The To Do List to DESTROY ALL TO DO LISTS!!!

SKIP TO THE BOLD TOWARDS THE BOTTOM IF YOU ARE SHORT OF TIME


The To Do List to DESTROY ALL TO DO LISTS!!!

Now that I am done with school... finally... after 17 years... I am able to do the things I have always wanted to do/learn... And learning from the example of JD, it is best to write down your goals, prioritize them, review them (weekly-monthly-annually), and put them into action. So over the last few months I have made a running list of things I want to accomplish while I am still living - if God so grants.

MATT'S LIFE "TO DO" LIST: (unprioritized, stream-of-consciousness-style)
-learn how to tell a good story
-learn how to tell a good joke
-take public speaking/social confidence classes
-take finance/economic classes
-compliment others more
-make life goals list and post on wall in room
-get better at remembering birthdays
-revisit places I have visited via pictures and research the culture/history of those destinations (I hate saying I have been to London and then have little to say/remember about it)
-review medical illnesses and treatments
-make a video portfolio of my work
-be organized with my weekly, monthly, yearly goals
-read the various Taking Sides books and come to a definitive stance on various issues
-read Karl Marx & Ayn Rand
-learn drums, piano, and guitar (with the intent of joining a band, becoming famous, selling out, and realizing that I was happier when I was unknown and with few friends)
-write songs - lyrically and musically -write/create a professional screenplay/film (short & feature length) -create a feature length documentary -master my videography skills -create a board game -create a children's book
-study physics and engineering (with the intent of answering the question I ask myself infrequently, "Could I have been an engineer instead?")
-learn outdoor survival (outdoors and not in the my house with a copy of "To Build a Fire")
-learn basic car mechanics & repair (so I am not the sucker who gets his "modulating coil" fixed every check-up)
-learn more about government and politics
-act in a short film (that makes it into a film festival... become famous... and realize I was happier before strangers knew me)
-take acting/improve classes
-build a bike
-speak Spanish fluently, then a third useful language (one that will help me when English is no longer the dominate language of the world. Mandarin? Arabic? Suggestions?)
-gain a general knowledge of beers, wines, and liquors (...so when I am in a bar I don't always order "a Screwdriver" because that is the ONLY mixed drink I know the name of, or knowing what "Wells" means, or knowing the difference between dirt cheap wine and a fine wine.)
-make a running "Life Lessons Learned" list
-live in a foreign country for 6 months or more -learn a brief history of the world -read literature classics -keep a journal (I guess blogs count, eh?) -document more of my times with friends on video/pictures -do scrapbooking?
-adopt a kid
-create a non-profit service organization of some sort
-do extensive research on the Bible, Jesus, Paul & the early church, and various aspects of Christianity (I think some people call this field of research "Apologetics")


IF SHORT OF TIME, START HERE:
The last bullet is what I am tackling first in my "Life 'To Do' List". I feel it is the most important (yet MOST intensive - some people spend their whole adult lives studying this). My goal is to write a report (a research paper?) on my findings (not so much for me, but to also share with people) . I have already done some reading on this topic from the books by Lee Strobel - "A Case for Christ" and "A Case for Faith". And I felt both books were very helpful, yet surface-skimming and biased. The thing that bothered me was how I felt his books was fairly one-sided, never interviewing the leaders from the opposite side of the fence (leading Atheists/Agnostics and their claims).
SO... What I am ASKING of YOU is...

WHAT BOOKS HAVE YOU READ/HEARD OF THAT WERE GOOD, IN-DEPTH BOOKS ON THE TOPICS OF THE BIBLE, CHRIST, PAUL'S LIFE, THE EARLY CHURCH, ETC...?
(note: I am interested in books from both sides of the issue: Christian Researchers & Atheist/Agnostic Researchers)

Here is a list of the books I already own:
-Burridge, Richard A. & Gould, G. "Jesus Now and Then".
-Strobel, Lee. "A Case for Faith" & "A Case For Faith".
-McDowell, Josh. "The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict - Vol 1 & 2"
-Remsberg, John E. "The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence".
-Martin, Michael. "The Case Against Christianity".
-Hitchens, Christopher. "The Portable Atheist".

