Cooperstown

Team Name

The Dilemma: Porter's indoor soccer team starts play in a couple of weeks, and we need a team name ASAP. I am turning the team in on either Wednesday or Thursday, and I have no idea what we should call the team this year.

The Solution: Ask the public. I want YOU to name the team. It doesn't matter who you are: man, woman, boy or girl, leave me your best idea(s) for a team name between now and Wednesday or Thursday, and I will pick the one I think best fits for our team. Leave your suggestions in comment form here on the blog, or if you get a great idea and your are away from your computer, send me a text message. All suggestions will be taken into consideration.

We need your help people. Don't let us down.

posted by Wes @ 1:41 PM 23 comments

I Was Right!!!!!!

You know that song "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins? Everyone tried to tell me that that song went "I can feel it coming in the air tonight, hold on". I insisted that he is not saying "hold on" but that he is in fact saying "Oh Lord". Everyone said I was wrong and stupid. Well I just looked up the lyrics, and guess what? It's "Oh Lord"!!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS RIGHT!!!!!! I WAS RIGHT!!!!!!

So to all those who said I was wrong, who's laughing now? Allison Lamb, I believe you were the first to disagree. Jason Lamb, I think you finally agreed with me a while ago, but I'm not sure. And Hollice, where you at? Where you at? I was right Hollice Lamb, and now I have the facts to prove it. Look it up yourself.

Moral of the Story: Don't second-guess Coops. And for those keeping score, that's Wes-1, Hollice-0. Booyah.

posted by Wes @ 2:16 PM 2 comments

Spring Break And Other Thoughts

Hello all, I hope that everyone had a fantastic Spring Break. I had the opportunity to go to New Orleans with fellow college group members to mud-out houses that were hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina. What an amazing sight it was to see first-hand what the storm did to the entire region....the pictures you see on TV just don't tell the whole story. It was hard work and I missed the opening round of the NCAA tourney, but I don't have any regrets. I learned a lot and hopefully by our work lives were touched and God was glorified. I commend all of you who went for the hard-work you put in and the good attitudes you kept for the duration of the trip....I know it was hard sometimes, lack of sleep will do that to ya.

I look forward to this weekend as Chris and I will be teaching the 9th/10th grade boys for Desciple Now weekend at Porter. I am excited to get to spend time with promising young men such as John Bailey Jr. I got to hang out with his dad, the one and only John "Boss" Bailey Sr. on the trip. Needless to say that man is now one of my favorite people. I see Little John (no pun intended HA HA HA) a lot at the mall when I am a work, he always struts up to me and says hi at work. It should be an interesing weekend......

I've got nothing else to say except that I am thinking about selling my XBox so if anyone (Tapp) is interested I might just dump it off on you (Tapp) for the right price. Of course I would include for you (Tapp) all the games I have if you (Tapp) want them.

Hopefully soon I will have something interesting to talk about, but until then I bid you all a pleasant day.

posted by Wes @ 4:16 PM 4 comments

MORE Valuable Lessons From Tapp

So this past Saturday I did absolutely NOTHING... I sat around all day (partly because I wasn't feeling too well and partly because I didn't really have anything to do). So I ended up playing a lot of XBox, something I haven't had the chance to do in a long time. Well I had previously started a career on FIFA '05 (that's soccer for those who don't know) as coach of Aberdeen in the Scottish Premier League. Now this was not a very good team when I took over but I made a key trades and now we run all over people. Anyway I was playing a game against a team that I should be beating pretty soundly, except that my players were just letting the other team push them around all over the place (for a mental image of this, imagine how Florida pushed UK around on Sunday, except on the soccer field). We weren't getting to the loose balls, we weren't winning the battles for headers, and we sure as heck weren't shielding the ball.

Well about midway through the second half I had seen enough of this garbage. I tried to think of ways I could get my players to get in gear. You can't mass substitute in soccer, so that wasn't an option. You can't call a timeout, there are not timeouts in soccer. So I thought to myself "What would Tapp do in this situation?" Now Tapp knows nothing about soccer, but he does know how to motivate his players no matter what sport they are playing. So I did what Tapp always did to get his players to do what he wanted: I yelled at the TV. I called them girls (no offense ladies, women's soccer is the truth too). I questioned their manhood publicly. I asked them to remember who and what they played for. I mean really let them have it.

Now I usually don't yell at the TV (except during the occasional UK game), I was told when I was but a young lad that yelling at the TV did no good. But by golly it actually worked this time. All of the sudden we were dominating the other team with no mercy. It was a thing of beauty. A couple of quick goals ensued and the game was won.

Some will say that it is just coincidence, but I say don't be so sure. A part of me thinks that these video games are way smarter than we think....They have minds of their own. Just ask anyone who has played NCAA Football 06, that game learns your style of play and will shut you down if you don't adjust.

Once again, the Tapp method proved to be the better way. I don't remember if I ever saw the TV respond to Tapp screaming at it (then again he was not very articulate in his screaming, so maybe it just couldn't understand him), but the first time I tried it it worked for me. Let's all remember this next time something on the TV isn't quite like you want it. However, you don't have to be quite as animated as Tapp (e.g flying out of your chair and getting directly in front of the TV screaming a bunch of nonsense at it, all while throwing you arms about wildly).

Let's use an example. Let's say that, like me, you love The Office, and you want Jim and Pam too hook up because Jim is a stud and Pam's fiancee is a major-league chump. Now you could just sit back and let fate run it's course. Or you can get involved. You might say to the TV in a loud voice "Go for it Jim, what have you got to lose? It might be easier for you to be on vacation during Pam's wedding....But then how will you be able tp object in the middle of the ceremony? I mean come on!!!!!"

Or perhaps Stabler has kept his cool for the entire episode of Law & Order: SVU, but the suspect is a major jerk and he is smarting off and you want to see Stabler rough him up a little bit. You might just encourage him in a loud voice, saying "Come on Stabler, don't let this dude get the best of you. Slap this fool around a little bit, the Captain won't care." Maybe Stabler will heed your advice.

It's all about interactive TV people. Maybe it doesn't work all the time, but the time it does work it is totally worth it. So once gain, let's thank that eternal well of wisdom Justin Tapp for sharing his valuable knowledge, even if it only works part of the time.

posted by Wes @ 9:56 PM 6 comments

Lessons From Tapp

So today in English the big topic of discussion was "Is all love selfish? Can we love unselfishly? What is real love?". A good topic to discuss. I thought about giving my two cents worth of opinion today in class, but someone else stole my thunder and I didn't want to repeat it. But upon giving those questions some thought, a classic Justin Tapp quote came to my mind. We were discussing Tapp's impending marriage, what it is to love, can you choose to love anyone, etc. I don't even know if Tapp remembers saying this, but here's the comment he made (or at least the general idea) :

• "Love is like this: your lying on your couch after a hard days work, getting ready to watch the UK basketball game. Your wife enters the room, sits right up next to you and says "Let's watch Extreme Home Makeover". Now, you have been planning on watching this game for several days, and you really want to watch it. But you value your wife's wishes over your own, so you don't argue or complain about it. You just say "Okay, let's watch it", flip the channel over and watch Extreme Home Makeover together. That's the way I look at it.

Tapp may have said some crazy stuff, but this is one topic where he is right on the money. I even almost used this quote in class today. For some reason it has stuck with me ever since he said it.

Tapp's example may seem like a small thing, but even the little things matter. So I say thank you Tapp, I think we have all learned a very valuable lesson today.

posted by Wes @ 1:17 PM 6 comments