Wine makes the heart glad

Background:
My 28yr old friend at work had a baby two months ago (yes him, not his wife). He has not had sex with his wife since the baby's conception 11 months ago. He has been utterly miserable as any guy could imagine. We even tried to help him come up with ways to seduce her, be it dressing up in gladiator attire, feeding her aphrodisiacs, drugging her, pretending to be knocked unconcscious while she's over in the shower so she'd have to come out and peform CPR on him while she's naked then he "awakens" and convinces her that since she's already half-way there they might as well do it, or a combination of these 4. Alas, nothing worked. All was hopeless until...

Friday, November 24th, after having a few glasses of thanksgiving wine, love was made.

Monday, November 27th at Snelling Dining Hall:
Martin: Hey 28yr-old friend, how was your thanksgiving?
28yr-old friend: (smiling from ear to cheek bone) Amazing, can you guess why?
Martin: No way! The gladiator attire worked????
28yr-old friend: Better. I didn't even have to dress up.
(Martin, 28yr old friend, 65 yr old friend, and Mark Vinson danced for the next 45 minutes in the freezers singing "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey)

Blog Slavery

Don't you hate it when you feel obligated to make a blog post, but you have nothing to write or anything to put up?

(a hornless unicorn)

Time to move

My top 5 cities to realistically live in:

1. Charleston, SC

2. Charleston, WV

3. Charleston, TN

4. Charleston, Maine

5. Birmingham, AL

6. Seattle, WA

7. I can't count

(dopplar radar of Charleston, SC)

2003 NBA Playoffs National Anthem

I can't help but think about the body of Christ, and how the church should be more like this. Here you have the entire building helping out the weak, the one who has messed up and desperately needs help. And you have coach Maurice Cheeks, the friend who selflessly helps out the person who is struggling despite the fact that he can't sing and is risking embarrassment.

Instead of being a group of people who are morally and spiritually self-sufficient (so that they really have no need for Jesus), the church is for people who are screw-ups and don't have all their ducks in a row, and know it. The church is for people who desperately need Jesus and desire for others to see their need as well.

I think we too often fail to believe this and that is why the church isn't more like this video. "We are trying so hard to be people who look like Jesus, instead of looking like people who need Jesus."

yea

*****CONGRATS to Martin Davis, our (unofficial) 2006 NOVA Champion*****

oh yeah, i forgot to mention a month ago that I won my competitive fantasy baseball league. wahooo!!

Total Cash won: $0
Total Pride gained: 3 pride units
Total Time Spent: 1776 hours (i spent that much time in honor of our Declaration of Independence)

For anyone who cares (matt adair), here is my final roster:
C: Russell Martin
1B: Lance Berkman
2B: Chone Figgins
3B: Michael Cuddyer
SS: Felipe Lopez
OF: Jason Bay
OF: Juan Pierre
OF: Melky Cabrera (although this spot was changed almost monthly)
DH: Nick Johnson
U: Adrian Gonzalez
SP: Josh Beckett, Roy Oswalt, John Lackey, Joe Saunders, Chuck James
RP: Trevor Hoffman, Joe Nathan

Key Bench Players:
Francisco Liriano
John Maine
Kevin Youkilis

Dear Ladies

What ticks me off about all the women's magazines is that they have helped create one of the biggest lies around today: girls must have this skinny, perfect figure, or they are physically flawed. The second lie is that this is pretty much what all guys want. As a result, you have a generation plagued with eating disorders, insecurity, and an obsession for physical beauty. I will try to destroy some of the myths that most girls believe are fact.

1) Every female I've ever met thinks "I could lose 5lbs." Yes, even the skinny girls say that. When honestly, let's say of all the girls I know in RUF, there may be 4 that I could see them being prettier if they lost a few pounds. That's 4 girls...not 140. When I walk in to the crowded Snelling Dining hall, I will probably find more girls that need to gain weight than need to lose weight.

2) Other girls see those tanned, bleach-blonde haired, girls with a decent amount of make-up on and think "those girls are what most guys want." Which makes sense because you mainly see those fake looking girls getting hit on all the time by guys. The truth is that those girls are hit on mainly because their tanning-bed tan, caked-on make-up face sends guys a message that says "I am easy!" So guys go for these girls, not because they actually find them more attractive and beautiful, but because they just want to get some play. In my opinion, most guys I've known seem to desire a tad bit of make-up or no make-up at all. Guys would much rather date a Sandra Bullock than a Pamela Anderson.

