I love a good deep dive. A new book, show, or album can cause me to get lost in learning everything I can about a topic or person. I’ll reserve discussing my deep dives for Fridays.

I love a good reaction from someone. One of my favorite reactions from a person is when they find out I love rap music. On the surface, I’m just a straight laced white guy, typically in a bow tie. So they surprise on their face when I tell them I love rap is just too perfect.

One of my favorite artist/groups is The Beastie Boys. I’ve always loved their music, but admittedly never checked out their full catalog. Their lyrics have always been very clever, funny, and well written. They are just a musically gifted set of guys: able to play their own instruments as well as being able to produce and mix music with some of the best in the business.

This was the extent of what I knew about them until I checked out their book (audio book, of course). First off, the book was great, narrated by the two surviving members Ad-Rock* (my personal fave) and Mike D, along with a litany of celebrity narrators. It was a history of how hip-hop infiltrated NYC in the late 70s/early 80s. And of course, it was a history of the Beasties.

Here’s one thing I did not know that blew me away: they started out as a hardcore punk band, loving the music. They were set to just play clubs around NYC, then they got their hands on some rap music and it changed everything. They immediately decided they wanted to be rappers and went all in on the genre. This is just unbelievable. To course correct like that and become one of the most influential groups for the genre, just…wow!

There is much more to discuss, but I will spare you all of the details and spoilers should you decide to check it out!

It took me longer than normal to finish the book because I kept pausing the book to go listen to their music in between chapters. There was a good four to five days where it was all Beastie Boys in my ears – at the gym, work, home, doing chores, etc.

I encourage anyone who is into the group or rap to check it out, it was a great book. And a great deep dive! I give this deep dive 5 stars.

*A fascinating bit on Ad-Rock. When developing his rap persona, he couldn’t get low enough to sound tough, so he just went the opposite way and raised his voice even higher than it naturally is. That shrill in his voice is one of the many reasons I find him to be hilarious on their tracks.

I have been guilty of procrastination my entire life. For as long as I can remember, I have put things off. I have always been jealous of people that just do the hard stuff, the things that can be so easy to put on the back burner. My wife is a checklist person, knocks stuff out immediately, and I can only imagine how much it irks her to hear me say “Yep, I’ll do that…” knowing that if I don’t get up then it won’t happen. AND I’ll probably forget to do it. My forgetfulness is another topic, but it’s not like I mean to forget.

But it’s (still) New Year, New Me, and I am determined to curb my procrastination. To be fair, I need to put some things off just a tad to get that urgency and rush going to knock it out of the park. But in general, I am working to get better. I came across a great quote that really inspired me* to get better:

Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future.

After reading that one, I decided it was time to stop wasting life. So, if you’re like me, let this inspire you to get better…starting tomorrow. KIDDING!

*Sorry, I don’t remember the source of the quote, but I’m not trying to do these musings in MLA format, anyway. Just know it was a smart person (and NOT me) who came up with it.

I’m tired this morning. Had a very late night/early morning going to a great concert*. But the morning still calls whether you slept for 10 hours or 4.

But pouring that morning coffee got woke my body up. My daily devotion woke my mind up.

Our morning rituals are important. Especially when we’re tired. And write super short blog posts because of said tiredness.

*JT was a bucket list show that might turn into “seeing him every time he’s on tour.” Thankfully for the wallet, that’s every 4 or so years. Gotta start saving, baby.

Alabama ::coughs and cries in the same breath:: lost to Clemson last night. College football is very much a zero-sum game. It’s not just that only one team can win the championship*. If one school gets a 5-star recruit, that school’s rival cannot have that recruit play for their team. A textbook example of zero-sum.

There are some who treat all of life like a zero-sum game. “I can’t give you credit for being clever because then I will look dumb.” “I can’t offer advice for your project because that will make you look too good.”

This is flawed logic. Seth Godin explained in a great way (especially for me, who has never met a pepperoni pizza he didn’t like) – Knowledge and credit are not a pizza. There aren’t finite slices to share among a group.

Let’s stop treating life like a recruiting field. Instead, let’s treat life like we’re already on the team together.

*Any team but UCF. They’re not allowed in. I’m with Roger Sherman.

Remember when you would “get online” a couple of times a day? Hear me out, this isn’t a “Tell me more, grandpa” post. Before everyone was permanently online, you had to make a concerted effort to go online and find the information you were looking for/surf the net (This has always been such a nerdy phrase. But I can’t hate on it too badly simply because it’s such a 90’s* phrase).

Now that we are permanently online, we have things demanding our attention constantly. Notifications on our phone, shouting on twitter, rants on facebook, click bait articles, doomsday news articles. It’s all too much. The noise is so freaking loud that our brains aren’t consuming anything period, let alone anything of substance.

Part of New Year, New Me is to attempt to reduce the noise. I’m a naturally curious person and love to learn, but I can only take in new information if I reduce some of the noise.

