This isn't a diary.

The Rumor Said Fire - The Life And Death Of A Male Body

2010-03-03T12:54:00.008-06:00

This album from Denmark's "Most Talented New Act", and winners of the P3Guld award in Denmark, is a beautiful mixture of strong male harmonies and interesting melodies that is sure to seize your ears instantly and then continue to grow on you as you to listen to it. Although there are only six tracks on this EP there are certainly no 'filler tracks' that are all too common on albums these days.

The album starts off strong with 'The Balcony' that features light insrumentation like harmonica and tamborines and would create a picturesque soundtrack for a movie ending with the blissful holding of hands and an over all sunny yellow wash. And then the album transitions to 'Evil Son', a track that is very much reminiscent of their Danish musical rivals Mew. But all comparisons aside it is a very strong track that is much more bass and drum driven. Next is 'In The Sour' which takes me back to The Shin's 'Wincing The Night Away' but you can't mistake the prevalent forign undertones that resound throughout the album as a whole. Then the album contiunes with 'The Post Mortem Makes Us Men' that has a lot of energy, then they take it back down with acoustic guitar, poetic lyrics and subtle harmonies that would make Simon & Garfunkel proud in 'Red Light'. The album finishes with 'Dance' that holds together the album as a whole and, like a quality wine, it leaves you with a good taste in your mouth... maybe should I say a good tone in your ears? Eh, I think you get my point!

Withouth further ado I will say that I rarely recommend artists that aren't worth buying the complete album, and I certainly haven't started with The Rumor Said Fire! You can find this album on itunes and it is well worth your money.

If you like Kent, Mew, Simon & Garfunkel, or The Shins then I suggest checking them out!

Fanfarlo

2010-02-28T21:56:00.003-06:00

Imagine you're walking through the english country side of a gold tinted film set, what music do you hear playing? If you don't know then perhaps you should check out one of the hot new acts in the music scene biz. Their album 'Reservoir' was recently featured on the front page of itunes but my faithful friend Pandora had introduced me to them much earlier. In music I believe that generic comparisons often dull the bright shining newness of music that can truly only be described as modern and revived, but for the sake of those who wont likely take my word for the value of having this album in your collection and for the people who chronically are misled by the thirty second tidbits provided by our itunes friends at apple, I will make a few such comparisons. I would best describe them as a optimistic mixture of the vocal style of Arcade Fire and the old worldy style of Beruit. Like I said I heard some of their stuff on Pandora while trying to seek mental refuge from the monotony of my 8-5 desk job and decided to put one of my iphone's many features of unbridled financial expenditure and purchased not one or two songs but the entire album. As my brother Garron always says that he thinks ipods/itunes have taken away the 'natural selection' in the music industry. Not only can an quote on quote artist achieve fame and wealth with just one or two decent songs, thus euthanizing the requirement of being able to create an entire album that is worth purchasing, but the large labels are limping along from billboard hit to billboard hit, from Nickelback to Kings of Leon to Nickelback again. So all that to say that I think Garron is right and so when I actually come across a band that can write and record an entire quality and cohesive album it's certainly worth noting. So without further embellishment I'll leave you to your musical tastes and hope that you will give them a listen!

"The walls the walls are coming down, the here and now is coming round..."

Motion is good, busy is the price.

2010-01-20T07:28:00.003-06:00

So I always do the whole "Oh I'm going to blog more now" bit when I haven't been on here in months. I don't know why I do that... I know as soon as I post on this thing I'm going to forget all about it. But hey I'll give a quick update on things is suppose. I don't know what was going on when I posted last but I've got a job, it's fine... close to home, people are nice, etc. Not what I plan on doing for the rest of my life but hey it pays the bills and it doesn't make me want to kill myself :-). School is fine but pretty much takes up all of the free time I had. But it's forward motion so I'm a fan of it... life felt like it was standing still for far too long. Motion is good, busy is the price you pay for it.

I've been writing a lot lately, both songs and what will hopefully someday be a book. I hate even saying that on here because if it turns out that I never finish it or if it's just really stupid I don't like the pressure of people knowing that I was trying to write it at one point... oh well, that's just one of my odd phobias of expectations/commitment I suppose.

Well my work week is almost over so I better get some of this stuff done. I only have today and a half day tomorrow before I head out to Tyler for my cousins' double wedding. It's gonna be a good time y'all! I can't wait to see everyone and have some major dance time!

