Fantasy Football

I'm having a horrible year in Fantasy Football.
I've scored over 130 points, twice, and lost both times.
I've been in the top 3 or 4 scores several times and lost. Which is also what happened this week. I've got the 3rd highest score in the league, but lose again. Man, what a string of bad luck...

It's a good think basketball starts tonight - I need a distraction...

I Hate Halloween

One of things I dread each year is Halloween. What’s a Christian to do with that holiday? Certainly what is being celebrated on that day isn’t very Christian in nature. And one could make the case that not only is not Christian, but it’s down-right anti-Christian. But then there are Christians that say, 'the original meaning has been lost and we really aren’t celebrating the day of the dead, it’s just a fun night for the kids to dress up and have some fun.' No harm in that, is there? Or maybe our churches offer a Harvest festival, that’s so close to Halloween, it’s hard to tell the difference. But it has a different name, so it must be ok. Or so the reasoning goes.

I've got no problem with kids wanting to have a fun night, dress up and get some candy. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. But when I think about celebrating death, monsters, gore, and in general, evil - that's not what I want my kids celebrating.

Each year Halloween seems to get bigger, more commercialized and more popular. The home decoration for Halloween now rival or surpase the home decorations for Christmas. I don't know if I should read too much into that, but it seems to indicate that we value what Halloween stands for more than we value the birth of Christ. That just doesn't seem right to me.

Rest assurred, when the little kids come to my door on Halloween, we've got some candy for them. But I have to wonder, isn't there a way to have some fun, get some candy and not celebrate evil? I think that's worth pondering...

More Necks Equals More Notes?

Here is Steve Vai playing G3 in Denver. This guy is crazy good. I love the tapping toward the end.

Odd Music

A friend emailed this to me. This is an interesting site. Lots of crazy instruments. Some of them are pretty cool. Some of them are, well, just odd. Lots of pics and some sample sounds too.

Odd Music

I hope you've got some time to spare.

David Crowder Guitar Hero

The David Crowder Band rocked Dallas last week at the House of Blues. Here he is playing the guitar from “Guitar Hero” for one of his songs. Only Crowder...



[HT: Church Video Ideas]

LA Metro Bus Passes Are Killing Me

My son takes the LA Metro bus to high school every day. This works pretty well most of the time. There's an occasional late bus. But usually it's not too bad. The only part of the system that is really broken is purchasing the bus passes. This part is unbelievably difficult.

High school students can get a discount card and then purchase a monthly sticker to place on the pass. This is a pretty good system and decent deal if you are riding the bus almost everyday. So far so good. Once a year we have to drive over the nearest Metro outlet (which isn't all that close) and get a new student card. Not super convenient, but not too bad. The monthly sticker part is a major pain.

The local Ralphs is supposed to have monthly stickers. They don't start selling them for the next month until the 28th of the current month. If you don't get your sticker on the 28th or 29th they are sold out. It's crazy. Your only option then is to drive over the Metro outlet and get one there.

You would think Ralphs would purchase more stickers. I'm no businessman, but this seems like common sense. If you sell out every month, you could sell more. If you sell more, you'll make more money. Doesn't this seem like a good deal? But no, every month they are just perfectly happy to sell out of stickers instead of selling more.

The year before my kid started high school, you could purchase stickers online. What a great idea! But LA Metro removed this option, "for your convenience." I don't think they were thinking about my convenience when they removed that option. They were thinking about their own convenience. So now my only option is to drive over to the nearest Metro outlet. You would think a city the size of LA would have a pretty good network of Metro outlets. But no, that would make it far too easy for people to ride the bus. So all of LA has to go to one of four locations. Crazy.

So this month, Ralphs was predictably sold out of stickers and I drove over to the Metro outlet -- only to find out that they are closed on Mondays!!!! I went back on Tuesday to find a huge line that took half an hour to wait through. Argh! Why is it the simplest things are the most difficult?

In the unlikely event that someone from Ralphs is reading this, BUY MORE STICKERS TO SELL! If someone from LA Metro is reading this, BRING BACK PURCHASING THE STICKERS ONLINE.

[/rant]

Bigger May Not Always Be Better

This is one heck of a saw! Assuming it's a saw. I have no idea what this thing is or what it's used for. But it looks like a big saw...

Sometimes we think bigger is better. A bigger SUV must be better than a small one. A bigger home is more desirable than a small one. A bigger engine in the car/boat/truck is better. A supersized meal is better than that regular size meal. A bigger power tool is better (more power... grunt). But at some point, bigger is too big.

Sometimes it seems we can spend too much effort, too much time, too much energy in trying to get the biggest and best of everything. Trying to keep up with neighbors. While we are busy chasing things, we often forget something much more important - people. We will spend too many hours at work. Too much time hanging with our buds. Too much time chasing activities we like to do. And too little time with our families. Why do we sacrifice our relationships with the people we care about to chase money and things? That's worth pondering about...