I came back from Africa all screwed up in my sleep patterns.

Then I went full bore into the events of my job.

Then the olympics started… and I have not been to bed before 12:30am since.

No wonder I still feel like I have jetlag. I keep telling myself the olympics are only 2 weeks long and only come once every 4 years, but my body is starting to slap me for this thinking.

I love the Olympics. My pillow does not.

About 2 years ago or so I talked to some friends of mine about the need for a book to graduating seniors. I expressed how I was tired of the options for students being some coffee table devotional book written by a Christian bookstore devotional superhero like Chuck Swindol, James Dobson, or Max Lucado. Nice enough guys, but I was confident the books were really being marketed to grandma’s in Arkansas who buy books for their graduating grandkids who never actually read them.

I had some ideas for a solution to this problem, but I had no idea how to get a book published. Some friends in the publishing world even told me that it was not a book that people buy because, like it or not, grandma is the audience they market to. So, I delayed. Then eventually I talked to some friends on the outskirts of the publishing world about the need and then they said, “Brian, write it.” They didn’t say they’d publish it, but they did say I should write it.

Well, my crazy life or my lack of self-discipline or whatever has kept me from authoring a book and I started writing bible studies instead. Then I had lunch with a friend of mine- Chuck Bomar- this summer and said I was trying to turn the corner and finally write this book. But he told me he had the same idea and his book was already written and is almost published. So today I noticed that Chuck’s book was published by Simply called “99 thoughts for college age people.”

And a few months ago I noticed that Mark Matlock wrote one called, “Freshmen: the college students guide to developing wisdom.”

I could still throw my own ideas into the hat, but I think I’ll probably just sit on it. Truth is: I think I snoozed and I loozed. But I’ll pick them both up and give them a read and if I think I can offer anything new to the scene, I might have to get my butt in gear. If not, oh well.

Shannon and I went away for our 14th year anniversary last June. As a result we asked some questions to evaluate our marriage. We asked:

• how are you?
• how are we?
• how is our family?

I wrote about them in an article for Simply Youth Ministry that published while I was in Uganda…. you can check it out here.

I went to dinner at a friends house and found out that my iphone was not being maximized. I thought all apps for the iphone required the internet, and I just figured they’d slow down my world. It’s like dashboard for the mac…. something I never use. I already don’t use it for mail because I can type so much faster on my laptop and don’t really see the point.

But I decided to give a try. So after surfing itunes for an hour or so today, I took the plunge into another layer of my iphone.

I bought one program:

• the bible which is now fully contained on my iphone in several searchable versions. I used to have that on my palm, but now have it on my iphone for the first time. I’m excited about using it in hospitals and even in church.
• I wanted to buy another one that was a dictionary, but the reviews were bad, so I’ll wait for them to improve it and then buy it.

I also scored several free apps…

• some games- solitaire, a maze thing, a random drawing thing, yatta yatta.
• a “flashlight” that makes the screen go bright and light for those times I can’t find my keys in the door lock in my dark office hallway. It even can strobe for those cool concert moments.
• a converter that turns virtually any measurement into something I understand (which would have been very hand in Uganda)
• a tip calculator- which is nice when I’m feeling dumb.
• a movie locator that automatically changes locations when you do.
• and a very cool app called “remote” which controls my itunes from my cell phone- something I’ll use every weekend in youth group- I’m really stoked about that one.

Now if I can just get my phone to wash my car.

I was going through some pictures today and ran across this one my dad shot. It’s the best example of the “there’s no limit to what one can carry on a bike” thing I mentioned in a previous post. This guy is the man. Enjoy.

I only wish I had a pic of that guy with a HUGE pig strapped on a board while it peed a river on the back of his moped. That would have been pure gold.