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Best of The Ramblings

December 5th, 2008 by Bryan Allain | 26 Comments | Filed in ramblings, writing

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A few years ago I used to write these “ramblings” blog posts a lot. It was a great creative outlet to share the random thoughts that would pop in to my head throughout the day. This week I went back and pulled out some of my favorite ramblings from the past 6 years. I hope you enjoy.

My Favorite Ramblings

+ i have a hunch the original lyrics to James’ Taylor’s “shower the people you love with love” song was actually “shower the people you love with money”. But then he liked the way that “love with love” rolled off the tongue, so he changed it up.

+ Why do grocery store cashiers ask me if i want my gallon of milk in a bag? I couldn’t care less. Stick it in the cart, stick it in the bag, stick it in a huge treasure chest with fake gold coins and a hermit crab. Seriously, with all the decisions that must be made in a day, do I really need to make this one? Same with my receipt. Just stick in in the bag. If i want it in my pocket, I am perfectly capable of locating and retrieving it from the bag, thank you very much. None of us have time for these irrelevant questions. I’m going to start asking the cashiers if they’d like me to hand them my credit card with my left hand or my right hand. Maybe then they’ll get the point.

+ what would happen if all of the world’s pushpins just fell out of their walls all at once? probably total anarchy.

+ Why is it that whenever someone does something blasphemous or wrong, people joke around about God striking them with lightning? When was that precedent ever set? I’m no biblical scholar, but I don’t believe God ever used lighting to kill someone in the Bible. Besides, lighting strikes only kill about 80 people a year in the U.S. whereas horse-related injuries kill over 200 people a year. So maybe next time someone does something wrong, instead of saying “watch out for the lightning bolt!” say something like “Ride ‘em cowboy!”

+ It still amazes me that aluminum foil doesn’t get hot in the oven. Every time I pull something out of the oven with foil, I always touch it just to see if it still doesn’t hold heat. I’m just waiting for the one time that it burns my finger so I can scream, “I knew it! I knew this didn’t make any sense! It was setting me up for this the whole time!”

+ I think it would be fun sometime to just walk around a restaurant and go up to other tables and ask “How’s everything today?” like those restaurant managers do from time to time.
And then if people actually had a complaint I would say “Oh, I don’t actually work here, I was just wondering how you were doing.” Am I the only one who gets that urge?

+ Speaking of restaurants, I hate it when servers, use the phrase “let me get that out of your way”. Look, maybe my plate’s not in my way, ok. in fact, if it was in my way, i would have moved it out of my way. you know why? because i have hands, and that’s what hands do, they move stuff out of my way. So next time stick with “are you done with this?” or “are we all finished here?”, but please don’t insult me or my hands with your cute little phrases.

+ If you stick a pen in your pocket during the day at work, the chances that you’ll forget to take it out and end up throwing it in the “pens and other random crap” drawer at home are about 94%.

+ it’s a good thing birds are stupid. i mean, they’re faster than us, they have pointy beaks that could rip us to shreds, and they can move in 3 dimensions when gravity has confined us to 2. If they ever got together and had some sort of brainstorming session with the top bird minds, they would probably get past this whole “what can we poop on next” thing and move to “let’s destroy the humans”. like i said, i’m glad they’re stupid.

+ the guy who created the paperclip was a genius. he basically took a useless piece of wire, bent it 3 times, and changed the world.

+ Is there an amish buggy equivalent of running out of gas? Do the horses ever just stop trotting because they’ve got nothing left? “Amos, did you forget to feed the horses this morning?”. oops. I suppose if this was a recurring problem, then they would also carry along some extra hay, which would be the amish equivalent of a gas can. What if one of their horses dies? Do they carry a shetland pony in the trunk like a spare tire?

+ Boy, the alarm clock really put the rooster out of business, didn’t it? I mean, before alarm clocks we were completely at the mercy of the rooster. It was either that or let your body sleep until it was ready to get up. You ever try sleeping through a rooster wake up call? Well, me either, but I bet they’re really tough to sleep through. And the worst part of it all is that no one has the heart to tell the rooster that we don’t need him anymore. He just keeps on with the cock-a-doodle-doos like we’re all amish or something. At this point in civilization we eat the chickens, get eggs from the hens, and the rooster is pretty much useless. All it’s good for these days is posing for country decorating knick-knacks.

+ Speaking of the rooster, what’s the deal with weathervanes? Do we really need to stick a wrought-iron rooster on top of a roof to tell which direction the wind is blowing? What genius was sitting around one day and said, ‘you know, it would sure be a lot easier to tell which direction the wind was coming from if we had a tin chicken on top of the barn!’ And besides, why is it so important that we know which direction the wind is blowing anyway? Unless your steering a sailboat or a professional paper airplane flyer, I don’t see why it even matters. The whole thing is utter nonsense.

