Friday, December 24, 2004 - Jonathan     

It feels great to be home, back in the Chi! Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. I know most of you are on break, whether it be from high school or college, hope you are having a blast. It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of another year. God has been very good to me personally this year. He made a way for me to go off to school, He has kept my family safe, and He has brought me through another semester. I pray that this coming New Year will be full His mercy and leading. In the last few weeks I have caught myself worry about the future, and about how I am going to get through certain things that are going on right now for me, but now I realize that worrying about these things is pointless. God has shown that He is in control in my life and I just need to stop worrying and let Him lead. So I know that in the new year, no matter what problems I may have, God is still in control.  I know that there are a few of our readers that are members of the Armed Forces, so I just want to send along my thanks for your service, and the sacrifice that you all are making. Especially during the holidayseason I know it must be hard to be away from family and friends, but I am sure I speak for all of the IPF family when I say Thank You.

I'm curious to hear from some Philly Eagles fans. I mean until last Sunday everyone of you was so confident that you were headed straight to the Super Bowl. How about now? You still have a good team, but can you score enough points to win without Terrell Owens? I think not. I'm looking for the Falcons to the NFC representative in the Super Bowl come February. And this may surprise some of you but my pick for the team from the AFC (and the team that I think will win it all) is the Indy Colts.

Peyton Manning is the greatest QB of my lifetime, sure that is only the last 20 years, but think about some of the QBs to have played in the last 2 decades. Bret Favre, Dan Marino, John Elway, Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Joe Montana (in his latter years), and Warren Moon. That is a pretty impressive list of players, yet I believe at this point Peyton Manning is the greatest of them all. Look for him to lead the Colts all the way to a championship this year, and a few more in the future. 

I don't know about the rest of you NBA fans, but I am not all that excited about the much talked about Christmas Day clash between Kobe Bryant's Lakers and Shaq's Heat. Aside from the fact that Shaq may not even play now, why should I get all excited about one meaningless regular season game between two teams that I could other wise care less about. Now if Shaq and Kobe start fighting, that would be must see TV.  Well the time has come for me to go, but one last time I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Friday, November 26, 2004 - Jonathan     

Saturday, November 6, 2004 - Jonathan     

A Very Eventful Week.....

Hello to all of you, hope every one is having a good start to the fall season. This has really been a very event full week. And I first must say I WAS WRONG, some of you might remember that I predicted that President Bush would not win reelection. Well the American people have spoken, and chosen their leader for the next four years. This last Saturday I had the chance to contribute to the Presidents cause. About 200 or so of us students down here volunteered to go out and campaign for the Republican Party as part of their "Get Out The Vote" campaign, now we where well compensated but that is not the point.

I and a group of five other guys canvassed several residential areas, encouraging registered Republicans to get out and support the president by voting. In all we spent 12 hours going from block to block. We went through some very affluent neighborhoods, and some very poor and run down ones. We even got cursed at by a few Kerry supporters. It was a very neat experience for me, and in some small way I feel that I contributed to my parties cause.

We had a big political rally here on campus a week ago, and that was pretty cool, it was complete with a congressman and falling balloons from the ceiling and an honor guard. I had always seen these rallies on TV but I finally got to be part of one. If you have not notice yet they take politics pretty seriously here on campus. On Tuesday night they had 3 projection TV screens in the main sports arena up for us to watch the results come in, we stuck it out till about 2 a.m. When it became clear that no winner would be announced till the next morning I had to call it a night. 

Well I am going to cut it short this update, but next time I will have a little more to say about my post-election thoughts. You all have a good weekend, talk to you in two weeks. God Bless.  Email me your thoughts at  jflore7994@students.pcci.edu

Friday, October 22, 2004 - Jonathan     

No wait, they didn't win. The Red Sox have completed the greatest comeback of any professional sport in America, in our life time. Can you believe it? They were down 3 games to 0 for crying out loud. No team is supposed to come back from that many games down. Honestly if you had told me a team had come back from 3 games to 0, I would have guessed it had happened too the Red Sox (them or the Cubs), they always seem to find a way to lose. But not this year, I know the people in Boston have to be going nuts right about now.....  

What’s up everyone?!  Hope all is well. What a busy time, we are in the middle of mid-terms down here in Pensacola. Yeah I really need to learn the concept of study time, but I am sure when I get my grades I will shape up, or at least I hope I will.  

