"Fri": I look forward to moving to S.D.

God in his infinite wisdom has deemed it time for me to leave home. Also in His wisdom He decided to send me to a warm place with a beach, so currently I am very much down with His plan. It is kind of sad to leave the place of my birth, family, friends, and Quiktrip, but I don’t really see it as a leaving so much as an extending of my world. That actually sounds like a really hippy thing to say, but I feel it’s pretty true. Arizona will always be home, always. I’m sure the first blog post I’ll write when I get to San Diego will be about how much I miss AZ, but for now, I’m focusing on the positives of God moving me out to a new place.

The first and possibly most important reason I’m looking forward to heading out west is because I’ll still have family there. Growing up family was number 2 behind God and that’s it. It was above friends, it was above work, it was even above the law. (I’m not sure what “above the law” means exactly, or what that looks like, and everytime I type it I hear it in Sylvester Stallone’s voice). I liked that. I liked that I had people that in every situation would be on my side and cheer for me. Well, most situations anyway. I didn’t want to really push the envelope too much but I’m confident they would have had my back if something happened. It’s a good feeling knowing that I’m not totally losing that going to San Diego.

We gave this whole San Diego thing a trial run this past weekend and one of the cooler things I’ve noticed about the place is that things are pretty random. There’s not the order and cleanness of the strip mall that pervades so much of the Phoenix area. It’s just a bunch of “mom and pop” coffee and donut joints, Pho noodle stores, Police museums and Farmers markets all thrown seemingly haphazardly together. To add to the randomness is the curvy streets that never allow you to see further than an eighth mile ahead of you at a time. Just driving around can be full of surprises.

Sometimes you just need solidness and reliability though. For that I would have to point to the ocean. Living by the ocean last summer was incredible, to have that reminder of God’s amazing scope of creation, especially when you go at night and can see it in turn with the stars…..It’s something I really enjoy. It helps me think and focus on God. Going to San Diego and being around God's humongous ocean it’s like the difference people must’ve felt between hearing a classical piece of music over the scratchy radio, and seeing it live in a hall, sitting feet away from the cellos, if that makes sense.

Finally I’m looking forward to going to work. People ask me what I’ll be doing in San Diego and I tell them “I’m going into ministry with the Navigators at SDSU” and truthfully that’s as far as I know. I have an idea of what that’s going to look like from what I’ve seen in the lives of friends in ministry, but not a solid, exact description and set of tasks like I’ve had for the past 7 years of my working life. I simultaneously really look forward to it and am worried about it. I’m not really a worrier, so we’re going to focus on the “looking forward to” aspect. Also God has promised me more than a few times that things are going to be alright and not to worry. With that in mind it’s easier to look forward to being a part of and witnessing the work out there.

By the way I have another blog that I’m using to keep track of the San Diego/EDGE/God stuff that’s a little more serious. I have a link in the sidebar or you can just go to www.gabeonamission.blogspot.com to check that out and maybe follow along there.

"Fri" I look forward to finishing books.

I missed writing meaningless stuff on here, so I hope you’ll humor me as I resume wasting everyone’s time with thoughts on minutia. One new thing I did realize, these thoughts need to be shorter. So don’t be surprised if this blog gets streamlined to leverage my core-competencies accomplishing mission critical objectives and synergizing the harvesting of low hanging fruit for future applications (business school, I miss you).

So back to what we were discussing; I look forward to finishing books. I’m not one of those people that enjoys making a list and then checking things off said list because checking things off is fun. But I do like to finish one thing before I start another. Lately, through gifts, and inadvisable trips to amazon.com I’ve been piling up books that I want to read. Now I have a pretty substantial pile of books that I really want to read. There’s only one problem; I’m a monogamous reader. I feel like I’m cheating on a book if I stop midway through and move on to a new book. Every time I crack open “the other book” all I can think of is my original, sitting on my shelf, with the bookmark still painfully stuck through its midsection. It’s terrible. That why its such a relief to finish a book. It’s like a clean slate. Thoughts have been heard, a complete story told and that book can finally rest in peace on the “finished” side of my bookshelf.

Aside from just trying to get though the books I want to read I also enjoy finishing books because then we can talk about them. Books are weird, they're not like news or current events which have a nice clean time window for proper conversation. Books have kind of a nebulous window. You hear from a friend that they’re reading a book that you are reading or plan to read, then you have to try and synchronize reading that book with that friend otherwise you’ll have nothing to talk about. Or even worse you’ll finish too late and by then your friend is already 4 books ahead of you and not interested in talking about that book from 3 months ago.

