Too...much...snow.

Thanks to a recent purchase of a thumbdrive usb camera (only $12 on amazon), I suddenly feel inspired to blog again. I never liked blogging when my photos were just something I found on the internet or worse, no photo at all. I'm hopeful with a camera always in my pocket I can capture the many interesting and in some cases bizarre moments on my daily life.

With that said, in the last few weeks we have just been buried in snow. It seems like every weekend I am out shoveling, snow blowing and plowing. At this point, it is getting hard to even find a place to put the snow. The photo below is while I was riding the snowplow down towards the office and dining hall, eating the blowing snow the whole time.

It's certainly a bittersweet gift of snow though. I am always happy to see kids enjoying sledding thanks to the snow. I just wish there was a better way to remove it from the places we don't want the snow.

At least I had a cute little girl to cheer me up when I went inside to warm up. I swear she just keeps getting cuter every day.

Alone

It's funny how appealing some alone time looks until you have it. I love my family immensely, but the extra time to do leisure activities (aka endless videogame marathon) is incredibly empty and unrewarding.

Jamie and Leah are in Appleton visiting Jamie's mom and I am stuck here at camp since there are people here all week. Even with a slew of new games to distract me, the simple joy of conversation with my wife or wrestling and snuggling with my daughter can never really be substituted.

It's amazing how quickly the struggle to stay busy becomes almost a chore. Without Leah running up to me and grabbing my hand to go do something or simply attacking me with hugs and kisses. Instead, here doing my best to get Mario to jump where I want him to. Not exactly the same personal connection.

I never thought I would say this on a day off, but I'm actually excited to go back to work tomorrow.

Welcome Back Cotter

Anytime I get work in a Welcome Back Cotter reference, I know it is going to be a good post. Especially when it is the title AND the picture.

After another summer here at camp, life is finally slowing down. I am still only getting one day off a week, but at least the stress levels are down. We had a great summer with extremely high numbers in July. So the work life is good.

The family life is pretty good too. Jamie is continuing to show the signs of pregnancy and the child is growing nicely. It has been great to here the heartbeat and see the ultrasound images. In a level of needed prayer, the ultrasound did show the baby had kidneys that are developing too quickly which may result in emergency surgery at the time of birth. Hopefully the rest of the baby's body catches up to those kidneys.

We also continue to work through the process of Jamie's mom's failing health. It is amazing to me how a strong belief in God can change the outlook of so many in regards to this stage of life. The trust in the hereafter is worth so much right now. Knowing that we will all be rejoined one day gives my heart some comfort. I am eager for a big family dinner in heaven.

In less heavy news, I have found a new favorite internet service. Goozex is a videogame trading site that matches used videogame owners to make trades for only $1 per trade and postal fees. A pretty good deal. I've traded literally about 15 games at this point. Saving me a ton of money. If you want to sign up, use me as a referral and we both get some free points/trades! (Click here if you are interested.)

Other than that, not much going on. Hopefully this is the start of more consistently blogging from me again!

Wind...it blows.

When I was a kid, I used to love the wind. One of the happiest moments I have from growing up is flying kites with my dad. It was one of those things we did to bond. These weren't the typical single-string Smurf kites though. They were the two string variety that allowed you to guide the kite through the air.

Now, 15 years later, I still like the wind. However I do not always like the effects of the wind. When you live at a camp, you are typically surrounded by trees, as I am here. You quickly learn that in an environment like this, with wind comes work. The stronger the wind, the more trees and debris liter the ground. As much as I love using a chainsaw, it does get old after a while.

As I was cutting up a large tree today, I was grumbling and thinking through the annoyance of increased wind velocities and the relative flimsy-ness of the trees at this camp. Then, for no apparent reason, I remembered the scripture of John 3:8 which I have always liked.

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

That kind of put things in perspective for me. I wonder how often in my life the Holy Spirit goes through and blows down the dead trees and branches cluttering my life, and my response is not thankful, rather it is a childish reaction of annoyance. I enjoy the dead things that surround me even though they are not very pretty or even nice to have around.

One thing I have also learned about dead trees is that they tend to fall in the worst places. In theory, a tree has 360 degrees of falling radius, yet it always seems to fall across a road, into a cabin or just in a difficult are to reach.

