9

So, it's my son's 9th birthday today. I say this every year, but it is crazy that I have a 9 year old son. I still remember finding out that I was going to be a father, I still remember that Nell was the first person that we told, and calling my parents. I remember going into the hospital an Trevor being born...and watching the olympics with the doctor.

I remember taking him on walks through our old neighborhood, and playing at the park. We would go to the museum at the University and sit and look at the exhibits. It was nice having the varied schedule, and getting to spend full days with him during the week. One of the perks of being in college and having a baby.

I remember dropping him off at day care, and him crying.

I remember that feeling of being proud of him, maybe for a good grade or when he did something really nice for someone without being asked.

Being 9 means he is halfway to 18. I look forward to just as many memories in the coming 9.

Chickens everywhere cower in terror...

So most of you have probably seen this by now, but I still find it hilarious. FYI, video not safe for work.



For those of you that didn't catch it, the anchor tells the weather guy to, "Keep F#@$ing that chicken." Which makes no sense. Here are some of my favorite parts.

1. The weather man then says, "Okay I'll do that." Then shrugs like I have no idea what is going on. I am sure later he realized he agreed to. Which based on the statement means he has been F@#$ing a chicken, since he was told to keep doing it.

2. The other Anchors face is priceless.

3. If you listen to the rest of it, the Anchor starts commenting on the tease for the next story, about his co-anchor working out. She finally jut has to stop her tease because her time is up.

4. The first line the anchor gives is fairly funny as well, "It takes a tough man to give a tender forecast Nick." Just a bunch on nonsense.

All very funny stuff.

Top 5 D-Bag

So I have noticed a lot of really classy moements by some people in the public eye as of late, so I thought I would roll out another top 5 list, of some recent Douche Bags.

So in no particular order.

1. Kanye West. Now I used to like Kanye. He has done some crazy things in the past (I don't think Mike Meyers will ever be the same)but his crazy antics have gone to far. At the recent VMA's, Taylor Swift won some award (honestly does anyone even care? Which makes what Kanye is about to do even more douchey). In the middle of her speech Kanye takes the stage, takes the mike from her, and says that Beyonce should have won the award. Talor Swift is like 19, and just won her first VMA. She is trying to say her thank you's, and she has this D Bag, taking the mike and telling her someone else should have won. Now Kanye has done this before, but it was when he lost, not someone else. Hopefully he is left off award show invite lists from now on.



2. Joe Wilson. Have you heard about this guy. No? Here is a clip.



That guy you heard yelling "You Lie" Is currently a member of the House of Representatives, and a Republican. He decided that it was a good idea to heckle the President of the United States during a nationally televised speech. Now you may not always agree with the president, heck I disagreed with most everyhing the previous administration did. I would have the tact not to call him a liar during a speech though.

3. Serena Williams. Unless you watch a lot of sports coverage you may not have seen this one, or know who Serena Williams is. She is a very accomplished Womens Tennis Player. Argueably the best of the last 10-15 years. In a recent match she let out this tirade.



So, Serena was called for a foot fault, and decided to essentially tell the line judge that called it she was going to shove the ball down her throat. Classy. The kicker is that for her outburst she was assesed a point penalty, which cost her the match.

4. Michael Crabtree. So this is a football player, who was drafted by the SF 49ers. Going into the draft a lot of people said he was a high matinence, a PrimaDonna. Instead of coming in and working hard, he has refused to sign a contract. He is asking to be paid as if he were drafted in the top 5 spots in the draft, why you ask, because many Mock Drafts had him going in the top 5. Trouble is, he was drafted #10. In the NFL paying a draftee is fairly straight forward. You get less than the person before you, and more than the person after you. Crabtree has said he will sit out the year, and enter the draft again next year. Now while most of us would love to play a profesional sport a a career and get paid millions to do it. This guy is willing to sit out, not get paid, because his feelings go hurt. What a role model.

5. Jay Leno. So he hasn't really done anything lately to deserve this, but I really don't like Jay Leno. I really hate that he is taking up 5 hours of Prime Time TV this upcoming season. 5 hours that could have given us the next LOST, Office, or How I Met Your Mother. The 30 minute Comedy has been dying out for some time, and if I see another CSI, NCIS, or Law and Order spin off I might punch someone. Now we've got Jay, taking over the air. My fear is that people are going to watch, and next year CBS will give some crappy talking head 5 hours of airtime, then ABC and FOX.

