So this is what it feels like.

The Detroit Tigers' biggest obstacle to a championship will be keeping a straight face. The Tigers in three. (OK, make it four.)
-USA Today

Ridiculous.

Cardinals are World Champions!!!

I love it.

Later guys,
Matt

Leeland - Sound of Melodies

I know, I know. Three posts in a day?! What is he thinking?

I just want to take a minute to recommend a CD to you guys. Todd Magruder gave me this CD and I've loved it.

Leeland - Sound of Melodies














It's great!

Later guys,
Matt

World Series Game 4...err 5

So many of you may have heard that I had a ticket to Game 4 of the World Series. I headed to St. Louis Wednesday night to catch the game of my life. I arrived and stood around in Busch Stadium III for 3 hours, only to find that they would cancel the game.

Now, the tickets I had for Game 4 would be good for Friday's game, whatever game it would be. So now, since they played last evening's game (the Cards won!) Friday nights game is Game 5. My tickets reads Game 4, but it is Game 5. You know what this means? If and when the Cards win tonight, they win the World Series, and my ticket to the stadium that reads World Series Game 4 but went for Game 5 will be worth a lot of money in the future. It would be an oddball. A World Series winning Game 4 ticket for a World Series winning Game 5.

Collectors' collective mouths will be watering.

If only I can wait 50 years.

By the way, I'm not going to tonight's game. I gave the ticket to my dad. I hope they win! It would be great to do it in St. Louis! Go Cards!!!

Later guys,
Matt

Brookens

Well, I'm sitting on the fourth level of Brookens Library on the campus of the University of Illinois at Springfield, a place I haven't been in a long time. I came up here quite a bit when I was in school and needed to get away to read. Just a few steps away is the computer I wrote a ridiculous number of pages for a paper that was due just a few hours after I was sitting there writing it. It's definitely October just outside the window I'm sitting next to. The leaves have turned and a drizzle of rain that has fallen for the last two days continues on, and it doesn't appear that it will be stopping anytime soon.

Heather suggested I go to campus today. I thought I would just see a few people, maybe a professor or two, and just take in the campus that I spent so much time on. I gotta tell you, it feels weird to think I'm not here anymore. Seems like I could still be living in Lincoln Residence Hall, going to class an evening or two a week to talk about politics, or maybe I should be practicing to lead worship tonight at the Edge. But the truth is I'm not doing that anymore. I haven't done it in nearly a year now. A year?! Yes, a year. I know for everyone else outside of my body, that is easy to believe. In my head though, after doing those things for 4 years, one year isn't enough to pull out of the routine I am used to.

Heather tells me I wish I was still in college.

Sure, I miss those things. I think back on all of that and I love it. They were great times. That was a great part of my life. But it doesn't mean I want to be back there again. I feel like I could be still there because I am so used to it, but I've accepted I'm not there anymore. I have a completely different life now. I have a wife. I have a wife! And she's beautiful. And I wouldn't trade the present for the past for anything.

I know over time college will seem longer and longer ago. But I bet it will always feel like yesterday.

Gosh, I love this campus.

Thanks for putting up with my less-than-normally-reflective self.

Later guys,
Matt

Fall Classic

Hey guys, a little follow up to my last post...

Yes, we are watching a Central Time Zone World Series between the Cards and Tigers.

And we're in the Central Time Zone to watch it! Woo Hoo!

Cards are in the Series! Woo Hoo!!

Go Cards!!!

Later guys,
Matt

P.S. The Fall is amazing!

Game 7

This is it! Another Game 7 in the National League Championship Series. This is always a huge deal in the playoffs. While I'm nervous about the outcome of the Cards-Mets game, I can't help but be excited that we're even at this point. What do we have to lose? We're not even supposed to be in the playoffs, let alone playing in the NLCS. No matter the outcome, the pressure is on the Mets to win this game.

I'm excited guys. Could we be watching a Central Time Zone World Series between the Cards and the Tigers next week?! I sure hope so!

Go Cards!

Later guys,
Matt

300,000,000

Hey guys, I read this interesting article in the Economist today on the US population. According to the US Census Bureau, we will cross the 300 million mark next Tuesday. Read the article. It's long, but good.

