Single Source for Writing

I know I have been watching a lot of the Olympics and it’s fun to see all the different countries competing in China. I think the event I like best is the men’s basketball. I really like the USA team or Redeem Team as they are being called this year. Seeing all the guys like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony on the same floor is exciting. I’m not sure why the Utah Jazz players are there and it seems like Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams is wasted space. Their play on the court proves that too and Williams and Boozer are clearly out-matched with the talent level on their team. Kick the Jazz players off and replace Carlos Boozer with a real athlete like Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks and then you have a nice front line. You could go get a Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady or Allen Iverson to replace Deron Williams who has struggled the most on the Redeem Team in the 2008 Olympics. The USA men’s team has a lot of weapons and I hope they can win the gold this year in China.

I also like the women’s team and its fun to know that no team has ever beaten them. Good job girls and I am rooting for you too and I hope you bring back a gold medal to the United States too. I think swimming has been popular this year and no wonder with Michael Phelps winning all the gold medals. Michael Phelps has won more overall gold medals than any other athlete ever and in 2008 he won more gold medals than any other person has in the same Olympic year. The USA women get to play Brazil on Thursday for the Gold Medal in soccer, but I really doubt they can beat Marta and that Brazilian team she is on. Marta is the best female soccer player in the world and I think Brazil is in the driver’s seat to win the gold medal in soccer. Let’s just hope the USA can pull a upset and keep Marta covered for 90 minutes. I wish we could use our MLB baseball players to play for our Olympic team, but the guys out there now are doing a great job. So those are a few things that come to my mind when I think about the 2008 Olympics that is currently underway in Beijing, China. What are some of your favorite events or athletes in this year’s Olympics?

A perfect game in bowling is something I have never did. I really haven’t even come close to the magical 300 mark that all bowlers strive to get one day. A strike is not uncommon for beginners or professional bowlers, but when you can do that 12 times in a row it is very special. I just hope that if I ever do manage to string 12 strikes together, that I can have someone there to witness it. I would say the chances of bowling 300 are a lot like a golfer hitting a hole in one. It can be done, but the chances are very remote that you will ever do it. You also want someone there to see a hole in one if you ever manage that feat too. Now I am a better pool player, so making the 8 ball or 9 ball off the break is something I have done many times. I have also manage to run the table in both games and it’s a special feeling in pool when you can break the balls and run out from the break. I don’t think my roll in bowling is consistent enough to get a 300, but it would be nice to go into the 10th frame just knowing I had a shot at it. You would still have to bowl a turkey (3 strikes in a row) in the 10th frame to cap off the perfect 300 game in bowling. I guess a opportunity like this would be one that I might pass on, because the pressure would be tremendous if I ever did bowl 9 strikes in a row. I’m not sure what my high score is, but it seems like I managed a 250 something one time and if I wasn’t bowling a strike, then I was picking up the spare and you must close all your frames to have a super high score like 250.

It appears the first tornado of the 2008 season will be hitting the U.S. on Wednesday morning. Dolly is gaining strength and forecasters believe the storm will be a category 1 hurricane before it reaches the Texas border. It’s still unclear where the hurricane might make land fall but many think the Texas and Mexico border will be a pretty close guess. This hurricane is expected to bring 15+ inches of rain to the area where it comes ashore at. So people can expect a lot of flooding to occur along with all of the gusty winds that Dolly will be packing. Please make sure you take cover if you live any where near the area of southern Texas that borders the Gulf of Mexico. Dolly is still in the Gulf of Mexico, but many believe the category 1 hurricane will come on land in the next 24 hours. So now is the time to take shelter, evacuate or do the things you need to do for this hurricane in the Gulf. Dolly is coming, so if you do decide to wait the storm out, please be careful and be sure to have plenty of flashlights and batteries, because I’m sure many folks will lose their power when Dolly slams into the Texas coast.

