Time to close a door?

Predictably Irrational:
The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely

A hungry donkey approaches a barn one day looking for hay and discovers two haystacks of identical size at the two opposite sides of the barn. The donkey stands in the middle of the barn between the two haystacks, not knowing which to select. Hours go by, but he still can’t make up his mind. Unable to decide, the donkey eventually dies of starvation.

We like options. My friends will tell you that options are bad for me, they joke that I need to get to a restaurant at earlier than everyone else so that when they show up, I know what I want to eat and drink and can order with the rest of them.

But we have a problem. We don't like to close doors. Ariely conducted various experiments with students to study this behavior and found that even though picking a single door would have been more beneficial for the student, every student made sure to explore each door and worked to make sure those doors remained open.

Besides decision making and having options, there's another area in our lives where this impacts us. This is where behavioral economics comes into play. We don't like the idea of losing something and this is very evident on sites like Ebay where bidding is at play. When someone places the highest bid on an item, they start to anticipate ownership of that item and imagine life with that item. They take a virtual ownership. And this drives them to keep the highest bid. They can no longer imagine not having the item.

We have an irrational compulsion to keep doors open.

We need to allow some doors to close, lest we become like the donkey and starve ourselves in indecision.


Also see Decision Making: Everything is Relative for more review on this book.

Decision Making: Everything is Relative

Predictably Irrational:
The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely

As it turns out, positive expectations allow us to enjoy things more and improve our perception of the world around us. The danger of expecting nothing is that, in the end, it might be all we’ll get.

Thanks to Facebook, of which I both like and dislike, I was presented with an add for Blinkist. Blinkist is a site that promotes learning and personal growth. If your "to-read" list is like mine, I have more books I want to read than I'll ever be able to get through. Blinkist solves this by giving providing subscribers the key ideas and concepts from over a thousand non-fiction books in under 15 minutes in audio or print form. Think of it as Spark notes in a way.

That's how I came across Predictably Irrational. This is not a book I'd normally pick up, but to test how Blinkist works, I thought I'd listen to their audio snippet, then start reading the book to see how the they compare and what is missed by not reading the book. All in all, Blinkist is nice if you want to get the general idea, but obviously reading the book will lend to more incite on what is presented.

Anyway, enough about Blinkist. Now, time for some "bright ideas" I am getting from this book.

Psychology of Marketing

The book is basically about behavioral economics, the way in which humans behave and make decisions. Back in college, I remember talking about the use of psychology in marketing. Everything from the way a store is laid out to the colors on the walls has to do with how we respond and make decisions.

In this book, there were some very revealing details that I never put much thought into. For example, the way we determine whether or not the price for a product is a good deal. Ariely conducted a study in which studetns were to right down the last two digits of their social security number, then they were asked what they would be willing to pay for a number of products. The result? Students whose last two social security digits were higher were willing to pay more for products than students with lower numbers. This is what Ariely referred to as the anchor. And it can be anything really. It could have been the current temperature. It's relativity in pricing, we see a number and use it as a baseline for purchasing decisions. He also talked about first impressions (the first new product to market sets the price, the anchor, by which we compare all other related products).

We also try to compare similar products and base pricing on that. Restaurants will often overprice their most expensive item on the menu so that when you compare it to the second most expensive, the second meal looks like a better deal.

perception of value, in medicine, soft drinks, drugstore cosmetics, or cars, can become real value.

Another interesting thing is how we perceive value. Ariel conducted a study in which students were given pain medication. In one group, students were told the medication was very expensive, and they reported higher percentage of relief than the students who were given the medication and told it was less than a $1. The result: we expect more when we pay more, and sometimes this blinds us to value the more expensive item higher.

All in all, this was a very good book on our buying habits and how we don't really have a rational way in which we make decisions. I highly recommend this book, especially now that we are coming up on the holidays and everybody is out buying stuff.

Moved Content From Xanga

It wasn't an easy task, but I have done it.  I have moved all of my posts from Xanga (a blog that I abandoned years ago) and have brought them into Blogger.  This post will explain my process, some hurdles I have had to overcome, and the end result.

For starters, why move away from Xanga?  I don't remember why I ever started with Xanga; maybe because all of my friends had a Xanga account, maybe I just didn't care about data liberation then, I don't know.  What I do know is that none of my friends are using Xanga any more (the last post from my group of friends was April or May of 2007).  I also know that Xanga, without paying for a Premium account, will not allow you to download an archive of your content.  I am the one who wrote those posts, why shouldn't I be allowed to archive what I have written!  Here on out, I will not use a blogging platform if I cannot retrieve my own archives.  Since everything is extracted, I will be shutting down my Xanga account, probably wait 90 days or so before I do to make sure any Xanga user's who know me can see that I have moved.  I don't like having accounts open all over the web that I know longer use.  Just a pet peeve of mine I guess.

