songs in the attic

If you're in Birmingham this Friday night, you should definitely check out the Grey Haven concert. Friday night, 6:30, Urban Standard. Caleb was kind enough to let me sit in on their practice last night since I am leaving for Zambia on Thursday and will not be able to attend the show. They've got some really great songs that will be performed and it will, no doubt, be amazing.

Please keep me in your prayers as I travel with a team of five others from The Church at Brook Hills to Zambia. We are taking clothes to orphans and will be helping Zambian ministers make disciples. It will be a tough trip, one that I'm sure will require a lot of physical, emotional and spiritual endurance. I can't wait.

mmbaway

I was a freshman in college. My roommate and I sat and watched the TV in our small room as the chaos unfolded. Smoke rose to the sky as people, ash and debris fell to the ground. No one understood. No one could explain. We just sat. Not knowing we were under attack. Not knowing what was about to happen. And then it did.

I didn't know them. They weren't my friends or my family or my colleagues. They weren't protecting my neighborhood or my office building. They didn't do anything to deserve it.

It's still hard to fathom. Hard to get my mind around. No other instance in my life has mixed such seething fury with such deep sadness at the exact same time.

Seven years and we're still sifting through it all. The rubble is gone and the foundation has been poured. We'll never understand. It will never be ok. Another reminder that this world is not my home.

Fluff

I love reading.  Particularly, I love reading books.  There's something timeless and endearing that a book provides that magazines and the internet will never be able to.  Over the last few months I've read a lot of books.  In some ways it feels like being back in college, but only taking one class.  I rarely have more than one book going because of the tendency to never finish both, so whatever is current is getting read until it's done.  

I read to learn.  It's therapeutic and it makes me feel like I'm taking steps, however small, toward becoming a better person/entrepreneur/marketer/writer/Christian/whatever.  For some reason, I've come to expect the author to tell me what I need to know, why I need to know it and move on.  I think it came from reading Seth Godin's books.  They're concise, small and packed with valuable marketing insights that I can usually apply the second I read the words.  

His blog is like that, The Dip is like that, Purple Cow is like that, All Marketers Are Liars is like that.  Meatball Sundae, however, is not.  It's redundant, it's ambiguous and there is way too much excess.  Maybe it's the "microwave culture" that old people tell us we live in, but excess is irritating.  I picked up Small Giants tonight, by Bo Burlingham... excess.  Ok, that's not fair, I've only read the (long) introduction.  But, so far it's gems of value hidden and disguised by lots and lots of words.  I'm looking forward to reading it, but I really hate having to sift while I read.  

If you're reading a novel, excess is necessary.  If you're reading to learn, excess will drive you crazy.  

orange fury

Recently, my dad bought a dirt bike. It's pretty awesome, so yesterday we decided to take it for a Labor Day ride. My last experience on a dirt bike was less than pleasurable and left me unconscious and grateful to be alive. That's another blog for another day, though. We went out to The Bowl in Maylene, AL, which is just past the other side of the edge of the earth. Very few people know it exists, but it's a great place to ride.

Dad's bike is exorbitantly fast and I felt out of control several times on the mostly gravel road, but I left The Bowl with minimal injuries. I got tossed one time when I turned too sharp and gave it a little too much gas. Fortunately, I was wearing armor that saved me from losing a lot of skin on my shoulder and upper arm. The palm of my right handed landed on a small rock and it bruised a little, but nothing major. The next time I ride I want to do a double back flip. Shouldn't be too hard.


Helmets and pads are good.



Dad about to do an amazing trick...