Some peace for me! If you’re interested in my peace, please send me $1. Donations accepted via cash, change, money order, check, PayPal… at this point I’d probably take a goat, camel, or other “monetary” livestock too.
Hey, I was there for the fiasco, right across from the pit garages they all pulled into. As friends have asked me, the race wasn’t that exciting, but being there for it definitely was worth the time. I didn’t leave early, I enjoyed the day with my good friend Todd!
This news story states that Michelin will be refunding tickets to this year’s event and also purchasing 20,000 for next years! Gentlemen! Restart your engines!
Received this article in an email newsletter I belong to. Very fitting on this day. I’m trying harder and harder to get caught up financially from a rought previous year. As anyone that’s been in this position before, I’m sure you can relate. Anyway, this felt good to read and remind me of what’s important and how I should be looking at life. I truly feel I’ve learned this lesson, now if I can just pay-off the results of the years it’s taken me to learn it. Anyway, here’s the story.
Henry David Thoreau spent most of his life writing about man’s attempt to find truth and meaning through simplified living. At some point he discovered he could live within the harmony and beauty of nature with a clear conscience and only work six weeks a year to support his lifestyle.
Henry found it difficult to find a teaching job that matched his style so he worked briefly in his father’s pencil factory. At age 28, Thoreau built a small house (actual cost $28.12) on Walden Pond and began to devote his time to his writing. Advocating the simple life, his ‘Walden’ journey began with: ‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately..’
This does not describe the typical journey of a college graduate today. Rather, the expectation is an immediate six figure income and the lifestyle that accompanies ‘success.’ We live in a society that embraces indulgent consumption as a visible status symbol. The fabulous house tells everyone you have arrived, even if it takes two incomes and being trapped in an unfulfilling job to make it work. The house then sets the expectations for the country club membership, private schools for the children and attendance at the right social events. We work longer hours to pay for the new ‘stuff’ and then have less time to enjoy it. We plead with God to bless us, but the only relief from the self-imposed pressure would be to win the lottery.
Where do we draw the line on consumption if we can ‘afford’ the extras? Do you really need all the house you ‘qualify’ for? Should we really thank God for providing when we finance a car purchase equal to an annual income? Is a vacation in the Caribbean that much more satisfying than spending a week on a needy Indian reservation? How can we give generously when payments are overdue?
Perhaps we, like Thoreau, could take time to savor the beauty of nature around us and to smell the fresh roses of everyday life.
‘Simplify, simplify.’ ‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.’
>From the Bible:
‘Give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs! For if I grow rich, I may become content without God. And if I am too poor, I may steal, and thus insult God’s holy name.’ Proverbs 30:8-9 (TLB)
God, keep me focused as I continue to see my life and this world through far-from-rose-colored glasses. Help me to be faithful and as importantly at this point, content with what I have and remember that I am still truly blessed to have it.
Anybody else think there would be other uses for this in a more eternal fashion? Now I’m not saying actually using this software/service, but if the idea works for business, isn’t this what the Goal really is?
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Wow! This discussion board I frequent has had some fun posts here lately. Here’s a portion of a post about keeping your sanity. I think it’s interesting that people thinking you’re crazy, helps you keep your sanity. I like it!
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point A Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don’t Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with That.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It “In”.
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone Has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch To Espresso.
6. Finish all Your Sentences With “In Accordance With The Prophecy.”
7. dont use any punctuation
8. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
9. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is “To Go.”
10. Sing Along At The Opera.
11. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don’t Rhyme
12. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play Tropical Sounds All Day.
13. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream “I Won!, I Won!”
14. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking Lot, Yelling “Run For Your Lives, They’re Loose!!”
15. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. “Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.”
Just saw this photo on the front page of MyYahoo! Who in the world is taking/editing the photos over at Reuters. Come on guys. Is this guy really short? Did you slip? Is he hiding from someone? What’s going on? 
Just realized last night one of our neighbors is on house arrest, either that or they have really bad tastes in ankle jewelry.
Now I know I shouldn’t jump to conclusions about what the person is guilty of, but it’s just not exactly the type of neighborhood you feel comfortable letting your kids go out and play in without supervision.
Does anyone know how to make sure that Ed McMahon and the Prize Patrol have your correct name and address?
I received this little story from a discussion board I frequent. Thought it was pretty clever. This guy was literally thinking “outside” his “box” cell.
An old italian man lived in the country.
He wanted to plant his tomato garden,
but it was very hard work as the ground was hard.
His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison.
The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won’t be able
to plant my tomato garden this year.
I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot.
If you were here my troubles would be over.
I know you would dig the plot for me.
Love DadA few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Dad,
Not for nothing, but don’t dig up that garden.
That’s where I buried the BODIES.
Love VinnieAt 4 a.m. the next morning,
FBI agents and local police arrived and dug
up the entire area without finding any bodies.
They apologized to the old man and left.
That same day the old man received another letter from his son.Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now.
That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love Vinnie
I’m up way past my bedtime to be coherent for work tomorrow. Just working on a few websites and doing a little surfing.
First let me say, the financial problems we’re trying to recover from are kicking my butt. Had to do the ol’ cashing in o’ the change, which prompts me for two short rants.
1.) Banks must be stupid (or smart depending on how you look at it). Insufficient funds fees, they know what my balance is and charge me a penalty for going over my balance. Then another one because there’s less money in my account now since they pulled out their $30!! I know, I know, it’s my fault, that’s what I get for trying to catch up on my bills and pay everyone I can.
