The Sign to End All Signs

I know I said this before. But we finished the design for the road signs that are going to be going around the mall that we will be meeting in.

Why do I feel the need to say this again?

Because we changed the design...Again.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out though. It is much, much, much better than the original. Really the reason we changed them is because we found a cheaper place to print them than we had before, so we could do more stuff with it.

So, without further ado, here is the actual sign that will be going up around Northlake Mall this weekend...



Like I said I love this. And I don't know if you can see it or not, but we created a little "logo" of sorts at the bottom. It's like the box for the ratings that they show before the movie starts. You know, PG/Parental Guidance or whatever. Well this one say SC/Sojourn Church...It's just kind of fun.

So that is the banner. It is final. It will not be re-designed again. How do I know this for sure? Because we've alreasdy got them in; so there's no paying for it again!

Focused

I was reading some scripture this morning and I realized something. I didn't like it. I'm almost ashamed of it.

I've become too focused.

I've become too focused on the task.

I've become too focused on planting a church.

I've become too focused on planting a church, and not focused on Christ.

It's true. I think day and night about Sojourn. I sit at my desk all day working on videos, or graphics, or songs, or anything else related to Sojourn. If I talk it's about Sojourn. If I send an email, it's about Sojourn. When i pray, it's about Sojourn. I've become so focused on Sojourn, that I've almost ignored Christ. Obviously I don't mean that Christ isn't important to me any more. And it's not that it's bad that I talk, email, and pray about Sojourn. It's very important that I do pray about it. But I noticed that I spend a lot of time praying about Sojourn, and very little time praying about anything else. I spend a lot of time talking about Sojourn, and hardly any time talking about what Christ is doing in my life. Of course, Sojourn is a part of my life, but it's not my entire life.

This wouldn't be the first time that this has happened though. i do it all the time. I'm very goal-oriented person. I always have been. It's a very good thing, I think. But at times like this I realize that I need to learn control. I have to control my impulses. I have to control my urge to become so focused that everything else fades away.

I just spend the last 15 minutes praying that I would be focused on Christ, and let the other stuff come along behind that. I feel a lot better now. Maybe I should do this more often.

Keep Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

There's been so much going on the past week. Things at Sojourn have been particularly crazy

First off, we changed the banner...again. Or should I say Toby changed the banner. But it is done now. The banner is being printed as we speak. Actually, it's being shipped today. What's great is that we get this bannner just in time for tax free weekend. We're putting these signs all around the mall, which will obviously be very busy this weekend. I really like the sign, and I really, really like that it's done.

Curtis, this guy I work with at Buckle, is freaking awesome. He is doing all of our design stuff for FREE! He's working on our brochure stuff, and other signs as well. It's so amazing that he's willing to do this. He's a really cool guy, and I know he's gonna do an awesome job.

We also got our flyers in last week. 5000 of them! Toby and I drove around 2 neighborhoods here Sunday afternoon and stuffed about 1000 mailboxes with these flyers. The best part, it only took us a little more than 2 hours!. If you're ever going ot pass out flyers, get in a car, one person drive, another person stuff the flyers through th window. It makes it really quick and easy.

So things have been fun, busy, crazy, and a little stressful at times. But it's all getting done, which is the most important part of it.

"Worship" Concert

So tonight, Desi and I went to a "worship" concert. It was for some local artist here in Charlotte.

She seems like a really nice girl. The music was pretty good. She did have some seriously talented musicians playing with her. One of whom was John, who may be playing drums at Sojourn occasionally. Her was absolutely ridiculous. I was really surprised at how amazing he really was. He had great groove, one of those things you can't teach.

I only had one problem.

This was supposed to be a "worship" concert. The lady said that she wanted us to worship.Now, it's not that it wasn't worshipful, because it certainly was. But here's what I didn't like.Just about all of the songs sung were original to the artist, which is great. I write songs and I love hearing new songs.

But after every single song, thee artist would stop lower her head a little bit and mouth the words "Thank you" as everyone was clapping. And this just got on my nerves, very badly.

I'm not saying whatsoever that she was doing this, but iit made it feel like it was all about her.

Just that part when she lowered her head and mouthed those words, it seems like she was trying to "not take the credit," like so many people say. It just felt like she was putting the attention on herself. It looked like she was trying to draw attention to her trying not to draw attention to herself.

