Saturday, October 31, 2009
Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween everybody.
I was looking at my google analytics and thought this piece of data was appropriate for Halloween.
Creepy, huh?
Friday, October 30, 2009
What Mayfield Hts City Council Race
Okay, so the other day I did a review of the Mayfield Heights Mayoral Candidates, based solely off their websites. A comment by Jill Miller Zimon that as far as she knew she was the only council candidate in Pepper Pike that had a web presence, I decided to see what was the case for Mayfield Heights.
After a fairly strenuous search, the only candidate with a web site I could find was David Sasak. Well that's not actually true, as Donna Finney has a page on Howard Sonenstein's site.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that one of the other candidates has a site since I received some campaign pamphlet that had the site listed on it. Unfortunately, the pamphlet went where the rest of the junk mail goes. I'm now wishing that I had noted down the url before tossing it. But that's the extent of the attention it got, and it got more than the others only because it actually had a url on it. If it hadn't it would have been gone in 1 second rather than 3 seconds. Which brings me to another point.
Folks, if you want me to vote for you, you have to get in front of me. Junk mail is not getting in front of me since it almost hits the wastebasket the millisecond I touch it. In order to get in my face you have to get on something that comes across my pc screen. I don't get newspaper, haven't for years and years. You need to have a website, an rss feed, a facebook fan page or account, a twitter account. Something. Any one of those will do. Otherwise, you don't get my vote.
(If anybody is aware of a site for one of the other candidates, please let me know.)
And riding someone else's site doesn't cut it either. Reality is that while I could complain that Mr. Sasak's site is pretty weak, it exists. And my bet is he hasn't spend more than $4.99 per month on the hosting fees (GoDaddy) and not much on the actual design either (not a criticism!). If you can't afford that to get your message out, you can't get my vote.
So, be default, Mr. Sasak gets my vote. And for what it is worth, here, cut and pasted from his site, is what he's committed to;
I am committed to:
- Further improving our Senior services and activities
- Continuing improvement of our Parks and Recreation programs
- Maintaining a balanced budget, with No New Taxes
- Striving to continue fiscal responsibility in our City government
- Continuing to protect the integrity of our Zoning and Planning processes (and NO retail in Cedar/Lander areas)
- Work toward re-establishing local control over urban gas well drilling (and NO gas wells in our City Parks)
Not sure why retail is a problem in the Cedar/Lander area. Nor does the "no new taxes" mantra strike a chord without context. I don't want to pay higher taxes more than anyone else, but the amount taxed is less important than for what those tax revenues are used. However, maintaining a balanced budget is also a good thing, so a +1 for that bullet point.
Mr Sasek suggests that he's not a politician and that he doesn't lie. Well, of course you are a politician. You're running for City Council to represent us. By definition that makes you a politician. And what is so bad about being a politician? Politicians are by definition necessary to make this great republic of ours work. And you are participating, so don't duck it. And don't cast aspersions on every other individual representing us whether its local, state, or national. I'm not naive enough to believe that by definition politicians lie, cheat and steal to make their lives comfy. Or their friends. Though it certainly does happen, as we are witnessing at the Cuyahoga County level.
You paint yourself with same broad brush, Mr. Sasek.
Donna Finney's has two reasons we're supposed to vote for her. The first being:
Finney has served on the Building Committee for four years and was Chairman of the Legislative Committee and is currently Chairman of the Safety and Transportation Committee on Mayfield Heights City Council.
So far so good. The only other thing is that she voted against a pay raise for the Mayor. Is she going to make a motion to retract that pay raise if her sponsor Howard Sonenstein is elected? Other than the economy, are there no other reasons for voting against the pay raise? What were the arguments for the pay raise with which you disagree?
For what it is worth, the News-Herald has a comments from each candidate in an article. The Sun Messenger had an article back in August.