+ You have officially grown up when the word ‘puddle’ goes from carrying a good connotation to a bad connotation.

+ Gotta hate being at work the week after a nice vacation to the beach. The worst is when you open your wallet and sand falls out of it. Not only are you ripped that there’s sand in your wallet, but the reminder of where you were exactly a week ago feels about as good as a vaccination.

+ If i was a terribly mean person i would go up to a beggar with a $5 bill in each hand and offer him either one of them. Then when he went to grab for one of them i would say, “uh uh uh…beggars can’t be choosers” and i would give him the other $5 bill. In the end, he still gets $5. But since I’m not terribly mean, i would never do that. In fact, this wasn’t even my idea.

+ What is the origin of the expression “he’s going to eat us out of house and home”? Can someone please explain to me what this means? I understand that if someone quite literally did not stop eating, that eventually the cost of the food alone would cause you to miss mortgage payments and lose your house to the bank. So now you have no house, I’m with you to this point. But the home too? Can someone actually eat so much that it will break up the very bonds of the family unit? Might the very fibers of love that hold our families together be torn asunder by an insatiable hunger? I’m gonna say no. And I’m gonna ask you to never use this cliche again, just for me.

+ Sometimes I think I might grow my hair out really long and ratty for a few years just so I can cut it and say to myself “Wow, why didn’t I do this years ago?” I’ve always wanted to say that.

+ You know those signs that say “Pass with care”?
The funny thing is, the people who are doing the passing are never doing it with care. They are either late, annoyed, or just jerks. Either way, the last thing on their mind is the word ‘care’. Then again, maybe that’s why they put the sign there. Just so they can say I told you so when the guy ends up going off the road to miss a head-on collision with oncoming traffic. The police officer inspecting the carnage can only shake his head and say “Didn’t you see the sign, man?” Just once I want to be on long straight road and come across a sign that says “Pass with reckless abandon and no regard for the sanctity of human life”. Now that would be fun.

+ Of the many activities that would suffer a rapid decline in participation in a world without gravity, I think the act of spitting might be one that takes the biggest hit.

+ Has the “you just passed so-and-so’s deli and restaurant” sign ever worked on anyone? Has anyone ever driven by a restaurant, seen it, made the semi-conscious decision that they were not going to stop and go in, then suddenly a half-mile later seen one of these signs and thought, “What was I thinking?”. Here’s a hint. If I didn’t bother to go in when I was actually there, do you think I’m going to go through the trouble of going back there to go in? Whenever I go past one of these signs I like to agree with it. It’s kinda fun. “‘You just passed Regina’s House of Ammo!’ Yes, that’s right I did. But thanks for reminding me once again that there’s a place I’ll never step foot in under any circumstances.”

+ Can someone please tell me who is responsible for naming the continental breakfast the continental breakfast? What is so continental about it, anyway? You get some stale donuts, some cereal rations, crusty bagels, and room temperature milk. Am I supposed to get excited by this? Is this what they’re serving on other continents? Is that why it’s continental? Because if it is, that explains why I haven’t been to Europe yet. I’m not flying 5000 miles to be served warm orange juice when I wake up.

I’m planning on writing more ramblings posts in the future, so if you enjoyed them, let me know. And thanks so much for reading!

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The Friday Five - 21NOV08

November 21st, 2008 by Bryan Allain | 4 Comments | Filed in music, videos, writing

1. Snowy Commute

It usually takes me an hour to get to work in the morning. For some, that’s unthinkable…but I don’t mind it. Lots of time to pray, listen to music, listen to sports talk radio, and brainstorm about ideas I have. Sometimes I’ll even do all 4 of those in the span of a minute.

This morning it took me about 90 minutes to get in. Why? This is why:

As seen from my windshield around 7:45am this morning

As seen from my windshield around 7:45am this morning

…and that was after most of the traffic had thinned out. Brutal commute…and I just talked to a coworker who’s still out there and has it much worse. Nothing like being unprepared for a wintry blast in November.

2. Albums I’m Somewhat Looking Forward To

Next Tuesday: Coldplay (Prospekt’s March EP), The Killers (Day and Age), Kanye West (808s and Heartbreak)

February 2009: The Fray (self-titled), and the yet untitled Derek Webb CD he is currently working on.

March 09: New Switchfoot

Some Point in 2009: new U2

there’s probably more, but that’s all i can think of right now…

3. Self-Titled Albums

Speaking of The Fray’s new self-titled CD, why do band’s self-title their EPs anyway? I’ve never understood this. Can anyone tell me the reason? It comes across as so un-creative and lazy.

