Close Enough to Friday for Me

Since my work week ended today, I think it would be a good time to inject some randomness in your lives!

• Every year, we do a gift exchange thing at the office where we fight over 365 day desk calendars. Last year, I got "Dumb Dares for the Office". I didn't get into too much trouble, mostly because I didn't do the 85% of dares that were fireable offenses.
  
• This year I got "The Mensa Puzzle Calendar". I'm guessing that this one will keep me out of trouble for the most part.
• Until I don't work because I can't figure out some crazy puzzle.
• I'm really excited for 5 days off this weekend and 4 off next weekend. Nine days off in a 12 day period is a-ok in my book.
• Katie, Jorge, my cousin Dave, and I hit up Winter Park on Saturday. It was pretty cold, but we survived with the 4-8 inch stashes of powder in the trees.
  
• I went to the Bronco game on Sunday with Johnny, his buddy John, and Matthew. It was cold, cold, and COLD. But we had a good time and stayed warm until the end of the game when the sun and the Broncos slowly faded.
• Gartrell Johnson is a beast. 275 yards rushing and 90 yards receiving in any bowl? Awesome.
• Sign #1 seen on ESPN during New Mexico Bowl: "Tickets to New Mexico Bowl - $60, Ticket to park and tailgate before game - $15, Being on ESPN while CU watches from home - Priceless"
• Sign #2 seen on ESPN during New Mexico Bowl: "Fresno is not a state"
• HD is the greatest invention of all time.
• The next few days are going to be hectic - Christmas Eve at our house with Sarah's dad's family, Christmas morning and early afternoon with my family, late afternoon with Sarah's mom's family, night flight to Portland, wedding festivities all Friday, early morning flight Saturday, afternoon wedding anniversary party, evening meet-up with some college friends, morning snowboarding on Sunday, Christmas part II Sunday afternoon.
  
• Then we take a breath.
• Maybe.
• Spent some time with Mike, Rosie, Fitz, Andy, and Lexie (and Elise) last night. It is always good to see old friends and catch up. I wish it could happen more often.
  

If I don't get anything posted between now and Thursday, I wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Mike

Film Addict?

Jason Kottke's blog found a website that determines how much of a film addict you might be. The site takes the top 250 films on IMDB and you check off how many you have seen. I was a pathetic 36%. Click HERE to compare your level of addiction with mine.

I'd love to see someone get above 75%. That would show some serious dedication to the silver screen.

Confessions of a Dangerous Flick

Random Musings on this beautiful December day. . .

• I received Dropkick Murphys newest (but not so new) album (The Meanest of Times) for my birthday in November. After numerous cycles through the whole CD, I have decided that I love it as much if not more than their previous work.
• Speaking of DKM - they are supposedly named after a local detox place in Boston.
• CSU is bowl bound - December 20th in Albuquerque against Fresno State. Steve Fairchild has set a CSU record for victories in a freshman coaching campaign. Let's hope he extends his record to 7 later this month.
• The wifey and I have purchased a new television.
• The HD channels start on Sunday. I can't wait.
  
• In related news, our Daytona party just got a hell of a lot cooler.
• Also related: if you are in the market for a TV, shop one place - Ultimate Electronics. No other store has the combination of customer service and unbeatable prices.
• The Rockies came out of the Winter Meetings with Alan Embree as the only addition to the roster. Excellent. We picked up a 38-year-old bullpen pitcher. Great. The Denver Post apparently is really excited for him to give up dingers at Coors Field.
• I know that I am years behind, but Arrested Development is hilarious.
• It is now December 12 and I have yet to be skiing or snowboarding this year. This upsets me.
• The basement is making some serious progress. A majority of the drywall is up and the process of taping and mudding is going on now. Once that is complete, the shower and tile installs are the only real time-consuming portion of the reconstruction. After that it should not be long before we regain our working basement bathroom!
  

Hopefully you all have a wonderful holiday season in the next few weeks. Enjoy your time off, your time with family, and all the delicious Christmas cookies!

Until the next post -
Mike

Typealyzer

My buddy Mike over at Beautiful is Safe found a website that does a personality analysis based on your blog entries. The website is called Typealyzer and is a sweet little thing to play with (that's what she said).

While Mike's blog came back as a "logical and analytical" type, mine came back as this:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

While I tend to agree with pieces of the analysis, I have a hard time swallowing the last sentence. Ouch. I guess I should stop my ladder climb immediately. The only thing that I can think is that my blog is a reflection of half of my personality: the non-engineering part of my psyche - the creative and artistic side (which miraculously can be present in an engineering mind).

