Wake Up!

Do you ever get the feeling you are watching greatness unfold before your very eyes? Have you ever witnessed an event, or read a book, or even seen a movie and felt like you were experiencing an instant classic? That’s exactly they way I’ve felt as I have watched Late Night With Conan O’Brien the past 2 weeks. No, I’m not kidding…

For those of you living under a rock, there is a dreadful writer’s strike under way (that I fully support) which has messed up coach potato paradise royally. All of my favorite shows have halted production during the strike, most notably Heroes and Lost (although since Season 4 of Lost premieres soon, we will at least get the first 8 or so pre-strike episodes). Even the late night talk shows took a long break trying to decide how to function without their writers. Conan (and several others included) decided they didn’t need no stinking writers! We’ll do it ourselves! And the result has been absolute, pure genius.

Now I haven’t paid much attention to the other talk shows, but if you haven’t tuned into Conan lately you are definitely missing out. Every night he comes out with no script and improvs the whole way through his monologue. He has also decided to grow out his beard until the strike is over. The shaggier that beard gets, the funnier he is. It makes me want to hope for a three year strike just to see how ridiculous he will look. He has also developed some great new bits that are just as funny, if not funnier, than anything the show’s writers ever thought up:

First, we have the wedding ring spin on the desk. Once or twice a week Conan will start the show off by spinning his ring on his desk to try and break his personal record of 41 seconds. If it sounds stupid, that’s because it is. That’s what makes it so funny. The audience absolutely loves it and I have no idea why and I guess that’s why it cracks me up. Next, we have the zip line Conan has installed in the studio. He keeps asking fans to send in ideas to make his zip line more exciting. First we’ve seen him soar through the air wearing a helmet that shoots smoke from the back. It was as lame as it sounds..and again very funny. The next time he zipped down wearing the smoke helmet and rocket boots and crashed through giant bowling pins. My favorite though was when he zipped down (with helmet and boots) and slammed into John Wilkes Booth right before he was about to assassinate President Lincoln. Afterwards, Conan and Lincoln celebrated by dancing a little jig together (See video below). Not only was this the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on his show, but quite possibly the weirdest. As fun as all of this sounds, there is more! Every Friday night Conan ends the first segment by strapping on a guitar and a hideous jacket and rocks out with the band. I had no idea he could sing or play the guitar, but he is shockingly good. Seriously…don’t take my word for it. Tune in and check it out…you will be amazed at his talent.

Of course there are other crazy things going on, but those are my favorites so far. If you haven’t seen Conan lately there is no better time to watch. I hope Conan seriously considers keeping this format even after the strike, because he has stumbled upon pure gold. I can’t wait until he takes over The Tonight Show. Who needs writers? Certainly not the great Conan O’Brien!

I have long held the belief that parents are the craziest people on the planet, followed closely by grandparents (who are in fact parents..). I first stumbled upon this discovery during my days as a youth minister and when my wife began teaching in the public school system. Since then I have discovered what a genius I am. Let’s face it…parents are nuts.

I can’t tell you how many Senior Sundays at church I’ve been to where the strongest, toughest dad you’ve ever seen will get up in front of a crowd to brag about his graduating teenage daughter, only to break down in uncontrollable sobs. Crazy. I’ve had parents sit in my office overcome with tears and worry, not for themselves, but for the spiritual well-being of their children. Insane. And then there are those ball games. Oh boy. This is where my theory really proves to be true. Think about the craziest, loudest, most obnoxious person you’ve ever heard yelling at a referee, and I guarantee you that he or she is a parent of someone on the field. Moms and Dads who coach their kids are my favorite to watch. They always work real hard to remain level headed and even keel, giving balanced encouragement and criticism to all members of the team. Until suddenly their kid gets the ball. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen it, too. Dare I say that some of you might be guilty of it? “TAKE IT TO THE HOLE JOHNNY! GET IN THERE AND SCORE! WOOHOOOOO!!!! Man those are my favorites. Talk about some real psychos!!

Yeah for the longest time I didn’t get it. I would look from afar at this crazy group of people and wonder what made them tick. All the crying, and the over-worrying, and the insane cheering and whooping and hollering. What is wrong with these people? I just didn’t get it. And then I became a Daddy. I have seen the light and the scales have fallen from my eyes! I have officially joined the Crazy Club. I won’t have to wait for my daughter’s Senior Sunday to become a blubbering idiot. I’m already there. Every time she hurts, it kills me. Darn it all, I even tear up when she laughs at me. Man am I in trouble! There’s also that whole worry yourself sick about your kids thing. Guilty. I know worrying isn’t good for you and all, but man you just can’t help it you know? The scary part is that she’s not even crawling yet. Yeah go ahead…laugh. I know…I know….I don’t even know what worrying is yet. My daughter has obviously never played team sports, but I’ll tell you this. She’s a champ and she’s better than your kid. You’ll see. Oh man. I sound like a real wacko already.

