Something near and dear to my heart...

So today I was in desperate need of a good laugh, or at least a chuckle. I often turn to Craigslist to satisfy this craving, and today there were several posts on the "Best Of" that brought a smile to my face. I don't know about you, but I can definitely identify with this guy when he lost control of his inner monologue. I do that all the time. The same way that I sometimes forget that I need to shut my mouth, lest it hang open for a good while.

Word of warning though - careful where you click. Craigslist can be a bit shady in spots. On that note, I heard someone say "sketched out" the other day in normal conversation. This was odd to me, as in, "Boy howdy, I was really sketched out when I read that post on Craigslist." This is strange.

Anyhow, like I said, it made me laugh on a day that might have otherwise been laughless. I hope your day is one of multiple smiles and laughs. English teachers say you need 3 sentences to make a paragraph, so this sentence is my feeble attempt to conform to the rules of our silly language.

I hope this is an encouragement to you:

"You will keep him in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in You."

Isaiah 26:3

Wow, it's early

So I'm sitting at my desk right now. Yep, it's 4:03AM on a Saturday morning. I can think of a few other places I'd rather be right now...but alas, I'm putting in a few hours while things are quiet. I know, you're green with envy.

The other guys that are at the office with me are taking the liberty of teaching me about Ted Nugent. Not one of my personal favorites, but hey, it's early.

No rock climbing yesterday. It's been a long week and I wasn't really feeling up to it. But I did get a long talk in with my parents, which was good. I'm realizing this week that I'm surrounded by wise and loving people, which has been great.

Today should prove to be ok, as have the last several. Actually, the last several have been really difficult, but I'm trying to be optimistic. God is sovereign, and I'm learning to rest in that.

But on a rainy Saturday afternoon, I'm getting together with some girls to watch Pride and Prejudice (all 5 hours of it!). Then later tonight, my church is hosting a "comedy night" with Jeff Allen, for which I will be an usher. It should at least be a good laugh, right?

A dear friend pointed me to Psalm 37 this week. Here is a highlight:

"Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him;"

Psalm 37:3-7a

Wake up call

This morning, as the rain poured down hard on our roof and I laid in my bed, thinking and counting the moments until my alarm went off, I was reminded of a verse that I really heard for the first time my senior year in high school. It's Psalm 5:3, and reflecting on it made me smile today.

"In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests
before you and wait in expectation."

Or as the New American Standard version puts it,

"In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice;
In the morning I will order my prayer
to you and eagerly watch."

Well, I'm eagerly watching, even waiting in expectation, but I'm not sure what I'm really watching or waiting for. I can only trust that I'll know it when I see it.

Adventure sports, anyone?

So I'm going to attempt to go rock climbing with a friend this week. Apparently there's an inside rock gym around these parts, and this friend of mine is all about it. I've been a couple of times, but I really don't do it justice. I basically look pathetic as my under-used muscles strain to get me more than 5 feet off the ground. But hey, my Friday night is open and this seems like something fun and different. Wish me luck.

Speaking of being active, I'm still working on getting a regular gym routine down. Our offices have a gym that is super affordable, and I feel like I could use a little workout here and there. I just read about someone who nicknames her fellow gym-goers to distract her from the actual "work" in her workout. Pretty humorous. I'm already thinking of a few of the regulars that could use a nickname or two. They probably all have one for me already, but I don't think I need to know what it is.

Work has been downright painful recently. This weekend will mark the third in a row that I have to put in some time. No bueno, if you ask me. Possible alternative career ideas include coffee taster, dessert taster, coffee-flavored dessert taster, and dessert-flavored coffee taster. I think I would thrive in any of those avenues. Know of any openings?

Verses for the day:

"For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations." Isaiah 61:11

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." Hebrews 13:8

Nothing creative to title this entry...sad, I know

So I'm sitting outside of one of my favorite local coffee shops today. The weather couldn't possibly be nicer, and I'm not exaggerating. It is glorious. It is majestic. I could go on, but I won't. Suffice it to say, today is great.

Almost.