3) A friend of mine is always conscious of her big hips even though she is a physically fit girl. Other girls would agree with her that big hips are unattractive. I beg to differ. Yes there are guys who would find big hips unattractive as well, but there's an equal amount of guys who either are completely indifferent to the big hips or actually find it attractive. The same goes with most of girls' physical traits. The physical flaws that girls claim to have are really just like any given pro-baseball team...you have guys that are bothered by that team, guys that are indifferent to that team, and guys who love that team. There's no one baseball team that everyone hates nor one that everyone loves. "But obviously the majority of guys are attracted to physical trait X more so than physical trait Y", you may say. Ok, I'll grant you that. However, to carry the baseball analogy further, yes there are more Yankees fans than Pirates fans, but you still have freakin' 350,000 Pirates fans. And if you can't be satisfied with the 350,000 Pirates fans, you wouldn't be satisfied with having the numerous Yankees fans either.

If any girls are actually reading this right now, you are probably thinking as you read these 3 myths "well i am probably one of those girls in the dining hall that needs to lose weight....yeah i know, but if i was tanner and bustier, i would get more guys (yes i would be attracting shallow guys, but that doesn't matter b/c what I'm really after is a self-esteem boost).....ok, but have you seen my thighs, they're huge; no guy is attracted to those." Isn't it sad what years of brainwashing can do? Ladies, I promise you that your physical flaw(s) is a much bigger deal in your eyes than in others'.

Have you ever...

asked someone what was the best advice they ever received...or what's the best question they ever pondered? I don't know what it is for me thus far, but my dad's is this:

Does faith precede regeneration or does regeneration precede faith?

My Greatest Fear

I realized these two things over the past couple weeks.

I am scared of getting close with God.
I am scared of habitually reading Scripture.

I am scared that if I get close to God, I will be disappointed. I fear that He won't satisfy me as much as I had hoped. I fear He won't be worth the cost of dying to myself. I am scared that if I read Scripture often, I could find out that Scripture really doesn't work or really isn't neccessary. It ultimately comes down to me fearing that being close w/ God or reading Scripture won't change me much; I won't be able to see any tangible difference in my life; the benefits won't outweigh the cost. Here is how I respond to my two fears:
As long as I keep my distance from God and just dabble in Scripture from week to week, they can't really let me down. They can't possibly be overrated or fail to meet expectations since they have yet to really be experienced. As long as I don't vigorously seek God and His Truth, I can still believe that seeking God and His Truth would bring happiness. Make sense?
It's like the mom who refuses to look on her son's computer in case she might find his porn. As long as she doesn't look, she can still believe what she wants to believe...that her son is innocent. She doesn't want to be proved wrong, even if it's for her and her son's own good.

This is more of a journal entry than a blog post, but whatever. I actually do believe that God satisfies more than anything else in this world, and that Scripture has the power to change and does. And that I KNOW this stuff is real (because honestly, He HAS changed me, and He HAS satisfied me). But I think it's this lingering doubt deep down that keeps me from running after God with all I have...because what in the world will I do if I find out God is not who He says He is??

The Business

I've been working the past 7 weeks on starting a business. It's hard work, you have to jump through so many hoops, and it won't get started for atleast another 5 months. But here's the short version of the idea for those who are interested.

In Colorado, Arizona, California, Texas, and many other Northern or Western states, all the Home Depots in big cities have hot dog stands independently run on their property. The most successful hot dog stands average 150 hot dogs sold per weekday and 1000 per weekend ($1 profit per hot dog). In the Southeast, it is basically an untapped market. The goal is to set up a hot dog stand at the Home Depot in Athens, get it up and running successfully, then pay someone else to work it as I move to Greenville, SC to start up a few more. Fortunately, two of my roommates have hot dog vending experience and are willing to help me. Then after 3-5 hot dog stands, I will pay someone else to run it, but remain partial owner. Hopefully, I will be able to collect some passive income from the business. Why Greenville, and not the rest of Georgia? Because Cobb County, Fulton, Gwinnett, Bibb, Richmond, and Muscogee County (where all the big GA cities are located) have strict zoning ordinances that will not allow hot dogs to be set up on the Home Depot property. Start up costs will be roughly $6000. But for now, I have to just sit and wait for my business to be approved. So what am I going to do in the meantime? I have no clue...someone please offer me a 5 month-long job!

23.00274

Yesterday was my birthday so I guess I have to post something about it.
I am now 23. There is nothing new under the sun.

Highlights:
1) Dinner with my brother
2) Having both my parents call me within 1 minute of each other at around 7:40am. I didn't answer, but they left me original birthday messages: my dad sang to me, my mom read me My Utmost For His Highest.