Ok no time for a real blog today as already mentioned but I do want to thank the Cincinnati Bengals.
After what was shaping up to be a terrible offseason, the team has fired offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski.
If Bob is lucky he’ll catch on at a Division III-VI high school as a waterboy.
That guy took a ton of talent and turned it into garbage. With the same quarterback, a comparable running back and better receivers than 2005 (AFC North champ year), Bratkowski ran the Who Dey attack into the ground with predictable play calls.
We can’t be too happy. Mike Brown is still there, he’s still an idiot, we don’t know what this means for Carson’s plans and we are still the Bengals.
All I know is this was a step in the right direction.
Monday, January 31, 2011
All too brief
Sorry folks. Again the lunch excursion ran long.
Coming tomorrow however, there will be a blog. Not sure what about yet but I encourage everyone to give ideas.
To tide you over here is today's weird news from Yahoo.
Girl with girl cheating OK, half of boyfriends say
See you all tomorrow.
Coming tomorrow however, there will be a blog. Not sure what about yet but I encourage everyone to give ideas.
To tide you over here is today's weird news from Yahoo.
Girl with girl cheating OK, half of boyfriends say
See you all tomorrow.
Friday, January 28, 2011
We learned something today
Going out for lunch mean no blog, or at least not a long one.
So instead just a link. I have always admired the ingenuity of the human spirit...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110127/od_nm/us_mexico_catapult_odd;_ylt=Ar9ztnr_cc9q9rbauMTNCabtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJucWU5ODBtBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwMTI3L3VzX21leGljb19jYXRhcHVsdF9vZGQEY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3NtdWdnbGVyc3dpdA--
Yeah it's a pot catapult.
Gives a whole new meaning to getting high.
So instead just a link. I have always admired the ingenuity of the human spirit...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110127/od_nm/us_mexico_catapult_odd;_ylt=Ar9ztnr_cc9q9rbauMTNCabtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJucWU5ODBtBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwMTI3L3VzX21leGljb19jYXRhcHVsdF9vZGQEY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3NtdWdnbGVyc3dpdA--
Yeah it's a pot catapult.
Gives a whole new meaning to getting high.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The sun can't hurt me, I'm a special vampire...
Everyone knows that a so-called vampire subculture exists in the US and around the world.
It ranges from overzealous Twilight worshipers, to slightly older kids just discovering Ann Rice, to full grown adults that think it's fun to play vampire and then to the ultimate in pathetic, people who believe they are vampires.
I say to each their own on a lot of things. If you want to dress up as Barney the Dinosaur and go to sex parties with other consenting adults in costume, go for it. If you want to pretend its the middle ages and talk funny at a Renaissance Fair, why not? If you wanna play Dracula and nibble on a consenting friend, that's your call too.
I'm sure you meet crazies in all of those crowds that believe they are Barney or that they are a Knight, but with the vampire subculture this seems to happen more often. At the least it is reported in the media.
I have actually known people that believed, or at least argued with me that they believed, that they were vampires. I knew a vampire and an alleged vampire hunting ninja of some kind who were friends. I knew a girl that said she was a Lykin.
All three of these people would claim to be serious most of the time. One of the guys would back down a little if pressed.
Still though, why? We all want to believe we are special or unique in some way and I guess if we could be a mythical being, that would do it.
But most of these people are just attention whores of one kind or another.
And I know about attention whore...I started a blog because I couldn't stand not having an audience read my stuff.
So here is few excerpts of a list I came across today to help you know if you are a vampire.
# 1. Do you have unusually pale skin? You don't have to be white to be pale. If yes then cook up one or two (depending on the size) medium rare steaks (the best way to do this) If, by the time you’re done enjoying the second one, you have a new pinkish color throughout your body that you haven’t had in a while, read no farther; you are a real vampire. Humans can’t digest blood let alone get color from it, real vampires do.
# Have you ever been told by professionals that you’re lucky you survived an accident with only a few scratches or cuts?
# Are you a naturally strong magic/energy user self-taught or self-realized?
# As a kid, were you the strongest, smartest, or quickest kid in the class, and at around 16 years of age maybe all 3?
# Is your bedroom the coldest and darkest room in the house?
And my personal favorite.......
# How often do you look at the person that almost bumped (or bumped) into you and think "you idiot” or “people are so stupid" because they didn't know you were only a couple feet away from them, because you always know when someone is that close to you? (Which, when you think about it, you only know because you can sense when someone is that close to you).
I mean come on. I'll give you a break if you are a 12-16 emo kid with crappy parents but by the time you're old enough to drive a car you should know you aren't freakin' immortal.
So if you know a "vampire" that is serious about it, ask how they go out in the sun without dying/sparkling or how come they got beat up in school despite their vampire powers?
Ask why, if you're an immortal powerful being, why not drop out of high school and wander the earth or If they believe they've been a vampire for thousands of years, why are they in high school again?
I don't know why this level of stupidity bothers me as much as it does. I don't mind cosplay or dressing goth if that's just your thing. But pretending you're a supernatural being with powers that you cannot demonstrate makes me want to call you an idiot.
So this entire blog post was leading up to one sentence.
If you think you are really and truly a vampire or vampire related supernatural being, you are an idiot.
It ranges from overzealous Twilight worshipers, to slightly older kids just discovering Ann Rice, to full grown adults that think it's fun to play vampire and then to the ultimate in pathetic, people who believe they are vampires.
I say to each their own on a lot of things. If you want to dress up as Barney the Dinosaur and go to sex parties with other consenting adults in costume, go for it. If you want to pretend its the middle ages and talk funny at a Renaissance Fair, why not? If you wanna play Dracula and nibble on a consenting friend, that's your call too.
I'm sure you meet crazies in all of those crowds that believe they are Barney or that they are a Knight, but with the vampire subculture this seems to happen more often. At the least it is reported in the media.
I have actually known people that believed, or at least argued with me that they believed, that they were vampires. I knew a vampire and an alleged vampire hunting ninja of some kind who were friends. I knew a girl that said she was a Lykin.
All three of these people would claim to be serious most of the time. One of the guys would back down a little if pressed.
Still though, why? We all want to believe we are special or unique in some way and I guess if we could be a mythical being, that would do it.
But most of these people are just attention whores of one kind or another.
And I know about attention whore...I started a blog because I couldn't stand not having an audience read my stuff.
So here is few excerpts of a list I came across today to help you know if you are a vampire.
# 1. Do you have unusually pale skin? You don't have to be white to be pale. If yes then cook up one or two (depending on the size) medium rare steaks (the best way to do this) If, by the time you’re done enjoying the second one, you have a new pinkish color throughout your body that you haven’t had in a while, read no farther; you are a real vampire. Humans can’t digest blood let alone get color from it, real vampires do.
# Have you ever been told by professionals that you’re lucky you survived an accident with only a few scratches or cuts?
# Are you a naturally strong magic/energy user self-taught or self-realized?
# As a kid, were you the strongest, smartest, or quickest kid in the class, and at around 16 years of age maybe all 3?
# Is your bedroom the coldest and darkest room in the house?
And my personal favorite.......
# How often do you look at the person that almost bumped (or bumped) into you and think "you idiot” or “people are so stupid" because they didn't know you were only a couple feet away from them, because you always know when someone is that close to you? (Which, when you think about it, you only know because you can sense when someone is that close to you).
I mean come on. I'll give you a break if you are a 12-16 emo kid with crappy parents but by the time you're old enough to drive a car you should know you aren't freakin' immortal.
So if you know a "vampire" that is serious about it, ask how they go out in the sun without dying/sparkling or how come they got beat up in school despite their vampire powers?
Ask why, if you're an immortal powerful being, why not drop out of high school and wander the earth or If they believe they've been a vampire for thousands of years, why are they in high school again?
I don't know why this level of stupidity bothers me as much as it does. I don't mind cosplay or dressing goth if that's just your thing. But pretending you're a supernatural being with powers that you cannot demonstrate makes me want to call you an idiot.
So this entire blog post was leading up to one sentence.
If you think you are really and truly a vampire or vampire related supernatural being, you are an idiot.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Extremism, fundementalism and you
Part of me want to talk state of the union, part of me wants to talk more on religion and part of me wants to talk Carson Palmer but we're going the last political blog wasn't so hot, we've done enough on religion and few of you readers like sports.
Instead today we're talking extremism.
I'm become more of a moderate every day. Or I think I am. I always thought of myself as a central leaning conservative but more and more I'm drifting to the center, which is often a good thing. There are several reasons for this.
One is my friends. Most of my friends are liberals and when one is confronted with opposing ideas all the time from intelligent people it is only a matter of time until one sees merit in what they say.
Another reason was the job I had before this one. Yes I was a sports writer but still I was a journalist. That job requires you to take yourself out of the story as much as you can and try to look at things objectively.
From that position as someone in the crowd but not of the crowd, you get a unique look at things.
In sports, you see that fans of both teams are crazy and the the officials are usually right.
Whoa, we're getting off topic.
Extremism.
It's freaking everywhere. This isn't news and you don't need me to tell you it's usually bad. It is hard to combat for several reasons.
