Tag: Michigan

  • Notre Dame vs. Michigan

    Today is a big game for two coaches going in opposite directions. A win here cements the quick turnaround by Brian Kelly for Notre Dame. (But the loss for Kelly is kind of neutral.) A loss for  Michigan and Rich Rodriguez is firmly on the hot seat and would have to beat Ohio State to keep his job.

    For both Notre Dame and Michigan the annual game is clearly one which you circle on the calendar. They each have other rivalry games each year, but this rivalry game is always the early on the calendar and defines the season.

    For me, it’s the one week a year where I cheer against Michigan.

    The keys to the game seem to be:

    1. Can Notre Dame’s defense contain Denard Robinson? He looked phenomenal against UConn. But there’s definitely a quality difference between Notre Dame’s defense and UConn’s. If they force him to throw, that’ll be key.
    2. Can Notre Dame’s offense take advantage of Michigan’s weak secondary? They’ve had injuries and transfers. And Notre Dame’s Kyle Rudolph and Michael Floyd are legitimately top quality receivers in college football.

    My prediction: Notre Dame 41 Michigan 33

  • Our Housing Nightmare: Coming Soon

    nightmare_bailey

    Kristen and I have doozy of a story to tell. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you call your congressmen. It will make you sell your stock in banks. Most importantly, it will show you the difference between media hype about the housing market and Main Street realities. If you liked The Perfect Storm, you’ll love our story.

    It will start something like this, “In America, we expect stories to have a happy ending.  But this is no fairy tale, this is a real estate story from Michigan 2008. Watch as our American Dream turns into a nightmare.”

    The last couple chapters of the real story are yet to be written. When it’s all officially done and the dust has settled, I will write all about it.

    Until then, my friends, just know that we’re doing fine. To be continued…

  • Excited about 2009

    As far as years go 2008 has been a crazy one. The year started off with me gasping for air between rounds of Kidstown events and ended with a long time of rest and reflection after moving our family across the country and launching myself in a new direction. To quote Mike Yaconelli, “What a ride!”

    As 2008 takes it’s last spin on the disco ball known as Earth I wanted to record a few of the things I’m excited about for 2009.

    #1 A simpler life continuing. It may sound weird that moving into an urban setting, Kristen taking a job, and both kids now in elementary school is actually simpler for us, but it is. Unlike before, we’re living within our means and building healthy boundaries between our work, play, jobs, and church life.

    #2 To social media and beyond! I’m looking forward to the two-fold reality of getting deeper into the social media scene while at the same time venturing into new things.

    #3 A hobby with my wife. For the first time in our relationship Kristen and I have purposed to do something together. Those who know us know how true it is that we often have had different worlds. Purposing to have the same hobby of Beyond The Zoo is going to bring us closer together.

    #4 Golf. After a 3 year sabbatical from the game I will be resolving to get my game back in shape. I’d love to find a league or a volunteer opportunity to force me to play. How in the world could a lifelong golfer live in San Diego and not play?

    #5 A vacation. No idea where we are headed or what we will do. But the family will definitely require a trip somewhere.

    #6 A new place to live. Our lease is up in February and we’ve already told our landlady we intend to move. That said, we’re starting to look at places in the SDSU area, City Heights, Rolando, Kensington, or somewhere else near our church. We need more space.

    #7 New stuff at Youth Ministry Exchange. Starting soon I will have a weekly column ay YMX. After kicking around a lot of ideas I’ve decided to stick with my passion. It’s going to be a weekly encouragement. Recognizing how little worship and preaching most of us hear as we lead the students… I hope it’s helpful to fill a tiny bit of the void. Plus, YMX’s main site has a brand new look we’re popping out soon.

    #8 Some cool stuff at YS. Now that I’m not “the new guy” anymore it’s fun to be around some of our things from genesis through release. I’m excited about increasing my impact at work in 2009. More importantly, I am still shocked that God has allowed me the ability to impact the lives of youth workers through YS. Gosh, that is too cool.

    #9 Unloading the Michigan homestead. Hard to believe that our house in Romeo has been vacant since the first week of August. We have a buyer and we’re waiting on the banks to do their thing. Originally, we had hoped that we’d be done with the house by the close of 2008. One way or the other, we will be done with the house in 2009.

    #10 Kid Stuff. Megan and Paul have hit the age where childhood hits the afterburner and starts to speed along. Blogging is awesome in that I get to capture little snapshots, literally and figurately, of their lives for posterity sake. Both of their personalities are blossoming and I’m falling deeper and deeper in love with these kids God chose for us.