Honestly, it just gave me an idea of what I never want to do when leading worship. It got on my nerves. It annoyed me. It almost made me mad. I'm not going to waste time trying to "show my appreciation."

I want to engage people in worship, not engage myself with them.

So Much

I was thinking today about how Sojourn needs so much stuff. There are just so many things that we don't have that we really need. Now, I am talking needs here not wants. I could list a ton of stuff right now that we need...

Floor Monitors
Subs
Road sings
Indoor signs
Computers
Curtains
Cribs
Rocking Chairs
Floor pads

And the list can go on. It gets little overwhelming thinking of all the things we don't have that we need.

But I remembered how much has already been given to us.

We've had about $30,000 in audio/visual equipment given to us. We were given 3 projectors and screens. Sound bords, mics, cables, drums, speakers. We have nearly everything we need to pull off a service in both the min auditrium and in kids. That's a whole lot of stuff that we don't have to worry about at all.

And we have a lot of great people too. There's Brad, my main man. He can literally play any instrument you put in his hands. Jason, that guy is willing to do anything. Trae and Babetta, Elizabeth, Matt, Clay, Toby, Shelley, Jennifer, Mindi, Kristi. And there's more and more people everyday that want to join us. In fact, I'm meeting a guy who is a Burkley School of Music student tomorrow! I got an email yesterday from a guy who is interested in playing keys in our band. I've gotten email from 2 different ladies who want to sing.

It's pretty obvious that what we may lack in equipment we more than make up for with people. We may not have everyTHING we want, but we definitely have everyBODY we could need.

I can't wait to see how God provides for Sojourn next. Maybe some of these people we've been talking to can donate some equipment! Hehe, little plug there.

Earth and Body

I was thinking about water earlier when I remembered some interesting things. The earth is 2/3 water. Pretty cool, but not fascinating. But our bodies are 2/3 water also. Now that’s pretty cool. Two of God’s greatest living creatures are comprised mostly of the same thing, H2O.

Our bodies and the planet they live on are connected by composition. I started realizing that connection. That’s the reason sunsets are so emotional. It’s why a splash of water is cooling. It’s why the food of the earth, fruits and veggies, are so healthy. It’s why the sound of rain is so soothing and springs us to life. Why is exteme heat so dangerous to the earth and us? The heat evaporates a life source of both the earth and our bodies. The lack of water causes dehydration in humans and is why fires in California burn for weeks. Humans and the earth need both day and night. Day to express life, and night to rest and grow.

Both are destroyed and restored by the decisions we make.

Both were created by the Father.

Both are taken care of by Him.

Both will last as long as He wants.

Both will one day be made new.

Any thoughts?

Gettin' some Holy Spirit

I just have to tell you about my night. It was a blast. Honestly, if felt like I was back in Jamaica, seriously.

Desi and I went to a gospel concert!

Oh man, it was so much fun. I'm talking There's was me, Desi, and only one other white guy in the whole building. We stuck out like a sore thumb. Not that it was bad or anything. Obviously everyone was real nice. One guy even complemented on my shoes!

Ok, but here's the back story...

There's a girl that I work with at Buckle who sings in the gospel choir that was performing last night. Well, we didn't know this until recently. We were out at dinner for my assistant manager's birthday, and we got asked about us planting a church, so we just started talking. Well, Dee, wa sitting next to us and was listening. Then she says, "Hey, I sing in this gospel, and we're doing a live recording next saturday night. You guys should come." And she hands us a card with all the info stuff on it. Well, Desi tells me that she's excited about going, and I tell Dee that we are excited about going. Here where it gets fun.

I asked Desi if she had any idea what we were going to. She has no clue! So she gets online and finds some music of another group that was performing. Well, while she's listening to it, her eyes get big and she says, "Oh my gosh!" It was really funny. Desi has never been to any sort of gospel style anything. I knew it was going to be fun. She had no idea what to expect. Like I said, I've been to Jamaica multiple time, and even played in the band during a Sunday service, so I knew exactly what it was going to be like. I told Desi that it really was exactly like what you see in movies.

