Archive for the ‘leisure’ Category

Over the weekend we did a little travelling.  I promised my wife a night out of town and since we were already going across the state to pick one of the kids up at church camp, it seemed like the perfect time.

We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast called The Barn Inn in Holmes county.  We weren’t planning on doing much other than resting, eating (it is Amish country) and taking some pictures.  Then without even looking, an historical marker showed up in the middle of the Amish community.

On the way home, we were sitting at a red light in Loudonville when we saw this one.

Outside of Perrysville, we passed this one and I actually turned around and went back to get a good picture.

No one in the car seemed to mind stopping to take a picture since we weren’t really out to find these markers.  That’s the way we have been doing them this year.  We spent last summer driving all around to find them.  Now we find them naturally along the path to wherever we happen to be going.

When I added these three markers to Flickr I noticed the count is approaching 500.  There are some duplicates, but we have a lot of unique pictures. See them all here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/remarkableohio

I should add one thing about that last picture.  A bird had left a nasty white mark over three lines of text.  The new version of Picasa easily removed the blemish.  If you haven’t looked at Picasa in a while, you should take another look.  I haven’t found another free picture manager that has nearly as many features.

Tyler Evans hit a three pointer at the buzzer to give UFindlay a wire to wire number one ranking.  No other team has ever gone 36-0 in division two NCAA basketball.  It was a true effort.

Throughout the season, all five starters managed to average double-digit scoring.  In the final two games, critical players fouled out before the overtime period.  Each time other players stepped up and more than filled the shoes of the starters.  A deep bench has enabled the Oilers to literally wear out opponents all year long.  When division two player of the year Josh Bostic fouled out, Tyler Evans came in and nailed the winning shot in the championship game.

There is something else unique about this group when compared to other division two teams.  All the UF talent came from Ohio and every player started as a freshman at Findlay (no transfers). With only 3500 students, we have a greater opportunity to get to know our athletes.  I have had three of the basketball players in class as well as four of the cheerleaders.  Congratulations to all of them!!!

Here’s a picture from the celebration today outside Croy. Tyler Evans is wearing the black hat.

Here are the links I’ve collected from the championship run.

http://delicious.com/atrusty/UFindlayNCAAChamps

High school sports fans can be brutal.  The bleachers can be inches from the field of play and some fans do not know when to stop.  Coming from a family of teachers, most of us have coached at one time or another.

The latest incident involved a fan sitting right behind the coach, about four rows up (just out of reach).  This guy was screaming at the top of his lungs at the coach.  He was not about to stop until someone on the bench took out a camera.

One of the assistants simply turned around and started snapping pictures.  When you do something like this, you want to make sure the flash is working.  It won’t make the picture better, but it will telegraph the fact that you are taking pictures.  After you have the heckler’s attention, pull out a video camera and tripod.  Point it right at the guy.  No one wants to be the next YouTube doofus feature.

People act differently when they know a camera is pointed at them.  Shots are more candid when the subject doesn’t know the camera is pointed in his/her direction.  Check out the “super-secret spy lens” for your SLR.  This could be just as much fun as filming the heckler.
 

Trusty's at Cedar Point

With my brother’s family in town, we decided to brave the lines at Cedar Point.  The picture above demonstrates how advanced our communications have become.  I stood under the Cork Screw and waited for my wife to call me from the loading platform.  Somehow our crew managed to get the first ten seats and I photographed them as they went by.  Those two empty seats aren’t empty.  If you look closely, you can see some “little kid” hair.

On the Skyhawk we had eight seats together.  My wife snapped the picture below when we were 125 feet above where she was standing.  We don’t know those two people on the far left, but everyone else was in our group.

The Skyhawk

And then there’s my mom on the Wildcat.

Grandma on the Wildcat

You can see the whole set here.

One cool technology addition to the Raptor was the “ride cam.”  Behind each pair of seats is a camera that records you during the entire ride.  When you exit the ride, you can purchase a DVD of you riding the Raptor.  There are actually two cameras that cover four seats.  When you sit down in the ride, check between the seats in front of you.

We didn’t see cameras on the other coasters, but it’s only a matter of time.

Thanks to my brother for the tickets to a dinner with James Laurinaitis, linebacker from the Buckeyes.  Laurinaitis is the son of a professional wrestler (The Animal).  You’ve probably seen pictures of the Road Warriors, the Animal’s famous tag team.

James was an All-Star in high school and was asked to speak at the North Central Ohio All-Star banquet.  At Ohio State, James has been an All-American twice.

Check out my pics at Flickr.  After the dinner he signed some autographs.  Check out the football he signed for me.  Nice guy.