One Down, One To Go
So I've been thinking about what to do with this site. Simply put, I'm thinking of moving it to google in some form or fashion. The main motivation is money. I don't get enough access to warrant paying any money for "hosting". I currently pay a small fee to GrokThis, VPS Village actually, for a xen virtual host. But anything at this point is too much.
I have had a test blog up on Blogger for quite a while now. It's been mostly for testing things like email posting, blog editors, gadgets, etc. So last night I finally broke down and tried to see if I could get blogger to look something like this site. While not exact, I'm close enough. Check it out.
Actually it was fairly easy to modify to make it look like this site. It's not done, nor perfect but was close enough for me to figure out what else was necessary. It also helped me figure out what I did and did not like about blogger. At least partially anyway.
What's to Like
Okay, so here's an incomplete list of what's to like:- It's free
- It's linked to my google account
- You can easily add gadgets
- It's fairly easy to customize design
- You can email posts to the blog
- You can use blog editors, like ecto, scribefire, or google's Sidewiki
- I can use my neohawk.org domain if I wish
- Blogger itself generates traffic to my site
- I can create a multi-author blog (me and arisa, if arisa ever posts
- Posting in Japanese is no problem
- Can use feedburner
- Easy to implement Google Analytics
So that's a fairly good list of things it does for you. Here's the list of things I don't like about it
What's Not to Like
- Miserable on html validation: the template I used had 636 errors on it. That's not even close.
- I can not use my google apps account to use it
- To really customize it, you have to be very careful with the built in widgets and code built in or I'll probably break the site
- No concept of "static" pages, so it is only a blog
- Fairly convoluted process to add Disqus which I like as a commenting system
- CSS and some javascript is in the template -> I'd prefer them separate
- Does not provide a way to show posts for a given author(that I can find
Based on that, you would think it's a no brainer to move to blogger. Actually thought, I'm not feeling the love for blogger. The fact that I cannot use my google apps domain (neohawk.org) to login to the site is huge, as is the effort to customize it to the point where the html, etc., is valid - and I'm still not sure I could get there because of code that Blogger needs.
In general, I'm quite annoyed with the shortcomings of google apps and it's integration with other google products and services. Picasa, blogger, google reader, openid provider, friend connect, google analytics, etc., require use of a google account. I don't want to use a google account, I want to use my google apps domain.
Granted, I can not complain too much since it is all for free. No, that's not right. I can complain because it's not "free". I'm providing information to Google as their stated goal is to index everything, I'm making it easy for them. So I may not be paying money, but I'm paying.
One of these days I'll do a serious post about Google's ineffectiveness. But for now, I've checked out using blogger. I now need to check out Nick's posts on creating a blog with google app engine.
One down, one to go.
Too Bad I Can't Afford Verizon
I saw this post : "Verizon Droid: First Impressions | Technologizer".h
I so want a 'droid., but I can't afford to re-subscribe to Verizon. I'll probably go with the same provider that my kids have
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Started Editing Template
So far, I've gotten it pretty close. I know there are somethings still left to fix, but I got pretty far this evening.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Elly and Ken Achieve Honors
Both Elly and Ken were recognized for achieving Honors at Mayfield High School.. Below is a cell pic of Elly's certificate.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Going to Start Testing Templage
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Ken Gets Stitches
A day or so ago, I tweeted a link to a WKYC video on Carey Spear, the MHS football kicker, and a captain of the Varsity Soccer team. A facebook buddy from childhood comment that he saw the video and saw that Carey also has a 4.5GPA. I responded that he's a nice kid, and his whole family is too.
So how does he thank me for this compliment?
He headbutts my son in the mouth, causing Ken to get two stitches. Okay, so it wasn't a headbutt. It wasn't even intentional. They just happened to collide and Carey's head hit Ken. Actually, it was pretty lucky that Carey didn't get a tooth stuck in his head.
