Sox/No Sox

Quick baseball chat, especially since the Red Sox are my American League team. In the middle of a game Wednesday night, Major League Baseball sent an official to examine the uniform of Boston manager Terry Francona. He wears a pull -ver throughout the game, but MLB rules demand that all personel wear the actual uniform top during the game. Needless to say, Francona was ticked.

First, how stupid is this? Is there any other sport where the coach has to wear the uniform? The only thing dumber is the NFL being against their coaches wearing suits.

Second, it shows the priorities in the game when steroid use/abuse was overlooked for years but no way in Hades are they going to let a manager not wear his uniform. Bud Selig, history will reward you.

No worries. This is the year the Yankees miss the play-offs.

Facebook Fury

Is Myspace dying? It's not quite dead yet, but I think you could put it on the dead wagon. I really never liked Myspace because I felt it was Mickey Mouse. I check it once every few days to delete the p0rn spam I get there. Even though I suck at social networking, I've been excited about Facebook which is cleaner [except for all those crappy add-ons you people need to get over] but I've still maintained both because . . . well, how could I turn my back on all those friends?

It seems that the past month or so has seen an huge influx of new people to Facebook. In fact, it leads me to believe that many people will soon completely abandon Myspace. Someone recently told me that Facebook is becoming the site for "old[er] people" but I wonder if this is sour grapes. Whereas a lot of college friends now work the Facebook, few people from my high school have picked up on it.

So which side do you choose in the social networking Civil War? Or are you a border state? Or are you participating in the Underground Railroad?

Answer, friends: Myspace or Facebook?

The Beat Goes On

Some interesting stuff in today's City Beat, Cincinnati's liberal independent newspaper. Every Wednesday I try to read the online version in addition to our city's cotton-candy paper, CinWeekly. First was an interview with the heads of the three major local art institutions [Cincinnati Art Museum, The Taft, and the Contemporary Arts Center]. They have some interesting perspectives on the state of art and culture in the Queen City.

The second article is concerning an Enquirer business reporter who was recently fired. The word on the street is that he pissed off some local major corporations and the paper bowed to their power and let him go. It's difficult to find the truth in this story, as some people contend he was canned because he was overly abrasive. Regardless, I think it does speak to the way our society is shifting.

The goal of a business is to make money and media outlets do so through ad revenue. So when it comes to hard hitting journalism verses making the advertisers/customers happy they're inclined to deliver news that sells. So even if newspapers and television stations are attempting to be unbiased, there's always room for doubt when the segment on health care is being sponsored by Ambient.

I guess the truth is out there but finding it is getting more difficult. But at least when I'm looking for info on the Iraq, US Americans, and the Asian countries, I know where to go.

From Worst . . .

. . . to, er, worst. I was telling everyone I knew that the Reds were back in the playoff race. They were only 6.5 games out and the Central was wide open as everyone was choking. Then they go out and lose a double-header to the Pirates.

Nice.

Unless Petey Mac gets them to .500, he doesn't get the job.

Back To School

Started new session of class tonight at Xavier. Quick hits:

1. My week-and-a-half break wasn't nearly long enough. I'm really pushing to get through this program so I keep telling myself that the time will fly by. I think I get a month off for Winter Break, so there's a bonus.
2. Holy crap is it crowded! After a quiet little summer of taking classes the campus is now filled with college kids. I had to park about three hundred yards further out than I normally do. It even took me a couple of minutes to find my car; they need those Kings Island cartoon characters to help you remember your space. Note to self: it sucks wearing sandals while walking half a mile.
3. I guess I had no idea how slutty college girls dress nowadays. There are probably some examples I could share with you but I won't. But it was shocking enough that I felt the need to admit it here.
4. It's scary to look at a syllabus and realize the current class will take you through Christmas. I'm sitting there in shorts while reading about assignments due in December. I guess I should start my shopping.
5. My Buddhism class is very promising. The professor lived over 20 years in Japan has written numerous books and articles on the topic. My current knowledge of the philosophy/religion is very limited so I look forward to further exploration.

Blame The Bears

You gotta follow the story concerning Lance Briggs who wrecked his $350,000 vehicle and left it there, later reporting it stolen. Looks like he's only going to get a fleeing the scene of an accident charge. That's a lot better than what he should be getting. Why would you leave your Lamborghini on the side of the road after an accident? Perhaps it's because you realized that a fleeing the scene charge is a lot better than a DUI.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the Bears' nonchalant attitude with Briggs, stating that he won't be suspended. With all the flack the Bengals have taken for having a team of jail birds I would suggest that the Bears have been much worse with Tank Johnson and now Briggs. ESPN should start spreading the love and calling out the Monsters of the Midway for being, well, monsters.

Hopefully Roger Goodell will man up and throw a suspension on him. It's only right.

Thoughts To Ponder

Crazy week here in town while we were gone. Two incidents, combined with the Michael Vick case, has me thinking. The first was the unfortunate story about a white woman who forgot her child in a car last week while her mother was at work; the little girl died from extreme heat left. There's a heightened interest in the case because the woman was affluent, driving a luxury car. It's a horrible accident, one from which the family will never recover, and many are chiming out about. While it's obvious it wasn't intentional, many people are demanding justice. The prosecutor is deciding whether or not to press charges and I would suspect none will be filed.

