From the Mind of MandoRon

The first game in the newly finished Boone Pickens Stadium ended with OSU beating Houston 56-37.

The highlights:

• 699 yards of offense; second highest in school history
• first ever game with a 200 yard receiver and a 200 yard rusher
• only one punt (although it was sandwiched by 2 interceptions and a fumble)
• 6 straight touchdown drives, and the Cowboys ended the game on the Houston 1-yard line close to a seventh TD

Happy Saturday from Altus, Oklahoma.  Andrea’s grandmother fell Thursday breaking her hip and dislocating her shoulder.  So we’ve gone down to visit for the weekend.

Fortunately for you, I brought a wireless router for my in-laws with me.  Share-It Saturday continues on…

For you viewing and listening pleasure, this week’s links:

• Enlightening (pardon the pun) video from Mute Math’s drummer.  He has lights that are keying off his drums. Cool stuff.
• Free song download from Anberlin, “Feel Good Drag“.  Great song!
• Freakonomics is at it again with useful Olympics analysis.  Apparently Jamaica won the most gold medals per capita in Beijing.
• Interesting post on the worst concerts ever.

The time has finally arrived.  The OSU Cowboys kick off their season today at Washington State.

It will be interesting to see how the season goes.  It appears that they’ve got a pretty tough conference schedule this year.

I can’t wait!

Watching the Olympics has reminded me of something that came up at the Leadership Summit recently.  One of the speakers (I don’t remember which and I’m too lazy to go grab my notes) talked about finding your “sweet spot”.

I believe that all of us were born to do something better than anyone else.  The trick, however, is getting in tune with your sweet spot.

My definition of “sweet spot” - the strange intersection of skills, giftings, and calling. Here is where we find people doing things that are extraordinary.

Examples:

Michael Phelps - This man was definitely born to swim.  Eight gold medals in Beijing.  Who can argue with that? Michael is an incredible athlete and would likely excel at whatever he does.  But swimming is definitely his sweet spot.

Usain Bolt - Did you see the 100m finals Saturday night?  Usain was born to run fast.  He let up well before the finish line, checked his rivals, played to the crowd, and started celebrating.  Oh yeah… And he set a new world record.  He made it look so easy.  Interestingly, he just started competing in the 100m this year.  Everyone thought he was too tall to be fast at that short of a distance…

Dara Torres - Also born to swim.  At age 41, she nearly won the gold medal in the 50m freestyle.

Tiger Woods - I think TIger was literally born playing golf.  He’s an animal.  It’s not just the athleticism, but the drive, the heart, the mind, the skill, and the name.

Michael Jordan - Born to play basketball.  No explanation needed.

Switching gears a bit…

Tommy Luckner - Tommy plays lead guitar in our band at church.  He was born to play electric guitar, as some of you can attest to. Rare combination of a lot of natural talent, perfectionism, and OCD to practice one part for hours at a time until he nails it.

Rod Nance - Rod also plays in the band.  He’s the guy you see with the six keyboards and the occasional keytar.  Also freakish ability.  Definitely born to play the keys.

Bill Gates - Born to take over the world one computer at a time.

Warren Buffet - Born to make money from investments.

Mother Teresa - Born to minister to the poor.

So all of this has got me thinking…  What is my sweet spot?

I’m decent at a lot of things, but can’t really say I’m extraordinary at any one thing.

Maybe God hasn’t shown me yet.  Maybe I haven’t listened.  Maybe I was born to be a dabbler… dabble in this, dabble in that.

How about you?

What were you born to do?  What “event” can you win the gold medal in? Feel free to share.

I’ve been in Stillwater all weekend with the family visiting some friends from the Wesley Foundation at OSU (a.k.a. Methodist Student Center).

It’s been fun, as is any trip to Stillwater.  This is where I spent five years working on an Engineering degree.  I met my wife here.  Proposed to her here.  And we lived in Stillwater for the first year and a half of marriage.  Lots of good memories.

Friday afternoon we checked into our hotel - the recently renamed Stillwater Plaza.  I hate to blog about a toilet, but I couldn’t resist.  The toilet seat doesn’t easily go up and down because it’s crammed up against the vanity counter and hits the toilet paper roll.  Even more hilarious is that the flush handle is buried under the countertop.  You have to squeeze your hand into a little cutout to flush…  I guess they misplumbed our toilet or something.

We went to the original Hideaway for dinner with a bunch of people.  We had 19 people crammed around a huge round booth intended for 12.  It had a massive lazy susan in the middle, and was pretty cool.  I wish that I would have had my camera with me.

Saturday, we had lunch at Coney Island - another Stillwater landmark on the Strip.  I had a couple of “nuke dogs” just like I used to eat in college.  These things are awesome.  A nuke dog has mustard, sauerkraut, fritos, chili, jalopenos, american cheese, swiss cheese, tobasco sauce, and probably a few other things.  Good times!

We found out that Saturday was also fan and media day for the OSU football team.  So we took the kids to Gallegher Iba to get autographs from the football team and the women’s soccer team.  The kids had a blast.  And we got to meet Coach Gundy and a bunch of the players.  They were all really great with the kids.

I’d never gone to a fan day before.  I’ll have to go back next year and bring an autograph football.

Sunday we woke up late and checked out of the hotel.  We met my mom, sister, nephew, and niece at the world famous Eskimo Joes for lunch.  We picked up a couple of Joe’s t-shirts and gobbled down some cheese fries.

And now we’re back home.