Novembeard

November is right around the corner, and we all know what that means.....November! The month in which men grow facial hair in recognition of men's health and prostate cancer awareness. Now, the formal version of November goes alike this:

Step one: Shave your face. All of it.
Step two: Grow a moustache.
Step three: ...that's it.

Keep the stach for the month to show your support for the men in your life you may have lost, or just men in general.

I have taken this and twisted it a little bit. I have called it Novembeard. I don't think I would ever rock a moustache, so I go with a beard. Generally speaking, I keep my beard year round. Last year, I grew out the beard for the month and then some. It was mountain man-like. Here's a picture from last Thanksgiving.
This year, for the month of Novembeard, I'm going to shave a little bit of my beard and go with the mutton chops look. Look it up, I can wait.....





It's pretty awesome right? Show your support for men's health. Grow some facial hair for the next month. Even if you can grow a little bit. Do it because it's fun. Do it because it's a great social stance for health awareness. Do it because growing facial hair is manly.

Inge still a Tiger

The Detroit Tigers yesterday signed Brandon Inge to a two year (with a third year option) contract. While he doesn't have the biggest bat or the best plate discipline he provides some of the best defense at third base, which is invaluable. Last year, amongst third basemen, he had the best fielding percentage at 97.7. What that means is that of one hundred plays that came his way, he made almost ninety eight of them! The worst part of it though, is that me may get overlooked (again) for a Gold Glove at that position.

There are other bats in the line up so that has never been my concern with Inge. He is just one of those guys that have earned their way into a daily lineup. It's great that the organization thinks so as well. And it doesn't hurt that he is the longest tenured Tiger, have come up from the minor leagues in 2001. Almost a decade with the team at the highest level. Pretty impressive my friends. Pretty impressive.

Almost never counts

I am getting a little tired of sports commentators saying that the Detroit Lions are almost there. They just need to have one or two plays go their way and they'll start winning games. They are almost there. They have also only won one game this year and lost five.

Now, there is some promise. With the exception of one game all of their losses have been within one score. And I do agree that they are close to turning the corner to head towards a winning season...or at least a season where they can win more than four games (which is where I think they'll end up this year). And it's all about their defense. The offense is putting up the numbers but the defense is giving up the numbers as well. There is nothing wrong with the statements that the team is getting closer to having a decent season. I'm just sick of hearing people saying it. I'm never going to stop being a Lions fan, but I'm happy that the Red Wings play at the same time to take my mind off of the losing.



As soon as the defense starts to play better, they will almost not rip my heart out every single Sunday.

Ditka the Douche

So earlier this month, I wrote about domestic violence awareness month. Violence isn't always physical, it can also be emotional. One reason I bring this up is because of the allegations brought up against Brett Favre by a Jets employee, Jen Steger, that he sent her text messages and photos that were inappropriate. This was two years ago when it happened and she is catching flack from some people for waiting two years to do this. I'm no expert on being harassed but I do know that sometimes people cannot handle it and it takes some time to come to grips with what happened. Now, nothing physical happened between Favre and Ms. Steger, and I don't know the scale of which these messages and photos were. I just know that some people that spoke out against this woman are idiots. One of them is Mike Ditka. He was doing an interview with Dan Lebatard and one of the quotes is the following:

"I'm not going to be as sympathetic to the woman as a lot of people are. It's two years after the fact. Cut it out. If you had a problem, you could have said it back then. You don't have to pull it out when you're going to have a spread in Playboy, or a Monday night game coming up."

So maybe, just maybe, she was holding onto this information and waiting for the 'right moment', but I'm going to say one way or the other. What I am going to say is that whether or not she was holding onto the text messages and photos for publicity, it was still wrong for Favre to do this. This first quote was a bit irritating, but not as irritating as the next one. Lebatard then asked if Ditka felt sympathy for Ms. Steger...

"None. None. Zero. Absolutely zero. You'll get some calls about that, but I could frankly care less."

What a douche. That's all I'm going to say about that. And the bad part? Ditka has not been reprimanded by ESPN, his current employer. So I'll leave you with that and your own thoughts. Personally, I think that Ditka should have been fined by ESPN and suspended for a week or two, but I don't care for him.




Mainly because he coached in Chicago.

The best age

What are the best years of your life? Is it when you are in high school and you have the whole world ahead of you? What about college, your first experiences into the adult life? When you are fresh out of college, and starting a life? How about retired life? Anything in between?

Everyone has heard the expression, these are the greatest years of your life, but have you ever sat down and looked at them retrospectively to figure out which ones were the 'best years'? I'm sure plenty of people will point to college first. Sure, you have lots to learn when you leave your small hometown and head off to college. For me, it wasn't as big of a deal as a lot of people make it out to be. I don't know why. It was just....another four years of school. By the time it was wrapping up, I wanted nothing to do with academia. I wanted a job, any job. It wasn't that I hated college, it just wasn't a huge deal. We didn't party much after freshman and sophomore years, mainly because it was legal for us to drink so the mystique was gone. I also remember being really embedded into my studies. I needed to concentrate on getting that wonderful piece of paper that proved my time at Central Michigan was worth while. Granted, I'm not really using my degree in my daily life, but that is a topic for another day.

Then there is high school. There are plenty of milestones which can be pointed to making these four years the best years. Drivers license, Friday night football games, girlfriends or boyfriends, sports, cliques, a ton of friends, and the future. The first two years of high school, you're scared shitless because it is a new world, something that never existed except in movies and lore from your older siblings. The second two years are spent preparing for college and trying your best to stay focused in class. I had more fun in high school than I did in college because of the people I was with. Growing up in a smaller town, you go through the growing pains of junior high and high school with the same group of friends, mostly. You have the ones that move away or friends you make when they move to your hometown. But the core group of people are there. They have to the same experiences. With high school, it was just more fun (for lack of a better word). You were pissed at the world, but you didn't know why yet. So, it was fun, but I don't know if I would ever want to go through it again.

