This blog is probably going to be one of the hardest one that I will ever publish.

As some of you may already know, my dog of 16 years passed away a little bit before noon on Tuesday. Her life is a complete miracle. She was diagnosed with a tumor in January of 2008 and was only given at the most six months to live. Needless to say, she lived much longer than that! Hallelujah!

Her name is Dixie. We found her in our yard at the end of the summer of 1993. She is the sweetest puppy you will ever meet. She had a wonderful personality. I know that I could count on her being there after a hard and stressful day.

Her body had developed (what I could consider) a very bad case of arthritis, which inhibited her from walking as well as she used to. She could get up and going, but sometimes she would fall and get stuck which then would require assistance to get up. Her sister, Shadow was very good at reporting that Dixie needed help. It is great how dogs communicate for one another.

Dixie had a rough day on Monday. My mother was telling me that she had started giving a yelp every now and again, which my parents rendered as she could not get comfortable. My mom and dad spent a lot of time with her on Monday night, until she settled down and went to sleep about 12:30am.

The next morning, Dixie continued her yelping. My parents were both very upset at this point. Before my dad went to work on Tuesday, they had discussed what they were going to do for her. My mom spent most of the morning sitting by her side, petting her and just spending time with her. My mom knew that she was not feeling well.

About 11:50am on Tuesday, Dixie took her last breath here with us. Her body was tired after 16 glorious years blessing our lives everyday. Soon after, my mom called my dad and he came home from work immediately. Dad, bless his heart, spent the afternoon in the backyard digging a hole to place her in to rest. They placed her in there with her bed and some rugs that Dixie had around her bed for her comfort. I do not know how they pulled it off, I would have been a complete basket-case if I was there.

Life is a blessing. At the same time, it is a vapor. One minute, someone you love is her, and the next they are gone...at peace. Away from the pains, frustrations and difficulties that this world brings.

I already do and will continue to miss Dixie a lot, as I know that my family is as well. She was a great puppy. We have great memories. She is at rest now. Not suffering or anything. She lived a good life and I am very glad that we got to share the moments we did together. She went to rest on her own. It was not medicated...

Mommy, Daddy and Diana...This is tough for all of us. But I want to thank you for your commitment to her. You are wonderful. I couldn't have even asked for a better family to be a part of. You gave her the best life that was possible, always provided medications when needed and made her be as comfortable as possible while she was sick these last few years. I love you guys. Thank you for everything.

Dixie, I love you girl. I will always have a special place in my heart for you. We will see you again one day. I just know it. I hope you have a peaceful rest.

To GOD be the Glory,

-Ken

Labels: committment, Dixie, dogs, family, friendships, heaven, love, loyal, parents, peace, puppies, shadow, sorrow

Tonight I had the pleasure of being able to be a part of a small group session started by the one and only @jacalopekid (Adam Smith). This is something that he started last week, but due to my school schedule I was unable to attend last week.

Tonight's session was led by @leslieblueeyes. The entire time was a complete blessing after a long and hard day...emotionally. Will post about that tomorrow. But...I was blessed tremendously by many people that I daily interact with on Twitter. Even though we (the body of Christ) were in many different states (possibly even countries...) we were able to connect and grow with one another through video, audio and text chat online. Amazing what technology has allowed us to do.

For all that attended, it was great. Just remember the things that we discussed, and please apply them to your life. I hope we were able to minister or encourage one person...if not everyone that was in the chat room tonight. If you missed it, we therefore missed you as well. We will be having another one next week. Not sure who will be leading it, but I know they will bring a great message and it will be a great opportunity. Plan on attending next week, if you schedule allows.

Thanks for reading. I hope that you all have a blessed day tomorrow and the rest of the week.

To GOD be the GLORY, HONOR and PRAISE!!

-Ken

Labels: Bible, gospel, Jesus, small group, social networking, study, twitter

So, this evening I will be joining in an online small group discussion. I am excited about it, I have a really good feeling about this. If you feel as though it is something that you would like to be a part of, here is the information:

Time: 7PM EST, Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Login to: http://tinychat.com/smallgroup
Password: jackalopekid
Leader: @leslieblueeyes

Hope to see you all then!

-Ken

Labels: Bible, gospel, Jesus, small group, social networking, study, twitter

One of my most favorite things about Satellite radio, is they tend to play a different variety of music . . . among many other good things.

Last night, "Beautiful One" by Jeremy Camp (video above) came on the radio. Now, I have not heard this wonderful song in years it seems! The song sounds beautiful (no phun intended), has a great message and for me is one of those all-time favorite songs. This song is what opened my eyes to the amazing artist, Jeremy Camp. He has an incredible story. If you are not familiar with it, I would recommend that you go and read it here. I promise that you will be blessed by it. Enjoy!