Music.

2009-10-01T14:10:00.004-05:00

So when in bloggdom doubt... post about music.

I'm not much for giving long scathing reviews but I will venture to make a list of what I've been listening to lately.

Third Eye Blind's album Ursa Major - I'm not a die hard fan of 3EB but I've been known to jam to one of their songs when I'm needing a bit of a late 90's flash back. And I probably wouldn't have given the album a chance at all if Remington hadn't told me that it was pretty good. And what do you know? The kid knows what he's talking about. Sharp knife and Bonfire are two noteworhty tracks. However, the opening track Don't Believe A Word is a bit of a Say Anything rip off. But hey, I'm sure a lot of people will like it.

A Fine Frenzy's album One Cell In The Sea - This is a band that had a free download on itunes a while back and it didn't really get my attention. The single 'You Picked Me' didn't seem to have a lot of strengths in either music or lyrics but they have some good stuff.

Paramore's Brand New Eyes - Not much of a diviation from their last album Riot! but it's a very solid album. I find that I like the ones that are a little bit newer for them (or maybe an older style) like 'You're The Exception' and 'Misguided Ghost'. This isn't my default style of music when I go for the ipod but it certainly has it's place on any MP3 player.

Kent's album Isola - Of course most of you know that Kent is a staple band for me at pretty much any time but my drug of choice is Hagnasta Hill but lately Isola has really been hitting the spot. Now there is a sweedish and an english version of this album so if you're going to check it out obviously you should get the english version, unless of course you have mad bilingual skills and can speak sweedish :-). 'The Things She Said and Elvis are great tracks.

Good Old War - Ok to be honest my cousin Collin had mentioned them and I wasn't really sure if it was worth the $$ to buy their stuff on itunes so I used limewire to check out some of their stuff. And I have to say I approve. But I don't really know how to describe them... so if you're looking for new music go check them out!

Ingrid Michaelson's album Be Ok - Very light fun album. Somewhere in the genre of Feist and Regina Spektor. She has a couple of good covers and the title track is pretty great.

Muse's new album The Resistance - Honestly I was hoping for more. I'm a huge Muse fan but I just can't give a very good review on this one. Undisclosed Desires is pretty great and a few others are ok, but the rest of the tracks really aren't even worth having, they annoy me. The Exogenesis symphonies are impressive but I would rarely be in the mood to listen to them.

Anyway, that's what I've been into lately. Any music I should listen to?

craftiness

2009-09-09T09:47:00.002-05:00

I've been feeling insanely crafty lately... I don't know what made this come over me but every evening in the last week I've wanted little more than to curl up on the couch, watch Lord of the Rings while doing something creative.

That's about all for now. Work's going great! And I feel like there are a lot of people that I haven't talked to lately. Hmm... I'm starting to miss them. You know who you are.

Title

2009-09-04T09:57:00.003-05:00

So I was thinking about what it means to have 'title'. And for all of the cyperoids out there like me who hear that term and automatically think about the 'title' of a blog post, that's not at all what I'm talking about.
What brought it to my mind was the fact that I've started a new job but they've sort of created a possition for me, that meaning that no one really knows what I'm in charge of. This isn't such a big deal really, I've been doing a lot of much needed data imput and fileing but I feel sort of like they are giving me random jobs. My boss is out today and left a ton of sorting and filing on my desk to be done. But she did leave a note thanking me for everything that I've been doing and she's going to work on an official job 'title' and description. More than likely I'll be doing a lot of the same stuff, but it will make me feel better and over all more important once I have a title. It's sort of silly but I was wondering if anyone else feels like this? And it does apply to many areas of life, this is just one area where it matters to me for no good reason.

