Terrysaurus Rex

Don't let DeBeers Fool You

2009-02-13T22:00:00.000-08:00

This is not love.

Reach

2009-02-08T10:51:00.001-08:00

It would be a sad fate to die having achieved and gained everything you've ever wanted or hope for.

It would just mean that you were too small minded.

Reach and reach and reach and reach and reach

New Creation

2009-01-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

Do yourself a favor and watch this video.

Your Love Is Strong

2009-01-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love this song and couldn't function without it's truth.

Wake Up

2008-12-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

Far too often I find myself settling for temporary and superficial pleasure rather than holding out for deep and lasting joy.

For instance, sometimes I sleep through my appointed quiet time in the morning It feels great...until later in the day when I have a real crappy attitude. It happens without fail. So even though sleeping in will seem like the most comfortable option, I know that it's not worth it.

It will be a constant fight until the day I die (because who doesn't like to sleep in), but it's worth it.

Pollock Live

2008-11-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

I forgot to tell you about these when they happened:

Pollock Live at RTC Part 1
Pollock Live at RTC Part 2

Jenga

2008-11-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about new birth and regeneration and what that moment looks like. I decided that it can not be a gradual shift. If we are to believe in the God of the bible (and we are) then He is so amazingly magnificent that the moment you clear your eyes and see any part of His Glory you are shaken to your core. You realize the power of God and the depth of His mercy, and a lifetime spent for Him becomes not an inconvenience but a joy. You don't understand who God is then walk away and think about what that means; You understand and are instantly and completely changed forever.

It's like the opposite of Jenga. The whole point of Jenga is to remove one piece at a time slowly working until someone removes a piece that was necessary to keep the whole thing standing and it topples and falls in on itself. If we are to give our lives over to God (and we are) He doesn't want small parts of your life one at a time until you feel comfortable giving another part all the while holding on to the rest of the stack thinking that we have it under control. Instead, find out what your bottom level Jenga blocks are and remove them.

The sooner the better, I promise.

Jesus as Genie

2008-11-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

I saw a website recently that was trying very hard to prove the nonexistence of God using Matthew 7:7.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

They tried to make the point that even if you ask for wonderful things that benefit everyone, nothing would happen. The author encouraged the readers to "get on your knees and sincerely ask God for the end of world hunger." (Apparently the proof that God doesn't exist, is that He doesn't respond to your whims.)

There is nothing wrong with praying for the benefit of the world. In fact, I recommend it, but this guy was completely missing the mark.

The whole point of the new birth is to be more like Christ. You die to yourself to put on the life of Christ to demonstrate His love to the world. When you make Him the center of your life, His wants become your wants; His plans become your plans, so the idea of demanding action from God in order to prove Himself to you is laughable.

God is not the genie in the lamp. He is not compelled to follow your direction.

The idea behind Matthew 7:7 is an instrument to prove your own devotion to Him not the other way around. When what you ask for is that God's plans become reality and not your own, you have truly died to self and can take up your cross and follow Him.

If you try to use God to fulfill your vision for the world, you will be sadly disappointed every time.

Musicology (not by Prince)

2008-11-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

Creativity is the approximation and synthesis of the unseen and unheard.

You'll never get to see or hear the inside of my head, so you'll never truly get what I mean when I sing a song, because the song itself isn't the thought or feeling I had, but rather a description of a thought or a feeling that I had.

Hopefully (if I do a good job), I can synthesize that feeling inside of the listener (or at least something close). That is my constant aim when writing new songs; for you to feel what I feel.

Music Suggestions (other than me of course)

2008-11-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

Old School Rock

Dance Pop (it's totally cheesy, but I can't help myself)

Experimental Soul

Worship (sorta)

Hip Hop

Enjoy and tell me what you liked/didn't like.

Persistent Sin

2008-11-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:8

This was the arrow that pierced my heart today, because "the one who practices sin" could be on my business cards as my title. I like the American Standard translation because it uses the word "practice" instead of "does." We're all sinners. That is inescapable, but someone who clearly sees and understands what is good and right and makes the conscious choice to do otherwise (herein called practicing) is "of the devil."

Now, we all love to think of Jesus coming to Earth to spread peace and love, but we don't like to think of the rest of the totality of Christ's message. It lays out some of the rest of His plan up there in verse 8. His purpose for coming to Earth was to "destroy the works of the devil." If you are making a practice of sinning, I'm fairly certain that you can expect to receive your fair share of that destruction.

My interpretation of the gospel includes this: Comfortableness is dangerous. There are all sorts of things in my life that I keep around because they make me comfortable. I'm sure I'd be ashamed if Jesus showed up and while I was watching Family Guy. (I don't think the show is evil outright, but I do know the time I spend watching it could be better spent reading the scriptures or praying or even having a meaningful conversation with someone.)

I don't even know what it means yet, but I want to live an uncomfortable life. I want to be beset on all sides by the power of darkness because of the great works that God is accomplishing through me. I want to charge the gates of hell and know that they cannot stand against me because Christ is for me. And I know that's not going to happen until I ask God to separate me from my indwelling, persistent sin, because He cannot be for someone who harbors the works of the devil.

Let Go to Grab Hold

2008-11-22T16:18:00.000-08:00

If you grip tightly the things in your life that you have gained of your own ability, they will keep you from grabbing hold of what God has in store for you. Even holding onto the things God has provided for you can prevent you from following God.

While the Jews wandered the desert for 40 years God provided food that could not be kept overnight to reinforce the idea that they should be dependent on God. The manna was a good thing. It was from God, therefore it had to be good, but it was not the point. God didn't provide a quickly perishing food because he couldn't have given them something that lasted. He did it purposefully.

He was the sustenance! He is the goal! He is the point of creation! Not your comfortableness. Not your superficial satisfaction.

Don't hold on to things. Hold on to God!

Psalm 56:10-11

2008-11-20T19:09:00.000-08:00

In God, whose word I praise,
In the Lord, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?

Oh God, make this trust real. Be my rock and my firm foundation. All else is sinking sand.

Prayer

2008-11-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

I've become a better pray-er by becoming a worse pray-er.

Everybody gets nervous in group prayer. So you spend all the time you aren't speaking thinking about what you're going to say, at the expense of praying along with the others. Then when it gets to your turn you say that prayer that you rehearsed in your head a dozen times and two things happen: You didn't pray along with the people that you're there to pray with and when it finally came to your turn you didn't even pray what you had rehearsed because you were too worried about sounding like you had a plan going into the prayer.

Forget about that.

Listen and pray what they're praying. Don't think about anything else. Then when it comes to your turn, split open your heart and just let whatever is in there spill out all over the place. Who cares if you conjugated your verbs properly? Not God! Who cares if you pray the same thing everyone else already prayed? Not God! Who cares if you pause for a few seconds mid sentence to compose your thoughts? Not God! Who cares if you come off sounding a little silly? Not God!

He's interested in your heart! Don't keep it from Him.

Living Sacrifices

2008-11-18T04:17:00.000-08:00

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer yourself as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.
-Paul, Romans 12:1

There are a few key words here: Body, Living, Holy and Acceptable (to God). Let's take a look at each one of these individually.

Body: Why would God want our bodies anyway? The Old Testament always said that the best bull or the best sheep or the best goat was to be sacrificed. He can't possibly mean that, can He? We're overweight, or underweight, or ugly, or awkward, or short, or tall, or _________. That's not the point! Christ is the only sacrifice good enough to remove the sin of the world (and each individual...don't forget that it's a very personal sacrifice Christ made for you...not just for us), and He made that sacrifice already. That debt is paid. He's not calling you to bear the weight of the sins of the world (or even of just yourself).

Living: This is not a call to die! We are called to live for Jesus. It's true that some of us will die in the name of the Lord (and as strange as that sounds, that will please Him greatly), but that is not a necessity for God and is far from the norm. (You don't get excluded from heaven because you died of a heart attack in a Ruby Tuesday's.) The point is to make your life about Jesus. Think about Jesus. Talk about Jesus. Etc. Etc. Etc. Live for Jesus!

Holy: As is written in Romans 6:13, use your body for the will God. Accomplish righteousness with your hands and feet and mouth. (Philippians 4:18, Hebrews 13:15, 16)

Acceptable to God: Your motives are as important as your actions. Just because you do good deeds doesn't mean that you are glorifying God. Make it known that God is your purpose for the actions.

