we are all weiners

sometimes destiny has your name on it. sometimes the skies open up and God looks down on you favorably for a moment in time. and sometimes you show up early to a KC Royals game to watch batting practice and you get asked to be in the hot dog race at the end of the 5th inning.

that is exactly what happened to me, @adamagee and @jordanmesser yesterday. i'll back up. here's a handy bullet point list of what happened:

* day off in Kansas City

* Burro manages to get us free tickets to the KC game

* we show up early to watch batting practice

* nameless, faceless Royals employee sees us and thinks to himself, "wow, these guys would look great in weiner suits"

* he approaches, makes his request. we accept. history is set in motion.

It was an epic race. while suiting up we were all making outrageous claims of who would lose and how. Adam was mustard, i was ketchup and jordan was relish. when the time came we got our two seconds on camera on the jumbo tron. i was talking trash. adam smiled politely. jordan mouthed "RELISH BE JEALOUS."

and then we were off. adam is good at everything he does so of course he won. me, being slightly overweight and out of shape came in last. but it doesn't matter. all that matters was that i made a fool of myself in a weiner suit on the largest HD jumbotron in the world.

how did you spend your friday night?

(video posted below)

choices

we all face decisions every day of our life. some are more weighty than others. as a teenager growing up i found myself constantly getting in trouble. and of course, many times i would find myself in the office of Pastor Mark. his mantra to me was something like, "Nick, life is full of choices, and what you choose every day affects the outcome of your life". everytime he would see me screwing up, he would just sigh and say "choices, nick....choices." this happened so many times that it almost became a joke if it weren't true.

sometimes we are faced with choices that pit the principle of what we believe against the realistic consequences of those decisions in the short term. for instance, when you have a screaming kid who wants too much candy, do you hold to your principles and suffer the crying, or do you give him candy and risk setting a precedent that the kid can get whatever he wants if he throws a big enough fit? many frustrated and exhausted parents have chosen the latter even though they know better. they let their emotions push them towards a pragmatic decision as opposed to an idealistic one - a decision based on principle.

i'm going somewhere with this. i promise. and ya know where i'm going? politics. yup. don't worry. i'm not going to try to indoctrinate you. i'm not trying to push you to be a republican or democrat. i just think there's a practical lesson to learn from the last two years about choosing between the pragmatic (the realistic, short term) decision and the idealistic (long term, principled) decision.

I supported and voted for Ron Paul in the last presidential election. i liked his small government philosophy and extreme respect for the constitution. i knew he was an outlying candidate that didn't have a huge chance at winning the election, but i really believed in what he said even when he didn't win the primary. some said i was throwing my vote away. and maybe i was, but i was facing a decision to either go with principle or go the pragmatic way and vote for McCain because it was more realistic that he would have a chance at the presidency.

here we are a few years later. of course Ron Paul didn't win. but i realized this - before that election, republicans were still big spending "compassionate conservatives." but now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of smaller government and stronger individual rights. Tea Party candidates are putting old school republicans out of races. and speaking of the Tea Party, do you realize that the first Tea Party (other than the one in the revolution) was organized by Ron Paul's campaign back in the fall of 2007?

listen, i'm not trying to convince you how awesome he is. that's not my point. i'm trying to demonstrate that sometimes you have to just follow your gut and make a principled and idealist decision even if you don't see the benefit in the short term. Ron Paul's run for the white house was not successful. but it was hugely successful in changing the tone and the direction of the republican party. do what you know is right - even if you don't see how anything good can come of it.

15 Things I've Learned Recently

Hey everybody. it's been a while since i've shouted at you. i've grown, learned many life lessons and quite frankly, am a different human being than i was before. and by quite different, i mean i'm the same cynical, sarcastic and self effacing douche bag you all know and love. here's a few life lessons i've learned in the past few weeks:

1. don't try to film any video blogs while in the red light district in amsterdam. no matter how family friendly your message is, you're bound to get something a little PG-13 in the background of your shot

2. my sister @AlieghShields's music has turned out awesome. that's not so much a lesson as it is a fulfillment of prophecy. we'll have it posted soon.

3. don't mess with @jordanmesser. he will have a smile on his face and then all of the sudden SNAP on you and stab you with a water bottle. i learned that the hard way

4. i am the greatest fisherman ever - and by EVER i mean the best this tour bus has ever seen.

5. Losing weight is awesome....the part that sucks is the not eating as much as you want. 

6. i miss my wife. i will not see her for a whole month. to those of you enjoying superchick and stellar kart shows this month, this is the price i pay for your enjoyment. your welcome.

7. i miss my dogs. see #6 for witty, yet scathing comment.

8. if you have an iPhone with a cracked screen, people will constantly ask what happened. just tell them you have the cracked screen app.

9. a good show sometimes has absolutely nothing to do with how well you played or how good it sounds. it's about how fun and entertaining you make it for the audience. no matter how well we play SK songs live or how much we rock it out, kids still tell us their favorite part of the show was "A Whole New World."

10. i don't know if this qualifies as a lesson i've learned, but i have definitey learned that i want this guitar:

one of the guys in Philmont had this exact guitar at a show we played the other day. I COVET!

11. it's all about the song. we've been writing and writing and writing for Tricia's solo worship album that i'm producing. i'm definitely going to do my best to make the record sound good, but the most important part of any record is getting great SONGS. you can have the best production, the best gear, the best performances, but if the song sucks, no one cares. however, if you've got great songs, then at least you have a fighting chance of getting noticed. we've written about 15 songs in the last two months and have had about 45 songs pitched to us for the record. we're still writing and will have to narrow it down to 10 songs eventually. sometimes it's just a numbers game. the more songs you write, the more chances you have at writing a hit song. someone told me a while back that for Tim McGraw's latest album, they sifted through over 1,500 songs. and guess who wrote the lead single? Chad Kroeger from Nickelback. now i'm not a fan of douche bag rock, but the dude definitely knows how to write a hit song. he also knows how to be ugly.