Category: Life

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Atheist sells self on Ebay

Hemant Mehta, chair of the board of the Secular Student Alliance, offered himself on Ebay. Well not himself, per se, but his beliefs. He had an auction offering to the highest bidder, Mehta’s time to visit a church of the winner’s choice. Mehta is an Atheist and he found out that there are many Christians looking to convert anyone who offers them a chance. The winning bid was $504 and led Mehta to visit several churches in the Chicago area. The money bid went to the SSA as a donation.

His efforts also received a good deal of media attention including making the front page of the venerable Wall Street Journal on March 9th.

His auction leaves me conflicted. While on one hand I liked the media attention he got, I was also bothered by the whole concept. It reminded me a “sucker’s bet” because Mehta never considered converting to Christianity and his auction played on the one major flaw of someone with sincere religious beliefs – that they can convert others even Atheists.

Committed believers will grasp on any bit, no matter how small, to “prove” that those who hold differing beliefs can 1. change on a dime and 2. A simple visit to a church or quoting Bible verses will do it.

Does everybody remember recently when respected Atheist, Anthony Flew, commented he did think some unknown force was behind our universe making things work. Christians had field day, reporting that an Atheist now believed in God. Of course a closer reading of what he did say had nothing to do with the God of Christians.

Then there is the constant myth that there are no Atheists in foxholes. No matter how many examples we provide that such a myth is false it still endures in the Christian community.

It isn’t the first and probably not the last time Christians would pay to try to convert people. When I was a teen and still a believer I use to get invited to my friends church on many occasions for a pizza party. The price I had to pay was to listen to my friend give his testimony to me. I had no intention of joining his church. It was an evangelical Baptist church where it was a good thing to rise during a service and speak in tongues. That goofy scene caused me to cross that church off my list.

I think some caution should be exercised about the point of the auction. Mehta himself has said he didn’t intend for the auction to become what it did. He said he didn’t think anyone would bid. His comments suggest that it was started as a joke and that is what most Atheists would think as well if you really think about it.

It may have shed a bit of light in our theistcentric media about Atheists but at the end of the day nothing would have changed and may have reinforced the believer’s idea that Atheists are just smug and arrogant.

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Playing hooky from work

I’m suppose to be at work at this time but I called in sick. I’m not sick.

I guess I am just bored with my job.

I did plan on going I really did, even after waking up late and knowing I would be late. But when it came time to trudge to work I just couldn’t do it. Whenever I call off for a non-sick reason I have huge pangs of guilt. I was indoctrinated to want to work and knowing if I don’t have a valid reason, it is a bad reason not to go into work.

Most companies I’ve worked for have attendance policies and they have them because if people had a choice, most would not want to be working. Even with the shot to the pocketbook, they can find other “fun” things to do with their time.

I don’t feel guilty because I called off, but I do because I like and respect my co-workers and I feel I’m letting them down if I skip a day or two.

My job isn’t difficult or stressful. It is challenging but because my company controls my time by minute detail, I’ve grown bored. Most would say, “Then quit.”

I would if I could find a job similar in duties and pay but I know that is not likely.

I can tell I’m bored at work because when I am on break or lunch, the time flies by quickly. When I am working the time seems to stand still. 8 hours seems like I am stuck in my own hell.

I’ve tried to read or write to take my mind off the ticking clock. I’ve even taken to covering up the clock on my computer so I don’t watch it, but none of it is helping.

I’m playing with fire and I can’t help myself at the moment. I know I’m going to need a real day off due to a family emergency, health issue when the Bird flu hits, or some other reason that is more real than “I don’t feel like working today.” And if I’m not careful I’ll have plenty of time not to work as I collect unemployment for violating the rules. And it will be nobody’s fault but mine.

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A Bit of Local News

Finally some local news:

Coach Hite resigns

The big news is that FHS Head Football coach Cliff Hite stepped down as coach on 12/1/2005. He became the winningest coach in school history, chalking up a 68-40 record in 10 seasons. Since 1998 his teams have six out seven league titles and appeared in the state playoffs in 1999, 2002, and this season.

His scheme was a version of the run and gun spread offense that allowed quarterbacks to put up some impressive yardage and touchdown stats. His most famous student is current Pittsburgh Steelers starting QB Ben Roethlisberger.

