The Blue Jays released Frank Thomas before his anger could be too much of a disruption in the club house. Despite hitting some home runs, Thomas' bat speed had slowed and was hitting .167 which most of the Blue Jays pitching staff could hit if pressed into service so I am not sure why he is so surprised. I imagine Tampa Bay will pick him up for 30 games or so but other than that, I think his career is done. While I wasn't a big fan of his signing in Toronto, I liked him in Chicago and Oakland. Too bad he had lost so much bat speed by the time he had gotten to Toronto.
Even he didn't bring much offense to Toronto, he did leave them with a pretty good promotional commercial.
One of my regrets in life is that I never got a chance to see a game in Yankee Stadium. Today the New York Times gives and audio and written tour of the parts of the stadium that aren't normally seen.
Just just to Torre but also to Yankees fans everywhere who seem to understand that a) getting to the post-season is a big deal. b) The Yankees were a flawed team. c) When your pitching or hitting (or both) don't show up in the post-season, there isn't a lot a manager can do.
Torre at least went out with a sense of humor.
His family stood and watched from the side of the ballroom. His voice trembled at times. When he saw several hundred media assembled, he was taken aback.
"You got to be kidding," he said when he walked into the room.
Since the end of the season, his house had been staked out, O.J. style. Reporters were on the edge of his lawn, cameras everywhere.
"The worst part about the helicopters is they showed I had a bald spot," he said.
I am not a Yankees fan, nor a Yankees hater, partly because I appreciate what Joe Torre has done but I am saddened that he may be fired and has to go through this each and every year under The Boss. I don't know what a manager can do when your bats go silent in the playoffs or when your pitchers get hurt or are terrible.
I appreciate the job that Bill Bellichick does in New England but how good would he be without Tom Brady or without an offensive line that can protect Brady for 90 or so seconds. Mike Shanahan was "The Genius" when he had John Elway and Terrell Davis and yet look at him last weekend versus San Diego.
No I am not talking about Milton Bradley but as I watched the end of game versus the Rockies, the winning run did not score, Holliday was blocked at the plate. Not a lot of talk of it in the media but the replay showed him not touching home plate and yet the ump ruled him safe (and what was up with that really slow call?). No offence to the Rockies, a team I was cheering for but the winning run was out and for Trevor Hoffman and the Padres, what a horrible way to end the season.
I watched quite a few Jays games this year and I was amazed at the missed calls on the base paths where guys were beat to the bag, clearly tagged, or were out when they should have been safe almost every game. For all of the attention that the strike zone gets, I am starting to wonder if the base paths are being ignored too.
While I wish Sandy Alderson the best with the Padres, I wish he was back in the league offices. Officiating has deteriorated since he has left. I am a casual fan of baseball and if I can see the difference...
The National Post has a good story on the job (both good and bad) that J.P. Riccardi has done as the General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. The team is as mediocre as always but it has had a lot of injuries this year. At the same time the team played better when the kids were playing the stars were out. Make sense of that. I do think the team is a long ways behind where the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox are and I don't see that gap closing at all but can you close that gap with a $80 million payroll.
Whatever happened to "faux" WHA trophy? Bonus question. If you can name the trophy without clicking on the link, leave it in the comments and you will have my eternal respect.
Wendy, if you love me, you will give this to me for Christmas. Update: That's a lot of money for a low quality replica.
Guy Kawasaki has the Seven Sins of Solutions :: Leaping to solutions in an instinctive way or intuitive way—i.e. the “blink” method of problem-solving—seldom leads to an elegant solution because deeper, hidden causes don’t get addressed. Watch CSI and House: first they collect the evidence, then diagnose, and then solve. It’s never the guy or the disease you initially suspect.
The New York Times on the Silicon Valley :: Mr. Steger, 51, a self-described geek, has banked more than $2 million. The $1.3 million house he and his wife own on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean is paid off. The couple’s net worth of roughly $3.5 million places them in the top 2 percent of families in the United States. Yet each day Mr. Steger continues to toil in what a colleague calls “the Silicon Valley salt mines,” working as a marketing executive for a technology start-up company, still striving for his big strike. Most mornings, he can be found at his desk by 7. He typically works 12 hours a day and logs an extra 10 hours over the weekend. “I know people looking in from the outside will ask why someone like me keeps working so hard,” Mr. Steger says. “But a few million doesn’t go as far as it used to. Maybe in the ’70s, a few million bucks meant ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’ or Richie Rich living in a big house with a butler. But not anymore.”
The Economist shows why blacks and hispanics aren't getting along :: Last year Pew, a pollster, found that one-third of blacks believe immigrants take jobs from Americans—more than any other group. Yet in some ways their views were benign. Blacks are less likely than whites or even Hispanics to believe that immigrants end up on welfare or commit crimes. Latinos, on the other hand, appear to make no such concessions. One survey of Durham, in North Carolina, found that 59% of Latinos believed few or almost no blacks were hard-working, and a similar proportion reckoned few or almost none could be trusted. Fewer than one in ten whites felt the same way.
