I was there......

I was among the 75,412 screaming fans when this amazing goal was scored..... the place went absolutely nuts..... I am back from the UK

Headed to UK

Leaving for the UK tonight - stay tuned for updates. Racing stripe is back - peace

C

Monday has gone.......

It's absolutely the most depressing way that a football season could have ended - New York (hated division rivals) vs. New England (characterless cheaters who didn't really even need to cheat in the first place). It's sort of like choosing between the dentist or sitting through a chapel service at my alma mater - Campbell University. Basically, I don't know if there is a positive outcome in store as either way, there will be taunting from various acquaintances who have an affinity towards one team or the other. So, football is, basically, a lost cause for the season and should be discounted by all. (Feel see to say something stupid - Joly boys)
On a much brighter note, I am registered in 6 triathlons in the coming months. Schedule will be posted soon as well as a running score card as I look to make Matt 1-8 against me in his life time. That is - 1 win and 8 consecutive losses. Consecutive as defined - in a row or in this context, 8 losses without being interrupted by a victory.

Disclaimer - the author, in no way, wishes to make this "Matt" person feel bad for having lost previously to said author. The author wishes to remind "Matt" that he is near and dear the author's heart. The author wishes to remind anyone taking up offense for "Matt" whether their name stars with "M" and ends with "eg" or not, that the race is between the author and "Matt" and all others should remain on the side as competing might elevate their heart rate to dangerous levels. We can't all be an ironman - no, literally.

The temperature droppeth.......

The cold spell that we yearned for back when it was 70 is upon us and I don't know that I am "warming" to the idea.
I lead worship at the Executive Place site (Manna Church - 11 am) and that means that I am in and out of my car at least 3 times on a Sunday morning. THIS Sunday morning, my door was frozen shut, I was breaking icicles off the bottle of water in my car, AND the water that I used to thaw the ice on my windshield froze. It was not a warm and fuzzy morning........
On the brighter side, I had the occasion to take in the new film "27 Dresses" with my wife, last night. While my taste is style runs toward the higher end, my taste in films is usually par for the male course - I am a huge Rocky I-IV, Rambo, Aliens, Terminator, etc. fan. However, this "27 Dresses" thing wasn't entirely bad. There was some mildly inappropriate dialogue, but otherwise, it was free of objectionable material. There were some laugh out loud moments and some moments that bordered on touching. Only drawback was that the script was painfully predictable. So, guys, suck it up and take your lady - this one will not defile you (The Notebook) or make you want to hang yourself (My Best Friend's Wedding) or just plain suck (The Notebook).

Disclaimer - the writer of this blog in no way endorses nor suggests that you view any of the aforementioned films. The only film(s) he will recommend, on record is the "Jesus" movie and "Passion of the Christ." Therefore, if you disagree with his movie recommendations, you would likely disagree on everything else and, therefore, the point would be moot.

Manchester Utd 6 - 0 Newcastle United 12/01/2008

Enough said - I will be in that stadium in less than a week..... jealous??

Snow......

Powdery white stuff that makes us all giddy and act like kids - no, Biscuit and Stripes, not THAT stuff - I am speaking of snow. Or "No" as my son calls it. The only problem with southern snow is that it quickly melts and then, overnight, turns into southern ice. So, as all good southerners do, we will surely cancel school for the next week, postpone all major gatherings, and hunker down in our homes to wait until the inch and half are gone (24 hours or less). Sigh...... its too bad that northerners don't hide in their homes when it's hot and humid so we could mock them for the reverse fixture. Oh well, guess we will have to stick with their abysmal treatment of tea and fixation on cooking like they are from the south.

"Day off"

