I'm a finger down... playing hurt... fighting through it... yeah... here's the deal... i was rationing off a chocolate bunny on Saturday... by the way, i didn't get a chocolate bunny this year - very disappointing - i'm going to have to raid the clearance aisle or something... anyway, i'm rationing off this bunny, which is a nicer way of saying that i'm lopping off the ears to help manage the resultant sugar high... and i also managed to lop off a chunk of my left index finger... since then, i've been bandaged and i feel rather gimpy... you wouldn't think that the left index finger is all that important to a right-hander, but yeah... you do notice...

Anyway... i'm trying some new things starting today... we'll see how they work... let me know what you think...

EASTER
to the tune of Mighty to Save - Hillsong

So our Easter went pretty well... i mentioned earlier that we went over the Easter story a few times with the littles and they seemed pretty taken by it... so that went well and we did the church thing... the littles and i all wore full-out suits and they totally showed me up as they were supremely handsome... Before church, though we did a treasure hunt which involved eight treasure maps that led one to another until the big payoffs which were the Easter baskets... they LOVED it, but apparently, i could've drawn the maps a little better... shows what happens when you scrawl things out at 1 in the morning...

We had hoped to bring our neighbors to church as well, but that didn't work out for a variety of reasons that i'm not completely aware of and some that i am... so, after church, we had a laid-back lunch, sent the littles to their rooms for some down time and i watched a movie which i'll talk about later... and then, when they came back down, we did the egg hunt thing and shared a splendid lamb dinner... all in all, a very nice Easter Sunday and i think we covered all the traditional bases...

THE OTHER MARCH MADNESS
to the tune of CrushCrushCrush - Paramore

So there's also this little business of the NCAA Tournament going on in the background... and i performed my duties as a guy and filled out a bracket and joined a challenge group... and on Thursday, i watched a couple games via the online video players... and caught some games on Friday and Saturday as well... and it didn't take too long into the process to remember why i never put money on these things... outside of the NFL, i'm so disconnected from the sports world these days... i enjoy occassional games from pretty much every sport, but i don't follow it nearly like i used to... so, despite a strong early showing on Thursday, my picks all died away rather quickly and i'll be lucky to finish in the top 7 of the 7-person pick 'em group i joined...

It is sad for me to see Georgetown, UCONN, Duke and George Mason get booted so early, despite my bracket, but that's life... from what i've seen of the tourney so far, it seems to me that UNC is going to run over everyone the rest of the way through and probably win in the championship game by 15 or 20 points... then again, what do i know...

MOVIE MONDAY
to the tune of Ratatouille (score) - Michael Giacchino

So one of the first things i want to do to change things up is to get on a better schedule... so, depending on the day of the week, there will be some regular "features" to look forward to... the first that i'm unveiling is Movie Monday... since i happily subscribe to Netflix, it seems that i always have a movie to talk about, and this week, i'll talk about two...

first up is Horton Hears a Who, which we took the littles to see on Friday... yes, it's in theaters and no, it's probably not worth seeing before it's available on DVD through, say, Netflix, perhaps?... anyway... most everyone is familiar with the gist of this story, an elephant discovers a speck of dust that contains an entire civilization and he vows to keep it safe... Horton faces a number of challenges, in this case Carol Burnett's mean-spirited kangaroo... on the flipside, the mayor of Whoville has to convince a world of people that are so caught up in their own comforts that they need to take action or see their world destroyed...

There's a number of themes that can take you in a myriad of directions... on Horton's side you see the importance of imagination, loyalty, and faith as well as facing persecution and defeating "the man"... and in Whoville, you see the question of God's existence as well as the intentional disregard of the world around you... common themes betweeen the two worlds seem to be faith, character, ridicule, and being brave...

And all these themes can relate to something in everyone's life, however, the movie doesn't completely develop any of them which is somewhat annoying, though the humor and entertainment level for children is pretty great... my main problem with the movie is the name-calling... there's lot's of "idiots," "morons," and "boobs" thrown around - in fact, i think they said "boob" about 10 times in a minute... and it's not that these are terrible words, but i really don't want the littles running around calling people boobs and idiots because they heard it in a movie and don't understand that it's not nice or appropriate... Overall, i give Horton a B/B-...

