Gotta Love this time of year!!

 I am a huge football fan. There has been football on every day this week!! I absolutely love it. I cannot get enough. I coach a Pop Warner team, so that has me busy enough with football and then I get to watch it every night too!! Thank god I have a wife who loves football almost as much as I do. Or I would probably be divorced by now. Not to mention on top of all this, I play NCAA '08, Madden '08 and just got All Pro Football. So if I am not coaching, or watching I am playing video game football,lol. Maybe I need to check into a football rehab or something,lol. Too much fun.

 Not to mention, I coach all week, we goto our local high school games pretty much every Friday night, I went to the Gator vs Troy game a couple of weeks ago, I have went to both Jacksonville Jaguar home games so far, I went to the WVU @ South Florida game last Friday night.  Weird thing is I never get remotely tired or sick of football. Again I am so thankful to have married my wife who is a football junkie as well!! Makes life so much easier this time of year.  I have a few buddies who catch nothing but shit form their wives this time of year. One of them went with me to the WVU/ USF game , his wife called him on the way down there at least 10 times, a 3 hour ride form Jacksonville. And she bitched at him the whole way. I felt so bad for him,lol.  I spoke with my wife once during the game,lol, she called me to give me shit about how crappy my Mountaineers were doing

 On a side note, a bunch of us from PAR and 2oH have been playing some retro games lately. We picked up COD 2 and Quake 4 to play again. Some of us for the first time. I have had more fun playing games these past few days than I have in a long time (not counting playing football games I always have a blast when playing that,lol). We all have Halo 3 also, and have played that quite a bit. We had just been stuck in a rut I guess of basically nothing but RB6 for so long. I hated even putting in my XBOX  at one point. Here lately though I think I may want to throw it back in again and see if my time away from it will make it fun again. 

 Quake 4 though, I think I have had the most fun with. It is just a nice change of pace from the shooters we have playing for a year or so now.  I just wish more people still played it. It is just pure run and gun fun! The very first FPS I ever played was Unreal Tournament on Dreamcast. Then OO7 and Perfect Dark on N64. I have been hooked on shooters ever since. Quake reminds me alot of those days. I cannot wait until Unreal Tournament 3 comes out on XBOX 360.  Now this is not something I would want to play exclusively, but just something to change the pace of the slower tactical shooters we usually play.

So what was the first shooter that you started playing? And do you still play it or something similar to it?

And yes, I am at work, and bored to death,lol!

Being a manager sucks!

 I have 15 grown men that work for me.  I also have 17 kids 9-10 years old on my soccer team and flag  football teams.  I swear the kids are easier to deal with than these grown men,lol.  I have never seen a bigger group of whiners in my life. I have a couple of guys who continually show up late or call in sick, or have court or something. Rarely do I get a full weeks work out of them. When Friday comes and they get their check they just want to piss and moan that they aren't making enough money.

 I am a transplant from the Washington DC area to here in Jacksonville, FL.  I love it here in JAX but the work ethic  F'ing sux here.  I did the exact same job in VA, and rarely had people piss and moan about their jobs.  These same guys who bitch about money,  never want to work late when late work is available.  But will complain that they are not getting enough hours.  Then all their personal problems, it seems every week I have someone not make it in because they got arrested over the weekend. If it is not that, then they are having to goto court. If it is not that they are calling in sick. 

 I guess in construction you are going to get this kind of stuff. Although I rarely had anything like this in DC.  In my 4 years of being a supervisor in DC I only had to fire 1 person. I have been in Jacksonville for 3 1/2 years, I have had to fire probably 20-25 people at least.  It is just amazing with the employees that we have that we are able to make money and be the dominant roll-up door company in North Florida.

 Damn good thing that there is an Anheuser Busch plant to keep the stores around me stocked full .

Being a vlounteer youth athletic coach.....

Well, my best friend and I coach our kids soccer,flag football and pop warner football team. The organization we play for is the YMCA here in North Florida.  We have been coaching for about 3 years now (7soccer seasons and 6 flag football seasons). For soccer we always have about 25-30 kids, and for flag football we always have about 18-20 kids sign up to be on our team. Most of this is due to the parents feeling comfortable with us and trusting us with their kids.

