Phils Next Kick

I was going through files from my old website earlier, and I just happened to find a few things that may be of interest to some people who read my blog. With that in mind, I give you the Redemption Podcast Archives, and all the Redemption “fan” cards I created. Enjoy!

Redemption Podcast

Redemption “Fan” Cards

It’s time for something to change, and I mean good change.  I’m not really totally sure “what” I’m going to change, how I’m going to change it, or when it’s going to happen, but it’s time for me to change something. That is all for now.

But wait, there’s more. I want to make videos. I think I’m going to start trying to do at least one a week, even if it’s just me waving at a camera for 3 seconds.  So in order to start this off, I am going to post a video that I made quite some time ago with the help of a couple guys at the church I was attending.  I present to you “Annoying Little Sin.”

My God and an iPod on the Open Road

In Between Wyomings, author and Grammy-winning producer Ken Mansfield, along with his wife, takes a three month road trip through past places in his life that lead him to recount classic events in musical history, as well as many personal experiences with icons such as Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell, Roy Orbison, and The Beatles, just to name a few. In this book he takes us through 30 years of his life in the L.A., London, and Nashville music scenes. It is a story that will touch you as Ken finds his way back to the heart of God’s love, mercy and grace.

This was a very good read, and many parts did in fact speak to me in ways that only God could, but there were other parts that were just kind of tough to get through at times. Most of the chapters are pretty short though, so it wasn’t a hard book to read by any means, just some parts just as meaningful to me personally as others. It is worth your time though.

Yes, I have been thinking about doing this for some time now, but I just haven’t sat down and started on it. I know I want it to be video, and I know I want it to be funny at times, but other than that, I’m kinda stuck. I used to host the Redemption CCG podcast, and thought about starting that up again, but I want to do something different too. There are too many “news” podcasts for me to do one of those, and I wish I could come up with some sort of series like other people have, but I’m stuck because my brain doesn’t want to come up with ideas. I also wanted to make a short film this summer, but that hasn’t gotten anywhere yet either. So, what I need are some ideas… I actually just had one come to me, but I’ll just throw it into the pot later. What would you guys like to see? What kind of podcast, or video series would you be interested in watching? I want to know, because I want to do something that everyone wants to watch. So let me know!!!

Even so I still decided to start back using “Gyminee”, now “Daily Burn” in order to track my nutrition and workout stats. I’m doing pretty good today too (on tracking, not on actually eating healthy). Here’s how it’s stacking up so far today.

Not insanely great, but I just gotta get myself back in the right routine.  Of course I have a feeling my budget will affect my ability to eat healthy to a certain extent.  Anyway, that’s my update for now.  Probably gonna try to get to the gym sometime tonight too.  Oh, and if you want to join Daily Burn and be my buddy on there, my username is hostsofheaven.  Hope to see some more of you guys on there!

Before I start writing this, I don’t want you to think I’m talking bad about myself, because I’m not. I’m just stating a fact. I am indeed overweight, and I do not have any money right now. Therefore I am Fat, and I am Broke. Now, that is precisely why you should not listen to me when I try to give you advice on how to become healthy and/or financially free.

Needless to say I have come to a self realization over the past few days that I am not healthy physically, financially, or even spiritually, and it all seems to be for the same reason. I don’t tend to stick to the plans I make. I had a work out plan for quite some time, and I did stick to it for a couple months… but then it just stopped. I’ve been writing out budgets for the past 6 months, but I haven’t stuck with one yet. I’ve made plans to sit down and have my quiet time, but sometimes it just never gets there. I’m pretty sure I have a discipline problem… I have trouble disciplining myself. I know how to do this stuff, what to do, and when to do it, I just don’t do it.

It’s time for that to change though. It’s time for me to stop being the Fat, Broke Pretender, and become the Healthy, Financially Secure Man of God I’m supposed to be. So I’m going to try to use my blog to keep myself disciplined, with workouts, eating healthy (or at least as healthy as I can with my budget), saving money, getting out of debt, and growing closer to God. This won’t work if I don’t have people getting on to me and pushing me to do better though, and that’s what I want from everyone who reads this. Of course I do have my lovely fiance helping, but I’ll take as much pushing as I can get right now! If it’s been a while since I posted an update, somebody check on me, get on to me, yell at me, whatever it takes. This is gonna take a lot for me, and I’m going to need the encouragement, and the accountability.

So for my first update, I will say that I had cheerios for breakfast, and pasta with spaghetti sauce and cheese for lunch (with a few small snacks this morning). I have not finalized a budget for next month, but I did get some cash in the mail today that will hopefully keep my gas tank full for the rest of the month. I have not spent time in the word yet today, but I am going to tonight… and you guys hold me to that. Oh, and I think I’m going to go by my mom’s house this afternoon and get my old “Walmart Special” bike and see what I need to do to get it fixed up enough to ride semi-comfortably until I can afford a new one. Hopefully this won’t be my only update for today… but it may be, so if I don’t post again tonight, be ready for another tomorrow!

