Bubble Gum Fun

My wife is helping out with the fall carnival at her school, and they all had to come up with some fun little games. She decided to do the old "Guess-How-Much-Candy-Is-In-The-Jar-And-You-Win-It-All" game, using Peanut M&Ms and Dubble Bubble gumballs. The jar said how many gumballs were inside, but you KNOW that the winner of the contest will invariably take the gumballs out and count them as soon as they win. (Kids are nutty.) So we had to count them. The M&Ms had to be counted anyway, as their packaging was a little more cryptic. Their contents were measured by weight (54 oz.), not quantity. I took the gumballs, and my wife took the M&Ms.

I poured the jar into a strainer, got out a plastic fork and started lifting them back into the jar. It probably wasn't the best idea as the gumballs kept rolling off the fork, but I wanted to be sanitary about the whole affair. Coincidentally, about halfway through this arduous chore, I looked over at my wife who was cooly and calmly counting her Peanut M&Ms WITH A SPOON. Dang. Why didn't I think of that?

I was curious to see how close the gumball count would be to the number printed on the label ("about 679"). When it was all said and done, the final count tallied 690 - 686 normal gumballs and 4 freaky ones (see image). That's an 11-gumball bonus!

Oh, and by the way, in case you ever need to convert English weights and measures to something more practical, 54 dry ounces equals 626 Peanut M&Ms. (That's approximately 11.5 per ounce.) Don't believe me? Count 'em yourself!

Our 2008 Pumpkins

Just found these on the camera and wanted to share:

Mine's the one on the left that appears to have been ran over by the tractor. Admittedly, they look better in the dark:

The End of an Era...*sniffle*

You may have noticed that my Touch-Tone Phone Song link was removed for a few days. It used to point to my phone song page that was housed on AOL Hometown until they turned off their server.

It was #1 (out of 67,200,000) on the results list on Google for "phone songs". Do you know how awesome that is? I was getting so many hits that my webcounter kept freaking out and would reset itself every couple of months.

I was regularly getting emails from people who thought the site was interesting, and had suggestions on songs. I even got an inquiry from Al with Froggy 98 FM in Lincoln, Nebraska asking if I could transcribe some Brad Paisley songs for a contest. I found links to my page on other pages, and even found the address listed in some Canadian government documents for interns (on the "just for fun" page).

But, as with all good things, it had to come to an end. Well, it didn't really HAVE to, I guess a global media and entertainment conglomerate like TimeWarner couldn't afford to host a little page like mine that was mostly text and three pictures. (Oh wait, one of those was an animated .gif, so I guess I can understand...NOT!!) Anyway, October 31 was the last day the site was available. The link now points to my page on GeoCities, which should last until Yahoo! goes bankrupt or ends up on the wrong side of a merger.

Coincidentally, my page was #2 on LiveSearch, #2 on DogPile, #9 on WebCrawler and #13 on Yahoo, but let's be honest...Google is by far the most popular. Man, this sucks! Curse you, TimeWarner!!

The 4 Aphorisms of Fantasy Trades

ALWAYS research the player you are trading for - a name alone is meaningless. This cannot be stressed enough!

NEVER let your trades hang for more than a week. You will forget about them.

NEVER offer a trade in the heat of frustration. The players you are mad at one week may become stars the next.

NEVER regret a bad trade. Interpret your foolishness and misfortune as a personal challenge.

As you can probably guess, this all started when I got mad at New England one week and sent a trade offer to a buddy of mine. I offered QB-Matt Cassel, WR-Randy Moss and RB-Edgerrin James all for RB-Reggie Bush. I was sick of Moss being hot/cold/hot/cold, so I figured I’d dump him for Bush. I added Cassel and James as extra incentive. Well, the trade didn’t get accepted right away, and I forgot about it. Moss had an awesome week, and my feelings changed. But I never remembered to retract the trade. So you can guess how “surprised” I was when I saw that my trade had been accepted! Add to that the fact that Reggie Bush is out with a concussion and not expected to return this season! It’s like I just dumped 3 good players for nothing. Now I've got to work my tail off to be competitive for the rest of the season.

So let my mistake be a lesson to you all...DON'T GET BLINDSIDED!!

Hail to the Cheif

I don't usually use this blog to discuss political affairs, but since the election is now over, I just thought I'd share some of my impressions of this historic event.

