Wrap Up and Beginning

Today I find myself in an interesting point of transition, a simultaneous wrap up of beginnings and endings. Beginning this weekend, 3 YES teams return for 2 weeks of re-entry...which is in itself, an ending. Beginning is a time of being with good friends fresh off a unique experience; seeing ways they have changed and grown. Yet ending is the YES experience. Even though they've been away for eight months, there's still a sense of connectedness after having been here for training with them and knowing they'd be coming back. In two weeks, they head off their own ways, and we go ours, or in my case, don't go.

This past week, we realized suddenly, was the last week of just the four of us volunteer staff. The next two weeks, the afor mentioned teams will be here, and shortly after that, a new staff member will be joining us (yeah Melanie!). And a few weks later, we'll have a whole new staff. And before long, it's time to get ready for the fall training. Which is a whole new beginning.

So here I am, the business of the past week or two having kept me 'till a few days ago unaware of the amount of jumbled upcoming transition. So here it comes. Perhaps it's better that way. Overthinking and overdreading is usually what makes change and transition difficult. So as things come, take them, and as they go, say "'till later."

So that's a bit of what I'm thinking about this morning. As for the past month and a half, well, lists are boring, so I guess it'll be a black hole in this blog's history. And hopefully there won't be any more that big.

Staff Extention

This is just a quick update that I have decided to extend my term on staff until December. The main reasons are that I've really enjoyed my time on staff, wanted to do another YES training, and felt a peace about doing so. So I'm really looking forward to this fall, being here for another training (those of you who will be in the training that I already know, especially looking forward to you guys!).

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I'll try to remedy the fact after this weekend.

Little Lessons from Turtles

We've just gotten back from staff retreat. One of the activities of staff retreat was catching turtles and making an imitation Chinese wet market (see picture below) before releasing them when we had to go home. In just those few short days, I noticed a lot things about the little shelled creatures. Some just fascinating, but some applicable to life.

-It was fascinating to notice that turtles have personalities too. When you picked them up, their reactions ranged from trying to swim away as fast and hard as they could, to tucking inside their shell and not coming out until they were placed back into the bucket.

-Chicken Neck turtles are not pacifists. Our turtle tally for the 1/2 week was 8 painted turtles and 3 chicken neck turtles. The chicken necks were donning full camo; shells covered in algae (picture below), yet none of the painted turtles appeared in such military attire. However, while pacifism may be in painted turtle doctrine, I had doubts as to how much it is practiced after seeing a one of them put a fellow turtle into a monster headlock. Fortunately, the other critter was fine and pulled off a victory in the race the two of them were in.

-Persistence is not always a virtue. "Aim high and dream big" people say, but I say that constantly evaluating walls you are climbing is a good idea, too. One evening, Andy and I walked past the two buckets of turtles and saw one of them motionlessly lying upsidedown on the bottom of the bucket. Thinking it might be dead, Andy tapped it and it moved. Then he turned it back on it's feet. The first thing the turtle did was go up to the wall and start scratching it's way up the side of the bucket until it toppled over, right back into it's former predicament. This wasn't the only time during the few days that we had to give it a hand. Isn't there a point and time when you have to take step back and say, "You know, maybe this just isn't my forte. I just might be a lot more succesful if I learned to excell right where I am instead of putting everything on the line to try and find out if the water is clearer on the other side of the bucket."

-Know your strengths and use them. When approaching a turtle in a canoe, their best defense was to swim away into deep water/muddy, mirky water where we couldn't see them. This worked quite well, as 99% of the time, if we didn't net it the first time, we were unsuccessful at chasing it down. Most knew this, and exploited this advantage very well. However, as we glided through shallow water towards one particular turtle, it saw us coming and slipped off the log it was sunning itself on, and out of sight. Swim away in almost any direction, or even stay still, and the odds were all for it, but suddenly, I saw the round shape of a turtle shooting through the water right towards me. A simple motion of stabbing the net into the lake bottom right in front of it, and lifting up, and it was caught. So lesson learned, know what you do well, and do it.

-Finally, DON'T PROCRASTINATE!!! If you are lazily taking your time going back into the water, and are far behind the rest, Audrey just might decide that you need some help and shot put you into the middle of the lake.

