Have you ever gotten sick of hearing those words? “Everything will be okay”.  It’s been a few months of hearing that now, and the problem is I’m starting to not believe it.

What do people mean when they say that anyway?  Do they mean that when we (as Christians) die, then everything will be okay? When we are able to leave this fallen world where pain and suffering exists, then and only then things will “be okay”?  That there is no point in longing for your life on Earth to be “okay”?

When, in your mind, will “everything be okay” when you tell someone that?  Do you honestly believe things will be “okay” in their lives?  Or have you run out of things to say?  

That’s what I am thinking about today.  Sorry if it’s a downer.

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If you could choose five artists that you would want to be blogging, who would they be?  And when I say blogging, I mean regularly, actively, participating in a blogging community.  Who would you want to hear from the most?  More specifically, who do you think I should talk to next about blogging?

Ready?  Go.

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Pathetic - Moon Janitor - I need to poop - Gene Pensiero cult leader - is like blaming spoons - stealing pine cones - baby sitter poaching - barbie jesus - stanky and the coal miners polka band - tick tock tick tock - Brody Harper nude.

“I need to poop”, said Gene Pensiero, cult leader as he grabbed his Barbie Jesus and headed out of the room.  

Roughly ten minutes later, Floyd, the pathetic moon janitor, stumbled in after a late night of rocking out with Stanky and The Coal Miners Polka Band.  Floyd was not normally one to be late, but Gene had recently noticed strange things happening when Floyd was around.  ”Tick Tock Tick Tock“, said Gene, “How can we run an efficient cult here, if you can’t even show up on time?”  

“Sorry, Gene, it won’t happen again”.  Floyd had been accused of things in the past like baby sitter poaching, but nothing was ever proven, but now it seemed like every time Floyd was around it was as if someone was stealing pine cones and putting them places they didn’t belong.

Gene went to his eleventh wife Sara, concerned about Floyd and the missing pine cones.  ”I don’t think I can trust him”, Gene said.  ”Every time I ask Floyd about the pine cones, he is like… blaming spoons or something, and saying other weird things.  And the other day when I was out on a walk, I saw Brody Harper nude, and that shook me up a little.  There is just too many weird things happening in this place.”  ”Well, it’s your cult, Gene.”, said Sara.

So I had this idea the other day to use all the search words that you guys came up with in a story.  I picked most of them and put them at the top of this post.  There’s my story.  Keep in mind it’s way too early to come up with a creative way to use “baby sitter poaching” but I gave it a shot.  

Here’s the challenge.  The list of words is up there.  Use those words and write your own story in the comments.  Let’s see who can come up with the funniest story.  

Ready? Go.

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Google just got a little creepier.  Has anyone seen Google Street View yet?  I’m a little weirded out by it, but at the same time completely fascinated.  This is a view from Downtown Nashville.  

Can you find your house?

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So every once in a while I will look to see what people are searching when they end up on my blog.  Typically it’s nothing too exciting.  A few different spellings of my name, sometimes a search for a picture that I once used.  More often than not there is a search for Jesse James, the cowboy bandit guy that got off’d in his own living room.  But today.  Today was different.

I was sitting down to send out a quick email and decided that I would take a look to see what people were searching.  Here’s the list I got.  More Jesse James, and then some negative thoughts on Myspace.  Not too out of the ordinary.  Then there’s that one third from the bottom.  Huh?  That’s odd.  I’m not entirely sure anyone should be searching for that.  In fact I’m really sure that no one should be searching for that.  That’s not even something my wife would search for.

I sent the search results to Randy and after a good laugh, asked him to search it and see what happened.  My luck would have there be some adult film star with my name and I didn’t need that showing up on my computer, so Randy got to check it out.  Turns out it’s some female TV star from Australia, who hosts a “magazine and lifestyle” show.  Nothing too racy, but certainly not me.

So, most of these blogs have a way of seeing what people are searching when they end up on your site.  What’s the weirdest thing that you have seen bring people to your blog?

