click on each photo to read it’s story

San Francisco does a lot of things wrong, but they also do a lot of things right…

Today,  SFGeasecycle was launch. The city will collect local restaurant’s cooking grease and turn it into biodiesel which will one day power all of the city’s vehicles. see here.

Yesterday, SF banned all plastic bags from grocery stores. This man just wanted to remind us. see here.

I’ve been here 11 weeks and 1 day. Really, it’s not that long, even in dog time. But the reality of it is in those 11 weeks, everything has changed. I left Kansas 11 weeks ago, with no expectations. I had no clue who I would work with, where I would live, or what I would be doing. I came alone, regardless of what anyone else told me. The only thing which carried over from the life I knew 11 weeks ago is me and my room full of stuff… everything and everyone else is new. To say the past 11 weeks and has been hard would be an understatement. Leaving for college, starting my first job, moving to India seems like a piece of cake compared to the bigness, strangeness, loneliness of my step into this city.

Why did I come here and what have I done?
I sometimes ask myself but myself doesn’t answer back.

Nothing here is a given, all my previous understanding of the world seems to be thrown out the door in this place where the east meets the west. Truths I had thought were unshakable are questioned, things I had understood are now confusing, and familiar ways of life now seem unappealing. I can never guess what background or understandings, lifestyles or hardness people bring to the table. My guard is always up and I rarely feel free to be me.

And rather than run ahead to catch up with the masses or appreciating the moments, I’ve been just existing. I produce enough to get by, I deliver what I promise, I do what I can. But that’s about it. I have a list on this blasted blackberry in which is titled, ‘Things to do to feel settled’. I keep adding to it and I keep deleting tasks off…but the feeling hasn’t changed, I’m not settled.

And then myself asks myself again, What if it’s less about the act of being here and more about the life you live here. What if it’s less about the doing and more about the being?
Hmmm. Maybe myself is smarter than I give her credit.

Perhaps, as I let the mail pile and the task lists go unfinished; I’ll find my place here. Maybe when I quit worrying about bus schedules and finding a kitchen table, I’ll find myself at home. How about I quit moving from A to B and enjoy the journey it takes to get there. I know, I know, there are things to do. But the urgent shouldn’t always trump the important.

And thus a new day is born. 11 weeks and 1 day, written at 12:27 am on 18 November, I submit to this struggle. Rather than fight this transition, I choose to embrace it. I will no longer beg for its completion but invite its companionship. However long it takes and wherever it takes me, I commit to this place and these people.

To make this decision tangible, for the next year, I’ll take a photo a day to for the next 365. I hope that my eyes will become more alert to see the world around me and trained to see the beauty this life inherently posses as I begin this year long journey. I will explore, I will search, I will reflect, I will live each day of the 365 a little differently than I had the last. By the time the 18th day rolls around next November, I hope to have an entirely new perspective and a photographic story of my journey.

Read along if you like, comment if you will, and join along if you’re able.
No doubt, we’re in for an adventure!

[all photos will be posted here; not all will be blogged. seriously, who has that kind of time?]

turns out it was waiting for me in oregon and oh, how it was worth the trip!

see the photo set here.

what does it mean for music to be ‘christian’?
can music know Christ, or tell me,
can music be filled with God?*

pretty much any of the following artists when googled with the word ‘christian’ will pop up some story about their faith and why they’ve not chosen to operate under the ‘christian’ label. but really, this idea isn’t new to our current culture and i think this is a movement not limited to music. i have met more people who want nothing to do with Christ because of some of the ‘christians’ they’ve been rejected by, scorned in front of, and who’ve loved only with conditions. and i think this effect is the exactly the opposite as He intended… knowing a ‘little Christ’ should lead us to the big Christ, not away from Him. somewhere along the way, we forgot He cares less about good behavior and more about grace. and maybe He meant ‘christian’ to be less of an adjective and more a person, more a follower, more a way of life…

to be a Christian, is to be a follower, a believer,
an ambassador, a Spirit-filled,
wind-blown, unpredictable, grace-giving,
broken hearted child of God
who has been demolished, denied,
broken down and put back
together again, all by the sheer weight
of the glory of the grace of God,
made know to us by blood of Jesus, shed on the cross.*

‘christian’ is not a marketing scheme.
breath mints cannot be christian.
bumper stickers cannot be christian.
genres cannot be christian.
only people can be christians.
nothing else.*

so, here’s to ‘not-so-christian’ music.

pretty appropriate website - www.boredagainchristian.com/bands.html

record company - www.credentialrecordings.com/

relevant, a magazine on the topic - www.relevantmagazine.com/

some of the artists [my more favorites in bold]:
12 stones - www.12stones.com
the afters - www.theafters.com
alice cooper - www.alicecooper.com
amberlin - www.anberlin.com
anathallo - www.myspace.com/anathallo
creed - www.creed.com/
chris daughtry - www.daughtryofficial.com/
chris thile - www.christhile.com/
coldplay - www.coldplay.com/
edison glass - www.edisonglass.com/
elliot morris - www.eliotmorris.net/
evanescence - www.evanescence.com/
the fray - www.thefray.net/
future of forestry - www.futureofforestry.com/
half-handed cloud - www.halfhandedcloud.com/
kelly clarkson - www.kellyclarkson.com
life house - www.lifehousemusic.com/
lost ocean - www.lostoceanmusic.com/
marc broussard - www.marcbroussard.com/
mat kearney - www.matkearney.com/
mindy smith - www.mindysmith.net/
moby - www.moby.com/
mutemath - www.mutemath.com/
natasha bedingfield - www.natashabedingfield.com/
nickel creek - www.nickelcreek.com/
over the rhine - www.overtherhine.com/
page france - www.pagefrance.net/
pod - www.payableondeath.com/
red - www.redmusiconline.com/palebird/index.html
robbie seay band - www.robbieseayband.com/
sixpence non the richer - www.sixpence-ntr.com/
sleeping at last - www.sleepingatlast.com/
sufan stevens - www.sufjan.com/
switchfoot - www.switchfoot.com/
tooth and nail - www.toothandnail.com
turn off the stars - www.myspace.com/turnoffthestars
until june - www.untiljune.com/
u2 - www.u2.com/

please let me know if you have any others to add to the list.

*from editorial by tenth avenue north