Digital Wilderness

This is a snippet from the book I just finished reading, The Last Jihad, that I thought was pretty cool, and applicable to this week’s poll.

[T]he woman had come to her pastor and told him exactly what she wanted at the funeral and what Bible verses to read and everything. And then, when she was all done, she told him that she wanted to be laid out in an open casket with a fork in her right hand. And he says, ‘A fork? Why a fork?’ And she says, ‘When I was a little girl, I used to love church suppers. And when the meal was done, and people were clearing the dishes, one of the older women in the church would always come over and lean down and whisper to me, save your fork. And I loved that. Because I knew it meant something better was coming–apple pie or chocolate cake or blueberry cobbler, or something. And pastor’, she said, ‘when I die, I want people to come by and see me and then ask you, Why’s she got a fork in her hand? And I want you to tell them my little story, and then tell them the good news- that when you know Christ, you know there’s something better coming.’

This is a post that’s been several weeks in the “thinking,” but I’m just now getting to writing it down.

I’ve been playing on two co-ed softball teams this summer, one team in a church sponsored league and the other in a general league through a sports complex. Wow, they couldn’t feel more different from each other!

I was invited to play on the church league team by some friends and I’ve really enjoyed playing in this fun, semi-competitive league. All the players have been nice and shown good sportsmanship, and while everyone wants to win, it’s not at the expense of benching someone an entire game or arguing every call or trying to bend the rules to add an advantage. The games were on Sunday in the early evening, and we didn’t get rained out once. It was very hot a couple of days, though. The last game in this league was this past weekend and we finished with a 5-4 record. It would have been 6-3, but the very last game was called because of lightning with my team batting and down by one run in the last inning. Regardless of the record, it was a blast to be playing on this team and meeting new people.

I’m having very little fun in the general league, though. The team I’m on is sponsored by my company, so I’m playing with my co-workers, which is cool, but the overall atmosphere of this league is entirely different than the other league. Everyone is very competitive, it feel formal and “professional” and there hasn’t been a game yet without some kind of controversy. We’re 0-4 thus far, so that sure isn’t helping things, especially when some of your players show up drunk and don’t seem to care. The games are on Friday night, some games as late as 10pm, and with these games under the lights, and it just doesn’t feel as good as playing in the sun. To zap any remaining good feelings about this league, you have to pay an admission fee before entering the complex. This is in addition to the league fee, which thankfully the company paid for.

Oh well, it’s just great to be playing again. Maybe next year I’ll find a couple of church leagues to play in rather than going for the open leagues at sports complexes.

I know, I know…I’ve been a bad blogger lately. My posts have decreased in frequency and when I do post, it’s usually a video, a graphic, or something else “small” and not personal. I think Robin stole my mojo, as she’s posting a LOT more frequently than she used to. I hope to get back into the the groove soon, though.

What’s been keeping me busy? Well, I’m on two softball teams (a post about this is in progress), I finally gave in and started playing World of Warcraft (a MMORPG), I’ve been planning my backpacking expedition (more on this later, as well) and I was out of town this weekend visiting my grandparents. It’s always nice to get down to my paternal grandparents’ farm in Western KY. The pace of life is so much slower and relaxed, away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Most of the family was there this time, minus my cousin, so it was good to see all of them. We ate, played cornhole and bocce ball, ate some more, worked on their garage door opener, and ate, ate, ate. Boy, was I stuffed this weekend, but with food that good, it’s hard to pass up. I think this is going to make me have to go running again!

Back to the grind tomorrow. More meaningful posts to come soon!

A friend sent these to me, and though they may get me in trouble, I still think they’re funny enough to post

Got my tickets for Spamalot. Can’t wait!

While I think about something else to write about, which this video about fainting goats. Too funny!

It takes something pretty serious to get me to the doctor. I don’t know why I have this mindset, but I dislike taking medicine, even ibuprofen or aspirin for headaches, and I tend to put off visits to the doctor. I guess I figure my body can heal itself on it’s own given the time. That means I suffer for a while, as I’ve done over the past two weeks. I thought I had conquered it, but the cough and overall sick feeling has come back lately.

There’s a new element as well… Several times over the past week, I’ve awakened in the middle of the night gasping for breath. I’ll regain it after a few seconds, but that’s still a scary experience. After that happened 3-4 nights, I decided it was probably something I should get checked out. Yeah, that’s what it took to get me to the doctor.

