Smashing Hopes Like a Pinata on Cinco de Mayo

Well I have to admit it, before this Sunday I was getting my hopes up about the Packers, thinking that if they could win against the lowly Bill's then they would actually be on a decent winning streak, maybe they could stay on a roll, and maybe just maybe they could actually find themselves in the hunt for the wildcard spot in the playoffs. Then they got beat by the Bills, the stinking Buffalo Bills, and as they got beat my hopes were being crushed, and now there is nothing left of them. Which is almost a relief, after all if I was still hoping for a playoff spot after this week I would begin questioning my own sanity. And it's never good when one of the voices in your head starts calling you crazy.

Foosball is the devil

Oh the National Football League, where being mediocre is actually worse than being terrible. Take for example the '06 version of my Green Bay Packers. They started the season 1-4 and I was having visions of a top 3 pick in April's draft. Since then they have won 2 straight making them 3-4 and now they have a winnable game against the lowly Bills on Sunday which would make them 4-4, you read that right they would actually be a .500 team, if only for a brief moment. All this could make a person long for the playoffs, and my heart does. Unfortunately my head says, "hold on there big guy." Realistically speaking the Packers should probably win about four more games this year leaving them with a record around 7-9 or 8-8. Which is a nice and mediocre spot, not good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to get one of the top positions in the draft and almost guarantee a top notch player. Instead they will probably miss the playoffs by 2-3 games and end up with a pick near the middle of the draft - the worst of both worlds. Ahh lets hear it for mediocrity!

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad blogger

So apparently I am not to good at this whole blogging thing. I haven't updated in two and a half months. My first blog when I come back - a post about not posting, how exciting!!
Regardless, I will be back Monday with some thoughts about football.
See you then.

Chester - Week Two

So Chester Week Two...
There were quite a bit of similarities and also a few differences between the first and second week. One of the similarities was that we had several kids from the first week who stay for the second week as well. This was really nice for me since it gave a little continuity and let me get to know them better. Despite the holdovers it was still a smaller group the second week with about 25 kids there.
One of the similarities is that we were still planning on running a kids program during the lunch hour at Highland Gardens park. However, through a course of events we realized that we would need to start pretty much from scratch planning the lessons that we would teach. Amazingly when we mentioned this to the kids on Sunday night they responded by basically saying "okay, where do we start?" It started with selecting a basic topic for the four days (We had no kids program on Tuesday because it was the 4th of July). For the general outline we decided to teach from the Old Testament and base it on the promises of God. So we talked about Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Then we went through the lesson each day and tackled the basic issue. Then we broke it down so we could teach it through skits and small groups. I was very impressed with how well the kids handled this. They handled the whole thing with a lot of maturity and skill.
So Monday we went to the park and ate lunch with the kids and ran our first program of the week. "Cleo" who had spent a lot of time with Kiki the first week wasn't there second week so Kiki spent a lot of time with me. Enough in fact that she started calling me "daddy" I am not sure why really. I think maybe she is at a point where she thinks all men are called daddy. But Kiki was pretty darn cute and I need to get used to someone calling me daddy anyways so I didn't mind so much.
Another difference with week two was that this week we watched Invisible Children on Monday night and followed it up with a very good discussion. This was a great time as a group and really brought us together in a lot of ways, bonding us together and setting the tone for the week.
Tuesday we had the day off, except for planning Wednesdays activities, since it was the 4th. We relaxed much of the day, using the swimming pool, and playing some games as a group.
Wednesday we held the kids program but first we had to relocate ourselves. The first half of the week we had been staying at Cross World. However, they had a group coming in for a wedding so we needed to vacate Wednesday morning. Thankful out of the kindness of their hearts (and perhaps guided by some mental instability as well) a family from church had offered to let us stay in their house. Their house was fairly large and we took over pretty quickly spreading from one end to the other. Some of us, myself included, actually slept out on the porch which turned out to be a very nice place to sleep.
Thursday we ran the kids program and then cut up a tree that had fallen in the park during the storm on Monday afternoon. It was some nice tough grunt work that we could do to help out the community.
Friday we held our last program and then had to have a quick wrap-up with the teens before it was time for us all to head our separate ways. What an amazing two weeks it was. Here are just some of the neat/interesting things I saw and lessons I learned:
- I now know exactly where to go if I ever need some cocaine. Just kidding - at least about actually going to get some. I mean hypothetically speaking I do actually know where to go.
- Drug dealers sitting in on the kids program. From a distance but paying attention none the less - I learned some important lessons about leadership. This was probably one of the areas I grew the most over my time in Chester.
- I really saw the teens grow in many ways.
- I felt like I really developed some strong relationships with the teens. I don't know if they feel the same way but I will act like they do.
- I really enjoyed Rusty's impersonation of the "Rouge Helicopter Pilot" video
Oh what a couple of weeks it was.

