scribbles...

Good-Bye Blogger

2007-12-26T15:55:00.001-05:00

Yes, you have read correctly....I am kissing Blogger good-bye and migrating my entire to Wordpress. Currently all of my Blogger posts are bring run off of www.mgnet.blogspot.com. So see my new site, please visit www.AllenMowery.com.

Back to B.C.

2007-12-18T14:22:00.000-05:00

Spirit of The Holiday

2007-12-17T15:11:00.000-05:00

Recently I have been in contact with Gregory Gallagher, one of the original writers of the Sesame Street Television Show, regarding a new venture I am working on. Anyhow, this is one of his articles (appearing in the Holiday 2005 issue of Privilege Magazine) which he attached to an email, and as he said "seems appropriate to a man and a woman with a fourteen month-old miracle in their midst." And he couldn't be more right. So many times we miss out on the important things in life because we think we are doing so good at slaving away with all the we feel is crucial. But since he says it so much better, I think I will just let you read it for yourself.

No matter which aspect of Christmas you favor the most, be it orchestrating events, theme shopping, family gatherings or dressing the tree, one factor can never be underlined enough: Christmas belongs to the children.

Imagine being one of these youngsters, as our mammoth adult Christmas machine shifts into high commercial gear. When I think of these inexperienced "innocents", I feel that we adults simply overwhelm them in our pursuit of the illusive "perfect" Christmas. Perhaps it is time to hear one of these young voices articulating what they would most like to receive from their parents this year. Allowing for poetic license and translated into my own words, here is what I imagine one of these young people might say to their folks:

Mom and Dad: I would like you not to spend any money on me this Christmas. I know this sounds crazy, but instead, I want you to give your holiday time to me; for playing games we love, talking face-to-face for as long as we want, walking hand-in-hand somewhere beautiful, or discovering an unknown place and its mysteries. We could go dog sledding, take a horse-drawn sleigh ride, work on a huge jigsaw puzzle, or play Monopoly.

This year, my dream gift includes staying in our pajamas for an entire day and not caring, even to the point where we lose track of time altogether. I would love it if we could make muffins, pies or tacos in the kitchen, and then eat them whenever we want. If we could hang out and play cards, make up stories, or play charades and giggle at our silliness; that would be an amazing gift for me to remember forever.

Part of my present this year would be for you to turn your cell-phones off for the entire holidays. It would also be amazing if we could somehow use our feet instead of our automobile and walk to and from wherever we needed to go. I would like you to unplug the televisions, computers, clocks, answering machines, and any other devices likely to interrupt our time together. These actions would convince me that you are truly focusing on my Christmas gift request.

Let's practice pretending for several days too; we could make believe that we are living on a deserted island and pool our collective talents in order to survive. We would have to find out what each of us is good at and then figure out what tasks to mount and when. We could create an entire script together, as well as maps, costumes and treasure hunts.

I want to go tobogganing until we can hardly walk, wrestle with you Dad, and tickle Mom until she weeps. I imagine my ears filling with the sound of us laughing and giggling for unknown reasons. I cherish the possibility of finding out about you as people, and as citizens of Mother Earth, not just my parents.

You are the only people on this planet who could possibly tell me the true story of your dreams, your aspirations and even your disappointments, sometimes those can be good for me to hear as well. You do not have to present your self as Super Human, I just want to know the story of your life; how you decided to have children, what issues you had to overcome and what choices you made. I want to hear about the process leading up to my birth, how it felt when I was born. What about my name, where does it comes from and how did I get it? We have a lot to talk about, and we never seem to have enough time to do it. This time, would be a priceless Christmas present to me.

I do not want any commercially bought gifts this year - not one! The only present I would truly like is your exclusive time; one-on-one, for more than a day, more than a long weekend, not at an exotic resort, not walking through some tiresome museum and not at some swanky hotel or at Uncle Fred's.

Mom and Dad: You shared your two selves in the making of me in the first place. Now, I need you to share yourselves with me, so that I can know you better, understand myself more and feel that I am important enough in your world, for you to give me the gift I want the most for this Christmas: your individual time with me over the holidays.

Merry Christmas Mom and Dad.

Epilogue
There is a popular stance among parents of all ages, races and income brackets, that they know what is best for their children. However, when it comes to the Christmas holidays, I think it is time for us to defer our knowing ways about the world at large and give over to the world within these precious young members of our community.

Perhaps we should empower our children this year by listening to them respond to this simple question: If Mommy and Daddy did not buy you any presents from stores this Christmas, what would you want from us instead?

I am confident that most kids will realize what you are offering them is the most treasured gift you could bestow upon them. They will eventually resound with affirmation that this is a splendid idea. Trinkets and boxes and fashionable objects are just articles that fade soon after unveiling. Whereas moments designed for sharing your self exclusively with your progeny are sure to fill your home with the joy and love inherent in this kind of dedicated interaction.

Besides, the child in each of us wants nothing more than to play and be involved in exactly this kind of outrageous nonsense; plunging headlong into a period of time when the somber realities of life fade into the distance, and we dive with boisterous abandon into cartwheels of holiday shenanigans, fun and exploration. If you are still not convinced, just remember what Doctor Seuss says:

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled `til his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?"

Merry Christmas!

Gregory B. Gallagher is one of the original writers of the Sesame Street Television Show, performed saxophone with Alligator Al on the Mister Dress-Up Show, led members of the musical group Nexus on TV-Ontario's Black Box Theatre, and is currently in training as a grandfather to Xavier, Enya, Trizian, Maximilian and Sophia.
Contact: gregoryg@privilegemgi.com

Is it really a FREE iMac?

2007-12-12T11:19:00.000-05:00

Every day we are bombarded with pop-ups and spam advertisements, all offering this free item or that glitzy piece of technology at no out-of-pocket cost. However, most of the time they are a farce, a too-good-to-be-true advertisement accompanied with pages of fine print. Finally, one day about a month and a half ago, I decided to click on one and see what all was involved. I chose to shoot for a free 24" iMac with the only requirements being that I simply complete one sponsor offer and refer 24 people who must also complete one offer. So I submitted my information, created my account, and proceeded to the offers section. As usual, there were quite a variety options to choose from, but I chose some home decorations thingy for $1, completed the offer and clicked "Next" to move on through the process. I was immediately greeted with a number of additional sponsor offers with a single line of text along the top saying that I must complete one of the offers to move forward. The only problem was, these offers were in the $40-$80 range!

"Holy schnikeez!" says I to myself. "There ain't no way I'm paying that much for that crap!"

So I promptly clicked the red box in the upper right-hand corner of my browser and went on without another thought to it. That is, until a couple weeks later when I got a little curious and thought I would just log back in and see what my free offer status was. So I logged in to my account, and lone behold, the single $1 offer I completed was sufficient enough to count for the single sponsor offer I needed to complete. I honestly believe that they threw in those other, more expensive offers for the people who are naive enough to just follow through with them. So according to the information in my account, all I have yet to do in order to receive this alleged "free iMac" is to refer 24 additional people who all must complete at least one offer.

So, what do you say we put them to the test? Is this really a free offer or simply another scam? I need 24 people to click on the link at the bottom of this post, sign up for an account and complete one (1) offer (I personally recommend the ones that are in the $1 range). Once you have done this, give it enough time to process (maybe up to a week or two....I'm really not sure), and then log back into your account to make sure that the offer registers as completed.

The best part? I will personally reimburse the first 24 people for the cost of their trial offer (up to $2 / person). So, essentially, this is free for you to participate in. Please, join in the "fun," and let us separate the truth from fiction!

CLICK HERE to sign up.

...just like a tattoo

2007-12-06T11:12:00.001-05:00

The American public is an extremely brainless group of collective souls. Take this last season of American Idol for example, laced with all the controversy over a lousy-singing, bad-hair-wearing, sissy named Sanjaya Malakar. Or how about the previous season when they passed up Jewish-born Elliot Yamin and heartthrob Katherine McPhee for a poor-talented, anal-retentive moron named Taylor Hicks. But one good choice that America made was crowning Miss Jordin Sparks, then seventeen, as last season's American Idol. Jordin is young vivacious, extremely talented, and she puts out good music, making her one of my most recently-named favorite artists. Her newest single, "Tattoo," is awesome....and as Alyse and I both agree, she's got a sexy voice.

Back to B.C.

2007-12-04T09:10:00.000-05:00

Dedication? Determination? Or just plain obsession?

2007-11-30T09:51:00.000-05:00

This morning while I was passing an individual on the highway (a common occurrence when I am behind the wheel) I saw them lift a grayish-silver object to their cranial region. I simply assumed that they were infusing their morning dose of caffeine from one of those large, silver, insulated travel mugs. But when they pulled it back down without taking a sip and immediately brought it back up to their head I began to get suspicious. So as I kept my car between the lines I gazed in my rearview ('cause by this time I had already passed them) and was taken aback by the fact that this person included their morning exercise regime with their commute. What originally appeared to be a large coffee mug was instead a 10- or 15-pound weight that they were curling in their arm.

At first I admired them....what dedication they have to maintaining their physical fitness and overall health. Then on second thought I was fill with pity....this poor soul felt so insecure about themselves that they were determined to overcome their physical obstacles whatever the cost. But on last thought, I just dismissed the whole scenario as plain obsession....this person was so utterly consumed with themselves that they couldn't even take the time to enjoy the open road without trying to beef themselves up.

As I took another sip from my Dr. Pepper I simply shook my head.

Here's the video footage....

2007-11-26T16:01:00.001-05:00

Remember my earlier post about Sugarland performing "Irreplaceable" at the AMA's? Well, for those of you who do not surf YouTube, here is the footage from the catastrophe.

America's REAL First Thanksgiving -- Just some food for thought

2007-11-21T15:40:00.000-05:00

By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Robyn Gioia doesn't look like a troublemaker. Far from it.
Gioia is a wife, mother and teacher, and her green eyes twinkle when she talks about her fifth-grade students at the Bolles School just north of here in Ponte Vedra.

But Gioia, 53, has written a children's book, and just the title is enough to peeve any Pilgrim: America's REAL First Thanksgiving.

