My Dad loved to coach to kids. His passion was baseball but he also coached basketball and soccer. He also coached me on how to play golf and coached me on how to be a honorable man. He coached all three of his kids in various sports, but he even coached when his kids were out of sports. My Dad was instrumental in starting Colerain Athletic Association or C.A.A. for short.

Here is an article about C.A.A. and my Dad:

Nobody strikes out, nobody walks and nobody keeps score. This doesn’t sound like much of a ball game, but the six and seven-year-old children playing T-ball in the Northwest area receive several benefits that competitive knothole baseball does not provide. “They get a good sense of working together as a team. They really stress good sportsmanship and fairness to the kids,” said Cindy Boes, whose six-year-old son John plays in the Colerain Athletic Association Instructional T-ball league. Boes added that support for the youngsters in the league is another positive aspect. “The parents all come out and support the teams, and if one of the kids strikes out or makes a bad play, the coaches are still very positive,” she said. During the games, the batting order is not restricted to just nine or ten batters. Everyone on the team is listed in the order, and everyone gets to bat during each game. In addition, each player must play at least two innings of defense during the games, which only last four innings. Bob Hughes is in charge of the league, and he has been involved with T-ball for the last nine years. “I love this level of ball. I coached Babe Ruth baseball for two years, but I quit because, with T-ball, I didn’t have to deal with the parents always getting upset if their kid didn’t play,” he said. Hughes especially likes the de-emphasis on competition in the T-ball league.

“Non-competition is the key, because we don’t have the pressures of league standings and statistics. This way the kids are having a great time, and this is the key to it all,” he said. Hughes also said that T-ball is effective in preparing the boys and girls for their next level of competition. “Nobody strikes out or walks, so they learn to play defense for when they move up to knothole,” Hughes said. The boys teams use a regulation baseball, while the girls use an 11-inch softball. The girls’ softball is one inch smaller then the regulation competition softball. There are seven teams in the boys division and each team plays ten instructional games during the summer and an all-star participation game at the end of the summer. There are nine girls teams including three Colerain teams, three White Oak teams, two from Monfort Heights and one from Mt. Airy. Hughes said the league uses a nine batters per inning maximum for the boys and a ten batter maximum for the girls. This is done so no team is a bat for an excessive amount of time. On the field the children are assisted by a host of coaches and an umpire. There are first and third base coaches, two other adult coaches stationed in the infield and one to instruct the batters at home plate. The infield coaches are instructed to knock down any potentially dangerous line drives off the tee and all the coaches are constantly providing positive reinforcement to the players on the field. In addition, the league hires 10-13 year-old kids to umpire the games. The umpires receive 3.50 per game. At the end of the season the players who are old enough to move on to competitive leagues receive graduation certificates from the T-ball division.

The possiblites of a major league baseball strike can’t detract what the game means to many youngsters across the country as well as in the Greater Cincinnati area. Here, Alex Mienhartt of the Noble Roman’s Pizza team gets some valuable T-ball hitting instructions from his coach – Bob Hughes

C.A.A. picnic back in the day at Colerain Park.

My Dad

My Dad teaching me how to ride a bike.

My Dad teaching me how to play soccer.

My Dad coaching baseball.

My Dad coaching soccer.

My Dad would always help at the field and track at day at Ann Weigel Elementary School. This is me doing the long jump.

I cannot possibly fill my Dad’s shoes, but I can take what he taught me and apply it to my life. I learned my work ethic from my Dad. My Dad worked third shift most of his life as a printer, which is a physically demanding job. He never missed a day, even when it snowed. He would drive to Dayton in the worse, snowy conditions you could think of. I remember one time he did this and he was the only one that showed up, he ended up coming back home.

My Dad no matter what would show up. No matter how tired he was, he would show up. No matter how inconvenient, my Dad would show up. It was a selfless act. I am sure there were times when my Dad struggled with this. Times where he did not feel like going to work. Times where he did not want to go to that sporting event to see his kids play. But he always did and I love my Dad for his ability to show up. If there is one thing I want to learn from my Dad, it is the ability to show up.

This idea of showing up got me thinking about Jesus. Jesus showed up to face death. I am sure he did not want to show up that day to be spit on, ridiculed, beaten, have a crown of thorns stuck on his head and whipped with a cat of nine tails. Then to be crucified on a cross for all to see. He showed up knowing all this would happen in advance. He did all this for me, for us, for the world so that we could live a life worth living.

