Saturday, October 2, 2010
Guilty before proven innocent?!
Guilty before proven innocent. This is what you have all done to me in the last week. You read an article from a report that was not factual or even investigated besides looking at my facebook page or blog of all things. Everyone jumps to conclusions. My family, my so-called friends, my colleagues, etc. you all took for granted the fundamental principle this country is based on; innocent until proven guilty. Well, let me set the record straight for all to see so there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind. So there will be no more messages of “OMG is this true or is that true?” I will make a clear and concise explanation of the real events without the sensationalist journalism one court reporter decided to make out of my case:
Over fifteen months ago my wife and I were sued by a man that we tried to purchase a gym from. Unfortunately this man did not fully disclose the debt this small gym had. He owed thousands of dollars to landlords, customers and leasing companies without ever disclosing the true amounts owed. I take full responsibility of financial affairs. I tried to build a net worth of several million dollars without keeping things simple. I bought a million dollar home, a ski house and several rental properties. I got into the real estate market after going to a seminar for investments. I was duped into buying several properties that had no real value and lost over five million dollars in equity. No one mentions that I was making over two hundred thousand a year for the past six years while paying, the best I could, my parents’ mortgage, five thousand dollars for their lawyer, one thousand dollars for their trip to California in September ’05, two trips to the Dominican Republic, the trip to Disney my wife and I paid for, the $6,000 I gave my mother when Dad was in the hospital. Not to mention the two HD TV’s I bought for my family, the $2,600 I gave my sister to get her car out of repossession, or the “loan” I gave her when her play company got a big Home Depot bill, and how about when my brother fished on my lake pretending to work as I handed him his paycheck for weeks as he told his wife he was worked, incensing my wife. Notwithstanding giving my parents my brand new 5 series BMW so they could go back and forth to Dana Farber. To be clear, I could never do enough for my parents. They loved me and I them. I owed them so much as they were always there for me. Over the last five years when they could no longer afford their football tickets, it was my wife and I who bought them to keep our family traditions alive. See the pattern here? Whether it was allowing my family use of my vacation home or giving money or a football ticket I have and always will step up to the plate without ever asking for anything in return. Do the math people and you can see the thousands and thousands I gave.
Sixteen months ago after being sued, frivolously I might add, I asked my parents to help me cash my rent checks because my bank accounts were frozen by the courts again without merit. My mother helped me out and unfortunately the bank cashed checks that should not have been cashed. All with my mother’s help, knowledge and insight. When the check did not go through, I immediately paid my mother. I received absolutely nothing, zero, nada and am absolutely enraged that I have been even accused of any wrong doing.
The real shame is how people have turned their backs on me. No one ever turned their backs when I was handing out free concert tickets, football tickets, money when people needed to borrow it, my cars, my homes, etc. No! People read one article by a bonehead reported and bam! I am at fault. I was able to live a comfortable and support my family. I was wrong and I had to embarrassingly need help. I was teaching at Northeastern University at the time as my best friend, whose daughter I am godfather to can attest to. He was my student and took Software Project Management and Database Design and Implementation in Dodge Hall. I keep in contact with several students and will give any reporter their names. If you did any research at all you would know, I also sold the largest software deal to the Department of justice in 2007. I have video interviews on DVD if anyone would like to watch them. I sold software to HBO, Turner, Carlye Group, Blackstone Group just to name a few. Whether you try or not, you cannot take away my accomplishments.
Being a person of faith and one who can be incredibly naïve at time has hurt me in so many different ways. As a victim of abuse at eleven, I have tremendous low self esteem. I lost a business eleven years ago and ended up in great debt, over $500,000. Every nickel of every penny was paid back. I have made over $100,000 a year in salary since 1995 and I always seem to be on the losing side of things. My ex-wife used me as a printing press. If I made $100,000 she spent $150,000. The more I made the more she spent until I was literally bankrupt. Without that I would never be in this position.
I work my tail off for my family. I have never taken a drug, nor do I have any substance issues. I am a pleaser. I tried to always be the guy who helped and yet when I needed help there was no one there, why? I will tell you why. People in today’s society are takers. There is no longer any sense of community. People are out to get you. No one ever stands up and says “I did wrong.” Well I blew my family’s finances by working hard and taking advice from the wrong people. Promises came and promises went and I bought into each and every one of them because I wanted to be someone. I wanted to go back to an age of innocence and go back and be what I should have been; a boy who was loved and well adjusted, not an abuse victim alone in the world. Over the last two years I have had contractors destroy my home and colleagues blackmail me for $100,000 with no repercussions for it. Yet, I am the one that needs to spend thousands on legal defense. If I added up the monies I have spent in legal defense this year it would exceed $150,000. Look what that has gotten me, real good for their economies and bad for mine. I legitimately owe people money and I owe people that I love deeply but did not tell of how deep a financial crisis the housing market put me in. I also had monies I was supposed to get and was promised so many times. I wish I had a dollar for every time something was promised to me.
My mother was dying, my wife was pregnant twice, the housing market was failing and I was getting sued by friend and foe alike. Did I try not to worry anyone? Of course, but I certainly had no malice in my heart and soul. I was trying to get out it the old fashioned way through hard work and determination. I know I let down people. I know I let down people where there just was not enough money to satisfy everyone. Cars, houses, babies were taking my $300,000 salary out of my pocket and then some. Is this a crime? People lose properties at an alarming rate every day does that mean they are bad people? When will the Bank of America’s in the world be sued for ruining the housing market and all of my income? When will people write things they have proof of instead of reading a piece of paper with more inaccuracies than Obama’s healthcare policies?
I have been accused of things that make no sense. When I got help it must be that I was having an affair. I lost the opportunity to see my son being born because I was trying to find a better job to support my family. Am I supposed to ever forgive people for taking my right as a father away? Obviously it is what people expect yet they offer no help in understanding the broken heart. People expect so much of me yet I expect so little of others. I will spend the rest of my life loving all and asking forgiveness for my indiscretions while others thumb their noses at me and see their meal ticket over. I lost my innocence at eleven and there is no way of getting that back. I can however, be better at being me. Before you criticize me on a half baked, half witted article know the real facts in the case. Do not assume and for those of you who did, you’re not real friends or family that cares. Trust me, this would never have happened if Mom was here, Never!
Over fifteen months ago my wife and I were sued by a man that we tried to purchase a gym from. Unfortunately this man did not fully disclose the debt this small gym had. He owed thousands of dollars to landlords, customers and leasing companies without ever disclosing the true amounts owed. I take full responsibility of financial affairs. I tried to build a net worth of several million dollars without keeping things simple. I bought a million dollar home, a ski house and several rental properties. I got into the real estate market after going to a seminar for investments. I was duped into buying several properties that had no real value and lost over five million dollars in equity. No one mentions that I was making over two hundred thousand a year for the past six years while paying, the best I could, my parents’ mortgage, five thousand dollars for their lawyer, one thousand dollars for their trip to California in September ’05, two trips to the Dominican Republic, the trip to Disney my wife and I paid for, the $6,000 I gave my mother when Dad was in the hospital. Not to mention the two HD TV’s I bought for my family, the $2,600 I gave my sister to get her car out of repossession, or the “loan” I gave her when her play company got a big Home Depot bill, and how about when my brother fished on my lake pretending to work as I handed him his paycheck for weeks as he told his wife he was worked, incensing my wife. Notwithstanding giving my parents my brand new 5 series BMW so they could go back and forth to Dana Farber. To be clear, I could never do enough for my parents. They loved me and I them. I owed them so much as they were always there for me. Over the last five years when they could no longer afford their football tickets, it was my wife and I who bought them to keep our family traditions alive. See the pattern here? Whether it was allowing my family use of my vacation home or giving money or a football ticket I have and always will step up to the plate without ever asking for anything in return. Do the math people and you can see the thousands and thousands I gave.
