A couple of years ago we read a really interesting book.  I didn’t think much about it because it was basically just another interesting book from someone who had done some interesting things in their life and was living life to its fullest – the reason I didn’t think much of it was because the author was still relatively young and there was alot of life left in him.  I felt at the time that this story was not finished yet and so I was a little bit sceptical about the book in the first part.

Flash forward to the 2010 Olympics and the book seems even more relavent today than when it was first published.  The only thing is that I think perhaps this guy was almost written off and his book had since gone out of publication and is now apparently only available on the used book market.  To young to be taken seriously a few years ago when his wild stunts cost him a gold medal because they were considered illegal* and now past his time to keep his book in active publication.

The book and the author I am talking about is Bode.  The full title of the book is Bode; Go Fast, Be Good, and Have Fun.  It seems like a simple message and it really is but it is a great read and even a better one now in light of recent events at this years 2010 winter Olympics.

It could be considered simplistic to gain inspiration for life from our sports heros but there is something to be said for living your life with a goal and living your life on your own terms. The message of Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun reminds me of the coach Jim Valvano acceptance speech at the ESPN awards.  This speech was given in 1993 but still is so powerful today.  If you have not had a chance to see it CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video of this speech. It is just over 11 minutes long and totally worth your time.  If you need a little inspiration, or encouragement, or motivation, or even just a couple of laughs check out Coach V’s speech.

And if you can find a copy of Bode Miller’s book I highly recommend you pick one up.  If for nothing else they are currently going for up to $50 on varioius online stores.

This morning I pulled up one of my social networks and read that two of my friends had both recently become online friends with another one of my friends from high school.  I didn’t know this person had an online life.  It was fun just seeing his name in writing.  And so, as we all do, I clicked on his name to view his profile and see what his current life looked like – at least online.

And I was not disappointed.

( Backstory: spent my middle school and high school years in a suburb in the mid to late 70′s – and then into the early 80′s – it was a great time to be in high school )

The last memory of this person was in the late 70′s.   We were over at a friends house and he came in with another friend and the two of them were laughing.  They had just been questioned by the cops and almost taken in for questioning.  What was their big offense?  They were sitting on the sidewalk.  His mother was not allowing him to smoke in the house so he had grabbed a bag of oreos and some smokes and the two friends had gone outside and were eating oreas sitting on the sidewalk – having a smoke.  Sure they looked like hippies there is no doubt about this.  I think they almost enjoyed being hassled by the Man.  We were born just a little too late to protest the War and there really wasn’t that much to protest ( not at least in our neighborhood ).  There were long gas lines but most of us kids walked everywhere or rode our bikes so it didn’t fully impact us.  And in general life was good.  There were not really any large protests going on against Disco but that was one of the big controversies of the day.

So, today as I read through recent blog posts of my poet friend it took me down memory lane.  I was going to say took me quickly down memory lane but that is not entirely accurate.  The stories he writes about were all from those times spent on foot, taking time to talk with friends and taking time to explore the spaces surrounding your every day life.  It was a peaceful journey down memory lane.  I’m not even sure if this person would remember me – I was just another person listening to some of his wild stories.  Most definitely if we saw each other on the street we would probably walk right by each other with perhaps only the slightest feeling of deja vu but not actually recognizing each other in our “grown up” state.

His posts were poetic and they used really big wonderful words to describe the way things made him feel at the time, not just describing the things he was seeing or the places he was visiting.

What to make of all this.  It just made me think about how nice it is to get together with friends and be able to just sit down and talk about things.  Not necessarily having someplace to go or having some thing that was the focus of the get together – just being with friends.  And in this life even if we have a short time to get to know someone it is a wonderful thing to be able to share these little moments with each other.

In my high school yearbook my Sr. quote was from a Jackson Browne song and it still rings true to me today, “If only for a stolen moment we will live forever”.   It’s life’s little stolen moments that fill our memory banks.

The Internet gave me this little treasure today.

We just finished watching a movie that came out in 2009 ( although I didn’t see a single movie promotion for this one ) and we all agreed that that was one of the most fun we had had watching a movie together in a long time.  We laughed almost all the way through it.

The only problem was that it wasn’t supposed to be a comedy – but it was funnier than some comedies we have seen lately.

Sorry, Kevin Sorbo, you are a cutey but this movie of yours was a real stinker.  But the good news is that it was so bad that it was fun to watch.  Even my 11 year old son was coming up with one liner zingers in response to dialogue that were making us all crack up.

It was those real down to the core laughing – not just tee hee.  Very Fun.

What is this delightful film you ask?

Fire From Below

Digging at a nearby cave, a careless industrialist unearths a vein of pure base Lithium and inadvertently brings it to the surface, where the Lithium combusts when coming into contact with water and begins to wreak havoc on the country side.

The bad guy indrustrialists are such bad actors that you really can’t get mad at them for their evil corrupt capitolist pig ways because you just can’t get past their bad acting – that is more unforgiveable.

I thought for sure that it was a straight to DVD production but I don’t see it on Amazon yet.  So, if you are lucky enough to spot it on your HBO lineup then get some friends together, pop some popcorn, chill a bottle of wine and get ready for a fun night at the movies.  ( don’t see this in a theater – it requires being able to yell back at the screen ).

This last weekend my kids MySpace status read: “Pocket Dialing almost ruined my weekend”.

Almost all of us have pocket dialed – hitting a button on your cell phone while the phone is in your pocket or purse so that it calls someone on your recent call list or address book.  Sometimes you even dial yourself and end up with a lovely muffled message on your voicemail.

But this last weekend my kids accidental pocket dialing created a situation you might only find on a sitcom.

He was at his house with his best friend and they had just settled in for a fun evening of XBOX live.  Some shooter game.  Sometimes they target zombies, sometimes aliens and sometimes they just play capture the flag.  But whatever they end up playing, the headsets go on and the volume goes up.  Being over 18 they typically play M rated games and use M rated language.

On this particular night he had called his grandmother earlier in the evening.  So her number was on the top of the recent calls list ( he typically communicates with his friends via text message and rarely uses his phone to actually call anyone ).

They were in to the game when he accidentally pocket dialed granny.  She didn’t realize they were playing a video game and he didn’t realize she was listening in.  She didn’t know what was going on and so assumed he was being attacked.  She didn’t have any numbers for the neighbors so she did the only thing she could think of and that was to call the local Sheriff.

The Sherif responded and disrupted their game.  After finding that the only ones being attacked were the virtual zombies the Sheriff had to call back granny and explain how there was indeed a thing such as pocket dialing.

Granny now has the contact phone numbers for everyone in the neighborhood and another reason to mistrust her cell phone.