Early registration is $40 before October 5th. Late registration is $45 after October 5th. Fee includes: green fees, lunch, cart, prizes and more. It's not just for members of Judson Baptist Church. It's open to anyone! In fact if you are not a member of Judson Baptist you will get a Mulligan for coming.

Sign up online by going to www.judsonbaptist.com and on the front of our website follow the prompts of more information to register.

Just married!

Beautiful wedding at St.Paul's (The Actors Church) Covent Garden

Order Prints here... http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/64785104

Probably not.

Here's another one I wrote. Haven't come up with a good name for it yet. Any ideas?

I’d like to extend a firm handshake and articulate the following words to the Sloppy Drunk: thanks for the laughs, now give it a rest.

The next time you grace a party with your presence, try playing a quick game of I-Spy. Is it double-fisting a pair of drinks? Check. For some unknown reason, has it parted ways with its shoes? Naturally. Is it invading space bubbles by being overly touchy with its victims? Most definitely.

If you’ve looked around for more than five minutes and can’t seem to label the SD … thanks for the laughs, now give it a rest.

By no means am I discrediting the coveted mulligan when it comes to going out and painting the town red. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t wish that they can go back and re-do a certain number of nights. While bachelor parties, New Years and notable birthdays nearly beckon for complete and utter inebriation, these occasions are deserving of the good ol’ American mulligan.

What’s unacceptable, however, is the urge to get so drunk that you become thoroughly convinced that your house keys will open the door to a parked police car (Vegas compels people to do the darndest things). Living in a home that tends to throw parties on a regular basis, I’ve seen my fair share of unsightly scenes. Some past notable drunks have urinated on my couches, passed out topless in the bathroom with the door locked and even consumed half of an uncooked, frozen pizza.

Even though the frozen pizza ordeal was the easiest to take care of, it irked me for weeks. Almost every one of a human being’s five senses should reject the mere idea of consuming a frozen pizza. Not only does it look disgusting, it smells like freezer-burned preservatives and it tastes like cardboard.

If a sloppy drunk feels like eating a frozen pizza is in the realm of being logical, I’m not quite sure anything will stand in its way.

Take some of Hollywood’s most coveted sloppy drunks. A certain Tara Reid can be seen tripping while walking out of clubs, falling off tables while dancing in restaurants and accidentally flashing her naughty bits all the while keeping from spilling a drop of her Appletini.

While some of the feats that America’s favorite sloppy drunks are accomplishing may be considered an art form, one can only hope that it’s a dying one.

Deze nacht den boulevard gesloten met een zwoele Gerry Mulligan en een zwervende bandoneon van Astor Piazzolla. Gulzig oorstrelend voor het slapengaan. Savoir vivre in een kleinburgerlijke stede, le plat pays qui est le mien.  Geen taalgrens die een erwt splitst van rumoerige slaapstadjes. De politieker is op vakantie. Dans je nog even naar nergens en geniet van de afwezigheid. Wereldniveau zonder deadlines. De zotte morgen is voor de liefloze kater.

Tot later ...

I need to reconsider what is really important in life. Family, God, and living each day enjoying life. I can't do that locked in a cubicle, chained to a desk chair. I need to be outside more. I need to chat with strangers more. I need to go to church more. I need to create more, read more, write more, relax more. I need to eat fresher food and cook more. I need to dance like no one is watching more. I need to feel the sun on my face more. And I need less of just about everything else.

At times, I feel guilty for not being more appreciative for the life I have. I have been incredibly lucky and blessed to lead the life I lead. I am educated, loved, appreciated and well taken care of. But there is a void in my life because I am not taking care of myself spiritually, emotionally, psychologically...and honestly, physically. I have to change it because everyday I waste is just one more day I'll never get back and I don't want to end up at 38, 58...88, still feeling like life is something that only other people experience. Life is too short to limit yourself. Whether you like it or not, you are your work...you're there 8 hours a day, a majority of your day. You have early morning and late evening to yourself to do what you want and not what your boss wants.

I just want to be off that radar. Out of the matrix. Windows down, hair up...feeling "full" again. Caring about what I'm doing and who I'm doing it with and life being as simple as that.

I was thinking this morning on my drive, in the traffic and smog…that while I am blessed and life is good, etc…this is not what I want to do for the next 30 years. There is no reason why we can’t live how we want. The key to success is being passionate about what you’re doing..and I feel like I am not successful at life right now because I could care less about the things going on around me. I don’t care about work, responsibilities, etc. I care about the SM. Punky. My family. And being happy.

