Thursday, March 31, 2005
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start
Perhaps the perfect follow up to my What the Bleep? post would have to be this true story [if this really is reality, mind you] coming out of Shanghai about video gaming. Apparently, one man stabbed another man to death because he stole his cyber sword. Um, by "cyber sword" I mean an imaginary sword that only exists in a video game. Here's the lowdown:

"Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his 'dragon saber,' used in the popular online game, 'Legend of Mir 3.'" I guess Qiu lent the video game weapon to Zhu who then sold it to someone else. Qiu went to the police to report the crime, who I guess told him to go get a life because they couldn't arrest a guy for selling an imaginary sword. This lack of justice incited Qiu to violence.

OK, if the story ends here, that's plenty enough to make me shake my head in disbelief, but it's not over yet. Perhaps what is even more ridiculous is how much cash old Zhu ended up getting for this cyber sword: almost $900. NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS! FOR A VIDEO GAME SWORD! THAT YOU WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO HOLD IN YOUR HANDS! THAT TOM CRUISE WOULD HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO WIELD IN THE LAST SAMURAI!

I deliberately stay away from video games and this is exactly why. Well, not that I'm afraid of getting killed for pawning off someone's cyber sword, but for losing touch with reality. The video game industry, which used to direct their marketing efforts towards parents to buy games for their kids, are now marketing adult games to adults. We Generation X'ers never grew up. Hooray for us. Now I'm not going to play holier than thou here: I was pretty skilled at removing the spinal column of that Hollywood dude with sunglasses in Mortal Combat when I was in college [Sub-zero was da bomb]. But when I was a senior in college I finally gave my Sega Genesis away to an 11 year-old. True, giving away a violence filled game like that to a child probably wasn't the wisest decision, but the kid turned out OK, and I haven't owned a video game system since.

This story of Qiu and Zhu proves that you can get so involved in a game that you lose the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Video games are like any other addictive vice: moderation is the key. Not to offend my gaming friends, but "check yo'self before you wreck yo'self" because you might just be an addict. Step away from the controller every once in awhile and get some sun. Use sunscreen. Leave your cyber sword at home where it belongs.

If Roald Dahl were writing his Willie Wonka books today, I'm positive the Oompa Loompas would sing a song about Play Station.

***Note: The title of this posting is the code you used to have to enter in at the beginning of the Nintendo game Contra to get unlimited lives. How sad is it that I can remember that but nothing that I learned in high school math?
yet another musing of steve-o @ 8:44:00 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
What the Bleep?
Just to let you know, they had some problems with Blogger yesterday so I was unable to post. Maybe someday I'll stop being cheap and bust out from under the Blogger umbrella. But it serves me well enough for now.

Tuesdays are my day off, which is also the day they release new movies to DVD. So it's sorta become a ritual for me to head on down to Hollywood Video and pick up some flicks that I can hold on to until Sunday. It was slim pickins aesthete[Can you say Fat Albert?], so I picked up some movies that have been out a few weeks that we missed while we were out of the country.

I finally rented the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? I had heard some buzz about it. It didn't do too well in the theaters, but it has been developing underground cult status since its recent release to DVD. I found the format of the movie to be somewhat riveting as it cuts in and out between the storyline, testimonials from experts and rather interesting CGI graphics. What The Bleep attempts to answer question, "What is the meaning of life?" beginning the dialogue with quantum physics and ending in some sort of new age/scientific mumbo-jumbo.

The film begins with basic quantum physics and questioning what reality really is. It then leads into a discussion concerning the power of our minds to affect what we think reality is. Finally, we are told that it is we who play the role of God in this world- that there is no good or evil; it's up to us to determine right and wrong [by the way, I think it was CS Lewis who wrote that everyone's a relativist until you touch what's theirs]. Yeah, pretty interesting stuff. The movie falls short of what it claims to accomplish, answering no questions, while offering pie-in-the-sky theories and additional deep questions.

I do, however, think this is a movie that Christians need to see. I can see lost people flocking to this film to help them figure their lives out. This movie is a perfect hybrid of modern science and postmodern philosophy, giving it a broad base of appeal. The storyline will most likely resonate among those seeking ways to fulfill the spiritual longing in their lives.

