This Weekend.

I just looked at my site statistics, and apparently someone searched the internet for “Prozac” and they linked into my website. What? (Prozac). I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about Prozac. Prozac is not something I need to (prozac) blog about because Prozac does not interest me one bit. Of course (prozac) now that I’ve typed “Prozac” so many times in this blog entry (PROZAC) a lot more people will link in to this website after searching for Prozac. To those newcomers, I say WELCOME TO MY WORLD.

And to my local readers in the DeKalb County area, couple things going on this weekend to help you celebrate the Holy Week.

Community Good Friday Service – The Waterloo Community Good Friday service will be held at the Waterloo United Methodist Church (From Wayne Street, Go west on Maple by the Library. The UMC is a few blocks down on Maple). I think Auburn has a community Good Friday service, but I’m not sure.

Easter – Artistic planning for this weekend began back in January. It will be awesome. Don’t miss church at New Hope this weekend. Three identical services to choose from – Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m., or Sunday 10:30 a.m.

I don’t mean to mock the old Charter Beacon commercials, but in all seriousness, “If you don’t go to New Hope on Easter weekend, please, go to to church somewhere.”

A Double Whammy.

A few months ago my mom brought home two cats from the animal shelter. The first cat was grey, and my mom named that cat “Ashley,” although my Dad and I still call the cat “Grey.” The other cat was up to me to name.

The first day we had the cats I picked up the second cat (not Grey) to put it in a cat carrier so it could go to the vet for its immunizations. When I tried to put the newly arrived and not-yet-trusting cat into the carrier it decided to jump out of my arms – but not until it climbed over my face with its claws. One of the claws dug into my ear. The claw sorta sliced a small piece of my ear off. It hurt really bad and so I put my hand up to my ear to comfort myself and immediately felt a lot of blood all over the side of my face. All because that stupid cat “bit” my ear. (It actually clawed my ear – but I’ve always said it “bit” it).

I immediately gave the cat its new name. I yelled directly to the cat, “You bit my ear off – and I will never forget it you stupid cat! From this day forward your name will be Mike Tyson! End of story.” I didn’t really care that it was a female cat. I gave it a name to represent the cat’s first impression on me.
To this day the cat is registered at the Vet’s office as “Mike Tyson Diehl.”

But you know, I love that cat now. I just took my dog for a walk down the country road I live on, and the cat followed along. Every time I park in the driveway, that cat comes out to greet me at my car door. It is now the most loving cat I’ve ever seen. At the time of my pain, I wanted to give the cat a name that would never allow anyone to forget what it had done. But now the cat is loving and enjoys being held. I feel sorta guilty calling it Mike Tyson still.

A Double Whammy:
1) There’s never a second chance to make a first impression.
2) That cat’s reputation is ruined because of the label I put on it. I’ll let you do the “math” on that one.

Campaign for Better Font Usage.

I have come to realize that the little things matter in our communication. For example, the clothes we wear communicates information about ourselves without ever saying a word.

I think the same can be said for print. We need to be careful of the font that we use. Fonts must be uncommon and interesting for them to actually be an effective font — and when used properly fonts can make the world a better place. That’s why I am beginning the “Campaign for Better Font Usage.” The primary thrust of this campaign is to increase the usage of the Comic Sans font – which is now available on an Apple Computer. To help, immediately begin using the Comic Sans font on everything — except on your homework assignments.

Do you think a teacher or professor actually wants to read a 10 page report in “Times New Roman” or “Arial”? How boring. For research papers in college its best to use a script font – you know – one that’s in cursive. A cursive font will give your research paper that extra “bling” that would be sure to get you an A.

String Cheese.

I like string cheese as a snack. It’s the best, man. Not only does it taste good, but when you eat it you have an excuse to play with your food — pulling each string off. They’re just awesome.

I had eaten string cheese made by the Kraft company — a name brand. Over a few weeks, I had gone through a few packs of the Kraft string cheese.

Tonight I went to grab some string cheese out of the fridge and I realized that it wasn’t the name brand Kraft string cheese — it was some cheap imitation string cheese. But I figured it’d still be good, right?

It tasted disgusting. It was nothing like I was used to from the name brand string cheese — it didn’t even pull apart properly. So frustrating. I don’t think its that the cheap stuff was bad — but the name brand was tons better.

This naturally led me to two profound thoughts:

1) The Real Thing is always better. Never go for a cheap imitation.
2) It took a cheap imitation before I realized what I really had.