Another great part of books is just remembering them. Thinking back to the amazing things they taught you, or incredible adventures they told. Not finishing the book robs you of this for obvious reasons. You never know how the story ended; people and characters you had invested in are just frozen with no resolution. That joy of nostalgia and rediscovered wonder that you get from recalling that book is gone, all because of a lack of dedication. It’s sad.

So moving forward (the last business jargon I’ll use for awhile, I promise), hopefully I can be more dedicated, and knock out some of those books that are on my shelf. I look forward to giving it a shot at least.



O yeah I also look forward to finishing books so I can use them build a hidden passage in my house one day. I'd feel like a phony if I used books that I hadn't read.

"Fri": I look forward to owning my own business

The big reason I got into the study of marketing was because one day I want to own my own business. People always follow that little revelation by asking “oh yea? What kind of business do you want to own?”, which is a fair question, but I honestly don’t yet know for sure. Besides, those are the specifics, the nitty-gritty, areas I’m working on. I’m much more of a big picture person (which is dangerously close to saying “I have trouble getting things done”).Also the reasons I have for wanting to be the boss transcends many different kinds of businesses. They’ll apply whether I end up owning a MLB franchise or just running the local Long John Silver. I’m not really a fan of hush puppies so hopefully the reality ends up being closer to the former.

I’ve had a couple of different jobs, been apart of a slew of organizations, and I feel like I’ve learned something about myself through membership in these groups. I learned that I’m a control freak. I think I might be the worst kind of control freak too. I’m the kind that if I’m not in control or leadership or whatever, has trouble caring and participating in the group. I think it’s like the tragedy of the commons, if I’m not in charge I feel like I have little ownership of that group, project, whatever, and then don’t really care about it. It makes sense in some ways, but it’s not really a very Christ like attitude. For example, I was doing most of the technical stuff for my church, and even though it was time consuming I enjoyed it because I could take ownership of everything. When I came back after the summer I wasn’t needed as much (which in reality has been great) and now have trouble caring at all to help out with the tech stuff. Like I said earlier, I realize it’s not a great reason or attitude, but it is definitely part of the mix that makes me want to be in charge of a business.

This other reason has a kind long story. About a week ago Friday I had to watch as we fired 6 guys from my job. Guys I’ve known on average for about a year. I understand why we did it, and don’t think it was a bad decision, but it still really sucked. That night I just wanted to drive around and think. I had only had like an hour of sleep (I had to work really late the night before) so my thought weren’t exactly inspired. One thing I do remember thinking however was that when I own a business I would never fire anyone. At first it sounds a little bit crazy, but there are existing places that use this philosophy and at the same time are really successful. Here’s why: If you know firing someone is not an option you’re more careful about the people you hire. Also if you know you won’t get fired you take more risks, voice your opinions, and don’t suck up to the boss. That’s what I’m looking for, a group of people who challenge me, who don’t take my word for it and tell me when I’m wrong. I feel like those kinds of people can only exist if they feel secure.

Security is only half the equation though; the other half is careful selection. There are people I’ve worked with who are amazing, hard-working people, stuck in bad jobs. Owning a business would allow me to take people like this, really awesome quality people, and give them a job they deserve. Some of the greatest people I met were working for $7.25 at Target. It was unbelievable to me. They deserve better.

Once I had my quality people who challenged me I feel like a lot of other things would fall into place. There would be just a couple of other things that I would want to do to create the work atmosphere I always wanted. I would want everyone in my company to go eat lunch together at least once a week. How awesome would that be to look forward to that day of the week when there was a mini-party at work. Speaking of parties, I would make sure we had an amazing Christmas party every year. A family kind of thing, it wouldn’t need to be expensive or anything crazy; maybe just a potluck, some music and a secret Santa or white elephant. And if we were really successful who knows? Maybe something crazy. Also the company should pay for your tuition if you want to go to school, no exceptions. The company is seeing direct benefit from you getting smarter and learning more, if you’re going to take that kind of initiative then you get a reward.

