Ball State Football

Believe it or not, the Ball State Cardinals are 7-0 and moved up four spots in the AP College Football Poll to #20 without even playing this week. The Cardinals haven't had a record this good since the 1960s and look to continue their winning ways on Saturday in Muncie against Eastern Michigan. Ball State also showed up at #20 in the first BCS standings of the year.

All of this is a far cry from the Cardinals that lost 21 straight games while I was in college. It's great to see the current coaching staff getting their own players into the mix and reaping the rewards of their hard work. Even ESPN at some point a couple weeks ago declared them "the best team in Indiana." I'm looking forward to seeing Ball State get some national exposure in the next couple of months, and hopefully seeing the 9-0 Cardinals pick up their tenth win at Miami in person on November 11. If anybody else feels like an Ohio trip on a Tuesday night, lemme know.

Grumpy

I wonder who hates baths more; cats or kids?

Leaves

My yard needs raked. All you idiots who says you love the fall colors and the cooler temperatures should come over and take care of that.

Wedding Photography

The wedding photography came in yesterday, and I got it uploaded to Flickr today. Feel free to check them out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smallen/sets/72157607836493385/

Mom's Party

Mom hosted a little shindig at the Thorntown Public Library for the family and a handful of friends since a lot of people didn't get to go to Las Vegas. So it was great to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time, eat some pretty tasty food, and do a little socializing. The library is pretty awesome now that they've done all the remodeling and additions, and it worked perfectly for the gathering. I'll have to put some photos up whenever mom gets some to me.

Now that I'm married, there's nothing better to do than blog.

And that is my reentry into the world of spilling your guts for anyone who wants to read about it. As you can see from the comments on the six months of writing below, that's not too many. But those of you who do, you're great, really. So, let's see, what's new?

1. I retired from running.
Don't expect any more marathon updates or anything crazy like that. Running and I are over. I can't control myself. I went from about zero running for a few months to nine miles in one day after about four or five weeks. And then I broke down like always, because zero miles to nine miles is overdoing it. I can't run in moderation, so it's over for good.

2. We are settled into the new house.
We've been here long enough to have almost everything put away. We've made a couple of painful payments and stuff is starting to break. Joys of homeownership, right? Anyway, it's awesome. I'm sitting here with the windows open, the breeze at my back, and some unnecessarily long grass within my sights. I'll get to it tomorrow.

3. We got married last week.
Katie and I are official. We flew to Vegas, waited for the families to arrive, and did some gambling. (And then we went to the blackjack tables... ba dum cha!) Really tho, the wedding went well, the ceremony was nice and short. The champagne was cold. After we put the family back on planes, we drove a rented Mustang convertible to the Grand Canyon and did some hiking. Then we went back to Vegas to catch our plane and lost a lot more money that night.

Anyway, I think three complete topics is enough for today. Don't want this to be like running. I'll try to post something else before the end of the year... if anyone is still reading.

Marathon Update: Week 1

Thursday, July 10: 3 miles

Saturday, July 12: 5.5 miles

Week Total: 8.5 miles
Grand Total: 8.5 miles

Oh yeah... we moved!

I completely forgot to post an update on the move. We got mostly moved in, thanks to a lot of help from family and Jeff... (Thanks, Jeff.) Then Katie's parents and brother visited for 4th of July weekend, so I wasn't on the computer much. They helped us with a few home improvement projects and let us show them a few of the cool places in Indy before heading back to Iowa. We also hosted the monthly family game nite last nite with my mom's family. So, all my relatives on that side got to come down from Boone County and get a look at the new place. They also got to participate in a rousing game of DVD Family Feud (which the men won 804-295, despite being outnumbered four to eight). Now that we've got an empty house for a while, we can start hanging up some pictures and making the place a little more ours instead of just a place to put our furniture!

Here's a few photos of the house I took over 4th of July weekend. It's messy and not set up, but I'll go ahead and insert them into the posterity of the Internet.

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon

Indianapolis has a new marathon this year on November 1. Straight from their website, "The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Course highlights a number of great buildings and features in our beautiful and convenient Indianapolis downtown including: the Indiana State Capitol, the Arts Garden, Lucas Oil Stadium, Circle Center Mall, Monument Circle, a number of federal monuments, the Cultural trail and the Mass. Ave. District. We are also happy to showcase several interesting and lovely neighborhoods including the Old Northside, Fall Creek Place, Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington and Broad Ripple."