I feel like I am living this life because of how someone else defines success…having money, taking vacations, buying hot dresses at BCBG that I’ll only wear once or twice. I realize now that happiness for me is being held. Being creative. And being appreciative. I am taking this “good life” for granted because it’s not satisfying any needs or wants in me. If we could just figure out what it would take to redecorate our lives with the things that are important to us – core things – and do it…success and happiness will follow. We’d be skinnier. We’d be richer in more ways than having a few grand in the bank account at once.

All I know is that I can't crop images in Photoshop, traffic ads and clean up people's messes for them until I retire.  I can't look out this window into the Carolina blue sky and never be sheltered by nothing but it and it's stars with the cool sand between my toes, hunting for ghost crabs with a flashlight.  I left my heart somewhere and I need to go find it.

• Studying (or lack thereof)
• Alcohol consumption (or lack thereof)
• Reading textbooks
• Reading syllabi
• Time management
• Involvement in campus activities
• Making friends
• Using library resources for research
• Maintaining a personal budget

Using the model created by Liz Strauss at The Successful Blog, share 25 Words of Wisdom for first-year college students in my Making Connections class. Use exactly 25 words, no more, no less. Full sentences are not needed. Here's a slight adaptation of Liz's guidelines and a link to her completed project:

1. Think about your freshman year in college.
2. Write a sentence about it.
3. Count the words you have written.
4. Edit the sentence until you have 25 words exactly. Notice how your idea changes as you edit and how your feelings change with each rewrite.
5. Post your 25 words as a comment to this blog posting OR on your blog by July 31st.
6. Link back to this post (from your blog) or leave a link to your post in the comments section. (I don't want to miss yours when I compile all of them.)

Oh yes, if you have some wonderful thoughts and can't make it fit into 25 words, that's okay, too. I'd still like to know what they are. Simply comment below. No worries.

We were sitting on our living room couch. It was the end of a long day, at the end of a long week, at the end of two long months, contemplating another difficult month ahead.

I'd just told Rob how he could make my life easier. Now, being the supportive wife sort, I'd asked how I could do the same.

"I'd like you to give me mulligans," Rob said.

Was a mulligan related to a hobbit?

"A mulligan is a retake." 

We'd watched The Legend of Baggar Vance a few nights earlier. The golfer "took a mulligan" when he knocked the ball so far off the course that there was no way to redeem it.

Rob wanted grace when he completely missed the mark with me.

Being the supportive wife sort, I told Rob he didn't even know how often I gave him mulligans, but I'd be happy to let him know each time from now on.

***

We were just finishing a difficult two months of infertility intervention. I'd been on a low level of fertility drug both months. The drug is essentially more hormones, to convince my body to work a bit harder. Month two, the doctor also prescribed progesterone to help keep the baby, should I get pregnant. 

Two months with a great many more hormones than normal in my body, in addition to the tension of raised hopes and expectations. Oh, and let's throw in a stressful fulltime job.

We did not get pregnant.

I was worn down by my internal battles, tired of the external battles. I'd done my best to contain emotions; Rob had done his best on mop-up duty for those that spilled over, or bracing himself for those aimed right at him.

And so here we sat, looking at month three. Should we move forward in pursuit of a baby, or take a break?

What was best for our marriage?

We decided to create ground rules for infertility engagement. That's where the mulligan came in.

***

I can't say I appreciated Rob's request, nor saw (much) need for it.

Did he realize how often I gave him grace? Did he know how many times I bit back my words and gave him another chance? I wish I could say I solemnly nodded and said, "I can see your point." But I believe the best I did that evening, after expressing my ire about my unseen and unappreciated grace-giving, was to mutter "OK."

I was not graceful in learning to give mulligans over the next several weeks.

Take 1:  I have a vague memory of bracing myself against the kitchen counter in the midst of an offense and saying through gritted teeth, "Mulligan. Mulligan. I'm giving you a mulligan right now." I'm not sure that qualified.

Take 4:  With friends in our backseat, we drove through the countryside to an antique store destination. I suggested it was in one town; Rob headed toward another town. After discovering his error and following a circuitous route, we ended up at the town I had suggested. I didn't mention the detour until we were driving home.

"Did you notice?" I asked.

"What?"

"I gave you a mulligan," I said, rather pleased with myself.

"Yes, you did. Good job." And he patted my knee.

Take <?>:  One day I knew I had arrived at that place that allows both for true grace (not rubbing Rob's face in his mistakes as I point out that I am overlooking them) and acknowledgement of that grace (which encourages me in my pursuit of liberal mulliganism). Not that I stay in that place, mind you—but all triumphs must be celebrated.

I no longer remember the offense, nor do I remember my exact response. All I recall is Rob assuming the golfer's stance with his invisible putter, and gently knocking the non-existent ball into an imaginary hole. I'd given him a mulligan, and his salute of appreciation was my reward.

Way to go, I thought. Way to go.