I’m not sure how successful all these ideas would really be in the real world. I just figured I’d get them down on paper so I could look back one day and see how close I came to making good on my promises. I feel like if I could even come close to these ideas it would be great. And hopefully above all else, me and my amazing, challenging group of people who work in this yet to be defined business would serve as a great witness to everyone else of Christ. If I could just accomplish that…..well, that would be a dream come true, and something to look forward to.

Fri: I look forward to My Last Semester

It took me 1607 days to get to this point. Sooo close to finishing. I remember growing up, and being in 4th grade or so and thinking “oh man, I’m going to be doing this school thing for another 12 years!” At the time it was staggering, but now here I am 6 months from never having to open another text book again. That’s what I’ll tell myself anyways, there’s always a chance in this evil fallen world that text books could yet be in my future. But I’m not going to think about it. As I reach this milestone, final lap, last chapter, end of the road, curtain call, and numerous other analogies for my final semester. I find myself looking forward to this, my farewell semester for quite a few reasons.

One of the first reasons that comes to mind is that I’m taking some relatively interesting classes. There’s few things worse that sitting through 5 months of how to use Microsoft Excel (CIS 105), how to find the Z-score of an observation (GBS 221), or how to find a solution using anti-derivatives (MAT 212). I mean if you’re into those things, or I just named one your favorite classes ever, that’s great for you. I truly mean it, I’m breaking the 10th commandment all over that joy you have for those classes. Because for me those and a few other classes will go down in the area of my brain that rarely gets a visit from the consciousness in hopes that happiness and excitement can continue to live on in my world. So yea, interesting classes are crucial to this next semester meeting the criterion for being mention on a “Friday” (in this blog anyway). What is an example of an interesting class? Well hopefully American Religious Traditions, Comm approach to Pop Culture, Relational Communication, Hip-Hop online, and Public Speaking are example of interesting classes. Public speaking in particular should be at least good for a few amusing mornings. There are few things more enlightening than watching a student absolutely nail a speech, or conversely crash and burn. It’s just so dynamic.

Along with classes that have me interested, another reason I’m looking forward to this semester is that it is my final term. As I subtly hinted to earlier, I’m not a huge fan of school. Usually when I’m in class doing the homework I’m struck by the fact that I’m not learning anything. I’m at school to learn right? Yet after all this work, after all these hoops, reading numerous pages of the arguably the most monotonous text ever forced on a group of people, I feel like 95% of the valuable things I’ve learned have come from outside the classroom. I’ve earned about office politics and running a small business from the job I worked all through college. I learned about communication and interaction from the friends I’ve made the last 5-ish years. I’ve learned about other cultures by taking non-school related trips out of the country and talking with immigrants that I’ve worked with. There are a great many other things I 've learned that I could attribute to sources outside of the four walls of College, yet to be honest I did pick up a few skills and tidbits of knowledge within those walls. I’ve just always felt that the way we go about learning things, or maybe more accurately the way the world is setup to formally teach us things is flawed and generally ineffective. So the sooner I can finish doing this little dance for that piece of paper that is mysteriously so crucial to future opportunities and success, the better.

Outside of the school angle, there’s a couple other reasons this semester could be cool. The Guy’s Bible study I’ve been attending has shown so much potential for being an amazing time I’m excited to see if it can capitalize. The material last semester was great, but really it’s the guys that come that make it incredible. The ideas and insights they bring to passages and stories I’ve heard or read multiple times makes them seem new and fresh. I really look forward to getting back with them.

Finally this semester will bring me to a crossroads in life. At this point it seems like an important decision making time and I’m anxious to get to it. Because the sooner it comes, the sooner I can start getting involved with whatever God has planned for me next. And lately being able to witness the fruition of the plans of God has been very exciting.

Fri: I look forward to Edge Preview

A quick explanation for the 2 people who check this blog and aren’t sure what Edge preview is. The Edge Corps is the entry level position for someone working full time with the Navigators which is a ministry with various arms including college, military, and publishing divisions. The Edge preview is a small 3-day conference that is designed to give young people who are interested a “peek” at what committing to edge would entail. (That how I understand it anyway, I’m not totally sure because I haven’t actually gone yet). So I somehow got signed up to go to this thing, at the time I really had no clue what it even was, I was just told there was a castle and some mountain goats, and really they had me at castle. Aside from the castle though, there’s a bunch of other things I’m looking forward to concerning the edge preview trip.

