A Short Rant

Ok so let me preface this post by saying that this is a rebuttal to the many comments I have heard about the performance of the NC State Wolfpack's great win against an overrated (as usual) Duke team. I will start off by saying that I am a fan of good basketball. Against Duke, NC State played great basketball. It all came together, great defense, clutch shooting, and mental toughness (they didn't fold even when Nolan Smith hit that rediculous shot at the end of the first half). For that I applaud them (clap clap). I actually enjoyed the game (yes I did watch it). I was impressed by the potential of some of their players namely Scott Wood and Tracy Smith. So keep this in mind as you read the rest of this post. I do give props where props are due.

I will NOT EVER be a fan of NC State EVER again. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of college basketball anyways (I know gasp...) I enjoy March Madness...and I pull for the ACC against the other conferences but I will not be called an NC State fan. This week's win simply reiterated a lot of the things I hate about NC State. Not all of them involve sports...in fact the main reason is that I am just frustrated with them in general right now. But here goes...

1. Let's get the stupid reason out of the way first. This is the reply to those people who have called me a "bandwagon" fan after the Duke game. Ummm....last time I checked "bandwagon" meant that you all of a sudden started pulling FOR a team after a win or a couple of wins. I actually DO NOT pull for NC State even after they beat Duke. (See the first paragraph). Have I pulled for UNC, yes. Does UNC stink this year...yes...like crap. Therefore am I a bandwagon fan...no. Stop being stupid.

2. I hate stupid fans. While every school has stupid fans I agree...some of the worst are found at NC State. When was the last time they won anything...like 1982-83 season? And yet State fans expect their name to be mentioned as on the same level as Duke or Carolina. Well hmmm...lets see...Duke and Carolina have actually won CHAMPIONSHIPS...OHHHHH! It makes sense for them to be mentioned in the national picture every year...they've earned the right. NC State have not been even relevant in ANYTHING for like the past 15+ years. So let's quit acting like we're a good team already and should be competing for the same recruits as Duke and Carolina. Maybe in time...but lets be realistic people! Also, no one talks junk like a State fan and with less reason. I mean, if you like talking smack and then getting your butt handed to you...keep going but like I said...I hate stupid fans. State may be 0 and 16 and Carolina maybe #1 in the country but to hear a State fan talk, Carolina has NO shot to beat them...just stop...you're embarrassing yourself.

3. The other type of State fans are the ones who come out of the woodwork when they get a big win (like against Duke). They're like..."yeah we TOLD you that was going to happen"...and then start talking even more junk (see above paragraph). To hear some of these people talk you would think they had just won the national championship. I mean...I guess when you haven't won anything since Ronald Reagan was president...it is kind of a big win...but let's look at the record 12-6, 2-3 in the ACC....hmmm...mediocre at best. (And yes I know that UNC is like dead last in the ACC...not even going to argue about that...State may even be better than UNC this year...)

4. Last two things about the NC State sports programs...first no one lives in the past quite like an NC State fan. They can completely suck it up for 10 consecutive seasons but a true State fan can never stop talking about the "glory days" "Remember that 1973 season!" Every game thats on TV the camera pans to the ceiling so we can see that 1982 championship banner. Way to go. Most of you weren't even born in 1973...so stop talking about something you didn't even get to witness. If you were born before 1982 I bet most of you were still to young to remember anything about it!

5. Last thing...whenever NC State sports DOES actually have something good going for them, they find a way to screw it up. I give you...Herb Sendek. The guy did nothing but win. He got them to the NCAA tournament like every year. But...they didn't win a championship so they fired him. Since then, they haven't made it ONCE to the tournament and I don't even think they have made the NIT (perhaps I'm wrong on that). Once again, unrealistic expectations halt progress. Herb Sendek then goes to Arizona State (a horrible basketball school in a horrible conference...the PAC 10) and...ohhhh....gets them to the NCAA tournament...twice. In your face State.

