Is This Thing Still On?

Well, it's been a while, huh. I see I was caught up in moving on to MySpace on my last post in 2007. And well, that's sooo 2007. I've moved on to Facebook and am now Twittering as @jonp70. Come on and find me if you can.

Been Away So Long I Hardly Knew the Place...

So I did pick up and move over to MySpace a few months back.

It has been kind of fun. I have reconnected with several old friends from Malvern...college friends from the University of Arkansas and former coworkers.

If you ever have a hankerin' for my particular brand of wit and wisdom, head on over to http://blog.myspace.com/theworldaccordingtojon and see what the Jon has got cookin'. I was thinking the other day of "simulcasting" my blog here whenever I post something new on MySpace. Maybe I can reach those of you, like my cousin Chris, who abhor the MySpace thang.

Tootles...

My Old House

Circa 1970-1972

Check my MySpace blog.

Here goes nothing

My friend Mike says that he always thought MySpace was for "pervs and weirdos." So he promptly went over to the Dark Side and put down roots.

I guess I'll have to see this for myself. Come visit.

http://www.myspace.com/theworldaccordingtojon

Seriously...Is It Me?

Thought I was going to have a great run of seeing some big time ball games in person.

Then I travel to Dallas for a special experience with tickets on the 20-yard-line, only to see the Cowboys get spanked by the Saints 42-17.

So on Saturday, as an early Christmas present, I took the family to Alltel Arena in North Little Rock to see the Arkansas basketball Razorbacks take on legendary (or infamous) Coach Bobby Knight and his Texas Tech Red Raiders. It was a large and responsive crowd. The seats, in the upper deck, had a good view. It was closer than it seems from my camera phone picture (at left). Alli, wearing her Razorbacks cheerleader outfit, and Lucas both called the Hogs. Then the game started.

After jumping out 3-0... the Hogs stopped. And the Red Raiders went on an 18-0 run. And it was never closer than an 8-point deficit down the stretch. The Hogs ended up losing by 15. It was a rotten game, Hog-wise. No consistent offense, nobody stepping up and putting the team on their back (Charles Thomas looked good inside, but they really needed more than some good post play).

The story on this team was that after depending on Ronnie Brewer so much the last 2 years, this team had a bunch of good players. The lack a playmaker, though, and still have no consistent outside shooter that can knock down a couple of 3s when playing catch up. The defense was shaky and they kept turning the ball over. Lucas, as you can see from the picture, was bummed like the rest of us. Can't blame the crowd. They were loud - when there was something to get loud about - and in the game until nearly the bitter end.

Then I started thinking...when was the last win I saw...took me a bit. Saw the Hogs lose to Tech; saw the Cowboys lose to the Saints; saw the football Hogs lose to LSU; saw the Malvern Leopards lose to Bauxite...ahhh...I guess it was this summer, when we saw the Cardinals beat the Indians in St. Louis. THAT was an exciting game, with a 9th inning rally.

Wait...did I use up all my big game mojo then??? I hope not. We still have the Hogs bowl game. At least - for the Hogs sake - I'll only be watching on TV. And I'm not wearing the Hogs T-shirt I bought to wear to the LSU game (loss) then wore to the watch party for the SEC Championship (loss)...then wore to the basketball game on Saturday (loss). Not that I'm superstitious. :)

Cowboys: What Have You Done for Me Lately?

I've been a fan of the Dallas Cowboys since I really discovered football, back at age 7 or 8. My earliest Cowboys memory is watching Super Bowl XII, when they beat the Broncos. I was already a fan by that point, but that's the earliest I remember.

I came by it honestly. In central Arkansas back in those pre-cable days, the Cowboys were shown most every Sunday since they were probably the closest pro team. I grew up a fan of QB Roger Staubach (who now has his own blog) and RB Tony Dorsett...and that Doomsday Defense. I remember my heart breaking as I watched "The Catch." I slogged through that 1-15 season along with rookie QB Troy Aikman.

Anyway, flash forward, I finally got to see the Cowboys in person...after all these years...back in 1999. In the final game of the season, they beat the NY Giants in what ended up being Chan Gailey's last regular season game as coach. Since that time, I've seen 3 more games, including last Sunday's supposedly big time matchup against the hot New Orleans Saints (see camera phone image above).

In 2000, I saw the Boys lose to the Jags in OT. Last season, I was there on Monday night - with temps in the upper 90s and me bathed in sweat - as the Cowboys blew a 4th quarter lead and lost to the hated Redskins.

And now this...after an 80-yard TD run by Julius Jones early in the Saints game, the blow out is on. The Saints roll to a 42-17 win as I watch from the best seats I've ever had, there on the 20 yd line. Oh, it was awful. I guess it was an exciting game. There was lots of scoring. And Reggie Bush is pretty awesome. But sheesh!

C'mon Cowboys. What have I got to do? I've put in the time as a fan. And this is the reward I get. 3 straight loses?!?! Sheesh.

Pearl Harbor 2006

Today's the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the U.S. into World War II. It means more to me this year after getting the chance to travel to Hawaii and Pearl Harbor back in August.

After getting up that morning about 4, getting to Pearl Harbor by bus at around 6:30 a.m. to find a HUGE line of people already there to the 7 a.m. opening...then waiting almost 2 hours through the huge line to get into the Pearl Harbor memorial, I stood on the USS Arizona Memorial and looked across the water and tried to imagine what it would've been like that fateful morning.

I looked down and saw the drops of oil that still leak up from the wreckage of he battleship ("the ship's tears") that also is the final resting place for hundreds of sailors. I could see parts of the ship just below the surface.

They ask you to be quiet while on the memorial to honor the site. So the noise you heard was tourist cameras clicking or whiring, the wind whipping and the whispers of folks around you as they looked over the memorial. You can look over the distant mountains and think about seeing the hundreds of warplanes appearing on the horizon on that Sunday morning in 1941.

In the course of the tour, you read and hear about all of the coincidences and instances where the attack might've been discovered before it happened. I wondered how differently it all might've been had operators of that early radar system not mistaken the attack force for a group of U.S. bombers due on the island that day.

I also kept thinking about how history and the war played out after that devastating attack.

The U.S. rose up and led the Allies to victory and assumed its role as a world superpower. The atomic bomb. The U.S. as a check to the rise of communism. Did the attack have to happen as it did...did all those sailors have to die on the Arizona and around Pearl Harbor in order for American history to play out exactly as it did?

It's a sobering thought and being there was a reminder of the sacrifices made by those in uniform. And how fortunate we Americans were that the war turned out as it did.

UPDATE: Poignant story here from the AP about the last meeting today of Pearl Harbor survivors.

The survivors have met here every five years for four decades, but they're now in their 80s or 90s and are not counting on a 70th reunion. They have made every effort to report for one final roll call.

"We're like the dodo bird. We're almost extinct," said Mal Middlesworth, now an 83-year-old retiree from Upland, Calif., but then — on Dec. 7, 1941 — an 18-year-old Marine on the USS San Francisco.

Pearl Harbor Survivors Meet for the Last Time [AP via Yahoo]