For me, the best years of my life were right after college. I worked an internship for two summers on Mackinac Island at a job that I would kill for. It was the greatest job I ever had. Not only was it the greatest job, but the people I worked with were some of the best. I think that it is because they all had the same mindset I had/have. They mostly came from the same schooling background, they were all in similar fields of study, or they just loved the subject of history. How can it not be the greatest environment? Not only did we all love our jobs, but we lived together in one big old house. It was a great transition period for me. I got to leave the house I grew up in and live out on my own (I never really counted college as leaving home) and be responsible for myself. With college, I could leave every weekend and head home if I wanted to, but with this job I had to schedule my personal life around work. We only had one day off a week, so those days were spent very carefully. So there wasn't a set time I would go home and get off the Island. This job helped me prepare for moving away from home. It made it easier than I thought it would to move down to Kansas. I knew I had to move down here. I knew it would shape my adult life moving here.

The first couple of years living in Kansas were decent enough. It was a growing period in life. A time to make new friends because we were five states away from home. We could choose to live a reclusive life or we could make friends with co-workers. These friends we have now are 'professional friends'. Friends you meet at work, your profession. Once again, they are people who have the same mindset as you, they know your troubles and how tough your job really is. The years after moving down here were spent creating a social network which has paid benefits. We have grown to watch several of our friends start their own families, a very adult thing to do.

Now, though, we feel old and some of us aren't even thirty. We use to stay out to one or two in the morning and still have the ability to roll out of bed and get to work in the morning. Now? Staying out to eleven at night is pushing it. I love and hate the nights that end at twelve or one in the morning. Staying up that late reminds us of who we use to be, but the mornings remind us of who we are now. Constant professionals that now have lives revolving around work, not fun and friends.

So, the best years of my life were directly after college. Not the college years, or the high school years, but the post schooling years. I think that it has to do with that fresh start into adulthood. Striking out on your own and starting a new phase of life. The other phases just blurred together, from high school on to college. It was eight straight years of school. Oh no, it wasn't until after school was done and wrapped up that I started to really enjoy life.

dreams and beer

I went out and bought my tenth case of beer for the year. A thirty pack of Budweiser. I felt a need to buy a surplus of beer for my weekends off with all the sports that are going on, mainly football. There is also playoff baseball going on, so it isn't just the pigskin.

Last night I had a dream that I was a vagabond. Not only that, but I was trying to convince others that they should lead the 'vagabond lifestyle'. A vagabond lifestyle spokesman if you will. I feel that I should pack a rucksack, grab some Jack Kerouac, and hitch hike back and forth across the U.S. while doing random drugs. I know, I know, not everyone digs Kerouac, but The Dharma Bums was awesome. Even better than On The Road (yeah, I said it). The Beat generation was on to something. Who needs a job, steady income, and a family. Why not wander around the country doing drugs and having sex with random people?


Oh right, diseases.

Keep aware

October is upon us. And everyone knows what awareness month it right? Domestic Violence Awareness month. Ha! Breast Cancer Awareness month was the first thing you thought of. And it's okay, it's a disease and can be researched and a cure can be found (eventually. hopefully.) For the past couple of months, I have written about this because domestic violence can be fixed, you can make sure that it doesn't happen. With breast cancer, you can't stop it because we don't know how it works. You can take steps to prevent it, so women, take care of yourselves please. Guys, go out and buy some Yoplait yogurt and send in those pink tops and think that you are helping out.

Domestic violence is just about the worst thing in the world. Just about. There are other things that are worse. Murder and...and....and thats about it. Sexual violence is up there too. I just can't wrap my mind around why people can do anything like this. With domestic violence, I think it is something that gets swept under the rug in our society. I'm not saying that our society thinks it's okay, but I'm certain that it is such a frequent occurrence that most people don't blink an eye at it when it is reported on the news.

You want to do something to help people in domestic violence situations? Donate to a local women's shelter, the YWCA is a great organization that is throughout the entire country and even the world!





Donate and feel great about yourself. Be part of the solution, not the problem.

That's what I get

I got stuck listening to the radio at work this morning because it was on the overhead speakers. It was one of those annoying morning talk shows where you wonder how those people got their jobs. There were a few things that I noticed that drove me nuts. Absolutely bonkers.

1.) They didn't know the song 'Fat Bottomed Girls' was done by Queen. Really? You are on the radio. The only reason you have a job is because music made the radio necessary! Learn your music history. I don't expect everyone to know B-sides to every single every band put out, but come on. It's fucking Queen! One of them thought it was CCR...not. even. close. The bands don't sound anything alike. EVER!

2.) They discussed whether or not Facebook had changed their lives in any way. How can it affect you in such a way that you would deem it 'life altering' or 'life changing'. I feel that it is important for different reasons (such as keeping in contact with family, finding old friends, online anonymous stalking). And of course they take callers. And they had a girl on the phone that found out her boyfriend was cheating on her and blah blah blah. I would consider that not life changing, but affirmation that some people are douche bags and they don't deserve to be in a relationship. Anyway, this girl claimed that Facebook changed her life in a good way because it made her not trust guys or something like that, and I don't know if that is what Facebook is really for. To completely not trust the opposite sex because of one guy? Me thinks that is wrong. But who knows, I may be way off on that thought.

I stopped really paying attention after that whole scenario of Facebook being life changing. I wept a little this morning because of it.