MAKE BEN FAIR

2008-11-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

go to this website for a Christmas treat!!!

christmasforkenya.com

2008-03-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

Spring Break

So its spring break in Waco and things are very slow. Jamie and I have decided that we are going to move from Hewitt into Waco. No more suburbs for the Dudley's! We have found an awesome little house in the best part of Waco, just a matter of selling our house now. So if anyone wants an awesome home on Cheyenne Trail in Waco let me know. Its weird to think about moving. We have spent the last 3.5 years in this home. And it has been a home for us. A really nice home. We finally got the house all painted, all the stuff done we wanted to do to the house and then we are like, "welp, time to move!" haha so stupid. ha

I will have many fond memories of this house. Some not so fond memories also but still memories.

1. My niece Avery coming to visit
2. Having the UBC Christmas Party
3. Christmas at our house with both sets of parents and Matthew
4. My niece Avery throwing poo all over the floor. haha
5. Hanging out til 4 in the morning after Kyle died telling stories with friends
6. grilling bonzi burgers in the summertime
7. Killing another yard haha

I am sure more will come to me, that is a good start. welp, off to work or something. ha

2008-02-21T15:41:00.000-08:00

Kenyan beer stirs Obamamania
Tom Oladipo
BBC News, Nairobi

Senator beer
The Senator beer was named by drinkers after Barack Obama

The close battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to secure the Democratic nomination for the US presidency is captivating many across the world.

The charismatic Illinois senator is drawing big crowds at campaign rallies in a phenomenon known as Obamamania.

Kenya, where Senator Obama's father came from, is not immune from this either, but here, another Obama is riding on the crest of a wave.

This one, though, comes in the form of a brown bottle and is called Senator beer.

In many slums and low income areas, people who find beer too expensive often resort to cheap home brews.

But these potent drinks which include traditional spirits known as chang'aa have on a several occasions proved lethal.

Some consumers have died and others have been blinded. It's believed brewers spike the beer with deadly additives.

So one brewery, East African Breweries Limited (EABL), spotted a market opportunity for a cheap beer that is also safe.

The result: Senator Keg beer, known simply by drinkers as "Obama".

The beer became an instant hit when it was launched in 2004 at about the same time as Barack Obama was elected as senator of Illinois.

Fears of alcoholism

The product has proved as popular as the US senator in the intervening years, but with more beer for less money there are fears it could contribute to a rise in alcoholism in Kenya.

EABL's Corporate Affairs Director Ken Kariuki rejects this.

He says that normally poorer people are consuming drinks with an alcohol content of around 40%. By contrast Senator beer is only 6%.

Barack Obama in front of the White House Jan 2007
Barack Obama could be the first black president of the United States

"So you are almost forcing a responsible consumption of alcohol, only this time you're packaging the product in a more affordable and hygienic manner," Mr Kariuki explains.

But others are worried that cheap beer can create more alcoholics.

Dr Frank Njenga, chairman of the National Campaign against Drug Abuse, says more needs to be done to tackle alcohol abuse.

"Alcohol problems require the intervention by all the players, chief of which is the government through its agencies and also those in the industry," he says.

Dr Njenga, who is also a prominent psychiatrist in Nairobi, says everyone must work together to combat the rising trend of alcohol consumption.

Certainly bar owners are not complaining.

On a good day, John Kameta, who owns the Bro Jimmoh bar in Nairobi, can make up to $100 from sales of Senator beer.

"With the high cost of living, people from across all income brackets are turning to Obama beer each evening," he says.

So what do Kenyans make of the new liquid Obama?

"I like the way it is served - from a jug, instead of a bottle. Most people think you get a larger serving from a jug," one devotee told me.

So while the outcome of the US elections may not matter as much in Kenya as it does in America, here every visit to the local watering hole is a vote of confidence in their Obama.

2008-02-12T21:50:00.000-08:00

ONE SHINING MOMENT

We all have moments in life we are proud of, moments that define who we are as people. This isn't one of those moments. After many years debating whether to put this online I finally decided that it is worth it. Enjoy!

2008-02-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

SUPER FAT TUESDAY!!!

Today is a huge day in American Politics. I do not know why I am so into politics. I know that the true hope for change in the world can only come from the healing power of Christ. And as churchy as that last statement was, it is completely true. But I still believe that there are some people who can inspire us to live life to the fullest. This video is one of those things that when watching it, it literally brings me to tears. I believe in the power of HOPE! Enjoy the video. I would ask that you watch the entire thing, it really is powerful.

2008-01-27T16:02:00.000-08:00

Anyone and everyone in the Waco area (and anyone who would like to avoid a life polluted by lignite-burning plants) needs to know that DYNERGY and TXU are in the early stages of constructing TWO COAL PLANTS that will have a major effect on all living things within its wide-spreading reach.

Aside from the infinite environmental damage that follows the construction of coal plants, (i.e. water depletion, SMOG, mercury pollution, ACID RAIN, CLIMATE CHANGE, ecosystem destruction), they also have severe implications for the health and quality of life for anyone living in the path of the emissions. Particle pollution, or soot, “can trigger heart attacks and strokes, WORSEN ASTHMA, cause irregular heart-beat, and lead to PREMATURE DEATH”—as in if these plants are built, you and definitely your children are not going to be spending very much time outdoors; not to mention permanent lung damage and heightened risk of mercury poisoning for expecting mothers, which leads to “brain damage, mental retardation, and other developmental problems in unborn children and infants” (Sierra Club 2007). (There is a reason pregnant mothers are cautioned against drinking Waco water.)

Texas, the dirtiest state of the nation, has no need of more coal plants. Texas ranks number one in the nation for renewable energy potential (State Energy Conservation Office 2008). It is time for energy companies to be replacing outdated technology of coal plants, not building new ones.

And they will back down, as seen with TXU last fall. Although construction has already begun on the Riesel and Oak Grove plant sites, there is time for concerned citizens to dissent; it merely requires the united voice of the would-be victims of the coal plants — THIS MEANS YOU. Every great movement has had universities at its impetus. We can prove to Dynergy that their plants are unwanted and that Texans are willing to fight for clean air.

2008-01-25T12:03:00.000-08:00

Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by two nonprofit journalism groups.

President Bush addresses the nation as the Iraq war begins in March 2003.

"In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003," reads an overview of the examination, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

According to the study, Bush and seven top officials -- including Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice -- made 935 false statements about Iraq during those two years.

The study was based on a searchable database compiled of primary sources, such as official government transcripts and speeches, and secondary sources -- mainly quotes from major media organizations. Video See CNN viewers' reactions to the study »

The study says Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein's possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq's links to al Qaeda.

Bush has consistently asserted that at the time he and other officials made the statements, the intelligence community of the U.S. and several other nations, including Britain, believed Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
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* Bush ties Mideast peace effort to fight on terror
* Ex-aide: Bush, Cheney involved in misleading media

Responding to the study Wednesday, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not speak directly to the "false claims" characterization.

But he said the United States was part of a broad coalition of nations that took part in the Iraq invasion and that the invasion was based on intelligence from multiple countries.

He called Hussein a threat to international security and a sponsor of terrorism, and said the world is better off without him. White House press secretary Dana Perino called the study "flawed."

"They only looked at members of the administration, rather than looking at members of Congress or people around the world," she said. "Because as you'll remember, we were part of a broad coalition of countries that deposed a dictator based on a collective understanding of the intelligence."

"And the other thing that that study fails to do is to say that after realizing that there was no WMD, as we thought as a collective body that there was, that this White House, the President set about to make reforms in the intelligence community to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

Bush has repeatedly said that despite the intelligence flaws, removing Hussein from power was the right thing to do.

The study, released Tuesday, says Powell had the second-highest number of false statements, with 244 about weapons and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Press Secretary Ari Fleischer each made 109 false statements, it says. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made 85, Rice made 56, Cheney made 48 and Scott McLellan, also a press secretary, made 14, the study says.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda," the report reads, citing multiple government reports, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the 9/11 Commission and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, which reported that Hussein had suspended Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to revive it.

The overview of the study also calls the media to task, saying most media outlets didn't do enough to investigate the claims.

"Some journalists -- indeed, even some entire news organizations -- have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical," the report reads. "These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq."
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The quotes in the study include an August 26, 2002, statement by Cheney to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said. "There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

2008-01-21T21:52:00.000-08:00

TOP 25

2008-01-21T21:50:00.001-08:00

2008-01-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

Bobby

Not sure if any of you have seen the movie Bobby yet or not, but I want to give it 2 thumbs up. Fantastic story, mostly great acting and very moving. Bobby Kennedy was an amazing man and would have been our President had he not been shot. The end of the movie a speech is played that he gave and it is so powerful. I couldn't help but think about Kenya and how badly I wish this speech could be given to the leaders in Kenya who are choosing to perpetuate violence amongst their own people to help their cause. Please take 5 mins and read this speech. Feel free to substitute Kenya where it says America.

"This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."

-Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968)

2008-01-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

Something Beautiful

I want to add an addition to the top music of the year 2007. I forgot about this album when I was writing my blog post. The album is called Theology by Sinead O'Conner. I learned about this album when Toni emailed me an article about it. I immediately went to itunes to check it out and and loved it. Listened to it a bunch this year.

The highlight for me came when I was watching the fox soccer channel and they made this commercial. It takes the best song off the album mixed with some great soccer footage. It is a holy moment! enjoy

2007-12-30T18:20:00.000-08:00

How did I miss this?

I do not know how I could have missed this, but Baylor has actually made a really good hire for the new women's soccer coach. They made this announcement December 6th. I guess Baylor women's soccer doesn't make the front page of the Waco Trib. But it should because the coach is pretty amazing. Baylor hired US women's national team player Marci Miller Jobson. She was apart of the World Cup team that won the bronze medal this past September in China. She has played 17 games for the national team. This is exactly what Baylor needed. Someone who has been apart of the best team in the world to come and show our girls how to get it done. We all know that the women should have won the world cup. So good job Baylor, and let's go out and support the team next year and help promote the greatest sport in the world!

2007-12-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

2007 Favorite Things

I thought it would be fun to make some top 5 list of the things that I love from this past year. Some categories may not have 5 things, but its my list so I can break my own rules.

Top 5 Albums of 2007

Music is always a difficult one to narrow down. There are a few albums that need to get an honorable mention for this year. First would be Remedy by the David Crowder Band. I may be bias because they are all my buddies, but lets be honest, the crowder band rules. Another honorable mention would be Across the Universe Soundtrack. The guy who sings is amazing and they do a really great job of remaking the Beatles songs. Another soundtrack that needs a mention is Into the Wild - Eddie Vedder wrote and sings all the songs and it is great stuff.

5. In Rainbows -Radiohead
4. Writer's Block -Peter, Bjorn, and John
3. The Boy With No Name - Travis
2. Sky Blue Sky - Wilco
1. Neon Bible - The Arcade Fire

Top 5 Movies of 2007 - could be the worst movie year ever!

5.
4.
3.
2. Across the Universe
1. Darjeeling Limited - Wes Anderson

Top 5 TV shows of 2007
Honorable mention goes to Kid Nation - CBS. Loved this ridiculous show. Of course I love the Office but it took a turn for the worse when they started doing the hour long episodes and so it fell out of the top 5.
5. The Soup - E
4. Brothers and Sisters - ABC
3. Pushing Daises - ABC
2. Lost -ABC
1. Always Sunny in Philadelphia - FX

Top 5 Restaurants of 2007

5. Texadelphia -Austin, TX (Philly cheese steak with chips and queso)
4. Food For Thought - Waco, TX (chicken nachos)
3. Hannah Starkey's Bistro - Waco, TX (tuna steak, sweet potato fries, green beans)
2. Mr. Gattis - Austin, TX (Pizza, salad and cinnamon rolls)
1. Hula Hut - Austin, TX (Hawaiian fajitas)

Top 5 Best and Worst Sports Moments of 2007
Honorable mentions
- Mitchell Report (anything we can do to take down baseball!!!)
- US women pull goalie Hope Solo and lose world cup (stupid stupid stupid)
- Brett Favre not retiring and having an amazing year

5. England fails to qualify for the Euro-cup (for those who don't know, the Euro-cup is the third largest sporting event in the world next to the World Cup and the Olympics and England should be playing)
4. Patriots go undefeated
3. Manchester United Wins the Premier League
2. Celtics trade for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen
1. Beckham Comes to America

2007-12-16T20:39:00.000-08:00

Great Weekend!

It was a great weekend in the wide world of sports.

The Eagles beat the Cowboys in a season when that just shouldn't have happened. The cowboys have been on a role and the eagles are awful this year.

I actually would like to send a shout out to Jessica Simpson, thank you for going to the game and distracting Romo! I know that the Eagles have a great defense and that is all they have this year, but the fact that Jessica was there certainly didn't hurt the Eagles.

And the real story of the weekend happened in England as the top 4 teams in the premier league squared off in 2 epic games.

VS

First was Manchester United currently ranked #2 in the EPL going against their rivals #4 Liverpool. This was frustrating because the game didn't get televised in the US. Man U won the game when Tevez redirected a missed shot by Rooney in the 43rd min. This was a tough game for me because Man U is my favorite team and Liverpool is a very close second. So it was a major bummer that we didn't get to watch the game. I did get to see tons of highlights thanks to Fox soccer channel.

VS

Second game of the day was Arsenal who leads the EPL verses #3 Chelsea. Both teams call London home and so it was a backyard battle. Jen and Jon came over to watch the match with me after church. We had a great time watching Arsenal score off a corner kick in the 47th min sending the blues to the locker room down and hopefully out. The great news is when Jen, Jon and I all woke up from falling asleep during the second half (not because the game was boring, because it was sunday afternoon and we were all taking that amazing sunday afternoon nap) Arsenal had held on to win the game.

Even though this keeps Arsenal atop the EPL for now, at least until they face United, it is always a great day when Chelsea loses.

So cheers to United, Arsenal, the Eagles, Jessica and Sunday Naps!

2007-11-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

Please come to the show if you can! All the money goes to help Simba Village orphanage in Kenya. Also, our documentary that Quinton has been working on for 4 months is going to be shown following the two bands. This will be the first time to watch it. $5 bucks, a great cause, an awesome venue (because the new Common Grounds is a legit venue now! way to go Jill!) great music, and great people! what more could you want?

cheers, ben

2007-07-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Went to see Travis in Austin last night with Adam, Tricia, Tom and Beth. It was an amazing concert. It is a rare to see a band that is that great at what they do. From their entrance into the venue (they played the rocky theme song, entered from the back with boxing robes on punching the air) to performing their songs with passion and ease. After their first song Fran, the lead sing, looked down on the front row and saw a small child being held by his mother. He leaned down and was talking to her, none of us knew what was going on. Then he signaled for his crew and pointed to his ears. He was asking for ear plugs for the child. He said in the mic, we need to protect those little baby ears. It was such a genuine act of kindness. Most people would say, "that stupid mom" and just keep going. I posted a video from the show on youtube of the band singing "flowers in the window" during the encore. I am going to post it here also, so enjoy!

2007-07-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

Beckham takes to the field!

