About (my newest Posterous blog)

By oneniner on Jun 24 2010 | Comments

I'm going to put a summary of this on the About page, but I wanted to create a blog of my daily technology support issues that I come across.  First a little background I guess, all of you techies/geeks should know exactly what I'm talking about.  Since I happen to go to school for Computer Science and work in IT, I am the official support person for all of my family and friends, and I guess all of their friends.  You almost have to be a tech person to understand the enormous number of crazy requests that we get.  99% of the time I am more than happy to help a friend out, even though sometimes I wish I could ask my accountant friends to do my taxes, my handy friends to fix my electrical in my house, or my insurance friends to underwrite me a plan or something, but it just doesn't work that way.  Some people understand and are more than happy to pay or get me a gift certificate, which thats not the point of this blog.  We don't help others for the money, at least after we have enough to live on, we help because we can and we enjoy the other persons satisfaction when they realize they didn't break anything and it was relatively fast and easy to fix.  I also don't want this blog to discourage people from asking me questions, because you don't want to be posterized.  I'm going to try not to enter names, but I do want to separate what requests come from my family, friends and work, so sorry Grandma, you might get a couple mentions.

It's funny, just because I know a little bit, some people think I can figure out anything that gets plugged in.  I'll try to recap some old stories and try not to venture into other work related stories that aren't tech related, but I'm sure they'll come out some since I have my bachelors, worked for a big corporation for a few years and now a small LLC for a few years.  Not to mention all the gadgets and "crap" I have at my house to show off.

I also want to keep this light and fun.  I get some crazy requests and I'd like you to hear them, but at the same time, some things are very informational, even for me.  I'm hoping to also have this as a knowledge base to look back at some of the things I did to remember how to do them again.  So feel free to ask your questions here, I'll try to help, but just like I tell my friends and family.  I have a full time job, a family (the wife has enough computer problems and the dog has a twitter account), and I enjoy to spend some time doing stuff I enjoy, so that stuff comes first, but other than that I'll try to help where I can.

Speaking of work, I should get back to it, but there's more to come.

I wasn't sure if this would get posted here or not, but I guess so. The specialized posts will be on my nolancarson.posterous.com page.

Posted via email from Nolan Carson

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Everlater - Seattle

By oneniner on Jun 02 2010 | Comments

I decided to try the site everlater.com to layout our recent trip to Seattle.  I wish I had done this for our trips to Mexico and Jamaica, but I figured this is a good start.  Maybe, I'll go back and fill those others in sometime.  The site is really neat, you can write journal entries from the trip and add pictures, or make notes on the places you stayed, ate, & ways you traveled.  It's basically telling the story of your trip, a memory book, and a review for the location all at the same time.  The site will even take your entry and turn it into a printed book for a keepsake.  Here's our trip, it's missing a few pictures since I lost my camera, and I still need to add a few videos to it, but it's mostly done.

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Everlater - Seattle

By oneniner on Jun 02 2010 | Comments

I decided to try the site everlater.com to layout our recent trip to Seattle.  I wish I had done this for our trips to Mexico and Jamaica, but I figured this is a good start.  Maybe, I'll go back and fill those others in sometime.  The site is really neat, you can write journal entries from the trip and add pictures, or make notes on the places you stayed, ate, & ways you traveled.  It's basically telling the story of your trip, a memory book, and a review for the location all at the same time.  The site will even take your entry and turn it into a printed book for a keepsake.  Here's our trip, it's missing a few pictures since I lost my camera, and I still need to add a few videos to it, but it's mostly done.