The second movie, i want to talk about is called The Final Inquiry which was apparently first released in Spain, but tells of a Roman soldier commissined to investigate the rumors of about the resurrection of a man named Jesus... there's mystery, intrigue, some fight scenes, romance, Dolph Lundgren, cover-ups and a lot to like about the film...

It's actually a pretty compelling movie - even with Dolph - and it's an interesting perspective as you see the current Caesar conducting a secret investigation and you get to follow all the evidence as it comes to light... There are some conflicts of timing and such, but nothing terribly distracting from the main thrust of the film and certainly not fom the conclusion... it was particularly interesting to watch around Easter time and i enjoyed it in lieu of reading The Murder of Jesus by John MacArthur which i appear to have misplaced... Bottom line, i give The Final Inquiry a solid B+

WORD OF THE DAY

Joshua 6: 22-27

Promises Fulfilled and then...

God fulfilled His promise and delivered Jericho to the Israelites in an odd fashioin so Joshua, in turn fulfills some of his promises... He spares Rahab and her family and allows them to live with them as a reward for her faithfulness... and then they burned the entire city to the ground, keepinng all the silver, gold, bronze and iron into the treasury of The LORD - which i think, constitutes one of the earliest "Building Funds" in church history...

And then there's a curse... Joshua pronounces a curse on anyone who tries to rebuild the city of Jericho... he says that whoever does so will lose his firstborn son and his youngest son... they destory the place and hope to wipe it off of the face of the earth forever... now, i think this will lead to some interesting things... in fact, someone named Heil DID rebuild Jericho, during the reign of King Ahab and guess what? his first born son died as did his youngest son... should've seen that coming... i'm going to rethink signing that petitiion to save Jericho (the TV show)...

IN OTHER WORDS
to the tune of The Motions - Matthew West

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg... Prevent Regret... This is a chapter that closes out the "Setup" section of the book... it deals with the general notion that if you don't figure out what's important in life and act on it, then you're going to experience a lot of regret... the opening story is touching and sad and reminds us that relationships have a lot to do with our priorities... the chapter talks about four common regrets that people face at the end of life and reminds us that life doesn't slow down until it stops and then it's too late to change anything... we have this point in time right now to make the most of and that's it... Next section: HOW TO PLAY...

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE -dAT CAVE
to the tune of The Batman Theme - Danny Elfman

a few nice pieces up at theTRu... posted my 2oo7 Year in Re:TRu piece last week as well as a long, lost interview with Shawn McDonald... plenty more to come your way... as long as i can stay awake...

MOVING ON

hope you enjoyed this slightly new format and will check back to see the rest of the new "schedule"...

peace... love... bdg...

... ouch!... yeah, that was the joke of the weekend because i actually did walk into a bar or, more accurately a pole... hard.... which is what happens when you go to bed too late on Friday, get up too early on Saturday and care more about keeping your little boy out of the road than where you are walking... and, of course if you don't look where you're going... so i plowed face first into a signpost that was very well cemented into the ground and very solid... my head's still pretty sore and i have bruises on my elbow and knee both of which also managed to hit the post directly, but i'm recovering pretty well... laughter is the best medicine and trust me, i've laughed at myself a lot over the past few days...

DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN?

so things look kind of dark for my boy Mike and his chances after the Wisconsin primary the other night... but that's nothing... all you need is a candle, right?... that candle, that spark may be Texas... i just finished watching a video of Mike addressing a crowd in Plano Texas and he was very serious about continuing in the race, knowing that Texas is a big big deal and reminding everyone that they shouldn't let the media or the other states tell them how it's going to be, for example, who's going to be their Republican candidate for president...

It does seem pretty silly the way these nominations are set up... and it's clear to me that i've never paid much attention to the process in the past because it's just complete nonsense... primaries, caucuses (caucii?), different ways of dividing them up based on state, county, party, etc... i mean, who thought of this anyway?... and it's true, some states who haven't held a vote yet really end up disenfranchised because their choices are pretty much taken away from them before they get to cast their ballots... there's gotta be a better way...

