new

i recently bought some new towels. i love them.
yesterday i bought a new toothbrush. i love it.
this morning my motivation for getting up was the thought of my new bath towels and my new toothbrush. i love the feeling of new. but i have to say that as i was getting ready for work and realized that my reason for getting up was a towel and a toothbrush...
i started to get a little depressed.

but new is good... right? i should be excited about my day regardless of whether any new towels or new toothbrushes are involved... right?
speaking of new, i got a new job... well, same place... just a different job... and yeah, it's a good thing... it's a happy thing.
so now i've got my new job to get me up in the morning... my new bath towels... and of course, don't forget the new toothbrush. but something tells me i'm out of focus... cause as cool as all this new stuff is and as grateful as i am... none of it really matters in the long run. there should be something else getting us up outta bed... i'll stop here before i get too serious & philosophical... i think you all know where i'm going and what i mean. refocusing... i need to do more of it... daily.

back to the toothbrush... seriously... don't you just LOVE the feeling of a new toothbrush or is that just me?

last week Rebecca introduced me to Sudoku.
i've played 5 games so far. i don't remember how long my 1st game took... my 2nd game took 15 minutes... i gave up on my 3rd game... my 4th game took 20 minutes... and gave up again on my 5th. they say the average is 6 minutes. what? average for who? who are they talking about?
you know what? i'd like to see Raymond go after a sudoku puzzle. i'm thinking he'd have it solved in a minute or less... he'd blow the record.

drip... drip... drip...

i recently added the following two quotes to my little quote book… and thought that they were both worth sharing:

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
-Henry David Thoreau

Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
-Helen Keller


could it be that most go to the grave with the song still in them because they’re too busy trying to attain self-gratification? no, I’m not preaching at anyone… well, maybe a little to myself...
geez… apparently I’m a fan of both Thoreau & Keller… a lot of their quotes have really struck a chord in me.

it’s not a matter of whether or not there’s a song there… it’s a matter of bringing it out… bringing it to the surface... finding your music, your instrument, your rhythm, your voice, your style.
what’s my unique contribution? what’s yours? when do you notice your song playing?
what is it that makes music leak out of your soul?

I can’t believe it’s the end of July already! what?! speaking of which, it's freakin' hot!

p.s. STEPH & MATT are coming for a visit soon! yeah for visits from friends!

burritos, clocks, and billy joel

it's almost been a month since i've thrown a line or two up on here... so i thought i'd go ahead with an update. my gosh! how time freakin' flies! anyway, i'll keep this short and sweet.
woke up this morning and decided to sleep in a few extra minutes... it turned into about 20 minutes. ended up being only a couple minutes late to work. :)
an old friend stopped by to say hello...
had lunch with some coworkers... discovered that Emily eats burritos starting in the middle. she always starts eating them from the middle. hmm.
discovered that another one of my coworkers sets every single one of her clocks exactly 25 minutes fast. another hmm.
had a weird afternoon... but made it to 5pm.
had dinner with my parents.
listened to "easy listening" on the way home tonight... and actually enjoyed a tune from Billy Joel of all people!? what?
decided to jump online and shop for a new phone... still can't find a phone that i wanna buy... but in the meantime i made another impulse buy & bought another ring tone. geez! they get me everytime! (and no, it wasn't Billy Joel!) peace out.

today's Monday Morning Memo

Thought I'd throw in an inspiring excerpt from today's Monday Morning Memo... it's definitely worth sharing... and worth reading a couple times.

While speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris, April 23, 1910, audacious Teddy Roosevelt looked the French coldly in the eyes and delivered his famous admonition, "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

And you wondered why the French tend not to like Americans.

now, is that good stuff or what?

Old Glory Day

Happy Flag Day everyone!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_in_the_United_States

another fog blog

I was driving to work through some fog one day last week. I love driving through fog. it seems like I always have some sort of spiritual breakthrough every time I drive through it.
here’s how it went: I was driving and thinking: dang, I can’t see very far past the fog… can’t see where the road leads… I see several feet ahead… enough to feel safe going ahead… but can’t see the entire road and/or landscape. and then I started thinking… that’s how I feel about life right about now. I can only see so far… can’t see past the fog… I don’t know what’s ahead but I can see enough to feel safe moving forward. this sucks… but it’s kinda cool in a way…
moving into the unknown requires trust & faith that there’s actually something or some road in front of you to go to. as I was thinking about this… I was thinking about how I knew where it was I wanted to go(I knew the location of my destination) but could only see a little bit in front of me at the time. and then all at once it seemed that God was trying to tell me something & a light went on. I know your destination- I know the road in front of you. I know how you’ll get there. You just focus on what’s in front of you right now and I’ll lead you down the road you need to go. You know where you want to go and I know how to get you there. Trust Me.
sounds easier than it is though... it requires a daily decision to trust Him... a daily decision to believe that God knows what He's doing no matter what it feels like & He is strong enough & big enough for anything that might come my way. But like He reminds me, I just need to focus on Him- right now- and let Him take care of the future.
so there you go everybody. :)

I just received some sad news.