I ran the Chicago Marathon a few years back, and the thought of doing something that's happening for the first time is pretty cools, so I decided I'm going to give it a shot. It's pretty late to get into the training schedule (most of the shorter schedules run around 18 weeks, and there are about 16 weeks til the race), but I think I have one modified to get me ready for the race. The route map on the marathon site is super low res and sucks, but if you compare it to Google Maps, you can figure out where it's going. They also posted a video of the route, for those of you familiar with Indianapolis:


I'll do my best to stick to the program and try to update my progress here once a week or so. Anybody else wanna join me?

Move Update

It looks like pretty much everything is squared away for the big move. After a couple agonizing weeks dealing with mortgage people, it looks like everything is where it should be. I'm not going to get too far into it, but let's just say you should avoid getting your mortgage through Bank of America if you can help it. Customer service is not their forté. A quick call elsewhere and all of our headaches were gone.

We close on the loan on Wednesday and should get the keys sometime on Friday. That means this weekend is "packing" weekend, and next weekend will be moving weekend. I say "packing" because we are only moving a few blocks, so it's going to be real half-assed packing. I think the plan is to throw the kitchen in some boxes, move them to the new house, put them away, and bring the boxes back to the apartment for the next room.

Today, my manly self installed a trailer hitch on the Escape so we can tow a trailer with the big stuff on it. I know, I know, pretty impressive. My hands were dirty and everything. The instructions said it would take 40 minutes, but it took me an hour. I guess I needed more pictures. The important thing is: it's done and it's at least sturdy enough to support my weight on it. We'll see how it does with more next weekend.

An Open Letter to the MLB Chief Blackout Officer

Dear Sir or Madam:

I have been a huge baseball fan since sometime between 1984 and 1987. The first year I actually played little league was in 1984, when I was four years old. Don't ask, I was from a small town, and we just made it work. The first time I fell in love with the Chicago Cubs was in 1987. Back then, the Cubs were on WGN every DAY (yeah, day, not night). I, like many other kids, would run home from school to turn on the last couple innings of that day's game. I learned to keep scorebook, and I have since found countless books from games stashed all over my old bedroom. Suffice it to say, I'm a pretty big Cubs fan, and I like to watch a baseball game any chance I get. Let's get to the point.

I live in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is home to the Indianapolis Indians, AAA farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Because of your — what some would call arcane — blackout restrictions, I don't get to see many Cubs games these days. I've always been under the impression that the point of blackout restrictions is to make sure fans go to the ballgame. If there's a home game and it's not sold out, the game is not on TV in that team's market. This is where it gets cloudy. Why am I in so many teams' "markets?" There's no way I could possibly go to Cubs games in Chicago very regularly when I live three hours away. I'm in everybody's market. I can't get Cubs or White Sox games. I can't get Reds games. Despite what the map above appears to say, I can't even get Cardinals games. (Trust me, they're playing KC right now on Fox Sports Midwest and I've got test bars.) St. Louis is NEARLY FOUR HOURS AWAY!

Anyway, I would like someone to explain these rules to me. I just want to see my first place Cubs play a game every now and then. I have made trips to Wrigley Field every year for a long time. Last year I purchased the Extra Innings package because I was out of the Cubs market for the summer. I have paid for MLB.com's Gameday Audio every year for as long as I can remember. I'm not trying to escape expenses. Throw me a bone MLB!

Sincerely,

Scott Allen

Lots of Rain

Over the last couple of weeks, Indianapolis has gotten pummeled with rain. As I'm sitting here watching the Cubs, Fox is running a flash flood warning and seven counties south of Indy have declared a "Level 1 Flood Emergency." Authorities are asking residents not to travel. There have been about three or four occasions where our back yard has flooded full of water lately, which makes me laugh, because the "pond" fills up with mallards almost immediately. I finally got downstairs and took a few pictures of it.

This bad weather is causing all kinds of problems. Some of my coworkers lost power and had flooded basements last week. Hopefully that's not happening again right now. Surely the construction schedules for the bridges on my route to work are falling behind. It looks like the rain has hopefully stopped for today, but Monday and Tuesday are still showing isolated thunderstorms. Any ideas why this stuff is happening in June instead of April?

More Big News

Katie and I keep coming up with more big news to broadcast on the blog. This time we are in the process of buying a house. Although it's really good news and very cool for us to finally be moving somewhere permanent and not paying rent anymore, the house-buying process is way too grueling for me. After years of being about to pick up whatever I want at a store or buy something online and get it in a couple days, The idea of waiting a month and a half to get possession after we've signed the offer is just unreal.