Well, last night was the concert, and unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well(I'd had two big slices of strawberry cake that I think did the trick). So we didn't stay long, but man was it awesome. I love all of the "Do we have any praisers in the church tonight?" and "Can I get a Hallelujah?" being shouted at the top of your lungs. My favorite, which I had never heard before was this, "Who here has a little Holy Spirit? I said who has some Holy Spirit in them? Who has some Holy Spirit they can share with someone? Turn to your neighbor and say, 'You're getting a little Holy Spirit tonight, so watch out!" It was awesome! "Can I her you praise Jesus?" Clapping "I hear your hands clapping, but I don't hear your mouths praising. Can I hear you praise Jesus?" Like I said, it was awesome.

Desi later told me that she was a little uncomfortable on the inside, but tried her hardest not to show it on the inside. I had fun.

So Dee, sorry we couldn't stay long, my stomach felt like it was about to blow up to honest. I had fun, and Desi had a new experience we shall say.

Till next time...

Now GO GET SOME HOLY SPIRIT!

The Dark Knight

Ok, I just got home from seeing The Dark Knight. Holy freaking cow! It was an amazing movie. I had my eyes wide open the entire movie, all 150 minutes of it.

If you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it for you. But you need to get your butt to the movies right now!

Everyone has been raving about Heath Ledger as The Joker in this movie, and he was absolutely brilliant. Everything he did was so on cue with his character. It was seriously an Oscar worthy performance. He seriously freaked me out. I really think I'm going to have nightmares tonight! Maybe even for the next week.

But not only Heath Ledger great, the movie itself was pure genius. Seriously, they did an absolutely amazing job writing the story. There were no wasted scenes, no unnecessary sub-stories, non of the garbage that didn't need to be there. The interpretation of the comic was brilliant. I loved the way the next villian was introduced.

I loved how it seemed like it would never end. Now, that might be a bad thing for most movies, but not for Batman. This movie seemed so alive, like it is really breathing and living. The flow was wonderful, every piece of the movie fit right with the one before it, and took you right to the one after it. It was a complete movie in every sense of the word.

I'm no movie critic, so you shouldn't take my word for it. Go see it! Now! I might go see it again nest weekend.

Road Sign

Go to Ragamuffinsoul.com for more Creative Chaos


So we are about 5 weeks from our launch here at Sojourn. This is the time when "getting your name out" is top priority. So we have lots of ideas on how to do this. The big one that we are really banking on are road signs.

We're going to put 3 huge banners on the road around the movie theater we will be meeting in. And when I say huge, I mean 4 foot by 8 foot. Maybe not huge, but really big. Here is the sign...


This is the banner will be seen all over Northlake Mall. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I'm really happy because I designed it, and everybody else likes it! We're also keeping a similar look for our welcome cards and other prints we do.

So if you live in North Charlotte, this sign is coming soon to a mall near you!

Good Morning World

Good Morning World.

This morning I woke up around 7. It was nice to sleep in a little today. I say that 7 is sleeping in because Riley has been getting up at 5 lately. So I liked waking up after the sun today.

I laid in bed for about 10 minutes trying to go back to sleep. Why does thhat never work for me? I'll lay there and close my eyes and try my hardest, but I can't fall asleep. Maybe it's because I was thinking about Desi laying next to me. Then after a few minutes of that, maybe it was the desire for some Chocolate Hazelnut coffee.

So I got up and turned on the tv, and what do I see? British Open on TNT. Was anybody really up at 7 in the morning to start watching the tournament? I know I sure wasn't. But I'm not gonna lie. I got really excited! I finally get to watch this tournament because it will be on in the morning when I'm home.

Now, I'm watching the British Open, sipping my chocolate hazelnut coffee, typing on this computer, listening to the shower going, and wondering where Riley went!

So good morning world. I'm ready for the day.

Home Office

It's a little weird, working from home. I enjoy it really.

It's nice to be able to get up at 8:28, and be in the office by 8:30.

It's nice to go to work in my underwear.

It's to be 5 steps from the coffee pot.

It's nice being able to watch the Today show while working.

So I like working from home. But at times it's kind of weird.

See, all of us at Sojourn work from home. We don't have any offices yet, which is perfectly fine by me. I don't have to see anyone if I don't want to see them. And I save a lot of money on food, because I just eat here. But, like I said, it's kind of weird.

It's weird having to clean your kitchen before a meeting.

It's weird having to vacuum the floor before we have a creative planning meeting.

It's weird having to take out the trash before the boss comes over.

It's weird having a meeting in your living room.

But I feel like the negatives, which they really aren't negative, are out weighed by the positives. This being said, I would love to have a real office. See, my office is actually our guest bedroom. A guest bedroom with a guest bed in it. If anyone comes into town and stays with us, they have to sleep in my office.

