Contemplation on Easter

Let's start with a quote on my mind these past few days. This is typically referred to as the Lewis Trilemma by apologists and critics:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

With that stated, I think it would be wise for me to point out the other alternative one might possibly apply to the person of Jesus Christ...that he didn't exist at all (or perhaps, just not in the way the Bible describes him). We will call this an error in the historical record.

So it is true, that at least based on the biblical account of Christ we can not infer that he was only some great moral teacher. Within the pages of scripture alone, we do only have those two choices. Of course, the people in Jesus' day who were familiar with scripture faced those very same choices, and as the history presented in the Bible will show us, many people felt quite sure that Jesus was nothing but a liar and/or a madman...certainly not God Incarnate as Jesus had claimed.

What I'd rather spend time discussing is the perspective of most people that could be affected by a consideration of the person of Jesus. And that perspective leads us straight out of the Bible. You see, the Bible is not a Holy Book or useful historical record to people who do not believe the contents of it's pages. In fact, a historical record is only useful to modern people insofar as it can be proven to be reliable.

So the question for a non-Christian person to start with would best be stated as "how do I know that this book even comes close to accurately recording the existence or activities of Jesus, a history dated nearly 2,000 years ago?"

If I found a series of letters claiming to be written by Abraham Lincoln that appeared to me to be in his own handwriting, I seriously doubt that the Smithsonian Museum would immediately place them on display. More likely, they would have a handful of experts inspect them, compare with the content and style of known samples and then come to a conclusion regarding the veracity of my find. The human mind does more or less the same thing every time we are presented with a new piece of information, whether spoken or written.

It is because of this natural human thought process that the Bible cannot be presented as fact without reason to people who do not believe. Of course, I should point out that this very same kind of logic permeates every house of education in the world. We are taught many things in school - history class, in this case - that are not fully substantiated, primarily in consideration for the small amount of time we have to learn everything as we are going through school. For instance, your average person - myself included - could not tell you today what the exact evidence is that proves the existence of Genghis Khan. Did we find letters, stories, oral history, statues? And if so, did it all prove his existence as a person, or have we misinterpreted legend as fact over these last 800 or so years? Was he really just a scary story told to kids around a campfire?

Nonetheless, most people wouldn't spend any serious amount of time trying to convince anyone that he did not exist. The point I'm trying to make is that through the course of our learning, we have all come to just simply accept some things as true without necessarily trying to find out any further substantiating evidence. Was Genghis Khan real? Sure...er, I dunno...um, yes. Of course he was. Sure. Right...? I'm sure there's evidence, I just, uh, don't...really know right now.

Jesus, however, is different in that billions of people have claimed Him for their salvation from sin. Because of that, and because it requires a good Christian to encourage others to adopt the same belief, it becomes of the utmost importance that strong evidence be provided.

And unfortunately, this is the part of my blog where I let everyone down. See, I don't have strong enough evidence to convince some people of what I believe to be true based upon my own studies. Others, however, would probably be more than satisfied by the evidence I could place on the table. Likewise, it has taken me an awful long time to get to where I am in my understanding of my own Christian faith, so it can be a bit overwhelming when I consider to undertake this type of conversation with someone who does not believe as I do.

You see, there is a certain element of faith to this, as their is in so many things. We of course did put our faith in the education system when we accepted that Ghengis Khan was ever a real person without full substantiating evidence. But with the claimed person of Jesus being so much bigger than just a historical record, it is all the more important that we - that I - be prepared for the questions that come with this territory we occupy.

So my words tonight exist as a challenge...to me, to a fellow believer, and even to those who have doubts however severe - consider all that you can about His existence, the things that are written about Him and the things people claim about Him. Consider how it could ever be true, and undertake a full study on all you can find about Jesus Christ. If you do this, I believe you will become a more convicted believer and a wonderful asset in helping your fellow man. If you currently do not believe any thing written about Jesus, you may not ever find the truth that I claim, but I think you will at least understand a little better what it is that binds someone like myself to this person who walked on the Earth nearly 2,000 years ago.


POSTSCRIPT

As a side thought, I would like to point out that C.S. Lewis himself came to be a believer in Christ following an extended period of his life that he had claimed to be an atheist (not believing in any sort of God). Lewis undertook a study of Christianity in particular to see if he could come up with a solid set of proofs against the logic of believers in Christ. As history well records, he became instead one of the more influential Christian writers in the 2nd half of this past century. Take that to mean whatever you wish, but understand that it is difficult for anyone to undertake any serious study of the person of Christ and remain totally ambivalent about his existence on either side of faith.

Christmas, New Year's, etc.

Random thoughts from Christmas and New Year's, now and in the past...

Hrm, let's start with the past, and hey, let's start with a bad memory, shall we?

Did you ever doing something you regret, years in the past, and then even just thinking about it makes you annoyed, angry...or even just laugh?

Well, I have a sort of laugh moment. It was Christmas...I think it was either 1998 or 1999. Peachtree City United Methodist Church. We had been working on a Christmas music program. We had a full orchestra assembled and performed a few services and then Christmas Eve services as well. I was tasked with solo singing what I consider to be one of the nicer Christmas songs, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." It really is a beautiful song. I was REALLY excited about it. However, I was at somewhat of a vocal intersection in my life, as my voice had started stabilizing (men's voices don't really "set" until around age 17-25) but I had not really adjusted to it quite yet.

And if you know the song, you know there is a big build in the final verse with a high note that while not impossible to reach (unlike the high note in "O Holy Night") is still rather difficult to hold for your average tenor voice. And to make it worse, the build halts on the high note, then softens immediately into the end of the song. So I've got to belt out this high note, hold it and wait for the director to continue, and immediately go into falsetto for 4 notes and then back into modal (normal) register for the the final 4 notes.

Seriously, if I had the chance to go back and reverse it, I would tell the director - straight up - I'm not going to sing this song. Why? I'll tell you why...

BECAUSE...well, because I totally blew this in ALL 3 PERFORMANCES of the song. I sang 95% of the song perfectly, everything but the 5% of the song everyone waits to hear. I had to basically scream the high note to get it out, and then my falsetto cracked like a 13 year old boy. The final 4 notes of the song were a goner, too, because each time my voice was shaking from the vocal failure I had unleashed on the high note and falsetto.

After each performance, I did a couple of practice runs to fine tune it, but nonetheless, at the successive performances, as if on cue, I did the exact same thing.

If I could have dissappeared behind stage immediately afterward it might have helped my embarassment. But NO...we had to immediately go right into "Sleigh Ride" as if nothing had happened. Sheesh....

So every time I think of that moment now, I have an instant feeling of "holy CRAP...what was I thinking?!?!???" and then I quickly just transition to laughing about it, about how funny it is to sing a song you really like and then to really blow it in front of a huge church audience at the peak of the emotional build, ruining the song immediately. I guess it would have been an even funnier memory if it had been SOMEONE ELSE beside me.

It probably goes without saying that the director didn't ask me to do anymore solos ever again.

Moving along....

This Christmas was a lot of fun. Caleb got some great gifts from Santa Claus (how cool is that?). We did our Christmas here in Dacula a few days in advance as we spent the holiday down in Your Favorite Town with our families. It's really a lot of fun watching him play with toys, and get super excited when he sees all his stuff laid out for him. And this is just the beginning...next few years are prime-time Santa years. I think it's just the greatest thing right now. I'll detail more about it in Caleb's blog sometime in the next few days.

Another funny Christmas memory from the past...

My brother Michael was about 11 or 12 years old I think. He had asked for a drum set for Christmas. That's all he asked for...no candy, no toys, no anything. And as Christmas approached, somehow he got the idea that there was zero chance of him getting his wish. On Christmas morning, he decided he just flat was NOT going to get up and go downstairs to see his Christmas gifts, because he knew there was no drum set down there waiting for him.

At least that's what he thought. But when the rest of us went down there and saw it sitting there waiting for him, we all tried to cajole him into getting up. No dice. BUT...when someone banged on a cymbal and a drum, he practically teleported into the room. Now THAT is a Christmas surprise if I ever saw one. And oh boy, was he bad at playing on that drum set. At least he got Grandma and Grandpa up (their room was about 10 feet away from the drum set). He eventually got better, but that morning he was probably one of the most enthusiastically horrible drummers I've ever seen.

