The 40 Year Old … Snowboarder?

So before last weekend, I had never been skiing or snowboarding before.  I even included it in my 101 things To Do in 1001 Days.  So last weekend I joined Aiden’s Boy Scout Troop on a ski trip to Winterplace, West Virginia.  And based on some good advice decided I would try to learn to snowboard.

OK get your laughs out now ….

Can we continue?  Thanks … I thought it would be an adventure and boy was it.

The package we had included a lesson so we eagerly got our gear and reported to class.  Our “new” snowboarding group included Aiden, two other Scouts and two teenage boys and myself.  We had a wonderful instructor Mark, who demonstrated great patience with the boys and me.

I must have fallen 800 times during that lesson, but each an every time (with Aiden watching me) I got up and tried again.  And eventually, I was consistent enough to go down Green (easy) hills.

I loved the feeling of negotiating my way down the mountain (ok hill), and despite being incredibly tired and sore the next day, I suited up and went out to do it again.

It’s pretty simple to see there are two “Life Lessons” that were clearly illustrated …

Life Lesson #2:  You should never, ever give up.  No matter how many times you fall you get up dust yourself off and try it again.  Tenacity pays-off.  Sure tenacity hurts sometime, but if it was worth starting it is worth finishing.

And

Life Lesson #3:  Don’t let yourself believe that it’s too late, or you’re too old to learn something new.  It’s not and you are not.

I had a blast learning something new with my son despite the fact that later on the second day I fell and probably cracked a rib.  But even then, I forced myself up one more time and tried again.  Once it heals, I will definitely be back to try it again.  But this time I’ll focus more on following instructor Mark’s “How to Fall” instructions.

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Project 365 – 6/365

Woke up this morning on a Scout Camping trip.  Wesley and I made out way over to the lake where he went fishing for the first time.  He learned to use the spin caster reel in about 10 minutes and earned himself the fishing pole.  we didn;t catch anything but you wouldn’t know that by the smile on his face.

June 5, 2010

Motivation for New Year’s Resolutions

This time of year many of us will make resolutions to improve ourselves.  If you are anything like me you’ll probably have a few resolutions to work out more and get in better shape.  So I’ve compiled these videos to inspire you for the year ahead and help you achieve your resolutions.

First let’s start with a classic motivational speech.  Caution this has very strong language.

Let’s get to work. 

You might feel like you are too old for your I offer up this montage!

No you don’t have to belong to some big fancy gym.  you can you what you have around you.

Ever feel like you want to give up?  Like skipping a day is ok well here’s 40 Inspirational Speeches in Two Minutes.

Now sound off like you’ve got a pair!

SIR Yes SIR …..and Happy New Year!

Best Wine Under $6

When the screened porch was finished my parents came over with two bottles of wine as deck warming presents.

One of those bottles has become my favorite wine of the summer season.

2007 Beringer Muscato

I’m not a huge sweet wine fan. I think Muscadine wines are vile and while zinfindel has very little flavor. But I am in love with this Muscato, we’ve had four bottles since that first one we were given. It has a great fresh flavor with a bit of sweetness. Great for hanging out on the deck with friends after dinner.

And here is the best part of all you can buy it at Walmart for less than $6. It must be catching on because when I picked up two bottles this afternoon there there only three left. Almost every other wine was packed on the shelf with a big hole where this wine is. You should get this wine if you can. You’ll love it.

Kofacts Rating:

Jack Bauer Should Have Died!

I just finished watching in the last episode of season 7 of 24 and I feel like I’ve been robbed.  I am a huge Jack Bauer fan, and I’ve religiously followed 24 from season 2 until this debacle they call a season.

This was the most convoluted, disconnected, and by far the worst season of 24 ever.

Here are my 24 Season 7 Awards:

Worst FBI Agent in the History of Bureau  and Worst Jack Babe to Date

Annie Wersching playing Renee Walker – Lauren and I joked through the entire second half of the season “and here comes the worst FBI agent in history!”  Blowing it again for Jack and Co.

Worst FBI Agent On Television

 

Day 7 Jumped the Shark When …

Tony Alameda invites Jack to the reflecting pool to tell him that another attack is going to happen.  Except these will be completely unrelated to the events in the first act of the story except both bad guys are from the same African country.  OOOOOOO!  Watch out for those Sengalans.

Worst Sub Plot …

Chloe O’Brien pitted against the annoying Janeane Garofalo playing the more annoying Janis Gold in a I can top you side by side technology forensic ironchef competition.  Where secret ingredient is “Fake Techno Babble Bullshit”!  BTW if you are a real fan you know NO ONE can touch Chloe.

Person We Most Wanted to See Die and Were Denied … 

Annie Wersching playing Renee Walker – Congratulations on your second award of the night, although technically your first award was “a double” … which is exactly what we needed to believe that someone as brainless as her character could even get through Quantico. 

Person We Hated to See Die …

James Morrison as Bill Buchanan his death was completely unnecessary.

I Almost Shot My TV When …

Tony admits to Jack that he had to fake being bad, while he was being good, as he was faking being bad.  All to avenge his dead wife.  Really, that why you took us on this fly-ridden dung heap of a season.  BANG! 

The “A Drama Club Student from Brentsville District Could Have Acted Better Than Award” …

Cherry Jones playing President Allison Taylor.  Awful … makes we want to puke.

Yeah they tried to pass her off as the President

 

AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL.

If the writers truely loved the character of Jack Bauer they would have let him die instead of potentially having his good name dragged through another pile of crap like this season.

