The Pocta Sessions

Some of you know about Red Mountain Music. Some of you need to know about them.

I have their first two Gadsby albums and I'm having to try really hard to follow my own rule and not buy myself the newest one before Christmas. Especially because my good friend Benj Pocta is the whole reason the new album exists.

Benj and his brothers grew up at the same church with me. I sang with him when he led worship for our youth group while I was in high school. His desire for Christian growth and maturity had a big effect on me. He helped me learn how to think about worship and why thinking about it is important, mostly from his leadership in picking and preparing music for our youth group. Benj always emphasized that we didn't want our worship to the God of all creation to be empty. We needed to know who we were singing to and what we were saying about him. I remember once we were practicing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" one wednesday night. One of the verses starts "Here I raise my ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come." I felt a little stupid, but I had no idea what an ebenezer is. So I asked him. I remember he thanked me for asking and told me it was a good question to ask. (Here is the answer).

The album is called This Breaks My Heart of Stone and is informally known as The Pocta Sessions because all of the songs were written or cowritten with Benj. His brother, Justin, did the album art (he is a great designer).

Anyway all this to say: you should check out Red Mountain Music. They are putting out good stuff.

BRITTANY
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BRIT-nee [key]
From the name of the region in the northwest of France, called in French Bretagne. It was named for the Briton settlers who fled to that area after the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England.


Popularity of the female name Brittany
Year of birth Rank
2006 318
2005 279
2004 240
2003 210
2002 170
2001 115
2000 61
1999 35
1998 25
1997 20
1996 14
1995 8
1994 7
1993 6
1992 4
1991 3
1990 3
1989 3
1988 6
1987 7
1986 8
1985 17
1984 41
1983 64 -- This is the year I was born
1982 94

No one really named their daughters Brittany before the 70s (it wasn't ranked in the top 1000 names, at least). I started thinking about name etymology because my brother asked what we thought the etymology of the name Kym was. He is into japanese culture and thought it might be japanese, because the surname is. We came home and found this website. It seems most of the names of people I know are English. But looking at the name popularity is neat, too. You can also look up more popularity stats at the Social Security Administration's website.

PATRICIA
Feminine form of Patricius. From the Roman name Patricius, which meant "nobleman" in Latin. A 5th-century saint, the patron saint of Ireland, adopted this name (his birth name was Sucat). During his youth he was captured by Irish raiders and enslaved, but after six years of servitude he escaped to his home in Britain. Eventually he became a bishop and went back to Ireland as a missionary, where he succeeded in Christianizing the entire country.

JEFFERSON
From a surname meaning "son of JEFFREY".

DOUGLAS
Anglicized form of the Gaelic name Dubhghlas, which meant "dark river" or "blood river" from Gaelic dubh "dark" and glais "water, river". Douglas was originally a river name, the site of a particularly bloody battle, which then became a Scottish surname. The surname belonged to a powerful line of Scottish earls.

LUCY
English feminine form of LUCIUS. Roman praenomen, or given name, which was derived from Latin lux "light". Two Etruscan kings of early Rome had this name as well as several prominent later Romans, including Lucius Annaeus Seneca (known simply as Seneca), a famous statesman, philosopher, orator and tragedian. Also, three popes have borne this name.

SHIRLEY
From a surname which was originally derived from a place name meaning "bright clearing" in Old English.

4.5

I'm really proud. I just completed the longest run of my life: 4.5 miles! I only started running about a year ago, once a week with Julie. And I wasn't all that excited about it. I had resigned myself to a life without running due to a lack of personal success or enjoyment in all my previous attempts. And I hated how exhausted I felt afterwards.

But Julie and I wanted to spend time together and somehow we agreed that running together might be helpful in disciplining ourselves into excercising regularly. So we ran, just short distances as first, and walked the rest of the time. In the spring we talked about running a 5k together, but were never able to finalize it. When summer came, I was starting to enjoy running a very little bit. While I was in Austin, I decided to try and keep up my endurance at least and try to run some of the pretty trails like Town Lake. One rainy afternoon, I showed up under the overpass to try again how far I could go around the lake. As I started hopping around the puddles, I decided to experiment with my breathing. Julie always said I needed to take slower breaths which confused me. Don't you need MORE oxygen when you run? Breathing slower seemed counter-intuitive. But I was bored. So I started breathing slower, which ended up forcing me to breathe deeper. The change was amazing. I felt so much less exhausted! I ran nearly 2 and a half miles. I was so excited!