Now we are 300,000,000

Oct 12th 2006 | HOUSTON
From The Economist print edition

America's rising population will solve more problems than it creates

THE Lakewood Church in Houston has a space, complete with cartoon murals, for parents to leave their children while they attend a service. There is room for 5,000 children. Lakewood's size may be unusual—it occupies a refurbished basketball stadium, and Pastor Joel Osteen's televised sermons are watched by 7m people each week—but its focus on the family is not. “I love children because they are so pure,” says Victoria Osteen, Mr Osteen's wife and co-pastor. “For myself, [having children] has been an awesome, wonderful, full life.”

When Europeans hear the words “America”, “religion” and “family values”, they think of brimstone preachers raging against unconventional domestic arrangements. They often forget the more positive role American churches play in nurturing conventional families. Lakewood's ministries, for example, teach married couples how to communicate better and give them practical advice on how to bring up children and put the family finances in order. In such a mobile society people often have nowhere else to turn for friendly counsel. Hillary Clinton once said that “it takes a village to raise a child.” Often in America “the church is the village,” says Stephen Klineberg, a sociologist at Rice University in Houston.

On or around October 17th, according to the Census Bureau's population clock, the number of people in the country will hit 300m, up from 200m in 1967. By as early as 2043, the bureau says, there will be 400m Americans. Such robust growth is unique among rich countries. As America adds 100m people over the next four decades, Japan and the EU are expected to lose almost 15m.

These are only projections, of course. Lifespans will no doubt continue to stretch and immigration rules may change. What is striking, though, is the gulf between the fertility rate in the United States and other rich countries. American women today can expect to have an average of 2.1 children. That is the number needed to keep a population stable, so observers sometimes take it as a given and say that America's population growth is entirely due to immigration. This obscures the point: for every big advanced country besides America and Israel, the alternative to “replacement rate” fertility is a baby bust.

The fertility rate in the EU is 1.47—well below replacement. By 2010, deaths there are expected to start outnumbering births, so from that point immigration will account for more than all its growth. And that average hides countries that have seen an astonishing collapse in the willingness of their citizens to breed. The fertility rate in Italy and Spain is 1.28, which, without immigration, would cause the number of Spaniards and Italians to halve in 42 years.

Falling birth rates are linked to prosperity. People in very poor countries tend to have lots of babies because they expect some of them to die in infancy, and because they need help in the fields and someone to care for them in their old age. The fertility rate in Niger and Mali, for example, is over seven children per woman.

As countries grow richer and women get educated, they have fewer children and invest more in each one. Whereas peasants in Mali cannot afford not to have kids, many Westerners fret that they cannot afford to have them. University is expensive, and if Mum (or Mom) decides to stay home, the household must forgo the salary she used to earn. Add to this the sudden halt to a life of carefree first-world hedonism, and it is no wonder that birth rates have plummeted in all rich countries.

But much less so in America. Why should this be? Religion plays a role, argues Mr Klineberg. Americans are more devout than Europeans, if church attendance is any guide, and their faith colours their worldview. Don Iloff, a spokesman for Lakewood Church (and Victoria Osteen's brother), agrees. Faith begets hope, he says, and if you have hope for the future, you are more likely to want to bring children into the world.

Polls certainly suggest that Americans are more optimistic than people in most other countries. Philip Morgan, a sociologist at Duke University, and Miles Taylor, a population expert at the University of North Carolina, cite several other possible factors. Birth rates are lower in more patriarchal rich countries, such as Japan and Italy, than in places where the sexes are more equal, such as America and Scandinavia. Perhaps the knowledge that Dad will help with the housework makes women more willing to have children.

America's wide open spaces also make child-rearing more attractive. Bringing up a large family in a tiny Japanese apartment is a struggle, even if you can fold away your bed during the day. The world's lowest fertility rates are in super-crowded Hong Kong (0.95), Macau (1.02) and Singapore (1.06). In America the average family-home has doubled in size in the past half-century, from 1,000 square feet (93 square metres) in 1950 to 2,100 square feet in 2001.

