IHeart2Scoot (Again)
Remember when I told you guys about the scooter I stole borrowed from a friend of mine? Well this little fellah gets close to 100 miles to the gallon and, if it’s not raining, that equals awesome. Yesterday was the first time since I have had it that I needed to put gas in it. The little, orange gas light came on and I hurried to a gas station, not knowing how long that light would stay on before I ran out.
So get this. I filled up the tank in a matter of seconds. $4.26. Four Dollars?! How awesome is that? I mean yeah, it’s only a two gallon tank, and even that $4.26 is a little ridiculous for that small of an amount of gas, but it beats the fifty-dollars it takes to fill up the car. Makes me glad we got rid of our Land Cruiser a while back. We were paying around sixty bucks to fill it up a year ago. Can you imagine what it would be now?
Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. I Heart To Scoot (Again). Oh yeah, and this is awesome.
Introducing… “Link Loved”
I had this thought the other day. I wanted to come up with a way that we, as a community here, can encourage the people that are encouraging us in the blog world. Here’s what I propose. Remember when I told you all to to figure out how to find your “top referrers” for the past month?
Here’s the deal. I say once a month we find out our “Top Five Referrers” for that month, those that showed us the most “link love” and show our appreciation by writing a little something up about their blog encouraging your readers to check them out. It doesn’t have to be anything extensive, but just something reviewing their blog, or maybe how you found their blog, or what you like about it. Make sure it’s actual people though. If Google is sending you more than skip it and go to the next actual person. How’s that sound? Does that make sense? Expressing our gratitude to those that are sending us the most traffic once a month? Then come back here and tell all of us about it. Ready to give it a shot? Here’s mine.
1. RagamuffinSoul.com - I met Carlos about a year ago in Southern California but had been reading his blog for a few months before that. Since then Carlos and I have run into each other in different parts of the country for short periods of time. Carlos strives to keep his blog as real as he is, almost to a fault at times, but it’s amazing to watch. His creativity and love for something new and better is pretty amazing. I’m sure most of you here have seen Carlos’ blog but if you haven’t, check it out.
2. ThisIsKristin.com - What can I say? This is my hot wife. We are best friends and continue to learn more and more about each other the longer we are married. We are coming up on eight years being married and there is no one that I would rather spend my life with. I also love that Kristin has gotten in to blogging. At first she thought it was dumb, but after me bugging her for months, she decided that it would be a cool way to support what I was doing. Turns out she is really good at it. I love checking out the things she has to say.
3. Andira’s Blog - I’ve never met Andira before and I’m not sure how she found me, but I know that she is one of the most faithful blog participants on my blog. Quite literally every week she is one of the first to post on “Positive Post Tuesday” and every week I read them and am encouraged by the nice things she has to say about people. Andira is a great writer and has a pretty entertaining blog. Check it out.
4. Chad Jarnagin - The Blogstar himself. The first time I “met” Chad online was when I was when I was being sarcastic in a post that sort of was connected to Chad. He was leading worship at our church and after I made fun of stuff we became friends. Chad’s ultra connected in the music scene and has an amazing voice. Numerous times we have gotten coffee and run out of time to talk about everything that we wanted to talk about. Chad is one of those guys that whether it’s online or in person, you can relate to on some level. Go Read.
5. Culmer’s Thoughts - Jeff is a friend I met on the road and even though we live about fifteen minutes from each other, we have never hung out here. Jeff’s blog is one of the most entertaining things to me. I love spelling errors and funny pictures, which by the way Jeff is an amazing photographer. He’s one of those guys you can’t help but like and his personality is translated perfectly through his blog. Go say hi.
Simple enough eh? So there it is. Once a month I will do this thanking people for sending the love my way. I encourage you all (not y’all) to do the same. Let’s let people know that we appreciate being “Link Loved” by them and “love” them right back. Write the post on your blog and link to it here. Ready? Go.
**added to Creative Chaos**
Death Cab For Cutie Talk
I didn’t get a chance to talk about Death Cab’s new record much because we were traveling, but I did want to point out a few things. The album is good, but not their best. I will say this; it takes me a few listens for their albums to grow on me and I have only listened through the whole thing four or five times. With that being said, here’s my top songs on the new record in the order that I think they deserve.
