Be Nice
In an ongoing attempt to make this whole interweb a more ‘positive’ place, today I decided to create a little something called ‘Be Nice’. Yep. That’s it. Most of you have noticed that on the end of my Tweets and at the end of my posts I have started adding a plus sign (+) to them. Some of you have caught on and are joining in the fun and some of you aren’t. Here’s the deal. I’d like for this to become something that becomes the ‘norm’ in my little corner of blogland. In the same vein as ‘Positive Post Tuesday’ I’d like for this to become something that’s bigger than me or this blog.
Because it’s such a simple exercise, I’m going to keep bugging you guys about it until it becomes more and more of a ‘thing’. I’ve had a lot of people asking me what the deal with the plus sign is and in case you missed it before, here’s how it works:
If you write something positive, put a plus sign (+) at the end of it. If you write something negative have the guts to put a minus sign (-). Now I’ve seen a handful of people participating in the ‘positive’ side of things but I’ve still seen plenty of negative Tweets and posts, and we all all too scared to admit that we are being negative. Funny how that works huh? Simple enough rules right?
Now, sure there’s going to be things that you say that aren’t positive or negative in nature, but that’s what makes this exercise so cool. It’s at least making you think. I’m typically a pretty negative person and with Twitter and blogging it’s become increasingly easy to send out that negativity to the world, but I think it’s time to switch things up.
So here’s what we are going to do. If you’re reading this and have a blog, write a post about ‘Be Nice’. Steal the image above and write in your own words what the idea behind this is. Post it on your Facebook, Twitter it. You can even put it on your Myspace if anyone still uses that.
Now, this isn’t some way for me to get more traffic or get people talking about me. In fact, if you don’t want to mention my name or link here, then don’t, but I’d really like to see the idea of putting a + or – at the end of everything spread like crazy. Let’s make the internet a whole lot more +, shall we? Remember, it’s not that hard to ‘be nice’.
+
Stats Suck Sunday – In Bullet Points
Welcome to Sunday. It’s been a while since I’ve done a ‘Stats Suck Sunday’ post because typically I am getting home from the road and don’t even want to look at my computer on Sundays. But this week ended up being one of the two weekends I will have off until October and I’ve tried to take full advantage of it. So, if you don’t know how this works… welcome to the party. This is random, pointless bullet points that not that many people will read because it’s Sunday. You’re welcome to use this format for your blog today, if you’d like, and you can also steal the Stats Suck banner if you want. Or you can make your own. Ya dig? Here goes.
- My ‘drink from a mug only’ beverage plan seems to be going okay, but probably because I haven’t really left the house much. There was lunch the other day with Carlos where I drank my weight in pineapple juice, and that was not from a mug, so maybe I’m not doing as well as I thought.
- Speaking of that pineapple juice. I need to find that juice and somehow make sure there is a constant flow of it into my refrigerator. Maybe replace the water dispenser in the door with a pineapple juice one. Now we’re talking.
- I’m expecting good things from Orlando tonight. Kobe can’t be that good every night.
- The boys and I rode bikes around the neighborhood yesterday and I’m thinking this is going to be a regular thing. It was a lot better once Aiden learned he had brakes.
- I’m working on an event with Jonny Diaz this week, with my friends at INO Records, and am going to need all your help to make it as big as we possibly can. Everyone make sure to leave Thursday evening open for a little live broadcast. More details later this week.
- I think I’m sunburnt.
- Seriously, that pineapple juice was amazing. I think it was some ‘organic’ Nestea thing, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. It had a different name than Nestea, but I think it was that ‘brand’.
- “Quitting is fun and think of all the time you will save” – The white fluffy cat in Stuart Little 2.
- I had 311 emails this morning when I woke up. On a Sunday. I pushed ‘Delete’ a lot.
- I’ve never seen a guitar in worse shape than the boys acoustic guitar. Maybe Willie Nelson’s, but theirs is pretty bad.
- I need to replace all the railing on our front porch and I’m a little nervous about it. I’m not what you would call ‘handy’.
- I’ve got to go replace some strings on a jacked up kids guitar.
- Have a great Sunday.
