Indy is Done and Interesting Video

The Indiana Pacers were playing the Chicago Bulls in the NBA playoffs. Indiana won the fourth game in the series to avoid a sweep by the #1 seed Bulls. According to the article I read, the Indiana Pacers didn't have a very welcoming environment, which doesn't make sense to me. Anyways, Tuesday was the 5th game in their series in Chicago and the Bulls won. I have only had a cursory interest in the NBA this year and the fact that the Pacers are out does not surprise me. They are but a shell of the team that played their way into the championship portion of the season a few years back. They had Reggie Miller, Jamal Tinsley, Ron Artest, and a slew of other really good players. They are all gone now, for whatever reason, and now the Bulls, Boston, Los Angeles, and other teams have the talent pool very deep on their roster. Eventually, though, Indiana will probably bring in very talented players and make another run at the championship of the league. I certainly wish them luck.

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Breathe.... and again...

When I think that God has given me more than I can handle, I focus on my breathing and the fact that I can breathe. There are millions of people in the world that cannot breathe - they're called a corpse. I am not a corpse. Thank you God, then, for the breath I just took and the one I am taking right now, and the one I will take next.

Almost May... Good Riddance April!

I can see May on the horizon and after the busy and chaotic month April has been for me personally and professionally, I must say April 2011 cannot be flipped on the calendar soon enough. Tonight is Megan's Religious Ed class, Survivor, and Alex picking up his room and clearing his suitcase from the weekend. Tomorrow, Alex has his final baseball practice before games start next week. Friday, I do not believe we have anything going. Saturday, North Liberty Spring Cleanup day and I have stuff in the back of the truck. It is supposed to be sunny and 66 so maybe Alex and I will get some lawns mowed. Sunday, we'll go to Mass.

Then May will start. The kids go back to both having lessons @ West on Mondays. Driver's Ed continues for Megan on Tues/Thurs until 5/12, Alex's first baseball game is 5/4 when Megan has Religious Ed @ 6, another baseball game on 5/5, and Grandparent's Day on 5/6. Saturday is Alex's trip to Adventureland with the Regina band along with Karen's 4? birthday and a tentative trip to Riverside. Sunday is Mother's Day.

Then the week starts all over again with pretty much the same schedule.

Here's Hoping for 36...

Matthew left home around 8:30 to play golf with his friends. On the way out the door, he answered his wife’s “What time will you be home?” question with “Probably around 1:30 – I’ll have lunch at the club.”

1:30 came and went, 3:00 passed, 6:15, still not home, finally at about 7:00 PM he rolls in the driveway, leaves his clubs in the garage, and presents his wife with a pizza, and begins the apologetic story. "We finished our game about 11:30, had lunch, and I started home, when alongside the road I saw this attractive girl with a flat tire on her car.

I stopped to help, got the tire changed, and looked around for a place to wash my hands. She offered money, but I refused, so she suggested that I at least allow her to buy me a beer. She said there's a tavern just up the road, and they have a restroom, you can clean up a bit.

I agreed to stop, we had a beer, then another beer, then a couple more, and I realized that this girl was not only pretty, she was very friendly, and a good companion to spend time with. Before I knew it, we were in the motel next door having sex. And that is why I am so late getting home."

His wife looked him right in the eye and said "Don't bullshit me -- you played 36 holes, didn't you?”

Beyond the Resurrection

Jesus rose from the dead today! It is a great day for me to know that Jesus, who had died just three days earlier for *me* and my sins, came back from the dead to fulfill the path that God had set up for him. Jesus was human. That's the thing. Jesus was a political figure who was seen as a troublemaker and as someone who was seen as an instigator of rising up the people against the Romans. He spoke in parables and in ways that his followers really didn't understand. The gospels? Written a long time after his death. I always find that fascinating. I also have heard about the gospel of Judas that was not included in the Bible. I digress. The fact remains that Jesus died for me. Me. And you, of course. But he DIED for me. He said, "I love you so much that I am going to do the ultimate thing I can do and DIE for you." Wow.
That fact floors me every time I think about it. I heard about it at Holy Thursday Mass and I thought about it as I sat in Holy Saturday night Mass. Now, Lent is over and it is my hope to live every day as I did during Lent - reminded of the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for ME. And you, of course.

Really? Am I that Stupid?

I got the following email:

Dear Account User,

This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care® and we are sending it to all Hotmail Accounts Owner for safety. We are having congestion due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account is among those to be deactivated. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if this account is still valid? If it is, Please kindly confirm your account by first clicking on the show content link highlighted in yellow just above the subject line. The following information is needed to verify your account: Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information.
Click on the reply button and fill in your information:

Full Name.......................
User Name:.....................
Password:.......................
Date of Birth:..................
Country Or Territory:..................

Like I am really going to send you my user name and password.