1. Extremists rarely think they're being extreme
2. We live in a society that (rightly) allows people to have crazy beliefs.
3. I submit that most extremism rises out of noble intentions.
And there is the problem.
Let's use hypothetical me for example. I'm Catholic and I believe that if you want to go to heaven, it behooves you greatly to also be Catholic. I want my friends to go to heaven so first I start badgering them about it. That just makes them angry so I start throwing books on the topic at them and they still don't care. So finally, faced with the prospect of my friends going to hell, I kidnap them, take them to the outskirts of Rome and beat them until they profess faith which of course is a lie to get me to stop beating them.
The thing is extremism isn't just, crazy hypothetical me, terrorists and the Westboro Baptist Church.
It's Glenn Beck and Keith Olberman. It's your relative that can't abide to talk to you if you say you're not sure you agree with their beliefs. It's the friend that flips out when they find out who you voted for.
Extremism comes from within. I don't know if it is an intellectual weakness or a strength. To be able to hold fast and strong to beliefs can be admirable, but to cling to a belief you desperately want to be true is weak.
Before I go let me say I don't think we need to come to the middle in all things. There are absolutes. There is truth. Argument and debate are necessary and good and if you really believe something and you can say you've been intellectually honest with yourself about it and you find yourself believing what others call extreme, you've every right to stick with it.
But don't stick with something just because. Allow your beliefs, on all topics, to be challenged. You don't have to feel dumb to find out you were wrong about something. Rather it can be quite a good feeling.
Instead today we're talking extremism.
I'm become more of a moderate every day. Or I think I am. I always thought of myself as a central leaning conservative but more and more I'm drifting to the center, which is often a good thing. There are several reasons for this.
One is my friends. Most of my friends are liberals and when one is confronted with opposing ideas all the time from intelligent people it is only a matter of time until one sees merit in what they say.
Another reason was the job I had before this one. Yes I was a sports writer but still I was a journalist. That job requires you to take yourself out of the story as much as you can and try to look at things objectively.
From that position as someone in the crowd but not of the crowd, you get a unique look at things.
In sports, you see that fans of both teams are crazy and the the officials are usually right.
Whoa, we're getting off topic.
Extremism.
It's freaking everywhere. This isn't news and you don't need me to tell you it's usually bad. It is hard to combat for several reasons.
1. Extremists rarely think they're being extreme
2. We live in a society that (rightly) allows people to have crazy beliefs.
3. I submit that most extremism rises out of noble intentions.
And there is the problem.
Let's use hypothetical me for example. I'm Catholic and I believe that if you want to go to heaven, it behooves you greatly to also be Catholic. I want my friends to go to heaven so first I start badgering them about it. That just makes them angry so I start throwing books on the topic at them and they still don't care. So finally, faced with the prospect of my friends going to hell, I kidnap them, take them to the outskirts of Rome and beat them until they profess faith which of course is a lie to get me to stop beating them.
The thing is extremism isn't just, crazy hypothetical me, terrorists and the Westboro Baptist Church.
It's Glenn Beck and Keith Olberman. It's your relative that can't abide to talk to you if you say you're not sure you agree with their beliefs. It's the friend that flips out when they find out who you voted for.
Extremism comes from within. I don't know if it is an intellectual weakness or a strength. To be able to hold fast and strong to beliefs can be admirable, but to cling to a belief you desperately want to be true is weak.
Before I go let me say I don't think we need to come to the middle in all things. There are absolutes. There is truth. Argument and debate are necessary and good and if you really believe something and you can say you've been intellectually honest with yourself about it and you find yourself believing what others call extreme, you've every right to stick with it.
But don't stick with something just because. Allow your beliefs, on all topics, to be challenged. You don't have to feel dumb to find out you were wrong about something. Rather it can be quite a good feeling.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
My fellow Americans,
I want to thank, blogspot, Facebook and presumably the interweb founder Al Gore for the opportunity to address my readers and the by proxy the world.
We live in trying times. There is crime, hunger, political tension and civil dissent. Even with all these things, or perhaps because of them, I stand (ok I'm sitting) before you to say the state of our nation is strong.
Leaving behind the flowery speech, let me jump into a few political topics likely to be discussed in President Obama's State of the Union tonight at 9 p.m.
1. Jobs
Jobs are good. Me want jobs. Give jobs people make people get money. Money fix economy if people buy things from others who must find jobs. Also fire bad.
No doubt the president will rattle on about job creation and spout off a lot of numbers that don't mean anything to you or me. If we want to create jobs in this country, both sides of aisle need to conceed. Liberals, union employees just can't make 37 dollars an hour for changing light bulbs. Conservatives, we have to either penalize companies that send jobs overseas of at least give them incentives to stay.
And that idea won't even create jobs, but it would slow the loss of them.
2. Health Care
If you think the American health care system doesn't need some kind of over haul, you are very rich or living in a dream world. When working people with college degrees can't afford health care even before having kids, there is a problem. I'm not saying health care is a right, but it is something that should be affordable for those that work for it.
3. Spending
I don't know if we'll hear much about this but I hope so. This nation's debt will haunt us one day. We can't just pretend that billions and trillions of dollars don't mean anything. They do. I hope the president works with republicans to cut spending and come up with a deficit reduction plan that at least starts the ball rolling.
4. Defense
In less than two years, the United States has suffered more combat deaths in Afghanistan under President Obama than it did during the two-term presidency of George W. Bush. (You can do the math at icasualties.org).
While the president has kept his promise to start heading out of Iraq, Americans are dying fast in Afghanistan. I don't blame Obama for this fully. He inherited this war.
That said, he is the commander in chief. He knew when he began his campaign for election that if he won, this would be his war. I want to hear from him a plan for winning, stabilizing, and getting out.
5. Giffords
The congresswoman from Tuscon was shot. It was sad. Several died, several hurt. Sad. She's doing better, good. There were heroic acting people, good. Enough.
I really hope we don't waste more than 5 minutes on this. Maybe I'd allow 10 to talk about the political climate.
Other than that I suppose we'll hear a lot of vague talk about several programs. We'll be promised jobs and growth and unity and children will get puppies and it will be like any state of the union any president on either side has had.
Nevertheless, I encourage everyone to watch it tonight. You don't have to be a fan of the president to care what he says. This isn't hollywood. If you are a citizen of these United States, then Barrack Hussein Obama is your president.
Watch tonight. If you're a supporter, enjoy the pomp but try and hold him to specifics. If you don't like him, try to keep and open mind and respect the office, if not the man.
The state of the union is a great way to find out straight from the president what he plans to do in the next two years...of course he needs to be elected again in two years so he'll probably drop most of this right after the budget passes...
Yay America.
We live in trying times. There is crime, hunger, political tension and civil dissent. Even with all these things, or perhaps because of them, I stand (ok I'm sitting) before you to say the state of our nation is strong.
Leaving behind the flowery speech, let me jump into a few political topics likely to be discussed in President Obama's State of the Union tonight at 9 p.m.
1. Jobs
Jobs are good. Me want jobs. Give jobs people make people get money. Money fix economy if people buy things from others who must find jobs. Also fire bad.
No doubt the president will rattle on about job creation and spout off a lot of numbers that don't mean anything to you or me. If we want to create jobs in this country, both sides of aisle need to conceed. Liberals, union employees just can't make 37 dollars an hour for changing light bulbs. Conservatives, we have to either penalize companies that send jobs overseas of at least give them incentives to stay.
And that idea won't even create jobs, but it would slow the loss of them.
2. Health Care
If you think the American health care system doesn't need some kind of over haul, you are very rich or living in a dream world. When working people with college degrees can't afford health care even before having kids, there is a problem. I'm not saying health care is a right, but it is something that should be affordable for those that work for it.
3. Spending
I don't know if we'll hear much about this but I hope so. This nation's debt will haunt us one day. We can't just pretend that billions and trillions of dollars don't mean anything. They do. I hope the president works with republicans to cut spending and come up with a deficit reduction plan that at least starts the ball rolling.
4. Defense
In less than two years, the United States has suffered more combat deaths in Afghanistan under President Obama than it did during the two-term presidency of George W. Bush. (You can do the math at icasualties.org).
While the president has kept his promise to start heading out of Iraq, Americans are dying fast in Afghanistan. I don't blame Obama for this fully. He inherited this war.
That said, he is the commander in chief. He knew when he began his campaign for election that if he won, this would be his war. I want to hear from him a plan for winning, stabilizing, and getting out.
5. Giffords
The congresswoman from Tuscon was shot. It was sad. Several died, several hurt. Sad. She's doing better, good. There were heroic acting people, good. Enough.
I really hope we don't waste more than 5 minutes on this. Maybe I'd allow 10 to talk about the political climate.
Other than that I suppose we'll hear a lot of vague talk about several programs. We'll be promised jobs and growth and unity and children will get puppies and it will be like any state of the union any president on either side has had.
Nevertheless, I encourage everyone to watch it tonight. You don't have to be a fan of the president to care what he says. This isn't hollywood. If you are a citizen of these United States, then Barrack Hussein Obama is your president.
