All Nighter!

Hello Fellow Bloggers...

If you noticed in the picture of my toolbar above, you can see that not only is my battery low on my laptop, but It is 5:02am. Contrary to what you may be thinking, I did not just wake up really early (I am so not a morning Person). I have not gone to sleep. I came and spent the night at my sister's house, since we are both serving at Doral tomorrow (or should I say Today). The weird thing is I am not even tired. It's been such an exhausting week that I crashed on my couch today (yesterday) after work and as a result I cannot sleep now. I have spent the entire night keeping myself busy doing meaningless and meaningful things to make the time pass by

some include:

• Pimping up my Myspace
• Chatting with Annette on ichat
• Re-Watching old Episodes of "Lost" on my sister's brand new 50" Plasma TV
• Planning for the weekend at Doral (Heredes is on Vacation, so I am leading for him)
• Playing the Guitar
• Playing the Piano
• Watching Live Concerts of Incubus, Radiohead, and Mute Math
• Playing more Guitar
• Blogging
• Reflecting and Thinking

Well as you can see, most of the things I have been doing all night have been totally meaningless...

Well, I must now sign off because my battery is about to die, and I have to get ready for church (and stop by starbucks on my way)

Diet Week 4

Hello Fellow Bloggers...
Well Frustration is starting to kick in. I lost a total of 0 Pounds this week. This was definitely the worst week so far. As many of you know I have had a drastic schedule change recently and as a result, I have not been back to the gym. For the first time since I started the diet, I fell off the boat. And I fell off badly. On Sunday night a couple of us got together at my sisters house to hang out, and there was a lot of junk food. Earlier that day I had alot of people approach me and tell me I look thinner. Well I guess I used that as an excuse and I pigged out. At first I didn't touch anything, but eventually temptation gave in (Such a shame, especially since that's what the topic was for that weekend). I ended eating like 5 little chicken wings, and a bunch of oreos. I gotta admit, It felt good, but afterwards, the guilt started to set in. As you can see now, it obviously wasn't worth it. The week is over and I didn't lose an ounce. Time to get back on track!!!

"The Big Lime Green Bass"

Hello Fellow Bloggers...

As most of you know, I am a multi-musical person. However, one of the instruments I enjoy playing the most is the Bass. Well, this past weekend was absolutely awesome. I got to play one of my favorite Hillsong United songs on the Bass and got to lead "Mighty to Save" on the acoustic guitar which reminds me....I would like to send my most sincere apologies to the Collins Family. During, our rehearsal I accidentally wacked our awesomely talented singer Benay Collins in the mouth with my guitar and chipped a little piece of her tooth off. Benay, If you are reading this, I know I said it a million times but once again, I'M SO SORRY!!!

Well, apart from the beat downs I gave with my guitar. something quite unexpected happened to me on Saturday night. I was walking back to the green room after greeting a few people in the lobby in between the 5:15 and 7:00 Services, when suddenly a lady stops me and smiles. She said,"excuse, can I tell you something?". I didn't hesitate and said, "sure, what's up"

Now allow me to pause there for a second. I don't want to sound egotistical or big headed because I am not, but usually when people stop me like that I'm used to them saying something like, "you guys did awesome", or "That song was great", or "where can I find that song?". However, what I was about to hear was no where near that.

She started by saying "That lime green bass guitar...". I expected her to say that she thought it was nice looking or something, but nothing could have prepared me for what she was about to say. She simply said, "IT'S WAY TOO LOUD!!!", which I have heard plenty of times, so I was like ok whatever. BUT THEN!!!.....she began to tell me about how it's way to loud for everyone, and that her entire small group ended up leaving the church because of my lime green bass guitar. At this point, I was stunned!!! Should I apologize?? Should I get mad???So I just smiled and said, "I'm sorry to hear that, I'll try to be more careful". I smiled and walked away, but was still very shocked. I mean, what do you do when someone tells you that people are leaving the church because of you. (She didn't say that directly but you know what I mean). Well, needless to say, I meditated alot on it and prayed about it too and God gave me alot of peace about it. Ultimately, we cannot "please" everyone and I'm sure there are people at church who think the bass isn't loud enough (myself included). During the remainder of the weekend, I had alot of people approach me saying that the worship was very powerful and It really did touch them alot. Just one comment like that totally makes me forget the original not so good comment. To know that God could have chosen me to take part in something that touched someone's life is absolutely awesome. And if that isn't enough, on Monday I was extremely bored at work, and I was reading my usual blogs I subscribe to. Occasionally, I will go back to the archives of blogs and re-read old posts. Well, this time I decided to check out Heredes' old blog posts. What I found ended up hitting home. I found a post called Change Seats. (Check it out) That was enough confirmation for me!!! Thanks H!!

