I don’t bother, because I don’t vote. I did it once as a novelty when I turned 18. I probably won’t ever again.

So why this amazing unpatriotic, anti-political disinterest?

I believe that it is beyond the power of any elected official in Washington to make any truly meaningful difference in my life, or the lives of any other citizen in this country.

By the time any man or woman gets to office, their hands are already so tied by favors to be returned, other parties to negotiate with, personal agendas, etc. that I think they probably struggle to tie their own shoes.

I think the best we can hope for from any administration is that it will be there and it will do “stuff”. Meaning that it will remain more or less in control of maintaining general order and stability among our citizenry (is that a word?). It will generally do a decent job of protecting us from harm, and more or less ensure that our economy remains healthy. There are enough checks and balances (not to mention very short terms lengths) designed within our system of government to discourage any outright tyrannical activity.

As long as somebody in America gets elected president, you can count on the above happening. Anything else that adds or subtracts from anyone’s personal legacy amounts to not a whole lot in the long run. Presidents will come, presidents will go. America will remain.

So where’s the real power for change in this country?

I’ll address that next week.

I have these great ideas about articles, opinions, editorials, updates; but I never get around to writing them. Then I forget what they were.

I’ve been super busy with the business the past couple of weeks, as well as planning/hosting my daughter’s first birthday. MIL (Mother-in-Law) and BIL (Brother-in-Law) were in town as well, which is always fun, but sort of added to the general chaos of the week.

Needless to say, it’s nice to have an opportunity to really relax for a bit before a new week starts it all over again. Not that I won’t be busy this weekend either. I’ve got web design, yard work, worship band most of Sunday.

But right now, the baby’s sleeping, the wife’s at work, and it’s just me here- kickin’ it quiet style.

BTW- has anyone seen the new Snickers packaging? I saw a crazy new logo yesterday at Wal-Mart. I’ve been looking online for some info, but have found none. It’s not even one their website (don’t click the link- I’m putting it up there for google to find, but the site is flash based, so it sucks and you’ll have to mute your computer really fast before it loads or else you’ll get bombarded with sound effects that you don’t want to hear.) I’ll post pics as soon as I can get some.

I’ve always been told to do everything “as unto the Lord”.

I always thought that sounded a little like bull$%*@.

I’ve struggled specifically with that theme ever since I was old enough to really start to understand that I, as a human, was not doing everything “as unto the Lord”. We’re probably talking since eleven or twelve years old. Long enough for me to really start to ignore the fact that I wasn’t doing it.

I continued on, graduated high school, joined the navy, got out of the navy, got an engineering job, quit my engineering job, and here I am now. I skipped a few details.

It always bothered me when I worked for the war machine that the end result of my labor was death and destruction of enemy forces under the guise of protection of freedom and democracy (as if that exists anyway). And when I worked for that other place, it always bothered me that the end result of my labor was really just some more cash for stockholders.

This forced my brain into a constant three-way battle which resulted in depression, stress, low self-esteem, and yadda-yadda. You know the feeling when you just don’t quite get your purpose in life? The Good Angel became all the things I had been taught as a youngster in Church. The Bad Angel was of course all the naughty questions you weren’t supposed to ask– just go over there and press the “I believe” button why don’t ya- everything will be ok.

Sample Good Angel/Bad Angel interview with myself:

B.A. So how can I do this (i.e. kill people, buy shareholders and CEOs boats) “as unto the Lord”

G.A. Just go and be a light to all your coworkers. You can be an example of Jesus Christ to them.

B.A. While I’m killing people? Seriously? Are you smoking crack? Jesus didn’t kill people.

G.A. Yeah, but I mean, nobody’s perfect. Jesus didn’t really expect his followers to drop everything all at once; you still gotta go work for the man, you know?

B.A. No.

G.A. You still have to pay your bills, taxes, feed your family, and all that stuff. How can you do that if you’re not working for the man?

(Here’s where B.A. totally wins the argument, and G.A. goes home crying)

B.A. Jesus said not to worry about that stuff. He’ll take care of it. Lilies of the field and whatnot. Go suck an egg.

I always felt something missing because the work of my hands never quite aligned with the mission of God. To love people, to share with them, to save them. So now I’ve quit the things I was doing before in an effort to consolidate my purpose. (Sound of rubber meeting road)

I’ve started a couple of businesses that are desperately needed in my local community. Through them, I will be able to strengthen ties between neighbors, enrich individual lives, and give communities the opportunity to grow in positive ways that will hopefully trickle down even to the lowest criminal roaming our streets.

I have an occupation now that I can directly align, from top to bottom, with Christ’s teachings about how to treat others, how to care for them, how to communicate his love to them.

I have no idea where my next paycheck is coming from, or what it will look like when it arrives, but as He promised, God has already started to provide for my family. I know He will continue to do so.

Disclaimer: I don’t ever want to offend anyone. I know that there are those of you out there with “normal” jobs that are quite content with your place. That’s ok. I understand that my level of angst goes far beyond what most people in this world would ever be capable of experiencing. I hope that you will simply forgive me for offense, if any was taken. I always welcome discussion.

