Recently I bought a new pair of flip-flops…I know, it’s near the end of summer, but my old nasty sandals were at the end of their road.

Now I’ve always worn actual sandals in the past; scandals that were actually strapped on at bridge of my foot and at the back of my heel.  It makes them easy to walk around in, which is good because those who know me know that I tend to walk rather quickly.

So I change into my first-ever pair of flip-flops (really!) as soon as I leave the store I bought them in, and immediately I notice that I can’t walk around in them with my normal quick walk; I simply have to slow down.  If I don’t, the flips go flying off my feet.  After a few frustrating minutes, I finally get the hang of it and the new footwear stays on my feet just fine.  Honestly, it felt like I actually had to learn to walk again.

This got me thinking about life a little bit and how we sometimes forget how to slow down.  I will be the first to say that I have a very prominent GIT-R-DONE attitude at times, and I tend to blow through job after job without stopping to catch my breath or enjoy “simple life stuff.”

“Simple life stuff”…usually that’s anything that you don’t usually do, but once you take the time to do it, you’re glad that you did:

• Walking without any particular destination.
• Sitting on the porch and enjoying the breeze.
• Having a conversation and joking around with your parents or other family.
• Going out on the boat and fishing.
• Teaching someone else how to fish properly.
• Firing up the grill and cooking.
• Going driving with someone with no other agenda than to just talk.

These (and many other things) are all things that I’ve failed to do well.  I have a tendency to get too fast for my own good.  Once that happens, I have trouble shutting my brain off and not thinking about stuff that involves work.  Having certain mindsets doesn’t help either.

• “No” and “Not yet” are not valid answers.
• Unless it’s working exactly like it’s supposed to, it’s just not working.
• I’m not stopping until this is done and done right.

These are thoughts that I struggle with constantly because I’m one of those people that can’t accept failure, and this makes me forget “how to walk” sometimes.  I want to do better at walking, so that when the opportunity comes to slow down, then I can because I remember how do to it.

I’m just getting ready to enter into a 2-week-long time of rest.  This has been on the edge of my thoughts for 2 months now, and I’m so excited that it’s finally here.  For 2 weeks I’m going to have nothing to do but remember how to slow down and ”just walk.”  I’ll have my new flip-flops on, too; in fact the only time I’m not going to be wearing flip-flops is when I’m on my motorcycle.

I hope this wasn’t too confusing of a post… it’s just been on my mind for a couple days now and I wanted to get it out there.  Being able to take things slow is important, and nowadays in our society it’s becoming more of a lost art. 

May you never forget how to slow down from a run and “just walk” when you need to.

This was too cute to pass up…

This past weekend I had the opportunity to play with the worship team for the weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It reminded me of why I got into music long ago in the first place.  I simply love it.  I don’t think there’s anything I’d rather do, honestly.

Anyway, after the weekend, I got a reaction from young Mr. Carson, who is definitely the cutest 2-year-old I know.

He thinks I’m a rockstar…poor little guy.  It’s still cute though.

In the spirit of Dave D’Angelo’s blog, I’d like to post my own latest experience with Don’t Be That Guy.  (NewPointe staff, rest easy:  None of you are That Guy.)

I’ve had 2 separate occurrences of this in the past month.  I would be in the same “air space” as a person that apparently wanted my attention, but was in conversation with another individual.  This person, knowing that I was already engaged in work OR walking to a new location, would drop my name in their conversation with the other party — a TOTAL third-person reference — in order to get my attention while I was still in said air space.  Once I heard my name, I would naturally turn around to see what was up.  The person, now having my attention, would break their conversation with their original party in order to give me the details on what they wanted from me.

This is slightly rude, and borderlines on passive-aggressive.  Don’t be That Guy.  If you want someone’s attention and they’re in the room, address them directly.  Failure to do so can only result in the possibility of more rudeness, such as your “target” actually ignoring you.  Not that I’d ever do that, but I’m just saying…

Keep it real, spread the love, converse directly, and don’t be That Guy.

It’s been a crazy week this week.

Jeff, my summer intern, finished up last week and is now headed to Mount Vernon for school.  He added a great deal to what we were doing here in terms of video, and he’s going to be missed a LOT.  Consequently, I’ve been picking up some slack in the video area. 

I’ve been kicking around the idea of turning this blog into more of a “general church tech” deal instead of strictly IT.  Why?  Well for me, it definitely matches my job a little more.  My title is IT Director for sure, but I have a good deal of involvement in all things technical around the building, from our Symnet audio network to our lighting, and even our HVAC system at times.  It keeps me busy, but it’s very rewarding from a learning standpoint.  I haven’t made a final decision on shifting the blog yet, but by the end of the week I’ll have my mind made up.

I’ve had the opportunity to get back into music lately, and I’m loving it.  For me, this means, playing bass guitar, drumming, working on ProTools projects, and sometimes even singing.  I’ve had the opportunity to fill in the past couple of weeks with the worship team, and it’s been nothing but a blast.

So that’s a little snapshot of what I’ve been up to, in case you’ve been wondering why the posts have ramped down as of late.  If I do end up changing this to a “general tech” blog, you can bet I’ll have more to talk about.  We’ll see how that goes.

I feel like some of my recent posts have had a recurring theme:  BUSYNESS.  I remember back when I started this blog in February, I was doing a post every couple of days.  I’d like to get back to that, I really would.  :-) 

I think for the first time as an IT guy, I’m actually feeling overwhelmed by everything that’s going on JUST in IT.  It looks good and functional on the surface, and we don’t have helpdesk tickets piling up or anything, but there are a lot of maintenance items to take care of right now.

I’m gonna split up the week’s goings-on into different posts, just to cut back on size.