Examples of title and what it says about you:
Sir (you're a Knight, the english version of bad-ass)
Assistant Manager (you're no longer on the bottom rung)
Mrs. (you're someones wife)
Admin Assistant (you're someone's bitch)
Jr. (you're parents were unoriginal)
Ph.D. (you paid a lot of money to read a lot of books)
XI or more (wow that's a big number, you must have some crazy old name and you probably go by something that has nothing to do with you're legal name)
Judge (you're important and intimidating)
Coffee Expert (Starbucks highest honor/the person I want making my coffee)
Coach (soccer, football, gym, birthing, etc/someone I don't want to be)
Master Mariner (Lord of the seas! Well of your little government licensed vesel at least :-/)
Notary (no one knows why but you are the one important person at a seemingly unimportant job, perhaps you got certified to add meaning to your life... who knows? But one thing I know for sure is that front teeth are certainly not required for this title, long story.)

ok that's enough for now. Feel free to comment with anything you think i've left out :-)

ready for lunch

2009-09-02T12:05:00.002-05:00

So i'm sitting at work and I'm ready to take lunch but i'm trying to hold off so the chances of Bryson's bday gift having been delivered is much higher. I wish it would have come yesterday so he could actually get his birthday gift ON his birthday, but oh well. So how do I remedy my starving state? Well chow down on some almonds that I forgot were in my purse of course! Yeah, as you could guess this isn't very appatizing. But that's about the most interesting thing happening at the moment.

Job's going well! And it will be going even better when my new computer comes in and i can get off of this old canker grandpa PC!

until next time,
madison

Power kites

2009-08-27T13:50:00.002-05:00

Hey does anyone here know about power kites? I've been looking up info on them all morning because I'm a lame sister and can't think of a single thing to buy my baby brother (Bryson) for his 12th birthday next week. I don't know anything about these kites but i know he's talked about people he knows that have them. I'm pretty sure this sort of unusual and potentially dangerous outdoor fun is right up his alley.

Anyway, Wikipedia was pretty helpful as far as knowing the different types but i guess i need to know what the best one for him would be. Anyway, If you have any imput on this subject please let me know!

In other news I have a job! I'll be working for an appliance repair and supply company that's pretty close. I start Monday and man am I glad to have something!

Now I'm off to the Starbucks and then to the store while enjoying the new Imogen Heap album!

Farewell for now fine folk!

Power out

2009-08-21T21:50:00.002-05:00

The title of this blog isn't some super creative metaphor for my life currently... well ok maybe it is, but it's also a very litteral title. Since I had nothing better to do with my Friday night than babysit so someone else can go out and have a life, I find myself sitting on someone else's couch, but at least I'm getting paid for it. :-).
Everything wa all fine and dandy, the kid was cute, he fell asleep about 30 minutes after I got here, I pull out my laptop to catch up on my facebooking, and then this crazy storm comes out of nowhere and the power goes out. Not so bad really, except the internet has now seased to be an option, because hey it would probably come back on soon right? That was before 8 and it's now nearly 10 and the house is getting hot due to the lack of A/C and I've beaten about every highscore on my facebook apps. So not to make you feel like a last resort my lovely blog but I'm afraid that's exactly what you are...
Anyway, what's new with me? Um well I still don't have a job. So major suckage in that department. I've spent almost all week up at the church helping set up the new youth rooms so they can be ready this Sunday for the big "yay the church has some more room" deal.
So yeah I think that's about all there is worth telling at the moment. I've been on a big brigt eyes kick this week. It makes me miss something, I have no idea what but I only know I miss it... I think that's a sign of a well written song. I had posted that on my facebook and I got all of these philosphical replies so spare me the "is it truely possible to miss something that you might not have ever had?" and so on and so forth. Just go listen to "tourest trap" and you tell me ok?

Ok I think that's enough for now.

"and the road finally gave me back, but I dontbthjnk I'll unpack, cause I'm not sure I live here anymore. "

Plans

2009-06-13T12:46:00.002-05:00

So I havn't posted in a long time... things have been pretty crazy. Not busy crazy really but a complete change of routine sort of crazy. Most of you know that I got laid off work and that threw a major kink in most of my life plans. I'm not a fan of Bon Jovi but I do believe it was he that said, "Map out your future, but do it in pencil." and I think that's a hard lesson I've learned over the last month.

So anyway I'm in the process of gettin myself together again and trying to figure out where it is that God wants me. It seems that He's been slowly but surely striping away all of the things that I tend to try and distract myself with. Basically, there's a lot of change but it would probably be pretty boring if I decided to list them all out right now.

In other news... well i don't know that there is other news. Did any of y'all see the movie "UP"? I thought it was amazing.

"Sometimes it's the boring things that we remember the most."

