Blog by "B - Dub"

2007-09-22T18:30:00.001-04:00

With Christmas much closer than it seems, it's time to start thinking about those special gifts that every child dreams about getting at Christmas time.
If you would like a simple way to get a child excited in the anticipation of Christmas before it even gets here, one gift that can do just that is an authentic postmarked letter from Santa from the Northpole.

I designed this site right in time for Christmas last year with the intent of raising money for a great cause. For every purchase made on my site, I will donate up to 20% of the total purchase price to The JDRF (Juvenile Diaetes Research Foundation)for all orders $20.00 and greater. Anything less than $20.00 will be 5-10% depending on the amount.

Please help me reach my $5000.00 donation goal this year by sending all the little ones you know the #1 rated gifts for children. Make a child smile while helping to cure another.Together, we can add magic and hope to a child's life. Order soon and beat the rush !!

My letters are all carefully hand-made, one at a time (no form letters)while paying attention to detail. My letters also have more parameter entries per letter than any other site on the web. Imagine the look on a child's face when they realize that Santa knows so much about them.
Please visit http://www.santabuddy.com/ for more details. Thanks so much for your support.

Hank Aaron or Barry Bonds?

2007-09-20T11:50:00.000-04:00

With all the speculation of steroid use in baseball and in Barry Bonds' bloodstream, do you think Barry should hold the Major League Baseball record for homeruns, or do you think due to the debate of prior steroid use by Barry Bonds, the title should be given back to Hank Aaron? The Hank Aaron era had some true, homemade(not homegrown : )) athletes.

Check the interesting link below if you would like to be part of history making by voting on the fate of Barry Bonds and his big #756. The website below was a great idea and an awesome site and I would like to personally congratulate the owner for a job well done. Lets banish cheating and artificial athletasism in basball and all other sports. Lets preserve the integrity of all the true athletes who have honestly set milestones in the proffesional sports arena. The current days sports stars are paid 100's of times more than the late stars and they still think they must artificially enhance their abilities to perform. It seriously takes credit away from the true athletes and their families who earned every step of their career. RESPECT THE SPORT

The proud recipient of Barry Bonds' 756th world record homerun would like the public to vote on what he should do with the baseball that he paid $1 million for. He would like to dispose of it properly (put it into orbit in space), or add it to the Hall of Fame with an asterisk *.
Hurry and cast your vote....only 3 days left !!! It's your ball now....you decide and become part of history.

Another Saw You Must See

2007-09-03T16:13:00.000-04:00

With the well known "Saw" series movie and the evil character "Jigsaw" being one of my personal favorites, I just learned that yet another hopefully great installment has been produced. Saw IV is set to hit the theatres on October 26th right in time for Halloween. "If it's Halloween, it must be Saw". Check out the trailer and a movie scene below. I'm sure I will see this within the first couple days it hits the theatres. I can hardly wait!!

Let me know what you think....Yay.....or Nay ?

http://view.break.com/346234 - Watch more free videos

Back to School !!

2007-08-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

Where did the summer go? Can anyone tell me? The first sign that summer is near it's end is when you hear the school bells ringing. The kids went back to school on Tuesday....Chelsea is a junior this year, Brandon in 7th grade, & Savannah in 2nd. Seems like just yesterday Chelsea was still in elementary school. Another 9 months...It will be summer once again and another year older.
Well...back to work. Busy...busy...busy...

Moto Q Smartphone

2007-08-05T22:18:00.000-04:00

I finally got my hands on a new cellphone after signing a new 2 year agreement through Alltel. I got the new Motorola - Moto Q smartphone with Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, that I've been eyeing for a few months now. Its a pretty sweet phone / pda and gets great internet connection speeds. I had an opportunity to try out the new EV-DO broadband connection in Parkersburg, WVa. where the phone connects to high speed wi-fi hotspot access points. The EV-DO access points are only in select areas of the country, mostly in larger cities or high traffic areas like airports, malls, etc. Even when not in an EV-DO area, this phone still gets acceptable page loading speeds over the standard Alltel network.

