- Writer, Podcaster, Graphic Designer, Audio Editor

A Fan’s Journey to the 2023 Texas Rangers World Championship

The Texas Rangers are World Series Champions. I hope you read that right. World. Series. Championship.

Past pain and suffering (2011) has been erased. All is right in the world.

After 52 years as the Texas Rangers, they have finally secured their first World Championship for the fans.

The Texas Club won 11 straight road games in the postseason to bring home the win. It was an historic run.

“Any World Series is great, but to be able to win it for Texas, that first one, it’s incredible,” said Nathan Eovaldi according to MLB.com. “It’s hard for me to put it into words. I feel like I’m just rambling. But it’s very special to me.”

Texas Rangers fans have waited a very long time for this, and it was an amazing moment for sure.

My Journey

My family moved around a bit when I was a child, but in 1988 we finally settled in Texas for good.

The love for baseball I have began with names like Geno Petralli, Steve Buechele, Pete Incaviglia, Ruben Sierra, Jim Sundberg and of course Nolan Ryan a few season later.

I remember the Rangers winning the West in the 1990’s. I remember Kenny Rogers, Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Mark MacLemore and others celebrating.

Yankees hate became a real thing after those post season appearances. Then came the lean years.

From 2001 through 2006 the Rangers won more than 80 games only 1 time. They would not do it again until 2010.

I began blogging about the Rangers in 2008, my first piece was on starting pitcher Kevin Millwood. It was terribly written and researched.

I started podcasting that same year with my friend Nathan Hague. We had a general sports podcast called “The Hague Sports Podcast”.

That gave me the podcasting bug and I began doing my own Rangers podcast called
The Ranger Fan Dieter Podcast”. Creative, I know.

In January of 2011, I decided I really enjoyed doing this a created my own website, called “The Ranger Report”.

That meant that my podcast name would also change. My first article here was on Adrian Beltre.

We went strong that season and of course were completely heartbroken after the 2011 World Series. I failed an 8 hour certification test the next day because of the Texas Rangers.

In 2013, I joined NolanWritin.com to cover the Rangers to a broader audience, but back surgery and a career change meant I would have to give that up.

I stopped the podcast for a while, but continued writing. I’d found it to be a good outlet for me.

After settling in to my new career as a teacher, I got back into Podcasting in 2018. The Ranger Report Podcast was reborn then.

I had made friends on that app formally known as Twitter. I had loyal followers who enjoyed reading and listening.

Expanding the Vision

In 2020, the COVID year, I decided that going solo was not the best option for me, so I put a plea out on Twitter (X) asking a simple question: Anyone want to do a Texas Rangers podcast with me?

January of 2021 I was joined by CJ Berryman. I was very excited to have a co-host to help me continue the show. We made crazy predictions, talked about everything from minor league logos to the Texas Rangers.

I was growing as a fan and as a podcaster, getting better at it (I hope). When the Ranger signed Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, I began feeling hope again.

We had not seen winning baseball in Texas for 5 years at that point. It was difficult to find good things to say during the seasons. But we pressed on.

As a long time Texas Rangers fan, I was ready for disappointment in 2023. In our preseason predictions show I had the Rangers finishing third behind the Astros and Mariners.

Winning became a repeated occurrence, and I began to have a little hope this team may be good. Still, I held my excitment.

The All-Star break rolled around and the Rangers had 6 players in the game. Five of them were starters (Jonah Heim, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Josh Jung and Adolis Garcia).

Nathan Eovaldi got into the second inning and the Texas Rangers had 6 players on the field at the same time. A Major League Baseball Record.

Rangers fans know that after the All-Star break is were the team usually fails us, and I was ready.

Failure Expectations

The team instead came out on fire after the All-Star break winning 6 games in a row. My excitement began growing, they finally had me believing.

They began August with 8 straight wins, and 9 out of 10. I finally believed that this team could be a threat.

As expected, the bottom fell out. They fell out of first place and lost 75% of their games over the next four weeks. I was ready to tell everyone “I told you so”.

All Rangers fans were discouraged. They looked ready to take the next step but once again disappointed fans.

After a weekend series in Arlington were the Houston destroyed the team and they lost first place to said Houston, they were all but out of it in my eyes. I was ready to begin my off-season podcasts.

