It’s not often I stay up until two in the morning.  Not because I don’t want to, but because I know that my “seven in the morning kid wake-up call” is more painful every time I do.  Last night we had some friends passing through from California to Florida and when that happens typically I stay up later than normal.  

Remember Drew?  He’s the one I keep saying needs to blog.  Well, he’s still not, but I’m not holding it against him.  Well, last night Drew and another friend Eli got to town around seven and we decided to go out for some dinner and what not.  We ended up hanging out on my back porch until about two.  Pretty exciting huh?  

I’m not really looking forward to how I’m going to feel later today, but I think it will work out because this afternoon Randy and I are meeting Pete and Anne for coffee at some awesome trendy place.  And along with coffee at some awesome trendy place comes caffeine so that’s good.  Right now I’m just trying to spell things right and not get easily distracted by Elmo on Sesame Street. 

What time do you normally go to bed?  Does it change on weekends?

So I have been slightly without a computer for a while because I decided to try and clean things up on it.  However, doing that simply means taking every little thing off my computer and starting over and then putting everything back on it, which takes forever.  So now I think I am almost officially caught up to where I need to be to actually use my computer and have it not take fifteen minutes to do anything.

Thursday night we went to see The Dark Knight.  Was it good?  Yeah.  Was is creepy?  Yeah.  Was it violent?  Yeah.  Did Heath Ledger do a great job?  Yeah.  That’s right, everything you have heard, read about, seen online and cared to listen to is exactly what I would say about the movie.  Best movie ever?  Not so much.  It’s good, but not life changing.  Then again, what movie is?  I did however get a chance to run into Coury there, who was in fact wearing a shirt and also was kind enough to save us seats.  We also ran in to Stephen so it was cool to see him and talk a bit.

So how many of you have seen it?  If so, on a scale of one to five what do you give it?  I’m thinking a 4, but that might be generous.

This is my friend Matt.  Matt and I met on a tour when he was working with David Crowder and I was working with Third Day.  Matt was usually running around working a lot harder than I was, and seemed to never get much credit.  That made me appreciate Matt.

What’s funny and sad about tours is that it’s likely that you won’t ever tour with those people again.  Imagine living with someone for three months, but not only living with them but traveling the country with them, eating with them, working with them, and even sleeping within feet of them.  Imagine that and then at the end of that three months saying, “see ya around” and that’s it.  It’s a weird way to have friends.

Matt is now working up at Rob Bell’s church and is in charge of all sorts of things.  I don’t really know what he does, but I know people answer to him because he’s kinda big and scary.  What’s awesome about Matt is that I can literally count on hearing from him at least once a week, and any time Apple comes out with something new.  A few weeks back Kristin and I we able to go to Matt’s wedding and have an amazing time getting away and hanging out.  I love the fact that even though we were only on one tour together and even hung out sporadically on that tour Matt and I are still able to remain friends and stay in contact.  Thanks Matt.

Any of you have friends you don’t see much but stay in contact with regularly?

It’s the beginning of the month and that means that it’s time again for “Link Loved”.  The time where were celebrate those that are sending the most people to our blogs.  Now for all of you people out there that will inevitably say, “to me it’s not about traffic and I think this is a lame thing”, I say…. neat.  Then don’t play.  I think it’s cool to focus on something other than ourselves a few times a month and this is one of them.  So for those of you that know how, figure out who your top five referring blogs are, that is the five blogs that sent you the most traffic this month and write a post explaining their blog to people and sending people their way.  Make sense?  We’ve done this once before and it seemed to work well, so here goes.

1:  ThisIsKristin:  I think Kristin’s blog will always be somewhere on my list but I think it’s cool that she is number one this month.  We were just talking yesterday about how cool it is that blogging has become something else that we do “together”.  By that I mean, here in this world it is simply an extension of who we already are.  People know that we go together and it’s neat to be able to talk about geek stuff with my wife and have a fun connection that way.  I’m sure most of you have already, but if not, make sure to go to Kristin’s blog.  She’s always got something cool to say.

2:  The Bloggess:  This lady is funny.  Ever since Kristin showed me this blog a few months back, I have followed it.  It’s become something that we talk about probably more than any other blog in our real life.  Not to mention I am very aware of my sentence spacing now.  I think it’s funny that her blog keeps showing up in Christian circles and I’m sure deep down she really likes her new audience.  Okay maybe she doesn’t but I think it’s fun to pretend she does. If you haven’t go there and laugh at things you never thought you would.

3:  Visual Coma:  Randy just moved out there two weeks ago and hasn’t stopped working on different things since he’s been here.  Quite literally everything that I am able to do online is because of something Randy has figured out how to do.  It’s been really cool working with him more and hopefully later this month we will be able to focus on some things even more.  Randy’s blog is one of the most entertaining things I have seen if not for the spelling alone.  We have been friends since we were in second grade and very little has changed since then.  Check out Randy’s blog and hop in on some of the conversation there.  It’s a pretty cool place.

