Here’s to hoping that your weekend went well… mine wasn’t too bad… little boy got the first trophy of what i’m sure will be a long and storied atheletic career… this one was for participating in the Upward Basketball League… the ceremony was accompanied by puppets and a magissionary… yes… anyway, he’s extremely proud of his trophy, that’s for sure…

a few things before we dig in… first, i was stuck in traffic this morning and i read through Psalm 91… i’d like to dig into it a bit further, but not today… today, i’m just working on digesting the though of “dwelling” in God’s presence…

Next, i joined up with Technorati and unless i misunderstood, i think they’re supposed to make me famous, but it all starts with you adding me to your favorites… i think… also… well… i forget… so let’s just get going…

MARCH MADNESS

to the tune of We’re So Far Away – Mae

The big news of the weekend is that the fields have been narrowed down to just four… Davidson, the last hope for a Cinderella story, put on a spectacular show up until the last 6 seconds of their game against Kansas… which leaves us with a Final Four consisting of all the #1 seeds… this is the first time that the selection committee has gotten all four correct… this will either make it a fantastic final three games or a very uninteresting one if you like underdogs… i’m undecided, but i’m not sure i’ll even be around to watch anyway…

MOVIE TIME (brought to you by Netflix)

to the tune of Teacher’s Pet – Doris Day

two more movies this week… hopefully quickly as my time is short… first up… SPIDERMAN 3… i finally got around to watching this, even though i’ve had it for a while… as expected, the special effects and the fight scenes were spectacular and the storyline was pretty well done as well… i enjoyed seeing the cocky Peter Parker strutting around the streets… very nice touch… the notion of forgiveness was nicely done and relayed to the audience in a powerful and entertaining way… bottom line… i give Spiderman 3 an A…

next up, i dig deep into the archives of Netflix (actually, my wife picked it)… and we come up with TEACHER’S PET starring Doris Day and Clark Gable… obviously, this is a romantic comedy, but Gable is a grizzled newspaper man and he stumbles upon a night school class teaching journalism… the story revolves around the romantic attraction between the two of them as well as a discussion about what journalism is and what it should be as well as whether or not it can be taught… it plays out very interestingly and i’m not ashamed to say that i enjoyed it… i’d give it a B+

THE WORLD AROUND ME

to the tune of Work – Jars of Clay

Well, with just under three weeks left, my GMA Week is shaping up to be pretty busy… i’ve booked somewhere between 20 and 26 interviews over the course of 2 days (waiting to hear back on a few, still) and i’ve been staring at the showcase schedules for a while, trying to decide which ones will be the most appealing… one thing’s for sure, Robert Randolph is scheduled to play and i’m going to do anything i can to make sure i don’t miss that one… it’s already what i’m looking forward too most…

Other than that and my day job, i’m working on a number of writing projects including a concert review of the Tobymac, Jeremy Camp, and Matthew West show i went to a couple weeks ago, a few, yes few issues of Left to Write, a number of album reviews, a handful of interviews, and even more… all this and my “o” key is sticking… actually, it’s been working pretty well tonight… maybe i fixed it… anyway… that’s all for now, kiddos… remember to favorite me so i can get really famous or something…

peace… love… bdg…

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well, it’s Friday and you may be thinking that, hey, i guess the new schedule means that he blows off Wednesday and Thursday… well… you’d be wrong… sure, i did blow off the last two days kind of, but it wasn’t entirely intentional, it was just life… Wednesday i was in a fog most of the day and yesterday, among other things, i had to do an interview that i had pretty much forgotten about… and then amidst all the preparations for GMA Week which is now officially less than a month away… it’s just been pretty crazy around here… so i’ll try to make up for it with a fantastic post today, but be forewarned… i’m listening to talk radio and it’s kind of difficult to write while doing that… but let’s give it a go…

ONE. DOVE-ING IT

to the tune of We Won’t Be Quiet – David Crowder Band

So, they’ve announced the first batch of performers for this year’s Dove Awards and we care because i’ll be there and i’ll have to watch them… Anyway, it looks like an alright mix… we’ve got Casting Crowns, The Clark Sisters, Michael W Smith, Amy Grant, Marvin Sapp, Switchfoot, Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin, Trin-i-tee 5:7, David Crowder*Band, Israel Houghton and Charlie Daniels with Mac Powell… i’ve bolded the ones i’m particularly interested in seeing… but, i think it’s a pretty nice variety so that most people will enjoy at least, i don’t know, maybe 5 minutes of the telecast…

oh, yeah, they’re going to be telecasting the Dove Awards live on Gospel Music Channel