That said, a few years ago I was looking for a platform to start blogging again and since I already had a Google account with GMail, Android, and now Google+, Blogger seemed like a natural selection for me to use as a blogging platform.  Also, Google has made it very public, via the Data Liberation Front, that the user should own the data, not the platform, visit http://www.dataliberation.org/ to read more about their efforts.  So, how did I get Xanga content onto Blogger, and without spending a cent?

Tim Wylie has written a nice little tool called XWord/Xanga.r.  The program is written in rebol (being a developer of sorts myself, I haven't heard of rebol, but the tool works, so eh, what can I say), so you will need to download and install (extract) rebol on your machine.  I used a Windows machine for this and was pretty simple to do.  There is a binary executable for Windows and Linux/Mac, but those versions are outdated and I couldn't get it to work, so I think you are left with the rebol script version.

To download the xword program, go to www.timwylie.com/xword.html.  The software to run rebol can be downloaded from www.rebol.com.  Xanga.r is a command line tool, while Xword is a graphical interface for xanga.r.  Wil Fry has a post regarding his experience with xanga.r at http://wilcfry.com/blogs/verily/?p=292.  I came across his blog while researching how to export Xanga to Blogger.

Once the download is complete, simply type the url for your xanga blog and export the data.  Here comes the real tricky part.  The generated file is a RSS file for WordPress, but it cannot be imported into a WordPress.com blog; it must first be imported into a WordPress.org blog, since it requires an RSS Import.

If you visit Wordpress.org, you can download the CMS system that powers WordPress.com, but to run and "install" WordPress.org, you also need to have a web server.  I use Xampp all the time for web development stuff, which can be downloaded from http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html.  Here you can also find tutorials on how to set up Xampp.  You will also need to create a MySQL database for use with WordPress.org.  Extract the WordPress.org download to htdocs in your Xampp installation directory, and if Xampp is running, you can go to localhost/wordpressdir  (where wordpressdir is the WordPress directory in htdocs) in your web browser and install WordPress.  After the install, you will find it is much like WordPress.com, except with a few more features, such as the ability to install modules (which is what we will need to do next).

Go to the Plugins section and search for the RSS Import plugin and install it (all from your WordPress.org admin dashboard).  Once the plugin is installed, you can now import an RSS to WordPress.org by selecting the option under the import tab and then choose your Xanga .xml file created with xanga.r.  After the import is complete, you can now export the WordPress.org posts to a WordPress XML file for imported to WordPress.com or any other blogging platform that will recognize this format.

Another option is to use these tools at http://code.google.com/p/google-blog-converters-appengine/.  This project on Google AppEngine allows you to convert your blog to/from different types.  I used this to convert my WordPress XML file to a Blogger file (http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/), then imported the generated file into Blogger.

I have a non-active blog (on Blogger) that I have imported my posts to, simply to keep them separate from my posts on Blogger and as an archive of its own.  I have left those posts unpublished, so if anybody finds that blog, they won't find anything other than an empty blog (again, I did this for keeping a separate archive for now and may delete it in the future, just something I set up to make sure the import was going to work the way I expected it to).  After a verified the format of most of the posts, I then exported them, and imported them into this blog where I have published the imported entries and are now part of my current blog.

The nice thing about going through all of this work is that all of my content is now on one site, and if I move later, I can export everything and import later (such as to WordPress.com with their Blogger Format import tool).  A few things to note:
          -  If you have posts with listening/reading/watching, you may need to correct these posts.  For each of my posts that had a listening to or reading header, the post content was missing and just the header was imported.
          -  Comments are extracted from Xanga with the xanga.r script, but they were not imported to WordPress.  This required me manually importing the comments by creating a Spreadsheet in LibreOffice that matched the table columns, then saved the file as a csv.  I found using | to break columns and ^ to enclose all text worked better since some of my text contained quotation marks.  I also included column names in the first row and upon imported, simply skipped the first row.  Once the comments were imported into WordPress.org through phpmyadmin, I was able to export them and import them to other platforms just fine.

