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http://www.seabreezecomputers.com/lost/

Here are my results:

You are Boone Carlyle

Boone Carlyle 90% Kate Austen 70% Mr. Eko 70% Michael Dawson 68% Charlie Pace 60% Sayid Jarrah 60% Claire Littleton 60% Shannon Rutherford 56% James “Sawyer” Ford 55% Jin-Soo Kwon 55% Walt Lloyd 52% Dr. Jack Shephard 48% John Locke 40% Hugo “Hurley” Reyes 35% Ana-Lucia Cortez 32% Sun Kwon 30% You are a wealthy and good-looking person who tries to keep your friends and loved ones out of trouble.

Dean made some really great progress on the bathroom over the weekend … here are the pictures to prove it!! (He starts tiling today.)

    

Oh and we now have a tankless water heater. Tankless water heaters last twice as long, consume half the gas, and never run out of hot water. They’re good for the environment and in the end they save you money. Just one of the ways we are trying to live more green!

This is what a tankless water heater looks like:

 

  

I’m actually here. Just really focused on other things right now … but here is an update.

First, I LOVE my job. I couldn’t be happier. I have been at Amgen for 2 months now. Boy how time flies!! I work with a great bunch of guys like my cube mate, Scott, and my friend, Rich, who told me about the job to begin with. We have all become pretty good friends. We joke around a lot. Besides all of the amazing benefits I like being so close to home and Dean visits me for lunch at least 3 times a week!!

More going on …. our Thousand Oaks team has also been meeting weekly to refine and clarify our strategy for VOX culture pubs. It has a lot of us thinking about the Gospel and what it really means. Good (and hard) and important stuff to be processing as we move forward.

Another focus of mine (which has also kept me out of the blog world) is weight training. I have really become addicted. I train 3 times a week in the morning and then I go back to the gym in the evenings another 3 to 4 days a week to do cardio or Pilates or I run. Yeah, the gym is my second home!! Lately, my friends and Dean have encouraged me to become a personal trainer because I love it so much. So, I am going to do just that!! It will take about 3 to 6 months to prepare for the big exam. Once I pass I will be certified and can work in a gym!!

One thing that has kept me from committing the time it takes to become a trainer before now is that I didn’t want to expend all my energy on something that I didn’t feel would have some bigger purpose. I know I would be helping people get healthy, fit and strong and that I may even have opportunities to share deeper spiritual things with my clients but, for some reason, those ideas just weren’t compelling enough for me.

For several months now I have been looking for a more specific and important reason to spend 6 months preparing to become a trainer and then working a second job as one. I finally found my answer last weekend. God spoke so clearly that I could do something that I love and then give all of the money that I make doing it to help the Pokot people in Africa. See, it has never been about the money. Heck, I would train people for free. But, now I have a story to tell. My clients will know that the money they are investing is not only to get them fit but also bringing life to people that may not have life if we in the West didn’t do something. Anyway, it was been so freeing and exciting to discover this reason and purpose.

until next time here are some photos from the last few months …

 

The fam in Kauai for Christmas

 

Me in the Kauai surf (photo by Dean)

 

The gang at The Rainforest Cafe in Orlando, Florida.
Relaxing after the Humana 2.0 conference.

 

Me, Rachel and Staci - Humana 2.0

(Hey everyone, it’s Dean. Today is Christina’s birthday so I’ve hijacked her VOX to create this space for you to leave her a little love. Enjoy!)

This story is worth the read and the video only adds to the story.

Today my friend shared this with me and several others in the office. It certainly left an impression — everyone cried.

So now I will share it and I would love to know how this impacts all of YOU –
Please share your thoughts and feelings!

—————————————–

Strongest Dad in the World
From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a
wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike.
Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him
brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life;” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in
an institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to
communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a
charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still,
he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a
few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway,then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud
getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their
best time’? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

`No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his
arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.”

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

`The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”
Watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg

My Jason has been asked to open for Anna Nalick at the Ventura Theater this Saturday night, July 15th. (Anna Nalick is probably best known for her song Breathe 2AM.)

Support him! Buy a ticket! Go to the show!

Jason in Los Angeles, July 2006 (Photo taken by the lovely Chelsea Hillman)

Check out these websites:

http://www.jasonsharpmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/annanalick

Today I joined the many who have already disconnected their in-home
telephone service.

We are now totally mobile, baby!

Give it some time and our kids kids wont even know what it meant to have a landline. Wild huh?! I love technology!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G470rfJQCI

Then, let’s talk about it …

What are your thoughts?

Feelings?

Why?

(picture compliments of J Graf)

I was running today and listening to my iPod on shuffle mode. This song came on and definitely caused me to pause and reflect … I think it is worth recording here considering last weeks events …

TRY TO SEE IT MY WAY
The Beatles (Lennon/McCartney)

Try to see it my way,
Do I have to keep on talking till I can’t go on?
While you see it your way,
Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone.
We can work it out,
We can work it out.
Think of what you’re saying.
You can get it wrong and still you think that it’s alright.
Think of what I’m saying,
We can work it out and get it straight, or say good night.
We can work it out,
We can work it out.
Life is very short, and there’s no time
For fussing and fighting, my friend.
I have always thought that it’s a crime,
So I will ask you once again.
Try to see it my way,
Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.
While you see it your way
There’s a chance that we may fall apart before too long.
We can work it out,
We can work it out.
Life is very short, and there’s no time
For fussing and fighting, my friend.
I have always thought that it’s a crime,
So I will ask you once again.
Try to see it my way,
Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.
While you see it your way
There’s a chance that we may fall apart before too long.
We can work it out,
We can work it out.