WHAT SUGGESTIONS DO YOU HAVE?

Guarda Austin Raro!

This last week’s mention-ables…

Dating the church…
-Since moving to Austin, I have been looking for churches. I have been recommended about a handful of churches in Austin. Also, I have checked out Yelp.com (a great resource for citizen reviews of anything in most major cities… I highly suggest it) for churches in Austin.

This week, I checked out two of the recommended churches. I was pretty impressed with one of them - Austin Stone. It reminds me a lot of Four Oaks in Tallahassee. It’s a church with a large college and young adult congregation that meets in a high school. Chris Tomlin was one of the founders of the church before moving to Atlanta this last year.

You can tell his influence in the church because they have a “rockin” worship band - minus the cheesy songs and smoke and lights. They also have the typical trendy things of a young church (which, honestly, strike my interest) - well-edited videos, artsy graphics, and a young “hip” pastor.

There are 2 things that I particularly like about the church:
1) An apologetics/reasons for faith course
This Sunday I sat in on the apologetics course and contributed to the discussion of the week - Why do people trust and why don’t they trust the Bible? I really enjoyed the topic because this is something I have always been interested in since college. I hope to go to the rest of the meetings for further discussion.

2) Urban outreach
Since the church is buying land and building a church in the poor, Hispanic St. Johns Community, the church has adopted a service-oriented focus.

That is sort of their slogan for this period of building and transition. They figured they need to reach out to the poor, mostly Hispanic community of St. Johns before they move there. In so doing, the church has started a variety of programs to reach out to this community - like after-school tutoring for Reagan High (which is in danger of being closed due to poor academic performance), living among the community, volunteering in health clinics, and family support programs.

Here is a video of a couple in the church and their honest hardships living in the St. John's Community:

www.vimeo.com/1868693

The whole St. Johns outreach movement was kicked off this weekend with the Hope Fest. My friend Lindsey, who helped organize the Fest, suggested for me to sign up to volunteer. So this last Saturday I did blood pressures and helped interpret Spanish for the Hispanic visitors to the festival. It was a lot of fun… “?Te quiero chequear tu presion?”

Also, by the end of the day, I had made a friend with a guy named Alberto. Through talking, he revealed that he’s been digging ditches in Austin for the last year and has not seen his family in Mexico for 2 years. At the end of our conversation, he said he wanted to meet up sometime to practice his English and my Spanish. I hope he calls me back. He said he knew the location of a “buen restaurante chino”.


Practicar hace perfecto!
I really enjoy Austin for its high number of Hispanics and opportunities to learn Spanish. This last week I went to two different Spanish conversation groups. One was at UT and the other at the downtown Public Library. The UT group consisted of mainly college students that were Spanish majors. It was a good group but a big one of 8 people. But since we only met for an hour and it being our first meeting - we didn’t do a lot of talking. We are going to the museum this week to see some famous Latin American exhibit. The Library group consisted of mainly people in their 50s to 60s. I enjoyed this group because it was interesting to hear about the lives of 50+ year olds (which I usually find it hard to communicate with). Lonnie, a stoke broker (I think), talked about his gripes about the current economy and how the government is handling (or mishandling) the economy. How do you say Libertarian in Spanish?

There are also two or three different homeless shelters for Hispanics in my neighborhood. If I have time, I hope to get involved somehow. If I get involved with these shelters, I will be working on the front lines of the Immigration issue. Often these shelters house and care for the fatigued, fresh-from-the-border illegal immigrants from Mexico. Kind of exciting.

Making friends…
I have been more daring in the last couple days in trying to meet people. I figured I have to be more proactive in the friends department. On Saturday at the Hope Festival, I met Andrea, a fellow nurse at the blood pressures table, who invited me to the Austin End-of-Ramadan Festival. From their, I met a guy named Clay, a Muslim-ophile like Andrea (due to their recent trips to the Middle East). And they had great Schwirmas (Schwirma is a fun word to say and a delicious food to eat. Its like a Middle Eastern burrito). The purpose of the festival was to share with the Austin community what Ramadan and the Islamic faith is truly about... Jump Houses, cotton candy, snow cones and Schwirmas! Not terrorism and hate. Then from their, I was invited to a UT Football/St. Johns Community Outreach Party where I met some other people.

