Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Thanksgiving Week Takes on an All New Meaning

It has been too long since my last blog, so I apologize to my faithful friends and family whom I have let down. I just finished up the last of my 3,500 word English term paper over John Donne, so it actually comes as a surprise that I am in the mood to write any more...but God has been too good to me, my family, and some close friends to let it all go by without acknowledging the importance of this week.

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On Sunday evening I addressed all of my graduation invitations for my graduation ceremony on December 13th at 9 am, and then dropped them in the outgoing mail slot yesterday morning. Wow. The last 4 and 1/2 years have been like one of the most out of control roller coaster rides you could imagine, but I am thankful for God, Megan, family, and friends for helping me to stay strong through the lowest of lows and helping me stay humble during the highest of highs. After its all said and done, I will be proud to say I am a graduate of Texas A&M University. Thanks to everyone who has been a positive influence on my life throughout my college career - you know who you are!

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Another monumental announcement was shared with me this morning from a very close friend of mine. You can check here and here for all of the latest news about the Burleson Baby! Congrats Nic and Jo! It's a boy!

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This afternoon at 4 o'clock Megan and I will be signing some the most important paperwork of our young lives as we close on our brand new house in the Edelweiss Gartens subdivision in College Station. With just under 1700 square feet and a nice sized back yard, we will be so thankful not to be cramped in this tiny apartment any more! Check back here within the next day or two for the latest news on the closing, including some exclusive pictures I will take so you can all get a good look at our new crib!

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With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I am looking forward to spending some long overdue time with family and friends and catching up on life over an awesome Thanksgiving meal and some NFL and College Football in HD!


P.S. Please say a special prayer for my family, as this will be our first Thanksgiving without my pops. It will be a tough couple of days without him around to carve the turkey or cheer on the Aggies when we play t.u. like we grew so accustomed to over the years. I am Thankful for the time we had with him and Thankful that his eternal reward is now a reality for him...

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Friday, September 12, 2008

This Day: 50 Years Ago


On September 12, 1958 Roger Mark Taylor was born into this world to my grandparents James & Dorothy Taylor, more affectionately known to me as Pappy & Grandma when I was a kid. Little did they know at the time how great of a man he would grow to be...


So on the day my father would have turned 50 years old, I am taking these few moments to blog in his memory and in honor of the life he lived while here on earth. He was as good of a dad as my brother and I could have ever wanted. He was truly always there for us, regardless of how meaningful or meaningless the occasion was. He taught me so many valuable lessons in the 22 years that I knew him, and these lessons will undoubtedly reverberate for generations to come. That is what made my dad so special - his ability to change lives...and the lives of many grandchildren and great grandchildren that he never knew. My job as I carry on in this life without him, is to be a faithful servant just as my dad was. Reach out to people. Love people. Change lives forever. And pass on the knowledge that God always keeps his promises to those that believe in him. My life would not be what it is today without Roger Taylor. I miss him more and more every day, and look forward to the fateful day I will get to see him again just on the other side of those pearly gates...


Roger Mark Taylor - Faithful Servant. Endearing Friend. Honorable Son. Loving Husband. Fearless Father.


My Hero.




Thursday, August 7, 2008

My Wife Has A Job!

For the past several months, my wife and I have been on edge wondering what God has in store for the next step of her career. It has been unbelievable to watch how strong Megan has been through these very trying times, and God has certainly taught me many lessons in trust and patience through her faith in Him. She has been a pillar of strength and a true inspiration to her family throughout these past several months of job hunting/interviewing. If you are wanting to read her point of view from these experiences then visit her blog.

Summer school is over and I am now into work full swing. Football season is almost upon us so we have plenty of stuff to keep us busy. If anything of interest happens at work over the next few weeks I will be sure to blog about it.

This Saturday is the Coach G. Charities fund raiser for Brandon, Tiffany, and Alexis Verzal at the Aggie Soccer complex. Be praying for a great turnout and for the safe travels of the Verzal family as they make their way down to College Station for the event. You can read more about it here.


I hope everyone has a great weekend...

...God is good.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Quick Post...

I only have 2 more days of summer school left. Monday is my final in BIO I and Wednesday is my final in YA Lit. I feel a sense of relief already. Today I got back my last 2 tests in BIO and I added all of my points together to see where my average sits...And luckily I only have to make a 25 on the final in order to get a C. Obviously I want to maintain the decent grade I already have, but the knowledge that a 25! will get me a passing grade for transfer credit takes a huge burden off my shoulders going into this weekend of studying.

'Til after finals are over...

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Big 12 Blog

With college football quickly approaching I am dedicating this short blog to ESPN's Big 12 Blog... For the latest on everything that is Big 12 football click here: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/big12

Big 12 media days just wrapped up after 3 days in Kansas City. Lots of interesting stories recently posted on each and every Big 12 team. Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Welcome back Meg...It's been years.

