Saturday Top 5: Christian Rock Bands

I grew up in church listening to Christian music. I’ve come to an understanding in life that music cannot become a Christian so a better description would be “music for Christians”. We had some great radio stations in central Florida in the Sarasota, Bradenton/Palmetto, and Tampa area where I lived from the age of birth until I was 11. Specifically, WCIE and Joy FM were great Christian music radio stations with excellent programming and hosts who were well ahead of their time for Christian radio. Even WMCU here in Miami had nothing as far as hosts, programming, and music selection. The music on WMCU was just way too boring and the hosts for many years were not on par with Joy or CIE.

Listening to the great musical selections on the radio, especially the Saturday Top 40 on 91.1 (WCIE) and 88.1 (Joy FM) led me to really love certain Christian rock groups. After our family moved to Homestead in 1986, I carried my interest in Christian rock without an outlet to listen. WMCU was pumping out some seriously boring tunes back then, especially for a young teenager. So I followed some of the big routines in concert and through cassette sales. Even to this day, I enjoy some of that great old Christian rock. These are my favorite 5 Christian Rock bands of my life. If you are wondering why some of the biggest and best Christian routines did not make my list it’s either because I didn’t prefer them, or they were solo routines.

Honorable Mention

Third Day – I love their gritty solid rock and roll sound. The best part is what I have heard about their purpose and lifestyle. They love Jesus.

The Top 5…

#5. White Heart – Their best sound to me was their early to mid 80’s albums which are best compared with Toto.

#4. Mylon (Le Fevre) and Broken Heart – Mylon had the absolute biggest stage and road show in Christian music. This group was greatly responsible for my interest in drums. I can still listen to them today and enjoy it.

#3. Stryper – Dude, people made fun of them because of their big hair, make up, and spandex, but their music did rock! They had one commercially successful crossover tune that was one of the cheesiest rock ballads ever. Honestly. But their first few albums were awesome!

#2. DC Talk – They started out as a corn ball rap group, but developed a sound that actually was way ahead of it’s time. Before Linkin Park was doing the industrial metal rap tunes, DC Talk was. Their concerts were just great. When they split, thousands of fans were heartbroken. But Toby Mac is still around doing his thing which is similar to the later DC Talk stuff.

#1. Petra – This band belongs at the top of anyone’s all time Christian rock list. Through 30 years and two lead singers, they are one incredible band. They’ve gone from folksy rock in their beginnings, to a more credible straight rock sound of the late 70’s to early 80’s, to a synth rock sound of the mid 80’s, into a hair band style of the late 80’s, and then into their hard rock and metal sound that they rocked through the 90’s. I wish I could get my hands on a complete collection of all their tunes over the years on CD or digital media. They are one of a very small handful of Christian rock legends!

This is the coolest dog ever!

Hey, we knew Spuds McKenzie was cool. But he has nothing on Tyson.  Maybe one day, Max can attain just a fraction of Tyson’s coolness. One problem is that our little fluffy pal Max is too often mistaken for a girl.  But then again in these days, that’s not a disqualifying factor.

My Own Thoughts

-For 5 months, overtime has been virtually non existent for me. I have worked 2 days of OT since September.

-New graduating classes, rough job market (people are hanging on to the job they have), and projects closing out combined to turn 5-10 overtime slots into 3 or more extra personnel every day, more or less.

-The only way to get overtime was to wake up on your off day at 4 AM and call in to see if the shift was running short from call outs or new projects that popped up.

-Today will is the third day of OT for me in the past 3 weeks. It’s very helpful considering that I am going on vacation.

-Today also marks a raise for me, which is going to be amplified by my OT.

-I interviewed on Monday for operations. I have been told that 40 people are fighting for 15 job openings. In all, I feel my chances are pretty slim this go around, but if this door is shut then I trust God.

-Hind sight is 20/20. I have learned so much from all my mistakes and even successes. God is so good even when (especially when) I don’t deserve it.

-This year is about 18% over. It seems like we just celebrated New Year’s Day. Wow!

-I can’t wait to get my $13 extra each week in my paycheck. This is what Democrats call a substantive tax cut.

