Squirrel Sense

Lately on numerous occasions I catch myself staring out into my back yard watching squirrels. They move quickly knowing exactly where they are heading. They do not always know how they will end up getting there, but that does not slow them down because they know they will get there one way or another. I love watching them scatter across tree branches and jumping from trees. They always take risks to get where they need to go. They might slip and fall, but there is always a branch or two below for backup in case their original choice of branch does not work.



I admire the squirrel sense and have been thinking of how to apply their ways to my own life. If I know where I'm going or what I want, I should run towards it and take the risk of jumping over obstacles towards it. It can be scary sometimes at such heights, but I have surrounded myself with numerous branches of life to lean on, grab onto, or stabilize and balance myself onto along the way if I slip or get knocked down. I have the branches of life as resources, maybe I should rely on them more often.

Bottom Line - Be the Squirrel. Jump to action.

Alivexchange

I recently had a discussion with my wife about live entertainment. I used to go to see a lot bands at various venues. I was never really into going to see movies in a theater, unless it was LOTR or Star Wars or the latest movie containing comic book heroes. I prefer live entertainment. The problem with live entertainment for me is that it starts so late in the evening and often ends the next morning. At most places, the opening band goes on at 10:30 or 11:00PM and the headlining act goes on at 12:30 or 1:00AM. What is up with that, especially on weeknights? Now that I'm an old married man with a kid, I don't do that so much anymore. In fact, I can barely stay up past 10PM on weekends. Why can't live entertainment be scheduled to start in primetime like TV shows. I'd much rather go watch a live performance than a CSI re-run or the new episode of Ugly Betty.

In our conversation, we were dreaming of live shows starting at 8 or 9PM and being done by 10:30PM on weeknights and weekends. The very next day I received an e-vite for a show on a Friday night that starts at 8PM and includes dinner. It was as if our dreams came true in an instant. So tomorrow night my wife and I will be going on a date to eat dinner and see a live improv show from the Q City Players.

Bottom Line - Dreams really do come true.

The Epic Battle

It has been almost two years to the date in which I have had possesion of the keys to my house in Finneytown. Jess first moved in and then I followed once we were married in March 2007. In the two quick years we have had the house we have done an extraordinary amount of work on the house. Major items such as removing walls, re-finishing wood floors, replacing floors, removing and replacing kitchen cabinets, painting, gutting bathrooms and so on. We have had the need for many tools and building materials for all of our improvement projects.

Thus began the epic battle: Lowes Vs. Home Depot. Home Depot had the immediate advantage being that two locations were remotely accessible from our house. However Lowes had it's own advantage because it is located near church which we were around every weekend either on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings. We began to use both at first, but after time, one of the two began to stand out for almost exclusive use.



Lowes is the winner. We still use Home Depot from time to time only if we know exactly what we need and if it is a common item where brand or quality does not matter for example water cut off valves, drywall, or insulation. Lowes is our prefered place for all major purchases. In my experience, Lowes has a more knowledgeble and trained staff that is very helpful with tips and ideas for the do it yourself people like us. They are always nice and honest and accurate with the information they give you. It is just a better experience all around. Before Lydia was born Jess and I used to have date nights. Instead of dinner and a movie, it was dinner and Lowes almost every Friday night.

To us a good improvement store experience is important because we are taking the suggestions and information of the people working there and often making them semi-permanant by implementing them in our house projects. Jess and I consider the guy in the flooring department at the Tri-County Lowes a family friend. He has never let us down yet, and we will continue to visit him until every inch of floor space in our house has been redone.

Bottom Line - If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, go to Lowes.

Punching Holes

For the past couple of days, I have been making binder file books at work. This requires lots of punching holes in everything to get it into the binders. I really hate using a hole puncher. I have major problems when I use them for extended periods of time.