In my own life, this is manifest by the dead wood falling into the areas of my life that I enjoy such as my family, friendships or just free time. And again, rather than clean up the mess, I grumble and slowly remove as little as I can get away with.

I guess I just need to listen for guidance and start cutting before the Holy Spirit moves so I can do my best to thin out the forest. If all I have left are healthy, strong trees in my life, the wind can blow through with force and all that happens is a beautiful sound of rustling leaves.

That is the sound I want for my life.

Snakes in an Office

The unthinkable has happened. I have a giant snake loose in the office with me. Yikes.

I suppose this was always possible since we do have a nature area in the same building. I actually have had this recurring thought that someday it will be like that scene in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure when he sees the pet store on fire and starts rescuing animals. He runs back and forth saving everything (including goldfish in little bags) before finally running out with handfuls of snakes and passing out on the sidewalk outside.

In my case, it was much different. This morning I walked past one of the office and saw out of the corner of my eye a snake. Of course I kind of walk-ran the rest of the way down the hall. Then I slowly walked back to the door to look at it.

I know the snake isn't deadly, heck it probably doesn't even bite. But I'm pretty sure "snake-handling" was not in my job description. Especially when the thing is like 3 feet long. Gross.

I have a co-worker coming in to pick it up. If you do see a post from me soon, I'm probably in this thing's belly.

The Day My Music Died

Considering I work in an office by myself everyday, it should come as no surprise that I am quite connected to my iPod. I take it with me literally everywhere around camp as I work so I can listen to mostly podcasts and the occasional music.

It has held up surprisingly well considering the daily use. Well, that is until today. Today, my dear friend, the iPod, died.

I was a little panicky when it first happened until I was clear that it was a done deal. I diagnosed the problem using some message board posts and it is clearly a dead hard drive; a fairly common problem I guess.

So a fine mess this is. I looked into a replacement hard drive and if I do the repair myself, it will still cost about $90 for the hard drive and tools. Ugh. No thanks.

In the interim, my dear wife has offered to let me use her 2 GB iPod nano she got for Christmas. While I was skeptical at first, it looks like it will be a perfect fit. I was able to fit all of my podcasts and the only playlist I actually use (Last 100 Added Songs) with about 1 GB left.

So here is my new question. Why fix my old iPod for $90 when I can get one just like my wife's for about $110? In addition to that, the iPod nano does not use a hard drive that can be corrupted. It uses solid state flash memory which can handle my active routine a little better.

With that said, I think it is clear what my next iPod purchase will be when the time is right.

God's Timing, Not Mine

It's hard being human. To have my desires constantly changing like the wind to be happier, better and/or more successful is a frustrating place to be. As normal as it is, why can't my desires fall more in line with what God wants for me?

Clearly it's a lack of obedience on my part. With the realization that I have now committed my life (and my family's life by proxy) to ministry, I am eager to know where I will go to serve Christ. Granted, I am already doing His work in this great place, but for some reason the grass is always greener...

So what spurred all these thoughts/emotions? Well, I had another church call me about being a youth pastor a few days ago. I have had several now which is very flattering and if circumstances were different, I would entertain the thoughts more seriously. I have a desire to serve youth and encourage and enrich their lives with the truth of Christ, but in what capacity that will take is so unclear.

I know I am only 26. I know my life is in the hands of the same Creator who put amazing ministry in the lives of ordinary people (see the entire Old Testament and the 12 disciples). I know that I have a great wife and family who will trust in God and my discernment to determine where the next stop in ministry will be.

I just can't handle the waiting.

I have so much I can do in my current ministry and I always hear positive feedback about how this place is changing and improving since I arrived less than a year ago. But I still feel like God has something more in the way of direct ministry than this. Maybe someday that door will open and I will actually hear God calling to encourage me it is time to take that next step.

Never Plan for an Easy Day

It seems like all the blogs I read (including my own) got all serious yesterday, so I wanted to make sure I come up for air in my post today.

It's funny how you can plan to have an easy day and it winds up being just the opposite. This weekend at the camp we are not expecting a big crowd by any stretch of the imagination. Probably a total of 10 people in a few cabins who are all doing their own meals.

I am certainly thankful for this break and today when I went to the office I was eager to hit the ground running and get a lot done.

As I walked in the door of the office I was greeted by 6 large boxes of new mugs for the camp store. Okay, I can put these away. It's always fun opening boxes. No problem, right?