The last few weeks

2009-05-21T12:44:00.002-05:00

So I haven't posted in a while... It seems like I've had a lot going on but at the same time I'm bored out of my mind. Most of you reading this will already know that I got laid off about a week and a half ago. So I've been job hunting and trying to formulate a game plan. Everyone has been really encouraging and listening for any job openings but there isn't anything so far. I really felt blessed to have that job and God really opened a lot of doors in order for me to get it. I had a plan and then it was like, "Psych!" But hey... enough with that. I have to have faith that God will work things out for me. And I need to appreciate the time off.

Right now I'm watching Friends with Ashley while she is on her lunch break, they've used the term "yetti" about 20 times in this episode and that in itself might make it one of my favorite episodes. Then I'm going to go grocery store with my mom later.

And I've decided I want to ride bikes more... I have one in the garage that my dad gave to me, but I NEVER ride it. The other day I had diner with my family and afterwards Bryson wanted me to ride bikes with him to Foodtown since after all he had 2 dollars in his pocket that he needed to spend. And what better place is there to buy two dollars worth of crap you didn't need? I hadn't even realized it but I think it's probably been at least a year since I've ridden a bike. No good people, no good. Katie has next Monday and Tuesday off and she's super excited about me being home to hang out with her. So she's already planning stuff like bike rides to the park (even though it's across the street) to have a picnic and me possibly going to pick up my parents dog so her moms dog will have someone to play with while we do puppet shows for them... yeah basically a bunch of stuff that I wouldn't do if you paid me. I'll probably compromise and go with the bike rideing and the picnic but "On-e ot-e hte-e ogde's" for sure. (note: that was my attempt at typing up pig latin)

Ok got to go Garron is calling... I love getting calls.

Drayton Michael DuPree

2009-05-07T10:49:00.007-05:00

He has no idea I'm posting this... and he doesn't read this blog so he will likely never know. But I think he deserves a blog post dedicated to him and his vast stores of knowledge.

I got the inspiration for this post just moments ago when a fellow twitter-finatic (TheGreatBohac) tweeted this: "Its hard to tell when some one who "knows everything" actually gets something right or not." Of course I thought of my little bro Dray.

I used to tell him he was making things up, but that would only ensure me a one way ticket to lecture-ville for the next 20 minutes all to come to the conclusion that I'm an idiot, he's a genius, and I shouldn't try and correct him... EVER. Hahaha... you know the best thing about those situations is that he wasn't offended that I didn't believe him, nor was he mad at me for having the "I'm older and therefore always right" attitude that I had 90% of the time. When I didn't believe him he was only concerned with making sure I had my facts right, and that if I ever happen to need to know the dietary habits of an angel shark that I would have the correct information.

I mean how many of you actually have a brother who likes to go through and find historical or biological mistakes in National Geographic magazines? For example, at breakfast one day my dad Wade(who can be just as nerdy, although he has slightly more socially acceptable interests) started reading an article on the oldest hair ever found. Well he's reading away about this new mummy they've found that still has it's hair, and Drayton all of the sudden stops him with...

Dray: WHAT?!?!?! A mummy that is 9,000 years old?!?! That's historically impossible since the oldest artifact, let alone mummy WITH HAIR, that we've found in Egypt is only 6,000 years old!
Wade: Oh no, it says here that it was in China.
Dray: Are you kidding?!?! This has to be one of the most nonfactual articles ever! When did the Chinese mummify??? I mean I took Ancient Chinese History and they have their entombment processes but they aren't classified as 'mummies'!
Wade: Oh sorry I read it wrong, it's Chile.
Dray: Oh ok... good. I mean in Chile it would be fairly easy for them to find a mummy that old because they had a different process of mummification, and we find civilizations there that date back 12,000 years. But they need to specify that it's Chile first thing in the article, because anyone reading would know that there aren't mummies that old in Egypt which is where most people assume all mummies are from.
Me: Um... I wouldn't have known that.
Dray: Are you kidding? Well then you might have believed it was found in China too!
Me: Oh well probably if that's what they said.
Dray: Great... history is dead.
Me: Sorry, I hope I didn't kill it.

That is just one of many things to love about him... but I have to admit we (meaning my 3 other brothers and I) often take advantage of his passionate disposition. I think he didn't speak to us for at least a day because we wouldn't take the rapid death rate of coral seriously. We were just being facetious, I mean he had all of his facts and in 100 years when all life on earth is dead we'll all know that he warned us.

