Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! There is so much to be thankful for...

Snow on the ground

My beautiful Children

My beautiful Wife

God's provision

Indoor plumbing...

The list could go on. Just remember to be thankful that Detroit is 75% not-sucky in sports as you watch the Lions trudge on towards their inversely perfect season.

God bless, until next time or sooner

Jason

PS Don't forget to read my post about drums that I did yesterday. Ebert and Roper called it 'good', and the Rolling Stone magazine didn't have anything to say about it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing or a good thing...it just is.

Hymns and hers

Okay, so this is a little off script, but lets go with it, shall we? I was going to do my next post about some thoughts I've been having about God and humanity...and I will do them still. But first, I need to remind myself why I believe in God. Sometimes it's difficult to see Him in the everyday, mundane changing-diapers-doing-dishes-schoolwork-sleep routine that is life. But this story speaks to me of a loving God who is very involved in details.

Now, some might read this story, and chalk it up to coincidence. Some might be able to provide psychoanalysis, and others might do some other third thing. But as for me, I think that the real Big Papi has His prints all over this.

This is a story of my musical journey...or a song about my musical journey, if you should so choose...except in song form, it will probably end up being as long as 'American Pie'.

Tragically, the autopsy revealed that the music would not have died had Don McLean not dragged it on for so long. A steady diet of whiskey and rye by the 'good ol' boys' didn't help matters.

Let's start back a little ways...when I was growing up, my dad played many weekends in local establishments, so I've always had some exposure to music. As a kid, I wanted to be a musician as well...I think it's natural for kids to want to be like their parents. In fact, I remember making up a song once, and then hearing that song on the radio later! I think I may have heard the song earlier, and then subconsciously credited myself as the author...or else this band sent people to spy on me and steal my awesome work. Unfortunately, we can never know for sure.

My dad is an amazing musician...one of those guys that can play guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, and free cell (not all at the same time, although that would be amazing also). I felt I could never measure up. I resisted any of his efforts to teach me, and I found myself embarrassed by my fledling efforts to even try. So basically, I just kinda let that die in me. I was in school band, and that was fun, but even then, I never really immersed myself in it. I was content just to get by. After high school, I kissed music goodbye, and set out on my voyage to...

Well, I didn't really have much of a plan. I just knew that it was not going to be a musical one. I guess I can't even say that...music was so far off the radar that it didn't even register as an option to not be an option. A couple years into college, though, I came into awareness of God, and my place within the cosmos. So now it's a clean, blank slate. The summer of 1999 (maybe a little before that, I don't do well with dates-that's what she said OOOOOHHHHHHH) I was placed into a relationship with music. The drummer at our church was leaving in the fall to go to college in Texas, and since we had been in band together in high school, I became the default option.

Now understand, I had never really played on a drum kit before. I had tried, sure, but I had never really done much with it. The most I could really do was play the intro to the song 'Wherever I may roam' by Metallica, and that was by myself with no one around. Needless to say, I struggled mightily in the beginning...I couldn't even keep a beat! I remember getting frustrated at the first practice, because I just couldn't keep up.

I'm not going to lie and say that the next day I woke up endowed with magical powers. I'm not even going to say that I had nothing to do with it. I'm sure that any dilligence (which is not as much as I'd like it to be, ashamedly) has played a role. But you're missing the point if that's what you're thinking about. This is the birth of vision, of passion, of something that I suddenly found enjoyable to do, something that had been previously dead to me.

For the sake of not killing the music or drying up the levy, I'll cut a few years out. Just know that I started to feel like God had music for me in the future. When I married Sara, this vision was solidified. Sara is AMAZING...she has a voice like an angel (with the wings to boot), and can play piano and violin. So we've really felt for a while like God has wanted us to do music.

Ahead another couple years. At Water's Edge church, I was really taken through a series of levels in my journey as a worshipping musician. I'm not going to go through these in depth like I'd wanted to, but I'll summarize them. But do know this, that at the beginning of each school year, for the past two years, I've been placed on a worship team other than what I'd wanted, and in turn I've been blessed with growth beyond my own imaginings. First, I learned that you can worship in musical technical excellence. I learned this from Rob, who teaches music at NMU and is the embodyment of musical knowledge. From Brent, I learned to start to be able to cut loose, and rock out, applying musical dynamics to the tune of the Spirit. I never really got to do that at my old church, we always played more reserved. And that brings us to now.