So then I hear someone calling for me from down in the office. A semi showed up with our new dining hall tables. Great! We need those tables! Well, it turns out it was a full length semi. For those who have never been to this camp (or probably almost any camp) full length semis are bad news. Typically our roads are so narrow and turn so sharply with trees on the edges that semis struggle to get where they need to go.

After an half-hour of back and forth, the driver realized we couldn't get to where we need to go. Okay, we will just unload and cart them in from a distance. No problem, right?

Well, it wouldn't be normally. As we opened the back of the trailer, the driver looked at me, swore, and then, "This truck doesn't have a power lift. And that load is 1,200 lbs. so we can't use the ramp."

Okay. Problem solving. I guess we just lift each piece down, right? Well, that "we" turned out to be me and the maintenace guy here at camp. The driver "supervised" despite being "way behind schedule."

And that brought us to noon. Then I had to get some butter and a muffin pan for a guest staying in one of the cabins. No problem, but again, just losing grip of the "easy day."

When it was all said and done, this day was really no help in my great battle against the office work waiting for me. It's funny how that works. I will never again plan to get a lot done in a day. Just let it happen.

-8 degrees F

You read that headline correctly. It is currently -8 degrees F here. That is without windchill. I actually read with the windchill we were down to -22 this afternoon. On a weekend when we have about 80 people here at camp, it made things interesting. At the end of today, we had to call the tow company for 3 separate cars that were dead in their tracks. So far we haven't had any cabin freeze-ups (knock on wood) but we aren't out of the woods yet. Lots more cold through Wednesday. Fun.

You may also notice yet another addition to the sidebar on the right (the Nick's shared items widget). While it might look like just generic stories are being posted over there, it is actually controlled by what I think is worth a look. Now that I use Google Reader for my RSS feeds, I can choose what I think warrants the attention of others or that I find interesting and have them show up in that column. Kind of a neat addition I think.

The longest two days...

As much as I love and appreciate "time-off," this has been the absolute longest 2 days ever. It's not that my typical time off is this boring. Unfortunately the rest of my family is gone though, so I'm stuck here in the woods trying to basically kill time. It's a horrible thing. So here is a brief list of things I've done.

1. Watched 4 bowl games. The Fiesta Bowl is officially the greatest game I have ever seen in my life.

2. The new show Knights of Prosperity is pretty hilarious in a My Name is Earl/Office kind of way.

3. I beat Psychonauts. I got this game for Christmas. Like, a week ago. Great game, but sad I beat it already.

4. I killed two mice by reinventing the conventional mouse trap. Put peanut butter under the bait bail with a toothpick and snap off the toothpick to make it difficult for the mouse to clean off the trap without it's neck being snapped. I know, I'm pathetic and inhumane.

5. I have watched the Packers/Bear game twice. I can't get enough of that game. Just priceless.

6. I have done countless loads of laundry and dishes in hopes that my wife will have little to nothing to do when she gets home.

7. I cleaned up the garage. Even though it was already clean.

I'm sure there are more things that are pointless, but I can't think of any right now. Oh yeah, I slept until 11 am yesterday too. Okay, I'm done. And pathetic.

Best Free (almost) Mac Apps (con't.)

Now for the second half of my best free mac apps list. Hopefully you find some nice new software from this list. Feel free to drop me a comment with some more software if you have something you think is great as well.

6. AlphaBaby - Okay, so maybe this isn't my favorite app, but it is my daughter's. I decided that instead of scolding her for her computer curiosity, I have instead found a way to encourage it. Since she does not have the understanding or motor-skills to actual use a computer, I found a program that instead just creates colors, shapes, sounds and letters depending on what keys she hits. If she hits a letter or number, it shows that letter or number in a large bright character. She enjoys the show and hopefully is becoming comfortable with computers at the same time.

7. GoogleNotifier - Back in junior high, I think we all had a hotmail account. It was the universally accepted standard in web-based email. Today, that standard is Gmail. I strongly suggest anyone in the web-based email market get Gmail. It is feature-rich and it works with the ever evolving web 2.0 suite that Google is developing. GoogleNotifier works with Gmail and Google Calendar to post a notification when events or messages are received. A great functionality addition to an already great system.

