The Average Carter

One of my biggest pet peeves is to hear someone say, “well that’s the way it’s always been done.”  Really?  If that way still works and is the most efficient than so be it.  But don’t sit there and tell me that you’re always going to be complacent about how things work just because that’s the only way you’ve ever known something to be.  Regardless of whether or not you have a voice loud enough to change it, you must at least realize that things change.  Things always change.  Do you want to be the catalyst or the resistance?

I get so pissed off when I talk politics and government with people so stuck up Continue reading

It’s been a while again.  I’ve written a few pages here and there, but for the most part though they’re unfinished.  So just a quick little update.

My wife is now at week 30.  In 10 weeks or less we’ll be bringing home a baby boy.  It seems like just yesterday we were talking about how we were going to tell our families.  It’s kind of surreal.  Even more surreal that I already love someone I haven’t even seen in person yet.  I’ve seen his ultrasound pictures.  I’ve felt him push my hand and moving in my wife’s belly.  And I’ve heard his heartbeat.  It’s just an unreal feeling.  I can’t wait to hold him in my hands.

Even with everything baby going on, that’s not the only thing going on.  People say that you either get closer together or further apart when you start Continue reading

I had a friend of mine tell me a few weeks ago that he didn’t know what was going on in my life since I hadn’t written anything in a long time.  Honestly, I didn’t think it had been that long.  Guess I was wrong.  It’s been just over a month, which means I’m also failing on my promise to keep it updated.  So I’ll try to start where I left off…I got a job.  This also means that my “About Me page needs to be changed I guess.

A lot of people don’t even know how or when I started djing.  So I’ll share that little story today.  Most everyone knows that I started djing at Coconut Bay.  I started working there in August of 1996.  I worked on the weekends checking IDs, seating people in the comedy club, and helped with the lights from time to time.  On Thursdays, the slow night, I came in to clean the amps and dj booth.  When I was done I could practice on the turntables and record a short set.

One Friday night, I was working in the comedy club and Continue reading

I’ll go ahead and say up front that today’s update is kind of a self-serving one.  But this weekend was the culmination of a one-year, turned two-year, plan for me.  And I feel like sharing it with the handful of people that enjoy reading and keeping up with the things going on in this part of the world.  I’ve always had a problem with setting goals and not procrastinating to meet them.  It was a combination of being content and not knowing what would happen at those next stages.  In other words, I was semi afraid to grow up.  Luckily God threw me a life line and wake up call.

Most of you that have spent any time reading the blog already know the story.  What you don’t know is Continue reading

I was reminded today of why I love my church.  Every time I step foot in the door I feel welcomed, and the sermon is always something I can relate to in my own life.  As I mentioned before, I was once a pretty confirmed agnostic.   I knew there was a God, but I’d never had a relationship with Him before.  There was no conversation or voice back and forth.  My assumption was that I’d find Him sooner or later. What I found out however, was that you don’t find Him.  He finds you.  You just have to be listening and watching.

Today’s sermon was about the encounter on the road to Emmaus.  The summary was basically that Jesus may be walking with us the whole time and we never even recognize him.  Kind of reminds me of the Footsteps in the Sand poem.  And the thing that stuck out to me the most from the entire lesson, was Wesley’s comments on “finding God.”  Do we ever find God if we go looking? Or do we just have to try harder in looking for what’s already there?

“I once was lost, but now am found,” not “I found God on 1st and Amistead.”  I spent most of my twenties wondering if I’d ever have the kind of relationship with a church or with God that most of my family had.  I grew up in church, VBS, knew the scriptures, the history, and never felt close to God.  I looked.  I prayed from time to time.  I even tried listening for that voice.  But apparently I missed the signs somewhere a long the way.

Luckily, He was persistent.  I won’t go into the long story of “how,” but I’ll just say that I never did find God.  But I’m eternally thankful that He never left my side and never gave up on me.  Two men that walked with Jesus didn’t recognize that He was right there with them quoting the prophecies to them. He might not be saying what you expect him to say, and it may not be what you want to hear.  But it might just be what you need to hear or what you need to experience at that point in your life.

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and was able to spend some time with family and friends.  I made my return to a Baptist church for the first time in a long while.  It was interesting, to say the least.  It was a blend of the older, more conservative Baptist church I grew up with and the younger, more contemporary feel of non-denominationals.  The biggest change I noticed was the use of a band and the use of contemporary music in place of the traditional hymns.  The sermon…well it was definitely old school Baptist.

One of the things that stuck out in my head from the pastor’s message was a comment that he made Continue reading

I have several posts that ran really long.  So instead of trying to get them all posted we’re going to play Q&A.  That way I can keep from being a long-winded tool, and you can participate…if you want. Simple enough right?

So draft #1:

The federal budget from 2010 was over $2 Trillion.  I paid about $8000 in taxes for 2010.  Why should I get any say so in where or how that $2 Trillion is spent?

Instead of discussing how much we pay IN to the system for what we consider relatively little, why aren’t we discussing who’s getting paid BACK from the system in the form of tax returns, subsidies, etc.?

Why do people insist on continuing to talk about tax Continue reading

I get sick of seeing and hearing people take, take, take and want, want, want.  It seems like it’s the way of life though.  ”You have to want to get ahead.”  ”You have to take what you think you deserve.”  Even in prayer, people pray for their own financial gain, the a+ on that test they never studied for, and for things to just fall into their laps.  The prayer ends up sounding like a Christmas wish list rather than a prayer.  What about praying for family members or people struggling with illness and addiction?  What about those with no food, clothing, or shelter?  What about the battered spouses, the military men and women overseas and their families?  Praying for some money to fall into your lap still seems pretty important huh?

Over the last few years, I’ve tried to make it my goal to pray more selflessly.  I don’t ask for God to help me find Continue reading

I was joking with my wife the other day that it would be nice if you could just be as old as you feel or act instead of a number defined by year/months/days.  Her response, “Well, I guessed we’d have a bunch of young men and old women runnin’ around.¹”  Apparently men, as a whole, tend to try to stay as young as possible. Whereas women, again as a whole, tend to try and act older than their age.  I laughed my head off for a while at what she’d said, but then I started thinking about it a little more…and a little more.  Is that really the truth?  Or aren’t we all trying to stay as young as possible?

What I think we, as men, tend to want is that connection with things we grew up with…sports, cars, male camaraderie, playing, and getting dirty.  Those are the things we did as boys and Continue reading

Only a few weeks in to the whole “trying to post once a week” thing and I’m already running late.  I had a few things jumping around in my head a few days ago, but apparently there’s some kind of memory lapse thing going on in my head.  I’m storing up some new information so something else has to go.  Kinda scary.  At any rate…I’ve been studying and reading a lot.  Ok, more reading than actual studying.  I know quite a few people that spend there lives online.  And there’s some really good stuff out there.  But I really like reading peoples’ status updates and blogs.

You can really tell a lot about a person by what they’re willing to share with everyone else.  Some people are subdued, while others divulge everything.  And there’s really not a right or wrong…you know personal preference and all.  But should there be a limit to what you write and put out there for the rest of the world?   Continue reading