We've all seen the commercials with the older men that have been to every Super Bowl and they are going again this year and never intend to miss one.
I kind of lost interest in the NFL a few years ago and I haven't even seen every game on TV. But, I do like their enthusiasm and admire what they have done.
I have been to one NFL game in my entire life and to be perfectly honest I was bored. I would rather watch on the television if I watch at all.
College football is another story.
It is my passion.
I will admit that I did not watch all the bowl games on this bowl season because frankly many of the teams playing in these games did not deserve to be there at all.
My passion as a college football fan is sort of similar to these older men and their Super Bowl quests.
I would like to travel around the country and attend games between big rivals.
Other than the Texas schools, the only one I have made so far is the USC-UCLA game played in the Rose Bowl. That one was a thrill, but I have more games I would like to make.
Michigan/Ohio State is one of the bigger ones, but there are many long time rivalry games I would love to see up close and personal.
Alabama vs Auburn is one. Tennessee vs Florida would be another.
But, I would like to see everything from Yale vs Harvard to Oregon vs Oregon State. There are just so many and so little time.
I want to catch the passion of the game. I want to see the intensity that goes on in the stadiums and get a feel for the feelings of the fans and the players involved with both sides of the game. I want to go as a neutral and as a person that just loves the game and the atmosphere of college game day. I want to mix and match with the people that are tailgating and see what they have to say and what they have to eat. To smell the food and maybe take a bite out of something to get a taste of their lives and lifestyles during the Fall of every year.
This has been a dream of mine since the 1970s and probably will never come to pass. If it doesn't, I will be all right.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Downtown Dallas
I like to think of myself as a well rounded guy. I feel comfortable in the wilderness and I feel comfortable in the big city.
Just as I am fascinated with natural things such as big mountains, I am also very interested in the architecture and construction of huge buildings.
Recently, when I had surgery, if that's what we want to call that ablation procedure I had done recently, we had to be at the hospital really early in the morning.
The hospital is located just East of downtown Dallas. So, we got a room in the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas.
Now, I have never been a fan of downtown Dallas or Dallas in general. But, I have to say that I really enjoyed this experience.
First of all, the Magnolia is a pretty nice urban hotel. It is the old Mobil Oil building with the huge lighted Pegasus on top. That building was one of the early old Dallas skyscrapers built in 1922.
I wasn't around back in 1922 but when I was a kid we always drove by downtown Dallas and marveled at the Pegasus and how tall the building was.
Now, it's surrounded by much bigger and taller buildings. But, it's still a landmark as is the Adolphus Hotel located right next door. Our room in the Magnolia overlooked the classically done roof of the Adolphus.
As we did our tourist thing, walking around with the camera taking pictures of the beautiful buildings downtown, I noticed we were being followed.
It wasn't that obvious at first as we were going slowly and stopping to take pictures. But, I kept noticing one particular fella kept hanging around. We would move and he would slowly move behind us kind of keeping pace and not really looking at us directly.
After a while, I approached him and asked him if there was a map available of downtown buildings in Dallas. He was very friendly and finally I asked why he was following us.
Turns out he was working as a security guard for AT&T and he was making sure no pictures were taken of the AT&T buildings which basically surrounded us and our hotel.
He helped us find a map and was really nice, but it was an interesting experience and I briefly felt like a spy. :)
Even though I have lived in Texas my entire life, I had never seen the exact area where JFK was shot back in 1963. As a history buff, that was a fascinating experience in itself and I highly recommend a trip down there.
There is plenty to do in downtown. Plenty of sites to see and plenty of places to eat. The Magnolia Hotel is worth a stay and is reasonable if you reserve a room in the right way. They have a free Happy Hour and free milk and cookies later in the evening.
Only negative is all the panhandlers and assorted beggars hanging around pestering a tourist for money.
Just as I am fascinated with natural things such as big mountains, I am also very interested in the architecture and construction of huge buildings.
Recently, when I had surgery, if that's what we want to call that ablation procedure I had done recently, we had to be at the hospital really early in the morning.
The hospital is located just East of downtown Dallas. So, we got a room in the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas.
Now, I have never been a fan of downtown Dallas or Dallas in general. But, I have to say that I really enjoyed this experience.
First of all, the Magnolia is a pretty nice urban hotel. It is the old Mobil Oil building with the huge lighted Pegasus on top. That building was one of the early old Dallas skyscrapers built in 1922.
I wasn't around back in 1922 but when I was a kid we always drove by downtown Dallas and marveled at the Pegasus and how tall the building was.