Anyway, i think i'm talking too much politics these days... this is probably why i have kept a tradition of not getting into it in the past... time for a break...

E AMPERSAND P

apparently, belated congratulations are in order for Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken... the husband/wife duo delivered a healthy baby boy into this world back on July 4th - not sure how i missed that... but that is not all... oh, no... that is not all... Derek and Sandra have also put together a nice little six-song EP called the Ampersand EP... i think later on, i'll put together a nice little write up about it, but right now, you can and should go buy your own copy...

THE NEW 24

season seven of American Idol is well underway and they're down to the top 24 singers... you'll notice i didn't do any blogging from this week's episodes like i've done in the past... maybe in time i'll do that again, but man, i'm just so not into the show this year... i'm not sure why, but i don't think it matters who wins this year's contest... it seems to me that we're all losers for keeping the show going... maybe it's because everyone keeps saying that it's the most talented group ever, but i think that that's just another example of the media forcing its opinion on the general public... i'm tired of that and maybe that's why i'm tired of the show already... that new Paula Abdul song is HOT though, right?

PRISON BREAK

season three just ended this week and i'm pretty sure it was cut short by about 9 episodes unless they plan on bringing those out in some random off-season run... (get it, run?)... anyway, the finale was pretty good... the show was starting to get pretty tiring actually, i mean how many times can a dude break out of prison, right? but at least it turned into a slightly different plot angle which was nice... and some of the characters (hello Bellick) got pretty irritating even until the very end... the way they've lined things up for next season hopefully opens the door for an interesting year... one big difference and potential problem is that Michael is no longer a sympathetic character since he's now out to chase revenge rather than justice... not sure how that will play out, but it may make things a little crazy with no one to really root for...

WHEN DOVES CRY

since i'm clearly already behind schedule... i mean, it's already almost Friday... so here's the haps... got a few Dove features up, my predictions and commentary and a special iTRu-nes playlist... also, i've got some reviews, yes reviews up as well... Mainstay and Ronnie Freeman... more coming tomorrow...

peace... love... bdg...

Have you missed me?... i've been pretty tied up with work and errands... and i'll tell you what, i love holidays and all, but it really screws up your sense of schedule... anyway, with all the illness going around, it's added to it all to of that and made me perform at like half speed... in fact, it looks like i have a writer's strike beard going on and i think i'm going to have to get shaving soon because it's all itchy and stuff... eh, don't mind me, it's the congestion talking...

So the big news during my absence has been that Fred Thompson dropped out of the presidential race and i guess some people are now reporting that he was only really testing out the waters so that he might be picked as a running mate... sounds like a career underachiever to me... why would you brag about that?... anyway, the other big news is that Heath Ledger is dead... no joke, or recurring joker character in the new Batman movies... the questions surrounding his death include whether or not it was a drug overdose and how Mary-Kate Olson ties into the whole thing...

yeah, i'm doing no good here, so why don't we move on...where did i leave off last time... that's right disillusionment...

RON-PAUL-UTION...?

so it seems like everywhere i go these days, there are Ron Paul banners strewn about on the side of the road or banner ads everywhere or even worse, the moronic online militia posting negative comments about every other candidate, talking conspiracy theories and basically being a nuisance... now, keep in mind, i don't think that everyone who supports Mr. Paul is a moron, it's just those who refuse to accept the strengths of other candidates and the weaknesses of their own...

In fact, Ron Paul has a lot of good things to say and it's no wonder that he's been able to amass such a following... when it comes to the economy, he certainly seems to know his stuff... and with the recent shift in focus at the debates to key in on economic matters, it looks to favor Paul for as long as they let him talk...

However, Paul seems to be one-dimensional in that regard and is more like Bill "It's the economy, stupid" Clinton than the Ronald Reagan persona he tries so hard to embrace... if it is just about the economy, then Ron Paul is probably a great choice... but it's not just the economy... people listen to you when you talk about the economy and people like it when you promise to fix the economy because the average person becomes short-sighted when it comes to money... we, as a nation, are so willing to sacrifice ethics, safety, moral responsibilities, our family, and just about anything on the promise of prosperity...

