Quote of the day

I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.

Mia Hamm

Quote of the day

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

Could your water bottle be killing you?

The Canadian's are looking to ban a chemical that is present in hard plastics bottles, like Nalgene's, and some baby boottles.

Some quotes from the USA Today story.

Earlier this week, the U.S. government's National Toxicology Program said that there is "some concern" about BPA from experiments on rats that linked the chemical to changes in behavior and the brain, early puberty and possibly precancerous changes in the prostate and breast. While such animal studies only provide "limited evidence" of risk, the draft report said a possible effect on humans "cannot be dismissed."

"At best FDA gave Americans a false sense of comfort about a questionable substance. At worst, they put millions of Americans directly at risk," Schumer said.

Soccer Technique

More Soccer videos for me to find easily later.

Play in a V Back each other up with the off the ball player at the bottom of the V.


Closing an Attacker Down


First Touch Away from Pressure


Dribbling Stepover Turn


Dribbling Roll and Scissors


Dribbling: Double Cut


Dribbling: Cruyff Turn


Dribbling: Shielding the Ball


3 Player 2 Servers Passing Drills


Ball Control Dribbling Drills

Goalkeeper Training Videos

I was surprised to find a plethora of goalkeeper training videos on YouTube. I'm putting these so I can find them again to use with my goalkeepers.

34 goalkeeper drills.
This one is quite thorough but you have to watch and replay to catch everything.


Pre-match warm-ups


More pre-match warm-ups


Make yourself big in the goal and proper drop-kick technique.


Goal technique from Real Salt Lake goalie


How to practice on your own


And one more, in German with some good drills and conditioning

Quote of the day

I was going 70 miles an hour and got stopped by a cop who said, "Do you know the speed limit is 55 miles per hour?" "Yes, officer, but I wasn't going to be out that long..." - Steven Wright

Wreck in one paragraph or less

Riverview is currently doing a series called "Wreck" that walks us through Solomon's wisdom gained by making all of the wrong decisions. I decided to open my super-spiritual* Ryrie Study Bible to Ecclesiastes today and came across this summary, which I enjoyed . It dove tail nicely with the "Wreck" series and what I've been learning lately.

The message of the book may be stated in the form of three propositions. (1) When you look at life with its seemingly aimless cycles (1:4ff.) and inexplicable paradoxes (4:1; 7:15; 8:8), you might conclude that all is futile, since it is impossible to discern any purpose in the ordering of events. (2) Nevertheless, life is to be enjoyed to the fullest, realizing that it is the gift of God (3:12-13; 3:22; 5:18-19; 8:15; 9:7-9). (3) The wise man will live his life in obedience to God, recognizing that God will eventually judge all men (3:16-17; 12:14).

*In my college days, we used to joke that this is how you demonstrate how spiritually mature you are. By the condition of your Bible. This Bible looks quite worn and is literally coming apart at the seams. I only wish I had been that much of a student of the Word. The truth is, it's a poorly-constructed book. I purchased 1981 or so, around the time Detroit was making some poorly-constructed cars, too. It showed signs of structural weakness very early in it's limited-use life. I keep it because I like the study references and in fond memory of bygone days. Twenty some years after purchasing this Bible, I found myself enjoying the teaching of one of Charles Ryrie's students Arnold Fruchtenbaum. I guess it's a small theological world.

Essays

I used to enjoy essay exams in college. I've since been stuck when it comes to writing. I'm reading Paul Graham's "Hacker and Painters" and he points out:

The word "essay" comes from the French word "essayer", which means "to try". An essay, in the original sense, is something you write to try to figure something out.

Writing to try to figure something out, is a lot easier than writing what you've already figured out. There's certainly a broad range of material available to me in the former.

Picking an investmet guru

I saw an ad for an investment adviser today and in researching him I found a useful site GuruFocus.com. Their scoreboard ranks investment gurus investment performance on several time window and interestingly enough, Warren Buffet come out #4 for the last 6 months and #1 since inception. Impressive.

Maybe it's time for me to give up trying to beat the market by selecting smarter or investing in indexed ETFs and invest in Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A or BRK.B).

Updated Becky Video

I converted the Vision 22 video of Becky's Spring 2007 performance at the Haslett Cabaret. The video and audio quality from Vision 22 surpassed my camcorder, but I'm afraid my conversion process didn't do them justice.

For the video editing experts in the audience, who can hopefully clue me in on where I went wrong, I used HandBrake to convert the DVD video to AVI, imported to the AVI to iMovie, edited down to the two clips I wanted and then exported for iPod. If anyone knows how to get this from DVD while better preserving the video quality, please, chime in. If you'll need more details, I'll understand.

I Could Have Danced All Night


The Rain In Spain

So you want to be a mountain biker?

A little fun with mountain biking via BikeRadar.com .

So you want to be a mountain biker?

1. You must get a tattoo.
4. You must choose a tribe.
7. Be prepared to be injured in new and interesting ways.

My Brother & Sister's High School

My brother & sister's High School, Miami Palmetto High School produced Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos and world-famous street fighter Kimbo Slice. My brother came out somewhere in between. He works with a fortune 500 company and his street fighting skills are all in his feet (he's a marathoner). My little sister has a world-class concern and compassion for all creatures great and small.

Why didn't I go there? We moved a couple times after Warren Area High School in Warren, Pennsylvania, the high school I graduated from. (As the link indicates, it isn't listed on Wikipedia yet). I only spent a year there and made some great friendships.

Quote of the day

"Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving."

- William Shakespeare
 

Who's reading?

I'm curious who's tuned in. Please comment or send me an e-mail if you read this blog.

See how fun road cycling can be

A little road comedy sketch.



via steephilll.tv.

Andy Rooney's iPhone review

I don't take the time out to catch Andy often enough. I guess he's older than I thought.

Why I like road cycling

Last week Noel posted a video link on why he thinks road cycling.




Although that looks like fun, this video explains why I prefer road cycling.

Bill Gate's Final CES Keynote

Funny. With appearances by Bono, Al Gore, Hillary, Barack, Jay-Z, Jon Stewart, Clooney, Spielberg, Napoleon Dynamite, and Brian Williams.

A little off-season cycling inspiration

Charles Howe tells the story of the 1964 Tour de France in The Greatest Bike Race – Ever. It's enough to get you on your bike . . . inside, at least.

The problem with prosperity

If you've ever wondered if the abundance we live in creates problems, you'll want to listen to Barry Schwartz's TED talk. It's 20 minutes of insight and humor.
I put a hold on his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less at the local library to hear the balance of his case and solution.

It's interesting to juxtapose this the Christmas gift buying rush and what I've been listening to and reading from John Piper lately. We are so wealthy and live in such over abundance in the US of A, we totally lack perspective on so much of life, "necessity", and God himself.