Full Count

What's a Triglyceride?

2009-04-03T18:55:00.002-04:00

I hate going to the doctor. Nothing good ever comes from me visiting the doctor. If I’m sick and go to the doctor, they tell me it’s a virus and there’s nothing they can do to help. If I go in when I’m feeling pretty good, they always find something wrong that I probably would have preferred not knowing about. The whole process seems a bit ridiculous to me.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to go in for a physical in order to update our Home Study for our adoption paperwork. Now, I’m not ignorant to the fact that I’m overweight and probably need to pay more attention to my diet and exercise regimen. I’ve actually take steps recently to work on that (more about that later). And of course, after the exam is over, the doctor tells me that I need to drop some weight and to exercise more. Like I needed to pay $15 to find that out.

Unfortunately, as we’re finishing up, the doctor looks back at my chart and tells me that she’s scheduling me for a cholesterol check, since it’s been 4 years since my last check. Oh what fun. Like I need more holes in my body. Because the only thing I despise more than going ot the doctor is needles. I fully believe that God designed us with the perfect number of holes and apertures in our body, and to stick needles into us calls into question the validity of God’s design. But I digress.

So I go in last week to let the vampires their large vial of blood (my arm is still bruised 8 days later). I figure I’d hear from the lab with my results within a few days, already assuming that my numbers will be high and I’d probably end up on one of those medications you see advertised on TV with the list of possible side effects that make us all cringe. So, imagine my annoyance when I finally talk to the lab and all they tell me is my results are ‘abnormal’ and I need to come in to discuss them. Abnormal? That’s all I get? With my mind racing as to what this might imply, I schedule the appointment and begin to stress out about it for the next 24 hours.

On Thursday, I go back to the doctor for my lecture, having dispelled the belief that my ‘abnormality’ would result in me turning into some hybrid of The Incredible Hulk and Pizza The Hut, but still a little annoyed at the whole situation. After a little small talk, my doctor pulls out my lab results. My cholesterol is actually not that bad, only a few points over the desired number, and only 5 points higher than it was in 2005. Nothing abnormal there. My ‘good’ cholesterol was a little under the desired level, but again, nothing to get alarmed about. So now I’m getting a little frustrated with the fact that I had to drag myself back into the office under the belief that something drastic was wrong.

Then we got to the triglyceride levels. After looking at what the desired level was, and what my results were, ‘abnormal’ suddenly seemed to be, well, appropriate.

Sidebar – if high triglyceride levels are a greater cause of concern than Cholesterol, why are we being programmed that we have to keep our cholesterol down, and not our triglycerides?

So, why is it so high? Who knows for sure. My lack of exercise and dietary choices factor in, my ancestry factors in, stress factors in. How do I lower those levels? Exercise more, eat better, reduce stress. So I guess I will be visiting the gym more frequently and McDonald’s less frequently. As far as reducing stress, I still have to go to work, so that’s not going to change anytime soon.

And, the thing is, I’ve already been making some adjustments. I’ve been to the gym fairly regularly over the last few weeks. I even ran my first sub-9 minute mile since my freshman year of high school. Even though it was on an elliptical machine and probably doesn’t count in the eyes of ‘real’ runners, I’m still claiming it as a victory. Heck, I’d even dropped 6 pounds between the day of my physical and yesterday’s appointment. The diet thing will be more of a challenge, because I’m a ridiculously picky eater, and I love me my comfort foods and my grilled beast.

So, it all comes down to the triglycerides. Boy, am I going to be angry if I find out that these are some mythical energy sources found only in the Star Trek universe.

Whirlwind Weekend

2009-03-29T22:59:00.006-04:00

Well, another weekend has come and gone, and I'm left wondering why the weekdays never seem to fly by as quickly as the weekends do. Perhaps it's because we tend to pack way to much stuff into a weekend. But, if you know us, we tend to pack way to much stuff into every day of the week, not just the weekends.

This weekend was a little different than usual, because it was time for our annual visit from our dear friends from Connecticut, Diego and Dana. Diego is a youth pastor at New River Church outside of Hartford (sorry, Diego, I can't remember the town name right now), and he always brings a couple of his kids down to visit Messiah during the weekend of the Messiah Youth Worker's Conference. This year was particulary eventful because Diego brought his lovely wife Dana and his two adorable children, Hanna and Josiah. Unfortunately, Josiah picked up a bit of a bug on the way down, which apparently made their trip a bit more eventful than desired, but that's a whole other story.

We had a great time visiting with them, when we weren't busying ourselves with church responsibilities and fun with the college group. But it only reminded me of how much I wish these guys lived a little closer. Diego is one of those guys that you just can't help but be instant friends with, and I know that if we didn't have the geographical distance between us, we'd probably find ourself in some unique, and likely hilarious situations. But more than that, Diego is one of maybe two guys that I've ever been able to truly bear my soul with, and who have trusted me eough to bear their soul to. I covet that type of relationship in my life.

Whoa, got a little off track there. Sorry about that. Back to the point. As this week has dragged on and on and on, I find myself wishing against hope that there was a way to slow down the weekends. Something tells me this weekend is going to go by just as qucikly. Ugh!

My first Wegman's trip

2009-03-23T22:34:00.004-04:00

After bowling this evening, I made my way down the road to our one and only Wegman's grocery store. To date, I've never been inside one, but I've heard the stories, legends and lore. However, I felt confident that I could tackle the challenge of making my way through the store flying solo.

That, of course, was my first mistake. However, since there were no Sherpas available, I had no recourse but to continue on my journey alone. Sure, along the way I viewed other pilgrims, attempting to acquire supplies to survive the trek through the long and winding aisles. I felt pity for the random lone travelers like myself who were clearly overwhelmed and out of their element.

My second mistake was going in with the intent of purchasing one specific item. For not only are there a variety of temptations around every corner, but being unfamiliar with the terrain, I quickly found myself in uncharted waters, unable to find my desired quarry. Desperately I searched for a guide, a St. Bernard, anything to lead me to my destination, only to find myself deeper and deeper in the labyrinth of the belly of the store.

Finally, when hope seemed lost, I happened upon a trail, a glimmer of light in the otherwise darkened recesses of packaged meats. It was here where I was able to complete my goal of picking up a package of frozen hamburgers. Victory was mine!

With a sense of relief washing over me, I turned to make my trek back to the front of the store where the checkout lines stood like guardians at the gate. Through the twists and turns, I ventured deeper into the belly of the beast, knowing that my trek was soon coming to an end. Finally, as I rounded the last turn around the fresh fruits, I saw it. The 15 items or less lane, it's number 20 shining like a beacon in the night. Fighting the urge to drop to my knees and weep with relief, I boldly approached the lane sentry, handed him the fruit of my labor, offered the required compensation for my prize, and quickly made my escape.

With this experience now behind me, I will be sure to properly arm myself with a compass, canteen, emergency flares, and other survival gear before I make my return trip to Wegmans.

Recent Random Thoughts

2009-03-18T20:17:00.004-04:00

Some random thoughts that have crossed my mind lately…

I learned earlier this week that you can bowl with two broken toes. It’s not something I recommend, but it can be done – depending on which toes are broken. Keep in mind that I didn’t say you can bowl well with two broken toes.

Am I the only person who thinks the orange furry Hunger creature from the Weight Watchers commercials looks like the illegitimate love child of Gossamer (the Red Hairy Monster from the Bugs Bunny cartoons)?

that thought sparked a recent conversation on a very important subject. Saturday morning cartoons have not been the same since Looney Toons left the lineup. There is a whole generation of children growing up without knowing Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Marvin The Martian, Tazmanian Devil, etc., and that is just criminal in my opinion.

A few years ago, I became addicted to Red Fusion pop (or soda for those of you who don’t speak Pittsburghese). My best description of it was that it tasted like cherry-flavored Dr. Pepper. Well, recently, I sampled a Cherry Dr. Pepper, and it was the exact same taste as Red Fusion. So now I anticipate becoming addicted to Cherry Dr. Pepper.

Nathan Fillion may be one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood. He’s just had the misfortune of being in shows that TV execs give up on way too soon – “Firefly” and “Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place” quickly come to mind – but he stole the show during his multi-story arc on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer.” His new show “Castle” debuted on ABC last night as a mid-season/summer replacement, which means ABS isn’t banking on it for the long haul. But the show was really good, and deserves an audience. I’m hoping ABC makes an effort to give this one a chance to succeed.

Is there any better show on TV right now than NCIS? Even the re-runs are better than 90% of what’s on today. Although this season of 24 has been the best since Season 1, but NCIS is still #1.

I really wish I knew what I wanted to be when I grow up. Actually, I kinda know what I would like to do, but I can no longer afford the likely pay cut that would accompany any attempts to make that change. I’m not sure what bothers me more, having no clear direction, or feeling like a slave to my job.

I will admit I watch very little college basketball during the season (except for when I can catch a Pitt game on TV). However, I, like millions of others, will fill out numerous brackets with little or no actual knowledge of the teams other than their rankings and records. I’d love to pick Pitt to win it all, but I just can’t. Prove me wrong, Panthers!

One thing I don’t like about March Madness is the incessant need to turn everything into a tournament this time of the year. One of the XM comedy stations is doing “March Laugh-ness” where they’ve ranked 64 comedians, and are having listeners call in and vote for a winner of each match-up (#4 seed Jeff Dunham goes up against #13 seed Bob Saget – can Bob pull off the upset?!?!?). I saw on Cartoon Network within the last few years a “Cartoon Madness” bracket thing where different cartoon characters were matched up against each other (#8 Scooby-Doo faces off against #9 Astro). Pop Culture and Media Idiocy run amuck!

On the Sideline for Now

2009-03-07T11:43:00.002-05:00

Well, It appears my running / ellipping / biking revival will have to wait a little while longer. Thursday morning, as the love of my life was preparing to leave for school, she wakes me up in a mild panic, unable to find her textbook for her class later that evening. Being the dutiful husband, I get out of bed to help her look for it, even though I have no idea where she put it the night before. I make my way downstairs, look around the dining room table, where I saw it the night before, to no avail. I go back upstairs, thinking that perhaps I did move it with some other items (knowing that I didn't, but unable to be 100% certain in my just-waking-up stupor). Same result. So I decide to go back downstairs to do a more thorough search.

This is where my trouble began. I've learned one thing in our 'new' home over the last 18 months: bare feet on our carpeted steps is a recipe for disaster, especially if you're not paying attention. sure enough, I hit the first step, and my foot slips out from under me. I go tumbling down the stairs, and in the process, my right foot flies into one of the upright posts on our railing, catching me between my 4th and 5th toe. I hit the landing in a heap, my foot now trobbing, my back and shoulders quite sore. As I crumble, the love of my life remains at the top of the steps, asking "what did your do?"

Managing as much restraint as I could, I say nothing, figuring if watchig me fall down the stairs (which she did) does not answer the question, nothing I say is going to make the situation better. I take a few seconds to collect myself and make my way down the rest of the stairs. Now, each step I take is a new experience in pain at this point, and I look down to see my little toe jutting out at a somewhat unnatural angle. Doesn't take an MD to know that it was broken. But I carry on, and find her book sitting on top of a box of stamping stuff in the corner of the dining room!

So, book search aside, my toe is now broken and black and blue and not a lot of fun to keep inside socks and shoes all day. I don't know how long a broken toe takes to heal, but unless it's be the end of the weekend, it's not fast enough!.

Trying It Again

2009-03-01T16:11:00.002-05:00

With the softball season fast approaching, and just a general need to really bear down on my fitness level, I'm trying to get back to the gym and see if I can get myself going again. So today I ventured up the road to Planet Fitness and hit the elliptical machine. My knee is sore due to a drastic snow-tubing accident last night (he says tongue firmly planted in cheek - but I do have a bruise on my kneecap resulting from a collision on the slope with an ice protrusion from the side of the lane), so I didn't want to push it too hard. I jumped on the machine, set the time for 20 minutes and started ellipping.

I made it a point not to look at the time, covering the elapsed time clock with my towel, and focused on my speed and distance covered. When I hit a mile, I pulled the towel away and discovered that I had 'run' a mile in 9:53 seconds. I was encouraged that I was able to go at a sub-10:00 pace having not done anything like this in over a month. I covered up the clock and kept going, figuring that I'd be lucky to hit 2 miles before my 20 minutes was up.

When I got to 2 miles, I was surprised that I didn't hear the machine beep, indicating the end of my time. I figured I had missed it since I had my iPod on (I believe Lady Antebellum was playing at the time). So I pulled my towel away, only to see the elapsed time read 19:32. Somewhat shocked, I did some quick math and realized that I had run the second mile faster than the first, by some 28 seconds. Not a huge margin, I realize. But it was the first time in a long time that my second mile was faster than my first mile. Small victories, right!

So, the jury's still out on whether or not I can keep this up. It's going to take some creative time-management to do so, but we'll see what we can do.

Where have I gone?

2009-02-28T00:23:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to figure out what bothers me more at this point...the fact that I haven't blogged in well over a month, or the fact that no one really seemed to notice. The fact of the matter is that I have been so overwhelmed with work lately, that the last thing I want to do when I get home is jump on the computer and blog about my lack of a life. Of course, this really wouldn't be any different than normal - the lack of a life, that is - except for the ridiculous amount of work that's been droppe don my desk lately. Hopefully, I'll get back on track. Time will tell.

Until then, I hope to gain back the 2 or 3 readers that I once had.

The Greediest Men in Baseball (at the moment)

2009-02-28T00:16:00.000-05:00

I am listening to local and national sports talk radio discussing the Manny Ramirez free agency debacle, and I am profoundly disgusted that this situation even exists. Let me break it down form you, in case you’ve been living in a cave over the last few months…

The Dodgers are offering Manny Ramirez $45 million dollars over two years to play baseball. Yes, take a look at that number - $45,000,000.00. The breakdown is $25 million the first season, and $20 million for year 2.

Before I get on my soapbox, let me first say that there is no human being on the planet that deserves to be paid $25 million for doing anything, let alone for playing a game for half a year. If you break it down, Manny would make $154,321 per game, assuming he played every game in a season (not including playoffs). Taking it a step further, assuming a baseball game lasts an average of 3-½ hours, he would make $735 a minute. A MINUTE!!!! Outrageous!

Manny Ramirez may be the best player in baseball at the moment. He’s got all the skills – bat, arm, above average speed. But, to paraphrase the best baseball movie of all time, Bull Durham, “I don’t know about that [multi] million-dollar arm, but I got a good idea about that 5-cent head.” The fact that a scenario like this even exists, regardless of the economy, is simply ludicrous. I don’t care how good he is – or how good he thinks he is – Manny does not deserve to be paid $25 million for playing a game.

My hope in all of this is that the Dodgers, and the rest of MLB for that matter, look at Manny and say “Adios. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” No one man should ever be allowed to make more money than the GNP of most third-world countries.

And the worst part is Manny has no bargaining room here. The Dodgers are the only ones in the “Manny Sweepstakes.” In fact, as I look at it, maybe the Dodgers should be the focus of this rant for their complete and utter stupidity for caving to this ridiculous demand. It’s not like there’s any other teams throwing money at Manny. To date, not one other team has inquired about picking him up at his current contract demands. Unless, of course, you believe the second idiot in this mess, Manny’s agent, Scott Boras (emphasis on the second syllable).

As an agent, Boras is supposed to be looking out for his client. But, in this situation, it’s obvious Boras is looking out for his payday. If Manny gets paid, Boras gets his cut, which will be in the millions of dollars as well. So there’s no reason for Boras to tell Manny to take the money. If Boras believes the Dodgers will pay more, he’ll keep asking for more. It is pure, unadulterated greed at it’s ugliest.

I realize that nothing I say here is going to change the situation. The Dodgers will eventually cave and pay Manny the money he wants, and Manny will tell everyone that it wasn’t about the money but about respect and whatever garbage he thinks we’re stupid enough to believe. And Boras will sit back on his fat behind and thumb through the millions he made off of this one transaction for doing, basically, nothing of value other than whine and complain.

I can only hope that MLB institutes a salary cap soon. Otherwise, this is going to become a yearly occurrence, with the next star looking to get paid absurdly more than they’re ever worth. And the biggest problem in all of this is that the fans will ultimately be paying the price for this greed in the form of higher ticket prices, higher parking rates, higher concession prices, etc.

Dodgers, tell Manny to go home and play Wii baseball for a year and see if anyone misses him!

What a difference a week makes!

2009-01-07T21:02:00.002-05:00

There are few things that frustrate me more in bowling than blasting the pocket and leaving some random single pin, especially when I watch guys all around me missing the pocket and getting strikes. Two Monday's ago, this was the case. In 30 frames of bowling, I missed the pocket twice all night - once the ball slipped off my thumb too soon, coming in light and leaving a2-4-6-10 split. The second time, my ball stuck on my thumb, coming in much too high, leaving a 3-6-7 split. I did not convert either of them. For the remainder of my 28 frames, I left 17 single-pin spares - 11 of which were 10-pins, which is my nemesis. I converted 9 of those, which is darn good for me. Of the remaining 11 frames, I struck on 10 of them - every other one throughout the night. If you're doing your math, I have one frame unaccounted for. This was the most frustrating frame of the evening, in that I threw what I felt was a nearly perfect shot, smooth release, steady roll on the ball, sharply into the pocket, scattering the pins, and leaving the dreaded 7-10 split. How this happens, I will never know. And, no I didn't pick this split up either. When the dust settled, and my blood pressure sky-rocketing, I left the lanes with the most frustrating 591 series I've had in a long time. I hate to complain about a 591 series. I know many people who would love to have a 591 series. But I felt like I was so consistently on target, that I should have scored much higher. I could just not get anything to fall when I needed it to.

Now, fast forward a week. I walk into ABC West to find that we are bowling on the exact same lanes as the week before. My blood pressure begins to spike immediately, and I almost call Jeff to sub for me. During warm-ups, I'm finding the same thing happening again - blast the pocket, leave a random single pin. Six shots in a row this happens, with 6 different single pins being left (in order, they were the 7, the 6, the 10, the 8, the 4 and finally the 9). I'm lining up for my last attempt at getting a warm-up strike when they shut off the lanes, much to my dismay.

So, I get up for my first shot, and somehow, all 10 pins fall. My next shot, the same result. Frame three, another strike. Frame 4 - Hambone. Two more and Frames 5 and 6, and suddenly, I'm realizing that maybe the bowling gremlins are attempting to apologize for the week before. Unfortunately, I did not strike in the 7th, ending my bid for that elusive 300 game. But, in all fairness to the lanes, the shot did not deserve to be a strike. I threw it too fast and did not give it time to turnover properly. I finished the game with a 252.

I also assumed that since I had as many strikes in the first game as I did in all three games total the week before, I was probably going to have to fight for every shot the rest of the night. And while I do feel I was robbed on a small handful of shots, the results were much better than expected, finishing with a 229 in game 2 and a 224 in game 3, giving my a 705 series for the night.

And thus continues my complete and utter bewilderment of lane conditions at ABC West. I truly do not understand how, in one week's time, I can shoot 114 pins better from one week to the next on the same two lanes. It is a mystery to me that will likely continue to perplex me. And the frustrating this about it is that I truly believe I was more consistent with my shots in the 591 set than I was in the 705 set.

I suppose that's the way the ball bounces...which would be really bad to do on a bowling alley...

The Dawn of a New Year

2008-12-30T18:05:00.002-05:00

I know it's taht time again. Time to make resolutions and all that mumbo-jumbo. But the truth is, reolutions are mostly a devise to make yourself feel better for a few days, maybe a week. Most people can't last 3 weeks into their reolutions, which is ironic since it reprotedly takes 21-24 days of repetition for somethign to become a habit. Coincidence?

Most Americans talk a good game. We like to discuss ad nauseum what we are going to resolve to do. We even carry them out for a little while, as I previously mentioned. Try going to a gym during the first two weeks of January, and you'll see what I mean. But the fact remains that most of us never complete our goals. It's sad, actually, that we are a nation of quitters, by and large (and getting larger all the time).

I'm thoroughly impressed by those folks who can put their mind to doing something and follow through with it. I respect those who are able to make a resolution and carry it out to fruition. Sadly, I've never been that type of person, a fact that is probably quite obvious to many.

So, I've decided that I'm not going to resolve to change things about me. Saying it is meaningless. I am going to change things about me. Hopefully, those of you who know me will see said changes as they evolve. We'll see how this goes.

So, bring on 2009, because 2008 needs to be pushed into distant memory as soon as possible!

My 5 Favorite Christmas Movies

2008-12-20T17:16:00.004-05:00

In the traditon of my Christmas songs lists found on The Lyric Philospoher, I decided to list my top 5 favorite Christmas movies. Now, these are not your 'traditional'' Christmas movies. You won't find "Miralce on 34th Street" here, nor will you find "It's a Wonderful Life". This list is for your more...contemporary movies. Perhaps in 30 years, these will be the classics someone blogs about.

5) “Muppets Christmas Carol” – Kermit, Miss Piggy, Scooter, Gonzo, Fozzie, Ralph, and Animal doing Dickens? Instant comedy ensues.

4) “A Christmas Story” – Okay, it’s a pop culture phenomenon. Even the annual 24-hour marathon cannot diminish the humor and the sweetness in this movie. I can watch this twice in a row, and laugh at the same things each time, yet each time I watch it, I notice something that I hadn’t before. It is a “Love it or Hate it” movie, like most comedies. If you love it, you will always love it. If you hate it, you will never get it, and have to put up with those of us who love it.

3) “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” – Ah, the Griswalds. Again, a movie that you either love or hate. But, let’s be honest, how can you not laugh out loud when the cat gets fried under the recliner? Although, I do find it interesting that somehow Rusty, who was the older sibling in the first movie, is suddenly the younger sibling in this movie, but I digress.

2) “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” – Perhaps I should be ashamed of myself that my fondest memories of Dicken’s classic “A Christmas Carol” are of animated versions of his timeless characters. On the other hand, is there a better Ebeneezer Scrooge than Uncle Scrooge?

1) “Scrooged” – This is my favorite Christmas movie. I’m not even sure I can pinpoint an exact reason, other than I laugh myself silly every time I watch it. Every character in the movie is so outrageous. Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present is comedy gold. This is Bill Murray at his best. Watching him descend into comic madness while trying to maintain some form of control is simply classic.

Championship Game 2008

2008-12-18T22:05:00.002-05:00

Well, for the second time in three years, I find myself vying for the Alliance Fantasy Football League championship. I wasn't sure I'd make it this year, given my 1-3 record in the final 4 weeks of the season. Yes, I did back into the playoffs, but I made sure to structure my team in such a way that, if I made it to the playoffs, I'd have players with favorable matchups when I got there. That strategy served me well in the first round, having won by a total of 40 points. The championship round is a best of two weeks process, as was the semi-finals, so it is the cumulative total of points over the next two weeks that will determine the champion. Knowing that teams that are guaranteed playoff spots tend to rest their starters in the final week. it's always helpful to have players that are on teams still trying to get into the post-season. This is where I feel I may have an advantage, because I have only three players that are currently on playoff-bound teams. And each of those players have capable back-ups that I can start next week if needed.