You know what I’m talking about. It seems like you’re just stuck in the same rut you’ve always been in, things keep going wrong, and it looks like there’s no way out? Yea, we’ve all had those days haven’t we? Well I’ve been having one for the past three days it seems. Of course as most things do with me, it all seems to start with money issues, then it spirals down from there. I try to tell myself that it’s gonna get better, and that “this too shall pass”, but just as soon as I actually start feeling better, something else will happen that will kick me right back in the hole I just climbed out of. It doesn’t have to be anything big either. For instance, I was just in the bathroom, and the button just popped right off my pants. Lucky for me (and everyone else) I’m wearing a belt. I know it’s something that can be easily fixed too, but it just doesn’t help one’s mood on a day like this when your clothes start falling apart!

Now there’s a ton of other stuff built up behind all this too that I’m going to have to tear down, but it’s just amazing to me how after I finally start feeling better, something so small as a button can put me right back where I was…

Barring any super spectacular unannounced items, it appears that Nintendo has once again failed at video games this year. Microsoft came out with guns blazing, showing off games like Beatles Rock Band, Halo Reach, Splinter Cell: Conviction, and many others. Then they blew everyone away with Project Natal. Playing games with nothing but your body. Pretty cool. I was stoked to see what Nintendo had in store… until they actually started talking.

First of all, everything was way to rehearsed. It felt like an apple event, and it was just about as dissapointing. The majority of the time was spent talking about a product they spent a lot of time on last year, the Wii Motion Plus. Don’t get me wrong now, that little bugger is pretty cool, but we already knew about it. I was looking for something new, something exciting. They went through some new games, none of which peaked my interest, and then the president of Nintendo, Mr. Iwata himself came out and proceded to give a lecture on gamers for about 20 min. He then announced a new piece of equipment they were working on called…. the wii vitality sensor?!?!?!?!? It looks like a little pulse detector that you stick on your finger… wait, that’s exactly what it is? Huh? Anyway, thanks to third part games like Red Steel 2, and The Conduit, plus a couple of first party games (Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid the Other M), the show wasn’t a complete bust, but it was highly dissapointing.

Then came the Sony press conference. Microsoft and Nintendo better watch out. Sony is coming in, and they’re coming hard. Yea their stuff is pricier than the other two, but have you actually taken the time to look at what that system is capable of graphics wise? If not, do that now. They are absolutely amazing. Yes the 360 is good, but I will stand behind the PS3 in graphics period. Also, they now have a motion controller coming out that seems to take the Wii Remote and Project Natal and smash them together into something that could very well put sony right on top. It uses the PS3 camera, the Eyetoy, and sensors in the new remote, to provide true 1:1 tracking, as well as many other cool features… and it’s expected to come out next spring. Wow.

So now, even though I have always loved Nintendo, and always will be a fan of the Zelda series, as well as Mario and some of the others, I can slowly feel my allegience (and my wallet) being pulled in three different directions. Of course I want to continue to play my wii (after I get it fixed), but I’m really tempted to try and save for a 360 or PS3 too, and to be honest with you, if it wasn’t for the price, the PS3 would definitely be my next console. It might still be too, we’ll just have to see.

Yep, it’s when I make out my budget. I start figuring out how much I have, and how much I’ve got to spend and my first thought is “How in the world am I going to make it this month?” Happens every time…. but that’s not what I’m going to write about today. Today I am going to write about perspective.

“Incidentally,” he said with a smirk, “you ate sardines
and Vienna sausages in the sand. I dined on surf and turf with
an ocean view.” He slapped me on the back. “It’s all about
perspective.” - The Noticer by Andy Andrews

I read this book about a week ago, and it’s still affecting how I think about things, and how I look at my life. First of all I would recommend that everyone reading this go get “The Noticer” and read it. Don’t just skim through it, but read it, pay attention to it, and soak it in. I got into the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger program to get free books, and instead I got a wake up call. First from this book, and then from Andy Stanley’s “The Principle of the Path,” but I may talk about that some other day.

I think about how many times I just go with the first view of a situation that pops into my mind without sitting down and thinking that there may me other, better ways to view it. Let’s take my eating habits of late as an example. For many meals I have been eating a lot less than I was used to eating. One morning I ate just an apple. Well, the first thing that would pop into my mind in a situation like this would be “I’m so poor, I don’t even have enough food to have a good breakfast…” My mind immediately focuses on the negative of the situation, but if we would just step back for a moment and take another look, maybe we could come up with something a little better. Like “Wow! I got to eat an apple for breakfast! There are many people out there who would love to even have this much food for breakfast, or eat 3 meals a day for that matter.” Or maybe we could take this perspective, “Woohoo, I’m gonna drop the weight now!”

What I’m trying to say is there are always multiple perspectives in every situation. While we’re stuck in one of those times though, we may not take the time to stop and think about that though… but we need to. The next time you start feeling like something isn’t going the way you planned, or other things are going wrong, just step back and look at it from a different perspective. You’ll probably find one that not only makes you feel a lot better, but makes a lot more sense!

Think back years ago… where did you think you would be right now? If you aren’t there, then maybe you should pick up this book.  It’s about realizing that the reason you are where you are is because of the paths you have followed in your life.  Whether we realize it or not, we are all on a path, and that path is taking us in a direction that we might not want to be traveling in.  Once we realize this, we can turn it around to our advantage.  Direction leads to a Destination every time.

This book was less of a “self help” book and more of a “life realization” book in that it helped me realize exactly where my life has been, and is headed.  I also learned that in order to arrive at the destination I envision, then I have to be on the right path. I must choose the right direction, and it’s that direction that Andy Stanley tries to help guide you on with this book.  I would highly reccomend it!