Memorial Day Weekend 2009

So I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

This is an odd Memorial Day weekend for me because I have worked every Memorial Day weekend for...hmmm.... probably, at least, 13 years...but because the school system has altered it's schedule I no longer should be working Memorial Day weekend...

So what do I have planned for this, the first Memorial Day weekend I have had off in over 10 years? Absolutely nothing and I am looking forward to every moment of it! The weather is suppose to be nice so I'll likely fire up the grill a few times, maybe go for a bike ride or three, make sure to have a good supply of suds and just (hopefully) have a nice quiet and relaxing weekend....I am almost salivating in anticipation for it to begin...

21st Century Children

I have 2 children, a soon to be 12 year-old daughter and a soon to be 7 year-old son. Since their birth I have tried to 'compare' their childhood experience to mine...not to evaluate or rate which experience is better or worse, but just in a general sense. Comparing my children's childhood experiences in today's society with what I experienced when I was younger.

Let me preface everything with this, I love my children unconditionally...and the following will likely appear as more of a negative dissertation towards them and the children of today, but it is not. It is just my observations and opinions. Yes, my children have angered me but they also have brought joy to my life...and those with kids probably can relate. I have never hurt my kids, not even a spanking - which might be a factor in development of respect and attitude, but I'm no expert.

What has spurred this blog entry is my daughter. My daughter is of the age where she now essentially hates me...which I think everyone as a child goes through...the dislike of their parents. Of course we all know that this is in words only but it still hurts everytime she says it to me and I also know that she is saying it in an attempt to anger me...but here is the differences between her childhood and mine...

First, my daughter is a slob and lazy. Yes, kids are oftentimes not the tidiest and with little to no responsibilities it is easy for them to adopt a routine that allows them to essentially do nothing. My daughter not only does not do anything around the house to assist the family, if left alone for any amount of time, she will have the house completely trashed with shit strewn from top to bottom. If you are able to get her to clean up, rest assured that a mess of almost equal size will be left behind and anything that was 'cleaned up' is likely lost or broken but, most certainly, not put away properly. I was always under the impression that girls were neat and clean, but I am clearly incorrect. My daughter's bedroom is testament to that. Not only is her room littered with trash and clothes at almost all times, she is so lazy that instead of simply putting her dirty clothes into a hamper, she oftentimes chooses to 'hide' her dirty clothes in her closet or in shelves...or where ever...why? No one, including her, I think knows for sure. Comparing her current 'lifestyle' with my childhood, I don't recall ever getting punished for having a unclean room or trashing the house...why? It never was even a consideration. Oh sure, I know there were probably times when I made a mess around the house but the magnitude that my daughter mess makes greatly outweighs anything I ever did. But again, it was never even a consideration when I was young to leave a mess after doing any activity...it was a simple rule, you take something out you put it away, you make a mess you clean it up. My daughter not only laughs at such foolish notions, I think purposely makes even a bigger mess knowing it bothers her parents. The floor around my computer desk is littered with snack wrappers, chip crumbs, popsicle sticks, ponytail holders, jewelry and more and there is literally a garbage can right next to the desk ... so instead of reaching over and dropping her trash into the garbage can, she elects to throw it on the ground...that's how considerate she is.

Excuses and lies: Nothing is my daughter's fault. My daughter has an excuse for everything. You could catch her lighting the house on fire and it wouldn't be her fault. If she gets a poor grade in school, it is my fault because I didn't help her enough. The excuses that come out of her mouth every single day is astounding. If she doesn't have an excuse handy then she just reverts to lying and a lot of the times it is both... she has an excuse for something that is usually a lie. More than once I have flat out told her that I don't trust her and I think she is lying and she will storm off saying how she hates me and that no one ever believes her...but to date, she has yet to do anything that has proven her to be even remotely trustworthy.

