Little Nuances

Moving?

2009-09-17T22:53:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that my website domain for my primary website had expired (the notifications went to an old email address) and somebody else snagged it. That didn't make me real happy with myself, but that's the price you pay for not staying on top of things. I have no idea what somebody who doesn't share my name would want a website address with my name in it, but I just moved on and set up a new website at www.leewarren.info. I've been thinking about moving my blog home over to that website as well. It makes more sense to have everything on one website. Come on over and check it out if you get a chance. I'd love to see you there. Here's a link to the blog.

Traffic Encounters

2009-09-08T16:17:00.004-05:00

I stopped at an intersection this afternoon, with my turning signal on—ready to turn left. A car was coming from the opposite direction, so I waited for him to pass so I could make the turn. Another car stopped behind me and waited for me to make the turn. He had no choice. The approaching car stopped and turned to the right into a place of business—never even getting as far my car or the car behind me. No turning signal; no regard for me or the people in the car behind me. It irritated me, but it won't be the last time I get irritated in traffic.

A couple of minutes later, as I was pulling out of a parking lot, another car approached the same exit I was headed toward. He didn't see me at first, but from what I could tell, he had the right away, and even if he didn't, I knew he hadn't seen me, so I slowed down to let him go. He noticed me then and stopped. I waved him on and he put a hand up thanking me. And then he did it a second time. As you might imagine, I had a much different attitude about this driver than the one I encountered just a few minutes prior.

You never know what is going on in another driver's head. He or she might have just received terrible news and is consequently distracted. Maybe he or she is headed home to care for a terminally ill spouse or child and the thought of doing it for even one more day seems too much to bear. Or yeah, maybe the other driver is totally self-absorbed and doesn't care about treating other drivers with courtesy. But with so many other possibilities, it makes me want to give other drivers the benefit of the doubt.

Photo credit: Rita Mezzela

Melanie Oudin: Believe

2009-09-07T21:03:00.007-05:00

Before the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Melanie Oudin designed a tennis shoe for Adidas with the word "believe" stamped on her heels. That should tell you a lot about her fighting spirit. The 17-year-old set a goal for herself at the beginning of the year to make it into the main draw of the U.S. Open. She did. But the 5' 6", 130 pound ball of tenacity wasn't content to simply show up. Once she made it into the draw, it was time to fight.

She won her first round match. In the second round, she shocked the tennis world by defeating Elena Dementieva, who was seeded number four. Oudin's belief grew. Then she knocked former number one player in the world, Maria Sharapova, out of the tournament and not only did Melanie's belief grow, but ours did too.

Check out this video on YouTube, shot by somebody who was in the crowd. It's the last point of the match; pay special attention to the left side of screen--when a woman shouts "We believe" and see if doesn't give you goosebumps. Then watch what belief looks like when the crowd reacts to Oudin's win.

Most recently, Oudin came from behind to beat Nadia Petrova, the ninth seeded player, to make it to the quarterfinals. Who knows where her run will end? Personally, I'd like to see her win it all. Imagine how the crowd would react if that happened.

Over the Rhine in concert

2009-08-20T13:00:00.002-05:00

One day last week, I pulled out my Blackberry to read my email. Over the Rhine had sent out one of their e-newsletters and I always find them thought-provoking, so I read it. I didn't get very far before I saw that they were scheduled to play in Omaha on August 17. OTR is one of my favorite groups and I've never had the chance to see them live—and from what I hear, live is where they excel, so I started begging friends to go with me. Thankfully, one caved.

We got to the club where the band was scheduled to play and we were stunned by how small it was. I think I counted eight tables on the main floor and there were maybe another eight tables on a level above us. We got there early to get a good seat and we took one of the tables on the main floor. By the time the show started, there were probably 150 people packed into the little place—many of whom stood near the stage when OTR came out.

I found this photo on Twitter that someone took at the show:

OTR is mostly comprised of the husband-wife team of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist (shown above). They hire musicians to tour with them to make up the rest of the band. If you haven't heard their music, I'm going to have a difficult time explaining what it sounds like. The funny thing is, iTunes can't squeeze them into a category either. I own six of their CDs and here is the genres iTunes lists them under: rock, classic rock, pop, and singer/songwriter (that's a genre?—wouldn't all groups fall under this category?).

But forget their genre. Their music is magical, emotional, hair-raising, honest, real, gut-wrenching, playful, soul-searching, and as close to describing the human experience as any music I've ever heard. Listening to them feels like you are being opened up a by word surgeon who isn't looking to fix your body, but instead is focused on your soul. The difference is, a normal surgeon works on you while you are asleep. OTR performs surgery while you are wide awake.

