A Tip to Surviving March Madness

We all know what it feels like right? Our facebook or twitter feeds get swamped with generic, raving sports comments and statues like:

• As much as I love Ohio State basketball, I have so much respect for Robbie Hummel and the career he had with Purdue!
• My bracket's made an epic climb from bottom 20 percent to top eight percent.
• A good run, Xavier. Now we are down to rooting for IU and whoever is playing osu or uk, assuming they win.
• I hate referees. This week has seen some bad officials...
• How do you move the ball so well for 39 minutes and then make THAT your last shot??

Here is my solution. Instead of going crazy, getting annoyed, and unfollowing people you may generally like, simply play a fun round of Sports Status Mad Libs. Take the following statuses and tweets above (all of them are real by the way). First remove all the names of teams and players from them:

• As much as I love _____ ______ _______, I have so much respect for ______ _______and the career ____ had with ______!
• My _______ has made an epic climb from bottom 20 percent to top eight percent.
• A good run, ______. Now we are down to rooting for ______ and whoever is playing _____ or ______, assuming they win.
• I hate ______. This week has seen some bad ______...
• How do you move the ______ so well for 39 minutes and then make THAT your last _______??

And then insert whatever you think makes for the best laughs:

• As much as I love Justin Bieber, I have so much respect for his Christmas Album and the career he had before people actually listened to it!
• My toilet has made an epic climb from bottom 20 percent to top eight percent.
• A good run, Nickelback. Now we are down to rooting for U2 and whoever is playing Boys 2 Men or N'SYNC, assuming they win.
• I hate cheddar. This week has seen some bad cheese...
• How do you move the furniture so well for 39 minutes and then make THAT your last arrangement??

From that point on whenever that friend starts spouting off about the greatness of their team your mind will immediately begin replacing the names with whatever you came up with earlier. Hilarity will ensue. Hope it makes the awesome month of March just a little bit better for everybody whether your bracket is busted or not.

Matt*
*- I am one of those guys who from time to time will fill your timeline up with sports related tweets and for that I deeply apologize.

Our Game From Sunday Night and other Random Stuff

Fruit Punch Rally
Sunday night we played an incredibly messy game that involved a lot of fruit, students eating spoonfuls of cinnamon, and well just check out the video...

Fruit Toss Game at Rel Community Nov 7, 2010 from Parkside Students on Vimeo.


Aubrey Bledsoe 
One of our families here at Parkside had a really awesome weekend. Aubrey Bledsoe, who graduated last year and also was a part of our team that went to the Dominican Republic last summer, was named the MVP of the ACC Women's Soccer Tournament. Her team (Wake Forest) won the Tournament too. The interview she gave was cool. How awesome is it to achieve something like this as a freshman! Aubrey everybody here is so proud of you and we are cheering you on in the NCAA Tournament!




Other Things Worth Noting:
Jon Foreman's Latest Article
Every now and then the front man from the band Switchfoot will write an article. Jon wrote this one about who decides what is cool and what isn't. The article is a good read on how we decide what we like as a culture, and how silly we are at times about what we think is 'hip'. I hope the next thing Jon comes out with though is either a new album or a book. He is such a creative person with a great ability to express himself.

Former Buckeye Michael Redd's Testimony
Michael Redd was/is a phenomenal basketball player. I can still remember him leading the Buckeyes to the Final Four when I was in Middle School. He was a great player on a great team. He would go on and have a great career in the NBA and even when a Gold Medal. This article from the OSU student newspaper The Lantern, is all about the Michael Redd that most people never got to see. It is cool to see how Michael first met Jesus and how he has totally reorganized or wrecked his life to share Jesus with other people.

Blindside: the Sequel

This Summer in Theatres:
BLINDSIDED: The Sequel

Yeah in case you haven't heard there is another Blindside movie coming out. Not really, but you need to hear this story. A 22yr old was going to a HS in Texas pretending to be a 16yr old. The article from NBC Miami states that this guy was a standout basketball player in his old HS back in South Florida. Apparently sometime last year he showed up in Texas to Permian High in Odessa, Texas claiming to be a homeless youth. The basketball coach took him in and gave him a place to stay. The whole community stepped up and embraced him too. What makes this story even crazier, is Permian HS is the same school that gave us the incredible story that became the movie FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. He got caught when one of his former coaches saw him at a tournament in Arkansas. Stories don't get much crazier than this.

Somewhere in Idaho, Uncle Rico is hatching a crazy plan to shave and re-enroll to a HS in a neighboring state where he can relive his dream of taking his football team to state. You know that ex-jocks everywhere are looking themselves in the mirror today wondering if they can get another year or two of eligibility out of their looks. Don't be surprised if Brett Favre calls another audible and instead of returning to the NFL for another year returns to Mississippi for one more shot to win State. To be honest, I might be placing a few calls to some local high schools to see if they need a Middle Infielder with 4 yrs of experience. It's worth a shot right?

Honestly it is a shame that someone would think to take advantage of a community like this 22 yr old man did. It would be so easy for a community to fall in love with a student who told such a tough luck story. Everybody would bend over backwards to help a 'kid' like that succeed. Its a sad thing that someone would try to pull something like this off. I remember a few years ago when an Ohio couple lied and said that their daughter had cancer and stole thousands of dollars from people who willingly donated to such a 'worth cause.' Stuff like this is nothing new, and I wish we didn't have to be cautious every time someone came forward with a sad story, or a big need.

It makes me think back to my little league days when we played all those traveling teams that had so many giants on their roster. You know what I am talking about. Those 13 and 14 year old kids who were shaving or growing full beards. Maybe they were pulling the wool over everyone's eyes too. I mean if you think about it. We had to be playing against a lot of 20-30yr old teams in all reality...right?