Forgive the self indulgence of this post.  I’m feeling a little nostalgic and maybe a wee bit presumptuous.  Just a few observations – some general and some personally specific.

Ice Cream is my all time favorite indulgence and Peppermint has taken over for Mint Chocolate Chip, Rocky Road and Tin Roof Sundae as my number one choice of frozen and delicious sugar packed way of making myself fatter.

I missed photography for about 20 years.  I grew up with a dark room in my house and a professional photographer as a Mom, but quit for a long time.  I’m glad I’m doing it again.

Having fun in life is my choice and mine alone.  Failing to take responsibility for that gives power over my life to other people and I likely will not have much fun with them in charge.

Also, God is not against an enjoyable life.  I have no idea where this thought came from, but it needs to go back.

Golf is a game that reveals someone’s character.  If you really want to know someone, play 18 holes with them.  If you want to know them better than their spouse does, do it regularly.

Leadership primarily means that you have to do the confrontation stuff nobody wants to do.  If you do it well, people will think you are a great leader.  If you do it poorly, you won’t be a leader for very long.

They said that when I turned 40, my body would start to fall apart.  I didn’t know that someone had a switch that they flipped two years ago today.

It’s never wrong to be gracious.

My wife is possibly the funniest person I know.

Mistakes made are lessons learned.  No sense beating yourself up over something stupid you did or said when you were young and foolish, even if it was yesterday.

Love can never be earned.  Approval is not love.  Those who withhold approval reveal that they don’t love themselves and that they may be incapable of real love.

East Coast Bar-B-Que is this shredded pork roast (that has been BAKED) with vinegar based sauce and is not good.  Also, they put slaw AND chili on their hamburgers, along with the other stuff like lettuce, pickles, etc.  That just ain’t right.

That God loves me says something amazing about God.  I’m grateful.

Though most people say they are excited to get an extra hour’s sleep when we “fall back,” it’s been my experience that they use the hour to stay up later…

“It’s really only 10!”

I wonder how many people actually get less sleep than a normal Saturday night?

If you used to like Candid Camera, here is some of Japan’s version…

So, my Dad still lives in Houston where Hurricane Ike has made its way through in the last day.

They have no power, but cell phones still work and everyone is safe.  He even had tv and the internet until late last night so he was able to send several updates until late last night.  Whereupon he made the observation that he was unsure about those who worked for the government and television.

It seems a reporter was on screen saying that the entire island of Galveston was going to be underwater and that anyone not having evacuated “faced certain death.”

He then signed off from… Galveston.

From whence he would be reporting.

All night long.

*sigh*

More Excerpts from The 417 Rules of Awesomely Bold Leadership: Use Words and Spell Things with Them

If you haven’t yet found Brant Hanson on the web, you need to do it now.

He is a Christian radio DJ with the ability to humorously skewer Christians in a way that makes us laugh and repent at the same time.

Brant doesn’t just save his angst for the established church, either.  In the post to which I have linked, Brant lances the swollen pride of self proclaimed leaders of my generation and their tendency to, well…  here’s an excerpt:

These men are revolutionizing leadership by doing everything exactly the same way, but they’re doing everything the exact same way with their shirts half untucked, sometimes tattoos, and they say things like “off the chain” a lot.

New generations require new approaches.  And here’s my new approach:  Good ol’ fashioned Awesomely Bold Leadership.  Awesome is as awesome does, and if that means changing a name of a church from “First Baptist Church” to “The Bizzle Chizzle”, I’m all for it, so long as we have a gifted man on stage, and…

Well, there ya go.  Now get on over there to Kamp Krusty.  It’ll be worth a gander.

I found this from Timothy Duren via Facebook.  I don’t know who Michael or Bear are, but thanks for this.

Be sure and check out the backup singers as they look at each other, confused and guessing if it is their turn to sing.

…or… what not to do. We can all relate to the Oregon officials that thought they had a good idea that turned out to have unexpected consequences.

Oh, by the way, this is verified true by snopes.com.

And you can visit the longstanding, low-tech website: The Infamous Exploding Whale.

Apparently the “Toronto Blessing” or the “Spirit of Holy Laughter” that Benny Hinn is said to keep in the folds of his jacket has its roots in India…

It’s a joke, people. Laugh a little. :)

From the Skit Guys: