Brush With Greatness

Last Sunday morning, I had a great experience . . . at Speedway nonetheless.

As I was headed out to the little church in New Richmond I stopped at the gas station for my morning Diet Coke. While I'm usually a UDF guy, Speedway wins my summer loyalty with their slashed fountain drink prices. Plus, they have the Speedy Rewards Card which you can scan and get points to get free stuff. Never redeemed the points, but they're there if I need them.

So as I'm paying and putting change in my wallet, I hear someone stand in the door and ask if they can use their Speedy Rewards even if they're paying at the pump. The cashier told him that he could leave his card and she could scan it inside. I'm out the door and decide to hold open the door for the guy and then notice he's substantially taller than I am. Then I look at his face and realize that I'm in the presence of [arguably] the greatest basketball player who ever lived:

Oscar Robertson.

Here's some info if you're unfamiliar with him. The Big O played college ball at Cincinnati* and played in the NBA for the Cincinnati Royals [now the Sacramento Kings]. Professionally he AVERAGED a triple-double.

Back to my story: as I realized who it was, he exited the Speedway and said thanks to me for holding open the door. I replied, "Have a good morning, Mr Robertson" making sure to pronounce it properly and not "Robinson."

I took two thoughts away from my encounter:

1. I keep running into local celebrities while holding open doors at gas stations. During my ministry in Madeira, I held open the door for Marge Schott. She went in bought a pack of cigs and two lottery tickets. I remember asking the cashier if she came in much and he replied, "Everyday. And she always buys a pack of Marlboro's and a couple lotto tickets." I found it strange that a woman living in an Indian Hill mansion was still trying to strike it rich.

2. Can you imagine Michael Jordan pulling into a gas station and going inside to use his Speedy Rewards card? I wonder if Jordan has even pumped his own gas in decades. It just goes to show that guys like the Big O paved the way so that today's athletes could live large and the younger generations couldn't care less. Some have said that Oscar is bitter because he didn't make the big bucks that today's players make. Honestly, I'd be bitter too. But he is still an incredible guy. Later, on that day when I saw him, he was in Indianapolis to receive a reward for his benevolence work. It's that humanness in old pros like Robertson that makes me proud to have the opportunity to hold open a door for him.

In a somewhat related note, I'm heading over the Deveroes League tomorrow night [Tuesday] to watch the local college players if anyone's interested.

*Although the Big O was by far the most dominant college player of his time, UC didn't win their back-to-back national championships until Oscar left school.

I Don't Feel Tardy

I had to manually log-in to the blog tonight. The site will usually keep me logged-in if I post within a couple of days but not so after a week respite. I know it's been awhile since my last post when I see the check-box on the log-in page that appears to ask, "Remember me?"

We had a crazy week, starting off with Time-Warner Cable hijinks. Great week at the North American Christian Convention. I have much to post on, but it still might take me awhile to get back into the swing of things. I have another project I'll be devoting some time to this week:

My life as an adjunct professor.

Beginning this week I'm going to be teaching some classes for my alma mater's degree completion program. They are five-week intensive courses that meet in the evenings. It's something I've wanted to do for awhile now but was never able to do; I do think completing the second Masters at Xavier helped. The good news: I have three other classes I'll be teaching this year. The bad news: they're all different classes which means my preparation level is high.

My first course will be on Worldviews. It's interesting subject matter, but it covers a wide-spectrum of information so I'm having to work hard on the course plans. Still, I'm looking forward to the opportunity. There's not a lot that my religious degrees empower me to do, so I'm just excited to be able to use my knowledge.

When I graduated high school I was voted "Most Likely To Return To Teach At The Alma Mater." I'm still curious as to why my classmates voted for me in that category. Perhaps it was somewhat misguided clairvoyance as they knew I'd teach at my college.

He Speaks The Truth

Not sure if you caught Chad Johnson's interview on ESPN this weekend. As is expected, CJ spewed out his normal amount of crazy. At the very least, interest in this Bengals season will be heightened here at Beit Carr as I'm fascinated to see how fans will react to him.

