There is nothing quite as relaxing as playing 18 holes on a warm summer day with people you like hanging out with.  Usually most people who play golf are pretty decent people because the game is too hard for people with bad attitudes.  In fact I have never met someone on the golf course that I didn’t see some redeeming quality in.

Golf is a game that you play against yourself.  You keep your own score, so if you cheat then you are just cheating yourself.  Most of the game is really played between your ears.  If you can focus on the moment usually you do pretty well.  Now I know that sounds easy, but it is difficult after you just hit a beautiful drive to not think about the potential birdie or par that is coming.  You can almost see yourself putting it down on your scorecard.  Then……BAM!!  A duff, a shank and a three putt and all of those dreams disappear and you are now putting down a six.

That’s the way that golf goes.  It really is a game that can represent many aspects of life.  When you start your round, I always have a feeling of endless possibility.   This could be the day that I break 80!  This could be the best round I ever shoot.  I try to feel that way at the beginning of every day and even though I rarely do find that goal that I am seeking.  I do usually feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to play.

The only drawback to golf is that is can take up so much time.  Four to five hours gets harder and harder to find.

Great quotes involving golf

Eighteen holes of match or medal play will teach you more about your foe than will 18 years of dealing with him across a desk.  ~Grantland Rice

Golf appeals to the idiot in us and the child.  Just how childlike golf players become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five.  ~John Updike

It is almost impossible to remember how tragic a place this world is when one is playing golf.  ~Robert Lynd

Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad.  ~A.A. Milne

Golf, like the measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious.  ~P.G. Wodehouse, A Mixed Threesome, 1922

I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone’s golf game:  it’s called an eraser.  ~Arnold Palmer

Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears.  ~Bobby Jones

I’m about five inches from being an outstanding golfer.  That’s the distance my left ear is from my right.  ~Ben Crenshaw

Golf is like a love affair.  If you don’t take it seriously, it’s no fun; if you do take it seriously, it breaks your heart.  ~Arthur Daley

Golf is a fascinating game.  It has taken me nearly forty years to discover that I can’t play it.  ~Ted Ray, Golf – My Slice of Life, 1972

The number of shots taken by an opponent who is out of sight is equal to the square root of the sum of the number of curses heard plus the number of swishes.  ~Michael Green, The Art of Coarse Golf, 1975

If there is any larceny in a man, golf will bring it out.  ~Paul Gallico

Golf is a lot of walking, broken up by disappointment and bad arithmetic.  ~Author Unknown

It’s easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister’s fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification.  ~Bruce McCall

Forget your opponents; always play against par.  ~Sam Snead

If profanity had an influence on the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is.  ~Horace G. Hutchinson

They say golf is like life, but don’t believe them.  Golf is more complicated than that.  ~Gardner Dickinson

I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf.  I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.  ~Will Rogers

If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they’d starve to death.  ~Sam Snead

Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness.  ~William Wordsworth

What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.  ~Arnold Palmer

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can’t see him laughing.  ~Phyllis Diller

Fifty years ago, 100 white men chasing one black man across a field was called the Ku Klux Klan.  Today it’s called the PGA Tour.  ~Author uncertain, attributed to Alex Hay

A game in which you claim the privileges of age, and retain the playthings of childhood.  ~Author Unknown, plagiarized from the Samuel Johnson

 “It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter; it is unjust to claim the priveleges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood,” which wasnot written about golf  (Thanks, Frank Lynch)

Golf combines two favorite American pastimes:  taking long walks and hitting things with a stick.  ~P.J. O’Rourke

The sport of choice for the urban poor is basketball.  The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is bowling.  The sport of choice for front-line workers is football.  The sport of choice for supervisors is baseball.  The sport of choice for middle management is tennis.  The sport of choice for corporate officers is golf.  Conclusion: The higher you are in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become.  ~Author Unknown

If you drink, don’t drive.  Don’t even putt.  ~Dean Martin

Golf gives you an insight into human nature, your own as well as your opponent’s.  ~Grantland Rice

Golf is a good walk spoiled.  ~Mark Twain

I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.  ~G.K. Chesterton

They throw their clubs backwards, and that’s wrong.  You should always throw a club ahead of you so that you don’t have to walk any extra distance to get it.  ~Tommy Bolt, about the tempers of modern players

If you break 100, watch your golf.  If you break 80, watch your business.  ~Joey Adams

Man blames fate for other accidents but feels personally responsible for a hole in one.  ~Martha Beckman

When I die, bury me on the golf course so my husband will visit.  ~Author Unknown

I’m not saying my golf game went bad, but if I grew tomatoes, they’d come up sliced.  ~Attributed to both Miller Barber and Lee Trevino

Duffers who consistently shank their balls are urged to buy and study Shanks – No Thanks by R.K. Hoffman, or in extreme cases, M.S. Howard’s excellent Tennis for Beginners.  ~Henry Beard, Golfing, 1985

Golf is life.  If you can’t take golf, you can’t take life.  ~Author Unknown

In baseball you hit your home run over the right-field fence, the left-field fence, the center-field fence.  Nobody cares.  In golf everything has got to be right over second base.  ~Ken Harrelson

