engineering 101

Remember the game Mousetrap? That is what I thought of when I watched this video.

big on rules?

****Updated******

Thanks Tony for the info. After further investigation, here is the original. I guess he wasn't trying to be funny-

I am not sure what this exactly means, but referee Ron Cherry is pretty funny. I have definitely never heard of that infraction on the football field. I do wonder if he modified the name of the penalty because of the jersey number of the player who committed the foul. Maybe not, and possibly football rulebook junkies around the county know exactly what foul he was referring to. I do not. It would also be pretty entertaining if he had been waiting years for a player with the number 69 to commit that exact infraction, just so he would be able to say what he did. If that is the case, i give him props for not cracking a smile. There is no way I would have been able to say that without laughing.

oh Brad

I can't say I was that surprised last night by the decision made by Brad on the finale of The Bachelor. And from the looks of the poll [results shown below] it appears a few of you readers are also not surprised. including Morgan, who correctly predicted this days ago...

give Jenni a rose (14%)
propose to Jenni (14%)
give Deanna a rose (28%)
propose to Deanna (0%)
select neither (42%)

My opinion of Brad changed somewhat last night. I have thought, and still think, that he is a good guy. He doesn't seem to be shady, creepy, gross or annoying. He also gave the impression that he was very motivated to find a wife and was taking the show very seriously. But I didn't enjoy the way he handled his final decision to not keep Jenni or Deanna. Why can he not pick just one of them? He didn't need to propose, couldn't he just give the girl a rose and they could keep dating? Were things with both girls going so badly? He clearly said many times how serious he was taking things and how much he really cared for the women.

It seemed to me that he probably didn't change his mind at the very last second as it appeared. I just have a hard time believing that he honestly did. If he is as genuine and honest as he says, I can't believe he would do that. He always says how much he is struggling over his decisions, but I don't think that he would switch his decision at the last minute. If he did change his mind at the very last second, I would expect him to be more apologetic towards Deanna for leading her on the way he did at the ceremony. And that is what I didn't like about his actions. Assuming he knew before hand that he wasn't going to pick either one of them (although I am sure he would probably say he changed his mind at the last minute) then what he did is pretty messed up. He teased Deanna, even going so far as to mention that he just sent Jenni home. And also his presentation looked weak. His collar wasn't even tight yet he was like fake adjusting it as if it were too tight. It appeared that he was trying to make it look like he was under enormous pressure and freaking out when he really wasn't. Including his walkoff to catch his breath, and returning to say something that seemed rehearsed. It was inconsistent with his demeanor during all other rejections. I don't believe that he actually called an audible at the very last minute.

It doesn't really bother me if he (or any contestant) doesn't fall in love. If anything maybe he is just normal. I have always thought that its strange that these people fall so madly in love in such a short time and under crazy circumstances. So maybe his decision isn't all that surprising, being that he has always seemed like a pretty normal guy. The thing is, what I remember most about this season is how he always treated all the girls. He was always a gentleman, and always very careful with his words. He hated hurting any of the girls along the way. It seemed like more than anything he always wanted to do the right thing and say the right thing. He loved that these ladies were falling for him and he always talked about how serious he was about finding a wife. But I don't think he was as serious as he thought. If he were really being true to himself, then he would have opened up more, and been willing to take risks and fall in love. His decision shows me that he wasn't really ready or willing to fall for a girl. He had two beautiful women that he got along with great, falling for him and chose not to lock it up. The funny part of it is that all he ever tried to do is look like a good guy and do the right thing. And the way he went about revealing his final decision made him look like anything but that.

