Oleksii Kyrychenko of Kiev, Ukraine took this photo of his nine-year old daughter. He titled it "Girl with Candy":
A few days before the Russian invasion he took this photo:
Let us pray that Kyrychenko's daughter, and all of the children of Ukraine, can be brought through this present madness. Of all the things that are lost in war, childhood innocence must be among the most tragic.
Today... I ain't got nothing. Just too wiped out already from the proverbial "day at the office". And my mini dachshund Tammy is in my lap and REFUSES to let me get any real blogging done.
Maybe I'll have something tomorrow.
In the meantime, hot dogs for dinner! Don't y'all worry, Tammy gets a share too :-)
It's been awhile since I really followed college basketball. It's still the sport dearest to my heart, mostly because I remember cheering on the '83 "Cardiac Pack" team at North Carolina State as they won the national championship under coach Jim Valvano. And on the twenty-fifth anniversary of that game, I paid a visit to Valvano's grave to leave flowers. In high school I thrilled to watching Duke win back to back national titles after so many tries by Mike Krzyzewski (hey, I finally spelled his name right!!). One of these days maybe I'll get to see my alma mater Elon University go to "the Big Dance". And then everyone will be asking "Elon? Where's THAT?" just like we did with Gonzaga.
One person who knows basketball... and I mean REALLY knows it... is my lifelong best friend Chad Austin. He's been finding some good stuff lately and sharing it on Facebook and I thought it was worth passing along to all two of this blog's regular readers. The first is an article from the News & Observer about this being Krzyzewski's final season as Duke's coach, and his relationship with legendary UNC coach Dean Smith. Some may want to have a tissue handy.
Then today Chad posted this article about Griff Aldrich, the head coach at Longwood University. Aldrich is 47 and made a drastic career change mid-stream, from a job paying $800,000 a year to being the coach of a small school's men's basketball program. The Longwood Lancers tip off against Tennessee during tomorrow's opening round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Aldrich's story is nothing short of inspirational. It certainly is to me.
And finally, Chad turned in an article of his very own for the North Carolina Baptists website: about "Bones" McKinney, the legendary coach at Wake Forest University. McKinney had a dual career as basketball coach and also Baptist minister. Chad interviewed a lot of people, including basketball broadcasting giant Billy Packer, to get the story about McKinney and the impact he made on the court and in the pulpit. It's a terrific piece and this one also, is quite inspiring.
Thanks for finding this stuff Chad. Thanks to you I now have a school to root for this tourney: GO LONGWOOD!!
I'm beginning to believe that I'll get through Lent having made a blog post for each day. Even if on some days there's nothing to blog about.
That's what today has been. Just a fairly typical Monday. But I had a good weekend. I ended up writing the first short story that I've composed in almost four years. It was me hunched over the iPad Pro and a keyboard. All that was missing from the scene were cigarettes and a bottle of Jack Daniels.
(Like I really smoke or drink. But it took a long time to get to the place where I could author fiction again so the tortured writer image still applies...)
I need a change, or something. That's what I told my dog Tammy earlier. Almost six years ago I said the same thing and the two of us ended up driving across America. Do I need another traipsing across the landscape in search of adventure? Ehhh, not really. Not right now anyhoo.
On second thought, Albuquerque was nice. Something about the desert there called out to me. Yeah, the New Mexico desert is the happy place I discovered I had when I was doing EMDR therapy before the plague hit (and I really want to start that again since I didn't get to finish it the first time).
Got a haircut today. Just for fun I asked the lady coiffing me how old did she think I was. She said I was in my early to mid thirties. Ha!! I turn 48 at the end of this month. But I'm always getting mistaken for much younger. Is this arrested development? My health is excellent. I still watch Saturday morning cartoons (thank you MeTV!). Every so often I'll buy a new LEGO set. Is this what "middle age" is supposed to look like?
(I don't like saying that word. And so far nobody has told me that I am "of a certain age". I want to keep it that way. "Middle age"? Middle of WHAT exactly? Besides fifty is the new thirty, or somesuch...)
I suppose if nothing else, today was just life. Not "good life" or "bad life", but simply life. To be accepted however it is that one finds it. But that doesn't mean you don't give up trying to make it a little better.
I like to believe that I'll never stop doing that.
A few years ago a movie, or whatever, started popping up in Facebook ads. Something called The Chosen. I looked into it. Turns out that The Chosen is a streaming series about the life of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of the disciples. Intriguingly, the entire show has been completely crowdfunded. Season one aired in 2019 and this past year saw the release of season two. More seasons are planned. A few months ago saw the release of a Christmas special in theaters, and it apparently did quite well.
This past week, for a number of reasons, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided that it was finally time to check out The Chosen and see what the hype was about. I finished season one last night.
What did I think? In a word: WOWSERS!!
Let's talk about the cinematography first. The Chosen may be the most beautiful attempt to depict the era of Christ, that I have ever seen. Yes there have been more theatrical efforts, like The Passion of the Christ, but that film is in a class all its own. The Chosen's camera work reminded me of that from Game of Thrones... and that's not a bad thing at all. In fact, all while watching this I found myself thinking that this series wouldn't be that far removed from being an HBO quality show. Right down to what could be considered an iconic title sequence and work of art all its own. Part and parcel to this is the effects work: there is more than you might expect from a series like this. The miracle of the fish is one of the better CGI-enhanced scenes that I've beheld in recent years. I'm looking forward to seeing what else The Chosen brings in that regard as the seasons progress.
Then there is the casting. Every role is well played, from Jesus Himself (portrayed by Jonathan Roumie) to the initially reviled Matthew (Paras Patel). And for Nicodemus the producers were able to cast Erick Avari. You'll know the face even if you can't recall the name. Avari has been in a lot of good projects and his inclusion in The Chosen bode well. I think my favorite character so far has to be Simon, played by Shahar Isaac. Watching Simon transform from punchy slick-talking fisherman into Jesus's most devoted servant is a lovely thing to behold.
Concurrent with casting, there is the chemistry at work among these characters. Especially among the disciples, who are coming from disparate backgrounds and careers. By the end of season one they are well on their way to being the band of thirteen (including Mary Magdalene) willing to follow Jesus unto the ends of the earth.
The writing on The Chosen is magnificent. It is also more than a little daring. This series depicts Jesus in ways that nobody has risked doing before and yet it ALL makes sense. When we see Jesus making farting sounds to entertain a couple of children who have found Him, well... why not? This Jesus is absolutely divine. And He is also absolutely human.
Folks, I'm just gobstopped by how impressed I was with The Chosen season one. It was NOT what I was expecting at all. Dallas Jenkins and his crew have turned in a television series as mighty, as risk-filled, and as rewarding as any other. And I will absolutely recommend catching it.
You have some options about that. Seasons one and two are available on Blu-Ray and DVD. But if you wanna watch it now (and you should) there's the official The Chosen app for iOS devices and on Google Play. I watched season one on my iPad, except for the final episode which I streamed onto my high-def TV. So if you've a streaming thingy like a Roku or whatever it'll work with that too.
And if you like The Chosen enough, you can also contribute to the crowdsourcing. Season three has been fully funded and they're now onto funding season four. I decided it was worth making a contribution toward. And after watching a few episodes, you may decide it's worth contributing to also. Visit the official The Chosen website for more.
It would not be at all surprising if Vladimir Putin was out of power in Russia by Easter.
And, word on the street is that his country is going to take a financial hit this coming week.
We'll see.