He showed up for this:

I was able to cross off two and half (will explain in a minute) tasks on my bucket list so far this year. The first one was the mission trip to another country and not watching TV for a week which also happened while was in Honduras. Nothing like killing two birds with one stone. The third or the half is I technically have enough credits to have my four year degree but since I am getting more schooling I do not actually have that piece of paper that magically qualifies me for an awesome career (or so I am told). I thought crossing that one off halfway was in order.

What I hope to accomplish this year

I have some goals for this year as it pertains to my bucket list. I would love to cross off number 59 (learn Spanish), 56 (Sponsor a kid through Compassion International), 55 (bike 100 miles in one weekend, this will be crossed off in a few weeks!), 22 (Get all my A+ certifications), 18 (Learn to play the guitar), and for the scary one…

My friend from UPS is getting a group together to go SKYDIVING!! –> 3 (Go skydiving). So if anyone who reads this wants to go skydiving this is your invite.

Thought this would be a good place to show some clips from the movie The Bucket List (which if you haven’t seen you probably should rent it…now).

C.S. Lewis was a brilliant thinker. I have been re-reading Mere Christianity. This material in the book was first given on the radio and then later published in three separate talks.

I will admit it starts out slow and boring. I almost put the book down and gave up on reading it again. Trust me make it through the first few chapters and your golden. Hopefully it will challenge you and make you a better person and Christian.

God has been revealing a lot to me lately (probably more along lines of I am being open to what God has to say). TRUST is what I have issues with. God is destroying the barriers I have built.

The Cardinal Virtues- This is one of the chapters I have recently read in Mere Christianity. Cardinal is not one of those Roman Catholic guys dressed in the funky clothing. It is from the Latin word meaning “hinge of a door”. They were given the name Cardinal virtues because they were pivotal. There are four in total; Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude.

1. Prudence is practical common sense. God is efficient in my mind. “He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have” (Mere Christianity, 77). God does not care how smart you are, instead He wants you to use what He has given you. In other words be efficient don’t waste energy in becoming someone your not, use the intelligence you have to make a difference.

2. Temperance in today’s world means teetotalism which is a fancy word for abstaining and promoting abstinence from alcoholic beverages. This was not the original definition. “Temperance referred not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further” (Mere Christianity, 78).

• The mark of a bad man is that he struggles to give up what he desires and demands every one else to give it up too. “That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons-marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.”
• God is not deceived by externals. When people focus on the word Temperance as it relates to drinking, they forget that we can be just as intemperate about anything else. Focusing on a golf game or becoming obsessed with shopping is just as dangerous. The only difference is it does not show on the outside as much as a someone who gets drunk at night.

3. Justice- “Justice means much more than the sort of thing that goes on in law courts. It is the old name for everything we should now call ‘fairness’; it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, keeping promises, and all that side of life.”

4. Fortitude- “Fortitude includes both kinds of courage-the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that ‘sticks it’ under pain. You will notice, of course, that you cannot practice any of the other virtues very long without bringing this one into play. In the same way a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of a virtue.”

If actions were only thought of it would encourage three wrong ideas:

• Right actions done for the wrong reasons do not help build the internal quality or character called a ‘virtue’.
• We would tend to think that God wanted us to simply obey a set of rules: But God really wants people of character or who are willing to build their character.
• “We might think that the ‘virtues’ were necessary only for this present life-that in the other world we could stop being just because there is nothing to quarrel about and stop being brave because there is no danger. There will probably be no occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, but there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here.”

That is deep stuff. Ponder on that for awhile without your brain hurting. If you want more brain hurting and possibly life changing thinking go read this book….twice…maybe even five times.

Coming off this mission trip to Honduras a changed person I  have been looking for the next adventure God has for me. I never thought I would have a heart for mission work but I can not wait to go on my next adventure. I found one adventure that I will do in the near future. While I would love to quit my job and leave to do this, it is not feasible at the moment. So I am adding it to my bucket list and I plan on doing this when I graduate college and when I am between jobs.

