Ha!
To date, this is the best possible site for all things (well, entertaining ones at least) wedding related. I like it’s candid overview of the futility of wedding paraphenelia.
Check it out: www.StupidWeddingCrap.com
This fits right in line with wanting a memorable event, at humane prices. I’ll definitely read into it more deeply!
Last night while we were prepping for the upcoming Go Green event, Bill was recording brief clips of why we decided to start and continue to build our own companies.
I just though to post quickly a list of the things that jumped to mind yesterday – perhaps I’ll come back through later to elaborate on the list.
 
I’ve been reading a book by Hill Harper of CSI:NY (a popular TV show, I guess). The name of it? You guessed it: Letters to a Young Brother; MANifest Your Destiny.
I have been reading it slowly, a page or two at a time and it’s structured as a bunch of letters between Hill, and a “young brother.” The dialog is frank and to the point, and though I don’t align with all of the precepts, I think it’s a good book for youth running through those tough times of adolescence. Heck, it’s even a good read now that I’m a 20-something!
I’m nearly 3/4 of the way complete with the book, and during each of the chapters, Hill offers direction, correction and encouragement. The most recent chapter I’ve read is on Living with Passion.
I thought it would be appropriate to log an entry here because he asks some very pertinent questions towards developing passion, purpose and vision in life.
On page 118, he writes
“But for real — what makes you smile? What makes your heart beat faster? What makes you excited?”
What good questions.
For me, the thing that comes to mind first is helping other people to overcome their fears and apprehensions in pursuit of something bigger. I love to see people conquer the scary things in life, whether that is a big decision of engagement or baptism, or perhaps something more everyday’ish, like feeling afraid, but riding a tough spot of the trail.
I love to see people in pursuit of goals. I have always loved to see people at challenge courses reaching out of their comfort area and either getting involved, or trying an element that is outside their confidence zone.
The question keeps coming to my consciousness, and I can’t (in spite of all my self-distraction) make it go away. I don’t really want it to leave, but it’s a moderately scary thought to consider the reality that if I am made, even created, to do something – then I have to put down my fears and concerns and pursue it with all my being.
So, the question…
What am I, Cody James Bennett, meant to do with my life? What was I born into this world to do? If I were to thrill my Heavenly Father, if He could look upon me and say, “there is Cody, my son, in whom I am well pleased.” What would that look like?
I think about the pains in my life and how those pains may be a guide to help me make lasting changes in the world:
I see the magic in other people if only I give myself the time to look. Children are a blessing, and so are adults, though sometimes farther removed from the vulnerability of support. How is it that I am breathing life into others? What is it that I live for?
If I were asked (about my self) what I seem to live for, what would I have to answer? What would I like it to be?
Right now, I think the answer would be that I live for nothing inparticular – I from time to time support people & their technology and I go out to play Ultimate, or take pictures, but that I don’t have any single overarching purpose for my life. When I think about it, the thought that immediately comes to mind about what I would like it to be is thus:
I want to be known for living to help other people fulfill their dreams and ambitions in life.
And how do I do that? I help people. I build a business that allows me to reach into other peoples lives and bless them with the resources to do great things.
One thing I look forward to doing as a wealthy man will be to partner with friends to come up with zany pranks for other friends to experience.
There’s the idea of ‘Nessie in the lake, or hearing about the prank traffic stops – it’s just a world of enjoying life and laughing! Sure I’ll laugh at others, but I guarantee when it happens to me, I’ll look at it and laugh at me too!
Here’s one idea I like:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18921688/
Er… read about it more.
Particularly the one about stunt driving, racing lamborgini’s and also the hummer lessons. Whee!
I would love to have a truck with a snow plow, and the time to visit friends & family to help bail them out of binds… I know it could be a sink of time, but I remember how nice it was to be toiling at shoveling, and to watch someone clear the next driveway over in just a couple minutes.
So far, I can’t tell the variety that I’m interested in, but it looks like Blizzard has some nice ones…
Bill turned me onto the T-Rex back in the 1997-98 realm. He had photos plastered around his shop office, and would wax fantastically about the capabilities that a 6×6 off road vehicle could provide. Today, while I was browsing around, I located a site dedicated to a particular custom-built 6×6, mirroring the T-Rex. With military surplus axles, hummer rims, and two extra wheels, it seems like this truck will go anywhere.
See photos here: http://www.urbansurvivors.com/trex/gallery.asp
One of the dreams I’ve always looked forward to doing is a Hummer/Off-road Safari. I don’t really know the location, but I know it’s not where normal people go in their cool off-roading vehicles. I picture trees, creek beds, ravines, mud, and good times. Over the years, I’ve had friends, and I’ve had foes… Some of them I would like to come along, and others, I’d simply like to invite, with the known intent that it was just to make them jealous and mad that I was able to do something great with my life, while they have pursued the job world and found themselves in a rut.
I want to really engage in the process of dreaming. So often, when chatting with friends or just daydreaming, there are ideas that come to consciousness that dissipate without anchoring them to something. This is my anchor site. I hope to take the time to notate the dreams that I think of or about throughout my days. With time, this can be an archive to reflect upon to expand on ideas!
Let’s get started!