Weird Al Strikes Again

6 Years And She Hasn't Killed Me Yet

Ronee and I’s 6th anniversary of being together was yesterday. We were as yet unable to celebrate properly as she had roller derby practice last night. So, I guess tonight’s the night. I can’t believe it’s been 6 years already!

I had a sort of “come to Jesus” moment with myself yesterday. I realize that I too often look at the negative side of what is going on in this world. It’s not hard to do when we are constantly barraged with negativity at every turn. The sky is falling, if you will.

I have the opportunity every day to focus on the good – in myself, in others, in what God is doing in and around us.

I’ve been so blessed in my life, it’s unbelievable. I want to live like it matters. And I want to return to the “glass is half full” idealistic optimism of my youth. I want to love others as Jesus loved me. And let me tell you, it ain’t easy. I can scarcely drive to work without wanting to take somebody’s life. I’m not a very good pacifist. Ha.

I started reading this really convicting book last night. It’s called The Scandal Of The Evangelical Conscience and is by Ron Sider. Ron also wrote a great book called Rich Christians In An Age Of Hunger. The first chapter deals with statistics about Christians in America and it’s pretty alarming. Check it out for yourself.

It sometimes can feel like there is nothing you can do to make a difference. If you live in Nashville – or even if you don’t – I encourage you to check out CoolPeopleCare.org. There are some great ideas on there about how you can do something positive in a short amount of time.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for reading!

While We're On The Subject Of Internet Annoyances…

Recently I have been flooded with a wave of spam. And not just your average spam, either. Not the usual “increase the size of your…” e-mails. I’ve been getting those too. Those and the stock report ones. But I’ve been getting a ton of the criminal spam. You know the ones…

“My name is King Abusade of Suckerstan. I have 5 million duckets in my bank account but need somebody in the U.S.A. to take a deposit for me…” – that sounds fishy. Why are you picking me?

“Hi this is Paypal. We need you to log in to your account and update your information. Please go to http://987.654.321-paypalscam.html” – um, I don’t even have a PayPal account.

“Hi this is Ebay. You have violated terms of your account. To re-instate your account please log in to http://123.456.789-ebayscam.html” – I haven’t used Ebay in like 2 years. Try again.

And on and on they go. Are people really dumb enough that they fall for this crap? I guess they are. Otherwise I wouldn’t be getting 10 or more of these a day.

Well, just in case you’re getting distracted and just flying through your e-mails. BE CAREFUL. Check addresses or URL’s before entering your information. I even got one posing as Bank Of America. There’s a lot of criminals out there fishing for your info. And that’s no fun.

Attention Record Companies, Bands, Web Designers, Bloggers, MySpacers, Etc.

STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC! STOP AUTO-PLAYING VIDEOS AND MUSIC!

We’re all perfectly capable of using our mouse to click a button. We don’t need your help. No, seriously. Stop it. If we want to listen to your music or watch your video – we will. We don’t need everything in the world to be instantaneous.

STOP MAKING OUR EARS BLEED.

Thanks.

Donald Miller

Ronee and I went to Rolling Hills Community in Franklin, TN this past Sunday. I had heard that Blue Like Jazz author Donald Miller was speaking and wanted to check it out. The Church meets in a movie theater. Well, several of them in a multi-plex. We were there at the last minute and ended up in one of the overflow theaters. So we got to hear him speak via the movie screen. A little weird. But I thought he gave a great talk. According to an e-mail I got you should be able to download the audio of it from their website here. Check it out.

I managed to catch most of the new TV show Heroes while I was working out last night. I thought it was pretty cool.

Yep, I’m boring. Have a nice day.

The Edge Beats Up Papparazzi, Not Really

Waiting For The Next End Of The World

I made my first visit (hey, it only took me almost a year!) to Nashville’s only indie record shop, Grimey’s yesterday. I picked up the new CD from Channels “Waiting For The Next End Of The World“. If you don’t know, this is J. Robbins’ (Jawbox, Burning Airlines) new band. Darren Zentek from Kerosene 454 is the drummer. Jay’s wife Janet Morgan plays bass and sings. It’s really nice hearing J’s vocals with female vocals intertwined at times. Very cool. There’s a lot of layers to this CD and it’s growing on me with each repeating listening. Definitely worth picking up and it’s on Dischord, which is a bonus.

I also picked up the new CD by Cursive called “Happy Hollow“. It’s really good. Tim’s voice sounds better than ever and I think this CD has the best production of any one they have produced so far. The guitars are heavy but there are so many other textures with horns, vocals and other instrumentation. It’s a cool concept record about small town U.S.A. and it’s many characters. When I was going through my divorce, I must have listened to the Cursive “Break-Up” concept CD Domestica hundreds of times. I have never been able to catch this band live and I see they are coming to Nashville next month. I better get with it and you should to.

I finally got around to watching the new Robert Baer documentary The Cult Of The Suicide Bomber. It should be required viewing for anybody who wants a deeper understanding of what is going on in the Islamic world. I know everybody is trying to sugar coat it, but for the most part people of this faith believe that killing themselves – and taking as many Christians and Jews with them as possible – is an honor and a blessing. Don’t think that’s the case? Watch this documentary and see if your eyes are not opened to the truth with the very words and actions of these people. I know mine were.

I’ve begun pre-production work on the next two episodes of The Urban Achiever Show. One is going to be called “Thank You For Not Smoking” and the other is the “Bible’s Should Be Free” episode. Should be fun. If you haven’t watched the first episode on Religion & Politics you should and let me know what you think. There’s a link to the show in the right column. It’s downloadable on Google Video and available streaming at YouTube and of course Zambooie.

Looking forward to Ronee coming home on Thursday!