Alex Kreitman - Stealing signs

Every good party has excellent food and drink and the Super Bowl is no different. As the game is the grand daddy of them all, the same is true for the food display. The spread must be the best.

Here are a few items I like to enjoy while watching the Super Bowl. Of course, all of these foods should be washed down with an ice cold beer because that is the way God intended it.

Chili

I am not a huge chili fan, but I am outnumbered. Still, even though I will opt for other items before fixing a bowl of chili, it is a must have for the Super Bowl, especially with the recent cold snowy weather we’ve been having here in North Carolina.

Buffalo Wings

Whether you like them hot, mild or with honey BBQ sauce it doesn’t matter. Just make sure you have them at your party. Wings are the ultimate sports snack and are required in order to enjoy the game. I mean that.

Dips

There are all kinda of dips for parties, but here is what you should have at your Super Bowl party. No veggie dips or any crap like that. The Super Bowl is a man’s game so bring a man’s dip. A sausage and cheese dip is delicious and OK to eat in public. Other dips include a buffalo chicken dip, which I will attempt to make this year, Crab dip and any sort of Mexican dip. Mexican dips take all the things we love and tosses them all together, salsa and cheese being the two obvious choices.

Baked goods

Attention men. We usually bring our ladies to Super Bowl parties so they can help make the dips and also the baked goods. Cookies and brownies are a nice change of pace from all the fried foods mentioned above.

Pizza

You need it in some form. I recommend bagel bites or pizza rolls for the Super Bowl. They’re easier to eat then slices, especially with a lot of people in the living room you don’t need pizza boxes getting in the way.

Pigs in a blanket

Everyone loves hot dogs and a little crescent roll wrapped around one is just perfect. So put some on your table for your friends to enjoy.

Ham biscuits

A co-worker’s wife makes some delicious mini ham biscuits for our Fantasy football draft every year. I’d never had them until moving to N.C., but buy was I missing out. They are fantastic and you need them for your party.

Chips, nuts and everything else

Potato chips, Doritos, chips and salsa, peanuts and M&Ms are perfect “pour them in a bowl” snacks. You don’t have to cook or prepare anything. They’re simple yet delicious. It’s up to you what kind to get, just make sure they’re available to your guests.

Beverages

If you plan on drinking a lot of alcohol during the Super Bowl then you might choose a lighter beer like Bud Light or Miller Light. But, if you’re purely going on enjoyment and taste or want to switch it up, here are a few recommendations:

Sam Adams Winter Lager

Magic Hat #9

Fosters

Heineken

Amstel Light

Or whatever is on sale.

Bottom line, nothing healthy. I outlined a lot of food and a lot of beer, but it’s the biggest game of the year. Splurge, enjoy yourself because after Sunday night, we have to wait all Spring and Summer for our favorite game to return. So, eat and drink up!

The NFL’s version of an All-Star game has become a joke. It has never been popular and this year, it is becoming a nightmare.

The game was moved from its traditional home in Hawaii, to Miami. And it was moved from a few weeks after the Super Bowl to the week before it. Both are bad moves.

Having it before the Super Bowl eliminates players like Peyton Manning and Drew Breese from playing in the game. Other players are also dropping like flies, most likely because they don’t want to plan and because they are banged up from the season, which just ended.

The AFC’s cast of quarterbacks is pathetic. Vince Young, David Gerrard and Matt Schaub are the three QBs and they aren’t even in the top 10 in the league, yet because Tom Brady is banged up and Manning is in the Super Bowl, they will represent the AFC.

The NFL also is requiring that players selected attend, even if they aren’t playing in the game. This has become a huge issue because players in the Super Bowl are being forced to go to Miami before their respective teams depart and this is throwing off the team schedule. It is ridiculous. Their focus should be on the Super Bowl, not the Pro Bowl.

The NFL needs to solve this problem for next year a.s.a.p and if that means eliminating the game all together, then so be it, but I think moving it back to being played after the Super Bowl is the way to go.

We are slowly starting the testing phase of our OI Panama project.

The Web structure is complete, most of the Flash elements are working properly and all the stories are finished, edited and posted on the Web site. All we are missing from the site is a large chunk of multimedia content.

Unfortunately, multimedia comprises about half of the Web site so there are a lot of holes. We are waiting on all of the videos and photo slideshows to be completed so we can upload them to the site.

While we wait on that content we are making sure links work and go to the correct pages and that all the text is spelled correctly. So far, so good.

