I got some birthday cash last week that went to buy road tires for my bike.  I thought it would be a weird thing to put slick tires on a mountain bike, but apparently it’s not as rare as I thought it was.

So on Sunday, I was itching to try them out.  I went out to the Silver Comet Trail and logged 30 miles.  I did it intentionally in a higher gear to give my legs more of a workout, and what a difference it made.  I was sore Sunday night and most of Monday.

Last night I cleaned my bike and adjusted the brakes a little in preparation for a Tuesday commute to work.  This is a big reason I wanted the road tires, so I was excited to see that today was going to be a bit cooler with a very slight chance of rain.

On the road tires, I made the 11-mile trip in 45 minutes.  (That’s 15 minutes better than I did it with the mountain tires.)  We’ll see how the trip home goes…I seem to remember more uphill on the way back.

I got 30 miles on Sunday, and I’ll get 22 today.  Maybe I’ll copy Richard and go for 300 miles in 30 days.  I’m not sure I could do it, but it’d be fun seeing how close I could get.

A few months ago, I started reading the blog of Zsuzsanna Anderson, the wife of a pastor of an Independent Baptist church in Arizona.  As I’ve read her posts, I’ve agreed with a lot of her points, I’ve disagreed with some, and I’ve laughed at others.

I found her blog after researching the preacher (who turned out to be her husband) in this video to see if the video was a joke or not.  The video is of a pastor telling his congregation that it is against Scripture for a man to pee while seated.  I’m not making this up.  Watch the video if you don’t believe me.

It turns out that it wasn’t a joke (at least not as far as I can tell), and the church is a real church (Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ).  The church’s web site had a link to Zsuzsanna’s blog, and I subscribed to it, mostly out of curiosity.

Zsuzsanna is an amazing person.  She’s the mother of 4 children; she homeschools the ones old enough for school; she works hard to be thrifty; she supports a husband pastor who works a secular job through the week so he can be financially able to be the church’s pastor; and she still finds time to post all sorts of information that could be useful to her blog readers.

Most of the time when I disagree with her, it’s a matter of opinion: women shouldn’t be police officers; it’s wrong to send your children to any (public, private, or Christian) school because homeschooling is the only way Christian families should educate their children; male gynecologists are all perverts who chose their field to be able to take advantage of women; the 1611 King James Version of the Bible is the only real Bible.  The list could go on, and it does.  But it’s all opinion, and I’m happy to let her have her own.

Then today, I read the following on her blog (from this post):

…a derelict and his girlfriend stopped me in their big SUV outside church to ask if the church offered financial assistance to families, and cursed me out when I told them it only helped people who actually CAME to our church.

There!  What’s wrong with Christians…it’s in that paragraph…did you see it?  Christians today are so full of themselves that we’re not willing to help people who come to a church looking for help.

When we are approached by someone who knows we are Christians, we are given an amazing opportunity to practice obedience to Scripture.  Matthew 25 talks about when Jesus returns, and how he will explain to the righteous ones that the little things they had done for “the least of these” had been done as if they were done to Him.

While there was obviously a physical need in this situation, it is likely that there was also a spiritual need.  When we refuse to help meet a physical need, we ruin any future opportunity to meet a spiritual need.  The people asking for help aren’t immediately concerned with (or may not be aware of) their spiritual needs; they’re focused on the immediate physical need, and anyone who helps meet the physical need has an opportunity to move on to the spiritual need.

Should we give money to any person asking for it?  I don’t think so.  Should we blindly overlook people living a lifestyle that obviously goes against Scripture? No.  There must be some discernment, but turning people away because they are not part of your church is wrong.

It is the responsibility of the local church to help people in need.  The needy people know this, but somehow we Christians can’t wrap our brains around the concept of helping people that don’t dress or act like we do.  We get so wrapped up in stupid stuff that we fail to realize that meeting a physical need opens a door to meeting those spiritual needs.

It’s hard to speculate on what she should have done; she didn’t say what their specific need was.  Maybe she turned them away without asking.  Maybe they needed $20 for gas.  Maybe they needed a meal or a shower.  Maybe they were trying to keep their electricity from being turned off.  Maybe they needed a Savior.  Since they were blindly turned away because they weren’t church members, they didn’t get the help they needed.

I hope they found someone to help them, because even if they get the gas, food, shower, or money for the electricity, they’ll still need a Savior.  And I hope they find Him, but I’m guessing they won’t find Him at Zsuzsanna’s church.

I once heard Walt Wiley share about encouragement.  (Walt works with Winning With Encouragement to do a number of great things.)  He spoke about how Barnabas in the New Testament was such an encourager.  He pointed out that there are 4 ways to be an encourager:

• What you say
• What you do
• What you give
• How you live

(That’s from memory, but I think it’s right.)

