Troy Story - Part 3
August 5, 2010

And so Elimination Monday began. Entering into the first round, my shoulder was causing me a significant amount of pain. As it turned out, it was the worst it felt all week. I took a couple of painkillers and went on, pretending like it was ok...   Read More →

Troy Story - Part 2
August 2, 2010

Sunday: The Sunday Morning service is held at the hotel every year, and the A/G sent the National treasurer, Doug Clay, to preach. Wow, did he preach! He spoke about the dreams and aspirations that everyone has. Like most of my favorite sermons, I can't remember most of what the speaker said (oops…) but I can remember the thoughts that ran through my mind. "God WANTS to and CAN fulfill my dreams." Seems cliche, but there's a lot of truth behind that. It was a great sermon of faith building and just connecting to God.

Moving right along, the Senior Shootout took place at 3pm, and it was no doubt a shootout! If you don’t know what the Senior Shootout is, they have 30 senior quizzers (not those 55 or older) line up to answer as many questions as possible. The reward? Earn scholarship money and some cold hard CASH!   Read More →

Troy Story - Part 1
August 1, 2010

It's been just over 2 weeks since I returned from Bible Quiz Nationals at Troy, Michigan. It was a great experience hanging out with friends and quizzing on 1st and 2nd Corinthians! The best week of the year is Bible Quiz Nationals, and this year was no exception! Just like last year, I'm writing a recap of the events that took place, along with some of the important life lessons I learned along the way.   Read More →

A Guy's Thoughts on Modesty
June 9, 2010

This is a letter I wrote to Friends, a church group of 5th grade girls. One of the leaders asked me to write a letter about modesty, and after I was done writing, I couldn't help put post it here.

Dear ladies,

I wanted to share some thoughts with you about modesty from the guy's perspective. LaJoie told me a little bit about your recent project, looking for modest pictures in the magazines, and the talk that went with it. The conversation you had was so important that I wanted to say something to you personally from my heart.   Read More →

Relationships
May 25, 2010

Your breathing becomes irregular. Your heart rate drops and you collapse onto the hospital bed. Your mom is right beside, holding your hand and praying. As your face turns red and the room fades to white, you come to the sudden realization that life is not in your control.

This was me less than 24 hours ago...   Read More →

Recap: 2010 Atlanta Open
February 22, 2010

The 2010 Atlanta Open showcased teams from Kentucky, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The question difficulty was between District and Regional level, slightly easier than Friendship. Speaking of Friendship, the A teams in Division 1 were all at Friendship 3 weeks earlier, and I believe every quizzer greatly improved. Here are my reflections from the top bracket:

1st place: Cumming, GA #1
I'm not sure what to say about our team, other than we had a great tournament. We went 14-0 and scored the most points. The key to our success was simple: all 3 quizzers knew their stuff. Even though this is a blessing, it's also a challenge as we move forward. This is the first time I've had 3 other quizzers know the material, so I have some things to learn from a leadership standpoint. Hopefully we can continue to be successful through Nationals.   Read More →

Clueless Guys and Romantic Mothers
February 8, 2010

Welcome to this special blog post (most special) — jameslex.com has been hijacked, and power has been transferred to nybblesandbytes.com! Muahahaha!!! With this power, I will disperse of all that is useless to me, ditch all the antique furniture, disable commenting...but you can look forward to correspondence from the dictator (me) under my (regretably) temporary regime nonetheless. In my effort to maintain satisfactory relations with my subjects, I shall address a topic near and dear to myself.

If you're the average teen guy, come Valentine's (and especially Mother's) Day, you'll be completely clueless about how to treat your mother to a...ummm...treat. Yeah, maybe a chocolate bar, some flowers, and a card will do the trick, but somehow it just doesn't make the cut. So, I present you with an alternate activity, which I predict will be worth more to Mom than that lovely card and wilted flowers.   Read More →

Special Thanks & Terms of Giveaways