Neal was here

For those of us who enjoy Star Wars, ThinkGeek has come out with a set of bookends to classily hold up your full collection of Star Wars, HG Wells, and Scott Adams books:

At a mere $120, these cleverly crafted bookends will provide years of conversation starting, causing your Star Wars DVDs to be fully depleted near the cantina scene, so stock up on those as well.

THINKGEEK LINK:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/8b85/?cpg=46H

Where are the interesting people?
Where are the truly independent spirits?
Where are the cool people?
Where are they that understand?
Where are those that make this life truly life; who connect and embrace the nitty gritty; and those who exhibit what it means to live in this swirl without getting caught up in it?

I’ll tell you where. They are all around; but they hide. They unwittingly masquerade, because they are oblivious to the fact that they are special. And it is our duty, nay even our priviledge, to find these people and to reveal to them how truly special they are.

John 10:10

New site redesign soon as well.

Living your life is like writing your autobiography without the luxury of hindsight.

Nobody cares (as a statement of fact, not a depressed anecdote), and I’ll probably never review this, but hell, it’s 4am and I’m bored and not quite sleepy yet. I’ve screwed up my sleep schedule as my mind ponders the facts of life as shown through the indie-er side of holywood and the stories that I hear from people that I talk to (and sometimes just overhear). I stay up late as I ‘work on web code’, meaning I watch movies that my friends don’t want to see, and I code a little, and I ponder. You’ve been there, and if you haven’t, you will. These are the turning points in our lives; the moments where decisions are understood and facts are realized. Some call it enlightenment, some call it growing up. Behaviour is chosen, no longer ingrained from birth. Paths are set forth of your own doing, not as the result of your parents. Cause and effect are real. Where is that point where maturity finally kicks the wrestling little boy out of you? Or does it ever? I’m 25, single, and thinking the same thing most of the rest of the population my age is thinking: what the hell next?

And so life is like an autobiography written without the luxury of hindsight; how do you write the next chapter? It’s a question not for worry or stressing, but for contemplation, consideration, and (hopefully) conclusion.

Despite common sense, I’ve found that an all-nighter is good for me on a very infrequent and irregular basis. It resets something in my head, and I always feel recharged and refereshed, despite being tired. And, then, I sleep with a soundness and effectiveness that would make hibernating bears green with jealousy.

On the downside, it usually makes me sick.

New word:

UNGIQUE [YUNE-geek]

Still searching for the best definition. Potentials so far are:

1. adj. A uniquely geeky in a positive way. “There is something particularly ungique about the way Frank can reconfigure his make files with only the numberpad.”
2. adj. Strongly unique, or unique in a particularly way related to inner strength.

Thanks to Munsey for ‘creating’ this word.

Another word in progress, thanks to my sis:

LOUNDLY [laowndly]

Still looking for the definition there too.

This has been one of the hardest years of my life to date. Not because of financial difficulty; God has blessed me with a job with an ever-increasing paycheck. Not because of work stress; my job is very laid back and they let me get away with all kinds of stuff. Not because of lack of ministry opportunity; I’ve got a large Bible study group that I work with, as well as playing in the band for my local church, and I’ve got a side ministry going involving getting the churches together in Tucson to really enjoy time with the Lord together. And it’s not because of lack of challenge: I’ve got several websites that I’m building in a business we’ve started together, as well as another band I’m playing in, and a large stack of books I’m intending to read. It’s not really even because I lost a relationship with a girl whom I deeply care for, although I think that played a role.

No, this has been a hard year because I’ve been generally dissatisfied with myself, and struggling to figure out who I really am, and what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. Clearly, this is a very cliche battle, and I readily admit it. But it’s been a battle nonetheless. But I’m learning, and here’s a quick summary of the some of the lessons learned from this travail.

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s not enough man in Christianity today. It’s way too feminine for it’s own good. Observe this:

http://twotalentliving.com/

A great site, with great materials, and great resources (probably.. I failed to read much of it). But it’s so feminine. Girls, go enjoy the site. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for me. Granted, it’s created and maintained by a woman, but it seems the standard often feels the same in many of our churches and the expectations placed on ‘men’ in church.

I’m not saying there aren’t real men in church; there are. I’m not saying that these values are bad; they’re quite good. I just am not a fan of the idea that to be a real Christian man, you must be this tame, mild toned, extremely passive individual.

Just for kicks, I ran a google search for images of Jesus – all boring! Jesus had his days of passive calm and sorrow, but he also had his days of laughter and anger and even got very aggressive from time to time, especially with the pharisees. I found a solitary picture of Jesus in any sort of excited or angry pose:

It’s a rarity, and I think I like that one. I think I could follow that guy. I also found this good one of him laughing:

The article that goes with it follows my point. I like what they say about Peter. There’s no way this guy would want to hang out with the pansy guy Jesus that gets portrayed a lot in paintings.

Clearly this is not a new idea; books, articles, sermons have all been written about it. Clearly we all know this. But apparently we from time to time need to be reminded that being a little aggressive and even loud is occassionaly a good thing.

Yogi Berra once said,

If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.

There is truth in the statement. It’s been my instinct, and the philosophy of others that I’ve read that this as a negative thing to not end up somewhere specific. But is it? I would argue that it depends.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, to form complete thoughts!
To cease to dwaddle in conjecture, but revel in certainty!

It’s recently been imposed upon me that there exist at least three big evils in our society. I will attempt to outline them here.

• Television
  Television can be argued to be one of THE biggest contributors to the growing LACK of IQ in the general public. Hours are spent wasted in front of this idiot box as we piddle our lives away watching lives we are too lazy to create for ourselves. Not only that, but the morals and cultural perspective is collectively skewed by the images that are so easily allowed into our brains. Most of America who watches TV assumes that most of the rest of the world is just like it. When in reality, most of the rest of America isn’t like TV, let alone the rest of the world. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens when this generation’s tv watchers grow up to make their own tv shows… Will TV spiral downward into a never ending whirlpool of increasingly mind-numbing programming? And social interactions! TV sucks them away to, if left unchecked. Now, of course there are some good shows, but TV, left unchecked, can be a huge detriment to our lives and thus society. Read!
• Soda
  Feel like getting heavier daily? Feel like losing concentration and memory? Feel like dropping a bomb on your immune system 3 times a day? Drink soda! Again, a great novelty invention gone crazy wild by the acceptance as a norm.
• Internet
  Repeat television arguments here, only add the aspect of increased anonymous interactivity and the potential harm that brings ourselves and our children. With the internet, we are committing crimes on a daily basis that are so virtual, we forget they are crimes (or at least those of us who have had mp3s at one time). We have access to information that is not necessarily beneficial to us. And we can get sucked in. DON’T GET SUCKED IN. GET OUT ONCE IN AWHILE. Then again, at least the internet requries reading and writing (usually).

Obviously, this is a poorly written segment, and I attribute that to the above 3 reasons. Now I’m not saying that the things above are inherently evil. It’s just that the above 3 items are so easy to let rule that they can quickly become evil and a huge detriment to us, our relationships, and our culture.

And I’m trying to step away from all 3 more and more. With varying degrees of success.

[will probably be edited later]