Apparently I'm a bit late in being hit by the typical senior year in college "what am I going to do with my life" question. And it finally hit me big time today. What if I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing? To be honest, odds are that I most surely have no clue what I'm doing. At least, all evidence points to that conclusion.

Ironically, we studied Matthew 6 yesterday in church. You know the one about not worrying about temporal, physical things like clothes and food. Yeah, that one. The one I apparently learned nothing from.

It's days like this that make you more conscious of all of those small, secret, quiet plans that you have been making since you were little. (I just deleted a mini-story about a kid wanting to be a fireman, but it wasn't working....so it's gone now. You're welcome). But seriously folks, it seems like one of two things happens a lot. You either dream, and are then crushed when you dream doesn't come true. Or you dream, and you're scared out of your mind when you realize that it actually could happen - and then you don't know what to do with yourself. What more is there to dream of? What if what you once dreamed of is now something you have no desire for? You just didn't realize that until it started happening.

I guess I really have no idea what I'm saying, but I do know that I have a knot in my stomach on what would be an otherwise stupendous afternoon. So I'm going to get a cup of coffee, add some Splenda, and keep on trucking.

The New Rubik's Cube

Some of the readers of this here site apparently stayed up quite late last night playing with Bubba Blox. These are smart folks, no doubt, but seriously guys, go to sleep. If you go to their site, they have a few helpful hints for you. You're welcome.

In other news, some friends of mine are going camping this weekend. I'm hoping to go. I've actually been a proud tent-owner since the early 90's, but have only used it once. The weekend forecast looks a little dreary, but I'm sure we'll have a good time anyways. Any camping words of wisdom?

They needed research to prove this?

I found this article quite interesting, and slightly humorous. It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which scientific research will go to prove things that we're all pretty sure of already. Like the idea that men and women think differently. Who would have guessed?!?!

Anyhow, all is well. If anyone isn't doing anything the day before Easter, I've heard rumors of a pet parade down South Congress! Anyone up for it?

Electronics Update

I noticed that some of you (you know who you are) had asked about my recent mention of a camera purchase. Thanks for holding me accountable, but alas, I have not yet "taken the plunge."

I did check some additional reviews this morning and found this article, which kind of made me smile. CNET offers a "Don't Buy That Camera" guide. Fun stuff.

Happy Singles Awareness Day

Hi there, and Happy Valentine's Day to you. Why I capitalized "Happy" I have no idea. Anyhow, I hope this February 14th finds you doing well and downing large amounts of heart-shaped goodies. Personally, I'm snacking on some small heart-shaped Dove chocolates. Mmmm, good. I thoroughly enjoy holidays that have some built-in candy affiliation.

This weekend was absolutely crazy. Friday, a bunch of us celebrated a friend's birthday with dinner and dancing. Yes, that sounds nice and upscale, but think again. Dinner was fun, dancing was a bit of an adventure. Made me feel like I was back in college again. And there was this one really creepy guy that the boys had to fend off. But what's a Friday night without a creepy, inebriated stranger approaching you in a dimly-lit room?

Saturday started off with a bang - or a breakfast taco. I can't remember. All I know is that I had a church meeting at 7:30 in the AM, and I barely made it in time, even though the meeting venue was literally less than 1 mile from my house.

I had to work all night Saturday, and didn't wind up getting home until around 4:30AM on Sunday. Smooth. 3 hours later I was back at it, heading downtown to watch some friends run an insanely long race. They did great, and we were all outside for about 8 hours. For some reason, since we haven't seen the sun around here in 2 weeks, I forgot that I burn quicker than you can say "sunscreen!" So random parts of my arms and neck are a festive Valentine's Day pink.

Anyways, all that said, I hope you had a good weekend as well. Have fun celebrating (or protesting) today's holiday. Too bad we don't get off work....

New Wheels

So, I'm investing (again) in my car. I figure that it's worth it. I really want to drive it into the ground, and right now, it's virtually free (less any required maintenance). So a few weeks back I got a flat tire. The folks at the tire place couldn't fix it, and said that I actually needed all new tires. Yowzer!

