just a note about friends

Well after over 5 years of not visiting me, my brother finally came up to Clemson for a visit. :) One thing I like about my friends is I really don't have to preface them with a "be nice to my brother" or "make sure you include him on your conversations." They do that naturally because that's who they are. Well most :) Everyone was really nice and a nice time was had by all! He did note that many of the girls around our "group" were very nice looking. And me and my roomies are still single, interesting. hahahahahahahaha. Back to work for me!

Showstoppers Part Uno

I have blogged for almost a year now and sometimes forget what I have blogged about, oh well. I work in a very technical environment and crazy terms are thrown around all the time. You have to learn a new vocabulary almost to really know what's going on most of the time. In the development of new products and in the process of testing new products or old ones for that matter we use a term. The term is called "known issue" or sometimes "known issues." This is basically something that we know needs to be fixed or is in the process of being fixed. It's a polite way to say there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

I'll let the girls in on a secret here. Guys do the same thing when they analyze the female species. You can see the most beautiful girl or the girl with the coolest qualities. But you don't really know her well. But hey, that's what friends are for and you have a friend that does know her well. One of the first things that most guys ask sums up to this..."does she have any known issues?".....this is just hilarious to me. A buddy and I know one girl that is really super cool. I always give him a tough time about dating her. We have known her for years and cannot discover any known issues. It baffles us.

Introducing technical term #2. "Show-stopper" A "show-stopper" is a term that describes a problem that you find in the testing process that haults the entire project until it is addressed. The "show-stopper" must be fixed before the project can move forward. Well this applies directly to what I've been talking about above. There are some "known issues" that can be looked over. I mean c'mon, we have issues, all of us, none excluded. But when you find a girl with a "show-stopper", you must move on. I think I would rather let some other guy figure out the show-stoppers.....I'm sure some of my friends could list some show-stoppers....or "known issues". Names excluded of course. :)

My Invention or idea

So often I rant to Lee about inventing something. You see these simple inventions in Walmart and on TV and they are so easy. Well someone just had the right idea, the right time, the right marketing, and VOILA! So a guy/girl is sitting on a beach somewhere because they invented the easy bake oven. C'mon people!

So I didn't know that girls knew about "matches." Matches have many different uses. Yes the sticks of wood with the red tip can come in handy when you need a fire. Well many of the men know the other "use" of matches. Yes, you guessed it. The BATHROOM. I first discovered that girls knew about matches when I first started to date this girl and used her bathroom for the first time. It was like a golden moment in my history. I open the door and whether this is homosexual or not, I don't know. Well I'll just say it. I scoped out the bathroom. The first thing I saw was a nice box of matches. "Wow, this is incredible." A girl who knows the other value of matches! So is this common among women? Or are there an elite few who understand this value to the wooden stick with a red top? Either way.

So if matches are what makes the bathroom smell better, I think we should create a potpouri that smells like BURNING MATCHES! C'mon, u all know that regular potpouri just stinks. I think I would rather smell dog crap than most of that stuff! So anyway, i'm going to watch a movie now. Toodles!

Just some thoughts from a man with big ears

"For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Heb. 8:12).

Think about all the evil in the world. Most of it hinges on grace and forgiveness. Hotel Rwanda, for example, one tribe did something to another tribe, then a war started in Rwanda, people were killed, many died. No forgiveness. You kill our people, we will kill yours. Genocide.

It's amazing that God is so forgiving. We have a tough time with forgiveness and usually we only know half the wrongs done towards us. God knows ALL the sin and disgust we have done, and He is still able and willing to forgive us. Not only are we stubborn in forgiving people, we are often stubborn in forgiving ourselves.

He not only forgives our sin, He chooses not to remember it. (Micah 7:18-19 NIV) "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. {19} You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." Not only are our sins forgiven, they are thrown into the deep parts of the sea, not the kiddie pool where they can be easily seen. Deep.

The difference between us and God is our ability to remember. We can forgive others and we can forgive ourselves, but we will always remember. Sin hurts, whether it is inflicted or received. It kills.

The ability to really forgive comes only from the Lord. If you have been forgiven, it becomes "easier" to forgive.

On a happy note, I have officially met the first person who had an "ear" tact. I will not release names. But this person apparently had big ears like me but chose to have theirs "appended." This is hilarious.

