1/19/08

fame is so fleeting

a friend of mine gave me season tickets to the barons games. the barons are a professional latvian basketball team and between the first and third quarters of their games they let people shoot half court shots. if someone makes it, then they get a free car to drive for a month...

well, as the first quarter ended i watched as all of this was taking place (as pictured in the background between the guy akwardly shooting the ball and the gentleman in the green) and sarcastically made the comment that "i could make that." well, my friend who gave me the tickets was sitting down the row and heard me and because she works for the team she quickly got up and set me up to shoot at the end of the third quarter. great. that gave me plenty of time to sit and think about the shot and get nervous. the third quarter finally came around and a few of us guys walked out onto the court before they realized they had no balls for us to shoot with. we waited around for about 30 seconds before they eventually got balls out for us to shoot with. thats when everything went crazy... it became a mad rush to get a ball and shoot.

i got a ball and calmly took my first shot. on target, but a little short.

i got another ball and shot again. a little closer.

as i went to grab a third ball i caught an elbow to the face! no joke. these guys were not messing around. fortunately for me, this was my third shot and by that time i was dialed in... weight, distance, wind, humidity... everything.

i let go of the ball and then sat and watched as it sailed through the air. it felt good.

it hit off the back of the rim.

as i turned around to grab another ball, the crowd went crazy. the guy behind me had made his shot! nuts.

i bet it was that same guy who elbowed me in the face... jerk! haha.

maybe next time...

1/10/08

suicide rates

i got a sobering email from scott runzo (our country leader here in latvia) this morning. this email had rankings for the top ten suicide rates per country and four out of the top five countries were all in eastern europe. more proof that this area of the world is in desperate need of a Savior! please keep our team in your prayers as we minister in this area of the world.

Highest Suicide Rates in the World
Rank Country Suicides per 100,000 inhabitants per year
1 Lithuania 42.0
2 Russia 37.4
3 Belarus 35.0
4 Latvia 34.3
5 Estonia 33.2
6 Hungaryk 32.1
7 Slovenia 30.9
8 Ukraine 29.4
9 Kazakhstan 28.7
10 Finland 24.3

Source: BBC

1/3/08

-12 degrees celsius?!?!!?

i never knew it got this cold on planet earth. the dark side of the moon? maybe. but earth? nope. well unfortunately, for me and the rest of the latvian population, it does. i thought my body was going to quit on me when i was waiting for the tram yesterday! the worst part is that people here love to tell me that it hasnt even gotten cold yet! haha. ive begun to realize that "cold" is a very relative term.