Great weekend of watching the Olympics. I know it’s only day 3, but it has been truly exceptional already. It’s late and I don’t have the brainpower to write an in depth analysis of why watching the olympics is the only thing anyone should be doing right now, but here’s some of the coolest stuff I saw this weekend:

• Opening ceremonies: Unfortunately I only saw pieces of this on bar TVs as I was out Friday night, but everything I saw including the thousands of people banging on lighted drums, the giant rolling LCD screen, and the flying torchbearer were pretty amazing stuff. Just seeing that kind of once-in-a-lifetime performance art on such a grand scale blows my mind for how much it must take to make that all happen.
• Badminton: It wasn’t so much the sport that amazed me as the way I was able to watch it, streaming over the internet from NBColympics.com I’m sure people will have various experiences, as with any streaming video…but from what I saw the Microsoft Silverlight interface was pretty slick and allowed you to choose up to four live events to stream and then switch back and forth to.
• Random Sports: I have my DVR set up taping almost every Olympics broadcast on NBC, USA, MSNBC, and CNBC because I LOVE watching random stuff. One of my favorites is always team handball (it’s a great combination of every other team sport into one), but I also have enjoyed some Women’s Weightlifting, Field Hockey, Fencing, Water Polo, Beach Volleyball, Shooting, Soccer,Cycling, and Rowing. Still looking forward to checking out some Kayakin, Tae Kwon Do, and of course Diving
• Swimming: It’s hard to be excited about Michael Phelps as the media seems to be, but when you watch the guy perform he is pretty amazing and seems like a generally likeable fellow. Seeing his first gold was interesting, but tonight he swam in the 4×100 freestyle relay and got overshadowed by his teammate Lezak who came from behind in the last 50 meters to beat those damn Frenchies who were talking smack. Combine that with some other interesting stories and a couple real good races and that’s why swimming generally rules week 1 of the Olympics.
• Then there’s the basketball and gymnastics which everyone seems to love, but I only have a casual interest in.. Call me odd, but I’d rather watch beach volleyball or Tennis than either of these “marquee” sports.

That’s it for now…big week ahead with work, but honestly it’s hard for me to focus on much that’s not sports related right now. It’s that great time of year where everything is going on Football is about to start, baseball races are heating up and with the Olympics here as well it’s about too much to handle. Good thing all my work is sports-related. Have a fantasy football full page to write and lay out, two football sections to illustrate for and a high school football website to set up. Sounds like fun right?

I have two questions about this story from the Columbus Dispatch website:

1) Who says student athletes don’t get paid?

2) Why did this never happen to me when I lived in Athens?

Thursday,  August 7, 2008 3:27 AM

By Sarah Pulliam

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Accounting major Michael Eynon will receive $172,500 after taxes. “It hasn’t settled in yet,” he said.

When most students are starting to think about paying off student loans, Ohio University senior Michael Eynon is considering what to do with a quarter-million-dollar lottery prize.

The Ohio University offensive lineman won $250,000 in the Mega Millions drawing on Tuesday night.

Yesterday, he went to the gas station where he bought the ticket, confirmed that he won and turned in the winning slip to the Athens office of the Ohio Lottery Commission.

Then he went to football practice, just like he had planned to do all along.

“It hasn’t settled in yet,” said the senior from Westlake, who is an accounting major. “I’ve been out throwing footballs, and it’s still the same routine.”

Eynon, 22, will take home $172,500 after federal and state taxes. He plans to donate some money to his church in Avon, give some to his family and invest the rest.

The odds of matching the five-number tickets, excluding the Mega Ball, are one in 3,904,701. Eynon won the second-tier ticket, meaning he needed to match one more number to win the big jackpot, which was worth $34 million in Tuesday’s multistate drawing.

“Everyone was like, ‘Dude, you were one number off,’  ” Eynon said. “I was like, ‘I’m satisfied.’ This is awesome either way.”

Jason Corriher, a spokesman for the OU athletic department, said the winnings will not affect Eynon’s standing in the NCAA.

“I’ve been in this business for about 10 years and I cannot remember ever hearing about a student-athlete winning a portion of the lottery,” Corriher said. “It’s pretty unheard of, I think.”

Eynon purchased the winning lottery ticket Tuesday from a Shop Mart in Athens and said he buys tickets occasionally.

Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Sandra Neal said that it was the first time she has heard of a college student winning the lottery.

“It’s pretty rare,” she said. “I can say it hasn’t happened in a while at least.”

This weekend we were out shopping for the tax-free holiday and I discovered something odd. We were out with my mom and stepdad and I was looking for a hat so I decided to go to Lids the mall. While I browsed, Heidi and the two of them watched Miles. I didn’t see it at the time, but when I came back they said he had been dancing up a storm to the song that was playing in there, this ridiculous rap song called “Get Silly.”


