|
seriously? it’s Thursday? it’s been some week… it’s been kind of rough mustering up the energy to keep things rolling… energy, motivation, i don’t know… anyway… Here i am, working the blog while my mind is wandering around thinking of all the other things i could be, should be, or would like to be doing… in the background is last night’s debate courtesy of YouDecide2008’s YouTube account… what a great backdrop for the debate… does anyone know if you’re allowed to walk through the airplane if you visit the Reagan Library? i’d suspect that’s probably not the case, but that would be pretty sweet… anyway, it’s about time they start cracking down on Romney’s “fees” vs. “taxes” nonsense, but i’m not too happy about… well, i guess i’ll just dive in with that… DING DING DING (IN THIS CORNER) i’m pretty unhappy that this has clearly, in the media’s eyes, become a two-horse race… while Huckabee was introduced first and managed to get the face time and company of former First Lady Nancy Reagan, he quickly got pushed off to the far left of the table and ignored for most of the debate which is a HUGE step back, reminiscent of some of the earlier debates where he got maybe three questions - one about the Bible, one about evolution and maybe one about policy… it’s pretty disturbing, though, perhaps the writing is on the wall… with a lack of funds and a lack of coverage, i suppose it is entirely possible that the Huckabee run for the presidency is on its last legs… some are actually speculating that he’s only staying in the race to take away some of Romney’s votes, clearing the way for McCain to storm through and win the nomination… actually, i’m okay with that if it’s true… i’m still hoping that Huckabee can pull it out and have a strong showing, but my second choice from the Republicans has always been McCain… McCain’s strengths are in foreign policy and military, both of which are extremely important at this point in history and i don’t honestly believe that any candidate will enact any significant economical policies that will be in the best interest of everyone… Regardless, the debate zeroed into the feud between McCain and Romney with each other… Romney whining that the bees are chasing him after he smacked the crap out of the hive and McCain, calmly chuckling to himself and standing by his statements… other than that, nothing was really said that hadn’t been said several times over and based on the two of them, the debate was entirely unnecessary… Ron Paul chimed in a few times telling them to stop bickering about he said/she said arguments, plugging the importance of, surprise, improving the economy and his apparent desire to pull all the American troops everywhere in the world back to the homefront… i’m starting to think that Ron Paul would like to build a giant dome over America shutting us off from the rest of the world entirely - so long as we don’t borrow money from China to build the dome, of course… Actually, a side note about Ron Paul… i saw that Ralph Nader was looking to make a run at president again and immediately thought of a Nader/Paul ticket… And then there was Huckabee… sitting in the corner, unfairly marginalized while the apparent top two traded insignificant blows… he complained a few times about not getting any questions, but responded rather eloquently to the ones he did get… his answers even had the other candidates listening and nodding in agreement at times… McCain had expressions that said, “Why didn’t I think of that?” while Romney’s said, “I need to put together some more smear ads”… i think they both thought twice about Huckabee again and America should’ve, too… The last question was about Ronald Reagan and it summed up the entire debate… Cooper: Would Ronald Reagan endorse you as president and why? Romney: Ronald Reagan? Of Course! Ronald Reagan would. Ronald Reagan agrees with me. Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan. Besides, McCain’s too liberal and I have my lips firmly attached to the seat of Ronald Reagan’s pants… this is the house that Ronald Reagan built! Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan… McCain: Ronald Reagan likes me. I was Ronald Reagan’s footsoldier! We defeated the Cobra Kai together! Besides, Romney is such a weak, flip-flopper that it’s laughable. Ronald Reagan would never endorse that guy! He’s got no spine! Ronald Reagan had a spine. I have a spine. I might actually BE Ronald Reagan by the end of this election cycle. Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan… Paul: What did you say? Oh right. I don’t know but Ronald Reagan campaigned for me in the 70s and he told me personally to mind the economy. ECONOMY! Huckabee (for the win): It would be presumptuous to answer that. I can’t say that Ronald Reagan would endorse me, but I wish that he would. Ronald Reagan was a great president, not because of his policies, but because he believed in this country and he rallied the great people of this nation to believe in America again. If we can recapture that, that’s when we can recapture the Reagan spirit and only then can we bring this divided nation back together again. Cooper: Thank you gentlemen and with three votes, Ron Paul, we believe you to be the mole, you are dismissed from the race. AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR (BUT, WE DON’T HAVE ONE) So, i’ve got a lot more to say about politics and the State of the Union Address that was earlier this week and more in general, but i think that’s enough for today… right now, i’m stepping back and opening up and being a little vulnerable… i mentioned in a previous blog entry how one of my dreams have died this year… and it seems that i’m in that season of life again where everything that has to do with my writing “career” is falling apart… i booked my flight and room for GMA Week this year, sent in my registration papers and, looking at the numbers, i’ve come to realize that it may have to be my last GMA Week… it’s just getting harder and harder to justify the expenses of pursuing this when it’s increasingly becoming a drain on my finances… i used to make some money doing this writing thing… i used to be something of a journalist… when i was with