superlatives

I'd just like to say that God is good. Really good. I totally don't deserve the blessings He gives me. I'm not really sure what else to say, so I guess that's that. Except one thing I've been thinking. Sometimes I consider good things in my life, or maybe good things I want, and I think that maybe I need to do things to deserve them. Even on a subconscious level - I think that if only I am better at this or that God will deign me worthy for something. One thing I have learned in the past month, on a heart level, is that I will never be worthy of the great blessings in my life. And God has chosen to bless me with a relationship not because I'm worthy, but because He loves me. I am able to see new dimensions of that love through the relationship, appreciate God in new ways, and in fact praise Him more because of it. Janelle makes me want to be a better man and serve Christ more. So God blesses me not because I am worthy - I am not - He blesses me and then I become closer to worthy. It's like a reminder that it's God that does the transforming, the justification, the healing - not me. Or something.

The 49ers are pretty much doing everything they can to avoid a winning season. After the drubbing they gave Chicago I was expecting good things - but it's not looking good. Thankfully, the 4-12 and 6-10 seasons we endured a couple years back have prepared me to deal with losses. Still though, I was expecting better and it is disappointing. Maybe they'll get scrappy and fight for a playoff spot. But they are not playing Super Bowl caliber football and even if they get to the playoffs I'd be disappointed if they didn't win it all.

Thank goodness for the other sports in the Bay Area.

My beloved A's are in the playoffs and looking good. I actually get to go to the first game with Netters on Wednesday evening, that should be a good time. I've never been to a baseball playoff game, so I'm greatly looking forward to it. Playoff intensity games yes, but actual playoffs no. Did you know there's an A in playoffs?

Aside from that, Cal knocked off #3 ranked USC this weekend! I was explaning to Janelle this weekend, I love it when my little local teams get national exposure.

I should be moving either this week or early next week into a new place, my first new place, with Jesse and Nate. I am really stoked about that. Finances will become quite a bit tighter - but I'm ready for that. Having my own place will mean we can have bbq after bbq - and that's really what life is about.

I LOVE BASEBALL!

there is a hole in your mind

Last week was just about the craziest week of my life. Oneeighty got off the ground and I think it was a success. In general the feedback was positive - of course there are many things we can improve, but I am satisfied with what we have so far. I was most touched by everyone pitching in the way they did; I am truly blessed with an awesome group of people to minister with.

Anyway the real thing that inspired me to post was this. Many of you may have seen the Star Wars Kid (as he has now been dubbed). This poor 15 year-old in Quebec taped himself pretending to be Darth Maul, and now everyone knows about it. Anyway over at jedimaster.net they have a bunch of remixes. And this Matrix one is too cool.

It's still freakin' hot in the Bay Area.

the name of the game

It has been a while. I've been wanting to make my post a good one but if I wait forever then I'll just never post again. So you're stuck with what you get. Finally this new church start I've been talking about has a name and a website. You can see it here. The website is still under development, but we've got it. We are practicing the service this weekend and youth group, and then next week we have our preview service. The preview service is to give us a little more leeway as we finalize what we're working on. It will make Oct 19th the 'kickoff' service where we have printed invites and programs and all that good stuff. Last night Janelle asked me what the scariest thing I'd done in my life was - and starting this new church is definitely it. There's a lot going into it and I am just hoping (praying) that I am a good steward of where God has placed me.

This weekend Crossroads is doing the concert, wherein the entire church service consists of the band performing songs. I'm singing backup in a few songs which is no biggie, singing Good Riddance and doing Mike Shinoda's part on Somewhere I Belong. I was worried that the LP song would come out lame, but I think it's going to turn out okay. I just need to figure out how to entertain myself on stange for the 1:30 or so that is left of the song after I'm done. Heh.

It is freakin' hot in the Bay Area.

he was reaching through the morning air

So the past few weeks of my life have been pretty crazy. I think this is when life starts to get back to normal. I mean, it's different...but not different like the past few weeks have been. Someone pretty amazing came into my life and now she's going to be down south for the upcoming school year and then may even be out of the country for a couple months after that. I was blessed to be able to have some time down in Santa Barbara with her Monday. In fact I'm blessed by the whole relationship. It's funny how we can find ways to even make the most wonderful things into things to complain about though. When we said goodbye yesterday morning it hadn't really hit me yet. Driving home, I was primarily concerned with getting back in time for my meeting, which I did. At the meeting I looked at my calendar and we started discussing all the upcoming stuff this month (it's a crazy busy month) and always on my mind was how she won't be here, and I'm not going to be able to see her for four weeks best case scenario. It's a different kind of loneliness than I've felt before.

Okay, okay, okay, that's enough emo. Dangerously close to getting whiny and wistful here. Yeesh.

Anyway I have a lot of work to throw myself into and I feel prepared to do it. Almost energized even. Really the worst thing going in my life right now is the fact that this amazing woman that cares about me is down in So Cal instead of here with me. I've felt close to God these past few weeks and I am eager to continue this on. I really feel His hand on my life right now and I'm pretty stoked about that.

Just checkin' in I s'pose. Kevin did send me a reply a couple weeks ago for this conversation and I'll put it up sometime soon. I may even respond to it sometime soon. I haven't forgotten...I've just had more important things on my mind of late.

look who's laughing now

Yesterday I was able to go to the Raiders game with my pops. The game was decidedly subpar but I still had a good time. First, it was hanging out with my dad, which I realize I appreciate more and more every time I do it. I definitely have a cool dad. I was also able to partake of a Hot Link, which was a pleasure of a dog. And finally, we got to sit by two of my favorite types of fans at the game.