Sixteen months ago after being sued, frivolously I might add, I asked my parents to help me cash my rent checks because my bank accounts were frozen by the courts again without merit. My mother helped me out and unfortunately the bank cashed checks that should not have been cashed. All with my mother’s help, knowledge and insight. When the check did not go through, I immediately paid my mother. I received absolutely nothing, zero, nada and am absolutely enraged that I have been even accused of any wrong doing.
The real shame is how people have turned their backs on me. No one ever turned their backs when I was handing out free concert tickets, football tickets, money when people needed to borrow it, my cars, my homes, etc. No! People read one article by a bonehead reported and bam! I am at fault. I was able to live a comfortable and support my family. I was wrong and I had to embarrassingly need help. I was teaching at Northeastern University at the time as my best friend, whose daughter I am godfather to can attest to. He was my student and took Software Project Management and Database Design and Implementation in Dodge Hall. I keep in contact with several students and will give any reporter their names. If you did any research at all you would know, I also sold the largest software deal to the Department of justice in 2007. I have video interviews on DVD if anyone would like to watch them. I sold software to HBO, Turner, Carlye Group, Blackstone Group just to name a few. Whether you try or not, you cannot take away my accomplishments.
Being a person of faith and one who can be incredibly naïve at time has hurt me in so many different ways. As a victim of abuse at eleven, I have tremendous low self esteem. I lost a business eleven years ago and ended up in great debt, over $500,000. Every nickel of every penny was paid back. I have made over $100,000 a year in salary since 1995 and I always seem to be on the losing side of things. My ex-wife used me as a printing press. If I made $100,000 she spent $150,000. The more I made the more she spent until I was literally bankrupt. Without that I would never be in this position.
I work my tail off for my family. I have never taken a drug, nor do I have any substance issues. I am a pleaser. I tried to always be the guy who helped and yet when I needed help there was no one there, why? I will tell you why. People in today’s society are takers. There is no longer any sense of community. People are out to get you. No one ever stands up and says “I did wrong.” Well I blew my family’s finances by working hard and taking advice from the wrong people. Promises came and promises went and I bought into each and every one of them because I wanted to be someone. I wanted to go back to an age of innocence and go back and be what I should have been; a boy who was loved and well adjusted, not an abuse victim alone in the world. Over the last two years I have had contractors destroy my home and colleagues blackmail me for $100,000 with no repercussions for it. Yet, I am the one that needs to spend thousands on legal defense. If I added up the monies I have spent in legal defense this year it would exceed $150,000. Look what that has gotten me, real good for their economies and bad for mine. I legitimately owe people money and I owe people that I love deeply but did not tell of how deep a financial crisis the housing market put me in. I also had monies I was supposed to get and was promised so many times. I wish I had a dollar for every time something was promised to me.
My mother was dying, my wife was pregnant twice, the housing market was failing and I was getting sued by friend and foe alike. Did I try not to worry anyone? Of course, but I certainly had no malice in my heart and soul. I was trying to get out it the old fashioned way through hard work and determination. I know I let down people. I know I let down people where there just was not enough money to satisfy everyone. Cars, houses, babies were taking my $300,000 salary out of my pocket and then some. Is this a crime? People lose properties at an alarming rate every day does that mean they are bad people? When will the Bank of America’s in the world be sued for ruining the housing market and all of my income? When will people write things they have proof of instead of reading a piece of paper with more inaccuracies than Obama’s healthcare policies?
I have been accused of things that make no sense. When I got help it must be that I was having an affair. I lost the opportunity to see my son being born because I was trying to find a better job to support my family. Am I supposed to ever forgive people for taking my right as a father away? Obviously it is what people expect yet they offer no help in understanding the broken heart. People expect so much of me yet I expect so little of others. I will spend the rest of my life loving all and asking forgiveness for my indiscretions while others thumb their noses at me and see their meal ticket over. I lost my innocence at eleven and there is no way of getting that back. I can however, be better at being me. Before you criticize me on a half baked, half witted article know the real facts in the case. Do not assume and for those of you who did, you’re not real friends or family that cares. Trust me, this would never have happened if Mom was here, Never!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
I got fat
We as a country love to eat big and large and it only is getting worse and worse. Value meals keep getting bigger, all you can eat buffets are popping up everywhere and our ice cream cones at the ice cream parlor are getting extra scoops added to them. America is getting bigger and bigger and bigger waistlines because we are not just eating too much-but also sitting our ever expanding buttocks’ on the couch and watching too much rotten uninspiring television or playing video games until our eyes hurt. Drunk, fat and lazy is what we are all getting.
I have bad knees and it is absolutely no secret that my football and rugby days have beaten the hell out of my body. When my son was incubating, I had knee surgery to repair a torn ACL and MCL. I tried to hold off the surgery as long as I could, until I was not even able to get my ever expanding waistline across the street. You see, I love food and I love to eat and eat and eat, however when you were glued to a gym for as many years as I was you had no worries about gaining weight. At forty one, your metabolism just doesn’t work like it used to when you were eighteen. You eat badly and those calories stick right to you.
When I got really fat, I was travelling a whole bunch and I was getting treated by my vendors to the finest restaurants in the world for breakfast, lunch and dinner. How many ex-football players eat salads at the best restaurants in the world? You are right, our survey as predicted said absolutely zero. Good food also meant some really good alcoholic beverages to wash down the steaks, lobsters, fried chicken, etc.; the best restaurants in the world also ironically enough serve the best booze in the world. Alcohol slows down your metabolism folks.
In December of 2008 I found out that my eating and drinking, well made me like a pig on a spigot. I started to feel like I was light headed all the time and I could not pass a bathroom without going in. I went to the doctor and I found out that I was a Type II diabetic. It scared me straighter than an arrow. I started to work out like I did when I was in college and I dropped eighty pounds of pure lard. I was so nervous that I would never see my son grow up that I started eating correctly and stopped all the Grey Goose and Cranberry Juice. I shed the fat clothes and went back to my skinny clothes.
I am proud to say I am in great shape and I have stopped all of the medicines I was on for my diabetes. I feel great, however I do have those urges to eat the whole dollar menu at McDonalds.
I wish more people would stop and think before they eat that double cheese burger with a side of fries and a shake to wash it down. Eating correctly makes you feel better and it obviously makes you much healthier.
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To receive a copy of the Hardcover or softcopy of the Well Thought out Thoughts and Opinions with a Bunch of Useless Information book, please send an e-mail to wellthoughtout@me.com
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
For the Love of My Locks
To us who are not inflicted with a disease or a treatment regimen that takes our hair, we spend an inordinate amount of time washing, conditioning, and coloring our beautiful locks. Unless we suffer from thinning hair (half of the men in the college class of 1991), we all just want to look good walking out the door every morning.
Bad hair days are a joke to some of us; however to others, they wish they could have that bad hair day. Children especially have a tough time adjusting to hair loss. The stigmatism associated with it at a young age causes all kinds of social issues. While children are generally more acceptable of things than adults, it only takes one person to make a crude remark and to hurt a child’s or even an adult’s feelings.
I was a young child in the nineteen seventies and my father was petrified of having a son with long hair. You see, my dad graduated high school in nineteen fifty six; he was of the crew cut generation and he did not want his first born son to be a hippie. Every three weeks, dear old dad would send me up the street to the beauty parlor no less, to get my magnificent hair chopped off. Well I say magnificent anyway, but what can you really get out of three weeks of growth? My friends thought I was in the military because of how many haircuts I used to get. Dad would proudly give me five dollars after every haircut I received as an, “allowance.” I know back then that five dollars every three weeks was pretty good allowance money and I took it with a big smile on my face, until I looked in the mirror of course.
