Boston Marathon in Space

I caught a short news spot this morning about one of the astronauts who is currently on the International Space Station competing in the Boston Marathon...while still in space. Suni Williams, who qualified for Boston by finishing the Houston Marathon in 3 hours, 29 minutes, and 57 seconds (a very good time), has been on the space station since December and will not return prior to the race on Patriots Day (Monday, April 16th this year). So she contacted the BAA (Boston Athletic Association, who hosts the race) and petitioned to be an official participant by running on a treadmill on the space station.

This article gives some additional details. From what it sounds like, she will face some challenges from the harness that holds her on the treadmill and the fact that she's been in space for 4 months. I applaude her for making the effort. She mentions not wanting to let her qualification expire before she ran the race - personally I think I would have petitioned the BAA to extend my eligibility to the 2008 race so that I could run from Hopkinton to Boston with everyone else.

With all of that said, I would have a hard time claiming to have run Boston if I'd done it remote - either in space or in another country (I guess there are groups in the middle east - presumably US military - who will run a 26.2 mile race on Patriots Day as well) if I didn't crowd into the corrals (yes, that's what they call them) and run the course itself. While running a marathon distance is an admirable achievement for anyone, to claim that you've run Boston without physically hauling your butt (yes, I said it) up Heartbreak - which is preceded by a series of hills that span 5 miles and culminate in a long climb at mile 21 known as Heartbreak Hill - and crossing the finish line in front of thousands and thousands of spectators to me cheapens the achievement for those who have been there and done it.

I guess it's the same as anything else that some people have to earn in a specific way and then others are given an easier path to or simply awarded based on no specific requirements (think honorary degrees that Universities give out), those things are just more hallow because there was no price, no sacrifice in it. This reminds me of something David (in the Bible) said in II Samuel 24:24 - about not sacrificing something that cost him nothing. That's really a different thing, but this topic just brought it to mind.

I don't want to bash Ms. Williams, as I said, what she is doing is admirable, but I think she should probably try to make the trip to Boston next year and run the actual race. Doing it on a treadmill (or in some other remote location) simply is not the same. She is clearly a very good runner, so running Boston is well within her ability, but she won't have truly experienced Boston until she goes there. And after all, for those of us that aren't elite, competitive runners, the experience is a big part of why we would take part in a marathon in the first place.

The Newly Wed Game

Friday night Brittany and I attended a fundraiser for the Carterville Christian Church (forever hereafter CCC) youth group. They are raising money to go to CIY Summer Conference and church camp this summer - seemed like worthy causes and the dinner sounded good.

When we signed up we were asked to participate in a version of "The Newly Wed Game" - for those of you who are really young and/or don't watch the game show network this was a fairly popular game show in the 80s (I think that's the right decade). The short version is that the couples playing are separated from one another, asked questions about their spouse and then have to try to give the same answer to the questions their spouse was asked (while they were out of the room).

There were 4 couples playing (including Robin and Jayme Sigars, who didn't know they would be participating). Time married ranged from 22 months, 2 days, 4 hours and 37 minutes (those hours and minutes matter when you're still counting in months) up to 37 years. Britt and I were at a distinct disadvantage having been married so much shorter a time than the others (or so we thought).

The first round went okay, I got 2 of 5 questions right and we were in contention. My lovely wife, however turns out to either be a superstar at this game or maybe I'm just so bloody predictable that anyone could guess how I'd answer questions. At any rate, she got either 3 or 4 of her 5 correct (I think it was 3). Because of a change in point values (from round 1 to round 2) and the other teams struggling in the second round we found ourselves ahead 40 - 20 - 15 - 5 (the elder and his wife were having a rough go). The final question was done "Final Jeopardy" style where you wagered your points however you wanted to (did I mention we just spent a week in Vegas?). Seeing that Robin and Jayme were the only ones that had a shot at us, we (I) decided we were going to wager 1 point (a tie resulted in a tie-breaker question and I decided to take this as a road game and go for the win in regulation).

Predictably all the other couples bet it all. The first two got their question right, but surprisingly Jayme wasn't able to figure out what Robin said in answer to the question, which meant our answer didn't matter...thankfully, because we missed it.