Big day for American soccer Beckham takes the field for his first match. I have mixed emotions about this entire deal. On one hand, he is bringing so much attention to soccer in the states and that is a good thing. The thing that i hate is how this is becoming news on E television. I hate with a passion celebrity crap. I don't care who Paris Hilton is dating, what Britney is smoking and how Lindsay is doing in rehab. That is rubbish. I do enjoy a great soccer match and if soccer in America turns into E tv, then i am going to have a problem.

Everyone keeps talking about how soccer isn't a big deal in America and that Beckham is going to change that, and he will as far as helping the MLS become a more popular league. But soccer is huge in America. More kids play soccer in the us than any other sport and more kids play soccer in the us than in any other country in the world. When the US hosted the world cup, it was the best attended World Cup in the history of the World Cup to date. More people watched the world cup finals than any of the games of the last world series. America is becoming a more diverse country with our friends from the south continuing to move up to the USA to get better jobs and so their love for the game will only strengthen soccer's popularity in America. Disney has just signed a major 4 yr. deal with Chelsea FC to become the official pro soccer club of Disney's Wide World of Sports complex and presenting sponsor of the Disney Soccer Showcase Series. Liverpool FC was recently purchased by the owner of the Texas Rangers. So English Premier league soccer is going to continue to grow in popularity in America.

Soccer is huge in America, it just seems that ESPN and the other networks are the last to stand up and take notice. Now with Beckham coming over, they will have a reason to give it some long overdue media attention. This is where the irony sets in, if Beckham continues to only bring hollywood attention, in the long run the game will suffer. Well lets be honest, it will actually make it so big that the only way to watch baseball will be pay per view (praise GOD!) but the game will suffer for those millions of people who already love soccer, watch soccer, follow soccer. Because it will go from being the underdog that still has a shred of pure sport left in it to becoming another watered down corporate commercial.

2007-06-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

NEW AFRICA VIDEOS!!

This first video is footage of the Orphanage that we work with called Simba Village or the official name is Shelter Children's Rehabilitation Center.

The second video is of our friend Boniface. He works with street kids in Nairobi. This one is very difficult to watch.

2007-02-24T10:15:00.001-08:00

2007-02-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

I want to ride my bicycle

This past year I received another bicycle from my father. This was actually an old bike from a friend of his that was cleaning out his garage, anyways, i took the bike over to the Waco Volunteer Bike shop and had them help me turn it into a single speed commuter bike. So i keep this bike at ubc and anytime i need to go over to campus or around downtown, i can just ride my bike. Once I finally got back from traveling I was so excited to start riding and the weather was just awful. It kept raining and was super cold...but not this week. It has been so beautiful this week. I have be able to ride my bike 2 days in a row and just love it. It takes the same amount of time to ride my bike as it would to drive and try and find a place to park. I really want to re-paint my bike but it is a pretty big project. Hopefully i can get this done soon. I need to get a pic of my bike up here for you bike people to enjoy, it is a pretty sweet bike. If you are interested in getting a communter bike you should go see the good people at the waco volunteer bike shop. visit www.wacoco-op.com and click on the wheel.

In other news, just watched two episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter and it was amazing! I love the Dog!!! He cracks me up how he gathers them all up and they pray, "Jesus, help us to catch the bad guy" then two seconds later he is yelling "we are going to catch that mother &^*&%*& and he can kiss my @$$" etc etc...pretty funny show.

In music news, i am desperately seeking some new tunes. I have found a few new artist that I like, but nothing has changed or rocked my world in quite some time. So if anyone has something on their ipod that they are in love with, please send it my way. Jamie found a girl named ingrid michaelson via Grey's Anatomy that is really good. If you like girl singers, you should enjoy this cd. It is kind of Regina Spektor but not quite as goofy. I am going to some shows here in the next few weeks that I am pretty excited about. Jamie and I are going to see Xtina in Dallas. Got free tickets so how do you pass that up...then I will be seeing Explosions in the sky in austin! If you are not familiar with this band, please get familiar. I guess they are honestly the last band that really did something for me, and it was after seeing them perform live last sept. at ACL. Jamie and I are also going to see Snow patrol and Ok Go in Dallas in March. So got some good shows coming up. I will give you a full report later on.

The coulters are coming into town next week so that is going to be fun! So is Liz Eddy! good times! welp, that is all i know.
cheers

2007-01-21T17:17:00.001-08:00

I am Old!!!

So its official, I am old. I turned 30 this past year and i think that there is something about 30 that changes you. i don't seem to heal as fast as I did before. While I was away traveling I didn't eat 3 meals a day. 5 years ago if someone told me that I might have to skip a meal I would have freaked out! Skip a meal!!! No way! But in Kenya i would have one meal and sometimes two but it just wasn't a big deal. So since I have been back my body is trying to adjust to eatting so much food. Things aren't going so well. Since thursday night my stomach has been in knots. If you see me and I have a funny looking face you might want to stir clear if you know what I mean. So today we went to play football after church, and I haven't done anything active other than alot of walking since before Christmas. So going to excersize, while it was good for me, has sent my body into some weird shock. I have the weirdest feeling all over, my stomach is seriously hurting, I am feeling sore already...not good. So I am writing this on my blog because I am making a verbal committment to healthy living choices. You guys have heard it first!!! No more fried foods, only stuff that is good for me, because I am getting old and i don't like this feeling or smell. haha

2007-01-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

Sad Reality

So i have heard people complain that when you travel outside of these great states, people don't like Americans very much. I have always thought that to be a bit of an exageration, and we all know that exageration is a form of pollution. But seriously, i have traveled to Costa Rica and to Kenya before and didn't experience this type of "hate" that I have had described to me...that is until this past trip. It is not the best time to be American if you want to travel. Now don't get me wrong, i never felt unsafe, especially in Kenya, but i did since a general distain for Americans and especially Texans. I can't tell you the number of times that when i revealed I was from Texas that I felt like all of the sudden I was looked down upon. It got so bad that Jamie and i just started talking with a fake accent and pretending like we were from whatever city we were in (not really but can't you imagine us trying to be irish, or english...haha).

I did a lot of thinking about this sad reality that is upon us. How did we get to this place? What can we do to change people's perspectives? Honestly there isn't much that can be done to change how people think about Americans, unless the things that have shaped these views change. Bono talks a lot about product USA. He is a big fan of America. He speaks about our image and how it may be tainted, but that there are ways to change it. I guess i didn't realize that it really did need repairing. I just wanted to go on record and say, as an american who knows how great this country can be, I want to be apart of helping reshape and redesign a new USA logo. Let's make USA stand for Love and Peace and Humilty.

2007-01-18T20:28:00.000-08:00

Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the US of A

In case you didn't recognize that opening it is from the beatles song back in the ussr and i changed it to usa. because you see i have been out of the country for the last 18 days and i am back. thats right, i am back! i had the time of my life and loved every minute of it but i am also very glad to be home. its hard to be away that long. i mean, i know that you guys all missed the dudleys so much. jamie and i had a wonderful time in ireland and england. of course i have written alittle bit about kenya. there just are not enough words to describe kenya. this time was so different than the first time. i was able to let my guard down alittle more and it allowed me to experience things that i might have missed the first time. i think last time i was so scared that something bad was going to happen that i didn't allow myself to try and see what it was like to be a kenyan, this time i did and they have an amazing life. simplicity is a beautiful thing. to not have anything and to be so happy, wow!!!

So when i left kenya i headed to london where i stayed with Peter and Becca (pdodd's cousin). Nicest people in all of england. Had a bed for me, a hot meal waiting and even gave me money for the bus. Good folks. I will share more about all of this and these great folks later. I just got tired from jet lag and decided to cut this post short and go to bed. but i am back. holla!
cheers, ben

2007-01-03T22:39:00.000-08:00

Kenya 2007

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that you are all having a wonderful holiday. I have started the new year in Kenya. The trip has been wonderful so far. Meg and Larissa are doing great. For all the doubters out there have no fear, they are doing so much better than even i could have imagined. They seemed to just have become Kenyan upon arrival. They are doing better in 3 days in Kenya than I have done even on my second trip back. So please continue to pray for them as they are just getting started.

We have spent time at Simba village and it is wonderful. Somethings have changed. Pastor Lebon is no longer with them along with a few of the other staff. So they are in a transition stage. The farm is doing amazing. In one month from the tomatos they grew they made $5000 US dollars. That is a stinkin lot of money over here. So they are looking to expand the farm because it has done so good.

Yesterday we went to visit Pastor Edward in Nairobi. He showed us his church and took us on a tour of there new VCT center. This is the center where they will test people for AIDS and counsel them. It is a really amazing place. We went to his house and shared a meal with his family last night. They have a lovely home and his kids are so funny.

This morning we woke up at 4:30am to go with Pastor Boniface to downtown Nairobi to feed the street kids. It was amazing to see some of the kids had stopped getting high from the glue. He is truly serving God and making a huge impact on kids lives that the world has forgotten about. Wow! We will join him again in the morning where there will be somewhere around 45 kids that we will feed and pray with.

I will tell more details about each of these experiences when i get more time to write. I just wanted to post and say that we are all doing well, felling great and excited to be here. We miss all of you and think that everyone should come and visit!!!

cheers, ben

ps friday night simba is having an all night prayer and worship service. it should be funny to see how long us americans can hold out...wish me luck!

2006-12-29T12:18:00.000-08:00

2006-12-24T14:08:00.000-08:00

2006 The Year in Pictures!

So every picture has a story, and looking back on all these pictures it just reminds me of how lucky I am to have such a great wife, a great family and great friends.
Some of these photos were taken by my beautiful wife and others were taken by our friend Glenna Harding. Please do not use these pictures without permission. She is professional and its not right to take things without asking.

2006-12-24T12:49:00.000-08:00

2006 version 1.0

I want to start this post with an apology for not blogging this past fall. I took the fall off from my blog, partly because of time and partly because of lack of interest. But I have felt the urge to start writing again and what better time to start than to recap the past year and get ready for the new year. I would like to send a shout out to Jim Echols from Austin. Nice guitar playing this morning on the christmas songs. Anyone who has every tried to play Christmas music on the guitar can appreciate the 15 million chord changes per song. Jim plays at Jamie's folks church First Evangelical Free Church of Austin. That is where we went to worship this morning. UBC always takes this sunday off, i mean who would still be in Waco on Christmas eve? If you are there and that last sentence offended you I apologize. I love Waco! So now I am going to attempt to sum up the past year. This will probably be a multi-phase post so keep your eyes out for more coming soon.

What a year, seriously this was a crazy year. So many major things happened in our life this past year. If we were playing that game where you said a word and i had to answer back the first thing that came into my head, and the word was 2006...i would say two things. #1 - UBC #2 - Africa. Both of those things have taken the majority of my time and energy this past year.

The year started with the continued dealings of the aftermath of Kyle dying. We were having church at the Hippodrome and the church was fully under construction. That lasted until we moved back into our building July 16th. What a Sunday that was...it was difficult and beautiful at the same time. Watermark Church from Dallas came down and served our entire church a hamburger/hotdog lunch. It was truly a gift to our community and just what we needed to help us move back into our space. The building turned out wonderfully and it is so nice to be at UBC and it be a working functional building. We feel very fortunate to have such an amazing facility.

The spring was filled with plans to get ready to go to Africa. This trip was truly a life changing experience. It seemed to be the culmination of so many thoughts, prayers, conversations all coming to this one moment in time. We have so many close friends and even our sponsored son in Kenya. Our son's name is Kennedy. He is going to be a doctor or a professional Basketball player. He loves the mavericks. I am very thankful that Jamie and I have had the opportunity to go to Africa.

We traveled a few other times this past year. We went out to California to visit the Coulters (holla!!) and we went to Florida over the July 4th week and it was so beautiful. We also had the opportunity to spend about 8 hours in London when our Africa trip had a long lay-over. The summer came and went so fast this past year. When we arrived back from Africa it was Summer, there wasn't the usual sitting around waiting for summer to get here, it was just summer. I take it back, not just summer but the hottest summer of all time.

Soccer seemed to preveil as the sport of the year again this year. The World Cup 2006 was one of the highlights of the year for me. I watched almost every single match and loved every minute of it. I think that Jamie was glad when it was finally over, but i told her it only happens once every four years so give me one month to enjoy soccer and she can go back to HGTV.

We hired a new Community Pastor at UBC this summer. John Mark and Laura Seelig joined the team in August. It couldn't have come at a better time for our church. Right as the new school year was starting, John Mark and Laura were here to greet them. I can't tell you how thankful I am for those two to be in Waco. Its weird because after Kyle died the million dollar question from everyone was, "what are you going to do? Who are you going to hire to replace Kyle?" We all knew that Kyle was irreplaceable but we also knew that we needed more staff. John Mark has come in and help us carry the load and push us forward. Its just cool to see someone function within their giftings. blah blah...I may sound like I have a man crush on him if i don't stop soon. But he is great.

The fall ushered in a new chapter in my life, i turned 30! The big 30. In some strange way I actually enjoy being 30. I was dreading turning 30 but once it happened i realized that there was no going back so I might as well embrace it. For my birthday my family got me a 46" DLP tv. So 2006 has ushered in HDTV into our lives and let me tell you what folks...there is no going back now. That stuff is the bomb. (i just typed bomb so most likely the MAN is now reading this email, so let us pause and say hello to the MAN and thank the MAN for all he has done for us this past year...) Watching football in HD is awesome! I remember the first game we watched Green Bay was playing. You could see the grey hairs in Brett Favre's beard. He is old and needs to retire, sorry Carney. But now that we have HD we have digital programming also. So my new favorite channel is FOX Sports World. It is 24 hours of soccer. (sorry Jamie, i know that i said every 4 yrs but it seems that i must have been mistaken)

I had the opportunity of a lifetime this fall. The Crowder Band found themselves short of a guitar player for a few shows and I got the call. Jamie and I boarded the tour bus at 4:30am and woke up in San Antonio where I played the first of three shows that weekend. The band was opening for third day. The next show was in Tyler followed by Houston. Houston was the coolest because we played in the Toyoto Center before a crowd of 11,000 people. I stood and played the guitar in the same spot as THE EDGE!!! I also flew with the band to California to play the Youth Specialites convention. That was fun because I got to hang out with Harris.

Ok, i am tired of typing so let me conclude this entirely too long, way overdue post. Cheers
ps more coming soon!

2006-07-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so everyone said that the video didn't work...sorry. Try this instead...

2006-07-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

World Cup Update

Today was a sad day for ben's world cup predictions. I was routing for England and they lost. I wasn't really routing for Brazil, but I hate France and they beat Brazil. So that leaves Germany vs. italy and Portugal vs. France. An all European final 4. I just want to get it on the record that of the 4 teams left, I love 1 and hate 3. I love Germany. In high school is when my love of soccer rekindled and I happened to be in German class. I know that Germany has a huge black cloud over it that is really hard to shake with the whole nazi thing, but whose country doesn't have things in their past they are not proud of? So Go Germany!

One last story, Matt singleton and I were in my office watching spain playing and all the sudden they did a crowd shot and there I was...seriously! There was a guy in a black tv standing amongst all the Spain fans that has to be my twin brother. I went home and recorded the late-night rerun of the game. I have a video of the guy so you can see for yourself...I have a twin, he lives in spain and here is the proof!

