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