Digital Wilderness

Less than a month until Mat Kearney‘s new album City of Black & White is released!

Here’s the music video for the first single from the album.

Some Swine Flu tips from local TV station WLWT channel 5 via twitter

• Swine flu tip #1: Somewhere, right now, someone is asking if they can get swine flu from bacon. Don’t be that guy.
• Swine flu tip #2: You can get swine flu if living closely with infected swine. So, ladies, if your man’s a pig, good time to let him go.
• Swine flu tip #3: You cannot get swine flu by watching Porky Pig cartoons. Only slight chance of bird flu from Daffy Duck.
• Swine flu tip #4: Media hype inversely proportional to actual threat. So, if we stop talking about swine flu, *that’s* when you should worry.
• Swine flu tip #5: Flying Pig Marathon is unlikely to create swine flu problem. Just don’t lick other runners.
• Swine flu tip #6: If you feel ill, assume it’s the swine flu and you’re going to die. No matter what anyone else says. You’re doomed.
• Swine flu tip #7: If you’re going to cough or sneeze, cover the mouth of everyone within 60 feet of you. Duct tape works well.
• Swine flu tip #8: You will not get swine flu by Googling “swine flu”. You might get a virus, but it won’t be swine flu.
• Swine flu tip #9: That whole thing about you can pick friends, pick nose, not friends’ nose? That’s some good advice right now. Just say no.

This week’s Music Monday selection is another from one of my all time favorite groups:
Jury Duty by O.C. Supertones.

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5 am on Tuesday, why am I up so early
drive out to Santa Ana ’cause I’ve got jury duty
no breakfast short temper and I cut my head shaving
ten miles out I hit traffic, some days just aren’t worth saving

You know I haven’t had the best of days
But I want to stop and thank You anyway

At the courthouse I waited, And waited then I waited
At lunchtime my car stalled out, I couldn’t get it started
Had a book by C.S. Lewis, I finished the last page and
Slept on my desk for three hours, Just like my high school days

You know I haven’t had the best of days
But I want to stop and thank You anyway

Cuz every single moment whether sleeping or awake is Your creation
At what You’ve made is good
I don’t always thank for you for the rough days and the hard times in my life
even though I should

Got home and decided I’d be in a bad mood and
My shy and quiet wife said she didn’t like my attitude
Got a call from my mother, Forgot my sister’s birthday
I’m a lousy older brother safe to say I’ve had a bad day

“Today we’ll be looking at a common situation encountered by all singles: Passing.”

“Just remember:
Approach Timing
Gesture Appropriately
Pass Confidence
or A.T.G.A.P.C”

Woohoo! Found geocache #100 today!

One hundred down, 780,890 left to go (as of this second)!

Pictures of all my finds are in the geocache gallery.

This week’s Music Monday selection is: Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath.

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Music video available at: brandonheath.net

Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black top
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
All those people going somewhere,
Why have I never cared?

Chorus:
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
Yeah
Yeah
yeah
yeah

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide what’s underneath
There’s a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
He’s out of work
He’s buying time
All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared?

Chorus
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
Yeah
Yeah
yeah
yeah

I’ve been there a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all along

Chorus (x2)
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
Yeah
Yeah
yeah
yeah

Fiery sermon from Mars Hill Church’s pastor Mark Driscoll. It’s from the sermon Marriage and Men, part of the Trial series from 1 & 2 Peter. Driscoll loves to yell at men, especially in their treatment of women. This is just one example of that.

The new season of Mythbusters started last week, with a bang! Check out this clip of them essentially vaporizing a car with a rocket sled doing 650mph. This is in my top three, right after the hot water heater rocket and blowing up the cement truck.

This week’s Music Monday selection is my all time favorite song from one of my all time favorite groups (we miss you ‘Tones):
Wilderness by O.C. Supertones.

If asked what song would best describe me, this would be it. Usually, I bold the lyrics in these posts that connect with me the most, but in this case, it winds up being almost the entire song. This song speaks about the part of me who is very analytical and logical, who thinks too much and tries to find a reason for everything – and all too often fails. I think, wrongly, that if I do A, then B will happen. If I step out of my comfort zone and do this, then I will get that. If I do the “right” thing, then he’ll reward me with what I want. It doesn’t work that way, not in the least. “I spend my life on looking up the answer,” but who can truly understand and find a reason for “children without mothers” or any of the other pain and suffering found in this world? It’s very frustrating for me, the list and goal oriented individual, who feels so lost without a plan or agenda or direction, who needs to find the reason for things. Often, I wonder “what should I hold to and what should I do, how do I know if anything’s true?”

The song is especially relevant to where I am today, in a state of confusion and hurt and not understanding and very much struggling with and working through the “problem of pain,” to use C.S. Lewis’ terminology. Someone commented to me recently that I’m in the desert – or as the song says “somewhere in between Canaan and Egypt, a place called the wilderness.” This is not something I necessarily wanted to hear or admit to myself, but upon further reflection, I can’t really deny it and instead need to embrace where I am, look for “a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19-20)

The end of the song, which should be the uplifting resolution, is not satisfying to me in the least. It touches on the part of the scriptures that I have the hardest time accepting, Jesus’ temptation by the devil in Matthew 4:1-11. More on that later.

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The rain falls on the righteous and the wicked
Mine is not to reason why this is
In this I rest in this I find my refuge
That my thoughts and ways are not His
I spend my life on looking up the answers
It’s rare that I can’t find a reason why
But reasons fail at children without mothers
His plan is more than I can know

Have you ever held in doubt
What this life is all about
Have you questioned all these things
that seem important to us
Do you really wanna know
Or are you a little scared
You’re afraid that God is not really
exactly what you’d have Him be
What should I hold to and what should I do
How do I know if anything’s true
I’m somewhere in-between Canaan and Egypt
A place called the wilderness

I’m not one who always trusts their feelings
I don’t believe in what you’d call blind faith
But faith that you can do all that you promised
And you said it all works for good
It’s safe to say I don’t see the big picture
I can’t see the forest for the trees
And if five hundred lives
Were mine to get to know
You all could be spent on just this

God do you really understand what it’s like to be a man
Have You ever felt the weight of
loving all the things you Hate
Have You struggled have you worried
How can You sympathize

I have spoken too soon put my hand over my mouth
I can’t contend with You
Your ways are so much higher
And we pass through the fire that
Christ endured before us
When You were in the wilderness

Coming to a theater near you…some time in the future: Blue Like Jazz: The Movie.

The “From the Director” video on the movie website is pretty funny. Check it out. If you haven’t read Blue Like Jazz or any of Donald Miller’s other books, I highly recommend them.