My sister got some more photos of MelodyJoy's Maonan "twin," Hallie from Hallie's mom and sent them on to me, so we'll play one of our favorite games: "Which One's Melody?"
Had a strange dream last night . . . I was lost at sea, floating in the ocean with only a life preserver and a Magic 8 Ball. If anyone out there interprets dreams, let me know . . .
“Tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe in anything.”
promptly hitting one out to right to tie things up . . . Richie Sexson leading off the bottom of the 9th . . . me saying "Walk off, Richie" . . . a game winning HR to left field . . . it was just a perfect day of baseball.From the Seattle Times: M's Manager Mike Hargrove said, "One of the most exciting things in baseball is the home run. The only two things more exciting than that are the inside-the-park home run and the walk-off home run. And we happened today to get both of them."
Cavaliers. The announcer was saying how impressed he is that LeBron--playing in his home town, a big star with a gigantic contract and endorsement deals, very young, having come directly into the NBA from high school--has managed to avoid any scandal, or even any significant missteps in terms of his public image since entering the league. He expressed a bit of amazement that this was even possible!
so on. Their mindset is that they are climbing the mountain, overcoming challenges and achieving their goals. And to some extent, I'm sure that's a correct perception.
“By almost any measure, education is the most cost-effective investment taxpayers can make. What other investment can we make that promotes prosperity, fights crime and strengthens our competitive position in the world marketplace? What other investment also enriches our culture and helps prepare our young people for interracial understanding and cooperation? Regretfully, the prevailing sentiment among too many of today’s lawmakers seems to be that higher education is somehow less important than preparing for war or building roads.”
| Despite Jeannette's best efforts to train the boys and me, I know she sometimes feels just like this ad . . . I'm sorry, honey! | |
eficiencies and mistakes. Thus the person does not know what to change for the better if there are to be successes in the future. The truth, in a situation like this, is likely to leave you being disliked by the person terminated, but being liked is not as important as being kind. And it is not kind to deny a person the truth that could help him or her avoid future hurts and maybe a lifetime of failure.” (Tony Campolo, Everything You’ve Heard is Wrong, p. 64) With regard to this statement, I’m reminded of a time early in my career as a director when Sheldon Nord confronted me concerning what was, really, a large part of how I expressed my personality but was also impeding my success at work. In other words, he struck at something that was very central to who I was. It was not easy for him nor for me—I fought depression for a time afterwards—but he did me a big favor by bringing the harsh reality to my attention.
Furthermore, a leader is characterized by a willingness to listen to varying viewpoints and to encourage discussion. Ashleigh Brilliant joked, “The more we disagree, the more chance there is that at least one of us is right.” I learned a long time ago that if I wasn’t comfortable sharing information about an idea or project with others, my discomfort was a strong indicator that my plan was not a good one.
“In contemporary de-Christianized, pluralistic, and rapidly changing Western cultures, only those religious groups that make no apologies about their ‘difference’ will be able to survive and thrive. The strategy of conformation is socially ineffective in the short run (because you cannot shape by parroting) and self-destructive in the long run (because you conform to what you have not helped shape). A good deal of courage in nonconformity is needed both to preserve the identity of Christian faith and to insure its lasting social relevance.”
- Miroslav Volf, Yale Divinity School
I love small college hoops and I've followed the game in this state for, oh my, 30 years now. The rivalries are great, you're never stuck up in the nosebleed seats . . . there are none, and you actually know the players on your team. They're real students, not just NBA-wannabes. I also like the fact--and to some extent this goes for D-1 basketball, too--that a little school can compete with a bigger one. Upsets are a very real possibility.
Anyway, I came across an old Oregonian article yesterday that really summed up much of what I like about NAIA basketball. If you are a basketball fan, you have to read it (with some of my comments inserted):
"Oregon Tech 74, Southern Oregon 71"
Monday, January 09, 2006
NORM MAVES JR. The Oregonian
ASHLAND -- The latest basketball rematch between Southern Oregon and Oregon Tech on Saturday night had all the trimmings of another classic.