All these things together make up a worshipful life. Make much of Jesus as you serve people in love. That is how you present yourself as a living sacrifice to God.

Crystal Ball Christians

2008-11-17T04:32:00.000-08:00

From time to time, I find myself waiting for a message from God. Like He's going to beam an answer to a question straight to my brain.

As far as I can tell, God doesn't work that way.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will.
-Romans 12:2

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
-2 Timothy 3:16

From this I can tell, that I shouldn't sit around waiting for some divine message to pop up and tell me what to do. A transformed mind should be able to test and discern God's will. A man knowledgeable about the scriptures is equipped for every good work. (Not just some good works. Every good work.)

I'm still not exactly clear on how to go about using the bible to make decisions, but I know that I should keep God first in all things. The more I read the bible the more I understand who God is. So the more I read the bible the more I understand what God wants.

Churchy Setlists

2008-11-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

Salvation Is Here

Your Love Is Strong

All I Need Is You

You Are God

Full band! Woo!

We sound great when we're all there.

Then Matt went and talked about sex...awkwardly...really awkwardly.

Sex is not the point of life. God is!

Last Day

2008-11-14T08:26:00.001-08:00

Today is my last day of wasting my time between the hours of 7:00am and 5:00pm Monday-Friday.

It's not my last day of work. I like to think that my work is just starting. I'll work fewer hours to be sure, but I'm going to cram much more work into those hours.

I've spent most of the day so far cleaning out my office, and distributing stuff to the people that need it after I'm gone.

It feels more like vacation than the end. I wonder what it will feel like after next week.

2 Corinthians 4:13-14

2008-11-14T02:33:00.000-08:00

It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." (Psalm 116:10) With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.

For a long time I believed myself a christian, but seldom if ever acknowledged it with my words or my interactions with other people, whether they be close friends or complete strangers.

Here, the apostle Paul quotes Psalm 116:10 in saying that if you truly believe, God's name would be constantly on your lips. You would proclaim Him even in the mundane, because to do so is to obey the Lord's command.

Over and over again, the bible teaches to "love one another." (John 13:34; Romans 12:10, 13:8; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 4:2; 1 Peter 1:22, 3:8, 5:14; 1 John 3:1, 3:23, 4:7, 4:11; 2 John 1:5) What greater love is there than to share the gospel with your fellow man? There is none better.

The word of God brings life. At best, everything else will die with the world. At worst, it will distract you from Christ as the focus and kill you.

You might be thinking to yourself, "There's no way I (the failure, the idiot, the sinner) am qualified to bring this message to others. Wouldn't God want someone better to tell these people the gospel? Doesn't He know that I'll screw it up?"

Jump back a few verses to 2 Corinthians 4:6-7. "For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

You're right! Your are nowhere near qualified, but He made you as a "jar of clay," the most plain, ordinary, average, fragile, replaceable vessel there was, on purpose! You telling people about Jesus has nothing to do with you! Obviously, you're there, but that's about the extent of your involvement in the transformation of a person's life. God calls us to love people by telling them about Jesus not so that we'll change their lives (only He can do that), but so that we might be changed. Your willingness to tell people about something is a great indicator of your own faith in that thing.

It's not normal to talk to strangers. We drill that into our children's heads over and over and over. "Don't talk to strangers!" God is calling us to the exact opposite; "Talk to strangers!" Do it. It's awesome.

Quarks

2008-11-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry. Quarks are hilarious.

There are 6 flavors of quarks: Up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom.

There are 6 flavors of anitquarks: Antiup, antidown, anticharm, antistrange, antitop and antibottom.

There are 3 color charges a quark can have: Red, blue and green.

There are 3 color charges an antiquark can have: Antired, antiblue and antigreen.

Flavors? Color charges? I'm pretty sure quarks were discovered by kindergartners.

Trees and Smoothies and Marbles and Quarks and Polyurethane

2008-11-13T08:52:00.000-08:00

From atoms to galaxies, things are more complicated than they seem. Peel back the shell and there is always another layer to discover. Take a step back and there's always a bigger picture.

Like my friend David said, "The natural world is complicated."

The heavens declare the glory of God.

Quote of the Day

2008-11-12T06:51:00.000-08:00

I am concerned that our reading and our writing is gravitating to the lowest common denominator so completely that the great themes of majesty and nobility and felicity are made to seem trite, puny, pedestrian. . . . I am concerned about the state of the soul in the midst of all the cheap sensory overload going on today. You see, without what Alfred North Whitehead called “an habitual vision of greatness,” our soul will shrivel up and lose the capacity for beauty and mystery and transcendence. . . . But it isn’t just the substance of what we say (or write or read or hear or see) that concerns me. It is the way we say it. To write pedantically about radiance or infinity or ubiquity stunts the mind and cramps the soul. To find the right word, to capture the perfect image, awakens the spirit and enlarges the soul. Mark Twain noted that the difference between the right word and the almost right world is like the difference between the lightning and a lightning bug. . . . The ancient Hebrew prophets cared enough about their message that they frequently delivered it in poetic form. May new prophets arise in our day that will call us to faithful living in words that are crisp and clear and imaginative.
-Richard Foster

Mirrors

2008-11-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been listening to a whole lot of sermons online in an attempt to learn more and more about Jesus and His mercy.

I kept picking topics that spoke to the situations in which I find myself most often, topics about the kind of man I want to be, topics about me. Every time I would listen and think to myself, "Oh, you picked a good one this time. This is exactly what I was looking to hear."

Then I ran out of obvious topics and picked a few that spoke to situations my friends were in so I could speak the word of God into their lives, and I'd say, "Oh, you picked a good one this time. This is exactly what they're looking to hear...I guess this kind of speaks to me too. Great, two for one!"

Then I ran out of obvious topics for my friends.

So I listened to some about things I felt I had under control to affirm myself in my Godliness. I got through the first one without noticing anything strange. It was a good word and I was glad to have bolstered my understanding in another area in my life. (There were a few pangs of conscience telling me to listen harder.) I listened to a second one that I thought had little bearing on where I stood with God at the moment and I started to notice a pattern.

Everything I was hearing had to do with me.

Every little word hit me dead center like an arrow to the heart. "If you love God, you'll show it by loving people!" "No one who is saved makes a practice of sinning!" "The righteous heart delights in the commands of God!" "God has ordained sin and evil to fulfill a purpose in my life!" etc. etc. etc.

These were all things that I knew...but these were all things that I didn't get.

Oh God, forgive me for my blindness.

Faith In. Love Out.

2008-11-11T04:20:00.000-08:00

Faith and love are inseparable. They are not the same thing, but they always go together.

Faith is the welcoming in of Christ.

Love is the outward manifestation of the indwelling Christ in your life.

If you have faith in Christ, but that doesn't show up in how you love other people, you don't have faith in Christ. If you truly believe, then you wouldn't be able to contain the gospel inside of you. It would leak out of your seams. It would pour out of your mouth. It would show up in the things you do with your hands. If you truly believe it, it's the greatest news that there could possibly be, and loving other people would mean telling other people about Jesus.

Likewise, if you love people but that doesn't manifest itself by your faith in Christ, you aren't loving people. The gospel should be the point of your interaction with the people around you simply because it is the most important thing. These people will find out that Christ was the point of their lives whether that happens now, later or when they stand before God and he executes judgement for them, but it will happen. God wants them to find out on this side of the grave because He doesn't want them to go to hell. He wants to spend eternity with them.

It's like recess soccer. (If you could get grades for recess, my GPA would have been much, much higher. I loved that 30 minutes after lunch to just run around and be a stupid kid. Heck, I'd do it now if I didn't care about looking like the developmentally stunted idiot-kid that I am in my head.) You can be the one who owns the ball, but the only way recess soccer is any fun is if you get other people to play with you. It's really fun with 10 people, but it's even more fun with 11, and 12 is even better than that. The more people you have playing, the harder it is to get that idiot-grin off of your face.

The kingdom of heaven is the exact same way X 1,000,000 (,000,000,000,000,000...etc).

It's a Jesus party, and the more people that show up, the more fun the party. Don't be that jerk on the recess field who takes the ball off to play by himself. (Nobody liked that kid for a reason) Tell people about it. Invite more people to the party. Tell them to bring friends. They don't even have to bring a snack or beverages. or plastic cups or hot dogs. Just come.