But for now, I will work in my office/guest bedroom. Afterall, a nap is only 2 step away!

What a life

So things have been absolutely crazy lately. I mean really CRAZY! I have been going non-stop for since we've got here. It's been a lot of hard work. A lot of work period. I mean, having 2 jobs is pretty rough. I mean I have 1 full-time job, Sojourn, and one part-time job, Buckle. I say Sojourn is a full-time job; it's really a 24/7 job. That's where the hard work comes in.

We have staff meetings on Tuesday nights at 6:30 which usually end up lasting at least 3 hours, last week it was almost 4 hours. Starting next week, we start our creative planning meetings, which will last a couple of hours, that will start at 5:00 though so 3 hours will mean 8:00, not 9:30. And who knows what will get added in there.

But it's not all work no play. After all, the 4th of July was really big "Guitar Hero" fest.

But seriously, Sundays mornings are great, and will only get greater. Staff meetings are long, but they're very productive, and it gives me the opportunity to talk a lot. Creative planning will be fun; I've always enjjoyed these types of meetings, and now I get to run it! And I get to do all sorts of other stuff I like, such as creating arwork for banners and welcome cards, make videos, graphic design, heck even songwriting is a part of my normal routine. Now, just because I do all this stuff doesn't mean I'm any good at it, after all, I don't have any idea what I'm doing on the graphic design end.

But overall, things are good. Buckle is taking up a lot more time that it should, but we could use the extra money right now.

Oh, and we have a ton of people asking about our house for rent in Georgia. We put it up on Facebood, and now get a couple of emails about it everyday!

So things are crazy, but good.I can only imagine that it gets better from here.

Twittering about Planning Center Online

I really like Twitter. I "twitter" all the time. I really like it's become a verb. Like "Leave me alone, I'm twittering." Or, "I need to twitter." Or, "Man, when was the last time you twittered?"

Anyways, I wrote on here a couple days ago that I was having problem accessing Planning Center Online, an online tool that really helps worship leaders and such map out services, and it doubles as a file sharing tool. Well, like I said, I was having problems accessing it. So what else do I do than twitter about it.

Here's where we see twitter in action for real.

Planning Center Online has a twitter, just kind of a "Here's what's going on with Planning Center Online" thing. Well, they find me on twitter. I'm guessing they searched for their name to see what people were saying about them, freaking genuis idea!

Well, I get an email informing me that Planning Center Online is following me on twitter, which basically means that any time I twitter they see what it says on their homepage. So, I think, "Hmm...That's interesting." And I go on with my day.

Well, a little bit later, I get an email from the "Owner/Developer" of Ministry Centered Technologies, the company that runs Planning Center. He says, "Hi Travis, did you twitter about having problems accessing PCO? If so, I would like to help get that resolved =)"

Well, I'm pretty impressed with this, so I email him back. I told him that I had already been in contact with my Internet Provider, and they found that it was a problem on their end, which I already knew. So I was just waiting on them to get their stuff fixed. But if he had any suggestions, I was more than happy to try them out.

No lie, less than 30 minutes later, the guys emails me back. He gives me this IP address, and tells me to try it and let him know what happens. Well, it worked great. Everything is back to normal, and the universe is restored. But that's not what I'm so excited about.

Talk about amazing customer service! This guy found me and contacted me and asked me if he could help before I could ask him to give me help! That's amazing! I posted before about how all these big corporations are terrible with helping you and want all your money. I found the exception. First off, PCO hasa free service. It's a small package, but they don't take any money from you if you don't want to give it to them. Then, they go and do what this guy did today.

I am super happy with PCO now. I loved them before just because of the product. Now I adore them because of the service. It's this kind of thing that gains respect and tons of customer loyalty. I would pay any amount of money for what they did for me today.

So thank you PCO and Jeff for beinng absolutely freaking awesome!

Intense

That's the only way I can't think to describe it.

It wasn't just amazing. It was way more than cool. It was a lot stronger than powerful.

It was intense.

This morning I have the most intense experience of my life.

This morning I prayed.

It wasn't some prayer like, "God, I want to thank you for this beautiful morning. Thank you for teaching me through Your Word. I pray that Desi and I have a good day together. Please keep us safe..." It was nothing like that whatsoever.

