Sunday, November 29, 2009

Can't ski yet..

It is the 29th of November and it got up to 70 degrees that isn't good for the prospects of an early ski season. Ski resorts around here and as far away as New York have pushed their opening days back. It looks like the end of this week, some ski areas should be able to make some snow. However, I don't see much being opened before the second week in December..at least in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Oh well, I have been pretty busy with writing, work, the other organizations I am involved in, and family so I guess I haven't missed to much time on the slopes. I really didn't get out on the slopes as much as I wanted to last season so I kind of want to make up for it this season.

Well I will keep everyone posted..

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Turkey Day Football

Ok, I published my thankful thanksgiving post in the wee hours..which blogger.com still called Wednesday. I've been writing about serious matters in this blog for the last week about the homeless.


So it is time to talk about something else to change it up. Are you ready for some Turkey Day Football? The NFL is going to offer you three games for your gridiron feast. The first game is Green Bay at Detroit. The Packers are 6-4 and fighting for a playoff spot. The Lions are 2-8.



Second game features the Oakland Raiders at the Dallas Cowboys. The Raiders are 3-7 and the Cowboys are 7-3. The Cowboys are fighting to win a division title.



The third game features two 6-4 teams. The New York Giants meet the Denver Broncos. Denver has been sliding with 4 straight losses in a row.



A more in depth preview can be found here. I just needed to update the records since it was written 20 days ago.



There are college games too!

Texas at Texas A&M today.



On Friday there are a ton of games. Like Alabama-Auburn, Illinois at Cincinnati's, and Pitt at West Virginia.

Check my rankings for my rankings and full schedule here.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on what you are thankful for and sometimes it is easier to find than others.

I am thankful for the opportunity to help with Hope Alive. I am glad we are able to help all of the woman and children which we do help. I am thankful for the positive people I have met through Hope Alive.

I am thankful I am not homeless. I am humble enough to know I don't have much. I am thankful for all the blessings in my life. I am aware I am only a few steps away from being homeless.

I am thankful I have food to eat and so does my family. I am thankful I am able to help people through SHARE. I am thankful for the people I have met through SHARE.

I am thankful for my daughter. I am thankful she is healthy and beautiful. I am thankful for her mother, who helped create this beautiful child with me. I am thankful for the blessing to have such a beautiful child.

I am thankful for my stepson. I am thankful he is bright. I am thankful he is healthy (for the most part). I hope I have helped him, I have tried. I wish it was easier. I am thankful he likes to read. I am thankful he was able to win a writing award for being a gifted writer. I am thankful for the positive things we have heard about him. I am thankful that we have the future. We have a chance to unlock horns and improve are relationship. I am thankful he has a dad. I am glad he able to do things with his dad, just like I am thankful for the times I have been able to do things with him. I am thankful he was able to have a great birthday. I am thankful for his mom, since she is my wife as well. I am thankful he likes music. I am thankful he gets to travel. I am glad he is having a better school year so far. I am thankful he is able to take the gifted classes he takes.

I am thankful for the people who have helped us. I am thankful for the people I have helped. I am thankful for the little words of advice which mean a whole lot. I am thankful for the things I take for granted everyday. I am thankful for the things I never have said thanks for, or at least not to the right person.

Abe Pollin Dead at 85

Abe Pollin, the man behind the old Capital Centre and the new Verizon Center is dead at 85. He was the long time owner of the Washington Capitals, through the 1999 season. He was the owner of the Washington Wizards(formally of the Bullets). He was also the owner of Washington/Baltimore Ticketmaster. (I won't hold that against him)

Abe Pollin wasn't afraid to make bold moves. In basketball he changed his teams name from the Bullets to the Wizards due to the conotation of violence in a city with a high crime rate. Abe had the guts to fire Michael Jordan. He appeared to have Washington's best interest in mind in most of his decisions.

