A New Wal-Mart Book

Since I am sure that none of you will ever tire of hearing about the Evil Empire, that being Wal-Mart for those of you not paying attention, I continue to bring you updates into the fight against this stain on the soul of humanity.

A new book called The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman has recently been released which provides richer details and a more balanced narrative on the way our entire economy continues to be subjugated to this behemoth. You can read a review in the USA Today.

This book doesn't particulary take sides or even point fingers, but more simply lays out some aspects of how your world is increasingly impacted by this company in ways you might not have imagined.

The Shadow

In life there are things we cannot lose
and parts of us once gone
will never return.
Like a shadow.

After the noon sun shines
it flees beneath us.
Once again outside our grasp
'til by some miracle of God
the noon day sun shines again
and we no longer
stare into the face of the future.

For our shadow returns
screaming who we are
and which way we should go.

Concert Update

Kutless, Falling Up, Disciple, and Stellar Kart are coming to Seattle!

They are coming with the Hearts of the Innocent Tour.

Saturday, March 18th at 7pm

Christian Faith Center
21024 24th Avenue South
Seattle WA 98198

Are you going to be there?

Fickle Fans

So now that the SeaHawks are doing well, it's amazing to me how many people have suddenly become huge fans. People who I've never heard utter a word about football, let alone the SeaHawks! I may be a less-than-mediocre fan, but at least I'm a consistently less-than-mediocre fan. No double-dipping for me.

Waking Up is hard to do...

But I must admit, it gets a little easier when this is the view off your balcony.

Catching Up & MySpace Theft

With the goings on at home, I haven't had time to do any posting.  Excepting the posts I did previously which were sitting in the outbox on my phone and just recently went out. (Freaky, I know.)

I've got a few posts lined up so stay tuned. In the meantime, here's a hilarious post I stole (and edited down) from my buddy Mike. Since I really was rolling on the floor laughing my ass off I figured it needed to be shared.  Enjoy...

---
If MySpace was real life . . .

• Tila Tequila would know everyone in the whole world.
• You would struggle over the time it takes someone you like to crack your top 8.
• 19 year old boys wouldn't own shirts and 19 year old girls would not own pants.
• If you're a fat girl/guy, people would only see you from the shoulders up.
• Girls would always be posing, cheeks sucked in and lips puckered two feet off their face.
• Your attraction to someone would be based on their favorite clothing label, their favorite band, and a survey.
• Your driver's license would have hearts around your name or quote from an emo song.
• The phrases "Yo," "your hawt," or "hit me back some time" would attract the opposite sex.
• Bands with 3 song demos could book stadium tours.
• It would be perfectly acceptable to blurt out any random filthy perverse sexual thought at any random woman/man you thought was "hawt" as a first greeting.
• It would be no more unusual to see a man walking around displaying his erect, naked penis than it would be to see random women running around in a g-string w/nothing covering their breasts but their hands.
• Everyone would make $100,000 a year or higher.
• There would be a lot of youthful looking 99 year olds.
• Blogs would be required reading and any random thought in your head would be shared with everyone
• You'd have a friend named Tom creepily following you around giving you bad news constantly.
• Conversations would sound like this "How are you?" Sent. "Good, how are you?" Replied.
• During a long conversation you'd have to say "Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: all right, well call me later."
• When it was time for bed you would say you're "Undergoing Maintenance."
• When someone said something funny, you'd actually roll around on the floor and laugh your freakin' ass off.
• "Friend Whoring" is equal to STD's.
• At nights when you are asleep you would get people running in your room that you don't know saying. "It's 4 a.m., I can't sleep, someone talk to me."
• Bands go to your house and ask you to give them a listen because they see that you like a band they sound nothing like.
• Anytime you walk into someones house they have the same video or song playing all the time, non-stop for three months straight.
• Every couple of days you would threaten all your friends to take their information out of your cell phone and delete them, since they haven't called you in, like, four days.
• People would run up to you, tell you a random message, and you'd have 17 minutes and 13 seconds to pass it along before a ghost came to your house and beat up your dog.
• People would have to wait until you responded with "Read" before they could start yelling at you for ignoring them.
• Pop quizzes would be on who's hotter, who's dating who, or who's purse that is.
• All of your friends would hangout in rows ordered by the number person they were to join life.
• The girls from the "True" ads would always be pushing their tits and ass in your face.
• Smiley faces would shout at you.
• I would have hundreds of friends.

