The Life of Brian

Dragon Wars review

2008-02-05T17:17:00.001-06:00

The other night we decided to rent a movie and relax. It has been a rather busy winter thus far and we haven't had too many chances to sit and watch a movie. We rented Dragon Wars simply because I have a love of dragons, and have had it for a long time.

Normally for me a movie needs 3 basic elements. Swords, a good movie needs a great swordfight. Killer special effects, like all great movies, special effects are a must for me, and finally it needs to have a fantasy element.

Dragon Wars had 2 of 3 elements. Although it did have a sword in it a few times, there really wasn't much in the way of a fight. So based on that we had to settle for the other 2 key elements.

I thought this movie had some really great special effects. I would say it some of the better Special Effects in a movie in a few years. Keep in mind I haven't seen a ton of movies over the past few years, but I would say this movie rivaled Transformers in overall Effects.

As for the Fantasy element, the concept of dragons is great. This movie did miss on this element. The fact that the only dragon in this movie was at the very end, and I thought they did a terrible job of portraying the spirit of a dragon.

This dragon was the typical Chinese dragon. Long, snake like body, very short, stubby legs, and long "whiskers". There is nothing wrong with this style of dragon, but let's face it, a real dragon looks more like the ones in Eragon. The real problem I had was the fact that this dragon did not have wings, yet it was flying.

Hollywood really missed the boat on this movie, as I feel it could have been far better than it was. On a scale of 1-10, I give this movie a 4, and that is simply because the Special Effects were so good.

Snow, Snow, and more Snow

2008-02-05T17:11:00.000-06:00

It has been quite a winter here in our little corner of the world. I can't remember a winter in recent years that we have had this much snow. Not only have we had a fair amount of snow, but it came early this year. Many years we struggle to have a white Christmas, and this year we had a white Thanksgiving.

On Super Bowl Sunday we had yet another snow storm. Now the accumulation totals differ with who you ask, but it is fair to say that we got somewhere between 6 and 8 inches. Monday cam, and the threat of another storm was in the air. The kids did not have school, and I stayed home from work. Monday turned out to be a calm before the storm type of day.

Tuesday arrived and with it came the real storm. Thus far we have received around 3-4 inches of snow and sleet. Right now it is raining and freezing, but looks to be turning to snow. They are calling for us to get anywhere between 7-11 inches during the evening which should make for an interesting drive in the morning.

Until next time.....

End of the season wrap-up

2008-01-30T10:15:00.000-06:00

The final games are in the books, and the season is a wrap. Last weekend we played our final 2 basketball games for the 3/4th grade youth basketball. It was a struggle for a majority of the season, but I think the boys actually learned a little bit about how the game of basketball is supposed to be played.

I told them up front that I was not concerned as much with winning as I was with them learning some fundamentals of the game. Though winning is fun, and it is nice to instill that into the boys confidence, to me it is not the be all, end all.

The last 2 games I changed my focus for the kids. I really wanted to get them to understand the importance of Defense, and the proper way to play it. A lot of average offensive teams have won a ton of games by playing solid defense. I taught them to get down in a good defensive stance, and to keep their feet active. Defense is not meant to be played from a straight standing position. We really concentrated on it the last week and a half of practice.

Our first game was against Eddyville-Blakesburg. I had watched them play a couple times before and I had mixed feelings about them. In the first game I watched, they were completely blown out, but the second game I watched, they took it to the opponent. Our focus on Defense seemed to be working well in this game. We were up 12 - 6 at the half. We came out rolling in the second half and pulled away from them. We gave up a couple points at the end of the game, but ended up beating them 23-10.

The second game had us match up against Centerville again. I was really anticipating this game to see just how far we have come on the season. In the first week of games, we lost to Centerville 28-17, so I was anxious to see what we could do with a few more weeks of practice under our belt.

To say that this was a defensive struggle would be an understatement. neither team was letting each other get off too many good shots. We had a fair few good shots in the first half, but failed to get many of them to fall. We were down at the half 10-6. The second half was more of the same as each team struggled to get off many good shotswe trailed late in the game 12-8 before giving up an easy basket, and a foul to make the final 15-8. We ay not have won the game, but we really looked like an improved team this time around.