Cares about nothing, respects nothing: My daughter does not have one thing that she cares about or that she cherishes. Nor does she respect anything that you may have cherished or cared about. Her mother and I had a fair amount of games that we had when we were children. These games were (obviously) about 20 years old, but could still be played and in as good as shape as you could ask for a game that would be that old...all the pieces still present and boxes in good shape. None of those games are even playable today. My daughter has wrecked, lost and ruined every single board game I and my wife had as child. These games, that we took care of starting at her age and held onto for 20+ years was all for naught. You can walk through my house and find a piece from my Risk game here, a Monopoly piece there and so on. The sad part is that any game that is given to my daughter can be played one time and just one time only because after that first time the game can not be played properly because pieces will be lost or broken. My daughter got Attack Uno for a present a year ago and I remember our entire family unpacking it and playing it...having a good time. A week later I found Attack Uno cards throughout the entire house and she came up to ask if I would play it with her and I simply said that we can not play a game that is incomplete and that game has never been played again. To me that is just sad... I had multiple games that I literally played hundreds, if not thousands of times and here my daughter can't take care of one game long enough to play it more than once. But it isnt' just games, it is essentially everything...my daughter cherishes nothing. There is nothing that is 'special' to her or at least enough to have her care about it. She has been given 'special' jewelry, books and items ... all are often shoved into drawers, lost or broken, but in any effect, if asked to produce any of these special items, my daughter would be hard-pressed to do so.

Social life: my daughter almost races home after school and when gets home will close the doors and stay inside waiting for her mom or me to return home from work. She does not want nor does she even consider doing anything with anyone else outside of school. Once and a while she has gone to a movie or to a friend's house, but for the most part, she is content to stay home and inside the house. For the past couple of summers she has stayed home during the summer break from school and what did she do? Nothing. She NEVER left the house and stayed hunkered in everyday. Again, comparing it to my childhood (once again, not right or wrong, just a comparison), when it was summer time and I was her age and it was a nice day, it would be extremely odd if we stayed in the house for the entire day. Usually, I would get up and be outside for the entire day and return home when I was literally totally tired. I recall biking across town to watch a movie, play with a friend, go to the park, go on a bike ride, go to the Dairy Queen...just go anywhere! To stay home on a beautiful summer day seemed totally wrong when you have your own 'wheels' and the entire summer to explore the world. My son is adopting the same attitude towards summer time ... On a beautiful summer day it is easy to find my children...they will be inside the house. There have been times during the summer, on a beautiful day, that my children will literally be driving me nuts and I begin to get upset with them. I then will say "You guys have an entire garage full of bikes, skateboards, scooters, water guns, balls, bats, gloves, frisbees, chalk, an endless amount of toys to play with outside, parks and playgrounds and instead of doing ANYTHING else, you two kids are going to choose to stay inside this house and drive me insane?" And that is what they will choose. Yes, to me I find it extremely odd that as a child they would rather stay inside the house and get screamed and yelled at by their parents when, what would clearly be a more entertaining and enjoyable time for them is a viable option, they would rather stay inside the house and make my day even more miserable. You say then, they just want to be with you, to do things with you...yes, I know this and don't get me wrong, I do enjoy spending time and doing things with my kids. Here is the difference though; you see, if I was to go outside on a beautiful summer day to just stand in the front yard and not do anything...that's right, just go outside and stand in the front yard and nothing else, my children will almost run me over to get outside. While I stand in the front yard, doing nothing, the kids will get out the bikes, balls, skateboards, whatever and begin to play and have a grand old time. But the second, and I literally mean the SECOND, I set foot inside the house again they almost trample me over to beat me inside the house. When I was a child, especially during the summer, I never expected my parents to be outside or do anything with me outside...and why should they? As a result, I have already come to the conclusion that I will NEVER go outside during the summer until my children have enough sense to do so on their own.

