Memorial Day

A grateful thank you to all those men and women who served, and to those who serve now. I specially thank those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest of us can enjoy the freedom we share.

A random fact about the Indy 500

According to US census bureau the most common last name in the United States is Smith. In 91 runnings of the Indy 500 there has never been a driver with the last name Smith to qualify for the race.

Hypocrite of the Week

A California State Senator who voted in favor a law that bans talking on a cell phone without a hands free device while driving reportedly caused a car accident last weekend while talking on her cell phone. Carol Migden D- San Fransisco was driving a state issued SUV when she rear ended another vehicle. Here's the full story.

Senator Who Favors Cell Phone Ban Caught Using Hers

Some Advice for Runners

Don't go out for Chinese food at 9:00 PM on Friday and then try to run eight miles at 8:00 AM on Saturday.










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Blazermania!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seven years ago I sat in the living of my friend Justin's place watching on a 13 inch Daewoo television as my beloved Blazers imploded in the fourth quarter of game seven of the Western Conference finals. That Sunday afternoon was the beginning of the dowmward sprial that saw the Blazers go from one of the elite teams in the league to the league's worst team one year ago. The once proud franchise was dead, there was no hope and longtime fans like myself were wondering if the Blazers would ever be back. Things started to look up on draft night last year in which the Blazers picked up Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. This season was a struggle but there were signs of life and the team won eleven more games than it did a year ago. There was hope but there was still a missing piece.

Last night on what some are calling the greatest night in franchise history since the championship season, the Portland Trail Blazers won the NBA Draft Lottery. Meaning that they will have the number one pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. They will have the choice of two of the best players in the NBA draft in recent memory, Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. In all likelyhood they will select Oden, which I believe is the correct pick. Durant wouldn't be a bad pick either but I think Oden would be the better fit and he could be the guy that'll bring the Blazers their first title since 1977.

Softball

Tonight marked the beginning of my second season on the company softball team. As was was the case last year, I am once again wearing the #7 as a tribute to the man who I think is the greatest quarterback ever to play the game of football, John Elway. I started at my usual position, First Base, committed no errors in the field and was 2-2 at the plate with two singles. We won 16-9 tonight and appear to be much improved from last year.

Alberto Gonzales a Portland Trail Blazer?

What does attorney general Alberto Gonzales have to do with the Portland Trail Blazers? The answer is nothing but for some weird reason when you enter http://www.albertogonzales.com in your browser it takes you to the official website of the Portland Trail Blazers. The following is courtesy of Oregonlive.com:

Alberto Gonzales a Blazer?
Posted by Casey Holdahl May 21, 2007 13:21PM
As you may or may not know, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has been in some hot water lately regarding the firing of a number of federal prosecutors. If you'd like to talk more about that, we've got a lovely politics forum.
So right now you're probably saying to yourself, "This is a Blazer blog Casey. What's the big deal bringing up this political crap?" Well it turns out that the Blazers and AG Gonzales have a strange connection on the World Wide Web:
For some reason, typing the domain "www.albertogonzales.com" into your browser's address line takes web-surfers to the online home of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers. A quick online search shows that the Attorney General's name is registered to InterCosmos Media Group of New Orleans, and was registered on Feb. 3, 2005, just as Gonzales was up for Senate confirmation.
An attempt to reach InterCosmos for an explanation was unsuccessful. But the BLT's private theory is that the link between the nation's top-law enforcement officer and the Blazers may have something to do with the team's well-documented history of blazing things other than three-point shots.
And it's true. Click on http://www.albertogonzales.com/, and sure enough, you're re-directed to Blazers.com. If anyone's got an explanation for this, I would love to hear it. My guess is that Alberto can really stroke the three.

300 Posts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my 300th post to my blog. In celebration of that milestone, let's take a look back at some of my favorite posts.

World's Strongest Dad- The inspirational story of Rick and Dick Hoyt. A story that everybody should read and I guarantee that you'll get choked up at the very least.

Why not a Playoff?- My annual argument for a playoff in college football.

Valentine's Day, What's the point?- A classic post from back in 2006 which was my last ever Valentine's day as a single man. Yes Carrie, my opinion of Valentine's Day has changed since then.

59 Things a Man Should Never do Past 30- A list from esquire magazine and no I don't think that I've been in violation of any of them.

3:25:07- My post following my first marathon last year.