Dave: So, we’ve spent hundreds of hours writing these songs, working out the parts, recording them all, and having them mixed and mastered. What should we call this collection of songs, which represent so much hard work and creativity that we’ve all poured into this record?

Theo: I don’t know.

Johnny: How about we just call it the same title as our band name?

Dave: Well, I was thinking we could call it “Brand New Familiar”. I mean, I feel like a theme that runs through all of these songs is the notion that we’re staying true to ourselves, but at the same time we’re willing to explore new places lyrically and sonically. So while there’s a familiar feel to what we’re doing, it’s a direction we’ve never been before. Plus, in our lives, a few of us are heading in that same direction. Johnny, you’re getting married again in March…Theo, you’re wife is pregnant with your third kid. And you know, me, I’m fresh out of rehab again, so I think we’re all headed to a place we’ve been before, but in a new way. What do you think? “Brand New Familiar”?

Theo: Nah, I think I like just naming it after our band.

Johnny: Yeah, it’s easier to remember.

Dave: You’re right, what was I thinking? Pass me an Aquafina and that sudoku book, would you?

4. Guest Post at Stuff Christians Like

I hesitate to post this because I don’t want to jinx it, but I was asked by Jon Acuff at the wildly popular Stuff Christians Like blog to write a guest post for the site. So I’ve been working on that for the last couple of weeks and I think I’ve got it ready to go. He said he would post it in the next few weeks, so I’ll give you a heads up as to when it is going to go live. Very excited about this.

5. Friday’s Special Video

My son Parker will turn 6 in December, which blows my mind because he’s our youngest. But here’s a video that equally blows my mind when I watch it. It’s him playing drums a few months after he turned 2 (Feb 05). He used to play his drums every day, but he really doesn’t play them much anymore. Maybe we should have pushed him to stick with it? I don’t know. But check this out, especially around the halfway point when he finds his groove and starts channeling Will Champion from Coldplay. (oh and there’s a cameo at the end from a 4.5-year old Kylie)


Parker Finds His Groove from Bryan Allain on Vimeo.

Have a great Friday everyone!

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HATCH Night

October 31st, 2008 by Bryan Allain | 14 Comments | Filed in faith, life

(I got mentioned over at Stuff Christians Like today…to find out why, read on)

I grew up in Southeastern MA, as many of you know, and I attended a small little reformed church in Dartmouth, MA called The First Christian Church of Hixville for a good 10 years or so (that’s the actual church pictured on the right). Like any church you’ve ever attended, there’s lots of stuff I could pick on and disagree with about the church. Today’s not the day for that though.

There’s a few things I still love about Hixville. I love many of the people I came to know there. In fact, many of them remain strong influences in my life. I also love the memories that I have. Playing football on the lawn after church, walking to the corner store to buy jolly ranchers after Sunday school despite being told not to, putting kielbasa and dish soap into someone’s coffee cup as a prank, and then realizing it was the wrong cup (sorry Mrs. Gamble!). I could go on and on until the second coming, but I won’t.

Anyway, since today is Halloween, I just HAVE to mention HATCH Night. It was a tradition at Hixville for a handful of years. As kids, instead of trick-or-treating we got HATCH night. You might be wondering why it was called HATCH Night? Well, it’s an acronym of course, and it stood for:

Hixville’s Alternative To Carnal Halloween.

Brilliant. Absolutely Brilliant. Not sure who came up with it, though I think it was one of our elders, Rick. He had all sorts of cleverness in that brain of his (still does, I’m sure). (Ed. Note: My dad said it was our pastor Ken who came up with it. Like Rick, he was pretty clever too.)

HATCH night wasn’t all bad for us kids. We still came home with a bunch of candy. The worst part of it all was explaining to your friends that a) we don’t go trick or treating because it makes the devil happy, b) we go to church instead, and c) I’m dressing up like an old man from the Bible for the 3rd year in a row. (Only biblical costumes allowed at HATCH Night of course.)

I was exchanging emails with my friend Luke yesterday, and we got to talking about HATCH Night since he also grew up at Hixville. The more I thought about HATCH Night, the more I marveled at its brilliance. So on a whim, I shot an email over to my friend Jon who runs the amazingly funny (and wildly popular) Stuff Christians Like blog because I thought he’d get a kick out of it too. He was so amazed by the HATCH Night concept that he included it in his Halloween post today.

I feel so honored. I hope Rick does too (and/or Ken). And for that matter, everyone else who was a part of HATCH Night through the years! Hixville Represent!

(if any of you old Hixville folks read this, I ask, nay, I demand you leave a comment with your favorite HATCH Night memory)

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