A replacement probably won’t be named until the spring when coaching changes are usually decided, but the local paper, The Courier, speculated that current offensive coordinator Mark Ritzler might be in line for the job.

Being a classmate of Ritz back in 1980’s at FHS, I hope he gets the job if he wants it.

Hite steps down as Trojans coach

David Cryer to play Broadway

Actor David Cryer, Findlay High ’54, who has been with the touring company of the musical “Phantom of the Opera” for the past 13 years, will be playing “Monsieur Firmin” in the Broadway production starting in January.

The touring company is performing in Cincinnati through January 1st.

Cryer is the father of actor Jon Cryer who stars on the show “Two and Half Men” on CBS.

Phantom’s foe: 10 questions with actor David Cryer

Originally posted on the blog “Hancock County Politics Unfiltered”

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Thank You Kevin Smith

Back when I was wee lad I saw a Disney movie staring kid actor Johnny Whitaker (of Family Affair fame). It was called “Mystery in Dracula’s Castle”. In the film Whitaker and his friend use a Super 8 movie camera to film a horror movie at an old light house. They stumble on some jewel thieves and the high jinks starts.

What I loved about the movie was it sparked an interest in making my own movies. I went to the library and checked out any book I could find about filmmaking. I wrote some scripts and even did some crude story boards. My problem was that I didn’t own a Super 8 camera. Our family couldn’t afford one and one I did scrounge from my grandma didn’t work AND I couldn’t afford the film.

A few years later I got the bug again but this time I had some money and a local camera store rented movie cameras. It was like pulling teeth getting my mom to rent the camera for me. My first film was a simple 3 minute and 21 second story of a cola test that goes awry and Superman has to save the day. Having no editing equipment I shot the film in sequence at the end of one of my Boy Scout meetings using my troop as the cast. It took like 2 weeks to get the film back from processing and when I saw it for the first time my heart skipped a beat. The focus was a bit dodgy especially in zoom ins but it wasn’t bad.

When I got to Ohio State I found out they had a film department (this was in the mid 80’s). I took the beginning film class and we watched great films and planned to make our own 5 minute film as the final. By now I owned a Super 8 that I bought through a discount catalog so making my project was not a big deal. The film was about a killer issue of TV Guide and the cast had my friend Dave as the hero and girl I liked Heather who played the damsel in distress. The twist was she saved the day by setting the magazine on fire. Hearing my classmates applaud after showing the finished film to them filled me with joy. I knew it was something I had to do – be a filmmaker.

Life led me in another direction and while I continued to write my short stories and enjoy watching films and the process of filmmaking, I didn’t think I would get the bug again. That was until I met director Kevin Smith – again.

Smith wrote and directed the film Clerks. (1994) about a day in the life of a convenience store clerk and his slacker buddies. It was funny and crude. He shot it for $23,000 and change with one 16 mm camera and on black and white film. He sold it at the Sundance Film Festival for about $200,000 to Miramax Studio and it was one of the films that started the independent film craze of the 1990’s (along with Slacker and El Mariachi).

On a lark I bought the 10 year Anniversary DVD of Clerks a few months ago and the parts I loved is the behind the scenes stuff especially the commentary audio. I learned that Kevin was a lot like me growing up wanting to make movies for the passion of making them. He decided in 1993 to do it and he did.

Smith describes himself as a media whore and that is why I like him. He interacts on a daily basis with his fan base and tries to include them on his filmmaking journeys.

This year he started a blog called simply “My Boring Ass Life” where he details, as much as legally possible, his daily life. He writes of going to the bathroom, playing house with his young daughter, having sex with the wife, and the various goings on in Hollywood.

This week he has started filming the sequel to Clerks. called right now “The Passion of the Clerks”. Don’t think it will be a spoof on Mel Gibson’s “Passion of The Christ” but the title is a nice dig on that film.

As Smith says, Passion is a return to the well. I think he is at a point in his career where he wants to revisit the time when he had the most fun making movies. He gave up writing and directing two big films to do the sequel and he brought in the two main actors to reprise their roles from 1994.