Travel
So in case for some reason you didn’t know, I like driving. The aspect of a 12 hour trip isn’t something that bugs me; I’m actually looking forward to the traveling part of the trip quite a bit. I’ve traveled to a painfully small amount of the U.S. so anytime I can add a couple cities and states to that list, it’s something I can get behind. It's just an added bonus that we're traveling through northern Arizona which always a beautiful drive.

Snow
As if just traveling wasn’t good enough, there’s a good chance that there will be snow will be involved at some point. I’ve lived in the desert my whole life so seeing snow is basically the equivalent of a blind person going to the movies, Kanye West making 808’s and Heartbreak, getting assigned a take home test for a final, or the Cardinals being in the playoffs. It’s highly unusual but a really nice change of pace. Who knows, I might even get to wear a scarf.

People
Aside from family, I’ll also get to spend a lot of time hanging out with friends I haven’t really seen since winter break started, and you know, it’s possible I might've kind of missed them or whatever. Anyways moving on…

Listening
Aside from all the trimmings of the trip, I’m also looking forward to just having a chance in the middle of a work week no less to just sit back and learn about God. Have some time to really just try and listen to Him through his Word, and get additional guidance on how to better understand his messages. Sure I’m also interested in finding out what the deal is with Edge Corps and what that whole deal is about, but it’s somewhat of a side note. In reality I’m rarely able to wrap my brain around just what amazing position God has put me in, where I can go somewhere and meet other believers and just learn about stuff that will be interesting, and valid forever. So I do my best to recognize those opportunities and look forward to them.

Fri: I look forward to New Years

I know some people treat the New Year as a clean slate and an opportunity to start over. I’m not really into that. I enjoy dragging everything from this past year into the upcoming year, I’m not interested in starting over. It’s too much work. I’m also not really into the resolution and goals scene. I like both resolutions and goals but celebrate them all year long, not just at New Year. Plus I’m kind of a procrastinator and if I had made some goals for 2009 I would just end up trying to knock them out in the week before 2010 or more likely the night before. And if I can do it in one week or one night, what’s the point in making a yearly goal? I’m sure there’s all kinds of flaws in that logic, but whatever I don’t take New Years seriously enough to re-think it. I do have some things aside from resolutions and “fresh starts” that I’m looking forward to though.

I enjoy new calendars. (I figured I’d start small and work my way up). They just look so clean, and fresh. They’re like 13 pages of potential paired with amazing pictures. Then you can always challenge yourself not to look ahead at the picture from the next month , at least I used to when I was a kid, I could usually hold out till about the 2nd week of the year before I broke down and checked out the remaining 11 months.

I also look forward to the fireworks at midnight. I’m a huge fan of fireworks, everything’s better with them. Ironically I was born in one of the few places on earth where they are illegal. That just makes them all that more special on New Years.

I’m a sucker for tradition, and watching the ball drop is one of the most basic and imitated. There’s nothing quite like watching those lights slowly descend while counting down from 20. The tricky thing is to try and forget that you’re watching it on a 2 hour tape delay. But once you get past that watching the ball is awesome, it really helps fill the void that comes when you realize that nothing really happens when the clock strikes midnight.

This year’s a little different though, I’m going to California for New years and hanging out with family at Knottsberry Farms. I’m definitely looking forward to that. I haven’t been to Knott’s since I was like 12, and even though I really enjoy doing the normal thing every New Year’s, going out of town is always a welcome change of pace…..And I enjoy roller coaster.

Completing a circuit around the sun seems like a pretty silly thing to celebrate, like we could take credit for it or something. I’m not going to argue with it though. How could you not look forward to extra time to enjoy your shiny Christmas presents, eat leftovers, and spend time with family? ( I know that was a little sappy, but it’s only been a day since Christmas and all those TV specials get to me). So I’m excited for New Years, even though it’s not a fresh start and nothing magical happens at midnight, the feeling of everyone in so many places getting together for even 10 seconds to celebrate the accomplishments of last year and the opportunities of next year is something I can’t help but look forward to.

Friday: I look forward to being a Senior Citizen

Not in a weird way. I’m not really in a rush to get through life. If anything, I’m taking life too slow. That’s just my nature though, to not be in hurry, to react slower than average, to sit back and enjoy watching things happen. Starting to understand why I’m looking forward to being part of the AARP club? Maybe not. Let me give you a few more reasons.

