You win some… you lose some… and some you lose… you lose badly. Unfortunately, this week NU travels to Lubbock where things may get ugly again. Possibly even worse than last week. But I still have hope.

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of supporting Nebraska football, even if they never get back to playing like that amazing run from the late 1960’s through the 1990’s.

Here’s a well done recent interview with Eric Crouch.

David Max runs the Huskerpedia website and he gets Crouch to relax and I think it is fun to hear Eric talking about his life and his time at Nebraska. I especially enjoyed his account of the Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass. Husker fans are insane… I mean? A Wikipedia article for that play? Awesome.

but I still picked NU to win 33-31 over at Huskerpedia (because 32-31 was already taken)

Here’s the deal… Mizzou has always been the sleeping giant of midwest football (along with Illinois) and it seems like they’ve finally put fences up around the border to keep other schools from recruiting their top players. You’ve gotta give credit for that. Now that Mizzou is regularly getting *all* the top talent from KC and St. Louis they have a chance to compete every year.

Reasons Mizzou will win:

• They have better talent at almost all positions.
• Chase Daniel is a fantastic QB and his receivers hang on to the ball. He’s one of those players that has gotten to a point where everything in the game comes so naturally and is so routine that you get the idea that he could be planning out his NFL fantasy football strategy while he drops back and avoids the pass rush.
• Mizzou’s improved running game (from last year) will help the offense in multiple ways.
• Big plays… again and again.

Reasons Husker fans should have some hope:

• For the most part, Nebraska has always competed on a national level with less talent than the other schools. The players’ passion, attitude, and teachableness (teachability?) puts them on equal footing. Bo Pelini and staff have brought these traits back to Husker football.
• Depth is a problem, but NU’s D line can get pressure on Daniel and they need to hit him every play.
• Mizzou’s D is not very good. They have playmakers, though.
• If the game stays close, I think that Pinkel will give NU three to ten points somehow.
• Nate Swift and Todd Peterson are excellent receivers and can make big plays.

It is easy to see why Mizzou is the clear favorite but I think Nebraska has a shot. I know Mizzou is *way* better than Virginia Tech, but there were about 3 plays that made the game v. VaTech an “L” instead of a “W”, despite subpar play. To play so poorly against a good team like VaTech and still have a chance to win in the final minute says something about this year’s Huskers.

I think that this is the first time since I’ve been in Taiwan (since 1999) that I won’t be able to follow at least part of a Nebraska game online. Due to the late game start time and our church taking a trip to visit a church in another city tomorrow (which means leaving early) I probably won’t know anything of the game until I get home and the game is long over.

GO BIG RED!

Am I the only expat that thinks that a successful trip to renew a passport or Alien Registration Card should result in taking the rest of the day off and celebrating with a feast at Chili’s? Successfully renewed passports for these 2 today…

I think that 3 typhoons in 3 weeks is enough. Yes… we had one 2 weeks ago… a bigger one last weekend… and a chance of another one this weekend. Please… no.

I like Facebook. In fact. I love it. I even love the “new” Facebook. This is the greatest networking app of all time… so far. Friend me, OK?

It’s a great talk in so many ways (unless you are one to throw the baby out with the bathwater) and it will be exciting to see what is discovered when they fire that baby back up again in 2009 after encountering a problem with one of its magnets a few weeks ago shortly after they fired it up. I’m sure they aren’t going to find God in the LHC tests… but this verse seems more than a little relevant.

“All the beads just randomly fell off!” says Mollie, surrounded by 1.35 billion little perler beads that used to be on the flower template that is still in her hand. Here’s Mollie with Zi-ying.

Last week was the Taiwan Missionary Summer Conference. Drs. David Roadcup and Darrell Bock paired up to make the week memorable in so many ways. I have not looked at the list of past speakers through the 56 previous conferences, but I’d guess that these 2 men brought a combination of wisdom, scholarship, straight talk, passion, and grace beyond any other pair of speakers in the history of the conference. They were not only excellent from the stage, but also in casual time and meals together and in Q and A sessions. All attendees were especially blessed this year.

My co-worker, David Atkin, was the conference chairman and did an excellent job. He was able to institute a number of small changes and tweaks to the workings of the conference that were a benefit to all.

Another co-worker, Chad Edwards, was responsible for leading most of the music and did an outstanding job. I’m always blown away by his talent… which is to such a high degree and so naturally obtained that he himself usually doesn’t realize just how talented he is! I’ve played guitar and percussion with Chad on numerous occasions and he makes us all look and sound good. Last week I played bass guitar for the first time on stage or before more than about 15 people (mostly family and co-workers) and it went well for the most part. I’m very new to the bass, but have the sense of rhythm it takes to play it passably. Outside of a couple major mess-ups… I felt pretty good about playing the bass last week.

