The Prodigal Blog

Day 8 of Beardedness. Merry Christmas btw. Heading off soon to grandmother's house. Usually I like to stroke my chin when in deep thought pretending I have a beard...it is strange that now I can stroke my chin and find that there is pseudo beard present to be stroked. Horribly sick by the way. I thought I already got sick this season!?! I'm dying.

Hi guys. I am growing a beard. Well...at least for the next few weeks. I will post pictures as we progress. Today is day 6 of not having shaved. Be afraid. I am. (BTW - not trying to look thug...just had a hard time being able to click on the 'shoot photo now' button.) And we're out of beta. We're releasing on time.

All my best ideas come from the shower. I’m not kidding. All my worst ideas and anxieties come out in the shower also; again, no joke. Should I call these waterborne day dreams revelations? Or an early morning curse from my subconscious? Or maybe it’s connected with the fact that I’ve just woken up and my mind is barely sober enough to determine what it wants to think about, and what ‘I’ want to think about. Or perhaps it is a partnership between the aforementioned and the Holy Spirit, meant to rouse me from my stupor. Trust me; no alcohol is involved, because as most people know about me, one drop of that stuff can put me in a world of hurt (allergies). This morning as I scrubbed my oily hair clean with my standard Head and Shoulders a thought boiled up to the surface of my mind. And I use the term ‘boil’ quite metaphorically because that what happens with ideas and me. They sit, and I ignore them as long as I can, until I wake up one morning in a hot shower and the idea is poppi

Jerry...you crazy crazy man. (12:05:40 PM) Jerry: what's your blog again? (12:05:59 PM) Jerry: jrdapimp.blogspot.com? (12:06:04 PM) jr at liferay: close (12:06:05 PM) jr at liferay: but not quite (12:06:06 PM) jr at liferay: haha (12:06:21 PM) jr at liferay: http://theprodigalblog.blogspot.com/

It is very odd, the places you find yourself on a day to day basis in the Philippines. One day you might find yourself teaching the unruly bunch of kindergarten students, the next, you could be speaking in front of a crowd of 750. Furthermore, in continuing the pattern of seemingly (not) random activities we've participated in; we rode in a motorcade/parade through the city. Never really anticipated doing that, but its National Nutrition Month here and we are participating in a 'Values and Ethics Formation Program' here. (AKA: VBS). It was...an odd experience riding through the city with Mr. and Mrs. Nutrition. Another day in the Philippines I guess. -jr

Hey folks. Just writing to let you all know that I am indeed alive and in the Philippines. Its been only a few days and I feel like I've seen and experienced too much to express in this confined space. I have spoken 2 messages so far and am going to be speakin again tonight. Please pray for me. I had forgotten about some of the beauty of the Philippines. A typhoon, well THREE typhoons began to roll in last night, and as we drove back to the Shelter, lightning streaked across the sky. Lightning here fills the sky and comes without the thunder. Quiet and powerful on a hot and humid evening. 12 people packed into a van intended for 9. Warm and humid. Wind and rain. Lightning and (no) thunder. Another day in the Philippines.

1. Good morning world, hello today Sun overhead, grass waves below Walking to my car, hear the beep beep alarm Expressionless, Thoughtless 2. Soft breeze, harsh heat Pop the door open, keys in the ignition Turn the key, feel the rattle rattle vibration Unfocused, Drifting Can you hear it? Do you know what counts? 3. Light filters through the glass, cold air blasts Sunglasses on, vehicles move oh so quickly Radio squeals noise, words drone drone over the speakers Robotic, Insulated 4. Parking lot full, kind ladies with nice words White buildings, many people seated in a room Voices come together, they Rise and fall Rise and fall United?, Discordant Can I hear it? Do I know what counts? 3. Voices fall, words spoken from a stage A Book opened, words older than Time Universe fades, one Whisper speaks soft soft words Indefinable, Ineffable 2. Activity buzzing, crowds mixing Mouth agape, eyes welling up Sitting, silent so silent Speechless, Rising 1. Do you know what counts? Continue...

It should be no surprise to most folks that I've always been an avid ( massive ) fan of Caedmon's Call . Anyone surprised? No? Good. I picked up my guitar tonight and started strummin' around (is that proper turn of phrase for informal guitar playing?) and I found myself settled into tinkering with old CC songs that I knew. I can't say I've had a lot of introspection today but as I tinkered and played their music it led me to look up the lyrics for the music that I had forgotten. Oh Lord your Love Oh Lord I give You all I have But it seems so little When You have given me so much I come to You with empty hands And a heart that's fragile You come to me with a wealth of love (CHORUS) Oh Lord Your love Is new with every morning Your faithfulness It gets me through the night You bid me come You know that I am weary Your yoke is easy Your burden is light And now I sing You songs of praise But Your greatness is beyond me I know I cannot comprehend How You ancient of d