Now, it's surrounded by much bigger and taller buildings. But, it's still a landmark as is the Adolphus Hotel located right next door. Our room in the Magnolia overlooked the classically done roof of the Adolphus.
As we did our tourist thing, walking around with the camera taking pictures of the beautiful buildings downtown, I noticed we were being followed.
It wasn't that obvious at first as we were going slowly and stopping to take pictures. But, I kept noticing one particular fella kept hanging around. We would move and he would slowly move behind us kind of keeping pace and not really looking at us directly.
After a while, I approached him and asked him if there was a map available of downtown buildings in Dallas. He was very friendly and finally I asked why he was following us.
Turns out he was working as a security guard for AT&T and he was making sure no pictures were taken of the AT&T buildings which basically surrounded us and our hotel.
He helped us find a map and was really nice, but it was an interesting experience and I briefly felt like a spy. :)
Even though I have lived in Texas my entire life, I had never seen the exact area where JFK was shot back in 1963. As a history buff, that was a fascinating experience in itself and I highly recommend a trip down there.
There is plenty to do in downtown. Plenty of sites to see and plenty of places to eat. The Magnolia Hotel is worth a stay and is reasonable if you reserve a room in the right way. They have a free Happy Hour and free milk and cookies later in the evening.
Only negative is all the panhandlers and assorted beggars hanging around pestering a tourist for money.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Some Day
Some day is the code word for never.
Wish I had thought of that line, but I didn't. It was in a movie I watched today.
Some day I am going to go to Europe. Some day I am going to run the bulls in Spain.
Some day I am going to learn to fly a plane.
Some day I am going to learn Spanish and German.
Some day I am going to hike the Appalachian Trail all the way from Georgia to Maine.
Some day I am going to drive the Pacific Coast Highway.
Some day I am going to write a novel.
Some day I am going to connect wind and solar to power my house so I don't pay an electric bill.
Some day I am going to cross Africa in a hot air balloon.
Some day I have to stop saying some day.
Wish I had thought of that line, but I didn't. It was in a movie I watched today.
Some day I am going to go to Europe. Some day I am going to run the bulls in Spain.
Some day I am going to learn to fly a plane.
Some day I am going to learn Spanish and German.
Some day I am going to hike the Appalachian Trail all the way from Georgia to Maine.
Some day I am going to drive the Pacific Coast Highway.
Some day I am going to write a novel.
Some day I am going to connect wind and solar to power my house so I don't pay an electric bill.
Some day I am going to cross Africa in a hot air balloon.
Some day I have to stop saying some day.
Come Undone
The Rock Music Group, Duran Duran was big in the 80s. They were a big part of what was called by MTV the Second British Invasion. I can't say that I was a big fan but I liked a couple of their songs.
The Duran Duran song, Come Undone, is one of my all time favorites.
Like any Rock n Roll song there is debate about what it actually means. But, to me it seems to be exactly what it appears to be about coming undone.
Life is hard. Life is tough at times. It's hard in the heat of battle sometimes to keep from falling apart. It's difficult to keep it together at all times and not fall apart at the seams. What do you do when you heart is falling to pieces? What if everything bad in your life is nobody's fault but your own?
Like the song says, who do you need when you come undone? Who do you love? Where do you turn? Who do you need?
I know what my answers should be.
But, it's not what happened in my own life.
I hate to admit it but I am a recovering Coming Undoner.
Takes a little time to become done again.
Whatever in the world that happens to mean.
The Duran Duran song, Come Undone, is one of my all time favorites.
Like any Rock n Roll song there is debate about what it actually means. But, to me it seems to be exactly what it appears to be about coming undone.
Life is hard. Life is tough at times. It's hard in the heat of battle sometimes to keep from falling apart. It's difficult to keep it together at all times and not fall apart at the seams. What do you do when you heart is falling to pieces? What if everything bad in your life is nobody's fault but your own?
Like the song says, who do you need when you come undone? Who do you love? Where do you turn? Who do you need?
I know what my answers should be.
But, it's not what happened in my own life.
I hate to admit it but I am a recovering Coming Undoner.
Takes a little time to become done again.
Whatever in the world that happens to mean.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Worst Movies of All Time
1. The Cotton Club
I honestly can't tell you what this yawner was about because I tried to tune it out as best as possible. I never liked Richard Gere ever again after sitting through this horrible mess. I refused to watch him in anything for years.
I think at one point my head was on the seat in front of me while I caught a few winks. I was with other people or I would have walked out and I never walk out of anything I paid to see.
