Smoke Gets His 4th Watkin's Glen Victory!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Hello All...Here's Something New!
I am still here in the land of the living. I am blogging at the internet station of the public library. This will have to do until I have paid off my debt (ala the Dave Ramsey plan) and get my DSL turned back on.
I am doing well. Still working at the South Bend Police Department (dispatching) and still singing with the Vocal Team at GCC.
Speaking of GCC....this last Thursday night at New Community, the speaker was teaching on a passage dealing with the character of Benaniah (the son of Jehoida). Among other things this young man did, he 'chased a lion into a pit!' Did you catch that? He CHASED a lion! Well, the crux of the message was whether we as Christ-followers wanted to just run from risky lives and choices (or even just flirt with them), or did we want to do something totally unexpected and powerful?
Well, during this message - I felt a fire being lit under me. I have always flirted with a specific idea and until that night had just kind of sloughed it off as a whim. But now I feel like God is challenging me to step out and risk doing something powerful and unexpected. Wanna know what it is? I'm really stepping out here with this, and am not really sure what sort of Pandora's box I may open. But........
I'm going to write a book!
Not just any book, but a book about myself. Over the years, I have had countless people ask me if I had been burned in a fire and how it happened. When I tell them the short version of the story, they all say the same thing, "That is amazing! You should write a book about that!"
During the message on Thursday night, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I even had chapter titles popping into my head. I will have so many things to do, to perhaps bring this project to reality. I will need to come up with a pretty reasonable sum of money to purchase all of my old medical records & pictures from the Shriner's Burns Hospital. I will want to try to talk to those involved in the initial fire and some who were a part of my life through the years. Plus the whole aspect of the writing itself. Seems like a daunting task. But, if God will's it, he will help provide the means to do it. Now that I've shared my idea, I guess I'll have to follow through, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I will most certainly need and desire them.
Let me know if you have any thoughts about this idea. Thanks all and God bless.
I am doing well. Still working at the South Bend Police Department (dispatching) and still singing with the Vocal Team at GCC.
Speaking of GCC....this last Thursday night at New Community, the speaker was teaching on a passage dealing with the character of Benaniah (the son of Jehoida). Among other things this young man did, he 'chased a lion into a pit!' Did you catch that? He CHASED a lion! Well, the crux of the message was whether we as Christ-followers wanted to just run from risky lives and choices (or even just flirt with them), or did we want to do something totally unexpected and powerful?
Well, during this message - I felt a fire being lit under me. I have always flirted with a specific idea and until that night had just kind of sloughed it off as a whim. But now I feel like God is challenging me to step out and risk doing something powerful and unexpected. Wanna know what it is? I'm really stepping out here with this, and am not really sure what sort of Pandora's box I may open. But........
I'm going to write a book!
Not just any book, but a book about myself. Over the years, I have had countless people ask me if I had been burned in a fire and how it happened. When I tell them the short version of the story, they all say the same thing, "That is amazing! You should write a book about that!"
During the message on Thursday night, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I even had chapter titles popping into my head. I will have so many things to do, to perhaps bring this project to reality. I will need to come up with a pretty reasonable sum of money to purchase all of my old medical records & pictures from the Shriner's Burns Hospital. I will want to try to talk to those involved in the initial fire and some who were a part of my life through the years. Plus the whole aspect of the writing itself. Seems like a daunting task. But, if God will's it, he will help provide the means to do it. Now that I've shared my idea, I guess I'll have to follow through, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I will most certainly need and desire them.
Let me know if you have any thoughts about this idea. Thanks all and God bless.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Bye
To all - I am shutting off my DSL - so I will not be blogging for quite a while. So see ya later.
Tim
Tim
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Eric Johnson Desert Rose
My favorite guitar player crankin' out one of my favorite songs on an old episode of Austin City Limits. Dig the marching band jacket...yeah!
Miss USA takes a Fall
Uhhhhh....maybe this had something to do with Miss USA being the 'FIFTH' runner-up!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
He thought he knew it all. Guess not!