Still, in trying to make up with the locals for a tumultuous of season, Chad did offer up this quote:

I love Cincinnati— the city, the fans. I love everything about it; [it's] the perfect city.

Keep working it, Chad. I just might buy back in . . . to tolerate you, at least.

100k

I'm a dork— I get it. So no need to remind me as I post a pic of the Explorer crossing 100,000 miles.

Pulling over on Highway 52 heading to New Richmond this morning just to snap a pic of the odometer might seem a tad juvenile, but I've never owned a car as long as I've owned this one; we have history. Of course, only 80,000 of them were put there by me, as I bought it used. And the rebuilt engine only has about 60,000 miles on it. So it's my not be a legit 100k, but that's what it says.

Moving to the city and losing a commute has definitely slowed down the aging of this rig. And since I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy a used SUV with gas being so expensive, I imagine that we'll be together for a whole lot longer.

My People

Posts will be sporadic next week as I'll be consumed by our churches' national convention. This year, the North American Christian Convention will take place at the Duke Energy Center [a couple of years ago I wrote a brief history of our movement and the meaning behind this convention that you can check out]. I'm looking forward to connecting with people and perhaps even learning something.

I'm actually the usher coordinator for this year's convention, which means I just need to find people to help with offering for the evening sessions. If you're going to be there, or your interested, it's a minimal commitment and I could really use the help— especially on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. Drop me an email if you'd be willing to lend a hand.

Even if you're not going to help me out, you don't have to be registered to attend the evening session. Let me know that you're coming and we might be able to connect. More info on the NACC can be found here at their website.

Rethinking the 'Burbs

For almost three years now I've been trying to convince some of you that the city is the place to be. For the most part, my words have fallen on deaf years, but maybe the cries from the pocketbook will be the sounds the bring about change.

The writing's on the wall: from the mortgage crisis to yesterday's prediction of SEVEN DOLLAR/GALLON GAS, people are going to have to seriously contemplate moving closer to town. An article in Wednesday's New York Times confirms that the American trend of sprawl might finally have met its match, and mass transit might be the only thing that saves the suburbs as we know them. While we've spend almost two generations trying to figure out how to solve America's inner city problem, we might be in the midst of a generational shift that will have us posing the same question about America's suburbs. I guess I'm saying if you're even remotely thinking about going urban, now is the time before the market goes crazy.

I fully understand that [especially with the housing market] it's impossible for some people to even consider such a move. But I would challenge all of us to start to rethink the way the we are living life. I'm not Chicken Little, but I'm not sure we've hit bottom of this roller-coaster economy. Unless you have money in the bank, now is not the time to be spending money. If you haven't already, start working down your debt. Even though people are complaining now about these economic indicators, most of us haven't actually felt the pinch. But I say it's coming.

Didn't think this would turn into a Dave Ramsey session, but there's an interconnection between these thoughts. Take care of those you love and start tightening the belt now.

I Don't Tweet

It's hard to distinguish between internet fads and applications that have staying power. More often than not, the latest/greatest thing will be forgotten shortly. Making it even more difficult is my interaction with ministers who, perhaps in an effort to stay relevant, seem to dive head-first into whatever new thing comes down the pipeline.

I usually prefer a wait-and-see approach to things. I entered the blogging world at a relatively early point [four years ago this fall] but I knew others who were doing it a year or two before I was. I waited on joining MySpace, mostly out of disdain, but finally gave in [before kicking the habit this past year]. Once Facebook opened to non-college students, I went in shortly thereafter; but now that people of all ages are signing on, I'd predict that its shelflife is decreasing. Still, I think it has more staying power than it gets credit for.

So now, I'm observing the current fervor surrounding Twitter. Surprisingly, I've done some market research among twenty-somethings I know, and few have ever even heard of it. For those who don't know, Twitter is a blogging-like application where you text message/email updates of less than 140 words to a platform that posts it online. Basically, it's like a Facebook update standing alone. Then, you can update throughout the day what you're doing/thinking at any given moment. It has taken off in popularity among certain segments of the population. A few weeks ago, I read an article where a guy proposed via Twitter.