When we get all the multimedia up on the site there will be a lot more to do. We will have to watch videos and slideshows and make sure things look good and that there aren’t any mistakes. Then we will have to check that they load and play correctly on the site.

So, there is still a lot to finish, but we are close. You can check it out at OIPanama.com, but remember that it is still under construction so we will be making tweaks and changes here and there. Feedback is welcome!

We present the finished project to the entire interactive media class and other school of communication faculty members Tuesday afternoon.

We have five days left before our OI Panama project deadline. We are now working almost around the clock to get our work completed.

It has been difficult for everyone in our group because we have so much work to get finished. We are all really motivated, but are getting a little worn down.

Every day we add content to the Web site and it looks fantastic, which makes me more and more excited to see the finished project and present it to Dayana and the Crystal Children Foundation.

I have enjoyed reading Dayana’s kind comments on this blog and I have passed them along to the rest of our group for added motivation. it is her determination and huge heart that keeps us fighting to build this Web site which will hopefully bring a lot of attention and help to their situation down in Panama.

Today, I am working on writing the stories for the Web site. I have to write about 12 stories total. We are writing three stories that focus on specific children with OI and their families called “Living with OI.” Then there are three stories about the medical treatment including, physical therapy, health care and standard treatment of the disease. Then we have a story about the foundation and one about Dayana and her daughter Anyi.

As I read through the transcripts from our interviews last week I am reliving the sadness and struggles that these families go through on a daily basis. It is hard to imagine that. Even though I saw and experienced what they go through, I feel almost like I and we have abandoned them. We got to escape and come back to the United States. They don’t have that option. I guess the only thing we can do is help them through this Web site which I really think is going to open a lot of doors for them.

The basic Web site structure is just about completed for our OI Panama project and it is looking great!

We have a lot of video editing left, audio slideshows, print stories and translations left, but most of the other elements are complete. Having the Web structure in place is really helpful because now we can just drop in the other portions when they are finished.

I have been really impressed with our entire group and the excellent work that is being done on this project. Everyone was so touched by our experience in Panama and it is truly carrying over in the post production work.

I need to take some photos of one the editing suites we are working out of because we decorated it with a lot of Panama themed props. We took most of the souvenirs we bought to decorate the room for some extramotivation to remind us of Panama.

The suite has two Panamanian hammocks hanging across it with a handful of molas draped across them. A mola is a beautiful piece of artwork that they sold in Panama. It takes a lot of different pieces of fabric and they are all knitted together to create a picture. The colors are vibrant and pretty.

Since our return to the United States, my iMedia group has been working hard on our OI Panama project.

We have been working around the clock building a Web site to support Osteogenesis Imperfecta in Panana. Everyone is working on something different and we are all pitching in where necessary. We have tons of video to be edited, but before we can do that it needs to be translated. That has probably been the biggest road block so far.

Our Web site is designed and pretty much done. We just need to complete the content and then add it to the Web site template. I have been working on writing the print stories for the Web site which will tell some of the stories we experienced while we there. They will touch on the lives of some of the people that live with OI in Panama.

I will try to keep updating my blog with the progress of the Web site and all of its content. We have a completion date of Tuesday, January 26, 2010. I think we can definitely complete the site by then.

Here is a video trailer that we put together for the site. This video will be the first thing a user sees when they enter the Web site. It is very powerful and really captures our experience in Panama. Click here to watch

After a productive and eye-opening experience we landed back in the U.S. late Thursday night.

Surprisingly, we had absolutely no trouble flying internationally. With the recent airport security changes I thought that we would surely experience some sort of hiccup, but luckily we did not.

We wrapped our last day in Panama by saying our goodbyes to Dayana, her daughter Angie and another foundation volunteer, Giovanni. It was certainly an emotional goodbye and I was sad to leave them.

I really learned a lot from this experience and am excited to see the end result. I think this Web site and the work that we have done to tell the story of these children in Panama will really help the cause of the Crystal Kids Foundation. Hopefully we can wake up the Panamanian government and raise awareness in Panama about this genetic disease and the lack of treatment available to those who have it.

It will definitely be a long week and half of work putting together the Web site, but I now that in the end it will be worth the hard work. We have hours and hours of video to edit, a dozen stories to write, thousands of photos to sort and edit and a Web site to build and upload. In addition to that, I plan on writing press releases for U.S. and local news organizations and press releases for Panamanian news organizations.

