Dan Lipka Web Log

The Jets are the biggest underdog in the history of the NFL. They are playing the undefeated Patriots, in New England , and are 24 point underdogs. Some say the Patriots will run up the score again the Jets because the Jets caught them cheating and told the league (costing the Pats a bunch of cash and a first round draft pick). Tom Brady and Randy Moss are in line to set records and the Jets, well, they are tied for the second worst record in the league with only three wins (and two of those wins have come against the 0-13 dolphins). Do you remember in the football movie "The Best of Times", when Robin Williams and Kurt Russell were playing that other fancy-pants, overconfident team that had superior talent, and the good guys were getting their ass kicked and than a force great than man decided to change everything. It may have been rain in the that movie, but this Sunday at 1:00pm, I predict the worst storm in 100 years to crash down on Gillette Stadium. Hot hail, tor

23 and a half months down, two weeks to go. I am so very close to finishing my project at work, but the stress has been overwhelming. I have been working non-stop for over a year and it is all coming together (and sometimes apart) in these final moments. We are set to publish a 211 pages data book by the end of the year. The learning curve has been a cliff, but it might actually get done. I can't wait for this to be over to I can actually reflect on what I have done.

In a move that will rock that nation, I am officially endorsing Barack Obama for President. Although only 40% of an ideal President, I believe he is still the best candidate. Below is a breakdown of the different attributes that have lead to my support of his candidacy. Philosophy – This is one of his strongest attributes. He recognizes that there are problems that need to be solved right away, specifically regarding poverty, energy, corruption. He is a populist who is in touch with local communities (although his public relations department does not highlight this at all.) Intelligence – His PR people are awful. I think their strategy is “the less you know about him, the less you can attack”. But I didn’t even know he was a lawyer, or that he went to Harvard Law school. Furthermore, I didn’t know he took his fancy law degree and decided not to pursue the big money, but instead focus on civil rights law. He is uber-smart, but it is very hard to tell. Integrity – On the one hand

One of the great pleasures of Molly’s life is the knowing that she is going to be able to do more. She lets everyone know that she is getting bigger every day. And with this inevitable bigness, will come the abilities to ride a bike, know all the words to all the songs, read, touch the ceiling, fly, do flips, carry her own things, cook foods, have gum, and so much more. She knows that she is getting bigger and these future happinesses are just out there waiting for her and it brings her almost constant joy. The other night I thought she was asleep when she cried out for me. She wasn’t upset, but just felt the need to tell me that she could already jump because she has to feet, but she doesn’t know how to hop yet. And that she will know how to hop when she gets a little bit bigger. And she was so happy saying this, in the special way that her voice goes up higher and higher as goes gets to the end. It’s it too bad that this type of positive anticipation doesn’t last fore

Last weekend I watched Blood Diamond, and although it was entertaining (in a way) and very well acted, I believe it was actually a disservice to the atrocities associated with blood diamonds, child soldiers, and civil wars in Africa. And the reason I believe this is the same reason that I believe Schindler’s List was a disservice to the holocaust. My perspective starts with the belief that most people do not have a deep understanding of what really happened, from a realistic, historical perspective. Therefore, these movies have the opportunity to provide a valuable and educational message. Both movies show a somewhat feel-good story within the context of horrible events happening all around. In Blood Diamond, the story is almost completely made up, but impossible (particularly the part about finding his son). Both movies show the very, very rare exceptions their respective situations. I believe that someone unfamiliar with the actual history of the events might think that

Can you teach someone to be creative? Often, creative abilities are usually thought of as skills that people just seem to have naturally. However, the more time I spent with Molly the more I think creativity is a skill, like math, reading, athletics, or anything else (of course people might have some positive or negative genetic predisposition to learning any skill). In school, there are specific classes on auditory creativity (music) and visual creativity (art), but there are no classes that focus on mental creativity. As parents throughout the country complain when music and art classes are closed, they should be equally upset that mental creativity classes don’t exist at all. Although people might think that creativity isn’t something you can teach, everyday Molly is proving that theory wrong. Of course, all kids are creativity, but Lindy and I have actively tried to help Molly explore her creative instincts. Molly, like most children, loves storied, but more