So the stats of the place: It's a 3-bedroom, 2½-bathroom, two-story house. It has a dining room, living room, kitchen, half-bath laundry room and two car garage on the first level, and two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a master suite upstairs. We also have a small back yard and a small wooded area behind that.

The neighborhood seems pretty nice and quiet, and the way it's built, there's nowhere else to build, so it's as big as it can get. We're also not too far away from the park, and the best news of—we only have to move about half a mile from our current apartment! So, we'll be moving the weekend of June 27th. Keep that in mind if any of you want to help us move some stuff.

Indianapolis Zoo

We made a trip to the zoo over the weekend. The weather was great, sunny and warm, but not too warm. We checked out most of the animals, including the visiting Koalas.

The photo on the left links to the rest of the stuff I shot. Feel free to check them out.

Pole Day Photos

Here's some of my photos from Saturday afternoon at the Speedway.

Racing... finally.

With all this rain we've had the last couple days, there hasn't been a lot of racing going on over at the track. Today is Pole Day, which starts around noon and runs until 6pm. The weather is great, and the cool temperatures are even better for racing, so I knew a lot of people would want to get out on the track as early as possible to get some practice in, considering they hadn't really been out at all. I got up this morning around 9am to try and get some work done, and I can definitely confirm that cars are on the track. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the noise was that I was hearing, but I can certainly hear the cars from my apartment window. We may head over there to watch some qualifying, so stay tuned for some photos maybe tomorrow.

500 Festival Mini-Marathon

It's May, which is a pretty huge month here in Indianapolis. They kicked off the 500 Festival this morning with the Mini-Marathon. Everybody in Indy knows the Mini is a pretty big deal. It's a half-marathon, so runners go 13.1 miles, with 2.5 of those miles being a lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. According to their website, "the Mini-Marathon is the largest half-marathon in the U.S., and overall, the eighth largest running event in America." So, it's a pretty huge even for Indianapolis, especially for being an event within an event. It's a great way to start the month.

This year, as you can see from the photo, the race ended in a tie. I find it pretty Canadian to declare a tie, but apparently the eighth largest running event in the U.S. can't afford or doesn't have the foresight to get a finish line camera. They don't have a good enough photo or video to determine the winner, so we are left with a tie. Each runner received the full winner's prize of $3,500. Pretty incredible race. In case you were curious, Kenyans Lamech Mokono and Valentine Orare each ran the course in 1:02.53, or about 4:46 a mile.

Pretty Eventful Friday Night

I'm sitting here at home by myself. Katie went to Minneapolis, because her brother Mike is graduating from Med School this weekend. I'm still sick, so I feel like I shouldn't be doing anything. I'm on antibiotics, so I can't even enjoy a beverage. The only thing on TV is NBA playoffs, so I'm currently watching Jazz-Rockets Game 6. I should just go to bed, but that's no fun. I already got one phone call tonight because I was commenting on another blog and they wanted to know what the heck I was doing commenting at midnight on a Friday. Being sick sucks, but being sick when you don't actually feel sick is even worse I think.

Pneumonia

When I started feeling crappy a couple days ago, I didn't know what was wrong with me. In the last couple weeks, I had woken up three times in the middle of the night with the worst chills I have ever felt. It wasn't cold in the apartment; but it felt like it was about 30. I couldn't stop shivering, my teeth wouldn't stop chattering. The first couple times, I just assumed it was a freak thing, but after three times, I decided there was something up. Then, the day after the third chill, I felt terrible. Headache, back ache, shortness of breath, you name it. I had run the night before, and it was a little chilly. I assumed the problems with my breathing was related to that. After walking into my office from the parking lot, I was dying. It felt like I had run about five miles.

Pneumonia sounds like one of those diseases that should have been eliminated a hundred years ago. I can't name anyone that has had it. The only dealings I've had with it are all the times mom told me to put a coat on because it's cold and you'll catch pneumonia. Since it was like 70 for the past couple weeks, so apparently that old wives' tale is just that.

Anyway, I hit up the urgent care center and did some tests, had some x-rays, and got a few prescriptions. So I'm inhaling all kinds of funky stuff including the 'roids. (I'll make sure to do some extra pushups this week.) The doctor called what I have either bronchitis or walking pneumonia, which he called "not the real thing," but said it could progress to the real thing if I didn't take care of it. Hopefully this stuff will. We'll see.

