Stuck in the procrastination loop?

This is epic, enjoy (click the image for a larger version):

Pandora – the musical world is now your playground

So I have this awesome friend, I’m looking at you Danny, who pointed me to the coolest thing I have seen in some time, let me introduce you to Pandora:

Now, you may be wondering, what is so special about this site?  It just looks like a music site to me.  This is where I slap you with a bagget and say “Hath ye not heard of the musical genome project?!”.  From the websites description:

On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song – everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records – it’s about what each individual song sounds like.

Basically you give the website something to start with, so for example I typed in “Relient K” because I like their music.  Then it went off and found me a Relient K song but after that was done each other song was some song I had never heard but was awesome!  I then added “Foo Fighters” to the mix and now with both bands running I got a new mix of songs and man it was so great the songs were so classic they brought me back to high school!  Anyways, check out the site here and enjoy:

http://www.pandora.com/

The liberation of a nation – a SBCG4AP tale

So I played the first installment of SBCG4AP (Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People), namely “Homestar Ruiner”, a few weeks ago and although it was short it was definitely sweet.  So, in honor of episode 2, “Strongbadia The Free” I will now unleash the trailer here:

Seeing clearly – something worth praying for

Part 1 – The Past

Since we left California last year I have been more or less spiritually bankrupt in a few areas.  I think much of this is because of the transition to a new church and a new church body, but also perhaps just from lack of motivation on my part.  It was really hard for me to leave a group of people that I deeply loved (you know who you are) and to then try and become part of a new group.  To be quite honest this has taken a toll on me spiritually because I haven’t been able to experience God in two very tangible ways: 1) I have not been serving other people and 2) I haven’t allowed myself to be served by others (through small groups, etc.).

Part 2 – The Present

So the reason for this post is because of a song written by Brandon Heath called “Give me your eyes”.  I have been hearing this song on the radio for about the past month and it has really sunken in.  I think that if every Christian yearned for what the song is speaking to that there would be no such thing as a “sunday morning christian”.  More importantly for me currently is that I grasp onto what the message of this song is and relieve myself of the previously mentioned title that I feel I have earned.

I think most people have read this scripture before but in case you haven’t, let it penetrate you.  This is how I would sum up the song.

2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Here is the best video I could find on you tube for the song (there isn’t an official video) Update: Here is the offcial video.  Enjoy it even if you have heard it before.  If you haven’t, give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Part 3- The Future

What does the future hold for me?  Only God knows…but whatever it is I intend to face it with open eyes and with an open heart, relying on Christ for the strength to succeed.

I will leave you with a verse that is probably one of my favorite verses for inspiration:

1 Corinthians 9:27
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Man vs Beast presents: Lorelei vs a giraffe

So…the updates from our trip are coming slow, I know this.  I am trying to get stuff on here whenever I can, hopefully more will come soon.  In the meantime, enjoy this short little video of Lorelei feeding a giraffe at the San Diego Zoo (the video is also on the left in case you lose this post in the future ).

What If

A friend posted this on my myspace profile and it cracked me up.  It would be sad if it was real, but it isn’t I am sure…or at least I think it is fake.  It is a “What If” after all.

p.s. I plan on updating my blog with pics from my vacation and more stuff soon.

U dun <3 it?

So we arrived safely in California and everyone is alive and well.  I spent the last two days at work with my old work friends and then last night and tonight I am at Danny’s apartment.  What a blast it has been, we have been playing games and having a great time.

Last night we played the all time great: Ikaruga.  At one point Danny says “I wonder if there is a setting to rotate the video display?” and I am like “pshhhhh, no”.  Then he checks and sure enough there is.  So what do we do?  We pick up his 46 inch LCD projection TV and set it sideways on the floor so we can play the game in all of it’s massive glory!  Check the pics:

Right now it’s about 11:30pm here at Danny’s and I need to get back to enjoying my time before I leave tomorrow!

Want to be a surgeon? Buy a Wii!

I found this to be funny.  Who would have thought that the Wii would be used to train surgeons?  What will the Wii conquer next?  I say we figure out a way to use it to produce oil so it can be cheaper .

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/health&id=6246490

Cute pictures and illegal explosions

I posted some new pictures of Lorelei to my flickr stream the other day.  You can click the more photos link on the left or just click here to see them.  I know it doesn’t seem like there are a ton, but that’s because we go through and make sure that you only get the cream of the crop, none of that kind-of-cute stuff, we got the real radioactive stuff going on there.

In other news…so from what I understand from everyone I talk to here in Ohio, fireworks are legal to by in the state but are illegal to set off.  When you buy them you have to sign a form that says you will take them out of state to use them, but lets face it, nobody does that .

Our neighbor across the street had a party on Saturday night (it was supposed to rain on the 4th so he postponed it until then) and it was probably one of the coolest fireworks shows I have ever seen, even including the professional shows.  Mainly because there were about $3000+ of fireworks directly above me (since he lit them in the street) and they were really cool fireworks.  Some were these gigantic boxes labeled “Strategic Air Defense” and they shot off like 30 fireworks in a spiral fashion, it was really cool.

I also joined the cornhole tournament (man, that has got to be the worst name for a game) they had at the party.  My partner and I won the tournament .  Who would have thought that a California boy could play games with the big Ohio men?

Hulking out

Ok, so two things:

1. I upped my running mileage from previous weeks, I am now running 20 miles per week.  I need to up it still and start running outside instead of on the treadmill, that is coming soon.

2. HULK SMASH!  Man, Carrie and I went to see “The Incredible Hulk” yesterday and it was awesome.  Honestly, I really liked it…alot.  There were all of the things I expected to see in the movie and the Hulk was dope sauce to the extreme.  Go see it!