RANTS TO REVELATIONS

Farewell Rants. Hello Questions.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 22:23:00 +0000

They say that all good things must come to an end. And so it is with RANTS TO REVELATIONS. This blog was about my experience in ministerial school, and that has also come to an end. Well almost. I've finished all my classes, with only two interview exams left before graduation and ordination in June 2011. So what's next during the next six months of "limbo"? A new blog and a new direction for ministry. Check it all out at www.ogunholder.com and join me in my commitment to Living In The Question.

WHEN I PRAY Chapel Service Video

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:30:00 +0000

Hi all...here's the video from my latest chapel service WHEN I PRAY. Thanks to all who made this possible: Jen, Joy, Terry, Jennifer, Rachel, Jenny, Richard, Janice, Evan, Jim, all the prayer chaplains and ushers, video and audio teams. The stunning artwork is courtesy of Jenny Hahn at jenspaintings.com [please visit her site and support this spiritual artist].

WHEN I PRAY from Ogun Holder on Vimeo.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:21:00 +0000

Church of the Open Road

This morning I worshipped at the Church of the Open Road. Congregation of 3: Me, Myself and I. Found God as I coasted downhill. Found myself on the way back up. Wherever I rode... there I was.

Another talk for your listening enjoyment.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Download audio of the latest talk I gave at Unity Center of Peace in Chapel Hill on June 27. I speak about embracing and befriending our death as a guide to how we choose to live. No worries...it's not nearly as depressing as it sounds.

Click HERE to download.

Understanding

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:38:00 +0000

Today I returned to one of my spiritual homes, Unity Church of Manhattan (KS) to be their guest speaker. I spoke on the power of Understanding, one of the 12 Powers. Listen to the talk below [allow a few moments for audio to start]:

If the player doesn't work you can download the file here: UNDERSTANDING

Skinny bathrooms and such.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:55:00 +0000

There are many things I assume that everyone in this country have experienced. For example...FLIGHT. I assumed that every adult had taken at least one flight on some kind of plane. I didn't know I had made this assumption until a recent flight when I sat across the aisle from a man in his late thirties or early forties who seemed to be having trouble fastening his seat belt.

I thought, "Oh great. It's a full flight and his belt is broken which means we'll have to deplane and I'll probably miss my connecting flight..." The litany of internal complaining continued until he took out the comically colorful pictogram instruction sheet [you know, the one we fan ourselves with before the air comes on] and followed each step successfully. Then it hit me: This is the FIRST TIME this guy is flying. I nudged the obviously veteran-flying thirty-something couple beside me and we proceeded to witness the greatest in-flight entertainment in 30 years since the movie AIRPLANE!

It was obvious as the plane took off that this guy was a ~~redneck~~ good ol' boy from ~~the trailer park~~ a rural lifestyle. He gripped the seat handles tightly and with a "Oh boy...Wohoo!" we were off. After fifteen minutes looking out the window and then quickly leafing through everything he could read in the seat pocket he quickly realized what we all know: unless we bring our own distractions, commercial flying is boring as hell. He eventually fidgeted himself to sleep after a trip to the bathroom, which he announced was the skinniest he'd ever been in.

But by far the most priceless moment was on landing. As the plane descended we could see both his excitement and anxiety levels rise. With about two minutes to touchdown he asked, "Are we fittin' to land?" Upon hearing that we were, he pulled out his cell phone, called a friend, and narrated the entire landing! "Ok, we're gonna land... here we go... OH HOLY SHIT!... pardon my language [to mom and little girl seated next to him]... Hoooweee that hurt... I'll call you back."

We were cracking up across the aisle. I maintain we weren't laughing at him but sharing the childlike joy and excitement of first-time travel he was experiencing. Ok... we were laughing at him, but it was a sight to behold.

First time for everything.

Are We Ready For Love?

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:34:00 +0000

Here's my chapel service talk. A H U G E Thank-you to everyone who helped me put this together, and those who supported me with prayers and positive affirmations. I wouldn't be here without you...and that's no exaggeration.

Are We Ready For Love? from Ogun Holder on Vimeo.

mmmm....butter!

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:36:00 +0000

No, I haven't taken another hiatus.

