What's this for anyway?

Well, many of you know that I am not a great "blogger". And right now you are thinking I have a tendency to state the obvious, as just illustrated in the first sentence of this post. That's ok, I'm good with that!
I have done some heavy thinking (at least it's heavy thinking for me) about this phenomenon called a "blog". My first thought was to find a definition for what a "blog" really is. After typing "definition of blog" in my Google window this was the first entry on the page:

"Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site."

I haven't been in a college English class in a long time, therefore I have no idea how, or even if I'm supposed to reference the source of this definition. If you know, please feel free to let me in on proper referencing rules. Ok, so now that we officially know the definition of a blog, I am going to quit putting these things " " around the word blog. I do remember from class that these " " are called quotation marks! Thank you very much.
My next thought comes from the very title of this blog you are reading right now. What's this for anyway? Referring to of course a blog. I have in the last few months been reading a lot of different peoples blogs in hopes to answer that very question. I quickly learned that different people have different reasons for having a blog. I'm not saying that there is any right or wrong reasons (well, there may be some wrong reasons, but that's probably a totally different post) for having a blog.
Here are some things I have seen blogs used for. Bands that use a blog for keeping fans in the know about upcoming shows, individuals that use blogs for letting the general public know what's going on in their life, pastors who share what's going on in the life of the church and it's ministries, student ministries that post devotionals for it's students, plus tons of other things I can't think of right at this moment (sorry).
The things listed above made me really think about what MY blog is for. In some cases I believe we can learn what to do by looking at what NOT to do. So I will start with what I will NOT use my blog for:

• Bashing or criticizing others
• A place to meet women (I'm happily married, sorry ladies)
• A platform to make fun of, or belittle someone who doesn't agree with me about something
• An arena to defend how I lead the ministry God has blessed me with
• Self-promotion (Thank goodness, because I only average about 5 visits a day!!)
  

With that being said, here is what I WILL use my blog for:

• Encouragement
• Laughter
• Information

I hope to use this site as a place to encourage those who may need encouragement, a place where I can laugh at myself (just take a look at the post about QVC or "In my defense") and you can laugh AT me, not just WITH me, and finally a place where I may actually share some information ranging from what God is doing in my life, to a great restaurant I ate at on a Friday night.

Thanks for being part of the 5 that spend a few seconds reading this Weblog!!

Keepin' it real,

Bryan

Some things never change!

I'm just sitting here at home on my day off doing a whole lot of NOTHING!! After all, it is my day off and from time to time I enjoy just chillin around the house. Don't you judge me!!! Anyway, I was flippin through the channels and ran across that old classic, The Price Is Right. I quickly realized that it is still an OLD classic. I understand that the whole concept of the game hasn't changed, and that's cool, but what about the set? I mean everything looked exactly the same as when I HAD to watch it at my grandma's house when I was a kid!! The same old bidding booths or whatever those things are people get behind when the announcer calls their name. You know, they bid on an item and whoever gets the closest gets to go on stage with Bob Barker(who really doesn't look like he's changed either) he even has the same long skinny weird looking microphone. Back to the bidding thing again. I have learned over the years that if a person just bids one dollar, that almost always win!! So, with that being said, if I am ever on the show, I WILL BID ONE DOLLAR!!!! Ok, now on to the models. There seem to be a couple of new ones, but I'm pretty sure there was 1 that has been on there since the start. She was modeling the prize of a years supply of Spam or something. Then theres the prizes. I seriously think I saw the same dining room set they have been giving away for 20 years!! And of course, the big wheel, it's still the same, not one thing changed. It's my favorite, after all these years on air, people still have to have a respin because it didn't make it all the way around. If you're gonna go to the show and have a chance to play the game, workout before you go and make sure you can get the big wheel all the way around!! Seriously, it looks like it weighs a ton, and would crush the studio audience if it ever came loose, but I'm sure Bob could stop it with his creepy microphone before too many audience members were killed!

If you have a chance to watch The Price Is Right, take advantage of it and go back in time and enjoy one of the few things that hasn't changed!!

