wiggum couldn't catch cooties at milhouse's birthday party
Courtesy of Kevin I again have the proper software to mess with images and whatnot, so I created the above title bar. It probably won't take me long to get sick of Photoshop again but for now it is greatly amusing me. Much more than the incompetent teammates battle.net has seen fit to give me lately.
Today I went disc golfing with my pastor in Santa Cruz. T'was a pleasure, I haven't been in a while. He even bought a few used discs. Jesse will be most pleased. We sort of incorporated a meeting into our trip. Paul talked to me about starting to consider/pray about starting a new church service on Sunday nights in 9 months to a year. I am pretty excited at the prospect - he wants it to be different from Crossroads, with a different name etc, and we would almost get it going as a new church plant. It would maybe even be a church-within-a-church thing. I asked Paul if he would mind if I focused it on high-school students and he said not at all. Obviously we'd have to seek God's will on this thing - it's been something on my mind for a while though. From the time we moved into the new building I've been thinking about what it would be like to start up a new totally different service. Then I felt the drive to go to an eight-hour seminar at the National Youth Workers Convention on starting new church services for emerging generations. That workshop got me really thinking and really excited...so it's in the formative stages but I'm fairly excited about what the future holds.
Can you believe there's a Simpsons episode on that I haven't seen before? Homer's starting a private police force called Springshield. Pretty promising, hehe.
10.30.2002
10.29.2002
what you think is yours you need to let go
Came across an interesting blog today. It appears to be maintained by a homeless guy via public libraries. It also looks like he may have some kind of publicity since the picture he uses of himself is one from USA Today. He is clearly a smart guy, at the least he writes well and is well read. I wonder what would keep him on the street. My first response is that he wants to be there on some level; he's got to have the ways to get up on his financial feet if he wants, right? Mayhap he likes the identity of "the homeless guy" and doesn't want to give it up and have a house. Or maybe he does have a house, and he's a bored Oklahoman housewife laughing at the meager social consciences he briefly illuminates in his blog.
My brother's band is finishing up their recording this week, this very day actually. I'm surprised at how excited I am to hear the tracks after they've been mastered or whatever it is you do to newly recorded music. They really are talented guys. I just wish that they could see God. They are such an awesome group of guys, they would be that much more awesome if they wrote songs for The Man Upstairs. But until then I'll enjoy hanging with 'em at practice, going to the shows I can, and being there when they get those spiritual wild hairs.
Progress is being made regarding my job with the school district. The next person I have to talk to is out of town until next Tuesday, so I must continue to wait. The lady I'm in contact with told me it's okay that I have to wait because they don't have any students for me to home teach right now anyway. Which gave me pause - I thought they had all the work I could handle and then some? I'm getting a job where I'll go to students' houses when they hurt themselves and bring them their homework, teach them, that sort of thing. I can only due elementary age kids though. So the way I see it I'm going to have to bring a garden hose and make my rounds of the schools around 4am. The children of Fremont are going to find out just how slippery a nicely iced-down sidewalk can be. Then we'll see who doesn't need home teachers.
I'm glad my fingers are warm again. It's hard to type when they're cold. Speaking of cold, I've got to head off to a meeting. Enjoy your day.
Came across an interesting blog today. It appears to be maintained by a homeless guy via public libraries. It also looks like he may have some kind of publicity since the picture he uses of himself is one from USA Today. He is clearly a smart guy, at the least he writes well and is well read. I wonder what would keep him on the street. My first response is that he wants to be there on some level; he's got to have the ways to get up on his financial feet if he wants, right? Mayhap he likes the identity of "the homeless guy" and doesn't want to give it up and have a house. Or maybe he does have a house, and he's a bored Oklahoman housewife laughing at the meager social consciences he briefly illuminates in his blog.
My brother's band is finishing up their recording this week, this very day actually. I'm surprised at how excited I am to hear the tracks after they've been mastered or whatever it is you do to newly recorded music. They really are talented guys. I just wish that they could see God. They are such an awesome group of guys, they would be that much more awesome if they wrote songs for The Man Upstairs. But until then I'll enjoy hanging with 'em at practice, going to the shows I can, and being there when they get those spiritual wild hairs.
Progress is being made regarding my job with the school district. The next person I have to talk to is out of town until next Tuesday, so I must continue to wait. The lady I'm in contact with told me it's okay that I have to wait because they don't have any students for me to home teach right now anyway. Which gave me pause - I thought they had all the work I could handle and then some? I'm getting a job where I'll go to students' houses when they hurt themselves and bring them their homework, teach them, that sort of thing. I can only due elementary age kids though. So the way I see it I'm going to have to bring a garden hose and make my rounds of the schools around 4am. The children of Fremont are going to find out just how slippery a nicely iced-down sidewalk can be. Then we'll see who doesn't need home teachers.
