A Few Questions

I have this feeling that once Heaven is my reality, I won’t really care about those questions I’ve always wanted to ask God.  Sort of like trying to wrap your brain around how the Egyptians built the pyramids, then when you see them in person, you don’t really care….you just want to admire them for what they are.

However, if curiousity is still a valid response upon entering the pearly gates, here are just a few of the questions I would like to ask God.  I’m assuming He’ll continue to be all-present at that time, so that I won’t have to make an appointment or stand in line.  That would make this much easier.

Questions:

Which is it, really?  Nature or nurture?  And if both, what’s the percentage breakdown?

Did you allow me to break my left arm 3 times in elementary school for a purpose?  Does that purpose have anything to do with me being afraid to do anything that might cause injury ever since that time?

When my sister was in a car wreck that might should have killed her, did You actually intervene, or was it just pure luck?

Do You ever truly intervene, or do You allow things to happen the way they happen, and leave us to ponder the difference?

7 days of creation, or 7 eras/ages of creation, or instantaneous creation, or none of the above?

Why not make Your inspired Word a tad more black and white?  Wouldn’t that have made faith more attainable for all?  Why so many mysteries and grey areas?

Who really killed JFK?

Are we actually experiencing global warming in the 21st century?

If I had chosen one college over another when I was 18, how would my life have been different?

When my best friend’s heart failed and he collapsed and practically died right in front of me at the age of 25, was there anything I could have done at that moment that might have saved his life?

Did Jesus ever have a girlfriend?

Could you please quantify the size of the universe, and tell me whether or not it actually ends at some point?

Once saved, always saved?

In Your eyes, was Dennis Miller the worst Monday Night Football hire ever?

Why is life such a struggle?

Now that I’m in Heaven, what exactly do we do for the next trillion years?

Ground Rules

At least for now, I want to continue blogging.  But for the sake of purpose and clarity, I’ve tried to think through some ground rules, a sort of blog-filter if you will.  The blogs that have lasted are the blogs that matter and have a point.  The days of everyone starting a blog and posting nothing but personal updates and you tube videos are over.  Partly because we get tired of that.  Partly because Facebook offers a much better way to communicate personal-life details.  I’m even getting a weird feeling that Twitter is going to die out soon.  Anyone who has enough time on their hands each day to keep a consistent Twitter feed going needs to re-evaluate what exactly they are doing with their time each day.  And those are are Twittering consistently are simply going to get tired of it.

So a blog needs to be thoughtful, meaningful, and provide an actual reason for a reader to return.  I know most of you that read, and you can simply become friends with Erin on Facebook to find out that Eli had a good day at kindergarten, we went on a camping trip, or that work has been rough.  So for you to stay interested, and to attract possible new readers (which I admit I want to do), there has to be more.

With that in mind, here are a few ground rules I’m going to establish.  They’re not necessarily hard and fast (and if you just said “that’s what she said” to yourself, shame on you), and I may occasionally allow myself a guilty humorous pleasure or two, but they’re ground rules nonetheless.

1. If I can create a post in two minutes or less, it’s not a post, and never deserves to be a post.

2. Blog posts shall be well thought out, and written to the best of my ability.

3. I will try to focus my content on issues, opinions, challenges, questions, admissions, hypothesis, and general diatribes that are important to my faith, worldviews, and overall life experience.

4. Because of ground rule #3, anonymous comments are both welcomed and encouraged if the commenter feels it necessary.  This gives you the freedom to question my views, give truly honest feedback, or simply bash me.

5. There shall be no established guideline to the frequency of posts.  It’s easy to post frequently if such posts are not well thought out (see ground rule #2).  That shall not be the case here.  Posting frequency shall coincide only with the time and ability I have to post thoughtfully and effectively.  Therefore, any comment asking where I am or did I disappear shall be ignored.

6. Reader comments are not only welcomed and encouraged, but shall serve as a litmus to the quality of the posts, and the overall health of the blog.  An equation might look like this:  Comments = good post & healthy blog …(or)… No comments = crappy post & dying blog.

