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Wednesday, September 5, 2007
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   Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Life as a Cincinnati Bengal's Fan
I started to watch NFL football when I was 12 years old, it was 1992. The Cincinnati Bengal's where the local televised game for my area, this is how the loyalty began. The Bengal's fit exactly what I believed in when I was 12 years old, which was that anything was possible if you put your heart into something.In 1992, the Cincinnati Bengal's finished 5-11. For the decade of the 1990's they where 52-108. Those numbers actually made me love them more. Each and every year we would be at the top of the draft, I would hope we would draft some player who would change the face of the franchise and I would start watching the Bengal's win and remember where we came from and realize how sweet it is to be on the top and be the Super Bowl Champion. Year after year was a disappoint though. Dan Wilkinson, Ki-Jana Carter, David Klinger, John Copeland (was solid but not a franchise changing player), and good old Reinard Wilson from Florida State. It was very disappointing to see these high profile college players but on the black and orange and all of a sudden forget how to play good football. How does this keep happening? I never gave up hope though.In 1996 we got a great investment with Willie Anderson out of Auburn with the #10 overall pick. He is currently the backbone of our offense line if not the Bengal's franchise. Then you throw in the 2001 draft which was in my eyes our best draft where we picked Justin Smith in the first round, the Chad Johnson in the second round, Rudi Johnson in the fourth round and stole T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the seventh round. I see now that this was the turning point.This is 2005, the Bengal's are 2-0 in a very young season with a very optimistic schedule. In week 3 we have the Bears, should be 3-0. I feel this Bengal's team will be 6-2 after week 8 and the national media will be all over this team. Carson Palmer is the real deal, not a doubt in my mind. The number one overall pick in the 2003 draft have become a man right in front of my eyes. He is surrounded by talent as well, for the first time since I became a Bengal's fan in 1992 I can actually say that and be correct. Chad Johnson is one of the leagues top receivers, Rudi Johnson is one of the league top running backs. Not to mention the depth, we have Chris Perry a former first round draft pick backing up Rudi, we have T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Kelly Washington, Chris Henry, Tab Perry and Kevin Walter as wide receiver threat behind Chad Johnson. Our offensive line is very talented has has played several seasons together basically, along with our defense which is coming around quickly with promising young rookies David Pollack and Odell Thurman.In 2005 I see the Bengal's greatly improved and a legitimate Super Bowl Contender. Week by week I predict more and more people will jump on the bandwagon. That is ok, I will make room, I have been waiting for years for this moment. Thank you Marvin Lewis!


Do You Know The History Of Trampolines As Exercise Equipment ?
The manufactured trampoline, as we know it today, was
created by two men, George Nissen and Larry Griswold.
Around 1935, Griswold, then the assistant gymnastics coach
at the University of Iowa, and Nissen, a tumbler on the University of Iowa gymnastics team, "made regular jaunts to Bloomington, Illinois where numerous circus people had their winter homes.
Among them were the "Flying Wards", some of the finest
trapeze performers in the world. Griswold and Nissen worked
out with them at the local YMCA, and frequently helped them make or mend their large trapeze nets. Nissen remembers the hours they spent in the basement of the YMCA, threading the long cords of the nets, using large javelin-head needles. This experience was one of several that led them to the idea of creating a trampoline.
One day, with the help of the wrestling coach at the
University of Iowa, Griswold and Nissen bolted together an angle iron frame. A piece of canvas, in which they had inserted grommets along each side, was then attached to the frame by using springs. This was the first trampoline.
Since Nissen was still training for tumbling, they decided
to move the trampoline to a YMCA camp where he was an instructor. There, during his free time, Nissen used it for his tumbling training. Immediately, he found that the children loved it. This was the first realization that the trampoline could be more than a piece of equipment to use when performing, or seriously training. It was something that many others could enjoy.
In 1942, Griswold and Nissen decided to formalize their
small operation of making trampolines. They created the Griswold-Nissen Trampoline & Tumbling Company, and history was made.
But where does the name "Trampoline" come from? "El
trampolin" means diving board, in Spanish. George Nissen,
the co-creator of the competitive style trampoline, heard
the word on a performance tour in Mexico in the late
1930's. He liked the sound of it, and decided to Anglicize
the spelling and call his bouncing rig a Trampoline, a term
he later registered as a trademark.


Fish Hobbies
Fish tanks and aquariums are a popular hobby for people of all ages. People can sit and stare at fish for hours. I remember when I received my first fish tank. It was the most exciting thing of my life. I had never had fish before and did not even think about getting any. One day, however, I was down at the local pet shop and they had a contest or drawing where the winner would receive a free fish tank. I had never one a drawing like that before, and did not anticipate winning, nor did I think they were that legitimate or that I would have much of a chance of ever winning anything, but signed up anyway, even as a little boy.
One day a random phone call came and I answered the phone. It was the pet shop! They told me that I had won the fish tank! I could not believe. Nothing this exciting had ever happened to me. I was jumping up and down around the house and told my mom we had to go get it right then. We also bought some gold fish and other fish to put in the fish tank. I could sit and stare at them for hours. A hobby is a recreational activity outside of work or one's career. What better hobbies are there then ones you could do for hours and still enjoy them? I raised my fish for a couple months, but had to learn how to take care of them. Eventually my fish all died and one of my friends was playing with a bee-bee gun in my room one day and accidentally shot the tank. But, it was fun while it lasted.
Later in college, one of my friends had a huge fish tank in her apartment, with several piranhas. She invited us over to watch her feed her piranhas one day. She bought a bag of about 20 live gold fish to feed to her piranhas. All I can say is, "it was awesome!" We sat there for an hour or more, all of us, like watching TV, but staring at this fish tank as the piranhas attacked and devoured the gold fish. As soon as she dumped the fish into the tank, it went wild. The piranhas just began tearing the goldfish apart. It was one of those moments in life where you are glad that you are not a goldfish, but a human participating in a hobby of feeding the goldfish to the piranhas.
One of my friend's little brothers got a new fish tank and some fish while we were in high school. I am sure he could sit there and stare at them for hours, too, just like everyone else. The reason I am telling about him though, is because he named all of his fish "Marcus" – every one of them. Anyway, I thought that was funny, so I wanted to write it.
My family has some fish right now. They have a fish tank and a bunch of goldfish. Their fish have lived for a long time, now, and the goldfish are getting huge. The tank is dirty right now, though. A couple weeks ago they brought over a friend's "cleaning fish" to eat all of the dirty muck in the tank. It only took a few days for the fish to eat all of the muck and make the tank look as good as new. Too bad we cannot have some sort of cleaning animal around the house that would clean up like that. It would sure save a lot of trouble, but I guess for now we will have to settle with the online hobby store and more.
Peter Jay is the Owner/President and CEO of Variety Access – Your online hobby store and more. For more information about hobbies, hobby products, or Variety Access, go to www.VarietyAccess.com.