Final score was 39 - 30 - 10 - 0.

Why did I write this long blog just to brag. Well, 2 reasons.

1. This experience gave me some hope that perhaps we're more like other couples than I'd thought. It appears that time together doesn't automatically translate to knowing one another well. I don't feel so badly now about not always knowing my wife as well as I think I should.

2. One of the 2 prizes we received was a book that I'd never heard of and was shocked to be receiving from my local congregation. I was just incredibly thankful that none of our 6 parental personalities were present at this gathering. That would have been awkward!

For the record, we were the only couple to go with the non-mushy answer to the last question, which was "Complete the following sentence, 'A perfect wife is one who...'." The others were saying stuff like "loves me" and "cares for me". But Britt and I, we cut right to the heart of the matter. I went with "loves NASCAR." But she had the better answer with "gets along with the mother-in-law."

Missing the point

I'll try to keep this short, I've been posting a lot this week and don't want to wear out my readers.

I was browsing headlines yesterday and ran across an article that discussed some concern being expressed about American Idol contestant Chris Sligh straying from his Christian roots.

Chris Sligh is the contestant with the "curly mop" - if you watch the show you know who I'm talking about. In one of the early weeks of the show he sang "We All Want To Be Loved" (recorded by DC Talk), which I recognized at the time as a Christian tune - though the lyrics aren't so overtly Christian as to make those who aren't interested in that type of music uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I kind of figured at that point he was a Christian, but didn't look into it. And for the record, that was the only time I've actually seen a contestant on that show sing a Christian song and Simon not tell them that it was too "indulgent" for him (I think that's Simon code for don't bring your faith in here, but I could be wrong, I've heard him use that phrase in other situations).

Since then American Idol has started determining the theme of the music the contestants sing - and so far they haven't had "Contemporary Christian Night". The beef that the article is getting at is some public comments made by a spokesman at Bob Jones University (I'll leave that alone) - where Chris spent part of his college years - that they (the University) think he has sold out by singing secular music.

Contrast that with the comments others in the article make about Chris' faith coming through in his music and in his life in general. From what I can tell, there's no real indication that Chris has left his faith behind, the good folks at Bob Jones just seem to be missing the point. I'm not sure it would go over terribly well for Chris to just pick a random FFH song each week regardless of what the theme was.

While there are a lot of problems with a lot of secular music out there, the simple fact that Chris is singing things not recorded on a Christian label doesn't mean he's ditched his relationship with Christ. From what I've seen, the secular songs he has chosen have been very, very tasteful. I hope that he continues to make good choices and doesn't allow anyone to pressure him to sing things that are vulgar or in opposition to the beliefs he professes. I do think it's unfortuneate that he's getting negative publicity from people that should be cheering him on.

Sometimes fellow Christians rub me the wrong way when they decide to be so narrow that they start creating Christian bunkers and silos. You're either in or out and if you're out you're not coming in. Wait guys, I think Jesus said in the world, not of it and something about go make disciples, so hunkering down and shutting ourselves off from everything outside the walls of the church is not going to work. I'm all for Christian music, but we need Christians in all walks of life and that includes the secular music world (as well as in Hollywood, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and every other place or industry we'd like to write off as inherently of the devil).

[Stepping off my soapbox now.]

Top Signs You've Been in Vegas Too Long...

...You take 50 lbs. of laundry to the hotel laundry facility.

...You know the actual distances between bars or casinos on the strip.

...You think $2.00 for a 20 oz. drink seems like a good deal.

...You pick a casino because they serve free coffee and doughnuts until 10am.

...You have a special key ring for all of your casino player's cards complete with a bungee belt attachment so these valuable cards aren't lost, stolen, or forgotten.


We were only in Vegas about 5 days, so I was only guilty of thinking the $2.00 bottle of water a good deal.

