Profound and Beautiful

Hey all.
Don't know how many of you have heard of Shane Claiborne.
He was featured on a program on NPR not too long ago, so I was perusing through the web and came across this video that has the most beautiful and profound image of love and compassion. It's posted on my blog-- click on the link to your left when you have some time.

Peace!

Why?!!!

Why can't this man just leave school and start his NBA career already? His draft stock only drops with each year he stays, and the chances of winning a national championship are so small every year. There's too much luck and tons of variables involved.

Of course, if he was at Duke, I'd be thrilled, but unfortunately, he's at that other school. I thought we were the school that got the unathletic white boys that just worked really hard and stayed for 4 years. Isn't UNC supposed to have all the super-athletes that stay 1-2 years and then get picked in the 1st round of the draft?

Well, at least I can hope that Lawson and Ellington go pro, although I can't quite see that happening with their questionable draft forecasts.

At the zoo

Random Thoughts

Brian is so great about keeping us posted about ncconnection posts that I wanted to contribute to give him a shout out and to say thanks for being so earnest in keeping us connected. I admit that I have absolutely no interest in the basketball posts since NC State is never a part of the conversation although even if they were, I would probably still show little or no interest. The days when I enjoyed watching the same sports center multiple times with you guys on ESPN is alas a thing of the past---Still enjoy watching games from time to time, but more b/c I’m jumping on the bandwagon and rooting for the Lakers or the Angels, so won’t post about that. However, I can make comments about American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. I’ll save Dancing with the Stars for another time, but a brief rundown of my opinions re:Idol. Last night Mariah Carey guided them—so funny to see her try to make nice comments about the contestants whom she clearly felt were mediocre or even bad---“ they are making this song their own, singing from their heart”….what does that mean? The judges ended up saying that this night was all about the boys, but I totally disagree.


David Archuleta: Okay, I adored his rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine”, even if Paula’s comments and hysterical crying almost ruined it, but am I alone in thinking that every song he sings sounds almost exactly the same? I think he’s a cutie, but clearly too young to handle the pizzazz of being a polished performer. He is starting to bore me.

Carly: Gotta love that Ihy-rish accent, and her voice reminds me of Hart—definitely a great singer with great potential—the camera seems to love showing shots of her husband with his nose-ring and many tattoos---they scare me a little, but I can deal with it.

Syesha: Syesha, Syesha…I actually thought her “Vanishing” was really, really good, though she only changes her version from Mariah’s by stretching out the “vaaaaaaaannnnnnishing” instead of the “yoooooooouuuuuuu'rrrrrrrrrreee” which is in the original. Have to admit that I got suckered into buying Mariah’s first CD off Itunes after the show and listening again to the original definitely makes Syesha’s look “ehhhh.”

David Cook: O dude, I know he is everyone’s favorite, but while the judges’ opinion was that his interpretation of the song was so original and “haunting”, I just thought it was weird. Maybe I am too much of a pop queen to appreciate his “artistry.” Whatever, I so don’t believe that.

Brooke White: I felt bad she had to miss her sister’s wedding, but I bet she felt worse that she missed it for that performance. Why does she always have to have those sad, pleading puppy dog eyes when she sings? Is she really that unhappy or is she convinced that this is what saves her each week?

Kristy Lee Cook: This girl in my opinion should have been booted a long time ago, don’t even let me get started on Micahel Johns leaving last week when it should have been her. Lucky (or clever) girl—b/c she appeals to the mass of squealing little girls (whom I think are so cute, but what do they know? They love Miley Cyrus and have made her a superstar). I know, her voice isn’t that bad, but come on, I could sound better on Karaoke.

Jason Castro: Ahhh, I save the best for last. The judges love him. I don’t get it. The dreadlocks. I don’t get it. Doesn’t he realize that this works for black hair which doesn’t need to be washed, but once a week? As far as I know, white people’s hair don’t work that way. I find his appeal so odd.

So I confess that when American Idol first aired, I had a dream that I was in the final six. No joke. I remember being backstage, with the lights glaring, I got on stage, sang, and got voted off that day. It was terrifying and heartbreaking, so maybe I should ease up and be more sensitive… :)

Oh and another big “thank you” to Sandra for putting the slideshow for the NCKPC together. It was great and I know it took a lot of time and effort to pull it all together. It looked great, though seeing some of those old photos of me gave me a little bit of the shivahs…made me very thankful to have grown older. ….enjoy the day folks and peace.

Clueless but incensed over matching yellow t-shirts......