Today was a rough day.  Nothing specifically went wrong; I got a lot done, but it was really just a tough day.

The last thing I did today was setup an image on our web site for one of our affiliates.  It’s a basic task, but I got frustrated by it because I wasn’t given much to work with (as far as a logo from the affiliate).  I worked through it, got it to look as good as I could, and sent the reply email that it was online.

I left the office feeling completely exhausted and overwhelmed.  Stuff like that really shouldn’t take the wind out of me like that, but today it did.  Shortly after I left the office, I received a reply from the requester:  “This looks great! Thanks so much.”  That reply really made my day today.  It was a quick reply, but it was just what I needed.

For me, it was a “what you say” moment that made the difference.  Somebody around you today probably could use a kind word (or helping hand, generous gift, or an example of behavior).  Go out of your way to give that encouragement today.  You never know what impact a little bit of encouragement could have.

Jon over at Stuff Christians Like had an interesting point about talking to people.  Specifically, he was talking about relating to teens, but I think the same principles could be applied no matter who you’re dealing with.

…more than anything, teens react and relate to honesty. Changing your language for them can come off as fake. It makes it feel like you’re studying a group of gorillas and learning how to grunt the way they do as you wear a gorilla suit and pretend you love bananas too.

Jon’s got some good insight on some pretty serious issues, and he’s got a sense of humor that I absolutely love.  If you’re not a regular reader, you should check out his blog.

10 things on my desk right now:

1. My wallet (and cash, amazingly enough).
2. A baseball.
3. My resume (no, I’m not looking for a new gig).
4. Bad stick of laptop RAM.
5. Anti-spam condom Shane brought back from Vegas.  Don’t ask.
6. Dead bugs (from the air vent above…I can’t seem to get rid of all of them).
7. Dilbert post-it notes.
8. Menu for Paisano’s Pizzeria (next door).
9. Brett Butler baseball card
10. Atlanta Braves Mr. Potato Head.

What’s on your desk?

Something needs to be said about Bobby Cox’s capacity as a major league manager. He’s just awful. Atlanta fans have all those years of post season appearances and one World Series championship to show for it.

The Braves TV and radio announcers (don’t get me wrong…I love those guys) go on and on about how great of a manager Bobby Cox is and how he’s definitely going to end up in the Hall of Fame one of these days. The truth is that his job is to win championships. He’s done that once in 17 years as manager. He was a great general manager, but he’s got no place managing on the big league level. And he certainly doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame.

Saturday night my Dad and I took the kids to see the Braves, and we had the opportunity to see Cox demonstrate his incompetence in the bottom of the 6th inning.

There were 2 outs in the inning, the bases were loaded, the score was tied 2-2, and the pitcher’s spot was coming to the plate. The Braves already had 6 quality innings from the starter Reyes, but somehow, somewhere deep in the abyss that is the “how to manage a baseball team” part of Bobby Cox’s brain, it made sense to let Reyes bat for himself in the 6th.

Reyes, of course, grounded out, ending the 6th inning rally. I was confused. Dad was confused. 40,000 fans at the park were confused. I mean, if it’s the 4th - or even 5th - inning, and you’ve got a tie game with the bases loaded, you can let your pitcher bat. But after he’s thrown 6 quality innings, you’re not going to have him in there much longer anyway. At that point, you’ve got to pinch hit and hope you can get a couple of runs.

I heard the beloved Braves announcers justifying the decision; they said that Reyes’ pitch count was low, that he was so effective, that Cox really just had to send him back out there. I know they’re just standing up for the guy, but really, when your team’s manager does something that stupid, let him stand up for himself.

The bottom line here is that Bobby Cox just can’t manage. Somehow he’s got people believing that he’s wonderful. After all, he did manage those 1990’s teams to all those division titles, right? Those 1990’s Braves teams were incredible. They had 3 future Hall of Famers in the starting rotation. Anybody could have managed those Braves teams and made it to the playoffs. Bobby Cox just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Cox is long overdue for retirement. He doesn’t seem to have any intentions of retiring, and the organization presents him like he’s a saint, so they can’t fire him. Seriously, you just can’t fire a saint.

I’d like to see another championship in Atlanta, but it won’t come until Cox is watching from his living room where he won’t have the ability to make insane managerial decisions (but he’ll still be an idiot).

Recently my friend Greg made reference to a blog called Stuff Christians Like that’s written by this guy Jon Acuff. I figured it would be pretty lame and stupid, but Greg’s sense of humor is a lot like mine (sarcastic even though we call it “witty”) so I subscribed to the RSS feed to see what all the fuss was about.

