Cornucopia of Chad

I wanna try some new stuff. I used to have a LiveJournal back in the day, and it had this little feature that let people know what I was listening to at the time of the post and all these other little things. So here we go...

Listening to: Virginia Coalition - the whole album of "OK to GO"

Drinking/eating: French Press coffee

Location: Caribou in Grandview

Well like I said in my last post, life has been pretty crazy lately but it's been a really great crazy and one that I wouldn't trade for any other existence. Mainly it's because it's revolved around high school kids, whether that has been actual Young Life events like our first club, or track practice, hanging out and planning club with kids, or just hanging out with kids. It's been really fun to watch my team come alive and start to really get after it and take their own ownership of club. Obviously the ultimate goal is for the kids to basically run club, but I almost feel like we're getting there quicker than I ever would have dreamed.

Sidenote: I am sitting outside and I just saw a grizzled old man riding what could only be described as a mo-ped, behind a much younger man riding what wasn't quite a motorcycle. The old guy though was all white/gray hair, wore aviators, a USA flag helmet but one of those almost pith type ones, and an old school New York Giants jacket. The kicker: he was smoking what was the remains of a small cigar, like down to the stub where you can't really hold it anymore. Kudos to you old guy.

Back to club, my team did a phenomenal job this past week for our first club that culminated with a great first club talk from Vivake. Our first club was quite possibly one of the messiest that I have ever been a part of; starting with the shooting q-tips at each other out of straws, then having Light 'n Fluffy done by the hilarious Vuck and Aldea (messy = whip cream and confetti), then having girls make PB&J sandwiches with their feet and then feeding them to guys who refused to eat them with their feet. Our "tough" football guys proved pretty sissy. Oh well it was hilarious. Big shout-out to my boy Brandon Neike who did a great job playing guitar for us and helping me with the technical difficulties that stressed the crap out of me before club started. This next week promises to be quite an interesting experience as both Vuck and Vivake won't be there but I'm sure we'll be able to pull it off...only with God though. All glory should be given to him for the awesomeness that was this past Wednesday. 

Heading over to the oval... Just this past Tuesday I was named the high jump coach for the Comets. Yikes. God save the kids, seriously. I'm pretty darn excited for it though, now that I've gotten into it. Fortunately my great friend Eric Lee was a standout high jumper in high school and recently took over coaching that and hurdles for the Golden Bears of UA. So we have this great partnership this past week of getting together and spending half of the time with me coaching him on coaching hurdles, and then the other half on him coaching me to coach high jump. It's pretty funny and yet pretty awesome. I've always loved talking track with Eric and he loves talking track with me so it all works out well. The first two days of actually doing things with the HJ'ers (I really need to come up with a cool, galvanizing name for them all, and maybe some cool cheer or handshake...any suggestions?) went really well. We'll see how it goes going forward. Most all of my guys have definite promise in the event, and I have a couple girls who could go places as well. 

I'm still awaiting word from the Commonwealth Region on whether or not they want me. I sure hope they do, because I sure want them. On the flip, if I have another year in Columbus I surely won't complain (too much) as there are definitely some great friendships that I wouldn't want to abandon, as well as the obvious devotion and humongous heart I have for the Comets of Central Crossing. We have been incredibly blessed by the family of one of our freshman guys where we have Campaigners and now Club. They are just so devoted to the ministry as a couple, mainly the wife, and have given not only to the area with funds, but with much prayer, opened their house, given money to our team, fed kids before club/campaigners, and generally are more than I could ever ask for in terms of any sort of support in this ministry. God bless the Boos' and their whole family. 

Friday night I got the opportunity to go to my first NCAA tournament game. Fortunately the first game was entertaining and fun because it was Louisville vs Morehead State. The second game however, was the Buckeyes vs the Siena Saints. Who are the Saints you ask? A team from I'm still not sure where that was dwarfed by OSU, played possibly worse than OSU in many aspects, and still managed to beat the Bucks because OSU has no heart outside of Evan Turner. Even heart needs to be coached how to do things sometimes though...so there's a big part of this loss I blame squarely on our coaching staff. We can't break a half-court trap? Basic basketball. We get out-rebounded 51-33, including 21-6 on the offensive boards? Even more basic than the half-court break. Ever heard of a box-out? In the immortal words of Andrew Pierce: "Hey BJ Mullens, there's high schoolers with more talent than #22 Rossiter. Good luck in the NBA." For real though BJ, unless you can learn how to be 7 feet tall by the time the next season rolls around and dominate guys that are half a foot shorter than you (for the love, their 5' 11" guard out-rebounded you BJ) then please just leave our team and go be a window washer or something. But I regress, we win as a team and we lose as a team. Or something.

