Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Thanksgiving Prayer

I composed this nice Thanksgiving prayer, but as I was about to pray, Bob, my grandmother's suiter passed out and gave us all a scare. With him being roused, my mother-in-law was pushing me to pray anyways. Well I completely forgot the prayer that I prepared and just mumbled a few things. Anyways, here it is.

Thank you for bringing us here today,
Thank you for showing us the way.

Thank you for the work we do with our hands,
Thank you for loving family and friends.

Thank you for the children who are models of love,
Thank you for those who watch from above.

Thank you for giving us a choice,
Thank you for ears to hear your soft voice.

Thank you for buying our sins at a cost,
Thank you for finding us when we were lost.

Thank you for being the way, the truth, and the life,
Thank you for when we were blind and you gave us sight.

Thank you for this life, this day, and this food,
We accept it all and offer it all back to you.

Ode to Bear Pascoe

This is my ode to my favorite Fresno State football player this year.

Bear oh Bear, where did you come from?
Bear oh Bear, where will you go?
While you are here, you are my hero?

The season nearly over, without much to show,
But one person shined; one person glowed.

I sat in my seat in the cold hard stands,
Amongst the other sad, sullen, Bulldog fans.

I scanned the players from left to right,
Looking for some hope, for some light.

Sure we had Wright, but he was leaving this year,
What in the future would give reason to cheer?

I watched the defense and studied the offence,
And found that one man stood taller than the rest.

Bear Pascoe is his name, from Porterville they say,
And more than anyone else, I enjoyed watching him play.

Once a quarterback, but now moved to tight end,
No matter where you are, your talents transcend.

The visitors kickoff and I see you blocking,
Little men challenge you but always end up stopping.

Then everyone but you trots off the field,
And the offense joins you so a drive you can build.

We run left and run right without much success,
Now the play calling will be put to the test.

A pass play! What an amazing sight!
And look! Up the middle! Bear Pascoe takes flight!

Tom throws the ball high up in the air,
Bear reaches up and grabs it with care.

With momentum like a boulder rolling down hill,
Bear bowls over defenders on his feet still.

Charging down field, a bulldog with a bone,
Bashing and crashing his way to the end zone.

Touchdown! I don’t believe it you did it again,
Keeping the team alive when the chances are slim.

Like a gladiator you hold your fist up high,
Then humbly line up to block for the try.

So I’ll keep watching and cheering for you,
Next year we’ll start again, expectations renewed.

I look forward to seeing you play again soon,
Flattening defenders and catching passes too.

Bear oh Bear, where did you come from?
Bear of Bear, where will you go?
While you are here, you are my hero.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Asleep in my bed

Weary, tired and sore from a long hard day,
Skull pounding and throbbing, headache won’t go away,
Stomach turning, rolling, churning, from lack of food,
All day spent with people, vulgar and rude,
Combined, it all created a pretty poor mood.

Lay down, slip under the covers so warm,
Soon as peaceful as a baby just born,
Close your heavy tired eyes and drift off to sleep,
Gradually content and peace will creep,
Time spent in twilight is always yours to keep.

Muscles relaxed and quickly recovering,
Anything can happen while you are slumbering,
Mind drifting from place to place without care,
Wherever you want to go, you can go there,
In your dreams everyone can be bare.

Dreaming of love, lust and content,
It all comes easy with hardly an attempt,
In a dream no door has a lock,
Every great blue ocean has a dock,
And it all ends at the sound of an alarm clock

Monday, November 13, 2006

Where do ideas come from?

One of the things that people sometimes ask me when I talk about my book is "where did you get the idea?" I once watched an interview with J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) about this very topic. She joked about being tired of hearing it saying that she wants to reply, "the idea shop," or something silly like that. I too don't know what to say most of the time, but often reply that The Sureshot is simply a reflection of the reading that I enjoy.

Then this last weekend I was mowing the lawn when I thought up another great idea for a book, and I realized that I regularly get good ideas while doing yard work. This reminded me of how people often claim to get good ideas in the shower. This is fitting since both bathing, and mowing the lawn are things that can be done with little active thinking. To me the fact that I seem to get good ideas while I mow the lawn is ironic since I don't enjoy mowing it.

I suppose though it doesn't make much difference what exactly I am doing while I do some thinking, only that I am doing it. So the moral is 1) that ideas don't come from an "idea shop" but rather from the shower, or more correctly from doing something which allows for thinking, and 2) it is good to mow the lawn.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Me on TV



This is picture from my interview on "Great Day" a morning show on KMPH a local Fox affiliate.

lonely

So my wife went out of town this weekend to a women’s’ retreat and I am home with the kids. While this might seem like a recipe for disaster it actually has not been that bad. I am home with them a lot and so there is nothing I can’t do. For the most part they have been pretty mellow, but a couple of times we have had some issues. Eli has been a bit sick and so he is a little more challenging lately, and Maddy, well, she is Maddy, and thinks she is in charge. All in all it has gone well with the kids.

The thing that I did not expect was how lonely I would be. I miss Brandi so much. This is only the second night, but I am dying here by myself. I thought that it might be nice to have some time alone. I figured I could play playstation without being nagged, and eat whatever I wanted, but the truth is that I miss her badly. I didn’t even play video games last night (ok well not very long). I mostly wrote because I didn’t know what else to do. I have too many writing projects as it is, but I thought of a great new idea for a book.

Speaking of books, I got my check for last quarter and it turns out that I have only sold like 100 books. Pretty lame huh? I don’t despair however. I truly believe that the book is good, and people who have read it think so as well, only marketing is a challenge. I did manage to get onto a morning TV show here in Fresno which was great. Several people said they saw me, so that must mean that many more saw me. I only hope that such exposure leads to more sales. I understand that it may take some time to get my book out, and build an audience, only I thought that it might be easier than this. Then I think so what? So what if The Sureshot doesn’t sell a lot? I will write another book and then another, and perhaps one day, I will sell some books. For now I am simply thrilled that I got published at all. If I only sell 100, well that is still more than most people ever sell, because most people haven’t written a book, and more still haven’t been published. For now I will just be happy with that.

Besides that I can’t wait for Brandi to come home tomorrow. It is strange how you can grow accustomed to living with someone, that when they are gone, everything seems so strange. I didn’t expect this feeling, but now that I know it is there, maybe I will appreciate her more when she is around, (which is most of the time). They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, after this weekend, I believe it.