Let’s hear it. What’s your randomness today?
Lessons From A Humu
The boys have a book called ‘Humu, The Little Fish Who Wished Away His Colors’. Have you heard about it? It’s a Hawaiian book about a little boy fish who is bright and rainbow colored, but desperately wants to be ‘normal’ like his plain red and yellow fish friends.
Humu cries twice in the book. The first time is when he feels like his ‘normal’ friends are making fun of him for being rainbow. He runs away from his friends and finds a magic whale named Misty and asks to be turned into the color of sand. The whale makes him ‘normal’ with the option of changing back in three days, and Humu goes back to his friends to show them that he is like them. Except when he gets back to his friends, they don’t recognize him because he isn’t rainbow anymore. They convince him that he was beautiful just the way he was and this is the second time Humu starts crying in the book.
Now Humu realizes that he wants to ‘be himself’ and wishes he was rainbow again. With the support of his ‘normal’ friends, Humu goes back to where he met Misty and asks to be rainbow again. All of the sudden there’s a rainbow cloud floating around and Humu swims into it and is rainbow again. He is Humu again, his friends support him, and the world is right.
With a little help from this book my boys will be Humu someday too.
Automatic Angry
I have an auto-response on my Twitter. Most of you know that. Most of you also have auto-response messages on your Twitter. And while I think they are a hair cheesy, and I’m accentuating it’s cheesiness but pointing it out, I still have one… and so do you. Here’s what mine says.
This is a completely automated message, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. www.skorinc.us/brodyharper.com
Simple enough right? I mean, I’m accepting the fact that it’s an automated message. I’m telling you it’s an automated message and I’m giving you the option to connect with me on a personal level over on my blog. Seems like a pretty decent situation right?
Well, this morning I woke up to an ‘@ reply’ message from someone apparently offended by my ‘auto-response’. I will leave off their Twitter name and all that to protect them from further ridicule, but here’s what their @ message said:
@brodyharper: Who the Hell do You think U are DM Me With BS.. Dude B Real Or B Fake… Don’t B sending Me auto DM.. I wanna Hear From You!!!
Goodness. That seems a little angry, don’t you think? Now, normally I would just blow something like this off, but I decided to do a little research and at least check out the link that this person has in their bio. You know, to check out their blog or ‘hear from them’ and the link goes to this place. The Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. Seems like a good organization. I wonder how this person is connected. Must be through Christ’s love. Yep, that must be the connection. I can tell. I will be honest though, I’m starting to feel a little like Noah, or at least his third verse.
So, there you are Mr. or Mrs. Twitter message person. Now you’ve ‘heard from me’. And no this was not an automated message… and it still doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.
My First Triathlon
So, I’ve noticed that marathons these days are the hip thing. Can I say hip? Or does that make me very un-hip? Either way, marathons and all sorts of endurance-y type things are sort of the ‘thing’ right now. So tonight I decided to jump on the old bandwagon. Yep, tonight at dinner I decided that as soon as we were done I would participate in my first ever triathlon. I mean how hard can it be?
Okay, it wasn’t your “conventional” triathlon, but hey, I don’t like to do things the “conventional” way. I like to think outside the box, march to a different beat, and rock my first triathlon the way I want to. And that’s exactly what I did.
After dinner I threw on my new athletic shoes that don’t look like they should go to space, some basketball shorts, stole the boys iPod and filled it with high energy songs that could keep me going and I was off. First leg of the triathlon was the running. I rounded the corner of my cul-de-sac with the wind in my face. The sun was setting so I knew that if I was going to finish this triathlon I was going to have to hurry. Past one ‘Stop’ sign, then another and another. Nothing could stop me, except that stabbing pain in my side. That stopped me for a second, but then I was back to a slow trot.
After about eight or so neighborhood ‘Stop’ signs I was approaching my friend Michael’s house at a blinding speed. He was out changing a headlight in his car so I stopped to throw up in his bushes help him and steal his bike for the second leg of my triathlon. At this point my legs were jell-o and my lungs were burning so biking would give me a chance to recover for the third and final leg.