And no matter how much we protest he insists on playing fact/trivia games at the dinner table. And if we can't get out of it we at least get a good laugh out of the fact that he's the only one giving serious/appropriate questions and answers. And for all his efforts to further educate us, he still takes it like a champ when we ignore it.

So this post is for Drayton, when he get's his doctorate in some field that I wont be able to pronounce I promise to call him "Dr. Dray" in my most gangsta style and give him all the street cred I can. Because no matter how much we tease him he still remains one of the coolest guys I know.

Free Coffee

2009-05-04T16:35:00.004-05:00

There are some things that will always make your day better... free coffee is one of them.

So here's a shout out to my man Adrien (even though he doesn't know my name, or read this blog) from the Starbucks by Fry's! I really appreciated the Iced Double Shot upgrade from Grande to Venti... it really made my day. However, I am now shaking substantially.

That's all for today folks.

So everyone go listen to "Free Coffee" by Ben Folds.

Let's ride the wave.

2009-04-30T09:23:00.008-05:00

So in all of the hustle and bustle of the phenomenon we call online social networking, it's becoming more challenging to figure out exactly what purpose these accounts and blogs serve. Of course companies are on a marketing frenzy and they're filling our email inboxes, trimming our web pages, and clogging our twitter feeds with updates, advertisements, and scams. And to be honest I would be disappointed if they weren't. For the most part I can shut it out but sometimes I get weary of endorsements and propaganda coming at me from every direction that I wish every web page could look more like the inside of an apple store.

Honestly, one of the main reasons I don't use Myspace anymore is because I couldn't take all of the obnoxious flashing page layouts and banners. Not to mention the general skankafied feel of it all. And Facebook better be careful, even though every profile looks the same and it has a fairly clean look about it, they run the risk of drowning me in applications that my dog wouldn't even be interested in. And don't even get me started on the fan pages. Just today I had in my suggestions section a fan page for "Not being on fire. 5 friends are now fans." Are you effing kidding me? I was tempted to find out which of my 5 friends it was and promptly unfriend them, but that seemed a bit drastic.

So the point of my rambling is this: Why do we as the general public, who have nothing to market, read and write blogs? Are we looking for good conversation? Or perhaps it is in some ways a popularity contest by way of how many followers/subscribers/friends can you get. With the ultimate goal being making sure it's more than your friends have? Or perhaps it's just a way to relieve boredom at work. Most of us probably have our own reasons, but I'm wondering what is it for you?

There are several blogs I love to read, 1000AwesomeThings.com for instance, I read it first thing every morning at work. And I save the Sunday Secrets from PostSecret.com for my Monday morning treat. And it's very rare that I'll buy a magazine, after all, if it's worth reading they'll put it online right? My friend Jaimie had an interesting post about that at Jamie Maldonado Photography if you're interested I suggest you have a read and leave a comment!

So let's ride the wave of the blogging trend and see how creative we can get! Make suggestions for your readers to post about in their own blogs. When you read someone's blog leave comments and give feedback. Strive to post meaningful, insightful, informative or hilarious things.

Anyway, that's all I have for today!

Daily Reflection On A Dead Man's Quotation

2009-04-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

And now for a serving of a little something I like to call,"Daily Reflection On A Dead Man's Quotation" brought to you in part by Madison DuPree and Oscar Wilde.

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to change it every six months."

Now I don't know what remedy Mr. Wilde was suggesting but I concur with him in his angst about modern fashion trends. For instance I was cleaning out my closet and came across a light pink and gray shirt, and I debated throwing it out because those colors haven't been in style since last summer (or 1985 depending on your personal fashion tastes). I thought about throwing it out but I went against my mother's voice in my head and kept it, because after all I'm just a poor college student. As much as I would love to use current trends as an excuse to revamp my wardrobe every few months I simply can't afford it.

By the way... you can get some really great deals on Threadless.com if you check their $5 and $10 sections everyday. You know... for those who strive to keep up their artsy fashion look on a tight budget. And if you're going for more of an upscale fashion look then anthropology does have a decent sale section, you just have to be committed to checking it out regularly!

If anyone else has any cheap style tips I'd love to hear them!

