Friday, November 14, 2008

Future Heisman Trophy Winner


Nothing More Needs to be Said

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Economy

I have had some friends and colleagues ask me my thought on the economy right now. So, instead of repeating myself many times, I’ll just post it here…

First and foremost, as of the last report of economic indicators, the U. S. is NOT in a recession. An economic recession by definition is when the economy shrinks and to date is has not done that, in fact, the economy is still growing. I will acknowledge, however, that the economy has slowed down and it shaky, but it has not recessed.

Second, I am not a fan of this government bailout. I applaud the House of Representatives for voting it down the other day. This bailout, if you didn’t know, in part is to help financial institutions who wrote sub-prime mortgages. Let’s talk about that for a minute, sub-prime mortgages have to be the stupidest thing that was ever created. Why would any bank loan money to people to buy a house when they couldn’t qualify for a traditional mortgage in the first place? (GREED) Or loan people more than their house was worth? (GREED) Or worse yet, offer an A.R.M. (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) so that Dick and Jane can get into their “dream house” only to have it become a nightmare with the rate “adjusts” and they can no longer afford the payment? (GREED) These financial institutions were booking income at the expense of those who thought they were “entitled.”

Back to this bailout… my opinion is this, let these institutions fail (if they can’t manage finances better than they are, I really don’t want them anywhere close to my money). The message this bailout sends is that it’s OK to screw over the populous and get rich, because the government will bail us out when it goes south. NOT WITH MY TAX MONEY

Then the question about the stock market crashing, my answer is let it. Did you know that since 1950 there have been nine market adjustments where the S&P 500 has declined at least 20%? And EACH and EVERY time the market comes back, it comes back better and stronger. The last adjustment was 2001 – 2003, when the S & P 500 fell 49%. And guess what? Last time I checked the S & P had recovered and was higher than ever. This is what is called an economic cycle. Face it, this is going to happen, always has, always will.

Now the question is what will you do? You have three options, you can be Chicken Little and say the sky is falling and stop investing (IRA, 401(k), brokerage accounts…) and bail; you can do nothing and leave everything alone, or you can increase your investing. My personal choice is to invest more. Why? I’ll tell you why, because stocks, mutual funds, and securities are now on sale! So you could say I’m stocking up. It goes back to grandma’s financial advice “buy low, sell high.” NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY

And yes my 401(k)’s value is down about 25% percent and it does make me go YIKES! But I haven’t lost one dime… and that is because I have not cashed it out. But what is happening that I do like is that my quantity of shares is getting larger and larger every two weeks.

Like I said before, this is an economic cycle, they happen, and it’s not the time to be afraid, it’s time to be aggressive. When after all this has settled down and the market has quit throwing a hissy fit, you will see a better and stronger economy and investment accounts that are fat!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Are You Ready?


Date: September 6, 2008
Time: 12:00pm (High Noon)
Place: Fisher Field, Newton KS

DON'T BE LATE!!!


Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Beverage Vendor

It's now an official tradition... when ever my brother and I go to a KC Chiefs game, we get our pictures taken with a random beer vendor. Why? Because we can! Plus since this number 3, why buck tradition... So, without further adieu, here is
Random Beer Guy #3

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Unfinished by MKYoung

As of today, my brother has published a book called "Unfinished." It is a collection of his writings over the years. Most of it is poetry but I think there's a short story in it as well. Anyway, I am attaching a link to his myspace page which will then give you a link to Amazon.com so that you can buy it.

It's one of those books that will definitely make you think...


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Monday, August 11, 2008

Kansas City Chiefs

NOTHING MORE NEEDS TO BE SAID

Friday, August 1, 2008

Lasik

For as long as I can remember I have had to wear glasses in order to see. I believe that started in 2nd grade, but my mom would know for sure (and she will probably make note of that in a comment).

Anyway, I have always thought how cool it would be to wake up in the morning and not have to squint to look at my clock and see what time it is, or go swimming without having to worry about water spots on my glasses, or (insert favorite reason why glasses suck).