Romans 12:11

2008-11-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Of late, my greatest fear is spiritual burn out. So I took another look at this verse that I've read a thousand times and noticed something new about it.

Romans 12:11 is not a suggestion.

It's obvious, I know, but take another look. It doesn't say, "Serve the Lord when you feel like it" or "Try to be excited about serving the Lord" or "Serve the Lord with Zeal on Sundays." (I looked up ever translation I could find...it's not there)

It says "Never be."

I don't think I need to go into the nuances of the word "be." It's about as simple as it can get, but it's preceded by the word "never." "Never be." (When the Bible says never, you should probably start listening.)

This is a command. God is commanding that you never lack zeal in serving Him. My first reaction here is, "yeah, but what if_______." (And these can be serious issues here, not just flippant laziness.) What if some Earth-shattering event just took place in my life? What if my parents just died? What if my wife files for divorce? What if my kids are doing drugs? What if? What if?

Forget all that. There is no wiggle room here. There's no modifier to this command. There's no loop-hole to squirm your way through.

NEVER BE.

God is demanding that we be in constant, cheerful service of God. He is the point of life, not your parents, not your spouse, not your kids....Him.

Take a look at Luke 9:59-62. This is serious. God is serious about you putting Him first, not because He's a bully or because he doesn't care about you, but because He MUST proclaim Himself as the most important thing in your life. He must because it's the truth. If He were to say that something else was more important, He wouldn't be God.

What do you do? It's not possible for a man to give God a worthy share of service or the proper amount or excitement for the effort, because He's worth more than you have to give. So, you give everything you have, beg for mercy, and thank God that he is merciful.

So, now I have that figured out, I need to go figure out what that means.

John Piper Quote of the Day

2008-11-10T07:28:00.000-08:00

...there is a mean, violent streak in the true Christian life! But violence against whom, or what? Not other people! It’s a violence against all the impulses in us that would be violent to other people. It’s a violence against all the impulses in our own selves that would make peace with our own sin and settle in with a peacetime mentality. It’s a violence against all lust in ourselves and all enslaving desires for food or caffeine or sugar or chocolate or alcohol or pornography or money or the praise of men and the approval of others or power or fame. It’s a violence against the impulses in our own soul toward racism and sluggish indifference to injustice and poverty and abortion.
John Piper, When I Don't Desire God, p. 102

Churchy Setlists

2008-11-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Being that I am a worship leader, I figured I would share what songs we're singing in our church every Sunday. Today we sang:

Your Love Is Strong

Living for Your Glory

How He Loves

All I Need Is You

Matt spoke today about how politics don't solve problems, but people do and how a new president is not what we need, but rather a radical, earth-shaking faith in the creator. He challenged us reexamine the things we expect from our elected leaders, and to instead expect those things of ourselves, and ask God to move forcefully in those areas.

Jesus didn't come to Earth to become king. He was already the creator...They were aiming a bit low with their expectations. We don't need political change or a new political party in control. We need Jesus...and that's all.

Also, if anything I said up there doesn't make sense, it's because I'm in the middle of a migraine here.

Quote of the Day

2008-11-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

The very nature of joy makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting. There, to have is to want and to want is to have. Thus, the very moment when I longed to be so stabbed, was itself again such a stabbing.
-C.S. Lewis, Suprised by Joy, ch. 11

Lewis is talking about the experience of Christ-based joy. Not only is the knowing of Jesus joyful, but the wanting to know Jesus or the pursuit of knowing Jesus is joyful in itself.

Do I Sound Like I'm Forcing This?

2008-11-07T04:59:00.001-08:00

Transformation happens in one of two ways:

1. Little by little old pieces are removed and replaced. It can take years of careful study and dedicated prayer to put good pieces into place so that they fall in when the rotten original material is gone. In a way, you harbor the wrongness until you learn the truth. This is a good and steady and biblical way to change. People see the growth. People believe it's sincere, because it makes sense. The apostles did this while following Jesus during His ministry. They didn't have an automatic understanding of the eternal significance of the words of Christ. They had to soak in it for years, and witness miracles, and see Christ crucified and raised from the dead before they understood.

2. A cataclysm liquefies all the old, dead, rotten lower-level and whatever was above suddenly and absolutely takes it's place by force. Typically, this is not a good way to change your life. Usually the things placed above the filth in your life is more filth. In rare instances, you can learn masses of biblical truth but still be too pig-headed to understand the implications of not implementing it. Usually this doesn't happen because if you're not interested in hearing about how God can change your life and why He would want to, you remove yourself from the situations wherein you might learn those things.

Paul experienced this sort of radical transformation in his life on the road to Damascus. Christ, after He was dead, buried, raised, and ascended, appeared to Paul and changed his life by force. Paul didn't wake up that morning searching for the truth about Christ. Paul woke up that morning with a desire to kill Christians. In fact, he was on the road to Damascus for the intent of killing the Christians there. Christ grabbed hold of his heart and changed it in an instant. Christ removed his guilty flesh and Paul was reborn. So this too is a good and biblical way of change.

I feel I'm a mixture of the two. I've been soaked in Jesus my whole life, I've made some good decisions (which were often followed by a contradictory bad decision), I've sung songs about salvation, I've accepted Christ as my savior (more than once), but I could not shake the sin from my life. (I'm not talking complete removal of sin here. I'm a man, therefore I am a sinner. I'm talking damaging, recurring, unrepentive sin.) I was a slave to my flesh and to the desires of it, not because Christ wasn't strong enough to remove me from my sin (because He can do all things), but because I just didn't get what it meant to be in Christ. I didn't see the treasure that Christ is. He had been an implement in the preserving of my "easy" and "satisfied" life. (Things were going great, why did I need any more of God in my life? He'd probably just make things difficult.)

I re-listened to a sermon that I first heard in Atlanta in January of 2007 by a guy named Francis Chan (he was preaching on the luke-warm church in Laodicea from Revelation 3:14-16) for probably the 10th time. (I wish I had a way that you could hear it. It's truly life changing if you actually listen. It's on iTunes. It's called Passionately Loving God In a Luke-Warm Church, or something close to that anyway.) Part of the sermon talks about the sacrifices people make for the people they love without considering them sacrifices. He gave his relationship to his wife as an example of how we do this.

After only dating his eventual wife for a few weeks, he took her car from her and bought new tires and had it cleaned and detailed (which costs hundreds of dollars), but he was just so excited about the love that he had found in her that the hundreds of dollars were inconsequential. It wasn't a labor to lavish her with gifts. It wasn't work or even unpleasant to "inconvenience" himself for her. It was love, and sacrifices for the one you love do not feel like sacrifices. It is the same with Christ. If you truly love Christ, you would give everything you had or ever could get in exchange for Him, because He is worth it.

Philippians 3:8 says:

...I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

I realized that I was keeping things back in my attempt a a trade for God. I wanted other things more than I wanted Christ. Christ is a free gift to those who want Him more than anything. I am free (for now) to give all for Christ and call myself glad, but it will take constant prayer and attention to my heart to keep my aim true.

So, no...this is not forced. This is salvation, and it's just very exciting.

At Long Last

2008-11-06T07:41:00.001-08:00

For the first time in my life, I am preoccupied with God.

I've been enamoured with God before, I've enjoyed reading the bible before, I've cried as I lamented my sins to the Father before, but never have I had this sort of constant righteous distraction that permeates.

"...of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:36)

I have read this before, but now I see and feel the weight of its truth. He does not abide in the "God moments" but rather in all moments. It was only in the "God moments" that I did not fail to know it.

Give glory to God, for it is His already!

Picture the delight of the parents as their toddler child picks things up off of the floor of their home and offers it to them as it were a gift. Our hearts delight in these small things, not because we were given a gift, surely that small thing was already ours, but because our child has given a thing that in their little world was theirs for the taking.

We are but toddlers stumbling about in God's house! The things we acquire here are but trinkets lying about on God's floor. Offer them back to God, for they are not yours! God delights in us when we make little of ourselves in an attempt to make much of Him. Know that your attempt will fall embarrassingly short of giving God something that he lacked, but give all glory to God gladly anyway.