In the mid eighties my hair made me look like a character out of the movie the Wedding Singer. I was known in my family as “mullet boy”. Everyone on my football team could be seen with their hair flowing out of their football helmets. Yes indeed, we were part of that mullet generation. It was the decade of no style. We all looked like the guy from the Flock of Seagulls. What on earth were we thinking?
Like the stock market the late eighties into the nineties proved to be a market correction or as we so here, a hair correction. My dad’s favorite haircut was back, the crew cut! Man was he ever happy about that. This time around I was not getting five dollars to cut my hair from dear dad, but I could tell he would have if I had asked for it.
I have literally kept the same style for twenty years. My hair is short, cropped, and it makes me pretty dashingly handsome to say the least. Ok, maybe not, but I am the writer of this column and I can dream I look good, right?
A few people I know, both male and female, have without fanfare have grown their hair to that ten inch mark to donate it to Locks of Love. I am so proud of them and I hope that their efforts will put a smile on someone’s face. I am sharing my experience in the hope that I can bring attention to this wonderful cause, even though I am returning to my eighties “mullet boy” persona. Hey, maybe I can get a part in The Wedding Singer II.
Look up locksoflove.org
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To receive a copy of the Hardcover or softcopy of the Well Thought out Thoughts and Opinions with a Bunch of Useless Information book, please send an e-mail to wellthoughtout@me.com
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Monday, August 23, 2010
New England Patriot Football
Professional football arrived in New England on Nov. 16, 1959, when a group of local businessmen, led by former public relations executive William H. "Billy" Sullivan Jr. was awarded the eighth and final franchise in the new American Football League. One week later, Northwestern University running back Ron Burton was selected as the franchise's first draft choice and Syracuse running back Gerhardt Schwedes was selected as the team's first territorial choice.
Three key personnel decisions were made in the winter of 1960. First, former Boston College head coach Mike Holovak was named director of player personnel. Ed McKeever was hired as the team's first general manager and he selected Lou Saban as the team's first head coach.
One of the first orders of business of the management group was giving the franchise a name and that was accomplished through a public contest. Thousands of entries were submitted to name the team and 74 fans suggested the winning name, the Boston Patriots. Shortly after the franchise name was chosen, Boston Globe artist Phil Bissell drew a cartoon of a Minuteman preparing to snap a football and owner Sullivan liked the drawing so much that he selected "Pat Patriot" as the team logo. On April 1, 1960, Boston University Field - the former home of the Boston Braves - was selected as the first home of the Boston Patriots.
The organization's first training camp opened on July 4, 1960 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Approximately 350 players reported to the opening of camp, including a large contingent from Boston College. This group would be trimmed to 35 for the start of the regular season. The team's first preseason game was held on July 30 and the Patriots defeated the Buffalo Bills 28-7 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo. Patriots defensive end Bob Dee recovered a fumble during the game and scored the AFL's first touchdown. The first "home" game was held two weeks later before 11,000 fans at Harvard Stadium and the Patriots lost 24-14 to the Dallas Texans. The team's regular season home opener came on Sept. 9 and 21,597 fans at Boston University field watched the team lose to the Denver Broncos 13-10.
The 1963 season saw the Patriots move to Fenway Park for home games, where they claimed their first division crown with a 7-6-1 record. The team lost the AFL title game, 51-10, to the San Diego Chargers. A number of Patriots players emerged as stars in the AFL during the 1960s, including wide receiver and kicker Gino Cappelletti, running back Jim Nance, quarterback Babe Parilli, linebacker Nick Buoniconti, defensive linemen Houston Antwine, Bob Dee, Larry Eisenhauer and Jim Lee Hunt and center Jon Morris.
In 1970, after a decade of playing at four different sites, including Boston University Field, Harvard Stadium, Fenway Park and Boston College Alumni Stadium, the Patriots selected Foxborough as the new home of the team. In March 1971, the team was renamed the New England Patriots. On Aug. 15, 1971, the Patriots played their first game at Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, defeating the New York Giants 20-14 before a crowd of 60,423 in a preseason contest.
In 1976, the Patriots earned a wild-card playoff berth, but lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champion Oakland Raiders, 24-21. In 1978, the Patriots won their first outright division title in franchise history, but lost to the Houston Oilers on Dec. 31, 31-14, in the franchise's first home playoff game. During the 1970s, several Patriots were regarded to be among the most outstanding players in the league at their positions, including offensive tackle John Hannah, cornerback Mike Haynes and tight end Russ Francis.
In 1982, Schaefer Stadium was renamed Sullivan Stadium. In 1985, the Patriots gained a wild-card berth in the playoffs and went on to defeat the New York Jets, Los Angeles Raiders and the Miami Dolphins on the road to win their first AFC Championship and a trip to Super Bowl XX. Unfortunately, the Patriots faced one of the dominant teams of the '80s as the Chicago Bears rolled to a 46-10 Super Bowl victory. Following that season, Patriot greats John Hannah and Julius Adams retired.
On July 28, 1988, Remington Products, Inc. CEO Victor Kiam purchased the Patriots from the Sullivan family and retained the team for four years. On Nov. 23, 1988, Robert Kraft purchased Sullivan Stadium out of bankruptcy court.
In 1990, Sullivan Stadium was renamed Foxboro Stadium and the following season natural grass was installed in the stadium for the first time. On July 27 1991, Hannah became the first Patriot to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
In 1992, St. Louis businessman James B. Orthwein purchased controlling interest of the Patriots and made some dramatic changes, both on and off the field. In 1993, he hired former New York Giants head coach Bill Parcells and a new coaching staff. In addition, he also made some cosmetic changes that spring with the unveiling of a new Patriots logo and the change of primary color from red to blue.
On Jan. 21, 1994, Robert K. Kraft became the franchise's fourth owner when he purchased the team from Orthwein, saving the team from an impending move. That season, the Patriots closed out the season with a seven-game winning streak to qualify for their first playoff berth since 1985. In 1995, the Patriots became the first professional sports team to launch their own Web site - www.patriots.com.
The Patriots continued their rise during a memorable 1996 season, winning the AFC Championship and returning to the Super Bowl for the second time in team history. The Patriots finished 11-5 and scored two home playoff wins, 28-3 vs. Pittsburgh and 20-6 vs. Jacksonville, winning the AFC Championship in front of a sold out Foxboro Stadium crowd. The Patriots were defeated by the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXI, 35-21.
In 1997, the Patriots defended their AFC East division title with a 7-1 record in the division and a 10-6 overall record. It was the first time in team history that New England won back-to-back division titles.
The Patriots finished 9-7 in 1998 and qualified for the playoffs, marking the third consecutive season they qualified for the postseason - a team record.
A new era began in Patriots history in 2000 when the team unveiled designs for their new stadium. The new 68,436-seat facility opened in May, 2002 and celebrated its Grand Opening on Sept. 9, 2002.
When Kraft purchased the Patriots, he promised the fans of New England that he would bring home a championship, and in his first 10 years of ownership, he delivered not just one, but two titles to New England.
The Patriots began the most prosperous era in team history when Kraft hired Bill Belichick as the club's 14th head coach on Jan. 27, 2000. After taking a year to implement his system, Belichick molded the Patriots into one of the NFL's elite teams. He has led the Patriots to the best record in the league over a four-year span from 2001-04 (57-16), en route to winning three Super Bowl titles in those four seasons.
The Patriots capped off an 11-5 regular season in 2001 with three playoff wins for the ages and the first Super Bowl title in team history. In the divisional round of the playoffs, the Patriots defeated the Oakland Raiders 16-13 in overtime in a driving snowstorm in the final game at Foxboro Stadium. Adam Vinatieri kicked a 45-yard field goal to tie the game late in regulation and then added a 23-yard kick in overtime to win, 16-13. The following week in Pittsburgh, the Patriots defeated the favored Steelers 24-17 in the AFC Championship Game to advance to their third Super Bowl.
