Just Words.

Chicago Shows

2010-11-18T22:03:00.003-06:00

Anyone have any interest in going to see any of these shows?

Broken Bells - Sun - 12/05 - 7.30 - Vic Theatre

The Black Keys - Thurs - 12/30 & Fri - 12/31 - 7.00 - Aragon Ballroom

The Decemberists - Fri - 2/04 - 7.30 - Riviera Theatre

Josh Ritter - Thu - 2/17 - 7.30 - Vic Theatre

Pete Yorn, Ben Kweller - Wed - 2/23 - 7.30 - Riviera Theatre

Girl Talk - Fri - 3/04 - 7.00 - Congress Theatre

Andrew Bird is already sold out.

8-Bit History of Creation

2010-08-30T00:01:00.001-05:00

SUPERNATURAL CREATOR 2 from Mareike on Vimeo.

Addendum: In which Hedges is proven to be an Old Testament Prophet

2010-08-18T13:42:00.003-05:00

Around the time that Hedges was publishing his book on war, the United States was invading Iraq. In 2003, after the invasion was complete, Hedges was asked to give the commencement address at Rockford College. In his speech, he strongly opposed the war and argued that it could never be a success. The crowd, in a paroxysm of patriotic furor, tried to boo him off stage. His mike was cut, and eventually two men rushed the platform. Although he was neither stoned nor burnt at the stake, he was forced out of his job at the New York Times in the aftermath of the incident.

Here is the video of the speech, in four parts: One Two Three Four.

War is a force that gives us meaning

2010-08-17T20:27:00.004-05:00

These days Chris Hedges is mostly writing about Gaza, but he cut his teeth in journalism as a war reporter in the bloody civil wars of Central America. In 2002 he published War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a book that seeks to explain humankind’s predilection toward warfare. I would highly recommend this talk in which he summarizes the contents of the book, but to spare you the hour-long lecture, I would like to relate a few things from his talk that I thought were particularly remarkable.

In the first place, Hedges asserts that in our society war is pornography. He is unapologetic about the way that television images of war are fascinating and thrilling. Television news, in the interest of decency, shows war from such a distance that does not disgust us with its horrors, but instead titillates us with its power. Indeed, the sexual metaphor is the most fitting, as Hedges argues that the observance of modern warfare is almost always beautiful and erotic and violent, an indulgence in the lust of the eyes.

This very fact makes antiwar art conflicted. Even as they are put to use to attack war, images of war’s destructive power are perversely appealing. The enticing beauty of warfare is the reason that movies about war are so compelling, even if they are thematically opposed to violence. Hence, in their portrayal of warfare, antiwar films and documentaries contain within them the powerful seed of their opposite. As Hedges says, “The prurient fascination with violent death always overpowers the message.”

War engages the part of us that is self-destructive and destructive of others, and as we experience it, we come to depend upon it for relief. Hedges tells stories of both war correspondents and of soldiers who became addicted to war as if it were a drug. These people were often so changed by their experiences of war that they were unable to return to normal society and senselessly returned to areas of conflict. It is horrific how we can be intensely aware that war eats away at our humanity, but we continue to flirt with its release from the tedium of normalcy. “War is necrophilia,” Hedges claims.

Ultimately, Hedges seems to think that there is a component of the human being that is unable to turn away from the consideration of death. In The Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad calls this same desire "the fascination of the abomination." Again and again, humans look back toward the nothingness from where we came. Like the wife of Lot, we are unable to peal our eyes away from the spectacle of destruction.

The Contemporary Terror is Anonymity: Dissenting voices

2010-08-14T11:38:00.006-05:00

This is what we've been doing lately...

2010-08-09T22:15:00.001-05:00

The Great Contemporary Terror is Anonymity

2010-06-18T11:28:00.009-05:00

"But we no longer live in the modernist city, and our great fear is not submersion by the mass but isolation from the herd. Urbanization gave way to suburbanization, and with it the universal threat of loneliness. What technologies of transportation exacerbated -- we could live farther and farther apart -- technologies of communication redressed -- we could bring ourselves closer and closer together. Or at least, so we have imagined...But through the 70s and 80s, our isolation grew. Suburbs, sprawling ever farther, became exurbs. Families grew smaller or splintered apart, mothers left the home to work. The electronic hearth became the television in every room. Even in childhood, certainly in adolescence, we were each trapped inside our own cocoon...The child who grew up between the world wars as part of an extended family within a tight-knit urban community became the grandparent of a kid who sat alone in front of a big television, in a big house, on a big lot. We were lost in space.

"Under those circumstances, the Internet arrived as an incalculable blessing. We should never forget that. It has allowed isolated people to communicate with one another and marginalized people to find one another. The busy parent can stay in touch with far-flung friends. The gay teenager no longer has to feel like a freak. But as the Internet's dimensionality has grown, it has quickly become too much of a good thing. Ten years ago we were writing e-mail messages on desktop computers and transmitting them over dial-up connections. Now we are sending text messages on our cellphones, posting pictures on our Facebook pages, and following complete strangers on Twitter. A constant stream of mediated contact, virtual, notional, or simulated, keeps us wired in to the electronic hive -- though contact, or at least two-way contact, seems increasingly beside the point. The goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself into a sort of miniature celebrity. How many friends do I have on Facebook? How many people are reading my blog? How many Google hits does my name generate? Visibility secures our self-esteem, becoming a substitute, twice removed, for genuine connection. Not long ago, it was easy to feel lonely. Now, it is impossible to be alone."

"This is what the contemporary self wants. It wants to be recognized, wants to be connected: It wants to be visible. If not to the millions, on Survivor or Oprah, then to the hundreds, on Twitter or Facebook. This is the quality that validates us, this is how we become real to ourselves -- by being seen by others. The great contemporary terror is anonymity. If Lionel Trilling was right, if the property that grounded the self, in Romanticism, was sincerity, and in modernism it was authenticity, then in postmodernism it is visibility."

The End of Solitude, by William Deresiewicz

Bucket List

2010-05-31T22:07:00.002-05:00

Micah and I found out that it's possible to make t-shirts with spray paint. Hello, new activity of summer 2010.

Bork bork bork!

2010-05-04T17:18:00.000-05:00

Swedish Chef

As it turns out, it was just a clever ad for cigarettes.

2010-03-14T15:58:00.005-05:00

"According to Friendly, the journalist’s job is ‘to make the agony of decision-making so intense that you can only escape it by thinking.’ Given his view of the crucial role of the media within a functioning democracy, there was witness-bearing consistency in his decision to resign his position, in 1966, when network executives cancelled live broadcasts of testimony on the subject of Vietnam before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opting instead to air sitcom reruns.

Like Rod Serling, Friendly believed that television was an almost unimaginably powerful tool for positive social change, but it also had to potential to become nothing more than a hi-tech totem pole of mass hypnosis that could serve the ends of multinational corporations and the nation-states that serve them, with airtime handed over to whatever forces will pay the most to colonize brainspace.”

