Thursday thoughts

Really not much going on my friends on this Thursday morning, now well under a month away until UK: Round Four kicks off.  For days such as these, we move to random thoughts.

–It’s ironic I think that this summer, unmemorable as it has been, would produce a Vintage CD which I cannot stop listening to.  Vintage CD XLVI is solid my friends, and I have made it a bad habit to proclaim new CDs to be the best ones ever made, but I may just do it again.

–I realized the other day that I have not been to 608 since early May.  Working nearly every Sunday night will do that to you I guess.  However, I am not scheduled to work next Sunday (August 3rd), so it looks good that I will make a triumphant return to 608.  Come to think about it, I have not been to a contemporary worship service in a couple of months.  This hasn’t been a bad thing I feel though, as I may write about in an extended piece soon.

–As far as classes go, I am likely doing the unthinkable and keeping my 8:00 class on Tuesday and Thursday.  I signed up for the class, Political Science 212, with little expectation that I would be actually taking it, but I have all but decided to drop Communication 101 (DeSantis and all) in favor of class which may present material I would one day teach.  I have finally realized in my senior year that it will be beneficial to me to take classes which might be valuable for me when I’m behind the teacher’s desk.  Thank goodness I realized this after I took Appalachian Studies.  So, my proposed schedule…

MW
9  American History 1820-1860 (Summers, WOOHOO)
11  Civil Liberties

TR
8  Politics and Culture in Third World
930  East Asia Until 1800

Then my education class…100 hours of observation in a local high school, to be assigned…cheering for either Lafayette or Henry Clay…my luck it will be Bryan Station…

–I have recently become obsessed with Batman villains again, which gets me to thinking, who is the best villain of all time?  Like, every villain that has ever existed?  I’m thinking of getting the top 64 villains that I can think of and pairing them up in a March Madness-like tournament.  Which evildoer is the most evil?  I will likely need help with this one, but it certainly has potential.

That’s about all I’m thinking about right now.

Batman!

 

 

 

 

 
When I was a young kid, I watched Batman: The Animated Series on FOX…and these villians above me were the ones to look out for.  I may look up this show again after so many years because of Batman Hysteria taking over the country.

Random observations from vacation

We return to UK and with it a long-awaited post on BenThoughts.  We have all been clamoring for such an occasion.  Allow me to use this entry to be in bullet form because I just wrote a long article for The Baptists’ Sports Wire (friend of the blog) and don’t feel like taking on paragraph form again just yet.

–North Carolina has the total package.  You have your mountains, your beaches, your sports teams (granted they are yucky ACC teams), and all the NASCAR history you would ever want.  I will be posting pictures from my trip to the Richard Childress Racing Museum shortly on Facebook.

–I made some wonderful purchases on this trip I must say.  I bought a Steven Curtis Chapman CD, a beach shovel, an old American history textbook, and a pirate coconut head (wait until you see this…we’re talking about the new FPTJ).  In total, I spent about $28, so yeah I’m happy with it.

–Speaking of music, the 8th Vintage Performance System was completed and I have posted the results (at least the top ten) on the Vintage CDs page of the blog.  All I can say is that the music from my sophomore year stepped up big time.  Also stepping up was the new Vintage CD — Vintage CD 46.  It’s darn good friends, I mean really good.

–We drove through Wingate University outside Charlotte, which means nothing to you but everything to me.  This was one of the camps of PPK last summer, and while I’ve been in camp exile this summer, I took the five minutes that was spent driving through to reminisce about how wonderful those two weeks at Wingate were.  It really took me back to the complex emotions I was feeling at that time.

–My heart has grown so much this summer.  I can feel my heart in my throat almost daily as it reacts to different things I see in the world.  I am looking at people in a completely different way.  I see people–complete strangers–and wonder about their stories, what they struggle with, and whether or not they walk daily with Christ.  I must say, this summer has helped me fully appreciate Jesus as a friend, not just my Lord and Savior (which is pretty important and all).  As I come to understand that Christ truly walked the Earth and realize Him to be a friend, I am beginning to see people as more than people, but loving creations of God that walk and talk (in theory) as Jesus did.  And my heart swells.

The summer sun is beginning to set.  Vacation served as a nice buffer to split July in half and help usher the quick coming of August.  I am certain that I will learn much more from this summer before it enters its twilight.  In some ways, I have learned more from this summer, which was flawed from the start, than any other summer previously, which is saying something considering the epic levels of some of my recent summers.  If Harvey Dent is correct, if the night is darkest just before the dawn, then the next few weeks may become quite interesting.  But I’m willing to learn and continuting to gear up for a year that I’m quite sure will be unlike any other.

