Monday, March 31, 2008

Memo to Rachel

While I'm giving out memos, I have one for my wife, too.

I just listened to them run down the opening day line-up for the Indians. I'm excited.

And I still want to name a child Asdrubal.

I'm willing to pull "Utinni" off the table if you accept Asdrubal as a name for our third child, assuming we ever get there. That's right, Utinni completely off the table.

What do you say?

Memo to ESPN, Part 2

These blackout rules are just ridiculous.

You black out my Cavs games, because I'm apparently in the Cleveland market, and when the game is on both ESPN and FSN-Ohio, I can't watch it (blacked out on ESPN, don't get FSN-Ohio). You do the same thing for Indians games on STO and ESPN (again, don't get STO). So, today, you're blacking out the Tigers' game because ... I'm in the Detroit market?

I'm okay with you considering me to be in the Detroit market if it means you stop blacking out Cleveland stuff. But I honestly don't think you should consider me to be in both the Cleveland and Detroit markets at the same time.

This does not make me happy.

Memo to ESPN

If you can only include five-six options on a poll. one of them really needs to be "other". Especially when talking about, before Opening Day, what team you think will win the World Series. Or, at the very least, include every team that at least one of your "experts" has picked to win the World Series.

I am not happy with you right now. I do not wish to select any of the following as my pick to win the World Series: Mets, Phillies, Red Sox, Tigers, Yankees.

Today is Opening Day. My favorite unofficial National Holiday. The day when hope springs eternal. And yet you are implying there should be no hope for 25 teams, including a team that played in the World Series last year, and a team that was one victory from playing in the World Series that one of your experts picked to win the World Series.

You are angering me. I can only hope the sports gods see the slight you have created and give you a World Series that involves none of the five teams you picked.

As for me, I like the Indians to win the World Series in six games over the Diamondbacks.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Confession

I have a confession to make.

When I'm unloading our dish washer, I can't tell the difference between our big spoons and our little spoons unless I spend a lot of time matching up each spoon to see the difference. I don't know what it is, but I can't do it.


Am I alone?

Cutting Down the Nets

March Madness is a fantastic time of the year. Thrilling games, wild upsets, Cinderella stories. So many things to love.

And one of the things I love best is the tradition of cutting down the nets. It happens at the end of each conference tournament with the winning team cutting down the nets, claiming victory and marching forward, guaranteed, to the NCAA Tournament. It happens at the end of each regional final, with the victorious team cutting down the nets, claiming victory and marching forward to the Final Four. And it happens at the end of the tournament, claiming victory and marking the end of the accomplishment.

But think about what else it does: it transforms the net from something useful to something destroyed. Sure, it's a great sign of victory, but it's also a sign saying "we've done all we can here, now we need to move forward. We can celebrate this victory, but we can't just dwell on it forever."

A couple of weeks back at jOURney, we talked about Philipians 3, and how Paul lists some of his great accomplishments and calls them basically trash. And I got to thinking last night, that the cutting down of nets is a great analogy to our accomplishment list that is similar (but pales in comparison) to Paul.

I'd never say that what we've done and what we've accomplished is completely worthless. It's great to have memories and to learn and grow. But we can't keep standing on the ground of what we won/accomplished/did/learned/etc. That will never move us forward.

By "cutting down our nets", we get to celebrate an accomplishment in the moment, but we also get a reminder that we need to move forward. We're left with a personal trophy that won't mean much to anyone else, but it's a reminder of success we had in the past that will help us in the future. But we can't just throw that old net back up there, because it won't work anymore. We have to rely on our faith and the talents God has given us to move forward, not the stockpile of trophies.

(And Trevor, can you believe it ... it's been weeks and I still remember this teaching? Amazing, isn't it?)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

More Proof

A little while back, I posted about how cartoons need help to be funny anymore. Well, I've got more proof today, that the same trick I referenced last time will once again work. And it might be even funnier this time.




And, you can find a bunch more here

Monday, March 24, 2008

Square Peg, Triangular Hole

I think the phrase square peg, round hole is overused.

I mean, think about it. If you look at something square, you know it doesn't match something round. They're fairly different things. It's pretty much common sense to know they don't match up.

But think about a square peg and a triangular hole. If you twist a square around, and you look at only one part of it, you could probably convince yourself that it could fit in the triangular hole. Until you try to push it through there and have to deal with the rest of it.

But, when you think about it, trying to fit in that triangular hole is something that sounds pretty good. After all, most people are doing the same thing: showing only a part of themselves, and so they look triangular, too, just like you. And, in a lot of cases, the triangle they're showing you matches your triangle, so you fit in. They're just like you.

And so, many times, we walk around, acting like the triangle we're projecting is the sum of us. Even though we project different triangles to different people. We act like our triangles aren't making up a larger square.