It is called The World Race. You visit 11 countries in 11 months and you live out of a backpack for those months. Crazy I know… but I can’t wait to do this. Go check out the website and read all about this crazy adventure –> The World Race.

Also check out Ryan’s blog post @ thisisreverb.com about our Honduras trip. He took some great pictures and has some of the hike which I did not take pictures of –> A Taste Of Honduras @ thisisreverb.com.

Its hard to pack for trip where your really not sure what is the best items to take. That is my day for today+homework and hopefully I will have narrowed it down so I am not carrying too much in my pack.

A couple of days ago I posted Ryan’s talk about his time in Kenya. I realize that 45 minutes is a long time and some of you may not have listened for that reason. I do recommend to take the time to do so but if you do not have the time here is a 11 minute section of the talk about Eliud. Its an amazing story and I want you to hear it.

Eliud from Andrew Hughes on Vimeo.

I have been gaining a new perspective on life recently. It all started when Ryan when on a mission trip to Kenya to blog about his experience. Here is his talk synced up with the pictures he took on the trip. Its about 45 minutes but its well worth it, especially to hear Eliud’s story near the end of the talk. So grab some tea…coffee or whatever you drink and enjoy!

Kenya Talk from Andrew Hughes on Vimeo.

I am going on my first mission trip out of the country to Honduras and here is a list of things I hope to accomplish on the trip.

• Continue gaining a new perspective on life.
• We are hiking into the jungle (about a six hour hike..give or take). I hope I finish!
• I am leaving my safe place to go to place that is not comfortable. I am beginning to step out of my comfort zones in different areas of my life. I am learning to be less selfish with my time and enjoy life as it comes.
• Get to know the people I will be traveling with.
• Working on my relationship with God under different circumstances.

Well that is all for now… I plan on posting a new blog post everyday until I leave.

I wrote a book review on this for my survey of world views class. If you have not read this book go get it and read it… It will be tough to get through at times but it is well worth it.

Night chronicles the life of Elie Wiesel as he was persecuted as a Jew during the time of the Jewish Concentration camps. Unbelievable events lead Wiesel on an incredible journey testing his endurance, faith, and love for God. The worldview of naturalism was evident among his captors, which causes Wiesel to think those thoughts.

The story begins with a young Elie training in the Jewish customs of the day. The Germans established a presence among the Jewish communities and over time began the oppression of the Jewish people. The German troops began to relocate the Jewish people in communities called ghettos. It was not until the eight days of Passover that the “race towards death had begun.” The German’s first rule was that people were not allowed to leave their homes for three days and if broken was punishable by death. The troops wanted to establish control early so they began to confiscate valuables.

Elie and his family were transported to the second ghetto, the last stop before being transported to the concentration camps. The day arrived for Elie and his family to leave. They were instructed to head to the synagogue which acted like a train station. Eighty Jews were escorted in cattle cars, which would deliver them to the camps. They spent two days travelling, not able to lie down and in the stifling heat. The trip in itself was bad enough, but then Mrs. Schachter began to lose her mind. She was having visions of a fire off in the night sky. This went on for hours until she was beat and gagged to keep her quiet. A few hours later, they saw the flames rising in the sky that Mrs. Schachter envisioned. The smell of burning flesh was in the air as they left the car leaving their belongings behind.

In Birkenau they were sorted according to gender: “Men to the left! Women to the right!” This is the last time Eli saw his mother and sister. Elie and his father remained together, were told what ages they were and instructed to walk towards the crematorium. Two steps away from certain death; they were instructed to turn left to the barracks. The grueling process of sorting continued. They were shaved, beaten, disinfected, and prison garb were thrown at them.

Elie and his father were transferred to many camps throughout their journey. The camps were similar in operation. Elie witnessed his father being beaten many times but felt no emotion. January 28, 1945, Elie spent his last night with his father, but he could not find the tears to cry. Elie was relieved to be free of the burden his father had become. In April of that year, the detainees received word that they were going to be set free. On April 10, Elie was a free man.

The worldview of naturalism was evident among Elie’s captors. The guards had no respect for humanity. They threatened the Jews with death and suffering. The German’s who were capable of this violence had no place for God in their hearts.

One act of inhumanity towards the Jews was sealing them in a cattle car. The Germans wanted to strip everything away from the Jews. Families were torn apart and dignity was not left for anyone. One officer said, “If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot like dogs.” The Jews were reduced to animals.