Me and Caleb

Eating breakfast on our way to Chronicles of Narnia.

Brian Regan

Sometimes you gotta dance. We had the viewing for my Grandma tonight. Then I went with my sister to see Brian Regan. Laughter helps.

Newport Marriott Blows!

If you ever happen to be traveling in southern California and find yourself in Newport Beach, and you think, I'd really like to stay in a Marriott tonight...slap yourself upside the head with a roll of wet toilet paper.

Evidently they were just remodeled and the place does look fabulous.  And then someone opens their mouth and you want to shove a sharp pencil in your eye.  My experience started with simply being ignored, ranged into various forms of wasting my time and mistreatment, bumbled through ignorance and was polished off with threats from a front-desk peon. This of course warranted a discussion with one of the directors of the establishment who was, of course, shocked to hear how I had been treated. Of course, he didn't actually DO anything to make me happier, but he was very nice about it.

As an uber-platinum member with hundreds of thousands of miles and more than a hundred nights a year in Marriott hotels, you would think my loyalty would merit a little special treatment.  But evidently this is California and they just don't do that here.

[Editors note: a nice little plate of fruit and cheese with a card did find it's way into my room later that night. It's the same stuff I'd just had in the Club Lounge, but I suppose it's the thought that counts, right?]

New Project

This week I had the pleasure of starting on a new project in California.
The crew is fun and sociable. The weather is nice, the hotel is nicer.

Having internet at my desk will be a welcome improvement though.

Only Knowing

There are many times
When I wanted to
Say I care.

But if it be true
Do I dare to
Let you know how
Open I can be?

So that you can
Open yourself
To me...
Too.

A Sad Mourning

It isn't exactly how I pictured waking up on Martin Luther King day. I post and stretch and then the phone rings.

My mother says my grandmother has passed away. She had been in some pain so it's the double-edged sword of bittersweet relief I think. Is that wrong? To wish someone peace, knowing that peace is not with you. I do it often, so it comes easily to my mind. But still I grieve. For my mother and my grandmother. I'll see them soon, I think.

The Voices

My feet perched on a rock
waves from the sea crashed around me
I needed then to hear a voice
a help, an aid, some comfort
Some sheltering melody in which
to drown the roar of this world

Thoughts of creation
this universe of variety
unchanging in it's change
relentless it's pathway to chaos

As the waves pounded
crashed, thundered, smashed
broke with spray of salt
on tongue, in face, to eye

And it was then I heard
I sensed, my heart felt
soul soared, and ears heard
the many voices of the waves

Both in the feeling, in the emotion
in the sight and sound surrounding me
that now I see and tell
to you in truth was all
the voice of God

Adios Denver, I'm Sick...

My apologies for not keeping up my posts the last couple days.  Evidently, tonsilitis can come back if you don't keep up your antibiotics.  So after a terrific send-off from my Denver crew I'm back in the city of rain doped up on hydrocodone et al.

Not sure where I'll end up next.  Just trying to get through the next couple of days without walking off a balcony or drowning in the bath tub.

Oh, I have managed to finish the next segment of that new site I was working on. For some reason I get a lot of code written when I can't feel my fingers and I can only hear the color blue.  I'll see if I can't string together enough coherent words to put up a reflections post later today.

Never Stop Painting

Recently, during a small seasonal bout of mental instability brought on by too much self-analysis and general malaise, I took myself walking in a public place to clear my head. Often I find that watching the randomness and chaos of the general populace can lift my mood and free any log jams that my thoughts have become crowded with.  This particular night I passed a movie house and on a whim (a strange, can't-believe-i'm-confessing-this, secure-in-my-manliness, kind of whim) I saw Memoirs of a Geisha. Before you jump to conclusions, let me say it was the only thing starting as I happened to walk by.  In any case, there was a line in the movie which was applicable to tonights post. That is pretty much the only reason I am taking the chance you won't lose all respect for me once you find out I went to this movie.  The line basically said the geisha was accorded to be a living work of art.

So here it is a few days later and I read in a blog the following words:

We are sometimes rendered ineffective in our daily lives by ego and our desire to paint a perfect picture for those around us.

