Notebook

I usually hate the arrogance of big companies. This is especially true in the world of computer software. Microsoft and Apple drove me to install Ubuntu on a virtual machine just as a little act of defiance, even though I don't use it all that often.

Google fits that category too but I do like my gmail and now I've fallen in love with Google Notebook. I just love it and probably would even if it wasn't free. Sure they may be collecting bucket loads of data from me in the process but at this point I really don't care.

The Shack

I just picked up The Shack as it had been recommended to me awhile ago and I never got around to it. I have three friends that I'm pretty close to who have experienced the death of a child so I found the beginning of the book extremely disturbing. Mack is back at the shack now, though, and I'm loving the book. It is kind of like one of those movies that you need to see over and over again because you have the feeling you're missing a lot of the subtleties the first time through. The author paints challenging visuals for me and I like that.

Olympics

I love the Olympics. The dramatic finishes in the swimming have been terrific. Any soccer tournament is worthwhile. USA Basketball looks like they've got it together. But the best for me is the track and field.

I love the sprints and Bolt was just amazing in the 100m. (I'm worried that Matt Millen will see if he can catch a football.) The women's 100 was also great. I spent most of the first four years of my life in Jamaica and while I remember very little of it I still have a soft spot for them. I can't imagine how ecstatic the country must be right now.

I think I like track and field because they seem to be the root sports of the Olympics. Say "Olympics" and I think of a statue of a Greek guy throwing a discus. With that in mind there are several sports that I think need to be dropped.

First, take out anything with the word "synchronized" in it.

Take away any sport that requires a special building. Does anyone have a hippodrome in their backyard?

Can we just do away with all the fighting? Are boxing, fencing, wrestling, tae kwon do, etc., even necessary. I know some of them might be "original" but do we need to promote violence now days. That goes for the shooting sports too. I suppose that some would argue that these sports actually promote peace because it allows people to get physical or use weapons in a peaceful way but I'm just tired of it. (I do like to shoot skeet though. I'm so conflicted.)

I know it will never happen because of the money but I could do without the gymnastics. Any sport where the best in the world are in their early teens should be banned. It is ridiculous that kids that young grow up with that kind of pressure. Set the minimum age for all sports at 18.

I have to grudgingly admit that beach volleyball has to go. Michael Rosenburg had the best article on this in the Detroit Free Press and he is right about the women's side of the sport. "It is the only sport where you can take away the ball and nobody notices."

They also need to take away every sport that has a bigger championship somewhere else. Baseball, tennis, basketball, and even my beloved soccer all fit this category.

I won't even comment on trampoline.

Some sports need to be modified. Rowers should not be using equipment that can only be found at snooty private schools. Give them a dug-out canoe and I'm all for it.

In spite of a host of problems I have to admit to being addicted to the games. I love the immense amount of coverage and I'm sure I can justify spending huge amounts of time watching it by finding sermon illustrations. Hey, the Apostle Paul did it. I need to get 4 years worth, after all.

Sweeeeet

One of the best things about this time of year is sweet corn. I know I'll be sick of it in a few weeks but right now I just can't get enough. I've also noticed you have to be careful where you get it as some of it can be downright awful. Fortunately, some people in our church grow some of the best.

This summer my niece introduced me to elotes. This is corn-on-the-cob from the Hispanic community that comes with a variety of toppings (I think.). The one she showed me was corn-on-the-cob slathered with mayonnaise, rolled in cotija cheese, and sprinkled with chili powder. I fell in love with it. I get a lot of strange looks when I describe it around here but you just have to try it. I used finely graded queso cheese instead of cotija (I've got to get to a Mexican grocery) but I think I'll try Parmesan to see if is just as good.

Ambition

I'm not sure what to think of ambition. On the one hand it seems to enable people to overcome incredible obstacles to achieve great things. On the other hand, someone who is overly ambitious seems to come off as annoyingly tedious and boring to me.

I read somewhere that Billy Graham was extremely ambitious, especially in his younger days. If true, I think it served him well. Every time he was on TV my mom used to ask me if I watched. "No, mom. He says the same thing every time." It takes a lot of ambition to preach the same thing for all these years and still be able to achieve incredible results. I don't mean to knock Dr. Graham at all. He sees his mission very clearly and he has stuck to it. I remember hearing him at a conference once. He started by saying he had stayed in a very nice hotel, was brought to the conference in a limo, and received a standing ovation upon walking out on stage. He said his fleshly nature loved it but his spiritual nature was embarrassed by it. I'm not sure what he meant but I liked it.

I have also admired John Maxwell's ambition. I saw him at a conference once where he arrived by air earlier that morning. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week but still got up and gave an outstanding performance. Here is a guy who has taken concepts that should be painfully obvious to even the dullest dullard and made them seem like something eye-opening. The fact that he is able to repackage those concepts over and over again is incredible. His content usually drives me nuts but I have to admire his ambition.

I think we sometimes mistake slowness as a lack of ambition but I think we've got it wrong. After all, my kid's apparently have the ambition to sleep in late and sit on the couch all summer. They are over-achieving.

So I don't know what to make of it. I think ambition is good for us but too much can be just as dangerous as not enough. I also think "what" you're ambitious about is far more important than just how much ambition you have.

Time Moves On

I was shot in the leg in a hunting accident when I was 15 and spent two weeks recovering reading the Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I just read that he died today.

Some Good Posts

My brother had a good post on his blog about a pow-wow held on their campus. I thought the t-shirts were excellent.

He also linked to this old post by Tim Timmons that I thought was good.

A Trip To The Bookstore

Kim and I went to the mall the other day and spent some time in the big bookstore. I usually don't buy anything at a bookstore unless it has used books but I still like to spend time in them. My routine is usually the same.

Walking in I ran smack dab into the tables with the big "Beach Reading" sign. We do have a beach in Indiana named "Indiana Beach" but it ain't that hot so I'm not sure how well this marketing effort will work.

Next I ran into the "Recent Releases" table. A lot of political books out this year. I'm not sure I've ever read a contemporary political book and not sure I ever want to. I'll reserve my political reading to history, as in "This is what happened 35 years ago during the Watergate scandal. Does time increase or reduce spin? Is that question philosophical, political, or physical? Mmmmmmm

You can find almost anything in the "Bargain Books" and I was even motivated enough to nab one off the shelf for myself.

The "Clearance" table is pretty sad. It usually is filled with books that probably aren't worth reading and it is probably why I will never write a book, especially if I was a politician. It must be hard to look at your book, with your picture on it, with your title ("My American Dream" or something like that), and see the store doing everything they can to get rid of it.

I cruise the music section and notice that a majority of the space seems to be taken over by DVDs. I suppose most people would rather buy their music online and I would bet the DVDs are going to have the same fate.

I wish I was a kid again with the huge area devoted to them now days. I read a lot when I was a kid but most of the books were probably not really suited for my age.

I finally run into a small table that's worse than the clearance table. It's the "Red Dot" table. Any book with a red dot is only $1. I picked up a horrible looking book but I put it back figuring the Tim Hallman that wrote it is probably not the one I know.

I then made my way to the Ws in the fiction section to see what they had from PG Wodehouse. I had a friend that had an omnibus that was fantastic but I've never seen it since. They only have the repackaged fair that I already own so I move on.

I just happened to be near the registers and I had caught up with Kim so I checked out. My book? A novel by outdoor humorist Patrick McManus. I think I've read everything he has written and I think he does better with short stories but this one I didn't recognize so I thought I would take the chance on wasting $6.

And that ended my trip to the bookstore.