What do you all think? Is my Typealysis accurate or is it completely off base?

Flicktastic Brain Farts

• Yep this is my family. I took that picture at my Grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary party. Where Flicks go, chaos ensues.
• It was Sarah's first adventure into the state of Wisconsin. It was nice for her to see all the places that she hears about in stories from my family.
  
• While we were there, we went on a tour of the Miller Brewery.
  

• Jorge liked the Miller tour.
• The election is over and that makes me happy.
  
• Amendment 48 failed in Colorado and that makes me really happy.
  
• The only things that truly disappointed me this election season was the passing of Proposition 8 in California and similar gay marriage bans in a couple other states. I am constantly amazed that people use religious reasons for withholding secular rights from people. I thought our country was created to prevent such travesties. Religion should not dictate secular law (especially when people's rights are concerned).
  
• CSU can be bowl eligible with a win over Wyoming (@ Wyo) on Saturday. I'm not saying that I was not hoping for improvement over the last few years, but I am pleasantly surprised that we have progressed so far in such a short time. The Steve Fairchild era is already looking favorable.
• It was nice to see the Broncos offense and defense show up the last couple weeks. All those injured starters on defense better not just get their starting positions handed back to them. Those young guys are playing with fire.
  
• I think Billy Beane fleeced us.
  
• Year-end review have came and went and I still have a job. Success!
• Sarah and I got our passes for Winter Park/Mary Jane and Copper Mountain yesterday. I can't wait to get up there for the first runs of the season.
• The last week or so, my buddies over at Cru Jones Society did a great series of ridiculous movie competitions. I guarantee that some of the movies you love are listed in there. Here is part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Great way to kill some time at the end of the week!
• If you have never been to SomeEcards, you are missing out on the fun.
  
• The holidays are coming up. Hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday season.
  

Fall Tradition

A few of us (John, Robert, Augie, and I) have a tradition of speculating what the following positions will look like for the Rockies upcoming opening day:

• Starting Lineup
• Bench Players
• Starting Rotation
• Bullpen
• Set-up Man
• Closer
  

This year we continued the trend. This is what I came up with:

Starting Lineup:

1. 2B Barmes
2. SS Tulo
3. 3B Stewart
4. LF Holliday
5. RF Hawpe
6. C Iannetta
7. 1B Helton
8. CF Smith

Bench Players:

• Baker
• Spilborghs
• Fowler (although probably starting in AAA)
• Quintanilla
• Herrera
• Bellorin
• Podsednik

Starting Rotation:

1. Cook
2. Francis
3. Jimenez
4. Blackburn
5. De La Rosa

Bullpen:

• Vizcaino
• Rusch
• Grilli
• Speier
• Hirsh
• Morillo

Setup:

• Buchholz

Closer:

• Corpas

Unfortunately, you can see that there is an absence of Garrett Atkins in this lineup. I think he is the guy that they trade away to get some pitching help (Blackburn from the Twins, who are looking for a 3B). I think the Rockies management would like to continue to try and sign Holliday to a long term deal if they can't do it this offseason. Tavares is also gone. Not really sure where or for whom. But we don't need his .145 OBP anymore! I think they also trade Yorbit to someone who needs a starting catcher. He's not happy with his playing time, and the Rockies have Iannetta. Fuentes is probably gone as well. Any way you look at it, the Rockies need to make some changes this offseason. Standing pat is not acceptable with the way this team looked in 2008. Pitching needs to be addressed and we have the position players to make some deals.

What do you all think?

Jonny X's Words Have Become Truth

This lack of posting is getting ridiculous. I, like every scumbag politician, will blame the other party for this travesty.

Updates on the life and times of Mr. Flick:

The basement bathroom is slowly coming along. After making it through Deppe's bachelor party without needing to use the toilet hole in the floor after copious amounts of booze and beef, I think Sarah and I can survive with just the one bathroom for a little while.

Jon Deppe and Holly Winters did in fact get married on October 4th. Congratulations to them. Their ceremony was beautiful and very much a reflection of their personalities. I had a great time.

Softball season is coming to a close. My men's team lost in the semifinals on Monday yet again this season. It seems as if we decide to play our worst games every year in the tournaments. Pretty pathetic. The coed team has one more week of play and then a tournament the weekend of November 8-9. We'll see how that goes. We traditionally don't play well in tournaments in that league either! Starting to see a trend here?

Sarah and I will be in Estes Park this weekend to celebrate our first anniversary (September 22). We will be staying at a bed and breakfast and just enjoying out time away from work and everything else. Hopefully the weather stays fairly nice for our little weekend getaway.

