Trav's Thoughts

It's time for me to step aside for a bit. I won't be totally gone from the bloggosphere, but I won't be making daily posts or rounds for the next little while.

I need to focus on my certificate program. I have a few other obligations as well.

I'll probably post for Manic Monday. Plus I'm ready for some football, so I'll be blogging NFL games on Sundays and maybe a few college games on Saturday.

But other than that, it's vacation time at Trav's Thoughts.

Later gang!

Woooooooooooooooooo!!!!! How excited am I?

The cast for DWTS season 7 was annoucned yesterday.

Lance Bass teams up with Lacey Schwimmer. Lance is a former member of the vocal group N'Sync. He has parlayed that success into several entertainment production ventures in music, television, and film. Lacey is a former Youth Latin Champion and a World Swing Dance Champion. Despite her young age, Lacey has extensive teaching experience as a member of the iHollywood Dance Faculty, and as a master class instructor in Norway. She also reached the Top 4 in season 3 of So You Think You Can Dance. YAY for the cross over!


Toni Braxton will dance with Alec Mazo. Toni is a Grammy Award winning singer and an actress who has appeard on Broadway. She has been out of the entertainment business for the last six years recovering from a health issue. Alec was the first season champion with his celebrity partner Kelly Monaco, and returns for his fourth season of DWTS. He runs two ballroom dance schools on the west coast and is a former Latin Amateur Champion, as well as a six time US National Finalist for Latin Amateur. He is married to fellow DWTS pro Edyta Sliwinska, with whom he has recently entered professional competitions.


Brooke Burke is paired with Derek Hough. Brooke may be best known as a magazine and swimsuit model. She has hosted numerous network series such as Rock Star and Wild On. She has also acted in several TV series. Derek is a former World Champion Latin dancer and IDSF World Youth Latin Champion. He has danced in productions of Footloose and Jesus Christ Superstar. Derek returns for his third season.


Rocco Dispirito teams with Karina Smirnoff. Rocco is an award winning celebrity chef and author. He has opened several restaurants in New York, and launched one new restaurant live on TV as part of the program The Restaurant. He has another A&E series due in October with a companion cookbook. Karina is a five time US National Champion, World Trophy Champion, and Asian Open Champion. She is the first woman to make the British Professional Final, and she did it with three different partners. Karina returns for her fifth season.


Maruice Greene will dance with Cheryl Burke. Maruice is a two time gold medalist in the 100m sprint and 4x100m relay at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He held the world record in the 100m, is a former world champion in the event, and won sliver and bronze medals at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He currently owns the world record in the indoor 60m sprint. Cheryl is a former World Cup Professional Rising Star Latin Champion and a two time Emmy nominee for her oustanding choreography on DWTS. She is a two time DWTS champion and returns for her sixth season.


Kim Kardashian is paired with Mark Ballas. Kim has carved out her celebrity as an actress, model, and with a role on the reality series Keeping up with the Kardashians. She is attempting to break into film as well. Mark is a former juvenile dance champion and junior Latin American Dance champion. He is also a singer and songwriter with several musical credits. Mark won DWTS with Kristi Yamaguchi last season. He has the highest average score for any pro dancer on the show, and returns for his third season.


Cloris Leachman teams with Corky Ballas. Ms Leachman has won nine Emmys, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar. She is a well respected star of theater, television, and film. Her most memorable role for me is Frau Bleucher (insert deranged horse whinny here) from Young Frankenstein. At 82, Ms Leachman is the oldest celebrity to dance on the show. The Ballas name is famous throughout the ballroom and Latin dance world. Corky is a former World British Champion and a seven times undefeated US International Latin Champion. He judges professional competitions and teaches. In fact, he has instructed several of the pros on DWTS including Derek & Julianne Hough as well as his son Mark.


Cody Linley will dance with Julianne Hough. Cody is the youngest celebrity to dance on the show and is best know as Jake Ryan on the Hannah Montana series. He has also been in several films. Julianne comes from a family of dancers and is the youngest dancer and only American to win both the Junior World Latin Champion and the International Latin Youth Champion at the Blackpool Dance Festival. Most recently she released a country music album in May 2008. Julianne is a two time DWTS champion and returns for her fourth season.


Susan Lucci is paired with Tony Dovolani. Ms Lucci is the distinguished daytime actress from All My Children. This November she will celebrate her 10,000th episode as Erica Kane. She finally won a daytime Emmy in 1999, after being nominated 19 times previously. She has performed on Broadway. She is also a successful entrepreneur. Tony was never defeated in the American Rhythm category of America's Ballroom Challenge, up until his retirement in 2006. He has been nomiated for an Emmy for his choreography on DWTS and returns for his sixth season. Although Tony has a bit of a diva reputation, he maintains that ballroom dance is about the woman and says the man's role is to provide a frame to show her off.


Misty May-Treanor teams with Maksim Chmerkovskiy. Misty is a two time Olympic champion in beach volleyball with partner Kerri Walsh. She won her second gold medal just last week in Beijing. It was also her 108th straight match win. Maks is a former Latin Champion and owns three dance studios in New York. His students have performed several times on DWTS. He is a founder and sits on the board of directors of Dance Team USA, which strives to increase youth awareness and participation in ballroom and Latin dance. Maks returns for his fifth season.