I'm glad my fingers are warm again. It's hard to type when they're cold. Speaking of cold, I've got to head off to a meeting. Enjoy your day.
10.26.2002
ESPN.com - NBA - Sacramento Kings/Los Angeles Lakers Brawl ESPN.com
A quote from the above article, which describes members of both teams fighting one another: "Lakers coach Phil Jackson blamed the tunnel fight on the officials, while Kings coach Rick Adelman faulted Stales Center security."
What?! How about blaming the people fighting each other for the fight? Are athletes these mindless brutes that can't control themselves? Must they be protected by officials and security from beating one another to a pulp and accept no responsibility when they get in fights? What a joke, dude. Maybe the coaches had to blame other people for political reasons, ie. showing support for their players, but those political reasons shouldn't exist. What does this say to kids that look up to these athletes - and there are many.
I don't usually get annoyed by these kinds of things, but something about the way nobody took responsibility for their own actions here got on my nerves.
A quote from the above article, which describes members of both teams fighting one another: "Lakers coach Phil Jackson blamed the tunnel fight on the officials, while Kings coach Rick Adelman faulted Stales Center security."
What?! How about blaming the people fighting each other for the fight? Are athletes these mindless brutes that can't control themselves? Must they be protected by officials and security from beating one another to a pulp and accept no responsibility when they get in fights? What a joke, dude. Maybe the coaches had to blame other people for political reasons, ie. showing support for their players, but those political reasons shouldn't exist. What does this say to kids that look up to these athletes - and there are many.
I don't usually get annoyed by these kinds of things, but something about the way nobody took responsibility for their own actions here got on my nerves.
10.25.2002
I spent some time with my dear friend Laura today, who I don't see enough but always love to be around. Today she called herself the coolest chick I've ever met and I am hard pressed to argue overmuch. She is pretty rad. But the point of my post is to direct you to this hilarious commercial she introduced me to today. Maybe you've already seen it, but I hadn't, and I was not disappointed.
On a similar note, more than once today Laura started to explain something she found funny to me but then just told me to find it and watch it myself. Now, this is a discipline I should learn. I don't know how many times I've tried to relate the pure hilarity of something to someone else and simply found myself four minutes later with a blank stare and maybe a courtesy smile. Things are always much funnier in my head.
On a similar note, more than once today Laura started to explain something she found funny to me but then just told me to find it and watch it myself. Now, this is a discipline I should learn. I don't know how many times I've tried to relate the pure hilarity of something to someone else and simply found myself four minutes later with a blank stare and maybe a courtesy smile. Things are always much funnier in my head.
10.23.2002
Yesterday we had our staff meeting at church as we do every Tuesday. At the beginning of every meeting we share prayer requests with one another and then pray for them. We do the prayer different ways, sometimes we do what Paul calls "African Style" because he learned it when hew as a missionary in Africa. That's when everyone prays out loud at the same time and eventually when they sense it's time one person speaks up louder than everyone else and closes the prayer. Another way we do it is by just splitting into pairs and praying with that person. For the past two weeks I've been paired up with Billy Hayes, the pastor of Irvington Baptist church, who owns the property Crossroads meets on. His in his sixties I think, probably early sixties though I can't say for sure. His ex-military and has one of the deep resounding voices that you would expect a Baptist preacher to have. He's a super nice guy, I like him a lot. It feels a bit odd sometimes to pray with him one-on-one like that.
I'm not sure I can identify the feeling - maybe that the two of us are so far apart in life experience and everything that it's odd for me to sit there and try to imagine how to pray for him and his wife when they're going through the death of his father-in-law. And I find my mind wandering when I pray to wonder what he thinks of my prayer, am I being irreverent in the way I speak to God, am I praying stupid generic prayers for him, that kind of thing. Of course when those thoughts crop up I shut them up and get back to the business at hand (that is, talking to the creator of the universe). They still come though. Maybe it's a feeling of spiritual inadequacy, I dunno. Just thought I'd mention it.
I'm not sure I can identify the feeling - maybe that the two of us are so far apart in life experience and everything that it's odd for me to sit there and try to imagine how to pray for him and his wife when they're going through the death of his father-in-law. And I find my mind wandering when I pray to wonder what he thinks of my prayer, am I being irreverent in the way I speak to God, am I praying stupid generic prayers for him, that kind of thing. Of course when those thoughts crop up I shut them up and get back to the business at hand (that is, talking to the creator of the universe). They still come though. Maybe it's a feeling of spiritual inadequacy, I dunno. Just thought I'd mention it.
