5 Reasons College Basketball Is Better Than College Football

1. Butler beats Syracuse

2. Butler beats Kansas State

3. Butler beats Michigan State

4. Butler is in the National Championship Game

5. No such thing as the BCS!

Even if Butler gets blown out . . . this is what college sports is all about!

Prison reform

According to an update from Breakpoint Ministries, California is in the midst of reforming their prison system.  California has a $20 billion deficit in their budget so they are looking at everything.  The “corrections” line item in the budget is 11% of the total budget!

Cali is also under a court order to reduce the number of inmates they have.  There are currently 167,000 people behind bars and the prison system can only hold 2/3 of that number.

Some of the options they are looking at should be looked at by other states facing the same crisis:

• Easing the parole violation infractions (many people go back to prison because the were late for a meeting)
• Some sentences are being lightened after finishing drug or education programs
• They are looking at ways to find out who are the truly dangerous criminals that need to be behind bars and figuring out punishment for those who aren’t dangerous, outside of prison.

The church should be figuring out ways to walk hand in hand with the state to bring justice to people that is balanced with redemption and restoration.  I’m not sure we’ve figured that out quite yet.

The most amazing thing of all of it is this: Every offender behind bars costs the state an average of $47,000 a year.

That is a mind numbing figure!  No clothes shopping, cafeteria style food, a living space that is smaller than the average bedroom, no car payment, no gas, no credit card bills, no childcare, no entertainment expenses, no life insurance bills, no car insurance, etc.

I understand guards and employees are being paid and that there are health costs, but $47,000 a year?

Maybe the solution is to let the people in the church who scrutinize every dime spent should be hired to be the financial experts in our prison systems. 

Another problem solved, by yours truly!

Settling The Debate

Now that Freebirds has moved to town there has been many friendships lost over the Freebirds vs. Chipotle debate.  Here is the official verdict.  You might ask why this is the “official” verdict?  Because I posted it before you.

Size – Advantage Freebirds
Hybrid, Freebird, Monster, Super Monster; Chipotle has one.

Tortillas – Advantage Freebirds
Multiple flavors for Freebirds.  Chipotle has one.

Rice – Advantage Chipotle
Chipotle has the better flavor

Beans – Advantage Freebirds
They both have black beans, but your other choice is refried (Freebirds) or pinto (Chipotle).  Seriously?!?!?!?!  Pinto beans . . . you’ve got to be kidding me.  I won’t be surprised if Chipotle lines up kidney beans next.

Steak – Advantage Freebirds
Everyone talks about Chiptole’s meat, but it taste like pencil eraser

Chicken – Push
Flavor goes to Chipotle, but you can choose dark meat or white meat at Freebirds

Other meat – Advantage Chipotle
My wife likes the barbacoa.  Chipotle gives more options here.

Cheese – Advantage Freebirds
More options PLUS queso

Extras – Advantage Freebirds
Not even an argument here.  Freebirds has so many different things you can put on your burrito that it isn’t even funny.

Sauce – Advantage Freebirds
So many different flavors.  I pile on the habanero AND the BBQ sauce.  Chipotle is pretty limited.

Desserts – Advantage Freebirds
Chipotle doesn’t have anything

Ambiance – Advantage Freebirds
Cool vans out front and the statue of liberty on a motorcycle crashing through the wall OR stainless steel.  I want stainless steel in my appliances, but not in my restaurant.

Cool Factor - Advantage Freebirds
Freebirds lets you recycle while in the store.  Until 2006 the primary owner of Chipotle was McDonalds (can anyone say “sellout”)

Final Tally – Freebirds wins 10-2!

Dear Freebirds owners . . . please feel free to send me gift cards in any amount for the free advertising.

Re-imagining Christmas Eve

I went to the Christmas Eve service at my church with my wife and my 3 year old.  I’m an analytical person (that’s the positive way of saying “critical”) so I spent most of my evening trying to worship, but it’s hard.  It’s hard when your personal culture runs headlong into other people’s culture, but even harder when your brain is trying to “fix” things AND keep your 3 year old from distracting others.

I’ve gone to Christmas Eve services with my family many times, but this year I had the best Christmas Eve worship in my entire life.  It took place on the floor in my daughter’s bedroom.

Some of our best friends in the world gave our daughter a gift called “What God Wants For Christmas.”  Watching my daughter engage and get excited about Christmas was awesome!

If you’ve got other family traditions for Christmas Eve, post them here.  I’d love to see what they are.

Christmas Eve service is great, but I’m starting to think the family Christmas Eve worship might be the way to go . . . at least until I figure out how not to be burned by the candle wax while singing “Silent Night”.

