Floating in Space

Sometimes I get songs stuck in my head. Normally for a few days, but there are those rare occasions when they persist for weeks and months. It seems like one song takes on the theme for periods of your life. When I was younger, it would be some angsty, emo-trash band that would make me think life was so hard. Thankfully, teenage Sam only makes rare appearances these days. My theme song for the last month has been...

MKR

Now that's a woman!

EXHIBIT!

Hey all! Come out to my exhibit opening TONIGHT at the Matheson Museum. The theme is FLORIDA FOOTBALL FEVER!!! We will displaying a ton of stuff from all throughout Gator history. It should be a lot of fun. Not to mention...FREE WINE AND FOOD!!! Yay! And the whole event is FREE! Come check it out please. It runs from 6-9pm.

Matheson Museum
www.facebook.com/mathesonmuseum

Unmet Goals

I am not necessarily succeeding in fulfilling my two goals for the rest of 2009. The first is caring less about sports. The second is caring less about politics. The sports one is proving to be the most difficult. It is so easy to waste my time on the Internet reading a bunch of nonsense. And since the Tebow has been hurt, I have been all over reading everything I can about his injury. The politics one has been slightly easier but I do catch myself ranting sometimes. For example, I was ranting the other night how Michael Moore is what is wrong with health care. I also may have compared him to the alien in human skin from Men In Black. Either way, I am not necessarily dominating my goal like the Gator offense dominated UK in the first quarter...there I go again on one of those tangents.

This is all connected to a sermon that Steve Lammers gave at my church this weekend on Psalm 32:

A Maskil of David.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Selah

I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,"
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Selah

Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance.
Selah

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.
Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

David puts a huge emphasis on the confession of sins. In fact, David's bones wasted away inside of him when he kept silent about his sin. So I am confessing my sin because I am broken and worthless apart from the grace of God. I can do nothing to atone for my own sins. I can do nothing to achieve my salvation.
What a wonderful God we serve that hears our prayers and sanctifies us!

Health Care Speech

7 minutes into watching the healthcare speech, I realized Obama had said about 3 sentences. Stop clapping, for goodness sake!

In related news, I have a second goal for the semester: Stop caring as much about politics.  In reality, there is little I can do to change anything.  It also gets my blood-a-boiling because I think I am right.  I think that I have a moral responsibility to support issues I feel strongly about (ex. pro-life, anti-torture). With most issues though, I feel dissension is unnecessary. Here's a quote I have run across in my readings: 

For Christians, our hope is not in politics but in the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Politics does not change men fundamentally, though we do have a name for political systems that believe they can change men: totalitarianisms. Marxist regimes believed they could inculcate virtue, creating "the new man." The aims of Christian democracies founded on Christian truths are more modest, chiefly protecting life, liberty, and property (in the view of the United States' Founders). Because our ultimate hope is not in politics, we should lower our political expectations and heighten our cultural expectations. We should work for cultural change by means of preaching the Gospel and applying God's truth in all areas of life; a Christianized political order will come incrementally, over time.
-Andrew Sandlin

I think people can get their hope (no Obama joke intended) sucked into the wrong sources.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope... 1 Timothy 1:1

Losing Steam

Why is it that I always lose steam? I'll working along at a good pace but, as the days turn into weeks, I start fading. It doesn't matter what the subject is. It could be school, reading a book, or staying on top of your Christian game. I think that is why the Apostle TBA wrote this:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  (Hebrews 12)

The Holy Scriptures breathe life into weary lungs.  What an incredible blessing we have from God!  The piece of this scripture that resonates with me is the end.  I have never resisted sin to the point of shedding blood.  But Christ, for the joy set before him, endured such pain.  For the JOY set before him.  What an amazing God we serve that sees the cross as joy for our sake. Even though we do not deserve His grace, He joyfully has secured it. 

Next Stop: Camelot

At an event for work yesterday, a colleague informed me that someone said I looked like a young Ted Kennedy. You be the judge.