Not gonna lie, there was something else that I wanted to write about but am completely blanking right now. Interesting. 

This weekend was great for me; I had the whole weekend off because I had originally planned on road-tripping down to Blacksburg to visit some friends but then decided against it. So consequently I had Thursday thru today off of work and it really was glorious. I had been working like crazy, which really is more of a mental grind because serving is easy but knowing that everyday you have to get ready and go into work just wears on you like crazy. 

Alright well I think that's about all I have for you guys right now. Pray for club this next week for Central Crossing...it's gonna be crazy again!

Take it to the people...

Hey friends...well here's the thing about this blogging jazz. I really dislike just posting what's been going on in my day or whatever I did recently. Unless that's OSU sports, it just doesn't appeal to me. Here's the thing, there are friends of mine that do that and they are wonderful and much more gifted than I at storytelling, and so what they write is cool. My life recaps I feel aren't. So as much as I hate just writing for anyone's approval we all write for that on some level. It's just a matter of how much it controls our writings. 

So I shall choose the lesser of two evils and tell you about my life lately. I've been pretty busy with all sorts of things that have kept me running around and simultaneously loving life. Track has started up and of course I love it. Concerning Young Life we have Campaigners going and started club back up (not our own but going to other schools). OSU sports is way fun, we win lots of stuff. 

- Track. I love track. We've been over this, but now that it's started and I'm actually coaching kids and getting to see them a lot it's just way over the top incredible. Especially since I don't have to worry about classes and studying anymore in my life...that applies to making everything more awesome but especially track. My relationships with the kids are incredible right now, and new kids are just joining in with the old in having a good time and working hard and forming good relationships with me. I love being more confident after this coaching clinic as well with what I am teaching the kids. It's brought a whole new level of respect from them and confidence for themselves as well. I continue to pray that God will move in some pretty mighty ways within this group this year. A goal of mine is to be able to openly pray with kids before races or meets this year. If whoever is reading this could add that to your prayer list, that would be amazing. 

- God is not just moving in great ways in my track ministry, but with other guys as well. I am blessed to lead with studs like Vivake, Vuck, and Nathan. Trisha and the former Laura weren't too shabby either. However, last night blew me away. We had 12 kids there in total, 3 of the guys were new and 1 girl was new. Most everyone seemed to be learning from what Nathan was throwing down, which could've even been over their heads but they all seemed to be tracking with it. A lot of different kids contributed answers and spoke up to read the scripture passages. It was just great as always, to be able to just join in what God is doing in a place. All of them seemed pretty excited about Campaigner Weekend as well as camp, so please keep Central Crossing Young Life in your prayers as well. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts and updates on this all the time. It's just an exciting time for us as a team. 

- This week was just a week of sports for me. Not only did track start up on Tuesday, but I also went to the OSU/Purdue game that night with my dad which we won 80-72 in overtime. Purdue has never won a game against us at the Schott and it's great to keep that up...suckers. Then Thursday I got to see my Comets wrestle and kick the snot out of New Albany and Dublin Scioto...my boys are good. Friday night brought a very satisfying win over Kilbourne and their uppity, too vocal parents...in fact all three teams beat Kilbourne: Freshmen, JV, and Varsity. Boo yah. Saturday brought another OSU basketball game, this time against the Fighting Tubby Smiths of Minnesota in a revenge game for us which was horribly officiated and yet we still won. Awesome...2/2 in knocking off ranked teams for the Bucks this week. Speaking of knocking off ranked teams, then we went to the OSU hockey game on Sunday (for free with .25 hotdogs) against the #2 Fighting Irish and we kicked the crap out of them 4-1. Got free fries for that, as well as the Purdue game. Went straight from the OSU cagers to the OSU grapplers against Purdue again and we solidly defeated them. Man I love the Buckeyes. I love sports too. 

