Sorry for missing a post yesterday, I was in Canada! In order to make it up to you, here are two videos. I hope we can still be friends ...

I agree with 80% of what is said in this video, but love 100% of the visuals.

Most gnarly thing you'll watch all day. probably.

I was raised up believing
I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake, distinct among snowflakes,
Unique in each way you can see.
But, now, after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery,
Serving something beyond me

- Fleet Foxes in "Helplessness Blues"

Urkle became a playa.

"Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are."

"If when we judged others, our real motive was to destroy evil, we should look for evil where it is certain to be found, and that is in our own hearts. But if we are on the look-out for evil in others, our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves, for we are seeking to escape punishment for our own sins by passing judgement on others"

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.185

" ... I will show you my faith by what I do."

- James 2:18

"Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.175

Everything is more fun when it is in slowmo.

" My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son."

- Hebrews 12:5 & 6

"All that the follower of Jesus has to do is to make sure that his obedience, following and love are entirely spontaneous and unpremeditated. If you do good, you must not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, you must be quite unconscious of it. Other wise you are simply displaying your own virtue, and not that which has its source in Jesus Christ ... The genuine work of love is always a hidden work."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p. 159

This video is worth the watch even if only for the clip at 0.48.

Move


Learn


Eat

but most of all Move.

Sorry CeeLo, I'm with Kocoum on this one.

"But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."

- Warren Buffet in Stop Coddling the Super Rich

Ever had one of these days?

Yeah, me neither.

Totally like whatever, you know?
By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

In case you hadn't noticed,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you're talking about?
Or believe strongly in what you're saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?
Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know?

Declarative sentences - so-called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true
as opposed to other things which were, like, not -
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It's like what I've heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?

What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so, like, totally . . .
I mean absolutely . . . You know?
That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like . . .
whatever!

And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness
is just a clever sort of . . . thing
to disguise the fact that we've become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since . . .
you know, a long, long time ago!

I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.

and performed here by Chris Seay

click here for the interactive google map

For those of you that know me personally, you'll know that I've been talking, pretty much, incessantly about this world trip I'm planning. At this moment, I've put the stereotypical American life (birth - elementary school - middle school - high school - college - career - death) on hold and am pursuing this dream 100%. I've 'graduated' from college and a working a job (not a career) to save up for this. The current plan is to work for a year, saving as much money as possible and to leave on this trip late summer/early autumn 2012.

The map above is what I currently plan on doing and I'm looking for more suggestions.

Here's what I have so far:

N. America

Rochester, NY - Hershey, PA - Washington D.C. - Hot Springs, AR (Katie!) - San Antonio, TX (Sarah!) - Nuevo Laredo, Mexico - Mexico City, Mexico - Oaxaca, Mexico (?) - Tapachula, Mexico

Central America

Guatamala City, Guatamala - San Salvador, El Salvador - Managua, Nicaragua - San Jose, Costa Rica - Panama City, Panama (Karla!)

S. America

Bogota, Colombia - Quito, Ecuador - Lima, Peru - Cuzco, Peru (Incan Trail to Manchu Pichu!) - Vina del Mar, Chile - Santiago, Chile - Torres del Paine, Chile - Ushuaia, Argentina (southernmost city in the world!) - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Europe

Dublin, Ireland - London, UK - Paris, France - Milan, Italy - Florence, Italy - Venice, Italy - Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia - Dubrovnik, Croatia - Meteora, Greece

Middle East

Jerusalem, Israel

Africa

Cairo, Egypt (pyramids!) - Nimule, S. Sudan - Jinja, Uganda - Singida, Tanzania - Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Asia

Jodhpur, India - Jaipur, India - Agra, India (Taj Mahal!) - Kathmandu, Nepal (Annapurna Circuit) - Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar - Chiang Mai, Thailand - Bangkok, Thailand

AustralAsia

Gladstone, Australia - Brisbane, Australia - Sydney, Australia - Melbourne, Australia - Invercargill, New Zealand - Dunedin, New Zealand - Christchurch, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Auckland, New Zealand

N. America

Los Angeles, CA

So what am I missing? What should I definitely see or do before I die? I'm also actively looking for people to come with me whether it be for the whole thing or only a section.

Let me know!

Don't watch this before bed.

I would go to Nando's based soley on their use of Reggie Watts.

Today's post is story time with John.

This clip was taken from Katie and Nate's wedding, which I should have the edit for up tomorrow!

Be on the look out.

My cousin got married so I made this video!

"Anger is always an attack on a brother's life, for it refuses to let him live and aims at his destruction. Jesus will not accept the common distinction between righteous indignation and unjustifiable anger. The disciple must be entirely innocent of anger, because anger is an offence against both God and his neighbour, and shows that we place ourselves on a pinnacle above him and value our own lives higher than his. The angry word is a blow struck at our brother, a stab at his heard: it seeks to hit, to hurt and to destroy. A deliberate insult is even worse, for we are then openly disgracing our brother in the eyes of the world, and causing others to despise him. With our hearts burning with hatred, we seek to annihilate his moral and material existence. We are passing judgement on him, and that is murder. And the murderer will himself be judged."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.127

"When you have made your eye the instrument of impurity, you cannot see God with it"

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship p.132

More and more, I'm coming to understand that the Christian life is one of continual and complete self-denial. And the more I contemplate and try this, the more I realize how hard it actually is and will be.

Let's start out with complete transparency, I don't understand the current US debt crisis or really finances in general. Personally, I try to spend less than I make and put the rest in savings and, so far, that's worked out for me.

But I came across this quote today:

"If the US Government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year, they spend $75,000 a year and are $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year. These are the actual proportions of the federal budget and debt, reduced to a level that we can understand."

- Dave Ramsey

If this is true, this doesn't sound like good financial stewardship to me ...

A little longer than the videos I usually post, but I promise that it's completely worth it.

As good as my advice is, this is probably why people don't often ask for it .

My new favourite song and music video

Don Miller has done it again with his post for making a great love story Volume II.

Check it out here.

And, once again, my favourite excerpts:

"Women do like bad guys for a period of time. Usually, this lasts between the ages of 18 to about 24.The reason is simple. Their bodies are looking for somebody who is strong enough to defend their offspring, and they mistake strength for, well, the general characteristics of a jerk."

"A man can have sex with a thousand women and he’ll never feel as masculine as a man who leads a woman through a good love story.
You want a woman who is looking for a man, not a woman who is looking for men."

"do you have a plan? Do you know what kind of father you want to be? Do you know what kind of wife will be required to make your vision come true? If you don’t have a plan, you’re leaving your success up to luck."

"A woman loves a man who can be tender with her, but believe me, while you’re holding her in your arms and she’s being comforted about her hard day, you’d better have a baseball bat behind your back, ready to obliterate anybody who tries to hurt her. Be tender to her, but be absolutely ferocious with anybody who takes advantage of her. If you aren’t a strong man, practice. Take stands, don’t be a pushover, protect the ones you love, and be willing to make a few enemies."


What're your thoughts?

This is your future child.

My man Ben Disinger directed the new (and official) Manchester Orchestra video. Simply incredible.

I love the shots of Rochester in it!

more on it here

My favourite author, Don Miller, keeps a blog that I follow. Today he posted on living a 'great love story' focused on women (he claims that he'll talk to men about the same thing tomorrow) and I just thought it was a great article.

Here is the original blog post: How to Live a Great Love Story

And here are some of my favourite quotes:

“Living a great love story doesn’t look like winning the lottery, it looks like training for a marathon. It’s hard work and you have to do the work long before you ever meet Mr. Right, otherwise you’ll be the girl who shows up for the marathon having eaten a gallon of ice cream every night, listening to Taylor Swift songs and watching love stories about vampires. No good man can run with that girl, not for much longer than a mile.

“it’s a great strategy to be more attractive to a smaller group than cheap and easy to a larger group.”

“Be willing to suffer: What this means for you is that your love story needs to have a lot of lonely crying in it. Believe it or not, there will come a day when a man will fall madly in love with you and you will have the honor of sitting down with him one special night to explain that, while you weren’t perfect, you turned down plenty of guys and cried yourself to sleep hoping somebody would come around and treat you with respect. He will be honored by this, and he will love you and feel humbled.”

If you’re used to one off sex acts where you’re having crazy experiences, you’re husband is never going to be able to match up because, well, he’s got to stick around and to the laundry and argue with you about the electricity bill. That’s not sexy stuff, that’s the stuff of real love stories. It feels boring in the moment, but twenty years in you’ll be crying your eyes out at this man who stuck with you through the thick and thin!”

“become the woman who fits the character in the love story you want to live.”

I have immense respect for this man and I'm excited to see what he writes tomorrow.

Just plain incredible work.

I couldn't wait to share this. Meet my new hero.

Both this animation and the content are astounding!