Marathon Time

On June 2 I will be running my third marathon. For the second year in a row I'll be running the Newport Marathon. This year I'm not the slim trim Dennis that I was a year ago but I'm also not the fat Dennis that I was two years ago. My goal of qualifying for Boston is temporarily on hold, if I can finish this one under four hours I'll be ecstatic. Once I get this one out the way I plan on upping my training and getting back into my peak condition to make a run at Boston in Portland in the fall or back home in Eugene next spring.

The NBA

For the past couple years I have been completely uninterested in the NBA. The style of play, the teams and the players just didn't interest me. I started watching a little NBA during the playoffs and enjoyed it. That all ended tonight because the last remaining team that I enjoyed watching the Phoenix Suns was eliminated. As of tonight I am officially uninterested in the NBA until either the Blazers start winning or next years playoffs.

Three months from today

Can anyone guess what's happening on that day?

The Greatest Athlete Ever to Come out of the State of Oregon

Someone once asked me who I felt the greatest athlete to come out of state of Oregon was. Now we're not talking someone from California who went to college for four years in Oregon, we're talking the best Oregon raised athlete. To me that answer is simple and it cannot be debated. The greatest athlete ever to come out of the state of Oregon is Steve Prefontaine.

Born and raised in Coos Bay, Oregon Pre was the greatest American distance runner ever. In his college career he won seven NCAA titles, three in Cross Country and four in the three mile becoming the first athlete to win four consecutive titles in one event. In his college career he set nine collegiate records and never lost a race of a distance more than one mile. He raced in thirty eight races at historic Hayward field from 1970-1975 and won thirty five of those, the three that he didn't win were all at the one mile distance. In his only Olympics at the the age of 21 he finished fourth in a field that he was at least two years younger than everyone else. Had he race in 1976 he would have been the favorite to win gold.

In 1975 Pre was killed in a car accident. At the time of his death he held every American record from 2000-10000 meters.


Information from goducks.com was used to complete this post

Buying a card

Tomorrow is my father's birthday so tonight I went to the store to find my dad a birthday card. I figured I would find the card I want an be out of there in two minutes, I was wrong. I spent thirty minutes and I must of looked through every birthday card the store had. All I wanted was a classy and simple birthday card. I didn't want a card with crude sexual humor, no card with a sappy poem telling my dad how special he is and absolutely no card with puppies or kittens wishing my dad a happy birthday, again all I wanted was a simple and classy birthday card. I found one card that said simply "happy birthday" by it looked like it was designed by a five year old using really bad clip art.

The funny cards either not funny, contained references to bodily noises, contained crude sexual humor or all of the above. I just don't think it would be very appropriate to buy my dad a card that references bodily noises or sexual humor.

Some people like to buy cards that contain a sappy poem or something a long those lines. For my mom I can get away with that but dad is a different. My dad is an old tough guy who spent twenty years in the military, buying him a card with poem telling him how special he is would just be weird.

The most disturbing cards to me are the ones with puppies or kittens. The store I went to had a whole section of these cards. Who came up with the brilliant idea of putting a pet on a card. I just don't see the point.

After looking at all the cards I left the store with nothing. Tomorrow during my lunch I'll try again and hopefully this time I'll be more successful.

Sizzler

For nearly a year, I have been on the board of directors for the Lane County Creditors Association (It's not as prestigious as it sounds). On the the third Thursday of every month we have a board meeting at Sizzler. No matter what I order off the menu I always feel sick after eating there. I've tried burgers, steak, chicken, salad bar, shrimp and fish but it doesn't matter, I always leave with this nasty feeling in my stomach. Today I ordered the chicken strips which I thought would be safe, I was wrong! Since 2:00 today I have felt ill, after work I went for my six mile run that normally takes 45 minutes, tonight it took an hour and fifteen minutes. The point of all this? Never eat at Sizzler!

Pac 10 Champs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure one of you knuckleheads is going say something like it's only Track and Field but I don't care what you think. Eugene, Oregon is Tracktown USA and personally I think it's great that the storied track and field program at University of Oregon is returning to its rightful place amongst the nation's elite.

Something

It's been a couple days since I blogged so I figured I should give you all something. The problem is there's nothing really new to report, it's been a slow week in sports and making fun of "OS" is getting old, actually making fun of "OS" never gets old but you get the point. So with nothing blog about I figured I'd give you guys another YouTube video. This time I ventured out of the world sports into the world of music. The following is one of my favorite performances in recent years. It's a tribute to the late George Harrison performed by Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and others. I give to you "Something".

