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So I have finally decided to invest in the good old stock market! I’ve wanted to for quite some time now, but just hadn’t gotten around to it up till yesterday. It all started last week when I got to thinking about netflix. You see, netflix just partnered with microsoft to allow people with xbox 360s to watch over 12,000 movies directly from their xbox. Its pretty amazing! It will become available to all xbox 360 owners with a netflix account with this coming fall update. So I figured that netflix is going to do pretty darn well with this update coming and I should get some stock in it.

I put a portion of my savings into my scottrade.com account and got some netflix stock. I hopes is that the stock at least doubles. We shall see what happens. But all in all its alot of fun. I look at the stocks through out the day and see how its doing along with a few other stocks I own now and its really cool. Normally through out the day I’m so consumed by work, or something else and this is a way for me to have something to look forward to viewing every so often. I’ll keep you guys up to date on how its doing.

Some of you may be wondering what the heck I did to my self. The truth is… my wife ruby threw me down the stairs in a fit of rage and I’m a victim! J/K… I was climbing at an indoor rock climbing gym here in Riverside and was being stupid. I was doing a fairly difficult route with no pads under me, and no one spotting me. Yes… stupid I know. Live and learn. Anyways… my foot slipped off of a heel hook and made me fall in a very weird way and I busted my elbow. I tried putting it back in place, but after a few attempts, I decided it was time to go visit that magical place called the emergency where you go to get fixed when you break your self. Yes it hurt, no I didn’t cry, and yes I think my arm looks awesome in those pictures!

So I woke up this morning with the full knowledge that the sky was the limit on what I do in terms of time. I had no work, no responsibilities, no where to be. In my life… that can be just as much a bad thing as a good thing. You see, I am always such a busy guy that I don’t know what to do with my self when I have time. I was literally finding my self walking around in circles.

My thought was that I didn’t want to be on the computer or play vid games. I didn’t want to go watch a movie. I didn’t want to go outside and be hot. I didn’t want to spend too much gas, or go too far. I couldn’t go so far that I could just get a hotel with my wife. I didn’t want to go to the beach because I’m going to be going tomorrow. I was stuck.

Finally I made the decision around 12:00 in the afternoon to go up to Idlewild. Its a artsy kinda town where hippies and people that are in love with wood and shinny stones make different crafts and sell them for exurbanite amounts of money. Its a beautiful drive up however. It was cool, outside, and well… perfect. So Ruby and I head up there stopping at various places to take pictures of the view and such.

After getting there… we went and checked out different shops, but by far the 2 best parts were sitting down to lemonade and crembrule with strawberries, and almost falling asleep together on a bit of fake grass. All in all, the trip was pretty awesome for a half days trip. One thing I came to realize is that there is quite a bit of witch craft that goes on up there. There was a restaurant where the workers wore devil horns, all the walls were black, and the name of the place was Diablo. Above it was a witch craft store where you could by different blades and robes for what ever people do with witchcraft. There were also various shops where you could buy books on spells and such.

All in all, today couldn’t have been better. I’m glad I finally got my stupid butt to get out of the house and do something!

You want to know why I love leading worship? Its because its not about me. I don’t have to worry about impressing anyone but God, and helping others do the same. I get to be used by God and impact people more then I will ever know. Its not about me. People don’t come and listen to me because its me. They are there because of God… for the most part. I get to be by self, and worship God

You see… when I’m up there with my guitar, or keyboard, I get to forget about moving a specific way, or singing with too much style. I don’t have to say funny things and perform. To an extent I do, but its not the focus, and most of its lead by God anyways. Tonight for example… I came totally unprepared to lead worship spiritually, and musically. The only thing I had on my side was my past experience, and knowing the songs enough to sing them from chord charts. It started out a little rocky, I felt, but by the middle, God had totally took over. God was leading the youth group through me. He was speaking words to these kids so perfectly and even gave me a song to sing to them that fit the moment and message perfectly. All in all, tonight’s worship was everything it should have been… God’s

As most that know me, they know me as a musician. For those that know me and my heart, I’m a worship leader. I have the gift of leading others in worship to God. As a musician I have a responsibility to know my gift and what it means. You see… music is in my opinion of my the most powerful weapons in spiritual warfare. Music moves people; better yet, it guides people. Music inspires people, moves people, affects people much deeper then just actions, but emotions. It touches the sole. It can take people to very dark places but can also bring someone very very close to God.

