whole brevity thing
the dude abides (bryan jones)Archive for in my house
you’ve got (chain)mail
I have been tagged. Twice. First beeps caught me via WordPress, and then Guy via the Tumblrs. The object of the game is to share 16 things about yourself, and then pass the baton. If this goes on long enough, I think that we’ll eventually find out where Bruce Lee, Elvis and Tupac are hiding out.
Without any kind of theme, here are my 16:
- I was accepted to Baylor University eight times.
- I once worked at a sandwich shop where we had to greet customers as they walked in the door by saying “Welcome to Substop, home of the 18-incher.” We had T-shirts emblazoned with the same message.
- For two years, I worked at a party picture company called Flash.
- If you put the two preceding items together, you’ve got a career written in the stars.
- I have been detained by Johnny Law five times, but bail was only required thrice.
- My grandfather was born without a first or middle name, just the initials J.B.
- One Summer I worked as a professional cowboy in Colorado.
- My dress shirt are size is 19.5 x 38
- When I was young, I wanted to be a Jawa when I grew up. That, or a dentist.
- For Halloween, when I was six, I dressed as Space Ace Frehley from Kiss.
- I went through thirteen skateboards in three years of middle school.
- My diploma declares that I have earned a Bachelor of Arts in History.
- I am married to a woman who holds Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.
- On paper we are unemployable.
- For the last ten years, we have had two 18-wheelers up on blocks at our family ranch north of Austin.
- Counting college and high school, I have formally studied German for six years, yet all that I can clearly recall is: “Ich habe eine grosse bleistift.”
Now, let’s see if Alison, Lance, Wade and Rich want to play along.
I’m out of words now…
everybody’s all-american
So, the story goes like this:
A few weeks ago, my mother told me that my grandmother had recently read a wonderful little story about Colt McCoy (the Texas Longhorns’ quarterback) in an obscure small-town church newsletter. “Colt and his little buddy Shipley are witnessing for Jesus, and bringing college kids to the Church of Christ right and left.”
The author of the article, for some insane reason, decided to include the cell phone number for Colt’s father. My grandmother thought that was just wonderful, so she picked up her phone. She’s country. She’s almost 90. And she’s not afraid of anything.
When Colt’s dad answered, my grandmother told him about the article, and that she was very impressed with Colt. Then asked if Colt might give her great-grandson (who lives in Austin) a call to invite him to join Colt at church some time. Papa McCoy said that he was sure that Colt would do just that, but, they were in New York for some award presentation but when they returned to Texas, Colt would give him a call.
When I saw my grandmother over the holidays, I asked her if this story was true.
Her answer was priceless: “Well,” she said, “the last time I talked to him, he told me just how wonderful he thought it was that I was so interested in my great-grandson’s affairs…”
“THE LAST TIME I TALKED TO HIM” I think that my grandmother is now stalking the McCoys.
I’m out of words now…
the santa cause
I’m a big fan of holiday music. It makes me happy. I enjoy finding fresh tunes, but mostly, I enjoy the classics: Dean Martin’s Making Spirits Bright, George Winston’s December and Verve’s Very Best of Christmas Jazz are highly recommended. As much as I like the tunes of Festivus, I do love to make mixtapes, perhaps holiday mixtapes most of all. Well, only one week remains until Christmas arrives, so I couldn’t put it off any longer. Here is the Whole Brevity Thing Christmas Mix for 2008. Actually because there was too much goodness to share, it would have been a mess if I put it all together into one mix.
Merry Christmas from The Dude
So, two mixes were born. …
spiderman
We never know exactly when he’ll show up, but he always does.
Spiderman Passed Out In The Bathtub
I’m out of words now….
adventures in mommyblogging
It’s always a sad day when your favorite pair of jeans fade from everyday wear to work-around-the-house-wear. Sure, you can still wear them about anywhere you want, you just need to be prepared to look like Bon Jovi circa 1988 livin’ on a prayer.
Old Favorites
Normally, when my jeans have reached the end of their blue days, I hop online and purchase another pair of old favorites. I’d love to be able to run to the Gap and pick up a new pair, but 38×36 is one of those “additional sizes available online.” So, it’s off to the internets for me. … Read the rest of this entry »
hope flows
What it’s all about:
“the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.”
I love the concept. Focus attention on an issue, and make a valuable difference. I have 30 minutes left to post on Blog Action Day, so here we go.
I don’t have an organization to point you to to reach out and make a difference. If you’re looking for one, maybe the List of 88 ways to fight poverty can help. Or, hop on over to advergirl, where I was first introduced to this whole campaign. My approach to fighting poverty is a little more hands-on. Get ready, it’s complicated: When someone in need asks for help, help.
On an almost-daily basis, as I walk the couple of blocks to work from my parking spot, I get the opportunity to help someone who needs a hand. It might be a ride to a shelter, or McDonald’s. It might be a couple of dollars. Every once in a while, it’s just a kind smile and an ear to listen to a story. It doesn’t take much to make a momentary difference in someone’s life. It’s simple really, I just try to always keep a couple of singles with me all the time, and then when I walk through downtown Little Rock, I keep my eyes open for folks that might need some hope.
This isn’t a heroic thing, it’s a human thing. The line between living on the street and living in an air conditioned home is incredibly thin. The line between sanity and insanity is even thinner. When I was in college, I had the unplanned opportunity to share my house with a couple of homeless guys. When I say share my house, that’s an exaggeration. I lived inside the house with my roommates, while Mike and Jacob lived on our large covered porch. But any time that the temperature hit freezing or below Mike and Jacob slept inside in our warm room. (to save money, we only heated/cooled one room in the old house, and all the roommates would tote our sleeping bags into the warm/cold room at night to sleep)
How we met Jacob and Mike, and came to ask them if they’d like to stay on our porch is a long story. A much shorter story is that having known these men changed my life forever. The year that we all lived together I learned the simple fact that people are people. There’s not much that separates us from one another, except for the walls that we build over time.
Mike found himself outside of my wall of “normal” because fighting in Viet Nam had robbed him of his clarity, and he had trouble balancing the real world and an imaginary one. Jacob’s path to the margin of society was marked by addiction, and the shame he carried along with it. I realized way back then, that it wouldn’t take much for me to find myself in their shoes. It’s totally by Grace that I haven’t. And that’s why I choose to share hope with anyone who needs a little bit.
And because today is Blog Action Day I’ve jumped on this soapbox to ask you to keep your eyes open as you walk through your day. You’ll find folks all around that need hope, and if your reading this, I’m 99% sure that you have the ability to share a little.
I’m out of preachy words now…
