here's a few tips

i turned 29 last friday. that's right. my birthday is on christmas. i'm really getting up there in age. i mean, that's practically 30. i've realized that since i'm so old now, that must mean that i'm very wise. so this old sage has prepared a few tips on life in general that i've come across in the last year for all you kids out there. enjoy.

1. if you drop your iphone in the toilet, put it in a ziplock baggie with rice. it works. trust me, i learned the hard way. and if some of you were wondering why my iphone was with me in the bathroom, let me say that Words With Friends, The Deep Pinball and this Euchre app i found are ruining my life.

2. guys, when your wife asks you how she looks, or if this dress looks good or any other question dealing with how she looks, RUN. it's a trap!



3. if you plan on swinging your guitar around your neck, maybe sure your straplocks are on good and tight. technically, this was a little longer than a year ago. if any of you have seen our live show, sometimes i like to throw my guitar around my neck. well,the last show on the creation tour a year ago i didn't have my straplocks on correctly and when i swung my guitar, the strap came off and it went flying off the stage and almost hit a security guard. on a related note, ask me if you ever need a guitar repair guy in nashville. ed beaver is amazing.

4. stay away from credit cards. credit cards are like a christian and alcohol. technically, it's not wrong for a christian to drink as long as he doesn't go overboard. but it's soooo easy to. many of you are responsible enough to handle credit cards, but many are not. just stay away. this last year my wife and i paid them off thanks to the dave ramsey plan and we're definitely happy to be done with it.

5. don't cross the streams.

6. enjoy spicy food while you can because it won't last forever

7. i'm sooooo over IKEA. sure, their stuff looks cool and it's not expensive....but another word for not expensive is cheap. and that's what it is. cheaply made crap that won't last longer than the semester you will use it for in college before you realize a good piece of furniture costs more than $60.

8. pedaltrain pedalboards and cases. amazing. if you're a guitarist that travels, just save yourself a lot of pedalboard headaches and get a pedaltrain. and i'm not sponsored by them.

9. many of us have a natural knee jerk reaction that we are only interested in things or hobbies that we discover. get over this. if someone tries to show you some thing they think is cool, LISTEN to them. they're probably right. and think about this, if someone is taking the time to try to make your life better and tell you about something awesome, how much of a slap in the face is it if you instantly write them off purely because you didn't discover it yourself?

10. write a blog. it's fun and when you go back and read old posts it's actually kinda cool to remember where your head was at a year ago.

ok, that's enough for now. talk to you later