1.  Oklahoma State running back Kendall Hunter currently leads the nation in rushing. He only played 2 quarters of football.  Dang. (and yes, I realize it was against Washington State. Still.)

2.  If you’re not following the Compassion Bloggers in Guatemala, do.  Now.  If nothing else, read this from Ann Voskamp.  Grab a Kleenex first.  Or an entire box of them.

3.  It’s scary that Terry Jones is the pastor of a church, but scarier that people actually attend his church.

4.  If I am ever in the market for a mobile home, I am going to call Cullman Liquidation. Or maybe I won’t.  They won’t care. (Thanks Matt for this gem)

5. I’m a Ray Lewis fan (other than that whole murder accusation thing), but this is awful.  Just awful.

Bonus:
I know it’s the Friday Five, but I have to include this bit of glory:

Happy Friday boys and girls.

                          

Thanks John for reminding me of this powerful drama.

In a battle of weathermen, mine wins. Hands down.

                          

1.  Barry Sanders’ son plays HS football in OKC.  His school was on TV last night.  121yds rushing on 13 carries.  A 73yd punt return.  An 86yd kick-off return for a TD.  If he doesn’t go to Oklahoma State, I’m quitting.

2.  This is one of the funniest things I’ve seen: If historical events had Facebook statuses

3.  God is a ridiculous artist.  Don’t believe me?  Go look at some of these pictures of OKC after last night’s storm. Breathtaking stuff.

4.  I watched this video with Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll (and some other guy).  I’m convinced more and more every day that Chan has it figured out.  Love what he’s doing.

5.  Come Thou Fount.  Mumford & Sons.  Beautiful.

Go enjoy yourself some college football this weekend!

                          

1.  Being a Cardinals fan is not fun right now. Back to back losses to the Pirates (yes, they still have a team), followed up by a loss to the Nationals?  It’s August, boys.  Effing play like it.

2.  Less than a week before college football kicks off.  Holy motherload.

3.  Seth Godin is a genius.  But he’s also Seth Godin.  Too many people are going to try to be like him.  And fail.

4.  Seriously?

5.  I question the validity of this, but I don’t question it’s awesomeness.

Happy Friday, kids.

                          

I hate that this letter needs to be written, but there’s something going on.  Something horrible.  I started noticing it a few years back, but it seems to be gaining ground.  And before it gets too late, I have to write you an apology.  Not for my crimes, but for the crimes of my brothers and sisters.  You see, they are leaving you out.  Abandoning you.  Moving on without you.  Replacing you with none other than your keyboard-neighbor P.  I know, it hurts.  It makes no sense.  But it’s everywhere.  Statements like:

I just got pwned by my inbox.

I’m about to pwn this bike ride.

Man, I’m so out of shape.  Got pwned at my soccer game tonight.

At first I thought they were typos.  I mean, you and P are right next to each other on the standard QWERTY keyboard.  Innocent mistake, I thought.  Then it happened again.  And again.  And again.  And I threw up a little.  Now, I cringe every time I see it.  Really, I do.  And I feel sorry for you, O.  I’ve looked for your crime and found nothing.  It’s one thing to occasionally throw out an LOL, ROFL, or shortcut the word “for” with the number 4 when trying to fit an exceptional message into 140 short characters.  Those are natural.  Nobody sees “If u care about the devastation in Haiti, do something. 4 donations, go to this website. Tell ur friends. Oh, & hide ur kids, hide ur wife” and wonders to themself, “ur?  Is that Greek? I took Spanish. Everybody took Spanish!! Greek wasn’t even an option!”  Seriously though, your to “ur” isn’t bad.  But own to “pwn” doesn’t jive. Where did this come from?

I did some research.  By research I mean the interwebs.  By interwebs I mean WikiPedia.  The origin?  Online gaming.  Specifically, some game called Counter-Strike.  Apparently, after killing your opponent, somebody thought it was intimidating to tell them that they “just got pwned!”  Scary, I know.  Look O, I’m all for gaming, so I can’t hate.  Personally, I’m always up for a game of Madden or Tiger Woods.  Mario Kart Wii?  Let’s do this thing.  But let’s not get out of control to the point where we create our own language and try to spread it across the world, alienating 20% of the vowels.

Don’t worry, O.  I’m here for you.
I won’t let you get replaced.
I won’t let you be forgotten.
I won’t let P own you.

Sincerely

Kevin
Fan of the letter O

                          

1.  Megan went to Seattle for the weekend.  Leaving Gabe with me.  This marks the longest stretch of time that I will have been fully responsible for him.  Should be an exciting (see: Chipotle-filled) weekend.

2.  This may be the worst idea for a prank ever:

3.  This may be the worst idea for an olympic event ever:

4.  Ray Lamontagne and David Gray both released new CDs this week.  That doesn’t suck.

5.  Any time somebody takes to the tweet-waves to declare their innocence, 872% chance they are lying.  Yes, I’m talking to you Roger Clemens.

Happy Friday, kids.

                          

1.  We are loved.  Really, really loved.  More than we can explain/fathom/deserve/earn.  Read through Luke 15.   I mean really read through it.  Game changer.

2.  Community is a powerful thing.  If you’re not a part of one, find one.  Life is sweeter in community.

3.  I love the new Cardinals/Reds rivalry.  Especially since the Cardinals just swept the Reds, overtaking them for first in the NL Central.  And yes, the Cubs are still irrelevant.

4.  Inception?  Mind-blowing.  Absolutely incredible.  As is this:

5.  William Hung in 30 years?  Scary.  Real scary.  Thanks Grant for sending this jewel:

Happy Friday.  The 13th.

                          

Ben Kilgore sings “Goodbye, Goodnight” from Kelly Kerr on Vimeo.