I've been sidetracked by another blogging project. It's actually a class assignment. Our ever-creative theology professor Rev. Dr. Thomas Shepherd gave us the option to blog rather than write a final paper. God bless the man!

The class is called The Theology of Eric Butterworth and we have been commissioned to read and make a theological examination of one of Unity's most revered ministers and prolific authors. So head over to my blog BETTER WITH BUTTER[WORTH] to read my theological musings.

I'll be posting here again before too long.

Promise.

while on my walk...

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:19:00 +0000

I Survived Lent

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:27:00 +0000

Easter Sunday not only marked the end of Holy Week but the end of Lent as well. Lent is roughly the forty days between two of the happiest days on Earth: Mardi Gras and Easter Sunday. Happy for two entirely different reasons for sure, but two days known for celebration.

The idea of Lent is spiritual preparation for Holy Week through various means, like prayer and fasting and sacrifice. No-one's killing anything these days, so we sacrifice a bad habit or vice. Why forty days? It's a symbolic number meaning the right amount of time. Moses and the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years [apparently maps and directions were hard to come by]. Jesus reportedly fasted in the desert for forty days before starting his ministry that upended everything.

Luckily, we aren't required to go to any deserts, although a trip to Burning Man would certainly qualify as a spiritual experience [yes it's on my bucket list]. So instead we give up something as a reminder to focus even more on our spirituality. If nothing else, some folks start praying for the forty days to go faster because no-one should go that long without chocolate. Not really how it works, but baby-steps right? In Unity the focus is not simply giving something up, but in the tradition of denials and affirmations, we also embrace a practice to lift our consciousness. It may be more prayer or meditation, extra acts of kindness, you get the idea.

My sacrifice was related to social media. I chose to give up ranting and complaining and posting mundane things, instead only posting the affirming and the uplifting. It took about two weeks for the twitter withdrawal to subside. I sorely missed my Foursquare check-in's. I also realized I was tweeting less...a whole lot less. Sometimes days would go by without updating. It dawned upon me that I needed to spend more time looking for good and uplifting things to tweet about. It was more a matter of focus than just drifting.

They say it takes 21 days to change a habit, so at the end of 40 I shouldn't have a desire to return to my former routine, right? Hardly. I admit it: I checked in on Foursquare yesterday with a huge sigh of relief. But it's also true that the increased mindfulness I obtained is still there and I get to practice that as well.

So if you also observed and survived Lent, a big w00t! to you. Don't forget too soon why you did it though. Make it count.

Hey Sanna Hosanna!

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:51:00 +0000

Welcome to Holy Week.

It was a busy week for Jesus. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, this was the week that he rode into Jerusalem to great fanfare on Palm Sunday like the new sheriff in town and stirred up all kinds of trouble. It was the the week he finally showed some real human emotion and angrily kicked the merchants out of the temple. It was the week he celebrated Passover with his disciples by sharing the meal that would forever be known as The Last Supper. It was the week he was betrayed by one of his band of twelve and tried as a criminal. It was the week he was killed by one of the Romans' most brutal and humiliating forms of execution: Crucifixion. It was the week that culminated in Easter Morning, the day of Jesus' Resurrection, the event that arguably gave birth to the Christian movement.

Or so the story goes. There are scholars, philosophers, and theologians who would argue on the events of that week. Some debate rather the Jesus we have come to believe was the one that actually lived, if he lived at all [click here, here, and here for more on those hot potatoes]. Yet whether or not the events [or Jesus himself] actually happened, no-one can deny the impact this story has had and continues to have on the world.

So as a Unity ministerial student, what do I think about Holy Week? I see this as a story of Hope. It reminds me that after a dark night of the soul there will be a new day dawning. It assures me that yes, even though there might be some times of excruciating pain and doubt and loneliness, they won't last forever. This is the miracle of Easter: Hope. Not the pray-for-a-miracle type of hoping, but the certainty that there will be new life after the storm.

Hey Sanna Hosanna!

Wakey Wakey!!

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:04:00 +0000

Out of the grey doldrums of winter I arise from the Hibernation of the Unmotivated. What's he waxing poetic about now you might ask. Simply this: it was a long hard winter; snowfall records were shattered across the country, and I was unmotivated to put fingers to keyboard with any sense of regularity. Two posts and three months ago I mentioned a new found sense of inner peace, and that peace lulled me into a state of blogging inactivity. Besides class assignments, all my reserve strength was devoted to staying warm. I was fortunate enough to be in Raleigh during the most brutal of the winter months but it was still cold and snowy, even beyond North Carolina expectations.

