What About Texas?

It’s a little aggravating.  All this talk of Florida being in the National Championship after beating Alabama.  I guess I understand that Florida IS playing great football right now.  They just beat number one at a neutral site.  In fact Florida has been playing great football since their loss to Ol’ Miss.  What?  Ol’ Miss beat Florida?  Yeah.  In the swamp!  AT Florida!  When they were unranked!

Meanwhile, Texas has one loss.  It was on the road against #7 Texas Tech.  Tech beat ‘em on the last play of the game.  Now, it wasn’t all that.  Tech lead the whole game except for 1:29 of the fourth quarter.  However Texas mounted an impressive comeback in the second half of that game before they got beat with :08 on the clock.

Assuming Oklahoma beats Missouri in the Big 12 Championship that is about 2 minutes awy from starting as I type this, then I contend it should be Texas and Oklahoma for the National Championship.  It’s the right and fair thing to do, but I doubt it will happen.

Texas Tech is being left out of the conversation because of the way they lost to Oklahoma on national TV.  But, don’t forget.  Tech has only one loss and they have impressive victories over Texas, Oklahoma State and Kansas in Lawrence.  Not really fair that after that kind of season they should play a Mississippi team that has lost 4 games.  Not a slam on Mississippi.  If that’s the way it is then Tech could have lost a couple of more games and still gone Cotton.

Utah, USC (who lost to Oregon State, who lost to Oregon), Cincinnati all are probably going to be in BCS Bowls and Tech won’t?  I don’t think it’s fair, but maybe I’m just being a fan.

To me it should be Texas and Oklahoma for the National Championship and Texas Tech to the Fiesta Bowl.  They all earned it!

We’ll find out for sure when the Bowl bids are given out I think later tonight.

UPDATE:  Bowl Selection Show is Sunday Night at 8:00 Eastern.  That’s 6:00 pm for me here in Arizona.  College Football needs a playoff.  Take the top 16 teams and play it out through December.  Fun times!

Wild at Heart

GREAT book!  I remember when I was a new Christian.  Barely a year in the faith.  My Church, Trinity Church in Lubbock, had a men’s groups study on, “Wild at Heart.”  I already had a home group so I didn’t sign up although I was interested.  Especially since it was being taught by an Air Force recruiter I admired.

So, years later, I FINALLY read it.  I read it on Saturday.  Now I’m wondering, what took me so long??

There is so much to the book.  I’ll probably reread it sometime.  The main messages I got out of the book?  For me, it boils down to a couple of principles that has really igniting something in me.  The biggest and most impactful?  It’s OK for me to be who I am!  God gave me a lot of wonderful gifts.  I don’t need to be afraid of them.  I shouldn’t suppress them.  That’s like hiding your light under a bushel.  No.  God has reasons why He made me the way He did.  I need to come out from behind my personality and quit beating myself up for being an under achiever.  And, to challenge myself to not be so lazy.

Growing up, school was very easy for me.  I’d show up, stay awake in class (for the most part), blow off the homework and ace the tests.  I developed a nasty habit of being lazy.  Hey.  If I can excel without trying, then why push myself?

It truly is a blessing and a curse.  How cool that I can just show up and learn!  Of course the flip side is, sometimes challenges come along in life that do require extra effort.  I’d rather watch TV :-)

When I was in elementary school I found out that not everyone thought the really smart people were cool.  I also discovered I could make people laugh.  So.  Why not suppress the one and develop the other?  Classic under achiever syndrome.

I think God is challenging me.  Not to be the smartest around, but to not be afraid to be who I am.  To be thankful for the gifts He has given me and to use them for His glory!  That means studying His word more.  Spending time in His presence.  As I learn about Him and get to know Him, I can share with others.  I desire to teach and preach.  If it’s His will I need to pursue it!  The big question I have now is, what is the best path to take to do that?

Another area is assertiveness.  I need to assert myself more and have more confidence!  Or at least realize that I have more to contribute then I have at times.  Once upon a time in high school I was brimming with confidence.  I was class president.  I was all league in track.  Good at football.  School was easy and I was popular.  It seemed everything I did turned to gold!  Slowly as my drug and alcohol use increased I started to falter.  By the time I was a junior I quit football, was kicked off of the track team and dropped out of school the following year.  I languished for a few years before I moved to New Mexico to start my broadcasting career.  I have done pretty well despite not having a college degree thanx to the gifts God has given me, but I never quite regained the confidence I had before I started messing up.

I need to realize.  God’s gifts and talents are without repentance!   I didn’t mess up His best plan for my life, rather He has made me a new creation in Him!  I can forget the former self and truly live!  That means forgetting those things that are behind and pressing forward to the high calling of God.  With His help I intend to do just that.

The other area is relationships.  Women.  But that is none of your business :-)  God is teaching me some things.  Someday, Lord willing, I am going to be a great husband to a blessed beautiful woman!

Yet Again!

Tedious.  Another evening ANOTHER AWESOME SUNSET!!!  Arizona has every place I’ve been to beat by quite a long ways when it comes to sunset awesomeness!  Better than Roswell.  Better than Lubbock.  Better than Odessa.  Better than Oregon.  (although Oregon has best lots of other stuff!)  Even better than San Diego at the beach!  It really boggles the mind.