Colorado State football goes from promising to disastrous to promising to disastrous again. I expected a bit of a learning curve under Steve Fairchild. This has been a roller coaster season, though. Overall, I think that Fairchild is going in the right direction. The offense actually looks like a force to be reckoned with and has unpredictability at times (something that had disappeared during Lubick's last couple years). Plus Larry Kerr has done a phenomenal job in his return as defensive coordinator.

The Broncos just plain suck. Their defense will really be hurting now that Champ Bailey is out for a couple weeks. The offense needs to get back to the absurd scoring that they experienced the first few weeks of the season.

Sarah and I sent our mail-in ballots in this week. Never have I seen such a bloated and ridiculous ballot. Let's hope that Referendum O passes so that we as voters don't have to see such ridiculousness again.

After some initial legwork, I have scrounged up snowboards for Sarah and I to borrow this season. I am actually getting really excited to branch out and try the other side. I've been skiing for a long, LONG time now, so it will be fun to be relegated to the green runs and falling on my ass all day!

In exactly one year to the month, I will be taking the professional engineer exam. I wonder what happens with all the engineering crap I pushed out of my head in the last 3.5 years? Does it magically insert itself back into my brain? I sure hope so.

Maybe this time I won't wait a month and a half before I return. . .

Mikey

Because No One Likes a "Stressed Out Woman's Menstrual Cycle"

Thanks to E. Dagger over at Cru Jones Society for calling me out for not blogging regularly. A couple more callouts like this:

"Let’s start of with the item I enjoyed reading most this week. While checking Flickerbock’s blog, which he updates about as regularly as a stressed-out woman’s menstrual cycle, he linked to an open letter written by Roger Ebert directed at former Sun Times colleague Jay Mariotti. The crux of the letter is Roger’s criticism of Jay’s manner of exit from the Chicago Sun Times and Jay’s subsequent assertion that newspaper are dying."

And I might start doing this with some sense of normalcy.

My favorite way to post on this blog:

• The Rockies are done. If you didn't think so before, you better start thinking it now. They are currently 8 games back of first place in the NL Worst with 16 games to play. They freaking balked a run in to lose the other night. Time to look forward to next year.
• Monday night's game between the Broncos and Raiders was enjoyable for a few reasons. Obviously, the Broncos offense looked great (even without Brandon Marshall) and they dominated the Raiders D. However, my favorite part of the night was watching the Raiders fans in all their stupid outfits look completely dejected. That was beautiful. I'm glad they got all dolled up for that!
  
• The political state of this country is borderline laughable. Our candidates spend more time worrying about what the other is saying, they completely ignore the issues. Thankfully, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show are on top of all the absurd happenings in the political world. This clip cracked me up.
• Also humorous about the current political situation: how pigs with lipstick have become a focal point.
  
• Ron Paul has officially backed neither Obama nor McCain. He has thrown his support behind Bob Barr (Libertarian), Ralph Nader (Independent), Cynthia McKinney (Green), and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution). Who says you can't just have one?!
• Big ups to occasional blog reader Robert. His workplace is apparently full of deceit, sex, lies, drugs, gifts, scandal, oil, gas, and Native Americans.
• My quest for retirement before age 26 is becoming less and less likely. Any and all ideas will be evaluated (and hopefully implemented).
  
• Shameless plug for the Cru Jones Society.
• Ski season is just around the corner. Thankfully, the wifey has decided to join our ranks and pick up skiing or snowboarding this year. I'm estatic because this means I won't be leaving her in Denver every weekend!
  
• In the last few weeks, I have taken pictures of the DNC, the basement remodeling, and a new baby (Riley Robinson). Hopefully I can get some of them up in the near future.

Til the next post.
Mike

Roger > Jay

I (like my friends at the Cru Jones Society) am a big fan of Roger Ebert. His reviews are truthful, they are witty, they are fun to read. And with his latest review, I have decided that I like Mr. Ebert even more.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080828/COMMENTARY/808289997&loc=interstitialskip

Basically, Ebert lays into Jay Mariotti for the way Jay handled himself during his resignation from the Chicago Sun Times. And it is beautiful.

Hopefully, this means that Jay Mariotti will never show his face on ESPN's Around the Horn ever again.

Beer League Softball

As many of you know, I play softball like it is my job. In fact, I wish that were actually the case. But as much as I love playing softball (or any other rec sport, for that matter), there are always those super competitive jerks and worthless lazy jerks that play in your league. Luckily, I am not the only one who feels this way. Our friends at the Cru Jones Society agree.