Somehow, they scraped their way back into first place until the final game of the season.

The Seattle Mariners had been eliminated and had nothing to play for. Instead of rolling over, they played a brilliant game and held the number 1 offense in baseball to 0 runs.

Postseason was clinched but division lost, the Rangers had to fly to Tampa Florida and face off against he 99 win Rays.

The Amazing Turn Around

I knew it was over, but I tried to stay positive. In my mind I was ready for more disappointment.

At least they made the postseason, right? I had my end of the season article all ready to go.

The Rangers went to Tampa and swept the Rays in two games. I was shocked to be honest.

Next, the Texas team had to travel to Baltimore and face off against the 101 win Orioles. The Rangers took game 1. Then game 2.

The series moved back to Arlington, and the Rangers finally got to play in front of their home crowd.

They did not disappoint, sweeping the Orioles in 3 games and advancing to the American League Championship Series.

The only solace I took at this point was that the Rangers had never lost an ALCS. They had only played it 2 as a franchise.

Who else but the Houston Astros would also advance. The Astros owned the Rangers during the season to the tune of 9-3. Ouch.

Much to my surprise, the Rangers took both games in Houston, making their road winning streak 6 in a row. Could it be?

I didn’t let myself believe yet. I had been disappointed too many times before.

The series traveled back to Arlington where the Astros had owned the Rangers. The Astros owned the Rangers again, winning all 3 games in Arlington including a back breaking come from behind win in game 5.

The series headed back to Houston with the Astros up 3-2, and the Rangers season would come to an end at the home of the reigning world champs.

Adolis Garcia became an offensive force to be reckoned with and the Rangers took game 6. Game 7 loomed.

Garcia put the Astros away in game 7, making the Texas Rangers 3-0 in ALCS contests and dethroning he defending World Champions. They were headed back to the World Series.

Finally 2011 is No Longer A Painful Memory

The Texas Rangers took game 1 in Arlington against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Game 2 was claimed by the Arizona club, and the Rangers managed only 2 wins out of 6 tries in front of their home crowd.

The Road warriors traveled to Arizona and won game 3. Then they won game 4.

Game 5 rolled around and I still wasn’t able to have a lot of hope with Texas leading the series 3 games to 1.

For 6.1 innings, the Rangers were dominated by Arizona starter Zac Gallen. No hits through that point of the game.

My initial thought going into the seventh of a 0-0 tie was here come the Rangers. Just like 2011, they are going to blow it.

Frustration set in. They were going to lose that game and then the series.

The first hit, then the first run came. Hope.

The Rangers blew it open in the top of the 9th taking a 5-0 lead. I was once again cautiously hopeful.

I thought about my dad who passed away in 2013 and gave me my love of sports. He would have enjoyed this.

My mind continued to muse over friends I’d made online and in person. They were 3 outs away. Just thinking that gave me PTSD.

In the most iconic strikeout in Texas Rangers history, Josh Sporz ended the 52 years of disappointment and suffering for Rangers fans and Eric Nadel was finally able to declare the Rangers as the World Champions.

Emotion flooded me as I lost it, the realization hitting me that they had won it all.

Texas had come out on top. They were the World Series Champions. People who don’t watch or follow sports don’t understand the significant role it plays in our lives.

I had waited since 1988, many had waited longer. I sat there half watching the television for the next few hours. It was an unbelievable moment.

For the first time, 2011 didn’t bring back pain anymore, it was just an event on the way to an eventual World Series Championship. The wait was finally at it’s end.

Hopefully now I can watch sports with less cynicism and less negative expectations.

The enjoyment of this Championship will not end anytime soon for myself or Rangers fans.

You can read all of my Rangers related content at www.therangerreport.com

Holiday Blues

This time of year is supposed to be joyous and wonderful, but it isn’t for everyone. Not to be a complete downer, but it is difficult for a lot of people around you and me.

My father passed away during the holidays 9 years ago, and since then the season just has not been the same. I smile and go about my day with Christmas cheer, but inside I am aware that a big part of my celebration is missing.

Lots of people suffer loss around the holidays, and we all wish it wasn’t so. We are lol so busy and hectic this time of year that it is sometimes difficult to see past our current problems.