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HTC Incredible

By oneniner on Feb 25 2010 | Comments

I've been waiting over a year to get an Android phone and today was such a fun day that it made it worth the wait.  I kinda wanted the G1 since it came out, but didn't want to consider going to T-Mobile to get it.  Then at MWC 2009 the Hero was announced and I thought it was going to go to at least Sprint if not Verizon and I thought I would get it as soon as it came out.  Then as it got closer and closer I'd see something else that I wanted, but wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger for one reason or another.  The Sprint Hero was a little ugly in my opinion and I read about something else.  Then it was the Droid, then the Eris, but during that time there was the "Passion". I decided that was the perfect phone, it was fast, big, looked nice and was rumored to be on Verizon.  The months went by, yes months and we heard about the Nexus One that all the Google employees were showing off, then it came to light and mentioned Verizon as a future carrier.  I thought well that's nice, but still months away.  What was weird was the Passion rumors continued, they started to change to a Bravo, then an Incredible was mentioned, then a Desire was annouced at this years' MWC.  It is getting hard to tell them all apart.  I have finally decided now, that i believe the Incredible is coming to Verizon, hopefully in the end of March, otherwise early April.  That is going to be my phone, for sure this time.  I've dealt with Windows Mobile for far to long.  My first smart phone was a Moto Q, the day it released in June-ish 2006, then the Verizon vx6800 (HTC Titan) and just recently a HTC Touch Pro to get me by until this Incredible release.

So now to the fun part you've been waiting to hear.  Everyone gets that "rush" when they do something exciting.  I used to always get them in sports, but didn't notice it anywhere else until I got my PS3 before the first Christmas before they came out.  Then it was getting my Wii, when they first came out as well as picking up another 3 over time for friends.  Something about getting/finding things before other people seems to give me that exhilarating feeling.  So today I was reading one of the forums I've been keeping up on for a few months waiting to find out more info about the Incredible.  it's kinda fun hearing other people's opinions on what is going to happen and every once in a while find a gem.  Things seem to come up there, before I read about them anywhere else.  Well today it was my turn.  I was looking through some picture found on Flickr that were taken with a weird model of HTC phone.  I took the dimensions of the picture and multiplied them to find that the camera was about an 8MP camera.  Way bigger than any other HTC phone so far.  People were already assuming it was either the Bravo, Desire, Supersonic, or Incredible.  I first starting trying to figure out their location from the pictures, then looked a little closer at the user names.  I put them after Twitter accounts until I found a match.  That Twitter account linked to a couple twitgoo pictures and a couple YouTube videos.  I put 2+2 together and found a video they had posted of this rumored "Incredible".  I couldn't believe that I was the first viewer of the video.  It caught me off guard.  The video had been posted 8 hours earlier, so I figured I must've been the first person to stumble upon it.  I posted the link to the forum and things just took off from there.  So far I've seen 3 pretty popular blogs it's been posted on and many other small ones have reblogged it.  The person that tipped my post, was gracious enough to comment on the blog to make sure that I received credit.  I couldn't believe it, my name mentioned for credit to a post.  The post was also pretty nice, acting like I did some research project to find the info.  There were a ton of tweets and retweets, mentioning the story.  Here's the first 3 blog posts.

http://phandroid.com/2010/02/25/htc-incredible-on-video/

http://www.androidcentral.com/video-shows-htc-somethings-camera-action-may-be-supersonic-or-incredible

http://androidandme.com/2010/02/news/verizon-htc-incredible-nearing-release/

It got me wanting to blog more and tweet more often, to try to help out the community.  I loved that feeling and it really made me realize why so many people enjoy following technology.  So I guess I had my 15 minutes and I'll turn it back over to everyone else for now, but I can't wait to find something else out someday and hopefully next time, I'll be doing it from my HTC Incredible.

UPDATE:

Before I could even post my first edit, I saw that Engadget ran the story.  I tried to send them a tip as soon as I posted the video and 6 hours later they reposted the Phandroid blog post.  Oh well, atleast that one mentoins my name.  Don't get me wrong, it's still really awesome.  I can still say I was mentioned on Engadget.  By the way, the original video and pictures were pulled, I really hope that no one got in trouble, that wasn't the purpose.  I did make my own copy of the video just in case.  Also Engadget, it's the Incredible, you should read the forum where we proved it.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/25/htc-supersonic-spotted-on-video/

 

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"Rankings"?