Hey all. I am posting to hopefully get all of your insights regarding a topic that is sort of fuzzy to me: the US economy. I have to begin by confessing that I don’t know a lot (probably the main reason for writing to you guys). I tend to leave financial “issues” (like where to invest our money) to my husband, and my part is basically just to make sure the bills get paid on time.
Although I like to think of myself as a fairly well educated woman, I confess that I lack good knowledge about economics, and what sort of things drive the market to go up and down. But I CAN say, that I am feeling the pinch at the grocery store, which of course is concerning. And all this news regarding the state of affairs of the housing market was sort of background noise to me for a while, but as I paid more and more attention to it, I found myself feeling strangely angry about it all. That festering sort of came to a peak after the Bear-Stearns fallout. I was watching the news one afternoon and they were showing a bunch of people in matching yellow t-shirts picketing inside the Bear-Stearns building. The picketers were angry that the government had bailed out Bear-Stearns instead of bailing them out…….these were individuals who were knee deep in the mortgage crisis, and wanted to be bailed out.
Now I may not know much, and again, I underscore that I REALLY don’t understand a lot about money and finances, but I was really upset at these picketers! Putting aside the government’s $30 billion bail-out of Bear-Stearns……my thought was, if these people have the time to get matching t-shirts made and make signs and plan to put together that sort of “rally,” don’t they have the time to go out and WORK to try to help themselves out of their situation somehow?
And of course, in the midst of this all, it is an election year. There is a good chance that Senator Obama may be the next president. Hearing his plans for what he would do about the housing crisis upsets me too! Is it selfish and mean-spirited that I don’t want my (or rather, my husband’s) hard earned dollars (tax money) to go toward bailing out those yellow-t-shirted picketers and others who chose to live beyond their means?
Anyway, I’d really like to hear all of your opinions, especially since I’ve probably over simplified the whole situation based the little knowledge I have. Maybe I don’t know enough, so I shouldn’t be upset? Maybe all of these thoughts are so obvious and you all are sort of thinking, “so what?” I don’t know. What have you all been thinking or asking or questioning about the state of economics these days? Please comment, or write a new post so I can learn more!

season recap

Well, I'm still getting over our 2nd round exit from the tournament, but at least I was more emotionally prepared for it this year. After last year's debacle and our showing against Belmont, I wasn't surprised that we fell to W. Virginia. Plus, finding out that half our team had the flu made it easier to accept.

Coming into the season, we all knew that we had no real post presence and would struggle at times. Still, we had a remarkable run through the first 2/3 of our schedule, knocking off some really good teams like Wisconsin, Marquette, and Davidson. Not only that, we split with UNC in a year that they were vastly superior to us, talent-wise.

Of course, it's hard to end the season like we did - losing at home on senior night to the Heels, then leaving both the ACC and NCAA tourneys early. But overall, it was still a fun team to watch. I think we probably got the most out of our roster this year, and we were clearly better than last year. Once the NCAA starts, anything can happen to anyone. We weren't the only 2 seed that struggled - Georgetown lost to a 10 seed and Tennessee could have easily lost their game. Even UCLA could have lost in the 2nd round. Only UNC seems to be truly dominating, a bit of a sore spot for Duke fans, I know.

For me, I can accept the season we had. The hard part is looking to the future of the program. I don't see us getting much better next year barring some unforeseen events. Losing only one player and returning a lot of good players will help. And our 2 recruits seem solid, but I don't know if we have the really special player(s) that we need to return to the glory days. Where are the Grant Hills and Jason Williams and Carlos Boozers? I know we won't get most of the Mayos and Beasleys out there, but we used to be able to find those rare guys that were good students and also very smart and athletic ballers. I don't know. Maybe Singler or Gerald will develop into special players, but most of our guys seem to have fatal flaws in their game. Demarcus was a great Dukie - committed, athletic, well-mannered, but he never developed a consistent stroke, a must for a 6-4 guard. And Scheyer and Paulus are McDonald's AAs and good players, but they'll never be the superior athletes that they have to guard all the time.

Maybe it's just all a cycle and we have to be patient. We have certainly been spoiled over the years as Duke fans, but I can't help wonder when and if we'll ever return to being a perennial powerhouse. UNC's doing a good job of it right now. How the heck do you get a guy like Psycho-T who wants to play for 4 years? He's the kind of guy we need to start finding again.

Sorry this is so long, y'all. I just needed to get it all of my chest.
Go UCLA! Go Davidson! Go Texas!

A Good Read for DUKE Fans

I'm ashamed to admit it, but this article was written for me. Yes, I have been complaining bitterly all month about our team. I needed this slap in the face.

http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/articles/?p=24637

NCAA Chatter

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the way the bracket shook out. Duke actually has a decent chance to reach the Elite 8, where beating UCLA would be quite the feat, although it's possible. I know UCLA has a great big man in Love, but they really struggle to score at times, esp. from the perimeter.

And since our Devils probably won't win the whole thing, I'm glad that UNC has a pretty tough road to the title. Getting through Indiana, ND/Wazzu, then Louisville/TN will be a challenge.