8. iStumbler - As is the case with most people who are slightly above the computer knowledge curve, it is assumed that I have a telecommunications degree. Whenever someone I know is hooking up a wireless network, I am called with the assumption I know what I'm doing. Thankfully, at this point I do. But I didn't always have the tools I needed. One of those tools that I always use now is iStumbler. It helps locate wireless signals and their strength. I have used is numerous times to diagnose problems and to find the overall signal range of installed networks.

9. gDisk - One additional thing I love about Gmail is the overall storage space. The problem is that I will probably never use even half of the space they allot users. If only you could use this storage for personal use of documents and other media...and that's where gDisk comes in. gDisk is a standalone application that basically creates a directory in your Gmail account for personal storage. Kind of neat.


10. iAlertU - A few years ago Apple decided to put a motion sensor in their line of laptops as a way to protect harddrive failure from dropped laptops. While I'm sure it has helped in that capacity, the real reason I appreciate that sensor is for this next app. iAlertU is quite literally a car alarm for your laptop. Using the remote control, you turn the app on with the classic car alarm sound. Then, if your laptop is moved even slightly, the alarm goes off and it even takes a picture with the built-in iSight camera to catch the perpetrator red handed. I still won't leave my laptop unattended for long, but at a coffee shop it's not a bad security measure.

Well, I hope that is helpful to someone. I strongly recommend anyone on the Mac/PC fence to make the jump. It is a great time to be a Mac owner.

Best Free (almost) Mac Apps

I have always found lists of the top free Mac apps to be incredibly helpful for me to find new and useful apps that just make my life easier. There are a ton of just incredible programs designed for the Mac OS and each time I find one it helps to validate my love for the OS.

For those of you who are stuck on a PC, I apologize for the worthless nature of this post. (Or maybe this will help you leave the virus plagued jungle!)

1. RapidWeaver - I have been using this program a lot lately as I continue to work on redoing the camp's website. I have been doing web design at an amateur level for a long time now and this is by far the easiest and still feature-rich tool I have ever used. It really allows you to dig in as much or as little as you want and have a great looking site regardless of your decision.


2. FolderShare - I know this is a Microsoft program, but it is really pretty ingenious. Here is how it works: I have desktop computer. I have a laptop. I have a work computer. I have a server at work that I sometimes need access to. While I could setup a VPN to access certain files on these computers, that still doesn't allow access to everything on all the computers. FolderShare does. You install this program on each machine and it gives you a listing and search function of every file on every machine. Once you find what you need, you download it. You can also use it to sync folders in multiple locations (like a VPN). Oh yeah, and it's seamlessly cross-platform.

3. Connect360 - The way the Xbox 360 was designed is genius...if you are a PC owner. The machine is capable of pulling music, photos and video off of other computers on your home network. However, if you have a Mac, this feature does not work right out of the box. That is where Connect360 comes in. Now I can listen to any song in my iTunes library while I play. And it preserves all of my playlists, genres, etc. And I can listen to podcasts. Amazing.

4. VirtueDesktops - Ever get bogged down in layer-upon-layer of application windows? I always do. Between email, internet, word processing, and some graphics program, it gets difficult to navigate what's going on. With VirtueDesktops you create seperate workspaces that flip as you change applications. You can setup common applications to be on the same workspaces so email is always open with Word and so on. It really helps productivity.

5. iPhoto Library Manager - The one downside of the entire world switching from traditional to digital photography is the storage. Sure, it seems like storing photos on a computer is more sensible that dozens of green and red photo albums, but there was another side effect to digital photography: more pictures. These two factors combine to create gigantic photo libraries. This app helps you by splitting your iPhoto Library into separate libraries making it easier to navigate and operate iPhoto.

That is enough for now. I actually have a list of 10, so if you really want to see 6-10, you'll have to check back soon!

The Deadliest of Snowshoes

This is one of those stories that you wish you could undo, but at the same time, it is perfect for blogging.

So today in the office I decided to make the transition from fall decorations (pumpkins and scarecrows) to winter decorations (wreaths and trees). The real motivation for this was a pair of old snowshoes that my father-in-law gave to me. I have been eager to have them up in the office as a decoration and also to get them out of my office.

Ideally I wanted to hang the snowshoes in a criss-cross (not to be confused with 90's rap all-stars Kriss-Kross) fashion on the wall. It couldn't be that hard, right? So I got out some string and tied them together. After several minutes of fighting with them to get them just right, I realized I didn't need string at all, I needed some wire.

