My amazingly empowering family.
Adventure, challenge.
Anything that brings personal growth.
I love lifting, running and stretching.
I love politics, reading, writing, talking and learning.
I love exploring, hiking and getting lost.
Friends are my lifeblood. They are the way that God tells me how much he loves me.
Football.
I really want to go back to the Middle East with my girls, to travel peacefully in a different world.
Yes, Peace in the Middle East is my dream.
Music
Talk radio:
Jim Rome
Collin Cowherd
KKLA
Dan Patrick
Rush Limbaugh
Frank Pastori
The Daylights
Coldplay
Metallica
George Straight
David Allen Coe
Jason Cropper (Weezer's original bassist)
Citizen Cope
White Stripes
Keane
Weezer
Dave Matthews Band
Johnny Cash
Coldplay
live jazz
Nirvana
Eminem
Pretty much anything
Movies
3:10 to Yuma
No Country for Old Men
Cinderella Man
Good Will Hunting
King Kong
Blackhawk Down
Braveheart
Gladiator
American History X
Bridges of Madison County
Fight Club
Life As A House
The Score
The Thomas Crown Affair
Top Gun
Crash
Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek 3
Madagascar
Ferris Beuler's Day Off.
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine
The Mexican
Seven
Three Kings
13 Days
Apollo 13
Television
The Sopranos
The Office
CNBC
Grey's Anatomy
Sportscenter
Football
MSNBC
more Football
Scrubs was my all-time favorite show...just got bumped by The Office.
Just ahead of Night Rider and The Dukes of Hazard.
The Simon part of American Idol
Books
The Bible
Primal Leadership
The End of Racism
Mere Christianity
Jack, Straight From the Gut
Wild at Heart
Built to Last
The Stand
Digital Fortress
Clancy
Good to Great
Who said Elephants Can't Dance?
Angels & Demons & The DaVinci Code
Auto-Biography of Benjamin Franklin
Pat Tillman biography.
Bill Gates biography.
Heroes
My parents.
My step-Mom, Jill's parents and Jodi's parents too.
I love you Mom, Dad & Mary
Jason McElwing
Pat Tillman, Number 42
John Elway
Michael Jordan
Colonel Russ Blaine
Colonel Andy Mills
My ex-wife, when she was a single Mom. My girls are amazing. She had to be doing something (mostly everything) right!
My buddy Brian McKiernan who taught me more about who I am, and being able to embrace it than anyone besides Jesus Christ
My buddy Brian Miller who helped build the confidence that helped Jared the 19 year old fraternity kid grow into the future POTUS
My buddy's from Iraq.
I'm never really at a loss when writing, but when trying to paint a picture of words that tells a story that's part witness to what Jesus has done in my life, part bliss for the life that I enjoy and part gratefulness for the long, tough crazy journey that God laid out for me...I just am not sure if I can find the prose. But I'll give it a shot.
First, I love Jesus. I have tried to make this (life) work on my own accords and strengths and turns out I don’t have any. The intellectual & emotional pursuit of Jesus through marriage, fatherhood, scripture, prayer, brotherhood and the writings and teaching of really, really awesome men, is the coolest thing ever. You don't know what you're missing in life, until you realize what you've been missing.
Back in 7th grade, my Mom and the counselor, Cindy Breedlove at Hahn Elementary tried to set me up with a little blonde girl that had just moved there from Louisiana. I happened to be too busy with soccer (I guess) in 7th grade, but in 8th grade, Jill Hackett finally became my girlfriend. And while I don't remember nearly as much as I wish from 8th grade, I remember my first kiss...with the girl that would become my wife 17 years later!
I never dreamed of being so loved, or so in love as I am with Jill.
Every single day is an adventure in grace, humor, healing, growth, commitment and joy with this little cajun firecracker that once was my junior high girlfriend.
God, there's honestly nothing more amazing to me than the fire of this marriage, and the trajectory towards God, that going through life with Jill has me on. Just so amazing...I am so deeply in love, and I love her more every single day. No matter what the day might bring.
Jill Still and I aren't working on a full house. We've got one. Oh, do we ever!
As you can see in vast collection of pics herein, we've got the 5 most beautiful girls in the world. It's a joy, honor and amazing blessing to be a Dad and step-dad. It's the most sanctifying process in the world too. But God must honestly trust me, and intend to keep strengthening me, because being a daddy to this magnitude is freaking crazy. And I love it.
They all are honestly conduits of God’s perfect love, from Him….right to my heart. I thank God for every day that I’ve been blessed with being their Daddy and step-dad.
Little of my story: I'm 31 and have been to 30 countries. Lived in & traveled Europe, done billions of dollars of business while in the military, in Asia, the Middle East, Micronesia and the States. Pretty dope.
