My Michael Vick Take

Let me start off by saying I’m dog lover. I love my little pug and she is a family member to me. She greets me when I get home. As a pro-dog person, I’ve had a keen eye on the Michael Vick proceedings. I believe that his conviction and punishment were just.

I watched portions of his 60 minutes interview while I made dinner for the family and I have to say that my feelings on this have changed. I initially believed that this man should have known better and that I would be okay with him never playing again. I don’t feel that way anymore. I believe in second chances. I believe in that everyone deserves a shot at redemption if they feel bad about what they did and change the course of their life as a result. I believe Michael Vick needs a second chance to redeem himself. If he truly renounces what he did, then he should get a chance to play again. Now if he blows this second chance and reverts back to a point where he’s involved in dog fighting then all bets are off. Vick seemed genuine in his regret during the interview. How much of that was coaching of his legal and image team remains to be seen. I choose to believe at this point that he regrets this ever happened and wants a second chance.

With all that said, what changed my mind you ask…Couple of things. The fact that Tony Dungy is laying his name on the line for this man says a lot to me. I view Tony as a pretty stand up guy and for him to vouch for Michael Vick admittedly buys him capital with me. I’m willing to give Mr.. Vick a second chance because Dungy thinks he’s changed. Second and really the most important is because of my faith. Without getting into a big spiritual discussion here, I am going to say that my faith has taught me that we need to forgive when no one else will because we are forgiven when we shouldn’t be. I think that applies here.

I am going to continue to watch this situation unfold. If Vick has changed his words will become action. If his words are just that…words then he will fall back into the same traps and lose this chance. I’m willing to watch this thing unfold. I hope has seen the error in his ways and has made a true change.

Why I quote movie lines incessantly…

Don’t know how to write a tribute article so I’m just going  to talk off the cuff here.  John Hughes movies shaped my growing up years.  I was grounded a lot as a child.  I was very good at testing the line my parents set for me and I also was very good at checking their consistency.  I ended up grounded a lot as a result.  John Hughes and his movies helped get me through paying my debt to my folks.  After looking at his amazing body of work, I would have to say that of the movies he directed these three really shaped who I am today.  In fact his movies got me into to the bad habit of quoting movie lines as part of my everyday conversations.

Sixteen Candles

I think of this movie and I just laugh.  My wife loves to quote this movie.  Some of my favorite lines are:

“…the donger need food”

“Lumberjack: What's your last name?
Long Duk Dong: Dong.
Lumberjack: What's your first name?
Long Duk Dong: Long.
Lumberjack: What's your middle name?
Long Duk Dong: Duk.”

Howard: Dong. Where is my automobile?
Long Duk Dong: Oto-mo-biiile?

“Oh sexy Girlfriend…”

Long Duk Dong: She at the church. She getting married to oily bohunk.
Jake: Married?
Long Duk Dong: Married.
Jake: Married?
Long Duk Dong: Yeah. Married
[closes door]
Jake: [turns around, under breath to himself] Married?
Long Duk Dong: Married! Jeez.

Howard: Who was it? Well what did they want?
Dorothy Baker: [shocked] Sex.

 

Weird Science

Another movie whose lines I probably quote without even realizing it.

Wyatt: Gary, you're just as uptight as I am, all right?
Garry: Nobody could be as uptight as you! Nobody! Your middle name is tense. Wyatt "Tense Up" Donnelly.
Wyatt: All right, this is true, this is true.
Garry: It's true.
Wyatt: But it's not so bad. We can hear the music.
Garry: [sarcastically] We can hear the music, that's great. Maybe if we put our noses to the door, we can smell the food!

Wyatt: Gary?... By the way, why are we wearing bras on our heads?
Garry: [hesitates] Ceremonial.

Chet: How 'bout a nice greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?

GARY'S MOM: Don't you think Gary was acting a little strange tonight?

GARY'S DAD: Gary? Who the hell is Gary?

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

My word I love this movie.  I can remember trying to be Ferris Bueller.  (I failed miserably btw)  I unsuccessfully tried some of his antics.  I can try to list my favorite quotes but it’s another one where I will unknowingly quote this movie because it is woven into my being…Ed Rooney is a very underrated character in this movie.

Ferris: Hi. Do you speak English?
Garage Attendant: Uh, what country do you think this is?

Ed Rooney: What's the score?
Pizza Joint Owner: Nothin' nothin'.
Ed Rooney: [not really listening] Who's winning?
Pizza Joint Owner: The Bears.

Grace: Oh, Ed. You just sounded like Dirty Harry just then.
Ed Rooney: Really? Thanks, Grace.

Maitre D': You're Abe Froman?
Ferris: That's right, I'm Abe Froman.
Maitre D': The Sausage King of Chicago?
Ferris: [caught off-guard] ... Uh yeah, that's me.