So, while I won't go so far as to declare victory, I am feeling pretty good about hoisting the McKeesport FFL championship cup once again.

Top 10 Most Annoying Christmas Songs (part 2)

2008-12-14T20:24:00.003-05:00

I've posted numbers 5 through 1...but you'll have to check out The Lyric Philosopher to see what they are. It will be worth the click, I promise.

Tagged

2008-12-10T16:34:00.004-05:00

I discovered that I've been tagged by my good friend Jeff - status pending after this, :o) - so I felt I should provide the requisite 8 things about me that may or may not be well known.

8) I am a ridiculously emotional guy, much more so than I'm ever willing to admit. I've been know to have tears well up in my eyes at Hallmark commercials.

7) My dream job would be a Studio Session and Tour Backup Singer. I have no desire whatsoever to be up front on stage. I love to sing, I love to sing harmony, and I want to sing with whomever will let me sing with them.

6) I absolutely hate computers but realize that they are a necesary evil in my life.

5) I'm a TV Junkie (no surprise for some). Favorite Shows right now are "Chuck," "NCIS," "CSI," "Numbers" and "Knight Rider."

4) I was 16 when I bowled my first and only 300-game. I am desperately trying to repeat that feat.

3) I want to go line-dancing.

2) The only regret in my life is that I stopped taking piano lessons after 3 years.

1) I think I'd like to live in Nashville at some point in my life.

Top 10 Most Annoying Christmas Songs Part 1

2008-12-10T16:27:00.002-05:00

Well, I figured since it's that time of year, and I'm in a rotten mood because of work, I'd start off this blog with my 10 most annoying songs of the season. Here are songs 10-6... (these are also posted on my music blog The Lyric Philosopher)

10) "Blue Christmas" (Elvis Presley) – schmaltzy song, stupid lyrics, obnoxious spoken part in the middle, and the goofy ‘whoo-ooh-ooh-ohh’ repeating over and over again make this one of the more annoying songs of the season.

9) "Do They Know It’s Christmastime?" (Band-Aid) – the “We Are the World” of Christmas songs. While I’m all for feeding the world, do we need to be reminded through this less than appealing song every December? Shouldn’t we be doing this all the time? Christmas songs should not be political in nature.

8) "My Favorite Things" (from Sound of Music) – I have yet to understand how this song has been classified a Christmas Song. So the song talks about snowflakes and presents. In the context of the musical, it has nothing to do with Christmas.

7) "Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)" (John Lennon) – Another example of good artists doing bad songs. Politics and Christmas songs do not mix.

6) "Wonderful Christmastime" (Paul McCartney) – A perfect example of what happens when good artists do bad songs. Maybe the former Beatles should have stayed out of the Holiday song genre.

My Newest Venture

2008-12-10T14:04:00.002-05:00

I’ve been pondering this for some time now, and I’ve decided that my day-to-day life just isn’t interesting enough to blog about on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Yet, I still feel the need to share my opinions on certain topics that may not necessarily be related to my life…at least directly. So, I contemplated starting a sports-based blog, but my good friends over at the Peanut Vendors kind of ran with that idea. So, I thought about focusing on a specific sport, and that may still play out. But most sports are seasonal, and hard to keep going during the off-season. The exception may be football, and there are just way too many football blogs available for me to get noticed. I might try a bowling blog. And maybe a softball blog over the summer, but the jury’s still out on those.

So, after much thought, I decided that I could try to keep a regular appointment with my computer on the subject of music. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll be blogging about songs that affect me at any given point in time. No genre is off-limits, though I don’t see me blogging much about rap, death metal, emo, techno, classical, and folk music as those genres aren’t found on my iPod playlist at the moment. More likely, you’re going to see a lot of posts on CCM, Praise & Worship, Country, Rock and Pop music. Basically, I’ll be ranting about all things lyrical and musical. I’ll be digging into lyrics, pointing out the absurd and the annoying. I’ll also point out the thought-provoking and the poignant. I tend to be a lyrical philosopher, sometimes seeing deeper meaning in song lyrics that may or may not be present, but often have an affect on me. I’ll try to provide my opinion and insight into some songs where applicable. And, ultimately, I will give my yea or nay on the song. I’m thinking a “Makes the Playlist” to represent a thumbs up, and “Recycle It” for a thumbs down.

So here it is...The Lyric Philosopher!

So, hopefully you will find something of interest here and perhaps I will find some satisfaction in knowing that my thoughts and opinions might make a difference to someone out there!

Back From the Dead...sort of

2008-12-09T22:11:00.002-05:00

The sightings are true. I am alive and well. I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post, and for the 4 of you who may still read this, I sincerely apologize. I liken it to the tree falling in the woods metaphor. If no one reads my blog, then was it really missed?

Quick catch-up time...

My Dad is officially cancer free. He had his kidney removed and so far, all is well. He's still recovering, much slower than he woud like, but actually somewhat ahead of schedule for everyone else but him. :o) Praises to the Great Physician!

Still hovering around 210 average in bowling. We're over three months in, and I've only dipped below 600 twice so far. Still thinking about a new ball, but that's a luxury that will need to wait for another time. Considered joining a Sport Bowling league - 4 weeks on each of the PBA oil patterns - but I think that might have to wait until next year at this point.

Work is ridiculous. Too much to go into right now, but please keep me in your prayers, as it's getting more stressful than ever, which is not fun at all.

Church is going great. our Annual Christmas Cantata is this coming Sunday, and promises ot be a wonderful event. We're praying that God will use the Choir and the music to draw those in darkness to a saving relationship with Jesus.

That's life in a nushell. Christmas is coming way too fast. If work wasn't so nutso right now, I might actually be looking forward to it. It disturbs me that, lately, I'm finding myself identifying more with Ebenezer Scrooge than with Bob Cratchitt.

More to come, I promise. Just now now.

Now that the dust has settled

2008-11-05T18:05:00.003-05:00

There are days in life that you will remember forever. Each generation has them. Moments that profoundly affect not only you as an individual, but moments that forever affect the population as a whole. These are the "Where were you when..." moments in life.

"Where were you when JFK was shot?"

"Where were you when the Challenger exploded?"

"Where were you when the towers fell?"

Sadly, these moment tend to have a negative event as their cause. Some catastrophe that manages to bring the nation together for a brief moment, giving us a collective pause, and a sense of unity, however fleeting it may be.
Yesterday was not one of those moments, even though some in this country will classify it as equal a catastrophe as the ones mentioned before.

My friends, mark your calendars, preserve your newspapers, and order extra copies of Time Magazines "Man of the Year" Issue, because history was made yesterday when Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected as President of the United States of America. This is an event that forever change our country, the effects of which will be felt for generations to come. I echo my friend Beth's sentiments, in that I am proud to say that I was witness to this milestone in our country's history.

I am not ashamed to say that I did not vote for Obama. It had nothing to do with his race. It had to do sole with the fact that I disagreed with too many of his policies. Whether or not he will be a capable president remains to be seen, and history will be the judge on that. I continue to contend that he was elected more for the sake of the historical aspect than his policies. However, I will acknowledge that I am glad that when this historical event had come to pass, It was Obama standing at the podium rather than someone like Louis Farrakhan or Jesse Jackson.

So, now that history has been made, we must all pray for our country, and for our new Commander-In-Chief. It is a proud moment in our country's history. Let's just hope it doesn't end on November 4th.

My Second One and Only Political Rant

2008-11-04T12:23:00.002-05:00

Okay, I lied, I have another political rant in me. But this will be the last one regarding the 2008 election, I promise.

As I mentioned yesterday, the process that many of Americans use to determine who they’re going to vote for is absolutely ridiculous. They’re not voting based on the issues or the facts. They vote based on popularity and other factors that have no bearing whatsoever on the capability of the candidate to lead this country. This election, more than any other in my memory, crystallizes that fact.

Around the office this morning, I’ve overheard a lot of people discussing who they’re voting for. And to a person, the ones who are indicating they’re voting for Obama are using the same argument.

“I want to be part of history by electing the first black president”

I’m am equal parts dumbfounded and angry at this. We are not in high school choosing a student body president. We are electing the leader of the USA. And the sole criteria that a seemingly large part of population (based on my scientific polling process of eavesdropping on conversations at my office) is selecting a candidate that will allow them to say they helped make history happen.

The fact is, those voting for McCain could use a similar argument, by claiming they want to be part of history by electing the oldest first term president and the first woman vice-president. Yet, at least in the conversations I’ve overheard or been a part of, those voting for McCain/Palin are not focused on age or gender.

What does the man’s race have to do with his ability to lead this country? Does the fact that John McCain is white mean that his policies and agendas are automatically wrong? Does race or age factor in when mass infanticide is being allowed under the umbrella of legal abortion? Does race or age factor into taxes or health care? Are we really that stupid that we, as a country, believe that electing a candidate base on their race or their age is the best criteria?

I’m not going so far as to say that Obama cannot be a good president. Nor do I believe that every Obama supporter is voting for him because of his race. I do disagree with many of his policies, but if he is elected, I will not cry foul or pout about it. But it disturbs me that if he wins, his election will have been more about his race, and not about his policies.

Sadly, no matter who wins, half of the country will be angry and upset, and the sense of unity and bipartisanship that is going to be required will become harder and harder to achieve.

My one and only Political Rant

2008-11-03T16:41:00.001-05:00

I figure that it is about time for me to put in my two-cents worth on tomorrow’s Presidential Election. I do so knowing that no one will probably read this, but it will make me feel better having provided my only political rant, so that I can go on record after the fact regardless of the outcome. So allow me to begin with the primary foundation of my argument.

The democratic election process in this country is a joke!

Actually, let me rephrase that. The election process itself is integral to our country. How we determine who we will cast our vote for has become a joke. When considering who we feel will best lead our country, should our primary consideration be how the candidates compare to the current President? Regardless of how good a job you feel President Bush has done over the last eight years, to base your decision for the next President on a direct comparison to the current one is foolishness.

This election has become about the ideal of change for change’s sake. All we hear is how bad the last 8 years have been and how our current state of affairs is a direct result of President Bush’s ineptitude. Yet, it has been documented that it takes between 8 and 10 years for the effects of policies and economic changes to be felt en masse. So the problems that we are facing now are more likely the result of changes and policies put into place by Clinton/Gore.

And the campaign policies of the candidates do not make it any easier for us to select a candidate. It has become more important in the current political climate to talk about how the other candidate will hurt the country. It has become commonplace for the candidates to attack the other’s integrity.

The result of this type of negative campaigning has removed our ability to vote for the best candidate. Rather, we are now relegated to voting for the lesser of two evils. It disgusts me that the choice for the leader of our country is to be decided not by who is best for the job, but by voting to make sure the ‘worst’ options doesn’t get elected.

And, ladies and gentlemen, we will get it wrong with this approach.

Any time the election process becomes about negativism, no good can come from it. Regardless of the winner, we will have effectively polarized and angered nearly half the population in the process. The opportunity to create an atmosphere of cooperation will have been missed, and we will suffer as a country because of it. If you need any proof, look at the last 20 years. Not since Reagan has there been a general agreement across party divide on the selection of a President.

Unfortunately, there is really no way of getting to the truth anymore in American politics. There is no way of truly discerning what each candidate can do, or will do, if elected. Every piece of information is chopped up and reformatted for sound bytes, and the result of this process is a media-influenced reality that skews drastically to the left.

For me, I can agree with come of the policies of McCain, and I can agree with some of the policies of Obama. Conversely, I disagree with many of their policies as well. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that neither candidate will be able to fully meet my desires for the leader of this country, that I will have to accept the good with the bad. But what it comes down to for me is selecting the candidate that best aligns with things that I hold firm to.

I am firmly pro-life.

I am firmly anti-socialism.

It is for those reasons that I will be voting for John McCain in tomorrow’s election.

Every other policy, agenda and issue in this election is really irrelevant in my opinion. Taxes will always go up. Health Care will always become more expensive. Companies will always look for cheaper ways to do business regardless of who it affects. Lobbyists will always pay to have their agendas pushed through. Oil will always be a concern, and new sources of energy will always need to be created. Those issues will never change no matter who is elected. The only difference will be how fast they change.

I urge you all (and by you all, I mean the 4 or 5 people who read this), to not vote tomorrow for the lesser of two evils. Rather, I urge you to take a deep, hard look at what you yourselves hold firmly to, and then find the candidate that most aligns with your ideals and cast your vote accordingly.

Good night, and may God continue to bless America…even if we don’t always deserve it.

Christmas is still in December, right?

2008-11-03T16:38:00.001-05:00

Note the date. November 3rd. Keep this in mind as you continue to read…

I ventured to a local fast food establishment for lunch today as I had only 30 minutes between meetings. As I sat there and quickly ate my grilled chicken sandwich, reading my newspaper, I became aware of the music playing in the restaurant. Here is the song list as I heard it while I was eating…

“Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”
“Where Are You Christmas?”
“Jingle Bell Rock”
“Hey Santa”

Again, note the date…NOVEMBER 3!!!!!!

Call me a purist, but it should be illegal to play Christmas music before the day after Thanksgiving. If I ever run for political office, that will be my platform! The only Christmas music that should be allowed to be heard prior to that day is in rehearsals for choirs/band/orchestras as they prepare for Christmas programs.

Maybe I’ll go complain to the local mall Santa about this. He’s open for business on Saturday!

Facing Mortality

2008-10-22T14:38:00.000-04:00

Lately, it seems like I’ve been faced with having to take a serious look at my own mortality, and I have to say I’m not enjoying it. Not that there’s anything physically wrong with me (aside from the obvious need to lose weight), but it seems like every time I turn around, there’s another reminder of the finite nature of life.

Allow me to preface this by saying that I know that I have the promise of eternal life through the saving grace of Jesus Christ. I’m assured of my eternity. I do not fear death. Admittedly, however, I’m not exactly looking forward to it and I am hoping and praying I’m fortunate enough to die in my sleep when the Lord calls me home.

That being said, I’m struggling with death. More specifically, I’m struggling with the potential void that is left after a loved one dies. Diamond Rio has a song called “God Only Cries” that contains these words…

God only cries for the living, ‘cause it’s the living that are left to carry on.
God only cries for the living, ‘cause it’s the living that are so far from home.

Now, I will admit that I tend to be a ‘lyric philosopher.’ I look for nuggets of wisdom in songs, whether or not they are actually there. Sometimes, I look a little harder than I should. Sometimes, I will twist the original intent of the lyrics to line up with what I want to get out of them. But those words hit home with me from the first time I heard them.

My mind wanders to a family who just lost their young daughter to leukemia…

My mind wanders to another family who lost their son in a motorcycle accident years ago and have never quite recovered from that loss…

And my mind wanders to my dad. Not because he’s died (thankfully), but because, for the first time in my life, I am forced to face the reality that there may come a time when God calls him home. And while I will celebrate his homecoming, I know I will struggle with the gigantic void that will be left in my life as a result. I pray that I will not have to face this realization for many, many years to come.

Maybe I’m being selfish. Perhaps it is wrong of me to ask God to let him stick around for a few more decades. But there is so much more of life that I want to experience with my Dad, and so much more that I know I need to learn from him. I want to let him hold his granddaughter when we return from China. I want to watch him hold his granddaughter. I want to learn from him how to be a father, how to be a better husband, how to be a man of God.

I’m not ready to let him go quite yet.

Hey, hey, hey...Goodbye!

2008-10-20T12:57:00.003-04:00

For the 4 or 5 of you who follow this painfully inconsistent blog as of late (I would like to be more consistent, but my life just isn’t that interesting at the moment), you know of my intense displeasure with the entity that is Comcast. From forcing me to watch all things Philadelphia or raising my rates, they are clearly the scourge of the earth and need to be knocked down a few pegs. Unfortunately, aside from doing something that would likely land me in jail…or Gitmo…there is little I can do but complain about it on a blog.

Until now! To paraphrase Navin R. Johnson, “The FiOS is here! The FiOS is here!” (extra points if you can name the movie without looking it up on IMDB)

Yes, that’s correct. As of Friday, Verizon FiOS service is officially available in the Upper Allen area (among others), and I quickly made my way to the nearest Verizon store to sign up. Therefore, as of November 6th, I will no longer be a slave to the oppressive tyranny of the Comcast empire. No longer will I have to wonder what is on NFL Network. No longer will I have to endure incessant increases in rates simply because there was no competition in sight. No longer will I have to put up with unwanted and inconsistent internet updates. I will be soon able to stand up and say “Free At Last, Free At Last”. (I pause as an old dcTalk ditty runs through my head).

Now, I do realize that I may be trading a tyrant for a mean king, but it’s a trade I’m willing to make at this point. I am sooooo looking forward to November 6th, when I call up Comcast and tell them to cancel my service. I promised Comcast a year ago that as soon as FiOS was available, I would be moving to their service, and I love being able to keep my promises!

Final word on (this) PP&L Fiasco

2008-10-13T09:15:00.004-04:00

Well, as reported last week, we managed to get the PP&L bill fixed and things are back to whatever qualifies as normal. So, then, why this post? Well, on Friday, we received a letter from PP&L. While I'm not going to recite the letter word for word, the general idea was something like this...

"We are writing to inform you that we've recently discovered a problem with the RFID transmitter attached to your electric meter. As a result, you may have been slightly overcharged on your most recent bill. Rest assured that we have taken the necessary steps to correct this problem for you, saving you the effort of having to bring this problem to our attention. It's all part of our customer service promise to you, our valued customer."

As I'm sure you can imagine, this letter just infuriated me even more. THEY discovered the problem? SLIGHTLY overcharged? SAVING me the effort of having to report the problem? What a bunch of bull that is. Had I not called them and raised cain with them, I'd still be on the hook for the $775, with not even so much as a peep from them.

What bothers me the most is that this is becoming the SOP for most of American business. The new mantra is "It's up to the customer to let us know if we screwed up, but we'll never take accountability for it when we do."

Random Thoughts and Updates...

2008-10-10T12:57:00.001-04:00

Update to the PP&L Fiasco:
I finally received a call from them and was informed that my meter was not replaced, but the RFID transmitter was what had gone bad and was replaced. The catch here is that when they install the new transmitter, they have to manually enter the current reading from the meter. And this is where the problem comes in, because you have to rely on human intervention on an automated process. So, instead of entering the correct value of 1463, the technician entered 11463, which effectively charged me for 10,000 kilowatt hours that should never have been charged. While I appreciate the fact that this has been caught and corrected, I am still a little miffed that I have not yet received so much as an apology for the situation, and I’m left wondering if there would have been any resolution had I not alerted them to the error.

I’m now a statistic:
It’s official, I’m now one of the millions of Americans who have been a victim of identity theft. Well, maybe that’s a bit drastic, but I was recently informed that I’ve had fraudulent charges placed on my credit card, which has resulted me the credit card company having to cancel my existing account and provide me with a new account. Fortunately, it was caught. Fortunately, it was only one card, and nothing else seems to have been affected. But it’s enough to make me start to reconsider some of my online purchasing and bill paying practices.

Sporting news, thoughts and observations:
I’m still maintaining a 213 average in my bowling league through 5 weeks. I am starting in research new bowling balls (don’t tell Anita), but I’m not close to making a purchase. I’m a staunch believer that technology and equipment can only accomplish so much, and there still needs to be a level of skill and ability to make it all work. So I’m working on tweaking my delivery before I get too wrapped up in new equipment.

My Steelers are 4-1 (as if I have anything to do with their success) heading into their bye week. Hopefully they will heal up some during the layoff, as they’re still facing the league’s most difficult and physical schedule from here on out.

The Phillies pulled a rabbit out of their hat last night to win Game 1 of the NLCS. One of the downfalls of being a transplant here in Central PA is having to put up with the plethora of obnoxious fans of all things Philly. That is not to say that all Philly fans are obnoxious. I’ve met one or two that don’t qualify for that description. But by, in large, they are rabid and loud. Based on conversations and articles I’ve observed this morning, one would think that a victory last night automatically declares the Phillies the champs of the World Series, and the rest of the playoffs might as well be cancelled. And when the wheels come off this afternoon, these same fans will begin to claim that the umps screwed up, or that MLB is setting up the Dodgers to win, or yada, yada, yada. The only good thing about the Phillies winning is that the Eagles are 2-3 and are keeping most Philly fans from becoming unbearable.

Taking it old school:
I’ve recently uploaded some of my older CD’s to my computer and have put them on my iPod. This has afforded me the opportunity to enjoy some long lost favorites of my formative years. Here’s what I’ve been listening to lately…

A lot of the early DC Talk. Their first album came out when I was in high school (1990), and I’m amused (or perhaps alarmed) that I can still sing/rap along with such classics as “Heavenbound,” “Lean On Me,” “Free At Last”, and “Jesus Is Just Alright.” And I’m reminded of how much they’ve grown when I listen to “Jesus Freak” and “The Red Letters,” the latter of which is probably my favorite DC Talk song of all time.

PFR (Pray For Rain). I got hooked on these guys in college, and their early albums (“Pray For Rain, “Goldie’s Last Day,” “Great Lengths”) are still some of the best of all time. Some personal faves from this missed trio; “That Kind of Love,” “The Love I Know,” “Do You Want to Know,” and “Didn’t He.”

Rich Mullins. I remember exactly where I was when I learned of his death – in the car, on the way to a Geoff Moore concert at Messiah. I was a late-comer to the Rich Mullins catalog, but I have since found his music to be profound and inspiring. He was one of the greatest story-tellers in music, not just Christian music, but all genres. Every time I hear “Elijah” I think back to that night in the car, and I ponder if I am ready to leave all this behind, if I can say “…it won’t break my heart to say goodbye.”

Hey, you’re still reading this. Wow, I feel so warm and fuzzy!

The Lost Art of Customer Service

2008-10-06T22:32:00.004-04:00

I've come to the realization that the art of Customer Service is going the way of the dead languages. soon, we will treat Customer Service in a manner that is usually reserved for the teaching Latin - good to know for historical purposes and some foundational language skills, but otherwise useless in today's society. This has become painfully clear to me given my recent dealing with PP&L, which is quickly maneuvering to take over the top spot of my most despised companies (which currently begins and ends with Comcast).

