Have Fun Blog

Looking to throw a party? Don’t forget to incorporate the five main party activities of every party which have been developed over the history of parties. They are crafts, games, music or dance, gift giving and eating. All of these activities may show up at a party or only a few of them. It often depends on the type of party and the host’s inclinations.

Most craft activities are seen at children’s parties as a way of keeping the kid’s involved while still giving them something to take home and remember from the party. You can set up a little craft activity with glitter, glue, markers and construction paper.

Games are usually present at any kind of party, from adult to child. You’ve got your board games, outdoor games, and silly made up games all designed to get guests involved and laughing, some examples of each are clue, football and pin the tail on the donkey.

Music and dancing can also serve as a game. We’ve all heard of musical chairs or the cake walks at a church bake off. But it can also be a way of getting out that extra energy coming from the excitement of just being at the party. Gift giving is mostly seen at birthday parties or Christmas and Retirement type parties. Of course we all love getting and receiving gifts and setting up this activity, even at a party that doesn’t usually involve it will create a sense of anticipation in your guests. Last but certainly not least there’s eating. It seems that eating something is an essential part of the party going experience. It keeps up blood sugar levels and gives guests something to do during party moment lulls. Always make sure to at least set out a plate of cookies or bowl of chips at any events.

Mrs. Party… Gail Leino is the internet’s leading authority on selecting the best possible party supplies, using proper etiquette and manners while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. Free Party Games to help complete your event.

Tags: decorations, favors, football, games, ideas, menus, party, recipes, sports, supplies, tailgate, theme, toysdecorations, favors, football, games, ideas, menus, party, recipes, sports, supplies, tailgate, theme, toys

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Now that the first BCS standings have been released and most of the nation’s top teams have played six games, what do we know? EXACTLY what we knew before the season started, NOTHING! Actually, that’s not quite true, so let me explain.

What we KNOW is that college football has a terribly flawed system. It combines the so-called human polls (this year the new Harris Interactive Poll and the traditional Coaches’ Poll) with computer rankings and hopes to match No.1 versus No. 2 at the end of the year, in its national championship game. When the “system” actually gets it right, it’s typically by pure luck!

The human polls have always been highly subjective and are open to plenty of criticism. For decades, both the AP (no longer part of the process) and the Coaches’ polls have opened the year with a preseason poll, despite the fact that year-in and year-out, the foolishness of these preseason polls are well-documented. For just the latest example, note that the coaches’ poll had Michigan ranked No. 4 and Oklahoma ranked No. 5 in its preseason poll. How about that for EXPERTISE!

As for the new Harris Poll, does ANYONE other than the BCS guys really think it has any credibility? Don’t lament the loss of the AP poll though, as the writers’ had Michigan No. 4 and Oklahoma No.7 in its preseason poll and like the Coaches’ poll, often makes a person scratch his bald head when trying to understand their weekly rankings. Consider this.

Notre Dame jumped from unranked to No. 10 in the AP poll in the season’s first two weeks, after beating Pittsburgh and Michigan. In case you don’t know, the Panthers and Wolverines are currently a combined 7-7 in 2005 and were just 1-3 at the time ND ‘jumped’ to No. 10 (Michigan’s lone win had come over Northern Illinois and Pitt’s other loss was to Ohio U)! Just this week, Texas Tech made it to No. 10 in the AP poll (its highest-ranking since 1977) and No. 8 in the latest Coaches poll. Just for the record, Tech opened the year with three consecutive games against Florida International, Sam Houston State and Indiana State. You CAN’T make this stuff up!

Now to the computer rankings, the ones that are supposed to be less subjective. Despite Texas Tech’s near-ridiculous schedule, the Red Raiders’ combined computer rankings in the first BCS standings came it at seven. SEVEN! Are you kidding me? In comparison, Michigan State which has played Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State registered “zero” in all six BCS computer indexes. Ever heard of the phrase, “garbage-in, garbage-out?”

So what does this all mean? There are seven unbeatens heading into this weekend’s action and at least one will fall on Saturday, as Texas Tech plays at Texas. If both USC and UCLA were to remain unbeaten, one would have to lose when the two cross-town rivals meet in the Coliseum on December 3. If Georgia and Alabama were to remain unscathed, those schools would meet in the SEC title game (also December 3), meaning another unbeaten would fall. Virginia Tech, which plays Thursday night at Maryland, is the only unbeaten team that doesn’t have another current unbeaten team remaining on its schedule.

Are we headed for another season in which we finish with three unbeatens? Since only two teams can ever meet in the BCS title game (Rose Bowl), that tends to be a problem. Can you imagine the screaming coming from the SEC if, for the second straight year, a member of that conference finishes undefeated but gets left out of the BCS title game (remember Auburn in 2004)?

How about this scenario? USC wins out, as does Texas, Virginia Tech and either Alabama or Georgia. USC unquestionably remains No. 1 but can Texas hold on to its No. 2 rank in the BCS with only one ranked opponent left on its schedule (Texas Tech this week)?

Va Tech still has Boston College, Miami-Fla and Florida State (ACC title game?) remaining, a schedule that will surely boost the team’s computer rankings, if not its Harris or Coaches’ poll rank. As for the two SEC teams to remain unbeaten, Alabama would have to get past Tennessee, LSU and Auburn before the SEC title-game showdown, while Georgia would need to beat Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech. Couldn’t Va Tech and either Alabama or Georgia (Alabama seems a more likely bet) overtake Texas by gaining on the Longhorns in the computer rankings?

It doesn’t seem too far-fetched and wouldn’t many feel (especially in the Pac-10) it would be “just desserts” if Texas was denied a second straight Rose Bowl trip, this time for a national-title showdown with USC, after it leapfrogged Cal for its Rose Bowl bid in last year’s final BCS standings.