We need to help get the word out about this disease in order to improve the treatment of it. I am confident that we can do that through our efforts this week.

I got a little behind on the blog as our trip winded down. We were really busy finishing up our work. Thursday was our last full day in Panama and we wrapped up our week with a few interviews, some sightseeing and a farewell dinner with our group.

I had the opportunity of interviewing the director of the Panamanian health department in the afternoon. We had a 2 p.m. appointment and during the interview I hoped to get several questions answered about why this important drug has not been legalized in Panama despite proven studies that it works and can improve the quality of life for these children. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the answers I was hoping for.

We arrived a few minutes early and were kept waiting for an hour before we were told that the director was too busy and could not see us. This is a recurring theme for Dayana, the president of the Crystal Kids Foundation. Dayana and her assistant Giovanni waited with me and the other two girls on our crew. It was frustrating. It was also painful to watch the sadness on Dayan’s face as her cause was ignored again.

Luckily though on our way to the elevator, the director’s secretary stopped us and said that he could meet with us and we did

The health office told us earlier in the day that the director spoke English so we did not bring our translator. We had other interviews going on at the same time as our appointment, so we thought that would work out.

Unfortunately it didn’t. He began conversing with Dayana in Spanish as I followed along taking notes. Then my first question was “Do you speak English?” and he said he didn’t which would make it very difficult for me to interview him.

I did my best to ask questions in Spanish, but my Spanish skills are a bit rusty. I made it work after the director began speaking some words and phrases in English. I got the impression that he spoke English, but was playing dumb in order to avoid the tough questions.

The only excuses I got out of him regarding bringing the drug to Panama for these kids was that because there are less than 60 reported cases in the country, there are not enough people with it to peek interest in the drug companies. That angered me. He also claimed it wasn’t the job of his office to help Dayana and her foundation. He pushed it off on another office, which I don’t even think exists.

He spent most of the interview avoiding the truth and that is that the Panamanian government is ignoring these children and their condition. It makes me angry, but hopefully with our Web site we can raise awareness and get some Panamanian media coverage that will help resolve this problem.

After the interview Dayana broke down in the parking lot as I tried to console her. She is such an inspiration. She faces such a tough challenge to help these kids and she has to tear down walls as she does it. I got to see how hard that is to do.

We had the day off Tuesday and were able to take a Panama Canal Tour. The tour takes you through parts of the canal and the main lake which is man made and surrounded by jungle. In the jungle is where we had the most fun.

After cruising across the water and seeing several large ocean tankers we started to get into the more thick and unsettled jungle regions of Panama. Our tour guide and the captain of the small boat, which fit our group of 18 perfectly, began pointing towards the jungle and telling us to look out for animals. As the boat neared the shore, I could see branches beginning to move and leaves rustling in the trees and then came our first monkey sighting. He jumped right out of the tree and started staring right at us.

We saw lots of other monkeys on the tour including three different types. They were so cool. We brought bananas to attract the monkeys and on several occasions they would jump onto the top of the boat and then hang down to retrieve their banana treat. It was so cool.

Then we arrived at a floating restaurant for lunch. The structure was half house boat and the other part was just a small building that was attached to the boat. We ate a delicious Panamanian lunch of chicken, rice, tamales, beef and more. It was probably the best meal of the trip so far and they have all been good.

After lunch the tour company brought out a boa constrictor snake for people to hold. I chickened out and didn’t hold the long and deadly creature. He felt too weird for. Later they brought out a baby Cayman and had no trouble trying that. It was actually pretty cute until it tried to bite my head off.

After lunch we hopped into kayaks and paddled around the lagoon. We ventured into the jungle through tight spaces before winding around to a gorgeous waterfall. We all climbed up and soaked in the water fall before jumping off the rocks. It was a blast and the water was amazing.

After that we paddled back to the house boat but before we got there my kayak capsized so me and my friend Andrew, who was also in the boat, had to hop back in which set us a little behind the group. Then, about 15 minutes later we were paddling along when out of nowhere came what had to be the tail of a Cayman crocodile. The tail splashed down into the water and soaked both of us. Then it was gone. We sure got the heck out of there after that.

After some swimming in the crocodile infested waters we loaded back onto the boat and eventually finished our tour.

Later in the day I went to the shore with a few other group members to shoot photo and video of the sunset overlooking the canal and a large bridge. We got some great shots there like this one.

It was another great day and a much needed break from work!