In Super Bowl XXXVI at the Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 3, 2002, the Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams, 20-17, in one of the most dramatic Super Bowl finishes in history. After the Patriots took a 17-3 lead into the fourth quarter, St. Louis rallied to tie the game at 17. But quarterback Tom Brady marched the Patriots into Vinatieri's field goal range and his 48-yard kick sailed through the uprights as time expired to give New England its first NFL Championship. The Patriots were welcomed home with a rally in Boston attended by nearly 1.5 million people and took the Lombardi Trophy to rallies in all of the New England states.
In 2002, the Patriots celebrated the opening of their world-class new home, Gillette Stadium. In the Grand Opening on Sept. 9, the Super Bowl XXXVI banner was unveiled as the Patriots defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 30-14, before a national audience on Monday Night Football.
In 2003, just two seasons after winning its first Super Bowl, New England put together one of the finest seasons in pro football history, finishing with a 17-2 record and a victory in Super Bowl XXXVIII. After posting a 2-2 record in September, the Patriots became the first NFL team in 31 years to close the season with 15 consecutive wins, including three playoff victories. After fighting through a rash of injuries and finishing the regular-season with a franchisebest and league-leading 14-2 record, the Patriots produced another memorable three-game playoff run culminating in a championship.
In the divisional round of the 2003 playoffs, the Patriots defeated the Tennessee Titans 17-14 in the first playoff game at Gillette Stadium in the coldest game in team history (four degrees at kickoff). The next week, New England hosted the AFC Championship Game for the second time in team history and dispatched the Indianapolis Colts and league co-MVP Peyton Manning, 24-14, to claim their third conference title in eight years and advance to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in team history.
Two years after winning Super Bowl XXXVI in dramatic fashion, the Patriots saw fit to thrill their fans in a similar way with a 32-29 win over the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII on Feb. 1, 2004 at Reliant Stadium in Houston Texas. In the game, New England built a 21-10 fourth-quarter lead, but Carolina rallied to take a 22-21 lead, then answered the Patriots' counterpunch by tying the game at 29 with just 1:08 left in the game. But Brady once again showed grace under pressure in driving the Patriots down the field and Vinatieri's clutch 41-yard boot with four seconds left gave the Patriots a 32-29 victory and their second title in three seasons.
The 2004 Patriots made history by becoming just the second team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in a four-year span. New England remained in the spotlight throughout the year, beginning with the unveiling of the Super Bowl XXXVIII banner in front of a prime-time audience prior to the Patriots' season-opening victory over the Colts. The Patriots built on their 2003 season-ending 15-game winning streak with a six-game run to begin the 2004 season, setting the all-time pro football record with 21 consecutive wins, including playoff games. New England kept its focus down the stretch and continued its winning ways, finishing the regular season at 14-2 for the second consecutive year.
In their first two playoff games, the Patriots shut down the NFL's top scoring offense and solved the league's top ranked defense. In the divisional round, New England held Indianpolis' explosive offense to just a field goal in a 20-3 victory at Gillette Stadium, while in the AFC Championship Game the Patriots set a team playoff record with 41 points on the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers' previously impregnable defense.
New England entered historic territory with its 24-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Patriots joined the Dallas Cowboys as the only teams to win three Super Bowls in a four-year span and became the seventh franchise to win back-to-back Super Bowls. With their third title, the Patriots now trail only Dallas (5), San Francisco (5) and Pittsburgh (4) for the most Super Bowl victories in history. New England's performance from 2003-04 constituted the most successful two-year run in the history of the NFL, with its 34 total victories setting an all-time NFL record.
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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.
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Weekly Thought Bonanza August 17th
There are so many reality television shows in the summer that I think maybe I will think of one myself and send it to the networks. I cannot do any worse.
A mosque on the 9/11 site in New York is like having the Taliban running an elementary school in the suburbs.
Ronald Reagan is starting to get traction to get on Mount Rushmore. I for one strongly urge the Congress to give this some serious thought. Reagan was the last president to unite both parties and it was not an easy task in this day and age.
The United States has decided to loosen the travel restrictions to Cuba. I probably should say that it is President Obama who wants to loosen the restrictions. This is one time I agree with President Obama. Real change in Cuba will only come when the Cuban people decide to stand up for themselves. Americans in Cuba can do more than anything or anyone to start the inroads to a free and prosperous Cuban people.
The infamous former Governor Blogojevich was convicted of only one charge, of lying to the FBI, and the other 23 counts ended in a hung jury. Anytime the government needs to retry a case it is a waste of tax payer’s money. Give it a rest already.
Brett Favre is back again this season after a long drawn out “recruitment”. I am probably the only person who actually loves the drama. I do not know how he is still playing in the first place. When your body breaks down everything seems to go all at once. Just ask older athletes. Wait a minute, Brett Favre never gets hurt. Way to go Brett! Ok, I have a man crush on the quarterback and future Hall of Famer. We are the same age and I can barely walk across the street on my achy knees.
If you’re a sports fan, following the sports beat writers can really add to your sports knowledge on a minute by minute basis.
Iran’s nuclear reactor goes online this week, yikes!!!
Anyone have any idea what will be the hottest Christmas gift this year? Wait a minute; am I losing my mind thinking of Christmas already?
I baked cookies for my sons today and I actually ate ten of them. They were a bit on the small side, so I probably only ate five. I have to tell you it was so easy that even a non baker can do it. Open package, put it on a cookie sheet two inches apart, and then bake it four hundred degrees. It is as easy as pie. Maybe that is next.
Why is gold such an important mineral? Does it have any real use besides earrings and bracelets.
The moronic mother of a baby who appeared to be smoking a bong told a detective she thought it was hilarious that her eleven month old son put the marijuana pipe into his mouth and looked like he was smoking pot, according to superior court documents released Thursday. Rachel Stieringer, 19, was arrested on several charges including; possession of drug paraphernalia following the infamous photograph that was posted on u-tube that has attracted so much attention on the Internet. She might just make my yearly list of people who are just plain old dumb.
You can never go wrong with a good Chianti at a restaurant. The price is never extravagant and it is always a good bang for the buck.
The Weekly Thought Bonanza thought of the week; A Texas mayor decided to do a rap video to supposedly support his town, Corpus Christi. The mayor’s aides have proclaimed that they did not know the extent the rapper was going to swear in the video. It is a rap video you turkey, what were you thinking?
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Sunday, August 8, 2010
Weekly Thought Bonanza August 8th
There have been an unusual amount of no hitters in Major League Baseball this season. The last few years the batters have had the better of the pitchers, but not this year. Baseball is a game that changes every few years, and I for one love good pitching and defense.
I watched a coyote eat a rabbit in my yard this week. I have to tell you it scared me to death. I know living in the woods on a lake brings out some of natures creatures, but this hit way too close to home.
Rosie O’donnell just got a new talk show on Oprah’s new network and I for one can’t wait till it gets on air. Why you ask? I want it to get cancelled sooner rather than later. She is one vile human being with conspiracy theories that make your skin crawl.
Entourage on HBO is still going strong. I love that show.
How does Taco Bell sell tacos for sixty eight cents? Are they using real meat? When I buy tacos at the grocery store it costs me at least thirty dollars to make twelve with all the fixings, but then again salmonella poisoning does not happen at my house when I make my tacos. Interesting, very interesting.
In case you are wondering I am still up to my arms in poop. What a crappy week.
Hyundai will out sell Toyota this year by a wide margin. Will Toyota ever recover from their break pad fiasco or is Hyundai just making better cars?
All these insurance companies have all this money to make commercials that are actually pretty good, however I remember that they took bailout money. These commercials are not that good.
When you take a prescription drug and the literature tells you not to operate heavy machinery while taking the drug; what does that really mean? I cannot believe someone would pop a Viagra pill then go run a crane.