Amazing Performance!!

Hello Fellow Bloggers...
Those of you who know me well, know that one of my favorite all time bands is mute math. Last Wednesday, they performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Well if you've never seen them perform live, then please please please watch the following video. I've gotta say that this has gotta be their most impressive televised performance they have ever done. Check it out and lemme know what you think!!!
                       

Work with what you got

Hello fellow bloggers...

So my friend Martin wanted a dock charger for his ipod but didn't wanna spend $49.00 on an apple charger. So he researched online to find an alternative means of charging his ipod. Well for about 2 dollar can of altoids and some hot glue, he made what I think is probably one of the coolest and original dock chargers I have ever seen. Kudos Martin!!Kudos!!

Rude Awakening!!

Hello Fellow Bloggers...
Well, I must say that today has probably been one of the most stressful days for me since high school. I came to school today to receive a "rude awakening". It turns out I am extremely behind in my lab hours. So far behind, infact, that in order for me to catch up I have to be here about 35 hours a week for the next 6 or 7 weeks not to mention while still working my normal full time 40-45 hour a week job. It's about 1:35am right now and though most of you are probably sleeping right now (Except Brian Vasil) I am still here at school taking a quick break before finishing up and going home. Although this is gonna be extremely tiring, I have no one to blame but myself. I didn't prioritize correctly and slacked on my school work (Talk about getting naked). My schedule will basically consist of going to work early in the morning and going directly to school everyday after work and staying until the school closes at 2:00am, then I'll have to drive back home (did I mention my school is in Miami?) go to bed and start over the next day. I will also be spending my Saturdays all day here. If I calculated everything correctly, I should be caught up in about 6-7 weeks. In the mean time, I will have to find a different time to go to the gym and will not be able to go to church on saturday nights (no more cooper city). I will still, however, be helping out the mag team on Sundays at other campuses. I will try not to neglect the blog but bear with me as sleep will be minimal. I will definitely need you guys' prayers on this one.

i-whata??

WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL WITH IKEA???

Diet Week 3

Hello Fellow Bloggers...

Well I just got home from the gym and had my weekly weigh in. I gotta admit I am a little disappointed in my self. I only lost 2 pounds this week, and though I did lose weight, I feel that I could have done better. I skipped the gym one of the four days I usually go because I fell asleep after work and once again, I did have one or two days of weakness, but overall I have been doing good as far as willpower. In fact, today we had a little birthday party at work, and I refused to eat any cake (It was Ice Cream cake so you can imagine how hard that was) I am planning on seeing a nutritionist either this week or next week to help me out with the diet. Keep me in your prayers!!!

oops!

Hello fellow bloggers...

Last night, in attempts to "pimp out" my blog, I accidentally erased all my blog links, so I had to re-enter them all. However, I had to do them all for memory, so if I seem to have forgotten you, just drop me a comment and I'll take care of it. Just scroll down to the "Peeps" section on the left. 

My New Favorite Show

Hello Fellow Bloggers...

Ok, so we recently upgraded our cable package to the "basic expanded" package. What does this mean you ask? It basically means that now instead of having 22 channels, we have like 5o something channels. Due to my extremely busy schedule, I don't really have much time to watch TV, but now I am totally hooked on an awesome show. It is called Survivorman and is a documentary about a man named Les Stroud, who basically dumps himself in the wild for seven days without food, shelter, water, or tools. Oh yea and no camera crew. That's the coolest element of the whole show. He is his own cameraman, and does all his own shots. He has survived in some pretty wild places such as the Kalahari Desert, The African Plains, and The Arctic. I have found myself glued to the TV for hours watching re-runs of old episodes and am absolutely amazed at the things this guy does. He will eat and drink whatever he can find (and I mean anything) and he will live wherever he can find or make some sort of shelter. I'm not exactly sure what time it airs but until I could get Tivo I'll just keep catching up with re-runs.