Which leads me to my final observation...my children have little or no respect towards their parents and especially not me. I am only their cook, butler, chauffeur and provider of funds for them, but that is it...nothing that would deserve even common courtesy. The way my daughter talks to me on a daily basis would have had her beaten to a pulp if she was raised my parents when I was a child. Very little is 'talking' from her. It is demanding and when demanding it is RIGHT NOW! Not tomorrow and not in 5 minutes, I mean right now and even if her demand is spoken in a civil tone, if your reply to her is anything less than what she wants to hear she will instantly erupt into a screaming tantrum. An example will be as follows:

Her: "Dad can I get on the computer?"
Me: "Can you wait 5 minutes so I can finish what I am doing?"
Her: "NO! And thanks Dad, now I am going to fail my science class because of you. Now you see why I hate you!"

My daughter on more than one occassion has 'needed' some things from school...not just one thing, but a plethoria of things. On one particular occassion she needed an entire list of items for some school project...and not for next week or tomorrow...RIGHT NOW! This list was like going on a scavenger hunt...there was not one store that could possibly have all the items and after all was said and done the bill was $30. But because of her screaming tantrum, I got her items for school but am hard pressed to believe that a teacher would require their students to get this entire laundry list of stuff for tomorrow...but of course my daughter just follows up with and excuse/lie ...and why not? She has her own personal chauffer, cook, butler and provider of funds to cater to her every whim....

To conclude, I just am perplexed... I know it will likely get worse before it gets better... but I just don't know why my children (especially my daughter) will make the decisions that she does. My daughter has done very few of the things that I considered normal for when I was a kid. Instead she has chosen the exact opposite. If I knew her when I was 11/12 it would have been almost laughable to have a conversation with her...

Me: "I'm going to the baseball diamond to play ball, what you going to do today.?"
Her: "I'm going to stay inside all day long, leave garbage and my personal items all over the house along with any of my parents things that I want to get into and then when my parents get home I am going to DEMAND that they take me to a store and buy new shoes because I don't like these ones."
Me: "Well, have fun with that...I'm going to go play."

Just makes me sad that this is a child and that is the decision she chooses to make rather than do ANYTHING else....what makes it even more sad for me, it is my child. I would feel sad for any child that's life is such as hers....but at least she has her personal butler, cook, chauffeur and free money....

Media Whore, Favre, Loving It!

The 2009 edition of the annual Brett Favre retirement/unretirement tour has got to be one of Brett's favorite of all time...and a person can clearly see he has honed his retirement/unretirement tour to be the biggest, best ever.

Yesterday the St. Paul Pionner Press reports that Favre is going to meet with a surgeon and have a minor surgery on his torn bicep.  Then this morning, ESPN reports that Favre is not going to have surgery at all and instead is going to rehab it.  Both media outlets use unamed sources for their information...which leads me to believe that the source for both articles is Brett Favre himself.  

This is totally his m.o. ... as with the leaked cell phone text messages from a year (or so) ago, anyone with a brain knows that Brett Favre was the source behind that.  So why wouldn't Brett Favre have two different "sources" saying two totally different things?  Favre is getting his ultimate wet dream... every single day his name is being mentioned and each report seems to contradict the previous.  Favre probably thinks he has successfully put up a big enough smoke screen where some people actually think he will remain retired... don't be fooled.  Favre will be with the Vikings when Favre wants to be with the Vikings and not a day sooner.  Anything he can do to keep his name in the media until then is all that Favre wants now because he is a self-centered media whore...as he continues to blatantly display.

Clutch - Sioux Falls, SD - 5/12/09

It was a windy day but the rain held off. Clutch was the 3rd of a 6 band lineup that was headlined by Slipknot, Korn and The Used.  

I don't recall all the songs or the exact order but they played, but the ones I do remember being played were: Burning Beard, Child Of The City, Elephant Riders, Marcus, Mob Goes Wild, Profits of Doom (w/Wino(?)), Red Horse Rainbow and ended with Electric Worry/Dollar. In all had about a 50 minute set. A friend and I drove 3 hours to see Clutch.  