Watch tonight. If you're a supporter, enjoy the pomp but try and hold him to specifics. If you don't like him, try to keep and open mind and respect the office, if not the man.
The state of the union is a great way to find out straight from the president what he plans to do in the next two years...of course he needs to be elected again in two years so he'll probably drop most of this right after the budget passes...
Yay America.
Monday, January 24, 2011
They'll say I have no right to speak on this...
...but I disagree.
See when it comes to matters of right and wrong in a nation founded on freedom, I think I've got a right to this opinion. Moreover, my opponents have an equal right to theirs.
I don't own a motorcycle, but no one cares that I have an opinion on helmet laws. I can never be a pro football player, but no one cares that I have an opinion on the collective bargaining agreement and lastly, I'm not homeless, but I'm permitted by all to have opinions on welfare law.
Today won't be so easy because 37 years ago today the US Supreme Court handed down a controversial ruling by voting 7-2 in favor of a once anonymous woman known as Jane Roe. I don't have ovaries...but I have an opinion.
This case, and really more importantly the companion case of Doe vs. Dobson, legalized abortion in America.
This is not an easy issue. It is not a pretty issue. It is however an important issue.
I won't bother here with a drawn out argument of why I believe that life begins at conception. I won't go into the horrible horrible ways that babies are killed in the womb (or sometimes half out of it).
What I wanted to talk about is what this means for society. Instead I ran out of time during lunch.
The great crime here is the cold blooded killing, or termination to be PC, of fetuses.
Abortion isn't new. America didn't invent it. It probably even goes back longer than recorded history.
Long story short I believe abortion is wrong but I don't have time to tell you why right now.
One issue is the insane number of abortions that occur. Check out these stats from the Guttmacher Institute.
----
Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.
Forty percent of pregnancies among white women, 69 among blacks and 54 among Hispanics are unintended. In 2008, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million in 2000. However, between 2005 and 2008, the long-term decline in abortions stalled. From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions occurred.
Women in their twenties account for more than half of all abortions; women aged 20–24 obtain 33 of all abortions, and women aged 25-29 obtain 24.
Among U.S. women having abortions in 2002, about one-half had already had a prior abortion.
----
We decided as a society and sex is more important than life. Separating the two was not just a mistake, but something that should be considered unthinkable.
I pray one day that the people of this country, not just the courts, see the error of their ways.
(Kudos to Karyn Stegeman for the blog idea and my apologies it doesn't do the topic justice.)
See when it comes to matters of right and wrong in a nation founded on freedom, I think I've got a right to this opinion. Moreover, my opponents have an equal right to theirs.
I don't own a motorcycle, but no one cares that I have an opinion on helmet laws. I can never be a pro football player, but no one cares that I have an opinion on the collective bargaining agreement and lastly, I'm not homeless, but I'm permitted by all to have opinions on welfare law.
Today won't be so easy because 37 years ago today the US Supreme Court handed down a controversial ruling by voting 7-2 in favor of a once anonymous woman known as Jane Roe. I don't have ovaries...but I have an opinion.
This case, and really more importantly the companion case of Doe vs. Dobson, legalized abortion in America.
This is not an easy issue. It is not a pretty issue. It is however an important issue.
I won't bother here with a drawn out argument of why I believe that life begins at conception. I won't go into the horrible horrible ways that babies are killed in the womb (or sometimes half out of it).
What I wanted to talk about is what this means for society. Instead I ran out of time during lunch.
The great crime here is the cold blooded killing, or termination to be PC, of fetuses.
Abortion isn't new. America didn't invent it. It probably even goes back longer than recorded history.
Long story short I believe abortion is wrong but I don't have time to tell you why right now.
One issue is the insane number of abortions that occur. Check out these stats from the Guttmacher Institute.
----
Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.
Forty percent of pregnancies among white women, 69 among blacks and 54 among Hispanics are unintended. In 2008, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million in 2000. However, between 2005 and 2008, the long-term decline in abortions stalled. From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions occurred.
Women in their twenties account for more than half of all abortions; women aged 20–24 obtain 33 of all abortions, and women aged 25-29 obtain 24.
Among U.S. women having abortions in 2002, about one-half had already had a prior abortion.
----
We decided as a society and sex is more important than life. Separating the two was not just a mistake, but something that should be considered unthinkable.
I pray one day that the people of this country, not just the courts, see the error of their ways.
(Kudos to Karyn Stegeman for the blog idea and my apologies it doesn't do the topic justice.)
Friday, January 21, 2011
A towering Jesus-based rage
The title of this blog is from a quote from the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and while I really don't want to pigeon-hole this blog into specific genre of blogging, I've got another religion-based one for you today.
The idea for this blog comes from my friend Amanda, who writes on her facebook status...
"And yet another "if you're not Christian, you are lost" 'friend' gets removed from Facebook. I respect people's beliefs (stop laughing, I do). What I don't respect are people that use whatever medium they can to try to push it onto others like they're on some personal holy crusade. Don't like it? Kindly remove yourself so I don't have to bother."
Amanda brings up something I think all of us deal with to some extent. The Facebook Evangelist. (Sadly after a Google search I see I didn't invent the term.)
The Facebook Evangelist comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes it is a younger person who has recently fallen in love with God, sometimes it's an older person that feels like God is involved in everything down to the frequency of their bowel movements and sometimes it's just you average Christian.
Before we go any further in the interest of full disclosure (not that any of you aren't aware) I am a Christian. I'm a God-fearing Roman Catholic who believes truly that salvation comes through Jesus Christ and that we are fortunate he gave us the Church as a vessel of salvation.
But you've never seen me type that on facebook have you? (If I have, sorry.) Sure my beliefs come through in my status from time to time, that's how it is for all of us. But I'm not trying to convert the world or show anyone how holy I can be via social media.
And last I sympathize with these evangelist. As a Christian I support conversion, but I just don't think it can be done with facebook. See my closing statement for more.
One person I recently hid on my list, and to be honest I can't recall how I even knew them, posts a bible verse about what they're thinking a couple times a day. Another is always relating God to their every move. For example if they were to go to the pool in summer the post would start "Thank God for the pool."
Another literally only posts God-related things.
From my experience on facebook I think we can catalog the Facebook Evangelist into 3 categories.
First with the worst...
1. Conversion Carl
Conversion Carls are the people Amanda was referencing I believe. This is the person who thinks that because they have 37 friends and facebook info tells them that 16 of them aren't Christians that it is their duty to beat them over the head with phrases like, "There is still time to come to God," "It's just so sad that not everyone comes to know the love of Jesus," or "Believe in God or go to hell, your choice."
Conversion Carls may have a heart in the right place, but they have no idea that they probably turn more people off to God than anything.
2. The Bible Thumper
This person literally posts bible statuses everyday. Some of them recycle the Good Book's greatest hits while others find more obscure ones but it serves the same purpose. Everyone on facebook gets to know that they read the bible, at least 140 characters at a time.
The Bible Thumper is under the impression that either A) They get brownie points in heaven for each scripture quote on facebook, B) That out of context scripture will somehow bring people to God, or C) that it's just fun to have bible statuses.
God love'em for trying....but they're still annoying.
3. Solomon's Army
I went with Solomon because he was a symbol of wisdom. Solomon's Army, to me, is the most tolerable of the Facebook Evangelists.
These well-meaning intellectuals of faith tend to at least be interesting. They say use wise-sounding sayings from the bible and other sources to get people interested.
I have a major interest in theology so these people don't annoy me that much, until I see their fifth status of the day on the same topic. Why can't they ever just type "Tired, want to sleep" instead of "In that sleep of death, what dreams may come? Ask Jesus?"
Now I admit I'm being a little mean to my brother and sister Christians here but call it tough love. I think we can agree that no facebook post have saved a sinner or damned a saint.
I'm not saying there is no place for faith in social media, there is. Create a fan page for you topic if you want. If you are really concerned about someone's soul, use facebook to make contact and deal with them directly.
Spamming people with God won't help.
I believe in the Great Commission (which comes from Matthew and says "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
It is our job as Christians to spread the faith but have we learned nothing from the past? Badgering doesn't work any better than forced conversion. Only those willing to listen can even begin to be swayed by scripture or theological argument, spamming everyone is just wasted energy.
More than that, if as Christians we hope to show others that our way is the way to go, we need to bear good fruit. We need to do it by showing that the faith isn't an archaic clinging to rules, that it isn't a system of belief as much as it should be a way of life, and a fun one at that.
Live your life as a Christian, help without gain, don't rush to judgment, be accepting, dine with the sinners and love unconditionally. These are the things you can do if you want people to come to God. And if and when they ASK you, then you can tell them the good news.
But you can do that on a private message, not on your status.
Your thoughts?
The idea for this blog comes from my friend Amanda, who writes on her facebook status...
"And yet another "if you're not Christian, you are lost" 'friend' gets removed from Facebook. I respect people's beliefs (stop laughing, I do). What I don't respect are people that use whatever medium they can to try to push it onto others like they're on some personal holy crusade. Don't like it? Kindly remove yourself so I don't have to bother."
