Poetry Monday 4/29/13

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a restful weekend. Mine was full, but fun.

Another day goes by
At an ok job
I let out a sigh
Thinking of my dreams
Another week has passed
Maybe I’ve had a sob
My ideas, the dreams I’ve amassed
Are further away it seems.

Month after month Year after year
I get older and my dreams fade away
That’s what I believe listening to fear
But I know my dreams are here to stay!

Thanks for reading. I hope your week is great! Please share this with others if you liked it.

Something Old, Something New, Something Downloaded to Listen to

C. S. Lewis is mostly connected to The Chronicles of Narnia and his books on apologetics. However, there is a fiction series he wrote that arguably has one of the greatest science fiction/fantasy books ever written. I’m talking about his Space Trilogy, namely the second book of the series, “Perelandra”. If you’ve never read Lewis’ Space trilogy, you really should. It’s an amazing series. You should start with book one to really understand what’s going on. Here’s a link to Perelandra on amazon if you want to jump right in.

Jon Acuff has released his new book “Start” and it’s really good.

I’ve been reading it during lunch every day this week. He’s really honest about the trials he’s faced and showing people they are not alone. Get it here and check out some of the other great products put out by the Dave Ramsey team

Finally, I’ve been listening to a fun podcast called Munchkinland. It’s put out by the Major Spoilers team, who put out a lot of podcasts. This particular one is about the card game Munchkin and is really fun and interesting. You should definitely check out their stuff right here.

Kermit and Me

When I was a kid I had a big dream. I wanted to be famous so I could be on The Muppet Show. I didn’t realize the episodes my father and I watched every Sunday night were re-runs. I probably didn’t know what a re-run was. That was my dream. To be on stage with Kermit T. Frog. My dream was crushed when I realized the show had gone off the air before I had ever seen it. Recently I’ve been thinking about dreams and this one came back to me and I asked myself, “why the muppet show? What was it about Kermit that made me want to be there with him and his creators?” The only answer I can come up with is that Kermit was a dreamer. He was an imaginer (it’s a word now). He had a life filled with great, crazy, fun, funny friends. He entertained and brought joy to millions. That’s what I wanted. I wanted to bring joy and laughter to everyone. I wanted to share hope with people all over the place. I’m so grateful to the imagination of Jim Henson for coming up with the Muppets. I’ve gotten hours of joy from their show and movies. I still sing songs from their show soundtrack and from all their movies. It’s been interesting going through my dreams that I’ve let other people or circumstances tell me weren’t possible, and I’m finding out some of what drives me. I’d encourage you to go through your boxes of dreams, no matter how crazy they may seem now, and look for why you wanted to do whatever it was. Find out what drives you. It’s the first step to figuring out who you really are and where you should be going.

Poetry Monday 4/22/13

Welcome to another edition of Poetry Monday! I hope you hd a wonderful weekend and took care of all your honey-dos.

Time to get up, start another week
Maybe your tired, a little weak.
You don’t feel like waking up
Look whose still asleep, your pup.

If he doesn’t want to arise why should you
Going through the grind can be so hard to do
But take a brief moment to change your worldview
And think of all the blessings given to you

I hope you have a great week. Stay safe.

A link to a post that struck me

This morning I read a guest post on Jeff Goins’ blog about counting blessings and speaking them. I count my blessings all the time, but I’d never thought of speaking them and letting those who bless me know how grateful I am and how much of a blessing they are and perhaps even being a blessing to them. Be sure to check out the guest post of on Mr. Goins’ blog. It’s really good.

Wednesday Waiting

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s the longest day of the week for me. I usually have a short day Tuesday, which makes Wednesday seem so long. Also, I have to get in early to handle any problems that arose while I was off. I spend most of my Wednesdays just busy enough to be exhausted, but not busy enough for time to go by quickly. Therefore, Wednesday is all bout waiting. To make it worse, last night at 10:30 we had some birds start tweeting and they continued all night. It made it hard to fall sleep and hard to stay asleep. If anyone has a way to restrain or put birds to sleep from sundown to sunup I truly believe you could make a fortune. I don’t know what the point of tweeting all night is, but I know it can’t be a reasonable thing. I’m starting off this, my longest day, extremely tired. Thank you birdies. I hope you have a better start than I am having to your day.

Poetry Monday 4/15/13

I’m tired today. Last week was super busy, and I have a little problem which you’ll understand after reading today’s poem.

Little birdie, why must you wake me up?
Tweeting while it’s dark is rude.
I don’t understand what the racket’s about,
Just let me get my sleep little dude!

Have a great week and if you know ho to get rid of birds within the city limits, legally, let me know.

Every Guitarist Needs This Book

For my birthday my mother got me the “Guitar Player Repair Guide” and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s full of basic info and a whole lot of advanced set-up and repair work. Even if you don’t plan on doing a lot of work on your own guitar(s), its a good idea to at least know how to diagnose a problem and have an understanding of what your repair shop guy says needs to be done. There is info as basic as cleaning your guitar to adjusting the truss rod to re-fretting. It’s a great, interesting book for every guitar player, so get it if you play guitar or know someone who does. It’s well worth the money.

Poetry Monday 4/8/13

It’s time to wake up another day’s dawn
I stretch and struggle to sit up and yawn
This bed feels so nice just to rest upon
But I’ve gotta use my skills
Try not to be just a pawn
Working to cover the bills

I tried a Dylanesque rhyme scheme today. I’m still mostly asleep, so if it stinks, I’m sorry, but I hope you like it. Have a superb week!

“The Times, They Are A-Changin'”

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

Bob Dylan had it right when he wrote that song and it hasn’t slowed down a bit. If you’re not familiar with the lyrics check them out here.

I’ve lived for 3 decades today. Yes, it’s my 30th birthday. I’ve seen a lot of amazing things. I’ve seen home computers go from 286’s to the iPad I’m typing this on. I’ve seen video games go from arcades to Atari, which only the well off people could get, to the crazy stuff you get today on PS3s and Xbox 360s, and the mobile gaming on touchscreen phones. I’ve seen mobile phones go from needing bags with batteries half the size of your car battery to the iPhone. A lot of changes in technology. However, I’ve also seen my little town go from a place that you didn’t need to lock your doors to a place where you need to leave lights on at night so people will be deterred from robbing you. It seems as technology has improved, humanity has faltered. We’ve gone from caring communities with biblical morals to people who’ve bought into the lies of subjectivism. My goal for this year of my life is to spend less time looking out for number 1, and more time living out Christ’s love in my life towards others. I’m going to keep reminding myself that we were designed to love God first, then “love people and use things, not love things and use people”, one of my philosophy professor’s favorite quotes. Hello thirties! Hello year of Christ-like love! Hello new decade of life. May this one be the one in which humanity changes for the better and may I do my part.