Oligarchy in the church: Sociologists have discovered that in virtually all forms of social organizations, from friendship groups to nations, a small self-perpetuating group grabs most of the power. This tendency to concentrate power in the hands of a few persons is called the law of oligarchy. Through His various words and actions that we read in the Bible, Jesus condemns oligarchy in social, economic, political and religious spheres of life.
The electability of John Edwards :: A top handicapper told me recently that he expects Hillary to perform in a general election as ‘Generic Democrat Minus Five Points.’ Meaning that she can win — but only in another wave election like we saw in the 2006 election, where resentment against Bush and the GOP gives Dems a 6 to 8 point head start. Barack Obama may have a similar structural disadvantage. (Though given his ability to mobilize untraditional voters — millennials and gen xers in particular — he might be able to make up for it. He remains as ever a wild card.) If Democrats are looking for a safer bet to take back the Oval office, Edwards the silver tongued Southern senator looks like a winner from this poll data… especially if he’s fortunate to run against another flip flopper from Massachusetts.
"People don't change that much": Bishop Willimon is talking about Marcus Buckingham's book but there are are incredible implications to his statement about discipleship in addition to just leadership.
So what does Ann Coulter actually have against John Edwards? :: But really. What is it with Coulter and Edwards… this virulent Barbie hates Ken thing? My best guess is that Edwards makes an easy proxy target. Rabid rightwingers can no longer safely call Hillary the B word, much less call Obama the N word (although that hasn’t stopped Rush from calling him a Negro), but you can still get away with calling Edwards a “faggot.” And apologize for it by voicing your deathwishes for him on Good Morning America.
Corruption in the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS :: In his opening essay, Bono writes that in just nine months, (Product) Red has raised around $25 million for its beneficiary, the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. What he doesn’t mention is that throughout its brief existence, the Global Fund—a Sachs brainchild—has been wracked by corruption scandals. Last week, the news in Uganda was dominated by the arrests of four onetime government officials, including the powerful (and immensely wealthy) former health minister, on charges of skimming huge sums off the millions in Global Fund grants Uganda has received. And, lest we think corruption is purely an African problem, an internal audit revealed earlier this year that the British executive director of the fund, Sir Richard Feachem, was using his expense account to rent limousines and to throw expensive dinner parties. New luxury, indeed. On a recent return visit to Uganda, where I’d lived for two years, one of the first changes I noticed was that a multistory residential building had been erected across the dirt road from the little pub I frequented. My friends told me the owner of the property worked for the health ministry. They’d nicknamed the place the “Global Fund Apartments.” We all laughed at the joke: Ugandans know that there are worse sins in this world than corruption. They’ve learned, through rough experience, to see Africa for what it is: a continent of people, not vessels for our pity. Their Africa is a vibrant, funny, human place. I wish we could separate it from this business of being inspi(red). :: Also, here is another link on Bono's hypocrisy over taxes :: Before you flame me, we give Bono a lot of link love over the years but the last link really bothered me.
I enjoy when Alan Creech posts about things we don't know about him but I have never done it myself. Here are ten things you probably didn't know about me.
Despite never having been to a NFL game, I met future Miami Dolphin defensive lineman, Chuck Klingbeil at a defunk water park called Penguin Park when he was playing for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1990. Former Notre Dame QB, Tony Rice was there as well. While I thought Rice was the greatest when he was at Notre Dame, I took it personally when he was asked if he was going to keep playing professional football when he wasn't drafted and he said something like, "No, I am going to play in Canada". Sadly for us Saskatchewan fans he showed the same amount of talent passing the ball up here as he did for Notre Dame which wasn't a lot when he wasn't in an option offence. I remember Klingbeil as being the cooler of the two while Tony Rice was probably depressed to think that a year or two before he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and now he was doing dumb personal appearances at a waterslide park in Saskatoon. For all of you Clemson fans out there, Homer Jordan was also a Saskatchewan Roughrider QB as was West Virginia's Major Harris (for a week or so before getting cut).
I don't normally like to look down on people but when Mark was six months old, we were in Las Vegas in the lobby of MGM Grand waiting for some people when Marie Osmond walked by. She was doing a concert and was also selling some of her ceramic dolls. Part of the P.R. campaign was her standing there being photographed with fans. I tried to get Wendy to get a photo with her and Wendy refused. All of the people in line were middle aged men who all had to tell her that they had her poster up on the wall when they were teenagers. Wendy and I started to laugh which generated an icy stare from Osmond but I did feel sorry for her as she looked quite uncomfortable and more than a little grossed out.