Ed Rooney: I don't trust this kid any further than I can throw him.
Grace: Well, with your bad knee Ed, you shouldn't throw anybody... Its true.
Ed Rooney: What is so dangerous about a character like Ferris Bueller is he gives good kids bad ideas.
Grace: Mmm-hmm.
Ed Rooney: Last thing I need at this point in my career is fifteen hundred Ferris Bueller disciples running around these halls. He jeopardizes my ability to effectively govern this student body.
Grace: Well, makes you look like an ass is what he does, Ed.

I tried to find the YouTube clips for each of those scenes but I couldn’t get them all.  I loved his movies.   His movies captured the awkwardness and comedy of the teenage years.  Something I certainly identified with as a young teenager.  So what say you…Any favorite quotes or movies that I left out?

Me and my Coffee Habit

(Jeff Kubina – Flickr)

Hello, my name is JoeMama and I’m a coffee addict…(Hello Joe says the room)

I absolutely love a good cup of coffee.  I wouldn’t consider myself a coffee snob at all.  I’ve drank coffee from just about every locale: truck stop, my kitchen, coffee shop big and small, from a coffee single, and I’ve even eaten instant coffee straight out of the jar.  What can I say I love this stuff.  To me there is nothing better than walking out to the dock very early in the morning when the water is like glass, sip my coffee, and say hello to the sunrise.

I digress.  I’ll get to the point.  There isn’t a coffee maker in my office area and I’m surrounded by non-drinkers.  So when I need my fix, I’m left to suffer.  We do have a near-boiling water tap nearby and I’ve used it along with some coffee singles.  It’s okay but I need more.  Better flavor.  So the current debate I’ve got bouncing around in my head is the following three options

1. Coffee Maker
2. French Press
3. Thermos

So lets do what any good engineer would do and weigh the pros and cons scientifically.   Let’s take a look at what I need and then balance them against. 

What I need – good coffee, not a lot of volume necessarily (32 oz max), and easily to clean/maintain (since it’s in my office.

Now to the pros/cons

Coffee Maker –

Pros:  Makes a good coffee with whatever volume you need.

Cons:  uses electricity, have to make sure you watch the burner so you don’t scorch, you have to ditch the filter everyday,

French Press

Pros:  Makes great coffee with limited amount of volume,  uses no electricity, easy to maintain (just dump and rinse)

Cons:  Need certain size grind on your coffee, Need boiling water to make this happen.

Thermos

Pros:  Takes a finite amount of coffee anywhere, get a good thermos and you get a piping hot cup anytime anywhere.  Pour and enjoy.

Cons:  You have to brew ahead of time, another item to lug back and forth to work.

The verdict….

I need a good, warm cup of tasty java.  I always am rushing out the door for work so I think that rules out brewing ahead of time.  My schedule varies from day to day.  Sometimes a ton of meetings.  Sometimes not.  This means I don’t have time to babysit a coffee maker.  This is a sure bet that I’ll scorch a pot and end up having to scrape it.  Looks like I’m going to give a run with the French press.  Am I crazy?

THE WINNER

Road Trip!! (finding some truth along the way)

We took a trip to pick up my oldest from his grandma this past weekend.  We met halfway in lovely Wichita, KS.  This trip resulted in roughly 18+ hours in the car.  Sounds like a lot but I love a good drive.  I get a lot of good thinking behind the wheel.  When I used to have a 45 minute commute to work, I had to have a tape recorder nearby because as I drove I would literally download my brain out of my mouth.  Lots of good ideas.  To capture these ideas I would record them and transcribe them later.   This trip allowed me to think about a lot things.  Mostly my Christian walk and how it is speaking through my family, work, and me.

We found a lot of good modern Christian stations between here and Wichita.  This isn’t Gospel but modern rock that praises God.  I am a normal guy who loves the Lord.  Do I have shortcomings? You betcha.  I am not perfect because I am a Christian.  I try to achieve perfection because I feel that Christ deserves that much but I come up short on a daily basis.  I am made perfect because I believe and he loves me back.  Now getting to the point.  I heard Matthew West’s ‘Something to Say’ and the message behind says that everyone’s life speaks for the Lord.  What is my Life saying?  As I said before, I’m a normal guy.  I love sports, my wife, my kids, playing the guitar, etc.  I have areas of my life that are far from perfect.  They are broken.  I need fixing.  I look to the Lord to show me how.  I’ll never be Billy Graham and stand at a pulpit and preach to the masses or Bart Millard and sing God’s praises to thousands.  My life is my testimony.  I heard something on the Dan Patrick Show about Tim Tebow.  They were talking how he operates in a football locker room and Dan said that Tebow just takes on an attitude of ‘I’m here to help you.’  He is not the standing on a street corner screaming for people to repent.  This really spoke to me and so has this verse.

