To Save a Life Review and Thoughts

If you need help you can call 1-800-394-HOPE(4693).  Also, check out the the official To Save a Life site, the Need Help page, and the Resource page for youth pastors, parents, and students.  Let me know what you think of the movie, and how you plan to use it and its message with your students, church, or school.

The Heath Mullikin Press Conference

Here’s the 1-13-2010 edition of the 642 news.

Most Shockingly Unshocking News Day Ever!

As I type this, here are the big news stories of the day.

1.  Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids at various points in his career including 1998 when he broke Roger Maris’ homerun record.  Did anyone not know?  That was a great summer of baseball.  It may have saved the game plus it provided us with this moment.  I’ve said it before and I will say it here again:  McGwire broke no Major League Baseball rules.  He didn’t take any substances that were banned.  What he did was wrong and unethical, but none of us cared when we gathered around TV sets that whole summer and fall waiting for him to break the record.  Don’t rebuke his records and stats unless you’re willing to quit watching and give back all the happiness you enjoyed watching Mark and Sammy.

2.  Simon Cowell leaving American Idol.  I guess TMZ was right(dude, they’re right alot.  Sleazy, but right) when they approached Randy Jackson the other day and the dude was clueless about it.  Simon IS American Idol.  Mr. Cowell, Ryan Seacrest thanks you.  This is not shocking.  Simon knows that one of the keys to maintaining success is moving on to your next project before the downward spiral occurs.  There goes 4 more jobs under the Obama administration.  Ellen is the only other judge who had a job before the show.  Will it ever end?  But wait…

3.  Sarah Palin has a job now…with Fox News as a contributor.  I don’t see what the big deal is.  People who hated Fox News this morning still hate them and everyone else now has another reason to watch.  I don’t have cable so it doesn’t affect me.

4.  Tobey Macguire and Sam Raimi are off of the Spiderman series.  They had a nice run.  I was hoping they would get a change to redeem Spidey 3, but it looks like the web slinger is getting a reboot.  Some things should be left alone.  Next thing you know they’ll be trying to make us forget about Superman’s son.  Oh NO!

5.  Avatar is fast becoming a real challenger to Titanic for highest grossing movie ever.  I think only half as many people have seen it, it’s just that they’re all paying $15 a ticket for 3D IMAX.  I haven’t seen it, but I’ve only heard great things about it.  We’ll be seeing it in 2D IHOUSE.

6.  NBC is a joke.  I’m gonna miss Leno’s monologue at 10, but they have totally jacked this up.  Once again, TMZ was ahead on this story before everyone.  Who would have thought that our most reliable unbiased news source this decade would be the dude from People’s Court and a bunch of stoners sitting around their cubicles?  That show makes me feel good about my life…that I have one.  Wait a minute…when did I start watching TMZ?  I blame the digital box.

7.  As I type this, David Caruso is arresting Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on CSI Miami.

8.  Made some changes to Chase Your Lion dot com.  Let me know what you think.  Big changes in store for this site.  Gonna do a relaunch.  I will let the five of you know…and mom.

2010, here it comes!

Here are the things I’m working on that have been keeping me from giving you your Daily Dose of Heath.
1. Holiday travel
2. #LoveMercy Charlotte-lots of news and reports to come
3. Writing project for SLD
4. Chase Your Lion dot com
5. ChaseUrLion

6. 

7. 

8.  Walk 4 Wells-more info to come.  Yes, you are about to be challenged.

9. 

10.  Trying to be a better husband to my out-of-my-league wife.

Thoughts on a Variety of Topics

Thoughts on my grandfather, Clemson, the BCS, the Heisman Trophy and the off season moves of the Yankees and Red Sox.

Thoughts on my Grandfather

An Extreme Day

Thoughts on Clemson and the World Series

So, Clemson pulled off a huge upset Saturday against Miami and control their own destiny to get to the ACC Championship for the first time where they will more than likely face Georgia Tech who barely eeked out a win against the Tigers earlier in the year.  Yes, that was a long sentence.  Let me see if I got this right.  Clemson has 3 losses by a combined 10 pts and merely has to win out to make the championship game.  Hmmm.  That sounds oddly familiar.  I wonder how many callers to WCCP have lamented those losses and regretted being thisclose to being a BCS contender.  If and when Clemson accomplishes either of these two firsts(making the Championship game and winning it to earn a BCS bid) I will take my hats off to them…literally.  I have 3 Clemson hats that I will burn.  I will keep my Clemson toboggan because it keeps my ears warm when I leave the gym.  Seriously.  I’m 100% positive that moving away from Tigertown removed all orange tinting from my glasses.  So, Clemson fans prepare the best(Orange Bowl tickets baby!) or the worst(explaining to your son why Clemson was mediocre again and why next year will be better-just give him the same speech you’ve given him the past 10 years and that your father gave you).