Here's one neurological description from Richard Davidson and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin of what it might mean to be "mentally tough":

Activation in specific neural systems associated with conflict monitoring (e.g. the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), selective attention (e.g. the temporal parietal junction, ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields) and sustaining attention (e.g. right frontal and parietal areas and the thalamus).

Translated, this essentially means that central structures in the front of the brain have acquired the wonderful ability to act in a chief executive capacity. Their central location allows them easy access and connectivity to other brain areas, particularly the limbic structures. This improved executive function allows for greater capacity for emotional self-regulation - fewer people, places and things trigger fear reactions. There is also some evidence that growing out this area of the brain improves immune function. Based on Tiger's performance this past weekend, I would hypothesize that it also improves pain tolerance!

A Terrible Thing To Trust

I play golf, and one thing I recognize is that I am not mentally tough. I'm easily distracted, often frustrated and dejected after hitting a poor shot, and rarely find my way back to any kind of centered, calm state of relaxed alertness. I often have to take a Mulligan on the first hole, and it takes me three or four holes to settle down enough to actually begin thinking about the game I'm playing, both the inner and outer. On the golf course and through the rest of my life, settling down most often works by taking a number of deep, 7-11 breaths and reminding myself that: "My mind is a terrible thing to trust." In other words, the things I think and the emotions those thoughts generate, often aren't particularly helpful. Left mostly to its own devices, my mind regularly throws up fear-based and anxiety-ridden thoughts about things like getting old, sick and/or being homeless. Every abdominal cramp is stomach cancer, every chest pain is "the Big One," and every headache is the long-awaited brain tumor finally come home to roost. In order to feel comfortable and not be regularly "tossed away" by the thoughts I think, it would have been good to have begun some kind of contemplative or martial practice as a young kid, much as Earl Woods did when he started Tiger in the martial art of golf at an early age.

Mindscoping

Lacking the obvious benefit of that early support and training, I have had to find other means of developing what child neuropsychiatrist Dan Siegel calls Mindsight - the weaving of insight and empathy to promote kindness and compassion. I study social neuroscience, occasionally practice Aaron Beck's cognitive behavioral thought confrontation techniques which I call "mindscoping," and spend as much time as I can hanging out with people who minds I trust. These are people who, somewhere along the way, have had the benefit of great early mind training. Such associations form a sort of Sangha for me, one that serves as a continual reminder that with becoming mentally tough, practice makes ... for a good reminder to put in more practice.

( Taken from Rob Rogers @ the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette )

In March, a Marietta, Georgia bar owner sold jerseys that tried to associate Obama with the cartoon character, Curious George.

There were protests against the shirt... people were upset at the racism inherent with calling someone of African descent a chimpanzee.

Yet, all of them sold out.

Now, another company is selling monkey-related, Obama-associated items.

Ready to see Obama portrayed as a monkey in a suit?

Then check out the The SockObama doll.

All of them are sold out, too.

Some have said... isn't Obama a political figure, like George W. Bush?

And don't we have lots of caricatures of Bush as a chimp? How then is this Obama-monkey thing, racist?

Well, has anyone ever associated people of Bush's race with monkeys, apes or other simians?

No. That seems to be reserved for people of African descent apparently...

Historically, blacks have historically always been "branded" ape like. European culture back in the day considered Africans to be savages and like monkeys. Its one of the reasons Africans were enslaved in the first place. We weren't considered human at all.

Now, I'm not trying to incite hate here. I'm just pointing something out...

The company that's selling the dolls seems upset that people are calling their doll "racist"!

( Taken from Shakesville )

Myth? Fable? Fairy tales? Folklore?

A charming association with a toy we had when we were little?

Huh?

Its almost as if... its so ingrained... they don't see how racist that doll actually is.

Anyway, let's see what Dave Chappelle had to say...

Hmmm. Tell me something...

...Is Obama not a man and a brother?

If anyone could think that of a Harvard educated lawyer, State and United State Senator and Presidential Candidate...

What could they be thinking about me?

I found out about all this on June 11th 2008.

Lets take a look back in History to another June 11th... this time in 1963.

(image taken from CBS)

On that day, Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in a symbolic attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at the school.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose?

We still have a long way to go.

Obama won the Alabama Democratic Primary, though. There's still hope!

References used/Related items:

• http://www.post-gazette.com/robrogers/Default.asp?m=6&d=6&y=2008
• http://www.plunderbund.com/2008/06/11/racist-obama-doll/
• http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/06/the_makers_of_a_racist_obama_t.html
• http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/06/creators-of-thesockobama-of-course-we.html
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/black_imagery_gallery.shtml
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h67.html
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1294680
• http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/11/national/main558016.shtml

Peace and Much Love.

You can find more funny HERE.