Dark, The Gospel According to America

Ken Ham takes aim at Calvin College

2010-03-05T15:26:00.004-06:00

Ken Ham, the president of Answers in Genesis, has recently directed several attacks at Calvin College for its teaching of theistic evolution. He has also singled out other Christian schools, such as Point Loma Nazarene, in San Diego, and the BioLogos Foundation, founded by Francis Collins, for similar perspectives on evolution. Ham slams these organizations as promoting heresy, all while asking for donations so he can build more plastic dinosaurs.

Send Students to Calvin College to Be Indoctrinated in Evolution

Compromising Professor Receives Accolades from Secular World

State of the Nation 2 Address

Here is a one response:

Ham uniformed, embarassing

Non-Answers Part 2

2010-02-28T23:16:00.002-06:00

Is There An Afterlife?

Non-Answers Part 1

2010-02-27T12:59:00.017-06:00

Questions My Son
Asked Me, Answers
I Never Gave Him

Nancy Willard

icantdotabs

1. Do Gorillas have birthdays?
Yes. Like the rainbow, they happen.
Like the air, they are not observed.

2. Do butterflies make a noise?
The wire in the butterfly's tongue
hums gold. Some men hear butterflies
even in winter.

3. Are they part of our family?
They forgot us, who forgot how to fly.

4. Who tied my navel? Did God tie it?
God made the thread: O man, live forever!
Man made the knot: enough is enough.

5. If I drop my tooth in the telephone
will it go through the wires and bite someone's ear?
I have seen earlobes pierced by a tooth of steel.
It loves what lasts.
It does not love flesh.
It leaves a ring of gold in the wound.

6. If I stand on my head
will the sleep in my eye roll up into my head?
Does the dream know its own father?
Can bread go back to the field of its birth?

7. Can I eat a star?
Yes, with the mouth of time
that enjoys everything.

8. Could we Xerox the moon?
This is the first commandment:
I am the moon, thy moon.
Thou shalt have no other moons before thee.

9. Who invented water?
The hands of the air, that wanted to wash each other.

10. What happens at the end of numbers?
I see three men running toward a field.
At the edge of the tall grass, they turn into light.

11. Do the years ever run out?
God said, I will break time's heart.
Time ran down like an old phonograph.
It lay flat as a carpet.
At rest on its threads, I am learning to fly.

What scares me about grad school

2010-02-12T08:21:00.009-06:00

The Big Lie about the 'Life of the Mind:' Graduate school in the humanities is a trap.

Chase's View on Valentines Day

2010-02-06T14:25:00.000-06:00

Valentine's Day: A Historical Approach

Yesterday at 5:59pm

As Valentine's Day rapidly approaches, I yet again find myself drowning in the misery of this ridiculous holiday. The main reason for my disdain is the fact that this day FORCES innocent people, such as myself, to come up with creative, romantic plans that are supposed to convey feelings of adoration to a significant other (or a random person if you're that bold). Those of you who are reading this and are feeling a sense of betrayal to your glorious holiday may be saying, "Why, Chase is just lazy and he doesn't want to get off his butt and do anything." To those people I cry, "That's NOT true!" (Much like Coach Gundy of Oklahoma State University) My reasoning, as stated before, is that this day forces males (emphasis on males) to be romantic, while most of us go out of our way to be romantic once in a while anyway. For example, let's say a man buys a dozen roses this Valentine's Day for his girlfriend. Is she not expecting this? Is there not a little hint of, "I totally saw this coming?" in her voice when she says thank you? Now let's look at another setting. It's a Thursday night, much like any other Thursday night, when she hears a soft tap, tap, tapping on her door. As she opens the door she is greeted by a warm hug and a dozen roses by that special man in her life. Now I ask, "Is she not seven million times more surprised AND pleased by these flowers than the ones she got on Valentine's Day?" All I'm trying to say is that Valentine's Day is sucking out the romantic surprises that are so few in the minds of men, not to mention the money out of our wallets.

And now on to a second complaint that I have about this atrocity that is ever apparent in our lives. Why is Valentine's Day basically an extra birthday for every woman in the world? Why is it the men who have to be creative and romantic Valentine's Day in and Day out? Why have us men allowed this activity to go on for so long? Well, I have an answer for you and to explain, I will be taking us back through the annals of history...

According to Wikipedia (my favorite, and most accurate, historical archive), Valentine's Day was established in 496AD, which means that men have been subjected to this female tyranny for about, well, let's just say forever. As we fast forward through time, we stumble upon a social phenomenon known as The Women's Rights movement (in America), which really got noticed in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, and finally achieved Women's Suffrage in 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment was put into action in the U.S. Constitution. By looking at this portion of our history, I realized that for the past ninety years, Valentine's Day (and its female disciples) has been forcing men all over America to break the law! By submitting to the norms set forth by the women in our lives, us men are completely ignoring the Nineteenth Amendment by not allowing women to have equal rights in the romantic creativity and planning that forms the foundation of Valentine's Day. Therefore I say let us stand up for Women's Rights and ban together and allow the women to plan this year's Valentine's Day and the next eighty-nine Valentine's Days to provide reparations for our insensitive acts over the past century! So I encourage you men who have stuck through this long-winded note to stay on that couch, play your video games, watch the Super Bowl, and mentally prepare for the Olympics while your women call for restaurant reservations, buy you a bacon bouquet, and clean your house out of the kindness and affection in their hearts!

Footnote: Do not be surprised if you see another note by me in the next week or so explaining how my life is going while I accept being single again, and most likely for the rest of my life.

Poppy

2009-12-13T16:39:00.001-06:00

I already found the medical marijuana debate hard to take seriously.

"Hand of Gaul"

2009-11-23T15:34:00.004-06:00

Thierry Henry has always been a favorite of mine. Very classy "footballer" who I always felt was exciting to watch, and supportable in that he was not a dirtbag. Then Arsenal traded him to the Spaniards in Barcelona, and he thusly dropped off the face of the Earth as far as America is concerned because the USA is too stupid to appreciate any team aside from Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and whoever is playing those three.
Lo and behold, yesterday I saw actual footage of a soccer game being played on CNN. The replay showed a "French soccer player" (according to the very female, American anchor) performing a blatant handball to set up a goal for France. Now the French are in the World Cup, and the Irish are out. This is quite the controversy in Europe, so I decided to check out the foreign news on it.
Great Scott! That's no mere Frenchman, that's Thierry Henry! By the beard of Zeus, the likes of Diego Maradona may resort to this sort of low-down skullduggery, but not my beloved Thierry...
Yet another reason to subscribe to satellite television.

Read the story

Updated Hunting Tally

2009-10-28T22:29:00.002-05:00

As most if not all of you know, I killed a 16 point buck on October 18, 2009. This is the latest in the body count of the 09'-10' season. This Saturday is opening weekend for ducks and geese so the kill count should begin to rise as we hopefully have a great year at Ackerman Outfitters.