I have never been arrested or charged with a crime but I may have committed aggravated assault on my father when I may have broken up an Ex-Lax bar into a bowl of Rocky Road Ice Cream and watched them eat it when I was 12. Does anyone expect a court ordered visitation to go any differently?
I hate spaghetti. Ate too much of it as a kid and lost my stomach for it was I was 17. I can eat it now as it tastes okay but some reason I have a huge mental block towards it. Funny thing is if there is a different pasta noodle used I am fine with it so it is all in my head.
I have a very clear memory of watching in person the 1981 Canada Cup in the Calgary Corral. We had standing room only tickets and Team Canada beat the CCCP. I went online to find out the score a couple of months ago and there was not a Canada Cup game in Calgary in 1981. Looking back it must have been an exhibition game but it is weird finding out that a favorite childhood memory wasn't even close to how you remembered it.
I have never been even close drunk but I do enjoy the taste of some red wines and never have more than half a glass in an evening. I was a hospitality suite of the Hon. John Crosbie once and he served me the first bit of alcohol that I ever had... Newfoundland Screech.
I don't gamble. Why play something that is programmed to take more of you money away than it is to give back. That's not chance, that's idiocy.
My first web host was GeoCities back when there was less than 100,000 users and 1 megabyte of space for free was an insane amount of space to work with.
The times I have tossed a baseball in front of radar gun, I have been ashamed with how slow my "fastball" is.
I am dyslexic which explains some but not all of the spelling and grammatical mistakes that are made on this blog.
On Becky's blog she is quoting Richard Dawkins who makes the claim that he may be passionate but is not a fundementalist.
No, please, do not mistake passion, which can change its mind, for fundamentalism, which never will. Passion for passion, an evangelical Christian and I may be evenly matched. But we are not equally fundamentalist. The true scientist, however passionately he may “believe”, in evolution for example, knows exactly what would change his mind: evidence! The fundamentalist knows that nothing will.
First of all, I might as well just say this. I am an evangelical but I am not an fundamentalist.
The confusion of these terms is irritating and until George W. Bush became President, they did mean separate things. Jimmy Carter is an evangelical. Tony Campolo is an evangelical. Jim Wallis is an evangelical. At the same time James Dobson, John Hagee,Ralph Reed, and Jerry Falwell all claim to be evangelicals as well. It is an awfully large camp but not all evangelicals are fundamentalists and to be honest, we don't all believe the same things like evolution, only male leadership, or Biblical literalism. I grew up in an evangelical household and I don't even remember discussing these things growing up. I think my mom may have been a closet literalist but the lack of moat and parapit around our house meant that she was too ashamed to being it up much :-)
Secondly, I disagree Dawkins insistence that science is somehow pure in its pursuit of knowledge. One of the better books I read last year, 1491 (Amazon.com) is a tale of scientists refusing to give up on their theories and attacking other theories of the origin of civilization in North America. It is a story of people not changing their minds in face of evidence. I am not saying all scientists are fundamentalist, just that fundamentalism can be found in all fields. If you have ever listened to Joe Morgan call a Oakland A's game, even baseball has people who can't see something that is outside of how they see the world and this is a game which is supposedly all statistics (and yes I am killing the metaphor by calling Joe Morgan a fundementalist but his closed mind approach to sabremetrics shows an awfully closed mind).
Also, in one of my favorite blog posts of all time, AKMA, writes to incoming seminary students about the pursuit of truth in theology and the Christian life.
I start from the premise that everything about discipleship (and ordained ministry is in many respects simply an intensified mode of discipleship) grows out of the practice of truth. All the different theological disciplines, all the techniques and skills and habits you learn, derive their importance from the Truth you live; whatever facts you memorize, whatever devices for handling parish (diocesan, academic) organization, if they do not contribute to articulating a Truth that goes deeper than your personal preferences, your family’s habits, your community’s prejudices, those learnings amount to nothing more than gilding on a goose-egg. sooner or later, the egg will rot, and a pretty exterior won’t take away the stink.
The Truth will sustain your discipleship, even the intensified kind, with a nourishment, a light, a harmony, and a sense that do not depend for their validity on buzzwords, platitudes, fads, simple answers or correct answers (whether of the popular or academic sort). It’s not for nothing that Acts shows us the earliest followers of Jesus calling their fellowship as “the Way.” Ours is a Way entrusted to us from saints who knew it much better than any of us is likely to know it. That Way grows in us by the work of the Spirit, but we ought to make room for the Spirit to form us in the Way and cooperate with the Spirit in bodying forth the Way in our lives.
