Jul

31

Ten Out Of Tenn Concert Tour

Post Category: Culture, Music Reviews 

Tomorrow night Lisa and I are going to have our first date night out here in Indianapolis and I’m so excited! I found out that the Ten Out Of Tenn tour is coming through Indy and I got tickets.

Ten Out of Tenn is a compilation album and tour by ten relatively lesser known artists from Nashville’s thriving underground. The roster includes up-and-coming singer/songwriters as well as several more established artists whose music has already been featured in Paste magazine or on hit TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and The OC. If you haven’t heard of any of these artists do yourself a favor and check them out.

There are a few performers in particular that I’m excited to see including Katie Herzig, Matthew Perryman Jones, K.S. Rhoads and Trent Dabbs. The concert is going to be at Radio Radio in downtown Indy so it’s going to be a small, intimate stage and venue. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures I can share with you afterwards.

Jul

30

How Do You Decide What Music To Let Your Child Listen To?

Post Category: Authenticity, Blog Posts, Culture, Family, Music Reviews 

Girl Looking At iPodPhoto by toru-Ga-toru

My daughter Chloe (7) is definitely like her Dad. She already loves music from an early age and always has her iTunes playlist jamming when she’s on the computer (gets that from me). Like any young girl she likes the girl-band, pop-rock sound (she didn’t get that from me. Unless you count that one song…nevermind).

I’m trying to have frank discussions with Chloe at an early age to help her to be critical and discerning about what she listens to rather than blindly loading up her playlist with music that contradicts the values we’re trying to instill in her. Thank God for artists like Superchick who have amazing musical talent, a great sound that kids and adults alike will love and relevant lyrics.

Before we buy anything on iTunes I always sit down with Chloe and look up the lyrics to the song first so we can have a discussion about the message. As much as I would like them to, today’s songs for girls don’t talk about rainbows and ponies anymore. Consider the message of this song:

The seven things I hate about you
You’re vain,
Your games,
You’re insecure,
You love me, you like her,
You made me laugh, you made me cry,
I don’t know which side to buy
Your friends, they’re jerks,
when you act like them, just know it hurts
I wanna be with the one I know
And the seventh thing I hate the most that you do
You make me love you.

Seriously? I want my 7-year-old getting the message that it’s ok to fall for vain, insecure, two-timing, two-faced jerks? As a dad to two daughters let me just say…Hell no!! Those are the kind of guys I plan on greeting at the door with my shotgun.

When examining music I also try to be conscious of how old she is. She’s 7 years old, not 17. She doesn’t need to be listening to all the boy-girl, first-love, I-have-a-crush crap that the pre-teen music market is filled with these days. Why aren’t there more artists like Superchick with songs like this?

You need that boy like a bowling ball
Dropped on your head
Which means not at all
You have too much to give, to live
To waste your time on him

It would be so much easier to revert to my legalistic days and separate everything into “christian” and “secular” music but it’s just not that simple. That same artist who sings the ‘7 Things’ song also has some songs with good messages that I do let Chloe listen to.

So I’m looking for your honest opinion.

As a parent, how do you decide what music to let your child listen to?
What musical standards/guidelines have you established?
What do you look for in good music for your kids?

Any thoughts?

Jul

29

Photos by Daley Hake

Post Category: Creativity, photos 

On Thursday the one and only Daley Hake passed through Indianapolis. Daley, Julie & I were able to grab lunch and then some pics (check Julie out on Virb & MySpace - awesome singer/songwriter).

This was my first chance to work with Daley although I’ve been an admirer of his work for quite a while. He’s got the look and style that I wish I could rock but could probably never pull off.

You can view all the pics on my Flickr page but this is one of my favorites.

Jul

28

How Do You Treat Telemarketers & Salespeople?

Post Category: Authenticity, Makes You Think 

Today’s tip from Cool People Care reminds us that it’s important to show respect to everyone - even those pesky telemarketers and salespeople that annoy us.

Nobody enjoys someone trying to sell you something over the phone or as you’re walking into a store but it’s important to remember that no matter  how much it annoys you or interrupts your day, they’re just doing their job. We don’t have to like the interruption but we can say no with respect.