Senseless

Time is, of all the things in the world, what has baffled me the most my entire life. I'm not talking about some abstract scientific principles. I'm talking about 12AM and 12PM. Lets examine this starting at midnight.

12 am
1 am
2 am
3 am
4 am
5 am
6 am
7 am
8 am
9 am
10 am
11 am
12 pm
1 pm
2 pm
3 pm
4 pm
5 pm
6 pm
7 pm
8 pm
9 pm
10 pm
11 pm

Since when do we count zero as a 12? Instead of 10 am and 10 pm, should it be 112 am and 112 pm? It doesn't make any sense people!

Hi-Ho

I'm trying to not love the Gators as much as I do. That is my goal for football season. The reason for my goal is because it really should not be that important in my life. I put plenty of things on the back burner in my life and sports has never been one. I always make time to watch the game. Always. In fact, it will take up most of my Saturdays this fall. It will also take up a lot of internet hours during the week. I think I am going to try an put sports on the back burner for once. It won't be easy though.

For as long as I can remember, I loved sports. Whether it was playing or watching, I was always fully invested. When I was regenerated by Christ in high school, I began to see how unimportant a lot of things in my life were. Sports was at the top of my list. But I never gave it up (and I probably never will). Now, let me say here that there is nothing wrong with watching or playing sports. I have a ton of fun doing both and probably will for the rest of my life. But I can't serve two masters. And even though I do not think of sports as my master, I probably invest more time in sports each week than I do in scripture. I think that is wrong of me. So I have been trying to change it.

A couple of extra points:

Sports provides an awesome opportunity to hang out with my friends. It is great that we all have it in common. That is partly why I do not think there is anything wrong with sports.

It also helps you meet new people. I have made a ton of friends in Gainesville playing frisbee. It is how I met Chase Madden--who was my first male friend in Gainesville--and all of Shady Oaks.

As a former coach, sports is a great teaching tool for kids to learn about how to work as a team and how to deal with success and failure.

Finally, I am not posting this because I think everyone we know has a problem with sports. I am only posting it because I was convicted of it. James teaches us, "confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." So this is me confessing to the everyone in a sense.

Memory Verses

I had a youth pastor in high school who instituted memory verses in every youth group for a whole summer or so. His way of making us remember the verses basically consisted of him acting out the verse as animated and goofy as possible. The great thing is that I still remember most of the verses. I think there we about four of them; each one containing 5-10 verses.

ex. Ephesians 5:15-20
5Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lately, I have been pretty convicted about my scripture reading and application. Therefore, I am starting my own little memory verse program. It won't be as fun as Pete's, but still good.

John 6:63
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

This is my first one. So if you see me, feel free to ask me what my memory verse of the week is or of previous weeks. If I blow you off, feel free to admonish me...gently.

Time Vampires

Oh Sony, you do suck.

WTWTA Trailer 2

I think everyone speculating about what this movie is going to be like has come to the obvious conclusion that the plot is not going to be identical to the book--after all, the book contains about 100 words and is 12 pages long. But what is the plot going to be like? We get a little more light shed on it in this preview. I have gone from ultra pumped to pumped and worried. I hope it is awesome.

Also, the Arcade Fire for two previews in a row? C'mon people. Give me something fresh!

Urbz

A Must Read for Gator Fans

For all the commentators who will not hush the Notre Dame talk, I think this article sets it straight. Urban loves Gainesville. And if he wins three of four this year, I have no idea why he would eff with his perfect situation and take a risk elsewhere. 3 out of 4 makes you one of the greatest of all time (not to mention that it would be 3 of 5 since being at UF).  

By the way, 29 days!

NEW BIKE

After a little over a year without my own two wheeler, I finally have a new bike. Well, it is new to me at least. My good friend, David Claytor, left his old Giant Rincon at Shady Oaks over 2 years and eventually relinquished it to me. I have been trying to fix it for a while now but lack of money kept getting in the way. But everything came together this weekend with minimal money expended. In fact, I rode that bad boy to work today. 

