Friday February 1st 2008
3:46PM | Already
y resolution of blogging regularly has not been proceeding as planned: I almost forgot my username and password for logging in here already! The last year sped by as they frequently seem to do, but I was especially reminded of this when I read that Major League Baseball's spring training is only two weeks away. Just like I was doing such a short time ago in February of 2007 I am scrounging for any fantasy baseball news I can find and preparing for my leagues' upcoming drafts. The second jolt was seeing Groundhog Day already coming around again. Next Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday. Maybe I will actually get around to eating pancakes on Fat Tuesday this year - there is an excellent breakfast restaurant only five minutes away from home and office, and though I have never tried their pancakes Tuesday seems like as good a day as any.
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Monday February 4th 2008
10:25AM | 17-14
don't like the Giants, but I hate the Patriots. From Tom Brady's ankle and shoulder, the Bruschi hype of two years ago, Randy Moss, the pride of Boston sports, the cheating claims, the media hype, to recalcitrant head coach Bill Belichick's cut-off hooded sweatshirts, the Patriots have fallen beneath even the Cowboys on my most-despised football team list. You know a team must be low in my esteem when I root for the Cowboys or Giants over them.
Last night's Super Bowl felt like vindication for all that went wrong this NFL season. The mighty undefeated patriots fell to the giant-slayers, the Giants themselves, who won the Super Bowl as the lowest seeded NFC victor ever - overcoming such high-powered teams as Dallas and Green Bay. To add to the irony, the Giants' first touchdown and then the game's biggest catch were both made by the ultimate underdog David Tyree, who previously tallied only 4 catches all season long. Tyree's amazing leaping catch with one hand and his head after Manning improbably scrambled away from a sack deserves a name to enshrine it in NFL history, but sadly sports journalists I've read are of such poor worth that they admit being unable to come up with a fitting name. When the receiver is on a team with the name "Giants" and the play is made in the game's final minute, fitting names are ready-made: off the top of my head I can come up with The Giant Miracle, the Giant Leap, Goliath's Revenge, the New York Minute, et cetera.
Eli Manning's poise was impressive, both throughout the playoffs and in the Super Bowl. With two Mannings leading their teams to Super Bowl victories and earning game MVP's two years in a row, I hope they do not have a younger brother who will be really feeling the pressure to live up to that. Aside from Manning and Tyree, Usi Umenyiora deserved consideration for MVP after leading a stalwart defensive effort against the highest scoring offense in NFL history.
The Patriots leaving the field one second early was the perfect stamp to the end of this classless imperfect team's season.
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Friday February 8th 2008
6:18PM | Triple Stack
oday I had breakfast three times, but that is not as gluttonous as it may sound. This morning before work I had an extremely light and hurried breakfast of Pop Tarts and yogurt. I made up for this with a heavy breakfast at lunch time: delicious blueberry pancakes, three sausage links, scrambled eggs, and home fries. Then, for dinner, fried eggs and bacon. I did not wake up and plan that - it's just how things turned out. Breakfast is by far my favorite meal, perfect for any time - especially late at night.
Having pancakes today made up for my lack thereof on Shrove Tuesday. The restaurant I was planning on lunching at turns out to be closed on Tuesdays. There was no IHOP nearby, that I am aware, so that was that.
Annoying news this week: Yahoo! Music Jukebox is converting its customers to Rhapsody due to a new deal. What makes this annoying new is that only a few months ago, last year, Musicmatch was bought by Yahoo! and I was transferred with only a little problem - frustrating nonetheless. But aside from a few bugs the new player and service worked out comparably, if not better. The thing about Rhapsody is that the monthly subscription will be higher: $13 a month. That's not a lot of money, but more than I want to pay for the limitations of the service. My Blockbuster subscription doesn't even cost that much. I'll have to explore other music providers, as Musicmatch and Yahoo! Jukebox have been my primary means of discovering new music and listening to music at home. I do not like the usability of Pandora, and internet radio such as Deezer and Last.fm is not quite what I am looking for. Any suggestions of other legal music providers?
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Saturday February 9th 2008
7:08PM | Thrice Ran
y running log looks better today than it has the past couple years. I went running three different times today in three different parks, totaling nine miles. Johnson Lake: 3 miles, Bond Lake: 2 miles, Shelley Lake: 4 miles. I had to run in spurts at times so probably the net miles ran is closer to 6.5. Still, that's progress, and hopefully I can combine all that into a single run this summer.
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Sunday February 24th 2008
11:46AM | Works and Righteousness
ome convicting thoughts from John Calvin, collected from chapter one of The Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life:
"For why were we delivered from the quagmire of iniquity and pollution of this world, if we want to wallow in it as long as we live?"
"Since Christ has united us to his body as his members, we should be anxious not to disgrace him by any blemish."
"Since the Holy Spirit has dedicated us as temples of God, we should exert ourselves not to profane his sanctuary, but to display his glory."
"The apostle denies that anyone actually knows Christ who has not learned to put off the old man, corrupt with deceitful lusts, and to put on Christ. External knowledge of Christ is found to be only a false and dangerous make-believe, however eloquently and freely lip servants may talk about the gospel."
"Our religion will be unprofitable if it does not change our heart, pervade our manners, and transform us into new creatures."
However, after all this tough talk regarding our pursuit of the holiness to which we are called, Calvin offers some comfort and encouragement:
"We should not insist on absolute perfection of the gospel in our fellow Christians, however much we may strive for it ourselves. It would be unfair to demand evangelical perfection before we acknowledge anyone as a Christian. There would be no church if we set a standard of absolute perfection, for the best of us are still far from the ideal, and we would have to reject many who have made only small progress."
"But let everyone proceed according to his given ability and continue the journey he has begun. There is no man so unhappy that he will not make some progress, however small. Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair because of the smallness of our accomplishment."
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