Mark Titus did his handshake thing again after the Minnesota game and it was great. I'm not overly sure how to end this post now though. Just thought you all should know what's been happening in my life. I reached into my pocket for some small change, and you just read my 2 cents. 

Mark Titus wants YOU!

To join the Trillion Man March. Keep up the good work Mark. 

Last night, the Buckeyes of The Ohio State University took down red hot Purdue in OT 80-72, to send the Boilermakers to 0-lifetime at the Schott. Love it. Even more so because there were a handful of quite annoying Purdue fans sitting behind my dad and I. (Love my Dad by the way, he's an old alum that cheers and actually cares about the outcomes of games.) The game was ok, but not great from a crowd involvement perspective, as it took them playing Hell Bells aka the Bell of Death, to get people even thinking about getting loud. Heck, I'm pretty sure that people just were cheering to the song and not because the team needed them. Hopefully though this $5 ticket thing will help as it will get more people (theoretically) into the games that care about them (like students). Of course those people will be up in the upper level and not near the court where they can truly make an impact. I could go on and on for days on this but I won't. 

Great win last night. Go Bucks. National Letter of Intent Day is here for football...let's see what happens...

James Laurinaitis likes piano. (And Brian Hartline still sucks.)

Hey hey hey, couple minor things to cover in this installment of my thoughts and ramblings...

1.) I freaking hate the Steelers. There's no if's and's or but's about it, they are pure evil. Hines Ward is the biggest piece of walking feces I have ever seen. James Harrison is just another thug from Kent. Santonio Holmes is hereby stripped of his citizenship in Buckeye Nation for his egregious crimes against the state. And if you haven't seen this already then check it out and you'll know I need not say anymore.

2.) Buckeye basketball, while not close to the level of Buckeye football, is pretty darn great. Heck, we even usually provide the ulcer-like endings that the football junkies are used to. Evan Turner is amazing, William Buford (not quite the same Brandon, but close...) than watching us sweep the regular season series with our two rivals in basketball in back to back games does a pretty good job of bringing a smile to one's face.

3.) Bailey is the worst dog ever. Period. End of story.

4.) My buddy Pierce updated his blog finally with a second entry, and I would like to commend him for it. Way to go dude. It was funny and insightful. Please sir, can I have some more?

5.) The other night some of the guys and Allyse, went out for Berlepsch's birthday celebration. He wanted to go to the new dueling piano bar that opened up a week and a half ago down in the arena district. It's a place called "The Big Bang", and all the workers wear shirts bearing the slogan: "Bang This." Interesting. However the place is amazing, funny because the interior design is almost exactly the same as the one I went to in Nashville in September. It really was a fantastic time, and if you're of age I highly suggest you make a trip down there sometime. If you want to avoid the yuppie fratties and their according harems though, go around 10 in the evening which is right when I think the show starts up. The set up is two baby grand pianos sitting facing each other, with a drumset back and in between the two pianos. There isn't always someone on the kit, and actually it's much better when there isn't, but there's always two amazing players tickling the ivories to any of your favorite tunes over the years. They take requests, know just about every song possible, and if they don't know it then they can learn it. Of course your requests are much more likely to get played and played sooner if you deposit some money with the request and if the amount of that money is much higher. For instance, the dude who slapped down a cool C-note for the quite talented and quite attractive female pianist to play some Janis Joplin. Just one song, that's all he payed for with his $100 but dang it was good. Thanks rich yuppie.

We did see James Laurinaitis there, and he seemed to be having a good time. Also with him was another OSU linebacking legend, Bobby Carpenter, who loved every song a whooollllleee bunch. Then we also noticed Brian Hartline. Sure glad that guy's leaving the team. My luck though, the Bengals will pick him up. Ugh.

Anyways...it was a pretty fun night, with lots of laughs. The group of guys that went (along with Allyse) is one that I always have a great time with no matter what. Well one of the guys we prodded into trying to meet and dance with some of the attractive females that were present there. This was hilarious. You could tell that he had never done something like this before in his life and was just trying to roll with the punches and see what happened. I'll save the suspense, he struck out. Better luck next time buddy.