10.22.2002
10.21.2002
I am thoroughly enjoying A Game of Thrones, a book recommended to me by two of my friends who have pretty good taste in books. Say, have you ever noticed how you know whether or not your friends have good taste in movies but you don't know as much about their taste in books? Anyway. This book is pretty awesome so far. It's gimongous, somewhere around 800 pages...and perhaps even more daunting, it's the first in a six book series where all the books are of similar length. But you know a book is good if you're getting genuinely aggravated at some of the characters and sincerely disappointed when they die. Which is coming to be a common disappointment...Jesse told me not to get attached to any characters but I didn't expect his words to ring this true. And any book which can make me take a character named "Ned" seriously and actually admire him is a winner in my world.
10.20.2002
Dude! Freaking Niners. They were leading by 11 until I started to watch the game. I actually found myself talking to the television set. Like, not just screaming during big plays or whatever, but actually talking to it. Say Terrell Owens drops a ball - which he did in at least two clutch times today. I spend the next thirty seconds muttering under my breath. "Hey Owens, how about you shut your mouth and catch the ball? That okay with you? Because until you stop letting the ball bounce off your numbers I think you should keep your mouth shut. Yeah, thanks." Stuff like that. One by one the football games steal my sanity.
10.19.2002
My friend Danny let me borrow an anime series, Martian Successor Nadesico and I'm finding it terribly entertaining. It's comedy/sci-fi, which is great. It has a number of typical anime situations too, which of course would only happen in the minds of these japanese writers and lonely fanboys. The captain of this ship is a 20-year old bubbly girl obsessed and in love with the ship's cook, who is also a reluctant fighter pilot who mutters under his breath about the senselessness of war while blowing the crap out of his enemies ten at a time. Unfortunately they've already killed off my favorite character, a guy that was obsessed with an anime and insisted on yelling things like "Gekigangar Flare!" when he attacked in his giant robot because that's what they did in the anime he watched. Then they had to up and kill him. In a lame way even. I'm still watching with hopes that someone like him will come along again.
Tonight I went to watch my brother's band play. The rest of the members set a rule that the guitar and bass players could not smoke weed for the four hours preceding the show. This rule was instigated by the last show they played, at a Tower Records in Dublin, where those two lit up repeatedly immediately before the show and it was quite apparent while they performed. It's a good thing they established the rule because they played significantly better this time around. They really are talented, it's just too bad they sing about balls and blunts.
I'm in a drama skit at church this weekend, we did it once tonight and will do it again in the morning. I'm playing a garbage man; the skit's about two guys in coffins waking up and talking to one another in the funeral home. I'm a garbage man and the other guy's a CEO of some kind. At some point I decided to give my character a New York accent - I think if I didn't I would have played him in a pretty boring fashion. Thankfully though that has given him a little color for me...I just don't know how consistent I am with the accent. Whenever I try to do any other kind of accent it always eventually degenerates into a Russian or Irish accent. Who the heck knows why. Maybe its because those are two of the coolest accents ever.
Firefly is a good show. You should watch it. One of the problems is its time slot - 8pm on Friday nights? Have a good time. You know how sometimes you can watch a show and you get the feeling that no matter how much you like it or how cool you think it is you know its destined for a short run? I felt that way with Space: Above and Beyond. Dude, I remember totally loving that show. I kinda feel that way with Firefly too. Tis a shame too...we could use this different brand of sci-fi. It's got and old-westy, tongue-in-cheek feel to it. Sure beats the heck out of tripe like Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda.
Gonna go, catch another Nadesico episode before I hit the sack. Peace out.
Tonight I went to watch my brother's band play. The rest of the members set a rule that the guitar and bass players could not smoke weed for the four hours preceding the show. This rule was instigated by the last show they played, at a Tower Records in Dublin, where those two lit up repeatedly immediately before the show and it was quite apparent while they performed. It's a good thing they established the rule because they played significantly better this time around. They really are talented, it's just too bad they sing about balls and blunts.
I'm in a drama skit at church this weekend, we did it once tonight and will do it again in the morning. I'm playing a garbage man; the skit's about two guys in coffins waking up and talking to one another in the funeral home. I'm a garbage man and the other guy's a CEO of some kind. At some point I decided to give my character a New York accent - I think if I didn't I would have played him in a pretty boring fashion. Thankfully though that has given him a little color for me...I just don't know how consistent I am with the accent. Whenever I try to do any other kind of accent it always eventually degenerates into a Russian or Irish accent. Who the heck knows why. Maybe its because those are two of the coolest accents ever.