I'm sure his memory of that morning is a little different, probably just "OMG OMG! A DRUM SET! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

A few years later, that drum set was victim of a flood in our basement, but it still sounded okay after that.

And let's not forget New Year's Eve...

Our semi-new tradition is spending New Year's Eve with Andy and Abby. We've probably done it for 4 or 5 years now (except last year, which will always be fondly remembered as the diarrhea/vomiting New Year's Eve in my household).

It's getting more complicated though...kids, dogs, so on and so on. It's nice, though, not going out anywhere and just playing games with some friends all night. We got a bunch of new Wii games for Christmas this year, gonna have to try them out tomorrow night.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!

Awww...nuts.

Random thoughts about something from a month ago...

So a few days after my birthday last month, there was this scare here at our house. Without getting into the details too much, I can say that it occurred to me that something wasn't quite right, physically speaking. And after about a half a day's consideration (and no shortage of just flat-out fear, to be honest) I finally called a doctor and made an appointment.

And again, dispensing with the details, I got forwarded from this initial doctor's visit along to another place to get some more information about the possible problem.

You see, something wasn't quite right about one of my twin boys, the beans, nuts...well...plenty of names for them. My immediate thought was "cancer" because so little else ever happens with those things, at least not anything you hear too much about. And there was definitely something there, just didn't quite know what it was yet.

Well I'll relieve any of you holding your breath at this point by saying that the doctors ruled out cancer. Good news. Great news, really.

But of course, it naturally got me into thinking...what if? You know, I've not had any major medical issue in my life. I broke my wrist once in 5th grade, but that's the only other time outside of being born that I had to spend any extended amount of time in the care of a doctor.

But all of a sudden, I'm thinking that something could happen to me. And really, I guess I never figured anything could. Not that I've always felt "invincible," just that I didn't think I had a target on me.

For those of you just hearing about this little episode for the first time, particularly those who might have expected to hear something about it from me personally rather than an Internet posting...well, I guess it's just not a real comfortable thing to talk about in the first place. In the second, I didn't like that moment of mortality that I felt, and perhaps reliving that brief emotion is just a little more than I wanted to deal with at the time.

For a whole 3 days while we waited for the doctors to give a final assessment, I kept finding myself occasionally distracted by thoughts...what would I do? What could I do? How do I have time to deal with something like this? Thankfully, I'm not in a position to consider such questions now, but the main takeaway for me has been a little bit more compassion for the multitudes of people around me and elsewhere who have found something like this becoming a major part of their life.

Oh, and about the actual problem...well, the doctors didn't figure out exactly what it is, just what it isn't. They ran some (extremely uncomfortable) tests, but in the end they prescribed me some medication and said it would probably not be an issue. So far it has proven to be true. Very happy about that one.

I had an accident

So I'm driving into Atlanta on Monday for the weekly Touchdown Club of Atlanta meeting. Tons of rain, traffic everywhere, slow going for the most part.

Caleb is normally in the car (drop off with grandma) but since it's Columbus Day, Hilary is at home and Caleb stays there for the day.

Driving our new(-er) car, the Saturn. Heading south on I-85, just a mile or so north of Spaghetti Junction. In one of the far left lanes.

Traffic in the right lanes is nearly stopped due to accident backing people up trying to access I-285. Guy driving a truck in the lane to my right decides my lane is moving quite quickly, decides to enter it in front of me. Tries to, anyway.

Slamming on the brakes, my car stops and gives his truck a big, fat high-five.

No airbags, no OnStar...not really a major accident. Just enough impact to freak everyone out and cause (what turns out to be) about $2,500 in damage to my car. Don't know about his car's damage. Don't know how much his citation ends up costing, either.

We get over, get out in the pouring rain in a flooded out emergency lane and trade insurance (yes, he has insurance!) and generally check everything out. Nobody's hurt (his kid in the car with him is okay, too). Police are called, arrive, assess and write up the report.

The guy is nice enough, very apologetic. Grateful for a nice guy hitting me.

Grateful for the nice part, not the hitting part.

His insurance company sets me up with the repairs and a rental car. Rental is set to be a comparable vehicle to my Saturn (an SUV). It's a 2010 Ford Edge. Nice enough car, but as it turns out, the interior and storage isn't really much more than our Toyota Corrolla. Considering a trade up in the next day or two.

Thankful for:

• No injuries
• Caleb not in the car
• Guy has insurance!
  
• Hilary telling me to drive the SUV (otherwise, I'd have been in the Corolla, and probably would have wound up underneath this guy's truck tires, assuming I could have even used the brakes with all my equipment loading down the car)
• Not my fault
• Having the awareness to not swerve around this guy into the lane to my left, where I would have been the one causing an accident
  
• Free rental
• Did I mention no injuries?

Told that the repairs would take a couple of weeks, will get my car back around November 2nd.

Hrm...definitely going to want to trade up to a bigger car.

Fall is Autumn is Fall

Cut to the chase....random thoughts on the seasons (and the current season)

I hear a lot of people say fall is their favorite time of year. When it's fall.

When it's spring/summer/winter, I hear the same thing (well, maybe not so much with winter). I enjoy all the seasons for what they are, but if I was asked to prioritize, it would be in this order:

1. Summer
2. Fall
3. Winter
4. Spring

So I know you're already calling B.S. on me, which is good, I probably deserve it most of the time.

BUT!

...I'm serious, winter is better than spring for me. Some pros/cons between winter and spring...

Winter - PROS

• Christmas time
• A chance of snow, which means a chance of not being able to leave the house or do anything (which can be refreshing)
• Getting to use the nice coats for a few weeks before they get mothballed again
• Family time, LOTS of family time during the winter months
• No yard work

Spring - PROS

• Warmer weather
• Pretty flowers

...and that's really it for me on spring. As for the cons...

Winter - CONS

• Cold...I mean, C-O-L-D. Even our mild Georgia winters are too much for me. Gimme the heat
• Lack of physical activity, sports (football's over, and basketball does nothing for me)

Spring - CONS

• Pollen
• Yard work
• House cleaning
• Pollen
• POLLEN!!
• YARD WORK!!!!

I think I've made my point.

But fall is now, fall is special. Pumpkins, leaves, football, Oktoberfest, camping, festivals, carnivals...plenty of things going on all the way into Thanksgiving, America's biggest food holiday.

Never mind that fall is when I tend to have the most business. For 2-3 years now, I've had limited business in the first half of the year and blowouts all during the fall months. Dunno why, but I guess there's something to be said about consistency.

Football...not a special year if you're a UGA fan like me. No matter, can't win 'em all, and even thought they're not one of the top games in the country this year, they're still playing good football. And even a bad day of football beats a day of working.

Oh yeah, since I never update my blog anymore, I should mention this....Hilary and I paid a visit to the bro-in-law Blake up in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend. Never been to Chicago before, but really a very nice town. Probably the nicest big metropolis style city you'll ever see. Makes it all the more interesting as to why Rio de Janeiro picked up the 2016 Olympics over Chicago. From what I know of Rio, it is everything that Chicago isn't (and I don't mean that in a good way). Not to be down on Rio, but it seemed like a strange choice. Guess we'll see how it plays out in about 7 years.

But Chicago...great town. Apparently every restaurant recommendation there is made based on whether or not President Obama has eaten there. Ask for a good pizza place, you'll be told about a place and then "...and Obama always eats there." Guess that's how it rolls when the POTUS is a hometown man.

Probably went the same way when Carter was in office and all those people went to tour Albany, GA. Oh, wait.....probably not.

Caleb is getting big. He's in like the 89th percentile on height. Runs everywhere, walks only when asked. Best part of it all....whenever he sees something red and black, or sees a UGA "G" logo, or really even a large G of any kind, he says "Georgia." Love it, now we gotta work on his passing skills.

Goodbye.

Poor choice of words...

Right now we're getting some work done at our house, general upkeep type stuff and a few "upgraded" items. So I've been contracting various professional tradesmen for the tasks at hand. One in particular just seems to have every warning sign going off, and yesterday was really sort of the end of the line.