-What’s up with Pelosi dancing around like a giddy school girl during Obama’s address to the congress? How did she get where she is?

–What is the website number to track porkulus spending?

Wednesday Quotable

Proverbs 3:5 and 6 (New King James Version)

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,   and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him,   and he will make straight your paths.

More Metro Zoo Madness

Saturday, I took Marcela to the zoo where we met up with Dave and Jackie Vargas and their little ones.  Little David Jr has more energy than just about any kid I have ever seen.  The top spots at the zoo are definitely the Chimp exhibit, the tigers, Amazon and Beyond, and the Wings of Asia Aviary.  The Aviary was so peaceful and beautiful.  Marcela got some great pictures.

Male Lowland Gorilla tumbling in the grass.

White Bengal tiger at Miami Metro Zoo.

Dave and Jackie at Miami Metro Zoo in front of the tiger exhibit.

A 16 year old female Bengal tiger at the Miami Metro Zoo. Bengal tigers live to about 20 in captivity.

Male Wood Duck at the Wings of Asia Aviary in Miami. Males are colorful and distinct while females are plain and brown.

This curious boy followed us all over the place at the Wings of Asia Aviary. I guess he was hoping for some food or attention.

Three 16 year old female Bengal Tigers at Miami Metro Zoo. The white is not related, the two orange tigers are sisters.

Clouded Leopard at the Miami Metro Zoo.

Interview

Aren’t job interviews fun?  I guess they aren’t so bad since it means you actually have an opportunity to get a job that you have expressed some interest in.  I interviewed this morning for operations at Turkey Point.  I felt pretty good about the way things went, but I guess we shall see.  They said they will be compiling information and interviewing over the next week or two and that they would be in contact with me.  Again, big thanks to Mark and my dad for encouragement and help to get this chance.

Sunday Life Pointe Talk Soup

• My Talk Soup posts are typically focused on the musical portion of our corporate worship service.
• This morning’s music was as good as it has ever been, in my opinion.
• Joe and Jesse led worship this morning, Julie, Reina, and Curtis (a new addition) sang back up.
• Josiah played the electric twanger, Jesse played rhythm on the acoustic, Matt played bass, Alex totally kicked tail on the drums, and I played the Roland FP2 keyboard.
• We opened with Point of Difference, next was Friend of God, then Holy is the Lord.  For communion and after the message, we sang a new song, Beautiful by Phil Wickham.
• Mike spoke on perseverance in the 9 AM service.  He did a great job.
• In the 10:30 service we had Fred Garmond as a guest speaker.  He helped explain the Anthems project and what will be accomplished in Cambodia.
• His testimony was memorable.  I loved the way he spoke of himself in the third person.  Since it was my first time hearing the testimony, I didn’t really know who he was talking about at first.  Then as he started talking about the young man in the testimony being the first to get a Masters of Divinity from the COG Theological Seminary, and then a Doctorate from Regent University, I was able to put 2 and 2 together.

For another perspective on LPC and the Sunday happenings, be sure to visit the other LPC bloggers:

Ritz

Chris’ Sunday Morning Tossed Salad

Pastor Trav

Kelly

maybe even Jesse.

Saturday Top 5: Top 5

These are the top 5 Top 5’s of the past year by page view.

#5 Top 5 Funny Songs
#4 Top 5 Gun Cabinet
#3 Top 5 Rock and Roll Guitar Solos
#2 Top 5 Most Annoying Songs
#1 Top 5 Terriers

I will return with a fresh top 5 next week when my Saturday should be a lot less crazy.

Bottom 3: Economic Recovery Strategies

We are in an official recession, the GDP is projected to shrink for the next calendar year, unemployment is sky rocketing, more people have filed for unemployment claims than in history, there are record foreclosures, home prices are still dropping, the stock market is having a difficult time finding the bottom, and to top it all off, inflation has surged higher than was expected. How are we going to recover and get back on solid financial ground? Let me give you the bottom 3 ways to accomplish economic recovery.

