Fragile

"I envy those few people who truly understand that life is a fragile bargain, rescindable at any time by the other party, and live their lives accordingly."

Joseph Epstein

Nonsense

Why do all these clever newspaper reporters point out that only a victory counts in Tuesday's game - when it is a direct elmination competition? You always have to win in the DFB Pokal. Which is what we will do.

Greulich Fuerth Means Nothing

What's all this Schmarn about the game against Fuerth deciding Babbel's future?

Let's say we win. Whoop-dee-doo. We beat a team from the second Bundesliga. That would make me keep a coach. Are we going to win against Sevilla and Bayern afterwards? I'd love it, but I don't see it happening. You can lose games like that. Any of our best coaches has at times. Now, keeping on losing afterwards wouldn't be pretty, and that needs to stop.

Let's say we lose. You really want to fire your coach and waste whatever stimulus you're hoping for from a new coach on very possible losses to Sevilla and Munich? Nice move. Either way, let's just give Babbel time at least until after the Moenchengladbach game.

And yes, Markus Babbel needs to remain our coach. We need to become a team like Manchester United or Arsenal who stick with a great coach for years.

P.S. Send that Mappus fellow across the border to Bavaria. Or better yet, France. Traitor.

Nothing Has Happened

Alright, let's assume that we're going to lose in Sevilla, too. What does that mean?

Nothing.

Of course, I'm assuming Sevilla keeps on winning. As long as they do,

• if Glasgow beats Unirea in Romania, we need to tie Glasgow and beat Unirea
• if they tie, we need to tie Glasgow and beat Unirea
• if Unirea wins, we need to beat Glasgow and Unirea

If we managed to tie Sevilla, we could even afford a loss to Glasgow if they beat Unirea. All this would leave us second in the end. While all that doesn't look pretty, our chances are anything but terrible.

And yes, Markus Babbel needs to remain our coach.

Playing It Safe

Out of the blue, I quoted (the German translation of) Augustus this morning after he heard of his army's defeat by Arminius:

"Varus, Varus, gib' mir meine Legionen wieder!"

Ch gave me a skeptical look, and decided to respond with an answer she deemed safe:

"I love you."

Shortly thereafter, La chimed in,

"Ich hab' den Bananen-blues."

Guess we still need to work on that German language expertise.

Doing My Best

If the 18 teams of the Bundesliga (top German soccer league) have an average of 25 players on roll, that's 450 pro's. Compared to the 6.3 million members of the Deutscher Fussball-Bund, that's 0.007%. Am I in the top 0.007% in my calling? Am I on my way there? Or do I want to spend my life playing Kreisklasse?

Yes! Yes! Yes! BIG News

Source: Logos (probably originally Zondervan)

I know, most of you probably couldn't care less. But to me, this is just about the biggest news that could have happened - as far as Bible study, pastoral service, etc. is concerned. Zondervan has been one of - if not the - hottest publisher in Christian resources recently. One of their highly acclaimed resources is the NIV Application Commentary. They also publish all the Purpose-Driven materials, as far as I know. Until recently, they used their own software, making all their great resources unavailable to Logos users. But as of Monday last week, Zondervan is going to publish resources in Logos format. That's just plain about the best news on the Bible software front that I could have had. Some of the resources I'm looking forward to:

Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: New Testament
NIV Application Commentary: New Testament
Africa Bible Commentary

There are OT counterparts, too, and plenty of other great stuff - and it'll only get more.

In His Law He Meditates Day and Night

How do we go about "meditating in His law day and night" (Psalm 1:2)? Well, there's a new tool out there that may help. Logos has put up six twitter feeds, where you can have scripture sent to you on various schedules. Sounds interesting - if you use twitter, that is.

Meet the Girl Who Threw the Ball Back

Video of The Girl Who Threw the Ball Back, including talk show appearance

Some thoughts:

1. Great choice. It's a baseball - what's the point in keeping it?
2. So, throwing a baseball away gets you on the talkshow now? We're so decadent.
3. Great response from the dad. Hope I respond that way if I get into a similar situation.

Here's Your Sign

So I tried to microwave some leftover tea on Sunday morning, and I pressed start on the microwave, and it goes something like, "puff," and the clock disappears, and that was it. Obviously, I head to the breaker box (De? Vo?). None of the breakers is messed up, so Ly and I try various ones for a while until we have acertained that the microwave has gone to microwave-heaven. Alarmed, I head to the washing machine, which still contains the load I did last night, which should have been in the dryer. I pull out the dial ... nothing. You see, the microwave and the washing machine were on the same outlet. I plug in a light later that day, which works just fine.

I'm very relieved that new washing machines are only $328 and up, with some fairly respectable ones at $450. At the same time, I'm hoping the machine had a fuse or something that took the hit. We sure liked it - it was perfect for us. I decide I'm going to open it up and see whether I can attempt surgery. Since I'm pretty busy, we spend the week without a washing machine until I finally get to it Friday night.

Inside, there gazoos of wires going every direction, but none look especially bad. I recognize that there's nothing I can do, so I put it back together and try one more time. Nothing.

Then again, maybe there's not supposed to be any water going when the dial is at the end of the washing cycle ("Off").

Balanced Lives

Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them.

Stephen Covey

Word of Wisdom for Those Buying a New Camera (System)

Source: CanonEOS.com

When you're thinking about buying a new camera...

You're not buying a camera. You are buying into a lens system.

Buy your camera for the lenses.

In other words, the lenses are the razor, the camera is the blade.