They opened the show on Monday with a song called "Born" from their CD entitled "Drunkard's Prayer." It was a perfect way to start the show. Here are the first few verses:

I was born to laugh
I learned to laugh through my tears
I was born to love
I'm gonna learn to love without fear

Pour me a glass of wine
Talk deep into the night
Who knows what we'll find

Intuition, deja vu
The Holy Ghost haunting you
Whatever you got
I don't mind

Put your elbows on the table
I'll listen long as I am able
There's nowhere I'd rather be

I love the way this song starts—a person who is born to laugh must learn to laugh through her tears. It doesn't come naturally. And while we might be born to love, it doesn't come naturally either. We have to learn to love without fear.

Deep down, humans long for intimacy. We want one other person to know us for who we really are and we long to be accepted once we are uncovered. As a single person, I dream about finding a wife who would sit down in front of me with a glass of wine saying, "Tell me everything, I'll listen as long as I'm able—there's nowhere else I'd rather be."

People listened to "Born" in silence. I think we were all overwhelmed by the intimate setting of the place that seemed like a rundown club just a few minutes prior and by the power of the music.

A couple of songs into the set, they played "I Don't Want to Waste Your Time." I've written about that song here. On the band's website, Detweiler elaborates on the message of this song:

"Believe me, we don't want to waste anybody's time. When we stop believing we're doing our best work, we're done. Every song has to be good, every record has to be great, every concert has to have some spiritual significance—something that we can't quantify, something bigger than all of us."

From my perspective, they are succeeding.

They went on to play so many great songs: "I'm On a Roll," "The Trumpet Child," "Drunkard's Prayer," "Don't Wait for Tom," "If a Song Could be President," and "Ohio." I got goosebumps when Bergquist sat down at the keyboard and began playing "Ohio." I wrote extensively about that song here a few months ago.

As I look through their catalog of music, they could have played so many more great songs—most notably "Latter Days," but they would have needed to be on stage four or five hours to do so.

I told my friend on the way home that OTR puts a voice to so many of the changes and hardships I've gone through in the past five or six years while at the same time making me completely aware of what I crave: an understanding wife, a slow deep life, and the belief that God is the overseer and orchestrator of it all.

If you've never seen OTR live, you must check their tour dates to see if they are coming to a city near you.

Dancing in the Rain

2009-08-19T11:24:00.001-05:00

"Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain." --Unknown

My mom called me this morning. One of the first things she said was, "What a depressing day this is." It was raining and overcast and she hates days like these. I, on the other hand, love days like these. Always have.

The funny thing is, after hanging up the phone with her, I flipped the pages on my desk calendars (yes, I'm actually vein enough to keep the desk calendars I've compiled for Barbour Publishing on my desk) and the quote above appeared for August 19 in the 365 Inspiring Moments from the Great Outdoors calendar, which prompted me to say, "Yeah, exactly."

I like gloomy days because they set the mood for staying in and when I think about staying in, I think about reading a good novel, or writing in my journal, or watching a good movie. This is how I dance in the rain. It's almost like the weather is giving you permission to stop running around long enough to enjoy yourself. Yeah, I know you can have fun in the sun too, but it's not the same for me.

The Ordinary

2009-08-13T23:00:00.004-05:00

Have I really been gone for an entire month? Wow. Guess that's how it goes in the life of a blog. You spend time with her whenever possible, but sometimes life pulls you away. And so it goes.

A few of the things that have been on my mind lately include:

I started reading The Diary of a Young Girl recently (better known as "The Diary of Anne Frank") and it's confirming so much of what I believe. I'm moved by how ordinary Anne made her life sound in such volatile circumstances. On one hand, she was afraid that the Gestapo would find her family and she knew what would happen if they did, and on the other hand, she went on with life while in hiding. She read books and journaled about them. She studied math and French and complained about them. She chronicled the squabbles of the two families (hers and another) who were in hiding together over such things as which linens and dishes should be used. The ordinary routines of life seemed to give her a sense of normalcy, and when it comes right down to it, that's what most of us are after—even in the most extreme of circumstances.
I'm writing a couple of news features for a local newspaper this week. As I interviewed the subjects of the stories, I found it fascinating to listen to the ways in which God is working. In one case, a family feels called to live in a foreign country simply to be a light in a place of much darkness. They don't have any agendas. They simply want to help people. In another case, a pastor shared his heart with me about the people of Scotland. He recently returned from a trip there, and seeing God at work there has stirred his soul. Good stuff from people who are making a difference.
The Moleskine notebook I'm currently using has plenty of room left in it, so I'm not in the hunt for a new one yet, but somebody needs to convince me not to cheat on the Moleskine brand with the new (to me) Piccadilly brand. From what I can tell, they both offer acid-free paper, they both have a similar look and feel, and Piccadilly is about half the price. Piccadilly also has fewer pages, but not enough to detract me. Has anybody tried Piccadilly notebooks? If so, what is your take? I found this review that really makes me want to give them a try.