Look back at Bill Clinton's time as president and you can see what happens when you just focus on the economy... by the end of his term, we as a nation had experienced the most publicized and morally bankrupt trial of a man's infidelity... our military was depleated and, despite rolling with the good times throughout his presidency, the country was in a recession... the point is not that we shouldn't focus on the economy - because i think that we've overlooked basic, common sense business practices as a nation for far too long - but the tunnel vision can only last for so long before everything collapses...

Ron Paul's statements about foreign policies and other practical issues really show a lack of depth and understanding that's necessary to be in such a high position of authority which outweighs his positive statements about the economy... bottom line, it's more than just the economy, stupid...

FOOTBALL

Another set of good to great games last weekend... the Patriots managed to shut down the Chargers pretty well... even with Darth Vader trying to manipulate the force from the sidelines... and the rootin' tootin' Green Bay Packers, led by Yosemite Brett Favre couldn't overcome the elements and knock off the Giants, who are apparently sponsored by Franks Red Hot, hot sauce... of course i'm disappointed that the Pack didn't pull it off, but they were totally outplayed for the whole game and it's only fair that they win...

this means of course that the Patriots and the Giants will be in the Superbowl down in Arizona and it's going to be.... eh, an okay game at least... i'll talk more about it later on...

MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

Monday was Martin Luther King Day and i have a few things to say about it... first is that there was apparently an MLK patio sale at a local store... i know this because The Tony Kornheiser Show is back on the air and Tony was ranting about how inappropriate it was to advertise a patio furniture sale and attach the name of someone who assassinated to it... His argument was that of all the things that Martin Luther King Jr stood for in his life, patio furniture sales shouldn't be his legacy in pop culture... which is fine, except he continued to say that it would be okay to have President's Day sales, Christmas sales, etc... if i'm not mistaken, Lincoln was assassinated and that guy they named Christmas after, too...

Anyway, little boy, who is in Kindergarten, learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. in school... now, i'm not sure all that was said during the lesson or lessons, but he told me that King was a good man, who told people to love everyone and that he had a dream before he was "killed by the bad white man"... interesting to say the least...

i guess my problem overall is that he's in Kindergarten... he doesn't have any concept of race... and he shouldn't... he's innocent in that regard... as he should be... i see this as a subtle attack on innocence and maybe i'm just being a little overprotective - again, i don't know what the lesson was about - but i have a dream where kids aren't taught from an early age that race is an issue only to be taught later on that race isn't supposed to be an issue... it's already not an issue... just let us all be neighbors... i'm probably rambling...

GHOST IN THE MACHINE (part eleven)

Long time readers will appreciate this... this time, it's my laptop... my trusty, faithful, german shepherd of a laptop... except that it's been acting up in most every way imaginable... first it started acting slow... i figured that it was because i hadn't shut down in quite a while... well then i got it all rebooted and such and my browser kept freezing... and freezing... and freezing... so i ended up having to uninstall, reinstall, shop around and now i'm splitting time between different browsers... in the meantime, i've gotten my email migrated and lost my filters and address book... so i'm still in the process or rebuilding all that... my other computer is actually acting worse, but i'll save that for another day...

WORD OF THE DAY

Joshua 5: 1-12

This is a difficult subject to talk about... but it's part of the covenant... they're across the Jordan, God's been faithful and they're all in good spirits, preparing to start battle against all the countries that lay ahead... and at the big pep rally, Joshua says, it's time to get circumcised... then it explains that this was the next generation and that they hadn't been circumcised in the desert because of all the disorganization and disobedience... now they're all caught up with their end of the bargain, recovering from the surgery during the time that is afforded by the fear of the Amorite kings... and, having been cleansed, they can celebrate passover and enjoy the food of the land...

IN OTHER WORDS

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg...

Chapter 4: Master the Inner Game...