If this is hitting home for you, do yourself a favor. Remove one superfluous piece of noise in your life – a notification, a website you go to, a facebook/twitter page (or your whole account if the entire thing is too noisy – for one day. See if you miss it. See if you can hear better.

*The best decade and it’s not even close. Don’t @ me.

I understand how lame it can be to talk about the weather, but my goodness am I glad to see the sun out. After an entire fall of what seems like 1 sunny day for every 4 rainy days*, I think (and pray and hope) we are in the clear and maybe we’ll flip the ratio. We are on day 2 of sun and blue sky!!

Some people are fine with rainy days, but not me. I hit the gym yesterday afternoon and after I finished up, I just sat outside on the bench listening to music and soaking up the sun. Talk about an endorphin rush. The rest of my Saturday was on cloud 9 after that workout/Vitamin D combo.

We have one more day to enjoy this weekend. Is it going to be a Sunday scary for you? Or are you getting out there?!

*No one is allowed to talk about a lack of rain until July at the earliest. If someone says “Boy, we could sure use some rain!” you’re allowed to kick them in the shin. Ok fine, don’t do that, but you can do it in your head!

It’s been a New Year New Me week since Wednesday morning. I hopped out of the bed each morning at 6, hit the gym, did my devotion, my writing, and then went about my day. Decided to sleep in this morning as a reward to my body, but it was not overly grateful. I did the Frankenstein’s Monster* walk out of the bed. Maybe they are telling the truth when they say your body likes routine.

The sun’s out. The rain’s gone. Let’s go get some Vitamin D, gang!

*Frankenstein was the doctor who created the monster. The monster was not named Frankenstein. Never forget.

I will be completely honest with you, outside of my daily devotion, I do not have the time to read books. Ok, that’s a lie. I could make the time to read books, but I don’t. I was averaging, AT BEST, reading one book annually.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not a dullard. I read plenty of articles on news, business, sports, enlightenment, etc. I listen to countless podcasts* on the same topics. I started listening to podcasts regularly about 6 or so years ago. At work, doing chores around the house, watching games on TV (because who cares about the announcing).

Over the last couple of years I really wanted to find a way to read more, because as they say, “Leaders are readers.” Then it finally hit me, audio books, you dummy! Now that I’m on the audio book train, problem solved! We had a book study in our small group over the fall, and I knocked out the whole book in a snap. For what felt like the first time in my life, I was way ahead of the game when it came to a reading assignment.

With The Lord’s help, Google, and YouTube, I typically find a way to knock a problem out.

It’s 2019 with virtually every resource at our fingertips. Are you finding a way to achieve your goals?

*To quote the great philosopher Tom Haverford, “Podcasts. There are a million of them out there, and they’re all amazing!”

Patience has always been a struggle. It’s a virtue, they say, and if that’s the case then I can’t say I’m virtuous. Over the last year I have read and listened to a lot on how the destination is not important. And I am really starting to believe it.

I’m not talking about a physical destination. Of course BEING at the beach for a week is a lot better than sitting on the interstate stuck in traffic trying to get to the beach.

But what about your career. “When I’m the head of the department, how great will that be.” “When I ::fill in mile marker:: then life will be sweet.” But what if you hit that goal post 5 years into a 30 year* career? What are you going to do with yourself for the next 25 years?

What about your kids? Should you be so blessed and/or choose to have children, you of course go through the infant stage (read: the crying through the night stage). You probably think to yourself, as I was guilty of so often with my two, “If I could just get through this part then…” But what I failed to realize is that stage is just part of it. Being up all night in the recliner because the baby has an upset stomach is part of it. And I was able and fortunate enough to get to spend this entire night with this baby who won’t be a baby forever. I wish I had that clarity then.

The learning, the education, the lumps you take along the way to get to a destination, these are all part of the fabric of life. You need to go through the refining process. You need valleys so you can have peaks. You need the experiences, both good and bad, that come with the journey to appreciate the destination.

I’m really trying to appreciate every journey I take. Hopefully the destination is just as good.

*30 year career. That’s funny for yours truly. We’re working until we’re 90, gang!

I am bad to open a tab on my computer and leave it up to read later. I am terrible about this with my phone. On December 31st, I had 10 or so tabs open in my Chrome app and countless (I mean COUNTLESS) tabs open in my Safari app. These tabs are all good intentions – I planned to read all of this good content…but one tab becomes 2, becomes 20.

On January 1st I closed the tabs*. Time to start fresh. Time to stop fooling myself. Time to stop with the good intentions. We all know where that road goes.

New Year, New You, baby.

*Guess what, 24 hours later and I don’t miss those closed tabs. I don’t even know what was on those pages…except for the Zelda: Link to the Past walk through. I have to get that one open again so my daughter and I can beat the game.