Being the burly woodsy guy that I am, I decided it would be faster to pull the snowshoes apart, rather than untying them. It was just kite string, right?

So I started pulling. I guess I didn't really realize just how hard I was pulling though. That is, I didn't realize until the string eventually snapped and sent one of the snowshoes right into my forehead. Ouch.

I just stood there stunned for a second. Did that really just happen? I reached up and felt my handywork and found a nice welt where I was hit.

After swallowing my pride, I tried to get some more work done. After about a half-hour though, my head was hurting pretty good and it was already 4 pm. So I went home.

When Jamie saw me, the first thing I said was "I got attacked by a snowshoe." After she stopped laughing she told me I had a red mark where it hit me. I didn't even think to look in the mirror, but sure enough, there it was.

Now my only fear that I will wake up with a big bruise or even a black eye from a freakin' snowshoe. Great.

Sick Day

I don't think I actually ever felt as bad as the guy in the illustration looks, so consider it an "artist rendering." I did have to take a sick day today though. I don't really feel bad though. I haven't taken a sick day since I moved back to Wisconsin in May. Before that, I was being ravaged by sickness pretty regularly in Mankato. I guess that's one of the perks of living away from civilization.

In an unrelated story (no really, I'm serious) my Xbox 360 came yesterday afternoon. I was to incapacitated to really enjoy it, but I'm pretty excited for Christmas and the eventual addition of some new games. Boy I'm nerdy.

Sorry for the short post, but all I did today was sleep and be babied by my great wife. My new visualization of heaven is surprise chicken noodle soup when you wake up from a nap on the couch.

Ouch

Okay, so as usual, this is not the actual picture, but I did have a small accident last night. As I went to go get the camp truck to bring the day's garbage from the dining hall to the dumpster, I hit a tree. Not like, full on, but I did clip the back end of the truck on it.

So how did this happen? Well, there were many factors. First, I am stressed out. We are currently serving one of our most important groups of the year. Also, I am due for a day off and am anxiously looking forward to a vacation. Also, the truck was parked in an unusual location. It was parked very close to some trees instead of it's normal position. Also (that's right, 3 alsos in a row), it was pitch black out.

When I started the truck I turned the corner and felt the tail end hop to the side. I figured I hit a rut and didn't worry about it. Later I went and looked at the back of the truck and was shocked to see a big dent in the side. It doesn't affect the performance of the truck, but it does look kind of bad.

I really beat myself off when stuff like this happens. My coworkers are very understanding, but I'm my own worse critic. I'm getting better now, but please pray for me to let this go.

A Rough Rainy Day

I'm not sure what that is a photo of, but it captured how I felt today. In addition to the rather depressing rain, I also just did not feel like serving people today. On a typical day, I will bend over backwards to help anyone who stays here to enjoy their time. It's not only my job, but as a steward of this great place it is also my responsibility.

But today I didn't want to. I know God never said "well, serve with all your heart when you feel like it." In fact, he said something much different than that.

In Romans 12 it says just the opposite.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

I read once that the worst part of a living sacrifice is that they keep trying to crawl off the altar. I think that is where I am right now. I want to serve God with all my heart, mind, body, and soul, but today it just wasn't there.

The crazy thing is that I have a peace about it as well. I think God is aware of how tired I am and how much my soul is just aching for good worship and fellowship. He knows that I (and my family) are in a dry desert right now.

Tomorrow we are trying yet another church. I am hopeful that God is waiting for us there.

Jesus Camp

I was updating our queue on Netflix yesterday and saw a banner that caught my eye. Apparently there is a new movie coming out called "Jesus Camp." It's actually more of a documentary, but anyways...

Since I work at what could be labeled a "Jesus Camp" it of course caught my eye. The sad thing is that even before I investigated it I knew what I was going to find. Go check out the trailer here and then come back.

So really I can see both sides of this. On the one hand, yes, Christian camps are meant to strengthen the youth of America in their Christian beliefs. I don't think that is anything too earth-shattering.

On the other hand, the comparisons to Palestinians and the military-style performance were kind of off-putting. If I were on the outside viewing this film, I could certainly see how Christians could be labeled fanatical and even closer to Islamic extremists than I think we would like.