Charlie, who is an awesome man and one of the leaders at our church, came to our worship practice one night, and basically told us to push ourselves as musicians, to try things we've never tried before, and to not be afraid to fail. Now, what I just wrote is a paraphrase, but I can't even begin to summarize the impact that his words had for me. All my life, I'd been operating under this idea that in order to play for the Lord, that we needed to hold back...I've even been told this at one point. I always felt upset by this...I felt like I wasn't really able to worship, because I had to focus on sounding not fancy or not loud.

Then Charlie comes in, and says basically, 'be awesome for God'...and since then, it's been amazing! I've been trying new things, the worship band I'm in has been doing that as well, and together, we are starting to take our music to new levels. This has been way cool, and it's hard to imagine that at one time, I didn't even want to play drums!

There is an 'also going on' also going on, though. More background- I love rock music, have since high school, and ever since I've started to play drums, I wanted to be in a rock band. Several years ago, I had a couple garage band ventures with buddys that never got out of the garage (although one group was immortalized via Crappy Garage Recording, earning the timeless compliment from my dad 'Not all your songs sound the same').

So I had pretty much given that up, I wasn't even thinking about it at all. Then, lo and behold, earlier this semester I get the opportunity to play Beets songs in the NMU homecoming parade with some dudes from church. We rock, and take first place in our division. One of the most fun experiences of my musical life. Still, an afternoon of fun, and file it away...

Can't see the line, can you Russ?

Late October, the apartment complex I'm in does this little impromptu type music thing, Lincoln Rocks. So Matt, a friend from church and leader of the Beets, asks me to fill in on drums for this thing...again, music is on life support, so I'm cutting this story short. Long story short, I'm in this rock band that's awesome, we're making songs, and we're going to be recording those songs in December!

Now, I'm not saying that we're famous, or even going to be famous. We haven't made it, we've only played one gig. For all I know we might not go anywhere or do anything. But it's a rock band, and I'm playing in it. I'm happy. And this semester, Sara and I were just hoping to survive her return to school. Pursuing music was the furthest thing from our minds. In the midst of it all, God has been stirring our musical gifts and passions. Maybe it's because Sara is in the music program, and all this is subconscious desires and abilities brought to the surface by the change in our lives and routine. Maybe...

But to me, there are just too many variables for this to be coincidental, or subconscious. This is God, and God is moving in us. I'm not sure where He's taking us, but it's gonna be awesome!

So I wouldn't be grassroots if I didn't plug the band in a music blog. This is us, Baby Cannon. You can check us out at: www.myspace.com/babycannonplaid.

The best band you've never heard of. If you have heard of us, I guarantee we're ranked no lower than 234th.

Checkin' inn

Hey fans, readers, haters...

This is just a brief 'checking in' type of thing. For some reason, I have this 'idea' that I'm supposed to be blogging quite often. Maybe it's because I often think, or because of societal expectations forced upon me as a blogger...maybe I'm bored, I don't know.

I do have much to say, for sure. And I will try to delve into the depths of the awesome thoughts that I have next week.

But first I have to get this frickin' book review of 'Medicine and the Market' done. If I ever meet the authors, I am going to kidnap them and make them listen to tapes of me practicing the dictionary. Seriously, this book is dead to me right now.

I'm gonna stop there (because otherwise this will become the typical length of a Jason blog, which kind of defeats the purpose of doing a 'check-in' post). God is good, even though I suck. I love you all, thank you for reading. We'll talk more next week...

Please accept these virtual fake flowers as a token of my apologies for not blessing you with amazing awesomely deep thoughts or competely absurd yet funny lists of stuff.

Top Ten Coolest Presidents Names Ever So Far!

Well, here it is. The moment that I've been waiting for you to be waiting for. I should be working on homework right now, but let's all speak honestly with each other and just admit that homework sucks. Ranking presidents by coolness of names, while frivilous and meaningless, is WAY more fun. As such, here we go:

The Top Ten

10)Richard Milhous Nixon - 'He's a Mil-hous'...sing it to the Commodore's 'Brick House'- Guaranteed you won't be able to a)shake that song for the rest of the night b)not substitute Milhous in for brick house. Yeah, it's THAT catchy.