TWO. BUSSED-ED

to the tune of Gypsy Flat Road – Sandra McCracken

So i kind of laughed out loud when i read this story about flattened bus tires… not because i think it’s a good idea, but because i clearly remember a time when some guys i knew did something similar during my high school days… i don’t think they were successful, and they certainly didn’t keep a secret well, because everyone knew about it by the day’s end… this case, however included other vandalism to the busses including graffiti… i’ve also, in looking for a better article about this, learned that this has become quite an epidemic across the country, with recent occurrences in Boston, Chicago, Colorado, New Jersey and probably a lot more… that’s the power of the internet, kids…

one side note… i remember when graffiti was about giving a voice to the voiceless… now it’s just about degredation of society and it really irritates me…

THREE. NEW DAY???

to the tune of Come Together – Third Day

Third Day is planning a new album and by golly it actually sounds pretty exciting… given that i haven’t heard a note of it, i’m basing this solely on the press release that i received not too long ago… here’s the gist… they’re bringing in Howard Benson (Daughtry, POOD, Flyleaf) for production and they guest list includes Chris Daughtry, Lacey Mosely (Flyleaf) and Robert Randolph…

I’m not saying this is going to be the best rock album of the year, but REVELATION may just be the best Third Day album in many, many years…

FOUR. Syncast

to the tune of The IV – Braille

consider me a somewhat late whistle-blower, but if you dig hip hop and you do the whole podcast thing, you’ve got to check out The Syncast… i guess it’s once a month, but it’s generally packed with good tunes a brief interview or other feature and it really rolls along well… They’re on #37 and i’ve listened to the last three (they’re about a half hour each) and i’m definitely recommending it right now…

Check it out in iTunes now or figure out how to subscribe other ways at TheSyncast.com

FIVE. BIG BEN

to the tune of Bad to the Bone – George Thorogood

So Ben Stein has gotten behind and in front, center stage of a documentary about evolution, creationism and the suppression of free thought in the scientific world… the trailer, despite the loud, blaring music and the silly outfit, makes the movie look pretty interesting… i got a leaders packet a couple weeks ago about it, but unfortunately not a screener, so i can’t tell you if it actually is as good as it looks or if it’s just the magic of creating a captivating 3 minute trailer… either way, it’s an interesting concept and maybe, just maybe, it will get some people realizing that everyone who believes in the Creation isn’t a complete imbecile…

HAPPY WEEKEND

and that’s that… i’ve got a new Walk TRu posted for those that are interested… Ampersand EP by Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken… hopefully i’ll have some more for you soon… ’til then…

peace… love… bdg…

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i can’t believe it’s Wednesday or that it’s so late on Wednesday… i’m going to cover a bit and cover it quickly so let’s get getting…

THE ICE STORM COMETH…

well, last night it took me over two hours to get home and i passed by an accident count in the double digits… these silly people driving too fast in icy rain… what are you thinking? so many cars on the side of the road… i sincerely hope they’re alright and that they remember not to do that again… this morning everything seemed pretty much resolved even though it was still below freezing outside and icicles adorned pretty much everything in sight…

OVER AND OVER AND OVER

at least that was pretty… the results from last night’s voting also hung like the icicles as the pundits described the life of my boy Mike’s chances dripping away… in fact… McCain’s camp actually send a memo over to Huckabee’s camp asking them to give it up, citing mathematical impossibilities… i heard people in the media call Huckabee “a professional irritant”, “an annoyance” and many other non-flattering terms, but, as silly and unprofessional as that all is, at least they’re talking about him somewhat…

IT’S ALIVE!!!!!

