The SoapBoxers

If you are participating in National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org), then you should be writing up a storm. By now, you should be at about 10,000 words. I have not been keeping up the pace. Luckily, there are several more weekends and the Thanksgiving Holiday before the end of November. To make the goal of 50,000 words before the end of November, you basically have to keep up a steady pace of writing. Do not allow the every day distractions to keep you from creating a story like now other.

If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, I would suggest looking at the news. There are so many stories available. This weekend alone, the Royal Couple announced they would be moving into a new “family friendly” castle, there was an Earthquake in Oklahoma of all places, and there were plenty of politicians saying silly things. Remember, real life can just provide the setting or characters, your story can go where ever you want.

As I have recommended in the past, you can start each night just recounting your day, from first cup of coffee, to struggling to stay awake while you are writing. This should at the very least get the writing juices going. I you still can’t get going, take a breather. You can always pick it up again tomorrow.

The NaNoWriMo competition is for fun. Writing is for fun as well. If it becomes a chore or a second job, the fun will just drain away and the river of words will dry up. This is a short post today, I have to get back to my novel.

A year after Ohio State’s tattoos-for-trophies scandal, another Big 10 school finds itself in trouble.  This time it is Penn State.  On a day in which they didn’t play a game, they still made the news – in the worst way possible.

Former Nittany Lion defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky – once thought to be the successor to legendary coach Joe Paterno – was arrested Saturday on 40 criminal charges related to alleged sexual abuse of eight boys between 1994 and 2007.  Sandusky met the boys through a non-profit organization called The Second Mile, an organization with this stated mission: “The Second Mile challenges young people to achieve their potential as individuals and community members by providing opportunities for them to develop positive life skills and self-esteem as well as by providing education and support for parents and professionals addressing the needs of youth.”

In addition, two officials with Penn State – including athletic director Tim Curley – also face charges for failing to report allegations to proper authorities.  After a graduate assistant witness one sexual assault, he contacted Joe Paterno, who reported the incident to Curley.  Curley and VP for finance and business Gary Shultz were charged with failure to report and perjury after a grand jury deemed that they had lied while in front of the grand jury.

While Paterno is not accused of any wrongdoing, I do feel that he and the graduate assistant could have taken things a step further by reporting the allegations to the police, as well as to university officials.  This wasn’t an issue of an NCAA violation, but allegations of a serious crime.  For the moment, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they reflexively reported it up the chain, just as they report anything else.

This is a good time to reflect that any of US, if we found ourselves in a similar situation, should also report the allegations to the police.  Don’t simply report it to a superior and assume that it was taken care of.  In this case, Sandusky was finally arrested nine years after the graduate assistant first notified Paterno – and the assaults continued for five years after the 2002 incident.

If the allegations against Sandusky are true, then he deserves to spend a long time in jail.

If Athletic Director Curley is guilty of lying to a grand jury, then the best course of action for Penn State would be to fire him.  You don’t want to have people with such poor judgment in positions of power at your university.

I don’t often write about NASCAR for The Soap Boxers, but I do follow the sport, mostly due to the fact that many people in my office follow it.

My favorite driver is NASCAR’s bad boy, Tony Stewart.  While much ink has been given to the fact that Jimmie Johnson is unlikely to win a six consecutive title, it’s important to note that Stewart – buoyed by three wins in the seven Chase races so far – is just eight points behind Carl Edwards.  A surge by Smoke would give him his third career NASCAR title.  Only eight NASCAR drivers have won at least three titles – Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. with 7, Johnson with 5, Jeffy Gordon with 4, and Lee Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, and Darrell Waltrip with 3.  Stewart also won an IRL title in the 1997.

A Stewart title would also serve as a nice bookend, as he was the last driver other than Johnson to win a title (in 2005).  He would also become the first driver-owner to win a title since the late Alan Kulwicki in 1992.  Admittedly, this is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison.  Most driver-owners struggle to pay the bills.  Stewart was offered half ownership of Haas Racing (now Stewart Haas Racing) in exchange for joining as a driver and lending his expertise to the operation.  Overnight, the team got a boost in credibility.  Even so, this team had an uphill climb competing against the likes of Hendrick Motorsports.

