New blog

I now have a new blog here. Please change your readers, book marks or however you come here to this new address. Thanks and God bless.

http://johngruber.us

Week in Review

Since the economy is not doing well, I thought I would offer a special 2 for the price of 1 Week in Review since I didn't write one last week.

highlights of the week: Portland to see the Putz' and Denise. Fixing the truck. Dad registering us (John, Dad and my sister, Leah) for STP. A soon to be revealed gift from a friend. Starting a new job. Three guys in the youth group deciding to follow Jesus.

lowlights of the week: Nichole having a combination of work and guards for five days in a row.

on my to-do list: we are going to try and sell our house, so my to do list grew tremendously after the walk through with our realtor. I did however, chop down a tree, and mow the yard yesterday.

procrastinating about: some phone calls.

books i’m reading: Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B.B. King, for fun at night I have been reading music biographies.

music i'm listening to: U2, No Line on the Horizon, of course.

anecdote of the week: I enjoy playing guitar and this week had an opportunity to bring someone else into the world of guitar. One of my friends, Brittain Gibson, saved up his money to buy a guitar. He wanted me to help him find one and we found a winner at Guitar Center. It was a great price and we had it set up by Lynn Collins. On Thursday we had our first of many jam sessions.
In addition to the anectdote I will clarify some of my items you have just read through. We are not moving away from Puyallup and I am still the youth pastor at CCBC. We don't have to sell our house, but are going to see if we can. Nichole and I are managing a couple of commercial properties for some extra income.

Ten Things

The ubiquitous n-things-you-didn't-know list, where n = any number. In my upcoming Week in Review 2 for 1, the music I have been listening to will be U2's new album. Straight from the Gibson website comes the list of things you didn't know about U2.

“We’re not Irish,” The Edge once announced on national television. “Honestly, we’re not. We’re from Duluth, but we saw this Irish Spring commercial one day and we just went, ‘That’s it, we’ll be Irish.’” Naturally, the guitarist’s faux confession was for a comedy bit called “U2 Secrets” on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Since forming in 1976, U2 have been mostly drama-free, with their original lineup still cranking out the massive hits over 30 years later. But that doesn’t mean you know everything about them.

Link - via Gibson

Something funny for the end of Monday

Hopefully your Monday has gone well. I was on Facebook and someone suggest to do this. Navigate you way to google, type [your name] needs and then get the first 10 things you need. Here are mine from Saturday afternoon.

John needs . . .
1. help.
2. a hug.
3. 13 bottles of water from the store.
4. charisma.
5. a plumber.
6. Joe, more than ever.
7. workers.
8. to fall of his high horse.
9. help's Q&A profile.
10. your bone marrow.

knowing vs. knowing about

I've been on a journey during my sabbatical to recalibrate some areas of my life. Came across this post a couple days ago and it really spoke to some of the feelings I have been having.

God is a person. He speaks. He listens. He feels. He loves. He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. Jesus was Immanuel, God with us. He sent His very Spirit to dwell in our hearts. Somehow beyond my understanding, the believing heart is the dwelling place of this Personal God.

Link - via Boundless

Week in Review

highlights of the week: Sonny Landreth concert. NW Trek with the family. Finding out the pickup repairs will cost way less than quoted thanks to Ernie and his mechanical helping. NABNW Cluster.

lowlights of the week: dealing with the Credit Counseling Agency.

on my to-do list: repair the truck.

procrastinating about: I don't think anything. I knocked almost everything off of my to do list.

books i’m reading: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, heard about this one while in CO. It is being held right now at my local library.

music i'm listening to: Last night I went to a Sonny Landreth Concert. While waiting for the show, the opening act, Son Jack Jr. came and got drinks where I was sitting at the bar and we had a conversation with each other. Just picked up the five disc collection of Blues by Martin Scorcese and am excited to plow my way through all 100 songs.

anecdote of the week: Not a very exciting week this week, but one of our friends we met at Marble was visiting a brother in Puyallup and we go to go out to lunch with him. It was great to connect with him and see how he has been since we parted ways.