                 

Address Change!!!

Hello Fellow Bloggers...

Well, I have a very special announcement today. I have officially purchased my domain titled. "www.mindofbert.com" (Courtesy of www.godaddy.com). It's been a couple of weeks since I changed my blog name to Mind of Bert, and I have gotten some good feedback about it. Infact, alot of my friends call me bert when they see me or walk past me because of it. At first, I would forget about the blog and wonder why they were calling me that, but now I am used to it. So you guys can keep going to www.robertolopez.blogspot.com or you can simply go to www.MindofBert.com. tata for now!!

Diet Week 1

Hello Fellow Bloggers...

Well the moment of truth is here and after one week of dieting I have a lost a total of 4 pounds. I must admit that I thought I could have done better. I did find myself cheating a little bit here and there, however I still lost weight. Here are some of the things I am doing.

• Trying to have Breakfast Every Morning
• Trying to have more meals per day and in smaller portions
• No meals after 7:00pm...NO EXCEPTIONS...(this has not been easy)
• Drinking Ridiculous amounts of water
• Going to the gym Monday-Thursday Nights

I would have to say that the first two have been the ones I have been doing badly on. The others, however, I have been doing good on. But I gotta do better, so I am going to be even stricter for week 2. Thanks again to all those who have given me advice and motivation. It really has helped....46 pounds to go!!!

Hubba Bubba Fun!!!

Hello Fellow Bloggers...If you've known me long enough, then you know that one of my biggest addictions is gum. Who knows?...maybe It's just bad breath paranoia (I do brush my teeth by the way). For some reason I always have a pack in my pocket (sugar free of course) and I even freak out sometimes if I don't get my gum fix and I'll ask everyone if they have some gum. Infact, I challenge you to test me. Next time you see me, ask me for some gum, and see if I don't have a pack in my pocket. Anyways, last week someone made the mistake of leaving a big basket full of bubble gum in the green room, so I decided to help myself.....TO FIVE PIECES!!! My mouth is still sore from the massive chewing that went on on that historic day. So as I made my way to the last piece, my pal Pamela decided to join in on the action and next thing you know we were having a full blown bubble blowing contest (Special Thanks to our camera man Cristian). Well as you can see, the winner was obvious. Infact, that was the biggest bubble gum bubble I have ever blown in my life. I think I'm still peeling off layers of gum from my face after it popped!!

I Wanna be a Loser!

Hello Fellow Bloggers...One of my biggest daily struggles is the one the I tend to think of the least, and that's my weight. Infact, I think it's one not many of us think of. Growing up, I was always the "skinny kid" of the family. I was so skinny, that my family came up with the nickname, "Gordo" which means fat in spanish, and I grew up with that nickname. Imagine the irony! I started to put on weight at the age of 12 and just grew more and more from there. I have had plenty of times when I told myself, "That's it. I'm gonna lose the weight". That, however, was the problem. I would only tell myself, and a few close family members, so I didn't really feel the pressure to lose it.

On Tuesday morning, I was catching up on the usual blog posts I like reading and found a very motivating one on Pastor Brian Vasil's Blog. As many of you know, he put himself on a strict diet recently and is seeing the fruits of his hard work.His determination and perseverance has really inspired me to do the same. So I will be joining the Brian Vasil Weight Loss Program and like him, I am making it public. I must admit that this wasn't an easy post to do, and I wasn't gonna do it. I figured, "nah..I can do it alone". But the truth is, I CAN'T. I will need everyone's help. If you have any tips or suggestions feel free to comment me or email me at lopez.rc@gmail.com and if anyone sees me eating something I shouldn't, feel free to swat it out of my hand. But the greatest way you can help, is just by keeping me in prayers. I am not hoping this works. I know this will work because I not only have you guys backing me up, but I have Jesus Christ on my team. I will be posting my weight every week on the naked scale on the sidebar (---->) and trying to log my progress regularly. I guess you can say this is my way of "Getting Naked"

Naked Mobile

Here is my concept design for the mynakedpastor.com 

"Naked Mobile"

This is the result of being sick in bed and completely bored!!!

Accidental Success!!