It takes slowing down and really listening to people to see where they are at. I’m out world of everything online, sometimes it is difficult to interact with real people in the real world.

Be sure to be mindful of those around you. Not all of them are happy. Not all of them are okay. Some of them are really struggling to just make it until January.

I’m glad that depression and mental illness has been brought to many more people’s attention recently. It’s important to know that it is a real problem and not just a “mood” or “bad attitude”.

Nobody has a perfect life. They are all messy in one way or another. Addictions, sadness, marriage trouble, family issues, there is always something.

Be sure to be mindful during this season to the people that you come in contact with. You can make a world of difference in someone’s life simply by listening to them.

The best way to forget about what you are struggling with is to help others. Be the good part of someone’s day. You never know the impact it may have.

Writers Block

In all my years of writing and podcasting I have learned that writers block is indeed a real thing. There are times that I have no idea what to write or talk about.

Being that this blog is done for entertainment and not for a job, I can just wait till it passes. I don’t have to worry about deadlines or paychecks.

Sometimes that makes it difficult to come up with topics to discuss with you all. Other times that makes it easy, just talk about what I want to.

Also, it makes it easier for me to avoid topics that I do not want to discuss like politics and the Yankees. Being your own boss without deadlines has its advantages.

However it is not all fun and games. I have referenced the story I have been writing on this site for years, and it took me far longer than it should have to complete the first draft.

With no one to check in on me or ask me about it, I sometimes went months or even more than a year without writing anything. Makes it difficult to keep a train of thought.

In trying to come up with my article for this week, my ideas were limited which is why it is about writers block. Sometimes you just have to be real with everyone.

I believe that deadlines are good things. They help the world go around. Also, some information needs to get out there in a timely manner.

I write about sports on my other site, and there are some stories that I just flat out miss. I don’t have the time to do the story justice.

In conclusion I thought I would drop some gems of wisdom from other authors on writers block. Enjoy.

“When you face writer’s block, just lower your standards and keep going.” — Sandra Tsing Loh

“You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.” — John Rogers

“Writer’s block is only a failure of the ego.” — Norman Mailer

Ideas are strange and temperamental things. We all have them, and sometimes we need to write them down, even if we think that we are blocked.

The Difficulty of Change

Change is never easy. People get comfortable with where they are or what they are doing.

I started thinking about this today as Tom Brady decided he is now un-retired and back with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Stepping away from something you have been doing your entire life can’t be easy.

We seem to be built for consistency. I know that I have been in the same job going on 8 years now. It hasn’t always been easy or good, but sometimes it is easier than trying to find something else and inviting change.

But back to Brady. Professional athletes seem to have the most difficult time letting go.

I can understand it. The fame, the money, the competition, the drive that the good ones have.

No matter what you personal opinion of Tom Brady is, he is one of the best to ever play the game. Also, he will be 45 next season.

When I was 45 I couldn’t even get out of bed without grunting and groaning. Yet Brady is still playing football.

So why do we find it difficult to accept change? I know for me, I am an extreme creature of habit.

I get up around the same time everyday. I leave for work around the same time, eat the same things for breakfast, do the same routines all day at my job.

There is a comfort to routine. We like to be comfortable, feel like we are in the zone.

People have stayed in horrible situations before simply because they did not want to make a change. All of us have accepted we weren’t totally happy about for the sake of not changing.

Sometimes change is necessary. Often it is required. Usually, for me, change is something I fight longer than I should.

Only time will tell if Tom Brady is waiting too long to retire. So far it sure doesn’t look that way.

Do you like change? Let me know why or why not on Twitter, Facebook or in the comment section below.

Why is Everything Political?

No matter what is happening in the world, it always comes back to being political in America. The days of caring about people and ideas are long gone, now we live in the days of lining up with a party.

Here I sit, an American who loves his country and the people around me. I do not line up with either political party. I feel like I’m not alone in this problem.

“Regular” people are sick and tired of it. We want legislators that care about what’s best for us and our country, not what is politically expedient for their careers.

I believe there is no one left in politics in either party that gives a flying flip about their constituents. They use their base to get elected and then stop caring.

It reminds me of how teachers are State employees when it is convenient for politicians. The rest of the time we are expendable and useless.

Unless you are already rich, you can’t even run with a chance of winning. And try being honest? You’ll be laughed out of the arena.

