The Gospel of John Movie

From time to time I will make sure to do a movie review. One of the best Jesus movies I've ever watched is entitled the "Gospel of John." It is word for word the book of John. So inspiring, I've watched this movie over and over again. Get out and support the Visual Bible International group by purchasing this movie at Best Buy.

Digital Recording Fun

It's amazing how much goes into digital recording. I've been playing around with creating an original Christmas song. The timing on the keyboard tracks has to be perfect otherwise the drum parts can get thrown off. I'm having a lot of fun. The technology is amazing, I'm using Magix Music Maker deluxe and a Lexicon Alpha for the instrument inputs. I couldn't believe the effects you can add to your guitar parts. I played a little riff and used some of the 3D audio tools and the quality sounded like something out of the studio. I bought my Yamaha keyboard at Best Buy which has 500+ realistic pads.

Life After Quitting Coffee

It's been over 2 months since my last cup of coffee. It's amazing how the mind can wire itself to become so dependent on it. I was spending an upward of $6 a day. When I felt the slightest bit tired I would make a coffee run. I started to realize that my spending was out of control and health wise I didn't need all the caffeine. I noticed that within 2-3 hours, I would find myself tired again after purchasing a 16oz latte.

The amazing thing is that since I quit my energy levels have actually increased. The first week after I quit was tough. What helped was know that God would sustain me through the withdrawal symptoms.



Here are the supplements I'm currently taking and feel so much better.

• Fish Oils
• Garlic Pills
• DeTox Tea (every couple of days)
• Filter Water
• Probiotics
• Bentonite Clay (on occasion)
• Flax Seed

There is no substitute for water. I noticed that my energy levels pick up when I stay hydrated.

Living Independant vs. Communal Living

When traveling to the Philippines last August, it really struck me how independant we are as a Americans. Mimi's 3 sisters and brother all live together in the same home. I couldn't even begin to image how difficult it would be if they all lived in their own separate households. Working and living together makes a lot of sense. Just think how well off families in American would be if they adopted a similiar lifestyle. Most rents have skyrocketed to 800-1500 per month. Let's pretend that we took Mimi's now lives in the US. The same size house here would cost them roughly $1200/month. If they all contributed to the rent they would end up paying $240 each. It's unreal as americans that we can afford to live on our own. Gas price are almost $4 a gallon, the dollar dropping in value, and house prices are way overvalued in my opinion. Living the communal lifestyle makes a lot of sense. Think of what families could achieve as a team. That $250,000 would be easy to afford.

Ouch! Raquetball Woes :)

You never can tell what a day will bring. I was having a blast playing racquetball last night when I jumped for the ball and land hard on my left ankle. I went to GroupHealth, they stated that my left ankle had developed arthritis after my last ankle surgery. They said a bone must have rub against it and aggrevated it. It's funny Mimi couldn't resist taking a picture of me outside of GroupHealth, it was freezing out there! It's starting to feel better. I'm hoping by the end of the week I'll be walking without a limp.

Day After Thanksgiving

What compels a man to get up at 6:00 in the morning in spite of freezing cold temperatures. You guessed it right, Black Friday. Here is my top 5 list of things people purchase on this day:

5. $25 for coffee and hot chocolate for you and the kids.

4. Another $30 mp3 that is every bit better than the last 3 you had to replace.

3. UltraMega $399 laptop that can do word processing...Did I mention it can do word processing! Office Suite not included. Free 20 minute spyware lecture with each purchase! YIPPE!

2. $40 in gas circling the parking lot.

1. A whole lot of nothing.....

Holiday Coding

Today I spent most of the day working on my web site called BeeBlogging.com. I'm almost ready to start advertising it on google.com . On the site I have a brief story about how the web site came about.

Thanksgiving was great. We ended up going to a restaurant across the street that served a full blown Thanksgiving dinner. We were stuffed. I think we're going to make this a family tradition.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's that time of the year again. Looking through my old photos, I found these great pictures of my dad and I helping to set up our Christmas service. Turning Point was one of the only churches open on Christmas day. This was our last Christmas together in Olympia. It's been a joy spending Christmas in Palm Springs each year. I really love it down there.