Two things.  First, I noticed that my camera adds some color to the sunsets.  Usually it’s a nice effect, but I would rather capture the actual real colors.  Maybe that’s the difference between a $199 camera and a $1,199 camera :-)  I suppose even a $500 camera might do the trick.  Great.  Something else I need!

Next was catching the hummingbird in flight.  They are sooooo cute!  I stood just a few feet away and waited with my camera.  A couple of times I didn’t have it raised to eye level.  Even when I moved to raise the camera (s)he didn’t fly away every time.  A couple of times, but not every time.  After  I got a few pictures and knew I had what I wanted the next time (s)he came around, I just watched.  Standing three feet away looking at this tiny wonder while (s)he sipped away on some sugar water.  Pretty remarkable.  Did I mention the sunset going on the whole time wasn’t too shabby?!

There really is a God and He really is good!

Happy Mother’s Day

I love to drive!  Especially when there is family and fun on the other side.  For Mother’s Day I was in Lubbock on my way to the Big “D”.  Let me back up 650 miles.  Saturday morning, I left Tucson for Lubbock.  It worked out really well.  I am visiting my son before he leaves for basic training on May 22 (or is it the 21st?).  I stop in Lubbock on the way to Dallas to spend the night and visit with Mom.

The timing was perfect!  Saturday night at Mom’s and wake up Sunday morning just in time to take Mom to Golden Corral for Mother’s day!  That’s where she wanted to go, so that’s where we went.

I was surprised.  The food wasn’t that great.  However, the company was good :-)  We got done in plenty of time to go to church at my friend and pastor’s church, Calvary Chapel Lubbock.

The service was AWESOME!  Pastor Ben is a good teacher and he showed us how Jesus prayed in John 17.   Jesus prayed for ME!  and He’s praying for you right now too.

After the sermon we visited quite a lot and then I took Mom home.  We said our goodbyes and then I went to visit with my friend Don Webster!  We are working on a web site that I will talk more about soon.  His daughter had graduated from Texas Tech over the weekend, so they were all in town.  We went to the Tech campus and took pictures with Kristi and her diploma and all that.  Then Don rode part of the way back to Dallas with me while we talked about family, life, and business.

I even got a Calzone at “One Guy From Italy!”  They are the best Calzones EVAH!

So, now I’m safely in Dallas having a nice family visit :-)

Hopefully I’ll take the time to update throughout the week.  Right now we are getting ready to head to the UT Arlington Campus.  Michael s thinking of transfering there for ROTC and Engineering.  Should be a good day!

Things I Forgot

Can I ever take a trip and remember everything???  I’m not sure it’s possible.

I went to the opening reception for RTNDA and right off the bat they want you to put your business card in a fish bowl for a drawing.  I put in my card and I have like two left!  Duh.  How could I forget to bring like 100 business cards???!  It’s not like I didn’t have a nice reminder.  I was packing my leather laptop case with all the stuff I needed this morning before I left.  Well, I won that nice leather laptop case at the Lubbock Business Expo about 10 years ago by putting my business card in a fish bowl  :-)  NAB has a HUGE exhibit hall here full of stuff to win.  Not only that, but it’s harder to network without trading business cards.  Great.

The next thing I forgot was my cable to download video into the computer from my camcorder.  I shot some video at the reception (Sponsored by Disney) and I thought maybe I’d make a video tonight and put it on YouTube and then embed it here.  Oops.  I did have my picture made with Mickey Mouse and another with the Toy Story guy.  The cowboy.  Voiced by Tom Hanks.  You know!  Anyway, I can’t think of his name.

Not sure what else I forgot.  My brain maybe :-)

Calvary Chapel Lubbock

I’m excited to be working on the web site for Calvary Chapel Lubbock.  Pastor Ben Martinez is a good friend of mine who has a passion for God and for seeing people come into a real relationship with God through His Son Jesus!  I had offered to help with his site last year sometime and he liked the design.  Finally yesterday, it happened! I am now the web site guy for Calvary Chapel Lubbock!

In a few weeks I’m going to start editing his sermons into radio shows for a station in San Angelo.  I’m looking forward to listening to his sermons while I make a little extra money.  It’s a win win situation.  God is soooo good!

Who knows where all of this might lead.  I pray it leads to more people having a deeper relationship with God, who loves all of us more than we can know!

President Bill Clinton

Imagine my surprise when I came back to work from lunch Tuesday. It was Super Tuesday Two and Senator Hillary Clinton was in the fight of her life to stay alive in the Democratic race for President. So, on my voice mail was a person from the Hillary Clinton Campaign asking if we’d be interested in interviewing President Clinton that afternoon?! I thought about it for a few seconds and called ‘em right back!

I was a bit nervous. We are a 501 (c)3 and are not allowed to endorse any candidates. I knew we couldn’t let him on live and just urge everyone to vote for his wife. I thought maybe his people might decline us the interview if I told them we would have to record the Former President’s comments and then do some editing.

