Yep. I grew up on the street. “Near and far.” “The letter T.” “C is for Cookie.” Yeah. I got cred.

I never watch Sesame Street. I know most of that stuff.

This is a PSA in Australia recommending flu shots. It starts off a little slow, but stick with it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to sanitize my everything.

…or you could just COVER your FREAKING MOUTH!

I told you about Indiana (twice). I told you about Arizona. Now, the Mona Lisa Project has moved on to Tennessee. And <sarcasm>astoundingly</sarcasm>, yet another Planned Murderhood counselor was caught on camera telling a girl (actually and adult posing as a 14-year-old pregnant from her 31-year-old boyfriend) to lie to a judge and to her parents in order to obtain an abortion. Sex between a 14-year-old and an adult is a crime in Tennessee. It is also a crime for an adult who hears about it not to go immediately to the police.

How long will it take for authorities to realize this is a pattern? That Planned Murderhood will do anything and everything, including breaking the law and lying to little girls to get more abortions notched on their belt?

I recently discovered a cool time-waster on the intertubes.

Wikipedia has the most comprehensive “This Day In History” collection that I’ve seen. I was surprised by today’s entry (April 20th).

There were major, commercial plane crashes on April 20th of 1967, ’68, ’78, and ’98. Is it just me, or is that statistically remarkable?!

The other major event from April 20th was the Colombine massacre. Do you remember were you were when you got the news? I was sitting in Computer Algorithms class at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs (less than an hour away from the school). My friend Bryce Webster, the first person I knew who owned a PDA, told me after he had read it on a news feeder.

I can’t believe that not even one person guessed on my music meme post!! None on the blog and none on Facebook. What’s the matter, people? Too tough for ya?

1. Mom and dad, I am fine, how are you?
(Reality, Newsboys – Shine: The Hits)

2. I can’t stop thinking about it, I don’t like living without it.
(Sometimes, Pillar – The Reckoning)

3. Pack up all my cares and woe. Feeling low. Here I go.
(Bye Bye Blackbird, Joe Cocker – Sleepless in Seattle Soundtrack)

4. Where I came from there were no hills at all.
(White As Snow, U2 – No Line on the Horizon)

5. Seven o’clock in the evening, watching something stupid on TV.
(Trapped in the Drive-Thru, Weirld Al Yankovic – Straight Outta Lynwood)

6. We met these sisters _______’s their last name. (Word removed for rule #2 above.)
(Barlow Girls, Superchick – Karaoke Superstars)

7. There seems to be something going on inside of you.
(Staring Back, Pillar – Where Do We Go From Here)

8. Receive Him! (Sorry, this breaks rule #2 above.)
(Receive Him, Five Iron Frenzy – Proof That the Youth Are Revolting)

9. Request the honor of your presence, the tear gas has blown away.
(Woohoo, News Boys – Shine: The Hits)

10. If you’ve been there, put your hands in the air and let somebody know that the Most High cares. (Used second line for rule #2 above.)
(Stories (Down to the Bottom), Superchick – Beauty From Pain)

11. When I was young, the smallest trick of light would catch my eye.
(Every New Day, Five Iron Frenzy – Our Newest Album Ever)

12. I have climbed the highest mountains, I have run through the fields.
(I still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, U2 – Rattle And Hum)

13. “There must be some way outta here,” said the joker to the theif.
(All Along the Watchtower, U2 – Rattle and Hum)

14. I’ve had questions without answers. I’ve known sorrow. I’ve known pain.
(When the Tears Fall, Newsboys – Devotion)

15. Since you’ve been gone, since you’ve been unglued, it’s hard to figure out your next move.
(You Can Do It, No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom)

16. Come on, babe, why don’t we paint the town?
(All That Jazz, Chicago soundtrack)

17. Lord my God, in the morning show me how I can serve you today.
(Lift Me Up, The O.C. Supertones – Loud and Clear)

18. In the quickness of our haste it seems we forget how to live.
(World Go ‘Round, No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom)

19. Let me introduce you somebody that I know.
(Who Could It Be, The O.C. Supertones – Loud and Clear)

20. I wear a disquise. I’m just your average Jane.
(One Girl Revolution, Superchick – Karaoke Superstars)

21. You left me sad and lonely. Why did you leave me lonely?
(You’re Drivin’ Me Crazy, Squirrel Nut Zippers – The Inevitable)

22. And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart.
(Stardust, Nat King Cole – Sleepless In Seattle soundtrack)

23. I was born the child of grace. Nothing else about the place.
(All Because of You, U2 – How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)