But that will all change on October 10, 2008. After much consideration and talking with my eye doctor (he's pretty cool) I have decided to get Lasik done. Now, mom, before you freak out, the doctor I am going to is probably the best in the nation and sits on the investigative board of the FDA for refractive surgery. This guy, Dr. Durrie, comes highly recommended by my eye doctor and the coolest thing is that I know for a fact that Dr. Durrie has done a Lasik procedure on someone with almost the same correction as me!!!

Before you ask, the reason I am waiting until October is so I can take advantage of my flex plan at work to pay for this. Our sign up is in September and the plan year starts October 1
.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Look Out, Tim's a Professor

Starting in August, I will be teaching Old Testament Lit for Hutch Community College. (See, putting that master's degree to work). So as I think about how to approach this, I have decided that my first question to my class will be "When it comes to the Bible, specifically the Old Testament, are you a literalist or not?" The whole point of this question is to show the class that, while the Bible is the inerrant word of God, sometimes you can't really interpret it literally.

Here's the proof, if you read the two creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2, you will see that the order in which God created is not the same. In Gen 1 God created humans (male and female) at the same time. In Gen 2, God created the male first, then the animals, then the female. Now if you are a literalist, these two stories contradict and therefore making Genesis non believable.

If you interpret the creation stories in a more general sense you find that the chronology of creation is not as important as the as the fact that God created.

Next question I will ask, which creation story was written first, Gen 1 or 2? Here's the answer, more than likely Gen 2. I would invite you to take a minute and read Gen 2, you can see the beauty and the visualization, almost like a poem. You could interpret this to mean that it was a good period for the nation of Israel and they were in favor with God. Now, look at Gen 1 and more specifically, notice how often the chapter says "it was good" (it meaning the part of creation that took place), and also notice how structured the writing is, more like this story was meant to be memorized. Chances are when Gen 1 was written the nation of Israel was in a period of captivity and the only way to learn was by the recitation of God's word. (In all likely hood, any writings were destroyed by the captors). And like I mentioned before Gen 1 continually mentions that creation was good, this must have been one way of keep morale somewhat lifted during the particular period of captivity.

Interesting isn't it? Just so you all know, for the longest time I was a literalist when it came to the Bible. But once I learned that in some instances being literal is flawed, I had to unlearn a lot of flawed theology and relearn and rebuild my own theology to be more in sync with what I feel is right. Plus, I didn't want to be know as a radical right-winged fundamentalist.


Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Onward to Monett


Tonight was our last practice before the regional tournament in Monett, MO. We head out at 8:00am and we are hauling our herd plus three more players. I had to borrow the van from work so we could accomodate. Back to practice, we finished a little early and I told the girls that I had some window paint and that they could write their first names and jersey number on the window... but as these kids are, there is more than just their names....




Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Where the Hell is Monett?

So, my All Star team competed last weekend at the 12&U state fast pitch tournament in Rose Hill and talk about an emotional roller-coaster. We played Rose Hill on Friday night and got beat 23-13 which sucked because now we had to fight through the loser's bracket. Second game was agains Lyons on Saturday at 3:00pm and we pretty much kicked the crap out of them. The score was 25-5 and you know, I really felt sorry for the Lyons team since they had a total of 51 runs scored against them in two games and they were the first team out of the tournament... but I got over that. Our next game was scheduled for 8:00pm against Coffeyville, but as softball tournaments go, they were behind. We got on the field to play at 11:00pm and got done at 1:00am, and this was a really good game. We won 10-6 and none of these runs were gimmee's they were all earned. The bummer was we had to be back to the field by 12:00pm to play a 1:00pm game. Short story, we got beat 13-11 in what was said to be the game of the tournament. This gave us 4th place in the state tournament which isn't too bad but it did knock us out of going to the regional tournament... so I thought.

