Wonky73

Wonky's Land of Nonsensical Musings

Month: December 2013 (Page 1 of 2)

Throwing 2013 away and my 100th post

December 31, 2013 / / 0 Comments

With past blogs I have posted an end of the year recap on December 31st. Not this time.  To see how my year has been read this post. Things really didn’t get much better in the five months since that post.  Obviously, the year has not been devoid of joy or good moments but overall.. blah.  So I am taking last year, crumpling it up into a ball, and tossing it in the garbage.

I posted my first entry on March 6th. This is my 100th published post since reopening this blog.  In celebration I give you my five most popular posts.

#5: The day my wallet got stolen ?
#4: Fried Potatoes scrambled egg thingy
#3: To unfollow or not to unfollow
#2: Food Friday: Special Chilli with insanity peppers 
#1:  Guest Post: Jobu the cat If there is one thing the internet loves, it’s cats.

I guess I should post more recipes 🙂

Have a fun safe New Years Eve.

Christmas with friends, family, and a broken faucet

December 28, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Presents!

In my family we usually have a big Christmas eve feast and get together.  It’s a traditional Polish thing. With my mom needing to stay at home to take care of my dad, I decided not to go the family meal and just spend a quiet Christmas eve at home. My mom made a delicious turkey soup and we were all snug in our beds by 10:30.

On Christmas day I went to my oldest friends house and helped her fix her kitchen faucet.  The faucet had broken and it leaked from the spout so the whole thing needed to be replaced.  The problem was that the old plastic nuts that held the faucet to the sink seemed to have become fused to the metal.  No amount of force would get them to come off.  So I came to the rescue with my dremel tool. I had to use four cutting disks to grind away the plastic nuts and then the sander to get down to the metal.  Finally I had to jam a large screwdriver under the sink and pry it up to pop the nuts loose.  What a hassle.

A different friend posted pictures of her Christmas on facebook. The piles of presents were almost taller than her kids.  My initial reaction was “Bah consumerism blah blah blah.”  But then I thought back to my own Christmases as a kid. My joy on Christmas morning was pure.  It felt as if the gifts were an expression of love.  Now that I am older I just want to share time with people I care about and maybe exchange a few meaningful gifts.

Random Christmas memories.

December 25, 2013 / / 0 Comments

*On of my earliest memories is a dream I had on Christmas eve.  We had been told that if we snuck out of our rooms Santa would know and wouldn’t stop at our house.  In my dream I and my brothers snuck out to try and get a look at Santa. When he came around we tried to hide but the whole house turned to glass. Santa flew around the house on a golden bird ??? and caught us.  I woke up so afraid we’d have no presents.

*That wonderful anxious feelings as I lay in bed every Christmas eve in anticipation. I had that feeling well until my late teens

* One Christmas we didn’t get very many presents.  We were all kind of bummed when one of my brothers went into the basement.  Turns out my parents had gotten us the ultimate toy we wanted, the Atari 2600

*Santa Claus came to my house well into my early twenties. My parents would still hide the presents and put them under the tree after I went to bed. Just like old times Santa showed up while I was sleeping.  This time he brought snow.

*We weren’t allowed to open the presents under the tree until everybody was up.  But we could get out what was in our stockings. There were always some sports cards, a magazine to read, and a few nice little toys to keep us occupied until the eldest son wandered out of bed.  Didn’t he know there were presents waiting 🙂

A Long climb up: musings on the current state of Illini football

December 22, 2013 / / 0 Comments
I got advice that I should write about whatever I want and not worry if people are interested.  I am following that advice so you get a post on the University of Illinois’ football program.  Feel free to stop reading now:)

In this post I will be taking tidbits I have heard from people who have or had some information from the athletic department. I admit most of this is third party rumor so I will not stand behind any of it. This is not journalism. In fact a good chunk of what I am going to tell you came from some old guy I whose name I never even knew.


Were are we at?

To be blunt the Illini football program inhabits a dark, terrifying, horrible pit of lameness.  The team has managed one big ten win in the last two seasons. The actual stats point out the incompetence over that period.  In 2012 the Illini were ranked 52 overall in defense at 387.58 yards per game and 122nd in offense at 294.2 yards per game.  There are only 124 teams in division 1 college football. So we were the 3rd worst offense in all of  division 1.  In 2013 the stats change up a little bit. The offense under a new coordinator jumped up to 45th in the nation with 426.7  yards per game. Sadly the defense plummeted to 110th in the nation and gave up 485 yards per game.  Fan interest remained low and the stadium got more and more empty as the season went on.

