Friday, December 26, 2008
Catching Up
Well it has been awhile since I have written so I feel it is time to catch up on what has gone on in my life the last three and a half weeks. For starters I was busy finishing school. Final exams and more projects than you could imagine but I graduated on Dec 13th so I can attest to the fact that all the hard work is worth it. It was and still is such a relief. My parents were able to come visit from Florida where they moved to this past summer. So it was really nice to see them. Now that I have graduated I am working on my teaching certificate in special education and then I will be looking for a teaching and coaching job. I also plan to start work on my masters degree in sports management this fall at Incarnate Word. The last 3 1/2 have also been busy for me with refing. I have refed 45 games in that time period and am staying busy with that. So needless to say I have been a little busy but hopefully things will calm down and I will do better on bloging.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Email Forwards
Well This is a little different than what I normally post, actually it is a lot different. This is an email forward that I recently received and wanted to share. That in itself is crazy because I hate email forwards. I delete them as fast as they come but for some reason I took the time to read this one and it touched me and I wanted to share it. Hope everyone enjoys.
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either. If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in t hat had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal. That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-- fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every 20 morning before I could go home. One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered. I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires. I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up. When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes.
I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and knelt in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop....
THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
1. 'Yes!'
2. 'Not yet.'
3. 'I have something better in mind.'
God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar.
You maybe going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds. He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either. If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in t hat had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal. That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-- fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage. The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every 20 morning before I could go home. One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered. I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires. I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up. When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes.
I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and knelt in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop....
THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
1. 'Yes!'
2. 'Not yet.'
3. 'I have something better in mind.'
God still sits on the throne, the devil is a liar.
You maybe going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The BCS mess is the Big 12's fault
So as many of you know the BCS has created a mess of college football but this year the blame is not just theirs. The Big 12 conference must shoulder part of the blame. You may be wondering why I say this so please let me explain. First and foremost we must realize that the Big 12 conference needed to go to the 5th tie breaker to decide which team would represent the South division in the Big 12 championship game. The previous 4 are as follows:
1. The records of the three teams will be compared against each other
2. The records of the three teams will be compared within their division
3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5 and 6)
4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents;
The problem with such a tie breaker is that the Big 12 south division not only had a 3 way tie but also dominated the Big 12 overall. The BCS rankings currently have Oklahoma at #2, Texas at #3, and Texas Tech at #7. Yet if this was the SEC the solution would be simple. Texas would be playing for the big 12 championship. Why? Because In the SEC, the team with the highest BCS ranking advances, unless the two teams are within five places of each other and then it is determined by the head-to-head between the 2 teams. Thus Texas would win based on their 45-35 win over Oklahoma. Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe in a press conference today said that the Big 12 will reassess the tie breaking procedures after the season yet when he was asked of the SEC rule he stated "Let's say that the eighth-ranked team in the BCS is in the same division as the third-ranked,If the eighth-ranked team beat the third-ranked team on a last-second play at home, sending the eighth-ranked team, that would defeat the purpose of trying to send the team with the best chance of winning a national championship."
The problem with this scenario that it fails to account for the fact the big 12 north division has provided with Missouri who by all accounts has had a good season at 9-3 but 5-3 in Big 12 play however are no where near the level of Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech. In my opinion the Big 12 has so many compelling options that they could have put in the championship game. Why not put the 2 best teams in the conference in the Big 12 championship game regardless of which division they are from. Who wouldn't love to see a Red River Rematch with Texas and Oklahoma meeting on a neutral field again? As for me I would love to see such a game, not only would it determine the true Big 12 champion but it would catapult the winner into the BCS championship game.
1. The records of the three teams will be compared against each other
2. The records of the three teams will be compared within their division
3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5 and 6)
4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents;
The problem with such a tie breaker is that the Big 12 south division not only had a 3 way tie but also dominated the Big 12 overall. The BCS rankings currently have Oklahoma at #2, Texas at #3, and Texas Tech at #7. Yet if this was the SEC the solution would be simple. Texas would be playing for the big 12 championship. Why? Because In the SEC, the team with the highest BCS ranking advances, unless the two teams are within five places of each other and then it is determined by the head-to-head between the 2 teams. Thus Texas would win based on their 45-35 win over Oklahoma. Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe in a press conference today said that the Big 12 will reassess the tie breaking procedures after the season yet when he was asked of the SEC rule he stated "Let's say that the eighth-ranked team in the BCS is in the same division as the third-ranked,If the eighth-ranked team beat the third-ranked team on a last-second play at home, sending the eighth-ranked team, that would defeat the purpose of trying to send the team with the best chance of winning a national championship."
