Mrs. Lincoln...

Ever have those days when you feel as though your head may just explode? Yeah, I’m having one of those days. I think I’ve finally found what is making me ponder so deeply, the problem is it requires me to either change myself or a change in my surroundings. I’m not sure that I’m willing to change either at this point. If I don’t, however, my head may explode. I think maybe a change is due, bits of BS all over the place? Not a good scene!

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? What a dumb question.

So I’ve gone WAY out of my comfort zone for this crazy kids thing at the church, I’m doing a bit of “acting” fortunately I have my brother “Daryl” with me, that makes things easier, but it’s still pretty tough. We are the only “act” that doesn’t get to read our stuff AND because we are so mobile we can’t really use a cheat sheet. We’ve messed up a few times, but I think we’re getting the hang of it. The Big “L” hasn’t yelled at us yet.

God...

Almost always I try to say something and it comes out wrong or I just can’t get it into words. Then you read someone else’s writing and WOW, they’ve put almost your exact feelings into words. I’ve shamelessly copied from Josh Longbrake’s blog for this one.

“personally, the last thing i am interested in is easy christianity. i am not interested in being a trendy gathering where it's cool to be seen at and where you can see a hip band and hear a swank teacher with a goatee and get validated that it's cool to be this age. what i am interested in is seeing what Jesus is doing in the church, in the community, and in the world. i am interested in reaching out to those who have less, to see what it means to have deeds alongside faith. i am interested in getting stretched, in feeling uncomfortable about what i'm doing with my faith, in being called to action. don't get me wrong; i'm not against bands in the least. i'm a hack musician myself, so the natural thing for me to do is to get a band together and play music. it's just that i don't want to simply attract people with music or with cool clothes. i'd rather get together with those seeking revolution and start praying, fasting, and seeking God to see what He wants to do with us. wouldn't it be better to find out Who we're worshipping and then respond to it in music? and it's not that i'm against teachers either. quite the contrary. i'm very interested in teaching, but i really want to involve dialogue within the teaching. i'm still trying to develope that idea in my mind.”

Yeah, that’s about it, although I think I only got to the first sentence, I hadn’t fleshed out much beyond that.

Alright, Josh, when do we get to have a beer together?

BS

Why am I thinking about Jim Henson...

What interesting creatures we humans are, one minute we’re all happy and the next, for no apparent reason, we’re in a funk. So, I’m in a funk, I don’t know if it’s working down here in the basement, just working, or what. I’m also thinking about school starting on August 28th, I’m nervous to get back into it. It is a lot of work, worth it so far though. Mixed emotions run rampant.

So FIFA has handed down their decision for Zidane and Materazzi for their antics during the World Cup Final in Berlin. I think it was a good decision, almost sounds like they “split” the discipline. Zidane was given a three game ban from International matches and Materazzi a two game suspension. Ironically Materazzi’s suspension means that he will miss a game against France during the 2008 Euro qualifiers. Zidane will work his symbolic suspension off by doing three days of community service in the name of FIFA.

Enough football.

So, I’m finally in my new office, started working here yesterday, it’s nice to be here. Although it is hotter than I expected it to be down here, maybe I need insulation, maybe A/C maybe I should just stop whining, who knows! 

Week after next I’m on vacation for a week, don’t really have any plans. I’d like to maybe take a day and hike, but we’ll see. The wife would like me to take the kids to six flags, I really don’t like amusement parks, but I suppose I could “take one for the team” and go.

Not much else happening around here, slow news day.

Peace,
BS

Motorcycles are heaven...

So here I sit on Tuesday morning. The classes that I am scheduled to teach start in 2.5 hours and I have one of them ready to go (although I should probably do a walk through or something of that sort). I should also just stop whining about it and go and get everything done, but it’s hot and humid and….

It was a pretty good weekend. Got home Friday afternoon, went down to the pub with kiwi, j-dawg, Mc B., Hil, and my wife. Good times were had by all (as far as I know). Saturday was spent helping Skip and then Dad, then off to the pub to watch Germany take 3rd place in the World Cup. Sunday, church, picnic, World Cup final!!! Sat for an hour or so after the game in shock, couldn’t believe Zizou’s outburst. I completely don’t understand the amount of pressure that someone is under as captain of the national football team, with that being said, I was very disappointed in the outburst. All in all, Italy is the world champions, congratulations, Viva Italia! I am sad that the Cup is over, it has been a wonderful month of watching!! 2010, here we come (USA, USA, USA)!!

That about does it for my weekend. My wife graciously painted my office for me yesterday, Skip came and put the electric in to the panel and I helped put the outlets in and such, verified that Internet was up and running, hopefully I’ll be able to move in there by the weekend.

I am speaking at church on August 6th, I’m not sure what I’m going to talk about yet, I have an idea, but I’d really like to hear from God on what he’d like, maybe a few hours on the back of the motorcycle would help. Seems that it’s easier to hear God talk to you when you’re on a bike going 50 MPH.

Peace, love and beer,
BS

bar flies who talk to much...