I realize it has been a while since I last updated you faithful readers on what's going on around here. I usually find updating a difficult task because of my muddly memory. Recalling events from the recent past has never been one of my spiritual gifts. When I worked on Dave Charles's farm, sometimes I'd get home and my mom would ask what I did that day and I'd respond, "Um, I fed the cows?" drawing a blank on 90 percent of the days activities. Of course if the calves got out and I had to chase them around for half an hour because ever time I almost got them back to their huts, the dog came and chased them away again, I'd remember that. But for the most part, none of the calves around HDC have gotten out. Things have been going steadily, but surely; no one big event stands out. So allow me to fly by the seat of my pants and see what I can think of as I go:

I returned to HDC Friday evening after being at home for a tad over a week. Much to my relief, nothing bad had happened. It has seemed that whenever I go home, something bad happens here at HDC (One of the YES participants breaking his toe, a van window getting bashed in, and the Carraige House flooding were all events that happened on weekends/days that I was home). The next moring was a Community Cleanup event which drew a huge crowd. We were split into groups of about 12 and sent to cover different streets. Trash bags in hand, we went after all the litter and garbage that is so common on the streets of Harrisburg. I haven't heard a number of how many bags we picked up all together, but it's quite an enormous number, I'm sure.

Last night I reminded myself how bad I sometimes am at decision making. I was in the side yard throwing a football around with a bunch of kids, and it happened. I don't even remember how or why I did it. All I remember is that all of a sudden, I was holding a kid by his arms and swinging him in circles. Fun for me, fun for the kid, how can you go wrong? I've found that swinging kids is like growing bacteria. One becomes two, which becomes four, which becomes eight, which becomes sixteen. Before long, I was surround by about 10 kids all saying that I had said they were next. In no time at all, I was dizzy and out of breathe. Yeah, I took breaks, but the problem with breaks is that they are like dying bacteria. Each break only has about half of the stomach settling, diaphram relaxing effect as the last one did. But needless to say, this is one area that I'm sure my decision making won't improve, nor do I want it to. There are plenty things I can't do, but I can swing kids in circles (all joking comments aside, I do think my dizziness tolerance/stability is above average) so, hey, why not?

I was reminded to be grateful for modern technology while I was home. Especially for digital photography. My family went to one of my favorite local hiking spots (tae quan glen-that spelling is not "Ben-guarenteed") and I took 87 pictures. Yup, 87. I think 4 or 5 are duplicates. If I would have had to worry about the cost and effort of changing rolls of film, my afternoon would have been much less enjoyable. So thank you, technology. In many ways, you've made civilization less civil and your labor saving schemes have just created work that's harder to understand, but never the less, you sometimes do work wonders.

Even as I write, I can see the clouds rolling in on the "calm" that we've had here for the past few months. Monday-Wednesday, we will be at the main EMM offices in Salunga all day for Action Week. We'll basically be parts of discussion teams on different aspects of EMM/YES. Thursday-Saturday, we'll be going to a camp ground near Jacki's house for Staff retreat. The morning after we return, we'll be heading to Indiana until Wednesday or Thursday (not entirely sure when we come back). The week after that, we'll be busy getting ready for a re-entry of 17 people, as well as do chapel at Christopher Dock on May 4. So there's a lot on the schedule coming up.

April Fools

I'm usually not much of a pranker. April 1 isn't ever highlighted on my calendar. However, sometimes things just fall right into your lap.

Audrey had a bad computer. A really, really bad computer. You might as well go take a quick nap after you started it (depending on how bad it decided to be that day). Then she got a new one. Audrey was super excited. As in, jumping up and down excited. Not only did she get a new computer, she also got a new monitor that didn't take up the entire desk like her old one did. When did she get it? March 31. Like I said before sometimes things just fall right into your lap. The video below shows Audrey arriving at her desk the morning of April 1 to find that her nice new monitor has magically transformed into her old tank.

(p.s. the music in the back ground just happened to be playing on my computer and I think it actually fits quite nicely!)

The great thing is, she assumes it was Andy Hock! (probably with good reason, given past track record). Hopefully this gave a glimpse into some of the fun things we do with...or to each other here at HDC. Oh, and no fears, her monitor was actually behind the conveniently piled high trash can on the left of the screen. Still plugged in and everything. I also fessed up before they did anything to Andy.