I needed a photo for this post, and even though i know Doc had tuberculosis, it's what pneumonia reminds me of, and Tombstone is awesome.

Television

Now that the strike heard round the world is over, TV is in abundance. Katie and I had gotten in the habit of DVRing Jeopardy! and other random shows that one likes to watch, but should never DVR. Don't get me wrong; I love Jeopardy!, but it's kinda one of those shows you run into at 7:30 and stick with it. If you miss it, it's not the end of the world. However, I've found that even Jeopardy! can benefit from DVR treatment. Between skipping commercials and the interviews, you can bang out an episode in like 18 minutes. Basically in just over an hour, you can get through a whole week. It doesn't take a lot longer to watch a whole week of Lost or a whole week of Boston Legal. Jeopardy! contestants have become characters in my show. There was even a guy on last week from the Baseball Hall of Fame who I sort of knew.

Anyway—got sidetracked a little—the biggest problem with the end of the strike is the overabundance of shows now. Everything is back! Our record list is like 30 shows long, because of the old 10 or so good shows we watched, and the 20 or so flawed shows that we fell in love with even though they were undeserving. The last three or four days, I've pulled up the DVR for something to watch and it warns us that we are running out of space! We've felt guilty watching any live TV, and three live hours for a Cubs game is way too much to ask!

The weather is getting nicer. The urge to not watch television is strong. The writers' strike has pushed good TV further into the spring than normal (I think). So it's pretty much a race against time for us to keep up with the DVR until all the shows end for the summer. Then we may have to pare down the list or hope something gets cancelled (but it BETTER NOT be Eli Stone; I love that show). Here I am, writing a blog post about it in the bedroom instead of watching TV right now... in fact, the TV isn't even on. Surely Katie has some crappy shows recorded that she should be watching without me. I'll take TV Slavery for $1000, Alex.

Earthquake

A few days ago there was an earthquake here. The news declared it "major," which pretty much means they think they can scare someone with it. I never got a definite rating on it, but it was either 5.2 or 5.4. Apparently they couldn't decide. Even if it's 5.2, that sounds pretty bad to me. My only real comparison is the San Francisco earthquake in 1989 during the World Series, which was a 7.1 on the Richter Scale. Let's just say this one wasn't quite as bad as that one. I remember waking up at about 4 or 5 am and feeling a little shaking. Right after it happened, we decided it was an earthquake... and then we promptly went right back to bed.

Later on I found out that the Richter Scale is actually logarithmic. Now, it's been a long time since I have taken any trig or calc or whatever logarithms were in, but I do know that the difference between 5.2 and 7.1 is a lot bigger on a log scale than on a normal one. So it turns out 5.2 is no big deal, especially when it's 100 miles away. So just consider it a free math lesson courtesy of the New Madrid fault line.

Race for the Cure

Katie and I ran in the Komen Race for the Cure yesterday morning. We had been training fairly religiously to make sure we didn't have any trouble finishing. After all the great weather we had lately, of course it was cool and rainy for race day. I'm sure the real, seriously runners were happy as clams about it, but most of us weren't. However, we managed to have a good time, get our run in, and see A LOT of other people in the process (something like 40,000+). The course was a nice run around White River State Park, past the zoo, some local businesses, the new Lucas Oil Stadium, and Victory Field. We both finished with pretty slow times, and I'm secretly wondering if the course was a little long, but who knows. Nike+ told me I ran about 5.5k instead of 5, but it's usually off by a little. The most important thing is that Katie and I managed to raise almost $500 toward a cure for breast cancer, thanks to many of you guys who helped out our cause. Thanks guys!

Anyway, I wish I had some photos for you, but I was a little busy and cameras don't tend to agree with rain, so you get an old one from a Google Image Search.

Movie Review Tuesday

Katie and I got back on the movie kick lately, so here's a couple more reviews:

1) Grosse Point Blank

Yeah, I don't know. Katie has some secret love affair with this movie or something. So, we rented and watched it. I was a bit distracted, and it didn't help that the DVD, which I assume pressed in late '97 or early '98 wasn't enhanced for widescreen televisions. So we got to watch it with black bars all the way around it. Nothing like a 30" picture on a 50" TV to get on your good side.