The second case is that of a black woman who was convicted of animal cruelty. A stray pit bull was roaming around her home in a lower class Cincinnati neighborhood. The woman's nephew, recognizing that the dog wouldn't leave, tied up the animal. In the course of a few days the animal, while trying to escape, strangled itself. The woman who owned the home [and had nothing to do with the dog] was charged with felony animal cruelty, convicted, and not allowed any bail. So she's sitting in prison, facing 180 days in jail in addition to the time she's already serving.

Now ignoring issues of race and economic status here, what does this say about how we are beginning to view life in our society? It would seem that the outrage over the deaths of animals far outweigh that of human beings. Would Michael Vick had been better off if he had killed a person instead of dogs? Why can you hunt deer or rabbits or birds legally, but being involved in the death of a dog is criminal?

I'm not saying that the mother of the little girl needs jail time; she's scarred for life. But where is the ethical center of this argument? How do we value the life of an animal?

We Fail

I've been on the edge today and it's not a post-vacation slump. I've yelled at Kelly numerous times today [sorry, babe]. I tried a little humor in the previous post to see if I could laugh myself out of a funk; it hasn't quite worked. I even cursed at a printer; it still refused to respond. I'm still wrestling with some emotions.Another Christian friend of mine is in trouble. This time it was self-induced. This time they did what they're accused of. And I never saw it coming.

It's crazy that, despite thinking I can read people well, I get blindsided by something they do.

Here's the deal, friends of faith: it's all about where your beliefs lie. If you trust in Christian leaders more than God, you'll be disappointed eventually. I want to be a good pastor and model Jesus perfectly. But despite my best efforts, I fail. That doesn't mean I give up on trying, but the people I minister to need a greater example than I could ever be.

And they have one in Jesus. And that's why He's the focus of all we teach: we fail, He doesn't.

Clap if you must . . .

. . . but I doubt this recent study will be included in the new Cincinnati Visitor and Convention brochure. I swear, I didn't add to the stats. And I'm not quite sure why the Youngstown media found this newsworthy. I guess it's part of their, "Thank God you don't live in Cincinnati" series. Regardless of their reasons, Youngstown is now on my list.

I'm gunning for you, county seat of Mahoning County.

Home

. . . but exhausted. Why do you need a vacation to recover from one?

The Iraq And The Maps

I know I'm late to the party, a week of vacation will do that to you, but did you catch the brilliance bestowed upon us by Miss Teen South Carolina? During the Q&A at the Miss Teen USA pageant, she was asked about why many people can't locate their own country on a world map. The quote is below, but here’s a link to the video.

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the US should help the U.S., um, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for our children."

This, friends, was brutal. Not even AC Slater could save her.

People don't have maps. I guess that makes sense. But how South Africa figures into the equation, I'm still unsure. And I'm not sure the Asian countries need our help, but I will go to the grave advocating our need to help the Iraq.

Political Football

From the "how-do-we-alienate-a-segment-of-our-fan-base?" department, the Jacksonville Jaguars recently donated $30,000 to Planned Parenthood. Nothing creates team spirit like supporting widespread abortion.

Brilliant.

Still Vacationing

. . . and enjoying it immensely. One of the cool parts about traveling/vacationing with other people is that I don't have to think. I just show up, do what I'm told, and enjoy not having responsibility. Example: this whole time I thought we were going to be hanging at the Outer Banks until Kelly told me otherwise as we were driving down. We're actually at Wrightsville Beach, a Gulf-of-Mexico-like place on the Atlantic. It's beautiful out [far cooler than the 100-degrees-plus in Cincy] and not that crowded since it's out of season.

There's more to write, but I'm not going to.

Holiday!

And, yes Madonna fans, I will add the obligatory, "Celebrate!"

We've finally taken a vacation. Before you hop in your car to break into our condo and rob us of our earthly possessions, I remind you that 1) we have an excellent security system and, 2) being so close to the ghetto, you'd probably get jumped by someone who wanted to take the junk you took for us. City living has its perks.

We're traveling with Kelly's parents and Kaelyn couldn't be happier; she loves the added attention. She calls Dave "Bah-bah" and Bev "Nah-nah" and she's saying it non-stop. Currently we're in the Vegas of the South, Gatlinburg, en route to Raleigh, North Carolina.

For those of you familiar with the Westside's premier vacation destination, we ate at the Applewood tonight. Good grub. Then Dave and Kelly went swimming with Kaelyn and the little girl wouldn't stop smiling. Good times. We've seen many a mullet, numerous Confederate flags, and too many exposed body parts that the Lord never intended to be seen. Good grief.

Kaelyn's finally asleep. Life is indeed good . . . because we're on vacation.

I Could've Altered The NFL Season

My friend Tim had the day off so we went out and got some breakfast then came home, grabbed Kaelyn, and went downtown. Former coworker Nate Grella hooked me up with some free tickets to the Reds Hall of Fame museum and, since they expire next week, we decided to use the freebies. The museum was pretty cool. Loved the Pete Rose exhibit. Kaelyn had a blast. As we left, Tim asked if we could swing by the Bengals Pro-Shop. While there we could see the New Orleans Saints on the practice field; they're playing Cincy in a preseason game tomorrow.