Honestly, until he makes some changes, I don't know how he is ever going to find a wife. He was in a good situation, but decided not to take a chance. Its like he enjoys the thought of marriage and the chase more than the relationship itself.

tonight's finale of The Bachelor

Tonight is the finale of the The Bachelor. Like the previous 11 seasons, you can search the web all you want, but you will have a hard time finding out who will win. They seem to do a pretty good job about not leaking any information and preventing a spoiler. All I was able to find was a bunch of predictions. They are advertising it as the most shocking finale. I know they probably always do this, but this also sort of makes me think something out of the ordinary may occur. That would mean he either choses neither of them or the one he chooses says no. Or maybe, he chooses both and they go right to the hot tub... I am rooting for Deanna although I think both girls have a chance to win. All along I have felt that they were the two leading ladies. Clearly there has always been a physical chemistry between Brad and Jenni (the Phoenix Suns dancer.) They have always gotten along very well and have a lot of fun together. I am just not convinced that is enough. Unlike most previous Bachelors, Brad seems to value more than just the physical things. And I think that is where Deanna has the edge. She appears to be more independant and perhaps Brad sees traits more consistent with that of his ideal wife. Or maybe that is just abc misleading the audience... In any event I was a bit surprised last week when the women told all. At the end of the show, the host asked all the other girls who they expected to be selected and the votes were split nearly 50-50. I understand a few of the girls probably voted based on personal experience (Jenni and Deanna weren't the two most popular girls in the house) but I also expected them to come to more of a consensus. Feel free to cast your vote on the newly added Bachelor Poll on this page; then watch tonight to see if your prediction is correct.

the joys of coaching

i never really had much of an opinion on phil jackson; i didnt really like or dislike him. that is, until now... after surrendering a loss to the spurs on tuesday night where his team gave up 13 three pointers, jackson said "we call this a 'brokeback mountain' game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts." for once i dont know exactly what to say back to that, other than its pretty funny and i can see how it was an inappropriate thing to say. he redeemed himself the following night before the teams next game, saying " if i've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys or gays, i appologize." i did find this picture of phil instructing MJ how to accept a pass...

in other news the wyoming football coach flipped the bird to his opponent on saturday. joe glenn was unhappy with utah's coach kyle whittinghams decision to kick an onside kick with a 43-0 lead over his team. and on the surface i can see why joe was pissed, but glenn had no one to blame for the poor sportmanship but himself. it was he who publicly guaranteed a victory over utah- with the utes and their coaching staff obviously taking offense. to see more, including the incident itself, check out this video.

something i dont think is cool

i typically read cnn.com during the day sometime, just to check out what is happening. well today i feel i was mislead. on the main page, there was a link in the latest news section to a story that said "9-year-old shoots, kills playmate"

and so i clicked on it. it turns out that two young kids were playing in an attic and one accidentally shot the other. it is a very sad story, but it angered me. i wasnt mad at the story itself, but a the news station who provided the article to cnn.com. I understand that if two 10 year old kids are playing, they are playmates. but i also feel that the title of their article is misleading. they used the word playmate because people think Playboy Playmate.

on one hand i appreciate the savvy used by the writer to attract interest to the article. after all, isnt that the purpose of a headline? (and yes, it worked in this case, i probably wouldnt have clicked on a story about a kid shooting another kid. but this is news, and their job is to report it not to trick people) i think that as a news reporter, one should be respectful. in this case there is a kid who was accidentally killed, and a mourning family and community, and it seems to me that all someone cares about is getting page views (or links, referrals, shout outs, whatever...) i am basing that soley on the word choice in the headline. and dont get me wrong, i love good puns and love to make jokes and laugh. i just dont think this type of story is an appropriate one to be sneaky.

i am also purposely not providing the link or the name of that station. however, if you are interested here is the story as reported by a competitor: AltoonaMirror.com

i wonder if there are any professional news reporters or journalists out there reading this that have an opinion...

what month is it?

I am thrilled the red sox won the world series again. even better is that i was lucky enough to attend game 1 of the WS in boston (read more about it here.) but if there is one good thing about baseball season ending, it is the end of those horrible commercials. yes fox, we know each month occurs only once per year. although i am curious how fox would fit multiple octobers into a single calendar year- would they shorten other months or lose a month all together... and where would they put it? the other issue i had with those commercials is i think the address was http://www.actober.com/. and they never really addressed this. i always assumed it had something to do with acting but i wouldnt know because they never mentioned anything about it. they clearly said (many times) there is only one october but the address was a different word.