There is a war going on in Europe, but all our leaders want to talk about is how everything is the fault of the former administration and not their fault.

They will smile and tell you how much better everything is, even as the World is falling apart right in front of us. There is no actual compassion for our fellow man.

The older I get, the more I realize what a joke all our politicians are. I hate to be the one to break this news to you, but none of them care about you. At all.

Even if you die, there is a chance they can still cast a vote for you. Being elected is much more important than compassion or decency or truth.

The cynic in me believes that this is never going to change. The realist in me knows that to be true. The hopeful side of me is long gone.

It is up to you and me to effect our world, not the clowns pretending to govern us. As more of us figure this out, the world might actually become a more civil place again.

I pray you still have some hope left. Get out there everyday and be the difference in someone’s life. WE can still change the world, in spite of the jokers in “charge” of the country.

The Importance of Overcoming A Toxic Environment

Everyone has worked or been in a toxic environment at some point in their lives. If you are older than 21, it is almost a given.

Working in an environment that is uncomfortable is not something anyone sets out to do. A bad boss, bad co-workers, bad location, terrible office, etc. What I have learned in thirty-plus years of working is that it less about the environment and more about how you react to or handle it.

As far as I know, we are all human. Humans make mistakes and get angry. We don’t all like everyone we meet, and they don’ all like us. Here are some things I’ve learned over the years.

It’s not me, it’s you

Attitude, in my humble opinion, is the most important thing in this situation. If you are in a very uncomfortable work or school environment, how you react to it is much more important than how they handle it.

If you allow the toxic environment to control you, it will. For example, if you have a supervisor that belittles or demeans you on a day to day basis, you can either take what they say to heart or you can realize that their opinion of you isn’t the issue. The issue is usually their opinion of themselves that is the problem.

Calmness is the Key

It’s easy to get ticked off in a situation where you are right and they are wrong. Learn to be the bigger person. At the end of the day, you have to live with you, not them. If you stick to your convictions and stay true to yourself, everything else will work out in the end.

Does that mean the situation will get better? Rarely. Usually there is not much that can be done for someone who makes it there life goal to make sure everyone is a miserable as they are.

Decision Time

I’ve learned throughout my lifetime that I have the final say on how my day is going to be, no matter what the circumstances. We’ve all heard the stories of people with chronic diseases that just want to help as many people as they can before their time is up.

Be that person. You never know who you are going to effect with a positive attitude. While things my be awkward and angering, if you choose to let it all roll off you had have a good day, you will.

Now it doesn’t work every time, but the majority of the time your day will turn out better if you decide it is going to. I’ve been in some terrible situations in my life that didn’t bother me, and I’ve been in some easy ones that turned out to be awful because I convinced myself they were awful.

Conclusion

In the end, you should be the only resident in your brain. Don’t let other people move in with negativity or sour attitudes. If you do, remember YOU are the landlord and you can evict them.

It is up to you to clean up your thoughts. No one else can do that for you. Make every day a good day, ultimately it is up to you. You are the key to any situation, always remember that and you will keep the toxic situations to a minimum at worst. At best, you will remove your mind from any toxic thoughts.

The Wheel of Time: A Review

*This article contains spoilers for the Wheel of Time Amazon series and the Wheel of Time Book Series*

I started reading the Wheel of Time in the 1990’s. Book six had just been released when I began the series. For those of you that do not know, The Wheel of Time is a fourteen-book series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.

Amazon Prime did a made for television verson loosely based on the book series. Very loosely based. To be honest, it is very difficult to take a beloved book series and turn it into a on screen production that book lovers will adore. It rarely happens. That is one reason it took so long for this to happen.

Amazon wanted to make it more adult themed by making the characters older than they are in the book series. That seems to happen a whole lot with teenaged characters and on-screen portrayals. Think Percy Jackson who is in his early twenties in the movies and 16 in the books. The main character Rand Al’Thor is a teenager in the book and in his mid-twenties in the series, as are Mattrim Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene Al’Vere and Nynaeve al’Meara is slightly older.