America's coastal areas are fairly densely settled, but families who cannot afford a spacious home with a garden in Connecticut or California can move somewhere cheaper. They often do, one reason why the mean centre of America's population—ie, the point at which an imaginary, flat United States would balance if only the people on it weighed anything—keeps moving south and west. In 1800 it was still near the eastern seaboard, in Maryland. By 2000 it was in Phelps County, Missouri, and heading for Oklahoma.

Houston, we have lift-off

Can America cope with a relentlessly expanding population? A look at Houston suggests it can. The city is one of America's fastest-growing. The population of Harris County, which includes Houston, grew by 21% in the 1990s, to 3.4m. The surrounding counties are booming, too. Since Houston has no zoning laws, developers can build wherever they think there will be demand. Rather than waiting for the city to extend sewers and power lines to outlying areas, they can issue bonds to pay for such services themselves, and pass the cost on to the people who buy the houses they build.

At the Woodlands, a 28,000-acre (11,300 hectares) planned community north of Houston, you can buy a three-bedroom family home on a quiet wooded street for $130,000. By comparison, the median house price in San Francisco is over $700,000. The Woodlands has good schools, 145 miles (235km) of hiking trails, golf courses designed by the three greatest retired golfers in the world, and a cluster of oil and high-tech firms.

It is also safe. “Police salaries are paid by the community, not the county, so we have more of them,” says Roger Galatas, who used to run the Woodlands operating company. The community makes its own rules. Restrictive covenants prevent anyone from uprooting too many trees, or building eyesores. Several houses share each mailbox, so neighbours chat when they pick up the mail.

Houston was 70% white in 1960, but is now a mix: 57% white (of which 42% are Hispanic), 24% black and 6% Asian. “Where you grew up is irrelevant in Houston,” says Tim Cisneros, a local architect whose mother came from Mexico. “Everyone is so busy making money they don't have time to worry about race.” Polls suggest that the picture is not quite so rosy—79% of blacks think blacks are “often” discriminated against in Houston. But 69% of Houstonians think the city's ethnic diversity will become a source of strength. It is easier to deal with a globalising world if your citizens have roots in many countries.

America's future could look something like Houston's present, argues Joel Kotkin, a writer on demography. As the nation's population surges, it will become more ethnically mixed and especially more Hispanic. Houston suggests that that will be just fine. Rapid growth may cause environmental problems, but it will greatly slow the pace at which America ages. Whereas in the EU by 2050 there will be fewer than two adults of working age for every person over 65, the proportion in America will be less scary, at almost three to one. The problems of growth, says Mr Klineberg, are easier to deal with than the problems of decline.

Can the world cope with a relentlessly expanding America? Many non-Americans will shudder at the prospect, but which alternative superpower would they prefer? China? If demography is destiny, they will not have to find out what a Chinese hyperpower looks like: the fertility rate in China is only 1.7, and there are almost no immigrants.

Interesting, huh?

Later guys,
Matt

Could you bring me a jacket?

So, I've endured nearly 9 months straight of summer. That's what Florida does to you, it steals your seasons.

Now, summer is a good thing for the most part, especially when you've endured a seemingly endless winter that has been so cold that you can't feel your hands and feet. By the time the end of January or beginning of February comes along you've gone nearly blind from seeing too much bright snow, or you're sick of seeing the no longer white and now nasty muddy snow covered by a thick sheet of ice. At this point winter has become too much to handle and summer is a fresh and exciting alternative, which should of course be preceeded by spring.

OK, but that's not what happened to me. In late January I was sick of winter and thinking only of summer, and that's what I got. A nearly full blown summer when I moved to Florida. And, here we are 9 months later, still enduring that summer.

I must tell you, I am sick of summer.

I confess, I am totally jealous of you all in the north. I talked to my mom yesterday and she said it was a nasty, rainy, dreary day and she seemed kind of saddened by it, and all it sounded wonderful to me. I was excited by it! I was energized to think that some place in the world was cold, almost freezing. On my Mac there is a feature called Dashboard that lets you look at weather in different places. There happens to be this secret cool function that allows you to invent a place that has any type of weather I want. For weeks now I have set that imaginery place's weather to snow, freezing rain, hail, and blizzard, giving me chilly expectations of being in Illinois over Christmas.