Ok that's all I'm going to say about NC State sports. I just felt the need to rant a little. Now I do attend NC State and so I think I have the right to say what I did about them. After all I have spent 7+ years there. There are many other reasons besides their sports programs for which I harbor some resentment towards my school but honestly it would take too long for me to write here. I also realize that I will probably get TONS of negative comments about this post. Go ahead...bring it. Remember I used to pull for State so I probably already know exactly what you are going to say...there are only like 3-4 rebuttals an NC State fan can use! Perhaps I have ruffled some feathers....well you don't have to keep reading my blog then. Bum. Haha ok well that is all I'm going to say. I actually had a lot of fun writing this post. Hope you have fun reading it!

'Till next time,

-D-Lev

Maccu Piccu

So...my last post I said that I wanted to go somewhere...that I was a little restless... Well it looks like I now have a chance to go hiking in Peru this spring which would be freakin AWESOME! A lot of things could prevent this from happening however, such as money, work, and unforseen circumstances...maybe...at least I will post some pictures of the trail I would be on.

The last couple of services at Journey have been very meaningful to me. It is a series called "Jump". Basically the gist of it is, when God calls you to do something for Him it is almost always out of your comfort zone. We don't know what the end result will be. We can't see ahead like God can. The only thing we can do is...jump. Too often I make the "logical" choice. The one where I can see the end result. The one where I am in control. I have to ask myself, where's the faith in that? I have a hard time finding anything that I have done to this point where I have actually had to exercise faith. Perhaps that's why I feel restless. Maybe that's why I feel like I have not accomplished anything? The problem is...what! What is the dream that God wants me to accomplish? I don't know...and that is my prayer. That God will give me a dream that I cannot accomplish on my own. One that will require me to "jump". Then I pray that I will have the courage to do so... Whew...it has been an interesting couple of weeks. I feel like changes are coming but I don't know what. I don't know what the next step is and that's a bit discouraging.

-Till next time

-D-Lev

P.S. Perhaps I will be more lighthearted next time...sorry haha

A Random Collection of Thoughts...

Random Thought #1: Everything about NC State sucks...maybe that's just because I had my first 8:30 a.m. class this morning or because it took me twice taking trips all the way down to the cashier's office to "pre-pay" for my class only to have them put a hold on my account so that I couldn't register which meant I got put on the waiting list...which meant that I had to contact the professor and try to get him to let me in which he finally did yesterday...or maybe its because the rules state that I have to be "registered for a class" in order to take my final oral exam...which means that even though I am completely finished with all my course requirements for my degree I STILL HAVE TO PAY $1366 JUST TO TAKE A FREAKIN EXAM!!! Maybe that's why...oh yeah and they don't accept Visa...and also their sports programs stink...Aggghhhh

Random Thought #2: When you're 28 and still in school and still don't know what to do with your life you feel a bit like a loser...

Random Thought #3: Green Bay vs Arizona was one of the best NFL playoff games I have ever seen! Kurt Warner is a machine...he threw more touchdown passes than incompletions (5-4). Also thought it was ironic that a game which set NFL postseason records for offense ended on a defensive touchdown.

Random Thought #4: The Storm are 9-0. I'm so proud of those girls...to see how far they have come from that group of tiny little freshmen 4 years ago to one of the best teams in the Raleigh area...thats a lot of hard work and dedication...lesser people would have quit. It has been so worth staying around here this year and being a part of this team...I don't regret my decision.

Random Thought #5: I want to go out west again...I've been really restless lately. I want to do something like climb the Tetons or hike accross Glacier or backpack into the Grand Canyon. Normally I hate staying in one spot for to long or doing the same thing for an extended period and I've been here for a looonnngg time...so I'm getting that "fenced in" feeling...maybe you don't know what I'm talking about but its hard to describe...hmmm....oh well....

Random Thought #6: I need to stop writing now and actually do some work...