"It was the publisher who put real in capital letters," she says, "but I think it's great."

What does REAL mean? Well, she's not talking turkey and cranberry sauce. She's talking a Spanish explorer who landed here on Sept. 8, 1565, and celebrated a feast of thanksgiving with Timucua Indians. They dined on bean soup.

If you do the math, it is 56 years before the Pilgrims sat down and shared a meal with natives at Plymouth Rock.

Who knew? Not even Gioia, until she attended a teachers' workshop two years ago and heard Michael Gannon, a retired history scholar from the University of Florida, tell the story of Pedro Menendez de Aviles.

Gannon, 80, first laid out the premise of an earlier Thanksgiving in his scholarly book The Cross in the Sand in 1965, but few picked up on it. He says his mention of Menendez's meal was a "throwaway line that lay fallow for 20 years."

That was, until a reporter for the Associated Press in 1985 exposed Gannon's academic findings to the world, which caused what Gannon remembers as "a storm of interest. I was on the phone for three days straight."

Traditionalists, especially in New England, dubbed him "The Grinch who stole Thanksgiving."

Gannon took it with good humor.

"I became rather famous at the time for saying that by the time the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal."

Gannon thinks the word is finally, but slowly, getting out, but he's well aware that the victors write the history books. And history, once written, is hard to change.

"The English wrote the history and established the traditions," he says. "That's life. Get over it."

But Gioia believes the rising Hispanic population in America could spark interest in the nation's Spanish heritage and by association, Gannon's findings.

Meanwhile, Gioia is firing the next shot across the Mayflower's bow.

After Gannon's talk, she thought an illustrated book was the perfect way to tell the first Thanksgiving story to her students. It seems to have worked. With them, at least.

When Gioia recently asked her students who believes the first Thanksgiving was in Florida, every hand in her classroom flew up in the air.

Off the page and into the kitchen
Gioia, who serves her own family bean soup on the Sept. 8 anniversary, has her work cut out for her elsewhere, however. Even on the site where Menendez's Thanksgiving feast is believed to have been held.

"I always thought the first Thanksgiving was at Plymouth Rock," says Betty McDaniel, a gift-shop clerk at the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, which sits next door to Nombre de Dios Mission, where Menendez landed and celebrated with the natives after a Catholic Mass.

John Fraser owns the "Fountain of Youth" attraction and calls the where-was-the-first-Thanksgiving brouhaha "a ticklish issue."

"The people from the North just wouldn't believe it," he says when the idea of a Spanish Thanksgiving first surfaced in the press. "They just couldn't get it through their heads."

Martha Hird, a colleague of Fraser's at the site, thinks it might be as much Floridians' fault as anyone else.

"We just haven't had enough people to jump up and down and publish more books about this," she says.

Susan Parker, executive director of the St. Augustine Historical Society, says there's more to it than just getting the word out. She agrees with Gannon that written history is hard to change and adds that traditional accounts of America's past often come with "a Protestant twist," as that was the predominant culture. "There's a tradition of diminishing the Catholic presence of our early history," Parker says.

But it also doesn't help that there's virtually no mention of the Thanksgiving feast anywhere in town. Not on the historic marker at the Menendez landing site -Tradition holds that the first Mass in the new colony was celebrated here - and not at the Government House Museum at the downtown Visitors Center. In 1565 Menendez established St. Augustine, named for the feast day on which he sighted land.

Not a word about Thanksgiving.

Bill Adams, director of Heritage Tourism for the City of St. Augustine, says people need to understand that much has happened in America's oldest city in the past four centuries.

"We're covering 400 years of history in the museum, and there are a lot of events we need to focus on. … We have so many firsts here, it's just one of the many."

He then voiced a sentiment of many St. Augustinians. "We're constantly overlooked and ignored … and we do a lousy job of marketing."

Gannon agrees that St. Augustinians are "somewhat reluctant to engage in such arguments" and are unsure about getting their facts straight.

"It's an area we need to work on," says Gioia. "Everyone I talk to doesn't know about it."

Or doesn't buy it. And that includes the city's tour guides.

Robert Makin drives an Old Town Trolley through St. Augustine, reciting the town's storied history. At Stop 17, the Menendez landing site, he talks about the founding of America's first permanent settlement but mentions nothing about a Thanksgiving feast.

"Well, it's very arguable," he says when asked. "I also don't think they called it Thanksgiving," he says. "You can't even call it Thanksgiving if it's not even English. Thanksgiving is an English word."

He then shrugged his shoulders as he drove on. "It's fine if they want to think that, I guess. It really doesn't matter."

Tourists who wander through the shops on St. George Street in St. Augustine's historic downtown are equally confused.

Did Jennifer Fagan, a banker from Dayton, Ohio, know she was visiting the site of America's first Thanksgiving?

"No, I'm surprised," she says. "We just assumed it's Plymouth Rock. You learn something new every day."

Her son, Evan, makes turkeys and Pilgrim hats in school, she says. And that's a key factor.

"What anyone did in fifth grade is probably what they think of as Thanksgiving," says the historical society's Parker. "So when you're 30, that's what you think is Thanksgiving."

Reclaiming local history
Not that the idea hasn't gained some traction here.
Herbie Wiles, a retired insurance executive in St. Augustine, who played Menendez in the annual September re-enactment this year, buys the first Thanksgiving story.

"From what I can gather from Mike Gannon, who is very thorough, there was a Thanksgiving meal. And I think Menendez had sense enough to realize he had to work with these Indians. He was greatly outnumbered."

Wiles didn't make it to "the lunch," as he called it, which followed the re-enactment ceremony, but he says he will next year. "I now see the need to coordinate the Mass and the meal."

The folks at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, site of the 1621 Thanksgiving, acknowledge that most people visit their site with the belief that it's the birthplace of Thanksgiving.

"Plimoth Plantation prides itself in peeling back the layers on America's favorite holiday, but we never claim we held the first Thanksgiving," says Jennifer Monac, referring instead to the fact it's a national holiday decreed by Abraham Lincoln.
She's not sure any place can stake such a claim.

"What people celebrate today as Thanksgiving is pretty much a myth. It's nothing like what the people in Plymouth or Jamestown or St. Augustine, for that matter, celebrated."

So there.

Please pass the cranberry sauce.

Current Poll

2007-11-20T10:47:00.000-05:00

Take a brief moment to complete our current survey. The poll is listed in the right-hand column.

Thank you!

There Will Come a Day

2007-11-20T09:11:00.000-05:00

On a more encouraging note than the last time I posted lyrics on this site, here is a song by Faith Hill that gives the Christian wonderful hope for the future.

It's not easy trying to understand
How the world can be so cold, stealing the souls of man
Cloudy skies rain down on all your dreams
You wrestle with the fear and doubt
Sometimes it's hard but you gotta believe

Chorus:
There's a better place, where our Father waits
And every tear He'll wipe away
The darkness will be gone,the weak shall be strong
Hold on to your faith

There will come a day, there will come a day
Wars are raging, lives are scattered
Innocence is lost, and hopes are shattered
The old are forgotten, the children are forsaken
In this world we're living in
Is there anything sacred?

There will come a day, there will come a day
The song will ring out, down those golden streets
The voices of earth with the angels will sing
Every knee will bow, sin will have no trace
In the glory of His amazing grace
Every knee will bow, sin will have no trace
In the glory of His amazing grace
There will come a day, there will come a day
Oooh there will come a day
I know there's coming a day, coming a day

Kylie's First Birthday

2007-11-19T09:51:00.000-05:00

Well, as promised (more than a month ago), here are the pictures from Kylie's first birthday.

The call for ice cream....a favorite Mowery tradition.

A brief moment of frustration....

My little angel....

2007-11-19T09:35:00.000-05:00

Here are some more photos of Kylie from over the past month or so.

Kylie playing with Grandpa's flashlight....

My dad had just returned home from a trip when this incident occurred. His suitcase was sitting in their living room, and Kylie managed to rummage through the entire thing in order to find her prize....this single piece of candy.

Beyonce Clampett?

2007-11-19T08:53:00.000-05:00

While I enjoy a large variety of music, and can bear to listen to an even broader range, I have still not considered myself a country music fan. Therefore, I frequently fail to keep up on all the latest happenings in the CM world. But while on the road this morning I heard a recording of a very interesting performance from the American Music Awards (AMA's) last night. It was Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles sneezing (ok....so she was just butchering it with that nasally, snot-dripping pitch) a back-hills country/bluegrass rendition of Beyonce's "Irreplaceable," a song which I can barely tolerate so as it is. But as if that wasn't enough, she was actually joined onstage by the former member Destiny's Child and they commenced to sing a duet of the hip-hop-turned-country song.

In all honesty, though, the song itself didn't sound too bad, it was just when you added the vocals that it plummeted downhill. Unfortunately I have been unable to locate a clip of the duet, but I have managed, however, to isolate a crappy video of the strictly-Sugerland performance of this musical slaughter. Enjoy....if you can....

Dang it! I hate when this happens....

2007-11-15T09:08:00.000-05:00

Yeah, you know my story below? Well it just came out that the AP was a "little" off in their facts. Below is what the AP has to say for themselves. Stupid media.....

GAUHATI, India - In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India.

Paris Hilton Helps Drunk Elephants

2007-11-13T14:02:00.000-05:00

Associated Press

GAUHATI, India - With Rwanda off her charity calendar, Paris Hilton has turned her attention to the plight of ... drunken elephants in India.

"The elephants get drunk all the time. It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them," the 26-year-old socialite was quoted as saying by the World Entertainment News Network's Web site.

In the wake of her jail term for an alcohol-related reckless driving case, Hilton is seeking to remake her image from club-hopping party girl to world-traveling do-gooder. She announced plans to do charity work in Rwanda, but the trip was postponed until next year.

Then opportunity for Hilton's "global elephant campaign" knocked last month when six parched pachyderms broke into a farm in the state of Meghalaya and guzzled farmers' homemade rice beer. The elephants went on a rampage, then uprooted an electricity pole and were jolted to death.

"There would have been more casualties if the villagers hadn't chased them away. And four elephants died in a similar way three years ago. It is just so sad," Hilton was quoted as saying in last week in Tokyo, where she was judging a beauty contest.

