Root For the Underblog

In Case You Don't Know It

2009-09-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

Burnt Orange Nation is the best site I have found for rational, family friendly (I think) Longhorn fun.

Also, despite his slowish, flu-induced start, Colt is still in decent position for the Torreta, I mean, Heisman Trophy. They can keep it, that thing is just nothing more than a sure-fire way to lose your bowl game...at least, it is if you play for OU.

Two Years

2009-09-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

My wife Jessica and I got married two years ago today...I love you, Babe.

Okay, sap time is over.

Football Player Beats Up Girl

2009-09-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

It's not what you are thinking. Mississippi St football commit saves fellow students lives from a gun-wielding high school student.

It Doesn't Always Pay To Do The Right Thing

2009-07-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

This kind of speaks for itself. Randalls is shooting themselves in the foot.

End Modern Day Slavery?

2009-07-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

John Ramsey, my friend and fellow Christian/comedian (the similarities end there, he actually has "credentials" and a "future in comedy"), has an interesting campaign going on.

Standup

2009-06-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

Did a couple of sets at the Velveeta Room last Friday. It was a "guest" set. Basically, a guest set is an unbilled spot in the show. I like them because I don't have to commit for both weekend nights and I can book them at the last minute since the manager Dana is always good to me. They pay a token amount: $5 for both shows, but that's an afterthought. Anyway, I'm about to leave and I'm getting paid my $5 and my friend (and the headliner), Mario Digiorgio, says "And worth every bit".

Jerk.

Reading

2009-06-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

Just got done with The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, the writer of Gone, Baby, Gone (good) and Mystic River (not so good). It's his first non-detective novel and it's set in the backdrop of the 1919 Boston police strike. I liked it.

4 Hour Work Week

2009-05-14T12:09:00.001-07:00

Very thought provoking book and blog by Timothy Ferriss. I won't say it is life changing, but it pretty thought provoking. Not just for business, too. It's got some great insights on exercise as well. Basically, it's premise is that a lot of us are wasting our time. No arguments here, as I write my blog read by 3 people a month.

More Classic Muppets

2009-05-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

Beaker sings Feelings. In these uncertain times, wholesome fun would do us all some good.

Grover Disco Dances

2009-04-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

Just good clean fun.

Bad Guys Make Big ,Mistake

2009-04-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

Idiots mess with the dog of Lone Survivor author, former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell. Given what he has been through, he showed a lot of restraint.

Money Stuff

2009-02-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

In lieu of personal finance software, might I suggest www.mint.com? It's gotten rave reviews and if it's missing some bells and whistles, I have missed them. However, any accounting software will look good with my money, as it doesn't take long to count to zero.

Also, read a book called The Millionaire Next Door. It's a few years old, so the info in it isn't exactly breaking news anymore, but it's great stuff. Most millionaires are made by great habits, not high incomes.

Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad?

2009-02-06T23:16:00.000-08:00

This got rejected because it was political. It's good, IMO. End of sermon.

Trends in Football

2009-01-29T00:45:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that the best college and high school football is in the south. Powers like Notre Dame and Michigan each only have 1 championship each in the last 25 years, while teams like Florida, LSU and Miami have multiple. There's no mystery here, as more people move south, more talent is there. Which brings me to my deep thought of the day: How much different would college football look if not for the invention of the air conditioner? Ah, the glory days when Holy Cross and Lehigh were kings.

Abortion Rights and Eugenics

2009-01-23T08:09:00.000-08:00

Our new president will likely reverse some Bush-era restrictions on abortion. This, while disappointing to me, comes as no surprise.

Humor me as a stroll down memory lane: I remember reading an article years ago from the late Reggie White, and ordained Baptist minister and NFL defensive lineman extraordinaire. He questioned why more minority leaders don't stand up to abortion rights activists (that is, if the leaders aren't activists themselves). Here found this curious because abortion rights in this country were obtained largely on the efforts of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, who had some interesting thoughts on cleansing the world of "lesser classes of people". Her own words say it all.

