1. Kevin and I are somewhat humorous
2. A good microphone makes alot of difference
3. My lips look really red on camera
4. I need to lose some weight
5. I use the word "like" way too much
6. We can do a two or even three part show

In conclusion, Talk About It with Brent and Kevin will go on….we’re just getting started….

If you could, take a look at our youtube show. We’re debating about whether to stick with audio or go to a video format. Let us know what you think.

Changes are sweeping through my life. I am naturally resistant to change. Anything new as my wife will tell you is a fight for me to embrace, except for technology. New habits, new ways of doing things, dying to old habits, breaking patterns I’m used to. Why is that? The comfortableness of life, whether misery or happiness seems to be a hold. When we’re happy with our situation, we don’t strive for more because we don’t want to screw up what we have. When we’re living in misery, we don’t change it because we’re so used to everything being crap, that if we try we know we’re going to fail anyway.

That is how I’ve looked at life for so long. You got your lot, this is “God’s plan”. Says who? Could it be that I’m not really seeking His will for my life and I’m just living out a sedentary existance, my hours filled with mundane ordinary tasks that have no real impact on those around me? Ultimately, I’m going to decide where my life goes. That’s the great thing about having the cognitive ability to decide for ourselves. We are not animals that live by instinct and pattern. A dog is still a dog. A chimp, no matter how smart it may seem is still a dumb animal, ith no sense of morality or ethics. ou still have to train them. Yet we (I) place ourselves in the same category with them daily. I must eat, I must work, must sleep so I can eat and work again tomorrow, must provide for family, must go to church because it is Sunday, must eat, must sleep, must work. (That was a textual impression of a Tarzan-type voice. So read that previous sentence again like that).

We have been given the ability by our Sovereign Creator to make each day a different one, better than the next…or worse than the next. “Comfort” is to me becoming an evil word. When I start to feel comfortable or be comfortable, that’s when the bad times come. That’s when I lose my focus. That’s when I make sloppy decisions. That’s when I can’t keep my thoughts from ricocheting like a pinball in my head.

So here I am now in a new job with new opportunities to change my days. I’m also becoming a father. No wait, I am a father. My wife left on Oct. 12th for Thailand, and I’m leaving Oct. 26th. When we return, we will have a 4 year old little girl with that we will call our daughter. Wow. It’s hard enough to be a husband. Father seems even more daunting. Can’t lose focus on this one. Can’t get comfortable. Got to stay sharp. The times have already changed.

The past few mornings, I’ve gotten out of the house just in time to get to work on time. Then I feel like I never get settled for the day. Oct. 5th I left the house fairly early, partly to get gas for my vintage 1996 Mazda pickup, but partly because I was tired of rushing around. That’s what I always do. One of my flaws is that I get crazy. As my mom used say, I’m running around like a chicken with his head cut off. Can’t see where I’m going, but I’m try to get somewhere. Eventually the chicken just falls over cause there’s nowhere to go. All that running helped no one, not even himself. Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to actually make things harder? It’s so much easier to embrace change than to work around it or resist it in our own way. I start work at 8, which is 30 minutes earlier than my previous job. So I knew I would have to get up earlier as well. I had it timed fairly well as to when I actually needed to get up, throw some clothes on and be at work in just enough time. But then my day seemed like crap the rest of the time. I felt unsettled, disconnected.

Now, I’ve found if I actually get up more than an hour before I need to leave…..what a difference! I’m alert (to a point, it is still morning), I’m feeling good, and I’m in a better mood. This week I woke up before my alarm a couple of times, and thought, “It’s 6:15. My alarm goes off at 6:30. I’m awake, so I’l cut it off. I don’t want to wake my wife up with my nasty sounding alarm. I’l just lie here for a second and rest a little bit longer.” Bam!!! It’s 7:25! I need to be at work by 8. It takes 30 minutes to get there, and I haven’t even taken a shower. Plus, I shave every other day now (because I’m sick of shaving), and it’s the day I need to shave. We all know what happens when we shave too fast! My face looked like a roll of Charmin had exploded on it on the way up I-85. I was all over the place trying to get ready. Because I was refusing to change. Adapt to my new schedule, embrace the opportunity to make my life easier. Instead I held on to an old habit that got me nothing but panic attacks and heightened blood pressure (which by the way I had checked last week and it was 117/80…I’m very healthy…). I guess it really ultimately pays to be a morning person. Maybe then you savor even more the prospect of sleeping in.