Sangeeta Goswami, head of animal rights group People for Animals, told The Associated Press: "I am indeed happy Hilton has taken note of recent incidents of wild elephants in northeast India going berserk."

"As part of her global elephant campaign, Hilton should, in fact, think of visiting this region literally infested with elephants," Goswami said.

Hilton's publicist couldn't immediately be reached Tuesday to verify her comments. Another conservationist said elephant alcohol abuse was just a symptom of the real problem. (No, he wasn't talking about celebrities.)

"Elephants appear on human settlements ... because they have no habitat left due to wanton destruction of forests," said Soumyadeep Dutta, who heads Nature's Beckon, a leading regional conservation group. "A celebrity like Hilton must focus her attention on this fact."

God is Good....and so are the locals

2007-11-12T09:30:00.001-05:00

Just when I think that I have about rid myself of all the embarrassing experiences that one can pack into a single lifetime, I yet again pull another stunt. Yesterday was such an example....

Kylie and I were traveling north coming out of Selinsgrove on Rts. 11 & 15 yesterday afternoon when I decided that I would take a moment to investigate a late-model Volvo that was for sale in a vacant lot. I pulled onto the burm and was executing (ah, such an excellent use of words....) a perfect right-hand turn when all of a sudden, BAMB! I ran into the curb for about the 947th time in my driving career. "Not a problem," says I to myself and Kylie who up until this point had been sleeping peacefully in the back seat. I simply scanned down my mental list of procedures for such an incident, threw the car into reverse, hit the gas, and.....nothing, save for the revving RPM's. So I hit the gas again, but still to no avail. So, employing all the pent-up genius I could muster, I threw it into drive, stepped on the acceleration, and....once again, nothing.

By this time Kylie has loaded her diaper with the foulest-smelling bowel movement she has ever secreted and is crying at a volume that would put the professional mourners of Biblical times to shame. Still on my streak of genius I leave the car in drive and get out to investigate. To my dismay I discover that the frame of my miniature sedan is firmly planted on the curb, and after several attempts also discovered that while I like to pretend I'm Zeus at home, I am completely powerless when it comes to lifting cars off curbs. So it's back to the driver's seat, turning the wheel left and right, reverse, gas, drive, gas, reverse, gas, drive, gas.... I get out to investigate further, hoping that just maybe somebody will realize I am in an embarrassingly self-induced predicament and stop to help. The problem with that is that I was far enough off the road so as to not disturb traffic, and the vehicles just kept whizzing by. While I am examining the situation I also uncover the disturbing truth that the front right tire which I had just gotten replaced three weeks ago had a nice gash in the side and was hence rendered useless. As one can imagine, I was not breaking out the champaigne and celebrating at this point.

I crawl back into the car, now saturated with the odor seeping from Kylie's diaper, and I call my one friend to see if he needed a good excuse to rise a little early from his afternoon nap. He and his family were with some friends from church, but he agreed that he could come help me out. God bless you, Tim....

Shortly after I got off the phone with him a minivan pulled up alongside me, and an angel (it must have been, because I have never known a human being to bring that much peace, comfort and help in a time of distress) got out and didn't even ask if I needed help (my apologies to Bill Engvall for not generating a good "Here's your sign" moment) but instead began assessing the situation to see how to bring the ark from it's perch atop Mount Ararat. After African-engineering the cheap, factory-installed jack, and some pushing and heaving, we were able to bring the car down to the ground level with minimal damage. From there the work was easy.....drive over to some more level ground, jack up the car, switch my busted balloon with the microscopic "donut" from the trunk, and we were all set. In the meantime I had called Tim and let him know that I no longer required assistance and that he could go back to his casual fellowshipping.

Fortunately there was nothing wrong with the car, except for some scraped paint along the bottom of the front passenger's door....which was the least of my concerns. And once we got on the road again I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, so I'm assuming that everything underneath is alright as well. But I will get it checked out.

But I thank God for protecting us and keeping us safe. You might say, "But you only hit a curb!" Well, yes, that is true, but He still protected us. And if nothing else, he protected my vehicle from further damage, which would have been the last thing I needed. And I also want to thank the gentleman (and his wife) who took the time to stop, help and get dirty while doing so. I was always raised to help those who needed help (while exercising appropriate caution at the same time....you just don't do something stupid), and that is one benefit of living in the country: there are a lot more generous and helpful people than pretty much anywhere else.

So that was my excitement for yesterday. And so far as I am concerned, today is welcome to be uneventful and boring.

Reflection

2007-11-06T12:27:00.001-05:00

For some reason I have been listening to a lot of Christina Aguilera lately, and one song off her self-titled album has really gripped my attention. The lyrics to "Reflection" are just so descriptive of me and most of my life.

Look at me
You may think you see who I really am
But you'll never know me
Everyday it's as if I play a part
Now I see
If I wear a mask I can fool the world
But I cannot fool my heart,

Who is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside

I am now
In a world where I have to hide my heart
And what I believe in
But somehow
I will show the world
Whats inside my heart
And be loved for who I am

Who is that girl I see
staring straight back at me
Why is my reflection
Someone I don't know

Must I pretend that I'm
Someone else for all time

When will my reflection show
Who I am inside

There's a heart that must be free to fly
That burns with a need to know
The reason why
Why must we all conceal
What we think
How we feel
Must there be a secret me
I'm forced to hide
I won't pretend that I'm
Someone else for all time

When will my reflection show
Who I am inside

Quote....

2007-11-02T16:53:00.000-04:00

"Failure is not merely the absence of accomplishment; it is a state of mind" -- Allen Mowery

Mac vs PC Spoof Commercials

2007-11-02T16:50:00.001-04:00

While surfing YouTube I came across a series of ads that are spoofs from the Mac vs PC commercials seen frequently on TV. I think these are great, and make excellent points.

Kylie Rose

2007-10-30T09:49:00.000-04:00

Tonya Jones

2007-10-29T16:20:00.001-04:00

I thought I would just put in a little plug for one of my clients, actress Tonya Jones. Tonya is the co-founder of Forbidden Fruit Theatre Company in Los Angeles. She has appeared in a number of independent films, national commercials, off-Broadway and regional productions, and will be starring in the upcoming production of James Baldwin's "Another Country" at Riverside Theatre in Upper Westside Manhattan. So, if you have nothing else to do, why not stop in and catch a show?

NYC Recap

2007-10-25T09:45:00.000-04:00

Well, as I promised, here is a recap of our recent mini-vacation in New York City. This was only Alyse's second time in the city, so she was greatly excited about the trip. Whereas for me, I have been there countless times, even taking tour groups sightseeing, so I was just excited about getting away and spending time with my wife.

We left on Friday morning from our home in Penns Creek. The son of the people we were staying with attends Penn View, so we decided to take him along to visit his family. After a couple stops for coffee, Wal-Mart and banks, we were on our way.
Alyse & I at a fuel stop in the Pocono Mountains

It rained about 95% of our trip out, but all in all it wasn't too bad. Our friends live in Seagate, a private community on the southern tip of Brooklyn, right near the world-famous Coney Island. So after a quick jaunt through The Narrows, across the Verrazano and around southern Brooklyn, we were there.
A blurry, rain-speckled picture of the ocean at the mouth of New York Harbor.

Once we arrived in Seagate we spent some time fellowshipping and catching up, after which Alyse and I hit the subway for Midtown Manhattan.Alyse snapped this photo from the (once again) rain-speckled subway window as we sped past a wall of graffiti. I kept telling her that graffiti is quite common in New York, but that didn't lessen her fascination with the art form.

Us on the Q line to Midtown.

We got off at Times Square, the "most-happenin'" place in New York....unless you're looking for a quaint little coffee shop like we were. I mean, Starbucks was literally the best quality they had....and I'm not a huge fan of Starbucks. But be that as it may....Times Square, New York.

Looking down through Times Square with the Hard Rock Cafe off to the left.

Another exterior shot of the Hard Rock Cafe.

While in Times Square we had the opportunity to be on the remote set of Fox News' "Your World" with Neil Cavuto.

The theater of the musical Chicago.

This is a gentleman that Alyse threatened to leave me for. I guess some people just have it all....the looks, the charm, the prestige....

We ate supper at the Hard Rock Cafe, a favorite restaraunt of ours.
This is a wall of guitars autographed by anybody from Gene Simmons to McFly.

Alyse wanted a picture of this guitar because it was autographed by The All American Rejects....popularity is nice, I guess....

Random shot of the dining area....

Times Square at night....

While in the subway stations you can see a variety of almost anything. These guys we a percussion/jazz band that didn't sound half bad.

From Times Square we headed for Chinatown. Alyse was greatly anticipating shopping, and I just love Chinatown :-) There are many shops and vendors along the streets selling knock-offs of anything and everything from purses to watches to sunglasses, etc. Plus they also have souvenirs and traditional Chinese items. But the one thing that they have a lot of is genuine perfumes and colognes. On Saturday Alyse and I went shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue (sorry, no pictures) and found an awesome perfume that we both like.....but we're really not into paying almost $100 for a single bottle. So we looked for it in Chinatown and found the exact same, genuine product, and I was able to talk it down to $20. Needless to say, I had a happy wife ;-D But back to pictures.....
Some of the shops and markets along Canal Street.

This is for those of you who have doubted Alyse and I to our faces. Yes, they do sell specialty food items for as much as nearly $1,700 PER POUND! These are abalones, a shellfish used for only God knows what....

The next day, Saturday, we spent some time with our friends and then headed for the boardwalk and beach which is about a half mile from where we were staying.
Alyse on the beach....

On the boardwalk....

We grabbed brunch at the world-famous Nathan's Hotdogs.

We then headed for central park....

Yet another random shot out a subway window.

Chilling in Central Park.

Saint Pat's Cathedral

The skating rink in Rockefeller Plaza

NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center

On Sunday we went to The Brooklyn Tabernacle for both the noon and 3:30 services. Both these were AWESOME! (more to come in another post)

My beloved and I....shortly before we left the city.

