Just trying to go throuh life without looking too stupid; its not working out so well. I am still trying to figure this blog thing out. It feels weird asking people to read my thoughts. Then again, it feels weird going through all this trouble just to post them...

Friday, December 23, 2005

James Dungy found dead.

Like many NFL fans, I was very saddened to hear about the death of James Dungy. James was the 18 year-old son of Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indy Colts.

Tony is one of the true good-guys of the NFL. I have heard many of the stories about head coaches' daily habits of three-hours of sleep, all day at the office and long road trips away from home.

I think the only time I have seen family members of the coaches, is the trendy crowd shot of the wife and children in the stands, perhaps the owner's box. This time, it was on SportsCenter.
Tony Dungy is known for asking other head coaches around the league about their families before they get to the small talk about the teams. Dungy puts his family first. This time, his family was first; on SportsCenter. But for all the wrong and saddening reasons...

Take a moment and lift up a prayer to the Dungy family.
Take another moment and lift up a prayer for your family.

The Colts are going to Seattle to play the Seahawks this Sunday
...but who cares?

M@

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

'Tis the Season to be Sorry

Ahhh I love the holidays.

The mall madness, the schedule-juggling...the offending.
I think the only PC should be a computer. Politically Correct is a sorry phrase made up by a sorry person for a sorry reason. First of all it is an oxymoron; I've never known a correct political anything! So far, our political correctness has changed mascots, taken God out of our pledge and Christ out of Christmas. Last time I checked, we still had a high unemployment rate, crime rate is up, Meth is running wild, and don't get me started on the Cowboys...
This is kinda like the senator that decided to take up the cause of Terrell Owens. Of all the things to be concerned about, he decides to spend his time on something EVERYBODY wishes would just go away and NOBODY cares about!
This is what really jerks my chain. Not because I have the deep loyalty to Christmas, but because of the situation.
Follow me on this...

1.) Non-Christians (PC"ians"), want to take the word "Christmas" out of the the western hemisphere because it is Christianity forcing their beliefs on those that don't wish to hear them. Instead of "Merry Christmas" which has been around as long as Earth, it is supposed to become "Happy Holidays." What if someone doesn't want to have a happy holiday season?!?! Wouldn't that be forcing your wishes on someone as well?? This way of thinking is flawed...

2.) Christians have been against the whole Christmas season because many feel it has become a commercialized industry that has nothing to do with Christ anymore. Hence the cheesy "Reason for the Season" lights and letterheads. I know Christian families that don't even celebrate Christmas. I don't care either way, I tend to lean towards tradition - I mean come on, I am Church of Christ...

So the industry wants to get rid of Christmas because it is religious, and the religious want to get rid of Christmas because of the industry. This sounds like one of those parent/teen relationships I have the pleasure of dealing with.
"I just don't understand why they [fill in the blank]!" - Parent
"They just don't understand [fill in the blank]!" - Teen
Part of me wants to just grab them by the collar, shake them around a bit and say...
"Sit down and quit talking!
This is not a big problem in the long run!
Quit being stupid!"

I think I've got it all figured out...
Sources tell me that Christmas is run by the Mob...

M@

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Cluth Performances

This is a weekend that is marked down on most calendars of the DFW Metro"ian" sports fan.

Sunday - Kansas City Chiefs vs. Dallas Cowboys
Monday - Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas Mavericks

I was most fortunate to be able to attend both games, and had great seats. Both games came down to the final play, each game had a different result.

Sunday, one of my best friends from ACU, Dustin, invited me to the vital "must win" game against the tough Chiefs. Little did I know we had killer seats!

30 yard line - 17 rows behind Chiefs' bench!

Cowboys scored with 22 seconds left in the season on a play-fake from Bledsoe to Campbell. It was an awesome play because it was on the opposite side of the field, and there was no doubt he scored the touchdown. Sometimes, it is hard to tell if the touchdown is scored. He was wide open. The game came down to a Chief drive of 60 yards in 20 seconds. 65,000 people crossed themselves and prayed to Parcells. Tynes set up to attempt a 41 yard field goal to send the game into overtime...


He missed it wide right...

On the other hand, I was able to attend the Mavericks game the following night against the Lakers. Again, I had amazing company; my beautiful wife, Kyla and our friends Jeremy and Sara Beck! For those that are fellow Kobe-haters, Kobe Bryant is worth the price of admission. I still can't stand the guy, but after he hit a turn-around 3-pointer from the 4th row, I and 20,000 other fans could only gasp. The thing of it, is that Kobe pulls that stuff out all the time. Hitting jump shots that look like miracles when they hit the bottom of the net. I actually defended Bryant.

"That guy is the luckiest man alive!"

"After seeing it in person," I replied, "how many lucky shots does it take to think he may actually be that good!?"

I immediately dry-heaved and took a shower!

Oh, did I mention the reverse-layup that was an aweful lot like Dr. J?

It is funny to me how one was able to produce when the game was on the line, and how the other wasn't.