Week in Review

Sorry this is a day late. It has been a different week for me.

highlights of the week: returning home to my daughter. Having the opportunity to go to Marble Retreat. Starting a new chapter in my marriage and life.


lowlights of the week: I really can't think of any.

on my to-do list: taxes. Read a new book that was just released, write a review for this blog and receive a free copy of the book. Read books for NABNW Tacoma Cluster.

procrastinating about: Nichole wasn't feeling well, so our cleaning day didn't go as planned. I didn't clean all what I had agreed to.

books i’m reading: Brisingr, book three in the Inheritance trilogy.

music i'm listening to: today, while cleaning, I listened to Led Zeppelin's epynomous debut album and the Definitive Muddy Waters Collection.

anecdote of the week: Nichole and I recently returned from our marriage retreat in Marble, CO. The house we stayed at was nestled on the side of a rocky hill. In the days leading up to our visit, the area experienced unseasonably warm weather. During our orientation we were briefed about how to handle wild animal encounters. Our first night in the outdoor hot tub, surrounded by nothing but the wilderness, Nichole pondered aloud, "What would I do if we saw an animal while out here." Not thirty seconds later, Nichole jumped up and bolted back to the cabin. I calmly turned and saw why she had run. About fifteen feet away, a medium-sized black bear meandered its way along the side of the hill. I didn't stay in the tub either. The other couple was planning on attacking us with snowballs and verified our sighting as they saw it also. It was a fun start to our week at Marble.

Safety Graphic Fun

Start this week out by thinking about safety. Here is a blog the specializes in fun pictures that warn us about danger.

Safety Graphic Fun

Fun sports

Being a youth pastor and being from Canada, I enjoy weird forms of familiar sports. I have often tweaked sports for youth games. Examples: hockey played with ping pong balls and either pencils or fly swatters for sticks, baseball played backwards. I discovered a new twist on one of Canada's national sports, hockey. Until our church puts in a pool, this won't be happening, but it sure looks interesting.

A little known sport, underwaterhockey is what some divers like to do during the winter months when the outside water is too cold for diving. The sport was invented in Great Britain during the 1950’s when some British divers were looking for ways to stay fit during the winter. The result: An intensive and beatiful sport practised around the world leaving us with some striking images.

Link - via Yofavo (Just stuff . . . Cool stuff)

Männerspielplatz: translation - Man's Play Place

I need to start saving for when I go on my next trip to visit relatives in Germany. It looks like they also have Hummer courses, hot air balloon rides and mock CSI investigations. When I read this article, all that went through my head was, "dude."

Think of it as a testosterone-soaked sandbox: a German amusement park where, instead of standing in line to ride on roller coasters, you get to play with big, loud machines. For 219 euros (about $280), patrons can spend the day operating 29-ton Liebherr backhoes and 32-ton Komatsu front-end loaders, off-roading through the woods in a Mercedes-built Unimog, peeling out in a Suzuki SUV, and slinging some mud on quad bikes.

Link - via Wired.com

If you have brushed up on your German, here is a link to the actual park itself.

Week in Review

highlights of the week: Settlers of Catan with the Tangedahls. My Bible reading becoming a desire, not just a "have-to." Uncle Ben and Auntie Leah visiting on Sunday. Rearranging three rooms in our house. Emails from old friends. Finding a surprise date for my wife.

lowlights of the week: not being able to find the keys to my in-laws trailer. Family issues.

on my to-do list: mail hold while we are on our marriage retreat, packing for our marriage retreat, finishing our go to financial spreadsheet.

procrastinating about: shower yuck as Nichole now has it on my todo list (I don't think that is getting finished until after Colorado).

books i’m reading: I finished Rebuilding Your Broken World, and Restoring the Fallen. I am now reading Perfect Daughters, and Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters.

music i'm listening to: iTunes made a mistake with one of my purchases, so I had three free songs given to me. I downloaded Matthew West, The Motions, and Jon Foreman, White As Snow, with two of them. These songs have great meaning with where I am at in my journey.

anecdote of the week: I was at church this week meeting with Gordie and we received a gift from someone who had done some community service hours at our facility. She presented us a with a jello desert made to look like Gummi Bears on the Beach. It was very cool.

iPhone killer?

