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)

And now for something completely different...

Dad's count has been up and down, hit a high for the last few days today so he went for a walk around the ward for the first time and made a phone call. He was in good spirits, and his sister Sue flew down from NY to Raleigh and drove in with his brother Paul. They all had a good visit. i saw my childhood friend Amy tonight for dinner (my best friend Jason's younger sister who is my age). We got to catch up. It's now officially my little sister's b-day, the 27th, and she's 20, so officially not a teenager any more. That is weird. Random thought: i badly need a hair chop.

Updating to keep busy

dad's hemoglobin was back down last night when they checked it, so he feels lousy again, and this morning he's already had 2 units of blood, so i think he's in for today and christmas for sure

Only 2 days?

Well, it has apparently only been 2 days, but much has happened. Had to take my dad to the doctor tuesday afternoon, he was flu-like as well as being run down like when he was suddenly anemic the other week. Wednesday, he rested a lot, but began turning yellow and being really fatigued and all sorts of symptoms. On thursday, i went in to substitute librarianize, and my mom took him to the doc and he was straight into the hospital. i saw him that night and mom and i went home. She went back friday morning and when he was en route to the restroom, he passed out and fell and was immediately put in intensive care. His numbers for hemoglobin dropped rapidly over two days, to less than half what they should be and didn't go up until they transfused him yesterday. He went down again this morning and they are transfusing again at a faster rate. He will not likely be home for Christmas Eve or Christmas, and they still don't know what is causing any of it, just what is happening. His brother and his wife are going to arrive any minute and i have to get back to the hospital. The phone rings off the hook with family and church folks, but it's nice to know so many people are pulling for him.

Subbing in

Dad had to go to the doc for more tests today, mom had to take him, i Subbed for her in the Library at Clear Creek Elementary. i got to read the night before Christmas to a few classes and help them color stockings and ginger bread houses. The Library Assistant had all the kids go around and say their name, then around again for favorite color, and then around again for favorite weather. i was near the beginning and i said Carolina Blue. This illicited an answer of "Carolina Blue from all 7 of the remaining kindergarden boys. For weather, i said "Carolina football weather," and two of the boys tried to say that, with very little success (yes, they're just kindygartners). Then i visited with Rob, my youth minister and we discussed OT and grades and such. Finally got my paycheck from the Y, and finished my Christmas shopping with Kelley. i'm afraid to add up how much i've had to spend these past few weeks on stuff, gas, food.
Party last night was great. About 15 or 16 former ARPC youth made it. Gag gifts and tons of food. Nap time.

Finalsly

i am finally done with dreaded finals, OT's weeping and gnashing of teeth, etc. First chance i have had to write. Found out one of my friends here, Susan Deitrich is the sister-in-law of my college friend, Cheryl, random. What a small little Presbyterian world.
My trip back with Melanie was more than interesting. Let it be stated from the start that i do not blame, nor am i angry with Melanie MacFarland. She did have the sun in her eyes and she did have very little sleep and one should not underestimate the distracting impact of my left profile. Driving south to Charlotte and/or Atlanta from Richmond is pretty straight forward. One takes I-95 for about 20 or 30 miles south to Petersburg, where it joins I-85 and takes I-85 south all the way to Charlotte... or Atlanta. We were about 100 miles south of Petersburg, just crossing the North Carolina border when Melanie asks, "Shouldn't we be on 85 by now?" Ohhhh dear. So i pull out the map and see that we can fix this little one hour detour by taking Route 185 through Macon, Podunk, Norlina, and finally... Warrenton! Warrenton, the biggest of these little bordertown settlements is maybe the size of Concord Mills shopping mall. The roads suddenly don't match our map because they have different names and so we stop at a hardware store (safe bet we guess) for directions. As in Gilmore Girls, this isn't actually a hardware store any more, but the Hardware Cafe. We ask for directions (which are semi-correct) and buy matching t-shirts that say "i got hammered at the hardware cafe." We got pictures a little down the road with the Sherwood Forest sign and stopped again (this time for correction on the directions from the woman at Hardware) to ask a auto body guy how to get to 85. We make it to 85, go to Biscuitville (Mel was a biscuitville virgin) and finally made it back to Concord.
i hung out with Ben for a bit and saw the other Gibsons and then worked for my dad today doing clerical work in suit and tie and being polite to clients. Lucky me, migraine boy, we were at a metal stamping factory all day, where the machine pound holes in metal sheets. Yay. (note the enthusiasm) But hey, it pays and it's not OT. This blog is too long, so peace out.

