Wednesday, January 28, 2009

25 Things

Alright, alright...

Jason, Erin, Clint and Amber tagged me on this 25 things deal, so here goes!

 (Blog readers, this is a Facebook thing) 

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. My favorite restaurants are Rooster’s in Baytown, Delia’s in Alvin, Tortuga’s in Galveston, Pappy’s in Argyle, Gringo’s in Pearland, Pappadeux in Kemah and Johnny Carino’s anywhere. Oh, and In & Out Burger…

2. My blood type is AB+ and I donate blood sometimes when the blood mobile comes to church, but I don’t like needles, so it drives me crazy when the blood bank calls me on my cell phone and asks me to come in and donate on my own.

3. Most days I love my job in youth ministry – but sometimes I wish I worked outside…Probably as a game warden.

4. I don’t have a consistent record of voting in elections, but I did vote in 2008, and I studied the platforms of everyone I would have to vote for and took notes into the ballot box with me so I could remember who I wanted to vote for.

5. I’ve living in Texas my whole life except for 7th grade when my dad’s job temporarily moved us to North Carolina.  As a result, I feel like I know NOTHING about Texas history and that disappoints me.

6. I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my life – Chicago, Brooks and Dunn, George Strait, Acappella, AVB, Ray Boltz, David Ball, Keith Urban, Clay Walker (5x), Avalon, Casting Crowns, Leeland, DC Talk, Jaci Velasquez, FFH, Ginny Owens, Phillips Craig and Dean, Wayne Watson, Michael Card, Shane & Shane, Shaun Groves, Amy Grant, 4Him, The Newsboys (4x), The Supertones (picked them up at the airport and took them to dinner), Grits, The Judds, Audio Adrenaline, Caedmon’s Call, Third Day, Michael W. Smith, Mercy Me, Chris Tomlin, Diamond Rio, David Crowder Band, plus a lot more I can’t remember.  And, I once skipped a free Jars of Clay concert in 1998 because I didn’t know much about them yet…I’m still kicking myself.

7. I DO NOT ride roller coasters.  I’m a chicken.

8. I’m thrilled that my job doesn’t require me to wear a tie, even on Sundays.

9. I didn’t hit my “growth spurt” until about 9th or 10th grade.  When I started 8th grade I was 4’6” tall and probably weighed about 70 lbs.  My mom used to point out good men who were short so that I could have some role models and not be discouraged about my size.

10. I made a good enough score on my SAT/ACTs to qualify for a full-tuition scholarship to college.  When I was being interviewed by the admissions counselors who would decide who would and who wouldn’t get the scholarship, one of the counselors used a creative metaphor about crayons to ask me if I felt like my success on the test was a result of nature or nurture.  I think I answered something along the lines of 50%.  I was wrong and he’d probably be amazed if he knew how much I’ve thought about that question since then.  I think it’s more like 99.99% nurture…There have always been a lot of people in my life who cared for me a lot.

11. I feel like I’m a terrible conversationalist, but I like to be talked to.  I appreciate people who have the ability to make me talk by asking good questions, but I don’t feel like I’m good at that.

12. I’ve had jobs as a t-ball umpire, soccer referee, Target sales associate, campus tour guide, office assistant, youth ministry intern, oil pump-jack painter and youth minister.

13. I wish DFW had a better Christian radio station like Houston’s, and as a result, I listen to mostly sports talk radio and NPR (which my co-workers refer to as National Socialist Radio) in the car these days.

14. For years now, I’ve been truly trying to internalize an important life lesson I’ve learned – that “unasked-for advice is usually heard as criticism.”  I think that my failure to learn this lesson early in life did damage to a lot of my relationships, specifically those with my younger brothers.  More info on that lesson here: http://bobhyatt.typepad.com/pastorhacks/2009/01/best-of-2008-when-to-confront.html

15. If I could be anywhere right now, I’d be on the King Ranch in south Texas, standing waist-deep in the bay with a fishing pole in hand and a stringer of fish tied to my belt.  I hope I’ll get to share this experience with my son one day.

16. I never met any of my great-grandparents.

17. Although I consider myself a sports fan, I don’t know much about sports history or statistics, I ALWAYS feel like it’s just a game, and I certainly don’t live and die by any team’s success or failure.  That being said, Go Astros.

18. I sometimes miss being a youth intern…students more readily related to me back then.

19. My favorite music groups are Mercy Me, Shane and Shane, Caedmon’s Call, U2, George Strait, Clay Walker and Jars of Clay.

20. I don’t like to shave and I usually try to get away with going 3-4 days between shaves.  I’m probably too old to get away with this.

21. In middle school, I played roles in two productions at a local community theater.  I even played the violin in one of the productions.  I never got interested enough in theater to being involved, but I’m thankful for the experience because it probably taught me a lot about projecting my voice and communicating with an audience…skills that I use a lot in my job.