THE SETUP

So I came across this guy as a referral from one of the other contractors who was providing an estimate on a related job. I gave him a call, and he came out and talked over everything for a little bit then left. I was told I'd have an estimate in an hour or two, but didn't hear back until the next day. His wife had a c-section the next morning and so obviously he'd been busy that day with the birth of his 2nd child. As heartless as it may sound though, I still didn't know why he hadn't shot me an e-mail after leaving my house, so instead I'm waiting a little longer. He mentioned he had his laptop at the hospital and he'd get me the estimate in a day or two.

THE DELAY

....or 3, or 4 or 5. Okay, so who knows what sort of fun birth-related things he was dealing with, but it took a while longer and another e-mail from me before I got a quote (and not a formal quote, but just whatever he had time to put together real quick). Regardless, I finally got some numbers about a week and a half ago. Everything looked okay, but he was still unable to provide proof of insurance at this time (a standard request for any general contractor). I'm told he'll get something sent off in an e-mail that night or early next day.

....or 3 or 4 days or so. Okay, I finally hear back from him a few days later, and he says he'll get the insurance info over to me sometime Monday morning, and he'll be here after lunch on Monday.

THE FAIL

....or not. I'm waiting all day, got all the furniture moved out and around so he can do his work, and when I don't hear from him, I give him a call about a quarter to 3pm yesterday. "Where ya at? What's going on?" Well, turns out he doesn't have insurance, he "forgot" to renew it, and he's working on getting it reinstated but it will be a day or two. Or three. Maybe next week. Why he didn't bother calling? Oh, he says he sent me an e-mail about 30 minutes earlier (it was 15 minutes). I let him know that a phone call is pretty normal when you're going to be late, or if you're cancelling the job...especially if it's already a few hours after start time.

Oh, another thing to note...the project he's doing must be completed before some other little jobs are done, so we're rescheduling these other guys all the time to accomodate this guy. He knows this, but still continues to push things back for what turns out to be no good reason.

THE CHANGE OF PLANS

So we have our phone conversation, he apologizes, gives excuses, and I cut him off. I let him know in a genuinely nice yet short way that this is all unacceptable. We leave it that we'll try to get something decided the next day (seriously giving this guy the benefit of the doubt) and that's that. Meanwhile, I spend a couple of hours finding other contractors who can come out and give an estimate and maybe get this stuff done. I find a good one, they come out, quote the job (for less money, I might add) and say they'll start work next day (an hour or so from now, in fact).

THE NOTIFICATION

So I shoot the original guy a phone call, he doesn't answer (per usual) and I leave a message saying another guy is coming to do the work, and I'll keep him posted on some other potential projects we had discussed. I apologized that it hadn't worked out, circumstances between us being what they were, and said no hard feelings, we'll try again next time. Am I a nice guy or what?

THE STUPIDITY

So with all my accomodation and niceties with this fellow, here's the e-mail (not phone call) he sends me a short while later. I've added my comments for your reading pleasure.....

"I got your message and was disappointd to hear this information. I felt that I made a promise to you (now your promises mean something?) to have the work finished tomorrow and it was left at that. But no hard feelings. Just for future reference it may be helpful not to ask for so many prejob requirements (beggin' your pardon, ma'am???). If it had not been for this (the request for proof of his insurance) your job could have been completed over this past weekend (...except the plan was to do it many days before then). I know you are just trying to play it safe (let's refer to it as "due diligence," shall we?) but I only have one in fifty customers ask for insurance (good to know that I am more intelligent and better prepared than 98% of your customers). References though are a more common request (and less useful in the event of a job site disaster). Anyways, I can still do the other work but unfortunatley I can not offer the same price (perhaps he feels that I am due a discount for my troubles...?). My initial estimate was more of a package price and since we have already cut that back quite a bit along with this additional work not being done I simply cannot do the other work for those prices (hrm....maybe he's NOT thinking of a discount.....). If you would like for me to requote the remaining items please let me know. Good luck tomorrow (can't be much worse, can it?)."

THE FINAL ASSESSMENT

Okay, so I had plenty of red flags and should have cut this guy out long ago, but I just felt like giving him a shot. As for his lack of business saavy...well, a lot of skilled tradesmen are excellent workers and horrible businessmen, so nothing new there. But this guy is either just having a really bad month, or he has an amazing combination of poor communication, lack of respect and failure to respond to customer requests. Regardless, anybody should know better than to tell a client that he asked too much. If I asked too much of you, dear sir, then why didn't you tell me so sometime before the job was supposed to begin? It is not my position to know what you are and are not capable of doing, it is your position to tell me. If I am too picky of a client for you, then either charge me more for your troubles or decline the work.

I did send a response to his message, but I still remained pretty upbeat with him. I told him where his train ran off the tracks, but I didn't nail him to the wall (which I probably should have). Oh well.

I guess I'll let you know how the next guy turns out....

Slo-mo Weddings?? Enough already...

Quick rant...something I've noticed more and more, but never ceases to amaze me.

I do a fair amount of wedding videography with my company, and I'm always comparing my work against that of my peers. I almost always learn a new trick or technique by doing this, and it's sort of a community-share thing. Everyone feels good.

However, am I the ONLY wedding videographer that DOESN'T use slow motion throughout the wedding video? It seems like everything I see is these slow motion, soft focus, vignette montages that last 3-5 minutes. To me, it seems fake, like you tried to make these people MORE in love than they actually were. And it's pretty boring to watch more than once.

I can see the value for a couple of shots here and there, but it's like sometimes that's all these guys know. Seriously, there are more ways to imply "romance" and "love" than to just make everything look like a dream sequence.

Sorry if I'm stepping on some toes here (you guys know who you are, I still love y'all). But seriously...I just can't do it. Slow motion - to me - is an effect. It works best in moderation. Just be a professional, shoot dramatic footage, get interesting shots and let the people and the activities tell the story. Right?

Maybe my journalistic tendencies are coming through too strongly here, but I dunno...just seems ridiculous to me.

Anyway...sorry about that. Just had to say it.

Oops!

Well that was interesting.

I log onto a website earlier today to place an order and lo and behold, what appears under my account information but HUNDREDS of recent customer orders for this company.

Now here's the thing...web pages get crisscrossed on a company site from time to time, but seems that the ONE thing you'd be sure never gets mixed up is private customer information. Identity theft and what have you.

Needless to say (I would hope), I notified the company that I could see all their customer accounts on my computer screen, and it's a good thing for them that I'm not the kind of person who uses that information for fraud and theft and so on.

But it got me thinking...do I really want to be putting my information on a company's server when I have just witnessed a fairly severe failure in their site's security?

Me thinks not. Time to shop elsewhere.

10 Years? Really?

Well, as most of you probably are NOT aware, it was 10 years ago on this very night that my band Slow Children At Play had our very first album release party. We entered our names into that small town's musical history that night.

It was kind of a big deal. Indeed, this was still a time that digital recording studios were not quite so prevalent along the ranks of the lower class. No, digital audio recording was a realm still very much reserved for those more popular recording artists with record contracts and such. We recorded in a studio on giant audio reel-to-reels (still got 'em, too) just like they'd been doing for decades. And printing an album to CD was rather pricey at the time, too. We took a big risk on a bunch of copies, and only a fistful of the original press remains in my possession today.

The Internet wasn't in use the same way it is today, either. MP3 compression was just becoming widespread, and promotion for our music on the web was just not nearly as straightforward when we released that album as it is today.

As difficult as all that technical crap was, we got off a pretty good set of songs on that album, and played 'em all (and then some) in front of a crapload of the local youth on that one awesome night. Played in front of a bunch of old folks, too. My grandpa was even there...only show he ever saw us play (and no, he's not dead, not even 10 years later here...he just didn't really need to go to many shows when we were rocking out at the house once a week anyway...plus, wasn't really his style).

We had plenty of awesome shows after that, but going on stage with the merch booth stocked full of your album for everyone to take home made us feel like we'd arrived somehow. All around town, it seemed we'd hear our stuff on the radios as people drove by now and then, see our t-shirts, and then later on, even hear it on MTV. What the crap?? Glory days, my friends.

