The Future is Now

New Waterfall Website

2008-03-13T13:22:00.003-05:00

If you'd like to follow what we've been doing lately, my new website is a great place to start. Updated practically every week, it'll be fun to see how big it can get.

We've been to over 50 waterfalls now, and the proof is on the website. Check it out!!

http://wncwaterfalls.googlepages.com/

Let me know how you like it. I still have hundreds more on my list, a never finished project, so if you'd like to come check some out with me, bring it!

Hey guys!

2008-01-28T15:03:00.000-06:00

It hasn't been 6 months yet, so I thought I'd start 2008 off in style.

Looking at my favorites list, not many have even posted a blog since we moved to Asheville!! Except for a few like the juice, who have been trucking away!

I'm starting a new website soon, to accompany my photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/theprophecy

I'll put a link up to it in a couple of weeks. I've been to close to 50 waterfalls now in Western NC, so its time to start truly documenting the experience. Hope you'll come along for the ride!! And anytime you want a personal tour- let me know. I have quite a few favorite hikes, and there are still hundreds left to go!

Here's my favorite picture from this past weekend:

Life in Asheville

2007-08-16T15:58:00.000-05:00

Here's an example of life in Asheville:

Jerusalem Garden, a Mediterrean/Moraccan restaurant downtown advertises "The best Southern brunch".
5 Points Restaurant, an older diner, advertises "The best gyros and greek salads".

See the disconnect??

Welcome to the Asheville, land of the sky and land of paradoxes.

I'm loving it here, both of us are.

Asheville has been an interesting place. Lots of retirees, hippies, and everything in between.

Tiger Woods is building his first American course here, and Cal Ripken Jr. played for West Asheville Little League. How cool is that?

And the city is dog-crazy. 2 dog parks already built, they have dog-socials where the dogs are given virgin daiqairis, and they have weekly dog dance classes. Awesome. We're getting in a dog in the next few weeks, so we can start to enjoy eating outside downtown with our dog. Gonna be fun.

If you'd like to come experience the Land of Paradox, stop on by.

Asheville Update

2007-04-20T12:41:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we went to Asheville for one reason and one reason only- the food!!

Okay, not the food, although we did find a couple places we'll HAVE to take you if you come and see us. One was a Caribbean/Mexican restaurant that was awesome!

But the real reason we went was to get a house. And while we were not expecting to find anything right away, we did!

We had been looking online for a month, and had 9-10 places picked out. We hoped no one got to our house before we did! Finally, after a month of looking online, it was time to see them in person.

A few of the houses that we liked previously left a lot to be desired when we actually got to see them. A few we ran from. There were 3-4 that we really liked, and after seeing 10 homes in one day, we settled on 2 for Saturday.

Either one would have been great. One was closer into town, but wasn't as nice of a home. The view was incredible, as was the back patio, but we didn't like it as much as the home we found.

We put the offer in by 4 pm, then by 8:30 pm we had a house!

It's 18 minutes from the hospital. We really debated if that would be an issue, as we wanted at least 15 minutes or closer. We decided this house was too awesome to pass up for just a few extra minutes. Plus its a nice drive by a river- how often do we get that?

Here's a link to 40 of the pictures.

If you go to that site you'll find more explanation on each aspect of the house. Hope you like it as much as we do.

Match Day

2007-03-15T20:42:00.000-05:00

We're moving to Asheville, North Carolina!!

Melissa will be in the Family Medicine program at MAHEC in Asheville, and I'm going with her. It's a 3 year program. We're really excited, but get sad when we think about leaving Dallas. It will be bittersweet.

Anyway, don't know what I'll do. There's a guy who does the same work my office does, and we met with him when we went to Asheville in December. He only has the coolest office locale ever - I think its the lighter building on the left side on the TOP floor. How awesome would those views be???

We can't wait! We're moving in June.

Stay Tuned...

2007-03-15T08:09:00.000-05:00

Stay tuned later today for a very special announcement.

Until then, be impressed that my dad and I got to watch 18 basketball games in 3 days this past weekend. Austin was the site for the Texas state High School boys basketball finals. We got to see the semi-finals and finals of all 6 classifications (1A was split into 2 divisions).

It was awesome!! I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes high school sports or basketball. The amazing thing is, 18 games, not a single fight or even a technical foul! After watching so many pro games, that's crazy!! The sportsmanship was sheer class, in my opinion. It's cool cause each team has their own fans, but most people there just want to see good basketball, so we would cheer any good play, and boo any bad calls by the ref. I also liked how small town people were there, and people from Dallas, Houston, etc. so it was a nice mix of basketball junkies. Lots of coaches there too. I got to meet the new OHS coach, and we sat behind the Alief Elsik coaches, so that was fun.

And we got to see Patrex and his new girlfriend!!

So, yeah, stay tuned.

2007, Here I come!!!

2007-01-17T17:33:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm finally in 2007!! Was enjoying 2006, but now I'm here.

Will be updating with many, many pictures on my photo site. In the break I had trips to Denver, Columbus, OH, Greensboro, Asheville, Concord, and Charlotte, NC, Anderson and Columbia, SC, San Antonio, Belton, and of course Dallas, TX! A daunting task, but hopefully I can pull it off by this weekend.

So stay tuned!!

Birthday time!!!

2006-10-26T22:05:00.000-05:00

Yeah!! 26 today, baby!!

Thanks for all the happy birthdays today, everyone. I appreciate it. I also appreciate this awesome new game console my friends got me. It's a Nintendo Wii that won't be out for another 3 weeks! Somehow I have one here.

Wow, this system is so small. Just tiny compared to my slim DVD player. Almost so small you have to prop it up with a beeper, or so it would seem...

Melissa and I had Pei Wei for dinner while we watched The Benchwarmers. It was hilarious!! It was also the first time we've ordered a movie on demand. Kinda cool I guess.

Well, off to bed. Gotta get my beauty sleep. Not getting any younger!!

Yosemite Pics!!

2006-09-28T13:30:00.000-05:00

We're back from Yosemite and it was amazing!!! Didn't think I'd be the first of the 4 of us to write about it, but I guess I am!

Adam and I made it into LA Thursday night. We rented a Ford 500 at the airport and made our way to Hollywood. The next morning, Adam, Grubbs, Jeremy and myself made the 5-6 hour trip to Yosemite.

It was beautiful. Every part of the park is different in its own way, as you'll see in my pictures. It felt like we visited 5-6 different parks! We hiked around 20 miles total over 3 days. We tromped through Mariposa Grove, discovered a sunrise overlooking Half Dome from Glacier Point, saw Half Dome from every angle imaginable, and then trekked through Mono Pass, to see the amazing Bloody Canyon near Nevada. We reached 10,620 feet while in the Pass.

It was freezing at night, much more so the 2nd night! We didn't want to get up. I don't ever want to be that cold again- and it was only 24! Felt much colder though.

Anyways, here are the pics!!! Come get em while they're fresh!!

Check out the others blogs too, and request that they put up some stuff of their own!

The Juice's Blog
The Grubbs' Blog
Brown Sugar's Blog

New updates!!

2006-09-19T14:58:00.000-05:00

Much has been happening since my last blog, such as going to Texoma and the Rangers Game for my dad's birthday.

I also came in 2nd out of 12 at the bridge game this past Friday. That's 1st and 2nd in my last two tries. Keep it up, future. Keep it up.

Much more than this has been happening.

And soon to happen...

Check back here soon for beautiful pictures of Yosemite!! Yes, I'm going with Adam, Grubbs, and the Juice. We'll be drinking Hi-C on the highest of mountains, eating fruit roll-ups by the largest of sequoias, and laughing at all the bears.

Pictures of Zane's Wedding and others

2006-08-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

We've been having a lot of fun these past 2 weeks!

Here are pictures of Zane's Wedding!!

http://homepage.mac.com/zan99a/zanejen/

Then the next weekend, we went to Belton with Debbie, Josue, and her parents:

http://homepage.mac.com/zan99a/belton/

And this weekend is my dad's birthday, along with a Rangers Game, Texoma, and lots of fun and excitement!!

So, yeah, we've been busy!

Z

Ode to My Bro

2006-08-17T22:55:00.000-05:00

My brother is Zane. He's 3 1/2 years younger than me, and Saturday he gets married. I'm pretty excited. Jenny's cool. This is an Ode to my bro. Check out his coolness, and how I just can't keep up.

12 of 12

2006-08-12T23:31:00.000-05:00

Well, this is August's 12 of 12, and as you might have guessed, my first!

Here is the main site for the 12 of 12, and here's the person (Shea) who got me into it.

It's been a lot of fun, Melissa's even enjoyed it it seems.

Of course, it had to be a Saturday where I was lazy and chillin most of the time, but that makes it different, although typical for me at times.

I had to put it on my photo blog, so here it is, August's 12 of 12!!

Comment back here once you've seen it!

Hope you enjoy it!

Z

Summer

2006-08-09T11:09:00.000-05:00

Has it really been that long??

Summer just flies by, so no, I have not given up on blogging. It really hasn't been as long as you thought it has. And if it is, than that means you've had a terrible Summer and should reconsider your priorities.

Let's see... the Mavs won the Championship (and yes, they did).
----------
I went with Josue and the rest of the youth group to Schlitterbahn again, this time staying with my grandparents in San Marcos, which was really fun. Apparently my grandpa is a big fan of the blog, so here's a shout out.
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Melissa has begun her 4th year. She even looks happier.
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Our Church has started looking for a youth minister again, so if you know of anybody, send a name along.
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I'm ready to destroy all in Fantasy Football. I will soon post proof as to why I am more hall of fame worthy than the Juice.
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I'm even playing Fantasy EPL (English Premier League) soccer. Should be fun, as I get even deeper into the World's sport.
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Speaking of, FC Dallas is ruling all. The MLS All-Stars, even without 3-4 of their best players, beat Chelsea in a friendly. Not that big of a deal, but fun to see.
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I will update again on the 12th, as I'm expecting to do the 12 of 12 along with Shea and others. You will see what life is like... on a not-so-typical Saturday. I think a Rangers game will even be featured. Fun.
----------

Booyah, grandma, booyah.

Camp!!

2006-06-02T22:24:00.000-05:00

Just got back from camp!!

Amazing times.

Here's proof that I still have my skillz. I'm sure it went in - I was on that day.

Check out my photo blog for more of me and camp. I'll just put pics with me or with nature, since I'm not sure all the kids want to be on my blog. Although they should, as its the best blog ever!

Z

How bout dem Mavericks?!?!?

2006-05-23T08:56:00.000-05:00

Biggest play of the series. What a choke by flopnoboli!

How bout dem Mavericks?!?!?!?

Incredible. I even went to Tom Thumb after the game last night. First time I've ever gotten a high-five at a grocery store! It doesn't get bigger than that!!!!!!!

