Ah, the ACC tourney. I should be spending today pretending to work while listening to radio broadcasts and punching up stats on a web browser. Heck, I should maybe even be pretending to work in front of a TV in an office somewhere this afternoon. Instead, I'm having to actively pursue an office in which to engage in this nonsense come the next ACC tournament.
I wonder if the games will somehow be less exciting without the secrecy and running about. I wonder if knowing that the score is 38-35 in a game will matter if it isn't being shouted over the wall of a cubicle while I'm actually working and wishing that the thing I was working on wasn't so pressing so I could be pretending to work and listening to/watching a game where only three points separate the teams.
I'm going to be working on the whole gainful employment thing while watching the play-in tourney games this afternoon. You should stop by the house and either pretend to be checking up on me so I can scramble to minimize ESPN.com and shut down the TV. Or you could call me to ask for covert game updates. Anything to bring the true excitement of the ACC tournament home to me.
March. Madness.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
i've been watching, but not really commenting
As I reflect upon NC State's basketball season ending on another sour note with a loss in a bad-looking basketball game to Wake Forest, I realize that there's been a lot of sports that I haven't commented on for you, my loyal readers. I know you're waiting with baited breath now. Some of this is plenty old, so don't look for any breaking news here.
The Bears give Rex Grossman a new contract
The good news? It was a one-year deal, so they'll probably go after a QB in the draft. The bad news? Matt Ryan will be way off the board before we pick. The result? Grossman will have Orton the "game manager" and one of any number of talented but definitely lacking in some or another capacity rookies playing behind him. Long season.
Big American Party! arch nemesis Brett Favre retires
Assuming this retirement lasts through training camp - which, according to a very crying-like-a-baby-girl press conference statement, it will - I guess I'd better start figuring out some Aaron Rodgers jokes sooner rather than later.
NC State comes away from signing day with a pretty solid recruiting class
...and the cycle of "Wait until basketball season...oops, wait until football season...oops, wait until basketball season...oops, wait until football season..." continues for the Wolfpack faithful. But seriously, wait until football season.
The Seattle Supersonics are all but in Oklahoma City
As the son of a Baltimore Colts fan and a fan of a team "stolen" from Hartford, I'm all too aware of the anguish of the Supersonic faithful and the excitement of the people in OK City. I also realize that criticizing the Supersonics' move while I'm actually wearing a Carolina Hurricanes jersey would make me seem like a total douche to any ex-Whalers fan who happens to be reading this.
The Carolina Hurricanes made some trades and saw some injuries...and by some I mean tons
Corvo worked out really well for the 'Canes almost instantly. They're playing good hockey at just the right time to hold off the rest of the Southeast Division and get into the playoffs relatively hot. Especially playing at home.
Roger Clemens is a douchebag...and Congress wants to call him on it
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
The Bears give Rex Grossman a new contract
The good news? It was a one-year deal, so they'll probably go after a QB in the draft. The bad news? Matt Ryan will be way off the board before we pick. The result? Grossman will have Orton the "game manager" and one of any number of talented but definitely lacking in some or another capacity rookies playing behind him. Long season.
Big American Party! arch nemesis Brett Favre retires
Assuming this retirement lasts through training camp - which, according to a very crying-like-a-baby-girl press conference statement, it will - I guess I'd better start figuring out some Aaron Rodgers jokes sooner rather than later.
NC State comes away from signing day with a pretty solid recruiting class
...and the cycle of "Wait until basketball season...oops, wait until football season...oops, wait until basketball season...oops, wait until football season..." continues for the Wolfpack faithful. But seriously, wait until football season.
The Seattle Supersonics are all but in Oklahoma City
As the son of a Baltimore Colts fan and a fan of a team "stolen" from Hartford, I'm all too aware of the anguish of the Supersonic faithful and the excitement of the people in OK City. I also realize that criticizing the Supersonics' move while I'm actually wearing a Carolina Hurricanes jersey would make me seem like a total douche to any ex-Whalers fan who happens to be reading this.