7. The total number of “views” on this blog shall no longer mean anything (much like a pitcher’s winning record when his ERA is actually 5.23).  It is apparent that most of my 27,000 views to date have come from people who have Googled the following search terms:  “Hillary Clinton’s cankles”, “Toyota Corolla”, “Michael Jackson History”, “BVD underwear”, and “Best Worship Music.”  None of these Google searchers have either read or contributed to the blog in any way.  They are dead to me.

I hereby announce that the official Ground Rules are established.

In the Year 3000…In the Year Three Thousaaaaand

Mountain Dew, Red Bull, & Amp will form a partership to combine their technologies into one drink….it will be called “OH HELL YEAH I’M TWEAKING BABY!”  It will be a hit.

People will still speculate whether or not Elvis and 2Pac are still alive.

All of Europe will have transitioned into a nudist continent.

Blogging, Facebook, Twitter and the rest will be replaced by ThinkWarp.  You simply think something, in your mind, and your friends will hear it in their ears.

People will think of the A-Bomb, Napalm, and Nuclear Missles the way we think of spears and slingshots…as in, “Wow, I can’t believe people back in the 21st century had such primitive means of battle.  What woosies.”

Braveheart will still stand as the movie to which all other movies are compared to in terms of overall greatness.

Cows, pigs and chickens will no longer need to be raised and killed.  All meat products will be expertly grown in labratory-factories with giant petrie dishes.  All humans will have become lactose intolerant because of 21st and 22nd century steroid enhanced milk, making dairy products obsolete.

Bill Clinton will be looked upon as one of the greatest presidents in our nations history.  George W Bush will still be the butt of presidential jokes.  Barack Obama will have paved the way for future black presidents, hispanic presidents, and eventually a gothic teenage president.

Because of increased fear and crime, Trick or Treat will devolve into “Knock and I’ll Shoot”.  Of course, shoot is such a present day term, as guns won’t exist as we know them in that time.  It will probably be more like, “Knock and I’ll Say Intruder”, at which point the voice activated home protection system will active the magnetic field under the porch (all people will be required to wear lightweight magnetic shoes, enabling law enforcement to stop an individual at any time by activating the magnetic field under the area in which they stand), causing the person to be stuck in that spot.  It will then automatically alert the local law enforcement agency with a detailed report of the both the person (through use of a retinal information scan, or RIS) and the incident.  Police will arrive within seconds through an underground tunnel system (sort of like a hyperspeed roller coaster with protective tubes that you travel in), and take the person in question to jail, where their punishment, which will actually be the uniform punishment system, will be to sit in a room for 48 hours, where they will have nothing but bread and water, and be forced to watch all 12 Seasons of the early 21st century version of ABC’s “Wife Swap”.

Michael Jackson – Part 2 – Thoughts / Memories

I was pretty much hooked on MJ back around 1983 when I saw my parents Thriller album and the picture of Michael with his pet tiger.  Probably the coolest thing I’d seen.  The only other vinyl album I remember at home at that time was one of John Denver….totally not cool in comparison.

I have a cousin named Dianna.  She’s a year older than me and we’ve been great friends our whole life.  We had a lot of funny moments in the months/years after the song “Dirty Diana” came out on the Bad album.  It was always funny sing because she was one of the most kind, gentle, sweet, and not-dirty people you could ever know.

I’ve lost my voice many, many times over the last 15 years or so from singing along with Michael Jackson songs in my car.  My voice seems to forget that his is about 4 octives higher.  It doesn’t care.  It must sing along.  And it must sing with the same intensity.

