Commentary – Page 21

February 12, 2006February 12, 2006

What is this world coming to? No Crime Committed

The other night while driving home late like around midnight, and listening to the radio, at the top of the hour one of the news items went like this:

“There was an incident at the mall today (name withheld), witnesses say a child was reluctant to get in a car with an older man. When approached the man seemed aggravated. The car was a Blue such and such with Arizona plates. (We’re I Ohio). Police would like to locate this man and question him. They don’t know if he’s visiting relatives. The child was bi-racial. (I’m not sure what that has to do with it). At this time no crime has been committed.???

I’m not sure how that’s news.
As a parent, I can’t remember the number of times a child has been reluctant to get in the car or has been having a bad day, or didn’t want to leave some where we were because they didn’t get a toy or candy or what ever, or was just plain unhappy about the situation.
Why do the police need to question this man if no crime has been committed, of there is no report of a missing bi-racial child? Abducted by a blue care with Arizona plates? There was no Amber alert on any of the road signs that I passed.

Continue reading “What is this world coming to? No Crime Committed”

January 27, 2006

Chuck Norris Facts

Yep, I’m a Chuck Norris Fan, or well, was. I’ve kind of out grown him I suppose, what is he now 90 years old? But who isn’t a fan of possibly the worst male actor of all time to have quite a few hit shows? My kids love him. My 5 year old wants to be a Texas Ranger when she grows up.

My buddy at work pointed out this site to me today. It’s hilarious.

Some of the top Chuck Norris Facts include:

Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. Ever.
Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.
If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris, you may be only seconds away from death.
Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.
Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies
the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
Chuck Norris’ blood type is AK+. A$%-Kicking Positive. It is compatible only with heavy construction equipment, tanks, and fighter jets.
Chuck Norris is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with ancestry, the man ate an Indian.
In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten.
Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.
There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.
In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.

There are tons more, 10 pages worth, lots of them extremely funny. Word of caution though, quite a few use the f-bomb. But if you’re bored, enjoy.

January 26, 2006

Sports Psychology

Last night we had the pleasure of seeing the sports psychologist at CGA. Yep, we have one of those too. It comes with the package. It’s a good thing I think. Our little girls are very impressionable and to have someone who can take care of their psyches is a good thing.

We were given a heads up by Molly. She said they talked about animals and how they could relate to gymnastics or something. What kind of animal were you like? She told mom to give her the name of an animal and she’d tell her how it would be good in Gymnastics. Mom said “ok, a porcupine”. Molly thought for a minute, and said, “Ok, not a porcupine, I don’t know about those”.

The psychologist was trying to relate the story about the Indian chief. You know the one where he tells his young warriors that inside him are two wolves fighting, one is fear and anger, the other is hope and courage, or something like that. A young feller asks which one will win? and the chief answers, “Whichever one I feed.”

So she helps them figure out which animals or animal combinations they have inside them that they wish to feed and not feed. What animal qualities. Bear with me, it’s a stretch, but it’s fun for the kids and they get it because they are 8 and 9 years old.

Like a tiger is fast and graceful a snail isn’t, etc.

I was hoping they’d ask me because I was prepared to be a “Score focused Porcupine” but it didn’t come to that.

Last time we drew pictures of mirrors and wrote stuff down that was anger related if I recall right.

But in the end we had a very good conversation about goal setting and hopefully we can break Molly of her expectation to show up at meets and get 10’s. Honestly I didn’t put that idea in her head. I might have talked about 10 here or there but I never set that expectation. She knows darn well I’d be perfectly happy with an 9.875 🙂

Seriously, at this stage Molly knows what the scores are for, but she needn’t worry if she messes up a routine. It’s not the end of the world. It’s certainly not worth crying over. Now 5-6 years from now, if she falls of the beam in the Olympics. I expect some serious tears then. I mean that’s national tv and all. Heck that’s global coverage. If you don’t cry under those circumstances you’re not a team player.

January 20, 2006

Working the Coach’s Cup.

This weekend is the big gymnastics meet, the Coach’s cup. Molly competes tomorrow. Claudine and I had the pleasure of working the event today. I said pleasure because it was kind of neat.

Molly is new to this so for us a lot of these experiences are new, though we can see they can and probably will get old rather quickly.

Web-Logging is a unique and wonderful thing. It allows us to share our experiences and thoughts with folks all over the world. It can be a powerful tool. Those who know me know I don’t really care all that much what people think. I have my opinions and they can often be strong. This post might be one of them.

We are very, very fortunate to have a gym as high caliber as Cincinnati Gymnastics in our area. We really really are. There are folks that have moved here from all over to attend CGA. There are folks that work for CGA who have moved here just so their daughters can have a chance to make the national team. The gym is that good.

There are two parts to the story though. There is CGA the for-profit business entity which employs the coaches and runs the facility, for which we pay a monthly fee for our gymnast to attend and there is the non-for profit parents club which pays for everything else (meet fees, leo’s and all kinds of other things). We have to pay this too but we also have to fund-raise a portion of this. To level the playing field and to ‘ensure’ you can’t buy success, all parents have to participate in certain activities. You earn points by fund raising and volunteering, etc. If you don’t earn your points you are penalized financially (go figure). So if you’re in the dough and don’t want to fund raise, guess what? Don’t do it you can buy your way out. I’m ok with this. The cost is about the same, and it does give those who can’t afford it an opportunity to fund raise. Just don’t spin it as ‘leveling the playing field’.

Continue reading “Working the Coach’s Cup.”

January 19, 2006

Sex offender near the school, oh my.

OK, we saw a story about this on the evening news last night. Problem was we were watching a show we had recorded so the news was a day old.

Here’s the deal. There are laws that prohibit sex offenders and child molesters from living within certain distances from schools and I guess places where children might be. I’m fine with that. They have to register and all that stuff. I’m OK with that too.

But this poor guy, well he’s not a known ‘child molester’, he’s a convicted rapist, he did his time and he’s out. A crime either 15 or 20 years ago, I can’t remember. But let’s say for the sake of argument it was only 15 years ago.

He’s now been living where he’s been living for 4 years. Now we, or, uh, well not me, but the City of Cincinnati, or some local government near there went and built a new school in his back yard. A nice, big, brand new school. Now they are upset that he, a known “Sex Offender” lives too close to the school and they’ve gone to court to throw him out.

Now you’d think that in the course of picking a site they might do some research to figure out where these nasty people are and not build near them, or at least relocate them before hand.

I’m personally angered by by the way they are treating this individual. He’s paid his debt, and so far, according to the story, he’s played by the rules. Yet the city is so belligerent that they can take him out of his home of the last 5 years and force him to move without compensation. Or at least they are trying too. They feel ‘confident’ in their case.

This I think might be a good case for the ACLU though I usually think they are a bunch of nuts.

At the very least, the City needs to relocate this fella, including moving expenses, and some cash for his trouble and embarrassment. He didn’t ask for this, he was clearly minding his own business.

Here’s the article: Dilemma: Registered Sex Offender Near CPS School