We had a guest speaker here the other day who spoke at one of our chapel services. He spoke on God showing us a TOKEN OF HIS GOODNESS, the basic gist of the message was that often time we as Christians get so tied up in different things and circumstances. And often times we have these trials that we may come up against, or bad and tragic things may take place in our lives, but we must not forget that God is still there. If we cry out to God and seek Him, He will reveal Himself to us. If we ask God for direction, or faith, or help in whatever it may be, He will show us a token of His goodness. The way He reveals Himself to you and shows you that he cares for you may be totally insignificant to me, but it will mean the world to you.

It could be through a caring letter or card from a friend at just the right time, it could be an encouraging word from the person you would least expect, or it could be Him providing for a need that you never thought would be taken care of. Whatever it may be God is there, He is listening to His people, and He will show you a token of His goodness. Well that’s my inspiration for this week. How about some sports?

As I am writing this the Cardinals are losing to the Astros, and I hope it stays that way. I cannot stand either team, so I hope the Red Sox wipe the floor with them. I am really looking forward to the upcoming college and pro basketball seasons. My early pick for the NBA championship is the San Antonio Spurs, and look for the T-Wolves to make a lot of noise this season. And my early pick for the NCAA championship in March is The University of Illinois.

(I know I am a little partial since I am from that great state)

How about them Patriots? 20 games in a row.  That is pretty amazing considering that dynasties were no longer supposed to exist in the NFL. That being said, I still believe if the Super Bowl was today the Patriots would go down to the Philadelphia Eagles. One last thing thing about the NFL.  I know it was the second coming of Joe Gibbs and all but what in the world is wrong with the Washington Redskins?! When you can beat the lowly Bears by only 3 points and the final score is 13-10, you know you have problems. At this point it seems as if the Denver Broncos got the better of the Champ Bailey for Clinton Portis deal. And what is up with the Miami Dolphins, can you believe they have not won a single game yet? Dave Wannstedt is gone after this year as their head coach. 

That is it for this week, hope you all have a good weekend, pray for me if you will, and please keep my family in your payers.   God Bless. 

Email me at  jflore7994@students.pcci.edu

Friday, October 8, 2004 - Jonathan     

Life Rolls On.....

-What’s up everyone?! It has been an extremely busy time for me. I am really getting into the flow of things down here. With school, work, and now basketball starting, I always have something to do, and it has been a blast. Well the playoffs for baseball have started and my team the CUBS are not a part of them, this is causing me a good bit of emotional distress. I am rooting for the TWINS to win it all this year, if only because it would mean that they have beaten the Yankees. No, I am not one of those people who hate the Yankees because of their money, the way I see it is if you got the money spend it. I just do not like some of their players, namely A-Rod, and I really do not care much for dynasties outside of Chicago. I also want to see the Red Sox eliminated, but it looks like they are moving on to the next round.  

-One thing that has really struck me about the NFL this season is the number of serious injuries that have occurred so far. Players are dropping left and right. Rex Grossman, starting QB for the Bears has blown out his knee. Rich Gannon, starting QB for the Raiders, is out with a neck injury. Deuce Mcallister is out for good while with a leg injury. Several top defensive backs and linebackers are out for either the whole season or at least several weeks. It is devastating for teams to lose such keys players so early in the season.  It just knocks the wind out of the whole team. That being said the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles just keep rolling along. Before the season started I really did not think that Terrell Owens would be much of a factor for the Eagles this year, I was wrong, TO has completely changed the look of their offense, McNabb finally has someone worth passing to.  

-Here on campus they are taking this coming election very seriously. They have pleaded with all the student who are eligible to vote to register to vote. They also encourage us to watch the debates and to pray for our nation.  You can imagine that the majority here on campus are pro- Bush. I really hope that Bush comes out strong in the debate tonight, and is able to express himself well. And yeah I hope John Kerry chokes on the ice in his water or something. That is one ugly man. I would encourage all of you to get out and vote, but more importantly PRAY. This country needs prayer. No matter who wins the election, without Gods people getting on their knees and crying out to God for forgiveness and mercy on this country, we are without hope. We need to seek God that his will might be done in this election, and that we will have Godly officials in office.  

-Well that is it for this update, hope you all have a great weekend and we will talk again in a couple Fridays, by then most of my midterms will be complete. God Bless.  jflore7994@students.pcci.edu

Friday, July 16, 2004 - Jonathan     

Back From Convention......

- Well another convention has come and gone, for me it is always nice to see many of you all. The nicest thing about this years convention were the air conditioned rooms, after that the place was kind of dingy. The cafeteria was huge but almost youth camp like, and did any one notice the salad bar? Wow, what a mess. One thing I did like was the music and sound system in the stadium. You could hear the speaker a lot better then you could in Ashland. After it is all said and done, I hope the rumors I have been hearing, about us going back to Ashland next year, are true.