in any event the end of october signifies the beginning of national beard month. so happy Noshavemeber!

also if you are looking for fun ideas for this month check out this page. pay special attention to the november extras listed on the right side of the page.

good times with referrals

while on blogcation for 6 months, i gave up blogs all together. it wasn't just my blog that i neglected, i didn't read any blogs other than those on espn, which don't really count as blogs. in my book, those are columns- that is you are an expert in the field paid to write regularly about that specific topic.

well it was the baseball playoffs that brought me back to blogville. i had been discussing the playoffs with the writer of mlbbaseblogg and he encouraged me to check out one of his recent posts. i agreed and not surprisingly began casually perusing other blogs. my original reason for the cold turkey approach to all things blogs was that i felt like if i had time to read other blogs then i had time to write my own. after i found myself reading blogs again, i decided to get back on the horse.

anyways, during my blogbbatical i also stopped checking the sitemeter stats on this blog. during my peak traffic times (such as mustache day) it was fun to check out how various people had found my blog. i saw a post on erics blog about a search that led someone to his blog. naturally i checked my stats and was shocked to see that someone was lead to my blog through this search. thats right, if you google "mack looks like" you get this webpage. while part of me feels like that is pretty cool, the other part of my cant help but wonder what the searcher was looking for.

for those of you who watch the bachelor, who do you want to win? i have liked the two finalists the most the entire season, so i am happy that they have made it this far. i also think its worth noting that they were the only two ladies who openly said they wanted the other girls to go home. i was sort of glad they said that when they did. while they were being kind of competitive and a case could be made they seemed like they wanted to win more than they wanted to fall in love, i can't hold their honesty against them. after all, they aren't there to make friends.

new music

i love when two things you like come together to form another thing you like. like for example, enrique iglesias and ping pong. everyone knows i have liked EI and his music for a long time. i also enjoy playing table tennis, although i havent played much recently. anyways, for those who havent heard it, i suggest you listen to Do You Know? by Enrique.

you know you missed me

hi friends, if you are still out there. i want to appologize for not posting in half a year, i have just been busy with things more important than this blog. and there is no one to blame except my blog itself. it got jealous of all my activities and told me to chose between it and other stuff. so i sat it down, looked it right in the monitor, and asked it if it saw the redskins game last weekend.

after 6 lonely months with a story about falling, it emailed me last week and told me it was sorry and asked if i would come back to it. i agreed, explaining that it would only be a part time thing. i asked the blog if it had a problem with me writing less often than in the past. it responded with an email that was only three words. the email said: It's Not Wrong

Miss USA falls to fifth place

I was watching the Miss Universe pageant the other night when Miss USA fell down. I was absolutely shocked and super excited at the same time. I have known for years that if I were in one of those competitions, that I would trip on purpose. I have been taking intentional spills for years. I have done it in restaurants, amusement parks, movie theaters, even in touch football games. And while Miss USA's was likely accidental, I would like to share my thoughts on intentional falls. (I hope there isn't an unwritten code among fallers and if so i apologize for what I am about to share...)

Let me say right off the bat that pretty much anytime there is a group of people watching it is appropriate. It starts with some subtle action that gets attention. If you are in the movie theater this means a louder than average whisper to everyone around you notifying them that you are going to the bathroom (or to refill your drink or popcorn, etc.) This slightly disturbs everyone around you, but only enough for them to notice you, not enough to bother them. If you are in a restaurant, when getting up from your chair you would want to bang it into the table or make some noise while pushing it in after you have stood up.
Now that the stage is set, you need to look intense. If you are having trouble understanding this, simulate that you need to get to the bathroom immediately or are going to answer the phone. There needs to be some urgency and intensity for a good fall. Before you move into your fall, you also need to check around the area for potential causes like steps or a change in flooring(you need to convince your audience it is real.) The other advance scouting that you need to do is for items that can cause you harm. You need to stay clear of sharp objects, edges, and slippery surfaces that can do damage. The entire joke is on you if you injure yourself while fake falling (reminds me of Jim Edmonds playing the outfield...)
The most important falling technique that you will want to employ is exceptional body control. In a real fall peoples arms and legs flail, sometimes uncontrollably (also feel free to spill a drink or throw popcorn...) I know I sometimes look for this body motion when watching soccer. There are tons of people diving trying to draw fouls but when someone gets taken down for real its not graceful and their legs are rarely straight and together. To reiterate, you don't want to risk injury. This is just a tip for experienced and advanced fallers.
The last crucial element to a good fall is how you handle the fall. You have to remember that you are trying to look like you didn't fall on purpose so you need to act exactly how a person who fell on accident would look. In other words you need to look embarrassed and be trying to play it off so keep your head down and quickly get out of sight without smiling. You want to make the audience think that they caught you falling. You can't ever let them know that they fell for your joke. The best falls are the ones where people don't believe that you did on purpose. For people who don't know you, they may never believe you. So you have to understand this going in and be able to accept that you might be the only person who actually knows. In that sense it is a very unselfish joke. You may be the butt of many future jokes, but you will always know that it is you who has the superior ability to create laughter.

