Thursday, September 4, 2008
Doctor Hot Tub
So I was sitting at the Mic Mac Bar & Grill with my friend Dave, relaxing after working on the house that I am renovating. Dave was telling me about this recent experience when he was sitting in a hot tub in Calgary. Two young women get into the hot tub and one starts complaining about her boyfriend. After a while, Dave offers some advice. The women thank him, and then a married woman gets into the hot tub (how big is this thing, anyway?). She gives the young woman the same advice as Dave did. I thought this would be a great idea for a show, "Doctor Hot Tub", like Dr. Phil, but in a hot tub. I am publishing this now, in case someone else wants to take this idea. You read it here first!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Not getting older, just getting better?
Philson graduated from high school and is planning his departure to SMU residence. I totally support his decision to move into residence to get the full experience of university. I am sure he will come back home on weekends to fuel up with food and to do laundry. Oh, and maybe to see us!
The fact that I have a child who is now a man makes me think of my own mortality. I have to face the fact that I am actually middle-aged, something my body has been telling me for a few years, but my mind refuses to acknowledge.
Meeting my Grade 10 science teacher the other day made me think about my place in my life. He informed me that I am the same age as he was when he was my teacher. Huh. That really put things into perspective for me. I didn't think he was really old back then, but I remember that I considered all of my high school teachers to be quite aged at the time. The fact that there are probably just as many still working as there are retired should tell me something: they weren't as old as I thought they were.
I guess I still have some viable years left. However, watching one child -- and next year another -- fly the coop is making me take stock of my life. Am I where I want to be? Am I as happy as I can be? What are my regrets and can I do anything to make sure I minimize any future regrets? These are questions a man asks himself as he stares the age of 39 down the barrel.
The fact that I have a child who is now a man makes me think of my own mortality. I have to face the fact that I am actually middle-aged, something my body has been telling me for a few years, but my mind refuses to acknowledge.
Meeting my Grade 10 science teacher the other day made me think about my place in my life. He informed me that I am the same age as he was when he was my teacher. Huh. That really put things into perspective for me. I didn't think he was really old back then, but I remember that I considered all of my high school teachers to be quite aged at the time. The fact that there are probably just as many still working as there are retired should tell me something: they weren't as old as I thought they were.
I guess I still have some viable years left. However, watching one child -- and next year another -- fly the coop is making me take stock of my life. Am I where I want to be? Am I as happy as I can be? What are my regrets and can I do anything to make sure I minimize any future regrets? These are questions a man asks himself as he stares the age of 39 down the barrel.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Rainmen join PBL but will we see any familiar faces?
The Rainmen have made some announcements lately regarding their league status as well as the whereabouts of some of the marquee players from last season.
As expected, we are now part of the Premier Basketball League (PBL). Unfortunately, none of the stars from last year will be returning.
Getting paid is a real issue with these guys. They really aren't paid a lot and they have bills just like the rest of us. Expecting someone to drop everything for a 3-month, 20-game season may prove difficult. At least with the 36-game season, there was a longer time frame to drop your life and move to Halifax.
I guess we should remember that minor leagues are stepping stones for athletes. Our team was in a league that is just like many other leagues around the world and I get the feeling that players tend to bounce around, depending on the schedules of the various leagues. They are just trying to make a living and have to go where the jobs are.
I would be surprised if we see anyone come back from last year's team and until we get into the D League (and maybe not even then), we probably won't have many returning players who aren't Maritimers.
Unfortunately, Lewis has proven that he cannot develop young players, so local talent may decide to go elsewhere rather than waste time sitting on the bench.
In my opinion, we need a local coach who has ties to the universities that will draw recent grads to our team. Once we get our version of "Coach K" who is a draw for athletes to play for him, then we might be able to count on having some consistency to the roster.
As expected, we are now part of the Premier Basketball League (PBL). Unfortunately, none of the stars from last year will be returning.
Getting paid is a real issue with these guys. They really aren't paid a lot and they have bills just like the rest of us. Expecting someone to drop everything for a 3-month, 20-game season may prove difficult. At least with the 36-game season, there was a longer time frame to drop your life and move to Halifax.
I guess we should remember that minor leagues are stepping stones for athletes. Our team was in a league that is just like many other leagues around the world and I get the feeling that players tend to bounce around, depending on the schedules of the various leagues. They are just trying to make a living and have to go where the jobs are.
I would be surprised if we see anyone come back from last year's team and until we get into the D League (and maybe not even then), we probably won't have many returning players who aren't Maritimers.
Unfortunately, Lewis has proven that he cannot develop young players, so local talent may decide to go elsewhere rather than waste time sitting on the bench.
In my opinion, we need a local coach who has ties to the universities that will draw recent grads to our team. Once we get our version of "Coach K" who is a draw for athletes to play for him, then we might be able to count on having some consistency to the roster.
