These were written in 1968 by Kent M. Keith, but I’d never heard or seen them until recently. One of the performances at Harding’s Spring Sing this year was a rendition of Martina McBride’s “Do It Anyway”. I thought the lyrics were really cool, so I Googled them and found Keith’s website.

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

To whomever sent the unsigned letter to my house yesterday:

If your intent was to hurt, you succeeded. If your intent was to help, you have a grave misunderstanding of the issue and the proper means by which to confront somebody.

Since you are obviously a fan of quoting scripture, let me share one with you:

“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”
-Matthew 18: 15-17 (NIV)

I’m far from an expert on the matter, but I’m almost positive that when Jesus said “go and show him his fault, just between the two of you” that he did not mean “send an anonymous letter, eliminating the possibility of explanation or discussion.” I’m not sure how that is supposed to win someone over.

I do know that it was hurtful and unfounded, and if you have any backbone whatsoever you will confront the person you’re trying to correct rather than fire off arrows under the protection of anonymity.

Anna the Elf
Abby the Elf

Mad props to Karla for finding this!

Props to Karla for finding this.

The Journey/Def Leppard concert last night at the Forum was AWESOME.  Both bands were incredible; they played all their favorites, and they played them “right”.  No major changes or new arrangements like you get with Bob Dylan concerts; you got to hear the songs the way you know them.

First of all, our seats were outstanding.  We were in the 6th row directly in front of the stage.  Excellent view of the show; I could have hit Neal Schon with a ping-pong ball.  Instead, he hit me with a personalized Journey guitar pick.  (I’ll take a picture and put it here later).  Here’s a pre-show view of the stage from our seats. (click on the pictures to bring up the full size version)

Journey was fronted by Jeff Scott Soto, who was a mid-tour replacement for the dude that replaced Steve Perry 10 years ago.  I’ve never heard the original replacement, but Soto was perfect.  He had the same incredible range that Steve Perry had, but his voice sounded somehow stronger or fuller than Perry’s.  His stage presence was great, too.  He seemed like a longtime member of the band, not a last-second stand-in for someone else.  Wearing a Titans jersey for the last song was a nice touch, too.

The show opened with Neal Schon rocking the Star Spangled Banner as a guitar solo.  He rules.  Another nice surprise was drummer Deen Castronovo taking the lead vocals for the two big ballads, “Open Arms” and “Faithfully”.  It was amazing how much he sounded like Steve Perry.  I also like how the audience has kept up with the times; instead of lighters, everyone opened their cell phones and waved them in the air during “Lights”.  Here’s Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain rocking it out:

After a short intermission to reset the stage, Def Leppard took over.  Like Journey, they played all the songs you wanted to hear and didn’t mess them up trying to be unique.  Good use of the video screen, too–during “Photograph”, they showed a cool collage of old DL pictures from the 80’s.  It made me want to tight-roll my jeans:

In addition to the two shows on the stage, we were treated to a third show in the audience.  Here’s a picture of the woman seated behind us that was trying to earn a backstage pass.  We’re pretty sure she was ready and willing to offer any of the musician’s a “backstage pass” of her own.  I’m also pretty sure that she has a lot of self-respect and a wonderful relationship with her father.

Finally, here’s a picture of Rick Allen taunting Richard Kimball: 

The rest of the pictures from the night can be found here.

Journey’s Set List:
The Star Spangled Banner
Stone In Love
Ask The Lonely
Wheel In The Sky
Message of Love
(no idea-never heard it before)
I’ll Be Alright Without You
Chain Reaction
Lights
Open Arms
Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin
(no idea-never heard it before)
(no idea-never heard it before)
Faithfully
Don’t Stop Believin
Any Way You Want It
Encore:  Separate Ways

Def Leppard’s Set List:
Let’s Get Rocked
Let It Go
Foolin
Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
(no idea-never heard it before)
Hysteria
No Matter What*
Rock On*
Rocket
Photograph
Armageddon It
Animal
Rock Of Ages
Encore:  Love Bites
Encore 2:  Pour Some Sugar On Me

*These two are from the new album “Yeah!”, which is an album of cover songs from the late 60s and 70s.  The two they played last night were really good.

Rest in peace, Molly. You were a good girl. Sorry about the tutu thing; it was Mommy’s idea.

I never thought I’d see anything as beautiful as Anna.

I was wrong.

Abby arrived Monday, and she is her sister’s equal in beauty, intelligence, and overall sweetness. Kathy and I are blessed beyond words.

We were scheduled to have labor induced Monday morning at 6am. However, Kathy began having labor pains very early Sunday morning. They were not evenly spaced (some were 5 minutes apart, others 8-12), but they were more intense than any she had experienced with Anna, so we went to the hospital.

After being monitored for about an hour and a half, they sent us home saying we were not ready yet. For the next 24 hours the pains continued and gradually became more regular. By Monday morning at 5am, they had become practically unbearable. We got to the hospital at 5:15, 45 minutes before we were scheduled to be there anyway. From the look on the receptionists face, you’d think we had gotten there 4 hours early for no reason at all.

We soon found out that there was a reason the pains were so bad; Kathy was 8cm dilated already! We got there just in time for her to still be able to get an epidural, for which she is profoundly thankful… two hours after being taken back to the room, Abby was born.

Abby Lauren Wright was born at 7:43 am, weighed in at 9lbs, 11 oz. (yes, that’s right), and was 22 inches long. So far she has been an excellent eater and sleeper; she slept 4 hours at a time at night in the hospital, allowing us to get some rest. Since getting home that has shortened a bit, but she’s still doing pretty well. She’s eating like a champ; when Anna was a newborn she had a lot of trouble getting latched on to Mommy. With Abby, she usually gets on on the first try.

Anna has posted some pictures of her new sister at her blog; surf over and check it out! Here’s one to tide you over:

Finished my MBA program last night…

No more 4-hour lectures on Thursday nights.
No more 75 page papers.
No more case study presentations.
And most importantly, no more waiting until 11pm to watch The Apprentice…

Speaking of The Apprentice, that show has been my little MBA buddy the past two years. It premiered the same week as my first night of class; it was cool to go learn about business for 4 hours, then come home and watch a show based on a similar pursuit each week.

For all you Harding Alum’s out there, here’s an interesting site where you can rate your Harding professors. Don’t forget when rating Dr. Seagraves that to this day I still remember that the primary export of South Carolina was indigo. I would probably remember more if I had not spent most class periods watching the Showcase Showdown in Brooks and Burton’s room.

Well, it appears my PDL experiment has not started well. Between work, schoolwork, and Halo 2, I have not made it past day 2 of the book.

Halo 2 might as well be titled “Crack”–it’s that addictive. I find myself ready to go to bed at 10 or 11 each night, but end up playing Halo online until 1 or 2 am. Which of course leaves me screwed at 6 when I have to wake up and go to work, but there I am again the next night.

The folks at Mature Gaming World have not helped–they are an online community of 30+ year olds who play together online to avoid getting matched up with a bunch of cursing teenaged racists. They are a blast to play with, which is the problem. “Just when I get out, they pull me back in…”

I don’t have a problem; I can quit anytime I want…

By the way, my gamertag is yankeestom. Look me up if you’re in the mood for a good teabagging.