So, I'm excited to get to go back to Illinois in a week. I'm excited to see family and friends. I'm excited to see some of our work partners. I'm excited to see home. But I'm really excited to feel something other than 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Fall, hold on just a few more days for us to get back. Mom and Dad, please bring a jacket to the airport.

Later guys,
Matt

Thankfully, music is our life.

Many of you (not that many of you read this blog) remember the project The Voice. Volume 1 of Songs From the Voice, Please Don't Make Us Sing This Song, looked like this.












Well they've just come out with Volume 2 of Songs From the Voice, Son of the Most High and it looks like this.












So basically I want someone to get it and enjoy it and tell everyone else about it. If you go to the website of the The Voice you can listen to the whole thing. I kinda like it.

Also, many of you (not that many of you read this blog) know and love Waterdeep. Also, many of you know that Waterdeep has continued to put out music in the form of solo CDs by Don and Lori Chaffer. Just so you know (and can hopefully be excited about), Don and Lori Chaffer are putting out an acoustic CD of their own sometime at the beginning of next year. It will be titled "Heart Attack Time Machine" and features Don and Lori doing all instruments and vocals. I, for one, am excited.

Alright, that's it for now. Heather and I love, and miss you all. I promise.

Later guys,
Matt

10 victory points!

Guess who is one of the newest proud owners of The Settlers of Catan?

...and I already pulled out a win in my first game. (pay no attention to the fact that nearly all my opponents were first-timers)

Later guys,
Matt

P.S. Cards are in the NLCS!

Tad shows off.

Hey guys, look what I found on the internet. :-)

The caption below this picture reads, "CSF harmonica player, Tad Blacketer, shows off for the girls following a Friday night Bible study."

That's great.

Later guys,
Matt

And one more thing...

The Major League Baseball Postseason starts tomorrow. The Cardinals play the Padres at 4 pm EST. Believe me, I'm ready and waiting in my Cardinal red!

It's October!

Later guys,
Matt

The Local Body

Hey guys. What's going on? I'm going to attempt this blogging thing for the first time in a very long time. We'll see where this takes us.

Heather and I are living and working in Florida now. We work for a sending agency called NMSI. Many of you have heard of them. We live in a type of campus community called the Center for Global Outreach. Basically, most of the people who live state-side and staff the office live on an area of Fort Myers that is just bigger than a city block. There is a house full of guys and a house full of girls and some apartments for all of the couple and the families. So, Heather and I have an apartment (that fits us quite well, I might add) and we work with most of our neighbors in the office. We get to do some pretty interesting jobs while we make plans to go overseas in a little more than a year from now.

Right now I'm kind of frustrated with trying to find a church. I'm torn between trying to find a church that Heather and I really love and connect with, or just settling with one that we just like. Finding a church to call home while we're here in Florida is a process that could take the whole length of time that we are in Florida! Do we just settle down in one and pour ourselves into it? Or do we hop around looking?

Part of me thinks that no matter where we are or how long we would be in that place, the thing we should always do is pick a place and just pour ourselves into it. Should we really be picking and choosing the place we like the most? Ultimately, the decision I make concerning a church would be based on the people that are there. Is it my place to make that judgement? It seems like I shouldn't. It seems like I should just pour myself into the people regardless of what I want.

On the other hand, I do want a church that I really like. One that I get excited about going to be a part of. And so I want to be exclusive and have the chance to pick and choose.

One thing I am feeling sure of is that no matter if I like a church or not, it is my choice to love it. No matter where we end up, it's up to Heather and I to love it.

One more thing, Heather and I aren't even sure we understand what role a "church" has for us at this point. I mean, we live and work and worship with these people at the CGO (Center for Global Outreach). In my current understanding of a church, that most definitely is one. So is there much of a need to conduct this search for a seperate community in Fort Myers? What role does the "Sunday morning gathering" even have in our lives?

Pray for us in this.

Later guys,
Matt