The Male Code

2009-07-14T09:44:00.001-05:00

“All plans between men are tentative. If one man should suddenly have an opportunity to pursue a woman it’s like these two guys never met each other ever in life. This is the male code.”

I watched an episode of Seinfeld last night in which Seinfeld said the above. I tend to think he accurately captures single men pretty well with the quote, but the code needs some explanation because it makes us all sound like inconsiderate skirt chasers.

Contrary to what most men say, most of us want to be married. There is something within us that drives us to seek until we find. From what I understand, our track record isn’t the greatest regarding what we do after we find, but that’s a topic for another day. But since most single guys desire marriage, we are always painfully aware that time is passing us by, and therefore we are continually hoping to find a compatible women. When we think have, she becomes our focus. When we call “the guys” to let them know what’s going on, there’s no need to formally break plans because, as Seinfeld said, they were tentative anyway. The guys get that. “Go! Go!” they say.

As for the skirt chasers charge, there’s a segment of the male population that is always going to be about the conquest for the mere sake of it. But I really don’t think that’s the case for most single guys over 25. Of course, I’m not saying that a beautiful woman in a skirt doesn’t catch our attention. She does. But deep down, what most of us really want is to meet a woman who understands us and who doesn’t tear us down who hopefully finds some quality in us attractive enough to want to make a life together.

So, for most of us, the male code is all about wanting to get married. Really, it is.

Bad Excuses for Not Blogging

2009-07-13T06:37:00.001-05:00

Divided blogging attention. Who has just one blog any more? I’ve nearly lost count of the number of blogs I either run or write for. It’s still fun though.

Divided life attention. If there’s a worse multi-tasker alive, I’d like to meet him. And the scary thing is, I’ve improved in the last couple of years.

It’s the middle of baseball, NASCAR, and tennis season and I follow all three sports extensively. Who can blog when he’s busy watching his favorite sport(s)? Well actually I can blog while watching sports, I just tend not to.

Netflix. I have more than 100 movies in my queue right now. You can’t blame me for wanting to get my money’s worth can you? And if I’m getting my money’s worth, something’s gotta give.

I’ve been working on my farmer’s tan (somebody has to since it’s a dying practice). Well, I haven’t really been working on it, per se, but I need to work on it.

I’ve been busy convincing everybody who hasn’t tried Twitter to do so. It’s not easy convincing people that not everybody is writing boring tweets about what they are putting on their hamburger at lunch.

The Pharmacy

2009-07-07T23:08:00.001-05:00

So I'm sitting in a pharmacy waiting room. It's one of those 24-hour pharmacies that seem to always have people waiting for meds. I haven't been to this one in a while but every time I'm here it is choas. I have no idea how it stays in business other than the fact that it's only one of a couple of 24-hour pharmacies in the city so everyone just tolerates the madness.

There's a guy sitting next to me. Sounds like he's recently been diagnosed with Diabetes. I know his look of confusion and I hear the uncertainty in his voice--the same confusion and uncertainty I had when I was diagnosed with it last October. A clerk behind the counter goes to pick out his lancets and test strips toward the front of the store and she returns with two boxes in her hands.

"Are those the smallest needles you've got?" He asks as she walks by him on her way to the cash register.

"I have no idea," she says. "You'll have to ask Ginger." Ginger is nowhere in sight and she doesn't apprear to be coming his way any time soon.

The man is currently talking to another clerk who seems equally as lost. The lost leading the lost. That's how it is in the land of the 24-hour pharmacy.

A Night at the Dirt Track

2009-06-29T23:14:00.013-05:00

Over the weekend, I went to a local dirt track with a friend and his stepson to watch a little racing. We didn’t stay the entire night, but we saw some good action before we left.

The first few heats we saw featured new drivers—I think the proper term for that division is “hobby stocks,” but I could be wrong. It looks like some of these drivers are doing anything they possibly can just to be able to race. I loved some of the numbers on their cars. One car was A1. Here’s a photo:

Later in the night, we saw a car (the number 18 car with M & Ms painted on it) that had a similar paint scheme to something Kyle Busch would run on his number 18 car:

And of course, even later we saw cars that look more like I was expecting (this was a three car accident in the middle of turns one and two):

But I think I got the biggest kick out of a little boy who had all of the flags sitting in a stand in front of him who took out the proper flag and waved it vigorously every time the official flag man did so. Here's a picture of him in action:

I stood in a long line and paid $7.00 for a meal that wasn't horribe and it wasn't great. While I was standing in the line, a few small rocks flew off the track as cars sped by and one hit me in the leg. I survived and now I even sound tough for having survived.

