This is just weird. Check out the article:

‘Piggyback Bandit’ puzzles high school sports officials in Northwest – ESPNHS.

I’m dying to know your gut reaction to this story. Best/funniest one gets +25 cool points…

What’s your opinion of love songs?

Be sure to answer in the comments (look for the “leave a comment” link below). The person with the best answer will receive +25 cool points, which could possibly (wink, wink…) end up being worth something to you later on.

——————————————————————————————————-

As I wrote last Monday, an NFL game is like a zoo for people watchers. The entire experience – from standing in line to get into the stadium, finding our seats, the people sitting around us, the public transportation ride back to our car – was like a cross section of crazy in America. Here are 5 of the people I met at my first NFL game ever.

1) Lady Rocking a Hair Net – She was a young lady, too. Could not possibly have been more than 30 years old. Rocking a hair net at the Georgia Dome. On Thursday night. In primetime. I don’t even know what to say about this. I don’t think hair nets are fashionable right now. I didn’t laugh out loud or anything when I saw her, but I get the feeling that if I had, it would have been a true “Haters gon’ hate” moment…

2) Waaaaaay-too-drunk-for-the-2nd-quarter Guy – This was the guy who was sitting towards the right side of our row. He left to get another beer. When he came back, he was too drunk to find the right entrance, so he ended up having to scoot by everyone from the left side of our row. Did I mention that he was easily 300+ pounds? He was so drunk, he tripped and fell on the girl sitting to my left, fell on me, fell on the people in the row in front of me, then fell on my wife’s chair and spilled his beer on her jacket (thankfully she wasn’t there at the time), then fell again before his family finally made it over to help him. Did I mention it was about 5 minutes into the 2nd quarter?

3) Annoying (Visiting Team) Fan – For us, it was a Ravens fan. He was one of those guys who has obviously never ever played football at a competitive level, yet feels like his self-worth is wrapped up in everyone knowing how much he knows about football. He spent the entire game saying stuff like, “Watch, they’re going to motion left, then run right,” or “Blitz the A-gap,” or “That’s right… Fall down for 4. We’ll take that.” Generously, I’d say he was right maybe one out of ten times… Then there was the fact that he constantly referred to Atlanta’s quarterback Matt Ryan as “Matty Ice.” Now, that is Matt Ryan’s nickname in Atlanta, but not even we call him that every time. But the worst of all was when, after talking constantly for the entire game, when Atlanta took the lead again with 20 seconds left in the game, Annoying Ravens Fan got up and left without saying a word. Punk…

4) “The Walk of Shame” – This is my term for when people are bold enough to wear a visiting team jersey to the stadium, then have to walk all the way back to their car after their team loses. In a sea of cheering, gloating home team fans. I tried to get a couple of pictures with my cellphone, but here’s the best I could do.

High-fiving, flag-waving, and shame-walking.

A Michael Vick jersey? In Atlanta? That's bold, man. That's bold...

5) Girl sobbing in a MARTA station – This girl was potentially part of the Walk of Shame, since both she and the guy she was with were wearing Ravens jerseys. The difference with her, though, was that she was sobbing hysterically. Honestly, I almost hope that she had just received word that her puppy died or something, because otherwise she was sobbing hysterically because her team just lost, and that’s sad.

*BONUS – You may have seen the now infamous “ATL Hoodrat” video on YouTube (warning: lots of language and crazy in that video). Well, we had our own little ATL Hoodrat incident, except it was funny-ghetto instead of scary-train-wreck-ghetto. At one of our stops, an older man (he said he was in his 60s) got on talking so loud about how lucky the Falcons were, how they weren’t a good team, blah, blah, blah. After a minute or two of this, another guy on the train spoke up and said, “Um… Who are you talking to?” That started a back-and-forth that the older guy wasn’t willing to end, even after getting off the train at his stop. He stood outside the door and kept on talking. When the doors started to close, he stuck his cane out to stop them, thinking they were like elevator doors and would reopen. They don’t. He started yelling, “Hey! Open the doors, man! Give me back my cane!” The other gentleman kindly got up and, with his foot, shoved the old man’s cane out the door. We laughed until we hurt…

How about you? Any crazy stories or people-sightings from a professional sporting event?

Peace.

- Friday afternoon I went fishing and caught my first ever yellow perch. I don’t know if you’re into fish or not, but check out the photo below. I think that fish was beautiful.

This guy wasn’t the biggest fish I’ve ever caught, but he was the most fun for sure. And the prettiest.

- Saturday afternoon I went fishing again, but this time all I caught was a gorgeous sunset.

Still a win…

- Sunday morning I got the opportunity to just be in a worship service with Michelle. We were blessed to hear a fantastic message from Pastor Greg, finishing out the ‘Immeasurable’ series. If you’ve got some free time, you can watch or listen to it here. It was all about passing it on to the next generation, and as someone who works in family ministry, that’s very exciting.

- Sunday evening there was a football game on TV. Did you guys know that? There was only one, so I’m not sure it got a lot of publicity beforehand… It was a great Super Bowl, one of the best in my lifetime, and certainly the best since four years ago when the Giants played the Patriots. More important than the game, though, was being able to get together with a bunch of old friends to fellowship and celebrate. Seriously, the game was great, but spending it with good friends was better.

How was your weekend?

Welcome Back, Kotter... er... Readers.

Hey, welcome back to WordPress.com, guys and girls! For the past year this site has been a WordPress.org site hosted by Dreamhost. While it has been a great experience, the renewal period for hosting is up and it’s just not feasible for us to renew it right now.

So, like many in this down economy, I’m shooting for the best compromise between quality and affordability. Hence, the url “joerob.com” now redirects to my free WordPress.com blog at “joerob577.wordpress.com”.