Hello Fellow Bloggers...A funny thing happend to me this past weekend. I was leading "Let the Praises Ring" at our Cooper City campus for the very first 5:15pm service on Saturday night. Everything was going great until my microphone stand decided to quit on me. The mic kept on falling down despite my numerous attempts to keep it from falling. At that time, a million thoughts were going through my mind. Should I stop playing and try to fix it? Should I get someone to help me? I was trying to come up with the least distracting solution. So I decided to literally throw my guitar down on the ground and just lead the rest of the song without the guitar. To my surprise , it ended up being a hit and in the end, we did the remaining 4 services the same way. Who would have known???

Busch Gardens 2007

                        
Hello Fellow Bloggers. It's been a while, so thanks for sticking around. I hope you like the new look. I came to the conclusion that "Rob's Blog" just wasn't quite that original, so I changed it to "Mind of Bert". I was also considering calling it "What's on my mind", but after hearing feedback from a couple of people I decided on "Mind of Bert". Let me know what you think. Well here are the photos from our trip to Busch Gardens a couple weeks back. I also made a short clip. Enjoy!!!

Mac Vs. PC 

Here is our submission for the mynakedpastor.com contest....Enjoy

BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!

Hello fellow bloggers. Sorry for not being able to post in a while but it's been a busy 2 weeks. I have alot to tell you guys. Most of the stuff you already know about. For starters, I was fortunate enough to lead a song for the first time at our Cooper City campus. I lead the song, "Everlasting God" and it went awesome! The following week, I spent the little bit of free time I had trying to work on my video submission for the mynakedpastor.com launch party contest. Let me know what you think!! I also got to spend labor day at Busch Gardens with some friends. I will hopefully have some photos up sometime this week.

I Finally Got It!!!

No Computer - Day 6
Well it looks like I have finally began to see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel.
Today I checked the tracking of my MacBook Pro and it shows that the package has arrived at it's destination facility for sorting. I hope that means I will be getting it tomorrow.

My Empty Desk (Pretty Boring, huh?)

No Computer - Day 3

• The Bad news - I still don't have a computer.

• The Good news - I ordered my MacBook Pro.

In the meantime, I am checking my email at work. I am currently doing this post from my mom's computer since she was kind enough to let me use it. It has not been easy not having a computer, however I have found my self having more time on my hands. I've been going to bed earlier, and I even went to the gym more. Maybe this is coming as some sort of Revelation???

Sold to the Highest Bidder

Well, today was a day which will be remembered for a long time...for me at least. I just got back from the post office where I mailed out my two computers I sold on Ebay. The bad thing is that after I had already shipped the packages, I realized that I forgot to include the power adapter to one of the computers. So now I have to send an email to the buyer apologizing for the mistake and I have to go back to the post office tomorrow and send the adapter using overnight mail, but oh well. It was not easy letting those computers go since they were the first macs I ever owned, but it was definitely time for an upgrade. Hopefully now I can buy the computer I have wanted for a while now. The MacBook Pro. The bad thing is that I will not have a computer for a couple of days now. In fact, I am doing this Post from Cristian's computer and he is looking kinda impatient so I hope he doesn't kick me off soon.

Impacting...One Backpack at a Time 

Well, I've been gone for a while. And I honestly can't say it's because i've been too busy to blog. I'm just not really the writer type. Even in high school, my worst subject was writing. So please bear with me as I try to make this more of a habit. Anyways, last week was an awesome week for me, although very busy. Whenever I was not at work, I was either at school, or at church, all while trying to stick to my commitment of going to the gym 3 days a week (not easy). Last week, FRC's New Website was unveiled, and is looking very cool. I was lucky enough to be able to help with some of the graphics. Hats off to the great media team for putting together an awesome site.