A few other things

Something majestic from today:  I took off from Lexington around 630 and got the amazing opportunity to drive home into the sunset.  Thankfully I never drove due west so I wasn’t blinded, so I was able to witness the amazing sight of a sunset in God’s country, the 270.  When I pulled off I-65 at Smith’s Grove, with the sun setting in front of me and Daughtry’s “Home” playing on the CD player, I figured life could not get more magical than that.

Also, I saw today that Barack Obama is considering sponsoring a car for NASCAR’s August race in Pocono.  Well besides wondering how much Obama has in common with NASCAR, I must say this is a good way for him to get my vote.  People will automatically see how Obama is trying to connect with the southern white voter by playing with NASCAR here, but consider just which race he’s looking to get involved.  Pocono is of course in Pennsylvania, which always plays out to be one of those critical states the candidate must win to become President.  Well played Mr. Obama.  I look forward to seeing how Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert react to this news.

I am going on vacation!

Over the next week, I am checking out of Lexington and heading to various points in North Carolina with my family.  There has never been a better time for me to disappear from my current life and go on vacation, so you understand how absolutely thrilled I am about getting away for a week.  Actually, I’m already away from Lexington, as I come to you from Adolphus tonight.  As for the vacation itself, we will spend two nights in Greensboro, two nights in Havelock on the southeastern coast, and then a couple nights in who knows where in the southeast.  This is the beauty of the Osborne vacation:  yes, you know the general area in which you are traveling, but you have no idea where you will end up or what will happen.  Perhaps I will have some fun stories about our trip on the other side of the break, which will be about a week and a half from now.  Interesting though, at that point the summer will have less than a month left, and I cannot tell you how relieved I will be at that fact.

I spoke earlier how I feel this fall will be the first time since April 2007 that I am not spending the day hoping for a future time.  I have a goal though for the remainder of the summer, however, to spend that particular day attempting to make the most of every moment.  I will try, and it will be amazingly difficult to reverse this, to not be staring down August 18th will every fiber of my being.  I’ve been doing that for over a year, whether it was August 8th or December 22nd or May 2nd, and while the moments that were so anticipated often brought the satisfaction I sought, I feel empty now knowing I spent much of the last year breezing through and waiting for specific events in the often-distant future.

So what prompted this perhaps lofty goal?  Two things of note to be mentioned here:  my favorite author (yes) Erwin McManus has a new book out entitled Wide Awake, and it is inspiring me to think and live in the here and now the way that Chasing Daylight did back in my sophomore year.  And then there’s this song, the new Closing Song on Vintage CD 46, called “Miracle Of The Moment” by Steven Curtis Chapman.  I urge you to look up the song and soak in the lyrics, or just read Chasing Daylight because it’s pretty much the text translated into music.  In any case, I may have missed some opportunities this summer because of several unfortunate events which occured to derail my plans, but I figure submitting to God and figuring out that what has happened/is happening is according to His will, and living in every moment of the life goverened by Him is a pretty good idea.  That all said, I am still looking forward to August 18th and the kickoff of my swan song at UK, my One Shining Moment if you will.

To close here, I quote my boy Erwin from Wide Awake:  “It is very likely that the life God has given you as a gift today is the very thing he will ask of you as a sacrifice tomorrow.”

In the future, I wanna focus more on what I think about other things, not so much myself.  But typical me, I have been thinking a lot this summer about myself and the direction of my life and notsomuch other things going on around me.  Hopefully that will change on the other side of vacation, which I’m holding out will send me a giant boost of power which will help me surge and sizzle through the remainder of the summer.

New Vintage CD!

For the 46th time, a Vintage CD…

1. Foreverandever, Etc… — David Crowder Band
2. Summer Wind — Michael Buble
3. The Boys Of Summer — The Ataris
4. America Town — Five For Fighting
5. Cliffs Of Dover — Eric Johnson
6. Beating My Heart — Jon McLaughlin
7. Summer Breeze — Seals & Crofts
8. Friend Of God — Phillips, Craig, and Dean
9. Summer Girls — LFO
10. Carolina — Matt Wertz
11. Summer of ‘69 — Bryan Adams
12. Holy — Nicole Nordeman
13. I Wish The Best For You — Emerson Hart
14. Home — Vanessa Carlton
15. Summer — John Denver
16. Your Grace Is Enough — Matt Maher
17. Daylight — Remedy Drive
18. Miracle Of The Moment — Steven Curtis Chapman

Whether or not this CD will be eligible for the 8th VPS is still being decided.