Kent Jennings, the winner of the largest Jeopardy jackpot - proves that while he may know more than most of us about opera, 18-Century Authors, etc. He still has a hidden 'darker side." He, He.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Who Casts the First Stone?
The other day I was at work in the Police Department radio room, when we received a call of an unwanted person. It seemed that there was a known (and registered) sex-offender who was at a little league park watching a baseball game. The caller wanted this man to leave and since the man didn't want to, they called the police to remove him.
I have told people that my job can cause you to become rather jaded about what goes on in the word. But, in this particular instance, I felt differently. The people I work with, were as quick to pass judgement on this person as the people at the little league park. We pulled the person's picture up at the on-line site for registered sex-offenders in the community, and this person did look a little scary. The police were sent out and the man left on his own, without any kind of police involvement. But I could not shake a single thought rattling in my brain. "Was this person really doing something wrong?"
I mean, obviously this person had committed a wrongful act (with a minor) in the past, and that was why they were registered as a sex-offender. However, no one knew what it was, or if they had received the help necessary to solve the problem. I am pretty confident that there was not a computer terminal at the little league. So, the people were following along with the information of someone who knew of this person's past.
I kept thinking to myself, "sure someone can be found guilty of something and must face the consequences of their misdeed. But where is the point where we attempt to allow that person to try to show themselves as trustworthy again? My own children have done some very foolish things and may have broken my trust. They have also had to pay some serious consequences for what they did. But, does that mean that I can never trust them again? Certainly not.
Now I know some will say that I am comparing apples to oranges, but the day after this occurred, I was reading my Bible and found something interesting. I was reading in Deuteronomy 17. Moses is speaking to the Israelites before they cross the Jordan into the promised land. He reminds them of the laws and regulations God had established for them. In Chapter 17, verses 6 & 7, it says this:
"But only on the testimony of two or three witnesses may a person be put to death (by stoning). No one may be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stones in the execution, then the community joins in."
Jesus uses this very same regulation when confronted by the Pharisees. They had caught a woman in the act of adultery; a sexual offense of great magnitude in that day.
Jesus tells the crowd in John 8:7:
"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
One by one, they all leave, until the woman is left alone with Jesus. In my mind, I can see the men who surround this woman, thinking of how they are only there ready to kill this woman, because of what the Pharisees have told them. Did they really see it? Did more than one of them? Two or three? Did they burst in and catch her in the act? Who knew for sure? Jesus did. He was fully man, yet still fully God. He knew that even though this woman had been guilty of doing wrong, the people accusing her were not without their own sin. He knew that the Pharisees would never throw the first stone, but would rather depend on the angry crowd to do it for them. The Pharisee's were to be the first to cast the stones, and when they did not, the crowd could not. When confronted with their own sin, they knew they could not continue. They dropped their rocks and left. The woman was left alone with Jesus, who told her that he did not condemn her and told her, "Go now and leave your life of sin."
I wonder had Jesus been at that little league park the day this incident happened, how would it have played out? In today's world of hate, contempt and suspicion, is there no more room for the grace and love that Jesus showed us? And if we dare to boldly offer it, will it bring a change in those it is given? I hope so.
I have told people that my job can cause you to become rather jaded about what goes on in the word. But, in this particular instance, I felt differently. The people I work with, were as quick to pass judgement on this person as the people at the little league park. We pulled the person's picture up at the on-line site for registered sex-offenders in the community, and this person did look a little scary. The police were sent out and the man left on his own, without any kind of police involvement. But I could not shake a single thought rattling in my brain. "Was this person really doing something wrong?"
I mean, obviously this person had committed a wrongful act (with a minor) in the past, and that was why they were registered as a sex-offender. However, no one knew what it was, or if they had received the help necessary to solve the problem. I am pretty confident that there was not a computer terminal at the little league. So, the people were following along with the information of someone who knew of this person's past.