But like always, spring has returned with a vengeance. The sunny 60's and 70's has knocked my Seasonal Affective Disorder [SAD] down for the 8-count and I'm smiling again. A funny thing happens when I break out of SAD: visions of grandeur. I start thinking I can do it all...even the stuff I've been "getting around to" for the last five years. Like writing this book I've been trying to write for the past five years. I got a bit of a boost in December because of a class assignment that required a book idea, a table of contents, a first chapter. But I haven't touched it since.

Until now. There really are no coincidences. I bumped into an editor. Well she bumped into me but that's another story for another time, but there she was. We talked, and I realized that editors can be expensive. We talked some more. Turns out I have a skill she can take advantage of: music. Turns out she'd been lounging on the other side of the find-someone-to-push-me department. And now we found each other. The preliminary trade terms have been penned. Hands have been shaken. Who needs money? I guess you could make the case that we all do. But more importantly, some of us need someone to nudge [or perhaps shove violently] us into our greatness. And in some special cases, we connect with someone we can help as well.

So this is the year I write my book. I have declared it...so let it be. I have an editor who has an attitude that will keep me accountable. And I trust you my readers will also. I won't divulge any details about what I'm writing yet...what fun would that be? But trust me, I will have fun with this. The writer in me demands to be heard.

And there was much rejoicing...YAAAY!

Bliss...Follow Up.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:30:00 +0000

Last post I talked about the need to examine and perhaps change one's embedded beliefs. Today I read a truly there's-still-hope-for-the-world article in The Huffington Post by Emmy & Tony Award winning actress Cynthia Nixon on the very same topic. Read it here.

Bliss...Easy Come, Easy Go.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:36:00 +0000

So folks have been asking me why I haven't posted in a while. Truth is I've really come to a sense of inner peace about a lot of things both spiritual and otherwise. I have been in such a blissful state that I haven't had a need to rant lately. I was about to write a post to that effect when THIS had to up and happen: The New York State Senate voted down the Gay Marriage Bill.

Seriously folks. Are we still living in the dark ages? Haven't we discriminated against each other for one inane reason or another enough already? The bill was defeated 38 to 24. Not a single Republican senator voted for the measure!! Call me naive but are you trying to tell me that every Republican in the state called up their senator and asked them to vote no on this? Do senators even check in with their constituents before they cast their vote any more? And don't try to tell me they're no gay Republicans! Ok they might not be...but that's NOT THE POINT!!

How much longer will intelligent free-thinking human beings continue to state with conviction that we're doing God a favor by not allowing Gay Marriage. Were we doing God a favor when interracial marriages were illegal? Or when slavery was legal? But I guess I just answered my own question. Some of us...dare I say most of us are not free thinkers but simply lemmings who do what we've always done because, heaven forbid, doing something different might require us to change our view about something.

As I'm learning in my Credo class, and realizing is a scary truth, we make many of our decisions based on our belief about God. Not consciously, mind you, which is even scarier when you think about it. There is so much embedded in some of us that we might not unpack it all before our time is up. And worse, some of us don't want to go through the unpacking process to begin with.

Listen folks...it's okay to change our belief about God. In fact, I highly recommend it. It may not be all sunshine and roses when you do it, but don't chicken out. Ask the tough questions and open your eyes. Only then might you find what you thought you had all along.

And speaking of changing views, I leave you with these....

OMG! What time is it?

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:38:00 +0000

Once again time has proven my enemy... or at least proven itself faster than my muse and my organizational skills. But in a nutshell, since last post [OMG! July?! Really!?!] it's been a time of inner work, outer preoccupations, and now I'm back in the safe cloister of academia. Well... relatively safe

Here at Unity Institute we just completed a symposium called Lyceum 2009-Science & Religion: An Evolving Dialogue. I sat on a panel of students from UI and other seminaries as we debated the still-a-hot-button issues of Creationism v Evolution [you can find a decent side-by-side comparison here]. We harangued over multiple points ranging from our thoughts about religion influencing public policy [which is another post for another time] to where we stood on each process on its own merit. I can't recall everyone agreeing on any point at any point in the session, but as the Lyceum title suggests, this was an opportunity to dialogue rather than convince.