As previously alluded to, there are times that I don’t feel like a young person. It’s not a physical feeling, like my joints are creaky and hearing is going. I guess in an attitudinal way (that’s a real word by the way). I’m not always looking to do something crazy, I’m not a fan of large crowds, and I don’t understand why people are always walking so fast and talking so loud. Older people have already figured this stuff out. They realized that doing something crazy (and I mean crazy bad, not crazy good like spontaneous) usually leads to regrets and consequences. They realized that large crowds are usually full of people of questionable quality, because if they were of high quality it wouldn’t take so much of them to accomplish whatever the goal of the crowd was in the first place. They’ve realized that walking slow allows you to think, talk, and just enjoy things more, especially when done at a reasonable volume. I think they’ve probably realized a bunch of other secrets too, but I think I’ll probably have to wait till I’ve put in my time to learn those.

Senior citizens for some reason also get charged less money for most everything. I don’t really understand this, but I’m not going to argue about it. I’ll take the cheaper movie ticket, or dinner, or car insurance. Especially the car insurance. Which leads to the final reason.

Few personal flaws cannot be easily and acceptably blamed on age. For example, are you a bad driver? Maybe, but if you’re old and a bad driver then you’d just be called mediocre. Impatient? No, you just don’t have that much time left and are understandably not in a mood to deal with incompetence. Stingy? Never, you just came from a different time, when tipping 25 cents was acceptable, and giving a gift or donation of $5 would have made you a shot caller. Smelly? No,….well maybe yea. You’ll probably still get nailed on that one, the benefit of the doubt you get for being old has limits.

So being a senior citizen has tremendous upside. People blame your ugliness inside and out on the age. Things are cheaper. All the tough decisions from your life have already been made. You can just sit back and relax, and maybe if you feel up to it, try and help some young kid put together a life as good as, if not better than yours. So I’m looking forward to it. Like I said, I’m not in a rush to actually get there, but it’s nice to look on down the line and see that after all the craziness of living this life, there might be a couple years of reflection and cheap movie admission.

Friday: I look forward to Obama taking over

I’m going to write this now while it still sounds like a good idea. So the last 8 years, the republicans have kind of been in control of things. For a while there we (I say we because I’m a republican. I just thought I’d spell that out for those keeping score at home) even had control of the White House, Congress, and the House of Representatives simultaneously. The D.C. trifecta, as people trying to be cool would put it. Honestly I think it went pretty well. Unfortunately we had a couple fringe crazies that somehow snuck in there. There was also the misfortune of being saddled with an unusually tumultuous 8 years (9/11, housing bubble, oil prices, Enron….). Overall however, things never got too out of hand no matter how bad the situation was that our country faced. In the end I believe we’re going to be better off in the long run because of some of the work that was done in these last years.

Having said that however, man it is time to let someone else have a shot, at least for 4 years. I’m not super thrilled that the left wing captured the Cerberus this time around (Cerberus is my new slang for a simultaneous party control of the White house, Senate and House, by the way). People in this country though, had forgotten how crazy the left side can be. It’s a lot like the people of Israel wandering through the desert wanting to go back to Egypt and be slaves again because “they were taken care”. Sure people are taken care of in these situations, but ultimately the people taking care of you never do as good a job as you can by taking care of yourself. So that’s why I’m looking forward to an Obama presidency. Sure he has a few hang-ups, and skeletons in the closet, I’m fairly certain all public servants do. But how much damage can he really do in the limited time he will have as president. In reality the job of president is not the all-powerful decision making, no-questions-asked position that some believe it to be. There are checks and balances (albeit, quite a few less checks with a democrat controlled House and Senate). And of course, there is always the game of bureaucracy that will need to be played that slows down all the potential changes he has on the docket.

Really though, we needed a break. Somewhere along the line we took our eye off the ball (Yes! I got the clichéd sports reference in there) and lost track of our members. We were getting hammered by the media and in the court of public opinion. So I’m relatively glad that we can regroup for a few years, get rid of all the band wagon crazies that slipped in, and get ready to lead again in 4 or possibly 8 years (There’s always the chance he does a good job and everyone thanks him with a 2nd term, I'm a realist.). So prepare yourself for all the scrutiny to fall on the democrats again, it was more than entertaining last time, at times it was mind numbingly scary, but again be thankful and look forward to this opportunity to finally get a break from being the universal scapegoat. It will give the people a chance to clarify those memories they had of “the good old days, when Billy C was in charge” and I think we might all be better off with this reminder.