The 15th inning marathon on Tuesday night was a good baseball game. What was not good is that the last batter of the game ended it and if an out would have been made, the game would have been stopped. Baseball is yet to figure out an All Star concept that rewards the fans. They are once again putting the fans second when it comes to the boys of summer. The game is meant for the fans and more should be done to reward them. The fans don’t care that players go back to their team tired or unable to pitch right away. What the fans do care about, is seeing the best players in the world competing against each. Baseball has not let this happen and it’s making the fans feel like they are the ones left holding the bag. I now will ban baseball for the 2008 season and I urge you to do the same too. Let’s not buy MLB merchandise or attend these games, until baseball puts the fans first and give us the game we deserve.

A great way to get out and enjoy the great outdoors is going to a local park and taking in some fresh air. If that park has a lake with it, then be sure to bring some crackers or bread crumbs so you can feed the ducks. The kids love ducks and they will like it even better if they can actually feed them. I know most parks that have a lake tied in with them, do have ducks there that you can feed. Sometimes they might be off on flight, but there’s a good chance if you know where there is a park at with a lake, the ducks won’t be too far behind. My twin 3 year old nephews love to go outside. We took them to a park when they were a little younger and they loved seeing the ducks. We didn’t really have anything to feed them, but the ducks thought we had food. So try to load up the kids some day and take them to the park to feed the ducks. I’m sure they will enjoy it as much as you do and just watch the smiles on their face.

Well according to the last two digits of my social security number, I was suppose to get my tax rebate check back on May 9th. I get it electronically zapped into my bank account, but that didn’t happen on May 9th. So I am still waiting for my share of that money that we are suppose to get back. I know a lot of other people that want or need that money to, so the waiting game is on for the tax stimulus rebate checks.

I owe my parents some money, so they are going to be getting most of mine. I think I will get about 20 to 30 dollars out of the check once it gets here, but even though it might not be much, I will still put it to good use. I have a lot of bills that need paying, so I hope I get that government check soon, so I can start knocking out some of these debts. Please be sure to let me know if you got your moeny back from the tax stimulus rebate checks and what you plan to spend your money on. Thanks!

It’s not been an easy year for the boys in red, but in that true Bulldog spirit they manage to win the SEC Title and securing a place in the NCAA Tournament. Some teams get automatic bids and others get there on their strength of schedule and quality wins. Winning the SEC tournament insures the Georgia Bulldogs a spot in the Big Dance and now they will get a chance to continue this amazing run they are on.

All the weather related horrors going on in Atlanta right now, it was good to see our Georgia Bulldogs go against all of the odds and secure this place for the people of Georgia. It won’t be an easy battle and they will be playing tough teams every round, but the heart of this team can do it! I wouldn’t bet against these guys right now and I’m sure Xavier is well aware of what this team is capable of. Xavier will be the first test for the Georgia Bulldogs and it should be interesting to see how well that spirit and determination goes when they have to play outside of the borders of Georgia.

Dennis “Fulton” should be very proud of this team. The CBS announcers that gave Georgia no shot at winning the game against Arkansas, couldn’t even get our coaches name right. They referred to him as Dennis “Fulton” and finally would correct it later as Dennis Felton. Just let them keep talking coach, they will know who you and your team are very soon! Felton has done a tremendous job with the talent he has been handed and the guards of Gaines, Woodberry and Humphrey have provided great chemistry for this team and factoring in the big guys, it’s just became a well oiled machine in Athens. I really like this team’s chances in making more noise in the NCAA Tournament and they just need to take care of the first job in front of them now and that is Xavier. Go DAWGS, the state of Georiga is behined you now!!!

I’m not sure how many of you know about tarby worm trees, but I have two of them behind my house. I got them about 10 to 12 years ago and they were less than a foot high each. About a decade later they stand about 20 to 24 feet high and supply me with a good bit of tarby worms twice a year.

A tarby worm is just like a catepillar, but they don’t have the fuzz or hair-like bodies. It’s just a smooth surface to their bodies and they are black with bright green markings on them. They are excellent for fishing and you can catch catfish, bass, crappie and bream (pronounced brim) with them. All of the fish in my local area of Canton, Georgia just tear them up when they see a tarby worm in the water.