People can be delusional sometimes

The beginning of each season brings new hope to sports fans. Some can be realistic and some can be downright delusional. I tend to be on the realistic side, meaning I don't pick my teams to win a championship every year. Then there are people like Frank Hoaglin of the Barometer which happens to be the "OS" student newspaper. I'll just let you all read the column for yourselves and you'll see what I'm talking about. After reading then you can read my commentary on some of my favorites points.

2007
The Year?

"The Beavs look to revisit those days this year, and from the looks of practices, scrimmages and the Spring game this year, OSU has the potential to be a force to be reckoned with this season."

We're talking about spring practice here, spring practice is never a good indication of how a team will look in the in fall. I remember attending the 2002 Oregon spring game and thinking afterwards that the Ducks were going to be great and Jason Fife was going to better than Joey Harrington. The ducks went 7-6 and got crushed by Wake Forrest in the Seattle Bowl and I think that it is safe to say Jason Fife was not better than Joey Harrington.

"Even after losing quarterback Matt Moore to the NFL, the Beavers have enough depth at the position to make Urban Meyer look jealous down in Florida"

A Redshirt Freshman and a Sophomore with no meaningful minutes wouldn't make the coach at New Mexico State jealous let alone the coach of of the defending national champions.


"Much like former Trojan quarterback Matt Leinart, Canfield has the mechanics and delivery to find any receiver at any point on the field and deliver a precision pass to their numbers."


Comparing an untested Sophomore QB to a Heisman trophy winner who led his to two national titles is just plain ridiculous.

"While USC had the weapons in the forms of Reggie Bush, LenDale White, Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith, the Beavers could potentially counter the Trojans easily with Sammie Stroughter, Yvenson Bernard, Anthony Brown, Brandon Powers and Brady Camp. While no player in football history will match the play-making capabilities of Reggie Bush (Along with Gale Sayers and Barry Sanders), Stroughter is definitely close. If you had the privilege to watch Stroughter return kicks during spring, you were probably reminded of a certain OSU/USC game last October in Corvallis. Sammie has the speed, agility and field vision to break a touchdown on any play, much like Bush."

Sammie Stroughter's abilities are not even close to those of Reggie Bush. Reggie Bush is arguably the greatest college football player ever, Sammie Starughter while very good is not even in the same galaxy as Reggie Bush. Yvenson Bernard is sturdy workhorse running back but is nowhere near the back Lindale White was. As for Anthony Brown, Brandon Powers and Brady Camp, well I haven't even heard of two of those guys.

"And who knows, we just could have a dynasty on our hands. What do ya have to say to that, USC?"

Umm, I don't think so.

I could be wrong but I doubt you'll be seeing "OS" in a BCS bowl anytime soon.

"Of all the dramitic I things I've ever seen"

Yesterday during the seventh inning stretch of the Yankee-Mariner game, forty five year Roger Clemens announced that he was returning to the New York Yankees. That didn't come as huge surprise to anyone. I did think it was kind of ridiculous that it was announced over the PA in the middle of a game, but that's a subject for another time. After the announcement Yankee Broadcaster Suzyn Waldman started screaming a bunch crap and then she makes the statement "of all the dramatic things I've EVER seen". Now don't get me wrong, Roger Clemens is a great pitcher maybe the best ever but to use the "of all the dramatic things I've ever seen" in reference to a forty five year old pitcher announcing his return is a bit ridiculous. Apparently Ms. Waldman hasn't seen many dramatic things in her life but as a baseball broadcaster you'd think she would see more dramatic things on a daily basis such as a game winning home run. Heck I even see more dramatic things on my drive to work every day. Here's ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd's take on this.

Something to think about before your next glass of water

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of Poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine (or rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health

Carrie

As most of you already know on August 18, 2007, I the man that many people labeled a "bachelor til the rapture" will be getting married to a wonderful girl named Carrie. It took twenty nine years of getting "kicked to the curb" and running into the infamous "two date wall" before I finally met the right girl, and all I have to say is that it was worth the wait.

Another Oregon State Logo

When I first saw the new "OS" logo, I thought it was boring, unimaginative and just plain ugly. Because of that I commissioned a local graphic designer to come up with yet another logo for Oregon State. I wanted this one to be original, bold and something that truly represented that fine institution in Corvallis. After much hard work the product is finished and I couldn't be happier with it. While the guy that designed the "OS" got $50,000 for that High School-like logo he designed, the designer I hired did it for free and I think his work is much better than the guy that got paid $50,000. It is with much excitement that I present the new Oregon State logo.