Suburban Legends

It took about two years, but I finally figured out how to add pictures to this thing without paying a monthly fee. You'll notice that there are advertisements on the page now, but that was the price I had to pay.

Last night was opening night at the TD Banknorth Garden. It has been a while since so many people turned out for a Celtics game. We got there two hours early and there was already a line to get in! (Despite the fact that everyone has assigned seats) As expected, the C's dominated the Wizards. Once the red sox were honored and green smoke rose from the floor, they proceeded to build a 20 point lead by halftime. About a month ago Gilbert Arenas (Point guard for the wizards) guaranteed a victory on his blog. This proved to be a mistake. There was a chorus of "booooo" every time he touched the ball and chants of "GILLLLLBBEEEERRRTTT" throughout the whole game. I think he finished with around 20 points, but he took a whole lot of shots to get there.

Before we left to go to the game, we had to make a quick stop to sign the purchase and sale on a house! Of course, my excitement was quickly defused when we found out we weren't in the clear yet. We still have to have the appraisal which will be conducted while we're in Haiti. If that goes well, which it normally does, we should be in the house by Christmas!

Here are some pics of the (hopefully) new place. It is a two family down the street from where we rent now.

"I've tried so hard to be what others said I should be, I've forgotten who I really am. There are a few of us who, at least in times of graced vulnerability, cannot identify with the confusion, self-alienation, and disillusionment of those words. From infancy on, we have been conditioned to think of ourselves in terms of the roles appropriate to us, to compare ourselves with others, to judge our worth by what we do, what we have, what we accomplish, and the affirmation we received. Identifying so completely with roles, expectations, affirmed qualities, and those "negative" characteristics we allow into consciousness, it's not surprising that we think their sum total is who we truly are"

Every time I get asked about what I REALLY want to do with my life, I don't have answer. I think this is the reason why. I have a very difficult time, in my mind, separating what I should be doing, what I want to do, what others want me to do, what makes logical sense to do, what is the savvy thing to do, and what I love to do. Perhaps it is some combination of all these things that make up who you are, but it also could be that you need to somehow pull away all of those layers that the world puts on you to find out what really drives you.

Time for contemplating

I read a quote from Braveheart on my brother N laws facebook page today. 

Every man dies. Not every man really lives
- William Wallace

Today I put together a binder of all the travel costs we are proposing to the government for next year's contract. That's right I got to hole punch AND make tabs. Now that's livin!

The Celtics signed James Posey while I was camping this weekend. I like it. He plays good defense, doesn't take too many shots, and can hit three pointers. I really think we are going to dominate this year...can't wait!

This weekend was good. We went camping in the white mountains. No cell phone reception or email = rest

So I'm sitting at work consuming an entire bag of chex mix, but balancing it out with a diet coke. It is amazing how many chemicals are in these two products. About 50% of the ingredients in the chex mix have the word sodium in there somewhere. How many different types of salt do you need to make something taste good? Couldn't they just use regular salt? Maybe they found that combinding multiple salts makes it increasingly addictive. Someone who knows something about sodium needs to explain this to me. The more I think about it, the more that it seems impossible that those chemicals do not affect your body in some negative way. But then...so does red meat...and too many carbs....and vegetables with pesticides.
It is quite possible that everything kills you. Even if all else stays the same, time brings you closer to death with each passing second. It would be wise to make the most of the time we have. Ironically enough, many people's idea of "making the most" involves engaging in activities that actually contribute to destroying their lives...interesting.
It is like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer thinks he's going to die from eating sushi with poison in it. In the end it turns out he hasn't been poisoned and he vows to live life to the fullest. In the final scene you see him sitting on the couch eating pork rinds and watching bowling.
Speaking of living life to the fullest. Michael Vick was making millions of dollars from the Atlanta Falcons AND many more millions from endorsements from Nike. But, taking my advice, he decided to keep doing what he really loved which apparently was forcing dogs to fight each other and placing them on "rape stands". I still can't comprehend why he was involved in dog fighting. Is it so much more lucrative than other investments that it's worth ruining your life over?

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly, your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the "Repairer of the Breach", the "Restorer of Streets" to live in.

Isaiah 58: 6-12

I wish I spent more time doing this than pondering it.

Friday night I hung out with some high school buddies to watch the Patriots pre-season game. The game was so-so, but the food was more than satisfactory. I ate half a Sals pizza (a pizza with meatballs and mushrooms that we call "the grey"), cheez its, 1/2 of a ben and jerrys pint, and some doritoes. When the game got boring, we fired up the xbox and played 4 player nba 2k6 until bedtime. Now, I was the only married man in the group and I found myself wondering why they don't do this same activity at least twice per week. In fact, I plan to ask then why they don't. I would venture to say that if I were single, this would be the only activity I would engage in. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.....