-Ken

Labels: CCM, favorites, gospel, Jeremy Camp, music, Sirius, story

Labels: 2009, change, Change in my Life, disciplined, forgiveness, maturity, word of the year

For fellow Twitter users, you can skip this first paragraph. If you are new to Twitter or do not know what Twitter is and would still like to know, continue reading. #ff (#followfriday) is a Twitter theme for Friday where you recommend people that you follow to others who you think are interesting and are worth following.

I choose to do it later in the day on Friday because there are people in the west coast who may not be able to get on Twitter, because of work or other obligations throughout the day. I do mix it up from time to time, but mostly I do it later in the evening so that they will be more likely to see the tweets. Short blog, just felt that I should share.

If you are not on Twitter, I think you should join up. Let me know (by either commenting on this blog . . . or replying to me) and I will be sure to give a shout out for you. Happy Friday!

-Ken

Labels: #ff, #followfriday, Jesus, social networking, twitter

When I redesigned my website and started blogging in the spring of this year, I set a goal of 100 posts by the end of the year. I picked 100 because I thought that would be a do-able goal...would require a specific amount of commitment, but not an over-commitment in order to reach the goal I had set forth. With that being said, this blog marks my half way point. The goal is still 100, but I am hoping to exceed that.

Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster of an day. It was marking the first official live lab that we had in the main hall at Full Sail University. That was a memorable experience. I was elected to to the simulcast mix on the DigiDesign VENUE (D-Show) digital console. That was a great experience. In addition to that, I made a big mistake in "jumping the gun" in a specific situation at school. That could have drastically effected a relationship with a friend on both a personal a professional level, but luckily it did not. It was a learning experience for both of us. Live and learn. Each day has new adventures for us. Nothing is wrong with doing wrong . . . as long as you learn from your mistake(s).

All in all, it has been fun blogging and connecting with you all through the first 50 posts. Hoping that the next 50 will be just a good if not better!

Labels: Blog anniversary, digidesign, friendships, goal, life lessons, Live lab, microblogging, mistakes, relationships, venue

Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-22
²¹ "Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

For those that that follow me on Twitter, may have seen this Scripture surface on one of my #worshipwednesday posts this last week. Forgiveness is something that I am dealing with...hardcore in my life. I think that if we are all honest, we all deal with it constantly in one form or another.

At best we are all human. When someone wrongs us, be can't help but get upset. Some deal with it better than others; and to be honest I am doing much better in this area than I was a few years back, but still I still struggle. I've noticed this year specifically, that I brush things off with much more ease. I am not sure as to why, maybe it is God's work in my life and him developing me to be more like him each and every day.

Thanks for reading and your support. Feel free to add to the discussion by adding comments below. You guys rock!

-Ken

Labels: 2009, change, Change in my Life, disciplined, forgiveness, maturity, word of the year

Do you have "that thing" that you must do, but dislike doing?

I have a few of those tasks . . . one prominent one is programming moving lights. Yes, it is a school project. I have discovered through my educational adventure what I prefer doing is audio or video. Those are easy for me to understand. In those avenues I feel as though I can be creative and can come out with a good product in the end without much trial-and-error on my part.

Do not get me wrong, I respect people that do lighting, it is not something that I prefer to do. I do realize though in the future I will probably have to sit down and program lights for an event. Maybe it is an experience issue though. Maybe it has not become one of my preferred things to do because I have not learned quick and easy ways to maneuver the systems.

Tonight, I was able to take a few big steps forward in my programming for the project. I now have a good understanding through the functions of the console and the lights are working toward the song that I chose. I am keeping my head up though. I will get through it and when it all comes to an end, I can be proud of the programming that I have done.

-Ken

Labels: chores, Full Sail, Hillsong, lighting, show, tasks

So, I was at the outlet mall here in Orlando tonight and I stumbled upon the Converse Factory Store. If you know me, you will know that I do now own a pair of Converse shoes. I do not have anything against them, just do not own a pair.

If you look closely at the history of the company, you can see some similarities of some major issues today. Foreshadowing?

Perhaps. The Converse shoes (or "Chucks") were widely popular in the 1950's and 60's. After that, the company hit some bumps along the way, because of the uprising of popularity of their competitors of Nike, Adidas and others. Finally, they were not known as the number one shoe used for basketball players. Reebok took that title.

I know you may be wondering "What is this guy getting at??" Ha. Hang tight. Almost there, a little bit more history. The company filed for bankruptcy on January 22, 2001. Their main factory which was in the United States closed, but they continued their production from the China, Indonesia and Italy factories. The company was bought by what was a competitor, Nike in 2003. The unique "converse" design looked the same, but some wearers of the shoes have complained about a change in the material the shoes were made with.