FYI, newbies, when you use Twitter to send a message, it's called a "tweet." I believe the verb form is "twittering."

I've heard people who have declared that Twitter will spell the end of blogging. I just don't see it. Here are some reasons why I'm skeptical, and why I probably won't be "a twit" anytime soon.

1. People don't care about every aspect of my life. Sometimes I blog things that you guys don't care about. That's cool. I understand it. But can you imagine if I started posting everything I did throughout the day? "I'm eating a ham sandwich." "I'm at a stoplight." "I'm doing the deuce right now." It might be cute at first, but then you'd start to care even less about my life. Which leads me to . . .

2. Lack of good content. Whose life is truly so exciting that you want to know what they're doing throughout the day, anyway? It's difficult to continually spew forth content that's interesting in any format, especially so if you're in the practice of constantly texting updates. And no one can be funny all the time, so interest will eventually wane. Additionally, the tweets I do read are usually brutal because of overuse of abbreviations and misspellings. That is enough to keep me from reading.

3. No time filter. This is more of a pragmatic reason, but I think it's valid. Even though people occasionally blog out of anger, there's still a little bit of delay and the opportunity to rethink before publishing. But when you tweet, it's not usually a premeditated action but a visceral reaction to something going on in life. As a result, I'd say that Twitter is a program custom made to allow people to insert their feet into their mouths.

4. The MySpace Syndrome. MySpace didn't die [admit it, it's dead] because of a poor concept. Otherwise, why would Facebook still be so popular? The problem with MySpace was the absolute ugliness/annoyance of its format. Twitter follows in those same footsteps as it is steeped in poor web design. And, apparently, it is an inconsistent program, constantly prone to blackouts. Why would you keep on using an aesthetically revolting, unreliable program? You wouldn't.

In short, I think blogging will continue over the long run; it's evolving, not becoming extinct. Blogging is merely a web platform for journaling— something that people have been doing for centuries. Twitter, on the other hand, is a completely new concept. Of course, new ideas can work, but there has to be merit behind it for it to take off. And as people are inundated with information as is, so the influx of even more will eventually become madding. Something will have to give way. And I think that something will be Twitter. I saw it plugs on for another year or so but eventually goes the way of the wildebeest. I'm calling it a fad.

Someone show me where I'm wrong on this.

Read and Understand

. . . why Jackie Robinson was an amazing man and worthy of the acclaim he has received. Obviously he will always be linked to race but, when it came to the accomplishments of his job, he wanted to be judged/remembered on performance alone. Sure, the color barrier would've been eliminated eventually whether or not he had done it, but no one else could've done it as well as he.

Next

Time to deplete the checklist.

Tonight I wrapped up another class. Barring unforeseen savage grading, I should get an A. Not to brag [um, that's not true, I think I am bragging] that's all A's and an unjust B since restarting graduate work. Also, this leaves only two courses to complete towards graduation next spring. The learning experience has been worth it, but I'll admit that I always feel better when it's over.

Additionally, we finally wrapped up our study of the books of Samuel at Echo.* Again, while I've enjoyed working through these Old Testament books, especially the lessons learned from the life of David, I'm always up for a new challenge. For the rest of the summer I'll be teaching through the New Testament Epistle of James. If you have a Sunday night open, I invite you to come and join us.

So hopefully I'll finally get around to posting some things I've had in mind here by the end of the week.

*If you want to catch up on any of the teachings from Samuel, you can get them off iTunes via our website.

Messing With A Good Thing

Despite my desire to be different and carefree, I'm a creature of habit. One of my routines is my morning web reading schedule. I have a specific Firefox bookmark labeled "morning" which opens up all the sites with which I start my day. I check sports, my fantasy baseball stats, my RSS feeds, and finally the local paper— the Enquirer.