I rode past Michael’s house, another ten or so ‘Stop’ signs, and I decided that I needed to push to finish before dark. Around the final cul-de-sac and I was officially half way done and headed back. Repeating my ten or so ‘Stop’ signs and then the original eight or so that I had run making a total of about eighteen more ‘Stop’ sign lengths on the bike, and I was ready for the third and final leg of my first ever triathlon. I came flying into the driveway and parking the bike in the garage. I knew there was only one leg left, but I needed to stop for water, check some emails and catch my breath again.
Then it was time for the third and final push. Now, typically the final portion of a ‘conventional’ triathlon is the swimming portion. You know in a cool comfortable ocean or something. But like I said before, I’m not really in to doing things the ‘conventional’ way, so for my third and final leg of my triathlon, I decided to take a shower. That’s right. Instead of the ‘normal’ splashing around in the water, I decided to step it up a level and stand. And in hot water no less. How you like me now Spence?
Now I’m watching The NBA Finals and barely able to move, but at least I have the sense of accomplishment still pressing firmly on my chest and lungs. I may need a day or two off and then it will be back to training for my next challenge. I might even ride the bike all the way to Target.
Noah Gundersen – Jesus Jesus
It’s not often a song just reaches up and slaps me in the face or kicks me in the stomach, but when it does I listen to it over and over. Today this song did that to me. My friend Jeff recommended that I check out this guy named Noah Gundersen today so I started poking around and found this song.
Now if you’re offended by a few ‘bad’ words, this may not be for you, but the lyrics of this song are some of the most honest and searching lyrics I’ve heard in a long time in Christian music or otherwise. Now, I don’t know this guys spiritual background/beliefs, but I can say that if Christians were this honest all the time, I think we’d be living in a different world.
Here’s the lyrics, and when you get a sec, check out Noah Gundersen.
Jesus, Jesus, could you tell me what the problem is
With the world and all the people in it?
Because I’ve been hearing stories about the end of the world
But I’m in love with a girl and I don’t wanna leave her
And the television screams such hideous things
They’re talking about the war on the radio
They say the whole thing’s gonna blow
And we will all be left alone
No we’ll be dead and we won’t know what hit usJesus, Jesus, if you’re up there won’t you hear me
‘Cause I’ve been wondering if you’re listening for quite a while
And Jesus, Jesus, it’s such a pretty place we live in
And I know we fuc*ed it up, please be kind
Don’t let us go out like the dinosaurs
Or blown to bits in a third world war
There are a hundred different things I’d still like to do
I’d like to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower
Look up from the ground at a meteor shower
And maybe even raise a familyJesus, Jesus, there are those that say they love you
But they have treated me so d*mn mean
And I know you said ‘forgive them for they know not what they do’
But sometimes I think they do
And I think about you
If all the heathens burn in hell, do all their children burn as well?
What about the Muslims and the gays and the unwed mothers?
What about me and all my friends?
Are we all sinners if we sin?
Does it even matter in the end if we’re unhappy?Jesus, Jesus, I’m still looking for answers
Though I know that I won’t find them here tonight
But Jesus, Jesus, could you call me if you have the time?
And maybe we could meet for coffee and work it out
And maybe then I’ll understand what it’s all about
The Human Reliance Of Toilet Paper
You know, there are times when I’m about to publish something on this here blog and I start to think of all the different types of people that read it. The pastors, the parents, the impressionable teenagers, the business men, and the artists. And that starts to freak me out a little when what I am publishing is ‘questionable’ or something that’s most likely only going to be funny to me and maybe three other people on the planet. This may be one of those posts, but here goes anyway.
Now, I know there are also several different ‘beliefs’ reading this blog. Whether it’s Christian believing that we were created by a maker, to the evolutionist believing that we evolved from slime, or even to the folks who don’t really care where we came from or where we are going. They are all here, and I respect that. But allow me to throw out a question that I was thinking the other day when I, you know… had some time to slow down and think.
How is it that we were created, or have evolved into (depending on your current belief) being reliant on something like toilet paper? Now I say ‘something like toilet paper’ because I know that back in the day something different was probably used. Maybe it was leaves. Maybe it was cloth. Maybe it was a good old fashioned swim in the river, but to some level a reliance on “something else” to remain clean was formed. This concerns me.