One of the worst movies I can remember seeing and it was a running joke for years.
2. Rocky Horror Picture Show
My goodness, there used to be a lot of people that went to see this movie apparently every week. They knew every line in this thing.
I hated every second of it and hated the people that took me from that night forward and hated all the other movie viewers for having it memorized.
This was one of the worst nights of my life. It was sick and twisted in every way possible. This thing, and I really don't want to call this a movie because Braveheart was also a movie and they shouldn't be said in the same paragraph ever even though I just did, could easily switch out with the Cotton Club as the #1 worst movie ever.
3. Funny Girl
I went to see this with my parents as a kid. I finally forgave them for it years later.
It may have not been all that bad but I was a kid and I wanted out of there in the worst way. I like Barbara Streisand and I hate to blast her. But, I remember being very, very bored in this.
4. Any of the Jason/Friday the 13th/Freddie Krueger movies except for the first Halloween.
Halloween was actually pretty good, but it should have ended there. Let the poor guy die already.
All of these movies are mindless slasher movies that are designed to steal people's money that are actually silly enough to waste their time with this garbage.
Can I call these things movies? Like Rocky Horror Picture Show, I hesitate to call these anything that closely resembles something that would have starred Clint Eastwood.
Just not something I feel comfortable with.
5. Tom Cruise flicks
I don't know why, but there are certain people that no matter what movie they are in, the movie usually turns out to be pretty good. These certain people are Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Clint Eastwood and probably Tom Hanks.
These certain people are not Tom Cruise. In fact, I would say after Top Gun most everything he has played in has been pretty bad. I might give him Color of Money and a couple more borderline shows but the guy seems to be a douche bag and plays one mostly in every movie.
I have heard his new movie is good and I do like Cameron Diaz so I might have to change my opinion later. But, as of right now, Mr Scientology is a destroyer of all potentially good movies in my book.
6. Dude Where's My Car
Where do we start with this mess? It has a couple of funny scenes in it but even those are way overdone so they become unfunny almost as quickly as they become funny.
I took my son to see this with his friend and they liked it or else that might have been the first movie I walked out of.
Just a horrible movie from start to finish.
I will think of others and may add them at some point and time.
P.S. I just saw Day and Knight and it was actually really good. May have to remove Mr Cruise from my list.
I honestly can't tell you what this yawner was about because I tried to tune it out as best as possible. I never liked Richard Gere ever again after sitting through this horrible mess. I refused to watch him in anything for years.
I think at one point my head was on the seat in front of me while I caught a few winks. I was with other people or I would have walked out and I never walk out of anything I paid to see.
One of the worst movies I can remember seeing and it was a running joke for years.
2. Rocky Horror Picture Show
My goodness, there used to be a lot of people that went to see this movie apparently every week. They knew every line in this thing.
I hated every second of it and hated the people that took me from that night forward and hated all the other movie viewers for having it memorized.
This was one of the worst nights of my life. It was sick and twisted in every way possible. This thing, and I really don't want to call this a movie because Braveheart was also a movie and they shouldn't be said in the same paragraph ever even though I just did, could easily switch out with the Cotton Club as the #1 worst movie ever.
3. Funny Girl
I went to see this with my parents as a kid. I finally forgave them for it years later.
It may have not been all that bad but I was a kid and I wanted out of there in the worst way. I like Barbara Streisand and I hate to blast her. But, I remember being very, very bored in this.
4. Any of the Jason/Friday the 13th/Freddie Krueger movies except for the first Halloween.
Halloween was actually pretty good, but it should have ended there. Let the poor guy die already.
All of these movies are mindless slasher movies that are designed to steal people's money that are actually silly enough to waste their time with this garbage.
Can I call these things movies? Like Rocky Horror Picture Show, I hesitate to call these anything that closely resembles something that would have starred Clint Eastwood.
Just not something I feel comfortable with.
5. Tom Cruise flicks
I don't know why, but there are certain people that no matter what movie they are in, the movie usually turns out to be pretty good. These certain people are Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Clint Eastwood and probably Tom Hanks.
These certain people are not Tom Cruise. In fact, I would say after Top Gun most everything he has played in has been pretty bad. I might give him Color of Money and a couple more borderline shows but the guy seems to be a douche bag and plays one mostly in every movie.
I have heard his new movie is good and I do like Cameron Diaz so I might have to change my opinion later. But, as of right now, Mr Scientology is a destroyer of all potentially good movies in my book.