So where does the tarby worms come from? Every year when the leaves fill out on the tree, they will be white blooms that come on the tree too. These blooms attract moths and the moths will come lay their eggs on the tarby worm trees. It doesn’t take the eggs long to hatch and soon you will have baby tarby worms on your tree. It takes them about 4 to 5 days to become good fish bait. It’s important that once you see the baby tarby worms you make plans to go fishing in the next 5 to 8 days. Normally after about the 8th day, the tarby worms have cleared all the leaves off of the tree and they vanish. I think by the middle of July my leaves on the tarby worm trees will be completely gone. They will grow back again and about 8 to 10 weeks later, you will normally get a 2nd crop of tarby worms during the fall. So you can plan another trip back to the lake and fish with your tarby worms again!

The Atlanta Hawks was not taking time off the past weekend, where we got to see the best of the best in the NBA compete in the rookie challenge, skills competition and the All Star Game. They didn’t have their focus on all the great athletes in New Orleans, but was looking out west toward California. The Sacramento Kings to be specific and they was able to bargain with the guys in purple for their talented point guard Mike Bibby. Bibby has been injured for most of the season and has recently returned from his hand injury that kept him off the court for most of the season. The Hawks gave up four players (Shelden Williams, Tyrone Lue, Anthony Johnson, Lorenzen Wright) and a 2nd round draft pick for the 2008 NBA Draft which will be held in late June. In return, the Atlanta Hawks get a point guard that is ready to start for this team and should help the Hawks make the playoffs.

The Eastern Conference teams have a much easier path to the playoffs; than the Western Conference teams and the move to acquire Mike Bibby from the Sacramento Kings now makes the Hawks a favorite to grab one of those 8 spots for the Eastern Conference teams. Fans in Atlanta should be excited to finally have a veteran point guard steering the ship with all the talented athletes like Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Solomon Jones, Salim Stoudamire, Al Horford and the most talented guy in the league Josh Smith. Mike Bibby’s long range game will do wonders for the Hawks, as Joe Johnson can now spend more time on the bench for the Atlanta Hawks. Hopefully the Hawks will find a taker for Joe Johnson and bring in more talent to help this Hawks team. Joe Johnson can still be a valuable piece to this team, but he will never be “the piece”. He just hasn’t got the basketball IQ or talent to be a leader on a team. If the Hawks continue to look for Joe Johnson as the top weapon on this team, they will just continue spinning their wheels. Bibby has never been known to be a vocal leader, but if he will take control of things in Hotlanta and Joe Johnson can be used less on the court, the Hawks will be making some noise this spring in the playoffs.

Welcome to Atlanta Mike Bibby! Goodbye Joe Johnson, because this trade signals the end of our one on one game here in Atlanta and now we can play team basketball with a real point guard in charge! Just do like you did in the All Star Game Joe, move out beyond the arc and wait for the pass!

What frozen treat do you like best to eat? Is there a popular ice cream store or fast food restaurant that you really like? I don’t mind a good ol fudge milk shake from time to time. In fact, it would be nice to have a milk shake right now. I know it’s still winter, but I am one of those weird types. I crave ice cream and milk shakes in the winter time and rarely eat them in the hot dog days of summer.

I have found an ice cream I really like. It’s Birthday Cake ice cream and I can’t recall who makes that off the top of my head. It comes in a yellow box, so maybe you know the company or brand I’m talking about that packages their ice creams in yellow? Its really good if you have never tried it. Its basically vanilla ice cream with little chunks of birthday cake in it. You also see some colors and that might be from birthday cake icing. It’s perfect for anybody that you might know, that has a birthday coming up. See if you can find it and you will see its the hit of the party! I think it goes good with plain potato chips too. There is just something about eating something cold and sweet and then getting a salty taste in your mouth. Once you eat a few potato chips and have that salty taste in your mouth, then go back and eat some more cold ice cream. It might sound like a strange combination, but the taste buds love it!