Nevertheless, the movie had some moments. John Cusack was very funny, and it was pretty classic to see some of the reasonably big-time people in some small-time roles. Now that I'm sitting here typing, I really don't remember much of anything distinctive from this movie, other than Cusack constantly telling everyone he was a professional killer, and no one believing him.

My rating: 2/4 stars.

2) The Bourne Ultimatum

I'm sure most people have at least seen one of the three movies in this series. This one doesn't deviate from the formula. Matt Damon is pretty solid. The government is as dirty as ever. There's a lot of flashbacks to Bourne's past. There's also plenty of hand-to-hand combat that would have Lennox Lewis telling you he couldn't handle it. There's a reason boxers have gloves. There's also plenty of explosions and car chases. As far as I knew, going into this movie, this was supposed to be the last one. That's about all I knew. The movie ended up finishing pretty well; I don't want to give away what happens, but it was pretty intense. I thought it was going to be an open-to-interpretation ending, but in the end, we find out what happens. But you'll have to watch if you wanna know.

I'd give this one 3½ out of 4 stars.

Indianapolis Indians

Katie and I, and my mom and dad went to Victory Field last night to see the Indians home opener against the Norfolk Tides. The Indians held their annual opening day "60 Degree Guarantee," but alas, the gametime temperature was only 59 degrees. So every one of the 12,073 fans in attendance can use their ticket stub to get into any other home game during April. That's a pretty sweet deal that will save us $18 sometime later this month.

The Indians played pretty well, winning 9-3. They were ahead 6-0 going into the top of the seventh, when the starter, Luis Munoz, started to tire out. He gave up three in the seventh to cut the lead to 6-3 before being pulled. The Indians answered with three more runs in the bottom of the eighth against former big leaguer Esteban Yan to seal the deal. After the game, there was a really nice fireworks show, which they apparently do every Friday night after the game. We had to wait a little while for them to set everything up on the outfield grass, but it was worth the wait. I don't know the details of who put the show on, but it was very impressive. The Tribe moved to 6-3 overall, a half-game behind Toledo for the West Division lead in the International League.

I took a few pictures, but none of them are any good. Dusk was not friendly to my camera, and I'm not to the point where I feel like carrying around a tripod all the time yet. I just need a new lens instead... :)

Lucas Oil Stadium

We've all seen the behemoth rising over the skyline southwest of downtown that will become the new home of the Indianapolis Colts, among other things. Bigger, better, and newer than the RCA Dome. Today, I received an email with some great photographs taken by someone on the construction crew. So, I thought I'd post them up here for all to see.

As you can see, this place is gonna be really nice. I love how the skyline looks when the end glass is opened up, and the horseshoe shaped bar in the Quarterback Club is a real nice touch. For those of you who can't wait to see it in action, the first game in the building will be a preseason game sometime in August. The regular season is already officially sold out. So you'll have to head over to StubHub if you want to check on those.

Downtown Canal Walk

Indianapolis Skyline over the Canal Walk, originally uploaded by scott_allen13.

This past weekend was beautiful, so we spent the whole time outside. After a long jog through Eagle Creek Park, we cleaned up and headed over to the Canal Walk for some people watching and photography. The nice weather has me itching to get out the camera. It's just too bad there's no leaves on the trees yet.

So a few hours and four sore calves later, we came out with this batch of photos and a little bit higher level of physical fitness. Enjoy the shots.

Children's Museum

Dinosaurs, originally uploaded by scott_allen13.

I spent a day at the Children's Museum over the weekend a couple weeks ago and took some pictures. I thought I'd show off the ones that are worth looking at.

FYI: The photo links to the complete set of images.

Texas Roadhouse

Katie and I just got back from Texas Roadhouse on Michigan Road. I don't ever fawn over food, but this was the best meal I've had in a long, long time. I had a ribeye with a baked sweet potato and a caesar salad, all of which were excellent. I also had two Captain & Cokes that were quite well made. Katie had the prime rib, which she also said was very good. Anyway, I don't really even have any jokes for this one. It was just tasty. I'll probably go back sooner than later.

Big Engagement News

The moment of truth passed on Thursday night, and I asked Katie to marry me. She thought about it for an uncomfortably long handful of milliseconds and thankfully said yes. So it's for real.

Now's where it gets ugly, or so I hear. Planning, planning, planning. I don't know anything about planning anything, let alone a wedding, but that's what they make fiancees and moms for, right? I don't plan to be uninvolved, but I don't plan to take the lead either. I will happily sit in the back seat and opine when asked to.