Vegas was a blast. We walked around looking at things for several days. Amazing buildings. Amazing landscape (mountains, etc. outside the city). We only gambled for about an hour one evening. Britt had a rough night at the nickel-slots. She lost a whopping $7 in about 15 minutes. Meanwhile I'd hit several good payouts and had gone from $1 to $10. Sensing she was getting bored and was refusing to put anymore money in the machine I cashed out, bought her Starbucks (conveniently located 30 feet behind us on the casino floor of our hotel), and then found a different machine that "looked like fun." While she sipped her frapp (to borrow a term from Matt Foreman) and I waited on my venti brewed to cool I hit another fairly big payout and ran my total to about $30. Played another few minutes and decided to cash out permanently with $25 (not a bad hour of work to have started with $1).

You Might Be In Vegas When...

(Top observations from our trip, these are in no particular order)

...The Hooters' billboards are the least graphic thing you've seen.

...There is a casino in the grocery store (and one guy is faithfully playing slots).

...Panda Express is on every corner (almost like Waffle House in the south).

...There are no water fountains and vendors won't serve ice water (see below about lunch at Subway) - so that you have no choice but to buy the $3 bottle of water.

...Pregnant women can smoke and drink on the street without anyone really taking note or saying anything about it.

...The obnoxious guy (college-age) riding the bus who is talking too loudly on his cell phone seems serious about leaving the guy next to him - who he reports is passed out drunk - on the bus when he gets off.

...You walk into a casino and realize something is different from all the others, but it takes a minute to figure out that the difference is the lack of smoke in the air.

...Lunch for 2 at Subway costs $21 - (one 12-inch, one 6-inch, one bag of chips, and one very overpriced bottle of water since apparently the tap water is contaminated).

...The bargain joint in the labyrinth of a casino you're lost in (the Venetian) charges $40 for what should run $20 or less. (Editor's note: The food was very good, but a small plate of penne with some sort of tomato sauce should not cost that much)

...Your wife suddenly has the desire to hike for several miles to see every possible attraction...and then go back because she didn't get to spend enough time looking around the one furthest from your hotel.

..."Where are you from?" or "Will you be in town tonight?" are the first line in a sales pitch for something you don't need and can't afford.

...The sound of cardboard slapping against the palm of a hand is the first indicator that a pimp or some other unsavory person is trying too hand you a card with info about a prostitute, stripper, or escort on it.

...There is an oxygen bar in every building - isn't oxygen a component of what we breath anyway? However did we survive all these centuries without paying for colored oxygen? And seriously, why is the oxygen colored? I'm not sure I want my lungs turning orange (I love OSU, but that's extreme). Here's an idea. Save yourself $20, go to the gym and exercise. Your body will have no choice but to increase the oxygen count in your blood stream.

...Breakfast at 3am is the norm.

...Someone says, "I'm awake, give me a beer." (Note: I never heard anyone say this, but did see lots of people ordering all sorts of drinks circa 10am, which I found amazing since the same people probably only went to bed around 2am the night before. If you ask me, that's hard core.)

...Roller Coasters are $12.50/person/ride...and the only exit is through the gift shop.

...T-shirts are $28.00...and they sell.

...Everyone wears a two-piece to the pool...whether they should or not.


I got some help on some of these from my wife. The casino in the grocery store one was totally hers.

Vacation Location Selection Criteria...

...or VLSC for short.

As some of you know - but others may not since the readership of this blog is so incredibly huge - my wife and I spent last week on vacation in Las Vegas. Now this may sound like a strange choice for two people who don't care to gamble (we're both incredibly tight with money) and don't care about nightlife (we're usually asleep by 10pm, even on weekends). When making vacation plans we have a few criteria (I say that like we've done this for years, in reality it was our third vacation as a couple - including our honeymoon) for selecting a location.

1. Warm - My wife says that she spends most of her life cold, so when we look for a vacation spot it's pretty much going to be somewhere we THINK it will be warm. Because her spring break is one of 2 weeks each year we could possibly go on vacation (due to the way our work schedules matchup) and it falls in mid-March, site selection is key on the warmth factor. San Diego last year was great, but wasn't terribly warm, the temperature was the one disappointment of the trip. This year we lucked out and Vegas was having a heat wave. They set record highs everyday we were there, topping out in the high 80s and reaching 90 two different days (the earliest they'd ever hit 90). The corralary to the warm criteria is dry. Significant periods of rain are a downer, so western sites tend to be prime for us because the climate is typically dry.