This is a little interesting scenario to show that things go through cycles. For instance, GM. What was an auto-giant was bailed out of bankruptcy by the Government. Does this mean that the company is going to be run by the Government? Changes in their line-up and design of automobiles? Well...according to the Governmental Administration, they "say" no, but I have said it many-MANY times, they have no intention of letting go. When they see how much funding and control they can get out of it, they will just pass excuses as to why they can't get out now. I also predict there will be a major change in their automobile design. I can kiss my little dream of owning a GMC Sierra out the window. The quality will more than likely be not up to the standards the old GM had.

If you look at the Presidents of the past, you will see that it goes through cycles. Conservative...then Liberal. Big Government back to Small Government. I would say it typically helps the general consensus to have that cycle in Governmental leadership, but I think there are limits. This current monsoon is out of control. By far. We have reached a 1-Trillion dollar deficit. That is something that is going to take years to get under control.

Look at the weather cycles. Some would say that "Gobal Warming is real! Go GREEN!" Calm down. If you look at the history of the weather, it goes through cycles, it takes about 100 years for a cycle to complete, in that you will see that it gets warmer...then cooler. It is all part of how God created the universe to function. Just as our bodies have the ability to take care of themselves when we get an injury, He has created the world with the same type of system. For goodness sake. It is mother nature! She is capable of making the most beautiful plants. She is a big girl. She can take care of herself.

Thanks for reading.

-Ken

Labels: bankrupcy, converse, cycles, foreshadowing, global warming, gmail, God, government, history, leaders, mall, Obama, presidents, rant, shopping, trends, universe

Trying to get #Jesus in the trending topics on Twitter. Add #Jesus to your tweets. Talk about Him. Tell what He has done for you.

-Ken

Labels: Jesus

This blog is difficult for me to write. I've been burned with this very thing. Needless to say, I have learned a very painful lesson, and honestly...glad that I did. So let's jump right in.

During tonight's message at First Baptist Orlando, Pastor David Uth touched on a topic that I have struggled with in the past, and still do. This is not word-for-word what he said, but paraphrased... "Instead of talking "about" someone when you have a problem with them, try talking "with" them."

I am not going into details, on my experience, but I am going to give some observations. Still to this day, I dislike severely confrontations. I remember when I managed a Chick-fil-A. I had to do a large amount of confrontation. It is not fun for me, and I am taking a wild assumption here that there are not many people that would find it fun.

(**Disclaimer: I am using the word "people" in this paragraph not calling anyone out. I am talking to myself as well.**) I see it time and time again. Person A has a problem with person B, and they do whatever means they see fit in order to "call out" that person, but tend to forget the appropriate way of dealing with the problem. Going to that person in private and discussing the matter in which is an issue. How does this help share God's love? How does God look at this? Can the action cause more harm than good?

So, let us keep in mind, we do not have all of the information. I spoke with Scott tonight, and he gave me an example of a situation he was it where a lady wrote a letter to a group of people because he was misquoted by the news media. Scott explained himself to her and told her the situation, and she understood. But did she go and do the correct action to make it right? No.

In my own life, I find that I am a person that will deal with major confrontation issues, but a majority of the time I just let them go. That is something I need to work on. It is the fact that I am completely uncomfortable in those situations. Trust me in saying that I had a situation that happened YEARS ago in which I handled incorrectly and that still comes up to bite me. Did I do what I needed to at the time? Yes. But the person has refused to forgive the wrong doing I inflicted toward him, therefore hindering the friendship from going any further.

If you have never listened or took to heart anything that I have ever said, please take this snippet and apply it to your life. "Instead of talking "about" someone when you have a problem with them, try talking "with" them."

Thank you for reading.

-Ken

Labels: careers, Change in my Life, christ, church, David Uth, experiences, FIrst Orlando, forgiveness, friendships, ministry, Scott Link, stubborn

A teacher I had for a Bible class in high school always taught me "You must learn to agree to disagree agreeably." If we could make an amendment to the golden rule, I think this would be great to add on along side of the existing rule of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Labels: abortion, agree, America, beliefs, conservative, controversial, different, disagree, experiences, firearms, forgiveness, relationships

This week, I had the amazing opportunity to connect with some people that I have been in conversation with over Twitter in the last couple of months. I must say, it was a great experience, just knowing and getting to physically know the people you have been interacting with. I told them that it seems to go against everything that your parents have taught you about "meeting people online." You do have to use discretion though. I know a few people if they every brought up the idea of meeting I would "come up with an excuse not too."

-Ken

Labels: friendships, internet growth, microblogging, relationships, social networking, twitter