But I'm done with that.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm made up of some very different triangles. And I don't want to push my square through a triangle mold and act like it's all I got. I want to take all of me to every situation I'm in.

And, hey, if I can do it as a bleeding heart conservative, why can't you?

Saturday, March 22, 2008

How Did I end up here?

Well, I can't sleep again. This has been a regular occurrence this week. For a number of reasons. Today, I'm thinking it has a lot to do with the three Mountain Dews I drank today. Could be stress related. Could be a number of issues, some of which I frankly don't want to talk about.

Anyway, it inspired me to do a blog. And I wanted to include a song lyric in this blog. And I didn't think I'd have trouble finding the song lyric I was looking for. I just figured I'd go to www.letssingit.com and look it up.

Of course, I couldn't remember the Artist's name, so I had to search by song title. And as you'll see when I post the song, the song title gave me approximately eight bajillion results returned. So that didn't help much.

So, I thought I'd look up the way I found the artist. Originally heard him when I was working security at Alive Festival in 2001. So I tried google and wiki and answers.com searching for Alive Festival 2001 in all sorts of ways.

And I got nothing out of it.

Luckily for me, I remembered the wayback machine on archive.org. So, I used that to load the old Alive website for the 2001 festival, and was able to find his name.

Of course, my search couldn't end there, as the song I was looking for wasn't listed on his artist page. So I googled his name. Found his official site (which had nothing at all on it but a logo) and his MySpace (which gave me nothing), and so I was forced to go back to google and go through fan sites and the such, until I finally found the song and lyrics I was looking for.

And, so, without further delay, I give you Riley Armstrong's "Sleep":
looking straight at the light
it never used to be that bright last night
but it's a new day with fuzz in my eyes
alarm is still ringing when I open the blinds
how do these people do it
they are like driving around like there's nothing to it
I imagine it's like the medication their on
or probably just the coffee but
one thing is certain in life
and that is that today I'm going to eat cereal
I mean come on let's get our priorities straight
but before I know it I'm out the door late
just trying to catch some rat or some race
or something I'm not quite sure what it is
so for now I just best keep moving
and by nine a.m. my brain and my body
finally decide to meet
and we come to the same conclusion as yesterday
that I never get enough sleep

{chorus}:
sleep, no I never get enough
always waking up tired
sleep, no I never get enough
if I don't show up I might get fired
sleep, no I never get enough
always waking up tired
sleep, no I never get enough
if I don't show up I might get fired

they call it commuting
but I think they should call it intravenous
cause it's what I need every time I get
stuck behind a truck, just trying to turn left
just trying to turn left, why are you trying to turn left
why don't you park your silly cube van
hop in I'll drop you off
cause at this rate we'll both be late
but I'd rather be late than sitting here doing nothing
and by nine a.m. my brain and my body
finally decide to meet
and we come to the same conclusion as yesterday
that I never get enough sleep

{bridge}:
sleep go on and sleep some more
sleep go on and sleep some more


Hope you enjoyed the lyrics. Not sure it was worth the effort to be found, but at least I found them.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

A Dangerous Item

And so the real question is ...

if you had a "Saturday Button" (that is a button that when you press it it instantly becomes Saturday), how often would you press it?

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Two Years in a Row

The Buckeyes, for the second year in a row, begin March Madness as a #1 seed.


...


...


...


...


... of course this year, that's a #1 seed in the NIT tournament.

Anyone wanna do an NIT bracket pick'em with me? Going on the results of the last 15 months, I'll take the Buckeyes are NIT runner-up.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

March Madness

It's college basketball season. And I love it.

There are so many reasons to love college basketball. There are good fundamentals. There's a lot of passion. There's a lot of unpredictability. There is always a chance for a Cinderella story. There's a love of the game that's pure and not (always) money-driven.

But in the basketball I've watched this week, I've found another, more hidden reason to love college basketball.

It seems just about every team has (at least) one white guy who plays with a t-shirt under his jersey and looks completely unathletic while doing so.

And for some reason, I enjoy that.

Maybe I'm twisted. Maybe it gives me hope for my unathletic body. Maybe there's some other reason.

But it's true.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Celebrate!

Hope everyone is having a good holiday today. Here's a little something to get you in the spirit:

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Least Suspected

It's always the one you least suspect. Or so they say.

So you need to be prepared for everything.

Including, a killer you might not even know exists.

It's Back

The Wife and I have decided to try to bring back our Smite Blog. We've got a few things stockpiled that we think are Smite Blog worthy, so hopefully we won't get less than a dozen posts in and disappear again.

Hopefully.

