I wouldn't mind the Heat winning the championship

I'm okay with Lebron getting a ring. There. I said it. Some of my fellow Lebron-haters may feel a little betrayed (sorry, Tim), but my heart just can't hate Lebron with the passion that I used to. I'm still pulling for the Thunder to win, but my disdain for the Heat has really faded these playoffs. Here's why.

Lebron has been doing everything his critics (like me) said he couldn't do. 
Lebron is driving hard to the hoop, drawing contact, and making free throws. He's playing well all game, every game.  He's showing up in the fourth quarter. He's closing games. He's kept his flopping to a minimum. He's playing with that look in his eye that we didn't think he had, with the will and desire to win we all thought he lacked. Even though he's teamed up with Wade and Bosh, with Bosh injured and Wade sucking, there's no question that Lebron carried this team to the Finals. Lebron has proven to me that he's grown a pair, and what I considered his biggest weakness - his mental strength - has improved drastically.

Shane Battier is a stud. 
I've always loved Battier because he reminds me so much of myself - tall, dark, and handsome. Well. He's the player I hope to be like. A great defender, with a decent offensive game. Actually, I've always wanted to be more like Jason Kidd. But whatever. I'll settle for Shane.

Chris Bosh is making a huge impact that's going largely unnoticed. 
In my opinion, Chris Bosh deserves a ton of credit for the Heat's last two wins. His offensive rebounding has absolutely killed the Thunder, giving the Heat all those second shot opportunities. He's playing his heart out, and for that, mad respect.

I really dislike the Thunder play style, and don't really think they deserve a ring. 
One of the biggest reasons I wouldn't really mind the Heat winning the championships, is that I kind of really don't want the Thunder to win it. I don't like their style of low-assist, high-turnover, iso-every-possession basketball. I don't like how much of a jumpshooting team they are. In my mind, I think the Thunder winning the championship would be too easy. It's not because they didn't play good teams (they probably had the most difficult road to the finals), but I guess just much more prefer seeing wily veterans win championships, not young athletes with questionable basketball IQ win. Also, I don't like how Westbrook plays. Or how he dresses.

So that's that. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm no longer a Lebron-hater. I am now merely a Lebron-disliker.

[As an aside, I'm now a Wade-hater. Flopping, crying for calls, not showing up in games, flagrants, and being an all-around douche. No thanks. Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ]

Best double flop ever.

Trusting Your Teammates

There's no worse feeling in sports than feeling like you can't trust your teammates. I just got home from my third summer league game, and we are now 0-3. The first two games were decently close, but we just got blown out 15-6. The main problem with the build of our team is that we have very few true handlers - 2 guys and 1 girl. On a 15-person team, this isn't nearly enough, especially when there are 40 mph winds out there like there was today. Half of our team are new to ultimate, making it even more difficult to move the disc.

Today, we had a bunch of first/second-throw turnovers. It's a horrible feeling running out to set up the offense for cuts only to turn around and see the disc dropped right in front of the goal-line. The motivation to run back on defense in these situations is hard to come by. It becomes increasingly difficult to keep churning and fighting at my own role as cutter when we make these crippling mistakes. The mistakes start eating at your brain, and I found myself getting more and more frustrated with my team, which not only made me less and less encouraging, but it also really hurt my energy level out on the field. Conflicting temptations battle withing me - one to quit on the team and give up, and the other to be a hero and overstep my role on the team (even though  probably wouldn't do any better).

It really all leaves me in a very weird position. I'm a cutter. That's what I'm best at, and that's what I like playing. Despite the drops, our handlers are still better handlers than me. But a cutter needs someone to throw it to him, and when our handlers aren't playing well (or aren't in the game), it's hard for me to play my role as a cutter without getting disappointed, especially when I run hard and make great cuts but never get the disc. Due to both selfish frustrations and obvious all-around poor performance, I found the trust in my teammates slowly eroding over the span of the game. And this is probably the worst mindset an athlete can succumb to.