South Allison Hill

Here's a few pictures of HDC's surroundings. Taken from the roof where the garden box is being built (see staff blog). Each picture pans roughly 90 degrees to the left. The street in the 2nd and 3rd picture is 13th street, one of the main streets through South Allison Hill (the area of Harrisburg HDC is in.)

Random happenings

The past several weeks havn't had any big head line stories, so since it's about time to update you all a little bit, I'll try to recap some of the recent happenings here in South Allison Hill.

• We have continued doing some recruiting around here, including going to churches, the "Calvary Vision" event (I think that's what it is called), and manning the booth at the Celebration of Church Life weekend. We also have plans to do chapel at LMH on March 31 (probably only two of us will go, not sure if I'll be there) and Christopher Dock sometime around the end of April/beginning of May.
• I've started doing some work in the Carraige House thanks to the burst pipe a couple months back. Basically tearing down walls. Probably a good thing too, given that it's the drywall holding up the rotten studs rather than vice versa.
• All of the staff took the Strenths Finder test and my top 5 strenths are: Ideation, Strategic, Adaptability, Analyical, Responsibility. The odd thing was that in one of the action steps for "Ideation" it said to partner with an analytical person to question and challenge you, therefore strengthening your ideas. What can I say, I guess I can do it all. Jacki was also not quite sure what to think when the strength at the top of her list turned out to be "Woo."
• I've enjoyed some good times with one of the kids I've been tutoring at Center For Champions, the after school program I'm volunteering at, after we, to say the least, didn't get off to the best of starts. Quick recap, our first tutoring session he had the attention span of a goldfish with ADD. He interpreted that because of my efforts to try to get him to concentrate enough to get at least some of his work done, I must not like him one bit. So halfway through the session he stormed away. The next 15 minutes were me trying to explain to him why I was being somewhat strict and that he was a really cool kid. It didn't seem like he believed a word I said, but next week when I went back he appologized for some of what he said. So whatever the reason for the change, praise God.
• Saw a few random snowflakes fall...on the way to Rita's...on the first day of spring. Go figure.
• Had a good laugh at two sets of doors into LMH's chapel that were no more than 10 feet apart and opened into pretty much the exact same area. Above one set of doors, a sign read "Section A" and above the other, "Section B." Because clearly if you went in the "Section B" doors, there is no way you could possibly make it to Section A. One "Sections A + B" sign would have quite sufficed.
• I've been reminded why the NCAA basketball tournament is the only time I ever watch basketball. Maybe it's just coming from my days of playing goalie where you go up for a ball and bang into people and people bang into you and it never even crosses the ref's mind to blow the whistel, but in my eyes every other foul that's called looks like something field hockey players could get away with. And that's saying something. What's that? The guy brushing your shoulder messed up your shot? Well try jumping in the air and catching a cross while simultaneously colliding with all 180 pounds of the opposing striker, and the only way play is going to be stopped is if one of you two get hurt! (this is no exaggeration, by the way. On one such play I ended up with a minor concussion, but the other guy was slow getting up so I had to settle with taking a free kick from the spot rather than being able to punt it. Grrr...)

So...hopefully that was somewhat informative.

This is just a quick note that I have started a personal blog in addition to this one. I will continue to update this blog with, well, "updates." I started a new one because while I didn't mind posting a random thing or two about the Super Bowl or what I'd do as President, the purpose of this blog is to update people on what's going on here at HDC (hence the title "Ben at HDC"), and to have a blog that I could continue using after my HDC tenure. In short, the new blog is to be creative outlet for things I write that don't fall under the category of "Ben at HDC." I'll be writing about basically anything that crosses my mind and feels worth writing about (if you have any suggestions for topics, feel free to leave them as comments and I'll consider it, though I'll make no promises. They say inspiration is the hardest part, so if you can think of the topic for me...).
It is: theotherside-ben.blogspot.com (linked to the left).

Ben

Driving by the Clock

This is just a short little story from yesterday that depicts the potential I have to do some whispy minded things. For those of you who know how much I like to always have a watch, clock, or some means of telling time with me at all times, this story might make a bit more sense (inadequate disclaimer #1).

Yesterday evening, we staff decided to go to the Hock's house, where the girls would spend the evening with Cheryl, while Andy and I went to Mechanicsburg BIC to play volleyball. I was playing football with some kids in the side yard when I got the 5 minutes till departure notice. It was pretty muddy outside, and I wanted to get cleaned up a little bit, so I was in a little bit of a hurry (inadequate disclaimer #2). So I washed off my shoes a little bit, but not very successfully, grabbed my wallet and put it in my pocket (because I knew I might be driving), and went back downstairs.