It was more like this...

Hey God.

Hello Travis.

So God, I just read this verse in Matthew. It really struck me hard. I mean, you're telling me, that Jesus taught things that had never been taught before. I can know things that even the people who wrote the Old Testament didn't know? Jesus called them the "things hidden since the creation of the world." That's amazing! I can't believe I have the privilege to know the most intimate parts of you!

It's because I love you, Travis. I want you to know those parts of me. I want to have the most intimate relationship with you that can possibly be had.

What do you mean, God?

Think of your relationship with Desi. You love her. You want to know the innermost intimate parts of Desi. You want to have a bond with her that only you can. You want to know everything there is to Desi. I want that with you.

You want that with me? Why? I'm just one little guy. I'm not anybody important. I mean I want to be used by you in a huge way, but I'm just me.

You will be used, Travis. You will be used to touch people in a very special way. No one can do what you are going to do.

Wow, God. That sounds awesome. When can I start!?

It went something like that. It was a whole new type of prayer for me. Like I said, it wasn't a "normal" prayer. I spoke to God, and He spoke back. Not audibly, but in my spirit. It was amazing. It was incredible.

It was intense!

Acceptance

At Sojourn, we want to be a place of acceptance. We want anyone to feel welcome. It's all over the place for us, on our website, on our invitations, in every bit of literature we have. And we seriously mean anybody. It's very important to us.

This morning, we talked about accepting a group of people that is nearly shunned from the church.

Gays and Lesbians.

It seems pretty obvious that the gay community is a battlefield of the church (when I say church, I mean it in a very general sense.) People seem to think that homosexuality is a war on Christianity. People feel like every action of gays and lesbians is an attack on the Christian faith.

We know that's completely not true. We know that homosexuality has nothing to do with attacking Christianity. But how do we feel about homosexuals?

We love them. We genuinely love them. It's not something we just say. "Oh, we love everybody, including homosexuals." No. That's so fake and stupid. We don't want to just say it, we want to prove it. We want to prove to everyone that we truly love and care about everybody. Whether the person in homosexual or heterosexual, young or old, an alcoholic or been sober their whole life, struggling with porn or never seen a naked person before. We seriously don't give a rip what you choose to do in your life. We still love you.

Now, that doesn't mean that we will agree with it or that we think it's permissible. The Bible speaks about homosexuality just like it does about me as a married man having sex with someone other than my wife. And I'll go ahead and tell you that there is no difference whatsoever between someone who has an affair and someone who is homosexual. There is no difference between being an alcoholic and being stuck in pornography.

So, as the Backstreet Boys say, we don't care who you are, where you're from, or what you did. It really doesn't matter. We want people to feel loved by us, so that they can know that God loves them. That's the goal. We don't love people just to love them. We love them so that they can know that God loves them. Then that love will begin to change them.

So I challenge you, who do you need to love?

Provision

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

God is freaking awesome!

He seriously is. Let me tell you why.

A few days ago, Riley, our boxer, chewed up Desi's glasses. I think I actually posted about it. But anyways, money is super tight right now. We have a mortgage back in Georgia, and a rent here in Charlotte. A car payment, insurance, gas, cell phones, and everything else. So we were freaking out about paying for new glasses. Desi's pretty much legally blind so they're important. Ok, she's not really legally blind, but it's bad.

So we have to pay for new glasses, rent, mortgage, and everything else, and we're just about broke. I mean like last time I checked, we had less than $100 to our name.

Well, when we trust God to provide, He does.

Desi and I just checked the mail like not even 10 minutes ago. And guess what was there...

Two checks for a total of $400!

What? How does that happen!?

One of the people who sent us money didn't even know we were in need at all. He just sent us a check just because.

Is that freaking awesome or what!? I'm so excited right now, you don't even know! It's just so amazing how God provides for us.

He's surprised Desi and I so many times. I remember one time we were in a really, really bad spot. I mean rent was due and we had less than $100 in our account. Well, that day we get a refund check from our insurance that we didn't even know was coming. Rent was paid on time.

Or when my parents told us that for our wedding gift, they were going take over my car payments! That was no doubt the best wedding gift we got!

So God has provided for Desi and I so many times. And He's gone and done it again! We're thankful to everyone who supports us, and to these people who sent us random checks. God is using you to help Desi and I make it during this difficult time. We literally could'nt make without you!