Bill O’Reilly, someone i can handle in small doses (usually the 3 minute Talking Points podcast), was pleading the case of Hillary Clinton the other day… yes, that Hillary… addressing the Senator’s complaints that the media has turned against her and has been unfairly representing her and her family… she was also concerned that the media outlets had already handed over the Democratic nomination to Obama despite it continuing to be a tight race… sounds to me like the monster Dr. Frankenstein built in years past has come to life and turned on its master… and, might i add, how hypocritical of O’Reilly, not only to chime in on Hillary’s side, but also to complain about “secular” media doing to Hillary exactly what he and Fox News have done to my boy Mike for the ENTIRE CONTEST…

CHEESEHEADS, ROLL OUT

Next up for my boy Mike is Wisconsin… i think he can take the state and gain some momentum going into the big block of contests on March 4th… as far as whether or not he should give up and leave the election, i say, in the words of General Anthony McAuliffe, “Nuts!”… later this week, i’ll talk more about why i like Mike…

NUTS!

speaking of which… Jericho is back on the air and i missed the premiere yesterday… i’ll watch it online or on demand later this week… pretty bummed about missing it though…

CLEMENS…. SEE?

The Rocket testified in congress today and it’s really not looking too good for Clemens… i said before that i lean towards the side of believing him over McNamee, but there is this nagging notion of motive… and then Pettite reportedly said that Clemens had admitted it to him… i just don’t know… i did work out a scenario where McNamee has motive though… it involves years of blackmail, a bluff, and a battle of wills… regardless, now that they’ve both testified to opposing accounts under oath, one of them is pretty much screwed… and Clemens never had a very good screwball…

WORD OF THE DAY

Joshua 6: 6-11

Day One

I’m not sure how the conversation entirely went, or if Joshua really explained the full battle plan to his people, but he managed to convince them all to follow him… and they set out on day one of the week-long plan of attack… i’m sure that everyone was pretty antsy and i imagine that there was a lot of whispers after they got back to camp that night as they all tried to figure out what happened… and why they didn’t yell at all, why they didn’t attack at all, why they were sitting back at camp again…

IN OTHER WORDS

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg…

Chapter 6: Master of the Board… again

the next section of this chapter hits you like a cold wet sock across the face… or, like the reality it’s asking you to face… the reality that you’re not actually the master of the board… we’re not in control of our lives and by pretending that we are, it’s more than a lie, it’s more than disillusionment, it’s even more than sad… it’s dangerous, it’s destructive, it’s really, really depressing… this chapter is something of a downer so far… ha!

AND IT JUST DON’T STOP

Okay, here’s the links from last time… the Mr. J Interview and a walk TRu of How Great Thou Art… looking at the old calendar, i see that i have some more interviews coming up with Kevin Max, Poems, and more including some year in re:TRu stuff too… also tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and they’re announcing the Dove Nominees, so i might talk about that, too…

peace… love… bdg…

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It’s a whole new ball game as they say… some big news headlines today to talk about but, if you’ll indulge me for a brief second… i’m excited that i was on the radio today… kind of… i sent in a letter to the Tony Kornheiser Show yesterday because they, like many othe media outlets, are completely dismissing Mike Huckabee and, actually, more than dismissing… they’ve pretty much marginalized him as the one person in the WORLD who can stand up on two legs, speak and yet still believes that evolution is a farce…

Despite having opposing viewpoints on a lot of things, though, i love the show and thought i’d take a second to write in and defend my boy Mike a little bit… sure enough, at the very end of today’s show, my letter was read and, it went over alright i guess… they liked the joke i broke the ice with and i think i made as much of a point as can be expected from a letter on the radio… it was just cool to hear that i “made” the show… i was seriously like a little kid with ants in my pants waiting to see if i’d get quoted…

okay, on with the show…

ROMNEY’ED!!!!!!!

the huge news today is less than an hour old as i write this… Mitt Romney exited the race today while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC (not to be confused with Tupac)… clearly there’s a hidden agenda here or something… taking some parting shots, Romney noted that hanging in the race would merely weaken the Republican party and delay a national campaign that will be needed to defeat the Democrats who are still knotted up in a hotly contested race for the nomination…

Funny, i thought that the strength of any party was the diversity and the freedom to evaluate and choose for themselves which candidate was best… clearly, these statements were barbs at my boy Mike, as an effort to get Huckabee to do the “honorable” thing and quit as well… after all, staying in the race makes you “a part of aiding a surrender to terror”…

I had planned to take some time today to talk about why i don’t like Romney, but since that’s something of a moot point now, i’ll just list some bullet points that i’ll revisit later if necessary…

1. Romney sounds more like a Democrat than any of the other candidates, screaming for change while launching attack ads

2. It seems to me that the Presidency is just another goal. I want a candidate looking to “marry” the job, not one who’s just looking to notch his bedpost.

