MUST BE COLD

I don't know if anyone else has seen this and wondered but, seeing that it has been around the freezing mark for the past two months in the South Bend area you wouldn't expect to see people driving around with their windows down. Yet, seemingly everyday, I have seen car-after-car with their window down.

Why? I mean, it must be cold - right? However, recently I have found the reason people are allowing the cold weather to hit their face while driving down the road. They are smoking! Are you flippin' kidding me? I certainly don't understand the addiction but I guess if I had a choice of dying from lungs cancer or hypothermia, well, I choose neither.

I'm sure nicotine is "that" addicting that you just have to smoke in the sub-freezing temperatures. It's amazing, really, that people do something stupid (smoking), that it causes them to be frigid and cold in the process. This whole process of smoking in the sub-freezing temperatures is mind boggling to me.

Of course is their parallel on the "dumbness" level between smoking in sub-freezing temperatures and driving while talking on your cell phone also while driving? OK, whatever ...

TURTLE & SCORPION

So I picked up this "nugget of wisdom" from Gilmore Girls the other day. Granted the story of the turtle and scorpions didn't come from the actual show, it's just were I first heard it:

The Legend: Turtle who agrees to carry a scorpion across a river learns a fatal lesson about innate nature.

A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. "Are you mad?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown."

"My dear turtle," laughed the scorpion, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you. Now where is the logic in that?"

"You're right!" cried the turtle. "Hop on!" The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting.

As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle resignedly said: "Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there'd be no logic in your stinging me. Why did you do it?"

"It has nothing to do with logic," the drowning scorpion sadly replied. "It's just my character."

Since being at Mosaic this summer, I keep thinking about what character really is and how it affects your livelihood. Obviously, the scorpion didn't have solid character. However, in what might be a stretch for application, there has to be people in all of our lives that want to help us but we are "drowning" them and then us regularly.

Ok, just a thought ... Back to mindless fun watching Gilmore Girl ...

JOSH GROBAN

For second time in three years I had the privilege of seeing Josh Groban in concert. In each instance, I have walked away from the concert just blown away at what this 25 year old can do.

The guy just sold out the United Center. It's not like he playing a small concert hall with a few thousand concert goers. In my humble opinion he is the best male voice of this generation. There's actually no argument because he just is amazing. If you ever get a chance to see him, you need to go. I don't believe you will walk away disappointed.

The set list for Saturday's show:

You are Loved
Mai
Un dia Llegara
Un giorno por noi
Now or Never
So She Dances
February Song
Alla Luce del sole
Lucia's violin solo—Led Zepplin’s “Kashmir”
In her Eyes
Pearls
L'ultima Notte
Remember when it rained
Lullaby
Weeping
Not while I'm around
Awake
Machine
Josh's drum solo
Encore: You raise me up

While this is a solid set list, I certainly could have listen a lot longer and by "a lot longer" I mean at least another hour. But I guess two hours will have to do. A lot of songs from his new album.

There were a few specific highlights that stuck out to me - Lucia's solo effort was superb. Who'd think that Led Zepplin could make a mark on a Josh Groban concert but it was great. He did a duet with the lady who opened the show, Angelique Kidjo, called "Not while I'm around" that was outstanding. I wanted to hear "Remember When it Rained" and hearing it live is 10 times better than the CD. I hadn't previously heard "Awake" so I was blown away by that.

The thing of it is, he sounds just as good live as he does on CD. Not many artists can claim to sound as good live as the do pre-recorded but he can. I like "real music" and that what he performs - by "fake music" I mean N'Sync, Pow Wow, Hinder and, well, most anything on Top 40 radio.

Lastly, the guy has a great sarcastic wit about himself. He doesn't take himself too seriously which is very much appreciated among all the egos and pride in the music business. So, looking forward to seeing him a third time in another few years.

GRAND LUX

On Saturday I ate at what may now be the best restaurant I have ever been to. If you are ever along Michigan Ave. (i.e. "The Magnificent Mile") you have to get dinner at the Grand Lux. It's a must!

It is freakin' amazing. The food, the atmosphere, the location, etc. is awesome. Not real pricey either but, make no mistake, it's not TGI Friday's, Chili's or whatever. It's located near Gap, the Apple Store and Virgin Records.