If you were there, you know it was the real deal that night. "Los Nueve Amigos," the men of SCAP. Cheers fellas, let's do it again sometime.

(P.S. - I linked to our MySpace page up at the top, but our main site is http://www.scapmusic.com if you're interested. Not a lot of action at either spot these days)

I am NOT...

...a guitar hero, but I play one on TV (er, well, not really).

...addicted to shopahol, but I do like buying stuff.

...ready to admit that I'm a "grown up," even though my son calls me Dad.

...a complete narcissist, even though I'd certainly be justified if I was.

...likely to ever bother trying shrimp again, since they're basically the bottom-feeding, scum-sucking cockroaches of the sea. Bon appetit!

...trying to start a new Facebook note-posting trend with this thing.

...a lesbian, because I'm a dude...but I dig chicks anyway.

...unemployed, even though nobody else can claim me as their employee.

...interested in causing physical harm to anybody, but if someone breaks into my house while I'm here, they won't get much chance to explain themselves before I try to introduce them to God the hard way.

...a hyphenated U.S. citizen.

...thinking about moving, and wondering if/when/how. Nope, not at all.

...a real mean guy most of the time...but I can be a jerk every now and then. Watch out fellas.

...a fan of movies, generally speaking, but I love a good comedy or action film.

...going to put off getting started with the day to think up more witty garbage to list here.

My Testimony in Long Form - Part II

Alrighty, here's Part II, almost a month to the day. If you're just tuning in, I'm just basically spilling my guts about how I got to where I am today and explaining where that is exactly. If you missed the first part, maybe read that one first and get up to speed. Or don't, I don't own you.

THE CHURCH, THE BAND AND THE END OF HIGH SCHOOL (continued...)

As I was sitting there waiting for this whole thing to wrap up so we could go rock out on some real music, the director asks me if I want to join them. I (of course) said, "no." A couple of the other folks tried to prod me into going and singing, then Eric explained to me that I could grab the bass, since the usual guy wasn't there that night (Don, another guy I got to know real well through jamming out in the garage and later on with SCAP). Well that was a horse of a different color, I rarely played bass but always wanted to play more, so it just worked out that there I was up on the altar playing. I don't remember the song exactly, but it was just kind of fun to improvise a bass line even if the song was nothing worth hearing. We did one or two more songs then wrapped it up.

On the way out, Eric and the director were talking about how they needed another guitarist to handle lead, and my ego just about blew up all over the pews. They wanted ME (sound unheard, more or less) to handle lead guitar duties. Well sure. I mean, I'm freaking awesome, I'm sure I can handle a few church ditties. Once in a while. And to add the icing on the cake, they tell me the youth choir is taking a trip to NYC in June and I'd get to go along. SOLD. I'd never been to NYC, always wanted to go, my friend Eric (and some other cool aces I'd met that night) were going, so why not?

While the trip was totally rad, that's not where we're headed with this story. The next couple of years had me becoming more and more a part of that church (I actually left my family's church and joined this one...how weird is THAT for a teenager?) and becoming a Christian again, but really in a whole new way this time. During the rest of high school I still did plenty with my music, eventually forming the world's greatest band with Eric and some other folks. We will go down in history as one of the most listened to yet unbearable acts to originate in the small town of Peachtree City (I'm of course referring to SCAP again, but you already knew that). The various strange people and scenarios I continued to encounter through SCAP made me go through tough decisions once in a while that challenged me to pick one road or the other. I didn't always make the right choices but that's neither here nor there...the heart had changed, and the rest of me just had to catch up to it sooner or later.

So yeah, I grew in my faith throughout high school, but never anything truly world-changing...small scale really, but everything seemed huge at the time when I had to toss aside so many things I was doing and pull a full reverse if I was going to stay true to my own intentions.

And don't get me wrong here...I count Eric as one of the people who were instrumental in turning my life back to God, but he wasn't like my "spiritual leader" or something. I don't think Eric ever had the direct intention of getting me involved with his family's church, or helping me reach some higher plane of existence, but that's how it all worked out. I've found it more and more interesting throughout the years to see how people who never intended to strengthen my faith helped me do exactly that nonetheless. Some people asked questions, made comments or did something that made my pea-sized brain think about my faith in one way or another. Without all of these seemingly random people, I likely wouldn't be where I was then or where I am now.

Also, don't get the idea that I was all that great of a Christian in high school after that big turn around point. The wheels had fallen off the wagon, so to speak, and it took a lot of effort on my part and the part of others to help me really find my way. It took a few years. In fact, although I'll never be at the point in my faith where I really want to be (at least in this lifetime), I do feel like I finally arrived at a good spot while in college, sometime around my 2nd year in school at UGA.

COLLEGE LIFE, THE GIRL AND THE END OF THE BAND

In my first year at UGA, we ended up swapping out our bass player Don for a guy we'd known in high school, Graham. Graham wasn't actually a bass player, but he played guitar and was always up for playing with the band, so it worked out that way. Graham ended up moving into the Skapartment (yes, that's what we called our apartment, combo of ska+apartment for those a little slow on the uptake). Graham sort of wandered into his faith along similar lines, but he had matured in it in a way that was leaps and bounds above my level of understanding and practice.

I never ended up doing a whole lot of churchy stuff while in college (all the groups seemed more like social clubs anyways, plus I was too busy with school and playing and practicing with SCAP to get much involved). Graham and I had dozens of good conversations over our years there though, and it might have been more useful than any of the sermons or books I'd run into up to that point anyway. It was real, it was very personal stuff that I could run with. And of course in college, things like politics, religion and social issues get discussed all the time all across campus. So I started to get a better feel for what the faith was all about in the real world, how I had to practice it if I was going to bother with it at all, and how I needed to start applying it to my life.

Now let's back up a bit. In my first year of college I started dating my wife-to-be Hilary. She was at another school, but we had kinda/sorta met when we were in high school (as in, we really basically met after graduation at a party right before everyone went off to college). We exchanged e-mail addresses because that's what people were doing, but nothing really came of it for quite a while. Then it all started coming together and - boom - we were dating.

She was pretty strong-minded in her faith. I'm not sure I'd say she was at a higher level, but she was definitely more committed to it, whereas I occasionally still had these creeping doubts. Also, where I typically lapsed in my practice of Christianity on a weekly basis, she was like a rock, unmovable and unshakable in her faith, however matured it may have been. I give her the most credit for bringing me to where I am in my faith today, nearly 9 years after we started dating.

We eventually got engaged, got married and the rest is history (or at least not relevant for this story, not yet anyway). It should be noted, however, that as I got more serious about marriage, and more serious about life after college, it occurred to me that the band just might not be playing a big role in my life pretty soon. As it turns out, we never formally split, but we also haven't played a show together in the last 5 years since I graduated from UGA. I've written a couple of songs, practiced a few times, but that's it. We still keep in touch though (and apparently people still buy our albums because we're almost out of them now).

So as we continued dating, Hilary and I bounced all kinds of questions off of each other, just like any kind of serious couple might do. After getting engaged, those questions got more serious as we prepared to spend the rest of our lives together. We learned some things about each other and grew in faith together. I'd say that by the time we got married, we were about 18% prepared (I kid, I kid...seriously, we were just about as ready as any couple could be, but you never stop learning new things together no matter how long you stay with a person). That foundation made the next stages of life much more meaningful, and certainly more bearable.

MARRIED LIFE AND KEEPING THE FAITH

People have a lot of good and bad things to say about marriage, and I would say that for the most part, what you hear on both sides is usually true. You have a great friend, but you argue about a bunch of different things because you care about one another so much. There are days you wish never ended, and some days where you go to bed early because it's just that kind of a day. I would say that for me, it'll never be a decision that I regret, and absolutely never something I'll renege on.

One great thing for me has been the opportunity to have another like-minded person to discuss matters of faith regularly, keep me in check and help me grow. In fact, I'd say that the last 2 or 3 years have seen the highest growth of my faith in my entire life. All the time I feel like I'm learning something new, renewing myself and become just an overall better person.