But Ken did get two stitches. We spent two hours at Hillcrest to get the two. That's an efficiency of 1 sph(stitch per hour). Actually, we were pretty lucky as it we walked right in. When we left, however, there was a line of like 10 kids. Looks like they were mostly athletes - a couple of football players, a couple of soccer players. The rest were little kids who looked like they had the flu.
Just hoping I don't get the flu. If I do, it'll be ironic that I will have probably caught it at the hospital...
We had a physicians assistant look at Ken. Actually, she was a student to become a physician's assistant. She tried to stitch Ken up but failed twice. At that point she waved the white flag and asked the Doctor to stitch Ken up for her. Which she did quite nicely, too bad that by the time she started digging around Ken's mouth the anesthesia had worn off.
I was going to write a blistering post but this student looks at Arisa and I and asks "What language were you speaking?". I answer Japanese, and she looks at us and says "私の名前はメーガンです" (My name is Megan). Turns out that 5 years ago she spent a month in Oita Prefecture and picked it up while she was there.
So she spent a month in Japan five years ago and can remember several Japanese words and phrase. Color me impressed!!
So thanks Megan for trying to fix Ken up and good luck with your studies!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Progressive Nonsense
Got love American companies lack of ethics. We are a Progressive customer. Imagine our surprise when our monthly rate goes up to $455 a month out of the blue. Purely unethical behavior on Progressive's part.
When we noticed the mistake because all of a sudden there was a much larger charge pulled out of our account than previously, we called. Not surprisingly. Should have noticed prior to them pulling it out, but live and learn, my bad.
So I call, and what do they tell me? They automatically added my son Ken to the policy as a driver. They said they automatically added him because he turned 16 or got his license. Unfortunately for them, he turned sixteen 8 months ago and currently does not have a license. There is a reason I hadn't added him to the policy as a driver you twits.
Yes, I should have noticed it before they pulled it from the account. And yes I should have called to have them fix it. Like I said, my bad. But that's where the scam comes in. They automatically changed my policy without my approval and billed for it. Which means I have to take the time to call and have it fixed. I assume their hope is that I don't call and get it fixed, and they walk off with free money.
At a minimum, they made me take time for something they did without my permission. Next time, I will send them a bill, at my hourly rate for any part thereof. In other words, if it's a 5 minute call, I'll bill them for an hour.
I will say, the lady on the phone was great. She fixed it, and then found us some additional discounts. Which I really appreciated, but the fact that I had to call for their unethical behavior doesn't change. I will also say that we've had no problems with Progressive other than this. Compared to our experiences at Hillcrest, a Cleveland Clinic Hospital, Progressive has been great.
But here's the thing, I think Hillcrest/Cleveland Clinic is just plain incompetent. They can't help it. This issue with Progressive was not incompetence. They can't add him as a driver since he doesn't have a valid License number which is a required field in the data. They just did it.
If your curious, Hillcrest has been sending us a bill for $54 which was rejected by Medical Mutual of Ohio. I figured it was a processing issue so I sat on it until I recently got the last and final warning bill from Hillcrest (actually billing is out of Akron). So I called Medical Mutual and asked why this was rejected, and they said they never received the diagnosis/doctor's report on the charge. In other words, Hillcrest didn't do their job to get paid. This bill is just one example, and I won't go in to the fact that they gave my daughter the wrong vaccination and tried to charge us $200. Pure and simple incompetence.
And yes I know I'm over reacting to the Progressive nonsense, but it annoyed the hell out me. And I wanted to rant.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Twitterfeed adds Facebook
Received an email update from twitterfeed today, apparently announcing that it now will also update facebook. However, I already have an application that already sends my twitter updates to facebook, and I have twitterfeed posting my blog feed to twitter. So the question is what does this late entry from tweeterfeed do for me?
Tracking of course:
What's more, you'll see statistics for each post showing you just how many people clicked on posts from Facebook vs those from Twitter. You'll be able to better understand just where your social media strategy is working.