We had an awesome time together, relaxing....no agenda or schedule.... And we're looking forward to going back in the near future. If Alyse had her way, we would pack up and move next week! :-)

Lame Monster Party (to the tune of "Monster Mash")

2007-10-24T10:02:00.000-04:00

Commedians Paul and Storm have written a parody to the original "Monster Mash" entitlted "Lame Monster Party." Below are the lyrics:

I threw a monster party last Halloween night
And invited all the monsters for a fun October fright
All the famous monsters would be making the scene
I figured that my bash would be the year's biggest scream

I put out lots of Chex Mix and some rice Krispie treats
The skeleton band was kicking out some spooky beats
I headed to the dance floor, ready to get down
But all the monsters just were sort of standing around

CHORUS
It was a lame monster party
It was a lame monster party
The monsters were boring, and the party really sucked
And nobody had any fun

Nobody was boogie-ing or acting very scary
The zombies kind of roamed around, texting on Blackberries
Frankenstein showed pictures from his recent trip to Branson
Wolfman argued macroeconomics with Charlie Manson

When Jason wasn't droning on about Scientology
He talked in painful detail about his vasectomy
But Freddy Kreuger took the prize for testing our endurance
Trying to convince the ghosts they needed life insurance

CHORUS

Damien wouldn't budge as he played his GameBoy
The Mummy was doing sudoku
Dr. Jekyll went and ate up all of the brownies
And Dracula kept checking his MySpace account

Leatherface, who showed up drunk, kept hitting on the witches
And cornered everybody with his Amway sales pitches
The Creature from the Black Lagoon was out in the yard
Debating with Godzilla about Kirk and Picard

Finally, I knew that it was time to call it quits
When Chucky started reenacting Monty Python skits
I learned my lesson - you can bet I won't do that again
Next Halloween: just me and Igor, down at Bennigan's

Jami Smith in Concert

2007-10-23T11:57:00.000-04:00

Our church is sponsoring a concert this coming Sunday evening with Christian recording artist Jami Smith. The concert, which begins at 7:00, is free to the general public and will be held in the Mifflinburg High School auditorium. So come, bring some friends, enemies, or otherwise and enjoy an evening of praise and worship to God.

Happy Birthday, Weird Al!

2007-10-23T10:43:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to send out a simple birthday greeting to a great hero of mine, Weird Al Yankovic. Happy birthday, man, and thank you for all you've done for society.

"New York, New York, New Yo----rk!...."

2007-10-18T13:29:00.001-04:00

Well, I am really looking forward to my four-day weekend that starts tomorrow morning. Alyse and I had been planning on attending a relative's wedding in Ontario, Canada, but due to some plans and arrangements getting screwed up we will be unable to attend. So since we had already planned to be away and Kylie's grandparents had previously agreed to watch her, Alyse and I are heading to the Big Apple for a much-needed get-away.

We will be staying near Coney Island on the southern tip of Brooklyn in a quiet and relaxing gated community. We have no plans, no agenda.....just a weekend to ourselves, whether it's hanging out in Central Park, taking in the Mid-Town nightlife, strolling the boardwalk, walking on the beach, chilling in an ethnic community, or whatever we decide.

So today is pretty busy getting everything wrapped up before we leave, taking care of last-minute business, packing, etc. But come tomorrow morning, it's home free!

In my quest to detach myself from all business- and stress-related activities, I'm not sure that I will have my laptop with me, and will therefore be unable to post any photos during our excursion. But hopefully once we get back I will be able to upload some for your viewing pleasure. Then again, we all know how good I am at actually getting photos uploaded.....so we'll see.

Support Colbert 2008!

2007-10-17T13:10:00.001-04:00

I am encouraging all of my readers to seriously rethink who they will support in the 2008 presidential election. My vote is cast for Stephen Colbert, and I suggest you do the same. Let's stand for love of truthiness and country!

You can purchase Colbert '08 items at CafePress.com.

Quote of the day....maybe even of the year

2007-10-17T10:06:00.001-04:00

"After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call." -- Stephen Colbert

I Have Found My Presidential Candidate....

2007-10-17T09:47:00.000-04:00

Comedian Stephen Colbert recently announced his bid for the presidency. This is like an answer to prayer....a satirical smart-a** with hilarious political perspectives. I mean, it's like he's my clone! Read this article below....

Stephen Colbert announced his candidacy for president on "The Colbert Report," tossing his satirical hat into the ring of an already crowded race.

"I shall seek the office of the President of the United States," announced Colbert on his Comedy Central show Tuesday, as red, white and blue balloons fell around him.

Colbert had recently satirized the coyness of would-be presidential candidates by refusing to disclose whether he would seek the country's highest office -- a refusal that often came without any prompting.

Shortly before making the announcement, Colbert appeared on "The Daily Show" (the show which spawned Colbert's spin-off) and played cagy, claiming he was only ready to consider a White House bid. He entered the studio set pulled by a bicycle pedaled by Uncle Sam and quickly pulled out a bale of hay and a bottle of beer to show that he was "an Average Joe."

Colbert said his final decision would be announced on a "more prestigious show," which turned out to be his own.

"After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call," said Colbert.

His recent best-seller, "I Am American (And So Can You!)" allowed him to mock the now-standard approach to a White House run, complete with a high-profile book tour.

Colbert said he planned to run in South Carolina, "and South Carolina alone." The state, one of the key early primaries, is also Colbert's native state. Earlier this week, South Carolina public television station ETV invited Colbert to announce his candidacy on its air.

Exactly how far the mock conservative pundit planned to stretch his impression of a presidential candidate wasn't clear. Colbert rarely breaks character on camera, including at his memorable speech at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner last year.

The Comedy Central host has often mobilized his fans ("Colbert Nation"), encouraging them to vote to have a Hungarian bridge named after him, for example, or to vandalize Wikipedia.com with his version of "truthiness" and "wikiality."

The comedian said he would run as both a Democrat and Republican. He earlier explained the strategy: "I can lose twice." He claimed three running mate possibilities: Colbert-Huckabee, Colbert-Putin or Colbert-Colbert.

Minutes after announcing his presidential pursuit, Colbert welcomed CBS political analyst Jeff Greenfield to ask how he had changed the race.

"This is going to be one for the books," said Greenfield.

A spokesman for Colbert said he would be unavailable for further comment Tuesday evening.

In a guest column for Maureen Dowd in Sunday's New York Times, Colbert wrote: "I am not ready to announce yet -- even though it's clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative."

Sparcely Posted

2007-10-12T11:33:00.000-04:00

I am definitely falling behind in my posting as of late. Things have been incredibly busy, and I just haven't taken the time to post like I should....not that there's any kind of "standard" by which blogging is measured....but oh well.

I have family updates to post, updated photos, a recap of Kylie's birthday, some random thoughts and more. But I don't know if I can even take the time today to do all of that, but we'll see.....

Here's at least a little something in the meantime:

My Apologies....

2007-10-09T08:59:00.000-04:00

I just want to extend my deepest apologies to anybody who might have logged in to the forum within the past week. There were a number of spammers who (without my knowledge) "attacked" the one section and posted several threads containing content which I do not approve of. For those of you who might have come across those threads, I am very, very sorry. As for those of you who did not view them, don't bother with asking about the content.

Cartoons....

2007-10-03T12:24:00.001-04:00

Cartoons....

2007-10-02T12:27:00.001-04:00

Black Point, Exuma

2007-10-01T11:16:00.000-04:00

My post earlier with reference to the Bahamas brings up more blogging thoughts....

As some of you already know, the first several years of my life were spent outside of the country in the Bahamas Islands. Our home was in the settlement of Black Point, located on Great Guana Cay among the exumas, or "family islands." We had no electricity (except for a personal generator) and our "running water" consisted of carrying water from a pump in town up a ladder to a holding tank on top of the house. However, there were telephones :-)

When we moved to the island it was only accessible by boat, but by the time we left an airstrip had been installed. There were only two or three vehicles on the island as well as an ATV. Since moving back to the US the island has been blessed with many advancements including full electricity, running water, and various advances in technology. Now "everybody" has their own vehicle or golf cart, and life in general has changed in many ways.

But I clearly remember life in the islands....and I would give anything to be back there again.

Here are some pictures I pulled off the web. Sometime, if I actually feel like taking the time to scan all those pictures (digital was not really big back in the '80s), I might post some pictures of what the island was like when I lived there.

Our house is circled in RED. The whole island has "grown up" a lot since we lived there. When we lived there the island had much fewer landmarks.

Another aerial shot of the island with the airstrip in view.

And yet another aerial view....

Shoreline of Black Point.

Long Bay....right up from out house.

Cartoons....

2007-10-01T10:08:00.000-04:00

Protect Ya Tings!

2007-10-01T09:38:00.000-04:00

While visiting the Bahamas several years ago as a family I actually saw this sign on the church wall. We were just driving along and my father suddenly burst out with a resounding "Protect ya tings! Always use a rub-...." Realizing what the rest of the message contained we all nearly doubled over laughing at his sheepish embarrassment.

Homes of the Billionaires

2007-09-27T11:31:00.000-04:00

Here is something very intriguing that I came across on Forbes.com. It is a pictorial overview of the homes of some of the world's richest people. It also includes a look at Bill Gates' 66,000 square foot "house." Only God knows what I would do with that kind of money....

Oooopf?!

2007-09-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

You know my little, adorable TechnoGeek? Well, when I got home yesterday Alyse, Kylie and I were all just lounging around chillin'. Kylie was innocently playing with Alyse's Razr (a very common occurrence), and Alyse and I were engrossed in conversation. All of a sudden my phone began to vibrate, and when I looked at it the kinky photo of my wife and her phone number were both appearing on my screen. It took but a quick moment to put two and two together, and we both turned and stared at Kylie for a second. Kylie got this "Huh? Wasn't me!" expression on her face, let out an "Oooopf?!" and quickly closed the phone. Needless to say, Alyse and I burst into laughter. I know of older children randomly dialing phone numbers (I hate when it's mine that they choose), but I don't think I've ever heard of an 11-month-old doing it.