Another Day

Today was okay. I found myself thinking and reflecting about where I am in my life, where I have been and where I hope to go. I hope that there is a reason for all the things that swirl around me in a frantic tempest. I hope the Big Four concert in CA this weekend is fantastic for all those lucky enough to see Anthrax open for Megadeth open for Slayer open for Metallica. It is the only concert by those four bands on the same bill in the United States. Thus far. Megadeth is touring later with Disturbed and Godsmack - a weird combo but probably being marketed to bring the old metal fans into the same building as the new metal fans. Why is Megadeth touring with them? I don't know. Megadeth could have taken Fear Factory or Testament or Sacred Reich on the road with them. I know all three have had radio success and granted, I have heard a Godsmack song followed by a Megadeth song followed by a Disturbed song on the radio and the trio sounded like it matched each other. In any case, I am not planning on seeing Godsmack/Disturbed/Megadeth in concert. Other than that, I hope tomorrow is a good day as well.

Life Moving Forward

I can see where a weak-minded idiot could easily lose faith in God. If they looked around the world and looked at the death, the destruction of human life, the way humans treat each other, the way the earth treats humans, and rolled all of that into one comprehensive thought, it would be conceivable to an idiot that there is no God and that life as we all know it is meaningless. Why I will never believe there is no God is faith. That is what religion really is. It is a step into the unknown with the hope and belief that there is a God, that there is a way that all of this, someday, will make sense and that there is a plan. With all my mind and all my soul, I believe there is a God. I believe there is a plan for me. I may not know what the plan is for me or what steps I have to take to complete the plan, but I believe that God has that plan, has known the plan since before I was born, and that someday, I will understand why all the things that have happened to me in my life happened.

If it's not one, it's TWO

This AM, the kids' laptop caught the same thing that I had just finished cleaning on the PC in the den. FINALLY, just got it cleaned up. Special place in h@ll for these folks...

Practicing

What I would do to be able to sound like this guy if I were to sit in front of my Ludwigs and practice...

Solved

I was able to run a program that killed the programs that were running. I'm running MalAwareBytes (I think that's the name) to make sure that there is nothing resident but I was (gasp) able to open Internet Explorer. l will say this and it is not a new thought, but if the assholes that created viruses used their knowledge for good, instead of evil, life would be so much nicer on the Internet. I just hope someday, something like that happens. This getting stressed out about viruses is for the birds. And the birds don't use the Internet.

SICK OF IT!!!

The idiots that created the XP Home Security virus/malware that has infected the PC in the den had better hope I never run into them because I will not be responsible for what happens. There ought to be a special place in hell for these idiots.

Back to Basics

Do you ever think about what single decision sent you on your current path in life? I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I don't have anything other than some observations. First of all, I am happy with where my life has taken me. I have a beautiful wife and two wonderful kids. I have a full-time job. I have a house. I have food in my belly and I'm not under a cloud of credit card debt. Life is pretty damn fine. I think it's more importatnt to be happy in the moment than to fret about 'what if I had done' or 'what if I had said A instead of B' type of situations. That is my new mantra - move forward. I think it is important to know what happened in the past and to cradle it in awe that I could have been like that. I also think rereading college-era journals shed a light on who I was and who I want to be now, in 2011. They are different people. Totally different people. Focusing on the differences and living life as who I want to be now, in 2011, is the path for me.

Daily Prayer

Dear Lord,

1. You took my favorite bassist Cliff Burton.


2. You took my favorite guitarist Jimi Hendrix.


3. You took my favorite drummer John Bonham.

I just wanted to let you know that my favorite president is Barack Obama. Amen.

Journey through the Future to get to the Past

Years and years ago, I liked to waste a lot of time playing a game called Wolfenstein 3D. I wouldn't play every night, but I played often enough to kind of possibly understand the way to play the game. Tonight, on a whim, I found a version of Wolfenstein that I can now play on the kids' Windows 7 laptop. Without looking at the maps that are freely available or struggling, I was able to clear the first level. The par for the first level is 1:30 and I cleared it in 3:00-ish. I never made par when I played more frequently. What is really amazing, to me, is that I probably haven't played the game in at least 5 years. What is also really sad, to me, is that I retained the pattern to go through the level in my brain. I really had not given this game a thought in all those years since the last time I played it. The end result of this is two-fold. First, I have a favorite game of mine on the kids' laptop and, when it is the only PC available to me, I can now play it. Second, the contract work I have done for the last nearly 6 months has come to an end. Could it be, I don't know, FREE TIME?!?! Not likely. Alex started baseball season yesterday and has practice on Mondays and Thursdays. On Tuesday, he has drum lessons and Megan has driver's ed class. Wednesday is religious ed, and Thursday is baseball practice and Megan has driver's ed. On Friday, we are going to Cedar Falls to check out the HooDads from 6-9.

ObamaCare