Probably the most debated [sorry...conversed] point that came up [and it returned in metaphysical theology class this morning] was the nature of God. More specifically the question of God being vs God becoming. Is God already all God can be or is God evolving along with us? The idea of God being is a long standing tradition of many faiths, including Christianity, including Unity. Recently [as in last century] the idea of Process Theology has been gaining ground. It basically purports that God is changeable inasmuch as we exercise our free will and thought and create our experiences. In other words, God experiences itself through our choices and knows all the possible choices we can make...except the one we actually make. Of course, this approach flies in the face of the "Omniscience" of God, which is a bitter pill to swallow, because as our professor Rev. Dr. Thomas Shepherd pointed out, remove one card and the whole house of cards falls.

Where do I stand on this? I keep coming back to an agnostic [some would say cynical] position of "we cannot and never will know with any certainty." That doesn't posit that either is wrong and suggests that both sides of the debate may also be correct. But I also think that the real question here we might be overlooking is one of time. We humans tend to think of time as linear but it might not be [click here for the easy explanation or here if you want to get technical...most of clicked the first one didn't you?]. More often than not I find myself pitching my tent in the camp that views everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen, exists in every moment. Time is also inextricably linked to distance [i.e. space - hence terms like spacetime contiuum]. An easy example is stargazing. The light from some stars takes millennia to reach us, meaning we're now seeing it as it was thousands of years ago. In a sense we have time-traveled.

So I think any discussion about our understanding of God has to include our understanding of time. If every moment in time also exists in this moment, then yes, an evolving unchangeable God is possible. Does this challenge previous held notions? Naturally...but that's half the fun of this.

My Day to be Gay

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:37:00 +0000

I'm wrapping up five weeks of some pretty intensive introspective classes. The final project in the Diversity Awareness class was to assume the role of someone in a non-dominant category. In our society this includes male, heterosexual, white, no physical or mental handicap, you get the idea. So generally if you're a healthy straight white male you got it made; if you're a gay black woman in a wheelchair you're pretty much screwed. And again, these are just categories to help us be conscious of how we relate to each other.

So I chose to be gay for my project. Being the only black person in room of white faces has happened more often than not so I decided to tackle an issue that would require me to stretch outside my comfort zone and force me to look at my embedded fears. I grew up with nineteen years of homophobia programming, and while it never got as bad as this [warning: disturbing video], there was still plenty to overcome.

So click on the link below to find out more about my adventure.

Click here to read paper.

Brain Freeze [plus important PSA]

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Sometimes things happen that, for all your logic and intellect, momentarily paralyze you with disbelief. Last month Jen and I attended the Unity convention in Kansas City, KS where the following [paraphrased] conversation took place between her [JEN], an innocent bystander [IB], and an unenlightened booth attendant [UBA]:

JEN: Did my husband just come by and make a purchase?

UBA: No ma'am. I don't think your husband was here.

JEN: Are you sure? He said he was going to come by make a purchase?

UBA: I'm fairly sure he wasn't here.

IB: There was a gentleman here five minutes ago.

UBA: That wasn't your husband...It was a black guy.

When Jen recounted this, my brain literally stopped working due to the shock. Then I went straight to disbelief and even hinted that she must have misheard because it was absolutely impossible that in the twenty-first century someone assumed that a blond-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian couldn't be married to a black man. Even more bizarre was the fact that this took place at a Unity convention. Unity...the poster movement for acceptance...probably the most gay-friendly religious movement...where you could have green skin and antennas growing out of your head and we'd still love you!

The only way I can rationally comprehend the entire incident is to believe that for a brief fatigue-induced moment, this man's embedded world view got the better of him. He was a white man in his sixties, most likely the product of wholesome mid-west upbringing that told him people who look different don't get married. And, most likely because of Unity's teachings and life experience, he intellectually turned his back on his childhood prejudices to become an equal-opportunity lover of humanity. But in that moment, as in many moments of our lives, he switched to default and spoke without thinking.