But seriously folks, it's happening. It's most likely going to be sometime this fall. I'm crazy excited about it. I think she is. (Can't you tell from all her posts? Oh wait...) My whole family is. (Even more than when I won the spelling bee, or won the Little League Championship, or graduated high school, or broke school records in college track, or graduated college, or found my first job, or moved back to Indiana; I'm pretty sure the only reason anyone has baby boys is to marry them off for grandkids. Or maybe it's just my parents. End of tangent.) Anyway, there will undoubtedly be much more about this in the coming months.

March Madness Office Crack

This just in: The NCAA Tournament will cost businesses $1.7 billion this year (brought to you, this year, by Chicago-based placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.) Maybe they should be finding people jobs instead of doing this study. Who hasn't read this in any of the past 10 years? No one. Therefore, I'm not going to write about it.

But what I am going to write about, is the working atmosphere on the first day of the NCAA Tournament. The tournament pool is like crack. You have people wandering around with their brackets doing things they'd never do on a normal work day. Sending faxes. Giving coworkers money. Pulling their brackets out of a sleeve or pockets and handing them off secretively. I spent Monday through Wednesday thinking that there wasn't a pool in my workplace; I was so disappointed considering just how many people work there. Then at about 11:30am, one of my officemates shouts out of the blue, "I forgot to pick my brackets! How long until the first game?!" The first thing I said, within about 0.2 seconds, was, "50 minutes. You have time," and then I said, "Wait a minute... is there a pool here?" Turns out there was, but no one speaks of it. So you had to be in the secret club to know who to turn it into.

Anyway, I got my brackets turned in and became a member of the secret club. Then I proceeded to miss most of the first wave of games, so I guess that's another correlation to crack: money spent for a short term high.

CarSearch™: Climax

This story seems to have taken a turn for the boring (like so many of them do...). I started this little mini-series because I thought it would take a while to make this happen, but it looks like I've found a vehicle that I'm pretty happy with already. I went over to a small dealer in Avon a couple times and looked at a regular Escape that was priced on the low end of my range. It was a little beat up (seats were real bad), as I expected, but the outside looked really nice. I decided I didn't really like that, so I looked around a little more on the Internet and got interested in the Hybrid Escapes. People who have them seemed to be pretty happy with them, and I was finding some that were reasonably priced, considering you get about 30mpg, rather than 17mpg. So I decided my range could be a little bit higher if I considered the car payment part of my lower gas usage.

I talked to the Avon dealer and told them I was leaning toward the Hybrid, so I wasn't interested in the regular one they had anymore. They ended up calling back about 5 minutes later and told me their other lot in Terre Haute had one, and they would have it delivered to Avon in a couple days so I could check it out. I was a little skeptical, but I went and test drove it, and it was really nice. I liked the color, and I got them to come down on the price a little bit. So this car is on the higher end of where I wanted to go, but it's also a year newer and seems like it will last quite a while. So I guess there aren't going to be any insights or 'war stories' from this search. But it's not over yet. We'll see what Monday brings...

CarSearch™: On Car Salesmen

Car salesmen are an interesting bunch. On one hand, pretty much everyone has the same opinion of them: a greedy, lying bastard out to take every penny they can from you, even if it means you can't afford to buy groceries or you might have to make room for a bed in what he just sold you. But on the other hand, the system lives on. The proof is in the pudding. Even if everyone in America hates used car salesmen, a heck of a lot of them still buy their cars from them. So, can you really blame them for acting the way they do?

By my recent estimates, approximately 54.2% of the Internet is advice from people on how to deal with used car salesmen, ranging from '10 Tips For Dealing With Car Salesmen to Make Sure You Don’t Get Hosed' (Everybody likes short and sweet and no one wants to get hosed.) to 'What Everyone Should Know About Dealing with Car Salesmen' (Hmmm, maybe I need to know more than 10 things...) to a 'Dealing With Car Salesmen' forum (Wait... these are real people. Real people I can trust.) to 'Confessions of a Former Car Salesman' and 'Confessions of a Car Salesman' (Clearly these two men have had a change of heart. Now that I'm armed with this, these salesmen better watch out!) and finally 'The Car Dealership's BIGGEST Secret -- Revealed!' (It's like the National Enquirer of car shopping!). After arming myself with this huge chunk of Internet wisdom, I'm ready to take on a world full of car salesmen.