While you may not like Stewart – many don’t – it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t love his sport.  While he does make good money racing, I’m sure he would do it for free.  Don’t believe me?  Then explain why Stewart spends his spare time racing on dirt tracks across the country – popping up to make random appearances.  Clearly, this isn’t the most profitable use of his time – but he just loves racing.

Stewart also own his own race track in Eldora, Ohio (and also co-owns two tracks in Kentucky and Illinois).  The Eldora track is home to Tony’s annual charity event, Prelude to the Dream, which to date has raise more than $4 million for charities such as the Victory Junction Gang Camp.  Tony also has a foundation (the Tony Stewart Foundation) which raises and donates money to sick children, injured race card drivers, and the protection of animals.

As you can see, while Tony has a bad boy reputation on the track, he clearly has a big heart off the track.

Just three races (Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead) remain in the season.  I expect an exciting finish to a season that got off to an interesting start (with rookie Trevor Bayne capturing the Daytona 500).  Good luck, Tony!

Source: http://www.coloradodot.info/programs/alcohol-and-impaired-driving/druggeddriving/assets/MMJ_License_posterNoBleeds.pdf

I wrote about medical marijuana and why it was hurting our community in March 2010. Now I have to report that some people dislike it so much that it made it on our November 2011 ballot. We voted this week whether or not to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. The campaigning for and against medical marijuana has been heated.

Those for medical marijuana focus on the few patients that truly “need” the drug. They have told a few stories of users that say they can’t function on a daily basis without it. I realize that some of the patients benefit from marijuana, but the majority of people with medical marijuana cards do not need it. It’s sad that the recreational users abusing the system have ruined this for the truly sick.

The item that those in favor of keeping the dispensary model fail to mention is one important fact. Users with medical marijuana cards would still be able to obtain medical marijuana from a licensed care giver. They are just not able to run into one of the 21 stores that have popped up in our city selling nothing but marijuana, glass, zigzags, brownies, etc.

Those against medical marijuana were armed with some very staggering figures. Law Enforcement officials revealed that since the opening of marijuana dispensaries there had been a 40% increase in marijuana related incidents in Fort Collins and a 20% increase in marijuana related incidents in unincorporated areas around Fort Collins. The Colorado Department of Transportation recently released a study indicating that there has been nearly a 50% increase in driving under the influence of drugs during that same time period.

More disturbing is this report from The Colorado Department of Transportation showing the changes in marijuana use in fatal accidents. In those fatal accidents, there has been an increase in the number of drivers that had used marijuana.

• 2007 – 28%
• 2008 – 43%
• 2009 – 45%
• 2010 – 58%

The school district in Fort Collins is the Poudre Valley School District. The school board for our district indicates that there has been a 300% increase in student expulsions in the school district since the start of dispensaries in our city. The school board wisely voted 5-0 to back the ban on dispensaries in Fort Collins.

Those 21 marijuana dispensaries if the new law passed would have 90 days to either find another place to move their business (away from Fort Collins) or close the doors. One of the businesses I located when searching Google lists the following marijuana strains and more:

• Crimea Blue
• Bubblicious
• Red Cherry Berry
• Sweet Tooth
• Domina Haze

This really sounds like they are targeting patients dying of cancer, doesn’t it?

So, the question for Fort Collins voters came down to whether they would vote based on statistics that are very staggering or matters of emotion. Will the needs of the few patients that say they need medical marijuana outweigh the hundreds of thousands that have paid the $60 to someone that will rubberstamp their medical marijuana application? Well, votes are in and those recreational users that abused the system and all those statistics supplied by various areas of the government have won the voters over. Medical marijuana dispensaries are now banned in Fort Collins and medical marijuana will hopefully once again start moving back to something more like voters envisioned in 2000 when they passed the initial measure.

