scattered, frazzled, but sane

It seems my penchant for blogging drags when it rains, and blogging drought during continuous rainfall if you will. However, things have been complicated lately by the comings and goings of work and life. So to be fair to those who stop by to see what controversial, enlightening, or just plain stupid things I write, I thought it was time for at least an update of what I've been up to and what I will be up to in the coming months.

To get the boring stuff out of the way (for some not all), I have had a ton of opportunity and good fortune fall my way at work lately. Aside from the obvious "love my job, happy to blessed with employment and excellent management" type of stuff, I've also been selected for some interesting career opportunities. Essentially, for 5 weeks in July/August I will be up to my ears in techie goodness as I work with a few other people from around the world to research and write a technical book. I won't pretend that many of you will understand what the book entails, but for me it is a great opportunity to share my knowledge of best practices for a product I've used for 5 years and also learn about the latest and greatest version that we are writing about. So I'll won't just be a techie, I'll be a published techie and contributing to some of the same series of books that I learned from early in my career. So combine that with some vacation and I will possibly be somewhat silent in the next few months on the blog front -- not necessarily being still but more like being busy.

To something a bit more fun, Sunday I had the chance to swing by Boston and check out Jo Henley. They were awesome, and while they list their musical influences on their site, I found I had my own take based upon my musical tastes. To my ear, I heard influences from Johnny Cash, Dave Matthews, Live, James Taylor, Jack Johnson, and maybe some Jars of Clay. Basically, they have a really sweet sound that rolls along smoothly, and yet still jolts with you the energy that they produce. The music is an awesome blend of rock, country, folk, and alternative styles that just hits home -- and this coming from a guy who grew up listening to grunge, hard rock, alternative and avoiding country like the plague, I guess time changes tastes. You can listen to some of their music either by downloading from johenley.com or listening with the built-in player on their mySpace site. However, as it is most times, they put on an awesome live show -- and in this case the recorded stuff they have at the moment doesn't include their full band. And in case you are wondering why I would throw this in my blog -- the lead singer is my cousin-in-law (wife's cousin's husband), this was the first time I ever heard him really play, and I was totally blown away. So if you are in the Boston area, or will be, and want some good live tunes -- check out Jo Henley at one of their gigs.

For the spiritual side of things, I've officially kicked off work with my friend Paul on our material we'll be presenting at the ACU Lectureship in September. I think we're slotted under the "Missional Leadership" category, though that's not quite what we'll be discussing. I think it would be a little more accurate to describe it as "how to live as a missional church". Some of the material will perhaps ruffle some feathers, but then again to water down what we want to say would be inauthentic -- and I am not about to put myself in front of a large group of people so I can present material I don't truly believe in. Also, the work on my own material has been slow going, mostly because its tough to find time to dedicate to it. It's a good thing I chose not to post it in a blog series, since I'd be way behind if I had. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll have enough to decide what to do with it. Prayers on both these fronts would be appreciated; while it's not exactly the direction I thought I'd be headed in my spiritual life, so far it seems to be working and feels right.

So basically, I'll try to get some controversial, inspired, or lame spiritual thoughts up when I can, just don't expect a regular flow of posts for a little while. Cheers!