2006-06-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

Africa Video

Go to this link to watch the 3 min video Kyle Osburn made for church last week.

http://blinddinosaur.com/videos/ubcafrica.mov

cheers, ben

2006-06-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

World Cup Fever

I have World Cup Fever. I have literally watched some of every single World Cup game except for 2 and we are only a week into pool play. I would guess that if each game takes 2 hrs to watch and there are 3 games a day, I have watched around 20 hrs of soccer this week. I thought I should confess this passion/obsession to my blog community. I think my wife may need someone to help her get through this month. This morning she said, "Aren't you sick of soccer?" I had to tell her, "No, no I'm not" The good news for Jamie and most other Americans who don't like soccer is that the World Cup is going to be over before you know it and it will not come around for another 4 years. I was in the mall tonight in Waco and went to the sporting goods store. They had Mexico jerseys and shirts along with Brazil jerseys. I asked if they had any US shirts or jerseys and the guy that worked in the store said, "No, we didn't get any, but there has been alot of people asking for them. For some reason there is a renewed interested in the World Cup this year." I wanted to say,"Well you know that it only happens once every 4 years right?" But I just walked away because what's the point. Soccer will never get the respect and adoration it deserves from Americans and that is just something I will have to deal with. But that doesn't mean that once every 4 years I can't go crazy and watch 20 hrs a week of the greatest game ever! VIVA LA SOCCER!

I would really like to see the stars and stripes make a huge comeback and beat italy tommorow. Go USA!!

I made a pre-World Cup prediction that England would win the World Cup this year. I thought that they had the right combination of players and with Rooney's foot healing so fast, well i just thought, "God Save the Queen!! England is going to win!"

Now that I have watched 20 hrs of matches and scene several teams play twice, I am going to say that Argentina has looked the most impressive. They have blown the opponants away and just looked like a great TEAM. Even Brazil failed to impress the way Argentina did. So if I was a betting man, I would move my bet from England to Argentina. Of course I will still route for the US, and I will still route for England, but I am betting that Argentina will win.

One last thing, the new ball that they are using for the world cup is rad. It runs around $129. If anyone is looking to give their friend or their pastor a "thank you for being my friend" or "thank you for being my pastor" gift...this is something that would be a good gift. The ball is lighter and only has 14 panels which makes it the roundest the ball has ever been. For strikers, this is the ticket to tons of goals.

2006-06-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

Back from Africa!

We made it home Tuesday at 6am. What an amazing trip. This past week has been weird, not really culture shock, but more of trying to catch up on sleep. Jamie's folks came into town last night for dinner and to hear about our trip. Jamie's mom Sharen asked me after dinner, "why Africa?". I thought that it was a great question. I must admit that since we have gotten back i get really tired around 9pm so I sat on the couch and was unable to give her any kind of response that made a lick of sense. But the more that I thought about that question, the more I wanted to give her a real answer. So here is the my attempt at an answer.

Why Africa? This journey started 4 years ago for me with a group we had at ubc called Coffee and Culture. This group would meet at JD's art cafe and talk about faith, politics, economics, the environment and just about everything else people who enjoy this type of conversation would talk about. This group started post-Sept. 11th but pre- war in iraq. The great thing about this group was the initial group of people that came. We actually had a very diverse group of thinkers. People who were "right" , "left" and even those who were more "outer-space". It made for a very healthy conversation. I just remember leaving those nights and thinking about what we had talked about for the entire week and looked forward to nothing more than going back the next week. Being around a group of people that let each other share very different opinions was a very healthy thing for me. It was the first time I had been challenage to think about things like poverty, economics, politics outside of the normal right-wing conservative mindset. You mean that a person can be a democrate and still love jesus? that is crazy!!! well, doing what any good person who is exposed to a new way of thinking does, i slowly started to deconstruct my beliefs on some of these issues. The timing was great for this deconstuction because at the same time in culture along came this little band called Coldplay. I am sure that some of you have heard about them. They burst onto the scene and along came this message of "Make Trade Fair". I didn't understand why trade wasn't fair to begin with, but I believe in things being fair. So i started to read about this stuff. And I started to read about how my money, the things I puchase actually have an impact globally. What a responsibility! In the process of reading about fair trade, I also started reading about Bono's attempts to have third world debt forgiven. He would talk about the year of the Jubilee. This is from scripture, where people's debts are forgiven. Bono would tell about how African countries had paided their debt back over and over but they owed so much interest they will never be free from their debt. I started reading about HIV/AIDS and how it has wiped out an entire generation in Africa. I started reading about how malaria, something that is preventable, kills millions of Africans each year because they don't have medications to help. So all of this was happening at the same time. I remember talking to the Crowders and saying that I felt like UBC needed to help somehow. They told me about this thing that Youth Specialities was doing called, "one life revolution" This was basically a fundraising deal. If you could raise some money they could put in a well in africa. or you could buy some bed nets etc. I remember thinking at the time, "i wonder if us just sending money was the best and most effective way to help" Then about 2 yrs ago the ONE campaign was started here in the US. I remember signing up to be apart of the one campaign the very first time they sent out an email about it. I was really starting to become more active with lobbying? or writing/calling senators and congress people. I thought that by me sending emails and letters and making phone calls, that our government would be able to end poverty. So back to Coffee and Culture, the group changed names to politics, pizza and prayer for the election year. We met at pappa rollos and would talk about Bush and Kerry. That got old very fast. The group had lost its diversity and so it became a pro Bush rally. I tend to always try and take the opposite voice in those situations and that put me in the Kerry camp. Often times I would be the only person in the meeting trying to question Bush and his agenda etc. It wasn't that i was even a believer in Kerry or a demorcrate, but the more I saw how people would sell out to something without even debate about it...made me very angry and really did push me more left at that time that I wish I had gone. At the end of that semester I remember wondering, "where do we go from here?" we have talked about this stuff to death and the election is over so there is nothing left to hope for regarding policy change...and then it hit me. What if instead of talking about making a difference, we actually tried to "do something?" This was the birth of our "do something" community group. At the same time all this was going on, our church had been introduced to this little movie called, "invisible children" I remember the first time we had a screening of the film at UBC. I stood in the balcony with laren and talked to him about Africa. I remember asking him, "I have been on this journey over the last few years and all roads point to Africa, but should I just stay here and help raise money or should we try and go?" Laren told me, "GO!" "every person that goes to Africa leaves a piece of their heart in Africa, and they need us and we need them" It was at that moment that I told laren, "ok, we are going to go!" One year later, we finally went to kenya! I must say that laren was right about the heart thing. I am very glad that we went and I look forward to going back. The thing that I want to make sure is clear is that Africa needs so much help...but they also have so much to offer. We have to allow them the opportunity to give back to us! They have had their chance to give taken from them and this has caused so many to become a charity case. This is why when we went to Simba village I was so excited. They understand the value of giving. They don't just take for themselves, they share and give to their neighbors. It was a very humbling experience and I am happy to say that it was time and money well spent. I hope that over the next how ever many years I am at UBC, that I will be able to help expose student after student to Africa.

2006-05-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

Leaving for Africa

We leave in the morning for 15 days of traveling. you can read all about it at www.ubwaco.org/africa.html

I will hopefully be blogging on the trip some.

cheers, ben

2006-04-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU!!!

Back in October my mother retired from her job. About a week later my dad called and said that mom didn't think he needed 6 bicycles and that he should give me one. It was very humorous that she did this only a week into being retired. Great for me, maybe not so much for my dad. All to say, my dad ends up selling one of his bikes, buying me a new frame that fits me better from ebay and building me this top of the line road bike. The funny thing is I didn't even ride very often. It is something I enjoy and want to do more but had just started to really get back into the sport. Well, my father spent one rainy weekend in his garage and built the bike. Harris brought it back for me from Amarillo and now it is up to me to ride the thing. I rode it on the trainer once but I have finally taken it out a few times. Since the time has changed I have more day light and can go. I want to say a big THANK YOU to my parents. To my mom, thank you for telling dad that he didn't need 6 bikes. To my dad, this bike is way more than i ever need or deserve...but it is amazing and makes riding so much fun! I really enjoy it. The pic is after my very first ride on the bike. Parents are the best!

2006-03-21T20:59:00.000-08:00

So many things

I have so many things to blog about its just crazy. I will attempt to do this chronologically to the best of my ability. We will start with Spring break. Spring Break was rad! Jamie and I went out to California ( or as I like to call it, heaven) and spent the week with Pete and Jamie. Shout out to the Coulters...Thanks again guys! We had a blast and were able to totally relax which is what we needed.

We had a few celebrity sightings...Carrot Top

and Nikki Hilton

We went to the beach, it was pretty freakin cold, but we went.

Did some shopping, always fun. But the thing we did the best was eat. Man oh man did we eat. Pete and Jamie had been telling us about Taco Tuesdays for years and we finally got to experience that, great tacos.

We also went to the burger place called The Counter. It is a build your own burger place and wow. It was so good. Guacamole, Pineapple, Mayo, lettuce, tomato, Swiss cheese on a wheat bun. Throw in a chocolate shake and some sweet potato French fries and you are in business. Had In and Out burger twice. That place rules. Jamie attempted to eat a 5 lb cupcake one day. So good times in Cali for the Dudleys!

In the Wide World of Sports there has been several huge developments. First it is March Madness and I am NO GOOD at bracket picking. I am currently stinking it up however I still have my final four all in the tourney and I still think that there is a great chance that it will play out that way. Go DUKE!
In other sporting news, i don't know how to say this, lets see??? well, here goes.

Dear Dallas Cowboys, Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!! You have just made one of the all time dumbest decisions ever made in sports and as an Eagle fan, i couldn't be happier. Terrell Owens will destroy your team, he will take all the life out of each player and make it pure hell. I didn't think you could get any dumber after you drafted that quarterback a few years ago that hadn't played football in 6yrs? or something like that...but then you go and totally redeem yourself! So Thank you for keeping TO in the division, it will just give the Eagles even more incentive to kick your tail.

Ok, this is out of order but prior to spring break i went to see David Gray and Auqalung in concert and it was a good show. David Gray is one of the best singers I have ever heard. He didn't even look like he was trying and it just came belting out and he never missed a note. Auqalung was good, they were better at ACL fest this past year, but they were still enjoyable. If you haven't listened to either of these folks i would definitely recommend them both...their albums are great stuff.

2006-03-02T08:45:00.000-08:00

Two fun reads

Waco Trib

Baylor Lariat

2006-03-02T06:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Mom!

March 1st was my mom's birthday and my mom is the best. The present we got her didn't arrive on time but Jamie made this funny email with some classic pics to help her forget about the present being late. Mom, i hope that you were distracted by the funny pics?? DId it work? Well, i didn't have a chance to say this yesterday via blog, but today i do...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I love you!

ps it was Brownings birthday also, i love you too man! :)

BIG DAY TODAY

Africa Benefit Concert tonight at the Hippodrome. I am really excited about this show. There is always alot of nerves about putting on a concert. Will people come? is it worth the effort? But today i sit in a good seat, i know that our team has done everything we could possible do to get the word out about the show and so now it is in your hands. Are you going to come? I sure hope so. I have talked to people from UBC who are actually having friends drive in from College Station, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio just for the show tonight. That excites me! I just can't wait because Invisible Children will be there and that movie and a conversation I had with Laren last year are a large reason why I feel it neccessary to go to Africa. I am glad that their inspiration and their story are apart of my story and UBC's story. I am glad we can both share our stories tonight, together at the Hippodrome.

2006-02-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

Crazy Week: free-think blog...just type what you think

So this week is crazy, we have the big Africa benefit concert this week which is a full time job, we have the hub and I am teaching on Faithfulness, and of course the building is under construction. I love being busy. It is weird but i really enjoy it when my plate is full, especially when I get to do things that I love doing. I love that we are going to Africa. I love that we are having a big event this week, i love planning and marketing things, getting posters made and hyping things up!!! I love that invisible children are in town (see Old Man Dudley's Blog if you want to hear me rant and rave about politics). I love Politics because I love the idea that people can make a difference, that things can change for the better.

I love that I get to go to a lunch deal that my buddy Jon Singletary is helping put on in conjunction with Bread for the World and the One campaign to talk about church/state issues. The focus of this lunch is to discuss letter writing campaigns for churchs. (ps, if anyone wants to attend with me let me know...) I love that this idea needs a luncheon. I love that this past summer I tried to bring some new ideas to UBC in regards to things like letter writing campaigns, prayer night for darfur, environmental issues and it was met with some resistence. I am finally at a place where I can appreciate that resistence isn't a bad thing, after all we do live in the Bible belt. It takes people from both sides of an issue to come together to sort things out. I love that I might have tried to hard and tried to force my opinion on people as Gospel because i was so passionate that something needed to change, something needed to be done. I would LOVE it if people would read this post and comment on their thoughts on the churches role in regards to politics. Should we be involved as Christians? Should we not participate? Can the story of the gospel be carried out in foreign policy? I love that I dont freakin know the answer to these questions. I love that this summer I actually thought a good book idea would be to explore "Taxes as a form of Tithe?" I love that i can try and fail. I love that I can try to explore and that people give me freedom to try and figure out the churches role with politics and that I can completely fail and that people are forgiving of that...See Elizabeth town if you haven't. FAIL BIG!!! I love that i am sitting here at my computer just typing whatever comes into my tiny little brain and you guys actually read it. sorry about that...

2006-02-27T17:43:00.000-08:00

Surely I'm Not the Only One
Ok guys, i really need your help here...last night I was watching Sports Center and they had one of those stories, you know the ones I am talking about...the one where they do the background story and get you all excited. Then the story reaches its climax when the person does the thing that shouldn't happen or overcomes some amazing obsticle and you start to CRY! Yep, sports center makes me cry. It happens, i keep telling my wife that this is a common occurance with Sports Center, they do it on purpose. It is like a 7 min version of Rudy or Hoosiers. Jamie told me that I was a girl for crying at sports center, i need to convince her that this isn't true...there are other guys who cry also...if you are man enough to admit this...please speak now. Help a brother out!!!!

2006-02-14T19:29:00.000-08:00

2006-02-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

WWJD

So in my free time, which i just seem to have a ton of these days (cough, cough)...i decided that I should build us a desk for our office. I figure, JC was a carpenter and who better to model your life after?(meet the parents? anyone?) Now I have to go ahead and stop and give credit where Credit is due...i payed for the thing and helped build it and helped stain and polyurithan it, but i could have done none of this is without my good friend Bwack. The wacker has some skills that he learned from papa wacker. So thank you Wacker for helping me make this beautiful piece of furniture for our house. I am sitting at the desk right now typing this here post. The desk is a double sided desk and so Jamie is sitting across from me scrapbooking. It works pretty great I must say.

So in other news, we had the UBC superbowl yesterday at Floyd Casey Stadium. It was so great. We have some pics of the deal here. I scored a few touch downs and I did make a pretty amazing spin play on my good friend Jonathan Potter. I am bragging to make up for my insecurities about being one of the oldest guys out there. In fact I would have been the second oldest as usual but Browning decided to grace us with his presence. Blair had a big day yesterday (GO Steelers!)! Thank you Jeff Walter for getting us in the Stadium for a great time.

Music of the Day - Two Bands that I just can't stop listening too...Athlete and Augalung. Both are amazing and both albums are worth a purchase. cheers

2006-01-26T21:34:00.000-08:00

I'm it

So i have never participated in one of these deals before but Jordan tagged me like a week ago and i have been so busy i didn't even know it. So being the nice guy that i am, i figure it couldn't hurt to participate in this fun little blog game.