For some strange reason when I use a hole puncher to punch holes I involuntarily gnash my teeth as I press down. I am not sure why I do it, but I do. I try to avoid doing it by opening my mouth wide while punching, or even using chewing gum for cushion, but nothing works. Next thing I know my teeth and jaw are sore and uncomfortable. The next thing that happens is that I start having a cringe in my neck. It is always in the same spot, in the back lower middle section. So I am constantly moving my head around to crack my neck or strech it to acknowledge the sensation. Both get worse and worse the more I punch holes.

Excessive stapling is also bad, but not to the extent of punching holes.


Bottom Line - Wear a mouthpiece while using a hole puncher

Its Christmas time, or is it?

This morning on the way to work at 7AMish I drove with the windows down. It was 60 something degrees outside. Later on in the day it was in the 80's. Then I turned on the radio and heard Christmas music and remembered that it was actually December. Christmas songs have lines that say "the weather outside it frightful" and "jack frost nipping at your nose". Now I can relate to Bing Crosby when he sang "I'm dreaming of a white christmas, just like the ones I used to know" because what I know now is that in Tampa Florida, it does not feel like Christmas in December. I want the Christmas I used to know. I would much rather be freezing cold in Cincinnati shoveling snow from the driveway listening to the best Christmas cd mix ever with Jess and Lydia.



Bottom Line - White Christmas is the best Christmas movie of all time.

Bigfoot evidence revealed

Hot off the press, there is video evidence of the existence of the Sasquatch. See for yourself.




Bottom Line - Don't go in the woods.

back up fool

About a year and a half ago, I converted to the dark side and purchased a macbook as shown below. I had just come from a PC that became inoperable due to the power supply melting. I became addicted to mac, and was relieved that all of my computer problems were behind me. I even took to bragging about mac and rubbing it in to PC users that I never have any problems.



Then last Thursday I was making a routine file switch and all of the sudden. BAM! A message came up telling me to restart by holding the button down. So I followed the directions and all I ended up with was a flashing folder with a question mark. My next step was to go make an appointment with a mac genius in the store. When it was finally my turn I showed them what was going on and right away the dude looked at me and said, "Oh yeah, your hard drive has failed". When I asked him what caused it his genius cop out answer was this, "Hard drives fail, sometimes they fail right out of the box, and sometimes they last ten years" Thanks for the sympathy Pal. Luckily I had the apple care so they hooked me up with a new hard drive and upgraded me with the latest and greatest operating system and all that garb.

The one question the dude asked me was this. "You do back up all your stuff right?" My answer was this. "I have a mac, I don't have to back up" Boy was I wrong. I lost all my wedding pictures, my Hawaii honeymoon pictures, pictures of my baby girl, and over 7,000 songs from my itunes library and much more.

Bottom Line - Life is unpredictable. Take care of the important stuff. Preserve the memories.

Blue Toof

I have become who I have previously despised.



In my uneducated past I had been known to say things like "Every time I see someone talking on a bluetooth in public, I feel like getting a five step run and spearing them into the ground". Those were the old days. Now I have seen the light. T'was blind, but now I see. I am now a proud bluetooth ear piece user. Now I don't have to hold the phone up to my ear all day while walking, driving or sitting at my desk. Now I have two hands free at all times while on the phone. I am actually on the phone now as I am typing this (not really, but I have the capability to be). Hate me if you will, but if I see you while I'm on my bluetooth, I will do my best to respect you by pointing to my ear to let you know that I am on the phone before you uncomfortable start talking to me to realize that I am already on the phone, or in case you think I am talking to you instead of mid air and cause you to say "Are you talking to me?". At this point, I only use it at work. I refuse to be that guy who takes showers and sleeps with his bluetooth on his ear.

Bottom Line - Bluetooth makes the world a safer place

Discovery

I read a news story that a tribe of "uncontacted" people were found and photographed by aircraft near the border of Brazil and Peru. Having been to Austraila and learning about the Aborigine culture and knowing that some of them still live in the outback still did not prevent the shock I got when I read the article. I guess I knew that people still lived like that, but it hit me different when I saw the above picture. They referred to them as "Uncontacted" or "Unregistered" meaning that the rest of the world had no idea that they were there or they even existed.