Okay, not so much.

By the time we left, dust hovered over the track. And as we reached our car, dusk was settling in, making for one more nice photo:

Which State are You?

2009-06-25T07:03:00.000-05:00

I glanced down a list of 50 conversation starter questions recently over at Suite 101.com and one of them intrigued me: “If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?”

I’d hate to be named after a state for a couple of reasons. First, it sounds a little too Frank Zappa to me. Second, one state wouldn’t suit me for my entire life.

Early in my life I was introverted, shy, and avoided risk. I’m thinking I would have been called Kansas. In my early 20s I was a partier so I would have probably had to submit a name change to California. In my late 20s I became a Christian so I would have had to bug the judge again to change my name to one of the states in the Bible belt. In my 30s I was heavily involved in conservative politics before the movement became everything it said it was not; maybe I would have chosen one of the U.S. territories for a name as a form of protest. In my 40s I find myself immersed in the publishing industry with a strong desire to be immersed in community, so maybe I should be New York now, but I suspect I would probably end up being Colorado.

Why?

New York has too many people. I wouldn’t know where to start to fit in. Colorado seems to have a nice mix of secluded areas and gathering places for community. And several publishers are located there. Yeah, I know about upstate New York and it’s beautiful wooded areas and I know that NYC has a vast number of publishing houses. But Colorado seems more my speed.

What about you? Which state would you be named after?

17 Again

2009-06-23T06:46:00.001-05:00

When did the dollar show become the $2.50 show? Not that I'm complaining. It's sort of nice not dropping a twenty spot when going to the movies.

A friend and I went to see 17 Again at the $2.50 show last night (my friend snapped the photo you see on the left on this Blackberry). I haven't been to this particular theater in years. It was in better shape than I expected, although certainly nothing like the digital movie theater that opened in town a year or so ago. The last time I was in this theater, the seats were tiny and they didn't have a head rest. Thankfully, they've done some remodeling since then and it turned out to be an enjoyable evening.

The movie itself was better than I expected. The story line intrigued me because who among us doesn't have regrets? It's about a guy who gets a chance to back to high school to see if he'd still make the same decision to marry his high school sweetheart. His life hadn't been all that he expected and he blamed his wife for that. I won't spoil the ending for you if you haven't seen the movie. But seeing the movie does make you wonder what you would do if you were given the chance to go back to high school to make the same life changing decisions you had to make during your senior year. Even if I had the chance to do it, I don't think I would take it. The mistakes and poor choices we make are part of who we are. They feed our wisdom and presumably prepare us to make better choices in the future. Besides, the real world doesn't allow us to become 17 again.

Admittedly though, that means that sometimes our wake up calls come too late. Not too late in the sense that we can't change, but too late in the sense that sometimes we can't undo the ramifications of a poor decision. Sometimes we just have to accept the ramifications and move on. And sometimes we can redeem the situation, but it's much harder to redeem a failure than to have our circumstances changed magically. In redemption, there's a price to be paid and the magic is slow, imperfect, and painful. But that makes it more real.

Drive-in Theaters

2009-06-22T06:47:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago, I drove past an old drive-in theater south of Kansas City that had been closed for some time. The screen was torn down. The grass in the field was quite high. And all that really remained was the old concession stand, which was a cylinder shaped building with peeling paint. I wish I would have stopped to take a photo of it because it really brought back a lot of memories.

I miss drive-in theaters. I miss getting there early with a carload of friends to stake out the best available parking spot. I miss rolling down the window and then rolling it back up again to secure the speaker inside the car. I miss walking through row after row of cars to get to the concession stand. I miss the opportunity to laugh as loud as you want to, and as often as you want to, without being concerned about bothering somebody else. I miss seeing children playing on the playground below the screen. I miss the double and triple features that drive-ins used to offer. I miss getting home at 2:00 or 3:00 AM after the double and triple features were finally over.

The last drive-in theater in the metro area in which I live closed in 2007. I wish I had taken better advantage of it before it did close. The last movie I remember seeing at a drive-in was Purple Rain, which, if my memory is correct, came out in 1984—the year I graduated from high school.