This much is true, though...the higher I keep setting the bar, the harder it feels every time I fall. I still never make the right choices all the time, and I don't always practice what I preach. But unlike earlier years where I was willing to accept a high level of failure on my own part to "practice what I preach," these days I feel a lot less inclined to accept my own shortcomings because I want to keep moving forward at all times, and never backward.

With the birth of my son Caleb last year, I want to be able to set the best possible example, be the one who can answer the tough questions for him and never have to say "I'm sorry" when I fail to meet the standards we will set for him. I guess it's like any athlete who trains harder and harder to meet a certain goal. If you skip your practice regimen once or twice in a row, you really feel that the next time you get back into it, and you definitely feel less than impressed with yourself for being so lazy.

In a way, I almost feel like everything in life is suddenly in 2nd place to my family. I know that's probably how it should be for the most part. I feel like everything I am and have become is about walking with God. Everyone knows those WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) things that were everywhere a few years ago. It was kind of a strange trend. Anyway, I feel like that's somewhat how I approach life now. Not about what to do specifically, but how to live. I may never be the best musician, the best videographer, or the best anything else. If I can be the best father, husband, brother, son and friend to all the people I know, then I'll take that any day.

CONCLUSION (and you thought it would never end)

And that's really what it boils down to for me. The people in my life everyday, the people I have always known and the people I meet throughout the remainder of my existence on this planet, however long or short. I find that I've never really "been there" for all that many people. I haven't always cared the way I ought to, the way someone who claims to follow God and Christ should care about people. It starts with my family, but it never ends there and never ends at all until I'm gone.

Even though I'm not where I feel I could be and should be today, I feel good to be able to look back on what I've done in my walk of faith these past 10-15 years. My faith has carried me to some interesting answers about life, the world and everything around us in this universe. I learn seemingly amazing things on a regular basis now.

I feel like my next big steps are to take everything that I've learned and make more of it in life. I need to be more giving of my time, energy and resources. I need to be there for people in prayer when they're going through life's tough times. I need to actually do more of what I say I'm going to do. And since I've told everyone (who reads this blog) what my intentions are, hopefully that will only make me more accountable to my own words.

So there you have it. It wasn't much of a reader, but hopefully you found some meaning for yourself, or at the very least, you feel like you know me a little better now. It's not the world's most ground-shaking human tale, but I still feel surprised some days that I made it out of a few rough years alive, quite literally. I know that my life would be drastically different today if it weren't for that one evening that a friend simply needed me to pick him up and drive him home, and to know that a single ordinary action can be so pivotal makes me that much more aware of every decision I make and every word I speak.

AFTERTHOUGHT

I thought about including various quotes and Bible verses and other stuff like that throughout these two posts. Some of the things that people have told me over the years, or things I've heard people say, or things that I've read in the Bible or in other books have really had a big impact on me. I didn't include them because that's not really what this was all about, but I'd be glad to talk it up with anybody anytime. I could probably make an entire blog out of those things alone, so to save you a little bit of reading here I just decided to omit them.

A final note and then I'm out...most true "testimonies" are much more succinct, much more focused and generally intended to get people to consider Christian salvation. My testimony had a lot more biography than your average testimony (probably because I'm horrible at brevity). Hopefully you ARE inspired after reading this. Hopefully I've said something that you needed to hear (or read). If you found these posts at all interesting or inspiring (or even if you think this is all B.S. and I'm full of crap), please send me an e-mail or something and let me know.

25 Things (Facebook thing)

Okay, here's 25 things...

7) I like random things, like starting a list out of order

2) I never took a guitar lesson until I got to college and majored in classical guitar, I just learned to play by listening to the radio and CDs and trying to figure out where the notes were (my instructor recognized this fact immediately...)

3) I clean the shower in the nude

4) I have been drinking coffee since I was very very young. Seriously, my grandma put some coffee and milk in a bottle with some sugar. I now wake up with about 2 cups every day.

5) I've never had a cavity or any other dental problem.

6) Speaking of teeth, on the same day I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled, I was eating pizza for dinner that night. I had hot wings for lunch the next day. None of that was a good idea.

1) I don't think #1 always has to be the first.

8) A lot of the clothes I wear are the same stuff I had throughout college (and in some rare cases, also high school). This isn't so much because I'm "thrifty," I'm just unimaginative when it comes to clothes.

9) I have been going to Georgia Bulldog football games since before I can remember, as my grandfather has had tickets for about 50 years. We've also had the same tailgate spot for about as long as people have been tailgating at UGA.

10) I'm very good at reading maps, and I have a good internal compass. Thank you Boy Scouts.

11) Doritos are my all-time fave junk food...Spicy Nacho. When I was about 9 years old, I took my birthday money one time and bought a "Super/Family" size bag of Doritos. Money well spent.

12) I prefer to write the IRS a check on April 15th. I very much dislike getting a huge refund (and I shouldn't have to explain that one). My wife feels very differently about this.

13) When I was a kid (up until about age 12), I really planned to be an astronaut. Then I started playing guitar. Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to, right?

14) I'm a European-American (in the modern interpretation).

15) I use sarcasm in almost all aspects of my social interactions. Sometimes it's even appropriate. Most people tell me they can't tell when I'm serious anymore. Seriously.

16) When I was a kid, I wanted to visit Wisconsin and eat cheese.

17) I have a mild fear of heights, but a real aversion to flying. I've been on only 5 trips via airplane in my life.

18) I've never been further west than Texas, and have left the US only once (honeymoon to Jamaica).

19) One night in college, Eric and I saw this infomercial for some crazy pen set that could pierce an aluminum can, or go through a stack of papers without being damaged. For some reason that was awesome and we bought two of them. Worst pens I've ever used...almost no ink, although it spilled whatever ink it had all over whatever you were writing on. Penalli Pen Set, the pens made by Satan.

20) I got two speeding tickets in the speed trap capital of the world, Tyrone, GA. I was only speeding the first time (honest!), the second time I was going 10 under (honest!). At any rate, I was so fed up I just drove way around the city of Tyrone on the way to Peachtree City for almost 2 years just to avoid getting pulled over again in that crappy-crap-crap town (if you live there, sorry).

21) For Gwam's birthday in college, the rest of us got him a pretty pink cake with flowers that said "Happy Gay Birthday! We HATE You!" The cake lady at Kroger was pretty confused.

22) The instruments I have played over the years...song flute, trumpet/cornet/bugle, guitar, bass guitar, french horn, ukulele, drums/percussion.

23) Over the course of my 28 years, I have spent over 60 weeks at a beach, mostly on the Georgia coast (over a year's worth of my life). Surprisingly, it hasn't been enough.

24) I eat kid cereals...Cap'n Crunch, Froot Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, etc. I like Raisin Bran and Honey Bunches of Oats and Frosted Mini Wheats pretty well, but those are still fairly borderline. Grape Nuts and all that kind of stuff is for grown ups, and I most certainly am not "grown up."

25) I can make myself look very pregnant/fat. I have repeatedly fooled the weight guy at the carnival, getting him to guess me at around 210-220 (actual weight is more like 165-175). I am proud of this. My bro-in-law Blake can do the same thing, and we are both quite happy to show it off. In a related bit of info, the carny guy usually will guess me about 8-10 years younger as well. The Froot Loops must be keeping me young.

New Prez

Interrupting the testimonial for a moment here...don't worry, I'm almost done with part 2 and it'll be up soon.

In the meantime, I thought I'd lay my thoughts out there on the president-in-waiting, Barack Obama.

Whoa, just noticed that spell check didn't care for "Barack Obama" at all.

Most people who know me know that I didn't vote for Barack Obama. As for who I did give my vote to, I'm not going to tell you (not in this blog, anyway). Ideologically, I consider myself a libertarian. Freedom is my big poll issue, and I generally plan to vote for the candidate who promises me the most freedom. Freedom from oppression, freedom from government interference in my life, freedom to be whatever I want to try to be.

All that being said, I still respect the man. He's about to be our president, one of only 44 that we've ever had. It's historic in and of itself. Also, he's our first black president (yeah, I know...only "half black," but still). That's historic as well. And I believe he's a very smart man, capable of being president - even if I don't think he's the best option we had.