Till next time!

-D-Lev

After a long absence...greatness returns...

So I had a good friend let me know a couple of days ago that I failed at blogging. This struck deep into my heart like a searing knife of hurt and disappointment. It filled me with a bitter sense of disillusionment. A whirling tornado of confusion and despondency if you will. I realized that I have let everyone down. I know that all of you had come to count on me to bring class and dignity to the blogging world. I have failed. But now I am returning with a vengeance. So here we go...I'm bringing back all that is right and good to the blogging world. Class, dignity, first rate writing, quick wit, social commentary, and last but certainly not least...a little bit of David Levin.

So I guess I could start off by reviewing everything that's happened since I last blogged but that's probably going to be to long and boring for anyone to read and for me to type...I'm falling asleep just thinking about it...ok so I'll hit the highlights in bullet point format for those of you who like lists. If you don't like lists...stop reading now.

-School=done, finito, finished...except...no

-NCSU=pathetic at sports and at letting me finish my freakin degree

-Tutoring=busy...need more time to fit everyone in

-Camp=I love the Storm. Period. (Oh and we are going to rock Lighthouse today by the way...its at 6:30 p.m. if you want to come watch)

-Weather=Interesting...probably will snow today just enough to disrupt everyone but not enough to be impressive or to sled down falls dam like I really want to!

-Christmas= No this needs its own paragraph...

Christmas is a time that I really detest. Well let me preface this by saying that there are parts of Christmas that I do like...such as the whole celebrating the birth of Jesus thing and the fact that I'm off school/work for a couple of weeks/days. But the reality is that Christmas combines many of my least favorite things in all the world:

1. Decorating...I hate it. It's like putting a piece of furniture together. You can never do it exactly like it supposed to be and there's always a piece missing and the whole thing ends up taking HOURS when it should just take a few minutes.

2. Shopping...Stab me with a fork. Once again, this is something that should not take long but ends up dominating your life. I mean I know its the thought that counts but if that was really true then we would get to Christmas morning and say "Hey mom, I got you a...thought". Don't think thats going to work there buddy. So the result is that you spend hours looking for the perfect gift...the one that will make everyone else's gift look like a perfectly wrapped turd...and of course you don't find it because its CHRISTMAS EVE and all the good gifts have already been bought by the people who started shopping the day after Thanksgiving. You also ever notice how NO ONE is ever happy when your shopping? Maybe everyone else feels the same way I do...hmmm. Well the end result is that you just don't care anymore and you end up getting a gift card...haha which I actually like getting so maybe its not that bad. So if any of you are out there shopping for me a perfect gift (which I know you all are), for me that is a gift card because I understand your predicament.

3. Christmas music...Forget waterboarding and Guantanamo Bay. Let's just sit the terrorist suspects in a room by themselves and have them listen to 30 days straight of Christmas music. Guarantee that you would find Osama. They would give him up. NO HUMAN BEING can endure that. So why do radio stations think its a good idea to start playing non-stop christmas music right after Thanksgiving? I mean there are only like 15 Christmas songs and of those 15 only 2 or 3 are above the musical level of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Seriously I think if I hear Little Drummer Boy one more time I may have a mental breakdown from the sheer monotony.

Well I think I will stop there for now. It feels good to be back. I promise to be more regular...wait...that doesn't sound the way I meant it. I promise to write more often....there that's better! Hope you enjoyed this literary masterpiece I composed for you.

Shout-Outs:

Ashley McGarvey--Thanks for inspiring me to post again.

Andrew Miller--Thanks for graduating...you inspire me to graduate sometime

Robbie Wible--Thanks for completely falling for the whole "Sam switched the numbers in your phone" bit last night. That made my night.

