So there I was, your humble narrator, trying out for Guitar Center's King of the Blues competition, known in its former years as Guitarmaggedon. You may remember I tried out a year ago and lost the first round. This year was different though, it was made for blues players and not just shredders so I had a shot. The problem was the people I was competing with in this first round were Texas blues men. I mean there was one that ran a blues jam every night at a local club who played like SRV.There was another who runs a school for guitar players who has been playing for over 40 years. There was another who played super fast like Yngwie. Then there was another who had all the SRV licks down and even played the same track that I did. So I was not confident at all. Then when I got up on stage and played disaster started striking. First my hands started clenching and I was not shredding like I had practiced. Then right when I got to the part I practiced super speed I dropped my pick. My face and hands became very sweaty. I remembered that sweat as being from the diuretics that are in my blood pressure medicine. Luckily I was able to play with my fingers as I bent down and grabbed the pick while I was playing. I actually made a good recovery. Then towards the end I did my signature play on the wah pedal and played the guitar behind my head and I actually ended it on perfect time. When I got off stage I was sure I had lost. Then when they announced the 2 winners I was one of them! I couldn't believe it. I guess because I had points in other criteria besides technicality that put me over the top. The old guy who runs the guitar school was the other winner. I got invited to play at a blues jam that night at the Roadhouse so I decided to go. I got up on stage and started sweating again. I also had to keep on catching my pick as it kept on jumping out of my hand. But I played much better that night. One of the guys I beat who runs the jam said "now I understand why you won". So my playing was much better at the jam. Wait till next Tuesday night. I am going to practice holding on to my pick and then they'll see...

Thought of the Day
"And the winner is ... Brian Bass"
"I don't believe it."

Well this weekend was a normal weekend. On Friday I took Holly to the Rainforest cafe in Grapevine. It is a fun little restaurant with animatronic gorillas and elephants. I think though that elephants aren't actually found in the rainforest. The best thing about it was the dessert. They brought out this volcano dessert with a sparkler on the top. It was two scoops of ice cream with 3 pieces of brownie cake formed into a volcano topped with hot fudge and caramel. I think I gained back the pound I lost last week. We ended up watching Rocky Balboa at my place. It was good, but corny in some spots. I can tell Stallone wrote the dialog. It was much better than Rocky 5. Saturday we went to another couple's engagement party and Sunday we went to church and I fed the homeless later on. I also practiced for my big "king of the blues" guitar competition that takes place on Tuesday. It'll be fun at least. I did get a nice surprise on Saturday by finding out that I overpaid my taxes last year and got a good refund check. I can see why everyone says taxes are in favor of corporations. So my advice is, if you ever decide to run your own business, make it a corporation, you won't be disappointed. Anyways, everything is good. How was your weekend?

Thought of the Day
"We found out his super power was lack of money."
"Alright."
"He's invulnerable to creditors." - Jerry and Elaine, about her boyfriend, in "The Strongbox"

Well, last night was an interesting Bible study. It started off by watching Micheal Irvin play basketball in the church gym. He was a sub on one of the local intramural teams. I didn't get a chance to talk with him, but some of the other guys did. He passed the ball back and forth with one of the guys and said something like,"I am older than I used to be" and joked around. They said he was pretty cool. I watched him block a shot and shoot the ball. I think he made it. Anyways, then another guy in Bible study said he talked with him when he was on the set of "The Longest Yard", a football movie. He said he had like 6 scenes in the movie and played a convict. I seem to remember watching the movie way back in the day. I am going to have to watch it again just to see him. He said Burt Reynolds and Adam Sandler were pretty cool and "the rock" was kind of a jerk. So that was interesting. We are starting to send out our "save the date" magnets for the wedding. I hope I have everyone's address. Right now we are close to inviting 200 people. It's gonna be big :-) Anyways, can you believe I have worked out at lunch every day this week? I got mad at the fact that I have been in personal training for 3 months and haven't lost a pound so I am stepping it up a notch. Now, we'll see what happens... I think I will take an object lesson from Mr.T and have chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in the freezer and eat just one spoonful a day... yeah right.