So yesterday I get a phone call saying that due to a Colorado team dropping out, we now were qualified to play in the regional tournament. So now I frantically trying to get my team ready to go and getting all of the forms filled out, i's dotted and t's crossed. Tonight we have a parent's meeting before practice in which we get to go over 24 pages of information and try to answer all questions. I never realized how much administrative work went into managing a girls' softball team... oh yeah, does anyone out there know where the hell Monett, Missouri is?

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

My Dumb Ass Self

What is it about me and a baseball/softball diamond?

Nearly 8 years ago, I broke my tibia and tore a ligament in my left knee playing softball. After many weeks of healing and P.T. (not to mention a butt load of money) I recovered and was banned from playing unless I could back off and not play full bore (yea right). So I haven't played since.

If you have read my previous posts, you know I coached my daughter's fast pitch team and now I am coaching the team that will represent Newton in the state tournament this weekend.

Now that the foundation has been laid down, here we go.

Last week at practice, I was hitting grounders to the infielders so they could practice fielding and throwing. No big deal, so after about 240 grounders we stopped that part of practice and went on. When I got up Sunday I noticed that my heel was hurting pretty bad, and I just figured I had over done it and it would work itself out by the end of the day. Well it didn't and in fact it got worse and the day went on. So I iced it and elevated it, took some Advil and went to bed. About 2:00am I was woken up out of a dead sleep by the most God awful pain in my foot. It was so bad that when I tried to get up... I couldn't. So I stayed awake the rest of the night... Fast forward to Monday (yesterday) at 1:30, I go to the Doctor and he says, after the exam, and I quote "I am not going to touch this, you need to see and orthopedic surgeon, I believe you have a partially detached calcaneal tendon"t o which my response was "oh #$@@%, here we go again. What's funny about this whole thing is that I was not playing ball but coaching, but it was on the same field and the previous injury, so maybe that field has it in for me?

Needless to say, I am not looking forward to Thursday when I go to the orthopedic surgeon. Hopefully he will say that the family doc just over reacted and it's just inflamed. But until then I'm back on crutches (glad we kept them from before) , and hobbling around.

Oh yeah, I'm still coaching the team... I've gone too far with this team just to turn it over to another coach. Come hell or high water, I will be in Rose Hill this weekend with my team, and we're still planning on laying waste to any and all the teams that we face. Here a PICTURE of the team

Monday, June 30, 2008

Selected for State


As most of you know, I was the head coach of one of the girls Babe Ruth fast pitch teams. This picture is of me with Shelbie, who just happens to be my daughter, at her last regular season game. It was quite a run and we had a blast.

Anyway last night the head coaches got together to pick the team that would represent Newton at the state tournament. Picking the first six was quite easy, and they were no brainers. As we were discussing the seventh pick, one of the other coaches piped up, and said that Shelbie should go. (That means she was recommended for the team) The other head coach agreed and who am I to disagree, so Shelbie was the number 7 pick for this team.

The team starts practice tomorrow at 5:30 (did I mention that I am head coach of this team?) and our first game at state in 8:00pm in Rose Hill on July 11. This should be a fun ride.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Softball Tournament

For those of you who don't know, I am coaching a fast pitch softball team of 11 & 12 year old girls. I must say that they are a pretty good team and I am very proud of their efforts.

But tonight starts the league tournament which lifts the competition to a higher level. During league play the level was such that I was more interested in their efforts during the game and if we happened to win, then that was the icing on the cake. In post-season though, it's more about the "W." What I have to make sure I don't do is sacrifice my principles and values for the "W." The nice thing about the Babe Ruth Softball program is that in order to coach, you must take and pass their certification and agree to abide by their coaches code of conduct, so I got that goin' for me!

