Dear Michael...

Lets see here, where do I begin. Yesterday Megan and I went over to my mother-in-law's house to pick up what i thought were souvenirs from her recent trip to Daytona Beach. Megan painted the picture that she probably brought me a hat and Megan a key chain from the beautiful "Sunshine State". Little did I know that this was all a setup to what would ultimately be one of the sweetest gifts i have ever received.

When people ask, "If you could meet one famous person, who would it be?" My response is always Michael Jordan. While there are so many amazing people in history, he is one person that i have grown up watching and admiring for his basketball prowess. Therefore I would choose him.

Since I was a little lad I have always been a fan of basketball, I have played it since before my head had grown into my ears. And ever since I could remember my all-time basketball hero was Michael Jordan. I remember getting my first pair of "Air Jordans" in third grade. This would follow by many more years of spending a lot of money on basketball shoes so that hopefully i could "Be like Mike". Unfortunately my lack of athletic ability and lack of height hindered my Basketball Stardom from propelling me from high school to Division 1 basketball, to the NBA. However, my love for watching MJ never ceased. I remember a few of my good friends Dan and Chris and myself, would record the NBA championships when the Bulls would be playing and then replay the great moments of the games as we would prepare for our games. And thanks to some of their relatives in Chicago, when the Bulls would win the Championship, the front page of the Chicago Tribue would come to California. And this along with the sports section from the local LA Times and Orange County Register, I would save any and every article in relation to the Bulls and MJ.

As sad as this may be, hearing the bulls introduction and starting line up would give me chills and still to this day does... especially hearing the "From North Carolina, at Guard, 6'6", Michael Jordan" would get me so pumped that i would literally get chills. See video..


All that to say, last night, when i went over to my in-laws house last night, to my surprise a hat was not awaiting my arrival. It was Michael Jordan!... ok maybe not, however, I did receive a SWEET birthday present! An autographed ticket from the Daytona 200 that is signed "To Randy Happy Birthday Michael Jordan"!!!!!!

Jordan being the thrill seeker he is, is involved in bike racing and is good friends with a racer Jason Britton, who happens to be friends with my mother-in-law. All that to say Brenda pulled some strings and through some huge favors was able to get Mike to sign his ticket for me.

Anyway, This made my day and for the rest of the night I had a huge smile on my face and I am so stoked to have this!!!

So thank you to Brenda and to Michael! you both rock!






And that is a glimpse to my somewhat pathetic life :-)

RC

1980'S

So on Sunday I was sitting in class thinking about Theology and in my opinion, the best movies of the 1980's... So here they are in no particular order...the top 20 movies of the 1980's.

- Airplane!

- Back To The Future

- Breakfast Club

- Bull Durham

- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

- Empire Strikes Back

- E.T.

- Ferris Bueller's Day Off

- Full Metal Jacket

- Ghostbusters

- Glory

- Goonies

- Hoosiers

- Princess Bride

- Platoon

- Raiders of the Lost Ark

- Scarface

- Stand By Me

- Terminator

- Who Framed Roger Rabbit


What are your top movies of 1980??


-RC

its time again...

...to get off my lazy butt and write more useless information...

so today i was listening to a country song by Rodney Atkins entitled "Cleaning This Gun (Come on In Boy)" Now before some of you judge me... 1. yes i listen to country and 2. yes it is a choice.

With that being said, i felt like this song was preparing me to get ready for kids... and God willing one day i have a little girl, this is definitely something that will go on in the Craft household...

Come on in boy sit on down
And tell me about yourself
So you like my daughter do you now?
Yeah we think she's something else
She's her daddy's girl
Her momma's world
She deserves respect
That’s what she'll get
Now ain't it son?
Y’all go out and have some fun
I'll see you when you get back
Probably be up all night
Still cleanin' this gun

After reading that...I have two goals as a father when it comes time to dating my little girl.

1. To hopefully raise her right and instill in her the morals that a parent should, so that she chooses the right boys to like.
2. To make sure that whoever she dates... they will understand what it is like to have a healthy fear for their life... A fear only second to the reverent fear of God.

To my future daughter, I'm not sorry if your first dates don't go very well.


-RC

Compassion and Clarity

this week Saddleback Church had their Global Summit on HIV/AIDS and there were a lot of great learnings regarding HIV/AIDS and stigma; HIV/AIDS and injustice; HIV/AIDS and how the church can help...

Mission trip you are on my horizon...

Dont know where yet but its coming.