It seems that our bodies at the very root of existence should be fully capable to function without a reliance on any man made thing right? I mean, animals don’t need toilet paper. Why do we? Maybe the food has changed. Maybe there was a shift in consumption as humans where we all the sudden became… messier? Who knows. And I don’t know if I should really be thinking this heavily on it, but it was something that hit me the other day.
So what do we think? Am I on crack? Is this one of those times that I should have opted out of pushing ‘Publish’? Or am I on to something?
Man Vs. Will Ferrell
So, it wasn’t as funny as I was hoping, but there were some pretty amazing moments on Man Vs. Wild with Will Ferrell last night. Did any of you watch it?
One thing I did notice though, was the fact that it was a brilliant marketing move on the part of Will Ferrell and the folks in charge of marketing his new movie. If you watched any of the show, you heard the new movie “Land Of The Lost” mentioned at least twenty times throughout the one hour show, you saw “Survival Tips” brought to you by the movie, and obviously saw movie trailers. Marketing that we actually want to see. What an odd concept.
Now, I don’t know how much advertising they did for this particular show, but the fact that they had enough forethought to pull all this together and put Will Ferrell out in the middle of nowhere with this survival guy is pretty amazing. I heard about it on a blog and immediately set my DVR to record it. And I’d bet several of you all did the same.
And here’s what the ‘decision makers’ of this show did. They took two things that, by themselves, probably aren’t that great and put them together to make something that everyone wanted to see. Then turned that into an advertising platform to push what they want to sell. The whole concept of ’give people what they want up front, and hope for the best’. See, I might go see that movie now. Okay, I might rent it, but I’m at least thinking about it. Which is more than I was doing yesterday morning at this time. Well done Discovery Channel, Man Vs. Wild, Will Ferrell, and Land Of The Lost people.
PS. Who’s up for a petition to force him to spell his name Farrell?
Lakers Or Magic
Alright. So neither one of the teams I liked made it to the NBA Finals. No LeBron. No ‘team that beat the Lakers’. So here we are. An NBA Finals that I couldn’t care less about. Wait. I take that back. I still care that Kobe doesn’t win, so I guess I’m officially leaning toward the Magic. Sorry Katina boys, I just can’t like him.
So, let’s take a little poll here. Lakers or Magic? Go.
Forgetting It’s Monday
We declared today ‘yard work day’. The plan was to bust out all the yard work that has sort of stacked up over the spring and get ready for summer. You know, mowing the lawn, trimming the bushes, weeding the garden, and spreading mulch. That kind of stuff. Now typically I’m not a huge yard work fan. I don’t really like to be out getting poked in the face by sticks or getting sun burned or things like that, but today I’m loving it. So far I’ve mowed and trimmed the front bushes. I stole the boys iPod and made a little ‘yard work mix’ with only songs with beats. Black Eyed Peas, Cake, Jason Mraz, and stuff like that. And this on the hottest day of the year so far.
Here’s the funny thing. It’s Monday. I keep forgetting that and find myself wondering why my phone is going crazy or my emails are piling up. Turns out everyone else is starting their week today and are being productive. Me, I have this week ‘off’ so I need to catch up on some house stuff. Now, when I say “off”, what I mean is that our run to Canada was cancelled and I don’t have to leave the house this week. I still have plenty to do, but as far as leaving the house, I don’t have to. This will one weekend of two that I will have off until the end of October so I’m making good use of it by starting early. It’s nice breaking up the day a little by taking a phone call or checking in on emails though.
I’ve got a few more projects to knock out before the house is ready for Summer, but Kristin has already busted out on a lot of the projects, making it pretty easy to jump in and do things. I did just break our shovel in half so it looks like I will be getting a new one of those before any more digging goes on. I suppose it was about time for a new one anyway.
So here’s my question. How many yard work lovers are out there? Kristin loves being out in the sun, planting things, choosing plants for decoration, and all that. I love it if I know well in advance that I have to do it and that’s what I have scheduled for the day. If not it frustrates me. Where do you fall?