By oneniner on May 02 2008 | Comments

So we are on to the 4th rankings now. Of course Newton's 2-3 record doesn't look that great, but the loses were to the 2A #11, 1A #2, & 1A #10. So basically it looks like another great year of scheduling has messed up a decent preseason ranking. Obviously the rankings don't matter and neither does the fact that Newton is not covered by the DMRegister even though we are only 35 miles away. You'd think that we moved out of Iowa, when we dropped out of the CIML. Although I think that the regionals or state pairings are seeded at some point during the year. Which usually goes against our favor. Usually we get paired up with a Valley, Ames, Johnston, Urbandale, or Dowling, but this year Newton is a 1A team so I figured they'd have to be paired up with Norwalk, Pella, Dallas Center Grimes, or someone from Central Iowa that is pretty good. Some how we ended up with the teams that are north and east of us. Which I guess has happened a couple times. Last year we went to Cedar Rapids and my first year we faced Iowa City West (which ended up winning state). So I think the pairings this year could make for a good representation for our conference and central Iowa if things go well. Can you imagine 3 teams from the Little Hawkeye in State? Not the CIML, the Little Hawkeye. I think that would be great, of course I'd plan on a little revenge from regular season loses, but what better picture can you paint for the team that is rebuilding and loss to it's to rivals, then to beat both of them in State. Oh well, I'm a little bit of an optimist if you don't know me. I could be down 9-0 in a game and think there was a way to win it. Don't get me wrong, Newton's not down by 9 right now, They've lost a couple tough ones, but will definately bounce back. We always had a way of winning close games and surprising teams that thought they were better than us, I don't see that changing any time soon.

So since we have probably ruined our chances of being ranked for the next couple years by losing to 3 good teams, I don't mind being an underdog and I can't think of a better time to be an underdog then now. So my challenge to the current team is: take the program to somewhere that I never could, go to STATE!! It'd be the first time in Newton Girls soccer history, and don't just stop once you get there. Anything can happen at that point. Any team can win any game and you never know how things will go. I'm going to back track a little to make it clear that this won't be easy, but I'm hoping you can do it. Once you've been there, it's something that you'll never forget, it's a great atmosphere, the best fields in the state, and you get treated like royalty. Staying in nice hotels, eating good food and just playing the sport you love. So don't let the hurdles along the way get you down, there's a lot to play for.

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The team over east

By oneniner on May 02 2008 | Comments

Another frustrating edition of Newton soccer. I left work a couple minutes early thinking I can make the drive and get there a litte early before the 7:30 PM start... wrong! The game started at 7:00. You would think that they would have held the game up so that I could make it. I did have to drive about 170 miles on a Tuesday night, I think Pella could've moved their 30 mile trip a little later. So I missed the first Pella goal, but again, things just kinda looked out of wack. There were a few matchups that were off and Pella did a nice job of controlling the ball in the midfield, but didn't really have any standouts. We had our chances, but it didn't seem like there was a team sense of urgency. The style of play would make you think that we were up a couple goals against an average team. I think if I had the chance I would put it to either Pella or Norwalk, it's no holds barred when you face them, along with a few past CIML rivals. I would have to say that the small field played to our advantage, which is maybe why Norwalk has always had an edge on Pella. I wish we would have played Pella on a small field last year. The other thing about playing Pella is that it just seems like we don't quite get out of the blocks fast enough. We tend to play at a slow pace and let things come to us instead of setting the pace of play against them. I won't even mention anything about the outcome, but it wasn't pretty.

It really hit me this game, how much I felt for the girls. They all tried so hard and gave it everything they had. They have faced a lot this year and are reacting the best they can, but have so much on their plate. It really hit me how I kinda just left them hanging. I think that if I had stayed around atleast 1 more year, we might have been able to get through a couple of these games with better outcomes. Who knows how the games would've been different, and I guess I would always feel for the team right after I left. I just want them to succeed so much. I was hoping that I'd leave and they'd win all the games, not that they would've won all their games with me, just that it would make an easier transition.

