Gold and hobos off the street.

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I was running through news articles yesterday and this one caught my eye as being particularly obvious. When I showed it to my 12-year old son he immediately saw how ridiculous it was, laughed and said "Even a hobo off the street could say that!". Amen. Needless to say here's the quote from the article in reference to the price of gold.

Dennis Gartman, founder of The Gartman Letter, told CNBC Monday that the price of the precious metal will "continue to go up until it stops."

Holy as-obvious-as-the-nose-on-your-face Batman! Now, I'm guessing Dennis Gartman is a pretty sharp guy but c'mon I think he could come up with something better than that! And shame on CNBC for actually leading an article with that quote or for possibly misquoting the guy. That's like me saying "I'll continue living until I die." Duh.

1. The Competitor - Sports
2. Mr. Muscle - Fitness and Health
   
3. Your Ride- Cars
4. Greenbacks - Career/Money/Finance
5. Toys - Gadgets (i.e. boys toys)
6. Tasty Licks - Music, Movies, Books and other Entertainment
   
7. Arguing - Politics
8. The Great Outdoors - hunting, camping, extreme sports
   
9. WWWD? (What Would Ward Do?...think about it, it'll come to you) - Family
10. Black Socks & Flip-Flops - Personal Appearance
    
11. Honeydew - Home Improvement/Tools
12. The Wide World - Travel/Vacation
13. Eye Candy

Mr. Muscle - I'm going to the physical therapist this week to deal with a knotted muscle in my back. It's a recurring sports injury that has plagued me for years and every once in a while I tweak it. Normally with some ice, ibuprofen, some massaging from my wife and time it works itself out. Sometimes it doesn't. About 6 years ago I wound up have PT for several weeks when the knot was pressing down on the nerve to my right arm and my pinky and ring finger went numb. Having just moved back to Jersey after a number of years away I asked my brother-in-law, who works in the medical industry and has lived here his entire life, where to go. Without hesitation pointed me to Pinnacle Therapy in Lawrenceville, NJ. So now I have an appointment with them and next entry I'll let you know how it went. Getting older sucks.


Tasty Licks - "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" screamed Chicken Little when it wasn't. In the movie 2012 the sky definitely IS falling...along with everything else. It was a perfect, albeit maybe a tad long, rainy Saturday afternoon movie with my son. Loads of fun, action, action and oh yeah, action. Don't go looking for a movie to change the world (although the world certainly changes in this movie!), nor one apt to pick up any Oscars except maybe for special effects.

John Cusack plays the main character, Jackson Curtis, who beats the odds of death and destruction so many times that I'd give him my life savings to play with in Vegas - except Vegas gets trashed in the movie. His ex-wife, Kate, is played by a very attractive Amanda Peet.

Anyway, all-in-all a fun flick and generally family-friendly. It's rated PG-13 but really fine for kids as young as about 7 as long as they can handle intense action. I don't recall any person-on-person violence but lots of people die (it is the end of the world!) but sans blood. I might have heard the f-bomb dropped once. Last bit of advice - go on a Saturday afternoon when you can pay matinee prices or you might be pissed you paid full price.

The Great Outdoors - If you're addicted to your GPS and can't drive to the corner store without plugging in the address so you can hear that soothing female voice say "Turn left. In. 100 feet." then I have a challenge for you - put it away, buy a map and a compass and become a real man. I get a kick out of what seems like increasingly common stories about people turning left into: a pond, incoming traffic, a house or store or someplace else common sense says not to simply because "the GPS said to".

Don't get me wrong - a GPS can be a literal lifesaver if out in the deep wilderness or to save time if navigating around an unfamiliar city when the clock is ticking, but it seems people are more and more not learning which way is north, south, east or west let alone know how to use a compass. I've got several hand-held compasses made by Silva. My higher end one is a Ranger which runs about $55 and can be used to measure angles of inclination of a hill, the magnetic declination can be compensated for, has a closing cover with spotting mirror, map scale and a luminous dial among other features. At the other end of the spectrum I've got a few Polaris models (about $13) that I have for teaching Cub Scouts how to use a map and compass. I've also got a great story about how I got my friend and I unlost in his boat in the fog using a navigational chart and the boat's compass when he forgot to bring his GPS along. He was skeptical but amazed when we landed almost dead on target despite the pea-soup thick fog.

A compass is a surprisingly easy thing to master yet can appear more complex at first when you learn how it correctly use it. A really fun, challenging outdoor activity is orienteering in which finding your way with a map and compass is raised to an art form. Check out the US Orienteering Federation website for more info. If you've never used or even seen a US Geological Survey Quadrangle Map (or USGS quad map) they are really pretty cool showing roads, buildings, topography, parks, and a host of other features. A section of the one covering my area in NJ is shown to the left.

If you decide to give it a try make sure you bring your kids along - you'll all have fun and you'll all learn something along the way.