I bought some fish today. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and now I finally have. They are Powder Blue Gouramis. They are technically tropical fish but I don’t have the cash to buy one of those water heaters, but they are only living in a gallon and a half of water so I think we’ll just keep the house temp a little higher and hopefully I won’t kill them off. Otherwise things have been quite boring. I’ll try and get something more substantial up later on.
I just wanted to throw it to you…my blogging family…what would you want me to blog about?
It can be anything, serious, funny, a question, a specific topic, a specific event, more about me, really anything at all, no holds barred.
Just leave a comment.
I’ll try and address as many as I can, and I’ll give ya all the credit.
So I can’t sleep. And it’s raining outside.
I went to bed all early, like before 10pm in hopes I would get a full night’s sleep and actually be fresh for work.
Maybe it’s because my soul is so uneasy with the pain so many others have been facing in the last day and a half, that or, it’s the couch I’m sleeping on.
My friend Adam has been posting about this all weekend and I felt it my responsibility to do so as well, but not just in a news sense.
So in case you live under a rock with a internet connection and you only come to my site and stay away from all news media sites, then you have most definately heard about the 9.0 earthquake in Indonesia. Which at this point has killed over 15,000 people (last I checked and will probably will go up over the next few days and weeks). That’s about half of the population of Juneau, Alaska.
I just wanted to take time to comment on a few things. In regards to how I think we should be reacting.
It’s quite easy for us to distance ourselves from what is going on over there. But I want to really challenge this reading community and those you might be able to affect, to really become deelpy intertwined with the situation. Emotionally connect yourself to these people. Suffer with them, hurt with them, greive with them, help them find hope. No, this is not an easy task and one that probably most of you won’t accept.
This past weekend our sermon was called “what the birth of Christ means to me” and 3 people from our congregation shared. This prompted me to begin to think about what it meant to me. I boiled it down to “uncomfortableness”. Thinking about the physical situation and circumstances in which Christ was born and lived most of his life and how he died, it was fairly uncomfortable.
It is my belief that we need to live in a relative state of uncomfort. It is quite easy to be comfortable, to be free of strife and pain. Yes God is our comfort but the world we live in is not. I’m beginning to realize in my theology that being interconnected with other’s hurt is quite essential to being able to care for others.
Now is that perfect time to experience other’s hurt. I posted this in the comments on Adam’s blog:
Truly this is a time where we as a Christian community must be able to be the intercessors for a nation that is experiencing great hurt. Are we willing to be intercessors so deeply, that we also suffer a hurt, one that is not our own, so that others may briefly find hope and peace in their midst?Pray people, pray hard, sweat blood…
Please find a place for this to affect you. Cry, be sad, feel like shit, be uneasy.
I wish I could say that I hope this doesn’t affect my work today, but you know what, I hope it does. Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone stopped what they were doing to mourn, except that won’t happen because it didn’t happen to “us”.
It’s raining right now, I’m cold, but somehow that seems so much more insignifcant at the moment. My bills, my lonilness, my fears, my worries, the things I have to get done, all seem a little less important now that I have started to really feel the hurt of millions of other people.
Can you do that???
Anyways here’s my quote that I’ve been kicking around, and it’s kinda late in its context…for your consideration
“Enjoy the season, because of THE REASON”
Feel free to use it yourself, just make sure to cite your references.
PS
2 other posts below, check em
I know I’ve been a total hobo-blogger.
There are just sometimes when you need to take a holiday (English word for vacation) and that sometimes includes blogging, though I am sorry I did not announce it to the rest of you. But thank you for continuing to check back awaiting new material.
Right under this post I posted a Audioblog, of one of my favorite x-mas songs that I’m pretty sure none of you have heard unless you lived in LA in 1997 and listened to KROQ and Kevin and Bean more specifically. Just though I’d share that with you all.
It’s been a long week of doing pretty much nothing. And it’s felt really good. Since I was housesitting there’s not much to do in the evening. So I played a lot of videogames and watch a lot of DVD’s. Thanks to mom who got me the Band of Brothers DVD, it has provided hours of enjoyment.
Today I had a great day with the Mr. Bill Sperry (I still wish I could link to a blog, but alas). We hit the links, and played (tried our best) a bit of par 3 golf. Then we headed down to the science center near USC to see the Body Worlds exhibit. REALLY FASCINATING. I won’t say much more but if you have a chance GO, it’s there til Jan 23rd.
