TG for DST

The State of Indiana finally did something right. They passed the Daylight Saving Time bill. Now, sometime next April, Indiana will join the other 47 states in the 21st Century.

Thank God for House Representatives Troy Woodruff (R) and John Ulmer (R). Yes, I'm thanking two Republicans because they switched their red light to green at the last minute. The bill passed 51-46, a narrow victory by Indiana constitutional terms. Senate Bill 127 was almost killed in an earlier vote, 49-48 against changing the time. But, it wasn't dead. For a bill to be completely dead, the Indiana Constitution requires 51 votes against it.

Rep. Woodruff is a freshman in the State House. The people he represents were firmly against DST. In fact, he even previously pledged to ""always vote against this controversial piece of legislation." But, at the last minute, he changed his mind and voted his conscience. No doubt his constituents will be pissed, but "Some things are more important than re-election," Woodruff said. I find that attitude very refreshing in politics.

I am especially angered with local Democrats who voted against the bill because of politics. They knew this was the right thing to do for this state and it's economy, but instead decided not to work with the governor to get things done. They wanted to make deals: "I'll vote for DST, if you vote for slot machines." They didn't get the slot machines, so they pouted. That is childish behavior. This is starting to become a theme with the Dems, not just here but across the nation, and it's really tourqing me off.

But, now that this battle is over (and for you non-Hoosiers, it was indeed a battle), a new debate can begin. Should we be in the Eastern or Central time zone? And you know, I don't really care which one we're in. Having lived in both time zones, I think I would prefer living Eastern. That's strictly because my TV shows start at 8pm, which makes it feel like I have an extra hour to get things done (like exercise outside) and still catch my boob-tube favorites. If we end up Central, I won't complain. I'm more used to that.

There are numerous people who live along the Indiana/Illinois border. They are worried that this whole time change thing will mean that where they live and where they work will have an hour's difference. That is an understandable concern. But, along 24 lines across this enitre world, people are dealing with that problem. After all, no matter how you slice the time zones up, someone somewhere has to deal with the problem in daily life. So, I'm sure if it does become an issue, they will be able to handle it.

You know I'm Cajun, right?

You know those shrimp cocktail rings you can buy in your local grocery's freezer section? Well, I just ate a 30 count shrimp ring. I mean, all 30 shrimp in one sitting. Now, before you get all bug-eyed about one person eat an entire shrimp cocktail ring all by his lonesome, let me explain.

There's Cajun in my blood. True, I claim the Irish more than the Cajun but that's just 'cause I like good beer as opposed to Bud Light. It's more about the drinking rights. But, I was born in deep southeast Louisiana in a small town about an hour's drive west southwest of New Orleans. Our house was just over a mile from Bayou Lafourche (La-FOOCH). I'm from down the bayou as we say. Though, far enough up the bayou to have culture and no accent. But, sha, I cun do a tick kay-jen akcent when da tyme be right, yeah.

Anyway, what does that have to do with 30 shrimp? Well, where I'm from, it was not uncommon for families to get together for a shrimp, crab or crawfish boil. In fact, during Lent, my family would generally eat about 10 pounds of crawfish on Fridays. With 4 people in my family, that's an average of 2 1/2 pounds of crawfish per person. That's alot of head suckin' and tail pinching. When you think about it that way, 30 shrimp is a lite snack.

Now, I'm in Indiana where there is no sea, therefore no seafood. Heck, I'm just happy I found a Popeye's that is only 20 minutes from work in the wrong direction. Of course, when I was younger, I was more fond of boiled crawfish than I was of boiled shrimp. But, here in Indy, a shrimp cocktail ring is about closest I can get to "cajun cooking." Yes, there is YATS, which I love, but it's alot less convenient than my local Kroger's. And after all, a shrimp cocktail ring is just frozen boiled shrimp. All I have to do is defrost and it's almost like home... Almost... Lord, I can't wait for Christmas vacation...

Star Wars Weekend

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good, all things considered. Got two passes to the Star Wars Celebration 3 Convention that went down in this past weekend. Thousands of geeks, nerds, dweebs and nerfherders assembled in beautiful downtown Indianapolis to celebrate all that is holy and sacred. You may call me "geek," but that's it.

