March 2007 Archives

You can now find me there.

Stop by and say hi.

This is a great idea!

[full story | via rebecca's pocket]

To my horror, I found out that Angelina Jolie has named the newest member of her family Pax. Pax is Latin for peace.

I close most of my e-mails with "pax". How dare she steal from me a word that is more than 2000 years old.

No originality left in the world.

A smart, funny, and insightful interview about entertainment, process, creativity, and race politics by one of the smartest people in the business, Chris Rock, can be found at KCRW's "The Treatment".

Please don't hold "I think I love my wife" against him.

I was standing in the lobby of the hotel we are working at this weekend watching the high school students mill into the ballroom.

Somehow one thought jumped to another to yet another (the way thoughts do) and I found myself thinking of someone I went to jr. and sr. high with.

She was a very beautiful and had an uncommon sense of style (especially for Casper, WY). She was the only person I knew who read Vogue and dressed well enough to be in it.

I don't think I ever shared a single word with her in all the time we were in school together. She was much higher in the high school food chain than me (not that she wouldn't talk to me, but our paths never crossed).

Two thoughts came to mind. One was of a friend saying really rude things about her (which made little sense to me for she wasn't the typical target of teenage scorn). The second thought was of her after college. She had moved to New York, was working to Tommy Hilfiger, and one day took her own life.

Suddenly sadness washed over me. For her, that she felt so alone and believed there was no other choice. For me (and people like me), who never got a chance to know her.

In my mind happiness is: dependent on your choices if your current situation is good or bad.

Here is Joe Vitale's reflection on a similar thought:

[via Mr. Fire Blog]

I sent an e-mail to someone who doesn't know me well and probably doesn't know I am dyslexic. Because of the dyslexia, I end up writing things that have real words, spelled correctly with the help of spell check, which aren't the right word. This sometime causes some confusion (and unintentional comedy).

Here is part of the e-mail that caused confusion.

I was explaining why I hadn't written back in a timely fashion. In the e-mail I wrote, "I am still settling in my new place and internet access is dependent on the wife I can borrow (which isn't around in the evening)."

It was suppose to read "WiFi I can borrow". I can't even imagine the confusing I created.

Here are some of my favorite spelling blunders from the past:

* Once sent a contract to "The Sacred Heart of Mary". The contract I sent read "scared heat of Mary".

* I sent a letter to a bunch of churches in TX about a tour we were doing. It was suppose to read "you and the parish next on our trip are responsible for getting us from one location to the next." Instead it read, "one lactation to the next"

* Describing some food I was eating in Ecuador I wanted to say "wrapped in corn" but wrote "raped in corn"

Here is a list of all the search terms that lead people to my blog in the last week. It is telling the number of people who made it to the site based off misspelled words. (Also, I want to know what "math prayer" is and what "object lessons, youth, breakfast cereal" was suppose to turn up.)

giovanni michael monterastelli
norway laungage
a pacture of noodles
funny signs
chinese mountains pandas
the tean marketing plan
popiratzi
angel wings drawings
home gaurd defence force durring the second world war in n ireland
michael carotta bio
a stranger opens my door and shouts in this crumy apartment complex
hong kong tramway
a pacture of spices
simple prayers
finding a narrative nursing writting on having abnormal pregnancy
angel wings
china sign
definition of art
homestarrunner pitchers
wings angel
funny signs
william tiller the eternal now
angel wings spread
red panda baby
definition of art
susana hoff naked
cool animal
gafas de sol noway
orquestration midi for keyboard
avril leather gloves
words and lyrics to song "going up on the mountain
funny translations
dads feet
egg in a bottle hypothisys
animal in the himalayas
math prayer
red panda
tico slang spanish english words
lot of feet
"if i did it"
blue phrases
feet from people
realistic angel wings
places to see and things to do in my rigion
cool animal
strong mind qutoe
chinese chicken feet
locks for love casper wyoming
45 foot snake
baby red panda
the bull run in spain dangers how many it kill every festival
cute note paper
nitty ditty dirt band
kiss my feet
monterastelli
dads and their daughters
brother feet
chinese duck
"ester hicks" mp3
china lots of people
angel wings tattoo
easter "wood cross" activity
praying , kneeling angel
allowed on sabbath
china himalayas
lost orintation video español
angels wings
definition of art
chinese duck
prayers to start the day
alhambra mozaics
spain lanuage course in hong kong
hug appropriate
mike carotta speaking schedule
black angel wing tattoos
the way a teacher talks in class
fake factory
object lessons, youth, breakfast cereal
open my eyes by jesse manibusan midi
the famous laungage for differnt countries

