i hope david's right...

1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me.
You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you restored my health.
3 You brought me up from the grave, O Lord.
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.

4 Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!
Praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

6 When I was prosperous, I said,
“Nothing can stop me now!”
7 Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.
Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.

8 I cried out to you, O Lord.
I begged the Lord for mercy, saying,
9 “What will you gain if I die,
if I sink into the grave?
Can my dust praise you?
Can it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me.
Help me, O Lord.”

11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!

Psalm 30

the nineteenth

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Today marks the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment, ending a good 70+ years of struggles for the suffrage movement. It's interesting, for such a large occasion, there was no ceremony, no photographers, no pen distribution. The Secretary of State at the time, Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation at 8 a.m. in the morning at his home. Colby drank a cup of coffee and signed the document with an ordinary, steel pen. Then he said, "I turn to the women of America and say: 'You may now fire when you are ready. You have been enfranchised.'"

All those years of struggles ends anticlimactically with a cup of coffee, a stroke of a pen, and a little quote.

chew your food.

I ran across this interesting little poem on the writers almanac called Last Meal, by Bill Holm:

On death row you celebrate your last night
with your last dinner, your choice, your last craving
to make at least your stomach happy before it stops
craving anything at all. Many choose
simple food: a hamburger, mac and cheese, ice cream.
What might it be for you, my friend?
Duckling Rouenaisse? A roast of unborn lamb?
Washed down with Veuve Cliquot '59 and old Armagnac?
And how do you know, my friend, that you are not
eating your last meal at this very table now?
Chew slowly. Make sure you take in all the body and the blood.

The way the poet gets his message across is definitely interesting in a weird way. As I read it this morning, it totally made me look at my chocolate cheerios a little differently. There's no way my last meal is gonna be a handful of dry cereal in the car :P

the longest week ever...

This week has been long. As a matter of fact…it’s been longer than long…it’s been endless for reasons I’d rather not disclose. Even though it’s been one of those weeks, there have still been little things that have amused, intrigued, tickled, or just downright annoyed me.

I just got back from youth group retreat, and man was it fun. There was a little capture the flag action going on, as well as some firepit fun and a little stargazing as well (google sky map is freakin awesome!!). We also played like 10 rounds of mafia (got killed off in first 2 rounds EVERY game even though I had the face of innocence…) and some other games to kill some time.

Everyday this week I drive in to work at the same time and I always pass by harbor blvd at 8:50 and see an interesting scene. There’s usually about 5-10 UPS trucks that get on the freeway. They caravan all the way until the intersection of I80 and I5, and they suddenly all peel away…one of these days I should take a picture of this interesting scene…

Wednesday morning I went to air out and clean two of the compass tents that we used last weekend for the acacia camping trip. There were two identical tents and I wasn’t sure which one needed cleaning because one of the guys had used it and left a rather robust odor in the tent (although I must note that he did leave the tent in a cleaner condition than the girls did…). Needless to say…being on my hands and knees scrubbing brown spots off the bottom of a tent with Lysol wipes at 8am is not how I envisioned starting my Wednesday mornings.

My coworkers have started a fantasy football league and the admin was sending out the invite to all who expressed interest. He didn’t, however, disclose what his email address was. So it was a little startling to see this in my inbox when I got home:
Yahoo! Fantasy Sports: sexyjesus@gmail.com has invited you to join the fantasy football league Corporate Gangstas

This whole week I’ve been chatting with my coworkers Bao (formerly known as CTG) and Denise on sametime about the most random crap. Because work has been a bit dull these last few days…we’ve been having random question time. As you can imagine…all kinds of stuff came up, from HS reunions to counting paperclips to churches to glasses.

One of my buddies is moving to NY for grad school and so I met up with him for a drink at yummy guide the other day. It didn’t quite dawn on me until an hour into it that this was probably the last time I’m gonna be able to get milk tea with the guy…kinda sad but I’m happy for him…I guess it’s one of those happy crappy moments.

There’s a guy at work who is intent on giving me fatherly advice. I’m not really sure why, but he says some of the cheesiest cliché dad lines to me every time we have a meeting. There are days when I want to mention to him that I already have a father who loves me and is actually there for me.

Cupcake is not a verb!!

