SNA

Okay, so I missed the boat in naming our worship service something that could be used as a cool acronymn. Instead will still be referring to Sunday Night Alive as Sunday Night Alive and not SNA. See the image below, it included some of the print overlays, but get an idea.

Da Phils

Last time.....?;

For a city that doesn't celebrate many sporting success (see last major championship: 1983), when was the last time the 4 major sports teams all made the playoffs (and yes, I'm counting the Eagles making it, despite giving away a game to the Bears).

We've had (in recent memory) unparalleled success this calendar year by the Sixers, Phillies & Flyers. In reality, the Eagles used to be (and in many cases still are) the class of the city, as they've had the most success in the past decade.

Still need the Eagles to come throught, but this could be the start of a run like the Boston and New Yorks', and LA's have enjoyed.

Did you know...

This was a fun little fact I thought of the other night....of the 4 teams that have made the playoffs from the National League...the PHILLIES are the last team to appear in the world series, and that was in 1993. Dodgers won in '88, Brewers won '82, Phillies in '80, and well.....we know the history of the Cubs by now...even though they appeared in a World Series final in 1984, losing to those Steve Garvey led San Diego Padres.

How wild is that.... the Brewers haven't made the playoffs in 26 years. Someone did a run-down about what life was like back in 1982....let's just say that the Commodore was a main computer brand, and cell phones? text messages? Google?

There's a new tv show where a guy wakes up and it's 1973, and they do the whole "wheres my computer, where's my cell phone" angle. Interesting concept, since so much has changed in just 35 years.

Most wonderful time of the year

A lot of people will tell you that spring is the best time of the year, but I have a hard time arguing with fall.

The air is crisp, we've gotten over a humid summer (though not as much this year) and the perfect sports confluence of pro football, college football and playoff baseball all come together.

Speaking of playoff baseball. Crazy how things can change in a short period of time. In early September the Phillies were trailing the Mets and Brewers in both the division and wild card standings.

Now, they (with a win either today or tomorrow) can clinch their 2nd NL East championship and automatic playoff bid. I know, I know....they haven't done it yet, but even with 2 losses and 2 Met wins, they would play a tie-breaker on Monday, so it's hard to see them losing 3 times in a row, and the Mets winning 3 in a row (and yes, I hope I don't come to regret writing this).

Sports history is littered with teams that fail to live up to expectation, but it's hard to remember 2 back-to-back years like the Mets have had. Last year they had an historic collapse, this year they have given away 20+ games to a bad bullpen. Some of it's injury, but you got to think that all the players are uneasy when it's a tight game, and the bullpen is involved.

Every team goes through blown games (except the Phillies who are something like 42-0 when leading after the 8th inning.

Like last year, I hope to include the you-tube link of the final out, and proceeding celebration.

If anything, it gives a memory to access later over the cold winter months.

Google = 10

Wow, I saw recently that Google is celebrating it's 10 year anniversary.

It's crazy to think that 1) the word "google" wasn't in our vocabulary 10 years ago, and 2) how fast time flies.

I would have been finishing my first year of college, and the whole IT world was rapidly expanding/changing.

Tech stocks were doing well, things were on the upswing.

Speaking of the upswing, I read an article where the national deficit in 1979 was 1.5 trillion. As it turned out, President Bush added 1.5 trillion to the national deficit in the past year alone.

I won't claim to know how all this plays out in the end, but it's hard to see our kids, and our kid's kids getting many tax breaks in the future (refunds, yes....breaks....no).

BeDawked!

MWS

Recently, Michael W. Smith gave a private concert for the "Berean folks". It was cool to be a part of a small gathering (approx 150 people) and interact with him on that level.

The day before he was with the President of the U.S., in Washington, and the next day with the President of Berean....in Cincy. I hope it wasn't too big of a change for him.

He was gracious in meeting all the managers/management and signed pictures. I should have gotten a picture of everyone taking a picture with their camera phone. It was a pretty crazy sight.

Normally I don't get too caught up in meeting people like this, but he's a legend, so it ranks higher than riding a bus with Philip Yancey (and his afro) in Denver, CO.

Oh, and the W's for Whitaker...

Sports Sunday

So.... a "enemy" of your "enemy" is a friend? That's how I felt watching the Ohio State-USC football game. As a Irish fan, I don't like USC because they usually beat Notre Dame. I don't like Ohio State, because they're Ohio State. However, I couldn't bring myself to route for Ohio State, so I found myself not really watching the game last night. Some Big Ten supporters wanted a strong showing from Ohio State, as if it would bring some credibility to the conference, but in reality, I was glad to see that without 40+ days between games, OSU still came up small. At least they can complain about not having B.Wells, as if that would have made enough of a difference. Of course I now believe that Jim Tressel (Previously known as "sweater-vest", is a "pretty good guy", based on him writing a book, and doing an in-store appearance at one of our Ohio stores, so it's hard to work up the agnst against him, like before.



Of course the big news was the strong showing for Notre Dame against Michigan. It's good to see Michigan going through a rough year like Notre Dame did last year. Who knows, with a few breaks they could win 10 games after all. After last week I had defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta as the sucessor to Coach Weis........not-so-fast.

Kids Against Hunger

Recently I was part of a group who look time to pack meals for starving kids across the world.

It was a pretty cool venture. We set up 4 assembly lines and then went about packing soy, rice, chicken flavored vitamens, and dried vegetables into bags. The bags were then weighed and sealed, packed in boxes and stacked onto skids.

In 2 hours we did 3 skids worth, thousands of meals. I believe each meal cost .25 cents, each bag fed 6 people for $1.50

A sobering venture, but worthwhile non-the-less.

We always think of Africa for starving, orphaned kids, but these meals were also going to some of the most improverished parts of the United States (specifically the Appalachian mountain region) and across the world.

Check out www.feedingchildren.org

Great Wolf Lodge

I'll admit, when I heard we were going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Ohio, I thought, okay...it's going to be small but adequate, old but comfortable. Basically something you'd find in small-town america but better than a dingy dump of a motel. I mean...it has "lodge" in the title. Must have had Canadian infuences (think Red-Green show).



Was I ever wrong..........

Talk about a great place to have a conference! Waterpark, symposium/movie theater, conference area, great rooms, fantastic food! The place was HUGE. Lots of wood, stone and fake wood, fake stone everwhere.

Little did I realize that it's a chain of locations (currently 12) that include the Pocono Mountains area.

I didn't check out the rates, but it's definitely something that my family will take advantage of in the future (great for kids and family) and hopefully even the extended family.

Got to Love Those Canadians

So a group of guys from CANADA played for us this week as well. They've been around for almost 10 years, but I didnt' really know their music.

This song is one of their best...combining both of their vocals and pretty cool message as well.

I ate supper with the drummer and bassist, and they're pretty good, unassuming guys.

About the video, it's the best live version I could find that didn't sound like they were completely in a phone booth (or radio booth) thought there is a good version that includes clips from "Passion of the Christ".

Britney

Wow! It's been 3 weeks since I last posted. Defintely not something a blogger should do.

That being said, I heard Bebo Norman in concert last night (2nd row, front and center) and he played this song. It's a unique song because it's basically an "apology" to Britney Spears. Check out the video, if you haven't already.

Also, Britney's mom is writing (or has written) a new book that releases in the next month that basically is her "mea culpa" (spelling?) to allowing outside influences/things to get ahold of Britney. Her mom was raised in a Christian home, so she comes at it from that angle as well.

An interesting but hopefully positive angle to the Britney news.