The only thing more exciting than covalent bonds...

MALE BONDING!!! That's right. Something i don't get much of, so i am making a list of male bonding activities to engage in before i die (note: some are already accomplished)

Italicized are accomplished, in alphabetical order:

Bar Fight
Camping
Drinking and darts
Fishing
Hide a body
Hunting
Ice fishing
Karaoke (specifically "You've lost that lovin' feelin'" in a bar)
Late night Frozen pizza topped with own copious loads of red meat and Asian hot sauce
Peeing in the same toilet
Peeing while walking outside
Pro-Baseball game
Pro-football game
Road Trip
Tailgating
Watching Super bowl

Any i'm missing?

Change

what's the deal with college students these days? instead of "down with the man" or "down with the gov" or "save the planet" or "anti Vietnam" they line up for democratic and republican parties and support either republican presidential candidates who kill the environment or democratic presidential candidates who fought in the Vietnam war and claimed to have "committed atrocities" there. i'm so confused, why are there so few green party and libertarians? why do college students continue to protest and rally, when that strategy hasn't wrought political change in over 2 decades, and yet believe that a government they protest every other weekend will some day provide all the answers? if young people today had one iota of the faith in God or even each other that they have for a government they hate, where would be now? and what are we doing about it this minute?

A yittle of this, a yittle of YAV

Finally got my pastoral care done Monday night by meeting two of my YoCo kids for pizza. They are both applying to UNC (among 5 or 6 other choices) and we had a good time. My verbatim went pretty well, especially since it was read with Tom playing one teenage girl, and Charles, the other. Gene played me, which was fantastic. Made me look great. I was up to 3:30 putting final touches on it, and then up by 8:30 to do my first phone interview with the YAV office about taking next year for mission service. After a lot of questions, she wanted to reiterate that i may not get Northern Ireland and to consider other options. i promised to remain open, but it is unlikely i will take the year off for any other program. We'll see. Then there was a beautiful chapel service with bells and music. I have tons more reading yet to do for OT and Theology to be ready for next week, as well as a Theology paper due tomorrow on a reading i have yet to do. Luckily, i am now done with anything related to Pastoral Care and Spiritual Formation. Holidays bearing down...

Merry Christmakah to Jew and Gentile alike...

We had a BALL!!!

Saturday night was Calvin Ball and pretty much everyone did a little dance and got down that night (i'm not even gonna guess at anything else). An open wine and champagne bar got everyone in the holiday spirit and people cut loose like i have never seen. The women were gorgeous, and i'm not sure i knew most of these men could clean up so well. Nor did i know everyone could dance... er, that anyone could move in such ways. Fairly sure i downed more than eight sodas, six of which were mountain dew, so i couldn't sleep till about 3 or 4am. It's nice also to see the professors come out too and bring spouses and dance. A good time was had by all.

Infamous

i had my interview last night at St Andrew's United Methodist for the Director of Youth Ministry position. It went really well, but they have 2 other candidates to look at. They have 20 or so in their 6-12th grade group, much like my Baptist group a few years ago. They're apparently really smart and involved and would be a great challenge. We'll see.
Our grafitti wall i did the Hebrew for is featured in a local art magazine available all over town, and the online excerpt can be found here: http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=13446

The hurtful 4 words

i once read that the three most beautiful words in the english language are "I love you." However, the four most hurtful words in the english language are "I love you but..." i'v mulled this over for years, and most recently i've been trying even harder to say nothing even close to this. Too many people i am closest to in my life use if not these words, this mindset. My father is not the only one at all, but i know he doesn't read this. Besides, anything he has a tendency to do is likely something i need to work on myself. He has a great propensity for cutting down others, others' opinions, views, likes, dislikes, etc, and become incredulous when anyone asks that his own likes, opinions, etc not be thrust upon them. Most of us can deal with others disliking our favorite dessert (more for us), but when someone whom we love or admire hates what is dear to us, it chips a small part of us away. i refuse to tell anyone that they can't have a dream. Personally, i need to work on not being my father, and today that means i will humbly have to let people love what they love. No, it's not big of me, but it is decent. Why are things like that so hard? i miss having weekly goals like tying my shoe.