Are there fundamentalists out there that fear a truth outside of their worldview? Absolutely. Some of them are listed above and proclaim their fundamentalism proudly. Even among the GOP presidential candidates, some believe in a young earth seven day creation of the earth in face of overwhelming scientific evidence (This undermines my argument but last summer at Arlington Beach during the Free Methodist camp, there was a display up that linked people like me who don't accept a seven day creation/young earth to secular humanists and homosexuals who are destroying the faith - I thought I should let you know what a heretic I am). While there are Christian fundamentalists out there that can not or will not accept new information outside of a specific framework, there are many of us whose pursuit of truth lead us to faith. For others it was witnessing the supernatural (in my case seeing a miraculous healing in response to prayer growing up) while for others it was a personal encounter with God or as Plantinga has written over the years, some of us just have "faith in God" and it is logical to do so. I don't see that as a contradiction to evidence. In the end, I have to disagree with Dawkins, he is as much of a fundamentalist that he claims to be against.
Related:
Alister McGrath on Richard Dawkins :: McGrath contends that the aggressive rhetoric of Richard Dawkins' books masks a deep insecurity about the public credibility of atheism.
Some things that could have been full posts but I haven't had time to write about them...
Brady Quinn will not be the second coming of Rick Mirer. Rick Mirer ran Lou Holtz's option and run based offence while Brady just spent two years running the New England Patriots offence and being coached by the guy that seemed to do okay with another Brady...
A friend of mine insists that Americans have problems have trouble following the puck in NHL games. Maybe Fox was right with their glowing pucks.
Is there a worst stadium in professional sports than Tropicana Field? Actually ESPN has researched this and no it isn't. My favorite baseball stadium is Angels stadium in Anaheim. Wrigley and Fenway are great but I prefer baseball in Southern California.
It's time to fire J.P. Ricciardi. Nine straight losses and after losing two DH's and two starting pitchers, he added Frank Thomas. I never knew that Frank could pitch. With the B.J. Ryan fiasco, now J.P. is lying to the fans.
I am trying a Patch Perfect type product on our yard. Mulch, seed, and fertilizer. I'll let you know how it works compared to regular yard seed.
I think that the Democrats will nominate Hillary Clinton in 2008, thus paving the way for President Guiliani.
I am not sure why the NHL won't sell advertising on uniforms? I am not saying we need to see the Edmonton ESSO Oilers or anything but what's wrong with some advertising patches?
Is the Wall Street Journal worth less or more with Rupert Murdoch owning it. I say it is worth quite a bit less. FOX News is a parody of a news network and what is scary is that most people who watch it don't realize it.
I think that people that need a Bill O'Reilly or Tucker Carlson to help them understand the issues of the day, should not be allowed to vote.
I wonder how much of what Ann Coulter says, she actually believes?
I wonder how much of what Michael Moore says, he actually believes?
I don't think evolution, homosexuality or a non-literal reading of much of the Bible (apart from the Gospels) matter much to the Christian faith.
I don't think most Republican politicians care as much about abortion or homosexual rights as they say but rather use the issues to attack Democrats and rile up the base.
I don't think most Democratic politicians care as much about abortion or homosexual rights as they say but rather use the issues to attack Republicans and rile up the base.
I don't think that D.A. Carson and John MacAuther care so much about the emerging church other than their is money to made from writing books attacking it.
Queen's Logic is the worst movie ever. Worse than Batman and Robin. No plot, no character development, no nothing. It just happened and took two hours of my life that I will never get back.
Red Dawn is a vastly underrated movie and the world needs more movies by Patrick Swayze. I think that Red Dawn may have prevented a Soviet attack on North American because they knew we were now trained to fight tanks with bows and arrows successfully.
Speaking of Soviets, Vladislav Tretiak is one of my favorite hockey players of all time.
I collect John Wesley trading cards put out by tobacco companies. This is only funny if you are Free Methodist.
I think the consolidation of hockey equipment manufacturers is bad for the game of hockey and eventually the rising cost of the game will kill it.
I had a choice of having Mark play soccer or baseball this year and I practically pleaded with him to play baseball because the idea of watching him play soccer for the next decade depressed me while the idea of watching baseball sounded like fun. Luckily he chose baseball.
I have a book of Thomas Merton's photography and while this may alienate many of you, I don't think he had a lot of talent as a photographer.
We had gun shots periodically going off all night on our street. Sounded like .22 caliber shots.
The prostitutes that used to work 33rd Street and Avenue C and D the last two years seem to have moved on. Our neighborhood patrol seemed to have worked.
I don't understand Chicago Cubs fans. There is another home team to cheer for and at least it is good once in a while. I am a Saskatchewan Roughrider team and while it stinks and is bad for decades at a time, at least we aren't cursed as well.
I hid Maggi's tennis ball and she knocked over a bunch of stuff trying to get to it. That is nothing compared to a co-worker whose dog ate a sofa to get to her tennis ball.
Mark's first ever at bat at his first ever t-ball practice. As you can see, Cooperstown is a long, long, long way off. He did think his new cleats and ball glove worked okay. The bat seemed to be the only thing that caused him a problem but as Barry Bonds proved, anabolic steroids and a bad attitude can take you a long ways.