Squeaky…

Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is the odds-on favorite to be the #1 pick in the NFL draft – a smart kid with good physical tools.  There are a few bottom feeders with a quarterback in place (notably the Rams, Panthers, and Cardinals), but most of the other teams at the bottom of the stands would take Luck – even the Vikings, who used a first found pick for Christian Ponder in the 2011 draft.

There is the thought that the allure of Luck will cause some teams to tank down the stretch, resulting in some games that are real stinkers.  It’s hard to talk about tanking without bringing the Colts into the discussion.  The Colts are already in great position for the #1 pick, with an 0-8 record.  They let the Saints score 60 on them a couple of weeks ago (apparently Peyton Manning is also a defensive back).  Peyton Manning has been an iron man in his career, and the Colts never acquired a decent backup  for him.  As a result, they were in hot water when Manning ended up on the shelf this year with a bad neck.

Even if Manning is medically cleared at some point in the season, will the Colts put him on the field?  If Manning gets onto the field and wins a couple of games late in the season, these wins could knock the Colts out of the top spot in the draft.  Does keeping Manning on the sideline amount to tanking?  In my opinion, no.  There’s also the injury to be concerned about.  With the Colts having no shot at a playoff bid, why risk aggravating the injury by rushing him back.  The prudent decision is just to sit him and have him start anew in 2012.

Some people are suggesting that football move to a lottery system, similar to what the NBA has.  If the league feels that this is a better option that the current system (which guarantees the best picks for the teams with the worst records), then by all means go ahead and move to a lottery system (in fairness, I assume that such a solution couldn’t be implemented until the 2012 draft at earliest).  But don’t make the change because of one player – this would be a knee-jerk reaction.  Andrew Luck could turn out to be the next Peyton Manning – or the next JaMarcus Russell, Ryan Leaf, or Akili Smith.

It’s also important to note that sports drafts are not intended to be fair.  They are not intended to distribute talent equally.  In fact, the intent is to distribute talent unevenly, with the better players going to the worse teams.  This is intended to achieve competitive balance, but is certainly not “fair” to good teams that work hard to scout and develop players.

College football season is in full swing. The NFL season has just hit the halfway point. One of the craziest, most discussed, and best World Series games of all time (game 6 last week) just occurred. The NHL season is just underway, College basketball is starting to have exhibition matches and just finished up with a number of “midnight mayhem” types of scrimmages for the fans to help kick off the season.

Then there is the current NBA lockout.

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it……

The National Basketball Association has fallen from grace. Long gone are the days of Bird, Magic, the Doctor, and then the saving grace of Michael Jordan.

Oh yes, there has been some blips on the radar. There is the always interesting Mark Cuban of the Mavericks. There is Kobe gate where the star player in the league is having inappropriate relations with women on the road, only to find himself at a press conference with his wife talking about mistakes and family, while she is sporting a diamond on her hand bigger than the ring pop sucker you kids just scooped up last night while trick-or-treating.

Shaq has retired. The league will definitely feel the impact of this. He has been a breath of fresh air and enjoyment for many years.

LeBron has become the love or hate guy in the NBA. People love or hate the villain.

It is owners versus players on this one. But the opinion of many I talk to is…..”Who Cares”

The popularity of the NBA has been waning for the casual fan over the last decade. The league has been run with by the J Edgar Hoover of league commissioners, David Stern. The owners are proposing a 50-50 split of profits. The players are hanging their hat on getting the balance in their favor 52-48.. Neither side is budging. What will happen next?

Football has taken over as the star of all sports. College is and always will be popular and the pro game has been fueled primarily by the rise and success of Fantasy Football leagues around the nation. This brings in more casual fans than ever who will watch games to see how their players do. It is 17 weeks, it is easy it is basically one game a week.

