Isn't Technology Cool?

This is just some random stuff that I've run across recently.

"You cannot invade America. There is a rifle behind every blade of grass." Admiral Yamamoto

Web users to 'patrol' US border

wikiHow: How to Dumpster Dive

the Gematriculator (a fun bit of pseudo-science :-)

Clean Jokes and Funny Pictures

My favorite pointless website :-)

tons of political cartoons sorted by artist

guitar workshop webcam in Germany (even during the World Cup, people still have to work)

220 Dates for the end of the World i don't agree with everything on the website but this page is food for thought

See some official NASA TV

now i like to think that i have a really well developed sense of humor but i honestly think that this guy actually takes himself seriously! (alien abduction silliness)

More from the World Wide Random Web later,
Enjoy the 4th of July safely!

Contentment

If you're thinking "Oh, his team lost and he's gonna try to cover his displeasure by ranting about contentment" then you would be wrong. I never entertained any fantasies that Team USA would "Win the Cup". No serious soccer fan would. But I have been (more or less) following the progress of the remaining teams.

Unlike our "World Series" of baseball, the World Cup is actually something that the planet at large takes an interest in (and so it deserves the title). It may make some people angry, but the World Cup is much more "Super" than any "Super Bowl" could ever hope to be. Despite this worldwide consensus of enthusiasm (which reaches an apex with the tournament once every four years) there still exists a great deal of discontentedness.

Look, for example, as some results of this poll: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Soccer/WorldCup/News/2006/06/26/1654621-ap.html


Thats our only choices? Instead of "Bad" our fourth option is "Abysmal"? The "ca" in the URL stands for "Canada" - I didn't even know that the Canadians were paying attention (I mean, haven't they all been busy watching the Stanley Cup? :-)

I wouldn't have said that the officiating has been "abysmal" but it has been "interesting". Check this out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5511358
(World Cup Red Card Record passed - and there were still 12 games left to play!)

Don't let your eyes glaze over yet - for those that don't realize it, the red card is very important for at least two reasons: the player "carded" is ejected from the game leaving his team to play minus one man for the remainder of the game AND when red carded, that player is also out for any of his team's other tournament games. The team can field a full squad in future games but that particular player is barred for the remainder of the tournament. So a red card becomes a huge penalty against a team and against the player.

But I'm digressing... I want to talk about contentment. It is my honest opinion that the great amount of discontentment that is so easy to find and the current "victim culture" (with it's abdication of personal responsibility) are intrinsically connected.

Think about it like this; If I'm not happy with my lot in life, I have two choices. I can take responsibility for my situation and try to do something to change it or I can choose to be a "victim" and blame somebody else. If somebody else gets blamed (my boss, God, an old lover, the government, whatever) then I am released from responsibility for my own actions and, by extension, the consequences of those actions. This frees me up to be quite lazy (or worse).

The reason that I feel that discontentment and the "victim culture" are so tied together is for one reason. It is a practical impossibility to dwell on contentment (counting your blessings) and actively pursue the life of a "victim". If you don't believe me then try this experiment: Try to get yourself all mad at something somebody did to you (or some lousy situation) and then try to count your blessings at the same time. It just won't work. Why? Because these involve two diametrically opposed thought processes - gratitude and resentment. Just owing to human nature, somebody is gonna read this and think "oh, I can do that" - okay wiseguy go ahead - try it! (and may you be overwhelmed by your blessings!)

.....darn

World Cup Ends for the United States http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/sports/soccer/22cnd-soccer.html?ex=1151121600&en=5e0363e4a73b4afc&ei=5087%0A

Thursday's World Cup capsules
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062200873.html

What is in a Nickname?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5473205

World Cup Match Schedule
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/schedule.html

World Cup Predictor Game
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/e/predictor.html

There's Still A Chance

Tomorrow will be the final games of the first round for Group E. Group E is Italy, the Czech Republic, USA and Ghana. Thursday morning at 9am the USA plays against Ghana. At the same time Italy will be playing against the Czech Republic. Right now the standings are Italy-4, Czech-3, Ghana-3, USA-1.

Only the top two teams in each group move to next round play. The best case scenario for Team USA is for us to beat Ghana and Italy to beat the Czech Republic. I could try to explain all the possibilities but these guys already did. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14870817.htm

(its a good article)

More later

No big surprise

Brazil beat Australia 2-0. The only two surprises from Brazil this year: they aren't winning games by larger margins (a Brazilian friend of mine said this is because they are show-boating) and (happily) they seem to be playing by the rules. (call me cynical but I've been watching this sport for several years now...)