I kept thinking to myself, "sure someone can be found guilty of something and must face the consequences of their misdeed. But where is the point where we attempt to allow that person to try to show themselves as trustworthy again? My own children have done some very foolish things and may have broken my trust. They have also had to pay some serious consequences for what they did. But, does that mean that I can never trust them again? Certainly not.
Now I know some will say that I am comparing apples to oranges, but the day after this occurred, I was reading my Bible and found something interesting. I was reading in Deuteronomy 17. Moses is speaking to the Israelites before they cross the Jordan into the promised land. He reminds them of the laws and regulations God had established for them. In Chapter 17, verses 6 & 7, it says this:
"But only on the testimony of two or three witnesses may a person be put to death (by stoning). No one may be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stones in the execution, then the community joins in."
Jesus uses this very same regulation when confronted by the Pharisees. They had caught a woman in the act of adultery; a sexual offense of great magnitude in that day.
Jesus tells the crowd in John 8:7:
"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
One by one, they all leave, until the woman is left alone with Jesus. In my mind, I can see the men who surround this woman, thinking of how they are only there ready to kill this woman, because of what the Pharisees have told them. Did they really see it? Did more than one of them? Two or three? Did they burst in and catch her in the act? Who knew for sure? Jesus did. He was fully man, yet still fully God. He knew that even though this woman had been guilty of doing wrong, the people accusing her were not without their own sin. He knew that the Pharisees would never throw the first stone, but would rather depend on the angry crowd to do it for them. The Pharisee's were to be the first to cast the stones, and when they did not, the crowd could not. When confronted with their own sin, they knew they could not continue. They dropped their rocks and left. The woman was left alone with Jesus, who told her that he did not condemn her and told her, "Go now and leave your life of sin."
I wonder had Jesus been at that little league park the day this incident happened, how would it have played out? In today's world of hate, contempt and suspicion, is there no more room for the grace and love that Jesus showed us? And if we dare to boldly offer it, will it bring a change in those it is given? I hope so.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Junior says, "See Ya!"
Tactical Error
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! SportsMay 10, 2007
The Boston Red Sox once sold Babe Ruth so its owner could fund a play. The Portland Trail Blazers once passed on Michael Jordan. The Minnesota Vikings once traded five players and six draft picks for Herschel Walker.
None of those moves were as disastrously bad as the one Teresa Earnhardt made when she thought she could call Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s bluff about leaving his late father's racing team.
Her stepson was serious. Painfully so for DEI.
Thursday at his JR Motorsports headquarters in North Carolina, Earnhardt Jr. announced he is leaving DEI. Whether he is going to drive for his own team or will join an existing competitor is not certain.
What is known is that he'll still be sponsored by Budweiser, still will drive a Chevy and, of course, still be the overwhelmingly most popular and recognizable driver in NASCAR.
Only now, he'll be doing it for even more money and even more (if not total) control.
Junior had asked for a majority stake of DEI to stay. No one yet knows how negotiations between Junior and Teresa broke down – maybe Teresa really did all she could, but it doesn't seem like she was willing to give Junior the 51 percent control he wanted. Now she has 100 percent of a company in ruin.
Financially, the best move for Junior would be to expand his JR Motorsports, currently a Busch Series operation, to Nextel Cup, where he and current teammate Martin Truex could form a two-car team. With engine and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports, winners of seven of the season's 10 races, it could be a formidable team from Daytona on.
Most importantly, it would allow Junior to control the outrageous revenue he brings in, cashing in on the popularity that made him bigger than DEI, even if DEI couldn't realize it.
Since his father's on-track death in 2001, Earnhardt Jr., now 32, has become the driving force in all of NASCAR. He has what, half the fans? Sixty percent? Seventy? Any track, any weekend is a home game for Junior, as a sea of red-clad worshippers make him more beloved than his nearest competitors – the likes of Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon – combined.
When Junior takes the lead the place goes nuts. When someone bumps him into a wreck, they'll be met, eventually, with a hail of boos and beer cans from the grandstands.
