I’m a ref. A lot of the guys (and girls) go out for drinks after the day’s games are over but I’ve never come across anyone who drank before. Sometimes the fans drive you to want to drink. Maybe this guy was just trying to beat them to the punch.
Playlist: @ Big D Radio – WOKI 91.4
Artist – Song – Album
This song always makes me want to move. I couldn’t move all that much this morning though. I would have fell over and busted my butt in the shower. I was dancing in my head though. Believe that.
I miss this Mariah. The sweet, wholesome acting, clothes wearing Mariah. This is Mariah before she got all diva-fied. The new Mrs. Nick Cannon
needs to go back to her roots. And put on some clothes.
I’ve slept on this album for a long time. Last month I rediscovered it on iTunes. After reading numerous positive comments I decided to give it a listen. It’s very good. Not quite as good as her best album so far, Never Say Never, but it’s not bad at all. I think the discovery that Timbaland did a lot of the beats on the album helped swing my opinion of it. I guess I just wasn’t ready for it when it first came out. It’s a different sound from Brandy but now that I’ve had 5 more years of music listening under my belt (and a new found love of all things Timbaland [musically at least]) I think I was ready to be open my mind to a different kind of Brandy album.
This isn’t an Is It Just Me that I came up with but I think it’s a pretty good one and rather appropriate with the pinnacle of the NBA season, the NBA Finals, starting tonight.
Is it just me or do Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks) and Emperor Commodus look like they could be brothers?
The Super Bowl starts in a couple of hours. It’s the pinnacle of achievement in the world of football. Millions upon millions of people in the United States and around the world will gather around their television sets to witness the spectacle. This year’s audience will get to see something that has never happened before. Today’s game features the first two African American coaches to ever coach in the Super Bowl. Some people have and will try to underplay the significance of that statement but it truly is important. It proves once again that given the opportunity members of our race can not only get by but can excel and thrive.
When I was younger I dreamed of my dad coaching in college and eventually in the NFL. He coached high school football for 28 years. He was a head coach for more than 15 of those. He’s retired now and I’ve learned that he never really aspired to coach above the high school level. What’s sad is that if he had aspired to that he may have never really had the chance to do so. In the grand scheme of life today’s achievement may seem insignificant but in the day to day life of a child somewhere it could prove the catalyst to prompt them to say I too can do what Coach Dungy and Coach Smith have done.
In order for that child to get the opportunity to do what these two men are doing today more things need to change in the coaching profession. Currently only 5 out of the 119 schools in NCAA Div. IA football have black coaches. That stat is even worse in the other 3 divisions. As in any profession a person has to have a coaching resume in order to have an opportunity on the sport's largest stage. For many, though not all, coaching in college is the gateway to getting an opportunity in the NFL. Today those opportunities are few and far between.
The NFL is making strides to correct this discrepancy. The NCAA has a long way to go. Hopefully today’s game will be the next step in the progression that will allow that little child to follow in Coach Dungy’s and Coach Smith’s footsteps.
via Jason
1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year).
3. List three events that happened on your birthday.
4. List two important birthdays and one interesting death.
5. List any holidays
6. Post it.
February 26 – 3 Events + A Bonus
1993 – World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand. The buildings would be destroyed in a subsequent attack on September 11, 2001.
1936 – In the February 26 Incident, young Japanese military officers attempt to stage a coup against the government.
1991 – Tim Berners-Lee introduces WorldWideWeb, the first web browser.
1995 – at The Houston Astrodome Selena Quintanilla-Perez performed in her last concert before she was killed. More than 64,000 fans were in attendance making it the astrodome’s largest crowd at the time.
February 26 – 2 Important Births and 1 Interesting Death
Births
1928 – Fats Domino, American musician
1932 – Johnny Cash, American singer (d. 2003)
Honorable MentionÂ
1829 – Levi Strauss, German-born clothing designer (d. 1902)
1971 – Erykah Badu, American singer
1973 – Marshall Faulk, American football star
 Death
1813 – Robert Livingston, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1746)
February 26 – Holidays
Bahá’à Faith – February 26, Day 1 of Ayyám-i-Há (Intercalary Days) – days in the Bahá’à calendar devoted to service and gift giving.
Nation of Islam – Savior’s Day – commemoration of the birthdate of Wallace Fard Muhammad, believed to be Allah in human form, the saviour of the black race.
