Published by JPLand on 29 Dec 2009
A Refreshing Read
My parents got the newspaper every Sunday when I was growing up. After church, I would read the comics, then look through all of the sales papers, and if complete boredom still reigned, I would skim through the headlines of the paper. I always skipped the sports and the fashion sections. World news got a brief glance, but most of my attention would be devoted to the “Living” section. I don’t know why it was called this, but it was a hodge-podge of random articles that didn’t fit anywhere else.
One Sunday, I think I was in ninth grade, things must have been really slow because I started actually reading some of the articles. I read for a while and then hit one that was amazing. The writing style was perfect. The humor was amazing. After I finished, I showed it to my dad and he said “Oh, that’s Dave Barry. He has an article every Sunday.” I was hooked. I even tried writing a few reports in the same style. (Looking back, I realize that it wasn’t a good idea. The grade I received helped me reach that conclusion.)
For the rest of my high school days, I read Barry’s columns. In college, I was fortunate to find his column printed on-line through the Miami Herald. At my first job, my Monday morning ritual included reading the column from the day before. (See, my ability to not work has been with me for a long time.) But, all good things must come to an end and Dave decided to leave my Mondays dry and bare. He now returns with an article that recaps the happenings of each year. That’s it….just once a year. And now is that time. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do. Or at a minimum, maybe your company’s internet filter lets it through like mine does.
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/story/1397654.html
About 7 or 8 years ago, the craze to hit the video gaming was called “DDR”. For those of you that are out of the loop, DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) is a game that requires the participants to step on a pad in specific spots in time with the music. Think of the old Nintendo powerpad but with a groove. The game was monstrously huge in Japan and saw some moderate success in the US. An unexpected market for the DDR series came from people that were looking for a way to get fit but also have fun. Heck, Kelley and I even bought a couple of mats (on sale for $7) and used them to get our legs in shape. Twice.
A more recent craze has been the Rock Band / Guitar Hero series on the game stations. Participants select their instrument of choice (lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or microphone) and then follow the on-screen prompts for making sweet music. The premise is compelling because people with absolutely no musical talent (me) can feel like the a star playing “Sweet Child of Mine.” I went to my first Rock Band party this past weekend and was amazed at how much fun the game was. One of the more seasoned participants was able to play the guitar and sing at the same time. It was so much fun that I told Kelley that we have to get the game. Do you know how awesome that drum set would look sitting in our closet?

Last week, Kelley was asked to sing and was forced into using me as the background noise. For those of you who are interested, I’ve attempted to upload the mp3 so that you can listen to it. Here’s Kelley singing Remember Your Chains from
At the beginning of this year, I got hooked on a TV show that was a blast from the 80’s. On this blog, 


I was reading some of the 
My recollection of Tim Wansley was one (of many) play where he lined up against me. He was the receiver and I was the cornerback. Now, I’m not as stupid as I seem. I knew that Tim was fast and I knew that the ball would be coming to him on that play. So, as soon as the ball was snapped, I turned and ran as fast as I could. Within a split-second, Tim was waiting on me in the end zone with the football. The sad thing is, I don’t think he even had to try on that play.