-RC

While we are on the topic of videos...

My great friend taffy has a baby girl and A. It's still weird to me that he is a daddy and B. She is growing so fast... check out the videos...



that is a proud asian daddy!

-RC

Little Lad

The other day I saw a funny video that is extremely stupid...but it made me laugh... so i wanted to share with you all the same video.



Enjoy

-RC

Razor-jacking

A few weeks ago one of my volunteer's son had his razor scooter stolen from the high school while we were setting up for church. We had thought it was long gone. The razor was very specific because it had custom stickers that say his name on it, "Jace". Well, yesterday, I was driving by Juice It Up in San Clemente and what do I see on the ground outside? A razor scooter with the name Jace on the bottom.

I stopped my truck right in the street, grabbed the razor and walked inside. There was one guy sitting down, around 35-40 years old and I asked him if the razor belonged to him. His response was yes, to my confusion I said, "Um, no its not. It actually belongs to my son Jace." (I referred to him as my son to eliminate any erroneous details that would have not matter in the situation.) Then I asked him, Is your name Jace? His response came back with a, "No". Finally, I said "Ok, I am taking this" and I walked out the door.

That's right, I jacked the person who jacked a friend…so I Re-Jacked the Razor… Here are a few pictures of my triumphant victory.

-RC

Checking out Office 2007 Word Blogger Option

In class tonight, Josh Griffin and I talked about the blogger option in word. He decided to test it and it worked so I decided to test is as well. Here it is my test.

 

-RC

Just finished first test...

So we just had our first test. Essay form. 5 questions. Approximately 10 pages written. 1 hour 20 minutes. Screwed up on a few points in one question but overall feel pretty good about it. A solid B+ in my eyes, but we will see what the professor thinks.

The problem:
My mind is pretty much shot and he is continuing on with lecture... yummy.


-RC

Ever had a toe cramp?

Quite possibly one of the funniest things i have ever seen in my life. Last night while sitting on the couch, Megan's toe decided to cramp up. Not only did it cramp but it would not uncramp, well it would for a minute but at anytime she released pressure from holding her toe, it would cram back up again. I told her that to get rid of it she should walk around. There are no real words to describe the comedy of watching Megan try to walk as her to was cramping. What was even funnier was the fact that she was constantly making noises every time she took a step. It was awesome and I was crying from laughing so hard. Just another night in the Craft Household

-RC

Would You...

Be afraid of mall security guard on a segway? What if he had a bicycle helmet on, how about then?

Yeah, me neither.

-RC

5 Things not to do with a 60" Plasma Television

5. Use it as a Frisbee
-----------------------
4. Use it as a picnic table
-----------------------
3. Teach it to surf
-----------------------
2. Use it as an Air Hockey Table
-----------------------
1. Drop it Like its Hot...or Heavy
-----------------------



















So yeah, the number 1 wins!!! DO NOT take a large plasma television and drop it on its top.



On a side note, I am selling a TV if anyone is interested...it has only been used for a few months.


-RC

Quote

In my Christian Theology class we were discussing thoughts on the bible as being inerrant and I heard a great quote by my professor's mentor:

"I go to the Bible with my whole heart and my whole life and it NEVER fails me."
- Paul Holmer



-RC

The smell of salt water...

This morning as I left for work i walked out the door and the smell of salt water was in abundance. I have never experienced a smell this strong in the two months I have lived in San Clemente. I love it! Often times I forget how blessed I have been and how awesome my life is. Regardless of the day to day things that go wrong, frustrations that I encounter, I am truly blessed to be living where I live and doing what I do.

A lot of people find God in nature and I agree. I look out my window and I see this vast ocean that goes for as far as the eye can see and then I see the waves crashing on the sand... a point where land meets water, where two massive bodies collide and it can be so peaceful. Sometimes I see that there are no waves and the two seem to be in unison and yet at other times I see the violent waves crashing and pounding on the gentle beach. How can you not see God in all of this? How can yo see the beauty that God created and think it as chance or coincidence that things have formed and grown as they have. Chance? God is so great and just and awesome. I love the beautiful playground that He has created for us!


















God IS Love

-Rev Run

Awesome Friends!!!

So last weekend Megan and I had two friends, Ryan and Ben, come visit us from Las Vegas. Other than having fun hanging out with these guys, a part of the weekends festivities was to watch UFC 76 Knockouts! I was super excited to go to my parents house and watch it on their sweet 60" plasma.