Just go and you won't be disappointed.

OSCAR

The 79th Oscar picks were pretty solid. I was glad to see Martin Scorsese win for Best Director and "The Departed" win for best film. Guess I should now go see the flick. I was really happy to see Forest Whitaker win Best Actor for his role in "The Last King of Scotland" because he is an amazing actor.

I need to go see "Little Miss Sunshine" as well. Shoot, I need to see about 4 or 5 of the movies that were up for the major awards. Oh well ...

Recap

Video Recap

HOW NORMAL ARE YOU?

The test that officially decides it all ...

You Are 40% Normal

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

FAMILY FEUD

This video will either make you laugh OR make you cringe in utter horror of their stupidity. I did a little of both.

Dumbest Family Feud Contestants - Ever!

FEARLESS AMERICAN

The South Bend Tribune had an interesting article on the front page today about four former Indiana University students who just spent two weeks over in Africa - here.

In addition, there is a website that was recently created by Indiana residents (plus another person) to aid in their efforts in helping the most violent areas in Africa - Fearless American.

90 SHEKELS

I made another trip up to Mars Hill on Sunday to hear what Rob Bell had to say. I know that I can listen through podcasts but there is just something “extra” about making the one-hour and forty-five minute drive and being there in-person.

To no surprise he knocked out a couple of great points. It was kind of a tri-teaching with Rob Bell, Don Golden and Denise VanEck about how, as a church/community, Mars Hill is going to aid and assists those in need. Kind of a vision casting morning but with some really good teaching.

Here’s some of the bullet points and questions:

* The church is the only organization that exists for the benefits of its non-members. It’s a gift as God’s gift of Jesus was (John 3:16).

* Would anyone protest if your church was taken away from your town/area/city? Does your church make that place better?

* When you are no longer able to help the needy (this word has very broad meaning) are you still a church?

* God will hold you accountable. Keep Him on display and make His gift most relevant

One of the last things in the service was Rob telling this amazing story when he was walking the streets of Nairobi, Kenya after night fall –

Rob and his tour guide were going through a dark alley in one of the most dangerous parts of town and as they walked the alley these teenage girls were coming out of the shadows. The girls were coming up to Rob and the tour guide asking for “shekels, 90 shekels.”

Having no idea what the girls were talking about Rob asked his tour guide and the tour guide went onto explain that the girls were offering their bodies to them for about 90 shekels. An equivalent to about $.25 in America. Most of the girls were orphaned because their mother and/or father died from AIDS and were trying to feed their brothers and sisters and prostitution was the only source of income they had.

I can’t get this story out of my head. That’s probably a good thing. It, once again, puts into perspective how trivial our American lifestyle is and why many in the world don’t like us. But more importantly – why aren’t we, as Americans who have so much, helping people who seemingly have no choice to live a “sub-human” existence? We will be held accountable.

"24" - PIZZA DELIVERY

If you have about 10 minutes to have a little fun, this might be worth you while. At least I found it rather funny!

Hope you enjoy it!

Pizza Delivery - "24" Style

DID YOU KNOW?!? ...

Because I wanted to post something that was more on the lighter side, here are some random facts found on hookedonfacts.com:

* Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

* The most productive day of the workweek is Tuesday.

* WAL-MART generates $3,000,000.00 in revenues every 7 minutes!

* Most dust particles in your house come from dead skin.

* The warmest temperature ever recorded on Antarctica was 3 degrees F. (and I thought South Bend was cold!)

* Americans eat nearly 100 acres of pizza every day - that's approximately 350 slices per second!

* In the average lifetime a person will breath in about 44 pounds of dust.

* You can't create a folder called 'con' in Microsoft Windows! (Go ahead and try ... you can't do it!)

Ok, that's enough random facts ... Thank God for Friday!

SPRING TRAINING 2007

It may be snowing in South Bend, and in most parts of the country for that matter, but in Florida and Arizona there's baseball being played! This week is a good week because, if for no other reason, pitchers and catchers are reporting for Spring Training!

Just 45 days till the start of baseball season! Maybe more importantly, for me, another season in which I won't have to pull tarp!