Chester - Week One

Well I have been waiting to put some blogs up about my two week trip to Chester with the youth group hoping that I could get some pictures from some of the kids that went but I still haven't gotten any and it has been almost two weeks that I have been back now so I thought I should drop a few thoughts. There was a whole lot of stuff that happened over the two weeks so I thought I would break it down into first week and second week. Here goes...
The trip got off to an interesting start on Sunday, June 25th. For the first week we were staying at Frederick Douglas, the Christian school in Chester run by World Impact. Unfortunately someone apparently forgot that we were going to show up Sunday afternoon. So the 30-plus teens and their parents sat outside for a couple hours until we were able to get a hold of someone to open up the school for us. The conditions at Frederick Douglas weren't exactly the Ritz Carlton, or the Red Roof Inn for that matter, but it was better than a kick in the teeth. There was a room with bunks for the guys and a room for the girls. There were a few bug issues but on the bright side the late night cockroach crusades gave the guys something to do. It also reminded me of my freshman year in high school when I went to South Dakota with my youth group and we stayed in a school with a few cockroach issues.
We were joined in Chester by several kids from a youth group down in Florida that Tenth has some connections with. Thankfully the two groups blended very well, got along well, and worked together very well. The Florida team was a positive edition to the group.
World Impact was our very gracious host for the two weeks that we were there - lining up projects for us and helping us to understand the city better. World Impact's larger vision is to plant churches in Chester and to equip the residents of the community to be able to run them. They have already planted one church in Chester (Refuge In Christ) and are working on planting a second in the Highland Gardens neighborhood. Thankfully World Impact saw us as being able to be a part of their larger vision. Renee and Andrew were our patient teachers and gracious hosts who kept us informed and kept us busy.
Monday it rained for quite awhile so we couldn't run the kids program and the park. This was pretty disappointing but the youth group adapted pretty well and we were able to do some work at the school and in the area. Fortunately the rough start on Sunday and Monday were not indications of how the whole week would go.
Tuesday it rained again in the morning but a bit later in the afternoon we were able to run a portion of the kids program. We also started our cleanup project on the cut through, one of the dirtiest alleys I have ever seen. It is a pretty busy shortcut that a lot of people use to get to the local "convenience store". Apparently its also one of the big drug spots in the Garden - more on this later. We picked up trash for a few hours and weren't done so we would return on Wednesday to finish the job. Also on Tuesday a group of us went to the library with the homework club that W. I. runs.
Wednesday the weather cooperated a little more so we ran a full program with the kids and that went quite well. Then we went back to the cut through and finished cleaning up. It was interesting though. We started getting towards one end of the alley where there was a basketball hoop that had been tipped over. Next thing I know this kid comes flying up on his bike and starts digging around under the tipped over hoop. Of course my first naive thought was that this kid was gonna help us clean up. Well he was in a way I guess. He dug around till he found the several small baggies that he was looking for, scooped them up, and took off again. Apparently he was a little worried that we were going to clean up the drugs that he was keeping hidden under the basketball hoop. The nice thing about this project was that it was one suggested by one of the kids from the neighborhood and already the next day we were getting comments back from people who lived in the area and really appreciated the work and were connecting it to World Impact.
Wednesday night we watched "Invisible Children" As I have already mentioned this is an excellent and inspiring movie. One that I hope will change my life. I mentioned to one of the youth group members that night that the thing that really disturbed me about the movie is how easily we would all forget what we had seen within a week. So I am doing my best to make it a personal crusade not to forget what I saw and to allow it to affect my life (along these lines I am working on starting a new corporation/website . I will tell you more about this when I start to develop the idea a little more).
Thursday we ran the kids program and did some more yard work. Then in the evening the W. I. team invited us to play floor hockey with them. Apparently it is a weekly tradition of theirs to play every Thursday night. It was nice of them to invite us and we had a really good time. As an added bonus I only broke one hockey stick - oops. We also had a good time Thursday night of singing and discussing the movie from Wednesday.
Friday we started to wrap things up for the week with our final kids program. Then we went to the Family Bible Study the W. I. hosts. That was a nice time of getting to know a few people from the neighborhood. Saturday morning we wrapped things up early and made our way over to Cross World where we were able to spend some time relaxing in the pool and where the group for the second week would start their time.
Highlights from the week...
...hearing about the cockroaches in the morning.
...discovering how adaptable the kids from youth group were. There willingness to do anything was great.
...building relationships with some kids I sort of knew, but not all that well
...having my eyes opened to the terrors in Uganda
... knowing that we could be a small piece of a larger puzzle that has the potential to be a beautiful work when it is finished.