After the game I ran down to the field and tried to give everyone a quick pat on the back. I don't know if I got the message accross that I was hoping, but I just wanted them to know that I care and was rooting for them; to let them know that I had their back. I was glad to see that everyone was so upset, that sounds mean, but that's when you know that people care about the team. Everyone knows of that person that was on their team at one time or another that didn't care if the team won or lost, it was about how that individual played and I'm glad I didn't see that. The one vibe that I felt from hearing from people afterwards was that people were blaming their individual efforts for why they lost. Soccer has always been a team sport and no 1 player or 1 play losses a game. It is good that players recognize when they didn't do well, and are willing to put the weight on their shoulders, but not if they let it get them down. It wasn't any 1 players fault.

It was a long drive back, 1st time I've ever head a long trip home after a loss for a home game. So after 350 miles of driving and 5 hours on the road, I was finally home in time to go to bed. But I would do it all over again for them.

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Norwalk game...

By oneniner on Apr 30 2008 | Comments
I enjoyed talking to everyone that came up before the game. I may not be the best conversation starter, but it was good to be welcomed and I enjoyed hearing the stories. Then once the word got out that Amy and I had visited then I enjoyed talking to the second wave of people too. The biggest reason I miss soccer was the relationships that you build with everyone. It's not that I just left a soccer team, I left 60 friends, not including the 5 years of alumni that I'd coached.

The JV played really well. They had played 1 less game than the varsity, but you wouldn't know it from watching. They are continuing their undefeated streak, which dates back to before last year. They played real well and showed how strong the future of Newton soccer can be. I was proud of them. They are also going through a coaching change, losing the best JV soccer coach in the history of JV soccer coaches. I guess that's what 1 undefeated season does for you. The girls don't have to worry about having 40 people on JV this year since he platoons the rosters, not allowing girls that aren't getting much Varsity time to also play JV. Which leads to a much more competitive, developmental team. Instead of conflicting interests between the teammates like we experienced the last couple years. The JV definitely set the tone for the night and played well.

I was trying to figure out where the varsity players were before the game, I guess they were hiding out in the locker room before the game staying warm. Which wasn't a bad idea on this cold night, but they didn't come out for warm ups until the JV game was basically over. Not that our warm up during the JV game really did anything, but I felt better that they were at least moving around and getting acclimated to the weather and atmosphere.

The"Night at the Roxbury" themed, star-stretch-warm up. I couldn't believe they were kicking their feet to the music. In my opinion the pregame music went from an intimidating, feel good vibe, to a 70's beach party in some kind of a Will Farrel movie. I'm not so sure I'm a big fan of the new look, but I'm kinda weird about what I like in pregame anyways. IMO (since this is MY blog), it should be more of a intimidation, get ready to get your ass whooped atmosphere. And mental prep, than actually warming up and looking pretty. Sure I've played some Spice Girls, NSync, & other goofy music, but I felt it made us individuals and confident in our goofiness. (Which I guess could go for the Night at the Roxybury, too.) So the whole 10 minutes they had to warm up must have been enough. I wouldn't say they were slow out of the blocks. We started the game with an early lead on the #2 team in the state. Norwalk was also #2 when we defeated them last year. The game went as expected, it was pretty back and forth, no one was really dominate. Norwalk eventually tied the score and it seemed like we were just uncomfortable with everything. There were quite a few times people were out of place and timing was off. It wasn't like it was certain people, it was more like a team adjustment needed made or something. I couldn't really put my finger on it. We did have some good opportunities and had some good possessions. Our defense also played well. Then Norwalk was able to score what turned out to be the game winner. We were held to less than 2 goals, which didn't happen much if at all last year. I'm trying to think, I can't think of a game, win or lose that we scored less than 2. Norwalk's best defensive player was out and midfielder graduated, so they were definitely vulnerable. I didn't think Norwalk was as strong as they have been in the past, but I will give them credit, they find a way to win no matter who they are playing or what they are up against. And they were the better team on the field that day. That's hard for me to admit. Hopefully we will both make it far enough and get matched up at State. I wouldn't mind knocking them off after they most likely ruined our chances of a conference championship.