Kylie also takes pictures with a cell phone. After the little ordeal mentioned above she had gotten into the camera mode and was snapping random photos on the phone. Maybe I'm just fascinated by her techno-savvy abilities because most of our commonly-used technology was either nonexistent or unheard of when I was her age (I know, it's only been like twenty years ago, but still.....). But even if none of the rest of you are impressed, at least I get some comic relief out of it all.

Beer-Launching Fridge

2007-09-25T14:59:00.000-04:00

Wow....this is one of the most ingenius inventions I have seen in awhile. The throwing arm can be remote-controlled, which is definitely sweet. Check out the demonstration video below, or you can check it out at Coolest-Gadgets.com

toonice4tv.com

2007-09-25T13:46:00.000-04:00

This is a very interesting blog written by Greg Hickman. Check it out....

For some time now I have been wrestling with the idea of ditching my generic blog and focusing my blogging efforts in a specialized field such as design, advertising, apologetics (yeah, whatever....), or some other sphere. A blog like mine provides ample room for the times when I just want to rant about a random subject, or when I want to post photos of gurlz, or when I want to flaunt my political agnosticism, but it's all just too generic.

So my question to you, my readers, is:
1) Should I keep my current blog with the current format?
2) Should I convert my blog over to a more specific subject or field?
3) Should I keep this blog and create an entirely new one for professional blogging purposes?

Please feel free to post your feedback in the comments section.

TechnoGeek

2007-09-24T15:49:00.000-04:00

Kylie absolutely loves all things electronic....my desktop, my loptop, my cell phone, Alyse's cell phone, cameras, etc. Today she got ahold of my old cell phone and was playing with it, and even managed to turn it on by herself. She cracks me up....

Cartoons....

2007-09-24T08:55:00.000-04:00

Half-Way Robin Hood

2007-09-21T16:18:00.000-04:00

This is a rather unique quote that I read today. The writer was describing himself as a "half-way Robin Hood...."
"I steal from the rich, but I haven't gotten around to giving to the poor."

Symptoms That You're a Graphic Designer

2007-09-21T09:50:00.000-04:00

My associate (a sophisticated way of saying "acquaintance," "friend," etc.), Jon Plank, sort of introduced me to the Facebook group "You know you're a graphic designer when..." This is honestly an awesome list of the peculiarities associated with the design field. I never really sat down and contemplated the oddities that even I suffer from, but upon reading this list I see so many of them in my daily life. So read, enjoy, and feel free to openly mock us!

You know you're a graphic designer when...

you have bags under your eyes so big you'd have to check them in at Heathrow Airport.

you watch the superbowl just for the commercials.

you can spot bad typography from 100 yds away.

you are pro-facebook because 95% of the myspace accounts burn your retinas.

you can name more than 200 fonts in under five minutes.

you are completely immune to subliminal advertising.

you look upon a well-designed project with either:
sympathy OR extreme jealousy.

your hand is permanently stuck in the shape of a mouse.

you tell stories of exacto-knife inflicted wounds with grizzled sort of pride.

you practically take caffeine intravenously.

you have an appreciation for everything unique.

you've been spending three days non-stop on a project and it still looks like crap. You find yourself overcome by Deathlust.

you find your pulse increase at the sight of a lovely ligature, glasses steam up when an unusually elegant arm, leg, or tail comes in view, and a well-kerned paragraph is apt to make you break into a sweat with excitement.

you buy a CD or DVD for the artwork, even if you have no idea what the actual music or film is like. (Even worse, you don't actually watch or listen to it, just stare at it for hours and hug it in adoration.)

you look at the clock and see it's about midnight and think 'I'll go to bed now'... and you actually go to bed about 2-3am.

you need someone else to point out that you're sitting in a room in front of the computer with all the lights off, and haven't noticed.

you know what "kerning" is and you really, really like it.

you wear two [ke] [rn] pins on your bag, and only you know what the mean. To others its probably a band of sorts.

you forget the boy-wonder and the man of steel; your heroes have names like 'Tibor Kalman', 'Stefan Sagmeister', 'Paul Rand', and 'Paula Scher'.

you don't wear black to look cool, you wear it to hide the gauche.

you have a thing for chairs. You don't know why.

you giggle whenever you use the colors F0CCED, EFF0FF and 44DDDD.

you're in the sun and you look around for a Drop Shadow to sit under.

you give your relatives a lecture about color spaces and profiles when you email them your vacation photos.

seeing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure.

you maintain a grid system for your refrigerator magnets.

you organize your CD collection according to the Pantone chart.

you sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn't come.

you're up 'til 5am because you came up with the best idea ever while brushing your teeth. (SOOOO TRUE!)

the hottest dream you ever had was "Trace contour... Find Edges... Pinch... Extrude... Smudge Stick... Motion Blur.... Sprayed Strokes..."

you know Lorem Ipsum by heart.

your kid knows Lorem Ipsum by heart.

the preschool teacher complains your child won't color inside or outside the lines – only indicate colors on a separate sheet.

activating your entire font collection makes your computer crash.

you deliberately butcher your perfectly cross browser compatible site in IE by placing a “Too Cool for IE” banner on it.

you prefer a Layer Style of 50% Opacity (or less) on your wife's Satin.

you spend $200 on a font for your personal website because "it's the only one where the lower-case g is just right..."

looking at a menu makes you go "hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic" rather than "mmmm, lunch!"

and when you finally order, you go for Layer Based Slices with Grain Texture...

you use words about fonts you dislike that other normal people reserve for fascist dictators and serial killers.

Apple+Z (or Ctrl+Alt+Z) is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something. (Done that a million times....seriously!)

you refer to colleagues as Strict, Transitional, Loose and the Future Unemployed.

you refer to your privates as "the Magic Wand".

you know that rivers are more than just water.

your best friends are all employees at the local print shop.

the only people who seem to know what you do for a living are other Graphic Designers (ex: Graphic Design? What's that? You'll never be able to make a living being an
artist!)

kerning and leading on your shopping list actually matters to you, and you don't see a problem with that.

several South American economies suffer noticeably any time you try to give up coffee, or even cut your consumption of it by half.

you know that "bleeding" doesn't hurt.

when your significant other/friends have threatened to never speak to you again if you point out one more font to them.

when you know the difference between fuchsia, magenta, and maroon.

if you could go back in time you wouldn't go back to see the rise and fall of civilizations, you'd go back in time to destroy comic sans and papyrus.

deciding on the right crop doesn't involve a choice between corn or wheat.

you've considered naming your children things like 'Kern', 'Pica', 'Bezier', and 'Serif'.

you can understand everything on this list.

Lucas Shrout

2007-09-20T15:03:00.000-04:00

One of my former instructors, and now a client of mine, just released his new website today. This is his second major release in two months, with the July debute of his latest album, "To the King" being a milestone project completed in partnership with producer Don Marsh of Nashville, TN. This album is by far the best I have heard from Lucas, and I would recommend it to anybody who likes either piano, orchesta, sacred music, or a combination of all three. To stop over by his store and pick up a copy.

Lucas is a great guy on many different levels. He is an awesome pianist, an excellent director (the role in which he was my instructor), and a great friend. He will be on solo tour across the US throughout the fall and winter. Click here to view a schedule, or click here for booking info.

For more information visit: www.ShroutMusic.com

Crown Him with Many Crowns -- from "To the King"

Modern "Praise and Worship" Music

2007-09-17T12:06:00.000-04:00

This is an awesome, very thought-provoking post by Travis Burkholder, one of my closest friends since kindergarten. I agree with him on many, if not all points, and believe that the church needs to be cautious about turning worship into an "industry," regardless of the genre. But Travis did convey to me that this post is not against CCM, Christian rock, Christian pop, etc., which is a huge relief to me....especially after last night.

I've been thinking a lot about what the Evangelical Church calls worship music these days. I think it's because I'm back at [Mount Vernon Nazarene University] now and am obligated to attend chapel thrice weekly, where more often than not we engage in a "worship experience." Let me start out this feeble attempt to put my thoughts into writing by saying I am not judging anyones motives or intent of heart. Only God can know and judge. So if you're in a P & W band, this is not directed at you personally, rather the vehicle.

To put it simply, I'm fed up with what modern day American Christians call worship music. I'm tired of people basically worshiping themselves and their emotions. Since when was worshiping Almighty God about me or how it makes me feel? Since when is worshiping God about what I think God should do for me? God is to be worshiped because He Is. Granted we (well I don't necessarily anymore) sing "I'm coming back to the heart of worship and it's all about you Jesus" but it sure as heck doesn't look like it to me.

And not only is P & W about how I feel, but seriously people, have you ever actually thought about what is being sung? One of my favorite quotes is by A.W. Tozer- "Christians don't tell lies, they go to church and sing them." Take for instance the song To the End of the Earth- "Jesus I believe in you and I would go to the ends of the earth..." Really? If you can honestly say that, great! But I have a feeling that many, myself included, are not actually that committed. It's just a guess. Or, take for instance, the song "I Want to Know You"-"I want to know You, I want to see Your face, I want to know You more, I want to touch You, I want to see Your face, I want to know You more." I hope this is the case....and this also leads me into my next point....

....every time I am subjected to one of those "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs, I want to puke (in a purely metaphorical way, of course!) Yes I understand, you love Jesus. So do I (at least I do my best to) but breaking love and worship for The Triune God down into what basically amounts to pseudo-sexual terms (Your love is intoxicating, ravishing...etc) just seems demeaning to me, to say the least. I mean in the above mentioned song "I Want to Know You" I don't believe there is a reference to God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit anywhere. For all an unbeliever knows you could be chasing a potential lover.

Then there comes the pure emotionalism attached to even just the music. Ironically, I was just discussing this with a former worship band member earlier today. He gave me the exact formula he used to get people to the altar in droves. I can remember the exact chord progression, so I'm not even going to try to repeat it, but suffice it to say it worked well for him. And Is it just me who is disturbed that the very same people who just moments before were just jumping around "worshiping" are asleep during the sermon? Now, I'm not saying that worship should always be devoid of emotion, but I honestly believe a lot of the emotion is great exaggerated, due in no small part to the music.