Amanda brings up something I think all of us deal with to some extent. The Facebook Evangelist. (Sadly after a Google search I see I didn't invent the term.)
The Facebook Evangelist comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes it is a younger person who has recently fallen in love with God, sometimes it's an older person that feels like God is involved in everything down to the frequency of their bowel movements and sometimes it's just you average Christian.
Before we go any further in the interest of full disclosure (not that any of you aren't aware) I am a Christian. I'm a God-fearing Roman Catholic who believes truly that salvation comes through Jesus Christ and that we are fortunate he gave us the Church as a vessel of salvation.
But you've never seen me type that on facebook have you? (If I have, sorry.) Sure my beliefs come through in my status from time to time, that's how it is for all of us. But I'm not trying to convert the world or show anyone how holy I can be via social media.
And last I sympathize with these evangelist. As a Christian I support conversion, but I just don't think it can be done with facebook. See my closing statement for more.
One person I recently hid on my list, and to be honest I can't recall how I even knew them, posts a bible verse about what they're thinking a couple times a day. Another is always relating God to their every move. For example if they were to go to the pool in summer the post would start "Thank God for the pool."
Another literally only posts God-related things.
From my experience on facebook I think we can catalog the Facebook Evangelist into 3 categories.
First with the worst...
1. Conversion Carl
Conversion Carls are the people Amanda was referencing I believe. This is the person who thinks that because they have 37 friends and facebook info tells them that 16 of them aren't Christians that it is their duty to beat them over the head with phrases like, "There is still time to come to God," "It's just so sad that not everyone comes to know the love of Jesus," or "Believe in God or go to hell, your choice."
Conversion Carls may have a heart in the right place, but they have no idea that they probably turn more people off to God than anything.
2. The Bible Thumper
This person literally posts bible statuses everyday. Some of them recycle the Good Book's greatest hits while others find more obscure ones but it serves the same purpose. Everyone on facebook gets to know that they read the bible, at least 140 characters at a time.
The Bible Thumper is under the impression that either A) They get brownie points in heaven for each scripture quote on facebook, B) That out of context scripture will somehow bring people to God, or C) that it's just fun to have bible statuses.
God love'em for trying....but they're still annoying.
3. Solomon's Army
I went with Solomon because he was a symbol of wisdom. Solomon's Army, to me, is the most tolerable of the Facebook Evangelists.
These well-meaning intellectuals of faith tend to at least be interesting. They say use wise-sounding sayings from the bible and other sources to get people interested.
I have a major interest in theology so these people don't annoy me that much, until I see their fifth status of the day on the same topic. Why can't they ever just type "Tired, want to sleep" instead of "In that sleep of death, what dreams may come? Ask Jesus?"
Closing Thoughts
Now I admit I'm being a little mean to my brother and sister Christians here but call it tough love. I think we can agree that no facebook post have saved a sinner or damned a saint.
I'm not saying there is no place for faith in social media, there is. Create a fan page for you topic if you want. If you are really concerned about someone's soul, use facebook to make contact and deal with them directly.
Spamming people with God won't help.
I believe in the Great Commission (which comes from Matthew and says "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
It is our job as Christians to spread the faith but have we learned nothing from the past? Badgering doesn't work any better than forced conversion. Only those willing to listen can even begin to be swayed by scripture or theological argument, spamming everyone is just wasted energy.
More than that, if as Christians we hope to show others that our way is the way to go, we need to bear good fruit. We need to do it by showing that the faith isn't an archaic clinging to rules, that it isn't a system of belief as much as it should be a way of life, and a fun one at that.
Live your life as a Christian, help without gain, don't rush to judgment, be accepting, dine with the sinners and love unconditionally. These are the things you can do if you want people to come to God. And if and when they ASK you, then you can tell them the good news.
But you can do that on a private message, not on your status.
Your thoughts?
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Nothing epic, nothing gained
Ok so I want to thank those of you that gave me blog ideas over on facebook but I've decided not to go with any of them. Sorry. I will however share a link in honor of Matt Payton who showed it to me.
If you ever needed more justification for believing that athletes today deserve every bit of horrible fate that can happen, just read this. Warning, bad language.
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2011/1/19/1943956/the-happy-football-life-of-will-hill
And before we get into it, happy 50th birthday to Dan Kuenneke.
As for today's blog , I'm going to make it up as I go.
I recently finished reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe since I never read it in school. Not a bad book. On top of that I've been thinking a lot about Edgar Allen Poe and today I was reminded of author Neil Gaiman.
All great authors no doubt but it is not a normal thing to have those three dancing around in your head.
Nevertheless there they are. My ego always has me thinking that maybe one day I could be a great and well known author but then there is a common thread among authors such as the ones I mentioned that I lack.
They all knew some of the other greats of their time. Now I love all of you my friends but those of you I know best aren't much into writing. My mom can write, my cousin Katie can write. I know Matt Kilmer and Jacob Thompson can write and who knows maybe between us one of us will one day be published.
Poe knew Washington Irving (Sleepy Hollow), Lewis knew Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) and Gaiman, though harder to judge because he's still arguably in his prime, knows countless other authors. (By the way read Gaiman's "American Gods")
Of course as soon as I typed that I realized that I know Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme and Jennfier Reed. Both talented folk by any definition and both being published for very different works.
I don't know. Maybe in the moment of the present it's hard for one to see greatness around them or in themselves.
I doubt as Lewis and Tolkien sat around talking about their works they thought, "I bet one day someone makes huge moving pictures about our stories that make millions."
When Poe went to Irving for advice he was just another young writer looking for help from a contemporary, not the legend of literature we know.
Still, it's interesting to think that these literary giants were somewhat like us. People with friends working on books that seem to never end...of course they finished and published theirs.
I don't know what the real point of that blog was...sorry. But I do know that I'm lucky to have a group of friends that support my dreams of being a real writer one day as well as those who don't.
Besides even if it isn't me or one of my friends that write The Great American Novel, someone will. With Twilight and the like stuffing bookstore shelves, I just hope someone notices it.
If you ever needed more justification for believing that athletes today deserve every bit of horrible fate that can happen, just read this. Warning, bad language.
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2011/1/19/1943956/the-happy-football-life-of-will-hill
And before we get into it, happy 50th birthday to Dan Kuenneke.
As for today's blog , I'm going to make it up as I go.
I recently finished reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe since I never read it in school. Not a bad book. On top of that I've been thinking a lot about Edgar Allen Poe and today I was reminded of author Neil Gaiman.
All great authors no doubt but it is not a normal thing to have those three dancing around in your head.
Nevertheless there they are. My ego always has me thinking that maybe one day I could be a great and well known author but then there is a common thread among authors such as the ones I mentioned that I lack.
They all knew some of the other greats of their time. Now I love all of you my friends but those of you I know best aren't much into writing. My mom can write, my cousin Katie can write. I know Matt Kilmer and Jacob Thompson can write and who knows maybe between us one of us will one day be published.
Poe knew Washington Irving (Sleepy Hollow), Lewis knew Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) and Gaiman, though harder to judge because he's still arguably in his prime, knows countless other authors. (By the way read Gaiman's "American Gods")
Of course as soon as I typed that I realized that I know Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme and Jennfier Reed. Both talented folk by any definition and both being published for very different works.
I don't know. Maybe in the moment of the present it's hard for one to see greatness around them or in themselves.
I doubt as Lewis and Tolkien sat around talking about their works they thought, "I bet one day someone makes huge moving pictures about our stories that make millions."
When Poe went to Irving for advice he was just another young writer looking for help from a contemporary, not the legend of literature we know.
Still, it's interesting to think that these literary giants were somewhat like us. People with friends working on books that seem to never end...of course they finished and published theirs.
I don't know what the real point of that blog was...sorry. But I do know that I'm lucky to have a group of friends that support my dreams of being a real writer one day as well as those who don't.
Besides even if it isn't me or one of my friends that write The Great American Novel, someone will. With Twilight and the like stuffing bookstore shelves, I just hope someone notices it.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?
Often times over the last 50 years the skies were shrouded in clouds and other times the stars shone brightly at 519 West Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland when one of the more unique events in grave veneration would occur on Jan. 19. Sometimes the weather was nice and other times it was dark and dreary.
All the while once a year a man clad in black walked past the graves of the first mayor of Baltimore, past the grave of Francis Scott Key’s son and straight to the grave of poet Edgar Allen Poe.
The “Poe Toaster” as he became known always left a half-drunk bottle of fine French cognac and three roses. He came and left secretly, and to this day no one knows his name or why he came.
2009 marked his last appearance as he hasn’t come the last two years on Poe’s birthday, Jan. 19.
I am no scholar of Poe though I have read the Raven, the Tell-Tale Heart and one or two other titles that escape me now but the apparent ending of this tradition is what has me blogging.
Four imposters showed up. Maybe they were looking for fame, maybe they were just trying to take up the mantle for the man who no longer came, who knows. I think, however, that it is best Poe Fans, to let this tradition go if in fact the original man or his appointed successors have stopped.
People have gathered for years to silently observe the mysterious man and his ritual without interfering, and I think that’s a better tradition. Go ahead and keep the vigil, even though it’s unlikely the true toaster will ever return.
