andrew dodson

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written about UK basketball.  I don’t think I’ve written a single post about the current season.  Better late than never.

What a frustrating season!  A season-opening loss to VMI, of all teams.  After an expected loss to North Carolina, the Cats sat at 0-2 and I wondered if we’d see a repeat of last season’s struggle to finish with an above .500 record.  Gillispie loaded the pre-conference schedule with cupcake teams, aside from Louisville and a decent West Virginia team.

UK started its SEC slate with an 11-4 record, proceeded to win five straight and earned a Top 25 ranking.  Then, the frustration commenced.  Over the next eleven games, UK would only win three of them.  One thing became very apparent during this stretch – Billy Gillispie’s stubborn nature.

Two things frustrate me the most about Gillispie.  First, whom he decides to play and when he decides to play them.  Certain players have had great games and barely touched the court in the next game.  Other players have played poorly and continued to log minutes in bunches.  Second, Gillispie refuses to ever consider playing a zone defense.  I am far from a basketball expert, but let me say this clearly – few teams, if any, in the NCAA can successfully play man-to-man defense for 40 minutes game after game.  It may work against Delaware State, but it does not work against North Carolina, Louisville, or many other teams that are much faster and stronger than UK.  I’m not asking for a zone for 40 minutes against these teams, but at the very least, give them a different look from time-to-time.  Who knows?  Maybe you shut them down for several minutes and you pull out a game or two that you shouldn’t have won because you were smart on the defensive end.

It doesn’t help that Gillispie’s stubbornness has been on full display to the media for the last few weeks.  In the fishbowl of Kentucky basketball, we don’t need a coach that is perceived to be a jerk.  Especially when he can be nice, fun and likeable when he wants.  No reason to be a jerk to people that are just doing their job.

With this said, I still say we give Gillispie one more year to get on the right track.  Patrick Patterson has already said he is coming back next year.  I would think we’d see Jodie Meeks back as well.  Patterson will get more help next year in the post with the additions of Matt Pilgrim and Daniel Orton.  Darius Miller will continue to mature and contribute.  There is plenty of talent on this team to win 20+ games.

I write this on the day that UK plays LSU in the second round of the SEC Tournament.  I am hoping the Cats can pull one out, continue to win and earn an NCAA birth.  Hoping.

Over the last two months, God has proven His faithfulness to me.  After leaving CLS to pursue BADmedia full time, I was surprised by the number of calls and emails I started receiving – people seeking me to create websites or help them with graphic design needs.  After a few weeks, there was no doubt in my mind that BADmedia could be a full time job.

Along the way, I received a random email from Crossings Ministries.  They were in need of web design help for their side business – 524concepts.  At first, I was hoping they were looking for freelance help, as I was really enjoying working from home (or coffee shops, Panera, and other random places) with BADmedia.  After a few meetings and conversations, it turned into a full time job offer.  As I pulled into their parking lot one day for an interview, a strange calm came over me.  It was as if God was telling me at that moment, “this is where I want you right now.”  A few days later, I accepted their offer to be a web specialist for 524concepts.

The job starts on March 24th and I am fairly excited.  I’ve known the staff I’ll be working with for a couple of years, and they are really great people.  They all love their jobs, and it’s very apparent.  Crossings is a great organization that I’ve always respected.  It will be a tremendous blessing to work for a Christian organization that helps change the lives of kids, teens and adults in significant ways.

Along the way, I will keep reminding myself of one of my favorite verses:

Colossians 3:23 Listen

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Got together tonight with some friends and Julie for some Rock Band 2 action.  A few camera phone shots of the evening:

Last night, I came across Last.fm, a music site dedicated to keeping track of your listening trends and recommending music to the user, based on what they listen to.  It will sync up with iTunes or any other media player to get information on your listening habits.

I was directed to the site after checking out Feltron’s 2008 Annual Report.  This guy keeps track of everything he does in a year’s time.  And I mean everything (check out the report).  It’s pretty fascinating how much data he collects on himself.  In his music section, I noticed he used Last.fm to keep track of everything.

I’ve always thought it’d be cool to know how much music I listen to, which artists I listen to the most, which albums, which songs – all of that.  Until now, all I could rely on was iTunes’ play count for each track.  The Feltron report has inspired me to keep track of what I do each day, what foods I eat, movies I watch, places I go and more.  I caught an interview with him a few weeks ago (via Boagworld) and he just takes 5-10 minutes each day to jot down what he’s done.  I doubt I’ll get anywhere near as ellaborate as him by making a fancy report, but it might make for a fun blog post at the end of the year.

Kige Ramsey shows how (not) to shoot a free throw.  I truly love this guy’s videos.  Keep ‘em comin’ Kige!