Pomegranate | NS08

Yes, it's Canadian, and I want one.

Thanks Mark Riddle

What I look like to a three year old

Love computers and Scrabble?

This keyboard was commissioned by a couple of friends of mine from back east (NJ) who are avid Scrabble players. Most of the keys are made from real Scrabble tiles that were all hand-beveled (truly an exercise in patience/masochism!) and built onto a USB, clicky, mechanical-switch keyboard. This keyboard was going into a Mac environment so I decided to use brushed aluminum for the casing and round all of the corners to keep with the sleek, simple Macintosh styling. Near the end of the build, I decided that the keyboard looked a little too minimalist so I added some silver hardware and a seam to put a slightly industrialized twist on the design.

Link - via Datamancer.net

Week in Review

highlights of the week: going to Portland and hanging with the Putz family. Going to Salem and hanging with my bro-in-law and his family. LOST premiere.

lowlights of the week: finding out our truck needs some major repairs.

on my to-do list: booking rental car for and return flight from our trip to Colorado in February. This was on last week, but we saw a killer deal on Alaska today, didn't book and the price went up. We are waiting to see if it goes back down.

procrastinating about: still haven't touched the moldy shower.

books i’m reading: I finished Bob Dylan Chronicles Volume 1. Unless you have an interest in him, I wouldn't recommend it. I started Restoring the Fallen a book that describes a team approach to caring, reconciling and confronting. I was in the library this week and also stumbled upon With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. It was on my Christmas wish list this past year, I did not receive it and was quite excited to find it at the library. The book recently came out and I think I am the first one to borrow it as it still has the new book smell. Click on the book for the Amazon page.

music i'm listening to: the cds finally arrived. I have been listening to them. Eric Johnson - Ah Via Musicom and Wes Montgomery - 20th Century Masters Colleciton. Two very different styles. Check out the sweet 80s hair in the cd booklet.

anecdote of the week: I took my bro-in-law and nephews geocaching for the first time. One of the caches was Altitude Adjustment. This meant to me that the cache was probably going to be up high somewhere. When we arrived at the coordinates all we found was a speed limit sign. The only thing out of the ordinary was a bolt stuck into the side of the post. If you can't picture it, the post for street signs is square and has holes on all four sides in order to attach the actual signs. During my investigation of the sign we found a small plastic tube, the cache, at the bottom of the post. Not being detered from signing the I took two keys, stuck them in each side of the sign and slowly began the process of moving the cache up the sign. Every few feet, my brother would stick the bolt in, lest I drop the cache. I got the cache all the way to the top of the sign and signed the log. We searched around and found the missing nut to afix the bolt through the sign, and have the cache near the top where one can grab it. My brother really enjoyed geocaching and we hope to do it again when I am down there.

Interesting Sites

In addition to starred posts I am also going to once again start sharing interesting website. Movie a Minute is the first one.

Let's face it. There's a lot of movies out there and very little time to watch them in. Well sit back and relax, because your troubles are solved! We here at Movie-A-Minute have come up with a solution. We've taken several classic and contemporary movies and extracted the important stuff, cutting out all the filler. (You'd be surprised how much filler there is sometimes.) With our ultra-condensed versions of your favorite films, you can experience whole movies in just one minute! As an added bonus, Movie-A-Minute protects against torture by bad movies -- if you don't have to sit through them, well, you don't have to sit through them.

New album from U2

Find some tidbits about and listen to the new single, Get On Your Boots from U2's new album here.