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Lamar Valley

Today was what I like to call a "postcard" day. Perfect sunny blue skies, light wind, perfect temperature...all I can say is wow! I took a short drive up to Falls Lake today since I am on fall break and spent a little time with God by the lake that was much needed. I don't know about you but sometimes you just get to the point where you just feel tired of life. Not tired like "I'm going to kill myself" tired (haha) but just kinda worn down and wondering where the heck you are going. I know that means that I haven't spent as much time with God as I have trying to "make my life work". Isn't it funny how the more time you spend with God and the less time you spend trying to figure everything in your life out, the more peaceful you become?

Anyways, at the lake sitting there on the shore with no one in sight on this perfect sunny day, I couldn't help but think of the most perfect place in the world. In case you were wondering that place is called Lamar Valley. It's in Wyoming on the NE side of Yellowstone National Park. It's a wide valley surrounded by some of the Rocky Mountains and cutting through the middle of it is a crystal clear river of ice cold water freshly melted off the glaciers. Off in the fields you can see wild buffalo grazing on the emerald green grass. It is just awesome...words can't really describe it but I could just sit there for days and drink in the view without ever getting bored. I've always thought that's what heaven will be like. Take the most beautiful place in the world, the place where you just feel at peace. Then imagine the most perfect day (like today) and imagine you are in your "Lamar Valley" and then multiply the beauty and the "perfectness" by 10000000 and you get something that doesn't even come close! This is what I was thinking as I was sitting by the lake and longing to be at Lamar Valley. It was also when I turned to Psalm 84. You should read it so I won't spoil it for you but basically it talks about how lovely God's dwelling place is. It's like God was telling me that I wasn't really longing for Lamar Valley. I was longing for Him! In Him is where we find everything that makes us whole. He is our "Lamar Valley". When you see God for who He really is (and days like today help) you can't help but be in awe and praise Him. He is the summation of all of our longings and desires. He is that thing that you just...want...you know....that thing that if you had it would make life all you dream of...that thing you can't exactly put your finger on but you would know if you saw it? That's Jesus for you!

Well I thought I should blog this because it was just one of those amazing days...perhaps you may think I am a little out there but that's why it's my blog and not yours haha.

In other news...

1. Tutoring is taking over my life. It would be no problem for me to go full time in this. I'm not sure I want to as right now my schedule is crammed full. It's a good problem to have though and I thank God for the response to my flyer.

2. First upward games this weekend...my team got destroyed in scrimmage this week so maybe back to the drawing board for practice next week.

3. School is going better...haven't seen my last test yet but I'm pretty sure I did alright. Now if only I could get my committee to approve my schedule then maybe I could set up my final exam!

Fun Stuff...

1. Flash Forward is a sick nasty show!! I wasn't sure whether I would like it or not so I watched the first few episodes on hulu. Now I don't miss. There's more going on than just everybody blacking out and seeing the future....I'm just waiting to find out more. I don't even know if the date April 29 is even significant...I think that may just be a rabbit trail!

2. NC State football is doing their usual thing of getting your hopes up with a great comeback against Pitt and then losing to Wake Forest. Well at least they are better than at this time last year...although we now know that Russell Wilson is human. I was beginning to wonder but yep...two picks vs. WF...he's human folks!

3. The Carolina Panthers are probably the worst team in the NFL.

4. NBA season is coming up in less than a month! Can't wait to see the completely revamped Magic team!


Shout-Outs:

Bristol Lowder--Ok I will admit Va. Tech is not completely over-rated but I will also say that watching them play is not exactly visually exciting. Perhaps they will win the ACC though for whatever that's worth these days!

Sean Hefner--Have you taken your "vidacin" yet today? Haha you get beat up more than any person that I know...get better and no more "touch" football for you.

Jacob Suffridge--Buy more protein for Robbie.

'Till next time...