When we left the shop, I decided to drive down by the practice field to see if we could catch a glimpse of some players. The Saints had just finished practice and were crossing the street from the practice field back to Paul Brown Stadium. We caught the light and saw former Ohio State Buckeye Antonio Pittman cross with a few other players. Then the light turned green. With no particular place to go I did a U-turn [illegal?] and hit the light again. It was then that . . . well, we saw him:

Number 25.

Reggie Bush.

NFL Superstar.

I mentioned to Tim that I had the opportunity to alter the NFL season. As he crossed the street I could hit the gas and see if the man who's made a career of dodging 300 pound lineman could dodge a 1.3 ton Ford Explorer.

I . . . could've . . . ruined . . . fantasy football . . . for millions.

And I also could've made Michael Vick, PacMan Jones, and Chris Henry happy men. Their PR problems would've disappeared from the headlines with pictures of the former USC All-American being pried from the grill of my SUV.

Sure, I would be in prison for years, not to mention the fact that I'm a minister and that my 18 month-old daughter would've been in the car at the same time. But it would be an interesting story to tell, eh?

Instead of committing vehicular manslaughter and flattening a Heisman winner, I instead decided to take his picture [I had the camera from our museum trip]. But, by the time I grabbed it from the case and aimed, Tim said, "you know he's already gone, don't you?" I looked up and, sure enough, Bush had sprinted across the street to avoid autograph hounds and bolted into the stadium.

Both opportunities lost.

As fast as Reggie ran across the street, I think he had a fighting chance against the Explorer.

But I could've at least put him to the test.

Tennis Love

My neighbor Dustin is covering the tennis tournament for the paper, but we got a glimpse of a superstar tonight. We met newlyweds Justin and Courtney in Mason for dinner tonight. Then we swung by a for a glimpse of the old house and finally a trip to Play-It-Again Sports to get some gently-used soccer boots.

Driving down Fields Ertel, I noticed a brand new Mercedes SUV getting ready to pull into traffic. It had the tennis tournament logo on the side of it. Sure enough, it was Roger Federer. I was in Mason for three years of tournaments and never saw any famous player. Then I move and, voila, one of the greatest players of all time.

I was reminded of my friend and former coworker Howard Pauley who, years ago during the tennis tournament, had a wonderful lunch talking to some tennis player [note: Howard doesn't know a thing about athletics, thinking SportsCenter is where they take injured athletes]. He asked the man if he was any good and the guy responded that he could hold his own. It was Andre Agassi. From my estimation, Federer was either at Barnes and Noble, Costco, Target or Michaels. Draw your own conclusions.

Yikes! [interwebs-erly speaking]

Two great stories to share tonight, but first I need to describe conquering my Everest. I was out of the house this morning, returning to find a note from Kelly saying she couldn't connect to the internet. After a few tweaks, I realized that I couldn't either. Realized that since we had the new service installed this week, both our laptops had been on continually until last night. So I was guessing it was some sort of system reset.

I started messing with it at noon, stopped from five till eight-thirty, and just got it working at ten. I knew I couldn't go to sleep without getting this working.

Suffice to say, I got nothing accomplished today.

Wanted: Addiction Recovery Group

I'm afraid my wife needs some help. She's addicted to The Office. About this time of night she'll being throwing out some arbitrary fact about the show. Tonight she informed me that there'll be a convention in Scranton this October. If we didn't have a family wedding to attend, I know she'd be there. I'll admit, I like the show too, but her fanaticism is incomparable. I can't keep her away from it. It's so hard ["that's what she said"].

Prove to me she needs no help: let us know your favorite Office quote.

Come On, Ride The Train . . .

. . . if you can find it. Every couple of days we hear a train engine blow its horn. That wouldn't be too unusual except that there are no train lines remotely near to our condo. The only explanation we can come up with is that there are some tracks between a couple of factories right along 1-71 and they sound the horn as they're crossing the road [here's where I think it's located]. It just blew loud enough to wake Kaelyn from her nap but we were granted a reprieve.

I much prefer listening to fireworks after a win at GABP.

UPDATE:

I'm adding this update almost a year and a half later in case I forget this. After being outside one day a couple of months ago, I finally figured it out. There are constantly semi-trucks dropping off shipments at the Association of the Blind just down the street. Apparenlty, there's one truck whose horn sounds just like a train horn. So that explains why it felt like it was so close, but it was not actually a train.

OB

Finally, someone intelligently critiques the most annoying thing about professional golf. No, not this guy. It's the obnoxious man constantly yelling, "Get in the hole!" Tease:

"Does the same guy stand at the same hole and yell it twice every 10 minutes while players tee off all day? How old would this get if you were standing beside him? Can you imagine if this was your dad and you were riding in the car to the golf tournament with him saying things like, 'Promise me you're not going to yell, 'get in the hole,' after every shot, Dad' and then your dad keeps doing it anyway?"

HT: Lance