another playlist. of course it’s got beatles in it!

Bishop Allen Drive — Bishop Allen  /

No More Lonely Nights — Owsley  /

Topaz — B-52s  /

How Would You Like It — Jem  /

Every Waking Moment — Citizen Cope  /

Sing Me Sweet — Matt Nathanson  /

Whiskey and Wine — Matt Costa  /

Every Little Thing — The Beatles  /
The Story In Your Eyes — The Moody Blues  /

The End — The Beatles  /

Conquistador — Procol Harum.

Posted via email from where everything else goes

yo, ping! post this to friendfeed, would ya?

will it work?

Just checking something out using ping.fm. Disregard this as you would any other post here at serotoninrain.

a poem for monday

the morning is quiet

and dawn is breaking

i contemplate pixels

as the house is awaking

then, like an arrow,

piercing my head

my nokia 6555

doth rise from the dead

in breaks the voice

of Jeff Bridges’ tirade

a line from a movie

the Coens had made

it tells me one thing

i don’t have to answer

i get no day day off

the PO like cancer

spreads where it will

and kills all motivation

takes my free days

and gives no vacation

but the money, i like

so off i will go

cuz a sub at the PO

can never say no.

25 things about me that i might have mentioned before but have forgotten now since i’m getting old

1. I bought my first cell phone in 2006 when I was 41 years old. It was a cheap nokia pay as you go type thing.

2. The only reason I bought that was in case I needed it while delivering the mail.

3. I had to use it twice in the first week on the job: I blew two tires in one day.

4. I do not like talking on the phone and hardly ever answer it at home even if it’s inches away.

5. I grew up in Hamilton, NJ; about two miles from the central post office… the one where all the anthrax came from in 2001.

6. The last movie I saw in a theatre was… hrmmmm…. No Country for Old Men. I thought it was great.

7. Until about a year ago, I was a voracious reader. Now I struggle to get through a single book. It’s not the internet, it’s that I have no time.

8. Though I shouldn’t care at all about this, being blocked by Duncan Riley on Friendfeed the other day really hurt. It’s stupid, I know. Obviously, this means…

9. I am very sensitive…

10. Though not as sensitive as I once was: the job at the post office has toughened me up.

11. I want an iPhone though I act like I don’t.

12. I used to not even think about my birthday but now I kind of look forward to it. Yes, I’m doing it backwards. Deal with it.

13. I loathe politics.

14. Number 13 is not an exaggeration.

15. Much of the time, I feel like a complete phoney. Now that I’m a pastor (sort of), this feeling has intensified.

16. In the the early 90s I worked at an ad agency in New York. I got this job immediately after…

17. I received my MBA in 1989.

18. I worked there for 4 years. I loved it. The only complaint was that I kept asking for a mac and the company kept telling me they were working on it.

19. On my last day at the agency, March 7, 1993 guess what was sitting in my cube when I arrived in the morning?

20. I have never been fired or laid off, nor have I received anything less than a very good performance review in any job. I usually feel like I am overrated.

21. I’ve never had a broken bone and the only surgery I’ve ever had was a tonsillectomy when I was 4.

22. My favorite movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is a fave I share with Tom Hanks.

23. I have a somewhat strange career history: Math/Statistics Undergrad, Marketing MBA, Advertising research executive, youth minister, associate pastor, mailman, freelance writer, pastor.

24. I love hot peppers, but jalapenos make me sick! What is up with that?

25. The inscription I’d like to have on my tombstone is a quote from John the Baptist, when he was asked if it worried him that all his followers were leaving to follow Jesus. He said, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

twelve first line(s)

This meme brought to you by coffeepastor.

The first line I wrote on this blog in each month of this year:

 

The booming was all in my head, mind you.

 

I’ve been underwhelmed to varying degrees by almost every American car I’ve test driven, owned or traveled.

 

…i’d do one of of these.

 

i’m about to put up a post that is articulate, informative, and above all, interesting.

 

Remember Jan Chipchase from that NYT magazine article the other day?

 

amanda’s hair, that is.

 

Right here in pottstown

 

Wasn’t it Tuesday evening, when I was agonizing over the move, like two seconds ago.

 

It would suck if one of those acorns fell right now.

 

From my daughter’s algebra textbook: -3^4   [ed. -- that's a 3 with a minus sign in front and an exponent of 4]= -(3*3*3*3)=-81 and (-3)^4=(-3)(-3)(-3)(-3)=81.

 

So, yeah… there’s an election tomorrow.

 

rock, rock, rock, mr. santa!

dark glass

So, yeah… there’s an election tomorrow.

You’ve maybe noted that there hasn’t been much in the way of political commentary here. That doesn’t mean I don’t have very, very strong opinions about the direction of our country and about who should be our next President. What it means is that who I vote for is my own business and I’ve been able, though I will say it was a tough process, to make up my own mind. I’ve been listening to what both/all sides have to say and considering it all carefully. You’ll just have to trust me that I won’t be deliberately trying to sabotage your personal hopes when I make my choice tomorrow. I wouldn’t do that to you. On the other hand, you’re not going to change my mind either. Besides, those of you who know me, even if it’s only virtually, can probably guess who I’m voting for easily enough.

I learned long ago that I simply cannot put too much faith in our country’s political process. The simple fact that the real choice is narrowed to two seriously flawed options every four years is proof enough for me of that. I don’t know how to change it, and maybe it’s impossible. So I choose the one seriously flawed option that comes closest, a term which I use quite loosely, to reflecting my own views. But I don’t place my faith in the person I choose. I don’t even place a hell of a lot of faith in my ability to choose.

All my faith. All of it. Every single molecule of the mustard seed, is in the Lord Jesus.