We stopped at a Little Ceasars on the way there to get some supper, and after Jacki and Erica went in the first time, one of them came out to the car again, because they realized they didn't have enough money with them. So I reached into my pocket and realized I didn't have my wallet. The only thing in my pocket was...my watch. Somehow, because my keys, wallet, and watch are the three things I'll generally take with me when I go somewhere, I mistook my watch for my wallet.

I'm still trying to image how absurd of a scene it would have been if I had been pulled over or something, only to realize that my watch doesn't say how long I'll be uner 21, my height and eye color, or that I'm an organ donor.

Kansas Pictures

This picture actually belongs with those at the bottom of the post, but it's up here courtesy of blospot's unwillingness to do something so simple as cut and paste.

Riding a jeep (above) and four wheeler (below) at Ryan's friend's place.

Pictures below at a nature park near Hutchinson

Pictures below from a park in Hesston

an interesting double reflection in the pond

If I Became President...

I recently was kind of randomly thinking about what I would do if I were president, and I thought it would be fun to compile a list. So here are some of the first things I would do in office, in no particular order:
-Extend Presidential terms to 8 years. Why we have to dump bucket loads of money into campaigns every four years just so we can re-elect the current president (so it seems) doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Not to mention that four years isn't all that much time to get much done in our tortoise slow government.
"But what if we get stuck with a bad president for eight years?" Well, we had both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush for eight years. Unless you are unlike anyone I've ever met, I know that you really didn't care for at least one of those Commander in Chiefs.
-Stop Making Pennies. I know we all pretend to like pennies by stopping and picking them up off the street. I know that we all like to think that they add up, but...in reality, our change jars only ever add up to anything because every so often we find quarters and dimes. Yeah, we use them occasionally to make just the right change, etc., but don't you think we already have enough of them in circulation? I know that in my change jar, it's the quarters and dimes that I occasionally fish out, and the pennies just sit. You'd think that the success of the "Penny Power" charity shows just how much everyone cherishes their pennies. Apparently, however, it's still worth paying 140% of their value to make more pennies to sit around in people's rooms.
-Illegalize High School Musical. I know what your thinking. He just doesn't like the movies. It's just one of his over-reactions and he needs to get over it. Well, despite all the cheesiness, tackiness, and downright absurdity which climaxes in #2 with Troy prancing around on a golf course while attempting to deliver an inspirational "I'm turning my life around" song, here's just a short list of all the great things the movies teach this young generation.
1) Relationships that start off as "You're really cute and are a great singer. Oh, by the way. What's your name?" work.
2) Having absolutely no personality is nothing to hold you back as long as you are stylish and good looking.
3) Doing things like shutting off the power to your school's gym and mixing chemicals to make a toxic gas in your school are okay, or even honorable, things to do just so you can try out for the school musical when you have no excuse for missing the tryouts.
-Start using the Metric System. People always say it can't be done, that we won't ever learn, but I disagree. Here's the plan. For the next 50 years, everything is listed in both Metric and English measurements. That way, all of us old dogs who can't learn new tricks can still use the system we've learned while other's can learn the Metric. Notice I didn't necessarily say "Switch to the Metric System." I just think we should be able to use it. After 50 years, a decision will have to be made. Maybe we'll be ready to switch to Metric Permanently, maybe using dual systems would be one of America's strange quirks for years to come. Either way, at least we'll be able to use a road map in another country.
-Put Loco Soda back into production. A number of years ago, my family discovered a small soda brand called "Loco Soda" that featured mildly spicy soda (flavors were mango, blackberry, shoot, I can't remember the rest). It was pretty amazing stuff. I know it sounds weird, but it's kind of like jam on grilled cheese sandwiches. It doesn't make any sense, but it works. Then, one tragic day, we found out that Loco Soda had gone out of business.
-Teach U.S. Customs Officals a little politeness. I know some people have had better experiences than I have, but I don't think I ever remember talking to one that wasn't snobby and obnoxious. I know it's part of their job, but nothing says welcome home like a U.S. customs official.
-Line my bedroom walls with political cartoons making fun of me. I can't think of many parts of being president that I would enjoy more than being able to read a different joke about me in the newspaper every day. I would also commision Stephan Pastis (creator of comic strip "Pearls Before Swine") to create a character based off of me.