When Mark saw this photo on my blog, his response was, "You couldn't post a picture of me getting a hit? Where's mom, I need to talk to her about this!"
My brother Lee turned a quarter century old yesterday. The kid loves lasagna and Wendy made a massive pan of it for us, some chocolate cake (it isn't as if diabetes runs in the family or anything) and we watched Pirates of the Caribbean II as a family. We got him a baseball for his PSP and a Calgary Flames piggy bank as well as a shirt so it was a nice night.
The other night I watched my first NHL game since the strike two seasons ago. I realized that the other day that I had totally lost my love for the game. I wasn't even that angry at it anymore, I just stopped caring after the strike. A bunch of millionaires and billionaires had a hard time trying to figure out how to divide the pot. It kind of made me sick for a while. Then when I tried to watch hockey again, it reminded me of Arena Football. The game is different but if you watch an Arena football game, the first thing that hits you is how often the announcers tell you how great Arena football is. It happens over and over and over again. The same with TSN and the "new NHL". All Pierre McGuire and the TSN team could talk about was how great the new NHL was yet when I watched it, I missed the battles in front of the net. It was almost as if they made rushing the passer or running up the middle illegal in the NFL. It was still hockey but it looked like they were trying to compensate for the lack of talent in the game (which there was). According to this interview, I am not alone.
Simply put, the league squashes any sort of rivalry before it can get going. Even worse, Gary Bettman ran around saying that the new schedule, with more interdivisional games, was put in place to promote rivalries. In fact, those that keep an eye on the business side of the sport know he did it to cut down on travel costs. That is why he wants to go to divisions defined by time zones next year. Anything to save a buck.
So I stopped watching NHL hockey. I would check out the highlights on The Score.ca with some interest but not much passion. I let the Hockey Pundits slowly die (although it hasn't helped that I can't access it since Wendy moved from the old Blogger to the new Blogger. Google, thanks for ignoring all my pleas for tech support) and if I watched hockey, it was WHL hockey live or World Jrs. or something like that.
I am not sure why I waited this long to watch another game. Maybe watching baseball and football is enough. Maybe I am still mad that they kicked the fans to the curb two years ago. Maybe it is just Pierre McGuire. Whatever the reason, I am far from being back in the fold and being passionate. The evidence? The game I watched featured the Edmonton Oilers and I didn't wish for a career ending injury to any of them. I must be apathetic.
I have been swamped with life lately but have finally found the time to upload my photos from California to Flickr, then I realized I had over processed them in Picassa and they looked horrible that I uploaded the raw images again. Click on the photos to take you to the different photo sets on Flickr.
The point of the trip was to go down and help put together Soularize with some other friends of Spencer Burke's. It was quite a bit cheaper if I flew down a day earlier which allowed me to spend some time in the greater Los Angeles area and take a meandering trip down through Southern California.
The flight from Saskatoon (YXE) to Los Angeles (LAX) was surprisingly uneventful. I got through United States Customs in under 15 seconds (I timed him) in Calgary which beats a new record for me. When I got into L.A., Rudy had sent me some pretty good instructions on how to get to Pasadena by the Flyaway bus and the Metro Gold Line. While it was uneventful, I was not prepared to see Los Angeles' Union Station. Built in 1939, it was the last of the United States great train stations. It now serves both Amtrak , Metro and Metrolink trains and is a sight to see. I know it isn't as impressive as some of the eastern stations but I was impressed.
Once I got to Rudy's, I got a tour of Harambee and met the rest of his family. I mentioned the high school football game and I had a chance to learn more about Harambee and also talk to Rudy about important things like how big does a dog need to be in a tough neighborhood. Rudy has given me a hard time in the past about the petty crime that we have around my house but I have never considered whether my dog was tough enough for my neighborhood. Although it can't be that tough of a hood if Hutch is still alive. In case you don't know, Rudy was one of the first Christian bloggers out there.
Saturday morning the plan was going to take the train back down to L.A. and explore downtown a little more. It only costs $1.25 but the regional kiosk offers no change. My inner cheapskate lead me to explore a bit of Old Pasadena until I found a place to break the bill with a Diet Coke. Luckily King Taco came to my rescue and I was off to downtown
After taking the train downtown , I spent some more time exploring Los Angeles' Union Station which was fun. It opened in May 1939, is known as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States, but even with its massive and ornate waiting room and adjacent ticket concourse, it is considered small in comparison to other union stations. I put together a photoset here. Living in western Canada, we don't have a lot of cool train infrastructure between Winnipeg and Vancouver. Saskatoon doesn't even have a train station (we have a platform) so seeing the famous train station was great.
I couldn't help but compare the grandness of Union Station with the mess that passes for the international terminal of LAX. Makes me want to take a train to California next time.