Organa's Record is Exemplary

2009-10-05T12:38:00.006-05:00

Last week, Calvin's weekly student newspaper, The Chimes, filled up some whitespace with this facetious news brief:

Princess called to apologize for ‘hurtful’ comments
Leia Organa, candidate for Chief of State of the Rebel Alliance, came under fire Tuesday, once again accused of making “insensitive” and “elitist” comments.
Organa, formerly the princess of Alderaan, reportedly claimed that nerf herders were “stuck up,” “half-witted” and “scruffy-looking” in an offhand conversation with newly commissioned Rebel officer Capt. Han Solo.
“This just shows, once again, that Princess Leia is completely out of touch with the working classes,” said Taarek Bel’noor, president of the Fennessa Nerf Herding Council. “Her comments are especially hurtful, considering Alderaan was the birthplace of nerfs.”
This is the second major public relations snafu for Organa in the last week. On Sunday, the princess made an official visit to Kashyyyk and apologized to the Wookie ambassador for comparing his species to “walking carpet[s].”
According to the latest polls, Organa trails incumbent Mon Mothma by 14 percentage points.

In response, I wrote this letter to the editor. We'll see if it gets published.

Organa's Record Exemplary
I would like to express my deep displeasure at the underhanded mischaracterizations of Princess Leia Organa in last week's Chimes. In this time of galactic upheaval and uncertainty, Organa is providing the Rebellion with the visionary leadership that will bring liberty from the Empire's machinations. We all know the sacrifices that the Princess has made for the sake of her cause, giving up a life of privilege on Alderaan and her position as an Imperial Senator to fight in the trenches for the cause of freedom. In light of her track record, the Chimes' backhanded attack on the Princess is disgraceful in this time of crisis. Now is not the time to play petty semantic games, but to unite and work tirelessly for the overthrow of the Emperor's corrupt regime.

More Gang Violence

2009-10-05T10:04:00.001-05:00

http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=114730&provider=top

The Public Option Dies

2009-09-30T18:01:00.004-05:00

Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee voted not to include a public health care option in the health care reform bill that they will present to the full Senate.

From Slate:

As the liberal watchdog Media Matters pointed out, more Americans believe in the existence of UFOs (34 percent, according to a 2007 Associated Press poll) than oppose the public option (26 percent, according to a recent New York Times poll). Even among Republicans, opposition to the public option (42 percent) is outweighed by support (47 percent). Polls consistently find that the public option is more popular than health reform itself.

Sufjan Stevens

2009-09-27T20:06:00.004-05:00

I was able to attend a Sufjan Stevens show last night in Champaign. He played a bunch of his new stuff, which is really different than what he's put out before but also really, really good. Something to look forward to. Unfortunately I didn't record any of the new songs (they're all pretty long and you can find them on YouTube if you're interested) but I did record Casimir Pulaski Day. Enjoy.

Weeds in the Wheat

2009-09-25T12:53:00.011-05:00

I am stealing this from David Dark's blog. This is David Bazan, formerly of Pedro the Lion, singing "Weeds in the Wheat."

And here is an article about Bazan's music.
Long, but highly recommended.

Hunting Tally

2009-09-22T20:47:00.006-05:00

October 1 marks the true beginning of hunting season with the opener of Whitetail deer archery season. As fall progresses I will be giving updates of the current harvest of various game species. Stay tuned in as the body count rises.

Current counts

Blake : 1 16 pt. Whitetail Deer
1 Eastern wild turkey
4 Canada geese
11 Mourning doves

Dr. Tom: 1 Eastern wild turkey
4 Canada geese

B3: 1 Eastern wild turkey

Grishnov Krantz: 4-6 Mourning doves

Joe:

Tomtomtomtomtomtomtomtom:

Populist Reactionaries Descend on Washington with Sharpies and Screen Printers

2009-09-14T21:13:00.004-05:00

If you have watched the news at all in the past few days, you have surely seen numerous images of protesters at the National Mall in Washington, DC. You might recall that these protests were promoted by Glenn Beck on his popular evening show on Fox News, and in general expressed reactionary sentiments opposing the Obama Administration. Good. Yes, for the very fact that they were protesting, I commend them. One of the things I lament about the United States is that it has a weak tradition of spontaneous democratic demonstrations. It is a rarity in America to seen people demonstrating at all, in contrast to some European societies, where protest is a normal mechanism of the democratic process.

The multiplicity of political ideologies represented at the 9/12 protests was remarkable. From the borderline anarchists, to the radical libertarians ("Ayn Rand was right!"), to vaguely apocalyptic Christians ("Only God Can Save Us Now”), the protest represented a thorough cross section of the right half of American polity. A good many of the protesters had something approximately constructive to say. They were making an argument, and proposed some sort of solution, albeit in a polemical, bumper-sticker sort of way.

What was saddening, however, was the large proportion of signage at the protest that could be best described as “hate mongering.” The favored devices of this group were vulgarized Obama campaign portraits and malapropism of the political vernacular. For example, it seems that roughly half of the protesters believed Obama to be a socialist, while an equal proportion deemed him a fascist, despite the oppositional locations of these two ideologies on the political spectrum. I realize that this is confusing, especially since Mussolini began his career as a socialist journalist, and Hitler's party was poorly named the National Socialist German Worker's Party, but nonetheless, the use of fascism and socialism as interchangeable terminology is an indicator of the cheap populism drove many of these protesters to Washington and an ineloquent expression of the urgency of the current situation in the eyes of right wing radicals.

Overwhelmingly, the protesters identified Obama as unamerican, or foreign. Predictably, the media's use of the term "Czar" to refer to Obama's personal advisors has been a stumbling block for many in the Beck camp. It seems that some have believed this term to be referring to a new administrative post in the style of 19th century Russian absolute monarchy. Attempts to associate Obama with Muslim radicals ("ali Bama"), or to question his very nationality ("Where's the birth certificate?") were also widespread at the 9/12 protests. The strict Manichean divide between what is seen to be Good and Evil, Obama and “True America,” is frightening. True America is one that is capitalist, rural, white and patriarchal. It will rewrite history to prove its authenticity, and it will allow no middle ground in its struggle to protect an illusory status quo. This no-compromise attitude is what propelled the French Revolution into chaos and brought German crowds to a frenzy on the Night of Broken Glass. This line of thought is what should be making people nervous, not the moderate social democratic policies of the administration.

Early Goose Season

2009-09-08T21:34:00.006-05:00

This past Saturday I had the privilege of participating in the early Canada goose season. This season was started as a means to provide some form of control over the resident goose population. The term "resident goose" implies that the geese in question remain in Illinois or wherever else they are throughout the winter and do not migrate. This behavior change is caused by the abundance of food that can be found in Illinois mainly in the form of waste grain left in the fields from harvest along with the recent tendency towards mild winters in the Midwest. As long as there is some form of open water in addition to food nearby, geese will stay through the winter. This can lead to overpopulation problems along with habitat degradation in the areas where they are living.