Hopefully it’s only a temporary fix, since I really enjoyed the look and customization possibilities. But for now, at least, I’ll be rocking out the free side of things.

All that to say, please be patient as I rebuild.

When was the last time you had to move? Is it the worst thing ever? Why or why not?

JoeRob.com

Click the link above to head over to the new site. While you’re there, make sure you subscribe using the orange rss button or the email subscribe button on the top right of the page.

Peace.

Time for another Photography Friday post, where I share some of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken with you. Today’s photos come from a trip to Zoo Atlanta in 2005. They are photos of the majestic silverback gorilla, and I think they are cool. Enjoy!

These are such amazing animals! I especially love the top photo. The alpha male noticed the small group of us gawkers that had gathered to look at them. You could almost read his mind as he walked towards us – “What are these things? Are they a threat? Do I need to defend my family?” To me, it was just another example of God’s amazing creativity and imagination in creating the world. These gorillas are not on the level of humans, who are created in the image of God, yet there definitely seems to be something more to them than to, say, a mouse. Simply incredible!

Peace.

For those of you new to this blog in the last month or so, Thiefin’ Thursday is actually the oldest running feature I’ve got. The concept is simple – once a week or so I thief something from somewhere on the internet and bring it to you here at joerob.com. These are usually things that are funny, and I try my best to not be 3 weeks behind everyone else, so hopefully it will be something funny that you haven’t seen yet.

Today’s offering absolutely blew my mind when I saw it. Apparently, a handful of internet meme legends have gotten together to make a movie about, well God only knows what it will be about… Here’s the teaser video.

Yeah, my first thought was, “this has got to be fake,” too. But apparently it’s not. Here is a “behind the scenes” clip with some of the personalities involved.

Lord help us…

Peace.

There are some different theories about stories, and how they are put together. Some are super simple, like this one…

Very simple story arc model.

Some are a little more complex, like this one…

This story arc is more complex because it ends with a word that I think is French.

And some are more complex and fluid still, like this one…

The most complex one yet, because it uses both French and algebra.

Whatever your view of story, one thing is completely certain: if the story is worth telling at all, then there will come a point where it gets very difficult for the characters involved. Whether you place that point in the opening, the rising action, or wherever else you want to put it, the fact remains that at some point, the main character comes to a point where the only choices are “quit, go back, and end the story here,” or “push through.”

In his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller describes this period as “the middle.” Here’s an excerpt:

I think this is when most people give up on their stories. They come out of college wanting to change the world, wanting to get married, wanting to have kids and change the way people buy office supplies. But they get into the middle and discover it was harder than they thought. They can’t see the distant shore anymore, and they wonder if their paddling is moving them forward. None of the trees behind them are getting smaller and none of the trees ahead are getting bigger. They take it out on their spouses, and they go looking for an easier story.

This has been on my mind and my heart in a big way lately because I’ve reached (or will reach very soon) that point in one of the subplots of my own life – my health. Long story short, I’m 26 years old and about 40 pounds overweight. Add that to a family history of heart disease and cancer, and it gives me considerable pause as Michelle and I begin to think more seriously about starting a family. I want to be healthy and alive and active for my kids.

So we’ve been jogging. (Or it might be pronounced “yogging.” I think it might have a soft ‘j’…) It’s maybe the most basic way possible to get in shape. Just go outside and run. And, like any story, at first you see some real movement. You go from never having been a distance runner to being able to jog a mile without stopping fairly quickly. And then it gets hard…

Tuesday of last week I ran 2 miles without stopping for the first time in my life. It took me 24’30″, but I finished it and I was proud. Thursday I went out confident and looking forward to the run, and I pooped out around the 1.25 mile mark. Saturday I was supposed to go 2.5 miles, but I barely made it a mile before I had to stop and walk. Same story yesterday. I’ve hit the middle of my story, and it’s decision time in the story of me getting into shape.

I’m not fishing for encouragement or fitness tips in the comments here, I just want you to understand something about my story so that, hopefully, you can understand something about your story. If you’ve ever wondered why you start things and then don’t finish them, or why it feels like you’re stuck in a rut in your job, your marriage, or just life in general, try thinking of yourself as the main character in an epic story.

When things get hard, remember that in every great story the main character goes through some sort of hell. But all the great stories end well, too. So take heart in the fact that, even though it’s really hard right now, the story will end well if you persevere.

Peace.

Rhett Butler and Link from 'Zelda'. Err... Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal.

(In case you forgot, or maybe never even knew, this blog is in its final week here at pofgblog.com. Starting next week, you’ll have to go to joerob.com instead. So go ahead and click over there, find the orange rss button, and subscribe!)

Two of the funniest people I have ever come across are Rhett and Link, the comedy duo and self-styled “Internetainers” from North Carolina. To be blunt about it, they are hilarious. In case you’ve never seen any of their stuff, check out their main YouTube channel RhettandLink. They post new videos to that channel at least every Monday, and sometimes more frequently than that. My personal favorites are The BBQ Song, thePhatdippin’ Rap, and In the 80s.

Recently Rhett and Link started a second YouTube channel,Rhettandlink2, in order to do a daily morning show called Good Morning Chia Lincoln. I didn’t watch it for quite awhile because as much as I like Rhett and Link, I didn’t think it would be much good.

Chia Lincoln.

Well I finally gave it a chance and started getting caught up a little bit (each episode is only about 10 minutes), and last Friday they dropped the news – Good Morning Chia Lincoln will be going away, at least for awhile. Rhett and Link will be temporarily moving to California to work on some big project for awhile, so they are ending “season 1″ of Good Morning Chia Lincoln this Friday.

So, I just wanted to give the funny guys from North Carolina some love today. Check out their YouTube channels and enjoy their quirky humor. Who knows, maybe you’ll become one of their Mythical Beasts…

Peace.