So, Saturday, a co-worker and I took our families to the convention 'cause yeah we're geeks like that. With 4 passes between us, we would need 3 more for the kiddies. Unfortuneately, when we arrived, they had sold out of passes for the day. So, I told my co-worker to take them since they couldn't go on Sunday, then we'd get them later and go the next day.

Well, we were downtown and we rarely are and we were paying for parking. So, might as well hang around Circle City Mall for a spell. There were plenty of people dressed up as Star Wars character. I told my wife that I bet that she would be the hottest chick at the convention. Hot is defined as, "yeah, I'd do her." We began to see if that were true. There were some Mara Jade's, a few Twi'leks, even a Princess Leia in a golden bikini. But, truthfully, the closest we came to hot Star Wars chick action was a girl dressed up a Storm Trooper after she took her helmet off. Figures, the hot chick wanted a mask at the Gathering of The Geeks.

We did stumble across an interesting book. "Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters," by Dick Staub. It compares Christianity and it's teachings to the teaching of the Jedi and the Force. I said I was a geek.

We were downtown long enough for my co-worker to call me to find out if we were still downtown. They were getting ready to leave and thought we could use the passes for the rest of Saturday. We didn't have much time, but we were able to scope out the vendor's room. Got to figure out what we wanted and how much it would cost.

Sunday, I kind of didn't want to go. Church was calling. If we went to church, we'd have to miss the whole day of the convention. We had a wedding shower we had to be at. But, I went anyway. I'm not sure if the family knew how to nagivate downtown. I'm glad I did. The kid ended up buying a "Stone Cold" Steven Austin action figure... at a Star Wars Convention. Go figure. Later in the day, he was "givin' stunners" to the Ewoks. I bought two action figures from the Clone Wars Animated Series. One vendor wanted $25 for this (Mesa lika dis Sith Asajj Ventress). But I got it, and Mace Windu for $24. I'm sorry, but that vendor is an idiot - lots of merchadise to pack up in two hours, lower your price and make some money.

Anyway, a good time was had by all. Here's my favorite two pictures from the weekend. Admiral Ackbar walking the streets of downtown Indy and Me flashin' fingaz wit' the Fett. Wipe off that drool, you nerdz...

Funniest Thing I've heard in ages

The State of Indiana is currently embroiled in a debate over switcing to Daylight Savings Time. Indiana is one of three other states that don't "fall back" or "spring forward." Being from a state where all I knew was DST, this seems like a silly debate. Yet, apparently, this fight has been going on for years before I moved here.

The people who are against it have some of the most ridiculous reasons for being against it. But, the reason I heard on the radio today takes the cake. I was listening to my favorite radio talk show, Abdul in the Morning, when a caller brought up the DST issue. And this is what he said (Ver-fucking-batim):

"I have several reasons for being against Daytime Savings Time, the first of which is because it isn't anywhere in the Bible."

Now, I am really digging the Bible these days, and I certainly don't mean any disrespect to God or his Word. But, are you friggin' serious? We can't have DST because it's not in the Bible? It's ass-backwards thinking like this that gives good Christians a bad name.

By the way, if you're reading this, yer sinnin' 'cause 'blogs and the internet ain't in the Bible. So, log off right now and pray for your soul not to burn in hell! *rolling eyes*

How it applies

In my email signature file, I include a verse from the Bible. John 4:34 says "Jesus said, 'My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.'" Sometimes, I feel weird about having it in there. Taken alone, I fear that it comes across as slightly arrogant and I wonder what people who aren't in tune with God and Jesus think of me for using it.

In the Bible, the disciples urge Jesus to eat something. He tells them "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." His disciples are like, "What the heck are you talking 'bout, JC?" That's when Jesus tells them where his nourishment comes from.

When I first read the Gospel of John, this was one of the passages that really stuck out to me. Obviously, man cannot live without food, but that's not what the meaning is. To me, this passage speaks about our faith in God, our hope that He will help us survive life, and the love we show him by living life according to His Laws. In this one passage, we get what IT is all about.

