In view of the Christmas season that is upon us, a conversation about Santa Clause has taken place between my wife and I. The question is, will we tell our kids about Santa Clause or will we not carry on that tradition. As with most of our conversations there was a small moment of confusion and aggrivation as I spouted off at the mouth about how I think making kids believe in something that doesn't exist is lying to them and starting off their childhood with deception and my wife came back at me with equal frustration about how Santa Clause is a part of the Christmas tradition and should be something we enjoy with our children. Once the smoke cleared we began to realize that once again it is all a question of semantics. While I am kinda hard headed sometimes and when I spout off at the mouth it is usually something that I take to the utmost extreme, I don't always mean exactly what I say in the way it comes out. I didn't mean that we should just get rid of Santa all together, I just don't think we should make him out to be real when he is not.

I think that our children should be told the story of Santa Clause and that it should be just that, a story. We can enjoy the story, the tradition, and the magic of Santa without lying to them and making them believe that Santa is real, only to hurt their poor little hearts down the road when they realize that he isn't. What is the point of perpetuating a lie to little kids who don't know any better? We read books to them, they see movies and shows with the eventual understanding that these things are simply stories. They can use their imaginations and have fun with them anyway.

I remember as a kid I loved the Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles. I watched the movies, I owned all the toys, I even got tickets to see their live "Coming Out Of Their Shells" tour and I bought the tape to sing to it over and over again. Everyday I would rush home from school so that I could watch the TMNT cartoon on TV. Nobody had to come along and try to get me to believe that the turtles actually existed in real life. My parents didn't have to lie to me in order to make me believe that they were real so that I could enjoy the whole story. I loved the TMNT anyway. Just like we can love the story of Santa on Christmas.

I guess the one thing that is always fun is that the kids get to go to bed at night with the anticipation of Santa coming and bringing them lots of gifts and the excitement of them coming out of their rooms to see all the presents that were put under the tree. That tradition doesn't have to end either. They can still anticipate all the presents that will be there in the morning. There are so many different ways to do Christmas and to make it fun without having to trick little children into believing that its true...

Am I wrong on this? What do you think??????

We did a complete overhaul of the sound booth a couple years ago and in the process I moved all of the lapel microphones from the front of the stage to the sound booth in the back. Unfortunately this worked perfectly with an empty room, but once bodies filled the auditorium the signal would cut out on all the lapel mics. This became a problem that I didn’t really want to fix anytime soon. The Christmas program has four different speaking parts requiring the use of our lapel system, so I was forced to fix the problem.

I spent all day yesterday moving microphones, power supplies, and CD players into different racks in order to make everything work. I got all the lapel microphones and the power supplies in one rack and put it on stage and then I put all of the handheld wireless mics and the cd and tape deck in the other rack that stays in the booth. Turned it all on, tested the mics and in the process I suddenly noticed an old friend. The buzz of DEATH!

For years and years we had this nasty buzz in the system. If you have the stage lights turned all the way up the buzz gets quiet, but if you dim the stage lights at all the buzz gets super, super loud. If you plug the computer into the sound system at all then the buzz becomes unbearable. This was a problem that went away when we did the sound booth because I moved all the microphones to the back. We originally thought it had something to do with the dimmer switches in the back so we changed those out during the booth construction and just figured that was the problem in the first place. Guess what, it wasn't the problem at all.

I knew the buzz was coming from the microphone rack that I Just moved up front, but I couldn't figure out why. So I went up there and unplugged the whole rack from the power source and the buzz disappeared. I thought this was strange. I unplugged all of the microphones from the rack mountable power supply and plugged just the power supply in with no mics attached to it and the buzz was back! The rack mountable power supply that is "specifically" designed to keep electrical noise out of the system is the thing that has been creating the buzz since we put it in 5 or 6 years ago. I plugged the mics into a normal, cheapo 6 plug power strip and the buzz was no more.