Little did i know that my friend Ryan had a better plan for me and Ben... Friday night as we were preparing to make a trip to the desert, Ryan made a comment on how we needed to be back so that we can be up in Anaheim by 4:30. To my confusion i said, "Why, we arent going to the fight." While I was saying those words, Ryan points to the table where 3 golden tickets were lying... 3 tickets to the sweetest event of the year UFC 76!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That awesome punk dropped $300 a ticket so we could all experience the event.

I think my favorite part of the whole surprise was when I was in shock and saying no way, he responded with , "You think I would come all the way out here JUST to visit you?"

I think if i had a 3 wishes from a genie in a bottle (not the Christina Aguilera song) one of my wishes would be that i had foresight... yeah should have seen that coming.

Anyway it was an amazing event, if you like that sort of thing.



















This is why everyone should have awesome friends!!!

-RC

Google is taking over the world!

If you didnt know, Google now has a feature called Google SMS. Using your cell phone, you text message a question to Google and they will text you back the answer. This feature hasnt been fully refined but it is pretty sweet. Using your phone text Google at 46653 (google) with a question and google will respond in a quick manner. **Disclaimer** Standard Text Message Rates Apply! Happy Texting!!

-RC

Jake As JT???

Yesterday after a great Sexual Harassment Training day, a few people from work went to chick-fil-a for lunch. First, on that day, I had the best dining experience of any fast food place i have ever been to. While dining, they provided us with refills, a tray of sample brownies, which taffy may have taken more than one, and a tray of sample chicken salad sandwich triangles which were amazing!

While dining, one of our friends serving us mentioned to Jake the he reminded her of Justin Timberlake!?!?

To my surprise, Jake responded, "Yeah, I get that all the time." You do? I mean dont get me wrong, I love Jakey, but you get that all the time? JT? Interesting... maybe its his musical genius... I dont know. But what i do know is that it was definintely an interesting moment...

here is a poor picture of our lady in question...

















-RC

Saved By The Bell!

Earlier today my friend Annie and I were talking about Saved By The Bell and it made me wonder just how strong my SBTB trivia is. So I searched a bit online and I found a few good websites that have different trivia questions...

Check them out and see how you do. Most importantly, tell me how you did on your quizzes.

Here is a fun site for trivia:
Saved By The Bell Trivia


Good luck!!! And let me know!!

-RC

...So I am pretty sure I dont impress my wife

Last night I was rocking out to my sweet new game "Guitar Hero" on Xbox 360. While i was deeply engaged in "Carry on Wayward Son" I hear my wife giggling to herself as she is taking photos of me...
















So there I am... no longer cool...not that I ever was...playing my sweet new video game!

-RC

Is it Fall already?

So yesterday we went to the ever so delicious Taco Bell for lunch and for the first time this year, I saw a girl wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and UGGS!!!!!

I guess fall is here...

-RC

The Juice Is Loose...

Recently our staff received an e-mail from Rick with an article from USA Today talking about OJ and his current stint in prison... here is what it said he received.

"According to a press release from the police department, the former football star is being held in isolation and spends about 20 hours a day inside a standard 98-square-foot cell.

A judicial official said yesterday that Simpson will appear before a judge tomorrow morning.

Since he arrived at the facility, the jail says he has met with three private attorneys and two public defenders."

A minister stopped by to deliver reading glasses and copies of the Bible and A Purpose Driven Life, according to the release.

-RC

How baseball fights should happen...

Leave it up to the Japanese to do something like this....



Thanks taff...



-RC

McDonlads continues to give back...

Not only does McDonald's a great Angus mushroom swiss burger but no they are starting to give back. According to Channel 4 news in the UK, McD's will be transforming their rubbish to energy! Awesome! Here is a clip from the article.

"Buildings such as hospitals and theatres will be powered by rubbish from McDonald's restaurants in a new pilot scheme.

Eleven fast-food restaurants in Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley, South Yorkshire, will take part in the initiative, which will turn waste into electricity and heating for 130 buildings in the area.

The scheme will save each restaurant from sending 100 tonnes of refuse to landfill each year and could be rolled out across the country if successful.

The restaurants will become the first in the UK to send no waste to landfill. Instead, any rubbish will be collected, treated at a state-of-the-art energy recovery facility and converted into electricity and heat."

-RC

iTunes

I recently received an iTunes gift card so i figured i would share a few of the songs I purchased...I got this idea from Griff...