Psalm 73:25-26

2008-11-06T05:30:00.000-08:00

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And earth has nothing I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Search me, o God, and purge my heart of it's wicked desires for anything apart from You.

Be my strength, for I am weak.

Be my courage, for I am a coward.

Be my rescuer, for I am hopelessly lost.

Be my ransom, for I am a slave to sin.

John Piper Quote of the Day

2008-11-06T04:44:00.000-08:00

Christ will be glorified in the world when Christians are so satisfied in him that they let goods and kindred go and lay down their lives for others in mercy, missions, and, if necessary, martyrdom. He will be magnified most among the nations when, at the moment Christians lose everything on earth, they say, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).
-John Piper, When I Don't Desire God, pg. 21

Only what's done for Christ will last.

2008-11-05T11:55:00.001-08:00

I finished Don't Waste Your Life today. It's a great book. You should give it a whirl. (it's free and online: http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_dwyl/dwyl_full.pdf)

John Piper has written about 30 books and all of them say the exact same thing:

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

Somehow he makes the point differently every time.

Don't waste your life.

Quote of the Day

2008-11-05T08:52:00.001-08:00

I hear the haunting words of Jesus, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things” (Matthew 6:31-32). In other words, if we look like our lives are devoted to getting and maintaining things, we will look like the world, and that will not make Christ look great. He will look like a religious side-interest that may be useful for escaping hell in the end, but doesn’t make much difference in what we live and love here. He will not look like an all-satisfying treasure. And that will not make others glad in God.
-John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, pg. 107-108

Execution Day!

2008-11-05T06:30:00.001-08:00

Friday, November 14, 2008

Who wants to have a party?

The will(s) of God

2008-11-05T04:57:00.000-08:00

Please.

If you've ever wanted to know the will of God in your life, listen to (or read or watch) this sermon by John Piper.

It has changed my view of God's will(s) so radically that I'll never be the same.

(You have to read/listen/watch to understand the (s). It's worth it.)

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/92/179_What_Is_the_Will_of_God_and_How_Do_We_Know_It/

What I'm Reading:

2008-11-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

Don't Waste Your Life

by John Piper

Only one life,

'twill soon be past;

Only what's done

for Christ will last.

Write that down and read it every day.

Right Now

2008-11-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

The post quit/pre not-there-anymore time is the worst.

Somehow I want to be here even less than I did before.

All I Need Is You

2008-11-04T06:10:00.000-08:00

I Left my fear by the side of the road

I hear You speak

You won't let go

I fall to my knees as I lift my hands to pray

I got every reason to be here again

It's the Father's love that draws me in

And all my eyes wanna see is a glimpse of You

All I need is You

All I need is You Lord

Is you Lord

One more day and it's not the same

Your spirit calls my heart to sing

Drawn to the voice of my Saviour once again

Where would my soul be without Your Son

He gave His life to save the earth

I rest in the thought that You're watching over me

All I need is You

All I need is You Lord

Is You Lord

You hold the universe

You hold everyone on earth

You hold the universe

You hold

All I need is You

All I need is You Lord

Is You Lord

Listen to Hillsong United's The I Heart Revolution album version and try shouting along to the chorus of this song at the top of your lungs.

You will feel better aferwards.

Warning: You may cry.

2 Corinthians 12:9

2008-11-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

My biggest struggle is doubt.

In my head, I know what's important. I know what God looks for in me. I know that I'm redeemed by the grace of God, and that He'll never forsake me.

But in my heart, I wonder if I'm good enough. I wonder if I've been focusing on the right things (often time the answer is no). I question the ceaseless mercy that is promised to me through the cross.

You see, I'm a repeat offender. I sin, and beg forgiveness only to sin again the next day (sometimes the next minute), and I worry that my shortcomings are going to keep God from doing great works. In reality, the mere thought that God could be limited by me is an affront to God. It is a grave insult to the one that loves us more than is comprehensible when we try to cap His power with our weakness.

In fact, Christ is more powerful through us because we are sinners. If we were perfect, it would not take infinite love to cover us, but since we are inherently not perfect, any powerful act of God that occurs through us is more evidently God's hand and not our own.

If I were a perfect man and God did works through me, people could be led to believe that I was the source of the works and not God. Because I am far from perfect (and I cannot emphasize that enough), no one would believe that the good works that are accomplished with my hands are truly of my own doing.

So as Paul rejoiced in his weakness, so do I rejoice in my own.

Praise God, I'm a weak and wounded man!

One More Time!

2008-11-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

I know the words to this song seem strange and childish, but it's one of the best stories behind a song that I've ever heard.

The Flaming Lips had recently released Soft Bulletin and played a few dates over in Japan. While they were there they met a woman who worked for a magazine and owned a record store and struck up a friendship that they maintained through emails after they left Japan. In the Spring of 2000 they found out that she had some sort of heart condition and wasn't doing very well.

Wayne Coyne wrote Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots as an optimistic tribute to the fight that she was putting up against her condition. Sadly, she died shortly thereafter, but her song remains.

I hope I can write songs that mean this much.

Her name is Yoshimi.

She's a black belt in karate.

Working for the city,

she has to discipline her body

Cause she knows that it's demanding

to defeat those evil machines.

I know she can beat them

Oh, Yoshimi,

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots eat me.

Yoshimi,

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots defeat me

Those evil natured robots

they're programmed to destroy us.

She's gotta be strong to fight them,

so she's taking lots of vitamins

Cause she knows that

it'd be tragic

if those evil robots win.

I know she can beat them.

Oh, Yoshimi,

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots defeat me.

Yoshimi,

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots eat me

Cause she knows that

it'd be tragic

if those evil robots win.

I know she can beat them.

Oh, Yoshimi,

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots defeat me.

Yoshimi,

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots defeat me.

Oh, Yoshimi,

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots eat me.

Yoshimi,

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots eat me.

False Comfort

2008-11-03T06:55:00.000-08:00

Sunday school Jesus is a pansy. At the time, no one ever told you that Jesus had sharp edges.

JG Ballard wrote a book called Kingdom Come. It contains this quote:

"They knew they were being lied to, but if lies were consistent enough they defined themselves as a credible alternative to the truth. Emotion ruled almost everything, and lies were driven by emotions that were familiar and supportive, while the truth came with hard edges that cut and bruised. They preferred lies and mood music."

JG is tapping into the heart of people. We are cowards who run at the first signs of difficulty. We cover our eyes in order to keep from seeing the painful truth. We fool ourselves into thinking that a the perfect life will be all satin and silk in order to feel good about our lack of spiritual discipline. Our comfort tricks us into believing that we are doing right. (God wouldn't allow us to be comfortable if we were getting it wrong, right? Dead wrong.)

A truly Godly life will not be easy. It will hurt. It will often be uncomfortable. Rejoice in the sufferings (somehow). It is a blessing. (I promise)

Marx Was Right (but in a wrong way)

2008-11-03T06:06:00.000-08:00

Religion is the opiate of the masses.

Far too often we make Christianity (or Protestantism, or Catholicism, or Consumerism, or Whatever) our god and forget that no set of Rituals, Rules and Regulations could ever take the place of an infinite God.

The very idea of His infinity precludes the possibility that there could be something that encapsulates the whole of His being.

You will fail at following the rules. I promise you that, but keep questioning Him and he will keep revealing Himself to you. You will never come close to the bottom of that well, and you will always have clean, living water to drink.

Religion is man-made and therefore a dry well that will never quench your thirst.

Leave your religion and find God.

Commandment #1

2008-11-03T05:55:00.001-08:00

I use Google Chrome as my web browser.

Whenever you open a new tab in Google Chrome, it shows you the top 9 sites that you visit the most.

Today I found out that I've been breaking the first commandment (and breaking it hard). Nowhere on that list falls anything God-based. I have ESPN, other blogs, craigslist, my email, etc.

For too long I've numbed the sense or urgent need for God with trivial pleasantries. I'm resetting my browser history, and I'm keeping Biblegateway.com as number 1.

Read your Bible. I'm going to read mine.

Return

2008-11-01T09:17:00.001-07:00

Not part of the series, but I re-thought this one and changed it up a little and decided to record it and throw it up here.

Surrealist Lyrics

2008-10-31T12:38:00.001-07:00

Do you listen to the Flaming Lips? (I'm late to this party, so if you do, don't make fun of me.)

