Backyard Brawl

Pitt played one heck of a half of football last night.  Unfortunately, WVU played a better half of football.  No blame game here.  You win as a team and loose as a team.  As a long time Pitt fan, it was just a hard pill to swallow. What bothers me even more about the whole thing is that this may be the last Backyard Brawl.  With no more Penn State rivalry anymore, this was the one game to get your blood pumping if you are a Pitt fan.  Something is being lost here.  With the demise of the Big East and both schools headed to different conferences, what will we look forward to now.  I hated when BC, Miami, and Virginia Tech jumped ship a few years back.  Pitt and WVUs moves don't sit well with me either.  I suppose it is a sign of the times.  Big East football and basketball held a warm spot in the hearts of many fans.   I hope for the best for both schools and their programs.  Perhaps in the future we will meet again.  Hopefully Pitt will win next time!

Penn State

Kudos to the Penn State Football program (players and coaches) and fans as-well-as all the Nebraska players and fans for being the class act they were before, during, and after last weeks game when all eyes were upon them.  Many negative things that could have caused further trauma to an already horrific situation did not occur.  As events move forward I hope the focus will be on finally doing right by the victims and prosecuting those who did wrong by those children.  My heart and prayers go out to those children and their families as-well-as all of the other victims of this great tragedy.

Good Eat'n

The Dream Restaurant

A couple of shout outs for some really great places to eat:

Azan Wok - Plum Borough, PA  If you like Chinese food this is a really excellent place.  Great food, service, prices, and setting!!!!

The Dream - Hollidaysburg, PA Everything is good!!!!!!!!!!!  I do mean everything! I have been there many times over the past several years and never had a bad meal.  Grab a pie for the road from their bakery!!!!

Hail to Pitt (or not)

I went to the Pitt-Buffalo game Saturday night with my son.  Parking is a real pain you know where.  The game was a sleeper.  The fans around us and and the students in the student section made it interesting. At least the Panthers won.  Hopefully the rest of the season will be better.  Onward and upward!!!

Plastics...There is a great future in plastics.

Anyone that can remember that line is older than me and therefore older than dirt.  I was just on Games Workshops website and it seems they are taking that line to heart.  I can't tell you how happy I am about it!  Since I was only a lad, I have loved,  collected, and had many a great battle with plastic soldiers.  I had some metal ones but never really took to them.  There was something about plastic "army men"  that I just always enjoyed.  I have them in a number of scales and in a variety of genres. 

A few years ago I got back into them through my sons and some of their friends.  They got into a game called Heroscape.  Asked to join a game one night, I became instantly hooked.  That was the beginning of my addiction.

I began to play and collect Heroscape sets.  I found that there were tons of similar games out there...one of them being Warhammer and Warhammer 40K by Games Workshop.  I'm in now...all in.  I play, collect, work on mods, and read the Black Library books.  Great stuff and lots of fun!  I salute GW for pursuing the future...plastics!  It will allow me to expand my collection, build bigger better armies, and enjoy something I've grown to love even more and stay lead free (actually white metal).  Thanks GW!  I will be all too happy to spend my kids college funds on your great new stuff!

Superhero Movies

I must be getting old.  Every time a new superhero movie comes out, the little boy in me who read and loved comic books gets excited and can't wait to see it.  Each time I leave the theater after watching one of these flicks, it is with a sad heart.  The Hulk and X-men films have not been good.  Spider-man only slightly better. The Iron Man movies were pretty decent. Some Batman films I have enjoyed while others not so much. Most of the Superman flicks have been cheesy.  I could go on.  For the most part I'd give the majority of these movies a C+.

I haven't seen Thor yet, but the trailers looked good.  I saw the Green Lantern and was greatly disappointed.  Overall, I enjoyed Captain America.  It just ticks me off that Marvel always plays around with the history of the characters a bit too much for my liking.

Perhaps my tastes have changed over the years.  About 5 years ago I stopped collecting comic books.  While the art had much improved, it just seemed like the stories stayed the same.  Even as Marvel and DC tried to recreate themselves for a new generation of readers, something was lost.  Maybe its not them, maybe it is me.  Maybe life just taught me that the good guys don't always win and that Supes won't always be there to save the day.  Maybe that is where my real disappointment lies.

Today I look for heroes in the real world.  They are there.  They are making a difference everyday.  They are saving lives and making the world a better place.  They are in our schools, armed forces, hospitals, fire and police departments, and in our neighborhoods.  Here may be the real root of my disappointment with superhero movies and comic books.  Maybe I just don't need superheroes anymore!

It feels like the first time

I haven't really ever done this before - blogging that is. I have read/seen other folks blogs, but never thought about doing it myself.  I recently read an article about the reasons people blog and thought some sounded pretty good.  Me, why did I choose to start?  To share some things I am interested in like many folks...perhaps throw out an idea or two.  I am not really sure were this will all go, but I will let the journey begin here. 

So, to begin,  I thought I'd share a couple of interesting things that I learned today.  The first came about about as I announced at a meeting this morning that I needed a "cup of Joe".  One of the ladies I work with asked me where that expression came from.  I told her an old boss of mine who had been in the navy during WW II said that it had something to do with someone in the navy who had given sailors coffee on board the ships.  When we returned from lunch my colleague informed me that she had looked it up and that it referred to Josephus Daniels, former Secretary of the U.S. Navy under Woodrow Wilson. Daniels abolished wine on naval vessels.. From then on the strongest beverage aboard navy ships was coffee. Since then a cup of coffee has became known as "a cup of Joe". 

Another colleague of mine used the expression "freeze the balls off of a brass monkey".  The same woman who had earlier inquired about the "cup of Joe" said she knew that expression and it too was from the navy.  A brass monkey was a brass plate on which cannon balls were stacked.  Brass will react to hot and cold temperatures.  When it got cold enough the brass would shrink causing the cannon balls to roll off of it.  Above is a picture of a cannon with a brass monkey and cannon balls.