Month: February 2007

Snowed In

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My wishful thinking of being on the water before March 26 may have been just that… wishful thinking. Tonight is the second night of blizzards. Last night, we probably received about 6 inches of snow. Tonight, we’re getting more. It started at 6pm and is still going strong.

Here’s the kicker. In this blizzard we have lightning. Yes, lightning, part of thunder and lightning, those things that usually happen during thunder storms, not blizzards. I guess nature is trying to get to spring. We have lightning, but with a blizzard instead of a t-storm.

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One Month Till I Hit the Water?

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As I’ve said before, I hit the water on March 26th last year and I plan to hit the water by March 25th this year and that is a month away. Now we’ve had some recent warmer weather (highs in the mid 40s) and the snow is melting and my yard is pretty much clear of snow, but the lakes are still frozen and this weekend will be more winter-like again.

At this point, I don’t think rain would be bad as it would help get rid of the snow which can act as insulation for the ice. Removing the insulation from the ice on the lake will expose the ice to the direct sunlight, promoting the melting of the ice.

Yes, I probably think this through just a little too much.

Out of morbid curiosity, I did some research on cold water survival. For water that is in the 32 to 40 degrees, you’ll experience exhaustion in about 15 to 30 minutes and the survival time is only 30 to 90 minutes. This is much different than 70 degree water we typically have in the summer that has indefinite survival time. The site also mentions what happens when you experience cold water. First they mention panic and shock. Next your extremities start to go numb. I’ve experienced all of this while barefooting in cold water. You make your way into the water and that isn’t too bad, it is when you have the unexpected fall. Your face hits that cold water and you experience shock and panic as your disorientated. And this is with proper cold weather gear. I’d hate to experience it without the equipment. [Information from U.S. Search and Rescue Task Force]

Everyone, continue thinking warm thoughts… I want to hit the water, even if it is 37 degrees warm.

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Questioning the Rankings?

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I’m a Badger fan, that will sway my opinion, but here are my thoughts…

From the moment the #1 ranking was announced, people questioned it. National media & the net questioned it. Do they deserve it? During the game broadcast on Tuesday, they questioned it from the get-go.

And then they lost to Michigan State. Shortest #1 ranking. They received it Monday and lost it Tuesday.

After the lost, even more people questioned the ranking then. Did they ever deserve it? Was it a mistake?

Michigan State has been on the upswing and played there way into the field of 65 on Tuesday. Everybody is healthy again and I think Drew Neitzel could have thrown the ball at the Badger’s basket, have it bounce off the room and then have it go into the Spartan basket. Dude couldn’t miss. It was like watching the old Nintendo basketball game where a player could catch on fire and shoot from anywhere and make it. That was Neitzel.

And then MSU played some D too! Badgers got away from their game and it cost them. Throwing up 3-point bricks isn’t the way to catch up. Then the Badger’s made some very silly/stupid turnovers. Way too much traveling.

Everyone is saying the Badgers are going to fall in the rankings. Nobody questioned OSU’s ranking as the other #1.

What happens if the Badgers beat OSU on Sunday? At OSU.

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Badgers #1

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For those living in a cave today, the Wisconsin Badgers Men’s Basketball Team is now ranked #1 for the first time ever. For further reading, check out the “What I’m Reading” section of my blog. There are numerous articles to read about this event.

You’ll also see that because of Bielema’s inspired coaching (purposely going offsides on a kickoff to run out the clock) the NCAA is considering un-doing the rule change that allowed this.

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Breach

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I’ve actually been anticipating the movie Breach just a little bit. More than any other recent movie. Looked like a good spy type movie, although it is difficult for me to be excited about any movie staring Ryan Phillippe.

The movie is pretty good. Nothing special, not award winning, but it tells a good story. And that is all I expected from it. A good story.

The movie tells the story of a breach in US security, the biggest breach in US security and this tells of the last few months of the ongoing breach. It would have been a bit more interesting to see more about the back story, see how he was brought in, how he worked, what damage he did. The story the movie did tell, was well told. Although you should know the outcome, I’ll leave the details of the story to the movie.

Finally, it was just a little creepy that the dates in the movie corresponding so well to the current dates, just off a few years. Hanssen was arrested Feb 18, 2001, 6 years and 1 day ago.

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Ghost Rider

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I caught Ghost Rider on the opening day. Not because I was that excited for it, but because the movie time fit my schedule. Seems Marvel has gotten into the habit of releasing new comic book based movies right around Valentine’s Day. It didn’t work very well with Daredevil (2/14/03) or Electra (1/14/05). Both were mediocre movies. Ghost Rider was just a bit better, and surprisingly, actually did pretty good at the box office.

Based on what I know of the comic book character, they stayed pretty true to the original story with just a little simplification, but nothing materially different.

The move was alright. Nothing special, but not really bad either. If you like comic book type movies or action movies, you’ll probably enjoy this one, once. Action sequences were decent, effects OK, but the rider did look a little fake at times. A little too CGI.

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Mark Cuban May Have Seen My Blog

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I read Blog Maverick which is Mark Cuban’s blog. He own’s the Dallas Mavericks and is, well lets just say he is a very enthusiastic owner. He tends to have some interesting points of view about technology and business. I don’t always agree, but it makes for interesting reading. A while back he posted about this site called YouMinis.com. Basically sounds like fancy way to make up a personalized home page. Well today, I started gets referrals from Cuban’s YouMinis’ page.

On Thursday I wrote my little review about a Whitesnake concert which was on his channel and now my posting is showing up on his feed that searches out things about his channel. Still waiting for the hit from Dallas to show up on Site Meter.

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ESPN.com Showing the Badger Football Team Some Love on Valentine’s Day

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With the NFL season officially over and the college season now a distant memory and college basketball everywhere, Badger fans, you may have missed this nice article about the football team over on ESPN.com. In case you did, here’s a link. Mainly, it talks about can Bielema maintain the high expectations he has set for himself since he started with a 12 win season. Regardless, it is nice to see the football team getting some national press.

Meanwhile, the basketball team doesn’t get any love. The Badgers (#3 in the nation) playing a rival, granted a pretty bad rival, and what do they talk about… the fact that Duke is unranked and has lost 4 in row. Duke gets all the love while the Badgers are left out in the cold. Only good thing is I didn’t need to listed to Dickie V announce the game.

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Whitesnake

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As some of you know, I have an HD TV now. Works great. DirectTV carries HDNet and HDMovieNet, both great channels. I have found one thing that shouldn’t be shown in HD.

Old school metal hair bands.

I’m not picking on Whitesnake in particular. I saw that they had an hour long concert airing on HDNet, so I recorded it. The songs of their’s that I recognized, they did a really good job with. They nailed their power ballads “Is This Love” and “Here I Go Again” and jammed out to “Still of the Night”. There are just some things that don’t need to be seen in HD.

First off, style wise, I don’t think they’ve changed since the 80’s in regard to their dress. Like Jerry Seinfield said (paraphrased), they found a look and they’ve stuck with it. But underneath their big hair, they have old wrinkly faces. It just doesn’t look quite right. You think they’re 20 somethings and they you see they’re not. And HD makes it very evident.

The band isn’t the worst part. Just like the band, the crowd looks like the are all dressed from 80’s and they don’t look nearly as good. Some looked done right scary. Remember how when old people would try and dress up like rockers from the 80’s back in the 80’s, well these are the rockers from the 80’s and now they’re the old people.

If you want to see them in all of their glory, go check out the video for “Here I Go Again“. Guys, it has Tawny Kitaen in it. Gotta watch it.

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