South Park

"I know hippies. I've hated them all my life." - Eric Cartman

Could there be a truer statement ever? I don't think so.

Lay it all out there:

What I Believe:

• I believe that freedom is the most important ideal in this world.
• I believe that I should mind my own business and other people should do the same.
• I believe the Broncos will be 10-6 next year.
• I believe the Rockies will be NL West champs in 2008.
• I believe that "Stone Gods" will not be as good as "The Darkness".

• I believe that one should refrain from giving money to beggars on the street.
• I believe that being a called a nerd is the greatest compliment one can give me.
  
• I believe that people should be able to love whoever they would like to love.
  
• I believe that those people should get the same rights that I do.
• I believe that the Cherry Cricket has the best burgers in Denver.

• I believe that the time for change is upon us, but. . .
  
• I believe that ethanol is not the answer.
• I believe that politicians are scumbags.
• I believe that the writers' strike needs to end soon.
• I believe in equality across the board (sex, race, orientation, age, etc.).

• I believe that the term "hate crime" does more harm than good. How is killing a person for their skin color worse than killing someone because they annoy you? A victim is a victim. Period.
• I believe affirmative action has gone too far. We need to promote equality, not favoritism.
  
• I believe that there is nothing better than standing on the top of a mountain in Colorado.
  
• I believe that cold weather is wonderful.
  
• I believe that CU is full of hippies, Wyoming is full of hicks, and Air Force can't throw.
  

• I believe that dogs are superior to cats.
• I believe I hate cats, actually.
• I believe Firefox is better than IE.
  
• I believe Chuck and Dick are terrible owners.
  
• I believe they can redeem themselves in the next few years with a commitment to winning (meaning $$ and a good product).

• I believe Troy Tulowitzki is the second coming of Jeter.
• I believe that I will actually like Troy, though.
• I believe that organized religion often loses sight of the real goals.
  
• I believe Focus on the Family is one of the worst organizations in the country.
• I believe they should focus on their own damn family.

• I believe that athletes get paid too much and teachers get paid too little.
• I believe that this won't change until they start having spectators in the classroom.
• I believe that all people deserve health care, however. . .
  
• I believe that I shouldn't have to pay for other people's health care.
• I believe that Led Zeppelin and the Beatles are the greatest rock bands of all time.

• I believe that my true calling is bullriding.
• I believe that I just lied.
  
• I believe that I am a genuinely good person, but. . .
• I believe that I can flip the switch at any moment.
• I believe that the perfect night is a steak dinner on the grill, a movie in the DVD player, an open bottle of Riesling, and the wife and I cuddled under a blanket.

• Finally, I believe that this list will actually generate some comments (cross my fingers!).
  

Traveling

The past few weeks, Sarah and I have been in the process of determining our vacation schedule for this summer. We want to take a week and just get away somewhere. Add to that the incredible story that we have witnessed with Fitzy's journey across Europe and our friends' locations all around the country, and we are ready to see some sights.

Now the crazy thing is that Sarah and I come from two very different family travel styles. A large part of Sarah's travelling was centered around her softball schedule. Hawaii for a tournament, Florida for a tournament, etc. My family was more of a "where can we get in the car and go this time around" kind of family. As a result, we have both seen a wide variety of different places and each with a different perspective. Needless to say, as Sarah and I are planning a vacation together, we have a ton of different places and experiences that we want to share with each other.

So to the meat of the blog post: the checklist of places we would like to go in the near future (hopefully) -

New York City: We have friends there (the Dunhams, Bryce and Steph), so it is a natural draw. I have been there 3 times, once with my family when I was 18, once with Sarah for a short weekend and a PA school interview in Dobbs Ferry, and once for Dunham's bachelor party. But as the people who live there will attest, there is way more to see in that city than you can experience in a few weekends. We would love to go back there to get another glimpse of the city that never sleeps.

Athens, GA: The dirty South. Kyle and Amy said we are welcome any time. However, we were told that our stay would involve slow living and live music. Georgia is a state I have driven through, but never stayed in. I would love to see Atlanta and experience true Southern life with the Dirty Southerner himself.

