Moneyball

I finally picked up Moneyball by Micheal Lewis. It has been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple years and I've always wanted to read it but never actually sat down to do it. I think it was a combination of Fantasy Baseball heating up, I just got done with a Business Statistics class, and I saw the movie 21 about card counting in Vegas. Once I started, I was done in 3 days.

I do recommend this book even if you don't like baseball. It is the story of a general manager, Billy Beane, of the Oakland A's and how he looked at Major League Baseball differently than the other general managers by relying heavily on statistics. Billy Beane used an analysis called Sabermetrics, which ignores some traditional stats and looks for stats that actually have a difference in the outcome of the game.

The book walks through how Beane got into baseball, dives into the detail about the "history" of Sabermetrics, and the season of 2002. The Oakland A's had a salary of $41 million, roughly 1/3 of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox and still had to find a way to be competitive. For Billy Beane and his staff, to be competitive and have an incredibly low salary, he had to look at the game completely different.

One of the most intriguing chapters of the book is about the draft and being "in the room" when all the decisions were made about who to draft and when. Because the A's valued different statistics and qualities in players their draft was unpredictable and highly questioned among the rest of baseball.

If you like baseball, if you have an interest in statistics, if you want to look at something completely different than everyone else in your field, I encourage you to read this book.

Arts and Crafts Time: Journals

On Monday, the MOVE Interns arrived for the summer. For the last 4 or 5 years one of their first tasks has been to make a journal they would use for the summer....and I am the person responsible for teaching them how.

No, I am not the artsy type and I don't spend a whole lot of time sewing (although I did win a Home Economics award my senior year of high school - it was really because I made Sweet Tea and Brownies every day), but this is the 2 hours every year where my arts and crafts talents shine.

When I first came to CIY, I worked for our Discipleship program, and one of the session was teaching anywhere from 100-400 high school students how to make a journal. I did this 10 times and it was probably the most frustrating 10 moments of that year. Anyway, because of my experience with Discipleship, Ryan Claborn, the internship director, asked if I would teach the interns how to make journals.

It can be a little complicated, involving foam board, paper (obviously), glue stick, kraft paper, a tapestry needle, thread, push pin and ruler. I won't go into the details of actually making it (hey, I had to explain it yesterday to 25 college students), but every year when it is over I am glad I had the opportunity to teach them because it gets me thinking about journaling more.

When I was an intern in 2002, I kept a journal of different events that took place that summer. I came into the summer not having a clue what to expect. It wasn't until last summer when I picked up the journal from 2002 that I truly appreciated this discipline. I was able to look back and remember not only moments I had forgotten about, but also look back and see situations that shaped my life. I'll be honest - I'm not good at it. I can be lazy. But, I want to be good at it. I want to look back in 5 or 10 years and remember even more events that shaped my life.

Thanks to yesterday, I have a brand new journal. It doesn't have a ton of pages in it, but I have a fresh opportunity to keep up with my journal.

Hot Dogs, 4th Graders, and Duck-Duck-Goose

Turing into an annual tradition, yesterday, Abbey had her 4th grade class from Carterville Elementary School over to our house for an hour and a half of fun. This is the second year Abbey has been teaching and near the end of the school year (one week left) she will invite the class over on a weekend to hang out.

There were a total of 12 (out of 17) that came over and they had a blast. We grilled hot dogs (only about 6 were eaten) and had chips, cookies, root beer and fruit punch for the kids. Two people were playing guitar hero pretty much the whole time, except for the last 10 minutes when they finally turned on Dance Dance Revolution.

It was also funny to see all the girls want to play football and really just run around in the back yard. Also, Abbey's class absolutely loves relay races. So, we got out two baseball bats, divided up the team, made them spin around with their head on the bat and then try to run to the other side of the yard. One girl almost ran into the trampoline (that would have been bad for so many reasons), and one boy fell down twice pretty hard. Then we played Duck-Duck-Goose. I think the last time I played Duck-Duck-Goose I was in 4th grade.

I think only two boys actually knew my name and one of them really wanted me to play him in DDR and the other really wanted me to pitch to him outside with the baseball and bat. I opted for the baseball, but promptly quit when he about hit our neighbor's house.

I know it has only happened twice, but I love this day every year, because these are the kids who have spent almost every day with my wife for the last year. It is incredible to see how much she loves the students and how much they love her. These are the kids Abbey tells me stories about every night and the lives that she has invested in and influenced for the last year. It is also fun and educational just watching the 4th graders interact with each other for an hour and half being stupid. You can learn so much by simply watching them play guitar hero, talk about playing guitar hero, tackling each other during football, and drinking root beer.

Oh year, next year, no more fruit punch. I sure hope that doesn't leave a stain on our carpet.

