Jesus, Love & BBQ!

"You underestimate the power of the weird side!" says the booming voice of James Earl Jones as Darth Vader.

No, the original dark lord never said that, but I thought it inside my head as I quickly reflected on my life and the last 7 years in Austin after a few email exchanges with my wife discussing medicine and healthy living. For those of you familiar with Austin or have heard "stories", no, I'm not a starving musician/ filmmaker who hopes for that big break (now or 20 years from now), I'm relatively well-groomed, and I have no plans of naming any of my children Sunshine, Lilac, or Pine Tree but I have adopted many "Austinish" ways and mindsets. [Side note: My wife and I will soon be moving to South Austin after having been Northees for a while.]

I blame my wife mostly seeing as she is one of few native Austinites. No, her name is not Sunshine either, but since meeting her and being married I've discovered things my conservative, "Christian" southern upbringing would not have allowed me to such as the tastiness of tofu (when cooked right), challenging the status quo even if it's religious, and thinking for myself. While I'm no conspiracy theorist, vegetarian, eccentric governor hopeful or some indie band aficionado, I do feel like I have learned to view the world in my own way rather than adopting someone else's. I think things like this were always in me in some way, but growing up in Houston, you either go with the flow or just get looked at funny... and growing up as me, I didn't need the help.

I still and will forever enjoy some down home country fried cookin' (yes, I said cookin' and not cooking), the occasional country song, living for Jesus and not some cosmic energy that holds us all together no matter what we believe, and at least one meal if not more than one that centers around something that once had a face... after all, I still live in Texas.

So while I will never be a full convert and I seemingly knock my humble upbringing (pun intended if you know me), I do appreciate the unique blend of life from both worlds I've lived in. What that said, "Jesus, Love, and BBQ to ya!"

Welcome

So I've done a few of these before, mostly using them as an outlet for venting any frustration, cryptically discussing my foolish "woes" with women or generally questioning things of life. With that said, I'm not entirely sure what I'm shooting for with this blog. I feel that is going to be very abstract, but thanks to features like "categories" it can be somewhat organized and people can pick and choose what they want to see and read.

I will say I do hope for this blog to have some relevance or substance rather than just random banter from me (this first post not included). Given that I am married, there's no need for any rants concerning any woes with women and with things like Twitter and Facebook statuses, there's no real need to use this to vent anything. Simple things like "I can't believe....", "The stupid copier just...", and "Just had an awesome weekend..." can easily be summed up in and posted in one of the two above mentioned social networking sites, though I don't really use Twitter because if you cared that much about all of the happenings of my day you need to either be my wife or I should probably have a restraining order against you.

Also, I won't go into the lengthy process of doing any kind of introduction of myself. For many reasons: (1) They are time consuming and exhausting, (2) You may not actually care that much, (3) If you already know me you don't need to read about me and if you knew me at one time, but we've lost touch I might have been someone positive or negative in your life and I'd rather get a fresh start, (4) I'd like to see what of me comes out with this blog, but I'm open to questions and clarifications in comments and such, and (5) if you do know me or don't and want to know more, should I make it that easy?! Plus, how many of us have similar stories with different outcomes or different stories with similar outcomes.

Enjoy!