This does not work as well in other sports such as baseball and basketball. Season is way too long. The Playoffs drag on forever. We are in a generation of millennials, I generations members and (gulp) gen – xers. They want immediate satisfaction.

Football provides this immediate sports fix. It is on television everywhere, it is easier to follow. There are even numerous shows produced by Fox, The Big Ten Network, and the omnipresent monopoly known as ESPN that cover the games, the highlights, the polls, the experts discussing upcoming games, the fantasy football side of games and more. These are all on the MAJOR networks and not for just the ultra-diehard fans to have to subscribe to.

The NBA has no such following on this scale. It has been playing 2nd and now at least 3rd fiddle to the up and coming National Hockey League.

The lockout is a bad thing for fans, the workers who have their livelihood depend on these teams, and the communities that these teams represent. If the players, owners and commissioner do not get together soon to save some part of this season, this could be a blow that will take decades to recover from.

TIMMMMMMMBERRRRRRRR!

Pretty sure no one heard it.

Until next time, Stay Classy Elberton Georgia.

Fresh off the heels of an improbable World Series triumph, fans of the St. Louis Cardinals are forced once again to face an uncertain future – will Albert Pujols return to the Cardinals, or opt for greener pastures elsewhere.

My advice to Pujols would be to stay put in St. Louis.  He’s a beloved figure in the city, in a city that truly appreciates baseball, affiliated with an organization that has surrounded him with enough talents to win two World Series titles in recent year.  At some point, quality of life takes precedence over dollars and cents – and I can’t imagine a situation that would result in a greater quality of life for Pujols.

Where will Pujols land?  My guess is that he will end up with the Cardinals.  There’s too much pressure on the team to sign him.  How much will they spend to keep him?  Here’s a humorous article on that topic from 2010.

If Pujols doesn’t stay in St. Louis, there’s speculation that he could go north on I-55 to the Chicago Cubs – the hated rivals of the Cardinals.  With Theo Epstein now in charge of the Cubs, if wouldn’t be a shock to see them make a splash in free agency.  Or the Milwaukee Brewers might try to grab him to replace Prince Fielder.  (Who is worth more – Pujols or Fielder?)

Of course, don’t count out the New York Yankees.  It’s true that the Yankees already have a high priced first baseman, Mark Teixeira.  However, with Jorge Posada likely not returning, there are some at bats available.  If I were Brian Cashman, I’d sign Pujols primarily as  DH, but then use him at 1B to give Teixeira a day off in the field and 3B when A-Rod’s DHing.  Furthermore, it’s possible that A-Rod could slide over to SS on occasion to give Jeter a rest, and Pujols could play 3B on those days as well.  Maybe Pujols would get 30 games at 1B and 60 at 3B (30 when A-Rod DHs and 30 when A-Rod plays short).  An extravagance to use Pujols in this manner?  Definitely.  But this is the Yankees we’re talking about.

Ryan Fitzpatrick

On the top of people getting a lot of money, the Buffalo Bills signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to a six year contract extension worth $59 million.  I’m not going to ridicule this deal on the basis that athletes are overpaid, as I really don’t buy into that philosophy.  However, this particular deal is mind-boggling.

For the record, I like Fitzpatrick.  My wife’s favorite team is the St. Louis Rams, and Fitzpatrick played for the Rams for a few seasons.  However, let’s take a look at his career numbers.  He has completed 59% of his passes and has 59 touchdowns and 48 interceptions.  His career QB rating is 76.3.  Those numbers are serviceable, but hardly worth $10 million per year.  You can’t even look back to his college numbers to predict whether he will be an effective QB for the Bills, because he went to Harvard.  The Ivy League schools are great for academics, but not for athletics.

What are the Bills going?  Rewarding this year’s season, I suppose.  Fitzpatrick is off to a very good start – completing 66% of his passes, with 12 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.  Good start to the year, but let’s not extrapolate such a small sample size.