After watching the film yesterday afternoon, I had Kelly watch it with me last night. Chances are, I'll try to watch it one more time before I return it to make sure I'm getting the jist of what they're trying to say. And apparently there's bonus material on the flip side of the DVD that I haven't gotten to yet.

I'd be interested to hear what those who have seen the movie think about it. More can be found at the movie's website: www.whatthebleep.com
yet another musing of steve-o @ 10:26:00 AM   0 comments
Monday, March 28, 2005
From Seinfield to Easter Egg Hunts
I've gotta go around the block for this one, but feel free to come along for the ride.

There's a great Seinfeld where Kramer likes to spend so much time in the shower he decides to install a garbage disposal so he can prepare food there. It's the same episode where Elaine's co-worker is a germophobe and her boyfriend is a recovering germophobe. After eating food prepared in Kramer's showers, her boyfriend Puddy exclaims, "GERMS! GERMS!"

That's what I've felt like the past few months. I was obsessed with not catching anything before our trip so I took all the necessary precautions. I was popping vitamins like they were going out of style. I kept my eye out for people who seemed to be sick and avoided them at all cost. I even used that hand sanitizer usually reserved for the ultra-germophobe. Fortunately, I made it through the whole trip without so much as a sniffle. In fact, I haven't been sick this entire winter. Then we get back to the States and everybody has this cold/flu thing, which I still wanted absolutely nothing to do with. So I attempted to maintain my ways of quarantine. Yesterday during our Easter services, where I shook a hundred hands and repeatedly emptied garbage cans, I must have washed my hands 15 times. I did everything I could do.

I now have a terrible cough that I can't get rid of.

So last night I ask Kelly if we have any NyQuil tablets [you know- the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, take me and you won't wake up till Labor Day medicine]. She said she thought we did, but I checked out the medicine cabinet and didn't see any. I decided I'd take DayQuil tablets instead. DayQuil is supposed to do the same thing as NyQuil except it won't knock you out. It did stop me from coughing . . . . at 3:00 this morning. I got about three hours of uncontinuous sleep last night as I constantly woke up coughing. By the way, I saw on the news this morning that this is Sleep awareness Week. I am well aware that I didn't get any sleep last night.

This morning, as Kelly was leaving for work, I heard her say "STEVE!" Not the normal sweet "Steve" as in "Steve, you're the prettiest man alive." No, this was more like the, "Steve, would it kill you to put your cereal bowl in the dishwasher?" kind of "Steve. " She flung an entire box of NyQuil at me and said, "Do you think you got what you deserved for not looking hard enough for this last night?" To my credit, it was generic NyQuil [something called "WalQuil"], and it came in a purple box whereas I believe the official NyQuil tablets are in a green box. So maybe it wasn't all my fault.

Then again, I've always been a horrible looker. Growing up, I was always asking my mom if we had a certain kind of food in the fridge, her saying we did, me saying I didn't see, her asking if I really looked for it, me answering that I did, her pulling it out of the fridge, and me blaming the milk for obstructing my view. I'm pretty sure there are four people I knew from the days of my youth who are still missing due to my inability to finish games of Hide-And-Go-Seek. And you know those 3-D pictures that came out in the 90's that you were supposed to stare at and an image would appear? I never, ever saw the stupid thing; to this day I'm not sure if that whole picture thing was part of an elaborate hoax to fool people like me.

Maybe that's why I truly despise Easter Egg hunts. I always used to blame the pagan origins of the exercise as the reason I hate them. But maybe that's just a huge smoke screen to mask the inferiority complex I have because I'm a bad looker. But honestly, is there no better way to remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ than to search far and wide for hard-boiled chicken embryos? At least we can Biblically prove that we have to give Christmas gifts to each other because the three wisemen [there had to be three, right?] gave gifts to the Christ child.

And maybe all these ramblings here are a mere reflection of the lack of sleep I had last night.

I've coughed 27 times since beginning this posting.

