Wednesday, April 26, 2006

right now.

*****ATTENTION*****The following Paragraph is a senseless rant about Baseball and Barry Bonds, if this offends you skip to the next line of asterisks.

So thanx to a friend, I have a subscription to mlb.com for a month and can watch any baseball game I want on my computer. As I was working on a calendar for college ministry I was listening to the end of the NYMets and SFGiants. Down by 2 in the bottom of ninth with 2 outs and 1 on, BBonds came up to pinch hit against BWagner. If anyone has seen Barry play this season, they know there was no reason to believe he stood a chance against the hard-throwing wagner. 4 pitches later the ball was in the stands in center. Just when I was beginning to doubt, Barry goes yard in a big way. Watching him bat is amazing. He never chases pitches, and doesn't miss many he swings at. Anyway, enough of that, I'm just saying I'm not surprised Wagner came after him, I would too, given how hard he throws and how bad Barry has looked lately. Nevertheless thanks to that it'll be another 2 weeks before Barry sees a pitch, and that is honestly the most frustrating thing to me. I just wish managers would grow a pair and pitch to him. I also think the Giants should be smart and buy a bat so Barry has to see some pitches. Enough of that. Heres the truth, the giants and Barry for all their skill, can't stop the Colorado Rockies, so do whatever you want Barry can't bat 9 times a game, and the rockies will continue to roll in their division.
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I've decided EL Fudge cookies are amazing and delicious. If you have not had some lately they are worth purchasing and eating.

In other news--Sarah and I were looking for something to do the other night, and we decided to cut off my hair. It is comfortable. Things with Sarah are awesome, and I feel so blessed to get to have a relationship like this. We want to her home over EAster and I met her family and friends. It was a really great experience and helped me know more about her. I feel like everything I felt before was nothing in comparison to what I know now. The more I am with her, the more I want to be. The only draw back of the trip is that we were unable to visit key place in Pearl Jam history whil we were there, so perhaps on future visits. By the way their new CD comes out Tues. and Rolling Stone says its their best in ten years. I'm stoked.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

rolling rox, and road rash

Starters--Rockies 5-2 and swept only there 13th road series in franchise history this weekend. Let's start the playoffs today. In all seriousness, a healthy April and May means playoff contention in August. we'll see.

Last night Sarah and I were gonna ride my longboards for a date. I have to say "were gonna," b/c we never really made it past the first run. She can ride skateboards, this was clear the first second she got on the board, however it had been awhile and it was a fairly fast hill, thus the end was less than desirable. She got a bit stiff because of her speed and freaked out when she went over a speed bump and fell. She sprained her ankle pretty good, and has a scrawberry the size of a softball on her hip. She is hanging in there, and it was fun to watch her attack the hill so confidently. You can't really fault yourself, when you get hurt not being afraid, at least thats what I think. Nevertheless this experience as well as our relationship in general thus far is teaching me loads about sacrifice. There have been multiple times already when I have had to face my selfishness and sacrifice for the sake of "us." it is fun and has been a blessing. I'm stoked that when we go to Seattle this weekend, to visit her family, we'll be bringing her broken from my skateboard. funny.

Last week--last week was an interesting week. One in which I had to walk through being challenged by people and God. A situation arose where I was forced to look at myself and ministry and pray a lot to determine whether or not I was missing the boat or not. I am purposely staying ambiguous to protect everyone involved. On this side of things, I can say that it was an experience that hurt me at the time but has indeed made me a better minister. I think as long as ministering to people is my job, I will be hurt by the ones I love, and consequently I will hurt the ones I love. This is certainly a messy business, but nevertheless the only thing I can do.

Passive Resistance--I really have no clue what I think about war anymore. I have been reading, thinking, and listening to a ton of stuff lately in regards to how we should respond to aggression. I am still on the fence about this one. If anyone has any thoughts on where they have arrived on the necessity of war let me know. I'd love some feedback. Here is my question: If hate, anger, or violence could solve the world's problems than why are we still fighting today, because we have been fighting for a long time, you know?

Easter--hallelujah. Reading the book of John and being blown away by the focus and single-mindedness of Christ. poetry.

sleep--I don't need as much of it as I thought.

playing catch in the evening--might be the best thing ever. Thank goodness I have friends who like to.

chick-fil-a--it is really freaking good.

nature--goulet.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

MLB 2006 Season Prospectus

Division winners:

ALW:A's
ALE:Red Sox
ALC:Twins
ALWC:Angels

NLW:Padres
NLE:Braves
NLC:Cardinals
NLWC:Mets

World Series: Brave's over the A's in 6 games
Series MVP: Jeff Francouer

Individual Awards:

ALMVP:Torii Hunter
NLMVP:Albert Pujols
ALCyY:Rich Harden
NLCyY:Jake Peavy

Other predictions:

--Rockies record: 85-77
--Omar Minaya and the Mets finally made some decent moves and were able to purchase the wild card
--The NL East will be a dogfight because of how competitive the braves, mets, and phillies will be, but in the end it will prove how essential pitching is to winning in baseball.
--The yankees will miss the playoffs and see that starting pitching is the most significant ingredient to winning as well.
--Josh Beckett will have a great year IF he pitches 200 innings.
--As Barry Bonds plays, so will the Giants--hence they will finish 2nd in the West.
--The dodgers will see the futility of buying really talented injury prone players, and finish badly
--The Oakland Athletics will win their division and Bobby Crosby, will get serious MVP consideration
--The Blue Jays will actually be much improved but won't make the playoffs
--The Colorado Rockies will have three NL Allstars--Holliday, Helton, and Jose Mesa w/ a sub 2.00 era.
--The young pitchers on the Orioles will all have improved years and prove the genius of Leo Mazzone
--The Braves will win a 15th straight division title.
--Jack Peavy, if he gets 3 runs of support a game, will win 20 games.
--The Cubs will vye for third in their division and wil consistently be about 6 games back in the wild card race, and consequently break my friend Van's heart again.
--If Clemens does not come back the Stros will be terrible.
--Ryan Howard and Jeff Francouer will have monster years and be allstars
--The royals will still be terrible
--No one will pitch to Miguel Cabrera all year and he will still hit 30 bombs.
--Alfonso Soriano will have a down year also, because of no protection and a bad ballpark.
--The Braves will STILL kill Tom Glavine when they play him and the reality of never getting 300 wins will sink in with a loud thud that can be heard in his full bank account, or empty soul.
--The Brewers will be much improved over last season, and contend for second in their division, although the cards will run away with first.
--Frank Thomas wil show, he still has "it", IF he plays 120 games. Thats a big if.


I want to keep going but need to get ready for school. Hopefully this is enough to make me look like a complete idiot in a couple of months. I hope this will encourage my baseball loving friends and poster's to do something similar so in a few months we can look back and see how wrong we all were.