I also recognize that for black people living in America, this is huge. The older generations have a lot to celebrate here, much more than recent generations. They lived through racial division that far exceeds anything that people my age can really, truly comprehend.

I'll sum it all up here. He's not the president I voted for, but he is still MY president. He may not be the best guy for the job, but he is the one who has the job. I'm a citizen of the United States and as such, I wish MY president the best, most successful presidency possible. I pray that he will be a good president and that he will avoid harm while acting out his duties.

Best of luck to our incoming president.

My Testimony in Long Form

Sorry to have led such a build-up of anticipation to this post (or series of posts, as it turns out). It is exciting - at least for me - and hopefully it will be exciting for you. I was hoping to have it out for you all a couple of weeks ago or even sooner, but Christmas, a baby boy and some weird stomach virus all got in the way of speedy blogging.

The first part is done and I've edited it down as best as I could, so here you have it.

MY TESTIMONY

You may or may not be familiar with what this terminology implies. Obviously there are legal implications (testifying before a judge or court of witnesses). Although I accept an application of law for the purposes of this post, my intended meaning is of a much higher law than that which governs borders, property, ideas and citizens. My Christian testimony is my story of my faith...where it came from, where it's been and where it is now.

Now I will admit...as strong as my conviction is on my own faith, it still feels difficult to share it, with individuals or broadly (as in, blogging like this). It can change things...people act like you're a teacher in the room, and they apologize if they swear or tell a joke that involves Jesus, or pretend to be someone that THEY are not because they don't want to offend you. At the very least, it makes everyone involved uncomfortable. And hey, don't we all just want to be able to relax and be comfortable around each other? Well, yeah. So at the risk of alienating people who maybe didn't know who I was, even perhaps because I've never shown it very well, I'm just going to lay it out here once and for all.

I will admit this...I know that not everyone shares my view on these matters. I'm not going to be spending a lot of time trying to prove the facts about what I believe. I'm only writing this to tell you who I am, not to try to convince anybody of anything I believe. I know that there is plenty to discuss about the validity of my faith, but what cannot be debated is the impact of my own beliefs on my day-to-day life, my family and friends and my own satisfaction with life come good or bad. So this is my explanation of that impact, as best as I can make it out.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Some of you may hear my name spoken or see it written and not really think about it too much. There are lots of people with religious-sounding names, and not everyone necessarily believes the meaning of their name as it was intended by their parents. I have always gone by my full name "Christian," and never Chris (since Chris is short for "Christopher" and at best, "Christ" is short for "Christian." But I digress). I have sometimes, but not often, corrected people who chose to call me Chris, because it's not my name.

In my opinion, I have been fortunate to have a name such as Christian, because it has served me well as a constant reminder of who I am, or who I should be at least.

Since my name is shared with my faith, I guess it all really started at birth for me. But for better clarification....

HOW IT STARTED

My family on both parents' sides - going back to at least the generations I have known - identified themselves with the Christian faith. It's how they were raised, and it's how they intended to raise me. I am one of 5 children in my family (the middle one) and so that's a whole lot of work at any rate, let alone trying to do 'em all right by any standard. My parents had good help as we all grew up, because their parents were just down the street, across the street or in the same house (later on).

As a kid, I'd go to church, Sunday school, summer programs, and whatever else they dragged me to. I don't remember liking it all very much, and I really didn't like wearing that clip on tie and those uncomfortable shoes. But I learned things that I still keep with me to this day about not only my faith, but also just how you treat others and how you respect the world around you. Nonetheless, I found myself at around age 12 or 13 (surprise surprise) looking for inspiration elsewhere. I'm not sure if I was just bored with the churchin' thing, or if I was just looking to do anything but what was allowed by my parents and society. I think a big thing for me was that I started to become aware of all these freakin' hypocrites around me at the church. Everyone had nice things to say and do on Sunday morning, but some of these folks weren't exactly full of God the rest of the week. The last thing I wanted was to be tied in with any of them.

THE GREAT AMERICAN TEENAGE EXPERIENCE

Around this time, I started questioning my beliefs, my parents' beliefs...all those things I had been taught. Was it for real? Did it matter? Even still, did I care if it was all real or not, or did I really care if it mattered? As strange as it feels to acknowledge it now, there was even a period there where I decided that there was no God, no heaven or hell and really no point in being or doing anything that I didn't want to be or do. That mentality carried me some scary places over the next few years that I am not bold enough to divulge in this post, stuff that I've almost never discussed with anyone else. Suffice it to say that it took a long time to fully recover from it and it still sits on my brain to this day.

The general assessment of my life in those years...I had my own new agenda, my new priorities and a bunch of new ideas on how I was going to get along in life. Screw that old crap, time to do my own thing.

I wound up with friends and activities that were not in line with who I was raised to be, and could have gotten into more trouble if those friends hadn't found their own ways to disappear from the spotlight. Sometimes I wonder where all those people went. Every now and then I'm pleasantly surprised upon running into one of them again. Other times, not so pleasantly surprised.

A LITTLE BIT LATER

If I had to narrow it down to a single year, I'd have to make it 1996. I was finishing my freshman year in high school and going into my sophomore year. Because of the way the school district lines were drawn, I ended up in a largely brand-new pool of people when I got to high school. So for better or for worse, I had to make all new friends. I don't remember liking it a whole lot, and while I realize now that it was just the sort of shakeup I needed, at the time it only made me feel more and more like keeping my own way of doing things intact. I'd categorize myself at this time in my life as introverted, selfish and angry.

Everyone has their regrets, or things they would have changed about their lives. I'm not sure if I'd change it or not, but I can definitely call that period of my life regrettable. Even as I can recognize how brief a period it was, and how long ago it was, it still ripples through and all the things I went through then still impact me today.

It had an amazing impact on my music skills. I'd been playing guitar on my own for a few years by now, and all that time being alone listening to music, playing by ear and learning new stuff made me a much better musician, but the music was hardly anything positive - mostly metal, hardcore punk, and a handful of mainstream things in there as well. But at the very least, it did make me realize for the first time in my life that I had a skill that I could actually use...I mean, being a musician was something, even if it wasn't a doctor or lawyer, right? Previously I'd wondered if I'd ever manage any kind of life after I got out of high school....maybe the grocery store would make me a lifetime cashier? Yay!

Long story short, I ended up meeting lots of new people through music...in the school band programs and the garages and bedrooms and basements of Peachtree City. I started to make a list years ago of all the different people I've ever played guitar with. There were lots of folks, a good few who are probably reading this now. Now most of these people had little to no real long-term impact on my life. Some of them only brought me further away from that faith of my childhood, and others were effectively neutral...just people you hang out with, have fun, nothing major. Just regular old like-minded people I was friends with.

THE CHURCH, THE BAND AND THE END OF HIGH SCHOOL

I had started playing with Eric Henson (drummer later on for SCAP, but then, you already knew that). His parents had more or less forced him to play drums with their church's youth band, and we were gonna get together and play some stuff later on this one Sunday night in late 1996. Mostly we played Smashing Pumpkins songs, because that was Eric's strong point on the drums, but since I sucked at all those songs, we ended up playing Green Day, Nirvana, Metallica, Offspring and a couple of other songs that we both knew in those days.

At any rate, I had a driver's license and a car that my older brother Ryan and I shared, so I was gonna pick him up and drive well within the posted speed limit back to his house to play for the night. I got there a little bit early to Eric's church (Peachtree City United Methodist Church). When I came in, they were still practicing with the youth choir so I just sat down and listened for a bit while they finished up. Honestly, the music they were playing was crap...to me, at least. It was that adult-contempo stuff that gave Christian music such a bad rap in the 80's and 90's. I still wouldn't listen to it today, it's just so hokey and....well, just not my stuff. Regardless, there I was, watching Eric ham it up on the drums and play way louder than the director intended, while the choir sang this sappy-crappy song.

What happened next was one of those kinds of moments you see in a movie, where the plot turns to a point where there's no going back. It was so much of an unusual feeling that I still remember it today and still recall it being a major turnaround point in my life.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Trying to be myself....whoever that is.

