Nonlinear Waterfowl Problems...

Trying to get all my ducks in a row... Had a couple meetings today to set up YAV stuff and to talk to Carson about doing a PBB internship as a directed study this summer (get paid and get course credit). i have to find a prof to sponsor me, and i think i'll ask my Pastoral Care prof. Also found out that Ashley gets to come visit me in a couple weekends. Pretty pumped. Found another fun comic. As i don't have a link to this blog anywhere, i can safely mock all of humanity, bwahaha...

Rally Day!

Got 3 hours sleep on Friday night before getting up at 7am to head to Bon Air Pres for Rally Day (150 middle and high school youth from the James River Presbytery) and my YoCo's leading it. i did all the AV stuff for powerpoint, music, energizers, all that, and for the Caleb Brauer Band. We collected school supplies for an inner city school in Richmond. The theme was Mr Rodger's Neighborhood and we were sharing practices and beliefs of Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism with the kids who came. We also did tons of games and relays, etc. The band played until 10 or so at night and then when everyone left, YoCo cleaned up and had a lock-in. We were up till 3am discussing colleges and high school drama and playing basketball and eating cold pizza. i ended up sleeping on the floor on some sandbag pillows with a thin wise man's robe for a blanket. We went to Bon Air's 8:30 service, which was great and i came back here to crash until mid afternoon. First day of class is tomorrow, but sketchy mustache night is tomorrow night. Fun times.
i'll post pics when i get my lap top power chord back.

Snow Day

Yeah, so i have that little kid buzz goin in my stomach, where all i wanna do is run around with my tongue out and catch snowflakes and build a snow fort and build accident-scene snowmen around dad's car so it looks like he hit a whole family of them. Ahhhh, wish i could, but alas, i am inside, working in the library, watching it fall steadily in big flakes through the large windows by the desk.
Had a meeting with the Field Ed woman today about going to Ireland for YAV and getting it to count for my supervised parish ministry. Gotta work on the funding, but she was very helpful.
(The snow is seriously falling so hard it's probably 10% visibility from the Library to Watts Chapel, just 200 feet away on the other side of the empty quad. It's a winter wonderland, and it's not even freezing outside)
New favorite pizza topping discovery:
Start with our usual peproni Red Baron and add our usual bacon and cheese
AND pieces of fresh roasted turkey (thanks mom and dad)
Top it with the usual Siracha Asian Hot Sauce

Also have to grab coffee with one of my YoCo's tonight. i may not always love school, but i love my line of work.
MUST sleep in tomorrow. Lock in this weekend.

Lazy day...

Did very little work on my Worship Service project, but i did catch up on some much needed rest. i slept almost 10 hours today total. i poked around online and found funny sites, and read e-mails from folk about N Ireland and the YAV program. i went by the registrars' office to drop the travel seminar in May to Central America as i need make money and not spend it, and i'd rather wait to go on a travel seminar. The Seminary pays for a good chunk of only one trip and i wanna make that one to Israel if i ever can (during a less expensive year). Right now, all funding to go for my living costs and maybe YAV and to be able to work all may, june, july if i get to go.

Churchin it...

Well, made up for the likelihood that i'll miss church next week today. Went to Three Chopt Pres again this morning with Jen and then we went to St Stephen's Episcopal down on Grove Ave this evening for their Celtic Worship Service. It was very nice, albeit very Episcopal flavored. The tunes to most of the songs were also pretty unfamiliar and long, but it was pretty nice. The music at Three Chopt was great as usual.
Saw an episode of that new HBO series Big Love. WEIRD!!! For those of you who haven't read about it in the news, Bill Paxton is an offshoot Mormon sectarian with 3 wives. One is his wife of 17 years (Tom Cruise's wife from the Firm), the middle wife is some blond who is like a less attractive Paris from Gilmore girls, and some cute 20-yr old who was in Mona Lisa's Smile. Very very weird.
Also got to hear a lot about the YAV N Ireland site from Rob today (student here a couple years older than i, who did the program 2 or 3 years ago and loved it). i really wanna go now.

Woah (woe) is me...

Yeah, UNC finally figured out all of us that graduated hadn't moved on from using the system. Heather can't get basketball tickets any more, and after a month of not being able to edit my UNC web space site, it's now officially dead. Can't get to it any more. CURSES! Oh well.
Seems my father was not adopted. The family joke for years was that his mother had a bad car accident when my parents were first married and my dad found out from a co-worker who had read it in the paper. So my dad gets side swiped in a hit and run, no less, and i find out days later from my mom after a ten minute conversation with him. ???? (insert puzzled phrase of your own choosing) i can't wait till that story about his mother comes up again.