He also started a blog detailing the “Train Wreck: The Making of The Passion of the Clerks” where in video entries he gives his fans a sneak look at the making of the film as it is being filmed. I’m sure a lot of the material will show up on the DVD but it is thrilling for me to come along for the ride as if I am on the crew. One entry showed Kevin being fitted for his Silent Bob mullet and another had Dave Klein, the Director of Photography telling about the 4 day camera prep the crew was doing last week to get ready for filming this week. Dave was also the DP on the first Clerks.

Of course being Kevin Smith, he has included a couple of funny fake trailers and spoofs of Hollywood.

The video blog, I’m sure will influence another future filmmaker just as Smith caused me to finally write and finish my first screenplay “Kindred Revision” and enter it in a contest.

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Gushing about Football

As a grad of Findlay High, I follow the exploits of the football team from afar as I live in Columbus now.

I am pleased as punch that the Findlay Trojans are 5-1 and as of last week ranked 3rd in Region 2 of the OHSAA computer rankings.

As I said, living in Columbus forces me to follow the team via the newspaper or over the Internet. WFIN, the main station in Findlay has been streaming football games over the Internet for several years. Even when they had to stop streaming the station due to royalty issues (thank you Napster) they still stream the games each Friday night.

I also get a chance to watch the team play live when they play a Columbus area team. This year they have been down in my neck of the woods twice. The first game was at Upper Arlington (which is funny because Hancock county has a village named Arlington) and then two weeks ago they played Worthington Kilbourne. In 2002, when the team made it to the state semi-final, they played Cincinnati Elder in Columbus Crew Stadium.

The recent Kilbourne game was a shoot-out that ended in a 36 to 36 tie. In overtime Kilbourne scored a touchdown and extra point then Findlay scored a touchdown during their possession and I’m thinking another overtime with the extra point. It was at this point Coach Cliff Hite reaches into his bag and sends the offense out to try for 2. I thinking “What??” The Coach is going for the win. If they get it they win and if they miss then Worthington wins. Wow!

The quarterback takes the snap and rolls to his right, the defense is closing in, he lets the ball fly, and it is… CAUGHT in the back of the endzone to make the conversion…. FINDLAY WINS 44 to 43! I’m looking silly dancing around my computer but the team just won the game in overtime.

I love Coach Hite and what he has done to make Findlay a power in Northwest Ohio. I was in High school the first time the school made the state playoffs so seeing Hite take the team to the playoffs several times is a good feeling. FHS is a huge school with something like 2,000 students so some of them have to know how to play football but it has only been in the last 10 years that FHS has been a consistently good team.

Back in the spring of 1985 I decided I was going to play football. I hadn’t played before on a team because my Mom wouldn’t give me permission, she didn’t want me to get hurt, but in 1985 I could go out for the team because I would 18 that coming school year and I could sign my own permission slip. My Mom was not happy but she couldn’t do anything about it.

Physical training was brutal for someone better at watching TV than running. In the first 2 weeks I lost 20 lbs of water weight in the July heat. The first day I puked my guts out.

Then two-a-days started. Being as big as I was I learned to be a lineman. Offense was hard with all the blocking schemes you had to learn and I liked Defense because all I really had to know was which side – right or left – to go to.

The veterans on the team allowed me into their circle even though several of them had given me a hard time when I was just a regular student. I got tickled to learn that my thighs were as big as the starting defensive end and the school only had two sets of thigh pads big enough for the both of us.

Having little experience playing football, the contact drills scared the hell out of me. We had one drill called the door drill where 2 JV players would hold a door up. On one side was a linebacker and lineman and the other side had a guard or tackle and a running back. The idea was for the offensive pair to pick a side of the door to run around and the defensive side was to keep them from getting past them. Even with the close proximity there was still some hard hitting especially the linebacker and running back clashing.

I hated the drill so I would float toward the back where the JV guys were while the coach would pick 4 players to do the drill.

One time my luck failed and the coach called me out. I would be going against the starting guard. I got down in my stance and as I looked from one side of the door to the other waiting I was trying to remember what I was suppose to do – stay low and make a pile, stay low and make a pile. I was also trying to remember the good way to tackle since if you do it the wrong way you can break your neck.

