Guys with beer bellies...

They say guys with beer bellies have more fun!
Here's how - and why !

Does this lifestyle fit me?

  

Rocking away at Philly International

  

I'm sitting at the Philadelpha airport with two hours to spare to meet up with my traveling companion... and thinking about the best way to kill time in a airport...

Sit in the rocking chairs provided to look out over the gates as the planes taxi in and out (with no cushions, I opt for the padded bench seats).
Read USA Today from front to back -
Look for an electrical outlet to recharge electronics -
Camp out and people watch people watching other people -
Get a shoe shine -
Eat a overpriced sandwich at a restaurant - on this particular day, slow service and slower food preparation was welcomed - I still gave a decent tip because my waitress was very much pregnant - ten months if that's possible!
Squat in the A, B or C que line for a Southwest flight -
Walk the length of the terminal for exercise -
Take in the community art on the walls -
Admire the advertising for your favorite products -

  

On the last three flights, I get engaged in a conversation about Treo smartphones and end up showing people how to set alarms, play music, view photos and beam address cards - fun stuff !

Friday Flashback "Girl From The North Country"

Thanks to YouTUBE, I'm going to post a music video every Friday... just for kicks.

Here's a live performance of Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell - "Girl From The North Country" which is a great classic from Bob Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan recording and the alternate duet with Johnny Cash on Nashville Skyline.

Well, if you're travelin' in the north country fair,
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.



About Joni Mitchell from Wikipedia:
Initially working in Western Canada and Toronto, she became associated with the burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City. She achieved her greatest fame in the early 1970s and was considered a key part of the Southern Californian folk-rock scene. Throughout the 1970s she expanded her musical horizons to include pop and jazz and became one of the most highly respected singer-songwriters of the late 20th century.

Retrospective appraisals of Joni's work have often commented that her quality and influence render her the "female Bob Dylan", although Mitchell would be the first to criticise such gender-orientated judgements.

Mitchell is also an accomplished artist; she has, through photography or painting, created the artwork for each of her albums, and has described herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance." A blunt critic of the music industry, Mitchell has stopped recording and now focuses mainly on her visual art.

Trivia: Bob Dylan used the lines "Remember me to one who lives there, She once was a true love of mine" taken from the old traditional "Scarborough Fair" which Simon and Garfunkel rendered.

(Note: since the video takes a while to load based on your bandwidth, just hit play, then pause... while the video buffer gets full.)

Joni Mitchell Web Site

Johnny Cash Web Site

Bob Dylan Web Site

All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From LEGOs

Alan Smith writes an daily e-mail devotional, "Thought For the Day". He enjoyed sharing humorous stories received by e-mail with his friends and members of the White House (Tennessee) Church of Christ congregation and felt that people might enjoy reading those bits of humor with a spiritual application and challenge to Christian living.

This came in my mailbox from Alan:

The following essay on "All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From LEGOs" was written by Steve Klusmeyer:



"Life might be less complicated for all of us if we each received our own LEGO kit at birth. Yes, I realize there is a choking hazard for children under three. But when you are old enough, you can learn a lot from LEGOs. I have learned that:

~ Size doesn't matter. When stepped on in the dark, a 2X2 LEGO brick causes the same amount of pain as a 2X8 brick.

~ All LEGO men are created equal (1.5625 inches tall). What they become is limited only by imagination.

~ There is strength in numbers. When the bricks stick together, great things can be accomplished.

~ Playtime is important. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you are building, as long as you're having fun.

~ Disaster happens. But the pieces can be put back together again.

~ Every brick has a purpose. Some are made for a specific spot - most can adapt almost anywhere - but every one will fit somewhere.

~ Color doesn't matter. A blue brick will fit in the same space as a red brick.

~ No one is indispensable. If one brick is unavailable, another can take its place.

~ It doesn't always turn out as planned. Sometimes it turns out better. If it doesn't, you can always try again.

I thought about each of these statements as it relates to the church. Some of the statements apply more than others. For example, unity is a biblical concept. When Christians stick together, great things can be accomplished.

And it is an important biblical truth that every Christian has a purpose. As Paul describes it in I Corinthians 12 using the analogy of a human body, some of us are eyes, some are hands, still others are feet, but we all have a purpose and a role.

