I was looking through Vimeo and found where a kid was tinkering with an adapter on his camera. What he does is fine, I guess but really this clip is more about the fact that it was shot on campus at UNCW. Some of the buildings and whatnot may be foreign to a couple of you. I was just looking through clips and randomly clicked on these without knowing it was actually in Wilmington.
Categories: Interesting
So, I got up yesterday morning and for the first time in a month or so I turned it to ESPN’s Sportscenter. I used to leave it on throughout the morning when I was at UNCW and especially when I lived with Travis Putnam. I just wanted to look and see if they were going to talk about anything other than the Super Bowl and the NBA. If you know anything about the show, they put a list on the right of the upcoming stories and highlights. Now ESPN has never been “soccer-friendly” and if they ever do show any it’s in a small segment right after commercials to promote EPSN Deportes, the Spanish language version. Now I know all the arguments why it’s not popular in the States like “soccer’s not a real sport” or ”we already have football, basketball and baseball” or maybe from the person who’s tried to watch and says, “there’s no contact” or the soundly logical ”there’s not enough scoring”, but I love it. And even though there’s MLS (Major League Soccer) Thursday nights, ESPN has done nothing to change that sentiment.
But, when I turned yesterday morning and looked down the list, the unbelievable was in front of me. Not just a little tab that said Soccer, but a tab that said Manchester United. Yes, son! I had to read it a few times. I didn’t know if they were going to talk about AIG having to drop out of their shirt sponsorship with the club or just talk about Man United being the greatest or what? Instead, they showed highlights from the day before. West Brom v. Man United! Which means they played at West Brom because they show the teams backwards across the pond. There was little drama to the game for me, but I’m sure that they showed it because there was a lot of scoring. It was a 0-5 thumping by United. And Cristiano Ronaldo scored the last two goals of the game. That would be Cristiano, the best player in the world, Ronaldo. This is the guy who won any and every award for last season after he won the Premier League, Champions League and scored 42 goals in the process. He pisses me off, but he’s a stud. That type of high-profile player plus the abundance of goals is the only way they’ll really show soccer in the normal flow of Sportscenter. That scoreline would equate in American football to 3-59, if you gave field goals for shots on goal and touchdowns for goals. West Brom with 1 shot on goal and Man United with 8 shots on goal and 5 goals. Ok, enough of that!
Now this really is not coming as much of a surprise since the rumor has it that ESPN is putting a bid in for the TV rights to the English Premier League. They have a version of ESPN in England, but compared to SKY Sports they are virtually non-existent. So, they are putting a bid in for the rights to the local coverage to get feelers out, not really thinking they’ll get it, and then when the international rights are up for bids they are supposedly putting in a serious bid to broadcast all of the Premier League internationally, which is done by Setanta Sports who sub certain games out to Fox Soccer Channel. It’s all very confusing, but to know that ESPN would have the Premier League on Saturday and Sunday mornings would be incredible!! So, I think this is one of their pushes to prepare the American public for the idea of it.
Whether the American public gets into it or not, it would be nice for me to have a lower cable bill! Until then, I’ll keep cheering for United on Setanta, Fox Soccer and the occasional ESPN2 coverage of the Champions League.
Sorry to bore you, but I had to get it out there.
Categories: Interesting · Manchester United
So, I’ve been driving a lot lately. Not enough to sustain our drivers, but enough to keep me really busy. So, between being really busy and out late every evening and Jo and I not having a laptop I haven’t been able to write much.
Since I try to stay pretty honest, I’ll just put it out there. I’m depressed as all get out right now! For some of you, that may be mildly shocking, for others common knowledge. I could put it down to a lot of different things, but the main reason is that I’m driving…..again. Don’t get me wrong, driving a truck can be hard work, profitable and a respectable profession. It’s just not for me. I knew that at 19. So, I figured out that I needed to go to school and get my degree. Circumstances and some bad grades in Biology, namely Microbiology of the Cell and Ecology, kept me from finishing the first time around. So, I moved back and started driving again, not knowing what to do. I went a second time around and couldn’t swing it because of finances. Everyone asks why I didn’t do student loans, but that’s where the bad grades come in. Besides, we have enough of those with Jo. So, we came back, but this time I made it clear that I could only work here if I didn’t have to drive.