Making the Invisible Visible

Well for the past two weeks I have been on a missions trip with the youth group down to Chester. One of the things that we did was to watch the movie "Invisible Children" a powerful movie about children in Uganda who are being kidnapped from their homes and forced to become brutal fighters for the rebel forces in Uganda. I strongly recomend that you sit down, watch the movie, and let it effect your life. I also recomend that you watch the movie with a group of people so that you have others to digest the film with. After you get a chance to see it I would love to hear what you thought about it.

Movie Review: The DaVinci Code

Well it has been awhile since I have posted and awhile since I have seen this movie but my fans (a.k.a. my wonderful cousin Noelle) have asked for it so here it is.
Much like the book, which I actually listened to on tape, I was forced to look at the movie from two different angles; the pure-entertainment angle and the religious/theological/historical angle. I found that when I could get past the serious problems I had with the religious/theological/historical angle both the book and the movie were quite entertaining. One problem that the book suffers from is that at times Dan Brown seems to be using the plot to progress his political-theological agenda rather than using the political-theological intrigue to progress the plot. Thankfully the movie does not suffer from the same problem. In fact one of the biggest differences in a movie that largely sticks strictly to the plot of the book is that there is less of a focus on the anti-Christian, feminist portions in the movie. In fact Tom Hanks' character acts as a bit of an antagonist during the discussions and gives a bit of a defense for historical Christianity - something the book does not feature in the least bit. (unfortunately even this does not go far enough as they still allow historical fiction to be presented as historical fact. This would be less troubling if there weren't so many people reading the book and saying 'I know it is fiction but a lot of what he uses is true' A statement couldn't be further from the truth. The book and movie are fiction, even the parts that would believe you to think they are historical.)
despite all this I thought the movie, like the book, was quite entertaining. It was fast paced, full of action and intrigue. I thought it was well acted and directed and worth dropping a few bucks to see. It is not a must see in the theatre but I would definitely recommend renting it and checking it out. At the same time I would also recommend not garnering your Church history from the movie and it is probably easier to say that rather than be discerning while watching the movie you ought to watch it for pure entertainment and forget everything you "learned" when it is turned off.
After all that I give 'The DaVinci Code' a 4 out of 5

Burning Down the House

Well we had a bit of a situation the other day when we were making dinner. Sara was taking a pot off of the burner and accidentally put a towel on the hot burner. I looked over and there was all kinds of smoke. So I jumped up, we grabbed the towel and luckily there was no harm done. It was pretty funny actually.

Going to the Movies

Well Sara and I went to see X-3 this weekend and we enjoyed it. I don't want to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it yet so instead of giving a movie review I thought I would say a few words about theatre etiquette.
After the movie Monday afternoon Sara and I both observed that theatre etiquette seems to be at an all time low. For those of you who didn't realize there is theatre etiquette you are exactly the people I am talking to so read on and I will give you a few pointers.
First, no cell phones in the stinking theatre. I can't believe people have the gall to answer their phone, or place a call and have a conversation while I am in the middle of a movie that I paid $10 per ticket to watch. Also text messaging is not a good second option. The bright little screen is nearly as distracting. So ask yourself: Is this really so important that it can't wait an hour and a half? I didn't think so.
Second, no talking. Period.
Third, and in connection with the second, people who know me know that I like to talk about movies that I have seen. You will notice one major detail however. I wait until after the movie is over to talk about it. Your in movie commentary is neither necessary nor appreciated. Legitimate responses to what is happening on screen include gasps, tears, screams, and laughter. But shut up already.
Fourth, if your child is young enough to be crying in the movie then maybe, just maybe, you should consider getting a babysitter. I usually am pretty understanding of parents with crying children, especially infants. I even pity them. But not when they bring the kid to the theatre. What are you thinking? You are willfully ruining my movie. Do you hate me?
Fifth, and I can't believe I have to say this. Could you please wait until the credits start rolling before you make your way to the exit. I could not believe how many people started getting up when there was still five minutes left in the movie. Although I must some guilt in this last case. I once started to leave the drive in theatre before a movie was over. But in my own defense it was one of the worst movies that I have seen, ever, in my entire life. If the movie you are watching is at least halfway decent please wait for the end of the movie before you leave.
Finally if you cannot obey all of these rules please do everyone a favor, including yourself but especially me, Stay Home! Try Blockbuster they have all kinds of neat movies that you can rent and bring home with you and do whatever you want without ruining my movie.
Thank you and goodnight.

