Hello, my name is Chris and I am addicted to Netflix.

A few months back, we turned off the cable tv.  I get nothing on my tv set.  I don’t live in a good range to receive digital signals either.  So we have zero television stations. Some people think that we are weird, but I really like it.  We don’t really need it.  I only miss it during events such as the Super Bowl and the World Series.  I will also miss watching the Reds play on tv this summer too. But I get the Reds on the radio and I watched the Super Bowl at someone else’s house. I get my news on the Internet and I am really okay with not seeing American Idol.

We watch our favorite tv shows online and then there is Netflix.  Netflix streams all kinds of great shows.  There are plenty of shows for my kids to watch and plenty that I want to see.  Back in the day, I was a dedicated fan of the show ’24.’  Jack Bauer is the man! So that ran in conflict with ‘Heroes’, so I had to pick one.  Recently I blew through all 4 seasons of ‘Heroes’ on Netflix.  And now I am watching ‘Prison Break.’  Faith and I are also completely lost in ‘Lost.’  My kids discovered that they like the ‘Cosby Show’ on Netflix and they are also reliving some old cartoons like ‘Ren and Stimpy.’ I feel like we have Netflix on all of the time.

Besides that we watch DVDs.  I love movies. We are a Netflix family and we thank the Internet for removing our dependence on Cable.

I had hoped by now that I would have great news to share with everyone, but nothing has worked out the way that I had hoped with my time on unemployment.

Back in June, an adventure began when my job was unexpectedly terminated.  I was excited at the chance to do something different with my life.  I have made many changes and tried to make good with the time that I have been given.  More than anything, I wanted to do something with my life that I enjoyed and would somehow serve God.  I have been volunteering my time and doing my best to help others in hopes that it could turn into something.  But I have continued to run into wall after wall preventing me from finding that role for my life.

I feel like I have been constantly searching, but still haven’t been able to figure out what I am supposed to do.  I have applied for jobs that I wanted and others that I did not want.  I got one interview that went really well.  They liked me so much that they decided I was more than what was required for the position.  I am about out of time and running out of options.

My unemployment will run out this week.  From what I understand, I can apply for an extension, but I don’t know when.  If that goes through, then I have some more time, but I can’t do this forever.  I am trying to  imagine what it looks like for a guy who has spent the last 10 years doing computer support work who could end up working for minimum wage.  I am trusting God that this is still somehow going to work out.  I wish I knew what tomorrow looks like, but maybe its better that I don’t know right now.

I wanted to share this with you so that you would think to pray for me.  I don’t have any other ideas right now, so I plan on just continuing to seek God for what he has for me.  And because this blog is intended to be a two way street with  you, please tell me how I can pray for you right now.

Ok, as I began following Jesus 14 years ago we did this thing called a “Quiet Time.”  This is the time where I am supposed to spend time with God each day and pray and read some scripture. I am tired of the name “Quiet Time.”

It just doesn’t sound very appealing to me anymore.  It sounds like a punishment that I put my kids in when they act up after I spank them.  I understand that people get quiet to spend time with God.  But the way I see it is a chance for God and I to connect.  My time with Him might be exciting, comforting, humbling, or even frustrating.  Sometimes my “quite time” doesn’t feel so quiet.  If you and I were going to get together and connect in a personal way, we wouldn’t have to go somewhere quiet.  We can connect at church, in a coffee shop, at a concert, or any number of places.

So I want to rename my quiet time to something different.  I haven’t decided what that is yet, so I am thinking out loud a bit here.  I want to know what you call them or think they should be called.

The other day, I made the mistake of letting a door to door salesmen come into my house and waste an hour and a half of my time.  But I am pretty sure that he will not be coming back again.

During my wasted hour, my couch and chairs were cleaned like they have never been cleaned before.  Despite the fact that I have all hardwood floors in my home, there are still hundreds of uses for a Kirby vacuum cleaner.  I can use it is as a leaf blower, but I sure don’t want to carry that heavy thing around my yard.  It will even clean out a clogged drain.  I know more about Kirby vacuum cleaners than I ever wanted to or thought that I would know.  Despite the fact that I am unemployed and have no urgent need for a vacuum cleaner, he still wanted to spend all that time showing me how it works.  And if I were to someday buy a vacuum cleaner that only costs $2300, it would save me thousands of dollars in the long run.