Remembering...

I have spent time today, remembering 8 years ago. I'm not sure if it is because Sophia is the exact age Trevor was when 9/11 occur ed, or if the memory is starting to fade into snapshots, so I want to fight to hold onto what I remember of that day.

Eight years ago, I was a Junior in college. Trevor was almost 1, and Mandy and I had been married that summer. I woke up that morning, and remember heading to the basement to check my email, among other things. I went to SI.com, and remember seeing what I know now was a picture of smoke pouring out of the Twin Towers, the planes had just hit. I was interested into how the Brewers did the night before. A large smoking building didn't register with me. I went upstairs, and we had turned on toon Disney or Nickelodeon for Trevor. It was one of the only channels that was not covering what happened. I went on that morning for quite some time, oblivious to events that would change our country forever.

Not until our sitter showed up and made mention that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. We were on our way to class, but I remember speculating that it must have been a small personal plane. It had happened before, but I didn't think much of it.

In the car on the way to class, the world now knew that both towers had been hit by planes, the local radio station had switched over to one of the national affiliates for coverage.

I remember I had a Poli Sci class with Professor Reily. He gave us the option of having class or watching coverage. We unanimously chose to watch coverage. This was around the time the towers fell. It was hard to comprehend, I remember seeing just a huge cloud of smoke/dust, and the reporters saying that the towers had fell.

At this point you start realizing that this was not an accident, that this was something planned. Reports of the plane hitting the Pentagon started coming out, along with reports of another missing plane. You start to wonder if you knew anyone flying that day, and worse, what was going to get hit next.

I doubt anyone had class that day, but most of my classes were full. It's like people didn't want to sit and watch coverage alone. Everyone's confidence/faith was shaken.

The largest room in the Comm building had a large projector screen TV, and there was a constant stream of traffic in and out of it. People would stop in and get filled in on what new info had come out.

How many were missing?

How many people are they saying were in the buildings?

A plane went down in Pennsylvania?

Was it terrorists?

I hear gas prices are going up?

Have we retaliated yet?

I think people wanted to ask, more than they wanted answers.

I went to work at Rogans, we had very few people come in, but it gave us time to speculate as to what happened. My theory was that the pilots were working for the terrorists, that the plot had been in the works for years. No way would a pilot be forced to fly into the buildings.

We stood in front of the store and watched the line for gas form, and stretch down the road.

We wondered if we should go over and buy supplies at the grocery store.

None of us had been through anything like this, so none of us knew how to act. I think in the back of our heads we thought of war time, air raids, rations.

Being in college allowed me to stay up all hours of the night. Being a Comm major, it fascinated how long the networks went without breaking for a commerical, and how many channels were showing coverage. You could flip through the channels and 9 times out of 10 land on coverage of the attacks.

I remember the nation coming together. We were all just citizens for those few days. No Republicans or Democrats, nobody leaned let or right, we all stood up together against the unknown.

I want to remember this day, and remember the unity that it gave us. As a nation we have moved far from that unity. I hope that one day we can come together again, I just hope it doesn't take a disaster to do it.

Early Draft

I have been forwarded an early draft of a rebuttal to the upcoming Obama speech to students, to be given next week Tuesday. Enjoy

Students, Teachers, Parents, most of you have just listened to President Obama, and his message to the youth of America. You heard him discuss the merits of staying in school, working hard, and getting good grades. He told you of the work he put in to get accepted in college, and the rewards he has reaped from a good education.

My friends, I am here to tell you today, that you don't have to listen to this Democratic rhetoric. All too long, they have bemoaned the merits of a good education. They have labored on how one must pay attention in class, study at night, and if at all possible pursue an education beyond the 13 years that you are already forced to go through.

My friends, I am here to tell you that they challange that President Obama laid before you, will be a set up to failure for most of you. The democrats idea of education has become misplaced over the years. It is time we as a country took a stand to change this.