"GERMS! GERMS!"
yet another musing of steve-o @ 8:20:00 AM   0 comments
Friday, March 25, 2005
The Goodest Friday.
Today is Good Friday. This is the day we remember a Friday two-thousand years ago when Jesus was crucified. For the first times in a few years, I get the day off work. We slept in this morning and will head down to Lexington to see the in-laws.

There's a Cincinnati tradition called "praying the steps" outside the Holy Cross-Immaculata Church on Good Friday. For those unfamiliar with the topography and geography, the "Church of the Steps" is located just outside of downtown Cincy on the top of Mount Adams. There's a stairway of a couple hundred steps at the bottom the hill that lead up to the church. Every year for almost 150 years, Catholics have shown up to the church on Good Friday to say a prayer on every step until they reach the top.

Now many of us Protestant-type folk hear stuff like this and want to make fun of them. "It makes no difference where we pray," we scoff. "Why go out in the freezing rain for that?" And there's the ever popular, "Jesus died to free hollow traditions, not so that we could become slaves to more traditions," I know these statements well because I made them for years. There's something about NOT growing up Catholic in Cincinnati that tends to make you bitter and biting towards Catholics. I think I'll write more about that topic in a later posting, because many of you know what I'm talking about.

But here's the truth: I now find myself kinda jealous. How cool is it to have a spiritual legacy, like praying the steps, that runs deep? There are people who have been doing this thing fifty years. I even know a couple of people from my church who decided that they were going to pray the steps this year- yes, well educated Protestant, evangelical Christians. I don't know, but maybe the Catholics are getting this one better than we. Criticize all you want, but what are you doing this year to remember that Jesus died for you? What are our churches doing to remember the day? Chances are we'll zip through the day and not give it a second thought, treating it like President's Day or Labor Day. It's so like me to attempt to surgically remove dust from other's eyes while somewhat distracted by a Lowe's 2x4 in my own eye.

Why is this Friday good? Because for Jesus it was so bad. I'm gonna do my best to remember why I'm off work today.

*An article about this tradition was in yesterday's Enquirer: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050324/LIFE/503240317/-1/BACK
yet another musing of steve-o @ 7:49:00 AM   0 comments
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
A Bunch Of Bull
I love Cincinnati. It's my hometown and I'd love to spend the rest of my life here. Yet I always find myself on the offensive trying to refute negative stereotypes people have about my city. I've talked to people who have moved here from other parts of the country who criticize Cincy as a hillbilly, midwestern town. "There's nothing to do here. It's the most boring city in America," I've heard people say. When I hear stuff like that, it ticks me off and I kick something. We're not hicks; we're a regional center of education, industry, and commerce capable of impacting the world. Did you hear we almost brought the 2012 Olympics here? We're going places- so back off!

But then there are things like yesterday, when a cow gets loose in the streets of the city. There he was, prancing around like that elk at the beginning of Northern Exposure. And of course, it made all the national media. I saw it this morning while watching Sports Center, for crying out loud! So here we are again, backwards Cincinnatians, with cows roaming the streets. They did finally catch it in a valley near Deaconess Hospital after a few hours.

I guess it wouldn't have been so bad if the same thing hadn't happened twice within three years. But adding insult to injury, they ended up killing this cow. Apparently after you tranquilize the animal, its meat is no longer safe for consumption. So instead of sending to a cow sanctuary like the first one, they drove a bolt through its head [not to be too graphic, but it's in the Enquirer article you can read above]. Hooray for us. Cows roam our streets and we put bolts through their skulls.

So I'm about ready to give up. Maybe I should just except who we are. Maybe everyone is right and we are a bunch of rednecks. So I'm going to WalMart right now to buy me a white tank-top and a can of Skoal. I'm giving up my shoes, going squirrel hunting, and putting a big number 3 sticker on the back of my car [I guess I'll have to get the accompanying one of the little boy peeing on the number 24 too]. I'm from Cincinnati. I'm a hick. I should just get used to it.
yet another musing of steve-o @ 10:52:00 AM   0 comments
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Our Guide Steve
I don't know if all this will come across as funny as it was in real life, but I have to give it a try anyway. While we were in Israel, the tour company assigned a guide to us, to lead us around the sites and point out little-known facts about the locations. Our guide's name was Steve.