Times are hard though. So, you do what you have to do. That being said, I don’t know if it will get better any time soon and if I were to stay in this business for good there is always the possibility that I’ll be back in the truck again. It brings me down. When I drive it makes me feel 19 and confused all over again. I texted Jo the other day and told her that I needed to see one dream realized.
There are tons of things that I love to do. I just need to get down to it and hone those things. The things I don’t know how to do, I’ve got to find someone to show me. Some things will take money, but I have a good paying job right now and hopefully that can fund me getting going in something I love doing. I want to be my own boss. No……I have to be my own boss! It really is just the way it has to be. Anyone I’ve ever had for a boss, regardless of the situation, I’ve ended up not liking. I’m strong-willed and opinionated and that hasn’t really worked out in the past.
I want to feel like I’m in a creative process with what I do. Nothing here is creative. It drones. It’s monotonous.
I want to enjoy what I do. I always have. My dad wants me to be proud of what he’s built up and wants to be able to pass it on to his son. I just don’t know if it’s for me.
Sorry. This one was a big, old emotional vomit.
Categories: Belief · Interesting
It’s a new season in TV for a lot of shows and my DVR is smoking! Jo and I generally don’t like the same shows, so I have to watch mine after she’s gone to bed. Here are a few of my shows, old and new, in no particular order!
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations – this guys travels all over the world and tries to take in what life for the common person in those places would be like. His mixture of being well-spoken and highly knowledgeable laced with quick-witted snark makes this quite possibly my favorite show these days! I watched the show in Iceland the other night and nearly peed myself.
Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls – the guy’s a complete stud!
The Soup hosted by Joel McHale – maybe the funniest show on TV!
The West Wing – reruns on Bravo – just a well-written, fast moving classic.
The Premier League – that’s soccer to the layperson.
The Office – still my favorite, even though this season has taken a bit of a nose-dive. Get the DVDs of the earlier seasons for sure!
Whale Wars – the largest gathering of Numbnuts on TV!
Late Night with Conan O’Brien – of course!
So, what are you guys eating space on your DVR for or just have to be at home because you can’t miss?? I have others, but some are guilty pleasures and others I can’t remember.
Categories: Interesting
There was a time in life where I thrived on “being truthful”. It was my mode of operation. If I hurt people’s feelings they just had to deal with it because the truth was the most important thing. I was all for seeing the truth be known and put out into the open. At the time I saw the world as much more black & white. Life was to be lived by the ideals in Scripture and possibly moreso by the ideals I had drilled into me from my youth. Ideals. That was what the Lord wanted, of course. For us to live out the ideals! So, when someone wasn’t living out the ideal it was my job to call that out.
I can remember my sister and I getting in massive arguments over her behavior soon after she got married. I felt like no one else wanted to step up to the plate and call her out. Like they were afraid! I was not. I was literally afraid of very little. Brazen, you might say! You would be right. She needed to be brought down a notch and I was the one to do it.
I also can remember Steph and I getting into an argument out in the cul-de-sac at Owens Court where I lived with Tate, Ted, Doug and T Wilkins. I believe it was over her immature and reckless behavior. Of course I was in the right in that situation as well. I made a few statements, some snide, we blew up and cussed each other out in the open. She would get over it. She needed to hear it.
Sounds loving, right?
Man, how hurtful we can be. How defiant we can be in our disregard for the feelings of the ones we care about…
Maybe it’s marriage or just getting older, but I’ve learned in some pretty humbling ways how to keep my mouth shut. Even more than that, I’ve learned how to love people in the middle of their wrongness. I am wrong in a lot of what I do. I have been blatantly rebellious at times. I would even dare to say that I’ve been a hater of God. God knows that. And loves me anyway. That’s something to stew on.