In that same mail, they also announce support for Pubsubhubbub (demo video) and Google analytics. Pretty cool.
So now I need to re-configure my echo chamber.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Cleveland.Com's New Commenting Policy
Improvements are coming to Cleveland.com. (HT to Jill Miller Zimon); cleveland.com's attempts to bring civility online seem to be working - Ted Diadiun. Also see:
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Cleveland Browns Are Making Some Progress
Okay, I've been pretty much hammering the Browns this season. However, today against the Steelers while they are still bad, I have to admit I like the fact that they are trying different things. From running a lot of wildcat formations, etc. The play calling is still pretty miserable, and the catching is horrid, as are many of DA's throws. But they are trying different things, anything to make themselves competitive.
Not having a quality receiver and Quarterback hurts. We also need to see more of Harrison and Jamal Tip-Toe-Thru-The-Tulips (T5) Lewis just doesn't bring enough. He seems slow and doesn't have the power I thought he had. Harrison has speed, but probably not enough size/power.
We'll still lose this game, but I will say the team is making progress.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Browns Win in worst game I have ever seen
Okay, that was absolutely the worst football game I have ever seen. The Browns were terrible, with the exception of our punt team. DA stunk(23 yards passing, worst in Browns history), but so did his receivers (7 drops, obviously in honor of BE). In particular, Robert Royal is just bad. When is Mangini going to bench the guy? Jamal did get over 100 yard rushing, but that's against a team using their 4th string middle linebacker. Tiptoe through the tulips Lewis drives me nuts, but not sure we have anyone else.
Superb play by the punting team, and an absolute refusal to play disciplined footbal by the Bills lead the the Browns victory. Take away Bills penalties and the Browns would have been thrashed. Take away the one fumble at the end of the game and we'd be headed to overtime. Mangini and staff are really luck that really poor play calling at the end of the half didn't come back to bite them.
I have to say though, I feel really bad for the Bills fans. They actually lost to the Browns. Probably the worst team I have ever seen(granted I haven't watched Oakland, Tampa Bay, or St. Louis this year). And they largely lost due to the Bills own mistakes, not anything the Browns did.
I'd like to say the Defense played well, but it's just too hard to say that with all the penalties on the Bills OL. I mean how many times were they called for illegal motion?
I will say that the Browns had very few penalties, including one roughing the passer call that was a really lame call. So that is definitely an improvement.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Mayfield Hts Mayoral Race
You can tell it's election season. The yard signs are everywhere. As you drive up Lander Road from Ridgebury towards Mayfleld Rd, it seems like more houses have the yard signs than not. In particular, the one's I notice are signs for the two Mayoral candidates; current Mayor Gregory S. Costabile and challenger Howard Sonenstein. Both of their signs had urls on 'em so I went and check them out.
Me being me, first thing I did is to check their sites with the wc3 validator. Color me impressed. The Mayor's site had only 5 errors, and the challengers only 3 errors. The Mayor's site looks like a simple mistake, while the Challengers is due to a piece of javascript. Pretty much as good as you could ask for...except fully valid of course.
Both sites also pass Section 508 validation tests, and both fail Web Accessibility. Both of these validation tests are to check:
"compliance with U.S. federal standards for accessible Web content, outlined in the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, Section 508, Subpart B, §1194.22. Additionally, this guide can assist you in ensuring that your Web-based documents comply with World Wide Web, or W3C® WCAG 1.0 , accessibility guidelines."
Taking a look at the source, I was surprised to find that neither had google analytics code embedded to track access to the site. Perhaps someone is using a server based log analyzer. I would certainly hope so anyway because otherwise they have no idea who is accessing their sites nor from where.
Neither site, though, provided RSS feeds. So clearly the sites are static and largely will not change. Which of course without RSS feeds no one is going to know it changed anyway. Clearly it seems to me that they have web sites because they are expected to have websites, but that their web presence is not really part of the campaign strategy.