And if anyone wants to know how my day is going..... I'd have to say it's going well. I love it when it's stormy outside at night, especially when that storm floods the roads around my work making it impossible for me to come into the office at 8:00. I got a call early this morning telling me that I shouldn't come in until 11:00. Sleeping in is a beautiful thing people... a very, very beautiful thing. So I slept until 9:00 (as opposed to my usual 7:00) then spent the last bit of my stolen time watching America's Next Top Model reruns.

And I pride myself on my efficiency today because I was planning on going to Starbucks to use some of the gift cards I got for Admin Assistant Day and read. But instead I went to the store because it's my week for groceries.

Also, on a completely unrelated note our pool is green. I'm not happy about this.

Ooops I forgot!

2009-04-27T10:11:00.002-05:00

So sorry... I've forgotten all about this thing. But as my need for a blogging site grows (other than the trashy forum of MySpace, The outdated network of xanga, or the impressively stalker friendly facebook) I find myself turning here. I don't know that anyone reads it anymore, but hey, if you're reading this then I most likely linked to it on Twitter and now you can decide if you're ever going to read this again.

I don't have too much to say and when I do say something it will most likely be about mundane every day stuff. And I will most likely be mad about it... but as my roommates tell me, I'm funniest when really T.O.ed. Ok whatever, I'm not sure I appreciate that but if you want to be entertained then step right up to the plate and I'll throw you a fast ball of arrogant angst and cynicism.

And I love to throw in book reviews here and there. So I leave you with the words of the immortal Mark Twain,
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."

Or

"We call it the 'Goodness of God' that we have those three unspeakable precious things; freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either."

Take what you will.

What I've decided...

2008-03-21T11:56:00.002-05:00

So here is the consensus...

1. I will continue to live at home for at least the next year.
2. I quit my job. I'm now looking for a part time one.
3. I am going on tour with Eisley starting April 1st and I'm not sure how long i'll stay on the tour but I'll keep you guys updated.
4. I have a couple of leads for jobs but I'm basiclly hoping to follow God's lead to pick the right one.
5. I want more from God.

The End.

NOTE CONCERNING #5: After 20 years of following God I realized the other night that I might be back at square one... not having a clue as to what I want from God. I found this mildly depressing but then again it's strangely liberating to just be able to say "God I want more from you."

OK The Real End.

It takes two to tango

2008-02-13T11:26:00.002-06:00

It always comes down to the sad truth of the phrase "it takes two to tango". It's a terrible fact that no matter how determined or loyal you are someone that they can just walk away from you with all of your dreams stuffed into their backpack along with old coffee mints and dirty laundry. How do you find someone who understands the type of commitment it takes to make a relationship last for a lifetime? How do you find someone who would put his life on hold for the sake of being what you need? How do you know that someone will never leave you no matter how hard things are?

Over the last few months I've seen some of the people closest to me have their hearts torn out because they made a commitment to guys who only thought they knew what a relationship was about. One such person is someone i would say understands commitment and selflessness more than anyone else I know, but that wasn't enough for him. And another was living out her fairy tale with prince charming, until less than a year after being married he left her. She never saw it coming. Both of these girls are amazingly talented and unique and yet even they cannot seem to find someone who knows what it means to be wholeheartedly committed to someone.

So when I see these things happening I'm not only hurting for them... i'm scared for myself. How do i find that? Because I can only speak for myself when I say that when I make a commitment to love and cherish someone for the rest of my life I intend to do just that. But as a see all too often that sometimes isn't enough.

And I don't want anyone to think this is a "man hating" post... not at all. I know plenty of girls who are capable of this same thing. I just so happen to be referring to two guys who are too selfish and self centered to make a true commitment.

One think I can see from all of this is that God HAS TO BE the center of the relationship FOR BOTH PEOPLE. And i suppose this is what i'm looking for... because i don't know where else to start.

Here is a bit of a post made by someone who I consider to be completely selfless, generous, and gracious.

