Quick note about Coach Cal

Ok, so I'm reading\hearing a lot of folks saying that Coach Cal will not take a job offer from Kentucky because of some commitment to Memphis or because his family wants to stay here.

That's wishful thinking, folks.  He may have stuck around in previous years because his daughter attended school here.  But she's in college now.  I don't think being as close to her is near as important now as it may have been before.

As for the commitment to Memphis, it's very true that he has built the program here.  If he stays long enough, he could build a lasting legacy for himself and the program.  Much like has been done at schools like Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, etc.

So, I put the odds of him leaving at about 60-40 in favor of him leaving.  It is Kentucky after all.  It doesn't get much bigger than that in the basketball world.  There is a lot of immediate prestige there.  Going to be hard to turn that down.

Should be interesting.  Hopefully he'll stay.  Likely he won't.

I can play along with the spirit of wishful thinking though - maybe he'll make his players learn how to shoot free throws too!  :)

Question: Where was your first kiss

I was in the second grade at Horn Lake Elementary School. There was a red headed girl (I think her name was Vicki) in my class. One day during break a few other girls in our class tackled me (yeah, I was short and skinny...so yeah, girls could tackle me easily) and then pulled Vicki over to me and she kissed me on my lips. My first (well kinda) real kiss on the lips.

There are two things that I'll never forget about that experience though. One is that when they brought Vicki to me, they were dragging her as if to force her to do it....but she was smiling about it the whole time. So at least I can say she wanted to kiss me anyway. Even though right after she ran off like she was mad.

The other thing I'll never forget is that I came down with mono like a couple of weeks after that kiss. My parents told me mono was called the "kissing disease" so I was convinced for months that Vicki gave me mono. Needless to say, I never tried to kiss her again. :)

Question: What book would you recommend to someone who could use a good laugh.

I read "Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi" a couple of years ago because someone read an excerpt from it during the worship time at church.

David Crowder is one of my favorite Christian artists. If you've listened to his music, you know that he is quite....um...different. So I had expectations that this book would be the same. I was not disappointed.

This book is a short book - only 185 pages. And it is a fast read. David Crowder has a way with words, whether it be in his music or his writing.

I'd recommend this to anyone who needs a laugh for two reasons. One would be because Mr. Crowder is simply a funny guy. The other is because the general topic of learning how and why to praise God should cheer anyone up.

You can find this book on Amazon by clicking on the link below...

http://www.amazon.com/Praise-Habit-Finding-Sunsets-Sushi/dp/1576836703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237397558&sr=1-1

Question: What would be your Native American\Indian name?

Mine would probably be "Keeper of Useless Information"

In my family, I'm the one who somehow knows the answers to some of the crazy Trivial Pursuit questions. I don't know why I know this stuff. But if I ever hear it, it usually sticks around in my memory for a while.

I also follow a lot of blogs on Google Reader. I am currently subscribed to 178 feeds. Which means I read a lot of stuff that is pretty useless. Sometimes family or friends will be talking about something and I'll bring up a related story from a blog I read. Most of the time, they just give me a funny look and move on. Sometimes they laugh because they know I probably read it on some obscure blog.

Sometimes my...um...well I'll call it a gift :)....is useful though. If I ever hear an artist sing, I can usually remember how they sing. This is helpful when I am around people who ask, "Who sings that?" Ok. Ok. That maybe happens once a year. But at least I'm a hero at that moment. That is until the follow up question, "Why did you know that Britney Spears sings that song?" :)

Blog Changes

A quick note.  I have set up a new domain to house all of my online activity - DannyRileyOnline.com.

My blogs are still available under their old addresses, but they will redirect to DannyRIleyOnline.  This blog goes to blog.dannyrileyonline.com.

Also, I have changed the title of all of my blogs.  This one is now known as Danny.RIley.Blog.

Question: What item(s) have you bought based on an infomercial?

I bought a Beavis and Butthead DVD set a couple of years after the show went off the air. The infomercial had me laughing enough to decide to call and order the set.

Not sure how many of you have actually "called the number on the screen", but that is a pretty weird experience. For one, the people on the other end talk REALLY SLOW. Also of course, the person was...um...not American.

One day when my kids are A LOT older, I'll get to show them my collection classic American Television. That I "acted now" and bought "before supplies run out!" :)

Question: What's the last place you visted that made you home-sick?

Answer: Disney World, September 2001

My wife and I were at Disney World during the 9/11 attacks. We were at Magic Kingdom preparing to go eat some lunch. When we asked the hostess if they were seating for lunch yet, she told us they may not be serving meals at all that day.

Right about that time, an announcement came over the loud speakers telling us that the park was closed and we were to leave immediately. No explanation. Some people gathered around a staff member and asked what was going on. She said that some people were flying planes into buildings and they were evacuating all heavily populated areas across the country.

We were supposed to fly home the next day. Obviously we weren't flying anywhere any time soon. Disney gave us free passes for a day to make up for us having to leave early. When we went back the next day, it was very surreal. It was hardly the "Happiest Place on Earth" that day.

I could go on and on about our adventure, and may just do so some day. That Friday, we decided to take a bus home instead of waiting for the airlines to be able to fly planes again. Riding the bus was one of the worst experiences of our lives. Mark my words - we will NEVER do that again. Maybe a train, but surely not a bus.

So yes, we were very homesick during the final days of that trip. It didn't phase us that long though. Our next trip was out of the country. :)

Question: What is one of your favorite movie lines?

Answer: "It wasn't me"

This is one of my favorite movies. Yes, I know - it's a pretty dumb movie. But I still laugh every time I watch it.

We use "It wasn't me" all the time in our house in the same context as Fred Randall used it in this move. (You'll have to watch it to find out what I mean) :)

Another of my favorite quotes from Rocket Man - "I'm 30 years old. I'm almost a grown man."

Question: What words do you hate?

The F Word
I think this is probably the only cuss word I can say I've never uttered (except maybe to quote someone else saying it - even then I'm not sure). I hardly cuss at all as it is, but this one really gets to me. I can't really explain why I hate it so much. It's not from an "I'm better than you" perspective. It's more because I simply don't like the sound of it. I say "freakin" quite a bit as a replacement word. But I don't really think that's any better. "The F Word" has a worse connotation of course, but really the intent any of these slang\cuss words is the same.

African American
Unless you moved from Africa to America during your lifetime, you are not an African American. I'm not a European American. I'm an American. And I'm considered to be "white". That doesn't bother me. If being called "black" bothers you, I'm sorry. Come up with something else than "African American" though.

Mr Obama
Or Mr Bush with our last president. I hate when people refer to a president as "Mr" and then his last name. I'd rather them just say "Obama" or "Bush". His title is "President" until he is out of office. When I hear people say "Mr" it always makes me think that they do not really want to regard him as our president. So it seems disrespectful.

I will say that this does not bug me as much as it used to since I've noticed the news media referring to Obama this way. Mainly because I know that the folks in the media probably wish Obama could be president forever. I still don't like it though.

Question: What would set this country straight

(Note - I read this morning about a new service called Plinky that posts daily questions for people to answer. If you answer the question, it can post your response to a blog, twitter, facebook, etc. I thought I'd try it out since it seemed like it could be fun. Here is my first answer...)

Answer : for people to take responsibility for their own problems.