I’ll be spending tomorrow by myself. I don’t need any pity or for you to feel bad. I’m really ok with the situation. It won’t be the first x-mas alone. It’s actually really nice to spend a peaceful day alone and reflect on the year and such. I once passed up a trip to Hawaii and spent a x-mas by myself.
I’ll get to a good long theological post sometime this weekend. (I know I said that last week too but you can hold me to it)
I know it sounds kinda crappy, but I have no way to host media. So you’ll have to enjoy.
Song is Christmas Piglet by the Presidents Of the United States of America off of the KROQ, Kevin and Bean Christmas CD from 1997
click Trogdor to play
brought to you by audioblogger.com
Here’s a few pieces of really cool news.
Alexi Murdoch is having a show. Just heard about it today and it’s on Tues.
He hasn’t played a show in LA for sooooo long so you really should catch this. It probably will be really packed so I suggest getting there really early like 9 or so, the doors don’t open til 10, but there will be A LOT of people. So grab a friend and a jacket and hang out, outside for a while.
It’s at the Hotel Cafe in LA on 12/21 at 10 pm.
I’ll see you there.
Also our friend Jeni Price has a new screen name for AIM it’s: chordate4christ
In case you missed this post, here’s some updated info.
Yes, I did get a new car. I ended up getting a 2004 Nissan Sentra S
Here are a couple of photos (my car is white and has a spoiler)
I opted for the new car instead of a used on for several reasons.
1 I was NOT a DAEWOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 I was tired of having cars break down. A new car pretty much insures me that it will work for a while.
3 What I paid for my car is only a little more than what this dealership was asking for a used car.
4 According to Kelley Blue Book value, I think I only really paid invoice for this car, so the dealership didn’t really make any money on the deal.
5 It’s pretty fun to drive.
6 Not really a reason that I got a new car, but a great reason that I now have it. It’s a STICK!!!!!! I know, I know, you’re thinking “a stick in LA??????”. I love stick that much that it doesn’t even bother me. I don’t know if I want to go back to auto ever again.
Although I now need to find secondary employment or not eat, God is good at providing for me.
The actual story on how I got to get the car is pretty cool. The short version is that they wanted WAYYYYY more than I could afford for the car and somehow they came back with an offer that was like 1/2 of what they originally wanted. God is goooooood. And they gave me 500 bucks for a car that didn’t run and had to be towed like 40 miles which if I had to pay for the tow it would have been at least 200 bucks.
So if you want a ride somewhere just let me know. (It’ll cost ya though, j/k)
It’s been a week since I’ve gotten it so I thought I’d finally blog about it.
I was listening to NPR yesterday, as I usually do on my to and from work. But yesterday afternoon I heard this story about the new debate about how science is taught in schools.
The new argument is not the passe debate about creation and evolution. It now centers on evolution and “intelligent design”. A few parents are pissed off because their schools are now going to be teaching intelligent design, and they feel this is a backdoor for religion to creep into schools.
The thing that eeks me most about this whole controversy is the fact that these parents are mad because they think that “religion” is being pushed on their kids. They are screaming and screaming for only “one” way to be taught in schools. They seem not to realize that they are being exclusionistic to any other (whether religious or not) view of the formation of the universe.
Personally I don’t really care what is taught in schools. I would hope there would be an unbias approach to saying that there are multiple theories in how the universe came to be.
I wonder what these same parents would say if they only taught “one” way of safe sex in schools. Seeing as how there are two different views on that as well, where safe sex, and abstinence is taught, without abstinence being a “religious” institute.
The story goes on to have some guy talk about how intelligent design is not necessarily a religious theme but merely a scientific theme.
What I really think the whole thing boils down to is the fact that these parents don’t want to take responsibility for teaching their own children. We rely on schools to do it for us. And when school no longer teaches something that we find “acceptable” then we get all up in a hissy because we want the schools to teach what “we” think is right instead of having to do it ourselves.
I can only hope that I will have been enough of an influence in my kids life, and actively involved enough for them to know what we as a family believe and that we may disagree with what others have to say but we are not going to be closed minded to the whole situation and hopefully we can listen to a different point of view and learn something from others.
Parents, get over it, if you don’t like the fact that your kids are learning this or that, be willing to do something about it yourself, teach your kids something. Spend time with them. Don’t turn the whole situation into a religion in the schools issue when it is not.
I don’t ever think the purpose of religion was to infiltrate the schools and be the ONLY thing taught, it is one of the many views represented in many subjects and should be taught as one of the options, please do not push an attitude that says since I don’t like your way, there can only be this ONE other way. The hypocrisy of the whole thing is what really makes me mad.
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