Then today at church, I overheard someone talk about indoor soccer. I made a comment to them expressing my love for indoor soccer. After about 5 minutes and a phone call, I was on their indoor soccer team. We played a game tonight and won 8-4. At first, when I heard it was a co-ed team, I was a little hesitant (because 8 times out of 10 girls aren’t that good and make co-ed soccer games a chore). But actually all four girls on the team had played club or collegiate ball at some time. All the players on the team were really good. At the end of the game, I had two assists and felt like I had proved myself to the team.

Austin: One week and counting...

I have been in Austin for one week now.
I arrived here last Sunday after a day and a half of driving from Tallahassee.
So far this week I have...


-Slept on the floor for 7 days.

I am pretty cheap, so I have debated on whether to even get a mattress. I went to 4 mattress stores this week and found out that just a mattress costs $150 or more new. So... I think I may continue to sleep on my sleeping bag until I find a used or new mattress for cheaper. Or, since I've been sleeping well on just a sleeping bag, I may go without a mattress until I get married. Girls... is it a turn off if your boyfriend/husband sleeps on the floor? OR... is it more of a turn ON if your boyfriend/husband buys you a $150 ring? 150 dollars... that would be a really nice ring.

-Fixed my bike.

I took my poor excuse for a road bike to the community bike shop just up the street from my house. I am so lucky as to live about a mile from Austin's equivalent of Krank It Up. The community bike shop is called the Yellow Bike Project. So I took it there and got some new wheels and a new chain for $10. She rides like new. I am very happy about it because I can now ride most places I need to go. In my excitement of fixing my bike, I timed myself from my house to my job on bike. 13 minutes 30 seconds. Speaking of bikes... supposedly Lance Armstrong lives in Austin.

-Took the dogs to the park.

Each of my roommates own a dog.
Dustin owns a rotweiler named Abyla. She is very friendly and in constant need of physical affection. When I sit on the couch, she'll sit next to me and slowly sneak her way over to me. After about a minute, she'll be in my lap, hitting me with her legs insisting that I rub her. Cute but annoying.

Trevor owns a black lab named Dignan, or Diggs. He is a fairly calm dog inside the house. The only time he'll get rowdy is when Abyla knocks him off his back feet and wrestles him. However, Diggs LOVES the outside. And I learned the hard way by taking him to the park. I should have known, though. If you even say the word or motion towards outside he'll start jumping on you. Yesterday, I decided I would take the dogs to Lady Bird Lake Park for a walk. On the ride, they were well behaved in my car. Abyla laid in the back, while Diggs refused to sit but stand in the back. He was too excited to sit I guess.

After a few minutes of walking with the dogs on leashes, we approached an area of the park where there were no families or little kids. So I decided to let them off, assuming they would stay nearby and we'd play Fetch or something. However, Diggs TOOK OFF. And Abyla, after a moment of hesitation - being torn between me calling her and Diggs running off, took off after him. Within a minute, they were hardly visible. After about 10 minutes of walking and various picnic'ers warning me to keep my dogs on leashes, I caught up to the two dogs. They probably sniffed and marked every tree in the park. I don't think I will take Diggs for a walk again. Especially because on the way home, he hawked and slobbered and walked all over my car.

-Found a good coffee shop.

After surviving college by spending most week nights studying in a coffee shop, I have certain things I look for in a coffee shop:
1. Comfortable chairs.
2. Plenty of chairs/tables.
3. Late hours/24 hours.
4. Multicultural crowd.
5. Awfully loud, awfully awful music.

And I found it all at Epoch Coffeehouse. Its very similar to All Saints... except minus the asbestos... and the pretentious barristas. It has outlets and extension cords all over the place. Atheist graffiti quotes in the bathrooms. Loud, strange music. (Right now it is a mix of Latin polka, Indian trance, and Eastern European gypsy songs) Free internet. Toilets that face away from their bathroom doors (Heather, you would like this... haha.) Lots of loiterers/studiers.
The only bad thing is that its a decent bike ride from my house.

