A new lease on life...

That's right. The protege is back and better than ever, baby!! The amazing car that is "The Protege" has undergone much animosity in the last year, but it runs better now than it has in years thanks to a minor surgery today. One of the elders at our Church runs a used car lot, and he had his mechanic look at it. I took it in yesterday, and he called my office today and said "it's fixed." I just thought he'd tell me what's wrong, but hey! Now I don't have to shell out thousands on a new car for a while, and the 95 Mazda could go another 130,000! It's like those cat food commercials for older cats, where they all of a sudden feel great and young again because of the cat food. The protege got a new hose for 1st gear, which worked wonders! Thank you Lord for honest mechanics- especially ones that know what they're doing!

Aight- I promise to update more often in the future. My next exam is EA-2B. Josue thought it was ironic that my next exam is an EA exams, as I hate EA with every fiber of my being. For those of you who don't know, Electronic Arts bought exclusive rights to the NFL and College Football and ESPN licenses for the next 10 years or so, and yes, they are the devil. Sadly, they also bought out the actuarial exams! I can't wait to get to their "ethics" exams. Luckily, EA actually stands for Enrolled Actuary as far as my tests go.

The test is on May 17th, so it's been a little hectic. Once that's over I will finally get a chance to play with this new computer, play some more Warcraft 3, and get to blogging!

Time for bed. Gotta wake up to hear Steve Smith (the Australian missionary) at Men's Prayer Breakfast!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday to Leonardo da Vinci and...

... my wife!! Happy Birthday, Melissa! May 24 be waaaaay better than 23.


(Check out google.com for a cool graphic for Leonardo da Vinci)

Mavericks 88, Jazz 81

So after helping our Youth Minister Bret Wells and his family move on Saturday morning, we went to Mavericks game! I was really looking forward to at least seeing the Mavericks take on Raja Bell and his Jazz, but...

... no Raja Bell. Yep, no AK-47, no Raul Lopez, no Carlos Boozer, and now no Raja Bell. Between those 4, Mehmet Okur, and perhaps a Harpring here or there, that is the team. This meant baffoons such as Kirk Snyder (who belongs in prison) got to play in the game. Gordan Giricek, too, but he's one of my favorites, from his days in Memphis.

So Melissa and I put on our Mavs jerseys and got to the Arena. It was pretty dead all night. I think most people were pretty bummed about those other guys being out, and so the arena was quiet. Everyone knew the Mavs should win by 53 or so, so no one got into it much. Considering our 12th man, Darrell Armstrong, would currently be starting for the Jazz, it makes sense. But then the Jazz decided to make it interesting! They would be down by 16, then come back every once in a while, and cut it to 8, then 16, then 10, etc.

Luckily, the Mavs have Dirk. He was the deciding factor in this game, as he is in most. Even if he doesn't win the MVP this year, seems he has a few in his future. Had AK-47 been out there, the Mavs would have lost this game. Or maybe they would have stepped up more. Who knows?

As for the Stackhouse/Snyder incident after the game, I didn't know about it until a day later, and it didn't seem like much had gone on during the game to warrant a parking lot fight, but I don't know. It's not the first time Stackhouse has been in a fight, but is this Snyder guy for real? He's already done like 5 bad things like this and this is only his rookie year! He needs to grow up, and realize that just cause players are better than you, doesn't mean you fight them to get the upper hand. Maybe if he worked a little harder during the offseason, he could get better. Instead, he's a moron who should be locked away for a long, long time. Not for this fight, but for the good of the league. Who's to say he won't kill a fan or something? He's already been worse than Artest was his rookie year, so maybe it's a sign.

Yo, Brandon, I saw all these young people working around courtside, and thought that might be like you. Where do you sit during Jazz games? What do you do during the game? Have you ever been part of the entertainment? They need to get you involved if you haven't!

All in all, it was a fun game, but I'm looking forward to the playoffs!! Go Mavs!!