Detroit Doesn't Want Your Pity, Just Your Business

2009-01-10T20:04:00.001-08:00

As a former Michigander, I used to be scared of Detroit, now I am scared for Detroit. It's in the eye of the economic hurricane, and I genuinely feel for this still-proud city. One could argue that between the stranglehold of unions and corrupt city leadership, it's wounds might be partly self-inflicted. It's also true that I got out of the Detroit suburb where I spent my high school years as fast as I could. But I've learned to love it from afar and I pray for it's revival. It's a great sports town and it gave us Motown, the working middle class and the White Stripes. Mitch Albom writes a very good column about the state of affairs in the Motor City for SI.

Wayman Tisdale

2008-12-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

He was a great college player at the University of Oklahoma (3 time All-American) and the in NBA who went onto a second career as a jazz musician. Now he finds himself fighting cancer. Read his inspiring story here.

Thanksgiving Day Parades

2008-11-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

I don't get them. However, anyone who watched this year's Macy's parade got a special treat in the form of Rick "Never Gonna Give You Up" Astley. He had his own float and everything.

Random College Football Thoughts

2008-11-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

1. In a sick way, I am sort of (I said SORT OF) grateful for UT's loss to Tech. It gives me a chance to appreciate this team for who it is rather than the simple fact that they are undefeated. This year's team is very easy to like, they were expected to lose 3-4 games, but came through and managed to beat a very good OU team and hold onto the top spot for a very tough stretch. This team is full of hard working humble guys like Quan Cosby, Colt McCoy, Jordan Shipley, Brian Orakpo, etc. who really buys into the team-first ethos. It's a good time to bleed orange.

2. The Mack Brown who Longhorn fans gently chide for his ultra-positive demeanor is the same Mack Brown who is the best second half coach in the country. The '01 Holiday Bowl, the '04 KU game, the Rose Bowl versus Michigan, the Rose Bowl versus USC, countless games versus Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, this years OU game, plus near misses against Colorado in '01 and Tech last weekend...all games where the team stormed back from a deficit. To be a UT fan this decade is to never be out of a game. It will make you crazy, but we are also very spoiled. It's one thing to win, it's another to win against the odds. Speaking of the '01 game against Colorado...

3. Up until this weekend, it was possibly my most brutal sports loss. You would think a scant three months after 9/11, I would have a little perspective, but then you would be wrong. After pasting CU in the regular season, the teams met again in the conference title game with a national title berth at stake (for us at least). Texas fell behind a large part due to what I now call "The Most Devasting Play in College Football History". Chris Simms threw an interception, it was returned for a touchdown, and star freshman running back Cedric Benson (before he started getting arrested all the time) and All American offensive lineman Mike Williams were both injured trying to make a tackle. This is the equivalent of coming home to find out that your wife has every member of Nickelback over for dinner and let them use your White Stripes CDs as coasters for their Frescas. Then, they break the cds and slit your throat with them.

Anyway, after (unjustly?) spending the whole season on the bench, Major Applewhite came in to relieve an injured Chris Simms and proceeded to throw an 80 yard touchdown on the first play and lead a furious rally that fell just short and led to a 2 point loss. Major did lead a successful rally in the ensuing Holiday Bowl, where we beat Washington 47-43. I think I cried that night.

Pretty Cool High School Play

2008-11-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

Philip Lutzenkircher is a highly recruited TE out of Georgia. He was the pivot point on an interesting play. I don't think you have seen this before.

Gameday Signs

2008-10-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

Seen at the ESPN College Football Gameday broadcast from the Penn State/Ohio State Game:

"Ki-Jana Carter Sold Me Beer"

"If Pooing Your Pants is Cool, Consider Me Joe Paterno".

This Guy

2008-10-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

My son Andrew was born last Thursday. After Jess pushed for three hours, it became apparent that birthing this kid the traditional way would have been like pushing an orange through a straw. So we went for the c-section. Sure, there was disappointment, but at least I got to see a surgery, I thought. Then, the meds didn't take like they should and Jess was feeling way too much and they had to pause things and get more "happy juice". Jess's face was behind a curtain and I was right next to her. Then the doctor said I could look over the curtain and I saw way more baby than I was expecting (he was almost 9 pounds) and Jess was knocked/passed out by then. I just remember seeing him and thinking that, with Jess out of it, I was all this kid had for the moment. THAT is a rough way to enter the world. I won't bore the "non-parents" with any more details, but, I'll just repeat my mantra that "All the cliches are true". It's pretty amazing.