I spent quite a bit of time during the week with administrative responsibilities related the the TMF organization. I’ve been on the TMF administrative committee for 3 years and enjoyed my term. At this point, I could leave the committee, but I’m not sure I will do so. I’ve been asked by several people to assume the position of administrative committee chairman, but am still in prayer as to if this is God’s calling or not. I would appreciate your prayers in this matter. I have a deep appreciation for TMF and have many ideas that I think would prove helpful to the organization and to all missionaries in Taiwan, but our primary work besides family is to plant churches… I’m not clear yet whether taking the chairmanship will help or hinder our church planting efforts. I may have more to say on this later, but will leave it at a plea for prayer at this point.

The 2008 Sports and English Camp is upon us!

I’ve got my camp t-shirt on… and it is allowing my skin to breathe nicely in the sweltering heat that we find ourselves in at this time of year.

There are 115 youth registered… some won’t come, but most will and it is a great opportunity to influence and instruct some of the Taiwanese youth in sports, English, and life. Several have come from the USA to help as staff… but most touching, to me, is that several Taiwanese brothers and sisters have taken vacation time to serve the young people at camp this week. Maybe there will be more time to share about them later. Foreign workers can do some things… but it takes nationals to build a church planting movement and bring about lasting improvements within a nation. These Taiwanese servants are the key people in their nation’s future and well being. Will you please pray for them and for all of us?

My “in-between” time is basically gone… I have about 10 minutes and need to spend most of it packing up my stuff and walking across campus to join the worship service at the International Community Church of Taichung (as I *think* it is called).

Here’s an article from ESPN that might help explain why it is such a great event… it isn’t just the baseball… but the people from all over the country that come to cheer for their team and end up making lifelong friendships.

Except when Nebraska or Creighton are in the CWS, I’m a fan of LSU… or whoever is playing Texas.

Reaching that goal was seriously in doubt when, in my 2nd kilometer, I saw 2 dogs attacking a kitten. I have to admit that I really didn’t want to stop as I knew we couldn’t take another cat. We already have 1 which is probably twice as many as we should have.

However… I couldn’t just keep riding… so I stopped… scooped up the wet and injured and bleeding kitten (I estimate her about 4 weeks old) unzipped my belly bag… transferred my phone to my pocket… transferred the kitten to the bag… zipped the kitten in the bag… and took off again.

A little while later, I found a nice sunny spot and stopped to examine the kitten more closely and figure out what to do.

I decided that the kitten was totally freaked out… had some cuts… but was going to be OK. I couldn’t let it go, but I really wanted to get in 40km… so I slung my belly bag over my neck and under my shirt… put the kitten in the bag and then tucked in my shirt so the kitten would be against my chest and stomach and inside my shirt. This would keep her warm and hopefully make her feel safer. I think I was successful because I hardly heard a peep out of her the rest of the ride. I checked for movement with my hand on a few occasions to make sure she was alive.

Even though I had a cat in a bag hanging around my neck and it was very windy, I was able to make my 40km goal and be back in time to pick up my daughter from ballet. She was pretty surprised when I told her I had a kitten. We took her out of the bag and stopped for dinner, sharing some with the kitten of course.

We stopped by home to pick up my oldest son so he could see the kitten and come with us to our cat’s vet and see if he would take this kitten in – which he did – although he wasn’t totally excited about it since someone had dropped off a litter of kittens earlier in the day.

I don’t know what we would have done if he would not have taken her.

These were taken with my Sony Ericsson w200i which has a fairly poor camera but an absolutely sweet mp3 function which I put to good use almost daily.

Here she is…

If you start at the 中正橋 Yunghe side and ride for 20km towards Tucheng… you reach the end of the road. Here it is…

The stairs go up to a street.

I recommend this ride with or without a cat.

But the most bugs I’ve ever eaten in my life was last Thursday night while riding my bike down by the river.

I’ve been riding by the river on Thursday nights for about a year now, taking some time off for my back surgery.

With all those kms flying by… the occasional bug in the mouth happens… but last Thursday I guess I ran into a swarm of some sort. I don’t know what they were, but they were small and black and not tasty. Of course I shut my mouth, but didn’t want to swallow these critters so tried spitting them out, but ended up getting more in… and I didn’t really want to stop riding right in the middle of a swarm of bugs… thought it best just to keep truckin’ and get out of the swarm.

I also have bites on my arms and legs… but nothing serious at all. I’m surprised there aren’t more.

If anyone is interested in a nice bike ride by the river, I start at the Yonghe side of the Zhongzheng bridge at about 5:30 and ride for about 2 hours. Contact me by email or leave a comment and we can exchange cellphone numbers to make sure we meet up. There are rare occasions where I don’t ride (another reason to be in touch first), but weather hasn’t stopped me yet.

Box elder bug… eating a few of these will really impress jr. high kids.

UPDATE: After I posted this… I was reminded that I’m getting a tooth pulled on Thursday… so no bike riding for me that night… however… I’m going tonight instead… Monday… same time same place…

I’d like to see more pictures in the gallery… I’d like to have it translated in more places, but it seems ready for visitors.