This just in

Yeah, forgot to mention the DC march protest this weekend. WTF? Ok, i have more and more of a problem with marches in DC. In the 1950's and 60's, as Eisenhower's Interstate system began to be built, it suddenly became possible for thousands of people to travel great distances, namely to DC. This was a fantastic and shocking thing for nearly 15 or 20 years, but it then protest marches lost effectiveness. The population of DC doesn't care, nor do the visitors. There's a protest every weekend. If you go with several thousand others to DC some weekend to protest the war or the president or stem cell research, you'll be squeezed in between the protest against cutting mail worker benefits the weekend before and the alternative fuel rally next weekend. And the politicians don't care any more than the residents. So what does that mean? You wasted all that gas to get DC that the group protesting next weekend will be complaining about, and niether of you will make your voices heard! Wanna affect change? Hold local meetings, coordinate with like-minded folk on the internets invented by Gore and get those people to vote!!! That way you can actually accomplish something, even if it's just fighting nuculear profilteration.

Global Cooling

Ok, so before you read this, check out the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib74u-tnnuY&NR

i've heard that theory before, and for years, Global cooling was a very popular theory based on scientific evidence. That's right ladies and gents, just like opinion polls and movie reviews, you can decide what is going on based on how you choose to interpret data. Do i believe in Global warming? Sure, i think it's likely. Do i believe in radical global climate changes that we may or may not play a large role in? Yes. Do i believe that hurting the environment, whether or not it causes climate changes is bad? Yes. i believe that because i believe in a God who gave this world to take care of and nurture and not destroy. i think maybe scientists could build a better case with God than with data, but that's just me. i'm not syndicated or anything.

MILK Day

MILK Day went by uneventfully. Had my interview after class yesterday with the YAV coordinator who travels to all the sites to check on them and familiarize herself with them so that she can tell people like me about programs and living conditions. She told me a lot about Northern Ireland and Kenya. She thought based on my skills and interest that N. Ireland sounds best for me, but again, we'll see in April. i'm doing some work for Project Burning Bush, which may lead to some kind of position for the Spring and/or Summer. i really hope it does because i do need a job, but i also hate the thought of another summer without working with kids, especially lifeguarding, where i can see the kids, but not play with them. i have to take poor Jen to the Doc today for what may be strep. She just got over an illness of a few weeks. i outlined my final project for Celtic Christianity, a Celtic Worship Service for Youth. Kind of excited to do it.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Hippyness

Books I am currently Betoking (in the midst of):

-The Communist Manifesto
-Staying Employed: What You Must do Today to Insure you Have a Job Tomorrow (for those of you who don't know, this is the book my father authored in 1989 and i am finally reading)

-The Complete Works of O Henry
-Stories I Couldn't Tell While I Was a Preacher
-Celtic Prayer
-Celtic Spirituality
-Celtic Theology

Life's a Beach and then you Drive

Jen and i went to Three Chopt Presbyterian Church this morning and enjoyed a great service. Afterwards, i was drivingback and Jen says, "man, i wanna go to VA Beach. i've never been to any beach but the gulf." So i just kept driving. We stopped for Italian at some random off brand place. Great stuffed shells. When we go to VA Beach we went into a surf shop and pretended to be from New Zealand. We bought bathing suits and talked in fake Aussie accents. Then we walked out to the beach and walked for awhile. i went in. Water must have been 35 or 40 degrees, body-numbing. Then we drove back home. Was a fun day.

Jen's account:
After church, with nothing planned, we start driving back to school. I saw I a sign on the freeway that said VA Beach (blank blank miles). I said to Brian "Oh lets go to VA Beach or somewhere...the only beach I grew up with was Galveston." So Brian keeps driving and me, not thinking he took me seriously or wanted go anywhere but back to school, keeps driving and driving and driving. Finally, I realized we passed all the exits to get off at for the school then I realized he took me seriously and we driving, still in church clothes, to VA Beach. We stopped along the way in some town to get some lunch...in an off the wall Italian place called Antonio's pizza...really good food and friendly staff. After a bite to eat we headed the rest of the way to VA Beach. We stopped at this surf store to get clothes so that we could get sandy and possibly wet. We decided to use Aussie accents in the store (we practice on the way up in the car to perfect our accents, Brian's was really good....mine was more of a mix of British and Aussie...so Britussie perhaps). Well the people working in the store completely bought it. We took our new found coastal edge clothes and walked around on the beach, sat and talked, and then Brian went head first into numbing water that was probably like 35 to 40 degrees. I just got my lower legs wet for like two seconds and they were numb that was enough for me.