3. He seems entirely insincere, like a slick-talking robotic snake oil salesman… (this is further cemented in my mind by the fact that he’s “suspending” his bid rather than quitting… this means he gets to keep collecting donations and holds onto his delegates which i expect him to use as poker chips further down the trail…)

anyway… the big question is, NOW WHAT? will Mitt’s supporters jump over to Huckabee’s camp, or will they split their loyalties between Mike and McCain or will they all go to McCain?… well, kids, i sure hope they check ou tmy boy Mike and that they start taking him a whole lot more seriously… i’m voting in five days and i’m voting for my boy Mike… you should too…

THE PAT*STERISKS

speaking of sore losers and bad role models… How about them Pats?… a week or so after filing for trademark rights to the term “19-0″, the Pats are licking their 18-1 wounds… while the Giants were partying in the streets of NYC, the Pats were throwing pity parties…

First Coach Bellichick spends the last play of the Superbowl in the tunnel sulking and brooding, then the two biggest stars, Tom Brady and Randy Moss, immediately withdraw from the Pro Bowl… talk about being a bad loser…

in related thoughts, the 2007 Patriots can no longer be considered the best football team ever, because they didn’t win the Superbowl and that means that technically, they weren’t even the best team of the year… a lot of people think that this is unfair, but it’s the same standard of measurement used for all claims of greatness… it’s what keeps Dan Marino out of contention for the greatest QB ever and it’s always been that way…

SUPER GREAT AWESOME REALLY COOL

and now, speaking of greatness are the greatest Superbowls of my time… as i’ve said before, i feel pretty confident that this year’s game will rank in my top three soon, but i’m still processing it right now and i’m not sure exactly where it will land, but these games are the games it will needs to beat…

NUMBER THREE: Superbowl XXII (1988)

Redskins 42, Broncos 10… i know what you’re thinking… dude, it was a blowout… how was this a great game?… well, you start with the Broncos jumping out to a quick lead… like the first play is a deep pass for a touchdown quick… then you look at the Redskins facing a 10 point deficit in the 2nd quarter and dropping 35 points on the Broncos in one quarter… that’s still a record, by the way… and you add in the fact that Doug Williams (WHO?) led them at QB and Timmy Smith (WHO?) ran for over 200 yards and that, my friends is a great game…

NUMBER TWO: Superbowl XXV (1991)

Bills 19, Giants 20, Norwood Wide Left… 1991 was going to be the year for Buffalo Bills’ fans… the K-Gun was in full effect and they were pretty much unstoppable on offense… unless of course they didn’t have the ball… i remember laying on the floor watching this game, still halfway thinking about the winter retreat that i had just come back from with my youth group… i couldn’t believe that he missed that field goal…

NUMBER ONE: Superbowl XXXIV (2000)

Titans 16, Rams 23, Kevin Dyson 1 yard short… This was the first Superbowl i was married for and i remember having my two closest college buddies over to watch it in our apartment… it snowed pretty well during the game, too… well, in Virginia… this was such a great game though and it came down to the very last play and the very last yard… amazing drama and will always be one i remember…

So there you have it… i’ll admit that some games are tainted in my opinion because of outside circumstances and other games, before, say, the Bears/Patriots game are beyond my memory… i would love it if the NFL released a DVD set of all the Superbowls, but i’m guessing that will be outrageously priced and even then, i’d be watching the games out of context, so the rankings wouldn’t be as true as these are… anyway… that’s fun, what are your three best Superbowl games/memories…

WORD OF THE DAY

Joshua 6: 3-5

A plan?!

okay, we’re all so familiar with this story that it almost makes sense to us… but think about it for a second or two… imagine if General Petraeus were to announce that the new strategy to end the war in Iraq was to pull out the troops, march around the Iraqi border, blow some tumpets and start shouting… you would think that he was absolutely insane… so you see? God’s plan sounds pretty insane… knowing how to fight, understanding strategy and preparing to lead his troops into battle, Joshua had to be scratching his head after hearing this… there’s a new paragraph starting with verse 6, but i like to think that it was a long, dramatic pause…

