Niner and Raiders, oh my!

well, at least one of my local teams won a game... to bad it was at the expense of another losing...

what a year we are having, huh? the niners are looking pretty good (compared to last year, anyway), real "scrappy" and fiesty... the radiers just look tired. it's sad to hear these comments in the media about Moss "losing hope" and wanting to be traded... all the raiders really need (well, they need a lot, but in my opinion the most important thing...) is to revamp that offensive line... Art Shell!!!! do something man!!!!! if there were anything he should understand, it's the O-line... what a mess....

i was really disapointed that the raiders pulled Andrew Walter late in the game... at this point they should just let him play... it's the best way to learn. that's what the niners have done for Alex Smith, just let him play... eventually he will start to feel more comfortable and start to improve...

it's still a long ways to go... 12 more weeks, right? and the raider already had thier bye...

anyway, at least my fantasy team is 4 - 1... yeah baby! lost this week but that's alright... i'll bounce back big, no problem... the Toros Locos are going to the superbowl!

more later...

another month of nothing

well, i did it again. why bother having a blog if you don't write in it, right?

i actually like the idea of a blog, it's a great place to vent and share ideas... it's just getting into the routine of writing in it, ya know?

i have a problem of not being able to focus on more than one or two things in my life at any given time... right now it's been work... and fantasy football. i have let school and other things suffer.

so i will take one more crack at this. either i write in my blog at least twice a week for the next month, or i hang it up.

so we'll see, ok? oh, and i will do my best to keep with the theme... because i continue to find a lot of humor and a lot of frustration in living in SF. of all the places to live when you are a politicaly and socialy moderate to conservative, evangelical christian, i had to pick SF (not like i had a choice, growing up here and marrying a woman that will never leave here, oh well).

look for updates on football, fantasy football and my latest stab at microsoft...

later and God bless,
marc

So why did i start a blog?

good question, huh? i thought this would be a good place to talk about my life as a regular guy in the ultraliberal city of San Francisco. a place to vent and talk about whatever i wanted.

well, i did here what i do so often everywhere else in my life. i got all excited and jumped on it... only to get distracted by the next shiny little thing and run off in a different direction. so, i realized that i had started something fun here, and decided to stay committed to something i started for once and keep posting.

you should know that there are things in my life i stay commited to. my marriage for one. my sobriety and recvoery program for another. my job. my church. oh, and let's not forget a very important part of my life every year from September to January... my fantasy football league! what's up fellas?!? it's gonna be my year, i can feel it. look out for El Pollo Locos this season!

anyway, i'm doing here what i'm doing in other areas of my life... learning to commit to it and staying with it. so, for those of you that have commented on my blog and liked what i was saying... i'm back! and i'll keep talking about the great things about being a regular guy here if SF, and complaining about the other stuff.

so please drop by, i'll be here.

Be Aware of the Crisis in Darfur...

this is a good article on the humanitarian aid currently being sent to Darfur...

http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/ the post is titled "Darfur: Aid, Though Hefty, Leaves Gaps"

and on that note, please see the links in the right-hand column on this page to learn more about the genocide that is taking place in Darfur... and please prayerfully consider signing the many email petitions that are available that get sent to our elected officials asking that the U.S. take a stronger stand in stopping this crisis. remember Rwanda? we sat by and hundreds of thousands died... we can't let it happen again. our government needs to take a stronger stance on this genocide... on our own and through the UN. let our goverment know that you care.