What exactly is a "day off?" Day off from what - our jobs? What a charming thought - I can take the weekend and divorce myself from the things that I must do in order to have money to enjoy this (and future) weekends, feed my family, and live my life in an increasingly expensive world. The amount of rest/fun/relaxing that I do over these two days will have a direct impact on my outlook/performance in the week ahead. Wow - quite a lot of pressure on the those two poor days. So how should one maximize the time off? Sleep? Exercise? Watch TV? Read? All have their own cathartic value and will aid in the recovery from a long week and preparation for another. I am reminded of the old comic strip - Calvin and Hobbes - wherein the chief characters would exhaust themselves attempting to squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of the weekend. Confusion generally seems to be the order of the day and the weekend usually fades with a whimper as one finds oneself going to be early as ideas become less and less appealing.
I find myself in this very dilemma that I referenced in paragraph 1 - I sit here in my chair with my legs propped up on my ottoman. I have slept in (as well as one can with a 1 and a half year old full of energy and brimming with childish testosterone) and now find myself pouring out confessions to my white laptop with the glowing apple/orb in the center. Sleep will only make me crabby because I will not get enough and more exercise will jeopardize the quality of tomorrow's endeavors. TV is out of the question - the writers are on strike and reality TV has sunk to new lows - Dance Wars, American Gladiators, Wife Swap - just to name a few. I could read, but....... So I guess what I am saying is - see you Monday.

The Christmas Tree.......

Now, I know what you are saying..... "CHRIStmas was last month..... get some current material...." Well, folks, I am staring at my material...... as you can see, we here at the ChrisTopher household refuse to let CHRIStmas fade off into obscurity. By keeping the tree up, the dream lives on. I would suspect that this vision of loveliness will remain up in our window until at least Valentine's Day. I mean, I relish CHRIStmas just like everyone else, but I am not sure how much more of this tree I can take as it saps our precious resources. Burning it for warmth would be unheard of because it is plastic and would not help the environment quite as much as it would aid in its destruction. So, I am at a cross roads - interested parties in a fully decorated CHRIStmas tree (extra CHRIS at no charge) apply within

Meetings

I love meetings. They are so....... good. When we get lots of leaders in a room and talk about issues while people answer phone calls, talk amongst themselves, blog, ignore what is going on. Nothing rocks more than leaving a meeting not remembering a word that was spoken. Let's take "biscuit" for instance. He spends most of his time texting and accusing people of starting at him. At best, he is only comprehending %45 of what is being said, so its probably a good thing he doesn't pitch in during the conversation or he might end up being laughed at.

Let's get lighthearted

Alright everyone, let's put this debate and NFL nastiness behind us for a few minutes and focus on the important stuff, me. I mean, all this time we could have been talking about my favorite color, or what I like to do with my spare time, or why my blog smells like flowers.
Now, I would like to take these few minutes to give out some early year cheers and jeers. First, the good news.....
Cheers to

• The Manning brothers - for not hogging the Super Bowl - sometimes we have to share.
  
• My brother Joseph for not coming to this blog and making me his intellectual child. He says that blogs are so two years ago, but with the millions crashing my server every day, I think he might be totally wrong.
• All the triathletes who lose so graciously to me - it takes guts to keep coming back and taking the beatings that I dole out...... well done.... Matt
• My brother Jon - it takes a real man to push away from all that tasty food and start to knock off the poundage. I am the most excited because now he can lose to me in triathlons.

Jeers to

• Michael Wiggins - for breaking the dress code at work, every day.
• Bryan McMillan - enough said.
• Writers Guild of America - I liked it more when you starved so I could laugh. What kind of selfish bunch of people are you?? I am now stuck with Dance Wars, The Amazing Race, and the Celebrity Apprentice. Stephen Baldwin can't star in everything.
• All you people who lost faith in my blog - I can't exist to entertain you every day. I am not a member of the writer's guild and I have a real job making real money - no time to strike.
• Everyone who started a fad diet and is already off it - I believe I solved the problem of obesity already, and your failure to stick with my plan is no longer my problem. Just stay fat and I can always have a nice sized jeer list. Ha - get it??

Ok - I have killed all the time this meeting has to offer.....

Retraction and breakdown of the debates......