And remember, "Help control the pet population, have your pets spade or neutered." Bob Barker

Keepin' it real,

Bryan

Early Mornings, School Buses and Middle School Lunches

Alrighty, here's the deal. On Wednesday's I meet with about 15 students at 6:30 am to do a prayer breakfast in the church office. We started this after our mission trip back in July and we are at the 6 month mark and the kids are still showing up. I think that's pretty awesome, but anyway. I have to leave my house at 6 in order to be here in time. Here in lies the problem. Every Wednesday at about 6:20 I get behind a school bus. Now, your probably thinking oh no it must stop 15 times before you get to the church right Bryan? WRONG!! It doesn't stop in front of me at all. But here is the bad thing. It has a strobe light on the top of it right over the emergency door. This is where it gets dangerous for me, because at 6:20 in the morning I am barely functioning as a member of society therefore a flashing strobe light doesn't help. I feel like I am either gonna go into some alternate state of cognitiveness (I don't think that is a real word), or I'm have a seizure and crash into a tree!! I think that the county should re-evaluate the flashing, trance inducing strobe light. Just a thought.
Now, fast forward a few hours to our local middle school lunch period. I have resolved in 2007 to try to get on our middle school and high school campuses at least once every couple of weeks during lunch. So, I decided to head over to the middle school and take a few pizzas to the kids. Holy cow, I almost lost 2 fingers in the feeding frenzy that insued!!!! I took 5 pizzas for each lunch period. Those poor pizzas lasted about 45 seconds. It was incredible. I think the discovery channel should cancel shark week and consider doing a documentary on the feeding habits of 7th and 8th graders in relation to Little Ceasars "Hot- N-Ready". Overall, though it was a success. From here on out I will probably only be known as that guy that brought us pizza, but should have brought more!!! Oh well.

Keepin' it real,
Bryan

Let's get shrunk!!!!!

I went to a local church yesterday and signed up for what is called "shrink down" It is a free weight loss program that provides recipes, exercise options, nutritional guidelines, and the such. I was a little uncomfortable at first because it did feel like they were herding cattle(no pun intended) into the gym, where we filled out some info, and got weighed. I was waiting on the branding station, but luckily never saw that area!! After "weighing in" we were given a bottle of water and a free t-shirt!! I picked an XL, but now that I think about it, maybe I should have picked a medium and maybe that could have served as more motivation, try to fit into the medium shrink down shirt. Anyway, the way it works is you can go to these different seminars and learn about diet, nutrition and exercise throughout the week. Then on Friday nights, you go and "weigh in" again to check your progress and pick up more helpful info. I tried not to fall into the trap this year of making a empty new year's resolution to lose a bunch of weight, but sense our church is a "weigh in" location I figured I would give it a try. I personally think I am in great shape, it's just that the shape I'm in happens to be round!! Hey, lighten up, if you can't laugh at yourself then you know what they say......(i hope you know, cause i don't) I will keep the blog updated with my progress, so check it out often!!!

Gettin Shrunk,
Bholda

In My Defense

Ok, so there is a picture of me and my dog, Belle on Sammy's blog (sammyclary.blogspot.com). Let me explain. Sammy wrote a blog a few days ago about dude's that carry a man bag and have small dogs and shop at Bath and Body. When you add all these elements together you have a "Sissy" according to my good 'ol buddy Sammy. Now, I do have a small dog, and I do have a man bag(and it's not pink), only because I have found it helps keep my junk together for work, but i don't shop at Bath and Body and i don't put my dog in a small bag and carry her around. I would dare say that i could be what is called a man's man. I mean I have a fishin' boat in my driveway, i drive a pickup truck, i spit sunflower seeds (in the shell, i might add! not those already shelled) I play basketball, football, golf and ping pong. I occassionally sneak out back and pee in the bushes!! I cut my own grass, clean out the gutters, and eat beef jerky. I take my trash to the landfill and burn boxes in a wheelbarrow in the backyard. I wear "wifebeaters" under my shirts and even wear the "wifebeater" out to the mailbox. I will say on some level that i agree with Sammy that men with small dogs, man bags, and body lotion could be considered sissy. I just don't think that i, in a moment of weakness, captured in a picture by my wife should be classified as the above mentioned "sissy". I hope this helps clear the air on the issue.

Hairy chested and manly,
Bryan