Gone Walkabout

One of my favorite Aussie phrases is the term "gone walkabout." It's something i don't make nearly enough time for any more. Even in college, i used to just go wander somewhere i had never been before and spend time talking to whomever i met. After getting up around lunch time today and talking to my mother for awhile, i watched a marathon of a series i've grown fond of lately, Psych. The premise being an incredibly good young and immature detective who has never had a real job, pretending to be psychic, instead of just saying he's basically Sherlock Holmes. It's pretty hysterical. He even calls his fake detective agency: Psych. The double entrende is fun. Besides, Tom Petty does the theme song. Anyways, after this, i wandered down the road to Macarthur Dr (where our favorite pizza place, burger joint, coffee shop, and beer and wine store are located). i got to walk through the adjoining neighborhood and talk to people briefly along the way. i hadn't realized that there was an independent bookstore on the same block, so i stopped in. i perused for a few hours and then bought The Communist Manifesto and had a chat with the old Harley Gang Motorcycle guy who rand the shop. i went across the street to Dott's and grabbed my usual and a Coke. i watched some of the Colts game, read some of Marx, and chatted with Claire, the bartender about her application to VCU grad school. She lost her order pen, so i gave her one i have had since a guy gave it to me on my Thailand trip. i figured it was time for the pen to continue its journey, and she was pretty thrilled. i think i'm gonna start going walkabout more often. If i'm gonna be outta the loop, i might as well be in the world.

That Cat Lady

Had a lot of thought mulling around today, finally feel like i can blog. Everything was variations on a theme. For weeks, although particularly these few days, and even more today, i have felt very effing out of the loop. For weeks it was stuff like medical problems in the family, marriages, engagements, trips, all sorts of things my friends and family didn't bother filling me in on. Then for the past few days and especially today, big stuff was not even run past me, let alone was invited. And even before most of that occurred, i tried a little social experiment in the cafeteria for lunch. i sat by myself, and i did so at the start of lunch. For nearly the first half hour, not a single person same to sit with me or invite me to sit with them. In fact, almost no one said hey as they walked by. People looked for empty seats looking right over my head. Was amazing. Keep in mind, i am not in middle school, i go to a seminary of ministers in training... wow. The first person to finally come over after all that time was a guy who is not even on track for ordination, but a lay person who just wants more education. Great guy. I politely declined since i had to go to work soon after. Two guys did come sit with me after that, but mostly because i looked like i was the farthest from being done eating and they didn't wanna be left. i've never had self esteem issues, so i found the entire experiment fascinating.
i watched Without a Trace tonight, and it, like Law and Order sometimes, makes me think. They have these victims who disappear or die and no one notices they're gone or cares. They're missing a week or months or years and no one notices. My old youth leader used to fear that living alone with her cats, she'd die like the woman in the news. Old lady died and no one knew for weeks. Her cats ate her. i'm not worried that will happen to me, but if i can be so left out of the loop and so ignored, and i am a loud, noticeable, well-known guy... what about all the shy, quiet, not so noticeables?

A Penny is all it's worth...

Seriously, even with inflation, a penny is overcharging these days for the average person's thoughts. It's basically a rip off for individual thoughts. i just had the same conversation with someone that i had with someone else in college. The difference was that both of them had completely opposite views, and both of them were not worth listening to. Why, you might ask? It's simple, they had very complex, Biblically grounded beliefs. Why is this a bad thing? Brian, aren't you in seminary? How could Biblically-based opinions or beliefs be so bad or dangerous? Ding ding ding... well, they were so incredible un-noteworthy because they had chosen these beliefs before they ever opened the Bible. Duhn duhn duhn... Wait a minute... (yes, i can hear the wheels turning) See, the danger in choosing what you believe God says about how you should live your life before you see what that might be, is that you mold, bend, twist, or ignore what you find there inside. And unless you are more than thousand years old, or you know a very trustworthy person who is (Barbara Walters doesn't count), that Bible would be your best source for what it is God has to say to us. Whether you are radical left wing, or liberation theologist, or evangelical, or a firm believer in the flying spaghetti monster, or you only believe the world is flat and supported on the back of a giant tortoise, you run the same risk of learning nothing as the stubborn atheist when you open that book. It does you no good to open or tell anyone else what you believe.
So i have come to the following conclusion: polarized views, extreme views, right wing, left wing, radical, fundamental, conservative, liberal, apathetic, whatever, it's all modern english for "i stopped thinking and started bullshitting, please don't ask my opinion, it's not worth your time or consideration because i have given it little of either."

