Tsunami Trip

Some of you know that I recently returned from a 2 week trip to the tsunami effected areas of Sri Lanka and India. It was a life changing event, not only to see the destruction nature can cause, but the hope that a relationship with Jesus Christ can bring. If you would like to know details of that trip, let me know and I will email you the article I wrote for India Gospel League. IGL is the organization we are partnering with and if any of you are looking for a way to be involved with rehabilitation, go to their website and check out the "Recovery Gift Catalog" link on the left side.

Sterotypes

Wow was I wrong. I just got back from the North (read previous post). In my southern upbringing, I always heard how rude and mean northerners were, how expensive it is in New York City, and that New Jersey is the armpit of America. I have now found out that I have been lied to (except for the New Jersey thing). I am going to make a huge step-out and say that northerns (at least the ones I met) are just as friendly as us southerners. Not only that, but their yards are much cleaner, and you don't see a trailer right beside a mansion (southerners, just admit it, we aren't so good at land consistency/development). I also expected NYC to be this incredibly bustling metropolis where everyone was in a hurry and it cost $10 for a hotdog. Neither are true. You can get a hotdog for $1.50 (bun cost extra...just kidding) and the only hustling I saw was a mad rush for the Starbucks bathroom. The people in the city were friendly, telling us where the locals dine and places we should visit. I have to be honest, and this may upset some people. While NYC is an incredibly cool place and I would still love to live there, I was more impressed with the culture of city life (where they live, what they eat, how they travel) than I was with the city itself.

And so, the moral of this trip was...don't sterotype (more to come on our eventful trip home later). For pictures of our trip keep scrolling down. To make the pictures bigger, click on them.


The Big Stereotype...I Mean Apple


Jon & Karen at NBC


My Brother & His Wife


Daddy Needs a New Pair of Shoes!


Pulled From the Rubble of the WTC


Sheep Pasture in Central Park (where are the sheep?)


The Old & New


Statue


St. Peter's Cathedral (I think)


Jon & Karen


Cool Streetlights


Hershey Factory

The Big City

I am pretty stoked because Karen and I are headed to the big city of Manhattan this weekend. It is going to rock. If you have been there, let me know where we should go because it will be this southern boy's first time above the Mason Dixon Line.

Technology

I am pretty bummed because I just got a call from my brother. He just got a PowerBook by Apple. I always thought I would be the first in the fam to make the "big switch" considering I hate Windows. Jason...please let me play with the PowerBook this weekend.

I want to offer some advice for those who are somewhat technically savvy or pretend to be, like I do. If you are using Internet Explorer as your internet browser, STOP IMMEDIATELY. You might as well be using paper and pencil. I have a great web browser for you, that most cool people have already switched to called Mozilla Firefox. Once you do that, click on the little orange button in the lower right hand corner of the screen and click the down arrow and save in the "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder." For those of you that don't know...that is called an RSS feed, which isn't as important as know that you have now saved my blog on your browser so you can see when it has been updated.

Jon & Karen

Fake

Pretentious - adj 1: making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction; "a pretentious country house"; "a pretentious fraud"; "a pretentious scholarly edition" [ant: unpretentious] 2: intended to attract notice and impress others; "an ostentatious sable coat" [syn: ostentatious] [ant: unostentatious] 3: of a display that is tawdry or vulgar.

Pretentiousness is a pet peeve of mine. The thing that sucks about it is I find myself being pretentious at times. Do you ever wonder why you feel you have to impress someone? Say the right thing, be the right person, act the right way. Who cares. I am going to try my best to be real with this blog...to take off the mask and become unveiled, so here I am:

a struggling husband, trying to do a better job at loving my wife
a struggling worker, trying to add value to those on our team
a struggling friend, trying to ignite passion in those around me
a struggling disciple of Jesus, trying to become more acquainted with who He is