Hit on Life

I'm a nerd and I must confess something. For about a year now I've become very good at stalking. Let me clarify before you go and hide your children from me. Since the invention of the internet has come along (Thanks Al Gore :) , many things have changed in this world. One thing that has changed is stalking. t I should start giving an explanation. I would say that basically 75% of things I have learned since age 20 have come through the internet. For about 4 years, I have studied apologetics and completely through the internet. For about 3-4 years, I've studied evangelism, mostly through the internet and audio sermons. Check this site out This website can teach you about everything from lock picking to how cars work. I tell you all of that to give a background into what I'm about to say.

So I've had friends through the past year that have had "interests." Whether it comes in the form of a guy asking the girl out or the guy asking the girl out, they need me! "Why Justin?", you ask. Well here is why. See before you go out with anyone, you must do your homework. You must perform a google search on them. I'm not talking about any google search, google searching is a skill that is not easily taught. A buddy of mine, who is now engaged to be married in a month is fruit of my work. He started "talking" to this girl and I dug up some good information on her. Basically just some really good things people said about her and some funny pictures. He thoroughly enjoyed it and learned about his soon to be woman. The scary thing about google searching is that people can find out anything. They can find out your personal web page, they can find out where you live, they can find out anything you post on the internet. So before you date that next guy or girl, please contact me and I will let you know whether they are quality enough for you :)

So back to stalking. On my webpage, I can see the # of people that visit the page, this is commonly known as a "hit." One visit counts as one "hit." So I logged in the other day and saw that over 13,000 people have "hit" my page. It shows that these people came from all over the world. Some from the Netherlands, some from Australia, some from France, and other really random places. These people come from all walks of life. Something dawned on me. I thought about all the crazy and random things I write about. I thought about the good things that matter to the Lord. I thought about the stories regarding gas and well, you know those stories. 13,000 people have read these things! I started thinking about life, our lives, and how many MORE people "hit" them. People watch us daily, they see us in our good times and in our bad times. They see us when we are laughing, they see us when we are crying. Someone is always watching. How many people have logged into my life and seen something not honoring? Sometimes, someone might hit your blog once, read the most recent post and never come back again. You only got one chance to make it count. You only have 1 life to make your hits count. I surely want people to come back and visit my life, not because of anything that I've "done" or anything I've "worked" for, but because of the Lord's presence in my life and I hope to have pointed them to Him. I had dinner with a friend today and he said a professor he met at seminary "walked in humility." What a beautiful thing to say about someone. A man who got one chance to make an impression on someone and in 5 minutes, they knew he was of the Lord and followed hard after Him.

Eminem had a point, u really do only have one shot, do not miss your chance. yes, I quoted eminem. Forigve me, I'm male.

It's dat WOO WOO!

Well after a week on a motorcycle and no car, I now have a new ride. You may ask yourself, "Justin, didn't you already have a Jeep?" I would respond, "Yes." You might then counter and say, "Why did you buy another?" I would then say, "This one is bigger!" Haha. I'm stupid. But it's got more leg room and more cargo room for road trips! It's an Unlimited Wrangler which means it's just longer. THIS ONE HAS A/C! You never really know the value of A/C until you ride two years w/o it. Now hot girls can ride in my car to weddings and the like w/o hearing complaints of sweating. :)

A good wreck

Growing up in the country usually means you are going to have some type of recreational vehicle. My first ride was around the age of 5 and I got a 4x4 battery powered truck that I could drive. My mom would let me charge it all night and then drive it all the way to the store, which was about equivalent to 10 miles as an adult. It was so fun. I would take my $1 and be able to buy a mountain dew and a whatchamcalic (sp) candy bar. Those were great days.

The next thing we got was a go-cart. Now this thing was interesting. We would drive that thing around all day and then it would break. My dad would spend time fixing it and we would be back on the dirt roads of Hamer, SC.

The next choice vehicle was a Honda 110 three wheeler. This thing was fun. The very first day we got it was awesome. Well until something happened. My brother and I and some buddies took it a few miles from our house. We were riding in a dried up pond. So fun. I was going up a cliff and then another guy ran in front of me so I had to move quickly to some shrubs. Well there was something behind the shrubs, a 15 foot cliff. I went straight down, head first and front wheel first. It landed, threw me forward and the ATV landed on top of me. I was hurt, leg was busted open and burned pretty deep. They loaded me on the three wheeler and took me home so I could hide on the couch under the blankets. We couldn't tell my parents or they might take it from us. So we just bandaged my leg up and shhhhhh, kept it a secret. Of course, they found out. I didn't get in trouble though.

