::Leading With A Limp::

20 Reasons I Love SoCal -Floating Thoughts

Everyone: "Matt, are you going to move out of Southern California as you look for new employment?"

Matt: "Nope"

Of course there are serious reasons why we are staying put (including the fact that another move would be bad for the kids, and we feel that God wants us here), but here are some fun reasons I love Southern California.

1. I wore shorts and flip flops on Christmas day
2. From the time I turn the key in the ignition to the time I have the sand of Zuma beach pushing between my toes, only 25 minutes goes by
3. Sushi joints are as prevalent here as coffee shops are in Portland.  I love sushi.
4. Two words: Double Double
5. Two more words: Animal Style
6. I have a trail head within a 5 minute walk of my front door
7. I can fill up my own gas at the gas station.  Most states already enjoy this, but the People's Republic of Oregon doesn't feel that people are smart enough to do this themselves.
8. I passed a cop that was looking for speeders on the 101.  I was doing 80 and he didn't even blink.
9. Magic Mountain!
10. I wore shorts and flip flops to church on Sunday
11. A bad week of weather means that it's cloudy for two days in a row.
12. My kids get to go to movie premiers at El Capitan
13. Prayer and beers at JT's on Tuesdays
14. I have a perfect route for my old man walk every morning, and so far weather has not stopped me
15. I have met some people here that love Christ so passionately it's infectious
16. I have met some people here that despise God so much I need to stay so I can share the hope that lies within me
17. I wore flip flops to a nice restaurant and nobody cared
18. I love our neighbors
19. They sell boogie boards at Costco
20. I'm wearing flip flops right now

Floating Thoughts: Pre-Travel Edition

Please take off your shoes and jacket as you enter this edition of floating thoughts, and remember that no liquids or gels greater than 3 ounces in capacity are allowed beyond this point.  Enjoy your reading.

• Have you seen TimeTube?  It's an amazing YouTube mashup.  Put in a keyword or two and watch it build a timeline videos with those tags.  Amazing!  Play with the different displays, they are really interesting.
• If you still aren't on Twitter, well...you're missing out on all the fun.  It's a great way to communicate within your sphere.  I'm going to be writing another tutorial (more advanced than my last one) when I get back from Dallas, but for now I'll give you one of the nuggets out of it.  Check out TweetScan.  Go put in your username and you'll see who has been writing to/about you.
• I'm looking forward to hanging out with this guy and meeting his family.  He is very generously housing me while I'm in Dallas.
• The mustache is coming along nicely.  I'm almost halfway through Mustache May!
• Rick tagged me on a meme.  I have never succumbed to a meme, but I may just do this one because it's Meme May also!  Actually, I just made that up.
• Nick and I are officially finished with our six weeks of guitar lessons through the community center, but we are pressing on!  Starting next Tuesday a couple of the other students and our super-talented teacher Troy are going to come over to our house and we'll continue with private lessons.  Lick-a-licous!
• My heart has been heavy all week.  Earthquakes, relationships in toil, people in the hospital.  I don't feel that I've spent enough time in prayer lifting these things up to Our Father.
• There are positive things happening out of some of this...check out what my friends are doing to help people memorize a chapter in the Bible on behalf of their very sick friend.
• I've excited to see my friends at Fellowship Tech! At the same conference I get to see a very good friend. Wahoo!
• That's it...gotta go pack!

Floating Thoughts

Wow, I haven't done a real "Floating Thoughts" for over a year! So it's time to dust off the keyboard and shake the cobwebs out of my head.  They say it's like riding a bicycle, so here we go...

• I'm meeting Robert from Kindle Joy this morning.  I love how he is leveraging technology to share prayer with the world!
• Right after my meeting with Robert I'm getting together with some other New Media church pioneers at a local Church 2.0 Forum.
• I finally watched "There Will Be Blood".  I kept waiting for it to get good.  The only part I really enjoyed was the line, "I drink your milkshake".  It's hard to get tired of saying that!
• Have you ever spent the afternoon driving around a section of town and praying for the people there?  I did that yesterday, and it was time well spent.
• It's Mustache May! If you click over to my profile and leave a comment as I grow my glorious 'stache this month, I may just be elected Mustache Mayor. It would be an honor.
• I finally visited the Ronald Reagan Library.  And yes, I did get teared up during the introduction film. 
• I think it's a travesty that Oklahoma City does not have sushi.  They do have LifeChurch though, so that makes up for it.
• It should be against the law for men to wear spandex in public.  In their private lives, yes...but it should still bring shame.
• Our house is like a youth hostel, we always have visitors, which we love!  This weekend we get somebody joining us from this church.
• I am really looking forward to heading down to Dallas in a couple of weeks for the FellowshipOne conference.  If your church uses this software (and it should), but you are not attending, make plans to do so now.  It will bring measurable growth to your ministry efforts.

Hmmm, that wasn't so hard after all.

Change

There is so much floating around my head about the concept of change in life.  I'm not going to bore you with the details.  Instead, I will write some of them in bullet form, like an old, tired and somewhat eccentric college professor that isn't sure how to present his latest findings to a class.

• People often say they want change...but they really don't. Some are honest enough to admit that, some are not.
• Change is a necessary part of growth.
• Most people say that they are very comfortable with change, but when it affects them, they don't call it change, they call it everything else...usually saying something like, "life is really hard right now".
• Change management is a dynamic and confusing, but very necessary, part of management
• Back to the second bullet point...change is often equated with trouble.  I'm glad God is with us.

Floating Thoughts: Late Night Edition

Please secure your own oxygen masks before attending to those in need around you.  Buckle in and hold on, Floating Thoughts are back!

• I love the irony of today.  I'm sitting at my desk typing this at the tail end of a 15 hour work day.  I picked up a copy of the bulletin for the service this weekend, and the title of the message is "Life's Too Short to Work Too Much".  LOL.  Nice.
• I wasn't feeling so great yesterday, so I left work after management team and pursued serenity and health, with a little bit of exercise thrown in to sweat out the bad stuff.  I got it all out!  I'm feeling great today, yesterday was awesome for getting better.
• Can you ever eat too many peanut M&Ms?  If you answered anything other than no, you need counseling.
• I've heard some stories about people coming to know Christ recently.  I lived outside of God for so long, when I hear stories like that I want to cheer!  Sometimes I do.
• I built an incredibly sweet computer recently as my home computer was on its last leg.  A friend of mine gave me a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate.  Wow, I've got some good friends!
• One of the best things I've heard this week (summarizing), "Christ didn't care about traditions, he cared about helping people".  Are you too stuck in traditions?  Are you missing the point?  Am I?
• I have had so many good conversations with so many different church leaders in the last week, I feel great hope for the Body of Christ!  His church is in good hands. We just have to remember that it's HIS church, not ours.
• My phone stopped receiving calls today.  If I had listened to the advice that Cingular gave me, I would be without a phone right now.  Fortunately I use common sense (whereas they use a script) and the problem is resolved.  Lesson: just like the doctor, get a second opinion, and don't perform surgery on something without using your own noggin first.
• My favorite musical artists right now;  India.Arie, Royksopp, Mark Knopfler, The Killers (great website, check it out), INXS (old school, not with the new dude) and George Winston.  I challenge you to get (truthfully) more eclectic than that!  Leave a comment!
• Do you ever get so excited about something that when the actual event comes, you appear to lose interest?  I was told that appeared to be me recently, but in reality I was just kind of stunned at the whole thing.  I came back with full enthusiasm and got things going!  Spartans never retreat, Spartans never surrender. :P
• Sunday my good friend Scott and I flew up to Northern Washington to attend a meeting.  I guess I'm so Presbyterian that I actually hunt down meetings!  Okay, not really.  This was for our upcoming Mexico mission trip.  The buzz is getting around, check it out at www.51weeks.org!
• I'm coaching my son's soccer team for the 3rd year.  It's one of my favorite things to do.
• Sometimes doing the right thing is the hardest thing to do.  But...it's still the right thing.

Floating Thoughts: Perfect Storm Edition

How can I even begin to describe today?  Lemony Snicket comes to mind with "a series of unfortunate events".  I think the most accurate description of the day would be a "perfect storm".  Everything came together just right (or wrong) to form a special kind of day. 

Please secure your own oxygen mask before helping any children that might be traveling with you...it's time for another edition of Floating Thoughts!

• I started off the day with a phone call from a person in our financial department.  Her grandson arrived this morning at 4am!  Hallelujah!  He is 8 weeks early though and is having problems breathing, so he could use your prayers.  Obviously she didn't come into work today.
• Since she is going to be gone for a few weeks I was very thankful that we recently hired a very competent temp for the position.  But wait...she is gone today too!  A pre-arranged day off.  Oh what timing! We had to run a lean ship in the financial department today...
• My car broke down.  I've been very thankful that it has not cost us much until today.  The short version:  a pulley on the serpentine belt seized.  It caused the serpentine belt to break.  That caused two other pulleys to seize.  That caused the radiator hose to melt.  That caused the heating hose to break...and on and on and on.  The initial estimate is $500.  Yikes!  If anybody wants to "sponsor a pastor" feel free to shoot me an email...this wasn't particularly good timing financially.  Addy is on my "About" page. ;)
• I like ips
• A virus got into our network.  I think I know how, and it's too long of a story to write down here.  Yes, we have AV protection everywhere...but it still happened.  Net result: our IP sent out thousands of spam messages, and we got tagged on several spam RBLs.  Hence, when we send out email much of it gets kicked back to us, rejected by the recipients servers.  Ugh.  This should be resolved by the start of business on Monday.
• I woke up with a brutally stuffed up head this morning.  I thought my nasal cavity was going to explode, or implode or some sort of 'plode.  It's hard to make good decision when it feels like a giant vice is gripping my temples (think Wile E. Coyote)
• Since I had to cancel my previously scheduled lunch date (due to the storm a brewin'...sorry guys...) I grabbed a very quick bite of Panda Express. Yum!  I love Panda Express
• Oh yeah...I almost forgot that I have Crohn's Disease.  It appears the Crohn's doesn't love Panda Express as much as I do.  Ouch, says I.
• I had to skip my workout at the gym because...well, we were short staffed today and things had to get done.  Oh yeah, and the Crohn's was kickin'. I did take a moment in prayer to seriously thank God for the gifts and experiences he has given to me.  I could step in to any one of the positions that I oversee and get the work done.  No, I couldn't do any of them as well as the person filling the job (finance department, IT, communications facilities, reception) but at least I could get things moving along.  Thank you God for the gifts you have given me, and thank you for the people in each of these positions that do them better than I can!  I sure miss them when they are gone. 
• I will be installing the final build of Vista in about an hour...hurray!   After running various release candidates and betas for so long it will be nice to kick the tires on the final version
• My regular sushi restaurant in Beaverton (Marinepolis Sushiland) was featured on the local news' "Dirty Dining" feature last night. It has failed its health inspection three times in a row.  Seriously, click that link and watch the story, it's only 2:40 long.  Among other wonderful revelations was the fact that they "sometimes thawed meat in the mop sink".  Yeah, I just about barfed in bed while watching it.  No wonder I have Crohn's!  It's probably not even Crohn's, it's probably a series of parasites that have been building up from years of mop water Maguro.
• At the end of the day I come home to a family that thinks I am the center of the Universe.  Having four kids scream and run toward me with delight as I come in the door makes the Perfect Storm seem not so bad after all...

Floating Thoughts: 35 Year Edition

Wow...I've made it to another birthday.  It sounds easy enough, unless of course you know the history of my family.  At 35 I'm an old man in my gene pool!  I was joking with the other members of our management team that I'm in my twilight years now. LOL...sad but true.  Maybe I'll break the trend and live to a ripe old 60 or something...

On to my post.  I thought I would just put down a few thoughts that I have as I look back over my last 35 years.  This is a list of things that I've learned.  Feel free to add to the list in the comments section!

• If I look back about 20 years, I'm not living a life anything like I thought I would back then.  It's much better!
• I'm healthier now than I was 10 years ago
• A good lesson that I've learned: persistence often makes up for short-sightedness or lack of support.  Just make sure your persistence isn't stubborness!
• I've started and closed two business in my short life.  I guess I'm an over achiever...when I was barely into my teens my goal was to own "a" businesses
• My best piece of advice to young people: give of yourself often, and never expect anything in return.  Your life will be blessed if you follow this!
• When I was young one of my favorite things to do was to go into the field across the street from my house and collect caterpillars that eventually turned into butterflies.  What a joy!
• Do your best to exercises as much as your time schedule will allow, so that when you do have an opportunity to eat a really good meal followed by an excellent dessert you can...and you will enjoy it much more
• If you haven't done everything in your power to pursue God and find out whether or not He is really there...you are being foolish.  If you search with all of your heart you will find the answer, and the answer will surprise you
• Children are a blessing.  It doesn't feel like it when you are dealing with them at 2am, but they really are.  My life is so rich because of them
• A good partner in marriage is paramount to joy in life.  Don't rush in...wait for the right one.  You'll know it when you find them, so just relax. I love you, Jenni!
• Make sure that your relationship with God is solid.  Eventually the stone throwers will find you and make you question it...be steadfast!  Love the Lord with all your heart, and the stone throwers can get bent.
• If it's not Scottish, it's crap!
• Try things in life that make you uncomfortable.  It's sad to see people stagnate in the world...I know so many people that are afraid to break out of their shells.  That little thing you've been wanting to do?  Go for it!
• If you try to please everyone, you will please no one
• If you try to please no one besides yourself, you will please no one including yourself
• More advice to young people: learn about properly managing your finances NOW.  It's really hard to learn as an adult after you have made many mistakes
• Something I will never be able to change:  When somebody approaches me and says, "I've got a stupid question..." I ALWAYS interrupt them and say, "there are no stupid questions, just stupid people who ask questions".  And then I always laugh.  I can't help it, that never gets old to me
• The single most annoying things to me in society is when people park their carts in the middle of the aisle in Costco just so they can get a 1/2" x 1/2" sample of cheese spread on a cracker from the sample people.  I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it pushes me towards sociopathic behavior almost every time.  This isn't new, this has bothered me for almost a decade.
• A very close second is people that drive far below the posted speed limit.  Seriously, road rage doesn't begin to describe how I feel about this.  Fortunately for me I have George Winston tunes available in my car at the touch of a button, so I can chill out.
• If you have never gone on a mission trip, you need to.  Your outlook on life will never be the same (funny how I put that one right after a comment about how angry I get in traffic)
• Don't let others make your decisions for you, but make sure that you always have wise counselors around you.  A fool never listens to others.
• Get a second opinion.  Seriously, when you go to the doctor and they tell you that everything is fine but you feel deep down that it's not...go get another doctor's opinion as well.  Trust me on this one.
• I don't believe that animals should be domesticated.  I believe animals should be food.  For every PETA-ish type note I get about this comment I'm going to eat an animal of some variety, so proceed with caution.
• No matter how smart you are, there is always somebody smarter.  Be humble.
• No matter how tough you are, there is always somebody tougher.  Be smart.
• No matter how funny you are, there is always somebody funnier.  Deal with it.
• The best advice that my father ever gave me?  Do something for a living that you enjoy, otherwise your life will be miserable.  So true, Dad!
• The second best piece of advice my father gave me?  Never take a hit card when the dealer is showing a 4, 5 or 6.  Keep this in mind and you'll do just fine at the blackjack tables.
• You become like the people you choose to hang around with.  Make good choices in your friends.
• Never play all of your cards.  I'm not talking about poker, I'm talking about life.  Especially in tense situations, don't reveal all that you know.  Things will resolve much better.
• Speaking of poker, I still think that Hold 'Em is a game for wuss bags, I don't care how popular it becomes.  I would rather play slots, at least with slots you have to think a little. ("Hmmmm...should I pull the arm now or later...hmmmm...."). Folks, learn to play REAL poker someday, it's much better.
• I don't follow the advice "live each day like it's your last" because I think that would lead to reckless behavior for me.  Plus, if it was my last day I would probably spend all of my money, because you can't take it with you, right?  That would leave us in a pretty tough spot tomorrow.  Instead, I live each day like I love life and those in my life.

That's all folks...I could write a lot more, but you would be bored and I want to go to the gym now.  What am I doing on my birthday?  My big plans are this: spend three hours pushing my body to the limits at 24 Hour Fitness, spend the rest of the day with my family doing whatever we feel like, then going to my favorite pizza joint in the whole world with some friends tonight.  Now that is living...

Grace and peace to you!

Floating Thoughts

Hide the children and board up the windows, it's time for another edition of Floating Thoughts!™

• Milk chocolate is better than dark chocolate, IMHO.  Milk chocolate with raspberry ganache?  The ultimate!
• Being sick is lame.  My whole family is sick right now.
• I'm trying a Chamomile Lemon tea at Coffee People.  I'm really breaking out of my shell, usually I settle with a Moroccan Mint.
• I actually enjoy going over the reimbursement requests at work.  I like making sure everything is coming out of the right general ledger account, and I like making sure all of the paperwork is in order.  I guess I'm kinda like Roz from Monster's Inc.
• The more technology we have, the more we are crippled without it.  Our VPN is down at work right now, although OWA still works for email.  What will we do without a VPN?!?
• I really like everybody that works for me at church.  I don't just tolerate working with them...I actually LIKE them as people.  It's great to feel that way about my work environment!
• The Scots are mighty!  If it's not Scottish it's crap!
• I miss being in the martial arts.  I had a great Sifu and Sijay.  I might look into it again, although not in the same capacity I did earlier in my life...no more tournament fights!  I'm too old and my bones hurt.  Plus, if my nose gets pushed any further over to the right side of my face (mostly from right hooks) then I'll be able to smell my own ear.
• I loved starting my day off by praying with a new visitor to our church.
• I'm looking forward to Christmas this year.  I think all of our kids are old enough to be excited, even little Jack.
• It's been challenging to exercise since I returned from Cancun.  Too much food and drink, not enough running down there.  I cranked out 4.5 miles yesterday though and it wasn't too painful on the ol' hips, so maybe it will come back soon.
• During all of the wind storms we never lost power at our house, not even once, and we live on a mountain!  Everybody else that was safely in the valley suffered.  Lesson: live on a hill
• The Office almost killed me this week!  The one hour Christmas special...hoo boy...when Michael had to mark his date's arm so he could remember which one was his...I almost threw up I was laughing so hard.
• I'm going to bring home Pad Thai for dinner at the request of my wife.  We'll see how the ol' Crohn's handles that one.  Maybe I should admit myself to the hospital now so I don't have to do all of the paperwork later.
• There is something behind the counter at Coffee People dripping.  Drip...drip...drip...drip...
• I am content right now...100%!

Floating Thoughts

Hide the children and lock up your valuables, it's time for another edition of Floating Thoughts!

• A lot of my blogging friends now having posts that they title "Floating Thoughts".  Friends, you are welcomed to use that, but since I've been doing that for years I think I have some sort of claim to the phrase.  From now on, when you post a Floating Thoughts, please give me fifty cents.  You can PayPal it to me or just leave it in my mailbox at work
• The rain is gloomy, but it's helpful for relaxing
• The Office cracks me up!
• I'm glad Michael Sainz had a great trip to Hawaii, I'm also glad he's back in action at work
• I'm starting to see the results of a lot of change at work...some people accept it well, some do not
• Today I learned that one of my son's friend's parents died yesterday.  I wonder how this will impact Nick? He has already dealt with a lot of death in my family so I think he's a little more comfortable with it than most kids his age, but it's always a challenge to accept mortality
• Clam Chowder makes me gassy (TMI I know...)
• In the past 24 hours I have trimmed my nails, put lotion on my feet and trimmed my eyebrows.  In addition I thought about cooking Duck L'orange.  Honest, I'm married...to a woman!
• I want to have another Xbox 360 party soon

Floating Thoughts

Grab a cup of coffee and sit back kiddies..it's time for another set of floating thoughts from Mateo!

• There is a lot of buzz about Pastor Ron's message about relevance from the weekend.  Some is good, some is bad...that is to be expected.  Change is difficult.  I'm very proud of him for laying all of this out!  We need to spur conversation in our church
• One little paint chip sample can lead to a person gutting their bedroom, tearing out all of the carpet and laying wood floors and painting the walls
• I really like Peanut M&Ms
• Have you ever just wanted to take a nap in the middle of the day? LOL...of course you have.  I haven't done this in years...but it sounds like a good idea every once in a while
• Life at the office is different...we have changed dynamics.  I have laid out only two directives to the operations team for the next year: 1) We are here to serve the staff and the congregation, not to be served (a fellow named Jesus spoke about this a wee bit in Mark 10:43-45)  2) Excellence is our standard, mediocrity is our enemy.  If we cannot produce excellent work then we won't push it out
• It's been raining like crazy and my convertible still hasn't leaked a drop.  Boo to you, naysayers!
• Jailbreak! Two gerbils escaped last night.  Nick was crushed, Jen lured them back with food.  Frank and Dwight are back in captivity.  It's still a mystery how they escaped, I suspect Chloe baked a file into a cake and slipped it to them
• Sometimes if I sit or lie really still I think people can't see me.  I am wrong about that and have been wrong about that since I was about 4 years old.  When will I learn?
• Moroccan Mint tea from Coffee People is the bomb
• I can't wait to finish up this week with Session on Thursday...the culmination of a lot of work for the past several weeks
• I haven't been in touch with several of my friends lately.  I've been so busy...and I can't stand that when friendships suffer.  I'm going to get in touch with them soon
• I know!