Stay tuned for the next installment to see how well I use my newly discovered powers.

CarSearch™: Introduction

Remember that old show StarSearch that was hosted by Ed McMahon and lots of people age 6 to 60 went head to head against each other to gain the coveted four stars and the chance to fight another day? Well, I'm ripping off their title and pretty much none of their content in my quest to find a new vehicle. So this is going to be a quick warm-up post to make sure everyone is in the same ballpark.

Right now, I drive a 1992 Saturn SC, which you can sorta see on the right in a photo proving I was the first person to arrive for tailgating at the 2002 Ball State football game against Indiana State. So obviously, I've had the car since college. I believe my dad paid $3000 for it, and I've been driving it for six years. It has survived a lot, but it's starting to get worn out. The exhaust rattles a little, and there are a lot of minor things that I just don't care to fix.

So, I have embarked upon a search for a new-ish small-ish SUV. Right now I'm leaning toward a Ford Escape (which you can also see at the right, in a much better -- and much more manly -- photo) or a Chevy Equinox somewhere around the year 2004 or 2005. Hopefully that's enough to get you caught up. The posts will continue throughout the process.

Pacers "News"

Honest to God, this is the first news I have seen about this Pacers since, oh, I dunno, when Shawne Williams harbored a murderer and Marquis Daniels had a rape reported in his home:

Pacers suspend Harrison for detrimental conduct

1. Harrison is another bonehead. I'm not sure how to get rid of all of them; they are like bad pennies. He already made some great waves with his previously documented pot affinity.

2.Do these guys even play games anymore? The ratio of bad news to game stories (let alone wins) is not looking too good nowadays.

It's gotten so bad that the Indy Star has busted out the old timeline move: Timeline of Pacers' troubles

Someday maybe the Birdman will quit talking and start walking and get some of these fools out of here. The Pacers are 100% irrelevant to sports right now, and I'm not sure how they are selling any tickets when they are in Indiana.

Movie Review Sunday

In the last couple days, I've seen three movies, so I figure now is a good time to talk about them.

1) 300

As expected, I didn't think much of this movie. I knew the style it was shot in, I knew the storyline, and I knew that I don't normally like ancient war movies as much as most people. (See: Gladiator, Braveheart) Having said all that, it was a tolerable movie. I didn't give up on it. What I found more interesting than the movie itself was the history behind it. The movie is based on the story of the Battle of Thermopylae, between the Spartans and the Persians. However, depending on who you consult, the version in the movie may not necessarily be completely factual.

A quick search for 'truth about 300' led me to this site which apparently belongs to an Iranian-American who is filming a movie based on the life of Cyrus, who was king of the Persians before Xerxes. Anyway, he has an intriguing take on the battle that I'll leave up to you to read.

Back to the movie for a sec: I give it 2/4 stars.

2) Vantage Point

We went to the theater yesterday afternoon to watch Vantage Point, starring everybody and their brother. It was a pretty interesting movie. The premise of the story is the assassination of the president from 6 or 8 different characters points of view. So basically, you see the same 25 minutes of time from a bunch of different angles. It was a cool concept that worked really well for the first hour or so. It eventually got to the point where you were wondering how many times they were going to do it. The ending was great and, in the end, it was totally worth the wait.

I'd give this one 3/4 stars. If you're looking for a movie to check out in the theaters, this one is a winner.

3) Night at the Museum

And yes, yesterday afternoon, there was nothing better on TV than Night at the Museum on HBO. I'm not always the hugest Ben Stiller fan, but it was a cute movie. I found myself laughing out loud a few times, even though I felt bad doing it. Robin Williams is pretty funny as Teddy Roosevelt, and Owen Wilson is makes a convincing tiny cowboy. Aside from that, it's a typical happy ending movie. Not really many surprises.

It's a decent weekend flick for sitting on the couch. I'd give it 2/4 stars.

Can the Indy 500 Matter Again?

So when's the last time you read a blog about open-wheel racing? Let's try that again... who remembers what open-wheel racing is? If you live outside Indianapolis, there's probably a pretty decent chance you haven't seen an open-wheel race in a long, long time. You know, waaay before blogs.