IN OTHER WORDS

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg…

Chapter 6: Master of the Board…

this chapter is actually about resigning as master of the board, but the first bit here is a tale of Caesar Augustus and his rise to power… and the extent to which he controlled the entire world… Ortberg mentions that the concept of “Pax Romana” which is the global peace that was born out of the supreme domination of the Roman Empire and i think that there’s a lot of people who see the US as trying to fill that role… unfortunately, at least as of yet, there hasn’t been and Pax de America or anything like that… and, of course, if you know any history or logic, you understand that it only lasts for so long…

ON WE GO WITH THE SHOW

i interrupted the work i was doing elsewhere at theTRu to get this post typed up, but later tonight, there will certainly be some more new items to peep over on the front page… specifically a Walk TRu and a bonus interview with Mr. J Medeiros… i say bonus, because i did it via email… okay… later folks…

peace… love… bdg…

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happy super wednesday… i’m sure everyone was up all night waiting for the vote tallies to come in… or not… i watched a bit of the coverage last night, but honestly most of the pundits are so obnoxious that i just prefer to wait to see the results online or hear it on the radio… it was a great night, a monumental occassion and that’s about all i have time to talk about… so let’s get to it, shall we?

MIKE-D UP!!

Well, with five state wins yesterday, my boy Mike Huckabee shook up the world as they say, proving that sticking to your guns so to speak works… He’s still something of a darkhorse, but he proved that it was downright silly for Anderson Cooper to have ignored him during the last debate… Romney pretty much got the pants beaten off of him last night and he’s outright angry about it… i mean, how much money does it take to buy the presidency, anyway?

So McCain is still clearly the frontrunner with some big wins last night as well, leaving Mitt and Mike duking it out over the actual conservative votes… here’s what i found very interesting and perhaps telling, however… the home states of McCain, Mitt and Mike all voted yesterday and, not surprisingly, each candidate won in their respective state… Mr. Huckabee’s victory, however, seemed to me, to be the only convincing victory… netting about 60% of the votes to McCain’s second place total of 20%… McCain won Arizona, but by a much closer margin grabbing 47% of the votes to Romney’s 34%… but Romney’s victory in Massachusetts was by an even slimmer margin at 51% to McCain’s 41%…

It’s quite possible that i’m reading into this more than is reasonable, but it seems to me that the principle of cooks applies… that principle, by the way, is that you should never eat at a restaurant where the cook eats elsewhere… i think this perhaps more appropriate in comparing Romney and Huckabee, since they were both Governors, running the state as a microcosm of the government they hope to run… just make you wonder who you’re voting for…

RUNNING SHORT

i’ll have more tomorrow, some “regularly scheduled” stuff and more Superbowl talk, more on Romney and more more more… i found out that i’ve got a new review up over at SphereOfHipHop.com… kind of funny, because i wrote it a long time ago and didn’t even recognize it at first…

’til morrow…

peace… love… bdg…

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so this is supposed to be my day off from the old blog, but i didn’t write yesterday and i’ve been so inconsistant that i figured, hey, why not?… in fact, this is going to be a SUPER entry (hopefully not in length, but in quality and topically)… i actually just got finished watching the Superbowl again… i’m sure that i’ll end up watching it at least once or twice more this week because that’s the kind of guy i am… and it was one of the greatest Superbowls of all time (within the realm of my memory)… i haven’t decided quite yet where it ranks, but i’ll talk a bit about some of the others in a bit… i also plan to talk about what most people care most about when it comes to the Superbowl… the commercials…

Of course, i’d be remiss if i ignored the fact that this is SUPER TUESDAY or, as i’ve heard it called elsewhere SUPER DUPER TUESDAY… i don’t know, that just seems a little much… if it’s not SUPA DUPA FLY, it’s just excess… so, i’ll continue my political talk as well… as well as continuing with the Book and the other book and drudging up some peeps for theTRu…

and now, in between darts and rounds of Zuma, let’s dig in…

SUPER BOWL XLII (THAT’S 42)…

What a great game… a truly GREAT game… i watched some of the pregame stuff while i was doing a little bit of work and the littles were doing a little bit of resting… we then headed over to our home fellowship group party at about 4, settled in, ate wings and played some Wii before the kickoff… this was my first time playing Wii and i managed to win once at baseball, and go 1-1 on bowling… pretty fun, but i don’t see myself clamoring all over people trying to track down my own Wii anytime soon… i’m just not that kind of guy…

Then the players tromped out onto the field and Jordin Sparks, with whom i was largely unimpressed with in the past, belted out an absolutely beautiful version of the National Anthem… a version that may have been up for sale on iTunes before the game actually… (it was featured on the front page DURING the game)… and the kickoff ensued…