Do the Dewey

Well, i broke down and got a job in the library. After they effectively eliminated the position in the admissions office they had semi-promised me, i had to look to the bookstore and library. i had hoped the bookstore would be a go since i could really use the discount. Welp, gotta pay all the bills. Also gotta stash a little extra if i can for YAV in case i get it.
Read a fascinating article on women's rights and liberation in Afghanistan. Really hard to see how far left wing people can use words like "forcing democracy" in situations where they had the same women's rights struggles as the US that ended abruptly in the 80's and 90's with Taliban rule and went back to a treatment of women that was hard to find even in the Dark Ages. It's almost just as bad that the right wing folk can't even see that either. It's amazing how polar opposites can become so concerned with the opposing viewholders that they miss the landscape of real problems entirely.

Deja Clone

Yeah, so the library dumped a load of used books and magazines on the table today again and i did my usual scavenging. i took about 10 or 12 Time magazines and started devouring them. i just read a fascinating article on cloning. They discussed its viablility and how Raelians and Koreans and all sorts of folks were working on it and expected them to have already cloned a human or would in the next few months or years at the outside. Closing the magazine, i realized it's from 2001. Okay, i don't see the news almost ever working and being in school with no cable but once a week (which i waste on Smallville) and rarely get to read print media, so does anybody know? Have they done it? i feel like every time i listen in on the debate it's the same as when Jurassic Park came out. i feel very uninformed. i need a subscription to Newsweek or Time. i only make time for news if it's out in front of me and free. i read every publication possible in college because they were everywhere and free. Now i'm in seminary and should be better informed than ever and i got nothing. New resolution: finagle a subscription to Time or Newsweek from some relative.

It all Bloggers the Mind

The first post of the new year:

Dad left the hospital a week ago today and has been recovering nicely. It's nice to know he's up on his feet some and able to do much more for himself with good hope for recovery. It has also given him reason to be very thankful for many blessings he has, as well as the rest of us in the family. i was very glad to be in town during that time.

We had a fun shindig for New Years here in the dorm, more than 15 or 16 of us to eat, drink, play pool and make fun of the live music in Time's Square.
January 1, we went out to dinner and celebrated Kara's 23rd birthday and her engagement that afternoon. We went to Pasta Luna (supposedly the premiere Italian eatery in Richmond). Rachel and i ordered the 4 cheese Tortellini which came out very strange. The Alfredo sauce was runny and the pasta was sugary sweet (weird). It made Rachel nauseous and i could only eat half. When we inquired, it turned out they'd run out of regular Tortellini and substituted PUMPKIN Tortellini (WEIRD)!!! and didn't tell us. So they brought us 4 cheese Ravioli to replace it. With my dinner before we went out and half of Tom's while i waited on my food, i had about 4 dinners. Worked out nicely. Gotta not recommends Pasta Luna or Pumpkin Tortellini though.
On the 2nd, Jen and i ventured to the LL Bean store about an hour and a half north of Richmond and did a few exchanges and stuff. Rather than dive into the rush hour traffic to return, we drove further into DC, called my uncle and asked for a restaurant recommendation and directions as we cruised into Georgetown, which was beautifully decorated for Christmas still. We ended up at Uno's and it was great.
Yesterday was not so hot. i finally found out for sure that i didn't get the job at St Andrew's from the minister who didn't know that i hadn't been told i didn't get the job. He assured me i interviewed tremendously well but i wasn't hired because i made the mistake of telling them i applied to YAV and might be gone next school year. Oh well. A few other events made the evening kinda rough and i took a drive and ended up at the Hanover County Airport where i watched the prop planes land and take off for an hour or two in the dark. i miss watching the sunset on the Charlotte Douglas strip and it was relaxing. So that is the year beginning review.
Keeping the resolutions simple this year. Watching the language and gonna go lift a few weights a couple times a week with some guys here. Happy new year, good night, and good luck.

Movie Recommendation: Deja Vu (wow)