"The most exciting game so far"

Read it here http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060617/1/7s1m.html

A couple things that the author doesn't mention: When the Italian player was expelled, it was for a blatant foul, the kind of thing that the dreaded red card was meant for. But when Team USA's Mastroeni was expelled it was just a bad call.

screenshot from http://www.google.com/ig 6-17-06

Other than those omissions, its a good article. And I'm really proud of Team USA for doing so well against such odds. And, other than saying what needed to be said about the red card, I'm not even gonna rant about the officiating. (but I could...)

Saturday Soccer

Thursday night our friends Lily and Troy came over to see Caspian and have dinner with us. Because Lily and Troy own a cat, I was a little worried about how Caspian would act. He was a gentleman - no worries. We had a really nice time together and we will have to do that again.

Yesterday was a L-O-N-G day and heinous for a Friday. I'm talking about work.

Turning to more serious matters, Mexico battled to a 0-0 draw with Angola (giving each team one point towards "standings") and Portugal stomped Iran 2-0. This puts the standings for Group D at Portugal - 6, Mexico - 4, Angola - 1, Iran - 0.

As I am typing this, Group E play continues with Ghana and the Czech Republic just starting the second half. Ghana leads 1-0. Of course we are hoping for a Czech Republic loss here because they beat Team USA (but at least I'm not bitter :-)

Just a couple minutes into the 2nd half, the Czechs snuck the ball into the Ghana goalbox but it was NOT a goal because Nedved was offsides. Twenty minutes into the 2nd half, the Czechs lost a man to a red card and the Ghana fans started to party. Finally, 16 minutes after gaining a one man advantage, Ghana scored their second goal. One of the Ghana players started waving an Israeli flag - funny, he doesn't look Jewish... (think about it)

So Ghana wins over the Czechs 2-0. The game between Team USA and Italy starts in a few minutes and its a pretty even split with the "prognosticos" ("forecasters" - I'm having to watch this on Univision) on who is gonna win this one. In May, Team USA was ranked 5th and Italy was ranked 13th.

All I can say is U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! More after the game.

World Cup standings

My mistake on the post of Monday June 12! The up/down arrows in the standings listed on http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-May-2006,00.html indicate the difference in the standings from April to May. These standings are NOT any reflection of World Cup action.

To get the current World Cup standings go here http://www.google.com/ig and click on the "Standings" tab. (I'm guessing that the "ig" in this URL stands for "instant gratification" because the goals and yellow/red cards are updated about a minute after they happen)

Flag Day

You don't hear much hoopla about it, but if you look on a calendar with all American holidays marked on it, you will see that June 14th in the United States of America is Flag Day.

Recently I celebrated a birthday (there was one candle on the cake - a wax question mark). I received several really nice things (getting gifts on my birthday somehow embarrasses me a little bit - I almost feel like saying "wow. um, i didn't really do anything to deserve this - maybe you should give this to my mom." :-)

Being a "June Bug" and fiercely patriotic, I have always enjoyed the fact that my birthday is in the same month as Flag Day. For this birthday, my honey gave me a "Decorative Wood Pole US Banner Set" - its an American flag (stitched, not dyed) with a nice adjustable mount. It was made in America. (did you have to ask?) I'm so proud of my new flag that this morning before I went to work, I got it all set up and if you come to my house you will see it. (have I mentioned today that I Love My Country? - well I do!)

Honey and Lady Bug really did a good job surprising me!

On a side note, Spain trounced the Ukraine 4-0 in World Cup play today. Four to nothing is the kind of performance that Brazil (#1) should have given against Croatia (ranked 23rd). Plain and simple, the Brazilians were show-boating. On a nicer note, the referees are doing a really solid job from what I have seen. Off-sides calls and yellow cards have been plentiful in the first round and I for one hope that, no matter who wins this Cup, the referees continue to make them do it fair and square. The Ukraine played half their game against Spain with only 10 men because of a well-deserved red card.

More later.

A boycott and a fundraiser

Not that it will make much difference to Hugo Chavez (Marxist leader of Venezuela and hater of America) but my family and I will no longer spend so much as a cent at Citgo. You see, Citgo is "owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A." which is owned by the Venezuelan State. Don't take my word for it: http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO.jsp This makes Hugo Chavez (did I mention that he hates my country?) the defacto boss of the national Venezuelan oil company. So do whatever you want, but I'm buying my gas anywhere EXCEPT Citgo.

Now before people start flaming me for "being negative" let me turn you on to a link that I click every day. This is "The Breast Cancer Site" and by simply clicking on the site and clicking a couple banner ads of the site sponsors, you can help fund free mammograms for underprivileged women. http://www.thebreastcancersite.com Cancer can be a pretty treacherous disease and (IMHO) early detection is the key to successful treatment.

And to irritate the atheists...

