Hallelujah Chorus

Take a minute to watch the attached video (for the technologically challenged just click on the title). Make sure to listen to the words.

I think it's a perfect example of the unity of music and life. The song is about (in part) Christ coming to earth and entering our life with us. And these folks live it out by bringing the story to a shopping mall during Christmas.

Merry Christmas

I just had a thought. I have a double-major in Political Science and Philosophy, yet I get all my news from The Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

Is this sick and wrong or just a sign of the times?

Organization

I was watching a customer fiddling with her money the other day and had a flashback to my childhood. I remember being at a toy store buying something. Dad was with me and I think this was probably one of the first times I had bought something with my own money - probably when Mom and Dad were initially trying to teach us good spending habits.

When I was putting away the change Dad told me that he likes to organize his bills by denomination - 20's behind 10's, 10's behind 5's, etc. He seemed to think that this was important, that it would save time in the long run. I remember thinking at the time,

I don't have time for that! Where are your priorities - there are Lego's to play with!

Well, I don't know how it happened, but years later I'm that guy holding up the line at Safeway putting my money away.

Thanks Dad. Now if I would just have the same attitude towards the rest of my life I could walk to my bed without stubbing my toes and tripping on stuff.

Truck smell

So most of you know I'm driving a new vehicle. Marv Rhodes, a close friend of the family, passed away and it used to be his. It was sad to see Marv go, but he's in a better place. I am pretty excited about the truck, however. It's been cool to be driving a vehicle that belonged to someone I knew - kind of a remembrance.

Anyway, though, the reason I'm writing this is because of a strange smell that I just noticed. I was driving it the other day and suddenly thought

"wow, it even smells like a truck".

A while later, when I wasn't in the truck I had another thought.

"wait a second, how does a truck smell any different than a car?"

What the heck was I identifying as that 'truck smell'? Do trucks really smell different from cars? How so?

So the next time I got in I paid more attention to exactly what I was smelling. I finally realized that what I was smelling was just Marv's old dog. Brandy or Oreo, I don't know which, had left their mark (so to speak) on the truck. And Gus, the dog my dad had while I was growing up, had left his mark on my subconscious feelings of what a truck should smell like.

Thanks guys, what would the world be like without dogs?

Edited on March 14th.