Steve is 64 years old and is from New York City. Since he was born Jewish, he took advantage of the opportunity to relocate to Israel and become a citizen there. All Israeli young men, and now even women, are required to serve two years in the military. Steve had objections to Israel's policy concerning the Palestinians and refused to serve in the West Bank. So the government threw him into jail for seven years. When he was released he went to Syracuse University to get a PhD in some kind of religious/sociological field [he really didn't want to talk about it] and has been a professional guide for about 25 years. He's fluent in Modern Hebrew, Arabic, German and French and knew both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures forwards and backwards.

Usually people as intelligent as Steve are rather eccentric. And I believe that in all my years of life on Planet Earth I've never met another character like him. For some reason he reminded me of Charlton Heston as seen in Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine. He walked everywhere with both a fanny pack, a backpack, and a megaphone contraption. He didn't move his arms while walking. And after he finished speaking a thought, he would stare off into space, as if waiting for the voice inside his head to give him permission to move on. Oh, and in the middle of the week he began telling us stories in a mouse voice. It was impossible to have a normal conversation with him. Yeah, he was classic.

So at one point during the week, while we were at the bottom of the temple mount area, he pulled out his Bible and read Psalm 24- the whole "Who will ascend the hill of the Lord" text. And once again, when he finished reading the text, he stared off into space [everytime he read Scripture, it was as if he was auditioning for Macbeth]. He then, from his Jewish perspective, talked about the importance of temple worship and approaching the temple mount. Interesting info, just a different kind of presentation.

Later that afternoon we had the opportunity to walk through Hezekiah's Tunnel. The tunnel, a waterway which King Hezekiah built to bring water into the city, is located in the Old City of David, just south of the temple mount. We knew we would be walking in a water filled cave that was four-football fields long. Steve's story was the the water would probably go up to our knees. I guess his interpretation of knees is different than mine; at some points, I had water up to my chest. After 45 minutes of traversing the chilly water in the tunnel, we exited at the Pool of Siloam. It was about 5pm. It was fifty degree weather with a blowing wind. We had no change of clothes and no towels to dry off with. We were freezing our butts off. Adding to the experience was that the place where we ended up was at the bottom of this hill south of Jerusalem.

So we're marching up this huge steep hill to get back to the rest of our group. There's traffic flying by on the road next to us. We're soaked and cold, tired and miserable, all while following our tour guide Steve in a straight line up the mountain. He hadn't said a word to us in ten minutes. Then all of the sudden he stops. He pauses and looks at us. And he shouts out in his loud theatrical voice:

"WHO WILL ASCEND THE HILL OF THE LORD?"

And then he pauses, looking up to the sky for five seconds. And he begins walking again without saying another word for like fifteen minutes.

It was the craziest thing I ever saw. I tried holding back but I just started cracking up. It was like something out of a movie.

And I'll never read Psalm 24 the same way ever again.
yet another musing of steve-o @ 9:53:00 AM   0 comments
Monday, March 21, 2005
Right To Die?
One of the news items we missed while being overseas was the whole issue with a 41 year-old woman named Terri Schiavo in Florida. Schiavo suffered brain damage about fifteen years ago when her heart stopped briefly because of a chemical imbalance. Since then she has been in a semi-comatose state and has needed a feeding tube to keep her alive. Her husband Michael said that Terri wouldn't have wanted to stay living like this and has fought for the right to remove her feeding tube. A judge gave the order for it be done at the end of last week and for four days now she's been starving to death. This is the third time her tube has been removed, with courts stepping in the first two times to save her life. No one's quite sure how it will turn out this time.

This issue goes far beyond the right-to-die issue. Suicide is when people decide to terminate their own lives. Terri hasn't articulated her desire to die [of course, she's unable to], but we're to take her husband's word that this is what she said she would've wanted. Michael is Terri's legal guardian and, according to these courts, he has the right to say that she should die.

Terri's parents and siblings have been caring for her for years, while her husband apparently hasn't seen her for years. He's since moved on to have kids with his girlfriend and could probably just divorce her and hand over guardianship to the family. But he refuses to do so. So one individual gets to choose that another individual should cease to live; sounds more like murder to me.