However, if USC and Texas both win out, I can’t imagine that MOST people wouldn’t want to see a USC-Texas showdown, featuring Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush against Vince Young? There are seven college football weekends remaining and a lot can still happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if there was some kind of playoff structure in place to avoid the possibility of any number of ‘nightmare’ scenarios?

Next week I’ll check in on how college football’s 23 ‘new’ head coaches have fared in 2005.

Larry Ness is a documented member of The Professional Handicappers League.
Read more of his articles and get his premium plays at http://www.procappers.com

Tags: football, handicapping, ncaaf, sportsfootball, handicapping, ncaaf, sports

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The Dodgers had a breakfast a couple of weeks ago to tell their story about off-season moves and the team they’ll put on the field for 2005. I was there to listen to the new owner, Frank McCourt, the general manager, Paul DePodesta, Hall of Famer, Tommy Lasorda, and the Dodgers’ manager, Jim Tracy. They told a good story about the Dodgers and what their plans are, but the most interesting aspect to me was something that was said and its application to teaching kids about sports and ultimately, life.

After the presentation was finished, people from the crowd were allowed to ask questions. One guy asked about Milton Bradley and the Dodgers’ thoughts on the negative example that he sets as a role model for high school and younger ballplayers. You may remember, Mr. Bradley has not always been a shining example of good sportsmanship and is currently undergoing anger management counseling as a result. To a person, each of the four Dodgers representatives, while acknowledging that there had been problems, defended Milton Bradley as a great guy who is often misunderstood; as a member of the Dodgers family, he deserves a second chance and that everybody really does like him as a person.

The Concept of Perfection

To me the most interesting comments came from Jim Tracy. Not only did the Dodgers’ manager say that Bradley is somebody he loves working with, he said he is an ever better player to manage because he is a “perfectionist”. I’m paraphrasing, but Tracy basically said that he loves Milton’s attitude because he never thinks he should make an out when he’s at the plate and he doesn’t feel like there is ever a ball he can’t catch in the outfield. He expects and demands that he will be “perfect” every pitch, every out, every inning, of every game. After the meeting, I talked to Jim Tracy about this idea of “perfect” as it applies to kids.

What we talked about was perfection: how is it good for a ballplayer, especially a child, to expect to be perfect? More so in baseball, where failure is the expected norm; failing 7 out of 10 times makes you a star. Everybody swings and misses. The best players in the world regularly walk in runs, and errors are made almost every game. Why is perfect the right goal? Jim Tracy had to leave before we had a chance to finish the conversation, but it did get me thinking about the goals and attitude we should teach our SportsKids.

The Right Attitude - It’s about Control

Why would anybody ever tell there kids to be perfect? Michael Jordan once said: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Babe Ruth had the record for strike outs in a career until his record was broken by another Hall of Fame member of the 500 HR club, Reggie Jackson. Nobody is perfect!

If you can’t be perfect, what is the right goal? In his fantastic book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey talks about being “response-able” for your actions. In sports and in life there are so many things that are completely out of our control, but we individually have the ability to choose our responses to each situation - positive and negative. In essence, you can’t control the actions of anybody else or the results; only yourself. Consequently, the focus has to be on what you can control.

Surprisingly, my 5 and 6 year old basketball team that I coach had the answers. Since I was thinking about Milton Bradley and perfection, I decided to ask some of the kids their thoughts on the subject. First, each of them is afraid of different things playing sports. Some didn’t want to miss a shot, get a rebound off their head, make a bad pass or lose the game. So we talked about Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Kobe Bryant and others and how they made mistakes too. It became very liberating for them to realize that they didn’t need to do everything perfect to be a good basketball player.

The more we talked, the better the kids started to feel about themselves. Realizing that you don’t have to be perfect is a good thing, but does that conflict with what Jim Tracy said was so great about Milton Bradley: expecting to get a hit every time at bat and to catch every fly ball? Not necessarily if the focus shifts from being perfect to doing what you can control. While my older teams that I coach focused on the “results” of actions, it was again the 5 and 6 year old kids who did a great job in helping me understand what elements of a game can be controlled:

1. Fundamentals - there is no reason that every kid can’t learn to do things the right way. If the coach can teach a kid to perform with proper fundamentals the results will follow. The emphasis here has to be on first, the coach learning the right things to teach, and then, insisting that the kids do it correctly. Remember: Practice makes Permanent!

2. Focus - Every kid can think and have their head in the game. Even the kid who can’t make a basket can be in the right place all the time.

3. Hustle - Do your best and put out the most effort that you can on every play. Every coach should be working on kids to hustle, play hard and put out effort - not on results.

4. Teamwork - This plays into focus as well, but working with your teammates is something that every player can do, control, and excel at.

5. Sportsmanship - There is never any reason to not be a good sport. This year, I’ve seen far too many kids saying “bad game” instead of congratulating the other team on their effort. Be a good sport - always!

Measuring Your Results

At the end of each game, ask the kids to evaluate their individual and team performance. You’d be surprised at their own understanding of how they did. Don’t spend time on performance measurement, but on the non scorebook things that the kids can control. We can’t control the results of our actions, but if we work on everything we can control, we won’t be perfect, but we will be the best we can be.

Ken Kaiserman is the President of http://SportsKids.com - a leading sports Internet site for kids and their families. In addition to coaching football, basketball and baseball, Ken serves on the local Little League board of directors and a park advisory committee. Ken and his wife Sheri have been married for since 1991. They have three children: Benji, Bobby and Rebecca (aka Rocky) who all love their sports!

Tags: baseball, basketball, coaching, coaching tips, football, hockey, kids, parenting, soccer, sports, youth sportsbaseball, basketball, coaching, coaching tips, football, hockey, kids, parenting, soccer, sports, youth sports

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