mdog : u n l e a s h e d

technical difficulties

so. every time i find the will to play guitar + sing in front of lots of people -- therefore requiring microphones and pickups and other such nonsense -- something happens wherein i am unable to do the performance justice, i.e. forced to run the acoustic guitar through a bass amp, absentee mic stands, lack of personnel running proper sound mixes.

i'm thinking this is a sign. i guess i'll just stick to being unplugged.

Posted on Saturday, March 4, 2006 at 08:39PM by

mdog |

8 Comments

"come follow me,

and i will make you all mushy."

- from the internet monk

interesting.

Posted on Friday, March 3, 2006 at 01:36PM by

mdog |

1 Comment

lent

"it was pretty amusing to watch everyone come into the gym and start sweating off their ashes..."

- accidental observation by kt

Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 at 08:19AM by

mdog |

3 Comments

email excerpt

i've been having one of those I'm 26 And Have Never Dated Anyone SO THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME days. i recognize this is supposed to be an irrational thought. but most days it actually seems extremely rational. and i'm not emotional or pms'ing at all. just matter-of-factly frustrated and confused and, frankly, a mite bit irritated with God. i mean come on already. so i was listening to "help!" today and it connected with me enough to post.

i don't know when i became this person but it's starting to drive me crazy.

+++

yeah, well, same old same old. wtf.

Posted on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 at 12:16PM by

mdog |

11 Comments

via howie day

i need somebody, not just anybody [help!]
you know i need someone

when i was younger so much younger than today
i never needed anybody's help in any way
but now these days are gone, i'm not so self-assured
now i find i've changed my mind, i've opened up the doors

help me if you can, i'm feeling down
and i do appreciate your being 'round
help me get my feet back on the ground
won't you please, please help me

and now my life has changed in oh so many ways
my independence seems to vanish in the haze
but every now and then i feel so insecure
i know that i just need you like i've never done before

help me if you can, i'm feeling down
and i do appreciate your being 'round
help me get my feet back on the ground
won't you please, please help me

when i was younger so much younger than today
i never needed anybody's help in any way
but now these days are gone, i'm not so self-assured
now i find i've changed my mind, i've opened up the doors

help me if you can, i'm feeling down
and i do appreciate your being 'round
help me get my feet back on the ground
won't you please, please help me

Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 at 12:47PM by

mdog |

10 Comments

note to self 2

under no circumstances will i agree to play travel agent for my parents ever again. i certainly don't enjoy surfing orbitz and travelocity for my OWN vacations, much less browsing for destinations i will not be visiting.

MOTHER WILL YOU PLEASE get off the phone so that i can ascertain whether the credit card number you gave me an hour ago is mastercard or visa and therefore order the freaking tickets. i'm wasting my life here...

Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 at 09:38PM by

mdog |

2 Comments

overheard

"it probably tastes like that secretion."

"it's okay, you can touch my sandwich."

fun tonight [er.. yesterday?] with the crew at dave and buster's. feel free to add as memory [and discretion] permit...

Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 at 01:14AM by

mdog |

8 Comments

extraordinary?

so, we've been reading the book "twelve extraordinary women" for our women's small group. i can say with all confidence that it is one of the most fantastic pieces of utter crap that i have ever read in my entire life. it's just about all i can do to sit still as we tear it apart every wednesday night instead of hunting down john macarthur himself and forcibly shaking him until his brain liquifies, effectively preventing him from publishing anything ever again.

now, i've never read anything else by john macarthur; never read any of his 150 books, never read his study bible. maybe those books are great. it sounds as if he has quite a ministry going. but i am fairly certain that i will never voluntarily read anything by macarthur ever again.

how bad is it? you might ask. it can't really be that bad. it's bad enough that i wrote the following review for amazon. we'll see if it actually shows up on the site... i can't imagine it would be good for business.

***

i can only hope this is the worst book i will ever read.

i cannot fathom there being another book in existence that is worse than this one. this book is so ridiculously offensive that i created an amazon account for the express purpose of warning the general population about this drivel.

i can sum up the vast majority of this book in one word: UNSUBSTANTIATED. as far as geographical and archaeological facts, and church ritual and history, i have no disputes. however, in my opinion, the remainder of the book [i.e. THE TOPIC] is by and large a fanciful extrapolation of what macarthur THINKS and ASSUMES what these extraordinary women SHOULD be. macarthur has extracted the biblical accounts of these twelve women and created twelve chapters of fabricated nonsense, with no citations, no research, no evidence, and nothing remotely resembling a concrete reason for his blatant assumptions. he has attempted to fit these beautiful women into a box that exists only in his own mind.

macarthur takes away the respect and the power and the beauty of these women, and leaves the reader with nothing but a superficial shell of these heroes of the faith. you get the feeling he is writing [and i use that term loosely] with either an air of contempt that God would dare use the "weaker sex" in his kingdom; or with a condescending pat on the head to women everywhere, a sort of "there, there, now, isn't this a nice little book for you girls? now go off and play in the kitchen" air.

and the writing. OH, THE WRITING. the editors, the publishers, the typists, the people in the mailroom, EVERYONE was sleeping on this one. i lost count of the times the words "of course," "obviously," "naturally," and all derivatives thereof were used before i finished the first chapter. grown adults writing publishable material should not have to rely on such sad measures to prove their points.

obviously.

this book is a disservice to women, to the Church, to Christendom. the only positive comment i have about this horrific piece of writing is that it certainly creates discussion for our women's small group.

***

feel free to borrow this crap anytime if you are interested in seeing what all the fuss is about: i won't be rereading it anytime soon. meanwhile, we'll be off reading some carolyn custis james and hoping to find something a little less extraordinary.

addendum: said review was posted on amazon on february 25th.

Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 at 12:06AM by

mdog |

9 Comments

inspire me

my flickr site needs an update. someone give me a photo shoot theme...

Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 at 09:39AM by

mdog |

4 Comments

turns and toilets

two unrelated thoughts [you were worried, i know]:

when you are at a stoplight and you get a green arrow, PAY ATTENTION AND GO. the mere existence of the green arrow should imply, Hey! This intersection and traffic flow are busy enough to necessitate a green arrow! I should take advantage of it! trust me, the twelve cars behind you trying to get to work will thank you. instead of swearing at you.

when either you or i are in a bathroom stall at work, really, don't strike up a conversation with me. i find it weird.

Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 08:26AM by

mdog |

8 Comments