Beta and I got free admission to a Michigan football game!
Of course, so did everyone else. It was the spring game – the final spring scrimmage – which is open to everyone.
I met my dad, brother, nephew, and a couple of my brother’s friends there. I didn’t plan my route very well and had to go right through the Stadium-Main St. intersection. That slowed me down, so I parked by Industrial with about ten minutes left before kickoff. Beta and I had to walk 4/5 of a mile to the Big House. I should add here that I had to wake Beta up at that the end of the car ride, so he was not going to be moving very quickly.
I decided that the only way we would make it in time was for me to carry him on my shoulders. I didn’t want to run, since I haven’t started my annual running season (Halloween to Easter is chocolate-eating season, Easter to Halloween is running season), so I walked as quickly as I could with a 37-pound weight on my shoulders.
We made it in the stadium a couple minutes after kickoff. And I was sweating. Everyone else had their winter coats on, since it was in the upper 40s, but I took mine off and was quite comfortable in my long-sleeved T-shirt, for about two or three possessions.
Once we sat down, we were at the 40-something yard line, 40-some rows up. Here’s the view from there (offense in blue, defense in white):
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Bedtime Conversation
or, In which Alpha attempts to buy time in order not to fall asleep
Alpha: How many more days until Christmas?
Me: Let’s see 31 + 28 + 6 = 65. 365 – 65 = 300 – 6 = 294. So 294 days until Christmas
Alpha: Okay. I don’t like being surprised.
I hope that means he will plan well. Not just for Christmas, but life in general.
Updating Bible Verses
We have a CD from Awana with all the verses the kids are supposed to learn. Beta was going throughout his day singing one of the songs, and this was the result:
Beta: Do all things without complaining or computing.
Alpha: Beta, it’s not computing – it’s disputing.
Beta: Oh.
Beta: Do all things without complaining or computing.
We might just have to call it “close enough” and move on to the next verse.
Will They Ever Learn?
For this conversation, I’ll give you only my side and let you figure out what the boys said. Hint: one of them was crying and rubbing his head.
Me: Well, of course. If you play a game where you’re both throwing rocks, that’s going to happen.
You would think they would learn, but I had a very similar conversation about a week later:
Me: Well, maybe you two should stop playing a game where you throw Matchbox cars…
Eventually I’ll learn and just say “No throwing” so that there are no more loopholes.
Do all things without complaining or disputing.
Philippians 2:14
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This should be the last post about football prediction schemes for a while. Or even longer if the lockout continues.
I have, until now, just tested the NFL forecasting formula against the regular season – seeing how well each predicts that week’s game results.
But the regular season is just to see who makes the playoffs, then who will win the division, win the conference, and then win the Super Bowl. Today’s update is to see if those methods could predict – using the results of the regular season – who will be playoff champions.
I tested the equations against the top four teams (i.e. who played for the conference championship) as well as the Super Bowl winner. I have no reason for going that route, other than it was around the time of the college basketball tournament, so the term “Final Four” was popular.
To spare you the details, let me just say that it was worthless. The prediction methods didn’t really get you any closer to knowing who would make it to the end of the playoffs.
The good news is that I don’t have to plan a trip to Vegas any time soon.
You can view the details over at the football predictions page.
The end result is that your best bet is to pick the teams that have a first round bye. Then you have a 54.2% chance of picking who get to the conference championship.
But the LORD is with me like a dread champion;Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
Jeremiah 20:11
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There was a new font released at Font Grill over the weekend.
It’s called Font13 and it mixes up the letters according to the age-old encryption technique of Rotate-13. It might not be the most practical font, but you never know when someone might have need of it.
For those unfamiliar with rot-13, you could look it up on the internet.
But since you’re already here: remember those old plastic label makers? with the circle of 26 letters that you’d spin around and then press the thing to make the letter you wanted? Pretend the circle thingy was wrong – like someone spun the disc halfway around and the letter is showed was not the letter it made. That’s rot13 – press ‘A’ and get ‘N’, press ‘B’ and get ‘O’, press ‘C’ and get ‘P’, etc.
The font’s a little late for April Fool’s Day, but there’s always next year. Hint: install it on someone else’s computer and set it to the default font for their web browser. Or as the font for Windows’ active window text or menu text or anything else in Display Properties – Appearance – Advanced.
Go view the font page.
for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.
2 Corinthians 10:9
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In case you’re interested in my child’s schoolwork:
100 Days
There was a big celebration of making it through 100 days of school. Here is one of the items from that time:
I like that he wants 100 books and 100 carrots. How many kids would say that?
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We were on our way somewhere the other week (how’s that for vague?) and we were behind a Mini Cooper.
We don’t watch TV news. Nor do we have satellite or cable or anything else fancy. So I don’t know much about Anderson Cooper. I couldn’t even pick him out of a lineup. It was nice of him to have his car personalized so I could tell when he drove by.
But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)–well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.
Galatians 2:6
Posted in Ponder | 2 Comments »
Let me set the background by saying that the last time the kids had a week off school, a couple of them got the flu. My wife had activities planned throughout that week that she had to cancel, since most of the activities involved seeing other families. So instead of a fun week of doing stuff, my wife had the joy of staying at home with sick kids.
That was months ago. Today is the first day of the next school break. Of course we were wondering if anything would happen to prevent this week’s lot of planned activities.
Sure enough, Beta woke up Sunday morning looking like this:
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This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