After a long day of hang-ups or getting cussed at a courteous, simple “No thank you, I’m not interested” is the next best thing to a yes. And when you’re walking past that person at the mall trying to sell you their product, a “No thank you, I’m not interested” with a smile goes a long way towards making a tough job a little easier.

How do you respond to annoying telemarketers and salespeople?

Jul

25

Emily Turns Five

Post Category: Blog Posts, Family 


Five years ago today my wife and I welcome the second addition to our family, our beautiful and precocious little Emily Grace. This little girl has sure given us a run for our money as you can see here, here and here.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of her.

Happy Birthday sweetheart. You sure make life fun!

Jul

24

My Artwork Featured on Bittbox

Post Category: Blog Posts, Creativity 

Out of over 800 contributers and thousands of pieces in the Bittbox Flickr group, guess whose piece was featured recently in Bittbox’s User Showcase?

I used the Bittbox watercolor brush set to hand-paint the background for this piece so it’s cool to get some recognition from them. If you’re a designer be sure to check out the tons of great brushes, vector artwork and resources available for free on their site.

Jul

23

10 Blogging Terms You Should Know and Use

Post Category: Blog Posts, Blogging, Culture 

If you’re new to blogging or have been around the block a few times you may have seen a few words thrown casually around on blogs that you haven’t heard before. You desperately want to fit in so you try dropping them into your posts, emails or conversations with your co-workers.

“Man, I’ve been getting some strong trackbacks on my RSS ping server for my post.”

Their laughter caused you to hang your head in shame vowing you would never again try to fit in with the cool blogger crowd. You thought you would be destined to count the cobwebs on your blog posts while all the big bloggers had fun.

Don’t worry, help is on the way. Here are 10 blogging terms explained for you so you can sound smart and be a better blogger (courtesy of blogossary.com).

Ten points for every word you can use in your comment.

HT - Hat Tip
A hat tip is an acknowledgment to someone (or a website) for bringing something to the blogger’s attention. Hat tip is also, sometimes, abbreviated as h/t or HT. (ht: transitionpete for this definition)

Blogosphere
The blogosphere is the entirety of the blogging community and it’s one of my favorite blogging words. It encompasses all blogs, personal, business, private, and otherwise.The blogosphere can also be used when talking about all the people who blog or manage a blog.

Blog Hop or Blog Hopping
Blog hop, also known as blog hopping, is to jumping quickly from one blog to another to skim the entries or to leave comments. I’ve done this many time. On a side note, if you are going to “blog hop” be sure to read enough of the post before leaving a comment or you could wind up commenting out of context (you know who you are). ;-)

Trackback
A trackback is a way for one blog to notify another that it is linking to one of its entries. An excerpt with a link to the linking blog usually appears on the referenced blog.

Link Love
Link love is posting a link to sites or blogs, usually unsolicited, that you enjoy, admire, or find useful. (example: if you like BradRuggles.com, consider spreading some link love!) On the other hand…

Link Whore
A link whore is someone who solicits links to their blog regularly or seems/is desperate to receive links to their blog. Some people think it leads to link abuse while others use links to build genuine community among their readers. I don’t know exactly where the line is between spreading “link love” and becoming a “link whore” but usually people are quick to point out when you cross it.

Permalink
A permalink is the contraction of permanent link and is the URL for an individual blog entry. If you ever want to link to a certain post rather than the entire blog, you would link to the permalink. The easiest way to do this is to click on an individual post title to go to that posts’ page and then copy the address from the address bar of your browser (example: the permalink for this blog post is: http://www.bradruggles.com/2008/07/23/10-blogging-terms )

Troll
Someone who leaves comments on a post solely to antagonize the author. Trolls thrive on attention so the best way to get rid of them is not to give them any. I’ve also found that they really don’t like marshmallows so keep a handly supply close to you when you blog.

Comment Spam
A comment left on a blog entry for the sole purpose of promoting a product, usually pharmaceuticals, gambling, or porn, and gaining links. It’s bad enough that we’ve had to deal with regular spam in our email, now we’ve got comment spam? (hint: if you have a WP blog, the Akismet plugin works wonders!)

