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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).