you know what they say about big hands...

After reading this article it should be no surprise to anyone that knows me that my hand looks like this:

American Idol Finale

With the finale of American Idol on tonight, I thought I would share my view on the two finalists. From the beginning I have liked Blake, especially his ability to modernize otherwise boring songs. Some probably fault him for this, claiming all his songs sound the same. And to those I say that you are right, but at least he has a style that is his own. I get the impression that when he does make his own records that is what they will sound like so it doesn't bother me. Jordin has also become one of my favorites as the season went along. I think it was because of her combination of singing ability and youthful charm. All the other good singing contestants were old and boring. I never found myself rooting for any of them no matter how well they could sing.

I think that Jordin will win, but that in the end it won't matter. It seems like most seasons there are a few singers who launch themselves into the music scene and start a career. And I think that will happen for both of these contestants.

For those who can't resist, check the prediction website that I linked once before in this post.

one of those guys you just know you dont like

the two main reasons that i never liked the band Creed was because of their music and because of their lead singer. luckily i hadn't heard anything about either in a long time until i read this.

interesting video

The creators of this video left a comment left on MBB about the mini-beard.

The Botchelor final 2 roses

Last night the Bachelor eliminated Danielle I. I did not find this surprising given that he really likes BHT and that Bevin really likes him. That left normal Danielle as the odd women out, go figure. According to Amanda, A-ball already hit a home run with Bevin. Which reminds me, as a side note to future Bachelor contestants, dont sleep with the bachelor. It does not increase your chances, in fact it probably decreases them. Now AB can select BHT and its a win-win. He got with the girl he was attracted to, but yet he will be able to pick the girl he really wants to be with.

I think the final decision is classic bachelor finale drama. He has BHTessa, who he really likes and gets along with. He is really attracted to her and has been trying to get her to like him the entire season. Then he has Bevin, who has really like Andy the entire season. He seems to really like both of the girls, but he is caught between going for the safe/smart choice, and the risky pick. There is typically one girl who you know really has fallen for him and will do anything for him. Then the other has sort of stood out with her resistance to fall head over heels over him all season. And this only makes the bachelor more attracted to her. But it is a classic final decision.

Here are the 10 bachelors including a-bal and what i remember about their final choices:
Alex Michel (dont remember the choices, but didnt take Trista. no risky choices that i remember)
Aaron Buerge (didnt take the hot southern blonde who was in love with him, instead opted for NJ girl that wasn't as into him)
Andrew Firestone (selected Jen who was a good choice but maybe not as open as other girls)
Bob Guiney (didnt watch this season)
Jesse Palmer (cant remember much of this season either, but i think he took that blonde girl)
Byron Velvick (i think this season worked out for real, probably because he was older)
Charlie O'Connell (cant remember this season)
Dr. Travis Lane Stork (picked the 'safe' choice of sarah, who was rated higher on paper but it appeared he lacked chemistry with...)
Prince Lorenzo Borghese (lobo bozo took jen instead of sadie. what a botch, still dont understand that one...)
Andy Baldwin (BHT or Bevs?)

