Here and Now

I was wandering in a discount CD/DVD store last week and I picked up a couple of things - Everlife for Rachel (though I kind of like it, and they do cover "What I Like About You" which I always think is a Kinks song, but it's the Romantics...) and I got the first Galactic Cowboys CD (self-titled, though it's a reissue). And I picked up this: Now, I like Switchfoot. So I saw this CD by Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot, on the rack and I thought I'd give it a try. Foreman is clearly trying new things. I didn't really expect it to be Switchfoot-esque or anything, but this is waaaaaaay on the other end of the spectrum. Each CD has 6 songs - they're very intimate and quiet songs. Foreman is more introspective on these CDs than on anything with the band. The weakness of the songs, for me, is that they all kind of sound alike - like a guy sitting in his bedroom late at night fooling around with looping his guitar and some quiet percussion and meandering som...

I know that when spring comes our minds all turn to the things that are going on around us - robins singing, flowers blooming - if you're a United Methodist, then you start thinking about pastors moving. So...I can officially announce (well, I HAVE officially announced - but this is for all of you far away) On July 1, 2008 I will be one of the Associate Pastors at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, PA. www.christumc.net I will be leading the 11:01 and the 6:00 contemporary/modern/non-traditional/emergent... well, whatever adjective we use... worship services. It is difficult to leave Warren. This has been home for 6 years. Elie was born here. Rachel went to kindergarten and first grade here. This church has been an amazing blessing to us and we are so loved. We are stepping into...well, we don't know what. So stay tuned. I know one thing for certain: God is leading us to Bethel Park so I know that God has amazing things in store for us, for Christ UMC and fo...

Lori and I were somewhere the other day and she saw a billboard just like this one: And she said to me, "Do they have ANY idea what that means? Really, who wants the red shirt treatment?" Now, Lori's not a trekkie, but she's been around me enough to know what a redshirt is. Here's a video that pretty much sums it up: So, I was thinking. Do they REALLY have any idea what they were saying? Redshirt isn't just a Star Trek thing, either: Here's a listing from wikipedia (okay, not exactly a high credibility source, but you're reading a blog after all...) Redshirt or Red Shirt may refer to : Redshirt (college sports) , a term referring to delaying a college athlete's participation in order to lengthen eligibility Redshirt (character) , a stock "cannon fodder" character in fiction, particularly in Star Trek: The Original Series Red Shirt, South Dakota , a small Lakota village in South Dakota, United States Red Shirt School of Photography , a tr...

Okay, you have to take this awareness test, it's only a minute of your life you won't get back... Okay - how'd you do? Pretty cool, huh? You got 13, right? Did you see it? Yeah, me neither. Today I was driving down Conewango Avenue and I was thinking about...well, you know...stuff. Nothing important, but I was on autopilot. The thing is, in the other lane was a school bus with the red lights flashing - and I was completely oblivious to it. I jammed on the brakes in time to stop (without squealing, thank you very much...) but only JUST in time to stop. Awareness... I can go through a whole day in a kind of a self-absorbed fog - missing so much that happens around me - at work, in town, with the kids. I can miss really important things, too - 'cause I'm just too much in a "me" moment. I'm looking down too much lately. I used to walk looking at the sky - seeing the clouds, the tops of buildings, birds, planes. I'd stop for a rainbow, a helicopter - he...

So I was over on one of my favorite sites ( Church Marketing Sucks ) looking at stuff I missed somehow (what I'm about to talk about was posted there last November!?) - I came across this: Lessons In Not Sucking: 9 Must-Read Books (Filed under: Reviews) This is part nine in a series on Lessons In Not Sucking. Today I give you nine books that are must-read when it comes to not sucking. I admit, it is not a definitive guide, but you try narrowing down a list of nine. If you have your favorites--or if you disagree with mine--feel free to tell us in the comments. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Church Marketing 101 by Richard Reising Purple Cow by Seth Godin Mind Your X's and Y's by Lisa Johnson A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink Getting Real by 37signals The Long Tail by Chris Anderson Good To Great by Jim Collins Thinking for a Living by Joey Reiman So - I'm thinking - I haven't read ANY of those books (though Tipping Point has been "on the corner of my desk...

Check out yesterday's Baby Blues. As Bill Cosby once said, "Those of you with or without children, you'll understand." http://www.arcamax.com/babyblues/s-326436-924201 We went out to dinner last night after church with the girls and with Heidi and Hannah from church. We went to Pizza Hut, which means it was already a mess waiting to happen (I mean, my kids and pizza sauce...) Both girls were really well behaved, but we needed the extra round of napkins, that's for sure. Happens every time. There's something about being a kid that is just plain messy. I don't know if it's a lack of coordination that gets the pizza sauce not only all over the face, but the clothes, the table, the floor, or if it's just that they haven't learned to be self conscious about wearing the food they've obviously enjoyed. Even at seven, Rachel still ends up wearing her dinner. And, really, give Elie some chocolate pudding some time...it's a sight to behold. Dinne...

I love to read. Specifically, for fiction, I love to read epic fantasy. You know, dress up the Lord of the Rings in some other clothes, change the ring with, say "the Sword of Truth" or Frodo with the "Dragon Reborn" and I'm there. I finished the final book in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind a few weeks ago. Not a bad ending, but not great, either. Still, if you can get past the (way too) graphic depictions of torture in a couple books, they're a good read. Around the first of the year I got news that Robert Jordan, author of The Wheel of Time series (of which 11 books of the planned 12 book series had been published) died. One book left. Sigh... Yeah, he knew his time was near. Yeah, he left copious notes and dictated all kinds of stuff to people for the final book before he died... Still, it's gonna take forever. About the same time, I heard that my absolute favorite author of fiction (it's non-epic fantasy - rather, it's satire fan...