When Life Throws You a Wave Grab a Surfboard

In the Philippines I really had quite the revelation. Going from Island to island we sailed on a small canoe-like boat called a pump boat. Unlike a canoe, you sit on top of it instead of inside of it. You are so close to the water you can touch it. As we were returning from the island, the waves started to pick up as the dark clouds stood in horizon. There were times when the waves really started to shaking things up. At that time, the realization that my life could be taken at any time set in. It goes to shows how much God really is in control and we're not. At that same moment, I remember looking at the beach on the other side and having faith that God will see me through. Something I just thought of tonight is Peter had a similar experience when Jesus greeted Him on the water. It was faith that saw them through.

Music Theory

This week I have been continuing my study of music theory and bass guitar. It's really been a blast!! I've been learning so much. Some of the topics I am studying are Major and Minor scales, Chords, etc.. It's great when you learn a concept and can apply it right away. Everyday I'm learning something new. Practicing daily makes such a difference.

Holiday

I'm really excited about our upcoming vacation to Palm Springs. Last years trip was amazing. The train ride going back through the Oregon mountains was something I'll never forget. We will be taking off the day before Christmas Eve and arriving late on Christmas day.

Turn OFF The TV

It's amazing who much more fulfilling my life has been since I cancelled my cable TV 5 years ago. Time is a precious commodity, it's amazing what can be accomplished when we unplug. Lately I have been studying Music Theory and learning bass. It's amazing what can be learned when you study 5-10 minutes a day. I found a great website on the web called http://www.studybass.com/ . I am really impressed with this site.

This last year I've been working on my website http://www.beeblogging.com/ . It's been about 6 months since I last updated it. I definately want to keep moving forward with it. I have some great ideas for the site.

My contest entry for the Invasion of the Robots contest is now up. Please vote for Encouragebot v1.0. Click here to vote. I find that one of the most interesting aspects of this project is that God gave me a vision for this project even before Microsoft introduced this contest. There was a few times where I started writing a chat program based on offering encouragement and biblical advice. I was completed amazed when I saw that Microsoft was launching a robot contest and allowed any theme. What an awesome opprotunity to share the bible with people. It's been 3 months since development started. I would love to hear your feedback and input.

After many long hours of development, I have a working prototype of my MSN Encouragebot developed! I am so excited about this project! I've submitted my entry to MSN. Give it a try. Add encouragebot@hotmail.com to your list of buddies. I would love to hear your feedback. Please send me any ideas for new topics to include.

After 3 days of waiting for a response from the incesoft message board, I was able to get the answer I was looking. I was finally able to get my sample MSN Messenger robot to say hello. Met my new little creation. Pretty soon you will be able to talk with him. WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I TALKING ABOUT? We'll for the longest time now I've always been curious about creating a program you can interact with, similiar to AI (artificial intelligence) but without the 50 year overhead that goes along with building a system like that. I have always thought it would be wonderful to have a christian chat program you can interact with that could encapsulate an encouraging spirit. To my amazement I came across a new contest Microsoft is putting out called, Invasion of the Robots Contest. This contest offers you 3 software development kits that you can chose from that allow you to make chat robots directly in MSN. I was so excited when I saw it! This is something I've wanted to do forever and they are even giving away prizes for the best robot! Now that the chat environment is working on my computer, I am going to start developing my dream robot. For more info on chat robots download MSN Messenger and click on the Robot tab. I will update this blog with my progress.

Life is full of opprotunties. I've been reading such an awesome book, "The Magic of Thinking Big." It's interested how self defeating thoughts seem to constantly race across our minds. It's so easy to make excuses not to do something when opprotunities arise. This is definately one of those life changing books. The interesting thing is that this book has been around since the 50's. I didn't realize it until I read the section relating to milk truck deliveries. Awesome book!