New Blog

2006-05-18T21:56:00.000-05:00

Since I just got a new camera, I decided to start a photo blog. It's easy and I can post whatever pictures I would like. I'll probably just post stuff on there, but will very, very often, so you can follow my life in pictures.

I have up some of Nicole's graduation right now.

http://propheticphotos.blogspot.com/

Here's the link!!

Z

Car NooB

2006-04-27T08:25:00.000-05:00

...and I'm a moron.

I know computers. If you come to me with a problem about computers, I can help you. That being said, I know jack about cars. I know they have things in them that make them go. Maybe gnomes, perhaps squirrels, I don't know, I've never lifted the hood up long enough to check.

You know how a lot of computer problems can be solved by plugging it in? I felt that way at the car shop today. Melissa's Tracker has had a "POWER" light on for the past week and we thought (rightfully so) that the power steering was out, needed more fluid, etc. So I took in the car, a mechanic came out and looked into my problem. He flipped the autotransmission switch on the mid panel and the Power light went off. He flipped a switch!! I could have done that...

I'm such a car nooB! But I have too many other things I would want to get good at before I messed with cars, including guitar, which I have but don't have the time to practice. Maybe if I played less Winning Eleven I could have learned cars and guitars by now, but that's not gonna happen!!

In soccer news, Arsenal vs. Barcelona in the Champions League final. Should be on ESPN2 for all yall. It'll be a good one. I'm thinking Arsenal will win, they have 9 straight clean sheets (0 points scored against them), but Barca has Ronaldinho and Eto'o, so they have the offense to get it done. I'm thinking 2-1 Arsenal with Henry scoring the game winner.

In other soccer news, all will bow before me and Brown Sugar today as we unveil our new soccer jerseys!! They're at the post office, waiting to be picked up. I'll have pictures up next week.

In basketball news, the Mavs are up 2-0!! The real travesty is the Grizzlies, a team I like, is 0-10 in the playoffs. Ever. They've never won a game. And they're a good team, but with the stupid playoff system they have now, they have to play the red hot and much better Mavs. They should be playing the Clippers or Nuggets, both teams they could beat.

And in softball news, the Skillman Skillz (not the Skillman Starz as has been in the bulletin) are still 1-0! Tonight it will not rain, and we will play. Hard. I think we play St. Luke's Episcopal. I think its a game we could win.

That's your sports update for this evening. Good night, and God speed.

Half Birthday!!

2006-04-26T14:49:00.000-05:00

Today's my birthday! Half-birthday, that is. 25 1/2. Crazy.

It's also Kevin's birthday, but mainly my Grandma, Mimi. Her birthday was always my half birthday but she didn't want her bday to be a big deal, so she celebrated with me. Good memories. I might need a cake tonight!! She's still around, so if she reads this, happy birthday, Mimi!! 26ers are a special breed.

Speaking of Mimi, to set this story up, her maiden name is Tate. Her brothers and sisters, until recently, owned and operated Tate Farms out in Tarzan, Texas. 3 years ago when I first moved to Dallas, my parents came up to the office to see where I worked. My mom came in with a surprised look on her face and I asked her why. She couldn't figure out why the parking spot next to my boss said "Tate Farms". She didn't think any of our relatives were up here! Why would they need an office in Dallas?

That's when I filled her in - there's a State Farm insurance agent in the building!

Speaking of that parking spot (and the reason I wrote this blog), Josue, Jeremy, and Debbie picked me and Cassie up from the office to go eat at Jake's today. I saw Josue pull in the spot next to my boss to turn his car around.

How'd it feel Josue? That State Farm parking spot looked good on ya!!

Glad you enjoyed it.

Update

2006-04-21T09:20:00.000-05:00

Is it bad that I forgot I had a blog?

Things have been going pretty well.

LTC was a lot of fun, we're looking forward to what the Summer will bring with the teens there at Church. I don't have many pictures from it, but I did get 54 minutes of footage for a DVD.

I have my next exam on May 16. I'm not really looking forward to it right now, but sometimes I feel better about it than others.

Mavs are in the playoffs, soon to start against Memphis. This is the year!!

I can't play Winning Eleven 9 until my test is over. It stinks, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

Our softball team is undefeated!! Still 1-0, thanks to a rain out last night. Why does it always rain on Thursdays? We were the first game in 7 innings, 11-10. Brown Sugar was the MVP.

Melissa's jazz dance troupe has a performance tonight. Should be good. She's been working hard on it.

Camp is only 6 weeks away, so we begin getting ready for that this weekend. I'm excited. I've been waiting for camp for months now. This year our elementary and youth will all be together, so it'll be a fun, almost church-wide experience.

Melissa turned 25! I'm married to an adult now. Wow, we're old. Not that old, but still...

I now leave you with a picture of devoid space, since that's what my blog has been lately:

Danieal Manning

2006-03-08T09:57:00.000-06:00

This morning I was watching Sports Center, and heard Mel Kiper say Abilene Christian!!

Danieal Manning is a Defensive Back, and one of a few ACU players to ever leave early for the draft. He would have been a senior this year.

Kiper says he should go on the first day, in the 2nd or 3rd round.

ACU Report on Manning

In other news, I finished a defensive driving class last night. I think they've made up a few laws since I last took it, cause I didn't know half those things!! Not to say I'm a bad driver, I drive with heart and determination. A will to survive!!

Internet Blessings, Part 2

2006-02-04T22:42:00.000-06:00

Here's another video for all to enjoy!!

Compliments of my boy Benny Weave!

Enjoy this song if you're feeling sad, lonely, depressed, etc........

Depression Relieving Llamas!!

Sure beats that David Hasselhoff!!

2 SNL Videos and 2 Classics...

2006-01-29T21:06:00.000-06:00

My friends Nathan and Tim are usually the ones who fill me in on good SNL sketches. Seeing as Nathan hadn't heard of Lazy Sunday, I thought I better post this to fill him in. After all, he is one of the 50,000+ who check my blog but don't respond back, so he should see this and catch up with pop-culture.

Has anyone tried Mr. Pibb + Red Vines?!?!? Is it truly crazzzzy delicious?

Lazy Sunday
Young Chuck Norris

And the classics!! Sweet Sassy Molassy!!
ESPN Sports Center

If you've never seen Jimmy Fallon sing at the 2002 VMAs, you gotta see it...
2002 MTV VMAs

You might want to wait for these to load before you play them.

Will Chuck Norris live forever in the childrens' eyes? It's up to you, as parents and mentors, to make sure this happens!

Crucifix Bug

2006-01-27T08:07:00.000-06:00

I just walked into the office, and on the outside door was an unique bug. It looked to be 1-1 1/2 inches tall, and light skin-toned(almost yellow, but paler). It had a long body, and 2 long arms (could have been wings). The arms were outstetched to where it looked like a capital T. Then it had a small head with a couple of antenae on the sides. The body and arms looked like the way you see pictures of Christ on the cross.

This looks the closest I've seen to it, just the body, not the necklace. The head even has the antenae!

It should be our new office mascot, but it looked to happy there on the glass of the door.

Crazy Days...

2006-01-19T14:27:00.000-06:00

Joan says she's getting too old for this.

My computer at the office sounds like it is either taking off or about to explode. Either way it's right at my feet, and I don't want to be around when it does...

My brakes are worn out. Metal on metal violence. My car is getting too old for this. 2 new tires and nowhere to go.

Melissa is out of town, shadowing a neonatal doctor. Hope she makes it back, and everything returns to normal. Better than normal actually.

I'm tired. Why'd I stay up so late last night? Just playing addiction solitaire no less...

I heard noises in my apartment at 1 o'clock in the morning. Why do I hear more noises when Mel is gone? Do my neighbors just sense she has left? Actually, I had heard similar noises a few nights ago. Almost sounds like the door opens, the wall crackles a bit, but nothing actually happens. It almost sounds like it's coming from our 2nd room, but it's definitely our downstairs neighbor. She is like... strange or something. We should give her a bedtime. And take the TV out of her room. I sang along with the iPod Eminem commercial at 12:30 am last month, but not from our TV. Hers. And she watched a movie at 5 am 2 weeks ago. I was up for 30 minutes trying to follow along...

That is one good thing about neighbors though. Once we get a house, if I hear a noise, I'll get paranoid. If I hear a noise now, I just say it's a neighbor and go back to sleep.

Anything else to complain about?

The Mavs have won three blowouts in a row. Nothing to complain about there... I haven't gotten enough playing time.

The whole Antonio Davis thing is messed up. I would have gone in the stands too. Nobody should have to watch their wife get messed with by a drunk. Alcohol is a big problem at these sporting events. But they would rather sell the alcohol, make money, and have problems, than the alternative. It's all about the money.

That's it.

No pretty pictures.

One last thing to complain about - people have commented to me about stuff on my blog, and yet no one comments on here. I know you're ready this. Stop reading now and comment, freaks!!

Oh, and Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that's why there are no signs of life there.

Cool Illusion

2006-01-04T13:40:00.000-06:00

Check it out!!

Sweet Illusion

What'd ya see?

Sherwood Park!!

2005-12-26T14:55:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!!!!

2005-12-25T08:16:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!!!!

HP Results

2005-12-21T14:55:00.000-06:00

I never posted what happened in the 4a State Championship Football Game!

Highland Park is the State Champion!!

Badly...

Final Score

HP - 59
Marshall - 0

Biggest Blowout in Texas Championship history.

Total Yards

HP - 449
Marshall - 21

21. Let that sink in!! Southlake Carroll couldn't have done that. Marshall got 21 yards... 2 first downs. That's it!!

Summary & Statistics

Way to go HP!! It was an awesome game to be at, to be sure.

Look Who's Waiting for Us!!

2005-12-20T08:23:00.000-06:00

It's Brandy!! We'll see her Thursday at 11!!

I think my hand died...

2005-12-09T08:28:00.000-06:00

So in the past few months, I've had trouble waking my arm up. Maybe once every month, after I wake up from sleep, my arm will feel so dead it will feel like someone else's.

Last night was much, much worse. It took almost a minute to wake it up. It feels really, really creepy. Why is this other person touching me? Why is there an extra hand in our bed? What happened to my other hand?

I'm just glad I wake up. I wonder if damage would be done to it if I just slept through it. Strange. That would stink though. I need my right arm!!

Also, tonight I'm going with the Williams to their ranch and then tomorrow we'll see Highland Park win its first state football championship since 1957! I'm totally excited. I have yet to miss one of their games this year, whether by radio or in person.

HP has the #1 QB in the nation, Matthew Stafford, and they're a pretty special team even without him. Stafford's graduating next month and then heading to the Univ. of Georgia, where the coach has already given him the starting QB spot. He might not have earned it yet, but he'll be incredible there.

Thanksgiving

2005-12-05T17:54:00.000-06:00

This was my favorite Thanksgiving picture! Melissa and I are ready to eat a great meal (or we're in the middle of). It was awesome.