1. Ayo Technology-50 Cent feat. Justin Timberlake
2. Our God Saves- Paul Baloche
3. How Far We've Come- Matchbox 20
4. Everlasting God- Lincoln Brewster
5. Never Wanted Nothing More- Kenny Chesney
6. Mighty To Save- Hillsongs
7. The Pretender- Foo Fighters
8. Over You- Daughtry
9. Gangsta's Paradise- Coolio
10. So Small- Carrie Underwood (for Megan)

I still have a few more bucks left but that is all i bought for now...

-RC

City Workers Have Fun Too...

While I was setting up for church in San Clemente I saw two city workers out in the street who appeared to be playing ring-around-the-rosy with a pole stuck in the ground. It made me happy to see that you can have fun no matter what you are doing... "The majority of people are as happy as they choose to be." -Abe Lincoln

Here are a few action shots of them running around in circles while a third guy is waiting for someone to be out so he can jump in.



























Take a chapter out of these guys' book and take joy in all you do! Complaining will do nothing but stoke the fire of bitterness.

-RC

Good Food

Here are a few pictures of a meal that my wife and I ate while in LA at Pink's Hot Dogs...

Dog # 1 (in background, left) typical Chili,-Cheese Dog
Dog #2 (background, right) "The Ozzy Dog" polish dog, chili, nacho cheese, american cheese, diced tomato, guacamole, and grilled onions
Dog #3 (foreground) "The Planet Hollywood" polish dog, chili, nacho cheese, american cheese, grilled mushrooms, bacon, and jalapeños!

Megan and I finished 2 1/2 dogs together. They were pretty awesome, but I definitely felt the repercussions later on...Sorry Megan!


















-RC

Popular Videos...

Recently I heard of this youtube video that was super popular with over a million hits in a week... Its called Chocolate Rain and I want to share it with you... This song was so popular that John Mayer jokingly covered it while on VH1's Best Week Ever. Check them both out...but **Warning** this song will take over your life!

-RC

Josh Griffin Blog Counter...

I decided to tally how many times my co-student JG would blog while we participated in our first OT seminary class...the count is at 6 right now and I know he has it in him to break a record of 7. I told him that blogs written to be released in the future do not count as blogs for the day... Lets do this Josh! Do work son, Do work. You can check him out here or on the Saddleback Church ETV blog

-RC

OT 1 Intensive Part 2

The day is about 2/3 complete and I have come to the conclusion that my attention span does not last for 8 hours...to be honest it doesn't even run 4 hours...Professor Yates lost my attention before lunch while talking about Pentateuch and I for sure thought that coming back from having a full belly would make me set for the rest of the day...Nope. Right now I cant wait for our last break to arrive so i can run and suck down an Iced coffee drink of some sort.


-RC

Old Testament 1 Intensive

Currently in my OT class...so awesome...the beginning of 4 intensive classes...8 hours a day of learning about the Old Testament... here we come.

Things to look forward to:
1. Learning more about the OT
2. Learning sweet new tricks for my computer
3. Hanging with Josh G, BD, and Jimbo Baggins
4. Sitting in class for 8 hours with my horrendous cough.

-RC

Carzzz II

If you saw my previous post labeled Carzzz you have a bit of history as to why I am posting random pictures of cars... well once again my truck went into the shop to have it detailed and this is what they gave me as my loaner car...not to shabby...It was fun to drive around for a bit.



































-RC

Do you know what type of school your kids go to?

The reason why I pose this question is because I may have concerns about our beloved San Clemente High School. Recently I was dropping off one of our trailers on the schools "freshman campus", which the high school performed a hostile takeover of an elementary school to expand their ever growing student needs. And I digress...After dropping off the trailer, I noticed the schools announcement board was welcoming incoming freshman. However, according to whomever made the sign, freshman was spelled "fresman" Now above the sign is the San Clemente High School Blue Ribbon sign.

I may have overlooked this minor spelling glitch, however this error occurred not once but twice. Now this leads me to one of two assumptions:
1. The school is too poor to buy "H's" to put in their signs, or
2. Our education is going down the pooper!

What do you think?