I did a little searching and found this website that says there are 494 drive-ins that are currently open in the United States. At one time there was 4,000 to 5,000 in operation. The same website says that there are only two drive-ins remaining in Nebraska—neither of which are anywhere near where I live. It sounds sort of crazy, but I wouldn’t mind going to visit one anyway, making a weekend out of it. And it would be even more fun if they were showing showing three classic movies in a row from the 80s.

On Summer

2009-06-18T10:32:00.001-05:00

I know that summer doesn’t officially begin until this weekend, but when the temperature is hitting 91 degrees, I don’t think we can call that spring, can we? My thoughts about summer:

Likes:

Reading.
Cookouts.
Watching friends play softball (I retired after rupturing my Achilles tendon).
Wimbledon.
July 4 celebrations.
The summer movie-going season.
Fishing.
Going for ice cream.

Dislikes:

It lasts too long.
It’s way too hot (about 40 degrees hotter than I prefer).
Bugs, more specifically, bees.

What I Miss:

Going to the drive-in theater.
Taking one my nieces to an amusement park when she was small. She’d squeal on the rides, and demand my attention, and I loved it.
Cruising with friends for the mere sake of it.

Truths:

The A/C can never be set too low. It just can’t.
Baseball is still a great sport—even if many of the current occupants have tainted it.
Dressing down is more accepted—that’s a good thing.

Over The Rhine: Ohio

2009-06-16T22:43:00.017-05:00

When I was young and had more time, I used to buy cassettes (yes, cassettes) of my favorite bands and I’d unravel the cardboard insert with the lyrics with the greatest of anticipation. I’d read through the lyrics, finding the songs that spoke to me, and then I’d pop the cassette in and listen to it, following the lyrics as the songs rolled by.

I rarely do that any more.

It’s not because I don’t love music, but I’m busy, and frankly, so much music is full of ridiculous lyrics. I’m older now and I crave depth. That’s where Over the Rhine comes in. I’ve written about them here several times. Over the Rhine is made up of the husband-wife team of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist.

I was watching a few of their live performances on YouTube yesterday when I ran across this one—a song called “Ohio” which is the title track to their double-CD that was released in 2003. I love this song and seeing Bergquist perform it live made me love it even more.

I don't know if you have the time today to hit play and pause a few times, but if you do, I'd love to have you follow along with me verse by verse (if you are receiving this via email subscription, videos won’t show up in the email, you’ll need to click here and view the video on the blog):

[Hit Play]

Hello Ohio
The back roads
I know Ohio
Like the back of my hand
Alone Ohio
Where the river bends
And it's strange to see your story end

[Hit Pause]

This first verse is chilling to me. Bergquist is singing about watching life as she knows it come to an end on the back roads of Ohio. For the record, Linford wrote the song, but the sentiment is the same. And you get the feeling she's going to camp out and reminisce for a while because that's what humans do when we want to make sense of change.

As I watched this video, a picture flashed into my mind--a picture I took on the back roads of Arkansas, which is where my father's side of the family is from. As a kid, I traveled with my grandparents and sister to Arkansas most summers and we would meander down one dirt road after another visiting relatives. When I got older, I drove my grandmother down those same dirt roads. We took two trips, one in 1991, I think, and the other one was in 1993.

She wasn't great at navigating me from city to city because things had changed and she pretty much went by the way things looked rather than actual street names, but once I found the cities, she could take me right to the dirt roads we needed to travel to visit relatives. During one of those visits, we stopped at an old cemetery to visit the graves of family members. After we did that, I did a little exploring and I remember seeing grave markers dating to the late 1700s in that cemetery.

I don't know why, but before I got into the car to leave, I pulled out my camera and snapped a photo of the dirt road that went past the cemetery. I think I took the photo because I wanted a clear reminder about how much life, and ultimately death, existed on the back roads of my heritage. I needed the tangible proof because the mind doesn't do an adequate job in remembering. At least my mind doesn't.

Here's the photo, dated October 22, 1993:

It wouldn't mean a thing to anybody but me, but now you know why this song moves me so much.

[Hit Play]

In my life I've seen a thousand dreams
Through the threshers all torn to pieces
And the land lay bare
Someone turned a profit there
And a good son lost his life in a strip pit

Chorus

[Hit Pause]

Bergquist is lamenting the fact that the landscape of Ohio has changed. When she gets back to the chorus, you can just feel her emotion. She doesn't over sing the way some writers use exclamation points to dress up their words. Instead, her emotion pours through the words themselves and no dressing up is necessary. You feel for her because you know what a changing landscape can do to a person and in the purist way imaginable you just want to reach out and put your arm around her and say, "I know. I know."