This chapter talks about the two distinct games that we are playing... an inner game and an outer game... the outer game is what we get credit for, but it is simply an outpouring of the inner game... Ortberg says that the possibility of mastering the inner game is the biggest reason that we even play the outer game... everything external is wasting away despite our efforts to stave off the effects of aging, but i think we need to recognize and embrace the relationship between external and internal, physical and spiritual, temporal and eternal... doing that isn't easy, especially in a world that likes to compartmentalize everything... props to Ortberg for the Dorian Gray reference... great book there...

BEFORE YOU BREAK MY HEART

Here's the stuff from last time... a concert review, an interview with Chris Rice and aWalk TRu for Night Owls 4...

Newer postings include an interview with Ronnie Freeman and a new iTRu-nes Playlist...

COMING SOON

the weekend... man, writing in the blog really winds the clock down... but yeah... i'll shave, i'll get better and i'll talk about more stuff... on theTRu, i've got a WalkTRu, Left to Write, and more in the works...

peace... love... bdg...

so, is it oddly warm where you are? it's been in the 60s and 70s here so far this week and everyone else seems pretty happy about it... i'm a bit indifferent, because i'm really still wishing there was some snow on the ground... it's January for goodness sakes... let's cool off a little bit... well... there's a lot to cover today, so let's dig in...

NO ROOM FOR GREY

i'm in the midst of watching Blood Diamond... and i've seen a few other movies with similar themes... as portrayed in the movies at least, the situation in some of these third-world countries seems as close to hopeless as possible outside of Hell... the main character even says in this movie, "God's left this place a long time ago"... it can certainly seem that way...

One thing that really bothers me about these movies though, is that there's always several sets of "bad guys"... and you're never quite sure who to "root" for... well... that's not entirely true, there are the innocent victims... it's just that they're never the real focus of the film... here's how the characters break down usually:

there are usually the rebel troops.. these are the bad guys... they use excessive force and terror to gain power... they slaughter the innocents mercilessly as they wage war against the next group... the govenrment army... initially, these may seem like the good guys until you realize that the rebels rose up because the government army mercilessly oppressed its people to gain and maintain power... that's the first conundrum

Sometimes there's a third army... an outside army... initially they seem like the good guys until you realize that they are present in the country not to instill peace or restore order... they aren't there to rescue the innocents like you might expect... no, they are there because they want control and power in their own way... whether it's some sort of resource that they crave or just a chance to exert their own strength and prove their own power... there always seems to be an ulterior motive...

with all these shades of evil, who do you root for, indeed?... well, this ties in with my last post about the Ortberg book that i'm reading... and it goes along with something that we're getting to in Joshua... we don't need to root for any of these options... we are presented with these options and we can reject their offer... we need to "root" for love... a love that overcome all evil...

i know, it's hard... it was much easier when we only watched Disney movies... movies where good and evil are clearly labeled... movies unlike life...

WIN OR GO HOME

Well, that was a bit heavier than i intended, but let's talk some football now, shall we?... the Saturday night game will once again be the biggest game of the weekend... The Jaguars march into New England to face the undefeated Patriots... fresh off their hard-fought victory in Pittsburgh, the Jags hope to upset the team that everyone expects to win the Super Bowl... They'll certainly give the Pats a run for it... but after the two-headed run attack and the level-headed play from defense and the rest of the team, it'll come down to the fact that the Patriots have more weapons at their disposal and they'll get one step closer to that trophey...

LAST YEAR (PT. 3)

the final list from Last.FM is the 25 most played artists of 2007...not sure how this works because it doesn't necessarily line up with either of the other lists, but here it is...

1. Mute Math
2. Relient K
3. The Rocket Summer
4. The Showdown
5. K-Os
6. TobyMac
7. Group 1 Crew
8. Listener
9. Scribbling Idiots
10. Needtobreathe
11. Ohmega Watts
12. Matt Wertz
13. Jackson Waters
14. Neon Horse
15. John Reuben
16. The Roots
17. Robbie Seay Band
18. Family Force 5
19. Mars Ill
20. Switchfoot
21. 4th Avenue Jones
22. Jon McLaughlin
23. Caedmon's Call
24. Daughtry
25. The Procussions

and that's a wrap for those, i guess... no more stalling... i suppose i need to start working on the official lists now, don't i?