We are pretty evenly matched with the team we play tonight, so I believe the games (we play a double header) tonight will be won or lost by the skill of the coaches. I just hope we coaches bring our "A" game tonight.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Can't Think of a Cool Title for this Blog

Danelle (who I happen to be married to), wrote a blog about HI/LO which you should read. First I must say to her "I'm sorry for not asking about your HI/LO." you may, at any time give me a V-8 head thump. In her blog Danelle says my low was always going to work, which at the time was correct. Work used to suck big time for one reason... a micro-manager. It's one thing to be told by your boss "here's what I need you to do." But to tell you that and then tell you HOW to do it and then when you're done have the boss do it again to make sure you're doing it "right" is a real drainer. I do consider myself a somewhat intelligent person capable of doing my job without someone holding my hand. I kept telling myself to hold on, he can't be there forever. Well perseverance has paid off and the old is gone. YEA! My new boss follows the philosophy that as long as you get to point B from point A, he doesn't care how you get there.

Now, I don't mind so much getting up in the morning to come to work, although I still don't like my alarm clock. It's nice to be able to do the job you've been hired to do and feel a sense of accomplishment and worth. So to my lovely wife, I can say that going to work is no longer my low, I can't always say it's my HI, but it's definitely no longer the Low.

Monday, June 16, 2008

My New Sheep Skin


So, here's a picture of my receipt for paying my tuition in full at Southwestern College. At some colleges, which will remain nameless, that's all the diploma means. Not at Southwestern, you have to really bust your ass to get one of these, and they give you a whole 18 months to do it. (At least for my discipine). Just to highlight what one has to do to get one of these diplomas: First, you have to apply and be accepted, then read an average of four books per class and write reflections on each. (1500 words avg.). Weekly you have to write personal relflections and modern application papers (750 - 1,000 words each) and discuss the weekly topic with your fellow classmates. Do that 10 times (10 regular classes) and then do a practicum for 12 weeks and write about 100 pages for that. Once you get all of that done and passed with a 3.0 gpa, then the college gives you one of these fancy diplomas, a fancy hood, and the oppotunity to make a difference.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

My Job

Hard to believe that I have been at my current job for over 9 years, before working at Femco, my longest tenure was 2 years and every single time it was due to downsizing. Enough of that, just found out today that my title has changed... again. When I started in 1999, I was brought in as the MIS Manager (resident geek). Then in 2001 I "acquired" the Human Resources department and 4 employees therefore making my title MIS/HR Manager (did I mention that I didn't get a raise when this happened?)

So today, I'm sitting in a meeting with the new General Manager, the Production Manager, and the new Sales Manager. We're going over some stuff and it's announced that my title is now Controller (and yes this one came with a raise), when after looking at what I do, my title probably should have been that anyway. What does all of this mean in the realm of Timster World? not a whole lot other than I get to finally do the job I was hired to do.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Seeing Gray

I'm reading a book right now called "Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White" by Adam Hamilton who is the Senior Pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. Although I'm only about 1/3 of the way through it, I'm amazed how much I have learned about me.

For instance, if someone were to ask me are you a liberal or a conservative I would answer 'YES' and here's what I mean. In the book, Hamilton says to one person you are a liberal, but to another, you are a conservative. Here's a personal example. When it comes to the topic of abortion, I am against it, which makes me a social conservative. But when it comes to the topic of the death penalty (corporate punishment) I am against it, making me a social liberal. My take on both is that killing is killing and not for us to do. So, where does that put me? Right in the middle of the gray on two black and white topics. True, this was an example on two social topics, but the same can hold true on fiscal topics as well.

By reading this book, I have come to understand why it's a good thing to expand our thinking to see both sides of an argument. I just finished a Master's Degree from a somewhat moderate United Methodist College, with my teachers on both sides of the fence (which was kind of weird), and students from all over the country (the program was online). Talk about different viewpoints of the same subject matter. Yes, the discussions got somewhat heated but in the end we all could see and appreciate the other person's point of view, which I believe helps us shape our own thought processes.

My Wife Made Me Do This (not really)

My wife Danelle, told me that I needed to start a blog... I figured why? you already have one that chronicles our life wouldn't that be redundant if I had one? So after much pondering and reflecting, it came to me "I can have this place in cyberspace to rant or talk about whatever I want" So that's what I'm gonna do. You'll see my take on stuff like sports, religion, politics, science or whatever I want to talk about... So, I would invite to you read, reflect and comment (agree or disagree).