The first Team Expansion Sports and English Camp was in the summer of 2006. I could not attend as we were in the USA at that time, but we did get to attend/serve/help during the 2007 version… Camp 2.0… and it was one of the highlights of the year!

The camp is designed primarily to give junior and senior high school students 4 things:

• a chance to have a really really really fun time
• a chance to learn more about a sport or other activity
• a chance to learn more about Christianity
• a chance to practice their English with native speakers

Whether the students have fun or learn or practice is up to each individual, but we help provide the opportunity for each!

Over the past 2 years, we’ve hosted students from all areas of Taiwan (maybe not Jinmen and Penghu) and this year will be no different. The campers really enjoy getting to know other youth from around the island and many have made friendships that continue outside of camp.

The camp is open to junior and senior high students of all nationalities and all English levels. The cost is NT$5000 and it is limited to the first 100 registrations. I know the first year was full and last year was 90+. There is already strong interest this year so if you know someone who might like to come, make sure they hit the website and register.

If your child comes to camp you can expect:

• them to be as safe as possible – there is plenty of adult supervision, fluent Mandarin speakers, a secure campus
• them to be treated with dignity – the staff is trained to appreciate each camper’s uniqueness, Christianity is never forced on anyone, coaches strive to work within each camper’s physical and English abilities, no one is singled out
• them to eat well – there will be plenty of nutritious food available at each mealtime
• them to be tired – each day provides for several hours of physical activity
• them to have fun – some kids will enjoy every activity… all kids will enjoy most of them

If you would like to register for camp, you can do so at www.sportsandenglish.com.

If you have questions, you might find the answers at www.sportsandenglish.com but you can also email me if you’d like.

We could still use some help for this year’s camp so if you are interested please contact me via email or Facebook.

Here’s the 2008 Camp theme…

I’ve been trying to be a good patient. It is somewhat difficult here because you never know when what you are doing will be met with shock and horror by our Taiwanese friends.

Bananas… the PERFECT food, right?!?! One friend who shall remain nameless reminded me SEVERAL times how BAD it would be for me to eat bananas during my recovery.

Several people in my building think that I’m either

• superhuman

or

• superidiotic

because I do something like… GO OUTSIDE! The truth is: I’m just “regular” human and am as big of an idiot (at times) as any human is. But here in the “Land of Comparison” no one is “normal”.

Anyway… I really believe that each person knows his/her body better than any one else (including the doctor) so the best course of action is to rely on some parameters given by the doctor and then listen to what your body is telling you.

My body said: “Go for a bike ride”. The weather was also saying it.

I used to go every Thursday night and I hope to get back at it. I thought I’d just go about 10K on this first time back, but I felt good (except that my legs and backside were out of the habit) so I kept going… ended up going 26.85km which is about what I used to do in the time I can spend. I did get passed at the end of my trip out, which doesn’t happen very often… and I had to push pretty hard to get home as it is against the wind as always when I ride by the river.

My back, as I suspected, is totally fine today… my legs (knees mostly) are hurting today, but only as one would expect after getting back on a bike.

So, as you can see, my back recovery is going nicely. I’m able to play basketball with kids, but need to hold off on sports with twisting, like squash, for a while longer.

Outside of the past 4 years, while Nebraska has played mostly sissy football, each team is known for tough defense, passionate play, overachieving, and crazy fans.

This Sunday, the Stillers have a chance to knock off the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL… the New England Patriots.

I’ve had my eye on this game for several weeks and so have followed to news related to it more than I usually follow any NFL news and I found this great list of 33 reasons why the Steelers will beat the Patriots.

Some favs:

No. 1: Pittsburgh is a city with its priorities in order. The first thing you see at the airport are two life-sized mannequins: one is of patriot George Washington, clad in red, white and blue and looking like he stepped off the side of New England’s helmet; and the other is Franco Harris making his Immaculate Reception. Franco’s mannequin looks like he could take George.

No. 5: Here’s what I mean: “You take a little bit of football out of them with every hit you make,” says linebacker James Farrior, the heart and soul of Pittsburgh’s top-ranked defense. “Especially with wide receivers and quarterbacks, that’s what you have to do: take a little bit of football out of them with each hit.”

No. 12: Fourteen of the Patriots’ starters are players they drafted. They stock their team with cost-effective, young talent through the draft which frees up considerable money to go after the last few pricey ingredients in free agency. They coach up players from the late rounds. They do not overpay for aging players or take an emotional approach to keeping their own veterans. All concepts the Steelers pioneered long before Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli came along.

No. 20: No. 3: The Andy Warhol bridge. Iron City beer. Mister Rogers. And Sidney Crosby.

No. 28: Normally a right tackle, Max Starks is playing great right now at left tackle. On Sunday night he shut down Cincinnati’s best lineman, Justin Smith.

ESPN Page 2 – Fleming: 33 Patriots pratfalls