Ty Willingham

2008-10-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

Although I pull first and foremost for my alma mater, The University of Texas, I still have a soft spot for the Fighting Irish. Here is a good article about the sorry state of affairs that Willingham left. Sure, ultimately, Charlie Weis has to take some serious ownership of last year's 3-9 campaign, but Willingham's sorry (and lazy) recruiting at Notre Dame (and everywhere else he has gone) left a time bomb for the next coach. Last year's team had a severe lack of upperlassmen offensive lineman, which might explain the 50 plus sacks they allowed and the fact that Jimmy Clausen got hit and beat up so much, he looked like Latrine from "Top Secret". I heard from Phil Steele on the radio that coming into the 2007 season, ND had lost more lettermen than it returned, which happens about once every 3-4 years IN ALL OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL. That is the result of not just bad recruiting, but "no recruiting" by the guy who was responsible for said recruiting 3 years prior (and that would be Ty).

Willingham is stoic and quiet. And from an early age, we are taught not to assume someone is dumb just because they don't talk much. However, don't swing the opposite way and assume someone is on top of things just because they keep their mouth shut.

Malcolm Unleashed

2008-10-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

I was happy to see that Malcolm Gladwell has a new book coming out next month called Outliers. His two previous books, Blink and The Tipping Point, were simple, interesting and thought provoking. He writes what I call "low brow/ high brow". His stuff is easy to read, but you feel smarter for having read it. Blink is about instant decision making, and The Tipping Point is about fads and trends, but each book is really so much more than those descriptions.

Additionally, in "The Tipping Point", Gladwell referred a book called Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fisher, which was another home run. Fisher's book was a great dissection of the events around the first battles of the American Revolution, Lexington and Concord. Fisher does a great job of delving into details and exploring the vices and virtues of both the British and the Americans. Also, you get a feel for just how clever and calculating early American Whigs like Revere and Sam Adams really were. They felt that independence had to happen, but that the world and posterity needed to see Britain as the aggressor. Therefore, the events leading up to the revolution were an attempt to draw Britain into a fight.

Gladwell's blog is here. He is one of the best writers out there, whether it's a book or one of his many many New Yorker articles.

Elgin Baylor: More Than Just a Bad GM

2008-10-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been thinking service to one's country. Perhaps it's because I'm reading "Paul Rever's Ride" by David Hackett Smith (awesome) or watching the John Adam miniseries with my wife (Netflix it, people!). Or maybe it's because I have been reading Bill Simmons columns on espn.com. He wrote a nice tribute to the NBA career of Minneapolis/LA Laker great Elgin Baylor, as he was recently fired as the GM of the Clippers.

Baylor is rightly lauded a great player, but a lot of people forget the specifics of his career: 27.4 ppg, over 13 rebounds, 43% from the field (at a time when most players shot below 40%) and the the numbers would have been higher had he not been plagued by knee troubles. Also, Baylor had one of the most amazing single seasons ever: during the '61-62 season, he averaged 38 points, 19 rebounds and 5 assists per game, while not practicing at all and only playing in weekend games. This was the setup because he was an army reservist in Washington at the time, and only played when he could get a weekend pass. And, to top it off, he had to fly coach to get to the games. The horror.

Simmons' column (aka The Sports Guy) and corresponding podcast are some of my favorites. He used to write for Jimmy Kimmel, so he Kimmel and Adam Carolla are drinkin' buddies. My only complaint is that he falls into the east coast bred trap of actually liking baseball and being indifferent to college football. But, then again, he went to Holy Cross. That's not a recipe for college gridiron fandom. If the University of Texas weren't good at a particular sport, I probably wouldn't like it either. Luckily, we are good at everything...cause WE'RE TEXAS (as I shoot 6 guns in the air and shout).

Winnie Cooper Revisited

2008-09-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

The older I get, the more it galls me that I really don't know how to do much (like shoot a gun, web design, mime, you get the idea). I've chosen to blame this on my love of reading. I've been too focused on crime novels or historical non-fiction and haven't been brushing up on how to manuals or the sciences.