For weeks I was undecided, and exposed to rumors and emails about Obama's ideas and personal character. It’s funny – these actually made it easier for me to make the choice to support Obama. I felt like he was being discriminated against for coming from a non-traditional family, or being raised in another country. It seems that the hardest insult being thrown at Obama was that he was secretly a Muslim. What does it even matter if he was a Muslim? We have thousands of Muslims living and working in America that are going through the same struggles and hardships that we are. After seeing the group of people I would be lumped with as a McCain supporter, the choice became a little easier.

I also have to thank the Republican National Committee for helping me to choose Obama. In the last few weeks, I was receiving multiple emails every day from the RNC asking for donations to help defeat Obama. Those emails never mentioned Republican values or McCain’s proposed policies – just the idea that we must give as much as possible to keep Obama out of the White House. Clearly, they had nothing to positive to say about their own campaign.

So I voted for Obama. Me, a white, 30-year old Republican. 7 out of 10 voters in my county disagreed with me, and picked McCain over Obama. And now that the results are in, I am proud of my country, and proud of myself for voting the way I did and helping to usher in what looks to be a new way of doing things.

Obama motivated and inspired this country like never before. His words have given hope to all kinds of people, from ambivalent college kids who used to think their votes didn't matter, to jaded baby boomers who've become sick of voting for "the lesser of two evils." Obama seemed to create voting excitement for them all. Our governor, Charlie Christ, had to declare a state of emergency to extend early voting hours in Florida due to the long lines. And on November 4, polling places across the country were flooded with voters, many of whom were lining up around the block. I heard several stories of people who had voted in the same precinct for years and never had to wait – but yesterday they stood in line for an hour and a half. And you know what? They were happy. They were energized. They were glad to see new faces taking their right to vote seriously.

Obama encouraged these feelings across the country by challenging the notion that certain states will always vote Republican, so there’s no reason for Democrats to campaign in them. He visited locations that hadn’t seen a presidential candidate since the Civil War. And it worked. Virginia and Indiana haven't supported a Democratic candidate since 1964 - that was 11 elections and 44 years ago. Both went to Obama. He also took Florida without incident – and that's saying something! He made traditional Republican states into battleground states, and went on the offensive.

And it worked. Obama closed his victory speech with these words:

“This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can.”

And when it came to the Presidential Election of 2008 - yes, we did!

Skeeters: 2008 Fantasy Baseball Champions!!

Yeah!! I'm the 2008 Yahoo Fantasy Baseball World Series Champion in the Sallie Mae Sluggers league!! Right now I'm spraying e-champagne on my fantasy players and theoretically wearing my 2008 champions hat and t-shirt. We the best! Woo-hoo! Yeah! Skeeters '08, baby!

"I wasn't sure that it was gonna happen...halfway into the World Series matchup, I fell behind by a lot. But I started dropping and drafting pitchers daily, and my hitters came alive and made it happen for me. I want to thank each and every one of the 61 different players that helped me this year. We worked hard, we trained hard and it payed off!"

Not only do I get Fantasy Baseball bragging rights around work, but I also get this fatty trophy to put in my fantasy trophy case:

Whew! It was an exhausting seven-month ordeal, and I'm glad it's over. But by the time Spring Training rolls around, I'm gonna be jazzed about the new season, I just know it. From the pre-rankings and the draft right up to the end, it was a demanding game that required daily attention. And you know what? It was all worth it! Woo-hoo! Yeah!

Flute Beatboxing

This is Greg Patillo, flute beatboxer. I know it sounds ridiculous, but he rocks! He really gets into it at 30 seconds in. You can find him and other flute beatboxers on YouTube - just search for Flute Beatboxing. Actually, chances are you've probably already seen this video - it's had 15.2 million views!

There are some video clips that show him in what looks like Central Park jamming along with a rapper. If I saw them on the streets of New York, I would never get to where I was going because I would stand there and throw coins at them ALL DAY (I'm a fan, but I'm cheap).

Perfect Pick'Em

I've been playing College Pick'Em on ESPN.com since football season began. I've had some good weeks and some bad weeks, but on October 25 I had the perfect week - I picked all 10 winners!

The glory was short-lived however...last weekend I only got 4 of 10 right. *Sigh* Well, there's always next week!