I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think it's time for me to leave xanga. Honestly, I have never had a problem with it, ever. I like xanga a ton. However, I kept thinking that it just wasn't appropriate for my blog to be called "WUDB8ER," a.ka. "Willamette Debater," when I'm coaching another team. I thought about how I would have felt if Rob Layne, my coach last year, had a blog named after the school he competed for. So, I'm here now.

I chose blogger because it's free, and has a few cool other features like spell-checking that aren't available on xanga classic. Plus, this was the site used for "Online Onslaught" and I liked it so much then I figured I'd stick around for a while. I'll still check xanga to stay in touch with folks, but Cliff Gardner is my home now.

As for why I named this blog "Cliff Gardner," well, I'll let Aaron Sorkin explain it:

"You guys know who Philo Farnsworth was? He invented television. I don't mean he invented television like Uncle Milty, I mean he invented the television. In a little house in Provo, Utah. At a time when the idea of transmitting moving pictures through the air would be like me saying I've figured out a way to beam us aboard the Starship Enterprise. He was a visionary and he died broke and without fanfare. The guy I really like though was his brother-in-law, Cliff Gardner. He said to Philo, "I know everyone thinks you're crazy, but I want to be a part of this. I don't have your head for science, so I'm not gonna be much help with the design and mechanics of the invention. But it sounds like, you're gonna need glass tubes. See Philo was inventing the cathode receptor, and even though Cliff didn't know what that meant or how it worked, he'd seen Philo's drawing and he knew he was gonna need glass tubes. And since television hadn't been invented yet, it's not like you could get 'em at the local TV repair shop."I want to be a part of this", Cliff said, "and I don't have your head for science. How would it be if I taught myself to be a glassblower? And Icould set up a little shop in the backyard. And I could make all the tubes you'll need for testing." There oughta be Congressional medals for people like that...I'm somebody who knows how to do something. I can help. I can make glass tubes."

EDIT:  I'll be checking xanga's but will likely be commenting less.  Still, I'll be reading, so keep posting! 

I believe in Ken Jennings. 

I believe that the Backstreet Boys are talented.

I believe that Mandy and I will get married one day.

I believe that "Sports Night" was a better show than "The West Wing."

I believe that obesity is as dangerous and stupid as smoking.

I believe that Sean Powers is the best debater in the country.

I believe that Andruw Jones deserves the National League MVP. 

I believe in myself. 

I'm back in Forest Grove.  While I graduated in May, it didn't really feel like that part of my life way over until now.  Anywho, lots to do, will update more later! 

This really short story is part social commentary, part Australia-ribbing, and part hilarity.  I call it, “Action Jackson.”   

A sadly low number of female athletes make enough money to be considered wealthy.  Softball sensation Jennie Finch barely made enough in endorsements to put a down payment on a modest New Jersey home (it’s funny cause it’s NEW JERSEY!).  Annika Sorenstam, the most successful female golfer in history, earned substantially less than her male counterparts on the PGA tour, a fact that she bitterly resented as she won skeeball tournaments in the off-season so she could pay her share of the duplex rent.  Even tennis players and reality television enthusiasts Venus and Serena Williams had little left over after they installed a roller rink on their property.  With no lucrative professional sports leagues, high salaries and endorsement dollars are very rare for female sports stars, which made Lauren Jackson quite an anomaly. 

Having won the WNBA MVP and league title, Lauren was the most successful women’s basketball player in the world.  However, while most Americans couldn’t pick her out of a lineup, in her home of Australia, Lauren was a hero.  Due to favorable exchange rates and a plethora of endorsement deals down under, Jackson lived, as she put it, “like a warlord” in the Australian outback.  Her off-season days consisted on lounging around on her 16 million square foot estate just outside of Sidney.  Koala bears brought her sodas and her ham n’ cheese hot pockets were kept warm on their journey from microwave to lawn chair in the pouches of helpful kangaroos named Peaches and Cream whom she had trained especially for the task.  It was good to be the queen.