"Saturday night's alright...... for fighting......" - ah Elton, thou art on to something. The Republicans raged, the Democrats dodged and made nice, and George Stephonopolous reminded all of us why he is no longer a practicing White House aide (Clinton - 1st and 2nd term). It made for great television even though we didn't have a memorable come back followed by collapse (Steelers) or did we?? (Clinton in Iowa). I waded through all four hours of the debate with my lovely wife by my side to keep me quiet (the boy had gone to bed) every time Ron Paul opened his mouth on the subject of the war. Before I get ahead of myself.......
Allow me to give a little "retraction" of sorts. I say "retraction" in quotations because I am never wrong and will not go on record as being wrong, however, I would like to say that perhaps I jumped to a hasty conclusion regarding the merits of Mr. Gibson's moderating skills. He performed adequately - when he wasn't interrupting - and treated the Democrats in the same manner as he did the Republicans. Refreshing, someone who demonizes neither side and, for the most part, lets the candidates have their say for a few moments.
On the debates themselves....... Unlike the now infamous Gore/Bush debate where Al Gore prowled the stage in his cowboy boots and glaring red tie (he came off as a bully and helped steer independents clear of him - final debate of the 2000 election), the candidates were forced to remain seated, despite John McAin's best efforts to engage Mitt Romney in a literal slugfest. The Republicans went first and were asked questions by Gibson and then the political analyst for the ABC affiliate in New Hampshire. I would give his name here, but he was a sad little man and came off in a very forgettable manner - complete with dumb questions. I shall break down each candidate and how they responded -

• John McCain - called Romney the "candidate of change" because Romney "changed positions" on everything. Had little else to say except jabs of a personal nature at Romney. Came off as old and mean and, despite a strong showing in New Hampshire, will fade into the distance as we, the American Republicans, have proven time and again that we do not want him as president.
• Fred Thompson - was exactly like his character on Law and Order - a supporting actor. Had some nice comebacks to Ron Paul's nonsense and a bit of a dry air about him. Did not inspire but did not hurt himself as badly as McCain.
• Ron Paul - sigh....... I could not agree more with Sen. Paul's view on returning decisions to states and limiting the size and control of the federal government. However, he wouldn't stick to the topic and kept making these claims that Islamic militants attack us because we are bothering them by being in their country. Mr. Paul, read the Koran. We "bother them" by existing. They will not stop until we are dead. Better know the religion before you start talking about it. Who wants a president that doesn't understand the core belief of the enemy?
• Mitt Romney - my wife said he seemed arrogant and at times he did. However, he kept having to remind McCain that this was not a personal debate, but a debate of issues. Seemed the most "Presidential" of all the candidates in the debates - both Republican and Democrat. Held his own on the issues of foreign policy but became a little pushy when illegal immigration came up.
• Mike Huckabee - took a few shots at Romney, as well. Now, we all know my fondness for Huck, but he didn't exude the confidence I had hoped for. He had just won Iowa (which really doesn't mean a whole heap), but the nature of his questioning of Romney lead one to believe that Huckabee was chasing Romney and not the other way around. His answers also seemed a little scripted and chessy, at times.
• Rudy Guilianni - just a hair to liberal for the Republican side of things. He got nailed a couple of times on stances that he has moderated over times to tone down his leftist leanings and attempt to win over the far right. Had some things to say on foreign policy and put Ron Paul in his place on one occasion (speaking of the check he refused from the Saudi Prince), but he fell to pieces as he attempted to defend his policy on illegal immigrants (note the word illegal - why the fuss?? If they are illegal, then treat them as such. Otherwise, call them persons not from here originally and not taxed like the rest of us).

So then, Gibson calls out all the candidates (Republican and Democrat) and they hug and schmooze and all that watched were sickened. Nothing would have made my night like Clinton kicking Guilianni square in the shin. Then Obama could have declared Holy War on Huckabee and all the while Romney could have defended Huck with Joseph Smith's golden tablets (or he could have had a revelation from god that he was to have all the wives of the rest of the candidates - including Hilary's). Sadly, they were all in no such mood as we were to find out when the Democrats came out.
They were unanimous in their disapproval of everything Bush had done domestically and abroad. This derision was in spite of the piece that ABC ran on the war. It reported that casualties since the troop surge were down %63 among Iraqi civilians and only 23 Americas died last month as opposed to 160 something the month prior. Gibson asked each candidate if they still opposed the troop surge despite the fact that it seemed to be working. They all then went on to talk about how flowers smelled pretty and how they loved Sean Penn's acting (he mostly played a pot-head when he was younger - all that reefer madness is paying dividends now). Clinton kept making eyes at Edwards and Obama and complimenting them both. Obama wanted to talk about Oprah's book of the month and how he planned to pay for EVERYONE'S health care. There was a brief moment when Edwards spoke out against Hilary, but Richardson spoke up to remind everyone that this was all about hating on President Bush and not actually a debate of issues. Hugs ensued and I thought for a moment that I was watching a Hollywood awards show - no substance and a bunch of rich people acting like they speak for the middle class. It was a garbled mess that I didn't have the emotional fortitude to wade through and digest.
Now, you are probably noticing what a one-sided approach I took in analyzing the debates. Show of hands - who watched them?? If your hand is not up, you do not have the right to criticize as you clearly did not care enough to avail yourself of the proud display of Democratic policy. They displayed it proudly, alright. Of course, if you stand for nothing, it is easy to display nothing. I welcome dissenting opinions - with names, of course.