I know that even some Christians aren't sure how to feel about this- pro-life Christians for that matter. This very issue was brought up in the Academy Award winning movie Million Dollar Baby. Is life still valuable and worth living even when it's not up to the standard we wish it were? There are all these arguments in support of "death with dignity," but dignity itself is a subjective issue. I wouldn't deem starvation a dignified death. There are a lot of hot button issues out there that cause division among people, but the only people who seem to be in favor of killing Terri Schiavo are her husband and some judges. Something is certainly demented about this whole thing.

Sidenote: Peggy Noonan wrote an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal Op/Ed section on the lack of political power the Republican controlled government has been able to wield in this issue. Since the election I've been sick of politics and haven't cared to discuss much about it, but now that the Republicans- the protectors of Judeo/Christian values- have control of the government, how is it that they're unable to step in and make something happen here? Perhaps of all the things on the Bush agenda, the abuse of the checks and balances system by judges should be brought to the forefront. Yet another reason why I put no faith in government.
yet another musing of steve-o @ 8:37:00 AM   0 comments
Sunday, March 20, 2005
We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Program . . .
Hi. It's Kelly. I've temporarily taken over Steve's blog to say a few words.

UK ROCKS!

I stand on behalf of UK fans everywhere, especially those living in Cincinnati, to claim victory. The debate is finally over -- no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Kentucky is the dominant team. We knew it all along, but I'm glad it's now been proven to those misguided Cincinnati fans.

I don't have to take an ad out in the local newspaper or get published in the fancy Enquirer to make it known. I just let my team do the talking.

So, as I told you, Steve, I gave you one night of gracious winning. Today is the day I rub it in your face.

Enough said.
yet another musing of steve-o @ 6:27:00 PM   3 comments
Bearcat Lament
In a week where everything was going my way, I wanted the cherry to top the sundae. Who am I kidding? I wanted the New York strip steak to top that thing off. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. UC was beat by UK. Or actually, if you watched the game, UC lost the game as opposed to getting beat.

Now I know this comes off as sour grapes, but if you really watched the game, you can attest to the fact that statistically Kentucky did everything they needed to do to win a game and still Cincinnati was in a position to win. I think with like 8 minutes left it was only a three point game. After shooting over 50% in the first half, the Bearcats ended up shooting something like 32%. Do that math and you'll see that they just fell off the face of the earth. They had all the tools they needed to dominate in the paint and they never got the ball down low. All I can say is there'll be a ton of UC fans this morning calling for a jihad on Jihad.

As for how things went last night, Kelly was wise enough to invite another couple to come watch the game with us [thanks Paul and Carol]. At first I thought that was a bad idea, but it was rather brilliant. I swear I decided I would be a passive fan at the beginning of the game, but after those first few minutes of bad calls and poor defense, I was yelling at the TV. I was up and down yelling for almost two hours straight. I was giving it the effort I would have if I was in Indianapolis at the game. All to no avail. I don't think Bob Huggins heard any of the advice I was yelling at him through our 32 inch Sony television.

And how are things at the homestead? To my wife's credit, she's been a gracious and compassionate victor. I'm sure that'll end sometime this afternoon. But if the shoe were on the other foot, I'd be rubbing in a UC victory over UK until the apocalypse.

Oh, and with Wake Forest losing last night my bracket has officially imploded, so it's time to move on. So it's on to baseball and the Reds who have a revamped pitching staff that should keep us competitive. Then Masters is in a couple weeks; watching golf at August is awesome. And then Ohio State should have a good team back this fall. The Bengals finally signed Rudy and looked primed for a run. And then UC has everyone but Maxiell back and has some good recruits on tap.

I don't know what I'll do to take my mind off this devastation, though. Yes, Chicken Little, the sky has fallen.
yet another musing of steve-o @ 7:44:00 AM   0 comments
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Published too
I sent a copy of my last blog post to the Cincinnati Enquirer who decided to post it in this morning's paper. You can read their abbreviated version here: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050319/EDIT01/503190326/1020/EDIT
yet another musing of steve-o @ 7:00:00 AM   0 comments
Friday, March 18, 2005
Will the real Cats please stand up?
"So let it be written. So let it be done."

