My blog was silent last week as I traveled to Denver for a week to cover the International Christian Retail Show. You didn’t see my writing here but I wrote my chubby little fingers off on stories posted over at Christian Retailing magazine if you’d like to check them out. On the way to Denver, I realized I’d done a lot of traveling this year, perhaps more than any other single year. I love traveling but wonder if I’ll ever... Read more
Pet peeves appear almost daily, even when you’re in the best of spirits. You’ll get behind the wheel, start driving somewhere and a car will crawl along on the highway in front. They finally get over and when you get about halfway beside them, they start thinking they’re in the Indianapolis 500. If they’d gone a normal speed to begin with, you wouldn’t have had a problem. Before you know it, you’re peeved. I thought it might be fun to... Read more
When I was a teen, I’d sometimes join my youth pastor Gary on whirlwind days where he’d have back-to-back appointments and an event to execute later the same night. In the moments of heavy stress, he’d drive to a public park, pull a basketball out of the trunk of his car and shoot hoops for 20-30 minutes. It seemed a little odd to me at the time, because the appointments and tasks were piling up, but later I saw how... Read more
LeAnn and I met up with some friends Friday night for some excellent Mexican food at Cantina Laredo followed by a trip to Orlando’s brand new Plaza Cinema Cafe in downtown. I have to say all five of us were blown away by this theater. Outside, someone had brought in old gangster-type cars to go along with the theme of Public Enemies, a film that was premiering. In fact, anyone wearing a gangster or early 20th century Chicago-style outfit got... Read more
I’m not entirely sure if this will update or not but it will be cool if it does (it didn’t). LeAnn and I decided we don’t visit the beach nearly as often as we’d like so we taking our day off and lounging by the Atlantic Ocean. It’s amazing to consider how many other people are on the other side of this sea. You’ll see our setup on the right. We really liked our umbrella. Then a family of four... Read more
It would be inappropriate to miss out on the opportunity to pause for a moment and remember Michael Jackson. After thousands of articles and interviews in my journalistic career, a large chunk of which are music-related, I remember the very first article I did for a publication. In Seventh Grade, I submitted a review for the “Beat It” video to our McCleskey middle school newspaper, which was so well-received the sponsor asked me to follow it with “Thriller.” I had... Read more
For $10, you can go to a store and buy a game like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots; or you can buy a ticket to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a movie that throws that same fighting robots concept into a blender along with a couple-hundred million dollars and change. What comes out feels like the cinematic equivalent of a monster-truck rally. Revenge, one of the most buzzed about films of the summer, is the sequel to the 2007 release,... Read more
“I dare you to do better.” When a young, pre-captain James Kirk hears this plea from a decorated Starfleet officer in the new J.J. Abrams revamp of Star Trek, something triggers, prompting him to give up a soulless existence and step into his destiny. Moviegoers, already familiar with the mythology of the legendary captain, have the vantage point of knowing what his incredible journey will entail, but seeing that choice played out on screen is truly captivating. The entire film, which... Read more
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