9)Franklin D. Roosevelt- Dynasy. Dominant. Delano. Nobody really knows what the D stands for, which only adds to the mystery of the enduring president. I mean, this guy was president for 12 freakin' years! That's amazing! The uncertainty surrounding his middle initial was enough for him to even overcome a sucky first name, which is no small feat.

8)Warren Gamaliel Harding- Became slightly famous for hiring a newspaper lad to whack Thomas R. Kerrigan across the knee. Also, Gamaliel is very close to Gallileo and Gamma...in fact, it is as though Gallileo and Gamma were forcibly merged into one in a freak reactor malfunction of some type.

Look at the bright side, Tanya- you went from being a terrible figure skater who nobody knew to a terrible person that was famous!

7)Barack Obama- The only problem I have with Barack Obama is that if you play one of those 'How many words can you spell from Such and Such a word' games with 'Barack Obama is not Osama Bin Laden', one of the names you can spell is Osama Bin Laden, and that is just way too close of a tie for me. Liberals will be quick to point out that you can do the same with 'George Bush bends over to wade in the mucky lake a'. All I can say is that they have a good point.

6)Ulysses Simpson Grant- Grant was a rock star war general turned president. While he sucked as a president (at least according to wikipedia-actually, I just made that up, I didn't check wikipedia, but it's funny to cite wikipedia as a 'source'), he makes for interesting fodder in the six degrees game- Simpson, Homer, Iliad, Ulysses...Okay, so the four degrees game, but still he rocks it out.

'Guys, I'm not so sure this is such a good idea...'

5)Martin Van Buren- There is one thing that I have learned growing up- never mess with people that have 'Van' or 'Von' as a middle name (or an appendage of the last name, either way it's dangerous). Jean-Claude Van Damme, Van Halen, Vincent Van Gogh, Victor Von Doom, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Dick Van Dyke, Rip Van Winkle, Vin Diesel, ____ Van Morrison...those people all walk around sweating drops of awesome and cannot be killed by ordinary means.

4)James Knox Polk- I can just imagine the cabinet meetings, some smart mouth intern...poke- poke- poke (giggle giggle)

3)Abraham Lincoln- The only president to be named after a a county, city, a car, my street, a toy, an electric company, a nonsecretarian university, a yet-to-be released Stephen Spielberg movie, a cathedral, a financial firm, and finally, a patriarch. This guy knew how to party!

2)John Fitzgerald Kennedy- Besides being the most handsome president (although Obama does have the firepower to compete with the big dogs here, we haven't had a very good group of handsome commanders-in-chief), Kennedy cemented his name as the #2 coolest with just three letters- JFK. I mean, WHOA! That's liquid sweetness, right there- to be known world-wide, not by your first or last names, or even a nickname, but by three letters...Unfortunately JFK was just not able to get over the hump and take over the top spot.

So with that, the number one, coolest named president is.....

Drum roll...

1) Dave- Ahh, some of you must not know your American history very well. Dave was president in 1993- well, BILL was president in 1993, until he had a stroke, and Dave (the look-alike) had to take over. Something very similar happened in Vantage Point, except they sent the look-alike in first, and the look-alike got gunned down by an automated sniper rifle. Otherwise, they're very similar plot lines and true storyness.

So you may say, this was a 'movie', and therefore not 'real'. Well, friends, given the proven track record that Hollywood has with being honest, and never lying/stretching details, I would ask that you merely check your selfish and vain ambition at the door, and humbly ask for Dave's apology. For Dave is very real- otherwise, would they have made such a movie? I don't think so.

What JFK is to letters, Dave is to monosyllabic names. Listen to it roll of your tongue...D A V E

It is powerful yet tender, brave yet afraid, hot yet cold, milk and water, cats and dogs. Dave bridges gaps, reconciles, gives hope, ends wars, gives you what you want for Christmas. There is no name on this list that can compete with Dave. Those that would try will only end up being crushed by the ruthless awesomeness that IS Dave.

