Positive Experiences build character

What makes someone either happy or sad? How are some so positive in the worst situations where others who have one little bump in the road become devastated and almost end up becoming a shell of the old self? Positive people are more successful in life, love and relationships. Being positive is infectious and I strongly believe that.


I have watched people who have been in the worst situations almost will their pain away by keeping positive. I have also seen people’s negativity ruin not just themselves but others who are around them. Take for example, University of Kansas officials are willing to talk with former players about allegations of abusive behavior by football coach Mark Mangino - and two former players had plenty to say on Thursday.

Former Jayhawks receiver Raymond Brown recalled how in 2007, after his younger brother was wounded in a shooting near his home in St. Louis, teammates gathered around and warmly pledged their support. A few days later, Brown said, an angry Mangino ordered him to the sideline during practice and made a shockingly insensitive comment.

"He went off on me yelling, which is fine," Brown told The Associated Press. "I kept saying, 'Yes, sir, yes, sir,' to everything he was saying. A teammate asked me what happened. Then he started on me again and I said, 'Yes, sir,' and he said, 'Don't you 'yes sir' me. I'll send you back to St. Louis where you can get shot by your homies."'

This is a disgusting way to motivate college athletes if this is true. When I coached I was very firm yet always understanding. Coaches should be great actors, hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Your attitude is infectious on young adults.

Brown and another former player also told the AP that Mangino made insensitive comments about a player's father being an alcoholic.

A spokesman said Mangino, who needs three victories to become the winningest coach in school history, was not returning calls Thursday. He has said he has done nothing wrong.

The university this week confirmed that it is investigating allegations of verbal and emotional abuse by Mangino, the 2007 national coach of the year.

The probe by associate athletic director for risk management Lori Williams began Sunday after senior linebacker Arist Wright complained to athletic director Lew Perkins that Mangino had poked him in the chest while chewing him out.

Positives in life never get media time. Sports should bring out the best in your athletes. In fact you should relate to the players approximately as you do to your own children and as the parents of your players relate to their own son. Being positive all the time will not get the room cleaned up and the homework done. Kids need tough love. Fundamentals are nice. You have to teach fundamentals when it comes to the rules, safety, and the basics of various football actions like holding onto the football, keeping your head up, and so on. But most youth coaching books, and most youth coaches, spend far too much on fundamentals to the neglect of more important things like making sure the kids know their assignments. Discipline can teach so many different things, when it is done with a positive spin.



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Pirates of the Sea

Did anyone really expect to have real pirates attacking ships after the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months and were thwarted by private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship who fired off guns and a high-decibel noise device.


Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April and took ship captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days. Navy SEAL sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

Four suspected pirates in a skiff attacked the ship again on Wednesday around 6:30 a.m. local time, firing on the ship with automatic weapons from about 300 yards away, a statement from the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said.

An on-board security team repelled the attack by using evasive maneuvers, small-arms fire and a Long Range Acoustic Device, which can beam earsplitting alarm tones, the fleet said.

Pirates have greatly increased their attacks in recent weeks after seasonal rains subsided. On Tuesday, a self-proclaimed pirate said that Somali hijackers had been paid $3.3 million for the release of 36 crew members from a Spanish vessel held for more than six weeks — a clear demonstration of how lucrative the trade can be for impoverished Somalis.

Phillips told the AP last month from his farmhouse in Vermont that he was contemplating retiring from sea life after his ordeal. He's been given a book deal and a movie could be in the works.

Phillips was hailed as a hero for helping his crew thwart April's hijacking before he was taken hostage, but he says he never volunteered, as crew members and his family reported at the time. He says he was already a hostage when he struck a deal with the pirates — trading him for their leader, who was taken by the Maersk Alabama's crew.

Today's pirates are mainly fighters for Somalia's many warlord factions, who have fought each other for control of the country since the collapse of the Siad Barre government in 1991.

Their motives? A mixture of entrepreneurialism and survival, says Iqbal Jhazbhay, a Somali expert at the University of South Africa in Tshwane, as Pretoria is now called.

"From the evidence so far, these primarily appear to be fighters looking for predatory opportunities," says Mr. Jhazbhay. They operated "roadblocks in the past, which were fleecing people as a form of taxation. Now they've seen the opportunities on the high seas."

Initially, one of the main motives for taking to the seas – working first with local fishermen, and later buying boats and weapons with the proceeds of every ship they captured – was "pure survival," says Jhazbhay, explaining that armed extortion is one of the few opportunities to make a living in lawless Somalia.

"It's spiked more recently because of a spike in food prices," he says.

Now it has become a highly profitable, sophisticated criminal enterprise hauling in millions of dollars in ransom payments.





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Weekly Thought Bonanza Nov 14th

On Sunday/Monday, I produce a column called “The Weekly Thought Bonanza”. The column is based on all of the random thoughts that run through my head all week, and trust me there are a plethora of them. I will try to share as many of these thoughts as I can, so each one of my readers can think just a little bit extra over the coming week.


It is never ok to flip the middle finger at anyone when you’re driving. When you get the ole’ dirty bird from a lady who is at least seventy five years old, after she cuts you off in your lane on the highway, is just disturbing.

I really enjoy Meatball Subs. D’Angelos has a pretty good one.

The best defense is a good offense in any sport, but I must say the offense of the Cleveland Browns is absolutely pathetic. Which leaves me to believe their defense is not any good either. My dislike for Eric Mangini, the head coach of the Browns, is the biggest jackarse in the NFL. Even though I love Brady Quinn, I hope Cleveland loses every game 100 to zero.

The Chai Tea from Kuerig for your machine is two thumbs way up.

The Winter Olympics is almost upon us and I for one cannot wait. There is such excitement when the Olympics are on television in my household. Since the US Hockey team won the gold in 1980, I have always been partial to the winter games.

The New Apple commercials dissing Windows 7 is too funny.

I am hoping that this holiday season will be the real stimulation the economy needs to get it back on track. If we just try and spend that little extra this season it might be the nail in the coffin for this prolonged recession we are in. Christmas commercials are on way too early this year, however.

Armored, the new movie with Matt Dillon looks like a winner.

Maybe it is just me, but the price of a laptop has dropped to about three hundred and fifty dollars. Everyone school age child should have one. There is where the stimulus money should have been spent.

Does anyone remember Y2K? The decade is about over and I cannot believe how fast it went by.

Do Hybrid cars perform like they are promoted to be? Hybrid, Hybrid, Hybrid, I am tired of hearing Hybrid. How about just making cars that use synthetic gas? We did put a man on the moon didn’t we?

Can we come up with a better way to get rid of trash? I see these landfills that have mountains of piled trash and it makes me extremely sad that we are ruining the landscape of this nation.

The New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football cannot get any better.

The Weekly Thought Bonanza thought of the week: There must be a cap on the amount of money that the government can borrow. The Federal Reserve Bank wants Congress to increase the debt limit from 12.1 trillion dollars. How much does this administration want to spend?

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Please forward to your friends and colleagues to enjoy. The more readers I have, the more money that is raised for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute