I'm in!

This will be another in my string of short posts. I had my UHCL interview today for the Counseling Cohort that will be taking place within my district. I was a "shoe in." There was no reservation on the part of my interviewer/future advisor. He said I have a lot of strengths to contribute. I signed the paper and now I have a few weeks to figure out exactly how I am going to pay for it.... Maybe I can set up a pay pal account and solicit my readers for donations..... ; )
Later.

Smart Wife!

Teach took the test and she is a Regional Genius too! (I have to admit that she beat me by 5pts.)

My personality.... another online gimmick! (Happy 50th entry to me!)

My IQ... yes, I did an online quiz.

I am one below the highest ranking category! To hear me talk with my orthodontic appliances, you would think I was "special" : )

And the walls are vibrating!

It was not a surprise to me at all on a lazy Friday summer afternoon when my walls in my house and the large metal wall hanging started rattling. It was not a surprise at all as I watched the whole thing unravel on TV. It started on a Friday after noon as one 58 year old man by the last name of Pool was evading police officers after robbing a dry cleaner and shooting at another police officer. The man could have gotten away except that he had let his nerves get the best of him as he was being followed by police officers in a helicopter, because his truck was nearby the incident and resembled the reported vehicle. What was he driving? He was driving a white Chevy truck with an extended cab. As we all know, this could be a multitude of trucks. But, a guilty conscience as well as hovering helicopters got the best of him and he soon began driving erratically, taking police on a chase through many suburban municipalities as well as the big city itself. All this time, the chase (as many chases are these days) was being broadcast on television. It was exciting and a great opportunity for advertisers as America is a glutton for such action. This man did not know where he was going. This was obvious as images of him turning around in culdesacs, parking lots, and using his four wheel drive to get through fields (something the cops could not do in their cars) were broadcast on the television screen. Considering where this man was at the time the broadcast started, I never imagined he would end up in my backyard (not literally). But as the helicopter pursuit ensued, we saw that he was getting closer and closer to my suburban neighborhood and nearby highway until my walls were vibrating and I could hear the faint sound of sirens nearby. What did I do? I got in my jeep and intercepted him at a nearby cut off, being familiar with local roads and where they go, running him and myself off the road. He was so shocked by the incident that he did not have time to reach for his gun, the gun he used to shoot at the officer earlier that day. I busted his window in with my tire iron and mangled his face with my fist. Next, I grabbed the gun that he had on the dashboard and held him up until police got there. Now, for what really happened...... After watching this guy drive crazily through the city (he made some mistakes.... he could have gotten away while U-Turning through a freeway underpass while cops were not following.... take someone elses car while he was hiding from the helicopter and go the other way.... he had a gun for goodness sakes.... It should have been obvious) and end up near my house, I stepped outside my house and in the sky there were three helicopters hovering over my neighborhood in pursuit of this man who decided to go driving through a nearby golf course. After that, he got on the toll way, he drove for a while until his tires were popped, he got off the toll way, ran into a car and then ended up in a ditch after a few bad turns.... I was almost on the news that day. : )

The End.

Evolution must be true.

Anybody who does not believe in the theory of evolution must not be very smart. All you got to do is look around you and see how obvious it is. For instance, look around your local department store at the mannequins. All through my life, the female mannequins looked appropriate, but now they have nipples to boot. Where did they come from? Surely they are far superior to their nippless ancestors. I never noticed them when I was a young kid or teen. Trust me, if they were there, I would have noticed. The only explanation for this is that the forces of evolution are at work. We are now observing a higher race of mannequin taking over the local department stores. This race of mannequin is becoming much more apparent in the world. Survival of the fittest.

They probably even get paid more since they have nipples. It won't be much longer and we will see mannequins protesting on the news for equal rights. Those with and those without should be paid the same.

Seriously, what is the value of having mannequins with nipples over those that don't? Ladies, does it make it easier for you to shop if the clothes are displayed on the mannequin with the nipples tenting up the fabric? Do you go into the store and think to yourself..."Well.... now I know what it will look like in colder weather. Thank God for the new manequinn. I think I will buy that dress." Do you appreciate the new mannequin or is your shopping intellegence insuted? Lets get real, what lady in their right mind would go out in public looking like that? If you have seen these mannequinns, you know what I mean. If a lady went out like that, everyone would be insulted for her lack of undergarment or praising her for liberating women from the bondage of the bra.

So for a more moderate and realistic approach, I would advocate that stores put bras on the mannequin before clothing it. It would alleviate the concerns of many husbands ahead of time. No longer would they get asked...."Can you see my bra through that?" That would be a good use for these mannequins with nipples since there predecessor did not need a bra to conceal them and it would be a better resemblence of the modern shopper. Isn't that what mannequins are meant to do.

