Blog of Josh Hall

When you use google earth, the red dot indicating the Hill District is on my house.  Weird.  How appropriate that I’m the ambassador now. 

http://goo.gl/maps/OwT1

Organized dancing has an expiration date.  Ballroom and other styles of dancing are perfectly acceptable, what I’m talking about is doing dance recitals and creating a routine to a song.  Here’s a graphical aid.

I realize that I won’t be able to blog frequently on my own LEGO creations, so I’ll showcase the works of other people as well. This one was displayed at Brickfest by Suzanne Rich

Give someone a shove,
and they take flight.
Give one some love,
and they take your night.

Take someone’s breath away,
and they give you love.
Take the time in a day,
and they give answers from above.

The Driver is the authority on music. He or she may delegate to passengers at their will.

A malapropism (AKA dogberryism or acyrologia) is a phrase or word that can substitute to sound like another word phrase. Just like when you have some misheard song lyrics (These are called mondegreens btw), usually these have funny stories if they come up in real life situations. Here are a few examples of ones I’ve come across:

While on a tour at a winery, the tour guide was showing the different sizes of bottles and what they are called and used for. He pointed to a very large one and I swore he said, “This one is the annihilator.” What he really said was, “This one is the nine liter.”

Mahatma Gandhi walked barefoot everywhere, to the point that his feet
became quite thick and hard. He also was quite a spiritual person.
Even when he was not on a hunger strike, he did not eat much and
became quite thin and frail. Due to this diet, he wound up with very
bad breath. Therefore, he came to be known as a . . .

Super calloused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis.

Do you have any examples of #phrases that sound like other phrases?

The only time it’s acceptable to wear a band’s t-shirt to the same band’s concert is if you’re in the band.

Here’s an awesome time lapse video of the new consol energy arena from start to finish!

http://penguins.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=19&id=72562

If you’re not familiar with the L.I.V.I.N.G Ministry, it’s an organization dedicated to serving the homeless and needy in the Pittsburgh area.  They have a few outreach programs that range from a large clothing drive event in the fall, job fairs, preparing breakfast for labor hall workers at 5am, Bible studies, and the biggest is Project L.I.F.E.  With Project L.I.F.E., 4 men are able to live in a house, that the ministry bought and renovated, and focus on building life skills such as budgeting and cooking, they rebuild relationships with their families, and they also learn discipleship.  The ministry just bought the house next door and they are working on renovating it with a similar plan in mind for it.

As for the race, on Saturday, October 16th, I’ll be in Chicago for the Men’s Health Urbanathlon.  I ran the 12 mile course last year, but this year they changed it to 9 miles and added more obstacles…like getting up and over a bus.    Throughout the course, I’ll be climbing over marine hurdles, over taxi cabs, and up and down the stairs of Soldier Field (where the Chicago Bears play).

My goal is to raise more than $1000. If you can make a flat donation of any amount, that will help me reach that goal.  If you want to get inside my head for a bit of motivation, you can do something like:

Give me $1 for every second under last year’s time (120 minutes.)
Since I’m also racing in the Great Race again this year, $1 for every second off my total time there (60 minutes)
• Give me a big bonus if I run the Urbanathlon in a mile/minute time that is better than my Great Race average mile/minute this year.
• Get creative!

If you’re not able to support me financially, some words of encouragement go a long way as well.  If you want to learn more about the ministry, or possibly getting your church involved in volunteer workdays, reach out to volunteer@livingministry.org.  I’ll be glad to talk with you as the chair of the board for the ministry too, if you have any questions or want to become a regular supporter.  Please send this to anyone who you think would like to participate!

Thank you all for your support, encouragement, and prayers!

Josh in the Urbanathlon 2009