All of a sudden the guard comes from my right chugging in and behind him the starting running back. I lunge forward, turn my head to the right and slam my shoulder at the guard’s thigh. He had dipped his head slightly and our helmets hit *CRACK* and then I hit the ground to form a pile. My eyes are closed. I hear the linebacker rushing over me and hit the running back. The team is cheering as our pair stopped them. I don’t see any of it since my eyes are still closed and the 220 lb guard is lying on top of me. I’m spitting out the dust brought up from the action.

The others get up after the play and when I stand up the coach is smiling at me and slaps me on the helmet. “Way to go Berger! Good technique!” he says. I slip back into the crowd and get more slaps and pats from my teammates. One of the veterans, who was the worst to me when I was just a geek, grabs my facemask and screams that I did a great job and then he pulls me forward so we bang helmets. That hurt worse than the drill but I like the attention.

Of course I could give a “Rudy” story where I single handedly won the game blah blah but that would be a lie. I wasn’t that good. I tried but my inexperience prevented me from starting or even playing in a game except one. It was the last game of the season against Lorain Admiral King at home. They were ranked 13th in the state and we were 5-4 with no chance of playing after that night when the playoffs started. Lorain had to win to make it into the playoffs and they brought their band and a large number of fans to our stadium.

Being a senior I had to be on the varsity so I got all the benefits like dressing for all the games and traveling to the away games but I had the cleanest helmet on the team. In order to get my letter I was slotted to start as nose guard for the punt return team. Guys who played special teams got a “games played” exemption for a letter. The first time I went out when Lorain was punting was electric for me. It was a cold Friday night under the lights, the stands are full and cheering us all on. They hiked the ball, I did my nose guard thing (trying to keep the center from running down field) and it was over for me. At the time I didn’t know they wouldn’t punt the ball again the rest of the game. FHS dominated them all night.

With only about a minute left they get the ball back for one last series and we were on top 21 to nothing. I was happy to be on the team but sad it would be the last time I would be in pads on the sideline. Then the defensive coach calls out – “Berger! You’re up!”

“What?” I thought to myself as I went up to the coach.

“Take over at right tackle!”

I ran onto the field with the other bench warmers as the Coach lets us into the last of the last game. The stands erupted in cheers. I like to think it was for us, the ones who practiced our hearts out but never got in the game, but it was probably cheers for the starters coming out, for a job well done.

Dave, the defensive captain, who was still in the game called out to us as I took my stance across from the Lorain tackle, “Richie! Richie!” That meant when the ball was hiked I was to go to my right.

The ball was hiked and I did my technique to the right and I see Lorain running a misdirection to the left. I pivot around and plot a pursuit course to the ball and run. I get to the sideline just ahead of the runner and see him cut back to the right and as I turn to purse the other way I run into their offensive line man who is still blocking. The guy is about 6 foot 5 and he is as fast as me and I can’t get around him.

I can see the runner still running down field and the sick feeling that they may spoil the shut out pisses me off so I try to run faster then I stop and change direction to lose the lineman. I see one of our safeties finally bring the runner down. If he hadn’t then I was the last guy between them and the endzone.

It seemed like the play too forever but it was only about 30 seconds and Lorain would have one more chance. The Coach is smart enough to put the 1st team defense back in the game to try and preserve the shut out and I come off the field. As I jog off I see the defensive coach and he slaps my helmet and I say to him “I knew I could do it”. Yes, it was a stupid thing to say.

It was stupid but my whole experience then is etched into my brain. I can still see the eyes of that Lorain lineman as he stared down on me as he tried to block my way. I can still feel my gut twinge when I think about the “duck walk” or “hog jog” we did in physical training. I still feel the pain in my legs after running our wind sprints at the end of practice each Monday.

A lot of my Humanist friends either don’t understand or frown on my experiences playing high school football. One even suggested that schools should get rid of team sports completely. I disagree and will for the rest of the time I have on this Earth. To me team sports show off basic humanity of working together for a common goal. A high school sports team shows that people of different backgrounds can come together with a completely clean slate.

I also had one of my non-jock friends at the time comment that he didn’t think I would play football. He thought it was great that I tried new things. The experience also helped give me added confidence.

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