Self-centered people

Before I get into some serious business, I do want to write something positive. I’m looking forward to Crosstown wings tomorrow night for the Rangers vs. Blackhawks game and I’m glad I’ll be able to watch the game with a friend. I’m thinking I will have some peanut butter and jelly wings as well as some chile lime dry rubbed wings. I also ran an indoor 5k yesterday in 24:30. I am one month away from the 8k/5 mile run downtown and I’m not sure my endurance is where I want it, but I am pushing myself every time I run. Each time, I get a little faster and a little stronger. But when the outdoor elements come into play, the circumstances can be altered dramatically. I hope I will be able to handle it. OK, onto the business at hand.

There are certain types of people I have seen who are draining to people they come in contact with. They are purely self-centered despite their different moods and attitudes. One group of people that I can’t understand is the attention whores. These are the people who send out 20 tweets a day, the ones who post on FB every single hour, text every couple of hours just to see how you are doing, and are always the first one to respond to a post from their FB friend. It’s just draining. They feel so little about themselves and are so miserable that they need to be noticed by someone to gain that temporary fix of relief. They know with perfect clarity that others can detect it like a K-9 sensing a dead body.  And they don’t care that it is the wrong kind of attention. They can have the best intentions in the world, but they push and push to get closer and the rest of us just want to get away from them.

Another group that demonstrates self-righteous are those who feel they have they can accurately judge a person’s character based over one sentence, over one message, or over one picture. Sometimes, I wonder about writing here. The writer never knows who reads the words or how they are being perceived. But I can feel confident that if they have read a lot of my posts, they can have a reasonable idea of who I am, even if they haven’t met me. When it comes to social media, it’s so much more difficult. One tweet does not define a person’s character. Nor does one meeting. It is far wiser to meet someone, decide if they are worth getting to know, and then keeping an open mind as they get to know each other better. I don’t know how often Mother Theresa got mad, but if I happened to run into her in a moment where she was upset for some reason, does that mean I can assume she is always an angry person?

Oh and there’s another group I want to point out and this one is just pitiful. Those people who just seek a reaction. These are the people whose lives are so boring and so bland and so without any purpose or direction that they live to provoke people, hoping they will trigger some sort of emotional reaction. Specifically, it is reflected in actions like a New York Yankees fan suddenly becoming a Seattle Mariners fan. It is manifested in them repeatedly voting for Felix Hernandez in the Face of MLB twitter contest. And for what reason? Just because he’s going against David Wright of the New York Mets and they have that much hatred for the Mets and their fans. And because these people don’t have anything more worthy to do with their ample amount of free time.

My goal is not to punish them, but to simply live with happiness and contentment in spite of them. Hopefully, they can learn to do the same. 

Naperville Winter Ale Festival

Somehow, I became an elite member of the Yelp website. I have no idea how this happened. Maybe I have reviewed enough places or maybe my reviews are well though of. I don't know why, but I've had elite status for two years now.

So, I got an e-mail that elite members were eligible for pairs of tickets to the Naperville Winter Ale Festival, the first ever outdoor winter beer festival in Naperville.Yelp was giving away ten pairs of tickets and I won one of them. I asked a friend of mine to go and although he wanted to join, he just wasn't sure he could make it work with his schedule. Basically, after I pressed him twice, he finally said he couldn't make it. So I was stuck with an extra ticket.

I drove 40 minutes south on Route 59 to south Naperville. I parked at Neuqua Valley High School and walked over to Frontier Park. I found a guy who took my extra ticket, I suppose he was in his 50's. So I saved him 45 bucks or so. What I should have done was find a cute girl. But I'm sure any cute ones would be with a boyfriend or husband.

Anyway, I arrived to 31 degree weather and showed my passport (since I don't have a driver's license thanks to the lovely cops of Hoffman Estates, IL). It's a good thing I remembered to put the passport in my car or I wasn't getting in! An old dude tied a wristband on me and then I picked up a 3-ounce glass, a card for 15 free samples, and a booklet highlighting all the breweries.

There were four beer tents, all not too far from each other. I decided to walk to Tent 4 first, since that was the farthest and I also figured that would be the emptiest. Then I worked my way back down to 3, then, 2, then 1. Each tent had small heaters, which was nice, as well as water jugs with a big white bucket next to each one. I quickly figured out the thing to do was rinse the glass with the water and dump the liquid into the bucket. I would not be surprised if 90 percent of that water was using for rinsing instead of hydrating!