The NFL and NFLPA said that the new rookie pay scale was designed so that established veterans could earn more than unproven rookies.  That sounds good in theory, but in practice, it means $59 million (6 years) for Fitzpatrick (not to mention Michael Vick’s $100 million contract), while Cam Newton gets $22 million for four years.  While I still need to see more to be convinced that Cam Newton is for real, I can’t imagine any point in time when a team would have valued Ryan Fitzpatrick considerably higher than Newton – but Fitz will be making nearly twice as much.

Of course, this is the same league where a team traded a first round pick (plus a conditional pick that could become a first rounder) to a team with no leverage that was trying to trade a malcontent (Carson Palmer), while at other times you see deals get scrapped because a team doesn’t want to include a fifth round pick – so I get confused as to what teams actually value in the NFL.

49ers Close to Division Title

It’s November 1, which is really early to be talking about clinching.  However, the 49ers could clinch a tie for the division title as early as November 13.  San Francisco is 6-1 and their closest pursuers are the 2-5 Seahawks (the Rams and Cardinals are 1-6).

It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that the 49ers have simply been feasting on a weak division, but this isn’t the case.  They’ve only played one game within the division so far.  Half of the ten games remaining for San Francisco are against NFC West foes – meaning that the 49ers could finish the season with a very impressive record.

Will Manning Return This Season?

There’s a possibility that Peyton Manning could be medically cleared to return this year.  However, the smart decision for the Colts would be to shut him down for the year and have him start anew in 2012.  With an 0-8 record this year, the only way the Colts will get to a playoff game is by purchasing tickets on StubHub.  Why risk a possible setback for a few meaningless games.

Then, too, there is draft position to consider.  Having Manning lead the team to a few late wins could mean that the Colts miss out on next generation franchise QB Andrew Luck.

BCS

Who are you pulling for in the BCS title game?  I’d like to see Oklahoma State vs. Boise State.  Would it receive the worst ratings of any BCS title game in history?  Perhaps.  But *I* would certainly enjoy it.

Tomorrow, Tuesday November 1 2011 is the start of National Novel Writing Month. Are you ready? This is a great opportunity to test your skills, develop you ideas and enter the realm of writing. Your topic can be serious or whimsical, topical or fantasy, personal or political. In this case, it is actually all about you. You choose your topic. You choose your message. And you choose every word that you put down. If you choose to participate in the organized event sponsored by the Office Of Letters and Light at NaNoWriMo.org, then you can work within a community and get fancy (symbolic but no actual dollar value) prizes. The goal is set, 50,000 words in 30 days. That is 1667 words a day on average.

I have participated in the challenge for the last two years and will be again this year. Why did I even think of participating? Well that is a mixed bag of suggestions, distractions and loneliness. A co-worker first showed me the NaNoWriMo challenge. I hesitated for several years. My kids encouraged me, but still I did not jump in. Then in 2009, I was on an extended work trip in California with nothing to do in the evenings. I had a computer and lots of time, especially on weekends. The result was a romance novel titled A Changed Man. It was not what I originally planned, but it is what I ended up with.

Why did I do it again? That answer is much less complicated. I really enjoyed writing the first work and Kosmo had invited me to relate my experience on The Soap Boxers (then know as the Casual Observer). Basically, I got addicted to writing. It was fun and I could write down anything. The second effort is Science Fiction titled Out There. To date, it is at about 100,000 words and only about 2/3rds of the way done. The Romance was about 150 pages in standard 5.5×8.5 binding. The Science Fiction will be about 400 pages. Both of these are about average for their genre. I did not aim for a specific length, these are just the results of my efforts.

What am I going to do this year? Well, this year is a response to a request by my sons. It will be an almost comic book story to be titled Fire Breathing Ninja Squirrels from Outer Space. I think the title alone gives you enough to put a picture in your head. I have the location picked out already, northern Minnesota. I have also thought about the heroic kids who are much smarter than any of the adults, the evil invaders, the loyal dogs, and the native squirrels torn between their love of home and allegiance to the invading species. All in all, this one should be fun, and easy to keep up the word count.