Monday, May 26, 2008
The Great Scientific Experiment To Prove God Exists
The scientific experiment to prove God.
The experiment is to abdicate your internal throne.
The result is when one either enters Heaven or doesn’t enter Heaven.
The time frame of the experiment is our life, until the point of death when our soul goes to enter Heaven or not.
Abdicating your internal throne is truly giving up, not asking what alternatives one can take to resolve a problem.
By merely asking about alternatives, one assumes that one keeps reign over one’s internal throne. How can I get results to this problem while not giving up power over my self?
Not giving up power over one’s self is a very thinly defined state.
We can deceive ourselves by thinking we are giving up, but we really aren’t. God knows our hearts and minds, even if we don’t.
Our motivation is the key. We can feel good about ourselves when we do good for others – altruism. Like a balloon (or virginity), one prick and it’s gone. Again, God knows our hearts and minds. He knows our motivation for our actions as well as our feelings. Why do we do things for others? Why do we do good works? Is it for the glory of God our Father in Heaven? The minute we think that we are better than someone else because of our good works, we have wasted the eternal gift that God has given us. Our faith is not true, because our works are for our personal good feelings about ourselves, and not given in thanks to God.
Scientific experiment: Giving up and giving to God, i.e. Dropping a drinking glass.
Dropping a drinking glass is when we accept Jesus. By living a “good” life, we still drop the glass. Whether the glass drops and hits the table or continues further equates to going to Heaven or continuing lower to Hell. Until the glass stops falling, both experiments appear (to our narrow view, both in width and depth of time due to our finite wisdom, scope of vision and lifespan) to having the same result: the glass is dropping, much like the law of gravity. Both a person who has given up their life to Christ and a person who leads a “good” life can have an enjoyable life here on earth while they are alive.
It is only when we die, i.e. the glass lands, that we discover the result of the experiment. If we truly abdicated our internal throne, the glass lands on the table (Heaven). If we did not truly give up our life, the glass does not land on the table and our soul does not enter Heaven.
Is God provable by science? The scientific experiment is our life. We cannot know the result before we die. As we cannot know what happens after someone else dies, we cannot know their result of their experiment. Science is proven by repeatable and quantifiable results from testing. The test is our internal life, not our external works. The external works are the glass falling, which can be the same for someone who has truly abdicated control over their life or someone who has not and who judges themselves as “no worse” than the other guy.
When we judge ourselves relative to other humans, we are erroneous, since all humans are fallible and all fall short of perfection.
The Beatitudes tell us of a typical person who abdicates their internal throne. People who are humble and meek, etc. do not typically receive rewards on this earth. Jesus said they will receive their reward in heaven.
Is Heaven full of “vagrants”? Maybe. Those who have nothing may be less prideful of themselves, rather than those who have many possessions or who have achieved many “things” in this life. The recognition that we receive from other people can cloud our judgment of ourselves and may cause us to re-take our internal thrones.
Pride is the sin.
Remember the young prince who asked Jesus how he may follow Him and was given the response to give away all his worldly possessions and follow Jesus. The love of money and possessions was greater than his love for Jesus, and so he did not abdicate his internal throne. His pride of his possessions and achievements got in the way of giving up his throne.
We may not think we are prideful, but it is that last little bit of internal pride and judging oneself against other imperfect humans that is the example of pride. One may have self-esteem, but like the Pharisee thinking he is better than the tax collector, we can fall victim to our own pride. The tax collector’s view of himself as a sinner who is not worthy is the correct example of abdication of one’s internal throne.
The vast majority of the time, we find God when we are plumbing the depths of despair. This is when we have used up our resources and our personal power and we do not get the results we want or expect. This is when many of us ask for help or guidance from God our Father. This is equivalent to worldly children who seek assistance from their worldly parents. As parents, we give our children life and we teach them rules to live by. Then we set them off to live their lives, with their free will. We hope that our children make the right choices and honour their parents and themselves. At some point, the children fail, usually spectacularly, and then they ask for help from the parents. Any advice or answers that we may give as parents may be either accepted, denied, ignored or misunderstood. These 4 responses are what we as God’s children give to God when we pray to Him and ask Him for help.
We may hear and understand His message to us and then choose to ignore the advice. We may hear and understand and choose to heed His words to us. Thirdly, we ignore his message because it doesn't fit in with what we want. Finally, we may not understand His answer to our pleas or we may not hear what He is saying to us because we don’t take the proper amount of time to listen.
If we do not hear or listen to God, we may still choose a path that leads to the same result during the experiment, i.e. the glass still falls during our lifetime, the same as it would if we obeyed His commands, but when the glass hits, it will not hit the table (Heaven). Our result of the scientific experiment is a failure, but we don’t know it until the experiment (our life) is over. People living a “good” life may not exhibit any worse results, either in material wealth or outward appearances, during their life than someone who has given their life to Christ, but the final result of the experiment is drastically different.