There essentially is nothing else like it in sports. Only Tiger Woods controls golf in the same manner – assuring crowds, television ratings and revenue. But Woods doesn't play every week, and culturally golf and NASCAR fans are little alike.
Even so, you wouldn't see Nike Golf let Tiger walk under almost any circumstances. You wouldn't see Nike co-founder Phil Knight assume he could just rebuild the division with someone else. Nike knows Tiger is the golf division.
That Teresa Earnhardt didn't see the same in her stepson is stunning. Maybe she really never does show up at the track? Maybe she really never talks to Junior and still thinks he was some silly, hard-partying kid who didn't know the difference between tens of millions and hundreds of millions?
Whatever it was, it was a colossal miscalculation.
If both Junior and Truex leave (Truex's future is unknown), DEI's Nextel Cup driver stable would consist of rookie Paul Menard and, uh, yeah, that's it.
It will still have the Intimidator's likeness to sell – a considerable cash stream. And Jeffrey Earnhardt – Senior's grandson and Junior's nephew – is under contract, but he's 17 and several years away, if ever.
But other than that, it's a leveling of the company. By not sharing more with Junior, Teresa wound up with all of nothing.
Meanwhile, if Junior keeps this in-house at JR Motorsports (where his sister Kelley is president) he officially can begin to print money. His new operation will select its marketing partners from a crush of Fortune 500 companies.
In terms of merchandise sales, this could be historic; the most popular driver with a new car and number.
Many fans hope Richard Childress Racing would surrender the rights to Senior's No. 3 and allow Junior to run it himself, but no matter the number, there are millions of Junior fans now in the market for new T-shirts, bumper stickers, key chains, flag, tattoos and heaven knows what else. The No. 8 is obsolete.
It's like the New York Yankees changing colors. Only with more fans who are more loyal.
If Junior is as smart as he has demonstrated recently, he'd invest some of that revenue into a great CEO for JR Motorsports.
And that is, perhaps, why just joining an existing team, albeit with a hefty compensation or partial ownership deal, would be the better choice. The demands of being an owner-driver can become too big. It's a double responsibility that has proven extremely challenging for Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon.
Earnhardt needs to concentrate mostly on driving.
Of course, it's not like he's been tearing up the track. The most remarkable thing about his popularity is that it is not – like Tiger Woods' – based on dominating the competition.
Junior never has won a Cup title, hasn't won a race in a year and has taken checkers just twice since 2004. Yet he has the most fans.
The on-track results had to factor into his decision to walk. It's not like DEI was giving him the best car each week to begin with. If they weren't going to meet his business demands either, what was the point?
But for whatever reason, Teresa Earnhardt figured he wouldn't leave his daddy's company. Maybe she underbid him. Maybe she refused to give up control. Maybe she banked on a family discount.
Whatever it was, she guessed wrong. Terribly so. The good news for DEI is it only took the Red Sox 86 years to recover from something so dumb.
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! SportsMay 10, 2007
The Boston Red Sox once sold Babe Ruth so its owner could fund a play. The Portland Trail Blazers once passed on Michael Jordan. The Minnesota Vikings once traded five players and six draft picks for Herschel Walker.
None of those moves were as disastrously bad as the one Teresa Earnhardt made when she thought she could call Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s bluff about leaving his late father's racing team.
Her stepson was serious. Painfully so for DEI.
Thursday at his JR Motorsports headquarters in North Carolina, Earnhardt Jr. announced he is leaving DEI. Whether he is going to drive for his own team or will join an existing competitor is not certain.
What is known is that he'll still be sponsored by Budweiser, still will drive a Chevy and, of course, still be the overwhelmingly most popular and recognizable driver in NASCAR.
Only now, he'll be doing it for even more money and even more (if not total) control.
