A series of semi-connected Stories and Pictures
Jen and I are flying out to Denver today. We’ll be there for two weeks before we fly back to Europe for a few more weeks. While we’re in Denver we’ll get to meet with some CAI folks and spend some more time with Jen’s family. For the record…I feel weird for writing some pretty mundane details on my blog…who does that? This is a lame post. (ok Justin, keep it together…come up with something clever…it’s too early and not enough coffee…)
That’s all I got.
I was hoping for a bit higher, but 69% isn’t too shabby. I think that only having 2 ipods really hurt me…and not upgrading software, but buying my mac before the ads and the hype helped out! Somebody show me what’s up…
If you click on this website you’ll find a 20 minute video that should change the way that you think about your life and the way that you live it. It did for Jen and I. I couldn’t help but feel that this video was a truth that we Christ followers should be (and should have been) preaching and thinking about.
If you watch it and think, “Tree Huggers…” or “It isn’t so bad…” or “the world is going to end and Jesus is going to come back before it gets too bad”… please watch it again (and look at our call in Gen 2 to be stewards of the earth*) and try to focus on the effect that this has on people…God’s people. God’s children. If you knew that one of your kids was getting rich by forcing one of your other ones into prostitution, you’d probably be pretty upset. Sorry God…forgive us and give us wisdom and discipline to change our ways.
*And then think of how Jesus taught about how important it is to be found doing what we’re supposed to be doing when He does come back. Or think about how in your gut this just doesn’t feel (or look) like it’s how God intended it to be, and then think about how we as followers of Jesus are left here on earth to actually be God’s ambassadors…as if God himself was making his plea (making His case that His way is better than ours) through us. If the best we can come up with is gross mis-stewardship, undisciplined and careless living, abusing strangers, and not living out God’s mandate for creation, but we get to escape all the consequences (there is a huge element to this obviously found in grace and the Gospel) it just doesn’t feel right to me. And I don’t think that this way of thinking is congruent with a biblical world view. But we’ll see one day…
Thanks to Dan for putting this on his blog…and Rogier…some Americans are speaking up. (Don’t know if he will even see this, but after a recent post of his, this stuff should be good news.
Here is a quick list of albums that I’m really enjoying these days.
Radiohead - In Rainbows
I am playing this right now and looked over at Maisie and she was dancing to the crazy beat on 15 Step.
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Love the tracks Is There a Ghost (always stuck in my head) and Detlef Schrempf…here the refrain of this song I love…“My eyes can’t look at you any other way.” I have no idea how this relates to Detlef, but I love the way it makes me think about the love I have for wife. (And I love crazy reverb they put on his voice)
The National - Boxer
I’m just in the beginings of discovering this album but I am already in love with the recording and the percussion…and the use of multiple instruments. Paste Magazine gave this the best album of 2007, so c’mon. Get it.
Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Ok, Ok…Daft Punk, but (1) I do love techno and I’m not afraid to admit it. (2) These guys put together some amazing beats and this live recording is proof that techno can have a soul. (3) They are from Paris and I never knew it…and this album was recorded at the show in Paris. I think my friend Taro was there. I was ignorant at the time and didn’t go. (4) They always, and I mean always, wear amazing robot costumes in public. Check this out if you want to learn more about the genius that is Daft Punk.
Tegan and Sara - The Con
I’ve been into girl vocalists lately. Good stuff and some really catchy melodies…that’s all I feel like writing about them right now…good sell huh?
There’s more, but I have to get in the shower…in case you wanted to know.
The other day Jen and I got to meet with a few of my favorite leaders of all time…Christian Associates’ very own Linus and Sharon Morris. Needless to say, we left challenged, loved, heard, and inspired. So I went to Powell’s Books on Burnside in Portland to pick up a couple of books I’ve been wanting to read on…dun, dun, dun…leadership.
The truth is I really want to understand how leadership fits into my life…or should I say influence? (wink wink to Dr. Maxwell..I was paying attention even to the 203rd law of leadership). The idea of leadership has been tainted so much with misuse of power and selfishness (by me) that it seems a bit scary. With all the talk of organic church and simple church I’ve wondered how leadership as we’ve known it will morph…hopefully evolve…into something less. There was the CEO type of leader. Then the servant-leadership craze. The team leadership. And thanks to the Starfish and the Spider, there is power in ‘leaderlessness’ (secret, so whisper: that was only a hook to get you to buy the book…they never say that there are no leaders, they just hide and give away what they can). But I really don’t think that leaders or leadership (have you ever noticed how the word ’ship’ is tucked into the word leadership?) will ever disappear.