After getting over my shock came the realization that defaulting to our embedded views, whether religious or social or ethical, is more the norm than the exception. For me this means that any real and lasting change can only come through our children, and for that to happen we need conscious parents. Jen & I consider ourselves students of this conscious parenting practice, and Joy calls us into it every day.

Some of you know Jen has been co-hosting a Spiritual Parenting web-radio show on Unity.fm for almost the past two years This fall I'll be joining her as the new co-host...HUZZAH!!...let the hilarity ensue! I'll be the edgier who-gave-him-a-mic/good-lord-what's-he-gonna-say-next bad cop to Jen's I'm-trying-to-do-a-show-here!/just-hide-me-now good cop. HA! All kidding aside, I'm really looking forward to it. For our many struggles, we do parenting pretty damn well...just look at Joy [knock, knock]. So tune in [I'll post exact link later] and in the meantime check out UNITY FAMILY MATTERS, a site dedicated to conscious spiritual parenting.

Catch ya soon on the air waves!...or would that be the web waves?....hmm.....

Somebody Else In My Head.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:21:00 +0000

I'm so psyched when others can express what's ricocheting around in my head better than I can. Check out this post over at NAKEDPASTOR.

Simple Birthday Complexities

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:45:00 +0000

The question of the day on PLINKY a few days back was "At what age did you realize you were an adult?" You don't need to look too far to realize that they're way too many grown men and women who haven't made the realization yet. Mine occurred, or has been occurring, over the last seven months. It's been another reason my blogging seemed to have slowed to a slow trickle. One of my seminary gurus wisely advised us not to use the pulpit [yes, for now this is my pulpit] to do your work, but to share the work you've already done.

I turned 35 on June 1st. While there's no precise age that marks the leap to adulthood, one would think that after having been married for a decade and a parent for nearly just as long, my feet should be planted squarely in this new neighborhood of life. And while I had assumed [and quite well I might add] and fulfilled the roles and responsibilities of adult family man [husband, father, bread-winner, mentor, teacher, house-owner] there was still one relationship that was struggling to come to terms with. It was my relationship with God, which was ultimately my relationship with myself.

I've shared some of my early struggles and attempts to resolve said struggles. And though [by its very definition] the evolution continues, only recently have I found some measure of peace. I finally decided to take the advice I've often doled out to others...simply stop struggling and rest in the unknown. It's not a comfortable place to be by any stretch of the imagination, but it's where we will inevitably find ourselves, especially during times of transition. And when we stop struggling we gain a better perspective. I realized that I was struggling to come to terms with the end of a relationship that, in its various forms, had been a source of great comfort and through which I had ultimately defined myself.

Many years ago I let go of the image of God as the sky-bound fatherly figure and replaced it with the more mystical Spark-of-Divinity within. It was an improvement, but it still propagated the idea that something else existed that defined who I was. To discover who I was at the core, I realized I had to let go of it all and live in the nothingness for a while. My friend Hugh said it well: "I used to idolize my dad. When I turned thirty-five, I realized that my Dad didn't know crap when he was thirty-five either!" So I too have had the realization that I'm no longer a spiritual child and it's up to me to define it all for myself.

It may just be problem with languaging as we try to create new definitions for a myth some of us aren't quite ready to let go of. Some simply label the universal principles that govern us [e.g. cause & effect] God and thus retain the familiar. But I like what Bishop John Shelby Spong said recently [and I'm paraphrasing because I stubbornly refuse to write things down]: "Our divinity is found in the full expression of our humanity." Now here's something that finally makes sense. Call it what you want...God, Spirit, Divine Mother-Father, Principle...but it's just us; an ever-evolving self-aware species with great individual and collective potential. We don't need to pass the buck anymore...we ARE the buck.

I don't deny there's much we don't yet understand, or can explain [take intuition for example]. But as we at some point realize that on the outside we are adults and chose the roles and responsibilities that suit us best, so must it go on the inside. This is a dramatically more difficult path to walk, and one we must each walk alone.

[DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on the blog are those of a blogger in transition and subject to change at anytime.]

Minister [in-training] in da house!

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:40:00 +0000

This past Sunday I was the guest speaker at church [Unity Church of the Triangle]. Even more surprising than them giving me twenty minutes and a mic, was the fact that the talk turned out pretty darn well. Music was provided by the awesome Lynchburg band Six Chasing Seven.