What are you listening to recently?

                          

I’ve been digesting this for a few weeks now, since ESPN failed journalism on a historic level by airing “The Decision.”  As we know, The Decision has been made.  LeBron James left Cleveland to hang out with friends in Miami.  Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers wasn’t thrilled.  He wrote a letter, featured in The Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s local newspaper, referring to LeBron as a “narcissist, coward, self-proclaimed ‘King’” and declared that Cleveland would win a championship before the “cursed” LeBron James would.  Strong words from an NBA owner.  Honestly, I am a fan of Gilbert’s letter.  People criticize him for it, but if Mark Cuban did it, people would be praising his passion in defending his team.  I want an owner that fights for my team.  That being said, Gilbert holds a significant share of the responsibility with the entire LeBron debacle.  He made a lot of mistakes along the way.  Mistakes that many organizations make as well.  Mistakes that we need to learn from.  Here are 4 lessons that organizations and leaders can learn from this mess:

1.  One man does not make a team (or company). Cleveland never won a championship in LeBron James’ seven years.  Only made it to the Finals once.  They had what was arguably the best player in the league (along with Kobe).  Zero championships.  For all the hoopla around how great LeBron is, he couldn’t make the team great.  Companies are the same way.  One stellar employee doesn’t make you a great company.  You cannot get from good to great without a team.  Grow your team, not just your star.

2.  Treat all employees the same. This may start some arguments.  Gilbert made a huge mistake when it came to LeBron.  He let LeBron pick his coach (Mike Brown), pick his teammates (Mo Williams, Shaq, etc), pick his itinerary.  He got his coach fired (Mike Brown).  LeBron’s friends got high-paying jobs in the organization (friends with no college degrees that had no business working for an NBA organization).  LeBron got anything and everything he wanted.  He was The King.  He was Cleveland’s own.  He was the best, so they gave him everything in order to satisfy him.  To keep him.   All for nothing.   All for a great player that delivered no rings.  And in pro sports, rings define success.  He got everything, the organization (and team) got nothing (exaggerating a bit here).  Treat your employees the same.  Superstar employees don’t deserve special treatment.  It breeds resentment, lack of trust, and ruins a team.  I’ve seen it happen.  Gilbert wouldn’t stand up to LeBron, and it cost him dearly.  Nobody is above the team.

3.  Have people that can tell you “no.” At some point, somebody had to tell Gilbert he was making a mistake in the way he dealt with LeBron.  It seems clear to me that the only person he would listen to was LeBron.  Anybody that wanted to stand up to LeBron, got fired (see: Mike Brown, Danny Ferry).  As a result, Gilbert not only lost his star player, but he lost a good coach and good GM.  Gilbert needed to have a “no-man.”  Every leader needs that person.  They might just be the most valuable person in an organization.

4.  Have a backup plan. LeBron left.  Cleveland is now left with a lineup that strikes fear into only a little league team.  LeBron hadn’t communicated with Gilbert or anybody in the Cleveland organization for several weeks.  They had to have known he was leaving.  Yet they had no backup plan.  They were one of the top teams in the league the past few years.  They now immediately go back to being a low-rung NBA team, regardless of how much passion Gilbert’s letter had.  Always have a plan in place.  Treat people as though they are irreplaceable, but have a plan to replace them, as harsh as that sounds (re-read number 1).

What would you add to this list?

                          

It seems like every summer Megan and I start watching a new show.  Let’s face it, the summer tv selection is pretty dim.  Outside of So You Think You Can Dance and Wipeout, you’ve got nothing.  And we all know the new format of SYTYCD is pretty lame.  I mean, there’s no reason to have a top 10 rather than a top 20, just to bring back has-beens from years past.  Dominic was creepy during his original time on the show.  We don’t need more of that.  Less Dominic, that’s what we need.  Wait, guys don’t watch SYTYCD?  Me either.

Last summer, we started Heroes.  We got hooked, got caught up on past seasons, then they cancelled it.  Time, wasted.  This year our summer show is Friday Night Lights.  We watched one of the new episodes and decided, “Hey, this is pretty legit.  We need to get caught up on this.”  Three weeks later we are almost finished with Season 3 (thank you Netflix streaming on the Wii.).  One word: dominating.  This show might be my all-time favorite.  Better than Seinfeld.  Better than House.  Better than LOST.  Did I just say “better than LOST?”  Believe it kids. Look, I went to High School at one of the top football schools in the country.  We won the state championship every year from my 8th grade year until a year after I graduated (that would be 6 years in a row).  We have multiple players playing Division 1 football and in the NFL.  High School football was kind of a big deal for us.  And everybody hated us for it (which I am still, amazingly enough, reminded of to this day every time I say where I went to HS).  For the record, I weighed approximately 72lbs in high school, so no, I wasn’t collecting rings.  My high school memories are part of what draws me to Friday Night Lights.  Outside of that, the characters (and actors) are amazing.  Anybody would want their kid to play for coach Eric Taylor.  His motto is: Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.  Freaking love that.  It also makes me rethink High School.  I look back on it and think about the people I judged without knowing their situation.  Who did I make fun of who was living at home, without any parents, having to care for their sick grandmother?  Who did I ignore that lived with an alcoholic waste of a mother?  We all knew these people.  We stayed away from them because they were “dirty” or “bad influences” or “not going anywhere with their life.”  Really, we just didn’t take the time to know their stories.  Hopefully I can convince my son to do it differently.

Check out this clip from the end of Season 1.  The star QB, Jason Street (think Peyton Manning, JR), takes a nasty hit during a game that puts him in the hospital.  The team, and the town, is trying to figure out how to cope.

Are you a fan of Friday Night Lights?  What is your favorite show?