CMC, i was doing alright and despite the increasing demand on my time, there was enough compensation to make it pretty much worth my time… (the stress and aggravation wasn’t really worth any amount of money, however)… and with HM and more recently with CCM, it was worth it, not for the pay necessarily, but for the enjoyment of it writing and the excitement of seeing my name in print and “accomplishing” something… Now, CCM is done in print… HM is uncertain about keeping hip-hop in their coverage (which is fine, if that’s the decision that needs to be made)… and even the slight inroads i made into the Salem world during the aftermath of CMC’s upheaval seem to have been crushed with the recent reorganization over there… i just don’t know which end is up really… Part of me would love to keep fighting the good fight and try to push theTRu over the top, shaping it into a mainstream force, but i realize that it’s a goal i may never reach… despite the increased traffic as of late, i’m still nowhere near a place where i’ve been advised is viable to solicit advertisers… and it seems by the difficulty i have booking interviews and getting connected with publicists, that i don’t quite carry much weight… i don’t want to be a whiner or anything - in fact, i recently got a paypal request from someone who i would characterize as such and i was appalled, not so much by the request for support, but by the mention and comparison of this request to the amount that i tithe, when the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other and as such, they have no business being in the same breath… anyway, i don’t want to be a whiner, i’m just being honest… i think that i do good things with these interviews and features and, when i write them, reviews and such… i’m just starting to wonder, as i’m no longer covering costs, if it’s what i should be doing with my time… i guess time will tell… FOOTBALL (WHO TO ROOT FOR) moving on… i’m not entirely certain who i’ll be rooting for while watching the Superbowl this year… on the one hand, The Patriots are in my top tier of teams (Bills, Packers, Patriots, & Redskins) and they should, by default, be who i favor… HOWEVER, i love seeing an underdog pull off the upset… and i hate how imbalanced the two conferences have become… the AFC has the “best” five teams in the league, probably… and it would be great to see Eli Manning, who get so trashed by the papers week in and week out, come in and knock out Tom Brady, the golden boy, the guy who everybody praises unabashedly… so, i’ll talk more about the game later, but that’s where i am right now… undecided… WORD OF THE DAY Joshua 5: 13-15 This is one of my FAVORITE passages of Scripture… it’s one of those slap you in the face, pour a bucket of ice water over your head, grab you by the ears and scream in your face type of passages to me… it’s a wake up call for all the times when i get ahead of myself, when i think too highly of myself and when i elevate myself to a level of righteousness that i don’t deserve… and i wrote a Left to Write on this a while back, so i won’t go too crazy here today, but i just love the reality check of a response that Joshua gets here… He looks off in the distance and sees this warrior… sword drawn and probably quite intimidating… Joshua’s gotta be pretty scared right about now as he questions this mysterious soldier’s loyalty… “Are you for us or for our enemies?”… logical question, right? But that’s because we see things in limited dimensions… in our eyes, there can be only 2 sides… you have to be on my side or on their side…. it’s always you vs. me, us vs. them, Roe vs. Wade, McCain vs. Romney, spy vs. spy, etc… and i love this response… “Neither”… boom! just blows your mind and redefines your entire sense of reality… i love it… IN OTHER WORDS
Chapter 5: Untie Your Ropes… how about that… this chapter just totally speaks to where i’m at right now… Ortberg is talking about things that keep us from achieving our goals, flying in an airplane in his example here, and i’m just going to quote him here today because this sentence deserves a bit of rumination… Ortberg says: “If I am not yet living according to what I believe matters most, it is no accident. There are forces or habits that have a deep hold on me that I will have to get rid of.”… this is very true… DON’T GO AWAY MAD (JUST GO AWAY) Well, this week has pretty much gotten away from me, but i did manage to post a Walk TRu of the first two Jon Foreman EPs COMING SOON at theTRu you’ll see a new Left to Write, the start of the Year in Re:TRu and much more… and i’ll probably ask you some questions about what i do…. OH, ONE MORE THING… i mentioned a while back that Skillet has a new drummer now and i noticed that there’s a lot of Skillet fans…er, panheads out there looking for Skillet news… so here’s one for you… it seems to me that there will not be a new album from the group until John Cooper is done moonlighting as Titan, the captain of the new American Gladiators. . .
peace… love… bdg… |
January 2008
Have you missed me?… i’ve been pretty tied up with work and errands… and i’ll tell you what, i love holidays and all, but it really screws up your sense of schedule… anyway, with all the illness going around, it’s added to it all to of that and made me perform at like half speed… in fact, it looks like i have a writer’s strike beard going on and i think i’m going to have to get shaving soon because it’s all itchy and stuff… eh, don’t mind me, it’s the congestion talking…
So the big news during my absence has been that Fred Thompson dropped out of the presidential race and i guess some people are now reporting that he was only really testing out the waters so that he might be picked as a running mate… sounds like a career underachiever to me… why would you brag about that?… anyway, the other big news is that Heath Ledger is dead… no joke, or recurring joker character in the new Batman movies… the questions surrounding his death include whether or not it was a drug overdose and how Mary-Kate Olson ties into the whole thing…
yeah, i’m doing no good here, so why don’t we move on…where did i leave off last time… that’s right disillusionment…
RON-PAUL-UTION…?
