rewind

I hate to say this - but I really like Adam Sandler's new movie Click. Steve Buscemi and those two other guys that are in every Adam Sandler movie....and only in Adam Sandler movies weren't in this one. Frodo is the new guy that's in every one of his movies now I guess.

Anyhow, Sandler still can't act. His jokes still revolve around him yelling and then making poop noises. Having said that, this movie really was interesting.

I used to daydream about what it would be like to go back to when I was a kid. I wondered how I'd live my life over knowing what I know now. I wonder what it'd be like to be in sports having coached for over a decade. I wonder how I'd treat my friends knowing now how goofy the teen peer pressure thing is....and how easily manipulated it could be. It would be interesting to have conversations with adults, as a twelve year old, and not have them be able to keep up.

Ultimately you can't go back...and I wouldn't want to. I look at my two kids in diapers and wonder how frustrating it would be to have to have someone notice when I was carrying around a pound of human waste. I wonder how frustrating it must be to not be able to communicate. I wonder how much it bugs Griffin (age 5) to have to ask when he can go out and play and when he can eat, sleep and watch tv.
That would drive me nuts.

As cool as it would be to know more than my teachers (in some cases) I think it'd be annoying to have my opinions summarily discounted because I was seven.

None of this really has anything to do with Click. His deal is more about fast forwarding through the rough times. By doing that, he misses out on life...and really living.

I wonder how much of life I miss out on by skipping by the great challenges? How different would my life be, going forward - if I embraced the challenges and dove straight into them, and took some greater risks...

tort reform?

so there's a guy that's suing Michael Jordan and Nike because people keep asking him if he's Michael Jordan.
Seems fair. I'm not sure why he's not suing North Carolina or the Bulls though.

Christopher Roller of Burnsville, Minn. Roller is mystified by professional magicians, so he sued David Blaine and David Copperfield to demand they reveal their secrets to him -- or else pay him 10 percent of their lifelong earnings, which he figures amounts to $50 million for Copperfield and $2 million for Blaine. The basis for his suit: Roller claims that the magicians defy the laws of physics, and thus must be using "godly powers" -- and since Roller is god (according to him), they're "somehow" stealing that power from him.

Sure. Why not?

So they sue Copperfield, Blain, Jordan and Nike. I end up paying $400 for tickets to their magic shows and $300 for their shoes. I pay more for a Big Mac because somebody spilled coffee on their lap. There was a lady who sued two teenage boys who were delivering free cookies to their neighbors...and they scared her by knocking on her door. She won $900, by the way.

I was on Jury duty when a lawyer asked, "does anyone think that this lawsuit against this insurance company could affect insurance rates?"

me: um...yeah....it's a real expence that the company has to pay to be here, to pay their lawyers, to possibly have to pay....

Lawyer: that'll be all - We ask that this juror be excused your honor.

So the flip side is some company getting away with horrific things, all the while knowing that they'll only have to pay so much if they're caught. (if there were some sort of cap on these lawsuits)

According to USA Today:
CEOs didn't even escape this summer's sci-fi releases: Halle Berry becomes Catwoman due to skin cream made addictive; Dr. Otto Octavius turns villain in Spider-Man 2 in a gone-haywire attempt to make a profit; and I, Robot exposes the ultimate warranty hassle when products made by U.S. Robotics start killing humans because sleazy executives in 2035 try to cut a few corners.
and...
About the only villains left are terrorists and CEOs -- and terrorists will probably be portrayed as sympathetic long before CEOs, says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

So is tv right? I've grown accustomed to drawing most of my opinions from conclusions I've come to after watching episodes of Entertainment Tonight. If Oprah tells me that lawyers are good and corporations are bad, shouldn't I trust her? She's Oprah after all...

So what's a boy to do?

spent

I watched the all star game last night. It was a nice showcase for the best stadium in baseball. It's more or less a popularity contest. They always leave out players who should have made it and invite guys that just aren't that great. It's sort of frustrating if you look at it that way.

It's also kind of puzzling why they have an all star game in the middle of the season. Every year there's some guy who bats 260 with 12 home runs and 35 RBI's during the first half....not great, but not terrible. Then the guy bats 370 with 30 more home runs and 70 more RBI's the second half. He's just a slow starter, but over the course of the year, he's the best guy at his position. So to have a great year and not make the all star game is kind of a sham. That's how it's set up though.

Here's the one thing I noticed during the game. There were two seats - the best two seats in the house - right behind home plate. It was a row of two. Nobody sat in them for 8 1/2 innings. There was one guy in one of the seats for a couple of outs during the 4th inning....but other than that - nada, bupkis, zero, zilch....empty, unused, vacant (I'm guessing you're getting my point)

WHAT A WASTE! Whoever owned those seats could have given them to a sick kid, sold them on e-bay and given me the money, put up a sign that would have been on national tv for a couple of hours, held a cell phone up while waving to whoever was on the other line into the camera. Nothing. Empty. Unused. Wasted!

