IRan
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?
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**
When It Rains…
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.
Positive Post Tuesday
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.