The World Series starts tomorrow night and at a decent hour.  Thank you MLB!  It’s the first time in a long time that the two best teams from the season are meeting in the World Series.  No Wild Card teams here(and no small market/low budget teams either).  It should be a great series.  However, as a Red Sox fan, I am facing a stark reality:  these Yankees are different.  There big free agents signings did not blow up in their faces this year(CC and Tex).  Every move the Yankees have made in the last 7 or 8 years had been iffy.  Jason Giambi, Randy Johnson, Gary Sheffield, Carl Pavano…none of their moves worked out…until now.  And so, we are left facing the possibility of a new Yankee dynasty that could run the table for the next 3 or 4 years though Joe Girardi’s managerial moves are often questionable.  The Red Sox face some big off season decisions.  The last thing we(and the world) needs is more Yankee’s titles.

What’s on my mind

Friday just got a little heavier than I intended.  Here’s what’s been going on as I take you through my train of thought.  Warning!  This may be scary.

1.  Spoke at revival at Liberty Wesleyan Church this week.  Had a great time and felt the Lord speak to me and through me.  Awesome to reunite with Travis and Autumn Ward who I used to watch wrestling with every week.  God challenged me so much through the messages and was faithful to help me overcome a cough that has progressively gotten worse.  Speaking got all sorts of topics going through my head.

2.  Found out late Wednesday night that my grandfather(on my dad’s side) has cancer and only a few months to live.  Papa Robert is 90 so they are still looking at options.  This has got me thinking about the things I don’t know about so many in my family.  I want to hear their stories, disappointments, and ask questions like,”what would you change if you had it all to do over again?”  I want to capture all of this on video.  What if genealogy could jump off the page and speak to us?  All of this got me thinking about my regrets.  This made me glad that…

3.  We didn’t have Facebook or Myspace when I was growing up.  I think if I were to look back I would be embarressed and ashamed by some of the pictures, statuses, and tweets I would have posted.  It would have been weird hoping my parents never saw my page and revealing my true self to the whole world.  On the other hand, it may have kept me honest because maybe I would’ve made better decisions if I knew the whole world were watching.  I just think that changing my relationship status once a week and posting “couple” pics would be weird.  Would I have cussed on Facebook as much as I cussed in real life?  Maybe I would’ve cussed less, cheated less, and been a better person.  Oh, I went to church more than anybody and am thankful that the influence of Godly parents, Sunday School teachers, neighbors, pastors, youth pastors, and friends won the day and helped me avoid a whole lot of regret.  I realize now that being there didn’t “save” me, but in a way it did.  I still had to choose Jesus for myself, but all those hours at church and with the church opened my eyes to what life truly was about.  It’s sad how many “good” kids I see go through this downhill progression where they forsake their faith and party hard all for the world to see.  It will be hard to tell your kids not to drink when they’ll be able to see all your underage drinking pictures on the internet.  I guess it’s odd that what used to be secretive and only your closest friends knew is now posted for the whole world to see.  You used to hear stories of people partying, but now we’ve got pics, updates from the party, and statuses from the morning after.  I think we’ve gotten so sensitive to not want to be judgmental that we don’t exercise any judgment at all.  There’s this attitude that sin is unavoidable so you might as well go with the flow.

4.  I try to use the internet and Social Media to share my faith and encourage others.  I think they are wonderful tools to communicate with the world.  I think that all of these things are making it possible for my children and (hopefully) grandchildren to know my story.  I want to make it a great one…one they can be proud of.

Kudos to Apple and some other fun stuff

Took my Ipod Touch that had stopped charging by the Apple store on Monday and they replaced it with a new one.  It was quick and painless.  I didn’t have to beg or fuss.  The dude, whose name ironically is Steve for all those who know my latest nickname, was really cool and helpful.  I am having a great customer service month.  So, Kudos to Apple!

With Halloween approaching, here’s a funny video from the Onion that was posted last year.  Note:  this is not a real newscast.

Speaking of fake news, a group emailed some major news organizations claiming to be the US Chamber of Commerce a few days ago. The group stated that the Chamber was going to reverse it’s position on climate change and hold a press conference. Reuters picked up the story and ran with it. The group even held a fake press conference which was interrupted by a real rep from the Chamber. On Fox, they reported the Reuters headline while at the same time calling the Chamber for confirmation. The Chamber denied the news and Fox reported that the Reuters report may be an error. Reporters actually showed up to the fake press conference and were angered when it was interrupted. A quick phone call, email, or fact check would have saved these reporters some major embaressment. I guess I’m posting this because of the news media inability to fact check their sources lately. Just in the past week many news organizations falsely attributed quotes to Rush Limbaugh about slavery and James Earl Ray. The uproar lead to Limbaugh losing his spot on an ownership bid for the St. Louis Rams. We do this a lot in our lives. It’s called gossip. One of the 10 commandments even deals with “bearing false witness.” Without further delay, here’s the video of the fake press conference.

And finally, here’s my favorite “fake” press conference of all time. Louie Giglio back-tracking on Twitter.