Liberation Day in Kuwait (1991).
Recovering from surgery is hard work. It’s work that for the most part I haven’t put in yet. I worked hard for the first couple of months after surgery but have become a lazy bum since my formal rehab ended.
Sometimes I wish I had the unlimited resources that Donovan McNabb has. He tore his ACL this past weekend. As a member of the Philadelphia Eagles he’ll have the best of medical and rehab care money can buy to help him down the road to recovery. I on the other hand have limited resources. I had to stop rehab because my insurance only pays 80% of rehab costs. That other 20% adds up fast.
My knee is fine for regular day to day activities but nowhere near where it needs to be for me to play soccer again even if it is just on a recreational basis. Spring of ‘07 was my target for getting back on the field. It’s looking like I’ll need to push that target back. We’ll see.
I’m not a huge baseball fan. Regular season games are extremely boring unless experienced in person and the season is too darn long. That being said I love playoff baseball… IF the Yankees are playing.
I’ve been a Yankees fan since I received my first baseball card back in the mid-80’s. My friend Mike helped me start my collection with some extra cards he didn’t want. I had no clue which teams played where so he figured why not start me out with the two teams in the biggest market of the all, New York. Mike gave me all his extra Topps 1986 Mets cards so I’d have an NL team and the 86 Yankees so I’d have an AL one. Being an avid baseball fan, Mike felt that would give me a good start on my way into the world of baseball and baseball cards. I never really became an avid baseball fan but that even did spark my longtime interest in the mighty Yanks.
Fast forward to present times. My beloved Yanks seem to
be in disarray. This time last week I was looking forward to another post season. Another chances for the Yankees to redeem themselves and climb back to the top of the mountain. By Saturday evening I was depressed because yet again their trip to the big dance was a practice in futility.
I’m not sure what the answer is. Firing Joe Torre isn’t the answer. He’s a good manager. Trading A-Rod isn’t the answer either. I don’t think throwing more money at the problem is the fix either. Maybe some team building exercises in the off season are in order. Torre and the boys could go do a ropes course or something. All the corporate muckity mucks do it.
With the Yanks exit comes the end of my post season baseball viewing. I don’t care how may Tommy Lassorda commercials they air. I’m not really a baseball fan so why watch when the only team I care about is no longer in it? I’ll focus my attention on the NFL, College Football, and the upcoming NBA season.
Goodbye baseball. I’ll see you next October when my Yanks give the playoffs another go.
* Thought I’d post an email I put together yesterday to family and friends about my injury and current condition. Kind of tired of answering people’s questions one by one. How many times can you explain a ligament exploding in your knee? I’ve gotten a lot of “I bet that hurt a lot.†Um… yeah. Don’t take this as lack of appreciation for people’s concern. I know it’s heartfelt. Two weeks of it (will be 3 by the time I have my surgery) is just wearing on me.*
Lots of folks have been asking about my injury and when the surgery is happening so I thought I’d just make a big email and send it out to everyone instead of answering individually. Family folks who receive this please forward it to other family members not on this list. I don’t have anywhere near everybody’s address.
I tore the ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) in my right knee Tuesday before last (4/11/06) playing soccer. It was kind of a freak thing. I did a move I’ve done thousands of times since I started playing soccer (basically just planting my foot and making a cut). It just so happened my knee chose that time to give out. There was a lot of pain initially (a lot of pain) and for the next couple of days but since then it hasn’t really hurt that much. The doctor gave me pain meds (an anti-inflammatory and a heavy duty pain killer). I take the anti-inflammatory daily as prescribed but haven’t had to use the other medicine very much the last two weeks.
My sports medicine doctor initially diagnosed the injury as an LCL tear. That’s pretty rare (compared to MCL and ACL injuries) and based upon the type of motion I was making when the tear occurred I came to the conclusion that that wasn’t likely based upon the research I did online. She ordered an MRI to make sure. The results came back early last week and showed that I had a completely torn ACL. The sports medicine doctor referred to an orthopedic surgeon.