My Dog

I think if I dedicated this blog to why Maggie is the worst dog ever, I would never run out of material. For example, today, I came home from swamp golf to find she had eaten my wallet whole. I suppose it is better than her turning on the gas stove while we are out.

Yay dogs!

Why I Love The Gators

I have had a few conversations lately about why I like some sports teams more than others.  For example, why I would like the Miami Heat more than the Florida Marlins or the Gators over any of my favorite teams.  This letter is part of why I love the Gators more than any of them. It is an open letter from David Nelson about some charitable work he and his teammates have been working on lately:

Hello, my name is David Nelson and I will be a senior this upcoming
football season. This summer, my teammates and I have spent numerous
hours “giving back” to the community. We feel good about the work we
have done this far, but we want to do more. We are planning a charity
event on July 31st called the Gator Strongman Competition benefiting six
different charities. I have been chosen to be the captain of the March
of Dimes team.
        
The reason I am writing you is because we need your help. Our main goal
for this event is to raise awareness for the six charities, but for this
to happen we as many people to know about this event as possible. We are
not doing this to promote our team or to show off our good deeds, we
genuinely want to help out those in need and make our community a better
place.

We are trying to use the platform we have to raise awareness for these
six charities. I know we have a large Gator following in Orlando, and I
would love to do an interview about the event, write a letter to the
fans promoting the event and the charities – anything to get the word
out! I thank you for your time and dedication in covering the Florida
program and look forward to hearing from you.

-David Nelson, WR #83

I posted this on my blog to help get the word out, David.  Anything to help out a fellow Gator.

As a side note, I am so pumped about David Nelson's season. He has gone from pretty boy who expected minutes to the hard working leader of the wide receiving corps. I hope his work ethic and attitude rubs off on some of the young ones.

HA!

Happy July!

Only funny videos these days. Maybe I'll add some more substance later. Until then, enjoy a preview of September 19th.

2 1/2 Months

The Magic Want Your Firstborn

Disclaimer: If the Cavs come back and win the series, this should be ignored forever and never brought up in casual conversation. Also, I am not a Magic fan. 

The Orlando Magic are up 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Lebron James One-Man Show aka the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Magic are the team that everyone ever has written off since the beginning of the year. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked.

-Rashard Lewis is NOT that good and the Magic overpaid for his services.

-Dwight Howard does NOT have the killer instinct and will NOT come through in the clutch.

-Jameer Nelson is OUT for the year; Rafer Alston is NOT good enough to replace him.

-Stan Van Gundy is NOT a good coach and will panic and set his team on fire if they get too close to winning a meaningful game.

Well...

-Rashard Lewis made the winning shot in Game 1 and the go-ahead shot at the end of regulation in Game 4 to help the Magic win two games. Lewis also sealed Game 4 with three semi-clutch free throws in OT.

-Dwight Howard has completely dominated the Cavs in the paint all series. Howard also put up the first 6 points up with emphatic dunks and was two-for-two from the line in the Game 4 overtime. 

-Rafer Alston, aka Skip To My Lou, has almost lead a team he has been on for 2 months to the NBA Finals (26 points, 6 threes in Game 4).

-SVG is still the coach and has the Magic up 3-1 (the one loss on a ridiculous shot by the MVP with 1.0 left on the clock). 

So the Orlando Magic just want all the geniuses on ESPN to know that they can go f*** themselves.

Don't Quiver Under Your Afghan Any Longer

This is, without a doubt, the greatest SNL commercial ever. 

Ugh

Do I have to keep making my case for smaller government when these things keep happening?

House committee hears argument for and against BCS

Seriously? Is this necessary? What kind of jackasses do we have in office?