Nice to see the Obama’s take a million dollar vacation during the midst of all the economic problems we have at home. Maybe his vacation is supposed to stimulate the economy with all of the wasteful spending Michelle is doing in Europe. We are closing libraries and doctors have decided to not take new Medicare patients and we have King Obama and Queen Michelle playing Camelot, nice!
When did there become five hundred brands of Tequila?
Direct Television allows you to watch eight National Football League games at one time with its Sunday Ticket Football package. How cool is that? I had it last year and it blew me away. Maybe I am just a little obsessed with it.
A Staten Island father butchered his family with a knife before turning it on himself. Again, I have said this before and I will say it again, please use the knife or weapon on yourself first.
If you read the bible daily like I do, the website YouVersion is an absolute must see. I started one of their reading programs and it is fantastic.
California needs to be broken up into four states. When one state has the fourth largest economy in the world, you are just way too big. Make that five states, because Hollyweird needs a state of its own.
I love ice cream. That is enough said there!
My son has a bear that is bigger than me and actually talks. Maybe I should put that outside to keep the coyote away.
The Weekly Thought Bonanza thought of the week; Why does everything need to include a lime in it now? Whether it’s a beer, or a soda, or even a taco, limes are taking over the world. Please tell me why?
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Thursday, August 5, 2010
Pooped because of Poop
The average child uses over three thousand diapers in one year. Consider that a child has a poop (infant bowel movement) at least once a day and you do not have to do the math, well that is a lot of poop. I can only imagine what it is like if you have multiples. Kate plus eight has gone up just a bit in my book.
My newborn son had the same problems this week as my son did when he was about the same age. Newborns have a problem at first with constipation. I tried everything I could to get my oldest through it. I added Karo Syrup to his bottle, I gave him warm baths, and I took his little legs and made a bicycle motion with them; heck I would have given him Fiber One Cereal if he could have eaten it. I tried everything the pediatrician told me to do to help his little belly. When he finally was able to go, man what a chocolate surprise he left me! Never in my life did I ever believe I would be cheering on poop. Their little smiles after was worth all of the nastiness I had to endure.
I have told anyone that was willing to listen over the past year that I pride myself on how fast I change a diaper. I have become so methodical at it; I smile just thinking about my infant bowel movement skills. I know what you are thinking, he must be nuts.
I literally ordered a small dumpster because I have more dirty diapers than I know what to do with. I ask myself over and over again are these diapers biodegradable? The simple answer to this quite simply is no. Diapers contain so many chemicals that break down so slowly in landfills it is not environmentally friendly. Many websites and environmental groups advocate cloth diapers as an alternative. All in all it is probably the way to go, however it certainly is not practical.
I guess that brings me to why I am pooped. Diapers need to be changed more than I need to look in the mirror and that is a lot (I only look to see how bad the bags under my eyes are). It seems like my boys eat it, and then poop it as quickly as they eat it. It happens almost every three hours with the little one. Three hour sleep sessions do not work for us older folks. Every poop seems to wake up the little guys almost instantaneously. Great, huh?
Supposedly if your baby is breastfed expect a lot of poop, at least in the beginning. Since my boys are bottle fed, that does not apply to me since my ducts are all dried up. Please do not make me explain that joke. Breastfed babies often have a bowel movement after every feeding for the first few weeks; again thank god my ducts are dried up.
If your baby is a formula-fed baby, he will poop a lot in the beginning too, which totally applies to me for obvious reasons. Formula-fed babies do not have as many bowel movements and you can enter your own joke here, but generally, as breastfed babies but you can expect four or five poops a day in the first few weeks the experts say. Where were these experts when I had to add Karo Syrup to my son’s bottle to get him to flow like a river? Picture the chocolate river like the one at Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. When you have that image in your head then you have an idea of what Karo Syrup does.
Every now and then the notorious green poop has shown up in the boy’s diapers. I just take a look at it and I ask myself “how’d that get there?” I am told that there are many different causes for green poop. More than likely, if your baby has green poop, it’s nothing to worry about, but a few of the endless possibilities are milk imbalance, iron fortified formula, and the infamous Irish Leprechaun visits.
No matter how many diapers I change everyday it will never bother me one bit. I have more creams and lotions at my disposal than they have at CVS. Changing diapers is nothing more than bringing out the parenting skills that you have. It stinks, literally; however, it needs to be done.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
BP you SOB!
Flight 103 was the third flight of the day for Pan Am from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday 21 December 1988. Flight 103 was a Boeing Seventy Forty Seven named was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and all 16 crew member. There was also 11 people in Lockerbie, southern Scotland, that were killed as large sections of the plane fell from the sky all over town, bringing the total number of people killed to 270. With all the people killed in the town of Lockerbie the media dubbed this atrocity the Lockerbie bombing.
There was a three-year joint investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary. Over fifteen thousand witnesses were interviewed and indictments for murder were issued on 13 November 1991 against Lamin Khalifah ,the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines Fhimah and Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, the LAA station manager in Luqa Airport, Malta.
The United Nations sanctioned Libya and after years and several economic incentives, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libya’s un-elected leader, handed over both of these individuals on April 5th, 1999 to Scottish police at Camp Zeist, Netherlands as it was negotiated that the trial would be held at a neutral site.
Khalif and al-Megrahi were both given life sentences after their trials. Al-Megrahi was released in 2009 for humanitarian reasons. This to me is lunacy, as al-Megrahi showed the people on the flight or in Lockerbie.
Al-Megrahi was only supposed to live for three months upon his release due to his colon cancer. Doctors now believe that he could live a decade. How can someone condone what this man was a part of?
Now after all the death and pain this man has caused in the world British Petroleum decided it was in their best interest to spit on the grave of the brave souls that lost their lives that day. Their were fathers and mothers and students on that flight and on the ground BP!
BP insists that it never raised the actual subject of the al-Megrahi while lobbying the British Government to release al-Megrahi. If you believe that I have a certain bridge in London that I am selling for a dollar.
This is all about a $900 million exploration deal BP provisionally agreed with Libya back in two thousand seven. This is the same month that Libya and the Brits decided to talk about a prisoner swap.
Libya was starting to get cold feet on ratifying the deal with BP. It was not until the prisoner swap was completed that Libya finally accepted the deal with BP. Mind blowing I know.
Hillary Clinton has been pushing the United States Congress to hold hearings on this situation. I for one applaud the Secretary of State for taking it upon herself to look into this matter. There were over one hundred Americans on that flight. Imagine the uproar if we let a serial killer out of jail, well the British Government did just that and they have to be taken to task on that.
BP is a despicable company that has pushed profit over everything else in their minds. A company needs to look not at the bottom line all of the time. I for one now cringe at the site of a BP gas station and their advertisements in the media. Although their handling of the gulf situation has given the company a huge black eye, this Lockerbie Bomber mess has really got me totally fired up.
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Weekly Thought Bonanza July 27th
Is anyone following the Arizona immigration bill? While I see both sides of the issue, I believe Arizona has the right to protect its citizens and its economy, but I do not think that the Justice Department should be getting involved. Eric Holder should just back off.
Not that I am into promoting companies in this column, but when you buy an appliance at Best Buy-you get the Geek Squad to service the product if something goes wrong. When you call the Geek Squad you actually get an American that answers the phone and they show up within a day of the call. It is nice to see that a major US corporation gets it.
Having one child is a blessing, however having two is nothing short of a miracle.
The National Football League opens its training camps this week and it seems to me that this year is absolutely flying by. It will be Christmas shortly at this rate. It is time to start my list.
Here is something for the what the heck were they thinking vault. At least six babies have died in cars because of dehydration because they were left in cars in sweltering heat. Forget the death penalty, just put these folks in the same situation and let them see what there insensitivity has really done.
