Shawny Mac Tonight!!!

In lue of the Shawn McDonald show tonight (or Shawny Mac as I like to refer to him), thought I would throw a quick post up. I first came across Shawn McDonald's music my senior year at Elon. I was actually with a group of friends studying for an exam and his CD was playing as background music. It probably went through a couple of times and I was immediately hooked! At this point, he was a brand new act on the "Christian Music Scene," and his debut album, Simply Nothing still remains one of my favorite CD's of all time - it ranks right up there with Hootie's Cracked Rear View, yea, I just said that!! There aren't a ton of CD's that you can throw on and let them play through start to finish, not at first anyways. It usually takes a while for a few of the songs to grow on you - that was not my experience with Simply Nothing. I saw him in concert about a year later, just after the release of his 2nd CD. It was a small show, basically an acoustic set, and it was awesome!! While I do have 4 of his CD's, I'm not as up to date on him as I was a couple of years ago - but I'm still pretty stoked about his concert tonight. I must say, I was a little shocked when I heard our church, in Thomasville, North Carolina, was bringing him in to do a show. I actually asked if he was going to need a place to stay while he was here, haha - I'm such a child (my wife will agree). If you happen to read this, and you happen to me in or near Thomasville today/tonight, I would highly recommend you coming by. Pace Park in Thomasville, near the Big Chair! Ohh, yea, and it's FREEE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1hoLzOeBds - link to Take This Life - one of my favorite Shawny Mac tunes!

I may be the world's worst blogger...

So I started this blog, what, like 8-9 months ago?? I could go back and check of course, but I'm going off the cuff here. I'm pretty sure it was at the beginning of the year. Well, whenever it was doesn't really matter, because I have been beyond terrible at keeping it up. I think I may have blogged three times in January and haven't touched it since. I feel like one of my 3 blogs, maybe more than one actually, aluded to the fact that I'm really bad at starting things and not finishing them - books would be a great example. The book thing could have something to do with the fact that I don't love to read. My wife on the other hand can tear through a book in a matter of hours, she absolutely loves it, and watching her rip through page after page really does fascinate me a bit. I'm a rambler, that's what I do...This isn't a blog full of content, just basically making the statement of how poor a job I've done. I'm going to try and hold myself accountable to this - not that I need to do this necessarily, it's just something I thought I would enjoy. I do have a lot to say, and on occassion, some of those things actually have value - at least I think they do!! Well, let's see how long this lasts...until next time!

Predicting Two Peyton's

Today is the day of the Conference Championships games in the NFL. Many households across America will gather in front of their TVs for basically the entire day watching the AFC tilt between the Colts and the Jets, and then the NFC's own version with the Vikings and Saints. Though I'm not a fan of any of the 4 teams playing today, I'm still hoping to to catch some of the games. Will I watch all 6-7 hours of football, absolutely not, my wife is not going to go for that - and honestly I don't blame her. If the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't want to watch Discovery Health or the Surgery Channel for 6-7 hours straight, I'd go crazy.

I love sports (which includes football) not just the games themselves but all the storylines and analysis leading up to the games. I like listening to all the writers, reporters, and even the nonsports people give their perspective of what's going to happen in the games and why. I've heard so many thoughts and opinions that it's crazy; from Doug Gottleib to Mel Kiper Jr to even Elizabeth Hasselbeck, everybody chimes in. I think if a lot of sports fans are honest, much of their own thoughts are formulated from something they've heard or read from "an expert." With all that surrounds the games, whether it's injuries and statistics or players, sets, and schemes, it usually comes down to 1 or 2 points. In the AFC's game, I see coming down to whether or not Peyton Manning will be able to disect and breakdown the Jets defense or not. Peyton Manning is considered by the some as the greatest quarterback of all time and Rex Ryan is one of the best defensive minds this era of football has seen. On the other side of the fence, the NFC game is about Brett Farve practically taking on the entire City of New Orleans. I really believe that the Saints have a home field advantage like no other. The way this city has really rallied around the Saints is crazy. I know a lot of people have lost respect for Brett Favre over the past couple of years the way he's retired and unretired and retired and come back again. That being said, I respect the competitor in him and what he's done on the field this year. At the same time, Sean Payton and Drew Brees are as classy as they come. I'm not sure there is a better fit for the city, the team, and everything they've been through in New Orleans than Drew Brees.