- It is almost unreal to me how much respect, and dare I say reverence, people in our church, including myself, have for Pastor Don. He is a man of God who it seems has held a position of authority in our church for as long as any one can remember. I mean long before any of us U.S. born believers ever even heard of Pastor T.U., we knew that the man in charge was Pastor Don. I doubt we will ever see another Pastor that demands the kind of respect that Pastor Don does when he walks into a room. Even now in his old age, and declining health, when he can not even remember any of the believers names, he is still loved. What I wouldn't give to be there when he meets Jesus. Now that is going to be a homecoming! 

- I don't know about you but I usually find it hard to either sit through or stay awake for an entire sermon. I tend to become disinterested. For this reason I thought I would comment a little on the Friday night sermon given by Pastor T.U. The theme of the message was about not questioning God when something bad happens. We all have faced or will face at some point in our lives, some type of tragedy. A lot of times we want to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves asking God, WHY?   First of all who are we to question Gods decisions? Every thing that happens, happens for a reason. One of the things that stuck with me the most about the message was that sometimes God takes away loved ones before they have a chance to fall. Wow, to me that is amazing. We have a God that loves us so much, and wants us to be with him so much that he not only sent His son for us, but he keeps some of us from tripping over ourselves and from making a mess of our lives. I can only hope that God would have enough mercy on me to take me home to be with Him before I can backslide.

I have a friend of a friend who drowned to death about two years ago. This guy was in and out of the church on a regular basis. Just before he died his family started to notice a difference in his life, he was going to church again, and had started to seek God again. After his death God gave the family peace in the fact that the Lord had allowed this to happen so that the young man could not mess up his life again. Now as a relative it is natural to mourn but you also must come to the understanding that God is in control, he knows what is best for you and your family. 

That’s it for this week. I'm out. 

Hit me up with any questions or comments (No hate mail please). Bigdome85@yahoo.com    

Friday, June 25, 2004 - Jonathan     

CONVENTION, THE PRESIDENT, & THE ASTROS

Hello again from Chicago. Man summer is already here and convention is just 2 weeks away. Usually convention pretty much marks the end of my summer, butsince it is two weeks earlier this year that is not true. My summer ends August 22, the day I head off to school. In a way I am really looking forward to convention this year, the week I spend in Virginia is going to be the only "vacation" that I take this summer. Normally I would not mind skipping that one-week in July and just stay home and relax, but I am looking forward to seeing a few people that I have not seen in a while, you know friends that you only see once a year.

-  This being an election year and all it is just natural that one party is going to blast away at the other party over certain issues. The big issue in this election is obviously going to be the war in Iraq. My initial reaction when the war began back in March 2003, was that of any good Republican, "Lets go get them". But now one and a half years later, and several hundred fallen soldiers later I am not so sure it was the right thing to do. There seems to be no end in sight to the violence and deaths in Iraq. I am starting to believe that Iraq and Saddam Hussein posed no immediate threat to the U.S. and that the belief of there being WMD's in Iraq was highly exaggerated. 

The billions of dollars that the U.S. has spent on this war could have been spent else were, or better yet not spent at all. Don't get me wrong, come November 7, or whenever the election is, I will be casting my vote for President George W. Bush. But in my heart I believe President Bush will lose this election, and when he does he has only to look to Iraq as the reason for his defeat. It also does not help the presidents cause that people like Michael Moore and the liberal left (mainly Hollywood stars) have made it their mission in life to see that President Bush is voted out of office. I am sure everyone has heard of Mr. Moore's new film/documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. This film is sure to be filled with many misleading facts and one-sided agendas, since it will try to portray the President as an incompetent fool. But it will be interesting to see the influence this film is going to have on the voters, if any at all. Heaven help us if a Michael Moore backed candidate gets into office.

 - To anyone reading this update in Houston, I just want to say, "What’s up with the Astros?" Thanks for laying down for my Cubs and allowing them to take all four games in the series down there. 

- Average price for a gallon of gas $2.01, but if you drive to the suburbs you can get it for $1.88. I 'm out.    

Saturday, June 19, 2004 - Jonathan     

HAIL TO THE CHIEF.......

-Good bye Mr. President. I know it has been more than a week since the passing of Ronald Reagan, but I felt I should pay tribute to him in my update. First I must say that Chris' update last Monday was very well written, and a nice tribute to the late president.  Being 19 I obviously am not old enough to have been alive for both of his terms. But I know enough about history to appreciate President Reagan's enormous impact on our nation. I am filled with a bit of pride when I think about how two of the greatest presidents in our nation’s history are Sons of Illinois (President Abraham Lincoln being the other). I will always have the utmost respect for the late president and his policies.

