Superbowl: tell me who you want to see…

Greetings, Bearers!

This is it.  Superbowl is now set, and I’m pumped to see who wins!  That the Bowl involves two teams with 1.) brothers coaching against each other (thus the nickname “Harbaugh Bowl” or “Har-bowl” as some are saying) and 2.) legendary players on both sides of the ball who haven’t been to the greatest of all championship games in many years, referring of course to Randy Moss and Ray Lewis (Yes, I realize both men have questionable character-Lewis more so-but for the sake of the game let’s set that aside for a moment. I don’t know all of the fact behind Ray Lewis’ case from several years back, so I’m not going to speak to that.).

From my standpoint, I like the fact that we have former Michigan players in the mix.  For the 49ers, we of course have Jim Harbaugh who spent his college years as a quarterback under the legendary Bo Schembechler,  and on the 49ers roster we also have Mario Manningham helping out with wide receiver work (Check that: just saw that Manningham is on injured reserve) and also Jonathan Goodwin at C.  Under the Raven roster we have no current Michigan players unfortunately, but the defense did work with Greg Mattison for some years, and I guess I can count that for something

So feel free to let me know who you’d like to see win and why.  Personally, I’m thinking that Frisco will pull it off, but to be honest this game could go either way, and I’m just hoping for a performance by both teams that takes it all down to the wire.  But that’s just me.  Send me a comment about your prediction!

Until then, back to thawing my fingers before they freeze solid so that I can continue to write!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

 

Time out for some football!

Greetings, Bearers!

What started out for me as a tight and hectic week has ended with a great personal burden being lifted off my shoulders and time spent with the family today at Michigan’s Spring Football Scrimmage, which was a blast.  Check out the link and enjoy!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

Now that I’ve recovered from my Turkey coma…

Greetings, Bearers!

Hopefully all of you (or at least all of you in the States) had a great Thanksgiving, with much to be thankful for and much to eat.  I certainly had my share of food last Thursday, especially with regard to the multiple pieces of pie I ingested.   Let me tell you: if you’ve never had a chocolate pecan pie, you really need to do so.  Just make sure you exercise more self-control than I did!

My Packers remain on top with an 11-0 season, and my Wolverines finished strong with a 10-2 record, including a fantastic win over that school from Ohio.  I couldn’t have been more thankful in that regard, and for those of you who love the gridiron as much as I do, hopefully the past weekend found you sitting well with your teams in both college and pro! 

Well, I was hoping to give you an update from Kim regarding my cover, but unfortunately she has not yet gotten back to me.  No doubt she’s probably pretty busy, so I’m not worried about it.  Blame it on me being neurotic.  So until I have a cover to show to you, I’ll keep writing and working, editing and finishing works, and sharing my progress with you.

Speaking of which… I plan on putting up another short story excerpt from Alternate  Endings in the next few days, provided my editor gets things in order.  And if she doesn’t… well, I’ll just have to take things into my own hands.

Somebody had better call the fire department

Okay, back to work for me.  Keep reading and rooting for the teams!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

Tressel and Character

Greetings, Bearers!

In between my writing, I took time to notice this article about Jim Tressel featured by Sports Illustrated, after hearing about “The Vest’s” resignation from Ohio State.  The article was very interesting, and sadly very enlightening; even as a die-hard Michigan football fan and Michigan alumni, I had great respect for Tressel (despite wanting to beat him on the gridiron).  Now, it comes out that Tressel really did play the part of a hypocrite-and I don’t say that maliciously.  The man did not practice what he preached, and that’s sad and embarrassing.  Tressel professed Christianity, and while we Christians still struggle with sin, we need to be mindful of our testimony, and how we appear before an unbelieving world. 

Looks like Tressel didn’t think about that part of it.

People have been asking me whether or not I’m happy about it.  I’ve replied that I’m satisfied that justice was served but that I’m not gleeful or emotionally enraptured with the whole thing.  Justice is a good thing; vindictive emotion is not.  I say that because I know that I’ve not been nailed for every wrong thing I’ve done in my life, but I know that I deserve to be.  So, while it’s good to see consequences, it’s not something I get any giddiness from. 

Moving on, my short story (The one I posted an excerpt from a few posts back) is almost complete, and I intend to put together my first collection here in the next couple of weeks, although when it will be completed and posted depends on whether or not I can keep working without interruption (Mental note: simultaneous TV, radio, and writing doesn’t work).  And The Summoning of Kran is going well, although I need to be a bit more consistent with it as well.

So back to being consistent!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean

A parting word for the Year

Greetings, Bearers!

Alas, Christmas and New Years are almost upon us.  Hard to believe, especially in light of the fact that… *sniff*… football season is almost over!  But then again, all good things this side of eternity have to come to an end.  On the plus side, perhaps Michigan will do well in its bowl game.  It’ll be interesting to see what fate awaits Coach Rodriguez if my maize and blue gridiron warriors come up short.  Regardless of the outcome, the Wolverines will rise again.  It’s just a matter of time.

So the writing continues, and I’ve started another piece that will have to wait until I get back from Christmas break to finish, unfortunately.  On the plus side, I’ll have plenty of time to keep rolling with The Summoning of Kran and make good headway on it.  But before I head out and go incognito for the next week and a half, let me leave you with the first line of my newest short story:

My name is Perry Prescott, and I’m going to live forever.

Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!  And if you’ve not yet done it, check out my Christmas Special that continues until January 1st!

See you in the Vein!

J. Dean