In my previous post, I mentioned the delivery of a $775 electric bill. This is obviously a horrendous error on the part of PP&L, and I am desperately trying to speak with someone in their organization who can look into this and make the necessary corrections. On Friday, I called, only to be put on hold long enough for the people I need to speak with to go home for the afternoon. I was told then by the moderately clueless customer service rep that she would create a 'ticket' (is there any more ambiguous statement in the world of customer service) and have someone call me on Monday. She could not provide an estimated time of this magic call, nor could she provide me with a direct line to the department with which I needed to speak. So, unsatisfied with waiting for someone to call me, I altered my work schedule this afternoon to make sure I came home early enough to call PP&L before 5:00. What follows is an abridged retelling of this scintillating conversation. I will pick up the action after the mundane details of confirming my account and address and whatnot. PP&L will be in italics, my response will be in bold

What can I do for you today, Mr. Smith?

Well, for starters, you can connect me with the department that handles the meter replacements so I can discuss this incorrect bill with them.

Mr. Smith, if it is a billing issue, I can help you with that.

No, you cannot, as I was told on Friday that I needed to speak with someone in the equipment department.

Mr. Smith, if you tell me what the problem is, I'm sure I can help you with the situation.

--at this point, I run through the whole issue, explaining how my bill is over 6 times my monthly average for the last 12 months, how I know that the meter replacement is to blame for this situation and that I want to have ti resolved as soon as possible--

Oh, Mr. Smith, you need to speak with someone in our equipment services department.

(sarcastically feigning surprise) Really? Wow, I wish I knew that going into this conversation. It might have saved us both a lot of time and energy.

Let me transfer you...oh, wait, I see that a ticket has already been created for you on this particular subject. I cannot connect you at this time. You will have to wait for the equipment services department to contact you. Your ticket is in the queue.

Well, I am on the phone now, so please connect me with whomever it is I need to speak with.

Mr. Smith, you don't understand, once the ticket has been created and put in the queue, I cannot move the request. You will have to wait for that department to get to your request in the order it was received.

No, you don't understand, I am on the phone now, and I expect to speak with someone regarding this issue.

Mr. Smith, we do not make outgoing calls on Monday, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for your ticket to come to the head of the queue. We have a daytime phone number for you and will be calling you as soon as your ticket comes up.

--my blood pressure is nearing it's boiling point at this juncture in the conversation, and I am doing everything in my power to not scream at this woman over the phone--

So, let me see if I understand this correctly. On Friday, I'm told someone will call me on Monday. But I decide to do everyone a favor and call you rather than wait for you to call me, only to be told that PP&L, in it's infinite wisdom, does not make outgoing calls on Monday? You'll have to forgive me but this is one ridiculously stupid system of handling issues.

Mr. Smith, getting angry with me will not make the situation any better.

I'm not getting angry with you. I'm angry with the run-around that I'm getting. You are in the customer service department. I am a customer, and I expect service, and I am getting nothing even resembling customer service here. So am I to take the day off tomorrow and sit by the phone waiting a call that will likely never come?

No, Mr. Smith. We would never wish to inconvenience you in any way.

You obviously do not understand the meaning of that word, for I am being significantly inconvenienced at this very moment by not being able to speak with someone who can look into my issue.

The conversation pretty much went downhill from there, me requesting to speak with a supervisor and/or manager, only to be told that none were available at the time. And here's the kicker. If this call does come in tomorrow, and I am not available to answer it, then I will have to call back, and be put back into the mystical queue in hopes of getting someone from the right department to speak to me about the issue.

The irony of all of this? It's National Customer Service Week.

If Life is a Monopoly Board...

2008-10-04T00:14:00.005-04:00

...then I must be the thimble, and every role I throw lands me on the Income Tax spot, the Public Utilities spot, the Luxury Tax spot, or the Go To Jail spot. All the while, everyone else is rolling doubles and buying up every available property so that, on the off chance I manage to miss one of the 4 previously mentioned spots on the board, I still owe someone something! I just feel like I've been drop-kicked by life this week. The thing is, nothing really bad happened, but nothing really good happened either. It was just one of those weeks when, sitting alone on a Friday night in front of one's computer, you're left to ponder the meaning of life and all the other unanswerable questions of the universe. Of course, this makes you feel even more insignificant that you already do, and allows life to throw in that one last sucker punch to finish you off.

Every time I turned around this week, I found someone else with their hand out, expecting payment for something that they have no right expecting payment for (see previous Monopoly rant) . First it's the store that sold us our mattress. Without making a long story unbearably longer, we had our mattress inspected because, in less than a year, there are depressions that are over an inch deep. We were told that such depressions could not occur with this particular mattress, hence the inspection. The inspector agreed that there is a problem with the mattress, but the manufacturer will not do anything until the depressions are 1.5 inches deep. He did, however, determine that there was damage to the foot of our box spring, which he noted in his report. So, the store is now trying to convince us that the previously unnoticed damage to the foot of our box spring is causing the depression in the middle of our mattress. I'm not an engineer, but even I can tell that there is faulty logic there. However, the store is offering to replace our box spring - free of charge - and will re-inspect our mattress in 60 days to prove that the depressions are being caused by the box springs. Sounds good, right up until the store tells us that we have to pay $90 to have the new box spring delivered. My arguments have fallen on deaf ears, and now I cannot get a manager of the store to talk to me regarding this situation. And if we do not replace the box spring, we void the warranty on the mattress, so we're in the proverbial catch-22.

That's how the week started. Today, I got our electric bill. But first a brief history. PP&L discovered that our meter had stopped working properly, and replaced it on July 29th. It had been working fine up to that point, with the possible exception of the month of July being off in terms of it's reading. So I expected the next bill to be a bit higher, to make up the difference. So, imagine my surprise when I open a $775 bill! yes, $775. That is more than our last 8 months of usage combined, and is more than 6 times our monthly average for the last 2 years. Obviously, there is a problem, so I call PP&L at 4:45 pm, and am promptly put on hold for 15 minutes. When I finally speak to a customer service rep, I'm told that I have to speak to the equipment department. Of course, that department closes promptly at 5:00. Perhaps if I wasn't on hold for 15 minutes... So now I have to go 12 rounds with PP&L on Monday to get this straightened out.

Perhaps this is phase one of the bailout plan...

And the icing to this miserable cake? Finding out that my dad has a significant medical condition that, while unconfirmed, looks like cancer. Needless to say, the wheels came off tonight, and I spent a bit of time curled up in a ball screaming at God.

I'm not asking for an easy life. I know God doesn't promise us a life of ease. But I think I've had my share of frustration and stress for the month, and wouldn't mind a little respite from the frustrations of daily living.

There's definitely only one set of footprints in the sand right now...

Most points in the league, but still in last place

2008-09-30T10:13:00.002-04:00

We're 4 weeks into the 2008 fantasy football season, and I'm racking up the points in the IFFL (Immanuel Fantasy Football League) like there's no tomorrow. In Weeks 1, 3 and 4, I put up the second most weekly points in the league, and in week 2, I scored the most points for the week. So what do I have to show for my superior drafting and managing skills? I'm tied for the worst record in the league at 1-3.

Yes, In weeks 1, 3 and 4, I had the misfortune of going up against the team who scored the most points in that particular week. I would love to know what the statistical probability of that happening twice in a season, let alone three times in 4 weeks (Jeff, I'm assigning you that task)!

It's like having an Aces high full house in poker only to get beat by four deuce's on the river.

* if that analogy means nothing to you, I want to play poker with you soon *

I have to believe this is going to turn itself around, but I also know that I have the worst luck in the world, and could very easily see this scenario every week. Of course, the longer it continues, the more blog fodder I have, so I suppose there is a silver lining in my misfortune.

On second, thought...

One...lousy...4-pin...away...

2008-09-30T08:53:00.002-04:00

Week 4 of bowling brought me as close to that elusive perfect game as I've gotten in recent years. The lanes were quirky last night, as I had to fight to keep the ball outside enough to turn it into the pocket. If the angle entry was too shallow, I was leaving a lot of 6-, 9- and 10-pins. If I brought it in too steep, I was leaving a lot of 4- and 7- pins. There was maybe a 3-board margin of error last night.

The first game I spent trying to find the right combination of angle, speed, location and torque. It took me a while, but by the 9th frame, I finally found what I needed, finishing with 4 strikes and a 177 game. I carried the first 2 in the second game as well, giving me 6 strikes in a row. In the 3rd frame, I thought I had my 7th, only to be foiled by a wobbly 4-pin. If the pin-setter had been a few seconds slower, it might have fallen, but we'll never know.

By itself, a 4-pin is not that untypical for me. I've often started a game with a couple strikes, only to leave a single pin spare on what I thought was a decent pocket. But what really stinks about this particular one is that I ran off 9 more consecutive strikes to finish with a 279. That lousy 4-pin is all that kept me from a 300!

Game three was spent trying to adjust to the inevitable breakdown of the lane conditions, and I finished with a 183, throwing a strike on the left lane every time, and a spare or split on the right lane every time.

When the dust settled, I finished with a 639 series, keeping my 213 average intact for the season.

The unfortunate thing is we lost 3 out of 4 points on the night, which drops us down to 8-8 on the season. It was a rough night for everyone on the Boilers squad.

Sales Lady from Hades…but she has 48 years experience!

2008-09-22T10:56:00.003-04:00

Now that our basement is finished, our intent was to put our old futon and recliner in there until more suitable options could be found and procured. However, that plan has been quickly scrapped by my beautiful wife, who has deemed the basement much too nice looking to put our old futon and recliner in it. While I definitely agree that the basement does look incredible (accented nicely by our newly acquired pool table!), I had hoped to put off the purchase of new furniture a little longer than, say, 1 day.

Truth be told, we had been casually looking around at some furniture pieces off and on for a couple of weeks, not intending to actually purchase anything, but to get ideas of what was available. I’ve become quite alarmed at the rather prevalent shift in ‘contemporary’ furniture that looks like it’s trying to mimic the lovely designs of the 60’s and 70’s, but that’s a whole other rant.

In our looking around, we did find a piece that we both liked – a minor miracle in itself – and according to the measurements on the tag, it would fit in the space we are working with in the basement. So, with the newly developed sense of urgency, I found myself groggily climbing into the car first thing Saturday morning and heading off to the furniture store, prepared to take advantage of the 55%-off sale they were having.

We get to the store, only to discover that the dimensions on the tag were incorrect, and the piece was almost 14 inches longer than would fit in the space we’re working with. This, of course, set us on a day long journey to no fewer than 6 other furniture stores, including one particular store 30 miles away, only to find out it was closed as it prepared it’s inventory for it’s going out of business sale.

If you’ve managed to read this far without falling asleep, I’m sure you’re wondering when I’m going to explain the title of this little essay. Well, wait no longer.

After the disappointment of learning the piece we liked would not fit, we found ourselves heading to another furniture store here in Mechanicsburg. This particular store is quite expansive – two floors, thousands of square feet on each floor, massive amounts of couches, love seats, table, chairs, recliners, beds, dressers, etc. for one to choose from. It would be easy to spend 4 or 5 hours just browsing. As you enter the store, you have the option of going left or right, or heading up the staircase to the second floor. Of course, as you enter the store, you are also greeted by at least one overly-enthusiastic vultur- er, I mean salesperson.

We walked in, and before we could get to the point where we had to choose if we were going left, right, or up, Doris (names have not been changed to protect the ignorant) had practically run from her salesperson post to greet us. We received the typical “Welcome to our store” routine. We responded, indicating that we were merely looking to browse and get some ideas. In most cases, this would have been enough to send the salesperson back to her desk. But Doris would not be deterred. Here’s a brief synopsis of our conversation. Doris will be in italics, our responses will be in bold.

“Welcome to Furniture. Have you been in our showroom before?”

“Yes, and we’re just looking around today, getting some ideas.”

“Oh I see, well, you obviously are looking for a recliner, since you were headed upstairs. All our recliners are upstairs. I’d be glad to assist you in your selection.” (keep in mind that she stopped us before we were able to choose a direction).

“No, actually, we’re looking for a couch or a sectional piece.”

“Oh, well, then why were you heading upstairs? Our couches and sectionals are on the lower level. You really didn’t need to even go upstairs.” (the sound you heard was the grinding of my teeth).

“Well, thank you for clearing that up. As we said, we are just looking around, getting some ideas.”

“Of course, take your time, and let me know if you need any help.”

If our interaction had ended there, I would probably not be writing this. However, five minutes later, I stumbled upon a modular sectional, and had called for Anita to come take a look. This was my ultimate mistake on two levels. First, I audibly called for Anita, which not only got Anita’s attention, but alerted Doris to our location in the showroom. My second mistake was my call to Anita provided Doris with the indication that I was interested in the piece as a possible solution to our furniture needs.

“Ah, I see you’ve found the Kasey. This is a wonderful piece, and would obviously meet your needs.”

“Yes, well, we're going to take a look at the possible configurations to make sure we can find one that would fit in the space we have available.”

“Of course this will fit into your space. You can configure this into to any number of layouts to fit the space you have. How much space are we talking about?”

“92 to 96 inches.”

“Well, I have 48 years experience in interior design. I laid out this store and selected all the colors and patterns for every piece of furniture we have on the showroom floor. So I know that this will fit in your basement, and these colors would look perfect for you.” (the piece was a sage green. Our basement is bisque, and the pool table felt is burgundy, none of which was ever discussed, so obviously the color would match perfectly…).

“Well, we still want to take a look around and see what other options are out there”

“Why would you want to do that? We can make this piece work for you. See, if you put these three pieces together, you can create a side that is 9 feet long, which will work for your allotted space.” (I’ll pause while you do the math)

“Um, no, we only have 92 to 96 inches to work with, so we’d need to try something else.”

“You have obviously been looking around for a while and should know the space you have to work with. I’ve been doing this for 48 years, and if you have 96 inches to work with, you obviously can fit a 9 foot long piece into your space.”

“All the same, we’re going to look at some other options.”

I got up and walked away before giving Doris a chance to respond. It was everything I could do not to take her 48 years of experience and cram it down her throat. She may have 48 years of experience (which she mentioned no fewer than 9 times during the course of our conversations), but she obviously can’t do 2nd grade math, and must be deaf as well. We left the store feeling angry and belittled. Not exactly the best way to make a sale in my opinion.

And in case you’re interested, we did find a piece we liked on Sunday at a completely different store, and will most likely be making the purchase this evening.

A Bed Skirt, seriously?

2008-09-20T21:33:00.005-04:00

Okay, I need some assistance from the 4 or 5 faithful readers that I have. Yesterday, for reasons that I couldn't begin to explain here, I decided to wash the sheets on our bed. No, it's not the first time I've ever done it. In fact, I just washed them 2 weeks ago. But because of said situation, I had to remove the mattress from our bed, which gave me unencumbered access to the bed skirt. So I figured, I'm washing the rest of the sheets, why not this as well. This seemed like a logical action to me. So in the washing machine everything went. Afterwards, it all went into the dryer. No muss, no fuss. Everybody happy, right? Matt took initiative, did something that would both benefit the Smith household and please his beautiful wife.

Of course, as our evenings tend to go, we were out and about for most of the night, and when we returned home, the sheets were dry, but obviously a little wrinkled. But they were clean and fresh smelling. And I was anxious to get to bed, as it had been quite a long day. So I proceeded to put the sheets back on the bed, starting with the bed skirt, which was also quite wrinkled. But since Anita and I are the only ones who ever really get to see our bed, I figured it was not that big of a deal, and the wrinkles would, in time, work themselves out.

This, apparently, was not the correct solution. When Anita saw the bed skirt, it triggered an intense need to not only make the wrinkles disappear, but to do so that very instant. so, at midnight, I am standing in our room, holding our mattress up so that she can iron the bed skirt. Needless to say, this did not make either of us very happy.

So, what did we learn from this situation? Apparently, bed skirts are never to be washed. But if that is the case, why do they put washing/care instructions on them? And, if they are never to be washed, why are they made of a material that can, well, get dirty?

So, to my faithful few, please show me the error of my ways or provide me a leg to stand on!

Some recent random highlights

2008-09-16T00:36:00.002-04:00

On Thursday of last week, I finally broke down and set up a Facebook page. I'm not sure about the whole social networking thing, but my primary goal is to use it as a central site to keep in touch with the college kids from church. And since most of them are on Facebook, I figured I better crawl out of the dark ages and get on board. So far, 31 friends and counting. I even figured out how to set up a group on Facebook for the college ministry, and there are 19 students already logged into that as well. Now, if I could only figure out the flair...

Saturday, I turned 36 with little fanfare, which was pretty much how I wanted it.

Sunday, we had 35 students from Messiah stick around for lunch after service. I was completely blown away by this. We had to have close to 60 students in our morning service. As a church, we're studying the "Experiencing God" material by Henry Blackaby, and one of the key tenets is to find where God is moving and join Him there. For whatever reason, one of the areas Immanuel is seeing some serious movement is in our college ministry. It is simultaneously exciting and scary. I'm trusting that if God is bringing these kids to us, then He is equipping us for ministry to and with them. Hard to believe that this all started with 4 or 5 faithful students 4 years ago. Immanuel Church has never drawn Messiah kids by the droves like some of the other churches in the area, but we have always been blessed with quality students, ones who are seeking to serve and connect with a local church family. It was that way when I was a student, and it continues to be that way now!

Monday night was week 2 of the 2008-2009 Almech Bowling league (and, sorry Jeff, I don't know what Almech stands for either). We took all three games and series tonight as a team, making us 7-1 on the season so far. I also managed to pull off a 698 series on the night with a high game of 250, putting me in first place in the league in both categories...briefly. One of the guys in our league decided to do me one better and shot a 300 game and a 779 series. But hey, the season is young. I'm still hoping for my elusive second 300 game. We're down on the good lanes in the house (1-14) this year, so it's definitely possible if I can keep my head screwed on straight.

So that's the rundown since my last post. Hopefully I'll get back to being a bit more regular with these.

Back on Track

2008-09-10T22:28:00.003-04:00

I could try to come up with any number of excuses why I have not been to the gym in almost two months. I could probably generate a series of near facts and plausible circumstances that have prevented me from continuing on my journey of improving my physical condition and overall health. In fact, if I tried hard enough, I could probably even convince myself that those reasons were rationally sound and legitimate.

But, the sad fact is, I let other things get in my way, and the handful of opportunities I had to get back to the gym, I squandered on things like extra sleep and having dinner with my beautiful wife.

However, this evening, I returned to my modest self-improvement journey and returned to the gym. Truth be told, I was prompted more by a phone call from the gym asking for our new address than I was by a burning desire to get back to working out...or whatever you want to call what it is I'm doing.

So, after stretching out a bit, I jumped onto a nearby elliptical machine, and ran/elliped for 30 minutes, which included a 5 minute cool-down. I was pleasantly surprised when I hit the 1-mile mark at 10:10. Not bad for the first time back in 7 weeks. I was nearly giddy (yes, I said giddy, deal with it) when I hit the 2-mile mark at 20:05. I actually ran the second mile faster than the first by 15-seconds. I decided then not to press my luck, and slowed down significantly, hitting 2.5-miles at 27:00, and finishing at 2.7 miles for the 30 minutes on the machine.

After that, I quickly got up onto a stationary bike and set out on a 20-minute ride. Much to my surprise, I had pedaled 7.5 miles in those 20 minutes. I had put my towel over the read-out for my ride, as I was just looking to see how long I could pedal continuously without slowing down too much. I was actually shocked when I stopped to see how 'far' I had gone. Guess I'll go back tomorrow and see if I can match these numbers.

Makes me wonder where I'd be today if I hadn't taken that gym sabbatical for the last two months.

Finally, Something I'm Good At

2008-09-08T22:30:00.002-04:00

Well, the 2008-2009 bowling season for the Almech League officially kicked off tonight. I had the fortune of having bowled a few games in recent weeks, so I wasn't as rusty as I had expected to be. Last year, my average dropped nearly 12 points from the previous season (from 208 down to 196), so I'm hoping to get it back up closer to the 210 average I am shooting for. I'd love to get it higher than that, but I'm certainly not going to complain if I can reach the 210 plateau.

I started off the season well with games of 200 - 224 - 190 for a 614 series, and just shy of a 205 average to start off with. I left a number of 10-pins tonight, converting 6 of the 8 I left, which is a pretty good ratio for me. The 10-pin is the bane of my bowling existence. Always has been. Some night's I can get it, others I can't get close. Most of my balls were in the pocket tonight, so I was pleased with that.

One of my goals this year is to try to relax more and have some more fun. I tend to take bowling way too seriously - I know, big shocker there. Hopefully having Jeff and Dan on the team this year will help me keep my cool and have some fun.

So, I'm sure you'll hear more of my bowling exploits from time to time on here. Who knows, maybe this will be the year I finally get that elusive second 300 game. I doubt it, but it's fun to dream.

A Rough Start To The Fantasy Football Season

2008-09-07T23:19:00.002-04:00

Well, if championships are won and lost in the first week, I'm going to be paddling upstream for the rest of the season. It has not been a kind Week 1 for the ol' Amish Electricians (McKeesport) / Mayhem (Mechanicsburg) squads. The Amish Electricians are down almost 50 points , and the Mayhem is fighting to get within 10 points, but both of my opponents have Adrian Peterson playing tomorrow night, so I have little doubt that I will be starting out 0-1 in both leagues.

The thing is, this has been one of the strangest opening weeks in recent years, from a fantasy perspective. Injuries have run rampant - Tom Brady might be lost for the season - and big name players did little to help their teams - Torry Holt and Chad Ocho Stinko en Fuego a-no-no had a combined 2 catches. On the flip side, Willie Parker had more TD's today than he had all of 2007, and Donovan McNabb had one of the best games in his career. Chicago is totally dominating Indianapolis as I type, and the Atlanta Falcons, universally picked to finish at or near the bottom or the league, wins their first game behind a rookie QB.

This is part of the fun and agony of fantasy football. You pick your guys, and you are left at the mercy of their performance on the field. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you don't. I'm definitely on the unlucky side this week, but next week's another story.

The good news is I should get first crack at the waiver wire on Tuesday!

The better news is my beloved Steelers kicked some major tail at Heinz Field, showing that they will be a team to be reckoned with, especially given that they have the hardest schedule in the league.

So here's hoping my luck turns next week, and the Steelers keep rolling along against the Brownies.

A Golfer I Am Not

2008-09-05T13:14:00.006-04:00

I’m sure you’ve all heard someone say “A bad day at golf beats a good day at work.” It’s a pithy, tongue-in-cheek remark that is usually only said by those who actually play golf. It’s a remark that I’d been known to utter from time to time. And until recently, I held true to it.

But after this summer, I’m more prone to agree with Mark Twain, who remarked that “Golf is a good walk spoiled.”

I’ve gotten out 5 times this summer, and my score got worse and worse with each round. Now, I don’t consider myself a ‘Golfer.’ A ‘Golfer’ is someone who plays regularly, usually from the blue tees, and can generally hit the ball in the general direction that they’re aiming, close to the fairway and/or green, and typically doesn’t need a sickle, scuba gear or chainsaw to play their next shot.