There was a hero (OIT guard Levell Hesia, with 27 points), a goat (the referees -- ask either side), an overtime, a winner (OIT, 74-71) and enough drama to make the playlist at the nearby Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
It was all there in McNeal Pavilion, shoehorned to its 1,400 (and then some) maximum with frantic boosters from both schools.
But the scene had all the unique things that make the region's only college rivalry so good: the face-painting table in the lobby (red and black only -- this is SOU country) before the game, the Hooters T-shirts, OIT's "Terrible T-Owls," the requisite sleeping three-month-old -- even a guy in the stands who read John Irving's "A Widow for One Year" during time outs. (I could relate to that last item . . . I've been known to bring work to games, and receive plenty of ridicule for doing so.)
These are the best of times for the basketball programs of these two colleges. The Raiders (16-3, 5-2 Cascade Collegiate Conference) reached No. 1 in the NAIA Division II national rankings in early December; they entered Saturday's game at No. 2.
OIT (16-3, 5-2), meanwhile, jumped from 17th to 12th after a dramatic victory at Warner Pacific 10 days ago. The Owls almost are always high in the rankings.
The Owls won the national title two seasons ago. The Raiders made it to the round of eight last season, when the two colleges shared the Cascade Collegiate Conference championship.
But even when the rankings are not involved, the rivalry is a hot one. Friendly, for the most part, but intense.
So intense that the two schools can't even agree on the series. According to Southern Oregon records, Saturday night's game was the 196th in the series and the Raiders have won 74 of them; OIT's books say it was the 199th game and Southern Oregon has won 67 times.
"It's a heated rivalry," says Bobby Thompson, the sports information director and radio broadcaster for the Owls. "We can't agree on anything."
Except this: The rivalry is unique and very, very regional. Sports in this part of the state grew up on rivalries not just between schools but cities.
OIT coach Danny Miles understands better than most. He played his high school sports in Medford in the early 1960s, when each town had one school and the cities' entire self-concept seemed to depend on the outcome of a prep game.
"In football, of course, our big rival was Grants Pass," he said. "Klamath Falls was the big rival in baseball, because of all that talent they had there."
When he went to Southern Oregon for a hall-of-fame football career, "The OIT-Southern Oregon rivalry was always really big in both football and basketball.
"It's probably an over-the-hill type thing. People go over the hill (the Southern Oregon Cascades, on Highway 66) to shop, stuff like that.
"It's hard to explain, but it's a lot like Oregon and Oregon State, except that the rest of the state doesn't know much about it." (Now I could be wrong but I think it's a stronger rivalry than UO-OSU in the respect that the fans are closer to the players--and not just physically--and because small towns are involved.)
And the stories go on and on. One of OIT's favorites is the game on a snowy night in the 1980s when the Owls came through Lake of the Woods in two vans, one driven by the faculty athletic representative with five reserve players, the other by Miles with the starters.
The reserve van made it through, but Miles skidded into a snow bank and was stuck there for nearly four hours.
Former SOU coach Pete Barry, who led the Raiders from 1984-90, didn't want to wait too long for the starters, so he counted five Owls and insisted the game be played. SOU athletic director Dave Nelson intervened and postponed it.
"We didn't get a lot of wins in the series back then," says Barry, now the head coach at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. "But the games were wire-to-wire, the gyms were packed and the place was noisy.
"I remember one game (in 1987) when our Adrian Dorton beat them late and there was a big brawl right afterward. And we lost a couple right at the end. It was always pretty emotional." It still is probably because of the presence of Miles. He was a legend as an athlete and an institution as a coach. His 777 victories put him in extremely rare air among all-time, all-division college coaches; his 90-24 record against his old school since 1971 have dominated the series. And he has fans in both towns. Except on this night.
SOU coach Brian McDermott arrived in 1996 to rescue a comatose Raiders program. The Raiders went from 2-29 in his first season to a Cascade Conference championship in 1999.