In fact, my favorite thing about MJ, probably the main reason I’ve been a fan of his music, is his intensity.  Heck, I don’t even know the lyrics to many of my Top 15 songs I posted about.  I’ve always found it more fun to sing along with him when I didn’t know all the words.  Ask me about this sometime, and I’ll perform for you to show you what I mean.  But his intensity is unmatched.  I’ve always felt like most of his grunts and screams basically stem from that….he’s so into the music, so into the song, that he can’t help but to scream.  It’s one of the main reasons his concerts were always so phenomenal….the dude gave everything he had at every show, the crying, the sweating, the energy.  The crowd felt like he had given them every ounce of what he had in him to make that concert great.

I was totally stoked when Invincible came out, because I had thought for a couple of years that he was probably done.  I remember sitting in the Mitsubishi car dealership where I worked at in 2001, singing along with “You Rock My World” with my sales manager.

A few years ago, I performed “The Way You Make Me Feel” at Big Mama’s Karaoke Cafe in Seymour, TN, just south of Knoxville.  Grunts, screams, dance moves and all.

One of his more popular songs – “Black or White” – is probably one of my least favorites.

It always amazed me how a person so soft, quiet, gentle, and boyish during interviews could turn into an angry, confident, energetic dancing maniac on stage.

Shocking fact – I don’t actually own the Thriller album.  Almost every song from that album is on Disc 1 of the His-tory album, so I never bought it.  Probably the only song from Thriller that’s not on the His-tory album that I actually want is “PYT” (Pretty Young Thing).

When I was a kid, the evil guy’s voice on the song “Thriller” used to really freak me out.

A Couple of Things I’m Tired Of

Intolerance.  Especially intolerance among Christians.  On my I-Google homepage, I have links to local news articles from a Knoxville area TV station.  I often cringe when reading the public comments in response to certain articles.  It’s like area Christians are using the comments forum as their own hell-fire-brimstone platforms, and it’s sickening.

I’m not thrilled to have gone through some things I’ve gone through in my life.  But some of my experiences have taught me that people are truly flawed.  All people.  ALL people.  Some hide it better than others.  Some resist better than others.  Some just don’t give a damn.  But, ultimately, we are all damaged goods who need the love of a Savior more than we could ever imagine.  And we need it every second of every day, because for some of us, that’s about how often we sin.  Instead, many in our world mistake intolerance for tough love, taking pride in the fact that they might sin just a little less than the next guy.

We’ve got to walk through life with a perspective – a world view if you prefer – that allows us to see ourselves for who/where/what we truly are.  A miniscule fish in an infinitely large ocean, who somehow is still known and loved and pursued by the God who created both the fish and the ocean.  Our lives are important, but no more important or meaningful than the lives of our neighbors.  All sin.  All do wrong.  All will continue to do wrong.  Jesus helped make our goal in life so easy for us – Love God, and love others.  Can it be that simple, yet be so difficult?  Apparently so.

Greedy Monsters.  I’m reading John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” for the first time since high school.  (I miss the half pint milk cartons)  Early in the book, there’s an amazing dialogue between the owner’s of the land, and the tenants (squatters) who work the land.  Basically, the owner’s need the squatters to move, because they’re not profitable and are behind on their loans.  The owner’s, in order to deflect their guilt and ignore their sympathies, place all the blame on these actions on the monster…the bank.

“You see, a bank or a company can’t do that (just eat off the land), because those creatures don’t breathe air, don’t eat side-meat.  They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money.  If they don’t get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat.  It is a sad thing, but it is so.  It is just so……….The bank, the monster, has to have profits all the time.  It can’t wait.  It’ll die.  No, taxes go on.  When the monster stops growing, it dies.  It can’t stay one size.”

Later, the owner says, “We’re sorry.  It’s not us.  It’s the monster.  The bank isn’t like a man.”

The squatter/tenant replies, “Yes, but the bank is only made of men”

“No, you’re wrong there – quite wrong there.  The bank is something else than men.  It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it.  The bank is something more than men, I tell you.  It’s the monster.  Men made it, but they can’t control it.”