I cannot understand why sites like these don't have RSS. It just makes no sense to me. Even if the candidate doesn't understand it you would hope that the creators of the site do. I would have to say that this reflects more poorly on the Mr. Costabile than Mr. Sonenstein, as the Mayor has in his bio that the web site was "improved". Not nearly enough in my opinion. He does suggest that more changes are on the way so we'll see.
Okay, so that's where I always start. With the web site, how it's constructed and whether its really a part of their campaign. Clearly, it's window dressing to say that have one.
As a relatively new resident to Mayfield Heights, I have no idea who either these gentlemen are. So I read through the mass quantity of information available on their sites, all two or three pages (that sound you hear is me pulling my tongue out of my cheek). What I found interesting is that for many of the "achievements" of Mayfield Heights government, both take credit. And probably validly so, since one was the Mayor and the other on City Council. One would assume they would have to work together to get things done.
| Gregory S. Costabile | Howard Sonenstein |
| Accomplishments | Accomplishments |
| Purchase of Oakville Park | Purchase of Oakville Park |
| Improved Cable TV | Improved Cable TV |
| Settled Costco | Settled Costco |
| Senior Transportation | Senior Transportation |
Okay, so until that point it really doesn't matter to me which to vote for, since clearly they have both done good things. I think Mr. Costabile wins in that as he is the incumbent - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There has to be something to differentiate the candidates, and of course there is.
Mr. Costabile goes on to list other accomplishments such as obtaining grants, managing the ODOT project so it was ended early and under budget amongst other things. On the other hand, Mr. Sonenstein lists the committees he was on and clearly had to work with the Mayor on some of those issues/accomplishments.
What is clearly different though is Mr. Sonenstein's claim to have fought the Mayor and the City Council President over a gas well in the Mayfield City Park. While I'm sure that the revenue from the well would help the city financially, from an eye-sore perspective in one of the really nice places in the City, I'd have to side with Mr. Sonenstein on this one.
On the other hand, Mr. Costabile points to increased environmental awareness and activities. He lays claims to planting trees and conducting energy audits of City Buildings. No where on Mr. Sonenstein's site is there mention of what I consider a critical issue. So I have to side with Mr. Constabile on this one as at least it's on his radar. I'd like to see both candidates, but at a minimum, Mr. Costabile since it is on his platform, to show up at my brother George's talk at the Townhall Series on October 26th. They'd learn quite a bit from someone who is playing a large environmental role in a major city(Washington D.C.)
So they both are still about even, with the incumbent being a tad bit ahead in my opinion so far. That brings me to their "platforms". I really like the fact that both candidates have clearly labeled "platforms" of what they plan to bring to the Office. Again, being a web guy, Mr. Sonenstein gets kudos for having the easier to read. His platform is numbered for easy reading, while Mr. Costabiles is more like a document, a bunch of paragraphs. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se, but it's just a little harder to read. Personally, I like the way Jill Miller Zimon has her campaign page where her issues are clearly labeled and you can pick the one you are interested on and it opens up to show just that piece. (To be fair, Jill's top page is filled with over 300 html validation errors, so both Mayfield gentlemen win in that regard. Note, I'm a big fan of Jill's regardless of whether I agree with everything or nothing she says. She's smart, dedicated, thorough, eloquent and worth listening to for what she has to say.)
Unfortunately, Mr Sonenstein completely loses me with his final item. It's in all caps. Why is he shouting at me? I don't even know the guy. Okay, I get that he's trying to emphasize it, but in the internet world ALL CAPS means one of two things; your all caps key is stuck or your shouting.
To add to that impression, in this section he insuates some serious claims. While he doesn't state it out right, he suggests that Mr. Costabile, the current mayor, uses the office for personal gain, plays favorites based on political favors, and does not commit to the job full time. That's some serious claims particularly when you are shouting them.