The problem with this scenario that it fails to account for the fact the big 12 north division has provided with Missouri who by all accounts has had a good season at 9-3 but 5-3 in Big 12 play however are no where near the level of Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech. In my opinion the Big 12 has so many compelling options that they could have put in the championship game. Why not put the 2 best teams in the conference in the Big 12 championship game regardless of which division they are from. Who wouldn't love to see a Red River Rematch with Texas and Oklahoma meeting on a neutral field again? As for me I would love to see such a game, not only would it determine the true Big 12 champion but it would catapult the winner into the BCS championship game.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
The Things I Am Thankful For
At this time of year I think pretty much everyone is saying the things that they are thankful for in their lives and I have decided to do the same. For me it is basically the 4 F's that I am thankful for. Family, Friends, my Faith, and Football.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
The Beauty of the T
So I previously said that I wanted to focus on my life as a referee when I re-started my blogging and this will be my first post on the subject. It is now nearly 12:30 am and I have just gotten home from a rodeo trip (this is what we call our out of town trips to little po dunk towns to ref). We left at 3:45 and made the trip out to Floresville where my partner and I officiated 4 middle school basketball games. Yes I said that right, we did 4 games. And if you have never seen, let alone refereed a middle school basketball game then you have no idea how bad it is. Don't get me wrong I love it and there are some decent ball players but overall it is terrible. The first of our 4 games tipped off at 5pm and we finally finished up at about 9:30pm. So if you can imagine the soreness of my legs from running up and down a basketball court for 4 1/2 hours. Sometimes I wonder how marathon runners do it and then I have nights like tonight where I think it would be a piece of cake.
I'm sure you are wondering how I just made it home if my games ended nearly 3 hours ago. Well when you factor in time to shower and change, driving, and stopping to get something to eat. You see how it is possible. Yet I will be up in the morning ready to go again as I have 2 games starting at 11am which means I will have to leave the house by 9:45am. And I'm sure you are now wondering why I am writing and not in bed already. Well it is actually pretty simple, gotta wash my uniform. I have 2 full uniforms and referee 12 games in 5 days this week which means I get to stay up and wash, dry, and hang them up so I will be ready to go in the morning.
If all of this has made you wonder why I put myself through this, the answer is simply 2 things: I love it and for the money. I love running up and down the court trying to be the best official I can be and the money is better than any part time job I could have while I got to school. Generally we average about $35 a game with games usually lasting 1 to 1 1/2 hours per game.
This brings me to the point of my post today. Every year of my officiating career thus far I have always joked with my family and friends that I give out a lot of Technical Fouls (T's) and over the last few years I have averaged 1 T per 3-4 games officiated. I generally work about 120 games a season so that means that I give out approximately 30-40 T's per season. And if anyone is wondering no I never think twice about doing and and I do enjoy giving them. Back to my point, thus far this season I have given 6 T's in 10 games. 3 of which I gave out tonight. If I continue that trend (I doubt that it will happen) based on 120 games this season I will give out 72 T's. I find this particularly humorous because one of the things that I wanted to work on this season was to be more open to talking with coaches in order to cut down on T's and yet I have actually increased and nearly doubled my previous amount. Not that I mind, like I said I do get some enjoyment out of putting coaches or players in their place when they decide to act out but I really don't see this trend continuing. To me it is just a tool that can be used to keep control and order and I freely use the tools given me so like the title of the post says The Beauty of the T.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Texas is the best state for football
So today during lunch I was reading the newspaper (really just the sports section, I never even look at any of the other sections) and I was intrigued by the top 25 BCS rankings and which states had the most teams.
Here is what I found: Texas had the most teams with 3 (Texas Tech at #2, UT at #3, and TCU at #16) then five states each had 2 teams Florida (Florida at #4 and Miami at #23), Ohio (Ohio State at #10 and Cincinnati at #19), Oklahoma (Oklahoma at #5 and Oklahoma State at #11), Oregon (Oregon State at #21 and Oregon at #24), Pennsylvania (Penn State at #8 and Pitt at #20), and Utah (Utah at #7 and BYU at #14)
I found these results pretty interesting. With 3 things that stand out to me.
First: 4 of the top 5 "football" states (Texas, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) are represented with at least 2 teams. While the 5th football state, California, only has one team, USC at #6, in the top 25 of the BCS rankings. This makes me wonder, What has happened to all the California schools? UCLA, Cal, and Stanford are nowhere to be found.
Second:
How did Oregon and Utah make the list of states with multiple teams? Seriously when did these states become football hot beds? In the case of the Oregon schools we see that the Pac-10 isn't as weak as we once thought. And although these teams are not anywhere close to the National Championship Hunt each has played respectable football all season (Just don't mention the atrocious uniforms Oregon decided to sport recently, someone please tell Nike that not all Uniforms fly, pun intended)
with Oregon State in the drivers seat for the Pac-10 championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl.