Weekend Away

The wife and I had a nice weekend away. We went up to the Poconoes this weekend for a few days and had a great time. We stayed at the Sylvania Tree Farm where we had a really nice cabin and the proprietors were very nice. We got up there Friday night and sat around the fire reading for a while. Saturday we went hiking, antiquing, and we played a little mini-golf and spent some time on the driving range at Costa's Family Fun Park. For dinner Saturday night we went to The Settlers Inn, the food was delicious. After dinner we went and saw The Davinci Code (Movie review coming later). Then we went back to the cabin and roasted some Marshmellows. Sunday we drove home and stopped at the outlet mall on our way and found a few goodies. All in all it was a great weekend - a nice time away to catch our breath after the busy month we have had.

Long Time No See

Well it has been exactly one month since my last post and I can't believe how much has happened in the meantime. I am one year older. My parents visited for a whole week. (Always love having the Fam' here). The NFL held it's annual draft (Welcome to Green Bay A.J. Hawk). The Flyers got bounced in the first round of the NHL playoffs. The LA Clippers won their first playoff series in a couple millennia. I went to a great conference on the doctrines of grace (Might I suggest PCRT 2007). I finished my Spring semester at Westminster (Only one more semester left). And as if that weren't enough my sister in law got married. Congratulations Bill and Carin. We had a great time at the wedding and we are glad to have Bill as part of the family.
Well that is one month in brief from now on I will try to update the ole blog a little more often - should be easier since I won't be nearly as busy.

Ouch

I watched this great show on ESPN2 tonight called "Viking: The Ultimate Obstacle" It was some pretty funny stuff. It is this show that is filmed over in Japan and it is a game show type of thing I guess. It is basically an obstacle course that people have to run in under 2 minutes and all the different obstacle stations are supposed to be like parts of a ship or something. (Hence the Viking reference) They are some pretty tough obstacles too; I don't think I could make it through the course even if I wasn't being timed. So it is all these little Japanese dudes running around killing themselves trying to climb a rotating "wheel" that was about 30 ft tall, swinging on ropes, or run on rotating balls (Cannonball Run) . I think there were 50 some contestants and only 6 made it past the first round. The best part of the show though is probably the wipe-outs. Some of these guys bit it really hard, especially on the Cannonball Run, they would slip on the 2 or 3 ball and smash their chest or head into the upcoming platform. It was pretty brutal a couple of times. It was some pretty intense stuff and the guys who finished were amazing.
You gotta see it to believe it.

Movie Review: Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Sara and I watched "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" over the weekend. It was a really fun movie. It is one of those movies that kids can watch and love but so can adults. The clay animation is very well done, it is beautiful and smooth, just fantastic and it gives the eyes something new to look at if you are used to hand drawn, or computer animated films. The humor is mixed, with a lot the kids would understand but also quite a bit you would only catch if you are really paying attention. For example Wallace holds a box around his recently unclothed body to cover himself, this is funny for the kids. What you might not notice right away is that the box has a label on it that says "may contain nuts". Small stuff like that really cracked me up. Things like this, as well as the nod's Wallace and Gromit make to other movies such as King Kong, or the old Werewolf movies are what makes the movie really fun to watch. Best of all you feel like you got your moneys worth and you don't feel like you wasted your time or made yourself dumber by having watched the movie.
I give the movie 4 stars out of 5.
Check it out sometime.

The Final Bore

Ugh. After singing the praises of the NCAA Final Four Tournament just a couple weeks ago I fear I may now have to retract my statement. After a fascinating first two weekends filled with good matchups, down-to-the-wire games, and stunning upsets, the final weekend of the Tournament was the most dull and boring weekend of the Tournament that I can remember seeing. Cinderella was sent home early on Saturday night when George Mason was man-handled by Florida in what was actually the closer of the two games that night, in the later game UCLA put Glen "Big Baby" Davis and LSU to bed. Then Monday night the snore-fest continued when Florida dominated UCLA in a game that was so boring I had to turn in off before it was over for fear that I would gouge my own eyes out if I had to watch any more. Congratulations to the University of Florida and their fans but this was an incredibly disappointing end to what had been one of the most exciting Final Four tournaments that I can remember.