With victories in the NCAA basketball tournament yesterday, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and the University of Kentucky Wildcats will finally play each other this Saturday night for the first time in 14 years. But honestly, their not playing each other never really bothered me too much. I was always familiar with UK basketball, but I didn't care for it. Both my parents' families were from Kentucky, but sports were never a big deal in my house growing up; there was never an issue of who we should or shouldn't root for. Despite my Bluegrass roots, I was born and raised on the north side of the Ohio River so there my loyalties lie. I am from Cincinnati, so I cheer for the Bearcats. It's that simple. I couldn't have cared less about Kentucky basketball. But all that changed in 1997.

That's when I became romantically involved with the woman who would become my wife. A young lady born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Yes friends, I married a UK fan.

Simplicity gave way to complexity as I married this Kentucky girl. If I was going to make the marriage work [and especially if I wanted to gain access to my father-in-law's season tickets at Rupp Arena], I would have to make peace with the UC/UK issue. Over the past eight years of our relationship, I've evolved into a UK follower. Now for the record, I'd like to differentiate between being a "UK follower" and a "UK fan." As a "follower" I'm interested in what UK is doing and will watch and even cheer for them. They are not, however, my team. I am not a "UK fan." Cincinnati is my team. I am a UC fan. That will never change. But I've been able to achieve a yin-yang type oneness with the situation, keeping my allegiance while supporting hers. And to my wife's credit, she has done the same thing for me. She's become a UC follower. It even shows through our interior decorating: we have one room in our house painted in Cincinnati red and one in Kentucky blue.

Yet the one thing that always allowed us to balance these two opposing allegiances was that Cincinnati and Kentucky never played each other since we've been together. And now, thanks to the NCAA seeding committee, that will finally end Saturday. My wife and I will be forced to sit down and watch a game where we will root against each other's team. So far, we're keeping it together at home. We're still speaking to each other and there are no duct-taped lines around the house. I won't lie to you though: I refuse to eat any of her cooking until the game is over [and I might have to wait even longer depending on the outcome of the game]. And I'll sleep this evening with one eye open.

Since we've been together UK has won a national championship and UC . . . well, they were on the verge of doing so until Kenyon Martin broke his leg in 2000. UK has had Elite Eights and Final Fours while UC has seen repeated second-round tournament exits. She's always had the basketball bragging rights. But maybe all that will finally change tomorrow. Sure, it won't match UK's seven championship banners to UC's two, but if UC can pull it off, I'll be hoisting an imaginary banner to the rafters in my mind. I will walk around our house an empowered man, my troubled soul finally rewarded with a sense of comfort.

So it's Bearcats verses Wildcats. North verses South. Ohio verses Kentucky. Nick Lachey verses Ashley Judd. Me verses my wife. It'll finally be decided Saturday.

I've scheduled a marital counseling session for next week just in case.
yet another musing of steve-o @ 8:44:00 AM   1 comments
Thursday, March 17, 2005
The jig is up, the news is out . . .
Sorry I didn't post yesterday; I've been struggling to get caught up. Between jet lag, answering emails and NCAA Basketball brackets, I haven't been able to get back in the groove quite yet.

So about the jet lag- I've never really experienced it until now. It's crazy. The past two mornings I woke up at 2am ready to go to work; up by 5:30 yesterday and 5:00 today. It was pretty easy to adjust to the time over there, but it's been a bear here since we've returned. It has worked to my advantage though. Yesterday morning I was watching Channel 9's morning news when they said they were giving away Styx/REO Speedwagon tickets. Now in my opinion REO sucks, but Styx, even without Dennis DeYoung, rock. Kelly and I had the chance to see them two summers ago [props to Ashlee Travis] and I've been dying to see them again. So I called into the TV station and the woman who answered said I needed to sing a song to get on the air. I belted out my pre-7am interpretation of "Lady," complete with electric guitar rifts for the chorus. She said I was in, but there was a catch: I would be involved in a sing-off against another viewer for the tickets.