Cowboys 31 - Chiefs 28

Lakers 109 - Mavericks 106

Bledsoe for President!

M@

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Snow Day!

Due to bad weather, neither Kyla nor I have to go into work tomorrow. We even cancelled church! Guess it was too cold for Jesus...

Here is my favorite memory of a snow day.

When I was a junior at ACU, I lived in a house called "The Melting Pot". The name still survives today without any of my roomates even in Abilene. We had a day of days, a snow day. I was already on campus for a test, when I heard everything else was cancelled for the rest of the day.
So I did what any other young aspiring student at a private university did; I stole a tray from the cafeteria, ducked out the back and ran like a girl. We invited around 15 people to come over and hang out which ended up being around 30 when the day was over.
This was sometime in January, and we had in our possession a coffin that was used as a prop for a haunted house. We decided the best thing to do, obviously, was take one of the lids off(the big one that covers from the shoulders and down) layer up, and tie the coffin to the back of my roommate's, Dustin, 4x4 suburban. We found a football helmet, my lacrosse helmet, and a baseball helmet, I mean we're not stupid! Dustin put the truck and gear and we were off. All you could see was a red suburban, pulling an old yellow coffin, and three heads bouncing around like bobble-head bobsledders.
We actually saw a woman, whom once she saw the coffin, make her child come inside and leave the snowman he had been working on!

College, the best six years of my life...

M@

Monday, December 05, 2005

Gone in 35....days.



Kyla and I have an announcement to make.
We have a new member to the family.
No, we didn't get another dog.
Well, it is not a NEW member, just one returning home.
His name is Antonio.

No thanks to our insurance representative, I hopped on a plane and headed to San Antonio to pick up our once stolen vehicle. I called our insurance guy around 3 on Friday afternoon to setup a plane reservation and found that he had taken an early weekend. He didn't leave his cell number, so I can't call him when he is away from the office; which is good because I would hate to inconvenience him with all of this!
This is a story of Jerry Seinfeld, I'm telling your right now. My first mistake was booking a flight that left shortly after church. And when church went a little long, I was already pushing it. Next time, remind me to not put God on a stopwatch. If people started accepting Christ and putting him on in baptism, I would have missed my flight, and we can't have that! We ran home to change clothes, grab my iPod for the LONG drive home, iPod charger and tape-adapter, GPS, and my book.
(T-minus 15 minutes to liftoff.)
Buying a one way ticket, when you are 25 years-old, will get you a special mark on the bottom of your boarding pass. This is bad. When I walked through the ninth metal-detector, the renta-cop asked me to move into a seperate line and await further assitance.
(T-minus 10 minutes to liftoff.)
They then moved me into a line that was covered in a plastic tarp and roped off with red-tape. I looked around to find a clock (my watch was in the little bowl for wedding rings, brass knuckles, etc.) and through all of the plastic, red flashing lights and useless white smoke, I could see several astronaughts moving the body of E.T.
(T-minus 5 minutes to liftoff.)
A very nice man came to interogate me. After the initial introductions had been made, he began to describe (in detail, God bless him) how they were going to search my bags, why they were doing so, and how global warming is affecting the population of the white rhino in Africa.
(5)
After several minutes of speculation, I convinced the older woman that what she was holding in her hand was actually called an "cell phone", not a detonation device.
(4)
"Thank you for your patience, Mr. McBryde. You are free to go."
"You owe me dinner!"
(3)
The man at the exit of the security area looks like he would rather be watching reruns of Charles In Charge, than manning the last lookout for terrorists.
"Where are you headed?"
"San Antonio."
"When does your plane leave?"
"NOW!"
"You had better hurry."
"You know what, you are probably right. I hadn't thought about it."
(2)
Finally made to it the gate just as they were closing the doors. Any longer and I would have pulled a Lloyd Christmas.
(1)
Found a seat on a row all to myself! Openned up my bag to grab my book and my .... DOH! .... my iPod was still in the car with Kyla! NNNNOOOOO!!!!!
Liftoff!
Needless to say the truck is in great shape. There is a small hole under the passenger door handle (see Exhibit B),
but the interior is cleaner than I left it. The thieves left a mix CD that was so scratched my CD player rejected it. There was also a Janis Joplin cassette tape in the tape deck. I was assured by the mechanic that there was nothing of his in the truck, which was odd when I found a receipt with some guy's name on it in the glove box. The receipt was from another shop in Dallas. The vehicle description matches my truck .... no way.... there is just no way .... this is too good .... did the guy that just stole my truck, leave his name on a receipt, in my truck!? Later in the drive, I was looking in my overhead cubby hole and found a pack of Big-Red bubble gum. The package has been openned and two sticks are missing. I don't like Big-Red, actually, I can't stand it. But I set aside my own personal preferences and I stole a stick of gum from the guy that stole my truck. The cinnamon flavor pales in comparison to the sweet taste of vengance! Apparently Big-Red has street credit!

M@