-RC

Top 10 things of Endless Summerfest

This top 10 is dedicated to Taffy for being Filipino

Top 10 things of ESF:
10. OneRepublic canceling because of inclimate weather, although by the time they were supposed to do sound check the entire school was completely dry...
9. Riders4Christ jumping with Kyle Loza who won Gold at the X Games and Dan Norris (Nad) jumping for the first time in a show since his accident...Great job Dan!
8. Bounce house slides in the rain which makes for extremely fast rides
7. Food! Carls, Hot Dog on a Stick, Archies Ice cream, rockstar energy drinks, cotton candy, shave ice, kettle corn, funnel cakes a sugar lovers dream!
6. Avner playing as "OneRepublic"
5. Sleepless me continuing to play despite the deluge that was occuring!
4. Sleepless me hanging out and playing a second time as "Avner"because a previous mentioned band didnt show
3. The ability to win Truth Soul Armor stuff just by making a few putts Tiger Woods would have broke the bank...or would he?
2. Having people show up to the event despite the weather...and in said people, having Tony Hawk show up for the festivities
1. A 1000 ft water spout forming a mile off the coast of San Clemente at the beginning of the event creating a scene that I still to this date refer to as "A scene from Ghostbusters."

Carzzz

Basically I wanted to share with you exactly why, when you buy a car, it should be from a high end dealer... Now I dont mean you need to buy a high end car, just buy a car from a high end dealer.

Allow me to explain.

Recently, I was looking to trade in my awesome camry for a truck. Looking around I was introduced to a friend of a friend that owns a business called MotorCars Direct. I talked with him and after telling him what I was looking for, he went hunting. He found me the exact truck i was looking for however, it need a few interior things done. The previous owner of the truck took out the passenger bucket seat and replaced it with an aftermarket bench and the great thing about that is he knocked $5,000 off the price.

So the deal was that he would give me the truck and then take it back and work on it once the parts came in. Well the parts came in and I dropped my care off yesterday.

Here is the "Loaner" car they gave me:


































Basically the whole point of this Blog is that if you purchase a car from a high end dealer and they need to give you a "loaner" car, they dont have crappy cars to give you!!! So you get to drive sweet cars for a while while your not-as-sweet car is getting worked on!!

-RC

Bathroom Awesomeness

I was recently at my grandmother's country club in Los Angeles where I saw what could be quite possibly the most amazing invention since uncrustables. If you are like me and you hate using those weak eco-friendly, air hand dryers, then you will LOVE this new hand dryer. It was created, no wonder its so awesome, by Dyson. Basically what you do is you stick your hands in these slots and a sensor is activated. Shooting out room temperature air at a whopping 400 MPH, the Dyson Airblade takes merely seconds to dry your hands to an almost perfect dryness. After you stick your hands into the drying device, you slowly pull your hands back out and the air acts as a squeegee wiping the water off your hands. They say that it takes about 10 seconds to dry your hands. After seeing this sweet dryer, I wanted to test a normal dryer to see how long it took. The specific one i tried was at the Laguna Hills Mall. After pushing the button multiple times, my hands were dry in just a shade under a minute (54 seconds). So, the Dyson being 5X faster has definitely won me over as one of the best bathroom features around!

-RC

I'm Back!

After taking a short time off, my bro Taffy has slapped me around and I have seen the light.

On Saturday I had a chance to join our Droopy's (junior high small group) for a round of bowling. As everyone was preparing for a fun-filled hour of bowling, one of the Droopy's who we call "Virus" comes running in like he had just won a million bucks. Before we could ask he starts shouting that he just won an iPod nano from a $1 arcade game.

Can I say what the crap? What happened to things like stuffed animals or basketballs??? iPod Nano? Really? Anyway, he was excited and didn't really care about bowling after that. I am pretty sure it showed when at one point, after spinning in circles, he managed to throw his bowling ball across his lane into the lane next to his.

Another funny part to the story is that when Virus was passing his new toy around, one of the girls said, "Oh, it's only a 2 Gig. It's not even a 4." Wow! I'm pretty sure it is still a nano! Anyway It was a fun time, its too bad i couldnt stay the whole time.

-RC

Rob & Big

Most people seem to have some sort of "secret" guilty pleasure. Take my friend Lance for example, his guilty pleasure is Justin Timberlake. Now this could bring on a barrage of questions in regards to Lance as a person, but before you go there, know that i was referring to JT's signing ability. Which brings me to my "I'm not sure if it counts but here I go secret" guilty pleasure. MTV's Rob and Big. For some reason watching these two guys going through life and doing the things they do, is highly addicting to me. I find myself using terms like "Do work son" and who doesn't love that little dog "Meaty" or even the most recent addition to the team, their miniature horse "Mini". I crack up every time i watch an episode. If you haven't seen it yet check it out. If you love it let everyone know!

-RC