"...Valentines Day is just around the promising corner...and I'd like to say a lot of things.....but less is sometimes the best...so here they come :

Happy true-love... Happy life-long-loyalty... Happy faithfulness... Happy cherishing.. Happy respect.... Happy till-death-do-you-part.... Happy for-rich-or-for-poor... Happy sickness-or-health..... Happy come-hell-or-high-water.... Happy selflessness.... Happy giving-when-you-think-you-shouldn't-have-too....... Happy accepting-the-truth.... Happy coming-clean-up-front.... Happy humility.... Happy going-the-extra-mile... Happy admitting-your-pride.... Happy contentment-and- commitment.... Happy affectionateness... Happy passion-romance-and-excitement.... Happy purity and patience.... Happy growing-up-and-growing-old-together... Happy best-friends.... Happy never-giving-up.... Happy never-leaving... Happy teaching-each-other.... Happy not-living-for-yourself.... Happy denying-areas-of-denial..... Happy no-matter-what... Happy I-love-and-want-only-you....Happy........the end."

Today

2008-02-09T10:42:00.000-06:00

I'm going to say this like i don't say it all the time, simply because it needs to be said.

I love Rob Bell.

So there you go... that is the intro to my story/thoughts today. I've in fact been thinking that this post is a few days over due because my thoughts really begin on Wednesday night at the Highschool Girls Home Group that I lead. We've been going through Rob Bell's Nooma videos each week and we are just about out, so aside from my slight panic at actually having to come up with my own lessons, I was really trying savor what he was saying so i could perhaps regurgitate it into my own lesson at some later time. The one we were watching was "Today" and as you can guess he was talking about embracing this time in your life so not only are we living to our fullest we won't look back and regret anything. We wont be "stuck in our past" and find ourselves trying to relive being the star athlete or the popular musician in 20 years. I thought it was a great video but I was disappointed that the girls had even less to say about it than they usually do.

Oh well not such a big deal... but then when I had a bunch of them all piled in my car so i could drive them home they started discussing it among themselves. And as I sat there listening to them I learned a thing or two from some of the most unlikely people.

I think out of all that was said the thing that stuck with me the most was what one girl said about how she misses this one particular time in her life. She says that she finds herself more and more lately wanting to be back there, but when she thinks about it she knows that her best friend at the time was a bad influence and her boyfriend was no good for her, and yet she can't help but miss it and until tonight she couldn't have told you why. But she said that she thinks it's because she didn't worry as much then. Now she's always stressed out about so many different things and most of them are beyond her control, so what she really misses is trusting God to take care of things. And so right there in the car she decided that trusting God is going to be her "time machine". So she can live in the "here and now" and still have what she misses most from previous years.

And as we all sat in silence driving in the car my ipod started playing "Carry You" by Jimmy Eat World which ironiclly has the lyrics

"So here's to living in the moment, because it passed"

It was a great moment... just when i thought God wasn't going to show up, there he was.

When I know I'm all alone
I say your name slowly
And I know that I'm alone
But I'll carry you

Does it feel good like the memory
When you try some history
It's a dream to come around
But who doesn't then,
Because the taste doesn't taste the same again

It's easy feeling righteous when you're new
All you'll get is what you wanna hear
It hurts because it should
How else am I to make it clear?

I could never be the one that you want, don't ask.
Well, here's to living in the moment
'Cause it passed.

Maybe your lie is what I need sometimes
You told the most and best of anyone
You said to "keep me in your pocket"
So I carried you

You better choose your words carefully
Because I'm not your anything
Gonna stay here in my place
And you'll stay in yours because
Your only good is what you're good for

I pace around the room to spend the time
Waiting while the burning pictures fade
One thing to make your mind
And another to say it's me

I could never be the one that you want, don't ask.
Well, here's to living in the moment
'Cause it passed, it passed.

I'm still carrying a little hope that
Maybe things could be different now
Is that so wrong, is that so wrong, is that so wrong?

Would I see you tonight
At a place we'll go
(going through the motions, they lead to rhythm motion)
I wanna make things right
Before time runs out.
(was like you said, the taste don't taste like it should)
Roll down the windows
Like the cold, they're coming
Slap my face just to feel, to feel you somehow again, again

I could never be the one that you want, don't ask.
Well, here's to living in the moment
'Cause it passed.

I could never be the one that you want, don't ask.
Yeah, here's to living in the moment
'Cause it passed.
'Cause it passed, it passed, it passed.

2008-01-29T20:38:00.001-06:00

"And so it was that the blogging life of Madison had become to cramped and she no longer was able to express herself. So seeing no other way to escape the prying eyes of fo-fans and youngsters she fled to the safe arms of blogger.com.

And she lived happily ever after... or so she hopes."