Even I know that if I drive down the road listening to death metal, or Chaotic Rock, I drive like a mad man. Yet… if I listen jazz, it makes me feel classy, or chill. When I listen to worship music praising God, I feel his presence. If I listen to rap, I feel like a bad ass and that no one should mess with me. There are spirits to all these types of music that guide our hearts, soles, and minds in one direction or another if we like it or not. That is why music means “A guided Spirit.” That is also why music is such a powerful weapon. Art is the language of the sole.

When I lead worship, I have to be aware of the spirit that is guiding not only me, but the people with me and around me. I also have to realize that it isn’t me leading, but God leading through me and the music I create. I am just a tool along with the band used to invite God’s spirit to guide peoples hearts and soles into worship. Its a profound thought. Its a humbling privilege that God has given me, and something that not only do I not deserve, but something I will never take for granted.

So I did it! I paid all my bills. EVERY LAST ONE! I’m sure to a lot of you readers, your thinking “Whats the big deal.” If you read in a previous blog called fear, you would understand a bit better of what I’m talking about. But yeah… I paid all my bills today, and still have enough to pay the end of the month rent! Again… facing my fears that set me back.

On a different note, the jerk that I spoke of in a previous blog sent me a comment saying that he is going to report me to the police for slander. I just thought that was cute and that I would share that with you guys.

So here it is… I looked down today and saw a stack of Mostly bills sitting right next to my chair. Its a pile I have been finding every excuse under the sun to ignore. The problem is… however, that this problem doesn’t go away. It only gets worse. So what else is there left to do? Pay the bills. So I sit down sort through all of it throwing away this and that till I have my stack of bills to pay. I know its going to empty my bank account, but it has to be done. I don’t know why I’m writing a blog about this except that its on my mind.

Its funny as you get older… you seem to have more and more responsibility.  A friend told me the other day that the morgage payment shouldn’t be more then 20% of your total household income. Thats a scary thought considering currently my rent is a good 25 to 35% of my monthly household income. Good Grief! So in otherwords… in order to pay rent and live in a normal place these days… not even own a home, one needs to be making just about $5000.00 a month. Thats $60,000.00 a year. I don’t know too many people that make that kind of money that are my age with combined income. Oh well… I plan on making about 10 times that next year. Or at least thats what I’m going to shoot for. I hate money.

So my bud John called me today after reading my previous blog and told me it rubbed him the wrong way. At least… the part where I give out the jerks personal contact info to the world wide web, encouraging the world to shun him in any way possible! He said that as much as that might make me feel better… it doesn’t serve God in any way and doesn’t solve anything… except making me feel better. But you know what… John’s right… and when John’s right… hes right… And John… what can I say? Hes right? So I changed / took out his personal info. However… if you know the jerk I speak of, and feel like shunning him in any way, I won’t stop you… just know that John is right!

Ok, I once had a friend who filmed a music video of me. Well… we both filmed it, but he was there with me on it, and we worked on it together. He put it up on his myspace, and I’ve been able to enjoy it since. You know… having it on my myspace, showing other people the video, etc. It was an awesome video!

About 2 months ago, him and I had a fall out. Well… pretty much he went insane and decided to cuss me out for running 5 min late to pick him up and take him to the hospital. After cussing me out and hanging up on me, I called back with him saying that if I come by his house he would call the cops on me. Does this make sense to you? It doesn’t to me. So here I am, driven 35 miles on a work day to help him out and he pulls this on me, forcing me to turn around and go home. I haven’t spoken to him sense because hes a nut case and I want nothing to do with someone like that.

Recently, I went on youtube.com to show someone my video and it was GONE! So I went home and did a little more investigation on where it went. It turns out that he set my video to private on his account so I can’t view it. Its a video of my song, with me, that I helped create and he thinks he can just make it private! I sent him an email requesting that he allow me to view my own video, but I doubt he will even respond let alone allow me to view the thing. It just really makes me mad. I could almost say a few cuss word my self right now. Oh well… thats life.