6. Dude Where's My Car
Where do we start with this mess? It has a couple of funny scenes in it but even those are way overdone so they become unfunny almost as quickly as they become funny.
I took my son to see this with his friend and they liked it or else that might have been the first movie I walked out of.
Just a horrible movie from start to finish.
I will think of others and may add them at some point and time.
P.S. I just saw Day and Knight and it was actually really good. May have to remove Mr Cruise from my list.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Have a Nice Life
You have to be a guy to understand my love for the movie, Fandango. That's probably not totally true, but I did notice it was on the list of top 50 guy movies of all time.
This movie is about a group of guys that either just graduated from UT. Or, in the case of the main character Gardner Barnes, all of his friends graduated from UT while he partied.
The main group of characters in this memorable flick have named themselves the Groovers during their college days.
At the beginning of this movie, the Groovers are throwing a party to celebrate their graduation and the upcoming wedding of one of their members.
Instead of just disappearing into the night and beginning the next phase of their lives, they decide to go on one last great adventure as a group. Mostly, the epic adventure is the idea of Gardner Barnes, the leader of this merry band of college dudes.
They set out to "dig up Dom".
It seems years earlier as a group they went out to the Big Bend area of Texas and buried a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne with the idea that some day they would come back and dig it up.
On the surface this is a silly movie but if you pay attention it has much deeper tones.
It is set in 1971. The Vietnam war is the number one topic in America in those days and you are either for it or against it. But, either way, if you are a young man in this time and age you are going to be thinking about Vietnam.
As in most groups, there are a lot of different opinions in the Groovers. Gardner Barnes plans on skipping the war. Another member of the Groovers is hard core and willing to get to Nam as fast as possible.
The symbolism in this movie is fun for me to watch.
But, the main thought for me as I take something from Fandango is about saying goodbye to a certain time of your life and moving on to the next time. In this case, it's about going from boyhood to manhood.
I am a little younger than the characters in this movie were. I was a mere lad in 1971. In junior high and thinking about working up the nerve to talk to some cute young girl in my class. Vietnam was also on my mind.
I would come home from school and play and a lot of times there would be the news on and Vietnam dominated. There was the daily body count and other things the news reporter brought and it was a scary thing.
I just knew I would grow up and have to go fight. Would I have gone? Would I have skipped off to Canada as many did?
I'll never know because Vietnam ended before I had to deal with that, thank goodness.
The title of this blog was 'Have a Nice Life' because at the end of the movie one of the Groovers said his probable final goodbye to another Groover. The Groovers reply was to "have a nice life".
That reminds me of feelings I have gotten from catching up with very old friends on the website, Facebook. Especially, since one of my oldest friends in the world, Bobby Hernandez, finally found me.
Life is not over for us, but did we have nice lives so far? If not, is it too late to do something about it now?
That's my question of the day. Have you had a nice life?
This movie is about a group of guys that either just graduated from UT. Or, in the case of the main character Gardner Barnes, all of his friends graduated from UT while he partied.
The main group of characters in this memorable flick have named themselves the Groovers during their college days.
At the beginning of this movie, the Groovers are throwing a party to celebrate their graduation and the upcoming wedding of one of their members.
Instead of just disappearing into the night and beginning the next phase of their lives, they decide to go on one last great adventure as a group. Mostly, the epic adventure is the idea of Gardner Barnes, the leader of this merry band of college dudes.
They set out to "dig up Dom".
It seems years earlier as a group they went out to the Big Bend area of Texas and buried a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne with the idea that some day they would come back and dig it up.
On the surface this is a silly movie but if you pay attention it has much deeper tones.
It is set in 1971. The Vietnam war is the number one topic in America in those days and you are either for it or against it. But, either way, if you are a young man in this time and age you are going to be thinking about Vietnam.
As in most groups, there are a lot of different opinions in the Groovers. Gardner Barnes plans on skipping the war. Another member of the Groovers is hard core and willing to get to Nam as fast as possible.
The symbolism in this movie is fun for me to watch.
But, the main thought for me as I take something from Fandango is about saying goodbye to a certain time of your life and moving on to the next time. In this case, it's about going from boyhood to manhood.
I am a little younger than the characters in this movie were. I was a mere lad in 1971. In junior high and thinking about working up the nerve to talk to some cute young girl in my class. Vietnam was also on my mind.
I would come home from school and play and a lot of times there would be the news on and Vietnam dominated. There was the daily body count and other things the news reporter brought and it was a scary thing.
I just knew I would grow up and have to go fight. Would I have gone? Would I have skipped off to Canada as many did?