I have noticed a few minor formatting issues with importing, but that is to be expected and shouldn't be too hard to clean up.  I know this isn't a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to get your data, setting up Xampp, etc., so please feel free to comment or contact me if you are having problems getting your data out of Xanga.

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My last post from Xanga is http://kgunnit.blogspot.com/2007/04/morning-mourningpraying.html.
My first post on Blogger is http://kgunnit.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-information-and-goal.html.

You can also see all of my Xanga posts by searching for the Xanga Import label.

Blog Information and Goal

Well, after several months of thought and debating, I have decided to start a blog related to mostly tech. I often get questions from friends and family regarding things like what AV software do I recommend, how to do such and such, etc. This blog is a one-stop how-to and recommendations for those friends and family members (as well as the general public).

I will include my opinions, comments on news and products, tutorials, and other reviews and comments.

Enjoy.

Engaged

Time for an update. One month later!

Dec. 14th Heidi and I flew out to Indiana to see her parents. We arrived in Indianapolis to see her sister, who then drove us up to her parents' house.

It was a good trip. I went knowing that we would probably get engaged, but first I had to ask her parents! Man, that is exciting, but something that is hard to do. I was really nervous about it, although I knew that they would say yes. There is just something about asking the parents of the one you love if you could marry their daughter! The first opportunity I had, I was so nervous about it, that I didn't ask.

Friday night, with my second opportunity to ask, I did it. I was able to ask her dad and mom if I could marry her, and they said yes as expected. Saturday morning, the 16th, we had Christmas with Heidi's parents and sister. We exchanged gifts and stockings, and just before going to eat breakfast, I stood up and said I had one more thing. With Heidi's mom, dad, and sister in the room, I got on one knee and asked the question. She said yes, surprised and excited!

It was a great Christmas break, although getting back home was rough. We were supposed to leave Dec. 21, the day after the big storm hit Denver. Our flight was cancelled, and we couldn't get another ticket until the 28th. We ended up getting a refund, and took the bus back thanks to my mom who helped us find a way to get home for Christmas.

We left Indiana Friday morning, running an hour behind schedule. We arrived in St. Louis to transfer, but the transfer bus was full. They brought in a new bus and we headed to Kansas City. We arrived their at 7:30pm, just on time to catch the next bus to Denver. Unfortunately, that bus was full and we ended up waiting until 2am for the next bus to arrive. We finally made it to Denver Saturday afternoon and made it to my mom's safely and on time for Christmas, after spending more than 30 hours on the road.

Christmas was good and it was good to be in Colorado with my family and newly engaged. I am now back at school finishing my last semester in college.

We are getting married on May 19th, and the link below will take you to our countdown clock!!! That's exciting to think about! I have been engaged for a month now....wow!

Wedding Countdown

I got an emial from a team member about this video posted on YouTube.com. It's a video of the team and I that I worked with while in New Orleans just over a year ago....check it out!

Random

Well, things are going great here in Denver, Colorado.

Just got back from Thanksgiving break and got a number of presentations to give this week. One for Research Writing, one for Operation Systems (computer class), and one for Microeconomics.

Three weeks left in this semester and I will be going into my last semester of college, that is pretty exciting.

Well, so I have been doing some reading on Linus Torvald for my computer class and wanted to take notes and offer my two cents as a computer nerd, as well as a place for me to include some of my research.

Linus has developed an operating system (comparable to Windows), but offers it for free. It can be downloaded all over the internet, including linuxiso.org.

I currently run Fedora Core 6 on my computer with Windows XP, in an attempt to move away from Microsoft. Why pay for Microsoft products when you can legally get identical products for free, saving hundreds of dollars!!!? Not only is it free, but safer, more secure, and more stable than Windows.

Articles about Linus:

Linus with CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/05/18/global.office.linustorvalds/index.html

Tanenbaum-Torvald Debate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanenbaum-Torvalds_debate

Linus with Time: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994026,00.html

Linus with Time (Europe): http://www.time.com/time/europe/hero2006/torvalds.html

Anyway, so there's my quick nerd entry. Things with Heidi are going great, I've been greatly blessed by our relationship.

Yesterday, while eating a Panda Express, a lady came up and thanked us for wearing our sweatshirt (on the front it reads, "How can you worship a homelessman on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?" or something like that, and then a verse on the back). The lady went on to say that she has seen a homeless guy standing at a corner the past couple of days but ignored him, and after seeing our sweatshirts, felt convicted by the Holy Spirit and is now on her way to give him a meal. How awesome is that?