It would have been the honorable thing to do.

Free Software – No Really

I was reading one of my daily idea generators from a social media blog called Mashable, and between some of the great stories it includes I found an advertisement for something called BizSpark.

I’m not sure why, but I clicked through to see what it was and found an absolutely fantastic new service from Microsoft  . . . of all people.

Part of a larger Start Up Support program from Microsoft, BizSpark, provides FREE software development software to startups and businesses that earn less than $1 Million a year.

You can get all of this software for free:

All the software included in the Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System

Visual Studio Team System is Included!

Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN® Premium subscription

Expression® Studio Version 2

VSTS Team Foundation Server (standard edition)

Production use rights to host a “software as a service” solution (developed during participation in the BizSpark Program, on any platform) over the Internet, with regard to the latest versions of Microsoft products including:

• Microsoft Windows Server® (all editions up to and including Enterprise)
• Microsoft SQL Server® (all editions)
• Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server
• Microsoft System Center
• Microsoft BizTalk® Server
• Microsoft Dynamics® CRM (coming soon)

In addition to the core program offering, BizSpark startups will be eligible for other Microsoft offerings, such as:

• Microsoft Azure™ Services Platform

This new program gives startup businesses access to the software they need to build their business.  Talk about a Business Stimulus Plan!

It it amazing what you can find on the web.  Perhaps not as alluring as a photo of Amanda Peet, but is she giving away software? 

Sure she's cute, but can she program?

No she is not!  😉

Disney’s Photopass a Do Over

The Kovacs clan took a trip to Walt Disney World in January whil the boys were tracked out of school.   Before we left we received an offer to pre-purchase a Disney Photopass for $100 before we left.  Not really understanding the Photopass system we disregarded the offer providing only slightly more consideration than a Shamwow commercial.

Boy was that a mistake.   If I had one thing to do over about our trip I would have planned our meals and park visits a little  more closely, but if I had two things to do over I would have pre-purchased that Photopass CD.

First here is how it works, when you get to the park on the first day you will see Disney photographers stationed at key spots throughout the park.  Have one of them take your picture and they will give you, for free, a photopass card.  Something like this

Sample Photopass Cards

This card contains a 16 character code on the back, which you should take a picture of or write down.  (In case you lose the card).

With your card in hand you can roam the park and have your photos captured all over the park, with characters or shows and events.  Each time you hand your card to the photographer and they will tag each photo they take with your card’s ID.  Then when get home you can visit http://www.disneyphotopass.com enter your card number and all of the photos are available for purchase or download.  A download costs $14.95 per picture, but remember that offer we turned down for the $99.  That right we could have had ALL of the photos they took for $99 on a CD that they would mail to the house.

In our case we did not catch on to the photopass until too late in our visit.  But a visit to the Jedi Training Academy in Disney’s Hollywood Studios resulted in 47 photos of the boys including these:

Padawan Aiden

Padawan Wesley

Wesley Fights Vader

These are much better photos than when I was able to get while I was video tapping the event from a different angle.  So when I sat down to order these, they were going to cost me $44 just for these three pictures . . . . so I spent $125 for all of them (on the CD) . . . lesson learned.  Next time we will pre-order the photopass CD and use the Bejesus out of the card in the park.

With a fixed price of $99 you can use the heck out of the card and get CD full of memories shot by a professional photographer.  If you are planning a trip to Disney do not pass on this valuable offer.

Best Commercials of 2009 Superbowl

Here are what I think were the best commercials of the 2009 Superbowl.

Career Builder – “May Be Time to Get A New Job” Commercial

 

Doritos – “Crystal Ball”  Commercial

 

Pepsi Max – “I’m Good” Commercial

 

The only funny Bud commercial came from Bud Light – “Bud Light for Office Meetings”

 

And a Sentimental Favorite – “G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra”

The Chinese Strike A Blow Against Christmas

So my huge project to coming to a close at work and I’m finally ready to celebrate Christmas.  So I decided we are really going to go grizwald this year with the lights.

Nothing is better in a recession than a completely gratuitous Christmas lghts display.

So today Wes and I pull out everylight we used last year, both inside and out and drag them all outside.  Last year was the first year I very neatly rolled them up on extenstion cord hangers I wouldn’t have to spend half the morning untangling them.  Aren’t I smart.  Wes and I carefully laid every string on the ground and moved on to testing.

We had 20 strings of lights . . .and two worked!  I could not beleive the number of lights that didn’t work so I changed my extension cord thinking something was wrong with the testing rig . . . Nope.  The damn Chinese made holiday lights, which I purchase last year, had a 90% failure rate.  Un flippin believable.

Wes was, of course, disappointed that we couldn’t decorate any more than one tree. 

Wes and the Broken Lights

 

But like Clark Grizwald I won’t give up.  I may kick the crap out of a plastic Santa but I won’t giveup!

Boys . . .  . let’s go  . . . .we’re going to Walmart!

What are You Thankful for?

Aiden (Age 6) – Food, My Mom and Dad, My Little Baby Brother, and my Large Little Brother, Phones, Computers and the Internet, Trees, and Cars

Wesley (Age 5) – Water, the Earth, Houses, our School, our Mom’s Hugs, Books and Reading, Coats, and our Teachers.

Benjamin (Age 2) (I changed the question to “What do you love?”) – To Eat, Cars, Elmo, and Momma.

And if you couldn’t tell this is what I’m most thankful for:

My Boys

A Wonderful Wife and Mother - Happy 11th Anniversary Sweetie!

My Family and Friends

Happy Thanksgiving!