I also visited the Toasty Cheese food truck, where I had the Chicago Chef's choice, which was panini bread filled with six slices of duck bacon, arugula, spinach, cherry tomatoes, provolone cheese, and aioli. it wasn't cheap, maybe 12 bucks or so, but it was a very good sandwich. And after about 12 beers, I was definitely in the mood for some fries and I got an order of their fresh-cut fries topped with rosemary and some garlic. They definitely help after consuming that much alcohol. I grabbed a vanilla bean cupcake from another food truck and I also bought a int glass before stumbling back to my car. Once there, I rested for maybe two hours before driving over to the Wolves hockey game in Rosemont.

Here's the recap of the beers I drank and remember, it was only 3 ounces each.

1. Take the Black Stout-Belgian Dark Ale-Brewery Ommegagng, Cooperstown, NY
Dark and creamy, with a hint of malt and chocolate. It reminded me more of a stout than an ale. It was ok if you like that kind of beer, but it isn't my preference.

2. Roundhouse Ale-American Amber-Bell's-Kalamazoo, MI
Amber in color, with a little hint of citrus and some caramel. Very smooth, I enjoyed this one.

3. Rocky's Revenge Bourbon Brown-American Brown Ale-Tyranena-Lake Mills, WI
A solid brown, with hints of bourbon and oak. A little thick. Pretty solid.

4. Mama's Little Yella Pils-Czech Pilsner-Oskar Blues-Longmont, CO
Golden color, very refreshing. Hints of lemon and a clean finish. Definitely liked this!

5. Le Merle-Farmhouse Ale-North Coast-Fort Bragg, CA
I've been a fan of North Coast ever since I tried their Scrimshaw. This only made me a bigger fan. Bright golden color, thin head, a bit of lemon and spice. Good choice.

6. Curieux-Bourbon Barrel Triple Aged-Allagash-Portland, ME
I met Melissa at this booth, a cute girl from Pittsburgh, who noticed my Rangers jersey. We had a nice little hockey talk. The up front taste had bits of vanilla, banana, coriander, it was a little tough to pick up. But with the aftertaste, I got that nice earthy bourbon flavor. It's more of a sophisticated that I could drink on a special occasion.

7. Graetzer Smoked Wheat-Smoked-Sixpoint-Brooklyn, NY
If I thought the bourbon was unique, this knocked me out even more. Yellow color, and it tasted like earth woods. I don't know if this style is going to catch on.

8. Cold Snap-Witbier-Sam Adams-Boston, MA
Yes, it's hard for me to praise Boston. But this one makes it easy. With its orange and coriander, this would be a fine choice just as the weather is hitting 40 or 50 degrees. I definitely prefer it to their Boston Lager.

9. Session Brett Ale-American Wild Ale-Lake Effect Brewing-Chicago, IL
Lots of raspberries. Not much else to say. Not one of my favorites.

10. Stick to the Nuts-Nut Brown w/ peanut butter-Slap Shot-Chicago, IL
The flavor of peanut butter in beer! It's a beer that's fun to try once. Maybe it would go well with desserts.

11. Snapshot Wheat-American Pale Wheat Ale-New Belgium-Fort Collins, CO
Some citrus and grapes. Kind of a tart finish. Pretty good, but I've had better wheats than this.

12. Pilsener-Czech Pilsener-Baderbrau-Chicago, IL
Amber color, malty flavor. Pretty good, though I think I preferred the first pilsener.

13. Winter Warmer-Ale-Emmett's-Downers Grove, IL
This was my last one before lunch, so I was pretty beat. Very dark in color, but not overly bitter. Pretty good, nothing memorable.

14. Ten Hills-American Pale Ale-Goose Island-Chicago, IL
I don't know, I've just never gotten into the whole Goose Island craze. This was one of the hoppiest beers I've drank. Not too special.

15. Wintertime-Winter Warmer-North Coast-Ft. Bragg, CA
Nutty with some nutmeg. Enjoyable.

16. Ironhorse-Steam-Argus, Chicago, IL
Medium-bodied with a copper flavor. Again, not overly memorable.

17. Crisp Apple-Hard Cider-Angry Orchard-Cincinnati, OH
Slightly sweet, very drinkable cider. I've had it once before and it was a nice flavor change from all the other beers.