Well, there you have it. As usual, not all of you will agree with my list, and as usual, you are wrong. I hope you've enjoyed reading...Next time I might talk about something deep...or else I will rank my favorite Ben and Jerry's flavors (I just love to rank things, by the way). Thanks for reading, toodles!

Let's ask the important questions- Which president has the coolest name?

Well, election season is over (Thank God). Congratulations to Barack Obama, Better-luck-next times to Sarah Palin and my 3rd Party candidates. This whole election was a real eye-opener for me. Like, I really started thinking on some deep, deep issues. The economy, the environment, world relations- but the most deepest of all was which president has the coolest name.Obviously Barack Obama has the most different name of all the presidents. But is it the coolest? That is what I will be scientifically discerning in this post.

The Boring- These names are a dime a dozen. Yawn. Next please, comments here will be kept to a minimum, so as to not attract any more attention then humanly necessary. Seriously, I don't want you to fall asleep before you get to the good stuff.

John Adams
John Quincy Adams- Throwing an extraneous 'Quincy' in there doesn't hide that fact that we've already seen this name before.
Thomas Jefferson

James Monroe

James Madison

James Buchanan

Harry S Truman

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Johnson

Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
William Howard Taft

William Jefferson Clinton

George Washington- George, I cannot tell a lie. You set the tone for centuries of boring names. You might be on the quarter (my favorite piece of money, by the way), but that does not change the fact that I use your name to fall asleep at night. Okay, so I did just tell a lie. But you chopped down your dad's cherry tree. Don't judge me.

The Sucky- These names might be a breath of fresh air on this list if they didn't conjur up images of pocket protecters, Star Trek fans, and high-water pants.

Ronald Wilson Reagan- Maybe if he was Ronald Raiden, he could have overcome sharing a name with a clown. But he's not. So he didn't.

Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall- or I will zap you with lightning from my ninja hands. Also, I'd like a number 6 with coke.

Herbert Clark Hoover- It's fitting that Hoover is also a vacuum cleaner line, because the name Herbert just sucks.

Chester Alan Arthur- It is pretty bad when you have three names and they are all lame.

Woodrow Wilson- Woodrow? Woodrow? Why not, 'Treerow'? Or, 'Forestrow'? Or, 'Hedgerow'? Even 'Deathrow'. Any of these would have been better than Woodrow.
Calvin Coolidge

Theodore Roosevelt- Sure, you can call him 'Teddy' like you know him, but the fact remains that his mother cursed him to eternal dorkness by naming him 'Theodore'.

Hi, my name is Theodore...more like TheoDORK!

Franklin Pierce- Ah, Franklin. It's as if the names Frank and Lynn got married, and then spent the rest of their lives being annoying.

Dwight David Eisenhower- Dwight loses points for having a nickname (Ike) that has nothing to do with his real name. 2 things here- 1) If your name is only 1 syllable, you should not have a nickname. "Hi my name is Dwight, but you can call me Ike for short". Doesn't work. 2) There needs to be some relationship between your real name and your nickname. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, those work fine. There is no 'Ike' in 'Dwight'. Really, come on now!
Lyndon Baines Johnson- Lyndon is a girls name. Next.

The Potential- These guys were THIS close to making it to the top ten, before tripping at the finish line- or the Finnish line, whichever came first.

James Abram Garfield- As much as I love a big, fat, orange lasagna-loving cat, I can't move ol' Jimbo into the top 10 because 'James' is the absolute most common president name. Now if his name would have been 'Jon'...well, that would have been amazing.

George Herbert Walker Bush- 4 names might seem to be a bit excessive, and 2 of those names (George/Herbert) are boring/sucky. So what gives Bush #1 the edge here? Look for yourself:

A certain Texas Ranger named...oh, I don't know...WALKER...

Chuck Norris fact: In ancient China there is a legend that one day a child will be born from a dragon, grow to be a man, and vanquish evil from the land. That man is not Chuck Norris, because Chuck Norris killed that man.

George W. Bush- George. Seen it. Bush. Been there. So what gives? Well, I'll tell ya- it's the W. W as a middle nomiker is a powerful, powerful thing. It makes ordinary men great, and great men more great. Think about this- Michael W. Smith, John W. Booth, Walt W. Disney, Michael W. Jordan, Wayne W. Gretzky, Joe W. Montana, WMD...the list goes on and on.