1. Cath… -
Ben Gibbard is a brilliant writer but this is the best verse on the entire record in my opinion:
Cath…
She stands with a well intentioned man
But she can’t relax with his hand on the small of her back
As the flashbulbs burst she holds a smile
Like someone would hold a crying child
Brilliant!
2. The Ice Is Getting Thinner
3. Bixby Canyon Bridge
4. Your New Twin Sized Bed
Now here’s the deal though. Most people think that Death Cab have only made two records. If you are one of those people allow me to recommend some amazing listening. First of all, in my opinion the best Death Cab record, hands down, no questions, is The Photo Album. If the song “Styrofoam Plates” doesn’t wreck you I don’t know what will. Easily one of their best songs. Also the album Transatlanticism is a must have. They have a few other records but those are the two worth checking out if you haven’t.
Here’s my top Death Cab songs if you are interested.
10. Title And Registration (Transatlanticism)
9. Why You’d Want To Live Here (The Photo Album)
8. We Laugh Indoors (The Photo Album)
7. Information Travels Faster (The Photo Album)
6. The Ice Is Getting Thinner (Narrow Stairs)
5. Brothers On A Hotel Bed (Plans)
4. Cath… (Narrow Stairs)
3. What Sarah Said (Plans)
2. I Will Follow You Into The Dark (Plans)
1. Styrofoam Plates (The Photo Album
I’m Big In The Amazon
The Bloggess thinks I am awesome, a good blogger, clever, easily offended, a “super popular Christian guy”.
I’ll take it.
Positive Post Tuesday
So, you want to hear a funny story? The other day I was getting my camera ready for our trip to Michigan so I could take pictures at my friend Matt’s wedding. Now, that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but to me that’s a big deal. Taking pictures at a friends wedding, or more specifically “being the photographer” at a friends wedding is a little intimidating. Especially when you don’t even remotely consider yourself a photographer. So anyway, I’m getting everything ready and I borrowed a flash from my neighbor so I would look a little more professional even if I didn’t use it. I don’t really even know how to use a flash properly and so I decided that I needed to play around with it a little before I went and took pictures of the most important day of my friends life.
I started messing with the different settings on the flash and the test pictures of the kids were looking pretty good, but still a little dark and grainy. I adjusted and adjusted past the point of knowing what I adjusted and all of the sudden every picture that I took was either completely white with the flash, or completely black without. Nothing I did changed the fact that my camera was now on a setting that jacked up every single picture. I started to panic after about an hour and a half of pushing buttons and turning knobs with no result. Remember when I said I didn’t consider myself a photographer? Well, this is why. I knew what I needed to do. Call Daley.
Obviously Daley knows what he is doing when it comes to photography and obviously I didn’t so he was kind enough to walk me through some of the basics of lighting. He also fixed my camera. Which saved my butt.
Most of you remember a few weeks back when Daley was in town and took our family pictures. Well, that was the first time I met Daley in person and we had a great time hanging out. He was great with the kids, hip on the music scene and just a cool hang. I think he’s in Indiana or something right now, but if you haven’t checked out his photography, you probably should. It’s pretty amazing.
You know what to do.
Welcome to Tuesday again. For those of you just showing up here’s how it works. It’s pretty simple. (1) Write something nice about someone, building them up, encouraging them, you know.. being nice. (2) Fill out the box above.
*Make sure that you put the URL of the “Positive Post” not just your blog. That way people can find that specific post if they come back to read them later in the week. It should look like this – “yourdomain.com/the-name-of-your-post”*
MYNH – Friends Edition
I have been thinking a lot about our little “Music You’ve Never Heard” experiment that we have done a few times on here, and in the spirit of that I wanted to point out some of my friends who happen to possibly create “Music You’ve Never Heard”. These are all people that I have come to know over the years. Some I grew up with, some I have met in the past few months and some I have even lived with, but they are all albums that you should literally buy as soon as possible. Here goes.