Those of you who know me know that I often have grand ideas that never go anywhere. Maybe it’s life getting in the way and maybe I’m just a big talker, I don’t know. What I do know is that I am unlikely to ever do anything so great as to have my future grave venerated in such a way.
I’ve never been obsessed with death or dying but the idea of a final earthly resting place has always been important to me and here’s why.
They say none of us are immortal, which is true personally. I will die, you will die etc. However, what I perceive you to be continues to exist even after you die and that is the same with how you perceive me.
My grandpa, Bill Weber, died recently, but the man I knew is still in my memory. In that small way, he still exists, even if only in a subjective non-corporeal way.
So long as we’re remembered, we never really die. Joe Schmo who worked as a farmer in Georgia and lived from 1824 to 1885 and had no wife or kids is truly dead.
But Edgar Allen Poe, who billions know of and about, is not. He not only wrote things of note but after he died, people could say, “I can’t show you his life or what he did but here is where it ended.”
A grave marker is like proof to future generations that whoever lies beneath is not an intellectual abstraction but was in fact a person who lived and died just as they will. It makes them real. I hope one day when I tell my kids about my grandparents that when they’re older they’ll come with me to the grave sites at least once.
And when I’m gone, whether I’ve done anything of note or not, I hope my grandkids will extend the same courtesy to me and bring their children or so that I can be real to them in some way.
Call me sentimental or delusional or whatever, but I think that’s a cool thing to do.
You can visit a place where ashes were scattered or visit the coordinates where a body was buried at sea but there is nothing there to make it real. It’s just another story about a dead person. At a burial site however, one can make the physical connection.
For the record, I’d prefer Maker’s Mark whiskey to cognac, but roses are just fine.
All the while once a year a man clad in black walked past the graves of the first mayor of Baltimore, past the grave of Francis Scott Key’s son and straight to the grave of poet Edgar Allen Poe.
The “Poe Toaster” as he became known always left a half-drunk bottle of fine French cognac and three roses. He came and left secretly, and to this day no one knows his name or why he came.
2009 marked his last appearance as he hasn’t come the last two years on Poe’s birthday, Jan. 19.
I am no scholar of Poe though I have read the Raven, the Tell-Tale Heart and one or two other titles that escape me now but the apparent ending of this tradition is what has me blogging.
Four imposters showed up. Maybe they were looking for fame, maybe they were just trying to take up the mantle for the man who no longer came, who knows. I think, however, that it is best Poe Fans, to let this tradition go if in fact the original man or his appointed successors have stopped.
People have gathered for years to silently observe the mysterious man and his ritual without interfering, and I think that’s a better tradition. Go ahead and keep the vigil, even though it’s unlikely the true toaster will ever return.
Those of you who know me know that I often have grand ideas that never go anywhere. Maybe it’s life getting in the way and maybe I’m just a big talker, I don’t know. What I do know is that I am unlikely to ever do anything so great as to have my future grave venerated in such a way.
I’ve never been obsessed with death or dying but the idea of a final earthly resting place has always been important to me and here’s why.
They say none of us are immortal, which is true personally. I will die, you will die etc. However, what I perceive you to be continues to exist even after you die and that is the same with how you perceive me.
My grandpa, Bill Weber, died recently, but the man I knew is still in my memory. In that small way, he still exists, even if only in a subjective non-corporeal way.
So long as we’re remembered, we never really die. Joe Schmo who worked as a farmer in Georgia and lived from 1824 to 1885 and had no wife or kids is truly dead.
But Edgar Allen Poe, who billions know of and about, is not. He not only wrote things of note but after he died, people could say, “I can’t show you his life or what he did but here is where it ended.”
A grave marker is like proof to future generations that whoever lies beneath is not an intellectual abstraction but was in fact a person who lived and died just as they will. It makes them real. I hope one day when I tell my kids about my grandparents that when they’re older they’ll come with me to the grave sites at least once.
And when I’m gone, whether I’ve done anything of note or not, I hope my grandkids will extend the same courtesy to me and bring their children or so that I can be real to them in some way.
Call me sentimental or delusional or whatever, but I think that’s a cool thing to do.
You can visit a place where ashes were scattered or visit the coordinates where a body was buried at sea but there is nothing there to make it real. It’s just another story about a dead person. At a burial site however, one can make the physical connection.
For the record, I’d prefer Maker’s Mark whiskey to cognac, but roses are just fine.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Past, present and future
So we're going to hit a few topics briefly in this blog as I've got some real work to do.
First,
As many of you know prior to taking my current position at IMG, I was a sports reporter/editor.
In that job I dealt a lot with high school sports. Recently the Ohio High School Athletic Association has put forward a proposal to help "level the playing field" between private and public schools and, of course, I've got an opinion on it.
The general thought is that this needs to be done because between 1999 and 2010, 43 percent (146 of 340) of the state championships in selected team sports were won by non-public schools, even though non-public schools make up only 17 percent of the total membership of the OHSAA.
I wish I had the time and energy to see what percent of schools from north of Columbus win state title compared to what percent the represent. Or what percent of schools that wear orange win compared to their total percentage.
Admittedly, being a private school has it's advantages. The kids at privates schools are often but not always better disciplined, better educated and come from better socioeconomic backgrounds.
What anti-private school fans say is that the real advantage lies in being able to draw kids from all over a region instead of a small area as many public schools do. This was once true.
Now, a school can have open enrollment and to use Scioto County as an example, you can just about go anywhere. In the last three years one kid went from Portsmouth, to Wheelersburg and back. Another kid went from Portsmouth to somewhere in Columbus and back. Yes private school Notre Dame picked up an athlete from public East High School but on the other hand a pretty stellar football star who lives (or at least grew up) in the Northwest school district played his four years at West.
Yes the private schools can draw from all over but don't be so jaded as to think that an idiot with no money can attend a private school just because he can dunk. If the kid has the grades, there is academic scholarships and if his parents are rich there's no problem. The financial and academic restraints however at least partially cancel out the lack of having a district to draw from.
The real issue though is this. While I am all in favor of fair play, making it harder on private schools as the OHSAA proposal (viewable here http://tinyurl.com/OHSAAPDT ) will do simply cheapens any state title won by a public school.
Once these rules are adopted and a title is won by a public school, the kids will still enjoy and a community will still be happy but it will be a little less special. In sports kids learn that to be the best, you have to beat the best.
I guess in the OHSAA world to be the best you only have to beat the best you're required to face after implementing rules to reduce your competition....doesn't have the same ring.
I am settling into the hours of my new job a little better. I was a little late today because of an alarm clock mixup but it's all good. I used to get up around 11 or noon each day and now it's 6:15 sharp every morning. Not easy.
I am building the America East Conference basketball tournament championship program as my first project and it's going along.
Last Kelli had a job interview today and if that works out, I might be able to pay back all you people I owe money.
You guys remember the movie Jurassic Park? Cloning dinosaurs and what not.
Check this out
"A group of international scientists believe they are about six years away from being able to resurrect the mammoth.
Scientists from Japan, Russia and the United States have extracted a tissue sample from a mammoth carcass that has been preserved in a Russian laboratory. They hope to take DNA from the sample and insert it into the eggs of an African elephant in the hopes of producing a mammoth embryo.
The mammoth last lived on Earth about 10,000 years ago and roamed in parts of modern-day North America and Eurasia."
That's right we're bringing back the mammoth. While these herbivores aren't likely to go all angry velociraptor on our butts, maybe it's time we as a society sit down and talk this over. How far are we willing to go? We clone mice and sheep and other things so I guess a mammoth isn't that big of a deal as long as we just make the one.
But it's not a far cry to get from making one to trying to repopulate a species. When animals die off, it's for a reason. I'm not sure we should be messing with that.
We better get flying cars. Just saying. It's a long overdue promise.
First,
Past
As many of you know prior to taking my current position at IMG, I was a sports reporter/editor.
In that job I dealt a lot with high school sports. Recently the Ohio High School Athletic Association has put forward a proposal to help "level the playing field" between private and public schools and, of course, I've got an opinion on it.
The general thought is that this needs to be done because between 1999 and 2010, 43 percent (146 of 340) of the state championships in selected team sports were won by non-public schools, even though non-public schools make up only 17 percent of the total membership of the OHSAA.
I wish I had the time and energy to see what percent of schools from north of Columbus win state title compared to what percent the represent. Or what percent of schools that wear orange win compared to their total percentage.
Admittedly, being a private school has it's advantages. The kids at privates schools are often but not always better disciplined, better educated and come from better socioeconomic backgrounds.
What anti-private school fans say is that the real advantage lies in being able to draw kids from all over a region instead of a small area as many public schools do. This was once true.
Now, a school can have open enrollment and to use Scioto County as an example, you can just about go anywhere. In the last three years one kid went from Portsmouth, to Wheelersburg and back. Another kid went from Portsmouth to somewhere in Columbus and back. Yes private school Notre Dame picked up an athlete from public East High School but on the other hand a pretty stellar football star who lives (or at least grew up) in the Northwest school district played his four years at West.