I called and explained and they were still interested! We have stations in Amarillo, Lubbock, and Midland/Odessa so it made sense that they would like to reach segments of all three with one phone call. So. I started preparing questions and waited for the call.

FINALLY they called at 5:30 p.m. and gave me the number and code to join the conference call and wait my turn. I heard Clinton wrapping up his last answer to the guy before me and then he asked the President for a liner! So this guy is saying, “could you say, ‘you’re listening to so and so on Fox such and such.’” After two or three tries you could tell that President Clinton was getting frustrated with the guy and told him he was having trouble hearing him. He got through it sorta monotone with a half stumble and that was good enough. My turn.

Someone from the campaign got on the line. “Mike Shaw are you on the line?” “Yes I am.” Then Bill Clinton’s voice. I thanked him for his time and made the comment that his schedule must be grueling. He agreed with that but said he was enjoying traveling around Ohio and Texas and that he had been to all three cities, Amarillo, Lubbock and Odessa. Then he just kept on going. Urged everyone to caucus after they vote for Hillary. The Texas two-step. Only time you can vote twice and not get in trouble., etc.

I was then able to ask him three questions before we ran out of time. Actually, I sorta stole the time for the last one. I expected him to be personable and smart and I was actually surprised just how well he handled all three of my questions. Especially when I asked about his wife’s faith and how that might help shape her policy. As he was answering I was thinking that he sounded like he had actually read James a few times. Not sure why that surprised me. I guess you look at all of the controversy surrounding his time in office and I suppose I was thinking that maybe he hadn’t read a lot of Bible. Ever since the interview, I’ve been wondering, and hoping, that he has a relationship with God and that just maybe we can visit in Heaven about the interview and maybe some other stuff.

The time went by too fast. I ended up talking to him maybe five minutes. If I had to do it over again, I would have ditched my third question and instead followed up on his wife’s faith. I would have liked to ask him to reconcile the answer he gave about having a faith that works vs. her stance on abortion and stem cell research. Unfortunately I didn’t think on my feet fast enough and the moment passed.

All in all, it was a very interesting experience. I mentioned to him before we got off the phone that we have a lot of stations in Michigan. If they end up re-voting, I would like to talk to him again! We shall see.

Here’s a link to the three questions and answers on the stations web site.

Something Fishy

The fish tank is doing well again. It’s been through a lot since I moved from Odessa to Tucson. First, it cracked during the move. It sat empty in my apartment for over a year while I tried to decide whether to try to repair it, or get a new one. Finally, I got some help, threw out the cracked tank and bought a new one at Wal-Mart.

I set up the new tank. Bought some fish. It sure was nice! The sound of the pumps and the water. The guppies and neons and tetras swimming around peacefully. Very nice. Unfortunately, I got really lazy.

I didn’t clean the tank for a long time. Some of the fish died. Algae was growing. Not good. So, I’ve cleaned it. Bought some new fish. And it looks better than ever!

I am determined to keep it clean! I also added some floating “plants” as shelter for baby guppies. When I lived in Lubbock, I had so many new guppies that I sold them back to my favorite pet store from time to time. Guppies are my favorite because they have so much color, are hardy, and reproduce a lot. The baby guppies provide live food for the other fish, and the survivors become new colorful fish that in turn churn out more live food and, well, you get the idea.

I also like the little African Frogs! They are so cute when they swim to the surface for a quick gulp of air. They are a crowd favorite!

I love my 55 gallon fish tank. Maybe someday I’ll switch to salt water. Until then, I’ll enjoy my guppies and neons :-)

Driving Back from Texas, Thanksgiving Weekend, 2007

November 25, 2007 Snow!

Usually when I’m driving 600+ miles, I don’t stop for anything except gas and maybe a pit stop. This day was different! 4+ inches of snow in Plains was awfully perty. Click on a pic for an 800 x 600 version.

Approaching and leaving Plains, the road was pretty much covered with snow. It was nice of everyone else to make the path in the snow!

Chaves County has an exceptional courthouse. It looks even better in the snow. According to the National Weather Service 7-10″ fell Saturday Night/Sunday AM.

White Thanksgiving! Sorta

It WAS a white Thanksgiving in Lubbock. When I arrived at Mom’s Thanksgiving Evening, they had about an inch on the ground, maybe a bit less. During the drive, I ran into 2 to 3″ around Plains to Brownfield, but as I traveled north there was less snow. Friday was cold, but no snow. Friday night/Saturday AM about an inch or less fell again on Lubbock. Enough for me to go out and take a few pictures. The forecast for Saturday afternoon was for 2-4″ in Lubbock, but it never happened and the forecast was revised. However, a very nice snowfall occurred south and west of Lubbock. On my drive back to Tucson Sunday morning I ran into 4+” in Plains and 6+” in Roswell! I actually stopped (I NEVER stop when I’m on a long drive!) and took a few pictures :-) Sure, I would have enjoyed more snow, but I am thankful that I was able to travel safely and still enjoy snow on the ground. It is a rare thing to have snow in West Texas for Thanksgiving. I’m glad I got a taste! The best part of the trip was spending time with Mom. Great food and great fun!!!

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