Washington DC: Again, people in the area that I know (Mandy and Jake, Andy and Lexie). Plus Sarah has never been. This is one of my favorite cities to visit. There is so much history, so much to see, so much to do. I was there when I was 18 on a family trip. So incredible and we saw a fraction of the things I wanted to see.

Baltimore, MD: Again, friends in the location (Sara and Jason). Neither Sarah nor I have ever been there, so it would be interesting to see a new city.

Boston, MA: No one I know lives there. Neither Sarah nor I have been there. But Beantown is a city we would love to see. Again, the history and culture of this city is something we would love to experience.

Seattle, WA: Luckily, we know that this one will be knocked off the list this summer. We are heading up there for Sarah's family reunion in July. I have heard great things from people who live(d) there and visited there. Again, this is a place that Sarah and I have not been to. We are both really excited about seeing this part of the country! (In fact, I have never even been close to this part of the country. Closest I have been is probably Yellowstone!)

There are several other places we would love to go. (Europe, Napa Valley, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, Florida Keys, LA, San Diego, Chicago, etc.) Obviously, we can't hit everything right away. We will have to save a few trips for later in our lives.

What do you all think? Where should we travel?

Sad News for Today

Why I hate terrorists: reason #678 - http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=99&id=3180745&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

This really makes me upset. My boy Robby Gordon has been planning for this race for months. The support vehicles were already over there; the two Team Dakar USA Hummer H3's were probably on their way. This sucks. I was really looking forward to this year's race. This was potentially the year that Robby Gordon could win the whole thing. He has a few Dakars under his belt, he has a teammate this time around, he had things going his way. Now there will be no race. Damn. Stupid terrorists.

The Explanation

The more that I have sat around wasting time between posts, the more I realize that I have mislead all six of my readers. The story behind "the other 95%" is not so much a story, but an explanation. And it probably isn't that interesting to anyone besides me and Mary. But I figured I would clear the air so that people don't think I am completely ridiculous. . .

The term "The Other 95%" derives from conversations held between myself and a friend and colleague at work, Mary. She sits in the cube adjacent to mine and we get along great. As a result, there are are countless episodes of intellectual (and nonintellectual) conversation between the two of us. When you throw in a couple trips to the local tavern for a pint and the fact that I have a big mouth, you come up with a lot of chats among coworkers and friends. For those of you who know me, I tend to be a tad bit off. I like to sit on that fine line between "Normal" and "What the $#@%?!!" Because of this, there have been times where things have shot out of my mouth that even make me wonder where the hell I thought of that. They are just not things that normal people say. I guess Mary has noticed this diarrhea of the mouth and one day she pointed it out to me. I honestly cannot remember what I said. I do know that it was far enough out there to get a response that was probably something like, "Flick, I have no idea where you come up with some of that stuff." My response, instead of agreeing, was to tell Mary that she only hears about 5% of what is going on in my brain. (Imagine corny pointing gestures towards head.) And thus, we have "The Other 95%". "The Other 95%" consists of all those thoughts and ideas that teeter over the edge of normality and how they form a collection of bizarre and random words that spill out of my mouth.

See? I told you the "story" (if you can call it that) was less spectacular than I had made it out to be. I apologize for that. However, I think the idea is important enough for me to highlight it. You all know me. You all know how I can and have acted around each one of you. Sometimes, I ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer and it shows. Sometimes my randomness could not be explained. Until the year 2007, the absurd nature of the Flick was undefined. Now we have a name for it. "The Other 95%".

As for the blog. . . last night I made the mistake of drinking large quantities of iced tea with dinner. Because of this, I spent several hours in bed trying to sleep, but instead staring at the green dot on my phone that let me know that it was charging. I do this far more than I would like to admit. Iced tea = highly caffeinated. Caffeine = good way to stay awake. Therefore, iced tea late at night = terrible idea. But I do it anyways. But as I was laying in bed, I was brainstorming ideas for this blog. I have not been very excited about the lack of posts in the last few months and it is my goal to change that for this year. My night of iced tea induced restlessness has at least given me enough ideas to get this thing rolling. Let's see how this goes!

To the next post,
Mike

The other 95%

I have just recently updated the title of this blog to reflect me as a person. There is a story behind the title that I will explain at a later date. For now, just act confused (except for Mary) and wait for the story with bated breath!

