Nice To Be Wanted

The AARP continues to hound me.

They are relentless in trying to get me to apply to their club, despite the fact that I'm 27 years younger than their standard requirements for membership.

I don't know where they learned about me, but they continue to try and chorale me with their best marketing and advertising techniques.

I'm holding out for more, but it is nice to be wanted anyway.

Lent's Vice

Lent starts somewhere around 14 minutes from now. I have had friends that give things up for lent every year. Some that have given up chocolate or alcohol. Others have given up sex (they weren't married), the internet, or television. However, the practice of giving up some kind of vice for lent has never appealed to me.

I simply can't understand how someone would define something in their own lives as a vice and deem it worthwhile to only give it up for 40 days. If it is enough of a vice to give up for 40 days, shouldn't it be given up all together?

Randomly enough, those who use those more contemporary vices (tradition and history was mainly dietary things given up) never seem to stick with tradition and allow themselves those things on the Sundays before Easter as the 40 days excludes the Sundays.

While I love the tradition of a period of time leading up to the celebration of Easter, and even admire many traditions and their practice of different lent season activities, the contemporary model people practice of picking a "vice" and giving it up just doesn't appeal to me.

Guessing Games

As I continue to peruse job openings and application requirements I am amazed at the guessing games that individual employers put applicants through.

One of the jobs I'm applying for lists that applicants should send a resume, list of references (two things simple enough to understand what they are looking for) and a philosophy of discipleship as their application.

Now I get to play the guessing game by what they mean with "philosophy of discipleship."

Are they looking for my church-wide philosophy. Individual personal philosophy. Philosophy of discipleship as it relates to the job being applied for?

Do they expect this to be more philisophically, logically, or biblically defended? Should it be a single page, or whatever gives the best grasp?

Let the games begin.

Perfect Shower

This weekend my extended family threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law. That put us on the whirlwind weekend of travel to Kentucky and back. 36 hours there, 12 traveling.

It was the perfect baby shower for the men there. We weren't invited (thankfully) so we weren't expected to be there. That worked well because there was a basketball game we all preferred watching. Fortunately for us, both the game when the way we wanted it to, and we were called down to the shower for cake and ice cream.

We couldn't have asked for better.

To complete the weekend, we did get to eat Chic-Fa-Lay for a meal...the absolute best fast food anywhere.

Sudoku Ready

The Ipod Touch had been out of service for a while. I hadn't been able to get it working after trying numerous things with numerous different computers to see if I could fix the problem.

I gave up for a while.

Jenny remembered yesterday that it didn't work and wished it did so she could play Sudoku while waiting for planes, riding on planes, or taking car trips to different airports.

Today, I was successful. Our weekend trip is now digitally Sudoku Ready.

How Far is too Far?

As I have begun to broaden both the role and location range of the job I am looking for, I continue to wonder how far is too far?

I left a good job to go back to school. I left it because it wasn't as close to my ideal job or preparing me for it as I wanted.

So now, as I start to broaden out from ideal again, what is too far? How far off should/can the role be, how far is too much of a commute to be worth driving from here and to require moving?

How come the popcorn I am eating tastes so good?

Comfy Clothes

I would imagine that every day I've slept at home since November I have at some point put on comfy pants and a sweatshirt.

It is perhaps the only redeeming part of such long cold winters.

Thank goodness for my fuzzy adidas pants and my zip-hoodie University of Kentucky sweatshirt.

I don't know what I would do if I couldn't hid my face at will with a hood, or I couldn't hear the clicking of my footsteps as my pant cuff zippers hit the hardwood floor.

Aimed for Encouragement

I've got a meeting tomorrow to discuss the possibilities of adjunct teaching at a private Christian University here.

I don't need to have much happen to leave encouraged but really hope that I don't leave discouraged.

I feel like discouragement from this meeting can cause me to feel the shock of things more abruptly than I am comfortable with.

Here is to hoping 1:30 - 2:30 isn't a scare.

Anyone Memorizing?

Was curious if anyone reading this had some handy tips for memorizing things.

I'm hoping to get more disciplined with scripture memorization. I find I can do it well for the short term, but struggle at continually transferring things I have memorized into my long term memory.

Any cool tricks out there?

Measurements of Laundry

I always measure when laundry needs to be done based on my clean sock count.

Unanimously, this is my yardstick for determining laundry timeframes.