so it seems like everywhere i go these days, there are Ron Paul banners strewn about on the side of the road or banner ads everywhere or even worse, the moronic online militia posting negative comments about every other candidate, talking conspiracy theories and basically being a nuisance… now, keep in mind, i don’t think that everyone who supports Mr. Paul is a moron, it’s just those who refuse to accept the strengths of other candidates and the weaknesses of their own…
In fact, Ron Paul has a lot of good things to say and it’s no wonder that he’s been able to amass such a following… when it comes to the economy, he certainly seems to know his stuff… and with the recent shift in focus at the debates to key in on economic matters, it looks to favor Paul for as long as they let him talk…
However, Paul seems to be one-dimensional in that regard and is more like Bill “It’s the economy, stupid” Clinton than the Ronald Reagan persona he tries so hard to embrace… if it is just about the economy, then Ron Paul is probably a great choice… but it’s not just the economy… people listen to you when you talk about the economy and people like it when you promise to fix the economy because the average person becomes short-sighted when it comes to money… we, as a nation, are so willing to sacrifice ethics, safety, moral responsibilities, our family, and just about anything on the promise of prosperity…
Look back at Bill Clinton’s time as president and you can see what happens when you just focus on the economy… by the end of his term, we as a nation had experienced the most publicized and morally bankrupt trial of a man’s infidelity… our military was depleated and, despite rolling with the good times throughout his presidency, the country was in a recession… the point is not that we shouldn’t focus on the economy - because i think that we’ve overlooked basic, common sense business practices as a nation for far too long - but the tunnel vision can only last for so long before everything collapses…
Ron Paul’s statements about foreign policies and other practical issues really show a lack of depth and understanding that’s necessary to be in such a high position of authority which outweighs his positive statements about the economy… bottom line, it’s more than just the economy, stupid…
FOOTBALL
Another set of good to great games last weekend… the Patriots managed to shut down the Chargers pretty well… even with Darth Vader trying to manipulate the force from the sidelines… and the rootin’ tootin’ Green Bay Packers, led by Yosemite Brett Favre couldn’t overcome the elements and knock off the Giants, who are apparently sponsored by Franks Red Hot, hot sauce… of course i’m disappointed that the Pack didn’t pull it off, but they were totally outplayed for the whole game and it’s only fair that they win…
this means of course that the Patriots and the Giants will be in the Superbowl down in Arizona and it’s going to be…. eh, an okay game at least… i’ll talk more about it later on…
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
Monday was Martin Luther King Day and i have a few things to say about it… first is that there was apparently an MLK patio sale at a local store… i know this because The Tony Kornheiser Show is back on the air and Tony was ranting about how inappropriate it was to advertise a patio furniture sale and attach the name of someone who assassinated to it… His argument was that of all the things that Martin Luther King Jr stood for in his life, patio furniture sales shouldn’t be his legacy in pop culture… which is fine, except he continued to say that it would be okay to have President’s Day sales, Christmas sales, etc… if i’m not mistaken, Lincoln was assassinated and that guy they named Christmas after, too…
Anyway, little boy, who is in Kindergarten, learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. in school… now, i’m not sure all that was said during the lesson or lessons, but he told me that King was a good man, who told people to love everyone and that he had a dream before he was “killed by the bad white man”… interesting to say the least…
i guess my problem overall is that he’s in Kindergarten… he doesn’t have any concept of race… and he shouldn’t… he’s innocent in that regard… as he should be… i see this as a subtle attack on innocence and maybe i’m just being a little overprotective - again, i don’t know what the lesson was about - but i have a dream where kids aren’t taught from an early age that race is an issue only to be taught later on that race isn’t supposed to be an issue… it’s already not an issue… just let us all be neighbors… i’m probably rambling…
GHOST IN THE MACHINE (part eleven)
Long time readers will appreciate this… this time, it’s my laptop… my trusty, faithful, german shepherd of a laptop… except that it’s been acting up in most every way imaginable… first it started acting slow… i figured that it was because i hadn’t shut down in quite a while… well then i got it all rebooted and such and my browser kept freezing… and freezing… and freezing… so i ended up having to uninstall, reinstall, shop around and now i’m splitting time between different browsers… in the meantime, i’ve gotten my email migrated and lost my filters and address book… so i’m still in the process or rebuilding all that… my other computer is actually acting worse, but i’ll save that for another day…
WORD OF THE DAY
Joshua 5: 1-12
This is a difficult subject to talk about… but it’s part of the covenant… they’re across the Jordan, God’s been faithful and they’re all in good spirits, preparing to start battle against all the countries that lay ahead… and at the big pep rally, Joshua says, it’s time to get circumcised… then it explains that this was the next generation and that they hadn’t been circumcised in the desert because of all the disorganization and disobedience… now they’re all caught up with their end of the bargain, recovering from the surgery during the time that is afforded by the fear of the Amorite kings… and, having been cleansed, they can celebrate passover and enjoy the food of the land…
IN OTHER WORDS
When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg…
Chapter 4: Master the Inner Game…
This chapter talks about the two distinct games that we are playing… an inner game and an outer game… the outer game is what we get credit for, but it is simply an outpouring of the inner game… Ortberg says that the possibility of mastering the inner game is the biggest reason that we even play the outer game… everything external is wasting away despite our efforts to stave off the effects of aging, but i think we need to recognize and embrace the relationship between external and internal, physical and spiritual, temporal and eternal… doing that isn’t easy, especially in a world that likes to compartmentalize everything… props to Ortberg for the Dorian Gray reference… great book there…
BEFORE YOU BREAK MY HEART
Here’s the stuff from last time… a concert review, an interview with Chris Rice and aWalk TRu for Night Owls 4…
Newer postings include an interview with Ronnie Freeman and a new iTRu-nes Playlist…
COMING SOON
the weekend… man, writing in the blog really winds the clock down… but yeah… i’ll shave, i’ll get better and i’ll talk about more stuff… on theTRu, i’ve got a WalkTRu, Left to Write, and more in the works…
peace… love… bdg…
well, this is going to be a quick one because it’s been a long week filled with ups and downs… pretty draining and hard to keep the right end up… but since the football games are now tomorrow… i wanted to weigh in on that and a couple other things… i will say that this three-day weekend has some great timing… amen and amen…
GOING GOING GONE (PART TWO)
Also while i was gone… (i got so carried away that i forgot)… the Procussions have decided to call it a day… Mr. J and Stro will continue to do some solo projects and what not, but, having cited a number of reasons in a MySpace Bulletin, Mr. J said that the group was pretty much through… i’m trying to set up an interview with Mr. J, but nothing’s come of it yet… i’ll let you know…
IT’S PLAYOFFS, BABY
Four teams remain… two BIG games tomorrow… here’s how it will play out… SPOILER ALERT…
Patriots host the Chargers… Randy Moss is in a world of anxiety and confusion because of all these allegations… but it doesn’t matter… Moss doesn’t even matter, really… there are so many weapons on the field that it’s just too easy for the Patriots… i think the Chargers will actually put up something of a fight, but will end up losing by 20 points or so…
Off to the tundra… where the red hot streaking Giants march in to face the calm and amazingly veteran Packers… expect snow, wind, freezing temperatures and a Packers win, baby… yeee ha!