Along the way, he incurred the wrath of OIT fans when he drew two technical fouls in one contest, grabbed a Gatorade bottle from the OIT water cooler and hurled it against the hospitality room door -- just as a female Owl fan was coming out.
Then there was the time he warmed up with his players to keep the OIT fans off their case. Miles watched from the OIT bench: "I wanted to make sure he made all his layups."
Even the sports promotions people get into it. When the Raiders rose to No. 1 last month, the SOU Web site headlined it "We're No. 1 -- and OIT isn't." (I thought that was both funny and telling. Oregon Tech doesn't measure itself against the SOU Raiders, but rather against the competition at the national tourney. Which is not to say that we don't want to see our kids beat SOU more than any other team. What fun would the rivalry be otherwise?)
Another time, SOU sports information director Rich Rosenthal noticed that the Owls were playing a lot of Christian colleges, so in a release he referred to the Klamath Falls school as "Oregon Tech Bible." (Okay, I'll give 'em that . . . our early season schedule often is a mix of nationally ranked teams and very weak programs, which generally are tiny Christian colleges. In part, though, this is because it's hard to get the good teams to trek to Klamath Falls when there's a good chance they'll get their butts kicked.)
Oregon Tech fans responded with T-shirts that read "OTB" across the top and "On To Branson" on the bottom.
Branson, Mo., is where the NAIA Division II tournament is held. Sure enough, that's where the Owls were that year.
It all sounds as if there is a lot of hostility between the two programs, but the opposite is true. Miles and McDermott are good friends. "Brian and I get along fine," Miles says. "Pete Barry and I were good friends, too. We became better friends after he left." (I'm not sure I buy that . . . Coach Miles is always diplomatic. I wasn't at OIT at that time but we all knew about Pete Barry up and down I-5 and what a horrible coach he was, in terms of how he conducted himself on the sidelines.)
Cascade Conference teams travel two-by-two each week. They play two other teams on in the first game, then switch opponents the next night.
"Brian and I always call each other," Miles said, "and trade scouting reports. But but we don't talk this week."
Said McDermott, "The players like each other, too. They've always gotten along. They party together and are friends. The students (get rowdy) so the events get a little crazy, but that doesn't extend to the players."
The friendly enemies settled it on the court Saturday night. Raider guard Steve Farley willed the game into overtime with two key baskets in the last two minutes, but Hesia, Ryan Fiegi and Andre Lawrence pushed the Owls over the top in the extra period.
Ho-hum. Another year, another wild SOU-OIT game. (And, I must note, when both teams got to the national tournament, the Owls went further than SOU did. Ahem.)
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One thing that's great about the SOU-OIT rivalry is that both schools actually care about it. I have seen a lot of so-called rivalries where one school gets totally hyped up for the big game but the other one doesn't really care and, in fact, sees some other school as their big rival. We hate the Raiders and their fans hate the Owls.
In closing, just in case she's trademarked the term or something, I need to give credit to one of my staffers, Marleigh Luster, for coining the term "hooteriffic." She asked if she could sign her e-mails with it, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Marleigh, you're hooterrific and so are our Owls.
Today was MelodyJoy Marie's first Independence Day as a US citizen! It was a beautiful day and a highlight was Jordan's return from more than two weeks in Mexico with a group from our church.
I'm sure the trip will prove to be a big step for Jordan in terms of growing into manhood. That doesn't mean that he's passed me up in height, though! Despite his best posture, I have evidence that he's still got an inch or so to go before he surpasses me.
Tonight, we gathered on the street with some neighbors and lit off the $29.99 pack of fireworks I bought at Albertson's this afternoon (only $24.99 with our Albertson's card . . . such a deal). MelodyJoy's first fireworks . . . well, as far as we know. She was a trooper and none of the fireworks fazed her, not the loud Whistlin' Petes, not the blinding flashers, and not the fountains. She wasn't super demonstrative but you could tell that she enjoyed the lights and colors.