My father is a pessimist, and old fashion pessimist. When talking about almost anyone in his life there is almost nobody that seemed to have inspired him. However, (besides sports heroes) there are only a few exceptions, well there are really two; two brothers. When my father talks about John and Robert Kennedy (especially Robert) his face lights up, he smiles, and his eyes look 30 years younger. There haven’t been any public figures in my entire life that has ever made me feel that sense of inspiration, brought on by their personal confidence, intellect, and convictions, that Robert Kennedy apparently brought to entire generation. A true leader, whose own convictions are those of the people, and who had the ability to convey his ideas and see them thought. No public figure I know meets that simple standard. I recognize that the media has played a role in forcing public figures to be especially conservative with their thoughts and their policies. The media’s intense sea

I am a Jets Fan. The Jets had a great season last year. The Jets will have another great season this year. Two of those sentences are true, the other is sadly all wrong. Last year the Jets had one of the easiest schedules in the history of the NFL and beating only one team with a winning record all season. In 2007, it they play a much harder schedule, and their team is only slightly improved. I’m realistically predicting 6-10, and optimistically going with 8-8. They can only go so far with no offensive line, no defensive line, only one cornerback and one safety, and no tight end. A few weeks ago I thought that since this season was most likely not going to lead to a playoff game, why not trade their injury-prone QB (to a team like Atlanta) to a first or second round draft pick. Give the backup a chance, and build for the future. Of course, they would never do something like that, because professional sports executives are terrified of making bold moved because their

I was watching a show on life, the universe, and everything and several scientists said that finding life on other planets would be the greatest discovery in the history of man. Unless that life is intelligent to the point of being able to communicate with us, I couldn’t disagree more with these scientists. I see very little practical, metaphysical, religious, or scientific significance to finding random life on other planets. What are we going to learn? So we are not “alone” in the universe, so what? This will not disprove any part of any religious theory in any way. It will have no impact on life on this planet. And although it is an interested topic, why should we (as a nation) be spending money to explore something simple for the sake of exploration. Sure, I wouldn’t mind so much if there was nothing better to spend the money on, but as long as real problems like lack of clean drinking water, genocide, and poverty (on the global scale) exist maybe we would should focus

Last week Lindy, Molly, and I, along with my father, step-mother, and sister, were going to San Francisco to spent time with my brother, his wife and their three boys. The day before I was to leave on my vacation to the west coast I was going to write a blog about how I expected the trip to be just as stressful and relaxing. Traveling across the country with a toddler, family bickering, miscommunications, bad planning, and many other things seem to contribute to the stress of the “family vacation”. I didn’t finish the blog because I a family member might have read it and I wanted to seem as positive as possible. Well, here is a recap of the week (as a full description would take too long). Day 1: We get to the airport at 1:00pm, expected to fly standby on a US Air flight at 3:30. We can fly free on US Air or very cheaply on another airline, always standby. Since it was a weekday afternoon we didn’t expect the planes to be packed. Well, they were. The 3:30 flight was

Me: “Molly, eat your noodles.” Molly: “No, I don’t want to. I want to eat green beans.” Me: “Molly, let’s go play with your crayons.” Molly: “I don’t want do, I want to read books.” Me: “Ok, this is the last running tackle hug”. (Molly runs and gives me a hug, knocking me over) Molly: “One more, want one more tackle hug please.” I tell Molly to do something and she says no; however, she offers an alternative choice that is better or at least equal to the one I made. Do I stick with my original edict or do I give in? Should I look at the choices and reevaluate based on what is possible and what will make us all happiest, or will that lead to her always thinking she can make the decisions (or that my orders are flexible and not set in stone). Then again, if I stick to my original decision and decide to never change it, maybe she will think I am inherently unfair or that I just make bad choices. I want to be consistent, but I also want to be flexible, is that p