But while it is technically true that "no one is indispensable", the teaching of scripture is that each one of us is needed and the body suffers greatly if we don't do our part (I Cor. 12:20-22)

The greatest comparison between Legos and Christianity, though, is that we are indeed a building shaped by God's own hand. And every Christian is a part of that building -- not a plastic building block, but a "living stone":

"As you come to him, the living Stone -- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him -- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (I Peter 2:4-5)

Have a great day!

Alan Smith

Visit Alan's site for more info on subscribing and archives of his devotionals - they are quite good!

Photo Art

I've gone to tech hell and back...

The worse thing to do to entertain yourself and grit your teeth is to try to figure out why Microsoft Office on a Dell laptop won't respond to any commands. So the logical thing to do is to locate the original disks... ok, look underneath the desk; nope not there. OK, go to the garage and it could be the very last box under a stack of eight other boxes... nope, not there either. But I did find a box of Palm software, so that scavenger hunt came in handy.

Whenever I lose my keys, or become perplexed , I just stop and PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens). Einstein once said whenever you get a simple answer to a very complex problem, it is evidence that God just spoke to you. Great theology and absolute truth.

So meanwhile while I'm PUSHing, I'm logging on to the Microsoft Support site which is a vast wasteland sea of words - I'm lost, so I give up - until God tells me to look in a brown cardboard box - Lo and behold, there's my Office reinstall disk and another disk with an upgrade to Windows XP Pro that was part of some Dell documentation. The reinstall of Microsoft Office didn't work as each of the programs returned a fail to respond error. Undaunted, I fire up the Windows XP Pro disk and by 3:54 AM Sunday, the install is complete and Office works like a charm.

But I have to validate the XP upgrade, so at 4:15 am, I'm talking apparently to a Microsoft call center in India to obtain a set of eight 6 digit codes to unlock Windows XP - but it is done and I'm a happy camper. I did strongly consider figuring out a way to get a Mac laptop as I absolutely love my desktop iMacG5; but that's like saying I am sick of spending $100 a month to fix my used car, so I'll buy a new one for $500 a month.

I skipped church, but God and I had some intense fellowship, as I kept thanking Him over and over:

I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay pulled me out of the miry pit

Psalm 40: 1-8 (also in a song by U2 "40")

Fortunately, I also have some friends that can help bale me out as I know just enough to muck around and fix PC stuff (but not at 3 am). And there is always Google!

Here's two good sources that I found via Google:
For Macs: Mac Connect
For Windows XP Advice & Information: Update XP

My fellow Palm addict and friend Michael Ashby has his own tales of woe:

"I put in my Windows XP CD and as usual I heard the drive spin up. I was closing a few applications before I shut down the PC to reboot and install when all of a sudden, I heard a "PUH" and something hit my leg hard. I looked down and saw the faceplate to the CD-ROM drive next to my leg along with several shards of what was my Windows XP Professional CD. The CD had exploded."
A Strange Thing Happened On The Way To Reformat

More NFL football please!

Another reason why I love Direct TV; not only do they carry the NFL Network, but here's some great news for die hard fans:

"For the first time ever, NFL game broadcasts from the previous weekend will be replayed on NFL Network just days after their live airing.

During the 2006 season, NFL Game Re-Airs will feature four of the top games from each weekend, rebroadcast exclusively on NFL Network the following Tuesday and Wednesday. Any game originally shot in high definition will air on NFL Network in HD.

Two games will be shown each Tuesday and Wednesday night with 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ET/PT kickoff times."

Read the rest of the press release.

America's Coolest Churches

Mark Rhoades from Monday Morning Insight links to an article and picture expose' from Life Magazine on what they call America's Coolest Churches.



Mark posts a lot of items to help church leaders each day what is going on in the world and the church community to make church more relevant whether it is innovative ideas, marketing or spiritual topics that resonate with people. But not every post is dry and dull - lots of humor as well! Balance - what a concept.

Some recent posts include: Why Volunteers Quit, Looking for the Perfect Church That Doesn't Exist, What to Do During a Dull Sermon, Debunking the Myths About MegaChurches and Top Ten Reasons Americans Find Themselves in Debt. Check out Monday Morning Insight

Friday Flashback "This Must Be The Place"

Thanks to YouTUBE, I'm going to post a music video every Friday... just for kicks.

