Sunday, March 26, 2006

Africa...Invisible Children



















This quote is from the story of the Invisible Children...

"Once one has been to these challenging terrible places they're always strangely drawn back...because there's nothing that can compare to seeing the raw reality of the basic human need for survival. It disgusts and inspires." -Dan Eldon

Any thoughts? Curious?
Check out the link to the right...
Until Dukey Drops again...Much Love...

Friday, March 24, 2006

The Madness of March





As the snow begins to melt from a snow storm that came through a few days ago after many 60-70 degree "winter" days we find ourselves officially in spring. Every year around this time there are favorites and there are cinderellas among college basketballs best teams. Everyone attempts to guess who will be the Final Four and who will be the cinderella team. There are upsets that destroy your bracket and there are teams that defy their seed. My Final Four included Kansas, Texas, Uconn and Florida. Kansas sadly was that team for me that I was counting on. They ran into the MVC buzzsaw Bradley Braves. Bradley almost didn't make the tourney and they made the most of their opportunity knocking of #4 seeded KU and #5 seeded Pitt.
The biggest news now in the state is that of the Wichita State Shockers who play another seed-defying team the Colonials of Goerge Mason tonight. Both teams have an opportunity to do what many teams would almost die for, a chance to make the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament. After both teams have been knocking off higher seeded teams they have a rematch of a game earlier in the season where George Mason won by three 70-67 and they are favored to win again. It should be fun to watch.
Ok so after I posted this Wichita St. went on to lose to George Mason in what was not the best game for the Shockers who looked slow and just not on their "A" game. They were still fun to root for.
Other big news in this area is the Kansas State signing of Men's head basketball coach Bob Huggins former coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats. Kansas State I believe took a huge step toward seeing success with their Men's basketball....unfortunately.
Fort Hays State Men's basketball won their first game of the North Central regional but dropped their second to eventual DII National Champ Winona St. They ended a great season 27-4.
Coming into this the tourney everyone had expectations of a certian team or maybe of a conference. Oddly enough this made me think of the expectations we have of one another whether in a friendship or dating relationship. I'm not going to speak toward marriage because as most of you know I have no experience in that area but this is
very relevant to it.
So often we have unrealistic and very idealistic expectations of one another and this often causes problems. Granted they are good to have and help us push each other to greater things but in the event that someone doesn't meet those expectations I believe we should be honest with ourselves and see if we were perhaps a bit unrealistic. Whether we were a bit over zealous in our ideals or we weren't we should be able to let it go and not hold a grudge toward that person because they didn't meet our lofty bar.
I believe it is really important that those expectations are discussed early on in a dating relationship so that as it progresses you are aware and be open to any modifications too. The vital part in discussing these is that you yourself are able to listen to the other person and find if they feel that you do have unrealistic expectations. You also need to be honest with yourself if you are in a cosmic world of your own in the making of the mold that your friend or date needs to fit into. If your horizontal relationships around you are really out of whack and messed up it is very likely that your vertical relationship is imapcted too.
Anyway just some thoughts I had...Until Dukey drops again....Much love....

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Skiing...highs and lows

Last week I drove to Rock Springs, WY to meet up with my parents to go to Park City, UT and go skiing with my old man, pops and daddio. We went to The Canyons in Park City and had a great time. The sun was shining and it was quite warm as you can tell from the picture. I chose not to wear a hat, hair, and forgot sunscreen. The results speak for themselves. Today I started peeling. Its all good though. We had a great time on the mountian. The snow and the weather were both excellent!
It was fun to laugh at my dad and he had a few chances to laugh at me. We made some jokes on the camcorder..."dad are those your panties in the tree!!?!!" LOL! We trekked across unknown territory and just brought about more laughs. We just plain and simple had a good time.
One of the times when dad did nothing but laugh was when we were headed across an open area of unskiied territory. I got up to the run we were trying to find...dad showed up later because he lost his pole in the snow...and I stood at the incline on the edge of the run checking things out and I began to slide backwards. The back of my skis dug in and I fell over backwards burring my left shoulder and my backpack two feet into the snow. It was just the sight dad needed as he skiied over to me. He demanded the camera while he laughed. He paid me $20 and he got the camera. So thats what I'm doing on my back. Just kidding about the $20. We went in to Salt Lake City one night and ate at a Brazilian place where they come around and cut off hunks of freshly roasted chicken, turkey, elk, pork tenderloin, etc. off of big skewers. It reminded me very much of Carnivore in Nairobi. Then the second night we messed around in Park City and headed home. It was also good to hear of the cool things that God is doing in the lives of those apart of their ministry in Rock Springs. Is. 40:28-31
It was awesome to enjoy the beauty of the moutians and hang with a pretty cool guy too. He's not quite the risk taker he used to be 10 or 20 years ago but I won't be the one to spoil the fact that he's not 18 anymore. It more fun to think that you are and will be for a long time...so next time take that 20 foot jump in the terrain park instead of looking at it. You may never live to get another chance to take it. Of course you may not live to tell about it either but the people watching will pass on the legend of the "Flyin' White Weasel".
While I was on the road the Fort Hays Tigers dropped one out of two games in the conference tourney and fell from #1 in the region to #2 and lost the chance to host the regional. It is sad because I was making plans for my smooth canvas of a head to show some school spirit. So many students are too concerned with looking cool and are too scared to show a little passion and excitement and have some fun...I'm not gonna get started. Anyway we dropped to #5 (26-3)in the Nation(Div. II) but that doesn't matter now. The fellas have got to go out and win. The girls didn't do so well and ended a great season at 21-7.
Well thats it for today as another beautiful early March day ends...Until Dukey drops again....Much love....