I Find It Funny That I Had To Fib About Facebook On My Other Blog.

Ok, truth is, I don't really go onto MySpace. I'm actually on Facebook more than anything. For some reason, Facebook has taken my time away from blogging and more into checking out other people's lives on Facebook. I love it.

But, as I said in my other blog, I find that I've been falling down in my blogging duties because I crave aknowledgement, or link love some call it, or what I call, a comment whore. I love the instant gratification of instant or at least frequent responses that I get from Facebook.

I imagine the sound of crickets in the background whenever I post a blog topic lately. But probably because everyone else I know is on Facebook. I just wanted to appologize to those who think that I might have run dry in the topic department in my blogging duties.

I Am Totally Obsessing Over This Beer!

So there's a guy at work who's starting up his own home brewing system. We've been talking about certain types of beers and how they're brewed.

Now I've tried beer made by the Kona Brewing Co called "Longboard". And yes the impressive surf style packaging is what attracted me to this wonderful lager beer. But the last time I was at La Bodega, I noticed this limited edition called "Pipeline Porter". It's made with 100% kona coffee. It is the most unique flavor I've ever tried.

You'd think that with coffee it would be a very bitter, nasty tasting beer. But it's not. In fact it's got a slightly sweet, almost hint of chocolate aftertaste. Very nice. Only problem is that Kona only makes this beer during a certain time of year. It's their fall season beer. Kona Brewing also makes a Spring, Summer, and Winter limited edition beer too.

My buddy from work picked up the last 6 pack at a store near his house so I was recently able to get some more. But I'm trying to make this last as long as possible. Really worth looking for next fall '09.

Dave's "Truth Stories" Blog.

I guess I'll be reserving this blog site for what's really going on in my life since WAY too many people have been following my other blog (not to be named). If word ever got out about this blog site, I'd probably have to shut down this site.

I've been dealing with some pretty bad depression lately. I'm not sure how much collateral depression I've been taking on but I've been pretty down for about 2 months now. It really got out of hand this past week. I'm back to feeling surrounded by sorrow and tragedy. Now it's at the point where people at work are starting to take notice. This sent up a red flag because I'm pretty good at hiding personal issues from work.

Luckily I worked through a few theories with my wife and I'm a little better today. I have a lot of empathy for people, especially people going through tough times. Between reading about job lay-offs, friend's relatives dying, co-worker being diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic bone cancer, it's been really taking it's toll on me. I want to be supportive for people, but I guess I've been internalizing the emotions lately. I constantly look at things from the other person's perspective. So in feeling bad for someone, I in turn feel really bad myself.

My own issues are bad enough then I heap on other people's troubles. Mark Lamberth, I didn't even know the guy and yet I see one of his relatives that work at my building and my heart just gets heavy for him. Thinking about what emotions he might be going through. Weird huh?

Having all of this internalized pain also makes me question my relationship with God. Shouldn't I be stronger knowing God is using these lows for the betterment of us all? Shouldn't my relationship with God give me strength rather than being down in the dumps? By allowing myself to get so depressed, I fear that I'm doubting my faith. Plus struggling with my hand pain issues (has now spreaded to both hands without even touching a guitar) and back pain issues, that God has something else in mind for me. In the back of my mind, I feel like God wants me to put him first more, then MAYBE he'll restore my hands. I don't know. I need to spend some quality alone time with my creator and see what He says.

So, this is the 3 day that I've called off from work, just to get my s**t together. I've blogged about stuff like this before and the process has been very therapeutic. Let's see what time and prayer does.

Thanksgiving: Quality Time With Loved Ones.

This would be a good Norman Rockwell painting for the new millenium; grown ups on their laptops and children with their PS2's. Technology.

Bible Confusion Part 1.

So I finally decided to start reading the Bible from start to finish. I'm starting out with the Old Testament; Genesis.

Already at the start, this is starting to sound very familiar; creation of the first day (and it was good). But then it starting to sound like heaven was on Earth. They mention that "The Garden" in which the forbidden apple tree was located, is somewhere between rivers that supplied water to the garden, one of them being the Euphrates River (Genesis 2:10-14). I always thought that Adam and Eve were in heaven to begin with, ate the apple and then were shipped off to earth to tend to "the soil."

Adam and Eve then have sons.....sons only. How can you populate the world with sons only? Cain and Abel, talk about the extreme in sibling rivalry. "God did always like you best" (Genesis 4:5).

Now, Genesis 5:1-32 reads like the A&E family tree. When did human life become so short? Adam lived 930 years. Plus the Adam lineage of the men, Seth, Enosh, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lemach, had their children from 60 and 200 years old! Noah was 500 when he had sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth! Geez, and I stopped having children at 33!

So now I'm wondering, where did the other women come from that wed the Adam's family since Eve was it and the other daughters would have been considered incest? It's becoming clear that I'll need to switch to the "New Believers" version of Bible reading. That book has side notes regarding current times, social circumstances, and context in which the scripture is referring to.*

*New Believer's Bible, New Living Translation, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Impatient Healing Process.

I keep testing the waters to see if my hand has healed enough to start playing again. Not quite. But here's a result of a feeble attempt.

This Is The Level Of Musicianship I Have Been After Since 1986.

I have spent hours listening to albums while learning how to improve my skills. But one guitarist stands out in my mind. That's Steve Lukather. If you listen carefully, you can hear a little of Steve's influence every so often in my playing. Here's an example of what I have always aspired to accomplish, especially around count 3:52 and beyond.