Songs for hope...and help!

So I recently discovered that the band Mae, who I really, really enjoy their music has decided to do something interesting with their new music.  They are big supporters of Habitat for Humanity and wanted their fans to get involved as well.  So, instead of just releasing a cd as usual, they are releasing a song each month on their site and if you donate at least a dollar to Habitat you get the song, plus a description of the what the song is about and what it supports.  I think this is a really cool idea, since I'm a big fan of Habitat and also Mae.  You can enjoy the music and love what you are doing to help out at the same time.

It might be too late to get the song that's available for January, but go here to get the next one and keep coming back.

Jeopardy

I did an online tryout for Jeopardy last night on a whim.  I usually do pretty well when sitting in my living room, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  It's a live tryout where they ask you 50 questions about various topics and you have 15 seconds to correctly answer each one.  I think if I had to make a wild guess, I answered about 10 of the 50 and probably only answered 5 of those 10 correctly.

The problem was that they didn't ask any questions about topics I know.  They asked about world religion when they should have asked about Emmanuel College, they asked literature questions when they should have asked me about Seinfeld, they asked political questions when they should have been asking me about my extensive knowledge of the NCAA tournament or Major League baseball.  Alex just must have gotten his cards mixed up.  Maybe he'll get it right next time.

Busy weekend

Saturday night: Kim and I went and saw Slumdog Millionaire, a movie we've been waiting to see for some time now.  It did not disappoint either.  It's the story of a kid from Mumbai, India who grew up in the slums with nothing and makes it big on India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  It's an amazing story with great acting and will most definitely move you.  I'm not usually one who cares about all the awards ceremonies, but I really hope this one wins an award or two.

Sunday morning: We went to Duke Chapel to see Shane Claiborne speak.  It was great if just for the experience of the church service.  Duke is a Methodist school, and so the service is much different than what I'm used to, but I really got a lot out of it.  Shane spoke about how we as Christian's should not be dismayed by the things going on around us.  We have a greater reward coming to us and therefore should be a light in the dark times that the world is experiencing.  It was a very good message.  If you don't know anything about him, I suggest you pick up his book The Irresistable Revolution and at least read some of it.

5 Years From Now

So this May is officially 5 years since I graduated college and I was thinking about the question that you always get at the end of college, "what do you think you'll be doing in 5 years?"  I don't remember what my response was, but I can guarantee you it wasn't what I'm actually doing.  I thought I probably would be finishing up grad school, dating Kimberly, and probably preparing for my first real job.  Instead, I'm living in Durham still, working a job that doesn't pay much more than the ones I had in college, and I am married.

Things don't always work out like we expect them to or believe that they should.  That's not to say that life will be bad, mine is far from it but plan for the unexpected.  I have a job (that's more than most can say right now), I have a wonderful church family, I have the hope of a future in the Peace Corp, and I have an amazing wife.  Sometimes we get into the mindset that since we planned well that our plans for our life must be God's plans for our life.

God I want to have the confidence in your plan, no matter what that may be for my life, and even if it conflicts with my plans for my life.

Sick dunk!

Sorry it's been a while but I really haven't had anything to write.  I hope this makes up for it.  This is a video clip from a nasty dunk by a guy from Anderson University (formerly Anderson College) in Anderson, SC.  Unbelievable!

John Smoltz

Days gone by...

I was reading somewhere the other day about how we like to romanticize the past and dream of going back to a time in our childhood when we thought things were better.  Though they stated that usually things weren't really better then than they are now, it's just that we tend to forget the bad stuff from those times.

That being said, if you could go back to another time in your life or another period in time, when would that be?  Mine would be either my junior year of college or if I could go to another period in time it would probably be the 1950s.  The 50s to me were the golden age of baseball and I just think it would be a lot of fun.  So what would you choose?  I'm interested to know.

Curveballs

I've always heard the phrase, "sometimes life throws you curveballs" and took it to mean that sometimes life gives you something that you're not expecting and it stinks.  But lately I've been thinking about that, and as a baseball fan I don't think that's what it means.

A curveball is a pitch that when you see it initially you think it's a bad pitch.  Your gut reaction is to bail out because it looks like you're going to get hit or to not swing because you think it's a lousy pitch.  But what good players know, is if you recognize it for what it is and hang in there, you can hit it out of the park.

I think that's really the situation that Kimberly and I are at right now.  We're getting a big fat curve and our initial reaction is fear of a bad pitch, but I think we should just hang in there.

The Minute Mustache

This was my mustache that I had for just a brief period of time this morning.  I was shaving my weeks worth of facial growth and decided to surprise Kim.  Boy was she surprised!  She basically told me to immediately go to the bathroom and kill the woolly worm.

*As a side note, I need to apologize because I completely forgot to mention, in my previous post, that Skip Carey (may he rest in peace) is gone from the Atlanta Braves...as is TBS.

The End of an Era

So word has just come across the wire that the Red Sox and John Smoltz are close to sealing a one year deal.  While I'm glad for the Red Sox, I have more of an attachment to the Atlanta Braves and this news saddens me like no other news...probably like the day I found out the Braves let Dale Murphy go to the Phillies.  I see this as the end of an era though.  These are no longer the Braves of my youth.

Gone is:

Ted Turner

John Schuerholz

David Justice

"Neon" Deion

Terry Pendleton

Ron Gant

Greg Maddux

Tom Glavine - Technically he's back, but I think the Mets just returned his body like the alien abductees in The X-Files.

John Rocker

Andruw Jones

Rafael Furcal

Mike Hampton - Oh wait, I'm glad he's gone

Fred "Crime Dog" McGriff

Vinny Castilla (twice)

Francisco "the one hit wonder" Cabrera - I made that nickname up just now

The Revolving door of closers (Wohlers, Merker, Stanton, Rocker, Lightenberg, etc.)

Ryan Klesko

Rafael Belliard

Mark Lemke

I suppose Chipper Jones is the next to go since he's a free agent after this season, but hopefully since they don't have any other players they can at least afford him for a few more years.  I feel my childhood slowly slipping down the drain.

Google maps to the rescue!

Those who read this wonderful blog know my love for Google Maps.  Recently, police in Massachusetts used it to help find a girl who had been kidnapped by her grandmother.  It's a great story that I encourage you to read here.

2008 Bowl Season

This year I've seen an unusually high number of bowl games and I have to say, some were entertaining but most have stunk.  Some of my favorites were:

• Boise St./TCU (Even though I was pulling for Boise St.)
  
• W. Virginia/UNC (Great game, great outcome)
• Iowa/S. Carolina (Just funny to see Spurrier stomping up and down the sidelines)
• Miss/Texas Tech (Shocking game)

This being said however, most were uninteresting, and I have to say it's the match-ups.  I cannot stand arranged match-ups in specific bowls.  For years people have been talking about how good USC is and how good the SEC is, but the two never meet.  That's because they would have to meet in the championship game or not at all.  For the past 3 years USC has abused 3 different Big Ten teams in the Rose Bowl.  Enough with the crappy bowl games!!!