I got a chance to catch up with a few parents after the game, which is always nice. I'm glad people care where I'm at and what's going on in my life. Many people asked if I was coaching somewhere, I guess that means I should get back into it. I'm not sure what I'm waiting for. I also talked to a few girls after the game. They all are so competitive, I guess that's why we got along so well. After talking to them, it's really puts into perspective the changes some of them are dealing with, especially some of the seniors. I also got a chance to hang out with one of the biggest fans, the Dave Man. Coincidentally Dave had the same name as one of the officials, which one of the Norwalk fans felt needed pointed out after 1 of the few calls that went our way. That's another thing, I couldn't complain much about the refs as a coach, but I'll let them have it now. We don't get the best refs for our games sometimes. A few aren't bad, but they are few and far between. So the Dave man and I waited around to have a brief word with the coach. Yeah, right, brief my ass. An hour later he was just getting done with the press. So we had a good little talk, I enjoy being kept in the loop. It's really nice that he's been so open with me. Something that can be hard when you're trying to make changes happen. I'll have more on chats with the coach and I should probably make a special dedication to the Dave Man sometime, I like that guy.

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Fuel for the Fire

By oneniner on Apr 18 2008 | Comments
I'll tell you what, it's as if I needed something to get me more fired up for this season. After I had planned to take vacation from work, drive over 400 miles, and then to have Iowa weather keep me from making it to the DCG game and a reschedule keep me from making the Marshalltown game, Amy and I decided to cancel our trip. So I was quickly reminded how upset it made me to find out 3 hours before a game that it's postponed/canceled due to weather. You get excited and prepared for days, then find out last minute that somebody is scared to tear up their field. That was one of the things I always enjoyed about football and soccer, is that it can be played in any weather and those are some of the games that you remember. So anyways, I found out in time to save me a lot of driving for 1 game vs Knoxville that may end up getting canceled anyways, to read the 2nd rankings.

Can you believe that whoever it is that makes the rankings, has the nerve to put Denver in the 1A rankings and drop Newton, after Newton's only loss was to 2A #10(now #9) Ames. Newton has outscored their opponents 11-4, including Ames. Of all people, I would be the first to tell you that rankings don't matter, but why does Newton always get the short end of the stick. Our record is better than 5 ranked teams (including 1A & 2 A) and the same as 4 more. This is a whole other subject, but somehow Davenport Assumption tied a game. By the rules, this is impossible. A Iowa High School Boys game can end in a tie, but a girls game cannot. So anyways back to my original subject. I'm assuming Newton earned it's ranking by finishing last year by playing competitively with the top teams in 1A & 2A even though we were the smallest 2A team. So this year Newton has a good core of players back, they lose 1 game so far (at least partly due to scheduling in my opinion) and or just passed by on the rankings. Makes no sense, but I guess that just gives them some bulletin board material and a reason to prove themselves to everyone.

So what does it take to get ranked in Iowa Girls High School Soccer? Does it take a coach willing to run up the score on it's opponents when it already has them on their knees? Does it take playing in the CIML where all of your scores get posted in a major news paper? Let alone scores getting posted when you send them in, but articles previewing your team and wins over big teams. Does it take having a coach that brags about his team and sends info statewide trying to advertise? Does it take having players that get college scholarships? How good a team did the year before? Or does it really come down to who plays the best soccer week in, week out, no matter the size, conference, scores or any other factors? I would like to know if there is a committee that makes the rankings that actually watches games, or if a person just hears a couple scores and picks names out of a hat. I don't get it, maybe I never will, I know I'm biased, but give me a break. How about we call the ranking system the BS rankings.

