I had written this little tidbit three years ago when I was living in the middle of Kazakstan for the summer. I thought it was funny enough to post here.

You might be in Karaganda, Kazakstan if…

I ran across a site called The Darfur Wall, a web site that raises money for relief in Darfur, Sudan in a unique way.

400,000 numbers cover the The Darfur Wall, one for each victim of genocide in Darfur. By donating one dollar you can light a number, turning it from dark gray to brilliant white. As we light the wall, we honor each lost life, cast light upon a tragedy too many have ignored, and overcome one barrier to peace.

It’s fast and easy to donate, and 100% of donations benefit four Darfur relief organizations. Please visit The Darfur Wall and light a number for peace.

For the first 30 years of my life, I’ve sung this song as my yearly national anthem to myself. I might as well be saying, “I pledge allegiance to myself…” A couple weeks ago I finished reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. At one point, he mentioned how he felt like he was in a great play, and the central character was himself. I often feel like that. I bet most people do.

I wonder what life would be like if I played a supporting role in that play. What if I didn’t even play a part in some scenes, but was working on the special effects. That would be cool. I think this metaphor is gong too far…

In just one week, Kelly and are heading off to France to visit Mer & Justin, our sister and brother-in-law. They just moved to France, so that Justin could play basketball for a team over there. I am so happy for them, that Justin is able to live his dream of playing pro basketball. We’ll have some pictures of France up here soon. Well, maybe a week or so after we get back.

Web developers out there, the new Firebug is here! And it’s awesome. Rather than me going on about it. Just go check it out at
getfirebug.com.

It seems like every time I move to Columbus, something happens to the Buckeyes that brings them to the National Championship Game. I moved into town for a year in 2002 (then left for three years). Kelly and I just moved back to Columbus in June and here we go again.

I won’t give my commentary on the game on Saturday. However, there are a million voices about the BCS so I’ll whisper a little bit on the subject. I think Michigan had their chance at the Championship game on Saturday and they lost. I guess the antithesis of that statement is that if Ohio State had lost that they should have gone to the Rose Bowl.

I guess my rationale is in the world of NCAA football, 2/3 of your season is in-conference play. The excitement of the bowls is that you get to see how teams stack up against each other between conferences. You get to see an ACC team beat a Big Ten team or the Big East pack a wallup on the SEC.

Of course the Michigan – Ohio State game could have gone the other way, but it didn’t and history is history. I certainly wish that Penn State beat Michigan last year with one second left on the clock. Instead, they won every game except one.

My hope is that either Florida or USC finishes well and they win out.

In the end though, I don’t think there’s any perfect solution to the BCS. Playoffs are impractical. The ranking system tries it’s best to combine the objective and subjective, but it doesn’t factor in the political (conferences), at least not for championship game. Welcome to the difficulties of answering plurality definitively.