Although I've had my issues with it in the past, I've really started to enjoy reading that paper. As a minister in the city, I feel it's my responsibility to know what's going on here. The Enquirer is the best local source of finding this information out. So I make sure to read it daily [online, of course] to see what's happening.

Unfortunately, the parent company of the Enquirer decided to force redesigns of all their papers' websites. There's a brand new website up and it is absolutely horrible. And it's not just opinion— see for yourself. Now the old Enquirer page was not attractive at all, but it was highly functional; I could maneuver the pages within minutes to get the info I was looking for. The new site, however, is a mess, with actual articles mixed in with readers' blogs and forums. And this site is even uglier than the last. I tried last night to devise an organized way to get through the site, and was frustrated that I couldn't. I told myself I would try again one more time this morning. And all I got was frustration.

Some might say that the ease of which I could maneuver the site made it necessary for the redesign. As papers continue to lose money in daily circulation they are reliant on web advertising. And if a reader can get in and out without having to peruse the ads, then it defeats the purpose of posting the content online in the first place. I would counter that many other papers have succeeded in offering all of their content online, getting advertisers to commit, and keeping their websites easy to use. Check out papers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, who put all of their content online and yet have workable websites. Instead of keeping it clean, organized and simple, the Enquirer is now unreadable.

So now I'm considering options. Fortunately, I subscribe to quite a few local blogs that display local news stories, so I'm not left out in the cold. And there's a Google News option for local news that I might have to take advantage of. Regardless, unless the Enquirer can get things cleaned up and presentable, I might not read it that much anymore.

Say Nothing At All

I've almost come around on Adam Dunn. Sure, he's as frustrating a baseball player as you can find: strikes out a lot, not a good fielder, doesn't do the little things to help his team. But, at the end of the day, he can change a game with one swing, and he forces a pitcher to tread lightly through the line-up. I'm at the point where I think if Bob Castellini can lock him up at reasonable rate for the next five years, he should do it. This guys is going to hit 600 home runs in his career. He'd probably be a better DH in the American League, but the Reds aren't in the American League, and they can't play him at first base, do you work with what you got.

The realization that I'm feeling better about Dunner came last night when I read that one baseball GM ripped into him. The guy was answering questions on a radio talk show and a person called in to suggest that the team acquire Adam Dunn. The GM's response:

“Do you know the guy doesn’t really like baseball that much? Do you know the guy doesn’t have a passion to play the game that much? How much do you know about the player? There’s a reason why you’re attracted to some players and there’s a reason why you’re not attracted to some players. I don’t think you’d be very happy if we brought Adam Dunn here . . . We’ve done our homework on guys like Adam Dunn and there’s a reason why we don’t want Adam Dunn. I don’t want to get into specifics.”

You'll never here a GM go out of his way to disparage another player. Adding insult to injury is the fact that he's the GM of a Canadian franchise. This is total bush league.

Look, I get frustrated about Dunn a lot, but it's just because he sometimes fails to connect his brain to his physical abilities. I don't question his desire to play at all. I think it's the opposite: he tries too hard sometimes when he should play more naturally.

These ridiculous comments probably show why this guy won't be a GM much longer. And even better, the Reds are playing at Toronto next week. Something tells me that Dunn will explode.

Why Aren't You Using It?

Yesterday, Mozilla released the 3.0 version of Firefox. Firefox is a web browser [like Internet Explorer, Safari, or Netscape] but is the best on the block. The best part is that it's freeware and it's taken the world by storm. This latest version not only fixed a few bugs that occasionally bothered me but added features I used to hack in. The url bar is now an "awesome bar" that knows where you want to go before you do.

I've loved Firefox so much that when I was on staff at the megachurch, where we were forbidden to use it, I smuggled it in and hid it in a folder. I would suggest you head on over and download it today. You'll love it.

Me VS Tiger [How quickly things change]

Just after Tiger took the initial lead in our head-to-head challenge, news breaks thathe'll have to hang it up for the rest of the year because of his knee.