Well, off to more work. Hope your thanksgiving was amazing...and remember,

JESUS IS THE REASON WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS!!!

One Year Later - Still Rebuilding

Aug. 27th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit land, and broke a levee in New Orleans. A year later and New Orleans is hardly coming back to life. The economy as a whole in Louisianna is barely running at 50% the usual, and many suburbs/parishes have yet to rebuild.

Much help is needed still, and I long for the day to return to New Orleans to help rebuild. I want to be down there so bad right now, helping and working. When can I return, O Lord?

The Sunday Denver Post, anybody read it? Article after article talked about Katrina, and the rebuilding that still has to take place.

Priority Mail - Check it out. There were a number of articles about St. Bernard parish - where we served!! Still a sad time for New Orleans and the people.

It is a current event, a process that will still take years to get New Orleans a place it used to be. Yes, there was evil and sin in the city, but it was also the home to thousands of people, who now have nowhere to live. I said it before and I will say it again, God was not judging the city, it was simply a natural disaster. Tourism is down, income is down, production is down, the economy is down.

Check out the articles in the Denver post at www.denverpost.com , search for Katrina, or start with this article http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4244065

Please continue to pray for the evacuees, many of which are still away from home, some have returned to try and start over again. Colorado is still a host something like 14,000 evacuees, while other states are hosting a lot more. Many evacuees are have a hard time surviving, they can't find jobs, they can't work, they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and culture shock.

Feeding the Homeless

In some major cities, such as Las Vegas, Nevada, it is now ILLEGAL to feed homeless people...the cities claim that it attracts more homeless and creates a bigger "problem"...

What is our nation coming to? Okay, I can see their point, but here's the problem:

The "problem" of homelessness will not go away if you stop feeding them, or make panhandling illegal!!!! All you are doing is making it difficult for the homeless to survive...and now they will have to dig our leftover food out of tash cans and dumpsters, but the "problem" will not go away: why? Because panhandling and feeding is not the source of the issue.

Before cities enact such laws, they should, and in my opinion must, first develop and implement a plan to end homelessness, and hopefully a successful plan at that...this will cut down on the issue, allow the homeless a way out of their current lifestyle, which is what many of them are looking for, a second chance. This does not mean, however, give them a job and expect them to succeed at it, many of them first need counseling before anything else (and help with some of their addictions they picked up while trying to survive on the streets).

Panhandling and feeding of the homeless is not the issue! The issue is a lack of needed and helpful services to get these men and women (even children) off the streets! Our city needs to quick avoiding the problem and start acting, but not issuing these laws to end panhandling and feeding. The homeless survive off of these (and barely at that), until they can get a second chance!!!! Law or no law...I will be a good samaritan and help a man in need...many of them are our brothers and sisters in Christ, on their hands and knees begging for help...

Check this video out:

• Windows Media Player: undertheoverpass_20050930.wmv

• RealPlayer: undertheoverpass_20050930.rm

You can download it: www.undertheoverpass.com

Read this book: Under the Overpass, by Mike Yankoski

You'll understand my frustrations, or begin to, after reading the book and seeing the video! The homeless are humans...we want to end world poverty, not put laws into place to allow people to starve...our goverment has it backwards...

Summer

Summer is coming to a close...school work for the summer is starting to get a little lighter (down to just one class left)...

Heidi is gonna for about another month...I miss her oh so dearly...

Getting ready for the school year...got some books to read before I am prepared...gotta get ready to pour into ministry leaders and encourage them...as they lead ministries...

"Thank you God for the positions you put us in...and the lives that we get to invest into...Give me strength and guidance as I encourage the ministry leaders, so that they can stay strong as they lead the ministry that has been entrusted to them according to your glory...Amen!"

World Cup

so...both teams that I wanted to go are going...Italy and France...however, now I don't know who I want to win...I wanted Italy to win...but with Zidane retiring after this cup...it would be sweet to see him leave after winning the Cup....hmmm

I hope I don't have to work...but I probably will....sad day...

Other than that....things are going good...and really wet...two heavy rainstorms in two days...that's a lot of water....and soakedness...(yeah, that's definitely not a word...but I am using it anyway)

Italy won!!!

Two goals against Germany in the 119th and 120th minutes....amazing...(that's the 29th and 30th minute in overtime). Germany defeated in Dortmund...Italy to the World Cup!!!! WAAAHOOOO!!!!!

Happy 4th July to you all....remember our troops who are fighting, or who have fought, for freedom....

Brazil is out!