Week in Review

highlights of the week: walks with Lily. Making my wife cookies and buying her a new travel mug. Getting $30 back from Sprint. Reducing my internet $10 over the next four months by just asking.

lowlights of the week: bad news. This week has been filled with personal bad news. Eden, a little girl that my parents babysit, has leukemia. A blog has been started here for news on her condition and treatment. Carol Potratz, a dear friend, is being laid off at the end of January.

on my to-do list: An appointment with the tax lady. Phone calls to friends (that's you Lance and Jake if you read this.) Rental car and return flights for our retreat in February

procrastinating about: the shower still.

books i’m reading: still reading Rebuilding Your Broken World. I am really getting to the application part of this book and am excited to apply the ideas to my life. I read through Doug Fields' new book, Refuel. Doug wants everyone to maintain a connection to God that keeps our "tank" filled up. We do this by stopping, being quiet and making a connection with God.

music i'm listening to: U2. There two best of albums specifically. A Seattle radio station is having U2sday this coming Tuesday in honor of the new single being released from the forthcoming album.

anecdote of the week: Lost cds part II. I called my sister's former landlord. He told me that he would talk to the current tenants about my music. They were found and are on their way from Iowa to my house as I type. Hopefully next week that will be the music I am listening to in next week's review.

Starred blog post

Google Reader has quickly become my newspaper. I keep track of many different areas of interest through this. I am going to attempt to share some of the posts that I star for future or further reading.

I enjoy watching movies and there are some fun tidbits in this post.

Our movie trivia posts have been so popular, we decided to make them a regular feature. When I talked to our fearless leader about this, he said it sounded like a great idea and nominated The Princess Bride for our first post. Please - like I needed an excuse to watch The Princess Bride. It’s great on so many levels. Enjoy!

To read the rest of this post just click on the link below.

Link - via Neatorama

Star Wars LOL

If you are a Star Wars fan you will laugh out loud at this picture.

Week in Review

Something I would like to start while I am sabbatical is a Week in Review. This is the first installment.

highlights of the week: playing ping pong with some Puyallup youth pastors and totally dominating every match. Celebrating Brian Gibson's 4? birthday with his family and the Crawfords. Hawaiian coffee from the Tangedahls.

lowlights of the week: all the flooding going on in our state, some relatives of good family friends seem to just have one more thing to deal with in their already difficult circumstances.

on my to-do list: completing all my phone calls for my weekly practical meeting with my wife. Posting some ads on Craigslist. If you are looking for some skis, a snowboard or guitar gear, let me know.

procrastinating about: making an appointment with a new friend because I don't know if I will be able to keep my commitment if I make it and scraping some mold out of the shower.

books i’m reading: being on sabbatical what I am mainly doing is reading. I am reading three books. Nichole and I are reading How People Grow together and checking in via the workbook each week. I am also reading Rebuilding Your Broken World. This book is very good and I am excited to continue to see how it is going to impact my life. I read these two books during the day and then at night have been reading music biographies. I am currently working my way through Bob Dylan Chronicles Volume 1. This is an interesting read.

music i'm listening to: This week I ordered four cds. Lincoln Brewster - Today is the Day, Muddy Waters - Definitive Collection, Eric Johnson - Ah Via Musicom and Wes Montgomery - 20th Century Masters Colleciton. I have listened to Lincoln Brewster and Muddy Waters, please see below for status of the other two.

anecdote of the week: I order the aforementioned cds with a Best Buy gift card from my mom and dad-in-law, thanks Pat and Dale. Two of them I used the in-store pickup and the others I had shipped. I checked my order status yesterday and for some reason I had them shipped to my sister's apartment, in Iowa. She hasn't lived there for two years. I hope the people are nice to enough to return the cds. I am going to call Best Buy and my sister to see what we can do.

Check back just about every Friday for the Week in Review.

Blogs

If you are reading this, you know what a blog is. If you read a lot of blogs, you have to use a reader to keep all your blogs in one place. I use Google Reader.

Here are two blogs that I have recently added to my reader.

Neatorama

The Customer is Not Always Right

freezebubbles

This is cool beyond words.

freezebubbles