I haven't been back to Arkansas since 1993, but I'm planning to go this September. Most of the relatives I used to visit are gone now. Their kids are mostly grown up and moved away. I doubt if many of my relatives who remain will even remember me. And the landscape is going to look different. I just know it in my soul. As I pull up to the little towns that are trapped in my memory, they are going to mock me. Or at the very least, treat me like a stranger.

[Hit Play]

When the sun went down we would all leave town
And light our fires in Egypt Bottom
And the reservoir was just as good for Joni
'Cause we knew we would
Dream outloud in the night air

Holly said, Don't go inside the children's home
Mary said, Don't leave your man alone
Valerie was singin' to the radio in Ohio

It was summertime in '83
We were burnin' out at the rubber tree
Wonderin' what in the world
Would make this worthwhile
And if I knew then, I was so much older then,
Would I see regret to the last mile

Chorus

[Finish]

Now Bergquist gets personal. She tells us about her friends and she talks about how they dreamt outloud. And she remembered wondering about the future. In some fashion, all of us fear looking back on our youth with regret. But I think she is talking about more than that. I think she is talking about looking back on that particular time in her life with regret because she didn't value the moment long enough, but I could be wrong.

I didn't grow up in Arkansas, but my father was born there. I don't feel regret about the place as much as I feel regret about not capturing the precious moments I should have--the pictures I didn't take while visiting relatives on houseboats, the journal entries I didn't write to remember every detail of my fishing trips with relatives there, the letters I didn't write afterward to the relatives I visited. So, in some small way, this post is about remembering life on the back roads, even if my memory is flawed.

Hidden Gems on My iPod

2009-06-15T05:59:00.003-05:00

Do you ever feel like you aren’t getting the full value from your music collection? I do. I get hung up on one or two albums and I listen to them over and over and that causes me to forget some of the great music I have stored on my iPod. One day last week, I read something on an online bulletin board that sounded like a great idea: create a playlist in iTunes of all of the songs you haven’t listened to on your iPod and then hit shuffle. I did just that before hitting the road this weekend.

Here are a few of the gems that popped up on my trip:

“I Would Have Loved You Anyway,” by Trisha Yearwood: I bought this CD when in first came out in 2001 for the song “Inside Out,” which I have listened to many, many times, but I forgot that this CD has a few other good songs as well, this one being one of them. The lyrics in the first verse have such a sad resolve to them, but I’m sure nearly everybody can relate when she sings:

If I’d have known the way that this would end
If I’d have read the last page first
If I’d have had the strength to walk away
If I’d have known how this would hurt
I would’ve loved you anyway

“Coward of the County” by Kenny Rogers: This song always reminds me of my dad. I don’t know why exactly, probably because Tommy, the subject of the song, gets advice from his father and he has to figure out when to use it and when to tweak it. I can’t tell you how often bits of advice from my dad run through my head during difficult circumstances. And dad was a Kenny Rogers fan too, so I’ll always think of him when I hear this song.

“The Heart of Worship” by Matt Redman: This one came from a worship CD that was released in 1999. I bought the CD for another song I heard during a worship service in 1998 or 1999. I don’t listen to enough praise and worship music. Listening to this song again for the first time in few years reminded me of that. I love this verse:

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath

“Lay it Down” by Jennifer Knapp: It’s been ions since I listened to the Lay it Down CD that came out in 2000. I loved Knapp’s first release, Kansas. Lay it Down was her second effort and I don’t think it was as strong musically as her first CD, but her songs always prompt me to think and do a little soul searching. The title track from Lay it Down contains this verse:

Pride can break a man right down from iron
Twist him ‘round ‘round and tatter up a soul
Handprint of God on the small of my back
My second chance, my second chance
I'll bend a knee my friend, I'll bend a knee

I love the visual of God placing his hand on the small of her back. It’s such a holy and intimate thought.

I’m enjoying this so much that I’m going to continue . . . I have another 3,000 or so songs to work my way through and I expect to find many more gems I haven’t listened to in a long time.

Hole in One

2009-06-09T22:25:00.004-05:00

A couple of my friends and I get together once a week or so to play the Golden Tee golf game. The winner has bragging rights for the week. This past weekend, I won the first game, but it was still early so we decided to play again. I finished last. Bummer. One of my friends hit a hole in one that game--that didn't help matters. After he hit it, the game offered him the opportunity to send the video of the hole in one to YouTube. He did and sure enough, it's out there. How crazy, and cool, is that?

Here it is (if you receive these posts via email subscription, you'll have to visit Little Nuances to see the video):

The Best Romantic Comedies

2009-06-08T17:03:00.002-05:00

Paste magazine did a story recently about the 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade. I’m a connoisseur of the romantic comedy, so I ate this up. Unfortunately, not all of it stayed down.