2. Something to do - While I would be fairly happy doing not much of anything while on vacation, my wife tends to like to see and do things (and gets a little restless if we sit around too long). So when picking a site we look for a place that has a number of things (that aren't terribly expensive) to do. Vegas was easy on this criteria, lots to see, several activities off the strip, and if all else fails there are the nickel-slots. We usually pick out one expensive activity on each trip. In San Diego it was Sea World (about $50/person) and in Vegas it was seeing The Blue Man Group ($75/person) - I offer prices so you get an idea of what I call expensive.

3. Haven't been there before - This one will eventually go away, I suspect we'll go back to San Diego, it was too much fun and we just liked it too well not to. We're probably going to be making a return trip to South Florida in the next 2 years as part of a vacation package we bought (this one will include Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and a short cruise to the Bahamas versus a week on the beach near Fort Lauderdale like our honeymoon was). But in general, we try to find places that we haven't seen before. While going to new places is fun, it does create some interesting moments trying to find our way around in a totally new place. Good thing I never get lost.

4. Not over-crowded - This one is relative. We've tried to avoid the typical spring break locations, just because neither of us want to deal with out of control college students (we love college students, particularly when they're sober and clothed). The above mentioned trip to Florida will violate this criteria, but we got a deal...or so we THINK!

5. Cheap flights - I've gotten to the point that I'm willing to spend a fair (keep in mind I'm a bit of a tightwad) amount on a hotel and after our rental car experience in Vegas will probably spend more to rent from a major national chain in the future, but can't stand dropping huge cash on flights (perhaps this is because it really steams me when we have to do that for flights to our events or for our staff here at CIY). I've found this is the single area that can have the most drastic impact on the total cost of the trip. For instance, I caught a fire-sale of sorts on SW.com for our Vegas trip and instead of spending $350/person, got them (non-stop mind you) for $119/person. We saved more than $450 (which is about what we spent on our hotel for the week). The other part of this is that the flights are usually the part of the trip that you have to pay in full for up front. Somehow I feel better about the whole situation when I don't have to front a huge amount. My advice, look into what you can get flights for before locking in on a destination (or be willing to be flexible on which airports you choose and/or dates) it can save you tons.

While in Vegas I took the time to write down a number of things I thought were blog-worthy. As soon as I find the pad I wrote them on I'll start posting them. My wife said it's too much for one post, so I'll probably break it into two. Hopefully I can start those later this week.

No Home Away From Home

As I watched OSU's first round Big 12 tournament game against Nebraska (which they won and looked decent at least on defense)last night, I was repeatedly annoyed by how bad the commentators were.

Stacey King - who I hadn't previously seen do commentary - was a star at OU several years ago. Doug Bell was the other guy, no idea if he's ever played or even actually touched a basketball or not.

Here's the summary - they're both horrible. I've probably witnessed worse, but it was pretty bad. I'll just give one example of their really bad attempts at color commentary.

The Big 12 tournament is being played at the Ford Center in OKC this year for the first time. This is a great facility, I saw OSU play SIU in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament a couple of years ago in there. It's very nice. Located in downtown OKC, the Ford Center is about 70 miles from Stillwater. So it's close to home and OSU fans will obviously roll out in force. However, it is not the same as a home game.

These two guys repeatedly tried to claim that playing in the Ford Center was the same for OSU as playing in Gallagher-Iba. They didn't make this idiotic claim once, it went on and on and on. They even were so audacious as to claim that Sean Sutton tried to sell this to his team as a home game (because they haven't won a road game all year).

Reality is that OSU beat then #7 Pittsburgh in the Ford Center earlier this season and were 5-1 on neutral courts. So OSU's problem this year hasn't been neutral courts - they've got several problems this year, but that's not one of them.

Stacey King played at OU. While that statement alone should be enough to prove my point I'll go ahead and explain. (As the following sentences will explain that's not a slam on OU, read on) Stacey King has played in Gallagher-Iba, he even played in there back in the day when it was a 6,000 seat arena and was literally dangerous to the ear-drums (not sure it's much different on a good night now). He should know better than to think that the Ford Center is anything like GI. At no point will fans ever generate as much noise for any game in the Ford Center as the ones in GI do regularly. That's not even because OSU fans at GI are superior, it's because the building was built differently. The Ford is a much bigger space, the seats don't go straight up to the ceiling like in GI and I think they even installed some sound deadening material in the Ford (won't find that in GI, which was an intentional move to keep it as loud as possible during the expansion).