Take The Money And Run

I just read an article on ESPN.com that I thought was hilarious. In the article it is reported that league officials have told their referees that they are allowed to take bribes but they are not allowed to let those bribes influence the outcome of games. Apparently bribing refs is quite common in the Nigerian Football (aka Soccer) league. League officials are apparently okay with that but say that "Referees should only pretend to fall for the bait, but make sure the result doesn't favour those offering the bribe."
Two questions -
1. WHAT??? Can you imagine the NFL, MLB or NBA coming out and publicly telling their Referees that it is okay for them to accept bribes? What are these league officials thinking?
2. What exactly should the refs tell these people who have just given them a load of cash when the game doesn't go the way they thought it would? Keep in mind that they are probably trying to influence the refs for good reasons - maybe they are overzealous fans but maybe, just maybe, these people are putting some serious cash on the game. These people aren't going to be to happy. And if these people aren't bothered by giving you a bribe they probably won't be bothered by inflicting bodily pain on you either. I would think twice about taking bribes and not following through.

Stupid People Saying Stupid Things

This week in U.S. News and World Report I read two quotes I could hardly believe:

"Call me insane, but did it sorta look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?"
- Charlie Sheen

I don't know if I wish Sheen was joking or not. What an insulting quote either way. Hey Charlie did you see the planes flying into the building? Did you hear about the thousands of people that died? Who precisely was involved in this conspiracy? What is the point of saying something so foolish? It has been awhile since I have heard something so insulting.
Well Charlie, if you insist, we will call you insane.

It didn't take too long to be insulted again though. The very next quote in fact:

"This bill would literally criminalize the good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."
- In an attempt to keep this from becoming a Red State vs. Blue State argument this person will remain anonymous. Lets just say she is a potential Presidential candidate who was commenting on proposed immigration reform legislation. I have a couple of problems with what this person said:

1. The misuse of the word "literally" do people not know what the word "literally" means? It is one of the most misused words around today. Literally means it would actually happen. However, since immigration reform has nothing to do with the good Samaritan, and since the good Samaritan is a fictional character (a character from one of Jesus' parables told some 2,000 years ago) I find it quite unlikely that Good Samaritan is literally in danger of being criminalized.
2. I am sick and tired of people trying to use Jesus to support their political positions. Particularly when it requires putting words in Jesus' mouth. Don't get me wrong I am a big Jesus fan. In fact it is because I am a big Jesus fan that I find this so insulting. Sorry Senator but Jesus never said anything about immigration laws and there is no direct Biblical discussion on the topic. Neither you nor I know how Jesus would have felt about this particular legislation. And we can't either without a careful consideration of what the Bible says and careful consideration of the legislation.
So do me a favor and keep your words out of Jesus mouth.

Whacked Out Weekend

Well the weekend started out fairly normal - Sara and I went to Monk's on Friday night for Burgers and Brews and it was pretty good. Monk's specializes in Belgian beer, hamburgers, and mussels, and they come highly recommended. Sara and I both got a burger and fries and each tried a different kind of beer. The food was really good and we had a good time, it was a nice start to the weekend.

I worked a double shift Saturday at the front desk so I was there from 7am-11pm. The company is in the process of redoing the building so they can sell the units as condos and this weekend they started to work on the front desk area. So they needed to move us somewhere else and they decided to put us by the side entrance. It was quite the set up, we had a folding table out there with all your stuff on it. Unfortunately there is no heat in that area and it was cold Saturday morning so Wynona and I had to set up little space heaters to keep from freezing to death. We working the electricity so hard that we actually blew a fuse at one point - oops.

The rest of the day was alright until about 7:00pm when things started to go crazy. Wynona was actually on the phone with Sara at the time and Sara started to hear a weird noise. Then the fire alarm went off and Sara realized that the strange noise she was hearing was our neighbor's fire sprinklers. Next thing we know Dave1 was standing in front of Wynona and I soaking wet telling us that his sprinkler had randomly started to go off. (They still aren't sure what caused the sprinkler to go off. Dave says he was just hanging out but the maintenance workers say that it wouldn't have just gone off by itself; something must have prompted it.) While Wynona called the maintenance guys I went down stairs to see if I could help Dave with anything. When I got down there it was ridiculous. I don't know if you have ever seen a fire sprinkler going off before but it basically looks like a downpour only inside - very unnatural looking. Seriously one of the weirdist things I have seen in awhile.