22. In 7th grade, an MRI revealed a benign, damaged area of my brain that doctors called a “gliosis.”  They said that it was probably the result of an infection I had as an infant and that it shouldn’t affect me later in life.  My wife is suspicious of that statement and wants me to have it re-checked.  She’s probably right. (On a related note, Wikipedia is scary)

23. No matter how hard I’ve tried, I’ve never been able to water ski.  I can knee board and ride the tube no problem, but I can’t get up out of the water on skis…

24. I would rather play golf with one other person than with three other people.

25. I really miss driving a pickup truck.

26. I probably put way too much time and thought into producing this list.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Only in Texas

I'm sitting in the home-office, my feet up and my laptop in front of me, working on my sermon for tomorrow's worship service. The baby is asleep in his swing next to me, and right behind him is our Christmas tree. It's December 13th...

...and an ice-cream truck just drove by the front of our house, playing his sure-to-get-stuck-in-your-head tune, selling frozen treats.

And the weather man says that three days from now, the high temperature will be 38 degrees...

Friday, November 28, 2008

Tagged by SeeDub...kind of

SeeDub tagged everyone, so I'll get back into blogging today...who knows if this'll be my re-entrance into the blogging world?!?  Anyway, here goes:

I'm listing 25 things for which I'm thankful: 
  1. My wife, the mother of my son, with whom I've magically fallen even MORE in love with over the past couple of months.  God is so faithful in blessing our marriage, and I'm blessed to have a partner in life, parenting, ministry and a great best friend.
  2. My son, who has already changed us in so many ways and strengthened my worship of God.  I can already tell that this ride - parenting him - is going to be one of the most fun and developmental endeavor I've ever experienced.
  3. My son's grandparents, whose joy over his arrival has communicated so much love to me this year.
  4. My brothers - because my relationships with them are getting better all the time...
  5. My grandparents, and particularly my granddad who successfully underwent major back-surgery last week at age 92, for their love and spiritual example to me and my family.
  6. Finishing Grad School this past May...
  7. A church for which it's a pleasure to work.    *Bonus* - the chance to study scripture with a father and son pair who accepted Christ last week!
  8. Opportunities for my wife to work from home and thereby stay home with my son everyday.
  9. Fridays off of work and the frequent opportunities to play golf
  10. Our Thursday night Small Group and the friendships that are growing there - I look forward to helping each other raise our kids...
  11. This Week?  Mouse traps & peanut butter...
  12. Google Reader
  13. My buddy Adam - the kind of friend you can pick up where you left off with, even when you don't get to see each other often enough.
  14. Youth Ministry Volunteers of every capacity - not only because I couldn't do ministry without them, but because I love seeing other people develop a true love and appreciation for students who are encountering God and faith.
  15. The Graco Silhouette Infant Swing
  16. The church staff that I work with and the relationships we enjoy at work...Plus, Staff Retreat.
  17. Blue Bell Ice Cream
  18. My Youth Small Group - because the boys in my group give me the chance to be in relationship with students even when the youth group seems so big...
  19. My cell phone - my first smartphone which has significantly impacted my workflow, to-do list, golf game, and overall stress level, even though its alarm has woken us up a couple of times reminding me of someone's birthday at 11:45pm...
  20. People who share youth ministry advice and resources...particularly Tim.
  21. Skype and Webcams to let the grandparents chat with the kid...
  22. Encouraging e-mails from youth ministry parents - the kind of notes that keep me energized about an often tiring ministry.
  23. Dr Pepper
  24. Growing up fishing on the King Ranch - a unique privilege that made vacations REALLY cool for the first 28 years of my life...
  25.  The love and forgiveness provided me by Jesus Christ
So that's it - if you actually keep up with this blog through my constant absence, consider yourself tagged!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Brock is not dead

Every now and then - like at least once a week - I remember that I need to blog (usually when the sitemeter report comes in reminding me that there are still people checking this thing...).

But when I think about blogging, I remember - I could be working on my Exegesis papers right now. I have two of them due next Monday. And they're hard. And I'm tired of them. And I'm tired of the library. And I had to turn down 2 golfing invitations last week because of exegesis.

The light at the end of the tunnel? I registered for my last grad school class Wednesday morning. I'll take Advanced Restoration History this fall, and then graduate (hopefully) in December!

I'll do my best to get back to a more faithful schedule on this thing after these papers are done...

Oh, and it's Sarah's and my 2nd anniversary tomorrow! I love being married to her! Pray for her as she's had to put up with me now for two years, but especially because exegesis has made me REALLY boring for the last 2-3 weeks.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Celebrity Look-alikes

I've got a youth minister friend who's big into Myspace because it helps him connect with his youth group kids. He's a great guy who happened to be my youth minister in high school and is a big part of the reason that I'm in youth ministry today.

Today I was looking at his Myspace and noticed a picture. It's from myheritage.com and it's a deal that shows his face plus about 10 celebrities that he resembles. You can go to their website, upload a picture of your own face, and it'll output these celebrity photos.

I thought my friend's was particularly funny though because his highest match - the one at the top of the picture and with the highest matching percentage - was a black guy. That was followed by 9 white guys that look a lot like my friend, but the black guy was rated the highest. I got a good laugh out of it...Until I went and uploaded my own photo...



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