So as I said, the early goose season was started to control this resident population of geese. The season runs from September 1 - 15 with the limit of geese being 5 per person per day and a total possession limit of 10. Originally the limit was 2, same as regular goose season, but that was not putting a big enough dent in the population so it was bumped to 5.

Anyways, last saturday my uncle Mike, his friend Dave, Dr. Tom, and myself set up a dozen decoys in a recently harvested oat field that had alfalfa growing in it and recently spread manure on it. My uncle had seen geese using the field and sure enough at 6:45 the first flock came in, landing just outside of the decoys. After deciding it was time to shoot something we opened up on them, dropping 3 or 4 out of that flock. After retreiving our birds we did not have to wait long before more flocks of geese started landing in the field. Another advantage of the early goose season is that the geese are dumber than a box of rocks. At one point there were 40-60 geese that had landed in the field and while we were shooting at others flying overhead, these geese just sat there and watched their kin fall from the sky without even a honk of concern. Being as most of these geese were just hatched this spring, once we would shoot a few out of a flock, all we had to do was make a few come back calls and the geese would turn around and fly back over us to be shot at again.

At the end of the morning we finished out with 17 geese for the freezer, we should have limited out completly but we were a little rusty from last season. All in all it was a fantastic hunt and I feel blessed that I have these opportunities in life.

Suck it PETA.

22:51

2009-09-08T12:13:00.001-05:00

"But Jesus said, 'No more of this!' And he touched his ear and healed him." ~Luke 22:51

The incident of Peter slicing off the high priest's servant's ear is mentioned in all four gospels.

Presumably, the authors of the gospels thought that Jesus' right hand man taking a swipe at someone's head with a sword was an event unusual enough to mention.

However, Jesus healing the man who came to take him to his death is mentioned only by Luke, the author noted for his attention to minute detail.

Could it be that the authors of the gospels saw this as so commonplace, so in line with the character of our Christ that it wasn't seen as worth noting?

It's as if Matthew, Mark, and John collectively think: "Of course the Lord healed him. Of course he reattaches the ear of his enemy in front of the mob sent to arrest him. Of course he loved and had compassion on this servant of the high priest...what was his name again? He even loved the high priest's servant. He even loved the man standing with his betrayer. He even loved this Malchus. Of course he healed him! Don't you know Jesus?"

"Duh."

A moment so enormously "small" it had to be picked up and placed down in history by Luke.

Do you know this Jesus?

Bill Moyers on Healthcare Reform

2009-09-02T13:41:00.006-05:00

Moyers with some wise words about this year's attempts at reform. I think his truly important point is that the Democratic Party has become subject to corporate power to the same degree as the Republican Party. The real problem is the acceptance of the profit motive as a paradaigm for all decision making in this country.

Bicycle riding.

2009-08-31T21:29:00.001-05:00

A few people here in Illinois have joined me in my love for bicycle riding. Recently I've been hearing a lot of stories from my friends in Indiana about them getting hit or yelled at or even hitting pedestrians. In order for all of us to be a little bit safer, here's a link to the Illinois bicycle laws. Please read these. And please wear a helmet.

And if you're wondering, that's almost my bicycle. I bought mine used so I'm not sure the exact make and model but by looks, that's pretty close (except mine's black with yellow writing and the writing's a bit different, too).

I think this is cool!

2009-08-30T17:16:00.001-05:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1209726/Single-molecule-million-times-smaller-grain-sand-pictured-time.html

Relational Parents

2009-08-29T11:13:00.024-05:00

Last weekend I went on a bike ride with a few friends. After peddling for awhile in our commuter community, I gazed down at the semi-solid petroleum (asphalt) that had been laid beneath me, thanks largely to trade union workers. To this very day, these men and women still band together because of the hard work of Samuel Gompers. Continued peddling lead me to think only more about the amusing history of the American Federation of Labor, Jon Knowles, and the subsequent spawning of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

During a mid-bike-back-porch sit, a motion was made to snag some ingredients and make dinner. After gathering our foodstuffs from Morton's infamous Wal-Mart, we cruised back to the unincorporated municipality known as Groveland. While my friends (Micah & Kim) went into la cocina, I went out onto the back deck to shuck some corn. I also attempted to help the others grill some turkey burgers, which only lead to internally conflicting questions on contingency (as it relates to the industrial revolution and of course the more obvious implicated parties: principally domesticated animals). After about an hour of preparation, the meal was ready! As I sat in my chair, I warmly received good conversations and inside jokes that made me giggle. Joy!

In short, my experiences that day were great, however, I doubt I would have written any of this down had it not been for the timely conversation that I had with one of my friend's mom, which involved a considerable amount of venting about my upbringing, homeschooling, and the Peoria Fencing Academy.

She put me through the gamut of standard questions about my goals, aspirations, job situation, etc., but thankfully the conversation took a more serious and less general turn. I was quickly engaged with real dialogue that, to me, seemed much more meaningful and this was refreshing. I could tell that she wanted to hear my story and entered into it with unashamed sincerity. She gave me advice, and for a change, I actually listened because I experienced a joy that enabled me to reciprocate her action towards me. (How meaningful it truly is to have another human explore and join with us in our struggles.)

Even though this process is not always perfect and humans do not always understand or know how to relate to others, the welcoming effort was such a blessing.

Thank you, Rosy Larson, for welcoming me into substantive conversation and a Christianity that resonates with the biblical narrative.

Forgive & Forget?

2009-08-25T20:52:00.001-05:00

Interesting.

The Beatific Vision in Sunshine

2009-08-15T16:34:00.007-05:00

This week I watched the movie Sunshine, a science fiction film in which the sun is slowly dying and, consequently, the earth is cooling down. To save all life on earth, humanity sends a spaceship toward the sun with a massive payload of “all the fissile material left on the planet” in order to jump start the sun. As the crew of the ship, aptly christened Icarus, approaches the sun, some members of the ship's crew become entranced with the giant ball of fire lies directly ahead of them. The Icarus's doctor spends his off-hours staring into the sun on the observation deck, mesmerized with its beauty and power. He keeps lowering the polarization on the filter through which he has to look, increasing the intensity of the sun's rays to the point that he risks permanent eye damage.

The culmination of the film's consideration of the sun's immense beauty (before the movie descended into the lower genre of space-horror) came as two crew members were spacewalking outside of the ship to repair its heat shield. At a critical point in the repairs, Icarus has to turn it shield back toward the sun to avoid damage, threatening to expose the crew outside the ship to the direct rays of the sun. While one of the crew escapes and returns to safety behind the ship's heat shield, the ship's captain stays in an attempt to complete the repairs. When the captain completes his work, he has the option of turning back toward the heat shield and making a dash to safety. But he does not retreat. Instead, he turns toward the sun and stares into its dawning light. There he stays, mesmerized by the sheer intensity of the sun's unmediated brilliance. As the captain begins to be consumed by the sun's rays, the ship's doctor screams through the radio, “What do you see, Captain, what do you see?”