The Verizon Center did revitalize part of Washington DC. Both the Verizon Center and the Capital Center have played important roles in the sports and entertainmnet history of Washington DC>

Thursday, November 19, 2009

How do you end the homeless problem?

I went to a workshop tonight in Frederick on helping the homeless. I know homelessness is not confined to Frederick. I know it is in Hagerstown, from volunteering at the cold weather shelter. I have seen the homeless in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC. I am pretty sure it happens where you live.

It is National Homeless Awareness Week, that is why my last two blogs have been spent on this topic. It is an important topic and you and I are only a few small steps of being homeless.

There were people from social services, churches and organizations trying to solve the homeless problem. The question I have is how to we end homelessness?

It is more of a question to reflect on, there isn't a simple answer. Well, there is house them. Simple, short answer until you get the how questions, the where questions and so on. Hopefully we will find an answer.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Busy Thursday

Tuesday was busy with work and two meetings to follow. Thursday will be the same kind of day. Work, followed by a board meeting, followed by a meeting.

Oh, well it will be one day closer to the weekend. The second meeting is about helping to solve homelessness in Frederick, Maryland. I'm aware of the problem and am trying to be part of the solution. Volunteering for Hope Alive is part of the solution. Going to see a wonderful concert by the California Guitar Trio for another organization is part of it. However, there is so much more to be done.

In the past I have also volunteered for the REACH Cold Weather Shelter in Hagerstown, Maryland. Homelessness is everywhere. We all need to work for solution.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Weekly Football Update

My Fantasy Football needed Monday's game to win. My team won and beat the commissioner's team. My team is still in first place after the humbling loss last week. That team that beat me is back to .500 and won big again this week so they are on a roll.

In the college ranks, I ranked Temple. They have won 8 straight. Yes they did lose to a Division 2 team(or whatever they call that division) and they lost to Penn State. However, they did beat a decent Navy team (which beat Notre Dame the following week) and are in first place in their conference. Falling out of my rankings were Houston and USC. Check out all of my rankings here.

I published two more articles yesterday. I have two more articles which are pending. So far I have 12 articles published this month. I plan on writing at least three more articles. It is going to be a busy week as I have a couple of meetings as well. A free lance gig I was excited about a while back which had grown cold is warming up again. So the future looks pretty bright.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Featured Business & Finance Contributer

I was named a "featured business and finance contributer" at Associated Content. It is a nice recognition and has some perks to it. Needless to say I will be writing more articles related to business and finance in he near future.

Since, I joined Associated Content I have published a few articles in business and finance category.

My most recent one was published this month. It was "Five Ways to Save Money on Business Travel." Sharing was part of a few of those ways. Such as sharing car rentals and hotel rooms.

In September of 2007 I wrote about the hard times the mortgage industry was having in Maryland. The article is just over two years old, however the mortgage industry in Maryland is still suffering. You can read the article here.

I wrote an article on Kiva back in 2007. A friend of mine was involved in lending monety to Kiva and I signed up and started loaning to people through Kiva as well. The title is a mouth full but you can read it here.

Also in late August of 2007 I took a stab at The Healthcare Problem of Fraud. It is still a problem today and has been for sometime. Today people are really looking at health Care and ways they can lower health care costs. One sure method way would be to reduce health care fraud.

I hope you enjoy those articles and more articles will be on the way soon.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Grizzly Bears!

Lately, I have been stretching out in my writing away from sports. Don't worry I still plan to write about sports. Just branching out a bit. I have blogged about my recent shark articles and my recent dinosaur articles.

Well staying in the animal kingdom I wrote an article on grizzly bears. The article is here.

Dinosaurs, sharks, bears and other animals were things that interested me as a boy, growing up. So, it is kind of neat as an adult to reconnect interests, kind of reconnecting with the boy inside the man. The boy who knew all about the dinosaurs, the boy who drew all the fishes, the boy who played with the snakes and gators. The boy was a pretty interesting kid...

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The day the music died..