One of the things that calmed my mouth down was from Proverbs 17:28.
“Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent,
and discerning if he holds his tongue.”
It became my creed for a time. Just shut up! The Lord can do so much more in someone’s life when I get out of the way. I tried to make people right and yet I couldn’t do anything right myself. The hypocrite. Not only that, but the loud and impudent hypocrite. In other words…..a jerk-off. No one likes that guy!
Now, I’ve gotten that completely together, right? What came along with that is the feeling that since I wasn’t really speaking truth into people’s lives, I conversely didn’t want them speaking it into mine. I left them alone, so they could do the same. After a while I began laying out eggshells around me and essentially asking people not to break them. “I don’t really like to talk about that.” Or, “I’ve already dealt with that.”
But, I need to be in community and around people that can speak truth into my life. Just because I never knew how to speak the truth in love doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to speak the truth at all. I need to have people doing that for me and I know the Lord needs me to be that in other people’s lives as well.
So, maybe my new verses should be along the lines of:
Proverbs 16:24 “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”
and
Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
I’m picking up my shells.
Categories: Belief · Interesting
Lately I’ve noticed on all the blogs that I subscribe to or have linked that everyone has reached some sort of blog menopause. I have to say that blogging has been good for me. It’s a bit of a release. An outlet. So, even if I never get another hit I’m going to keep going with it. Like a storage closet with all of my crap in it, I need to pull it out a box at a time to go through and decide what to keep and what’s useless. Thanks for looking in on me, those of you who do. And continue with the feedback.
Categories: Uncategorized
It’s been a really interesting transition into the new year. I find myself really struggling to get back in the groove of doing the daily stuff. Work has been slow for a long time and it’s hard to stay in the mode of doing what you do when there’s nothing to really do. Making up work to do day in and day out becomes a bit of a drag and more than anything, monotonous. With the start of the year things have actually picked up a little and there are things to do from time to time. Not to mention the monthly, quarterly and annual reports, taxes and fees that have to be finished up by the 15th or end of the month. So, there’s actual work now. But motivation is hard to come by. If I knew it was permanent work and things were really going to get better, I could get rolling. But feeling like the things I have to do are temporary and when that’s done I’ll be sitting around again gets me a little down. It seems like everything flowing out of my brain right now doesn’t make much sense. Things are just slow. The last thing I want to do is just use that empty time for blogging. That would get monotonous for you all as well. So I find other things to do.
Business is going to get better. I know it will. But patience is not always my virtue.
If nothing is going well with the business I can at least say that I’m losing weight these days. Much needed. I want to be active again, but I risk the threat of injury with my current weight. That’s sad to say, but it’s true. I want to play ball, lift, surf, walk 18 holes and maybe even run from time to time. In order to get to the place where I can slowly work back into those things I’ve been doing Weight Watchers with Jo for the past month. I’ve lost close to 10 lbs thus far. More than anything, I’ve just stopped drinking regular sodas. Amazing how many calories that adds in a week!
Here’s to Caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper and getting back to what I once was!
Categories: Interesting
I’ve been back in Davidson for almost a year and Jo’s been back here for a couple of months. We’ve been really busy and hanging out with my family when we’re not busy. It’s time for more.
I’ve been ok with “doing life” with just us and some family, but it’s definitely time for us to start including other people in our lives and finding some of those people in the church we go to. It’s a big thing to start going to a new small group and trying to get involved in the church. Even though we’ve gone so long now that we recognize people there, they don’t recognize us. So, we’re signing up for a couples group in a couple of weeks and then going to the new member class at the end of the month. We’re hoping for good things from being involved there! You all can be praying for us.
Categories: Belief
Categories: Music