July begins to pass by

I just watched Celebrity Family Feud (the only time I will ever do so). What compelled me to do so was a matchup between the American Gladiators and the cast of The Office. I, of course, was rooting hard for The Office, and after a difficult start, the Scranton boys and girls made a stunning comeback to win the day. For those who care, the team was captained by Kevin and filled out by Phyllis, Meridith, Oscar, and CREED! I loved it. And Wolf and Titan were two of the Gladiators. Just a wonderful bit of television.

I am overflowing with excitement tonight about the months to come. I found a few videos on Facebook from the past years of me–even the classic Fall Retreat video from sophomore year–and it punches my heart and gets it beating faster about the memories that we’re gonna make this, my senior year. As I talked to Kyle Hawes, friend of the blog, the other day, he spoke to Matt Scoggins about how the summer (for them) has been awesome, but the major memories and fun are to be made when everyone convenes in Lexington once more. Today, I helped plan the BCM Council Retreat which starts in just over a month and a week, and the pure excitement for what is to come washed over me. I hope and pray that I can harness this enthusiasm throughout the remainder of the summer and turn it into productivity, as there is SO much that needs to be accomplished before I head down to Pigeon Forge. I trust I’ll get something done before I enter my element again.

After last night’s wonderful excursion to Thoroughbred Park, I have been pondering the question that was raised during that conversation. What, exactly, do college students want? What do they need? What do they desire? These are questions that we’ve gotta answer if we, as Christians, the BCM, whatever, are to make a significant push for Christ on campus. After three years of self-promoting activity and a zeal for fun fellowship with other Christians, I hope that as a BCM we can get our hands dirty this coming year with events and people that we’re not quite comfortable with. I feel since I stepped into the BCM, particularly lately, we have existed to serve ourselves after the first few weeks of school. I wanna help change the culture of the BCM from “what can we do for ourselves” to “what can we do for others.” And maybe, just maybe, there’s the reason I’m in Lexington this summer: to think like no tomorrow and readjust just how I’m living out the Gospel through the BCM. I will think more about it and certainly post my thoughts here some more.

The Vintage CD’s Super Six…and the future

(Cross posted on the Vintage CDs page)

As we look at the grandeur of the Vintage CDs throughout history, we find six artists which have established themselves as the Super Six, as it is. Here they stand with the number of Vintage Songs they own…

Five For Fighting — 18
George Strait — 18
Backstreet Boys — 15
The Beatles — 14
Rascal Flatts — 14
Goo Goo Dolls — 13

But as history develops and more songs continue to be enshrined as Vintage, there will be other artists that step up and begin to frame the moments in my mind. Here now are six artists which I expect to leave their mark on my life, if they have not already.

Jon McLaughlin — 6
Daughtry — 6
Dave Barnes — 4
Aaron Shust — 4
Matthew West — 3
Steven Curtis Chapman — 2

The VPS is an excellent chance to freeze time and see where all we’ve been since the last ranking. The last VPS took place in the summer of 2006 when there were only 31 Vintage CDs, Christian music did not play any factor, and I had not heard of any of the six artists who are poised for a run at the top artists in Vintage CD history.

Starting next week, we see which song is best.

Yeah

Back in action

Majestic moments from the last few days…

–rolling around the front porch at home on my back with my yellow lab Fisher
–playing golf and tennis on the same day, and enjoying tennis more…I finally defeated my friend John in three sets as the sun set over Allen County-Scottsville High School
–being bulldozed by Brent White will playing ultimate frisbee, jumping right up from the ground after the collision, and seeing Brent get the worst of it

I am reading a book right now called Jesus For President, and the most interesting thing about my experience with this book is timing.  Tomorrow as we know is our country’s 232nd birthday, and Americans across the country will be celebrating like nothing else with fireworks, cookouts, and hopefully golf during the hours of 2-8 so I can get mucho tips.  But in any case, this book is making me examine just what America is today and how it represents what it stands for.  The book makes the constant comparison between the current American “empire” and the Roman empire of old, the regime which held world power during the days Jesus walked the Earth.  And the authors dissect the teachings of Jesus throughout the Gospels and compare them to the actions of our leaders today, and there’s not too much comparison found. And we call this country a “Christian nation”?  And we say God Bless America and stamp it all over t-shirts and bumper stickers and pins, and we receive the blessing only to ravage the world.  At least this is their argument.

I recommend this book highly.  I will probably write more about it because it has got me thinking about a lot, including the significance of tomorrow and what it really means.  I do ask now that when you hear songs like “God Bless America,” what does it really mean?  Are we not blessed already?  Does it mean that God should further bless America more than any other country…because they aren’t as good as us?  And where do the terrorists fit in…how would Jesus treat them?  Wow, much to think about and much to write about soon.