It was a rainy day in Mt. Vernon, IL yesterday. The playground was muddy, so a dozen or so pre-schoolers went to the gym to burn off a little energy. (We were in there setting up the sound system for the evening show.)

To start with they just started running with no rhyme or reason. That's all they needed to play.

Then they decided to play hide and seek. In a gym. Which they could only be in one half.

The "seeker" covered her eyes and started counting. The "hiders" again ran and spiraled in circles around the gym. One by one they ended up in the corner, kinda behind the edge of the folded up bleachers.

It was amazing to watch. Hide and seek in a room with no place to hide. They still ran a giggled and giggled some more.

We then interrupted the game to juggle for them. How could we not?

I think it should be a crime to be a juggler, be around 12 pre-schoolers, and not to juggle. Maybe even punishable by death.

This morning we attended mass with the students of St. Mary’s in Mt. Vernon, IL. (Go Knights!)

Today the second graders were responsible for the mass. They read, sang, and ushed (what ever the past tense of ‘to usher’ is).

When it came time for communion, one of the second graders who was cantering said, “Our communion hymn is ‘All Above’. I mean ‘Above All’”. And then she smiled a big toothy second grader grin and giggled.

How nice would it be to still be in a place that we could mess up, into a microphone, in front of all our peers and not be ashamed. But instead think it was funny.

(Sung like the Cardigans circa 1997)

Evaluations from a conference we helped out at in December, "We love the APeX guys, but could you get someone else for a change."

Ouch!

Someone said for someone else (or so we have heard), "I don't like APeX because they always do the same stuff."

Ouch!

The first comment came in the middle over 100 pages of evaluations and comments about the event. It is the only one I remember.

The second comment was shared with me at the end of a day in which over 50 adults had personally thanked us for our work and our presence (many who have seen us multiple times). It was the only comment I could think about as I drifted off to sleep.

I think the reason these comments haunt me is because they reconfirm my own fears.

I love the work we do. I know we have worked very hard and are committed to quality. One some level we must be doing something right because we have found enough work to make a living for close to a decade.

But there are times, late at night (when nothing good crosses ones mind) we I think I am a fraud. That I am closer to being the man behind the curtain than the public face that is put forward.

As I hear these comments, it is easy enough to get defensive, because I justify and defend why me make the choices we make (and it is not because of laziness).

But that does me no good.

It is good to listen to critique and criticism. It is good to be challenged to be better and to grow.

It is useless to agonize and lament. It is debilitating to give all my energy to defending my actions.

It is best to listen, process and let it go.

It is that simple.

Too bad it isn't that easy.

I have always wanted to own a t-shirt store. If I did, this is the store I would want to own. (I love the Jonah shirt!)

http://sixteensixsseventy.com

ps: You should visit for no other reason than to find the significance of 16670.

I received the James Lipton treatment today over at Inside the Youth Ministry Studio. (Full interview available for download.)

Scott is doing a great job with this (despite the fact he chose to interview me).

Make sure you check out the last two months of interviews.

States left to perform in:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tenseness, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

[and yes, I typed all the state names without the uses of a map]

laser engraved toast breakfast can be magical and friendly again when you are able to burn any image you want into your toast. i’m talking about DIY laser engraved toast! nice article on how to burn the image of jesus or david hasselhoff or erik estrada onto some bread. the instructions start off with 1) find some time to kill, 2) get access to a laser etching system, and goes from there.

[via giantmonster]

Things I love:
* The democratizing power of the internet to give people access to people the would never meet in a very low cost way.
* Creative ideas
* People willing to share what they have.

This has all three.

Michael James is a musician from California.

For lent he has created a web site called 40 Days of Praise.

Each day of lent he is posting a video of a praise song he has written. The video includes playing instructions, a brief introduction to the song, and him playing it. He also provides the sheet music for you to download.

Last night I attended an intro class on stand-up comedy. It was offered by Jen Dziura who is performing in the area tonight.

I attended the class the class for a number of reasons:
* I love hearing about people's process of writing new material. Even if stand-up is very different from what we do, I always seem to learn something new from someone else creative process.
* It was a good opportunity to force myself to sit down and do some writing myself.
* It was a chance to support Jen. Last night is the first time I met her in person, but have read her blog for more than a year. I am always very impressed by people who are willing to follow their dreams, and to do it in very creative ways. She works very hard on her craft as well and sharing it with others. Even though it was the first meeting, I have admired her for a while.

Any of those reasons would have been worth the $20 to get in the door. But there was something that topped it all.

One of the first exercises we did was talk about our lives and Jen helped us find the topic areas that might be funny to talk about. (Ex: One of the women in the class looked like Gillian Anderson and talked about how geeks have tendency to hit on her.)

There was very unassuming African-American woman in the class who was in her 50's. She was not a natural on stage, but she was a very funny story-teller. At one point she was talking about (with all the sincerity in the world) the heart attack she had when she was 38. At one point in her life she worked in medical field. The conversation went something like this:

Woman: When I had the heart attack they found me on the toilet.

Jen: You had a heart attack on the toilet?

W: No I had the heart attack on the couch.

J: Then why did they find you on the toilet?

W: I had seen people die before. When most people die they crap their pants. I was sitting on my white couch and I knew if I died they were going to need the couch. So I drug myself to the bathroom. That way if I crapped myself, I would be on the toilet.

There are three types of jugglers.

The first do the same old tricks in the same old way.

The second take the standard tricks, but do then in new and different ways. (I hope I am part of this group).

Then there is the third. These are the people who push the envelope. They think of juggling in new and different ways. They don't simple take old stuff and frame it new. They place it in completely different contexts.

Greg Kennedy is one of those guys.

Here is one of his latest creations.

[via mom]

I am sitting in the Manchester, NH airport on my way home.

There is free wifi in the airport so I am catching up on my blog reading, when I get an e-mail.

The note says that my flight to JFK is delayed. I go up to the gate to check on what is going on.

The gate agent didn't know the flight was delayed. (She found out the in-bound flight is running a little late).

It is amazing how quickly information is now disseminated.

I very publicly stated at the beginning of the year that I was going to change the way I talk. I did it publicly to create a accountability structure, people who would hold me to my word.

I have been doing a decent job at it too. I have been much better about my self-deprecating speak. Even more important, I have done a much better job about the way I talk to others. There have been a number of times I have been able to catch words in my mouth and not let them out.

Except when it comes to two people. A few weeks ago we were in San Diego. Myself and another speaker were arriving about the same time. The moment he got to baggage claim I was into it. Giving him a hard time about carrying bag because of his age and that we should take a bus to the parking lot because of his weak heart.

All in jest. To a dear friend.

And he called me on it. He said he read my blog and thought I had given this up. In a weak defense I said he was exempt.

Than last week in LA I found myself doing it again too another friend.

Maybe it is harder because both of these people like to joust with words, they fight back and it is fun.

But that is no excuse. I still stick to my original premise. It is wrong and destructive for me to do.

I love the fact I have friends who will call me out.

As I was gathering my belongings off of the x-ray machine at the Orange County airport last night when a woman who works for TSA said, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Excuse me?

"Do you a have girlfriend?"

I have come to expect the unexpected at the airport, but this was outside even my expectations.

No, she was not hitting on me. But instead thought I looked like a character in the new movie "Because I said so." Since the movie was a "chick flick" (her words), she thought I wouldn't go on my own.

But it might be a good move to take a girlfriend to.

Since I don't have one, her advice, "Take your mother."