Okay, so this is going to be a strange post...I don't quite know yet what I'm going to say.

I like to feel like I'm real honest with people, you know? I like to think people know the real me. What with Facebook, the blogs, pictures on the web, etc etc...it just seems like there's not really any secret about me that people don't know.

Call it a spiritual crisis, inner turmoil, repressed emotions. Call it something else, I don't really know exactly what it is.

All I know is that suddenly I'm looking at this blog as the couch, and you people who are reading this are the psychiatrist in the chair with the notepad, going "mmm hrm...I see."

So hear me out. I think I'm going to force out a post or two here in the coming week(s) and see if I can tell you people who I really am...or at the very least, the person I attempt to be on most occasions.

When I figure out exactly what it is I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it, it'll be up here for ya. How's that for transparency?

Marketing

I like to pretend that people still read my blog. It's actually quite liberating to know that it isn't the case, though...I can type whatever I want, no need to read over it or edit, just post it. Too long? Oh well. Too brief? Hasn't happened yet...

Well, since UGA football isn't worth talking about, I'll move on to something else for this post. And it's not exciting, really (hence, the title of this post). So...you've been warned.

I have all my computers running Windows Vista. You know, Vista...that thing that is absolute crap...it sucks. I'm sure you've heard of it.

Anyway, I've been thinking about product marketing as a result of this Vista upgrade of mine. People almost always expect the next version of something to be better than the previous and current versions. The marketing for products usually feeds off of that eagerness for improvement. So when people's expectations - however inflated - are not met, it makes us go crazy.

High definition discs (Blu-Ray and the now-defunct HD DVD) have been disappointments. The video quality is there, but it's not really the big leap that VHS > DVD was.

The Mac vs. PC stuff has raged on for a long time, and it only got more entertaining with the TV ads that had the dorky PC guy and the fun, young Mac guy. Then Vista came out and Apple had a field day.

Every single product manufacturer - no matter what they make - has a tendency to fall short of expectations, make mistakes and generally fail in one or more areas. Knowing which areas and how the failures work can be a real benefit to the end user, however, as we can use that knowledge to keep on keepin' on.

I moved to Vista because - based on my own research - I was pretty sure it would be better than my old XP setup. So, long story short - HOLY CRAP. My video editing machine is blazing fast now, and all I did was change to that poorly marketed, formerly bug-ridden piece of software called Vista.

No more details here (I mean, if you really want to know what's happening, you can e-mail me and I'll explain) but it's hard to admit that poor and negative marketing has so successfully tanked a product that works so well for me. And if it works for me....well, aren't there probably at least a few others?

Marketing is powerful...it can make and shape the nature of discussions. Marketing points can even become substitutes for real-world facts and figures as people quote advertising rather than results.

It's not just product marketing, either...just look to our recent presidential election for an example. Obama won the marketing war, and won the White House as a result (whether or not it's right is irrelevant...it happened nonetheless).

Sometimes the marketing is just a simple shouting match. The louder and/or more persistent party wins. That's probably more likely the cause of the recent Mac/PC stuff regarding Vista. Microsoft made mistakes and then buried their head. Apple poked fun at them and Microsoft took over a year to fight back. All the while, Apple's ads got funnier, more pointed and aggressive.

So is it fair, that a product (that is perhaps better in many ways) loses ground simply because the marketing was bad? I would argue "yes."

Opinions drive the swiping of the credit card, and if you win the opinion, you win the purchase. Failure to win opinions is a failure in total, unfortunately.

So I feel like a bit of an outsider using Vista and being all satisfied about it, but facts are facts. Microsoft blew it, and as a result, many people will never be able to take advantage of a good product because they will never take the chance on something that so many advertisements said was laughable.

SIDE NOTE - Many of the "expert" end-users out there do agree that Vista isn't as bad as originally thought, but all concede the point on marketing. It's generally agreed that Microsoft's PR caused this failure more than any bugs or missing features ever could have. So these "experts" agree that Vista is a generally useful product but there is about 0% chance you will find them all spending their time and money trying to save Microsoft's butt on this one. That's one lonely kid playing all by himself on the playground.

Falling

So it's fall, which is nice. What's it mean?

- Hayrides
- Pumpkin patches
- Camping
- Mountain trips to see the leaves change
- Football!!
- Cooler weather
- Shorter days

It's all good stuff...I prefer the heat of summer (honestly, I like it hot) but the fall season has all those great things to offer. This weekend offers a fall favorite for our group up in Helen, GA at Oktoberfest. The grandparents are watching the kids, so the Garlands and Eric and Emily will be joining us for a weekend of camping, chicken dancing and drinking beer. Weather is supposed to dip up in the mountains to a cool lower 40's to upper 30's overnight, with highs only in the 60's during the day (somehow that always seems to happen the weekend of Oktoberfest).

Skipping the UGA vs. Vandy homecoming game. It's never fun...either the game is a blowout for UGA (snooze...) or it's a tight "exciting" game. Exciting isn't good when you're playing Vandy. So either way, I just hope for the W and go on about my business.

GA/FL game is just 2 short weeks away. My grandfather, my father, my uncle, my cousin and I all make the trip each year as a sort of "guys retreat," and it's usually very relaxing. Then game day comes along and it's full speed ahead in Jacksonville, FL where UGA has the recent win from last year, but a more troubled past of losses against the Gators. Still a lot of fun at that game (just more fun to win, obviously).

After 27/28 years, you wouldn't think it would be surprising, but it is strange to see the sun disappear over the horizon before 8pm. And then winter comes along and it's even earlier. Give me the long days of summer anytime.

I'm curious what kind of stuff you readers out there do with your fall months (if there are any of you left after all these years). Any kind of trips that you take? Things on your fall "to-do" list this year?

I lost the bet

Well, as many of you have already noticed, I lost a recent bet. Georgia and Alabama played a football game this past Saturday in Athens that was supposed to be the biggest game in the past 20 or so years for Georgia. SEC championship and BCS National Championship all on the line in this early season matchup of top 10 teams.

I had seen Georgia and Alabama play every single game so far this season, and both looked very good, but my bet was that Georgia was going to win. Not just win, but win big.

Well, at stake between my friend David and I was that time honored act of making your Facebook profile picture and Facebook status a complete and total reflection of who you are, what you are all about, what you were up to recently, how incredibly awesome you are. David, being a Bama fan, felt perhaps as strongly in favor of a Bama win as I did a Georgia win. David, being the winner of this bet by virtue of his team's total domination of Georgia football, now has the satisfaction of not only saving his own profile from ruination, but ensuring that my profile remains Crimson for at least until October 11th.

You see, the deal was this...loser's profile is owned until the losing team wins another SEC game. Georgia doesn't play another SEC game (or any game) until October 11th when they take on mighty (awful) Tennessee in Sanford Stadium. The whole "at least" part of October 11th is that Georgia actually has to win against Tennessee. Shouldn't be hard, but still...shame shame until the game.

So enjoy, fellow Facebookers. Enjoy the Roll Tide status, enjoy the screen-printed adornments and the "we're #1" smiling endorsement. It will be over soon as UGA returns to SEC dominance.

And for anyone willing to take another one of my foolhardy bets...here's one for a few weeks down the road. If UGA and Alabama have a rematch in the Georgia Dome for the SEC Championship game, at stake is a year-long shame. Not on Facebook this time, no. This time, it will be a little more gutsy - the winning team's logo affixed to your vehicle's rear window until 2009 season kickoff, and flags flying proudly from the windows for no less than a full week. No cheating, either...if you have more than one automotive choice, I will be happy to provide the additional stickers you'll need to properly dress all of your transportation.

Any takers?

Tropical storms, hurricanes and football

Crazy last month and a half.

Our vacation with the Bowler family to St. George was a lot of fun as always. It's a great little island if you've never been. This year's trip, however, suffered two major interruptions (well, maybe three or four).

1 - Power went out on the island. A water spout had made an appearance across the bayside of St. George about 4 days before we left, killing power to the island. They set up generators for temporary power, but in the days leading up to our departure, they were still getting it fixed and not letting people onto the island unless they were residents. The affect on our stay was minimal, however, as they restored full power within 24 hours of our arrival. There was a 1 or 2 hour time period in the middle of the night where the power was completely out while they switched from generators to full power, but we were asleep and didn't really get bothered by it.