But most of all, we're thankful for God hearing our prayers and providing. I hear all thee time, where God leads, He provides. I guess it's pretty obvious that He's led us right where we are.

4th of July Extravaganza!

So last was obviously the 4th of July. And we celebrated it it like I've never celebrated it before. We've been fortunate at Sojourn to have a bunch of great stuff donated to us, including, projectors, screens, mixing boards, and speakers. Well, last night, we put them to good use.

We set up a projector, screen and some speakers and played "Guitar Hero" on the big screen! It was AWESOME!!! We had so much stinking fun. But so that you could see just how much fun it was, I made this video. Enjoy!


.

The story of Owen "Quick Hands" Carnes.
Owen is 6. He plays "Guitar Hero" entirely with his thumbs! Her turns the guitar on it's side so he can see the buttons, and slides his hand up and down the guitar using only his thumbs. And the best part...He's good! He can rock out some "Guitar Hero". It's really pretty amazing. So thank you "Quick Thumbs" for a lot of fun.

Excess

Have you ever wondered what happens when you had too much pizza and ice cream?

I know I never have.

But I found out.










Kids, this is what happens when you get all hyped up on cheese and sugar.

Lesson learned.

Cards

This is part of Creative Chaos at Ragamuffinsoul.com

So things at Sojourn are going great. We're having a lot of fun preparinng for our launch in August. One thing we've been talking about for a while, but just now getting to are our "welcome cards" for lack of a better term.

These cards are going to be something that everybody gets when they come into our church. Because I have some graphic skills, I'm taking this over. We had some inspiration from another church here in North Charlotte (Don't tell anybody). Here is what I've got so far.

(I don't know why it's so light. I tried a bunch of different stuff but keeps looking like this. Oh well.)

So it's not much I know. And here's whhy. Not because we're that swet on the whole "Keep it simple stupid" thing. It'd because we're giving it to a real graphic designer. I work with this guy at Buckle who is a graphic design student at UNC-Charlotte. He's an awesome guy, and he's done some seroiusly good stuff. And he's gonna do it all for FREE!

So a huge thank you to Curtis for what he's going to do. I knnw it will be awesome. And I can't wait to see how much better it is when he get's done with it.

And here's my plug for Curtis' Website. Check it out.

I may let you see the final product if your lucky.

Influence

It's all the rave in the Christian leadership world these day. We talk everything from how to influence people to increasing you influence. It's all about influencing others. But little is spoken about being influenced. It's almost ignored to be honest. We seem to be so focused on us being influential people, and we don't give a thought to what is influencing us.

God reminded me just how important it is that I be influenced. In Matthew 13:24-31, Jesus tells "The Parable of the Weeds." (You gotta love those little titles) But here's what I noticed for the first time.

The parable is about a guy who plants wheat in his field. One night, some enemy of the guy puts weeds in his field. Well, obviously the weeds grew with the wheat. The workers asked if the guy wanted them to pull up the weeds. He tells then not to because it will ruin the wheat too. Then her says this...

"Let both grow together until the harvest." (v. 30)

Now, we know that this verse is talking about those who are redeemed as being the wheat, and those who deny God are the weeds. One day, they will be separated, and the weeds will be burned (Hell), but the wheat will be brought into the barn (Heaven). But here's what I realized, we haven't been separated yet. We're in that part where the weeds and wheat are growing together. In other words, there are good people and bad people in this world. We are in the same world, not separate ones. We encounter good and bad people every day. Both are all around us.

Obviously, we all want to be good people. But how we become good people?

Influence.

Not having influence, but being influenced.

If I want to be a good person, I must have good influences. I have to surround myself with those good influences in my life. I need people around me who are going to influence me to desire to know God, want to help others, do good in my community, and love people.

I need to identify who those people are and make sure that I let them influence me. I need then to be the ones that I want to be like.

But, at the same time, I have to identify thee bad influences, those people who bring me down. There are people that I work with, eat with, hang out with who are negative, selfish, or just behave badly. I need to make sure I don't let those people influence me. This doesn't mean that I separate myself from them, remember we're not at that part yet. It doesn't mean that I don't hang out with them. It means that when I am around them, I remember that they are negative so that I don't let myself become negative.