The first kind of fan is usually a big guy, and by big I mean fat; and he has something to say about just about everything. His way of talking is particularly amusing, too. Most of the time he is stuffing his face with food and commenting "I told you this boy would be our boy this year" or "How much that boy makin'? 7 million? He better be showin us somethin soon." While my account of this fan's commentary may not be that wonderful, I assure you this kind of fan is a pleasure to sit near. Well, this guy was behind us last night with his wife. He was big and jolly and loud and friendly. Perfect combo.

The second kind of fan I often enjoy sitting near is the angry fan. Not angry at other people, but angry at the team and whatever situation they find themselves in. This guy bellows obscenities at every opportunity, berates the coach (who is out of earshot) for every call, and mutters complaints under his breath about the vendetta the refs have for his team. Bonuses if the guy stands up every time he yells. Again, this guy was in full effect to our left. Big angry white guy with a shaved head and a long goti, lots of tats - sorta reminded me of my friend Brian Quinn in the way he yelled. And Brian was always appreciated for the way he could yell.

It was maximum AC! Inside joke. And absolutely nobody that reads this journal will understand it. Score.

This is very bad news. Mulder was having a Cy Young-ish season too. With Hudson hurt, Zito's 10-11 record...I'm not sure how this bodes for my beloved A's.

Major strugs with the e-mail. My home e-mail appears to not be working, but for those of you who wish to e-mail me you can still follow the e-mail links off this website and get in touch with me.

I know I haven't been around on the website much lately. I've been incredibly busy lately, but don't worry I still love you all. Before long I'll be back to my regularly pontificating about nothing in particular. Be good!

he goes out to see the world

Last week was a pretty good week. I attended via satellite the Leadership Summit with a team from my church. I've been the past few years but this year felt applicable to me moreso than any other year. Now that I actually have a ministry team for the youth, and with me needing to get cracking on a team for the new church, a lot of what was said can help me out. I enjoyed Erwin McManus the most, he's a pretty awesome guy. He spoke twice and both times I was riveted. One thing he said that stuck with me was that so often we can make the Christian life just that of being a good citizen. Pay your taxes, follow the rules, be nice, and you're pretty much being a good Christian. Erwin reminded us that Christianity is not about the elimination of sin - it's about the unleashing of a powerful, unique life. I'm going to try to implement a lot of what I heard last week. It's a lot of work...but I believe it's the most important work in the world, so it's got that going for it.

Attendance at youth group has been up the past two weeks, we're going through movies and we've probably had 3-6 new people each week. Pretty awesome, and pretty challenging. We need to step up in a few areas to be able to keep and really minister to all these kids. That's why I'm glad I have such a great team of people. The other day I was just sitting back and thinking about it, and really everyone on the team is exceptional, servant-hearted, and I'm lucky to be able to work with them. Maybe I should tell 'em that or something. You know, encourage em? Naaaah.

Some of you might consider me a computer geek. I might even consider myself one. And I play my share of video games. But at least i'm not like this. It's short, it's worth it. There's a saying in gamer guy circles about gamer girls - all the pretty ones are insane. This would seem to help build that case.

tell me now what should i do

Yesterday's A's game was spectacular. My voice is still a little hoarse from that finish. It was a consummate pitcher's duel; Mulder only made two mistakes and I was afraid it would cost us the game. Somehow Tejada came through in the bottom of the ninth though...just amazing. Walking through the hallways toward the parking lot to spontaneous chants of "Yankees Suck!" is a wonderful thing. You couldn't wipe the smile off half the faces in the Coliseum. Sports pwn. I almost went to Friday night's game too - then I would've been present for both of Miggy's walk-offs in one weekend...tis a shame.

I much prefer doing youth ministry as a team. I have a totally awesome group of volunteers and I am looking forward to growing into a stronger team and I want to be a better leader for them. Last night was good in that the different bases were all covered by different people for youth group. There's some fine-tuning to be done for us meeting at the sanctuary for this month but I did appreciate it. The real bad spot of last night was the urinal in the men's bathroom overflowing. Why in the world would someone put tp in the urinal? It makes no sense.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the whole overflow thing. Guess I should call Ricky and let him know he may wanna do an extra-nice mop on that floor today. Muaha.

i want the bash brothers

I got to watch the A's game on TV today. Great game. Piece of crap ending. I turned it off after Bradford gave the Angels two runs. There's no reason a great pitcher like Zito should get a no decision after pitching lights-out for seven innings. Seattle lost tonight too, so the A's would've been able to pick a game up if they'd managed to win. Well, now we get to play the Indians while Seattle beats up on Detroit.

So I finally formatted that e-mail conversation about Calvinism I mentioned earlier. You can find a link to it on the left there, as well as right here. Hopefully it's readable and interesting for ya. I appreciate comments and feedback, both on the formatting and on the ideas within the e-mails. I'm glad that I can discuss these sort of things with Kevin and have it remain just as a discussion and not turn into some kind of ad hominem fest like so many theological hot-button issues can. Anyway, give it a look if you're so inclined. I think it's terribly interesting reading, with two stellar authors. A-hyuck.

Snapster. Could this be the future of music? I wanna get in on that IPO, man.

Harden is off to a great start. If this guy develops as everybody around the A's hopes...we could have a fourth ace. I mean, dude...Mulder-Zito-Hudson-Harden? Now if only the A's would pick up some good offense for these guys. Who could stand in our way?

This is sad to see.

My old commenting host, KlinkFamily, appears to have suffered catastrophic failure. They have failed me and now must pay the price. They've been replaced by HaloScan. We'll see how that goes. The good thing is you can now say wonderful things about me with your comments. The bad thing is all the old comments were lost.