While those changes can be done well, my opinion is that the characters picked for some were not good. As in every modern show or series, the characters were picked to fit a certain narrative in the directors/producers’ political views and not true to the original series. The description of the characters in the books and their onscreen counterpart are not the same thing. I was pleasantly surprised by the acting of some of the people portraying people I grew up reading about, but some missed the mark by a long shot.

Josha Stradowski, who plays Rand, did a very good job at the role in my opinion. He looked the part and he played Rand pretty close to how I had him in my mind. Again, Barney Harris as Matt also did a good job. The writing for him could have been better, but they had to move his character along much faster than in the books and that bothered me a bit.

Rosamond Pike and Morraine Damondred and Daniel Henney as Lan Mandragoran also did a very good job. Lan was not exactly as portrayed in the book, but for me Henney did a very good job capturing the essence of Lan.

On the not as good side, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara acted the part well, but he was not given an accurate representation of his character. From him having a wife to begin the series to him killing her by accident and being all torn up about it, it was nothing like the Perrin from the books. Perrin was one of my favorite characters from the series, so to be honest it would have been hard to please me on this one.

Zoe Robins as Nynaeve captured only one side of the character, the sassy, always angry side. She played it well, but they made the character way too one dimensional. Not the fault of the actress, the fault of the director and the writers for being short sighted.

Min Farshaw was possibly the worst written character in the on-screen version of the story. Kae Alexander acted well, but she was not at all Min. the description of Min is happy and mischievous, where the Min from the Amazon series was somber and downright depressing. I was very disappointed in their interpretation of her.

Thom Merrilin was another major disappointment. Alexandre Willaume, who played the character, said they wanted to have a different Thom Merrilin than in the books. A darker, more brooding character. That seems like a bad idea for a gleeman. Thom is another of my favorites from the books, and they missed him by a mile on the series.

Now, the story was rushed at best, and the real story was neglected at worst. They had to add things like lesbians and political correctness to make sure all the critics who lean left politically would really love the series, leaving the series readers in the dust with shattered dreams of what could have been.

If you have not read the series, you were most likely lost, and the plot didn’t make a ton of sense to you. It felt rushed to a reader like myself, but I knew what was going on because I had read the entire series. If you had not read the series, they assumed you would get vague references to the series, which is incorrect.

The season finally was extremely loosely based on something that happened in book 3, but it was not nearly as good or understandable as the book version. I tried to hold my judgement for a period of time after watching the series, and now as I look back on it, I am disappointed but not completely turned off to the next season.

It can be salvaged with some better writing and some more time spent explaining the world to newcomers. It can be a good series, but they have to be either more true to the original, or they have to explain things better to the new people they are trying to bring into the Wheel of Time world.

Overall, I am disappointed. It was what I feared it would be but hoped it would not be. A modern telling of a well-loved book series with a political and social skew to it. It is never possible to do a book series of this magnitude complete justice with an on-screen version, but Amazon didn’t really try very hard to be true to the original. They, unfortunately, made it to be “modern”, which, to be honest, I am never going to enjoy completely.

Backstory and the Challenge it Presents

One of the reasons I started this site was to work on my story telling. I am an aspiring writer, I would like to get a few of my novel ideas published. Eventually. When I come up with a story idea and create the characters, I have a general idea of their backstory. The problem is that I want to write the story and not the backstory. I am figuring out that is the wrong way (for me) to go about it.

I have gotten stuck on every story I have begun writing. I believe it is because I only can develop characters so far before I get stuck without a proper backstory. For me, I have discovered that I need that backstory to help me write consistent decisions and feelings. I need to know how the character grew up, what kind of problems they had to overcome, how they were raised and so on. In short, I feel like a character can not be a fully developed character unless they have a fully developed backstory.

This will extend my writing process significantly, but I also believe that it will improve my writing in the long run. Some of the questions I need answered are things like:

Where did the character grow up?
Does the character have any siblings?
What was their home life like growing up?
What led them to be where they are at the beginning of the story?
What kind of social life did the character have before the story beings?
Have they suffered any great losses?

The list could go on, but you get the general idea. I have been working on one particular story since 2013, and I am stuck. I may have to take the time to go back and write backstory for ALL of the characters to help me. It would be an undertaking. When trying to write a series though, it seems like it should be an undertaking! I hope to have a manuscript ready by the end of this calendar year. We shall see.