There are surely a lot of other things I would do, but I'm beginning to lose inspiration and I think this is long enough already. Hope you enjoyed this looking into what this country would be like with me in charge.

Kansas-check, Iowa-underway

The day was February 7. A lot of planning had been put into the evening's event: The Young Adult Celebration (an EMM alumni/young adult event celebrating what God had done through short term missions). There was food, booths, displays, etc. and by the time the evening was over, the cleanup was pretty much finished, and we had separated things by where they had to be taken/returned, it was finally time to rest and recooperate from the somewhat stressful day. Well, it felt like it was time to...just one problem. It was actually time to drive back to HDC, unpack the van, pack a different one...and drive to Kansas. So by midnight, we finally pulled out of the back gate at HDC.

19 hours later, marked by seeing the homes of the Indianapolis Colts, St. Louis Cardinals and Rams, and Kansas City Chiefs and Royals (Given Audrey's enthusiastic out-of-the-window tactics, she probably would have mentioned the St. Louis arch before any of these), we pulled into Hesston, Kansas. We stayed with Erica's great aunt and uncle who's back yard is basically the Hesston College campus.

So the next few days were spent doing various recruiting activites at Bethel College and Hesston College that included doing chapel at Hesston, manning our booth, and inviting students to a local resterant for free cheesy fries (never have I tasted anything like them) to connect with them and answer any questions they had about any of our programs, etc.

We also did some non-recruiting activites such as visiting with our former volunteer staff member Ryan Yoder (this visit included riding his friend's old jeep and four wheeler, well, before Jacki killed it), revisiting some of my fondest childhood memories in a 400 page book of Curious George, getting camera happy at a nature reserve in Hutchinson (maybe I'll post some pictures when we get back), and playing Settlers of Catan, to name a few.

Sunday we split up and did presentations at three different churches.

Monday we were back in the van all day driving to Iowa. We stopped at IHOP (IHOPrayer, as it should be called. Why, why, why would anyone even consider this name when the pancakes place already exists? This has been baffling me for quite a while. It's not as if "International House of ---" is such a common way of phrasing things in the English language that they couldn't refrain from rewording it a little bit. Does something like "House of Prayer" or "International House of Prayer and Exaltation" or "The Prayer Center" sound so bad? And I made those up on the spot! Surely someone could come up with something better with a little time and thought. Here I try to remind myself that not everyone cares as much as I do if something makes absolutely no logical sense. Some people just don't notice things like that, though how they don't is beyond me. Either that or they thought it would be incredibly clever to spoof International House of Pancakes. Um...as every child should be taught, 1 level of cleverness does not justify 5 levels of confusion. Okay, maybe that shouldn't be our educational system's priority. But it's probably not bad advice for anyone getting ready to name a business/organiztion/etc. Just make up your own name. It's better that way. It really is. Unless your marketing to people who don't think like me. Which is lots and lots of people. Okay, your call on that one. I think I'll stop ranting now, after I throw in the disclaimer that maybe IHOPrayer existed before IHOPancakes? I don't think this is the case, but if so, the last paragraph is simply a bunch of uniformed nonsense). We also saw at least 33 deer in Iowa. And an infinite number of cows.

So now we're getting ready for chapel at Iowa Mennonite School tomorrow morning unless the weather forcasters earn their paycheck and the snow they're calling for cancels school. So, you might never hear me say this ever, ever again, I'm hoping someone get's paid tomorrow for botching their job.

-Ben

SuperBowl XLIII

Another football season has concluded, and for the second year in a row, it did so with a great game. It's fun to think back to last year when I watched the game on a bright sunny Monday morning (thanks to the 13 hour time difference) over eggs and bacon. This year, the game was back to it's normal Sunday night slot, and with plenty to talk about (game related, and otherwise), it's time to hand out some awards:

Favorite John Madden Quote: From the moment I heard that John Madden was broadcasting the game, I couldn't wait to see what kind of dumb or obvious things would come out of his mouth. It didn't take him long. "Steve Breaston is the Cardinal's third receiver, so when he's on the field, you know the Cardinals are going with three receivers."