AND I’M OUT
i posted up a concert review, an interview and a new Walk TRu and boy am i tired… more details later, but for now, peep theTRu.
COMING SOON
interviews, walkTRus, Ron Paul… more…
peace… love… bdg…
Okay, so i worked from home yesterday to be with the boy as he recovered, which he has, by the way… so my online time is sparse and devoted pretty much exclusively to clocking in hours to credit to my day job and when i come back, all… everything has broken loose… or just broken… this is such a strange and somewhat saddening day for me… since there’s a lot to cover today, let’s go ahead and get things rolling…
GOING GOING GONE
So, you can’t ever complain that i hold up the big juicy headlines in front of your nose like a carrot in front of a horse’s nose… so here’s the big one… CCM Magazine is being discontinued as a print publication… this i learn early today as a concerned acquaintance IMed me to see what i thought of the whole thing… at first i was incredulous, and later as i resolved myself to this truth… i went through all the stages of grief… or maybe i just got over it… i’m really torn about this though and i’ve got a lot of thoughts…
i suppose that in some regards, it makes me something of a prophet since i was just blogging about the death of magazines the other day… that doesn’t give me much solace, however, because on some level, this marks the death of a dream for me… one of my goals as a writer was to someday score a cover story for CCM… and with the March issue already in the can and the April issue certain to be a best of celebration chock full of writers that they already like, that’s the end of that… i did get to have a few album reviews posted in the pages of the magazine, though, so, i’ll always have that…
The real concern here is first for the folks who earned an actual living working on the magazine… i can hardly call writing a source of income at all and with CCM going away, it’s not exactly a dent in my wallet (though, i was also informed that another regular feature that i was paid for is going away as well)… even though these are going away, i still have a day job and that’s where i pay the bills… there are people who were either employed directly by Salem/CCM or fortunate freelancers who contributed on a regular basis… now their income is up in the air…
the other concern that i have personally is that it’s another step backwards for quality assurance within the writing community… i’m not saying that being exclusively online will directly result in a decline in quality for the magazine, but if you take a random sampling of the writing that shows up online and compare it to what’s generally in print, there’s quite a disparity… it’s so much easier for the rules to be less stringent… and i really hope that we don’t end up with articles that read like… “NEW FF5? LIK, OMG!! IDK, MY BFF JILL?”…
no, i don’t actually think this will happen because i know a number of the people helping to shape this new business model and i know that they’ll work really hard to make it work well…
AMERICAN MODEL
Moving on… (i could probably talk about it for a while)… but this week saw the first few episode of the new American Idol season… i really don’t take much time to comment on the early rounds… it seems to be the same every year and most of the time, early impressions don’t matter at all… the editing has gotten to the point where the producers don’t let you form any reasonable opinions… really what i take away from these shows is the sad state of the the “American Dream”… thousands upon thousands of people line up for just a shot at being on camera and maybe getting a few minutes of fame… it’s a shame that people clearly refuse to accept that they can’t sing and want so desperately to be accepted… to be loved… to be famous… we are a nation of disillusioned people… which brings me to my next topic… Ron Paul… but it’s late and that will have to wait…
SNOW MAN, SNOW
it finally snowed!…. it’s finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas… it’s the good kind of snow, too… the snow man making kind of snow… i can’t wait to get out there with the boys and put together a fantastic sculpture out there…
WORD OF THE DAY
Joshua 4: 10-24
this is just some details about the Isrealites following God’s directions… but the key verse here for me is verse 14… God exalted Joshua and all of Israel revered him like they did Moses… one more example of how God has been faithful to Joshua… the priests came up out of the water and the flood levels returned immediately… powerful… so much so that after Joshua set up the stone memorial as God had asked, he told the others that it was a reminder of how powerful God is…
AND I’M OUT
i don’t have too much else to say right now… i have a few, well, a LOT of content just about ready to burst online… and i’m still working on more… it’s good stuff, i promise… i’m pretty busy with my day job as well with a new project so no promises…
COMING SOON
interviews, walkTRus, Ron Paul, Football… more…
peace… love… bdg…
Yesterday was non-stop motion, so i didn’t really get a chance to do a full blog entry, so here’s a special Tuesday update… we’ll join yesterday’s blog already in progress…
Well, that was a busy weekend.. i feel like i’m a bit behind on everything and maybe a part of that is because i’m starting this so late… but we’ll see where it goes and how it all turns out… i ended up seeing a couple movies, booking a few interviews, enjoying a special breakfast with little boy, checking out a comedy improv show and, of course, watching some serious football…
And now, it’s back to the grindstone and back to the ole blog…
THERE’S NO NEED TO FEAR…
…the underdogs are here… well Sunday the 13th lived up to all the eerie superstitions that can be expect- what? oh, why does that only work for Fridays?… anyway… what a crazy bunch of games this weekendl… i honestly can’t remember a year when the playoffs were so very compelling… i’ve been on the edge of my seat for most of these games so far and i can’t wait for the next round… with the exception (maybe) of the Giants and Buccaneers game from Wild Card weekend, all of these games have been classic matchups… and this weekend is shaping up to be a snow-bowl in Green Bay and a snow-bowl in New England…
i’ll address each of these games later this week, but man, is this excitement or what?