I'll never know because Vietnam ended before I had to deal with that, thank goodness.
The title of this blog was 'Have a Nice Life' because at the end of the movie one of the Groovers said his probable final goodbye to another Groover. The Groovers reply was to "have a nice life".
That reminds me of feelings I have gotten from catching up with very old friends on the website, Facebook. Especially, since one of my oldest friends in the world, Bobby Hernandez, finally found me.
Life is not over for us, but did we have nice lives so far? If not, is it too late to do something about it now?
That's my question of the day. Have you had a nice life?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Still sickly
I would like to be writing something but am still struggling with some issues. Maybe tomorrow, I will be feeling a little better and can throw something together.
I want to thank those that know me for the continued thoughts and prayers.
Still working on that full time subject and can use some help.
I want to thank those that know me for the continued thoughts and prayers.
Still working on that full time subject and can use some help.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Blogging Ideas
Here are some things I am considering for a full time blog.
I am thinking of blogging on one topic and keeping with it and trying to pick up some sponsors.
One topic is investing. I have a lot of interest in this subject and was once a professional investor of sorts. I can teach from my success and possibly even more from my failures.
Another possible topic is travel. Problem with that is that I have not been a lot of places overseas so my blog could be limited or about American travel mostly.
I dig sports, especially college football. I could easily write on football. Problem with that is the incredible passion that some have about it and the possible problems that could come from that including my own stress levels.
I love food, but my knowledge on the subject is limited.
I love working out topics in spite of the fact that I rarely practice what I preach. I have been around it a large part of my life and even if I have much I could learn, I do know something about the subject.
I plan on keeping this blog as a hobby and to write about my personal feelings on many things. But, would like to take blogging to another level and write in my spare time which is plenty.
Any thoughts? I sure could use some help.
I am thinking of blogging on one topic and keeping with it and trying to pick up some sponsors.
One topic is investing. I have a lot of interest in this subject and was once a professional investor of sorts. I can teach from my success and possibly even more from my failures.
Another possible topic is travel. Problem with that is that I have not been a lot of places overseas so my blog could be limited or about American travel mostly.
I dig sports, especially college football. I could easily write on football. Problem with that is the incredible passion that some have about it and the possible problems that could come from that including my own stress levels.
I love food, but my knowledge on the subject is limited.
I love working out topics in spite of the fact that I rarely practice what I preach. I have been around it a large part of my life and even if I have much I could learn, I do know something about the subject.
I plan on keeping this blog as a hobby and to write about my personal feelings on many things. But, would like to take blogging to another level and write in my spare time which is plenty.
Any thoughts? I sure could use some help.
Mariah Carey? Oh, please......
Over the Christmas holidays I got a little too much of Mariah Carey than anyone with even a slight touch of sanity would care for.
Kids wanted to watch the Christmas parade and it was one Mariah Carey performance after another. She sang and she sang and then she was in the commercials as well.
On New Year's Eve it was more of the same. She sang Auld Lang Syne at the changing of the new year.
One of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, websites is Youtube. I am there all the time looking at videos for one reason or another. One of my favorite pastimes is looking for new music and there is plenty of music on Youtube.
Youtube also has a feature that recommends certain videos.
I'm not sure why but Youtube had Mariah Carey singing Auld Lang Syne on New Years Eve.
I should learn to just ignore the comments on Youtube. Life might be a little easier if I did.
People, and I have no clue as to what kind of people I am talking about, actually think that Mariah Carey wrote this song.
Google is our friend. Search Google and you can easily learn that Auld Lang Syne was written in the 1700s originally as a poem but was put to the tune of a traditional folk song.
Makes you kind of wonder about people.
Kids wanted to watch the Christmas parade and it was one Mariah Carey performance after another. She sang and she sang and then she was in the commercials as well.
On New Year's Eve it was more of the same. She sang Auld Lang Syne at the changing of the new year.
One of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, websites is Youtube. I am there all the time looking at videos for one reason or another. One of my favorite pastimes is looking for new music and there is plenty of music on Youtube.
Youtube also has a feature that recommends certain videos.
I'm not sure why but Youtube had Mariah Carey singing Auld Lang Syne on New Years Eve.
I should learn to just ignore the comments on Youtube. Life might be a little easier if I did.
People, and I have no clue as to what kind of people I am talking about, actually think that Mariah Carey wrote this song.
Google is our friend. Search Google and you can easily learn that Auld Lang Syne was written in the 1700s originally as a poem but was put to the tune of a traditional folk song.
Makes you kind of wonder about people.
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