Brian and I met about two years ago on a tour where he was playing guitar for Audio Adrenaline. Brian also is one of the founding members of another band from back in the day called All Star United. He’s a crazy talent and equally as entertaining to watch on stage. He lives in Phoenix and this is not the cover of his album, but for whatever reason I can’t seem to find the cover of it big enough to post.
Brian is one of the most talented, genuine people I know and I wish that I could hang out with him more. Seriously, if you don’t have this album, you are missing out. Independent or not, this is an amazing album by a good friend. So there you go. Go Buy This Record and come back and tell me what you think.
Next is a guy that I have never actually met in person, but talked to several times on the phone and through email. A few months ago I got an email from Daniel Renstrom asking about some music industry stuff and what I thought were some good options. The more we talked, the more I started to like the way Daniel seemed as a person. He wasn’t trying to prove that he was something he wasn’t. He didn’t come across like he was someone trying to “break into the music scene” but genuinely wanted to just talk about different things. This was before I had even heard his record.
After several emails back and forth Daniel sent me a link to download his record and for the next several weeks that was all I listened to. Seriously, if you haven’t heard me talk about Daniel and haven’t gotten his record yet go do it. He’s about to have a baby (if he hasn’t already) and needs some diaper money. Not to mention you get a great record out of the deal.
This is my friend Kevin’s album. His real name is Kevin, but his band is called Glowworm. I don’t know how to describe it other than awesome. It’s powerful, instrumental music where you visit other places when you are listening to it.
Kevin and I went to high school together. He dated one of my friends. We played music together, though never publicly, and he has always blown me away with his talent. Glowworm is a perfect expression of that talent wrapped in ambient noises. Kevin lives in Kentucky now, but told me the other day that he is moving either back to California or back to Oregon, both of which make me sad, but we barely hung out when he lived in Kentucky so things won’t change much. Either way, you need to go get this record too. There’s really no reason not to. Let me know what you think.
Some of you know about these guys, but most of you won’t. These are some friends of mine from way back. I think I was a sophomore in high school when I met the guys in Five O’Clock People. Back then they were a five piece with a flute, bongos and a mandolin. Since then they have been in and out of a record deal, gotten married, added some members, lost some members, parted ways, formed new bands, had babies, and now have rejoined for what sounds like some of their best music yet.
Alex, Drew and Pat are back with some pretty amazing stuff and I’m excited to see where it goes. Alex has always blown me away with the way that he can write lyrics and Drew is an amazing talent as well. And there aren’t enough nice things I could say about Pat. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this record and I can honestly say that it exceeds what I thought it could. It’s time to go get you some music.
So there it is folks. My “Music You’ve Never Heard – Friends Edition”. My suggestion would be to write these down and save up, and seriously get all of them. They are all really good people and worth supporting. Not to mention, some of the best “indie” music I have heard. So go get their stuff and come back here and let’s talk about what you think.
*Part of Watercooler Wednesday**
“Stats Suck Sunday” – M To The B
That’s right. It’s Michael Bolton. Tell me, how are we supposed to live without him? Now that we’ve been loving him so long? You’re welcome.
Got a “Stats Suck Sunday” post today? Something that you didn’t put a whole lot of time or thought in to? Something that tomorrow you will wonder why you posted, but then realize that it didn’t matter because your stats sucked today? Something like Michael Bolton singing while sitting backwards on a chair? Let’s see em.
AllTop And Stuff
So, check this out. I got this email yesterday saying that I was added to AllTop.com in the Life Section sharing the page with some other awesome blog friends like Anne Jackson and the cool kids at “Are We Still Cool”. It turns out that we are living life and documenting it well enough to either make the folks and AllTop feel bad for us, or want to add us to their list. Pretty sweet eh?
In other news, I am sitting in a hotel bed with a paper cup half full of coffee, getting ready to head out on the road for the next twelve hours. Kristin and I had a great trip. It’s been nice to get away for a few days and just refresh. Now it’s the long ride home, but shortly after our marriage we realized that we liked to drive, we liked hanging out and we liked snacks. So if we have those things today, we will be good. Check out my Twitter if for whatever reason your Sunday is so unbelievably slow that you are wondering where we are on our journey.