-D-Lev

Another week, another blog :)

Wow so this week has been busy to say the least! I finally got my tutoring flyer out and the first day it went out I had around 30 emails and 5 phone calls about it. In fact, I'm still at this moment returning email and setting up my schedule. This is a good thing but honestly I had no idea that there would be this much demand for a math tutor. I mean, people even want to meet on Saturday! I don't want to do math on Saturday! Haha oh well, it is a good thing I guess because I had been praying for God to provide for us financially and then within a week, this happens. I think I may be getting over-booked though and am considering hiring another tutor to work for me to take some of the load off. We shall see I guess.

It's amazing to me how quickly I can get distracted from what is really important. I was reading yesterday in Matthew the "sermon on the mount" I started reading it because in BLAST we are covering the Beattitudes this year and I really don't understand some of them to be perfectly honest with you. As I read the whole thing in it's entirety it just seemed like God was telling me to stop sweating the small stuff and just focus on seeking Him. I mean, we are called to be salt and light! We can't reflect Him unless we are close to Him. We can't be close to Him unless we seek Him. But as we seek Him we are not to "worry about tomorrow, about what we will eat or what we will wear" (paraphrase). Why not go hard after Him and after His business and not worry about stuff that God already knows I need? Not exactly what I planned to get out of reading that passage (I still need to figure out the beattitudes) but God has a funny way of showing me exactly what I need at the time. I have been trying to figure out what to do after December (since hopefully I will be done with school at that time) but I have been trying to figure it out all by myself. I realize that that's not my job. My job is to seek God hard. That's it. He will show me everything else and provide everything I need along the way. I mean, isn't that what I was created for in the first place? To have a relationship with the God of the universe?

Some random observations:

1. ACC football--BC=down year, Maryland=should be an FCS team since they seem to lose to them quite often, Virginia=who cares, Virginia Tech=it hurts me to watch their offense and their run defense looks like a spaghetti strainer, therefore they are over-rated, Wake Forest=missing all those defensive starters from last year, Carolina=good defense, offense...ummm we shall see, NC State=well at least we can crush FCS teams Maryland!, Duke football=oxymoron, Clemson=decent but will lose to South Carolina this year so that will mean a bad season for them, Georgia Tech=like their running game but they have a hard time stopping anyone, Florida State=good team and I like Christian Ponder but aren't quite good enough yet to win the ACC, Miami=class of the ACC and I believe a national championship contender...Jacory Harris is the man...yes I have jumped on the bandwagon...I like how they have stepped up and aren't afraid to play a tough early schedule! I mean their first 4 games are #18 Florida State, #15 Georgia Tech, #11 Virginia Tech, and Oklahoma (whatever they will be ranked next week). Kudos to them!

2. This hurricane season=sucks. I was planning on getting in some good hurricane chasing this fall but it's hard to chase hurricanes when they don't happen! I can't even remember a season with this little amount of activity. Perhaps that means nothing to you but it stinks for me...therefore I am posting it in this blog.

3. I am running out of time to write.

Shout outs:

Chris Williams--Those were some sick nasty shots you were making in open gym last night sir. My hat is off to your basketball skill.

Jake Delhomme--You did not throw 5 interceptions this week. Good job.

Rebecca Carlson--I have not given you a shout-out yet and this is bad. Rebecca, even though you always "have to go home" and never do anything fun, you are awesome! You are one of my favorite people.

That's all for now...'till next time!

-D-Lev

Epic Fail.....