AND WITH THAT...

my time is up... bummer... hopefully, i'll plan better tomorrow and hit all my intended topics...

peace... love... bdg...

Perhaps this is the week that i'll get back on schedule... perhaps, perhaps not... it was a good weekend overall and i enjoyed the football games quite a bit (more on that later)... i'm currently watching the New Hampshire debates and i expect that i'll be done with those sometime tomorrow... still have a number of emails hanging over my head, but i'm plugging along with those and with all the other items i have planned... in an effort to get to all that sooner, lets first get to this...

YOU ARE ONE WILD AND CRAZY CARD

What a GREAT bunch of games this weekend... sure, i only picked 2 of the 4 right, but all the games were pretty much up in the air until the very end... the Saturday games seemed better matched, but the Sunday games were quite good as well... and now, even though it's only Monday, i'll start making next week's picks...

Saturday afternoon: Seattle in Green Bay... this game has all the makings of a classic playoff matchup... Favre, the gunslinger, faces a secondary ripe for the burning... Hasselback, Favre's pupil looks to show up his teacher... the running game for both teams will likely be moot points... add in Mike Holmgren, his knowledge of Favre's play and his desire to show up the Pack and wow... it's gonna be great!... in the end, my Packers will have won by about 10 points...

LAST YEAR (PT. 2)

the next list from Last.FM is the 25 most played tracks of 2007... i went ahead and edited this one down so that no artist was repeated... the numbers in parentheses indicates how many times the artist appeared in the actual top 25... as you can tell, the list would've included about 7 artists... i think this way it's more interesting...

1. "Typical" by Mute Math (5)
2. "Carry on Wayward Son" by The Showdown (11)
3. "Made to Love" by TobyMac
4. "Can't Go On" by Group 1 Crew (6)
5. "The Rain" by K-Os (2)
6. "The Storm" by The Procussions
7. "So Much Love" by The Rocket Summer (4)
8. "Don't Feel Right" by The Roots
9. "Identity" by John Waller
10 "The Best Thing" by Relient K
11. "" by Amazing Because It Is
12. "Beautiful Disaster" by Jon McLaughlin
13. "Hang Me Up to Dry" by Cold War Kids
14. "The Heat" by Needtobreathe
15. "Your Life Will Never Dull or Your Money Back" by Listener
16. "Come Undone" by Jackson Waters
17. "Rise" by Robbie Seay Band
18. "I Love You to Death" by Family Force 5
19 "Make Money Money" by John Reuben
20 "American Dream" by Switchfoot
21. "Horsey" by Neon Horse
22. "Love & Radiation" by All Star United
23. "When the Stars Go Blue" by Blake Lewis
24. "Feels Like Tonight" by Daughtry
25. "Undercover Belief" by Nate Sallie

if you'd prefer to see the full list without my consolidation, then you can feel free to do that as well...

AMERICAN IDOL

the popular show is rolling the die and coming back for another season soon... and while there's recently been a surge of Christian singers trying out and making it through the competition, i never expected to hear Robbie Seay Band's song, "Rise" on the promos for the new season... however, i did... and i got chills...

WORD OF THE DAY

Eph. 1:17-19a

This is a nice blessing... a nice prayer to pray over those whom you love... Paul asks for some wonderful things on behalf of the church and it's a sincere prayer... the first thing he asks for is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation... hey, that's what Solomon asked for back in the day... wisdom is good and all, but why?... so that you may know him, God, better.... that's even better... but that's not all...

Next, Paul asks God to... okay sing it with me... open the eyes of [their] hearts... but it's not so much to see Him... it's to see what He's given to us... the hope to which we're called.... the riches of our inheritance and the power of His presence... and we'll look at that power more tomorrow when i finish this verse and this chapter...

IN OTHER WORDS

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg...