Having traveled for fun, and under the duress of war, I've come to appreciate the vast diversity of the worlds people. Makes me appreciate the US more too. This Representative Republic (we are not a democracy) is the single greatest gift to man, derived from the rights given to us from our creator.
Iraq veteran so I know a little of what I'm made of: I have the capacity to endure crap. And high temperatures.
That's pretty much what the whole Iraq thing taught me. Oh, that and what is most valuable in life. I'm writing a book based upon the tour in Baghdad. Some day, I'll get back to that book.
Played some football in college. In the interest of full-disclosure. I was cut from the team. Had a bad injury in spring football...refused to sit out, played bad. Got cut. Sucks.
Speaking of getting cut...crap...I got cut from the varsity basketball team my junior year, too.
That sucked...I thought I could play some hoops. However...had a little 'Phoenix' moment that year, and was actually selected as athlete of the year for the school. So that didn't suck. Crazy turn-around that taught me a lot in that year.
I love football. Can we talk about that? No really. I really love football and have a character flaw of expecting all those in my life to also love football.
Love working out. I like those leg days when you vomit. Or the 400's on a track that leave you lightheaded. Sometimes really like to break things, shoot things, see things blow up or catch on fire...the inner-seven-year-old in me.
And oh, is there anything funnier than chasing cows? Didn’t think so either.
Left the military to take a job in Hollywood at Universal Studios.
I handled energy sourcing for all NBC Universal properties, as well as commodity hedging related to those exposures.
Using futures contracts, options, calls, puts, forwards, etc, was a really fascinating part of that job. I loved learning at such a steep learning curve.
That's how all of life should be, and a definite goal of mine. Learn, more things, faster and deeper than other guys.
A friend said that I am emotionally fearless. Maybe? God continues to bless me with the emotional strength to live with my heart ”on my sleeve”.
I'm a Christian and a William F. Buckley free market conservative.
Lean libertarian in some respects, very fiscally conservative but not as much socially, but with empathy to both sides in the social debate, but no flexibility when it comes to what's in Scripture, because I'd rather hurt your feelings than God's.
I want to love people where they are at. And do so with a pure heart.
I'm divorced. Tough lessons. Lessons about the consequences of sin. Divorce is awful, and the pain--consequences--will often be there. I am proud of the fact that my divorce is one that people say is amazing, strange, remarkable and weird. I remain really close with my ex's family and her parents. It's redemption, and for that I will always be so grateful.
Life is the greatest of all opportunities and I'm serious about making the absolute most of it. Maybe because I've seen how quickly it can end.
I am blessed with the deepest, most meaningful relationships in the world.
I have many true friends. My family relationships are awesome. I love loving. I love life. I love Jill Still. I love going through life with Jill...let the journey keep rolling.
Twitter is the micro-blogging, irreverent-with-a-dash-of-seriousness conversation that I use most. I believe in conversation, I believe in community.
Join the conversation. Follow me on Twitter at:
My soul mate. Oh wait, I have. And I get to stare into her eyes every morning, day and night, just like this:
Only positive people to go through life with.
I love surrounding myself with people that get it.
Chuck Norris. Or the person that reinvented Chuck Norris as some legendary figure.
No more white people. I'm losing my street cred & s-o-u-l.
Martin Luther King Jr. Ben Franklin. Thomas Jefferson
Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Rupert Murdoch. Jack Welch. Jeff Immelt.
Presidents Lincoln & Reagan.
Lance P. Sijan. Colin Powell. Condi Rice. L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer.
Jesse Jackson, Terry McCullough & Paul Begalla. In the boxing ring. Bare knuckle.
Pete Carroll. John Elway. Mike Jordan. Brett Farve. Mike Shanahan. John Gruden.
John Mauldin.
Steve Carell. Tracy Morgan Will Ferrell. Norm MacDonald
People with some maturity. Maturity in all relationships. Forged through real-life travels and experiences. Real setbacks and pains.
That kind of people.
Humility is one of the most attractive & powerful characteristics in someone. And the strongest indicator of maturity.
I feel one's life should be a canvas for creativity.
Creativity is not a declaration, but a mindset.
A mindset that by-the-way, transcends the arts and coffee shops.
I want to meet people that are as cool as I am (kidding).
No really, I want to meet people that embrace others passionately.
People that have that magical gift to not take life seriously at all, while being so serious and passionate about making the most of life
Optimistic people that are force-multipliers.
I'd like to take my girls back to meet the kids of Iraq.
Well just last week I was looking at Jill's "girls night out" picture she posted with Emma on Facebook, and thinking "Jill is flawless." Not one wrinkle, not one blemish...so beautiful, both inside and out. You scored dude! Tell her thank you, the feeling is mutual! Miss you guys terribly! When are you coming back to Cali for a visit???
I may have to make some prediction adjustments. The more I learn about Florida I think it will be them and not Georgia in the SEC. I would love to see a Florida vs USC match up in the end for all the marbles. Game of the Century?