So I bit the bullet today and went for it. It's not my favorite thing in the world - spending lots of money in a car place. I'm unfamiliar in this "car world" and have no idea if they're being honest or taking my money from right under my nose. I decided to be trusting today and just willingly handed over the credit card. Wish me luck....I'm on my way to pick it up.

On a different note, I may go try to see Hotel Rwanda tonight with some friends. I've heard some excellent reviews, and am interested to see if it's really the movie it's hyped up to be. I'll post a review later on...

Shrove Tuesday?

Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival, Pre-Lent....Happy February 8, and all that. Doing anything special? Having any King Cake? Watch out for that baby!

Weekend Update

The title harkens from the SNL skit. But not the current one that they've got going, as it's a bit shady. But I really was thinking more along the lines of the old Kevin Nealon ones. With the occasional impromptu song by Adam Sandler...but I digress.

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Song of Solomon Conference. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it's basically a 2 day exegesis of the book in the Bible entitled "Song of Solomon," or in some versions, "Song of Songs." This was the second time I had heard Tommy Nelson give this presentation, but it was my first time to hear him in person. It was great. And I would highly recommend it to anyone, from single, to dating to married. You should go. Tommy does a great job of honestly and humorously presenting some rather difficult chapters in the Word of God.

Other than that, I went to a wedding reception for an old high school friend. He got married over New Year's, so those of us who couldn't attend the wedding were able to go to the reception this weekend. A bunch of old memories and old friends - good stuff. It's weird to realize that your senior prom date is now married.

Then of course the big game. As someone said, "I had no dog in this fight." I guess it would have been nice to see the Eagles win. But nevertheless, I'm sure they all felt it was an honor to just compete. Right. Just like it's an honor to be nominated for an Oscar. Everyone wants to win, they just don't say it.

But I do think my favorite commercial (after all, that's what it's all about!) was the one with the cat and the spaghetti sauce. Though I don't necessarily think this was effective marketing, it was quite funny. Why was it not effective? Because less than 24 hours after viewing the commercial, I have no recollection as to who or what it was advertising for. This is not good if you're paying millions of dollars for 30 seconds of fame. After a few google searches, I now realize that it was for Ameriquest.

Here are some other favorites, from years past:

• Cat Herders


• Career Builder Monkeys


• Various Ameriquest Spots

Anyone else got any favorites?

State of the what?

Ok, was it just me, or did the President actually kiss Senator Lieberman? Even Peter Jennings commented on it. Just curious....did anyone else see that?

And to add to that, we were watching the post-speech commentary. Our network of choice was ABC. Apparently, Tavis Smiley, one of the featured guests, is the host of "Kepping the Faith" on PBS. Kepping? Kepping? Right, that's what I thought.

In demand

So a faithful reader of this here online journal (I refuse to say "blog" more than I have to) requested that I write more frequently. And what the people want, the people get.

An update on the camera purchase, for those of you who are curious. On the advice of several technological gurus, I went to a local store to actually test out some cameras to see what my likes and dislikes were. I was also provided some useful links to various camera reviews, pros and cons, etc. All of this information has been most helpful to say the least.

I went into said local store with two brands in mind: Sony and Canon. Both have received high reviews online, and by people that I know who own similar items. But if you know me at all, you know that I don't take kindly to frivolously spending large amounts of cash. So this decision doesn't come easy. After giving several a try, I narrowed down my list of top requirements in priority order. I then went home and conducted further research. I came to like the Canon A95 for several reasons:

• Canon makes good cameras


• Canon has cameras at decent prices


• Canon had good reviews online


• This little camera has a good feel to it: sturdy, yet sleek


• This little camera has navigable software


• This little camera had a decent shutter speed (a must, I understand, for a good digital camera)


• This little camera has a cute swivel screen, which, based on experience, might come in quite handy

Semi-useful fact of the day:
Rock music makes termites chew through wood at twice their normal speed.

Can you imagine being an Entomology student and having this be your thesis?! Awesome, dude!