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By Mark D, July 31, 2012 7:37 pm

[This is for a friend of mine, I believe this is a press release he put out that I'm reposting. If it's an actual news story from somewhere, my apologies.]

Eagle Scout Sean Vannoy of troop 1 Sellersville is an Aspirant, Registered member of team USA battle of the nations over the next few months Sean will travel the country competing for one of 42 spots on the team of Americans that will travel to Europe in the spring. Members of the team are only allowed to wear the eagle of America once they have been to an international competition as part team USA.

European nations have centuries of glorious medieval history in which their best armoured Knights raised their swords to take the field of combat against those from other nations in noble tournaments for the honor of their homeland – but as a younger country, the United States lacks the history for such a tradition of glorious armoured tournament.

The time has finally come for the USA to have its chance to rewrite history and take its rightful place amid the tales of armoured national warriors earning great victories against competing Knights from foreign lands.
A national team from the United States will join national teams comprising the most professional and experienced medieval swordfighters from across Europe in a full-contact contest of arms, just like the Knights of old. Teams from the Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Quebec, Germany, Italy, and the United States will engage in single combat, small unit engagements, and mass combat to determine which nation will prove victorious at the end of nearly a week of competition.

Combining the patriotism and team spirit generated by the Olympics and World Cup, with the full-contact excitement of Ultimate Fighting and MMA – all while wrapped in the romance and drama of Renaissance Faires and Medieval Times, the Batle of the Nations matches top competitors from national teams across the globe competing against each other in all-out Chivalric combat in authentic full medieval armour. Steel swords clash against wooden shields. Giant poleaxes crash down upon metal helms. Victorious national teams celebrate hard-won victories against those they just vanquished on the field of battle.

Even as they fiercely compete on the field of battle, the national teams come together as brothers-in-arms off the field – engaging in a range of medieval cultural activities, arts, and crafts as they live and work together in an authentic re-enactment of a medieval festival.

The newly-formed TeamUSA comprises over thirty of the most renowned swordfighters from decades of competition across the United States, all of whom will take the field to fight for the American glory and honor.

Experiencing exponentially growing interest throughout Eastern and Western Europe, including a new television series airing on Russian television, the Battle of the Nations sits at the cusp of consumer interest in national sports teams, full-contact “mixed” martial arts, and the dramatic rise in interest in medieval re-enactment as evidenced by the spate of recent and forthcoming major motion pictures.

TeamUSA is actively seeking sponsors and media partners to help make their quest to cross the Atlantic and represented the United States at the Battle of the Nations a reality – and to bring this uniquely educational and entertaining sporting event to the North American audience.

To help Sean Vannoy with travel expenses go to http://igg.me/p/166341?a=842712 or for more information about the team, sponsorship and media opportunities, and how to make a donation to make TeamUSA’s involvement possible is available at www.USAknights.org.

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By Mark D, July 6, 2011 10:14 pm

[I got this via a comment on my old post about Little League. I really can't believe people actually cheat at Little League, so I figured I'd repost it - Mark]

To whom it may concern,                                                 7/4/2011

Honesty, Integrity, Trust, Humility, Gratitude and, above all, Service to others, are the values I aspire to instill in every child. If these are the core values of our future generations, we have tremendous hope for the future. Living our lives as examples of these, regardless of what has happened in the past, is the only example we can share that will have a profound effect on the children that we coach.

I trust in God
I love my country
And I will respect its laws
I will play fair
And strive to win
But win or lose
I will always do my best

For those who have never encountered these words before, they are Little League pledge and these words represent a conscious effort to maintain the integrity of a game that is played by children and instill the core values that make this world a better place.

A little over 8 years ago my wife and I saw a sign on the side of the road for our local Little League, Four County, from District 2 in Maryland. At the time my twins were three and we had the good fortune to be indoctrinated into a Little League T-Ball Clinic program by a manager that was enthusiastic and loved to teach. As we moved through the ranks my daughter lost interest but my son continued to love the game and played every spring & every fall. We joined the community of Little League Baseball. I personally have embraced the values and taught the most important lessons that we can teach every child. My son Christopher loves the game as I do.

Today we have encountered first hand the dark side of youth sports. As I have been appointed by our local board to be the manager of the 10/11 team, I have been tasked with assembling a team of All Stars to compete in the MD District 2 tournament and all the responsibilities that go along with that title. Those that are involved give their time to youth service freely. Many who serve on other youth related boards understand the differences between teaching competitive desire and core values. Little League is one of the organizations that holds closest to those values and my son is a better person because of it. Part of the responsibilities of being selected Manager is to assemble a tournament affidavit with proof of age and residency for all participants. This is a time consuming part of the process that is designed to maintain the integrity of the tournament.

Yesterday we encountered a breakdown in the process that followed with the investigation of the book of another team in another game yet this influenced the outcome of our game. A league in our district was found to have had a 12 year old player playing on the 10/11 team. This team had a victory in their first game after a first round bye. It was then discovered that the team had an ineligible player in their second game and they were required to forfeit the game they were currently playing. This team by virtue of its first round victory had found itself in the winner’s bracket while the team that they first played was sent to the loser’s bracket. All this transpired within the framework of the last 2 days. During the course of this discovery, the team that had lost to the team with the ineligible player was notified that a ruling was being made and the game that was in progress was to be suspended until it was sorted out. This suspension of play occurred during the 4th !
inning. After a delay of not more than 5 minutes the teams were told to resume play. The team that lost yesterday was my team and if everyone had followed the rules we would be rightly eliminated from the tournament.