Four Jobs I've Had:
-Lifeguard at waterpark in Amarillo
-Family LIfe Center in Amarillo
-Worship Leader/Community Pastor for the Bridge in Florida
- Community Pastor UBC

Four Movies I'd Watch on repeat:
-Christmas Story
-Hoosiers
-The Jerk
-Tommy Boy

Four Tv Shows I Love:
- West Wing (I am sad also Janalee, so very very sad)
- Lost
-The Office
- That 70's Show

Four Vacation Locales I'd love to hit
- Hawaii
- Fiji
- Tahati but i don't think you spell it like that?
- Ireland (you guys know I am irish right?)
Four Websites I visit daily:
- ubcwaco.org
- myway.com
- that is it...i am not a consistant web guy...i go all different places just depending on the day

Four foods I lust after:
- Mr. Gattis Pizza - that's right, i said it
- 1424 Steak
- Maudi's
- Texadelphia

Four changes I'd make to the house
- I would relocate it next to a beach with waves
- I would move it over onto campus so i would be close to all the action
- I would put in a 50 in dlp tv with a killer surround sound system
- i would have a hot tub

Four beers I like
I'm a pastor so everyone knows that I don't drink the juice...but if i did..wink wink..i am sure that my irish roots would take over and force me to drink something like...
- Guinness
- Murphy's Red

Four tags
-Jeff Semple
- Matt bates
- Chris Aho
- everyone with a blog

2006-01-18T21:04:00.000-08:00

Blog

Blog, blog blog blog...blog. blog blog blog blog blog, blog blog. blog!
So i haven't blogged in a week or so and the above is how I feel about it. I don't have anything to say. But now that I am actually typing maybe that isn't entirely true. I got some stuff. If anything i can recap my week so that someday i can look back and remember what happened the week of Jan 18th 2006. I will start with some exciting news. I love hot chocolate from Skinny's gas station. It is a self serve hot cocco machine and it just has the best ratio of power to water. I have paided the $4 at the starbucs and the other places that use milk...it just don't compare to skinny's. So i went ahead and purchased a skinny's mug so that i could get refills of the stuff at a cheaper price. So i got that going for me...

The church got its permits to start demolition of stuff in the building. So we are trying to get all that stuff figured out. I can't wait for it to just be done. the church is going to be one awesome place when we are done with all that stuff. Sticking with the hot cocco theme here, i will go ahead and reveal that we will be putting a self serve fountain drink station in the kitchen with a built in ice machine so you can get your own sodas at church and the hub anytime you want....but we are also going to get one of those skinny's hot cocco machines. it makes hot chocolate and flavored coffee. its going to be so great.

Community groups and sunday school are going awesome, we have so many people coming that we are trying to find new locations for the groups. The girl group had 47 girls at our house last night. They didn't fit in the house. pretty awesome stuff. The hub is going good too...lots of people coming to stuff. i have alot of people ask me all the time, "how are church things going?" it is so weird because it is hard to know what to say...there are so many great things happening at ubc but sometimes i feel bad for enjoying them. i just have to remind myself that Kyle would love all the energy and excitement that is happening with church stuff. Its because of what he did at UBC that we are able to be in the place we are now....

well, music of the day would have to be cheesy love songs. Tonight at the hub we talked about love and Adam Horton and I had a contest to see who could play the cheesiest love songs... so here's to Lionel Richie!
cheers, ben

2006-01-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

Big Thanks!

Big thanks to everyone who came to UBC today and helped with our Clean day. We had a huge turnout and got everything done. So thank you so much! Can't wait to get all the renovations done and get back into the building.

Music of the Day Wish i had something great to give you on this beautiful Saturday...but i don't have anything...i am hurting for some new tunes. So I leave you all with this request...please leave some new artist, albums, songs that you enjoy in the comment section. I have all this itunes money that I got for Christmas and I just don't know what to get. Please help.

2006-01-04T22:25:00.000-08:00

Hook' em Horns!
What a game! I am so proud to be a Texas fan tonight! Vince Young is unbelievable! Shout out to the brownings for letting us hang out and to Blair for cheering on the Longhorns to victory. I know it was hard for him but it was a big help. I also want to give a shout out to my wife. She is really fun to watch sports with and always says some of the funniest things during games. After Texas won the game and they are playing the fight song, Jamie ask, "Why are they playing I've been working on the railroad?" Pretty funny stuff. So if Jeff Foxworthy wanted to start a new catch phrase, he may say something like, "You know your from Oklahoma if you ask why they are playing I;ve been working on the railroad after Texas wins the National Championship!" - Love ya Babe, you make me laugh so hard!

Music of the Day goes to the band Stars. I am sure that some of you have heard of these jokers but I just found them today thanks to the new feature on Itunes where it gives you basically a personal shopper. It is pretty awesome. Itunes says, "you bought this album so you might like these guys" They were right on and sold me a record today. Thanks Steve Jobs for being so smart.

2006-01-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

You're My Boy Blue!

In case you haven't heard, Patrick Cranshaw, better known as "Blue" from the movie, "OLD SCHOOL" died this week. He was actually born in Bartlesville, Ok. That is the town where my lovely wife Jamie grew up. This morning at church Dave was singing this new song that he wrote called, "You Make Everything Glorious" and the song is amazing but that wasn't the point of the story...the point of the story was during the second chorus of the song, Dave was repeating the word Glorious and a thought hit me. "that word Glorious, i have heard it recently in a humorous context..what is it???" Then I remembered that it was from "Old School" when Will Ferrell is laying on the ground and comments that he has, "just seen Blue" who would be in heaven at this point in the movie... and he goes on to say, "and he looked Glorious!" So Dave is singing this amazing new song and I am sitting in my seat trying not to die from laughing thinking about Blue and how Glorious he is....so I had to give a shout out to Blue and I am sure you do look Glorious!

Music of the Day
I am thinking that there is no better Music of the Day for the new year than the one and only David Crowder* Band. I am certain that everyone who might ever read this has every album the band has ever done, but let's start the new year together with the latest masterpiece called, "A Collision" and the song of the day would have to be, 'You Are My Joy".

cheers, ben

2005-12-30T21:50:00.000-08:00

It's time!

I figure its time for me to start blogging again...i was going to start on Sunday and make it a new year thing but then I decided that I didn't want it to be a new year thing. I didn't want this to be some deal that was like, "oh happy freakin new year, i am going to change me life and tell everyone about it on my awesome blog" No, this is just me again, sharing the crazy things that happen and how i try and interpret them. I still have a link on my blog to my other blog called old man dudley's politic and I will be posting readings and emails and stuff on that blog again if anyone is interested. I will try and keep the politic stuff on that blog in case you are not interested in my views on what is going on in the world...but if you are interested there is a place for that and so I encourage and would love for you to read that stuff and share your thoughts. I can't stress enough that I don't have the answers, i just enjoy the search.

So 2005 had the making to be the best year ever. I went to see U2, Coldplay, Oasis (twice in 2 days), Aqualung, the David Crowder *Band (i see them all the time at church but this time we went to a show in Dallas and it was rad), the Frames, Snow Patrol, Embrace, Gwen Stefani, Keene, and they were all pretty much amazing.
I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica this summer with Stu and the guys from florida for a week of surfing. Well, they did the surfing, i did alot of paddling and wiping out. I did drop in on a 8 ft wave and almost caught it...it was so dang close it was amazing. I can't even begin to describe the feeling. Jamie and I went to lake tahoe with Jamie's family this summer and it was great. We had a blast and it was so pretty. It was just a great family vacation. Jamie and I also went to New York for a few days this Dec. (thanks D & T! ) and it was freezing amazing! I highly reccommend visiting the big apple in Dec. All the Christmas stuff was so fun, just take a big jacket to stay warm. We went to Amarillo several times this year but one was for my mother Linda's retirement party. It was just an amazing weekend. The church was very gracious and appreciative to her for her 10 yrs as children's minister. They called it Linda Dudley Day at church. It was very fun. I am very proud of my folks. They both work hard and love what they do. I was proud of my Mom for retiring. I know it was hard for her but I think it was for the best. I am excited to see what is next for her...it could be anything.

So like I was saying, 2005 had the makings of the best year ever. Then Kyle died. Everything changed. Everything. I haven't written or talked about this subject much. I mean I talk about it all the time, my entire life changed. But I haven't talked alot about how this has made me "feel" or "how am I doing"? Part of me wishes I could express that stuff or that I had some amazing insight into my emotions and was able to share or express the things that I think, or feel. I guess the one thing that I keep going back to is Kyle's final paragraph of the sermon that was to be given on the day he died. He just told us to live, to LIVE! Kyle modeled this for me and i actually feel like I had begun to actually live this way. This concept he had of making the most of life, the living of life was something that Kyle just was...it was his being. So when i heard those final words of that final paragraph it was so beautiful but not because it was as if it was the most amazing life changing moment of my life....it was because it was exactly Kyle.

So as I look back at this year, I want to just discount every life experience I had and just say this was the worst year of my life. The year I lost one of my best friends, my pastor, my example, my friend, my co-worker...but as I look back at my year I realize that I was truly blessed to have the opportunity to do some amazing things. I went to go see the greatest bands in the world, traveled to some of the coolest places in the world and had the opportunity to spend time with my family and friends. I wouldn't be able to appreciate these things if it weren't for Kyle, so thanks Kyle!

So here's to Life, its for the LIVING!

2005-08-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

I'M IRISH!!!!

I have always had a love for the Irish. I love the Boston Celtics, green is my favorite color, U2 is my favorite band, St. Patrick is my favorite Saint(can you have a favorite Saint?), Guiness is the only beer I have ever liked and I didn't even try beer until I was 25 yrs old, I like Celtic music, riverdance( how do they do that?), Celtic Crosses are rad and so is Celtic Christianity, and many more things I can't remember right now...but all things Irish. I have always thought, I must be Irish but everytime I try and figure out where my family comes from I never seem to make it to Ireland until today. I received an email from Ancestry.com saying that they have the records of all the Dudley's coming into the US. Here is the list:
Top Places of Origin for Dudley
Place of
Origin Dudley Immigrants
England 181
Ireland 64
Great Britain 27
Scotland 7
Ludley,United States of America 2
Britain 2

I realize that England leads by 117 but I just know in my gut that I come from one of those 64 Irish folks. So until someone proves me wrong...I'M IRISH!

2005-07-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

DOES IT GET ANY COOLER THAN THIS?

in case anyone is looking for a present to give me...not sure why...just you know a present for being your friend, or for being your pastor, or maybe because it is your turn to pay it forward??? well, here is what I want, the most beautiful guitar ever.
cheers

2005-06-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

HOLA!

Well I made it back from Costa Rica alive with no major injuries. Everyone kept telling me that I was going to drown out there from the waves but I managed to stay alive. The trip was really great, best food I have ever had in my life...tuna, chicken and rice, taco's, Naturalel's (fresh fruit blended with water..best drink ever), pizza, and shrimp and rice! The surfing was unreal, the waves were huge! The first morning I was still alittle nervous about surfing bigger waves and from the shore they looked about 4 or 5 feet. So I volunteered to video the first surf session so I could observe. Well, the surf was in fact double overhead (8 to 10ft) and huge. I learned some new surf lingo. There would be these bomber sets come in that would close-out (not peel) so if you were in the wrong place on one of these you would get worked. I watched as no one really tried taking a wave and thought...man this looks big. Then Josh comes walking up the beach carrying his board, in two pieces. That's right, his board broke in half! So I was pretty intimidated. I tried to paddle out later that afternoon and physically couldn't get out passed the bomber waves. I would paddle and paddle and paddle but just couldn't move. So i ended up surfing white wash. Then the next session I made it out passed the break and was so tired that all I could do was just lay on my board. About 10 mins later Stu paddled over and said, " you ready to try and catch a wave" and I was thinking, "i guess so" but never really thought that I would go for one. 2 seconds later everyone in the line-up started yelling at me..."BEN, PADDLE PADDLE PADDLE!!!!" I was caught off guard but i turned towards the shore and paddled with all my might. Then the wave was there and peaked at just the right place. I hearded everyone yell,"STAND UP STAND UP!" so I did however I put my front foot straight instead of sideways and immediately went flying off the board. It was an unbelieveable experience. The wave sucked me back in and I got tossed around for a good 10 seconds that felt like 10 mins. Then I was going to turn and paddle back out but a bomber set was looming and as soon as I came up for air BOMB! I would come back up for air and BOMB #2, then again BOMB #3 and yet again BOMB#4. So I was so freakin tired and tweaked my back on one of the waves I decided to head back to the shore. I am proud to say that I attempted to drop in on a 7ft wave in Jaco, Costa Rica. It is something I will never forget. The best part was everyone cheering for me and wanting me to catch it. That was unforgetable. I surfed several more times that week and made it out past the break a few more times. The last day I got caught in a rip tide and didn't even know it. But before long I was a long way away from everyone floating out into the deep blue sea. That really freaked me out. I did catch a few "real" waves not just white wash...but all in all I didn't do alot of surfing, but I did do alot of paddling and alot of duck diving. There are several more storied to share about the trip...but this is all i can write now. cheers

2005-04-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Invisible Children Art Show

So thursday night we held an art show at UBC to benefit Invisible Children. All the art was donated by Baylor artist and was sold at the show. I haven't heard the final $ amount raised but I believe it was somewhere around $1500. That is truly amazing! We held a concert earlier in the semester and raised around $1800. It is awesome to see how much money the art show raised in comparison to the concert. The invisible children film and mission project is really awesome. If you are unfamiliar then you need to go to www.invisiblechildren.com and learn more about it. Jamie and I purchased a really cool picture at the art show of two kids holding a jar with a light bug in it. The colors in the picture are the exact colors I want to paint my new office at our house. I want to give a shout out to Meg for bringing me a frozen white choc. from CG"S! It was just what i needed to make it throught the night. Thanks face!

In other news, the semester is winding down and UBC is gearing up for summer. Can't wait for summer. I freaking love the summer. also, daniel and heath came to visit and we went to austin to see EMbrace and snow patrol. It was a great show and stubbs is such a great venue! Well...thats about it.... cheers

2005-04-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Costa Rica Baby!

This summer is going to be pretty awesome. I am going to my high school 10 yr reunion. I hated High school but hopefully everyone there will be fat and happy so it will be fun to see them. Is that mean? We are also going to take a vacation with the Bates family...destination unknown. I am going to do children's camp again with Tye. That will be fun. Then there is this small little trip to Costa Rica. That's right, i am going to Costa Rica with Stuart West from florida for the week. We will be surfing all week. I am in charge of the bible studies and the music. I am so (insert proper surfer word here) stoked! Here is a link of the place we are staying. To see pictures of the beach we are going to be surfing, click here. I'm pretty excited and have started to work out again to get in shape for a week of real surfing. Not just little toy waves...real waves! It's going to be sick!

2005-04-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

LADY BEARS WIN IT ALL!