This small piece of incidental prose seemed to resonate for some reason with a bit of introspection I'd been subjecting myself to.  Which seems to always be the case. Just when I'm getting my undies nicely knotted over some stupid cynicism, along comes wisdom nicely packaged and neat and beats me severely about the face and neck.

I think I'll go for another walk...

Moose on Ski's

My friend lives 3 feet from heaven. More or less. I've seen some down-right amazing houses in my day. But his chalet in foothills outside of Denver is pretty freaking outrageous. And I thought I led a charmed-life... ;-)

Today found me on a driving-tour of Boulder which turned out to be about as cool as everyone says it is. Luckily, my tour guide was very knowledge and so I was able to see all the really interesting stuff not just your typical tourist regiment. As an example, check out this moose on ski's I found in a little artists co-op.

So in review, my friends are way to cool for me to be hanging out with. And Boulder rocks. Hehe.

A Discussion of the ABC's

Today I learned about my ABC's. You would think someone as educated as myself would have previously been aware of such a thing, but fortunately I continue to learn something new every day. In this particular conversation with some colleagues the term ABC's was brought up in reference to Abortion, Birth Control, and Capital Punishment.

It was an effervescent dialog to begin with, but then this outstandingly succinct way to introduce such topics just flew out there. Being a fairly confrontational, discussion-driven person, whom some might call argumentative, it was extremely humourous to me. Finally, I have a way to wrap up several key points into a nice little poison package designed to get right in there under the skin and expose the core of a philosophy of a person. There isn't much you can't understand about someone from watching how they address these issues. Not so much their specific stances, but how they talk about their position, how they address such sensitive and often-emotional issues.

Bottom-line, Matt is my new hero. Even if he doesn't think Romney has a chance in 2008.

Vladimir Kush

Quite some time ago I was introduced to a fantastic artist that really touched me with his work. From time to time, I find myself drawn back to his paintings to ponder and reflect with renewed interest the subtle statements and layers found within them.

If you have never luxuriated in the feast of flair that is the work of Vladimir Kush then you have a great pleasure that awaits you. I've attached here completely without remorse a scan of one of my favorite of his portraits in the hope you will seek them out more fully. It should be noted that this horrendous reproduction doesn't begin to do justice to the magnificance that is a true Kush painting. I include it here as only a morsel to whet your desire; set an alarm so you don't lose track of time while looking at it.

Pitiful

Evidently, being pitiful gets noticed! ;-) Thank you all for the kind words. I'm feeling much better now, and back to work as usual. Hope you all enjoyed your holiday.

Tonsilitis et al

So after spending 4 hours in the emergency room this evening it turns out I have very severe tonsilitis mixed with some other complications on top of it.

My report on the performance of Valley Medical Center is less than stellar. To be fair the nurses and techs all appeared very competent and polite. The blood and IV lady in particular was fabulous. I've had some bad experiences in that department so it was truly appreciated.

Unfortunately, the doctor really didn't have a very good bed-side manner and was unable to perform the procedure that finally figured out what was wrong. He did manage to call in the ENT specialist who finally got me diagnosed and treated. Okay, he probably did lot's more than that, he just didn't communicate very well and was pretty rough and unsympathetic.

The real thing that got to me was the constant changing of nurses and technicians. That and they left my anti-biotics drip in way to long. You would think that in four measly hours I would have changed nurses less than 7 times. But no.

I have nothing but good things to say about the specialist who came in specifically to check me out. He was able to perform the procedure smoothly, talked clearly and with sufficient detail. In the end I got some prescriptions and stumbled out. Hopefully, I'll show improvement before I have to fly again in two days.

On a completely different note I found it interesting how alone and vulnerable I felt when filling out the medical forms and I realized I don't really have anyone who could be an emergency contact. Just someone please call my mom if you ever hear I died. She should probably know. ;-)

( Editorial Note: after re-reading the above it sounded like a cheap play for sympathy. At the time, it was, thanks to the miracle of Hydrocodone. Please just chuckle and ignore. ) l In any case, now I'm doped up and feeling much better. A sincere thanks to the two people who asked. You know who you are. More later...

New Years Ferry Ride

Happy New Years, all. I was able to take a ferry ride with my good friends Stephen and Michael. It was windy but beautiful. What an exceptional way to see the Sound! I hope this year brings you much happiness and prosperity. Now back to work... :-)