I've had "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" stuck in my head all day.

Oh, Yoshimi

they don't believe me,

but you won't let those

robots eat me!

I'll write something that cool someday.

Sorry About the Sound Quality

2008-10-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'm using a non-video camera to take video. It's all I have.

Song #2

2008-10-30T17:21:00.001-07:00

This Cold Invades My Bones Faster Than You Could Know

Song #1

2008-10-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

If Only These Arms Could Reach Across This Empty Space

Church!

2008-10-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

I don't go to church. I am the church.

It's not a religion. It's a relationship.

and more cliches.

Brought to you by the church people that you hate.

Forget all that noise. I've come up with the best church slogan possible. Wanna see it?

I know you do.

Paint Logo!

I keep pitching it to our pastor. At first he was hesitant. Now he's actually thinking about letting me make t-shirts.

Stymied again

2008-10-30T05:36:00.000-07:00

Dagummit.

I still can't find my cable.

I'm going to use a different camera tonight. That way I can get something up here.

Two Things for this Morning

2008-10-29T05:14:00.001-07:00

One: I wrote and filmed If Only These Arms Could Reach Across This Empty Space (the first the 10 word 3 minute songs)yesterday. Unfortunately, I cannot find the cable that goes with the camera, so I have yet to upload the song to my computer. Soon enough I'll get it up there.

Two: On this, the first day of my twenty-fifth year, I quit my job. I told them I'd keep showing up until the project to which I've been assigned for the last year and 4 months is over. (That should be in about 2 weeks.)

What's next?

It's About Time I Started Using This Space For the Purpose I Had Originally Intended. aka: Post no. 1 - Catharticism (yes I made that word up)

2008-10-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

I don't like unnecessary words. (Can't you tell by the title?) I like to convey my message in as few words as possible.

This is why music is my favorite form of self-expression. I can place a single thought at the center of 5 minutes of mood music, and make you fully understand the emotion I had when the thought came to me.

I love that.

10 words over 3 minutes and you understand part of my brain. That doesn't happen with other forms of art. You would have to study a painting to understand it. You don't even have to pay attention to music to understand it.

For each of the next 10 days (including today) I am going to write one song that is exactly 3 minutes and contains exactly 10 words. When I'm done, I'll figure out a way to post the songs (YouTube maybe?) and let you hear what I've done.

Sound fun?

I don't care. It does to me!

Hooray

Abs o' Steel

2008-10-22T06:33:00.001-07:00

So...who doesn't like prominent abdominal muscles?

Nobody...that's who.

My chair at work looks like this:

It's quite comfy. You can set it to lean back at whatever angle you want. It's nice.....too nice.

Today I set it back as far as it will go so I don't get to lean back at all without looking like the laziest of all office employees. (I may in fact be the laziest of office employees, but I don't want everyone to know it) It forces me to sit up and hold myself there.

I'll have abs like these in no time:

That's what everyone wants right?

That's what I've heard anyway.

Two Things I Thought Today

2008-09-16T09:38:00.001-07:00

Just as if there was no light you would never know that you couldn’t see, so too must God exist or we could not conceive of such a notion that exists separated from our mortal experience. The fact that our souls cry for fulfillment in things not of our Earthly experience proves that ultimate satisfaction comes from something beyond our finite perception.
As far as orginis are concerned, you basically have two options:

Man, of his own accord and while governed by the natural law, transcended the natural law and created order out of chaos,
or
Something, outside of our concept of existence, created both the natural law and it's inhabitants in order that they may live in a semi-predictable environment.

Now, all that's left is for you to decide which is more logical.

What do you think?

Stop Buying Bottled Water

2008-07-30T04:48:00.000-07:00

Here are my reasons:
Tap water is held to a standard of cleanliness much higher than is bottled water.
Tap water is comically cheaper than bottled water.

Let me explain.

The cleanliness of bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA's regulation consists of one sentence: Bottled water suppliers must use an approved source.

"What is an approved source?" might you ask.

[An approved source is] a source of water...that has been inspected and the water sampled, analyzed, and found to be of a safe and sanitary quality according to applicable laws and regulations of state and local government agencies having jurisdiction.

That's all well and good, but it leaves most of the decisions on how much effort goes in to the sanitation of the water up to the people whom have the most to gain by spending the least amount of money. So, bottled water companies make the most profit when they spend least money on sanitation.

Tap water, on the other hand, is regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is far more stringent when it comes to regulating the cleanliness of water than is the FDA. It would take hours and days to explain the extent of the regulations involved in the purification and filtration of tap water, so I won't. Go here for more info: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/sdwa/index.html

Now, as for the financial side of this conversation:
1000 gallons of tap water in Fairfax County, VA costs $1.85.
1000 gallons of the cheapest bottled water you can find (Giant's Acadia brand) costs $1,280.00
1000 gallons of fancy bottled water (Fiji) costs $8,960.00

So if we divide the cost of the bottled water, by the cost of the tap water, we'll find out how many gallons of tap water we could buy with as much money as we spend on bottled.

$1,280/$1.85=691,892 gallons
$8,960/$1.85=4,843,243 gallons

4.8 million gallons of water. Do you know how many swimming pools you could fill with 4.8 million gallons of water?

7.3.

7.3 Olympic sized swimming pools is a lot of water.

Think about it the next time you grab a bottle out of the fridge instead of a glass out of the cabinet.

Beware! Scammers lurk on AutoTrader

2008-07-11T13:09:00.001-07:00

I was looking at Volkswagen Golfs online, when I came across a posting on AutoTrader for a 2007 for about $9,000 or $10,000 under invoice. I emailed the guy thinking the deal was too good to be true. Alas, it was. the schmuck emails me back with a poorly worded response that day saying that he was donating all the money from the sale to "a children foundation." Needless to say, my interest was piqued. After toying with him for a while, I sent him this message critiquing his scam style.

Well...
Here's a few things you did wrong:
1. Your description of the car isn't even accurate. (the picture shows 4 doors, your description says 2 doors)
2. Pick a car that exists. (there's no such thing as a 2007 Volkswagen Golf. There are Rabbits, GTI's & R32's.)
3. Don't tell the people right off the bat that you're not going to be able to meet with them. Who said I wanted to meet you? That's just a stupid thing to say in a first email.
4. Don't speak presumptively. (Most people that contact you about buying your car aren't going to buy your car. Everyone who's ever tried to sell a car knows that. Your assumptive tone makes people uneasy.)
5. Don't tell people that they have to pay you through eBay when they contact you through AutoTrader. (that's just plain stupid)
6. When someone asks to which charity you are donating, give them the answer right away. Don't make them ask again. It makes it seem like you don't know what you're talking about.
7. Provide a link to the charity so the person can take a look around. Don't make them go look for it.
8. Don't sign your emails as Frank when your email address is JohnnySanders99@gmail.com.
9. Laugh when I tell you a joke. Ben Affleck? Really? You thought I was serious about you meeting Ben Affleck?

Overall score: 0 out of 10 You fail.

Top 5 Bands You've Never Heard Of

2008-07-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

5. Uhhh...that one band that has the chick singer...
4. Umm...that band with the keyboards
3. you know...that band...they don't have a lead singer
2. Oh...uh...the Fleece...or the Fleas...or something like that
1. ₤өвøŧ (rhymes with robot)

₤өвøŧ plays what music historians will someday call "Missile Silo Rock."

With driving dance beats and uncomfortably loud bass lines, ₤өвøŧ is sure to take over the mainstream music scene like Alexander took over Nova Scotia.

Put them in your FaceSpace profiles now, so when the posers come out of the woodwork in 2009, that profile you haven't updated since July 8, 2008 will prove that you're far more in tune with the underground music scene than they'll ever be.

₤өвøŧ...coming to your ears August 20, 2008.

Live from Our Basement

2008-06-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

So, this is what we do with our free time.

RFK

2008-06-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

I'm not a very big fan of the Kennedy's (mostly because of Teddy's misdeeds and poor policy), but I love this quote from Bobby Kennedy's address to a group of students at the University of Kansas in 1968:

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

Terry's Gmail

2008-06-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge.

There are a two strange things about this actual screenshot.