I would also like to raise the question of what exactly worship is. It seems to me that we have made worship the three songs before the sermon, or the latest Hillsong production, when in reality worship should encompass our entire lives. In the Bible, worship is about a lot more strapping on some instruments and rocking out. As exemplified as early as Genesis 22. "Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." Now, Abraham was not talking about strapping on a guitar and singing praise choruses, but actually sacrificing his own son! Worship involves obedience to God, in all things!

Another thing that bothers me with the modern worship music is that is an industry! Does anybody else see the irony of making a living off of "worshiping God?" Does anyone else have a problem with pre-fabricated "worship" experiences? Am I the only one that feels this way??

I could go on, but I'll stop with this. Please note that this in not intended to hurt anyone's feelings, nor is it directed at any one personally, but rather I am hoping to provoke some thought.

--Travis Burkholder

Jeremy Riddle Concet Review

2007-09-17T09:13:00.000-04:00

The Jeremy Riddle concert last night was awesome! Jeremy has one of the best live voices I have ever heard, with a very wide vocal range that very few artists possess. His band was great, the atmosphere was good, and I would recommend his concert experience to anyone who likes harder CCM. After the concert Alyse and I had some time to talk with Jeremy for a little bit, and he's a really great person on an individual level as well as onstage.

His song selection came largely from his new album, "Full Attention," which is a great project (recommended to all readers here). My favorite song by him is "Sweetly Broken," which is the prayer of my heart....

"To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of it's suffering I do drink
Of it's work I do sing

For on it my Savior, both bruised and crushed Showed that God is love
And God is just

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I'm sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You've called me out of death
You've called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I'm reconciled

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness."

Cartoons....

2007-09-13T09:39:00.000-04:00

Encouraging words from a fortune cookie....

2007-09-12T15:42:00.001-04:00

2007-09-12T15:32:00.000-04:00

A rather humorous image from PostSecret

PostSecret

2007-09-12T15:27:00.000-04:00

I just stumbled upon a very interesting blog site this afternoon. It contains some very fascinating, thought-provoking, and humorous works of art. Check it out at PostSecret.

Christ and the Outcasts

2007-09-11T13:59:00.001-04:00

Our church is beginning a sermon series entitled "Your Personal House of Prayer." In this past Sunday's service our pastor was explaining how the disciples, the very men who lived every day with the Son of God, still implored of Christ, "Teach us to pray." Along with that he also explained the character of these men, describing some of them as roughnecks (fishermen), a thief (tax collector), and a terrorist (zealot).

While I found it comical to think of the apostles in such a light, it also spawned several thoughts in my mind. How many times in the New Testament do we see Christ socializing with the high class society of the day? How often did Jesus go among the people choosing the very best to heal, the very wealthy as part of His entourage? What about Zacheus, a miserable, cheating, hated tax collector? Did his pedigree bother the Saviour? Not hardly! Neither did the scorn Christ received for going back to Zacheus' house for dinner. What about the sick, the lonely, the outcasts, the prostitutes, the demon-possessed? Did Christ in any way shy away from these "untouchables?"

I was raised in a Christian movement that a lot of times seemed to propagate the idea that we as the church are God's little "selectors," the ones who go around and choose whom God can and cannot minister to. We make sure to pay special attention to the well-dressed family down the street with the new car gleaming in the driveway, but we neglect to even acknowledge the lonely, disheveled man that shuffles home every evening from a long day's work to his tiny hovel in the alley. We will invite the sharply-attired pharmacy technician to a church youth activity, but we pretend to ignore the dark-clad Goth at the mall with their multiple piercings and contrasting makeup. We will gladly talk with the local business owner who donated money to the roofing project, but we glance away and drive past the man who exchanged his job, home and family for the pleasure he can receive at the end of a needle.

Is this what Christ did? Is this how He reacted to the down-and-outs around Him? The very person who left the splendors of Heaven, a city not even conceivable by our feeble minds, the very One who had every right to abandon the outcasts was the very One who gently reached out a loving hand to help them. How can we do any less and still call ourselves Christians? How can we face God and say, "Hey, I know you said to take the Gospel to everyone, but I really think you should look at the roster I have drawn up here. These are the ones we should really focus our efforts on." We are not God's "package selectors," He is ours! He has already given us a roster of those He wants brought into the Kingdom, so why do we so readily ignore it?

Oh, God, give me a burning passion and vision for those around me! Help me to see each person as a soul with an eternal destiny, and may I never view others through prejudicial glasses! May I never fail to follow your commission and take the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, even if it means going next door.

9/11: We Will Never Forget

2007-09-11T11:01:00.000-04:00

It was six years ago today that our nation was ruthlessly attacked by Al Qaeda terrorist as they utilized our own transportation system to our detriment.

All of you know where you were when you heard the news. Some of you were on your way to work, others were already at work. Some of you were probably home with your children, or maybe you were cleaning the house. Regardless of what activity you were engaged in, all of you felt the world stand still for a moment. Your heart beat with the panic of loved ones who might have been injured, your mind raced with thoughts and confusion.

I remember sitting in my first-period English class when my classmate, Josh McCarty, entered the room saying that somebody in "the main office" said that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. Me being the skeptic that I am simply brushed it off as a mere accident, a small commuter plane that went astray in the fog and smashed into the building, much like the incident in 1945 when a B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building. But no, I was wrong. Shortly after we were all gathered for a school assembly where we listened to the news reports as the tragedy was unfolding. There were feelings of fear, bewilderment, anxiety, and the general question, "What the heck is happening?" We wondered if we were at war on our own soil or how our lives would be changed by that single day.

While I had grown up in central Pennsylvania, I had been to New York City countless times. In fact, just three weeks prior to the attacks I had been on the observation deck of the South Tower. I closed my eyes and imagined what it would have been like had I been on top of the tower when the jetliner came plowing into the building. The thoughts of horror and utter panic made me shudder.

But here we are, six years later, and life still goes on. I have since graduated, gotten married, had a daughter born to us, and am living a happy and fulfilling life. The sun rises and sets for those of us among the living, but for those who breathed their last on that fateful morning, the sun has set forever.

A by-the-numbers look at the World Trade Center cleanup:

Tons of debris removed: 1,642,698

Tons of debris in steel: 190,568

Number of truckloads required: 108,444

Days of labor for cleanup: 242

Hours of labor: 1,642,698

Number of serious injuries incurred during cleanup: 35

Total killed at the WTC on 9/11: 2,823

Victims positively identified: 1,102

Body parts collected: Over 19,500

Death certificates issued without a body: 1,616

Average number of viewing platform tickets issued daily: 6,000

2007-09-11T10:58:00.000-04:00

Jeremy Riddle in Concert

2007-09-10T14:04:00.000-04:00

Contemporary Christian Music artist Jeremy Riddle will be in concert this coming Sunday, September 16th, at Grace Covenant Community Church in Middleburg, PA. The concert begins at 6:30 pm.

Jeremy is the original artist of the hit song "Sweetly Broken" which has recently become a favorite of mine. We are hoping to attend the concert and are looking forward to enjoying the evening of music and worship.

Click here to visit Jeremy's MySpace page which includes samples of his music.

2007-09-07T09:17:00.000-04:00

Pavarotti was one of my favorite opera singers (not that I'm well-versed in the genre). Rest in peace, Luciano....

Yes, the GOP has really gone downhill since the Reagan administration. But then again, you can only have one peak on a mountain.

2007-09-06T10:55:00.000-04:00

New Section Added to Site
I have just added a new online games section to the website. Right now it includes 300 games, but will hopefully expand in the future. If any of you have any online games, or links to online games, you are more than welcomed to submit them.

Cartoons....

2007-09-06T09:10:00.001-04:00

This one is absolutely awesome!

2007-09-04T16:19:00.000-04:00

In Search of New Members....
I am currently in search of anybody and everybody who is interested in signing up for the new forum. We are attempting to broaden our member base as well as initiate more threads and conversations. Anybody remotely interested is welcome to sign up and post anything you want about anything you want to post about.

2007-09-04T10:52:00.001-04:00

I think this is so very tipically descriptive of how many individuals throughout history have attempted to spread peace. It's a shame that so many people even believe that world peace is actually attainable. Whatever....

2007-08-31T14:45:00.000-04:00

2007-08-30T15:40:00.000-04:00

Check this out!Hey, everybody! I just wanted to annouce that I have added a new feature to my site. In addition to having a regular ol' boring blog, I have added a brand new forum that is free and open to anybody! This will generate more reader interaction and provide a place for people (who have no lives) to hang out. This is a new feature, so we are still working out the bugs. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

2007-08-29T15:46:00.000-04:00

2007-08-27T09:49:00.000-04:00

Oh, Canada!
Yes, finally we get a semi-extended break, even if it isn't until more than a month from now. In October we will be making our pilgrimage to Ontario, Canada to attend the wedding of Alyse's cousin. The ceremony will be held at the Skylon Tower overlooking Niagara Falls. So we decided to capitalize on the event and make an entire weekend of it....without Kylie. Not that we don't love our daughter or desire her to be a part of our travels (if you consider riding in a car for five hours and three minutes a "travel"), but Alyse and I could really use this break just to ourselves. It's been a number of years since my last visit the falls, and this will be Alyse's first time, so we're both kinda excited.

So we have been practicing the Canadian national anthem and are greatly anticipating our time of hanging out with drunk tourists as we watch water fall off a cliff. Oh, yeah....

2007-08-27T09:38:00.000-04:00

2007-08-27T09:32:00.000-04:00

Monday....what a depressing thought. The weekend was nice, great actually. Our weekend started a little early with Alyse and I having the oportunity actually take a date night on Thursday. Yeah, imagine that! We had a few items to take care of early in the evening, so we decided to catch the last showing of The Bourne Ultimatum. Saturday was spent visiting family outside of the area. Sunday consisted of an awesome service at church followed by an afternoon and evening with friends. My friend Tim and I watched our daughters (and a movie) while our wives attended a baby shower for a woman in our church. For those interested, the pregnant lady in question is Victoria, the wife of Gerald Wolford, the 82nd Airborne paratrooper featured in the computer game America's Army.

After our wives returned we ate a delicious supper and tried, as best as possible with three restless children hanging around, to watch the Stealers vs. Eagles game. I am not a sports fan by any stretch, and I abhor the Stealers, but hey, it was fun....until Kylie was just too pooped to party and needed to go home after a couple minutes into the second quarter.