To me this is facinating that we still have parts of this world where people live and no one else in the world even know they exist and they have no idea of what exists in the world outside of them. From the picture, it looks like they have never seen a plane or helicopter or flying object before, thats why they were shooting arrows at it. The picture shows the house and the people painted red and black. This amazes me, because when I was little I was obsessed with American Indians and actually wanted to be one when I grew up.



For all I know this could be a hoax and a fake picture, but can you imagine. What would they do if you gave them your Ipod? What would they think if you told them about Chipotle? How would they react to cars, or air conditioning? Would they understand taxes, or politics, or television? I would love to hang out with these dudes.

Bottom Line - You can't discover anything new unless you are willing to search.

mess(ed) up

I would like to challenge a saying that is used frequently by church people. I do not agree with it, and every time I hear it or see it I kind of cringe.

"We, people of the church are all messed up" "We are messed up followers of Jesus" And it can be put in a couple other ways too, but all including the words that "I or we are messed up".

Messed Up (From dictionary.com)
1. beaten up; looking disarrayed.
2. confused and unhappy.
3. intoxicated with alcohol or narcotics.

Using the dictionary.com thesaurus by typing messed up the following words came up: broken, damaged, confused, disorderly, unmethodical, puzzled, careless, & dirty, just to name a few.

I do not believe that anyone that is in a true relationship with Jesus can be labeled, as defined above, as "messed up". Messed up is what you are before you come into a relationship with Jesus, not after. I think that if you are still messed up after you have given your life to Jesus, then it may not be a true relationship. I do believe that people in a true relationship with Jesus "mess up" alot, but "messing up" is very very different from being "messed up". I view "messing up" as temporary occurrences, which are forgiven and forgotten due to Christ's mercy and grace on the cross. I view "messed up" as a state of being that is more than a temporary occurrence.

In terms of the apostle Paul. He was messed up before he came to know Jesus. He was killing people, he was confused, he was out of control. Then he saw the light (literally) and he went from "messed up" to "full of life". Although Paul still sinned, I do not think that he would consider himself messed up since he met. Paul's story is like most Christian's stories of life. We were lost (messed up) but now we're found (in Christ). We were blind (messed up), but now we see (the light).

God gave us the authority to name His kingdom. Adam named the plants and the animals. We name our children. What chose for names is of the highest significance. In other countries and in the Bible, and maybe here too, people name their children names that are adjectives for the state of being in their lives or surroundings as they are having them, adjectives like "suffering, poverty, death, no hope, and lifeless". I'm no psychology major, but when you name something or speak about something negatively, then it usually becomes negative. For example if I told everyone that my workplace was "hell". Then I would probably wake up every morning with the negative attitude to go and face "hell" all day, or do I really have to go to "hell" today. If I said my workplace is a blessing because it allows me to provide for my family and myself, then maybe I would wake up every day thankful that I have a job and my day would not be "messed up".

Maybe I am wrong about all of this, and maybe I need some different points of view which would be welcomed, but for now my belief is that Christian's are not "messed up", they just "mess up".

Bottom Line - Lets turn "messed up" into "blessed up"

starts in my toes

If you ask my wife or my family they will tell you that I have the unique gift of always managing to stub/bang/hit/graze or drop something on my toes. It happens all of the time just to me. Last night I couldn't sleep so I went downstairs to walk around and then all of the sudden "BANG" I slammed my big toe into my shoes that I had left by the front door because they were muddy. These particular shoes have a very thick rubber soul not specifically made to comfort toes slamming into them. After my toe hit, I was pretty sure that my toenail was shoved back into my skin somewhere near my ankle, and my toe was probably bleeding profusely to the point of possible amputation. Some how I managed not to scream as I considered running out the front door and sticking my foot in the remaining snow in my front yard. Chalk it up to another Josh Toe incident.

Bottom Line - If your name is Josh, always wear shoes while walking around the house.