¹⁶"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may ^(T)see your good works, and ^(U)glorify your Father who is in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

So putting it all together.  I am a normal guy who is trying to let the Lord speak through my life.  I will not thump my bible in your face but I am here if my friends, family, or whoever wants to talk about the Lord.

It’s Alive!!!

Sometimes I have something I want to say with more than 140 characters.  I’m still learning how to use these sets of tools.  Twitter, Facebook, and Blogspot are a great way to communicate and they all have their place.  I guess I’m sorting out how I’m going to use them all.  Each has their great points.  I’m bringing this old bird back from the dead.  I know a few months ago I said I was going to 86 this thing but as time moved on it became apparent that I needed more than 140 characters to get out my thoughts.

I’ve messed around with how I’m going to format this.  Largely I think I’ve been chasing my tail.  My original thought for this blog was a catch all of thoughts, feelings on whatever trips my trigger.  It could be spiritual, sports, work, family, whatever.  I tried to make this blog like others but I’ve gotta make this one MINE.  In essence this blog is going to be about nothing from here on out. 

Whether I have one reader or a thousand, I’m going to stick to the original concept.  So I’m going to proceed to bore you all to death from here on out. 

Monday Musings

1. Thank goodness the Celtics lost.  I don't know what it is about the Celtics I don't like.  I think it's scars from my childhood where my Dad revered the Larry Bird and trash talked his young Laker-fan son.
2. The coolest thing about Twitter is that an Astronaut can tweet from space.  Follow this guy at @Astro_Mike.  I can just see him floating in front of his keyboard.
3. Jalen Rose on Mike and Mike gave shout outs to folks that were twittering him while on the air.  The game is changing and the world is getting smaller.   Wouldn't be surprised if the 'request line' is replaced by a twitter feed.
4. Realize I'm probably Twitter-heavy right now, but I read twitter like a news wire.  It has become my way of following the news as it happens.  I follow News organizations, politicians on both sides of the aisle, and watch things like Twit-Scoop.  Twitter provides a great vehicle to watch stories develop real time.
5. If you haven't visited Lifehacker.com or Instructables.com, then you're missing out.  These are great sites for how-tos and ways to use a little elbow grease to save some $$.  Plus if you're a pack rat like me than it is a great way to deplete your inventory.
6. Speaking of Jalen Rose,  I'm listening to the podcast of Mike and Mike from Friday.  He's tremendous.  He is captivating, carries conversation, and knows how to deliver a point.  He's got a tremendous future in the broadcasting business.  Combine that w ith his basketball chops.  He'll be a force.
7. Yellow Ledbetter:  Does anyone know the lyrics to that song?
8. Pelosi needs to answer for 'CIA mislead me comment'.  If the CIA did lie or mislead her, they can be prosecuted.  She needs to put her $$ where her mouth is.
9. I needed to read this today.  "Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you." Galatians 5:1
10. All Joe Biden needs to do now is send out the google maps link where his bunker is located.  Put a mic in front of this guy and he disengages the filter.

The Sunday Bullets

 

1. Duck-Duck-Goose vs.. Duck-Duck-Gray Duck:  So far DDG is winning by a large margin.  The only place I’ve ever seen DDGD is Morris, MN
2. I can’t be the only person who loves Wasabi Soy Sauce Almonds
3. Apparently there was some rhyme and reason for not releasing Gitmo photo and holding tribunals.  The viewpoint is a little different when you have all the intel in front of you.
4. I was really hoping the Lakers would have lost to Houston.  I think Chauncey and the Nuggets can get it done
5. Joe Mauer is awesome.  Brent Gardner thought he had home plate but Mauer made a great play.  Mauer is the man
6. Why does my 2 year old think he’s 17?
7. The Penguins of Madagascar is a really really funny cartoon.  If you haven’t seen it you should.
8. Covering the words of Jesus in Sunday School and we talked about becoming ‘Fishers of Men.’  I definitely cannot fish by the net full but I pray that I am learning the skill to cast my line.
9. Made my own Salsa Verde this week.  It was pretty good but I need to find some fresh tomatillos.  If you used canned tomatillos it may taste a little sour.

Pirate Fail

This is one of my new favorite blogs (Failblog.org)…It’s Hilarious

see more pwn and owned pictures

Finally…a voice of reason…

I’m going to just let him talk cause he pretty hits it out of the park

What say you?

Simple is better

Going a new direction with this blog.  I think I’ve cluttered this page up with too many gadgets.  I’ve decided to simplify.  I find the blogs I love to read are the simple unadorned blogs.  Now I’m not straying away from being a media-rich blog because I think that a picture says a thousand words.  So read on and enjoy.  Leave me comments sometimes I feel like I’m talking and no one is listening.