As for how our team actually looks right now, I'd say that we're in much better shape than last year. We're fairly healthy, most of our players have improved considerably from a year ago, and we're pretty deep. Of course, the biggest key will be our 3-point shooting. We can't really afford to have a cold night once we start seeing the better teams.

Personnel-wise, Zoubek has definitely improved, but he still hurts us more than he helps. He has hands of stone and can't move his feet for the life of him. The best thing he does for us is gives us a few minutes and fouls to protect Singler from all the banging down low. And as I've said all year long, we're better off with Mcclure playing as an undersized big. At least he's active and quick and smart.

I'm not too worried about Singler. I think he'll get his legs back under him with a few days off and perform well. I do wish we had worked Nolan Smith into a bigger role, though. We're going to really need him to stop quick point guards like Lavender and Collison. Paulus is tough-minded and a competitor, but he can't stop people.

Well, hope everyone enjoys the tournament. It's probably my favorite 3 weeks of the sports year. And by the way, if anyone wants to join a pool, I'm running one for $5/entry on espn.com under group name brianpaik, password duke, and Eric is running his free one under NC Connection, password bracket.

Seattle Trip

Joyce and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend alone in Seattle. We figured it would be our last chance to go anywhere alone for a while. So Josh stayed with grandma while we ate our way through Seattle.
I seriously think Joyce stopped at every bakery we saw. At least she's eating for two. :)

This was one of only 2 pics I got to take because we broke our camera. At least we have a funny story to go along with it. While Joyce was posing near the fresh fish stand at Pike Market, one of the workers moved a monkfish that had been tied to a string. Joyce jumped, screamed, and grabbed me so hard that our camera went flying. Never had a chance.

By the way, Gary is alive and well as you can see. It seems the Pacific Northwest agrees with their family. Thanks for breakfast, Gary!

Madness!

I wasn't really surprised by our loss to the Heels last Saturday. At full-strength, it's hard to argue that we're better than UNC. But I am encouraged by our play in the 2nd half. I came away thinking that we can play with anyone, even teams with strong post players. Zoubek is even starting to look like a decent player.

Were it not for a horrendous shooting display in the 1st half and Demarcus's worst game of the year, I think we would have won the game. I hope we get another crack at UNC in the ACC tourney, not just because I know we can beat them, but because it makes us better/more prepared for the NCAA.

As for seeding and regions, I don't really think it matters too much anymore. I don't even know who would be easier or harder to beat. We just have to play our best game every game in the tourney. We can beat anyone. Almost anyone can beat us. But at least, we have the potential to make a run. We'll see how it all unfolds.

Thoughts on NCAA seeding

As the tourney approaches, I'm beginning to think that it's really not that important to get a #1 seed. There's probably 6-7 teams in the running for #1 seeds - Duke, UNC, UCLA, Kansas, TX, TN, and Memphis. I think what's really important for us is getting favorable matchups. We really don't want to face athletic teams with a low-post scoring threat. The worst matchup for us would probably be UCLA, then Kansas. We can't face UNC in the regionals, thanks God. Even if we were a 1-seed, it would be tough if we had to face teams like this.
On the other hand, being a 2-seed wouldn't be so bad if we drew a team like TN or TX. I think we can match up with certain teams that look and play like us, more guard-oriented teams.
Of course being a 1-seed, staying in NC, and drawing a really weak 2-seed would be ideal. But the 1-seed with a bad draw might be worse than a 2-seed in a easier region. Besides, we've failed to take advantage of 1-seeds plenty of times lately.

Is that confusing enough for everyone?

Josh has started his training to earn an athletic scholarship to Duke. I don't see how he can go there otherwise. :)

Hopes and Expectations

The loss to Wake shouldn't be too much of a surprise to anyone. It's been obvious for a while that we have certain glaring weaknesses on this year's team. Unfortunately, they all seemed to merge in this particular game. An off-shooting night, esp. from the free throw line by DeMarcus, lack of interior size, and inability to stop quick, athletic guards are the Achilles' heel of this team. And I also think Zoubek is a huge liability. Who cares if he's 7 ft? He can't play.

Of course, sooner or later, we'll have to play a team similar to Wake in the tournament, and we'll likely struggle. While I still think we have a chance to beat anyone on a given night, it's highly unlikely that we'll be able to reel off 6 in a row and claim the title.

Having admitted as much, I think my hopes for the season are now to just beat Carolina at home and win the ACC regular season crown. Anything more would be gravy. If we do manage to beat UNC at home, it'll probably give us the #1 East seed and the best possible road to the Final Four. And it will give UNC a pretty tough road in the NCAAs. And then we'll just see what happens.

Last thoughts - keep Zoubek planted on the bench and play Smith more. He's clearly our best PG. Paulus is basically a SG now.

