Brian Solves The World Cup Problem

I solved the World Cup Officiating Problem. Four Years Ago. Here's how:

(2006) I'd never really watched much soccer before this World Cup, it's actually very entertaining. I know many of you may not have much of a background in soccer, or 'futbol', as its called, so I thought I'd put together this brief tutorial for you. In the World Cup, each country gets together its very best, highly-talented and skilled male models to play against another country's male models. It doesn't

The Proposal (Happy 9th Anniversary!)

Here is the story of how I proposed to Krista. I’m secretly a romantic, and I love to create the over-the-top moment.  For my proposal to Krista, I really wanted to make it a special surprise.  Now, she knew I was going to propose- she’d already picked out the ring she wanted online- so the only surprises I could control were how and when, not if.

My plan was to propose to her at Nanny Yi and Pop Pop’s house (now my aunt Starr and uncle David’s house) in Elkhart, IN on Thanksgiving Day, 2000.  Even though the house is on one of the main streets, Pop Pop had made the large backyard into a Secret Garden of sorts. 

Playing Catch- A Father's Day Story

Note- I had some friends who said this story (especially the 'playing catch' part at the end) really helped them in their relationship with their dad, so I'm putting it up here again for Father's Day.

(From January 15, 2010)

My dad died today. Heart attack. He'd just turned 60 on Christmas Eve. We went over to his house that night after Christmas at Grandma's, for our Christmas/birthday celebration, with his daughter, three sons, the married one's spouses, and a lot of grandkids. 'The Incredibles' was on the TV, the kids were all laughing and playing with the self-inflating whoopee cushion, 'Pee-paw' (my dad) had gotten for Christmas.

Helping My Daughter With HER Dreams

For most of the past year, when you asked my nearly 5-year-old daughter Brooklyn what she wanted to be when she grew up, she replied, "A doctor!"  My mom is a nurse, my grandpa and his brothers were all doctors- heck, I even got certified as an EMT years ago.  Medicine runs in the family.  This was certainly an easy thing to encourage.  We got her the little Fisher Price doctor kit, let her put on Neosporin and band aids when family members got little scrapes, and even got her a pair of little kids scrubs for Christmas.  Brooklyn has a great memory, so we got her a poster with the bones of the body from the teacher's supply store, and she memorized several. (Just go ahead and ask her where her clavicle and patella are.)  Then one day a few weeks ago,

Nervously awaiting my own (time) trials

Following the guidelines of 'Racing Weight', I have my first time trials today and tomorrow.  The goal of the book isn't so much to lose weight, it is to lose weight to affect performance.  When you start, you take down your body fat and weight, and do a specific distance in your particular area of racing (i.e. a time trial).  A month later, you take the same measurements, and complete the same time trials to see if being at a lower weight and body fat is positively affecting your performance.  I've weighed in this morning, and will be doing my 400 meter swim time trial at lunch today, and my 10 mike bike time trial tomorrow morning.

Week of April 26: Weight: 194.6. Body fat: 20.4%.
Swim time trial: 400 meters- 10:09
Bike time trial: 10 miles- 33:57

Week of May 24: Weight: 186.8. Body fat: 19.4%
Swim time trial: (today at lunch)- ???
Bike time trial: (tomorrow AM)- ???
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5/25- My swim time trial result: 9:52, an improvement of 17 seconds, or 2.87%.  The bike time trial result: 32:57, an improvement of 60 seconds, or 3.03%.  It looks like in my case, dropping 1% body fat made me about 3% faster.  If I can lose my goal of 5% body fat, will that make me 15% faster?  Time will tell.

Very cool Nike 'futbol' commercial

I am not a soccer fan, but I will be during the World Cup this summer.  This is a great Nike commercial, very well made, that shows how any second in the life of one of these guys will have not only a huge impact on themselves but their countries as well.