I had my consult with my surgeon yesterday (4/25/06). She went over the MRI pictures and laid out my options. Those were basically surgery or no surgery. No surgery would mean not having to get cut on and basically using medicine and rehab to try to strengthen my knee/leg as best as possible. That option wouldn’t ever repair the damage though. Since none of the tissue of the ligament is attached at all there’s nothing to grow back. That would be okay if I planned on living a fairly sedentary lifestyle for the rest of my life but I’m 29. I have a sedentary job but outside of work I’m very active. I need two working knees. Considering what the doctor had to say about that option I came to the conclusion that surgery would be my best option. I won’t get into details but I chose the surgery option which traditionally has a faster recovery time. Faster in this case is a fairly relative term. I’ll be back up and on my feet more quickly but as far as full recovery and a clean bill of health that will still be a long way off. My surgeon said she doesn’t even want me thinking about playing soccer for at least 6 months. That would put my return at the end of the Fall soccer season. I’ve been thinking about it and figure if I have to wait that long what’s a few more months so I’m setting my sights on getting back out on the field in Spring 2007. I’ll use the extra time to get in really good shape. I’ve lost a little over 50 pounds since the end of the Fall 05 soccer season. More will likely come off during rehab.
The doctor said surgery is the easy part. Rehab is where the real work comes in. They want me up and moving around a couple of days after surgery. Physical Therapy will start shortly there after. Dr. Palmeiri projects I’ll be out of commission 6 weeks. Maybe a little bit less depending on how well I respond to the therapy.
I’ll be attacking this like I’ve approached losing weight and getting back to playing soccer at the level I used to play this year. I’m going to go all out. Going all out at first won’t mean much because my leg and body won’t have much to give but if I keep working at it the strength will come back. The doctor said rehab goes much better if you have goals and work towards achieving them. If your only aim is to be off work with no real ambition to get better then rehab will go poorly and progress will be slow. Well my Mom and Dad didn’t raise me to be a knot on a log. I’m going to work as hard as I possibly can to get healthy again so I can a) get back to work b)get back on the soccer field and c) return to the more active lifestyle I’ve established for myself this year.
Please keep me in your prayers. God has given me peace about the surgery and whatnot so my fears and anxiety have started to subside in that area. Just pray that God gives me the strength to endure this process and come out on the other side a stronger person both physically and spiritually. I just spoke to my Mom who reminded me of Philippians 4:13 which says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I appreciate the prayers and concerns that have already been expressed for me and my family throughout this exciting yet trying year so far.
That’s the situation in a nutshell. I’ve been putting on a happy face for a while now trying to conceal the pain and discomfort but the energy it’s taking to do that and just walk around on 1 and a half legs has me really drained right now. I think I’m learning what the Bible means when it talks about depending totally and completely on God. I think I’ve prayed more in this last month or two than I probably had in the previous 6 months combined. It’s been an awesome year so far. I’ve experienced tremendous personal growth. This whole knee thing is just another step in that process. For those who read this and know me I hope it doesn’t discourage you from reaching out and contacting me. All I ask is that we not talk about this (meaning all this emotional blah you just read above). Let’s talk about fun stuff like World Cup 2006 or Nissan/Infiniti bringing the Skyline GTR to the States in 2007, or both my soccer teams kicking but in their respective divisions or fuzzy bunny slippers. Anything but my stupid knee and rehab and how much pain I’m in. The pains’ not that bad. I’ve got great legal drugs for that. I thank God daily for my brother, my parents, my girlfriend, my church family, my soccer team(s) and my coworkers. I don’t know what I’d do without them in my life.
Whoo! Haven’t done one of these in a while. A lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. I’ve have a girlfriend (Thank You Jesus!), found out my Mom doesn’t have cancer (Thank You Lord!) and I completely tore my ACL playing soccer (Ouch!). My highly recommended (on iLounge) but very cheap FM transmitter also decided to die in my car a couple days ago so there’s been no ipod listening in the car (bummer since I’ve been spending a lot of time in Ichiban lately) . Well this morning the groove was going so good as I left the house that I had to keep listening. So I drove to work with my headphones on (which, as my roommate likes to point out, is illegal). The ipod and I have been on point for close to 3 weeks now. It can do almost no wrong as far as picking songs I feel like hearing. Let’s take a look.
Playlist: @ Big D Radio – Go To List (Notice the name change. This is the same list as the old Morning Mix. Just a different title. It’s composed of 5 star rated songs from all genres not played within the last 3 days.)
Brazil’s World Cup Secret – Plenty of sex – So that’s the secret I’ve been missing all these years.
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