It is written that the Lord our God is a consuming fire. No one can see him and live. At the same time, he exists as beauty itself. Therein lies a paradox. To look upon God is to die, but it is also to see his beauty directly. There is something in all of us that longs for this Beatific Vision, but we know that we cannot experience it and live. Bonaventure responds to this paradox in his Journey of the Mind to God. In this short book, Bonaventure takes his readers on an ascension toward God, up seven steps to God himself. Here is the final passage of the book, inspired by Exodus 33, as the reader completes the final steps of his journey to God. He speaks of the consuming fire:

This fire is God, and the furnace of this fire leadeth to Jerusalem; and Christ the man kindles it in the fervor of His burning Passion, which he alone truly perceives, who says, "My soul rather chooseth hanging and my bones death". He who chooses this death can see God because this is indubitably true: "Man shall not see me and live".

Let us then die and pass over into darkness; let us impose silence on cares, concupiscence, and phantasms; let us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the Father, so that when the Father is shown to us we may say with Philip, "It is enough for us"; let us hear with Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee"; let us exult with David, saying, "For Thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away; Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever. . . . Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting; and let all the people say: So be it, so be it". AMEN.

It is a beautiful thing to be consumed.

Thank you Justin.

2009-07-27T13:27:00.002-05:00

An Evangelical Who Doesn’t Like Sarah Palin

by Jim Wallis 07-27-2009

I was doing a workout anyway, so I decided to watch Sarah Palin’s farewell address while pumping away on the elliptical machine. The first thing I heard was CNN’s senior political correspondent Candy Crowley say that “evangelicals” just love Sarah Palin, even though most other groups (even her own Republicans) have steadily soured on the now-former Governor of Alaska. Crowley is a good political analyst who normally has intelligent things to say; but I am tired of the stereotype.

There are a lot of evangelicals, like me (and especially younger evangelicals), who are just embarrassed by Sarah Palin.

The speech was vintage Palin—absolutely awful. After some frenzied patriotism, that the United States was the BESTGREATESTEVER country in the history of the world, and that those who have any questions about any of that are just, you know, the absolutely wrong kind of people, she went on to an endless extolling of OUR MILITARY. Now, I feel a lot of pain and respect for the kids who have been put in harm’s way by the stupid decisions of the last administration, and are still there trying to fight their way out of their leader’s mistakes, but again, blind allegiance to the military and all their wars has not been one of our best national characteristics.

Then she talked about how bad the government always is, in everything, and that HOLLYWOOD STARLETS want to come up to Alaska to take OUR GUNS. So she wanted to remind America that support for the Second Amendment to bear arms comes from a deep northern tradition of WE EAT SO WE HUNT.

And finally, she got into some theology, which I guess is what Candy Crowley thinks warms evangelical hearts. She spoke of “God’s grace helping those who help themselves.” And once again, the vice-presidential candidate who continually startled Americans with an amazing lack of intellectual grasp on so many issues showed that she is also biblically illiterate. God’s “grace” is for “those who help themselves?” I wonder where Sarah thinks that text is found in the Bible. Actually, Sarah, the special love of God seems to be for those who have the hardest time helping themselves—hence they need some help from those of us who can help ourselves. In Sarah’s version of Mathew 25 it must say, “As you have done to those who can best help themselves, you have done to me.”

So from Sarah Palin today, I heard rampant super-patriotism, an uncritical support for everything military, a scurrilous attack on any notion of how government might serve the common good, an effusive defense of guns, and a completely backwards biblical theology of the haves and have-nots. So why, as an evangelical Christian, am I supposed to like her?

When I listen to Sarah Palin, I go back and forth between thinking this person is just not smart enough to be president (and our recent experience of that has been scary enough) to thinking that she is indeed smart enough to be a very effective demagogue — stoking the fears and myths of the American people to build a frightening political future. Either way, I hope she stays retired from politics. So here is one big evangelical dissent from those who reportedly like Sarah Palin. She makes me wince, grimace, roll my eyes, and even worry a little about the future.

http://blog.sojo.net/2009/07/27/an-evangelical-who-doesn%E2%80%99t-like-sarah-palin/

I'd really like to help the poor, but...

2009-07-23T19:49:00.002-05:00

I recently heard another Christian making a statement about government policy towards the poor that began with “I'd really like to help the poor,” but abruptly terminated with a qualification that brushed away any real obligation to provide assistance for the poor. It struck me that I have heard the words “I'd really like to help the poor” come from the mouths of Christians many times before, but almost always that phrase prefaces a rant about people taking advantage of the government, perverse economic incentives, the destruction of the family, etc. I have rarely heard many Christians start a sentence with “I'd like to help the poor” and have anything constructive to say after it. Therefore, I would like to challenge a few of the arguments that Christians often use to assuage our buring consciences in regard to the poor, especially those that deal with the role of the government.

1. I only want to help those who deserve to be helped, not those who exploit the system.

This statement presupposes an erroneous distinction between so-called “deserving poor” and those who, for one reason or another, should not be helped. The general definition for the undeserving poor is those who sit at home and watch TV while drawing support from welfare programs. And, granted, there are those who do take advantage of the system. (Although I think their numbers are probably very low compared to those of single mothers working two jobs and trying to raise fatherless children.) However, there is no biblical grounds for letting some “undeserving” poor live in squalor while the “deserving” poor are helped. This idea seems more akin to Social Darwinism, or Benthamite utilitarian social theory, or some perversion of the Puritan work ethic than to a Christian conception of grace. The Bible demands that we help all the poor, without an expectation of a response on their part. Grace does not, thankfully, differentiate between those who deserve it and those who do not.

2. The government should not help poor people, Christians should do it themselves.

This argument is, first of all, impractical. We know very well that Christians do not have the will to help the poor as much as they should, to begin with, and we also know that Christians do not have the resources, or the centralized authority, to effectively fight poverty. Secondly, it ignores the fact that the government is an agent of God, deputized to carry out his will. Paul calls the government God's servant in Romans 13. So it is not somehow “secular” or “non-Christian” for the government to work toward Christian social goals. That is, in fact, what the government is there for.

Objections to the expanded role of the government usually come from a libertarian impulse, very strong in America, that stems from the Enlightenment obsession with individualism and liberty, or from a strong suspicion of government that comes from Anabaptist tradition. The kind of freedom that libertarians advocate is one that must be rejected by Christians, who know that freedom does not come from a mere absence of coercion from outside sources. Christian freedom is direction and purpose and a correct ordering of our desires. And the Anabaptist suspicion of government, while at times valuable in defeating Constantinian alliances between Church and State, can overlook the possibility that government, like the rest of Creation, must be redeemed and utilized by Christians.