Anyhow, I was perusing the math section of the bookstore and came across a couple of math books by Danica McKellar, best known as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years . Apparently, she has taken to promoting math education among girls. I knew she was a math major at UCLA (yes, I do keep up with such things, Fred Savage went to Stanford, by the way), but Winnie Cooper wrote a book? I kind of have that same feeling that I got when I found out that Paul Newman was an actor, too, in addition to his groundbreaking salad dressing work.

For Better Or For Worse

2008-09-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

My good friend and fellow comics aficionado, Greg, pointed out to me that For Better or For Worse had called it quits last week. Actually, the creator, Lynn Johnston, ended the strip and is going to start over from the beginning. Basically, she will be redoing old strips, as the comic was created 29 years ago. There will be some new content.

FBORFW was never my favorite, but I liked how Johnston actually made the characters grow. And I don't mean grow emotionally (way overrated), I was just impressed how the characters aged. As the years grew on, it got into heavier topics, but I still felt it remained true to it's original spirit, unlike say... Funky Winkerbean.

And about Funky: that comic is the biggest wet blanket in the newspaper, with the possible exception of the actual news. It started off humerous in the '70s (the hall monitor with a machine gun mounted on his desk? Gold!), but lately it's dealt with adoption, cancer, teen pregnancy, landmines...everything but laughter. It's like every day is a "very special Blossom" episode. And not to mention, that strip has had two "time warps", where they just zoomed ahead a couple of years. Confusing. The world doesn't need another "Rex Morgan, MD".

Another sad footnote to the For Better saga is that Lynn Johnston got a divorce in the last year after 32 years of marriage. Now, it's like the whole strip was a lie. She wasn't lovingly poking fun at marriage all those years, she was drowning in a doomed one. She should have been writing "The Lockhorns".

And would the good comic strips please stop dying? Bloom County, Calvin & Hobbes, Fox Trot have all suffered early deaths...and it's not like Berke Breathed, Bill Watterson and Bill Amend have a whole lot of other stufff on their plate. What do they do with their time? And those "Sundays only " strips are not cutting the mustard, Mr. Breathed and Mr. Amend.

Okay, enough talking the tough issues for me. I'm spent. You've got to stand for something, or you will fall for anything.

2008-08-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Our lawn was recently under assault by armadillos...or as I call them, "Nature's Taliban". I went Wile E. Coyote and set a trap. He was no match for the potent combination of my hunter's instinct and the Havahart 3000 live trap.

I Spy

2008-08-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

One of my friends called this week relatively late at night to talk about his day at work. He works for the Department of Justice and for the last couple of days, he has been attending a training session where government employees learns to apply methods from the private sector to the war on terrorism.

While there, he met a CIA operative. My friend could tell this guy was an operative because a) the guy told him so and b) his nametag said only "Steve". My friend started talking with Steve and, my friend, who is a pretty good judge of character, found Steve to be the real deal: brave, tough, smart, with just the right amount of cockiness.

Steve said that when he was in foreign countries, he could pretty much count on being watched 24-7. Most of the time, people wouldn't try to hurt him, they would just make his life hard for him. Sometimes, if he was in a bad mood, he would find some anti-American protest and shake the ringleaders hand, just so his followers would now be on the ringleader's case, too. It wouldn't solve anything, but he would feel better.

Also, Steve had to leave Kenya because off frequent attempts on his life...but, sometimes, he would just have to deal with it. Perhaps the cruelest joke occurred, though, when Steve once discovered that someone had defecated in his suitcase. Then, he has to explain why American Tourister is showing up on his expense account.

My friend then closed the story by telling me, "I had time to tonight to tell one friend about this story. I chose you." So, you have an idea of what my friends think about when they consider what I like.

A Video That Just Makes You Feel Good

2008-08-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

This guy has been globetrotting and making videos for a few years. He did his latest one with sponsorship from Stride gum. Not a bad gig.

Anyway, these videos gives me hope. They make me believe the children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way, show them all the beauty they possess inside. You get the idea.

My Nephews

2008-08-02T16:14:00.001-07:00

Their mom is quite proud.

Samaritan's Feet

2008-08-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

I came across this charity last spring when their coach, Ron Hunter, coached a game barefoot to bring attention to the worldwide problem of "shoelessness". Since he coached at Indiana University/ Purdue University at Indianapolis (my father's alma mater), the story and the charity caught my attention. Coach Hunter has raised over 250,000 shoes for people throughout the world.