God has plans for us all. I'm just starting to figure out what his plans for me are. My use of John 4:34 serves as a constant reminder that I (we all) have a purpose. By following Jesus' teachings and doing God's will, we find purpose in this world and, ultimately, reach salvation.

Stream of Consciousness 4: The Revenge

We went to the garden section of Wal-mart last night - a first! The wife wants to start a little garden in our little fenced in area. So, without really knowing anything about gardening, we picked out a bunch of stuff to attempt to grow and garden. She going to try growing a few vegetables and some herbs, too. Tomatoes, onions, cilantro, strawberries were a few of the items she picked out. The kid wanted us to get pumpkins and watermelons but we do not have the space for that. I wonder if we have the room for what we did pick out. I picked out some petunias for a little windowbox garden thingy. I thought the colors were pretty: red, pinkish and a violet. I'm sure you can tell that we're well over our head. But, we're trying. At least, we know enough to use Miracle-Gro. Of course, we left the shovel we bought at Wal-mart by accident, so we already start on a bad note. I don't know how this will turn out, but it would be nice if she gets her garden to go. I wish her the best of luck. She has kept a little bamboo plant alive for four years, so maybe this will happen. I've never been interested in gardening. You know, it's something you have to do outside, so forget it. But, I can see me getting a little bit interested, at least enough to support her.

There's another dream I had a while back I want to post about. It's another "God" or "White" dream. It was an amazing dream for me, especially because of how violent it was. I mean, most people would classify it as a "bad dream" because of what happened in it. But, I don't. Once I remember the dream fully and the meaning, I'll post more about it. I'm surprised I haven't yet.

Watched Revelations on NBC last night. It was ok. It's a mini-series about the end of times. Its kinda creepy, and it looks well done. The thing that bothers me is the nun in the show. She's documenting all of these "signs" that the end is near. That doesn't bother me. But she's seems to want to prevent The End. Why would a nun (who obviously is well-verse on God's plans for The End) want to prevent it? That makes no gosh darn sense. The first episode ended with enough mystery that I want to watch the second to see where this is going. It's not nearly as good as Lost, though.

Sorry I haven't updated the news about my grandmother since mentioning her nearly a week ago. But, the news is that she passed away late in the evening late last week. The funeral was on Saturday. I couldn't go because of the show. And don't worry about me. I'm very fine with her death. She had Alzheimers for like 15 years and from what I understand most of her days were spent in a fetal position. In a sense, you might say I pre-grieved. I mean, I haven't seen her over 10 years (before the Alzheimers got really bad) and we knew that the disease would one day kill her. I don't have a lot of memories of her, but the ones I have are great. I'm sure my entire family is taking comfort in the fact that her suffering in life is over and that she is with God.

Dream Interpretations

Throughout the Bible, God has given messages to his people in their dreams. Mary found out about her immaculate conception through an angel appearing in her dreams. Joseph was told to take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt and hide from King Herod. If memory serves, God revealed his plans to all of the prophets at some point through their dreams. Dreams have played an important part throughout the history of the Bible, from the Joseph of Genesis rising to power by interpreting Pharoah's dreams to John's "Revelations" chapter.

It stands to reason that God still uses our dreams to get messages to us. Now, I'm not saying that every dream we have is a message from God. That dream about the twin stewardesses and the mile high club... Not from God. The one where all your teeth fall out for no reason... Not from God, but rather our own low self-esteem. But, I'm quite sure that God is still speaking to us in our dreams. But, are we receptive enough to pick up the message?