A friend of mine hooked me up with free tickets to see Roger Daltrey of the Who in concert at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. I thought I was off the hook for my anniversary which was the next day. However, the concert was cancelled! Just my luck...

Well we had the babysitter lined up so we had an enjoyable evening out watching a movie. The next day on our actual anniversary we decided to go see a reggae band playing in Washington, DC. We drove down to the Metro station. We walked in the cold rain down to the club. The club was completely empty. The band had cancelled. The combination of it being a weeknight and the rain had kept everyone away. So, my wife and I listened to some club remixes spun my the DJ and had a drink at the club. It was strange being the only people in the club who did not work there.

Lucjk at going to see live music was not with me this week. Very strange to shows I was planning to go to were cancelled. Oh well, I did get to say I emptied the club out for us on our anniversary.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Monday Football!

My fantasy football team was doing poorly yesterday. I probably lost this week but I think I should still be in first place or close to it. Oh well it happens, it was just a team that on paper I should of won easily. However, like real football on any given Sunday anything can happen...

Well talking about the NFL, I did some early predictions for Thanksgiving Day NFL football, you can check out my predictions here.

Also my college football rankings are out for this week. You can see the rankings here. There were a bunch of upsets including Iowa, Oregon, Notre Dame and Penn State so the rankings were shook up a bit.

I wrote 5 articles last week and I am up to 8 for the month. I will probably have 4 more this week, so a lot to blog about.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

A Pretty Good Day

The weather was seasonable and the sky was blue. I sent most of the morning playing with my daughter and watching youtube videos with her. Then I took a nap with her and took her out for lunch. Then I went to a very nice dinner with my wife. I had the surf and turf and it was delicious, Salmon and Fillet Mignon.

Then when I came home a friend of mine had called and he had a air of concert tickets from somebody he couldn't use. Lucky me for a change! So, like I said a pretty good day for me!

It has been a busy week. A dinner and two meetings last week. Plus work! However, I was able to publish 5 articles this week, though one isn't showing as of yet. I also have a couple of articles I have signed up for, so that will mean more on the way. Of course I will be plugging some of those articles on here soon!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Congrats to The Yankees!

Congratulations to the New York Yankees for winning the World Series. The Yankees are the 2009 Major League Baseball Champions and are without question the best team in baseball.
The New York Yankees had the best record in baseball

The New York Yankees swept the Minnesota Twins and went on to beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in six games. Then the New York Yankees beat the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies in six games in the World Series. The Yankees beat the best of the best to prove the Yankees were the best team in baseball.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

November Album Releases!

One of the article I wrote was about upcoming album (CD) releases. You can read the article here. I guess I could have mentioned the upcoming Carrie Underwood album but I didn't.

I focused on Them Crooked Vultures, the CD I am most looking forward too! I will probably buy it on the 17th. It features Dave Grohl, from the Foo Fighters, on drums (what he used to play in Nirvana). It also features legendary Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on vocals and guitars.

Dave Grohl is busy as his band, The Foo Fighters release their Greatest Hits collection this month.

The popular bands such as Bon Jovi and John Mayer also get mentioned in my article. I also mention the seasonal release by Tori Amos.

Some great new music is headed out this month!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Dinosaurs

Last month (last week) I wrote a couple of articles about sharks! Now that is November, I have written a couple of articles about Dinosaurs!

I actually I had a busy weekend writing quite a few articles. We also had a Halloween party to go to, and surprise visitors. Needless to say my weekend was very busy. Of course I was able to come up with My Rankings for this week. No big surprises on the top, the bottom teams have been rearranged. Two more articles besides the dinosaurs were published since my last blog, however will hold back on them.

Dinosaurs!
The first article about dinosaurs was about the Spinosaurus. The Spinosaurus is a large, carnivorous dinosaur which was actually bigger than T-Rex (the dinosaur not the band).

The second article about dinosaurs was about the Diplodocus. Diplodocus was one of the larger plant eating dinosaurs. I guess I kept my writing balanced, one big meat eater and one big vegetarian.