I think I will go ice cream shopping soon and might try a new brand if someone can give me a good suggestion on one that you think I might of not tried yet. Please go out and look for the company that has the yellow box and see if you can find the Birthday Cake Ice Cream. Give that a try and let me know what you think. Its really good!

Is there a place that has pool tournaments in your area? I was just wondering what some other pool players might do, before they go shoot in a pool tournament. Do you practice up a lot on your billiards, before you go play in a big tournament? I always try to get a lot of practice in, but sometimes it’s hard to do. There is a big pool tournament close to where I live at; that will be this Saturday (October 27th). First place will be $500 and only B and C players are allowed to play in it. That means they will be no A or really good players in this tournament. The B Players will give the C Players an extra game when they face each other.

This tournament is going to be at Johnny Archer’s pool hall. He’s a real famous pool player and has won a lot of big tournaments. I don’t think Johnny will be at this one, because I believe the U.S. Open is going on right now for pool players. It’s the best of the best competing in that one. I have a cousin that is trying to talk me into going to play in this tournament Saturday, but I haven’t got in the practice to play in any tournaments, much less one that will be this big. It’s not often we have pool tournaments around here for that big of a pot. I will have to pass on this one and maybe prepare for the next one they will have.

It’s an eagle that was coming in for a landing, and found a deer? Actually this bad bird went right after the deer and picked it up and threw it down. This is one bad bird!

Yep, that was one heck of a tackle. I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like that. This bird could pick up a small child or dog easily and drag them through the air for miles and miles if they wanted to. Looking at this video gives us a glimpse to how things might have been like when the dinosaurs were around. I’m sure there were big flying birds back then that would swoop down and take on things like the eagle did in this video. I wouldn’t want to be messing around the nest of an eagle and they me as a threat. They might do a person like what they did to this poor little deer.

I might be going to Cherokee and do some gambling on the Indian Reservation for the 4th of July. I’m not sure what my buddies have decided yet. I have never been there, and I live about 2 hours away from the casino up there. I’m looking forward to it, if I do get the chance to go. I haven’t done anything exciting lately, so just to go up there for a night sounds fun right now. One of my friend’s will get off work tomorrow around 5:30 in the evening and if we are going we would leave when he gets off of work. So we would probably go up there gamble all night long and just drive back home early that morning. So should be back home on the 4th of July to take in any local fireworks shows that might be going on.

I will be sure to update this story if I get lucky and win big. If you don’t see me update this story, then you know I just wasted money like everybody else does at the casinos every day. I’m not going to go crazy or nothing. I figured I would just take $100 and leave the debit card at home. So I will probably spend 20 bucks on food and tips for the waitresses, and would lose 80 at the most to those slot machines. They don’t have the dealers and card tables in Cherokee, North Carolina and that’s more my style of playing, but who knows maybe I can win a few hundred bucks and have a night at of the house. Happy 4th everyone!

If you seen Paris Hilton on Larry King Live then you know she spilled her guts out to America. She really gave a heart-felt interview with Larry King and it’s good to know she let it all out. I wasn’t aware that she wasn’t living off her family’s money. She makes her own money and she works very hard to do it. No it’s true, she even says it in her interview. You can watch for yourself and see how Paris Hilton tells the truth about everything. If there is anything that she says that is not true, then a number will come up and we will count any thing she might have not been honest with us about.

So she made a few boo boos. 15 wasn’t that bad? I’m sure other convicted drunk drivers would have scored much higher than Paris did.

I’m really excited to see the NBA Draft soon approaching. It seems everybody has their own version of how this thing is going to go down. Since there are so many people putting out their mock drafts, I figured I could join in on the fun and put my own twist to the 2007 NBA Draft.