24. The flowers they cover your feet. All the colors of you and they shine over all I see.
(Tearing Down, The Psychedelic Furs – World Outside)

25. Make me. Take me. Break me.
(Pierced, Audio Adrenaline – Adios: The Greatest Hits)

26. You see in the past I had a dream, a fantasy.
(End It On This, No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom)

27. Tears have fallen. Water beads. Wipe the floor with my regrets.
(Praises, Newsboys – Shine: The Hits)

28. I’d rather take a shot in the chest than take a shot in the back.
(Crossfile, Pillar – The Reckoning)

29. I had a song about clouds and rainbows. I hum a tune that sings like a dove.
(Antying But Love, Squirrel Nut Zippers – The Inevitable)

30. Hold me close and hold me fast. The magic spell you cast.
(La Vie En Rose, Louis Armstrong – French Kiss soundtrack)

I got a couple of responses to my Brain Strain post. They were close. Although, Elysse did have a good point about the plurality of the verb.

“theirs” should be “there’s”

“precisly” should be “precisely”

“three” should be “two”

Yesterday, I was a little late leaving the house. When I pulled out onto the main road on my way to work, I immediately saw that oncoming traffic was being blocked at the top of the hill. I drove cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

I get really angry when people rubber-neck at accidents, thus slowing traffic for no good reason other than ghoulish curiosity. Thus, I try really hard not to do the same thing. Still, I couldn’t help but see the white SUV leaning oddly against a tree just off the road, crumpled on every side. A rollover. Sitting at the next light, I saw in my mirror the Care Flight helicopter landing. Scary. I said a quick prayer.

As I continued my commute, my brain in neutral, I wondered about the wreck. How could that truck have rolled right there. There was no intersection. The speed limit is only 45, not fast enough to take a full-sized SUV all the way over. The shoulder there is steep, with a good sized drop off were new pavement was added. I knows this well since I’ve ridden my bike over it a hundred times. Maybe he wasn’t paying attention, dropped off the ledge and over-corrected. Still, must have been speeding on top of that. Hmm.

Then my thoughts turned to empathy. What hidden danger could turn my life upside down on an average, mundane Tuesday morning? Something as simple has fiddling with the radio volume or glancing at the clock. It only takes a fraction of a second for someone to step out in front of you, a careless cyclist to shoot into traffic, or the car ahead to have a mechanical failure. Then… BAM! Life happens.

I read on the news (yeah, I know. Surfing at work. Shame.) about that mornings incident. A 75-year-old man and an unknown driver in a black Nissan seemed to be chasing each other, weaving through traffic. The old man lost control, rolled, ejected, and died. The headline reads, “Aggressor Dies in Road Rage Crash.” BAM! Life happened… and ended.

That evening, almost home, I saw the puddle of glass on the shoulder, the bruised and broken tree. The fragility of life washed over me. Treat every day with care. Treat every relationship with love. Treat every opportunity with relish. Because you never know when life will happen to you.

BAM!

Incontrovertibly, theirs precisly three mistakes in this nonessential, unsubstantial sentence. What are they?

[I discovered this unfinished post today. It kills me that I never finished this and posted it. Somehow, it slipped through the cracks. It’s long, and unfinished, but definitely worth the read.]

Glenview Baptist Church has a great mission program and has really done a great job of raising up young missionaries. We start off with sixth graders (about 12 years old) doing work projects at a sister church here in inner city Fort Worth. Middle school goes to San Antonio where the seventh graders (13) are on the “work crew”, usually sorting donations to a shelter or food bank, and painting a church and eighth graders (14) put on a four day vacation bible school (VBS). By the time our kids are in high school, they have a good understanding of working for God, working with kids, and the general mechanics of a mission trip. We take them to Mexico where they feed the poor, put on VBSs, do some hard labor and really get to see God working. The juniors and seniors (17 and 18) also have the opportunity to make a trip overseas where the main focus is evangelism.

Glenview also has a “family” mission trip each year around spring break. The last two years we’ve gone to New Orleans and done construction. This trip is a great opportunity for parents and kids to server together. Plus, “young” grown-ups like me (34) get to work along side “seasoned” folks (as old as 77) and pick up some great wisdom (not to mention some really great construction skills).

In the past few years, I’ve spent the majority of my vacation time on the family and middle school trips. But 2008 is my 5th year at my current job and I’ve got an extra week of vacation. I was able to add Mexico to the mix for the first time.

We pulled out of the church around 8AM on the first Saturday in July. The 10 hour drive was mostly uneventful other than some heavy rain. We crossed the border from Brownsville to Matamoros and checked in to our hotel. The culture shock began.

