Thought For The Day

Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible.
- Mark Jenkins -

Poem For The Day

I have seen flowers come up in stony places
And kind things done by men with ugly faces
And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races,
so I trust too.
- John Masefield -

Thought For The Day

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
- R. Leach -

Hugh MacLeod

One of the most interesting people I've discovered recently is Hugh MacLeod. He's an advertising executive with an unusual flair and some very funky, creative ideas for promoting businesses and individuals. You can just Google "Hugh MacLeod" to be linked to his various websites and blogs. My favorites are http://gapingvoid.com/ and http://www.changethis.com/ . Here are a couple of his quotes:

The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it's going to. I know. It sucks. That being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime. If you can pull it off, it's worth it. Even if you don't end up pulling it off, you'll learn many incredible, magical, valuable things. It's NOT doing it, when you know full well you HAD the opportunity - that hurts FAR more than any failure.
- Hugh MacLeod -

It's about what YOU are going to do with the short time you have left on this earth.
- Hugh MacLeod -

Thought For The Day

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.
- Sam Levinson -

Another Primary, Another Winner

The Republicans continued their pattern of having a different winner in every primary when Mitt Romney won in Michigan. It's likely to continue in South Carolina, a very conservative state, where Huckabee and Thompson are battling. Then comes Florida, where Rudy is making his stand. The Republican nomination may not even be settled on Super Tuesday, February 5th. It doesn't seem like any Republican candidate has support nationwide.

As for the Democrats, Hillary and Obama had better stop arguing over who is the "black candidate", or John Edwards will sneak up on them. It's already been proven that anything can happen, but I have a feeling Hillary Clinton is strong enough to win on February 5th.

Thought For The Day

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
- Frank Leahy -

OFFICIAL College Basketball Rankings

Men's Division I
1. UCLA - Big win vs Wash. St., USC on Sat.
2. Memphis - Monster team!
3. North Carolina - Will I jinx them by moving them up?
4. Kansas - Mizzou on Sat. could be tough.
5. Butler - Marching to the sweet 16.
6. Michigan State - Bad loss to Iowa.
7. Wisconsin - Waiting for the Hoosiers Jan. 31st.
8. Indiana - Only loss to Xavier.
9. Tennessee - Beat Ole Miss., moved up 6 spots.
10. Texas A&M - On the road for 3 tough games.
11. Georgetown - Hard to explain loss to Pitt.
12. Dayton - Big win vs. URI, UMass today.
13. Washington State - 0-ver-ra-ted, 0-ver-ra-ted.
14. Texas - Dropping. Bad loss at Mizzou.
15. Marquette - At Louisville, at UConn, Yikes!
16. Vanderbilt - Lost to Kentucky. At Tenn. Thursday.
17. Mississippi - Lost @ Tenn. by 2, Fla. & Auburn this week.
18. Pittsburgh - Big win vs. Georgetown
19. Xavier- Red Hot! Sweet 16 material?
20. Rhode Island - Lost to Dayton, needs to bounce back.
21. Boston College - Big win last night vs. Miami.
22. Arizona State - Playing well in tough Pac-10.
23. Miami - On the move despite BC loss.
24. Clemson - Fading, needs a big week.
25. Connecticut - Ready to make a run. Marquette Sunday.

Men's Division II
1. Saint Anselm - Bentley tonight!
2. Bentley
3. Grand Valley
4. Winona State
5. Stonehill

Men's Division III
1. Framingham State - 6-8, at Bridgewater Saturday.
2. Brandies
3. Rochester
4. Amherst
5. Williams

Women's Division I
1. Connecticut
2. Tennessee
3. Stanford
4. Baylor
5. Maryland

Thought For The Day

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, and the lesson afterwards.
- Vernon Law -

Johnny Podres

Former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres passed away the other day. That won't mean anything to anyone younger than me, but Johnny Podres was the the first sports hero I ever had. I was ten years old when he won the the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, defeating the hated New York Yankees. Legend has it that Podres told his teammates before the game, that if they could score just one run, he would do the rest. They scored two runs, and won the game 2-0, the only championship the Brooklyn Dodgers ever won. Even though Mickey Mantle would become my ultimate hero, that summer, when we played our ball games in Ricky Nation's back yard from sunup to sundown, I pretended to be Johnny Podres.

Thought For The Day

Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.
- Thomas Jones -

Pete Stringer Update

My friend, Pete Stringer, the ultra-marathoner, recently ran a three day race in Arizona called "Across The Years". It began on December 29, 2007, and ended on January 1, 2008. The objective is to run as many miles as you can in 72 hours. Pete ran 155 miles, which I can't even begin to comprehend The winner, Tony Mangum, a 50 year old from Dublin, Ireland, covered an unbelievable 270 miles, an average of 90 miles a day.The conditions before and during the race were so harsh, that Pete's wife, Jane, will never go with him again to any ultra race. The desert gets very cold at this time of the year, and the runners and their crews had to stay in tents during the race, so staying warm was difficult. Also, the food wasn't very good, so many of the runners got sick, including Pete. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Pete's next major race will be the Boston Marathon in April; 26.2 miles is barely a warm-up for him.

Thought For The Day

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
-Lyndon B. Johnson -

Life Planning

I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today until I read a column in the Sunday paper about retirement planning, a subject near and dear to my heart. What struck me was how many strategies there are to prepare for retirement that could also be applied to much younger people.

Living a healthy lifestyle is probably number one. As we get older, regular exercise and a healthy diet are important because, obviously, it's better to enter retirement healthy than it is to be fighting an ailment or sickness, both for lifestyle reasons and for financial reasons. Personally, I find myself dealing with health issues now that could have been prevented if I had taken better care of myself when I was younger.

Financial management is another area that young people ignore because they think they have plenty of time. You will never have too much money. Start saving and investing NOW! Invest in a 401k at work or in a stock mutual fund on your own. Educate yourself in investing, take a course, read books on investing, and share your knowledge with your friends. Get some help from a professional if necessary. At the very minimum you should be putting money into a savings account every week. The important thing is to start young rather than trying to play catch-up when you're older.