But here I am again, the beginning of another week, ready to take on whatever challenges may come. And I'm trusting God to be there every step of the way.

2007-08-21T10:40:00.000-04:00

2007-08-20T13:29:00.000-04:00

One of my burning passions is the love of hilarious, satirical, poignant, and profound t-shirts. Here are a several that I came across recently:

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2007-08-20T08:33:00.000-04:00

Kylie Rose Photo Update

Kylie in her most peaceful state....

Chillin' in Inner Harbor....

The classic "Kylie Smile"....

My Gurlz....

For the love of the swing....

I thank God for the women in my life....

2007-08-16T15:27:00.000-04:00

This Week's How To: Destroy America
Borrowed from RC.
We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last [month] there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of America's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, Mexifornia, explaining how immigration - both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"

"Here is how they do it," Lamm said: "First, to destroy America, turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country." History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: "The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy." Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans.".

Lamm went on: "Second, to destroy America, invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. Make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. Make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

"Third, we could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: "The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together."

Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities.

"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school.

"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.

"My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common Language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic Games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. "E. Pluribus Unum" --From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we will balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.

"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16 th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate.

"Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."

In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said,. "Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book Mexifornia. His book is dangerous It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."

There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America - take note of California and other states - to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book "1984." In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and
"Ignorance is strength."

Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path especially The American Dream.

Remember they already sing the National Anthem in Spanish.

2007-08-15T15:56:00.001-04:00

This is the DUMBEST thing I have ever seen!! This is even dumber than when Don Imus was initally assulted for his "colorful" comments.

In short, one of the players on the Rutgers’s women's basketball team is suing Don Imus, his co-host, and CBS for defamation of character. Supposedly, the comments that Imus made damaged her "character and reputation." What a flippin' MORON!! So what, now everybody who has ever had anything unkind said to or about them has the freedom to simply sue whomever made those comments? If so, watch out! 'Cause I've been defamed too, and I just decided that I want revenge on all those people! What a [butt]!!

Why is it that we as Anglo-Saxon Americans are always owing something to African-Americans? Maybe she would prefer to be dodging bullets in some war-torn country in Africa, being gang raped, beaten and starved. 'Cause that's what would prolly be happening right now (unless she was dying of AIDS) if it hadn't been for my "big, bad cruel" ancestors who bought her ancestors as slaves. YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL YOU'RE NOT STILL OVER THERE, RUNNING AROUND NAKED WITH FLIES LAYING EGGS IN YOUR HAIR, AND JUST TAKE LIFE FOR WHAT IT IS WITHOUT ALWAYS COMPLAINING AND DRAGGING ANYBODY WHO OFFENDS YOU INTO COURT! Get a bloody life!

Anyhow, you can click here to read the story.

2007-08-15T09:19:00.000-04:00

I am a huge fan of music...virtually all genres and styles, at least to some degree. But my favorite solo rock artist is probably Jon Bon Jovi. Those of you who like his music know exactly why I am a fan, and those of you who do not listen to or like his music will just never get it. He is absolutely amazing! But that wasn't the point of this post. I simply wanted to say, in the words of Bon Jovi, "Have a nice day!"

Oh, by the way....for anybody that is interested, The Backstreet Boys are set to release their new album, "Unbreakable," on October 30th. This will truly be a great day in boy band history. So Justin, we will have a new list of songs to shout like maniacs!

2007-08-14T14:05:00.000-04:00

Gotta love this...

2007-08-14T13:59:00.000-04:00

2007-08-10T16:01:00.001-04:00

Ah, the weekend is finally here....without a moment to rest. Tonight is already packed full of activities, tomorrow is a wedding (an all-day afair), and Sunday is just hoppin' with the usual. But it will still be nice to get a break from most of my work. Oh, I still have business to tend to, but it's more at my own leisure instead of the regular rat-race-like crunch.

So, in the interest of not boring you any longer, I shall hence bid thee farewell.

TGIF, Mates!

2007-08-08T14:28:00.001-04:00

2007-08-06T08:59:00.000-04:00

Ask anybody if I agree with our president 100% of the time, and they will give you a resounding "No!" Ask them if I agree with him most of the time, and once again the answer would be "No." But the below cartoon is so descriptive of many people in America, even throughout the world, who simply wait around looking for another reason to hate Ol' Dubbya. The liberals (of which I do not consider myself to be a part) are doing it to Bush, the conservatives did it to Clinton, and it will pretty much always be that way in America: the opposite party just sitting around like hungry wolves waiting for the slightest failure at which to devour their opponents.

2007-08-06T08:58:00.000-04:00

2007-08-03T09:36:00.001-04:00

I cannot stop thinking about it. The images haunt my consciousness, and I am beginning the feel myself going emotionally numb. The tragedy? The bloody fact that it’s the middle of summer and I can’t go bloody skiing!! There, is that enough for ya?

I wish this whole wickedly hot weather thing would just pass on to somewhere else. Let is snow in August, I don’t care. I just miss the slopes. I am dying to race down a mountain with two six-foot pieces of fiberglass strapped to my feet. I have been searching ski resorts online, lusting after trail maps, and quietly weeping inside. However, in my searching I have come discovered a new fantasy winter destination that I would love to visit....like for all winter. It is Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada. This place is just amazing, but what would you expect from the resort with the highest slopes in North America?

In the meantime I am just wishing, longing....and buying 2-for-1 coupons online for local resorts. I absolutely cannot wait until opening day!

Sorry to bring it up again, but I just can’t get away from it :-)

2007-08-02T14:11:00.001-04:00

2007-08-02T08:50:00.000-04:00

2007-08-01T14:35:00.000-04:00

2007-08-01T09:18:00.000-04:00

It's amazing the new phenomenon that has swept across the globe in the past several years. No, I’m not talking about global warming or avian flu; I am talking about MySpace. At one point in time I did have a MySpace account, but I seriously lack the time to spend hours online posting on friends’ comment boards, etc. But one thing that MySpace has allowed literally millions of people to do is create a “new them,” a kooler, “hipper” individual, completely devoid of all the flaws and defects that the “old them” possessed. It has allowed twisted perverts to create a charming, enticing image in order to stalk children and teenagers; it has allowed the geeky, dorky school outcast to create a more sexually-appealing online presence in hopes of gaining the social interaction they so desperately crave. This simple yet complex networking tool has provided the means necessary to produce a world of fakes.

While I am not technically a “country music fan,” I do enjoy some songs here and there. On my eternal commute home from work yesterday I heard the latest song from Brad Paisley entitled “Online,” and I died laughing. I must say that Brad is as much a satirical comedian as he is a music artist. The way he weaves cynicism into so many of his songs is just a stroke of genius. Here are the lyrics:

I work down at the Pizza Pit
And I drive an old Hyundai
I still live with my mom and dad
I'm 5 foot 3 and overweight
I'm a scifi fanatic
A mild asthmatic
And I've never been to second base
But there's whole ‘nother me
That you need to see
Go checkout MySpace

'Cause online I'm out in Hollywood
I'm 6 foot 5 and I look d**n good
I drive a Maserati
I'm a black-belt in karate
And I love a good glass of wine
It turns girls on that I’m mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I’m so much cooler online
So much cooler online

When I get home I kiss my mom
And she fixes me a snack
And I head down to my basement bedroom
And fire up my Mac
In real life the only time I’ve ever even been to L.A
Is when I got the chance with the marching band
To play tuba in the Rose Parade

Online I live in Malibu
I pose for Calvin Klein, I've been in GQ
I'm single and I'm rich
And I've got a set of six pack abs that would blow your mind
It turns girls on that I’m mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I’m so much cooler online
So much cooler online

When you got my kind of stats
It’s hard to get a date
Let alone a real girlfriend
But I grow another foot and I lose a bunch of weight
Every time I login

Online I’m out in Hollywood
I’m 6 foot 5 and I look d**n good
Even on a slow day
I could have a three way
Chat with two women at one time
I’m so much cooler online
Yeah, I’m cooler online
I’m so much cooler online
Yeah, I’m cooler online

Yeah, I’m cooler online

Yeah, I’ll see ya online

Click here to visit Brad's website and see the music video for "Online."

Added on 8/6/07: I just wanted to clarify that this post was in no way meant to hate on MySpace. I was simply stating that MySpace has made is easy to become "somebody else" online. But as one of my readers pointed out, the same can be done with a blog, even though I must say that the idea and drive behind blogging is not the same as with MySpace. Anyone else agree?

2007-07-31T11:51:00.001-04:00

Breathtaking bravado foils speed camera
AUSTRALIA--QC received a very amusing although naughty e-mail from a spy at the Department of Transport this week. Our mate informs us that four youths from Canberra recently pulled off a trick of breathtaking bravado to gain revenge on a mobile speed-camera van operating in the area. Three of the group approached the van and distracted the operator's attention by asking a series of questions about how the equipment worked and how many cars the operator would catch in a day. Meanwhile, the fourth musketeer sneaked to the front of the van and unscrewed its number plate.

"After bidding the van operator goodbye, the friends returned home, fixed the number plate to their car and drove through the camera's radar at high speed--17 times," our transport spy writes. "As a result, the automated billing system issued 17 speeding tickets to itself. Go Aussies!"

2007-07-31T11:06:00.001-04:00

Updated Pictures
A family picture (of sorts). The girl in my arm is Kelsey, the daughter of some good friends of ours, Tim and Jaime Schultz.

Both of my angels. Kylie, following in the footsteps of her father, is looking as happy as ever....or something.....

A little blurry, but hey, she's still adorable, right?

Kylie intent on pushing something....maybe it was just her bowels....

Kelsey and Kylie....since Kylie is beginning to learn the joys of coherent verbal communication she is picking up on some things that Kelsey says, the most popular being "bopper."