The hotel was really nice, all things considered. Air conditioned rooms with two full beds (for four people), a cozy restaurant (that served great Mexican food three times a day) and a gated parking lot (although with two mini-buses and three vans, it was more than cozy). By U.S. standards it was a “Motel 2”, but this is a mission trip, so it was much more than I was used to. With a bed and three squares a day, a missionary’s cup overfloweth.

Then there was the rain. It rained and rained and rained and rained. If you’ve never been to Mexico (other than the tourist traps) you may not know that their public works are not always up to snuff. Our five teams were assigned five small churches in a very poor neighborhood where only one or two streets are paved and drainage is something your nose experiences, but the roads don’t. The motto of our mission trips is “be flexible” and it was put to the test by ankle deep mud and knee deep “poo water”.

On Sunday we canvassed the neighborhoods handing out fliers and inviting kids to our VBS. Now, you have to picture this to really get the sense of it. You’ve got a handful of very American teenagers in their “Hollister” t-shirts and cargo shorts wading through mud and water in the pouring rain handing out soaked papers to people huddled in their ramshackle huts with cloth curtains for doors and concrete floors (if their lucky). On top of all that, the Americans have been coached to say about four words of Spanish, which they get wrong 50% of the time. “Eskwellah bibli-eh man-yawn-uh en la Eeglay-sia.” The reaction from the locals was a mix of terror and hilarity.

Sunday night, we all met at the “mother” church for their evening service. The two story cinder block building was one of the nicer in the area but the slick, greasy mud outside incapacitated two of our vans (including the one I drove for the week).

The service was amazing and the pastors and volunteers from the churches where we’d be working sang with us and prayed over us in a truly stirring experience. I was able to pick out a dozen or so words of the head pastor’s message, but I knew exactly what he was saying when he asked for strong men to roll up their pants and help us free our vans from the muck.

Lesson #1: The people we came to help would make great sacrifices for us at the drop of a hat. They understand God’s command to be a servant.

Monday, we started VBS. My team had 35 kids show up which was a lot and considering the continued rain and mud. We counted it a blessing. Another blessing came in the form of the local volunteers. They were well organized and well prepared to teach their lessons. That was a double blessing because we arrived with zero Spanish interpreters. I know just enough Spanish to embarrass myself, but as it turned out Enrique, the pastor of our church, knew exactly that much English. Between the two of us (with a lot of hand waving and sound effects) we were able to keep things rolling. “Glory de Dios!”

On Monday night we held church services at our local churches. We sang songs (in Spanish), performed a dramatic mime, and couple of our kids told their testimonies through a translator. Then one of our kids gave a short sermon, again translated. Our translator for the evening was “Grandpa” Paul, the missionary who’d coordinated the trip with our church. He’s nearly fluent in Portuguese, which is close enough to Spanish that he can make do.

That night, one of the other groups had to cancel their evening service due to the water around their church. (Later in the week, that church became known as “The Island”.) That meant that Steve Melton (the leader of the other group) got to share in the joy of driving down Camino Real, the “paved” street that ended near my group’s church.

For about four miles, you drive through a commercial area; “quaint” restaurants, fruit stands, mechanics, etc. Then, the buildings abruptly stop and on both sides of the road there’s nothing but empty fields. Depending how heavily it had rained, this was about where the road went under water.

It was at this same point that the “paved-ness” of the road became more academic. For about a half mile, under one or two feet of murky water, there hid colossal pot holes, nay, craters, some that spanned the whole road. They were like buried land mines waiting to swallow our van. There was at least one that was deep enough that, when I hit it at the wrong angle, our van’s frame hit the ground and we jolted to a stop. Fortunately, with sufficient long-skinny-pedal, I was able to back out and take a different angle.

Lesson #2: If you can’t see the road under the water, drive really slowly.

Out there, in what we called “the lake”, the water came up over the bumpers of our van. Steve was driving one of the mini-buses and the water came in through the double doors onto the entry steps. Honestly it was kind of fun. It had that tinge of adrenaline you get while four-wheeling, only amplified by driving a two-wheel-drive van loaded with teenagers in a place with no AAA and you can’t speak the language. What a rush!

Tuesday, more rain. After our morning VBS, we were supposed to do some door-to-door evangelism, but the rain and mud (and lack of translators) had squelched that idea. Instead, we made coffee in two of our big Gatorade coolers, bought a bunch of “sweet bread” and headed to the local hospital. One of the small church pastors took us there along with his niece and her boyfriend (Axa and Gustavo), all of whom could speak English. We handed out coffee, bread, and evangelism tracts. We shared the the Good News of Christ as best we could (the bilinguals helped a lot). We were only allowed to send small groups (two or three plus a translator) into the hospital to pray with people and share the Gospel, but that was enough to bring a few souls to Christ.

