This is My Kind of Train Ride

Did they have to pay extra for this ride?

Facebook Made Me Do It

Facebook has become to social networking what Google has become to search. It has also created a whole lot of questions about social networking behavior, ethics and even myths and assumptions that we believe about it. So while we are still in the early stages of this phenomenon, here is link to an article in Newsweek that any facebook user should read. It's called "Seven Lies We Tell Ourselves About Facebook". I gave you the link to the full article, here are the lies. Can you relate?

1. I Only Friend People I Really Know

2. Facebook Made Me Do It

3. Wall-to-Wall Flirting Isn't Cheating

4. I Use Facebook to Keep in Touch With People

5. I'm Soooo Over Facebook

6. And I am Soooo Not Competitive

7. Facebook is My Friend

grace

I love the word and concept of grace. It's, well, amazing. We wound up giving our youngest the middle name of Grace because the season of our life that she was born in was a time of serious grace. I was reminded of the depth of grace today while listening to U2's song of the same name. Love the lines "She travels outside of karma" and "She carries a world on her hips, No champagne flute for her lips".

Grace is a hardworker with little reward. Almost everything today is about "put something in, get something out." Or "nothing's free." This isn't to say that these ideas are wrong, it's just that sometimes you just need a little grace that comes at you with no strings attached.

Here's the full lyric from U2. It's worth looking at again...

Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name

Grace
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that
Changed the world

And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness
In everything

Grace
She's got the walk
Not on a wrapper on chalk
She's got the time to talk

She travels outside
Of karma, karma
She travels outside
Of karma

When she goes to work
You can hear the strings
Grace finds beauty
In everything

Grace
She carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips
Between her fingertips

She carries a pearl
In perfect condition
What once was hers
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stains

Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace finds beauty
In everything

Grace finds goodness
In everything

Have some grace on me today!

Happy Birthday

Happy 200th Abe. You've never looked better.

Blogging for Dollars

I read in this week's Newsweek about the guy who blogged as Steve Jobs. His article titled "Time to Hang up the Pajamas" is a confession about his inability to make a business career out of blogging. Using Google's adsense, posting 10-20 items a day and with hundreds of thousands of hits Each day, he made a "whopping total of $1,039.81." His conclusion is that blogging will not lead to financial prosperity. So why blog if you are not able to make a living with it?

While I can appreciate people's reasons for blogging for dollars, or selling a book, or becoming popular etc. etc., my purpose for blogging is a bit simpler, I like it. Here's why...

1. I like a good creative outlet.
I enjoy the creative process of writing and blogging allows me to communicate some things that might otherwise just continue to rattle around in my brain.

2. I like staying connected with people.
I have had the good fortune of meeting some amazing people over my lifetime and although I enjoy the new found connectedness of facebooking with people, I find that blogging allows for a bit of a deeper connect than a simple status update.

3. I enjoy passing on things that I find interesting, funny, challenging, educational etc.
This is my networking side that I cannot shut off.

I do NOT blog for money or to be known or to see how many hits or comments I can get in a day. If a blogger is not careful, he can begin to take himself too seriously. I have vowed to try my best to not make that mistake. If you have tried to look for a place to comment here, sorry, I shut that off a while ago to protect from myself from that (unless of course you are my facebook friend- can't shut that one off I don't think).

So, hope you have enjoyed some of my blogging. If any of them have made you smile, laugh, think, act or change in even a small way...then I've gotten all the compensation I need.

Louis C.K. waxes on about the GOOD in today's BAD Realities

A friend of mine posted this on facebook (thank you Corrie) and it has to be one of the funniest and saddest commentaries on today's society that I have seen in a while. The clip is of Louis C.K. on Conan O'brien talking about how a little dose of reality can help this generation figure out just how good we have it. This is MUST SEE TV. I will be making sure that my teenager sees it and hope that it goes wildly viral.


**facebook users click HERE.