Youth sports are reliant on trust between the organizations and the parents that register their children. Honesty is a law written into the fabric of all that we encounter and when deception, whether intentional or accidental, is discovered, the effects of the action have already begun to change the intended course of outcomes.

This brings us to what would be considered fair and equitable. Our team pulled a challenging draw at the formation of the tournament. We have a five team bracket and we drew the play in game. In order for our team to advance to the finals we would need to win 3 games in 3 days while the top of the bracket had one day off for the winner. As transpired our team won its first and then lost the second to the team that fielded the ineligible player. We then moved to the loser’s bracket where we played yesterday and had our game suspended in the 4th inning to determine the outcome of the ineligible player incident.

As the manager of this team and a believer & teacher of the core values of Little League Baseball, I respectfully request the consideration of reinstatement into the 10/11 Maryland District 2 All Star tournament by virtue of a won loss record of 1-1.  It is my humble opinion that the game between Westminster Optimist Little League and Four County Little League should be nullified thus sending our team into the finals of the loser’s bracket against Thurmont Little League on 7/6/2011.

Eric Reese
Majors Division Director
T-Ball Clinic Director
10/11 All Star Manager
Four County Little League, Mount Airy, MD

Post appeal update: The ruling of Little League was upheld today 7/5/2011. Westminster Optimist Little League is still playing in the 10/11 All Star tournament even though they played a game with an ineligible player, that was 12 years old, on their team on Saturday 7/2/2011. That game has been upheld and recorded as a win for Westminster Optimist Little League and Four County Little League has been eliminated from the tournament.

While Little League from the district standpoint is a volunteer organization, it must be remembered that the truth is the truth and living by any other means is detrimental to any organization, rules not withstanding.

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By Mark D, March 19, 2011 8:08 pm

So I’m a tad short on new ideas lately. I figured why not do something to celebrate March Madness? 16 Geeky/Nerdy girls facing off in a single elimination tournament. Brackets of 8, and your votes (if anyone actually cares enough to vote) will decide the winner. I’ll post the results every 3 days, although the first round is going to be split to make life easier. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to figure out a good 16 to pick out,  so it’s not as big as March Madness. Here’s the first round of Bracket A

Velma Dinkley

The Brains of Mystery Inc is the earliest geeky girl on this list as Scooby-Doo started in 1969. Who could ever forget Jinkies! or I’m Blind Without My Glasses. Without Velma Mystery Inc would have fallen apart long ago, as Shaggy and Scooby just smoke and eat while Fred and Daphne would be off necking somewhere. While her looks have magically changed over the years (she has hips now?!?!?) for those of us that grew up with Syndicated early morning Scooby-Doo she was an early geeky crush.

Vs

Janine Melnitz

Janine was the receptionist for the Ghostbusters in the movies, but got a bigger role as the Cartoon series went on. Ironically as the cartoon series went on her looks changed dramatically, to the point that they actually based an episode around it. In the movies she also eventually falls for Rick Moranis’ Louis Tully, one of the few times in a movie that two geeky/nerdy characters fall for one another.

Jessie Spano

This was a tough one to decide whether to include or not, until I got desperate. Jessie is class president, the smartest student in the class along with being a part of the most popular clique in school. She’s also a cheerleader. But let’s not worry about her eventual future when she runs away to be a stripper in Vegas, and remember that she got all the awkward teenager episodes (Google Jesse Spano and Caffeine). So she makes the cut, but can she make it out of the first round?

Vs

Andrea Zuckerman

Valedictorian and accepted to Yale, from what I remember of 90210 is that she was the only one that actually tried at school. Also quite humorous is that she was 29 when the show started, and it makes me feel old that she is 50 this year. One of many nerdy/geeky girls that have a crush on the hot guy, only to never do anything about it.

Abby Sciuto

The sexy gothy nerdy forensic scientist on NCIS is one of the few things that make that show watchable. She’s even admitted to being a FPS fan in one episode. She dresses in a way that would probably be illegal in most forensic labs, so thank you Hollywood. Probably the one person on NCIS that isn’t completely paint by numbers.

Vs

Penelope Garcia

The Superhacker on Criminal Minds, she can get into just about anything in an absolute unrealistic way. Even so, she’s the lone bright spot on Criminal Minds. CM manages to be even more unwatchable then NCIS, which is something I thought I’d never say. Unfortunately she helps this because the writers use her as a Deus Ex Machina due to her ability to somehow get into and look up almost everything on the net.

Kate “Acid Burn” Libby

Speaking about Hackers having a magical ability to get into anything, try watching the 90s movie “Hackers” starring Johnny Lee Miller and Kate “Acid Burn” Libby above, whose real name is Angelina Jolie. It’s rather amusing, as Jolie got more famous through the years her face has been more and more prominent on the cover of Hackers. It’s the only movie of Jolie’s I like, but the real star of the movie is Matthew Lillard (also in his first role) as Cereal Killer. But Jolie does a great job of pulling off Nerdy/Angsty hot.

Vs

Angela Bennett

Angela Bennett is so anti-social that when a corrupt group of cyber terrorists erase her identity, she knows almost no one that can prove who she is. The systems analyst has to take on a group of super hackers who are out to get a disk she came into possession of. This is so old, I don’t mean disc as in CD, I mean a floppy disk. Gotta love a geek that takes down a huge government conspiracy.

I’m going to come back with the first round of Bracket B on Tuesday along with the Winners from the first round of Bracket A.