I'll try and upload a photo once in a while to break up the text, and also, for the people who don't come here to read (which is strange to me). I took this photo in the Huntington Estate Gardens. I'm definitely not a great photographer, but I do like to try and capture cool things in cool lighting. Hope you agree. Also. I have a far higher res of the image here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/jr.houn/TheHuntingtonEstate08#5287260254074143058

Yes. I have not held up my end of the bargain in terms of the frequency of posting. My digital “Mein Kampf” is, of course, the title tagline. Note the ‘…months later…’ remark. I know. I do not intend on letting slip months of time before my words appear here, but just so you know. For a person like me it seems my ideal is always higher then my own physical reach. Having a vision always seemingly longer then my actual reach continues to be one of those things that shadows all of the ‘good’ things ‘I’ have done. But that leads us astray from the topic at hand. The piece of writing after the jump, is part one in an envisioned three part series. Several factors stirred my initial brooding (or brainstorming as some might call it). Occasionally I ponder about the fates of those who I have lost touch with – sometimes I hear that they are alive, well, engaged in the local church, and still loving God with their heart/soul/mind. Other times, I hear that they are down, out, and as far from chu

OK. So about that Saturday blog promise thing...yeah. I know. I'm sorry. It was quite a long day! I'll make it up to you by posting some photos about my weekend. It always amuses me how shocked people are when they find out that I have a brother. Well here is some definite proof that the rumors are indeed true - doubt no longer Thomas and see that my brother does indeed exist! In case you were caught unawares, and who could blame you, my brother is 16 years old (omg), likes to gnaw on his bandana, and was born with autism. The event that we were at over the weekend was a 5k Run/Walk put on by Ability First . We spent most of the time walking, which was fine enough because the race went through the ever scenic Los Angeles Arboretum. Being myself a fine conossieur of Aboretums and their ilk ( big fat lie ) I knew exactly what to expect. Well. I expected trees. I mean... Abor -etum. Isn't that somehow related to trees? Ok. I expected trees. And tangentally, I expected plants,

I came, I blogged, and then I realized that there is a fortune to be made in carving out my niche on the internet. Yes. I'm sorry to announce it..but after seeing the advertising earnings and profitability options, I've decided to sell out. Be careful...the image after the jump may startle those of weaker financial constitutions... Continue... Yep. Clearly I'm making the big bucks here. I'll be shutting down the writing portion of my blog to focus soley on selling you, the good reader, everything I possibly can. Will be renaming the site promptly to - The Consumerist Blog. **Edit** This is about as many advertisements as I can have...I can't BELIEVE the types of ads they are automatically serving me.

Hello again daring readers. I know this could very well be an idealistic goal, but I’m going to be aiming to put up a new post three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, will be the target dates that I’ll be trying to get some writing out. Some random things first. No. If there is a blog revival , then I am not aware of it. Such trends are below (absolutely apart) of me. If not for trends, then why am I blogging again? It’s never been so much about blogging as it has been writing. I am not quite so intent on desiring to communicate to the world what I ate for breakfast today, or garnering an audience of people who are concerned with such things (though I probably will blog, at some point, about what I ate for breakfast ). It is primarily an exercise in mental fitness. Spring has sprung, and with such glad tidings as that, it seems proper to take out the pen (keyboard) and begin some critical, self-reflective writing. That’s pretty much it. I do appreciate the few people that

Hello everyone. Randomness to follow... If you'd like to see the randomness, hit the jump to see the rest. Continue... This works on blogger. Lots of text here. So much text. its overwhelming. don't know what to do with it. what is going to happen tot his div?what if i type so much that it goes beyond the given height? Can I specify that the height stretch in accordance with the amount of text? How does one do that with CSS? We'll have to find out I guess.abc abc abac asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf

Hello intrepid readers. You may notice some strange formatting errors or things that just look plain wrong in the next few days. I'll be experimenting with implementing some jQuery code into the template so I can do cool things with my blog text. Also - I'm looking to pretty up the page and if anyone can help me with some photoshopping pointers that might be appropriate I'd be quite grateful!

Something that bothers me about myself is my inability to do something that is very good for me. Case in point this evening would be going through my email inbox and actually responding to people who sent me emails. Sounds simple enough right? Well. Yeah. I have no defense for that. Perhaps there is something...stress inducing that comes with instant communication that is intangible to me. Whatever it is, I continue to fight it, as one might fight windmills. Something else that resulted from my forcing myself from a comfortable mental rut was the need to type up a new copy of my testimony for an application I was working on. As some might send off a ship with a fine glass of champagne I shall send off the ship of this Blog with my 675 word testimony. May these words be encouraging, challenging, and shed a bit more light on my life. Continue... I became a Christian when I was in 8 th grade. My mother and father had just been divorced from each other, for the third time, two years pr