Could it be that now I’ve quit my job I have so much more time that I can actually think, and now translate that into writing?

Not sure.

I have enough actual work to do to keep me busy; what with the music store, my guitar students, the publishing company we’ve just started, and everything else that I was already involved in.

It seems so much easier now, though. No longer working for wages, wondering exactly how we’ll make it. Even with all the questions life is better. Is it faith? Stupidity?

Probably some fluctuating combination of the two.

Regardless, I apologise for my neglect, especially to my brother Nick. I think Letters from Outer Space was my idea even. It’s been over two months since we’ve corresponded.

There’s a lot of life that I have to catch up on. I hope to keep you all involved in the process.

I swear I’m going to write more.

6 more weeks till I quit my job.

1. A partner and I are starting a business. It will be a retail musical instrument shop. Make us your friend.

2. I met Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars last week. Very cool

3. I am taking college courses in guitar from Berklee Music’s online school. I am particularly excited about this because I am learning for learning’s sake and for my own personal enjoyment and not for career advancement. My mother does not completely understand this, but that’s okay.

4. I love most people more today than I did yesterday. (At least I hope I do)

5. My wonderful wife and I are expecting a special delivery in September, codename: K2. I hope you all out there are smart enough to figure that out. For updates on the current kid, check out thenewestneville.com

Ironic Thought for the Day: The man who will make the best president for the United States of America is probably the man who least wants anything to do with the position.

I traded out the old synthetics for natural material on my Taylors and boy what a difference. I got to try my hand at some minor luthiery sanding and shaping them too. That was fun.

Also, I discovered this guy a week or two ago. Great music. Sort of Jack Johnson-ish, but more mellowy and hippie-like. Check him out. No, really, I mean it.

+1 Auto-Save

I love this feature (although I’m pretty sure it was also implemented in the newest release of MT). I can’t say how many times I’ve started a post, then been logged out for whatever reason and lost an entire post in MT. Wordpress doesn’t do it often, but often enough while I’m writing so that I at least don’t have to start completely anew.

+1 k2

The guys over at binarybonsai have done an excellent job putting together a nice, flexible framework for WP blogs. It’s really nice looking without any tweaks at all too, which is something I was sort of looking for. I’m still sort of digging in, so I don’t have much to say other than my first impressions are positive.

+1 Email to blog

I’ve wanted this feature in MT for forever. It’s not always prudent to log into your private blog and start typing away, but if your entry could be cleverly disguised as writing an e-mail…

-1 Template Tags

It’s mainly due to a lack of familiarity, I guess, but I just found customizing templates in Movabletype to be so much easier and so much more natural to me. The fact that I still only know the very basics of PHP isn’t much of a help either, but I think MT is a little more user friendly in this regard.

-1 No multiple blogs

One of the things I loved about MT was the ability to use multiple blogs on the same MT installation. It was just another way to further organize my data and made blog-specific formatting really easy. Rather than adjusting the formatting based on category.

That about wraps it up for now. To tell the truth, this post has been almost three weeks in the making, so I’ve totally lost my train of thought here. I may come up with some more comparisons later, but for now I think I’ll just publish this nonsense so that you all can read it.

I don think I’ve ever been “tagged” before. Not sure how I feel about it, but since I’ve got a few minutes here at work, here goes…

1. One book that changed your life: Dune - Frank Herbert

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: David Copperfield - Dickens

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: Desert Island Survival for Dummies

4. One book that made you laugh: A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

5. One book that made you cry: The Return of the King - Tolkien

6. One book that you wish had been written: Erik Estrada: My Road from Harlem to Hollywood (Oh wait, that book was written; and I own it.)

7. One book that you wish had never been written: The whole Left Behind Series (I don’t think I can do better than Nick here)

8. One book you’re currently reading: Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller

10. Tag five other people: Sadly, as I have been slipping farther and farther away from this beautiful online community, I’m only going to be able to tag one, Dave

There may be more tags later, once I dive into the archives of the old Brainpick.org (back when I was using MT). There’s one of you in particular that I miss, and I’m not sure if I can find you again, but if you’re reading, you had an old-style bicycle in your header image, and your wife dominates you in all Monopoly games. I do hope I can find you again friend.

Although I’ve known it was coming, the news still happens to shock me. I have been reading his Wheel of Time fantasy series for at least ten years now. Reading one book and waiting axiously a year or more for the next to be published. His stories have taken me away to a world of imagination and magic. They have given me a reprieve from real life when it was needed and a whole new universe to explore. His worlds were as detailed and intricate as Tolkien’s and as deeply real as Herbert’s.

His expiration brings a little sadness to me, but joy as well as I read the letters of others who feel the same as I do, and as I remember the journeys he took me on with his words. I am truly thankful for his dedication to his art and the mastery with which he executed it.

Mr. Jordan, I cannot wait to share you with my children.