I think ABal ends up taking Tessa, and it could work out. I think she is normal for being slow to fall in love with Andy and I dont blame her for this. It just makes her unique for these reality dating shows where people fall in love in 2 weeks on 4 dates.

on this date...

On May 15, 1998, Billy Copeland aka "The Rocket Man" (pictured celebrating March 23rd) set a record on a skateboard by going 70 mph. He did this by attaching rockets to his board. If you are interested, you should check out his website.

double bogey

Looks like Todd McCorkle quit his job as the Georgia Women's golf coach. This does not seem surprising considering he showed his team the Paris Hilton sex video. I am trying, but just can't imagine a scenario where that would be appropriate.

guess who's back

I appologize to both of my regular readers for the recent lack of posts. my schedule has been pretty busy and i just havent been able to make time for my blog. as a way to get back into blog mode, i am going to comment on a few random things that are on my mind.

-the survivor finale was absolutely terrible. every year i forget how much i hate the jury part of tribal council. i can't believe how bitter everyone gets. my number 1 most hated thing about survivor is that at the end of the season, all the people who have been voted off try to bring up dirt on the remaining players. they accuse them of lying and being sneaky. now i have never been on survivor, but i am pretty sure that is how you play the game. the reason that those bitter people are asking the questions (and not answering them) is because they were not as good at being shady as the others. i get so frustrated by it. last night it was especially bad, with lici, alex and boo highlighting the annoyingness. and on the other side dreamz was jsut as bad. all anyone wanted was him to admit that when he made the deal with yao that he intended to keep it. then he thought about it and decided against it. instead he tried to act like he was playing yao all along. you mean to tell me that when he was talking to the camera immediately after the deal about having his son watch the show and keep his word, he was lying? i highly doubt it and thought it was totally clear that initially he intended on keeping his word.

-i think that the big-faced girl will win the botchelor. the problem remains that she doesn't like him, but i don't see that being a huge problem until the show ends. i though it was strange that amber (i think that was her name) parents didn't want to be on the show. i can understand that they may not support this type of show, but i thought it was kind of a dagger. instead of meeting the parents A-Bal was stuck hanging out with a couple of college girls. i really think if she had normal parents and it went well that she could still be around. which goes to show you why these shows do not have a high success rate for building lasting relationships.

-i went to this nerd conference a few weeks ago and arrived late. as a result i took the first seat i could find which was cramped between a woman and the orally loudest guy i have ever met. this guy made so much noise that after an hour or two i moved. it kind of reminded me of when my dog eats something he shouldn't. you know, the constant trying to swallow action combined with jaw/saliva motion. or when he is chewing on his bone, you just hear lots of mouth noises. the first few minutes i thought maybe he had dumped a box of nerds, two tablespoons of peanut butter, and some saltines into his mouth and was trying to eat them all at the same time. but then i realized he wasnt eating anything, he was just constantly moving his tongue and lips around. all this noise combined with my physical position of straddling two sets of posts at the connection of two adjacent tables caused me to go crazy.

-monica and dave made the trip down this way last week and stopped by in the LeBaron to meet carlos and eat a meal of food at eggspectations. as usually i was very eggcited to go there and the food did not disappoint. however, the service was eggceptionally slow and the waitress scrambled to keep up with her tables.

the grass is always greener

i have very little tennis experience, but i have never seen anything like this. side note: in case you didnt know i think federer is sweet. mainly because of his total dominance on the court, but i think his awesomeness extends off the court. i cant find it online but there was an article about him in SI from early april (this is the best i could find.)

bears, beets or battlestar galactica?

i have been really busy this week and out of the office three days and have not made time to write, but have a post or two in mind that i will try to work on soon. also i think part of my toe nail is going to fall off soon.

quick thoughts on TV from last night: the office was so great as always. my favorite parts were the very beginning and very ending. on survivor it was pretty entertaining to watch the pathetic attempts of alex and mookie. in the end i was glad that alex stayed. i dont like him or mookie, but i thought alex's strategy of voting for mookie warranted his survival. i dont know why mookie didn't think of that...