More Internet Proof of My Existence

2008-07-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a clip of my recent performance at a the karaoke room of a bar called Homer's. The show is called Last Gas Comedy. It was a pretty good time. It's the down to earth kind of bar where people go after a hard day of work, whether it's a working at a factory, a hospital, or disposing of a dead body.

The clip doesn't go immediately to me, the other comics are Fred Bothwell and Bryson. I'm the one who doesn't have a beard and isn't black.

Say Goodbye to Hollywood (and Shea Stadium)

2008-07-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

My immediate family and I can easily find common ground on sports, religion and politics, but when it comes to the fine arts, the only man who can soothe ALL of our savage souls is the one and only William Joel...as Dwight Schrute would say. Some of the Gen-Y-ers might only know him as a really bad driver and a marry-er of young women, but, apparently, he's got a gift for singing and songwriting, as well. Who knew?

This NY Times article serves two purposes: 1) it gives this poor blog a sense of legitimacy with an obligatory NY Times/ NPR link and 2) it gives me a chance to stroll down memory lane as I picture our family vacations...a 1986 Caprice Classic station wagon with false wood paneling eminating the chorus of "Only the Good Die Young". Sometimes, I envy "the good", as those who died young were spared the indignity of riding in a station wagon with a car top carrier.

The Whiskey Robber

2008-07-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

I was at Half-Price Books and happened across "The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber" by Julian Rubinstein. Highly recommended. It's about a backup goalie for a pro hockey team in Budapest who took to robbing banks in the '90s...all true. It's not often I see tears on the bathroom floor...well, actually, it does happen often, but they are rarely tears of laughter due to the book I am reading, as was the case here.

More Stuff I Dig

2008-07-04T22:23:00.000-07:00

If you are Christian and have a sense of humor, this might work.

If you are white and have a sense of humor, this might work.

Why Force This Blog On Us?

2008-07-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

If you are just now visiting, it's probably because you saw this address in my email sig. In an effort to not have this site be the least visited corner of the internet, I figured I would put it out there for all my friends, as a) I am 3 months away from being a father and this is a good way to make pics available without frequent annoying email updates and b) I have been doing standup for 10 years with virtually no internet record of my existence. And my Vanity (capitalized on purpose) simply cannot handle that. It's this or Myspace.

By the way, I headline the Velveeta Room tomorrow (July 5th) and this place July 12th.

Speaking of My Standup...

2008-07-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

I have some time to actually update my blog. Why, you say? Well, I was supposed to headline the Velveeta Room tonight. The good news is that I got to go home early, the bad news is this is because the first show was so poorly attended. At some point during the show, I could actually hear someone dropping change. It was so quiet, I could even determine it was 2 dimes and a nickel.

Nights like tonight build character. But after 10 years of doing this, I doubt they have built a competent standup comic.

Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT bad, but I scrambled for laugts from 15 people, half of whom were friends or friends of friends. It was the kind of night when my comments about my boming went better than the actual jokes. I have my share of those.

No Depression

2008-06-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

My favorite magazine, No Depression, is ceasing to publish its print edition. No Depression, what's that, you say? Only the best magazine for music fans...even better than Tiger Beat. It "specializes" in roots rock and alt country, but anyone from Johnny Cash to Bob Dylan to Ryan Adams was covered. It was for the discriminating music fan. I might not have liked every band, but they kept it real. It was a truly unique magazine in its ability to connect the past of American music with the present. It made the connection from the 1920s songs of Appalachia to the great songwriters of today.

It will continue to publish it's online edition and has brokered a deal with the University of Texas Press to publish a book/magazine hybrid, which will be published twice a year. While their readership has remained steady, online journalism and the economy have done them in. Another blow to real writing. But then again, so it this blog.

For the record, this kind of makes me regret that I never actually bought an issue and instead choose to read it at Barnes and Noble. The moral? Parents, hug your children. Cherish them. They will move out some day.

The Worst Losses

2008-06-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

On June 2nd, on their way to winning the Stanley Cup, my beloved Detroit Red Wings were part of a thrilling and disappointing come from behind/come from ahead loss in triple overtime to the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. They were down two, then went up a point, then gave up the lead and let the Penguins tie it with 35 seconds left to send it into overtime, where they lost. Perhaps the only way this game could have been more disappointing would have been if the winning shot passed through my car windshield and groin on it's way to into the net. At least, they took the next game to win the series in six.