Friday, May 28, 2004 - Jonathan     

Around the Way......

So I hope everyone has had a good two weeks since we last spoke. I have been going crazy preparing for the future. First of all I am getting ready to transfer to a college in Florida, and that has presented a lot of obstacles. Second, I have been trying to find a way to get some of the guys from Chicago to go to the tournament in July. At first I had decided that it was going to be too much of a hassle to get a group to Maryland, what with having to look for transportation and all. 

But after talking with Chris and learning that Houston is coming up, I am trying my hardest to make sure we do not miss it. This is probably the one time we will get all the guys together, and I do not want to miss that. Well that and the fact that we are going to take first place this year even with out Josh. 

But enough about me and Chi-Town.  

---------------------------------------------------

-I know that the one year anniversary of Blessan's death was in March, but I still want to take a moment to pay tribute to a friend. Blessan was a one of a kind person. Having had a chance to spend a few weeks in Houston during the summer of 2000, I was able to get to know Blessan. He and his brother Benson went out of their way to show me around, and make sure I had a good time while I was down there. Even after I left Blessan would call me every now and then to see how I was doing, and to make sure my family was ok, he was a true friend. He made time to come up to Chicago for a few days to attend my brothers wedding reception. 

I will always remember him for his genuine kindness. 

The reason I bring this up is because The Blessan Samuel Classic is fast approaching. It is my pleasure to be playing in a tournament that is named in honor of a friend.

- This years convention in Virginia is going to be a bit weird. Having grown up going to Ashland every year in July, I think I am going to need a little adjustment period. Dare I say I am going to miss Ashland. I mean where are we going to grab a bite to eat after the services. We are going to have to start off fresh and scout the place out. And the place better have some basketball courts near by, that we can sneak off to and play in between services. Wait did I just say that out loud?

 - Ok let me see the hands of everyone who put down $7-$10 to see the opening of Shrek 2 last weekend. Can you believe it took in over $100 million in just three days? That is the second largest amount any movie has ever made in an opening weekend.

Which took in the most you ask? Spider-Man.

 - Two weeks ago I predicted the L.A. Lakers would lose to the San Antonio Spurs in game 5 of that series, and  of course I was WRONG! After what was one of the most amazing endings to a basketball game that I have ever seen, the Lakers finished off the Spurs in game six.

And as sad as it is for me to say this, I must, the Lakers will win the NBA Championship.

- Did any one get a chance to hear the comments comedian Bill Cosby made to an audience he was addressing during a celebration of the 50 year anniversary of the courts decision to desegregate schools. Mr. Cosby (who by the way has a Doctorate in education, so he is more than a little qualified to speak about education) stunned his audience when he said that young African Americans should be ashamed of the way that they behave and talk. He blasted them for their choice of violent music (hip-hop) and their use of the  English language. He said that you can not become a doctor speaking the way that the youth speak these days. He blasted the parents for not raising their youth properly. He went as far as to ask where the shame has gone for a young woman to be pregnant before marriage? 

And were is the shame of a young men trying to escape his responsibilities  as  fathers? I applaud Mr. Cosby for taking a stance and saying what he felt. Problem is he is receiving tons of heat and disapproval from the African American community, namely the NAACP. Many feel he generalized all black people. Bill Cosby spoke his mind, and expressed his concerns. At least he cares about the youth. He is a leading activist in promoting education. All those adults wanting to bash him should worry about raising their kids right.

- Average price of a gallon of gasoline in Chicago “$2.20”

I’m out, have a good weekend.  Bigdome85@yahoo.com

Friday, May 14, 2004 - Jonathan     

The Way I See It

Wow, it has been a while since I last had a chance to write for IPF. If you don't know me by now, my name is Jonathan Flores, I'm 19, and I'm from Chicago.  A lot of you might know me from my NFL RUNDOWN column, that I wrote weekly during the NFL season. As of today I am going to be writing a column every other Friday (so if you never really check this site out just be sure to check out my column every other Friday, just kidding). This is an opportunity for me to share my opinions on just about everything that is going on in the world.  Well ok, maybe not the entire world, but I am going to get into to any topic that is big at the time, it could be about sports, politics, social events, you name it. Well here goes.

- Is any one out there as excited as I am to see the movie Troy when it is released today? I am hoping it is as good as advertised, not since Gladiator has a movie of this kind been out. The war scenes in this movie should be classic.

- And finally, I leave you with a DVD rental recommendation, if you have not seen, The Last Samurai, go out and rent it tonight. It was just released this week. It has some pretty intense battle scenes.