To be blunt, based on the contents and the style in which it's rendered, I find it unprofessional and childish. And that's where Mr. Sonenstein loses me. In addition, the platform of Mr. Costabile is much more thorough, covering a wide range of very specific topics. Mr Sonenstein's does as well, just not as thorough.
However, let's take a look at them specifically.
| Gregory S. Costabile | Howard Sonenstein |
| Platform | Platform |
| Continued development of Economic plan - business park | Job Fair |
| Work with planners to support strong retail district | Cut Taxes based on reduced property value |
| Establish committee to develop action plan for Oakville Park | Health Care - leverage Hillcrest to provide immunizations, flu shots for residents, and clinics for those with no insurance, and creation(?) of other clinics |
| Expand Unity Day committee to include more residents | Create Dog Park |
| Expand Senior Programs | Sidewalk and Apron Replacement |
| Create new programs for teeanagers - volunteer opportunities and social events | Offer "out of hours" building inspections |
| Strengthen regional ties, improve state and federal relationships | More programs for children including sprinkler park |
| Expand building department services | shouting...sorry, that' should be: dedicate full time to office, treat residents equally, open and honest communication |
| Provide Fire and Police with state of art equipment and training | |
| More recreational activities | |
| Equip Services department to provide chipper services, leaf pickup, sidewalk repair etc. | |
| Develop community groups | |
| Find new and improved ways to be environmentally consicous | |
| Implement grant to improve Ross Center |
What seems to be clear to me is that Mr. Sonenstein wants to cut property taxes, create a job fair where residents have priority, and improved health care. Mr. Costabile at a minimum is keeping taxes the same, that lengthy list would hint as possible tax increase. But perhaps not. At a minimum, Mr. Costabile has a more thorough platform. Unclear to me is how he plans to pay for all of these items.
In the end though, I'd have to say I lean fairly heavily at this point to Mr. Costabile. Remember, I don't know either of these gentlemen and wouldn't know them if they passed me on the street. I am simply going by their websites.
I'd also like to point out to Mr. Sonenstein that if you click on the "Photos" link from the platform page, you are linked to a "template" that suggests the page was created in Scotland. I found the following pages on your site:
You might want to fix those or at least get a refund from whoever created this site. That's really unprofessional.
So, who is your choice and why?
子供が大きくなると
今日はなんと、朝から夕方までありさと僕、二人きりになりました。 来年の八月に結婚２０周年になり、結婚してから１年目エリーが生まれ、あれ以来だら二人きりになったことは殆どありません。 必ず、誰かいる状態が１９年ぐらい続いているのです。 でも、最近は子供が大きくなっていて、 出かけたりするようになっています。 今日はケンが友達と朝早くシーだーポイントに行きました。 エリーとジョージは10時ごろにキークラブの活動でどこかの子供祭りにボランティアしに行きました。
なんと、家が静かです。 僕はパソコンを向いていて、ありさが何かやっている。これもいいですね。 そして、二人が車のヘッドライトのランプや銀行、グロサリーに一緒に行って帰ってきまして、子供がまだ帰って来ていなく静かです。
そして、これから二人がカリブー（コーヒーショップ）にいって、デート。 いい土曜日ですな。
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Bye Bye Braylon
So y new favorite NFL coach traded away Braylon Edwards. Of course, this news has been taken up nationally and locally. I am hoping that Braylon does well with the Jets because according to what I read, we get better draft picks next year the better he does.
What I don't know is whether is was worth it for this year to get rid of Braylon. In our last game, we established Massaquoi (sp?) as a threat when teams double cover Braylon. That's what seemed to keep us in the game against Cinci. Now that they traded him away what's that do for our wide receiver threat? Robiskie? The guy Eric Mangini stretch to just let him dress for the Cincy game.
Okay, so we're getting Chansi Stuckey in return, So far this season he's had 11 receptions for 120 yards and 1 td versus Braylon's 10 receptions for 139 yards and zero TDs. I have a feeling that Chansi's not going to cut it. We'll see, but I have my doubts that we'll have effective enough wr threats to let our offense grow.