I scanned the internet for the correct lyrics to "Lady" because I wasn't quite fully awake and didn't want to mess up on TV. Right as I was to go on air, my cellphone half-went out on me, so I ran to the front yard for better reception. Because of my technical difficulties the other guy went first, choosing to sing REO's "I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore." Not to get all Simon Cowell on you, but it was a poor song selection and the guy struggled to find the tune. Then it was finally my turn to rock the mic and I belted out "Lady, when you're with me I'm smiling . . . " worked it with everything I could muster. Oh yes, I owned it. The result: two free tickets and a day filled with phone calls and emails from people saying, "was that you on Channel 9 this morning?"

So the only problem is that if both UC and UK win their games this afternoon [and if they do, you'll be reading about it here tomorrow] then the end of their game on Saturday would be during the concert. I think Kelly and I decided to tape the game, go to the Styx portion of the concert and then watch the game when we get home. Add all that into what we've been through the past few weeks and I'm not sure if life can get any better than this.

I'll keep you posted. But until then, "I'm sailing away . . . "
yet another musing of steve-o @ 10:51:00 AM   0 comments
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
FINALLY HOME
At 6:34 this evening, Kelly and I walked into our house. It's going to take weeks for me to think about all we've been through, but I'll begin regular postings starting again tomorrow. There's so much to muse about- things that happened there and things we missed while we were gone. We're going to force ourselves to stay up for the next few hours to fight jet-lag, and finally eat some real American food.

We're back!
yet another musing of steve-o @ 6:47:00 PM   0 comments
Saturday, March 12, 2005
On to Paris!
So we received the info this morning that we're flying out to Paris. We're sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for the bus to arrive to take us to the airport now [about 4:30am back in Cincy]. And they were able to get our whole group out on the same flight to Paris. But here's the interesting part: they won't be able to get most of us back until Tuesday evening. Yep, that means we're going to get to see Paris after all- and even spend more time there than we thought we would.

This is awesome because Kelly was really disappointed about losing the Paris part of the trip. And we'll even get an extra day there too. So we'll see how things turn out there; there's still a remote possiblilty that we won't be able to get out Tuesday.

So keep checking in now and then, and I'll try to let you know what part of the world we're in.

Two full days of French people. How lucky am I?
yet another musing of steve-o @ 4:27:00 AM   0 comments
Friday, March 11, 2005
Stuck in Israel
So I know it's been awhile since an update; internet access is hard to find here in israel. Yes, i said here in Israel. At this point in our journey we were supposed to be in Paris, ready to fly out tomorrow. Unfortunately the French are still horrible. Maybe you've seen that the French labor force has decided to go on strike. It's shut down travel throughout Europe and has put us back in Jerusalem to wait till we get a flight out of Tel Aviv. Right now it's Friday night here [Friday afternoon in the US] and it looks like we won't get out of here until Sunday at the earliest. On the bright side, this hotel that they have us in is the best one we've stayed in yet, abd we had the chance to once again explore the city of Jerusalem. it's been a great experience, but right now we're longing for home.

They tried to send a few people from our group out of the airport last night and they were there for five hours before being sent back. We're flying out of Ben Gurion airport which is notorious for their tight security. They gave a girl in the group a once over and interrogated her pretty severly. I swear, if they do that to me or Kelly, I'll call the US State Department. These Israeli soldiers are all over the place with weapons that my tax dollars helped pay for and they're going to give me a rough time?!?! So maybe I'll get to complete the Israeli tour with some time in prison.

Seriously though. it's been an incredible trip, but we're longing to get home. Hopefully it'll be sooner than later. Until then, it's watching Dumb and Dumber with Arabic subtitles: "Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?"
yet another musing of steve-o @ 2:31:00 PM   0 comments
Saturday, March 05, 2005
hello from israel!

Hello to all! Please pass this message along to others who may enjoy reading it!

Well, we've had an adventurous time so far. We flew out of Cincy a week ago and landed in Atlanta then to Paris. The Paris airport was CRAZY!!! Then safely on to Amman, Jordan, where we arrived late at night.

Jordan was interesting. Very foreign feeling. We saw some places -- we'll show you photos -- and we stood on a hill where David had Uriah the Hittite killed. Then we drove south the next day toward the lost city of Petra. Amazing! Photos galore!!! From there we went back to Amman for the night and the next day crossed over into Israel. That was an adventure! Security was tight but we got through with less interrogation than Kelly anticipated!