Here is an interesting article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2220484,00.html

I like this part:

Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”.

and towards the end of the article:

Collins was an atheist until the age of 27

cool.

Team USA slides down in FIFA ranking

From http://www.fifa.com/en/index.html

Latest News
Big guns fire, Socceroos bounce back
THE DAY REPLAYED: While Czech class told against the USA, Australia's spirit proved too strong for Japan on an exciting day in Germany which concluded with Italy overpowering Ghana before a spellbound audience in Hanover...
more
ITALY 2-0 GHANA
USA 0-3 CZECH REPUBLIC
AUSTRALIA 3-1 JAPAN

oh crud. From what i can find, historically only one team has lost their first game of World Cup play and continued to the quarter finals (Turkey 2002). This does not bode well.

Team USA had been 4th & Mexico had been 6th. Because of Mexico's win yesterday and Team USA's loss today, now the US is tied with Spain for 5th and Mexico is 4th. Brazil sits at the number one spot with a huge lead over 2nd place Czech Republic.

You can track the standings here http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-May-2006,00.html

Just once every four years I pay attention to sports. (Aren't you glad you get to be here for my quadrannual rant :-) I've been so busy that this kind of snuck up on me - I hadn't yet bought any jerseys for this round. More later.

Meh - HEE - Coe

In the World Cup first round play today, Mexico beat Iran 3-1. (...and there was much rejoicing :-)
Tomorrow Team USA plays against the Czechs (11am CST).

World Cup 2006

For me, things have come full circle. I grew up watching "Soccer Made in Germany" on PBS years ago and now the World Cup is being held in Germany. Cool.

Those of you who know me well know that I am a cheapskate. Therefore, I will not pay for television. Television should be free. (I can't really defend that position but hey, I'm a cheapskate) I like free stuff. This blog, for instance, is free. And thankfully each year the internet brings me more World Cup news faster and faster so I will never have to pay for television. But I digress...

Where we live we get 6 channels in Spanish and two channels in English (NBC & PBS). The One Redeeming Value of Spanish television is World Cup coverage. If any country from Mexico south to Argentina is playing - I get to see the game live. Some games are on every (Spanish) channel! The Pope doesn't even get coverage like this! The only way team USA gets covered is if they happen to be playing against one of these teams.

Right now Paraguay is playing against England. Inexplicably, two of the Spanish channels are showing infomercials instead of the game - I guess Paraguay didn't make the cut for them.

Personally, my loyalties are split when it comes to the World Cup. Team USA has always been my favorite. I have always cheered for USA and "whoever is playing against Brazil". My in-laws are Mexican and so, ever since I got married, I have had to cheer for Mexico to some degree, also. This year its worse than usual. Now I have a good friend who is Brazilian and he has actively encouraged me to cheer for Brazil. I have not yet worked up the courage to explain to him that, with the exception of Pele' , Brazil has always been the "bad guys" with myself and my soccer watching buddies. I will cheer for them (a little) this year IF they play clean games. If they play dirty, I just can't pull for them. Its a shame that they consistently play dirty - they generally have very talented players and they could win games without breaking the rules.

You should see this picture.
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/photos/index.html?aid=340742&d=1 The caption reads "German police keep watch as a Mexican soccer fan arrives at the main train station in Nuremberg, Saturday, June 10, 2006." Hard core soccer fans are a kinda nutty group (i know where i was during the last six World Cups - do you?)

Well, enjoy the game and good luck to your favorite team! (btw, England beat Paraguay 1-0)

Pentecost Sunday

The sermon this morning was a winner! (all of our pastor's sermons are really good but i especially like it when a difficult doctrinal issue is handled) This morning in his Pentecost Sunday sermon (with the obligatory Acts 2 text) our pastor used the opportunity to speak on the difference between "salvation" and "entire sanctification". Sanctification, as a doctrinal tenet, was not used by the church i attended growing up but i do remember the term "Christian perfection" being used for the same concept. Some will use the term "second work of grace" but that can lead down a completely different road and i don't feel like chasing that rabbit right now.

Let me see if i can (briefly) mention the core of what i got out of the message.

At salvation, we get all of the Holy Spirit that we are gonna get (a light is turned on in a darkened room). At sanctification we don't get "more of the Holy Spirit" (the same amount of light is given) but at sanctification the Holy Spirit gets "all of us" (the furniture is moved out of the room so that the light can permeate every corner). This decision is not for salvation but for full surrender. The Holy Spirit by His nature is opposed to any unholiness. These two (the Holy Spirit and unholiness) cannot co-exist. To let someone make themselves completely at home, things have to be moved out of the way.

Now i can go to church this afternoon and tell my pastor, "Hey man, i summerized your sermon on my blog. Now you're famous!" :-)