Update So I was talking with Ken about the Braylon thing and the fact that Sportstalkcle hinted a rumour that the Browns were actively shopping Brady Quinn around . So Ken asks me, and I respond with :
ME: yes, but the real question is....
KEN rudely interrupting: do the cavs win a championship this year
Ain't that the truth.
Mayfield JV Beats Lake Catholic 5-0
Yesterday, Mayfield's JV team beat Lake Catholic by a score of 5-0. Ken had an assist though it wasn't his best game. Overall, the JV team played better in the first half then the second half, but they were already up 3-0 at half time. The fifth goal came with about a minute left.
Ken's assist was a beautiful thing to behold. He chipped it over the heads of the defenders to Amare who one touched it with power into the back of the net. Ken now has 4 assists on the season.
Only watched the first half of the varsity game, but I though Lake Catholic played really well. At a minimum, I liked the *way* the played. Don't know the final score though.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Mayfield JV Beats Willoughby South 4-2
So the JV Wildcats came away from Willoughby South High School with a 4-2 win. It was not nearly as close as all that, should have been at least 5-0, and you will enjoy why the final score seems to indicate a more closely competitive game.
First things first, though. Mayfield JV did not play well. It was partially because the field conditions were terrible. Players were slipping and falling everywhere. I think we were on the Willoughby South's football field. I don't think they had a game there last night, but the middle of the field was really muddy.
So you see the kids trying to play their game, but they just couldn't get it going. And that was pretty much true the whole game. To be blunt, it was a snoozer. Jake had a couple of great moves leaving opposing players with their shorts around their ankles. Other than that though, it was just a blah game.
The real score should have 5-0 like I mentioned. The referees took one away. So Mayfield is up 2-0 at halftime, at the end of the break Mayfield waits for Willoughby South to take the field for about five minutes. So they start the second half, and Mayfield blows down the field and Jake puts in a pretty ball into the back of the net. Maybe 30 seconds have gone by until the goal. Willoughby players start yelling to the ref and their own coach. Their coach finally figures out what their saying and starts yelling at the ref that it wasn't a fair start because Willoughby had only 10 players on the field. So the ref says okay let's start again, taks the goal away and they let Willoughby kick off even though Mayfield is supposed to start. Wow, what a mess.
So now we're still 2-0. Okay, that's fine. We're better, not under and pressure from them but not particularly playing well either. We eventually score another two goals.
But as you know, the final score is 4-2. Well one of Willoughby South's players scored both of their goals. Apparently, the Willoughby South players told our guys that this kid was mentally handicapped or some such. Mayfield players being the kind gentlemen they are decide to let this kid score. Us parents sitting in the stands have no idea this is going on, so you can imagine our surprise when this kid goes through our whole defense which looks like it just stopped playing. (Hint, they really did just stop playing). We were thoroughly confused. And then it happens AGAIN. So at that point we don't know why they're letting this one opposing player score, but its really, really clear they are.
Of course, afterwards we find out the real deal. And I'm sure our kids were feeling proud of themselves for a truly kind hearted gesture. And you can imagine the beaming parents.
But that's not the end of the story.
Turns out that the opposing players were actually lying to our players. They were just making fun of this kid and it was apparent after the game that he takes alot of abuse from the other Willoughby South players. They were just ragging on him. Regardless, our guys were feeling pretty foolish for letting a player score on them whose only problem was that he's not a very good soccer player and is picked on by the rest of his teammates.
So much for kind hearted gestures. But it's the thought that counts and it was a classy thing to do. I just wished the played better.
I know believe that Mayfield JV is 7-3, with 4 more to go. I believe the Aurora game was cancelled and not postponed.
I refuse to talk about Mayfield Varsity's tie game with Willoughby South. Mother says if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.