1. I just told Mike that I'd sucker punch Paul McCartney.

2. Take a look at the sponsored link right above the inbox. Bed Wetting Diapers? What?

Dear Lenny Kravitz,

2008-06-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

You have awesome hair.

Head vs. Heart

2008-06-20T04:30:00.001-07:00

If you've ever asked me about how my job is going, you've probably witnessed me straining like crazy to withhold a stream of expletives that would make a sailor wince.

I don't care much for my job, which wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't forced to be there 52 hours a week plus the commute. (40 would be nice...36 would be nicer. This is the only time you'll ever hear me publicly envy the French.) Since I spend a great deal of time at work or going to work or coming home from work it leaves very little time for anything else.

I'm also in a band, (We're kind of a big deal...to about 20 people.) so all of my free time is spent playing music or writing music or listening to other people's music.

I love playing music. I love thinking about music. I love thinking about playing music. I want music to be my life's work. I want to create, not babysit a construction site.

So here's my problem...my job keeps me from pursuing my heart, and my head is keeping me tied to my job. So if you take out the middle man, my head, or my lack of faith in my ability to sustain myself playing music, is keeping me from pursuing the fulfillment of my heart. Thats not ok with me. That's not the man I want to be. I want reckless faith in my clear calling in life. I've been telling myself that if I just wait for the right time, the opportunity will present itself, but it's not going to.

Ok...I'm going to go kick my head into gear. Stupid head...get on board.

What Are Your Overheads?

2008-06-16T12:42:00.001-07:00

Fresh Italian Gelato (Pineapple Honey Lime flavored) = Good
$4.50 for roughly 4oz of said frozen delight = Not Good

Dolcezza,

You're good, but not that good.
I'm not even sure why you think your product is worth that much. What could you have possibly put in there to make it worth a dollar an ounce? Hand-picked pineapples from Honduras? Honey from Pooh Bear's honey pot? Limes washed up on the shores of Atlantis? It must be something like that.

Or maybe...maybe you're just overcompensating for the fact that your just a glorified ice-cream shop, or maybe the lifestyle of an ice cream shop owner is more expensive than we all realize.

...or maybe you just like to charge extra for your Italian name.

I'd buy four times as much gelato if you charged half as much.

-Terry

(Seriously, I'm pretty sure it's just water and sugar with pureed pineapple, honey & lime juice. That should cost about a dollar per pint. Plus, that's not even gelato. That's sorbetto.)

So...I got hit by a car yesterday.

2008-06-12T04:20:00.000-07:00

Or, more accurately, I got touched by a car yesterday.

I was even in a crosswalk (which is this little path that crosses the street wherein people are supposed to walk when the lighted sign on the far side of the street advises them that it's the appropriate time. There are signs and everything.)

I was standing at the corner of Woodmont and Elm in Bethesda carrying an entire tree's worth of paper in the form of a $1.5 million bill, (I do this every month) and I even waited for the signal to change. (Hailing from the great state of New Jersey, we're supposed to be faith walkers. We just step out into the street believing that the cars will stop.) I start crossing, and this lady in some sort of monstrous champaign-colored sedan starts creeping into the crosswalk, but she stops. I figured she'd noticed that the light was red, and it probably wasn't a great idea to hit the accelerator just yet. So I keep walking. I guess she didn't fully grasp the importance of the bright red lights dangling from the wire strung across the street and while I'm crossing in front of her car, she creeps up a little farther and pushes up against my leg as I'm trying to get out of the way. So now, I have my right foot planted and my left leg swinging forward, but my swing-leg can't get through the space between the car bumper and my plant leg...

so I did what any normal person would do in this situation: Spin move. Just to be cool, I didn't even look back at the lady.

(The New York metro area would be ashamed of me for not throwing my hefty stack o' papers right into the lady's windshield and slamming my fists into her hood while screaming, "Hey, I'm walkin' here!" while employing the thickest of possible accents.)

There are few things worse in architecture than over-design.

2008-06-06T07:24:00.001-07:00

Let me tell you about the building we just built.

The premise is awesome: mixed use (residential + retail) building that creates a pedestrian road down the center so as to maximize storefront. (more stores=more money)

The execution, however:

This is Festival Street, the pedestrian road down the middle of the project. The hanging lights are a really cool touch, but what's with the three different wall finishes? Solid red, different red and gray, and yellow and green?

You can't really see them in this picture, but there are some cool paver lights they put in a small access lane. (There should be way more of them covering a much larger area.)

Right above those paver lights, these curvy lights swirl around the ceiling. Is it just me or are the swirls way to normal? I think they should much more random.

More ceiling lights. These ones are under the bridge at the North end of Festival Street. Shouldn't they be curvy like the other ones? (It feels like an airport runway.)
Here is a better view of some of that Yellow and Green I was talking about. Somebody must love the Packers. (At night, the bright blue LEDs that run underneath that grate that goes up the side of the building do not help the color scheme.)

They put this fountain in one corner of the site. (Who left their dishes in the fountain? I'm blaming David.)
Look closely. Those are fake windows...with fake laundry...hanging out to fake dry. (who comes up with this stuff?)

And the Piece de Resistance
It's a 20 foot tall table lamp from the '60s. (Really?)

Gas Prices, etc.

2008-05-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

What do you know about the 20's?

Bobbed haircuts and the jitterbug are all most people can remember from our 10th grade history classes, but the 20's were a time of unprecedented economic growth. For the first time, people were earning money that wasn't going right back out the door to pay the bills. With all this loose change floating around, people were faced with a choice they'd never encountered before: spend or save.

The savers changed little. They drove the same cars. The stayed in the same houses. They ate the same food. The spenders, however, were not content to squirrel their money away for when they needed it. In their view, they needed it now. They needed better and bigger cars. They needed bigger and better houses. They needed more and better food. So they spent until they didn't have any more, but not having any more was no longer an option for these people so they turned their thirst for the almighty dollar to places that would give them money...for free!

Loans

It was like free money. All they had to do was walk into a bank and say, "I need $2,000," and the bank wrote them checks. WooHoo! Who cares about that small percentage they'd have to pay? The economy was running wild so everyone knew they'd make that money back. Everybody knew the economy would never slow down. Why would it? Things were great.

Now, we know better. Irresponsible stock market speculation led to nationwide panic. People sold so much stock to keep from losing a little in a downturn economy that the drop in stock value was exaggerated to the extent that everyone feared that all the money was running out.

The spenders were in debt, so the banks couldn't get their money back, and the savers got hosed, because it was their money that the banks had lent out.

Global economic depression followed.

The 80's were similar to the 20's. People had free money again and forgot to pay attention in 10th grade history.

They knew the market would keep gaining ground. They knew prices would never do anything but rise.

The stock market crashed again on October 19, 1987. Again, stock market speculation was the main culprit.
--------------------
Did you know that you can by futures in crude oil?

It's true. You can buy and sell crude oil by the barrel on the stock exchange. On March 30, 1983 crude oil futures began trading in New York, but until recently, the prices have been mostly subject to standard supply and demand market forces. People needed gasoline, so prices went up. Now, the main influence in the cost of a barrel of crude oil is the futures market. Now, emotions rule the day. The price of a barrel of crude oil goes up because the majority of the market believes that it will go up. The price of a gallon of gas goes up, because the price of the crude goes up. The cost will never come down

Now we know this price will continue to increase. We know that there's no chance the price will ever come back down. We know this...just like we knew the market would never slow down in the 20's, and just like we knew the market would never slow down in the 80's.

Get ready people. That bubble will burst, and it won't matter if you're a saver or a spender. It will not be pleasant.

Vote for Pollock

2008-05-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

We'll play on TV if we win!
You can pretend we're playing a song for YOU...ON TV...FER REALZ.

Not Of It

2008-03-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

I painted my first canvas this past weekend.

I call it 'Not of It'

Things It Would Be Difficult To Do in Zero Gravity:

2008-03-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Eat small candies
Cricket
Officiate a long/high jump competition
Raise cattle
Make a living as a structural engineer
Amuse children with kites/helium balloons/etc.
Play golf
Play sports in general
Lift weights
Water plants
Orbit
Not drift off into space and die of dehydration or asphyxiation (depending on how fast you were drifting).
Make a living as someone who drops things
etc.

Dear Lady at the Bagel Shop,

2008-03-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

I like cream cheese as much as the next guy, but please don't try to drown me in it. Thanks.

