Why Not? 25 Random something-or-anothers

So since everyone else has already done their 25 things, I guess I'll try to think of mine as well. Here it goes...

1. I almost went all four years at UNC without stepping foot in the Library. My last semester, I had to go find a biography for a psychology class. I was incredibly disappointed.

2. I have been to the last four UNC/Duke games in Chapel Hill. I've sat everywhere from the front row to the top row, and even got to shove JJ Redick my freshman year after rushing the court.

3. After making all A's in high school, I made exactly 1 A at UNC. It was in Beginning Racquetball. I was very proud. (This might be related to #1, but that's not really the point.)

4. I don't like to sleep with my back to the bedroom door. I'm really not sure why this is the case.

5. When I was 16, I was accused by the police of stealing gas. They told me they were going to take me to jail if I kept lying to them. Fortunately, they figured out it wasn't me before we got to the whole going to jail part.

6. I have gotten two speeding tickets in my life. They have both been in situations where I was trying to get to a Carolina basketball game on time.

7. I have been to NBA games, MLB games, and an NHL game, but never an NFL game.

8. For about the past three weeks now, the hot water knob in my shower has been broken. It won't cut off. The only way to cut the water off is to jam my mop between the back of the bath tub and the hot water knob. It pushes the knob hard enough to where it cuts the water off. I think I need to get that fixed.

9. I really don't care who wins the Super Bowl this year.

10. I turned 23 today. I feel old.

11. I yell at the referees a lot. One time I got on the ref's nerves so much at a UNC game, that he came over and offered me his cup of water if I would shut-up. I felt like I had done my job.

12. I have broken my thumbs more times than I can count.

13. I opened for Thousand Foot Krutch one time when I was playing drums for Micah. That was kind of cool.

14. I really really like Roller Coasters. My dream summer would be to drive around the country and stop at every amusement park I could find. I've been to Cedar Point in Ohio, and really want to go again one day. Millenium Force is my favorite roller coaster ever.

15. I picked up Annabelle Gurwitch from the airport. Does anyone remember TBS's Dinner and a Movie? Yeah, it wasn't that cool.

16. I played volleyball with Marvin Williams and Sean May after they signed their NBA contracts.

17. I really cannot go to sleep without some form of white noise.

18. I am currently an unemployed grad student and I really need to find a job.

19. I never washed my clothes by myself (without assistance) until 6 months ago. I still try to avoid it whenever possible.

20. There is a groundhog that lives in my back yard, and I see him just about everyday. We are becoming very good friends.

21. I am a huge procrastinator. I cannot remember ever proofreading a paper. I don't always write intelligibly when I am tired. A combination of all these factors makes for some pretty interesting papers.

22. I have shrunk 1 1/2 inches since my freshman year of high school. (See #10)

23. I cried every morning for weeks when I first started Kindergarden. I remember hiding in the bathroom at school for a long time one day because I didn't know what else to do.

24. I really want to Bungee Jump over a river one day. I just haven't found anywhere to do it yet.

25. Sometimes people think I'm Amish. --->>>


Wow. That was harder that I thought it was going to be.

Thoughts from Class

So you have to know that I'm really missing my Dr. Pepper if I'm about to write stuff about one of my classes. Just for a quick update, I'm on day 7 of my water only kick. I'm really hoping to make it a whole month and see if I can tell any difference. It's going OK but I really miss it. The hardest times are late at night when I'm just sitting around the apartment. (Kind of like now!)

But back to my class today. I'm in a worship class focusing on current trends in worship, mainly the emerging church (at least I think that's where we are headed). The first few days, we've spent the majority of the time focusing on the millennial generation (those born roughly from the early 80's until 2000), and the ways in which they have broken from the previous generations. One of the ways that we looked at this is through the acronym EPIC.

E xperiential
P articipatory
I mage-driven
C onnected

I wanted to find something that really encompassed all of these aspects of Millennials. The first thing that came to my mind was some of the concerts that I have attended. One of my favorite bands, and by far the best concerts that I've been to, is Mute Math. Check out this video and look for some of these aspects in their show.