I got a motorcycle after the 3 wheeler. It was a 1977 XL100 and it was such a fun thing. Busted my chin open on that one driving across a field wide open then hitting a pile of dirt.

Now I have a huge dirtbike that I have yet to really wreck. Relationships are much like how you handle recreational vehicles. You almost have to get burned really bad one time to appreciate how fragile you can be on them or in them. I don't do stupid stuff anymore on motorcycles because I know that one bad move and you are done. Relationships aren't as easy to control! Just watch what you drive! You never can predict!

Off to look for a new car :)

Pushing Outside

I have really been trying to figure this thing out. I drove my wrangler for two years. I loved that car. When the upstate iced over, I was the only person who could leave the neighborhood. If you see a car in the ditch, the wrangler could hook right up and pull them out. Yes I am a redneck. I would get excited when it would ice or snow so I could go look for people in ditches. My neighbor's car skidded out the driveway one time and I had to pull him back into it. How fun. Anyway. I say all that to say that Jeeps are fun cars. Take the top off, let the sun hit the back of your neck. MMMMMM.

There is another mysterious thing about driving a wrangler. It's called the "Jeep Wave." I might have written about this before. The "Jeep Wave" is something that happens when one wrangler driver passes another. It doesn't matter how long you have had one, what year it is, how dirty, or how new, you get a genuine wave. People that you actually meet in the wrangler, insist on asking you when you got yours, how you like it, etc. Motorcycles are the same way. People will wave as they are driving by on theirs. It's a very cool thing that makes you proud and you feel part of something cool.

What if the church was the same way? When you see another Christian, u have that genuine care and love for them. It doesn't matter how long they have known the Lord, it doesn't matter what church they go to, it doesn't matter how old they are. You genuinely care for them because they share a love for Christ just like you. He connects you both and you are glad to be apart of Him. It's sad that there is a more cohesive bond in driving a Jeep than there is in the church.

We did an outreach at Clemson one time and made t-shirts with a random thing on them. Everyone who was participating wore the shirts. All ministries from around the campus were in on it. Well they were green, puke green. You could spot them a mile away. When I would see a green shirt, even from a long distance, I would get excited. "Hey there is another one." Just knowing these were my brothers and sisters in Christ made me feel part of something big. Then the sad news came. As I walked around campus that week in my green shirt, I noticed that the other green shirters were not so excited about wearing the shirt or even saying "hi" for that matter. I'd try and speak to each one as they walked past me and it was like pulling teeth. Most walked straight ahead and you really had to speak loudly for them to even look at you. I thought on that. "You know, if I'm a Christian and they treat me like this, how do they treat the world?" It made me angry. Because I was not apart of their ministry, maybe they just wanted to ignore me. Childish.

I wish the church could drive around in a Jeep for a week, or maybe take a cruise on the backroad of SC. See the unity of strangers driving the same car.

One of my least favorite things about going to church is the "meet a stranger" portion. Why do we do that? Are people that shy? Do we really have to force adults to meet? Do people really sit in their seats and not speak to the people beside them? Does this happen in church?

If we are not unified in the walls of the church, we are not going to be unified in front of a lost world. We are so self-focused to even wave at a fellow believer or give a gentle "hi." Christ said that the world would know we were his disciples by the love we have for each other.

It takes a while to really chew on that.

Gone

Like many things that fulfill us for a short time in this life. My Wrangler is gone. I watched her drive away last night about 10:30. Oh the memories of mountains, beaches, long highways with no end. I drove her all the way back from Omaha, Nebraska and talked 10 hours on the phone. I slept in that car, ate in that car, and occasionally let girls ride in that ride. She took me 75,000 glorious miles and she will be remembered as faithful. Cleaning out the car was not so fun either. I found so many random notes and cds. Some were easy to throw away. Some not so easy. I don't remember ever making out in that car, maybe that's a good thing. In high school, you rated your car on how many times you made out in it. Wow. The ol Fiero was a good car. The wrangler was a pure car. She may get replaced this summer with another one!

For now, you can look for me buzzing by in a helmet, gloves, and motorcycle.

Ride on!

No regrets!

There is something disturbing in this kindergarten picture. It is my head. See if you can find it. See, my head has been the same size since birth. My body has tried to catch up. The race is still on.