This was written over 65 years ago, but is still so true.  Men made the monster, but they can’t control it.  I’m tired of the monster of government, of big business, of if-you’re-not-growing-you’re-dying economics.  It’s crap.  I’m tired of paying the monster, depending on the monster, and even (to some extent) working for the monster.  This business attitude has destroyed much of our national camaraderie, the notion that we’re all striving for a better life.  Too many people now feel like there are simply the rich people, and the poor people, and that’s just the way it’s gonna be, brother.  And the gap continues to broaden, to divide.  What’s so bad about a business taking care of the needs of its community, making a reasonable profit so that those who own it and work it can make a good living, and that being the extent of it?  Does it always have to grow, make more money, and conquer the competition?  Can’t it just provide a service to people and take pride in doing so?

6 days…

and no post.  That’s nearly a record for me.  Sorry.  I’ve been totally slammed at work….and I only blog at work since we do not own a computer of our own at home.

Played golf 4 times in the last month.  It had been 2 years since I played.  The only reason I am now is because I saved up money for a little golfing weekend with an old friend last month, and he ended up having to cancel two days before the trip.  But we’ve rescheduled for later this summer, so I’m going to have to stop playing again or else I won’t have the cash to go play then.  Golf sucks.  And is also the most amazing pasttime I’ve ever known.

Is there a blog application that would allow readers to donate to my personal golf fund?

Erin and I watched the entire 4th season of Weeds in 3 days.  I’ve said this before, but I’m loving watching tv shows on DVD.  And Weeds is one of the best ever.  Now it totally sucks that we’ll have to wait several months before the 5th season is released.  Hopefully the 3rd season of Dexter will be out soon.  I can’t wait to see who he kills next!

Starting reading George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” last night.  The last time I read it was in high school, and I’d completely forgotten everything about it.  I probably read 1/3 of it last night, and would have loved to have kept going, but was just too tired.  When I’m finished with it, I’m moving on to John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, which I also last read in high school.  Again, I’ve completely forgotten it and only remember having liked it the first time (much like my first kiss, the last time I had homemade mango juice in Barbados, and playing Frogger).

We have a tiny area in front of our town house to plant things.  I mean, probably not much bigger than my office desk tiny.  For 4 years a thorny bush was there.  We inherited this.  I finally dug it out and went to find seeds to plant with Eli.  He chose Zucchini.  I did not know at the time that zucchini plants are freakish – they grow like crazy and produce more zucchini than you can possibly eat.  We only planted these 4 weeks ago and they are now overtaking our planting area!

No worries though, they won’t be an eyesore.  Because last week, just in front of the zucchini plants, I planted a row of mammoth sunflowers, which can grow to a height of 12 feet in just 2 months time!  That will rock.

Bought Beck’s “Odelay” album at McKay’s this weekend.  It’s from 1996.  Totally freaking love it.

Do you live in Knoxville?  Have you ever eaten lunch at Wright’s Cafeteria on Middlebrook Pike?  No?  YOU MUST GO.  The best sweet tea I’ve ever had in my life.  Peace out.

it’s just me

For the last 11 years, I’ve been convinced that no one could ever be as good as Michael Jordan.  Kobe, to me, simply does not compare.  Michael was much more explosive off the dribble and more ruthless than Kobe.  Not DWade.  He needs to be a couple of inches taller to be able to do more damage, post guys up, etc.  Never Vince Carter.  Total softy.  But now, for the first time, I’m starting to wonder.  I don’t get to watch a lot of the NBA, but everytime I’ve seen Lebron James this year – especially thus far in the playoffs – it’s been nothing short of amazing.  He could end up being the best ever.

Top – Friday face.  Bottom – Monday face.

(Preface – I love teachers.  Teachers are awesome.)

I should have been a teacher.  I can’t think of any other job in America where you get roughly 10 – 12 weeks of vacation per year, plus sick leave days.  According to the handbook, I think I can work my way up to 4 weeks of vacation once I’m at my current job for like 22 years.

The most damning sign that I’m getting old – I now really like using Old Spice after I shave.  Stuff smells awesome.