If we do not abdicate our internal throne, then we are not truly conducting the experiment in the proper manner and we cannot expect the final result to be duplicated from someone who has given their life to Christ. Remember, the experiment lasts from when we are given the chance to surrender our life to Jesus until the moment our souls arrive at the Pearly Gates and we stand before St. Peter to see if our name is on the eternal roll of names.
The experiment is to abdicate your internal throne.
The result is when one either enters Heaven or doesn’t enter Heaven.
The time frame of the experiment is our life, until the point of death when our soul goes to enter Heaven or not.
Abdicating your internal throne is truly giving up, not asking what alternatives one can take to resolve a problem.
By merely asking about alternatives, one assumes that one keeps reign over one’s internal throne. How can I get results to this problem while not giving up power over my self?
Not giving up power over one’s self is a very thinly defined state.
We can deceive ourselves by thinking we are giving up, but we really aren’t. God knows our hearts and minds, even if we don’t.
Our motivation is the key. We can feel good about ourselves when we do good for others – altruism. Like a balloon (or virginity), one prick and it’s gone. Again, God knows our hearts and minds. He knows our motivation for our actions as well as our feelings. Why do we do things for others? Why do we do good works? Is it for the glory of God our Father in Heaven? The minute we think that we are better than someone else because of our good works, we have wasted the eternal gift that God has given us. Our faith is not true, because our works are for our personal good feelings about ourselves, and not given in thanks to God.
Scientific experiment: Giving up and giving to God, i.e. Dropping a drinking glass.
Dropping a drinking glass is when we accept Jesus. By living a “good” life, we still drop the glass. Whether the glass drops and hits the table or continues further equates to going to Heaven or continuing lower to Hell. Until the glass stops falling, both experiments appear (to our narrow view, both in width and depth of time due to our finite wisdom, scope of vision and lifespan) to having the same result: the glass is dropping, much like the law of gravity. Both a person who has given up their life to Christ and a person who leads a “good” life can have an enjoyable life here on earth while they are alive.
It is only when we die, i.e. the glass lands, that we discover the result of the experiment. If we truly abdicated our internal throne, the glass lands on the table (Heaven). If we did not truly give up our life, the glass does not land on the table and our soul does not enter Heaven.
Is God provable by science? The scientific experiment is our life. We cannot know the result before we die. As we cannot know what happens after someone else dies, we cannot know their result of their experiment. Science is proven by repeatable and quantifiable results from testing. The test is our internal life, not our external works. The external works are the glass falling, which can be the same for someone who has truly abdicated control over their life or someone who has not and who judges themselves as “no worse” than the other guy.
When we judge ourselves relative to other humans, we are erroneous, since all humans are fallible and all fall short of perfection.
The Beatitudes tell us of a typical person who abdicates their internal throne. People who are humble and meek, etc. do not typically receive rewards on this earth. Jesus said they will receive their reward in heaven.
Is Heaven full of “vagrants”? Maybe. Those who have nothing may be less prideful of themselves, rather than those who have many possessions or who have achieved many “things” in this life. The recognition that we receive from other people can cloud our judgment of ourselves and may cause us to re-take our internal thrones.
Pride is the sin.
Remember the young prince who asked Jesus how he may follow Him and was given the response to give away all his worldly possessions and follow Jesus. The love of money and possessions was greater than his love for Jesus, and so he did not abdicate his internal throne. His pride of his possessions and achievements got in the way of giving up his throne.
We may not think we are prideful, but it is that last little bit of internal pride and judging oneself against other imperfect humans that is the example of pride. One may have self-esteem, but like the Pharisee thinking he is better than the tax collector, we can fall victim to our own pride. The tax collector’s view of himself as a sinner who is not worthy is the correct example of abdication of one’s internal throne.
The vast majority of the time, we find God when we are plumbing the depths of despair. This is when we have used up our resources and our personal power and we do not get the results we want or expect. This is when many of us ask for help or guidance from God our Father. This is equivalent to worldly children who seek assistance from their worldly parents. As parents, we give our children life and we teach them rules to live by. Then we set them off to live their lives, with their free will. We hope that our children make the right choices and honour their parents and themselves. At some point, the children fail, usually spectacularly, and then they ask for help from the parents. Any advice or answers that we may give as parents may be either accepted, denied, ignored or misunderstood. These 4 responses are what we as God’s children give to God when we pray to Him and ask Him for help.
We may hear and understand His message to us and then choose to ignore the advice. We may hear and understand and choose to heed His words to us. Thirdly, we ignore his message because it doesn't fit in with what we want. Finally, we may not understand His answer to our pleas or we may not hear what He is saying to us because we don’t take the proper amount of time to listen.