Before I left, Rudy told me to explore the historic Olvera Street which is the oldest street and area in Los Angeles and is otherwise known as the birthplace of the City of Angels or El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument and is a department within the city. Many Latinos refer to it as 'La Placita Olvera'. Circa 1911 it was described as Sonora Town. It felt like Mexico and I spent some time snapping some photos and also shopping for Wendy and Mark. I got close to my dream on of one day having my own mariachi guitar band follow me around and be a soundtrack for my life. As for the shopping for Wendy and Mark, I struck out. I wasn't sure if Mark really needed a Lucha Libre mask.
While I was there, I wandered into the famous Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles which was founded in 1781 by a group of Mexican pobladeros, consisting of 11 families — 44 men, women and children, led by Don Fernando Rivera y Moncada, Lt. Governor of the Californias — who had set out from the nearby Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to establish an asistencia ("sub-mission") along the banks of the Porciúncula River. It's hard to believe that the humble Roman Catholic mission is still there and a vibrant part of the community. When I was there on the Saturday morning, it was packed full of families and children in white dresses and tuxedos which I imagine were being baptized. Anyways there were cameras, churos, tacos, bottles, and all sorts.
From there I wandered the half dozen or so blocks up Bunker Hill to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels. To help pay for it, it was reported that the Diocese of Los Angeles cut back spending that was to help the poor. In other words the Diocese acted like most churches do when they are in the middle of a building program.
I never got inside of the cathedral this time as there was a wedding going on and the doors were closed. As I was walking around taking photos, wedding attendees and even parts of the wedding party kept asking me for directions and the scary thing is that I was able to help them.
It has been a couple of years since I have seen the Cathedral and I was shocked to see some wear and tear on the building since it is only four years old and was designed to last for five hundred years. I wonder how long of a warranty you get on a building designed to last for 500-1000 years.
I have no idea why I keep being attracted to it. Maybe because it represents the anti-Jordon and personifies a lot of what I no longer believe in and maybe never believed in. Despite my difference in values, I did find some time to get some food at the Cathedral grill.
After hanging out at the Cathedral. I made my way to the Frank Gehry designed, Walt Disney Concert Hall which was still under construction the last time I was in Los Angeles. I have heard a lot of people crack that all of Gehry's buildings lately look alike but despite looking like a "Gehry", the feel is significantly different than his other great buildings. Originally the plan was to use a stone exterior but soaring costs caused them to use a stainless steel exterior. Of course that had it's own problems. There was a flaw resulting from the design's use of polished concave stainless steel surfaces. Residents of the neighboring condominiums suffered significant glare caused by sunlight that was reflected and concentrated in a manner similar to a parabolic mirror. The concentrated light made some rooms of nearby condominiums unbearably hot, caused the air-conditioning costs of these residents to skyrocket, and created hot spots on adjacent sidewalks of as much as 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Employees of the ticket office reported observing melted plastic traffic cones and spontaneous combustion in trash bins. After complaints from neighboring buildings and residents, the county government stepped in and asked Disney to come up with a solution. Their response was a computer analysis of the building's structure; after the offending surfaces were identified, they were sanded to reduce glare in 2005.
After heading back through Olvera Street and some other parts of the Civic District of Los Angeles (here are my photos ) I still hadn't gotten a hold of Spencer Burke and Mike DeVries . I decided to get my ticket at Union Station and head south on the Metrolink into Orange County. As the train was leaving, Spencer called me and I made plans with Mike to pick me up at Santa Ana Station.
Apparently the train was faster than Mike expected and I had to wait for a while to get picked up. Not a problem as it was a gorgeous day. I went inside, got a Diet Coke and made myself comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts. Apparently something was wrong with me as EVERYONE else was wearing long pants and jackets. Even downtown, I was the only one wearing shorts and seemed out of place wearing only a t-shirt. Any hotter and I would have bought a thong (there is a mental image that drove a couple of you into therapy).
Mike picked me up and we made our way to Newport Beach. Spencer was still not back from the Emergent Gathering so Mike and I headed to the beach and killed some time shopping for Mark and shared baseball opinions. While we were out walking, we walked by a place on the beach that was $7500.00 a month during the winter and $6500.00 a week during the summer. I pay less than $6500.00 a year for our mortgage.
We finally connected up with Spencer Burke and had a good discussion about A Heretic's Guide to Eternity. I didn't have the same problems that some others have had with the book. Some of the reviews seem to come from a misreading of what Spencer and Barry Taylor have had. I hope to have a review to contribute to the discussion in a week or so.