When you don't trust your teammates, your head gets way too big and you think you're better than everyone else on the team, and you try to do too much and screw the rest of the team over. You get frustrated and bring your team's morale down with a bad attitude. You lose motivation to play hard because you feel like no matter what you do, it won't make a difference. I need to learn to continue to trust my teammates even when I'm tempted not to and be a positive encouraging force, not a negative one.

Sorry this post was so all over the place and ramble-y. I'm extremely tired, but just decided to share my frustrations with the world. Here's a picture of me looking fabulous playing ultimate.

Don't I look FABULOUS?

Mockingjay Book Review

I just finished the 3rd book of the Hunger Game series, and it under-delivered more than any book I've ever read. I'm extremely disappointing in this final book, and just thinking about Katniss makes me angry. I get overly ticked off by incompetence and foolishness (which is something I need to work on), and the stupidity of Katniss set me off the entire book. Allow me to just go on a little angry rant about it.
Again, as before, don't read any of this post if you haven't read the books and plan to (I wouldn't plan to. Not worth it). Here's my review of the first book, which was also pretty disappointing...but definitely not as much as this one.

Katniss is an idiot...and becomes more and more of an idiot as the book goes on.

This is a theme that has actually been present in all three books, but the other two have had some saving grace to end the book. In the first book, Katniss gives us the satisfaction that she has cheated the system, and in the second book, Katniss is the spark to a revolution. In this book, Katniss' idiocy doesn't lead to any greater good. Throughout the entire book, I couldn't stop thinking to myself, "What is wrong with you? Don't be an idiot? Are you seriously this dumb?" All in all, Katniss is a stereotypical teenage girl that no one likes - overly emotional and impulsive, irrationally rebellious, selfish and dramatic, etc.
I gave her a pass for it in the beginning when she was still recovering from the concussion, but she still continued being a selfish, foolish little bi...girl who managed to screw everyone over with her crappy attitude. Every single decision she made in the book was a foolish one. Here's a short list of "wtf is she thinking" moments I had when reading the book.

• When she decides it's a good idea to run off, get Boggsstomped on the face multiple times, and attempt to bring down the entire Capitol Air Force with her cute little arrows.
• When she's in the underground bunker, after she's explicitly told to remain calm because she's the example for everyone else, goes absolutely hysterical when she can't find her sister. The reaction is understandable, but come on. Is there no better, less panic-inducing way to go about this?
• When she decides to run towards the armed enemy Peacekeeper and make some BS speech about peace while reaching out to him. DO YOU LACK NO SENSE, WOMANGIRL?! She totally deserved to be shot. Too bad it didn't do more damage.
• When she devised her own plan to steal the Holo and go prancing off herself to go assassinate Snow. What an idiot. I mean seriously. This is the worst idea ever. And maybe I missed it, but it also seems like the author never really spent the time for Katniss to narrate to us the development of the plan in her head. She just sort of drops in the "I need to steal the Holo" line and then builds it in little by little. The reasoning behind the plan really escapes me. Did she think that Coin wouldn't let her kill Snow? Did she think that the rebels weren't going to win? Why in the world did she feel the need to take this into her own hands? Here, we have Katniss again thinking she's the center of the world, and the betrayal and physical harm towards those around her are disregarded by her, as long as she gets what she wants.
• When she goes to talk to Haymitch, he makes a bad joke, and she storms out and cries. Anyone else see a fifteen year old drama queen?
• She approves of the last Hunger Games. Maybe it's just me, but I was really surprised that she would back this. Again, her spirit of revenge takes over any rationality she had. [Aside: this issue of the last Hunger Games seems passed over though. There really doesn't seem to be a point in it.]
• When she shot Coin. Seriously? You're telling me that you risked the dozen lives of your team, most of who died for your little fantasy mission, to kill Snow, and yet you kill the person you enabled you to get your revenge instead? I get it. Coin may have killed your sister. But you've killed the new leader of your country based on a short conversation you had with your arch-enemy, the most cruel and trecherous person you know? What in the world is wrong with you?!

The whole middle of the book was pointless. It neither added to the plot or developed any characters.
 