No, I’m more of a ‘Hacker’ when it comes to golf. And I was okay with that, because I was able to at least show minor improvement through the course of the summer, to the point that I was able to break 100 with some regular consistency. But this summer, I feel like I’ve never picked up a golf club before (And starting to question why I ever did in the first place). Take yesterday’s round as a great example. I hit more trees and put more balls in water in yesterday’s round than I have in all my rounds last summer. For every decent shot I hit – all 3 of them - I had 10 that were just contemptible. In fact, the best swing I had all day was when, after 15 or 16 consecutive horrid shots, I took a frustrating swing at a nearby tree. It was the first time all day that I made solid contact with something!

The thing is, I have no illusions to the reality that I’ll never be more than a hacker when it comes to golf. I don’t aspire to be a golfer, but I do desire to get better as I play more. And I’ve found that I usually do get better at something the more I play it. But golf is a different beast for me. In fact, I think it was the ‘class’ that I took last September that has actually caused my recent ineptitude. Before I took this class, I didn’t know what I was doing wrong to know the ‘correct’ way to fix it. I would fix things in such a way that worked for me, and it seemed to be sufficient, sometimes even effective. But now that I know what I’m doing wrong and the way I’m supposed to be doing it, I find myself thinking about it before every swing, trying to manipulate my body in such a way that is ‘correct.’ The problem is that I’m no longer comfortable with my stance or swing, and I can’t figure out what to do about it. I’m trying to forget everything this class taught me, but it’s hard to get rid of that information when I’m in the middle of a golf course.

The way I see it, I have three options at this point…

1) Go out and invest some money in some real golf instruction and a fitted set of clubs (I’m still playing with the Wal-Mart sale clubs I bought 10 years ago), and see if that makes a difference.
2) Throw my clubs in the Susquehanna River and forget I ever considered stepping foot on a golf course
3) Accept the fact that I pretty much suck at hitting a golf ball, and just try to enjoy the 4 hours spent on a golf course.

While option 2 is certainly appealing at the moment, option three is most likely the course I’ll take, but it will definitely be the hardest for me to accomplish.

After every round of golf, I'm reminded of why I bowl.

Starting Their Next Chapter

2008-08-30T14:13:00.003-04:00

I remember my first night on campus at Messiah. My family had left for the home, and I was alone in my room (my roommate hadn't arrived yet). I was sitting there fumbling with an envelope that Dad had handed me as we said our goodbyes. I opened it and read what he had written, his encouragement to me and his desires for me. I cried. Even now, I'm still a little misty-eyed thinking about it. I still have the letter tucked away. But the one thing I remember most about that night was a statement he made, that this moment was '...the start of the next chapter...' in my life's story.

On Thursday, I was fortunate enough to help with moving new Messiah students into Naugle dorm. For 4 hours, I carried more mini-fridges and TV's than I could count, and if there was a box that weighed more than 30 lbs, it somehow ended up in my arms. And I must have had some sign on my back that indicated that I was the guy to see if you were moving into the 3rd floor, because almost everyone I helped that day lived on Naugle 3rd. As I was moving the kids in, I was watching them and their parents, thinking back to my first day on campus. You could tell which families were doing this for the first time, and which one had been through this before. You could tell which kids - and parents - were probably going to have an easy transition, and which ones were going to struggle a little bit. For the most part, it was fun to be part of.

Of course, I was soon struck by the reality that I was helping move kids into the dorm who were half my age. When did I get old?

One of the last trips I made was to the room that was next door to the room I lived in my first year at Messiah. That's when it hit me. I took a moment and stepped into my old room - Naugle B303 - and remembered my first night and that letter. It was in that room where my 'next chapter' began nearly 17 years ago. And I prayed that these kids who were starting out their next chapters would each give their books to the author of all life, and that their journeys would be exciting and fulfilling.

Welcome to Messiah, everyone. Welcome to the next chapter!

Shawne Merriman is an IDIOT

2008-08-27T18:13:00.003-04:00

It appears that steroids really do kill brain cells. It was reported today that Shawne Merriman, the Por-Bowl linebacker for the San Diego Chargers has decided to forgoe the advice of four doctors, and play this season, despite having two torn ligaments in the same knee!!!!!

Now, having been the victim of a single torn ligament in my knee, there is a reason why the doctors tell you not to resume activity right away. It's to have surgery and let the body heal itself, so that you can continue on with your normal life in a few months. Yes, it's frustrating to have to be a quasi-invalid for that time, but it's better to have full function for your entire life than to risk that for a few moments of whatever.

I suspect we're going to see a sight similar to this before the end of the football season, with Shawne "Who needs knee ligaments" Merriman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i_bJv_0z-k

Drafts are over, let the games begin!

2008-08-27T13:15:00.002-04:00

Well, it's official. The drafts are over, and I'm now ready for the season to begin. I am in three leagues this year. The first one is with a group of guys back home that I've been playing with for about 6 years now. The second one is a league that I run with a group of guys out here in Mechanicsburg (mostly) from Immanuel (mostly). The third one is something a bit different. Both of my other leagues are through Real Time Sports, and they started up a number of pay league options this year. One of those options was what I'm calling a "draft-it-and-forget-it" league. In this case, you pick your team, and the system chooses your best possible lineup and that's your score for the week. You do nothing else all season other than check on your score each week. So I created a league in that and got 9 other guys to go in on it with me. Should be interesting to see how that one turns out.

So, now that all my drafts are over, I'm left only to ponder the upcoming season and to speculate as to how I might finish in each league. I't like to say that I'm confident that I'll be victorious in all three, but I'm not. In the McKeesport League, I believe I'll be able to make the playoffs again, but I do not see me finishing higher than 3rd again this year. In the Immanuel League, I feel I have a strong team, but I believe there is at least one team out there, on paper, that is much stronger than mine. Second would be a vast improvement over my 7th place finish last year, but still not a championship. The "Draft-It/Forget-It" league? Well, I have no idea. Based solely on predictions, I should finish well, but was my draft good enough for 1st? Only time will tell.

But through all of the drafts, I am always amused and amazed at how people manage their drafts. The guys in the McKeesport League are all a bit fanatical about it (myself included). The amount of preparation - for almost all the managers - is impressive. We draft 20 rounds in that league, so you really have to do your homework and know NFL rosters 3 and 4 deep on the depth charts.

The Immanuel League is quite a bit different. Most of the guys are quite laid back about the approach, which is good in that it keeps the smack talk to a minimum and usually allows for a bit more fun. But the biggest drawback to this is that when guys are less prepared, it takes forever to draft. We only have 16 rounds in the Immanuel League, yet that draft took almost an hour longer than the McKeesport draft did.

The "Draft & Forget" league took 2 hours exactly for 18 rounds. Everyone was online for that one, and that might have made it go a little faster - no chit-chat in between. Plus, I got the sense that most of those guys were pretty well educated in the draft process and were well prepared for any strange occurrences - like the guy who set his team to auto-pick and drafted 8 consecutive running backs, completely screwing up everyone's draft strategy.

I'll probably do one more 'league' this year, but not a draft-based league. I'm playing in the NBC 100K Fantasy Football Challenge for the second year in a row. This one is quite impressive, and really makes you think and prepare. Each week, you can pick 2 or 3 players from each position. The catch is, you can only use them once during the season. So if you pick Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as your week 1 QB's, you cannot use either of them again (with the exception of the Sunday Night Bonus Player rules). This requires a lot of strategy to accomplish. Last season, I finished in the top 5000 (doesn't sound impressive until you realize that there were nearly 400,000 people playing last year). My goal this year is the top 500. It's free to enter, so come join me if you're up to the challenge.

I was always told to get a hobby!

Too Good To Pitch?!?!?

2008-08-26T16:07:00.002-04:00

I just finished reading the article that’s been circulating the net (read the story here) regarding the 9-year-old pitcher in Connecticut who’s been, in essence, banned from pitching because, well, he’s too good. At first I thought it was a joke, until I heard it repeated on two radio shows this morning as well.

I’m almost speechless at this. These morons who run the league are telling this kid that he can’t do what he loves and is exceptional at because he’s so much better than the other kids in the league? Their argument is that it’s a ‘developmental league’ and young Jericho is preventing the other kids from learning. What? In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, “Good Grief!” If you have a kid who can throw the ball hard – and ACCURATELY – at 8 years of age, you need to do everything you can to continue to encourage him to keep pitching.

I remember playing in a game when I was 10 years old, where the pitcher on the other team was almost 6-foot tall, and could throw the ball harder than anything I’d ever batted against up to that point. This kid couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time, and he literally fell of the mound after every pitch. And you had no idea where the pitch was going. The first one he threw to me went at least a foot behind my back. I remember in my first at bat being so frozen with fear standing in the box, having no idea where the next pitch was going, that I could only take half-hearted swings at the pitches, eventually grounding out weakly to 2nd base. Our parents complained, saying he was too tall to be 10 years old, but his coach and parents had a birth certificate on hand as proof (guess this was a normal occurrence), yet no one complained that he was too good to be out there. Granted, he was a bit wild, but he also struck out nearly every batter he faced. Sure, it was discouraging to whiff against this kid, but rather than sulk and complain, most of us took it as a challenge to try to get a hit off of him. I know I did. He was better than me, and I wanted to prove to him and myself that I could be as good as him. By my last at bat, I hit a deep fly ball to center field. It was caught, but it was one of only two or three balls our team hit out of the infield.

My point is this; going up against a kid who was definitely better than I was made me step up my game to try to get to his level. That what the parents and other managers are missing in this league in Connecticut. This kid, Jericho, has the chance to raise the level of every child in that league. But rather than allow that to happen, they’d rather ban Jericho so their kids don’t get their feelings hurt.

We’re so concerned about fairness and entitlement, that we are raising a generation of weak, feeble, spiritless, spineless children who will eventually turn into weak, feeble, spiritless, spineless adults who feel the world owes them everything. We are becoming the spoiled brats of the civilized world, and we’re going to get slapped hard because of it if we don’t grow up as a nation.

There is a ‘circle of life’ moment here that I think needs to be explored…

Competition eventually breeds Passion
– to compete is to want to win, to fight for it.
Passion eventually breeds Desire
- to fight for something bad enough to prove how bad you want it
Desire eventually breeds Drive
- to want something that you will let nothing get in your way
Drive eventually breeds Perseverance
- to continue to push forward even as obstacles come your way
Perseverance eventually breeds Accomplishment
- to endure the obstacles long enough until you complete that which you set out to do
Accomplishment eventually breeds Confidence
- once the task is completed, you’re ready to show everyone else that you can do it
Confidence eventually breeds Competition
- to put your skills on display in a manner that allows you to gauge your abilities

There will always be someone better than you at something. And if you want to grow as a person, you have to rice to the challenge to place yourself in competition with that person. Iron sharpens Iron. You cannot get better by refusing to play greater talent. You cannot learn anything by taking the easy road. Yet this is the lesson that has just been taught to these kids. Shame you, New Haven!

What if Michael Phelps was banned from the pool because he swam faster than the other kids?

What if Shaquille O’Neal was banned from the basketball court because he was taller than the other kids?

What if Bill Gates was banned from high school because he was too smart for the other kids?

Anyone else seeing the ridiculousness in this situation?

My First Auction

2008-08-23T21:29:00.002-04:00

Well, after 36 years of avoiding this subset of the populous, I have officially been baptized into the world of Home Auctions & Estate Sales. Growing up in McKeesport, this is not something that I was aware of, but having moved out here to Mechanicsburg, I've come to realize that there is definitely an 'auction culture.'

A little background might be helpful at this point. Anita's grandparents have decided to move to a semi-retirement community, and found themselves needing to sell their home. In addition, they decided to sell a lot of personal property, as they will not have the room in the smaller home they will be moving into. One other key component to keep in mind is that they live in Shippsensburg, which has a significantly large population of Amish and old-order Mennonite, who flock to auctions like my wife flocks to Clarks shoes.

So, off we went this morning to the auction. It was definitely a little bittersweet since it was a significant chunk of memories from Anita's family that was being sold. But the auctioneer was very good, and treated most of the items with respect and sensitivity, which was greatly appreciated. For 6 hours, I helped present items for bid, and watched as pieces of the Wadel family history went to the highest bidder. There were some items that should have gone for more, and there were some items that completely blew my mind for how much they went for. But that is part of the game I've learned.

I also learned that auctioneers do not speak English. I'm sure this comes as no shock to anyone who's every seen any movie or TV show that portrayed an auctioneer. Basically, what they do is slip into some dialect that sounds like a cross between Fred Flinstone, Scooby-Doo and the Sherrif from 'Fargo'. "Hey, yabba dabba doya, rokay, rere we go, gimme 5 doncha know, yabba yabba dabba dabba (snicker like Scooby Doo here), rokay raggy, gimme 10 heya. sold!" Of course, if the bidding keeps going, this jibberish continues on for minutes. Yet, everyone sitting there understands every word coming out of the auctioneers mouth...except for auction virgins like myself.

However, all things considered, it was definitely a unique experience, and one that I might be inclined to try again...especially if I don't have to 'work' it like I did today.

Attention all Rookie Fantasy Football Managers...

2008-08-22T15:57:00.002-04:00

After much thought and deliberation on the subject, I’ve decided to be helpful and post my guidelines for all Fantasy Football rookie managers. I’m sure you’ve heard many opinions from many sources, and most of that information is probably helpful in some regard. But the truth is, most of that information wants you to toe the line and limit your thinking. I’m here to encourage you to break the mold and be creative in your approach to the game. So here are my suggestions in no particular order.

1) One of the most admirable traits in Fantasy Football managers is to stick with your team. Always grab the 2nd or even 3rd string guys from your favorite team before going with some rival team’s top gun. This will make watching the games on Sunday much more enjoyable for you.
2) Don’t hesitate to extend the loyalty approach to your alma mater or favorite college. Always stick with your school’s alumni when having to choose between players. This is especially true for all Penn State fans.
3) If there’s a run on a position, never be the guy to break it. It’s always best to keep it going, because if you don’t the next player in that position will go to someone else’s team.
4) Rookies rarely produce. The success of rookies like Adrian Peterson’s is the exception, not the norm. If you must pick a rookie, grab a rookie TE, as they are usually the safest bet to be consistent.
5) Never hesitate to take a player who is suspended or hurt. They will eventually make it onto the field at some point in the season, and your patience will be rewarded.
6) If you don’t have at least one sleeper on your team by the end of the 3rd round, your chances of victory dwindle exponentially.
7) Never be afraid to take a Kicker in the first round. Your goal is to grab the best players at each position, right?
8) Have a plan in place, and do not waver from it. Thinking on your feet and changing gears mid-draft will only slow you down and make the other managers upset that you’re taking too long thinking about your next pick. The best plan is to draft by position alphabetically.
9) Never, ever draft the same position on consecutive picks
10) Pay no attention to previous year’s statistics. They will only serve to confuse you and cause you to lose focus on the projected statistics for the upcoming season. Historical data is irrelevant in fantasy football.
11) Never make in-season trades. This only shows that you have little faith in your ability to draft and is viewed as a sign of weakness among the other managers. This holds true for dropping and adding players during the season as well. If they were not good enough to draft, they will not be suddenly good enough to pick up in Week 4.
12) Be prepared. If you arrive at your draft having purchased fewer than 5 magazines, you are not prepared enough and will be mocked by the other league managers.
13) Pay no attention to the players picked by the other teams. They will let you know if your next selection has already been drafted by some other team.
14) Your league’s scoring rules are irrelevant. Player rankings never take this into consideration. There are so many options that, ultimately, it’s best to just assume that every league does the same thing.
15) If any other manager offers to give you advice, always assume that they have your best interests in mind and are honestly looking to help you win the league championship rather than win it themselves. To ignore their advice would be paramount to implying that they are manipulative and unethical, and would be considered the highest of all insults.

If you follow these simple rules, there is one word you will need to remember...Championship!

What was NBC Thinking?

2008-08-20T09:26:00.000-04:00

I found myself screaming at the TV last night (again) as I watched the Women’s 100 meter hurdles event. But I wasn’t screaming during the race. I was screaming afterwards as NBC spent minute upon minute focusing on Lolo Jones, the pre-race favorite for gold, who had tripped on the next to the last hurdle and finished 7th. This poor girl just had the dream she had been chasing for years come crashing down around her, and the cameras won’t let her go.

While I can appreciate the agony of defeat, what was lost in the moment was the fact that another American, Dawn Harper, had actually won the event! So much of the focus of the race was on Lolo Jones, that the winner had to celebrate her enormous victory in virtual obscurity. Dawn Harper, who had barely made the team, wins the biggest race of her life, and NBC inexplicably focuses on ‘the favorite’ who lost? I just don’t get it.

Then, as if to further the insult to Dawn Harper, NBC makes the decision to interview Lolo Jones – with Ms Harper standing right behind her! Give me a break! First, Dawn Harper won the race. Give her the moment in the spotlight that she had earned. Second, Lolo Jones just suffered disappointment beyond words, don’t make her try to explain it.

And to put a cap on the insulting evening, NBC cuts from Dawn Harper’s victory lap to show Lolo Jones crying in the tunnel as she leaves the Bird’s Nest.

NBC – No Brains Center

The First Fantasy Draft of The Season

2008-08-18T22:42:00.004-04:00

Well, the first of my three fantasy football drafts is in the books, and as always, the preparation that I did beforehand (which consisted of about 4 hours of actually planning contrary to what my wife thinks), went out the window within the first 5 minutes. After weeks of unsuccessfully attempting to trade my two first-round draft picks for some later picks, I had relegated myself to picking 7th and 8th, then not again until the 4th round, and then not again until the 8th round. I had prepared my mocks accordingly, and was set with a strategy that I was comfortable (though not confident) with.

So, upon entering the draft room, one of my fellow managers quickly announces that he's decided to take the trade I offered a few days earlier (after rejecting it short after it was offered). This deal was much better for me as it provided me with a pick in each of the first 4 rounds, allowing me to balance my team more evenly than I had planned. However, it essentially forced me to throw out my entire strategy and fly by the seat of my pants for the entire draft.

To be fair, I could have turned down the offer and stuck with my plan, but I trust myself and my knowledge of fantasy football enough to know that I can select a decent team even with little preparation. Looking back on it now, I can confidently say that in 16 picks, I really only reached for 2 picks. There's only one pick that I'm leery of, but sometimes you have to accept the risk to enjoy the reward. I feel I have a very balanced team, and I'm looking good heading into the season.

As for the draft itself, it is always a unique experience. It was the first time that all 10 managers were physically present, which was cool. I enjoy watching the other guys, how they prepare, how they draft, how they react when someone snipes a pick out from under them. And I'm convinced that every league has a few guys that fit into one of the following categories...

- The Sleeper/Rookie Picker: This is the manager who is always looking to grab 'the next big thing' before anyone else realizes that. Of course, when 20 different magazines and websites call a player a sleeper, doesn't that kinda disqualify said player from being a sleeper?

- The Over-Prepared Manager: This is the guy who has spent way too much time mulling over the minutiae, looking for that last nugget of information to help decide which player to take in the 19th round.

- The Over-Confident Manager: This gentleman makes every pick as if it was the greatest pick in the draft, and that the rest of us are merely vying for second place after only 3 rounds.

- The Unprepared Manager: The bane of the Over-Prepared Manager's existence. This slouch shows up on draft day late and usually having been reminded the night before that the draft was even happening. Yet, inexplicably, this guy somehow manages to draft a decent team.

(If any of the guys in this particular league are reading this, I'll let you determine who fits which category. I know I have my opinions on the matter.)

The truth is, while it can sometimes get a little heated and gamey, we have a lot of fun doing this, and I find myself looking forward to it each year...once softball has run it's course.

And now, my list of things you never expect to hear (and never want to be the one saying) at a Fantasy Football Draft...

- In the 8th round (of 20), I'll take Kicker... (unless Tom Brady starts kicking field goals, there should never be a kicker taken before round 19 of 20)
- Rex Grossman was the hottest fantasy player for about 6 weeks a few years ago...
- Has Cedric Benson been picked up by a team yet?
- Is (insert name here) over 6'4"? I'm only taking receivers who are over 6'4".
- How much time do I have left on the clock?
- I'll take whatever Defense is left on the board with the highest rating (never, never, never come off this blase about a pick, even if it is a Defense).
- I need a quality backup QB. Should I pick Grossman or Croyle?
- TJ Housyomamma...Championship! (it was funny the first thousand times, now it's an invitation to have something thrown at you).

I'm A Coaster Enthusiast

2008-08-18T22:35:00.003-04:00

I’ve always been a Roller Coaster guy. The perfect vacations for me would be a week-long trip that included at least 4 trips to 4 different Amusement Parks – as long as those those parks had decent coasters. I grew up going to Kennywood Park, riding such classics as the Jackrabbit, the Racer, the Thunderbolt, and the Laser Loop. Later, as I got older, Kennywood built what was the fastest and steepest coaster in the world (at the time) The Steel Phantom. For some inexplicable reason, they altered the Steel Phantom – took out all it’s inversions - and renamed it Phantom’s Revenge, which is only a mere wannabe compared to it’s predecessor.

I remember trips to Cedar Point (many, many years ago) to ride such classics as the Wildcat, the Iron Dragon (my first suspended coaster), and Magnum XL-200. Even some trips to Bush Gardens stick out in my memory, with such coasters as Alpengeist, Big Bad Wolf, Loch Ness Monster and Drachen Fire.

Even now, living out here in Mechanicsburg, I am able to hop in the car and make my way to HersheyPark, which boasts 11 coasters within its boundaries. I remember riding the Sooper Dooper Looper and the Comet as a kid, and even now, they’re still fun coasters to ride. And now they have the Great Bear, Storm Runner, and they’re latest entry, Fahrenheit 97.

It is Fahrenheit 97 that brings me to my post now. Last week, I had the opportunity to ride this beast for the first time. The first hill is 90 degrees straight up (see picture above), and then 97 degrees down – yes, it turns under itself slightly. It was a little unnerving to go up the first hill. Without the ability to see the track or any other object provides little vantage as to how high you are, or where the top of the hill is. In fact, you don’t know you have reached the top until the people in front of you begin to pull away from you. Suddenly, you’re thrown over the top and find yourself heading back under the track on your way to a minutes worth of twists, inversions, and some surprising zero-gravity moments when you least expect it. And it is one of the smoothest coasters I’ve ever ridden.

My gripe with the coaster (you didn’t think I was going to go without some kind of rant, did you?) is the seat. This is actually my gripe with many of the newer coasters being built. The seats are made for someone who is 7’2", and weighs 100 lbs. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. Now, I know I’m over the norm in terms of body size (and I’m working on that), but I’m definitely not too big to ride these coasters. But when the seat is so narrow that I feel violated by the leg separation, well, there’s a problem. It’s one thing if the shoulder bar doesn’t come down to where you can lock it in place with the seat belt coming up between your legs – which I had no problem with, mind you. But the depth of the seat is so shallow that it’s almost impossible to realistically fit unless you’re physically too small to even ride the coaster! I’m just glad it was smooth, or I might be a real tenor today.