Ok so I must explain a little before this next story. In our building, we have to use the badge in the elevator to get from floor to floor and the badge reader is about waist high. So on Thursday, as I got into this particular elevator to go up to 10th floor with some coworkers, I felt a little lazy and decided to, instead of pulling my badge out of my back pocket, to just see if the card-reader would scan if I just got my back pocket close enough to it. Unfortunately, the emergency stop button is right next to the badge reader. While the badge did read, I also had to explain to security on the phone why I accidentally pushed the emergency stop button. Time to hit the gym…

The other day I was leaving target with a 24-pack of charmin ultra soft. Of course since it didn’t fit in a plastic bag I walked out carrying it under one arm and a bag with my cereal and OJ in the other hand. The looks I was getting from people in the parking lot made me feel so self-conscious…don’t judge me!!

Thanks for putting up with this horrendously long post (kinda fitting for the longest week ever I suppose…). I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the random stuff I’ve been through this week. The ebook and kindle version will be made available later this month.

Ciao!

unplugged.

I finally broke down and got a smartphone this past week. It’s a funny feeling to have, with this droid phone, I’m able to get and reply to messages and emails pretty much instantly, wherever I am (except for sardine lake, apparently).

I’m still trying to get used to this new feeling of connectedness that I’m experiencing. I can not only go online to check emails and venture onto gchat, but find the nearest starbucks (or peets) play tetris while waiting in line, ID the song playing in the store through shazam, and have it downloaded with the click of a button all while they’re preparing my iced double expresso. Oh and the youtube music video is only a click away as well. I can tether it to my laptop and plop down in some random park and get work done (hehe yeah right…) or stream some tv shows from hulu. All this from a 5”x2.5” handful of perfectly amalgamated metal, glass, and google.

At the same time, I’m having a strange feeling of disconnect with reality. I haven’t had to remember a phone number since high school. If you were to ask me what my mom or dad’s cell phone numbers were…I wouldn’t be able to tell you, even though I talk to them all the time. It’s been at least 10 years since the last time someone hasn’t been able to reach me by cell and I don’t think I’ve gone through a single workday without being interrupted by a call or a text message. Those facts are a little troubling for me to digest.

I’m having trouble recollecting the last time I got a handwritten note. I’m having trouble recollecting the last time I used a land line. I’m having trouble recollecting the last time I looked at a paper map. I’m pretty sure I can live a 1992 lifestyle and still live pretty well, and yet, I have a strange desire to be connected 24/7 with the rest of society. This little dichotomy has me spinning in circles. How connected is too connected?

what if?

I live in a world where my religion is my religion. I live in a world where I believe in the god I believe in because it works for me. If it doesn’t work for you, then I’m sorry, but it’s my religion. I live in a world where if you say something that doesn’t align with the bible, I wouldn’t say anything because I don’t want to offend you. I live in a world where moral integrity can be compromised and my perception of right and wrong are fluid. I live in a world where I can watch preachers on TV stand at the pulpit and preach on how god wants you to be rich. I live in a world where we keep god to ourselves because we don’t want to tick off the people next door. I live in a world where you should go worship the god of your choosing and I can be free to worship at the altar of my own, personal, politically-correct god.

What if that was my world? Am I doing anything to change it?

patience

I came across this poem on patience by Pat Schneider:

The Patience of Ordinary Things

It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they're supposed to be.
I've been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?

After I read this poem, I caught myself staring at my cup of coffee, the towel rack, my coffee table. I’ve never found myself so curiously drawn to these ordinary things, things we take for granted to do the things they do. Maybe that’s why I’m late for work…

I think I know what I want to be for Halloween…

when I saw this on amazon today…I couldn’t help but crack-up. Apparently they’ve designed a sleeping bag that provides mobility in case you’ve already bundled up for the night only to realize you’ve left your backpack outside the tent or something. I gotta say…the idea is good and I appreciate the practicality, but the guy in the next tent is going to wonder if the Michelin man has come to change his tires. With that said…I think I kind of want one…

devos

I was thinking about jerry’s message about devos in the shower this morning, and an interesting thought crossed my mind. Supposedly there are 2.2 billion Christians in the world. If every single one does their devos every single day, at any given moment, every word of the Bible is being read. Wouldn’t that be awesome?? I was quite tickled by that possibility…

christmas in august

Recently I’ve been stuck in a Christmas music rut. I’ll listen to any kind from Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Jars of Clay to Diana Krall and Josh Groban. Today my ears came across a new (at least to me) artist: Meaghan Smith. Her voice is something you just don’t hear everyday. It’s got that big-band era feel to it (maybe it’s the bass in the background…) and leaves me pretty much speechless.

8:36PM

ok this is kinda weird, but i saw this on a blog once and thought this would be cool to try out. Basically, the 8:36 project is very simple and has only one rule: you take a picture everyday at 8:36PM, wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you find something to snap. I'm a little excited to see where this is going to lead... If you're interested, check out the 8:36PM photo album on my FB.