New Year's Resolutions

1. Make a quilt.

OK, so that was my 2008 resolution, and I didn't follow through with it. I bought a house and was preoccupied with it and it's accompanying garden. So I'll make another one for 2009:

2. Learn to can.

One thing I learned about Oregonians is they are all about sustainability and self-sufficiency. Gardening, cooking and preserving are all part of that. So is sewing and making use of fabric scraps.

Also, we've been considering raising chickens. Seriously. But I want to focus on gardening, canning, and quilting this year. Maybe the chickens could be next year's resolution.

Pictures from The Bogart Family Christmas

Christmas at the Majestic

I took this picture a couple of Saturdays ago during my volunteer gig at the Majestic Theatre box office.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A Year Without Arena Football

I've been a fan of alternative football leagues since the Denver Gold of the USFL. The Arena League was invented in 1987 with some developmental help from former Gold coach Mouse Davis. I was excited to learn that Denver would have one of the four inaugural teams. And when the Denver Dynamite won Arena Bowl I, it was surprisingly significant to me after the disappointment of the Broncos' Super Bowl loss to the Giants earlier that year.

I was hooked on the AFL. They didn't get a lot of coverage, but I would watch the tape delayed games at odd hours on obscure cable channels anyway. After the Dynamite folded, it was impossible to get news on the AFL from local sources, so I lost touch for a couple of years. Then the internet (and Arenafan.com) came along and I was able to follow the sport again. When John Elway brought the Colorado Crush to Denver, I bought season tickets.

So it made me quite sad to hear the news that after 22 seasons, the AFL is suspending operations for the 2009 season. They claim that they will be back "bigger and better" in 2010, but that's hard to believe; if it was difficult to get broadcast deals, sponsorships, season ticket sales, and respect from sports reporters and football fans before, why would it be easier after a bush league stunt like this?

I do expect they will be back in 2010. But I expect a "meeker and humbler" league instead of a "bigger and better" one. But I suppose I'll continue to follow it anyway.

Pictures from Thanksgiving in Seattle

Thank Goodness

When someone sneezes, I say "bless you". It's one of the many common English phrases that I use that have a religious origin (e.g. "heaven forbid", "you're a saint", "a good soul", and many others). I'm an atheist, so lord knows I don't mean it literally. More thoughtful atheists substitute these phrases with non-religious equivalents like "Gesundheit". One example of this is using the term "Thank Goodness" instead of "Thank God".

A couple of years ago, I read an excellent essay in the Skeptical Enquirer called "Thank Goodness" by Daniel C. Dennett. In it, Dennett makes a case for why it's more sensible to thank goodness (because "there really are lots of ways of repaying your debt to goodness—by setting out to create more of it" ) than to thank God ("what could an omniscient, omnipotent Being (the Man Who has Everything?) do with any paltry repayments from you?")

Last year, I shared the essay with my atheist friends at the Corvallis Sunday Group. Since rereading it has become my new Thanksgiving tradition, I wanted to share this link to the essay.

Losing touch with the Denver sports scene

Saturday morning, I was working the box office at the Majestic Theatre. It was slow, so I talked to my mama on the phone for almost an hour. The conversation came around to the Broncos, (which happens a lot in my family) and she was saying how strange it was to see Jason Elam kicking field goals against the Broncos the other week. What?! - I didn't know Jason Elam wasn't a Bronco anymore. It was strange; I don't remember a time when I was so out-of-touch with the Denver Broncos.

Later that day, Chris and I and several of our friends got together for a Thanksgiving dinner. My friend Eric asked me if I'd be interested in catching a Blazers game sometime. I said yes, especially when they play the Nuggets. I said I was an Allen Iverson fan before he was a Nugget. "You know Iverson's not a Nugget anymore" he said. No. I didn't know that. "Also, Matt Holliday plays for the Oakland A's."

I give up. I was bummed when the Crush traded Damian Harrell last year (that's Arena Football for those who don't know), now I can't seem keep up with all the roster changes on the Denver teams (yet somehow Eric does).

I was planning on getting a #3 Iverson jersey to wear to the Rose Garden whenever the Nuggets play there, but now I think I should accept the fact that I've got a new home team and get a #52 Greg Oden jersey.