Most undervalued play of the game: On a 3rd and 10, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger drops back, scrambles left, turns back to the right, scrambles through traffic, keeps his feet as his legs get hit, spins back to the right and finds Heath Miller for the first down. The play prevented a punt and the possession ended up in the end zone.

Lame play of the game: I can remember the Cardinals facing at least two 3rd and very long plays in which they tried little underneath passes that, barring a miracle, had no shot at gaining more than five yards. Both plays were in the middle of the field, so five yards wasn't going to help with field position, so would it have been unreasonable to toss one up to Larry Fitzgerald who has spent the entire postseason flat out outjumping double coverage? Yes, I know. I'm just a fan watching on TV. I don't know what the coverage on Larry looked like. But I can't imagine why they wouldn't have called a play that set up a jump ball that allows Larry to jump higher than everyone else, like he always does. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Or you can throw it to Edgerine James, hope he pulls a houdini to get out of heavy pursuit from Troy Palamalu and then manages to make three more defenders miss.

Great play of the game: With under three minutes, Larry Fitzgerald takes a short route across the middle and turns up field untouched for a 64 yard touchdown, giving the Cardinals a three point lead and leaving every Arizona fan with two thoughts:
1)YEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHH
2)Oh no oh no, the Steelers still have 2:50, oh no oh no oh no oh no no no no no no...

2nd favorite Madden quote: After James Harrison intercepts a Kurt Warner pass at the goal line and runs 100 yards for the score, the play is being reviewed to see whether his knee was down before he crossed the goal line. Madden says, "When a guy makes a play like that, and runs like that, they should give him the touchdown." If there was ever a sport where style points mean nothing it's football. Even coach Tomlin knew this (in his post game speach he mentioned something about Steelers football not being pretty, you can throw away style points) and he is the youngest coach to coach in a Super Bowl. Yet an age old coach from the old days that you hear all the old players saying was so much tougher, yada yada yada, would judge a huge, close call by effort. I feel the last few drops of my respect dripping from John Madden's barrel.

Worst broadcast design: Through out the game, you can check the score and current situations on NBC's bar at the bottom of the screen. There is one section, that at the beginning of the play would show the down and distance, and after the play would spin around to say "SuperBowl 43." This is also the place where the yellow "flag" inticator would pop up when there was a penalty on the play.

Some genius from NBC decided that the side of the bar, as it spun from down and distance to "Super Bowl 43" should say "NBC-something unintelligible." The point? I still don't know. It spun so fast all I could catch was "NBC." The part where common sense clearly failed the designer however, was that they decided to make the "NBC-something" the color YELLOW. At what point they thought it would be a good idea to flash something yellow in the spot where a viewer is looking for a penalty flag indicator is beyond me. I don't know how many times a play was run and I thought "Oh, nice play, shoot, there's a penalty, oops never mind." This probably goes down as one of the single most confusing gadgets to a NFL broadcast I've ever seen (second to missed placed and crooked first down lines).

Redundancy second only to Madden: It's not just the Super Bowl refs, but I just noticed it last night. When a touchdown catch is being reviewed. One hundred percent of the time (since the push out rule has gone the way of the dinosaur), the two aspects being looked at are 1)did he get two feet down, and 2) did he have possession. So why is it, that when a play that was ruled a touchdown, gets reviewed and is upheld as a touchdown, does the referee say anything more than, "After review, touchdown!" If the ruling is a touchdown, we know that 1) he had two feet down, and 2) he had possession. So why mumble through all the "After review, the receiver maintained possession, and got two feet down inbounds, touchdown!" They might as well say, "After review, the receiver had a white jersey...the jersey was white, touchdown!" (As for the argument that not everyone watching the Super Bowl knows as much about football as I do, the ref's job isn't to cater to the half interested people across the nation. That's what other people at parties are for. If there's no one at the party that understands the two feet down with possession rule, they probably don't care anyway.)

Best random stat: The NFC team in the Superbowl has won the coin toss 12 straight years. The irony of it is, that, before this year, winning the coin toss was basically losing it, because most teams would prefer to get the ball first in the second half, but before the ability to differ was placed into the rulebook this year, they were forced to take the ball first.

Do you really think he wants to talk to you? moment: After the huge play at the end of the first half where the Cardinals went from looking like they were about to at least tie the game, to being down 10 points at half time, one of the on the field reports decided to talk to Cardinals head coach Ken Wisenhunt as he left the field. Do you really think he's thinking about anything other than what he's going to tell the team in the locker room?