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“When I took away the lens of the negative and forced myself to look at the positive, I found that there were far more things worth celebrating in the everyday than I had ever realized. What I took from all of this was that this is it.
The kids playing in the park.
The crossing guard who smiles at me every morning when I pull into school.
Even the sweaters my neighbor puts on his dog (as unfortunate as animals in clothes are).
This is what our world is made up of. These ordinary things. And if we’re willing to take the time to see it, we’ll realize that this ordinary day is wonderful because it’s simple and complicated, beautiful and mysterious and wholly ours.”

This is a really cool idea for a site.  It’s great to see folks recognizing positive things in the details of a day.

It just launched today, Check it out.

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So the other day my friend Seth blogged about this pretty amazing application for his iPhone.  Naturally, after reading what Seth had to say about all the different things he could now do with his iPhone, including Super Mario Brothers, recording music, Etch-N-Sketch, and GPS, I was intrigued and a hair jealous.  Seth sent me the link and now I too, have the entire King James Bible on my iPhone.  I also have GPS, a cool locating Twitter Application and a game where I can smash marbles into things.  It’s pretty awesome.  I can also record video now with my phone, which is something I never understood why Apple didn’t do, and I can also play guitar on my phone.  

Mostly all of this stuff will be used to entertain either myself or my kids when we are places that we need to be quiet and distracted.  I am still sorting through all the different things that this thing has.  There are tons of games, photo applications, dictionaries, alarms, and a ton of other stuff that I have no idea what it is.

So if you have an iPhone, I would suggest checking out iLiberty.  There are a million different ways to waste your battery faster, and you might find some of it useful.

Check it out. And Thanks Seth.

*This post has been added to Watercooler Wednesday*

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I’m sitting at the airport in Chicago halfway home from a great trip to Portland.  I have a couple different thoughts on the night but most of all I am thrilled the way that the entire thing turned out.  The recording went great.  The video went great.  Phil did great.  And I think it was a massive step for Phil’s career and for the Christian music industry.  I had a great time being a part of it.

The day started a little shaky since, you know, I had no idea how to do any of the stuff that I said I would do.  I had no clue how to use the camera that I rented, and didn’t even really know if the church had good enough internet to pull it off.  For a detailed, bullet point outline of the day go here.  Once again, there would have been no way to pull off the day without Randy making things happen.  There were a couple freak out moments, but everything turned out great.  I was on the phone with this guy and one of these guys way more than they probably appreciated, but I totally appreciate their help.

Once we did eventually figure everything out we were able to grab lunch with Tyler.  We hadn’t met before but because of blogs we were, once again, able to bypass all the formalities and actually talk.  It’s always cool to meet someone that you feel like you know already.  Cool in a weird sort of way.  After the show Randy and I were able to also meet Samantha and her friend.  Like most of you know, my memory is garbage so I apologize, friend, it was great to meet you.  We talked for a little bit after the show and then packed everything up, and went back to Randy’s house.

All in all, a great night.  I had a blast, got to see Portland again, and now I can’t wait to get home.  Thanks again for watching and getting the word out.  I wonder what’s next.

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Hey everyone. Thanks so much for checking out Phil’s show tonight if you did.  If you didn’t see it, you missed something special.  I have lots to talk about, but my brain is mush right now.  I have to be up in five hours to catch a flight home.  I met some great people tonight and honestly the night couldn’t have gone better.  

More to come when I can spell things right.

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Alright. I’m here at Randy’s house in (amazing) Portland, Oregon.  The camera and I made it safely through security, a Denver layover, and a farting old women* and we are getting ready for tomorrow.  

I’m pretty excited about all these things coming together and I wanted to remind everyone to make sure they are over at Phil’s blog tomorrow night at 7:30 PM Pacific Time.  It’s going to be a great night and hopefully I don’t screw anything up.

*There was an old lady that told me that she didn’t want a middle seat and that she wanted to sit in my aisle seat.  She was in her late 70’s so I had to let her take my seat and I think she was farting the whole flight.  I wanted to throw up numerous times between Denver and Portland.  Seriously, who farts on a plane?

See you tomorrow.

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