As for my next week...
-On Tuesday, I am going to a UT Spanish conversation group. I am excited. I signed up for a weekly 5-person Spanish conversation practice group through UT. I hope it goes bien.
-On Saturday, I am helping out with Spanish and Health-related things at a community festival. My friend Lindsey told me about Hope Fest. Hope Fest is a multi-church, multi-organization festival with the intention of helping out the St Johns community. I think the community is predominately poor and predominately Hispanic. I am not sure exactly what I will be doing, but the volunteer sign up form asked if I was in a health-related career and if I knew Spanish. So, if I am lucky, I will be doing something related to the two.

"All My Ex's Live in Texas"

***A scene from the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants, Episode entitled "Texas"***

Patrick: What's so great about dumb ol' Texas?

Sandy: What did you say?

Patrick: Texas is dumb?

Sandy: Don't you dare take the name of Texas in vain!

Spongebob: (is in a Texas shape) Hey Patrick, what am I now?

Patrick: Uhh, stupid?

Spongebob: No, I'm Texas!

Patrick: What's the difference! (Spongebob and Patrick laugh)


Well... its official. I will be moving to Austin, Texas. Woot! Woot!
I was accepted into the Versant Program at the University Medical Center Brackenridge Hospital. I will begin working on a Cardiac Telemetry floor starting in October. The floor will be a challenge but I will learn a lot in the process. The floor treats a wide-range of medical/surgical illnesses with cardiac issues, so I will learn a variety of illnesses. Since the hospital was a community hospital until a few years ago, a significant amount of the patients will be homeless and with psych issues. I'm a little nervous about this, but dealing with psych patients will be good experience for the ER. Also, about 30% of the patients on my floor are Hispanic, which means I will be able to practice my Spanish, too. Donde le duele?

I also found a house about 3 miles from my work. Its on the East side of Austin, which reminds me a little bit of French Town in Tallahassee, but a little nicer. Its on a busy street with a bus stop nearby. I hope to either ride my bike or take the bus to work and downtown. The house is fairly nice and somewhat remodeled. My two other roommates are in their late 20's - one works for a music video TV station and the other a photographer.

I will probably be moving there mid September. Lots of excitement and a little nervous.


Here are some random facts about Austin...
-Austin was selected as the No. 1 Best Big City in "Best Places to Live" by Money magazine in 2006
-It is the "Greenest Ciity in America" according to MSN City Guide.
-According to CNN Headline News and Travel and Leisure, Austin ranks #2 on the list of cities with the best people referring to the personalities and attributes of the citizens.
-Austin was also voted America's #1 College Town by the Travel Channel.
-Austin was ranked the 5th safest city in part because annually, there are fewer than 3 people murdered per 100,000 people.
-It is "The Live Music Capital of the World" due to its high amount of bands and venues.
-According to the Nielsen Company, adults in Austin read and contribute to blogs more than those in any other U.S. metropolitan area.
-In 2004 the city was first in Moviemaker Magazine's annual top ten cities to live and make movies.
-Researchers at Central Connecticut State University ranked Austin the 23rd most literate city in America for 2007.

(Note: In reference to my post title... The funny thing is that 2 of my ex-girlfriend's actually live in Texas... Austin, Texas. Luckily, I am on good terms with both of them.)

A True Loss...

An acquaintance-friend of mine died yesterday in a bike accident. Trey Hayworth was hit by a tractor-trailer near the intersection of gaines and railroad.

Wow... suddenly a life no longer living.

Even though I never knew him very well. He was always very caring and selfless towards me. He was such a nice guy with great ideals, great attitude, and great potential to change this world and the people around him.

My heart goes out to your friends and family. You will be missed.
Trey Hayworth
10/18/1983 - 8/18/2008

Matt + Internet = Luv4E

I love the Internet... If I could marry the Internet, I would.