2.) If banks are going to charge me $30 for these fees, the least they can do is take my big-bag-o’-change and let me deposit it into my account. BUT NO…… Heaven forbid a bank would actually have a change machine that would count it all and separate it out. NO, I’ve got to go down to the local grocery store and use CoinStar’s machine and let them take their 8% cut off the top! ARRGHH! I’m all for online banking, but can we please offer something immediately related to banking and actually accept change again?
Okay, stepping down off the soapbox.
On another interesting note, while updating my address book I decided to Google an old roommate of mine while I was living in Franklin, TN. Haven’t talked to him in forever. Turns out he’s doing pretty well for himself. He’s opened a new studio (Paragon Studios) a few years ago and like I said, seems to be doing quite well. It’s amazing what you can find on Google about somebody. It looks like at some point he got rid of the maroon Blazer he was driving and moved up to a 2000 BMW Z3, cause he was listed as the person to contact for one that was for sale online awhile back. However, what I didn’t find listed on Google were some of the great memories of playing N64 till all hours of the morning, helping him foley edit sound effects for Carman’s Mission 3:16 video, and the arguments we had about how to evenly split up the cost of our 3-bedroom apartment when he was using 2 of said bedrooms, one for his then in-home studio. Hope to talk to you soon Fred, maybe I’ll drop in when I’m down south this fall. I think you may still owe me for some back rent! =)
Okay, it’s not a “Movie” but it could be, and probably would have been a blockbuster. I just want to say “Thank goodness for peer pressure and repeat season!”
After the feedback and ongoing banter about ABC’s “LOST”, my wife and I have jumped on the phenomenon and immersed ourselves into this amazing drama! Now, I’m not sure why we didn’t start watching this in the beginning, probably due to our already large list of “Must See TV” (sorry NBC, I’m using that in the global sense, not so much just about Thursday nights anymore, haven’t seen an episode of ER in almost a year probably).
Our usual line-up included: House (GREAT show!! catching up on repeats), American Idol, Amazing Race, Survivor, CSI (Vegas is still best, then New York, then Miami), Without a Trace, Joan of Arcadia (CBS, what are you thinking cancelling this show, can’t wait for the seasons on DVD), and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
With that big schedule, we needed a break from another hour of TV in our lives. Anyway, a friend of mine (thanks Ryan!) was able to get me the majority of the entire season of “LOST” on DVD for me. One night, at about 12:00am, I decided to pop in the DVD and just see what was so good about this show, well 2.5 hours later my wife and I decided to go to bed after catching up on a few episodes.
This behaviour was repeated throughout the next week and we wrapped up with about the 18th episode I believe, or 13, either one still more episodes to see, including the finale! Now, herein lies the problem. We spent so much time watching this show, that we now have a large gap to fill. If any of you are watching the show, you know how intense it is and how each show kind of ends in a cliffhanger.
I don’t know if we can make it till the repeats catch up to where we left off. Thanks Ryan for the DVD’s, I’m not sure if we could have waited for the next episode each week during the season, but now we’ve still got to wait. Help me get those last episodes quick. I need my fix! (That’s such a sad state of affairs!) =)
Just found this story about Fundable in a newsletter I receive about breaking trend stories and products. Very interesting, actually something I had kind of thought of for years. I had always wondered why groups of people didn’t get together and do this type of thing before. Examples I had were more of like an insurance plan or financial relief. Guess my ideas always hit closer to home. But the premise goes like this…
Going back to my childhood, I really loved going into the woods and four-wheeling with friends. I never owned my own, just had friends who did. Well, nowadays I’d love to be able to go do that every now and then. My problems are these, 1.) no money to buy a four-wheeler, 2.)no place to put or ride one once I got it, 3.)probably would have a chance to ride it that regularly. So… I setup a Fundable group and try to find 10 other people interested in this activity too. We split the cost of a nice ATV by 10 and each of us ponies up our portion. We buy the ATV, decide who gets to keep it at their house and work out a sharing schedule so everyone can enjoy regularly.
You know, I just thought of a better application. Really nice season tickets to the Colts games. Everyone chip in, buy the tickets and divy out the game schedule.
If anyone’s interested in that one, please let me know.
Read this article today Portis pays $18,000 to settle dispute over whether or not he can wear his preferred number on his jersey! Okay, I can understand, well no I can’t. It’s a number, pick another one! Guess I just can’t relate since I was never big in organized sports my entire childhood. I think a couple of seasons of baseball and one season of football in 3rd grade.
Sometimes people in the church need to be smacked around too. Was in my dad’s church a couple of Sunday nights ago and wanted to turn around and try to “heal” someone with a bip across their forehead. Our general church is having there quadrennial assembly in Indianapolis later this month. For this big event there are delegates that come from all over the world. Obviously then that includes people from places slightly less affluent than the wonderful USofA. Because of this, there is a need for people in the local church to sponsor one of the delegates and provide one meal for them. Now the goal is to have one meal a day sponsored for them, but one person/family isn’t expected to do that but it would be welcomed.
Now, this old guy a few pews back from me spoke up and said, “Well don’t the hotels they’re staying at provide a continental breakfast or something?”. Arrggh!! That’s when I should have slowly stood up, walked back a couple of pews and smacked him across the head.
#1 it’s not the Marriott’s job to minister to members of our own church family for us.
#2 Since one meal is provided, that would still have only been two meals a day for them. When’s the last time this guy ate only two meals because he had no other options?
#3 You spoiled little American, no wonder some people in foreign countries don’t have the best things to say about us. We don’t even take care of our own “family” (the church), how much do they expect us to be nice to them?
But that’s just my $.02