WOW... My wife just blogged for the first time in 2 years! Go check her newest entry out, and definitely give her some encouragement to keep blogging as much as possible. http://mtaylor07.blogspot.com/

Summer school is in full gear. This BIO class is straight up OWNING me right now, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only 1 & 1/2 weeks left! I am loving my English class... I am presenting in front of the class tomorrow on Katherine Paterson, known mostly for her novel-turned-film Bridge to Terabithia. She has lived an interesting life and is worth reading up on if you ever have time to kill. She is the daughter of Presbyterian Missionaries and grew up mostly in China...Needless to say, her parents were devoted followers of Christ and it has been reflected in the way Katherine has lived as well.

I really can hardly wait for Summer school to be finished so I can get a kick start on my work assignments for the fall. There have been a ton of changes around the office. We have a new sheriff in town...sort of. Michelle Glover, who has served as director of marketing for 12th man productions for 2 years, has been promoted to the director's position. As some of you know, she is filling the spot that was left vacant by Brandon Verzal, whose daughter is still in rehab in Omaha, Nebraska recovering from a serious brain injury. Brandon & Tiff can certainly still use tons of prayers.

Assignments for football came out this week, and I will be shooting camera 4 on game days at Kyle. This is one of the coolest camera positions to work, as I will be shooting low end zone angles that are often used for instant replays on the big screen. That boy J-Mob will be roaming the sidelines as an assistant to the ever popular Will Johnson, who will be doing live updates on games going on around the nation... I am excited for the season to get here, but there is lots of work to do before the time comes. "Til next time...so long everybody"

Sunday, July 6, 2008

My apologies for the unexcused absence...

It has been a month since I last blogged...aaaaand that makes me sad, so I need to do something about it!

The Europe trip was amazing! I have almost 600 pictures on facebook, although I am almost sure anyone bored enough to read my blog has already seen all of them - or at least most of them. The D-Day beaches tour was the highlight of the trip in my opinion. It was neat seeing Point du Hoc, the cliffs over taken by the 2nd Ranger Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder, Fightin' Texas Aggie class of 1932! (whoop)...If you ever have the opportunity to see the American landing sights in Normandy, I highly recommend it.


This weekend Meg and I went with my Mom and Meg's parents & brother to see an Astros games vs. the LA Dodgers and then spend the 4th of July hanging out, shopping, eating, and seeing fireworks. Well, the Astros bats were dead silent in a 6-2 loss that Thursday - so that was a bust! Speaking of a bust...that evening we saw recent second round draft pick of the LA Clippers, DeAndre Jordan, shopping at the Galleria. If only he would have decided to come back for his sophomore season...Anyways, the 4th was well spent eating at Shrimp -n- Stuff in Galveston and then shopping on the Strand, then going to Kemah for some more shopping, eating, and that night watching the fireworks out over the harbour. It was a solid show, lasting about 17-18 minutes. The next day for lunch Jon took us to Panera Bread, which was my first experience to eat there, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I will be going back when I get a chance... Another highlight of the weekend was finally picking up my copy of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine! When it comes to football in this state, NO magazine covers it better than they do! For the last...I don't know how many years - for as long as I could read and understand the game - I have wasted many, many summer days reading and preparing for the upcoming season for all levels of football in this great football state! I always start to "get the itch" for Friday nights and Saturday afternoons every year Dave Campbell's hits the shelf! With that said, only 55 days or so until the Texas A&M season opener vs. Arkansas State... I truly can't wait!

Last Tuesday I started a summer English class - adolescent lit - and I am about to start a biology class tomorrow, so be in prayer for me to make it through these 2 time intensive courses with a passing grade at least.

Until next time...

Friday, June 6, 2008

EuroTrip

Well, it is about that time to pack our bags and head out on our much anticipated family vacation to Europe! Me, my wife, my mom, my brother, and sister-in-law will be driving from Lockhart to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport tomorrow afternoon to catch a 3:35 flight to Houston-Bush International Airport, then we'll get on a connecting flight that will fly us directly to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France! We will be flying Continental Airlines, which makes me pretty happy. Just about every experience I have had with them has been superb. The trip will be jam-packed with stuff going on but here is a little preview of what we will be doing...

We will arrive on Sunday around lunch time and will head straight to the Hotel Brebant once we get through customs. From that point on, we will likely get a feel for everything in the general vicinity of our hotel and find a place to eat. Sunday will mostly be dedicated to unwinding from the long trip and trying to get our back back under us!

Monday and Tuesday we will get the full experience of Paris. We have 2 day museum and monument passes as well as 5 day metro passes to travel anywhere in the city. The possibilities of what we can do and see are really limitless. We will likely take a boat tour on the river Seine, see the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triomphe, and much much more! Best of all, we will have some of the best eating and shopping experiences you can have in all of Europe!

