Bill Gates and Warren Buffett play online bridge

Bet you can't guess their online names. I'll tell you in the comment section.

Christmas vacation

We leave today for Christmas vacation. I'm really looking forward to warmer temperatures. Right now it's 21 degrees here in Michigan. It's only 23 in West Virginia, but Friday it's supposed to be 51 and mostly sunny. Excellent. The NOAA site even says it may snow Christmas morning. Not that I care. I'm sick of snow. Myrtle Beach is supposed to be in the 50's too. I'm really hoping to get down there for some golfing.

Have a Merry Christmas.

This is a blow to my Americocentric ways

I love American sports like basketball and football. I often make fun of soccer even though I find it fun to play. I've gone to MLS games and find them like hockey to be slow and boring compared to football and basketball. I love the Superbowl and always am amazed at how many people watch it and how many countries it is shown in. Last year, according to Superbowl.com, 144 million people watched.

December 9th was the draw for the World Cup. This is similar to the seeding for the NCAA March Madness. Understand that December 9th there wasn't even a game played. It is estimated that over 300 million people watched. More than twice what the Superbowl gets and it wasn't even a game. The U.S. census bureau says that the United States population is 297,890,005. That earns a "wow".

Thoughts on Christmas

I've been thinking about Christmas lately and teaching it in youth group. Here's a couple of interesting thoughts.

Jesus was the only baby born to die. All other humans are born to live but are tainted by sin and because of that must die. Spiritually humans are born dead but can have spiritual life. Jesus was born spiritually alive but took the punishment, spiritual death, for sins from us.

Jesus was born without sin and lived without sin.

If Jesus had not taken our sins upon himself would he have ever died? Tell me what you think about that question.

I've been neglecting sports here on Weaves writes

I haven't been talking about the Colts undefeated season. The big question is whether to play the starters or rest them. You have to play them. The Colts first playoff game will be January 15th. If you sit them now you sit them for a month. Anybody remember how long it took the offense to find its rhythm this year? Keep playing and keep the rhythm. Now that being said, I firmly believe that when the game is in hand you sit them in a hurry. Oh and I think you could mix Mungro and Rhodes in some more to give Edge some rest.

The other big topic is Ron Artest. Some of you may know that I've wanted to trade Artest for a while. Ever since they lost to the Pistons in the ECF a couple of years ago. He has never fit into the offense. He has always been a distraction. These things aren't new. I will not be sad to see him go. I'm not opposed to shipping him into deep freeze in Toronto for a couple of players and a first round pick either. Remember that you heard that from me. It's funny because I chatted to Rob last week and told him I was hearing rumors of a trade and then boom here comes Artest with his interviews.

A Primer on Postmodernism

I just finished reading "A Primer on Postmodernism" by Stanley J. Grenz. This was a good book. I would recommend the first 3 chapters and the last chapter to everyone. The rest of the chapters should only be read by someone who wants to go way way in depth into studying postmodernism. Let's just say that Grenz is thorough. It's too bad he died earlier this year because he wrote some pretty good books. Here's a teaser from the last chapter entitled "The Gospel and the Postmodern Context".

"As Christians we must stand against the postmodern rejection of the metanarrative. We simply do not share the despair over the loss of universality that leads to the radical skepticism of the emerging era. At the same time, we dare not allow our resounding "No!" to postmodernism at this central point to blind us to the validity of its critique of modernity. On the contrary, closer inspection of the phenomenon should convince us that we are in fundamental agreement with the postmodern rejection of the modern mind and its underlying Enlightenment epistemology."

Good stuff there, good stuff.

Sunday School outline

I know some of you like this sort of thing so here is my outline from Sunday School yesterday.

Being a good leader – I Samuel 11

Saul was working. V. 5

He cared about people. V. 5, 6

People were inspired to follow him. V. 6-8

Saul used his authority to help people. V. 9-11

Saul wasn’t about gaining more power or punishing those who weren’t loyal followers of his. V. 13

A good leader has the Spirit of God. V. 6

Look: “Effective leaders use their authority to honor God and build up their people, but ineffective leaders use the people to build up their authority.” Warren Wiersbe

Took: Recognize whether or not God has made you a leader. If he has make sure you are building the people you lead, not building your self.

University of Colorado

The University of Colorado has truly been one of sports biggest embarrassments of all time. And they just made it worse. They fired Gary Barnett yesterday after an awful end of a decent season. He found out because someone leaked it to the media before they told the coach. He started out the season 7-2 and they athletic department was talking about extending his contract. Then things got ugly ending with a 70-3 loss to Texas. I'm not against firing Barnett. I just think the timing and the reasons are wrong.

While Barnett was at Colorado there was a huge scandal with his recruiting. Visiting recruits were given drugs, alcohol, and sex. The administration of the university, including the chancellor, president, and athletic director, resigned or were dismissed because of this scandal.

A former player, female kicker Katie Hnida, may have been raped while she was a player under Barnett. In a press conference after she went public Barnett said, "It was obvious Katie was not very good. She was awful. You know what guys do, they respect your ability. I mean you can be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they respect you. Well, Katie was a girl. Not only was she a girl, she was terrible. And there's no other way to say it. She couldn't kick the ball through the uprights." I don't care if the comments are taken out of context, as he claims, you don't make those comments in a press conference where you are responding to her allegations.

Barnett and his staff have been accused of having a slush fund. They have had gross accounting oversights that have included thousands of dollars.

An assistant coach sexually harrassed athletic trainers and a grand jury faulted Barnett for not properly reporting the trainers claims.

It wasn't any of those things that got Barnett fired. They were looking to extend his contract at the beginning of this year. Any one of those scandals could have been enough to cost him his job. However, it took losses at the end of the year to get him fired, earning the University of Colorado an official Shame on you. Mom you can shake your finger at them now.

"Don't Give Up, Don't Ever Give Up"

I love when the Jimmy V classic comes every year and I get to hear part of Jim Valvano's ESPY acceptance speech from 1993. I cry just about every time. If you've never heard or read the speech click the link above. I recommend listening to it. It seems to be more touching that way. You can download the MP3 at that site.

Our Christmas tree

I bought a balsam fir from a local tree farm last Thursday. It's 7.5 feet tall and one of the best I've ever picked out. We don't usually spend $35 for a tree but I didn't want to keep looking. Here's a picture of it.

Here are two of the more important ornaments.