Debates are raging......

Hope all of you are availing yourself of ABC's coverage of the "debates" in New Hampshire. I say "debates" because they are only debating amongst themselves part of the time. I want to hear what they have to say, not Charles Gibson. I mean, the nerve - excuse us, Mr. Gibson, we want to hear from qualified candidates as opposed to people who graduated from Princeton with a journalism degree with plans to go to law school, but couldn't get in due to poor grades. Whew - that was a mouthful.

The next president of the United States

Ah yes...... we are embroiled in another "Race for the White House" as it has become termed in the news media. We, the democratic voting public, cast our vote and we nominate our candidate and then when he/she runs against the opposing party nominee, we vote in November and elect our president, right?? Sigh...... I haven't the time to explain it fully, suffice it to say, that we vote and our votes send delegates to both the convention and then (following the nomination) we vote to send delegates to the electoral college to vote for president. So, you do not vote your president into office, your representatives do - thus, we are a democratic republic as opposed to a true democracy. Anyone who tells you otherwise has clearly not read the constitution - but then again, who has these days. You don't have to read to graduate high school anymore, so odds are not good that the fine folks walking American streets have even heard of the constitution.
On to Iowa - a few facts to consider.

1. On the republican side, Guiliani (leading in the national polls) gave up on Iowa weeks ago and has moved his campaign on to Florida. That should say something - a man with a legitimate shot at being elected president focuses somewhere else?? Obviously, not the earth shattering event that the news media makes it out to be.
2. In 2004, approximately 130,000 Iowans cast votes in the primaries while 1.2 million voted in the general election. So, it sounds like Iowa is not decided at the present time. I mean, lets face it, right around %10 of the state spoke yesterday. Conclusive?? I think not
3. As stated earlier, Iowa makes up less than %3 of the vote in order to win yourself a nomination. While it is the first state to vote, it is little else than the first state to vote.
4. One thing from Iowa that does intrigue me is the exit polls. 8 in 10 republicans who voted for Mike Huckabee did so because they were born again Christians. Barrack Obama handily defeated Hilary Clinton in votes by people under the age of 30. Do these facts bore you?? Sorry

So, what is overall takeaway from Iowa?? Don't buy into everything you read/watch in news reports. Remember that news is about ratings/advertisements and who buys your paper/magazine - it is their job to make money off news not just to "report" it. Also remember that frequently, some journalist with an mass comm degree is "analyzing" what happened in Iowa. Just because you look good on camera doesn't qualify you to explain what "happened." Proceed with caution

The Feast

Just a nice little video I found for your viewing pleasure. We will get down to business next....

New Year, your patience, and my 'stache.......

Folks, thank you for your continued support of me in this time of loss. As I deal with the painful removal of my fledgling mustache, I have secluded myself from the outside world..... of the internet.
As the new year begins to pick up speed, most of you have abandoned your newly made new year's resolutions. Not to fear, there is still time to apply those christmas happiness tips. Well, just the part about buying me a gift to appease the exercise gods. After all, as an Ironman, I commune with the pavement on a regular occasion. Oh yes, Jon and Matt...... I went there
So stay tuned for updates on all that goes on in the world of the world. I will be commenting on the latest happenings in Iowa as soon as I can gather my thoughts after my exhausting bike ride. For those of you who don't know, I am an ironman and that is what we do - we ride bikes. Also for those who don't know, the Iowa primary was yesterday and even though Iowa represents less than 3 percent of the delegates who will vote for a candidate at the national convention, the news media has turned the election into a sporting event, so we (topherfletcher.blogspot.com) will play along. (if any of what I said was news to you, may I recommend a high school diploma - we can't all be homeschoolers.)