Throughout the TV season, I’ve had a growing affinity toward Heroes, even letting it surpass Lost at times.

Well…all I gotta say is that Lost knows how to put on a finale way better than Heroes!

Oh the things you find while cleaning your hard drive…

7pm and the sun is still up. Hello daylight savings…it’s good to see you again.

Zach has tagged me with a meme of the Perfect Song. Here’s the rules:

1. scan through your itunes or cd library. refamiliarize yourself with the nooks and crannies of your musical options.
2. identify five categories — genres, if you will — of music. these should be as obscure and finely-articulated as you’d like. feel free to use modifiers liberally.
3. nominate — select, really — a “perfect song” for each category. include a link for each song to something (the amazon page for the CD, or the artist’s website, or whatever). you may find it easier, as i did, to find “perfect songs”, and craft categories or genres around them.
4. ideally, some of the songs will be nominally obscure, or, at least, not completely mainstream and overplayed. no need to tell us all about songs we all know!

So…let’s get on with it. I give you the perfect song for…

…feeling either rebellious or guilty for delighting in a song that many might not think is appropriate for me to like — We Looked Like Giants, Death Cab for Cutie

…driving through open terrain on a rainy day while entertaining dreams and hopes of a beautiful future — First Breath After Coma, Explosions in the Sky

…remembering that I am loved for who I am, not for what I’ve done — Song of the Harlot, The Violet Burning

…playing something really loud to fill your ears with sonic goodness — Quiet, Smashing Pumpkins

…for softly singing (er, stumbling through) in my daughter’s ear while swaying her to sleep at night — Talk of the Town, Jack Johnson & Kawika Kahiapo

And to move it along, I tag:

Mike DeVries
Josh Longbrake
Ken Nussbaum
JJ Peterson (I fear that JJ’s list might include at least one Philips, Craig & Dean song, but he never makes it past the first paragraph of my blog anyway.)

Looks like I’ve got some iTunes cash coming my way courtesy of Zach’s silly faith in the Cardinals. Anyone have good recommendations on how to spend it?

I’m not sure why this is so fascinating to me but it is. I set my iSight to take a picture every 30 seconds over about a 90 minute period this morning. This scintillating set of action packed photos documents me reading, following up on some email, and doing a little design work (see the new Christmas header on the Pathways website).

For maximum effect, this short video should be viewed with a playlist that includes Augustana, Death Cab for Cutie, Explosions in the Sky, Jimmy Eat World, Muse, Pedro the Lion, Silversun Pickups, Snow Patrol and U2.

I’ve learned a number of things from Rob Bell over the years, and you can see his ideas shrouded in my clumsy words throughout this blog. One very practical thing I learned from him became a reality today…

Several years ago, he mentioned that he got a weed burner for his birthday. I’d never heard of a weed burner. We had weeds in Arizona, but they were pretty managable in our tiny yards, so it wasn’t a big topic. In the Pacific Northwest, weeds can get out of hand. Enter your friendly neighborhood equipment rental dealer, and $10 for a weed burner for four hours.

I smell like a chain smoker, but I had a great time!

(Disclaimer: the included image should only be considered a representation of my morning. No evergreens were harmed in my destructive binge today.)

Macey picked out And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street tonight. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of reading it. It’s one of the all time literary classics.

I got an iTunes giftcard for father’s day, and I have enough left for one album. So, the question is…

or or wait for ?

In my ever increasing experience with poor coffee shop etiquette, I offer yet another tidbit so that all of us kind have a kinder, gentler coffee shop experience.

Please be aware of areas that lend themselves to natural conversation. For example, picture some large comfy chairs placed in convenient proximity to each other. When someone is sitting in one, please ask if they are expecting someone before sitting in one of the adjoining seats. Otherwise it just creates an awkward moment for all of us.

And on a related note — if you do choose to sit without asking please be aware that this is, as I’ve already stated, a conversational space. In other words, it was designed for me to hear everything you are saying. (Because this is a conversational space, this is an even more blatant abuse of the cell phone conversation etiquette that we have previously covered). I don’t want to hear your cell phone conversation where you gripe about everything that isn’t working out for you that day. Again, I know that we already covered the cell phone issue, but I guess not everyone is reading, so we have to go over it again.

Thank you, everyone, for your prompt attention to this matter.

I’ve had a few conversations recently with people who have joined myspace.com (note that I’m not even providing a courtesy link to them) or invited me to do so. Myspace is pretty much the ghetto of the internet and I’m happily keeping my distance. The owners, however, are living far from the ghetto thanks to all the money the are making selling everyone’s information.

I’m not usually inclined to pass along blonde jokes, but Rudy has the best blonde joke ever.

The time I spend working in coffee shops is leading me to a whole new awareness of things that shouldn’t happen in them. I think I’m going to become the Mr Manners of coffee shop etiquette.

I already posted about the loud cell phoner recently. Today, however, a new trauma happened to me which still has my stomach in convulsions.

Two mom-type forty something ladies are sitting about 7 feet from me. They have been there for quite a while, and I really haven’t heard any of there conversation over the general noise of this Starbucks. Then, a few moments ago, one single clear sentence resonated out. I promise I wasn’t listening — I have no interest in what they are saying. I don’t think they changed volume — if anything, perhaps they got softer, but it was just so clear. One of the ladies asked the other…

“Are you regular?”

Everyone, please hear me. Don’t discuss this at a coffee shop. Save it for a phone conversation while both parties are locked in a closet. Or perhaps a secured IM conversation, or an encrypted email. Just please don’t ever discuss it in a coffee shop!

I found this article this morning via Jordon Cooper: Purpose Driven in Rwanda. It is a great view about how God has placed Africa on the hearts of Rick and Kay Warren, and how they are finding ways to be involved there. (Rick is the pastor of Saddleback and the author of The Purpose Driven Life.) It is good to see someone who influences so many take a lead here, and it is definitely worth a read for any church leader.