Russ Tatro, a great man of God, passed away this afternoon. Russ served through foreign missions since 1985. He and his wife, Wendy, served as missionaries in the nations of Guatemala, Liberia and Sierra Leone pioneering Bible training centers during their years in West Africa. Well over 100,000 students have graduated from LWM-affiliated Bible training centers and many of these graduates now serve as missionaries leading ministries throughout Africa and other parts of the world. They established Living Word Missions in 1993.He is survived by his wife and their two daughters. Pray for Wendy & the family that God will give them strength & comfort to continue the missions work that she & Russ started so many years ago.

http://www.livingwordmissions.org/

rain

i'm at the coffee shop across the street utilizing their wifi.

it's raining outside... it's been raining a lot lately.

several weeks ago one of my friends was talking about kids and discipline. anyway, she said something about finding out what the child's "currency" is so that you could discipline them in the most effective way. each person has a different "currency". each person is different. somethings are more important or less important to others.
the day after we had that conversation, i asked my wise friend what she thought my currency might be... and i've continued to think about it off and on. what is your currency? what do you live by? mine is friendship.

Rebecca mentioned about a week ago that she thought people were trying to live their lives like Laguna Beach. what a good observation... i hadn't thought of it until she brought it up... and it's sad but true. so many people are trying to play the part... have perfect lives... have the look... have the image that everything is in control and everything is perfect. guess what? it's not. you're not on tv and people don't hear a theme song when they see you walking down the street. but i have to say that i do think that it's okay to have your own internal theme song playing in your own heart, soul & mind. pick a good one. pick one that helps and doesn't hurt. ultimately the only thing that can make you happy is a real relationship with God. when you can accept His love for you... things will be a lot easier...

thought i'd point you in the direction of one of my favorite blog reads.
http://www.xanga.com/mochaspree/486722050/loathing.html

fun times

Cyndi has been after me for weeks to update the picture on the blog... since it's a couple years old...
so here's a new pic that she took yesterday. :)

Grambling

i saw an amazing thing on Saturday night... the Grambling State University Marching Band. they performed at the arena football game that i went to. yeah, i said arena football... it was actually fun to watch... believe it or not. http://www.gram.edu/band/default.asp
This is the same band that has performed for Presidents and First Ladies, Kings and Queens from the USA to Zimbabwe... they've been seen at numerous Super Bowls and Presidential inaugurations. I guess the GSU band has even starred in their own Coca-Cola commercial. Who knew that a marching band could be so cool?
yup, the band WAS cool but this is somewhat of a cop-out entry because i've got nothing but seriousness floating around in this head... for about 2 weeks now... not exactly blog-friendly thinking... it wouldn't be blog-friendly writing.
but yeah... very cool & impressive marching band. the had the coolest guy leading it... not sure what his official title is but he was COOL. guess i should go rent Drumline... haven't seen it yet.
maybe i'll write a more substantial entry soon... i hope... :)

the sound of music

on my way to work this morning, i saw a woman in her SUV head-banging and singing along to the music. it was awesome. made me crack up laughing... made me happy to see that i'm not the only one who gets carried away. but i like to include the airdrums too...

speaking of music, i hope everyone knows about http://www.pandora.com ! If you don't, allow me to introduce you... it's awesome and it's free. You type in the type of music you like- maybe a song or an artist- and Pandora will take what you enter in and play other songs/artists in the same genre of music... it's pretty cool. i'm listening to music via Pandora right now. i've been introduced to a lot of great new music. love it. Thanks Roy.

whoo-hoo for wireless!

we finally got the wireless network up and running this weekend... so what am i doing? watching Miami Ink and using the new laptop at the same time... whoo-hoo!
i love Miami Ink.

risky business

i’ve had this great little black leather journal for a long time… but until just recently I’d never written anything in it. you know, it was just one of those things where I wasn’t quite sure that I wanted to fill yet another journal with MY ramblings or whatever… but a couple of weeks ago I finally decided that the journal couldn’t live without words any longer and came up with the perfect use for it. I decided that I’d start writing little quotes in it that I’ve been collecting for several months.
so now I’m filling it with quotes like this one from Helen Keller: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
this has become a pretty inspiring project for me… maybe because I’ve chosen a lot of quotes from people who have defied odds, overcome obstacles… like Helen Keller. she was one amazing person.
someone else who defied odds? Walt Disney. Did you know that he was once fired from an ad agency because he was told that he “lacked ideas” and couldn’t draw? um, yeah, I’m betting that the guy who fired him ended up feeling like a huge idiot later... and rightly so. Disney once said this: “It’s kinda fun to do the impossible.”
I love that.

speaking of great quotes, I read a motivating article yesterday. If you’re interested, it’s a great read. It’s written by Margaret Feinberg and there’s a diamond analogy that she includes in this article that really made the light go on in my head… or in my spirit… whatever.
http://www.injoy.com/Newsletters/catalyst/Full/default.aspx?article_id=34

The things that stuck out to me in this article:
“Courage requires the belief that something greater than yourself is at stake. It also asks you to trust that Someone greater is at work. “
“Learning to fly is risky business. Crash landings usually hurt, and it's hard to get up, brush yourself off, and try again. Stepping out and doing what you were created to do rather than what is expected of you is hard. Even faith is a risk, so living a life of following Jesus is littered with risk.”