I know this is old news but it is worth blogging about. The Lady Bears won the NCAA women's basketball championship on Tuesday night of last week defeating Michigan State 84-62. They killed them! We went to the welcome home party at the ferrel center and it was pretty neat. There were about 8000+ there and everyone was cheering. Afterwards we got our picture taken with the trophy...not sure we were suppose to, but we climbed on the stage and took our picture. I will post it as soon as I get a copy. Way to go Lady Bears!

2005-03-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

OASIS IN CONCERT!

What's the deal, all of the sudden all the greatest bands in the world are going on tour? Oasis is going to be in Houston In Sept. and I will be there...wouldn't miss it! They are going to be touring the States for the first time in along time. They haven't announced any other shows yet...but maybe they will come to Austin or Dallas so I will not have to go to houston. But if I don't know by saturday then I will be forced to get Houston tickets.

On a side note, the UBC girls soccer team is playing its first two games tonight. One at 5:30 and one at 8:30pm. everyone should come and watch. we will be in the baby-blue shirts. go ubc!

Music of the Day! This is an old segment of my blog I decided to bring back. Today's music is Oasis due to the tour announcement. Check out the Song All Around the World from the Be Here Now album. It had the coolest video ever.

2005-03-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

U2 is coming to Dallas and I got tickets!

Fan Club Members got first dibs at tickets and they went onsale this morning. They don't go onsale to the general public until Saturday. We seriously got amazing tickets for this show! I can't wait. It isn't until Oct. 29th...i don't know if I can't wait that long. Do I sound excited? Because i am excited! Its weird, but the last time we saw U2, back in Nov. of 2001,was one of the greatest moments of my life. I can count those moments on one hand. 1. Knowing God 2. Meeting Jamie 3. Getting Married 4. Surfing at Waikiki 5. U2 concert! U2 is able to take you to another place with their music and their charisma. At the show, they tap into a spiritual place that tugs at your heart. That concert was one of the most powerful moments of my life. Needless to say it was awesome.

So here is the seating chart so you can check out our killer seats. For all you folks who aren't fan club members, tickets go onsale Saturday at 10am for the general public. You should buy tickets! Even if you are behind the stage in the back corner behind a pole...it will be an evening you will not forget.

2005-02-14T21:55:00.000-08:00

1424

That number is a very significant number, let me tell you why. That number represents the name of the best restraunt in Waco and seriously one of the best places I have ever eaten in my whole life. It is named after the address, 1424 Washington st. I know that most of the time only salons name their place after their address...but trust me when i tell you that it works. Now one of the things that I kinda enjoy about this place is that it is pretty expensive. I know you are thinking, "why would you enjoy that?" but i seriously do. It is too expensive to go there for just your typical saturday night out. It is the kinda place you have to save up for...a place you really want to go and look forward to, then finally the day comes and you get to go. I have eaten there 4 times in the last 2 years and I must say the food is amazing everytime. If you any of you come to visit us from out of town, we will take you there, as we did with the Coulters, and we will live it up! Jamie, my beatitul wife and I, went there Saturday night for an early Valentines dinner and as i was eatting my meal i looked up at her and said, " this is living!"

2005-02-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

DUKE WINS!

Just in case you missed the game Wednesday night, Duke beat n.carolina 71-70. So all is not loss when it comes to sports for Mr. Dudley. And Singleton is right...the Eagles will be back next year and they will win the superbowl. Speaking of sports, i have never been the guy that knows everything about every team and every player in every sport. As a kid, i did know everything about every team and every player in basketball...but not basketball, football, baseball, soccer, tennis, golf, hockey, horse racing, nascar, etc etc etc. However, I have always been the guy who just loves to play sports. I LOVE playing sports, games, i just love to play. If there is ever 5 mins to kill, I am the guy who breaks out the hackey sack or folds up a piece of paper into a tiny football. I don't know what it is about playing that I enjoy so much. I am pretty competative, but I am not that person who will get into a fight in a church league basketball game. I am pretty good at most sports, but i never won any mvp awards. This past weekend I lead a Dnow in Amarillo and we talked about our "thing". The thing that we are passionate about, that gets us fired up. Then we talked about how God is the source of this passion and this desire. And as I started to think about this for myself along with the students i realized that for me right now in life...my thing is sports again. As a kid it was sports, then it became music, then it became surfing (which techically is a sport) and now it is back to sports. I have realized that I am way more excited about the superbowl than finding the next great band. I have started playing alot of soccer again and couldn't be happier. I am on an indoor team with my brother in law and Kyle and a few other guys. I only got to play in one game because i was sick last week...but it was a blast. I am signing up for a softball league soon and will start playing softball. I just love getting to spend time with people and I enjoy doing things and being active, so sports is a natural fit. So this blog started out as a congrats to DUKE and turned into a Ben is a sports nut kinda thing...but its all good. I will say this as the last thing, I am looking for someone to play me in some table tennis. We played at dnow and all the seniors played all weekend. i held off until we had a tournament. I swept the tournament and skunked two players. I forgot just how much fun ping pong is and want to play somemore. Any takers???

2005-02-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

Where have you been Ben?
Not sure what to say...took the month off from the blog. I didn't intend on doing so, just got busy and didn't have any pressing need to write. Let's see, where do i start? I guess we can start with the Superbowl...it was a great game and that is all you can ask for. I wish that Donovan had played better and the way the clock was managed at the end makes you think that the whole thing is rigged. There is no excuse for the way they let the time go by. It doesn't make since. If i were a coach for a pro sports team, i would hire an assistant coach of television. I would have this coach watch the game on tv and let me know what the announcer's are saying, because if the eagles had done that they would know how dumb they managed the clock at the end. Oh well, I am guarnanteeing that they will be back next year in the superbowl. If they don't make it back I will shave my beard! You can hold me to that.

So I have been sick all week, pretty exciting. My head feels like a truck is sitting on it. Being sick is no fun. I got sick when I got back from Amarillo's DNOW. THis is the first time I did a dnow in a really long time. It was pretty fun. I had the seniors. Seniors are cool!

We are getting ready for our mission trip to florida. we are taking 23 people to gulf breeze to do hurricane relief work. It should be alot of fun and alot of work at the same time. It will be the first time we have gone back to Gulf breeze in 2 years. It will be weird seeing it all destroyed from the hurricane.
Ok...my head hurts and so i am going to stop typing now...
cheers, ben

2005-01-03T13:01:00.000-08:00
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So I got to drive a Ferrari over the Christmas break... I am going to steal a line from my friend Pete and go ahead and declare it "AWESOME!" I am not even a car guy, but this thing was unbelievable. We went to stay with Jamie's cousins in Scottsdale, AR for a week. They have managed to do quite well for themselves over the years and so of course, if you have a lot of money then you own a Ferrari 360 Spider. Mark "owner of the Ferrari" was telling me that it takes 7 years to get one. There wasn't a clutch, it was a standard but you just flip this little switch when you want to change gears. Did I mention how freakin fast this car is? It is so freakin fast. I enjoyed this experience a lot. Here is another picture of the ferrari from their driveway. Such a pretty car I thought it deserved two pictures.

So Scottsdale was a lot of fun. We didn't really have anything planned to do so we had to come up with things. We did everything from Bowling, to playing poker ( i won $50), to rock climbing. We also hiked up Camelback Mountain. We didn't make it to the top for 2 reasons. 1. Jamie and her mom were both feeling kinda bad and 2. I had two blow outs. Let me explain. You see, I use to be really into camping/backpacking outdoors type of things. Then we moved back to Texas and I haven't done anything like this in about 3 years. So I pulled my hiking boots out for the trip which hadn't been used since we went to Canada 2 and a half years ago. I didn't pay any attention to these boots when I packed them because I just figured they were good to go. We started hiking and about 15 mins into the hike the heal of the boot just broke apart and started flopping around. This became very annoying very fast. By the time we got to our stopping point, both heals were off on both boots. I have pics and will show you later... so we started back down and it was very difficult because I would step on it and lose traction. I ended up tearing them completely off the boot and hiked down without a sole on the boots. It was very funny.

I did some thinking while I was there about life. The most horrible Tsunami thing happened over the Christmas break and when things like that happen you often contemplate life. I realized that I had stopped doing some of the things I enjoy doing. One day Mark asked what we do for fun. The only thing I could think of was go shopping. That really made me think... I love shopping and I love spending so much time with Jamie, but I also love doing things outdoors. We went rock climbing one day at a climbing wall. I had a renewed passion for doing these outdoors things again. I am very excited about this renewed passion. So if any of you want to go climbing, mountain biking, camping, hiking, skiing, skating, surfing..just give me a call. The answer will be "YES"! Here is a pic of me climbing at the wall.

And Finally, Jamie's little cousin Brittany kept us entertained the whole time we were there...she discovered Napoleon Dynamite and can quote the entire movie word for word...very entertaining. She also got Dance, Dance, Revolution for the x-box and needless to say we are pros at it. Ok, not really but here is a great pic of Jamie dancing her little heart out.

2004-12-15T13:34:00.000-08:00
NEW CAR!

Well the rumors are true, the Dudley family got a new car and it wasn't a honda crv. I know that this breaks the family tradition. I believe that the tradition goes back to 1997 when the first CRV was purchased by my mother. Then my dad got one, then my sister got my mom's and mom got another one. Then Jamie and I bought one 3 years ago and the most recent purchase of a CRV was less than a month ago by my mother who is now driving her 3rd honda CRV. The new ones are really nice but Jamie and I decided that we needed to break out of the family mold and try a Toyota. It was actually a bit of a surprise that we were getting a new car. But things happen and here we are driving a brand new 2004 Toyota Highlander. When you aren't expecting something and it comes out of nowhere, it can make for an interesting experience. We were wide open to any car, suv, truck, van???we didn't care. We test drove every car that Honda makes other than the Oddessy because Jamie refuses to get a mini-van, even though that is my dream car. We were about to buy a Chrysler Pacifica and at the last minute decided that neither one of us really liked it all that much. The dealer made us a great deal on his last 04 Highlander that we couldn't pass up. It is way more car than we should have been able to get, but we did and love it. This is my first experience with something other than a 4 cylinder...i will never own anything less than a V6 again, unless it is a Hybrid. I was going to buy a hybrid this time around but they just aren't quite there yet. By the time the next car purchase rolls around we will be looking into the Hybrid's more seriously. But for now we will be rollin in this pimped out Highlander with the killer JBL sound system...its sweet action. cheers

2004-11-11T08:35:00.000-08:00
Trunk or Treat

Just wanted to share this great picture from our first ever trunk or treat at ubc. Jamie and Matthew decided to dress up as Dave and Toni. It was very funny. Trunk or treat was awesome. We had about 20 cars decorated and lined up in the parking lot. All the college students were ready to go just waiting on kids and I started to get nervous. I was like, "what if no kids show up?" Then it was like "field of dreams" If you build it, they will come. Out of nowhere we were packed. There were kids all over the place. We had several families thank us for offering something safe for their kids. It was a great thing. If you want to see more pictures click here.
cheers

2004-11-10T14:41:00.000-08:00
Fall retreat

UBC had its first fall retreat this past weekend. It was seriously an awesome weekend. we went to latham springs and friday night Mike Evans led a journaling exercise...it was awesome. then we played capture the flag, ate smores and watched the movie "in America" Saturday we got up and kyle taught on "how to read the bible for all its worth". this was equally great. it was so refreshing to get away from waco, from my cell phone and just goof off. we made funny jokes about being "on the mountain top" and not being ready to go back to "the valley" i must say Mr. nash is the king of these jokes. my wife has decided that i have multi-personalities. there is travel ben, camp ben, normal ben, angry ben and fun ben. Evidently camp ben is really fun and so i am going to try and be more like him all the time.

I received my Ukulele in the mail a few weeks back. it is really fun to play. i am going to work on an album of surf songs this winter. so hopefully by spring break i will have my album all ready to go. I will keep you all posted on my progress.

The election is over and I am really glad. I was really into all the politic stuff this election but am really glad to be done with it. I got alittle burnt out towards the end. I am happy to say that I volunteered at congressman Chet Edwards office during the election. He is the only democrat that got reelected this time since the redistricting lines were drawn. he has done alot for central texas and is a great guy. I was proud to be apart of something like that and glad that he won.

We went to see I Heart Huckabees this past saturday night. I thought it was so funny. I have heard some mixed reviews but i give it 2 huge thumbs up. Maybe it was the mood i was in or maybe i just connected with the never-ending circle that philosophy conversations go..but i loved the movie. well, i am going to start posting alot more. the post might not have the fancy pictures but I need to start keeping track of what is going on in my life. Life is good and I enjoy sharing about it. So cheers to blogging and to all who blog.. KEEP BLOGGING!

2004-10-28T08:14:00.001-07:00

2004-10-28T08:14:00.000-07:00
Its Here!

Kyle's book has finally arrived at your local bookstore and it is a must read! I am very proud to say that I have a friend who wrote a book. I personally could never write a book because my grammer is something awful and I don't have anything to say. Ok, if you know me at all you know that I do have stuff to say all the time, but maybe what I should have said is "nothing that anyone cares to hear". Kyle worked so hard on this project and we are all very proud of him! So everyone needs to go buy this book and read it.

2004-10-25T13:38:00.000-07:00
Avery Mikel Allen

As of Friday night Oct. 22nd at 9:07pm I am a very proud Uncle. My sister and her husband Sean had their little baby girl. She is the cutest thing. It was quite the week with a funeral and a birth all in one week. It is weird how things work out but we can't control these types of things, so it is best to just live life to the fullest and "keep on, keep truckin!" Avery is so cute, she has the Dudley nose and a full head of hair. She weighed 8lbs. 6oz. and was 19 and 3/4 inches long. It is fun being an uncle, i have only gotten to hold her once, but I am looking forward to seeing her again this coming weekend.

After spending 2 days in Dallas at the hospital with my family and my new niece, Jamie and I headed back to Waco to be greeted by Pete and Jamie Coulter. They were in town staying at our house. They are so great. We miss them and wish they would move back to Waco... they miss Waco, you can just tell they want to move back. Saturday night we went to 1424 and ate the most amazing steak imaginable. It was a nice meal to top off a great weekend. Church went great, it was homecoming and we had alot of people in town. Sunday afternoon was fun because we just dorked around and then watched a few tv shows. We also went to Ninfas with the Perkins, Coulters, and Brownings. It was very enjoyable.
Thanks to everyone who was praying for us last week with the death of my grandmother. She was such a sweet, and funny lady. One of my favorite stories about Mimi was the last time we went to church together. Her hearing aid kept beeping because the music was too loud. We both just sat there and laughed about it for a long time. Our laughter was fueled by Tye Barrett who was attempting to light some candles during the service but his flame kept falling to the ground and almost lit the church on fire, several times. It was a very fun evening.

2004-10-16T15:26:00.000-07:00
My sweet Mimi

I am in Amarillo, got a call from the folks last night that my grandmother wasn't doing well. When we arrived into town she had just passed away. I will blog more about her, she was a funny lady. I have some good stories to share. Please keep us in your prayers.