One nice thing about owning a bottom-of-the-line Hyundai Accent.  You never have to worry about locking the doors.  I mean, seriously, who wants to steal a Hyundai Accent?

thinking out loud

Watched the first half of Bill Maher’s Religulous documentary last week.  It was so obvious what the gist of the documentary was that I didn’t have the motivation to watch the 2nd half.  Here’s the plot:  Maher has candid talks about his religious doubts with people who don’t know how to articulate their faith without sounding dumb or getting angry.  Maher laughs and they look like fools.  Maher moves on to the next person.  The end.

Eli had his annual physical / immunization check up last week.  He got 2 shots in one leg, 2 shots in the other leg, and had blood drawn from his finger.  Poor little guy walked with a limp for 4 days.  These types of things should be bold printed in the introduction of books like “Things to Expect When You’re Expecting.”

As part of a response to a previous post I did about wanting to hear some new music, Bill & Betsy made me 5 mix cd’s with like 80 songs for my birthday.  I’ve only made it through one so far, but I absolutely love it and can’t wait to hear the next four.

I think the name United States has evolved into a serious oxymoron.

The very first cassette tapes I ever owned (back in 1986) were Run DMC’s “Raisin Hell” and The Beastie Boys “License to Ill”.  No joke – in 5th grade, my friend Joseph and I used to go to other 5th and 6th grade classrooms in my elementary school and perform “You Be Illin” by Run DMC.  Our teacher actually set this up for us.

On the non-hit TV show Wipeout, has ANYONE ever made it across the gigantic bouncing balls without falling into the water?  Seriously, why do people even try?  Just leap into the water and start swimming.  It will be faster.

Still More Thoughts

I’ve found recently that the less tv we watch at home, the more happy I am that we’re watching less tv.  At this point, The Office and 30 Rock are the only shows I really don’t want to miss.  A couple of years ago, we were probably faithfully watching 6-7 different shows every week without fail.  It’s just too much.  Thankfully, we only have 12 channel cable ($16.00 per month), so it reduces the temptation.

I’m getting so sick of reading about kids getting killed in family murder-suicides or being left for dead in a garbage bag or being killed by their older brother.  Makes me yearn for a new heaven and a new earth.

This is sad but true.  I’ve recently struggled with an internal lack of motivation to get into exercising more and eating better.  One of the main reasons is that all my pants are size 34 and every single shirt in my closet (probably 60 shirts altogether?) are ALL size Large.  If I were to lose 15-20 lbs – which would be ideal – I would then be a size 32 pant size and would need to wear size medium shirts.  That’s intimidating to think that my entire closet could become osolete.

4 days later, I’m still crying over Marley & Me.

Next month, I’m spending 2 days in Kentucky with one of my absolute best friends from college.  I haven’t seen him in 4 years.  We’re meeting in the Lexington area, spending one night, and playing 2 rounds of golf.  Back in the day, we used to play a TON of golf together – I’m guessing we’ve played golf at least 50 times together over the course of about 6 years.  Never once did he beat me.  But I’ve not swung a golf club or hit a golf ball in 2 years.  I’m worried I may get beat, and I don’t like it.

I’m running sound for Crossings on May 3rd, on a sound board that is 10 times more complicated than any I’ve ever used before, and which I have a grand total of 2 hours of training on.  Excuse me for a moment.  I just wet myself.

Can anyone, off the top of their head, name 3 other men’s or women’s professional tennis players ranked in the top 10 in the world other than Nadal, Federer, Roddick, Williams, or Williams?  No cheating.  Be honest.  Me neither, and I thoroughly enjoy tennis.

If you’ll excuse me, I just thought about the fact that I’m running sound at Crossings again.  I’ll make sure and wear Depends that morning.

Random Thoughts

I watched a little bit of American Idol last night.  It’s like watching expansion team baseball.  The farther along this show gets, the worse the talent seems to be.  With winners like Ruben, Fantasia, and Taylor, how is this show still thriving at this point?  I don’t get it.