Does that speak to anyone besides me? are you willing to step out and do what you were created to do rather than what is expected of you? RISKY BUSINESS!
oh well, like Helen said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

Bublé in concert

Michael Bublé performed in T-town last night… and I went.
oh my… it was something else. at first I felt like I was at an Elvis concert the way the old ladies seated in front of us were carrying on… they kept hollering and dancing & swaying to the music. it was pretty funny. obviously there were women of all ages there screaming & going crazy but it was the 2 old ladies in front of us that I thought funny… did they think he was Tony Bennett?
anyway, he put on a great show but I gotta say that I could’ve done without so much cursing… but oh well… you can’t have it all. I hope Bublé eventually realizes that it doesn’t help him in the “being classy” department to have such a mouth. when it comes to the singing though… obviously he was great. sings as great in-person as he does on his recorded albums. he forgot or messed up on his words a couple times… but it’s easy to look over little mess-ups when his voice is so great.
it was a mix between Elvis, Desi Arnaz, the Rat-Pack… and Johnny Knoxville. He was pretty funny & he did a few impressions of other people like Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, & yes…even Michael Jackson.

it was definitely an entertaining evening.

have you watched Cash's video yet?

Your Career Type: Social

You are helpful, friendly, and trustworthy.Your talents lie in teaching, nursing, giving information, and solving social problems. You would make an excellent: Counselor - Dental Hygienist - LibrarianNurse - Parole Officer - Personal TrainerPhysical Therapist - Social Worker - Teacher The worst career options for your are realistic careers, like truck driver or farmer.

What's" Your Ideal Career?

boy, good thing i gave up truck driving.

in other news, look at what I came upon:

http://mchammer.blogspot.com/

cool.

Johnny Cash's "Hurt"

i love music videos. LOVE.
here's one of my new favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

been there- done that- bought the t-shirt.

well, haven’t exactly been “there” yet or done “that” quite yet… but I have bought the t-shirt. What am I talking about? I’m talking about that dream inside every person’s heart… the one that calls out to you & wakes you up in the middle of the night. That thing you would finally do if you had all the money in the world… if there were no boundaries, no walls, no bars… the thing you would do if there was nothing holding you back. What is it that you dream & daydream about? What have you always imagined doing with your life that you haven’t quite done yet?
As for my dream- well, no, I’m not “there” yet- haven’t done it yet- but at least I’ve bought the t-shirt. I’ve bought into my dream… at least I can say that- can you? If you can say “yes” then that’s great, it takes something to own your dream. way to go- you’re on the way to making it a reality. you believe in yourself or God (or both) enough to know that you’re taking the first steps.
For those who haven’t quite owned up to the fact that your life is for a reason bigger than yourself- if you can’t own up to the dream that’s in your heart- or if you lost sight of it 15 years ago- it only takes one decision to turn that around. you CAN own your dreams. I have a feeling that after you decide to buy into what your heart says- after you own your dream- it’ll only be a matter of time before you own your life & are living it… or should I say giving it…?
so, c’mon, whatcha waiting for? as cheesy as it may sound- buy that t-shirt.

never too late

a co-worker sent this link around today- you need to check it out.
don't know how long this link will be active but it's a cool story.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UBYPaNc57Ik&search=autism%20basketball

"It is never too late to be what you might have been. " -George Eliot

myspace vs. my acumen

so i’m contemplating the whole myspace.com thing… should i do it? should i take the plunge & give into peer pressure?
oh, btw, hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day!

most of the time, they don't talk at all, because they walking.

I watched Hustle & Flow last night. If you can’t handle rated R movies w/the f-bomb and other R rated activities, then it’s not for you.

So, what’s it about? Here’s the plot in a nutshell: DJay is a pimp suffering a midlife crisis, yearning to be a rap star, and after being galvanized by a gospel song, he gets to work, finding it a very hard road to fame and respect.

In one of my favorite parts of the movie, the character Key(played by Anthony Anderson) gives a lecture to DJay(played by Terrence Howard) about not just talking but about walking.
KEY:There are two types of people:
Those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk.
People who walk the walk, they sometimes talk the talk.
But most of the time, they don't talk at all, because they walking.
Now, people who talk the talk, when it comes time for them to walk,
- you wanna know what they do?
DJAY: What is that?
KEY: They talk people like me into walking for them.

My other favorite part is when Shug(played by Taraji P. Henson) hears herself singing- hears her own voice on a track for the 1st time. It’s like she realizes for the 1st time in her life that she’s somebody.
She sings “It’s hard out here for a pimp…”

Not the best movie ever but it’s true what they say:
“Everybody gotta have a dream.”
http://www.hustleandflow.com/