The Germans succeeded in making the Jews feel unwanted, unloved, not deserving of God. Elie said, “ We were incapable of thinking. Our senses were numbed, everything was fading into a fog. We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride had all deserted us. In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either.” A man who believes in God would not say these things under normal conditions.

The worse act of inhumanity by the German’s was the hanging of a child while everyone was forced to watch. This forced people to ask, “Where is God?” These acts that were facilitated by humans were forcing people to question their belief in God. Elie questioned God himself, “Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because he caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves?” The violent acts committed by a human that Elie witnessed caused him to think these thoughts.

As Elie was having a conversation about his father to his commander, the commander told him that it is every man for himself; and in this place there is no such thing as a father, son, or friend. He said, “Each of us lives and dies alone.” He also told him to stop helping his father by feeding him. These comments made by the commander were void of God and with no concern for humanity. A Christian does not live alone and die alone. The commander does not see value in a relationship with God and helping humanity.

Elie’s journey diminished his faith as his soul and self diminished from the oppression of the Germans through their violence and lack of decency for humanity.

What does it mean to live life to the fullest? This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. Often we think of living life to the fullest means being able to buy whatever and whenever we want. What if living life to fullest means giving up some of those possessions to help sponsor a child in another country. What if it means giving up a week of vacation to go on a mission trip.

I will admit I am skeptical of some of these programs. Ryan and Allison are over in Kenya on a mission trip with Compassion International, and after reading his blog posts with his honest look at the company and the impact they are making in kids lives, I am sold on wanting to sponsor a child.

So follow Ryan @ thisisreverb for a honest and touching look at their time spent in Kenya. My friend Kelly (who by the way is an awesome photographer, check her stuff out @ daphnephotostudio.com) posted a similar post earlier about these same feelings. Read her post titled, feeling guilty for having a good life. A lot of the same emotions she is feeling is also what I am feeling at this point in my life.

I am blessed to have great friends and I love it when I can relate to my friends because of the emotions they feel about a certain topic. I know this is what life is about… living life with each other and sharing awesome experiences with each other.

First off let me give you a disclaimer about this story. I am not writing this story  to say “hey look what I did.” It is about people coming together and lending someone in need of a helping hand.

Its Friday, and I was driving home from UPS at 2 am. It was snowing and the roads were getting bad in spots. I was on Ronald Reagan Highway when I noticed a car had slid off into a ditch on the right side of the road. I felt a urge that I should turn around and see if this person, this stranger was o.k. By the time it took me to slow down and turn around a middle aged woman had stopped as well. The girl was fine just a little shocked and scared. This woman and I began to push her out of the ditch and moved her about ten feet but the car was stuck again and we could not move it any farther. By this time another man and a woman stopped and we began the process all over again. That is all it took, four strangers coming together to help and we got her car out of the ditch (during this whole time I was praying but I did not even realize it, it was natural, I was asking God for help to get this car out, and He delivered).

I am amazed at human beings right now and their ability to come together and help someone in need. I am amazed at how God works in peoples lives. I laughed cause this one lady said, “this is some real good Samaritan shit.” The same lady also asked, “is she your family?” Everyone replied no. Her response was awesome, “Well we are family now!” I am not going to lie it felt good to help, but that is not why I did it. I did not do it to make myself feel good about something I did. I did it because that is what humans should do. Help each other when we are in need. It seemed like all it took was for one person to take the initiative and more people were willing to help.

This girl was crying and obviously besides herself. This girl, a stranger to us and a stranger to this city. She had just moved here three days ago and did not know anyone. Turns out two of the ladies lived where she lived! How amazing is God and how He plans stuff out. God you are cool in my book. So we escorted her back since we were going to the Colerain exit. It was a caravan and she was in the middle protected by everyone driving with her to make sure she arrived home.

Taking initiative is a huge step but can bring about some awesome results. It can be scary at times to make the first move. You will get dirty when helping people. I was covered in mud from head to toe. But I was fine with that. After all Jesus got real dirty for me and took on all my sin so I could live a life worth living. The one commandment in the Bible that Jesus was concerned with the most was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

Oh yeah I almost forgot to mention this girl’s name was Charity!