The Carolina Hurricanes made some trades and saw some injuries...and by some I mean tons
Corvo worked out really well for the 'Canes almost instantly. They're playing good hockey at just the right time to hold off the rest of the Southeast Division and get into the playoffs relatively hot. Especially playing at home.
Roger Clemens is a douchebag...and Congress wants to call him on it
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Chapter Three: Thanks, Heath
A few times each summer, my dad would disappear for a week at a time. My brothers and I would ask where he was, and Mom would tell us that he was at Jr. High Workshop. Or Sr. High Workshop. Or ACS. Things like that. By the time I was finally old enough to go to a Jr. High Workshop, it had been joined with Sr. High Workshop and repackaged as Summer Breakaway.
I was excited, because I was going to be rooming with a former neighbor and good friend in one of Louisburg College's pre-renovation dorms. I knew that it was a church camp, but certainly wasn't expecting a revelation about my faith. That summer, I didn't get one either. My roommate, Damon, and I made a few friends and with them we stayed up late, ate Pixie Sticks on the fire escape, made pyramids out of soda cans, and argued about which of the Sr. High girls was the hottest. These are the things I remember about my first Summer Breakaway. Nothing Jesus-y here, move along.
During that first summer, though, I did meet a guy named Heath Gilbert. Heath was one of the younger staff members and therefore automatically one of the coolest, in our estimation.
When Damon and I returned a year later for our second Summer Breakaway, we were pretty Stoked to find that Heath was the staff member in charge of my dorm group. Dorm groups are the end-of-the day meetings that serve the dual purpose of assuring someone adult that the youth they're responsible for have made it back to their assigned dorm in one piece and helping those same youth digest the day's happenings if they so need it.
I don't remember many dorm groups, but I remember this one. Heath opened our first meeting with the question "So who are the hot girls this week?" It seemed strange that we were being encouraged to have the same debate we had assumed we shouldn't have been having a year earlier. So there we were, joking and laughing. The weird thing was that, when the discussion turned to more serious topics having to do with faith, the tone in the room didn't change. Heath went out of his way to see to that.
It was the first time in my young life that I'd seen the room get Jesus-y without also having to get serious. Even my home youth group, as led by my dad, couldn't have a faith discussion without all of the air being sucked out of the room(this was most likely in spite of Dad's efforts, but who's going to tell a seventh-grader that about his father?). We could talk about things, ask questions, and get serious...and we didn't have to stop laughing for any of it.
I consider this the first great lesson about Christianity that I learned. To this day, if you ask me to name someone with a profound effect on my life(particularly if you ask in the context of my spiritual walk), I'll probably tell you about Heath Gilbert. That summer was the point where the things I believe stopped being the right answer in Sunday School and started being the things I believe. I firmly believe that Heath jump-started that for me.
The door was opened once I understood that faith could come with a sense of humor. It doesn't have to be solemn to the point that it feels like mourning. It shouldn't be treated like a burden. You're allowed to have fun. Knowing my parents, it's a lesson that I would have learned eventually anyway; but it would have taken much longer for me to accept that lesson from my parents than it was for me to accept it from a hip twenty-something.
When I go back to those events now as a staff member, I always tell myself that my goal is to be Heath Gilbert for one of those kids over the course of the week. Every now and then, I get a little confirmation from some corner of the universe that I just might have achieved that.
At every ACS, I do two "interest groups" that are mostly just an hour-and-a-half of general nonsense and fun with the youth who have dared to sign up for it. In order to justify the existence of this group, which I call "Laughing in Church," I have to Jesus up the last 5 minutes. I hit them with a line I stole from Lewis Black, "Faith without a sense of humor is the most dangerous thing in the world."
The Church is losing its sense of humor. It has no idea how ridiculous its members who demand that evolution be referred to as "The Scientific Theory of Evolution" so that the kids who have been trained to be mistrustful of science can immediately ignore that segment of class and daydream about The Rapture.
The only way I can think of to combat this is to try to be Heath Gilbert for as many youth as I possibly can.