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Coach Barnhill & 2008 Team thoughts

By oneniner on Apr 15 2008 | Comments
So it's the beginning of another girls soccer season. The weather still sucks, spring break is still the first week of practice and the team has to play #10 Ames on basically the first day that games can be played on. So things seem to be the same right. Not really, I didn't mention 1 pretty major change... a new coach. After 5 years of coaching and becoming attached to the girls, the school, the town and everything else that goes with it, I made the decision to move on. I was laid off from my full-time job with Maytag and was looking for new direction. I could've looked in the DesMoines area and commuted like basically everyone else is doing, but there was 1 more factor that influenced me. My girlfriend a just less than 3 years at the time was headed back to her home town to get her masters. Amy recently graduated from my alma mater, Simpson College, and decided to pursue her political science major at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She is majoring in public administration, a 2 year program there. So I decided I had spent long enough dating a girl that lived 45 minutes away during the school year and 2.5 hours away in the summer. We moved out here in August, I decided I had collected enough unemployment and got a full-time job doing computer work for a small financial company in September. Then due to the housing market being the way it is we decided to buy a house in the end of December. So things have been a lot different for me, but I guess it's time I grew up a little. I had too much fun working in my hometown with some great people and then getting to hang out with high school girls everyday after school. Coaching soccer wasn't really a job, it was too fun to be a job. Every day I got to go outside in the sun and run around kicking a ball against people I could beat. :) I'm just kidding on that last bit, it probably helped I had a few years advantage on everybody, ok seriously though I'm not very good. So, soccer season has rolled around again and this time around, I don't get to be directly involved, so I've turned in to the biggest fan the Newton Girls Soccer team has and probably the furthest away from town.

As for the new coach, I had the opportunity to meet him from coaching against him over the years. I think he has a great knowledge of the game and is a great coach. I felt he would be a great fit for Newton since we had similar coaching styles and he has so much experience. Sure things are going to be different for the team, but they could be a lot more different if the new coach was a yeller, or a conditioning specialist. Hint... I was neither, sometimes I liked to act like I was tough on the conditioning, but I thought we got all the conditioning work we needed by working hard during the drills and not taking many breaks. So Coach Barnhill came in with a very good resume of experience and a bright outlook on a chance to take a decent program to the next level. Sure he has different philosophies on formations and practice scheduling, but what coach wouldn't. I was never part of a structured soccer program in high school or college that ran good practices, so I didn't have much to start out with. I just learned everything on the go. My dad was a great coach when I was growing up and taught us the necessities to win and give me a huge head start. He'd still ask how everything was going and made practice suggestions last year. Btw, he's probably the girls 2nd biggest fan. Either him or Amy, they'd probably fight to be 2nd. Back to Mr. Rick Barnhill, I think time will be a great indicator that the school made a great dicision on that hire. He has only improved teams and I don't know why things would be any different in Newton. Below are a couple comments left after the article introducing him in the Newton Daily News:

Yep wrote on Mar 31, 2008 6:32 PM:
" I played for Barnhill for a very short time in Davenport and he was by far the best soccer coach I ever had. Great job Newton for getting a quality coach! "

A.L. Parent wrote on Mar 29, 2008 10:32 AM:
" Newton, you have an excellent coach in Rick Barnhill. Albert Lea is a small, rural district in a town of 15,000 but in the last three seasons they have finished in the top 16 teams statewide twice and the top 8 once- competing against much bigger public schools and private Twin City schools. His second and third seasons, AL girls soccer had the second highest and the highest grade point average among ALL soccer teams (boys and girls) in the state. Players he has guided recently are now playing Division II at Upper Iowa, Minnesota- Duluth and Minnesota State-Mankato. There are also players at Division III for River Falls and others. Rick Barnhill is not some unapproachable, ultracompetitive screamer, but a competent professional that knows how to get the best out of each player without killing the fun of playing the game. You have chosen well. "