I just heard tonight that this is the worst mosquito year since 1996. If there is one insect I can do without it is the mosquito. Then again, what insect can or do you want to live with?
I have started to watch Sesame Street again as my fifteen month old has become enamored with it at breakfast. If I could only get the stupid songs out of my head all day it might be bearable. I stop short at watching Barney though.
My Kuerig coffee tip of the week is; Timothy Horton’s Italian Roast is fabulous.
I cannot believe I am going to say this out loud with a straight face, but Donnie Wahlberg is a pretty decent actor.
In case anyone cares, but there is now more flavors of microwave popcorn than there are microwaves in the United States. I like plain popcorn with butter, just butter. If I wanted Nacho Cheese flavor I would eat nachos.
Ok, I just got bit by a mosquito, further enhancing my point that this is a bad mosquito year. Ughh, I hate those little critters.
Changing diapers is a little bit like roping a bull. You have to keep the legs of your little one literally tied up or they will be getting their chocolate surprise all over the place.
If you want a laugh, go to your nearest ice cream shoppe and look at how many people are ordering the biggest ice cream cones ever. People should just grab a big cone and scoop out the whole half gallon for the love of God. How much ice cream can people eat? Ice cream has mega calories folks.
Hyundai has dominated the JD Power car awards this year. Is it me or are you still thinking a Hyundai is like the old Yugo?
My favorite summer meal is BBQ Ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans and cornbread. My, oh my, is that heavenly.
If skateboarding is a sport then there is a place for it in the Olympics. What is the difference between skateboarding and snowboarding?
By the way, I am not a fan of snakes either.
I do not remember all of the 90 degree temperature days in New England last year. I looked it up and there was only seven all year. This year there has been sixteen. What a difference a year makes.
Does anyone believe in exorcisms? Maybe I should ask Linda Blair.
The Weekly Thought Bonanza, thought of the week; Why isn’t there anymore candy stores around? Is it because we are now too health conscious? Food or shall I say candy for thought.
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Friday, July 23, 2010
My lack of mechanic skills
Yesterday, I had to review my car’s manual just to open the hood of my BMW just to charge my battery. When I tried to charge the battery, I knew for a fact that the charger has a positive and negative side that needs to be attached to the battery. Whether red or black is positive or negative I still have no idea about. Pathetic is my middle name I guess.
Why do cars have a carburetor? As a matter of fact, what is a carburetor? I did look it up on the internet and I still do not get what it does. I know the device blends air and fuel to make the car run, but that is about all I know about the “carb”, as we here in the United States like to call it. Well, do not add me into that we.
When I was in High School my car caught on fire because of the carburetor. I know this because after the car had pretty much burned itself out a friendly fireman told me it was the carburetor cable was a bit faulty. All I cared about was I got a new car from my parents out of the deal.
I once hit a curve and put a huge gash in my tire when I was a teenager. I literally drove the car four miles home on a flat tire because it was late and I did not want to call home and ask what to do. The next morning, my dad asked me if I knew I had a flat tire and why the heck I did not change the tire if I knew it was flat. As coolly as I could, I told my dad I didn’t know the tire was flat, but I would call AAA and have them come change the tire. Mind you, one of the reasons I do not know anything about cars is the fact that my dad has no car knowledge either. I literally took out the car manual and read the directions on how to change a tire. Both my parents watched in horror as it took me over two hours to figure it out. It took me another two hours to figure out why I had a smaller tire than the other three now on the car. I thought donuts were only available at Dunkin Donuts.
Another time, I was taking my friends to the beach and my car started to leak oil all over the place. Growing up I was always the one with a car. We were close to the beach so we just left the car on the side of the road. In the mid-eighties car phones were not the norm so I had to use the pay phone when I got to the beach. When my dad answered, I explained what happened and he told me he was going to call my grandfather and ask him for his advice.
My grandfather could turn a lawnmower into a Cadillac, however he never taught my dad how to fix a car and being the third generation male of the group, grandfather’s knowledge never filtered down.
Anyway, when I called dad back he told me that grandfather said that it was probably a rod that went through the oil pan. I was so perplexed for a moment because I could not know how my grandfather knew that we were going fishing at the beach. I told my dad that there was no way that one of our fishing rods became stuck in the engine. My dad did get a kick out of that one.
Now a day’s, when you buy a new car you automatically get either Onstar or BMW Assist like I have in my car. If something goes wrong you just hit the button, generally near the steering wheel, and a sexy woman’s voice comes on the line and asks you what is wrong, which makes no sense to me. If I knew what was wrong, I would not be pushing the damn button in the first place now would I?
This past Christmas during a snow storm I got stuck on the middle of the highway in my brand new 750 BMW because of all the snow on the highway. I pushed the little BMW Assist button and I connected with the operator and explained my situation. After a few minutes, the operator told me that the positraction automatically shuts off when there is heavy snow on the ground and since I have rear wheel drive this is for my safety. All that money for a car that shuts down in the snow, great!
A car to me is just pre-paid auto expense as my accounting professor once said in class. I have no interest in learning about engines any time soon. I will make my sons take a class to learn about cars and how they work so a fourth generation doesn’t end up like my dad or I.
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Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Fabulous Disgusting Twinkie
Yes my friends, the Twinkie was the highlight of my lunch today. When I say I enjoyed each and every bite, I really meant I enjoyed all two and a half bites. Twinkies are not exactly the largest pastry ever assembled. Heck, they are only 9.9 centimeters long.
A Twinkie is a huge part of every lunch it is a part of. Eating that dry sandwich to get to the Twinkie almost makes the sandwich bearable. Tell me you do not like a Twinkie better than a sandwich?
While I enjoyed my Twinkie, I started to think about what a Twinkie actually is. Twinkies were invented in Schiller Park, Illinois in about 1930 by James A. Dewar, a baker for Continental Bakeries (now Hostess). Someone actually had to think of the Twinkie because it certainly was not the Twinkie Kid. Dewar realized that several machines used to make cream-filled strawberry shortcake sat idle when strawberries were out of season, Dewar conceived a snack cake filled with banana cream, which he dubbed the Twinkie. A banana filled crème filled Twinkie sounds outstanding to me, but I digress. During World War II, bananas were rationed and Hostess was forced to switch to vanilla cream. This change proved so popular that Hostess never switched back to banana and still uses vanilla cream in Twinkies today. Even though I am still stuck on the banana crème filing, I guess the vanilla crème filing will just have to do for now.
Hostess makes approximately five hundred million Twinkies per year. If you are keeping score at home folks, that is thirty thousand five hundred and seventy eight miles of Twinkies made per year. That is a whole lot of vanilla crème to fill those delicious little cakes. Remember, one single Twinkie is only nine point nine centimeters long.
There are thirty nine ingredients that go into a Twinkie. Fourteen of those ingredients increase the shelf life of a Twinkie. Hostess will not say how long a Twinkie will last on the shelf before going bad, however I have learned it is a really really long time. Twinkies actually have a shelf life of twenty five days in all actuality. This is incredibly long for a baked good. The real reason that a Twinkie can last that long is the fact that there is absolutely no dairy products in the Twinkie itself. Makes you wonder what exactly those chemicals are, doesn’t it?
Another fun, well maybe only to me, fact is that America’s favorite processed food will actually explode in a microwave if cooked for over forty five seconds. I am sure that my cleaning lady will not be overly excited for me to try and prove Hostess wrong, however I did think about doing it today until I realized I did not want to waste one of those delicious nine point nine centimeter cakes from heaven.
Twinkies contain a whopping 160 calories per cake, along with 5 grams of fat, (including 2 grams of saturated fat), 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 2000 milligrams of salt, 25 grams of carbohydrates—but zero grams of fiber. Since most of the time you actually eat two or more Twinkies per sitting, Jenny Craig will be in business for a long long time. In other words, there's a reason many consider Twinkies to be the quintessential junk food and I believe Jenny Craig has plenty of stock options in Hostess.
