Finally Friday

Happy Friday!

I've got nothing important, thrilling, or funny to say today. In other words, this is a typical entry.

After re-reading the first few paragraphs I need to make a disclaimer: Please do not read too much into this post. It’s just a train of thought. I’m climbing aboard for a few minutes. I’ll get off at the next station.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

It’s a question we hear from an early, early age. It starts out as a question adults ask kids because their answers are funny. “I want to be an astronaut- fireman-baseball player.” Or like my daughter used to say, “I want to be a kindergarten teacher and a cashier.”

Eventually the purpose of the question turns from entertainment to plotting. As parents, we want to help plot the futures of our kids. I don’t mean that negatively. Parents ask, kids answer, and then the parents help them figure out how to get there. “If you want to be a doctor you need to make really good grades and learn to study hard.” Of course, it can turn negative. Some parents tend to choose a future for their kids and push them toward that end.

I lost my point a little…. Oh yeah, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”

Hopefully around the beginning of college, if not earlier, we figure out the answer to that question. I think that is rare. Typically the answer comes a few years after college. Sometimes it takes even longer.

I’m pretty sure I’ve spent the last 30 years trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I, like so many other young boys, wanted to be an astronaut for a while. In junior high I wanted to be a lawyer. By the time high school rolled around, it was a doctor. I stuck with that for a few years; through almost 2 years of college, actually.

At the end of my sophomore year, I changed to Radio/Television/Film. I planned to be a videographer. I graduated and realized I would need to move somewhere besides north Alabama to work in that field. By that point we’d had our first child. Free babysitting, in the form of family, was in north Alabama. We went with the free babysitting.

We moved to Florence and I went to work in the electrical construction industry. A few years later I, as many of you know, spent some years in full-time youth ministry. And eventually returned to construction.

Which brings me back to my question. What do I want to be when I grow up?

I’m still trying to figure that out. We’ve all heard the adage, “Find something you love to do and then figure out how to get paid to do it.” Much easier said than done.

I’ve found some things I love to do. Writing. I love it. I am, in my opinion, mediocre at best, but I love it. I love music. Playing, listening, singing, writing. All of the above. Again, I consider myself mediocre at best (and that’s pushing it,) so there aren’t really any career opportunities there.

Unfortunately when you reach a certain age and a certain life stage “figure[ing] out how to get paid to do it” is not feasible. With two kids motoring toward college, a house payment, a wife in school, etcetera, etcetera, it’s not the best time to figure out how to get paid.

Maybe I can find some way to make either of these a profitable hobby? I’m not so sure.

In the mean time, I need to get back to entering invoices.

OK, the train is pulling into the station and I’m getting off.

Now, I need a little help.

1) Does anyone know a good way to get short clips from a DVD onto a computer? I need to get a few clips and edit them into a single segment.

2) I need some notable movie quotes with the word “make” in them.

Cards at my house tonight at 7 pm. Let me know if you can make it.

Have a great weekend!