However, all that being said, I cannot wait to ride it again!

Olympic Overload

2008-08-12T13:41:00.001-04:00

I will admit, I’m not the biggest fan of the Olympics. I do enjoy watching certain sports, and I love the underdog stories that come out of the games. But after a while, I kinda get tired of being force-fed gymnastics and swimming night after night. I mean, if you’re going to force non-stop Olympics upon us, and there’s a 12-hour time delay, surely you could put some of the less popular, but not necessarily less-exciting, sports.

For instance, while I will admit that I’m pulling for Michael Phelps to pull off the 8-for-8, I would have loved to have seen the first day of the Fencing events. Why? Well, besides the fact that the swimming events are televised ad nauseum, and besides the fact that the American women pulled off a medal sweep in the Sabre event (I think I have that right), there is an inherent beauty and fluidity in Fencing that few people are ever given the opportunity to watch.

And now that Gymnastics is in full swing, I find myself wondering how other events, such as handball, are going. I’ve never seen a handball match. I don’t know the rules of it, but I think I’d like to have the opportunity to watch and learn. Although, I will admit I found myself almost cheering out loud for the US Men’s Gymnastics team last night in their Bronze Medal performance. Considering the fact that not one of the guys on the team had ever been in the Olympics before, they certainly exceeded anyone’s expectations and did the US proud.

Of course, if I had DirecTV (see my previous post), I could see the less-mainstream sports, as they are carrying 8 different channels dedicated to the Olympics. Or, if I didn’t have a job, I could watch USA or MSNBC to see something other than swimming or gymnastics. But, neither of those options exist. I suppose I could watch on NBC.com as well, but watching an online video window just gets annoying after a while.

So, all ranting aside, here are some things that I’ve seen so far that may interest only me…
- The Opening Ceremonies were, by far, the most impressive artistic display I’ve seen in a very long time. The choreography of the drums and the other elements was amazing. The grandeur of the ceremony perfectly set the stage for the games.
- Obviously, I have a vested interest in China (due to our slowly pending adoption), but I have been very impressed with the venues, as well as the lack of politics that many thought would permeate the events.
- Jonathan Horton (US Gymnastics) is amazing. This kid nailed everything he tried in the Team All-Around, and was clearly the heart and soul of the team. The US media needs to figure out a way to give this kid some air-time, because he just radiates confidence and pride in the US, and is the embodiment of what the Olympics are about.
- Does anyone really believe the girls on the Chinese Women’s Olympic Team are all 16 or older?
- Bob Costas is actually a very good sportscaster and interviewer.

My two-cents on Favre

2008-08-06T08:11:00.002-04:00

Okay, I’ve avoided the topic up to this point, and I think I’ve just gotten to the point that I just need to vent about it. But enough with the Brett Favre minute-by-minute updates.

This whole thing just reeks of over-sensationalizing. I sit at work and listen to Sports Talk radio talk about how the issue has been dissected and analyzed to death, yet they spend three more hours talking about it. And they do nothing but spew the same 4 or 5 points over and over again, then take callers who repeat the same 4 or 5 points. It’s a never-ending cycle, and one that just needs to stop. Seriously, just stop talking about it. There is nothing that can be said on the situation that hasn’t already been said.

At this point, who really gives a flyin’ fig as to whether or not Brett Favre plays football at all this season, let alone for the Packers? Actually, I know the answer to that question. There are two groups of people – the most fanatical of Cheese-heads, and the most fanatical Fantasy Football owners.

I think the saddest part of all of this is that Favre, who may be one of the top 10 quarterbacks to ever play the game, is doing nothing more than tarnishing his name and reputation with this whole pathetic affair. I’m not sure there is any way for him to come out of this with his reputation intact. And that’s sad. When it comes time to enshrine him into the Hall of Fame – if he even gets voted in after this – What will the reaction be? An Art Monk-like 5 minute standing ovation, or a meager chorus of indifference?

Someone need to pull Favre aside and give him two names – John Elway and Joe Namath.

Elway, who retired after winning the Super Bowl, is still revered with God-like status by most Denver fans. Elway didn’t waffle, didn’t play games with the team and the community. And his name and reputation are as strong now as it was when he was a player.

Joe Namath, perhaps the first of the truly great modern era quarterbacks, had the world on a string. His years with the Jets were the stuff of legend. But in the last year of his career, he asked for, and received a release from the Jets and was traded to the LA Rams. There, despite his “Broadway Joe” legacy, he couldn’t overcome the trappings of his own success and his bad knees, and failed miserably in the first 4 games of the season, eventually getting roughed up to the point of not being able to play after the 4th week of the season. He quietly retired after only 1 year with the Rams.

The biggest loser in this whole situation is Aaron Rodgers, who has absolutely no chance of succeeding in Green Bay. As soon as he loses a game, or fumbles, or throws an incompletion, he will hear the rumblings…”Brett would have won,” “Brett would have done it better,” “Brett wouldn’t have made that mistake.” On and on it will go.

There is a fact of life for professional athletes that Favre seems to be missing – you cannot play forever. There is always someone younger, faster, and, in today’s money-driven sports world, cheaper than you coming up behind you. You can keep them at bay for only so long before nature, and finances, takes its course.

Brett, be a man. Admit to yourself and to the world that you made a mistake in un-retiring, and enjoy your family and the ridiculous wealth you’ve amassed over the years. Ride off into the sunset with what’s left of your dignity and let us get back to real life.

Over and Out

2008-08-04T23:22:00.002-04:00

Well, the 2008 season for Immanuel Church softball has come to a close. We all know that in a playoff format, every teams ends with a loss...except the eventual winner...but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. As it's been said "Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end." (extra points if you can name the movie and the character who gave us that pearl of wisdom). It was a tough loss to end the season, but all in all, it was a good season. I would like to still be playing, but there is a part of me that is a little relieved that we're done and can get back to some semblance of a 'normal life' - whatever that is.

So, my hat is off to my guys. It was a tough road to walk at times, and I thank you all for your perseverance and your commitment to the team and to each other. In many ways, this may be the springboard for the future, the catalyst that compels us to bigger and better things next season. Only time will tell, but I am excited to find out come April.

Of course, now that softball is over, I can focus my attentions on more important matters - like reclaiming my top spot in our fantasy football league!

Art Monk - The Epitome of Class and Grace

2008-08-03T23:43:00.003-04:00

I had the fortune last evening of flipping on the idiot box just in time to catch Art Monk's Hall of Fame acceptance speech. For nearly 15 minutes, I stood in my living room listening to this man, a man who, admittedly I knew little about the man other than his achievements on the field. I had read somewhere along the way that he was a Christian, but I had no inkling one way or the other how sincere or important that was in his life.

Well, after listening to this man share his personal testimony as the crux of his acceptance speech, I sit here now to tell you that I have a deep and profound respect for Art Monk. If you did not hear his speech, I implore you to set aside 20 minutes and watch it here. (for a printable text version, head over here.)

I'm sure we have all seen example of athletes giving apparent hollow thanks to God or doing the 'point to the sky' motion after scoring a Touchdown. We watch as a gold cross on a chain as almost become part of a sports uniform, rather than a symbolic reminder of Christ's sacrifice. Perhaps I'm more cynical than I should be in this regard. But I can assure you all that this is not the case with Art Monk.

Even today, I am still finding myself drawn to his words, his sincerity and his humility even in the face of such honor and recognition. This man has just been recognized as one of the best to ever play the game of football. Yet, I truly believe that he would have been just as happy had he never made it to that podium last night, because, in his own words... "As great as this honor is, it's not what really defines who I am or the things that I've been able to accomplish in my life. I'll always be known as a Redskin. That's right. And even now as a Hall of Famer, the one thing I want to make very clear is that my identity and my security is found in the Lord. And what defines me and my validation comes in having accepted his son Jesus Christ as my personal savior. And what defines me is the word of God and it's the word of God that will continue to shape and mold me into the person that I know he's called me to be."

Let those words soak in. These are words that all of us who call ourselves children of God should be able to identify with.

To Art Monk: Thank you, and my God continue to use you as His ambassador to those who need to hear His message!

My Kingdom for an East-Facing Perch

2008-07-31T15:40:00.000-04:00

I hate Comcast. I detest the way they do business. I hate the fact that they essentially hold their Harrisburg consumers hostage, forcing us to pay for channels that people 10 miles away get as part of their basic package (NFL Network, Fox Sports Pittsburgh for starters) with a supposedly lesser cable company. And I especially hate their methodology of using lawsuits to delay others (eg. Verizon FiOS) from intruding on their turf. If it wasn’t for the fact that I do not have a reasonably located east-facing location on my house, I would have dumped the cable-Nazis when we moved in favor of DirecTV. I had dreamed that when we finished our basement, I could hook up my new TV to FiOS, and enjoy faster and cheaper service that included the NFL Network and Fox Sports Pittsburgh. Alas, that is not yet to be.

The arrival if FiOS is coming…slowly. They appear to be running the lines for it in our neighborhood. In talking with some of the Verizon people, it takes 3-4 months to get the FiOS internet access up and running once the lines are run. TV comes 12 – 15 months later. So it appears I will have to wait up to 18 months for my TV utopia to begin. Until then, I will have to suffer through more of Comcast’s stranglehold on my viewing choices.

Of course, this is also assuming that the Gestapo that is Upper Allen Township decides to pull their collective head out of their collective butt and approve our permits for getting our basement finished. For nearly a week, we’ve been fighting with them over the insulation value of the walls we’re putting up. We’re using a company out of Carlisle to get the work done, and their wall system is a R11 insular value, which becomes an R13 when you factor in the 4” open space between the new wall and the basement wall. This value is more than acceptable by state standards, but not for the dictatorship of Upper Allen. No, they require a value of R15. So, the end result is that our contractor will have to attach a layer of ¼-inch think foam insulation to the back of our walls to increase the value to R15. My basement is being delayed because of a ¼-inch think layer of foam! Yes, a layer of foam that is the approximate thickness of a staple width cost me a week of work in my basement. In-freakin-credible!

To quote the great Mark Twain, “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.”

Survivor - Rehoboth Beach

2008-07-30T11:47:00.002-04:00

Well, we survived another annual excursion to Rehoboth Beach. Truth be told, my disdain for the beach is not directed so much at the beach itself as much as it is at the accommodations we avail ourselves to year after year. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m still not a big fan of the cruddy, murky water of the North Atlantic, and I still hate the coarse, rock and shell riddled sand they call a beach, but that tends to pale in comparison to the almost frightening apartment that we rent annually.

The apartment consists of 4 rooms. A main bedroom that has 2 undersized double beds, another bedroom that has 1 undersized double bed, a kitchenette/dining area with a small single bed in it as well, and a bathroom. The total square footage of all of this would be lucky to top 400 square feet. The beds, as mentioned, are barely able to sleep two people, and are painfully thin and lumpy. The floors are uneven at best. The whole apartment is cooled by two window air conditioners – 1 in the bathroom and the other in the small bedroom. Because there are no thermostats, your options are to blow warm air or freeze yourself out. This year wasn’t too bad given there were only 5 of us in the apartment. But any more than that, and you feel like your standing on top of each other all the time. And the place is, well, less than clean by in large. The main areas are cleaned between renters, but don’t dare to look under the beds or the dressers. One year we found a partially eaten and since spoiled turkey in the oven. Who knows how long it had been in there before we discovered it.

Now, couple that image with the reality that the apartment is one of three in the ‘house’, all of which are typically filled to beyond capacity with families and others who tend to find Wal-Mart the pinnacle of high-class shopping, and, well, you get the picture.

I’m sure you are asking ‘Why don’t you find somewhere else to stay?’ Well, there are two primary reasons. First, the place is cheap (although not nearly as cheap as it should be considering the condition of the dwelling), and thought I do not want to point fingers, this is a very important factor to some in the family. Second, and probably more telling, the family has been staying here for almost 20 years, and to change would be paramount to invoking Armageddon. Realistically, we most likely will not look for new accommodations until these places collapse upon themselves, which may be within the year given the condition they’re currently in.

So, is it the beach I dislike, or the accommodations? Would I like the annual trek more if we had a more livable dwelling to stay in while we were there? Probably. My contempt for the water and the beach probably wouldn’t change, but I would probably dread the trip less.

I did come up with some random thoughts that may interest only me while we were there…
- Fisher’s Carmel Popcorn is, perhaps, the best there is, and is really the only way to enjoy popcorn.
- The shops on the Boardwalk rarely, if ever, change their inventory. The T-Shirts, towels, trinkets and other bric-a-brac is the same year after year after year. This may be comforting to some, but I find it disappointing.
- I have no patience for people who refuse to acknowledge there is a world that exists beyond the 6 inches of personal space that surrounds them. I am constantly amazed and frustrated at the ignorance and rudeness of people who seem to believe that they’re entitled because they’re on vacation.
- I don’t understand the apparent need to deface your body with tattoos of all shapes and sizes. I don’t have a problem with tattoos, but I don’t understand the point of covering one’s whole body with them.
- There are way too many young teenagers dressing and acting like they’re older than they are. I know I’m starting to sound old, but can’t we encourage kids to be kids a little longer?
- Crocs are cute on kids, but really kinda strange looking on adults.
- there are a certain style of swimsuit that should never be worn by most of the people who insist upon wearing it. And that's all I have to say about that.

We Are Family...

2008-07-23T09:07:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Anita and I headed back west for the weekend. It was time for the annual Derr Family Reunion, which is the reunion of the family springing forth from my paternal grandmoter’s siblings (my Dad’s Mom, for the remedial readers among us). Gram had 7 brothers and sisters, and though none are with us anymore, the family continues to get together at least for this one time a year.

Truth be told, while I enjoy this time with my extended family, it makes me realize how little I know a lot of them. I have 2nd cousins and 3rd cousins that I only see once a year, or every couple of years, if I’m lucky. In today’s information age, you would think this would be easier. But sometimes, it’s not. However, when those times come when we are together, we know that we have family in common, and that seems to transcend the voids created by our physical distance.

It was a very good weekend, right up until we got stuck on the PA Turnpike for almost 2-1/2 hours because of a very serious accident a few miles ahead of us. I found out later that the turnpike was shut down for almost 90 miles in both directions because of the accident. When we passed the accident scene, the rubble that was left was a clear indication that something very bad had happened. I’m still amazed that, given the amount of vehicular carnage that we passed, no one was killed according to the reports the next day.

This afternoon, we head to Rehoboth Beach with Anita’s parents and sister. While I certainly don’t mind spending time with the crew, I really don’t care for the beach at all. I’m just not a beach person. I am thoroughly disturbed when I am ankle-deep in the water and I can’t see my toes. I’m alarmed when scores of jellyfish wash up on shore. I’m not a huge fan of scalding hot sand pressed against the soles of my feet. But I’ll probably be able to get my usual 3 books read by Sunday, which is good – I have some books to catch up on before I can move on to some new material. As long as the weather holds out, it shouldn’t be too bad. I don’t mind the boardwalk and the outlets (to a point), but if I never stepped foot on the sand, I really wouldn’t mind at all.

So, until next week…

Perhaps a bit overzealous

2008-07-16T17:25:00.002-04:00

As I suspected, I am goingt o fall short of my ellipping / pedalling goals (hard to call it running and biking when you don't actually go anywhere). I did get to the gym last night and 'ran' 2.25 miles in 21 minutes, and 'biked' 3.1 miles in 16 minutes, so I'm at 5.9 miles 'running' and 9.1 miles 'biking' in two days.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to get back to the gym this week. too much to do tonight before and after VBS. Softball game tomorrow (which does coult for something, I would think). Heading home to McKeesport (and eventually Ohio) for the weekend. So, while I was on track to come close to my goals for the week (9 and 15 miles respectively), It does give me something to shoot for next week - on Monday and Tuesday since we'll be away over next weekend as well.

Nothing like proper planning and goal setting to keep one on track. D'oh!

Mid-Summer Classic...for a change

2008-07-16T12:50:00.004-04:00

Last night, I watched what was one of the most exciting All-Star games in recent memory. And yes, I watched all 15 innings of it. As the game dragged on inning after extra inning, I was reminded of how good, solid defense is so incredibly underrated in today’s game. If you need proof of how underrated solid defense is, just listen to some of the potential trade rumors floating around. Everything focuses on the player’s offensive statistics, not his glove work. In fact, in today’s world of “home runs sell tickets” you will never see a player traded because he brings a solid defensive quality to a team.

Last night’s game was a defensive gem, and I’m willing to bet few people stayed up long enough to appreciate it. Actually, it was a gem with the exception of Dan Uggla, whose selection to the team puzzles me. But, again, he was selected on his offensive merits, not his defensive ones (not that he did much at the plate either). But Ugly, er, Uggla’s foibles notwithstanding, it was impressive to see each team work it’s way out of a jam inning after inning. Here’s just a few that stand out for me…

- The NL getting out of a bases-loaded, no out pickle in the bottom of the 10th, with two of the three outs being made at home.
- Nate McClouth throwing out the runner at home. McCarver and Buck, in their typical over-the-top manner, spent nearly 15 minutes going on about Russel Martin’s handling of the throw and tag (which was high, mind you, and the runner should have been called safe), but not one word was mentioned about the perfect, dead-on throw from McClouth.
- Ryan Ludwick’s diving catch in left to keep the game going for the NL.

However, watching the game, and listening to the incessantly repetitious discussion of how Scott Kazmir wouldn’t be used unless there were no options left, and how Kazmir and Brandon Webb were not to be used, and would be under a pitch count, yada, yada, yada. The talking heads then began this discussion of how they think that perhaps the All-Star roster should be expanded to allow for more pitchers to make the squad to avoid this type of situation.

And to that I say, “Nooooooooooooo.”

If you want to make the game more interesting, shrink the roster. Shrink it down to 25 guys like a normal baseball roster. Keep the requirement that every team has to provide at least one player. This will eliminate any one particular team from overwhelming the roster (Cubs, Red Sox, Yankees, Angels). Also, if a pitcher is ‘unavailable’ to pitch in the All-Star Game because he pitched too many innings on Sunday, well, then he doesn’t make the squad. Too bad, so sad. If these over-paid, over-hyped prima donna’s can’t suck it up for 2 or 3 innings in an All-Star game, then perhaps they are not truly All-Stars. And please, please, please get rid of the DH in the All-Star Game. I don’t care if you’re playing in an AL park or an NL park. The DH has no place in the All-Star game (see my earlier argument about overrated offensive statistics).

The All-Star game is supposed to showcase the best of the best from every team in baseball. Not just the best hitters, but the best all-around players. Somewhere, in the midst of TV ratings and Home Run Derbys, baseball seems to have forgotten that.

Call me a purist, or call me nuts, but being an All-Star used to mean something more than a ‘pay-me” clause in a contract. These guys are getting paid more than the GNP of some countries to play a game. It’s time they start acting like they realize that.

The First Shall Apparently be Last

2008-07-15T12:19:00.000-04:00

Okay, explain this to me. Josh Hamilton hits 38 total home runs in last night’s All-Star Home Run Derby, and Justin Morneau hits 22, yet Morneau claims the title of 2008 Home Run Derby Champion. I’ve been annoyed for years at the practice of starting back at 0 for the final round of the tournament. If a player is able to pull that far away from the rest of the pack, there should be no reason why he doesn’t walk away with the trophy. Heck, Morneau even said that in his acceptance speech (though he didn’t pull a Ving Rhames and give the trophy to the deserving Hamilton).

This is yet another example of how the greed of TV ratings has completely destroyed the essence of the sport. Tonight will be no different. The All-Star game, which used to have mean something to the players in the game – some sense of pride to play for – will be nothing more than a 4-hour long Fox commercial and Yankee Stadium retrospective, interrupted only by Joe Buck sitting all by himself behind the plate. And don’t give me the whole “Winner get’s home field advantage in the World Series” argument, because this matters only to the 2 teams who eventually make it.

I love baseball, but I’m quickly becoming fed up with the “Rich get Richer” approach of the sport, as well as the apparent belief by ESPN that all of America is only interested in seeing the Red Sox, Yankees or Cubs on TV.

As a side note, I ran 3.67 miles in 35 minutes last night, and biked an additional 6 miles in 27 minutes. Again, not overly impressive for some, but I’m pleased with my progress so far.

Still Going strong...relatively speaking

2008-07-14T17:38:00.002-04:00

So, after three days of getting back to the gym, I ran/ellipped a total of 7 miles (give or take a tenth), and pedaled 11 miles on a stationary bike. Not exactly going to set the world on fire with my distance or time, but it was a good way to ease myself back into things. I'm finding myself tired afterwards, but not exhausted to the point of being unable to function.

My goal for this week is to hit the gym 3 times, run/elip for 9 miles, and take the stationary bike another 15. I'd aim higher, but we'll be away this weekend, and I don't want to make things too unrealistic. Plus it's VBS week, so my time will be limited at best.

I'll keep all 4 of you posted.

The Piano Man

2008-07-11T18:15:00.001-04:00

"Sing us a song, you’re the Piano Man. Sing us a song tonight. ‘Cause we’re all in the mood for a melody and you’ve got us feeling alright."
- Piano Man, by Billy Joel

Last night, Anita and I were 2 of nearly 20,000 people singing these words to close out Billy Joel’s concert at HersheyPark Stadium. More accurately, I was one of the people singing. Anita kinda just sat there and watched, somewhat amused (I think she just didn’t know the words, lol).

The evening was perfect for an outdoor concert, which I convinced is the only way to watch Billy Joel. His music is just too good to be confined to a stuffy arena. The temperature was mild, there was a gentle breeze throughout the evening, the humidity was practically non-existent, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The sound was perfect – we sat on field level, close to the rear of the stadium, and there was never a point where I felt we were missing something in the sound relay. The balance was perfect between instruments and vocals, and the sound only lagged a second behind the video, which was perfectly acceptable, given our distance from the stage.

The concert began a bit late, as the decision was made to let the sun set behind the walls of the stadium before beginning the show. It turned out to be a good decision, as the setting sun would have made it difficult to clearly see the video displays on either side of the stage. But once the concert began, it was non-stop energy and excitement, which is impressive when you consider that he hasn’t produced a commercial album (his classical album, "Fantasies and Delusions" not withstanding) in over 15 years. And the audience was as diverse a crowd as I’ve ever seen at a concert. I saw a couple who had to be well into their 70’s, as well as families with children easily as young as 5 or 6. In fact, in our general vicinity, there were a lot of people who were college-age, or at least not much older than that. I would have guessed high-school age, but given the volume of beer most of these kids consumed, I’m going with at least 21. It did make me chuckle that at least 60% of the songs performed were written and released before most of these kids were even born. Yet there they were, singing along to every song.
I think that’s one of the things that makes Billy Joel such a great artist – his music spans generations and isn’t marketed towards any one specific demographic. During "Goodnight, Saigon," he had a group of men singing the chorus, some of whom were around during the Viet Nam crisis, others who were clearly not even born during that time. Yet there they were, standing shoulder to shoulder, every one of them singing along.