But, maybe I'm overreacting. I've been known to do that when it comes to sports. Here are three of the most disappointing losses, in no particular order:

1) Boston College 41-Notre Dame 39 November 20, 1993-A week after beating top ranked Flordia State in South Bend, ND let BC come into its house, help itself to the fridge and take a dump in the crisper drawer. ND actually managed to fall far behind, then score 22 fourth quarter points to take the lead, only to lose on a last second field goal. The defense played awful, which is shame because it denied Kevin McDougal, the most underrated Irish quarterback of all time, a well-deserved national championship.

2) Colorado 39-Texas 37 December 1, 2001-You would think a scant three months after 9/11, I would have a little perspective, but then you would be wrong. After pasting CU in the regular season, the teams met again in the conference title game with a national title berth at stake. Texas fell behind a large part due to what I now call "The Most Devasting Play in College Football History". Chris Simms threw an interception, it was returned for a touchdown, and star freshman running back Cedric Benson (before he started getting arrested all the time) and All American offensive lineman Mike Williams were both injured trying to make a tackle. This is the equivalent of coming home to find out that your wife has every member of Nickelback over for dinner and let them use your White Stripes cds as coasters for their Frescas. Then, they break the cds and slit your throat with them.

3) Texas A & M 38-Texas 30 (2007)-I can't really add anything new to this rivalry. I know many a fine Aggie, but I still don't like to lose to them. Especially after we lost to them the previous year and should have been up for this game. And while we have had a definite edge since 1995 (and all time), the game usually leaves me lacking...even when we win. I remember a very lackluster offensive performance in 2005 that cost Vince Young the Heisman (which I guess is okay, because you can't win the Heisman and the national championship, it seems). Anyway, the last two years, we haven't even won. Unlike most Longhorn fans, I don't hate the Aggies. But, I can't deny that this is a program has only sniffed real success through cheating, unless you count a national championship earned when way back when the word pass always was preceded by the a "forward". They pick one game a year to show up, and it's always against us. By playing as poor as we have against them , we only feed their illusions of gridiron relevance.

It's A Boy

2008-05-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

My skill at prophecy must be on the decline. Although, I was sure we would be having a girl, we just found out that our unborn child is male. "Ace" will be the 6th boy on my side and the 3rd on Jess's side. There are no girls yet.

My Cousin Vinny

2008-05-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

Actually, it's my cousin's son Vinny. Anyway, he's featured in an article on bocce in an online Indianapolis paper. Somewhere in New Mexico, my brother Shaun, ex-high school quarterback and current leisure sports champ, sheds a tear of pride.

Fishing

2008-05-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I went to my friend Mike's place in Llano. My friends Corey, Jeff and Josh were all there as well. Jeff is a F-16 pilot who flew in from New Jersey on said F-16 to San Antonio and then drove in to the lovely Hill Country (he's allotted a certain number of cross county flights a year). By the way, is their anything cooler than flying to a weekend fishing trip in an F-16?

Anyhow, at some point in the weekend, I walked up on a conversation with the other guys wearing a straw hat and Jeff's flight suit, just for a laugh. We had a good little chuckle and Jeff said, "What's even funnier is that the right leg of that flight suit is full of dried pee." It seems that in flight, he was trying to urinate in the "piddle bag" and in the process of adjusting himself, his knee hit one of the paddles, and next thing he knows, he's upside down covered in his own bodily fluids.

And before he left, I got him to get me a piddle bag. For those long trips.

Nana LaRosa

2008-05-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

My cousin Joe and his wife Dawn live in Philly. Joe works for our Uncle Sal's Philadelphia office. His neighborhood dinners proved a worthy venue to unveil the recipe for our late Nana's meatballs to the world. Between Joe, Sal and Nana, I'm starting to wonder if maybe the Atlantic Ocean isn't some Fortress of Solitude for us LaRosas where our powers are multiplied and fully appreciated...too bad we hail from Indianapolis.