Believe it or not, the fact that some folks go the extra step of deep-frying their Twinkies in funnel-cake batter, (not that I know what funnel cake batter is) an increasingly common confection at fairs and carnivals in the United States—is so unhealthy it staggers the imagination. I have tried one of these Twinkies at a fair and I was immediately hooked after the first bite.
Of course this column is called Well Thought Out Thoughts and a Bunch of Useless Information, so I had to get into what a Twinkie really is and why I like it so much. Hey, I never said that I do not think when I eat.
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My love of "Chick Flicks"
I love movies. I probably have seen more movies than Roger Ebert has. Today, when I was thinking of ideas of what to write this evening, before I started to get into my novel, and someone asked me what my favorite movie was. Without hesitation, I said Mama Mia, with Meryl Streep. Now that I think about it I have seen the movie at least thirty times and have seen the Broadway show about ten times.
My mother used to play ABBA records over and over again constantly when I was a young child. When I first went to see the Broadway show right after 9/11, with my parents and really close friends, I felt an instant connection to the play. It was not just the music that suckered me in, but the shear uplifting experience the show brought to us. When we needed an uplifting experience to get all of us out of the rut we were in, it was Mama Mia that did the trick.
Movies are supposed to take you away from reality for a few hours and let your imagination run wild. I recently went to see the A-Team all by myself about two weeks ago. The critics absolutely blasted the movie as being infantile and juvenile. I spent two hours with a smile on my face. Having Jessica Biel in the movie certainly did not hurt in the smile department. The movie brought me back to my childhood when Mister T and George Peppard ruled my television set.
There really have been some terrible movies that I watched recently. I ask myself all of the time when I see a bad movie, ‘Why did I spend two hours watching that crappola?” the answer hits me almost instantaneously, I watch them because I just strive for that release of the pressures of life. Even the most terribly made movies have some type of healing powers.
Ok, so why the love of chick flicks? I have spent many a night thinking about why I enjoy these movies and it hit me today before I started this column. I am for certain it is because they always end with the main characters smiling at the end of the movie. When the main characters have that happy moment I guess so do I.
Besides these so called “Chick Flicks” I enjoy other types of movies as well. If you know me I love Steven Segal Movies till this day. Even when he turned to a tub of lard I stilled watch every single one of his movies. Jason Stratham is to me the new Segal without all of the fried chicken around his waist, thank you very much.
Adam Sandler brings me my fill of comic relief. I have never seen a bad Adam Sandler movie, ever. Always with the same cast, especially Rob Schneider, Sandler scores with each and every movie.
Jackie Chan is another one of my personnel favorites as well. I used to watch Kung Fu Theater as a child every Saturday morning. Chan’s stunts are legendary in the movie business. Even when he played a nanny, I watched and enjoyed his work.
The dumber the movie the more I enjoy the movie. Weekend at Bernie’s was a childhood favorite of mine. I told you I like dumb down movies. Any movie that has a dead man that walks rates four stars on my movie list.
Movies are a great release for sure and it as always been for me. Whether it if at a showcase or when the Netflix package shows up in my mailbox there is always this sense of excitement that goes through me. Sometimes the previews are the best part of the experience; however I really do not care. Give me two hours with some popcorn and I become a happy person.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
weekly Thought Bonanza July 20th
Just received my New England Patriot season tickets today and I could not be happier. A new season and a fresh start for every team in the league. Now if we can just get the league to cut the ticket prices so more people can afford them would be a real miracle. One hundred and sixty nine dollars a ticket seems a bit much.
Why do all the really good authors decide that adding a bit of the extraterrestrial in their novels seems like a good idea? Stick with what you do well and stay away from the lunacy that has our favorite characters going into the unknown. If I wanted that, I would read Dean Koontz or Steven King.
Maybe it is time to start paying our student athletes who make millions of dollars for their respective universities.
Is it just me or are people really not taking this BP oil spill too seriously? If President George Bush was still in office the public would be outraged. With King Obama now president, he always gets a pass in the media. Leave vacation or the golf course Mr. Obama and start living up to all the hype.
The new TNT show Rizzoli and Isles is excellent. TNT’s Leverage is pretty good as well. Timothy Hutton is great in anything he does.
I am starting to believe that there is not a person on this earth besides me that is actually interested in reading newspapers any more. There is nothing better to me than waking up in the morning and going to the end of the driveway to pick up your daily paper. With my coffee in hand and a smile on my face, I look at that front page every day with anxious anticipation.
Did I mention my season tickets arrived today?
Lady Gaga might be a little eccentric, ok a lot eccentric, however the girl certainly has talent. How many artists do you know of besides country stars are actually well grounded?
I have no idea why people are complaining about the Miami Heat signing Chris Bosch, Duane Wade, and Lebron James. We still leave in a free market system and I say more power to them. I just hope the Celtics wipe the floor with them.
Mel Gibson, you are a moron. You left your wife of twenty something years for that? Then you pull a nutty and the whole world sees your true inner self. Moron, moron, moron!
Casinos are about to be introduced to the state of Massachusetts. It is about time that Massachusetts steps up to the plate and keep people who want to gamble in Massachusetts instead of letting its residents go to Connecticut and spend their money. People are going to gamble any way so you might as well collect the tax dollars. Regardless of the pundits crying about the loss of lottery sales, Casinos make sense.
When was the last time you took your time and actually enjoyed a good old fashion hoodsie cup? They are still fabulous.
Same goes for Chef Boyardee’s Mini Ravioli’s.
My thought of the week is again more of a question than a thought; Why do actors and sports stars lose millions and millions of dollars? Go get a Fidelity adviser instead of your childhood friend to handle your money.
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Saturday, July 17, 2010
Self reflection time
I have definitely done a bunch of self reflection lately. There are so many things that I did over the past six months that I wish I had thought about before doing them. I wish I would have trusted my original thought process enough before I made decisions that changed my life and my future.
I should have trusted my instincts instead of making decisions based on for lack of a better word foolishness. I should have asked myself, “What should I have do that will not affect the people who love me the most?”
I know I cannot beat myself up for the rest of my life over mistakes I have made or for the decisions that I decided to make without thinking of the ramifications first. All I can really do is correct the wrongs that I did and not make the same mistakes again.
You are probably wondering what I did, well you can keep wondering and wondering; because two wrongs do not make a right. Spilling my guts out in a column is not exactly going to help me here. I guess this column is about trying to get myself into a better frame of mind. I am speaking to you, my readers, for counsel and understanding. I am writing one of those talking out loud columns where I am doing self reflection in print.
I guess I could pay a few hundred dollars an hour to a therapist to talk about some of the things that I am writing here, however why should I do that? Do they have a better answer than the one I already have? Doubtful, really really doubtful. I know the answers I just did not want to face them until now.
No one wants to face the music when they have made a mistake. Then again, no one really wants to make a mistake, I believe this wholeheartedly. You are never going to be totally exempt from the ramifications, you just need to trust enough so that when the mistake is made you can move on and learn from it.
I have always been a glass half full kind of person. I have always rather given than received. I always always tried to make people feel good about themselves in any way I could. A lot of always and never anything but an always.
The always never did really get me any where though. Sometimes you can do the best you can and it will get you nowhere. You can love and try to protect and you can believe that you are doing it for all the right reasons, except it does not work that way. You can give till your blue in the face or you can love till your heart hurts, but it really does not matter unless your honest with everyone and yourself. You cannot hide problems or rough situations and call it protecting. You cannot hope that things will work out on a promise or a hope. You have to make your own destiny, you have to face a situation head on and not deviate from that straight at it path.