Ted McGinley will dance with Inna Brayer. Ted is a an actor with a long list of credits including Married with Children, Happy Days, The Love Boat, and Hope & Faith, as well as numerous guest roles. Inna is a former US Amateur champion and has danced at the World Championships. I need to find out more about Inna...I know I've seen her on PBS. She joins DWTS for the first time.


Jeffrey Ross is paired with Edyta Sliwinska. Jeffrey is a comedian known as the Roastmaster General. New York Magazine has called him the Meanest Man in Comedy. He has made the rounds of late night talk shows and has guest appearances on several tv shows and in some films. Edyta is a former Latin Amateur Champion, International Grand Ballroom champion, and Holiday Ballroom champion. She returns for her seventh season and is the only professional to dance in every season. She is married to fellow DWTS pro Alec Mazo, with whom she has recently entered professional competitions. And she has some LEGS LEGS LEGS LEGS!


Warren Sapp teams with Kym Johnson. Warren won a Super Bowl as a defensive tackle with Tampa Bay, and recently retired from the Oakland Raiders. After 13 NFL seasons, he retired with the second most sacks for a tackle since the stat has been tracked. He is a former Defensive Player of the Year and played in 7 consecutive Pro Bowls. Kym has been a ballroom dancer in Australia and the US. She is a former finalist at the Australian Dancesport Championships in the Open Amateur Modern Ballroom division and at the UK Ballroom Championships at Blackpool. She has since retired from competition to pursue a film career. Kym returns for her fifth season on DWTS after three seasons on the Australian version of the show.

There they are!

Tune in for the mega-double-step-over-lip-lock three night season premier beginning Sept 22. We'll see two nights of dancing, and then two couples will be eliminated on Sept 24.

Special guests on the results show include the ubiquitous Jonas Brothers, along with Jesse McCartney.

And check this out...the Macy's Stars of Dance feature returns to the results shows. And there will be a special performance on Oct 21 to commemorate Macy's 150th anniversary. And we'll have a second season of the Kids Ballroom Competition!

Did you happen to notice that I'm just a bit excited?

You did?

Drat! I was trying to be calm and cool.

Bwahahahahahahahaaaa!

Later babies!

Welcome to another Manic Monday with Morgen. Don't forget to cruise by MM HQ at It's A Blog Eat Blog World. Today's theme is Club.

I refused to join the club calling the USA men's basketball team the "redeem team". I felt that was disrespectful to the rest of the athletes from other countries who had worked hard to develop their skills. Basketball has become an international game, and we are no longer guaranteed that our teams are the best.

I still believe that we have the most talented basketball players in the world. But it is arrogant to maintain that the rest of the world's players are in awe of NBA talent and can't possibly compete with our teams. That period of time existed briefly when professional basketball players were allowed to compete for the first time.



It was only a matter of time until the rest of the world caught up. Blame the NBA itself for extending its reach into Europe and Asia. The NBA is no longer an exclusive club for American talent. Foreign players make up just a little more than 11% of the total number of players in the NBA. That creates interest in youngsters as they are able to identify with and emulate athletes from their own countries.

The rest of the world isn't intimidated by NBA players anymore. It takes more than just throwing together a collection of talent and sending it off to collect the gold medals that we say belong to us.

Only when our athletes set aside the me-first mentality and put the goals of the team ahead of their own personal agendas can we expect success.

Photo credit: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

And this time, the collection of NBA multi-millionaire superstars did just that, ending a three-year plan with a superb team effort to win a gold medal.

Team USA was a true team, and not just as a participant in the Olympic basketball tournament. This group of athletes was part of the entire USA Olympic experience, from marching as a group with the rest of the USA athletes to cheering on their counterparts in the women's tournament to taking in the Michael Phelps spectacle at the water cube to watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh defend their gold medal in beach volleyball.

And most importantly, they were outstanding ambassadors of American sport.

I can say that I'm proud of this team.

Congratulations Team USA.



Congratulations also to the Little Leaguers. They were a bit over-shadowed in this Summer Olympic year, but the play was as inspiring as it is every year.

The most telling sound bite I heard was from the kids from Maryland. Evidently they were in an odd position of not only having to win a game, but to score 12 runs in doing so. They didn't have to win by 12, they just had win the game and score 12 runs. With the mercy rule at 10, that's a tall order. And I also don't think it's the right message to use number of runs as a criteria to advance.

But the kids had that covered. As their coach was trying to explain what he wanted them to do to position themselves to get the right number of runs, one of the kids said, "Or we could just have fun."

HA!

The clubs from Waipio, Hawaii and Matamoros, Mexico met yesterday to determine the champion.

Hawaii overpowered Mexico 12-3 to win the fourth US championship in a row.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

I couldn't find a word in Hawaiian for congratulations. The nearest I could get was celebrate. So ho'olaule'a, hau'oli boys!

Gene Upshaw, Hall of Fame offensive guard for the Oakland Raiders and long time executive director of the National Football League Players' Association (NFLPA), died yesterday from pancreatic cancer. He was 63.



