Harsh Quote of the Week

"Ford had married a little girl, clinging and winsome, and had liked it well enough till he met a grown woman."
Its the same person, but kinda like split personality's. Nothing so psychotic but perhaps a little more subtle. Someone ( I have a pretty good fix on who) "taught" or rather she ( the g/f) was intelligent enough to discover that by acting like a little girl was the only way she could be heard. It's sad, because as Tonto would say ( admittedly I'm putting words in his mouth) " She is much women." But its been brought up, and I have a great faith in her thats its something we can work on. There's some environmental elements, but theres steel in that girl ( as in the industrial material), and its more that she needs to let it come out more often as apposed to it just not being there.

Farm Wisdom

Hick [hik] A person who puts a standard shifter nob on a automatic transmission ( commonly seen on Grand Pre's, Buick's, and Mini-Vans) . See also: wannabe. Habitat range: Midwest, though can be found in most suburban centers, common identifying characteristics ( see above) : "You can take a hick out of the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out of the hick" as well as a southern accent that has the ability to appear and disappear, at whim.

Dr. Uncommon Sense: " One postulates that they (Hick's) admire the Redneck. They seek to emulate the toughness and extreme regionalism eschewed by the Redneck. One theory suggests they are compensating for something, possibly a decided lack of personality. Though a lack of intelligence has also been sighted in numerous cases."

Dedicated to the Lambda girl I and a friend rode with to a service project. I believe there were two GPS units ( one in the dash and another was the kind that mounts on the window). We got lost. However, my friend made the correct guess that road we past ( twice) was the road we were looking for. But locals are more trustworthy than a GPS unit. So we had to stop and ask directions, Twice. Then we got a call from someone who'd made it to the service project. He told us the road my friend ( and the GPS) had suggested was the right one. We finally arrived. Not saying it wasn't interesting, or that I don't have a highly developed enjoyment of driving random places ( I blame this on my father, and random Saturday morning road trips). As well as the fact that the two of them ( Lambda girl and my friend) have wildly divergent idea's as to what constitutes good music and so the dial of the radio changed almost as often as it does when me and my sister drive somewhere together. Not to mention the Lambda girl was a wealth of information of clubs and local bars ( irony makes me happy). But having experienced the real redneck on occasion, and for a portion of my childhood driven to school with the "real" item, I can categorically say She was not "it". A funny story: Her outrage at the suggestion my friend hadn't gone to church last Sunday ( misplaced because he had) far outmatched her outrage at random males who asked her to dance, and then tried to grind ( which ,to her credit, she enforced her personal no fly zone). She was fun, and an interesting study in Midwestern psychology, but not the real thing. She was pretty, and not a bimbo. But since she felt males were attracted to the redneck "bimbo girl" thing, she played the part. quote from Fool's Gold ( good movie, watch it):
"Stall for time."
"I need you to act like a bimbo."

The Great Debate

Ok, so my girlfriend is currently looking for a clinic to give her the second stage of the Gardasil Vaccine. Havening heard rumblings of "This vaccine will make girls immoral" and not knowing anything about the Cervical Cancer Vaccine, I decided to do a little research. The Mayo Clinic had a page and I read it. I can't say I'm as enthusiastic as the gynecologist was that wrote the page, but it seems to make sense.I wouldn't want to be the parent who has to take his daughter to the doctor for treatments that may remove her ability to procreate and may not work. I just couldn't look myself in the mirror if ( granted I don't have kids so I can't say for sure) I'd not gotten my kid a vaccine because " It will lead to immorality" and now she's dieing because of it. Admittedly, the cause's of cervical cancer ( which doesn't affect that many according to the mayo clinic page, only something like 10,000 women, which compared to the general population,301,130,947, is definitely not the staggering number the page claims it is) the vaccine protects against do seem to be lifestyle related. HPV is generally thought of as a sexual transmitted virus. One can reason that if one is not sexually active than there is no need for said vaccine. Two rebuttals to this argument, first I'm vaccinated for all the types of Hepatitis, yet my current lifestyle choices more or less protect me just as much as the vaccine does, but heck, there's more than one way to catch a disease, so I'm covered. Second, we don't know what mutations the virus will go through in the future. It may become more viral, and easier to catch. Last but not least, protecting yourself from disease does not promote immorality. Vaccine's are amoral. Morality is a personal decision. You decided whether or not to live morally.

The Quest for Black and White

Over simplification. The idea that things are one way, or the other, with no middle ground. That questions must be answered, not asked. This is the Quest for Black and White. It seems human beings like simple answers, we want things to be one or the other. In fact, it’s almost necessary for human life to continue. Red on the stoplight must mean stop, or horrendous car accidents will occur. Green must mean go, in order that we all don’t sit at intersections for the rest of our lives. However, some questions are not so simple. For instance, is stealing wrong? Well, generally, yes. What about if you can save someone’s life by stealing? Say you have kids, and there starving? Is the reason your kids are starving because your lazy, and stealing is easier than working, or did you get laid off, because someone else is willing to do your job cheaper, or a machine can do your job, better, faster, and cheaper?

This idea of oversimplification carries over into all steps and walks of life. When I was a kid, my mom used the threat of “washing my mouth out with soap” if I said a word I wasn’t supposed to. Does this mean even if I hit my hand with a hammer? What about if I broke my leg? A Chapel speaker recently talked about the danger of words. Certainly there are dangers in words, you can hurt a key relationship irreparably with them. They can even, and do start wars.