I'm back from Palm Springs. What an awesome experience. God is doing great things there. The population is continually increasing over the last few years. I visited Champion Center www.championlifechurch.com . What a great church! I really love the area down there. The weather was so beautiful. I was really suprised to see snow peaked mountains in Southern California! It would be a dream moving down there. We will see where God leads us. The only thing that would be a challenge are the 120 degree summer months.

An interesting thing happened to us on Sunday. We took the busline to Tacoma this weekend which is about an hour and half away. We were so confused on how to get to my brother's house so we had him pick us up. We stayed the night in Tacoma and woke up early the next morning to catch a bus. The weird thing is we had no idea how to get back to Olympia. We totally felt stranded as the morning breeze started to kick in. Here I am in my shorts, it's Sunday and not one bus in sight. What was amazing is that I told Mimi, "We'll lets walk down aways and see if we can find more bus info." As we were walking we saw this guy standing at the bus stop in the middle of nowhere. I went up to him and asked him how to get downtown to Tacoma. He asked me, "Hey where are you going?" I told him, "Olympia." He said to my amazement, "That is where I am going!" What are the chances that someone on a Sunday morning at 8:00 would be going to the same destination 1 hour 30 minutes away. He was great, he actually showed us all of the routes and got us home. He was definately a God sent as we had no clue where to go.

Life has been so good, some new opprotunities have been surfacing. My dream has always been starting a web business and being able to hire and help people. We will see what happens. Anyways God is good. Till next time.

It's interesting what happened to me today. One of the areas that kept bringing us down financially are transporation expenses. We are finally out of debt and stable. Now the worst happened!

Our car has broken down today but we are still claiming freedom from debt. Back when God told us to move into town, one of the things Mimi and I mentioned was how in the past having our car break down was a financial diaster. It totally would put us behind everytime it broke down and increased our debt. I was always stressed about being held captive by insurance companies (increased by 40% due to a ticket), $500 car repairs, parking dues.

Not anymore! God positioning us in town has once again proven to be an awesome thing! I am closer to my work, hospitals, and church. The bus stop is right by our house and can get us anywhere we need to go! Top Foods is right down the road.

I asked myself as started walking to the car dealership, "Was getting $18,000 in debt again God's plan for our lives? How can I be a blessing to others if all of my money goes to funding insurance companies and a car. Basically I would be hit with $500+ a month again. And $350 maintenance schedules every 4-6 months.

Our goal right now is to become Kingdom Builders at church and be able to give back into the church NOT weathly insurance companies. I prayed this week about positioning us to be able to give more. Sacrificing our transporation will give us a way!

Jesus talked about worry, the birds in the air don't worry and God provides. Why should we worry. Now I don't have to stress about my car falling apart and insurance rates anymore. I will not allow debt to keep me captive any longer!

This weekend was fun. We visited the Batdorf and Bronson store. To the left is a picture of the dancing goats. Batdorf has the best coffee in town. I guess the legend started when the goats were found eating coffee beans. They were so buzzed from the coffee they started jumping around giving the appearance that they were dancing. This is where the legend started. :)

We have been sick most of the weekend with a fever/cold. The baby's fever is now gone which is nice. I'm still sick though.

Yesterday, I watched one of the most frightening movies I've ever seen. More frightening then any hollywood movie ever made. The contrast between a Hollywood movie and the this one can be illustrated this way. Have you ever been on a virtual rollercoaster at a local arcade or theme park. The thing is, your really not frightened by the experience because your absolutely 100% safe on it. It only appears that there is danger. When you are on a real rollercoaster however, anything from malfunctions to a bolt being loose could spell diaster. The same is true with Hollywood movies. It's fiction and we know that we are safe on our couch as we watch it. The movie "Hell and back" can become a reality which intensifies the viewing experience 100 fold! This is a much watch movie.

To Hell and Back

Please share this movie with others. For a complete list of TBN movies visit the TBN Video Gallery.