Omaha Believe

Well, 13 events, 870 churches, 16,000 people later the 2007-2008 Believe Tour is over. Last weekend we were in Omaha for our last Believe event of the "Connect" Tour. This was the first time Believe had ever been in Omaha, and it turned out to be a great event. Time to plan for next year!

Highlights from last weekend:

- Nebraska Christian College sponsored the event and provided volunteers. Their volunteers were out of this world - they were great and they helped us so much. I know our load out saved over an hour because they were there.

- We were in the Qwest Center, which has the 7th most ticket sales annually over the world. Glad we could be a part of that.

- We ate at the Old Mattress Factory 3 times (only because it was close), and we were incredibly disappointed every time. But because it is so close we will probably eat there 3 more times in November.

- Seth's (our lighting engineer) family came from Colorado to see him put on a light show.

- During the last song, a few of our tech staff took apart Monte's drum set during the song. It was a great moment to finish off 3 years that Monte has traveled with Believe.

- It was good to Nate Ernsberger, Christ In Youth's representative from Compassion. This was the first Believe he has been to this year.

- Krystle and Yancy got to enjoy their favorite hotel, The Hampton Inn. (Which was incredibly nice because it has only been open since November)

- Tony Anderson took a final on stage during worship. I have nothing to say.

- Everyone chipped in to give Evan (the Keytar player) a Ipod Nano. He had his previous one stolen (or he lost it).

- Nate Head, our speaker from Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY, did a great job and got to reconnect with some of his students when he worked in Missouri.

- Johnny's birthday was on Sunday, so we celebrated with a Hannah Montana cake during the group time on Saturday. (See picture below)

- After talking to many people that attended the event, we are moving the Omaha believe to November of this year (instead of the spring) and we are excited to go back.

90%?....Really?

Where do people come up with statistics?

Last night, Abbey and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and I was blown away by our encounter with the check-out lady. A few weeks ago, Abbey purchased 2 reusable bags from Wal-Mart (pictured above). These bags take the place of having to use plastic bags every time you leave Wal-Mart. Let's just say that is our little effort to keep the earth green (this is another blog post for another day).

Anyways, as we are checking out, Abbey gives the two bags to the check-out lady, and instantly Abbey was her favorite daughter that she had not seen in 10 years. It was incredible. Check-out lady then went on to tell us all of the things that she does with her bags, by pretty much taking them everywhere when she goes shopping (Macy's, Kohl's, ANYWHERE!). Then she told us about how she gives her Mother's Day gifts, Wedding Gifts, Graduation Gifts, Baby Shower Gifts, Anything Gift in one of the bags. I was already about to explode with laughter watching the situation unfold, until she asked THE QUESTION. She asked Abbey if she has been able to tell a difference in cutting back using plastic in her life. Abbey kinda smiled and said, "No, not really, haven't really paid attention to it." The bag lady responded by saying, "I have cut back plastic in my life by 90%!"

Seriously. I am currently taking a Business Statistics class and I know how much can be involved with coming up with specific stats. You don't even have to take a class to be blown away by that statement. How in the world did she know she has cut back 90%? What does that mean? 90% of total weight plastic? Does plastic bottles count? What plastic counts and what plastic doesn't count? And how in the world can you say such a specific statistic? Does she only use the Wal-Mart plastic bags every 10th time she comes to the store?

I had to walk away half laughing, half scratching my head in amazement, and half speechless. Oh, I know, you can't have three halves - that stat doesn't make sense - but YOU have no idea how I came up with it. Clearly it doesn't matter.

Cubs v Cardinals

This past Saturday Abbey and I went the Cubs/Cardinals game in St. Louis with Jennifer and Grant. It was a great day and we had a great time in St. Louis. It was even better that the Cubs won. Although they only won one of the three games this past weekend, they won the game we went to. We went to Grant's Farm on Sunday (which I had never heard of) and it was a pretty cool place. We saw Chinese deer.

Highlights from the game:

- Once again, my favorite player, Ted Lilly, was pitching again for the Cubs. He won his second game of the year. He needs to pay me to come watch all his games.

- I talked to a guy who had his chest painted white with red lettering for about 20 minutes. He thought the season ticket holder who sold me my tickets should get his privileges revoked.

- This was Jennifer and Grant's first Cubs game, and they saw a winner.

- There was a drunk married guy two rows in front of us that was doing everything he could to pick up drunk women in the row in front of us. It was incredibly annoying.

- The Cubs can hit. They ripped the cover off the ball on Saturday and scored 9 runs.

- There was a good amount of Cubs fans. We were not alone.

- Parking was pretty cheap. Only $5 compared to $30 at Wrigley.

- The new ballpark is really nice (this was my first time to the new Busch) and definitely a step up from the old Busch.

- I could have bought a "Cubs Suck" shirt after the game. I passed.

- Our seats were great. We were 5 rows up in the bleachers and I was seated right next to the grass in center field. With the right hit ball I could have caught a home run.