The maintenance guys got down there as quickly as they could and shut off the electricity and the water supply and then did their best to drain the pipes. By the time the water stopped Dave's apartment was pretty much trashed and there was so much water that it had gone through the wall and come into our living room, ruining the carpet. The maintenance guys, Sara, and I spent about 3-4 hours cleaning things up in Dave's apartment and in ours. The carpet needed to be taken out of our living room so once again we are without carpet. (For those of you who don't know this is the second time we have flooded while at this apartment...In less than a year) It looks like we are going to try and move upstairs - Look out higher ground here we come.

Of course through this all I was still technically working so I was bouncing back and forth between the basement and the front desk. The most aggravating part for me was that tenants were getting annoyed that the fire alarm was sounding sporadically (they were attempting to reset the system) and kept calling down to the front desk to complain. Very annoying - especially the guy who threatened to call 911 if the Alarm went off one more time even though he knew it wasn't an emergency, he was just annoyed.




1. Names have been changed to protect the "innocent"

Abdul Rahman

It is being reported that Afghan Officials are prepared to drop their case against Abdul Rahman (see below). Their stated reason for doing so is that they consider Rahman mentally unfit to stand trial. The news was not well received, as it is reported that several hundred people protested the decision. Rahman is now seeking asylum in another country. Praise God that Rahman will be released and pray for the continued protection of Abdul Rahman and his family.

True Faith

I just saw a story on cnn.com about Abdul Rahman, an Afghan man who is facing the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity. A few thoughts on this:
1. Praise the Lord for Mr. Rahman's faith. A faith that he is apparently willing to die for if necessary. Would that all our faith be so strong. Pray that Mr. Rahman would be protected and that his faith would be strong through this trial. Pray that if the Lord is willing Mr. Rahman's life would be spared.
2. Praise the Lord that a secular news organization such as CNN would deem this to be front page worthy. The case of Mr. Rahman is not an unusual one in extreme Islamic countries. It is not unusual for Christians in these countries to be persecuted - whether it be individuals or the official Islamic government doing the persecuting. Pray that the news coverage of this event would raise more awareness of the persecution that Christians in certain Islamic countries, and around the world, face.
3. Praise God for the freedoms that we have in the United States - freedoms that we often take for granted.
4. Contact your Senator and urge him to have the United States continue to apply pressure on Afghanistan relating to this persecution and others. You can find your Senator's contact information at this site: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm


"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
- Matthew 5:10-12

"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to dies is gain"
- Philippians 1:20-21

I pray that I would say this confidently with Paul, and now with our brother Abdul Rahman.

Oh the Madness!!!

Well this is one of my favorite times of year - March Madness Time.
The NCAA (that's "N-C-A-A" or "N-C Double A" but please don't call it the "N-C Two A") Tournament is one of the best championships in all of sports. In fact I would probably put it above the Super Bowl even. The Super Bowl has become more of a social event then a sports championship - Think about it people talk about the commercials the next day instead of the game. Granted the Super Bowl means a ton to you if your team is playing but for most people it isn't that important. The Tourney on the other hand is so fun and exciting that your team doesn't even have to make the field of 64 for it to be great.
The start to this years Tournament has been no different - it is off to a great start. There have been a lot of exciting finishes and some great upsets. One of my favorite stories so far is that Wichita State and George Mason are playing each other in the Sweet Sixteen so one of the two is guaranteed to make it to the Elite Eight - that is fantastic. I bet whoever makes it will have a lot of fans rooting for them to make the Final Four - it would be a great story.
I can't wait for Thursday so the games will start up again. I will be parked in front of my TV watching one of the best traditions in sports. Hope you enjoy it too.

Here we go

So everybody and their Uncle is blogging these days so I figured why shouldnt I be blogging. Really when it comes right down to it I owe it to the world to bless them with my opinions and insight. Trust me, you will be better off having listened to me. Anyways - I am going to use this site to offer updates on my life and to express my opinion on anything and everything - sports, religion, politics, family, books, TV, movies, anything at all. Not that you really need to bother with what my opinion is but I will have fun doing it anyways. So sit back and listen while I offer my little pearls of wisdom: