I confess that when I’m trying to write – blog posts, articles, books, sermons – I typically have to be in a place that has some energy and activity. Sitting alone at my desk in my office almost never does it for me. Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time at Panera. Summertime is a pretty busy season there, though, so lately my location of choice has been a small, out of the way McDonald’s. I’ll admit that they don’t have the most comfortable chairs, but the wifi is fast. Plus I can spend a dollar on a soda, and write for as long as I want without feeling guilty. The place is never that busy. I’m starting to get to know a few of the employees. I’m also noticing that the McDonald’s clientele is quite different from what I see at Panera.
I confess that I have about a month to complete the book I’m writing for Zondervan, somewhere around 2/3’s of the way through the first draft. I’m at the point where I start to feel paranoid about losing my work. I am constantly backing up what I’m writing, which wastes a fair amount of time. I confess that I’ve been experimenting with the Scrivener software in my writing process. Honestly, I don’t like their platform for composition. I’m so used to writing in Word that I have been composing the first drafts of each chapter in Word, then moving it over to Scrivener for editing. I love Scrivener’s ability to give me a bird’s eye view of the project. I can make whole-scale edits, and changes in order of larger sections so quickly.
I confess that Kristin and I went to Standees last night. It’s my new favorite movie theater in KC. If you have a chance to go there, I highly recommend it. It is a restaurant/movie theater. We saw The Way, Way Back, which I’m going to have to blog about at some point. It is an amazing film – one of the best films I’ve seen in years. If it doesn’t win awards, then the game is rigged.
I confess that I’m starting to get revved up for football season. However, I think that my anticipation and excitement is not quite up to its normal level this year because the Royals are doing so well. KC is running neck and neck with the Yankees for the final wild card spot right now. If they continue their recent winning ways, though, we might be looking at the playoffs for the first time in a long time. I’m also a little worried that K-State football will struggle this season, especially on defense. I’m trying to temper my excitement so I’m not too terribly let down if we totally stink it up.
I confess that I think the next few weeks are going to be really interesting for baseball fans. It looks like Ryan Braun might be the tip of the iceberg. Apparently MLB has a list of pretty high profile players who are all caught up in a pretty nasty doping scandal. Latest news seems to indicate A-Rod, the highest paid baseball player ever, will be among those who serve lengthy suspensions. ‘This list of athletes could be pretty long. I read an article on Friday detailing the way the scandal broke. It blew up over a dispute concerning a $4,000 investment. The investor who was being stiffed decided to try and bring down the “doctor” at a Florida anti-aging clinic by exposing his dirty laundry with a local newspaper. As it turns out the clinic was a source of banned substances for a bunch of professional athletes who were doping. Professional baseball is about to get another black eye.
I confess that while writing this blog post I am glancing at CNN’s morning news. They are showing a brutal beating of a 13-year old boy on a school bus. He was beaten and kicked by three older boys for what seems like two or three minutes. The bus driver did nothing to intervene. The report says that he was an older gentleman and did not feel safe stepping in. I’ve not seen something this awful in awhile.
I confess that one of my guilty pleasures is the late night action adventure film. I watched The Borne Legacy last week from about 11pm to 1am, and really liked it. I realized that I think I have yet to see an Edward Norton film that wasn’t really good. My biggest problem with the late night film is that I can put away 1500 calories snacking in that period of time. Not good.
Okay, that’s enough of my confession… Time for you to make yours:
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