Utah and BYU have both played well throughout the season and sport a combined record of 21-1 with the only loss by BYU coming against TCU which sports the top ranked defense in the nation and a future matchup between the 2 to decide the Mountain West conference championship and possible an at-large bid to a BCS Bowl. Which leads me to my last point.
Third:
Is the Mountain West conference the 3rd best conference in the nation behind the Big 12 and the SEC? Sure the bottom half of the conference lacks the strength of the upper half but with 3 teams in the top 25 of the BCS (BYU, TCU, and Utah), the top ranked defense in the nation (TCU), and a combined record of 38-6 for the top 4 MWC teams I think they have a compelling argument that at least for one year the MWC is the 3rd best conference in the nation.
Here is what I found: Texas had the most teams with 3 (Texas Tech at #2, UT at #3, and TCU at #16) then five states each had 2 teams Florida (Florida at #4 and Miami at #23), Ohio (Ohio State at #10 and Cincinnati at #19), Oklahoma (Oklahoma at #5 and Oklahoma State at #11), Oregon (Oregon State at #21 and Oregon at #24), Pennsylvania (Penn State at #8 and Pitt at #20), and Utah (Utah at #7 and BYU at #14)
I found these results pretty interesting. With 3 things that stand out to me.
First: 4 of the top 5 "football" states (Texas, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) are represented with at least 2 teams. While the 5th football state, California, only has one team, USC at #6, in the top 25 of the BCS rankings. This makes me wonder, What has happened to all the California schools? UCLA, Cal, and Stanford are nowhere to be found.
Second:
How did Oregon and Utah make the list of states with multiple teams? Seriously when did these states become football hot beds? In the case of the Oregon schools we see that the Pac-10 isn't as weak as we once thought. And although these teams are not anywhere close to the National Championship Hunt each has played respectable football all season (Just don't mention the atrocious uniforms Oregon decided to sport recently, someone please tell Nike that not all Uniforms fly, pun intended)
with Oregon State in the drivers seat for the Pac-10 championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl.Utah and BYU have both played well throughout the season and sport a combined record of 21-1 with the only loss by BYU coming against TCU which sports the top ranked defense in the nation and a future matchup between the 2 to decide the Mountain West conference championship and possible an at-large bid to a BCS Bowl. Which leads me to my last point.
Third:
Is the Mountain West conference the 3rd best conference in the nation behind the Big 12 and the SEC? Sure the bottom half of the conference lacks the strength of the upper half but with 3 teams in the top 25 of the BCS (BYU, TCU, and Utah), the top ranked defense in the nation (TCU), and a combined record of 38-6 for the top 4 MWC teams I think they have a compelling argument that at least for one year the MWC is the 3rd best conference in the nation.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
So it begins...again
After nearly an 8 month layoff I have decided to come out of Blogger retirement (Thanks Brett Farve for showing me that I can still be effective after retiring prematurely). Today while one of my 3 visits to Taco Cabana (Yes I know that it is a little ridiculous to go to TC 3 times in one day) I decided that I wanted to start writing again. This time I want to make it more than just random thoughts or what is going on in my life. I want to use this blog as an insight into my life as a sports official and how it affects pretty much every aspect of my life. Don't get me wrong I will definitely be adding the occasional random thought or the anecdote from the recent happenings of my life but I primarily want to focus on the refereeing (is that even a word) side of things.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Your Thoughts on Race
So this post is kinda different then some of the ones that I have had before. I would like to hear what ya'll think. I was in my Sociology of Sport class yesterday and we were talking about race. This is a topic that I find particularly interesting. As most of you know I have a Mother who is White and a Father who is Hispanic. This has always been interesting to me. I consider myself Hispanic, yet I grew up in a very White American home as far as culture is concerned. I don't look very Hispanic as far as most Hispanics are concerned and I never really identified with Whites either. I have always been very middle of the road and never truly identified with any particular race. So in our class the question was asked, "Did God create the different races." I'm sure that some of you would never have imagined this question arising in a class but as a Mormon going to a Catholic school it brought a very welcomed discussion. According to the professor he only created Adam and didn't create any race in particular. I disagreed because I said that God did create the races when he put the curse on Cain and also the Laminites. So I would love to hear what others think about this.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Random Thought
Another Random Thought for yall. If Asians use chopsticks to eat, how do they eat ice cream?
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Random Thought
Just a Random Thought: There are laws against jay walking but cross walks are at intersections where most accidents occur. So that would make jay walking safer than obeying the law.
Monday, March 3, 2008
So it begins...
So I have always wanted to start a blog to share with the world what I think. So here we go this is the first post in this endeavor. I will try to post a little something everyday and I would love to hear what others have to say so feel free to comment.
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