If I can hit a curveball, why can’t I hit a ball that is standing still on a course?  ~Larry Nelson

Golf balls are attracted to water as unerringly as the eye of a middle-aged man to a female bosom.  ~Michael Green, The Art of Coarse Golf, 1967

If your opponent is playing several shots in vain attempts to extricate himself from a bunker, do not stand near him and audibly count his strokes.  It would be justifiable homicide if he wound up his pitiable exhibition by applying his niblick to your head.  ~Harry Vardon

A passion, an obsession, a romance, a nice acquaintanceship with trees, sand, and water.  ~Bob Ryan

Drugs are very much a part of professional sports today, but when you think about it, golf is the only sport where the players aren’t penalized for being on grass.  ~Bob Hope

I’d play every day if I could.  It’s cheaper than a shrink and there are no telephones on my golf cart.  ~Brent Musburger

It is with a little bit of embarrassment  that I admit that I love the television series, Psych.  Truly I just love to watch Psych!   It is a show designed, I think for people who are younger than me but I started watching it on Netflix and thanks to Psych episodes online, I quickly went through the first four seasons of the show and am an avid “Pshych-O”.

This show is totally unrealistic, and if you accept that going in you will be o.k.  Shawn Spencer is the main character and he is a psychic detective.  What is that you ask?  Well he is a detective who uses his “psychic abilities” to solve crimes.  He often is called into the Santa Barbara Police Department to help them solve crimes as well.   Spencer works with his childhood friend Burton Guster, who is a full time pharmaceuticals salesman and part-time Psychic associate.  These two characters have the funniest lines and most memorable banter between them.  I literally laughed my butt off watching this show.  Really I did.  I was connected to my butt one minute and then, BAM, my butt fell off.  From their constant references from foods to 80’s pop culture, there is something for everyone.  They also have featured many interesting guest stars over the first five seasons.  From wrestling’s John Cena to Cary Elwes, (the Princess Bride),  they never fail to deliver an interesting story, and make you laugh in the process.

The laughter is definitely the number one reason I like this show.   Even though I am quite sure that I feel my I.Q. drop every time I watch, I think that the boys and Juliet are worth it.  Pineapple anyone?

List of Psych episodes

Shawn: Come on, dude. I honestly didn’t know he was gonna be pulling a corpse outta the ground.

Gus: That’s alright, Shawn. I honestly didn’t know I was gonna be putting my foot in your ass. Life’s full of surprises.

Shawn: This is just another knock off of the other knock off of the original knock off of that other show.

Shawn [while they’re in front of the fence, after he said that usually the ‘electrified’ sign is fake]: Come on, touch it.

Gus: I’m not touching an electrified fence, Shawn!

Guard *smiling creepily*: How about I touch it?

Shawn: I don’t think I like the way that sounds.

“Or maybe you’re referring to my license to kill. Revoked. Trouble at the Kazakhstan border. I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you, which I can’t do because my license to kill has been revoked.”  

Hello I’m psychic detective Shawn Spencer and this is my partner………

After a conversation I had today I wanted to put a list of some of my favorite movies based on Stephen King Novels out there to scare, inspire or entertain your kids who probably weren’t alive when they first came out! Fun Making the list!

Salem’s Lot

Author Ben Mears returns to ‘Salem’s Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead.  Vampires in Maine what could be scarier than that?

Stand by Me

This film is a fantastic coming of age story about a group of four strange mismatched friends from junior high who try to track down a missing boy, presumed dead, by following some train tracks. Meanwhile they learn about each other and themselves, and end up all changing forever because of that several day journey. This is a very touching film with some sadness, and shows that Stephen King is not “just a horror writer.” This movie is based on the King novella “The Body.”

The Green Mile  

Some may argue that this is the best movie, and they may have a point, but the fact that there are enough great movies based on Stephen King works that a film this good (rated on the top 250 movies ever on IMDB) could arguably not be in the top five just shows that there are some gems out there. Not only is Tom Hanks great in this film, but this touching movie (a not heavily hidden allegory of the Jesus story) follows the film and is a fantastic watch that generally follows the books very carefully.

It

This three hour and change movie is a two part movie, with Pennywise the Clown perhaps one of the most disturbing horror villains in movie history. I personally point to him (and watching this movie at the age of ten) as explaining my life long fear/hatred of clowns. This movie is often judged as the first half being excellent and the second half mediocre, in part because of a changed ending. In fairness, the book’s ending would be next to impossible to fully convert into a movie format, but all in all, this movie is still a great view, and the first half is excellent. You might want to skip this one if you have a phobia of clowns.

Shawshank Redemption

This movie is one of only three from the IMDB website that has a rating of over 9.0 (out of 10), and is rated as the second best movie of all time on that website, and for very good reason. This amazing movie is based on the equally amazing novella about a banker who is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and is sent to a sadistic prison where the guards and warden are both corrupt. The acting is incredible, the storyline is amazing, and everything about this movie works. Not only is this the best movie ever adapted from a Stephen King work, but many cinema fans agree that it was one of the better movies ever made.