Although I've tweaked my ankle a time or two, and bought a knee brace for the half-marathon because of some soreness, my knees are in good, functioning condition. Therefore, I win in the category of functioning knees. So the revised scoreboard is now:

ME = 1

TIGER = 1

I would predict that, with Tiger on the mend, he's not going to want to answer my challenge this year. That's fine. It'll give me plenty of time to bust out a big lead on him.

Father's Day Hook-Up

.Less than a week to go on my intensive Xavier class, so there are some things I haven't caught up with yet. One of them would be acknowledging the Father's Day greatness bestowed upon me by the wife and daughter.

They're now playing Diff'rent Strokes reruns on BET and I'll tune in to remember the entertainment of my childhood. Memorial Day Weekend there was a marathon that was DVR-able. The theme song of the show [written/performed by Growing Pain's Alan Thicke] is now a Kaelyn favorite. She loves to dance around to the song. The week before Father's Day she started singing something that I didn't understand and, apparently, it was the Diff'rent Strokes theme song. Kelly was inspired and made me a Father's Day video, a great first attempt at iMovie, by the way.

Although Father's Day was a busy day for us, we had a great time. I love my girls. Check out their video here

PHOTO CREDIT: The photo with this post was taken near Kaelyn's first birthday by Kristin Worthen whose wedding we were privileged to attend last month.

Me VS Tiger [It Begins]

While I was kinda pulling for Rocco Mediate to keep pushing the US Open to even more play-off holes, I must admit that I was pulling for Tiger Woods to win yet another Major Championship today. As I've mentioned before, Tiger and I share the same birthdate [December 30, 1975]. So whenever people rave about how amazing he is, I'm forced to compare my accomplishments with his because we've had exactly the same amount of time to get things done. For the longest time I've felt unworthy, but then I realized that it's all because the scoreboard has gone only one way.

So today I decided that I am going to enter the fray and take on Tiger Woods in the official "Me VS Tiger" competition.

We will go mano-a-mano, comparing each of our life's accomplishments to see who ends up on top. This will account for 50% of the scoring. The remainder will be based on an actual head-to-head match-up in a competition decided by Tiger himself [he'd better pick golf, otherwise I'm kicking his ***]. The competition will carry on until the in-person competition takes place. The scores will then be combined and a winner will be declared.

Tiger, be advised that this is your public challenge. I know you'll have downtime to troll the internet now that you're resting the knee until the British Open. Once you come across my blog you can drop me an email and we'll set up the match-up. Otherwise I'm going to have to take you down in a long, drawn out, merciless way.

As we begin the competition, the first comparison will be Golf Major Championships. Tiger now has fourteen in his professional career. Although I have watched many majors on television, I have yet to win one. I did, at one time, own a green windbreaker jacket, but I'm not sure that it counts. So since I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be able to string together fourteen Majors in the next few decades, I will concede and give Tiger this category. So the official scoreboard now stands at . . .

ME= 0

TIGER= 1

Well played. Well played.

Looking for Redlegs

I'm not quite sure when it started. Perhaps it was empathy stemmed over from the year of my birth.

I was born in the midst of the Big Red Machine, in December 1975, between back-to-back World Championships. Just two months before I was born, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Boston Red Sox in seven games.

But it probably started with those Saturday baseball games on television when I was a kid. It was the only time I had the opportunity to see this bizarre phenomenon known as the American League— teams like the Yankees, Tigers, White Sox, and Royals. But the one I enjoyed the most played in a stadium with a big green wall in left field. That was the team I liked the best. So in the mid-eighties, I chose my American league team: the Boston Red Sox.

The recent futility of my hometown club led me to live and die with the Sox. I remember Buckner losing the ball in the five-hole. I remember Clemens getting ejected from the ALCS in 1990. I remember when Mo Vaughn was mashing and Pedro Martinez was menacing. I remember staying up to watch the 11th inning of game 7 of the ALCS when former-Red Aaron Boone took Tim Wakefield yard.