Here's a live performance of Shawn Colvin with Strings Attached - "This Must Be The Place" which is a great cover from the Talking Heads album: Speaking in Tongues.

Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me round
I feel numb - burn with a weak heart
(so I) guess I must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground
Head in the sky
It's ok I know nothing's wrong . . nothing



"I used to be able to set aside a few days and just lock myself in my house and not even answer the phone," Colvin says of her songwriting process. "I can't do that anymore. So I went to a little studio, did some vocals, played guitar on the couch and sat around with my notebooks. Prior to that, I had gone to New York a couple of times and just did some powwowing."

Which isn't completely out of character for Colvin, whose ambient folk reflects her wanderlust, detailed by Joni Mitchell-like musings on love, life and loss. Born in Vermillion, South Dakota, she taught herself guitar at the age of ten before moving to London, Ontario, and then Carbondale, Illinois, where she formed the Shawn Colvin Band. After relocating to Austin and retiring briefly from music, Colvin moved to New York in 1983, and garnered a laudable following among the burgeoning neo-folk movement. Rolling Stone / JESSICA ROBERTSON

(Note: since the video takes a while to load based on your bandwidth, just hit play, then pause... while the video buffer gets full.)

Shawn Colvin Web Site

Day 100 of visiting 100 blogs in 100 days...

Day 100 of visiting 100 blogs in 100 days... finally takes me to my last blog!
I was looking for a blog that was clear, concise and compelling. So I've settled on Signum sine tinnitu--by Guy Kawasaki. The subtitle: Blogger. n. Someone with nothing to say writing for someone with nothing to do. (Like visiting 100 blogs in (more than) 100 days.

Guy Kawasaki is a legend in the Apple cult, as he was the Apple Evangelist in the eighties.

"When I saw what a Macintosh could do, the clouds parted and the angels started singing. For four years I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware developers and led the charge against world-wide domination by IBM."

I saw Guy speak at a PalmSource Devloper Conference a couple of years back and his engaging talk centered around what Silicon Valley venture firms were looking for in terms of companies that were attempting to make a case for their startup business plan. That's when I've learned the importance of keeping PowerPoints down to 12 slides - i.e. be clear, concise and compelling, not only in your pitch, but in your software as well.

Guy has some great postings: my favorites include - The Art of Customer Service, The Art of Branding, How to Be a Demo God and How to Prevent a Bozo Explosion. Check them out -

His posts reflect years as a evangelist, entrepreneur, investment banker, and venture capitalist. So here's a blog that just as good as reading a book or sitting down with a mentor. Enjoy!

Purple Haze?

So why does a purple iris remind me of purple haze?



Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why
'scuse me while I kiss the sky

I suppose I'm awestruck by the iris' beauty.. and the music of Jimi Hendrix.

Apple Music Event 2001-The First Ever iPod Introduction

Here we see Steve Jobs introducing the very first iPod at a low key event in 2001. The rest is history.

Thanks to Kerry Bailey for the upload. Retrospect is good for the (marketing) soul.

Friday Flashback "Goodnight Moon"

Thanks to YouTUBE, I'm going to post a music video every Friday... just for kicks.

Here's Shivaree - "Goodnight Moon"



Shivaree is a three-person American band formed in 1999 consisting of Ambrosia Parsley (vocals), Danny McGough (keyboard), and Duke McVinnie (guitar). They have produced three full-length albums (only two of which have enjoyed a North American release due to contract disagreements) and have approximately 500,000 combined sales to their name. They credit numerous other musicians in their work and are usually joined by two or three other collaborators when performing live.

Their song Goodnight Moon is played over the closing credits of the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Volume 2.

(Note: since the video takes a while to load based on your bandwidth, just hit play, then pause... while the video buffer gets full.)

Shivaree

Shivaree Web Site

When He Was On The Cross, You Were On His Mind

This is Good Friday and it is the moment that the entire Universe watched its Creator being Crucified. As a child I was confused as to why someone would call the day that Jesus died a "Good Friday." It wasn't until years later that I fully understood just how Good this day was.