On Friday night the FRC Hallandale Beach team got to play at the Hallandale Summer Camp Event they were having. We had volunteers giving away water, and an info booth for people to learn more about FRC Hallandale. It was a great opportunity to reach out to the community and show them who we are and why we are here. Sunday was even better, because not only did we have our highest attendance number all summer, but our spanish service also had their highest attendance number ever. It was awesome to see. Afterward, we had a picnic where we gave away 200 backpacks in less than an hour. We had food, drinks, face painting, and games for the kids, and lots of fun.
And you know, God really used that weekend to really speak to me, and open my eyes to what an impact we are making here in Hallandale Beach. From feeding the homeless every week, to having different outreach events. It's just a blessing and an honor to be a part of it all. Seeing as I am a member of our Mag team (Worship and Tech Team), I am usually at different campuses all the time and haven't really considered one campus as "my home campus". Usually when I am not playing anywhere, I'll just head to Cooper City and worship there. But like I was sharing with my family, being part of everything that went on there at Hallandale last weekend really made me feel at home. Even when maybe my sister or brother in law are not there with me, I just feel like I'm with family whenever I am there. And the greatest feeling of all is that I know I am making a Kingdom Difference. I'm so excited about what's taking place here at Flamingo Road Church and with the Vision God has given us as a church. And I am proud to call FRC Hallandale Beach, "My Home".

The Internet is Down!!

Thanks to Ernie Holmes for showing me this hilarious video!!

I'm Hooked!!!

Well, I would just like to thank my dear friend Miguel for getting me absolutely addicted to a game called Desktop Tower Defense. Just like he said, it seems a little dumb at first, but when you get to understanding the strategy of the game, it becomes extremely entertaining. The object of the game is to build little towers tower to prevent the bad guys from getting across to the other side of the desk. Eventually you begin to build mazes to slow them down. You may be thinking, "what the heck is he talking about?", but trust me once you get into it, it is very easy to get hooked.

It seems as though Miguel is good at getting people hooked on cool things. A few months ago, he managed to get about 15 to 20 of us hooked on the TV show, "LOST", Which by the way, if you haven't seen it, WATCH IT!!! He also introduced me to a network called "Twitter" where you can answer the question, "what am I doing right now?". It's pretty cool...Check it out.

Party Time!!!

Last Friday I was at a really cool party! Infact, i'm sure most of the people reading this (4 or 5 total) were there at some point. I'm talking of course of the "Blog Party" hosted by none other than master of ceremonies, Heredes. Since the day he told me and others about the party, I wasn't really understanding how a blog party works. I was like, "ok, so are we gonna go to his house and all sit around a computer or something?". But I must say it was a really cool and original idea. The kickoff video was hilarious! and the games were very entertaining.
I am proud to say that I won, not once, but twice. I won a subscription to Relevant Magazine. It was a good old fashion commentathon. Whoever posted the 200th comment took the prize. It was not easy but I managed to win it. Of course there were a few visitors who tried to beat me, such as a mystery person with the code name "All Day".
I also won a photo shoot, courtesy of Glowing Light Studios . I won it for submitting the most creative photo of me blog partying. Hey they didn't say photoshop wasn't allowed! It's funny because when I told my sister I was gonna be at a blog party, she laughed at me and called me a geek. Now she is begging me to let her use the photo shoot. Who's laughing now?

~Think Different~
I have been extremely busy this week with work and school and all that good stuff so I haven't been able to blog about this until now. Last weekend was pretty power packed. I was off, so I wasn't playing at any of our campuses. I went to Cooper City on Saturday night to hear Heather Palacios teach. She was AWESOME!!! She spoke about God's favor. The Example she used was great and sooo true. Afterward I went on over to the youth auditorium to go hear Chad Swanzy teach. It was my first time attending a student service since I started coming to FRC. I must say....it too was AWESOME!!! They are in a new series called "Life Hurts, God Heals" and Chad spoke about how the enemy tries to sneak into our lives like the deceiver he is. It was a powerful service and I know there was alot of healing. So later that night, Vaughn Biggs, our Hallandale Beach Worship Pastor approached me for a big favor. He wanted me to play Keyboard the next day at Hallandale. WHAT!!!.... I had to go home that night and learn the music for the next day (Actually I knew the songs, so it was more like a review). So I haven't had a weekend off in couple weeks, yet it doesn't bother me at all. God gave me the gift of music and I plan to use it for his glory. Whenever I am asked to play at the last minute (this wasn't the first time), I consider it an honor to be able to be used as an instrument for him. This is actually not something that hit me immediately. God used Heather to speak to me twice that night. That Saturday night, I bumped into Heather backstage, and said to her "you see Heather??, I came to hear you teach and now I have to play in Hallandale tommorow". Her answer was, "No, you came to hear me teach, and now you get to worship in Hallandale tommorow". And she was totally right. What we do is not an obligation, it is an HONOR!! We are not just playing, or singing, we are WORSHIPPING!!!...Big Difference!!...and when you look at it like that, your whole perspective changes....Thanks HP!!