THANK DOGS YOU’RE HERE…
our church brought in a comedy team known as Mad Dogs and Englishmen this past weekend… having no idea what type of comedy this would be, we decided to go because there was free child care and i like to laugh… turned out that they are an improv team in the vein of Whose Line Is It? and Thank God You’re Here… and i guess that’s about where i would put them… not nearly as good as Whose Line, but not as agonizingly bad as You’re Here… the biggest problem, i think was that they dragged the sketches on too long… 5-6 shorter sketches would’ve played better than 3-4 longer ones… i’m just saying… that and the fact that i’m funnier… but anyway..
YO HO HERO…
YES… as promised i went to see Veggietales extravaganza known as The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.
We packed up the littles and headed to the “movie puterer” on Friday afternoon for opening day. It wasn’t quite as crowded as one might expect, but that’s probably because we didn’t go to the midnight showing or anything like that… actually, the movie did fairly well in the theaters, placing 9th in total sales with just under $4.5 million and maybe 6th or so based on the average per theater…
All that aside, the movie itself was very entertaining… i liked it from the very beginning and as always, it’s great fun picking out all the random pop culture references… leading up to the release, i’d heard complaints that it doesn’t blatently spell out the Gospel message… but there are so many good lessons and messages tucked away in there that i think those folks are crazy… i liked it, the little liked it, it was a hit all around… and the littles currently spend as much time as they can blasting the soundtrack in their headphones… go see this movie…
MUSIC NEWS
Skillet recently announced that they’ve got a new drummer now… Apparently Lori “Coolest Chick Drummer Ever” Peters has moved on to pursue other interests and she’s replaced by youngster, Jen Ledger… Ledger has been training with Lori for the last few months and is excited to join the group…
the big news today though is that EMI has announced plans to cut about 2000 jobs (a third of their current workforce) over the next six months… the cuts will save an estimated $400 million a year and, “allow [their] labels to spot and sign new artists and better handle existing ones,” according to a press release. sure, less people doing more work for fear of getting fired… that’s the way to go…
and the really big news is that American Idol begins again tonight… okay, not that big of a deal… never mind.. move along…
WORD OF THE DAY
Joshua 4: 1-9
What do these stones mean?… i remember hearing a sermon specifically about this question… actually, it wasn’t a sermon so much as, hmm… what was it? i wanna say that it had something to do with a mission statement of some sort… regardless… this is an interesting passage for me… clearly this is a common practice for their culture, stacking up some rocks, building a memorial and remembering from whence you came…
whenever i go into the Capital, which isn’t very often, i love looking at the architecture of the buildings - houses, museums and whatnot… and most people who come to DC spend the bulk of their time walking around “The Mall” and staring at all the memorials that have been erected to honor past leaders and influential times… i guess we all have different ways of preserving memories, but it seems that we could do better… i don’t know, giving God credit for all that He’s done… perhaps we’re so far removed from deliverance… i don’t know… just thinking out loud…
IN OTHER WORDS
When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg…
Ortberg states that there are three main ways that we keep score in life… comparison, competition and climbing… they’re all quite interconnected actually and as, he states, they all have downfalls… there are healthy ways to work within each of these scoring systems, but more often than not, we’ll get caught up in them, and fall into their respective trappings… before closing out the chapter, Ortberg talks about the contrast between these three systems and the one that Jesus models… it’s almost like he’s read my mind…
GONE BABY GONE
well… little boy actually has a fever today and i’m going to go take care of him… like only daddy can… this is where i would put links to all the updates that i’ve had pop up around the web, but there’s nothing to link to today… perhaps tomorrow… i do have a number of irons in the fire… be safe and enjoy American Idol tonight… bdg… out!