Here is some video I took on my iphone of the caravan approaching the Colerain Exit.

Caravan from Andrew Hughes on Vimeo.

Welcome to the 2nd part of Feed Your Technolust: Virus/Spyware Cleanups. The first part described about temp cleaners and how to use them effectively. In this edition the focus is on using Spybot Search and Destroy. So go get your pocket protectors cause its time to get your geek on.

Step 1

Go get Spybot Search and Destory <— click here to download.

Step 2

Install it to your computer like any other program.

The only thing you need to do when installing is to make sure system settings protection (tea timer) is unchecked. It will not hurt to install it but it is to obtrusive for me. I am not saying it is bad to use, here is a description from Spybot’s website. Once you read it then you can make a informed decision on using it or not.

The Resident TeaTimer is a tool of Spybot-S&D which perpetually monitors the processes called/initiated. It immediately detects known malicious processes wanting to start and terminates them giving you some options, how to deal with this process in the future. You can set TeaTimer to:

• be informed, when the process tries to start again
• automatically kill the process
• or generally allow the process to run

There is also an option to delete the file associated with this process.

In addition, TeaTimer detects when something wants to change some critical registry keys. TeaTimer can protect you against such changes again giving you an option: You can either Allow or Deny the change.

The TeaTimer is always running in the background.

Step 3

The first time Spybot runs you will get this pop-up. Check the “don’t show this message again” box and click ok. It might show this again after you update Spybot. **The first time Spybot runs a box will pop up in the left hand upper corner prompting you to perform different tasks. Click through without doing anything. I do everything from the actual program interface.

Step 4

This is what the main page looks like. The first thing to do is click the search for updates button.

Make sure you pick one that says USA and click continue.

This is what the update page looks like. F/P fixes will be unchecked so make sure you have it checked. Click download to start the update. Once it is finished click exit and Spybot should restart. **You will want to run updates before every scan**

Step 5

Click the immunize button on the left hand side and you will see that you are unprotected. Click immunize with the green plus sign and it will automatically go through and protect you from these threats. **each time you update you should run this, it will show you if your are unprotected**

This is how the immunize screen should look when you are finished with a scan and everything is protected. **notice that next to the unprotected section the value is at zero, this is want you want**

Step 6

To start your first scan click on Search & Destroy in the left hand column. Then on the main page click check for problems. Be patient the scan may take 15 to 30 minutes.

This is what you want to see. If Spybot finds threats it will list them in the box and click fix selected problems. In some cases Spybot will not fix every problem it finds and it will ask to run a scan on start up. Click yes and next time your computer restarts it will run a scan.

Step 7

If you don’t have a anti-virus program already installed you will need to use one as part of the clean up process. I recommend using AVG Anti-Virus<—click to download. Make sure to run all updates and run an in depth scan.

Once you have your computer cleaned it is a good idea to be running a anti-virus/spware program that will actively protect your computer. **This is very important, you can only run one anti-virus program on your computer but you can run multiple anti-spyware programs.**

Spybot is considered to be a anti-spyware program. You can continue using AVG Anti-Virus but I would recommend un-installing it after you clean up your system and use Norton Anti-Virus 2009<—click to download. It does cost money but I think its worth it. Norton does a better job of actively protecting your computer without you manually running a scan.

Advanced Tips

If you want to have a better result with these methods I suggest starting your computer in safe mode. Before you do that make sure that Spybot and both ccleaner and atf cleaner are all updated. We will be using safe mode without networking so you won’t be able to access the interenet.

When the computer starts hit F8 a bunch of times until a black screen comes up with a group of options to select. See image below.

Use the arrow keys to highlight safe mode. **You will not be able to access the Internet in this mode**

It will prompt you with a box saying you are using safe mode just click yes. Once you are in safe mode, follow the steps in Feed Your Technolust ver 1 and 1.2. **You probably will not see the programs on your desktop, you will be able to find ccleaner and spybot by going to start—>all programs—>and they will be listed there. To find atf cleaner you have to right click on my computer and find the search function. In the search box type atf cleaner and it will find it.**

As always I will answer any questions. Stay tuned for the next post in this series, where I will be discussing advanced methods for virus/spyware cleanups.

]]> http://amongtherealm.com/2009/01/15/feed-your-technolust-ver-12/feed/ 1