We finished 2-6 on the season, but had 3 other games that were pretty close. I think had we played defense the first 3 weeks like we did the last week, we would have finished 5-3, but that was not the case.

I had a lot of fun coaching the kids, and I look forward to doing it again next year.

Basketball - Week 3

2008-01-22T14:40:00.000-06:00

Well, another week down, and another 2 losses. We played well this past weekend, but we came up on the short end of both games.

In the first game against Albia (White) I thought we really let some opportunities slip away. We match up well with this team, and I think on any given game, either team could win. We stayed right with them, and neither team had a lead bigger than 3 points. The halftime score had us trailing 12 - 10. We were a little shorthanded in that game with one boy that was sick, and another that got sick at the game. In the end, we weren't able to pull it out, and fell 20-17.

Our second game was against Albia (Blue). This is a pretty good team, that hasn't lost in league play yet. We really played hard against them. It was back and forth most of the the first quarter and a half. At that point, Jalen took a weird bouncing ball to the nose and had to exit the court . Midway through the second quarter, I had to go attend to Jalen since his nose bleed was not stopping. We were tied at half time 14-14 from what I was told. By the time we got Jalen's nose bleed under control, it was well into the 4th quarter and we were down 22-20 at that point. I think we simply ran out of gas. We were basically running the same 5 players all game and I know that had to wear those kids down. Final score 28-20.

This weekend we play our last 2 games of the year. First we play Eddyville-Blakesburg, then we finish up with Centerville. I look forward to the game against Centerville to see how much we have improved since the first week when we played them. Until next week.......

Basketball results -- Week 2

2008-01-12T17:22:00.000-06:00

Well, we did manage to get ourselves in the win column this morning, but we just didn't seem to be into the games this morning.

Our first game was against the Moravia Mohawks. You could tell from the beginning that we were the better team athletically. Moravia was not very big, and they struggled to get too many shots up on the rim. This was a game that we should have won by 25 or more points. We did a lot of things that make a coach want to pull his hair out. We didn't take care of the basketball well, and we made some dumb turnovers at bad times. We did manage to win the game 20-7, but it could have been much worse. We need to learn to take care of the ball, and to finish shots around the rim.

The second game, against Chariton, was U-G-L-Y!!!! We started out well, and held a 1 point lead after the first quarter, but after that we fell apart. Chariton really put it to us. They shot the ball until they made it. We failed to even try to rebound the basketball. We never got back on defense, and they would simply fast break us to death. I think that my boys were completely intimidated by them. Too many times I heard the kids talk about how big they were, and that they were all 4th graders. When we have that kind of attitude going in, it makes it even tougher to instill any confidence in the kids. The final score was 48-9, and frankly it could have been worse.

We know what we need to work on at this point, and we will get through it. All I want to see from the kids is improvement from this point on. Until next weekend...........Go Blue!!!!

Dragon Eggs

2008-01-11T22:32:00.000-06:00

Click the Eggs to help them hatch and grow.

Check their progress here

First week of basketball down...

2008-01-09T07:45:00.000-06:00

Clearly there is more to coaching basketball than meets the eye. After 3 weeks of practice, my 3rd/4th grade team hit the court for our first set of games last Saturday. To say it wasn't the best of results would be an understatement. We dropped both games over the weekend. It also didn't help when my starting point guard called me at 7:30 am on Saturday, and was sick, but those are the breaks.

In our first game, against Pleasantville, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from my team. I was working with the backup point guard, and that forced me to play a couple other boys out of position. I give the boys credit, they stayed in the game the whole way. We trailed 16-11 in the second half when I made a switch. I moved one of my forwards to the point and let him run things. We rattled off 6 straight points and took a 17-16 lead late in the game. A defensive breakdown lead to an easy basket for the Trojans, and we were unable to score down the stretch, losing 18-17.