peace… love… bdg…
today is a very special day… not just because it’s Friday, but that’s nice… not even because it’s 1-11 which rarely ever happens… what? oh, it happens every year?… okay… not because of that… but today is special nonetheless… today, Monk and Psych return to air as planned… regardless of the strike… i’m happy…but what’s really special about this day is The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything… yeah… Veggietales in the theater again…
ON HUCKABEE, ON THOMPSON, ON MCCAIN, ON CLINTON, ON OBAMA, ETC…
so i was supposed to talk about the debates from last weekend and i blew it… i watched all the Republican segments and enjoyed it a lot… again, prior to this year, i never got much into the whole political scene… and while the charm of these ridiculous amounts of coverage should wear me even thinner than normal, i’m actually intrigued by it all… i was reminded why i don’t like politics a few weeks ago witnessing angry arguing and abrupt assumptions, but it wasn’t until the other day that i realized that i’m more a fan of debating than i am of politics…
i really enjoy watching these debates… i love the banter and the back and forth civil arguments… it’s entertaining and educating… anyway, i’m still backing Huckabee and i’m excited to see how the next few states turn out… one thing i do really enjoy is that Romney is getting put in his place in every debate… the televangelist android has been spending millions on negative attack ads and everyone is calling him on it… they’re nailing him for his inconsistencies and then he has the nerve to cry foul…
The funniest things i’ve seen this week have been Jon Stewart nailing both Mitt and Rudy on Wednesday’s “A” Daily Show… anyway… enough politics…
WIN OR GO HOME (PT. 4)
Last on the docket… The NEW YORK Giants head down to Dallas to face the Cowboys… after getting manhandled during the previous two meetings this year, the Giants are looking for revenge… and they’re looking to the suddenly strong arm of Eli Manning… this should shape up interestingly as Romo will surely have some jitters and Eli has the confidence of having led his team to victory last week… the problem is that he’s still facing the Cowboys, who have dialed him up twice already this year… Terrell Owens promises to be back and this promises to be a really good game… all week, i’ve been thinking that the Cowboys will win easily, but i’m actually changing my vote and calling this one for the Giants…
NEW YEAR, NEW MUSIC, NEW OUTLOOK
i’ve spent a lot of time thus far this year getting organized… i’m trying to make this year a great year for writing… i know, i’ve said that many times before and i still have a long way to go… but i’m happy to be listening to the new Leeland album and have a few other promising prospects coming down the pike…
AND WITH THAT…
everybody’s working for the weekend… no, actually, i’m just chilling out all weekend… with some work thrown in, i’m sure… in honor of the Veggietales Pirates movie, you can “peep” my walk TRu of the movie soundtrack… happy weekend everybody… i’ve got some, emails to write…
peace… love… bdg…
i spent a good deal of time on the floor today… we didn’t have a couch in the family room because we had a new one scheduled for delivery today… i worked from home… yadda yadda yadda… this new couch is way more comfortable than the floor… i guess there’s not much point to that story…
ROCKET… YEAH-AH…
well, i forgot to talk about Roger Clemens yesterday… i forgot a lot of things actually, but i meant to talk about Roger and, at the risk of being sports-heavy, we’re starting there… Roger Clemens was named in the infamous Mitchell Report a week or so ago… He was the biggest name on the list of baseball players named as having used steroids and/or other performance enhancing drugs while competing in the Major Leagues… much like many other players, Clemens vehemently denies these allegations even though they’ve been brought to light by his trainer…
i grew up watching Roger Clemens dominating the pitcher’s mound… i clearly remember when The Rocket and Doc (Gooden) were the best pitchers in the world… and watching all these mighty heroes of my youth get picked off one by one to this steroids hunt has been slightly disheartening… i want to believe all of them when they say that it’s not true… but the reality is that many of these cases are in fact true…
having said that, i believe Roger Clemens when he denies having used steroids… i do not believe Barry Bonds, but i do believe Roger Clemens… first, Barry Bonds monstered up over one off-season and his stats really took off for a short period of time before he began regularly falling prey to nagging injuries… Clemens was pretty consistent throughout his entire career, both in body type and performance…
Second, all hitters decline with age, while pitchers who stay healthy can remain dominant late into their careers… Nolan Ryan anyone?
Finally, and perhaps most convincing for me, when you listen to Clemens argue with reporters and such, he’s repeatedly said things like, “my accomplishments on the diamond are not who I am”… he’s achieved many milestones during his career, but he seems to understand that they don’t measure up to the worth or value of his life… they don’t define him… Bonds on the other hand seems very much defined by his accomplishments… i’m just saying that someone with that perspective, who is more concerned about his reputation as a man than his trophies as a player seems more believable…
WIN OR GO HOME (PT. 3)
On to the Sunday games… and the first contenders are the Chargers and the Colts… i know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking this will be a close game… you’re thinking that the Chargers beat the Colts this year and that they have a good chance to win this weekend… well, you’re thinking some crazy thoughts, because they’re TOAST… come on… the Chargers almost lost to the Titans last week… the Titans have NO offense and their defense managed to shut the Chargers down, keeping them scoreless in the first half… if you give the Colts the first half as a headstart, they’ll be up by 3-4 touchdowns… Colts win big here…
WORD OF THE DAY
Eph. 1:19b-22
More Power… this power is the power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead… and raised all the way to His rightful position of authority… This authority that extends from the beginning of time throughout all of eternity… This power puts everything under His feet and appoints Him as the head of the church… here’s why we need to understand this power: as the church, we’re supposed to be the fullness of Christ… His resurrected body…
AND WITH THAT…
we’re moving on… i left my book at work and since i worked from home today, i don’t have it with me… you can check out the latest of my interviews at CCMMagazine.com… this one is with The Scribbling Idiots…
peace… love… bdg…
|