If I ever land a job that actually includes a “retention bonus”, I’ll know that I’ve made it big.

My office smells like poop right now.  I work in an office trailer behind our main building.  The septic tank is underneath my office.  Some weeks, the pump truck is a day or two late, and the tank flows over a little.  Yesterday was one of those days.

My college roomate – whom I love to death and always will – was basically a lazy bum during all of our 4 years of school.  Now he’s the squadron leader for the riot team in an Indiana state prison and volunteers as a firefighter on the side.  Goes to show, you just never know.

Saw Slumdog Millionaire two nights ago at home.  What a movie.  VERY deserving Oscar winner.

There’s a dead bird skeleton on the back patio of our townhouse.  But, since we never ever use our back patio for any reason, it’s still sitting there after about 2 weeks.  We just don’t have the stomach to do anything with it.

Speaking of townhouse….we’ve been renting our current townhouse for nearly 5 years.  Sucks being almost 33 and not owning a home yet, but you know, paying down debts, living within your means and all.  However, this $8000.00 tax credit for 1st time home buyers is very tempting right now.

This may be lost on most of you … but have you ever noticed how much Tyler Hansbrough (from North Carolina) and J.D. McCoy (from Friday Night Lights) look alike?  Especially when they both have that same, wide eyed, blank, baby faced stare on their mugs?  Weird.

is blogging already obsolete?

My wife just joined Facebook this week.  As “tech savvy” as I may be (which is definitely in the moderate range…I’m more tech savvy than maybe the average joe, but not as much as one might think), blogging is my only real cyberspace medium.  I have not joined Facebook.  Let’s just say this … when I joined My Space about 20 months ago, I was fairly quickly booted from it.  Legal reasons.  Most likely would encounter the same fate with Facebook, so I’ve made no attempt to join.

However, in the brief time Erin’s been on Facebook, just in helping her get some stuff set up, photos uploaded, etc….I’ve been able to see how it actually works for the first time.  And it’s making me think that blogging may soon be … if it’s not there already … obsolete.  I still want to blog.  I enjoy writing about the random thoughts in my brain, dusting in a little humor here and there, giving occasional updates on life, work, and family.  But I feel like my readership – or the “reach” of this blog – has likely peaked.

If you’re curious, that pans out to, from what I can gather, about 20 – 30 legitimate readers per day on average.  My “view count” would say it’s more than that, but it’s not accurate…it includes up to 125 views per day from people that have found my blog by using random Google search terms….for the last 2-3 months, I’ve had a tremendous amounts of search hits from the Google terms “Hillary Clinton Cankles” and “Foreign vs Domestic Cars”, which are two things I wrote about months ago.  But these viewers are not reading anything.  They open the blog, realize it’s not at all what they were searching for, and immediately leave.

But it’s difficult, and sort of selfish, to “market” a blog.  You can’t really put it in people’s faces.  They have to know you exist and actually want to take the time to open you up and read.  Facebook, Twitter…and I’m sure other sites I’m not aware of…are much different.  You communicate in snippets, and what you communicate is there for everyone to see, quickly, almost invasively in some ways.  It’s a constant, CNN-like message board of friend updates.  It’s easy to create readership by simply making LOTS of friends…which is sort of why Facebook exists, which means it’s very EASY to create lots of friends.  No one really wants to deny a friend, because it’s simply not cool.  A blog is much more static.  It exists in its own vacuum, waiting to be found, twiddling its thumbs, hoping to be read.  It’s not as real-time or busy-person-friendly.  A blog is like a VW Mini-Bus, taking you on a months long cross-country journey, stopping at interesting points along the way.  In comparison, Facebook is more like speed dating on a pogo stick, hopping from person to person to person, never really encountering a need to hop off the stick.