Later that night as Mark Scandrette, Adam Klein, Dwight Friesen, Tim Parsley, and Todd Littleton all rolled in, we went out for dinner and to start planning Soularize. A little about Soularize '07. For those of you who don't know, it is going to be in the Bahamas, we are diving with man eating sharks (I offered to stay on shore to call next of kin) while relaxing on a private island, and we are all going to be there along with Father Richard Rohr, Harvard's Rita Nakashima Brock, and some other names that we aren't quite ready to announce yet. All I can say is more details coming soon.
Of course Saturday night was a big night for me as peer pressure made me into having my first glass of wine ever. I grew up in holiness traditions. My grandmother was the head of the Saskatchewan Women's Christian Temperance Union. We actually had the discussion growing up about what would happen if you went into a bar to lead someone to Christ and a Christian saw you and decided to leave the faith because of it.
Mark was quite passionate about picking a great bottle of wine during the weekend with a lot of input from others. Finally I decided to leave the guilt and legalism behind and I tried a fine glass of red wine. There, I said it. Hopefully this doesn't activate a family curse or something. Then again my mother would have a glass of wine on holidays. Of course she died quite young...
It was weird, outside of talking online a bunch with Todd and knowing Adam from previous Soularizes, I didn't know any of them outside of reputation. It was unreal how much I learned from all of them during our time together. Soularize 07 is going to feature a lot of online learning from them and you get to choose your facilitator and perspective that we tackle the topics from.
Sleeping arrangements at the (soon to be torn down) Beach shack were a lot of fun. Adam and Markslept outside on the deck, Dwight and Tim on a bunk bed, Todd on the floor, and me on the sofa. I don't know if it was the fresh sea air or all the walking but I slept well even knowing that if I fell off the sofa, Todd's and mine relationship would be way more awkward.
Sunday morning was spent on the sand of Newport Beach. Shayna Metzner joined us Of course I got sunburned. Sunday featured more good food, some different wine and some great discussions about what is going to happen with Soularize. I realized that Resonate has influenced my thinking a little too much. My mantra was "give it all away" to which I was reminded, Soularize does cost a lot of money.
The Soularize website is going to be a really busy place with a lot of new announcements and content over the next couple of days/weeks/months. Hopefully you can join us for the year long sojourn that will lead to the Bahamas.
You heard me right, MLB playoffs should be a national holiday. Or perhaps you get so many playoff holiday games that you can use (or bank for when your team is playing) each year. The current system of working while afternoon games are on isn't working for any of us. Well, except for me and I get blacked out for evening games.
BROWN: Have you ever seen our team, sir? We're hopeless. Just hopeless. The right fielder spends half the time in the infield trying to talk the catcher into going out with her. Our first baseman carries a blanket onto the field. My dog is the shortstop! He's the definition of "all field, no hit," and you don't even want to touch the ball after he catches it with his mouth. Have you ever lost a game 60-0? We needed a competitive advantage. I was sick of all the attention going to Peppermint Patty. Peppermint Patty's so great. She's so wonderful. She's been on the juice for years! Why do you think Marcie always calls her "sir"? Her testosterone levels are through the roof. But no one says anything because she's a girl. Franklin, Marcie, Pig-Pen ... they're all on the stuff.
D.A.: Wah wah-wah wah.
BROWN: I don't think so, sir. This is a witch hunt out to get Charlie Brown, because Charlie Brown is a boy.
Damon Allen broke a major record last night and, in the process, broke the Labour Day Classic wide open for the Argos.
With 9:58 left in the third quarter, in what had been a lacklustre game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to that point, the Argos quarterback completed a 29-yard pass to Arland Bruce III to become pro football's career leading passer, eclipsing former NFL and CFL great Warren Moon.
The shovel pass resulted in a touchdown, and an 11-3 lead, which the Argos (6-5) never surrendered, whipping the Tiger-Cats 40-6 in the hostile confines of Ivor Wynne Stadium.
"It really doesn't matter to me," Allen said of the unspectacular shovel pass, which broke the record. "I think that pass was beautiful. That's what it takes sometimes."
The actual pass was only about five yards. Bruce did the rest.
Heading into the game, Allen was only 165 yards short of breaking Moon's mark of 70,553 yards.
"I was in awe," Argos coach Pinball Clemons said of the record, adding that he wouldn't put it past Allen, 43, to eventually go over 80,000 yards. "It felt like I did it. It was one of the most amazing moments I've ever had during a football game, the most emotional I ever got."
Allen also said the 80,000-yard mark is within reach.
I have seen Warren Moon and Damon Allen play once each. Warren Moon was at his peak in the CFL while what make Allen amazing is that he can still run really well and he is something like 148 years old. In addition to playing quarterback, he also struck out Michael Jordan in a minor league baseball game and is the younger brother to NFL great, Marcus Allen. The Toronto Star has a good story on his career here.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Saskatoon is a funny city. It has a world class park system all over the city. We are in walking distance of a couple of nice parks and then some even more gorgeous parks. There is the Meewasin Valley parks which borders the South Saskatchewan River valley. At the same time, we lack many of what is called, "good, great, spaces" and also neighborhoods. We have signs all over the places and indeed I live in a place like Mayfair but there really isn't any idea of community for most adults who live here (kids are unified by their school). In fact, for parents of kids in sports, hockey, soccer, and baseball zones are probably more defining ideas of the city.
