News Flash or Update...whatever you want to call it

I haven't played in years...the last time I played I was doing 4 or 5 on a side soccer with girls. I haven't played a full field with 11 players in awhile. But I'm totally stoked for my first game on Monday. I know it won't be anything like the competitive soccer I played growing up, but it will still be a lot of fun and a good learning experience.

The team's name is Yo Mamma's Cleats and we're playing Co-Ed Division 5A soccer. Which means we're kind of competitive I think...not the types that have never played before. hmmm...Should be an interesting season. Games go through November and hopefully those who are playing this year will want to continue on in the years to come. :)

In other news...It's a three day weekend for me. Which translates to...time to clean and make my apartment look nice. Elisa is coming to visit this weekend. There's an opportunity to take pictures at the Korea Cultural Festival tomorrow...Sunday is hiking day. I think I just might die going up Granite Mtn, but who cares? I get to spend the day with my dad! He's driving all the way over from Idaho just for a day hike. I'm sure he'll be exhuasted but we're both pretty excited. Dave and Josh are coming too! It will be a great day and the weather is supposed to be nice and sunny all weekend long.

The start of school is just around the corner. I'm not ready, but I don't think I've ever really been prepared for what the new year brings. There are new faces, new problems to be solved and this year, add a team merge in and things will just be exciting and unpredictable.

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Today is also the anniversary of those terrible attacks 8 years ago. 9/11. What sad numbers. Forever attached to something that still haunts us all. I remember that day well, I was living in Minnesota at the time and about to take a biology test. Someone came in to tell us the news, but we continued on with the test anyway. When class was over I went to English next and from that point on the TV was on the rest of the day in all of my classes.

Seeing the footage was surreal. I kept thinking that can't be real...it's like the movies. But no...planes crashed, buildings collapsed and people died. These things have happened all over the world but never in the U.S. We were all shocked that something like this could ever happen to us. In fact, today when I see news about terrible things abroad...it still doesn't register the same way 9/11 did. It's a world away.

The event brought up a lot of quesitons about God and religion. For awhile it seemed that we were all clinging to something that would make sense...something that would explain these events. Many of us probably didn't get an answer or we didn't get one that satisfied us and made the pain go away. I know I hate it when that happens and I'm sure everyone else does too. It's a daily struggle to believe in something or someone that doesn't give me the answers and reasons I want to hear.

The problem of evil is something I ponder often. I still don't understand why evil exists...why people get hurt and why people who do nothing wrong suffer while some who do everything wrong receive great things. It's upside down isn't it? Someone I knew in college just received word that his cancer came back. I cry when I think about what he's going through right now. It's certainly not fair. I don't know what the larger plan is, but I think there is one. God can turn something bad into something good even if the results aren't right now. I have hope for something better and something more. There is something more isn't there?

My Blackberry

I use a Blackberry and I love it. It's small, easy to use and fits in my pocket quite nicely. (girl pockets are usually smaller and since the pants are skin tight, a small phone is a good thing).

However, I do have a frustration with my phone. SPU doesn't have a Blackberry Exchange Server and I'm okay with that. I can still receive my mail over IMAPS and send messages. What I'm miffed about, is the fact that without exchange, the Crackberry can only update mail over the air. The damned phone can't grab contacts or calendar items over the air. It has to be done by manually syncing the device to a computer.

I never plug my phone into a computer. Guess that makes this problem my fault, huh? Well...the software often craps out. I've supported people with these lovely little berry devices and while they're stable, the desktop software has almost always needed to be reinstalled. Go figure.

The other thing that's annoying, is with my mail...I can't view subfolders in my mailbox...so all I get is junk mail and my top level folder. I could do without the junk mail...all the emails asking if I want some action or look at special photos. Nope, not for me. I'm not sending you my password either. I also get duplicate messages. So pretty much RIM sucks at this IMAPS thing because I get duplicate messages and only my top level folder and junk mail. I don't want to view or read the 30-40 some junk mail messages each day. I don't want to see duplicate messages everytime I respond to an email in Outlook. Doesn't do it when I respond on my phone...so why the hell does it do that when I respond in Outlook? It's not like Outlook is putting a duplicate message in my mailbox. Exchange 2007 works fine...IMAPS works fine in Outlook. This is not a Microsoft problem...this is a Blackberry problem.

Other than that...I really do love my phone. It's a refurb that hasn't given me a lick of trouble. Never rebooted on me, never lost my data, never failed to connect...none of the apps have ever crashed on me. Granted, I just did a software upgrade so my battery life seems to be dead. That or my Gmail app is updating too ofte and killing the battery life. I used to be able to go for days without charging. Now I make it a day or two. hmmm...