Lacrosse - the great sport

Is there any sport out there better than lacrosse? I doubt it.

Lax is faster than football, more physical than basketball, and less boring than baseball. I mean seriously, what can be better than a stick, a ball and a helmet? Nothing.

I did not have lax when I was little - the only time I saw a lax stick was in the encyclopedia. It was that strange Northern sport that all the private school kids played - and Native Americans.

Somehow, I got my son into lax, and he really has enjoyed it. So have I. There is hardly a better way to spend a Spring day than pacing the sidelines watching Natick put the hurt on another town (hopefully).

Nowadays, we have indoor lacrosse and Fall lacrosse - which my son plays, but not going too nuts on it. Don't want to burn him out, you know, it should still be fun.

While lax is growing leaps and bounds in popularity, it is still small enough in many towns that a kid can pick it up in middle school or high school.

So I recommend giving lax a try - scrounge some equipment. Grab a stick and go out and give it a toss. It's a blast.

Flash Game: Hedgehog Launch

There are a lot of launch games out there, but one of the ones that I have enjoyed is hedgehog launch. This is a vertical launch platformer.

You have to get your hedgehog into outer space as part of the space program for some tiny Caribbean country. To help you along, you have platforms that can bounce you up, parachutes to bring you down slowly, booster rockets to give you a lift, and radar to show you where the platforms are. And you are launched in the air with a big slingshot.

The catch is you have to buy these things. You get money by going over coins that are fortunately floating in the air, and you get a multiplier for duration of flight and height achieved. You never have enough money to buy everything, so you have to budget your money for different things.

My son says that I play a lot of these games where you have to budget resources, and I guess I do. I find them more interesting than flat out shoot 'em ups, usually.

The goal is to get into space in the fewest days.

My record is 3 days - I have done it 3 or 4 times. I consider it pretty good if I can get into space in 8 days or less.

Give it a shot. You can find it at armor games - http://armorgames.com/play/1760/hedgehog-launch

A quick, fun diversion.

A Clash of Cultures

There is a culture war coming. And it will not be pretty.

Some of that came to light when I was over at the stringed instrument store to pick up some music for my cello. As I pulled up in my minivan (small, 4-cylinder, 10 years old), I saw the cars an the parking lot: 3 Priuses, a Volvo, a Subaru Outback and a Honda Minivan, and a few other nondescript Japanese cars. No Fords, no Buicks, no trucks.

And all these cars were sporting eco bumper stickers and Obama bumper stickers and bumper stickers talking about classical music, stickers for private schools and academies. I was the only standout because besides my Obama sticker, I was sporting a Natick Lacrosse sticker.

It got me to thinking. What is it about playing a stringed instrument that attracts a cetain type of person in general? Middle/upper-middle class, liberal, academically oriented.

i don't have the answer, I am just making an observation. But it seems to be a type and there did not seem to be a lot of diversity in that group (racial diversity, yes - but other than skin color they looked pretty much the same).

I think this group is happy about the Obama win, but there must be thousands just like them. But there are others that are the polar opposite who are thinking that their world is crazy and turned upside down. They may be becoming smaller, but they are still a big group.

And they are in for a shock.

Election Day 2008 (2 thumbs up)

Woo hoo! Obama won!

The nightmare of the idiot Republican President and his gang of fascists is over.

One thing that I noticed about the 2 crowds at Sen Obama's victory speech and Sen. McCain's concession speech. Looking at the Obama crowd on TV it was all ages, all genders, all ethnic groups. McCain crowd was a bunch of really white guys, a few white women and nothing else.

If that is all the Republicans have, then they are in trouble. They are running out of scared white guys fast.

Almost Election Day

We are coming up on the election. The Republicans are sounding pretty desperate. The Democrats are trying not to sound too happy. Also concerned about any last minnute shenanigans.

My kids are getting excited - they have been having mock elections at school - Obama wins.

I can feel the winds of change in the air. People are excited - especially people who have not previously participated in the electoral process.

I was a little concerned when Gov. Palin was nominated - people seem so excited about her! I myself think she is another idiot - uninformed, jingoistic, incurious, just what we need in this complex world (sarcasm implied). Just what we need to these complex times. But people do not want to think and she makes them (some of them, at least) feel good. Me, I want to puke.

I am looking forward to a president who can think and speak and is willing to learn and do.

Let's see what the next week brings.