here's to you, new orleans

you've been through enough, i think... now this all over again? maybe even worse?? i can't imagine having to pack up and evacuate my home and my town... having to wonder if my neighbors would make it out...

i wish you the best, and hope to be able to help out in some way.

Dear Future coming to Lifepoint

If you're interested, Dear Future will be coming to Lifepoint Church on Friday, Sept. 5th @ 8pm. $3 at the door. These guys are great... you can check them out at myspace.com/dearfuture.

For more info, check out lifepoint365.com or our Facebook group.

CA comes to IL

my good friend from CA is in town, so we're gonna do lunch today... such a short meeting when we have so much to catch up on, but that's life these days. today, i will let him post for me. he posted this just a day or two ago; i'll be back after he takes his turn:
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i haven't written in a really long time...life has been a little busy, and i've started facebooking...i think i can only handle one website at a time...i'm on vacation now, though, and have a little time on my hands to write some...

we just got back from hsm summer camp a few days ago, and i was thinking back over the week today telling a friend about it...i love it when i have those moments that i learn something unexpected...it happened at camp this week...i was looking forward to camp this year, but i knew it would be a different experience because none of the guys from my small group were going to be there...they were all on vacation or had just gotten back from long trips or something...so i didnt really know any of the guys that were going to be in my cabin...i wasnt really sure what to expect...

when i walked in my cabin, i almost started laughing...i had three guys from capo hs that were sports guys and total beach bums...i also had two guys that were into classic rock and had hair past their shoulders...another guy raises lambs for his school's agriculture program...and the last guy was a "normal" average kid that went to school with some of the other guys...immediately i thought, "oh wow, this is gonna be an interesting week."...you know how hs cliques are...i could only imagine how the beach guys were going to gel with the lamb-raiser and rockers...i expected the worst...

the lesson i learned, though, was how important it is to be quick to love...within about an hour of being in our cabin, all of the guys in our cabin were laughing with eachother...there were pranks happening, jokes being made, nicknames being formed...they guys in my cabin were so quick to love on eachother...they could have been judgmental or cliquey...but instead they chose to love...and as a result they had an incredible camp experience...

i think i need to be more quick to love...i usually get around to it...but it can take me some time...if you examine christ's example, he was quick to love...the guys in my cabin reminded me of this...dont just love...love quickly...

lesson learned...
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back to me: he put this into words perfectly, yet so simply, for me. i have learned that this is true in the school setting... you have to gear up to want to get to know and have fun with the kids the first day and everyday after... otherwise, you may eventually get that feeling in you, but you've lost some ability to form relationships with certain students after so much time.... maybe even after the first day or two.

this year i did a pretty good job of being 'quick to love,' rather than slow to start loving. we had a good couple of first days, and i think it will pay off for the rest of the year.

in a lull...

sorry for the blog-lull... school has started and i've been of little time recently... hope to be back soon.

presidential forum at saddleback

UPDATE @ 9:38pm:
my analysis of the event:

i don't think that i will be able to pick a candidate to support for a while... i really like some things that both of them want to do, and i find some things that both want to do as terrifying.

at this point, i just want to see them be real and honest. i'm SICK of political-ese, canned answers, and pandering to their 'audience.' that's one reason that i love ron paul... spin does not exist to him.

obama: i thought he did a much better job of being 'real', thinking over his answers, not being afraid of saying certain things (admitting vulnerabilities, not always having all the answers, etc.). he embraced the format: a discussion with rick warren. i think his camp took the whole 'church' pandering thing too far... quoting scripture, sucking up to warren and saddleback, etc. he dodged some questions, but overall addressed some questions straight up that i thought he would spin.

mccain: my immediate reaction is negative, because he took this 'conversation with rick warren,' and turned it into him speaking to 'his friends' and took advantage of the opportunity to address the people, rather than embracing this format (see my thoughts on spinning things for your campaign above). he did way more answer dodging and spinning than i expected; this, after all, is a church, and the church is thought of as a bit more conservative. he did an awful lot of spinning... "rick, may i tell another story?" i was impressed with some of his passionate statements about his love for this country and its people, though.

as a neutral observer, my personal opinion is that obama gained more from this event than mccain. he didn't have as much of an appearance of this being a 'campaign/stumping event,' and i think that the public will appreciate that. he really allowed himself to be vulnerable to rick warren, where-as mccain had more of an 'i have all the answers' attitude.

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this is incredibly interesting... seeing these guys answer tough questions in conversation form.

whether you love or hate mccain, you must admit that HE HAS ROBOT ARMS. it drives me nuts! i mean he literally does the robot dance by just walking across the stage.

i personally wish that ron paul was up there answering those question... i think people would fall in love with him.

freak of nature

this guy's body was simply built for going fast in water... crazy... look at how long his torso is from his chest to his waist, and those crazy dinosaur arms. not fair, michael phelps.

spreading the word

UPDATE, 8/9/08 @ 1:22pm:
Here is a preview of the video.

so this pretty good band, the David Crowder Band, recently did a club tour for their new album, "Remedy," through all the cool places... the Houses of Blues, etc... and they made a live dvd of one of their shows.

on the evening of August 18th, this dvd will be shown in select theaters across the country... pretty impressive... edwardsville is not on the list yet, but it says that it's constantly being updated. you can see the list of theaters (there are several in IL) on their website. spread the word and go see it!

new music

if you've never checked it out, take a peek at Relevant Magazine's The Drop. there they spotlight new music/bands that are usually awesome, but largely unknown to mainstream music fans. you can listen to the albums in full online.

one of the current bands spotlighted is "The Reign of Kindo," whom you will find on my sidebar under good bands. these guys are so good, so unique... the review on the page really builds this album up as one of the best around...

other artists currently spotlighted are Brandon Heath, Seabird, The Glorious Unseen and more...

1 year ago today...

lyndsey and i got married! i can't believe it's been a year! i love my wife more than anything in the world, and i'm still floored that she picked me. this year has flown by, because it has been so fun... happy anny, lynds! now we're off to celebrate!

sign

this picture was taken at the end of our road a couple of weeks ago. i guess there is no spell-check on a sharpee... haha