2004-10-14T07:03:00.000-07:00
ACL

This blog entry is way past due, but better late than never. I went to the Austin City Limits Music Festival again this year. I must say that out of three days of music and this being the third year the festival has existed, it was by far the worst year yet. The main redeeming factor was WILCO! Friday and Saturday were so hot and crowded, the sound was bad and the huge tv monitors weren't working. So unless you were right up front, well you didn't get to see anything. So you just stood in a crowd of 90,000 people listening to a crappy sounding band while sweating your butt off. I went with Harris and Scott on Friday. We met up with Matthew and Stephanie and Meg. Friday night Sheryl Crow played. She is so awesome. It was overall a fun time, but at the end of Saturday I was thinking that I might not go back for the last day. Well, I did and man am I glad. Sunday's line-up was so awesome and all the people I wanted to see were on the stage with good sound. When we got to the festival, we watched Ben Kweller. Then we headed over to get a good spot for Jack Johnson. We were about 40 "rows" if you will back. Jack was awesome. G-Love came out and sang with him as did Donovan Frankenreiter. Then Jack finished and we pushed our way up to about the 10th row. That picture that I posted is me in the wilco crowd. We had an unbelievable spot. It was awesome because we could see everything and hear great. Wilco was unbelievable. I don't know how to describe something so awesome...there are not words... So all in all it was a great time and I am glad I went.

If you get PBS every Saturday night they run the program called Austin City Limits. It has an amazing line-up this year including Damien Rice and Patty Griffin this Saturday night. check it out. Here is a list of all the bands we saw at the festival.
Friday: Rosanne Cash, Patty Griffin, Terri Hendrix, Broken Social Scene, Gomez, and Sheryl Crow.
Saturday: The Wailers, Marcia Ball, Dashboard Confessional, G-Love and Special sauce
Sunday: Ben Kweller, Jack Johnson, Wilco, Cake, Ben Harper

2004-10-13T16:11:00.000-07:00
DVR!

We finally took the plung into the world of digital video recording. For those of you who are not familiar with the DVR, it is basically TIVO except instead of having to purchase a TIVO machine and pay for the service...you get it from the cable company for the same price as the monthly tivo fee. It has already seemed to make life alot easier. We can record tv and watch it whenever we want. We can also pause live tv, pretty nice when the phone rings or when you have to go pee.

Now I know that as a reader you didn't think that we could have just called the cable company, scheduled a set-up, have them come out and set us up and it just work good. That would be absolutely crazy. Anyone who has ordered cable at least once in their life knows that cannot happen. Let me try and explain what I am talking about. Pay special attention to the words "cable" and "programming".

When i called to order the dvr, i asked if I could get the dvr and keep analog cable? They told me it was impossible. I asked them how tivo can do it or how come my friends with another cable company can do it.? The lady told me, "sir, it is a digital box, it has to have digital cable. The cost will be $9.95 for the dvr." Then she told me if i wanted to schedule someone to come out and try it with analog cable i could, it wouldn't work but we can try. So i told her ok. My thinking on this is that the DVR itself is recording the info being sent into the machine in a digital format. It doesnt' mean that you have to send it a digital signal, right? When the technican came to set it up, he said that it was impossible to keep analog cable, and he was right...as was the lady on the phone. Here is where the confusion part starts. The technican told me that the dvr boxes actually double as a digital cable box and a digital recorder, so that is why it has to be a digital signal..and how it differs from tivo. So i said to the technican, "this means we have to have digital cable" and he said, "right, but you get all these extra channels now" I know that some of you at this point might be asking, "why don't you want digital cable?" The main reason is how slow it is...so slow. But i thought, if i am getting the ability to record and i get all these extra channels, it is worth it, especially for only $9.95 a month. So this morning i was watching tv and decided that while making my lunch i would put the tv on MTV 2. I was really excited about getting this new channel because it is all music. When i flipped over to it, it wasn't there. I called the cable company and explained what happened. They told me," sir, you said that you didn't want digital cable, you only wanted the dvr." To which I replyed, " but you told me it was impossible to do that and then proved it when you hooked up the box." "So, if i am going to have this dvr and have to endure the digital cable, why am i not getting all the channels?" "then the guy said, oh well you are right, you do have to digital cable, but not digital PROGRAMMING! That cost extra"

So to make a long story short, after going round and round with the guy about how that is a huge miscommunication on their end.. we now have a DVR with DIgital CABLE but no Digital PROGAMMING. All i got out of this huge misunderstanding is a free trial month of the digital programming. I feel like I lost. It just doesn't seem fair that everyone can refer to something with one term and it is understood what the term means... "digital cable" and then someone just come in and add a new word to the mix "digital programming" to make the miscommunication my fault. I am thinking about calling and talking to a supervisor and trying to get some free cable...especially after they tore up my backyard buring my cable line. Dumb cable company, yet another case of "THE MAN" bringing us all down. cheers

2004-10-01T11:46:00.000-07:00
The Debate Round 1

Last night was quite a show. For 90mins the two candidates went head to head discussing foreign policy. I must admit that while watching the debate I was alittle frustrated at the initial tone of the debate. Both Kerry and Bush seemed uptight, non- personal people. It was as if the fight had already started before the bell had rung. It made the first 30mins for me less enjoyable than I was hoping. Round 1 went to Kerry. Even my friend Craig Nash, who would rather Dean be president than Kerry thinks that Kerry won the debate. I think there were three main things that Bush needed to do better:
Number 1 : I think that Bush should have used the September 11th card more...not in a disrespectful way, but simply saying that the world is a different place than it was 4 years ago. This was his opening line but he failed to come back to it and that is something that people seem to be sympathic to.. 2. I believe that Bush should not have asked for as many follow-up 30 seconds as he did. It seemed that when he would ask for one, several times he was upset and wanting to spar-back but didn't really have a clear point. There was one particular time when he asked for one and then just sat there and said, "ughhhh" and the tv was dead silent for a good 15 seconds. It felts like 5 mins. I hurt for him watching that. 3. Almost in every answer the President tried to include in his point that Kerry was a flip-flopper. This has been a major hurdle for Kerry to try and overcome. I believe that by using this one point against kerry so many times, that it actually backfired abit. each time Bush would say this, it gave kerry another opportunity to clarify his position on the war. Even if you don't agree that he has a position, i don't think you could leave last nights debate and not be able to summerize kerry's view on the Iraq war in 2 sentences or less. That was a major victory for Kerry.
I had started to really feel that Bush was going to walk away with this election. The polls were leaning that way and the first debate was topically Bush's strongest campaign point, yet Kerry seemed to walk all over the President last night. I believe that we are in for a fight. It will be interesting how things play out now. The thing that I am dreading the most is the actual election day. There is going to be so many voter fraud charges and election mistakes that will cause havic on the beautiful thing that is Democracy. Don't forget that Tuesday night is the Vice- presidential debate. This debate will be very interesting...i don't like either one of these guys. I am an undecided voter when it comes to the vp. did anyone watch the daily show last night? it was so funny when they were making fun of undecided voters. cheers

2004-09-28T13:02:00.000-07:00
Still here

Hey everyone, i know that it has been awhile since I last blogged...things have been so busy. I just wanted to touch base and let you know that I will begin blogging again very soon. I haven't completely forgotten about this thing I promise. I want to send out some love to my friends in Gulf Breeze, FL who were just recently hit by Hurricane Ivan. From what I hear the town got hit very hard and so did some of my close friends houses. To see pictures of Gulf Breeze (this is where Jamie and I lived for 2 years) click here.

Stay tuned for more blogs...i promise they are coming.

2004-08-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

Crazy

Life has been pretty crazy lately with the move and school starting back up. The good news is we are all moved in and we had a wonderful first Sunday at UBC. It was packed out and people left with smiles on their faces. I haven't had much time to stop and reflect on all that has been going on because I have been working too much. When I finally get time to stop and just be.. I watch the Olympics! How awesome are the Olympics? I love the Olympics, the music, the stories that make you cry...seeing these people who have given their entire life to one thing accomplish their life long goals.
For some reason at the new house, the New York Times has started to be delivered everyday. I love reading the newspaper. It makes me feel so informed and grown-up. I drive home from work, to the suburbs, and fix myself a glass of water and sit down to read the paper. Very relaxing. If any of you have picked up a paper in the last week you are well aware that one story has been dominating the headlines and that is this Bush vs Kerry ad stuff. Things seem to really be heating up. I am very excited about this election. This will be the first year that I vote as a person who has taken time to research both parties and feel like I can make a good decision that I feel strongly behind backing up. I am not going to tell you whom I am voting for...however I am going to share some really good articles that I have read and some websites that I think you should check out.

First is an article that my friend Harris sent me.. it is from Tony Campolo. click here to read The thing that is so brilliant about this article is what he says at the end. If you are a religious person and you are going to vote republican... realize that "Dub-Ya" can't win without you and force him to address some of the things that he and his administration completely fail at...i.e. "Environment, poverty, trade-issues..." etc. The second thing I would recommend reading is this site called SoJourners. They have this new cartoon on their site, it is pretty funny. Check it out...

2004-08-04T16:06:00.000-07:00
Zingers!
I went to the store a few hours ago to get sause for spaggetti and passed by the isle that happened to have zingers. I quickly grabbed a box and ran to the check out... drove home and stuffed my face with Heaven known as zingers. Growing up these things were my favorite snack. I haven't had them in so long, but they are soooo good. So i want to encourage you to run to your local store and get a box of Zingers, go..go now!
I found out today that we are closing on our house next Friday the 13th! Kinda scarey, Friday the 13th??? does that mean that it is haunted? So if you are my friend, and you live in waco, please mark your calendar for next Friday and Saturday..because the Dudley's are moving and you can help. We always buy pizza for people that help. cheers

2004-08-02T17:29:00.000-07:00
WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

How crazy is this...Jamie and I bought a house. It is this one in the picture. It is a beautiful 4 bedroom home out in Hewitt. We will be neighbors with Blair and Jordan and with Josh and Jenny. Even though we have to move for the 7th time in 5 years, i am actually really excited about moving into this house. More details to come...
cheers, ben

2004-07-15T12:34:00.000-07:00
Happy Anniversary to me!
My beautiful wife Jamie and I celebrated our 5th year wedding anniversary this past weekend. It is really hard to believe that we have been married for 5 years. It seems like it hasn't been that long ago that we were walking the aisle, moving to Florida and starting our life together.
I have been really missing my Florida friends lately. So here is a shout out to everyone in GB! Hey Clint, Steve, Daniel, Jessica, Haley,Liz, Emily, stu, Casey, chase, Denny, Clark, Carrie, and anyone else I forgot! I love you guys and think about you all the time. I would love to hear from you so feel free to give me a ring anytime. Oh and Daniel is the man because he is the only one that has called me at least once a week to say hi. Does that shock anyone? of course not, because Daniel is a girl... ahahaha aha aahaha haha ahaha ahahaha ahaha a ahahahhha breathe... ahaha ahaha aaahhhhahah ahaha hahah breathe, ahahhe ahahehaheha ehha stop!
Life brings about all kinds of interesting plot twist doesn't it. I have just recently stopped playing in the band (Dutton) I spent the last year participating in. I want to wish those guys the best of luck as they continue down the music highway. As for me, I will be embarking upon a new journey. The goal right now is to get the Scurves off the ground and into the closest bar, coffee shop, pool party, wedding, barmitisva, wake..you name it will play it asap. You may remember me talking about the scurves in an earlier post. It is our poser surf band.
In case you have been wondering why I haven't written a blog post in awhile, it is because of the Tour De France. I love this thing. My father is a huge bike rider and so I have been watching the tour all my life. We have OLN network on our cable and so we get to watch every flippin second of the tour. It is so amazing. Yesterday's stage was a little ride of 147 miles with 9 climbs. Tommorow is the first stage that they are predicting the big boys to come out and play...should be fun to watch. cheers

2004-07-02T08:12:00.000-07:00
JUST SAY "NO!"

Dear Coach K, how are things going? I hope that you are enjoying a great offseason. Heard you have another wonderful freshman class coming this year. Things are going good for us in Waco. Staying busy with church stuff, in Amarillo right now visiting my folks. Well, i just wanted to write you and let you know that those awful rumors about you possibly going to the Lakers have really got us concerned. I know that you would never leave us Dukies, but I just wanted to let you know that the Lakers blow and you would hate it. Well, next time you are in waco be sure and give us a call. Take care and don't sell us out for the Lakers of all things, for the LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD!!!! PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE!!!
cheers, ben

2004-06-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

A Ghost is Born!
That is the name of the new Wilco album that is a great listen. In case you are unfamiliar with the amazing band that is called Wilco...they are an alt country band that struggles to fit into the world of music as we know it. The album deserves a listen from everyone, no matter what your music taste. I am continually finding new things that I just love about this album. therefore it deserves the title of MUSIC OF THE DAY!

There is a great deal of talk swirling around about the new Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11. I have not scene the movie yet and will wait until I do to post my thoughts about the movie. I have been enjoying political conversations as of late. This election year is going to be fun to watch play out. As for now I can honestly say that I am still undecided but i am definitely leaning towards one side of the fence and that is for me to know and you to find out.

Finally, my father is off on an adventure that is something pretty amazing. He is on a week long bike ride in Colorado.

The ride consist of the following route:
Fort Collins to Estes Park 45 miles.
Glen Haven Canyon -- 8,000 ft

Estes Park to Granby -- 68 miles.
Rocky Mountain National Park Trail Ridge Road -- 12,183 ft
Fall River Pass -- 11,786 ft
Milner Pass -- 10,758 ft

Granby to Steamboat Springs -- 100 miles
Gore Pass -- 9527 ft

(Day off in Steamboat Springs -- Special Events)

Steamboat Springs to Walden -- 62 miles
Rabbit Ears Pass -- 9426 ft
Muddy Pass -- 8772

Walden to Fort Collins -- 101 miles
Cameron Pass -- 10,276 ft

So good luck Clay and as Lance would say, "Live Strong!"

2004-06-16T20:54:00.000-07:00
"THE ART OF GRILLING" by Ben Dudley

Jamie and I have been grilling out alot this summer. We bought our grill last summer in the most white-trash way possible. We left our garage sale with our money in a zip-lock bag and drove straight to sears...we handed the guy the cash from the zip-lock and walked out with a grill. Last year I did some grillin.. but this year I am doing some MEAN GRILLIN!!! We have discovered the fine art of marinating things way in advance. It is one thing to put some stuff on your meat of choice an hour before you cook it... but a day before is so much better, and if you don't have a day at least 4 hours. Then turn the heat down and take your time...that way you don't burn the outside and the inside cooks better. I have grilled three times already this week and have a steak in the fridge getting ready to be grilled tommorow. I am willing to share my work with whoever... just buy your meat of choice, call me a day in advance and we will set something up.

Music of the day! The music of the day is again brought to you by my friend in Ashville N.C. Stuart West. He sent me an email about a band name "Franz Ferdinand" they are kinda the clash meets disco (that was what Hogan said) anyways, they have a huge song out called "Take Me Out" and it is really cool. I would say download some songs but don't rush to buy the whole album. It hasn't quite sunk in like the one song. cheers

2004-06-09T11:30:00.000-07:00
CAMP RULES!