I'm talking about the whole deal with Katniss leading her team to go assassinate Snow. What's the point of it? How would the story be any different if they just sat in the camp and waited for the rebels to take over Capitol, which they were bound to do, given their control over all the other districts? The entire section seems unnecessary, and just something to fill pages and get a little "excitement" in the book (reminds me a little of car chase scenes in movies). Other than Katniss seeing Prim die, there's just nothing in that entire section that adds to the plot. The team doesn't really contribute to the rebel efforts in any way, and they end up in a spot they could have been had they just stayed at camp and (this is unthinkable for Katniss) obeyed orders. The characters that die we don't really care about or know well, and what happens to the characters doesn't give us a deeper understanding of who they are (besides Katniss being a moron). The only scene from the book that added any sort of depth to the characters is when Katniss listened in to Gale and Peeta talking about her at night. Otherwise, nothing really significant happened in the character development. Another thing. Doesn't it seem way too easy that the three main characters are on this mission together? Maybe it's just me, but it just makes the entire mission seem so much more contrived.

The threat of Coin's authoritarian leadership is woefully underdeveloped.

This complaint of mine is similar to the one I had about the first book, when the conflict that the author set up between Capitol and the districts was basically neglected for the second half of the book. In the first third of the book, we see the development of this weird tension between District 13 being totally controlling and almost even oppressing of its people, and Katniss and the other people from District 12 need to adjust to their new controlled lifestyle. The question that inevitably comes up is: If Coin and District 13 overthrow Capitol, is this what life in the districts will look like? Will all people need to follow a strict schedule every day for the rest of their lives? Will they only be portioned a specific amount of food, with severe punishments for stealing? Are the people fighting to overthrow one tyranny only to be ruled by another? We've seen this so many times in history. The people are disgruntled with the tyranny of their government, so they sign on with a new revolution, which turns out to actually be more oppresive and cruel than the first one. See China. See Cambodia. District 13 seemed very much like a Communist state. It was probably necessary for them to survive in the hard times, but I really wondered if Panem was going to actually be worse off with Coin in leadership.  As in the first book, this whole issue is basically brought up and then ignored for the rest of the book. The author touches on it again towards the end, with Snow telling Katniss how bad Coin is. Katniss goes on to kill Coin, which a naive reader may assume is an act for the best of Panem because of Coin's authoritarian leadership, but it's quite obvious that Katniss was basically still insane at that point and killed Coin because she thought that Coin killed Prim. So in the end, the whole issue of Coin bringing in an even worse government is drowned out by what Katniss thought was Prim's murder. Really disappointing.  

The ending seems forced. 

Every aspect of the ending seems forced. Katniss going crazy. Katniss killing Coin. Katniss choosing Peeta. Katniss remaining crazy. I said it earlier, but I'll say it again. The end of the book simply didn't seem to fit into the rest of the book. Katniss' mind, which the reader sees through, is completely muddled. The end of the book is like a blur, making it really hard for me as the reader to actually get any closure on. The twist with Katniss killing Coin seems to be a contrived twist, as the author cops out from dealing with the whole Coin being president issue because she's reached her page limit. There wasn't a real twist in the entire book, so I guess she just decided to put it in. It really just seems so incredibly forced, and not something the rest of the book built to. The entire book seemed to be building up to Katniss killing Snow. That was her mission. It was even her mission after Prim was dead. And she goes and kills Coin? Come on.  

But fine. Katniss kills Coin. Fun twist. Then...she gets aquitted?! Are you joking me? If you want to end in some tragic sort of way and not have it be a "fairy tale", fine. But Katniss just killed the new President of the country, and the only punishment she gets is that she's sent home? What?! The whole chapter with her in prison thinking about suicide was pathetic and pointless, and the author is obviously trying to get a more melancholy ending to the book and not a "cheerful" one, but again, she cops out of that. The ending is still a fairy tale ending. Katniss is living at home, marries the man she always wanted to, has three beautiful children, and they live in peace. Sure she has nightmares, but it's hard to call that an unhappy ending. Maybe this is just my sense of justice coming out. Katniss deserved to die. Not just for killing Coin. The entire series was basically about how the things she did caused everyone around her to die. Her rashness and foolishness throughout the entire series were only minimally punished. There was no justice for her.  