What's the Score?

this next bit is about scoring... how we keep score and how we should keep score and i absolutely love the example that he uses... he talks about how two groups of kids were presented with the same game but they decided to keep score differently... i believe that's what we're called to do as Christians too... When Jesus walked the earth, He turned the conventional scoring systems completely upside down... He taught us that to die is to live... to serve is to become powerful... to follow is to lead...

We don't need to conform to this world's standards... we don't have to keep score the same way... this is a real challenge...

THE LAST WORD

speaking of words... merriam webster's website, m-w.com names an official word of the year each year... it's apparently voted on by people who use the site a lot and paid attention to the front page ads... previous winners have been "democracy", "blog", "integrity", and "truthiness" (thank you Colbert)... and this year there were some great words up for the vote including "quixotic" and "conundrum" and "apathetic"... but apparently there were no words with the importance or overall likeability as the winner... which was... (drumroll)... "w00t"... that's right, w00t...and that, my friends, is the world in which we live...

AND WITH THAT...

i posted a new Walk TRu featuring The Alchemy Index Vol: 1 & 2 by Thrice... check it out...

DON'T BE A STRANGER

i'll be back later this week with more football game predictions... debate reactions and commentary... my thoughts on Roger Clemens... and more... trust me... everytime i start writing i start thinking of new things to write about...

peace... love... bdg...

well, it's Saturday and i usually get pretty mad at myself if i do any work on Saturday, but my schedule is still all screwy right now because of the holiday, random days off and general lack of sleep and structure... so, i'm letting today slide because i haven't updated much this week and i've done some planning for the month and it looks pretty full and exciting and i can't wait to get right to it...

the first step unfortunately is sending out a bunch of emails and phone calls and that may be one of the most monotonous parts of getting work done... it is a necessary part of the job, though, and even though it sucks up a couple hours and leaves me feeling like i haven't accomplished anything, i'll bury my head and fingers into these keys and send send send... but first...

POWDER PLAY

It snowed in Buffalo on New Year's Day... i know this because, well, i suppose it's pretty safe to say that it always snows in Buffalo on New Year's Day, but i saw it snowing on TV... while i was watching a hockey game... an outdoor hockey game between the Sabres and the Penguins... i had heard about this game a month or so ago and thought it was kind of a silly idea, much less to be on New Year's Day, which is traditionally dominated by Bowl games...

HOWEVER, as i was flipping through the channels, it drew me in and i watched a bit of it and enjoyed it thoroughly... well, as thoroughly as i enjoy any NHL game on TV... and it seems that lots of other people did as well... drawing twice the average crowd and double the ratings of the Stanley Cup finals... i think they should it more often... one big downside though is that the fans in attendance are really far away from the action whereas they're normally right on the glass... they can solve this by expanding the ice to fit the entire field... that's right HUGE HOCKEY!!!! that's what i want to see...

RIP-PING MAGAZINES

is it just me or is the printed magazine starting to die off completely?... i know that newspapers and magazines all took big hits with the rise of internet publications and blogs and all that fun stuff... but it seemed that the traditional magazines just had to adjust their business model a bit and they ended up doing alright... lately though, it may have caught up with them... at least three magazines to which i subscribed have recently shut down entirely... others i know of are really struggling to balance their budgets... have we finally reached the breaking point for print magazines? i hope not... print magazines pay better for content than online stuff, but also, i just love holding that i'm reading in my hands...

LAST YEAR (PT. 1)

since i'm still taking my time, dragging my feet with the end of the year charts and such, i thought it might be cool to share my top 25's as reported by Last.FM... i don't know that it's entirely accurate since i wasn't reporting my iPod usage for a lot of the year and that's my primary player and there are a few other quirks to it all, but they're pretty good lists... today, my 25 Most Played Albums of 2007...

