Bose Beautiful Silence

First of all I want to give a shout out to my good friend Colby. Thanks for being an awesome friend to me bro.

My parents gave me an unexpected gift last week, a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones. I have absolutely no idea how they work, but boy do they ever work.

I was in the office yesterday, sitting at my desk, using these headphones with my IPod. After an hour of working while wearing my new headphones I realized that I missed three calls, a co-worker trying to get my attention, and a friend who came in the office, chatted and left - and I didn't even see them.

For a focus nut like me, these things are beautiful.

Hillsong: All of the Above

Just got the latest album from Hillsong United this week (props to Drue!) and have been listening to it over the past few days. Every year Hillsong usually release two albums - one is their main big church live album which is recorded in front of a humungous Sydney crowd, and the other is a live album by their youth worship team, United. Now almost without fail I find that I prefer the United CD, and many of the best songs on the main Hillsong album are ones that were first done by United, and generally the United versions are better.

But this year, with All of the Above, United have done something a little different - they’ve done away with the crowd and recorded this in the studio. At first this seems a little odd, but the more I listen the more I feel that the album doesn’t suffer at all. In fact, being a studio album rather than a live one gives the songs a lot more space and musical texture. There are a few higher energy songs showing that United still know how to rock out, but overall the album is a lot slower and more reflective.

All of the Above is an excellent, although different, album from Hillsong United. Although it doesn’t instantly hit you hard like their previous album United We Stand and my other all time favorite More than Life, I think this will prove to be the United album that I listen to most. It’s sonic textures, meaningful lyrics, and gentler tone really draw you in and immerse you in the heart of the music. Definitely a high water mark for United, and Hillsong music as a whole.

Germaphobia

Who knew there were so many of us who hated germs? I am not at the door knob washing phase, or laying towels on the floor stage, but you know what they say; "The first step is admitting you have a problem." BTW, the picture is of the payphone outside the 7-11 near my office.

A duet I don't want to repeat

I was doing the laundry this past weekend, changing the loads when all of a sudden the washer stopped working. One red light was illuminated, and because of that light, nothing was working. I tried everything short of kicking the machine to get it sorted. Nothing.

I called Mom and asked her if she knew what to do - she didn't. I Googled the make/model of my washer to figure out what to do - and voila, I had my answer. I simply had to push a button, three times to "reset" the washer. As I approached this magic button, with a sense of accomplishment, I set forth to push it in all its glory.

It was then that I noticed the bold print under the aforementioned button.

"Push three times to reset the washer when the control lock is illuminated".

Ugh.

Why is it that sometimes the hardest things to see are the elements right in front of you?

IPod spring cleaning

I took on a project yesterday that needed to be done: I cleaned out my ipod of stuff that I'm never going to listen to again. I had so many songs/podcasts that I have downloaded and listened to and so I went through the task of going through them to make room. There's some things you just aren't going to listen to over and over.

Some got trashed. Others got put on my external drive for future use/ listening.

Moral of the story: I've got 7GB's of space open on my 30GB ipod. Plenty of room for new stuff. Although I'm wishing I bought the 80 GB.

From Cocaine to Foie Gras

A friend of mine emailed me an interesting article on Friday entitled, "How the Crack Dealer Became a Chef". It's about a chef by the name of Jeff Henderson.

Chef Henderson has a fascinating story - grew up in LA, became a crack dealer, went to prison, learned how to cook, finally got out of prison and worked at several restaurants and now..........he's the executive chef at the Cafe Bellagio in Vegas.

Talk about life change...wow.

Retro at work

Throughout the new office, they have curtains made out of ball-bearing beads. Kinda like they used to do back in the 70's. Very retro looking. I'm not sure if I like that look just yet, but here's a couple pics I shot of it for you to decide.

So what do you think?

New office view

Here's the view from my new office in downtown Dallas. Not as high up, or spectacular as the last one, but I can live with it. The new building is interesting though. It feels like I stepped into one gigantic IKEA store.

The place is still under construction above and below my 12th floor office, so it's been somewhat of a pain dealing with constant hammering, drilling, and the like. It'll take some getting used to.

Snow?

Ok, it is the Saturday before Easter, and it is snowing here in Dallas, and it's 38 degrees.

How crazy is that?

Moving on up, to the east side...well, maybe not

These are 2 pics of my current office in Dallas...it's sweet. 30th floor, corner office, fantastic 360 degree view of the downtown skyline. The view from here at night is spectacular. On a clear day, I can literally see downtown FtWorth (which is 30 miles away).

Alas, today I will be leaving that gorgeous view. After 6 years in this office, my company has decided to build (which they did) a new office building, smack in the middle of the downtown Arts District. I will be on the 12th floor, smaller office, and not a corner one. Yes, I know what you're thinking, it's not that bad...but I got spoiled. I'll sure miss the view here. I'll post some pics of the new office on Monday.

Happy Easter everybody! See you at church on Sunday...

Nintendo- All the games online!!!

Oh my.





100 titles.





2 Hours gone.





The year 1989 all over again.





Good times.





Here's the link:


http://nintendo8.com/toplist/

I knew it!!

Ever drive by someone who was obviously checked out behind the wheel and think"Are you asleep or what?!?" Check this out:

"The most widely prescribed sleeping pills can cause strange behavior like driving and eating while asleep, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday..."

These suck!

OK, OK, bad idea...bathroom stalls with no freaking doors on them (a sick-o must have invented them).

Sunday afternoon at the movies

Saw Blades of Glory yesterday at Grapevine Mills with my friend Charles and his family. There were a couple of times where I was laughing so hard I thought I was gonna puke my popcorn I had just eaten, but other than that, it felt like an hour and a half long SNL sketch that was an hour and 15 minutes too long. Weak story line, and not very believable.

Definitely not as good as Talladega Nights. But hey, it is Will Ferrell, so what more should you expect?

On the plus side, I did get to see the new Pirates 3 trailer. From the looks of the trailer, that will be one to add to the must see list.

Spring thoughts

My lawn is turning green, motorcycles are everywhere, and kids are running around outside the neighborhood again... it must be spring! A few thoughts:

• It is said that in spring, a young man's thoughts turn to love... but several of my friends thoughts have turned to motorcycles! Three of my previously non-riding friends are buying motorcycles (I just went yesterday to test out a bike for one buddy who doesn't yet have his license). Gotta love life on two wheels!



• I just finished reading this book. While I have a couple of nit-picky issues with it, overall it is a great read with a great premise - the church has to get MUCH more intentional about putting masculinity back in faith.



• I've got this rabbit that has taken up residence in my yard... it's kind of cool really, as I see it in the morning and when I come home from the office. Makes me feel a little like Tony Soprano!