In our Second game, we squared off against Centerville. This game wasn't near as close as the first one. We fell behind early, and seemed intimidated. We weren't running the offense, we weren't playing good defense at all, and we couldn't rebound to save our lives. We went into Halftime trailing 16-4. I was very disappointed, not with the score, but with how the boys were playing. Mike, my assisstant coach, and I got on them over halftime, and stressed that they needed to play better defense, and they really needed to rebound. Our pep talk must have done some good, because within the first 3 minutes of the second half, the boys played some of the best ball I have seen played by a team that age. we scored the first 6 points of the second half to close to within 16-10, but we had really dug ourselves too deep of a hole. We played much better in the second half though, which was encouraging, but still lost the game 28-17.

This week we have games in Moravia against Moravia, and Chariton. I look for use to win the game against Moravia, but I haven't seen Chariton play yet, so I am not sure what to expect from them.

Youth Basketball

2008-01-05T00:14:00.000-06:00

Any one that knows me, knows that one of the things I enjoy most in life is coaching youth sports. I have coached soccer for the past 6 years, I have also coached flag football, Baseball, and now I am coaching basketball.

I started coaching basketball this year, as an assistant for a 3rd/4th grade team in a church league. I never considered basketball to be one of my strong points, as far as coaching went. I didn't really play much organized basketball when I was younger. Probably due to the fact that I was not all that tall, and didn't have the luxury of having a great spot to shoot hoops around the farm.

After the first couple of practices with the church team, I said to myself that I can do this. I have watched enough basketball in my life to know how to put together a simple motion offense. I understand the High post pick & roll, and I understand that the best scoring opportunities are to get the ball low on the block to your big men, and let them have free reign at the basket.

I requested a team for the City league we have and I was given the opportunity to coach for the first time. We have had 5 practices thus far, and I honestly think the boys are understanding what I am trying to teach them. At this age, it's really about the fundamentals, and understanding the flow of an offense, and where to be. We are not running anything too complicated, and we are basically working on getting the first steps down of each play. I have yet to get too deep in the plays. The boys understand the first movements, and the basic concept of where they are going. I think once the first games are done, we will know more about what we need to work on, and I will incorporate some further progressions to each play. Don't want to throw too much at them too quick.

We play our first games in the morning, and I am looking forward to getting them out there under fire, so to speak. I will try to update here on our progress over the next few weeks.

Minneapolis weekend

2007-12-26T23:07:00.000-06:00

Well, Mindy and I made it home from Minneapolis this past weekend. As I had written earlier, we went up for the weekend to see the Redskins take on the Vikings on Sunday night football.

The original plan was to leave early Saturday morning, to avoid the winter storm that was moving into the area. We woke up around 5:30 in the morning Saturday and checked the weather radar for our trip. All conditions were normal at the time in Iowa, but the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area appeared to be getting hammered with snow and ice. Mindy and I talked it over, and decided to head back to bed. We would check things out after a few more hours of sleep and see if it was feasible to leave, or if we should look to leave Sunday morning instead.

We woke up again around 9:30 and made a check of the radar. The front appeared to have moved out of the Metro area, so we decided to give it a shot. We were on the road around 10 am, and really had good driving conditions all the way to Minneapolis. In fact, it took us just 4 1/2 hours to get there.

We spent the rest of the day visiting with family, and around 7:30 met up with Mindy's cousin Doreen. We had made reservations at Osaka, a Japanese steakhouse, in Apple Valley. After being seated, we waited a good 45 minutes before our chef came to the table to start cooking dinner. I guess I should mention that Osaka's is a teppanyaki style restaurant. They cook all your food at your table. The meal was very good, and the show the chef put on was good too. They do a few unique things during dinner. At one point, he took an onion and formed it into a little volcano, and lit it on fire. It was pretty neat to see. There was another time where they take a squeeze bottle filled with Saki, and the squirt it in your mouth from a distance. That was interesting too. We followed Osaka's up with a couple drinks at Rascals before returning to where we were staying.

We slept late the next day, knowing that we would be up for quite a while. We planned to drive home directly after the game Sunday night. Unfortunately, we woke up to a nice snow storm. We were to meet up with Doreen and her husband Steve at 2 pm, but the snow delayed us a bit. by the time we got around and met with them and headed down town, it was 4:30, and by that time there was easily 6 inches of snow on the ground. We took a train downtown, and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner before the game.