Losing almost always feels bad, but it usually feels even worse when you didn’t trust your instincts and tried to win doing something unnatural. I am dubbing this situation, now and forever, as pulling a “Howard Dean”. When Howard Dean ran for President, he started as the maverick who wore his feelings on his sleeve and spoke his mind. After one of the first primaries didn’t go his way, he gave an animated, inspirational, and somewhat awkward speech to his supporters; however, the media and the public saw his rant and non-presidential and a little crazy and this is where Howard Dean decided to go against his natural personality and try to highlight his professionalism and civility. This coincidentally, in my opinion, significantly contributed to him getting crushed. I have to think that Howard Dean sits up at night thinking that if he was just true to his own personality he could be President now. This failure applies to all walks of life. If I am playing tennis and I go

I have been playing tennis since I was a little kid. When I first started, my uncle Kenny decided to make me a lefty. It is true that I write with my left hand, but my dominate strength hand is clearly my right hand. One of the reasons that the switch to lefty was made was that my lefty backhand (which is very similar to a righty baseball swing) was naturally great from the start. I would try to hit my backhand every shot, which was a more consistent and more powerful shot than anyone my age (or even a few years older) could produce. The downside was that my left arm was so weak that I couldn’t hit a decent forehand or serve. I was a completely one dimensional players, but it served me well as I was always a very good player. As I grew up I unsuccessfully tried many different forehands and serves; however, they all sucked. But with my backhand I was still likely to smack one right into my opponent’s gut (which helped me out as I played tennis all four years in High Scho

If the entire Sopranos series was the world series... Game 1 – It was a subway series, everyone favorite type of game, Yankees vs Mets. Well I missed the first few innings, but everyone called me, telling how great a game it was, and so I switched in on. And they were right, it was superb. Plays were executed perfectly, rivalries and personalities dominated. So what if Joe Torre came out every other inning to talk to Roger Clemens about his feeling; the game was filled in triple plays, home runs, in even Yankee outfielder, Melky Cabrera decided to switch teams in the 8 th inning, only to get hit by a Clemens pick two innings later. Yankees win 6-5. Game 2 – Another great matchup, Pedro Martinez vs Andy Petite. Pedro is pitching a perfect game, getting some great defensive plays. I just can’t take my eyes off the TV. I relish every inning. Pedro loses the perfect game in the ninth when his wife distracts him Derrick Jeter gets a cheap bunt hit. Pedro than hits the next two b

My whole life I thought that “Lipka” was a Polish for lemon tree. Well, that is close to true, but a random Wikipedia search (and some follow up) found that Lipka was much more. First, Lipka is a village in Poland in wielkopolska province, near Zlotow city. It is the center of a rural commune in Zlotow County. Lipka has approximately 2,300 inhabitants. Here is a nice map of the area. http://www.lipka.pnet.pl/mapa.gif History: - Between 1772-1918 year under the administration department of the Prussian seizure. - From 1919-1945 (after the Versailles regulation) it was ruled by the Germans and was called Linde. - In 1945, after WW2, it became part of Poland. Furthermore, Lipka has an excellent website, http://www.lipka.pnet.pl/. I wonder if there are others with the last name Lipka running around the village; maybe there are all named Lipka; or did my family take this name the same way the Corleone’s did. Maybe if I went back they would be made king, maybe not. But they would have my nam

During a public policy ethics class at Columbia, we listed several unethical offspring of the democracy. Of course there were the ones you would expect, like corruption, but one you might not expect was the very existence of political parties. Political parties are, by their nature, unethical, because of they remove one’s own believes and replace it with that of the party (and the party bureaucracy). Nothing could have demonstrated this more clearly than during the republican convention when an audience member asked “what is the most important moral issue in the county?”. A few candidates answered, either citing the right to life (for all people, not just those in the womb) or the war on terror. One candidate said the most pressing moral issue was singular the protection on unborn babies. He was immediate asked if he would support Rudy Giuliani (who is the only pro-choice candidate) if he was the republican nominee. The candidate tried to side-step the answer saying the r

