If you're going to do something, Do it right!!!

Rant time:  ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell tweeted a picture of the jerseys the Miami Heat are going to wear for their "Latin Night".  (You can see the picture here).  What gets me is that the National Basketball Association, in all their efforts to take their league to an international audience, instead of using the proper Spanish words for their teams, just throw "El" or "Los" in front of the team name and call it good.

WRONG!!!!  I'm sure my Hispanic friends and those who took Spanish in HS would agree with me on this, if you're going to do something to honor your Hispanic audience or reach out to your Hispanic fanbase, at least use the PROPER Spanish word for that team.

Examples:

Oklahoma City Thunder would be El Trueno de Oklahoma City

San Antonio Spurs = Las Espuelas de San Antonio

Miami Heat = El Calor de Miami

Los Angeles Lakers = Los Lagos de Los Angeles

Hopefully you get the idea.  This "El Heat", "Los Spurs" crap doesn't work!!!  In my mind, it makes the NBA look dumb and hopefully the new commish Mr. Silver can see that and change that pronto.

Quite the Challenge...

This week, our family got news that personally is kinda hard to grasp but we must work with the hand we're dealt with. 

We found out that my sweet little niece Kensie (Stephenie's daughter) has been diagnosed as being "mid-functioning" autistic.  It's really hard to fully explain, but I'll do my best.  She does know who her family is (me, her Mom, her natural dad, "Daddy Josh", her Me-Me and Pop Pop, "Uncie" Jeremy, etc)...it's just that on the educational side is what is giving her the most challenge.  


Onion Peel time:  It's rare that I do this, but what we're about to face with Kensie reminds me of some challenges I had to deal with early in my educational journey.  Those who grew up with me here in Clinton may know that for a time, I had to be in special learning disability classes and back in the early 1980's (yes I am dating myself) they didn't have much in the way of testing as they do today. It was there that I had a terrific teacher named then Nancy Paoli (she's known as Nancy Spencer today).  If it wasn't for her and for her assistant Marsha Taylor (who's now in Heaven), I don't think I would be where I am today.  In the age of Common Core, "No Child Left Behind", it's rare that you have teachers that actually care about your students like what I had when I was growing up.

It would be a "cop out" to give her and her family a mini-pharmacy and deal with it that way.  It would be another cop out to treat it like another battle in spiritual warfare (and long time friends of ours from the "old church" will know what I am getting at) -- pretending that autism is just another weapon the devil likes to use.  I'm glad I'm not in those circles anymore.  It's one thing to go all Gung-Ho, Rambo "I ain't got time to bleed", but it's a totally different thing to go "OK, here's what we're dealing with, let's develop a plan of action, let's work on the areas we know we can do ourselves and ask God to help us in areas that we need help with concerning this." Isn't that a little more civil than going at it with machetes, nunchucks, Kendo sticks and God knows whatever else?

So anyway...yeah, we have quite a long journey ahead of us with Kensie.  And we need all the prayers and support that we can give and get.

That is it for now.  Until next time... 

Humility...Pass It On!

What is it with the national sports media (read: the so-called "Worldwide Leader") and their quest to squash the "little man" also known as our Oklahoma City Thunder and Kevin Durant?

In an interview on Grantland, KD told the interviewer, Bill Simmons, that he would prefer that he'd be known as "The Servant" instead of "Slim Reaper" because in his words he'd rather serve the fans, the ushers, etc. and not be served.  While we here in Oklahoma love that he is being humble and wants to be called as a "servant" -- because after all Jesus said it himself...

If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all -- Mark 9:35 (HCSB)

 the aforementioned Worldwide Leader wants to espouse the philosophy taken from another Okie -- Toby Keith:  "I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I, wanna talk about number one oh my me my, what I think what I like what I know what I want what I see..." 
especially when it comes to that little basketball franchise down in South Florida.

Another thing they asked today that grinded my gears so to speak..."Will Russell Westbrook's return hurt Durant's chances for MVP?"  If nothing else, it should help it.  Because after all...KD and Westbrook (as well as rest of the team) work as just that -- A Team!!!!  Wow...a group of 12 men working together?  What a novel concept!!! (Ok, more than twelve if you count coaches, support staff, front office folks, production staff, etc. -- but you get the idea!)  As they have espoused all along..."Team is One".  Not 5 different egos working 5 different angles...One Goal!!!

Apparently, some people in Bristol, CT and Miami, FL haven't grasped that philosophy.

You know...being humble does have its advantages.  Try it...you'll like it!!!

OK...I'll get off of my soapbox.  Until next time...

Les Miser-Rob...

My apologies for the awful pun there, but it's something I feel like I need to address.  This is one of those "raw emotion" posts so bear with me...

I HATE NOT HAVING A SIGNIFICANT OTHER!!!!!!!  

Looking at the pics from the Valentine's Banquet last Friday...even though I had a great time, I still felt like there was something missing.  I didn't have anyone there with me to get "Lost in the '50s" with...

I know, hate is such a strong word but in this case it fits, because I absolutely hate not having that girl I can call in a moment's notice and say "let's go to the park" or bounce blog ideas off of or enjoy a movie or concert with or, most importantly, pray and read the Word with on a daily basis. 

I do have friends who are females that would qualify, but most of them live outside a 50 mile radius of Clinton...in Mangum. Oklahoma City. Tulsa area. McAlester area. Little Rock. Not like I can get in the car and be at their house in a minute or less.  And some that I know here locally...we grew up together so they know how I was raised and how I "tick" for the most part.  

I know it's easy to say "trust God and wait on Him for your mate", but as I've found out (the hard way)...if you find someone and they basically treat you like crap, it takes a long time to regain any sort of trust to ensure you don't want that to happen to you ever again!

Again, I'm just putting this out there...laying the cards on the table so to speak.  Until next time...

Let's Do the Time Warp Again...

Earlier this evening, our church held a Valentine's banquet at the youth building in downtown Clinton.  The theme was "Lost in the '50s".  I immediately thought of the above song because it talks about a time when tent revivals were one way to reach souls (before the advent of Christian television and Christian radio as we know it).

We had an excellent time. The food was great...we had hamburgers and hot dogs catered in from a place here in town. Here are a few pics from the evening.  The rest are on my Facebook page.

A Sound Mind...

View from the sound booth 

This is one of those weeks where I get a sudden burst of energy and excitement -- not that I am energetic or excited anyway whenever Sunday rolls around,  but the Sundays that I am honored to run the sound board for the worship service gives that extra "oomph", for lack of a better term.

When one works that mixer board...you feel a great sense of responsibility to make sure the vocals blend together, that they can hear the instruments and not drown each other out because ultimately in the words of Big Daddy Weave, you have "An Audience of One" and you're leading a congregation of 200-250 people in worship!

No pressure....

Sir Apropos of Nothing...

Today's post is one of those "let's throw something on the wall and see if it sticks" type posts.  Seriously...I may have something that sounds good at the time -- even if that time is at 1am and I'm trying to sleep but the brain is going 90 miles an hour, but by the time it gets to me getting ready to come here to post it...it's gone.

I know...Seinfeld had a great career start on stuff about nothing. Who knows...maybe this will go somewhere.  Don't know where, but somewhere.