A Method of Living

Photo by Rinni

Every once in a while I’ll start writing with a theme or thought in mind and it starts to go all over the place.  This is one that I decided to dust off and post it in parts.  The notes were taken during my Greek vacation a couple of years ago.  The crux of it is about how I choose to walk the road.  It may seem that I’m making some judgments, and maybe I am, but it’s simply a method to put my pace into some context.  If you’re open-minded and confident then read on.

Finding My One

Every once in a while I attempt to write something other than a simple blog post.  I felt like pulling this one out of the attic to share with you, a poem I wrote for my wife during my last deployment.  It's not something you'd ever find published but it reminds me that she is always there with me, like the beat of my heart.

A Sci-Fi Rumble in the Jungle

Gabriel's Return by Steve Umstead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Power up your Oso-11 heavy assault rifle and join Evan Gabriel’s team as they face a new threat on an old battlefield in Steve Umstead’s second novel in the Evan Gabriel Trilogy, ‘Gabriel’s Return’.


Picking up the story six months after the conclusions of the first book, Umstead instills in you a false sense of security and normalcy so that he can leverage his plot and jerk the rug out from under you and his characters. This book is loaded with more than enough hi-tech action but Umstead finds balance and depth by presenting a more complex plot and delves much deeper into his characters.


Click here for the rest of the review!

What Lockout?

A New York Times news alert popped up on my iPad today with a breaking story.  Normally when those pop up I get a little nervous since it’s usually bad news and I am in Afghanistan after all, the center for the media’s constant doom and gloom coverage…but that’s another story.

No, this story had to do with the National Basketball Association players union turning down a deal likely resulting in a cancelled season.  Something else written in there about it being the owners last offer, the union decertifying, blah, blah, blah.

A gift for the hard days

We all run into hard times, sometimes for a day and sometimes much longer.  Every so often I have them and seem to always find inspiration, generally from those around me.  Sometimes however, it's just not enough but there were some words I discovered during a deployment to Iraq that seem to pull me out of the most severe cases of the doldrums.  This gift of words is a succinct reminder that tells us that we can and must take charge of our lives at the worst of times.  Tuck this away when that rainy day feels like a storm pouring down on you and find the inspiration to get up and fight.

Looking at the numbers

AP Photo

Here’s where I normally write a few paragraphs on my hope for a good outcome at the weekly Michigan game.  It’s usually laden with jabs at rivals, a little statistical insight on opponents and confidence that our head coach will lead the team to overcome.

Next steps - sorting out the aftermath at PSU

Bob Wojnowski, Detroit News

I regularly follow Detroit News columnist Bob Wojnowski for his wit and humorous approach to covering the sports stories from my home state and around the country.  I also spend a little time bantering with some of his colleagues on Twitter and e-mail because they are good, fun people.


Today, like many in the past week is not a day for banter or jokes.  Bob's words in his weekly column express what a lot of sports fans are feeling at the moment; confusion, outrage, sadness, and many other things that are about 180 degrees from the things we normally feel about the sports and teams we love.  

Whether you talk to Angilique Chengelis, Jamie Samuelsen, or the Free Press' Michael Rosenberg, sports is not the topic in most of our minds with the aftershocks of this awful situation at PSU still waiting for resolution, which may be far off.  More than anything, most of us feel awful about what happened to these kids and don't know what to do about it, but celebrating a weekly game seems far off the mark.  


I'd share with you some of Bob's thoughts on the subject because today I just can't find words of my own to add.  I think, like Michael Rosenberg wrote today, there is so much positive that can be done to make a difference in the wake of this horrific series of events, but first we have to address the remaining issues of today and get the right perspective.  
Columnists | Protest all you want, but Joe Paterno's not the victim | The Detroit News

Board intervenes, charts right path

AP Photo

The Penn State University board of trustees made a difficult and conscious decision to do the right thing in light of one of the worst scandals in sports history by firing their long-standing and revered head football coach, Joe Paterno.

PSU scandal reveals true colors

AP Photo

You see the true colors come out in people in the midst of institutional crisis and with only a handful of days passed since the initial breaking reports centering on former Penn State football coordinator Jerry Sandusky’s horrendous acts on children, the colors seem to run the spectrum.

A sickening lesson in sports

The story from State College, Pa. gets worse as the clock ticks and if the charges of a cover-up by Penn State University officials wasn’t itself disgusting, the way some on the sports beat are covering this story places the exclamation point on one of the most horrendous stories in more than a decade. 

Why I Came Back: Reason Six

For six weeks I've shared the thoughts and insights behind my decision to come back to Afghanistan for another consecutive tour.  True, I miss my family like crazy but there were so many things that pulled me back and after talking to my wife we both realized that it was something that needed doing.  

Reason 6:  The Leader