Then, come yesterday I was watching Miles during the day while Heidi was at work and he was really playful. We started with me holding him and dipping up and down (he really liked when you drop him down a bit then bring him back up real fast and make a funny noise at the same time). After that, it was on to the play mat where he kicked his little lion rattle and batted around some shaky toys for a bit. Generally that is enough to tire him out, but yesterday he was still going even after all that. So I stuck him in his bouncy chair and played with him there for a bit too, but he was still showing no signs of sleepiness.


At  that point I was basically out of ideas for entertainment, so I hit youtube up and decided to look up that “Get Silly” video. Apparently this is some sortof dance craze because there were tons of videos of people waving their arms around “getting silly.” I was somewhat doubtful Miles would be interested in the song, but sure enough each time I turned it on he would get visibly exicited and move his arms and legs around, thus “dancing” as much as a two-month-old can.


So, although it may be hard to admit that my baby’s favorite song is some ghetto anthem by Soulja Boy and V.I.C., it’s still too darn cute to not show off.

P.S. As dumb as it is, I’ve realized the song grows on you after listening to it about 30 times…and it has beat, so at least it’s better than some Dora the Explorer junk.

So I was out at dinner last night, and a TV in the background was showing Bill O’Reilly. Generally I would just ignore it, but when I saw all this I couldn’t help but be a bit intrigued and a whole lot disgusted at the fact 100,000+ were probably watching this crap and agreeing that Ludacris (and by association Obama) are some sort of black devil or something.

The worst part about it is the fact that when they show the lyrics of the song they are huge, blood red letters posted over a black and white photo collage of Obama. A very subtle touch Fox News…

Anyways, check out the song (which is Luda being hilarious as usual, in my opinion) and then check out O’Reilly’s reaction. I thought this was just horrendously bad journalism (and it is) until I remembered the feud which these two had a few years back over some Pepsi. Then it all made sense…

Work has been tough lately, ever since the layoffs at The Sun News, I have been doing a 2-man job as one person. Add to this the fact that I was doing 2 jobs worth of work to begin with, the whole thing has resulted in alot of hard choices on what I can and can’t do, as well as a few corners cut and a general lack of enthusiasm for design.

This really hurts me, because I’m the type of person who can’t really enjoy my job unless I’m putting everything I have into every project I’m given. It can get especially hard being someone who has to be creative on a daily basis, because when I begin to lose my inspiration it can be hard to get anything good done.

But yet, it seems that every time something like this happens — whether it be fate or luck — something new always comes along to get me excited about design. This is generally a new style, font, shape, or platform that just blindsides me with how many new options it opens up and I wonder how I had never thought to use it before.

In this case, the thing that has got me going is a publishing/hosting platform I just found out about called Sqaurespace.com.


The site is basically just an easy way to create your own website that incorporates all the blog publishing functionality of a Wordpress or Typepad, and combines it with a super-easy, very customizable design interface that allows basically anyone to craft a page that looks like something you would have to have advanced HTML/CSS knowledge to create.

It just so happened that I was looking to put together a new site anyway, something to serve as a design portfolio and put myself out there to get some freelance-type work…and now I have found the perfect way to do so. I have been working on building my CSS skills and working with Dreamweaver lately, so I’m hoping this can serve as a crutch to help me build a fully-customized page and fill in the gaps in which I don’t quite know yet. If all goes well,I may just move this site over to their service as well.

I just started a free (no credit card free) trial of this SquareSpace site yesterday, so I’m not sure of the specifics of how it works, but at this point all that really matters is that it has got me wanting to design again.

P.S. Here’s some more stuff that has got me wanting to design again…and I want to do it just like this! Sure these examples are a bit girly, but I love the whole scrapbook feel of these things. Check out these guys...

I’m sure no one wants to hear me complain about how crappy I feel, so I’ll keep it short.

I just thought it was worth noting, since I’ve really only been sick (as in cold/flu) once in the past two years since I moved to the South.  I used to be sick and have allergies all the time when I lived in Ohio, but I always figured there had to be something different in the air up there, not to mention that I lived a much less healthy lifestyle when I lived there.

Anyways, it’s not completely debilitating, just enough to be a big nuisance. It started as a scratchy throat before moving on to some sniffles and now a bit of a cough as well, but I just become so accustomed to being healthy (sickness wise, not diet wise) that I’m now a big baby when the least bit of sickness hits.

The only mildly interesting part about the whole thing was that now that I have Miles to take care of during the day, I have been deathly afraid that I’m going to pass my germs along to him. One of my favorite things to do to get his attention is to blow in his face a bit to get him to perk up…but I had to catch myself doing it today about 5 times and refrain from spitting nasty sinus infection in his face. Also, I think I must have washed my hands 45 times today, trying to make sure I hadn’t just wiped my nose before picking him up, feeding him, etc.