OHS Soccer

This leads us to the weekend. It was one of the better ones that we've had in a while. Friday I was bored so I looked at my hometown newspaper (which I do from time to time), to find out that my OHS Bronchos were not only in the soccer playoffs, but playing 25 minutes from our apartment! I knew there wouldn't be many fans there, so I thought it would be fun to go cheer 'em on. They've lost to Coppell the last 2 playoffs, and what do you know? They're playing the state champs Coppell again! Same location and everything. Melissa and I weren't doing much that night, so we thought it would be fun. I went home, put on my red and white (an Ohio State shirt I got on our trip to Ohio over Christmas), and went up to Melissa's school to pick her up.

It was quite the ball game!! Close the whole way through, but OHS had to play 70% of the defense, so they were in a bind. 25 minutes left, Coppell scores their only goal. OHS keeps trying, but Coppell was just a step ahead, a step more agressive. I can't believe how intense a soccer game can get. I've been to all sorts of football playoffs, and this can't beat Abilene High-Southlake Carroll at Texas Stadium from earlier this year, but man. It's a different type of intensity. Kind of like a slow burn that you get from a salsa that just starts to get to you. The great thing about soccer is that it never ends. The intensity is there 80-90 minutes, especially in these 1 point games! It was fun cheering them on. We got to see my ex-vice principal, whose son was one of my good friends in high school. I even talked to Rick Leach (their son) when he called on the phone there.

About Time!

About time that I got back to my postings. This will be broken up, so it's easier to read.

Let's start out with last Tuesday. It's not weird at all to get excited when I talk to someone about coming to ACU. It's weird when your wife gets invited to speak at these kind of events. It's strange being in that kind of capacity, but a lot of the people we went to school with do this all the time. Melissa got invited to talk at the "Body and Soul" dinner here in Dallas last week for high schoolers who were interested in the pre-med program. It was quite a spread for being a "snack only" dinner! As soon as I got ready to eat, I was surprised by none other than Garrett Sublette! It was good seeing him again. His ear looks to be healing nicely! I can't believe they hire people (like us!) that are so young, and could still be students if we worked at it (or didn't). Melissa was one of a few speakers, and she did a nice job. I even talked a girl into looking into the Math department! I'm a natural born recruiter, I guess.

New Computer!

I am writing this blog on our new computer, compliments of my in-laws. They had an extra one lying around. I need to do some stuff around the house, but I wanted you all to know a big update is coming, including the fun we had this past weekend (which included a run-in with Travis Branam!). Hope to get back to it soon.

Peace out

Z-Proph

Google Maps

It's official: Google maps are the coolest thing ever!!!!

Some nice features include being able to drag the map around, to the point you feel you are following the map in your car, being able to see certain pizza places in your vacinity (or any other thing you want to search for: Churches, golf courses, etc.). And now the coolest thing of all:

Satellite imaging. Google bought (or at least licensed) satellite imaging from Keyhole, and brought them to a searchable, draggable level.

If you haven't tried this, do it now. Look up where you grew up, went to school, etc. I saw today where I hit my first HR ever (in a Pepsi uniform no less), and our yard that I used to have to mow. Even the Superdome and the house that Dirk built. Too cool.

Mapquest, who?

Could it finally happen??

According to this story, a Texas legislator put forth a bill that will ban Texas universities' football programs from post-season play unless at least a 16 team playoff is set up. How exciting is that??

But in order to not just hurt Texas, this bill will be nullified unless 4 other states step up to the plate and do the same. States like Oklahoma, California, Florida, etc. are on the list. There are 12 states that could.

Finally, could we see our dreams come true? I've always wondered why they don't do something like this, or someone like Mark Cuban offer each of the 8 top schools to play for a 100 million dollar pot. The NCAA might not like it, but let's face it- how could a school president tell his alumni he turned down a chance to get 100 million bucks for the school? Get real. All would jump at the chance, Cuban would make money off of it, and everyone would win.