While this was occurring though, it got me thinking and observing bar culture and everything and everyone around me. The ones that really got me thinking were this handful of older guys who definitely stuck out in such a younger crowd. I would estimate that they were in their late 30's, and they dressed like it, acted like it, and oozed it. It being a substitute for the word "creepy". They were all trying to dance near packs of younger girls, and really not saying anything to them or trying to do anything. Also, dancing would be a loose description for what these middle aged white guys were doing. So yeah. Sadly enough, if you look at how they were acting, given their surroundings and whatnot, it's pretty easy to surmise that they weren't looking for a relationship with any of these girls, and most of the girls around them were far out of their league. I began to wonder if these guys just tried to pray on the drunkest girl who was desperate in order for them to have a good time, but that the way things were looking these guys were going to go home empty once again. It's a really depressing life that people get sucked in to, and is so prevalent. It only served to heighten my urgency with the sharing of the Gospel with not only friends, but family members, as well as the high schoolers of Central Crossing. People are pouring their lives out into nothingness and death while we have everlasting life welling up in us like a spring! What are we waiting for? We must act boldly, we must act passionately, and we must do anything we can share the Gospel with people we know and people we don't know. 

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." ~ Hebrews 12:1-3

Blind luck gets scissor kicked in the back of the head.

I must confess, I have been remiss in writing about one of my absolute favorite topics in the history of everything: The Ohio State University Buckeyes. The Scarlet and Gray. The Champions of the Big Ten. The Place Where Legends Are Made. 

Last night we played our enemies from the North again in basketball. We had previously beat the snot out of them at their place, despite the fact that they somehow knocked off both Duke and UCLA earlier this season. I mean there's the whole "even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes", but really given the state of the Wolverine athletic department lately, the more apt description would be: "Even a blind squirrel that's missing 1 1/2 ears, both front teeth, it's back left leg and front right leg, most of its hair, and has a birth defect for a tail finds a nut sometimes that is made out of pure gold. This nut is also the size of a H3 and accordingly is worth more than most third world countries. The defective squirrel somehow then develops a brain large enough to process the fact that it could make a ton of money on this nut, then takes the nut to market where he not only manages to defend it against many clever thieves of Matt Damon's character in Ocean's Eleven's caliber, he makes enough money to never have to work again. Then this squirrel takes the money and buys the Cleveland Browns (or Cincinnati Bengals, calm down brownies), the Kansas City Royals, the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Memphis Grizzlies and then all of them win their championships in the same year. Then I run this squirrel over on my way to the Ohio State game vs. M*ch*g*n last night."

Ok, so that may have been long and too drawn out, but I never spare any expense when it comes to illustrating a point. So that's how they somehow beat those teams. However last night, we kicked them in the teeth and said, screw your blind squirrel I think he's dumb. The winter storm crap that has held Columbus hostage allowed for a bunch of students to go to the game for free however, and this made the crowd about as hostile as it will ever get in our crappy NBA/NHL arena. While it wasn't exactly loud, because we expect to beat those arrogant jerks from up north in everything we do now (which may or may not make us now the arrogant jerks), it certainly was fun to watch scUM struggle immensely in the first half. Let's just review it like this: 0-11 from outside the arc, 0-for the field until 10 minutes had passed in the game with them scoring off of a goaltending call and 2 made free throws, and more turnovers than can be counted. At the half we lead 36-18 and never looked back, with the winning margin being the same. Oh yeah, and one of their players got thrown out for elbowing PJ Hill in the face late in the game, making M*ch*g*n that much more hatable! They really are scUM...

Also, since we scored over 70 points for the game they gave out coupons for free fries from McDonald's. Bonus! So technically we got paid to go to the game, since we all got in for free. I ended up with 4 coupons and another win of scUM. A night that couldn't get better. 

It's 5:28 and M*ch*g*n still sucks! Pwned. Hah.

Tonight, and for the next two days I'm going to be at a track coaching clinic with college coaches from all over the US here in Columbus. I'm giddy. Seriously. I'm such a track junkie at this point that it isn't even funny. I'm sure I'll have some interesting things to write about, so stay tuned for some stories. 

Spreading the love.

