...for every time I've laughed at stupidity this week, I'd be rolling in cash

I promise this is all I'll say regarding Phil. Most of it is directed towards my Christian friends, many of whose posts are laughably embarrassing to themselves and to the Christian community as a whole. However, I believe everyone can take something away from it (if nothing else but knowing my thoughts).

As I read through many of my friends' posts about the recent events concerning Phil and A&E, I can't help but notice a few common threads coming out that I would like to address.

First of all, "freedom of speech" is not the same as "freedom from criticism". Please keep that in mind, and review the text of the 1st Amendment and see if you really want to go that route with your posts (link here:http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment ). This is not a freedom of speech issue. If you truly think it is, please tell me why.

Another thing, I fail to see how this is religious persecution. He's not being attacked for sharing his religious views. He's being attacked for publicly insulting a very large portion of the population. The reaction would have been the same if he had made disparaging comments about the Jewish community, or network executives, or disabled veterans. Basically, anything that reflects poorly on the A&E brand.

And, just to be clear, A&E did not fire him. He's been suspended. Huge difference. And yes, they can do that legally. They can also choose to fire him...legally...provided that the contract they have with him includes a clause about comporting himself in a way that doesn't reflect badly on their brand. Due to his "celebrity" status and the nature of his relationship with A&E, I'm almost CERTAIN such a clause was included. In exchange for agreeing to those clauses and signing that contract, he's being paid something like $200k per episode.

Whether or not you agree with Phil's opinions on homosexuality is beside the point. In most of the discussions I see the topic of his views come up in with relation to this whole event, it has no business being included -- the exception being discussions purely revolving around whether or not you agree with his views. In all other cases, it doesn't meaningfully contribute to the discussion.

I found a few verses relevant to the main idea I'm trying to get across here, and I'd like to share them with you:

Proverbs 18:2
"A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion"

Proverbs 17:28
"Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent"

Matthew 5:16
"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

James 1:26
"If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless."

John 3:17
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

If you want your words to make a difference, weigh them carefully. Inform yourself about the issue at hand.

To my Christian friends, is what you're saying going to convey the message of God's love? Are you preaching eternal damnation or eternal salvation? This incident is giving you an enormous platform to share your faith...will you use it?

...for every time I've read a book, I could buy more books!

I love to read. Seriously, it's one of my favorite pastimes. I started reading at a ridiculously early age, and I even taught myself how to do it. Apparently, one day my mom pulled out a book I'd never read before, and I just started reading it like a pro! I guess that's just a tribute to my (sometimes questionable) awesomeness.

Why do I enjoy reading so much? That's a question that's both simple and complicated at the same time. The short answer is the stories. I start reading and I immerse myself into whatever it is that happens to be in front of me. I particularly enjoy books written from a first person point of perspective, because it makes it easier to "become" the character.

For example, an excellent series that does this is the Pendragon series by DJ MacHale. It's about a boy named Bobby Pendragon, who is a Traveler. Travelers are beings who have been chosen from the territories (times and places around the universe) to stop an evil demon named Saint Dane from throwing them all into chaos. It's told through two perspectives: Bobby's journals to his two friends at home (written in first person form) and the "overworld" story as seen in third person which follows his two friends, Mark and Courtney.

As much as I love the series, it still doesn't contain my all-time favorite books. Those go to Stephen King with "The Stand" and Alexandre Dumas with "The Count of Monte Cristo". "The Stand" is one that I enjoy because of the masterful storytelling and character interaction, set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. I always love post-apocalyptic stories. I love "The Count of Monte Cristo" because it's by far the best revenge novel ever created. The intelligence, patience and creativeness that Dante/Monte Cristo uses to exact his revenge is splendid, and it touches on so many issues relevant to human nature.

An honorable mention as far as authors are concerned goes to G. A. Henty. Henty's books concern boys raised in different countries and time periods throughout history. His characters live through some of the great military campaigns and political upheavals of their times, and meet some of the biggest players in history. Henty uses the situations he places his characters in to demonstrate to his readers the way a proper gentleman acts and behaves, and Henty attempts to instill in his readers manly virtues and ways of thinking. Additionally, his description of military encounters are some of the most accurate and most precisely described accounts that exist in our historical record, due to his extensive research on all of them.Combine all of these factors, and you're left with an excellently written group of books that I highly recommend to anyone who can get their hands on them.

I could talk all day about books, but I won't take up anymore of your time for now. Stay tuned though! My next post will be about my senior cruise and all of the events associated with that!

Until then, stay thirsty my friends.

...for every trip I've made around the sun, I'd have $1.10

That's right. Today I turn 22. It's not a particularly special birthday, because I don't "unlock" new privileges. The next one I can look forward to is 24, when I can officially rent a car for the week. But that doesn't have me down in the least, because it means that once again, I've been blessed with another year of life on this amazing, spinning ball we call Earth.

Normally, I like to do something fun for my birthday. Last year, my brother Rees Manning came down with his girlfriend to help me celebrate my 21st with many shots of fireball whiskey. We ended up getting locked out of my room and having rap battles with the neighbors. It was a good time! The year before that, I made a playlist of my Top 20 favorite songs.

This year though, I decided to look back and list some of my most important memories (22 of them to be exact). These are the ones I thought were particularly striking and meaningful in my life, or just moments I'll always remember.