Hugs and kisses,
Terry

Can I Take a Minute of Your Time To Tell You About "Get a Job You Dirty Hippy?"

2008-03-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

Today, outside of a Barnes & Noble, you asked, "Do you have a minute to try to change global warming."

That's all well and good. I'm glad you feel like you can change the world with your clip board and pamphlets.

BUT, if you're going to tell me that the earth is too warm, don't do it while wearing a puffy down jacket that comes down to your knees and has a fur-lined hood. It shows a lack of faith in the liberal-spiked Kool-Aid you're selling.

Thanks,

The guy who said "No" and walked by briskly going about his actual job.

Two in a Day!

2008-02-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

I love guitars.
I have seven. I've given away two. I want more. It's a problem I have.
In order of when I got them:

Yamaha Classical (~1970's)

This one was my mother's father's father's guitar.
I sounds deep like a well and warm like a wood-fired stove.

Fender Squier Stratocaster (1997) blue-ish

This was the first guitar that I bought for myself.
When I realized that it sounded like there were rocks banging around the pickups, I changed them out for some slightly-less-sucky EMGs.

Yamaha F325 (1999)

I'll love my sister forever for buying me one of these. She was the first person to believe I had talent. It's a beginner guitar, but I don't care. I loved it. I passed it along to a new beginner. I feel like that was the best for the guitar instead of sitting around not being played.

Ovation Elite Special (2001)

My parents bought this for me one Christmas. Better than the Yamaha, but still not that great. I gave this one to my sister a few years ago after she moved out and I got a better one.

Martin 00016RGT (2005)

I bought this one for myself and I'm still playing it. It may not be the loudest, but it's the most articulate acoustic guitar I've ever played. I love this thing.

Steffens T (2006) not pictured

It plays exactly the way I want it to. It was custom assembled by me.

Boat-shaped (for my abnormally large hands) Strat-style neck
'72 Tele Thinline semi-hollow body (with custom paint)
Seymour Duncan humbuckers
all black accessories (tuners, knobs, pickguard, etc.)

Takamine EC132SC (2006)

I write most of my music while playing a classical guitar. I wanted one I wouldn't have to worry about breaking when I travel with it. I just wasn't willing to take the risk with my great-grandfather's. It plays great (even tone, excellent playability) Very solid. Very worth it.

Supro Val Trol (1958) sunburst
Quite the strange little guitar. It plays blues very well. It's different and I like it.

Gibson L6-S (1973) cherry burst

Has a very full sound to it. It has a huge range of sound (6 different positions with the pickup selector). It can get quite loud if you're not careful. It's really fun.

Somehow I still want more.

Gasp! A Music Related Post!

2008-02-27T06:09:00.001-08:00

I hate 'ice-breakers'

There are two possible resulting opinions people will have of you after an ice-breaker.

Lazy
Crazy

You either say:

Hi.
My name is Terry.
I like the beach.

or

Hi.
My name is Terry.
Teleportation...definitely teleportation. If I could only have one superpower, it would have to be teleportaion. If i could have the superpowers of one super hero, I would change my answer to Superman's powers...but that's pretty much cheating (flight, super-strength, invulnerability, heat vision (what's that all about anyway...lasers from your eyes? and yeah...I used parentheses inside of parentheses.), & ice breath), but if i was forced to narrow it down to one...teleportation.

All that to say...I hate Bon Jovi

The last ice-breaker in which I was forced to participate the question was: Do you prefer the mountains or the beach. My answer was: I hate Bon Jovi.

I really don't like passionately sung songs with unimportant subject matter. I understand Bon Jovi as an 80's band. Just starting out, Dead or Alive totally makes sense. They were on the edge of completely fading into the gray of glam metal, but they decided that they were going to play their music whether it killed them or made them kings. I totally get that. It's cool, even. BUT when you put Have a Nice Day and Who Says You Can't Go Home on the same album AND release both as singles, that's when I lose all respect for their musical endeavors.

Bon Jovi decided it would be cool to tell people to have a nice day at deafening decibel levels and then tell us that he loves New Jersey. They were wrong. Don't get me wrong, I like New Jersey as much as the next guy, but seriously no one should ever say, "I hijacked a rainbow and crashed into a pot of gold" with a straight face.

The first thing that anyone asks after y0u bash a famous band is: "What bands do YOU like?"
My answers will produce one of the following responses:

Who's Damien Rice?
Who's Sufjan Stevens?
Who's Ryan Adams?
Why do you musician types always pick obscure artists? They can't be that good if they're not as famous as Bon Jovi.

I hate Bon Jovi

AD vs. CE

2007-12-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

I remember my teachers in high school fighting to get the students to stop calling the years AD and instead use the religion-neutral CE. They argued that being state sponsored employees, they couldn't use anno domingo (year of our lord) as it would be a violation of the constitution's separation of church and state clause.

What about these?

Sunday: Sunne - Gemanic goddess of the sun
Monday: Mona - Gemanic moon god
Tuesday: Tiu - Norse god of war, Son of Odin
Wednesday: Wodin - Alternate spelling of Odin, Norse supreme god
Thursday: Thor - Norse god of thunder
Friday: Frigg - Norse goddess of beauty, Wife of Odin
Saturday: Saturn - Ancient Greek supreme god
January: Janus - Roman two-faced god of gateways
February: Februa - Roman day of purification
March: Mars - Roman god of war
April: Aphrodite - Greek goddess of love
May: Maia - Roman goddess of fertility
June: Juno - Ancient Roman queen of the gods

So, if we are to do away with AD as our denotation of years then I suggest we do away with all the other names with religious undertones.

Who's with me?

anyone?

no?

Henry, 'King of Unintentional Comedy,' Strikes Again

2007-12-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

I would have been throwing hoops around Santa's Christmas tree.

Australian Animals

2007-12-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

Um...

What

is

wrong

with

Australian

animals?

ps: why is that anteater wearing a sweater-vest?

According to the Panhandler Outside of Bethesda Bagel this Morning:

2007-11-28T06:42:00.000-08:00

People with diabetes are not to be trusted at 23 stories above the ground.
People with diabetes can't work for Clark Construction.
You don't know nothin till you get your hands dirty.
I need to pick up a hammer.

From Now On...

2007-11-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

All sneakers will be known as boots.

i.e. 'Did you see my fresh new boots?' or 'My new running boots are so light.' or 'I have more boots than any straight man should.'

That is all.

Working Titles of Super-Groups

2007-11-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

The League of Extrodinarily Gentle Men
Lawfullness Brotherhood of the United States
The Community of the Golden Finger Jewlery.
The Superfriends...(wait...that was the name they settled on?)

I'm thinking of becoming a stand-up comic

2007-10-31T07:27:00.000-07:00

Here's my first stand-up joke.

I think I'm going to start smoking...but not because I like the smell or how cool it makes you look.
I just really like littering...dangerously.

I'd be very Mitch Hedberg-like

There should be an audible beautifully sweeping score at all moments in my life.

2007-10-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've made a few car-related decisions.

I bought a car in August, and I just finalized the sale of my old car this morning.

Let me tell you, in both cases there was an internal struggle of grand scale raging within me. I'm talking good vs. evil/empire vs. rebellion/Roy Munson vs. Ernie McCrackin type struggle.

So far, I'm pretty sure I came out on top in both battles (I got a great deal buying and a decent deal selling), but seeing as how I'm a keen observer, I couldn't help but notice that no triumphal theme music played in the background in the post transaction excitement. (There's also never any laugh track played after my particularly hilarious jokes and hijinx, but that's a different matter altogether.)

Somebody call Hans Zimmer and get him to look into this. I need more french horns and violas in my life.

Prisoner's Dilemma

2007-10-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Imagine that you and an associate rob a bank and flee the scene. You are both arrested a few hours later and immediately separated.

During the interrogation you and your associate have two options:

Tell the truth
Tell nothing

These two options lead to four possible outcomes:

You both tell the truth
You tell the truth and your partner stays silent
Your partner tells the truth and you stay silent
You both stay silent

These four outcomes each lead to different punishments:

If neither of you talk, you both get 2 years in prison.
If only your partner talks, you do 10 years
If only you talk, you get off scot free
If both of you talk you both do 7 years

What do you choose?