Hopefully, this will all be over in a day or two, although I find it usually tends to linger considering I hate keeping myself dope up on cold medicine. Either way, all I can say is being sick in July sucks.

I’m really starting to miss all the time I used to spend blogging, surfing, and playing video games. Or am I?

I have definitely started to notice a major drop off in all these activities over the past few weeks since Heidi went back to work. But as I go about my daily life I don’t really think “Oh, man I really wish I had time to do this…” I just go about my day, working, changing, feeding, bathing, rocking, cooking, eating, sleeping, without really taking much time to think about…anything.

I swear I sit down every Friday now and when I actually get a moment to relax for the weekend it seems like I just finished the last weekend. Don’t get me wrong, some of my days have been hellish working long hours and trying to fit in time to be a dad and exercise, etc. .. but generally the weeks are flying by so quickly now that I’m pretty sure it will be Christmas by this time next week.

I generally do sit down and some point during the day and think “Hey, I should blog.” or “Hey, I should go on Twitter,” but it either ends up in something else dragging my attention away or me just being so beat that I can’t think of anything interesting to say. It’s just kinda bizzare, my life has changed at least 75% if not 150% and now it’s fairly hard to remember what I must have done with all the extra time I used to have.

I suppose one day I will look back and be pissed off that I didn’t spend that time launching some sort of Web 2.0 phenomenon or researching a cure for cancer, but right now it just seems like if I had a day of free time it would be great to sit on my ass and watch TV, play some games and blog about it.

I decided if I was ever going to keep this blog going with regular entries again, I had to get back to posting nonsense as well as actual insight and journal entries. So here you have it, Weng Weng. I had seen this video a couple years back, but thought of it the other day when I jokingly told my wife I was going to nickname the baby Weng Weng because he was doing karate kicks. Check out the video, and then go back and read his Wikipedia page...he is quite and interesting little fellow and the rap is pretty awesome as well.

I’ve been meaning to blog about Wii Fit ever since I got the game a few months back, but it’s kinda been on hold with the baby and all this craziness. However, over the past week I have been doing a week worth of working out with the game for a project we’re doing in the paper, and I wanted to go ahead and share an entry. I doubt anyone is interested, but the rest will run on The Sun News site on Wednesday to go with our Vitality story check them out if you get a chance.

Day 1: Getting Started

Activities: Mii setup, Body Test, Workout setup

Gameplay time: 20 min.

Body Test Results: 211 lbs., 30.3 BMI (Obese), Wii Fit Age 29 (+1 year)

To begin my week with Wii Fit, I decided to proceed as if I was starting from scratch opening up a new Nintendo Wii console with my new game. That meant setting up a new Mii – a personalized character or avatar which you use to represent you in the game. I was a bit disappointed when there was no Mohawk hair choice, seeing as how that is my summer hairdo of choice, but nonetheless I was able to create a “Chris” Mii that looked reasonably similar to myself.

Booting up Wii Fit for the first time, I was treated to the bright visuals and soothing music I have come to expect from Nintendo. As the game began, I was greeted by none other than a talking version of the Wii Fit balance board which sat at my feet.

It explained that it was here to help me achieve my fitness goals and then gave a bit of background on why balance and core strength – the two main focuses of the game’s fitness building – are important. “An unbalanced lifestyle can even lead to fat accumulation,” It explained. Strange, I thought it was all those Snickers I have been eating out of the candy basket at work.

Another interesting fact, is that according to the game, you upper body (above the waist) accounts for 70% of your body weight and thus has a lot of impact on your lower body and posture if that weight is not distributed evenly. Overall, I was very impressed by the length at which the game went into explaining its purpose. Even though it was a bit lengthy it would be good for kids or uninformed adults who know little about fitness.

After entering my height and age, I went right into my first body test, a measure of your BMI (Body Mass Index) and weight which the game uses in combination with simple balance tests to determine your level of fitness. As you step on the balance board for the first time, the system gives out a surprised “Oh!” which I thought was a nice touch, sure to make those carrying a few extra pounds feel good about themselves. It then measures your weight and center of balance.

My weight was 211 lbs., putting me in the “Obese” category at a BMI of 30.3 and making my Mii character quite a rotund little fellow. It explains that the healthiest people (aka those in the “Normal” range) are right around a BMI of 22, which I figured out means that at 5’10” tall, I should really weigh about 153.7 pounds. I did much better on center of balance, being just slightly unbalanced with 50.5% of my weight on my left foot and 49.5% on my right.