So I actually made a list of people who are good influences that I need to have, and another list of people who are bad influences. Like I said, you have to identify those bad influences, and I meant actually identify them. Obviously I am the only who will ever see this list. I don't want people knowing that they are bad influences on me, because some of them are in my life no matter what I do. I don't want to hurt anyone or drive them away from me. But it could be cool for those good influences to know how much you appreciate them.

So I have my lists. I know who influences me in a positive way, and who influences me in a negative way. I know what I need to do to be influenced by those positive people, and what I don't need to do to be influenced by the negative people.

Who are those good and bad influences in your life?

Not Happy

I'm more than just not happy. I'm seriously pissed off. This stupid blog. I hate it. I pay google $10 for a web address and it doesn't work on macs. How stupid is that? I pay them and it doesn't even work. And you know what else is stupid...there's no way to get in contact with google about it. They have nothing. No phone number, no email address, no online chat, and no FAQ on the subject. I use Firefox on my Mac, which is what google tells you to use, and it doesn't even freaking work. This is the stupidest thing ever. You'd think that a company the size of google could get their crap to work on any platform. you'd think they would have the people and the know how to get their junk working right, no matter who's using it and what their using. But no. apparently their a bunch of idiots and don't really know what their doing having all these online apps. It wouldn't bother me so much if I did'nt PAY THEM to do this. If I hadn't put up the money then ok, not such a big deal. Sure it was only $10, but it's not the amount of money, it's the fact that i paid them for a service, and there's not even a service.

All these major companies are really pretty terrible. Google can't get their apps to work, Directv charges you $400 dollars if you close an account early, even you just don't can't get their service because of your location. Verizon tells you something different every time you go in their store. Cable companies charge you an arm and a leg for crappy tv and slow internet. AT&T has crappy equipment that they send you; it will work for a week then it fries and they can't tell you what happened. Greedy freaking people who I wish I never had to deal with.

Please, get your crap straight. Think for atleast a moment about what people think about your company. Everybody has something to complain about, and maybe their right, just maybe. Stupid, stupid stupid.

If I pay the cable company for cable, I expect to get cable. If I pay verizon for cell phone service, I expect cell phone service. If I pay google for a domain, I expect a domain. But they can't even do that. Stupid.

Staff Meeting

So, here we are. It's Wednesday morning. I'm sitting here, blogging, drinking coffee, listening to The Almost, and already thinking about tonight. I have something to look forward to tonight. I have our Sojourn Staff meeting. Exciting stuff huh?

But it really is. It really is what I look forward to on Wednesday. See, us on staff at Sojourn work from home. We don't have any offices (except the spare bedrooms in our houses), so we don't see eachother every day. There's no running into one another in the halls, or going to Toby's office to ask a question. The main communication we have with eachother is email and text message.

Now this isn't all bad. After all, it's like 5 steps from my coffee pot (where my day really begins) to my office/spare bedroom. I go to work in jogging shorts and a large t-shirt. I don't have to brush my teeth or shower. I don't have to see any of the guys if I don't want to. But it still drives me crazy.

I like working with people. I like seeing people. I like spending time with people. It sucks to be away from people all day. I guess it's a good thing I have another job where I do see people (although there I work in the backroom and still don't see a lot of people). Plus, I like Toby, Clay, and Matt (I only list these guys because they're the only ones at this particular staff meeting. Kristi will hopefully be joining us soon.). So I want to see these guys every once in a while.

But tonight is staff meeting. Our time to see eachother, away from Sunday morning. Yea, we talk staff stuff and have some stuff we have to get done, but atleast I'm not all alone in my office. And we always jjust take some time to chill afterwards. Just hang out and talk. Take it easy. Kick back and relax with eachother.

So it's Wednesday. Tonight is staff meeting. And I'm pumped about it!

I'm Wiped Out

I just got done watching the new show "Wipeout" on ABC. I love that show. It's like that show MXC on Spike, that's why I like it. But as I was watching it, I started feeling wiped out.

It has been a long day. I got to work at Buckle and had a lot of work to do. More work than I think I've every had there. I'm supposed to leave at 4:00 each day. But today I didn't leave until 7:15! What makes it really bad is I'm on my feet the entire time. I stand at my table, fold clothes, and bend over to gete clothes out of boxes. So my back is way tired when I have these long days.

So I'm really tired now. Fortunately, since I got everything done, I don't have to go in until 12:00 tomorrow. So I have some time to relax and unwind, at least until tomorrow when I go do it all over again.

I think it's time for some coffe.