Sorry to all of the Brazilian fans, but yes, they are out of the World Cup, and now it is down to four teams, Germany vs. Portugal and Italy vs. France. This has been an exciting World Cup to watch, at least the games that I have seen.

On to other things: It is a sad night in Kevin's world. I miss Heidi, I miss InnerChange and the OuterCircle team, I miss San Francisco, and I really want to go out there to see everybody.

Also, helped a homelessman tonight who had a bunch of blisters on his foot that were bleeding. Bought a first aid kit and helped him, he was very thankful. It is sad to live in a world that ignored his wounds, ignored him, and didn't even treat him as a human being. He told me he was thankful that I stopped and cared, that I did treat him as a human. It made me sad, and I felt for him.

Anyway, sorry such a sad post, or at least I feel that way, happy Fourth of July!!

Italy Wins!!!

If you didn't see this World Cup Game, you certainly missed some great action!!! Game was tied, 0-0 in the Australia-Italy match this morning, at least until Injury Time. Three minutes of Stoppage time was added to this game, and both teams pressing hard to continue on to the next round.

Finally, in the 93 minute (that would have been 2 minutes into injury time), with only a few seconds left to play, Italian player draws a foul in the box (there was no foul, but he made it look like there was tripping, and scored a penalty kick for Italy). The foul was in the box, and thus Italy was awarded a PK, and when all was said and done, Itlay won with a goal scored from the PK, which sends Australia back home, and Italy to face the winner of this afternoon's match between the Ukraine and Switzerland.

Off to read and work on hw...

My Heart Is In San Francisco

Heidi left today for San Francisco, to work with a ministry out there for a couple of months. Sad day, it was not fun seeing her off at DIA this morning. However, we both know this is God's plan and God certainly knows what He is doing, we must remain faithful to Him, but that doesn't mean it is easy.

Rolled my ankle today playing soccer with a group of guys, that is no fun at all!

Keeping busy with work and all, and classes.

Well, that is the quick 4-1-1 from me, gotta go elevate my ankle now....God bless to you all!!!

Mt Elbert

God is amazing!!! Went climbing the other day...Mt Elbert. Got to the top and saw nothing but snow-capped peaks all around, it was amazing!!! I felt so small, so insignficant to everything around...Ps. 8:3-4: "When I look at your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" In this case, it wasn't the moon and stars, but the mountains, as far as the eye could see, and to think this was only part of Colorado, which is part of a country, which is part of a continent, which is part of the planet we call Earth, which is only part of our universe...and so on, in the end, we are only little creatures, and when oyou look at everything God created at a whole, we are smaller than an ant, and yet God, creator of everything, gave us this planet for us to take care of, for us to enjoy...and God created us in his image, unlike every other creature...and to go on...the details this planet has, everything to the little sand grains, all from the mouth of God, spoken into existence...God is amazing...so powerful...so wonderful!!! Check these photos out (taken from the top)....





Above is my good friend Mike...








Little superhero man above...
















That's the view from the top...Mt. Elbert, tallest peak in Colorado standing at 14,433 ft. (trailhead starts at about 10,500)...it was one heck of a climb...but totally worth it...the view is like nothing I have ever seen...Praise God for the work of his hands, for this world he has created...and it is only a glimpse of his power and glory...God is great!!!

Class

In class all this week, 9am to 5pm...alright...that's exciting...it won't be too bad...minus the long class day...but an interesting and helpful class at that...that's if i can put my complex thinking aside and come down to this simple way of thinking...

In Problem Solving and Decision Making (PSDM) there are simple questions to ask for every problem...what's the problem, who's involved...what's the solution...along those lines....who needs to do what, when, where, and to what extent...none of this theory analysis and finding reality stuff...the reality is there is a problem to solve or decision to make and here is the process to find the solution or right decision based on the said steps....wow, so simple!!!

The reading, compared to them books about critical realism, self-evident way of reading nature, postmodernism and other complex issues...the books that I am still trying to determine if they really do exist in my hand or am I imagining that I am holding a book and reading it for class as required...is it really required or is that a false reality as well...
now it is about management, the book is real, this class is real, I don't need to define reality, or problems, or solving problems, it is assumed that the meanings are universal and everybody knows the meaning...the steps...also universal and used in all kinds of corporations today...this is a good class and huge for future job applications...I don't know if I can wrap my mind around something so simple without thinking about philosophy and integrating it into PSDM business class....

