just a few minutes ago i finished watching a program on 'the government girls of WWII' on pbs. a woman kept coming up with oss written under her name, so i wanted to hear what she was talking about, so I started paying attention, and turned off mute. she had some cool stories, most of the women were just stenographers, typists, etc. this dame was an honest to goodness spy. she worked mostly in the pacific theatre, but did spend some of the early days before the invasion of africa working on the european theatre. she started out talking about her training, and how the girls weren't supposed to raise any suspicion, but they were given weighted baseballs to practice throwing to eachother. not to improve their sports skills, but to put into practice the technique of throwing hand grenades, which they did on the national mall in dc.

when in the pacific, she said one time they had captured a group of japanese soldiers and their base camp. in the tents were these hand written postcards in pencil. she wrote what she wanted the postcards to say after the translator had told her what they actually said and then the translator rewrote them and sent them to japan. so a postcard that said originally, 'mom, we are doing fine. we are fighting for the honor of the emperor.' etc would be replaced with a 'mom, we are doing fine. we are starving and it is the fault of the emperor.' then another time they came across some captured orders to defend a certain location. they sent a steward of death with new look-a-like orders to wait along the trail and when a courier came by he murdered him, opened his sack, removed the contents, and replaced the new orders. then the same person went to the japanese garrison and said he had found a dead courier and could show them if they'd follow him. the soldiers followed him and got the orders. the garrison surrendered. interesting.

today i dropped alison off at work and had to take something to her aunt shannon's. i stopped at bonne brae park on my way to go to the pull-up bars. i started swinging, and successfully did a parkour style reverse of direction from my swing(letting go of the bar, spinning in mid-air, and catching the bar again). i started getting a little cocky and the next time i tried to change directions my right hand missed grabbing the bar, so i was only hanging by my left. still swinging with full momentum, mind you, i careened toward the left upright. i collided solidly, with my left thigh and hip, spun, lost grip with my left hand, fell on my butt, and did an awkward roll where i bumped my head. covered in woodchips and shame, i heard a bicycle bell and looked up to see a little old lady riding by. she waved. i couldn't bring my self to acknowledge her. i went directly to the car and left. i'd brush myself off later.

LSU is the best team in the nation, by a long shot. They have the best athletes, the best coaches and the best plays. They play better together as a team than any other team in college football. So far I’m keeping pace with every major sports analyst in the country. I firmly believe they are correct. LSU is the number one team this season.

LSU is a national championship worthy team. I’d place them side-by-side with any team in the country and they’d win. I’d line up the receivers and look them up and down, then the running backs. I’d finally look at the defenses. That’s where LSU is really going to win their games.

If that is where I stopped writing, then I’d end in a tie with the leading sports writers in college athletics. Now, I venture out into the stadium of competition, into that coliseum of do or die. LSU lost. LSU lost to Kentucky. LSU lost to Kentucky in 3 overtimes. If you watched the game on Saturday, you know this already. What am I saying that’s any different? LSU won that game... on paper, but Kentucky had the intangibles. The intangibles? The vaguest of vague words, Merriam-Webster online defines an intangible as “something intangible.” There’s something about that word that you just can’t put your finger on. There’s something about that loss to Kentucky you just can’t put your finger on.

Charles Scott is a running back that 6 out of 7 times would break Braxton Kelley’s ankles in a move termed “ill.” Now the discussion turns from one of theory to one of reality. Braxton’s time was Saturday. That’s the time that goes into the record books.

Kentucky pulled out a win no one, outside of their locker room, believed could happen before the 13th. The analysts seem to forget the intangibles. They talk about how LSU lost, but they are still the best team in the nation. I agree with that, if followed by the prepositional phrase, “on paper.”

Ask twenty people what the best sports movie of all time is. I can’t read minds, but I'd bet the responses would vary from Rudy to Disney’s Miracle. Those aren’t movies about the best athletes, or the best teams. Rudy was an average athlete, and the hockey team representing the United States was no where comparable to the Russian team. If I were to bet whether Rudy got to play in a college football game, or whether team USA would win the gold medal in 1980, I’d lose a lot of money.

It’s hard to spot the intangibles before hand, nigh impossible. However, the outcome was clear on Saturday. Then why not give credit where credit is due. Kentucky has beaten LSU, other teams have better records, and there is still a lot of college football left to play. LSU can enjoy their paper meal at the top of the paper college football world, but this week, Kentucky gets to feast upon something a little more tangible... victory.

I stepped on this bad boy. I escaped without a bite. He's a 2.5 - 3 ft. rattler.

It's the middle of the monsoon season here and the clouds were doing some crazy things when the temperature started dropping into the mid 60's.




My little sister has grown to appreciate silly pictures, here's one we recently took.

My cousins' grandparents are from Canada and they bought some board games for my cousin's birthday. These are for you, Nathan.