Stuff Christians Like takes one topic at a time and points out how Christians like that topic. It sounds really lame, I know, but it’s absolutely awesome.  Really.

Examples:

• Boycotting Stuff
• Forcing Little Kids to Sing the End of Your Song
• Testamints - Sending Bad Breath to Hell
• Letting Porn Win

Today is birthday #42 for former Braves’ pitcher Greg Maddux. Yesterday I watched him get career win 349 and watched in amazement at how smart of a pitcher he is. So with Greg’s awesomeness in my mind, and since it’s his birthday, I figured I’d share my Greg Maddux story.

It was 1996, the last year the Braves were in Fulton County Stadium. I was 18 years old. I had made the trip to Atlanta with a couple of friends and was watching Maddux pitch his regular bullpen session. In the old stadium, you could get really close to the pitchers in the bullpen, and I think I was about 15-20 feet from Maddux.

Some fat idiot was standing beside me and began talking very loudly about how awful it was that Maddux’s career had fallen apart. See, Maddux had a rough start to that year. He had an excellent ERA, but was getting on average about 2 runs per game support from the team. Smoltz, on the other hand, was getting about 5 runs per game. Apparently, the 2.72 ERA Maddux posted in 1996 meant that his career was over.

The guy wouldn’t shut up about it, and it really got me aggravated. I piped up and told the guy he was crazy. I told him that we were watching one of the smartest pitchers in the game. I pointed out how Maddux’s change of speed and location control dominates batters even though he doesn’t have overpowering stuff. I told the guy that even though Smoltz was having a good year, Maddux was still the better pitcher, and that he shouldn’t judge Greg by a win/loss record - especially when his team isn’t giving him any run support.

I went on and on (kind of like I’m doing now). I don’t remember all that I said, but I really gave the guy an earful. The guy finally shut up and walked away as Maddux was finishing his bullpen session. Greg made his final pitch, stepped off the mound to grab a towel. Then he looked up at me, smiled, and tipped his cap as if to say thanks for the support.

Hopefully in about a week, Maddux will win game #350. You can bet I’ll be watching that game. This week I found some links online talking about Greg. See here and here. The first is substantially longer than the second, but it’s about the best article on Maddux I’ve ever read.

Happy birthday, Greg! (Yes, Greg reads my blog…you doubted?)

Let there be much rejoicing in the land!  The Office is new again.  NBC 9pm.  Tonight.

If you need me in the 9:00 hour tonight, don’t bother calling.  I won’t answer.   (Yes, it’s a 30-minute show.  I’ll watch it twice.)

My last post, which provided a sneak peek at the new Diet Mt. Ron label prototypes, brought up several questions about this amazing new product. Instead of answering them in the comments of that post, I decided to put the answers here in their own post.

Tanya asks: Does that mean they’re sucking out your blood to make pop?
No. My awesomeness goes into the drink, not my blood. Putting blood in it would change the color to something other than the natural “awesome green” color. Though I suppose if we used some blood, we could do a “Code Red” type of product…

Allison asks: You do know that Gaines already patented this under his name, right?
Um, Diet Mt. Gaines? That would never work. May I suggest Diet Dr. Gaines instead? Dr. Pepper has needed an improvement for some time now…

Ethan asks: How do they extract that “little bit of extra awesomeness” from you to add to the new premier beverage of the diet soft drink world? Plasma transfusion? Colonic irrigation? Used kleenexes from your trash?
We tried plasma transfusion, but I don’t do needles. Colonic irrigation (which is even less pleasant than it sounds) worked, but I’m not willing to do that on a regular basis. Used Kleenexes from my trash give you much less awesomeness than you would ever imagine.

Ethan asks: When the awesomeness leaves you and heads for the bottling plant, do you get weaker?
If we did an invasive process, I would be less awesome for a short period of time. However, we use a process Sarah and I developed called A.W.E.S.O.M.E. (Automatic Wireless Extraction System to Obtain My Effervescence) that allows us to collect the awesomeness as it emanates from me. It’s pretty complex stuff…I’ll post more about A.W.E.S.O.M.E. later.

Ethan asks: How long does it take to come back up to full awesomeness?
We don’t harvest extra awesomeness from me, so my awesomometer is always full.

Ethan asks: Do you have special dietary requirements to keep your awesomeness levels up during a bottling cycle?
We have found that certain foods do help boost my awesome levels. For example, when my diet is high in pizza, we are able to increase production by nearly 20%. Mexican food, candy bars (specifically Butterfinger), ice cream, and BBQ pork are also among the foods that positively impact awesomeness collection levels.

Thanks for the great questions!