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FF Pt. 2

FF 2012

Fantasy Football Image

Sooooo…ummmm…Yeah…

Blogging Is Not Dead…

…but it has moved to a new location. Please come join me (and update your links blah, blah, blah) www.nickmielke.posterous.com

The Post I Wish I Wrote

Alright so I’m a week or so behind here but I wanted to talk for a few minutes about the events that took place surrounding the erroneous call made by MLB umpire Jim Joyce that ultimately deprived pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game.

What is a “perfect game”?

Why I am glad you asked Bold Type Interlocutor…wait? What are yo doing here and not on Mr. H’s blog? [as I put the fine silver away for safe keeping] In baseball a perfect game is defined as “a game in which a pitcher (or combination of pitchers) pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base.^[2] Thus, the pitcher (or pitchers) cannot allow any hits, walks, hit batsmen, or any opposing player to reach base safely for any other reason—in short, “27 up, 27 down” -via Wikipedia

In the entire history of Major League Baseball (founded in 1869) there have only been 20 perfect games recorded on the books. So you can begin to see why this was such a big deal to this young pitcher, Galarraga, to not achieve this miraculous feat. Watching the aftermath of this event was nothing short of spectacular on the same day that Ken Griffey, Jr. retired (arguably one of the greatest total players of all time) that news was neatly pushed aside by “Perfectogate”.

Below is a link to an article by my favorite author Donald Miller who very nicely expresses exactly what I wish I had written the morning that I watched SportsCenter and saw the next day when Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce met at home plate before the game and there was a tremendous showing of grace, love, and forgiveness that speaks volumes about both men and teaches us a great lesson we could all use in our lives.

“THE ABSOLUTE POWER OF APOLOGY”

The Theology of Youth Rooms

When I started at my new job back in January I was given permission and some funding to do some renovations to the main gathering place or “Youth Lounge” at the church. I don’t have any really deep thoughts that belong in this post but maybe this is instead a call for those who have studied at “YE OLDE THEOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY” to tell us the Biblical historical significance of baby blue youth rooms. Every church I’ve ever worked at has had their youth room baby blue (some with clouds, some with rainbows and faux Roman columns) and similarly I have had the fortune of being able to rework them and hopefully make it feel more like a space the youth want to hang out in and less like they are still in the nursery downstairs. I just thought I’d post a few before and after pics of the room. All thanks for design ideas and concept go to my wonderful wife!

Just Like Old Times

After:

-11 Years

-4 Wives

-5 Children

-Numerous Jobs

-Countless Guitars

-Miles and Miles of Travel

-Funyuns and Yoohoo

-The Milk Challenge

-Being “shooshed”

-Sloppy at Best

Here we all are. No worse for the wear and living amazing lives. The DoL (original) BandFamManCationGolfLakeCookOutTacular took place this weekend and it was an amazingly fun time of catching up and spending time just relaxing. The golf was good, the beer was cold, the lake was amazing, and the stories were hilarious and filled with the lifetime of adventures we’ve already had and none of us are even halfway through our thirties yet. I am excited about this becoming a new tradition because I truly love my “band fam” and have missed us all being together over the years. As Loretta Lynn once said “We’ve come a long way baby!”

Where Is My Flying Car?

We will just go ahead and dispense with the traditional “why I haven’t been blogging” excuse making and jump right into this post like nothing has happened.

(This not so dramatic pause reserved for you to express your feelings about my long blog absence…)

Moving on. How many of us complain about modern technology? Maybe more specifically how many of us complain about the “lack” of modern technology and advances? I mean…I’ve spent my entire life being obsessed with movies that sold me a not so distant future (or in one case “A long time ago…”) that was filled with things like beaming from one place to another, laser guns, encapsulated food options, flying cars, and ultra modern modes of communication. I’ve spent a lot of time being cheesed off that I couldn’t use my flying DeLorean to rise above the plethora of non-readers who all insist on stopping at the Taylor Road exit where the sign clearly says “KEEP MOVING”. I’ve bemoaned the lack of a hoverboard whenever Mrs. M wants to go on one of her massive neighborhood 5K’s. I have even complained that my phone will go from working to not in a span of 10 feet inside my office at work. Come on technology why have you failed us so? We’ve been waiting for our Nike’s with “power laces” and yet I still have to slip on my laceless driving shoes one at a time like every other person on the planet.

For all the complaining let me just take you on a very brief tour of what modern convenience has done for little old me. I can and do on a regular basis do all of the following things:

-Carry 4512 songs worth of music (enough that it could be played non-stop for 12.5 days without repeating) in my pocket in a device that is the size of a deck of cards. Can you imagine, assuming the average CD has 10 songs on it, carrying around 450 CD’s everywhere you go just so you can have what you want on hand at any moment?

-With the same musical “i-device” that I mentioned above I am able to listen every day to my favorite talk radio personality and his two hour radio show…did I mention his show is recorded and produced and put out locally in Washington, D.C.?

-I have a telephone (as I know you all do too) that can find me most anywhere in the world that I am (unless it is the stretch of interstate between the Union Street and Forest Avenue exits…then you are just SOL) without being connected to anything. I mean I know its commonplace to us all but do you ever stop to think about the advances we’ve reached from the days of what we all grew up with as a “cordless phone”?

-Speaking of my telephone. Here are just a few of the things it can and does do most all of the time: watch videos, take pictures, receive and send email from multiple accounts, view pictures, store hundreds of pieces of complex contact information, calculate mathematical functions, record my voice and store messages, serve as an alarm clock, serve as a regular clock, play music that i put on it, purchase new music that i previously didn’t own, access news and weather from multiple locations, give me all the info I could ever need about every movie and TV show there is, purchase download and read novels, tell my television at home to record a show that I want while I’m not even at home, find a restaurant no matter what city I am in, play hundreds upon hundreds of games, shop online, get directions, and well…it will also make phone calls.

-My television does all the work for me. I can watch every show I want to and not have to be home for any of them. They can even air at the same time and its no biggie. I would say I watch about 6,000% more television now that I ever did in the past. I don’t even have to be home to schedule a recording of something. I can also transfer said recordings to my computer to take with me when I’m away.

-Have I mentioned that the above “Swiss Army” phone of wonders fits very comfortably in the palm of my hand?

-There’s my flying car right there…