I had a dream the other night that I think maybe was God trying to tell me something. This was the dream, with my own interpretation to follow:

I dreamt I was at some convention, perhaps a church retreat. The predominant color was white. The dream seemed to take place in the distant future, like 10 or 15 years from now. It seemed I was late for a meeting at this convention as I was hurrying to get to my spot. When I arrived at my table, I greeted my fiancee. Yes, my fiancee (Know that I am a happily married man, but work with me here). My fiancee was someone I recognize in my life today. I got the feeling like we were at a hotel and staying in the same room, but I was running late so I met her downstairs at our table. I kissed her hello as I joined the table. The convention was coming to an end. Her parents walked up and I greeted them. They were happy to see me again. We told them we'd see them later and we all hugged good-bye. Then, my dream fiancee introduced me to her grandmother. I flirted with her grandmother saying how great it was to finally meet her. My fiancee giggled at my pathetic attempt to impress an obviously important-to-her person. After we said good-bye to her grandmother, my fiancee said she "couldn't wait to blog about this weekend." The tone of her voice was as if she slipped up because she wasn't quite ready to tell me that she started her own blog. Like we had previous conversations about blogging and she was not interested, but now she was a little bit embarrassed to admit she started a blog. I flashed my charming smile and said, "Oh, can't wait to blog." The tone of my voice was playful, like I was happy to know that our conversations had influenced her. We both had different agendas for the day. So, we kissed again and said our good-byes until later. That was my dream.

Ok, the interpretation. First of all, I do know the "fiancee" in real life. While I do feel some sort of connection between us, it is most definitely not on a "fiancee" kind of level. The strange thing about this connection is that it's just some gut feeling that God placed her in my life for some reason, yet I feel extremely uncomfortable being around her. I don't know exactly why that is. She's not shifty or shady in anyway. After doing a little bit of research, I discovered that to dream of being engaged speaks about your relationship needs. This makes a lot of sense to me because I do think there is a big enough spark of connection to make a nice, cozy fire of friendship. Friendship being a key word there. Yet, the spark has yet to ignite the friendship.

The dream takes place in the distant future, foretelling of what could be (I do not mean an engagement, but solid friendship down the road). And there is a general theme of comfort throughout. In the dream, her parents were very happy to see me again. Think about your friends. Now, think about your relationship with their parents. To be such close friends that their parents enjoy your company speaks volumes about the friendship, don't you think? Then, she introduces me to her grandmother. That's a tight friendship, no? So, in dream world, there are huge signs of a comfortable friendship.

But, what about the blogging reference? I think that represents my influence on the friendship because, as far as I know, this person doesn't have internet access at home. I mean, if you don't have internet access, how can you be into blogging? It would be incredibly difficult to blog as a hobby.

What makes me think that this is a message from God? Well, I don't think I can adequately answer that question for people who don't have a very close, personal relationship with God. You just kind of have to ... get it... that it's from God and you accept it and move on. The fact that everything was white and kind of glowy also makes me feel like this was a God-influenced dream. I've had a few extremely vivid and real-feeling dreams where everything was white. Upon waking up from them, I feel quite at peace. If you haven't experienced this feeling, I don't think I can give you a satisfactory answer.

What does it all mean then? I think that God is trying to tell me that I should stop feeling uncomfortable around her. That there's no reason to be. It's ok to let the friendship build and grow. Maybe He's telling me I need more comfortable friendships in my life and I should pursue such friendships.

Either that or I was way too into the last episode of LOST, where we found out that Dr. Jack was engaged, struggling with the relationship, then got married... It could go either way...

Testify

I'm hear to tell you, brothers and sisters, that there is indeed a God and he does answer your prayers. Let me testify to this fact. Friday, I was quite the ill person. My throat was sore. My nose was stuffed. My voice was just about gone. I was feeling the worst effects of a cold. Yet that very evening, I had to sing and perform for my show.

I tried to sing just to hear how I might sound. Cats mating made better music. I knew I was in trouble. But, I had faith, you see.

The show I was performing in was Godspell and I knew that God would bless me so that I could glorify his name. I tried some medicines, herbal teas, cough drops... anything that might help my voice. Still, I felt uncomfortable and uneasy about my voice holding out through my solo.

Before the show started, I got down on my knees and prayed to God saying, "Lord, thank you for all the wonderful things you have given me. I pray to you today asking for your blessing once again. As you know, this cold has got me nervous about my voice holding out. I ask that you give my voice the strength to glorify your name and to help me tell your story so that those in the audience would better receive your message. Know that when I sing my solo, I am not acting, but am quite sincere and true to the meaning of the song. Thank you."