My own alternate ending

Here's my better ending, given that Katniss still assassinates Coin: Katniss gets thrown in prison, but she's confident that Haymitch and Plutarch will get her out of this situation, as they have previously both privately voiced concerns about Coin being in power (they didn't really in the book, but let's just assume they did). After some time in prison, she comes out to be sentenced. As the sentence is read out loud, Katniss crumbles to the ground and starts screaming hysterically. "Katniss Everdeen. You are sentenced to play in the final Hunger Games. Should you survive, you will be granted freedom." Katniss is shackled and carried away. Katniss slips deeper into insanity. She can't go through it again. She can't face the mutts again. She just cant. In the few days leading to the last Games, Katniss' emotional breakdowns become less frequent, and she begins to consider her long journey there, how she will be the first and only player to play in three Hunger Games. She realizes the irony of being sent to the Hunger Games that she herself instituted. She thinks about Gale and Peeta, still unable to make a decision. She thinks about Prim and her mother, both of whom she has let down. She thinks of Haymitch, who has always backed her up and saved her, but who could only bargain for her to play again in the Hunger Games, as opposed to an instant execution. The day has come, and as Katniss steps on the ring to bring her up to the arena, and as she looks around at the surroundings and her opponents, she has a moment of clarity before the madness of the Games begin. In the games of hunger, you win or you die. Prim was always right. Vengeance and retribution may bring blood, but compassion and forgiveness are what bring healing (or something to that nature). Then the horn sounds. The 76th and final Hunger Games have begun. 

That's just how I would have ended the book. But I'm not a best-selling author, so whatever.  

Book Review - The Hunger Games

Northpark Prayer Meetings

I've been going to the weekly prayer meetings at my new church for a few weeks now. It's a lot different from any prayer meeting I've ever attended, and God has used it as a huge learning experience for me.

Very Small
First of all, it's tiny. Northpark is a 300+ person church, but the prayer meeting averages around 8 people. That's less than three percent of the church. I remember someone (I think it was Sara) saying to me that she read in a book, "You can tell how popular the pastor is at a church by how many people show up on Sunday morning, but you can tell how popular Jesus is at a church by how many people show up at their prayer meetings." I don't want to jump to conclusions about the church or make unfair judgments on the spiritual lives of others, but I've gotta admit that the small number of people at the prayer meeting was quite disappointing to see.

Very Elderly
Not only was the prayer meeting small, but all of the members in the prayer meeting were very old. Apart from me, the average age of an attendee at the prayer meeting is probably 70-75. The youngest person there aside from me is probably around 60 years old. I must admit that in my pride, I looked down on the old people, but I've been learning to love and appreciate the elderly. But it just doesn't seem right that the prayer burden of the church is placed on a few elderly of the church. I don't really know how else to describe it. It just doesn't feel right that the only people going to prayer meetings are the elderly.

Very Unfamiliar
What we pray for in the prayer meeting is also quite different from what I'm used to. The majority of the time is spent praying for those with physical ailments and the families of the recently deceased. Considerable time is also spent praying for the country, as these older folk are extremely conservative and upset that the US is no longer a "Christian nation." We haven't prayed for the global church and we rarely pray for the salvation of the unsaved. Being in these prayer meetings and praying for these things weekly has taught me a lot. In my pride, I was quite annoyed at first that we didn't pray for "things that matter." But like my parents tried to teach me earlier, God cares about everything, not just what I consider to be "important things."

Very Edifying
Praying with these older people really has taught me a lot. The love they display each week for those they are praying for is to be imitated. But what has surprised me the most is the childlike faith of the people I'm praying with. One of the older men has bone cancer, but when he prays, he just gushes praises and thanksgiving. It's absolutely amazing. The solid faith of walking with the Lord for more years than even my parents has been alive is a joy to observe. But again. It's absolutely humbling how childlike their faith is - how they come before God completely convinced of his power and sovereignty. How they don't feel the need to use big words or loud petitioning or eloquent speech. They just pray with faith. It's amazing. I feel like such an immature young man with them...with my subconscious need to "pray a powerful prayer", if that makes any sense.