But I won’t dwell on the duds that made the list (Waitress, Knocked Up) or even wonder about the movies I’ve never heard of that made the list (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Before Sunset, Amelie). But somebody must stand up for the great romantic comedies of this decade that didn’t make the list.

I volunteer:

--Any list chronicling best romantic comedies that doesn’t include Serendipity is automatically suspect to me. I’m just sayin’.

--Same goes for The Notebook.

--And no Elizabethtown? Come on! You’re killing me Paste magazine. You’re killing me.

--Music and Lyrics should be on this list.

--And who wasn’t swept away be the magic of 50 First Dates?

--Garden State was left off? How?

--C’mon, who didn’t shed a tear or two when watching Dan in Real Life?

--Definitely, Maybe. Definitely, definitely should have been on the list.

--A Walk to Remember was a beautiful teal jerker that was shunned, but shouldn’t have been.

Can you think of any others? Remember, they had to have been released this decade.

2009 French Open

2009-06-04T09:51:00.002-05:00

So, between the Tennis Channel and ESPN, I’ve been recording something like 13 hours of tennis each day during the French Open and sitting down to watch what I’ve recorded around 10:00 PM each night. Of course, the math doesn’t work, unless I want to avoid sleep and work altogether and I haven’t figured out how to pull that off. But it is fun to pick and choose what I watch—something the Tennis Channel has given me the opportunity to do.

Did you catch any of the Andy Roddick vs. Gael Monfils fourth round match the other day? Over the past couple of years, I’ve watched Monfils progress up the rankings (he’s seeded 11 at this tournament) and I could understand why he was headed toward the top. He’s loaded with talent and he really seems passionate about the sport. I wasn’t too impressed with his antics against Roddick though. As it got dark, Roddick began telling the umpire he couldn’t see. Monfils must have believed Roddick wanted play suspended solely because Monfils had a big lead. And there may have been an element of truth in that. But Monfils didn’t handle it well. He began making all sorts of incredulous faces, trying to stir up the fans (Monfils is from France, so he was playing in front of a home crowd). Roddick didn’t take the bait though. He got beat soundly, but somehow he kept his focus throughout the match and he didn’t respond to Monfils’ actions. I’m guessing that things might be a little different at the US Open if they happen to meet up in a night match in New York.

The tennis world was stunned to see Rafael Nadal lose in the fourth round to Robin Soderling. I was hoping for another Nadal vs. Federer final because the drama would have been so thick, but Federer is still in the tournament and therefore still in the hunt for his first French Open title. He breaks down in tears now every time he wins or loses a final in a major and I don’t expect anything different from him this time if he can get past Juan Martin Del Potro in the semi-finals.

On the women’s side, Dinara Safina looks to have things well in hand in the top half of the draw. At the bottom half, Samantha Stosur has been a huge surprise. She’s seeded 30th, but she’s in the semi-finals against Svetlana Kuznetsova. I’ll be rooting for the winner of that match to win the tournament, but I don’t see Safina losing unless her nerves get the best of her. She’s mentally tough and she seems like she is on the verge of securing her spot at the top of the women’s game for a while.

Final Survivor of Titanic Dies

2009-06-02T06:52:00.000-05:00

Did you see that the last survivor of the Titanic died over the weekend? Her name was Millvina Dean; she was 97. I read the AP article about her with interest—not just because she is tied to such a huge historical event, but because of the lasting effects it had on her family.

Her family boarded the Titanic with the intention of starting a tobacconist shop in Wichita (or Kansas City—depending on which source you read). Her father owned a pub in England and he sold it to open the shop, but he perished some time after lowering Millvina, who was just two months old at the time, into a lifeboat. Her two-year-old brother and their mother also survived. They were taken to New York initially and then ended up going back to England.

Millvina never married, and of course, her family never opened that tobacconist shop in Kansas City. She went on to become a secretary. She died in Southampton, England—the same place her family left to start a new life in America.

The Dean family hadn’t planned on being on the Titanic. A coal strike caused them to transfer from another boat to the Titanic.

I wonder if Millvina spent a lot of time wondering about what might have been? Would she have gotten married and had children? Would she have ended up owning and running the shop her father would have started? How would her life in general have been different in Kansas?

I think anybody would wonder such things from time to time, but from that way it sounds, Millvina settled into life in Southampton. And it seems to have suited her just fine.

The Origin of Woot

2009-06-01T11:24:00.002-05:00

The first time I saw the word “woot,” I thought it was a typo. Then I saw it again, and again. Stuff like this reminds me of how uncool I am. Today, I heard the term again, so I googled it and here’s what Urban Dictionary says:

“w00t” was originally an trunicated expression common among players of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game for “Wow, loot!” Thus the term passed into the net-culture where it thrived in video game communities and lost its original meaning and is used simply as a term of excitement.