Yes the private schools can draw from all over but don't be so jaded as to think that an idiot with no money can attend a private school just because he can dunk. If the kid has the grades, there is academic scholarships and if his parents are rich there's no problem. The financial and academic restraints however at least partially cancel out the lack of having a district to draw from.
The real issue though is this. While I am all in favor of fair play, making it harder on private schools as the OHSAA proposal (viewable here http://tinyurl.com/OHSAAPDT ) will do simply cheapens any state title won by a public school.
Once these rules are adopted and a title is won by a public school, the kids will still enjoy and a community will still be happy but it will be a little less special. In sports kids learn that to be the best, you have to beat the best.
I guess in the OHSAA world to be the best you only have to beat the best you're required to face after implementing rules to reduce your competition....doesn't have the same ring.
Present
I am settling into the hours of my new job a little better. I was a little late today because of an alarm clock mixup but it's all good. I used to get up around 11 or noon each day and now it's 6:15 sharp every morning. Not easy.
I am building the America East Conference basketball tournament championship program as my first project and it's going along.
Last Kelli had a job interview today and if that works out, I might be able to pay back all you people I owe money.
Future
You guys remember the movie Jurassic Park? Cloning dinosaurs and what not.
Check this out
"A group of international scientists believe they are about six years away from being able to resurrect the mammoth.
Scientists from Japan, Russia and the United States have extracted a tissue sample from a mammoth carcass that has been preserved in a Russian laboratory. They hope to take DNA from the sample and insert it into the eggs of an African elephant in the hopes of producing a mammoth embryo.
The mammoth last lived on Earth about 10,000 years ago and roamed in parts of modern-day North America and Eurasia."
That's right we're bringing back the mammoth. While these herbivores aren't likely to go all angry velociraptor on our butts, maybe it's time we as a society sit down and talk this over. How far are we willing to go? We clone mice and sheep and other things so I guess a mammoth isn't that big of a deal as long as we just make the one.
But it's not a far cry to get from making one to trying to repopulate a species. When animals die off, it's for a reason. I'm not sure we should be messing with that.
Also in the future
We better get flying cars. Just saying. It's a long overdue promise.
Friday, January 14, 2011
What if God was one of us.... we're talking religion sorta
So today we're talking vaguely about religion and we'll start with the topic of 90 percent of all facebook statuses yesterday.
Apparently some people think their zodiac signs changed and some people say they didn't and some say they did in the east and some say who cares because we use the west and bla bla bla bla bla.
All of that gets a mostly disinterested "hmm" statement from me. What is very interesting however was the reaction.
The crazy knee jerk flip out even effected me. Just last night I said F*** being a libra, I'm a scorpio. My wife Kelli was intrigued as well.
Why did so many of us react this way? I'm Catholic, Kelli is Christian, at least one of the posters on my feed was an atheist.
Outside of the new age crowd, no one believes that your sign has anything to do with anything. On the other hand I cannot disprove astrology just as much as one of its followers cannot disprove God but I digress.
We all seemed to really care. I have seen news stories come and go about possible findings of Noah's ark's landing site or the real final tomb of Jesus and facebook doesn't light up like that. Tell a taurus they might be something else however, they'll say you're full of bull.
That's itallian or latin for sainthood now. That was the cry of thousands in April of 2005 after the death of Karol Wojtyla, better known to the word as Pope John Paul the Second.
Seen as a man of the times, he was a major factor in the cold war, he was a force for dialogue between different faiths, he survived an assassination attempt, brought the church up to date on evolution, upheld the sacrament of marriage while simultaneously maintaining the inherent dignity of gays and died with the utmost dignity, he may soon be recognized as a saint.
John Paul II (JP2) is one of my all time favorite religious people. He was the rock star pope, the athlete pope. He brought a 2,000 year old church into the new millennium with class.
The recent announcement that the Vatican that JP2 will be beatified the Sunday after Easter made me very happy. JP2 canonized more saints than all his preceding popes to 1598 or something like that combined because he wanted more modern saints on the ledger. He wanted saints that young people today could look to for strength and conviction.
It's all well and good to consider St. John the Baptist as a role model but in this day and age running out to the country in sack cloth and dunking people in a river doesn't resonate.
The confirmation of a nun's miraculous cure from parkinson's disease after praying to the late pontiff was the catalyst for beatification. One more miracle from JP2, who suffered from parkinsons', must be confirmed before he would be officially recognized a saint.
It is important to mention here that the church and the pope do not make saints, they merely give official recognition to those where it can prove it. In the Catholic Church, canonization involves a decree that allows veneration of the saint in the liturgy of the Roman Rite throughout the world. If JP2 is was to be a saint, he was or was not at the moment of his death.
Anyways, I hope that churches around the globe celebrate his beatification and pray that his eventual (I hope) sainthood energizes a church that needs some energy right about now.
Light of the World: The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times is a great book by journalist Peter Seewald.
It is an interveiw over the course of a week with current pope Benedict XVI and Seewald doesn't pull punches.
Among the questions:
What caused the clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
Was there a "cover up"?
Have you considered resigning?
Does affirming the goodness of the human body mean a plea for "better sex"?
Can there be a genuine dialogue with Islam?
Should the Church rethink Catholic teaching on priestly celibacy, women priests, contraception, and same-sex relationships?
Should there be a Third Vatican Council?
Is there any hope for Christian unity?
Is Christianity the only truth?
Can the Pope really speak for Jesus Christ?
How can the Pope claim to be "infallible"?
And more... If you are a student of world religion, an interested catholic or just a global minded person with an interest in what the spiritual leader of 1 billion people thinks about different things, read this book. Kudos to my lovely wife who bought it for me for Christmas.
The Westboro Baptist Church, also known as those idiots that protest soldiers funerals, will not protest at the funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green who died in the Arizona shooting last week. They also won't protest the funeral of a judge who died in the same event.
In exchange they got live radio interviews on several stations. Guess we've changed our tune about not negotiating with terrorist...I exaggerate. Seriously though, if we all just ignore them, they really might just go away.
---
Good lunch, and good day.
The Zodiac
Apparently some people think their zodiac signs changed and some people say they didn't and some say they did in the east and some say who cares because we use the west and bla bla bla bla bla.
All of that gets a mostly disinterested "hmm" statement from me. What is very interesting however was the reaction.
The crazy knee jerk flip out even effected me. Just last night I said F*** being a libra, I'm a scorpio. My wife Kelli was intrigued as well.
Why did so many of us react this way? I'm Catholic, Kelli is Christian, at least one of the posters on my feed was an atheist.
Outside of the new age crowd, no one believes that your sign has anything to do with anything. On the other hand I cannot disprove astrology just as much as one of its followers cannot disprove God but I digress.
We all seemed to really care. I have seen news stories come and go about possible findings of Noah's ark's landing site or the real final tomb of Jesus and facebook doesn't light up like that. Tell a taurus they might be something else however, they'll say you're full of bull.
Santo Subito
That's itallian or latin for sainthood now. That was the cry of thousands in April of 2005 after the death of Karol Wojtyla, better known to the word as Pope John Paul the Second.
Seen as a man of the times, he was a major factor in the cold war, he was a force for dialogue between different faiths, he survived an assassination attempt, brought the church up to date on evolution, upheld the sacrament of marriage while simultaneously maintaining the inherent dignity of gays and died with the utmost dignity, he may soon be recognized as a saint.
John Paul II (JP2) is one of my all time favorite religious people. He was the rock star pope, the athlete pope. He brought a 2,000 year old church into the new millennium with class.
The recent announcement that the Vatican that JP2 will be beatified the Sunday after Easter made me very happy. JP2 canonized more saints than all his preceding popes to 1598 or something like that combined because he wanted more modern saints on the ledger. He wanted saints that young people today could look to for strength and conviction.
It's all well and good to consider St. John the Baptist as a role model but in this day and age running out to the country in sack cloth and dunking people in a river doesn't resonate.
The confirmation of a nun's miraculous cure from parkinson's disease after praying to the late pontiff was the catalyst for beatification. One more miracle from JP2, who suffered from parkinsons', must be confirmed before he would be officially recognized a saint.
It is important to mention here that the church and the pope do not make saints, they merely give official recognition to those where it can prove it. In the Catholic Church, canonization involves a decree that allows veneration of the saint in the liturgy of the Roman Rite throughout the world. If JP2 is was to be a saint, he was or was not at the moment of his death.
Anyways, I hope that churches around the globe celebrate his beatification and pray that his eventual (I hope) sainthood energizes a church that needs some energy right about now.
A book anyone with a serious interest in religion should read
Light of the World: The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times is a great book by journalist Peter Seewald.
It is an interveiw over the course of a week with current pope Benedict XVI and Seewald doesn't pull punches.
Among the questions:
What caused the clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
Was there a "cover up"?
Have you considered resigning?
Does affirming the goodness of the human body mean a plea for "better sex"?
Can there be a genuine dialogue with Islam?
Should the Church rethink Catholic teaching on priestly celibacy, women priests, contraception, and same-sex relationships?
Should there be a Third Vatican Council?