I remember sitting on my Grandparents porch, my friends, and listening to my Grandfather talk about how he decided that after his second day of fourth grade, that school wasn't for him. He spent the next six years pretending to go off to school, but instead he would sneak down to the local trout stream, and spend his day fishing. Now some of you may be thinking that how can a man with a limited education go on to be somebody. My friends, I stand here before you today, to tell you of the success my Grandfather made for himself, a success that was not learned in a book or a class room. He went on to win the Winchester County Trout Fish Off, three times in his life. THREE TIMES! Those are lessons learned on the banks of the stream of life, not in the classroom my friends. Don't let the Democrats and their socialist agenda stop you from finding your Trout Stream.

My friends, as I travel the country I see many people, who have overcome the chains put on them to learn in a formal school setting, achieve greatness. I met a gentleman in Randolph, Nebraska, who has made quite a nice business for himself, even though he never graduated High School. Thousands of people stop at his general store each month, and have their picture taken next to Nebraska's largest ball of twine. After deciding that his conservative viewpoints were not being appreciated in our countries liberal school system, he went to work bailing hay at a local farm. At times throughout the day, the twine would get stuck in the bailer, since he had not yet reached manhood, it was his job to climb into the machinery, cut and restring the twine. Not wanting to leave the twine in the field, he would ball it up and put it in his pocket. Each day when he got back to his trailer, he would put the twine from the day, in a pile on his dining/living/bedroom table. After six months or so the pile was so big it starting spilling over into his den/bathroom/library. He realized he needed to do something with it, so he balled it up and put it in his yard. One morning on his way to the farm, he noticed a bus of tourists had stopped and was standing in his yard as people took turns having their picture taken in front of it. As they left, they gave him a $20 bill. From there his dream was born.

While I respect President Obama, I am against this notion that we have a one size fits all education system. Each child should have a choice as to how they pursue their dreams, they shouldn't be force fed into the book and paper system that the Obama administration is pushing on the kids of America. A class room is not the only place to learn, and a teacher is not the only person who can teach.

My friends, I encourage you to sit down as family's tonight. Discuss the merits of studying hard. Talk about your experiences with reading, riting, and rithmatic, and if at the end of the day if really got you anything. Is knowledge really power?

Book learning may have helped President Obama reach his place of power, a power that I feel he misused today. If the previous administration showed us anything though, it showed us that it does not take a high level of intellect to reach the office of President.

Thank you my friends, and God bless America!

Methane

So I am taking part in a Leadership program here in Portage County. There is a group of appx 26 other community members in the program. Each month we get together to learn about different areas of industry in our community, and different leadership strategies/qualities/ideas.

Today's program focused on the history of Portage County and Agriculture. We toured the county, lead by a member of the local historical society. It is amazing to learn about all the history that our county has.

I learned about the polish community that came to Stevens Point, how one man helped move over 1000 families to the area. I visited a church in a small community outside of town that Pope John Paul II visited while he was a Cardinal. Toured a Griss mill, and got to see a china set, where each plate is now worth an estiated $500.

I also toured a Mega Farm. It was a lot different from the farms of my friends from High School. This farm was currently milking around 700 cows. They run 24 hours a day, doing three milkings. They have 7 employees that handle the milking, and they have an amazingly simple process and set up.

They also have a manure digester, the first one of it's kind in the state. This machine turns manure into methane gas, which helps power their farm. They also put energy back into the grid, enough to run 100 homes. Here is where I learned that the manure needs to be kept at 100 degrees in order to produce bacteria, which produces the best methane.

This digester also puts out fertilizer for the fields, and bedding for the cows.

A funny exchange took place today, after a question on breeding.

Farmer: When looking at breeding cows, we look for the ones with the best legs and hooves and healthy udders.

Guy in the crowd: So just like the rest of us.

It was very interesting listening to the farmer talk about the politics of farming, and his views on restrictions put on him because he is a Mega Farm, which are not put on smaller farms.

We are going to have the chance to tour an organic farm, where I assume I am going to get a very different point of view.

Anyway, the moral of this story is, is that I had a very fun day, and got to get back together with a great group of people.

I highly encourage you to see if the community you live in has a similar program, and look into it. If it is anything like this program, you won't be disappointed.