The Giants opened up with a spectacular TEN MINUTE DRIVE that only put three points on the board, but totally set the tone for the game… The Pats drive back calmly as the teams feel each other out and, with the help of a pass interference call in the end zone, the Pats open the 2nd quarter with a touchdown… 7-3 and it stays that way for a while as both teams zero down on their opponent…

Spectacular defense marks the bulk of the remaining minutes capped at the end of the half with a sack, fumble and turnover from Brady… 12 men on the field, a crucial decision to go for it on 4th and 13 instead of attempting a field goal and defense remains the big story through the third quarter… why did they go for it on 4th and 13? well, they have a huge ego and because three plays before that, facing 3rd and 13, they got 14 on a pretty simple little screen play… also, the field goal would’ve been about 49 yards, matching the longest that their kicker had made all year…

And then there was the FOURTH… amazing quarter that generated three touchdowns and all the nail-biting drama of an epic gridiron chessmatch.. all the way down to the wire and, in the end, we learned again that it is defense that wins championships, a fact that should be no surprise to the Patriots, who in 2002, marched into the Superdome with the task of shutting down “The Greatest Show on Turf”…

AND NOW A WORD FROM SOME SUPER SPONSORS

Lots of commercials from the game and many of them were quite forgettable… some of them, we all wish that we could forget, but here’s my short list of favorites…

CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE

okay, i’m going to have to come back to ranking the games another time… i’m running out of time and space… and i want to touch on Super Tuesday… first, i want to roll back the clocks and take a look at what i posted in the old blog back on November 13th, 2006…

05. Change
Change seems to be the vehicle that all the democrats campaigned on… that and some very bitter acts of name calling and mud slinging… and this approach to campaigning clearly worked as the government has changed hands… but here’s the thing about change… it’s great in theory and it’s a perfect platform on which to run… hey, no one is really content in life today, so why not promise change? . . .
[however] the “change” that was promise is unlikely to flesh out into anything substantial… “

And what do we hear touted left and right in the campaigns and debates so far? Change!

MORE CHANGE?… when the 110th Congress took office, it was the first time in 12 years that the Democrats (a.k.a. the Change touters) controlled both branches… at that time, a poll showed that 68% of Americans were optimistic about the changes and about 50% were confident that Congress would accomplish a lot of those changes… right now, well, at the time of last week’s State of the Union Address, the approval rating for the 110th Congress was 18%… that’s almost half of the President’s 32% rating… how’s that change working out for you? i’d guess not so well…

VOTE VOTE VOTE…

21 states are up for grabs today and that’s enough to make or break a campaign… i’m kind of sitting on the sidelines right now waiting and hoping that Huckabee is still on the ballot and in good shape come next week when i get to vote… but this morning, as i was praying, i had impressed upon my heart the reminder that no kings or authority is given except that which is within God’s will… and part of His plan… UPDATE: Mike Huckabee has won West Virginia, Romney cries foul play (of course)…

WORD OF THE DAY

Joshua 6: 1-2

Fear, Trembling and a Reminder…

Jericho was so terrified of the Israelites that they sealed themselves off from the world altogether… verse one says that no one was allowed to come in or go out… that’s pretty extreme… and apparently not the best defense mechanism… i don’t want to stray too far from the main point, but this strategy seems to be the on adopted by many Christians… many of us seem so terrified of the world around us that we try our darndest to shut everything else out… but we’re not given a spirit of fear…

Anyway, then God points to the status of Jericho as a reminder of His promise to deliver Jericho to Joshua… but how?…

IN OTHER WORDS

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg…

Chapter 5: Untie Your Ropes (continued)…

The rest of the chapter talks about some of the things that some of our Bible Heroes had to untie and let go of in order to fulfill their calling… Moses had to shed his need for security, David had to overcome the nay-sayers (including his own brothers)… Ortberg also talks about the concept of detachment, which simply means living like there is nothing more important than our relationship with God and shedding all encumbrances that would hinder the development of that relationship and he reminds us that sometimes we have to untie these “ropes” every day…

AND WITH THAT, YOU GET EGGROLL?

here’s a few new things from theTRu… An interview with Foolish Things and a new Left to Write… plenty more coming…

peace… love… bdg…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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