Mardi Gras 2002

2005-12-04T16:28:00.000-06:00

I saw this picture on my screensaver and thought it looked cool. Mardi Gras 2002- the best Mardi Gras we ever had! The beads have never been so sparkly, the crawfish has never been so sweet!

Finally!

2005-12-01T16:45:00.000-06:00

MLS Cup 2005

Need to update... where to start?

Melissa delivered her first baby last night! We're so proud.

Um... I've been pretty much home by myself this week. Mel's schedule has been from 5 pm to 7 am, mine from 8 am to 4 pm. So yeah, we have the whole day (and night) covered!

We went to Belton for Thanksgiving. I got some sweet new shades to play tennis (and other sports) in. Should shave a few strokes off my golf score as well. Down to 115!

I wore a suit to work yesterday. It was way different than usual, but whew... I looked good!! We had to go meet a client (actually my first time to do that, oddly enough).

Last night at Church was fun. It's good to relax and hang sometimes. That's why God gave the Israelites the Sabbath, a day of rest.

I tried one of Adam's Thanksgiving Jones Sodas. For those that don't know, that's soda with the following flavors: Turkey & Dressing, Corn, Brocolli Casserole, Pecan Pie, or Salmon Pate. I tried the Brocolli Casserole. Disgusting!!! If you like sacherine, this stuff is for you! Gross. I can't stand that aftertaste in diet drinks, then this drink was all sacherine. Pretty fun party game, though. Hilarious seeing others try it as well!

I have a lot of pictures to put up. I will try to get that done this week.

My test back on Nov. 4 went well, I think. I found out that last time (EA-2B) I made a 60/100. 61/100 was passing, so I missed the mark by less than 1 question! Only 1 T/F question. Stink! I find out around the middle of January.

Our Mavs are doing well. See them destroy the hated Spurs once again tonight! Avery Johnson rules. Putting the D back in Big D!

Update Soon...

2005-11-03T18:52:00.000-06:00

Halloween 2005

Sorry for the delay in updates. A birthday and much studying has occured in the interim. My test is tomorrow!! Insaneness.

Enjoy the picture of Melissa and myself on Halloween evening. Her costume won, but it wasn't exactly fair as she's had it since High School.

More to come soon!

What kind of car would you drive?

2005-10-14T08:50:00.000-05:00

I was sitting at the light yesterday on my way home, and it struck me. Why do cops get a car for work? If your job is a policeman, fireman, busdriver, etc. you know exactly what you'll be driving for the rest of your life.

What if other jobs did that? What if the government made each profession drive a certain make, model, and color of car?

Unfortunately, people think (probably rightly so) that my occupation is bland, boring. This '94 white nissan (above) would probably be given to each of us. Very boring, very safe.

What car would your profession get? If you had known this in the beginning, would you have picked a different major in college?

The Work of 3 Men, the Fun of 100

2005-10-11T17:01:00.000-05:00

I had a ton of fun yesterday, so of course, I'll blog about it. Unfortunately, we've been forgetting to take our camera a lot of places. To start us off, here's a related Biblical passage:

"On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: 'O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.'

So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!"

Joshua 10:12-14

I feel this happened to me as well! Half a day was created yesterday.

Let me explain. Like Joshua against the Amorites, I was up against a formidable foe. Most the schools in Dallas get out on Columbus Day, they call it a Fair Day. Melissa even got out of her school. Meanwhile, I have a huge IRS deadline on October 15th (this weekend!). How unfair is that?!?!? So, instead of sitting through another regular day of work, I decided to shake things up a bit.

I invented half a day.

I'm always the first person in in the morning. I usually work from 8-4 or so, and everyone was going to the fair at 1:30. My boss wants us to be there 8 hours a day, so I was...

This meant starting early. Very early. Like 4 am early. Why not?!? I'm young. I work very well when it's just me in the office, much better than most. I enjoy it, probably not all the time, but it's a nice change of pace.

My boss left tons of work on my desk. He came in at 8:10 that morning. Do you realize how bad that looks if all that work is still on my desk? If I had come in at 8, it would have been. However, I had had 4 hours. I finished that stuff up by 5:30 am! I left huge piles on his desk. Needless to say, he was surprised.

I had already worked half a day by the time anyone came in, and I was on a roll. I can't think of a more productive day I've ever had... it was ludacris! I really think in one day I did what I usually get done in a week. What would take 3 or 4 normal men to accomplish... I did in one day. In fact, I was worried about being able to go to Abilene this weekend, but with today and yesterday, I think we could almost be done by Thursday.

So I left work by 1, went to the Williams by 1:30, and we all went to the fair!!

The State Fair is a lot like other fairs in smaller towns, just much more grandiose in scale. The Williams went, Allison, Billy, and of course, my homegirl, Melissa.

We went straight to the rides. Always overpriced, but we didn't really care. We were there to have fun! And we did. The rides were pretty cool. We did the starship, the sleighride, love bug, etc. Pretty good. I almost had a rib pop out on the love bug, oddly enough. Molly and Melissa wouldn't stop shoving me into the side bar! Ouch.

The main reason to go to the fair, besides the pig races and car show, is the food. Need I say more? We tried it all- funnel cakes, fried ice cream, fried potatoes. But nothing can compare to...

Turkey Legs!!

These things are huge! And tasty. Are these even real turkey legs? Why do turkeys have bigger legs than we do? Anyway, you feel like more of a man just eating one. Not that I need to feel like more of a man, but if you do, start with a big, juicy leg. Growl as you rip the flesh from the skin.

Obviously don't start doing that to people. I hate it when people try to bite my legs.

So... no pig races for us. We tried twice, but both times the place was packed. Apparently you can put money on the races. But why stop with pigs?? Why not race random animals? Even against each other? That would be awesome to see.

Then we went to the auto show. Pretty much the same as other years. This isn't a car show with prototypes and such that you may see in Detroit. Just kinda a huge car commercial, where you can check out cars now, get inside, see how they feel, etc.

And let me tell you, not many cars felt as nice as the Mazda RX-8. Whew... even lower to the ground than the Protege, this thing had speed written all over it. And only $24,000. They wouldn't let me take it for a spin, for some reason. I love cars that are low to the ground. I love the feeling you get in a go kart. So cool. Almost like you're part of the road.

We also sat in a Lincoln truck for a while. Very nice. Not such how "heavy duty" it is, but if you're a car lover that wants a truck, this is for you. It even felt like a car on the inside. Very smooth. Grant wouldn't like it, too luxury for him (me too), but it was unique.

We even saw the butter sculpture. Booyah. It was elvis this year. And hound dogs.

Nothing beat the turkey leg, though. Incredible.

Then after we got back to the Williams, Mel and I went to life group. Let me say that we've had 6 of these new format life groups, and I've gone away from every single one of them with something spiritual on my heart, something to ponder, something to gain. Pretty cool feeling. It really helps me and makes me look forward to the next time we meet again.

Till next year!! It's fun telling our big deadline to stick it for a change, instead of the other way around. We should make it a tradition. I'm in.

Last comment: One of our clients emailed me at 6:22 that morning. Jeremy before 6 am. I never realized there were so many creatures of the night!

Update, Brown Sugar Style

2005-10-03T23:05:00.000-05:00

In memory of our dear friend, Brown Sugar, this update will have a brown sugar theme.

here's what's been going on... melissa is in her pysch rotation this month... she's at the hospital right now... i need to be studying... that seems to be the theme around here... somehow every little thing gets in the way... i can't focus on it right now... november should be when we move to the new office... that's all i can say right now cause that's all i know... we are in our deadline rush to the finish line at work right now... i'm pushing out retirement plan tax forms like women push out babies... a lot of heavy breathing... but it's worth it... then i can relax a little at work... take some days off and study like it's 1999... sometimes i feel i've forgotten how to study... i think it'll come back to me like it never has shortly...

life's been going good... this weekend was fun... helped out at a car wash at church... it was for luekemia and lympoma... i'm usually a better speller... i should have won our elementary school spelling bee... but i didn't... misspelled comfort... if you say a letter then you have to use it... i said ca... oops... i fell flat on my face... kinda like the patriots this weekend...

then 5 of us went to play racquetball... if you have never played you should... good workout... fun to do... you get to see guys in go-go boots and sports bras (at least we did!)... it was the most bizarre thing ever... 12 black guys... choreographed music on a racquetball court... sports bras... no women... you do the math... anyway, we had a great time playing...

went to see corpse bride with some of the coolest kids on the planet... that was fun... the movie was aight... just different enough to be kinda cool... never seen nightmare before christmas though...

melissa just got a new alarm clock for us... has a cd player you can use for the alarm... also has 2 different alarm times... so we can each have our own... i already made a cd for us to wake up to... not sure the weave will like it... some reason i don't think she wants to wake up to "Eye of the Tiger", "We are the Champions", "Let's get it started" or "The Happy Song"... i'm listening to it right now... seems like more of a workout cd... i like to pump myself up in the morning to where i'm pumping fists after i finish my first plan in the morning before everyone else gets to work... i'm listening to u2's beautiful day now... it's on the cd... it'll be a beautiful day...

i led our life group tonight at rick and bethany's house... it was pretty cool... i had a good time there... we talked about love and how it's the basis of all spiritual gifts... all life really... how it helps us live for others and not ourselves... how we need to show the ultimate love to each other... not sexual love... but the kind Jesus showed us... the pure, infectious kind of love... patient love... the kind that hold no grudges... has no hidden motives... is genuine... that's hard for me to do... but it is getting easier... maybe not easier, but more concrete... less conceptual... more life...

melissa's parents were in town this past weekend... we cleaned our apartment... they helped... i feel bad that i didn't get to see them more... somehow things always get in the way of us playing cards with them... we usually play things like spades, bridge, skat, or pitch... grant and mollie taught us a few new cards games last weekend... we might start playing those as well...

that's about it... this is weird... i can't use caps... i can't even touch the shift button... not sure how he does it...

Sugar Brown always gets the ladies

brown sugar is dead... i'm officially pulling the plug... it's just not working... up from where brown sugar lays... dying... stand a new superhero of sorts... sugar brown... the kind that doesn't care what people think... he'll get the lady cause he doesn't try... he's just a superhero... that's what they do...

long live sugar brown...

2005-09-29T08:09:00.000-05:00

I always check this site but this loser never updates!!

Anyone else get upset when this happens?!?

I'll have more soon...

My New Office!!

2005-09-20T10:57:00.000-05:00

Okay, so we don't have a new office yet... (haven't been completely bought out yet)

But I found out yesterday from a guy who works there that this past weekend they took out the cubes and are in the process of building 4 new offices! 1 of them has to be for me. I can't wait to put this poster up (see above) and buy a plant. For reals.

Right now my office is like a walkway. I need to close this door. I hear Joan coming.

Strange things are a foot at the Circle K.

Sugar Popcorn

2005-09-15T18:49:00.000-05:00

Anyone else here just love sugar popcorn?!?!?