In the meantime, I will begin posting some short stories here on the site. It is time. I have been reluctant to publish anything of substance here because I never see my work as finished. I can always improve on it. If I start sharing them with you all, maybe I can finally get some of these characters out of my head and onto paper (or website, as it were). So in the coming months I should be posting more on here. I hope you enjoy reading and will continue to enjoy reading.

Hate and Social Media

I try not to get too political on this site since I have friends and family members on all sides of the aisle. I like to leave politics to the professionals. But if you are on any kind of social media at all you have probably noticed the hate that gets thrown around like beads at Mardis Gras. It is completely unavoidable unless you block everyone you know.

I like to peruse social media for photos of friends and family, sports, inspiration and for funny videos or stories. No matter what I get on social media for, I am always inundated with stories, political or otherwise, that have hateful and divisive comments attached to them. It is commonplace now to see people berate the character of complete strangers and roll everyone on the opposite side of the aisle from them as this or that. Apparently everyone in America is either a Nazi or a socialist.

I try to be fair in my judgment of people, but if you begin a statement with “everyone who believes (insert opinion or politician here) is a (insert nazi or socialist or other insults), then I question a few things about you.

Do you even know what a nazi or a socialist stands for? My guess is you don’t.
Do you really believe that everyone in the country with a differing opinion than you is one of those things? If so you probably are too narrow minded to be in the conversation.
Would you be willing to go to everyone’s house on the thread and tell them in person what you think of them? No one in their right mind would do that.

I am absolutely certain about one thing. Every single person in America has a collection of life events that sways their opinions on everything. No two people will have the same opinion on every issue, so if you are living by the rule that everyone that believes different from you is pure evil, than everyone else on the planet except you is pure evil.

I will not comment on political posts on social media for a plethora of reasons, the main one being that I don’t want to. Another reason is that I get insulted enough in my job and my writing that I don’t need more complete strangers adding to it because I have an opinion on a certain subject. I have never voted straight party anything on a ballot. I vote for who I believe is the best candidate for the position, from president all the way down to local city council. I don’t care about their political affiliation. I care about what kind of person the candidate seems to be. Have I been fooled? Absolutely. Have I ever hated a political or sports figure so much that I would stop at nothing to see him or her ruined? Absolutely not.

The social medial hate is vile and it is part of our society now. It is not easy to deal with, and it is something we are going to have to deal with as long as social media is around. My hope is that our children are smart enough to know that only one thing happens when you wrestle with pigs. You get muddy, and the pigs enjoy it.

The Best (Fill in the Blank)

best-pic-ever-5 Tiger Woods won the Masters for the fifth time in his career on April 14, 2019. It came after multiple back surgeries and the feeling around golf that he would never win again. It is being called the best comeback in all of sports, and the best sports moment of 2019. It’s only April.

I tend to agree that it was a big moment and it is pretty cool that Tiger won another major championship, but I feel like we oversimplify/over glorify almost everything in sports and society now a days. The Washington Post headline said:

It’s almost miraculous’: Tiger Woods’s return from back surgery is a medical marvel.

Not sure it is miraculous, but it is impressive. Do we overreact to the now a little too much in this country, or am I the only one who thinks so? Every time an athlete, a politician, or just a regular everyday person pulls off something that is impressive, we try to say it is “the best thing we have ever witnessed” or “historically the worst thing we have ever seen”.

Overreaction is a part of our society, and it is a part of our culture. I am not immune to it either. I overreact all the time. We (most of us) all do. Is there a way to fix it? I’m not sure at this point. It is burnt into our DNA. Historically, people like Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Dahmer, and others were actually some of the worst in history. Because a president did something you disagree with doesn’t mean he is like one of those historically bad individuals. It just means you disagree with him.

Maybe I am beating a dead horse with this post. Maybe I am the only one that is bothered by the over dramatization of our society. Everything in the world does not have to be the best or the worst, it can just be something good or bad. If you read history or are a fan of it, no one in our country has ever done anything as bad as some of the people I listed earlier in this piece. Sure, we have done a ton of bad things, some atrocious. People will continue to do good and bad, and some of them will go down as the greatest or worst in history. But lets stop saying everything that happens is the best or the worst ever.

Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comment section down below or comment on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks for reading and be sure to share these posts. Thanks!