Is there any hope for Christian unity?
Is Christianity the only truth?
Can the Pope really speak for Jesus Christ?
How can the Pope claim to be "infallible"?
And more... If you are a student of world religion, an interested catholic or just a global minded person with an interest in what the spiritual leader of 1 billion people thinks about different things, read this book. Kudos to my lovely wife who bought it for me for Christmas.
False Phrophets
The Westboro Baptist Church, also known as those idiots that protest soldiers funerals, will not protest at the funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green who died in the Arizona shooting last week. They also won't protest the funeral of a judge who died in the same event.
In exchange they got live radio interviews on several stations. Guess we've changed our tune about not negotiating with terrorist...I exaggerate. Seriously though, if we all just ignore them, they really might just go away.
---
Good lunch, and good day.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Remember when the F-word was funny?
While there were several good suggestions for blog topics today, there was no consensus so I made up my own.
Remember when the F-word was funny?
Ok maybe if you didn't believe it was funny you at least remember when it meant something. The F-word was like the last frontier in taboo language. It was the holy grail of words we coudn't say as kids.
Now outside of professional settings you can't go 10 minutes without hearing it. It doesn't bother me that people curse, hell I curse. What bothers me that we ran the F-word into the ground so bad that now we need to come up with a new profane statement.
But let me back up to the funny part.
In the 1995 movie "Casino," the F-word is said 422 times. Goodfellas is up there too. According to Wikipedia, a documentary on the word itself has the record with 824 mentions.
Both of those are good movies and the gratuitous use of the f-word made sense in them, but it didn't have any oopmh.
The comedy (discounting those you haven't heard of) with most usages of the f-word is actually the Big Lewbowski, a personal favorite. Even Lebowski though makes the F-word just another word.
In another personal favorite movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," if I recall the F- word was used once — here.
"Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse."
And that one use in a movie that didn't use it often made it really work. Now the only taboos are PC words. The great thing about the F-word was that it on some level used to offend everyone. So when it got used it seemed funnier.
MASH was one of the first mainstream films to use the word. Who can forget the line in Blue Velvet "F*** you, you F****ing F***!"
What was once taboo is now something our parents say. Crazy. Used to be we all had the friend with the guts to say it in front of his folks and we'd all have a good laugh.
And even though we've diluted the F-word down to nothing you still can't say it on daytime tv or radio and if you put it in a film it will effect your rating.
I haven't even typed it yet because you never know who reads what online and I just don't need to take flak from anyone.
We need to create an organization for taking back the coolness of what used to be a pretty bad ass word. In fact the organization could be about fixing the entire language
We could call it Fostering Understanding and Care for the King's English.
Eh?
F*** it I'm going back to work. :)
Remember when the F-word was funny?
Ok maybe if you didn't believe it was funny you at least remember when it meant something. The F-word was like the last frontier in taboo language. It was the holy grail of words we coudn't say as kids.
Now outside of professional settings you can't go 10 minutes without hearing it. It doesn't bother me that people curse, hell I curse. What bothers me that we ran the F-word into the ground so bad that now we need to come up with a new profane statement.
But let me back up to the funny part.
In the 1995 movie "Casino," the F-word is said 422 times. Goodfellas is up there too. According to Wikipedia, a documentary on the word itself has the record with 824 mentions.
Both of those are good movies and the gratuitous use of the f-word made sense in them, but it didn't have any oopmh.
The comedy (discounting those you haven't heard of) with most usages of the f-word is actually the Big Lewbowski, a personal favorite. Even Lebowski though makes the F-word just another word.
In another personal favorite movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," if I recall the F- word was used once — here.
"Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse."
And that one use in a movie that didn't use it often made it really work. Now the only taboos are PC words. The great thing about the F-word was that it on some level used to offend everyone. So when it got used it seemed funnier.
MASH was one of the first mainstream films to use the word. Who can forget the line in Blue Velvet "F*** you, you F****ing F***!"
What was once taboo is now something our parents say. Crazy. Used to be we all had the friend with the guts to say it in front of his folks and we'd all have a good laugh.
And even though we've diluted the F-word down to nothing you still can't say it on daytime tv or radio and if you put it in a film it will effect your rating.
I haven't even typed it yet because you never know who reads what online and I just don't need to take flak from anyone.
We need to create an organization for taking back the coolness of what used to be a pretty bad ass word. In fact the organization could be about fixing the entire language
We could call it Fostering Understanding and Care for the King's English.
Eh?
F*** it I'm going back to work. :)
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Shootings, shame and the situation of American Politics
By now I hope everyone is aware that Arizona Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords was shot and nearly killed by a deranged young man during the past week.
While she was hit, several, including a 9-year old girl, were killed during the rampage.
The media is always trying to sensationalize what it can to get ratings. I don't begrudge them this, if they don't make money, they won't exists. Nevertheless, the way the media jumped on this shooting as an example of the polarization of American Politics was premature.
We know a few things about the shooter, Jared Loughner. We know he was alienated from friends, was rejected from the military for a failed drug test and that he had two minor run-ins with police several years ago.
What we still don't know is why he shot and killed several people. Some friends have called him a nihilist, some said he believed that dreams not reality we what mattered. None have said that Sarah Palin, Glen Beck or on the other end Keith Olberman had anything to do with it and shame on the media for jumping to that conclusion.
Contrary to what it seems most people think, most in the media really aren't out with an agenda. They want to get the facts right. In this instance, NPR actually reported that Giffords was dead and everyone jumped on the blame politics bandwagon.
But here's the thing. They could be right about politics. Until Loughner speaks or more evidence is released, we don't know why he did it.
We are in fact living in a time of political craziness. In Iran right now Christians are being rounded up for their beliefs and in China, a political dissident recently just "disappeared." In Mexico they can't seem to keep a mayor of police chief alive for more than 24 hours because of drug violence.
When you look at all that I guess we're doing ok. But just because it's not the worst here doesn't mean it's not bad. What good can come when we are governed by a system that allows something like 8 months of governing between election cycles. What can come from a system where beating the other team beats helping those you represent?
Hell what good can come from blogging about it? Even if you showed this to everyone on earth it's just stuff they already know. And knowing it, most still believe that one side is good and the other bad. So please read one of the following statements depending on your political views.
1. Newsflash for the hippies: Barrack Obama and the Democrats aren't saints, George Bush wasn't satan and sometimes the right answer is on the other side of the aisle. Keith Olberman is an idiot.
2. Newsflash for Neocons: Regan didn't rise on the third day and that's ok. Obama is an American and he's not going to eat your children. Sometimes we have to pay taxes and making the rich pay more is ok. Sarah Palin, Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh are not reliable sources of information.
I think a common theme of these blogs will be me saying I don't know how to fix the problems I blog about but I think that's good. Today everyone thinks they have the answer. Well I don't but I'm willing to think about it, and to think for myself using information provided by those who know more than me, not by talking heads on tv and radio.
So again I don't know how to fix the political climate. We can ban idiots from talking, that's unconstitutional. We can't force people to become intelligent, that goes against the idea of freedom.
So since I don't know what to do I will leave you with the wise words of a movie that came out in 1976 and rings true today. The film is Network and the man speaking is Howard Beale played by Peter Finch.
"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be........I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. [shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
[shouting] 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
While she was hit, several, including a 9-year old girl, were killed during the rampage.
The media is always trying to sensationalize what it can to get ratings. I don't begrudge them this, if they don't make money, they won't exists. Nevertheless, the way the media jumped on this shooting as an example of the polarization of American Politics was premature.
We know a few things about the shooter, Jared Loughner. We know he was alienated from friends, was rejected from the military for a failed drug test and that he had two minor run-ins with police several years ago.
What we still don't know is why he shot and killed several people. Some friends have called him a nihilist, some said he believed that dreams not reality we what mattered. None have said that Sarah Palin, Glen Beck or on the other end Keith Olberman had anything to do with it and shame on the media for jumping to that conclusion.
Contrary to what it seems most people think, most in the media really aren't out with an agenda. They want to get the facts right. In this instance, NPR actually reported that Giffords was dead and everyone jumped on the blame politics bandwagon.
But here's the thing. They could be right about politics. Until Loughner speaks or more evidence is released, we don't know why he did it.
We are in fact living in a time of political craziness. In Iran right now Christians are being rounded up for their beliefs and in China, a political dissident recently just "disappeared." In Mexico they can't seem to keep a mayor of police chief alive for more than 24 hours because of drug violence.
When you look at all that I guess we're doing ok. But just because it's not the worst here doesn't mean it's not bad. What good can come when we are governed by a system that allows something like 8 months of governing between election cycles. What can come from a system where beating the other team beats helping those you represent?
Hell what good can come from blogging about it? Even if you showed this to everyone on earth it's just stuff they already know. And knowing it, most still believe that one side is good and the other bad. So please read one of the following statements depending on your political views.
1. Newsflash for the hippies: Barrack Obama and the Democrats aren't saints, George Bush wasn't satan and sometimes the right answer is on the other side of the aisle. Keith Olberman is an idiot.