Shroud of Turin

2008-05-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

I recently attended a talk (conducted be a friend)at church about the Shroud of Turin . This friend isn't a professional, but he has put in enough time to establish a relationship with the guy who runs this website. Barrie Schwortz has put in a lot of time researchging an photographing the shroud and seems convinced that it isn't a forgery, which is interesting because he is a non-messianic Jew. I was given the distinct impression that most scholars think that the Shroud is either a miraculous proof of Christ's resurrection or, at least, a great mystery.

It used to be that the biggest argument against the Shroud was the fact that it was once carbon dated back to only the 13th century. It was later found that the test sample was from a patched part of the cloth (this patch was a result of fire damage). Also, I think a lot of the skeptics lean on the belief that it was a simple forgery. However, this expert seems to think it was beyond the scope of early art. Also, there is the pesky fact that the Shroud is actually a 3-d negative.

New Music

2008-05-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

I am always on the lookout for new stuff. "Whose Authority" by Nada Surf (anyone remember "Popular" from summer of '96?) is a good jam. Also, Band of Horses continues to fail to disappoint (that is a good thing). "No One's Gonna Love You", "Is There a Ghost" and "Funeral" are all solid.

And Texas wise, the ever crusty James McMurtry's "Cheney's Toy" is a pretty good song, if a little pointedly political. And the oft talked about Indie darling of Austin, What Made Milwaukee Famous, has a new album. The only song I've heard is "Sultan" and it's good. Lastly, a few weeks ago, I happened to catch the end of Ryan Bingham's "Bread and Water" on The Tonight Show. I hadn't heard of him before, but it turns out he's from Austin. I gotta get out more. The minute Jay Leno is tuning me on to music from my own town, I'm in trouble.

More Dawkins

2008-04-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

So, while I am not going to bring any new insight to the creationism vs. intelligent design debate, I have a couple questions. While I won't say I'm hook, line and sinker sold on Biblical creation, the science community needs to address a couple of things:

1) If evolution is true, then we should see scores of examples of animals that are in between species. I know of no "bird/dog" fossils. Okay, maybe the platypus...

2) The age of the universe keeps getting older, and it would seem that this is because more time means a greater possiblity that life origin theories like evolution are viable. This relies on carbon dating, the accuracy of which is up for debate.

And, yes, I realize that this site is sponsored by a "ministry". Clearly, they have a dog in the fight, but then again, so does an atheist like Richard Dawkins. My point is that most people simply take carbon dating as fact and don't realize that there is at least some scientific based argument against. Facts are facts, but they need to be interpreted and different people interpret them different ways.

3) No one is saying that dinosaurs didn't exist, but could it be that scientists say their bones are old because the know that dinosaur bones are supposed to be old? In this example, carbon dating was done on some bones, but the people doing the testing weren't told they where dinosaur bones...and they came back a lot younger. While I see lots of evoltutionists attack the young earth arguments (perhaps fairly?), I haven't seen that U of A study discredited.

Now, I'm still hedging my bets a lot here. I'm not going to say that I'm sure the earth is a LOT younger than a lot of scientists say it is, but we have to at least be open to the possibility that the idea of evolution is feeding a lot of our assumptions about how old fossils are.

4) Does it concern anyone that the prevailing argument for the creation of the universe contradicts the laws of the scientific method. Science is based on observation and we have never observed at explosion that beget order. So, why are we so quick to assume that we are the product of a Big Bang that eventually produced order? If you strip it down, it does sound a bit ridiculous.

And evolutionists would say that about the Bible, but God contradicting the laws of science (which he wrote) makes more sense to me than assuming that science has broken it's own laws.

Again, for the kids at home, I don't want to make any grand pronouncements of my beliefs while I have studied so little. I don't want to come across like William Jennings Bryan in "Inherit the Wind". But, I do feel like I at least know enough to say "kick the tires". Kick the tires on science, but also kick the tires on the Bible. The truth can withstand a little interrogation.

Why I Quit Teaching: Reason 13

2008-04-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

My Monday morning cry sessions

Why I quit teaching: Reason 76

2008-04-27T18:08:00.001-07:00

I went back to my old school last Friday...something I do every few weeks or so. A good way to get a self-esteem boost is to start teaching, quit, then go back to your old school. The kids go love you. The only problem is that your self esteem goes to zero while you actually ARE teaching. Kids love the teachers they used to have and they completely take their current ones for granted.