I’ve noticed lately that among my lefty friends, it’s pretty unpopular right now to say that one is a follower of Jesus. Mocking the myopia of ‘religious’ people is all the rage among some of my ‘followers’ on friendfeed, for example. Well, what can I say, we’ve given those folks some pretty easy targets. None of their criticisms are far off the mark. They make me wince and sometimes they really hurt, but they’re often true, or partly true.

At the same time, I’m ashamed at some of the stuff coming from some Christian people on the right. Such rage, such blind hatred! Such fear! I can understand that coming from those who don’t believe, but from Christians? Two weeks ago a woman in my congregation seriously suggested that one of the presidential candidates might be the anti-Christ. I told her that such a view required a seriously Ameri-centric view of the world and that, like it or not, God’s view of the world just isn’t that way.

Like my vote, my choice, such as it was, to follow Jesus is not one that can be shaken by mocking from those who cannot believe. Neither can it be shaken by shame at the behavior of my fellow Christians. For better or for worse, all my faith is in Jesus.

So, I’ll be voting tomorrow. Hopefully early in the day, provided the Post Office gives me a pass. My faith has informed my choice, but only because my faith informs everything I do. At least, I hope and pray that it does. I can see how and why some would choose differently. I have to trust that we’re mature enough as a nation (although at the close of this electoral season, that in itself is a large leap of faith) to choose well and wisely.

Even so, I have to remember that mine is a choice that is made by one who sees only as through a dark glass. And so is yours.

God be good to you.

prayer request

Hello everyone.

I’m asking for prayers for my wife. Yesterday morning her left hip started hurting so badly that she couldn’t walk on it. It happened very suddenly and the pain disappeared after she laid down for a few minutes. I didn’t even know it happened.

When I came back over from church yesterday she was reading in bed after having another episode. This time it took longer for the pain to subside, but it did. She said it felt funny the rest of the day.

This morning she woke up with her hip feeling perfectly normal, but it didn’t last. It seems that these episodes are triggered by certain kinds of movement. This time it didn’t hurt as bad and she was able to walk, though not much.

She limped to the car and headed off to work promising to call the doctor. I’m waiting to hear when her appointment will be.

So if you would, please say a prayer for her. For me too if you would, she’s limping but otherwise fine, as in not worried. I’m the one who worries.

Thanks.

UPDATE: Just heard from my wife. The hip is back to normal and feeling fine. Her appointment isn’t until late this afternoon.

UPDATE to the UPDATE: She just returned from having her hip x-rayed. We won’t know what that shows until tomorrow, but the doctor thinks it’s a result of her rheumatoid arthritis, or perhaps bursitis. She was diagnosed with RA in the early 1990s.

looking for at least one more bar (aka, the 4 bar blues)

Back in March or April or something, I got a new cell phone from AT&T and gave my pay  as you go Nokia tracfone to my wife, who has yet to dip below 300 minutes in the tank (I gave it to her with 389 minutes).

In July or August or something we moved here to our new house in the semi-rural wastelands (only kidding, it’s actually very nice, see my banner above for proof… that’s not our house, btw). It was however, a quasi-wasteland in terms of cell phone signal. My verizon friends walk around all by themselves, with no army of techs led by a geeky dude with curly hair following them. My sprint friends, well I don’t even talk to them because their phones are useless here. Don’t know how tmobile is doing, but if any new G1 owners wanna stop by, we’ll check out the reception. Then you can go ahead and forget your phone when you leave.

I on the other hand, had signal. 1 or two bars at the most, but enough so I could, for the most part, stay inside the house to make calls. Sending MMS messages worked okay too, provided I placed the phone in just the right spot in my office while the message winged its way toward the web or wherever.

Until yesterday when the sun dawned on a brave new world. I woke up, turned on my cell (that’s right, I’m one of the, like, 17% of people who actually turn the thing off every now and again… mostly while I sleep) and… NO! WAY! 4 bars of beautiful 3G! I turned off the phone, pinched myself and turned it on again. Four bars again! 3G, again! Let the praises resound! And the post office didn’t call, either. It was a good day!

I texted. I phoned people. I sent picture texts. I exhausted that stinkin’ battery! (Incidentally, the Nokia 6555, my phone, has a battery that yields a 2 hour or less talk time… I think this is low. You?)

I told all my church friends about it last night at a meeting. They were in awe (because they’re all on Sprint or Verizon. Suckers).

Then this morning it was gone like yesterday is gone. Like history is gone. Like Elvis and his mom.

And  now my song is a sad one…

Suddenly

There’s just half the bars there used to be!

There’s less signal that’s surrounding me

Oh yesterday went suddenly.

 

(refrain)

My phone was so strong

And I thought that it would stay

Now my signal’s gone, how I long

For yesterday… ay… ay… ay.

sigh.

are you using youmail?

Do you own a cell phone? If so, are you using youmail?

You’re not?

At the very least you should check it out.

Youmail is a free web service that allows you to access, listen to and reply to any voicemail message via the web. It works just like email but when you reply to an incoming message, you can choose whether to use sms, email, or voice.

Youmail also allows you to set up multiple greetings and assign those greetings to specific callers. It will also import your contacts from gmail and other mail services.

It works great, though is a little slow in loading.

Youmail’s primary usefulness to me is the ability to receive and reply to voicemail when I’m in a place with no cell signal, but where there is wifi. St. Peter’s, PA where I frequently hang out is such a place. The other day I was there and my fellow sub, Ann, tried to call me. Since I couldn’t receive the call, it went to youmail where she left a message. Youmail forwarded the notification to my gmail inbox and I was able to listen and respond to Ann’s message (via sms).

But it’s also useful when I’m in a writing frenzy and dont’ want to bother answering my cell. The resulting scenario is quite similar to what I described above.

Youmail makes me happy.

Try it yourself.