There’s also one more thing that daddyhood has made clear to me. Now pay attention because I think this might be important. There have been several instances in my life where I have struggled to comprehend how God can love man. Yeah some people are more likable than others, more pleasant and fun to be around. Some are just genuinely good people. Some are nasty as can be. But even the best of us are prone to depravity, and if you hang around anyone long enough that monster undoubtedly rears its ugly head. At our best we are sinful, imperfect beings and left to our own devices we will always fail. How could He love us? Why would he send his only Son to die for such wretched creatures? I get it now! We are His children and there is nothing He wouldn’t do for us! He loves us no matter how good or how bad we are, just as us crazy parents love our own children unconditionally. Not only that, but He lets us choose. You see, as much as God loves us, we aren’t required to love Him back, unless of course we want to be with Him forever. If we choose to be with Him (and who in their right mind wouldn’t?) then we show Him our love by obeying His will. Not always easy for sure, but nothing worth while ever is. Being a Daddy is not easy and I know it won’t get easier, but the joy it brings is indescribable. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Now that would be crazy!

People often ask me how the writing is going and I never quite know what to say. Although I have been writing a lot, it hasn’t been what I envisioned. Several months back I wrote a post about how I was starting a novel, and honestly I haven’t done much with it since. I went back over what I originally wrote and ended up scrapping it all and started over. My original intent was to write it in the first person, but I felt limited by that so I started over in the third person with a new approach. I cranked out the first 5 pages and was extremely pleased, and then for some reason I quit. I thought announcing to the world that I was starting a novel would maybe light a fire under me, but I guess stage fright settled in instead. I think I am about over that at this point though and one of my goals for this year is to try and complete this book. I still love the story idea and I think it’s something people will enjoy reading….at least it’s the kind of story I enjoy reading. Hopefully within the next few weeks I will have enough written to be able to share with anyone who is interested in checking it out. I will need plenty of quality, unbiased feedback (except from you Mom….feel free to shower me with ridiculous amounts of praise and adoration). Stay tuned for updates on the book….I hope.

So what’s the writing I have been doing? Book reviewing…and tons of it. I started reviewing books on Amazon and for various review sites about a year and a half ago. I just started doing it for fun and for free books and I guess you can say I got hooked. I reviewed for a few different websites for awhile and then I started my own website that now even has it’s own official dot com address. (I’m so proud). I kept track of all the books I read in 2007 and the final count was 74. Most of those were books that I was sent for review, so you can imagine how that has kept me quite busy. I currently have a stack of about 10 novels I need to read and review…and the number keeps growing. The cool thing is that my reviews have started appearing on different websites and I have even been quoted in a few books. To date I have reviews quoted in Tosca Lee’s Demon: A Memoir, Robert Liparulo’s Deadfall, and Ted Dekker’s Chosen and Infidel. My name actually appears in the Tosca Lee book, but the others just say “Bookshelf Review”. (My mom is still upset about that). Nevertheless I am thrilled and I never thought my measly little reviews would ever be considered quotable. I do love reviewing though. Part of being a good writer is being familiar with various genres, what’s selling, what works, what doesn’t, etc. This gives me a great opportunity to do that. I am starting to realize however that if I really want to finish writing my novel, then I will probably have to cut back on the reviewing a bit.

How’s the writing going? Not too bad. Let’s just hope it gets better!

Angie and I celebrated 8 years together yesterday. 8 years! I’ve heard people say that the older you get the faster time seems to go by. Man I must be getting old then. It’s been an incredible eight years though, I must admit. Why, you might ask? Well if you know my wife, then it’s a no brainer. She is quite simply an amazing woman. I honestly don’t know anyone who has as much heart or compassion for other people. Especially for me (it blows my mind too). I married way out of my league, but you won’t hear me complain. God has truly blessed me.

Angie and I would both agree that as fast as life has flown by before Madelyn came along, since May 14th, 2007,  it has gone into warp speed. I look at my 7 month old princess and all I can think is that she is growing too fast. I know what all you other parents are saying..”Just wait until she gets older. You haven’t seen anything yet”. I have no doubt that is true, but for now, for me, I am already overwhelmed with those feelings. It is so amazing how you actually see her growing and developing on a daily basis. She is now at the stage where she no doubt knows who Mommy and Daddy are, and that is so much fun. She loves to laugh now, and nothing warms my heart more than her giggle. She can now roll like a champ and she loves to sit (by herself now….sniff..sniff) in the floor and play. Almost every day now she gets up on her hands and knees and seems ready to take off. It hasn’t happened yet, but I know it’s coming soon. It’s so amazing, yet so bittersweet. I  love every minute of it, but I also know that these minutes will be gone before I can blink. I just pray that I will make every effort to cherish each second God gives me with my little girl.

Well enough of that for now…I’m starting to get choked up. Yeah, God has truly blessed me.