My friend Brock in college taught me the greatness of a bag of popcorn and a pack of equal. Very nice. I can't eat popcorn any other way now. It just tastes plain... and boring.

Anyway, give it a shot. It's worth it!

We got SKILLZ!!!

2005-09-14T20:53:00.000-05:00

Who's got the skillz????? Our team does, baby!

Check out these pitching skillz. Look at the concentration on Maya's face (okay, maybe frustration!), the intensity in his stance.

Check out the fielding skillz. Rob at Shortstop, getting ready to make the big play. Brown Sugar almost egging them on. He was telling the other team, "I don't think you'll hit it back here. In fact, I'll just stand here with my arms crossed, my knees not bent, because I just don't think you'll get it here." Now that's serious confidence skillz.

Check out the coaching skillz. The Rickster was telling me something very important, and I was listening intently, while keeping an eye on the game.

Check out the bench skillz. Even while not in the game, Sexy Mexy and CD are enjoying themselves. Everyone is into the game, giving encouragement to those of us on the field.

Check out the fan skillz. Crazy loud fans, doing the wave, getting their team hyped. One of our biggest fans Adron even asked his parents to buy him Skillman Skillz gear, so he could wear the team colors to the game. Way to represent!

Check out the team skillz. That's right, people. Skillz are seriously present here. Isn't that obvious in this great team picture? Look at all those smiles. We're having way too much fun to notice getting our teeth stomped in, 25-3. The other team didn't take a team picture, but if they had, would they be having as much fun as us?? I think not!!

Come see the Skillz every Thursday.

Follow the Skillz into the playoffs here!

Jubilance

2005-09-13T07:59:00.000-05:00

"Praise the Lord! Let's play Warcraft!"

-Jeremiah Lee Jackson

Sounds like Jeremy is in high spirits after his Saints gave him something to cheer about! John Carney rejuvenated Jeremy and others like him to the point of praising strange, normally less praised things, such as bologna, red-eyed tree frogs, and Warcraft.

Too bad this reign of joyfulness must come to an end!! That's right, this week Jeremy understands the true meaning of defeat when I destroy him in the semifinals of Fantasy Baseball. Wish it didn't have to be like this, that we could meet in the finals, but why postpone the inevitable?

2005-09-08T20:56:00.000-05:00

"Not only did he resurrect his career, he resurrected his life."

-John Madden on Kerry Collins

Yes, just as we all knew, Kerry Collins is now in company with Jesus. Congrats, Kerry!

Maddenisms. I think Hitler fed these to the Germans to turn them into evil Nazis.

On a different note, we lost our first game today. I'll have pictures up when Adam gets them off his camera.

25-3. Ouch.

We are extremely blessed...

2005-09-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

I hardly ever think about how blessed we are, but seeing the devestation in New Orleans has got me thinking.

Those poor people that went to the Superdome, that will now move to the Astrodome, do they have nowhere else to go? Can't they find a friend from somewhere else, or a family member in Illinois or something?

I was thinking of where we would go if a situation like this ever happened in Dallas. Fortunately, due to college and different Churches we've been apart of, we would have friends and family across the nation that we could stay with, and that we would do the same for if they were in trouble. Not to mention both sets of parents.

Isn't this what life is about? Friendships are one of God's ways to help us through the tough times. I pray these people in the Superdome can find those that have cared for them.

Nike Soccer Commercial

2005-08-31T14:23:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen this yet on TV- check it out!

Nike Soccer Commercial

Bring it, America!

-Z

Tagged... I'm it

2005-08-28T14:31:00.000-05:00

BC tagged me. I'm not usually one to do these things, but I had time today and wanted some stuff to talk about. So...

First memory: I think I can remember what the room looked like that I was born in. It was in Abilene, at Hendrick, and the rooms were blue. I don't remember what else. I'm probably just imagining this.

The first thing I really remember was in our first house in Odessa. It was near Thanksgiving time, and my dad and I were watching football. I had just turned 3. I was on one of our dining room chairs, rocking it back and forth. I remember he told me to stop and I would hurt myself. So, yeah, I had a Cowboys toboggan on, I pulled it over my face, and proceeded to get thrown off the chair and hurt myself. I guess my dad was right, but that wasn't the last time.

First kiss: That would be Melissa, my current wife (and the wife of the future). She totally r0x0rz my b0x0rz. But, yeah, I saved myself for her, and it was totally worth it. A must try in my opinion, but with someone else's wife, since mine's already taken!

(Actually, now that I read it, maybe not someone else's wife, since that means she's already married. Try someone single, but ask first.)

First concert attended: I don't really remember. I can't recall us going to many concerts growing up, my parents just weren't into that sort of thing. We went to the Flying W Ranch when I was in 2nd grade. That place is cool, but I had to have been to some before that...

First love: That would also be Melissa. Don't you remember my b0x0rz getting r0x0rzed?

First thing you think in the morning: Don't trip and fall and break something, you freak!!

First book you remember loving: My grandma gave me a big red book full of fairy tales and other types of stories. It was totally awesome. I remember tripping out as a young lad reading these yarns! It was awesome. I had my bunny rabbit stuffed animal and my red book and it rocked my world.

Now why do we call them fairy tales? That name just seems so fruity to me. There were some awesome stories though. I hope my kids can read the same book.

Not Fred

First pet: Frederick von Nieland and Underdog (Fred and Unders as we called them). They were totally cool. 2 daschunds that knew how to get the party started! They loved to dig (as most daschunds do). Unders would eat cats, which would totally be cool to some of you, but luckily she died when we got Blizzard, the world's greatest mother (next to BC's) and cat. Fred and Unders were there when I was first born, so it must have been 1978 or so when my parents got them.

Fred was the coolest. He fathered many puppies, all of them with stories of their own, but his greatest accomplishment were the kittens he inspired. When his long time love Unders died, he became friends with Blizzard. 6 months to a year after we got her, she had kittens. For some reason Fred thought he was the father and looked after the kittens like they were his own. If my parents had died in some freak gasoline fight, I knew I would be in good hands with such great role models as these two (Fred and Blizzard).

First question you'll ask in Heaven (If that's allowed): If life's a marathon, why aren't there people on the side of the road holding out cups of Gatorade?

I understand that you want us to love you ourselves, and for us to choose to follow you ourselves, but why didn't you just kill the devil before it all got out of hand? I would have liked that. I might not have appreciated it as much, but I'd be down with it.

(So, that's two questions, but the first one was just a joke, I think.)

First place you think of when you hear the word vacation: Canada. Or maybe Rosa's. Now if there was a Rosa's in Canada, the rest of life would be meaningless.

First best friend: Michael in Kindergarten. I know I had one in pre-school (Brooks), one in Junction (Dwight), but I don't have any stories to tell about them.

Michael is awesome at soccer and we were in the same class in Kindergarten (Mrs. Carroll's), so we got to know each other pretty well. The thing that "sealed the deal" on our friendship was one time, when I was waiting for my cousins to come to our house, I was watching for them out my window. The only way I could see was if I got up on my dresser. I was sitting up there, they drive up, I'm so excited that my foot misses where it should be, and I came tumbling down. I have 1 body part hit the floor, which is my front tooth. It cascades into my toy box, which it had hit, and everyone comes in to see what had happened.

The next Monday at school, I show some of my friends my toothless smile. Michael lost one the same weekend! He got hit by a golf club I think. Same tooth and everything. Very cool.

Last time you dressed up: Maybe our anniverary? We went to Carabba's. It's a nice place. I can't say we've dressed up much since. Maybe a wedding or funeral.

Last thing you ate: Mexican food (Josue's recipe actually). Last Sunday we were eating at Mexicali with some friends from Church, and their 8th grade girl said she could eat Mexican food everyday. I thought, why not give it a try?!? Here I am, 10 days into my new "diet", and it's totally awesome! When I wake up, instead of wondering if I will fall during the day, I wonder which Mexican food I will eat next.

Last CD bought: Smalltown Poets' 3rd album, 3rd Verse. But that was a while ago. I don't buy CDs. That's a good one. The latest one I'm listening to is Rich Mullins' Jesus Demos. Man, awesome stuff. I've been on a Christian kick lately, and it doesn't get any better than that one.

Last time you cried: Watching those Little Leaguers giving it their all in the LLWS! It was heart-wrenching drama. Seriously. Whew.

Last time you told someone you loved them: I guess it would have to be Melissa, as I don't usually say that at work, Tom Thumb, Mexicali, etc.

Last really fun thing you did: Now I have something to write about. Yesterday was just about the most fun we've had in a long while. Mainly because it was spontaneous, and we were surrounded by good fun people. Me and a couple of the teens at Church have been wanting to play Ultimate Frisbee for a while now, so we told everyone in class Wednesday of our intentions to play this Saturday. I even called people on Friday to make sure they knew about it and were coming.

Then the city of Dallas got in our way! A few of us went to Snuffer's (a burger joint, not a cigar shop) for burgers before hand. We arrive at the field, only to find the road is not there! Not just being worked on, but physically dug up. This means everyone that I gave directions to can't find the place, everyone is lost and most of them gave up. There were 8 of us that made it, but by then we didn't want to play.

That's when the fun began.

We went back to one of the teens houses and went swimming. But we didn't swim, we played keep away with a nerf football for 3 hours straight. This is much harder than swimming, as we were running all across the floor of the pool, trying to tackle whoever had the ball (that wasn't on your team). We just had such a blast and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. It didn't even feel like that long. Melissa and Debbie came late, and just watched the madness, but I think they got a kick out of it too.

For those of us that were involved, we have crazy sunburns, claw marks, almost loose teeth, etc. The person who got the worst of it was Adam. His nose is just a bit crooked-er after I popped him. He held onto the ball, however, so that's to his credit. Maybe the ladies will like it.

So, yeah, we had a blast and want to do it again, but only once our feet heal. Most of us have bloody big toes, where blood was just seeping out. Not the best thing for being in the water, but it was worth it!

Last thing you watched on T.V.: Midland Lee vs. Southlake Carroll. Didn't get to see much, but it looks like SLC might be defeatable this year, at least in the playoffs. They won 48-25, but Lee isn't as good this year I think. SLC has a pretty weak district, though, so it shouldn't be hard for them to win everything again.

Last Halloween costume: The Big Tuna. Yep, I was Bill Parcells. I have to say, with all the details I thought of in 2 hours, I looked pretty convincing. Unfortunately, I have heard we might not do Trunk or Treat this year, but I hope those rumors aren't true. I have a great one planned...

Last Concert attended: I think it was Point of Grace on Melissa's birthday. The people in charge of LTC at Church got us tickets and a big group of us that had helped with it went. It wasn't bad. I'm not really into "Adult Contemporary" anything, but PoG is pretty good.

Last time you had a really moving spiritual experience: When I was the Big Tuna at Halloween. Okay, I'm kidding. Lately, actually, just thinking... contemplating... wondering... struggling... why?