Got there just as the band in front of them was wrapping up, got some beers and enjoyed the show. They had, who I think they called Wino, as a guest guitarist that played during the Profits of Doom and actually was hanging out in the crowd after Clutch was done. So we got some pics with him and talked about the show/Clutch a bit. He said he could have hooked us up with tickets for the Des Moines show that was the next day (yesterday) but unfortunately we couldn't discard our other obligations to take him up on the offer.  

IMO, Clutch was the best band on the card and we even left during Korn's unenergetic, uninspired set...cheaper beers were far more important than watching mainstream noise. If there was any downside to the show was that we didn't get to see more of Clutch... but I still had a good time...

Not Minding The Twitter

So it's been a couple of weeks for me on Twitter and I'm not minding it at all.  I was apprenhensive when trying it out because of all the things I have heard and the whole "What are you doing?" tagline ... in which I thought those that would be associated with Twitter are seen as people that are obsessed with posting everything that they are doing and, at the same time, obsessed with what everyone else is doing all the time ... well, if that is what really is going on, everyone would have "On Twitter" as they're posts... 

What I like about Twitter is that it does add a more timely, abbreviate blog to my blog...and I like that part the most.  When I started my blog in 2004, blogs were just hitting the scene and I, at first, was collecting and posting news articles, primary about the Chargers which was something unique at the time.  Well, it wasn't a year and then RSS feeds started in full swing and 1 million and 17 sports/news/blog sites now take care of that so there was no really purpose for my blog to continue to do so...especially when I now just automate the process like all those other sites as well.

So then I began to add more commentary about whatever...but also remain focused on the Chargers...and this is what I plan to continue to do for the foreseeable future.  But what Twitter does is allow me to quickly post an article, web site, whatever with a quick comment ... which is oftentimes all any of them deserve, yet I think it is 'blog worthy'.  I have always felt that I wanted to have 'quality content' on my blog ... I did not want to merely have 1,000 links I think are cool and have someone sort through them.  Here, anytime I see anything worthy of my attention, I can have it posted on Twitter in seconds...which is probably one of Twitter's most redeeming qualitys ... it is quick and simple.

I just wanted to post a follow-up to let everyone know, that it looks like I'll be using Twitter with some regularity...

NFL Announces AFL Legacy Schedule

The NFL announced a "Legacy Schedule" that will celebrate the AFL's 50th anniversary, of which, the San Diego Chargers were an original team of the AFL.

Original AFL teams will don uniforms from their AFL era.  The Chargers have selected to wear their 1963 uniforms, the year the Chargers won the AFL championship.  The Chargers are in 3 AFL Legacy games (8/14 at Oakland, 10/19 vs Denver & 10/26 at Kansas City) and will still 'get' to wear their powder blue throwbacks for an additional 2 home games.  So we will get to see the Chargers in their light blue uniforms almost as often as their newer uniforms

There are 16 Legacy games in all featuring all the old AFL teams...Miami, NY Titans (Jets), Boston Patriots, Cleveland, etc... I think it will be great to see the Tennessee Titans wearing the Houston Oilers colors....just because it was a team I remember as a kid that I no longer get to see today...

 

Lots Of Good News From Charger Camp

Charger mini-camp wrapped up this past weekend and seems like there was lots of good news coming from the team...

- Cromartie appears to have fully recovered from a hip injury that slowed him all of last year.

- Norv Turner says that LT "Looks great."

- Merriman says he will be ready for opening day... won't speculate on the future.

- Darren Sproles did sign the Chargers contract tender last week as well.

Tradition Of Losing Continues

This past weekend's Kentucky Derby was a thrilling one with a long shot, "Mine That Bird", thrilling the crowd coming from the back of the pack and blasting to the front on the final turn and beating the field impressively... and, which has been a 5, 6 year tradition for me... no money for me.  Sure, I don't bet a lot and I most certainly rarely pick longshots...but I have usually made some money on a triple crown event at least once every other year...but now, I am easily on a 15, 16 race drought ... well, maybe the Preakness will treat me better...

But in case you missed it, here is the video from the 2009 Kentucky Derby and just watch how Mine That Bird just launches itself into the lead...almsot like a switch was turned on...