2. Newsflash for Neocons: Regan didn't rise on the third day and that's ok. Obama is an American and he's not going to eat your children. Sometimes we have to pay taxes and making the rich pay more is ok. Sarah Palin, Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh are not reliable sources of information.
I think a common theme of these blogs will be me saying I don't know how to fix the problems I blog about but I think that's good. Today everyone thinks they have the answer. Well I don't but I'm willing to think about it, and to think for myself using information provided by those who know more than me, not by talking heads on tv and radio.
So again I don't know how to fix the political climate. We can ban idiots from talking, that's unconstitutional. We can't force people to become intelligent, that goes against the idea of freedom.
So since I don't know what to do I will leave you with the wise words of a movie that came out in 1976 and rings true today. The film is Network and the man speaking is Howard Beale played by Peter Finch.
"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be........I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. [shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
[shouting] 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
A thought about Millennials
The second post of what will be my weekly lunchtime blogs. I do not have time to edit, sorry for the errors.
A thought on Millennials
Millennials is a term used to define people of my generation. By some estimates it can range from people born in the late 1970s to those born in the early 2000s and while this is a wide gap, there are significant similarities for all.
I don't want to delve into what a Millennial is however as much as I want to point out two things I noticed in a news article I read earlier this lunch.
The article was about an out of work recent law school grad with a quarter million dollar debt who works odd jobs and really doesn't even bother trying to pay all his bills and it made me think a little.
First, to many of our generation, at least those of us that went to college, debt is a way of life. Most kids I knew growing up had parents with second, third and fourth mortgages and those kids without great GPAs went to college on loans with the idea we'd get jobs. And most of us did find jobs.... but instead of paying 35,000 to 40,000 out of the gate we were making 20,000 to 25,000.
Second, we shouldn't have bothered in the first place, but we have huge egos. Millennials weren't without parents and other older folk warning us about loans. Most of those who went into dying fields (journalism anyone) or fields with undergrad degrees bereft of marketability (art, history, psychology) ended up for the most part with no decent paying job option just as they were warned. A handful of course always make it.
But that's the great and terrible thing about our generation. We believe that we will be the one who makes it. I had a teacher in high school tell me as kindly as she could that newspapers weren't likely to be paying much when I graduated college. I thanked her and said "Yeah but they haven't met me."
What hubris.
We all have our own personal stake of blame for our situations if we're not doing well, but some of our attitudes and ego issues go back a generation. It was the later end of the Millennial generation that started getting trophies just for showing up. Our parents often struggled for loving support from their more reasonable parents, so with the best of intentions they told us to chase our dreams. Look where that got us, eh?
So if we had all moved back in with our folks and not gotten married, then in about 15 years from graduation we could probably start our lives, but Millennials wanted more than that and so we didn't wait.
What that does now is leave most of us in a world of debt. I read that 65.4 percent of students from 1999-2000 borrowed money for school (http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2619/) and while I don't have data handy, I bet that number has gone up.
And without the well paying jobs we expected, we're broke. Broke, broke, broke, broke, brooooooke.
Like the law student I mentioned earlier, many have turned to simply ignoring creditors. I pay my student loan faithfully because a family member was kind enough to co-sign and I don't want to mess up their credit, but old hospital bills and other creditors trying to find me, If I don't have the money, I don't answer the phone.
It's not a lack of responsibility either that leads folks like me and the law student to this point. If I could afford it, I'd pay every debt I owe right now. But it is more important to keep the rent payment up to date, to keep car insurance and pay for gas so I can get to work to at least pay for those things.
I don't know what the answer is. Allowing grads to declare bankruptcy on their student loans would be disastrous for the loan companies so that will never happen.
All I know for certain is that I made mistakes in how I chose to finance college and in the major I went in to. On top of that the economy went bad and I was raised with slightly unrealistic expectations. Put it all together and it means things suck right now.
But I mentioned millennials have a high self confidence and I fall squarely into that generation.
I'll figure it out eventually. I'm sure most of you will too.
A thought on Millennials
Millennials is a term used to define people of my generation. By some estimates it can range from people born in the late 1970s to those born in the early 2000s and while this is a wide gap, there are significant similarities for all.
I don't want to delve into what a Millennial is however as much as I want to point out two things I noticed in a news article I read earlier this lunch.
The article was about an out of work recent law school grad with a quarter million dollar debt who works odd jobs and really doesn't even bother trying to pay all his bills and it made me think a little.
First, to many of our generation, at least those of us that went to college, debt is a way of life. Most kids I knew growing up had parents with second, third and fourth mortgages and those kids without great GPAs went to college on loans with the idea we'd get jobs. And most of us did find jobs.... but instead of paying 35,000 to 40,000 out of the gate we were making 20,000 to 25,000.
Second, we shouldn't have bothered in the first place, but we have huge egos. Millennials weren't without parents and other older folk warning us about loans. Most of those who went into dying fields (journalism anyone) or fields with undergrad degrees bereft of marketability (art, history, psychology) ended up for the most part with no decent paying job option just as they were warned. A handful of course always make it.
But that's the great and terrible thing about our generation. We believe that we will be the one who makes it. I had a teacher in high school tell me as kindly as she could that newspapers weren't likely to be paying much when I graduated college. I thanked her and said "Yeah but they haven't met me."
What hubris.
We all have our own personal stake of blame for our situations if we're not doing well, but some of our attitudes and ego issues go back a generation. It was the later end of the Millennial generation that started getting trophies just for showing up. Our parents often struggled for loving support from their more reasonable parents, so with the best of intentions they told us to chase our dreams. Look where that got us, eh?
So if we had all moved back in with our folks and not gotten married, then in about 15 years from graduation we could probably start our lives, but Millennials wanted more than that and so we didn't wait.
What that does now is leave most of us in a world of debt. I read that 65.4 percent of students from 1999-2000 borrowed money for school (http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2619/) and while I don't have data handy, I bet that number has gone up.
And without the well paying jobs we expected, we're broke. Broke, broke, broke, broke, brooooooke.
Like the law student I mentioned earlier, many have turned to simply ignoring creditors. I pay my student loan faithfully because a family member was kind enough to co-sign and I don't want to mess up their credit, but old hospital bills and other creditors trying to find me, If I don't have the money, I don't answer the phone.
It's not a lack of responsibility either that leads folks like me and the law student to this point. If I could afford it, I'd pay every debt I owe right now. But it is more important to keep the rent payment up to date, to keep car insurance and pay for gas so I can get to work to at least pay for those things.
I don't know what the answer is. Allowing grads to declare bankruptcy on their student loans would be disastrous for the loan companies so that will never happen.
All I know for certain is that I made mistakes in how I chose to finance college and in the major I went in to. On top of that the economy went bad and I was raised with slightly unrealistic expectations. Put it all together and it means things suck right now.
But I mentioned millennials have a high self confidence and I fall squarely into that generation.
I'll figure it out eventually. I'm sure most of you will too.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Lunchtime with me
Ok so the new plan for this blog is for me to take about 20-25 minutes of my daily one-hour lunch to blog about whatever comes to my mind that day.
This first one I guess we'll start with an about me section.
I think a post or two back I did the same thing so we'll be quick. My name is John Stegeman, my wife's name is Kelli. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, graduated from Shawnee State, worked as a sports writer/sports editor for six years and just recently became a project manager at IMG College in Lexington, Ky. where I build and edit sports publications for the NCAA and a whole bunch of major colleges.
My favorite sport is pro baseball but given my new job I've decided to become a college sports fan again.
See as a sports writer it's kind of tough to be a fan. When you look at the game objectively, you don't think you're team was screwed on every call by the refs and watching the way your fellow fans act is a turnoff. Also, when you cover sports 8-10 hours a day, the last thing you want to do when you get home is turn on the game.
But I've been out of the sports writing game for a couple weeks now and I can already feel the interest in sports starting to come back.
The question now is do I root for UC, Xaiver or OSU, or embrace the bluegrass and root for UK....
More on this to come. Thanks for reading, just a little more than four hours til quitting time.
Back to work.
This first one I guess we'll start with an about me section.
I think a post or two back I did the same thing so we'll be quick. My name is John Stegeman, my wife's name is Kelli. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, graduated from Shawnee State, worked as a sports writer/sports editor for six years and just recently became a project manager at IMG College in Lexington, Ky. where I build and edit sports publications for the NCAA and a whole bunch of major colleges.
My favorite sport is pro baseball but given my new job I've decided to become a college sports fan again.
See as a sports writer it's kind of tough to be a fan. When you look at the game objectively, you don't think you're team was screwed on every call by the refs and watching the way your fellow fans act is a turnoff. Also, when you cover sports 8-10 hours a day, the last thing you want to do when you get home is turn on the game.
But I've been out of the sports writing game for a couple weeks now and I can already feel the interest in sports starting to come back.
The question now is do I root for UC, Xaiver or OSU, or embrace the bluegrass and root for UK....
More on this to come. Thanks for reading, just a little more than four hours til quitting time.
Back to work.
still active
I am posting to reiterate my belief that I will one day soon use this blog.
Stand by til then I suppose.
Stand by til then I suppose.
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