1. The time my sister and I got lost in the woods when visiting my grandparent's cabin (first, and hopefully last near-death experience)
2. The time Rees fell asleep early, so Joe, Zach and I used his body as our drawing board (I still have the pictures)
3. Playing an ARAM against Salce and winning (back when ARAM's were still only done through custom games)
4. The day my mom came out to my sister and I (I love you mom!)
5. The day I got my driver's license (the scariest day for my parents to date)
6. The Faith Community Church middle school retreat to Cloudland Canyon (one of the best trips I've ever been on)
7. The day I became an Eagle Scout (totally worth it)
8. The day I graduated form high school (and then realized I was finished with the easy stuff)
9. The time I learned that you don't need a microwave to make popcorn (talk about game chager!)
10. The day I got Netflix (the day when my time was no longer my own)
11. My "first" kiss, my first "kiss", and my "first kiss" (funny stories all, I might post about them later)
12. The junior college trip (7 mile high club)
13. The senior cruise (will definitely be posting about that one later)
14. The 3 consecutive championship games I played in for Crown Football (0-3 but I loved every minute of it)
15. The day we got Jack (seriously, smartest dog in the world)
16. The day I accepted myself for who I was (that's a story I'll keep to myself I think, but it was one of the most liberating moments of my life)
17. The time that Kate caught me checking out Brianna at the mall (busted!)
18. The night Watson Thunder came to be (thunder...thunder...thunder...THUNDERCATS HO!)
19. The time Austin Jennings and I fought off an attacking shark (nurse sharks count!!!)
20. The time my family and I went to Italy for 3 weeks (7 years ago today I turned 15 at the city of Pompeii)
21. The time we drove through the night when Mackenzie was born
22. My first pentakill (people be chasing Singed all day every day)

This is far from a comprehensive list of awesome memories, but these are some of the ones that stick out most in my mind. Whether it was a major life event, or on of those small moments that adds spice to life, each of these memories is something special to me. They've defined parts of my life, and in many ways who I am today, and I wouldn't trade a single one for everything in the world.

I'm done being sentimental now. Here's to another trip around the sun!

P.S. Leave a memory you have of us in the comments! I love reminiscing!

...for every time I've introduced myself online, I'd still be pretty poor

When I was 7 or 8, my sister and I stayed with one of my mom's friends during the day while she was on a mission trip to Russia. My dad had work during the day, so he'd drop us off for a day full of fun and games. It was a lot of fun, and it helped keep my sister and I occupied.

I remember one particular day, we went to this swimming pool. Now, this was no ordinary swimming pool, no-ho-ho! This was an ENORMOUS pool. To be fair, I may be over-exaggerating the size of the pool because let's face it, I was just a kid, and everything seems enormous. But it was by far the largest one I'd ever been to outside of White Water.

The neat thing about this pool was that it had one particular area that was REALLY deep, and it being the 90's (before lawsuits were an everyday occurrence), there were two diving boards there. One of them was your average, run of the mill, "I-have-a-pool-in-my-yard-and-oh-look-a-diving-board-too" diving boards. But the other one...the other one was a high board. It towered above me, and I remember seeing and and firmly deciding, "Hey, I'm gonna go jump off that thing".

So up I climbed. Higher and higher and higher, until at last I reached the top. I walked to the edge and looked down, and I suddenly (and inexplicably) found myself staring down at a tiny cup of water at the base of Mt. Everest. I was petrified. If I hadn't used the restroom just before going, I'd have certainly gone up there. But I decided to suck it up, be a big-boy, and take the leap. I got a running start, then I jumped...

I know that story is a pretty terrible analogy for starting a blog, but in a way, it fits. It looks cool right up until you start to do it, and then you become petrified. Or at least, that's how it feels. "Why is that?" you may ask, and it would be a good question. Writing isn't scary. Writing doesn't physically endanger you. So why then is it scary?

To be honest, it's because I don't have to filter myself. In fact, that's something I'm promising myself not to do. I'm not going to censor myself to fit the standards other people may have in their minds for me. Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to be disrespectful to others. That doesn't mean I'm going to act contrary to how I normally do. I'm simply going to be me, and that's what's scary.

Whenever you open yourself up, you do just that: open yourself up. It leaves you vulnerable. People can attack you. People can twist your words and use them against you. It's happened before, and it'll most certainly happen again. But that's part of life, and I'm not afraid to take that chance. What scares me more is that now people will know exactly how random (and perhaps crazy) I actually am. Oh well.

I suppose I should formally introduce myself at this point. My name is Nicholas Bradford, but I prefer to be called Nick. I'm 21 years old, and knocking on the doors of turning 22 (5 more days as of the time of this writing). I'm a junior at Georgia Southern University, majoring in mechanical engineering. Some random facts about me:

• I love reading (Count of Monte Cristo wins everything)
• I've been an Alabama fan since I knew what football was (RTR!)
• I don't like raw tomatoes (except salsa...salsa is good)
• I have a passion for (good) video games
• I actually read the Twilight books (yes...yes I did)
• I sometimes write secret messages using binary (01010100 01001000 01000101 00100000 01000111 01000001 01001101 01000101)
• My favorite Bible verse is 2 Kings 2:23-24

That's a decent short-list for now. I'm sure that if you pay attention, you'll figure out more about me as I write more in this blog. In all honesty, I'll probably forget about it from time to time, but I'll try and update it as regularly as I have things to update. Until next time!

Nick

P.S. I lost my swimming trunks when I jumped off of the diving board. Here's to hoping this ends better!