Dooced
To lose one’s job due to entries published on a blog. The term was coined when Heather B. Armstrong lost her job due to entries published on her blog about co-workers. She now has one of the most successful blogs the the blogosphere so apparently getting ‘dooced’ pays off.

Jul

21

A Day Without Shoes

Post Category: Authenticity, Culture, Makes You Think, Social Justice, Videos 

Yesterday for my day of the 40 Day Fast I decided to fast from my shoes for the day. I walked all day with nothing to protect my feet and even managed to sneak into a Big Boys. Although I did cheat and slip my flip flops on when I went in the restroom. :-P

A few things I learned…

  1. I have really wimpy feet.
  2. I spend a lot more time looking down when I’m walking without shoes.
  3. I’ve taken so many little things in life for granted.
  4. People look at you funny when you walk into restaurants and stores without shoes. Remember, I live in Indiana not Alabama ;-)
  5. I have so much to be thankful for.

They say you can’t really understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. In the case of the 300 million plus children around the world who have no shoes, we need to shed ours to understand what they deal with every single day.

Here’s a little video I put together.
click here if you can’t see the video

Here’s a few ideas you might consider for your family, church or youth group:

  • Set a date for a “shoeless day” where your family spends an entire day without shoes (you may need to get permission from your employer ahead of time). During this day educate yourself on some of the humbling stats about how many shoes are produced every year but how millions still go without.
  • Host a “1 Mile Shoeless Walk“ to raise awareness and money for those without anything on their feet. This could be a great opportunity to take the issue public and get local media to help tell the story.
  • Host a TOMS Style Your Sole party for your friends, church or youth group. It’s a great time for you and your friends to get together, express yourself through your own designs and support a good cause. Whether it is the theme of your party or a community building activity, you will be putting shoes on children’s feet somewhere around the world. Wear your originally designed TOMS and tell the story!
  • Buy a pair of TOMS for yourself or a friend!

What are you doing with your time, talents and resources to make a difference?

Jul

20

40 Day Fast: Putting Shoes on Jesus’ Feet

Post Category: Authenticity, Blog Posts, Blogging, Makes You Think, Social Justice 

Today’s my day to blog and fast for the 40 Day Fast and I’m fasting all day from…my shoes.

As I’m sure you figured out from Friday’s post, I had an ulterior motive for asking how many shoes you own. The average American owns at least 10 pair of shoes. The key words there are ‘at least’. Many of us own way more.

Last year alone over 14.8 billion pairs of shoes were produced to be sold to consumers who are only too happy to purchase them. That equals out to over 2 pair of shoes for every man, woman and child on the planet.

Unfortunately, while millions of Americans wake up each morning and choose what shoes they’ll wear based on their outfit and activity, there are still 300 million children around the world whose tiny little feet are left unprotected.

TOMS ShoesThat’s why I’m excited to tell you about an organization with you called TOMS Shoes - shoes for tomorrow. It was founded by Blake Mycoskie on a question. What if there was a company that gave away one pair of brand new shoes for every pair purchased? Since 2006 that is exactly what TOMS has done.

To date they has given away 10,000 pair of shoes to needy children in Argentina and 50,000 in South Africa. They’re already on track for giving away 200,000 shoes this year alone!

In Matthew 25 we’re told that when Jesus returns some will be honored for attending to his physical hunger and needs. They ask “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you?” To which Jesus replied, “In as much as you have done for the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

Somewhere around the world Jesus is walking barefoot across the hot, rocky ground longing for something to protect his feet. When we give to organizations like TOMS we’re doing so much more than just buying a pair of shoes. We’re putting shoes on the feet of Jesus.

Today’s post is part of the 40 Day Fast, a collection of 80 bloggers joining together to shed light on needs around the world and the people who are making a difference. Joining me today is Shawn blogging about child trafficking in America.

Jul

18

How Many Shoes Do You Own?

Post Category: Completely Crazy 

If I went through your closet, how many shoes would I find? I mean if I counted ALL your shoes - even that ugly pair you haven’t worn in 10 years that keeps following you from house to house. You know the ones I’m talking about.

Yes, I am being a little nosey. But there’s a reason for my nosiness (which I’ll tell you tomorrow).

No, that is not my closet.

So come on, how many?

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