Then came the real fun, the basic balance test. This “game” involved shifting your weight back and forth between you left and right foot to get the meter on screen to stay within a certain goal zone and then hold your balance that way for 3 seconds. You had 30 seconds to do this 5 times, with the goal zone getting smaller each time. I was able to do this in just under 25 seconds, but admittedly this was probably my 10^th time doing this, whereas the first time I don’t think I got past the third goal zone.

Now, with all my exercise done for day 1 (No, I didn’t break a sweat despite being “obese”), the game gave me my Wii Fit age, 29 years old. The system explained that since I’m 28, the +1 years is a measure that I still have some work to do to be balanced and fit. I’ve noticed from playing the game the Wii Fit age is more of a relative measure of how well you did on that day’s balance tests as opposed to a true indicator of your overall progress.

To finish off Day 1 I used the game’s workout setup to give myself some goals, deciding that I would like to try to lose 10 lbs. in month’s time. It suggests you do not set goals that have you losing more than 2 lbs. a week, but hey what can I say…I’m ambitious.

Answer: I have no idea.

But when you add up a new baby, new car, and newly relocated parents, it’s pretty easy to see how I’ve lmissed going on 14 days of blogging. It always frustrates me because when so much is going on in real life it always seems like there is a ton to talk about, yet finding the time is going to continue to get harder and harder as I roll down this path of fatherhood and general “adult”-ness.

Alas, as become my standard for returning to my internet existence (outside of Twitter, which has now become nearly as automatic as breathing) I will glance over the high points of the past few weeks. Ready…GO!

• Bought a new car: Well, actually WE bought HEIDI a new car. Her Buick was on its last leg (as noted by the measly $350 we got as a trade in), and we decided it was time to get something better on gas that would fit the baby. Looked at many different options from small SUV and sedans, but we ended up going with a 2008 Ford Focus SES. It is nice because by picking a car that started out cheaper we were able to pile on some features and get what it is really a very nice little car. PLUS…it has the Microsoft Sync system which has the geek in me going crazy with how cool it is to be able to talk to your car to use your iPod and make call on your cell phone.

  

• “Helped” my parents move: OK, so we didn’t really help…but they did stay at our house for a few days before moving into their new townhouse at Barefoot Resort. My mom and stepdad are now settling into their place and I believe they are planning on staying at the beach for the rest of the summer, up until Buckeye football starts in the fall (then you gotta get back to Columbus, you know.) It has been nice to see them a bunch so far, and I really like their place, and I’m hoping that the fact their place is set up to sleep 10 as a vacation rental will convince some more family to come visit.
• Celebrated the Fourth: With both set of our parents now in town, our holidays have actually become full-blown events now. For the 4th we had a full day of family fun, which started out at the Murrells Inlet Boat Parade. Having seen it last year as well, the parade of 50-60 boats around a small stretch of water wasn’t quite the spectacle it was before, but we had a couple of first-timers who seemed to like it (including Miles who didn’t see a single boat). We then went and played our traditional game of Mini Golf at Inlet Adventure Golf in Murrells, and finished the day up with a BBQ at my parents new condos, a couple of games of the cornhole-like Pitch game, and some Washington, D.C. fireworks on TV in HD.

  

• Starting taking care of the baby: It’s not like I wasn’t doing ANYTHING before, but in many cases I was letting Heidi do alot of mothering while I sat back and watched. But as of Monday, her maternity leave ended and she went back to working days, so I am trying to play stay-at-home dad. Well, stay-at-home-and-work dad is a better way to say that. I’m going to be watching Miles and working from home at least 3 days a week and then going into the office for a few hours once Heidi gets home. I have to say, it hasn’t quite been the disaster I’d imagine it could be, but we’re only 2 days in so far. I could definitely see it getting harder once I get some big projects which need more and more attentionas well as Miles needing more and more attention as he grows a bit. Oh well, it’s definitely better than shelling out $200 a week for someone else to take my baby and do lord knows what with him.

  

Well, those are the big ones…altough there’s been plenty more in the three-ring circus that my life as a parent is becoming. Here’s a few more quick ones:

• Went to a Pelicans game: Saw Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton throw a rehab game for our local team.
• Rediscovered the PSP: It’s about all I’ve been playing now that my times to play games are shorter and further between. Been addicted to “Final Fantasy” Crisis Core” recently.
• Set goals for the month of July: Both Heidi and I set monthly goalsin five different categories, but I intend on talking more about this one later.
• Talked to Curt Grether breifly: A childhood friend of mine that never ceases to have interesting, borderline-unbelievable stuff happen to him, just got back from overseas with quite a story to tell. It seems he never actually made it to Iraq after being accidently injected with some weak form of Anthrax in his arm. I think it almost fell off or something. And he’s still going back to Iraq soon…the military is truly crazy.

Alright, baby is waking up, that’s it. Hopefully it won’t be two weeks until next entry, but if it is, wish me luck juggling this new, crazy schedule.