Watch out for flying time...

I had lunch with Stephen today for the last time before he and Carrie move to East Texas. Even though we don't get to talk as much as we used too, I'll really miss him. My former roomates have been my best friends since college, and it's both sad and encouraging to grow older and go through changes together. The days of smoking cigars on the porch and throwing june bugs in the fish tank are over, but I know that those guys love and support me completely, just like I love and suport them. The Lord really put us with each other, and I'm very thankful for these brothers.

Pictured above: David Grotheim, Stephen Wright, Me, Jimmy Martin, Justin Linerode (Not pictured, but also part of the original Studdery, Wilber Wang)

Mavs Win! Mavs Win!

Cody and I went to the game last night, and it was increadible! I've never been to a basketball game of that caliber, with two teams with unbelievable determination not willing to give up... anyway, it was an awesome experience. The atmosphere in the building was the closest I've been to an Aggie football game since I got out of college, and walking down the stairs still yelling and clapping, it really felt like college station...

Anyway I caught Duncan's coments on the radio after that game, in a speech that lasted 21 seconds, he was asked if he was dissapointed in his team's play down the stretch, and he just said "no" and got up and left. Hearing that, it really made me think about the "agony of defeat". The hardest part of losing is not losing when you play badly, it's when you've given it everything you possibly have and still come up short. You could hear it in Tim's voice... he had done everything he could to win that game, and the team gave it everything they had, and they still came up short. For some reason that feeling resonated with me a lot today, and I've been contemplating a lot of my past ministry year, and whether my reliance has really been on God, or if I've just givin it my best shot, and tried to win through sheer determination of my own... Anyway, that was a major switch into a serious topic, but one I'll be taking up with the Lord in the morning. For those wondering how awesome the game was though... it was stinkin awesome! My prediction: Mavs close it out in San Antone in 5

New links

I added links for Dave and Jimmy Martin to my links section, welcome fellas! If anyone's looking for websites to browse, here's a few of my favorite:

News Sites:
news.yahoo.com - news from the center
huffingtonpost.com - news from the left
drudgereport.com - news from the right

Christian:
relevantmagazine.com - usually decent articles
raystedman.org - great teachings on mp3! You can pretty much find a teaching of his on every passage in the Bible, with some awesome insights into the Word.

Sports:
sports.yahoo.com - my most favorite sports sight
espn.go.com - my second favorite sports site

Just Plain Interesting:
wikipedia.org - I like to look at the wikipedia
livescience.com and space.com - these sites are awesome!

Playoff tidbits

I haven't even put up a post about the playoffs yet, I'm sure everyone was holding their breath waiting on my predictions. Well, I'm going to predict the mavs take out SA, but it will go to 7 games. I'll hold off on other predictions right now.

Cody and I are going to game 4 on Monday thanks to my awesome mother in law. It'll be sweet! Saturday there's a good group going to watch the game at the Movie Tavern, and everyone's invited who wants to come.

I thought it was interesting that Cuban got fined for calling out the refs as I didn't think his criticism was unduly harsh. I've watched every mav game but one so far in the playoffs, and a couple of the other games and the officiating has been all over the map. The commissioner himself just admitted that refs miss about 5% of the calls, so what's the big deal with Cuban saying the league should only use the top 12 refs during the playoffs? I'm guessing that Mark has just stepped on so many toes in the NBA front office that they feel compelled to fine him...

"God was still lookin out for me... sent my wife to taser me in the shower"

I enjoyed this video of the Hill family's search for a new church... funny

music

So, I download a lot of songs (legally of course) that end up on my hard drive, but it's not often that I have the time to sort through them to find the good stuff. It's mostly indie rock/pop/folk/electronic... anyway, every now and again I get the brief time to scan through and sure enough, there's some awesome stuff out there. Here are a few of the music makers I've been enjoying lately.

Figurines
- if you liked Kid Fantastic back in the day, check these guys out! It brings back visions of the Cow Hop.

Josh Ritter
- great songwriting and the kind of voice I like on my folk/rock singers... gravely with a tinge of country accent. From the look of his web site, Josh is garnring quite a bit of media attention as well.

Mogwai
- in all honesty, the main reason I include this band here is because I like their name. It makes me think, "Why do you hate the long-hair Mogwai?"... Their music is cool mood music though... something to enjoy when you want to chill

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
- my current favorite band! I wanted to go to south by southwest just to see them mainly. There are several sweet tunes to download from their site, I recommend "Me and Mia" and "Where Have all the Rude Boys Gone" for starters.