Here is the funny part of the story.  I know this guy doesn’t want to come back here.  During his demo, my son Ephriam had an accident in his pants.  Faith cleaned him up and everything was good to go.  So dude asked if he could use the bathroom before he left and I allowed him.  He finished, picked up his boxes and was out the door.  A few minutes later, I went to use the bathroom and found a big pile of poop in my sink.  This was my son’s poop, not the sales guy.  Faith had got some poop in the sink while cleaning up Ephriam and forgot to clean it up.  So this poor dude who wasted my time probably didn’t try to wash his hands in the pooped sink.

I did not make time to write blogs for this week yet, so I have a video to share with you all.  I love basketball, but really dislike the NBA as far as the game goes.  But I always liked watching the dunk competition.  I think the NBA should do more of this and play tournaments.  Most of the regular season games are meaningless and nobody plays until the fourth quarter.

I love this game and saw this today.  In honor of birthdays today, check this out.

Today is my birthday.  I am turning 32 years old.  Birthdays aren’t such a big deal anymore, but I thought I would share some fun facts about my birthday with you.

• I have 3 friends who share the same birthday as me of different years.  Happy Birthday Justin, Shannon, and Ty.
• I was born on exactly the same day and year as Jennifer Love Hewitt.
• It was a Wednesday.
• In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the The Communist Manifesto.
• In 1885, The newly completed Washington Monument was dedicated.
• In 1937, Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman’s Arrowbile.
• In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
• I also share the 21st with David Geffen, Alan Rickman, Alan Trammell,  and William Baldwin.
• I often have to share my birthday with Presidents Day, but it was always a bonus to get out of school on my birthday.

32 sounds like a good number to me.  I think I have always liked the evens better than the odds for some reason.  Here are some facts about the number 32.

• It is the atomic number of germanium
• It is the freezing point of water.
• Retired number in sports for Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton, Jim Brown, Kevin McHale, Magic Johnson, Julius Erving, Bill Walton, Karl Malone.
• The number of teeth of a full set of teeth in an adult human, including wisdom teeth
• The size of a databus in bits: 32-bit
• The size, in bits, of certain integer data types, used in computer representations of numbers
• IPv4 uses 32-bit (4-byte) addresses
• ASCII and Unicode code point for space
• The number of pages in the average comic book

I finished reading David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ recently and have been working hard at getting this process in place to help me be more productive.

I have been using parts of the system for a while, but couldn’t grasp the whole concept until I had read the book.  It has been extremely helpful to me lately.  It is taking me a lot of time to get everything in my life processed through the Inbox of the system, but eventually I will get there.

So today I want to learn more about you.  What system, tools, or tricks do you use to help you be productive?

My kids make me laugh all of the time.  I think it is important that people laugh on a regular basis.  And because I am not always good at being funny in writing on my blog, I know that telling stories about my kids could easily bring you a chuckle.  So here are some recent comedy bits courtesy of Ephriam and KC.

At the end of Toy Story 3, there are outtakes.  My kids love when Mr. Potato Head tells the peas in a pod to “Stay out of my butt!” They then go on repeating it around the house for a while.

KC loves to sing.  She is still singing Christmas songs and it is February.  I don’t know where she gets it. (Ok, that is all me)  She likes to sing Mitch Miller’s Must Be Santa.  I think mostly she likes it because that song drives Faith crazy.  The correct lyrics are, “hat on head, suit that’s red”  But she has changed it to “hat on head, Super Sled.”  It totally makes sense that Santa must have a super sled to get around the world in one night.

Ephriam loves to laugh.  If I say anything in the car like I am singing, he has this laugh that he does.  It doesn’t matter what I say as long as it sounds like I am singing.  He just laughs and laughs.

Have you had a good laugh lately?

Sometimes, life just happens and it is not always easy.  It might be a problem with a relationship, unemployment, or an unexpected crisis.  In this life we find a lot of trouble.  And often we walk away wounded.  So my question for today is, how do you treat your wounds?  What do you use to medicate and find healing?  I’ll go first.

I am a people person.  So when I need healing, I go to people who I love and trust with my wounds.  And often there is food involved.  Eating has a way of making me feel better.  I also cry out to God, but that should be a given for me.

Okay, now it’s your turn.  What is your drug of choice for healing wounds of this life?