so, is it oddly warm where you are? it’s been in the 60s and 70s here so far this week and everyone else seems pretty happy about it… i’m a bit indifferent, because i’m really still wishing there was some snow on the ground… it’s January for goodness sakes… let’s cool off a little bit… well… there’s a lot to cover today, so let’s dig in… NO ROOM FOR GREY i’m in the midst of watching Blood Diamond… and i’ve seen a few other movies with similar themes… as portrayed in the movies at least, the situation in some of these third-world countries seems as close to hopeless as possible outside of Hell… the main character even says in this movie, “God’s left this place a long time ago”… it can certainly seem that way… One thing that really bothers me about these movies though, is that there’s always several sets of “bad guys”… and you’re never quite sure who to “root” for… well… that’s not entirely true, there are the innocent victims… it’s just that they’re never the real focus of the film… here’s how the characters break down usually: there are usually the rebel troops.. these are the bad guys… they use excessive force and terror to gain power… they slaughter the innocents mercilessly as they wage war against the next group… the govenrment army… initially, these may seem like the good guys until you realize that the rebels rose up because the government army mercilessly oppressed its people to gain and maintain power… that’s the first conundrum Sometimes there’s a third army… an outside army… initially they seem like the good guys until you realize that they are present in the country not to instill peace or restore order… they aren’t there to rescue the innocents like you might expect… no, they are there because they want control and power in their own way… whether it’s some sort of resource that they crave or just a chance to exert their own strength and prove their own power… there always seems to be an ulterior motive… with all these shades of evil, who do you root for, indeed?… well, this ties in with my last post about the Ortberg book that i’m reading… and it goes along with something that we’re getting to in Joshua… we don’t need to root for any of these options… we are presented with these options and we can reject their offer… we need to “root” for love… a love that overcome all evil… i know, it’s hard… it was much easier when we only watched Disney movies… movies where good and evil are clearly labeled… movies unlike life… WIN OR GO HOME Well, that was a bit heavier than i intended, but let’s talk some football now, shall we?… the Saturday night game will once again be the biggest game of the weekend… The Jaguars march into New England to face the undefeated Patriots… fresh off their hard-fought victory in Pittsburgh, the Jags hope to upset the team that everyone expects to win the Super Bowl… They’ll certainly give the Pats a run for it… but after the two-headed run attack and the level-headed play from defense and the rest of the team, it’ll come down to the fact that the Patriots have more weapons at their disposal and they’ll get one step closer to that trophey… LAST YEAR (PT. 3) the final list from Last.FM is the 25 most played artists of 2007…not sure how this works because it doesn’t necessarily line up with either of the other lists, but here it is… 1. Mute Math and that’s a wrap for those, i guess… no more stalling… i suppose i need to start working on the official lists now, don’t i? AND WITH THAT… my time is up… bummer… hopefully, i’ll plan better tomorrow and hit all my intended topics… peace… love… bdg… |
Perhaps this is the week that i’ll get back on schedule… perhaps, perhaps not… it was a good weekend overall and i enjoyed the football games quite a bit (more on that later)… i’m currently watching the New Hampshire debates and i expect that i’ll be done with those sometime tomorrow… still have a number of emails hanging over my head, but i’m plugging along with those and with all the other items i have planned… in an effort to get to all that sooner, lets first get to this…
YOU ARE ONE WILD AND CRAZY CARD
What a GREAT bunch of games this weekend… sure, i only picked 2 of the 4 right, but all the games were pretty much up in the air until the very end… the Saturday games seemed better matched, but the Sunday games were quite good as well… and now, even though it’s only Monday, i’ll start making next week’s picks…
Saturday afternoon: Seattle in Green Bay… this game has all the makings of a classic playoff matchup… Favre, the gunslinger, faces a secondary ripe for the burning… Hasselback, Favre’s pupil looks to show up his teacher… the running game for both teams will likely be moot points… add in Mike Holmgren, his knowledge of Favre’s play and his desire to show up the Pack and wow… it’s gonna be great!… in the end, my Packers will have won by about 10 points…
LAST YEAR (PT. 2)
the next list from Last.FM is the 25 most played tracks of 2007… i went ahead and edited this one down so that no artist was repeated… the numbers in parentheses indicates how many times the artist appeared in the actual top 25… as you can tell, the list would’ve included about 7 artists… i think this way it’s more interesting…
1. “Typical” by Mute Math (5)
2. “Carry on Wayward Son” by The Showdown (11)
3. “Made to Love” by TobyMac
4. “Can’t Go On” by Group 1 Crew (6)
5. “The Rain” by K-Os (2)
6. “The Storm” by The Procussions
7. “So Much Love” by The Rocket Summer (4)
8. “Don’t Feel Right” by The Roots
9. “Identity” by John Waller
10 “The Best Thing” by Relient K
11. “” by Amazing Because It Is
12. “Beautiful Disaster” by Jon McLaughlin
13. “Hang Me Up to Dry” by Cold War Kids
14. “The Heat” by Needtobreathe
15. “Your Life Will Never Dull or Your Money Back” by Listener
16. “Come Undone” by Jackson Waters
17. “Rise” by Robbie Seay Band
18. “I Love You to Death” by Family Force 5
19 “Make Money Money” by John Reuben
20 “American Dream” by Switchfoot
21. “Horsey” by Neon Horse
22. “Love & Radiation” by All Star United
23. “When the Stars Go Blue” by Blake Lewis
24. “Feels Like Tonight” by Daughtry
25. “Undercover Belief” by Nate Sallie
if you’d prefer to see the full list without my consolidation, then you can feel free to do that as well…
AMERICAN IDOL
the popular show is rolling the die and coming back for another season soon… and while there’s recently been a surge of Christian singers trying out and making it through the competition, i never expected to hear Robbie Seay Band’s song, “Rise” on the promos for the new season… however, i did… and i got chills…
WORD OF THE DAY
Eph. 1:17-19a
This is a nice blessing… a nice prayer to pray over those whom you love… Paul asks for some wonderful things on behalf of the church and it’s a sincere prayer… the first thing he asks for is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation… hey, that’s what Solomon asked for back in the day… wisdom is good and all, but why?… so that you may know him, God, better…. that’s even better… but that’s not all…
Next, Paul asks God to… okay sing it with me… open the eyes of [their] hearts… but it’s not so much to see Him… it’s to see what He’s given to us… the hope to which we’re called…. the riches of our inheritance and the power of His presence… and we’ll look at that power more tomorrow when i finish this verse and this chapter…
IN OTHER WORDS
When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg…
What’s the Score?