Anyway...a busy week, but shouldn't be too bad...staying around CCU for the summer, taking this class, and three online classes, working with Summer Conferencing (helping the groups that come use our facilities during the summer), and if things work out...I will be graduating next May...alright!!!!

Homeless Man Calls me Ugly

Only a month or so left of school....

Last night at Fatboys was told I was ugly by a homelessman...that's quite the insult! He was flurting with one of the girls, and I tried to step in and distract him, he looks at me and says, "Man, your ugly." He also said, "Man, I am going to show you how to come your hair, cause you are ugly."

Later I tried to distract him again and he said I looked like the Apostle Paul. He also said I was like John. While walking, he stumbled and said to me, "Man, you don't even know how to walk." What in the world, he is the one who tripped, not me.

Chicago Trip was amazing...and frustating at times...some of the homeless we talked to... like

"Hey, are you guys Christians?....Good, are you going to ignore me like the rest of the world or are you actually going to listen to me." He then tells us that he needs $7+ dollars to buy a meal at McDonalds. What McD's does he go to?

Here's the plan: 3-4 summer classes, work full-time, 18 credits in the Fall, one winter term, 17 in the spring, and then I can graduate next year, and move out to San Francisco to work with an amazing ministry out there, InnerChange. It's going to be a busy year, but I got a lot to look forward to.

Soul Force's Equality ride will be here on April 13th....be prepared CCU!!! Pray for us!

There's the quick update. Been busy this week, had many interviews and a few more for next years ministry leaders, and I had to be at all of those!

SoulForce and Chicago Upcoming Events

So, it's been a while I know....life has been busy.


Reminder: Please be in prayer for our campus regarding the SoulForce Group coming to visit, April 13th.

I leave for Chicago in just a few days...Friday Morning to be exact...wow! I got a whole lot to do between now and then!!!

Looking forward to the trip...it will be great...please pray for the trip and all other CCU2theWorld Spring Break trips...

That's mostly it....and planning for FatFest....which is inviting our homeless guys/girls to campus to hang out for a few hours....get some free food...and just relax...

my dream

So Monday night, I had this sweet dream...

I had a dream that CCU was without electricity for some reason, and it was on the news, it was even on CNN...not sure why, but it was...(and now that I think about it, how would I know, I can't watch the TV, we don't have power remember). Anyway, they announced that night that all morning classes were cancelled, the 8am and 9:25am classes, and hopefully by then power would be up again. So, Tuesday morning, my alarm really goes off, I wake up, turn off my alarm, convinced that classes were cancelled, so I went back to sleep. Yeah, I my dream had me convinced that I didn't have to go to my 8am class, and so I didn't. ooops. now I have to explain to my professor why I missed on Tuesday, do you think he will believe me?

This summer....fasted Tuesday...don't think InnerChange is where i belong, but I don't think I could sit here in Denver, or anywhere, and just make money...I want to be in SF, I want to be at IC, but I can't....God, is this the plan you have for me? Do you want me to stay here?

School...FatBoys...responsibilities....all to overwhelming to even think about right now...oh boy...

FatFest...only a month away, that's four weeks or less of planning....I want to scream!!!!

Homeless things and such

Currently Reading
God in the Alley : Being and Seeing Jesus in a Broken World
By Greg Paul
see related


I still don't know what I am going to be doing for the summer...as of now, looks like one week will be out on the streets....that's exciting....


Got a couple books in today...just "fun" reads...books that I would like to read in my oh so overwhelming free time that I seem to have plenty of (sarcasm, I have no free time, or at least not a lot of it)...anyway, started one of those books today...God in the Alley...

Here's a quote from it that I simply found amazing, and true:

"Society in general tends to dismiss them [people on the streets] as losers.  I have come to see them, battered and broken as they are, as tragic heroes." -pg 9, Greg Paul.

It's true, society views people on the streets, the homeless and others, as losers and reject them...say they are lazy...but little does society know about these people...if we only took time to hear their stories...to listen...we might understand how they ended up on the streets...many come from broken families...parents were drug addicts, whatever the case...they have fought huge battles...some still fighting and struggling...some just need counseling and help to get going again...need some guidance and someone to be there for them every step of the way...whatever the case may be...

Hmmm...do you see a trend in my life?....like maybe I am called to homeless ministry after school....I don't know....but I am praying that God shows me....oh I can't wait until I am done with school sometimes....I don't like being stuck in classes....I want to be out in the world doing ministry....or something...but alas, this is where I am supposed to be, learning and growing...grant me patience Lord to stay where you have me until the time is right and you send me elsewhere...