Early Riser

Man, I am awake waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too early. Getting up at 7 AM when you have been rising at 11AM is weird...how can I be this awake already? Oh well, time to annoy my snoozing wife by rattling on the keyboard for a bit.

New Stuff
- Christmas was awesome. Spent lots of time with my parents in Blissfield and connected with some friends at Pizza Hut for a little bit (Eric and Tamar, that means you). Went to Minnesota with Megan's family to visit her relatives which was also an excellent time - minus the 10+ hour car ride there and back. Her parents were glad that I didn't commit suicide on my first McAdam vacation, so I think that's a formal welcome to the family. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma McAdam for housing us while we were there, and to Jeanette's family for being such gracious hosts. We are hugely blessed to have such great families.

- Being in a van for the trip to Minnesota did give me plenty of time to get acquainted with the new Death Cab album, "Plans" that my sister gave me for Christmas. It's the best bit of new music I've heard in a long time...probably since I was introduced to Wilco via "A Ghost Is Born". I've already spun Plans at least 5 times and I'm still amazed at how good it sounds. These guys have an incredibly talented frontman (Gibbard) who can paint pictures with his words like many songwriters don't. It's kind of a polyrhythmic album too, with many songs starting off with a certain tempo suggested by guitar strumming or piano chords. But then the drums and bass kick in with an entirely unexpected rhythm on top of that. This is definitely an album I'm going to pull some drum tricks from...

- Had my opinion of Bill Gates entirely changed by a recent article in TIME that most of you have probably already read. He and his wife Melinda have gotten really involved in the fight against global poverty - in the uncomfortable way...actually going to the places and seeing the distress in the eyes of the people. Here are a few statistics that shocked me out of my pants from this article:
In one minute...
- Malaria kills 2 African children
- One woman dies from complications during pregnancy
- Nine people are infected with HIV
- Three people die of TB
So Bill and his wife have billions of dollars (on paper anyway) - I shouldn't be that impressed that they give some away. Or should I? I think many times as Christians we tend to do good deeds and use Christ as our motive as if it would be impossible for us to accomplish anything good without the love of Christ. But then something like this happens and we're left wondering how and why these people do the things they do. If they aren't Christians, shouldn't they just hoard their money and wallow in their extravagant lifestyle, forgetting all poverty and injustice? If I were an animal behavior expert, I would tell you that this type of altruistic behavior is just an inherent "drive" to preserve their own species...kind of a subconscious species reflex or something. But I'm not. I don't really know anything about the faith of Bill and Melinda Gates, but I know that God uses whoever he wants to accomplish his purposes, and this time I think he picked the right bank account.

Holy crap this post is hugely annoying. Peace.