So my outlook on this season. We (I use that like I'm still a part of the team, I can do that since I'm the biggest fan) only return 4 starters, after graduating 6 seniors and losing 1 to a family move. Surprisingly I was the only Maytager that moved this season (that I know of), don't get me wrong the closing of Maytag has had a huge impact on the school & even our team over the last couple years. The school is also small enough that girls soccer is the first sport to drop down in class. We are now the biggest school in 1A instead of the smallest school in 2A. Another good move for the program. We competed very well with the best teams in 2A last year, but also beat the team that would've played for 3rd in last years 1A play-offs. And also should've beat #2 in 1A. But that's behind us, maybe I'll talk about last year later. This spring's Cardinals are returning their leading scorer, now career goal leader and a pretty strong core of players. Even though there are only 4 returning starters there are a ton of players that got respectable playing time and aren't new to being on the field during important situations. They have a lot of experience, are well educated on the game, and most importantly are eager to succeed. They are all very competitive. That has been proved already this year. They were respected enough from last years season to be ranked #12 in the preaseason rankings. A ranking that could just as well be #2 considering how teams #2 through #15 are just a mashup of good teams. The girls are already off on a good foot with a 2-1 record with their only loss to another tough Ames team. The real test will come later this week with a matchup with a good Dallas Center-Grimes team. DCG beat us last year after we had beat them the year before. Last years game was a 3-2 battle where we had fought back for a chance to win after a long week, and then just lost it in the end. It was a heart wrenching loss. I'm sure the girls are ready to avenge that loss at DCG's home pitch. DCG is a well coached squad returning most of it's team from last year and are out to prove that they want to go to state this year. It will be a good test for the team to see where they stand amongst the best in 1A. We do have an advantage on DCG, in that we have a new approach and a little different style of play. I've been able to keep up with the team enough to that we are still growing and have had a few games to learn a lot about ourselves. They are still growing and are waiting to have that breakout game. I think the girl still have a lot to prove. They aren't content with just winning the games we won last year and losing in the second round of the playoffs again. This team is set out to make their own name. They can still win out and make it to state for the first time in Newton Girls Soccer history. They are the type of team that won't let a couple wins go to their head and overlook the next opponent. Especially right now this team is out to overcome their personal feats and play good soccer every minute of the game.

I'm excited to see it happen Thursday. Thursday will be my first game to watch this year. Amy and I are leaving work and heading to DCG to catch the varsity game, then planning to watch the JV and Varsity play Knoxville on Friday. I wish we could make it to the Marshalltown game, but a change in the scheduling of the Nebraska Spring game will interrupt that. Don't get me wrong, I'm so confident I think that the Newton Girls could beat the Corn Huskers in a soccer game, but I got these tickets a few months ago, planning on the game being at 6 PM, where we could do both. I tried to call Coach Osborn to have him change it, but he wouldn't listen.

I also wanted to note, that Amy and I ( and my Dad) love the notes I have been getting from people keeping me updated on whats up. I don't know what I'd do without you guys. Like I've mentioned before, there are some great people in Newton, the soccer team included. I've built some lasting friendships and I don't know what I'd do without you guys. So keep'em coming, I don't have a limit on my inbox, facebook, or myspace so I'd like to hear from everybody.

So, more from me later, but go Cards, keep the faith and keep up the good work, great things are going to happen for you this year!

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Blogging

By oneniner on Dec 26 2007 | Comments

On my mind....
I'm not very good at keeping up to date with this blogging thing. I keep telling myself that I need to be more consistent. It's gotten to the point where there's so much on my mind that I felt I should write again. It seems like I use it as more of an escape then anything else. And since I'm sure that nobody reads it, I'm not sure why it helps me, but it does.