Prayer

I couldn't help but notice what Betty said about prayer and its impact on her life in her blog. That was really encouraging, Betty.

I just happened to finish reading this book on the subject of prayer. It didn't necessarily answer all my questions about prayer, but it was a pretty good discussion about the topic.

One of the main points I took from the book was how prayer can really change us, not necessarily our circumstances. I won't give away the whole book, but check it out if you're looking for a good book on prayer.

Duke-Carolina!!!

I never thought we would be up on UNC in the ACC standings or national rankings coming into this game, but what a pleasant surprise this team has been so far.
I did anticipate better overall team play than last year. And I knew our freshmen could all play. But I've been surprised by our ability to fight bigger, athletic teams. And Paulus has been really locked in the past few games.
Our depth and balance have been key as well. In the games when we've lost DeMarcus or Singler's in foul trouble, we don't seem to lose much going to our bench. We're legitimately 9 deep.
I am concerned about a few things, however. DeMarcus and Gerald are bricking too many free throws, and considering how often they get to the line, this could come back to haunt us. And I still don't know if we can handle a legit post man like Kevin Love or Hibbert or even Psycho-T. I guess we'll find out this Wednesday. I don't know how bad his ankle is, but I sure wouldn't mind if Lawson missed this game. I would love nothing more than to grab the 1 seed in the East and send UNC to another region to deal with UCLA or Kansas.
Game on!!!

more b-ball thoughts

Saturday was one of those rare, precious days when my 2 favorite teams both won - Duke and whoever's playing Carolina. :) And I know it doesn't really matter much right now, but it sure is nice to see Duke ranked higher than UNC for a change. I readily admit that we aren't as talented as UNC or about 10 other schools for that matter. And I know we shouldn't even be considered a favorite for the final 4.

But we sure are playing well as a team. Obviously, we're getting killed on the boards by bigger, physical teams. But we seem to make up for it with defense, hustle, and smart play. Coach K is really getting the most out of his roster this year. I do think that our best lineup has McClure playing center, allowing Singler to play PF. And Singler reminds of Laettner in some ways. Smart, well-rounded, nice shot. He presents a difficult matchup for a lot of teams. Plus, he's gaining confidence.

As for UNC, what's up?! This team seems to have all the pieces - a great PG, a great SG, a great C, depth, athletes, etc. Is it the coaching? I know Roy won a title a few years ago, but is he really a great coach? Shouldn't he have won at least one title at Kansas? At the least, he's a great recruiter. UNC seems to be signing players left and right lately.

What do y'all think?

Cruise Review

Hey everyone!
I just wanted to recap our little 3-day cruise that we went on. We rode the Carnival Paradise out of Long Beach to Ensenada(Mexico) and back. Unfortunately, we picked the stormiest weekend of the past year to go. The first couple days out at sea were pretty rocky. Joyce got really seasick. I could feel it, but never got sick.

Well, as you would expect, there was non-stop eating. As soon as we boarded the ship(around 2PM) there was a buffet waiting for us. There was a 24 hour pizzeria, fancy restaurants, buffets, grills, anything you can imagine. And despite hitting the gym each day on board, I'm sure we both put on a few pounds.
There were jacuzzis, pools, mini-golf, a casino, shopping, live shows, and several nightclubs. Poor Josh wanted to jump into every pool and jacuzzi he saw, but it was too cold. I did try the slide once, but had to run straight into the jacuzzi after hitting the water.

I also played poker one night, winning enough money to cover all our tips. :)

Josh loved seeing the ocean and the birds. We pretty much had a great view whenever we ate. Josh was always pressing up against the windows or trying to run for the doors. :)

Our room was small but had everything we needed. Our stewards were so nice and even helped tape up a bedsheet so that Josh couldn't see us from his crib. We're used to sleeping in our own rooms at home, so we figured we had to create the illusion of separate spaces. At night, we would basically put him down, wait outside the room until he was asleep, and then go eat a nice dinner in the formal restaurant. Are we horrible parents for leaving him alone in the room?
We got the idea from other parents who also did the same thing. We figured once he's asleep, he's pretty much out until the morning.

The dinners were amazing, lobster, steaks, fancy appetizers that I couldn't even spell. For $200/person the food alone was worth the price of the trip. The buffet food was hit and miss, but I did enjoy the frozen yogurt about 5 times a day. And Joyce couldn't stay away from the hot pizza for more than a couple hours.

All in all, it was a fun time. I have to scratch my travel itch every once in a while and it was Joyce and Josh's first cruise. We'll probably go again with our parents in a couple years. It'll really be sweet once the kids are old enough for kids' club(starts at 2yo).
Well, sorry it ran a little long. Just thought it might be helpful for anyone else thinking about a family cruise.