That concludes this, my longest blog ever. I'm calling out:

Shea
Grubbs
Kent
Brown Sugar
Debbie

Peace out!

Stella

2005-08-23T22:53:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else watch this show?? I think it's hilarious. Definitely my kind of laugh out loud humor. They always seem to keep you guessing. Tonight's episode they grew a farm in their apartment. Totally stupid, but you can't look away.

Anyways, Michael Showalter on that show (on the right) reminds me of Grubbs. I could totally see Grubbs going into show business and being like him.

------

Speaking of things that are totally straight (like Stella), but can be twisted into gay jokes- the rainbow "Random Bible Verse" logo was a bit too much for one or two of you (who weren't as "secure in their manhood" as I). Therefore, I changed it. Now it has a cool sunbeam going into blue. Still not a monster truck rally, but it should work!

Batting Gkloves

2005-08-23T22:42:00.000-05:00

I WIll not hit backspace once on thuis post. if i mess up, i mess upo!

(Mine are the navy ones)

i'M WRITING tjhis isn my new bnatting gloves. THehy obviolsuly don;t work as well as my bare hands, btut i hiotpre they help during ioyur bassoftbakllo league. that's right, skillman's getting back into softball! Tomorrow I get the jerseys delivered. (Looks like I'm gettuing the hang of thise.!)

I thinjk we'll have a prtetty solid team. At least we'll have a fun timwe. It'll be cool trying to treach some iof the opeioople how tio play,. I'll try to post the stats up here.

Anywyas, ui was excuited abiout my news softball batting gloves. .I also have a goldf glovre for my left hand, and a raqucuetball glove fior my right. I geuess I could have used tghiose, btut why?? I also have som,e suimilar gloves for skuiing, but it's a bit warm ioyut for those!!

What gfloves do yall like? I thuinjk my next peair of gloves will be driving gloves, like the ones worn on the Transporter (the miovie). That wiould be awesome! Don't have muich used for em, bnut I don't care. I would lookk cool.

\Okay, I thinjk I'll take em off now. I've had a chance to break them in!

ESPN & Texas Football

2005-08-17T08:28:00.000-05:00

ESPN has been touring the country, seeing different sporting events in different states every day. Today is ESPN's stop in Texas. And, of course, they must stop in the mecca of high school football- Odessa. That's right- my hometown.

Let me tell you about Odessa. I don't feel it's much different than Dallas. It feels faster in Dallas, but as for the people, very comparable. I think Odessa gets a bad rap because all that people see is from I-20. Explore the place- you'd be surprised! Odessa (at least the Odessa I grew up in) wasn't all hick and nowheresville like some people think. Then again, I have a different view of Odessa.

My parents both work in the school district- my dad was a football/basketball coach at Bonham Jr. High (feeder for Permian) for many years as well as a history teacher. He's been an assistant principal now for 12 years. My mom has been a biology teacher at Bowie Jr. High for 16 years. This made it easy for me as they got me into all the best schools. Even at Bowie, while the majority was hispanic, you couldn't tell from our advanced "AAP" classes. They tried to get all the rich white kids over to the west side of town. It was basically a Highland Park school inside an Irving. That was the environment I went to school in.

Not many of my friends (if any) were "west texas hicks" like you would think. Those are more up near Lubbock. Odessa didn't have all the ranchers/farmers etc. as it was oil land. Of course there were some, mainly in west west Odessa, but I lived on the east side, in a country club, along with others like me. Maybe that's why it feels so much like Dallas. Driving the streets in Lake Highlands, it reminds me a lot of home. This was my home since 5th grade. (No, it's not a ranch!)

So, back to the story. ESPN is in Odessa and it'll be on SportsCenter tonight and tomorrow morning. They'll be taping Permian's practice at Ratliff Stadium (which is probably the first time they've ever practiced there). So, even though I didn't go to Permian, I'll still be tuning in.

To satisfy your ratliff stadium fix - Try this, this, and this!

Also, next Saturday, the 27th of August, is the High School football kickoff!! In Abilene Midland Lee is facing all-world Southlake Carroll. We saw Abilene High almost vanquish the dragons (SLC) last year in the playoffs. Perhaps a very good Lee team can get it done. This game will be on UPN in Dallas I believe at 2 pm. It will also be shown across the state.

Let's get ready for some football!

2005-08-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

Here we are in front of the Alamo (obviously). I've been there many times but everytime is interesting and makes you reflect on our past. The actual battle of the Alamo was only 90 minutes long. In our lives we waste that much time watching TV or a movie in that amount of time. Crazy.

2005-08-07T13:22:00.000-05:00

We ate at the "Mexican Manhattan" restaurant on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. The food wasn't that great, but the company was!

2005-08-07T13:21:00.000-05:00

This is at the gardens of the Alamo.

2005-08-07T13:20:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of the pictures from our trip to Schlitterbahn. We had a blast and most of can't wait to go again next year! We are blessed to have some of the coolest teens at our Church.

That time of year...

2005-08-03T13:30:00.000-05:00

I just got an awesome sensation. We've had a bit of flooding in our office building due to water heater leaks. I was walking down the hall to the restroom, and this musty smell in the stairwell got to me. I then continued down the hall, where an Asian man was putting some paint on a door. Wow. What memories these smells bring. It reminds me of past Augusts, when I was in elementary school. My dad was a teacher/coach at Bonham Jr. High. Every August my brother and I would go up to the school to "help" him set up his room. The mustiness reminds me of the old gym, where my brother and I would play while my mom and dad worked. Then we would go upstairs to his room, our noses enveloped in the smell of new paint. Ah, the prospects of another great school year. Getting to see our friends again. Having your friends in class with you. The new football season upon us. Such hopefulness, such memories.

Tonight I'll be helping at the kids lock-in, and then tomorrow the teens Schlitterbahn trip. I'll be off here for a bit. Should be a blast. See ya Sunday! I'll have pictures.

GOTW, August 1

2005-08-02T16:19:00.000-05:00

GOTW, July 25, 2005

2005-07-28T17:14:00.000-05:00

Well, the computer is up for now. Good news- they're sending a new one next week! Bad news- it's next week!

Here's the GOTW. It's the 2nd score in the Championship between myself and Downtown Adam Brown. The final score was 2-1, so this was the game winner.

U.S. Soccer almost there...

2005-07-28T17:10:00.000-05:00

For those of us that didn't get to see the Chicago Fire take on AC Milan last night (and most of us didn't, as it was on GolTV), here are the highlights:

I won't spoil the score but AC Milan is one of the world's best teams, Chicago Fire the 3rd best from the MLS.

It should open in Windows Media Player.

Chicago-AC Milan Highlights

One of my favorite things...

2005-07-27T13:34:00.000-05:00

I love old games. I'm somewhat addicted to them. When we finally get a house I'm going to build an arcade machine like the ones seen here, but unlike any ever before created. I remember my first time to ever show an emulator to friends. I was in the choir room during our off period senior year (1999). We were just killing time, so I popped a disk in with iNES and Super Mario Bros. Were they amazed! How did I get an entire NES on a disk? It's been a ton of fun ever since.

I've been bringing my computer over to Tim's to play soccer on the big screen, but we decided to do a little nostalgic gaming this past weekend. 4 of us playing Bomberman 5 for the SNES. Does it get any better than this?

So I heard Josue wondering about this stuff last night, and decided to blog about it.

First off, none of these links will get you the games. Emulators need the game Roms to play. I can't legally tell you where to get them. Google is a good place to start.

Here's the average emulator site: http://www.emulator-zone.com/
The best for Macs are: http://www.emuscene.com & http://www.emulation.net

Here are a few of my favorite emulators (found on those sites):

NES: RockNES is my favorite (at least on Macs, they have a PC version too), but FCE Ultra should be good too.

SNES: SNES9x is my favorite, but ZSNES is fine as well. Either one would work, I'm sure.

N64: Project64 big time. Plays lots of N64 games great, but you need a fast computer.

PSX: Connectix Virtual Game Station. First exclusively for Macs, this thing was awesome. Put a PSX game in your CD drive and play on your computer. On my 233mhz Powerbook, some games were almost full speed! On PCs as well now, but unfortunately was bought by Sony and discarded. Hard to find.

Arcade: Mame, of course! The first popular emulator still plays all of your favorite arcade games from years past.

Note a lot of these worked (a few slowly) on my old 233 mhz Powerbook, so any computer made these days would be more than sufficient.

These aren't all the emulators (obviously), so if there is a system you want to play, look through those sites. You're bound to find something. Even Computer emulators (old Mac, PC, Commodore 64, Apple II, etc.). If you have a PS2, XBox, or GameCube, there are ways to get these emulators on your system (and TV). I did that with my Dreamcast. Imagine how cool it would be to play these with a controller on your tv! The possibilities are almost endless.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I have!! What games get you excited? What are your favorite gaming memories?

Possibly no goal of the week this week

2005-07-27T12:25:00.000-05:00

My computer is almost down for the count.

That being said, a guy from Dell is bringing a hard drive and an optical (CD/DVD) drive to replace the other ones, and if this doesn't work I get a new computer! Bout time, I say.

So... if there is a GOTW posted tonight, then the trick worked, at least for now.

Serving Communion

2005-07-25T15:48:00.000-05:00

So yesterday at Church I was asked to serve communion (someone didn't show up). I wasn't singing, was wearing my cool green shirt (as everyone was, it seemed), so I went ahead. I had the middle-to-back on the left side.

I served 4 people tops. But this blog isn't about the lack of people we have sitting at the back. It's about money and passing the trays.

When it got time to pass the offering plates, I felt awkward. It felt like I was asking these 4 people for money, which is shouldn't feel that way, but instead of a normal row, where they pass the tray down regardless, they would just look in my eyes and shake their hand back and forth.

Now I know for a fact that 2 of these people have money. It's hard not to judge when there's only 4 people I saw. What are you supposed to do, ya know?

Goal of the Week, July 18

2005-07-19T18:27:00.000-05:00

Today's goal of the week is a special edition. Jeremy (The Juice) came into town and we play until midnight every night. We even hooked it up on Tim's 37 inch Plasma screen! Beautiful to say the least. There were too many goals to choose from, so I'll give you six.

Here they are (Click on the picture for the video):

And, lastly, for a funny one:

Be sure to vote!

Whoa...

2005-07-19T10:57:00.000-05:00

(Sorry, just trying something. I really love daschunds. Don't eat them, no matter how tempting. I will not be held liable for you choking on their fur, especially the long-haired ones. The best meat is in the legs, but you didn't hear that here. I've never eaten a weinerdog, or even wanted to, even though it seems I have. Stop the insanity. Just think of the poor, helpless, little daschund pups you are hurting everytime you mention you are hungry for a weinerdog. I'm almost crying now. Thanks.)

Hockey time!!