Ok, so what have I learned? I learned that you cannot be everything to everyone. You have to be worried about the people who love you. Superficial friends are just that superficial. When you need a superficial friend they leave quicker than the roadrunner fleeing from a coyote. I have been burned by people more than a pilot on a stove and yet I never changed who I am. That is a mistake I will not soon repeat. I am not saying that I will be a cold hearted sob, I will never be that, but I certainly won’t be an appeaser any longer. I will no longer empower people to burn me. I will think before I do, I will be who I am without doing it for all the wrong reasons. Fair or not it is what I have to be.
When life throws you that curveball you cannot try to hit it out of the park without thinking about the how. You need to lace up the boots and adjust. Be honest with yourself and the people that love you and you will see that it all will turn out alright.
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Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Thoughts Through the Sorrow
I believe in the lord and I believe in his love and strength, but I can honestly say that my faith has been tested over the last few weeks. I have cried until the tears can no longer flow a felt a sudden sadness that is indescribable. Sometimes, I just want to pick up that phone and call her just to tell her I love her so much. Immediately after she had passed I called her cell phone just so I could hear her voice one more time.
I guess you do not understand how hard it is to lose a parent until it happens to you. I have had friends lose parents and of course I was incredibly sympathetic, but you can never really understand what your friend is going through. I know that pain now and I so wish I did not.
Friends and family have told me mom is in a better place. Deep down I know she is, however in my mind I do not see how she is. The place she really needs to be selfishly is with us. She needs to be there when times are tough, she needs to be playing with her grandchildren and she certainly needs to be there next week when my son is born. How can she be in a better place right now I have asked myself over and over again?
People also tell me that it will get better over time. I am not coping as I would have thought I would have been able to. I do not have my mother’s strength and courage. I did not realize the extent of the hurt or the loneliness I would feel. This should be the best time of my life and I am sure that it will get better, it is just not the same without my mother here to share it. She would have enjoyed every single minute of every day with her family.
I never want to make excuses for myself no matter what I do in my life, but I find myself saying over and over to anyone who will listen that you should cut me some slack, I am grieving here. I looked deep into my actions today and I know that my mother would not want that of me. She would not want that for anyone in my family. It is not what my mother was all about.
My mother personified strength during a crisis situation. I need to take that strength and incorporate it into my life and my being. I have to do it for my sons, my family, my friends, and especially for myself. How can you lead when you cannot find your own way? How can you show your strength to the world when you are not ready to see it for what it really is? This last year my mother told me over and over again that I am in a good place in life so go and enjoy it. I need to listen to that advice now.
Emotions run so high when you go through diversity in life. You look for answers in so many places and you already have most of them you just need to think about the difference between what the truth really is and what you want it to be. I wrote in my mom’s eulogy about all of the lessons she taught us growing up and at times over the last few weeks I threw most of them out the window. I am not sure if I was thinking just through my heart or if I was just thinking through all of the sadness that I am enduring. This is really counterproductive to everyone right now. I am so angry at the world that I do not even know myself when I look in the mirror at times. I know I am not the man I see in my reflection. I know I am not an angry person. I am a fundamentally jovial person. I know why I am angry and where the root of the anger is coming from obviously, but I have to control the anger.
I find myself wondering why with all my education I could not help in anyway. I fret over the fact I never really said goodbye. I ask god why, why, why, until I am blue in the face. There is not a why or a how, there is just finality that I cannot accept. I guess that not accepting it, puts my mother in a category of the great ones. If I accepted it without any emotion she would not have been the mother she was to us.
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Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Maureen Chasse (June 28, 1947 through April 21, 2010)
“I love you and I will be fine, Those are the last words that my mother, one amazingly loving and strong woman uttered to us before she passed on April 21, 2010. She fought through her illness with unimaginable strength and courage, all the while making sure her beloved family was comforted each step of the way. She never ever complained about how ill she was or how much her illness was wearing her down. Her only complaint was the fact that she might not be able to see her children and grandchildren continue to grow up. Mom is just going to be in a different place then what we would have wanted, however she will be doing it side by side with her mother and father, and also a long side with the lord.
My mother and father were married for over forty three wonderful years. We were so blessed to have such wonderful caring parents. They taught us how to love, and most importantly how to raise a family. They could have cared less about themselves, they only cared that their family was happy, healthy, and well taken care of.
Look at a typical holiday in Roger and Maureen’s house. Neither on could sit still until everyone had exactly what they needed. I can hear my mom now telling my father,” to get out of the kitchen and sit down, Roger.” That was my mother, always wanting to make sure her family was taken care of.
Through my mother’s whole ordeal, I have never seen a love shared between two people like my mother and father had for one another. They were each other’s best friend and companion and we all learned that even after forty three years, love can keep growing and growing.
My mother’s proudest days where the births of her children and grandchildren. From the day my brother, sister and I were born, her love was so infectious to each of us it made us the people we are today. Some might say her greatest accomplishments in her life were the devotion she showed as a friend to all who came to know her, or by the countless hours she devoted to the community through her work with so many organizations. I believe her greatest accomplishment was how she raised her children and grandchildren. Each of us always felt that we were my mother’s favorite. We all believe that deep in our hearts. Moms’ only favorite was the person she was with at the time. It is so rare to find someone that can make everyone feel so special. When we needed someone to turn to for advice or just a hug when we made mistakes, my mother stood beside us like a gladiator. She did not care why we went astray, she only cared that we got back on the right path. Through her love and guidance we always did by getting on her back as she lead the way. She would not let us fail and thankfully we didn’t.
No matter if it was a game or a band event, my mother and father attended each one of our activities and loved being there not just because we were there children, but because our activities were so important to us. If it was important to us, it was important to my parents.
The day Autumn was born was such an extraordinary day for my parents. I have never seen two people as excited in all my life. Their little angel had come from heaven and no two grandparents could have been happier. Mom and Dad got to learn grandparenthood from the best. My mother’s parents were what Webster’s Dictionary define grandparenthood to be. Ironically, the day Autumn was born was the first day they met my wife Maureen at a New England Patriot game no less. Right from the beginning my mother told me I have finally met someone so special. Over the next four years came Benjamin, Keegan and soon to be Brogan. Mom beamed at the way her grandchildren were being raised by two wonderful mothers and one great Auntie. I know Tracy, Kelly and Maureen learned so much from my mother. Love, caring and understanding the smallest details are my mom’s greatest influence on the girls. From my grandparents, to my parents and now to us, being the best parent we can be will keep our mother’s memory alive for ever.
Some of our greatest memories came from the parking lot at Foxboro Stadium getting ready to cheer on our beloved New England Patriots. The Chasse family was so excited each and every Sunday to gather our family and friends before every game to share our stories, eat lots of food and at times have a few spirits now and then. My mom had a few bouts over the years with one of Roger’s potent Bloody Mary’s before the game. Getting her to her seat was a chore in itself. Whether the Patriots won or lost really did not matter to us. We had to teach my mother that it wasn’t always Bledsoe or Brady’s fault that the Patriots lost. Sometimes it was the defense we used to tell her and she would always smile and say, “Nah, it’s the quarterback.” Seriously, just being at each game with her family and her friends was the most import thing to her each week.
If anything could come of this week in a positive manner it was the way mom had taught us to come together in a crisis situation. I now know why mom had sixteen referee uniforms in her closet when I looked in it this week. Mom had always played peacemaker to each of us over the years. Through the good times and through the bad times mom was always our rock. Since Wednesday each of us have come together as one and loved and supported each other so we could be like mom and be fine. Mom taught us our last life’s lesson this week. Being someone’s rock will get our family through anything that God throws at us. Everyone who my mother came in contact with has a piece of her in their hearts and it now our job as her family and friends to spread to the world what made my mother who she was.
mom's tribute page
http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Maureen-Chasse&lc=4658&mid=4228455
drcrischasse@me.com
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