There is much more that could be said, but I think I have stirred enough controversy already. There are very many people who will not agree with anything that I wrote here, but I think we must think hard about the kinds of ideas that Christians have bought into when it comes to social policy. Do they come from scripture and an ardent and honest desire to help the poor, or from myths that superficially jive with Christian culture, but do nothing to bring about the social goals of the God who “has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly...filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty”?

E.I.

2009-07-19T13:15:00.001-05:00

I think a prerequisite for any "application" portion of a Sunday school lesson should be actual applicability and spiritual practicality. Somewhat horizontally-related, yet trivial, activities don't make the cut. Just food for thought. Oh, and my "EQ" is 70.

¡gracias!

2009-07-14T17:19:00.004-05:00

Thanks for this invitation. It means so much, really it does. In short, I hope that my input will be helpful and satisfactory to all.

Recent Music Discoveries

2009-06-29T23:14:00.016-05:00

I'm always on the prowl for new music. Sometimes I go on a "discovery binge" and download four or five albums/bands at a time. I would say 54% of the material is basically junk, but I really can't support that percentage because I never entirely listen to everything I download. Many songs get lost in the mix and somehow never get played in my itunes. Alas, I seem to find some really great stuff. Some of it is referred to me from people here and there and I much appreciate it, even though inside I wish I had discovered it myself. Well, in no particular order, here are some recent findings/new material that have come my way.

The Tallest Man on Earth - I Won't Be Found
Tarkio - Weight Of The World
Gomez - Airstream Driver
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
We Are Scientists - After Hours
Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band - Nikorette
Annuals - Springtime
Frightened Rabbit - Keep Yourself Warm
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Bon Iver - Blood Bank
Griffin House - Better Than Love
Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
Feist + Ben Gibbard - Train Song
Great Lake Swimmers - Your Rocky Spine
Iron & Wine - Belated Promise Ring
Matt And Kim - Daylight
The Mountain Goats - San Bernardino
Razorlight - Wire To Wire
Seabear - I Sing I Swim
Shearwater - Rooks
Sunset Rubdown - The Mending Of The Gown
Jon Knowles - Horatio Hornblower

Old Prejudices Resurface

2009-05-16T14:19:00.005-05:00

A recent study found that 24.6 percent of Americans attrubite a moderate amount of blame to the Jews for causing the economic crisis. Anit-semitism has flared up again and again in tough times throughout history, and especially in cicumstances that are hard to understand.

Meatatarian

2009-04-13T22:15:00.003-05:00

Due to Kim's recent irresponsible and irrational life choice of becoming a vegetarian, I will double my efforts as a meatatarian and consume two animals for every plant that she eats. I will also continue to eat candy on a regular basis to offset any healthy activity that I have done in the past 24 hours. Also, I would like to begin marketing a restaurant idea that some of my compatriots at school and I have come up with. Yes, it's the endangered species restaurant because hey, some of these animals won't be around very long so you better get em while they are hot! As a bonus, if you are the lucky customer who eats the last individual of any species gets a dessert for free!

Meat, it's whats for dinner

Vegetarian.

2009-04-12T14:40:00.002-05:00

This is it, kiddos. I am going vegetarian. Here's the thing... I've been pretty close to calling it quits with meat for a while now but have never really had a problem with it so I never did. This gave me the option of consuming poultry whenever I felt like it (which was only once every week or so). I have no problem with animal hunting or anything of that nature. I do not support PETA. I don't care if my friends choose to eat meat. I physically feel a lot better not eating meat and it forces me to choose healthier options. That's it. What pushed me over the edge was my cousin's kid puking up chicken at Easter brunch today. Something about that... ew. So here I am. I fully well know that it's not going to be easy but (like everything else in life) the best things require work. Here's to vegetables!

What Groups Discuss

2009-04-10T15:26:00.005-05:00

A new study shows what we all know to be true: groups talk about redundant information. The study determined that groups spend most of their time discussing information that is already known by all members, and that they are unlikely to transmit information that is unique to only a few members. This explains why every bonfire we have turns into an hour long Seinfeld quoting session.

Cuba Libre!

2009-04-03T17:05:00.002-05:00

The President is lifting a travelling ban that has restricted travel to Cuba since the early sixties. This is an encouraging step. America's sanctions against Cuba don't really make any sense in a post-Cold War world. Hopefully the trade embargo will be rescinded sometime in this administration.

What Would Jesus Deconstruct?

2009-04-02T18:16:00.006-05:00

Many Christians seem to view postmodern thought as a serious threat to the church, because of its challenges to truth claims. However, this simplistic dismissal misses much of value in the postmodern intellectual movement. There are many things the church can learn from postmodern thought, and many opportunities produced by an acceptance of a plurality of points of view. Our generation's rejection of the Enlightenment worldview has created possibilities for Christian perspectives to be taken seriously in intellectual dialogue. Postmodernism has also produced a healthy criticism of modernity's materialism and scientific worldview. This line of thinking has come to enrich Christian theology as well, notably in the Radical Orthodox theological movement.

If you are interested in postmodern thought or contemporary literary theory, perhaps you would be interested in this recent book:

What Would Jesus Deconstruct: The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church

New Member

2009-03-30T15:49:00.002-05:00

Hello blog followers,
I am Blake, one of the two new contributors to the Just words blog. I have no previous blogging experience and cant promise to be all that diligent in my posting responsibilities.

The types of subject that you can expect from me will probably center around the outdoor world such as hunting, fishing, and animal rights (or lack thereof). I also may offer a view or two from inside a fraternity for those of you who are not affiliated with the Greek system.

On a final note I ask that those who read comment on how they would correctly spell NAZI. This question is due to a bet that Matt and I had with Dr. T and he thinks that it is spell NATZI. Yes I realize that he is crazy but he owes Matt and I $20 apiece and it is imperative that he is defeated.

Oh and for the record, the spell check marked NATZI as incorrect.

Summer Reading List

2009-03-29T21:25:00.006-05:00

I offer my humble apologies to my dedicated readers for an unexpected six-month hiatus from the blogging world. I have been very busy raising capital for a new silver mine in Peru.

So I thought I would start back up again by telling you what books I would really like to read this summer.

1. 1848: Year of Revolution - A new look at the events of 1848, a year in which almost every major nation in Europe experienced a revolution of some sort.

2. Introducing Radical Orthodoxy - An accessible overview of the new Radical Orthodox theological movement, written by Calvin Professor of Philosophy James Smith.

3. Paris, 1919: Six Months that Changed the World - An account of the Versailles conference that followed the First World War and failed to secure a lasting peace for Europe.

4. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World - Niall Ferguson explores what no one understands and everyone depends on: money and banking.

5. The Trial - Just because I haven't read very much Franz Kafka.

Comments? Suggestions?