18. Percheron-Hard Cider-Virtue Cider-Portland, OR
I had to settle for this one; the bourbon barrel cider with the vanilla and oak was gone. This one had a stronger taste, but not much more than the Angry Orchard. More of a deep apple flavor.

Human nature

I've been thinking recently about good people vs. bad people. Who defines good and bad? It seems that a lot of people will say that they're a good person because they're not criminals or they've never done this or that. I'm sorry, that's just enough for me. And I can't hold other people to my standards; everyone should live by whatever code they deem appropriate. But here's what I am concluding. Being good should be more than the absence of bad. It should be about actually injecting good into the world.

In the last two or three days, I feel like I've done a lot of both. I have been an encourager, a mercy-giver, and began healing what was a broken friendship.On the other hand, I have become angry, embarrassed, and dealt with hatred from so many people.

The hatred is pretty much all coming from people from the wonderful country of Canada. The way the American women choked away that Olympic gold medal game today was terrible. A 2-0 lead with six minutes and they lose in overtime. I mean, this collapse ranks right up there with the 2012 Ryder Cup. The bottom line is I'm tired of seeing my country lose in hockey to our arch-rival. Now I got mad and I put it on Twitter. Didn't swear, like some would. Didn't call anyone names, like some would. I just expressed my outrage at losing again. OK, I may have mentioned how Canada relies on the US for all its economic support and without us, they'd be screwed. I think I got about 80 or 90 tweets from people I've never met questioning my character. I am not proud of some of the things I wrote in the moment. But for total strangers have the gall to call out my character and my faith and insult me...it flatters me. They would actually take the time and thought to tweet me in anger. It's like they assume I'm always a bad person. And I find myself feeling grateful. I'm grateful that there are people who truly know me and that they like me.

I hold my ground that this was an embarrassing loss for America and that the women's hockey team choked. I hate go to this, but I will. If this was the men who blew this game, would so many people be as easy to shake the loss off? Well, I am not. These women should be held to the same standard, if not a higher standard,  as the men. USA and Canada are clearly the two best women's hockey teams in the world. But the USA has lost to Canada four straight times and has not won a gold medal in almost 20 years. When will it end?! Anyway, I'm not still mad about the loss. Hopefully, the men will redeem us tomorrow in the semi-finals. Regardless, I will not tweet about it. I think I will take a break from it for a few days, hopefully all this crap will blow over.

Despite what I said earlier, I have to admit this. I'm worried people I see regularly in social circles don't like me. Or maybe a better way to put it is maybe they don't get me. I don't want the whole world to like me; I am more than content with standing out. I will not cater to what American pop culture tells me is right or wrong.

But I wonder if I'm travelling alone. There is something I'm learning about people. People require perfection. So few people forgive nowadays. They see one sign of bad in someone and they run away. And I'm especially talking about romantic relationships. It's what I have experienced over and over again. I have to be so worried about saying everything just right and doing everything just right. It's like if I make one wrong move or get angry once, I get my butt kicked to the curb. Well, I hope those ladies have a nice group of perfect friends they can cling to. On that note, thanks to KC for breaking off our April date today. There's nothing else that could have caused it except one post on social media about that game. I guess I wasn't "good" enough, was I? This is the kind of heartbreak I have dealt with since high school. I'm 33 now.

My name is Adam. I've never pretended to be perfect. I have a temper at times and I worry about certain things. But I'm real, I'm loyal, I'm honest, I'm fun, and I'm hard-working. I'm a work in progress. I always will be until the Lord calls me home. And if people can't accept me as that, then I don't want anything to do with them. 

I believe in God. I believe in second chances. But more than that, through these successes and failures, these tears and laughter, and these gains and losses, I am learning to believe in myself. I hope this will make it easier for me to inject just a little bit of good into this sorry, dark, broken world.

Ch-ch-changes

Last Friday night, I went to lecture for singles from Lina Abujamra. She is a pediatric ER doctor in Chicago and I think she is also women's ministry director at Harvest Bible Chapel. She has written two books, Thrive and Stripped. 

She was speaking at compass, a church in Naperville. I got there about a half hour late, since I had another meeting prior to it. I walked into a room of maybe 80-90 singles and she struck me immediately. She;s originally from Lebanon, so she has that middle Easter accent. And she is so demonstrative with her body language and direct with her words. She makes no apologies for her passion for Jesus or for his amazing ability to transform lives. 