Well, Laura and I completed our third consecutive year of the walk for hunger in Boston. Twenty grueling miles over about six hours to earn $150 to go towards hungry families in massachusetts. I found myself wondering why exactly I needed to do all that walking to get money donated, but then I realized that if I asked a bunch of people to donate money to Project Bread (without them knowing I would have to walk for it) they probably wouldn't donate anything. Why are people so cheap when it comes to helping others???
Although Laura got a headache and we're both really sore, the walk had an added bonus of getting us out of the house. We decided we wanted to make it a priority to get out and participate/interact with people. It is so easy to just sit around the house and watch TV, but really, what kind of life is that? Sometimes I get in the habit of just letting life go by, but it is probably worth letting time slow down when things are good AND when they are bad to make sure you remember what happened and make the most of it.

I spent a bit of today searching for graduate programs in economic development. I don't really know what that is, but it sounded good and seemed to combine my finance background with something that would help people. When I read about these programs I start to get really apprehensive. I've never really considered myself an activist. I can see the wisdom is using your skills to find practical solutions to the world's problems, but I feel like these programs might require a certain level of passion that I'm not sure I have.
Enrolling would certainly alter the course of our lives. Lately we have been looking at buying Laura a new car and have begun to keep an eye out for places to live (that we could afford) I had even thought about what I might like to do next for work (shudder) These things would require us to have the same (or higher) level of income that we have now. We could call this the American Dream scenario. The American Dream scenario provides things like HD TV, Nintendo Wii, nice place to live, good schools, and general comfort. The question is, will any of these things really mean anything at the end of your life and would God have you assign any value to them? Will pursuing them end up being a mistake. I don't know....I really like to play Zelda.....

Wish I could close my mouth.

Early last week I realized that I couldn't shut my mouth. This wasn't an issue of controlling my tongue, but I literally cannot get my back teeth shut. I've done some quick internet research and discovered something called TMD (or TMJ??) Apparently this condition, often found in women (how embarrasing) is simply tired jaw muscles. I have been pretty stressed out lately. Tons of stuff to do at work, fingers in various activities at church, plus trying to figure out how to correctly keep the books and do the taxes for www.servantsforhaiti.org. I've been having trouble relaxing and I think I've been clenching my jaw a lot both during waking hours and during the night. The dream I had the other morning about Laura being pregnant did not help. I've been trying hard to be concious of where my jaw is positioned and sleeping on my back. I think I need a vacation.....

In other news, I've fired up NBA Street 2 on the Wii (actually a gamecube game) and recreated the John Haven character. I've teamed him up with peezy, wally, ratliff, and raef until I can get some of my friends created. I also made some strides in Zelda last week by logging 4 total hours of gameplay on sunday.

I've challenged myself with stretching every night before bed as part of my walk for hunger preparation. So far the streak is at 1 day.

Just finished with my taxes, I owe $83....sigh.

I keep hoping for a little bit of extra money just in case something goes wrong, but it never comes. First it was the bonus that got caught up in the system at work, then the profit sharing that got delayed, and now the lack of any sort of tax refund.

I watching the worst basketball I've ever seen and it seems to be keeping my mind from thinking of anything interesting to write here.

I was talking to a friend at work today and he was asking if christians believed people who followed other faiths were going to hell. I couldn't think of anything that said that specifically, although I don't know why Jesus would say to make disciples of every nation if he thought they were all set.....needless to say, we didn't resolve the issue.

i should take this opportunity to talk briefly about the Celtics. Losing 18 in a row sucks and I don't like watching it. Of course I will continue to watch, but there is a piece of me that just wants to give up. I'm sure this is the feeling of most non-obsessed fans in Massachusetts. Regardless of the draft pick we get (or don't get) I think Danny Ainge has to put a playoff contending team on the floor next year. Not one that will make the playoffs, but one that will make some noise in the playoffs. I also think that adding one college center to this roster, even if it is Greg Oden, will not make us into that team.
There is a lot of work to be done on this roster and it must happen this summer.

Monday and back at work "shudder" Was extremely tired and found it difficult to finish anything. Fortunately, nobody was doing anything so my lack of performance didn't stand out. Managed to make it to the gym....that was good.


A friend recently started a blog and it reminded me that this site even exists. The problem with John Haven having a livejournal is that I think they tend to work better (and be more interesting) when they revolve around one topic. Unfortunately, that isn't how I roll, so it will have to be crappy.

I spent the day emailing friends back and forth about different methods for prolonging life. Some suggested yoga, vegetarian diet, VOODOO Someone sent me a link http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-01-03-usat-okinawa.htm that profiles a group of people living in Okinawa who tend to live longer than anybody else in the world. Perhaps it is their lifestyle of low fat foods, exercise, and low stress levels...or perhaps it's something much more sinister. Either way, it brings up the issue of whether or not we even want to live for 100 years. The world changes so much in 100 years (maybe not in Okinawa) that I think it becomes difficult to participate in any meaningful way.