Scooter Chronicles

“I haven’t screamed that hard since the US hockey team beat the Russians.”

— Jenna Elfman as Anna Riley in “Keeping the Faith”

Back on May 15th, Marcia and I finished watching “The Pursuit of Happyness” starring Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith.

This movie is based on a true story. From a synopsis posted by Kenneth Chisholm, I have cleaned up a bit of what he posted:

In 1981, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) was a struggling salesman of little needed medical bone density scanners while his wife worked double shifts to support themselves and their 5 year old son, Christopher (Jaden Smith). In the face of this difficult life, Chris has the desperate inspiration to apply for a stockbroker internship where...

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The Freedom won again, extracting revenge on the Jersey Shore Crushers at “The War at the Shore II”. It was a bit lopsided with the score 902-694. And I had two guys that didn’t have their usual strong games (Tyson Edwards of the Adelaide Crows and captain Daniel Cross of the Western Bulldogs). Fortunately my starters are all having good overall seasons.

This week my team takes on Tokyo. It will be the start of the second half of the season. Last year I had a dismal second half that put me just out of the playoffs. It will probably take a HUGE collapse to do the same this year with the top 8 teams qualifying this time around. But the goal is for a spot in the top 4, because they get a “safety net”...

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I am changing jobs again. After a comment like that, some of you are probably wondering if I can stay in one place very long. Sure I can. I have in the past. I stayed with Forward Planning for just short of ten years. And I was at CHL for just over five years. My plan was when I left CHL was to stay somewhere for a decent period of time. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

I have mentioned before that I left CHL for FMC and it was a nightmare. Maybe overstating it, but it was a mess. So then I took the contract position with FLSmidth with the idea of hiring in after the six month contract was done. But their offer was low. Very low. So after talking to Marcia, we made the decision for me to start looking again. Though...

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On Monday night, Marcia and I watched “The Last King of Scotland” starring Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy.

The best plot synopsis I could find was on IMDB, written by Kenneth Chisholm:

In the early 1970s, Nicholas Garrigan (McAvoy), a young semi-idealistic Scottish doctor, comes to Uganda to assist in a rural hospital. Once there, he soon meets up with the new President, Idi Amin (Whitaker), who promises a golden age for the African nation. Garrigan hits it off immediately with the rabid Scotland fan, who soon offers him a senior position in the national health department...

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Though rainshortened, and with a 3 hour delay in the middle, this year’s Indy 500 was very exciting. There were 9 different leaders in the race, and there was 24 lead changes. In the end it was a bit disappointing. Marcia and I were pulling for either Danica Patrick or Marco Andretti to win it. But longtime driver Dario Franchitti pulled off the victory. In some respects, it’s about time he won this event. He also became the second Scotman to win it, with Jimmy Clark being the first in 1965.

And yes, Dario is Scottish. He was born in Scotland to a family of Italian descent. Also...

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Back on Thursday I finished reading “A Model Summer” by Paulina Porizkova.

Thanks to Publishers Weekly and Amazon.Com, here is a quick rundown about the book:

Set in 1980, this smooth, predictable first novel by model, actress and children’s book author Porizkova tells the story of Jirina, who arrives in Paris a beautiful 15-year-old aspiring model. A Swede of Czech background, Jirina escapes teasing classmates when she’s discovered and shipped off to a well-known modeling agency. Leaving behind divorced, unsympathetic parents and a beloved little sister, Jirina...

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The Cardigans – “First Band on the Moon”

Tracks:

1. Your New Cuckoo
2. Been It
3. Heartbreaker
4. Happy Meal II
5. Never Recover
6. Step On Me
7. Lovefool
8. Losers
9. Iron Man
10. Great Divide
11. Choke

I went out on a few dates with a young lady a couple of years before meeting Marcia. One day we stopped in Harmony House to browse around. She ended up buying this album on CD and we listened to it the rest of the evening. “Lovefool” was often played on the radio. Later I bought a copy, not sure if I really wanted to, but I took...

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A few nights ago Marcia and I watched “Notes on a Scandal” starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, with co-stars Andrew Simpson and Bill Nighy.

For a synopsis of the movie, I turn to Donald Liebenson’s review which is posted at Amazon.Com as the description:

Gold stars to all for this taut psychological thriller based on Zoe Heller’s novel that that gets more insidiously twisted as it unfolds. Oscar-nominated for her chilling performance, Dame Judi Dench gives a master class as schoolteacher Barbara Covett, a frumpy, friendless, and flinty spinster who lives with her...

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Red Wings
So, if you hadn’t noticed, the Red Wings were eliminated from the playoffs on Tuesday night. I am disappointed, yet still happy. They had a great season. Since the inception of the salary cap, the Wings remain one of the best teams in the league. And this year, without two of their leaders (Yzerman and Shanahan), they still continued to be a dominant force with young players. The future looks bright.

Ducks
As I mentioned before, I picked the Anaheim Ducks to win the Cup at the start of the season. This is one of a few times the team I picked at least made it to the Finals. I had correctly picked the Wings in the 1995 Finals, the Flyers in the 1997 Finals, and the...

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