Random Musings: sometimes funny, frequently absurd, occasionally insightful, and usually not spelled correctly.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Imagine Church
Monday, January 24, 2011
Creativity and Immaturity
Thursday, January 20, 2011
NFL Conference Championship Picks
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Power of Vulnerability Discussion
Yesterday, I hosted a video on my blog. Not entirely sure why it didn't work right - the video is strangely cut off on one side. You can see the full (unmessed up) video here. You can also read the transcript here.
I think one of the interesting things that she talked about was the idea of vulnerability, and how we often try to numb the pain of vulnerability. The danger with that is that we can’t selectively numb – when we numb pain and vulnerability, we also numb joy and gratitude and happiness.
So perhaps that should be my challenge today – to start entering into those relationships and having conversations, even where it feels dangerous. What about you?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Elements of Story
Watch This: TED
Friday, January 14, 2011
NFL: 2011 Divisional Round
- Seattle and the "nobody believed in us" factor.
- Chicago hasn't scored a touchdown since December 26th.
- Chicago is undoubtedly the luckiest number 2 seed ever.
- Seattle knows they can beat Chicago at Chicago.
- Chicago wants a bit of revenge.
- Jay Cutler has never played in a playoff game, college or pro.
- Two weeks in a row Seattle being double digit underdogs plays into Pete Carroll's coaching style.
- Chicago was perhaps the one team that least needed a bye to rest.
- Seattle has become the single greatest crappy "What If" team in recent history. Think of all the questions you can ask - could Seattle be 10 point underdogs throughout the rest of the playoffs? What if they won everything despite the opposing teams being favored by a total of 45 points? What if it's Seattle vs New England (Carroll homecoming)? Seattle vs Pittsburgh (Refpocalypse)? What if...?
- I dreamt that Chicago would win by two points.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Devotions
- Denial - This can't be happening.
- Anger - I hate that this is happening.
- Bargaining - I will do anything to prevent this.
- Depression - This is inevitable and crushing.
- Acceptance - It's going to be okay.
- We spent a lot of time just ignoring the request to switch to a new and confusing system. Since there was no real urgency to the request to switch, and no one shut down our old method, we just continued to use it and hoped noone would notice us.
- When eventually we were noticed, we were told to switch to the new system. This made us rather angry - we didn't ask for a new system, and no one asked us for our input about the system. As regular users, this didn't really sit right with us.
- After a bit, we cooled down and started thinking about how we could use (or not use) the system. We spent about a month emailing with people in charge of the switchover, trying to 'negotiate' how much we would be forced to use. What if we just switched over two of our half dozen calendars? What if we just made a note on the new software to call us to use the old software? What if...
- Most of our what if's fell to the ground, and we moved into the new system, still upset about the ordeal. The next two months I spent comparing the new system to the old system; thinking of how great and easy the old way was, and how much I wished we could go back. All I could see of the new system was the flaws and the ways it came short of our old software.
- Only recently have I started to see the ways in which the new software is useful, and stopped wishing to go back to the old software. I don't have a specific reason why - time heals all, I guess. Or perhaps it just from me playing around with the old software again and getting frustrated by it's limitations. Either way, I'm now at the acceptance portion of using the software.
- how deserted lies the city, once so full of people (v1)
- she who was a queen among the provinces (v1)
- all the splendor has departed her(v6)
- Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers (v7)
Monday, January 10, 2011
Learning to Grieve
Friday, January 7, 2011
Fill in the ______: The First Kiss
- What elements interested you?
- What elements bored you?
- What meaning do you see behind the story?
- Can you draw any lessons / parallels from the story?
- Any advice on telling the story?
Thursday, January 6, 2011
WIldcard Picks: 2011
2. One team is overhyped, one team is underhyped.
3. When in doubt, take the home team. But pick at least one road team.
4.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Fill in the ______: Chopper
- What elements interested you?
- What elements bored you?
- What meaning do you see behind the story?
- Can you draw any lessons / parallels from the story?
- Any advice on telling the story?
Monday, January 3, 2011
NFL: Week 17 and Season Quick Review
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Theme of the Year
I told you earlier that I think of New Years as a time to set your theme for the next year. It only seems smart then to think about the “theme” of last year, 2010 then.
In some ways, 2010 was a “down to earth” year. I spent time discovering that areas in which I told myself I would be skilled in were areas that I even struggled with competency. For example:
- · Discovering that I’m not the perfect husband I always imagined I would be (I hurt my wife a lot more than I imagined, sometimes knowingly so)
- · Learning that I still struggle at being a good employee (I still have trouble putting forth a 5/5 effort)
- · Figuring out that I like being a writer much more than I like writing (I wrote very little of significance this year – my blog totals were skewed because of Lost recaps and NFL picks)
- · Realizing that there are consequences to not being in a church (the few times I’ve lead devotions this year haven’t exactly been successful)
- · Seeing that I like to talk about new experience more than do them (I sure like to just go to the same restaurants over and over)
- · Heck, I didn’t even master Warhammer in the way I imagined (I took 5th out of an 12 player tournament, which isn’t that impressive)
So these are expectations I had for 2010, and ways in which I came short. There are two components to any sort of ‘failure’ in goal setting –
- 1. The Goal – did I set my expectations too high?
- 2. The Performance – did I put forth my best effort?
I don’t think any of the goals I set were poor. They are all good things to aspire to. But I struggled with reaching them. I struggled with an image I set for myself that I didn’t reach.
In some ways, the struggles of 2010 have resulted in the most aimless year of my life. I couldn’t hit my goals, and thus the idea of setting goals beyond those seemed like madness. There were literal parts of my life this year where I was looking forward to something coming that was many weeks away. I couldn’t enjoy the moments I was in.
There was no build to my life last year. I was in a stalling flight pattern, waiting for orders to land. A great movie or book builds the tension; each chapter further tightens and changes the narrative to come.
So this year, here to the build. Here’s to seeing progress. Here’s to being in a different place a year from now. I set 35 resolutions the other day, and it is my hope that these resolutions will help me to be the person I thought I was. I hope to be here in a year saying that I met each and every one of those resolutions (and more), but more than that, I hope to say in a year that I’m a better:
· Husband
· Employee
· Writer
· Christian
· Lover of life
· Gamer