I am now thinking back to all of the stuff we did in order to try and eliminate that buzz. We bought buzz eliminator boxes, we changed out the dimmer switches, we restrung a lot of wires, we changed circuits, and we moved all kinds of stuff to try and figure out what was causing this and come to find out it was just the rack mounted power supply failing which created some wicked electrical loop in the system. The strange thing is all the different systems it affected. We thought it was the computer at first because the buzz was louder when the computer was in the loop. Then we thought it was the lights because the buzz would increase and decrease with the dimmer switches. Then we thought it was the projectors because the buzz created some interference causing a line to go down the screen. Then we thought it was the electronic keyboard because the buzz would practically go almost silent when you unplugged the keyboard from the sound system. Then we thought it was the circuit the stage was hooked to in the electrical system. Then we thought it was the piano mic picking up interference. Now I see that these were all simply symptoms of things that were affected by the faulty power supply.

As of right now everything works. The Sullivan High School Show Choir is doing a program here at the church during lunch for B.A.L.L. Club (a program for senior adults). I'll get to test everything out during their performance to see if it all works. The ultimate test will be on Thursday night during the dress rehearsal for the Christmas Eve program.

#1. Lose 40 more pounds. Over the last several months I have worked so hard to lose 40 pounds and now I am at a stand still. I've felt so good about losing the weight that I've started to let my guard down and suddenly I stop losing the weight. I need to get back in the swing of things and finish what I started. I've got 40 pounds to go and I would like to see them gone by June.

#2. Graduate from Seminary. My goodness I am so close now. All I have left to do is a final exam and a research paper. Thats it. Once I finish those two things by January 5th I will be ready to graduate in May.

#3. Redirect my focus on the youth I'm called to reach. I've spent so long and so much time dealing with school and work and all of the other changes in life that I feel that my calling has been put on the backburner. I'm hoping that with the completion of school that I will be able to devote more time and energy to our youth and to my lovely wife.

#4. Start a weekly podcast. While it was something we here at Craniumleakage experiemented with for a while, it is something I would like to do on a weekly basis. Whether it be sermons, messages, or just having fun, I would like to start a podcast of some sort.

#5. Work on improving my video editing & creating skills. I love to work with editing and creating videos. No matter what it is I love to do it. Unfortuantly I've been so limited on time and my energy has all been directed to other places. I would like to take some time each week to polish up my editing skills and maybe even attempt to create a series of videos on the same scale as the nooma videos. Hey, it could happen!

#6. Read more. I have numerous books that I've set on my shelf with the intention of reading them. I want to take the opportunity to begin to read the books that I want to read, rather than be stuck with the books that I was assigned to read from school.

#7. Home improvments. There are several things I have lined up in my head to do to my house before summer. I've got to go get a loan for all of this, which I am working on, and then the fun begins. First of all I need a new shed. I have filled my basement with lawn mowers, tools, weed eaters, shovels, and things that just need a place to go. A shed is a perfect place to store such things. Secondly I am going to finish off half of my basement. By putting up walls, building up the floor, putting in closets, and adding some paint and carpet I can make a fairly nice office downstairs. This will also increase our amount of storage space by adding closet space to the house and by adding areas in the basement to put up shelves. This will also allow us to put my bookshelves, computer desk and computers, and all my other office equipment downstairs which frees up an entire bedroom upstairs. We are going to need that free space soon! The third house improvment that I need to work on is getting my roof replaced. We've had some leaks that need to be fixed. A new roof is the answer. With that I would also like to get some gutters up on this house. The fourth improvement will be putting up a tall privacy fence to block the neighbors nasty looking house. To go with that I also want to install a chain link fence on the other side of our house in order to give the dog a yard to play in. This will keep him out of the street and keep us from having to go outside everytime he needs to. My hope is that we will be able to raise the property value of our house up at least two to three times as much as the money we borrow. I think it is easily doable.

