The YSF Video 2209

Well Hello there! Okay so I've been real busy and I haven't had time for blogging.
But I did have time to put together a video for the Youth Service Fund (YSF) that I'm pretty proud of so check it out.

Christmas comes to Kroger

I had a wonderful time over the Holidays and now that it's finally Christmas I'm looking forward to a little bit of calm. Sunny and I drove from Hot Springs to Tulsa, from Tulsa to Harrison, and from Harrison to Hot Springs, then from Hot Springs to Clarksville and from Clarksville back to Hot Springs all in a week. I like to drive but enough is enough.
I do need to confess though that a few days before Christmas I had an euphoric moment of Christmas cheer. Believe it or not I was at Kroger (a giant grocery store) and when I arrived I prepared myself for the normal pushing and shoving and grabbing and greed that is so pervasive in any retailer at Christmas time. As I walked through the parking lot on my way toward the store I looked up and a woman was coming out the door. She made eye contact with me and smiled brightly and said, "merry Christmas". To which I replied, "merry Christmas to you". The music inside the store was not Janet Jackson Strips To Your Holiday Favorites, it was an actual choir of Christmas carolers singing Christmas music. More than that, everyone I passed looked me in the face and smiled and wished me a merry Christmas without grabbing products from my cart or reaching over me to snatch away the last tin of spam spread. I started to look around for the candid camera host, but as it turns out it was an honest to goodness moment or Christmas spirit. A Festivus miracle.

My Kind of Christmas

Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven, 16 December 1770 – 26 March 1827, was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most respected and influential composers of all time.

Jingle All The Way

Christmas. It's not that I don't like Christmas it's just that for some reason everyone's expectations of one another seem to change during the holidays. As I go into the world (especially to places where people shop) what I notice more than anything else is that people are not happier they are crankier but expect others to not notice as much. I think of myself mostly as a happy/cheerful person. Not like a sappy goofy guy who isn't realistic about things, but I'm a generally optimistic and positive guy. When I go places I try to wait on others, taking my turn and not shoving and complaining. For the most part the rest of the world is like that too until it's time for Christmas. Suddenly it's totally acceptable to PUSH your way to the front of a line or grab at merchandise from the shelf like a greedy child. It isn't even this that gets me down about the holidays. It is the fact that for some reason I get treated like I'm a scrooge because I notice it. I recognize that people are behaving poorly and for some reason that makes ME the one who has a problem. I want Christmas to be about the compassion God has for the plight of mankind and about gathering with family and friends and spending time relaxing and finding ways to better know and love one another. Now THAT would be dreaming. Instead I feel like I'd be more realistic asking to have no one steal toys from my shopping cart.

Nerd-hood...dom...ness...atude.

So I'm a nerd. Ok. I'm coming to terms with it daily. I like to play video games, I have scheduled time to watch "Heroes", "chuck", and "Battlestar Galactica". My best friend, the Schaam, and my Brother, The Rock, and I all play this game called City of Heroes. It is like an online comic book (did I forget to mention that I like comic books?) and the Rock is about to be level 50, which is a big deal. We have all been making a regular Tuesday night game for the past couple of months so that we could get this far. The Schaam and I are both already level 50 so we have been putting extra effort into getting The Rock caught up. This week should be his week. And for all those gamers out there 43 g375 pwn3z.

us posing with Statesman, a Non-Player Character (NPC).

I'd just like to point out for the record that we were nerds before nerds were cool.So chin up all you nerds. you are not alone. I'm routing for you... NERD!

Togetherness

I went, this past summer, to a tattoo convention where people gathered to celebrate the fact that they have decorated their bodies; to revel in the freedom that they have been granted to do so; and to inspire and encourage those who chose to do likewise. It was an interesting combination of people from those with a full set of sleeves and a piercing in every piece of cartilage that will hold a metal rod, to the little old lady who looks as though she could have simply gone to a piano recital got up to use the bathroom and got lost on the way back; People with tattoos on their heads and faces and people who have not a blemish on their perfect skin. First time tattoos, touch ups, cover ups, inspirational tributes that reveal the true artistry of the skin painting and big mistakes that will never be undone. I was amazed at the welcome and openness with which people shared the reasons for their tattoos and the stories that the tattoos told. When I left there I was stuck in stand still traffic on interstate 630 for just under 2 hours with people I didn’t know and the stillness of the moment caused them to get out of their cars and spontaneously socialize with one another. Standing in the middle of the highway, they talked about their day and shared cigarettes and anecdotes. They told their stories to perfect strangers in confidence that this will be the last time I ever see this person and anything they know about me is useless to them so I might as well spill it because why would I lie. They told their stories to perfect strangers in confidence that this will be the last time I ever see this person and anything I tell them they are bound to believe because they don’t know me and right now I can be anything and anyone I chose so I might as well lie. When the wreckage was cleared away and the cars began to move some of us were actually sad to go. I got home late and fell to sleep thinking that we had stood talking so easily in the middle of the highway and yet so many of us have neighbors, literally living in the house next door that we have never spoken to. People who live not one hundred yards from us for years and we do not know their name or their family or when they come and go and when they laugh and cry and when they love and die. God did not create us to be solitary. He made us to live together, to love each other and care for our neighbor.