Congrats Bro.!

Well, here is a blog post after two months. Yesterday I went to Mike Anderson's groom shower (a Christian bachelor party with lots of foods and great fellowship) at BD Mongolian Grill at Bethesda, MD. It was great! I see a young dental student ready to take the big plunge with his beloved fiancee Anna "So to be Anderson" Hartley. He was sitting with other men who are married. I wondered what they were thinking: Were they remembering their big days or what life is all about after we, the married men, were married.

Hey Mike, if you are reading this, you will be joining our club soon and you will be a joyful man. You may not happy all the time nor sad all time but you will appreciate what marriage is all about. Congrats Bro.! Michelle and I are excited for you and Anna and we will joining you on your big day! Is Mark and Angie's ex-pet dog coming to the wedding? :)

Teachers' Basketball game

Last night my daughter Tabitha insisted that I take her to a basketball game played by the faculty members of New Market Elementary School. In other words, Tabitha wanted to see Ms. Warner, her Kindergarten Teacher, play some ball. So today I got home at 5:43am and took Tabitha and Seth to the basketball game. I had to pay $3 for tickets and then we watched the game. The game was lively and I have to say that the teachers are extremely competitive. There was shoving, pushing, teachers fighting over a ball, etc., etc. In the end, it was a good game. My daughter wasn't watching the game but she was screaming, "Let's go New Market" and "You can do it Ms. Warner". Meanwhile Seth was awfully quite and the only question is asked me is, "Why are there basketball nets in the roof?" I had to explain to him that the other baskets rolled down when there wasn't an actual game being played. After I answered him, I realized that he is our little scientist.
After the game was over, Tabitha was upset that the game wasn't long enough. My social butterfly!

coughing, coughing, and sucking on bugs

For the last five months or so, I have been hampered by this persistent cough which doesn't seem to go away. I have been on inhalers, cough syrups, antibotics, steroids and nothing seems to be working really well. Only time and prayers should heal it. One thing does seem to do its job is sucking on cloves. Yup! Good ole' organic cloves. My daughter Patricia starts to gag when I show the cloves on my tongue. She thinks the cloves are dead bugs. Aren't I mean? :)

I have to say...

I have to say that the position of the US President has been a huge fascination of mine from the last six and half years. I am a history buff and am a fan of social history. I don't care much for how a war was executed or which policies helped a country or two. I am a fan of social history and have been for most of my life. What I care about is how people through the rivers of time thought and perceived life around them. When you study this, you realize that the people may dress different, think different or even speak different but the common things that tie altogether through the splitting forces of time is how people individually react to stresses, joys and tragedies in life. US Presidents go through a heightened state of reactions since their decisions impact millions of people around them. My fascination started when I read the biography of John Adams by David McCullough. The book showed a human who was trying to do his best to lead a country but no one was happy with him. He wasn't as charismatic as Washington or articulate as Jefferson but he was nevertheless a nobleman who realized that his position was greater than him.

Anyway after going to the Inauguration last week, I thought it would be nice to put CSPAN videos of the inaugurations speeches. All the presidents when are they ready to take the office for the first time are full of hope and promise but by the time they are done with their term they realize that they reality of the job. Enjoy the speeches:

2009 - Barak Obama



2001 - George W. Bush



1993 - Bill Clinton



1989 - George H. W. Bush



1981 - Ronald Reagen



1977 - Jimmy Carter



1974 - Gerald Ford



1969 - Richard Nixon



1965 - Lyndon Johnson



1961 - John Kennedy



1953 - Dwight Eisenhower



1945 - Harry Truman (speech from 1949)



1933 - Franklin Roosevelt

Can we PLEASE make it part of the Bailout package?

As you may be following that the American auto industry (GM,Ford and Chrysler) is asking the US Government to bail them out with a $33 to $15 billion (not million but billion) loan. The Legislative body and the Executive body are currently scrutinizing the three companies and their bad practices. Today the President Elect Barack Obama stated that the CEO of GM should step down and Chrysler should be merged. I don't have an MBA or have any high level business acumen but I do read the papers and see that the big three pay around $70/hr on average to auto worker since the auto workers are part of an auto labor union. I also saw recently that GM cancelled their multi-million dollar endorsement deal with Tiger Woods. I don't know that an endorsement deal with an uber-good athlete is not a good marketing strategy. What I do know is a decent understanding of NFL football? The brain power behind Ford is also managing the Detroit Lions who still haven't won a game this year (0-13 to be precise). Henry Ford, the founder of Ford, must be rolling his grave (figuratively) to see his lineage not able to manage this creation. The Ford family's poor understanding of business, which is evident by Ford companies desire for taxpayer money, and having one of the worst NFL franchises in the last two decades. This worst franchise had one of the best running backs ever and they still kept loosing. People like Wayne Fontes and Matt Millen exemplify the astute business moves of the Ford family. Couple of years ago Matt Millen got an extension deal who was hired as their President, and General Manger (GM) with no GM experience. Matt Millen is probably one of the worst ever GMs in the history of NFL. He drafted poorly for the Lions picks in almost every draft he was involved. The biggest problem with the Lions is that they have never had a franchise quarterback. They need to hire a person like Bill Parcells to fix their problems but as you can see they haven't. These type of moves exemplify the Ford family. Therefore the bailout package must include that the Ford family sell the Detroit Lions and give their Thanksgiving game back to the league. For the last number of years, I have felt sick overeating on the turkey and watching the Lions loose. Then again the world isn't that bad. Could you imagine if Al Davis was running Ford, GM or Chrysler? Yikes!

My birthday gifts

Today I went to Best Buy and splurged my birthday gift cards. I bought:

1. A Skull Candy DJ Headphones. I was tired of the ones you put in your ear since they kept popping out.
   
2. A red Speck Laptop case for my MacBook Pro
   
3. A pink Speck Laptop case for Michelle's MacBook
   

So everyone who contributed to my birthday "splurge fund". Thanks!

The new Iron Man in town

Last week, the US President Elect Barack Obama selected Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff when Mr. Obama becomes the next US president. After looking at several pictures on Google, I realized that Mr. Rahm Emanuel looks like Iron Man.

No, not the character...but the guy who plays Iron Man in a movie.

Yeah, that guy. He is Robert Downey Jr. Does he look Mr. Rahm Emanuel? If so then Mr. Rahm Emanuel is the new Iron Man for the new Sheriff in town.

Robert Downey Jr.

Rahm Emanuel