So along with much of the rest of the nation after his ESPNU appearance, I have discovered the wonderfulness of the thoughts of Mark Titus. You may ask why this is relevant...well I love the Ohio State Buckeyes, right? We all know this. Well Mark is a walk-on on our beloved Buckeye basketball team, coached by the incredible Thad Matta. 

And actually the statement starting this entry is incorrect, I knew about this before the ESPNU appearance...

Anyways, Mark has a blog that has started to gain an incredible amount of followers amongst the internet community, because his point of view and style of writing is unique and interesting. He talks about pranks pulled on teammates, random thoughts that occur during the course of a game while he is sitting at the end of the bench. He's pretty darn funny, and probably a more entertaining read than anything you'll ever find on my blog. My friend Jaclyn already wants to marry this guy, and may need to have a restraining order against her because within one day of me telling her about his blog she read ALL OF IT! It took her like four hours. Seriously. 

The guy's good though, at blogging. In Pierce's words: winner winner chicken dinner. 

www.clubtrillion.blogspot.com

A kinda-sorta emptiness.

Well, most of you if you read the title to this entry first (which you should), and if know even a little bit about me (which shouldn't be difficult), then you will have a pretty good idea what this post is about already. Go ahead, connect those dots...I'll give you a few seconds...

Ok. So last night was the final send-off for Malcolm Jenkins, James Laurinaitis, Brian Robiskie, Marcus Freeman, and a bunch of other Buckeye seniors as they closed out their careers in the same friggin' bowl we always go to, the Fiesta Bowl, against the "mighty" Texas Longhorns. We lost. 24-21. Texas scored their last touchdown with 16 seconds left on the clock and I sunk to the floor from where I was standing at my friend's apartment. Hands behind my head, jaw dropped to the ground, stomach in the apartment below us, and hopes pretty much dashed. That's when this kinda-sorta feeling started creeping in. The funny thing about this pose that I was in: you know, wide eyed, mouth gaping, sitting on the floor, speechless; was that was exactly the way I was sitting after we scored the go-ahead touchdown ourselves with a Boom Herron jaunt into the endzone that had followed a Todd Boeckman pass to Terrelle Pryor (gorgeous play) and my friends jumping around the room only minutes earlier. 

Growing up, any loss for the Buckeyes meant that I was completely inconsolable for a good five days after the game, and the day immediately following the game I was ready to kill anyone that said a wrong word. However, I have fortunately moved past that as I've gotten older, matured, and let God mold me away from having my identity in sports and specifically Ohio State. Sure, I love the Buckeyes with everything in me, would cheer for them over any other team that I even like, and will always find time to watch OSU football games wherever I am in life and will force my family to do the same. However, it's only a game folks and how exactly would my life be any different today if we had won last night? I would still have to wait on the cable guy, still need to clean up the room I'm moving into and then make that move, still need to eat food and pay some bills. Sure maybe I would have had a slightly better demeanor today, but really I'm not in that bad of a mood at all, actually as I write this I'm just hungry. 

When you take this senior class overall most people are going to remember the big game failures, fairly or unfairly. They went 43-8 overall, one of the highest winning percentages ever at OSU, their losses were all to teams who won a national championship that year, or played in a BCS bowl game by the end of the year. They won a ton of individual awards, too many to name here, went to 4 straight BCS bowls, won 4 straight Big Ten crowns, and most importantly in my book: beat M*ch*g*n four straight times and now 5 straight for those redshirt seniors. Nothing ever tops beating the Wolverines in my book, and nothing ever will. If we never win another national title but beat them every year then I will be the happiest man to ever walk God's green Earth. 

So that is why it is a kinda-sorta emptiness. Sure would I have liked to win one of our last three BCS games? Of course! (the one I went to would've been nice) However I am more than grateful towards these seniors and what they were able to accomplish at OSU. They leave a great legacy for others to follow and improve on. Terrelle Pryor, Boom Herron, Mike Adams, Mike Brewster, DeVier Posey, JB Shugarts, Nathan Williams, Etienne Sabino, Thad Gibson, and friends will take this team to new heights. Let's see, better book my plane ticket to Pasadena now, since that's where the National Championship is gonna be next year...you would be wise to come with me.

In Tressel We Trust.