I’m not knocking Facebook or blogging.  Facebook obviously works.  It’s grown like wildfire, overtaken My Space, and is currently the ultimate friendship and community site.  (Although it is still run by a guy with lots of geek-sense, but little business-sense.  If Facebook bombs, it’ll be because they’re not making money, not because it doesn’t work on an end user level).    Blogging is still here.  It hasn’t gone away.  But why record shows on a VCR when you can afford a TiVo?  If history hold true, by about 2014, Facebook will have become obsolete as well, having been shown up by a newer, faster, more tantalizing and amazing social networking site than any of our minds can comprehend.  And all the while, this little blog will keep cruising, sometimes speeding and sometimes sputtering.  It may get a new face plate, replace some worn out parts, and receive some factory updates along the way.  Maybe one day it’ll finally break down on the side of the road for the last time.  But for now, the journey will continue, and the VW Mini Bus will roll on.  I’m just hoping to keep as many passengers as possible.

No, I really do like doo-rags

Seriously.  I have for a long time.  My enjoyment of doo-rags started way back in August of 1990, at the age of 14.  During my first ever missions trip, to Barbados, one of the team members in our group was named Brian.  He was probably 17 or so.  And he wore a doo-rag pretty much every day of the 2 week trip.  I thought it was so cool.  He was a very doo-raggish guy…very laid back, sort of a surfer attitude, easy going.  He had a big mop of hair too, and he wore the doo-rag in the “open” style in the back, where the tail kind of flopped around and his hair flew out of the back…sort of Aunt Jemima style, I would call it.

I’ve never had long enough hair to really make that style work for me, so I’ve always tucked my doo-rags in in the back, so it has a slightly more “skull cap” look, which works for me considering I’m a rap trendster and wanna be gangsta.

I really started my doo-rag craze back in 1994, and sported the look often over the next 3-4 years.  In fact, pictured below are two Camp Calvary photos, the first from 1994 and the second from 1995.  During those two summers I worked as a faculty member at 10 total weeks of camp.  I was always the do-anything guy…lead worship, lead recreation, speak, dorm dad, whatever.  And during all of those camp weeks, I was doo-rag-a-licious.

Just so you’ll know it’s me…here’s a closer look at these two pics.  Notice also that in both pictures, I’m also sporting fashionable “Christian” t-shirts, which I also was big-time into during that period.  From 1994-1997, I probably owned about 20 different Christian t-shirts.

Yes, I understand that – for whatever idiotic reasons – doo-rags are no longer as in style as they once were.  It’s upsetting.  Still, even in my older age, I like to find opportunities to wrap my head in an awesome, comfortable, sexy square of itchy cotton.  Makes me feel younger, cooler, hipper.  In fact, a doo-rag donned my dome back in May of 2008, for one of the first of many Crossings BVD pictures:

In closing, doo-rags are awesome.  You suck if you don’t agree.  And if you decide to wear one…please know that it automatically makes you the hottest, smartest, most Matthew-McConaughey-est person within a 1 mile radius.  Period.

Some Stuff Jason Likes

70 degree weather … hamburgers … shorts and a t-shirt … shoes with no shoestrings … mellow yellow … creeks, rivers, waterfalls … frisbee … blockbuster online … sunglasses … rubbermaid storage containers … cereal … mcdonalds … witty humor … epic movies … jalapeno peppers … older (and easier) playstation games … small group … close knit friendships … witnessing my son get bigger and smarter … hamburgers … driving in country settings … worshipping loudly in the car … sports talk radio … sentimental moments … intentional spontaneity … The Office … SNL digital shorts … easy to manage hair … doo rags … frisbee … hamburgers … fiction … assurance of salvation … the scene in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles where the country baccer-chewin boy introduces himself to Steve Martin and John Candy right after spitting out some chew and wiping his mouth with his hand that he then uses to shake Steve Martin’s hand, and then he introduces his wife and tells her to put the guys’ luggage in the truck, then when Steve Martin insists that he can do it himself, the country boy, says, “oh no, she don’t mind.  she’s small, but she’s strong.  our last baby…came out sideways…and she didn’t scream a lick.”