[I might not know what woot means, but I do know that “truncated” is misspelled and that the article preceding it should be “a,” not “an.”]

So, it’s a new term for excitement. I pretty much figured that out from the context in which people generally use it. But I’m not a woot person. I think I’ll stick with “Wow!” instead.

On Mascots

2009-05-29T09:19:00.014-05:00

If it’s really possible to be neutral about mascots, then I pretty much have played the part of Switzerland for most of my life regarding them. The traditional part of me who thinks that baseball games ought to be enjoyed for the game itself has always been a little irritated with promotions between innings, but I often find myself enjoying them— especially the mascots. So, there you have it; I’m conflicted, but I have to tell you, I’m drifting away from traditionalism.

The Omaha Royals have a mascot whose name is Casey. He’s a lion, which I’m sure you can tell from the photo (below) that I snapped of him at the game last night. I’ve been in the press box for several games this season and Casey makes his way up there a couple of times per game. He high- fives everybody as he walks by, including me. How can you resist high- fiving a blue, furry paw? And how can you resist a lion who poses for pictures like this?

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a couple of Kansas City Royals games with some friends—one of whom brought his eight-year-old daughter. She was enamored with Slugerrr (another lion mascot). He came over to her at one point and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. I wanted to get a photo of them together but I wasn’t able to.

Here's a photo I snapped of Slugerrr a couple of years ago. Look at the way kids are drawn to him. How cool is that?

I’m thinking that in twenty years, when my friend’s daughter is 28, she won’t remember a single thing about the two games we took her to, but she’ll remember meeting Slugerrr and maybe she and her husband will take their kids to the ballpark as a result and she’ll tell them that story. Slugerrr will still be Slugerrr. He will not have aged one bit. And he’ll probably bring a smile to the faces of her children too.

Running Like the Thunder

2009-05-27T09:35:00.002-05:00

A family with a couple of small kids lives next door to my mom. One of the kids is a cute little girl—she’s four years old. She comes to visit my mom often. She just walks into the house and plops down on the couch and then she starts talking. Once she starts talking, it’s hard to get her to stop, Mom tells me.

The other day, she visited my mom and she said something that my mom is still laughing about: “I can run real fast, like the thunder. Wanna see me?” Of course, she meant, “like the lightening,” but the fact that she said thunder instead made it hilarious, and cute as can be.

Tennis Utopia

2009-05-26T08:49:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine tells the story about the day cable television was installed in his house. When would that have been? Maybe 1980 or so? He says that he got off his school bus and ran all the way home because he couldn’t wait to check it out. It opened up a whole new world to him—one that included televised MLB and NBA games. And of course, ESPN. What more could a guy want?

I know exactly how he felt. I had DirecTV installed a few months ago. One of the major reasons for the change was the Tennis Channel. Ever since I heard that it went on the air, I wanted access to it, but my local cable provider wouldn’t add it. So I switched.

As I was watching first round coverage of the French Open a couple of days ago, a little menu popped up on my screen. I clicked it and was stunned by what I saw—DirecTV was offering me the opportunity to choose one of five matches. Each match was being shown on a different station. So, in essence, during major tennis tournaments, there are five tennis channels.

I don’t know many tennis fans, but it made me want to run up to all of them and scream, “Have you seen what DirecTV is offering during the majors? Have you? Well, let me tell you!”

First Impressions

2009-05-21T06:33:00.000-05:00

I dropped the mail on my desk yesterday afternoon and noticed an envelope that had my name and address handwritten on it. No return address. And it had a forty-two cent stamp on it. So, I owe the mailman two cents. Not a big deal if it happened to be a letter from a family member or something I actually wanted to read, but that wasn’t the case.

I opened it and it turned out to be a photocopied form letter from an insurance agent I’ve never heard of who, in short, said this: “I would like the chance to earn your business by offering you an easy way to compare not only our rates, but our quality and service as well.”

Ironic, isn’t it?

I would hardly call a photocopied letter in an envelope deceitfully made to look like a personal letter that doesn’t contain enough postage quality. I sent him an email pointing out the obvious. In his response, he offered to pay the “entire amount” of postage still due to the post office. I think I’m going to send him a response asking him to mail me a check for the “entire” two cents. We’ll see if he puts enough postage on the envelope.

I understand mistakes. I make them all the time. But this was shady to begin with and it irritated me to have to pay part of the postage for a stranger’s deceitfulness. So I had to say my piece.

First impressions really do matter.