The main stream of thought for today’s post is a message board for ideas that have been circulating in my head as of late. I have never considered myself an entrepreneur or inventor, but for the past few weeks I have had spontaneous ideas about things.

1. Toms Shoes spinoff- so I think the idea behind this company is refreshing. It is pretty basic. You buy a pair of trendy dock-shoes for yourself and a pair of shoes is sent to a child in Africa.

a. Why does this idea work? I think it is because everyone feels good when they participate in a charitable act and it is a personal process because you get to pick the type of shoe and thus wear it. So the idea began that the need for improvised people of the world is so great, there has to be something other then shoes that could accomplish this idea.

b. So that was the easy part of the idea, now what goods or service could you market to accomplish this. This good or service has to simultaneously accomplish two things. First it has to be marketable in America, which basically means it has to be trendy or desirable to the consumerist customer. On the other hand, the good has to be applicable for a child or person in need in an impoverished country.

So I am merely curious what ideas people could throw out there that could be practical, please take the time to respond with a post or comment

A Marvelous Saturday

This last Saturday was my sister’s wedding. It was greater then hoped and was a special day I won’t soon forget. This last week was filled with anxiety and frustration and I was looking forward to the wedding not b/c of the significance, but for the break in drama. The wedding itself was a unique experience on a couple of fronts. The first being that my sister was getting married which is a much different emotion then when one of my friends got married. I have known my sister for my entire life and I always have wanted the best for her. Seeing her that happy was emotional for me. It is hard to understand the level of love two people have for each other and there are these rare moments where you get a glimpse of it and I did on her wedding day. I will never forget the look that she had in her face when they were both in front of the priest at the altar. Her eyes were filled with such soothing love, and there was no fear or hesitation in them. As I was standing up, as a groomsman I was able to intimately witness the most important moment in her life thus far. All of the hesitations and fears I had for her future with this man went out the window, for that the look in her eyes gave me peace. I know that from now on it is in the lord’s hands. It was just plain special.

The reception couldn’t have been more perfect. It had all of the essentials. Good food, good drinks, good dancing, and good company. It was refreshing to see members of my mom’s family that I haven’t seen in a few years. It was a great night. One of the pleasant surprises of the night was that not one person went overboard with the drinks. The bar was wide open for 4 hours and you could get as many drinks as one could stomach. Not one person got drunk and embarrassed themselves. It is amazing how well alcohol can add to an event while not be abused. That is why god created wine and alcohol in the first place. He created it to be drunken and shared in the fellowship of your friends and family not to be abused to the point of stumbling around like a fool.

There were two things that I didn’t like about the wedding. One I am half joking and the other I am very passionate about. The first less serious one was a minor flaw to the night. There was only one single girl at the wedding; it was slim pickings to have a dance. I might sound like a typical single guy, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit to having more fun if there is a collection of attractive single girls at a wedding.

The second i am referring to not submit for intentions of upsetting someone. I am so PC right now, oh well.

A thought

So the last week and a half my half has not been that eventful since I haven’t started my job yet, so my days are filled with me working out, reading, and watching a lot of new TV shows. I have dived into one show that is really interesting, it is called, “Intervention,” on A&E. It basically follows one or two individuals that struggle with addiction with either drugs or something else. Probably for most people this show would be depressing or hard to watch but I find it very interesting and while I am watching I am learning a lot of how people come to these rock-bottom stages of their lives. I have a huge heart for helping people even they are projected on a TV screen.

What I have noticed is something that is kind of common sense on the surface but if you look deeper it has some profound qualities. In each one of the addiction cases shown on the program, they all have troubled backgrounds some way revolving around their parents. Either their parents were neglecting, overprotecting, divorced, abusive, unloving, or addicts themselves. These troubled upbringings caused wounds that they could not deal with so they medicated with drugs, alcohol, or binging. These substances or actions they did were an unhealthy effort to try to mask the pain they felt in their wound. Since the core of the problem was with there parents they became lost, for that is the normal source of comfort for most of us. I couldn’t imagine growing up in a world where I had no authority figure to cling to as I learned about the world. I could imagine a sense of bitterness growing in me.

Basically what I learned is not all but most addicts have a background of pain in some way or another, and that they run to drugs to reduce the bad feelings. As a man who some day wishes to become a father, it makes me step back and think how crucial a role a father plays in the upbringing of a child.

New Chapter

Okay here it is. Call me insecure but I don’t know if I am interesting enough to publicize a blog on the web. I could definitely see myself trying to sound more intelligent then I am or funnier then I am. I am just going to be myself and see how the cookie crumbles.

Before I start, I want to write what motivated me to take the leap onto a blog. I do not view myself as a man who possesses skills of a good writer especially since I made C’s in all my writing classes in college. I am writing purely to grow as a person and to show a side many people have not seen of me. In my college social group, I am known as basically the group clown. I make ridiculous jokes and comments that I think is funny. My humor is a part of who I am but there is also a serious more deep side that reflects. My mission statement for this blog is for people to read this and understand not just a part of me but really get a sense of all of me.

The blog is a really interesting idea that I think has a lot of healthy and gospels elements that I haven’t noticed until this afternoon. Two basic ideas are self- inspection and vulnerability, both which could benefit everyone. At the end of the day no matter where we are in life I think we should look at ways to improve ourselves to make us better. This idea is really central to what my passion is.