relevant

i promise i had the idea first! so when i got home yesterday, i found the new issue of relevant magazine in the mail. i usually just scan through it before reading everything. well, guess what i found? they published their top 10 2004 trends that ruled the year. number 10 says: the mustache is back...our prediction is the triumphant return of the mustache.

hah! i guess that makes me, like, relevant dood. and i have no idea who this guy is, but that's one relevant 'stache he's got there.

anyhoo, i'm serious about december 1st being the sudden mustache day. i thought whoever is interested could meet at caribou at 9pm for a group shot, but found out they close at 9...uh...

so...how about starbucks at mansell and alpharetta highway. december 1st, 9pm. group mustache shot. seriously. come on - you can always shave it off later.

mustache

i'm not sure exactly what's going on inside my head, but sometimes...OFTEN...i get strange ideas. like, i was thinking: how come hardly anyone wears a mustache anymore? i remember back in the early 90s when it first became cool to wear a goatee. you were actually considered pretty "edgey" if you had one. now, it's like EVERYONE has a goatee, and hardly anyone has just a mustache. so i was thinking... i wonder how many guys i could convince to grow a full beard or goatee and then shave the beard on the same day so you'd get a bunch of guys with mustaches suddenly showing up everywhere.

i mean, just look at how cool a mustache is - worn by the KING of the mustache, tom selleck, aka MAGNUM. now, if you match the mustache with an unbuttoned shirt, it's the epitomy of cool.

SO - who's in? i'm pretty sure that my buddy joe (see polka praise) is in. i suggest we make december 1st the official "macho mustache" day. bloggers unite! pass the word!!!

life themes

there seem to be a few recurring themes that keep popping up in my mind.

one of them is that everything in creation tells us something about God. like the colors of a sunset scream His beauty and creativity; the first cool evening after a hot summer hints of the refreshment and satisfaction that only He can completely give; you name it - i think every created thing reflects something of the Creator. the psalmist says that heavens are telling of the glory of God. john piper reflects on this and says that our size in relation to the universe gives us a clue as to how much greater God is than we are. try it sometime - take any created thing and meditate on what it teaches you about God.

another recurring theme, of which i'm only beginning to realize the significance, is the idea that there are no accidents; no "chance" encounters. take my buddy adam. we just happened to meet on the AT in north carolina, miles from the nearest road. when we met, we found out that we both just happened to do the same things in our jobs (worship and arts pastors), and just happened to work less than a mile from each other. figuring that maybe, just maybe God worked this out, we decided we should get together and talk when we got back to atlanta. so we've been meeting about once a month since that time and continue to see God at work in common relationships (a guy trusting Christ), common passions, experiences, etc. it's easy to think that God might be in it when you meet someone under those circumstances, but i have this nagging hint in the back of my mind that every relationship is set up this way. i think we could see it if we just had our eyes open.

so i guess the common denominator of these two life themes is that perhaps God is a lot bigger than i imagine Him to be. of course, if my mind could comprehend Him, He wouldn't be that big. i'm thinking He's like...HUGE...uh...infinitely HUGER than HUGE...

polka praise

decided to take my accordion (aka "party in a box") to the annual FBC men's retreat a couple of weeks ago. my buddy joe just happened to bring along a baritone. nothing like a rendition of roll out the barrel to really set the mood for a Christian men's retreat. since we've created a Christian sub-culture for everything else, maybe i should be the first to get out there with "POLKA PRAISE!" we could reach a whole new people group! assuming we wanted to reach that people group...

anyway, this past weekend we ended up having some much needed chill time. seems like i've been pretty much on the go for a while, so it was nice to slow down a bit. i'm not the best at slowing down - i'm done now.

more googling

i find myself using google more and more for research and to find "stuff" on the internet. imho, google is the closest we've come so far to fulfilling bill gates' (he's apparently NOT the antichrist) original vision of information at your fingertips. well, now those crazy googlers have created an application that puts the same interface on your desktop. you can download the beta version and check it out by cliking here.

i guess the next step will be to add peer to peer searching across every computer on the planet.

interesting (or not) facts: a google of "christian" brings up 45,800,000 hits. "muslim" brings up 5,870,000 hits, "buddhist" brings up 7,480,000 hits. therefore, i think it's safe to assume that christianity is the prominent organized religion on the internet. and isn't it great to know that the first three google "sponsored links" when searching for "christian" include:

www.loveandseek.com - Free to browse thousands of picture, audio and video profiles
www.godfaithministries.com - Be Ordained By A Real Pastor Today - Religious Degrees & Church Charters
www.ChristianityFreebies.com - Everything is for Christians. Everything is free.

sigh...

too busy to blog

well, i've got a lot to blog about...but have just been too busy this week. things should settle down a bit next week. i hope adam doesn't take me off of his recommended blogs list in the meantime.

speaking of lists though, is it just me, or does everyone get my old homepage (the VINTAGE 1996 page) as the first hit when you google or yahoo "tim beard"??? #1 of 232,000 hits on google, #1 of 426,000 on yahoo. guess i was the first tim beard on the internet - i feel like such a pioneer.

accordions and spiders

well, october is here so it seemed like a good time to break out the accordion. this picture was actually taken last christmas when i received the accordion as a gift (i got homer and a new backpacking headlamp too...). i just can't tell you how happy my neighbors were last christmas morning when i put homer on the front porch and serendaded the cul-de-sac with accordion christmas songs.

you know, accordion is one of those instruments that just puts you in a better mood. you can't help but smile when someone starts playing. maybe we should change the stereotype of playing a harp in heaven, to playing an accordion. looks like someone already had that idea, thus the website accordion heaven.

if you go there, make sure you listen to the mp3 of the clarinet polka that's posted on the front page. sure to bring a smile to your face. btw, google returns 560,000 hits for "accordion." that's a lot of accordion stuff out there...

anyway, now that it's october, i sat on the front porch with my accordion, and noticed that it caused some of those big garden spiders that show up each fall to quickly crawl away and hide. now, i know i'm not that great of an accordionist, but wondered if it was my playing or just the sound of the accordion that caused the fuss.

which got me thinking...do spiders have ears? have you ever thought of that? (i'm suddenly thinking of the only fly with ears i've ever seen - remember the end of the original movie the fly? the fly with the human head caught in the spiderweb?? "help me! help me!" - that was weird) ANYHOOOOO...do spiders have ears?

turns out that some of the hairs on their legs are considered sensory organs - probably HEARING HAIRS. how weird is that? "speak up! i just finished shaving and can't hear you very well." of course, i got this info on a webpage titled BELGIAN SPIDERS, so maybe that's just european spiders. you know, the ones that don't shave under their arms...