The Meaning of the Title

over the weekend i got to thinking about the title of my blog. i realize that it would indicate a platform by which i would be talking primarily about my faith and life as a child of God. but i think i want to clarify what i meant by the title...

i find it humorous (and often frustrating) to be one of the average joes in a city like SF. the media has long ago decided to ignore us, and the general impression that most people outside of the City have of us is the far-left liberals, overturning garbage cans and smashing windows in war protests, or dressing up in drag to rally at City Hall to scream at young people that have come to pray for this City.

what people don't see are the thousands of regular, moderate to conservative, singles and families that call SF home. we are the folks that go about our lives like much of the rest of the country; we work, go to school, raise our kids and pay our taxes. many of us grew up here in Frisco or at least in the Bay Area. many of us are immigrants; we came from central America and Asia with our families (and years ago we were the Irish and Italians), looking for a place where we can raise our families... and as i have already stated, you can bet that most of us are moderate or conservative. many of us don't agree with the often far-left political stances our mayor and board of supervisors take; but rather than dressing up and hitting the streets we wait for the ballot boxes to open and try make our voice heard there.

we accept that many non-natives flock to our fair city from other parts of the US because they like what the media has portrayed us as... a place of radical ideas and a "shoot the bird at the establishment" type of attitude. an "anything goes" place. that's ok. but they shouldn't be so shocked and angry when they come across regular people living here that don't agree with all that they stand for... and besides, most of us were here first.

now, i'm not saying that i am an extreme conservative that blindly believes all that the current administration tries to shove down our throats. i don't buy into the idea that "republican = christian"... i would be a fool not to see that politicians tell us what they know we want to hear. i don't trust corporate America anymore than the far-left, "fur equals murder" vegans that hang out in the same coffee shops that i do. i take my business to the small local vendors in my neighborhood. i lament the death of the small family farm (thank goodness that we here if Frisco support our local farmer's markets and our small produce shops scattered throughout our city, allowing local farms to exist).

anyway. this blog is about all this. it is a personal soapbox, not a pulpit. will i talk about the Lord and about my faith? you bet. it's the most important thing in my life. BUT, this blog is about the daily living as the regular guy in SF. i'm sure many people, on both sides of the spectrum, will not like it, but that's ok. i'm not writing this blog to win a popularity contest, i'm writing it for my own "personal therapy" if you will. if you don't like it or don't agree with me, you don't have to read it.

later...

What a Weekend

wow. busy weekend... we (my wife and i) always have church on sundays, but this weekend we also have 2 funerals and a childs birthday party. its pretty rare that we go to a funeral at all (we're young yet, most of our family and friends are young and healthy), now we have 2? makes for a somber week, i'll tell you that.

today's memorial service is Chuck. old friend of the family, really great guy. just a couple of months ago he came to see me in the hospital after a big scare due to my back surgeries (a whole 'nother story), and he looked happy and energetic. a few weeks later he starts feeling lousy, and in just a matter of 5 weeks or so he's gone... cancer of course. saw him in the hospital last week... man, he was a whole different guy from the one that came to visit me....

so anyway, we are busy paying our respect this weekend. in the middle of all this mourning we are managing to go to our nephew's birthday party... it's cool, isn't it? there is life and youth, and there is death... sometimes we see it coming sometimes we don't, but as time moves forward so do we. wow, don't i sound profound... sorry, i hate sounding like i'm trying to be a poet or or the next Thoreau...

RIP Chuck. thank you for being you, and for your love and support over the years. you were an awsome guy, a real friend to my parents and us kids. i can't help but think that God had a big pipe organ installed in heaven for you... i can picture you pounding away on it right now.

so this is how it starts

well, i guess this is the start of something that i swore i would never do... keep a journal. i think that by calling it a "blog" that it doesn't give me that "oh no, this is boring and redundant" feeling. and besides, where else can i share my ideas and opinions with someone besides my captive audience (wife).

i don't think it matters if anyone reads this or not... it's more for me to sort out all the stuff in my head and express my feelings about being a regular, married straight guy and an evangelical christian in a city like SF. oh, and also about being in recovery (41/2 years clean and sober).

i don't know how often i will write in this blog... my goal is at least twice a week. in addition to dumping my thoughts onto my laptop i will probably be listing links to anything that interests me and that i think should interest everyone else... LOL

so this is how it starts... see ya' around the blog pages...
marc