Curling Review

Curling: potentially the second greatest sport ever (behind baseball). John, Robert and I did the curling thing on Friday. The result? A couple hours of heaven followed by a day of tight hamstrings. The evening started out with a short video on the history, rules, and scoring of curling. Since we had all watched the Olympic curling religiously, this was mostly old news for us. After applying a giant strip of tape to the bottom of our left shoes, we made our way to the ice, grabbing our brooms on the way. The instructors were kind enough to remind us that we should step onto the ice with our gripping foot and not the sliding foot. Despite the reminder, a few people in the class almost went down. The first thing to address was the throwing motion. We lined up along the boards on one knee with the brooms laid on the ice in front of us. We then pushed off the wall to learn the curling throw form. After a couple tries, we replaced the broom with a rock in each hand and again pushed ourselves off the wall. Again, after a couple tries, we moved on to the next activity. The next step was using the actual curling blocks (called hacks) instead of the boards. The first attempt at this was using a rock in the shooting hand and a "training wheel" of sorts (basically a plastic handle to lean on). After one attempt with the training wheel, we replaced it with the broom and we were curling.

After a few trial runs, they let us start throwing rocks the length of the sheet. All three of us left the first toss short. In fact, we didn't even make it to the hog line, which is the line that you must pass in order to leave the rock in play (either as a score or as a block). Of course, our second throws all went straight through the house as we all managed to over correct our weak first throws! After that, we started to put rocks in play with more consistancy. John was the first to place a rock in the house and Robert and I followed with house shots later in the night.

I can't begin to explain how fun it actually was. I would highly recommend the introductory class for anyone who is looking to fill a couple hours for one night. It was $20 and completely worth getting a glimpse into a completely new sports experience. We had so much fun, we are looking into joining a league. The problem is the expense of the league. The league costs $225 per person (with 4 people on a team) for a 10 week season. That is the nature of ice time in Colorado. Expensive. However, we are going to look for a sponsor to pick up half of the registration fees and team shirts. That might make it more reasonable for all of us. As always, I will keep you posted on the progress of our Olympic curling team!!

After reading Dunham's blog, I, too, realized that I have been blogging for over 2 years now. Time has truly flown by the last couple years and I am glad I have been able to throw some thoughts, observations, etc. down for other people to see. Hopefully you have enjoyed it as much as I have.

To the next post!
Mike

Curling. Need I say more?

Tonight, I am going to step into the awesome world of curling. Robert, John, and myself watched the Olympic curling religiously when we lived together on Lee Ct. About two months ago, I was bored and I went looking for curling locations in Denver. I found the Ice Ranch, near my parent's house. They had ice for curling and they had a mailing list, so I got on it. Last week, I got an email from the Ice Ranch that was advertising curling lessons. Obviously, we could not pass this up. So tonight, the three of us will be learning how to curl. This takes me one step closer to my Olympic dreams!!

I'll definitely have a post after the curling lesson. This is going to be sweet!

Married Life Pretty Much Mirrors Fiance Life

I think the title pretty much sums it all up. There are a few differences, obviously, but for the most part, married life is pretty much the same as pre-married life. The good thing is that married life is still pretty dang good!

There have been two specific things that have been the hardest for me to get used to. The first is calling Sarah my wife instead of my girlfriend or fiancee. You would not believe how hard it is to get that right the first few weeks after the wedding. In fact, after getting back from my honeymoon, I went to the Rockies' play-in game at Coors Field. As we were sitting there, the guy next to me and I were conversing about Jamie Carroll. I said, "My girlfriend thinks it is funny that he could fit in her clothes." Then after realizing what I had said, I said, "I mean my wife." He may or may not have given me a strange look. I told him, "It has been pretty recent." I'm not sure he was quite on board with my excuse!

The other thing that is a weird transition is the complete combining of our finances. Now granted, we had been very aware of each other's financial situations. We did just pay for a wedding and we had a joint "wedding" account. However, when it came time to buy Sarah's birthday present, it became painfully obvious that I was using her money (technically) to buy her present. It was a weird feeling. I can't really describe it more than that. It was just bizarre to realize something like that. It is a feeling you can't prepare yourself for. Weird.