Thought of the Day
"I have to dribble. If I give it to you, you just shoot. You're a chucker."
"Oh, I'm a chucker."
"That's right, everytime you get the ball you shoot."
"I can't believe you called me a chucker. No way I'm a chucker. I do not chuck, never chucked, never have chucked, never will chuck, no chuck!"
- Jerry, in "The Boyfriend"

Well this weekend was a big spiritual journey. For some reason those seem to be the best ones. I guess after a while the things of this world seem boring and overplayed and there comes a point in time when the things of the next world seem so new. So I was asked to actually teach Sunday School this Sunday. And to top it off it was my turn to do the messages to the homeless in the afternoon. So I had a lot of studying to do. It was actually pretty cool. When you let God show you what He wants you to say you kind of get a feeling of empowerment. Like God wants everyone to know this and he gave it to me to give to you. I tell you, I was full of joy after I did it all. The Sunday School was a big one. I had never taught a "lesson" before and I had a lot to prepare. I made a PowerPoint slide-show and went through it all. It was pretty cool. I was nervous at first, but Holly was my lovely assistant and helped with breaking the ice as they say. I could really sense that everyone in the room was paying attention to what I had to say. I could see it on some of their faces. With the nods in agreement. That was reassuring. And at the end I got some "good lesson"s from them. That was cool. So for the messages to the homeless I decided to use my notes in class and teach the homeless from them. Except I tailored it to them and talked more about trials and salvation then being holy. The first stop I talked about trials and the second stop I talked about salvation. So they are completely different messages. I made them both less than 8 minutes long so I had a lot of condensing to do. Anyways, I am now spiritually drained and will now start working on my next task - winning the Guitar Center King of the Blues competition. That should be fun too. Below are links. How was your weekend?

Click below to see the presentation I gave to the class on Sunday:
http://www.brianaldenbass.com/1%20Peter%201_files/frame.htm

Click below to hear both messages I gave to the homeless on Sunday.
http://www.brianaldenbass.com/Message03182007.wma

Well, let's see. Sometimes I just can't think of anything to write. I am real excited about our wedding though. I foresee it being the best wedding I have been to in a long time. I suppose it is because I am actually in the wedding. It is going to be a big wedding, with 10 groomsmen and 10 bridesmaids. I am right now tracking down the best wedding band in Dallas. It would be cool if we can get them. Holly is on spring break, so she is doing a bunch of wedding stuff too. There is a big checklist. I think it is cool that this time next year I will be married. Talk about a life-changing event. This Sunday Holly and I will be starting "before you say I do" a class that the church offers. Apparently when we finish we have all of the info we need to stay married. What did couples do before there were marriage classes? How did they survive? Marriage in the past 60 years is about love, but marriage before then was really about food and shelter. I suppose we get a history lesson in that group of lessons. Like which colloquialism is suited for which environment. Like when to use "the old ball and chain" vs. "the ole lady". I guess we need another class for that "Before you say Old Lady"...That kind of stuff is important... kidding....

Thought of the Day
Father of the Bride: You are the worst wedding singer in the world, buddy!
Robbie: Sir, one more outburst from you and I will strangle you with my microphone wire.
-- The Wedding Singer

Well, its a new day. I tell you I haven't done this much sleeping since college. I think when you are sick with two separate things your body decides it is time to sleep. I got up on Sunday around noon, went downstairs, had lunch, then fell asleep on the couch. I think I watched Return of the Jedi while I was down there. Something about "Return" though.. why did they give the droids as gifts to Jabba? I mean if Leia would have gotten Han unfrozen and escaped they would have had to have another mission to get the droids... I feel at 90% so that is good. I probably had 20 people praying for me so I should be able to leap tall buildings any day now. I am grateful to all of my friends for being there. Yay Friends! Ok, other than that I did manage to feel good enough on Saturday to go test cakes for the wedding. I've got to tell you this cake is going to be the most beautiful cake you have ever seen. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Afterwords I went back to Holly's and her and her mom had dinner for me while I sat on the couch. I did help barbecue a steak, It was good. How was your weekend.

Thought
Should I go work out while I am at 90%?

Good morning,,, oh wait it is 2:00 in the afternoon. As I just got out of bed I am really wondering how I am going to deal with daylight savings time. My sleep schedule has now been totally messed up. I slept from 8pm till 2pm today, with various awakenings due to my current conditions. I went to the docs and he said I have the flu and a bacterial infection and gave me a prescription for a z-pack and tamiflu. I had a 101-102 temperature for the past 2 days. Finally today my temperature is back to normal. I cannot remember the last time I had a fever. This thing just totally wiped me out. In the past 48 hours I have probably had 30 hours sleep. My body aches, throat is sore and a massive headache. The doc said I was not go to work till monday so I have just been staying at home and watching TV. This is the first time I have been on my computer in over 24 hours, which is a record. What day is it? Besides being ill everything else good. Always look on the bright side of life.