Yay b-day

i got a great surprise on my b-day last year at midnight, and this year i was pleasantly surprised with a birthday dinner out. Jen drove me around with a blindfold for awhile and stumbled me into the restaraunt. i got in and realized that Marc, Christina, Elizabeth Howell and Smith, Noell, Lindsey, Jessi, and Chuck were there. Not everyone was back in town and some people were working, but it was a huge turn out and a total surprise. Apparently though, there are pictures of me stumbling through the parking lot blindfolded. Thanks J-Bu

On the Road Again

Well, i finally hit the road again tomorrow at 8am with Elizabeth to head back home to Richmond. Very ready. Had my fill of indoor family closeness 3 days ago, and now i've had enough triptophan to incapacitate a kindergarden class. While it was good to see a few familiar faces and receive several nice meals and birthday cards, i believe my parents are slowly going around the bend. i'd like to pretend it's early alzheimers or dimensia, because if it's not, they're just damn nuts and a pain in the rear. i think my mother means well, but it's too stressful to be around. i've gotta find more laid back people to enjoy holidays with. At least NY trips included my easy-going aunts and uncles and cousins, with the cost of 16 hours in a 6 passenger vehicle with my parents and barry mantilow/rush limbaugh/judy garland. My sister gave me the Leggo story book version of the Ten Commandments!!! And i also got a great DVD of Norah Jones live at the House of Blues, and a couple great t-shirts. i got some sleep, but built up some stress, so i'm glad to be headed back to a mostly empty dorm to do research and sleep some more. i don't see me being a professor of Old Testament any day soon. Happy Thanksgiving.

Old Dog

You can't teach an old dog... anyways, got in my yearly phone call to Phillip to wish him a happy birthday first. i'm sitting here with my cat sound asleep in my lap. Since i've been home, she's slept with me every night. i'm apparently the warmest body in the house. i also sleep on the floor, so i'm easy to get to. i got off work tomorrow, so i don't have to work on my day. i'm prolly gonna tag along with little sis tomorrow for Christmas shopping and maybe go see the Bond movie tomorrow night. Jen called from Houston at 1am just now to wish me an official happy birthday since it's now the 22nd in Texas. This just in: Cats twitch in their sleep...

What break?

i really don't like to just complain on here, but i feel i am not really getting a Thanksgiving break, more like a day. i'm in Concord for a week, but working almost every day, and working on my Exegesis paper in my "free time." i'm even scheduled to work on my birthday, for which again, i have no plans except probably a few birthday cards with my parents and maybe a pie or cake with them too. They, by the way, are driving me bonkers. i don't like the person i am around my parents. They bring out my old middle/high school tendencies to fight and bicker and snip and brood. i miss my Union peeps. There's almost no one i know in town at all. Well, cheers.

Decent solution

i've decided the only way to fix seminary and the government is to take all the morally corrupt politicians and put them in church pews and take all the seminary students who believe in government more than the church and put them in congress

and the middle of the road libertarian faithful dance around happily, scoffing at the vast evangelical moral majority right wing conspiracy and the left wing left field government worshipping bunny hugging hippies