#8. Develop a workable plan to budget in a way that gets us out of debt. At some point in our lives I would like to be debt free. While I know this isn't possible right now, it will be someday if we are smart. I'm working on a plan to accomplish that. While it will take years to accomplish this goal, it won't take nearly as long to develop and begin the plan to get there. I hate money, and I hate that it controls our lives and the lives of everyone around us. I believe we don't need to be rich to be out of debt, we just need to be smart. Those are words that I plan on proving.

There you have it. My spring project list.

Looking back I now understand what my mother had to deal with. All the cleaning and laundry and dishes and meals and all the stuff that has to be done day after day. My mother would work on keeping things picked up and cleaned up every single day of her life and I never could figure out why. What is the point? Why spend all that time doing all of that cleaning? Just pick a day or two out of the week to clean or clean once a month like I clean my room. No big deal. I can now say that I was dumb. I realize why my mom would clean constantly.

If you don't take time to clean up some stuff every single day then it just piles up. And it piles up and piles up until you run out of places to make piles. Then you've got a mess that takes you hours to clean up. It's horrible.

Tonight I went to wal-mart. I brought all of the groceries out of the store and went to put them in the trunk of the car. Guess what? TRUNK WAS FULL! So I go to put the stuff in the back seat. Guess what? BACK SEAT WAS FULL OF JUNK TOO! So I just pile it all in the car on top of stuff and drive home. I get home, take all of the groceries into the house and when I get into the kitchen guess what? THE KITCHEN COUNTER WAS FULL. I had to put all the bags on the floor to try and put things away. I go to put my jacket up on the coat rack and guess what? COAT RACK IS FULL. My jacket just falls off. I was so angry after all of that mess that I spent the rest of the night cleaning out the cars, cleaning the house, and putting everything that I don't have a clue where it goes on the spare bed.

Now the spare bed is piled a mile high full of stuff without a home and so I guess it was a waste of my time to spend hours cleaning off the bed the other day just to pile it back up again. It is a cycle that never ends. Mom, how did you keep up with this? AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Don't get me wrong. I love school. I like to learn, I like to read, I like to go to class. My only issue is with homework. I hate homework. I slack off and put it off until its the last minute and then I stress out and do everything kinda crappy cause I waited. It would be great if it was nothing more than going to class and taking some notes.

Here I am typing on my blog when I should be doing homework. SHAME ON ME! I am ashamed.

Guess I'll go do homework now (translation: I will actually find something else to help me put off today what I don't have time to do tomorrow.)

Top 10 Reasons to neuter your pet:

1. To Reduce Pet Overpopulation -- There are dogs running around everywhere. I tried to take my dog for a walk the other day and ran into 8 different dogs and only got a block from my house. It's hard to walk your dog with a bunch of loose dogs running up to my dog sniffin his bum. Stop this insanity, neuter your pet.

2. Decrease Roaming -- 90% of dogs who are neutered stop roaming and just stay home. I can't say I blame them. My dog liked to run around all over the place. The only time we could take him out to potty was on a leash. Hopefully some of his roaming tendencies are gone now. His embarrassing loss of manhood may just keep him sulking at the house.

3. Decrease Aggression -- Male dogs are typically aggressive. This could calm down their aggression towards other male dogs. You would think that loosing your family friends would cause you to be more aggressive when the neighborhood dogs come over to make fun of you.

4. Less Urine Marking -- OH PLEASE LET THIS WORK. The dog has been lifting his leg on everything. Cardboard boxes, bags, walls, bushes, cars, shower curtain, cats, couches, pillows, blankets, towels, and anything else he sees fit to lift his leg on and give a little squirt. I neutering doesn't stop this then we may be cutting something else off later.

5. Decreased mounting behavior -- Male dogs tend to try to mount just about anything. For instance: my arm, my leg, the couch, blankets, toys, other dogs, and just about anything he can get his litter arms wrapped around. Really this is quite embarrassing. The dog is so bad that he greats people at our front door with a courtesy hump. A nasty habit. Hopefully this ends that.