But watching the Red Sox win to championships in four years has been enjoyable. True, not as enjoyable as it would be if the Reds would win another, but fun nevertheless. But the recent run of championships has taken a little bit off of my relationship with the team. They used to be underdogs. Now they're poised to become a dynasty. It's just different.

So as the Red Sox come to town for the first time since the year of my birth, you'd think I'd be lined up to get tickets [ironically, even though the Reds sold these tickets like it was the greatest sporting event in Cincinnati history, you can walk up and purchase them for any game this weekend]. But, as of now, I'm not going to any of the three games. Sure, it's the match-up of my two favorite teams, but it's not worth the premium price to me. The Reds are reeling and the Red Sox are cruising. Plus, the games will be on television, so I won't have to miss a play

Here's to hoping that a little love will come the Reds way so that the next time these teams face-off it'll be in a World Series [which the Reds will win].

UPDATE

Two more things:

1) I forgot to mention that the first manager of the Red Sox came from the RedLegs. I believe that they weren't the Red Sox until that manager renamed the team the American League Red Stockings, later the Red Sox. Additionally, I thing the Reds later dropped the "Stockings" because it had German connotations,

2) Of course, wouldn't you know it that I received a call an hour after originally posting this offering me a ticket to tonight's game. I ended up going and was proud that the crowd, while filled with Sox fans, was mostly for the Reds. And they ending up winning to boot. Thanks, Tye and Andrea.

New View

Earlier this week I was online checking Google maps and saw that the Google street view has finally come to Cincinnati. This is an effort by Google to get 360 views of [I think] every street in America. I could tell by the view that they took these pictures last year when our street was under construction.

I feel particularly honored that the Explorer was front and center for the picture.

Go ahead and Google an address and see what happens.

Rehabbed House

Just wanted to get up the new blog look since I have most of the redesign finished. Most noticeable is the new front page [RSS subscribers will have to click over to see it] that is image-based. Those catching the blog straight from the interwebs will get to continually see a new front door.

Like I said, I'm not finished yet, but this gives you an idea of what I'm working toward. Wordpress rocks.

Trying to Transition

I've sung the praises of Wordpress and have thoroughly enjoyed using it as a blogging platform. While I've enjoyed this current layout, I'm ready to change it again. My reasoning is twofold: 1) I [finally] admit, it's not the easiest to read. People who catch the blog via RSS don't necessarily notice, but if you read straight from the website, the text is a tad tiny.

2) I get bored easily. So even though I've only had this theme for about a year, it feels like time to change.

The new theme I'm working with is pretty sweet, nothing like anything I've seen. But I'm still tweaking the code so I might not have it up for a little while. So depending on how fast I can work on it, I might be on a little hiatus. So be patient, and we'll get this up as soon as possible.

More Crazy City Livin'

Went to bed late on Friday night, woke up for a 9am soccer game, and the returned to notice my neighbor's car was rear ended. Then I realized from the car parts strewn along the street that something bigger happened. Apparently at 3am early Saturday morning, a Nissan Maxima was flying up the street and rear ended a truck parked in front of our condos. It started a chain reaction, hitting the car of a guy from Saint Louis, which in turn hit the car of one of my neighbors. The driver of the car was able to continue going up the street before leaving the car and running away. That leads us to believe that the car was stolen and as of 4pm today, the perp has yet to be caught.

Kelly and I were surprised that even with Kaelyn's baby monitor on, we slept through a huge collision and the arrival of police/fire department folk immediately in front of our condo. Only one of our neighbors woke up to witness it in action. I guess we're heavy sleepers.

My neighbor has a little more of the story with a picture [plus a little college basketball talk] but the thing that left my grateful is that I was parked immediately in front of the three-cars that were damaged. And the two cars behind me [thankfully] had their emergency brakes on. Otherwise the Exploder would've been hit for sure.

Just another thing that keeps us connected to our neighbors.