Wednesday we will be loading up on a bullet train that will get us to London, England in just a few short hours. We have day passes for the public transportation system and will try to cram as much as we can into one day!

Thursday we will be back in Paris and likely try to hit up a few more popular spots as well as rest up for the next day's trip...

Friday we are hopping back on a train a riding across the country side to get a tour of the Normandy beaches. I am especially looking forward to this portion of the trip, as is my brother.

Saturday we will kill time for most of the day. I am sure we will be able to find something to do to pass the time until Sunday arrives and we fly back to the States.

We will be taking tons of pictures so be looking for some of those to make there way here onto my blog and also on my facebook page... Please be in prayer for us as we are over there that we would stay out of harms way and that all of our travel plans will go smoothly. Also, please pray that none of the crazy liberal French men don't start any riots near any of our points of destination!

...A special thanks to Randy and Sylvia Mobley for driving us to and from the airport... And a special thanks to J-Mob for being cool.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Preview of My Weekend...

...Since I am going to be so insanely busy this weekend, I thought I would preview what's coming up in my life in the next "couple-a-couple-a days" (that quote is for you J-Mob).

Today: Today is Meg's last day to teach the little hood rats at Cameron Elementary School! Whoop! It is a half day, so I am looking forward to seeing her way earlier than normal! The In-Laws are coming to town tonight to hit up the NCAA Regional Baseball Tourney with us. The 4 teams in the College Station Regional are Texas A&M, Dallas Baptist, University of Houston, and Illinois-Chicago. A&M is the 1 seed playing the 4th seeded Flames of UIC. The 2 & 3 seeds are the Patriots from DBU and the good ol' Coogs from U of H, respectively. It is double elimination with the championship game on Sunday night, and again on Monday if necessary. Here is the complete NCAA tourney bracket for all of you to check out just in case you haven't seen it yet. On top of that our Softball team plays again today against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns. Love that mascot name. They have crazy fans (as you can imagine with a name like that). Their baseball team was at the College Station Regional last season and they came out in strong numbers and were VERY vocal. I don't know if it was the coon in their blood, or the alcohol...whatever it was they were a rowdy bunch of fools!...Softball won last night against Virginia Tech, 1-0, in their opening game of the Women's College World Series to set up tonight's match up. U-La-La beat #1 Florida on a solo blast in extra innings, and they have beaten the A&M women once this season already. So it should be a great game.

Tomorrow: Saturday will be a busy work day. Meg is going back to work for the last time in Cameron (Thank you Lord!) and will be bringing home the last of her stuff after another half-day of working. Please be in prayer that she gets another, way better job somewhere closer to our home in College Station.... I am technical directing (or TD'ing as we like to call it in "the biz") the big screen show for the 12:30 afternoon loser's bracket game and then the 6:30 evening winner's bracket game, which will hopefully include A&M (fingers crossed). The non-A&M game will be a non camera show with nothing but head shots of players and stupid NCAA mandated video elements (such as their dumb commercials, trivia games, and their so-called pump up videos...lame, I know). The A&M games, for the fans' enjoyment, we will do live cameras with instant replay and also include the same silly NCAA videos. Ahhh the NCAA...that is another rant for another time and place. Needless to say I will be busy most of the day.

Sunday: 2 weeks ago Fox Sports decided it would be a good idea to broadcast 12th Man Production's video feed out for the nation to watch the A&M-Texas series finale from Olsen Field. It was overall a very fun and rewarding experience to be a part of, but it was definitely rough around the edges. Well, Fox loved it so much that they are picking up both Sunday games (and the Monday one if it is played) again for broadcast across the region. Be sure to tune in on FSN SW at some point during the day to see 12th Man Productions in action! The first game we televised I was working the Fox Box and was dubbed the so-called "scoring coordinator" by my boss. Simply stated I am operating the computer that shows the viewing audience the score, inning, balls, strikes, outs, men on base, etc... So, that is what I will be doing for both games on Sunday afternoon/evening... The downside to all of this, and this is the case A LOT with my job, is that I will have to miss out on spending the weekend with my wonderful wife and not be able to attend a church service on Sunday because crew call is so early in the morning. I guess its the price I pay to be beautiful ;)

Monday: We will be heading home to the LOC 44, what-what! So look out homies, we bouts to come steam-rolling your way! We are looking forward to seeing everyone back home and hanging out some before our much anticipated trip to Europe! Speaking of which, that will be one of my blogs in the next few days so stay tuned! 'Til then, "so long everybody"(Will Johnson)

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Officials Officially Suck...