Click here to listen to talk [player may take a few seconds to start so be zen].

You can never watch PULP FICTION too many times.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:34:00 +0000

"Prank call! Prank call!"

Random Goodness

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:34:00 +0000

Yeesh! Almost a month since last post. Obviously the blogging-while-watching-basketball idea didn't take off. I don't seem to have the multi-tasking skills I once possessed. Who am I kidding...I never had them to begin with. Truth is I'm in one of my reading moods where I'm always in a book and not much else [other than watching basketball]. My Goodreads widget in the sidebar tells the tale. And I can lay some of the blame on Twitter. I don't feel as guilty about not posting since I'm constantly tweeting. So in true twitteresque form, here's some randomness that befell me the last few weeks:

I took on the job as Music Director for my church[Unity Church of the Triangle] which will look very interesting as I return to Kansas City for the summer to take more classes. Yes...still a minister in training.

**********

I will be guest speaker at the afore mentioned church this coming Sunday. That'll also be interesting considering the crisis of faith that just won't go away.

**********

Check out my friend Jess' blog Wandering Revelations. She's traipsing all over France and eating all of their food. I'm appropriately envious of course...I had KFC for dinner tonight.

**********

I am a ROBOT. Click here 'cause I don't want to explain.

**********

We've made 3 trips to the amusement park Busch Gardens in the last 2 months. We bought a year pass using the it'll-pay-for-itself-after-two-trips logic. It means we've pulled Joy out of school for about 4 days now. No parent-of-the-year awards for us this year.

**********

I've slowly returned to my lazy bad-food habits [Did I mention the KFC?]. Haven't been to the gym since I-don't-know-when and rainy weather has reduced the bike riding. Jen informed we we're going on the Fat Flush diet again-oh joy.

**********

BASKETBALL! BASKETBALL! BASKETBALL!!!

It might be time...

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:03:00 +0000

Once again Joy steps up to provide the hilarity.

This past Friday was date night and as Jen was getting dressed she asked Joy's opinion on her very sexy form-fitting blouse that revealed her distractingly attractive cleavage.

Joy's reply: "Um...no mom. Not on you. Maybe on somebody else."

It might be time for boarding school.

The other too-strange-for-words event was the message we found on our answering machine after date night.

A heavily-slurred loud voice: "I want you live like the gay woman you are....right then."

It might be time for a new phone number.

Life...game, cereal, never a dull moment.

He's Baaaaack!

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Hey gang. I'm back, I'm black, and ready to get crack...ing on more blogg...ing... aaaand I've just ruled out poetry, rap, and spoken word for alternative career plans.

I've had a few weeks break [total work overwhelm] and I'm done class for a month so I'm returning to the blogosphere at a time that I'm guaranteed to be awake til at least one in the morning more often than not because it's NBA PLAYOFFS BABEEEEE! so for the next month and a half I'll be a walking sleep-deprived-yet-wired zombie most likely blogging as I watch the games which might lead to nonsensical postings [nothing new] and ridiculously lengthy run-on sentences posing as paragraphs [more nothing new].

Please breathe now if you rely on punctuation for air.

This morning's blog fodder comes courtesy of my sweet eight-year-old offspring Joy and my less-than-perfect parenting skills. Joy was bitten on her chest by a tick [we think] a few days ago when she visited the great outdoors also known as the in-laws' homestead. We thought we'd pulled it out but there's a huge swollen red bump in the middle of her chest.

And the conversation went like this:

Jen: That's huge! It's like Chandler!

Me: HA-HA-HA!!

Joy: HA-HA-HA!!

Me: Why are you laughing? You don't get it!

Joy: Yes I do-Chandler has three nipples!

Me & Jen: NO MORE FRIENDS!!

Parenting lesson for today: Yeah...she was watching.

noreply@blogger.com (OGUN) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:43:00 +0000

I'm trying this new program called Cellspin. It should allow me to post from my phone. I could always email to the blog but somehow I've succumed to the delusion that a shiny new free app for my BlackBerry Storm will make me more productive.

I writing this on my Storm and I'm going to stop now because it's taking three times as long and my thumbs hurt from correcting all the typos.