Harold's Passing

This past Friday a friend of mine, Harold Rosas, very unexpecctedly passed away.  I'm not sure how long I've known him...I'd say at least six years.  One of my fondest memories with him was a trip down to L.A. with Harold, Glen, John Pack, Mikey G, Smooth Al Reyes, and Big Black.  We stayed at the "Holy Tabernacle Church of God" in Inglewood, the ghetto of the ghetto.  Harold was suitably freaked out by it.  But it was a fun trip - and we had a good time singing Tom Petty together in the car.

When someone passes away various trite things come to mind to say so I'll avoid them.  I'll just say that although I didn't see Harold all the time - the last time I saw him was a couple months ago when he was making Mexican hot chocolate at my house - I will miss him.  He was a great guy to have around and have in your life.  I will definitely say I learned a lot of things from him.  Not so much informational things but more things on living life and how to go about things.

What sticks out most to me is the fact that upon Harold's passing I know a lot of different people were affected.  Lots of different kinds of people, too.  Harold reached out to people that I would feel uncomfortable around and was bold and confident in ways I hope to be one day.  He had a pretty dark sense of humor in many ways but more than once I was surprised by his sensitivity and tender heart for other people, especially wounded people.  Anyway there's lots to say about him so I won't bother trying to capture it all.  I hesitated writing a post for a few days because I figured I should write something suitably poetic or whatever, but I don't suppose I could write something that would be adequate so I figured I'd write something rather than nothing.

Technology and Spirituality

I came across a good quote this morning:

"One of the new challenges for our generation is the impact of technology on our spirituality. This warrants serious consideration. If we are not careful, technology has a way of compromising our ability to be present to ourselves, to God and to each other- all of which are fundamental elements of the spiritual life. I don't know about you, but I am sad when I have set aside time to be with friends and, because a cell phone is left on, we are at the mercy of all manner of intrusion. We think nothing of taking phone calls in the middle of meetings, restaurants and family gatherings. I am disturbed by my own compulsion to check email late at night and first thing in the morning. When left unchecked, this lack of discipline imperceptibly robs me of rest in the evening and silent presence to God in the morning. I can become exhausted by the intrusion of the media and technology into every corner of my life, resulting in constant overstimulation of body, mind and emotions. All of this convenience wears me out!
Exhaustion sets in when we are accessible too much of the time. A soul-numbing sadness comes when we realize that a certain quality of life and quality of presence is slipping away as a result of too much "convenience." Breaks in the day that used to be small windows of replenishment for body and soul- like driving in a car, going for a walk, having lunch with a friend- are now filled with noise, interruption and multi-tasking. What feels like being available and accessible is really a boundaryless existence that offers no protection for those things that are most precious to us.
...No wonder we feel disconnected from God: we are rarely able to give Him our full attention in solitude and silence. Thoughtful reflection is constantly sabotaged by the intrusion of cell phones, pagers and e-mail messages. No wonder our human relationships are so unsatisfying as they get reduced to snippets of interrupted, disembodied phone conversation. What feels like convenience is actually robbing us of those things we value most. We are left with bits and pieces of everything rather than experiencing the full substance of anything."

- Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms

HT: Pastorhacks.net

Barry Bonds

There's a lot of talk right now, as Barry Bonds approaches the home run record, as to whether or not his record should be asterisked. Bud Selig, the much maligned commissioner of baseball, has expressed uncertainty as to whether or not he'll be present for Barry breaking Hank Aaron's record. In a situation where people might generally be celebrating Barry's offensive awesomeness pretty much everybody except Giants fans are bemoaning Barry's march to 755. I just wanted to go on record with my opinion in the matter, because I know you have all been wondering where the incredibly important Jackson Perdue weighs in here.

It seems pretty clear (no pun intended) to me that Barry used some performance enhancing substances that any sane person would consider cheating. It also seems pretty clear to me that he is by no means the only player to have done so, and I have no doubt there were countless players using steroids over the last 10+ years. But because Barry is the most successful he's the one absorbing the hatred of the baseball community, despite never having tested positive. If Barry didn't have the talent no amount of steroids would have taken him to this point. I'm sure they played a role in his game, but in a steroid-filled era we're stuck with what we're stuck with. Pretending he's the only steroid user and crucifying him over this, despite the fact that he is a reputed jerk, is dumb. He's going to break the record, and he cheated. He hasn't cheated more than bunches of other less successful players.

So I think he should be celebrated for what he's done once he breaks the record, but we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking he did it au natural. Sure he used steroids to do it, but so did some large percentage of players and they aren't even sniffing his numbers. So stop playing the moral outrage game - baseball isn't some pure sport and it hasn't been for a long time. A-Rod is going to be breaking Barry's record in a few years anyway.

Come on, A's

Man, the A's are really sucking lately.  Today makes seven losses in a row.  They're totally wasting an awesome year of great starting pitching with a worse than anemic offense.  I expect to see Beane trading for some young bats before the deadline.  I'm just about ready to write this year off.  There's no way we're catching the Angels and I'm not terribly hopeful about the Wild Card.  It's too bad, really.  If you're leading the Major Leagues in team ERA you should have something to show for it.

Pictures of Belle

Janelle and I took Belle to get some pictures a couple days ago.  She's 9 months old now and doing well.  Just got over her first fever and sickness, has started crawling and pulling herself up to standing on things.  These pictures are of Belle wearing a dress that Janelle and all here sisters had baby pictures taken in, so Belle is continuing the Cornelio girl tradition there.  Enjoy these pictures:

On Vacation

Just a quick update here from Utah.  We're here at some timeshare resort thing about 90 minutes from Salt Lake City.  The weather has been pretty good - and hot.  This is my first time meeting many of the people on Janelle's mom's side of the family, and I'm "re-meeting" a number of them who I only barely remember from the wedding (almost three years ago!).  The first couple nights Belle was still really sick, she stayed up crying.  Her appetite hasn't been great, but last night was the best so far and it seems her fever is just about gone.  The first couple days weren't too relaxing...but it's nice to be away regardless.

I have to preach this weekend so I sort of have that hanging over my head, but I'm doing my best to not think about it.  I have the rough draft written and I'll just go over it and practice once Saturday.  It's on the shorter side so at least if it's not that great Saturday it'll be shorter, and I'll be able to tweak it for Sunday morning.

A few of the men in the family are currently on a bit of a Go kick.  I haven't really played it since Schlichter got into it however many years ago.  It's pretty fun, as I remember, but I'm not as good as I used to be.  Not that I was that great...but I got my butt severely kicked yesterday worse than I ever lost to Kevin.

I was also introduced to a site that does a good job of introducing you to the basics of Go, it takes you through a lot of the ideas and gives you great practice, etc.  If you want to learn Go, check this site out - The Interactive Way To Go.  In fact I encourage you to go check it out and then play Go with me.