So I called for and got an appointment with the doctor today. The verdict? Bronchitis, slight fever and allergies causing congestion and drainage that caused the problems at night. Stupid bronchitis! I end up with that about once a year. Of course, I figured that’s what I had when my cough lasted more than a week, but I tried to pretend otherwise.

One of these days I’ll learn to get to the doctor sooner…

10 years ago, I graduated from Larry A. Ryle High School. Whoa! Where was the time gone?!? High school feels like forever ago, but at the same time, thinking ahead to the future, it doesn’t seem all that long ago. Especially when you have just had your ten year reunion…

This past weekend was my reunion. I was involved with the planning for the reunion as well as working on the website, so I was hoping things would go smoothly and that it would be a successful event. Actually, it was more than a single event. We had a family picnic on Friday then a school tour followed by a buffet dinner on Saturday. Since several people were coming in from out of town, might as well give them something to do all weekend! It’s funny that we had several events planned for our reunion while I’ve heard from other people, both in other classes at Ryle and other schools, that they haven’t heard a thing about even having a reunion.

The buffet was the main event and we had approximately 60-70 attend. That number includes spouses and other guests, so in the end, I’d say about a fourth of the class was there. We were expecting more, based on the RSVPs, so we were a little disappointed in the turn out. Nevertheless, I felt the reunion was a success. Those that came seemed to enjoy themselves and surprisingly, most people stayed the entire night, until midnight.

Some people had dramatically changed since the five year reunion, while others seemed to have remained the same. There were those that had just changed in their appearance and others whose personality had greatly matured. The cliques were still there, though they weren’t as tight and as exclusive as they used to be. If you think about it, though, it’s hard for there not to be these “segregated groups” at reunions such as this. I, for one, would naturally gravitate first towards those people that I hung out with more often, and would later meander over to those that I didn’t know so well.

I tell ya, it was really good to see some old friends and hear what’s going on in their lives. It’s amazing how many people have not only married, but are churning out the kids. There were three couples that had three kids already! Glad to know I’m not the only single one out there, though It was also nice to reminisce, especially during the school tour. We left hello messages on our favorite teachers’ white boards that I’m sure will make their day. I miss some of those teachers – Mrs. Hart, Mrs. Kanabroski, Mr. Ryan…

The title of this post was picked for two reasons. Not only does it refer to the relative success of the reunion, but to a superlative I was chosen for in high school – Most Likely to Succeed. Over the course of the evening, I had a brief discussion on this and was asked if I thought I had lived up to that. After a brief moment to reflect on it, I answer that I was indeed successful, though not by the definition most people use to define success. Most consider a person successful if they’re married, have a family, a nice house, expensive car, high annual salary, hold a position in upper management at their place of employment, etc. I’m not successful in those terms, but success goes so much beyond that in my mind. I’m happy where I am now, happy with the person that I’ve turned out to be in the ten years since high school. There is so much more to life than a job, and I’m glad I’ve realized that early on and haven’t thrown my life away working 80 hours a week. I’ve learned to be responsible with my finances and make do with what I have. I’ve invested in a house in a nice neighborhood. I have some great friends and a great family that supports me. I know there’s potential for me to do more with my life as well as room to grow and areas of my life that need work, but that too is part of success. You can’t succeed if you always stay where you are, in your comfort zone.

Ten years have come and gone since high school, five years since college, and I’m getting close to thirty… The time sure does fly!

A while back (wow, more than a year ago!), I wrote a post about Bananas Comedy. Since then, I bought the Bananas episode featuring Taylor Mason, one of my favorite comedians. The first time I saw this episode on TV, I was laughing so I hard the tears were flowing. Taylor does a nice mix of typical stand-up, music and…puppets! It was one of his last segments of the show, one featuring puppets, that caused me to almost die of laughter. I thought it was about time I shared this segment with others. Now, I know not everyone will find this as funny as I do, and some maybe not remotely so, but I certainly enjoyed it and wanted to share it.

First, let me set up the clip. Taylor has five (at least) puppets in his act, each with a unique voice and personality. In this clip, Taylor chooses five random people from the audience to “operate” the puppets. Taylor then provides the impromptu words as each puppeteer opens and closes the puppets’ mouths, something that he doesn’t control. So what happens when he tries to get them to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat?

Let’s find out!

Without further ado, here’s the clip. Enjoy! (This is my first attempt at uploading to Google Video, so I hope all goes well)