Anyways, my desire to understand communities in Saskatoon, lead me to do some reading lately and one of them by Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The book is a classic and is foundational for any writing on urban planning although I think that most western Canadian city planner have ignored it. In Saskatoon, most of the commercial is grouped together and well away from the majority of residential properties. The result is that Saskatoon is a driving city where you drive for food, coffee, groceries, and other things. You lose the accidential community of running into your neighbors and friends by walking which is too bad. The book makes me want to get more interested in civic politics where a lot of bad decisions have been made for decades in Saskatoon. It's a good book as are other books by Jane Jacobs. You may want to check it out.
Is Mosaic a part of the Emerging Church? Alex McManus ponders the question. :: Recently a Los Angeles Times reporter was given the assignment to write an article on the “Emerging Church.” In doing her research she called me to talk about Mosaic. After she did her research and wrote the article, I spoke to her about why she chose not to include Mosaic. She had concluded from her research that Mosaic was not an emerging church because emerging churches tended to be “small, white and inward looking.”
Is Mosaic a part of the Emerging Church? Alex McManus ponders the question. :: Recently a Los Angeles Times reporter was given the assignment to write an article on the “Emerging Church.” In doing her research she called me to talk about Mosaic. After she did her research and wrote the article, I spoke to her about why she chose not to include Mosaic. She had concluded from her research that Mosaic was not an emerging church because emerging churches tended to be “small, white and inward looking.”
How long is a baseball actually in play during a ball game? I don't know if I agree with the math. They never counted the 800 pointless throws to first base because the pitcher doesn't have the guts to make a pitch in a pressure situation. Anyways, it's about 10 minutes.
Just some numbers on fundraising for the Liberal leadership candidates. What's interesting to me is that John Crosbie in 1983 raised more money than all of the Liberal leadership candidates have so far. South of the border, both John Kerry and George W. raised record amounts of dough so you can't say that people just don't give. Interesting trend that I have no idea of why it is. A quick Google Trends view of who is the most popular candidate online. If you are interested in Liberal or Canadian politics, one of the best places to look is over at the remarkable Calgary Grit.
The kids are playing catch, as they always do to start the day, and Nichols, who spent parts of six seasons with the Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros, is in charge. He gets to the academy at 8 a.m. and stays until 10 p.m., seven days a week, trying, alongside Miller, to nurse it from infancy. The academy opened in February, and while the grounds look pristine and the $750,000 budget is healthy, they envision it growing into a haven for Los Angeles-area baseball – one that produces the best travel teams, five to 10 draftable players per year and can still give free instruction and equipment.
For now, it looks like a summer camp. Kids slog through mud in a single-file line to reach the back field and goof off for a minute or two before getting down to business. Every time they throw the ball away, they know to do 10 sit-ups. And if they don’t, Jake Thompson, a volunteer coach and standout high school pitcher in the area with unimpeachable peripheral vision, catches them – as he proves twice with Cy.
“There are some kids who are just natural,” Nichols says as Cy stalls on his ninth sit-up. “You can just see it. He just needs a little work. His mechanics are off. But he has the hand-eye coordination to do this.”
When Cy arrived at the academy, he had trouble catching the ball consistently. He’s got that down now. He opens his body too far when he throws, an issue the coaches will correct soon enough.
“That’s the thing about this place,” Miller says. “One day a guy can’t throw a ball from here to there, and the next he can throw a ball on a line 180 feet because of increased mechanics.
”I mean, we entered this 19-and-under tournament this last month, and we finished third. It was our first foray into tournament play, and it was because we were disciplined. Batting practice. How to hit the ball the other way. How to hit a cutoff man. People underestimated us.”
It is nice to be reminded somedays about the good that can come from sports. Especially with a summer of Gaitlin, Zidane, and Landis.
BROWN: Have you ever seen our team, sir? We're hopeless. Just hopeless. The right fielder spends half the time in the infield trying to talk the catcher into going out with her. Our first baseman carries a blanket onto the field. My dog is the shortstop! He's the definition of "all field, no hit," and you don't even want to touch the ball after he catches it with his mouth. Have you ever lost a game 60-0? We needed a competitive advantage. I was sick of all the attention going to Peppermint Patty. Peppermint Patty's so great. She's so wonderful. She's been on the juice for years! Why do you think Marcie always calls her "sir"? Her testosterone levels are through the roof. But no one says anything because she's a girl. Franklin, Marcie, Pig-Pen ... they're all on the stuff.