Football and/or Fallout Fridays

Ah the smell and feel of Fall. This is my absolute most favorite time of year. The colors, the temperatures, the knowledge that soon i will not have to cut my grass again for several months, and the sound of football on Sundays. When i was younger i loved sitting around and watching the Washington Redskins play. My first memory of the game was from when i lived with my father in Brooklyn, New York. I still remember pictures in my mind of seeing the game being played on his black and white screen. Not long after that he took me and my brother to our first NFL game. The Redskins had come to town to play the New York Giants. This how i became an NFL football fan. :) Now, as i grew older and moved to live with my mom i learned what it was like to be a ravenous football fan. I mean, the whole body gets involved, the emotions, the muscles, the whole body! It was too much for me and i started to 'fall away'. Until the NFL announced their decision to expand to 30 teams starting in 1995. I thought, "this is my chance to follow a team from its inception. No one can accuse me of being a bandwagon fan". Thus my 'love' for the Carolina Panthers. :) This weekend the Panthers play host to the Kansas City Chiefs. No offense to the Chiefs, but i really hope the Panthers are poor hosts and pretty much take the game to them. The Panthers have not done well at home under Coach Fox. I have no idea why this is the case, but there it is. And with the Panthers being a 9 point favorite, and the Chiefs having a hard time winning so far this year, it is the perfect opportunity for a Panther let down. :( May God grant each of you a peace and joy filled weekend. Verse for today: Psalm 11, ESV In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” [1]

The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

Football and/or Fallout Fridays

It has been longer than i would like to think since i last blogged. Life has been busy and flustering of late - for me anyway. In any event on to blogging. I already blogged about last weekends disappointing lost so i will not 'bleed' that wound any more. :) This weekend has the Atlanta Falcons coming into Charlotte. The odds makers have the Panthers at 7 point favorites. Now, the base line is based off of stats and seems reasonable, but that all goes out the window once the first ball is kicked off. Atlanta is coming off some impressive wins against the Detroit Lions (who recently fired their president) and the Kansas City Chiefs, and also a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Right now i'd like to think that the Panthers are more like the Bucs than not, but i think this week will tell the tale. I think last week was more of an example of the chemistry taking time to re-gel between Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith. Not that it will just click over the past week, but it should improve. Also, the Panthers have a tendency to not really kick in the gear until November, December. Not something i am really happy about. I am continuing to count down the days until i can get my hands on Fallout 3. Only 32 more days until the game is released. Now, honestly, i am content to wait. I am not sitting on my hands trying to contain this bottled up excitement, but i am looking forward to it. Over on a site known an IGN they are running a series of articles. Some basic stuff like what weapons are available in the game, what different kind of skills and 'perks' there are, but the article from yesterday caught attention. One thing Bethesda Software is really proud of is the fact that you can go "anywhere" and do "anything" you want. Of course that is a slight exaggeration, but it would appear that this is larger than most. Now i know many would not like the fact that some one playing the game can pull out a pistol and shoot another character in the game in cold blood, but to me this is no different than the world we live in now. We are all presented choices everyday. "...choose this day whom you will serve..." (Joshua 24:15, ESV) I like the fact that i can act like a "good Samaritan" and be rewarded for my choices. Anyway, the article on Good Karma is a good read IMO. This whole financial meltdown has me getting irritated at the whole process here in America. I swear, sometimes politicians are so paralyzed by fear of what people think that they fail to actually lead. I am not going to post what my personal feelings are on this whole debacle because i am not an expert in such things. I just get so frustrated by the partisan politics on both sides of the aisle. Sometimes people have to act in ways that are not popular in order to move the greater good forward. This weekend we are having our local church retreat. Over time it has become less theological in the focus of discussions (or break out seasons), but the time of fellowship with other church members is why we go more than anything. It is a time of fellowship, service to others, and very little sleep to be had. :) I am sure I will pay for this weekend into next week, but it will be worth it. On a last note, on a whim i searched Facebook for an old high school friend last night, and i found him! I am nervous because we drifted apart over the years and others have sort of come into our lives, possibly whispered in our ears, and driven wedges. I hope not, but it's possible. This man was always an honorable person when i knew him over twenty years ago. I've read over what he has made public on Facebook, as well as a link he had for a My Space page he has for a group he plays in. It would seem we could still have somethings in common. We shall see what God has in store. Verse for today: Psalm 126 : 1-3, ESV When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.