Pet Cemetary-

This work was also one of Stephen King’s finest horror novels. There is a haunted pet cemetery, spelled cutely with an ‘S,’ where everything buried comes back from the dead, but comes back twisted and evil. This is a great film where the tragic loss of a child proves too much temptation, and what comes back is terrifying and evil beyond belief. The ending of this film is absolutely fantastic, and one of the best endings of a King movie.

Misery-

This was one of the best horror novels written by Stephen King, and the best movie based on a horror work. Annie Wilkes, the number one fan, is the worst nightmare of every celebrity, or every individual who has ever been stalked. An author gets in an accident, but is “rescued” by an obsessive fan, who ends up killing anyone who snoops around and creates the word “hobbling.” Anyone who saw the movie just winced at the mention of that word. Kathy Bates is exceptional as Annie Wilkes, and one of the most convincing movie psychopaths of all time.

Children of the Corn-

Children of the Corn was based on a short story by Stephen King (and all six of the terrible sequels were based on movie studios trying to stretch it for a cheap buck). “Outlander! Outlander! We have your woman!” This classic line and scene helps define the movie, where a child prophet has convinced every child to murder all the adults in town, as they worship “He who walks behind the rows.” Talk about the wrong town to break down in! This is a very solid horror flick, with some really genuinely creepy moments.

By Jon Hilton

As I watched the final episode of the office featuring Steve Carell, I was shocked at how much I am going to miss this character.  I have been a huge fan of the Office for quite awhile, but have always found the Michael Scott character uncomfortable to watch, he touches a side of you that you usually would never touch.  He often says and does things that make you uncomfortable, and still make you laugh because he is a caricature of the typical boss.  There are a million great quotes from Dunder Mifflin’s ex-fearless leader, which I will include below.

My favorite Michael Scott moments, 1. organizing his own birthday party at the skating rink and making everybody go even though Kevin possibly has cancer.  2. Survivorman- heading out into the wild woods of Scranton to brave the elements, Michael cuts his pantlegs off to make a hat? and then as it gets a little cooler tapes his pants back together to get warm.  He manages to stay out in the wild for approx. 2 hours before he makes it back for Creed’s birthday party.  3. Any meeting led by Michael Scott in the conference room.  Especially when they feature pictures.  “Why did you use the picture of Tom Hanks in Big again.”  Discrimination, homophobia, obesity, ageism, drug addiction,  have all been tackled by Michael Scott over the years.  Having sat through countless meaningless meetings, I can appreciate what he brings to the table.

Look below to read, “Somehow I Manage” , written by Michael Scott to be completed by Darryle, please enjoy the inner workings of the greatest managerial mind of our time.

Somehow I Manage By Michael Gary Scott

Chapter One: Introduction

There are all types of managers: financial managers, McDonald’s managers, Britney Spears’ manager, paper company managers, moms, baseball managers… the list goes on. Not all those people are naturally good at their jobs. Some have to work really hard at it. Others write books about it. I’m Michael Scott and this is my manual, “Somehow I Manage.” If you follow my guidelines, soon you’ll be the world’s second best manager (Sorry, I’ll always be #1. I have a mug that proves it.)

Chapter Two: Gum

Everybody likes the guy who offers them a stick of gum.

Chapter Five: Entertain

“For some trips, high-speed rail will be faster than flying. Without the pat down.”

Who said it? Cosby? Tosh.0? Nope. Obama! Even the President tells jokes. That just goes to show how important comedy is. As a leader, people expect you to entertain them. Some managers might find this difficult because they’re busy doing other things like paperwork or employee reviews. Delegate all that boring stuff to other people so you have more time to entertain. Comedy should always take precedence over everything else because it makes people cheerful, and when they’re cheerful they work better. Someone once told me comedy is where the mind goes to tickle itself, and that couldn’t be truer. Make sure your employees’ minds are getting tickled on a daily basis. They’ll be so grateful, and so will you.

One of my favorite places in the world is Greenville, Maine.  I was fortunate enough to be raised there until I was 13 and then even more fortunate to return and live there last year.

It is like a time machine, all of the good things that I remember are there, great people, beautiful scenery and lots of moose running around.  If you have never visited the Moosehead Lake Region, you should put it on your list of things to do and spend some time in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author’s observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.
The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator’s father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers.

I love this story I think because at it’s core it is a story about simpler times and reminds me of my own small town upbringing. I also believe that at the end of the day, we should all try to live our lives in a way that isn’t destructive to things that should be treasured and/or appreciated.  Too often I think we pass through our lives without noticing the good things that are happening right in front of us.   If you haven’t read it………..read it!  If you have read it before…………READ IT AGAIN.

Favorite Quotes From To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions… but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.  The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”  – Atticus Finch
“I think I’ll be a clown when I get grown,” said Dill.  “Yes, sir, a clown…. There ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I’m gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.”  “You got it backwards, Dill,” said Jem.  “Clowns are sad, it’s folks that laugh at them.”

“Well, I’m gonna be a new kind of clown.  I’m gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.”

“I think there’s just one kind of folks.  Folks.”  -Scout Finch

“Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.”   –  Atticus Finch

Atticus Finch: “If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”