6. Eliminates Prostatic Hyperplasia -- Basically this means his prostates won't swell up and cause him to have a hard time taking a dribble. He'll pee fine for years to come. This could be a good thing for him and a bad thing for us if you think about it...

7. Reduces Prostatic Cysts -- This is another benign reason for the prostate to enlarge that occurs very uncommonly in neutered dogs. Anything to make my dog healthier right? I think he would agree.

8. Reduces Prostatitis -- Infections of the prostate are common in male dogs, and uncommon once they are neutered. He will thank me someday.

9. Eliminates Testicular Tumors -- No way you can get testicular cancer with no testicular. Hey, any male can appreciate this right?

10. For a Happier, Healthier, Calmer Pet-- Neutered dogs tend to be content to stay at home with their owners and are usually calmer, less aggressive, and happy! A Neutered dog is a happy dog!

I was greeted by my happier, healthier, calmer pet this morning. He got out of his bed and slowly wobbled into the living room. His tale doesn't wag, he doesn't have any energy, he doesn't feel like eating, and he doesn’t want to sit. He just stands around. I took a shower this morning and when I got out he was still standing and staring in the same place he was in when I got in the shower. Poor little guy. His is rather pitiful and I feel a little sorry for him.

As he heals he will get better and maybe one day he will forget that he even had those things in the first place. Then again, maybe he will be a sad, depressed little puppy with nothing left to live for. Hopefully he doesn't decide to just end it all and go sit in the middle of the street.

Whatever the case may be, there are going to be some changes around here. Hopefully I'll be able to open the comments up soon so that I don't have to approve everything. Life could just get a little easier once I kiss movable type goodbye.

The only other issue is when actual people come in and spam the site instead of bots. Take dear John for instance. On my last post about taking naps he came in and posted a big long post about how nap taking is good. Seems legit, until you click on his link that takes you to a napping website and wants you to purchase a nap kit. He tried to be sneeky! Moral of the story, don't ever buy anything that has anything to do with napping over the internet from a link on a blog. Spammers should not get paid for it.

Top 15 best things to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk:

15. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."

14. "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in the last time management course you sent me to."

13. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the liquid paper."

12. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm!"

11. "This is one of the seven habits of highly effective people!"

10. "I was testing the keyboard for drool resistance"

9. "Actually I was doing a "Stress Level Elimination Exercise Plan"(SLEEP) I learned at the last mandatory seminar you made me attend."

8. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory towards people who practice Yoga?"

7. "Darn! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."

6. "The coffee machine is broke...."

5. "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot."

4. "Boy, that cold medicine I took last night just won't wear off!"

3. "Ah, the unique and unpredictable circadian rhythms of the workaholic!"

2. "I wasn't sleeping. I was trying to pick up my contact lens without using my hands."

And the #1 best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk:

1. "Amen."

After getting out of the shower this morning and experiencing the instant freeze that comes from stepping out onto a cold floor in a cold room and having the chill of death slide up your spine, I run into the other room and throw some clothes on. The image of the dog chacing a wet, freezing naked man around the house is priceless I'm sure. It's so cold that the don't doesn't even want to go outside. He walks out the door and takes a leak on the front porch instead of going out onto the icy, snowy ground. I have to go out there and kick his butt off the porch to get him to move. So there is a big pile of frozen dog pee on my front proch for the mailman to slip on this afternoon.

I finally get to work where I know I will be warm and guess what! The furnice is broken in the church and it is a brisk 59 degrees in my office. I have to pull out the ole ice scraper to get the frost of the computer screen so I can see what I'm typing. I'm about to shiver off another 10 pounds.

If you knew me you would understand that I am a person that needs structure and control. If stuff isn't just right and if my life is not in proper order, just the slightest blurp in my structure or plan causes me and my life to spin out of control and I go into a mad fit of planning, thinking, seeking advice and freaking out until I feel some sense of control again. Yes, it’s a restrictive and sometimes miserable existence to live in such a way, and I wonder so many times, "God, why did you make me this way?" I am sure most of the people who have to live with me also think, "God, why did you make him that way?" Yet, here I am. For the last couple of days I've hit that spiral once again that has sent me into a frenzy and I wake up with my world being out of control. I have to be reminded constantly that I'm not in control in the first place.