Summer camp rocks! Thanks to FBC amarillo for bringing our little band to lead worship for the week. We had an awesome week. I could seriously do camp all the time. I would sleep in, go play my guitar. Eat some lunch that someone else made for me, then I would play some volleyball followed by a dip in the lake to cool off. It is the life i tell you, the LIFE!!!! We have a few other camps left and I am really excited.
This weekend is the annual UBC garage sale... I HATE THE UBC GARAGE SALE!!!! I know that it is a great thing and brings in alot of money for the church, but i just hate all the work. I feel like for 3 straight days i just move crap around until the sale is over... then it all gets put into a truck and hauled off...it will be over soon and that is the best thing I can focus on right now.
I will try and get some pictures of camp on here soon. Sorry that I don't have any yet. In the meantime if you get bored with this blog go up and click on the beach boys picture and that will take you to the duttonband.com website. It is currently still being built but it is looking pretty sweet so far. Jonathan Standefer is a genious. That is all i got... cheers

2004-05-26T08:11:00.000-07:00
BAYLOR WINS 1st NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

Congrats to the Baylor Men's tennis team for winning the school's first national championship ever!!!! Thanks to Tom's blog for the use of this picture and this borrowed blog story. GO to his blog to read more...just thought it deserved a spot on the blog! Sic'em Bears!

2004-05-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

NEW SHIRT

So we had some people get concerned that the previous yellow shirt may cause some troubles with the folks... so we decided to change the "dutton digs surfer chics" shirt to " Dutton sunk my battleship"! I think the change is for the better... we wouldn't want any parents to get upset at our band.
Thanks to everyone who voted in the Michael W. Smith poll this past week. Speaking of Smitty, he made headlines this week when he, along with Bono and Dikembe Mutombo launched the ONE campaign to fight global AIDS and poverty. This is one of the greatest causes out there and worth everyone's time to participate. They are not asking for much, please click here and sign-up! It will take you no longer than one minute to do so!!!! So way to go Smitty for taking part in such a worth while cause!

Music of the Day! Recently it has been brought to my attention that there is a new Jack Johnson of sorts make waves in the music scene. My friend Stuart was the first to tell me about this guy. His name is Donavon Frankenreiter and his album is very good. Similar to Jack Johnson. In fact, jack and g-love both have duets with Donovan on the cd. I would encourage all who enjoy chill surf music to check this one out. He will be touring with Jack and G-love this summer, unfortunately no Texas dates are currently scheduled. Cheers

2004-05-20T08:25:00.000-07:00
T-shirts!

Dutton is gearing up for a fun summer of camps and since we have no cd to sale.. we needed something for people to remember us, insert t-shirts here. These t-shirts were the brain-child of my beautiful wife Jamie and created by Genevieve at Hole in the Roof! If you ever need t-shirts,stickers, or hats you need to go to Hole in the Roof.. they rock! These shirts will soon be for sale on our new band website, it isn't done yet but click here and see the progress. We are playing at 4 camps this summer and at UBC a ton because the Crowder Band is touring with none other than Michael W. Smith! That's right, the big man himself. Its funny because we always make fun of him, then he ask Crowder to go on tour and now he is cool again. I guess that Crowder band can make anything cool, and by cool I mean totally awesome! I thought it would be fun to survey the crowd and see what is your favorite Smitty song. And the winner is...

2004-05-17T20:22:00.000-07:00
Workin Out

Well tonight it all begins again...i have officially started the excersize ball workout again to get in shape for california! Pete has inspired me to get back on the ball and get my arms in shape for surfing.
Music of the day!! attention everyone...the new Alanis album comes out tommorow! The single is great but her albums are always twice as good as her singles. So rush out to your local music store and purchase the new album!
Chris Aho.. congrats on finishing up at Duke! that is very impressive...i couldn't do it but you did and that is awesome! Chris will also be excited to know that I have started mountain biking again at Cameron park. I wish you were here to go ride with me...come back and visit and let's go ride!

2004-05-05T07:27:00.000-07:00
Scurf's up!
Yesterday was a great day, we had our surf trip reunion party at the lake. Nathan and his dad took us out to Lake Belton with two really nice boats and we learned to Scurf. As you can see here in the picture, this is my first attempt at Scurf and it doesn't look very good... but the general idea behind scurfing is to weight down the back of the boat so you get a big wake and then to surf behind the boat. Later in the day I was able to do it without using the rope and just let the wave push me... the only way this works is to be really close to the boat and at first I was too chicken. Then I realized that the boats have made alot of improvements since I was a kid. The motors are no longer on the back where people can get hurt... they are under the middle of the boat. So if you get a chance you must go scurfing, everyone that went was able to do it with ease... very very fun!!!!
Blink 182 concert was awesome! They are so much fun live. Their drummer, Travis Barker, is the most amazing drummer I have ever had the privileged to watch. The funny thing was he had a broken foot and didn't even use his right foot at all and it was still the most amazing thing I have ever heard. This concert was the best visual concert I have ever been too. They had 5 gigantic screens on stage that were showing video footage that tied into the songs but was also just kinda random... and the light show was amazing! I guess part of it was the type of music, lights dance to the beat and if the beat is 4 on the floor the whole time...well the lights are just going nuts the whole time... it was truly awesome. When they finished playing the drummer left out on a wheel chair and the other guys stayed and jammed on this slow deal... then you hear the drums kick in but you don't see him anywhere??? "turn around" I thought as I tried to figure out how this could be happening. Low and behold the drums were rising up out of the middle of the crowd and Travis was sitting on a spinning stage playing a drum solo... this lasted at least 5 mins. and again BROKEN FOOT!!!! and still the most amazing drummer I have ever heard! So go listen to the new blink album if you haven't... it is great, they are great, Travis Barker is great!!!!

2004-05-02T22:33:00.000-07:00
Skate or Die!
Its been a few weeks since I have been on the old skateboard. We skated over spring break but not since. So tonight we gathered the troups and headed out to the new shopping mall to do some skating. It was a blast. We tied a rope to the back of matt's car and would hold on as the car would pull us something like 18 miles an hour. It isn't any faster than just going down a hill, it is just a consistant speed so it is quite fun. At one point Dave and Scott and Hickman go off with the car and Harris, Matt, Henry and I were left on the front side of the mall. We see a cop go flying in their direction and sure enough they got busted. The funniest part was someone called us in saying that we were pulling up a tree. That was such a hoax, why would we pull up a tree? I mean, sure we were in the shopping carts that were left in the parking lot, and sure they were being pushed into the curb so when it hits the curb the person in it would go flying out of the cart( very fun and it doesnt' hurt) but we were not pulling up any trees. So the cop told us that we had to leave unless we could get written permission from the owner saying we could skate on his property. We decided we were going to seek permission to make some movies in the parking lot and that way we could skate.
So then we decided to head over to the Baylor parking garage and as soon as we got there a cop was just waiting on us... and of course told us that we couldn't skate there anymore? what is up with that??? the funniest part of the whole thing was at the top of the parking there was a band having band practice. They were playing some punk song..it was like a movie! All in all a pretty sweet night! I wish I had the video camera but oh course the one night that all the most awesome stuff happens... we didn't take the camera.

2004-04-27T08:50:00.000-07:00
ONE WEEK!
In one week I will be going to the blink 182 concert in Dallas! I am very excited about this show. I haven't been to a show since Switchfoot and that was a month ago. I am thinking this Blink concert will be just the thing to get my summer started. I know summer doesn't officially begin until June 21st... but for me it officially starts Monday May 3rd, in Dallas at the Smirnoff music center!

I am stupid because I said I haven't been to a show since switchfoot and that isn't entirely true... well, I hosted a show at UBC this past Thursday night.. the Robbie Seay Band was in town and they were great. They have a new album out and I think you guys would like it. YOu can check it out!
One other note of interest to the Dudley family, Jamie and I will be celebrating 5 years of being married this summer and we decided yesterday to take a trip to California! We will go visit our good friends Pete and Jamie, who happened to be in town last week, for a week and yes I am planning to go surfing at least once! I think I am going to watch that new mini-series on NBC called 10.5. I have always wondered what would happen if Cali were hit with "the big one" earthquake that is... they are going to show us!
Music of the day... the new BEN KWELLER album is great. It is called "on my way" and should be checked out by all indie rockers! cheers

2004-04-19T13:14:00.000-07:00
Under Construction!
just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I will be debuting a brand new look for Make Ben Fair very soon. I am currently working very hard on this and am excited for the future of Make Ben Fair! The changes are a result of a lack of interest in my blog and a desire to do something new and exciting. I hope that you can hang in there as the changes are being made.
In the meantime, Thursday night at UBC, the Robbie Seay Band will be in concert so everyone needs to come to that... $5 at the door and it is at 8pm. Also, Dutton will be playing at Baylor Friday night in the Sub Bowl at 9:30pm. Be sure and come watch us!
cheers, ben

2004-04-17T12:37:00.000-07:00
NO WILCO :(
Tom called me the other night to inform me that Wilco has canceled the show in Austin. This stinks! The lead singer went into rehab...I am all for him going to rehab, but couldn't he have waited until after they played the Austin show? Ok, I realize that is just alittle selfish and I wish Jeff a speedy recovery so he can get back to making great music.
Tuesday was a fun day. I went to Mississippi with the Crowder band. They were opening for Delirious. I have always enjoyed Delirious so this was a fun trip to go on. It was very eye opening, i mean who doesn't want to be a rock star...it looks like such a glamourous lifestyle but wow!!!! It is hard work. You get up at 6am to go get on a bus for 8 hours. Then you arrive, set-up your stuff, deal with total nut jobs trying to run sound(they didn't have a clue on Tuesday) Then you grab a fast dinner, play for 45mins and then pack it all up and load it back on the bus. Then you wait for the main act to finish playing, you sign some autographs and try and sell some merch... and then back on the bus for another 8hr ride. Now don't get me wrong, i had a blast but i was really tired the next day. I also know that without getting to get on the stage and play (to get the high) that would be a rough life. So i want to take a minute and salute the crowder band.. "you guys are awesome, you make great music and work your butt off touring and it is tough. keep it up! because getting to see people's reactions to being around you guys even to just shake your hand, was a really cool experience! thanks for letting me tag along!"

2004-04-12T21:44:00.000-07:00
EASTER
well easter came and went pretty fast this year. I finally made it around to see "the passion" movie on wednesday of last week. It was something...not sure how i feel about the movie yet. everyday my opinion changes. at first i just thought it was too graphic, then i thought about how if i wasn't a christian that movie would have meant nothing to me. the story didn't do a good job of setting up the story or giving any pretext to what was going on. i knew because i have read the story a million times but for someone who hasn't, they would be as lost as all get out. Then i remembered how powerful the flashback scenes were and couldn't get them out of my head for the whole easter weekend. We went to the Maunday Thursday service at my sisters church and as they told the story i couldn't help but think about the movie and the images became very powerful for me. anyways... i don't think I will be buying the Dvd or anything.. but i am glad that I saw it.
Congrats to Tom McCarty! He is a very proud Missourian and always pulls for Missouri teams to win. They never do and it is sad! BUT the tides have changed... the new MISS USA is from Missouri! So way to go Tom!
Had the wonderful pleasure to be able to spend the weekend with my mother, sister and my brother in law in dallas! We went shopping in Frisco and man is that a cool mall. there is some pretty exciting news that i need to share about my sister but i will save that for another post. mom was good and we laughed alot, especially when playing this game called, "hear me out!" My mom was asked to name three people that were radical thinkers... she puts " einstein" which is a good one, then she puts , "Papa" my granddad... great guy, actually an amazing guy but i don't think i would call him a radical thinker. And finally she puts "larry bird" and I am the biggest Bird fan of all time but i would not call him a radical thinker. It made for a good laugh. Going on a one day tour with the Crowder band tommorow. getting to ride the bus and go see delirous in Mississippi! I will tell you about it when I get back. cheers

2004-04-06T09:10:00.000-07:00
WE SHOWED YOU!
The UCONN Huskies defeated Georgia Tech pretty soundly last night in the NCAA mens basketball championship game! Yes, I owe my mom $20 and I will pay her this weekend. Feel free to mail me $1 each so that I will not go into dept to pay off my lousy bet. Way to go Tech, first and last time I will ever bet on you! Not only did the Huskies win on the court, but they managed to win off the court as well when their great student body decided to set fire to cars and tear up the neighborhood. This girl happened to get caught and arrested but I wonder what she is thinking... you can see it written all over her face... Tongue out and everything... she has some very profound thought running thru her mind? any ideas? maybe "Stick it to the Man! Stick it to the Man!"
feel free to add your own suggestion of what the girl is thinking in the comment section.

2004-04-05T14:16:00.000-07:00
ALOHA!!!
Last night we had the first ever Hawaiian Lovefeast at UBC! It was really fun, everything was decorated with beach stuff and we ate alot of chicken wings? I know, i was thinking the same thing. Everyone was suppose to bring food that was Hawaiian and the majority of the food that was brought was Chicken wings. I even got them myself to bring, I was trying to tie in the Tyriaki and chicken to Hawaiian? Its a stretch but I wasn't the only one that made the jump. All the Hawaii talk got everyone fired up about going there for spring break next year. So my job is to figure out a way to take a church trip to Hawaii for spring break. I think I may already have it figured out. The Baptist convention over there owns a plantation that I stayed at for the 2.5 weeks that summer I did centrifuge. So hopefully I can contact them and we could stay there for a very low cost of FREE. then all we would need is plane tickets and food money!! So UBC surf trip round two... Oahu, Hawaii here we come!

Saw Switchfoot Friday night and they were so great. I just love that band! That was the 5th time I have seen them live. They are on TRL today if you want to watch! I taped it just in case you missed it.
Its a sad day today, duke will not be playing OSU for the National Championship this year. It is kinda that feeling when the Cubs and the Red Sox's lost. Everyone would have loved to watch that series, and I hate baseball but would have enjoyed that... who cares about U CONN and G. Tech? not me, well okay, I care alittle because I bet my mother $20 that tech would win. so go Jackets!!!!
MUSIC OF THE DAY!!! The music of the day is the most amazing geek rock band ever... yes it is "WEEZER!" They are so great. Their new dvd just came out and I borrowed it from Drew. It is so funny and so great at the same time. If you only own the blue album go buy some other Weezer stuff, it is all great! I promise. In the dvd I noticed this guy sitting in the studio with them making the blue album, it was the lead singer of "the Cars"! Dude, "the Cars" rock! That made me happy to see him helping produce what is considered one of the top 5 albums of the 90's! Here's to the weerez!!!!

2004-03-25T09:39:00.000-08:00
The Scurves!
So I spent a week in San Diego at a beautiful beach house with 18 other people from UBC last week. It was a truly amazing week. We went surfing 2 or 3 times a day, went to Disneyland, ate at In and Out burger, Rubios, California Pizza Kitchen!!! We went to the Fashion Valley mall (this is a normal mall with no roof and really great stores! I think I left out that we went to Cheese Cake Factory, that was soooo good! When we got home we were struck with Beach fever. I have always had a pretty bad case of beach fever, it comes and goes and sometimes it is really bad, almost deadly. Well, Harris, Nathan, Matt B. and I have decided to start a band. We are going to be the next beach boys. Now we know that we live in Texas and aren't really surrounded by beach culture, but we all love the beach so much and the culture that comes with the beach that we decided that it didn't matter. So what if we are posers, at least we are honest about it. Our new band is going to be call, "THE SCURVES!" I learned what a scurve was while living in Florida from my friend Clark. Clark was a die hard surfer dude! When someone did something wrong, or was a dork, or a poser... he would call them a scurve. So this name seem to fit us pretty well. I wanted to give you a sampling of what our music will sound like. I have no idea if this will work or not, but I am going to put a link to a song that I have composed on my new software called Garage Band (its pretty cool, check it out). So try this link and see if the song will play or not... when you click on it, it will take about 30 seconds to load. The song is titled, " The Moosh". That is what we tended to surf the most, mooshy whitewash waves! They are easier... can you blame us? enjoy the tune...