(ht: Kentucky Sports Radio)

• I’m on day #13 of the Horner Bible reading plan and I’ve really, really enjoyed it.  It takes me around 30-45 minutes each day, and I’ve only missed one day so far.  The only change I’ve made is that I’ve switched to using the New Living Translation instead of the ESV.  I love the ESV, but when I am reading large portions of the Bible, I find the NLT gives me a much better understanding of what is happening in certain passages.  It’s just easier to read – from my perspective.  I’ve been using my NLT Life Application Study Bible, with helpful study notes as to why stories like Joshua’s battles are important to my Christian walk.
• Jobs continue to come in for BADmedia, which leaves me pretty amazed at what God does to show his faithfulness.  Over a month ago, I was pretty unsure if BADmedia could really be a full time job, and for the time being, it most certainly is a full time job.  I have plenty to keep me busy for the next month (or two!), with plenty of other job prospects on the table.
• Praise God for Bert and Michelle as their adoption process moves along!  Also, for my friends Tim and Cari who have also heard good news lately.
• UK played decent last night at Vandy, but just couldn’t pull it out.  Free throws, rebounding and some not-so-smart play on defense doomed the Cats in the second half.  Patterson will be back for the Tennessee game, so hopefully we can get back on track and finish the season strong.  We need to do just that to improve our chances of making the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid.  Or, we’ll just have to win the SEC tournament and get an automatic bid.  I’ll take either.
• I’m thinking about writing a Cincinnati Reds season preview post, now that Spring Training is underway.  My thesis is this:  The Reds are in for a long season, much like last season.  The starting rotation will be just fine, but there just isn’t enough offense in the lineup to win a lot of games.  I expect them to once again hover around .500 all year and to not even contend from day one of the season.  They just didn’t make good enough off-season moves to improve last year’s mediocre offense.  Hopefully, I’ll be wrong.

Two days ago on Facebook, I came across a new-to-me Bible reading plan.  It was created by Grant Horner, a professor at Master’s College (where John MacArthur is president).  The main gist of the plan is that you read one chapter from ten different books of the Bible every day.  In his description, he says it may take an hour a day, but I’ve done it in less than 40 minutes each of the last two days, and I’m not the fastest of readers in the world.

What I like about the plan is that it gives you such a broad view of Scripture all at once.  Right now – to start – I’m in Genesis, Joshua, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Matthew, Acts, Romans and 1 Thessalonians.  The next thing that I like about the plan is that it’s not dependent upon reading the Bible in a certain amount of time (one year, six months, etc.).  If I want, I can double up and read two chapters per day.  If I miss a day, I don’t have to catch back up.  It’s a read-at-your-own-pace kind of a plan.

The tricky part of the plan, for me, so far has been using one specific Bible.  I’m the guy with thirty different Bibles, so when I read Prof. Horner’s suggestion to use the same Bible, I spent a decent amount of time weighing my options.  In the end, I’ve decided to use my ESV Journaling Bible.  It’s fairly small, so it’s easy to tote around.  It’s hardback, so it should hold up well to repeated use.  And, it’s meant to be written in, so I can highlight passages and take notes in the margins (and no, I’m not hard core about not writing in Bibles, I just don’t like writing in the ones I own – I keep a notebook/journal instead).

Time will tell if I actually stick to this plan, but it’s actually motivated me a lot the last few days.  Check out the link below for full details.

> Horner Bible Reading Plan

Yesterday (February 1st) marked one year of living downtown.  This time last year, I was settled into a mostly empty apartment on the St. Clair Mall.  After about a month, I finally had any of the furniture I might need.

One of the more memorable parts of getting furniture involved my couch.  I spent a Saturday with my parents in Lexington, shopping at various discount furniture stores to find the perfect couch for my budget.  I found the one I wanted and we packed it onto dad’s truck and came back to Frankfort.  After getting the couch into the building, we found that it wouldn’t fit in the elevator.  Then, it wouldn’t fit in the stairwell either.  It was wrapped in bubble wrap, cardboard and other packaging, but we didn’t want to take any of it off, for fear that the furniture store wouldn’t take it back.  We (my dad and I) finally came to the conclusion that we simply couldn’t get the couch up to my apartment.

It was a learning lesson.  The fine print of the furniture store receipt said “no returns or refunds.”  I ended up buying a love seat at a store in Frankfort.  The original store was able to give me a store credit, so I purchased a recliner with my credit, and later returned to buy a night stand for my bedroom.

My apartment is all the space I need (for now).  It’s an older building and it could use some work, for sure.  There are occasional louder-than-normal vocal noises for neighbors (arguments with significant others, mostly).  The elevator is a bit scary at times.  The fire alarms tend to go off, randomly, in the middle of the night.  I sometimes have to park a few blocks away because of lack of parking around my building.  Despite all of this, I’ve really enjoyed living downtown.

I can walk around the corner to a coffee shop.  In the summer, I can walk to concerts on the old Capital lawn, or take walks around downtown.  I can walk to local restaurants (one of my favorites, Gibby’s, in particular).  I can watch the Expo fireworks from my apartment.  All in all, I wouldn’t live anywhere else right now.