I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. But it's obvious that through using lights and sounds and wierd Atari instruments hooked up to computers and synthesizers, they engage their audience. It's truly an Experience, the audience is participating. I didn't see it in this video, but I've seen them use projectors in their shows, simply rotating different black and white photographs in the background. They connect with their audience, the lead singer goes out into the audience and lets them play the Atari.

So all of this got me thinking. How should we incorporate these aspects into our worship services? Is there any carry over between a Mute Math concert and our time of worship on Sunday mornings in "big church?" I know that our worship services are not for entertainment purposes. They are not meant to be a show. Worship services aren't about us, about us receiving any praise or glorification; we don't do it for a big applause at the end of the service. But I'm thinking in terms of engaging the audience, specifically this millennial generation. It may be hard to discern simply from watching the video, but when you attend one of Mute Math's concerts, you are instantly drawn in, instantly engaged, instantly focused on the matter at hand. All other distractions are postponed, put aside, or forgotten. So should we start lining the backs of our stages with fluorescent lights? Should I start practicing my handstands on top of my keyboard? How about pouring water on the drum set and putting a back light on them, so you get a cool splashing water effect when the drummer pounds the drums?

What do you think? Obviously I'm being semi-facetious in some of my examples, but what lessons can we learn from these concerts, if any, about engaging the people we lead in worship?

To Heat or Not to Heat?

So it's starting to get a little chilly here in Lynchburg. Currently it's something like 17 degrees outside and it's supposed to get down into the single digits tomorrow. Now, I am certainly not complaining. I'm actually quite excited about the cold weather finally arriving. I can't imagine what -40 degrees feels like, and I'm sure that's not very fun. However, I really do enjoy the cold weather that usually accompanies these winter months.

But now, I'm facing a dilemna. I have yet to cut the heat on in my apartment these year, other than twice earlier in the winter just to see what it would do and how bad it would smell. Let me qualify that statement by saying that I do live in a well insulated basement, so my apartment stays warmer than many other places. Yet, it's starting to get kind of chilly in here. Currently, my thermometer says that it's 53 degrees in here. It really doesn't feel that cold, but after a while it starts to get to you. You know when your hands are really cold and in a last ditch effort to warm them up, you run your hands under hot water, and you get that stinging sensation? Well that's how my feet felt this morning when I got in the shower. Anyways, I think I'm going to try to make it through this weekend without the heat and see how cold it gets. After that, I'll reassess the situation and decide whether running the heat is worth it.

In other news, I'm on day 2 of my "only water" test. It took me about 45 minutes to figure out that this experiment was not a lot of fun. I'm sticking to it, and I'm drinking plenty of water, but it's just so disappointing everytime I go to the refridgerator, and all I can pull out is my filtered water. It also doesn't help that I still have dozens of empty Dr. Pepper cans all around my apartment; they just serve as a reminder of the greatness that I am missing out on all day long.

Ok, that's enough complaining for one post. I'll leave you this time with an amazing video and song that was brought to my attention by a good friend of mine. After hearing this song, I immediately spent my remaining iTunes giftcard on this album. Check it out here. (Sorry, embedding this video has been disabled, so you'll have to click on the link.) It's by far one of the best covers that I've heard of any song in quite some time. It's definitely worth your time.

What am I about to do?

I love Dr. Pepper. Can I say that again? I love Dr. Pepper. I really don't remember when I started drinking Dr. Pepper. But for as long as I remember, me and Dr. Pepper have been really good friends. On a regular day, I probably go through 6 or 7 cans each day. Like I said, we're pretty tight.

But over the past few months, for one reason or another, I've started drinking more and more Dr. Pepper, all while being pretty lazy and progressively getting more out of shape. So I don't know whether to blame this on my desire NOT to have any New Year's resolutions or what, but today I decided to give up Dr. Pepper for one month, and drink only water. I've tried this one other time way back in high school, and if I remember correctly, I managed to stay off of Dr. Pepper for a few months. Since then, I've tried caffeine free, and diet, and diet caffeine free, but I always come back to Dr. Pepper.

But today, I'm going to give it one more shot. I'm really not sure if I'll keep it up or not, but I want to try it for 1 month. Hopefully, along with the drinking only water, I'll start exercising a little bit, but no promises on that part. After 1 month, I'll see if I can tell any difference in how I feel, my energy level, etc... If I can't tell any difference, then it's back to Dr. Pepper for me.

