Kid Heaven, Parent Hell

Last night I went to adult hell, a place were calm and peace and silence cannot exist, a place called Chuck E. Cheese (CEC).

If there was an opposite to a sensory deprivation tank it is CEC. It is a place of constant noise and stimulation and my kids love it. It reminds me of the tunnel in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (side note: I am looking forward to Tim Burton's remake).

I chased my three and a half year old son through the maze of games and lights in the search for mega quantities of prize coupons for what seemed like eternity. He had to touch and play everything. He even turned the Skeeball game into pitching practice. In the end he was excited to turn his coupons in for a little piece of candy. My daughter and her friends ran around giggling like little school girls. There were not enough tolkens in all the CEC's of America to satisfy their lust for the prize coupons.

My kids slept well last night.

In the end it is proof that a parent will go to hell and back for their kids.

Valentine's Day

Today is a day we focus on our love for another. We send flowers, chocolates and pretty cards to our loved ones. Basically we tell those that already know that we love them that we love them. The holiday is named after St. Valentine whom we really know nothing about, nor which St. Valentine it was named after since there are a couple of them. I hold that this holiday is a retail scam to collect two bucks from everyone for a card they feel required to buy.

My kids are having a party to celebrate the day. They have decorated little boxes to receive their Valentine's in and have sealed up little Valentine cards for their buddies. I am not sure what Spiderman has to do with today, but my sons cards are covered with him. My daughter will most likely give me a count of all her cards when I get home tonight. She was disappointed yesterday because there was no mail delivery, she was sure there would have been something for her.

I remember those days. The thrill, the excitement, of the cute girl in class giving you a card that asks "Will you be my Valentine?" or the one kid who's mom attached a sucker or a peice of gum to the card. Are we teaching them something? Or are we indoctrinating them into the "Hallmark" holiday that it has become.

Do I sound a little cynical? Maybe I am. I love my wife and she knows it. It doesn't take a special holiday that rakes in the cash for the Hallmarks of the world for me to tell her that. Albeit, I will be getting my wife some beautiful flowers on my way home.

Thanks W

Just wrapping up my taxes for 2004. Thanks to the TaxCut program I was done in just a few hours.

Here is my personal thank you to "W" for his tax breaks that help families like mine - "THANK YOU!".

Music Shuffle

I saw this a while back and thought it would be fun to do.

Instructions:

1. Open up the music player on your computer.
2. Set it to play your entire music collection.
3. Hit the "shuffle" command.
4. List the title of the next ten songs that show up (with their musicians), no matter how embarrassing. Write it up in your blog or journal and link back to at least a couple of the other sites where you saw this.
5. If you get the same artist twice, you may skip the second (or third, or etc.) occurrences. You don't have to, but since randomness could mean you end up with a list of ten song with five artists, you can if you'd like.

My results:

1. Black Water - The Doobie Brothers
2. Estella - Ace Troubleshooter
3. Endure - Plumb
4. #34 - Dave Matthews Band
5. Places - Falling Up
6. The Devil in the Wishing Well - Five for Fighting
7. Flood - Jars of Clay
8. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
9. When the Bells Don't Chime - Brian Setzer
10. All the Time - Jeremy Camp

This is the first 10 out of 1712 songs.

Check yours out. Have fun.

Disposable Income

On February 9th, 7.29 million dollars spent on a painting. Was it a van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, or even a Warhol? Nope. It was a Freud. Sigmond Freud? Nope again. Lucian Freud. I personally have never heard of him. But then again I am not an art connoisseur. Although recently I discovered an urban artist who's work I like very much. His name is Justin Bua and my favorite piece is "El Guitarrista" (gift idea anyone).

What is the painting of that makes it so valuable? A nude of Kate Moss, the waif model popular in the 90's, holding her baby. Wow, it must be good.

What kind of disposable income must one have to be able to buy a painting for $7.29 mil?

Knowing that there are millions of people suffering around the world from hunger, natural disasters, terrorism, etc., what kind of mindset must one have to ignore that for the pleasure of a nice painting?

Sorry for all the questions but it is something that I can not comprehend.

Excuses, Excuses!

So now the Eagles lost because McNabb may have been sick!?

Boo hoo!

Isn't that what back up quarterbacks are for?

That's like us Raider fans blaming the disappearance of Barrett Robbins for the dismal loss to the Bucs in Super Bowl XXXVII.

Get over it.

It was a boring game that the Pats won because they played less bad than the Eagles. Can I say "less bad"?

Super Day!

Congrats to the New England Patriots! The newest dynasty in football. Now let them prepare for the fate of dynasty's past - San Francisco, Dallas, Washington - where are they now? As one commercial for the NFL Channel put it - next year is a blank slate - here comes the Raiders.

Another congrats is deserved by the Oregonian for carrying a commentary by James Lileks on the front page of its opinion page. What's next? The dropping of regular pieces by Maureen Dowd or Molly Ivins? I can dream.

By the way my favorite Super Bowl commercial was a beer ad. It was the one featuring men and women of our Armed Forces walking through the airport being cheered on by the citizens they protect. Let's make that happen.

Winter Camp

This post is a week over due.

Last weekend I spent three days with 550 High School students at our winter retreat with four of Beaverton's largest evangelical churches (Beaverton Christian Church, Beaverton Foursquare, Sunset Presbyterian, and Village Baptist). The display of unity was priceless. In the Christian community too much focus is given to the differences between denominations and not enough to our common ground. This weekend showed that despite our differences we are really all the same, children of the Almighty.

The retreat took place at a YoungLife camp in central Oregon called Wildhorse Canyon, the former home of the infamous Rashneesh Puram. One of my favorite things that weekend was climbing to the top of "Communication Hill" and looking out over the camp to watch the sun set. I imagined God watching this camp being built by the Bhagwan thinking to himself "go ahead and build it, one day I will make it Mine". Today, it is definately His.

Joining us for the weekend to lead worship and play some Rock and Roll was a band from Memphis called Our Hearts Hero. These fella's did a great job and the kids just loved them.

A week later I am still excited about the prospect of going to the same camp next year.

Pray for unity among Believers.

Go!

And it begins.

For a number of months I have been reading various blogs and I have enjoyed what I see in them. As of this moment I am still not sure of what I will add to the blogesphere, but what I do know is what I add will be a part of me. Who am I? Just an average ordinary guy. As I begin this virtual journey I hope to share more of me and more of my thoughts. Please feel free to comment on what I say or what I neglect to say. My hope is that those of you who visit this blog will enjoy it and return to see more. Feel free to email (killinggoliath@hotmail.com) me at any time or just add comments to this page.

God Bless,

Brian