That Cross that He picked up was really made for me. Jesus Christ loved me so much that He willingly died in my place and freed me from the Eternal Death Grip of Sin. Why would He do this? He saw some value in me that I obviously cannot see in my own self. No one would die for something worthless. This true story drives that truth home.

A gem dealer was strolling the aisles at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show when he noticed a blue-violet stone the size and shape of a potato. He looked it over, then, as calmly as possible, asked the vendor, "You want $15 for this?" The seller, realizing the rock wasn't as pretty as others in the bin, lowered the price to $10. The stone has since been certified as a 1,905-carat natural star sapphire, about 800 carats larger than the largest stone of its kind. It was appraised at $2.28 million.

It took a lover of stones to recognize the sapphire's worth. It took the Lover of Souls to recognize the true value of ordinary-looking people like us. This is what makes this Friday so GOOD! We are reminded of how valuable we are to God. The only difference is that He wanted to pay the premium price of His only begotten Son to purchase us.

Thank God! You and I were worth more than $10.00 to Him!!! Today I hope that you'll reflect on the obvious worth that you are to God the Father. Rejoice in that amazing love that was displayed on the Cross to redeem your life from eternal death and destruction.

You are one of a kind, and I heard the Father saying to me this morning to tell you that He is preparing to put you on display. He has had to grind you down a little, knock some things off of you that didn't look like Him, and oh that buffing process, lots of friction has been required to get His Shine on you! But you are nearing the moment that you've been Dreaming about for and that He has been waiting patiently for!

- Pastor Danny Chambers, Oasis Worship Centre
http://www.oasisworship.com/

May the above e-Word encourage you as it did for me on this Good Friday -
Blessings - Kerry

Today's Modern Art...

As seen on display at CTIA in Las Vegas... today's currency of choice - what's in your pocket?

Easter proclaims a beginning...

Here's the flip side of a gift from a friend who went home to the Lord two years ago. Carved from a bar of Dial soap while he was in prison, it is one of our most prized possessions.

Holy Week
Quotations to stir heart and mind.
Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman

IN THE CROSS IS SALVATION, in the Cross is life, in the Cross is protection from our enemies, in the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the Cross is strength of mind, in the Cross is joy of spirit, in the Cross is the height of virtue, in the Cross is perfection of sanctity. There is no salvation of the soul, nor hope of everlasting life, but in the Cross.
Thomas Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

HE DIED, but he vanquished death; in himself, he put an end to what we feared; he took it upon himself, and he vanquished it; as a mighty hunter, he captured and slew the lion.

Where is death? Seek it in Christ, for it exists no longer; but it did exist, and now it is dead. O life, O death of death! Be of good heart; it will die in us also. What has taken place in our head will take place in his members; death will die in us also. But when? At the end of the world, at the resurrection of the dead in which we believe and concerning which we do not doubt.
Augustine, Sermon 233

THERE IS WONDERFUL POWER in the Cross of Christ. It has power to wake the dullest conscience and melt the hardest heart, to cleanse the unclean, to reconcile him who is afar off and restore him to fellowship with God, to redeem the prisoner from his bondage and lift the pauper from the dunghill, to break down the barriers which divide [people] from one another, to transform our wayward characters into the image of Christ and finally make us fit to stand in white robes before the throne of God.
John Stott, The Preacher's Portrait

EASTER is not the celebration of a past event. The alleluia is not for what was; Easter proclaims a beginning which has already decided the remotest future. The Resurrection means that the beginning of glory has already started.
Karl Rahner, Everyday Faith

Copyright 2006 Christianity Today

How Jesus must have cried in the garden

The above is a gift from a friend who went home to the Lord two years ago. Carved from a bar of Dial soap while he was in prison, it is one of our most prized possessions.

I'D ALWAYS KNOWN, in one place in my throat, how Jesus must have cried in the garden--crying not to die, because there was no fear of death, and not to leave his friends, because he walked alone, and not to suffer, because the blood and bruises and thorns were part of his perfection--but crying because he could not find his Father's face, because when he would suffer all that he could bear, the pain of every person, living and dead, in that dark moment, there was really nobody there.

Paul Shepherd, More Like Not Running Away: A Novel

The Perfect Pastor

Ben Lee made this clip to introduce a sermon he preached about the impossibility of finding "the perfect pastor." It is a humerous attempt at looking at the different types of preachers that exist in the world: some funny, some serious, some emotional, and some just outright weird!