Thought
What am I going to do with all this free time at home?zzzzzzzzzz

Does anyone remember back in the day, I think it was in the early 1990's, when a big news story was being announced on TV that someone had discovered cold fusion. I remember walking in the living room thinking,"It's about time!" and was so happy that the world's energy problems were solved and we witnessing the dawn of a new era. Well, when I came home from school that day the news stories were a little bit different- this guy didn't use the scientific method. Scholars from all over were sent in to validate it. A week later the news came out- nope it was a fake, there was no cold fusion. Well, I think I just witnessed that on TV on the Discovery Channel with a show called the lost tomb of Jesus. Now, first of all, there is hype just like the cold fusion incident. Second of all archaeologists are coming out and are claiming it was bad archeology. The whole thing just stinks. But the thing that concerns me the most are the millions of non-believers out who will use this as an excuse to strengthen their non-belief, all because of an illogical fraud. As I was watching the show I kept on saying things like "ok, the so called gospel of Phillip was written 400 years later by a sect called the gnostics which didn't believe in the resurrection" and other stuff like "there arer over 20,000 pieces of archaeological evidence proving the validity of the Bible and in it Jesus's physical body was resurrected." Then they started throwing out stuff like Jesus had a wife and a son, like the stupid book the davinci code, and there is also no biblical evidence supporting this. So the gospels are actually contrary evidence to that being the correct tomb. I am actually running a bible study on Tuesdays that I call "Evidence" and we are going over all of the real evidence out for the Resurrection. The first chapter is called "The Empty Tomb". The fact is a whole Roman Guard consisting of 16 soldiers was ordered to stand over watch over that tomb, and it is clearly defined in the Christian texts that Jesus body was laid in the tomb, and the guards were eyewitnesses to the stone being rolled away and Jesus WALKING out of the tomb. Plus if you look in Scripture it specifies that Jesus was laid in a new tomb, laid, not put in an ossuary, and it was a new tomb owned by a wealthy individual, not the tomb of his relatives. Then there is logic. The guy on the show did name probabilities. Wanna guess how many Brian Bass's there are in Dallas alone? 10 I know of and 3 I have heard of. One is a famous trumpet player(I got a call one time to play the trumpet), one works at a company with one of my friends on computers, and one won a trip to California to compete with the cast of "Saved by the Bell". He didn't take it of course, so they called me, the other Brian Bass. One in Wichita Falls stole a computer and I was blamed for it. Guess what, I did play the trumpet in high school. I've worked on computers since I was nine. I did see the show Saved By the Bell and did have an account with that game network. If all of us Brian Basses died within like 20 years (highly probably) of each other and someone in the future was to try and find "me" and I had resurrected(hypothetically) and they were to find the tomb of the other Brian Bass with say a shrine to computers nearby they would "conclude" that it was me. When it is not. The point being there is absolutely no proof that the Jesus, son of Joseph, found in that tomb is the same Jesus we worship. Matter of fact, the bible and extra-biblical texts like the ones made by the historian Josephus all are contrary evidence to his claims. So in order for me and any other Christian to accept these claims the archaeological evidence has to be more abundant that the archaeological evidence already discovered that proves Jesus rose from the dead, and it is not. Ok, I just vented. I shouldn't get worked up over this. It's just like cold fusion, a fake. Here's the thing for non believers. Those people in the show say that there is a 599 in 600 chance that the ossuary is the Jesus of Nazareth we worship (the numbers are highly biased). Are you willing to stake your soul on eternity with even a 1 in 600 chance? Jesus saves, ossuaries don't.

Today is a good day. You know it is when the sun is shining and you tell yourself, "have a good day." Then on the radio you are wished a good day. Then the commute goes faster. Then when you take lunch to get your eyes checked everyone says "have a nice day" and when you drive through Wendy's you here "have a nice day". Then when you get back to work nothing is pressing. Speaking of the commute going faster just last week I discovered a technique for getting around long lights. The key is to watch it from a far off distance. I have a light that takes a full minute to change near my house. I end up waiting there every day and there is no traffic coming. No, I don't run red lights, but I did know this girl once who never waited and ran them. That kinda freaked me out. The key to getting past the lights is to get next to the right turn lane. Then if the light is turning yellow you quickly get in the right turn lane and turn right. Then you do a u-turn right after that and make a right on the street you were going on. I can shave an extra 45 seconds off my commute and it even feels better cause I am always in motion. Here's another technique I use. There is another long light closer to work but this one is more crowded so doing the u-turn thing won't work. Fortunately there are 2 routes from that light to work. With that light being the bottleneck. The key is looking far enough to see if the left turn signal is green or not. Turning left is the quickest route, but not if the left turn signal is red. Then going straight is the quickest route. So I get in the left lane. If both lights are green then I get in the left turn lane. If the left turn is red and the straight is green I go straight. If both lights are red I get in the left lane because the left turns green first. And those are some expert commuting tips, brought to you by ridesearch.com, a site that is cool but will take a while to complete.

Thought of the Day
"Have a Nice Day"

Labels: commuting, ridesearch