this next bit is about scoring… how we keep score and how we should keep score and i absolutely love the example that he uses… he talks about how two groups of kids were presented with the same game but they decided to keep score differently… i believe that’s what we’re called to do as Christians too… When Jesus walked the earth, He turned the conventional scoring systems completely upside down… He taught us that to die is to live… to serve is to become powerful… to follow is to lead…
We don’t need to conform to this world’s standards… we don’t have to keep score the same way… this is a real challenge…
THE LAST WORD
speaking of words… merriam webster’s website, m-w.com names an official word of the year each year… it’s apparently voted on by people who use the site a lot and paid attention to the front page ads… previous winners have been “democracy”, “blog”, “integrity”, and “truthiness” (thank you Colbert)… and this year there were some great words up for the vote including “quixotic” and “conundrum” and “apathetic”… but apparently there were no words with the importance or overall likeability as the winner… which was… (drumroll)… “w00t”… that’s right, w00t…and that, my friends, is the world in which we live…
AND WITH THAT…
i posted a new Walk TRu featuring The Alchemy Index Vol: 1 & 2 by Thrice… check it out…
DON’T BE A STRANGER
i’ll be back later this week with more football game predictions… debate reactions and commentary… my thoughts on Roger Clemens… and more… trust me… everytime i start writing i start thinking of new things to write about…
peace… love… bdg…
well, it’s Saturday and i usually get pretty mad at myself if i do any work on Saturday, but my schedule is still all screwy right now because of the holiday, random days off and general lack of sleep and structure… so, i’m letting today slide because i haven’t updated much this week and i’ve done some planning for the month and it looks pretty full and exciting and i can’t wait to get right to it…
the first step unfortunately is sending out a bunch of emails and phone calls and that may be one of the most monotonous parts of getting work done… it is a necessary part of the job, though, and even though it sucks up a couple hours and leaves me feeling like i haven’t accomplished anything, i’ll bury my head and fingers into these keys and send send send… but first…
POWDER PLAY
It snowed in Buffalo on New Year’s Day… i know this because, well, i suppose it’s pretty safe to say that it always snows in Buffalo on New Year’s Day, but i saw it snowing on TV… while i was watching a hockey game… an outdoor hockey game between the Sabres and the Penguins… i had heard about this game a month or so ago and thought it was kind of a silly idea, much less to be on New Year’s Day, which is traditionally dominated by Bowl games…
HOWEVER, as i was flipping through the channels, it drew me in and i watched a bit of it and enjoyed it thoroughly… well, as thoroughly as i enjoy any NHL game on TV… and it seems that lots of other people did as well… drawing twice the average crowd and double the ratings of the Stanley Cup finals… i think they should it more often… one big downside though is that the fans in attendance are really far away from the action whereas they’re normally right on the glass… they can solve this by expanding the ice to fit the entire field… that’s right HUGE HOCKEY!!!! that’s what i want to see…
RIP-PING MAGAZINES
is it just me or is the printed magazine starting to die off completely?… i know that newspapers and magazines all took big hits with the rise of internet publications and blogs and all that fun stuff… but it seemed that the traditional magazines just had to adjust their business model a bit and they ended up doing alright… lately though, it may have caught up with them… at least three magazines to which i subscribed have recently shut down entirely… others i know of are really struggling to balance their budgets… have we finally reached the breaking point for print magazines? i hope not… print magazines pay better for content than online stuff, but also, i just love holding that i’m reading in my hands…
LAST YEAR (PT. 1)
since i’m still taking my time, dragging my feet with the end of the year charts and such, i thought it might be cool to share my top 25’s as reported by Last.FM… i don’t know that it’s entirely accurate since i wasn’t reporting my iPod usage for a lot of the year and that’s my primary player and there are a few other quirks to it all, but they’re pretty good lists… today, my 25 Most Played Albums of 2007…
1. K-Os - Atlantis - Hymns for Disco
2. Family Force 5 - Business Up Front…
3. Matt Wertz - Everything In Between
4. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
5. Jon McLaughlin - Indiana
6. The Almost - Southern Weather
7. The Fray - How to Save a Life
8. Switchfoot - Oh! Gravity.
9. Neon Horse - Neon Horse
10. Mae - The Everglow
11. Aerosmith - Young Lust: The Best of…
12. Jonezetta - Popularity
13. Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight
14. Ok Go - Oh No
15. Adam Watts - Sleeping Fire
16. 4th Avenue Jones - No Plan B
17. John Waller - The Blessing
18. George Thorogood - Greatest Hits
19. Hawk Nelson - Smile, It’s the End of the World
20. K-Os - Joyful Rebellion
21. TobyMac - Reinventing Diverse City
22. Mike Farris - Salvation in Lights
23. Deas Vail - All the Houses Look the Same
24. Robbie Seay Band - Give Yourself Away
25. Matt Wertz - Somedays
Some of those will probably show up on my best album of the year list, but some of them obviously can’t… either way, it’s an interesting batch of albums…
BEFORE YOU SAY GOODBYE
yes, i know, no word of the day or in other words… i’m watching the 4th quarter of the Skins game with my mouth wide open right now and it’s getting late (yes, i’m watching a recording)… but you can check out my interview with The Afters by hopping over to theTRu right now and we don’t have to say goodbye just yet… but i’ve got those emails to write…
peace… love… bdg…