I sometimes wonder how much money I'd have it I snapped my fingers and had all the money that was wasted in the world for one day. I get all the money that people lose, spend on stuff that they'll never once use, spend on stuff that doesn't work but they won't take back, all the unclaimed rebates, all the money that they're overcharged at supermarkets but don't notice, the money they spend on products that don't work the way they thought they would.....I get it all. I'm guessing I'd be a mega-billionaire with just one day's waste.

I wonder how much I would have if I could snap my fingers and get all of the money I wasted in my life. Same kind of stuff....rebates, overcharges, stuff that doesn't work, money I took out of investments to waste on stupid stuff.....I'm guessing I'd be pretty happy, yet sad, with my new money.

Which brings me to my final point - I wonder how much of my time/talents/gifts/energy I wasted yesterday? I wonder how I could have maxed out what God has given me to help others, inspire, encourage or instruct? I wonder who I would have helped, had I really died to myself and given of myself completely? I wonder how my day would have changed????

I don't want to live a life of empty seats, unfulfilled expectations, mediocre results. I want to be spent, completely...

everywhere a sign

I just read a deal about a sign company that specializes in church signs. They had a signed testimonial from the Pastor of this church talking about how his church quadrupled in size after they put up their new sign.

They went from 200 to 800 people by putting up a nicer sign.

What hurts my brain is that this full page, back of the magazine ad must have cost a bunch of nickels. These guys have to know a little something about business to at least be in the position to purchase this ad. They have to know that this ad will actually work with some people.
Somewhere there's a member of a church board saying, "Well shoot, we need to be blessed with one of this beautiful signs and see our church quadruple in size! Let's go get us one of these beauties!"

I see youth groups have the "world's largest pizza party" or "longest slip n' slide" and that's how they get the little ones to show up. I've heard about meetings that are centered around what kind of signs we should put up to attract the most people. I've now read about the power of signs that can quadruple the size of your church....

really?

That's how it works?

People aren't interested in relationship, they're interested in reading?

I get that signs help. I understand that it's helpful to have a sign that tells you what's inside the building...or when that building is open. I just wonder how much we should focus on these helpers.

What if our strategy for reaching the world was billboards?

What if our way to connect with high school students was by luring them into events with bands, halftime speakers at sporting events and the world's largest lawn mowing party?

Events can be fun.
Signs can be helpful.

Relationships can encourage, build trust, be instructive and develop a sense of belonging.

Spend the day working on an event - or spend the day with the people you're trying to connect with?

What do you think we should focus on?

world cup

Not only does Italy have the best food in the world, now they've got the best soccer team in the world. I've decided that I'm pretty indifferent about that.

I watched the game yesterday and can honestly now say that football is way better than soccer. Sorry.
It just is.
It's more physical. It's more exciting. There's more strategy.

I was watching the game with a former all state soccer player who said, "I hope it comes down the penalty kicks"
me: really?
former all state soccer player: yeah, it's the best possible ending

So it wasn't about the craftiness of a defense or the intricacies of how they pass the ball back and forth....it was about seeing a ball go in a net and not watching the ref say it's no goal because of off sides.

They ought to go ahead and make off sides legal. There'd be more scoring. People who don't understand the rule wouldn't get mad every 2 minutes when they called it. It would change the dynamics of the whole sport.

"You just don't understand it. If you did, you'd appreciate it"

I think I understand it. I watched some games and , apparently, you have to kick, head, knee the ball toward a net in the hopes that the other team will accidentally kick it in for you. If someone from the other team sneezes in your direction, you should fall down grabbing at your knee as though it might come off.
Yellow cards are bad.
Red cards are worse.
If you score a goal, take off your shirt.
If you're on the bench, get comfortable.
Repeat after me, "this is the most popular sport in the world" Keep saying that until people start to believe it (NASCAR is trying the same strategy)

It's fun when they score....so once or twice every three hours...but other than that????

waste

I'm looking at a room full of books that are just sitting here. They're not being read, so is that a waste? They could be in someone's home that would love and care for them. Annie and I will most likely not re-read them. Eventually we'll throw them in boxes and put a sign on them that says, "hardbacks 50 cents and paperbacks a quarter"

I have four computers. Two don't really work, but I'll bet somebody could get them going. One's a laptop and one sits in my basement next to all the boxes of books. I have two lawnmowers - an electric cordless and a 6.75 hp gas powered one.

We have tools that are seldom put to use (although Buddha and I used a pipe wrench to fix the garage door last night - figure that one out).

We have dishes that are only brought out when we have more than 4 guests. We have a table that fully expanded with all the leaves inserted comfortably seats 10.

I'd like to have the books around in case I ever want to reference or re-read them. I'd like to have the tools, dishes and leaves around in case we need them. I like having extra stuff...even though I don't really need it.

I just haven't gotten around to giving away our two foosball tables, extra lawnmower, or dorm fridge.

Clearly some of this is excess. It's obvious that we're wasting space and possessions.

What's a guy to do?

I have time that I don't maximize. I have a bedroom that's spare. I have gifts/possessions/talents that have been given to me that I'm not always a good steward of...

