From the Mind of MandoRon

Dear Senator McCain and Senator Obama,

My name is Ronnie Burgess and I am an undecided blogger from Wichita, KS. I wanted to let both of you know that I am available to be courted for an endorsement.

I am not a superdelegate, nor am I a political activist. For that matter, I’m probably not very influential at all.

But I am convinced that Hillary should not be President. I am completely undecided which of you will receive my vote this fall. I am a perfect person to try your pitches out on in preparation for the upcoming two-man race.

I will guarantee at least one post per week in support of your campaign. I will be ethical at all times, and not utilize any mud-slinging tactics. And I will put a bumper sticker on my car.

All free of charge, of course.

Feel free to contact me be phone or email or in person, for that matter. I’m sure your Secret Service detail can track me down.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Ronnie Burgess, a.k.a. (MandoRon)

Tuesday was a bit of a milestone in my life. The last 6 months or so, I’d been noticing hair growing on my ears. I remember a man at my church growing up who always had large tufts of hair growing from his ears. I don’t want to be that man. Also, I’ve been struggling to keep the nose hair in check with my electric razor. So while I was at Walgreens picking up a prescription, I decided to buy my first ear and nose hair trimmer.

Approximately seven or eight years ago, my wife and I were at a Christmas Party for our Sunday School class. It was a white elephant/gag gift party with a $10 limit. I brought an ear and nose hair trimmer that I’d found on sale. I was quite proud of myself for coming up with the idea.

A good friend, Mike Grimes, was lucky enough to select my gift from the pile. Instead of laughing or some other appropriate response, he starts thanking me. He had actually been considering buying one and was quite excited about getting a trimmer as a gift! I was really disappointed at the time, but in hindsight it was pretty funny.

I’ve been thinking about calling Mike to let him know that I’ve joined the club.

Today I turned on my ipod and couldn’t decide what to listen to. So I turned on shuffle mode, and was anal enough to write down the songs for a while.

I thought I’d share it since I’ve recently seen several bloggers looking for new music. I’ve also included my ratings (using the itunes 5-star system) and a few bonus comments.

1. Move – Thousand Foot Krutch ***** (A great way to kick off the day!)
2. Let That Be Enough – Switchfoot ***** (Was later recorded by Mandy Moore)
3. Falling Up – Petra **** (I’m pretty sure I heard some faint mandolin in there)
4. All the Days – FM Static ****
5. When You Look Into His Eyes – Jacob’s Generation **** (This was a local band that later became North of OK. Good song; poor recording.)
6. She – Green Day *****
7. Born to Be Wild – Steppenwolf ****
8. In God We Trust – Stryper *****
9. Light of Eternity – Matthew West * (Not a big fan)
10. Bloody Well Right – Supertramp **** (Cool keys in the intro)
11. Not Afraid – Stephanie Smith ****
12. I’ve Never Been So Lonesome – Longview ** (A little bluegrass for variety)
13. Holy is the Lord – Elevate ** (The worship band at Journey Church in OKC)
14. Angeline – Building 429 *** (Decent song. I don’t ever remember hearing it before.)
15. Pride Away – Kutless ***** (Great song. I’m disappointed that the “radio edit” omits the rap/nu-metal ending on the studio recording. Another reason that I’m disappointed with Contemporary Christian Radio.)
16. The Old South – Sam Bush & David Grisman *** (Incredible mandolin!)
17. The Wait is Over – Disciple ***** (Love this song!)
18. Devastation and Reform – Relient K *
19. All Alone – Kutless ****
20. Disquiet – Stavesacre ***** (One of my all-time favorite song titles)
21. It’s Over – Audio Adrenaline ****
22. Anthony – Nickel Creek ***** (Very funny song)
23. All About Who You Know – Petra *** (Like the music, but the lyrics don’t do anything for me)
24. White Sandy Beach of Hawaii – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole ****
25. Hey Jack Kerouac ( MTV Unplugged) – 10,000 Maniacs ****

That was fun.  It had been a while since I posted a shuffled playlist.

• If I ever start my own death metal band, I’m going to call it “Fatal Voltage”.
• I think I’m going to have to turn on the A/C tomorrow. The $200+ electric bills can’t be far behind.
• Top 2 reasons that I love the Internet: (1) Being able to download lost owner’s manuals. (2) Watching streaming TV episodes that I missed. (Yes, I’m too cheap to get a DVR…)
• I’ve wasted a few hours getting caught up on the last few episodes of the Office. My wife hates dumb comedies, but for some reason, loves this show.
• We spent the last 2 nights at the Wichita River Festival. Got to listen Edge of Grace twice and eat my first fried twinkie. I highly recommend the twinkie. And the band… Ask Andrea about the fried oreos.
• This morning, the band played a song called “Everything to Me” that Andy wrote. It’s a really good song. It was a privilege to get to play it with him. You can listen to the studio recording here.
• This afternoon I took the kids to Play It Again Sports and spent $50 on bats, balls, and a tee. (They are both playing ball at the YMCA.) So I take them to the park to practice hitting. Jada justed wanted to feed the birds with the bread we brought. Jett mostly wanted to play in the sand at the playground. Maybe another day. At least I know where I can sell it if tee-ball doesn’t work out.

A little Saturday linklove…

• Download Kutless’ new song, “The Feeling”, for free.
• Thinkbeforeyousend.com has some great stories about bad emails.
• What is your dream church?

I know it’s a little short this week.  But it’s what I’ve got.