we're in!

good news: we're finally living in our house!

after months of living in our dear friends' basement (while still paying the mortgage on our new home), we've moved in.

still need some essentials - dishwasher, kitchen sink, countertops, a lot of paint. but it's definitely live-able.

so if you're in the area, please stop by. we'll fire up the barbie and watch some Baby Einstein on the gi-normous plasma....

new MP3 site - that doesn't start with i

so a pastor friend referred me to this website, mp3sparks.com - formerly AllOfMP3.com. i guess it's a russian site that allows you to purchase mp3s at a great price. here are the good and the bad:

hangups
-way-big learning curve for downloading. very tedious - pick the songs, put them in your basket, pick which kind of encoding and download each song one-by-one. then click and drag them into itunes music library. and if you're OCD like myself, you have to re-assign the music genre because they're all tagged with "blues" as the genre for some reason.
-awkward payment. you have to pre-pay a minimum onto your account, and are then charged as you download songs.
-limited and late releases. this site doesn't have everything. only one album by Passion, for example (though I did download some Radio-era Run DMC, some 70's David Bowie and some of Timbaland's new album). and new releases can take about 2-3 weeks to show up for download.

bonuses
-it's cheep! i downloaded about 180 mp3s (seriously) and still have a few cents left on my $25 initial deposit.
-encoding rate selection - i know, this was part of my criticism. but you can select the quality of encoding for your mp3 or aif file.
-it's legal. really. read for yourself.
-it's not itunes. share, burn and copy to as many machines as you like.
-it's not limewire. no viruses. no files that become static after the first 30 seconds

overall
i spent some time this week downloading songs and I'm impressed. it takes longer than itunes to download the songs, load them into itunes and re-genre them. but to be honest, it takes less time than Kazaa, Limewire or Soulseek because you don't have to weed through all the dirty files. and it's so cheap. give it a try. www.mp3sparks.com.

going home

sitting in the phoenix sky harbor airport right now. and boy am I glad to be going home.
it's been a long two weeks. a few personal successes and a few failures. a few drinks with good friends. and a LOT of work hours clocked in.

jodi and i figured out that by the time this whole phoenix-raleigh deal is done, I will have missed her birthday, my birthday, two national holidays (including turkey day) and 3 months of my son's life.

but there's good news. the end is in sight....

it's official: I have a job in NC! if all paperwork goes through - and believe me, there are stacks of it - i'll be starting work at my old job by early december. lots of prayers and airport blogs between now and then....

world numbers

my dear friend david sent me this link: poodwaddle.com

really interesting numbers. i just wonder a few things. like how up to date are these stats? why are internet connections right next to abortions? and how is bicycle production such a vital statistic?

anyway, some of the numbers really are sobering. i wonder how much our perspectives would change if we looked at these numbers regularly. i wonder if staring at them once a week would move us to act for preservation of what God created for us... or if it would make us more numb....

guns, spider webs and a special birthday wish

random news today.

turns out the US is by far the most armed country in the world. does this mean we can stop making an issue out of gun laws? please? (post-note. what i meant was this: now that we're armed to the eyebrows, can we stop politic-ing for our right to bear arms and get on to some more urgent issues?)

also, they found a 200 yard spider web in texas. guess everything's bigger down there.

and speaking of spiders, here's a huge, happy, very-late-twenties birthday wish to my favorite arachnophobe on the planet. well, she's pretty much my favorite person on the planet too.

happy birthday babe.

miss teen south carolina

i really feel sorry for this girl. praying for the school systems in the carolinas....

wahba: martin owner

while i'm out in the desert, I get lots of down time. which is good in a way. but bad in a way too. my love (jodi) made a way for me to take one of my other loves (guitar) with me.

ta daaaaa....

it's a martin backpacker guitar. one I can stow safely in the overhead compartment.

yes, i've entered martin territory. just gotta make sure I don't leave marty and taylor alone together. :)

the rocks cry out

jodi and I had an interesting experience this week. we went to pick out our slab (of granite) at a countertop warehouse.

the ultimate in environmental consumption - selecting which hunk of god-made volcanic rock will be most appealing for important tasks such as cutting bagels and making PBJ's.

as we were in the yard deciding among three slabs of granite, we were overwhelmed with the noise coming from inside the warehouse. it was the sound of several slabs of granite being cut simultaneously for various customers. each rock seemed to have its own voice. but when they all sang together, it was eerie. dissonant. i commented that it sounded like banshees (as in "you made out like a banshee", right jodi?).

anyway, i'm still haunted by the sound. it makes me wonder: were the rocks crying out like jesus predicted in luke 19.40? or was this a weeping? a chilling scream? the sound creation makes when it's consumed in mass quantities for everyday human use?

stooping to a new low

these past few weeks, boston has shown me something new. no matter what we do, his favorite time we spend together seems to be when i'm down on the floor playing with him.

he might crawl up to me and pull my leg hairs. i'll pick him up, but he'll still squirm. restless.

it's only when I put him down, sit or lay on the floor with him, and play on his level; only when he gets to crawl all over me or lift himself up to stand so he's taller than I am, that he's at his happiest.

this summer, I've been re-reading all the gospels, Message-style. the craziness of the gospel story is that such a huge God would want to lay on the floor with me. guess he knew I'd squeal with happiness.

better go. don't want a certain someone to think i love this laptop more than I love him.

no rock - remixed

hey everyone check it out. a rapper/minister named Vessel from phoenix did a remix (dare I say a Geeeeee-miiiiiiiiiiiix?) of "no rock".

click here for Vessel's myspace page, then click on "No Rock Remix".