What’s the point of all this introspection? I’m understanding that the times, they are a-changin. The swing point though is one of two ways to go. Am I going to allow the times to change me? Or am I going to change my times? What am I going to do to define myself as a father, a husband, a good employee, but most importantly as a man, personally created by a God who sees the potential in me and wants me to embrace it, not run away from it because it may be a harder road than a more “comfortable one”?

I know that this is not a highly volatile political topic. This may not have really interested you at all. But here at Talk About It, we talk about IT. And IT is everything, not just a cool promotion by eBay.

PS - RECOMMENDED READING for the Rest of Your Life -

Wild at Heart

by John Eldredge. Probably one of the best books I’ve ever read, well, listened to. Required for men, women should read it too. I have it on mp3 if you’re interested. Shoot me an email at show@talkaboutit.milwen.com.

Now, first of all I would like to establish a difference between hoarding things and keeping your house insanely messy. I’ve known lots of people who like to hold on to things more than they should, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have to keep those things randomly strewn about their home. For some reason every one of the people on the show had stuff everywhere around their houses. I didn’t see one person who was obsessive about hoarding things, yet at the same time kept them neatly organized in their closets. Somehow this show as turned hoarder into a politically and socially correct term for slob.

Secondly, the shows attempted to use science to excuse the people’s problems. The reason the scientists were studying the different mental makeups of the people was to determine how to medicate them. Even if there is some genetic or mental difference between these people and everyone else, that doesn’t mean you can’t call a slob a slob. It also doesn’t mean that a person cannot through determination and self control of mind and body overcome negative genetic tendencies they may have in order to improve their own life. Adults don’t need medication or an expert to explain to them that clothes don’t belong on the floor or that your shower is for cleaning your body and not for storing junk (that was actually on the show). Sure it’s hard to overcome habits, but that’s precisely why they are called habits.

If you ask me, TLC’s title seemed to stop just a little short. Properly finished it would read: “Help! I’m a Hoarder who has no Self-control and I Deliberately Chose to Live my Life as a Disgusting Slob”.

Back to my main thing. I know several people who are immigrants - One couple from Romania. He’s Romanian, she’s from South Africa. It took years for them to get their paperwork completed, and they did it the right way. They love America, and it angers them to see people bypass the right way and try to just come in and start working. 11 million? 20 million? The numbers are very hard to figure out. But one thing is for sure. They don’t deserve amnesty. They don’t deserve green cards. I really don’t care if their kids were born here. That sounds cruel, and they can’t help what their parents did. But the parents who came here by breaking the law don’t deserve to enjoy the same freedoms that someone who followed the law does. They don’t deserve to get that driver’s license or to get that health care that my insurance premium is most likely covering. I don’t care if they’re hard working and want to pay their taxes. And it’s just as wrong for any company or businessman that gives these illegals work as if they brought them over the border themselves.

Am I nationalistic? Yes! Am I racist? NO. I’m just tired of people not doing it the right way. This nation continues to exist because ultimately we thrive on our dependence on the RULE of LAW. The Constitution is the ultimate authority for all of our laws to lean on. Regardless of position, the theory is that all citizens come under the law. No official, whatever their office is higher than the law. To skirt around that law, just because we don’t want to offend a certain group of people defeats the entire purpose of relying on the law to be our standard. If you don’t like the law, there are established procedures to change the law. “But it involves so much red tape…..” “It takes too long…..” True. But that also keeps us from constantly being in a state of instability. I think one of the reasons we have had such stability (overall) in our 230 plus years as a nation is that we can’t just change our laws on a whim.

These illegals have blantantly violated the law. I’m sorry if they have needs and wants. We are a sovereign nation with exclusive laws. America guarantees its citizens freedoms and opportunities to succeed. To see people in California flying the Mexican flag over the US Flag or even burning the American Flag makes me sick. Sick over the fact that people that are citizens and obey the law have been forced to acquiece their way of life to make room for people who have no regard for the rule of law, and only care about themselves and no desire to change their own country, but would rather just run and live off of someone else.