…

[I don’t know why I never finished this. I don’t remember enough now to do it justice. We made a trip to the dump to hand out sack lunches to the people who live there. Yes. They live in the dump. We also evangelized in the Matamoros tourist market. I can’t wait to go back!]

There’s a meme going around again that’s as old as the iPod. (Jeez, if the iPod is actually old, then I’m dead and a half!) You put your iPod on shuffle and then post the first line of the first 30 songs. People then try to guess the song and artist. It’s surprisingly revealing. What you listen to says a lot about who you are.

I don’t have an iPod (Tammy does), but I do use to iTunes. I never listen to iTunes on full shuffle. I have several play lists that are very specific for what I need: “Relaxing Jazz”, “Coding Classical”, “Coding Rock”, “Fun Rock”, and of course, “U2”, plus a bunch of weird music I don’t listen to that often. So it will be interesting see what comes of this.

Step 1: Put your music player on shuffle.

Step 2: Post the first line or stanza from the first 30 songs that play (unless it reveals the song title), no matter how embarrassing.

Step 3: Strike through the songs when someone guesses both artist and song title correctly in the comments.

Step 4: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is cheating.

Step 5: If you like the game, post your own!

(I’ll have to skip a of instrumentals and audio books. But I’ll make notes of what I skipped.)

(Skipped Tales that Really Matter – LotR: Two Towers soundtrack)

1. Mom and dad, I am fine, how are you?

(Skipped Pilgrim’s Progress, book 1, chapter 7)

2. I can’t stop thinking about it, I don’t like living without it.

(Skipped Love Theme – Batman soundtrack)

3. Pack up all my cares and woe. Feeling low. Here I go.

4. Where I came from there were no hills at all.

5. Seven o’clock in the evening, watching something stupid on TV.

6. We met these sisters, _______’s their last name. (Word removed for rule #2 above.)

(Skipped Treasure Island, chapter 19)

7. There seems to be something going on inside of you.

(Skipped Edoras – LotR: Two Towers soundtrack)

8. Receive Him! (Sorry, this breaks rule #2 above.)

(Skipped Einstein (biography), chapter 7)

9. Request the honor of your presence, the tear gas has blown away.

10. If you’ve been there, put your hands in the air and let somebody know that the Most High cares. (Used second line for rule #2 above.)

(Skipped The Battle of Stirling – Braveheart soundtrack)

11. When I was young, the smallest trick of light would catch my eye.

(Skipped A Family Affair – PotC: Dead Man’s Chest soundtrack)
(Skipped Sent for You Yesterday, Count Basie and His Orchestra)
(Skipped Alice in Wonderland, chapter 12)

12. I have climbed the highest mountains, I have run through the fields.

(Skipped Achilles Footwear, Eddie Izzard – Glorious)
(Skipped Huckleberry Finn, chapter 5)

13. “There must be some way outta here,” said the joker to the thief.

14. I’ve had questions without answers. I’ve known sorrow. I’ve known pain.

(Skipped First Confrontation – Batman soundtrack)

15. Since you’ve been gone, since you’ve been unglued, it’s hard to figure out your next move.

16. Come on, babe, why don’t we paint the town?

17. Lord my God, in the morning show me how I can serve you today.

18. In the quickness of our haste it seems we forget how to live.

19. Let me introduce you somebody that I know.

(The Great River – LotR: Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack)

20. I wear a disguise. I’m just your average Jane.

21. You left me sad and lonely. Why did you leave me lonely?

22. And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart.

23. I was born the child of grace. Nothing else about the place.

24. The flowers they cover your feet. All the colors of you and they shine over all I see.

(Skipped Caravan, Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra)

25. Make me. Take me. Break me.

26. You see in the past I had a dream, a fantasy.

27. Tears have fallen. Water beads. Wipe the floor with my regrets.

(Skipped Sing Sing Sing, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra)
(Skipped Freedom Theme, Braveheart soundtrack)

28. I’d rather take a shot in the chest than take a shot in the back.

29. I had a song about clouds and rainbows. I hum a tune that sings like a dove.

(Skipped American Patrol, Glenn Miller Orchestra)

30. Hold me close and hold me fast. The magic spell you cast.

Next week sometime, I’ll post all the answers. There’s no way you guys are going to guess all these.