When I came back to Norman I started running with Julie again, and then with Meghan Barnes, and now with Megan Carey also. Julie and I ran a 5k together, the Monster Dash, and had so much fun!

I really am delighted that I ran 4.5 miles just now. Even though I ran it by myself through my neighborhood, it really is something I never could have done on my own. It's so great to have running buddies who have help push you to keep running during the times you want to stop. And sometimes I'm the one who keeps pushing. It's a wonderful model of how you learn self-discipline. You can't fix you're lack of self-discipline by telling yourself to be more disciplined. It doesn't really make sense. You need help from the outside to learn and get discipline. Hmmm. I'm pretty sure I'm stealing this all from How People Grow. Read it, people.

Dear Friends and Family

I recently received the following message from a student who serves on our leadership team at OURUF:

Being involved in RUF at OU has definitely been a life-changing experience for me. So far, I have made life-long friends, had a blast at RUF events like Summer Conference and a weekend leadership retreat, and most importantly I have seen God working in my life in way that I have never experienced before. I’m kind of going through a tough, transitioning time in my life right now, and I would be a mess without the support of RUF, Doug, and Brittany particularly. Lately, Brittany and I have been talking a lot about why people suffer, and how God using suffering for His glory. This semester God has been teaching me that it is okay to be sad and vulnerable, because that is the place where He can change my sinful heart. Brittany has also been reminding me that Jesus shows himself to us in our weakness. Besides all the good advice and encouragement, Brittany has also been a support to me simply by being around. We’ve been getting together to run and talk weekly, and she even “let” me help her clean out her garage one afternoon a few weeks ago when I was bored (which seemed like a pretty good deal for her too). Through her, Doug, and other friends at RUF, I’m starting to see what Jesus’ love looks like- and I’m being encouraged to extend that love and friendship to others, like the freshman girls in RUF, and the girls in my sorority. I’m so thankful that God has brought me to RUF at OU, it has been such a blessing to me this year and this semester especially.

Megan expresses here better than I could what God is doing in the lives of college students here at OU. There is a lot of sin and sadness, but through the gospel of Jesus Christ comes healing and hope.

Thank you for your prayers and support. God is providing for me through your generosity and sacrifice. Remember In order for gifts to be considered tax-deductible for the 2007 calendar year they must be postmarked by December 31, 2007. You can also donate online at www.ruf.org. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Love,
Brittany Leard

Long Time Coming

1. Doug competed in a Chili Pepper Eating Contest at the Gamma Phi Beta Chili Cook-Off last night. He didn't win, but I taped it on my phone. It gave me an excuse to start posting something on YouTube though. Here it is:



2. Last weekend I ran in a 5k race. I was waiting for the photographers they hired to post their pictures, then I was going to link to it. But the pictures they took are kind of bad. Anyway, I ran with Julie Serven. We ran the whole 3.1 miles or whatever it is. I was proud of us; we didn't know the route or anything. I feel like an official runner-person. Funny that I only became a runner once I left Austin, but whatever.

3. Last weekend was also my 80s prom party which was totally gnarly. Almost everyone dressed up. We crowned the prom king and queen. We had a photographer take prom portraits. We also moved every piece of furniture out of our living area and into the garage so that there would be something of a dance floor. There were twinkle lights, baloons, and crepe paper. Annie made lots of yummy finger foods. Bebe and Laura brought yummy sherbert punch.

I didn't take any pictures, but Sam Beer took some great ones you can see here. I'm not sure if he would want me to post them. Well maybe I will post just one so you will see how good they are.




4. I love with The Darjeeling Limited. I'm going to go see it again tonight. If you don't know who Wes Anderson is, you need to go see this movie.