2005-07-15T22:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, so we all hate hockey (and rightfully so), but sitting here with Jeremy I think I solved their problem! People get so flustered by calling the puck a ball, so why not use a ball?? That should bring more fans back to the game.

I like the ice thing though, that's different.

Then maybe they could ride horses and hit the ball around. Just think of it- horses on ice! Who wouldn't pay double for that kind of action??

Then during the ice polo game they can heat the ice up so the horses fall through and start playing water polo! Horses and pools of water! and ice! I'm sooo excited!!!

GOTW, additional view

2005-07-12T16:18:00.000-05:00

One last angle for the July 11th GOTW:

24!!

2005-07-12T08:23:00.000-05:00

Finally, a baseball game worth watching: The All-Star Game Home Run Derby.

Whew, did anyone else catch this? Bobby Abreu is a perennial fantasy player on my team, so I was especially proud when it all went down.

For those that didn't catch it: The details

If you swing the bat and don't hit a home run, you get an out. 10 outs and you're done for that round. If you hit a home run you keep going. Now the record for one round had been 15 home runs. Later on in the night, David Ortiz broke that record by getting 17. But the story of the night was Bobby Abreu.

He was the first batter up, representing his home country of Venezuela (and the Phillies), and he had it going on. He knocked his first hit out of the park. He was extremely patient up there and never swung at the first pitch. He kept going, and going. It looked like he would stop at 10, as the competition is not cumulative. But he still had the fire... 14, 15, 16... 18, 19... 23, 24... and that's it. 24!! The most ever hit by the entire field was 88, I think. This field hit 108, no thanks to Jason Bay (who had 0).

Anyway, we were folding clothes when his 24 went down. Melissa even stopped to gawk in amazement. Quite a night for baseball.

Shot of the Week: July 11

2005-07-12T08:11:00.000-05:00

I'll have another angle of this up this afternoon.

Shot of the Week: July 4

2005-07-05T08:36:00.000-05:00

Adam's world-famous corner kick!!!

Can't wait to see my baby!!

2005-07-01T08:17:00.000-05:00

Man, I don't realize how good I've got it. If this week without Melissa has shown me one thing its that I don't know how to fill the time without her. It all just seems... less fun, I guess you could say.

I have a blast with my wife. Our marriage is less of a marraige, and more of a fun adventure (that's what happens when you don't have kids). I don't have many boring days with her, and even if we are just watching tv together, it's still pretty fun.

That being said, I can't wait to see her again today. On July 5th, this coming Tuesday, she starts her 3rd year of Medical School, where she begins rotations. Yes, as some of you know, that's also our 2nd anniversary. So I want this weekend to be a fun, relaxing time for both us before she starts up again. We're going to Rick and Bethany's wedding in Austin on Saturday, then we'll be coming back home- to a cleaner home.

Yes, that's right, I've kept the apartment clean this week, cleaner than it was when Mel left. I know, I know, I should do this more often, and I feel she does too much around the house. Maybe in this 3rd year I can do better. I even watered her plants!! And, I gotta say, they possibly look better now than a week ago. I think I have a green thumb, I just never use it. Maybe someday, when we have a house, I could use it along with my mad pruning skills!

Anyway- baby, it's good to have you home!! Go get 'em your 3rd year!!!

(as an aside, cool how the first picture for "Medical School" was her Medical School!)

(also- I am in the picture for "Austin". I was there, downtown, celebrating y2k with some friends. I can tell ya bout that lata.)

Going to see my uncle!!

2005-07-01T08:06:00.000-05:00

Today's the big day, folks. I get to see Melissa!! It's been too long. I'm excited. I leave work at 1, drive to Belton, and then get to camp by 5.

I'm excited about afterward as well. My favorite uncle, Jeff (my dad's oldest brother), lives 10 minutes from Camp in Lago Vista. He's always been my favorite uncle, but Melissa hasn't had a chance to meet him. It was funny- the week we got married in Belton, he sent us a present, along with a picture of him, his new wife, and her 2 kids. Go figure! The dude's like 60, his wife probably in her 30s(?), and he now has kids of 6 and 8? Awesome! We get to meet her for the first time as well. My new cousins, however, will be out of town at a camp this weekend, so we won't get to meet them.

Anyway- one more word on my uncle. He was always the coolest growing up because:

1. He has a black belt in Karate
2. He was in Vietnam (He's now a dentist). He has all sorts of Far East stuff there at his house, including samurai suits and kendo sticks
3. He has (had) horses
4. He has a swimming pool
5. He has a ranch-type house that overlooks Lake Travis
6. He has a joke for every situation. Mostly aggie jokes, but you get what you can.
7. He has 8 dogs, 7 cats, some birds, etc. If the town vet finds an animal in trouble, Jeff gets it.
8. He had the first Mac in the family, and showed us the light!

Those are a few reasons. Anyway, it'll be a blast to be there, if only for a day.

What have I done?!?!?

2005-07-01T07:52:00.000-05:00

This week was supposed to be my week to rush back to the blog world, posting everyday for all my fans and minions. How's it gone?

This is my 2nd day to post. Now, granted, the last one was long and labor-intensive, but there should have been more.

So, therefore, blame Dell. My computer ordeal is ridiculous, but perhaps we might have solved it. It's on its 3rd motherboard, 2nd processor, and still messes up daily. Finally, however, I think we've solved it. Faulty RAM.

Let me start over, so this can be well documented.

It all began over a month ago when the computer started restarting randomly. It wouldn't even stay up 24 hours, sometimes restarting 8 times in 10 minutes. I called Dell. They eventually sent out a technician. This lady was retarded!! She had no clue what she was doing. It was supposed to take her 15 minutes to put in a new motherboard- 45 minutes later she still wasn't done. Then, when she was, she said if its not working, contact Dell. She then bolts out of there. I go back there to turn it on, NOTHING. She hadn't even plugged it back in. The next day someone else comes (I made sure it wasn't her), and he tells Melissa there's no processor! The stinkin' lady took my processor! What a moron she was. So he fixes that, I play with it for a day, and now another problem occurs. Not only does my wireless card no longer work (maybe she messed that up too?), I start getting a blue screen almost everytime I boot up, at the logon screen. To top it off, the random restarts are still occuring.

I called them back, probably a 5th or 6th time now, and I think that's when we try the RAM. I've now had my computer up for 2+ days, albeit slowly, as the new RAM hasn't arrived yet. However, as this computer is a lemon, now none of my network connections are working. No internet, no connecting with Mel's computer, nothing.

I just once, once, want everything to work the way it should. The way it does on our Macs. Maybe when Apple releases OS X for PCs.

Lights out!!

2005-06-27T20:42:00.000-05:00

My wife decided to go to her hometown's Church Camp this week, leaving me here all alone. As usually happens when this happens, I will get to write more on my blog.

So this past weekend I took her down to Belton, and eventually took her, her mom, and her brother to camp. Camp Koinionia is on Lake Travis just north of Austin, real close to my uncle. Most of the Belton, Temple, and Killeen Churches go to it, with Melissa's old Church in charge. I thought I would come back here to help Tim and Adam move, but decided to spend the Saturday night there at camp instead. They needed some help setting camp up, and I wanted to see Mel for one more day (as she me, I think).

As we finish setting everything up, they start to have teacher meetings and things, so Ben and I got to throw the frisbee, shoot hoops, etc. Pretty fun time. Eventually, it was time to hit the sack. This is the night before camp starts so only the campers whose parents are working there can be on the premises. There were only 7 or so of us staying in the cabin that night, so I had plenty of bunks to choose from. I get in bed, the lights are still on, and I go to sleep.

As usually happens at night, I wake up at 4 am to go use the restroom. I usually open my eyes, sit up, and then get out of bed. I go to open my eyes, and... NOTHING!!! I see absolutely nothing. I thought I had gone blind it was so dark. Then, out of nowhere, a car drives by. I see one solitary flash of light circle through the room. Then... its gone.

So you know I'm telling the truth, I caught the whole thing on tape:

I managed to make it to the restroom.

It's strange, my in-laws think I must have the room as dark as possible in order to sleep well. That was not always the case. In 2nd grade I saw a ghost (I can still see the image in my head now, clear as ever), and from 2nd-5th grade I had to sleep with a night light. However, once college hit, I suppose my roommates wanted it dark and now I'm addicted.

Fortunately, I don't have video on the ghost-like experience. Now that would be freaky!!

Shot of the Week: June 27

2005-06-27T20:21:00.000-05:00

This week's shot is also from Borussia Dortmund, one of the best teams in Germany's Bundesliga.

This shot wasn't actually from this past week, as I have a bunch of plays saved us from previous weeks.

And for a funnier moment:

Taking a cue from BC...

2005-06-27T09:07:00.000-05:00

GOAL!!!!!!

2005-06-18T10:28:00.000-05:00

Yes! After a month of amazing shots, headers, and replays, I will now bring you the best of the best.

Today's offering is from last night. It was one of the biggest goals Brown Sugar and I have ever made. We were in the opening game of the big cup, and the score was 1-1 in extra time. We were playing "Silver Goal", which means the team with the most points at the end of each half of extra time was the winner. So they fouled us about 40 meters from the goal. I lofted up a beautiful chip pass into the box, and Brown Sugar did his magic after that! As you can see from the reply, Adam hit the header at the 104th minute, the end of the half was the 105th. Oh yeah!

Giant Tire of Soccer Fun!!

2005-06-01T08:46:00.000-05:00

The World Cup is coming to Germany in 2006, and as such Germany has built the ultimate stadium (or at least one of them).

The arena
The story

And here's the kicker- it looks like the musical donut!! And the outside even lights up, making the whole building go from white to red or blue. Maybe other colors as well. Or should I say colours since they're in Europe!

Anyway, if you've ever thought, "I want to go see some soccer in a huge tire!!"- Here's your chance!

Wrapped Beef Jerky?!?!?

2005-05-26T10:24:00.000-05:00

Crazy. I thought Fan gave me and John pieces of candy, wrapped like cough drops or cherry candies, but NO! It was beef jerky! Now, I love (LOVE) beef jerky, but seriously... that was freaky! But it turned out good in the end.

Look for upcoming updates on:

The weekend that was (seeing Jim Drachenberg and Travis Branam in Belton)
The UEFA Championship Match of the Century (that's futbol by the way!)
Winning Eleven, my new found addiction
The obligatory Star Wars post after seeing it this coming weekend
Tim and the tivo that couldn't
No more ceiling Fan at the office!

Question

2005-05-12T12:09:00.000-05:00

Is it Indian Rug Burn or Indian Rub Burn? I was always taught Rug, but Mel just used Rub, which kind of makes sense, since it is a rub. But Rug? People use that one too!

Discuss.

2005-05-10T16:35:00.001-05:00

This is from Jellico, TN. Our Spring Break Campaign in 2002.

How bout them MAVS!!!!!!

2005-05-07T23:23:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah!!

