I imagine it was a nice enough holiday half my life ago, but right now, I think it’s stupid. I call it a Third Tier holiday.

1st tier – Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter.

2nd tier – New Years Eve, Valentines Day, 4th of July,

3rd tier- MLK Day, Presidents Day, Halloween

Someone, somewhere about 800 years ago was bored in their garage, wanted something to do, so they figured they’d invent a holiday. 50 pounds of candy, four broken windows, and rumor of another round of witch-trials, and they had a winner: Trick-or-Treat.

But! Halloween can be redeemed! Because today, 492 years ago, Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, kicking off the biggest shift in Christian history, the Reformation. Talk about worth celebrating! Anyway, call me crazy, but it made my day. Enjoy the Mini-Snickers.

The Common Sense List to buying online that you hadn’t already thought of

1. know the brands you want and what your size is in those brands.
2. if you see a run of a product you are watching start popping up, check froogle.com, it’s possible a store is running a clearance and you can get the item cheaper there.
3. buy out of season. All my Patagonia and Mountain Hardwear shells and fleeces were bought. In the spring or summer.  I never pay over a $100 for these technical jackets.
4. if the sellers rating is not amazing be willing to walk away. Another one will most assuredly come along.
5. read the description thoroughly. Unlike a real business that will usually have quick turnaround, not all sellers are prompt. Set your expectations appropriately.

So what is your clothes buying style?

At the same time, I’m ready to up my contract and dive thumbs-first into the 21st century.

I look at the iPhone, and the new Motorola Droid, and think: “wow…5 megapixel cameras, 3G, music, facebook, 3D games.” The list goes on.

But on these phones, you HAVE to get data. which is $30 bucks a month. and I’m thinking…$30 a month could literally clothe and educate a kid in Antigua, Guatemala. This isn’t a guilt trip, I’m just torn. I want the awesome phone, but do I NEED email at my fingertips? Turn by turn directions are hawt, but I can print out Google Maps. I can get an iPod for like $80. and Facebook can wait.

This is where I’m at. I want to be generous and love people. I want to be have cool stuff. I’m torn. What do you think?

- me: “hey let’s go to Charleston.” Sam- “YEA” Nick-”heh” Alex-”Me too!”

So we tried to get Sam’s beachhouse people on the phone, but their slackerishness didn’t pick up, but we drove on anyway. Listening to really awesome rap even though I’m not sure who liked rap in the car; Nick maybe.

Edit: Waffle House at 2am is a magnet for scary people. But hasbrowns with ham and cheese is tasty enough.

So we arrived on the Isle of Palms, my childhood home (stinkin wonderful!), and of course Sam’s house was booked. Booo. At that point, rather than going to someone’s house for the night, we just stayed on the beach. Since no one prepared, it got a little cold  between 3 and 6, but no worries.

A quick stop at CVS and we grabbed some glow sticks. Sam’s Canon takes very good long exposure light-motion pictures, so we had a lot of fun trying to spell “USC” all in one picture. The glow sticks also doubled as a flashlight.

A truck came randomly down the beach through the dark, and Sam kinda freaked out, so we all ran off the beach. I was fairly sure the boogeymonster was chasing us.

We walked down the beach and talked about Jellyfish and Sharks. I build a sand-bed, but we moved after like 10 minutes. The lady at a local hotel was very kind, and didn’t mind us sitting in the lobby playing checkers (take that Nick!), or sleeping out on the pool deck.

Finally about 6am, we all got up and walked to the car, and drove to Chick-Fil-A (after a wrong turn), and had breakfast. Then quickly drove back to IOP, 25th avenue, and sat down to watch the sunrise. It was simply spectacular. The clouds, ocean, random-couple-with-huge-hair-who-stood-right-in-front-of-the-sun, the geese flying in a V. Whew, awesome!

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

You know those moments that mark you. Not that you never forget them, but that profoundly affect the way you see the world. The grace in this video is palpable. Now Mark isn’t Jesus, but for 19 years, and 3 or 4 minutes on stage, he got to represent Him. Take a minute to think about how much you’re like Jimmy. That’ll make you want to worship.

It’s such a good picture what Jesus does for us. He loves us even though we can do nothing, rescues us from death, and our response is love & worship. Take a couple minutes to watch this video:

Catalyst 2009 Compassion Moment

Btw, if you’re interested in sponsoring a child, DO IT! compassion.com

We all walk in there wondering what happened, when upon inspection. Her phone is gone. Some evil thief, intent on nothing but destruction and malintent, pulled up our hose-box, reached up on the window and smashed it. He unlocked it and proceeded to attempt to enter the house.

But our ultimate safeguard: MAX, the dog, rescued our humble abode from certain disaster with his ferocious barking and evil growl. He rushed into the room and fiercely gave the robber “the eye” and with a cry of “FOR NARNIA” tried to bite the man’s face off. Max’s valor was duly rewarded, when the thief quickly retreated, with nothing but a 2 year old phone.

So, thief, if you subscribe to my blog…I know who you are. Or at least I have seen your fingerprints. Beware.

Instead of calling 911 for help, they texted to update their facebook status…with their phones. The funny thing is, of course, that some dude was on Facebook, saw their situation, and decided to call 911. The situation was resolved, and no one was hurt, but honestly girls-stuck-in-drain, priorities.

Another story about a guy who needed a paramedic and tweeted about it. I’m not sure if the second story is true, but regardless…I wonder how emergency response will adjust to this new shift in priorities. What if on the side of police cars it said: “Protect and Serve. Tweet @DCMetro_cops in case of emergency.” Seems backwards to me.

Would I be living any more, or any less?

I say all this as a segué into what I’m really talking about, as hinted at by the title. As computed by WolframAlpha, on this day of Friday, August, 28, 2009, I have been alive and breathing our planet’s oxygen atmosphere for 6,446 days. The first thousand or so days of this I have no recollection of, but as you might expect, as the day-count increases, so does my memory-log. But I am rambling. Here’s what I’m thinking; my big idea, if you will:

Though I may have been alive for six thousand, four hundred and forty-six days, how many days have I actually lived?

Sadly, I suspect very few. I can count a few times when I believe I was really living:

1. July of 2008, when I went backpacking through the Appalachians in the roughest and most deprived conditions I’ve ever experienced; scarcely a day goes by I don’t crave doing it again.

2. July of 2009, when I stepped outside my comfort zone and went on a missions trip with my church. By the second day I was craving going home; but that’s why I feel that I was living: I was in an uncomfortable and frustrating situation that I had no control over, and I had to simply put my head down and keep moving forward. Like Rocky Balboa said, “Life ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward.”

3. A time when I went pseudo-camping in North Carolina, and was such an idiot that I didn’t bring proper sleeping gear. Not out of forgetfulness, mind you, but out of bravado (it’s a longer story than I care to tell). I slept about two hours total before waking up due to sheer frigidity of climate; didn’t sleep the rest of the night. I was miserable- but I got to watch the sunrise, and I prayed like I hadn’t prayed in a while. It was glorious. Miserably glorious.

I hope there are others, but I can’t think of any.

Do you see what I mean? Simply because you’re alive, does not mean you are living. However many days you have been alive; 6,446, 10,782, or 657,923; it doesn’t mean that you have lived a single minute in your whole life.

Don’t let it stay that way.