2007-07-31T10:51:00.000-04:00

2007-07-30T09:59:00.000-04:00

A quote along the right-hand side of my blog states, “Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem.” This came from the mouth of Joseph Stalin, leader of the former Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953. The philosphy and ideology that rings so loudly in his statements was the guiding force of his totalitarianistic regime. Unconfirmable statistics claim that while Hitler was responsible for the death of 9 to 11 million people (6 million being Jews), Stalin was responsible for the death of 40 to 60 million people, the majority of them being from the Soviet Union. An individual’s life ment to him what the life of an ant might mean to us. If there was unrest or discord among his military officers he would line them all up and have them shot….just like that. Anyone who did not agree with him was put to death.

You can see this philosophy characterized in the movie “Enemy at the Gates” starring Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes in the true-life account of sniper-turned-hero Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law) who’s legacy gave the Soviet army the courage to press on against the Germans in the battle of Stalingrad. As thousands of young Soviet soldiers were sent to face the German onslaught they were told, “It is either victory or death!” Any soldier who retreated or ran was shot by their own comrades. When discussing the matter with General Nikita Kruschev (who later became head of the USSR) the character played by Fiennes advises that what the soldiers needed was hope rather than a choice between German bullets and “ours.” Hence the creation of the Zaitsev legacy.

At one point in the movie Koulikov, played by Ron Perlman, goes into detail of his treatment by his own countrymen and his views of the socialistic, equality driven Soviet government. Towards the end of the movie Commisar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) also shares his revelation: “Man will always be a man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there'd be nothing to envy your neighbor. But there's always something to envy. A smile, a friendship, something you don't have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love.”

In the end, as we all know, the Soviet Union did crumble, totally debased of all foundation upon which to stand. It is the final result of a belief that everyone is equal, and everyone means nothing.

I would highly recommend “Enemy at the Gates” to anybody who loves history, war and sniper movies, or even those who enjoy a good flick with awesome elements of drama, suspense, and romance intertwined. The movie is actually rated R, but I honestly find very little reasoning for this.

2007-07-30T08:50:00.000-04:00

2007-07-27T13:42:00.000-04:00

Anybody who has known me for any length of time will attest to the fact that I pretty much suck, and always have sucked, at sports. The only sport I was really any good at in school was football....and being a lineman at that. Oh, and I could play softball with some semblance of coordination....oh, and volleyball, but that was pretty much it. My wife on the other hand played soccer for roughly eight years, so she is more sports-inclined than I.

But there is one sport that I discovered during my mid teens that I was pretty good at. That sport is skiing. (No comment, Justin! By your own admission I can ski better than you, and that one night at Tussey on Christmas break is no valid argument!) I love everything about it…..the sound of my skis slicing through the freshly groomed snow, the wind whipping through my coat, the dizzying speed as I carve down the slopes, digging in and leaning hard as I careen around the corner of a trail....it's just amazing! Why skiing and not snowboarding? Well, maybe the fact that when I tried boarding for the first time I cracked my head on ice, clocked a light pole, and was so incredibly sore that I only came down the mountain once or twice the whole time we were there.

As I said, I didn’t learn until I was in my mid teens, but once I did that was all the incentive I needed to take every opportunity to hit the slopes. Travis (my friend since kindergarten), his sister Krista, and I would always be out there as much as possible. Our favorite hangout was the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania, in particular Camelback Ski Resort in Tannersville. We would just skip random days from school and go cruise the slope. It was an exhilarating feeling to be darting down a black diamond on opening day while the rest of our friends and classmates were stuck in hot, stuffy classrooms.

Even though this is the middle of summer I have been doing a lot of thinking about this coming ski season. Alyse has never skied nor boarded, so I am looking forward to her learning one or the other. I am also anxious for the time when I can take Kylie out onto the slopes and teach her the joys and freedom of winter sports.

My ultimate hope for this winter would be to visit Killington Ski Resort in Killington, VT for several days, but I seriously doubt that it will happen. So as I sit here in the dog days of summer in my air-conditioned office, I think, even fantasize, about the slopes, and I once again envision myself, free of all worry, gently gliding through the snow.

2007-07-27T10:27:00.001-04:00

2007-07-27T10:15:00.000-04:00

2007-07-25T13:22:00.000-04:00

A Very Special Tribute
As author of this blog, I would like to take this oportunity to thank my faithful support base for all their time, effort, and input that has gone into this blog. So, Justin, I just want to say "Thank you!"

Many of you might not know this, but Justin "Nitro" McCallus is my only faithful blog reader. Yes, he has been there with me through....ah, well....we haven't really gone anywhere.... Justin was a great friend in high school and accepted the honor of being the best man in my wedding. You can't expect more out of a man than that, but yet he is right there by my side again, checking my blog daily, reading what little bit of lame crap that I occasionally post. He has even gone to the trouble to actually comment on a couple posts here and there.

So, Nitro, thank you for all your love and support. I could not carry this blog on without you. May God richly reward you for your efforts. Amen.

Click here to check out Justin's "oh-so exciting website."

2007-07-24T09:27:00.000-04:00

2007-07-20T13:54:00.001-04:00

Well, I haven’t held as true to my promise as I had intended, but I am posting again, even though it is with lengthy hiatuses in between.

In personal news… Everything is going well; Kylie is getting more beautiful and growing like wicked mad (NOTE: term used to describe the growth rate of an object or person rapidly expanding in size), Alyse is as beautiful as ever, and me?...well, I’m looking pretty good too, I suppose.

There are a couple things that I am excited about. The first item is our church picnic this Sunday. The evening/night before (Saturday….duh!) all of the “men” (this term includes young men, old men, just barely men, not nearly men, boys, etc.) who are able to come are gathering at our pastor’s home for a time of fellowship and a big sleepover. (Who ever said that sleepovers were just for adolescent girls?!?) Then on Sunday we will all be preparing the meal for the ladies which is a great idea as long as you have some accomplished chefs in your midst. I’m not completely certain of the number of chefs, so we all might be sleeping in our respective doghouses for an indeterminate amount of time.

The second item that I am excited about is the launch of two new divisions of my company, Mowery Graphix. The one is a web hosting and support division which is in the finishing process right now. The other (and this is the one that I’m really excited about) is a full service printing division, offering literally any and every print solution for current and future customers. In the past, all print orders were handled on a one-on-one basis: a client would contact me and tell me what they are looking for, I would search out the lowest prices, contact the client back with those prices, and they would then send me the information so I could design the project or they would send me print-ready files to go to press. Soon clients will be able to log onto our website, login to their account and choose from an almost-endless list of printing options. All they need to do is select the options they want, pay for the job, and it will be shipped directly to their door. They can upload their print-ready files, choose our design services, or, and this is a kool feature, they can choose to design their own project right there online at no additional cost! This will be a great option for companies that print large amounts of promotional material......and just wait until you see the prices!!

Anyhow, pardon the sales pitch....but that’s pretty much what’s going on with me right now.

Until l8er....!

2007-07-13T11:13:00.000-04:00

I am still alive....
Yes, as the title stated, I am still alive, much to the chagrin of some, especially the hitmen hired to "retire" me who are now out of their Christmas bonus. Be that as it may...

Life has been extremely busy, hectic, and pretty much an all-out ratrace lately. Between family, my business, and this new-fangled thing I've been trying to catch on to called "bills," I have been successfully managing to avoid all moments of boredom.

I was just discussing the other night how, while I would not trade my family and the life I have now for anything, I wish I had taken time to appreciate life while I was younger instead of acting like a child waiting on Christmas, counting down the days until I could move away and begin to "really live." During my teen years I always heard how "these are some of the best years of your lives." And I was like, yeah, right....whatever! But I have since come to realize that while what I heard was indeed true, there was really no way for me to comprehend it at the time. Looking back, yes, there are some things that I wouldn't change, but then there are a lot of things that would. The main issue that would be different would be my friends. Yes, I would still have the same close ones that I did, but I wouldn't be so exclusive. I would have realized that we are all human, we are not perfect, we all make mistakes, so why kick somebody when they're down, why lock them out of your life because you think that you are somehow above them? But they're a little "different" you might say? So what!?! We're all a little different! I just wish I had realized this earlier in life, but I was sooo selective (any body who was around me probably figured this out loooong before I did) and I missed out on awesome opportunities for friendship.

The below song is "Kick Me" by Christian pop group Plus One. I must admit that I have been on both sides described....the accused and the accuser. Yes I have fallen, yes I have made mistakes, and while nobody likes doing that it has given me a whole new love and appreciation for people as they truly are.

Why can't you be there for me?
A friend is nowhere to be found
..... kick me when I'm down

Enter the room, maybe too soon
Nobody seems to be through
They were just talking 'bout me
Now the silence is killing me
Made a mistake now it's too late
Everyone just can't wait
You just wanna tell a friend
Start the beginning of my end

You must have never fallen short
Always doing the right thing
Cause if you ain't so perfect
Then don't throw another stone at me

Why can't you be there for me?
A friend is nowhere to be found
I just don't understand why you
Kick me when I'm down
You think it's over now but
I'm gonna turn it all around
Why can't you see that you
Kick me when I'm down

Trying to walk but then I get caught up
Don't know if I have enough
Just stop looking down on me (down on me)
You're seeing right through my need
Thought I could count on you
As someone to be true
Helping me get through
You coulda reached for me
But your back is all I see

You must have never fallen short
Always doing the right thing
Cause if you ain't so perfect
Then don't throw another stone at me
(Just throw another stone, yeah)

Why can't you be there for me?
A friend is nowhere to be found
I just don't understand why you
Kick me when I'm down
You think it's over now but
I'm gonna turn it all around
Why can't you see that, that you
Kick me when I'm down

You must have never fallen short
Always doing the right thing
Cause if you ain't so perfect
Then don't throw another stone at me

Why do you kick me when I'm down?
I just don't understand why you
kick me when I'm down
Why do you kick me when I'm down?
Why can't you see
That you kick me when I'm down?

My initial point in this post was to let you know that I am still alive and hope to get back to posting regularly. I apologize for my "sidenote" there, but it was just kinda burning on me.

Until next time....

Allen

2007-07-02T16:26:00.001-04:00

2007-06-29T16:26:00.000-04:00

This is awesome! I love it!

2007-06-26T13:00:00.000-04:00

2007-06-25T15:10:00.000-04:00

My latest product....a self-descriptive bumper sticker. Once they hit the market I'll be sure and let you know.