Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Like Getting Pushed Into The Pool


As you could assess from my other blog posts, I tend to be a little bit of a "work-a-holic". It's not uncommon for me to overwork myself, drive (or bike) home to the wifey, and veg next to her while she does her French homework. But there are those times, in between the stressful expectations of work, that I are as refreshing and as unexpected as being pushed in the pool.

Yesterday my wife and I set some time aside to drive to the mall (while belting out some old school Further Seems Forever) and see if we couldn't utilize some of the gift cards we accumulated over X-mas and my birthday. As we walked around the mall, trying on clothes and having mini-fashion shows in the dressing rooms, I was strangely refreshed. Just to have the time to relax, take off the stress of the work day and CREATE memories with my wife, was more rewarding than any ounce of "veg" time.

To continue the day I found out that my guitar is ready to be picked up (after 7 months). Jim Gaffigan DVD was only 5 bucks, and we just receive 2 MORE gift cards (I did some graphic design work for) that would pay for a dinner we had scheduled with some GREAT friends later in the night...

I was shown the importance and simplicity of being "refreshed" ... just taking the time to be a husband to my wife and a friend to my friends.

Until Next Time
KPK

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Kris P. Kreme - Song Starts Inc.?!

Just thinking in terms of "IF" this radio thing doesn't work out ...
Gotta have a plan "B" sometimes right?!

What Do You Do When? You Need To Start A Song?! from Kris P. Kreme on Vimeo.

Red Sox = Red Face?


"Rest at Night
The Sun from shining,
Nature—and some Men—
Rest at Noon—some Men—
While Nature
And the Sun"
... BURNS YOUR FACE!!

That last part was me ... but the rest was a lovely poem by the great Emily Dickinson.

SO! Yesterday my friend Jayar and I went to take part in some good ol' fashion Baseball! America's past time with the Boston Red Sox Vs. Pittsburgh Pirates. So there we were, Jayar with his Blackberry "tweeting" the games going on's, and me reading a great book on GREAT radio .. with a highlighter. Both of us enjoying the stadium and the surrounding Bostonites yelling "GO SOIX!! GO SOIX!!" (that's my best at trying to TYPE an accent) Through the 5th inning, it looked like Boston was going to take it 5-1, so we chilled out a bit .. got a drink and slowly trotted back to our bleacher seats. It had already been 2 hours and some change by then and we still had about 2 or so innings before we were going to attempt to "beat the traffic". So there we were 2 innings later packing things up and realizing ... "Hey, we didn't put on any sunscreen" ... We didn't think much about it, until we got into the car and were headed back to work ... there, our eyes started to adjust and we realized that JUST the right sides of our faces were soar (we were seated on the third base line) .... made it into the station bathroom and BEHOLD! ... THE RIGHT SIDE WAS CHARRED! (a slight over dramatization ... but still) ... which ended up, throughout the rest of the day, being mocked, touched, "eww"ed at and even "whoa"ed at a handful of times ...

So remember kids ... no matter what you're doing outside. Check the UV index and apply sunscreen accordingly ... or it will end up being your SUN-SCREAM!! ...- super lame joke

Until Next Time
KPK

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

And On The 7th Day ...


It seems that everyday there is an overwhelming feeling of .... YAWN!! Why am I so tired all the time? Hmm ... I think I have an issue with work. Not so much working, or even working here (The JOY FM) ... but rather "overwork". I fully believe God created us (amongst a lot of things) to work!

  • The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work… (Genesis 2:15)
  • Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. (Exodus 31:15)
  • In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.(Proverbs 14:23)
  • So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work (Ecclesiastes 3:22)
  • If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
- excerpt from The Resurgence

So yes ... God created us to do work, AND I LOVE TO WORK!! I really do, I work hard, put my all into whatever project it is and strive to make whatever it is I'm doing EXCELLENT ... but that usually leads to me overworking myself and literally having NO REST!!

Every morning seems the same:An uncomfortable waking up ... then a rewarding and slightly mischievous hit of the "snooze" button ... but generally a LONGING to rest. The average American works 60hrs a week according to Business Week Magazine (Compared to 50hrs a week in 1996). There seems to be an increase every decade or so, in the amount of weekly hours worked ... 1986 - 40/hrs 1996 - 50/hrs 2006 - 60/hrs Appx 2016 - 70/hrs? 2026 - 80/hrs?

...... I myself tend to go between the 1986 and 2006 numbers often.

I'm becoming more and more aware of the importance of healthy and sanity to REST ... to keep this
"7th Day", Sabbath Day ... and observe that I am quite frail and in need of the reminder of redemption.

Redemption ... hmm, it's a great thing to rest on.

Until Next Time
KPK

Thursday, March 18, 2010

BAH! Stupid Alarm!!

Everyone has rituals, routines, practices .. especially when it comes to the morning. Most everyones routine is similar - some studies show it looks a little like this:

5:30 a.m. - The alarm goes off
5:45 a.m. - The snooze alarm
5:50 a.m. - Actually getting up
5:51 a.m. - Go to the Bathroom
5:55 a.m. - Make Coffee
6:02 a.m. - Enter shower
6:08 a.m. - Shave/Brush teeth/blow dry hair
6:20 a.m. - Drink first cup of coffee/read newspaper
6:32 a.m. - Wake the Kids
6:35 a.m. - Get the kids in and out of bathroom and dressed
6:58 a.m. - Feed Kids
7:15 a.m. - Pack Lunches
7:25 a.m. - Organize kids stuff for school
7:30 a.m. - Organize your own stuff
7:35 a.m. - Final house check
7:40 a.m. - Get the heck out of the house!