And he’s a great performer as well. It was refreshing to sit back (well, stand, actually) and watch a concert that didn’t require a flashy stage show or pyrotechnics to overwhelm the performance of the artist. In fact, the only special effect was the piano platform spun, very slowly, 180-degrees so that he could face everyone in the audience at different parts of the show. Otherwise, it was completely about the music, which is where the focus should always be. With his songs, you need to hear the lyrics, to experience the grandeur of the instrumentals, to immerse yourself in the blend of the music. He tells a story with each song, and he uses more than just words to tell that story. There are few artists in the music world today that can accomplish this feat.

All in all, the evening was nearly perfect. In fact, the only real complaint I have is that it took us almost as long to get out of the friggin’ parking lot as it did to listen to the concert. The show ended at just about 11:00, and it was 12:40 before we were able to get out of the HersheyPark complex and onto the main highway. Nothing like leaving a feel-good concert to bring out the absolute depths of obnoxiousness from the general populous. It was a frustrating end to an otherwise perfect concert experience.

Time to get serious

2008-07-09T23:22:00.004-04:00

For those of you who know me, you know I am painfully out of shape and, I will openly admit, overweight. I'm still active - playing softball over the summer, some basketball in the winter. I'd include Bowling in there, but, let's be realistic, it's not exactly the most intensive workout sport in the world. And every once in a while, I would hit the gym for some exercise, but not enough to justify my membership, that's for sure.

So, after reaching a point the other day of being thoroughly disgusted with myself and my current state of being, I decided it was time to do something about it. We did a good deal of walking last week in Baltimore, and I was able to hold my own in the outfield for a game of softball, which was definitely a step int eh right direction, but not nearly enough to really make a dent in what I need to do. So, I've decided to make that gym membership work for me and I've crossed the threshold two days in a row now (please, hold your applause).

Yesterday, I jumped on an open elliptical machine and elliped (do you walk or run on an elliptical machine?) for 30 minutes, which, according to the readout, was good for 2.12 miles. Not exactly burning up the charts, but a decent start in my opinion. After my 30 minute ellip, I hopped onto a stationary bike for a quick 2-mile 'ride' lasting a little over 12 minutes. I felt pretty good afterwards. Legs were a little wobbly, but not aching to the point of collapse. In fact, when I woke up this morning, I was pleasantly surprised that my knees were essentially pain-free.

So tonight, I made my way back to the house of sweat and mounted the elliptical machine once again for another 30 minute journey. This time, however, I accidentally hit the cardio program rather than the manual program, which 'encouraged' me to ellip faster for a higher heart rate. I quickly noticed the difference, to say the least, but I was not overwhelmed by the faster pace, which was...surprising. In fact, before I realized it, I had gone .52 miles in 4 minutes. So I decided to see how fast I could ellip my way to a mile. I could sit here and regale you all with a second by second account of my progress, but the end result was I hit the mile indicator at 8:01. 8:01! (that's 8 minutes, not hours, by the way).

Now, I realize that for some of you (Jeff), this is not exactly a fire-starting pace. But for me, it was actually exciting. I haven't run a sub-ten minute mile since my senior year of high school, before I blew out my knee. Now, for those of you who may want to poo-poo on my moment of self glorification by saying that ellipping is not running, well, I don't care! It was close enough for me. I'm not ready to run the Harrisburg Mile just yet, but it certainly made me appreciate those who can in under 5 minutes.

At the end of my 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, I had 'travelled' 2.68 miles (yes, the pace dropped off quickly after the first 8 minutes). But it was again another indication to me that there is merit to what I'm doing and that my body, as out of shape as it is, wants to get better. I also put in a 24 minute, 5-mile ride on the stationary bike for good measure.

I'm feeling it a little more this evening, probably more so because I didn't stretch out as well before my endeavor this evening. So I will make a mental note of that for next time.

Another reason for my desire to improve my body is our pending adoption. China has very stringent guidelines on the adopting parents, including guidelines on Body Mass. While I have already passed the 'test' - barely, I am well aware that I will need to be in better shape when that time comes for us to travel, not only for the amount of walking and whatnot that will take place on our trip, but because I want to be around a long, long time for my child.

Softball Catch-up

2008-07-09T23:09:00.003-04:00

So I've been rather delinquent with my softball updates lately, but I will attempt to quickly rectify that here and now. We played twice the week leading up to the 4th of July, and both times, we were pressed for guys. On Monday, we had all of 9 guys make it out, which might sound like a recipe for disaster. But not for the Immanuel Church team. Despite the threat of rain the entire evening, we were able to pull out two victories against a newly surging Bible Baptist squad. Both games were hard fought by both teams, and we were excited and relieved to come away with two victories.

Thursday night, we were on the phone calling people out of the woodwork to help us out. With no fewer than 10 of our regulars away on vacation, we pulled out some old friends - Kevin Kunkle and Dan Miller - to give us enough to play. The other team pulled out a couple of ringers, which turned out to be the difference in both games. We lost both games, but we played hard. How difficult was it, you may ask. Well, I played left field in the first game, so that should tell you all you need to know right there. I have not played the outfield in well over 4 years, and I was in no shape to play it Thursday night. Of the 10 guys on the field, 3 were playing their 'natural' positions. In fact, Paul was playing essentially without the use of one ankle. We had difficult convincing the other team of that, since he went 7 for 9 on the night. But each guy played their heart out, and I couldn't ask for any more than that.

So, here's the rundown from last week...

Game 25: Immanuel Church won 5-4
Game 26: Immanuel Church won 12-8

Game 27: Immanuel Church lost 21-11
Game 28: Immanuel Church lost 16-14

2008 Season Record: 14-14

Celebrating Freedom

2008-07-04T22:36:00.002-04:00

So I'm sitting here watching the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular on TV enjoying the fireworks thanks to CBS since the rain out here kinda washed out the local fireworks. Craig Ferguson is the host, and it was mentioned that this was special for him because he recently became a US citizen. That got me to thinking how many of us take being a citizen of the US for granted. How many of us take for granted the freedoms that we enjoy here in this country - freedoms that many of our family and friends are overseas fighting to protect.

I think that one of the greatest freedoms we have is the freedom to choose. Unfortunately, when many of us choose to engage that freedom, we do so without first considering the cost and consequences of our choices. It saddens me to no end to know that we have been given so much as a society, yet we squander so much as a result of our freedom to choose. I can only imagine where we'd be if we would just make better choices.

I think, as Christians, we take much for granted as well. I am guilty of this, I will confess. I have often taken for granted my salvation - the gift of eternal life that I am assured of. And for that, I beg God's forgiveness. As Christians, we have a freedom that no one can take away. We have an assurance of eternal freedom. That is what we should be celebrating, not just today, but every day of our lives.

Today is July 4th. It is Independence Day (sans Will Smith). As Americans, we celebrate this day once a year. As Christians, isn't everyday our true Independence Day? If we believe that, let's celebrate it every day! Let's allow the world to see the fireworks of joy and peace within us. Let's give the world a reason to turn its collective eyes back to the Lord!

Let the fireworks begin!

That's the way the ball bounces

2008-06-27T08:13:00.002-04:00

Game 23: Immanuel CMA won 8-3
Game 24: Immanuel CMA lost 20-14

2008 Season Record: 12-12

Well, it had been over a week since we last played, and I was worried that we might be a little rusty. Of course, the layoff was also a welcome respite given the way our last evening of ball went. We were a little short in numbers for the night - under 13 guys for the first time all season - but not short of heart.

We hit the ball well all evening, which was a welcome change to recent games, where we hit well in one game, and struggle at the plate in the second. We had a number of line drives up the middle that were caught by the opposing teams pitcher, a feat that few in this league will make repeatedly. Mech Bic repeatedly shifted their outfield to cut off some of our line drives, and they had the speed to make it back deep when needed. It was actually kind of impressive to watch. So when we found the holes in the outfield, it made things even sweeter on our hits, because they were few and far between.

I was impressed with the way we fought back in the second game. We spotted them an 11-2 lead in the first two innings, and fought back the whole way for the rest of the game. I really can't ask for much more. Softball's one of those games where you can't expect to hold a team scoreless for innings at a time, you just have to try to win each inning. After those first couple of innings, we did exactly that.

We had some guys playing a little out of position last night due to some of our absences, but everyone performed admirably all night. I'll take a 3-1 record against Mech BIC, especially given their dominance over us the last few seasons.

And back to reality

2008-06-26T13:01:00.003-04:00

Well, in true Pirates fashion, the Bucco's managed to ride the wave of entusiasm and excitement for exactly...0 games. Joba Chamberlain put on a display last night, holding the home team to 5 hits (after a season high 19 a night earlier).

For those of you who might feel it necessary to interject with sarcasm over my previous post (not mentioning any names) inferring that the Pirates victory yesterday was over a mediocre, middle of the pack team, well...okay, so that was the case. But for those of us who have toiled, nay, languished for 15 years of sub-.500 misery, we take pride in every victory by our beloved, beleagured, boys in black and gold (and occassionally, grey, and on home Friday's, red, and white on Sundays in summer months where the date is divisible by 2,3 or 7).

However, I do wish to thank said sarcastic-comment-leaver for pointing out the fact that the Yankees are indeed a middle of the pack team. You did leave out "over-paid, over-hyped pima donna's" but I'm certain you meant that as well.

The Pirates Win the Pennant...well, it sure seemed like it!

2008-06-25T17:31:00.003-04:00

Those of us who live in the Pittsburgh sports abyss caused by the black hole of all things Pittsburgh - Comcast Harrisburg - were greeted last night to the news that the Pirates had beaten, nay, pummeled baseball's holy of holies, the New York Yankees by a score of 12-5. Of course, out here in Harrisburg, the news reports were more slanted to the fact that the Yankees lost than the fact the Pirates won, but we take what we can get out here in the void.

What impressed me the most (after the fact of course) were the reports that PNC Park bucked a trend for the Yankees faithful, by filling up with more Pirates fans than Yankees fans. All I heard all day out here was how the Yankees fans have such a strong road following, and how they tend to outnumber the home team's fans, yada, yada, yada. Well, just goes to show you, us Pittsburgh fans are no bandwagon, flavor of the month types. We stick with our teams through thick and thin.

Every city claims to have the best fans in the world...with the possible exception of Philly, where even the players don't always like playing there. But you would be hard pressed to find a more faithful, loyal fanbase than those who root for the black and gold.

Stop the Insanity! Bring on Fantasy Football!

2008-06-24T08:38:00.003-04:00

For those of you who know me, this next statement may come as a shock to you all. I’m a stats geek (waits for the shock…or is that laughter…to subside). Yes, it’s true, I admit it. I get into the numbers behind the scenes. If you can put a percentage or some other quantifying value to something, I’ll try to figure it out. This often makes me somewhat near-sighted in things that I’m doing (such as coaching softball), but also serves me well in other areas, such as Fantasy Football.

I started playing Fantasy Football almost 9 years ago, and since then, I’ve done pretty well. I play in two primary leagues – one with a group of guys here in Mechanicsburg, and another with a group of guys from back home in McKeesport. In the last 4 years, I’ve won the McKeesport league once and the Mechanicsburg league once. I’ve come in 2nd in the McKeesport league twice and the Mechancisburg league once. I’ve never finished worst than 3rd in the McKeesport league, and never finished worse than 5th in the Mechanicsburg league. I’ve also entered random online leagues, where I usually end up in the top 3rd of the ‘league’ I am placed into. I’m not bragging here…well, at least not too much…but I point this out for a reason. A lot of my success in these leagues has to do with luck, I will admit. But a lot of it also has to do with the fact that I pay attention to the details and the stats – how a player is doing from week to week, how a player has performed historically against a certain team, etc.

Another area that I’ve been somewhat successful in is making shrewd trades with other teams during the season. I’m not afraid to give up a good player to get a player in return that has a high ceiling. I’m not afraid to turn down what looks like a good trade on paper because I know the player I’d be getting faces a tougher stretch than what I’d be giving up.

So, given the fact that I appear to know what I’m doing, I’m dumbfounded as to the ridiculous nature of some of the recent trade offers I’ve been getting. One of my leagues is a Keeper League, and I will not bore you with the details of what this means or how it plays out. But here are the details of my current conundrum. I have Randy Moss and Reggie Wayne currently on my team, and I can only keep one of them. According to most 2008 forecasting services, these two are the #1 and #2 projected receivers in the league. I obviously have to part ways with one of them, but I’m not opposed to trading one of them for Fair Market Value.

And that is where things get interesting. I think I’ve proven that I know a thing or two about fantasy football, yet there are some who think I’m either naïve, or just an extremely generous guy (which I do try to be). In the last two weeks, I’ve been offered 9th, 11th, and 12th round draft picks in three different trade offers for Randy Moss. Keep in mind this is not all three for Moss. It was three individual deals - 9th for Moss, 11th for Moss, 12th for Moss. This left scratching my head. Moss is, or would be, a first round pick in this particular league. I'm going to work under the assumption that my fellow team owners feel that I'm just an extremely generous guy who would be willing to just give up a player and ask for nothing in return. While this may be the case in the real world, in the fantasy football realm, I do expect a fair return on the deal. Is that so wrong?

If I wanted to give up my best players for nothing in return and be left with no draft picks to back-fill their positions, I'd apply to be the general manager of the Pirates!

Shame on Me!

2008-06-19T10:41:00.001-04:00

If anyone has ever managed a group of people, be it professionally or recreationally (is that even a word?), you know that there is always an added level of pressure (usually self-imposed) on you. This is one of the most unattractive truths to “being in charge.” I’m sure that the 4 or 5 of you who have been reading my random rants on the softball season so far have quickly figured out that I tend to take my role as team coach/manager way too seriously from time to time. Actually, I do that a lot in life in general. I know how I would act or react in a certain situation, and I expect those around me to share those reactions. So when they don’t, I tend to become, well, less than objective in how I see things. It is a personality trait that I am trying to change, and I can usually look back and see things in a different light after some time has passed. That timeframe may be a day or a week, or a month, but I do eventually see things for how they really are.

The one thing that I’ve learned over this season is that I’m a terrible coach. And I say this in all sincerity. I’m not the world’s best encourager when it comes to coaching a team. When mistakes are made, I want to fix the problem. I don’t stop to consider the effort that was made. I’m a technician of the game. I focus on the details and become incapable of seeing the big picture when it’s happening. I have spent a lot of time focusing on our errors or our inability to hit, that I’ve missed a lot of good things that have been happening.

Tuesday night was a prime example. We lost both games, which was deflating after last week’s huge wins. I couldn’t get past that. Shame on me for that, because it kept me from enjoying watching Brian pitch his best game of the season, or watching Dan have his best defensive game of the year in the outfield. The infield made some great catches on a few hot liners, and turned a few double plays, which are rare in softball. It kept me from noticing some of our guys stretching singles into doubles, or taking the extra base on a lazy throw from the other team.

I think the reason the miscues frustrate me so much is because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the guys on our team are capable of great things. I guess I tend to forget that they’re coming out to have some fun, to get away from the house for a while and hang out with the guys. I tend to forget that the goal is not for them to live up to my expectations, or my desires, but to live up to their own expectations of themselves. And the truth is I’m not giving them the chance to do that. Again, shame on me.

The guys on the Immanuel Church Softball Team are among the best in this league, and they are definitely the best group of guys I’ve had the pleasure of playing with. I don’t say that nearly enough. So lest you read my musings and feel that these guys are just your run-of-the-mill, over-the-hill wannabe softball players, you have not met the real Immanuel Church Softball Team. I’m just now realizing that I haven’t allowed myself to meet them either.

I just hope it’s not too late to have a meet-and-greet.

Straight from the X-Files

2008-06-18T15:31:00.003-04:00

Game 21: Immanuel Church lost 10 - 4
Game 22: Immanuel Church lost 11 - 6

2008 Season Record: 11-11

Watching last night’s games, I came up with two possible explanations for our performance…

1) Every member of the Immanuel Church Softball Team was somehow abducted by aliens and replaced by exact clones – clones that can’t play softball
2) WS Red put a Pennsylvania Dutch Hex on us for ruining their undefeated season

Either way, I’m considering calling out Mulder and Scully to investigate.

Lightning Strikes Twice

2008-06-12T23:37:00.002-04:00

I've been a delinquent blogger lately. Sorry. We've been inundated with family over the last week, which made it a bit difficult to sneak away to the office. So, here's the catch-up report...

Game 18: Immanuel CMA won 20-10
(the second half of the double-header was called due to the weather)

Game 19: Immanuel CMA won 17-7
Game 20: Immanuel CMA lost 10-2

2008 Season record: 11-9

Now, the whole lightening striking twice thing. Tuesday night (game 18) was stormy all around us, but not at the field where we were playing. Which is a good thing when you consider that we were holding 34" lightning rods every time someone stepped up to hit. But there was something definitely in the air that night because we broke out for 20 runs in 4 innings. Well, really, it was pretty much two innings - 10 in the 2nd, and 9 in the 4th.

Same lightning in a bottle on Thursday night (though it was a beautiful night for softball - no storms anywhere to be found). We busted out for 17 runs in 4 innings, 11 in the 3rd alone. Yes, our bats did finally go to bed in the second game, but I cannot complain at all.

What makes this sweeter is that we were able to shake some significant monkeys off our backs this week. We beat the top two teams in our division this week, one of whom was previously undefeated so far this year. Against these two teams, we were a combined 2-10 over the last couple of seasons, so it felt good to get the runs in bunches, and to play the defense to make the scores stand up.

Can we keep this up the entire second half? Only time will tell. But it was a fun week, not only because we won (which certainly helped, don't get me wrong), but because we are finally starting to play like the team I know we are, and we're starting to click with each other. I think the second half of the season is going to be spectacular.

If you haven't done so yet, I really encourage you to come out and join our wonderful fans for a game sometime. We may not always win, but our fans always do!

Like Deja Vu all over again

2008-06-05T22:28:00.002-04:00

Game 16: Immanuel CMA won 10 -2
Game 17: Immanuel CMA lost 13-12

2008 record: 9-8

Let me begin by saying that tonight, we played 7 excellent innings. The problem was they were the first three innings of the first game, and innings 3, 4, 5 and 6 in game 2. This has been our problem all year. Only twice have we played more than a games worth of strong softball, and both times, we swept the doubleheader. Perhaps there is a correlation...

These are the nights that, if I were a weaker man, might cause me to drink. So let's try a little thing I like to call "on the other hand." Bear with me, as I might get a bit verbose.

We scored 10 runs in the first 4 innings of the first game. We hit the ball well, ran the bases well, and generally played strong all-around ball. On the other hand, we needed only 1 more run to end the game early, and we couldn't muster a single run in the last three innings of the first game.

After giving up 8 unearned runs in the beginning of game 2 (I'm not kidding - every one of their first 8 runs was a direct result of an error on our part), we came back with 12 unanswered runs of our own, 4 in the top of the 7th. On the other hand, we gave up 5 runs - 3 directly attributed to more errors - in the bottom of the 7th to lose by 1.

We held the other team scoreless for 9 of 14 innings. On the other hand, we couldn't maintain any momentum to make it count when we needed it.

Anita tells me I should give up focusing on winning and just have fun. While the advice is certainly sound, I am one of those uber-competitive people that finds winning to be fun. I freely acknowledge that I am not the word's best loser - and despite what some of you may think, I am much better at it now that I used to be. However, out of my deepest love and respect for my wife, I will try to focus more on having fun.

Of course, that means that the rest of the team has to focus more on winning. :)

All venting aside, we have now played everyone in our division, and while our record is not where I'd like it to be, we have proven that we belong with the other teams up here. We are over .500 at the halfway point for the first time in at least 4 years.

So, some thoughts heading into the second half...

Let's stay focused - play every inning of every game 100% committed to supporting the team.
Back each other up - not just on the field but through encouragement and positive attitudes.
Teamwork wins games - no one's going to win the game on their own. There are 9 other guys on the field at all times, and together, we succeed. Individual effort with no regard to individual recognition is the best form or teamwork there is.

Oh yeah, and let's have fun!

Love ya Pens!

2008-06-04T23:10:00.006-04:00

In case you have yet to figure this out, I'm for all things Pittsburgh. Steelers, Pirates, Penguins, Panthers - I cheer for them all, win or lose. As the Stanley Cup came to a close tonight, and the Pens found themselves literally inches away from tying things up, I found myself taking small solace in the fact that the Mighty Pens are one of the youngest teams in the NHL and are well on their way for league domination for years to come. Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, Whitney - all these guys are under 24 years of age. So while the Red Wings are popping the cork on their 4th Cup in 11 years, we may have watched the passing of the torch in these finals.

As anyone who has ever played a sport where there is a playoff involved, every team but one loses their last game of the season. It was disheartening, to be certain, but the 2008 Finals were by far the most exciting hockey games (well, Game 5 was at least) in a long time, and will certainly set the standard for years to come.

So keep cheering them on, Pittsburgh fans, the Pens deserve it.

Then when your done, head over to PNC Park and let's give the Buccos a lift as well!

Love ya Black & Gold!

Flirting with Mendoza

2008-06-03T23:46:00.003-04:00

Game 14: Immanuel CMA lost 14-0
Game 15: Immanuel CMA won 9-7

2008 Season: 8-7

For those of you who are not baseball aficionados, when a person is hitting at or below .200, he is said to be 'flirting with the Mendoza Line.' Fondly, or not, named after Mario Mendoza, who has a career .215 batting average, and actually batted .198 as a full time starter in 1979, this is a reference you never want to hear associated with softball, individually or as a team.

So, why do I bring this up? Not only did we fail to score a run in our first game on Monday night, but we barely got over the Mendoza Line as a team, batting a paltry 4 for 19 (.210 for those of you who were not on your high school Math team). I don't even know where to begin with this. This is the first time I've been on a team that's been shut out in a softball game. Exactly how bad was it? in the 19 at bats, 8 balls left the infield, 4 of which were outs. I think I speak for all the guys on the Immanuel Team when I say...

Fortunately, we found our hearts and actually played some good ball in game 2, responding with a team average of .538, and winning a well played game against one of the tougher teams in our league. I was left scratching my head as to how we can raise our team average over 300 points between two games, but I've given up trying to explain our team this year. When we're good, we're close to great. When we're bad, we are scary bad.

All that said, we're still on the upside of .500 halfway through the season. I'll take it, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want more.