Now I don’t think I will go down the list and name which team will pick which player. I don’t think you should ever draft for a need. If your the San Antonio Spurs, then I say it’s ok to draft for a need. A team that has proven they are championship caliber should fill in a hole to make them that much stronger. All the other teams better just draft the best player on the board and forget filling needs. When you take a player knowing he is less talented, then the player you are drafting, because he is filling an immediate need is a loser’s mentatlity. Always take the best talent available! There will one day be a time you can trade talent for a need and get back an equal talent. Don’t downgrade your team never, and especially on draft day!

So who are this year’s most special players? They are 2 really special players, but it’s not the 2 your thinking of. I see two players in 5 years that will be condsidered the gems of this year’s draft.

Best player in the draft is Kevin Durant from Texas. He’s hands down the best player in the draft. However Greg Oden is 7 foot and plays center so he fills a need in the NBA, which is hard to find. Did you know that if you took 30 NBA teams right now and drafted from the Houston Rockets roster, that 20 of the GM’s currently in the NBA would take Yao Ming over Tracy McGrady! I would disagree with that since I believe McGrady is the 2nd best player in the league behind Laker’s Star Kobe Bryant.

Here is the best players in the draft (Best to Worse):

1) Kevin Durant
2) Corey Brewer
3) Greg Oden
4) Brandon Wright
5) Al Horford
6) Mike Conley Jr.
7) Javaris Crittenton
Derrick Byars
9) Jeff Green
10) Yi Jianlian
11) Julian Wright
12) Nick Young
13) Petteri Koponen
14) Al Thornton
15) Rodney Stuckey
16) Acie Law
17) Tiago Splitter
18) Glen Davis
19) Morris Almond
20) Spencer Hawes
21) Joakim Noah
22) Jason Smith
23) Rudy Fernandez
24) Marc Gasol
25) Arron Affalo
26) Wilson Chandler
27) Marcus Williams
28) Daequan Cook
29) Sean Williams
30) Trey Johnson

There you have it! The 30 most talented kids in this year’s 2007 NBA Draft!

I haven’t been to the lake or a beach in a long time. We are in a drought right now, so the lake levels are pretty low. It’s always fun getting ready to go to the beach. You load the car or truck up with all your floats and beach ball and they take up a lot of room. You don’t want to blow them up at the beach, so you do it at home first. Throw a few towels in and get the drinks on ice in the cooler. Then your all set for the beach!

Now the best part of going to the beach is staying in the water for a long time. When you start seeing your hands getting all them wrinkles in them, you know you been in the water for awhile. Then after being in the water so long, it makes you start getting hungry. So you have that swimmer’s hunger going on. I like that feeling, as long as there is some food around the corner. No good having the swimmer’s hunger with no food! When you do have food involved, it’s fun to go stuff your face. Something about swimming just makes us hungry, and you can really eat a lot after you swim. Just remember that 30 minute thing, don’t eat then go swimming. It is so much better to eat after swimming anyways. If you are planing on going to the beach soon, or have been already, I would love to hear about your beach stories. Do you go to lay on a float and just relax on the water, maybe swim a lot for exercise purposes, or maybe you just go to the beach to work on the tan? Let me know of your beach stories, and don’t forget the sunblock!

A show that has recently started on ABC is called National Bingo Night in America. It’s an hour long show that gives away prizes to people in the studio and people playing at home. It’s not the typical game show that you normally see. It’s probably going to be a pretty popular show, since people at home can play. Now if you would like to play, you can go to ABC.com and look for more details.

They give away some pretty good prizes. It’s probably worth giving it a try. The show came on last night (Friday). I’m not sure if that’s the only night it comes on or not. I was thinking we might could give National Bingo Night in America a try? Is there anybody that wants to join me? We can go to ABC.com and print out our bingo cards. I think you can print out as many as you like. They will have red cards, white cards, and blue cards. Just make sure you are using the right card for the right game. This is just standard bingo, that we will be playing. If you get 5 across, up and down, or diagonal; then you are a winner! So whose game? Let’s try to play some Bingo and see if we can win anything. Please reply back if you are interested in giving it a shot this Friday or perhaps you have already played. Then you can maybe come on and give some extra information on how it works. It’s time to play some Bingo!