Done with Golf Trip

I'm done with the golf trip and back home again. Getting back to the everyday routine. Overall, I played OK. I suppose I could have played better, and I could have played worse. Next year, I will go to the driving range a few more times before heading south. Maybe that might have made a difference. Sorry for the short post. It is late and I don't have much to say.

Golf Trip Update

Well, it is Monday evening. We have played 4 out of our 6 days of golf in South Carolina. It is very cold here (but colder at home). It rained on us the entire time on Saturday in 40 degree weather. I was absolutely soaked afterwards. About 40% of the group didn't even play. I ended up shooting a 103 which wasn't bad considering I couldn't feel my hands or feet for most of the day. Sunday, while still cold, was sunny and felt much better. The course was in good shape too, considering all the rain from the day before. But it was still cart path only which added some time to the round. We still got done about halftime of the Patriots-Chargers game.

My son likes the Chargers as well as the Colts. I am sure he was disappointed. It would have been nice to see what they would have done had LT played. Maybe the outcome would have been different, or maybe it wouldn't.

On Sunday, I shot a 98. Not bad, but it could have been better. I had a crow steal a protein bar out of my cart as I was putting on the 10th hole. I saw them milling around the other cart, so I took my half eaten protein bar and wrapped it back up in the package, thinking they couldn't get to it. It turns out the crow picked up the package in his beak and flew off with it. As soon as he got it, about ten others starting chasing him around. He landed and put it down on the fairway, fought some of them off, then picked it back up and flew away with the others in hot pursuit. It was a pretty funny sight.

Today was again sunny but cold. I had 8 penalty strokes since for some reason my typical slice off the tee left and all I had was this nasty hook into the woods. I ended up shooting a 102. Oh well. So much for the PGA.

Finally, today was MLK day. He was killed before I was born, but I am glad that we remember and honor him. He was a great man. I hope that despite the physical and cultural differences that exist between all human beings, we can remember that we are all God's children and treat one another with the respect deserving of God's creation.

Golf Trip in South Carolina

I am with my brother-in-law and 16 other guys for our annual January golf trip in South Carolina. I shot fairly well for me today. I was striking the ball fairly well despite not having played since October. I did go to the driving range on Wednesday. During summers at home, I usually shoot somewhere between 95 and 105. My goal down here is to keep it under 100. Shot 97 today with 4 penalties.

Unfortunately, the weather is a little chilly. Today is likely to be our best weather day with a high of around 50. It was overcast and 40's in the morning but by about 2 pm we did get to see the sun. Tomorrow, we are anticipating mid 40's and rain (up to 1 in). I hope it doesn't rain. The good thing is that my golf game is not affected by the weather since it isn't the greatest anyway. I just hope I can feel my fingers and toes at the end of the day.

The hotel has wireless internet which seems like a major advance considering where we are. This is the first year my brother-in-law hasn't had to step out into the parking lot to get a cellular signal. Right now we are watching 1 vs 100 on the 19-in tube TV. Some guy just risked $250,000 and lost. Ouch. That is worse than 3 putting.

Pleben.com

I am starting a website called Pleben.com. Pleben comes from the Latin term for the common citizenry with an –n tacked on the end (like American). I took a little liberty with the spelling since many domains had already been taken. Pleben.com will be on-line March 1, 2008 and is a social network with a slightly different business model than most, if not all, other social networks.

First, we will charge an annual subscription fee of $25. There are several reasons I selected a fee based social network. First of all, there will be no advertising on Pleben.com so subscriptions will be the only source of revenue for quite some time. We may, from time to time, enter into partnerships or sponsorships for some of our contests, which I will discuss later. I also feel that a subscription will increase the quality of the network. I think it will be unlikely that many will sign up just to have an account without being an active participant. I would also like to think that a subscription will leave a paper trail related to billing and might actually increase security for the site’s users, which might be a concern with free networks.

Secondly, I would like to give back to the users and society to make the virtual world and physical world a better place. I plan on giving between 10 and 20% of revenues to charity. If I can keep costs down, 20% will be the ideal. I would like the members of Pleben.com to become actively involved in philanthropy in their own communities as well. I look forward to being able to discuss these efforts on the site. I plan to give back to the users through contests. A similar portion of revenues, 10 to 20%, will be used as prizes in contests. These contests will be initiated once certain membership levels have been obtained. Of course, not everyone will win, and this isn’t an easy way to make passive income like I am seeing in these “ponzi” social networks. These will be contests like the McDonald’s Monopoly game.