Ever have those days when you just want to go, sit at the pub, have a beer and a salad or some wings and read the paper or a book and then Mr. Freakin-jabber-jaw sits down next to you and starts telling you about how he’s going to make a lot of money selling his house? (Alright, Fuzz, don’t be checking my grammar, it’s late!) Criminy, I muttered some very un-Christ-like words to this guy tonight. I was deeply involved in my USA Today sports section (I only get involved in that when it’s about football (soccer for my American readers (except Mc. B)) and this guy sits down and starts talking about the baseball game. If you know me, you know baseball and me, well, we’re like fire & ice, we know each other exist, but we will never meet this side of 0 degrees K! I didn’t even get to finish that article about the New York Cosmos in the ASL in 1977. oh well, I’ll take home for the J-dawg to read about the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. It’s a good article.

Outside of that, I had a good day at work, it’s going along well, almost done! It’s almost Friday! I had some good beer tonight, Wachusett Blueberry, interesting beer, one pint is enough.

It is 10 PM, I’m tired, I think I’ll bail, not much interesting from me tonight.

BS

and then there were two...

So France beat Portugal in 90 minutes of soccer (football for my international friends). I predicted that, but not like that! I thought France would outplay Portugal not win it on a controversial penalty call! I’m sorry to the Portuguese, it’s a rough way to go.

Have I mentioned how much I hate shopping? If not, let me tell you. I really do not like to shop! Apparently, however, I like to shop more than create content for classes. That’s what I’m supposed to be doing tonight, instead I went to the Emerald Square mall and bought 4 pairs of shorts ($18 each! More than 50% off), I bought a pair of sandals too, we’ll see how they go with my stupid feet. Sheesh, I hate my feet.

And now I’m blogging, instead of creating content for my class. I bet I’ll be a dead man!

Went to the parade yesterday with the fam, met some friends there, the parade was pretty weak. I was a bit torn though. People were handing out “Bernie for US Senate” stickers and stuff and I’m not completely convinced I won’t vote for him. He seems to be one of the best guys we have in D.C., yeah, so he’s a socialist (communist?) big deal, he gets stuff done for the older folks and the environment, two things I’m concerned about. He also seems to be pretty straight up, lives modestly, etc. Supports the causes he believes in (aforementioned), I just don’t know. Strange for me, I’m usually pretty conservative. Maybe it’s time to take a trip to meet Mr. Sanders, I just don’t know.

The picnic was alright, watched Germany get beat my Italy, alright game. I think Italy is going to beat France in the final (especially after the two yellow cards for the France boys. We shall see. Two games left in the 2006 edition of the World Cup! Saturday at 3 and Sunday at 2, both games you’ll find me down at the pub, come on down!??!!

Then the fireworks last night, met some friends there, saw other folks I hadn’t seen for a while, but again, didn’t seem as big as usual (like the parade) the finale was fantastic though! Really appreciated that! Think of the Boston Pops fireworks show, now chop off all but 80 feet and shorten it by 15 minutes and that was the finale. It was worth seeing though.

Weeeeell, I suppose I better get some work done, class is next Tuesday and I have TWO (count ‘em!) two, two hour classes to create content for. I don’t know why I can’t just talk for four hours, I know the stuff, what a pain! Oh well, off I go. Peace, Love, Beer.

BS

World Cup Soccer...

This weekend reminded me of the Billy Joel song, “And So it Goes”.

Started off with golf on Friday at the Brattleboro Country Club, no I’m not one of THOSE people, I played in a fundraising event for the local school for the deaf. Then it was time for some World Cup Soccer viewing down at the pub. Always good times! Watched a bit of Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life” although, I fell asleep.

Saturday was a day for helping people, watching World Cup soccer and moving my office. The office is still in shambles, but that’s alright too. The Soccer part was the good bit, I love world class soccer, there isn’t much better. After the final game we hung down at the pub, it was a good/interesting evening. The two guys (we were there with three women) were dismissed to the upstairs, we were allowed to bring drinks and food and that was about it. It was all our fault too, the ladies apparently thought that “the dumb guys” can’t multitask (ie, play darts, talk and listen to them at the same time). Any good looking lady says the word “thong” or “huggy dress” within earshot and I’ll learn to multitask faster than you can say “boo”. So the evening ended with me taking two beautiful ladies home, one to her house, and one to mine. Good evening for me! :-)

Same ole on Sunday, except that I got to go visit some friends that I haven’t seen in a very long time, so that was cool. Oh yeah! I got to kayak too, that’s always fun. I’ve only done it twice, but someday I’d like to do more. My oldest daughter would like to kayak with me sometime, so maybe that would be a good daddy/daughter day.

I had an interesting discussion with an older gentleman Sunday evening. You see, our church is going through a revision process (read: strategic planning, for any business people out there) and it seems to be causing more grief than anything else. After two hours of conversation it turns out the older guy is basically just upset at the amount of money spent to figure out what we already know (that our church is focused inward and that Jesus wants us to tell the world about him and his love) and it seems to be a question of method that causing trouble. So that was interesting, finding out that at the beginning of a conversation you think you’re miles apart in opinion from someone and by the time you has through it, you realize you were about two inches apart, two inches can be dealt with.

I suppose that is enough for today.
BS