2 - I got sick, real bad sick. It kind of came on a little before we even left for the beach. It was a fever/cold kind of thing, and it pretty much lasted the first half of the week. It finally let up on me about the time...

3 - Tropical Storm Fay made an appearance. Fay zig-zagged all across the state of Florday, making its final pass clear across the panhandle where St. George is located. By the time it got to us, it was fairly weakened, but there was more wind than I had seen in my life (that I can remember. It only affected the last 2 or 3 days of the trip, but those were the days that I wasn't sick anymore so...ah well. What was very interesting was looking out the window one evening and seeing funnel clouds (yes, plural) forming over head, not more than a mile away. Scary, but not that scary (maybe we should have freaked out more...?). The Gilbert family was over, and Katie Niebes took a picture of the clouds. I got on the laptop and sent her pictures along to the Weather Channel. Whether or not they ever used them, who knows. I felt like a real field journalist. Woo!

4 - I had work to do. A handful of hours were occupied with editing a couple of commercials for a client that had a deadline in the middle of my vacation week. It wasn't a huge deal, but it took away time that I would have rather been on the beach (you know, before the tropical storm arrived).

Good trip overall...Jingles, who was a little bit shy of the ocean last year, apparently forgot all about that and went diving around in the waves without any real encouragement from any of us. At one point, she just laid down at the water line and the waves were coming in on her, like it was no big deal. Crazy doggie.

More recently, I took a trip to St. Louis, MO to shoot Kelley Gilbert's wedding. It was a good trip, never been there before. Spent the first 2 days doing tourist stuff with the wedding party...did the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour, took in a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium (game was against the Cubs, pretty good game), went to a couple of neat local restaurants, went to (and up inside) the St. Louis Arch (sidebar - apparently it's not the St. Louis Arch, but rather, it's the Gateway Memorial Arch. Also, it's not a state property, it's a federal development to commemorate the pioneers who went out west with Lewis and Clark...being federal, we should all be proud to know that our federal tax dollars built and maintain this place). Beautiful grounds on the property, very nice view of the Mississippi River and the city of St. Louis.

I will admit a little disappointment, as I was always under the impression that the arch spanned the Mississippi River, but it's actually all on one side of the river. Kind of like my visit to The Alamo 3 years ago. See, I always thought The Alamo was surrounded by mostly nothing, maybe some desert sand and a few trees. I was surprised to find out that it's right in the middle of the city of San Antonio, and the city has been built up around it - buildings, streets, tourism stuff. I just remember we were walking towards it, and we turned a corner and all of a sudden it was just there right in front of us, like it wasn't supposed to be there at all.

Disappointment aside, it was a great little arch, and the Alamo was cool, too.

The wedding was very nice and everyone had a good time. The DJ was wild...he really got out on the floor and interacted, teaching the crowd some crazy dance move stuff. Reception ended sometime around 1am, but the bride and groom were out of there shortly after midnight.

The next morning, what was left of Hurricane Ike made contact with the city (actually arrived around 2:30am). The next morning, it was real treat packing my equipment and luggage into the van. There was a portico we parked underneath - which was very helpful - but still, the wind and rain blew in under there pretty fiercely. I was riding with my in-laws, and as we made our way out of the city around 8 or 9 in the morning, there were huge pools of water on the interstates, road closures going the other way, poor visibility, gusts of wind pushing at the car and general horrible weather like you would expect from a previously category 3 hurricane.

It didn't let up until around Kentucky, but at that point the damage was done. We were heading around Paducah, KY when the interstate was closed off, routing us along some side roads for a few miles. As it turns out, we arrived only a short while after a tornado came through. This was apparent from the damage we saw going through these towns. At one point we were going through a Wal-Mart/Home Depot parking lot where carts had been blown around and the little aluminum cart corrals were all twisted up and blown around. The giant interstate-visibility signage was torn off the pole and lying twisted and destroyed on the ground over to the side of us. The power was out for the most part, and the traffic lights were out as a result, so it was a relief to finally get back on the interstate and continue our escape from the storm remnants.

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful (thankfully) aside from a few small storms coming through Tennessee and north Georgia. Gotta say, that was the absolute worst weather I have ever experienced in my life. Even though I wasn't genuinely freaked out, there were moments when I wondered whether or not we would make it out of town that day, or at least make it out without being in some kind of car accident.

Fall is usually the time of year when I see my business slow down, but this fall has been extremely busy for me...and it seems to be getting busier. I've been shooting the weekly meetings for the Touchdown Club of Atlanta. That's been a lot of fun, getting to hear people talk football for an hour. We're shooting it for the website, and we're actually going out live during the meetings. Very cool. This coming week, Mark Richt is the guest speaker, so assuming that UGA beats Alabama this weekend, it should be a packed house. Well, it'll probably be packed regardless.

Speaking of football...UGA is looking a lot better than I think people realize. They haven't really had to do a lot of fancy stuff yet, since all their competition has been pretty minimal. South Carolina wasn't a huge test...it was a close game, but it's not like you're going to see UGA throwing all they've got out on the field for 4 quarters at the beginning of the season, especially when you're closer to winning than you are losing. Arizona State should have been more of a test, but I think that even though Arizona State may be the 2nd best team in the Pac 10, they're a distant 2nd from USC. Georgia played well, and Knowshon looked like a Heisman candidate alright, but it wasn't a big test of skill.

Penalties are gonna lose a game for us sooner or later if that doesn't get figured out. Giving up a full field (over a 100 yards) in penalties to Arizona State is a bad move...it only really cost the dawgs 3 points in the end, but it could have been much worse. Against a better team, like Alabama or Florida...that sort of stuff loses you the game.

Speaking of Bama...I'm excited. It's a BLACKOUT game, and ESPN GameDay is going to be there. I'll probably be showing up just in time for the game (gotta work a shoot from 9a-5p on Saturday). No matter, though...the game's the main thing. I think Alabama has built a good team so far this year, but I'm not buying into the hype quite yet. At this point, they've played a clearly struggling Clemson team, two teams with no real chance (Tulane and Western Kentucky) and Arkansas, which never even threatened in a year where nothing is likely to go their way. Georgia's opponents haven't been much more impressive, but my point here is that Alabama's win over those much lesser opponents have catapulted them from unranked in the preseason to #8 currently, whereas Georgia's wins have dropped them from #1 to #3. If Alabama beats Georgia, they'll deserve their ranking. But that's not going to happen. Georgia has two wide receiver threats in Mohamed Massaquoi and AJ Green, and two running back threats in Knowshon Moreno and Caleb King (three threats, if you count Richard Samuel). It's an awful lot to try to defend such powerful running and passing offensive options, especially with a quarterback like Matthew Stafford who can change it up on the fly when the defense lines up against the play.

Alabama's got a guy on special teams who likes to run the ball back for big yardage and good field position. That's probably Georgia's biggest weakness - special teams - for both punting and receiving units. If they can shut down Alabama's punt returns, I think that'll be all Georgia needs to do to ensure a win. To ensure a BIG win, however, Georgia will need to make sure that Stafford has plenty of time to get the play off, and I'm not sure the offensive line can hold off Bama for very long.

Alright, that's probably more than enough for now. I've posted on Caleb's blog, so you can check that out, too.

Cereal

A quick blog...

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I tend to agree. That being said, I'm not a huge breakfast cereal fan...my idea of a good breakfast is some grits and eggs with bacon/sausage and some good coffee. A nice, big, warm meal to fire up the day. During the work week, however, cereal is usually the most time-efficient food to get going with the day.

So if I'm going to have cereal, I want something like Cinnamon Toast Crucnch, Froot Loops, or Cap'n Crunch...SUGAR. I also like things like raisin bran, Cheerios (Hone Nut) and Rice Chex sometimes, but I'm going to pass those over if one of my preferred little-kid-at-the-table cereals are available.

My wife goes for the really nasty stuff, like Grape Nuts (neither a grape nor a nut). I'll pass. Gimme the sugar.