  • I will not turn on the furnace

    Having spent 29 of my 32 year in the upper midwest, I am resolute that we will not need to turn on our furnace this winter. Seriously, it doesn’t get cold enough in San Diego to even turn on the pilot light. Call me cheap, but I don’t plan on firing up the furnace this winter.

    For those outside of Southern California. While the San Diego climate is mild year-round, it does get noticeably cooler in fall and winter. Hardly cold, but still chilly.

    If you ever visited our house in Romeo you’d know that Kristen and I like to keep the house cool. Todd and his family talk about putting on layers to come over for dinner. Of course, the joke was funnier knowing that we would actually turn the thermostat up to 70 when company came over. At night, we allowed the house to cool to 58. Understand that we lived in a 135 year old house and keeping it warm all night long would mean the furnace would literally run all night long if I tried to keep it at its day time temperature of 65. At the same time, we’ve always kept our houses at similar temperatures. Some people like a really hot house, I like a relatively cool house.

    So, some things about us never change. Just like in Michigan, Kristen and I wake up and tiptoe to the kettle to warm up water for coffee or tea. Just like our house was in the mid-fifties in the mornings, the same is true of our San Diego home. But, just like in Michigan, we are thinking of cheating by installing a couple high efficiency space heaters just to keep the nip off the air.

    After all, we’d feel like bad parents if the kids could see their breath when they crawled out of bed.

  • College Football Check-in

    Here’s a mid-season check-in of my favorite teams.

    #1 Notre Dame For a team that barely won 3 games last year, I’m please with their progress. I actually think some fans expected the Irish to win 8-9 games based on their week schedule. Essentially, they have beaten the team’s on their schedule that they were supposed to while gotten beat by ranked opponenents. With Syracuse and USC left on their schedule I think they will end up 7-5 before getting waxed in a bowl game. Some have said Charlie Weis is on the hot seat, I don’t see it that way at all. This is a rebuilding process, his team is very young. Now if they are 8-4 next year or less… I can see dumping him.

    #2 Michigan State I’ve watched a couple of their games and been quite impressed. They have climbed to #15 in the polls and if they can manage squeak past Penn State and Michigan pulls off the upset of the millenium, they would be rose bowl bound. Most importantly, they didn’t collapse after the Michigan game. Kudos to State for finally figuring out how to play a whole season.

    #3 Michigan Back in September I said it would be a down year and boy has it lived up to that hype. At 3-8 they have often been stunningly bad. I also said that they would have a chance to beat Ohio State. As long as the bus brings the Buckeyes to the correct stadium on Saturday morning I don’t see Michigan having a chance. That said, it’s a rivalry game and anything is possible. No, I take that back. Michigan has as good a chance of beating Ohio State as Jennifer Graham does in getting re-elected in 2010.

    #4 San Diego State At 1-10 it is tough to find anything good to say about the Aztecs. Sadly, I never made it to one of their games either. When they played Notre Dame I thought they may have a chance to be .500. I must have been on crack that day. The good news is that I may be able to enroll in the grad school and walk on for the Aztecs. Sure, I’ve never played high school football. But I’m pretty good at NCAA 2008 for the Wii.

  • My favorite football teams

    College football gets into full swing today. Technically, it started last week yet it wasn’t a full schedule. I thought it was good to clarify just who I get excited about in college football for this season.

    #1 Notre Dame (I grew up about a mile from the campus, been to a ton of games, love me some Fighting Irish.)

    #2 Michigan State (Not sure why I like them, but I enjoy watching the Spartans. I think they can have a decent year.)

    #3 Michigan (This is a rebuilding year for them. I don’t expect them to be above .500 as the new coach wasn’t left with a lot of talent. But I still like watching them. The crazy thing is that it doesn’t matter how bad they are, they still have a shot against Ohio State.)

    #4 San Diego State (I know they aren’t good this year, but they are the closest D-1 team to us. They play about 3 miles from our house.

  • Travels with Stoney: Day One


    This video is a bit random, but I think you’ll like it. Megan pretty much stars in it and I do some commentary. The random girl in the middle with the fish, that’s my friend Angie & Chris’s daughter Grace.

    There are many more videos coming. Megan has shot nearly 3 hours of video in two days. There is a lot to sort through still.