How did we get here?
We need to go back to before the hiring of Tim Beckman to understand how we got to this lowly state. Before Mike Thomas Illinois had Ron Guenther as athletic director, the person who hires and fires coaches. Generally regarded as a good athletic director, Gunther came under fire for his hires for head football coach. Despite moderate success many fans thought he stayed to long with mediocre coaches Ron Turner and Ron Zook.  After Gunther’s retirement new Thomas entered the picture.  He quickly wanted to shake things up and the firing began.  After two consecutive 7-6 seasons including the first time Illini had won a bowl game in consecutive seasons Ron Zook was out.  Many fans heralded this move and Thomas’ claim that only big ten conference championships would be acceptable. He praised Zook for leaving the program better than he found it.  It’s clear that Thomas thought the program was on the cusp of being a regular force in the Big Ten Conference andThomas expected the Illini job to be an attractive one to candidates.

For the State and the University, Thomas’ timing didn’t come at an optimal timing. The State and the University both were experiencing a budget crisis. On top of that, the University experienced a bunch of scandal and instability around Hogan the then University President.  Hogan eventually resigned under a thick cloud. This coupled with the rumored reputation Thomas has for being unlikeable and hard to work for*  made the job much less attractive than many thought. 

The new coach search begin with the focus being on University of Houston’s coach Kevin Sumlin. Sumlin was regarded as one of the hottest up an coming candidates. Rumor is that despite not having contacted Sumlin, Thomas believed the hire to basically be a done deal.  In fact, they were supposedly hours away from announcing the hire when it all fell through. Rebuffed Thomas moved down the list.  He offered the job to both Boise State’s Chris Petersen and Cincinnati’s Butch Jones who turned him down.  With the coaching search quickly turning into a farce, rumors indicated Thomas began to scramble to save face.  Allegedly, contacting two or three more candidates. They all told him no. Nearing the bottom of the list Thomas saw a name that only a few had on their radar, Tim Beckman. Thomas quickly got an interview together and almost  immediately offered Beckman the job. I has been claims that Beckman wasn’t sold on taking the job.  He had to be convinced.  This might explain the overly long contract with such a high salary for a rather poor unheralded candidate.

How do we get out of here?
Thomas believed when he fired Zook that the program did not need a total rebuild.  In my estimation he was right.  Beckman’s first year team had four players drafted by the NFL.  The most in the Big Ten. After the first two years of Beckman’s “leadership” we are at the ground floor of an entire rebuilding. There are a few good young players on the team but overall the team is much worse off than just two years ago. 

It seems clear to me that Beckman can not be trusted to clean up the mess he has made.  So step one is to fire Beckman.

Step two is to find the new coach. This promises to be no easy task.   I think there are three things that Illinois will have to do to bring in the right coach. First, think outside the box.  No “Candidate must have head coaching experience” this time. Be willing to look at almost anyone. Search the high school ranks, look into pro assistants and coaches, leave no stone unturned. This is a process that needs to start now even thought Beckman is staying.  Just do it through back channels. Secondly be willing to give a long term contract with a salary in the two and a half million range.  You are going to have to overpay.  Thirdly, actually put full support behind the football program.  At Illinois basketball reigns as king with football being the funny odd royal cousin.

With an open pocket book and a stabilized university situation I don’t see why Illinois can’t pull a better candidate this time around.

*The unnamed old guy put it succinctly “Mike Thomas is an #%$hole” 

That was the week: cold, confusion, snow, and time wasted

December 15, 2013 / / 2 Comments

I had a Doctors appointment on Tuesday morning and a test he wanted done was scheduled for Monday morning. I arrived at the Doctors office on Monday, gave my name and started waiting.  I waited and I waited and I waited.  After about forty minutes of waiting, the receptionist tells me my appointment isn’t until tomorrow.

“I’m not here for my appointment but for my test.”

“You have to go to the lab for that,” she responded and gave me vague directions to the lab.

After about fifteen  minutes of wandering around I found the lab and checked in.  They were backed up so I sat there for about twenty minutes. The technician looks at my chart and says, “Your doctors appointment is tomorrow.  This test takes two days to get the results.  You need to go back upstairs and make a new doctor’s appointment.”

I rushed back to the fifth floor and remade the appointment for Friday. Back down to the  lab I went.  When I got there they inform that it’s too late know and I have to make another appointment for the test for the next afternoon.

This test was a screening for the big C, cancer. The doctor has been caring for me for about ten months. He nonchalant about it. He reassured me that there was no evidence of cancer and my symptoms clearly pointed to something else.  I tried to be calm about it but even the mere mention of the word can be frightening.

I managed to remain pretty calm as the days passed. Usually the hospital either calls or sends me an email with the results. Thursday ended with no news.  Then I realized they are not telling me the results because it’s bad and they wanted the doctor to tell me.

I was nervous as I waited for the doctor to show up.  Finally he came in and we started talking about my health problem.  It’s only after about five minutes he remembered. “Oh yeah you had that test.”  He glances at the results.  “That’s good.”  And that was that 🙂

Friday the snow came.  I love snow.

« Older posts

© 2023 Wonky73

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