Even though I had $11 left in my wallet, I decided to buy thrive, which is targeted to Christian singles. As much material and info as there is on marriages and families, it's nice to have a book targeted for us. I've only read four chapters, but her book is as hard-hitting as her lectures. In those early pages, she has addressed topics like contentment, holiness, masturbation, and pornography. So this is clearly not a book that strives to be culturally pleasing. The attitude from Lina is "Here is what I have to say. I hope you'll listen. But it won't be easy. Take the ride with me if you dare and it will be worth it." So far, it is worth it for me.

So I've made a few changes in my life lately. I switched my bank from TCF to Chase. It's nice now that I don't have to wait till Saturday to go to a bank to deposit a check. I've upped my running; I'm doing five miles in 41 minutes. I'm actually getting ready for the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle, which is an 8k that is being run in downtown Chicago at the end of March. I have never done an 8k before, but I think I'm going to be ready. I'm committed to running five miles twice a week for a month and I'll see how fast I can get. And then two weeks after that, is the Willow Creek 5k!

A few nights ago, I prayed on my knees for the first time in so long. I wasn't desperate, I just really longed to be closer to God. I wanted to surrender more. I wanted to take my faith more seriously. I'm truly feeling more at peace when God is a higher priority and not just something to fit into a busy schedule.

I'm considering getting baptized. Willow Creek is having a baptism service in two weeks. I've thought about it before, but I keep making excuses. Usually, it's that I feel like I'm not good enough or a fear that I'll keep making mistakes. Last Sunday, there was a meeting after the 11:15 service for those who were interested. I walked down two levels from the balcony to get to the meeting, only to see the meeting was already in progress. I realized I would have had to walk in front of everyone and I knew I was going to feel embarrassed. I'm not saying it was right for me to feel that way, but that's what was inside me at that moment. There is one more meeting next weekend. Hopefully, I can still have it done even if I missed the first one. I haven't decided for sure whether to do it, but it's weighing on me.

Olympic hockey predictions

Note: Upon learning the three group winners are the top 3 seeds, I went back and edited my final standings and subsequent tournament picks.

I was pleased to hear the NHL will not participate in the Winter Olympics in 2018. I would prefer amateurs play in the Olympics while the NHL brings back the World Cup. So this will be the last time we see NHL players play for the Olympic gold medal till at least 2020. Here's what I see happening.

There are 3 groups, A, B, and C, with four teams in each. In the preliminary round, a team plays a round-robin against the other teams in their group. A team gets three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime win, one for an overtime loss, and none for a regulation loss. Here's the order of finish I predict for the groups.

Group A: USA, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia
Group B: Canada, Finland, Norway, Austria
Group C: Sweden, Czech Republic, Latvia, Switzerland

A few notes: I think the USA and Russia will finish maybe a point apart, their game could come down to overtime, which could make the difference in who wins that group. I love how deep the US is in goal with Quick, Miller, and Howard. The defense appears very young, I'm not sure about the Cam Fowler's and John Carlson's in these games. But Slovakia with Zdeno Chara and Marian Hossa will give a lot of teams trouble.

Canada is scary good on offense. John Tavares is playing on the fourth line and Marty St. Louis may be used in a checking role. My only question is can Carey Price and Roberto Luongo carry the load in goal? Against elite teams like the US, Sweden, and Russia, I'm not too sure. I also have a soft spot for Norway, since the Rangers' Mats Zuccarello is their only NHL player. I like Finland a lot with Tuukka Rask in goal; I think he's going to carry their team a long way. Plus, that team has medaled in the last two Olympics.

I expect Sweden to storm through their group. Switzerland has made some Cinderella runs the last two Olympics, I think they can make a decent one since they're in a weak group. I really have little faith in the Czech Republic with Ondrej Pavelec, Jaromir Jagr, and Marek Zidlicky. And how is Ted Nolan, a Canadian, allowed to coach Latvia?

After each team plays three round robin games, the four teams with the most points get byes to the semi-finals. Meanwhile, the 5th seed plays the 12th, the 6th plays the 11th, and so on. If two teams are tied with the same number of points, the first two tiebreakers are rank in their group and goal differential.