The phone also has bluetooth, gps navigation, infra-red remote and beaming capabilties, and am able to program it for use as a television remote. I really don't know how they can pack all the options they do in such a small device.The Moto Q is about the size of a Texas Instuments scientific pocket calculator. It has stereo speakers, you can transfer files to it and store/ play files and MP-3's. It has a 1.3 Mp camera which can be used as a camcorder. It does e-mail, instant messaging, fully functional web browser, Microsoft Office, MP-3's, Mpeg-4 video player. Basically like a computer in your pocket.

Season's End / Another Blog?

2007-07-25T11:49:00.000-04:00

The Athens Sandlot All-Star traveling team season has officially come to an end with an astounding final record of 25-3 over a 5 weekend period. They took 2nd place in their bracket at The Beast of the East tourney in Wheeling, West Virginia going 2-2 while they were there. They defeated the Bulldogs of Pennsylvania, & Moundsville West Virginia. In Athens final game, they were defeated by The Elite Baseball Academy( Pa.) which took 1st place.

Our standings out of the 5 weekend tournaments were 3 - 1st place trophys, 1 - 5th place, and 1 - 2nd place. A record to be quite proud of. Brandon will be starting Pony league next year in 7th grade which will be a step up from where he played this year during the regular season, although he did get some pony league All-Star tourney's under his belt for some experience. This will end my posts on little league baseball for the year, but may still be posting some MLB baseball related stuff like the play-offs, and the World Series, and not to forget my favorite team...The Atlanta Braves.

I began another blog that is Juvenile Diabetes related for people to talk about what it is like to raise, or to have been a diabetic child. It is a pretty nice site and I hope it grows enough to be a very popular diabetes blog. Please visit & bookmark http://www.juvenile-diabetes-stories.blogspot.com/ to check it out. I am slowly making some great additions and enhancements to it like, a diabetes chat room, diabetes videos, diabetes polls, and question & answer sections for people and parents new to the disease. It is a place to go to give or receive valuable information and support. Its also a place to connect to other valuable diabetes related blogs and sites like the JDRF, or the American Diabetes Association.

Thanks again for reading my blog...and come back often to make sure you don't miss anything. Happy Hump Day!!

How Many of "You" Are There? (Thats Scary)

2007-07-22T22:37:00.000-04:00

I was sitting in front of the computer this evening thinking of some ideas for domain names and some ideas for another website. I thought of a good idea and did a yahoo search on it...and guess what? Someone thought of it before I did! Sound familiar? It's all too familiar to me. For every 200 ideas I think might have a remote chance of being new or never applied, only one of them will be an original idea of my own. Better get used to it with all the cyber-squatting out there.
You're probably wondering what my idea was, yes? I was wondering how many of me there are in the world, or at least the United States. That's when I stumbled onto this website. Check out the interesting banner below. How many of "you" are there? You have typed your name into a search engine before right? come on...everyone has. There are 5 of me (I knew there were at least a couple). Let me know by posting your comments to this post. Have fun!!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
5
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Subscribe to my Photo Feed

2007-07-21T15:03:00.000-04:00

I have a new photo album on Flickr.com (which is owned by Yahoo) with quite a few pictures on it. You can subscribe to my photo feed by clicking here.

--Bryan out

Stats

2007-07-21T11:03:00.000-04:00

Brandon called this morning and let us know that his first 2 games at The Beast of the East tournament on Thursday were cancelled due to the weather and won't be made up. In Friday's game, Athens defeated The Pickerington, Ohio Big Katz, but he didn't mention the score. They play 2 games later this afternoon against 2 Pennsylvania teams, The Elite Baseball Academy from Altoona and Bulldogs Baseball Club. These will be the final 2 games before the championship begins tomorrow. Hopefully I hear from Brandon tonight on today's stats.
Not doing a lot this weekend except getting caught up on some much needed yard work and things around the house. Weather is supposed to be nice.

Have a good weekend

Waiting for Statistics

2007-07-20T22:28:00.000-04:00

I'm currently waiting for a phone call from Brandon from Wheeling to let me know how the Athens All-Star team has done in their first 3 games. They played 2 games yesterday (as long as they weren't rained out) and 1 game today. Yesterday they were scheduled to play St. Clairsville, Ohio and Moundsville, West Virginia. They played The Pickerington, Ohio Big Katz. I will post the results as soon as I hear from Brandon.