A 40-point blowout! Houston sent home for another year. If I were a woman, Darrell Armstrong could have my kids! Did yall see that block on Mike James?? Mike's a warrior, but he completely lost it. The rest of the Rockets are some losers man. That speed of the Mavericks, bam bam bam!! Whoosh, there Jason Terry goes!

Mavericks vs. Phoenix. If you aren't a basketball fan (or an NBA fan), here's your time to become one. 2 amazing teams that play team basketball. The score might be 140-135, so you gotta check this out!! Dirk vs. Steve.

On a side note, regarding Jeremy's post on wearing a bike helmet, apparently safekids.org heard. I've seen 2 commercials today about adults and kids wearing helmets starring Chipper Jones and Grant Hill. Man, if those guys wear helmets I am too!! :D

What a NIGHT!!!

ACU Alum on TV

2005-05-06T22:19:00.000-05:00

So I'm sitting here studying- which means I am of course also watching Comedy Central's Friday Night Standup-and I saw an interesting commercial. It was a weight loss commercial starring this guy who was fat, and he lost 130 lbs. I thought he looked familar, and then at the end he said his name was Stephen Jones! Do any of yall remember him from ACU? That was crazy, apparently he's having fun, according to the commercial!! He was trouncing around with all sorts of women on the beach, hugging a lady on the sand, etc. (I'm really not making this up) They got out of a jeep even. It was like a surreal beer commercial.

Anyway, thought that was cool!

Study time again...

Update: Here is the commercial. Pretty funny stuff!!

http://ww5.trimspa.com/media/commercials/SJTS-3001.mov

Lates.

SportsCenter and NBA Thoughts

2005-05-05T07:13:00.000-05:00

I'm sick of this.

Yes, that's Jeremy's post on why he hates the NBA Playoffs. I've never seen a series as good as this one between the Mavericks and Rockets, but I'll get to that in a second.

I get up between 6:25 and 6:30 in the morning, make a bowl of cereal, and watch 2 commercial to commercial segments of SportsCenter. I usually like it, but now, I'm not sure what to think. I want to see who won the NBA Playoffs from the night before, but most of the time they won't let me. Whether in a story or on the ticker, they have to show all 15 baseball games before any basketball makes the cut. It makes me sick. I like baseball as much as the next guy, but I don't care what happened in game 26 of their freakin' 162 game season! Whether a team is 83-79 instead of 84-78 because of a pivotal game in May, I don't care!! I want to see some NBA scores. These games matter. In October I like to see baseball scores. The NBA has the patience to start their season in November, so they don't overlap our "National Pasttime", but the MLB has to steal highlights. Thanks, guys. Not only are they all on steroids, now I have to watch them with my breakfast. And if it's not roided-ballplayers its NASCAR- and don't even get me started with that!

Which gets me to this mornings SportsCenter. We had 2 Playoff games last night, including an amazing buzzer-beater by Gilbert Arenas- yet here's the NBA coverage I saw at 6:30: The most boringest interview with Jerry Buss (owner of the "Mighty" Lakers) over who he will hire to be the new coach, if Kobe will have any say, etc. Talk about a bad interview!! Here's what went down: He hasn't decided who will coach his (Kobe's) team, he won't give a list of candidates (maybe Shaq could be a player/coach!), and Kobe will have no say (yeah, right!). Basically everything we already knew, in a stifflingly boring format. Who does the thinking around ESPN?!?!? There's a reason teams like Denver and Memphis outlasted the Lakers on the way to the last spots in the playoffs- they were better teams!! No one, absolutley no one except for a few actors in LA, cares about the Lakers. Most are just happy they are a bunch of losers. Memphis just blew up 2 days ago, why don't they guess what will happen to Jason Williams, Bonzi Wells, Stromile Swift, etc. Kwame Brown of the Wizards just got benched for the rest of the playoffs. Why don't they guess what'll happen to him? Yao commits 9 fouls a game and only gets called for 5 of them, why don't they comment on that?!?!?

Which brings me to my last point. If you haven't seen any playoff basketball this year, do yourself a favor and watch the Dallas/Houston game tonight at 8:30 central time. These games have been sensational!!! I don't have time to watch the other playoff series, and I really don't care to- this one has just been amazing!! I watch the occasional Boston/Indiana matchup, since they are usually on before the Mavs, but man. These Mavs rock and it's finally great to see them put something together. If the Mavs win tonight you have to watch the Phoenix/Dallas matchup. It should be some of the greatest team basketball we've seen in some time!!

As for this Yao controversy, take it from someone who's watched all the games and isn't a homer. Take it from Melissa, my wife. She usually doesn't get upset with things like ref calls, and she laughs at me when I do, but she sees Yao get away with foul after foul and she can't stand it. Whether he shoves someone out of the way for a rebound, commits an over-the-back, or sets a moving screen, all three happen- and the refs haven't called much of em. In fact, he has yet to get an over-the-back called against him!! It makes me sick. Then Van Gundy has the audacity to say that Yao gets to many calls called against him! Have they seen Erick Dampier?!?!? It's just a joke to have a clumsy big man in the NBA today. Just drive into the lane, hit them, and it's a foul. It's easy. Not just on Yao, but every big man. Yao needs to grow up, wipe the tears from his eyes, and bow to the power of the Dirk!!

In closing, I feel sorry for my neighbors. For a span of 2 and a half hours every few nights, I yell and scream for my Mavs. I tell almost every Rocket to "Eat it". I tell Yao to go back to China, McGrady to go back to High School, and Van Gundy and the "Self-Pleasuring Male Reproductive Organ" (edited down for the younger audience and mother-in-laws) to go back to the gay strip club. Is anyone else sick of their self-pleasuring 3-point signal?

Thanks to the Mavs tonight, we won't have to see it again!!! Do yourself a favor, and watch this game!!!

And I'm a Moron...

2005-05-02T08:26:00.000-05:00

So maybe I'm just tired.

Yesterday Josue picked me up at 3:15 to help a friend from Church move a few things from his house. Our friend has MS, which means it's hard for him to get around and do these things himself. But he never asks for any help, so when he did we jumped at the chance.

As I'm walking down the stairs, my shoe is only half way on. I get to the bottom, 1 step to go, and BAM! I hit the ground. One of those surreal moments like I've had so many times before. I know I'm going down, but I can't seem to do anything about it. Josue was watching the whole time from his car, and he thought I was faking because I was up so fast. He said he barely saw me hit the ground. I scraped up my knee pretty good, to almost perfectly match Adam's wound (from the treadmill incident).

So no big deal. I mean, I used to fall all the time, I even fell during chapel once. I've fallen off of the risers in our 3rd grade program, it's just what I do (although not lately).

Then today, I head out the door for work, and BAM!!! I FELL DOWN THE STAIRS AGAIN!!! This time it was much worse. I was about 4 steps up, so I took a real tumble, tore a few of the threads on my favorite shirt (stink!), and fell on nothing but my neck and back at the end. I even tucked my neck to get ready for impact, but there was 1 step left, and it threw me off and hurt my neck even worse. I'm still here at work though, just a little banged up and motionless.

I think it's time to move to a first floor apartment!!

Z

A new lease on life...

2005-04-29T21:21:00.000-05:00

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!!

2005-04-15T09:17:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-15T08:18:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-14T21:47:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-04-14T21:20:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-04-12T15:55:00.000-05:00

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

2005-04-05T14:21:00.000-05:00

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??

2005-04-01T14:31:00.000-06:00

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.

It's Not Worth it!!

2005-03-31T08:21:00.000-06:00

So last night after we watched Lost on Timmy's TiVo, we watched a show on DiscoveryHD about the Praying Mantis. It was unbelievable! It really felt like they were in the living room with us. Quite an addictive feeling, to be sure!!

So the problem with the Mantis is that the female eats its mate after sex. It is so happy to now be fertilized that it then needs a meal for its young ones. Well, the only meal around is the Man-Tis, so it eats him!! How gross is that? It makes no sense. The female is essentially telling the male, "You're mine. You will not have any other lovers but me." So romantic like. Then the next season, she gets another guy. Unbelievable.

The real sick part is that they will have Mantis sex, then she will eat the male's head off, then they will have more sex. So he has no brain left, and he's still getting the job done!! That was the strangest sight to see, all this taking place in Tim's living room. He's a sick, sick man!

So, in conclusion, I will tell the male mantis:

"It's not worth it. You will get one great night with your female, to be sure, but for what? To be dead? To extend your mantis family. Well, guess what- your kids won't have a grandpa, and they sure won't have a dad!! Why would you want to subject them to this life?

And besides, your female looks like a freakin' leaf!! Is that attractive? Why don't you mate with a tree or something? Isn't that the same thing, but safer? Dude, run, she has her claws up!"

Oh, snap, he's gone.

Utah Jazz...

2005-03-30T10:00:00.001-06:00

Many of you know I am a huge basketball freak, but not many know this: I love watching international players. My favorite players in the game are Dirk and AK-47. That's Andrei Kirilenko, for those of you not in the know. Maybe it is a race thing- my whole life I've been told to just concentrate on football, since I'm not black. That's why it thrills me to see guys whiter than I am out there blocking shots and throwing down rim rockers. But these guys just know how to play the game the way it was meant to be played. Just look at AK-47's spacing on defense, the way he can get his freakin' long arms up to block just about anything that comes his way, can get the board, run the ball the length of the court, and dunk it in from a step inside the free throw line. It doesn't get any better than this!

So I was way, way excited when my boss offered me 2 tickets to go see the Mavericks/Jazz play on April 9th (Melissa's birthday is April 15th, so we can go out this night as well). He has season tickets he splits with some friends, about 18 rows up. Some incredible seats honestly. In fact, a colleague of ours had a client coming in that weekend, and he wanted to switch with me. He offered me Rockets tickets (to watch the overrated TMac and Yao- don't think so), and Nets tickets (to see Jefferson and Vinsanity nursing their wounds- no way), but I turned him down. I wanted to see my 2 favorite players go at it, and see Raja Bell (one of my top 10 favorite players) play as well. I miss Raja on the Mavericks. Of course, Josh Howard is everything he was and more, but still... The Jazz also have Boozer and Mehmet Okur, so I was looking forward to it. Big time. (As was Melissa)

Then the Jazz hire Brandon Carter. Think it's just a coincedence? Hardly. Last year the Jazz were one game from the playoffs. This year they have a much better team, and will be lucky to win 27 games. I don't know what he's done, but I don't like it.

Ok, so it has nothing to do with BC. But that shouldn't matter for April 9th, right? Nope- AK-47, done for the season. Boozer? Done for the season. Raul Lopez? Done for the season. I think BC will have to suit up!

So, yes, the Jazz are trying to take the fun out of our game. It gets me a little down every time I think about it. What's happened, BC?

At least I can still root for my Mavericks!! Best team in basketball these days.