Your first instinct would be to talk and hope your partner stays quiet so you don't do any jail time, because who wants to go to prison, but careful now...really think about it. If you do talk, and our partner talk also, you get a pretty long jail term. So you stay quiet, and hope your partner does too, that way you only do 2 years...but if your partner knows you aren't going to talk, do you really think they wouldn't rat you out to get out of doing any jail time?

Ashley Simpson (or Pieces of Me)

2007-10-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

Son
brother
friend
employee
husband
employer
father

Out of the many things a man gets to be
the one I'd sacrifice for any of the others is employee.

Good Choices

2007-10-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

It's funny how smells bring back memories.

Yesterday, I was hit with the smell of every school cafeteria in which I've ever been.

It's also funny where the mind leads you when a memory brings out a random thought.

Cafeterias always remind me of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and as I thought about my years-long routine of daily pb&j I started thinking about how my tastes have evolved since childhood.

I don't like to chew on Jolly Ranchers, pizza is not my favorite food, and I get sick of eating ice cream after the first scoop for example.

So what's different about peanut butter and jelly?

Not much

But I've found a much better use for peanut butter: apple slices.

It's not to say that jelly is bad, or that it doesn't go well with peanut butter. It's just that peanut butter is better with apple slices.

It is at once crisp and smooth, sweet and savory, and cold and warm. And for good measure, it's better for you.

How many things in life afford you so much variability yet such consistency in goodness?

Not many.

Writing it down makes me understand why I never get bored with it.

Now take a second and think about it. What things in your life are the jelly? What things in your life are good, but not the best? I challenge you to cut those things out as soon as you see them. Finding comfort in good will kill your best. It's easy to stick with what has been getting you by because it hasn't let you down, but we were not made for simply getting by. We were created for excellence.

Go and find the apple slices to your peanut butter.

Poor choices

2007-10-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

At work, I park in a parking garage that uses meters instead of gate tickets. I get to work at about 6:15 everyday, and the meters don't start till 7:00. From what I can tell, the ticket guy goes around twice a day (while I'm at work). First around 10:00 and second around 3:00.

Yesterday, I went out to my meter at 9:45 like I always do. Still no ticket. Great.

In goes my money. I put in 5 hours and 45 minutes worth (enough to get me to 3:15) and I head back to work.

I had some catching up to do at work because of my recent jaunt to California, so I stay a bit later than I usually do. I get out to my car after work to find a beautiful little $35 ticket on my windshield.

I think, "Oh, well. He must come around again some time between 4:00 and 5:00."

Not so. I open up the ticket to take a look at the time of issue......3:20. 5 minutes after my meter ran out.

Now, for those of you keeping score at home, you get 30 minutes for every quarter you put in these meters (that's pretty cheap for these parts).

So, for the price of one of these:

I wouldn't have gotten one of these:

That is an expensive nickel.

Rejected Snapple Facts

2007-09-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

"Real Fact" #233 - Hulk Hogan can drink his weight in beef gravy.

"Real Fact" #124 - There is a polar bear right behind you.

"Real Fact" #104 - "The best stuff on Earth" includes acesulfame potassium.

Great.

2007-09-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

I hadn't posted anything in a while, so I felt compelled.

Ty: Let me tell you a little story. I once knew a guy who could have been a great golfer, could have gone pro, all he needed was a little time and practice. Decided to go to college instead. Went for four years, did pretty well. At the end of his four years, his last semester he was kicked out... You know what for? He was night putting... just putting at night with the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Dean... You know who that guy was Danny?

Danny: No.

Ty: Take one good guess.

Danny: Bob Hope?

Ty: Ha ha... No, that guy was Mitch Comstein, my roommate. He was a good guy.

Now, don't get bent out of shape...

2007-09-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

Why do people who believe that global warming is cause by human pollution typically reference sources like "a scientific concensus" or "the scientific academies of the major industrialized nations and other scientific organizations?"

Why not just give me the source. When did peer pressure become an accepted form of scientific discourse?

I'm not taking sides on this one, because I haven't ever seen the information. It's always just some shadowy anonymous analysis of the information by "top scientists."

I'm a relatively smart guy, I can handle it.

And another thing, why is anyone who presents the possibility that global warming is not our fault viewed as a heretic or worse? (Inquisition, anyone?)

Hey...come here for a minute.

2007-09-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

Dude: You're Mormon, right?
Me: What?
Dude: Why are the lights on that temple next to I-495 on some times and not other times?
Me: Uh...I'm not Mormon.
Dude: Oh...There was a rumor going around that you're Mormon.
Me: Nope.

...hours later...

Dude: So what are you?
Me: What?
Dude: If you're not Mormon, what are you?
Me: Christian

The best part: he can tell that I'm different.
Now what?

Things Henry Says

2007-08-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

Henry is a king of unintentional comedy. Observe these gems:

He's trying to run me around the merryberry bush. (what?)
(After thinking for a few minutes about how a rat could have eaten his Fig Newtons) He must be in here. (in here = in the room where his Fig Newtons were sitting on the floor)
(singing) It's a lover's question, I'd like to know. Does she loves me when.....does she loves me......I forget the words.....hold on....does she loves me.........Lou Rawls. You ever listen to Lou Rawls?

Awesome.

Very Movie-like

2007-08-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

I dropped her off at the airport on Wednesday morning.

It was very dramatic.

I wanted to give her a shirt of mine that she could wear around when she missed me, but in all the sadness, I forgot to actually give it to her when she got out of the car.

We said our goodbyes, and I drove off.

Suddenly I remembered the shirt on my back seat and raced around the circle so I could back to her before she got away from the ticket stand. I pulled up and jumped out of my car without thinking about how I was parked in a no parking zone. I ran in, but she wasn't at the counter...there was no counter. She had bought and printed out her ticket at home. I ran to the security screening area and shouted her name. She was there, handing her ticket to the ID checker.

She heard me.

Quickly, she dropped her bags at the guards feet and stooped under the black belts that make up the temporary barriers as she made her way back to me.

We hugged one last time as I handed her the shirt.

We said our second set of last goodbyes, and I walked out.

Very movie-like.

Correct me if I'm wrong Sandy,

2007-08-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

but if I kill all the golfers, they're gonna lock me up and throw away the key.

Dear God,

2007-08-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Let us rock their faces off.

One of my guitar cases went from merely functional to the coolest case I've ever seen in a few strokes of a paint pen by a beautiful woman and about an hour.

Let's be serious for once

2007-08-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

At any given point, I probably have 5-10 unfinished songs banging around my brain, fighting for face time.

Here's the first line of one I wrote on the Metro last summer:

Say goodbye to the sky;
we're going under.

I think it has potential, but there's no reason it shouldn't be longer by now.

My grandfather always says, "Put your hands where your heart is."
Maybe I need to follow his advice.

Priorities, priorities.

On an unrelated note:

2007-08-16T05:59:00.001-07:00

My coworker's desk is up on blocks...

My guess is somebody stole his wheels.

There would be much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

2007-08-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

Never use the phrase, "I'm not a racist, but..."

Good things do not follow.

I was browsing Wikipedia today...

2007-08-14T05:44:00.000-07:00

I've decided to keep a regular short column on the site called "I was browsing Wikipedia today..."

Each update will start with, "I was browsing Wikipedia today..." and they'll continue with something like, "and I discovered that Carl Sagan was among the first to hypothesize that Saturn's moon Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa may possess oceans, a subsurface ocean, as in the case of Europa, or lakes, thus making the hypothesized water ocean on Europa potentially habitable for life."

Pray to God that it won't be nearly that boring.......

Now, if I haven't lost my readers by now, I'd like to present you with the first of many installments of "I was browsing Wikipedia today..."

I was browsing Wikipedia today and it turns out that Corey Feldman is, in fact, not dead.

Not only is he not dead, but he's mounting a comeback using the only method a washed-up has-been should...reality TV. In what we can only hope to be a very short-lived venture, Corey Feldman and Cory Haim want to waste 22 minutes of your time once a week with the crazy antics of middle-aged men starving for attention. I'll spare you the details of the show, so as to avoid the inevitable dry heaves and cold sweats.

The Goonies = Awesome

The Two Coreys = Not Awesome

Alas, poor Clark "Mouth" Devereaux, we hardly knew you. You will be missed.