We'll I'll let you know how it goes. To borrow Disciple's album title from several years ago: "This might sting a little."

Resolutions

I don't know how many of you made New Year's Resolutions. It's something that I've done in the past, but this year I decided not to make any resolutions. Ok, so maybe it wasn't so much of a purposeful decision as it was simply forgetting to think about it, but let's not split hairs here. Part of my thinking concerning resolutions is that they just don't seem to stick around very long. That's true for me at least.

And let's be honest, that's the case for most people. If everyone that made a resolution to lose weight actually lost weight, wouldn't we see a decline in the number of people making that resolution every year? But if that is your New Year's Resolution, more power to you. I just know I'm not very good at keeping them.

So I'm not making any resolutions this year. But if I were to make a resolution or two, which I'm not, somewhere at the top of the list would be to get into the habit of reading more. I know, I know. Those of you that know me can quit laughing now. I'm not a big fan of reading. Me and reading just don't get along. I somehow manage to read through a few chapters of a book, and I'll actually enjoy it, but then I'll put it down and never pick it up again. I've done this for years. But I'm beginning to learn that reading really is another way that I can grow, both mentally and spiritually. I managed to get through a few books for some classes last semester, and I actually enjoyed them. I enjoyed the discussions that we had in classes, and I've been pleasantly surprised at the amount of information that I've retained, and the amount of times I've referenced these books in conversations with other people.

So I got a head start on the New Years by reading Half-Life Die Already: How I Died and Lived to Tell About it by Mark Steele. (Yes, I read the whole thing.) This is a great book, written by a hilarious author. If you go to his website linked above (Yes, you actually have to insert the candy corn into his mouth to enter the site!) you can listen to the forward and chapter one from the book in audio format. It's kind of lengthy but I highly recommend you start chapter 1 and skip to the end for a truly hilarious story. (Click on "Summer Storms" below the picture and then "Audio Chapters.")

In the book, Mark writes about the past year in his life, the most difficult year of his life, and how he struggled to survive it. Mark writes in sort of an ADD way. He'll start a story, and then leave it for a chapter or two, then come back to it later to finish it up. It can get confusing, but in the end, Mark sums things up beautifully. I promise, he'll have you in tears because you'll be laughing so hard. It's a fun read, but also a very sobering read about how all of our efforts to withstand life's complications and problems can be performed in vain.

I'll leave it at that. If you're still reading at this point, thanks. And as a way of saying goodbye, I'll leave you with this picture from last night's UNC vs. College of Charleston game. And who said you couldn't stop Tyler Hansbrough?

I'll give it a shot

Well, it's a new year (or close to it at least). I've thought about creating a blog several times and I've always talked myself out of it. The usual thought process typically goes something like this...

(1) I read someone's blog and enjoy it.
(2) I think that I should start a blog.
(3) I tell myself that I won't keep it up.
(4) I go to sleep and forget about it.

Well maybe I should have gone to sleep tonight like I usually do, but I guess I've had one too many Dr. Peppers today. I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but I'm going to try it out and just see what happens. It is my hope that I will use this blog to share a few funny stories, write down some thoughts that pop into my head throughout the day, and who knows what else. Don't expect to read anything very profound in here, and if you do, it's most likely taken from someone else (I'll try to credit where credit is due). I'll just be writing down some things that I think of, or relaying ideas that I've come across that stuck with me.

So this entry will be short. Tonight, I'll just say that I stole the title of this blog from a Mat Kearney song called Breathe In, Breathe Out. Yes, it was played on Grey's Anatomy and it's on their soundtrack, and No, I haven't seen the show. But I do like the song, as I do all of Mat's songs. I'm highly anticipating his next record, and hoping his sophomore album does not go drain like some other artists that I've heard recently (i.e. Jon Mclaughlin). All that to say, if you don't have Mat's album Nothing Left to Lose, I highly recommend you buy it. It will be well worth the money.

But anyway, I guess this counts as blog entry #1. Hopefully, I'll get to at least 10 before I forget all about this thing. Now, I'll go to sleep. Thanks for reading.