RELATIONAL ADVICE

Seeing that today is Valentine's Day and I should probably change my outlook on what Feb. 14 mean (or suppose to mean), I thought I would post a thought by Erwin McManus. Recently a person asked him this question in a forum session about having a successful marriage. I believe this can be tied into any sort of relationships (friendship, marriage, dating, etc.) and this was his response:

"Is this a person you can give your life to and you can find more joy in their success then even your own? And is this a person who finds more joy, more success, more satisfaction in your success and happiness than even their own. If you can find a level of love that transcends selfishness you have a pretty good chance [of success]."

SEX GOD

I tried to come up with a catchy phrase to start this blog entry but I can't really so here's what I have come up with:

Sex God is, well, just ... "wow!"

When (it's not a matter of "if") you read this book, I highly recommend taking the time to read it with a bible next to you and taking the time took look up the scriptures Bell references. In addition, be sure to take the time to read the endnotes in the back of book.

As a person who loves to think, this book is right up my alleyway. I don't want to compare it to Velvet Elvis because the two are different in many regards and similar in others. I think Sex God actually presents more questions than his previous book.

Will you agree with everything that Bell presents? Probably not but, for goodness sake, take the time to explore the scriptures. This book will probably change the way you view your relationships and the way you have perceived and viewed what sex is and means. It should challenge you views on love as well.

Here's a few thoughts, well, questions actually:

Can you really be connected to God without being at peace with who you are? (Pg. 46)

When was the last time lust delivered on a promise? (Pg. 72)

Do you realize that you are worth dying for? (Pg. 122)

Have you had sex without ever being naked? (Pg. 157)

This book, necessarily, isn't about how to have a better love life or to be better sexually but rather how to see how God has wired all of humanity to be fully human in His image. If nothing else the book should start a lot of good discussion.

GRAMMYS 2007

Although I wasn't able to watch this year's Grammy Awards quite as extensively as I did last year but I wanted to throw a thought or two out there:

- There were three absolutely outstanding lives performances: the trio of John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae and John Mayer was flat out beautiful. Truly outstanding and the highlight of the entire show! The slowed down version of "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley was great! Lastly I thought Christina Aguilera's tribute to James Brown with "It's a man's world" was outstanding!

- The Police's effort of Roxanne was ok but nothing spectacular by any means.

- I was really hoping The Fray would take home one award but they went 0-for-2.

- If the Dixie Chicks would have won another award I might have vomited.

- Be sure to check out what Imogen Heap was wearing - here!

BEST DECISION?

I was driving to church on Sunday morning and I always have these thoughts that come to my head. Some of them good, some of them stupid. For some reason this question has really stuck with me through out the day:

What is the best decision I have ever made in my life?

Not sure where the question really came from but there it was just floating around in my head. Aside from decison to follow Christ, the best decision I have made in my life (at least up until this point) is choosing to go Radford University to pursue my undergraduate degree. I always wanted to go to school in Virginia and I have had such amazing things happen to me because of that singular decision. Really their are to many to count.

Then, of course, is the flip side of that question:

What is the worst decision I have ever made in my life?

For some reason all the dumb decisions and choices I have made seem to come quicker (and easier) than the best ones. Once again to many dumb decisions in my life to really count but I just think they are interesting questions.

What's are your best and worst decisions?

QUOTABLE

I grabbed this for Noel's blog. He just had some good reading ...

“The opposite of Christianity is not atheism, it’s idolatry.”
-Peter Kreeft

CELL PHONE

The South Bend Tribune just put a story up that in the last four years there have been 2,054 car accidents as a results of people talking on their cell phones in the state of Indiana - here.

Not to sounds like a cruel person, but I'm surprised there aren't more. Think about it. How many people in that 10-15 minute drive to church, work, the mall or wherever can you count talking on their cell phone? Better question is - how many am I or you using your cell phone during a 10-minute drive to the store?

Kind of scary, you know??

WORSHIP STYLE

A few weeks ago Mark Discroll had a little piece in Relevant Magazine. Now, I am not the biggest "fan" of Mark Discroll and all that he has to say but I thought he nailed something on the head recently and wanted to share --

Q: "What trends in church and worship styles do you see? Are they positive or negative?"