Sound at all familiar? Yeah I thought so ...
BUT after crawling into bed around 12:45 a.m. I assumed I set my alarm (which is on my cell phone) to the proper time. Sweet, silent, peaceful, FRANTIC!! I literally poll vaulted out of my dream and off the bed when it dawned on me that my alarm didn't go off. After starring at the clock for a few seconds longer than normal, trying to contemplate what went wrong and if the time was the ACTUAL time ... It became apparent to me that I had overslept. Now given as of right now the schedule above from 6:30 on doesn't so much apply to me (no kids) I found my morning routine, thrown out the window and laying in the front of my yard. Instead my morning routine looked more like an Olympic routine:

7:30 a.m. - Poll Vaulting
7:31 a.m. - 50 Yard dash
7:31 a.m. - Clothes (Gymnastics)
7:31 a.m. - Shot Put
7:32 a.m. - Tug of war
7:33 a.m. - Cycling
7:50 a.m. - Work

So as I scorned and verbally abused my cell phone for not waking me up at the proper hour ... I was made aware (after looking at the alarm time) that I set it for P.M.!!

Yeah ... that just happened

Until Next Time
KPK

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I Can Slap You From Here If Need Be


Growing up I LOVED Sports. I was totally into baseball, soccer, basketball, ultimate frisbee and just about anything active! (btw ... I was the KING of PowerBall - Baseball with racquet's) Since I've been married I've plateaued at around 10lbs heavier. This isn't bad .. surprisingly a lot of people won't shut up about how skinny I look (I hide my weight in my pockets). BUT I'm just not satisfied with where my body is. So for the last year or so I've made a conscious effort to become more active. Running 4.5 miles every other day or so, cycling to work in the morning and even on occasions tearing it up on the Ultimate Frisbee field (don't kid yourself ... I'm a mad Ultimate guy)

In the process of running, I started out literally running down to the stop sign up the street and back. Then I gradually ran/panted to the next stop sign and walked back ... it was a difficult process and at times I seriously thought I was going to pass out .. I was never going to be active again. And I had terrible habits (still do sometimes) I would run a short run of about a half mile for 2 days and then take the next 5 days to "recuperate" ... after a while I started increasing my run to about a mile, then a mile and a half ... then one day I decided to run the length of the Jimmy Eat World "Clarity" album ... 70 minutes ... would you believe I only ran 3 miles (that's 2 mph .. 1 mile every 23minutes)

Finally after some long needed discipline I've been able to work myself out to a 2-3 time a week 4.5-5 mile run (consistent) and I've felt more fit, more active and more myself than I have in quite a few years (still tearing up the Ultimate Frisbee field every now and again)

After looking at this lack of discipline in my active life, I couldn't help but look at it in a spiritual context. In our walk with God and living our life out through His grace, mercies and Son's example and propitiation, we find ourselves at times being without disciple .. or little there of. We know that WE ourselves cannot do a thing to achieve and be proven FOR God's salvation, it's something He's given to us through His son and by His son shows us His heart is gracious and merciful and after justice .. but the more we discipline ourselves to serve selflessly, to read His word and STUDY (cultural relevance, church history, apologetics, ect) but also keeping ourselves sensitive to the Spirit of Christ, in the times where we cannot finish .. He will, in the times we feel " seriously thought I was going to pass out .. I was never going to be active again" He tells us to come and sit.

Until Next Time
KPK

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

We Are Resc/YOU

In October of this year, I'm planning on taking a second trip to India, with an organization started by some friends of mine and I .... called Resc/YOU

“India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Internal forced labor may constitute India's largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, embroidery factories, and brothel houses. Although no comprehensive study of forced and bonded labor has been carried out, some NGOs estimate this problem affects tens of millions of Indians. Those from India’s most disadvantaged social economic strata are particularly vulnerable to forced or bonded labor and sex trafficking. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Children are also subjected to forced labor as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agricultural workers.” -
U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009


In December 2008 a group of us met at the JFK Airport in New York, in transit to Hyderabad, India. There we spent time observing, loving, serving and learning about human trafficking, debt bondage and slavery in the majority of the Indian provinces. The term “out of sight out of mind” kept hitting me right in the middle of my forehead. “How could I have not known that TENS OF MILLIONS of Indian inhabitants are enslaved!” … the thoughts that each person I pass is a potential slave, a sex working, a life begging for the hope of freedom and a life worth living were the most frequent and the most echoed thoughts as we returned home.

But first … Her name was Axshmia, she was the youngest in her family, her mother and father had died, and she lived with her uncle in the Vishakhapatnam province. She was what the Hindu Caste System calls the Shudras or Untouchables. The Untouchables were literally social outcasts, to the point where after tea they were ordered to break the tea cup they drank from so no one else would drink from it. Axshmia, as we were visiting her village, was the “Belle of the Ball”. With a smile that would steal even the hardest heart and eyes that would make anyone gaze longer. Her family is of the poorest in Vishakhapatnam, her mother and father gone and her only guardian is an uncle who has his family to provide for as well as Axshmia.

With all of the variables … the probability of Axshmia being sold into forced labor and or sex trafficking is sky ward.

Resc/You exists because of Axshmia, and the innocent, beautiful and destitute children she stands for.

With the idea that the children of Khidderpore we serve, spend their lively days enjoying the funs and thrills, a child should, at a local boarding school
(a place where change can occur for the oppressed, and hope can be given to a child who knows only an impossible struggle of segregation) ... spend their nights with in the walls of the local brothels, within the sheets of perversion, bound by the shackles of modern day slavery ...

Our hope is this ... To raise awareness and also funds for an education fund. This fund with help the children of the Khidderpore Red Light District to go to boarding schools so they are not living in the brothels. This fund will also continue to grow so that these children can have the opportunity to go to higher education ...

Check out
SpendYourself to purchase a shirt to support Resc/You' cause ... also check out our Blog .. here

Until Next Time,
KPK