Okay, so maybe it wasn’t an official holiday but Super Bowl Sunday is certainly a rather important day for even the casual football (or tv ad) fan.  The game itself was one that I was particularly interested in the winner of, so I stayed mostly partial throughout (except for those Black and Yellow chants aimed at all my Packer fan friends of course).  And in the end I was perfectly okay with a Packer victory.

The only thing I’m not particularly sure of was Aaron Rodgers getting the MVP.  Oh yes, he had a great game, but as far as individual performances, I thought maybe one of the linebackers (Clay Matthews III?) would have been better.  Or Nick Collins had he not been injured, Jordy Nelson if you take out the drops.  A-Rodge had a good game for about 20 minutes, the other 40 were forgettable.

At any rate, congrats to Green Bay for winning, and congrats to the Steelers for putting up a late fight, sadly you buried yourself early with the turnovers Ben.  Props to Rashard Mendenhall, who proved once again that he can play under pressure, tough luck about the fumble, but he did well outside that.

Back next week with your regularly scheduled programming.

-A

I live approximately directly between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois.  What that means for sports affiliations is for another time, what that means for weather, however, is much more interesting.

In the last few days we have received a total of 30 inches of snow.  Which is lovely once it’s all plowed and shoveled and snow blown away.  But sadly, still isn’t finished.  Oh yes, our driveway is done enough to be accessible, and for the most part the roads are okay.  But, take the major cities for example.  Milwaukee is still shut down, with exception to those insane chancellors at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee who’ve decided that plowed roads mean little to a 70% commuter campus.

Now since this is Wisconsin after all, I do need to make some concessions.  Yesterday, after I finished cleaning off the part of my driveway that is clean I went to work.  At Dairy Queen.  We were the only restaurant in town that was open.  We had two people staffed.  It was busy as hell.

Because, as you know, two and a half feet of snow, well that’s nothing.

Let’s face it, the man is brilliant.  The story of Roland draws you in, much as in the second book he draws his three.  You find yourself an often confused, sometimes blinded, but always interested outside observer.  You want to know more, you need to know more about Roland and his mid-world.  You want to see his guns, see his Gilead, and learn from his teachers.

So what am I saying?  I guess what I’m really saying is, if you haven’t, go take a look.  Bury yourself in a psychotic and mind altering book that will entertain and amuse you for multiple reads.

His power is as the herald of Velociraptor, the sign of the end of the world.  And his teachings tell of a time when only those with the most succulent newborns will be saved.

But what does he really mean by saved?

When examined further it becomes clear that Raptor Jesus is not quite the savior he’s cracked up to be.  Multiple eye-witness accounts, along with several live nationwide television broadcasts have shown Raptor Jesus to be little more than a baby eating monster who steals newborns right from their mothers hip and nearly swallows them whole.  Multiple so-called Messiah experts and biologists suggest that Raptor Jesus is in fact little more than an escaped attempt at cloning a Velociraptor with biological enhancements for intelligence.  They suggest careful avoidance of known Velociraptor entrance points such as large windows and knob-less doors when he is suspected to be in the area.  Especially for those with newborn babies and young children who are unable to defend themselves against his attacks.

Local man and self-proclaimed Raptor Jesus expert Craig Bowman however defends Raptor Jesus.  Citing his multiple encounters and stating that “[Raptor Jesus] gives promises of sweet Latino passion with his chocolate brown eyes.”

Raptor Jesus; Messiah or baby killing monster?  You decide.

After all, how can I write a blog update without some sort of idea on which to base it?  A topic on which to expand and build?  The answer, of course, is that I cannot.  It simply is not in me.

However, I shall not give in!  From here on, rather than simply posting here when I felt I had something to say, which has failed me so many times, I shall set myself a goal!  Every Sunday I will post a new blog post.  This will give me an entire week to think up a topic, research it if necessary, and write out my views and observations.  It will also allow me to, hopefully, manage to continue writing this blog for an extended period.

I am of course giving myself a short week this week.  See you all Sunday.

Regards,

Andrew

When I hear stories about someone that lives on a farm taking a fifteen minute break to get some water and sit down for a moment because all their chores are done and their mother, who has done nothing all day but sit around, starts telling them they’re lazy and a worthless piece of shit for taking that break.  I’m sorry, but that’s inappropriate to say to anyone, much less your own child.

It seems to me that everyone could do with taking a bit more time to think before speaking.  Take a moment to think about what someone truly does before you tell them off.  Because I for one am tired of living in a world where beautiful, kind and wonderful people have so little self-confidence that they can’t even believe a simple compliment, and can’t let you buy them dinner because they have had the if-you’re-not-self-dependent-you’re-worthless ideal so ingrained in them that to let you buy just makes them feel worse.