If you come to the game April 9th, you should be able to recognize Melissa and myself. We'll be in the matching Dirk/Josh Howard jerseys.

Walking Octopi

2005-03-29T09:00:00.000-06:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7194

Check out this story and 2 videos. So apparently the Octopus can now walk. What's next?

If it learns how to type with the 6 other tenticles, we might all be out of jobs! Just think, they can work 3 times faster than us, and get paid less money. The US has no minimum wage laws for Octopi. We'll be priced out of the market for sure!!

We should attack them preemptively, and destroy 4 of the 6 extra tenticles- to even the playing field again. Who's with me??

Random Postings

2005-03-25T07:56:00.000-06:00

So I've been pretty busy this past week and haven't gotten to finish my Mexico stories. Sorry. My wife has been sick with perhaps a virus, perhaps mono. Either way, sick. That and I've started hitting the books hard again for my 5th Actuarial Exam, the EA-2B. Should be a joyous ride into the world of ERISA and the PBGC!

Last night we had our 2-monthly football game up at Church- and I was on! I realized how to run routes, but I can't share this information with you, just in case we meet on a football field somewhere. I gotta keep my advantage!!

I did catch 3 of the 4 interceptions, so that was good, even though the rest of my defense stunk it up. It was bad! But my route-running made up for it on the offensive end. I lost track of how many TDs I may have gotten. A lot.

So as some of you know, we usually play basketball every Thursday night. I should post on here every week how I did, so I can look back in a few years and see how I progressed. Right now I am kind of in a hot streak. The last 6 weeks at basketball I have played rather well- now I just need to look for consistency. More on this later!!

Tonight is LTC (Leadership Training for Christ) at the Wyndham Anatole towards downtown Dallas. This is for kids grades 3-12. Kind of like a Church Olympics. We have been teaching the Jr. High Bible Quiz, which starts tonight at 7. If any of you are headed out that way, look for me! I have a bit of facial hair from Mexico, but I'm not hard to miss!!

And now I shall leave you with a random quote as I will from now on. This one is from Socrates:

"By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher."
--Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

Interesting Physics/Space Article

2005-03-18T08:40:00.000-06:00

For the nerd in all of us, here is an article discussing 13 things that don't make sense (yet), such as Dark Matter and other physics conundrums.

I will get back to the Mexico stories soon enough. My parents are in town this weekend, and there's some basketball to watch, so I'll see when I can get to it.

My Epic TND Last Night

2005-03-16T08:07:00.000-06:00

Note: This is a departure from the Mexico stories.

Last night I think I outdid myself. It was the grand reopening of our apartment, as Melissa and I had cleaned feverishly before and after Mexico. Whenever we had new people over before, we just closed our bedroom door so noone could see inside. But not last night!! Dare I say it was looking good!! Then there were 8 of us there last night. The usuals (Adam, Josue, Debbie, and Timmy) and our 2 new friends from the mission trip, Kristin and Taylor (which should be obvious as most of my Mexico stories have one of these 2 in them at some point). Taylor's fiancee couldn't make it, but that's okay. She might have been on Debbie's hall (probably not, but who knows?) at ACU in Nelson. How weird would that have been?

So I had to make a meal that would fit the circumstance. I knew it would involve mashed potatoes, as that's about all Melissa could eat after getting her wisdom teeth removed Monday (She looks great, BTW). So I made Pork Chops with homemade Apple Sauce to pour on top of them. It was awesome!! Then for sides we had mashed potatoes, homemade creamed corn, and broccoli. The corn was fantastic. I made rolls as well, but then for desert we had homemade peach cobbler with blue bell vanilla bean ice cream! It was the bomb. I thought I had burned the cobbler, but it turned out fine. Whew! It was a long day, but it sure was fun to do.

The email I sent to Taylor about coming to TND said that it's our one chance during the week to make a homemade meal for people, so I took that to heart and tried to make everything from scratch. The rolls were frozen, and I didn't make the ice cream, but that's about it. It was truly epic. We even missed Scrubs cause we were talking and enjoying each other's company. That doesn't happen all that often anymore. Then again, we don't usually talk about naked slip n slides in Mabee Hall all that much anymore! Taylor actually brought that up. Seeing as 7 of the 8 of us went to ACU at one point, Kristin got some unique stories from our alma mater. I'm still waiting for some Tech stories to live up to those!

You should try to make apple sauce sometime. It's alot of fun!

Was it my best meal ever? Maybe, but I hope I can outdo it sometime in the near future!

Tuesday, Part 1

2005-03-15T09:30:00.000-06:00

We never knew where we were going. I got in the back of the van, along with Kristin I believe, for what we thought would be a 15-20 minute trip out of Juarez. We were going to the people in countryside!! 4 of our vans pushed off with a van in the lead.

The van stops at the first small town and sends the last van on its way. This leaves 3 groups. Fast forward, an hour later, we are the only van left, traveling on the only Mexican highway left (which is soon about to end), and we have no idea where we're going. We were following a new van, a Mexican preacher perhaps, and he is taking us to some obscure village.

Finally we arrive at the small town of Porvenir. The preacher said the population was 1,000 but it looked pretty barren to me. We get to the Church, where they are setting up a new orphanage, so the classrooms now have beds in them. Perfect for a warzone, but I don't think we saw any patients requiring a mattress.

The pharmacy was set up in the back room, a nice room compared to what other groups get, while triage is in the main "fellowship hall" type of room at the front. There were 3 rooms of beds in between for the 12 new orphans coming there this Summer. We set up all 3 rooms for the doctors to operate.

Joanna, the main contact from the Baptist Student Ministries, was with us today so she helped me play with the kids and do the pharmacy. Once I realized the pharmacy wasn't so bad, I tried to memorize the drugs and feel useful.

I was actually going to work triage that day and take patients' names, etc. but when we got there we found 2 white ladies from the states had already taken everyone's names and made a list for us. There names were Amy and Julie, from Chicago and NY respectively, and they were missionaries from the Texas border town of Fabens. They felt this was their "home Church" (in Porvenir) and wanted to help us in any way they could this week. They met 7 years ago at language school and now do mission work like this all the time.

So while we were traveling the hour and a half to get to Porvenir, Kristin asked me what direction I thought we were going. I told her Southeast, since we can't see the moss on the trees (no I didn't say that, but that would have been awesome), and it really felt like we were going into the heart of Mexico, maybe even close to Monterrey!

Of course, we were almost out of gas by then, but we were in the heart of Mexico. We asked the Mexican contact there (who had actually preached in Dallas) what we should do, and he said he would take us up to Fort Hancock. I immediately thought it would be at least a 45 minute drive up another dirt road, but he said it was only 5 miles away! I looked outside, and sure enough, you could see I-10 from there! So we had been going SE, but Texas had as well. Turns out every group could see I-10 that day.

So the Mexican Preacher, Joanna, and myself travel up to Ft. Hancock to get some gas. We had time that day, since it was 3 and our group was already done. We get to the border, I tell them I am doing Mission work, and they let us through!! We fill up, cross the Rio Grande again (which at this point is neither a Rio or grand), and get back to the Church. I go to park, put it in reverse, and BAM! I can just feel the rear bumper crumble. I get out of the car to find out that I have hit a jeep wrangler or something like that. Luckily, they had a spare tire on the back of their SUV, which took the entire blow! Whew. Our rear bumper has a pretty nice dent (wish I had gotten a picture). So yes, I've been in more wrecks in Mexico than in the US, and I would like to keep it that way!!

Okay, more Tuesday later.

Monday

2005-03-14T07:09:00.000-06:00

Monday was a lot of fun, but we really didn't know what we were doing!!

The ride there was awesome. We only had seats for 8, and we always had at least 9 and another person, so 2 of us had to sit in the back on the coolers. It was the closest thing to riding a broncho. (Yes, I did spell bronco the OHS way.)

We went to the clinic that day, and saw a few patients (Our 2nd least probably), and I had no clue what to do. I was playing outside with the kids alot, playing with a beach ball, balloons or this kid's micro machines. They were all pretty cool. This 12 year old girl named Rocio (I think) tried to have a conversation with me for about 20 minutes, that was cool but pretty tough. I got some points across I think. I recognized the word "deportes" from ESPN deportes (which I assumed meant sports), so we were talking about sports and stuff. Kinda sweet, considering I had to use hand gestures for just about everything else.

I also worked a bit in the pharmacy that day, as I had nothing else to do. Ashley was in there as well, so she was doing everything while I kinda twidled my thumbs (figuratively speaking, of course).

We were the first group to get done, which seemed to be a theme for the week, and Taylor and I found the hot showers outside. It was oh so nice. That night we had mexican food and played a huge game of phase 10. Yeah, phase 10 with over 12 people is ridiculous!!

You'll get Tuesday soon enough.

Start of the Journey

2005-03-12T21:03:00.000-06:00

We're back from Juarez!!

This is the beginning blog about our Medical Mission Trip, and there should be many more to follow. I hope this is a proper account of all we did.

Last Saturday morning we went up to Southwestern to pick up the vans and divide the medicinas for each group. It was there that we found out who was on our team. We then counted pills for 3-4 hours! After this was all over, we went home, went to bed early, and got up even earlier to begin our trip!!

We had 9 people in our group: 1 doctor (Laura), 1 nurse (Rose), 4 2nd years (David, Sarah, Ashley, and Melissa), 2 1st years (Kristin and Taylor) and me. I'll talk about each of them later on. I put their names so you can know who is who on the following pictures:

http://homepage.mac.com/zan99a/PhotoAlbum18.html

We were supposed to leave at 5 a.m. Sunday morning (which is ironic since a "christian" mission trip made us miss Church), but the vans had low tire pressure. This took about an hour to fix. Then at 6 a.m. we were ready to go, I believe 43 or so of us total.

Seeing as almost my entire life has been lived on I-20, it was quite a familar road to take. We even stopped in Odessa for lunch, at the best chain restaurant in the world, Rosa's. Christy and Kristin are both also from Odessa, so we had quite a bit of family frequenting the establishment. My parents even got Melissa a spanish dictionary, as well as a couple of new sweaters! Very nice.

I drove the Medicine van down. Chris May was my driving partner, and we both thought it was cool to be the "drug traffickers". Of course, we never told the border patrol this, as we wanted to actually get to Juarez.

We played "smartest van alive" on the way down with walkie talkies, and I have to say, there are some smart people in Medical school. I know I don't read as much as I should, and so I don't know many authors, classic literary works, etc. so it was tough to get most of the answers. However, Chris asked a couple of space questions that no one else knew but me. It helps to read Popular Science I guess!!

We got in around 8:30 pm mountain time. It took us a while in El Paso, mainly because of the drugs. We couldn't take them over the border that evening, so we left them and Chris on the other side. That evening we had a great meal made by the ladies at the ophanage. They had some amazing cooks! We were fed well all week. As soon as we ate, got situated, and received our marching orders for the next day, we headed off to bed, ready to go for the following day.