When I got to church this morning I flipped to my daily Scripture calendar and the verse staring me in the face was

Matthew 10:29,31 "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

Wow. God always finds just the right moment to speak to my heart and to remind me that no mater what, He is still God.

I'm reminded that no matter what happens in life and no matter what surprises we might face and no matter what comes along that may change our lives, God has been, is, and always will be in control. While I feel worthless, unworthy, and unprepared for what the future brings God reminds me that I have no need to be afraid. The will of the Father supersedes my desires, my wants, and my own personal will. God also reminds me that he places incalculable value upon his children. I'm valuable to God, even when I don't feel valuable to myself or anyone else. When God frees us from our fears we have the freedom to enjoy what the future brings. To that I say, YES!

I was also listening to David Crowder today and I came across the song Everything Glorious. Once again I was faced with God reminding me who He is and who I am.

The day is brighter here with You
The night is lighter than it's hue
Would lead me to believe
Which leads me to believe

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?

My eyes are small but they have seen
the beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
there's light enough to see that

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory
You are glorious You are glorious
From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious
Which leads me to believe
why I can believe that

You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious.
You are glorious. You are glorious.

You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

It is God who makes everything glorious. I am so in awe of the idea that God has allowed our little eyes to see the beauty of things so enormous that they are beyond our ability to understand. While everyone has a future that holds difficulty and even pain, for those who are in Christ Jesus it will all be glorious. There is nothing that can crush the immeasurable joy found in the sovereign hand of the almighty God who makes all things glorious. It is through my hope in Jesus Christ that I can look to the future with confidence and joy, knowing that everything will be alright.

Thank you Jesus for changing my heart, my attitude, and my thoughts so that I can look at these things that frighten me and see them as something so very glorious. While I am incapable of understanding your purposes, I am comforted in the idea that I don't have to understand you to know that you are with me. Thank you Jesus for making everything glorious!

#1 - I got married in March
While I slowly adapt to my new environment, it doesn't seem like much changes for me. In reality, however, marriage does change a persons lifestyle. As I look back over the last year I realize that the amount of free time I have has become very limited. Between work, church stuff, and being married there isn't much time for anything else. I finish my day at work and go home. Kendall and I have to figure out something to eat, we have to go work out at the gym for an hour, we have to take care of the dog, start some laundry, and then we have to watch a couple of our shows that we've recorded on our DVR. By the time all that is done it is 11:00 p.m. and I’m ready for bed. Kendall has already fallen asleep on the couch at 9:30 p.m. so I have to fill her in on what happened with all the shows while she was sleeping. There's not much time to stop and get on the computer to make a blog post and frankly during that part of my evening I don't really feel like doing it anyway.

#2 - I moved into my own house
The second reason I have trouble blogging is because I moved. I was living with my parents and all I had to do when I came home was grab some food my mom had already cooked and then go downstairs to eat, watch TV, and get on the computer. The way my room was set up, my computer was in a place that I could watch TV, do homework and be on the computer all at the same time. At the house Kendall and I have now, my computer is in "the office" on the desk and the TV is in another room altogether. In order to get on the internet I have to drag a 10 foot telephone wire through the hallway and across the living room to plug it in since there is no connection in the office. It makes it such a pain to get on the internet that I don't even bother.

#3 - Saturday and Sunday are limited

Saturday and Sunday will be the toughest days of the week for me to blog because I never get on the computer much during the weekend. It is a rare occasion that I even look at a computer after I leave the office on Friday.

#4 - Future blog posts don't work

There was a point in time that I could use Movable Type to write blog posts and have them post in the future. That feature has been screwed up and doesn't even work anymore. I'm not sure how to fix it and at this point I really don't have the time to mess with trying to make it work. So, in a nutshell, no future posts for me.