But men, be on alert. I doubt your wife or girlfriend would find it acceptable to be staring at these nipples. How will you answer her when she asks you what you are staring at? Is it better to say mannequin than the flesh and blood alternative? I think either way you will be in trouble. Be on guard and don't say I didn't warn you.

Interview.

Well, I have an interview next week for the counseling program given through UHCL in my school district. That means the classes are given locally rather than at the UHCL campus. If I get accepted, I will be taking more grad classes which will eventually qualify me to take the test and become a school counselor. After that, I can get more supervision and become a Licensed Professional Counselor away from schools. And when I am an LPC, my schedule will be flexible enough to become a rock star.
; ) We will see how it goes.

So Hard To Decide!

This picture was taken at my friends Christa and John's house. They even let me bring the duckies home! They make bath time lots of fun. Remember, you can see a larger picture if you click on it.... For me, it is amazing the difference I notice my braces making especially on my front four teeth in the bottom row. They are lining up more since this picture was taken just about 4 weeks ago.

Good Sunday. Drumming Away.

I will start off by saying I had a pretty good Sunday again. This week, I took my own Bass guitar to church, so my mom won't feel bad about spending that money 16 years ago and then I was asked to play the drums this week. I have never played the drums for an "audience" before (and for all you hyper spirituals out there, I know what you are thinking.... "Jesus is the only audience you should play for at church....blah blah blah") That is easy to say to someone who has done this before, but if you can't keep the beat it sure can put a damper on the worship service and make the leader run his hand across his neck to tell me to cut it out. Well, I sat through practice and rather than being told I wasn't ready, I played for the service. It wasn't perfect, but I did it. I kept a beat. I used a simple cymbal crash as a fill between the verse and chorus. Yippy! The music guy, whose name is Jon to protect the innocent was thankful and said I did good and everyone else said it was good. It worked and thats all that matters to me my first time out. I will go back next week. Who knows what I will be playing next week.

One big thing I learned through the experience is not to go through any reflecting while playing drums. As I was playing I noticed the obvious. There was Laura singing (whose name has been changed to protect the innocent) and her husband Jon on the guitar leading the songs and people joyfully singing praises to God and me playing the drums.... Me Playing the Drums! I always wanted to play the drums and now I am playing the drums more than just playing around with the drums. Wow. I am about to cry.... I can't cry when I am playing the drums... Hold back those tears, I can cry later... Holy Crap! I am crying while I am playing the drums. Can't stop in the middle of a song. Got to keep drumming..... Thank goodness no one saw me cry.... Teach saw my hands rub my eyes between songs and it all made sense too her when I told her I was crying.

The desire of my heart fulfilled. Brings Joy and happiness. Is our heart's desire the voice of God, the result of how he made us? Sure. I think so. I experienced it today as many people do.

This may seem contradictory to my previous post, but the real question is, where and how does God lead us and how can we know that it is God's voice and not us unknowingly using God to prop our desires. Hmm.

More on Sundays....
Finally, I met some friends from cyberspace. Phil and Jenny, (not their real names) stumbled into my church tonight. They are a wonderful couple and they do not have fangs or anything. Their son is just as bright as they mention in their blogs. He is full of life and energy. It was a surreal experience. Here are some people who I have been conversing with (or sometimes tormenting) with my blog comments for months now and it was like meeting them for the first time and yet it wasn't, because we all know what is going on in each others lives because we read about each other on a regular basis. It was neat. I hope my drumming was satisfactory to these music pros.... hehe.

Wrestling with Prayer.

What does prayer do? Why do we pray?
As most of you know, I have made it a pass time, wrestling with, deconstructing, reconstructing, and pondering aspects of faith. Right now, I am stuck on prayer and God's leadership.

I have to wonder, why it is we pray for things or things to happen. Does it really make a difference? Would the things that happen to us, for us, with us, against us, happen whether or not we pray for them. I used to fully believe that prayer changed the universe. I used to think that the things that happened, when I prayed for them, happened because I prayed for them. When they didn't happen, I just figured it was God's "no." When bad stuff happened, I figured it was God trying to grow me. I could live with that. But, the more I have stepped out of my religious bubble (faith is easy in isolation), I recognized that the same good stuff and bad crap that happened to me, to which I blamed God or "gave him the glory," happens to everybody else whether they pray or not.

The fact is, the people who are actively working and take risks are the ones who get rewarded and the ones who sit around and play the victim do not (If anyone takes issue with this statement, it is somewhat biblical to say this, depending on what your favorite verses are). We can even see this played out in religious circles. The results of leadership are a direct impact of the leaders vision and personality. Mega Churches have Mega Leaders and often have a good location on the interstate that was the result of some "lets go and conquer the land" campaign. On the other hand, the pastors who are not as energetic and dynamic and active do not see the same numbers. In a lot of cases, the pastors think the other is not following God because if they were, how could their church be like _________. I am not placing judgment on either one. I am just saying that this is the way it is.

As a matter of fact, these two hypothetical pastors can pray about the same things and end up with different answers. Not just pastors, but any two people can pray about the same stuff and end up with two diametrically opposed answers in many arenas, from abortion to marriage. Is God answering their prayers or is the answer a result of the desire of their heart as well as their presupposition about who God is?

A person who believes God wants them to be rich will take every opportunity to be rich. A person who does not believe that won't. Is this evidence of God's leadership or the culture in which they were raised?

I remember believing many things about people and opportunities in my life that I was sure would happen because it was God's will and it didn't. I also know people may have believed with all their heart things about me that were God's will that didn't happen. Anyone who has been around church a while has had someone tell them that God wants them to do something while thinking "God didn't tell me to do that."

Does God really answer prayer or lead us in a supernatural way or do we just fit the outcome or our choice into our faith paradigm? Right now, I am leaning toward the latter. People do what they want to do and believe they are supposed to do at certain turning points in their own life to meet their present need or desire and God gets the blame for it.

Many people (I have certainly been guilty) who go around saying that God led them to do this or that are often avoiding responsibility for themselves when they should be saying, "I want to tell you..." without using God as a prop. Is it necessarily less godly to do this? I think it could be more evident of God's power when we can change from a passive weakling (which I still am sometimes) to being able to stand on our own two feet and articulate the desires of our hearts and our feelings and then put them into action. It is being a good steward of our life and talent when we can do that.

While thus far I have focussed on the outcome of prayer, I also ponder the act of prayer. I often hear people say that prayer does not change God, but changes us. Maybe the outcome is different because our attitude is different.

When we talk to God, it can have a cathartic effect. It can allow us to vent. But, of course I still think the outcome of such discussions depends on our view of God rather than the reality of who God is. I know in my life and many others, I prayed tirelessly about some things and really did not see many breakthroughs. I finally saw change and progress after I jumped into a more psychological arena such as counseling and Adult Children of Alcoholic meetings for a while and finally understood why I was the way I was (depressed) and ways to talk myself out of it. I still have more progress to make, but stepping away from the "spiritual" as I understood it and finding these other things was like a weight lifted off of my shoulders. It was as if the answers were all around me and I was too busy looking up to see them.

When we talk to God in a group, others can be edified and encouraged (not that we do it to show off, but we all can admit it feels good to hear someone pray for us... c'mon be honest).

While all things are supernatural by default, because God created all things, is the impact of the act of prayer more of a psychological phenomenon than one that is specifically supernatural as a result of doing it?

Hmm... think about it for a while and then wrestle with me.

Have a great weekend.

Long overdue... Why "Snoop Donnie Don?"

This is a short sweet story. I have shared it with some on the blogs already, but it brings forth the aroma of sweet memories to think about it. Ahhh.
During the winters at college, I would often don a wool cap that was similar to those worn by some rappers at the time and some friends of mine in the cafeteria were joking around about it until my nickname became "Snoop Donnie Don." Now you know.

Good Sunday.

I have always been fascinated by the drums. Over the years, I have sat at some drum sets and manage to keep a simple beat. A few weeks ago I was farting around on the drumset at church and the pastor recommended that I come to rehearsal. If I was no good, the music guy would tell me to sit out. No problem for me. So, I went to rehearsal this week and the drummer, who is often out of town, was in town. So, I didn't play the drums this week. Maybe next time. But, he asked if I played bass and I said I could try it. I have owned a bass for more than 15 years and never pursued it seriously. But it is fun to play around with and get out my frustrations on. I gave it a shot. I wasn't perfect, but I got to play during the service and it was great. It was my first time to play this instrument in front of a crowd. I'll just go to rehearsal next week and say, "Whatcha need?" and I will do it. Hopefully, he won't need a singer. I am out of commission for that for at least a year.

I remember when i was younger, I was going to be the next great bass player in America. But, like many things I have a problem sticking with them. I must have ADHD.

After church, we had some friends over and I discovered the value of the food processor. For a good combination of foods, I recommend beer butt chicken (with my own blend of store bought seasoning), garlic mashed potatoes, and carrots with a little Tony Chachere's and some chicken broth. After a few minutes in the processor, it turned into a quite delicious and nutricious mush. Mmm.

Finally, you can see what a good day me an Kitty had. Since church is at night now, the cat and I had some opportunity to bond.