Top Ten Scary Movies of All-Time

10. Jaws – Watch it now and you might doze off, but I saw it when I was just a little kid and I still don’t go into the ocean today.  The shark isn’t scary, it’s the music

9. Session 9 – Little known movie that was really good.

8. Open Water – As I was about to get over my ocean phobia due to Jaws, this movie came out.  Yes, I’m 34 and I am a pathetic excuse for a man.

7. Blair Witch Project – When it first came out at the Dobie in Austin and everyone thought it was real . . . yeah, pretty scary.

6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre – original or remake, doesn’t matter.  Plus when you live in Central Texas there are about 73 places that you can go to where people tell you “the Texas Chainsaw Massacre happened right around here.”

5. Saw – Not so much scary, but great twists.  Since it falls in the horror section, it got ranked here.

4. Nightmare on Elm Street – true classic and I can still sing the song, “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you”

3. Friday the 13th, Part 2 – The burlap sack is better than the hockey mask

2. Halloween – The music and the cinematography are amazing.

1. The Strangers – Definition of creepy!  Those mask and the “Halloween” feel to it put it at the top.  Plus, it’s loosely based on a true story.

Sign The Apocalypse Is Upon Us #4

Here’s the link (thanks to Payton for tweeting this): http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576646,00.html

In case the article is gone by the time you get to it, here is the summary.  Ahmed Hashim Abed is believed to have masterminded the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater security guards in Fallujah and was on the most wanted list.  The article quotes the atrocity: “The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Insurgents burned the bodies and dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph”

Three of our Navy SEALS who captured him are being tried for assault because the guy claims one of them punched him in the mouth. 

I want to personally thank our military for trying to protect us and risking their lives every day to do it.  I’m sorry that you have to serve your country and then go through things like this after a job well done.

Dear Dads (or Mexico Reflections, part 2)

We got a Mayan show with our dinner tonight.  It took a lot of work to put the peformance together.  Just to get all of the face and body paint on the dancers would have taken a good amount of time.  What stood out most to me was at the very end.  Not the finale, but actually the time where they introduce the dancers and everyone claps and they bow.  The host made a comment that was impactful.  He said that the dances we saw tonight were dances that “fathers passed down to their sons.”  What are we passing down to our sons?  Learning those dances and the meaning behind them would have taken purposeful time from a dad.  Passing faith down to your sons takes purposeful time as well.

Reflections from Mexico

Sitting on the beach in Cancun with my wife and child, watching the waves crash into the shore, is a pretty cool experience.  I noticed something for the first time and I’m sure there is a scientific name for it, but I don’t know what it is.  When a wave comes in, it crashes on the shore and then recedes back to the ocean.  When it is receding, it usually meets another wave on its way in and seems to take away all of the new wave’s power.  I’d see this big breaker coming and I’d expect it to wash all the way up to our feet, but it was like the wave right before it took the legs right out from under the new wave.  Kind of anti-climatic.  I wonder if my generation will do that in the church.  As the next generation of young believers and leaders is heading in, will we crash their momentumn on our way out?  I hope not, but I think it may be the natural tendency.

Sign The Apocolypse Is Upon Us #3

Let me see if I can make this clear.  Apparently the woman at the Chase Bank Credit Card division had trouble . . . now that could be because I was speaking English and she wasn’t.

My wife and I have two Chase Visa cards.  Both cards have the same mailing address and the same account number (except for the last four digits).  We also have a joint account at Chase.  My wife’s credit card was being declined and when she called, they informed her that she hadn’t ever paid her bill.  She explained that we pay all of our bills, so if we haven’t paid then we haven’t been mailed a bill.  She tried to pay it right there, but asked that the late fees be waived since she hadn’t had a bill.

Now here is what happened.  They have sent us bills and I’ve been paying them online.  Same address, same zip code, same everything (except for the last 4 digits of the account . . . which DOES NOT show up when you use Chase Bank bill pay).  My credit card account has a positive amount of money in it that matches the negative amount in my wife’s account.

Is it crazy to ask Chase to transfer the money and waive the late fee since it has been paid . . . just to the other account?  Apparently it is.

I’d suggest finding another place to do business with.  I cancelled my cards . . . you should too.

Sign The Apocolypse Is Upon Us #2

Taylor Swift stormed the airwaves with her song “Tim McGraw.”  A great song that ended up being a big hit that led to her instant fame.  That is okay.  What isn’t okay is this guy named Tyler Dean trying to do the same thing with his song “Taylor Swift.”  Here are a portion of the lyrics:

“Maybe she’s just a little too pretty
Outta reach and way too busy
What can I do when the honest truth is
I want a girl… I want a girl
I want a girl like Taylor Swift

Call her agent call her lawyer too
Hey Mr Swift I need to talk to you
Hey Mr DJ why don’t you send it on through

Cause she might be listenin
Maybe she’s listening
Please be listening”

Dear Mr. Dean . . . NO ONE IS LISTENING.  The only thing worse than the lyrics is the song itself.