We originally had plans to take a drive to Wheeling tomorrow but I'm not sure if we will get a chance to now. He has 2 games tomorrow, the first at 3:30 they play The Elite Baseball Academy of Altoona, Pennsylvania & The Pennsylvania Bulldogs. Sunday's game schedule will be based on seeding & brackets and is not yet known. In the final tournament championship on Sunday, they could be playing any team...a neighbor like Marietta or Vienna...or a team thats a little further away like Quebec, Canada. We'll see....

Go Athens!!

HIYA

2007-07-20T08:31:00.000-04:00

Sure thing Dad..I'll send you an email as well. Blogging is in a sense an online journal, or diary, and simply an online presence which people may read to stay updated. It stands for "web log". People that you choose may also comment on posts as well. Blogging has gotten popular pretty quick mostly because of the functionality is much better than it used to be. It is more or less a simple website that can be setup according to what the blooging company will let you do. Blogger.com (which is owned by google I believe) is one of the best and has the best functionality as you can post pictures, videos, and nearly anything else that can be put on a simple webpage. Think of it as a fancy forum. Once you create one, it will you can choose to also make it look like your personalized domain for example mine is http://www.bryanwitham.blogspot.com/. Some people just do blogs instead of websites because it is simple and you need no web design experience. And if you are not running an online business and just want to convey simple text and images, and info, blogging is the way to go. It's quick, easy, and all web-based (no software needed).
I also forgot to mention...you can use a create a blog the same reason you would create a website. The blog can be your journal to show the world or only to certain people that you give access rights to, or a blog can be something that interests you...for example, you could create a blog on 57' Chevys. That way when people do a search for blogs on 57' Chevy's, it would come up in a search and people around the world could subscribe and reply and put their own posts on your blog (if you set it up that way). So in a sense, a blog can be a mixture of a website, a journal, a diary, and a forum all in one. But it can be about whatever...thats what is so nice about it, it doesnt have to be about any certain thing. My www.santabuddy.com wouldn't work well as a site for 57' chevy fans. It has no revelance, but a blog about 57' chevys could be called www.ronwitham.blogspot.com and people could search for 57' chevy and find your page in a search engine or on a search on www.blogger.com Just sign up for one and play around with it..it's quite fun and amazing what the design options are. Also there are many free blog providers out there. Hope this helps.
Let me know if this helps you.
For a detailed description of blogging, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog Blog

Love, Bryan

Hi

2007-07-20T06:36:00.000-04:00

This is dad. Just seeing what this will do. I'm new to blogging and don't know much about it. If you have time send me some tips about this, ok?
Love, Dad W.

Posts Wanted

2007-07-19T12:19:00.000-04:00

As you've probably seen, I've sent out some blog posting invitations. Feel free to post whatever you'd like to share with the family.

Check out my websites:

http://www.bryanwitham.com/
(my personal domain)

http://www.santabuddy.com/
(my home-business & diabetes fundraising site)

http://www.votegrabber.com/
(my hot topic & public opinion site- my experimental site)

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~withamb/New%20HTML/newindex.htm
(new work website - still under construction)

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~withamb/athenssandlotbulls.htm
(ball team webpage)

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~withamb
(work website)

Is it Friday yet?!

2007-07-19T11:51:00.000-04:00

Well,
Besides running around like a chicken with it's head cut off,it's been a pretty good day besides the heavy down-pour of rain we had earlier. It looks as if Wheeling, West Virginia is in the path of the storm, so I'm guessing the baseball tourney games at The Beast Of The East will be cancelled or postponed today. Supposed to be nice tomorrow and the weekend so I suppose it can be made up then.
Lunch is over.....Back to Work!!!

Good Day,

Bryan

The new hairdo

2007-07-18T21:38:00.000-04:00

Not a long post...about time to turn in for the night but I just recalled that I haven't posted the promised picture of Savannah's recent hair trimming.She had about 2/3 of it trimmed off. She really wanted me to get that picture put on the page today...so...here it is : )

Until tomorrow...