If we do not hear or listen to God, we may still choose a path that leads to the same result during the experiment, i.e. the glass still falls during our lifetime, the same as it would if we obeyed His commands, but when the glass hits, it will not hit the table (Heaven). Our result of the scientific experiment is a failure, but we don’t know it until the experiment (our life) is over. People living a “good” life may not exhibit any worse results, either in material wealth or outward appearances, during their life than someone who has given their life to Christ, but the final result of the experiment is drastically different.
If we do not abdicate our internal throne, then we are not truly conducting the experiment in the proper manner and we cannot expect the final result to be duplicated from someone who has given their life to Christ. Remember, the experiment lasts from when we are given the chance to surrender our life to Jesus until the moment our souls arrive at the Pearly Gates and we stand before St. Peter to see if our name is on the eternal roll of names.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
All-Star game and possible league merger
Here is a good article on the All-Star game. While Eric didn't get the MVP that he was hoping for, it sounds like he played very well. Good job Eric!
The end of the above article mentions a few possibilities for next year, including a PBL/CBA merger and the handful of Northeast teams who may join it, including Vermont, Manchester, Montreal and the Rainmen. I guess this is assuming the attempt to join the D-League doesn't work out for us right away. I am somewhat surprised that Quebec wasn't part of the list of teams that may go to the merged league. Maybe the author forgot about them.
The end of the above article mentions a few possibilities for next year, including a PBL/CBA merger and the handful of Northeast teams who may join it, including Vermont, Manchester, Montreal and the Rainmen. I guess this is assuming the attempt to join the D-League doesn't work out for us right away. I am somewhat surprised that Quebec wasn't part of the list of teams that may go to the merged league. Maybe the author forgot about them.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Good luck to Eric and a potential Moncton rival team?
Congrats to Eric for still having the opportunity to show his stuff at the ABA All-Star game, even after the Rainmen have officially left the ABA. I am happy that he is going to see some of his family. They are really supportive of him, as evidenced by the fact that his extended family actually commented on the Herald website a few months ago when it had a story about Eric. I thought it was pretty cool that Eric's family keeps track of his career here in Halifax. Have fun Eric, I hope you get selected as the game MVP!
In other ABA News, Joe Newman is looking at the silver lining around the cloud of the Rainmen leaving the league.
In this news story, Newman is quoted as saying that this "opens the door for an ABA team in Moncton."
While I agree that Moncton is probably the right-size market for an ABA team, I shudder to think that another Maritime entrepreneur might get involved with the ABA. If our D-League hoop dreams don't work out, maybe a Moncton PBL franchise would work well for us, as a ready-made rival for Halifax. You heard it here first!
In other ABA News, Joe Newman is looking at the silver lining around the cloud of the Rainmen leaving the league.
In this news story, Newman is quoted as saying that this "opens the door for an ABA team in Moncton."
While I agree that Moncton is probably the right-size market for an ABA team, I shudder to think that another Maritime entrepreneur might get involved with the ABA. If our D-League hoop dreams don't work out, maybe a Moncton PBL franchise would work well for us, as a ready-made rival for Halifax. You heard it here first!
Short post about the Rainmen
I like Mr. Levingston’s plan to approach the D-League to see if we can join, with the fallback position of joining another league if it doesn’t work out with NBADL. In my previous post, I laid out a SWOT analysis of the Rainmen joining the D-league.
I read somewhere on OSC that PBL and CBA are merging and that the ABA team from Texas has already been playing as Dallas in the CBA, so it sounds like the scenario of the Rainmen joining another league other than the D-League is quite likely. However, I agree with the ambitious plan of talking with the D-League, because you don't get anything if you don't ask.
The NBADL will be impressed with Mr. Levingston and his organization, but if the league doesn't have plans to expand to the Northeast and if there are no other teams in the area that are ready and/or willing to join the D-League for next season, then we will probably join the new PBL/CBA merged league. The bottom line is the Rainmen need other teams in the Northeast to be part of whatever league we eventually join, to make it viable in the long-term.
I read somewhere on OSC that PBL and CBA are merging and that the ABA team from Texas has already been playing as Dallas in the CBA, so it sounds like the scenario of the Rainmen joining another league other than the D-League is quite likely. However, I agree with the ambitious plan of talking with the D-League, because you don't get anything if you don't ask.
The NBADL will be impressed with Mr. Levingston and his organization, but if the league doesn't have plans to expand to the Northeast and if there are no other teams in the area that are ready and/or willing to join the D-League for next season, then we will probably join the new PBL/CBA merged league. The bottom line is the Rainmen need other teams in the Northeast to be part of whatever league we eventually join, to make it viable in the long-term.
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