She would be so pretty, so intelligent. She would keep me up late at night. She would get along with all my friends. She would make me laugh, make me cry. She would let me watch TV whenever I want. She would love to read. She would know about current events (like here), the latest gossip (like here), and how to make a time machine out of paper clips and cardboard (like here).

But seriously though, I love the Internet
And the main reason I love the Internet is because she has made video so easily accessible, educational, and narrow-marketed.

And I discovered two examples of educational video online today...

1. Lingus.tv
http://www.lingus.tv/video/
Lingus.tv allows you to learn Spanish through short sitcom videos streaming online. I have been searching for this for months. Each episode (begin, interm, expert) has subtitles, with additional materials such as dialogues, translations, and lessons plans.
Awesome. Aprende espanol!

Here is an example episode:



2.Nurse TV
http://www.nursetv.com/13_weeks/

Now some of you may not be nurses, but after watching an episode of "13 Weeks", you may want to be a travel nurse. 13 Weeks is an internet reality show about 6 travel nurses on an assignment in Orange County, California, living in a big nice house, and going on adventures in their free time.

I am kind of mad someone beat me to the idea for the internet show. I think its a great idea to recruit people into nursing. However, I'm mad because I think I could've done a better job at picking the travel nurses. The first episode was entertaining, but frustrating. Why are the only 2 male nurses in the show flamboyantly gay or ambiguously gay?!

Not ALL male nurses are gay, flamboyant, or talk with high-pitched voices. Fact.
If you want to recruit more guys into nursing, don't portray all male nurses as high-pitched, homosexuals. Although, some are... there are several that are not.

For example, looks at these guys....
They're manly. I wouldn't want to get into a fight with these guys..

Haha. Okay. This is another bad example of male nurse recruitment... its a little on the cheesy side. But I know several straight, manly nurses.

All in all, I think the show is a great idea. You should watch the first episode at least. Maybe the episodes get better.

And I cannot wait to see what else the Internet will offer in the future.
Also, I cannot wait to make my own Internet TV show.
Maybe an INTERNATIONAL Traveling Nurse Show, where the female nurses are young, attractive, intelligent, and active. And the male nurses are straight, masculine, athletic and like to burt, fart, and talk very deeply.

And hit on girls all the time. Just kidding.

iPod. iMiss you.

So the other day on my to Mindo I think my iPod got stolen. When I got on the bus, some guys (that appeared to be working for the bus) took my backpack and put it overhead. I didn't think too much of it because it was only two seats behind me overhead. If someone wanted to get into it, I would surely hear them, right? So I sat down in my seat with an open ear...

After about 30 minutes I started thinking, "I remember Mari Paz or Augusto telling me that sometimes people on the bus act like workers and take people's bags. Then when they aren't looking or thinking, they steal their stuff." So I decided it would best to put my bag at my feet. So I did. With my backpack and 2 more hours to go to Mindo, I decided I wanted to listen to some good Reggaeton songs I had downloaded from the computer.

Songs like this one:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DhKtlVzjZZ4


Or this one:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QmT4FtGKuUo


However when I reached into my backpack, my iPod was gone. And I know I had it in my bag, the night before. I turned to see if those "bus helpers" were looking at my suspiciously or even using my iPod. However, they were no longer on the bus. They had gotten off on a previous stop. It made me sad to think I could no longer listen to my music or practice my reggaeton sing-a-long.

If you have seen my iPod, it looks like this...


Yes, its light blue. Don't make fun of it. Your iPod would be light blue too if you got it for free. Pastor Erik once made fun of me for it "Is that your sister's iPod?!" And I replied "Well... sort of." My original iPod was my sister's old iPod she never used. It was worse than light blue.
It was this...

Yes, hot pink... She never used it, and I refuse to buy something new if I can get it used. So I decided I would use her pink one... just never in public. After about a month of using it, a friend of mine said she would switch her light blue one for my hot pink one. I figured light blue is a little bit closer to Manly than hot pink on the Color Spectrum of Masculinity. And that's how I came to own my iPod.

Now its gone... and I guess I need to buy (actually buy) a more manly iPod.
Like this one...