So please, everyone reading this.  Take a moment in your days tomorrow, the day after, everyday if you can; and just tell someone they’re beautiful, tell them they make your world a better place, tell them you love their jokes, or how you really appreciate when they do (thankless task) for you at work/home.  Don’t let our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends fall down the road I see so often.  I can’t do this all alone.

Yours,

-A

Heaven is that place you go when you’re tired of conforming to society.

Mowing grass is right up with getting punched in the face on my list of favorite things.

Paying people money: the number 1 symptom of being alive.

Writing is such a great release, even if it’s just a few hundred words a day.

Heading to your work when your boss is still there scores a solid five out of ten on the “oh shit” stick, when she’s in a mood, it scoots up to  eleven.

I hope to wake up in the morning to the sound of “LEBRON TO THE BULLS!”

This year was my first year as a full-fledged chaperone and at the beginning I was certainly overwhelmed with the fact that I was in responsible for being both an example and a leader to the teens.  As the week went on however I became more comfortable, both in my role and with the fact that I was doing this for a reason.  God undoubtedly has something in mind for me, although surely I don’t know what that might be.

But for the trip itself I had a good time, when you’re actually on site and working it’s a great feeling to be helping those who need it.  And all the good friends around you 24/7 is just a great way to spend your time.  Cheers to new friends and one can only hope that the work we did was a shining example of God’s love.

Now… I am going to go and think.

-Andrew

Otherwise, the big attention grabber was of course the Divisional Playoffs for the NFL.  This weekend promised a good slate of games which, unfortunately, failed to deliver on their potential with exception to a single game.

To start with we had the Cards-Saints match-up which just sounded like a high-scoring, all-offense shutout.  Well it was high-scoring, but only the Saints were racking it up, leaving the Cards in their dust.

Indy and Baltimore sounded like a good game, especially after the nailbitter the two teams played the first time around.  This time Indy thoroughly dominated the Ravens, and coasted into the Conference Championship.

The Viqueens and Cowpies seemed like it would be a good game going in, but Romo showed his true play-off colors and the ‘boys o-line melted down as the ageless(witless?) wonder and the Purple people eater defense took the day.

The only game that DID live up to its hype was Jets-Chargers.  The Jets, fresh off their twice-straight dismantling of Cincinatti managed to come back and shock the heavily favored Chargers in San Diego.  I have to admit, I called that this could happen yesterday, but I’m as surprised as anyone that it actually did.  The Chargers certainly seemed like a team destined to play in the Super Bowl, but alas, Chargers fans have got another coach that can’t get it done in the playoffs!  And all that trouble with releasing the great Marty Schottenheimer for this?!

On another football-related, albeit much sadder, note.  I’d like to send out my wishes to the family and friends of Gaines Adams.  Adams, a former first round pick by the Tampa Bay Bucaneers and more recently traded to the Chicago Bears passed away this morning at the age of 26.  A shame to see a guy with such a bright future leave the world so soon…

Yours,

-Andrew

When you’re a kid, surprises can often be a wonderful thing!  A new toy, a visit from a friend, all kinds of wonderous situations.  However, as we get older these surprises are often far less savory.  I think this is mostly because, as we age we become more independent, we start to plan ahead, and we do not enjoy having our stability messed with.  Unexpected visits from family, surprise inspections at work, pop quizzes.  These things induce stress not pleasantness, and contribute to a lot of constant worry.

Unfortunately, in a competitive world employers and society often judge us by how we stand up to the unexpected, how we react to a less than fair situation.  Obviously with warning any of us could pass a quiz or do well in an inspection.  We know its coming, we can prepare.  But in those surprise situations they can see how we really are doing, right?  Because we just have to act how we normally do, rely on our knowledge, us against them.

But is a stressful situation like that a good gauge of an employee or a students true value or knowledge?  I tend to think that it is not, and props to those professors and employers that give the non-exact “Sometime this week” warning.  At least we know its coming, even if we don’t know when, even if we can’t study or prepare, at least we have the advance warning to steel ourselves to it’s coming.

Where am I going with this?  Well I heard something the other day that made me think.  It seems that students today suffer 2-3 times as much stress as students 70-80 years ago.  If your history isn’t the greatest then, allow me to helpfully add that during that time period this country was in the middle of two world wars and suffered through the Great Depression!  Talk about stressful times!  So what is there now that is so different?  I really can’t figure it out, but I think that is definitely something worth investigating.

Perhaps the government should be spending money investigating this rather than overpaying our govenment executives and bailing out highly-paid CEO’s who’d rather watch their company go under than take a paycut from their ridiculous salary or, God forbid, sell their private jets!  I welcome feedback on this matter.

Yours, as always,

-Andrew