blonde joke

I'm usually not a fan of making fun of people for what God has given them. but this is probably the best blonde joke ever!

note: this post was inspired by, and previously linked to ken's blog, but some folks didn't see the link to the joke right away.

shameless self-promotion

it's crazy being my own manager, producer, recording engineer, roadie, publicist, and booking agent.

in the past 24 hours, I've made over 25 phone calls, sent more than 20 emails, and visited 5 bookstores across Phoenix. and in the past month, I've mailed out about 180 CDs. all this for rock 'n roll (not really).

anyway, we're really excited about playing the rage music festival this weekend. we'll be unveiling a song we've never played live before ("all that we need", a.k.a. "grace 4 granted" or "80's worship song" for those of you who have the new CD). we'll be gettin' our Jesse's Girl groove on....

kole's blog

friends of ours have begun a blog for their son, Kole. Kole was diagnosed with cancer in late 2005. this blog follows Kole's story - his diagnosis, treatment and healing, miracle by miracle.

we invite you to pray with us and become part of the story....

andrew's cell phone

our friend Andrew boldly decides not to replace his cell phone. mad kudos, boy.

searching for god knows what

right now, I'm reading Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What - one of the two books I got for Christmas (the other of which is Louie Giglio's i am not, but i know I AM. I finished that one in a couple of days and it rocked my world so much, I already made my sister borrow it to read it).

here are a couple of quotes from Mr. Miller to ponder....

re: theology

It makes you wonder if guys like John and Paul and Moses wouldn't look at our systematic theology charts, our lists and [formulas] and scratch their heads to say, Well, it's technically true; it just isn't meaningful.

re: the gospel

But if it is more, if it is a story about humanity falling away from the community that named it, and an attempt to bring humanity back to that community, and if it is more than a series of ideas, but rather speaks directly into this basic human need we are feeling, then the gospel of Jesus is the most relevant message in the history of mankind.

holiday round-up

the past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. a warm, fuzzy, crazy, wonderful whirlwind. here are some highlights:

• after lots of work, we have our 22-month niece, Shannon, saying "unk-john" (that's me), and "jodi" (still working on the "aunt" part).
• we discovered that our PA friend Kylee Jo is already "speaking in tongues" with her boyfriend....
• our nephew, Luke, does pretty well on a bed of nails (see pic below).
  

• my sister and her family are finally moving back into their home in Columbus. due to a house fire in JUNE, the four of them have been in a little town home/apartment for 6 months!
• Bob Evans only has childrens' menus *sometimes*. their non-smoking section is kinda... smoky. they still make a mean biscuit - but you have to request them several times - and you have to ask for butter a few more times.
• ken and chris and me commiserated about the state of the Church and our lives.
• Gary S. Jackson is still Gary.
• Wes and Diana got married... FINALLY (that was the word of the day).
• hope still feels like home!

oblivious action figures

yeah, yeah, it's been a while.

after my own sister told me I really needed to update my blog, and others said they thought the "refresh" on their browser was malfunctioning, I've decided to break my silence.

phoenix, new castle, columbus, raleigh - I'm now at my 4th holiday destination within an 8-day period.

while you reel in the ecstasy of my new blog post, check out the new action figures website! it kills me that we're going to miss their CD release next week. we've only been waiting for the CD to be done since before the dawn of man.

for example, I listened to the action figures "rough mixes" to keep me awake on my drive up to propose to Jodi... that was 8 months before we were married... and we got married 3 1/2 years ago.

new pics and other news coming sooner or later.

the beautiful effect is...

...one way to explain the holy spirit's work on our souls
...another excuse to use the word 'beauty'
...getting a perma-grin when you pass a cooing baby
...satire?
...tongue in cheek?
...what you make of it
...what happens when you make art with titles like "american beauty", "life is beautiful", "a beautiful mind", "the beautiful letdown", "beautiful day"... the list goes on
...a testament to the overuse of said word
...finally here
...the name of my new album
...available now.

violated

what you're looking at is the remains of my car stereo. this morning, as I finished my ER shift at 5am, I walked out to my vehicle, turned off the car alarm (which was still blinking, reassuring me of a "secure" vehicle), and looked right into my 4Runner through the shattered driver's side window. someone had just been burglin' my truck!

our hospital security said they had just ridden by my vehicle about 10 minutes earlier and everything looked fine. there was really nothing of any value inside... besides the radio. the vandals pretty much only made off with the face plate (which I'm sure was well worth their time and effort). but in the process, they mangled the rest of my radio.

so here I sit (already awake at 10am after getting home at 6am). thinking about how to squeeze car stereo/window repair into my already busy schedule this week. and about how I'm going to get all that glass out of my car!

two more thoughts. (1) I still have yet to figure how to get crowder out from inside this faceless box; and (2) maybe a new car radio with input for an ipod would make me feel better?

funny video

this kid reminds me of people in goldsboro, NC. for those of you who haven't lived in the south, the word he keeps saying is "fixin" - but in the deep south, they say "fit'n."

thanks to ashdown for the link.