The News of America

2009-01-20T17:51:00.003-06:00

I was just checking Google news and these are two of the three stories listed under U.S.:

1. Michelle Obama picks yellow for inauguration dress - Michelle Obama, hailed by many as America's new style icon, officially took her place on the world stage on Tuesday wearing an outfit in the nontraditional color of yellow and set fashionistas atwitter.
2. First daughters Malia and Sasha Obama stand by their brand, J. Crew - For the past two days, the girls have worn head-to-toe outfits from Crewcuts, the kids line from J. Crew that boasts "designer details" and couture touches on its mini-me separates.

Yikes, America.

Fictitious Books

2008-12-04T01:38:00.003-06:00

My friend and fellow blogger Jon and I are fictitiously planning on starting a publishing company after we graduate. As I was thinking of potential book titles, I also began to think about my responsibilities as a blogger and the various ways that I've failed you, my respected, infinitely precious, audience. And so I present to you this list of fictitious books:

Predestined for Success: The Jon Knowles Story
Breadth First Search: A Brief Survey of the Goals, Aspirations, and Ideas of M. Sergey
Elbows: An Owner's Manual
Q? U! Breaking An Unqaestioned Orthodoxy
The Sticky History of Wallpaper: Stripping Away the Myths of America's Favorite Decor
An Idiot's Guide to Inconsistencies in Class Definitions of the Principia Mathematica
September's Shards
What Are They Saying About Venn Diagrams?
Clementines vs. Tangerines: Five Views
Venn Diagrams? Two non-overlapping Views and One View that Does Overlap with the First But Only a Little Bit
Humans?
Precision in Physics Computation: Between Zero and Four Views
Questioning the Utility of Debate in Discourse: One View
Vwls: r Thy Stll Ndd?
F you, Focault! Narratives of a Highway Construction-Worker Living in an Age of Deconstruction
Daddy, Why Do I Compute Mommy's Area Differently Than Yours? -- Raising Kids in a Hetero-Polygonal Marriage
Solving Loneliness For Illiterates
I Miss You Jerry!
Making Sense: Is It Over-Rated? Cucumber Views
Sounds of Hummus Hitting A Wall -- The Official Bjork Biography
Robots!
Am I Really Missed? -- Jerry Responds
Should Totalitarian Governments Allow Writers To Publish Dissenting Views? One View
I Fold - How A Paper Crane Became the World's Leading Poker Player
Song in the Key of Ewok
Tall, Bearded or The Sound and the Curry -- A Than'lography
I Ching -- From Cash-Register to Fortune Teller
Wanted: Nunchucks

Note: I figured italicizing all the titles would make them difficult to read, so lay off all you grammar/punctuation snobs!

Can anyone think of any more?

Music

2008-10-05T13:38:00.002-05:00

Check out Daytrotter. They've been featuring some real good tunes lately. Notably: These United States and Lake.

In other news, Tagge just dropped part of a cinnamon shot on my MacBook keyboard. I'm about to go take his PC outside and dropkick it. Then we can call it even.

The Changing Face of Evangelicals

2008-08-12T19:54:00.003-05:00

Here is an interesting post by Joel Carpenter, a church historian, on the changing demographics of evangelicals as a result of immigration. Will we soon see the disintegration of the Religious Right in American politics? I think so.

Why Pete is an Atheist

2008-08-03T20:50:00.000-05:00

I work with a master bulldozer operator named Pete. He is probably about sixty-five years old, and he has had more interesting experiences than anyone I have met, ranging from countless jobs all over the United States to meeting French President Charles De Gaulle. Pete and I often have discussions while we are working, and during one of these I learned that he is an atheist. I picked out three particular arguments from his explanation of his (dis) beliefs that demand the attention of Christians if we want to relate to people like Pete.

The first and most powerful argument that Pete used to explain his atheism is the existence of evil in the world. Pete's wide range of experiences have shown him many glimpses of the horrible things that happen to human beings. “When you go to a children's hospital,” he explained, “and see all those disfigured limbs and diseases, and the looks on their faces—no, there's nothing. You die, and that's it.” Here Pete is giving voice to the classic theological problem of evil, that is, that an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God can permit evil to exist. As Christians, we need to be sympathetic to people like Pete and acknowledge that we haven't solved the problem of evil instead of acting like it isn't a problem.

Pete's second reason for his atheism is his disillusionment with the institutional church, particularly the Catholic Church. “God said, 'Make no monument in my name,'” Pete told me, “but these people build great big buildings with statues inside, and burning candles...That's all nothing, theres more religion in that tree over there than in all those buildings” Here I am in wholehearted agreement with Pete. Often the church has become so obsessed with itself that it forgets to follow God, and in doing so it alienates and confuses unbelievers. Have we invented a gospel that places the Church above the Kingdom?

Lastly, Pete has perceived the lamentable and unnecessary gap between science and faith. He seems to think that both the scientific method and the theory of evolution are in direct conflict with Christian theology. Again, here I highly sympathize with Pete. Christians have gone out of their way to portray science as irreconcilable with the Bible. Instead, they should be thoughtfully trying to match up natural revelation with special revelation. Perhaps people like Pete would respect Christians if they didn't always seem to be on a crusade against higher learning.

So those are the lines of reasoning that Pete uses to justify his atheism. The problem of evil, anger at the institutional church, and questions about science are probably among some of the most common barriers that keep people from God (Christianity's claim to exclusive truth might be another). We would benefit from a more open and honest dialogue on these issues.

Science and Religion

2008-07-30T19:00:00.002-05:00

Check out this audio feed of a lecture by Alvin Plantinga on the subject of "Science and Religion: Why Does the Debate Continue?" It is fairly lengthly, but fantastic throughout, especially the solipsist jokes at the beginning.

First Thoughts on Final Things

2008-07-15T19:28:00.002-05:00

I find it interesting that there seem to be two extremes in the way different churches think about the end times. On one hand, there are those Christians who obsess over eschatology. They try to systematize the various prophetic passages of the bible into a very complex and rigid framework for the end times. Some also feel the need to lend a hand in making these projections come to pass through political means, while others become downright neglectful of the work that needs to be done in our time. This end times mania can be almost gnostic in its disregard of the present.

On the other hand, there are those Christians who react to the former position by ignoring eschatology completely. Some dismiss eschatological discussions as mere speculation and trivial distractions from the work at hand. At different times, I have found myself in both of these camps. But I think that there must be balance between them. While its true that we need to be bringing God's kingdom to the earth in the present, I think Christians are aided in this task by actively hoping for good things to come.

In reading the Bible, one cannot avoid the conclusion that hope for the future was constantly on the minds of its authors. Remember how Paul talks of the hope of Christ's return and our resurrection in almost all his letters. And think of Jesus' frequent teachings and parables about the future, both concerning his return and the coming day of judgment. And obviously more specific attention is given to the last things in both the book of Revelation and in those obscure minor prophets hiding in the middle of the bible.