--Bryan out

Happy Hump Day

2007-07-18T08:21:00.000-04:00

The week is half over and it looks like we're getting some much needed rain this week.Brandon left for the Wheeling, West Virginia Beast of the East pony league tournament yesterday morning and they play their first scheduled game tomorrow (Thursday) at 8:00am. There are a lot of skilled teams attending this tourney from all over the country...120 to be exact. One of the teams are the Columbus Sharks, although I'm not sure wether they're in our bracket. The Columbus Sharks are a well established traveling summer team in which all players must try out for the team before they pay their $5000.00 fee per player. Yup..you heard me right and I did put the correct amount of zeros in that number! I suppose that covers just about everything for the player including room and board, meals, and travel. They travel all over, all summer long. They played in Myrtle Beach recently for one of their tourneys.I will try to keep my blog updated on Brandons team progress through the tourney. Hopefully we'll be able to break free this weekend and take a 2 1/2 hr drive up there to catch a game or two.

Happy Hump Day

----Bryan out

Is it Monday Already??!!

2007-07-16T08:57:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately it is Monday already. It seems as you get older, the weekends simply aren't long enough, and get shorter and shorter. Even 3 day weekends don't seem long anymore. I recall as a kid, a regular 2 day weekend seemed like 2 weeks and a 3 dayer seemed like an entire summer.
Hopefully this week I can get some much needed yardwork done. My yard has suffered badly during the baseball season being gone all weekend every weekend. The last b-ball tourney is this weekend, but due to the distance (Wheeling, WVa) I won't be traveling with Brandon. He is going with the team and the coaches and leaving a couple days early.They are spending the week in a lodge while they are there. Steph and I may drive up there on Saturday to catch a couple of games, but I can't afford to take the days off of work since it about a 3 hour drive one way.
I am debating what my next project should be. I am wanting to create a new website...something that creates a lot of traffic. I will let everyone know once I decide. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Have a swell Monday

All good things must come to an end

2007-07-15T21:38:00.000-04:00

Well...The Athens All-Stars won game 2 & 3 on Friday night by defeating Warren 11-1 and defeating Godby,West Virginia 11-1. Saturday we won both games, the first game we defeated Tri-C 10-0 and the 2nd game we defeated St. Mary's 16-1 giving us another anticipated undefeated run. After being 5-0 for the weekend, giving us the top seed in the tourney, unfortunately we lost the first round of the single elimination to Marietta by a very slim margin of 5-6 (we defeated this team 2 or 3 times in the previous 2 weekends). We had a very good attempt at a comeback in the bottom of the 6th inning (last inning) while we were down 6-3. We had a base hit followed by a 2 run homer that brought us within 1 point, but we just couldn't squeeze out that 1 last run we needed to tie the game or 2 runs to win. Goes to show you that baseball is a game that can turn on a dime, and a game in which you can never let your guard down, you must always keep your cool, and never take anything for granted or ever get over-confident. Marietta did a fine job at using our mistakes during the game to their advantage. Athens has nothing to be ashamed about...any team would be proud to announce an impressive 23-1 record which is nearly unheard of in all-star play. Yeah...it would have been nice to go another 10 games without a loss, but hey, 23-1 is exceptional to say the least. Good luck Marietta, with the remainder of the tournament!!
Not to complain...that puts our 4 week tourney record at a whopping 23 wins & 1 loss. I overheard a member of the team who is keeping track of all post season games including Sunday league games and the total post season record for The Athens All-Stars have an unbelievable record of 38 - 4 !! Great job team!! We have also won 3 out of 4 first place trophys in the past 4 weekends which is not too shabby. Our next and final tourny of the summer, The Beast of the East, begins this Thursday July 19th through Sunday July 22nd in Wheeling, West Virginia, home of the Jamboree of the Hills. Our first game is at 8:00am on Thursday. Have fun & Good luck Athens!!
Check back tomorrow for those haircut pics of Savannah I promised. Just been so busy, haven't had much time. Also stay tuned for updates on the Athens All-Star's progress in the Wheeling tourney. Have a nice week & happy Monday to all!! :)

--Bryan out--

Another Win !

2007-07-13T09:36:00.000-04:00

We played game #1 of our 4th weekend tourney last night in Vienna, West Virginia and defeated Barlow-Vincent by a score of 10-0 in 5 innings. This brings our current tourney record to 1-0 and our overall All-Star record of 19-0. We play game #2 & #3 tonight at 5:15pm & 9:15pm. Not sure who we are playing yet but I will be sure to post the results following the game on here and on my website at www.bryanwitham.com We also play 2 games tomorrow, the 1st at 10:15am and the 2nd at 4:15pm. Sunday we play single elimination, so I'm guessing we could play up to 3-4 games.
I'll keep everyone updated...hope everyone has a great weekend!