Bizarro Obama 2.0

More Obama crap. Hope you enjoy:

The Lakers

I really don't like the LA Lakers. Just about everything about the franchise bothers me. Here's a short list:

- Phil Jackson

- Yellow Uniforms

- The mascot, 'Laker', despite the lack of lakes 

- formerly based in Minneapolis

- Jordan Farmar and all that hair gel

- Celebrities at games

 - except for Jack Nicholson, he can do whatever he wants

- The Media's love affair with them 

- when Luke Walton is considered 'good', you know the media loves you

The thing that set this off was the abundance of celebrities at games rooting for the Lakers.  I know that all of them are not from LA.  Go home and root for your home team.  And if you are thinking they just want to watch some basketball, I'd respond with 'why not the Clippers?' Sure, they suck this year. But they were in the playoffs two years ago. It's just a bunch of fairweather fans and I dislike it. Anyway, more productive posts later. Maybe some BBO.

Bizarro Barack, Take One

If you read my previous post, you were introduced to the idea of Bizarro Barack Obama, the Republican answer to BO. I came up with the idea at Moe's a few weeks ago and I personally think it is gold, Jerry, GOLD. So here it is. A short intro to Bizarro Barack.

Now, I just need to figure out how to get rid of that button.

Go Gator!

In case you haven't heard, the Gators went to the White House yesterday.  Here's the transcript from the visit.

I think that this is the funniest tradition of all championship traditions (just ahead of going to Disney World).  Who started this?  You know it was a president.  Teams can't just decide, "You know, this championship earns us a trip to the White House!" It just makes me think about how popular sports are in the lives of Americans.  I know it is in mine.  I care way more about Gator football than Bizarro Obama and his swashbuckling stories with the Somalian armada (side note: I really need to create the Bizarro Obama comic book). 

Anyway, no real point here except Obama seems to know his college football. Read the transcript and you'll know what I'm saying.

Another side note, I wanted to create some sort of Presidential Basketball Pick 'em. With Obama being a former player and all, it made me think about what other presidents could tote the rock. Here's my top 5: 

- C - LBJ. 6'3", built like a house, and crazy as a fox! 

- SF- The 6'4" Rail-Splitter would be an intriguing pick. Abe might sky over all other presidents like...Gheorghe Muresan? 

- PF- GWash was 6'4" and lead the colonists to victory in the one of the greatest upsets in history. That HAS to carry over to basketball. 

- PG - Obama is the only one with real experience.

- SG - Gerald Ford rounds out the top five because of his football success. Athleticism is athleticism. 

Basically, the President's Ball(PUN!) would be awash. It would end up like that pick-up game you play at the park with all the white guys in running shoes and ankle-high socks. 

Josh Dickenson...

...is bad luck. He has been in Pittsburgh this week staying at the same hotel as the Florida Marlins. The Marlins have lost the first two games of the series to the Pirates. All I'm saying is Josh better get out of Dodge before 12:30pm Wednesday. 

Redemption

I have been a fan of the band, Centro-matic, for a couple years now. I got into them because they are a part of the Undertow Music Collective along with my fav band David Bazan/Pedro The Lion. 

Will Johnson is a member of Centro-matic and creator of folk art. Johnson has recently done a series on baseball and I think it is worth your while.

As a side note to the writings on the Bill Buckner piece, I would imagine that it was one of the greatest feelings to receive that standing ovation. There are a couple of vids on YouTube; but, I've given you enough to click on for one post.

Alex Tyus...

...is transferring. I don't know what is going on with our basketball team but it is getting weird. 

Jeopardy

I started reading Ken Jennings' blog on and off a few months ago. It is mildly entertaining. For those of you who don't know, Ken Jennings was the guy who was on Jeopardy for 74 episodes straight and won about $2.5 million. 

Anyway, I thought this was funny because the term "post-partisanship" has really been getting on my nerves. Here is his post from April 9th, 2009:

How to speak Obama

I keeping seeing the word “post-partisanship” used by the new administration, where most previous presidencies would have been paying lip service to “bipartisanship” instead. Maybe this is appropriate: this is, after all, our first post-racial president. He’s not biracial: he’s post-racial.

Let me try this out:

• The president will engage in post-lateral talks with Russia.
  