Last night as I was tormented by the events that transpired in the closing few seconds of the Spurs-Lakers game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, I couldn't seem to shake this one thought from my head: WHAT WAS DAVID STERN THINKING!?
Joey Crawford, now infamous for his ejection of Tim Duncan last season, was assigned crew chief and lead official for the game played at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. I believe in second chances for people in life, so I was willing to give the guy another chance to prove his worth as a ref...but then game 5 of the Spurs-Hornets game came along and Crawford gave coach Pop a technical foul much to the dismay of most fans watching. I knew at that point the risk of having Crawford on the court was much higher than the reward. After last year's childish fiasco involving Duncan, Crawford was skating on thin ice to begin with, and should have avoided calling any sort of technical fouls at all costs. (In my opinion, if the guy was forced by commissioner Stern to go to counseling sessions before being reinstated as a NBA ref, then I feel like he has too much baggage to be on the court with the highest payed and most incredibly gifted superstars of the league) It probably would have been a better idea for Stern to leave Crawford out of this series completely in order to avoid any unnecessary and unwarranted scrutiny from millions of NBA fans across the country....
Moving along to my point. In spite of the Spurs putting on a choke fest for the nation to watch for 99% of the game, they somehow did what they absolutely had to do in order to have a chance to win at the end of the game (along with the help of a few missed FT's by Paul Gasol and missed running jump shot by Kobe Bryant). Overall I believe the game was fairly called, except for the occasional missed call on BOTH ends (which is to be expected and a part of the game), but in the most crucial 2+ seconds, Crawford and Co. swallowed their whistles and allowed Derrick Fisher to plow into Brent Barry a split second before Barry attempted a 3 that would have given San Antonio the miraculous come-from-behind victory. Amidst a sea of boos and expletives, the Lakers scurried of the court like a pack of rats and the entire Spurs team was left scratching their heads as to why no call was made. Despite this no-call I, along with most rational Spurs fans, cannot pin the blame entirely on the shoulders of this officiating crew, but they certainly blew a HUGE call at a time when it absolutely could not be blown. If San Antonio was going to play so poorly maybe they did not deserve a chance to win it, but ultimately a game should not be decided by an official's fear of making the big call at the biggest, most crucial moment of the game.

This is nothing new in sports. Period. There have been so many last second no-calls in recent history that it is mind boggling. (A recent one affecting A&M's 2008 NCAA tourney run comes to mind) Generations of sports fans have been dealing with the same issues that continually go unchanged. For the NBA, (even college hoops) they already have instant replay as a vital part of the game...to a certain extent. If replay can be used to determine if a shooter's foot was on the line during a 3 point attempt, too see if a shot is made before the buzzer goes off, etc. then WHY ON EARTH do they not use the replay system to view calls made during crucial times in games? (a la Spurs-Lakers, and Aggies-Bruins) The answer to this question is simple. Officials and the governing boards that oversee them are too prideful, too arrogant to ever...EVER admit that they are wrong. God forbid that a person faced with making a decision in a fraction of a second could actually make a...gasp...mistake! Until they decide to let the players decide the outcome of the game entirely and remove human error from the final equation, sports in general will continually be played with a black & white striped cloud hovering over head.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Say What You Need To Say


I got the inspiration for my blog title from the song "Say" by John Mayer. I thought I would share the lyrics with you to get this thing going...


"Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so called problems
better put 'em in quotations

Say what you need to say

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you'd be better off instead
If you could only

Say What you need to say

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You better know that in the end
It's better to say too much
Than never to say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say"


...There is a lot of truth to be found in this song, and I feel like this blog gives me the opportunity to say the things on my mind/in my heart that need to be said. I have learned through my life's journey that harboring any thoughts or feelings on the inside is way more dangerous than the consequences of just laying it all out on the line. I would rather live my life content with myself & my wife & with God than living a life only trying to please everyone around me... If you can't say what you need to say, then those around you don't truly love you anyways, right? The last verse of this song is the most powerful to me...in your life's darkest moments, even if you are facing death, leave NOTHING unsaid. As most of you know, I lost my Dad in December, and when looking back on that life experience the words of this song ring true. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of my father. There are so many things I wish I could say to him and my heart breaks knowing I will never again in this life have the opportunity to say them. I have realized though over the past 6 months or so that these thoughts, although honest and truthful, are just a selfish side of my humanness. I know that what my dad is experiencing for eternity is far greater than him being around for my college graduation, family vacations, the birth of grandchildren, etc... But that one line, "say what you need to say", will always be at the forefront of the way I live my life, because that is the way my Dad tried to live his life and in the end I know it hurts far worse not saying what you need to say than saying too much in the first place.


So, hopefully this blog will be a healthy way of putting all of my so called problems into quotations so I can share a part of my life with all of you. Say what you need to say.