Finally, if Pleben.com eventually attracts enough attention to warrant private investors or an IPO, I will take 50% of the proceeds over $50 million and begin giving away $1 million prizes at regular intervals. Of course, as subscriptions are renewed or added, additional prize money and charitable contributions will be available.

I am posting this to get the name of the website out prior to the official launch. The website itself is still being developed but should be finished on time and ready on March 1st. I would also appreciate any comments or insight that anybody might have and would be pleased to answer any questions.

Gymnastics and Football -- Redux

Unfortunately, we have two gymnastics meets today in two different locations. We had one yesterday afternoon, and I had to DVR the football games. I was home by 6 pm and was able to catch up to live TV during the Packers game. What a great game in the snow! Brett Favre doesn't have many years left. It would be nice to see him win another SuperBowl if the Colts don't make it there.

Today, however, I will be driving to Chicago for my son's meet. His 2 favorite teams are the Chargers and the Colts. We will be on the road during the game. We will DVR it, but will likely listen to it and know the score before actually seeing it. What a shame the meet is during that time instead of yesterday. Oh well, I just hope I don't get hurt wearing my Bob Sanders jersey in Bear country. Wish me luck.

You Could Win A Car!

I am starting a website (actually paying to have it developed since I don't know enough about that stuff) and plan to give away prizes. There will be more detail as the official launch date of March 1st gets closer. One of the prizes I plan to give away is a car. There will be a special drawing for anyone who reads this blog and puts in a special code on the website.

So, if anyone is interested in this, send your email address to kgcaroffer@gmail.com and, as we get closer to March 1st, I will send more info. Also, share this with your friends and contacts. I am trying to generate interest by word of mouth only. There will be no advertising. Also, I will not sell your email address. Thanks.

Thought This Was Worthwhile

I got this in my email today and thought I'd share. It speaks for itself.


The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a church, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where is the America we knew go to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.


Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards.
Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

Vee and Exercise, Inc

Today was my day to workout with Vee. At weigh-in, I ended up gaining 1 pound during the holidays. Not bad considering all the junk I have been eating. Now that things are getting back to a regular schedule, I should be able to continue losing some weight. My goal will be to get to 200 pounds by the end of January from 204.2. I think it is doable. Today, he had me start on negative chin-ups with 40 lbs. The first few were real good...nice and slow. I did 5 that way and did 2 with just my body weight. Then it was on to chest press. Next it was leg curls. I had been able to do the entire stack of 200 lbs until I hurt my knee while refereeing soccer in the spring. It hurt most of the year. I am just getting back to the point where it doesn't hurt (it used to hurt just driving). I was able to do 180 on that.

Next, I went to the leg press. I was able to do 520 lbs for 1 minute 20 secs. My goal is to do the whole stack of 600 lbs in the next 2-3 years. A lot of it depends on what exercises I have done prior to the leg press. We finished with leg adductors (inner thighs). I was pretty much spent by then.

I mentioned that I would ask Vee about some of his workout history. He has been doing the high intensity in slow motion (I guess superslow has been trademarked--here is a link to the founder Ken Hutchins's site http://www.superslow.com/) exercising for 4 years exclusively now. He used to do the regular type of weight training, but has since gotten bigger and stronger over the past 4 years. I know it has helped me quite a bit. I have included another portion of his work-out...the leg extension.

Coach Roland Dies

I was saddened to learn last night that my college football coach, Dennis Roland, passed away after a battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I never played football until college. We were at a small college and nobody was cut from the team, but Coach Roland allowed me to try my hand at something new. I appreciated that more than I can describe. I never felt as though I was very athletic, although I was fairly quick. I was second quickest on the team behind the starting tailback (I could run a under a 4.4 40 yd dash and had a 36 inch vertical but wasn't very big). I worked hard and ended up on the kickoff coverage team my sophomore year.

Anyway, Coach Roland was a big guy but not profoundly obese. He was tall and wide. He had played offensive lineman in his day. It turns out he was only 11 years older than I am although in college every adult seems somewhat ancient. He had a knack of inspiring people to do their best without being degrading to his players. I think that was his biggest asset. He also surrounded himself with coaches who shared that philosophy of motivation through positive reinforcement. You just wanted to go out and give everything you had because you wanted to do your best for him, not because you were afraid, but you just didn't want to disappoint him.

I had heard he was somewhat ill about a month ago, but didn't realize he had cancer. I regret not having called him. I don't know what it would have done. I like remembering him as young and strong on the football field. I feel like a little part of me has passed with him, but I will always remember. Even though I hadn't seen him in a long time, I will miss him. My prayers will be going out to his family.