Beast of the East begins Thursday 7/19/07 ! Go Athens!!

Savannah got her hair cut and donated her hair to "Locks of Love" - Pictures coming soon

Bryan out

Steps of Life

2007-07-10T10:38:00.000-04:00

Chelsea turned 16 a couple weeks ago and crossed an important milestone in her life by getting her first job. She started working at Dairy Queen, yesterday being her first day. If you see her making icecream sundaes and bananna splits, tell her "Hi" and welcome her as the newest addition to the taxpayers. : )

Currently enjoying the days off in between Brandon's baseball tournaments, actually relaxing in the evenings until Thursday when we begin a new one in Vienna, West Virginia. I need to cut the grass soon though, so it may not last long (the relaxation that is).

Have a nice day!

My First Post

2007-07-09T11:29:00.000-04:00

Photo: Athens grabs their 2nd 1st place trophy for Marietta 11/12 Bantam Tournament in Marietta, Ohio on 7/8/07

Please excuse this first post as it contains everything from the past 4 or 5 days that I transferred from my http://www.bryanwitham.com/ website. Everything will be sorted out and organized after today's entry...I promise. Feel free to comment on my posts as I will be excited to hear from anyone. Check back often for daily news and for everything I've been up to lately. Please read my first post below......

Brandon is currently playing for the Athens Sandlot All-Star traveling team. He was nominated for the top seeded team of the 3 teams that were formed for the Athens All-Stars. We play in a new tournament every weekend for nearly 6 weeks. We are currently playing in our 3rd tournament and have so far won 1st place in the first 2 tourneys. The first tourney was the Athens Invitational which we won the first place trophy and had a tourney record of 7-0 (undefeated). Our second tournament was the Marietta Pony-Bronco League invitational in which we won the 1st place trophy with a tourney record of 5-0 (undefeated) beating Ohio Valley in the final championship game 17-7. Brandon ended up smacking 3 homeruns over the wall during the tourney with 2 of them in one game. This weekend currently we are playing in the Marietta Little League 12 year old invitational, and we are undefeated so far (2-0), defeating Williamstown 6-1 on 7/5/07 and defeating Cambridge by a score of 8-1 this evening 7/6/07. We play at least 1 game tomorrow 7/7/07 and 2-3 games on Sunday 7/8/07. Next weekend we are attending the Vienna, West Virginia Little League invitational tournament, and the following week and weekend (Thursday 7/19/07 - Sunday 7/22/07) we are playing a 4 day invitational "Beast of the East" tournament in Wheeling, West Virginia with a minumum of 6-8 games. This tourney is one of the largest youth baseball tournaments in the country with over 120 teams signed up to play in the various age group brackets and some attending teams are considered to be some of the best in the country. For more info on this massive tournament, please visit http://www.beastoftheeast.org/ Our teams combined record for the last 2 weekends is 14 - 0. Stay tuned for more updates and stats as the weekends progress. We won our only game today vs Marietta. The final score was 14-2 bringing our tourney record to 3-0 and our overall All-Star season record to 15-0. We begin the single elimination seeded play tomorrow with at least 1 game and up to 3 games. Once a team loses a game, they are eliminated. Go Athens!! Since we had only 1 game today, we decided to stop by the Marietta aquatic center which is a small waterpark. We spent 5 hours cooking our skin in the blazing heat...and man am I burnt. Ok..we finally wrapped up the final 3 games of the Marietta invitational tournament, and we won all 3. We again took 1st place and the trophy for a tourney for yet another undefeated weekend of 6-0. We defeated our sister team (Athens Gold) today 12-2, defeated Guernsey County 9-2, and our toughest game yet for the trophy was Scioto Valley with a final score of 5-3. This brings our total All-Star season to a whopping 18 - 0 record in just 3 weekends...unbelievable!! We begin the next tournament this Thursday July 12th through Sunday July 15th in Vienna, West Virginia. Check back tomorrow for our team pictures & video I took of the team after the tourney. Remember to check back often....Cheers!