Can't say I was the biggest fan..

I can't say I was the biggest fan of Michael Jackson, it might be stretching to say that I was even a fan. I like a few songs, but wouldn't really go out of my way to hear to many of them. Maybe to borrow a baseball term, I guess you could say I was a fair weather fan. When I heard Billie Jean, or maybe some of the tracks on Thriller I'd fondly recall some days of my youth. Of course more recently I re-discovered "Man in the Mirror". What a great track. Love him or hate him for his personal life, the man was flat out gifted. Very rare are such artists who have the musical talents he did. He did make a change.. How about you? So close with the chorus from "Man in the Mirror"

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change)

Peace

Man in the Mirror...

You know. I gotta say, I'm not really a big Michael Jackson fan. But as I'm sitting hear engrossed in my code development at work, I'm listening to 80'S FM on Big R (Internet) Radio. On a side note, how GREAT is it that I can listen to all the 80's music to my hearts content, for free, on the Internet. Now back to the story...

I'm listening, and Michael Jacksons' song Man in the Mirror came on. As I paused to listen to the lyrics, and I'm thinking my gosh. He's practically pitched the Team World Vision, World Vision, my families, and my own person vision. Its so easy to, for us, to take things for granted, to look the other way, to make bold statements, to assume the problem is to big. Its all starts with you. With me. We just need to look in the mirror, and say. "Today is the day. I'm gonna make that change"



Perhaps you are ready to make a change. Anything and everything can and DOES help. Perhaps its a prayer. Perhaps its forgoing that extra helping of food, or skipping on night out. Passing for 1 day on that morning Latte. Or perhaps you are in a position to help me and World Vision bring that Change to a larger audience. If you are able to, won't you consider sponsoring me. You click on the link below to learn more.



Peace to you today and everyday
Ted

A hop, a skip, and a SPLASH!

You can put it in the books. My first triathlon since August of 2007 is complete. It was a pretty good experience. I was a smidge worried about the cooler temps at the start. But the weather quickly turned in our favor. I'd guess they were high 50's and the 60's by the post-race party. Pretty darn good racing weather if you ask me.

As for the time, I can't really say. I wasn't timing myself (part of the whole, lets not take this year seriously thing). I believe I finished about 1:20ish. We'll have to see once the official results are posted. I had a better than expected swim. I felt strong on the bike, though looking at some earl er results, it looks like I didn't average as well as I had hoped. The run, it never easy to tell a triathlon run. You can feel slow, but be fast, or vice-versa. Again, I'll have some official results once they are posted.

In all a good day. The guys I went down there with TL and TD both had great days. TL CONGRATS! It was your first tri and you looked really good. The family was out also. To be honest I was surprised, but very happy to see their smiling faces cheering me on. And I saw them 4 times to boot! Thanks guys you ROCK!

More to come.. Peace

Its time. Its time. Did he just say its time???

Beep Beep Beep... was the rude noise that has gotten me and perhaps close to 1000 other people up this early on this 2nd Sunday of June. Its 54 degree out, weather looks like it will be good, later in the day, but a bit chilly for a swim this morning.

The 2009 Triathlon season officially kicks off this morning. Its gonna be an experience after taking 2008 off. With some friends competing, and some other friends volunteering. Should be a fun time. We'll see how it goes. Good luck to all..

Peace

Just around the corner

My first Triathlon since August of 2007 is coming up on Sunday. While only a Sprint tri (400 meter swim, 14.7mile bike, and 4.1mile run), it should still be fun. Especially since I'm preparing for it by staying up late most days this week working!

Seriously though with a lackadaisical training plan, this will be a good test to just how bad (or good) of shape I'm in.

Why do I Tri? Not because I can. Rather I Tri because I care. I Tri for Hope...

Peace

Face off..

The "To Facebook or not to facebook" poll is over. Not to many people responded, but of those that did, only a couple said they would follow the posting if this blog went away. I did open a Facebook account, but I've not done anything with updating it. I needed to do that to see what capabilities it had, and frankly, it wasn't obvious how I'd replace this blog with it anyway. So I'm here to stay. Maybe one day J will start posting again...

Over the teeth, through the gums, look out stomach...

Here its it comes, the endoscope that is. Tomorrow I'm headed over to the hospital for an upper endoscopy. My PCP suggested I see a GI guy about some things. The GI guy wanted to take a look to see whats really going on. So tomorrow, I'm off to see the wizard, er I mean the GI guy who's gonna stick a camera down my esophagus to see what he can see. He mentioned what he's looking for, and what would be good to see and what would not be so good to see. But that's another story. So as you go through your daily prayers, or thoughts of others. Maybe you could add me into your intentions that all goes smoothly and they do not find anything of consequence.

Peace

The Nature of Marriage

Not really a part of the "Reading of the Day..." series I post periodically. But along the same vein. As I read the daily readings for today, I usually follow that up with reading a reflection called "One Bread, One Body" on those readings put out by Presentation Ministries.

Today's reflection on Tobit 2:9-14, I found particularly thought provoking. Especially with some a few couples close to us getting married this summer. They don't really read this blog to my knowledge, but that OK. Even if they aren't thinking about us, we're thinking about and praying for them.

From OBOB reflection on June 2nd, 2009

...Although some of our expectations for husbands and wives are mere cultural biases, some aspects of marriage are established by God's design. Therefore, before we exchange male and female roles, we must take care that we are led by the Holy Spirit in accord with God's word and not manipulated by our ignorance, hurts, or various lobbying groups.

There is such a things as object truth. Marriage is not whatever we want it to be, but it has been created by God to work in a certain way. Husbands and wives are both equal and different. Each has a unique role in developing their marriages to be signs of God's love for the Church...

Have a great day.