#3. Reward Bad Behavior – Our government led by Pelosi and Reid and back benched by our supposed leader, President Obama has written into this stimulus package (and they are already discussing stimulus part 2) that if you are behind in your mortgage then you can be eligible for the banks to reduce your principle and interest and write the amount due to the back end of your mortgage so you will no longer be behind. That’s great, if you are behind. What about those who are not behind? Should we quit paying our mortgages so we can get a better interest rate and reduce the amount we owe also lowering our monthly payment? Sounds like a brilliant plan to me… NOT.

#2. Spend More – I seem to recall all the Bush haters saying the reason the economy stinks was due to the $10 Billion monthly we were spending in Iraq combined with the ridiculous amounts of pork barrel spending by members of congress. Now those same Bush bashers are saying the only way we can get out of the financial mess we are in is by spending more to the tune of $3.2 trillion over the next 5 years on various pork projects and government programs as long as we call it a stimulus plan. This stimulus plan was no plan at all, and it definitely is not stimulative. If spending recklessly got us in this mess, how will multiplying the amount of spending all the while being even more reckless help? Are they trying to fight fire with fire? I didn’t like the out-of-control spending when Bush was president, but it seems like there is so much hypocrisy here. With a Republican president, spending is called reckless, pork projects, and “out-of-control”, but with Democrat Obama, it’s called stimulus. Inflation is coming fast and hard.

#1. Raise Taxes – We haven’t done it yet, but you can be sure that it is coming. The key words those on the right are listening for are phrases like “pay your fair share”, economic and social justice, targeted tax cuts, tax credits, and “investment”. Politicians who use those words really mean TAX INCREASE for those who actually pay taxes to foot the bill for those who do not pay taxes (but they receive loads of services). Yes, we have heard those words used over the past few months, so we know that the tax increases are coming. After all, it’s only fair. Right?

In my humble opinion, it seems as if President PelosiReidObama is doing everything they can to make sure the economy does not recover. In fact, this outrageous generational theft (McCain’s term for this “Stimulus Plan”) is going to lengthen and deepen the recession into a possible depression.

Head Movie Thoughts

-The weather last week would have been perfect for a trip out on the reef.

-Winds were under 5 mph, bay was glassy, and there were under 2 feet off the reef.

-Unfortunately I was not feeling my best during that time and wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it anyway.

-Marcela and I have been on another movie trip for the last week. We have watched at least one movie every day for the last week.

-A neighbor has been supplying us with movies, some of which aren’t even out of the theater year, free of charge.

-We also picked a few up from Blockbuster.

-We saw some comedies (Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Soul Men, and Tropic Thunder), some action (Rambo, Eagle Eye, and Wanted), and drama (Bella, Pride and Glory, and Deception.

-I recommend for everyone to see the movie Bella. It’s a very loving family movie about life and giving life a chance. I loved it.

-There are a few that I would not recommend for others to see due to their graphic nature: Rambo, Soul Men, and Tropic Thunder. Tropic Thunder was one of the funniest films I’ve seen, but it’s pretty much intended to offend.

-The irony of the movie is: Robert Downey Jr plays the part of an award winning actor who has surgery to become a black man for the filming of a movie which is intended to win him an award. Robert Downey Jr was nominated for an Academy Award for actor in a supporting role for this movie, in real life.

-Paul Blart: Mall Cop is also funny. I recommend this for all ages. It’s a comedy about a single dad who is a security guard who wanted to be a cop but flunked out due to hypoglycemia. He turns out being the only person who can stop a heist of roughly $20 million from the mall’s accounts.

-I am finally about to kick this cough that accompanied a fever, chills, fatigue, and body aches over the past week. Marcela got the same thing. The most effective relief came from Mucinex DM 12 hour and tylenol.

-On Saturday, I coughed so hard, I felt like my head would explode. We never really appreciate feeling good until we feel bad.

-Marcela and I will be getting new passports for the cruise although they won’t be necessary since the ports we are stopping only require birth certificate and picture ID.

-I have a big interview on Monday. Whatever the result is, I thank everyone for their encouragement, help, and prayers. Big thanks to my dad and Mark Similey.

-See y’all at church Sunday!