But, I digress. Apparently, the day before I came, someone left a "gift from their colon" in the hallway. My response would be, "Kids, this isn't the type of 'passing' that we are concerned with in this school." There is no delicate way to address this to the student body, because a) that is an admission that you don't know who did it b) that would just plant the seed in someone else's mind and c) I guess there is technically no rule against defecating in the hallway.

Public education is a very scary place. Last week, a lady at the deli couldn't change 3/4 of a pound to a decimal and I didn't bat an eyelash because the grocery was less than 2 miles from my middle school. I probably had her kids.

Richard Dawkins

2008-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

No, not the guy who was on Hogan's Heroes and hosted Family Feud. I'm talking about the famed evolutionary biologist. He's come up on my radar lately, mainly because I have been taking an informal Bible study at work on Apologetics (defending Christianity).

Anyway, I've had always been of the belief that evolution was probably true, but it doesn't really threaten the main tenets of Christianity. Then, in the last couple of years, I kind of got skeptical of evolution. I mean, it and the Bible could THEORETICALLY live in harmony, but people forget it's just a theory...a theory with lots of holes and no evidence on the macro-scale. I would invite readers to prove me wrong (I'm not an expert), but that would require readers.

But, back to Dawkins. Ben Stein has a movie ("Expelled") out in which he investigates the prejudice of the scientific community against intelligent design. At the end, apparently, he kind of pins Dawkins down and Dawkins proposes that life on earth could be the result of aliens. While this is a little embarrassing to the atheist community, Dawkins has claimed the interview doesn't accurately represent his true beliefs. More or less, I guess he's claiming that Stein pulled a Michael Moore on him.

Fair enough, but while I am no expert in any aspect of creationism or evolution, we should all find it a little concerning how much blind faith is put in macro-evolution...that is, from species to species. Science is about observation and it seems that we are a bit short on observations of evolution. More on this later...unless something more interesting happens to me first.

1964

2008-04-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

After going to 4 months without seeing a live music show, I've now seen 2 in 8 days. Thanks to my good friend Oscar, Jess and I got free tickets to see 1964. It's a Beatles tribute show and, while I'm not a Beatles nut, it was pretty good. The they had the Fab 4 down to a T, right down to a the stage banter and "Paul" playing left-handed. They had me and the rest of the crowd convinced. My favorite part was "Ringo" singing the Buck Owens song "Act Naturally", which I've heard about, but can't remember hearing before.

First Real Post

2008-04-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Michael, last night, I got into show free of charge to see two of my favorite acts: Bobby Bare, Jr. and Son Volt. I was a bigger fan of Bobby Bare when he was with his band Bare, Jr. in the late 90s. As a solo act, he still makes great music, but it's a little too mellow at times for my taste. Well, last night, after a few solo acoustic songs that did nothing for me, he brought out a drummer and bassist and really rocked out. I wish he had played stuff from his Bare, Jr .days, but it was still solid.

As for Son Volt, despite the fact that I have been a fan of them and just about anything that their lead singer Jay Farrar does, I kind of gave up on them as a live act, after seeing them a couple of times (I think I saw Jay solo once, too). Jay writes great songs, but he's not too dynamic in person...or hasn't been when I've seen him. Anyhow, last night, the whole band sounded great. They played loud and hard at the right times, but they also played well.

And last night, since the roots-rock crowd doesn't exactly draw from the youngsters (with their baggy pants and text messaging), I noticed how old my "peers" are. They aren't "Touched by and Angel" old, but they do appear to be nearing "listen to Sting" old. I guess I only notice this because I think I put too much effort in trying to maintain some modicum of coolness and youth.

http://www.sonvolt.net/
http://www.bobbybarejr.com/

Maiden Post

2008-04-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

Why blog?

Because everyone else has one. And I'm married, so myspace seems inappropriate. And at the age of 32, all of the things I don't know how to do (hunt, play guitar, upload a digital picture, provide for my family, etc. ) are like a knife in my eye. Plus, with a kid on the way, this seems like an easier way to keep up. By the way, per Vegas, the over/under on the number of hits on this blog for the next 6 months is 15. My modest expectations begat the moniker "root or the underblog".