And hopefully you get a few laughs out of it, if it's your cup of tea.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A sports conundrum

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a huge sports fan. And I follow the rules of being a sports fan. You can cheer for two teams in a professional league, provided they are in different conferences, and provided you have a clear preference on who wins should they ever meet. Also, you can cheer for a good number of teams in college sports, provided you have a good reason to cheer for that team, and provided you can slot them in order of preference should they ever meet, again so there's always a clear team you are rooting for.

But, tonight, I'm faced with a situation unlike any I have ever faced before in my years of being a sports nut. There's a game tonight that impacts two of the college teams I cheer for. The Buckeyes of Ohio State, and the Cleveland State Vikings.

The Buckeyes are clearly on "the bubble" for entry to the NCAA Tournament. They could be in, they could be out. CBS says they're in. ESPN says they're in with a win over MSU. SI says they're in with a win and not too many upsets of mid-major locks in their tournament.

Cleveland State plays Butler tonight for the Horizon League Championship. If they win, they are in the tournament. And Butler will take an at-large bid assuredly. If they lose, Butler gets the Horizon league's auto-invite, and there's one more at-large big available for the Buckeyes to chase.

So, how do we cheer here? The laws of sports fandom don't seem to apply. I think I'll have to rely on logic.

And I think I've come to a conclusion.

I'm going to cheer for a CSU victory tonight. Ohio State can get in, even with Butler taking up an at-large bid. Ohio State might get shut out, even if Butler doesn't take up at an large bid. So, I'll cheer for the sure thing: a victory tonight and at least one of CSU/OSU will be in the Big Dance. A loss tonight, and it's possible neither will make it.

So, go Vikings (and Go Buckeyes this weekend)

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Green Bean Casserole



So, tonight for dinner, I made green bean casserole. We also had hot dogs. But they were nowhere near the main focus of dinner. That was totally the green bean casserole.

And I started to realize how much I love green bean casserole.

It's almost magical. It's super easy to make, super easy to add a twist to, it's the perfect dish to bring to a potluck dinner, and it goes with just about everything! And I'm not sure I've ever really stopped to think about just how great a dish it is.

Seriously, think about this: the federal government is going to disallow the consumption and creation of one food. The public gets to decide. How many foods would you vote to keep around at the expense of green bean casserole? I can't think of too many slam dunks.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Am I Going to Hell?

So, did you ever hear someone signing a rendition of a song so poorly, you felt like you were dying because of it? Like you could be executed by bad karaoke?

I ask, because I laughed ... out loud ... for a few good minutes at a headline today. Even though as I read the story, I recognized it as a tragedy, but I just couldn't stop laughing.

And so I let you be the judge. Am I going to Hell because I laughed when I read:

John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree


Did you laugh a little, too?

Friday, March 07, 2008

I wish I could see hockey on TV

No, really, I do. I miss it. One of the best clips of the year:

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Fantasy Baseball

Hey folks in blogger land.

I've got a small group of folks local and semi-local to myself wanting to play fantasy baseball this year. The group, however, is too small to yield a league. So, I'm looking for anyone out there interested. No previous experience necessary. Just a desire to have fun.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Not Him, Too!

Doesn't it seem like our heroes are always being destroyed? There's always a news story about Roger Clemens, or Barry Bonds, or an actor committing adultery, or someone cheating on their taxes, or something else.

It seems like no one is safe.

Not even Moses.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Lost in Jesus

I know, a lot of churches and/or attendees of lots of different churches think they have the best worship band in the world. Or at least, best amateur worship band.

I would disagree with all of them, unless they are referring to jOURney. We have the best worship band in the world. Amateur or not. David Crowder and Chris Tomlin listen to R. C. Foshizzle for inspiration.

Last night they were on like nothing else. I found myself lost in Jesus and lost in worship as they played. It's an amazing feeling, being lost like that. And not a mindless lost, but somehow being totally aware of everything around you, and yet totally focused on one thing.

If you're too far from Findlay to actually check out Journey yourself and hear our awesome band, I'd encourage you to buy their first CD. "Lives of Grace" is an amazing song, and "Stoop a Little" has also become one of my favorites. Maybe you'll find your own favorite. They're only ten bucks. And the proceeds to go AIDS relief in Africa, including Blood:Water Mission, one of my favorite charities. And, I bet if you ask nicely, R. C. Foshizzle would even autograph your copy.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

First Time

This is the first time I have ever blogged from a Mac.




*dramatic pause*




So, Rachel sent in a check to pay off our laptop. The day she mailed the check, the hinges on the laptop broke. Meaning the screen won't stay open and the thing is quickly destabilizing. So, we needed a new computer, and got good financing on a Mac Book.

We've wanted to switch over and buy a Mac for some time now, but haven't had the resources/opportunity. But we did this time. Hurray for Macs!