Also, I just had to kill two black widows at the corral. No pictures, but they were the size of my thumb.

I’ve been tagged. Annie Warner tagged me months ago. You are all familiar with the rules because everyone else has already been tagged and has already posted their 6 strange/odd traits, behaviors, etc.

I made a list awhile back so that writing this blog would be easier. Alison glanced over my list (apparently I’ve been tagged before, which I didn’t remember and apparently my compiled list was identical to my previous post). She thought it was funny to list my odd traits seen from her viewpoint. Odd/strange traits take on a more painful, less funny feeling when someone else is talking about them, but I do recognize many she named, so I combined a few choice options from her list and mine. Enjoy.

1. As my brother-in-law mentioned in his recent post we have a race coming up this weekend and so I’ve been running a lot. I do math problems with whatever numbers I happen to see along my run. (For example if I see a street sign with a speed limit of 30 mph, then I proceed to add the two numbers, multiply them, or divide[which raises some problems with this example]. Then I use the last answer to continue my math equation with an address on a mailbox I just passed, etc.) I get bored when I run.

2. My sister Tanya will appreciate this one, because it was she who constantly brought it to my attention and broke me of the habit. When I was younger(elementary school) I would sit at the kitchen table to do my homework, as would my siblings, but I would sing songs about the work I was doing. (One plus two, One plus two, One plus two is three three three). No one appreciated my singing.

3. If someone takes my hat off my head and tries to place it back on my head, I must readjust it after they have replaced it on my head. No one else knows how to do it right.

4. When using a notebook to take notes, I have to always use that same pen to write in that notebook. I try to remedy this by only keeping one pen and always using that same pen for every notebook. Blue ink pens are unacceptable and are replaced as soon as possible.

5. I dream. I dream in the third person. I dream in a movie format, soundtrack, cheesy one-liners, and all. I am generally 3 – 4 inches taller and 20 – 25 lbs. heavier. I am well versed in the martial arts and am consistently 21 years old.

6. I still find distracting and trivial things to do instead of studying.

Sorry Texans. The stereotype is there and for a lot of you it's no stereotype. You are outspokenly and obnoxiously in love with your state. That's something I've never quite understood. I may come across pretty full of state pride in this post, but believe me I've never had any. I've never had any until I moved to Florida, that is. Everyone thinks it necessary to feel sorry for me because I grew up in Arizona. Whenever reminded of the fact that I originally hale from Arizona they throw me little pity scraps from their Florida dinner table. What does Florida have? Especially the Tampa area. Does it have the southern most ski resort in the nation? Does it have a National Park with hundreds of miles for hiking, horse riding and trail-running? Does it have exquisite foothills perfect for offroading adventures? Does it have great hills to just go shooting? Does it have a mountain peak where one can escape the summer heat? Does it have a low-risk for natural disasters(i.e. Hurricanes, Sink-holes, Floods, and Tornadoes)? No, no it does not. There is a place that does and that place is Arizona. Blinded by the fact that Florida is lacking in all of the above categories, I found it hard to enjoy Florida. I was looking for Arizona entertainment in Florida and it's not to be found. I had a bit of an epiphany the other day, however and I decided to stop complaining and to just get out there. I found some fun things to do and after having experienced some of the good things Florida can offer I realized that, while not perfect it's not the worst place I could live. On a more serious note the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize Florida is where you should be. In fact, I've changed my mind. I began to think of how the last time I was in Arizona people were flooding into the area. People must be receiving false information from somewhere, because you do not want to live in Arizona, trust me. It's not that great, why do people keep insisting on moving next door to my wide open spaces? There are probably a few individuals with Arizona state pride that are trying to convince you it is nice. I realize that if it sounded nice to you earlier in this post please disregard that notion. I was upset with Florida and said some things I didn't mean. You most certainly and positively DO NOT WANT to live in Arizona. It has horrible things. Horrendous creatures, climates, and vegetation that should make you never want to visit or even dream of visiting. In the summer the average temperature is over 100 degrees. In the course of a year the valley receives less than 12 inches of rain. IT'S A DESERT!! There are plants that have prickers, stickers, and needles all over them. You can't smell a flower without getting a thorn in you. The river beds have all dried up. It's never green. EVER. It is always just a shade of brown. Never green. There are venomous snakes, poisonous scorpions, and deadly spiders(black widows, etc.). Rattle snakes and tarantulas have even been found in my kitchen growing up. They are trying to kill humans. It is a hostile terrain with hostile animals. If you are thinking of moving anywhere, you probably want to live in Florida. Florida does have an abundance of waterways to kayak and canoe. Florida also has roads that are perfect for marathon training-running. FLAT. Also these same roads are nice for roller-blading. There are many public parks within walking, running, or biking distance. It's great here. If you've recently moved to Arizona get out while you still can... Move to Florida!