We headed to the Metrodome around 6:30 and made our way to our seats. We didn't realize it when we bought the tickets, but our seats were on the very top row, right in front of the Scoreboard. Actually, they were good seats, and we saw a heck of a game as Washington dominated in winning 32-21. The final score made the game seem much closer than it really was. We were out of the dome, and back to Fort Snelling, where we parked, by 11:15. The snow had stopped sometime after the game started, and the roads were not too awful at that point. We drove straight through, and made it home around 4:30 Monday morning.

It was a fun trip, regardless of the weather. Caertainly a trip I am glad I was able to take.

NFL Debut

2007-12-19T16:41:00.000-06:00

Well folks, this weekend will mark my first regular season NFL football game. I have seen many, many college football games in my life, and I have even been able to take in a Preseason NFL game a few years ago.

This weekend I will be going to the Metrodome to watch as the Minnesota Vikings play host to my beloved Washington Redskins. The primetime affair will feature 2 teams that have playoff aspirations. The Vikings go in to the game with an 8-6 record, and are the winners of 5 straight, while the Redskins come in with a 7-7 record, and fresh off a road victory against division rival New York.

Minnesota is lead by RB Adrian Peterson from the University of Oklahoma. Peterson has already amassed 1278 yards, while appearing in just 12 games thus far.

Washington will be lead by veteran QB Todd Collins. Collins has filled in admirably for Jason Campbell who was lost for the season 2 weeks ago with a knee injury. Washington will also be without the services of rookie LB Rocky McIntosh who tore both his ACL and MCL in his left knee in the win over the Giants.

It will be a long drive home Sunday night, so heres hoping for a great win for the Skins, and a pleasant weekend, weather wise.

Music Review - Lizzy Borden

2007-12-18T11:36:00.000-06:00

Most may not know this, but Lizzy Borden has recently released another new album, Appointment with Death (AWD). Like all Lizzy albums before it, AWD features some great vocal licks from one of the truly under appreciated singers of my day. I remember hearing my first Lizzy song while sitting in my car listening to an obscure metal station. Each Friday night there was a 2 hour metal block that was over the top metal from a majority of bands that were relative unknowns. American Metal was the song that got me started on Lizzy Borden, and I have followed them from that one summer night in my car.

Throughout my High School years, it was common to hear Lizzy pumped through my stereo. Hardly a day went by that I didn't listen to at least one Lizzy song. I bought each tape as they came out. Eventually, cassette tapes started to go the way of the Do Do, and the Compact Disc became popular. I made it my mission to get each and every Lizzy Album on CD. It took a lot of looking through bargain bins at second hand stores, but I eventually found each album on CD. The last coming when I visited my brother in Mason City, and found Menace to Society at a CD trader store.

A few years ago, I was able to fulfill a dream of mine when several friends and I went to Clinton Iowa and saw Lizzy live. This was not a typical show. At this point in time, Lizzy's style of music had been gone for several years, and frankly, people just weren't interested. This played to our advantage. On that evening, Lizzy played for a crowd of about 15 people at the Pig Pen in Clinton. Interestingly, half the crowd consisted of my friends and myself. Can you imagine, finally getting to see one of the bands that you idolized growing up, basically playing a private show just for you! I don't think I will ever forget the fun that I had that night, and I know that getting the opportunity to meet and talk with Lizzy, Joey Scott, and Alex after the show will always stick with me. Sadly, Alex Nelson was killed in and automobile accident a month later.

If you get the chance, I suggest finding a copy of Appointment with Death, and giving it a listen. You won't be disappointed.

2007-12-18T11:31:00.000-06:00

I'm not what you would call an experienced Blogger. As a matter of fact, I have never really blogged before in my life. The closest I have ever come to a blog was back in Junior High School. Blogging did not exist at that time, at least not in it's current capacity.

So as you read through the various little musings of mine, keep in mind that I am not a writer. That should make things much easier to understand.