My solo is about 45 minutes into the first act. I got up on my box and began to sing. In my head, I was still praying for my voice to hold out and for the power to hit the high A note. Let me tell you, that high A is hard to hit when 100% healthy. And, earlier that day, I couldn't hit it when testing my voice.

But, the good Lord smiled upon me. Not only did I hit that A, I nailed that note with so much power that I felt I could have sang it nearly an octave higher. That Friday's performance of "All Good Gifts" was, in my opinion, the best it has ever sounded (with me singing it). Later, one of my castmates whispered to me onstage that I sounded amazing. The director also told me how that was the best I had ever sung the song... something about soaring over that note...

Folks, if there is any kind of moral to the story, it is this: There is indeed a God and he does answer your prayers. Take that to heart. One question: Does this count as Miracle #1 for my eventual sainthood? Kidding...

The Good and the Bad

The Negatives:

1. Grandmother has had Alzheimer's for over 10 years and her kidneys are falling. She will likely pass rather soon. My folks are with her in Oklahoma.
2. Probably have strep. Not good for singing and performing over the weekend.
3. Behind schedule with my "secret" project for Godspell.
4. Producing both the AM and PM topicals.

The Positives:

1. Grandmother's eventual passing is for the best. She'll no longer be suffering and with God, no doubt.
2. Have Doctor's Appt in an hour and 1/2. Plus, people I know are supposed to be coming to the shows this last weekend.
3. Have to buy one $15 dollar thing and project should get on schedule again by bedtime.
4. AM's a snap to do and I just have to write the PMs.
5. Gnomes of all shapes and sizes, especially ones that deliver pizza.

Don't Worry; Be Happy.

Stream of Consciousness, Part III

We had nine people in the audience for the Saturday Matinee. Some of the rumblings backstage before the show including thoughts on cancelling the show or grumblings about why do a show for nine people. Seriously, there were more people on the stage than in the audience. Since the Artist's Studio was not going to cancel it, I keep trying to keep the casts spirits up in order to focus on giving those nine the best show yet. Our goal was to get everyone up and dancing during "Light of the World" before intermission. We suceeded on that. And, for our efforts, those nine people congratulated us with a standing ovation. That's some serious mad props from nine people. Audiences that small generally to... self-conscious... about stuff like that. But, they were a much better audience than the nearly-packed Sunday evening show. Sunday was like crickets. I'd like to think the Sunday audience enjoyed the show. But, it was hard to tell. The director came up to each and every one of us during intermission and blessed us for not letting the lack of audience reaction bring out performance down. I know some of the folks on Sunday were into the show. A cast member said she saw a few people singing along and one woman was moved to tears during my solo (hopefully because it was THAT good. heh).

So, did you hear the Pope passed away? Since I don't really consider myself Catholic, I'm not in mourning, persay. But, my heart does go out to the bajillion of Catholics who are mourning the loss of their spiritual leader. I've done a little bit of reading up on John Paul II and what he's accomplished. "Good man" would be an understatement. I'm actually pretty interested in learning more about the history of Popedom and the whole process of choosing a new Pope.

I said I would review a movie or music CD for The Crux's newsletter, but I might be over my head. I'm sure I could pull it off, but I have no idea what to review. It's due at the end of the month. I'm at a complete loss on what to review.

Wrestlemania 21 was pretty darn good. I haven't watch a wrestling Pay-per-view since, gosh, Starcade '96, I think. Sting vs Hogan. That's actually when I started losing love for the Stinger. Hogan pinned him, but apparently the ref had a fast 3-count and the match was restarted. Sting then won the match. But, as much as I hate to admit it, looking back at the tape, I couldn't see a fast 3-count. Looked like a regular one to me. In my mind, Hogan won that one. By I digress. Wrestlemania 21 was great. Hung out with my kid at a castmate's house for it. It's good to have a "wrestling buddy." I miss watching WCW Nitro or WWE Raw with my pals. Those were fun nights. Hopefully, there will be more "wrestling night" in the future. Maybe a trip to Chicago for Wrestlemania 22 is in store...