the unlikely orange

okay.  so here's the problem.  the longer i go without posting something worth writing and reading on this blog, the harder it gets to post at all.  i think its been nearly two weeks since i wrote, and when that happens, i feel more and more pressure (from myself) to write something that validates the lack of posts. but i got nothing. so, in an effort to just grit my teeth and forge ahead today, i am singularly rejecting the idea that all my absenteeism requires some epic post to compensate.  instead, i will simply jot down a few things rattling around in my head this morning. the other night at dinner quin told us that he likes to eat yodels at a wash-a-not.  and that he likes flushies and hot gogs from target.  (yodels = noodles; wash-a-not = restaurant; flushies = slushies).  he also calls that orange circle through which you toss a ball to earn two points by the following name: basketball poop.   i've been on a huge bruce springste...

one thousand.  that can be plenty of something, depending on what it is. then add eight more hundred to it. plenty, right?  especially when they are blog posts.  yep, this is my 1,800th post here at this same corner of the internet.  that seems like a pretty formidable number. in fact, it's hard for me to believe that i've written that much. but i have. and while i am proud that i've been able to stay consistent and write that much, i'm even happier that my outlook on the whole thing has matured as well. i used to check my stats and count something called "page views," whatever that means. but not anymore. i truly don't worry about it. i'm no longer concerned with who is or is not reading; i am writing because i love to write.  and i feel as though i've only just begun to scratch the surface of what my soul is begging to say. or maybe that isn't the best way to put it. perhaps what i mean is that i desperately need to keep saying what i've ...

today is my blog's birthday.  i've been doing this now for 7 years, and over 1,700 posts.  and it has been seven years of....what?  i don't know.  musings.  laughter.  wrestlings.  hopes.  songs.  art.  change.  movement from birth to childhood, in all its messy joy.  speaking of my children, here is an interesting fact that i didn't realize until today.  well, i knew this first part of course: all of my children were born on the 25th of their month.  and each one is a quarter away from the other.  january 25th, april 25th, and july 25th.  the pediatrician thought we should try for a 4th child on october 25th.  we will not be.  but, and this is the part i just realized today, my blog's birthday is october 25th!  i wrote my very first post on october 25th, 2006.  kinda crazy.  and in that time, you have clicked in some 200,000 times.  from all over the world.  you'...

it looks like one of the huts finally found han solo and had him frozen in carbonite (again).  how do we know this?  NASA has found him.  on mercury.  you can read about it .  also, if you're having trouble concentrating, you need more of the color orange in your life.  seriously.  further research has shown that if you are having trouble dealing with the awful beginning to the football season by the steelers, or the way the pirates are laying an egg againt the padres, or the sad last desperate moments of the yankees season, you need more agentorange in your life.  agent orange records, that is.  where we never stop.  we keep on hoping.  we never give up.  we die trying.  oh, and we change our name.  that's right.  i am getting rid of the agentorangerecords moniker.  it is long overdue.  it is too closely associated with a chemical and war and terrible cost to life, and i am no longer w...

#538. Getting tricked into volunteering for VBS. May 11, 2009       Lean in close, I don’t have much time to tell you this idea and if they catch us, we’re both in trouble. Even as I speak, zig zag scissors are cutting construction paper, glue sticks are being rolled up, angry badgers are being jammed into bags and colorful thumbtacks are being counted. We’re on the cusp of Vacation Bible School season, which means that in the next few weeks, the Swiss Army Knife Volunteers that run VBS are going to be recruiting new helpers. If you want to do that, great. Have at it. Noah’s Ark the summer away my friend. But if you don’t want to volunteer, if you’ve got flannel graph phobia, keep a sharp eye out for these important signs: 1. If someone with glitter on their clothes approaches, do not make eye contact. This is the easiest way to escape VBS volunteering. Just avoid anyone that shimmers in an unnatural way. If you get even the sl...

we did it friends.  we hit the big 1-0.  0.  0.  0.  0.  that's right, at the end of last week we went over the 100,000 mark on my little traffic counter here on the blog.  so that means that my mom has stopped by 99, 975 times, and a couple other of you stopped by once or twice. i started this blog in october of 2006, so i've been writing pretty regularly for nearly 5 1/2 years now.  i started writing as a way to express myself and to dare to believe that something i might have to say would be worth reading, worth speaking into the wide sea of words already written, that i might be more fully myself, and that you might help shape me with your response.  my life as a monologue didn't feel complete.  and so i began writing.  i began to tell the truth about myself and how the world looks through my eyes.  i began to ask questions that previously had only bounced around in my ...

hey!  happy leap day!  it's a day that occurs once every four years, and that means it's my day to take a shower.  just kidding.  i take one at least once a year, whether i need it or not. seriously, though, i don't know who invented leap day, but whoever did it is such a snob .  i mean really.  this just a day for crazy liberals who don't believe all the other 365 days aren't good enough.  no, those crazies say we need yet another day so women can propose marriage to men, which is entirely opposite of the created and Biblical order.  soon they'll be trying to turn to form us into their own image and turn every day into leap day, as if 365 days isn't enough for all the good, hard-working americans out there.  we don't need no stinkin' leap day!  last night i finished "committed" by elizabeth gilbert.  it was a fascinating tale of one woman's wrestling with the whole idea of marriage, and how she finally cam...

-hey, did you hear there was a football game played on sunday?  yeah, me neither.  i guess there was some kind of madonna concert and they played some football game before and after the show.  -actually, i did watch the game, and was delighted with the results.  i know i'm going to have to go through at least 300 years of purgatory for this, but here's the honest-to-goodness truth of it:  i love watching boston lose and suffer.  in general i am not nearly so harsh and hateful, but boston (and the baltimore ravens) is the target of all of my disdain.  i won't eat boston baked beans.  i avoid sam adams.  i don't watch movies set in boston.   if there's something i like, and then i find its from boston, i swear it off.   if i'm watching jeopardy, and one of the contestants is from boston, i begin praying for a long and humiliating loss.  okay, so i'm exaggerating here (what i do best), but i'm not completely making...

after a weekend of having 16 members of our extended family sleep in our house, a climactic worship service including the baptism of our son, and keeping track of several young children, i'm wiped.  so, make up your own blog post today.  make it clever and witty, and with some sort of deeper significance.  either that, or just write about another grueling steelers victory.  you choose.  either way, i'll read it when i wake up.

anyone who has had children probably knows the law of deferred attention: how you - the parent - then become the least important person in the whole family system.  whereas before, when your parents used to come see you and give you a hug and find out what's new in your life, interactions with your parents are now limited to handing them the baby and them vaguely thanking you for giving them grandchildren (but not with eye contact: they wouldn't dare break their loving gaze/stare at chubby mcChubberson who just vomited breast milk all over grandmas arms and shirt, resulting in praise and admiration, "awwwww...he's SOOOOOO cute" and so forth).  this is true of blogs, as well.  i have a whole audience of readers who used to be interested in the actual words of the blog.  now, each entry is a complete and utter failure unless accompanied by pictures of quinton.  and the pictures are all that matter.  i could write a lengthy post about my ne...

i originally intended to take about a week or so off from blogging.  as it turns out, i guess i needed a little longer.  part of the reason, as some of you know, is that i was away on a vacation to the jersey shore, and then a short camping trip following that.  still, i had my blackberry, so i could have easily updated the blog (and facebook and twitter), but i was resolute in my feeling that i needed some time off the grid.  i needed to shut my mouth for a moment and just listen.  i don't want to blog just because i always have.  i want to have a reason, and i wasn't sure anymore what that reason was.  so i needed some time to listen again and remember why i started in the first place.  sure, part of why i blog is just to stay connected.  it is important to me to stay connected this way.  i hear so many people complain so much about staying connected in our day and age.  i hear complaints about facebook and about smart phones ...

i want to say a huge thank you to all my regular readers from all over the country, and wherever you follow along with the goings-ons of the milinovich family.  you surprise me with how you stick with me through my long seasons of steelers fanaticism, novice artistic attempts, and ramblings about what i'm learning to believe.  i have been blessed by your comments, your encouragement, your challenges, and your frequent "amens!".  thank you.  all of that being said, i am taking a week or so off from the sometimes burdensome responsibility of writing.  i'm hoping to refresh my spirit a bit, and come back recharged.  blog experts will tell you never to do this, as it will cause you to lose all your momentum in terms of readership and numbers and all of that.  but i have never really cared too much for numbers and such.  i just write because i need to.  because it helps me make sense of this beautifully broken world, and because i am most myself...

looking back on this last year, i thought i would highlight some of my favorite posts from the year.  here are the links.  if you have a few minutes, you might find something you missed... the lego ketchup bottle cade teaches me to delight in the word i am humbled when i face off in the epic battle: greg vs. the snowblower i am no mere mortal (sniffle).  my kids don't feel like dancin.' i learn the power of dang genetics. i rant about earth day. caedmon explains worship. i preached my swan song.  i tell my second most embarassing story. i got in a fight with the new bunk beds.     i threw up in the susquehanna river.  i looked back on my first 1,000 posts.  i discussed my fear of the bricks.   i wrote an open letter to my kids about starting school.  'twas the night before steelers football  cade wants to punch the ravens inside their nose.  i made our annual family Christmas video....

a few months ago, at the genesis of the 2010 football season, i wrote this little poem about the steelers, inspired by coach lebeau's annual recitation of the famous clement moore poem.  my friends over at behind the steel curtain - a top-notch steelers blog - asked me if i'd write a reprise now that it is actually Christmastime.  so i obliged.  click on the "keep reading" link to read my newest steelers verse. 