1. K-Os - Atlantis - Hymns for Disco
2. Family Force 5 - Business Up Front...
3. Matt Wertz - Everything In Between
4. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
5. Jon McLaughlin - Indiana
6. The Almost - Southern Weather
7. The Fray - How to Save a Life
8. Switchfoot - Oh! Gravity.
9. Neon Horse - Neon Horse
10. Mae - The Everglow
11. Aerosmith - Young Lust: The Best of...
12. Jonezetta - Popularity
13. Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight
14. Ok Go - Oh No
15. Adam Watts - Sleeping Fire
16. 4th Avenue Jones - No Plan B
17. John Waller - The Blessing
18. George Thorogood - Greatest Hits
19. Hawk Nelson - Smile, It's the End of the World
20. K-Os - Joyful Rebellion
21. TobyMac - Reinventing Diverse City
22. Mike Farris - Salvation in Lights
23. Deas Vail - All the Houses Look the Same
24. Robbie Seay Band - Give Yourself Away
25. Matt Wertz - Somedays

Some of those will probably show up on my best album of the year list, but some of them obviously can't... either way, it's an interesting batch of albums...

BEFORE YOU SAY GOODBYE

yes, i know, no word of the day or in other words... i'm watching the 4th quarter of the Skins game with my mouth wide open right now and it's getting late (yes, i'm watching a recording)... but you can check out my interview with The Afters by hopping over to theTRu right now and we don't have to say goodbye just yet... but i've got those emails to write...

peace... love... bdg...

Long time, no blog...

THEN

first off, here's what i've been up to...

for theTRu:

Elsewhere
- Mitch McVicker Interview (ChristianMusicPlanet.com)
- Grey Holiday Interview (ChristianMusicPlanet.com)
- Ohmega Watts Interview (CCMmagazine.com)

NOW

i'm currently working on a lot of other fun stuff... especially since it's the end of the year almost... there will be plenty of good things to write about...

right this moment, i'm playing scrabulous on facebook...

NEXT

expect another interview, playlist, Left to Write, and so much more at theTRu...
i'm going to be blogging more regularly...
i'm working on my biggest writing project to date...

please stay tuned and tell your friends...

peace... love... bdg...

So clearly i'm not the best at maintaining several blogs at once, but i'm back for now popping in with a couple updates from over at theTRu and i'll be adding a couple of unrelated entries as well later today...

first up, though is an inTRuview with Bethany Dillon which i conducted in early April and posted in June...

next, there's the iTRu-nes playlist for the month of June with some good tracks including Theory Hazit, The Almost, David Crowder Band, and more...

and last but not least, i did a walkTRu of the "new" Greatest Hits collection celebrating the catalog of dcTalk...

in other exciting news, i managed to find my way into the print world again, this month scoring an album review in the current (BarlowGirl cover) issue of CCM... doesn't look like the review made it online, but hey, i saw it in the magazine and it made me smile...

coming soon at theTRu... i have interviews with Verbs, Listener, Flatfoot56, and Britt Nicole close to ready... and i'm planning a walkTRu of a Nichole Nordeman album, Caedmon's Call's Undressed, and perhaps The Heat (needtobreathe)... a Glory Revealed concert writeup... a block of book reviews... and so much more that my head's starting to hurt...

peace... love... bdg...

Got a few updates over on theTRu... last week, i got some album reviews knocked out (still have a few more coming)... you can check out my thoughts on Building 429 and The Sound of New Breed... in the coming days, i'll be putting down thoughts on Neon Horse, Rush of Fools, Article One, Newsboys, Theory Hazit, and Flatfoot 56... so stay TRu-ned for that...

There's also a brand new iTRu-nes playlist loaded up on the front page and as an iMix over at iTunes... definitely check that out as this month's list include TobyMac, K-Os, Derek Webb, Lovedrug and more.... and don't forget to head over to iTunes and rate the playlist so i can keep up with your tastes and keep the coverage in line with that...

And finally (for this update)... i dug back a little bit to December when i interviewed Urban D... just last week saw the release of Urban D's book, CD and DVD all titled Un.Orthodox and i had spoken with him about the projects and balancing cultural relevance with spiritual accountability... Since the interview was initially intended used in a piece i wrote for the pages of HM Magazine, there's also a bit of history behind Urban D and Crossover Community Church, where he is currently the Sr. Pastor... pretty good conversation all in all...

Plenty more coming down the pike... so, as always, keep it locked...

peace... love... bdg...