Despite my aversion, I do enjoy the word 'mulligan.' It's essentially a do-over. From Merriam Webster: a free shot sometimes given a golfer in informal play when the previous shot was poorly played. I love the last part - 'when the previous shot was poorly played.'

We are approaching a transition in our country from the man who is viewed as one of the worst, if not the worst, President we have ever had to...someone else. Bush's job ratings are bad, really really bad. Let's just say 'America, that shot was poorly played - Mulligan anyone?!?'

McCain would like to think he is different, better perhaps. Therefore, we have a national game of 'Avoid Bush Like the Plague' going on in the GOP. Unfortunately for Old John McCain he is losing. McCain is not a mulligan. He is par for the course, the GW Bush Course to be exact. It is a country club for out-of-touch Washington elitists drunk on their own power and certain that, through their ongoing machinations, they can bend public opinion to their will. McCain will tee off right next to the spot at which Bush walked off and continue his policies of international ineptitude and domestic deception. Perhaps Scott McClellan, former Bush Press Secretary, says it best in his upcoming book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, when he talks about the way the Bush administration handled the Iraq war and ominously foreshadows the means by which McCain will attempt to keep us on the same course:

Having gotten this far by vigorously seeking to manipulate public approval to our advantage – most notably in our political propaganda campaign to sell the war – we assumed the same approach would continue to work in our favor and help us overcome any challenges ahead.

We should all be terrified that so many within the Bush inner-circle have since come forward with their regrets and confessions and each is painted as "disgruntled." Moreover, we should expect nothing better from McCain: same plan, same tactics, same endless display of triple bogeys and same old excuses for such poorly played shots.

We can have our mulligan though, our fresh start. We can address our wrongs, accept responsibility and make a new plan focused on peace and international relations. Don't get me wrong here - I am not an America-hating liberal. We have done many things correctly, admirably and we deserve respect and recognition for our successes just as much as we deserve chastisement for our failures, but we must move beyond the Bush-McCain model of denial and deception. We can view the world as one people and treat all with respect. That is a true showing of power and confidence.

Contrary to the loud cries of the minions of Bush-McCain, the rest of the world does not hate us. There are certainly those out there who do, but many are waiting for a time when the US will once again be cooperative and collaborative in our policies and actions. Nations such as Germany see great promise in a new leadership in America:

After the Bush era, Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democrats can easily imagine working together with a liberal Democrat in the White House. And Norbert Röttgen, chief whip for the Christian Democrats in parliament, sees Obama as the messenger of a new wave of politics that could also provide a model for Germany.

"Germany is Obamaland," says Karsten Voigt, the German government's coordinator for trans-Atlantic relations. He says Germans see the African-American senator as a kind of "mixture of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr."

He's perceived here as peace-loving and cooperative, and those are the kind of traits Germans admire in a foreign politician.

We can admit our poorly played shots, admonish our war-mongering Bush-McCain leaders and move forward with a new vision and a stronger bond with our allies. We can embrace peace and cooperation without feeling insecure about emasculating ourselves on an international stage.

And that is a large part of what the last eight years have been about, insecurity. Will it be considered ironic that a President, GW Bush, who focused so much of his attention on making us secure really exposed all of our national insecurities for everyone to see? The Bush-McCain model is akin to the man next to you at the red light with the really big and really loud truck who is revving the engine for everyone to hear. What is he compensating for and, better yet, what were we?

Bush-McCain acolytes scowl and hurl accusations of weakness at concepts such as talking with both your allies and your enemies. These are the heretical ways of pansies, wusses if you will. Bush-McCain will not tolerate those of us who wish to pause and thoughtfully ruminate over a situation. We will be labeled as weak, meek and geek.

There was an interesting article about nerds and geeks in the New York Times recently. David Brooks made the point that:

George Bush plays an interesting role in the tale of nerd ascent. With his professed disdain for intellectual things, he’s energized and alienated the entire geek cohort, and with it most college-educated Americans under 30.

I believe he is correct. Bush-McCain is the old, over compensating and irrational ways to which we must turn our backs. We don't have to go on suffering for their sins. Those of us viewed as weak, meek and geek can use our gray matter and give a fresh new perspective to the challenges that lay ahead.

We have suffered through a few really poor rounds, but we now have the chance to take our mulligan. We can admit that our last shot was piss-poor and get our do-over. We are not asking that people forget that last shot - just that we get a chance to try again, a chance to prove ourselves.

Is that weak? Is that meek? Is it geek? I see no weakness in taking such action, but I am willing to admit that, since we will be relying more on our minds than our brute strength, it is a little geek. I am okay with that. I am really okay with that.

Brooks was correct in his column on nerd and geekdom, "For as it is written, the last shall be first and the geek shall inherit the earth."

I'm okay with that too.

Mulligan anyone??

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