monta ellis/andrew bogut

the warriors traded monta ellis, epke udoh, and kawme brown for andrew bogut and stephen jackson tonight. on the surface, it doesn't seem like a very good trade for the warriors because bogut is injury prone and ellis has been playing really good ball recently. the warriors also gave up prospect udoh which has shown sparks of real talent. but, it sounded like ellis was ready to leave golden state at the end of the year when his contract was up, so the warriors were at least able to get something out of the deal.

the good side is that bogut, if healthy, is a really talented big man. he is a center that the warriors need. udoh was being blocked by david lee and the whole backcourt of monta ellis and steph curry wasn't really tough to make it work. so, it looks like klay thompson will get more run with a hopefully healthy curry and bogut along with lee.

i heard that a couple months ago, the warriors turned down a curry-rondo trade. man, i dunno why they did that. rondo would fit perfectly with ellis in the backcourt. oh well, i think this season is already gone for the warriors. the thing that sucks is that they are always not good enough to make the playoffs, but not bad enough to get high draft picks. they are basically stuck in mediocrity.

the walking dead

just wanted to say, the last 2 episodes of "the walking dead" = wow! glad they moving the story forward :)

randy moss

randy moss officially signed a 1-year deal with the niners today. i wasn't super excited about this when i first heard about it last night, but i can see why the niners did it. they need an upgrade in their receiving corp and moss, if engaged and healthy, is a definite upgrade. he stretches the field and defenses have to pay attention to him. this would take pressure off crabtree and vernon to make all the plays.

the downside, of course, is that he's had a history of not trying hard or giving up on plays or not fully being engaged the whole game. if his number isn't called a certain amount or if the team starts to play poorly, he might check out mentally. he is also another year older and didn't play at all last season.

still, the niners did only sign him to a 1-year deal. this is similar to what they did last year with braylon edwards. now, that didn't work too well for the niners, but i do have to admit that the organization has had a pretty good track record recently of getting good players. my hope was that they would sign mike wallace and peyton manning, but i really don't see that happening. it looks like their committed to alex smith and reports are that the niners will most likely look to draft another receiver in the first round.

so, after sleeping on it a night, i'm ready to welcome randy moss to the niners. let's see the niners open up the playbook a bit more this season and take more shots downfield with moss!

kony 2012

last week, the 30-minute video of kony 2012 exploded onto the internets. an organization called invisible children released this video explaining their cause to stop joseph kony, a ugandan warlord, who kidnaps and abducts children for his own personal army.

after watching this well-edited video, i was drawn, like many people, to their cause and excited to see and hear young people jump on board in wanting to stop evil. then, after this video went viral, there were reports against the invisible children organization saying that they weren't allocating the money they received in the right way. too much was going towards travel and film editing and for paid staff, while only a small percentage really went towards helping the ugandans themselves. and it was sad to hear those reports.

there are a couple of thoughts from all that went on:
- the internet is powerful. we live in an internet age and you can use the internet to raise awareness just like that. could the Church do something like this? what would happen if all the Christians around the world got on board for something at the same time?
- the invisible children's video accomplished what they set out to do. they made joseph kony famous.
- do research. it's easy to get excited about causes, but there are so much out there. find out which organization really does what.
- do something. one thing i do admire about the invisible children is that they set out to do social justice and have continued to pursue that. what is God tugging at your heart to do?