The results: Plain and simple I think Peyton Manning is too good and too smart a quarterback to lose this game today. The Jets are going to take the ground and pound approach (if i can use an MMA term) of running the ball all day, try to keep the ball out of Peyton's hands, and clamp down on defense - which happens to be their MO. The thing that makes Peyton Manning so great is the way he makes no-namers into household names. If you had asked me (or anybody else for that matter) who Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon where a few months ago - the response would have been that of chirping crickets. So maybe you can stop contain Reggie Wayne, or hold Dallas Clark in check, but the fact is he's going to make you respect a guy like Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon and that means trouble. Too much Peyton, sorry Rex. Colts 24, Jets 13
My analysis on the NFC game isn't going to be as detailed (i dont think). There are a lot of people who want to see 40 year old Brett Favre take the Vikings to the 'Ship. But I just don't think it's going to happen. The Saints high octane offense is just going to be too much today. Yes, the Vikes have Jared Allen and the Williams, but Drew Brees has perfected the Saints offense and as big as this game is for the City of New Orleans, I don't see New Orleans losing today. I think we will see a lot points, but when the final horn sounds, the Saints will have more than the Vikings, and that my friends is what we call a victory in sports. I expect the Superdome to be rocking and we might actually see the doors get blown off that place. Saints 38, Vikings 34

Super Bowl Sunday is two weeks away and I'm predicting it will be a Tale of Two Peyton's -- Proverbial player/coach Peyton Manning and his Colts taking on Coach Sean Payton and his Saints.

Knowing Myself All Too Well....

Well I guess it's a good thing to know yourself. If nothing else, knowing one's self inside and out should at least result in having realistic expectations. When I started this blog ago one thing that I made reference to was how "blogging" was something that I'd wanted to do and it was something that I've been wanting to do but have yet to put in motion. I thought, well I just have to start it and then I'll be fine. I mentioned how I've started so many books over the years only to get a part of the way through them. I was afraid that would be my fate as a blogger as well. This is my 2nd post in 3 weeks now?? I've had so many thoughts - random ones of course - as well as things on my heart that I feel like the Lord is trying to tell me/teach me that I thought would be a great topic for a blog. So what happens you may ask?? I happen, that's what! As I'm typing this entry, I'm having the thought that I hope this blog can aid me in a bit of change. I really want to strive to be a more disciplined person in so many areas of my life, and unfortunately this has followed an undisciplined trend that I've followed before. Granted, I'm talking about a meaningless blog here, but what's the point of starting something if you aren't going to see it through. It's how you finish, right?? Hopefully, I'll surprise myself for a change and will start to see this through and pen my thoughts, random or not. That's all for now, thanks for playing!

Starting with something...

So, first things first, I guess I'm now officially a blogger. Why, you may ask?? I'm not real sure to tell you the truth. I've thought about starting one a few times in the past but have never fully gone through with the idea. It will be interesting to see how often I "blog." Hopefully I'll be a little bit better about this than I am with reading books - or a lot of things really - I start full force and then don't seem to see it through. That's probably not the greatest trait that I have, in fact, it's probably one of my greater flaws, the inability to finish something - forget about finishing strong, I just need to work at finishing all together. If you ever find yourself reading one of my blogs, you'll learn how my mind works and that I will jump from thought to thought and before you know you'll be wondering how I got to whatever specific place you may find yourself. I'm a person who has a lot to say but somehow from point A (my brain) to point B (my mouth) there are a lot of turns, u-turns, and various other unnecessary routes taken to get to where I'm trying to go. A lot of what I write probably won't make sense, then again, there may be on occasion where something I write actually makes sense or strikes a chord. This whole concept could be a disaster because I'm one of the worst story tellers known to man. My wife tells me it's because I feel the need to give every little detail in the story, even the stuff that isn't extremely relevant. In my mind, I see the story as being no good if you don't know how it came to be. So I'm probably at the point of "how did i get here?" I was simply trying to state why I'm starting to blog and just a few sentences later I'm telling you about how I'm an awful story teller...Random may not be the best term for how my mind operates, but I think it's pretty close. In the past, I've thought about starting a blog where I simply talk about soccer (something i love), music (something else I love), and other random things, but I figured that I'd just start one and can cover whatever I feel like - I mean isn't that really what blogging is all about? So, in closing here are a few things you'll come to know (some random, others not so much): 1- My wife is my best friend in the world and I love her more than anyone could ever possibly know; 2- I am a sports fanatic but if I could only watch 2 sporting events for the rest of my life it would be College Basketball (I'm a die hard Tar Heel fan) and Professional Soccer (the World Cup is the greatest sporting event in the world); 3-I know ENTIRELY too much about Saved By The Bell (which will get me absolutely nowhere in life); 4- last, but most certainly not least, I'm striving daily to become more like Jesus and live in light of His great commandment which you can find in Matthew 22:37-39. "Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself." Maybe that's not the most random of posts, but it's a start and you have to start somewhere.