The assertion that Sean Sutton would try to sell last night as a home game to the Cowboys is even more ridiculous. While I doubt that any of OSU's current squad are going to be Rhodes or Truman scholars, these guys aren't dumb enough to buy that playing in the Ford Center constitutes a home game. They got on the bus and made the bumpy drive down I-35. They unloaded into a locker room that wasn't theirs. They walked onto a court with the most awful teal color ever painted in such large quantities. They heard the dull murmur of a mostly OSU crowd (as opposed to the deafening roar at GI). This was no home game and Sean Sutton is way too smart to try to sell that to his guys.

Bottom line, ESPN Regional needs better commentators, or at least the ones they have need to clue in.

Frauds Among Us

News broke this week of one of the most prolific editors of Wikipedia being uncovered as a fraud. Ryan Jordan, a 24-year-old from Kentucky, had claimed to be a tenured professor of religion at a private college, but has now admitted that this is not true. In fact, this article indicates he has no real higher education qualifications - but does not elaborate on his education.

It appears that the editing that Mr. Jordan has done has not come under scrutiny - either meaning he knew enough about religion and his claimed specialty of canon law to fool readers or that the readers knew so little they couldn't tell. It seems that he had made more than 20,000 entries in Wikipedia, none of which had ever been questioned.

This story blows me away. I'm not sure how the guy knew enough to pull that off or maybe he just spent a lot of time doing research on the items he did entries about. It saddens me that someone would attempt to deceive so many in this way, I think it just adds potential fuel to the fire of those who hold Christians and anything to do with religion or ministry in disdain - expecting it is all false and fraudulent.

The Gospels are full of people who held themselves out to be things they weren't. The easiest group to pick on are the Pharisees. These were the religious elite of Jewish society, they were the holier-than-thou personalities of that era. In my estimation there is no group that Jesus was more harsh towards than these people who loved to be esteemed by others and held themselves out as being of highest human holiness. In Luke 11:37-54, Jesus goes through a list of warnings to the Pharisees for their hypocritical ways.

While I am sure that Mr. Jordan is terribly embarrassed now that his deception has been found out, I wonder whether I am even more guilty of the same kind of deception when I walk around like I have it all together? The reality is that each of us has faults and sins that we struggle with daily. How easy is it for me to give the appearance that everything in my life is great - marriage, job, faith, etc. - when in reality I have my good days and my bad days? I think the lie that we too easily buy into is that if we don't have everything together we'll be judged unworthy and life will fall apart. So to avoid that we put up walls and keep others out. Mike Yaconelli wrote a great book called Messy Spirituality a few years ago that talked about how messy our real lives are.

My challenge to myself as the writer is to be honest with myself and God, first about who I am and who I'm not and second about the difficulties and struggles that I face each day as I try to follow Him. I would challenge anyone reading this to do the same. Robin Sigars had a great post this week spring-boarding from a C.S. Lewis quote about the sign that we are alive is that we're constantly being repaired when we fall down, not that we don't fall down at all.

Player-hating on NASCAR fans

This will be brief, because I have work to do and because I don't think I can even say much about this without going off.

I saw a news clip from Fox News about the struggles that are going on over whether the International Speedway Corporation can build a NASCAR track in Washington State. If you can find the video (which I tried unsuccessfully to link) it's worth watching. The politians and citizens of Seattle are completely brutal in their comments about NASCAR fans. To the point of accusing them of being criminals and low-life's.

My comments: Apparently the good people of the state of Washington would prefer NASCAR didn't visit their part of the country. Good, I don't want to watch it from there. They'd likely require that team pit crews be replaced with state licensed personnel and the race might never finish because they'd never get around to actually changing the tires or filling the cars up with gas. Wait, it's Oregon that won't let you pump your own gas. Same difference right?

Oh, that was insensitive and stupid? So are the comments in the video.