2004-03-11T13:31:00.000-08:00
Wave bye-bye!
Time to say goodbye for a week as we are getting ready to head to San Diego on Sunday. We are taking 19 folks from UBC to beautiful Mission beach for a week of surfing. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for this trip. Growing up I always like the water and was fascinated with surfing. My favorite band was the beach boys and something about beach culture that has always appealed to me??? I had a small dose of the beach life while living in Florida and it was heaven. I can sit and watch waves all day. Water is so fluid, and I don't mean water is a fluid, I mean water is so fluid, so seamless it just seems to captivate me. If you want to watch us surf, there are several Mission beach web cams that run live video of the beach area. The best one I have found so far is this one here.. click and enjoy. Remember that California time is 2 hours different than Texas time. So if you check this around 11am you may catch us in the water.

So please don't be angry that I am not going to be blogging for about a week, I am going on Vacation! I know that I will have a lot to blog about when we get home, the trip for starters, March Madness... tons of stuff. I wish everyone a very safe and happy spring break and I hope that you catch as many waves as I do, my goal is one really good one!
I will leave you with something that use to be included in my blog a lot and I have left out more recently... but that is the MUSIC OF THE DAY! The music of today is a band called "Snow Patrol" and the song is called "Run"! Get this song!!! Hard to find but worth the hunt. The music of the week for next weeks surf trip will be: "Jack Johnson", "Bob Marley" , "Blink 182" and of course San Diego's own "Switchfoot"!
cheers, ben

2004-03-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

And the product placement award goes to...
There is nothing that I enjoy more than a really well written tv show. Something about certain shows that no matter how much things resolve, they just get all twisted up again. The show "Alias" is really good about this, and for the three seasons that we have watched this show, every single week we have always thought how amazingly well this show is written. In the past I have been a little more into the show than I currently am, maybe just because I had more time on my hands back then, but I would play the video game on the website and read about the episodes etc. I remember back when I was doing this that a certain car company was advertising their car and having a contest to give away a car like Sydney drives on the show. Then I would watch the show and notice that she indeed was driving the car that this certain car company was advertising on the shows website. The only difference is back then, they would never make a big deal about the car or even mention the car on the show, so if you didn't look at the website you might not really notice that the car company was a sponsor of the show and paid Alias a lot of money for them to use their car in the episodes. So what you had was product placement but just like in every show and movie it was subtle.
tonight's episode was very very different, and very very ridiculous! Very early in the show Sydney and Vaughan are chasing some bad guys on to the top of a parking garage and the bad guys jump in a brand new "#*@!" mustang! (I have chosen to not honor the car company with any more free advertising by using various symbols for their name) Then Sydney looks around and instead of yelling, "the truck!", she yells "the F-150!" Then the F-150 starts chasing the mustang and what a 30 second commercial it was, the cars have never looked so good, except maybe on Wayne's World where they make fun of product placement! I was disappointed that a show like Alias would completely sellout the integrity of their show by allowing such ridiculous product placement. She might as well have said, "The F-150 with dual airbags, front and rear super suspension, killer soundsystem, antilock brakes, 4 wheel drive, with a hemi!" Well, the hemi is the wrong brand, but you get the point. Immediately following the commercial that we were forced to watch during Alias was a commercial buy that certain car company showing off the new F-150 in all its glory. If TiVo is to blame for this, because no one watches commercials anymore, then I say we protest TiVo, because the more that our TV shows start turning this direction, the worse things will get. Its bad enough you pay money to go see a movie and you have to watch commercials now, previews for other movies are one thing, but coke commercials... I didn't pay $6 for a movie ticket to be advertised to.... That sucks! Just so you know, I will be sending my complaint to Alias to let them know that product placement like what was used tonight is completely selling out and they should care more about the integrity of their show than what was shown! I am done... cheers

2004-03-03T09:47:00.000-08:00
"That's What Friends Are For..."
So here is the picture of Tom at the bearathon that he didn't want you to see. I have zoomed in just enough so you can see that he is bent over puking his guts out... way to go Tom! We are all very proud of you! You know what they say, " Friends are friends forever, if the Lords the Lord of them.."

Tom has some pretty famous running stories. I hate to steal a blog entry away from Tom, telling his stories that need to be told! The stories about running in college and falling on the bear trail twice in front of a certain girls dorm, or the one about running and then puking and then running some more and then puking some more until the medics finally pulled him off the course 1 mile from the finish. These stories need to be told and we demand them to be told! So, if you want Tom to blog about his amazing stories that have to do with running, make sure and tell him in the comment section of his blog!!!!!

2004-03-01T13:40:00.000-08:00
I am trying to break your heart!

I have some amazing news for all who live in Texas, the beloved band Wilco is coming to Austin on April 24th. That's right, at Stubbs on Saturday night! I must confess when i was in college i didn't take advantage of living in Waco. You see, Waco is very unique because we are located exactly 1.5 hours away from Dallas and Austin. Both of these great cities get great concerts. When Jamie and I lived in Pensacola there were several concerts that came through but we didn't want to spend our money on concerts, we didn't know what we were missing. Then we moved back to Waco and our first big show was U2 in Austin. That set us on a concert frenzy. We have been to so many shows over the past two years it is crazy. I thought i would try and compile a list of everyone that i have seen live in the last 2 and a half years.

1. U2 (best show of all time)
2. Alanis Morrisette
3. Switchfoot 2times in the last two years, seen them 2 other times before, and about to again in april!
4. Wilco
5. Rem
6. Coldplay
7. Travis 2 times
8. David Crowder Band a bunch of times
9. Jack Johnson
10. The Wallflowers
11. G-Love
12. Ben kweller
13. Phantom Planet
14. Ryan Adams (didn't like it)
15. Nickel Creek 2 times
16. Pete Yorn
17. Grandaddy
18. Pearl jam
19. Norah Jones
20. Dwight Yoakam
21. Liz Phair
22. The Mavericks
23. Los Lobos
24. Bright eyes
25. Bob Schneider
26. Abra Moore
27. Gillian Welch
28. The Polyphonic Spree
29. Ben Lee (boring)
30. Damien Rice (2nd best show of all time)
31. Sondre Lerche
32. Nada Surf
33. Cotton Mather

I think that is it? if you have seen a show with me that i am forgetting please remind me... i am quite proud of this list!

2004-02-23T17:11:00.000-08:00
WHAT I AM FOR...
I found myself once again getting into a conversation about "hot" topics. I remember something that Kyle said about a year ago when preaching, he was preaching about the song "Politik" by Coldplay. He was sharing about how instead of being against everything that we should be 'FOR' something.
It made me think alot about my politik.. my beliefs, the things that I am willing to take a stand for, to believe in and spend time and energy helping. I spent a good deal of the last year researching things that seem to be my "hot" topics. The funny thing is, a year later I have found myself still being against things instead of being "for" things. It is a difficult thing to always be "for" something instead of "against" something. It has made me think so much about how to truly make a difference. I want to take a minute and share some of my "politik".. but in a for way instead of an against way.

Ben's Politik
1. Love
2. Community
3. Peace
4. listening
5. Holistic

I believe that the Love that Christ talks about is about putting others before yourself. To humble yourself before God and others is a tough thing to do. I believe that if we truly are called to live life in community that it should affect everything we do and participate in, to the way we spend our money, to how we vote. I also think that in this point in history we are at a place where absolutes are not accepted or believed in but instead experiences rule people's perspectives and this causes problems when trying to figure out life. I have come to a point in which I have learned that I don't know everything.. (some of you may be shocked here..) but I at one point had my dogma and my creed and that was it for me. I had everything figured out, and if things didn't fit into my list then they couldn't be apart of my life and i could have nothing to do with anyone that was involved with these things. I have since realized that it is ok to not know everything, that it will take my whole life to understand why we go to war. I will never understand how people can find out what is in fast food and continue to eat the stuff. There are just things i don't get. However, that doesn't mean that I can't still come up with things that are absolutes. My absolutes are my "politik" they are the things that I am "for". So this is why i become very passionate in discussions of "hot" topics, because ever since i have started figuring out my politik, my perspective on everything has changed so much. This is total rambling, sorry to everyone who has tried to read this and make any since out of it. I just really enjoy conversation about issues that people have made up their minds prior to the conversation. I enjoy playing devils advocate to people and challenging their dogmas. I enjoy the fact that everything that I was once for and everything that I was against has been totally thrown into a huge ball of confusion. I also enjoy that I can have a huge ball of confusion (like this bloc entry) yet still have my "Politik"

2004-02-18T08:50:00.000-08:00
THE MAN GROUP!

Sunday night we had "the LOVE" lovefeast at UBC. It was really fun because everyone brought foods that they love. I went and got a big box of fried chicken from Popeyes. Jamie made homemade choc. chip cookies, and they were goooooddddd! We had everything from chicken to pizza, to krispy kreme to ice cream.. it was Heaven on earth. The community group that I co-lead is the Man group. We have had an awesome time so far this semester. We decided that it would be fun to dress up and serve everyone at the Lovefeast. Now this wouldn't be that big of deal at most churches, the whole dressing up thing.. but people don't do that at UBC. So it turned into a really fun thing. Please take note in the picture that i am sporting the grandpa look with the green jacket, the yellow sweater, the blue (short sleeve) dress shirt and the soccer shoes... i think this look could make its way back.

2004-02-10T16:41:00.000-08:00
Safety Ben!
Saturday Jamie and I went to Dallas for the day. We were suppose to be getting some mattresses for the surf trip but it didn't work out. We ended up just shopping all day and ate dinner with my sister and Sean. While in Dallas, Jamie found us some new alarm clocks. I love alarm clocks... they can be really cool but the fear that is involved with getting a new clock is alittle overwhelming. What happens if I set the clock and it doesn't go off? What if the new ring tone doesn't wake me up? What if I set it wrong? All of these thoughts are running thru my head as I laid down to go to sleep Saturday night. After all Sunday is the one day a week that I really can't be late to work. So around 2am the phone rings...but we are sound asleep. I think that this is the new alarm going off and that it is time to get up. Sometime quickly after waking up I realize that it is the telephone ringing so I answer it. The lady on the phone says, "Hello Mr. Dudley, this is Terrell Alarm and the alarm at UBC has gone off, would you like to meet the police officer over there?" I told the lady that it was ok because my alarm had just gone off and I would be there in 30mins anyways. So I get up and go to the bathroom and then realize that if the sound I heard wasn't my alarm, if indeed it was the phone that it might not be time to take my shower yet... so I check the clock and sure enough it is only 2am. So I called the lady back and she said that the front door at the church had been broken and that I needed to go up there. So I went to the church to see what had happened. When I arrived there were two cops already there and they told me that a k-9 cop was on his way to search the building. They wanted to make sure that no one was still in the building. The cops also told me not to stand in front of the door for safety sake. So the k-9 showed up and they keep telling me to stand aside and then they all go into the building and search the place, however they leave me standing outside in the cold all alone and unprotected. I was like, "hey now...isn't someone suppose to protect me?" After searching the building they had me go look and see if anything was gone and at the time I couldn't find anything so they said, "well we will write this up as a misdemeanor and have a good night." So they leave me there at 2;30am in the middle of the lobby of UBC, which is located in the ghetto known as Waco Texas, all alone with a busted out front door. I was slightly confused as to what I was suppose to do at this point. So I decided that I would call a security company and hire a guard to come and stand post so I could go sleep. It took them an hour and a half to get to the church. So imagine me standing in the lobby with nothing more than a broom in my hand guarding the church. I was walking around pretty much scared out of my mind that the people would show back up to steal everything we own. I got enough courage to go outside and sweep up the glass. All of the sudden I hear tires screech and I freaked out. I ran inside the church and hide behind the curtains watching to see what was going on. There was a car that had pulled up to the intersection in front of the church, the lights were blinking red because it was so late and they almost ran the light. They must have been drunk because they sat there for at least 10 mins before they went ahead and ran the red light. It was pretty entertaining once I realized that I wasn't going to die. Fortunately UBC has an alarm so the bad guys didn't get much and we are all safe...

2004-02-10T15:19:00.000-08:00
ALL I WANT TO DO IS ROCK!!!
Sorry I haven't had time to blog lately... things have been very crazy. Last week was one of those great weeks in life, you know the kind I am talking about... where you get to do something that you really love, twice! Travis the band was passing thru Texas for the first time in three years. Well, I had to go see them in Austin and Dallas. Tuesday night we went with the Crowders and the show was in Austin. What a great day, went shopping and then ate at my favorite Mexican food place "Maudie's" Then we went to the show. They made me put the camera in the car so I didn't get any pics Tuesday but I did Thursday in Dallas. Thursdays show was equally amazing but shared with a different group. Thursday was with Harris, Logan and Nathan. Tom was suppose to go but tragically had to work late so Nathan took his spot last minute. The highlight of the concert was the song, "ALL I WANT TO DO IS ROCK" Each night as they played this song, the guitar player Andy would climb up on top of the speaker stacks and play the solo in the truest rock fashion! Check out this pic.. What an amazing show and afterwards I have a totally new appreciation for the latest cd 12 memories. I blogged earlier about the album not being up to par but it has grown on me, now after seeing the songs played live, unbelievable! That is truly a great album. There is one song called "the Beautiful Occupation" that just rocks and then my wife just loves the song called, "Somewhere Else" Doug the bass player plays the glockenspiel on this song... Travis music has so much melody, its just beautiful. Most bands these days have the Dave Matthews syndrome of kinda monotonal half way speaking singing the songs.. not Travis, they are all about the melody which I love! If you don't have any Travis albums or aren't familiar with them let me know and I can recommend some good songs to start with. cheers

ps. enjoy some more pics..

2004-02-03T07:19:00.000-08:00
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED
Let us not forget this day in 1959 when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and "The Big Bopper" perished when their plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. Where would we be today if there was no Buddy Holly? and come on, everyone knows that Oh Donna is one of the greatest slow songs ever, not to mention La Bamba!
Every Year Baylor has SING and we always go with Jamie's folks. Every year Jamie's dad Jim always always says, "Someone should do a SING act about Buddy Holly" and he goes on to tell us about how great Buddy Holly was and how badly someone needs to make a SING act. He also says, "they would win!" It is always funny because we know it is coming but deep down we know its true. If someone really did a SING act about Buddy Holly they really might win... I mean come on...how great is Buddy Holly? The Fender Stratocaster has never looked as cool as it does around Buddy Holly's neck. One of the first guitar solos I ever learned was "that will be the day" taught to me by my father. I can still remember every trip our family ever took when I was a kid. We would listen to the soundtrack to American Graffiti. The album had that song along with "Maybe Baby" ! We would sing outloud and proud to be fans. Buddy's band was called "the Crickets" I have always wondered who came first, "the Beatles" or "the Crickets"? Anyone know.... So take a minute and reflect on these three great rock and roll legends and remember the beautiful sounds they brought to our ears.