Flying First Class @ Southwest

Yup, no matter where you are in line, you can fly first class at Southwest! Here I am on my way to LasVegas...



First class at Southwest are the exit row seats...



Also: Attention Mac Users! Mac version of DING! just released.

Now, Customers with Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher can take advantage of Southwest Airlines’ newest customized product designed to bring the hottest deals directly to your desktop.

If you keep DING! on your desktop for thirty days, then two extra credits are added to your account towards a free round trip (eight round trips -16 credits - accumulated over a two year period equal one free flight).

I want to party like it's... (a chronological oddity)

Where is the Artist formally known as Prince when we need an update to 1999?



Yahoo calls it... a coincidental sign of our digital times or a reason to stay up late and stare at the clock. Either way, early Wednesday morning the time and date will be 01-02-03-04-05-06.

At 1:02 a.m. and three seconds on Wednesday, April 5, 2006, it will be the first hour of the day, the second minute of the hour, the third second of that precious minute in the fourth month of the fifth year of ... uh oh. It's not really the sixth year.

Prince - 1999

I was dreamin' when I wrote this
Forgive me if it goes astray

But when I woke up this mornin'
Coulda sworn it was judgment day

The sky was all purple
There were people runnin' everywhere

Tryin' 2 run from the destruction
U know I didn't even care

'Cuz they say two thousand zero zero party over
Oops out of time
So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 01-02-03-04-05-06.

Flying Southwest

I'm prepping to head back to Las Vegas for the CTIA show, a geekfest of all things cellular, wireless, mobile computing...

Southwest flys direct to Las Vegas - and I love it! Why? Because of the seating arrangement - sounds bizarre I know, but I can be an "A" or a "C" and still get a prime seat for the simple reason that nobody likes to sit next to a stranger. Which is pretty unreasonable, because the odds are heavily stacked against you that you will be sitting next to a stranger, unless you're flying with a coworker, who most likely will be a chatterbox.

Last time I flew Southwest coming back from Las Vegas, I was the very last person in line... but being full of faith, I ended up next to a older married couple in the seventh row in the aisle seat. He was in the middle and she had the window... very sweet couple, holding hands and all.

I normally get the middle seat in the exit row; while being in the middle, at least I get the legroom.

Then I saw this post from one of my favorite blogs -- Peeling Wallpaper -- reprinted here in its entirety - what a hoot and yes I do get free round trip tickets as Southwest awards a free ticket for eight round trips over a two year period...

xxx

Hey, at least you're earning frequent flyer miles

Middle seats on airplanes are a form of punishment. Yes, punishment. If you get one, you have lost a round in the game of life. You are a loser today. You waited too long to reserve your flight, or you have changed a flight at the last minute, and now you will be punished. Better organized people than you will get the more comfortable window and aisle seats. Or maybe it is luck that put them there and you in the middle. Does that make you feel better? That you are an unlucky loser? That fat guy ambling down the aisle toward your row? Yes, he will have the aisle seat next to you and thirty percent of your seat, too, by virtue of some simple rules of physics. The lady stumbling along, drunk before she even stepped onto the plane? She will have the window seat. She'll talk to you about her deadbeat boyfriend the entire flight, except when she has to get up to pee, which will be every twenty minutes. The unlucky loser in the middle seat in front of you has long legs. He's going to put his seat all the way back, minimizing your free space to something just shy of a laptop computer (forget it; no way it'll even open). Oh, by the way, the overhead bins are all full to overflowing. Your bag will have to go in the space where your legs were intended to be. It's impossible to say where your legs will end up. That's your problem. Anyway, stop whining, sit back and endure your flight. It's going to be a long one. Sorry, no food. And the movie sucks. Not that you can even see the screen from where you're sitting. Loser.

Love is just another search problem...

eHarmony? Forget about it !

There's Google Romance -- a place where you can post all types of romantic information and, using our Soulmate Search, see search results that could, in theory, include the love of your life. Then we'll send you both on a Contextual DateTM, which we'll pay for while delivering to you relevant ads that we and our advertising partners think will help produce the dating results you're looking for.



Pin All Your Romantic Hopes on Google

To think, many singles have been looking for love in all the wrong places.