So should I just start giving stuff away? My time, my energy, my books, my couches (we have 5) How much is enough? Should I have two hours a day to just sit around and play with my kids....or one hour? We have food that goes bad in our pantry and fridge just about every month. So, should I not have two couches in the room that nobody ever goes into? Should we sell all our books and donate the money to charity?

I hear people that are rich in time complain that those who are rich in money should pay more in taxes, share the wealth. Should the rich complain that people who work 40 hours a week giving more of what they do have...time? Should both groups complain that I have 5 alarm clocks in my house?

I always say that I want to spend my life doing stuff where I get the most bang out of my buck. I want to do stuff that will see the greatest possible change. So maybe it's time I start wasting less and spending more.

Maybe a good start is for me to take care of my stuff. I can start with the basement. Just start going through boxes and send off the stuff that I obviously haven't needed for the past 8 months and give them to someone who would appreciate them.

So what do I do with my wasted potential?

the big question

If you could ask God any question, what would it be?

I'm guessing we'd all have some similar questions and then a few unique ones.

If we took all of these questions and figured out which one's are answerable and separated those by the questions that only God could figure out...we'd have a lot of questions. We'd have a whole big 'ol range of questions that we're dying to know.

So why aren't those questions answered in the Bible?

So now God makes a bigger Bible that answers all of our questions about how old the Earth is, how he did the walking on water deal, what's the deal with Fuller's dating life...and now we have 73 books in our Bibles.

If our knowledge of how things works was represented by a big circle...and there were all these question marks outside of our circle - and God expanded our circle...wouldn't we just come up with then new question marks that are outside of our new circle? If he made us a bigger Bible and answered more of our questions, that'd just lead us to more questions based on our new understanding.

Until we're as smart as God, we'll always have questions. People will come up with theories that answer our questions. People will argue about these theories. We'll create bumperstickers stating the different arguments. We'll make fun of the stupid people that don't agree with our theory. People will get condescending, and announce their superiority.

I'm guessing that no matter how big our circle of understanding gets...we'll always find things to doubt God with...and argue over.

Aren't we awesome...

blog?

Something strange happened to my blog in the last day or two. I've lost all my links, my little counter deal, $50 and my profile.

If you've seen any of these things, please let me know so that I can see my little blog the way it was meant to be seen again. And if you see fifty dollars on the street, in one of your pockets or your wallet - that's mine.

thank you and good night


5 minutes later....

um...never mind. It's back. Apparently this thing has a mind of it's own. I guess I'm showing my computer savy side today. Maybe Bill Gates has heard that I've switched to firefox.
I still love you Bill

fireworks

Fireworks, in my opinion, are good for about 57 seconds. A really good show might go a minute, but at some point you realize that it's just more of the same.

Adding music was a big improvement. That took it from the 29 second range to more than double the entertainment value.

Me at a fireworks show:
first 5 seconds: Hey look they've started!
next 10 seconds: Wow! There's a big shiny red circular one! Look, it's spraying out at all angles!
Next 20 seconds: Now they're mixing up the red ones with the loud banging ones and the blue ones!
next 15 seconds: I think we've seen just about all they've got....wait a second....that's a different, squiggly one!
next seven seconds: I wonder if there are any different ways to make red, white or blue fireworks do cool stuff....
next second: nope

next 20 minutes: They're still shooting them huh?

comparison game

Is comparing yourself to others good?

Seriously?

It feels like a no-brainer, doesn't it?

A girl that never feels skinny or pretty enough has trouble comparing herself to some girl on a magazine cover that doesn't actually look like that without the air brushing, plastic surgery and half pound of makeup.

A guy that makes $4/hour has trouble comparing himself to Bill Gates, Donald Trump or Bob Saget.

Someone who lives in stereotype paranoia is comparing my last two examples and wondering why I chose the girl for the physical comparison issues and the guy to financial. Fine. I'm probably way off with that.

So comparison is bad, right?

What if I'm frustrated that I only make $4/hour, but then I think about all the people who make $3/hour doing manual labor? What if I think about all the people who are born with physical or mental disabilities, without a dad or live in a rough situation... and it helps me to keep a healthy perspective on my lot in life? I've got it pretty good...that's where I'm going with this.

Can we use comparisons to help us to appreciate all of the good things in our life? Is that good to do?

It's hard for me to compare my blog to Steve Fuller's. On the one hand, he talks about a lot of interesting stuff...but then I remember that he likes Jim Rome. So should I envy his blog, or feel better about my brain enjoying dialog that doesn't involve the words, "War goes out to D Bus - props to the pimp in the box - bang your monkey - I'm out!"

It can create envy. It also can give us perspective. Often the perspective is a bad one. Everyone feels like everyone is "basically a good person" and that tends to lend itself to overcrowded prisons, and a society that just keeps sinking lower and lower. If everyone gets by with the, "well he's no Hitler" or "at least he's not killing anybody" - well that doesn't really help.

Envy - Healthy perspective?