It's funny (and sad) how Christians are often portrayed in mainstream media.

Ropes Course

Okay, so this isn't actually our ropes course, but it is very similar. No high-flying harnesses and helmets. Just elements that are about 12" off the ground. Not too exciting, right?

Well normally it isn't. During the summer you can get in a groove of doing these elements with kids and you learn what things work and what things don't. Experience is a great teacher.

However yesterday was a bit different. Instead of the energetic, wild, junior high age youth, I was facilitating for 8 lethargic, tired, middle-aged adults. It was different.

It's not to say it was a bad experience though. They all went into it with a positive attitude and they tried almost everything I threw at them. Two of the ladies were overweight and they still challenged themselves to laterally traverse the cargo net. A pretty daunting task for someone who was admittedly out of shape. I was very impressed with their determination and at the same time knowing their limits.

I think that is what I learned the most yesterday. While I could sometimes see the fear and apprehension on their faces, they often did their best to try and do the task before them. And it wasn't an issue of pride really, it was just a matter of challenging themselves.

I hope we get more adult groups to do ropes course here. It was really a different and educational experience for me. Hopefully they felt the same as well.

Teething....ugh....

I think Mr. Mark Twain had this pretty much nailed. Right now Leah is teething and it has quickly gone from bad to worse. Our sweet little girl who was sleeping through the night since her first month of life is now waking up numerous times (like on the hour) during the night since her teeth are so sore. Last night it got so bad that Jamie ended up sleeping next to Leah's door so she didn't have to walk as far to settle her down. I ended up sleeping with a pillow on my head after getting overly frustrated at 2 am.

We spent the last two days in Appleton, WI on my "weekend." It was a nice departure from camp and gave me some quality time with my new work laptop. I still can't believe I was able to get a MacBook for my work laptop, but I think it was the best thing I could get. For doing promotional materials and dealing with all the media of camp (photos, video, etc.) you can't beat a Mac. Alright, done with my commercial.

In Packer news...what the heck is going on?!? Apparently now that the season is a loss (after 1 game) we are picking up alcoholic WR's (Koren Robinson) and getting rid of solid performers (Samkon Gado). I know I will still watch the Packers regardless, but it's much more frustrating as of late.

That's about all for now. Oh yeah, a message to Tim P.: There, I posted. Quit your crying.

No really, I'm going to blog now...maybe.

I'm not sure I could be any more sporatic of a blogger right now. I really want to be more consistent, but my work load is so inconsistent that it is hard to get in a groove. I keep thinking, "well next month should be better..." and then it isn't. Oh well. At least I'm still posting sometimes, right?

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, so bear with me if this is kind of "rambly." The more time I spend out here in the woods, the more I am realizing that I am changing as a person. It is nothing of huge magnitude, but there are small things.

First, I know that I am becoming more laid back than I have been in the past. It's n0t that my job is a cake walk, it is actually probably more stressful than my previous job. But the difference is my environment. Being surrounded by nature is so different than being in the city. The fact that I bike to the office past deer and turkeys daily. It's crazy. It's as if God is literally walking/biking right there with me.

Second, I am learning how to cultivate my faith without being able to really go to church. This is not to say I'm denying the need for corporate worship. There is nothing I crave more than worship right now. Unfortunately Sundays are a rather busy day here which is kind of eliminating worship from the schedule for the time being. I am hoping to change that next year as I value worship, but we'll see. For now I am listening to a lot of sermon podcasts and doing daily Bible reading on my personalized Google start page.

Finally, I am realizing how culture and the media really impact their audience. Since we now watch all of our TV on a DVR (skipping most commercials), we have no decent radio stations, and I am removed from year-round youth ministry, I am realizing that I am literally unplugged from most popular culture. Kind of scary for a guy like me.

Thankfully I still have podcasts to help me stay connected. Between the Relevant podcast, several videogame podcasts, and of course every single ESPN podcast.

Speaking of the Relevant podcast, last week they had a great cover of Hey Ya by Outkast. This version is by Obadiah Parker. Since I really wanted the song, but I couldn't seem to find it anywhere, I used some fancy Mac software to chop the song out of the podcast. Not really a big deal, but I did it so we can all appreciate the song. My gift to you for not posting regularly I guess. Wait...I just found a link so I don't have to host it. Enjoy!

Hey Ya - Obadiah Parker