Tear-jerker

If you've got the time to read it all, this is a heartwarming story about a coach who didn't give up, and a church motivated to show love. It's worth it.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Somewhere between home and the football field, Christian Swain's driver's side window short-circuited. This had better not be an omen, he thought. He'd waited his whole life -- all 33 years -- to be a high school head football coach, and he didn't want his first season to be a clunker. He kept pressing the electric buttons inside his beat-up gold '99 Ford Taurus, but the window stayed stuck wide open. As he turned onto Interstate 5, the wind stung his face. Good thing it was summer.

He drove onto campus and parked next to a stadium with no stands. The school -- Roosevelt High in north Portland -- was a notorious bottom-feeder located in the poorest part of the city. It had no cheerleaders, no marching band, no press box and, as far as Swain could tell, no quarterbacks. But still three months away from opening night, the coach had reason to believe he could pull this off. He had grown up just east of campus, on the wrong side of the bridge himself, and he knew if these kids were anything like him -- hungry, a little nuts and searching for a better life -- he could win a game. Maybe even two.

When the school hired him last January as campus monitor -- i.e., to keep peace in the hallways -- Swain was curious to know why the team had just gone 0-9. At that time, he had just applied for the head-coaching job and was desperate to read the pulse of the school. From his career as an undersized middle linebacker at nearby Lincoln High in the mid-'90s, he remembered Roosevelt as having tough, reputable teams. Built in 1923, the school resembled an East Coast prep academy complete with a picturesque bell tower. He had always seen potential there. Little did he know the place was rotting from the inside out.

Continued...

Change Blindness

In visual perception, change blindness is the phenomenon that occurs when a person viewing a visual scene apparently fails to detect large changes in the scene. For change blindness to occur, the change in the scene typically has to coincide with some visual disruption such as a saccade (eye movement) or a brief obscuration of the observed scene or image. When looking at still images, a viewer can experience change blindness if part of the image changes.

Here are 10 examples. See if you can find what changes in all 10. I got them all except the sail boat one. I can't figure that one out. http://www.psych.ubc.ca/~rensink/flicker/download/

For more info see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_blindness

*EDIT: Nevermind! I managed to get the sailboat one. :-)

Big Numbers

http://lrknapp99.blogspot.com/2009/12/big-numbers.html

What a talent!

I can barely get a goblet to make a noise, let alone play Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy!


To facebook readers, facebook does not import html, so you'll have to go to my blog for the video.

God is ALWAYS good.

Powerful powerful powerful video demonstrating right thinking in the middle of great trial of life. This pastor just found out he has a brain tumor and needs surgery. He recorded this video for his church before he went.

http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/blog/hvpastor/?p=363

Non-interventionist

Ron Paul gets to ask some questions about our foreign policy decisions in light of Obama's decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan.



If you're on facebook and can't see the clip, go here: http://lrknapp99.blogspot.com/2009/12/non-interventionist.html

Obedient walk

Actress Sandra Bullock says meeting Leigh Anne Tuohy, who she portrays in The Blind Side, showed her there really are some Christians who "walk the walk."

Read the rest of the article here:

















And since facebook doesn't import html, here's the link: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=792418