busy for a while and come back to find new posts on your own blog. But, that's OK since I was the one who gave Ms. Ammy access. And Jack is pretty cute ...

So, I figured I would write a little bit about this past weekend while I sit here and watch the NCAA Basketball Championship between UF and UCLA. Actually, I can't concentrate on this post too much as I can't stop watching the Gators playing in this Championship Game.

Anyway, I had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday I invited a bunch of friends from work and personal life over for a game party. People started showing up around 18:30 that evening and I think the last group of people left about 01:00 on Sunday (before adjusting for Daylight Saving Time). X made plenty of food and drinks for everyone to enjoy. I am happy to say that everyone enjoyed themselves the entire night. The main attraction to the party were all the different games available for people to play. In the living room, we had the Xbox360 and PS2 going with SoulCalibur III, Dead or Alive 4, Fight Night Round 3, and Rumble Roses XX. Some of our friends (who aren't all that in to playing video games) brought some board games (like Trivial Pursuit and Cranium). For those of us playing video games, I think the game of the night would have to have been Fight Night. Challenges were issued, battles were fought and feelings were hurt. It was a great night!

... Commercial break, Gators 34 -- UCLA 22 ...

Sunday I joined my good friends to watch Wrestlemania 22. Yeah, I know. Professional wrestling? But it brings us all together for one or two nights a month where we all eat some dinner and relax and have a good time.

... Halftime, Gators 36 -- UCLA 25 ...

Oh, saw the greatest "This is Sportscenter" commercial a couple of nights ago and found it up on YouTube. Go check it out.