• He’s also teaching Sasha how to ride her post-cycle without training wheels.
  
• Michelle Obama’s sleeveless dress really showed off her post-ceps.
  
• Bill Henrickson on Big Love is now a post-gamist.
  
• That girl you dated in college is now claiming she’s a post-sexual.

I hope everyone has a post-tching day!

Post-Easter Post

PostSecret is one of my favorite websites.  I have been reading it for years and it is always enjoyable.  The postcard above may be my favorite one ever.  

Internshipping News

As of today, my summer internship is set.  I will be at the Matheson Museum for the summer doing whatever they want me to do.  I am excited about the opportunity to finally put my education to work.  It will be great to not have to be on my computer for eight hours a day.  Also, I will only have one class over the summer; so I can hang out with people at a normal time! That means you might see me at 8 o'clock on a week night! YESS!

Stolen from John Piper

John Piper posted this in his blog today:

"Today, sixty-four years ago, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged for his part in the conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He is known by many for one main sentence. It is worthy of Holy Week.

Here is the context of his most famous quote:

The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call." 

Everybody's Doing The Fish

The 2009 baseball season started this past Sunday and I couldn't be happier.  It is going to be a great season. For those of you who don't know, I am a Florida Marlins fan. I have to say that I am pumped about our chances to make the playoffs this year. I think we have good young pitching and a pretty solid lineup. Also, we have the Manatees.

Hi-larious!

The main reason we are going to make the playoffs is the 6-year cycle. In 1991, the NL approved the Marlins franchise. In 1997, the Fish won their first championship. In 2003, the Fish won a second. In 2009....well, we will see.

Stephen Rockwood

I've been listening to a lot of soul music lately.  And if you can't get into this, then you're dead. Literally dead. Lit-e-rally. Li-tra-lly. 

OMG

If you are like me, you grew up reading "Where the Wild Things Are". In case you didn't know, they are making a movie version of it. At first, I was apprehensive. Then, I found out Spike Jonze was directing. Then, I found out the Henson company was designing the Wild Thing puppets. I have been pumped ever since. They launched the first preview today. 

I can't even describe how excited I am. It is going to be so awesome. Also, it helps that my fav Arcade Fire song is the music for the preview. 

The Government Should Have Less Power

Seriously. 

In case you didn't see this...

Chris Paul embarrasses defenders on a regular basis. I don't think I have ever seen someone done so dirty in the eN-Be-Ay.

Politics

This is why I didn't vote for Obama. Or should I say Obama the REBEL!!!

Anyway, I thought this was funny. It was taken on Feb. 27th as the Prez was boarding AF1. 

Go Gators!

In The Sky!!!

Louis CK is a pretty funny guy. In this clip, he is talking about how we are the worst generation ever. Check it!

America's Solution

Seriously.

CFB Never Dies

A question from an interview with Sam Bradford:

Q: Would it be accurate to say there wasn’t as much space between defensive backs and receivers against Florida than what you were used to seeing?

A: I think that would be accurate. They were a very good defense; they were very fast, but they were very sound. They rarely got out of position, and they had guys accounting for all of our receivers, especially when we got the tailback out of the backfield. It seemed like they always had a linebacker spying or waiting on him when he left the backfield.

Yes. And all 22 starters and reserves are coming back next season from that defense.

Tebow Love

From Bill Simmons's mailbag:

Q: Which current athlete is most likely to give an impassioned speech that breaks down long-held prejudices (like how Rocky ended the Cold War)?
-Travis S., New Jersey
SG: I vote for Tim Tebow. Fox's Thom Brennaman spent 15 minutes with him before the BCS Championship Game and raved about the experience three different times during the telecast, like his life had been irrevocably altered. Can you think of anyone you've ever met for just 15 minutes—in your life—who would turn you into a blubbering stalker on live TV? I say we send Tebow to the Middle East. He can start with Al Qaeda.

The Tebow-mania has officially reached New England. Next stop, Canada.