Junior had asked for a majority stake of DEI to stay. No one yet knows how negotiations between Junior and Teresa broke down – maybe Teresa really did all she could, but it doesn't seem like she was willing to give Junior the 51 percent control he wanted. Now she has 100 percent of a company in ruin.
Financially, the best move for Junior would be to expand his JR Motorsports, currently a Busch Series operation, to Nextel Cup, where he and current teammate Martin Truex could form a two-car team. With engine and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports, winners of seven of the season's 10 races, it could be a formidable team from Daytona on.
Most importantly, it would allow Junior to control the outrageous revenue he brings in, cashing in on the popularity that made him bigger than DEI, even if DEI couldn't realize it.
Since his father's on-track death in 2001, Earnhardt Jr., now 32, has become the driving force in all of NASCAR. He has what, half the fans? Sixty percent? Seventy? Any track, any weekend is a home game for Junior, as a sea of red-clad worshippers make him more beloved than his nearest competitors – the likes of Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon – combined.
When Junior takes the lead the place goes nuts. When someone bumps him into a wreck, they'll be met, eventually, with a hail of boos and beer cans from the grandstands.
There essentially is nothing else like it in sports. Only Tiger Woods controls golf in the same manner – assuring crowds, television ratings and revenue. But Woods doesn't play every week, and culturally golf and NASCAR fans are little alike.
Even so, you wouldn't see Nike Golf let Tiger walk under almost any circumstances. You wouldn't see Nike co-founder Phil Knight assume he could just rebuild the division with someone else. Nike knows Tiger is the golf division.
That Teresa Earnhardt didn't see the same in her stepson is stunning. Maybe she really never does show up at the track? Maybe she really never talks to Junior and still thinks he was some silly, hard-partying kid who didn't know the difference between tens of millions and hundreds of millions?
Whatever it was, it was a colossal miscalculation.
If both Junior and Truex leave (Truex's future is unknown), DEI's Nextel Cup driver stable would consist of rookie Paul Menard and, uh, yeah, that's it.
It will still have the Intimidator's likeness to sell – a considerable cash stream. And Jeffrey Earnhardt – Senior's grandson and Junior's nephew – is under contract, but he's 17 and several years away, if ever.
But other than that, it's a leveling of the company. By not sharing more with Junior, Teresa wound up with all of nothing.
Meanwhile, if Junior keeps this in-house at JR Motorsports (where his sister Kelley is president) he officially can begin to print money. His new operation will select its marketing partners from a crush of Fortune 500 companies.
In terms of merchandise sales, this could be historic; the most popular driver with a new car and number.
Many fans hope Richard Childress Racing would surrender the rights to Senior's No. 3 and allow Junior to run it himself, but no matter the number, there are millions of Junior fans now in the market for new T-shirts, bumper stickers, key chains, flag, tattoos and heaven knows what else. The No. 8 is obsolete.
It's like the New York Yankees changing colors. Only with more fans who are more loyal.
If Junior is as smart as he has demonstrated recently, he'd invest some of that revenue into a great CEO for JR Motorsports.
And that is, perhaps, why just joining an existing team, albeit with a hefty compensation or partial ownership deal, would be the better choice. The demands of being an owner-driver can become too big. It's a double responsibility that has proven extremely challenging for Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon.
Earnhardt needs to concentrate mostly on driving.
Of course, it's not like he's been tearing up the track. The most remarkable thing about his popularity is that it is not – like Tiger Woods' – based on dominating the competition.
Junior never has won a Cup title, hasn't won a race in a year and has taken checkers just twice since 2004. Yet he has the most fans.
The on-track results had to factor into his decision to walk. It's not like DEI was giving him the best car each week to begin with. If they weren't going to meet his business demands either, what was the point?
But for whatever reason, Teresa Earnhardt figured he wouldn't leave his daddy's company. Maybe she underbid him. Maybe she refused to give up control. Maybe she banked on a family discount.
Whatever it was, she guessed wrong. Terribly so. The good news for DEI is it only took the Red Sox 86 years to recover from something so dumb.
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