First of all, many apologies for not posting in so long...wait why am I apologizing...it's my blog I can post whenever I want to dang it! Anyways, I was trying to think of an appropriate title to accurately describe my day yesterday and the words "epic fail" came to mind. Ever had one of those days where absolutely nothing seems to work right and you begin to wonder if you have completely lost any and all ability to do ANYTHING???? Well that was yesterday. It all started two weeks ago when I got a homework assignment from my professor. Now this professor likes to give "homework" assignments that in any other class would be considered semester projects. This one was no exception and without going into all the boring detail about it, it basically involved writing a program to calculate how big a raindrop can grow by collecting other raindrops on its way through a 3 kilometer thick cloud (yes that is the short version of the problem...). Well I have never taking a computer programming class so I have oh...um....ZERO knowledge of how to code this problem. I would like to point out also that this is a METEOROLOGY class and NOT A PROGRAMMING class so WHY IS MY GRADE DEPENDENT ON MY ABILITY TO WRITE A PROGRAM!!!!??? Perhaps I am just a little bitter. Well I actually got a program written that semi-worked. It made the drop grow over time...unfortunately by t=50 seconds, the drop was bigger than the earth. Yes that's right, I created the biggest raindrop in the universe. After checking all my equations etc...I still could not figure out why the program was blowing up the drop size so i thought to myself, "I should go ask my professor about it". A logical thought right? Well this was on Wednesday and so I go all the way to NC State and knock on my professor's door only to find out that "she's not in on Wednesday". Perfect. After trying to get the program to work for another 3 HOURS, I email the file to my professor and ask her why she thought it wasn't working. 3 HOURS later, I recieve a reply telling me to do a bunch of stuff THAT I HAD ALREADY TOLD HER THAT I HAD DONE!!! By this time, I had had enough for the day and headed home...planning on getting up early on Thursday and coming in to work on it before class. So I get up early Thursday and go all the way to NC State again...only to find out that my professor hadn't come in yet. Again, perfect. I tried working on the project myself once again with no results until about 12:30 p.m. when I decided to go check and see if my professor was in again. This time I actually made contact! By making contact I mean that as soon as she saw me she said and I quote, "I have another meeting right now" and shut the door in my face. Jerk. (Other words which I won't say in this blog). Ok so I had worked hard on this stupid assignment for a week and failed, tried to get help, failed, and now it was time to turn it in. So I printed out my program and the graphs of the drop that was bigger than the earth, title it "This really sucks" and handed it in. Actually I titled it while I was working on it in a moment of frustration and then forgot to change the title before I handed it in. I believe that it accurately sums up my assesment of the problem however in hindsight I probably would have wanted to change it before handing in the load of crap that was my homework. Guess what grade this guy will receive on that homework? You guessed it...and F--.

So to sum it all up, this project has been the main reason why I have not posted in the last week. Now that it is over I have some sense of relief but I still want to finish that program and have it work right just for the principle of the matter.

Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Upward practice tonight...I like my team a lot. They may not have the most talent but they listen and work hard which makes coaching enjoyable! They will be pushed hard tonight haha!

2. NC State vs. Gardner Webb (football)--One thing you can always count on, State will schedule the worst football teams to play early in the season. The second thing you can usually count on is that they will find a way to lose to at least one of those teams. However, after last weeks BEATDOWN of Murray St. (65-7) perhaps there's hope for this season after all. I know it was just Murray St. but 65-7??? We NEVER do that, not even against bad teams.

4. Having healthy wrists--after barely being able to move them on Tuesday and Wednesday, I could finally shoot a basketball again yesterday. Lifting weights still kills but at least they're getting better. Here's a tip, when you fall from a great distance its best just to go ahead and take it. Don't try to catch yourself with your hands. Just thought I would throw that out there.

Things I'm Not Looking Forward To:

1. Watching Jake Delhomme play football. Jake Delhomme=suck. Why do the Panther's have to have the WORST quarterback in the NFL? In the last two games, Jake has amassed the amazing totals of 9 interceptions and 3 lost fumbles. Pretty sure I could go out and throw 9 picks in two games.

2. Ending this post...this has been the longest post in the world and it's time for it to stop. 'Nuff said.

Shout-Outs:

Polar Bear at the NC Zoo--Thanks for staying out in the heat to play in the water for us last Saturday. I would have been a little upset if you hadn't and that's an understatement.

Drew Claybrook--You may not read this blog but if you do, thanks for spending hours helping me with my crap assignment this week. You were a lifesaver.

'Till next time...

-D-Lev