  • Travels With Stoney: Stuff


    Get all episodes of Travels with Stoney by subscribing to my RSS feed or subscribing to my YouTube channel.

  • Risk vs. Opportunity

    A common theme in my mind lately has been how we look at the choices we make. As one would imagine, Kristen and I are making tons of decisions right now. And we’ve come to this conclusion: Most decisions are morally neutral and the outcome depends on you.

    Quick disclaimer: Look, I know that there are moral decisions. Things which God has said are black and white. For example: “Should we cheat on our taxes? ” No, God’s pretty clear on that one. This is more about decisions such as, “Should we rent house A or house B?” I think those decisions are typically amoral.

    Positive outcomes and positive attitudes

    When it comes to amoral decisions I’ve noticed that the outcome is largely dependent on my response, action, and attitude. In other words, when I make a decision, whether it turns out good or bad typically has to do with what I do with that decision. cloud

    Here’s a reality my friends in Michigan have to deal with. There is a thick black cloud of pessimism that permeates our community. Until that pessimism is overcome with optimism, the self-fulfilling prophesy of economic doom and gloom will continue. It’s oppressive. It’s depressing. And it is making things worse.

    Perhaps it is because I am moving, but almost every conversation I have goes like this, “Romeo is a great place to live… but I don’t know, things aren’t looking good.” Understand this… that is a value statement of risk vs. opportunity.

    And it’s not all over. As I’ve traveled this summer I think you should know that this deep pessimism is a Michigan thing. Board a plane departing or arriving at Metro or Flint and it’s all pessimism in the cabin. But walk through Atlanta, Denver, or San Diego’s airports and you’ll see people making lemonade with their lemons. Head back home and it is all about rotten lemons. Making lemonade is apparently too risk for Michigan’s lemon owners.

    Today in Romeo there are about 100 homes on the market. All of them, including mine, are listed below market value. If you’re living with the black cloud… you look at the housing market and say “Wow, it could go even lower. Owning a home is such a huge risk right now.” If you look at the housing market from an optimist perspective you respond by saying, “Man, what a great time to buy. I wonder how I can get some capital to buy up some rental properties.”

    Here’s the simple reality. Michigan may be in a tough economic situation. But if you see where we are today as pre-boom instead of post-bust you’ll recognize that tomorrow’s millionaires (billionaires?) see today as an opportunity and are leveraging against you over inflating the risk. The rich of 2015 see this as pre-boom. The poor of 2015 see this as post-bust. Get it? It’s all about your response.

    I’ve talked to tons of very young adult people 19-22 years old this summer. And the cloud has infected them with pessimism. They have no dreams. And they are not looking at today’s problems as their opportunity for a very bright future.

    Here are some opportunities

    #1 You could innovate the next economy for a community. It won’t be cars, but will it be technology? Probably. Yet starting a business is “too risky” or going to study what is going on in tech boom towns like Boise, Houston, or even Ann Arbor is simply too much risk. Trust me… the best technological developments come from people looking to make an opportunity out of nothing. (Speaking from experience!) R&D departments can’t build a winner. But a college kid can invent Facebook for a couple hundred bucks. And a laid off carpenter can invent an ipod repair business. Sit in a room with a legal pad for a day and no distractions and I guarantee you can innovate something.

    #2 You could be the next real estate tycoon for almost no risk. If you are 22 years old with a college degree and an entry level job. You could buy 2 homes for less than $1500/month. Live in one and rent the other. In 3 months buy another rental and keep capitalizing on people’s pessimism until you have 5-6 rental homes. As Romeo becomes a renters market you could gain both equity in these undervalued rentals and make tons of income from rent. Heck, if you are 19 with a part time job you could buy a house for $600/month and rent it for $800/month. Save those profits and do it again in 6 months. Hold/rent those 5-6 properties for 10 years and you just made a million dollars.

    #3 You could invest in the next Microsoft or Apple. My conversations with those bought out from their autoworker jobs are depressing. They are saying “How long can I last on this money?” Wrong question. The right question is, “How can I find the right start-up to invest in?” Michigan has a highly educated and undermotivated work force. As soon as that motivation part turns around this economy will come back like gangbusters. Are you investing in high return start-ups or are you still thinking large cap companies are going to return? Bill Gates’ earliest investors tossed in only $10,000. I think they did OK.

    Every decision I make is an evaluation of risk vs. opportunity. What about you?

  • Picture Post, July 4th 2008