Since the wedding and honeymoon, life has pretty much returned to normal (without the stress from the wedding planning). The last couple weeks of work have dominated my schedule. Both projects that I am working on have deliverables due the same week. This makes for lots of work with little time for Mikey. So I have been making myself comfortable in my little cube way more than I would like to be there. Thankfully, I have cooled out this afternoon so I can coast into the weekend!

By the way, my wife is the greatest wife ever. For multiple reasons. But one of the more recent reasons involves her buying me a Wii for my birthday/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Flag Day. The Wii is such an incredible gaming experience. The normal button pushing is still there, it is just combine with arm motions and craziness! I am a huge fan of all the games I have played so far (Mario Party 8, Metroid Prime: Corruption, Wii Sports, Madden '08, The Bigs, Tiger Woods '08). I think the next ones to try will be Guitar Hero and one of the Tony Hawk games. I'll let you know how it goes.

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November, the gunpowder, treason, and plot.
I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
On the 5th of November, Ron Paul's raised $4.2 million for his presidential campaign. That value is a GOP record for fundraising in a 24 hour period. His campaign staff used Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th), as a basis for their fundraising efforts. They wanted to raise awareness for the libertarian cause as they raised money for their candidate. Let's hope that Ron Paul's presence in the Republican primary opens a lot of eyes about the ridiculousness of our current government state.

The Colorado Rockies will be hosting a series against the AL Central Minnesota Twins the 16th through the 18th of May. Needless to say, I am quite excited for this weekend. I plan on being at all three games. Let me know if you are interested in doing the same.

Once again, I apologize for the delay between posts. With the wedding over and the work chaos dying down a little bit, I hope to be on top of this little blog thing.

Talk to you all soon,
Mikey

Waning Freedom

Here I sit just a few days away from being an old married man. The random thoughts as the day edges closer. . .

• For all of you single men out there, here is my advice to you. Find a girl that is not a girly-girl. Find a girl who doesn't stress out about little things and just goes with the flow. The last two weeks, when most brides crank up the bitch-o-meter, Sarah has stayed calm and composed. I am a lucky, lucky man!
• Working the week before your wedding is a joke. I normally lack focus from time to time, but this week has been absurb. Not much getting done here.
• Although it was nice to have the Rockies playing meaningful games in September, their success was very bittersweet to me. I love the Rockies, so I enjoy having them succeed. However, they were successful despite the fact that Clint Hurdle was their manager. Now because of the success, the Monforts can keep Hurdle around, screw the fans and prepare to unload all their awesome young talent. I hate those brothers.
• I hope the first two games of the season are not an indication of how the Broncos will play all year. We barely got by against two mediocre teams.
• I wish that Focus on the Family would crawl in a hole and never be heard from again. That is seriously one of the most annoying organizations ever created. I do enjoy those bumper stickers you see every once in a while that say "Focus On Your Own Damn Family".
• Speaking of bumper stickers, I have seen this one lately that cracks me up. It says, "Don't Steal: The Government Hates Competition".
• I, too, think that I should sue God. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6926550
• One week from now, I will be relaxing in Mexico. Life is rough.
• Is it too early to predict a Stanley Cup for the Avs?
• Last night, on my way to my softball game, I followed an older (at least 70's or 80's) driver down Jamison St. from my parent's house. If I ever drive 10 below the speed limit, regardless of my age, please come club me in the face.
• California, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Maryland, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota - Sarah and I have people coming in from each of these states for our wedding. We are lucky to have such incredible friends and family.
• I went golfing once this summer. Once. And it completely jacked up my softball swing. After a few games of either popping out or having weak grounders, I hit the cages for a half an hour or so last week. The average is on its way back up, thank goodness.
• The best thing about this wedding is the fact that we will get to spend some time with all the important people in our lives. Unfortunately, it is not going to be a lot of time. A lot of people will be in and out of Colorado fairly quickly.
• I am praying that we snap our 9 game losing streak this week.
• On that note, sorry to Adam Finney for making him miss the game! (He lives in Houston. This weekend may have been his only chance to see the Rams in person all year. Oops!)
• Sarah and I will have been engaged 18 months to the day on our wedding day. How about that for timing?

That is about it for me. I can't wait for all the festivities to begin! Next post: post Mexico, I would imagine!