The next four are combined, like the powers of Captain Planet (I don't count 'heart' as a power...that's almost as lame as Captain Planets mullet).

William Henry Harrison
John Tyler

Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore- You might be thinking, 'William? John? MILLARD? What is going on here? Or you might be thinking, 'I'm bored. I wonder if Alf is on...' Well, either way, let me explain- these four were chosen because of the dynasty that they represent- the Whig dynasty. From 1841 to 1853, the Whig party was a political powerhouse, winning 3 out of 4 elections (Harrison died in office). Then, just as mysteriously as it appeared, the Whig party disappeared, like dandelion seeds into the wind. It is currently residing in Mexico, and is known as 'El guapo'.

It's a sweater!

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr - Despite having a stupid first name, and sharing a middle name with a reindeer, Ford makes the list for one reason- he played football at U of M. Hail to the victors, baby!

James Earl Carter- This is the classic case of abusing a nickname. Jimmy would have earned higher points if he would have just stuck to James, and changed his last name to 'Jones'. Also , if he could speak in a beautiful bass voice and be Darth Vader.

Grover Cleveland- This guys was so FREAKING close to making it to the top ten- Grover is an amazing name, and in fact might be the most amazing first name in all of presidenthood. But I cannot in good consciousness give my blessing to anyone who associates with Cleveland and their vile existance.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes- Let this one sink in a little. Birchard. Birchard. Birchard. While Ruthorford held him out of the top ten like a millstone around your neck in a swimming pool, Birchard is the name that keeps on giving and giving. Birchard. Birchard. Birchard.

Wow, I'm going hog wild on this one! It's been tons of fun, fo' shizzle! Tune in next time, as I unveil THE TOP TEN COOLEST PRESIDENTS NAMES OF ALL TIME UP UNTIL NOW!

Congrats Obama...NOW GET TO WORK!

Well, since everyone and their brother is probably weighing in on the presidential election, I must follow the lemmings in order to maintain cultural relevence.

First of all, congratulations are in order for Barack Obama. I was surprised that he beat out Hillary Clinton, who has basically been the Democrats 'quarterback of the future' ever since ol' Bill left office. His is a historic victory, the first guy with a Muslim sounding name to be elected president (note-I'm not getting into this whole 'Obama is a secret Muslim thing- I'm just pointing out his name isn't Jim or George or something like that). He is also the first African American to be elected to the presidency. Congrats Obama.

Of course, now the onus is on him. He has a chance to do great things for this country. Or he can be the answer to a trivia question. Democrats control the triple crown- senate, house, president. So there is this understanding that he now has to put up. His whole campaign was around 'change', and while I've said before that I don't doubt that our country needs change, it'll be interesting to see what happens. Barack Obama is going to be trying to implement lots of changes while cutting taxes...eventually the math isn't going to add up. Either he will have to keep taxes the same/raise taxes, or else he will not be able to accomplish everything he promised.

I would just say two things- first of all, I think a certain degree of patience should be afforded to him. After all, our entire world (not just the USA for all the Bush-haters) is in a mess. It would be ignorant for anybody to think that Barack Obama can just come in guns blazing and fix everything. Give him some time/patience.

On the other side, he needs to show something. He needs to produce results. Barack Obama, in my opinion, rode into the white house on the coat tails of the national disapproval of George W. Bush. So he needs to show that he can do better than what he put down. Logistics shouldn't be a problem- as I said, Dems got the trifecta. But the QUALITY of those policies is what is going to matter.

I would really like to see Obama move on from this whole 'Bush bash' mentality. You used it to your advantage, you won the white house- now it's YOUR job. Don't blame bush for what is sure to be a rough period of on-the-job training. You wanted to be a trailblazer, you wanted to make change- well guess what- it's not easy. Barack Obama can take a page from Hank Aaron, who handled the home run record chase with class, grace, and dignity. While there is a lot of difference obviously between baseball and the presidency, there are still similar principles that can be applied here.

Again, congratulations to Barack Obama. I'll be praying for wisdom for you, because you will need it.