This used to be different.  I used to determine it by t-shirts, but after accumulating many more t-shirts, socks has become the new measurement.

How do you measure laundry times?  By day, week, month?  By shirts, socks, pants, underwear, towels?  By smell, stench, odor, favorite outfits?  By glares, stares, and chores?

I have found socks to be the most reliable and helpful measurement.

Skipping the Pop Tart

You know that weird feeling sometimes when you burp?

The one where it tastes like something you ate a while ago, or like a weird mix of things recently eaten?

Tonight I burped.  It tasted like a combination of Pizza Rolls and Rice Krispies.

But I can't figure out how it skipped the pop tart... Between the previously mentioned mix, I ate a pop tart.

How did the burp capture both before and after the pop tart, but miss it completely.

Somebody please explain this scientific phenomenon to me...lest I start believing it a miracle.

Standing Further Away

I haven't completely figured out this dreaming for the future thing yet.

It is hard to keep things in focus.

What I have realized recently is that the bigger my dreams get, the farther away from them I need to stand to keep them entirely in the picture. It is hard to stand right next to a huge dream and pretend that I can focus on it, while I'm finding it equally hard to stand so far away from my dreams.

This might not be making any sense, but as my desires, plans, hopes, and dreams for the future have been growing the last couple of months, the distance I stand from them has become very noticeable.

I wonder if I'll ever be able to get close to my dream. I imagine, I'll always have to stand far enough from it to be able to explain it in depth to the people that must be around to help me accomplish it. The end goal may be in convincing them to run up close and learn parts of it in greater detail than I ever get to, all the while standing back and hoping the entire thing takes shape.

Do I need to become accustomed to looking at my dreams from a distance, or simply stay in this place until I have memorized the picture well enough to step forward and take a closer look.

Only time will tell, but for now, I know each day I am standing further away from the dream that gets bigger and bigger.

Defeated Timelines

It is easy for me to feel defeated these days when things don't go according to my preferred timeline.

I wish it was just about jobs.  It isn't.

If I e-mail somebody and am awaiting their response, I get defeated everytime I check and there isn't a new e-mail.  If my show isn't on because the Presidential news conference goes longer than the network planned, I feel defeated.

I have been feeling defeated more recently than I am used to.  I don't think it has reached a category of depression yet, buy my defeated attitude is starting to drain my esteem and my desire for productivity.

Bahhhh.... Humbugggg.

In Two Months Time

It needs to be golfing weather.  I made the mistake yesterday and today of watching golf on television.  

I want to play...

It is hard to think it will likely be two months before I can, where is global warming when I need it?

Making me Uncomfortable

I revealed to my small group tonight that one of the easiest ways to make me spiritually uncomfortable is to ask me to pray for you...  Like, out loud, on the spot prayer.

People praying for me have been some of the most impactful times of my life.  Because of such, I place immense pressure on myself if someone asks me to pray for them, knowing that doing so could be immensely impactful on their lives, but realizing also, that if I try to make it that way, or aim at praying something profound or memorable...essentially, if I put myself in the picture in any way other than a vessel for God to speak, I ruin that moment.

Everytime, without fail, that someone asks me to pray for them on the spot, this debate runs through my head.

That doesn't mean if you are reading this that you shouldn't ask me to pray for you, in fact, you probably should.  Forcing me to deal with this is likely the best way for me to get to a more comfortable place.

I want to be in a more comfortable place.

Caught Up Again

Small group has moved to Thursday night for a while, leaving Tuesday evenings at home instead.

I'm hooked on American Idol and Biggest Loser because of the switch, witch will have to tide me over for missing Survivor when it starts.

I'm caught up in reality television again and I don't care.

Fascinations

s Throughout Seminary I have been far more fascinated with studying the Old Testament than I have with studying the New Testament.

Specifically, the Pentateuch (first 5 books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) have caught my attention most frequently.

So here is some random trivia for you...

Jesus quotes Deuteronomy more than any other book of the Bible.

The New Testament quotes Leviticus more than any other book of the Bible.

I think I learn more about Jesus from the OT than the NT.

Plans of Grandeur

I was planning on writing a longer, more entertaining post tonight, but got fed-up with technology.

ITunes decided that new software updating would be fun for my Ipod Touch...

It also decided not to properly install it, sending the programs into a cycle of not liking the new software and not letting me restore the old software.

I've given up for now and am going to walk away from the computer for a while.

Superbowl Winner

My Favorite Commercial: