Archive for March, 2006

I have no idea why David’s blog entry hit me the way it did several weeks ago. In it, he listed a series of character flaws that he had observed about himself. Such raw honesty and authenticity has continued to haunt me. I’ve had this nagging sense of need for self-disclosure. I have no idea why.

But here goes…

Things that are wrong with Jeff… by Jeff

• Overly critical
• Frequently forgetful

I can’t believe Texas got beat by LSU, can you? That’s just crazy! … Oh wait. Sorry… Where was I?

• Passion projector -I simply mean that many times I want people to feel as passionately as I do about things, about Christ, etc. and I tend to “project” that expectation of passionate living onto them. When they don’t live passionately, the first quality on the list begins to emerge.
• Gadget addict – this drastically affects my spending habits…
• Compulsive
• Detail hater – I am actually a great administrator and planner when I stop everything else I’m doing and focus. But that is rare. Usually, I have 13 brain projects going on at a time, leading to…
• Scatter-brained
• Hyper-focused – I have no idea how I can be both this and scatter-brained. All I know is that when I get going on something, whether a project or overall vision, I’m like a pitbull. It’s hard for me to see or pay attention to anything else. The crazy thing is that any interruption can pretty much sideline me from productivity if I’m not careful. (That’s one reason I don’t answer my cell phone a lot. See here.)
• Naive
• Anti-institutional to a fault – borrowed this and the next two from DB
• Awfully self-critical
• No off-switch for my brain
• Occasional delusions of grandeur
• Ambivalent planner – I think a lot of this comes from my deep belief that God has His own agenda and as a disciple of Christ, I am to discover and contribute to God’s agenda and His kingdom rather than my own. However, it often feels like I’m “flying by the seat of my pants.” 2 Corinthians 5.7 says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” So much of my life is profoundly directed by faith that many times, I have no idea what I really want. Does that make sense?
• Awkwardly ambitious – I do want my life to count. But I struggle, obviously, with how to do that in the most Christ-honoring way. It’s the whole “first shall be last, last shall be first” conflict.
• Emotionally needy – Dangit. I thrive on encouragement. Who knew?
• Priority confuser

OK… enough’s enough. I think I could go on, but you get the picture. After posting my personality tests and all, I guess I have to be open now to your comments about my weaknesses. Feel free to add to the list; just be sweet about it.

And if for some strange reason, you find this exercise hauntingly compelling, I encourage you to do your own self-examination.

Oh, and Dave… try to post something next time that will lead me to self-exaltation, OK?

I haven’t even watched the show yet, but after taking the coolest online personality test at personaldna.com, I discovered that I am a “Free Wheeling Inventor.” Perhaps my Strawberry-Vanilla Wheat Square Extraordinaires will make it big?

See the results of my personality test here.

For those of you who know me, let me know how close it came to nailing me…

And thanks to RJ Martino for clueing me into personalDNA.

UPDATED… (3/28/06)
Here is another personality test I took a while back. It’s been posted on my “About” Page…

INTP – “Architect”. Greatest precision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 3.3% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

I think it was DB who I discovered this personality test from…

Sublime happiness and joy awaits every one of you. It can be had… even tonight… for only about $6.37. If you have a Wal-Mart Supercenter within a 20 mile radius, I beseech you, no I compel and urge thee to get thy buttocks down to there and purchase for thine self a sack of Malt-O-Meal’s Vanilla Cream Mini Spooners and a box of Kellogg’s Frosted Miniwheats Strawberry Delight. It’s pure eating ecstasy.

Here’s what happened to me to create this universal discovery… I had been systematically devouring the Kellogg’s Strawberry Miniwheats for the past week or so. We returned from our spring break trip this afternoon, having spent the last few days with the Pigotts and Chases at the Little Red River. So dinner tonight was every man/child for themself. I opted for my old standby… cereal. I love it.

Imagine my disappointment when the Strawberry Delight only filled half a bowl before emitting the shreddings typical of battered wheat squares. I open the pantry, and what to my wandering eyes should appear but a sack of niller minispooners, so dear!? I topped off the bowl, with a growing sense of anticipation and intuitive expectancy that whispered at my consciousness… “you’re on to something, by jove!”

I stirred them up, and took a few bites. Voila! Eureka! Simply taste-tastic. Somebody kill and mount Toucan Sam… there’s a new heavyweight in town! Strawberry-Vanilla Wheat Square Extraodinaire. Please, please, Mr. Kellogg… you MUST produce this! (If you don’t Mrs. Malt-O-Meal will and corner the cereal market for years!)

I’m a happy man this evening as I tongue wheaty remnants from my molar recesses. Every last shred I find whispers “gastro-genius” in my mouth. This reminds me of my Juanita’s, Hot Tea, and Thee article a while back. It’s been that long since I’ve called a tastebud truce.

I’ll close this post with one thought… what could be better than cold milk, Wheat Square Extraordinaire, and regularity all packed into one evening?

It had to happen sooner or later. I mean, you don’t just create a massive empire in space without being able to go where you want, when you want. Our little town just wasn’t prepared for his presence on a Saturday afternoon a week or so ago.

Shown here is Lord Darth Vader, strolling down the sidewalk in the North Park Shopping Mall with my mom. He was actually a pretty decent guy. Apart from sabering a rude motorist in half when they stole the spot he was planning on parking his Tie-Fighter, it was almost like having a friend from college over….

OK, so maybe that’s actually my daughter in costume… But weren’t you enjoying the other story better?

The point…

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OK, yes, I’m a graphic designer. But no, this isn’t my kid. But yes, I laughed hysterically when I got this email. No, I don’t know who it is…

Update:
4/27/06 – Many thanks to the link from Phyliss at the ZAA Message Board!

I’ve been wondering about the folks that visit my site… If I had to make guesses from reviewing the excellent tool provided by SiteMeter, I would say that I know about 75% of the visitors personally. So here’s a quick poll for you readers and lurkers out there…

For those of you like me who have a growing and changing list of blogs that you like to check out regularly, I’d like to encourage you to check out BlogLines. Set yourself up an account there, and under the “My Feeds” section, start adding the blogs you like to read.

What you’ll get is a very nice interface, with your blogs on the left, and a window for reading them on the right. When one of your blogs has been updated, it becomes bold, and the number of new entries is shown out beside it. You just click on it, and you can read the entries in the window to the right… Very nice! Props to the folks at BlogLines for this nice interface.

Screenshot…

My mom sent me these same pics in an email today. I was pretty surprised to discover the Greenhead Blog had a whole post dedicated to the artist, Julian Beever. They’re amazing. I found the Greenhead Blog by going to BlogHop and checking my blog’s poor ratings and then clicking on “highly rated” blogs… (vote for me, will ya?! The link to do so is in the left column under “BLOG BITS”)

Who would have ever thought you could communicate scriptural stories with intricate Lego creations. Well, this guy has done it. It’s pretty amazing. And some of his pictorial creations will hit your funny bone. Check out The Brick Testament. I’ve used some of these illustrations in my sermon presentations before. And if you’re doing the Patriarch’s Bible study with us (see the blog link to the right), you’ll recognize a few of them.

Dangit. I just had to shave my ears again. For those of you first visiting, it’s not as if I talk about this often, but if you’d like to track with me how often I have to do this, my first comment about it is here. Maybe by tracking these posts, I can determine how long it takes for my ear hair to grow… It could be a real scientific study. Maybe I’ll get some grants? Then I could hire some aides… (get it? aids for my ears? hearing aids? heh-heh.)

Anyway, you’re also probably wondering why in the world I took the time to take pics and all. Well, I’ve got some down time right now waiting on a few things and I DID have to shave my ears. It’s such a unique and random thing, I thought someone would appreciate it. I mean, of all places for my hair to decide to START growing… why my ears? Why couldn’t it grow on the back of my head?

Anyway, here’s a pic of my new hair tools.. It’s so depressing. And in the middle of all the ear-shaving-picture-taking, I dropped the nose hair attachment in the crapper. Aaargh. Of course, this has all happened in the context of me avoiding some house cleaning. Caro and Kristy Hales are out cleaning the studio in preparation for Caro’s sis visiting with our twin 5-year-old nephews and 6 month-old niece.

So… the ear hair gods have smited me by making me drop by nose hair attachment in the commode.

I feel a little like a traitor writing this. I am an avid Mac user. Have been since 1988. I’ve been through all kinds of Macs and currently use an Imac G5 and an iBook G4 as my primary stations. I am a church planter and a graphic designer. Just a little quick background.

I knew what I wanted for Christmas ’05. My gadget-olotry was fueled by the intoxicating possibilities of the iPod video
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Caro walked into Adelyn’s room the other day to discover this message she had left for us on her easel. I have no idea what prompted this. All I know is that she says she’s saving her money for Disneyworld. Extorting it out of mom and dad for doing chores is not our idea of how she should do this. For some reason, it reminds me of my sister…

My sis always seems to have some kind of money scheme up her sleeve. It’s been that way all our lives. Growing up, I had a paper route for the Arkansas Democrat (which won the Great Arkansas Paper Way vs. the Arkansas Gazette… why in the world they would want to pay homage to the Gazette by including it in their name is beyond me. They won. Fair and square. It’s kind of like being up by 3 points with 2 seconds left in the basketball game and then not guarding the opponent’s best 3-point shooter and allowing a tie at the end. But I digress.). I was the one with the job, but Amy was always the one with the money. I was 16; she was 12. I’d have $12 in my wallet; she would have $184 stashed away in her sock drawer. It was so frustrating.

Adelyn’s message just takes me back. I’m sure she got that from her mother…

By the way, don’t forget the tip trough over to the left…

Update… a day after I posted this, Amy called. She says, "Hey. I need to talk to Caro. I have a money-making idea…"

Nuff said.

Got a link you need to check out… One Small Barking Dog. It’s a website for cultural and spiritual exploration. I highly recommend you allot about 15 minutes to give it a good tour. Then consider how you might use its resources and overall “cool-cultured” factor to help you engage your friends in conversations that matter.

Heard today that the Pyromaniac blog has closed down. Read the last post here! Phillip Johnson has decided instead to pursue a “group blog” (nevermind how that sounds) of the same nature as Pyro, but one that will take less stress and pressure off himself. It’s here.

It’s interesting to me to consider that the popularity of your blog might actually force you to consider not doing one…
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I’m excited to share with you that our church has reached an agreement and decided to purchase the Clip Joint building in downtown Monticello! We are currently beginning the process of finding a lender and securing a loan. This means that we will be leaving the Wal-mart shopping center that has been our transitional home for the past two years. It’s been a wonderful stage of growth and maturity for our church.
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