So what benefits can be draw from all this “enduring hope" and being “well prepared?" Here's a few thoughts. First, perhaps this forward thinking keeps us from getting tied down here on earth, keeps us “strangers and pilgrims” who are “looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland." Hopefully this kind of thinking will lead us to “store [our] treasures in heaven.” This does not mean that we should withdraw from the world and leave it to destruction, but it means that we shouldn't let our roots go too deep here.

Secondly, having hope for the future gives us plenty of work to get involved in. After all, the master could return at any moment, and we must be ready to show him how we have stewarded the resources he has given us. I think this knowledge of coming accountability can motivate us to take care of the world, be smart with our money, and share our truth with others.

Thirdly, Christ's return offers the only solution to humanity's problem with evil. Up until now, all creation has been groaning under the curse, and we too should join in ardently praying from relief from our deliverer. Amen, come Lord Jesus.

A Fresh Face

2008-07-15T18:41:00.003-05:00

Greetings readers,

I'm happy to be joining Micah and Kim in this great Blogging endeavor. Hopefully I can contribute a little here and there when I find the time. Mostly, I'm not really sure what I will write about, but I'm guessing that it will be in the realms of theology, economics, government, and anything else interesting that I can't keep to myself.

For starters, take a look at an interesting interview with the great Alvin Plantinga after he spoke at Calvin College.

And I would also like to publicly petition Micah for more interesting artwork.

Coffee Table

2008-05-09T16:09:00.001-05:00

One of the best things I've seen in a long time...

Salvation Mountain

2008-05-08T16:22:00.004-05:00

When I was watching Into the Wild (excellent movie) I couldn't help but wonder if the "Salvation Mountain" in it really existed. After countless hours of research, I found this completely inspiring short documentary on it. This is worship, evangelism, outsider art, and old age at its best!

( What's that? You don't feel like wasting your time with a random youtube clip? Don't give me that! I guarantee this will be worth your time! )

S Mt. homepage and Wikipedia.

And it's been a while....

2008-04-26T14:54:00.012-05:00

So, sorry that I haven't updated in so long. The looming beast of school work has me paralyzed! But, in a mad effort at escape, I drew this cool little butterfly guy yesterday. I'm still figuring out how my pens work, so there is a splotch on his shoulder.

(Here the author ponders entering into an elitist rant about the joys and superiorities of the Moleskine, but then decides not to bring up such things.)

A major thing I have gained over the past two semesters is this recipe for guaranteed happiness: magic markers. Seriously, has anyone else discovered this? Nothing expresses that staple ironic naivety like a nice pastel colored marker! And no experience provides such easy access to a place of creative freedom and innocence as that of finding yourself surrounded in a foliage of markers, with one in your hand, two in your mouth, and the ink from all the others covering your fingers. And so, should anyone else be confronted by the Grendels that rise up from end-of-school stress, I suggest you unsheathe the swords of swords: the marker.

Anywho, if you want to see way better drawings (as well as an unbeatable source of artistic inspiration), you should check out this excellent Moleskine blog. Good luck to y'all in the upcoming weeks!

A Song For You

2008-03-08T19:12:00.009-06:00

Kim told me I had to post soon, so I decided to make a series of short electronic/instrumental songs. A couple hours later, I began to remember how hard this is to do, so I stopped at one. The theme is the care-free joy one experiences on spring break (and particularly that last day of school):

(The melody was made in (the awesome) Milkytracker, random sounds over top are from Freesound and were overlayed with Audacity. You can download the song as an mp3 here.)

Trinitarian Prayer

2008-03-02T14:04:00.003-06:00

Eberhard Jungel is one of the greatest living theologians, continuing off the theology of Karl Barth. I recently found (via Chrisendom) this excellent collection of Trinitarian prayers, in which Jungel laments the existential irrelevance the doctrine of the trinity has for the church today. Suggesting a way this can be overcome, he provides ten prayers that separately address each person of the trinity.

*snip:*

Lord God, heavenly Father,
Even when we cannot see it, you rule the world. Give us strength and courage to trust your rule rather than human rule.

Lord Jesus Christ, Song of God and friend of humans,
You have experienced the death to which we sent you; you have known the hell that we made for ourselves. But you have broken the power of death and hell so that you can be with us every day until the end of the age.

We praise you along with the Father in heaven, and we ask now for your Holy Spirit.
As we silently bring before our heavenly Father those things that concern us most, we pray especially for the freedom of those Christians who are oppressed and impeded in totalitarian states. Do no come to us, Holy Spirit, without coming also to them with comfort and with strength. AMEN

Happy Leap Year!

2008-02-29T00:21:00.002-06:00

Welcome to February 29, 2008. Here are some fun leap year/calendar facts that you can use to impress all your friends...

Every year that is divisible by four is a leap year; of those years, if it can be divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless the year is divisible by 400. Then it's a leap year.
The Gregorian calendar has a 400 year cycle until it repeats the same weekdays for every year.
The Gregorian calendar has 97 leap years during those 400 years.
The longest time between two leap years is eight years. The last time that occurred was between 1896 and 1904. The next time will be between 2096 and 2104.
Ja Rule was born on February 29, 1976.
The calendar year and the solar year are just about a half minute off. At that rate, it takes 3,300 years for the calendar year and the solar year to diverge by a day.

UGGly.

2008-02-26T23:14:00.002-06:00

Driving home on Monday night (thinking in my head)...

"I'm going to have to see so many girls wearing Ugg boots tomorrow. I hate snow."

Sinking My Teeth In (or: baby micah's first bite)

2008-02-25T00:23:00.014-06:00

Oh, why howdy partnerinos! I'm Micah Sergey, the new blagger in these here parts. Being far from an unprofitable servant, I hope to enstate the following:

Monster drawings (see: above)
Kick-butt Bulleted Lists
Theologicalish postings
Your Mom jokes
Graphs
Graphs of your mom!
Self-referential conclusions

Now, two blaggers you say? What could become of that? And there, I reckon, lies quite the quagmire: where as blags usually have some continuin' thematic stream--or brook as I might say--there is the danger that this here brook might become no brook at all, but instead a flea market of hootchie cootchie ideas parading around like fireflies--not even trying to get along. Well, things may be rough at first: ideas may be dropped, picked up, and dropped again; series may be started and forgot; comments may be misplaced; and html tags may start interminglin' with each others. But if my bones ain't deceiving, and they most likely ain't, people from all over, with obscure IP'z--some only three numbers--will start to request our RSSs; parents will gather'n their young'n around the warm glow of the Minima theme; and there will be whispers all across the lands that are barely audible but loudly perceivable, and they will say: "What insight, what creativity, and what frequent posting is to be found on Just words, the greatest blag of them all!"

And so, my friends, the water starts to rise... The brook begins to boil...