Firefly is a good show. You should watch it. One of the problems is its time slot - 8pm on Friday nights? Have a good time. You know how sometimes you can watch a show and you get the feeling that no matter how much you like it or how cool you think it is you know its destined for a short run? I felt that way with Space: Above and Beyond. Dude, I remember totally loving that show. I kinda feel that way with Firefly too. Tis a shame too...we could use this different brand of sci-fi. It's got and old-westy, tongue-in-cheek feel to it. Sure beats the heck out of tripe like Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda.
Gonna go, catch another Nadesico episode before I hit the sack. Peace out.
10.17.2002
ginkworld.net - where it all starts
This site is seriously interesting. I'm just sorta overwhelmed by the amount of information available. Likewise with faithmaps. The movement of the emerging church is intriguing. I appreciate the movement toward the heart of what Christianity is and who God is. Faith can feel so hollow sometimes, I so easily get caught up in the doing rather than the being without even noticing. And when you're in a ministry position that sort of mentality can carry over to where you're instilling other people with the same kind of hollowness you have. Then what do you have?
And I wish I had half the graphic design talent of some of these foolios.
This site is seriously interesting. I'm just sorta overwhelmed by the amount of information available. Likewise with faithmaps. The movement of the emerging church is intriguing. I appreciate the movement toward the heart of what Christianity is and who God is. Faith can feel so hollow sometimes, I so easily get caught up in the doing rather than the being without even noticing. And when you're in a ministry position that sort of mentality can carry over to where you're instilling other people with the same kind of hollowness you have. Then what do you have?
And I wish I had half the graphic design talent of some of these foolios.
ESPN.com: NFL - Young: Scheme can be QB's best friend
I don't think Steve Young gets proper credit for being the kind of quarterback he is. I don't know why but Elway gets all sorts of credit as the benchmark quarterback of his generation just under Montant. I'd judge that generation to include Montana, Marino, Elway, Kelly, and Young as the elite quarterbacks. Elway was spectacular I'll grant that, and managed to win 2 Super Bowls, but that only came at the end of his career and with Terrell Davis there to ride the back of. Steve played at a high level for four years after he won, including his 5 straight 300-yard games in 98. At the very least he should be considered equal to Elway.
The thing about Young, and I suppose Favre, is that they are the two transition quarterbacks it would seem between the old kind of quarter and the new kind. They introduced mobility that hadn't been seen before, and they both had a scrappiness and toughness that put them beyond the traditional prissy quarterback. Elway was victimized by Cal in college and was seen jumping up and down in a hissy fit repeating to himself "but this can't happen to meeeeeee!" You'd never hear that kind of crap out of Young's mouth.
Young earned my undying respect the day he sort of galloped into the end zone with a mighty limp because he was playing with a major groin strain but wanted his team to win anyway. I still have that picture emblazoned in my mind.
I don't think Steve Young gets proper credit for being the kind of quarterback he is. I don't know why but Elway gets all sorts of credit as the benchmark quarterback of his generation just under Montant. I'd judge that generation to include Montana, Marino, Elway, Kelly, and Young as the elite quarterbacks. Elway was spectacular I'll grant that, and managed to win 2 Super Bowls, but that only came at the end of his career and with Terrell Davis there to ride the back of. Steve played at a high level for four years after he won, including his 5 straight 300-yard games in 98. At the very least he should be considered equal to Elway.
The thing about Young, and I suppose Favre, is that they are the two transition quarterbacks it would seem between the old kind of quarter and the new kind. They introduced mobility that hadn't been seen before, and they both had a scrappiness and toughness that put them beyond the traditional prissy quarterback. Elway was victimized by Cal in college and was seen jumping up and down in a hissy fit repeating to himself "but this can't happen to meeeeeee!" You'd never hear that kind of crap out of Young's mouth.
Young earned my undying respect the day he sort of galloped into the end zone with a mighty limp because he was playing with a major groin strain but wanted his team to win anyway. I still have that picture emblazoned in my mind.
10.11.2002
10.09.2002
Okay so check this out. I finally figured out what I'm going to do with my website. Pretty much anyway. I've had a livejournal for a while and this separate, not knowing what to do. Well I'm going to combine the two, use blogger to blog (ahyuck) and have this site at the same time. I need to have some time to learn the intricacies of blogger and learn some more html cause I don't know squat anymore. So anyway stay tuned for changes.
By the way, if you're looking for web hosting, I totally suggest my host, addr.com. They have 24/7 tech service with quick response, through e-mail. They rock. And they're cheap. So check 'em out.
By the way, if you're looking for web hosting, I totally suggest my host, addr.com. They have 24/7 tech service with quick response, through e-mail. They rock. And they're cheap. So check 'em out.
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