Team MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder)

2008-06-02T10:51:00.002-04:00

Game 12: Immanuel Church won 20-16
Game 13: Immanuel Church lost 8-7

Well, it was yet another identity crisis type of night. We came out in the first couple of innings in the first game, guns blazing, scoring 14 runs in the first 3 innings of the game. Our worthy opponents only had 8 guys, so this was a vast improvement over our last foray against an undermanned team (5 total runs between two games). Then the wheels came off, and by the top of the 7th, we were down 16-14. I mustered all my ferociousness, and had a mini-tirade on our bench. The guys came back with a great effort…to keep from laughing out loud at me. But something worked, because we scored 6 runs in the last inning to pull out the victory.

Game two, we fell asleep again, and struggled to keep the ball out of the air. Our defense, which is usually a strength for us, left for the weekend a little early, and I watched helplessly as guys on our team bobbled routine plays, threw balls away, and generally made the Bad News Bears look like all-stars. And it was across the board – I think the only one who didn’t make an error in the game was the catcher. Couple that with a questionable called third strike in the last inning, and we found ourselves on the wrong side of an 8-7 outcome.

I don’t like losing, which I realize will shock those of you who know me. But I hate losing games that we should be winning, games where we beat ourselves rather than lose to the other team. There are few things more frustrating to me than our patented self-implosion routine.

So, on the season we are 7-6. We should be 10-3. In the past, we’ve always been a better second half team. Hopefully we can repeat that again this year.

Half-pints Everywhere!

2008-05-29T18:28:00.004-04:00

So this evening, I've been asked to run sound for a pre-school graduation ceremony taking place at Immanuel Church. It's about 30 minutes before the ceremony is to begin, and I'm sitting here in the sound room, quietly chuckling to myself at the kids and the parents. And I'm also flooded with memories of the many ACCC graduations that I assisted with those many, many years ago (talk about coming full circle).

It also gives me pause, as I reflect on our journey so far to parenthood. It's been a little over a year since Anita and I began our paperwork for our adoption, and almost 4 months since our application was "logged in" at the Chinese consulate. There are many times I look around - at a mall, a restaurant, walking around our neighborhood - and I feel myself getting a little frustrated with the whole process. I've accepted that we're unable to conceive, and that both Anita and I feel called down the path of adoption. I'm not always happy about it - especially during this painfully long waiting process - but I trust that God's timing is perfect, even if my patience isn't.

Being an observer at this function also let me watch, in virtual anonymity, the parents and families of the little cherubs. These folks seem to come from all walks of life - there are white collar and blue collar families. Single parent families as well as two parent families represented. And their kids are just as varied, with many ethnic backgrounds represented. Impressively, there have to be close to 200 people here this evening. And the look of pride in the eyes of most of these folks is kind of fun to watch. There are too many reports on the news of kids being abandoned and abused, growing up with little direction in their lives. But here, tonight, this room is filled with pride and love and hope, three things we desperately need more of in this world.

Well, only a few minutes now until the ceremony begins. I'll try to post some thoughts along the way, if and when I can.

The kids have entered - let the pandemonium begin!

Okay - sing-along time with the 1-year old group isn't going as well as planned. Maybe the addition of the 2-year old class will help out. Actually, it did, much to my surprise. I think crying amongst toddlers is like sneezing amongst adults. It seems to pass from person to person with no real explanation or reason.

And there it is, ladies and gentleman, the first attempt for the microphones. How is it that kids this young seem to inherently know what a mic is and what it does? Some of these guys have more stage presence than most of what you see on American Idol. There's a duo of boys up there now who are working in tandem around one of the mic's, and if I didn't know better, I'd say they practiced this routine.

I'm now watching one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time - fifteen 4-year old children singing "Awesome God" at the top of their lungs, complete with the sign-language. I can only hope that the worship that happens in this sanctuary on a weekly basis comes close to the enthusiasm that these kids have just displayed!

Well, time to sign off. More to come shortly.

And I'm back. This was a pretty cool evening. There were 12 'graduating' pre-schoolers, and each one of them were given an award of some form - from "2020 American Idol winner" to "Best Storyteller" to "Most Improved at Everything." They walk up on the platform in their little cap and gown, get their diploma and their award and return to their seats. To my surprise, only one of them turned to wave to Mom and Dad in the process - the 2020 American Idol winner - go figure.

I can only hope that this group continue to serve this community for years to come. The kids certainly seemed to be well on their way for school and life, and the families represented also seem to be genuinely appreciative of the care their kids are receiving at this pre-school. I'll have to put this one on my list for down the road.

Doubleheader Interrupted

2008-05-28T15:38:00.003-04:00

Game 11: Immanuel Church won 12 - 9
Game 12: Rained out in the bottom of the 2nd inning

I've been playing softball in this league for 13 years now, and coaching for the last 6. In all that time, this is the first time I've ever had a game called after it's begun because of the rain. I've had the back-end of the double header called before it's begun, and there was one time where it was called in the 6th inning (which made it an official game) due to rain, but never in the first 5 innings of the second game. When you consider how fickle the weather can be, I'm actually surprised that this is the case. Guess it just goes to show you that God likes to watch Immanuel Church play ball. :o)

It was a shame the second game was called. We had a nice group of fans that had assembled, and we were playing very well as a team. The rain came quick and hard, and most of us were pretty well drenched by the time we got back to our cars. The rain stopped about 20 minutes later, but the field had taken on so much rain in the last 48 hours, that it just couldn't handle the 20 minute soaker. There was a nice little stream down the third base line, and home plate was submerged in a small pond. We walked back out onto the field and sunk about 2 inches into the infield. It was decided that we should probably not risk playing the rest of the game in the quicksand that was once the infield, and we'll look to make up yet another game later on in the season.

So, on the season so far, we are 6-5, and are in 3rd place in the A division at the moment. Still a lot of season left to see if we can get that record a little more lopsided on the 'win' side.

3 out 4 ain't bad

2008-05-28T08:22:00.000-04:00

Well, I made three out of four opening weekends this month. “Iron Man” on May 3rd, Speed Racer” on May 10th, and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” on May 25th. Once I manage to get Anita to watch “The Chronicles of Narnia,” then I’ll head out to see (or rent by that point) “Prince Caspian.”

I’ve discussed “Iron Man” and “Speed Racer” in a previous post, so this post will be limited to Indiana Jones. After seeing the latest installment of the “Indiana Jones” series, I still hold that “Iron Man” is the best of the summer blockbusters so far. To be perfectly honest, I was disappointed by “Indiana Jones.” Not Harrison Ford, mind you. Even at his age, he still pulled off the role quite capably. I never got the feeling that he was just going through the motions, as some of the reviews indicated. In fact, they referenced his age quite a bit in the movie to assist in explaining some of the lack of the typical Indy action. Oh, he still had his moments here and there, but a lot of the major stunts and action was handed down to Shai LeBouef’s character, Mutt.

The thing that disappointed me the most in this one was that it strayed from the emphasis being about the archeology, and delved more into the fantasy realm. In “Raider,” the archeology was practically another character in the movie, as it was in “Last Crusade.” And let’s all be honest, “Temple of Doom” was pretty much the ugly step-child of the ‘original trilogy,’ so there’s no reason to discuss that one too much.

In this installment, the archeology was almost a throw-away, a means to get to the ‘real’ plot line. I won’t discuss exactly what happens – no spoiler alerts today – but suffice it to say that I felt like I was watching another Spielberg movie (or two) at different points of the film.

The one highlight of the movie was Shai LeBouef. He sat at the adult table (with Ford, Spielberg, Lucas, Karen Allen, John Hurt, Cate Blanchett), and proved he belonged. This kid’s going to be a star for a long time, assuming he can keep the DUI’s to a minimum.

“Kingdom” definitely ranks higher than “Temple of Doom,” but is vastly inferior to “Raiders” and “Last Crusade.” Still, it’s a fun summer escape, but catch it on a matinee or at a drive-in (don’t spend full ticket price on this one).

Still to come this summer: “Get Smart,” “Hancock,” “The Dark Knight,” and a number of other flicks that I’d like to see, but probably won’t until they hit Blockbuster.

Jekyll & Hyde Strike Again

2008-05-24T00:10:00.003-04:00

Game 9: Immanuel Church won 20-11
Game 10: Immanuel Church lost 17-7
Season Record: 5-5

Well, last night, the terrible twosome decided to show up on the same night. How else can you explain the huge swing in run support? And the dreaded "big inning" came to the party as well, as we gave up 13 runs in a single inning in game 2 (which sheds a whole new light on that score, doesn't it?).

Couple of quick hits about the games...

The weather was friggin' cold. My calendar said it was May 22nd. The thermometer must have thought it was March 22nd, because the game-time temperature was in the low 50's - and that was with the sun out. At one point, I look over to find one of my guys wrapped in his wife's blanket (and his wife standing behind the chair shivering - how chivalrous!). Not exactly the best softball weather, but at least it wasn't raining.

I decided to give Jeff some work at pitcher. For his first game-time experience, it wasn't bad. With some more innings under his belt, I may be able to remove myself from the mound on a regular basis, and thus regain the portion of my sanity that I lose every time I take the mound.

I love the fact that we have 14 or 15 guys showing up faithfully. I hate the fact that I feel like I'm disappointing some of them with limited playing time. I want to be fair to everyone, but I also want to put our team in the best position to win as I can. I hope my guys understand this and will forgive me for any and all unintended slights that may occur.

Earlier this season, I made the comment that "Home Runs are sexy, but singles and doubles win softball games." This still holds true, but it is a lot of fun to watch the home runs when they happen - especially when they go over the fence!

Well, that's pretty much all for now. Two more games next week, weather permitting. I'm not telling Jekyll or Hyde. I'd appreciate it if the three of you who read this keep it a secret too!

Season Finale Season

2008-05-21T23:43:00.003-04:00

Okay, those of you who know me know I can be a TV Junkie from time to time. I will admit I like to lose myself in a few TV shows now and again. I'm hooked on "Heroes" and "Lost", and my DVR is set to record most of the CBS dramas so I can watch when I have an hour to kill. So over the last week, I've watched all three "CSI" finales, the "NCIS" finale, and the "Criminal Minds" finale - the last two while doing laundry this evening (lest you think I completely waste two hours in the evening).

So, with those CBS finales having been perused, I have 2 lingering questions.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen the finales of these shows, stop reading now.

So my first question is this; What is going on a CBS that they seem to be having problems keeping their actors under contract? Every show featured the death, or assumed death, of a primary character. Now, I know they're cliff-hangers for a reason, but seriously, this was a bit much.

- Warrick Brown is murdered in the last scene of "CSI."
- Horatio Caine is shot, possibly fatally, in the final scene of "CSI Miami."
- Director Jenny Shephard is gunned down half-way through the "NCIS" finale (and the team is split up to boot).
- One of the members of the BAU is presumably blown to bits in a car bomb in the final scene of "Criminal Minds."
- And Det. Mac Taylor is driven out of NYC with a gun to his head at the end of "CSI New York."

Again, I get the whole cliff-hanger approach, but, seriously, how many primary characters can a network kill off in a single season? It's a bit much, if you ask me. Which leads me to my next question...

Are the writers resting on their laurels of having won their strike that they are phoning in their scripts? Seriously, half-way through each of these shows, I had guessed what was going to happen at the end. Now, I will admit that seeing some previews helped that along, but anyone with any cognitive functionality could see that the afore-mentioned characters were doomed in some capacity. Although, I will admit that I was impressed with the fact that NCIS continued the storyline after "the death of a major character" only to pull the separating team twist at the end. That one kept me guessing a little longer than the others.

I like suspense, and I will probably tune in in the fall to see what happens next. And for the record, I do not believe Horatio Caine will die, nor do I believe that the car bomb actually offed any of the BAU team. And of course Mac Taylor will live to see another day in the Big Apple. But, seriously, every show pretty much ended the same way. And it's all been done before ("Who Shot J.R." - Anyone? Anyone?).

Have I mentioned how much I've been hating the rain lately?

Rain, rain, go away!

2008-05-21T12:03:00.002-04:00

There’s an old song that says, “Rainy days on Monday’s always get me down.” Well, it wasn’t a Monday (a Tuesday actually), and I am here to emphatically state that I am tired of the rain. If I even here the word ‘drought’ this summer, I’m going to march down to the TV station and spray paint “Remember May?” on their weather screen. Or I might send a strongly worded e-mail to them. Or I might just stay at home and gripe about it on my blog. But I’ll definitely do one of those three.

Back on track. Tuesday night was our second rain-out of the young season so far. The whole league is getting slowly derailed by the lousy weather so far. I hate rain-outs. I gear myself up all day to play in the evening, and when the game gets rained-out, it’s kind of depressing. Plus, I hate the hassle of trying to reschedule games.

Sidebar - our two rained out opponents have been phenomenal in working together with us to get these games rescheduled quickly – Thanks!

The only thing I hate more than having a rain-out is having to miss a game due to some other responsibility, which would have been the case last night. So I’m glad the game was rained out so I didn’t miss it, which kinda nullifies my whole previous rant, I suppose. We’ll call it a Catch-22.

Sidebar 2 - Yesterday, I had to attend a business meeting in Pittsburgh. While I thoroughly love the opportunity to return to my home area, it does kinda suck to spend 7-1/2 hours on the road (round trip) for a 5 hour meeting, of which only 1 hour actually applied to me. At least I got a cool backpack and a great lunch out of the deal.

We have a make-up game tomorrow, but the weather report isn’t looking promising yet again. As annoying as a rain-out is, getting the make-up game rained out is even more annoying, because you start running out of days to reschedule the make-up game. And this season, more than previous years, it’s vital to get all the games in, since every game counts in the standings this year. I’d hate to miss a possible 1st round bye because we only played 34 games rather than 38, and came up 2 games out of the Bye position.

June and July have to be less wet than May, don’t they? Where’s a Farmer’s Almanac when you need one?

Interesting factoid that may interest only me: Over the last 2 or 3 seasons, I don’t think we’ve had more than two total rain-outs. So the fact that we have had two already this season is pretty significant, at least in my eyes.

Games 7 & 8, The Schizophrenia Continues

2008-05-15T23:08:00.003-04:00

Game 7: Immanuel Church wins 9-5
Game 8: Immanuel Church wins 6-5

I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect tonight. Mech BIC has been the proverbial thorn in our side for the last 2 seasons. Each year, we seem to give them a run for their money in the first game, only to come up short. Then, typically, we completely shut down and get blown out in the second game.

Well, first inning, we have a ridiculously bad call go against us, and it leads to 2 runs. In the past, that probably would have been enough to pretty much doom us for the night. But this is a different year, and we came in and quickly scored a run. While not a monumental achievement, it helped to settle us down. The result? Some of the best defense we've played in years (no big inning given up tonight!), and we kept chipping away inning by inning. Highlight of the first game was our second Grand Slam of the season!

In the second game, we continued chipping away, little by little, until we found ourselves with a nice little lead. And when our bats cooled off late in the game, our defense stepped it up nicely. Nothing like a well-rounded game to - hopefully - start things rolling for the rest of the season.

So, for those of you following the season so far, we've played really bad, then really well, then really bad again, then really well again. Either we're the most schizophrenic team in the world, or we're doing our best imitation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Not sure either one is exactly a good place to be.

I do have one observation about Mech BIC. They are by far the fastest team we play, have been for years. So I have two questions for them. First, what the heck are they serving in their communion trays? Second, where can we get it?

I Miss Pittsburgh!

2008-05-14T12:03:00.001-04:00

It’s times like these I’m proud to say I’m from the ‘Burgh!

The Penguins won again last night, sending the Flyers to the brink of elimination. With the Eastern Conference Finals now at 3-0 in favor of the Pens, it’s hard to imagine any situation where they will not be playing for the Stanly Cup next week. And let me tell you, living out here in the backyard of all things Philly, I am thoroughly enjoying listening to all the Flyers fans gripe and complain. And, of course, I’m being a total gentleman about it…yeah, right! I think I’ll bring in a broom tomorrow to work with the Pens logo on it just to see who I can get a rise out of.

But wait, the Pens aren’t the only team in Pittsburgh what’s on a winning streak. In case you haven’t been paying attention (and why would you be?), the Pirates have won 7 of their last 8, and are now 1 game under .500, and 4 games out of first place in the N.L. Central. If you look over the stats from the last week in the bigs, you’ll see that the Pirates are in the top 5 in a lot of categories – Team ERA, Team Batting Avg., Runs Scored, Team Slugging Percentage. Of course, they’re also leading the league in errors, which I believe is just their way of reminding us all that they’re still the Pirates. But for the first time in a long time, the beauty of PNC Park is starting to be highlighted by a winning ball club on the field that uses the Home dugout for a change. I really have to figure out a way to get home for a game this year.

So, look for Sid the Kid and company to storm their way into the Stanley Cup finals, and if you have any extra energy left after cheering them on, send some love to the Buccos.

Love ya, Black & Gold!

Bring on the Summer Blockbusters!

2008-05-12T11:39:00.006-04:00

Okay, for the first time in a very long time, I’ve been to the movies on two consecutive weekends. On May 3rd, I went to see “Iron Man.” On May 10th, it was “Speed Racer.” If my luck holds out, I’m hoping to see “Prince Caspian” this weekend, and then “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull” over Memorial Day weekend. You have to love the start of the summer blockbuster season.

“Iron Man” was much better than I expected. I’m not a huge Robert Downey Jr. fan, so I was skeptical as to whether or not he could pull off a superhero role. Turns out my skepticism was a bit misplaced. Not only did he pull it off, but he made the character almost believable. I was never a big reader of the “Iron Man” comic as a kid, but I knew enough of the back-story to understand the characters. It was one of those rare superhero movies that succeeded in character development as well as making you stop and think about what was happening in the movie – in between the big explosions and amazing special effects, that is. I think the best part of any superhero movie is when, even as you suspend belief for a while, you still think that what you’re watching may be possible. This one pulled it off.

On the other hand, “Speed Racer” made absolutely no attempt to portray any sense of realism, and that was just fine by me. I had heard about the bad reviews, and I purposely stayed away from reading them. I wanted to form my own opinion. So here it is: If you ever watched the cartoon as a kid – I mean seriously watched it – that you will enjoy this movie. The Wachowski Brothers pulled out all the stops to make this movie look like a live-action cartoon. All the characters were there – Speed, Pops, Racer X, Trixie, Sparky, Spritle, Chim-Chim, and even Inspector Detector. They had it down to every last detail – the Mach 5, complete with sound effects. Speed Racer’s Blue polo with the red scarf. Trixie’s pink helicopter. Pops with this red shirt and bushy mustache. The Casa Cristo Road Rally, with its start in the catacombs and archways of the city, which seemed to appear in every other episode of the cartoon. It was all there. And the action was just as cartoonish – the races, where the cars would slam into each other and never seem to scratch. The fight scenes where everyone seems to know martial arts. Even the patented move where Speed finishes a race, screeches to a halt mere feet after the finish line, and hops out of the car, all in one motion. But the best part of the movie was the kid who played Spritle. He stole every scene he was in. And the Wachowski’s knew it, and played it to their advantage, giving him a great scene at the end of the movie which made me laugh out loud in the theater. I don’t want to ruin it for you, but it was perfect.

All things considered, if you have to choose between the two, I’d suggest going to see “Iron Man” first – it’s definitely the better all-around movie. But if you want to have some fun and completely escape the real world for two hours, head for “Speed Racer.”

Games 5 & 6, may they rest in peace

2008-05-08T12:09:00.006-04:00

Game 5: Immanuel Church lost 8-3
Game 6: Immanuel Church lost 9-2

Overall Record: 2-4

At first glance, the scores don't look too bad. Now, bear in mind that the other team had 8 guys, and that 5 days earlier we had scored 31 runs between 2 games,and suddenly those scores look pathetic...or, rather, apathetic.

If you've never played a softball game where one team has 8 players, let me give you a quick rundown. You play 3 outfielders, and the other team supplies a catcher, who's only role is to throw the ball back to the pitcher. Any plays at the plate, the short-handed team has to cover the plate, usually with the pitcher or first baseman.

What this meant for our team is that we saw huge gaps in the outfield, and tried way too hard to place the ball in those gaps rather than swing with authority. The result? 27 fly ball outs (out of 39), 20 of those to shortstop or second base. That is not swinging with authority. That is trying to push the ball. You can't push a softball, the physics just do not allow for it.

So, back to the drawing board. I want to put some pithy or witty comment here, but I'm still so frustrated with the way we played, that I just can't come up with anything to make light of.

Crash & Burn

2008-05-07T09:31:00.002-04:00

Well, games 5 and 6 are in the books. To be honest, I haven't done the stats yet and I don't even remember the scores. I was so disgusted after the games ended last night that I decided I wasn't going to feed my frustration when I got home, and I left everything in the car. I'll probably take a look tonight and have something to say on the games tomorrow.

I will say this. The one good thing to take away from last night is that the Pirates won, soundly defeating the Giants 12-6.

Many more games like last night, and I'll be totally grey by the end of the season.

Games 3 & 4 are in the books

2008-05-02T15:10:00.003-04:00

Game 1: Immanuel Church won 15 – 9
Game 2: Immanuel Church won 16 - 6

Ladies and gentlemen, and anyone else who may be reading this, let me introduce you to the real Immanuel Church Men’s Softball Team!

After Tuesday’s rather frustrating losses, I was concerned how our team was going to bounce back. Historically, we have struggled to bounce back from early disappointment (0-11 to start 2006, 0-7 to start 2007). I really feared we were headed down that path again.

Well, my fears were definitely unwarranted, and, if any of my guys are actually reading this, I sincerely apologize for not giving all of us enough credit. If there’s anything I’ve tried to ‘teach’ our team, it’s to have a short-term memory. Guess it’s time for me to take my own advice!

We came out last night, bats a-blazing, and we never slowed down. Between the two games, there was only one inning we went down in order, and only three innings that we didn’t score. And we were strong from top to bottom. Here’s the most impressive statistic of the night, in my opinion…

Batters 9 – 12 were a combined 14 for 25, with 11 runs scored and 9 RBI’s. By comparison, my top 4 were a combined 14 for 30, with 10 runs scored and 15 RBI’s (4 of which came on a Grand Slam in game 1). When the bottom of the order performs as well as, if not better than, the top of the order, only good things can happen!

Glad I didn’t need that dynamite!

I hate Reality TV!!!!!

2008-04-30T15:25:00.000-04:00

Okay, I have to get this off my chest. I am so sick and tired of Reality TV!!!! At what point did we as a country decide that we wanted entertainment options that cater to the “lowest common denominator” mindset? I just heard a commercial on the radio for the latest of these mind-numbing, intelligence-insulting, headache-inducing pieces of digitized trash – a show called “Farmer Takes a Wife.” Apparently the premise is a group of “city” women head to the “country” where a “farmer” will put them through the motions of “daily farm living” to pick a suitable mate. Just the radio commercial made me want to bang my head on my desk!