Remember the rules, no actual writing of the novel until November 1. Good luck and happy writing!

The Electoral College was created in 1787.  It’s been around for 224 years, but nearly all the media coverage of the college centers on their role in elections.

But there’s more to the Electoral College than just 538 people who cast votes in presidential elections.  There’s an entire institution of higher learning.  There’s a football team, a marching band, a glee club … and of course, intramural luge!  EC boasts award-winning faculty and a student body boasting an average IQ of 172!

The college should do more to promote itself, instead of allowing itself to be portrayed as a one trick pony in the media.  Since the college has failed in its self-promotion duties, I have taken it upon myself to promote Electoral College.

As of today, you can buy apparel promoting the academic and extracurricular departments within the college!  Designs include:

• Electoral College History Department – Stuck in the 1700s
• Electoral College Admissions Office
• Electoral College Alumni
• Electoral College Glee Club
• Electoral College Rowing Club – Up A Creek Without A Paddle
• Electoral College Cheerleading

Am I joking?  I assure you that I am completely serious.  Waltz into a room with an Electoral College shirt and watch yourself become the center of attention.  With the presidential election looming in just a year, it has never been a better time to buy Electoral College themed merchandise.

To see a complete listing of designs, visit our store.  You can go directly to our Zazzle Store, or use the easy-to-remember URL ElectoralCollegeGear.com (which will bounce you to the Zazzle store).  Check back often for new designs and an expanding collection of merchandise.  Tell all your friends about Electoral College Gear!

On game days, remember to cheer for the Fightin’ Lecties!

Note: Profits from the sales of Electoral College merchandise will go directly to the writers of The Soap Boxers.  This is a fun way to support your favorite writers.  You can also edit the text (font and words) to whatever you want.  I’d prefer that you keep things tasteful, but I have no control over the text you put on the shirt.

Update: it turns out that someone has trademarked the use of the term Electoral College on shirts.  It seems odd that someone could trademark such a common term and exclude anyone else from putting it on a shirt, but it costs $300 to petition for cancellation of a mark, so I’ve changed the design a bit.  The shirts are now for Electoral STATE.

First we had Plum Nuts with Michelle Bachman, then there was Just Nuts with Rick Perry and now we have Black Walnut with Herman Cain. Now that his 9-9-9 plan gets more scrutiny and less simple by the minute. The current Flavor of the Month of Republican Presidential Primary voters may be on the way out soon.

Who will be the next flavor in the search to unseat The Great Divide known as Mitt Romney in the race for the nomination? Will it be an outsider not in the race right now? Chubby Hubby couldn’t become the new fave when Chris Christie said no, but is there anyone else out there to make their ideas pleasing to the palates of the voters? Very Unlikely.

With November nearing, meaning the first contest being just about two months away, it is pretty much too late to make much of a challenge for things. So there goes that notion. So that leaves us with what we currently have to find the next craving for the right. So who is it going to be? As I was watching some discussions a day or so ago on Cain being ahead of Romney in the latest poll, I noticed something else in that same poll – Classic Vanilla himself Newt Gingrich was in third place and double digits for the first time in pretty much forever at ten percent.

Is this old flavor, the new flavor of the near future? While he may start to see a continued bump as Cain goes down and Romney keeps his same numbers he has had, Newt will never win the nomination. He is not really conservative enough. Sure he did his best to shut down Washington before, but he has sat down and agreed with that down right dirty leftist socialist tramp Nancy Pelosi in the past. Shoot in the last debate he tried to be the voice of reason for the festival of kookiness this race is becoming.

Also don’t forget Newt is only running because it is time to change in his old wife with a new staffer model. So while it may become the new thing again, the voter will soon remember what cause them not to want this same old plain taste in the first place? So who will get that next bump after that? Rick Santorum’s Holy Gelato? Now that’s a flavor I would certainly like to see rise to the top, or I’ll take some more Plum Nuts, two scoops please.