Predicted order of finish:
1. Sweden
2. Canada
3. USA
4. Finland
5. Russia
6. Switzerland
7. Slovakia
8. Czech Republic
9. Norway
10. Latvia
11. Austria
12. Slovenia

First round picks:
Russia over Slovenia
Switzerland over Austria
Slovakia over Latvia
Czech Republic over Norway

Quarterfinal picks:
Sweden over Czech Republic
Canada over Slovakia
USA over Switzerland
Russia over Finland

Semifinal picks:
Russia over Sweden
Canada over USA

Bronze medal:
USA over Sweden

Gold medal:
Canada over Russia

Detox-Part 4

Day 7
I opened Sunday by baking donut muffins with soy milk and whole wheat flour. I brought them those to a singles brunch at church. I'm just glad I wasn't the youngest guy there! For breakfast, I got away from the green machine. I drank an egg white smoothie with orange juice and some frozen fruit. Then, I drank my first liter of water. Headed to church, where Bill's message will be about getting stronger with our bodies. I doubt it's a coincidence that this message is being preached the same day as the Super Bowl!

Well, I didn't survive the Super Bowl too well. No bottles of water, fruit, or veggies to be found. At least I had an orange-carrot juice on me. But I had to eat. I wound up having a lot of chips and guac and two pieces of roasted chicken. Later, I gave in with a pinch of BBQ pork, a piece of fried chicken and four hot wings. And Kelly, this really cool girl, who I'm getting to know, offered me a Coors Light, so I had one. I don't even drink that beer too much, but I guess I felt bad for Denver! A taste of the Rockies.

As I type this, it is now Tuesday night. I've stayed eating pretty healthy aside from that Sunday night. Last night's dinner was baked salmon, sautéed spinach, quinoa, and crusty wheat bread. It was so amazing, I could have eaten that two or three nights every week. Tonight, I had wheat pasta with roasted red pepper sauce and steamed mussels. I also had my best lifting workout in maybe two weeks too. And I weighed myself and I'm down five pounds from eight days ago. That's really a good feeling!

Detox-Part 3

Day 5
Almost halfway home and I'm feeling a little bit lighter. I don't know if many energy level has changed much though. I actually expected that to increase a little bit.

For a change, I did not have Naked juice this morning. I went with an almond butter sandwich and a small glass of soy milk. I actually feel like I'm coming down with a bit of a cold and found myself feeling pretty hungry when I got to work. I went easy on the sweet potato pop chips, but I had an extra large handful of almonds and dried cranberries. For lunch, it was a tilapia fillet, steamed green beans, and some more quinoa. I have to say again, I could see quinoa becoming a regular part of my diet.

Midway through the day, I ate half a banana, since only half of it was actually edible. And I used the rest of my Starbucks card as I drank the biggest iced green tea on the menu, about 32 ounces. I know I should have had the hot tea, but I guess I'm rebellious like that.

For dinner, I had a little more of that lentil soup with the wheat bread and I still don't know how I ate it. So if anyone has a good lentil soup recipe that doesn't use curry, I'm open to it! Later that night, I hung out at a new friend's house in Palatine. I bought along some orange-carrot juice and drank most of it. Feeling kind of drowsy, I did have a cup of Sprite and some popcorn. OK, I gave in and had two small pieces of plain pizza. Of course, it's Chicago thin crust, so it was those little stupid squares which get your hands all greasy. I was sleepy, I needed a pick up!

That would be all I would eat as I'm fasting to prepare for my blood diagnostics work tomorrow morning. It'll help me get a better rate on my benefits at work. Since I don't smoke or use tobacco and expect to have good scored in cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides, and who knows what else, I expect to score pretty well on it. I keep saying this, as long as I don't get my blood pressure tested while watching the Mets or Jets, I should score just fine.

Day 6
A bottle of water opened the day before my blood work. After it was over, I went home and finished off my orange-carrot juice. Then it was lunch at Won 'n Fire since we had a groupon expiring that day. For my appetizer, I had some Hong Kong calamari which wasn't breaded and served with some bell peppers, mushrooms, and spinach. For my main course, I had a Szchewan stir-fry with shrimp and vegetables and wheat noodles. Excellent. I was planning to have tilapia, but I guess the word "wheat " was enough to convince me to change my mind!

That night, I had a few bean chips and salsa. Dinner was an excellent vegetarian chili that I got from Emeril Lagasse. This thing was loaded with flavors like black beans, portabellas, zucchini, tomatoes, and garlic. I would definitely make it again. I had a couple of wheat saltines with it too.

So as I write this, it is now Sunday. Super Bowl Day! I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'll probably bring my other bottle of orange-carrot juice. I'm sure I'll be able to figure a few things out at the party too. We'll see how it goes.