MD: "I’ll be happy when we have more than just prom songs to Jesus sung by some effeminate guy on an acoustic guitar offered as mainstream worship music. Right now most worship music is still coming from the top down through such things as Christian radio and record labels. But the trend today in a lot of churches is writing your own music to reflect your culture and community, and I pray this trend of music from the bottom up continues.”

I will say this thought about the term "worship" -- it is more then singing songs. It does slightly irritate me when people believe that worship is singing only. In many ways, worship is a lifestyle. You can worship in the car, on the golf course or on the freakin' toilet if you want. But, please don't think that you have to wait till a weekend service to sing to be worshipping God.

Do I believe that Discroll makes a good point? Absolutely. It is great when creativity is unleashed in the church by an individual who is talented enough to write songs that praise God. Be real here folks, the days or singing 150 year old hymns isn't over, and probably never will be, but it is a beautiful thing to sing song by a member of your church.

Unleash the creativity ...

ARE YOU ODD?

This was found in God's Politics by Jim Wallis:

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."
-Flannery O'Connor

THE COMMERCIALS

The Super Bowl was pretty much a blah game and the commercials really weren't that much better. However, my favorites were the Careerbuilder.com spots. I don't know if these are the official names of the commercials but it's what I'm going with:

"Training Seminar"

"Ring of Promotion"

This is the same company who had the monkies as the head of some business in their commericials last Super Bowl which were also quite funny - here.

I think the Super Bowl ad people might just be out-pricing themselves now. I mean, $2.6 million for 30 seconds? Seems to me that only Bud and Coke have that kind of cash to overspend on advertising. And what was Snickers thinking with that spot? Not creative.

SUPER BOWL XLI

So the close of the NFL season is here and there is much to be sad about. Unless you consider that pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in less than two weeks!

Anyway ... In games not involving the Colts this playoff season I am a perfect 7-0 but in predicting games with the Colts it's not so good as I have posted a 1-2 mark. Since the Super Bowl clearly involves the that team from Indiana, my level of confidence in my pick certainly isn't at an all-time high but I will pick a winner none the less.

Colts - 27
Bears - 21

If the Colts play at a high level, I don't think Chicago can beat them. Don't get me wrong the Bears pose a fair amount of problems for Indianapolis but on paper the Colts are the better team. If the Bears can cause two or three turnovers then I would say it's their game to lose. Chicago should contain the Colts run game but the Bears pass defense is good but not outstanding and that's going to be a major concern all game.

As for the Bears offense, I think they will be able to run the ball fairly effectively but I'm not sure Rex Grossman can play at a high level for all four quarters. A Devin Hester punt return or kick-off return for a touchdown could offset some problems for the Bears but I don't think it will happen. If it comes down to a field goal attempt late in the game, I don't think anyone is going to bet against the Colts and Adam Vinatieri.

Enjoy the game (and the commercials).

PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!

Our little Groundhog friend, Punxsutawney Phil, says that spring is on its way. I hope, along with most people in South Bend, that he is correct!

UPDATE: Here's the weather forecast from Sunday, Feb. 4 - Saturday, Feb. 10:

NOT TO LATE

When I first listened to the entire album my first thoughts were that it was pretty good but nothing spectacular.

However, since purchasing the album (see Best Buy Experience) I have probably now listened through the complete album about nine times and my opinion is changing. I am really starting to like this album a lot.

Some how and in some way she combines this odd blend of jazz, folk, soul, country into a perfect combination. The lyrics, at times, are brilliant and beautifully written. She wrote every song on this album, which is quite an accomplishment for a 27-year old. Her voice, at least to me, is perfect. There isn't a better female singer that I have ever heard.

She embodies what "real music" is all about: great voice, excellent lyrics, amazing band and beautifully cared for. You can tell that her music isn't just thrown together like some cheap one-hit wonder song that basically insults the listener (can someone say N'Sync? Backstreet Boys?)

The worst thing, and the best thing in some regards, that ever happened to Norah Jones was her first album won eight grammys. She will have to live up to that for a long. Unfortunate as that might be, she has put together another fine album that will continue to play in my iPod and CD Player for a quite a while.