Last Friday, May 18, Molly celebrated her 2 nd Happy Birthday by playing with dolphins, seeing exotic animals, enjoying magical rides, and having dinner with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Princess Belle. And of course, to Molly’s greatest joy, she also spent the day with her cousin Robby. It was the last night that we would spend in Disney World and the perfect columniation of a perfect family vacation. Lindy, Molly, and I, along with all of Lindy’s immediate family, spend seven days in Orlando and enjoyed subdued whirlwind of family fun. We hit all the major theme parks, including Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, the Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios, and Sea World. This was really Lindy and Molly’s vacation they were filled with thrilling happiness each day, which in turn made my vacation all the better. Furthermore, there wasn’t one major problem the whole time, in fact there was only one small minor issue to even mention, which was the worst all-you-can-eat lobster buffe

molly knows almost all of her letters, that is to say that she knows almost all of her capital letters, which led me to think about the actual use of upper and lower case letters. after careful consideration, i have decided that upper case letters should be abolished. they have almost no purpose and think of the extra time that chi ldren will now have to learn about math, humanities, or taxes. when decided between capitals and lower case letters, i thought lower case letters were quicker to write and read, therefore they won. i am also adding into that category on unnecessary grade school skills, the ability to write in script. script is just a old-school font and i see no difference between teaching a child italics or times new roman. most people who write in script have horrible penmanship (with the exception of those who went to catholic school). and while i’m at it, why do we need bowling shoes, can’t they just require non-scuff shoes? i mention this because we took

Since I have been relegated to the vast emptiness of suburban New England, I rarely get to see my old friends and a good portion of my family. Many of my friends have only seen Molly once and some never at all, which is a travesty. Molly, like me, isn’t perfect, but she is amazing and I feel proud of my (and Lindy’s parenting) and I wish I could show everyone her multitude of cutenesses. Molly is a really little person; she talks in sentences, can count to ten (not just memorizing the numbers, but can actually count things), her vocabulary is beyond counting, she knows colors and songs and books and has begun to use her imaginations. She orchestrates vast pretend tea-parties and keep her tiny pretend turtle (named Maple) in her hands to pet and kiss. She knows the song “Fibber Island” is funny and can pick out the song “Middle of the Street” after two notes. She runs around and explores, although she is not a climber like her cousin Matthew and does seem to want to look in

Even though my favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut, died today, I am not sad, although I do feel very empty. I have read dozens of his books and essays and even went to see him speak as part of a panel at the 92 nd Street Y. I am a writer, and Kurt Vonnegut influenced me more than any other author I have encountered. Before Vonnegut I thought the writing had rigid rules that defined all things you could possible write about and if not for Vonnegut I never would have realized how limiting that could be. I will never forget reading one of his books and it was all building towards the plots climax, which would take place at a piano bar. I was excited to see what would happen and so was Vonnegut. In fact he was so excited that simple writing was happened wasn’t good enough, he actually wrote himself into the scene, not to be involved, but just so he could be that much closer to the characters. Vonnegut expressed himself through prose and comedy and let his mind flow free onto

Out of pure curiosity, and because it was free, I upgraded my computer to VISTA Pro. I have a very powerful, new computer, which was made to handle all of VISTA’s memory and graphics requirements. I know that VISTA just came out and I should wait six months before I installed it, but I just wanted to see what Microsoft spent five years building. Here is my quick review: the install was easy and only took about an hour. After using it for a week, the new features seem to be mostly aesthetic. There are fades and transparencies, and new interfaces; however, I turned off most of the superfluous animations and effects because it slows the computer down (in the same way the XP did). Besides that, nothing seems better or faster, which is what I really wanted. There are a few small glitches, like the color scheme changes from the one I choose to the VISTA default when I’m in a program. A few nice things include better search (more like Copernic, which I love) and a nice little

