Top 5 Albums of 2006

I bought few albums this year and listened to very little new music. What I heard I wasn't that impressed by. That said, I had 2 favorites and some other worthy albums and think I can come up with a decent list.



1 - Roman Candle - The Wee Hours Review. One day I will die and go to a place where they play Roman Candle all day long. I have been that good.
2 - Hem - Funnel Cloud - The music soars and the lead singer is an angel. I've heard them compared to Cowboy Junkies, but to me the music isn't that dark. It sounds like a perfect Sunday afternoon.
3 - Josh Ritter - The Animal Years - Just great singer/somgwriter stuff.
4 - The Long Winters - Putting the Days to Bed - Just good guitar pop/indie rock
5 - Jars of Clay - Good Monsters - A typical Jars album in that it falls short on a few tracks, but the lyrics combined with the fact they finally recorded am album with a drummer nudges them into the top 5.

Others considered: the fray: how to save a life, Guster: Ganging up on the Sun, Leeland: Sounds of Melodies, the Who: Endless Wire

Sabbath

So, yesterday was a true Sabbath for me in many ways. As a present day English speaker, I am at a disadvantage not being able to read my bible in Hebrew or Greek. Thus, I'm at a severe disadvantage when I try to understand what the Book is telling me. I'm reliant on translators to turn it into a language I can understand and then theologians to tell me what it means. What I've heard is the number of words in Hebrew is approximately one tenth of the number of English words. So when you try to translate, you have to chose which one of your approximately ten English words that may translate to the author's one Hebrew word is the one he wanted you to read. For most of my life, the Sabbath meant you dressed up, went to church and sang hymns and listened to preaching and maybe attended a class. Likely, you go to a cafeteria afterwards while still dressed up. Maybe you can catch an NFL game until it was time to go to prayer meeting or youth group or whatever. Hopefully you made it home in time to watch the Wonderful World of Disney, or later, the Simpsons. My life is much of the same now: one or (usually) two church services, catch Quizno's, dogs for a quick walk, back to help with youth group, maybe catch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

My understanding now is that Sabbath means simply "stop" or "rest" in Hebrew. It's a day to not work, to marvel at the wonder of God, to take care of yourself. Since we went to Saturday night service this weekend, I was able to: go to the gym, give the dogs a proper walk , finish reading a book ("A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren), do my reading for small group (2 chapters in "Abraham" by Bruce Feiler), balance the checkbook, and finally start a book that my Dad got me LAST Christmas ("The World is Flat" on Globalization), have a leisurely cup of coffee, eat leftover pizza for lunch, take a nap. All before Debbie made it home from church (she played violin all three services this weekend).

God gives us the Sabbath to remind us that work and progress and acheivement isn't all there is to life. There is also resting, enjoying, pondering, taking care of yourself. Realizing there is a world beyond what you experience during the rest of the week. Recoginizing the miracle that is that world and the wonder that is it's Creator. God grant me the wisdom to take more Sabbath.

Random Thoughts Again

• This blog's content is very different than I anticipated. I thought it would be more of a travelog, but it's much more of a journal. Cool.



• Great article on leadership and science and even faith a little bit this morning in the News and Observer. I'd like to meet this guy. He seems to have done really well at the things I struggle with.



• The Hokie game sucked last night. The offensive line played terribly and the defensive line got no pressure on their QB. It is very rare that a VT football team gets out-efforted, but last night was one of them. We need some leadership from within the team to step up and straigten things out. (This is the kind of brillance I was expecting from this blog). However, I look forward to the game next weekend against Southern Miss. 7 pm kickoff leaves time for good tailgating, and Southern Miss is the type of team we need to play and beat. For the last 20 years, no one has played harder game in and game out than USM.



• I'm really into the new Natasha Bedingfield song. It runs SO against my normal musical tastes to like this song, but the lyrics really strike a chord with me for some reason. Every once in a while, a pop song does this to me. The last one was Mmm..Bop by Hansen. Anyway, I first heard the song when a couple who sings at church every few months sang it. It's catchy and the lyrics really make me think and feel good. Which I need.

The Little Things

Here is the "inspirational speech" I wrote for my leadership class a few weeks ago. I found this ridiculous cartoon on the web as an illustration for the blog. It cracks me up.

I'd like to talk to you about "the little things"

I struggle with little things. I like big ideas, the bigger the idea, the more I get excited. So as I wrestled with which of my big ideas to talk about with you today, I got a wake up call. On Monday morning, as I was rushing off to work, I stopped to give my wife a little kiss. She stopped me and said "No, I need a hug. What if something happens to you and you don't make it home today. This is important.

A hug - a small thing, but potentially hugely important.

We spend a lot of time chasing big things, ignoring the little things: stopping to say good morning to a coworker, promptly returning a call or e-mail from a customer or small vendor, helping a technician with a question...but maybe we should stop and think what we're doing.

In our last class together, I introduced a concept by Buckminster Fuller called the "trim tab". Fuller was a futurist famous for the geodesic dome, or "bucky-ball" amoung other things. He spend his time coming up with big ideas about how to insure the sustainability of the human race.

The trim-tab is a small rudder-like device placed on the corener of the main rudder of a plane or a ship. The main rudder is large and takes a lot of energy to turn. The trim tab is smaller, so it needs less energy to turn, but it leads the larger rudder around. It makes a hard task easier.

I like the idea of the trim tab. Fuller believed we should all be looking for "trim tabs" in the world around us: small actions that can bring about big change. So maybe, the little things are the ones that can make the most difference. Maybe saying good morning gives you and your coworker the perspective to carry through the day. Maybe you start a relationship with the small vendor that grows to be key for the company. Maybe the conversation with the coworker brings a key change to an important process.

Like I said, I'm into big ideas. I'll end with a story about grad school. Those who know me know I tell a lot of stories about grad school. I used to go see a friend in his lab to talk about our favorite things: baseball, beer, whatever. There were several sign in his lab that read "Lab Philosophy: Leav things a little better than you found them." This wasn't put their by a budding philospher, nor was it an official democratically approved lab mantra. THe person who put it up was a mentally unstable control freak. But maybe she had a point.

I believe we are here to make a positive impact on the earth and the people living on it. Maybe the best way we can do that is by paying attention to the little things.

Life's a Journey, not a Destination - Chris' version

As many of you know, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to be when I grow up. Today I had a couple of thoughts about it. I know what kind of things motivate me: working with people, hearing about their thoughts and dreams, teaching and mentoring, and seeing connections and the big picture. Science and engineering are my skills, but I only get satisfaction out of them when I can use them for these other things. You also may know about my affection for all things Rob Bell (Michigan preacher, see more below). Since I have a long commute, I listen to one of his sermons almost every morning. A couple things he said to me this morning (through my iPod and car stereo, paraphrased):

• God made this earth and everything in it and empowered us to be creative and cultivate his creation. God, the creator, made us in his image, to create. He made this creation vast and wide and deep, loaded with possibility and potential, in order for us to all find our own we to create and thereby connect with him.


• He quoted someone else saying to be bored ("to not stir oneself") is to say that God never created or redeemed anything of worth, including yourself. Wow.

Here is my big thought to bring it together: Life's a journey, not a destination. Familiar quote. But if you're stagnant (and/or bored?), how can you be on a journey? Hopefully, more to come.