Is it any wonder that we as a nation are getting dumber and dumber with each passing year and generation? We tune into this garbage – mostly because it’s almost impossible to avoid anymore – and we call it entertainment.

Don’t misunderstand me on one very important point. My rant is aimed solely at the staggering number of staged “Reality TV” shows such as “Big Brother,” “Survivor,” “The Bachelor,” “Top Model,” “Beauty and the Geek,” anything on MTV or VH-1, even “American Idol” (from articles I’ve read recently). I’m not referring to shows like “Dirty Jobs,” “Mythbusters,” or “Deadliest Catch” – shows that are not (or at the very least, not as obviously) staged for ratings and the shock factor. And – gasp – you might actually learn something when you watch these shows.

I know Reality TV shows are produced for practically nothing in comparison to the hour long dramas they’re often competing with, which makes them appealing to the money-hungry television networks in their quest to constantly out-do each other. But at what point do we say ‘Enough!’? I’m still angry that shows like “Sports Night” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” can’t stay on the air, but “Rock of Love” (starring none other than one of Mechanicsburg’s finest – Bret Michaels) is headed for its 3rd season. I understand that as a rule, most Americans don’t want to have to think when they watch TV, and the vast majority of Americans have no idea what constitutes intelligent comedy when there’s no laugh-track included to inform the mindless drones when to laugh. But, seriously, how do any of these shows qualify as entertainment. What’s next, televised public drunkenness? Oh, wait, that was “Cops.”

Well, enough ranting. I was hoping to go watch an episode of “Heroes,” but I see there’s a 2-hour “Deal or no Deal” on. I guess America just can’t get enough of those stupid silver briefcases…

1 Down, 17 to go

2008-04-30T08:25:00.002-04:00

Okay, Game 1...start of a new season...team ready to go...trucking along at full speed...

And the wheels come of...again!

I've come to the conclusion that we're like a stock car that blows an engine on the last lap after leading the whole way. In the first game We played 6 nearly perfect innings of softball. Unfortunately, there were 7 innings to the game. I really want to say it's okay, because we had fun and it's only the first night. But it's so frustrating to blow a 5 run lead in the last inning, only to come up a run short, especially when we played such a good game up to that point. It brought back a whole lot of memories...and stomach ulcers...of last season.

Game 2? Well, we never got going and, I suspect, we were letting the frustration of the first game eat as us a little too much. This is not to downplay the fact that our opponent played a great game in Game 2. They beat us soundly. But not nearly as soundly as we beat ourselves in Game 1.

It was only the first night, and there's a lot of softball to be played. A discouraging evening, to be sure, but I'm confident we'll turn it around and shake the monkey off our back tomorrow night!

And if we can't shake it off, I'm bringing a crowbar and some dynamite. That should do the trick!

And so it begins...

2008-04-29T08:11:00.002-04:00

The 2008 softball season officially kicks off for Immanuel Church this evening with a game against Daybreak. If the weather report from last evening holds true, there is no rain in the forecast and we should be able to get the game in.

Check back tomorrow for highlights of the game, in-depth analysis and commentary from softball pundits and beat writers across the country. I'm sure you won't want to miss a beat as the season unfolds. :)

In all seriousness, I will try to put up some highlights and thoughts about the game for the three of you who are actually reading this so far.

Country Music?!?!?!

2008-04-28T16:24:00.003-04:00

I’ve mentioned this before, but in addition to my passion for softball & baseball, I have an almost equal love of music. I’m one of those people who can hear a few measures of a song on the radio and know the song (for the most part). I have an appreciation for most styles of music, the notable exceptions being hardcore ‘gangsta’ rap (you can’t spell crap without rap), and some classical music.

Notice that I did not include country music in my exceptions. If I had written this blog 5 years ago, I would have. I used to think that country music was strictly for the hicks of the world (i.e. Rednecks). And most of the people I knew who listened to country music – and admitted it – fit that bill. But something strange happened. Rednecks became cool (thank you Mr. Foxworthy), and country music started taking up more and more of the airwaves. It’s to a point where it’s almost impossible not to listen to it in some areas. Country songs are even popping up on Top-40 stations and Adult Contemporary stations as well, so eventually, you’re bound to hear a country song.

I started to ‘learn to appreciate’ country music about 5 years ago. I’m one of those people who needs to have a radio on at work – sometimes to act as background noise, sometimes to drown out the background noise. At one of my previous employment locations, the only station I could get in on my radio was a country station. I didn’t want to bring in a CD player, because the position was temporary, so my choices were to turn the radio off, or listen to the country station. I chose the latter, and before I knew it, I was humming along to the music. Shortly thereafter, I found I knew the words to the songs. It was only a short time after that where I was able to admit that I was actually enjoying the music. (somewhere, my sister has just cringed painfully).

Truth is, the more I listen to it, the more I like it. Not because I consider myself a redneck or a hick, but because there is some phenomenal music being written and performed in the country world. If you listen to enough Pop or Rock music, every third song is a remake of another song, or a cover of another artist, or just plain nonsense in terms of lyrics and music. There’s very little in the Pop/Rock world that is original anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still listen to Pop and Rock (Bon Jovi’s currently playing on my iPod as I write this), but when I’m looking for something new and original - or when I need a good laugh - I’m punching up a country station.

But don’t worry. I promise I’m not buying a pickup truck anytime soon.

Factoid that may only interest me:
- Over the last 10 years, the only genres of music to increase each year in sales were Country and Christian. That should tell you something...

Softball Pitchers

2008-04-23T09:15:00.000-04:00

I just read Jeff’s blog from Saturday, and I’m still laughing over his comment that the opening tournament on Saturday was the softball equivalent of “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” Excellent comparison, my friend! If you’re curious, please check out his blog (the link is to the right).

I’ve also come to the following conclusion about slow-pitch softball pitchers: We are either the bravest players on the team, or the dumbest! What other explanation is there for a man to voluntarily stand 55 feet away from another guy, toss him the easiest thing in the world to hit, and give him the opportunity to smack the snot out of the ball back at you at speeds exceeding 100 miles an hour? When the ball leaves my hand at 5 m.p.h, and comes back at me with a 2000% increase in speed (don’t question the math) – something’s not quite right with that picture. So I’d appreciate your prayers on behalf of Jeff, Brian, Rod and myself this season!

But I digress. The truth is I pitch for three reasons: 1) because I’m too slow to play pretty much anywhere else, 2) because I’m actually pretty decent at it, and 3) because I trust my instinctual need for self-preservation. My reflexes are still quick enough to at least deflect the ball before it does any significant damage – or to dive out of the way!

I can’t speak for the others, but I do believe psych evaluations are in order.

Let the games begin...kinda

2008-04-19T23:27:00.003-04:00

Today was the unofficial start to our softball season, with our annual pre-season 'tournament'. It's not really a tournament in the truest sense, because there are no ultimate winners, and you only play teams that are in your arbitrary bracket. But, it does usually serve as a good barometer of where the team stands as the season draws near. And today, we had probably the best weather I've ever experienced at this tourney in the 12 years I've been playing in this league.

(Whoa! I've been playing in this league for 12 years. I can't possible be that old. Although it would explain the gray hair...)

Sorry, random thought there. But the day was definitely beautiful - sunny, mid 80's, gentle breeze - perfect softball weather. Of course, as the coach, I have to be paying attention to more than the weather, right? Well, I have to admit, it was tough being the coach today. Not because of anything that happened, but because there are a great group of guys playing on our team this year, and it makes it all that much harder to decide who plays and who doesn't. Fortunately, I had the gift of two games to get everyone in (should have been three games, but life intervened). I did come away with some interesting thoughts for the season and our team...

- I mentioned this already, but these guys really are something special this year.
- when everyone is playing their A game, we are a force to be reckoned with.
- as much as we like to argue with umpires, playing without one kinda sucks.
- have I mentioned that I have a great group of guys playing this year?
- Home Runs are cool, but singles and doubles win softball games.
- I like to coach and to teach guys how to play the game, but there are time I just want to play and not worry about the coaching part.
- and in case I haven't mentioned it, I thing the guys on our squad are fantastic!

We ended up 1-1 today, and I'm proud of that. We played two of the tougher teams in our league today, and we played well against them. I have to admit, I was concerned when I learned we had been bumped up to the upper division of our league - we were 2-14 against those teams last year, yikes! - but today, I think we proved to ourselves that we belong with these guys. And we had 4 or 5 guys missing today, so if I get a full squad out, we are going to be powerful!

One more practice before we start the season. Just hope the weather holds up on Thursday.

Where's Your Mission Field?

2008-04-15T20:53:00.002-04:00

On Sunday, we were privileged to have a Soueth and Syna Lao, a husband & wife missionary team share with us during our morning service. Both Soueth and Syna are Cambodian, and they are currently serving in Poipet, Cambodia. Take a moment to review that last sentence. Both the husband and wife are Cambodian, and they have been sent by God to serve in the very country they were born in. How awesome is that!

They had a phenomenal testimony. Both Soueth and Syna survived the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge in the 70’s. They were both separated from their families for years while in Cambodia, and they were both able to eventually escape to America while in their early teens. In fact, although they later came to learn that they lived relatively close to each other in Cambodia, they did not meet until God brought them together in New York City. While in NYC, they were able to learn English, get an education, and even graduate college. After some years of ministry in the city, the Lao’s felt called to return to Cambodia, and were able to assist with a medical missionary team in Poipet. As it happens, the medical missionary team was led by Kent and Chrissy Copeland, who happen to be from Immanuel Church. Kent cares for the body, Soueth cares of the soul, and together, they show the Cambodian people the love of Christ in very tangible and practical ways.

However, the whole time they were talking, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that they were, in essence, called back home to serve. To me, that is the most incredible part of the story. These two people witnessed first hand one of the most atrocious acts of the 20th century, and even upon their return were still considered state enemies by some of the remaining factions of the Khmer Rouge. Yet they went, never once questioning God. And they are having a powerful effect for God in their ministry. A lot of it has to do with the fact that they are preaching to their own. The people of Cambodia are not listening to foreigners talk about a God they’ve never heard of. They are listening to the first hand experience of people just like them, and that had to lend a whole new level of meaning to the message.

Can you imagine if we here in America had the same passion and fire for our own people? Keith Green once said that God calls everyone to be missionaries. I believe that to be true. Those of us who are believers are blessed with the most amazing gift the world has every known – the saving grace of Christ Jesus. How can we possibly not want to share that with others? Being a missionary does not mean you have to drop everything and head to the other side of the world. If your neighbor doesn’t know the Lord, your mission field is mere yards away. While I strongly support those who are called to go to ‘the ends of the earth’ to share the love and saving grace of Christ, I also feel strongly that we do those folks no favors if we are not reaching our local community at the same time.

Remember, it’s the bottom of the ninth (had to relate this all back to baseball somehow!), and there are runners on base that we need to get home!

What's a weekend?

2008-04-14T11:50:00.003-04:00

I walked into work this morning, and was asked the traditional question of “How was your weekend?” I paused for a moment, and suddenly realized that the blur of the last 48 hours was indeed the weekend.

Actually, when I take a look back into the Tivo of my mind, I can pause things long enough to realize that the weekend was actually pretty good. Anita and I slept in on Saturday (much too long, for certain, but it was needed), and went out to enjoy a nice brunch and run some small errands. Saturday night, we had some of the college students from Messiah over to watch a movie. We watched “Keeping the Faith,” which is one of my favorite movies. I’ve seen the movie a number of times, and I still laugh out loud at different parts of it. And I’m also constantly struck by some of the very thought-provoking dialogue scattered throughout the movie. Eventually, we kicked the kids out (around 11:30 or so – do college kids ever get tired?).

Sundays for us are not always the ‘day of rest’ that I wish them to be. This Sunday was a prime example. We were at the church by 8:30. for our worship team warm-up/rehearsal. By the time church was over, and we eventually made our way out of the parking lot, it was 12:30. The service was fantastic on Sunday (more on that later, I promise), and we always enjoy being able to socialize with our friends and family after the service as well.

After church, we went to lunch, and then a trip to Target, which at least saved me from having to deal with Wal-Mart’s parking lot. After spending more time at Target than anticipated, we made our way home, pulling in around 2:15 or so, finally able to rest, right?

Oh, no, because we had to leave again at 2:40 for a concert at 3:00. Messiah College Concert Choir was performing at a local church in Mechanicsburg, having been kicked off campus due to the Compassion Forum. We went, and were pleasantly surprised to find the church was packed tight. As alumni of Messiah, and of the Concert Choir, I was impressed. The choir did a phenomenal job. Although, they apparently forgot to tell the old man sitting behind me what songs they were singing, because whatever he was humming along with – loudly – was not quite what the choir was singing.

The concert ended around 4:45, and we headed home to pick up Antia’s car, only to head back to the church for choir practice at 5:30. We did get to spend another 15 minutes at home before we had to turn around again. The reason we both needed cars at the church for Choir practice was because I had a Trustees meeting after the evening service, which ran about 25 minutes later than normal. Not a complaint, just an acknowledgement of the timeline.

The Trustees meeting began at 8:30, with the chair stating “I want to keep this short.” If you’ve ever been on a church committee, you know that this statement is usually the kiss of death. I have never been in a meeting that began with “I want to keep this short” that ended up being short, and this was no exception.

Two hours later, I found myself on my way home, with a quick stop at Sheetz for a sandwich and an Iced Tea. Finally, I got home at 10:50. So, between 8:30 in the morning and 11:00 at night, I spent a whopping 50 minutes at home.

Gotta love Sunday’s!

Finally, a practice!

2008-04-11T09:05:00.000-04:00

Finally got a softball practice under my belt, and it was a perfect night for it. Pleasantly mild (about 68 degrees), gentle wind, enough cloud cover to keep the sun out of your eyes – perfect softball weather. And I think the thing that made it most worthwhile was that there were 11 other guys who had come out for our second team practice. In past years, we’d get 13 or 14 for the first practice, then 5 or 6 for the next three practices, which is kinda useless. So far, we’ve seen 18 different guys come out. The season’s looking bright (or was that the reflection of the sun off of a windshield of a car in the parking lot?).

Personally, I was excited that I was able to chase down some fly balls on a dead sprint. Now, keep in mind that a dead sprint for me is somewhere between power walking and a brisk jog. The last few years I’ve been dealing with some knee issues and a variety of other aches and pains, so it was good to go to practice, play hard, and wake up this morning not feeling like I’d gotten hit by a bus. If I can keep it up all season, maybe I’ll even leg out a few extra base hits this year!

So bring on the season, ‘cause the Immanuel Men’s Softball Team is ready to roll…or something like that.

Symphony over, Bring on Softball!

2008-04-07T13:37:00.002-04:00

Well, I survived the symphony weekend. Gotta tell you, while I enjoyed the opportunity to sing with the symphony, and to sing under the direction of Stuart Malina, I am sooooo glad it’s over! I’ll be honest, if we were getting paid for it, I wouldn’t have minded it so much. But the last week or two was just ridiculous…4+ hours of rehearsal 5 times in the last couple of weeks. That, of course, is on top of the 3 months of weekly 2½ -hour rehearsals that took place before hand. I did make a couple of observations during the weekend…

- Stuart Malina is incredibly talented, immensely passionate, and refreshingly humble.

- Choral singers are the illegitimate children of the music world (ask me to explain some other time).

- Diva attitudes drive me nuts

- As much as I enjoy singing, I’m an instrumentalist at heart. I approach singing as a trumpet player, not a singer. This is not a problem, but I found I tend to focus more on the technical aspects of the music than the text.

- The Harrisburg area, by and large, has no idea how rich an Arts Culture it has.

So, now that it’s done, it’s time to move on to bigger and better things. Softball season is underway, and I’m actually excited about the season for the first time in a few years. I cannot wait to get out on the field, take a few swings and shag some fly balls. I missed our first practice (because of my obligation to the choir), but this week, it’s supposed to be sunny and 70-degrees…perfect softball weather!

And did anyone else notice that after the first week of the season, the Pirates are at .500? Okay, not the most stellar of statistics, but for the Pirates, that’s an accomplishment of colossal proportions.

I close with facts that may interest only me.
- the Pirates won yesterday with the 4 highest paid players riding the pine (of course, those four players combined don’t equal A-Rod’s salary this year, but I digress…)

More to me than Softball

2008-04-01T08:24:00.006-04:00

Okay, so besides baseball/softball, I do have a few other areas in my life that I like to participate in when I can. One of those is my love of music. Music has always been an integral part of my life. I grew up playing trumpet and singing in school and church. Music is directly responsible for Anita and I meeting, as we were placed on the same Music Ministry Team our first year at Messiah College. And it’s still a large part of my life in my role as co-Music/Worship Director at Immanuel Church.

For a number of years, Anita and I have had the opportunity to sing with the Messiah College Choral Arts Society. The group is under the direction of Linda Tedford, who is also the director of the Susquehanna Chorale, one of the top choirs in the country. Actually, Anita and I also had the opportunity to sing under Linda while students at Messiah, so it’s been a privilege to continue to sit in one of her choirs.

Now, I will admit that I’m not a huge fan of classical music - especially when you have to sing it in Latin or German, which I’m terrible at - but I do enjoy being part of this superb choir. But it’s worth it this year because we have the unique opportunity to sing with the Harrisburg Symphony. We will be joining 3 other choirs (the Susquehanna Chorale, the Messiah College Concert Choir and the Lebanon Valley College Alumni Choir) in this coming weekend’s performances. While this in itself is pretty cool, the best part for me is the chance to sing under the direction of Stuart Malina. While this may interest only those in the Harrisburg area, or those who are extremely passionate about symphonies, what intrigues me the most is that Mr. Malina is a Tony Award winner, having helped compose the orchestration for the Broadway show “Movin’ Out” with Billy Joel (I’m a huge Billy Joel fan!).

So assuming anyone reads this prior to April 5th and 6th of this year, and you’re in the Harrisburg area, do yourself a favor and bring some culture into your life by attending one of the performances of the Harrisburg Symphony this weekend. It promises to be an event you won’t soon forget.

Top 10 Baseball Movies

2008-03-31T09:36:00.001-04:00

This is one of my favorite times of the year – the start of the baseball season. Of course, being a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates (yes, I freely admit that), it’s also a time to ask that question that is quickly becoming an annual tradition for the Pirates faithful (all 29 of us, lol)… “How bad will they be this year?” Truth be told, it’s a shame they aren’t better, because PNC Park is by far one of the most beautiful places to watch a baseball game in the country. Of course, having only ever watched a game from 4 other stadiums, one of them being a minor league stadium, my opinion is thoroughly biased.

So, as I prepare for keeping track of another season of potential futility, my mind begins to wander…and I start compiling a list of my favorite baseball-themed movies of all time (of at least the ones I’ve seen).

So here’s my list. Feel free to comment and add to it.

1) “The Natural” – Of course you can’t knock the cover off a baseball, but it was cool to watch!
2) “Bull Durham” – okay, a bit irreverent, but some of the most memorable baseball characters of all time came from this movie: Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) and Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins)
3) “A League of Their Own” – A close friend of my grandparents played in the AAGPBL, so I have some ties to this movie and the historical aspect of it.
4) “Field of Dreams” – Yeah, it’s a bit hokey, and a little over-the-top, but let’s face it, everyone knows that ‘If you build it, he will come.’
5) “The Scout” – little known movie starring Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser. Brooks plays a scout who is on his last legs professionally. He discovers Fraser, a pitching phenom playing in Mexico with more quirks than all of John Cusack’s characters put together. It’s not a laugh-a-minute riot, but still a movie worth checking out sometime.
6) “Angels In The Outfield” – the original version about the Pittsburgh Pirates. Really, for no other reason than it’s about the Pirates. Although, they did start quite a run in real life a few years after the movie came out.
7) “Major League” – Again, a caricature of baseball players, with no real redeeming qualities other than how a rag-tag group of has-beens and wanna-be’s can come together and form a team, and together accomplish something that is truly greater than themselves. Plus, some more memorable characters in Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes), Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert), and the wonderfully obnoxious fan in the outfield stands played by Randy Quaid.
8) “Eight Men Out” – A fictionalized telling of the 1918 Black Sox scandal, which has kept “Shoeless” Joe Jackson out of the HOF to this day, even though it’s all but been proven he never participated in throwing the World Series that year.
9) “The Rookie” – Another ‘based on a true story’ tale of a high school pitching coach, Jimmy Morris, who decides to try out for the major leagues after his team miraculously wins the Texas state championship. Morris did pitch in the bigs for two seasons as a reliever.
10) “The Sandlot” – The movie is more about the bonding of a group of kids growing up, but the fact that it takes place around a makeshift baseball field makes it all the more enjoyable. And, let’s be honest, how many of us have lost a ball or two to the scary neighbor’s backyard?

So there it is, my 10 favorite baseball movies. There are so many more to choose from, but these are the ones that I will stop and watch anytime I flip by them on the TV.

Full Count???

2008-03-28T11:49:00.000-04:00

Well, here we go. My first attempt at blogging. As I sit back and try to determine where to begin, I think that perhaps the best entry point would be to explain the title of my blog – Full Count. I grew up playing baseball, and I excelled at it. I love baseball. I love the intricacies of the sport, how every pitch can change the course of the game. I dreamed of playing in the big leagues like most kids do. Obviously I didn’t make it, but I continue to remain active in the sport, even if it’s now on a softball field – same concept, one additional player.

So, why Full Count? Well, I’m sure some of you have listened to a baseball announcer make some statement like this:

“Here it is, folks. Tie score. Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, full count. A classic confrontation.”

That is, in its purest form, what baseball (and softball) is all about. That pressure situation where one pitch will determine the outcome of the game. Many times, we think about that situation, and we think the pressure is all on the pitcher, or maybe it’s all on the batter. But the truth is, everyone on the field at that moment in time, and even a few in the dugout, is feeling the same pressure. The questions abound – What pitch do I throw? How soon do I swing? How shallow or deep do I play? How big of a lead do I take? Everyone on the field has a decision to make, and the manager of the team has to consider all of the variables and communicate to his players exactly where they need to be and how they should react. And all of this takes place in approximately 3 seconds!

Baseball is the purest team sport there is. With every pitch, each player on the field needs to be thinking “What am I going to do when this ball is hit to me?” The actions and reactions of each fielder is dependent upon the actions and reactions of their teammates. It’s true in baseball (and softball) and it’s true in life in general none of us can do this alone. There are many people in our lives that we depend upon to get us to the next play – our families, our friends, our co-workers. These are our teammates in life, and we are accountable to them as they are to us. So when we face those ‘Full Count’ situations in our life, we can rest assured that if we do our best to get the job done, there are people around us ready to support us and provide an assist if something goes awry!

So take a look around and see who your teammates are. And then go out there and throw that pitch! Once the ball leaves your hand, you never know what's going to happen, but whatever it is, it is bound to be exciting!