I was excited, because I was going to be rooming with a former neighbor and good friend in one of Louisburg College's pre-renovation dorms. I knew that it was a church camp, but certainly wasn't expecting a revelation about my faith. That summer, I didn't get one either. My roommate, Damon, and I made a few friends and with them we stayed up late, ate Pixie Sticks on the fire escape, made pyramids out of soda cans, and argued about which of the Sr. High girls was the hottest. These are the things I remember about my first Summer Breakaway. Nothing Jesus-y here, move along.
During that first summer, though, I did meet a guy named Heath Gilbert. Heath was one of the younger staff members and therefore automatically one of the coolest, in our estimation.
When Damon and I returned a year later for our second Summer Breakaway, we were pretty Stoked to find that Heath was the staff member in charge of my dorm group. Dorm groups are the end-of-the day meetings that serve the dual purpose of assuring someone adult that the youth they're responsible for have made it back to their assigned dorm in one piece and helping those same youth digest the day's happenings if they so need it.
I don't remember many dorm groups, but I remember this one. Heath opened our first meeting with the question "So who are the hot girls this week?" It seemed strange that we were being encouraged to have the same debate we had assumed we shouldn't have been having a year earlier. So there we were, joking and laughing. The weird thing was that, when the discussion turned to more serious topics having to do with faith, the tone in the room didn't change. Heath went out of his way to see to that.
It was the first time in my young life that I'd seen the room get Jesus-y without also having to get serious. Even my home youth group, as led by my dad, couldn't have a faith discussion without all of the air being sucked out of the room(this was most likely in spite of Dad's efforts, but who's going to tell a seventh-grader that about his father?). We could talk about things, ask questions, and get serious...and we didn't have to stop laughing for any of it.
I consider this the first great lesson about Christianity that I learned. To this day, if you ask me to name someone with a profound effect on my life(particularly if you ask in the context of my spiritual walk), I'll probably tell you about Heath Gilbert. That summer was the point where the things I believe stopped being the right answer in Sunday School and started being the things I believe. I firmly believe that Heath jump-started that for me.
The door was opened once I understood that faith could come with a sense of humor. It doesn't have to be solemn to the point that it feels like mourning. It shouldn't be treated like a burden. You're allowed to have fun. Knowing my parents, it's a lesson that I would have learned eventually anyway; but it would have taken much longer for me to accept that lesson from my parents than it was for me to accept it from a hip twenty-something.
When I go back to those events now as a staff member, I always tell myself that my goal is to be Heath Gilbert for one of those kids over the course of the week. Every now and then, I get a little confirmation from some corner of the universe that I just might have achieved that.
At every ACS, I do two "interest groups" that are mostly just an hour-and-a-half of general nonsense and fun with the youth who have dared to sign up for it. In order to justify the existence of this group, which I call "Laughing in Church," I have to Jesus up the last 5 minutes. I hit them with a line I stole from Lewis Black, "Faith without a sense of humor is the most dangerous thing in the world."
The Church is losing its sense of humor. It has no idea how ridiculous its members who demand that evolution be referred to as "The Scientific Theory of Evolution" so that the kids who have been trained to be mistrustful of science can immediately ignore that segment of class and daydream about The Rapture.
The only way I can think of to combat this is to try to be Heath Gilbert for as many youth as I possibly can.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
she pretty much has a zero percent chance of growing up with a normal life
Courtesy of Ted Hobgood, meet Chairman Ramu. She's eight years old, Japanese, and a professional wrestler. I know, I know...you're wondering how an eight-year-old doesn't get totally destroyed by the giants involved with pro wrestling. Well, she's been possessed by an evil demon. The result?
So sure, she can hang with the grown-ups in the ring. But can she finish them? Of course she can. And it's adorable.
And yes, one of the guys she takes out in that last clip is indeed wearing a Bobby Hurley Sacramento Kings jersey. Probably a find more rare than a wresting, demon-possessed, eight-year-old girl.
So sure, she can hang with the grown-ups in the ring. But can she finish them? Of course she can. And it's adorable.
And yes, one of the guys she takes out in that last clip is indeed wearing a Bobby Hurley Sacramento Kings jersey. Probably a find more rare than a wresting, demon-possessed, eight-year-old girl.
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