Top Ten Favorite Videos

10) A Jorb Well Done. A Homestar Runner Video. If you’ve never seen any Homestar Runner videos, watch this short “orientation” welcome video.

9) Oops! (The legendary Saturday Night Live sketch).

8) Things You CAN’T do while NOT in a pool.

7) I’m Coming Your Way (I was THERE when this was filmed. I love it because that moment was very powerful – and now I can relive it).

6) Uptown Girl. This is a music video of a fun song!

5) Sport Stacking. My cousin Jeoff Harris is a sport stacker – his team won the international competition (against the Germans) in 2006 and were featured on ESPN last fall. Jeoff went to Nashville for a cup stacking demonstration and my sister and brother-in-law (who live near Nashville) went there and filmed this.

4) More Cowbell. This phrase is often heard during my worship team rehearsals (as a joke). This is why its funny. Unfortunately, they say the H-word inappropriately one time in this video – I rate it PG.

3) Completely Uncalled For. I laugh everytime.

2) Chris Bliss Synchronized Juggling to Beatles’ Music. THIS IS AMAZING! The more you watch the better it gets. It’s almost an interpretive dance – only with juggling balls.

1) Hyperactive Musician. Very very cool. This guy can’t play an instrument at all, but he hits individual notes and edits them together to make music. Very cool. A must see.

Top Ten Reasons I’m Looking Forward to the Risen to Reign Series.

This weekend my church is beginning its Easter series called Risen to Reign. Lots of great things will be happening — this four week series is our Easter production for 2007, integrated with our services. Here are the top ten reasons I’m looking forward to the Risen to Reign series.

10) Hundreds of hours have gone into it – I’m anxious to finally see how it unfolds.

9) After the series, my work days will actually last from 9-5 again. Okay – so they never did. But still . . .

8) The story of Jesus has the power to change an eternal destiny. Through the ongoing drama in this series, the story of Christ will be more clear than perhaps ever before — I know lives will be touched as a result.

7) I think some friends of mine A, A, and J are coming. I’m pretty sure they aren’t Christians – and I’m praying they recieve Christ during this event.

6) I’m adding some instrumentation to the worship band during this series.

5) We’re going to integrate some very sweet artistic elements within the worship sets — including some stuff we’ve never tried before.

4) My friend B might be coming. I talked about him a few days ago. I’m definitely looking forward to that.

3) We’re completely transforming the stage on week four (Easter Weekend).

2) I believe people will make decisions for Christ.

1) IT’S GONNA BE SWEET!

Flexing Muscle.

I went to the YMCA the other day and visited the proverbial weight room. (I still haven’t figured out if they call it a weight room because you lift weights or because you’re in there to loose some of it). I did a variety of exercises that worked out many different muscles: my bis, tris, quads, and quints.

After my body-building session I made my way back to the locker room to grab my clothes. As I walked in, I heard a loud banging noise – as if two junior high kids were bouncing a basketball against the lockers – which is exactly what it was. They also had radio headsets from the YMCA that they were playing with. I said a few friendly words to them (which was responded with disrespect), grabbed my stuff, and headed to the front desk to pick up my membership card.

The lady at the front desk had a concerned look on her face. “Are those two boys behaving?” she said, “I had to kick them out last night for their destructive behavior.” I explained what I saw. She told me that they weren’t supposed to have those radios back there. The conversation went something like this:

I said: “Want me to go get the radios from them?”

“Well, I don’t want to . . .”

“I don’t mind.”

“Well . . .”

“Do they need kicked out? I don’t mind doing that eitherrr . . .”

“Adam, you really want to go get them, don’t you?”

You see, I was looking forward to going into that locker room and showing those disrespectful junior highers who the boss was. I wanted to flex those muscles I just spent an hour working on.

Right about at the time of my glory, in came the boys’ uncle or something and he picked them up. I never got to do any muscle flexing. But I still worked hard for the muscle – and when I need to flex it, I know they’re right beside me: my bis, tris, quads, and quints. All of them. Grrr!!! 🙂

Super Mario

Along with a million of other kids, I grew up Nintendo. The music from it has become quite famous and I decided to post links to several of my favorite Super Mario things – most of them performances of the music. Have fun!
Mario with a Beatboxing Flute Player.

Mario in Real Life — on a stage.

If Mario lived in a City.

Great Electric Guitars Version.

Choral Version.

Bassoon Quartet Version.

The Best Ever Piano Version – BLINDFOLDED.

I forgot this one. This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!