Temptation is Everywhere!!!

Ok so about 2 weeks go we threw a surprise half birthday party for Carlos. Since the theme of the party was apple/mac, we thought it was the perfect opportunity get him an iphone. Although it was quite a mission, we were able to get one in time for the party. Hats off to our friend martin who actually camped out at the apple store that friday from early morning until 6:30pm so he can have the iphone in time for the party. So anyways, I made a firm decision from the day the iphone was announced that I would not get it. And just to be clear, it's not that I don't want one, it's just that my sprint contract ends in October of 2008. Well at first it was very easy to not want one.....Until I got my hands on one!!...It is absolutely amazing!!

The iphone ended up being the life of the party. Everyone would hover around into little groups and play with the iphones (miguel had one too). It was so popular that two people at the party actually left the party, went to the apple store and came back with iphones. (If only it were that easy for me). So as the days went by I kept on encountering people who had purchased iphones. People like Pastor Brian Vasil, or Mauricio Tinoco. It seems as though every time I would encounter someone with an iphone, It just made me want one more and more. Unlike another story I read about earlier this week, my budget right now just doesn't allow me to purchase it at this time. I would actually have to pay a $200 cancelation fee to cancel my sprint contract. Plus I would have to pay an activation fee for cingular, not to mention the cost of the actual phone. So together it would actually come to over $700.........$700 that I just don't have. During this whole debate of whether I should get it or not, I had a revelation. A couple of weeks ago, during one of Pastor Troy's Teachings, God really nudged my heart to enter into a financial commitment with him. And you know one thing I realized is that it's very easy to say "yea sure, no problem, I'll do it." but when the time actually comes to get the bills paid, or get your tires changed, or get the plumbing in your house fixed, are you gonna be true to your word?...It seems as though sometimes it's easy to promise things and say things when the skies are clear and everything is jolly and great, but what about when things get tough and you get hit with trials and tribulations in life. Well, I am glad to say that I didn't let temptation win, and I followed through with the promise I made to God. And I couldn't be happier. I mean sure I don't have an iphone, but I do have something much more valuable. I have the satisfaction that I am following God's will in my life and being obedient to what he wants for me. And let's be realistic, I don't really need an iphone. And you know, now that I come to think of it, there is nothing that I can say that I honestly need that I don't have. Being that I was raised in the church ever since I was little, Tithing has never really been an issue for me. I guess you can say that it just comes naturally to me thanks to what my parents planted in me when I was growing up. However, It was that extra step that I felt God wanted me to take. And I am Glad I did it. I decided to trust God with my resources. And I couldn't be happier. So for now i'll happily stick with my beat up sprint phone. But who knows, maybe by 2008 the iphone will only be 100 bucks!!!

Return of the Blogger!!!

Well....I am just getting home from worshiping at our main cooper city campus tonight. I am playing Bass this weekend and we had two awesome power packed services. I am really looking forward to tomorrow's services (all 4 of them). Actually, I should be getting to bed pretty soon if I wanna wake up on time for tomorrow. It's gonna be a long and busy day. But anyways, as I was checking out Pastor Troy's Blog, I stumbled across a couple of pretty cool other blogs from some other people. I actually created this blog a while back as just a way to post some pictures of me along with some friends and family. I actually had no intentions of using this blog for what it was originally intended for. A WEB-LOG, thus the name blog (thanks to Miguel for teaching me that). Seeing as I (along with most of today's pop culture society) now have a myspace, I have abandoned my blog for quite some time now. So in the midst of all this Blogger craze, I've decided to revive my Blog and actually post real Web Logs starting with this one. I will be still be using my myspace, but will also try to be updating my blog regularly. So keep stopping by. Let the blogging begin!!

Here some of the interesting blogs i stumbled upon:

• Troy Gramling
• Stephanie Gramling
• Brian Vasil (Vasilating)
• Chad Swanzy 
• Heredes (Air-uh-des)
• Mauricio Tinoco (Tee-no-co)
• Brian Fuller
• Heather Palacios 

Kody Cheering on the Team





El Hijo Secreto de Cristian