Now I don't really care about racing. NASCAR is too Hollywood anymore, and it's the only racing anyone cares about. However, I remember back in the day when the Indianapolis 500 was a huge day in Indianapolis. We didn't get the race on TV, because it was always blacked out, but we'd gather around the radio and listen to the whole thing. I'm sure my mom had no idea who any of the drivers were, but she was there for every lap. After the race, we'd turn on the TV and watch the whole thing on tape delay. A few years later, the people who had satellite dishes (the big giant ones, not the little tiny ones that people have now) would invite everyone over to watch it live on a west-coast ABC feed.

For those of you still reading, there's good news. It looks like the Indy 500 might start to matter again. Speedway owner Tony George and his Indy Racing League have managed to broker a merger with the Champ Car World Series. Many of the details have not come out, but it definitely looks like there will be a full field at this year's race. That's not to say that Indy is going to be bigger than NASCAR right away, but at least it's giving itself a chance.

Maybe the Indy 500 will rise again... someday.

Construction and Potholes

When we moved back to Indianapolis, we were in a bit of a rush and had to get an apartment site unseen. So we did a lot of research on the Internet, and then sent friends and parents by a few different places to help make the decision. Then we totally didn't follow any of their advice and went with the one we thought we liked the best.

Fast forward to the night we arrive in Indianapolis. We left Hutchinson at about 8am local time and drove straight thru to Indy, stopping only for food and gas. It was cold and we didn't want to leave the cats in Katie's car for long, so it was all junk food and fast food. We got to Indianapolis around 10:30pm, and get up the off ramp to find construction everywhere. Well that's not exactly something you can plan for, but I was tired and didn't really care at the time. I just wanted to get to a bed.

Now that we've been in the apartment for five weeks or so and have driven to work every morning and home every evening, the construction becomes more and more annoying. In the midst of the construction on our route to work, they also closed a bridge on the other side of our apartment complex, which funnels even more traffic past our complex. Since this last mess of storms has gone thru, now our street is riddled with potholes. The good news is, it looks like a few of the potholes got filled yesterday. Hopefully they finish that job today.

Anyway, construction sucks. It's not too bad in the morning commute, but every evening, after you've been thru a full day of work and just want to get home, you get 90% of the way and then run into the bottleneck of traffic trying to get out of the city and sit thru about 4 stoplight cycles to get over the bridge. So, I guess the moral of this story is that I'm hoping this construction gets done before we end up moving out of the apartments, or that was a really poor choice for temporary living arrangements. And the other moral is, when you send someone to look at a place for you, don't just ask about the neighborhood, because no one will tell you about the SINGLE LANE BRIDGE down the street that you will have to take EVERY SINGLE TIME you want to go ANYWHERE in the city.

Thanks guys.

Total Lunar Eclipse

Tonight at 10:00pm eastern, there will be a total lunar eclipse. Apparently, it will be the last one until December of 2010, so it might be worth checking on. That is, if we have a clear sky. Odds of that -- not real good. Anyway, for you science types out there, here's how it works:
It seems like it might be a fun chance to pull out the camera and try to snap some photos, since I haven't had a lot of chances to do that since I got to Indiana. I guess we'll see. Enjoy the show, if you can.

Genesis

About 20 minutes before the Super Bowl, when everyone else is watching the pregame show (or at least watching the commercials that the cheap companies who won't pay for game-time commercials run in between Fox's video segments of Frank Caliendo making fun of Curt Menefee's weight and Terry Bradshaw's intelligence and fill-in-the-blank "analyst" slurping Tom Brady), I was doing math. Specifically, I was hanging pictures in our new apartment, and trying to space them evenly and keep them level so I don't look like an idiot. I won't look like an idiot, but mostly because I was lucky enough that the picture frames are covering up the three or four extra holes I made. We'll call them "back-ups." We have been in our apartment for a couple weeks now, and it was time to get those suckers hung.

Once I was done, I sat down to watch the actual game and said to Katie, "I need a new blog title." As you can tell, I'm really excited about this game. The first quarter is almost over, and I'm still typing this post out. The Giants are winning; I hope they are enjoying it. I don't think it will hold up. Katie came up with the title, by the way. So if you hate it, it's her fault. It's better than anything I could come up with though. Since Indiana is the "Crossroads of America," it sorta works, but now that I think about it, I don't really feel caught at all. Maybe it was actually her sentiment... hmmm...

Anyway, I'm not sure exactly what this blog is going to be. It'll probably be a little bit about sports, a little bit about technology, a little bit about life. Hopefully, it will brighten someone's day or at least be good enough to read at work. Maybe someone will enjoy reading about it; maybe not.