We saw the Old Testament city of Jericho ruins. Then an unexpected whirlwind tour as we ascended through the Judean desert and up into the Mt. of Olives. There before us was Jerusalem! (Remind us to tell you about the song!) What a view!!! We worked out way down the hill, down the path of triumphal entry (Palm Sunday), stopping at the Garden of Gethsemane and then ascending to Stephen's Gate (woo hoo) into the old city of Jerusalem.

The city was overwhelming at first -- not quite the spiritual quest we envisioned. A modern day marketplace atmosphere with lots of people hawking their wares at us! We went on the Via Delorosa and ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. That church is on the location where they say Jesus' tomb was located. Kelly didn't realize it's also the area where He was crucified. Can we say gaudy?! Yes, it was a bit sad to see the different areas of the huge church where Christian sects each had their place to decorate with many tributes, incense, etc. By the end of the night, we were sort of disappointed. But Kelly had this thought hit her: "Blessed are those who believe and yet do not see." Kelly was expecting to "see" something or to touch something Jesus had touched. (Thomas the apostle was her kind of guy!) But then she realized that her whole life she's had this faith and has not seen. Why should being in this place be any different?

Fortunately, the next day was a brighter, more spiritual side to the city. We saw the Western Wall and each got to pray there and place a prayer in its cracks. We saw the Temple Mount with the famous Dome of the Rock on it. (They currently don't let people in.) We also saw the stones that fell when Romans attacked the temple and destroyed it in 70 AD. We also saw the steps up to the entrance and exit of the temple where Jesus would've walked. (Kelly got to step where He had stepped!!) We had a wonderful time in the Jewish quarter of town. Then headed down to the old city of David (not currently in the walls but where Jerusalem used to be.) Steve went with a group through King Hezekiah's water tunnel. Kelly opted out with a few others because of claustrophobia. Steve was the only manly man to walk it barefoot. This tunnel was a person wide and dark and had water at times up to his waist. Unfortunately, this was a very chilly evening. So he sloshed around the rest of the night with the others, all of them with chattering teeth. We ended the night going through the rabbinical tunnel. This was built under where the Muslims currently live. It was built to go along the entire length of the western wall where the temple had been.

Friday we went to Bethlehem. First we saw a fortress King Herod (the guy who killed the babies when Jesus was born) built called the Herodium. It overlooked Bethlehem -- pretty close for a guy searching to kill the messiah. We went into Bethlehem and saw the Church of the Nativity. Then we went into a massive store and got many gifts.

Today was our free day. And boy have we used it to the fullest. From 9:00 to 12:30 in the morning, this is what we did: walked the entire city outside the walls, stopping at Schindler's grave, the church dedicated to the upper room and one dedicated to Mary, went down into the Kidron Valley and saw Zechariah and Absalom's tombs, went back up the Mt. of Olives (just to see the view again!) and then back down to continue around the wall, passing through the Muslim cemetary (we'll explain it later) and on around back to our hotel. We would love to know how many miles that was!

The hotel here in Jerusalem is MUCH better than the two in Jordan. Very nice for a four-night stay. The food here is good. In Jordan it was very Mediterranean. There are street hagglers at every stop, trying to sell us anything and everything. It is also neat to see the various people -- Muslim, Orthodox Jews in their black hats and clothing, etc. There are military, both Palestinian and Israeli with their guns. They've borded our bus at checkpoints to make sure we look OK. But all in all, we feel very safe. We've had such peaceful moments.

We have one full week left. Next week we head to the Dead Sea and Galilee areas. And then on to Paris where we hear it's snowing now. Brrr. We're having fun, but we wish you could be here to see it too. Love to all!

Steve and Kelly!
yet another musing of steve-o @ 6:10:00 AM   0 comments

Here Am I


steve-o
Cincinnati, Ohio

I am disciple. I am husband. I am father. I am pastor. I am friend. I am Cincinnatian. I am westside. I am thirty [plus five]. I am what I am. I am Spartacus.

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