So I headed out to Omaha and I'm doing my thing out here now. Working at a job that I really enjoy and getting acquainted with a town that I think will be really good for me in the future. Right now I still haven't gotten away from that phase where i miss parts of what I left behind at times. I'm sure the worst of it will be when March comes around. Coaching soccer was one of my most favorite things. I'm really going to miss it when spring rolls around. The other toughest thing about leaving was my family. For the people that know me very well, they've realized that I'm very close to my family. I think I've already explained how I ruined my dad's knee by having him help me move out here. He ruptured his patella tendon helping me move. He had surgery and is working his way through physical therapy. Along with all the traveling to see them and spending less time with them, this holiday season I realized how lucky and thankful I am for what I have. Sometimes people don't realize how lucky they really are until it's too late or something happens to make them realize it. This year I got to spend thanksgiving with my family and then got the chance to have 4 Christmas's. 1 with my mom's and dad's families, then 1 with Amy's mom's and dad's. Things were great, I ate a ton, I got some really cool stuff, but the most important thing was I got to spend time with everybody. That was the first time this has happened for Amy and I in the 3+ years we'd been dating. In the past families celebrated on the same day or we went to Montana 1 year. So things were great, then on Christmas day I get the worst phone call I have ever received. My sister called, not even able to speak complete words let alone sentences and told me that my dad had a heart attack. Trust me, you'll never be ready for news like that. I was more in shock than anything, I didn't know what to do. My sister was with him at the time and then drove him to the hospital. So now I'm 170 miles away from home, without a car (since I didn't drive to Amy's Dad's Christmas) and no money (which is another story altogether) and worrying for my dad's life. So I flew back to Mercy Hospital, not literally flew, but pretty close. By the time I had gotten there, he had been life flighted to Des Moines and the operation had been completed and we were able to talk to him. It was so relieving to know that he was ok. I would've driving 1,000,000 miles to spend that 30 minutes with him and know that everything was ok, even though that 150 miles, seemed like forever. My dad has spent more time in the hospital in the past few months than the first 50+ years of his life. I can't help but feel a little blame since both incidents were related to him doing stuff for me.

He was shoveling the back drive way with my sister so that I could move my appliances out of the back garage easier. They had nearly finished shoveling and he went inside to get some salt. When he didn't return for a little while my sister went to check on him and he said that he felt like he had heart burn, but probably needed to go to the hospital. My sister frantically drove him there to shortly there after find out that he needed to be life flighted to Des Moines for an operation that had to be done within 90 minutes of his first pains. Due to my sister and mom's quick response and timely treatment at the hospital on Christmas day everything was taken care of with time to spare. I use that term loosely it sounds like the extra time really made us feel better, but you know what I mean. My dad's sisters were visiting each other in California for the holidays and my cousin was able to make it to the hospital to visit and inform everyone what had happen and that he was doing ok, so we could spend more time with him. While I'm thinking about it, thank you to everyone for your prayers and concerns for us during this time. My dad had a lot of people pulling for him. It was even more sad to see all the other families in the intensive care area of the hospital on Christmas and some of which probably weren't as fortunate as we were, if fortunate is the right word.

The things that go through your mind during a time like this are unexplainable, but really makes me thankful for everything that I have and everything that the Lord has done for me. I hope my dad and family realize how much they mean to me and how much different things would be if it weren't for their influence on my life.

So in the midst of this great holiday season and health problems with my family, the other highlight is I'm buying a house. In a month's time my girlfriend and I have decided we're looking for a house, looked at houses, picked out a great house, made an offer, are closing, & then moving in. Um, yes I said a month. Since it's our first time, we are learning very fast, why it is such a big step. Everything from insurance, to inspections, to the closing process, to moving plans, to getting everyones' family approval of our decisions, we can't wait to get this over with and move in. It's been "fun", but I can't wait till it's all finalized.

Among all this, I fought a cold (I never get sick), this next week is the last, last day for some of my Maytag friends. I'm excited to see them again and wish them a happy retirement. 1 of which worked at Maytag for a little over 38 years!

So in my Rev. Run closing thought, be greatful for everything you have and don't be afraid to let the people close to you know how thankful you are. Learn from life's troubles and tribulations and make the best of them. I heard this from a football player before and NFL game this weekend, God puts just enough on your plate at all times. There's never too much, always just enough, so fight through it and learn from the process.

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Categories: family , friends , my reflections
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