Best postgame comment: When Santonio Holmes was asked what he thought when Fitzgerald ran past the defense to give the Cardinals the lead, he said something to the tune of, "You know I got pretty discouraged, but I really had faith in our defense to get us the ball back." I wish I could do a national survey of both football fans and non fans, but I betcha a pretty high percentage of people, no matter how little they know about football, understand the concept of, "When one team scores, the other team gets the ball." Santonio, it's great you have faith in your defense, but you were about to get the ball anyway.

3rd worst politics to sports crossover in history: Of all the people Steelers owner Dan Rooney could have thanked for their support, why president Barack Obama was the first, I still can't wrap my mind around. As for the other worst politics to sports crossovers:
2nd place: Ed Rendell suggesting (a couple years ago) that if the Eagles met the Steelers in the big game, it should be moved to Beaver Stadium (Penn State) and only PA license plates were allowed. There's one guy who doesn't understand economics.
1st place: During John Kerry's campain, he spoke to a crowd in Ohio and proclaimed "I have been a Buckeye's fan all of my life" leading to cheers. A couple days later, he was speaking to a crowd in Michigan (big college football rivals), but he forgot he had switched states and proclaimed "I have been a Buckeyes fan all of my life!" leading to boos.

Worst call of the game: Ben Roethlisberger dropped back IN THE POCKET, pressure came and he started dancing around IN THE POCKET, before finally throwing the ball FROM IN THE POCKET out of bounds. Clearly, intentional grounding. Fortunately, the men in stripes threw a flag...for roughing the passer, which in my mind, there was no extra effort made towards the QB after he threw the ball. The push down might have been a bit excessive, but QB's don't get hurt from getting pushed down, they get hurt from getting slammed down. There was really no need at all for a flag. Well there was, just for a different one.

Most irrelevant Personal Foul ever: During a Cardinals punt late in the game in which they were able to pin the Steelers at their own one yard line. Steeler James Harrison got flagged for a, to be quite honest, boneheaded unnecessary roughness penalty. Under normal circumstances, it would have been 15 yards from the end of the play. However, the ball was on the one yard line, so they resorted to "half the distance to the goal." So it resulted in a 2 foot personal foul. What I don't understand, is, because the ball was already punted, the Steelers maintained possession. However, earlier in the game, when a Cardinal ran into the holder for a field goal, after the ball was kicked, the result was "1st down Steelers."

Now, I never like to see possessions extended by a penalty when the team is kicking (either punt or fieldgoal), so in most cases, I'm perfectly happy to see 15 yards taken off the end of the play. But for special circumstances, there has to be more of a penalization for a personal foul than 2 feet. For false starts, or off sides, I'm fine with "half the distance" whatever it may be. Those penalties are simply mistakes. But personal fouls are just that. Fouls. Perhaps they could tack on a five play suspention for the player or something like that.

There were plenty of other calls that I could discuss, such as another non intentional grounding call during the same drive (perhaps the right call by the rule book, I don't know, but just because he left the pocket before coming back into the pocket doesn't mean he wasn't in the pocket), and the holding call that resulted in a safety. Again probably the right call by the books, but I didn't see it as having any effect on the play.

Okay. This was quite long. Thanks to the Steelers and Cardinals for a great game. Thanks to the Eagles for another season of...er...consistency.

Upcoming Recruiting Trip

Just a quick update as to what our main focus has been (besides pinching myself to see if I'm dreaming or if the Eagles are really still alive this far into the playoffs). We've been doing a lot of planning for our Kansas and Iowa Recruiting Trip (KIRT. Hey, we're Mennonites, we have to have an acronym). We'll leave for Kansas the evening of February 7, head up to Iowa February 16, and be back at HDC February 23. A few of the things we'll be doing are: Setting up booths and doing presentations/chapel at colleges including Hesston, Bethel, and maybe another, doing chapel Iowa Mennonite School, and visiting churches and youth groups. We've been working on planning the many aspects of KIRT. The main thing I've been doing is co writing a skit to perform and is a spoof off of the MAC/PC commercials. It basically contrasts a sterotypical missionary with a more realistic (dare I say "normal?") missionary.

Who says nature can't dazzle in the city?

(this is from December, I only now got around to posting it)