4:  Ragamuffin Soul:  Carlos was number one last month, but hasn’t talked about me at all this month so he’s slipped to number four.  See, that’s what you get Carlos.  Ragamuffin Soul is one of those blogs that leaves me scratching my head thinking, “how does he have time to do all of that?”.  Carlos has done some really cool things recently using time lapse video stuff, which I tried and screwed up and just got annoyed.  There’s always something new and cool on his blog and even if it’s something that you have seen before the seven hundred comments that he gets makes it worth reading through.  One of these days we’ll get Carlos to participate in some of the things going on here like Positive Post Tuesday or even Link Loved.  And one of these days he will realize that I specifically call him out on purpose.

5:  A Simple Journey:  I haven’t seen Brian for a while because it seems like he has been out of the country more than he has been home for the past year.  Brian is my next door neighbor and works for Compassion International helping artists communicate the mission behind Compassion to their audience.  Because Brian travels so much his blog is always full of cool photos, travel stories and hotel tips.  Brian and his wife are also in the process of adopting from Ethiopia, so it’s cool to watch that process unfold through his writing.  I don’t know if I have ever met someone so dedicated to their job as Brian is and it’s awesome to read about everything that he is passionate about.  Check out Brian’s blog and say hey.

So, that’ it.  These are the five blogs that have sent me the most traffic this month.  I think it’s amazing to see such a diverse group of people here in this community and I hope that you all go check their blogs out and get involved there.  Now it’s your turn.  What five blogs are creating your community?  

Ready?  Go.

Tonight I’m flying to Canton, Ohio tonight to meet up with Mr. Wickham and his band of merry men to watch them play some music.  They are playing with a whole bunch of other people tomorrow in the hot summer heat of Ohio.  Phil and I have lots of stuff to talk about and it should be pretty fun to catch up and see him with a band again.  I think the Crowder boys will be there too so it will be like a big ol’ reunion.  

Anyone from the area reading this?  If so I will be hanging out at some point near Phil’s merch table.  Come say hi.  I’ll be the guy dressed in long pants and a sweatshirt.  You got any festival plans this year?

I went running tonight, and I want to die.

My friend Michael, who doesn’t blog anymore, and I have been talking about running together for a few weeks now and tonight we finally made it happen.  We have about a three mile circle around our neighborhood and we did the whole thing.  Now, he has been running for a few weeks.  I have not.  I went once last week, and then didn’t want to anymore forgot the rest of the week.

See the thing is I’m not a runner so I have to really hype myself up about it.  I have to convince myself that I like it and really want to do it.  I have to tell myself the next morning that the reason my leg won’t work is because I did something good.  That’s hard for my brain to do.

I did however realize that if I have the right apparel for running it makes a world of difference.  Tank-tops and running shorts.  I’ve never owned either, but I see where it helps.  This picture is of me just before my run.  

I’m completely lying.  This is one of the nastiest pictures I have ever seen and I apologize if it offends you. But honestly, it should offend you, I mean look at it.  Could it get nastier?   And really when it comes down to it, it’s amusing to me, so I get to have it on here.  Come on.  You know it’s funny.

Seriously though.  Running is good for you or something.  You should do it more.  As long as Michael can put up with me whining like a baby the whole time, I’ll keep giving it a shot. 

You run?

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**

You know the rest.  

I just wanted to throw a quick post on here to ask for some prayer for a friend of mine who is currently sitting in a doctors office waiting room, twenty-minutes after his appointment was scheduled, waiting to speak to a neurologist to find out if he has something wrong with his brain.  

For several weeks now he has had severe headaches, and after a bunch of visits to “regular” doctors was referred to see a specialist.  This on top of several other things that have added stress and tragedy in the lives of our friends.  So if you are a praying person, now would be a great time.  Thanks.

It’s Tuesday again.  Time to write something positive.  I have noticed more and more people getting involved in this thing and I think it’s awesome.  I think that it has and can continue to grow into something really cool.  With more folks coming every week I wanted to re-post the idea behind this though most people already know.  The “guidelines” are pretty loose and it’s a pretty simple thing.  Write something nice, then share it.  This is from the original post:

I want to try something. (and it’s pretty early in the morning so I don’t know how good of an idea this is) I want today to be “Positive Post Tuesday”. Let’s today, all write something on our blogs that builds another person up. Someone who is doing an amazing job at something, or someone that is changing the world around them by living the way they are supposed to, or someone that you feel needs building up and deserves it. Write about them and comment here and post the address of your blog below.* Then at the end of the day we can all go through the links and check them out. Sound good?

That’s it.  It’s that simple.  Like I said, it’s been a pretty amazing thing to see people getting involved and coming up with nice things to say about people.  We live in a pretty cynical world and it’s cool to see things that will bring smiles to peoples faces every week.

We have some relatively new friends that we had over this week for the first time.  We have been trying to hang out with them for weeks now, but haven’t been able to align schedules.  Michael leads worship at our church and him and his wife Andrea have become good friends of ours.  We switch off driving the kids to school but now with Kristin working, and us with only one car, it seems like they have really taken the brunt of driving the kids to school.  It’s a pretty temporary situation, but it’s still amazing of them to do.

Michael and Andrea are also from California so we have that in common and even weirder, Michael grew up about twenty minutes from where I grew up.  Small world huh?  Anyway we have had a great time getting to know them more and hanging out with people that seem so similar to us.  It’s fun to be able to talk about the same places and even some of the same people, as if we have known each other for years.  They are awesome genuine people that are easy to be around and unbelievably caring.  It will be awesome to get to know them better and become better friends.