This Saturday, three days from today, will mark the 30th time I have traveled around sun. In that time, the earth has travelled a swift 17,530,086,987 miles, over the course of only 10,950 days. I am having a hard time getting a handle on this seemingly large number, this number 30. It doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t seem possible. Growing up 30 seemed to be immersed in old-age, it was an age beyond youth, it was to be said in the same sentence as 40 or 50, but never with 20 or even 25. 30 year olds shouldn’t go out to bars, or play video games, or live in little NYC apartments, but although the number doesn’t seem right, I don’t do any of those anymore. I’m married and live in a house in Connecticut. I am a father. These are things in common with 40 year-olds, but not with 20 year olds. I have reached a weird stage of life where much of my future it already set, where some of the bug questions have already been answered. But I feel that I’m not ready, that it has happened too

Last week I had to pay $140 to change my driver’s license from New York to the Sperm Whale State (Connecticut’s state animal). My first issue is that it took a combined 2 ½ hours, over two days, to do 4 minutes of actual work (and the office wasn’t very busy, it was a Thursday and Friday morning). The first line only had four people in front of me and the entire purpose was to enter your basic information into a computer and check your IDs. On that note, I needed a passport and my NY Driver’s License; why isn’t my NY License good enough as I needed my passport to get that the first time. I also needed a utility bill with my name and new address on it. That’s nice, except I would create a fake one in about 10 minutes with a scanner and Photoshop. Nevertheless, it took people on average 15 minutes just to do this and this does not include the mandatory 5-10 minute break each employee must take after each person is served. Also, they didn’t have a number system, where you get there

Yesterday I taught Molly how to run from the other side of the room to me, arms open wide, and throw herself at me in a giant wave of hug. This is one of those classical Daddy things that really makes me feel good (along with her walking next to me, reaching up and grabbing my pointer finder and holding hands as we stroll along). Well, Molly played run and hug Daddy about a dozen times without tiring. Lindy wanted part of the action and so Molly would take turns running to each of us, and one time we asked who she is running to next, she said "mommy/daddy" and ran to both of us (Lindy and I were on the floor next to each other). I have become 1/2 of the single entity known as mommy/daddy (no pause in between words). If you ask Molly who she loves, she will say mommy/daddy. However, if you ask who's the best, she has rightfully modifies her answer to mommy/daddy/molly. We are all one. Resistance is futile.

With words like "water" and "dream" in my google search I couldn't find anything close to what I was looking. Over the past year I have noticed that when I drink a glass of water right before I go to bed I have much more vivid, realistic dreams (And by realistic, I mean that there is some order to the people and objects and not just random colors or flashes on something I experienced). The more water I drink, the more vivid my dreams become. I even had a lucid dream, which is when I realize I'm dreaming, actively decide not to wake up, and continue to dream with Matrix-like powers with my mind. Of course, the down side is that when I have bad dreams, they are really bad, and as evidenced by my recent nightmare (see a few posts ago), the lows are just as extreme as the highs. So I am left with the daily decision to drink a glass of water before I go to bed. It's a tough call. Any advice? Do you find that drinking water (I am only affected by water

I apologize for not blobbing over the last several months, but here are the things I can remember (in no particular order)… Now that the democrats have gained some power, why don’t they have an actual, tangible agenda. NFL kickers are horrible underpaid. Adam Vinatieri , perhaps the best, clutch kicker of all time, in his prime is getting 2,509,000. 23 Running backs get paid more including Taylor Chester. 33 Receivers get paid more, including Reggie Williams who gets more the 6 million a year. Molly can do anything. She can run, jump, play hide-and-seek, count to ten, knows about 15 letters, can repeat anything, can eat yogurt with a spoon, talk in sentences, star in puppet shows, tackle other children and dogs, enjoys jokes, bargains with me, puts money in a piggybank, colors, paints, spins, and a hundred other things. She is also pretty close to being able to ride a tricycle. She is also very creative for a little kid. I was doing an improvisation of this little piggy went to town, b