Hey Scott Stapp stole my shirt!

My friend sent me this yesterday…

Christina,

From Community of Kindness by Steve Sjogren:

Page 133

“Church planting may have created more ex-best friends than anything else!”

I read this and thought you could relate.

Jennifer

Sad … but true … but Jesus is worth it. So, I push on.

At Staci’s suggestion I am going to post this amusing little story…

So, we have a little mouse living in our house. Jason says he thinks the mouse lives under his bed. He doesn’t even care!! That kind of freaks me out. Dean and Chrissy saw the little critter one day in the family room and think it’s the cutest thing they have ever seen. I think mice are cute too but not living in my house! The mouse must sense this because he has yet to show his “cute” little self when I am around. Others have spoken of the mouse sighting as well. Lindsay and Melissa think he comes in through a hole in the bathroom wall. He has been seen darting in that direction (behind the toilet) when someone surprises him by walking into the loo to do their business.

So, each day when I come home from work I leave my purse on the floor next to my desk in the office. After I got to work this morning Dean called in a bit of a panic thinking I had accidently taken his wallet with me to work. I proceeded to clean out my purse in search of the missing wallet. No wallet was to be found but I did find shredded gum wrappers. I wondered how that could have happened. I took the gum package out of my purse and discovered the whole corner had been ‘chewed’ away. Oh my!! that little stinker was in my purse!!! Upon further investigation I noticed sticks of gum with big bites out of them. The absolute confirmation of his presence came in the form a little ‘chocolate sprinkle’ left as a parting gift at the bottom of my purse. Nice huh?

Anyway, just wanted to share. And, by the way, my purse will be left on the desk tonight!

JASON SHARP with FROM STATIC TO STERO will be playing

BATTLE OF THE BANDS at the HOUSE OF BLUES (ANAHEIM)

NOVEMBER 20th doors open at 5PM show starts at 5:30PM

TO ORDER $10 TICKETS

CALL 805-492-8143 NOW!!!

TICKETS WILL BE $20 AT THE DOOR SO IT’S BETTER TO ORDER NOW!!!!

THANKS FOR SUPPORTING JASON SHARP MUSIC

Anyone else have thoughts on the matter?

When It Comes
by Incubus

It’s coming around again
They’re letting it out again, again
It’s coming around again
They’re letting it out again, again
It’s coming around again
They’re letting it out again, again
It’s coming around again
They’re letting it out again
When it comes, it comes abrupt
When it feels, it feels like trading brains with an imbecile
For real
Yes I feel emphatic about not being static
And not buying philosophies that are sold to me, no, at a steal
Just when you thought, it was safe to think
In comes mental piracy, and no
What I’m looking for (for)
Can not be sold to me
I wish they all would stop trying
Cuz what I want, and what I need, is and will always be free
It’s coming around again
They’re letting it out again, again
It’s coming around again
They’re letting it out again
When it comes, it comes announced
And it feels like a matador is taunting me with his reddest red cloth
And I am the bull
Yes I feel emphatic about not being static
And not eating the bullshit that’s being fed to me
Cuz now I’m full
Just when you thought, it was safe to think
In comes mental piracy, and no
What I’m looking for (for)
Can not be sold to me
I wish they all would stop trying
Cuz what I want, and what I need, is and will always be free
It’s coming around again
They’re letting it out again, again

Well the 4th has come and gone.

I decided to run a 15K in Golita on the 4th. But, I was pretty wiped out from our 12 mile hike the day before to Boney in Sycamore Canyon. We never actually reached Boney so what would normally be a 3 hour hike turned into a 5 hour hike. Dean and I hiked with Dave, Cheryl and Ari. Ari was a trooper! He started to loose it at the end but Dean carried him up the nasty hill…Dean you are a good man! We rewarded Ari’s good attitude and determination by heading directly to IN-N-OUT burger. After a good dose of burgers, fries and soda we all felt much better! We spent the rest of Sunday at the Brandt’s celebrating Passion Feast.

By Monday I was not really wanting to run this 15K race. I was very thankful to Dave, Jenna, Dean and Jason for their willingness to get up at 6AM and accompany me to Golita. My run was good yet at mile 4 I was pretty exhausted and wondering to myself what in the world I was thinking to get up that early and drive an hour away just to run 9 miles! The weather was pleasant though. I ran the whole time with an overcast sky and heavy mist in the air. Considering my fatigue I was pleased with my personal time of 1:30:54 … my speed is improving.

After the race Dave called a mutual friend of ours to see if we could drop by so I could take a shower. He was very hospitable and even asked us to hang around awhile. We took a walk with him through the the town he lives in. It’s called Isle Vista–a college town with apparently more people clumped into one area than in any other town in the US. We stayed several hours but decided to head back toward Thousand Oaks around noon. We found out that fireworks in Santa Barbara don’t even start until 9:15 PM and none of us were up to hanging around all day.

Dean grilled up some leftovers from Sundays BBQ and we rented 3 movies and watched all 3 consecutively! By 8:45 we were done being sloths (having sat in front of the TV for over 6 hours!) so we decided to walk to the dog park to see the fireworks. I was so glad we decided to be homebodies yesterday. We were all really tired and needed the extra downtime.

Now it’s back to work!