But anyway…I can admit that I want to be a good leader. I want to be a positive influence for others as so many have been for me. I hope that after all the screw ups I’ve made that I’m at least learning something. I don’t have a weird and self-focused idea of the concept (anymore). I just hope that if leadership ever lands on me again that I can do my best to be a good steward of it. So…I read books to prepare for when people may be fooled again…I mean…ask me to lead in some group in some way. Here are the titles of the two books that I’ve picked up:
The Making of a Leader by Dr. J. Robert Clinton (Linus recommended this to me a while ago and I’m finally going to read it)
Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, & Chaos by Tim Keel (This book just sounded good and mentioned chaos in the subtitle…that is a theme that I resonate with)
And of course you could check out my bookstore above to go see these on Amazon!
PS…I write on here too late at night.
Back in the day…before the days of iPod touch, the iPhone, 1 billion gig iPods, Video iPods, Nanos, Photo iPods, even before the click wheel gosh darn it…there was the third generation iPod. This is when my wife gifted me into the world of portable mP3 players. And what a gift.
20 gigs
Four buttons
A high-contrast screen…no color.
A big scroll wheel…no buttons.
The size of a brick…a small brick that could fit into my pocket though…I mean, it is an Apple still.
About a year ago I was out on a jog (that may have been the last time I was out on a jog) and my beloved 3rd Gen iPod froze up. None of the four precious buttons were working and the ‘lock’ was stuck on. So I did what any intelligent man/beast would do; I hit it. Hard. Lots of times. So many times in fact that shattered the two-tone LCD screen. Jen was not pleased. Neither was I.
The good news? It still worked as an external hard drive…20 gigs of external hard drive might I add. It was renamed ‘The Transporter’ because my little white, four buttoned friend was only good for carrying around my digital data.
A few weeks ago I was hanging out with my friend Jeremy, somebody had told me that he used to fix old iPods so I asked him about it. He said it was easy and that if you were patient then you could maybe fix it…I was surprised that he didn’t say that if you hit it real hard, over and over, it might work.
I went on a sight called eBay…you may have heard about it. The last time I bought something on eBay was 1999 or 2000…Dave Matthews Storytellers full recording, it was such an old school recording that it sounded like there was a bunch of robots shouting at the dog track in the background…I digress.
Anyway, I found a new LCD screen on eBay and bought it. Well, I won it…16 dollars including shipping. I watched a video tutorial on the internet (thank ifixipodsfast.com guy) and took ‘The Transporter’ apart. I love this stuff…I love technology…even old school technology. That’s how much I love it. I put in the new screen. Popped some logic boards and batteries back into place (well one of each) and put the cover back on. I have to admit…the iPod wasn’t the only thing turned on when the Apple logo appeared and the hard disk fired up…joking…partly. I was giddy.
I then proceeded to do the ‘guess who fixed their iPod dance’. Maisie watched in wonder as I danced with my little white brick of music in hand. Jen was annoyed…but then excited that I wouldn’t be bugging her about buying a new iPod.
I gave ‘The Transporter’ a new name…’RePod’…to celebrate the life, the second coming, of my iPod. Join with me in celebrating. RePod is full of music and podcasts…ready to go out on another sweaty, overweight, out of shape, stumble-of-a-jog.
I remember a while ago when I wrote about how Maisie was learning to crawl on parquet floor. How she would sometimes slip up and bang her head or sit back too fast and roll over. You can read the post here if you want to…
But now our little Maiser’s has learned how to walk. It happened in an instant. She had taken her first steps a month or so ago, but had no interest in going vertical. All of the sudden she started walking around…But she still hasn’t quite gotten it down yet.
If you’ve not seen or held Maisie lately (which probably makes up most of you since I like to keep her locked up… where she’ll remain until she’s 30), what you are missing is the fact that she is skiiiiny. She is a tall little thing, but she don’t got much fat on dem bones. Height + no meat on bones + still falling to the ground on her rear = hurting. I’m no doctor, but from where this dad sits, this looks painful after a while. I feel so bad for her when the only thing catching her little spills is a puffy layers of Pampers.
But it has to happen.
Walking is one those things that nobody can learn for you. You learn by experiencing it and taking the bumps and bruises along the way.
I think that following Jesus, must be like this. So often, many of us would prefer (and attempt) to let others walk with Jesus for us. We allow ourselves to believe that if we know about the journey then we are on the journey. Nuh uh…That ain’t happening.
Thinking about this is making me thankful for the sores that following Christ has left…The ones that He is helping me heal from, and helping me learn from. Sometimes I’m ticked off at Jesus that he lets me fall…or fall again the same way that I thought that I had learned to avoid. But…I don’t think that babies have an acute sense of their babiness…like we disciples don’t have a clear picture as to how undiscilply we live sometimes…maybe the word is undisciplined…I don’t know.
It will be interesting to see how this stream of thought may take on new shapes as Maisie learns to run, jump, and climb…Well she has climbed onto the couch a few times…those long legs are good for something at her age!
doing some changes to the blog…trying to further simplify, but will probably complicate.
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