 We teach having fun above anything else. But we also teach them fundamentals of the game by doing drills and games where they are learning while having fun and don't realize they are learning a skill at the time. We have kids of all skill levels every season, yet they always play so well as a team, and when they win or lose it is a team effort not individuals. We always stress that in the kids. Every child plays equal time as possible and are involved in both sides of the ball. We have never had 1 complaint about a kid not playing or being involved. 

 Anyway, we have developed a pretty good core of players. They are not the most talented in the whole conference by any means. The YMCA does not have tryouts or anything. We have merely taken what we have been given talent wise and made the best out of it whatever age group we happen to be in at the time.  Our kids have developed some very good chemistry, and play very well together. Partly due to playing together for a few years, partly due to having the same coaches year after year.  Our first year of soccer when we all met fo rthe first time  we went 2-6. The next season we turned it around and went 6-2, then went undefeated the next season. We then moved up an age group and went 3-3-1 the first season, then went 7-1 the next and undefeated the next season. Also we are not the only team in this particular situation there are 3-4 teams at each location that we play at that have been together for many season as we have.

 Well today I get a call form the YMCA sports director telling me that from now on we will only be able to bring back 5 kids for each team. You have 10 on a flag team and 16 on a soccer team.  We already have to tell a bunch of parents every year that we are unable to get their kids on our team every season as they do it first come first serve. The reason behind all of this  is every season there are more and more kids sign up, so that means more and more teams with new players and new coaches. The coaches come in mostly not knowing what they are doing and their teams get blown out by teams like ours. So they have been complaining about getting blown out, and that they have kids that are never going to play again because they are losing so much.

 So the YMCA decided to basically break up the teams that have been together because they are "stacked", again we have never had tryouts to take the best players and have a "stacked" team.  So now I have a bunch of parents / kids not wanting to play anymore if they cannot be on our team, as do a few of the other coaches. So now they are going to lose kids on the other side of this. There has to be a better way!

  The YMCA should have mandatory coaching clinics for new coaches to goto. There have been a few coaches devote personal time to have a "clinic" to help people out and people just don't show up.  I have alot of experience and I still go. If someone is willing to take the time then I feel we owe them to come no matter our experience.  It just gets back to the old male ego thing I guess.

 In my opinion that is the only way things will ever be balanced better is if all the coaches know what they are doing.  I guess I am upset to , because we have developed many friends, no tjust casual friends, but bail you out of jail type friends from caoching their kids. And these kids have become that close also. Now because a few whine, they are going to break up everything and make these kids and parents have to develop trust in coaches every year basically. I myself devote alot of my personal time to the YMCA, if I am not coaching I am reffing games, if I am not doing that I am a field monitor on my off nights. All for free mind you because they only like to operate off of volunteers and most people don't want to volunteer any time at all to make it succeed.

 Now that I got all that off of my chest, I have to leave work early to go and coach my soccer team.  You knnow sometimes you just sit back and wonder if being a volunteer youth coach is worth all the headaches you get. All the behind the scenes type stuff that goes on and the BS...... But, when you see the smiles on the kids faces when they learn something new.... it is just priceless, and if you have never experienced it I encourage anyone who has kids to get involved in their activities no matter their age, sport or whatever they do.  These kids are our future and we need to mold them into the adults they will become.

 So YES it is worth it, and I am a volunteer coach and would not change that for anything!

CAPSFAN

1st entry..

 Rainbow Six Vegas:  Over the past month or so, I have really gotten into this game. Especially once I found out about 2old2play. I have had the most fun gaming since joining here than I have had in a few years. I have met some really great people, and look forward to playing everynight now( as long as the wife will allow it).  It is just amazing the difference that gaming with people who are "mature" ,lol.  I joined  2old4Head Shots.  We seem to be playing pretty good together so far.   Again, what a difference it makes when you don't have people screaming in the mic and actually trying to use a bit of strategy instead!!

 As you can tell I am a huge WVU fan.  A very disappointing week for WVU not getting invited to the big dance, I really think they could have done some damage.  I will still watch all the big matchups in the tounrney though.  I am not sure how anyone cannot get into college hoops this time of year.  I can't wait until it gets started.  Then it will be a long couple of months until my 'EERS take the field to hopefully be on their way to their first National Championship in football.  ....Hey, a man can dream right?  I defintely think they have a legit chance in winning it all though. We will see.

CAPSFAN