while i try to do a good bit of reading, i recently realized that i don't read many books that simply make me laugh.  which is why i was so glad to get into "stuff christians like" by jonathan acuff.  acuff is a blogger who started the absolutely hilarious blog: stuffchristianslike.net , which became so successful that he used it as a platform for writing this book, which is really just a printed form of his great blog.  there are two reasons why christians should read this book: 1.  it will make you laugh.  acuff has the uncanny ability to look at the traditions and rituals of american christianity and find the ridiculous in it.  as one who has grown up in the church (he is a pastor's kid), and who still very much practices his faith, this isn't done in a spirit of mockery or bitterness, but in great humility.  for the most part he mixes sarcasm, poignant honesty, and humility in just the right amounts to convince you that it is ok ...

just like christmas.  that's what it feels like right now.  well, to be more precise, it feels like the days right before christmas: those slow, anticipation-filled days.  like the hands of the clock are covered in quikrete, grinding to a halt so that christmas may just never get here.  yep.  that's how i feel right now.  the pittsburgh steelers season is a mere 52 hours away as i write this, but that feels like it might as well be a year and a half.  i just can't wait for it to get here.  so, to try and move beyond the incessant nail-biting and clock-watching, i thought i'd spend my time today usefully, and compose a poem.  it is a well-known tradition throughout the Steeler Universe that defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau (who you may remember was just inducted into the Pro Fooball Hall of Fame this year) takes time each year to read a famous Christmas Poem to his players.  and while this may not seem like the most testerone-fueled act...

it's been an amazing journey, it really has.  as i look back on the last 1000 posts, i am surprised at how much i've written in the last four years.  i have written about all my loves: Jesus, my family, the steelers, the yankees, art, being ridiculous, and so forth.  i have written through deep belly laughs and some gut-level tears, as well.  i have tried to say something new, but have mostly been saying the same thing over and over.  but you have continued to read, and i continue to need to write down my reactions to this amazing life, so i keep going.  i have no intentions at stopping right now, so keep checking in here at agent orange records and see what new ways i am thinking of saying the same old things.  today i thought i'd give you a list of 10 of my favorite posts, or at least a good sample of 10 posts that pretty fairly represent this old blog.  if you've been reading for some time, enjoy the walk down memory lane.  if you've j...

you are currently reading my 999th post, which means (for the mathematically-challenged readers) that my next post will be my one thousandth.  of that thousand, at least 10 were worth reading, so i'm just wondering...does anyone have any favorites?  what was/is your favorite agentorange post(s)?  maybe i'll do a little "best of" feature for my 1,000th.  -in other randomosity, i never really got the chance to write about it, but the steelers played their first preseason game this weekend, and won, which is completely irrelevant, since the games don't count.  still, it was fun to see the black and gold in live action again.  things i am excited about: dennis dixon getting a chance; isaac redman running over people; daniel sepulveda kicking off; improvement from lamar woodley, lawrence timmons, key fox, rashard mendenhall and mike wallace; and seeing hines ward continuing his unorthodox trip to canton.  oh, and the steelers winning plenty of games....

on this, my 945th post to this blog, i am looking backwards a bit.  you see, about 4 or 5 months after i started writing this blog, i started keeping track of how many people were stopping by.  at first it was just a curiousity, and then it became an exciting gauge of the incredible opportunites the world wide web affords us.  i have been amazed as you all have stopped by again and again, reading these words, sometimes responding to them, sometimes not.  more than a few times you've disagreed with me and told me about it.  probably more often than i'd like to think you've disagreed with me and not said a word of it to me.  you've enjoyed pictures of my kids, put up with my passion for steelers/yankees, and, hopefully, been blessed by the questions i've felt compelled to ask along the way.  i'm thinking about all of this because today i will likely reach 50,000 offficial visits to my blog.  that seems like a milestone to me!  and so i am a b...

well, friends, it's a bit of a milestone day here at agentorangerecords. today i reach 40,000 visits to the old blogstead. and so, to celebrate i want to give something away! -- i have had many visitors to this blog of mine, and i never even thought that would happen. but what is even more unlikely is that some of you who visited came back. i know, its hard to believe, but for some reason you keep reading. i don't know if it is because i make you laugh (at my own expense), or because it's like a train wreck that you just can't stop looking at, but whatever the reason, you keep coming back. forty thousand times. so thanks. -- to celebrate, i'm giving away this collage: it is called sunburst. i've shown it here before . up until today it has been for sale in my etsy shop . but now i'm giving it to one of you. all you have to do is comment on this post and answer this question: -- other than money, what would you like to have 40,000 of? (you can com...