Teenagers said i was cool

Yeah, so 2 things can put me on top of the world: 1- my lil sis wanting to hang out; 2- teenagers thinking/saying i'm cool. i got to hang out with some of the coolest high schoolers ever this weekend, my YoCo kids. Last retreat i got to hang out with them. This retreat, we got to bond. i did alot of A/V work for the retreat, but i got to play and eat and joke and dance and campfire and swim and talk and laugh and mostly cut up with these rock stars. Quality time was had. i got back my first exegesis paper when i got back from the retreat and i'm glad i waited till then to get it. It wasn't great, but not terrible, pretty average, but any question that brings to why i am here is answered beyond any shadow of a doubt when i have a good, mediocre, even a bad weekend with youth. They affirm my call. i love these kids very very much. They are insane and they make tons of mistakes, many of the same ones i made, but they are God's children, and they're my kids and there's nothing i'd rather do. i think my professor, Carson, says it well, "i believe in the promise of who you are." On a side note, it's been 16 hours since my second cup of coffee this morning, and i'm still going strong. Yikes.

Celebrating the temporary

So in Charlie Brown's pastoral care class, we covered "celebrating the temporary" for about 2 minutes, but that's all i remember this week. It really stuck. Lately, and i mean over the last 3 years, i've discovered more and more that most of the people i know are very very temporary. i've always been aware of the situations i've been in as being temporary, the places, the jobs, the locales, the dynamics, but i've always believed in having the sort of friends that are able not only to just pick up right where we left off, but actively try to do that "picking up" without heoric effort. It's easy when you get thinking that way to be bitter about people that let you down or disappoint you, but this week the people that came to my mind where the tremendously loyal, while few, people in my life that truly inspire me and carry me through. Knowing most of them don't have a chance to read this, i can brag on them. Jason Short is nothing short of my best friend on earth and continues to amaze me by what it means to be a loyal, life-long friend. Ben Gibson does the same. Both drive me to be better than i am. Matthew Brown has stuck by me no matter what, and we've done some stupid stupid things. My sister is totally my hero, and my other lil sis. Melissa, Sallie, Jen Kling, Jessica Anderson, Ashley Newt, and several others. Maybe not many of them, but they are damn fine people. And while life is a string of temporary, they don't really fit that. i love that about them. And to the rest of the people i have known and will know, my door will always be open, even if i'm not banging down everyone else's.
i wish it would stop raining

Gettin' it done

Got alot of paper pushin' done this weekend. All of my forms and references for YAV are sent out. Now it's the waiting game. Who knows where i'll be next year. (taking bets, get in early)
We did score some Zorba's this weekend, and some sleep-in time, the first in oh so long. I made breakfast for dinner too.
We got over to Peggy's (Peggy is who also looks for little green men when she's not studying Hebrew here) church, the MCC. Still can't remember what that stands for. Part of it means Metropolitan, and part is Community. It was a pretty good service all and all. The pastor guy, who talked exactly like Bob Dunham in Chapel Hill, and had pretty cool dangly earings, preached on the lesbians. You know, Ruth and Naomi. Eh. i thought it was quite a stretch. It goes into my last blog of having a responsibility if you're in a position of authority or power to tell people what that could read as being there, and what is personal preference. Oh well, i can't seem to convince anyone but Tom of the deep need for this. Ohblahdee, ohbladye.

There's a 30% chance of actual scholarship in the forcast...

Thoughts from Theology class the other day...

Take these statements:
"And these two accounts in Genesis are definitely by two different authors."
"It will rain tomorrow"

Then consider the following:
A) Principles of science (laws of pressure, temperature, evaporation, etc)
B) Litterary principles (tendencies, styles, penmanship, word choice, etc)

Which of those two focus on constants, unchanging, predictable and repeatable? Which is more certain? (tell me you made it through 7th grade science and said A)

Now consider this...
If the results of measurable constants like pressure and temperature lead to eratic outcomes... like, i dunno, weather? How much more unpredictable are theories of penmanship and editing and how much less likely to be correct are those conclusions?

Maybe there were different authors and editors of Genesis. Maybe the two chapters our professor reffered to casually were indeed by different sources. i do not doubt this is possible, but when well informed and knowledgable scholars talk about theories on a regular basis as scientific and verifiable fact, there's a problem (hope you're listening NIB).

Besides... maybe it will rain tomorrow, but do you always trust the weatherman?