That picture shows the prototypical offensive guard from the 60's and 70's...lean and fast and strong.

My emotions have been in a jumble all day.

I grew up with the Raiders. Mr Upshaw was a first round pick for Oakland in the 1967 AFL draft. This was just before the AFL/NFL merger. He is recorded as the NFL Raiders' third round pick that year. He went on to play 15 seasons. He appeared in three Super Bowls, losing to the Packers in his rookie season and winning championships in 1976 and 1981. He's a member of the 1970s All Decade team, and a member of the NFL 75th Anniversary team. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1987.

I was three years old in 1967. I remember watching football with my mom. She taught me and I learned. And there was no other team but the Silver & Black, the Pride & Poise boys who were Committed to Excellence. I clearly remember the agony of losing to Green Bay in Super Bowl II, and to this day I detest the Packers. I remember the joy of finally breaking through in 1976 and destroying Minnesota. And I remember crowing to all my friends in 1981, my senior year in high school, when Oakland became the first wild card team to win a Super Bowl.

So I guess you could say that Mr Upshaw and I came to the NFL at the same time, and grew with it. We're lifetime Raiders.

And I hurt today. I mourn today.

There are so many memories. It's almost too much.

Maybe I shouldn't be so upset by this. Maybe it's silly, and a bit foolish for a grown man to hang on to that kind of adulation for a former professional athlete. He was a football player, then a politician with the players' union. What does that have to do with me?

It has everything to do with me and my memories. I can't explain it. Maybe I don't have to explain it.

Maybe it's enough that the death of Gene Upshaw hurts today. It hurts because it does.

Congratulations to the Mill Creek WA All Stars, from just a short ways north of Seattle and representing the northwest in the Little League World Series. The boys made it to the US semifinal last night, but lost to the kids from Hawaii.

Good job boys!

Why, you ask?

Well I'll tell you.

I have this disaster in my display cabinet with my Lord of the Rings figures. For some reason they just don't want to stand up. Maybe Aragorn is just too intimidating or something.



See that? It's just disgraceful.

So I got these adhesive thingies so I could make little foot stands and resolve the chaos. Now I just need to get myself together and fix my figures.

Sometimes I can't believe how lazy I am.

But at least it's good for my debut on Ruby Tuesday! That's something.

Naturally.

Since I decided I wanted to participate in Ruby Tuesday today, Blogger is fussy and won't let me upload photos.

I have a Ruby Tuesday post. I do! And as soon as I can get my dang photos to upload, I'll post it!

Grrrrrr I say!

Welcome to another Manic Monday with Morgen. Don't forget to cruise by MM HQ at It's A Blog Eat Blog World. Today's theme is Wax.

American swimmer Michael Phelps Waxed the competition last week, winning 8 gold medals to surpass Mark Spitz as the winningest athlete in a single Olympic games.

Here is what he did.

Won the 400-meter Individual Medley in world record time of 4:03.84.

Won the 4x100-meter Freestyle Relay with Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak in world record time of 3:08.24. Lezak was the star of this relay, chasing down and just out-touching the French swimmer to keep Phelps on track for 8 gold medals.

Won the 200-meter Freestyle in world record time of 1:42.96.

Won the 200-meter Butterfly in world record time of 1:52.03.

Won the 4x200-meter Freestyle Relay with Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay, and Ricky Berens in world record time of 6:58.56.

Won the 200-meter Individual Medley in world record time of 1:54.23.

Won the 100-meter Butterfly by just touching out Milorad Cavic, 50.58 to 50.59 in an Olympic Record.

Won the 4x100-meter Individual Medley relay with Aaron Peirsol (backstroke), Brendan Hansen (breastroke), and Jason Lezak (freestyle anchor). Phelps swam the Butterfly third leg, swimming the fastest 100m Fly split ever and giving Lezak a lead which he held as the Americans won in another world record time of 3:29.34.

He had to swim 17 times, including qualifying swims, to get those 8 gold medals. He posted personal best times in every final, including 7 world records.

Let's put that in perspective. He swam freestyle and butterfly individual events, at multiple distances, against specialists in those events. He swam the fly leg on an IM relay. And he swam freestyle legs on two relays. The only breaks he got for qualifying swims were for the relays, when the rules allow different swimmers to swim in the qualifying heats. Otherwise he had to swim in every qualifying heat to make the finals, against swimmers who weren't in the pool every day like he was.

In two Olympic Games, 2004 and 2008, Phelps has 14 gold medals and 2 bronze medals.

He wasn't the only story in the first week of the 2008 Olympics. But when you set world records and dominate your events like he did, you're a pretty big deal.

Another pretty big deal was Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who Waxed the field in the 100m sprint in track in a blistering world record time of 9.69. And he didn't even look like he was trying! He was celebrating for the final 10-15 meters of that race and no other sprinter was within 10 feet of him.

Congratulations Michael Phelps! Congratulations Usain Bolt!

And congratulations to all the athletes who have competed in the first week of these games.

1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda

1976 MG Midget

1960 Aston Martin

1939 Jaguar roadster

1963 Austin Healey