However, with this talk of the “Power of Words”, why is there never a discussion of the danger of the absence of words? Couldn’t absence be just as horrible? Lack of accurate criticism can leave a person unprepared for life, or more practically ,the final draft of a paper. Couldn’t a lack of healthy self deprecation lead people, organizations, country’s to take themselves too seriously?

By way of illustration, A friend of mine is thinking about going to a country in Africa with Wishing Well this summer. “To dig wells?” I asked him, “No to film a documentary” was my friends reply. Ok. My thought was, does anyone really (at least at Oc) not know about the need for clean water in Africa? You actually would have to go out of your way not to see at least a part of Wishing Well and various related organizations presentations, literature, and t-shirts ( especially these). So, does anyone really need to be educated? Isn’t the need for clean water? For thirsty kids, parents, aunts, uncles, third, fourth and fifth cousins?

But, is that not an oversimplification? Isn’t it possible that this documentary might reach someone who’ll decide to go and help, as opposed to the “old” documentary? Or couldn’t a rich donor be particularly moved by the new documentary to donate large sums of money? Couldn’t this documentary bring more clean water to thirsty children than one team that only dug wells?

Do we hear this questions being asked? Does the man behind the pulpit say that criticism is healthy, that jokes about oneself keep our view of ourselves from becoming skewed? Is there a public forum for debate ( not over whether or not a certain group, does this or that in Africa) but the ”helpfulness” of said action? Does even asking such questions help, and not impede people being helped?

Sometimes questions are just meant to be asked, because, there is no answer. Or the answer is complicated. Such as, couldn’t criticism help a person do a better job or destroy the persons will to do the job. And is a badly done job, better than a job not done at all? Is a thirsty child being given a bottle of water, better than no children being given any water, at all?

Keeping questions in mind, letting them influence both how we deal with other questions, and our specific actions related to a specific question must therefore be the goal. Perhaps we can achieve this, perhaps we cant. Maybe if we stay with black and white, life will be easier, there will be more doing less thinking. But, is it any good to do, without thinking?

Pointless repatition of facts

Ok, So the Duck is blogging it from a class, about the Bible, specifically Acts. Quick Thought: Memorizing events is pointless. Learning why the Writer of Acts gave them to us is important. There were hundreds of people who died for the Church, why does it mention Steven first, beyond the fact that he might have been the first martyr? I mean the dudes greek, mighten that be important, as a Jew, Jesus died at the end of Luke? A greek dieing for a dead Jew? hmmmmmm....anywho got to go, hell is over. Leave some witty degrading remarks, preferably unrelated.

good timeing

So right after I post about not havening a phone, I go to the doctor. So tomorrow their going to call my g/f and tell her when my appointment is next week to get the pins taken out of my hand because I don't have a phone. Even if I had skype they couldn't call me.

So its been awhile...

So the only thing longer than this post-less streak is probably my non-calling streak brought on by my non-renewal of skype (yet). Not havening money coming into the semester meant no phone till I got payed. Well, now I have some bling, but it'll be a little longer before I renew cause I need to figure out how much money I need for ( hopefully) a post school trip to California. So right now I'm existing with no phone, thankfully the g/f is pretty understanding about me giving important people her phone number. Only problem with that of course is that if she goes somewheres out of touch ( no internet) and I get an important call, well, I won't get the call. The suggestion of a room phone sounded like a good idea at first, and then I figured out that a couple things. First, the people I would call would require a phone card, which I don't have, and skype is cheaper anyways, so if I'm going to plunk currency down, I'm going with skype. Second, no one really benifts from this phone. I'm not in my room a whole lot. The g/f suggested it as a good idea, which it would be, if her cell phone wasn't long distance. well here's to internet communication!

iDiot version2.0

So my sister was waxing philosophic about a tea bag I'd just taken out of my cup of tea. Something to the effect she thought it wasn't meant to be used for just one cup. This in NO Way insinuates I'm incapable of doing something as simple as making a cup of tea with screwing up. Nope. Not at all. On the more positive note, my family has a gift for being incredibly insulting without realizing it. Which makes it all my fault for being insulted. Yep.

Stupidly Smart

First post of the new year, ba da da de dum! So my school, in their effort to keep us all good boys and girls, has once again out done itself in , in idiocy. So the dorm I live in has a lobby. This lobby is usually open 24/7. Not this semester. In their effort to keep "untoward" things from happening on couches in front of glass windows ( untoward here equaling the sins off: sitting to close, putting your arm around your girlfriend, and horror of horrors heads being lane on shoulders, ahhhh, you're making babies!!!!!) after supervisors sign out for the night. So no offense, but this means that say, you want to hang out/watch a movie with your g/f (God Forbid). You have to find someplace un-OC supervised in any way. Which generally means alone time for you the g/f. The places to do this are few and far betwixt. All of the are dark. So, by forcing me out of your well lit, highly visible thorough fair, Oc, ( were all I wanted to do was talk) you've now forced me to rely on the places you can't control my behavior at all, places generally reserved for making out ( gasp, you'd think you were young and in love or something). Way to be. Glad you got my back. Snifff...I love my college.

iBrent= iDiot

Ok, so I just had to convince my family I really knew when my flight was leavening. Aparently airlines don't ever change there schedules, or say stuff like " A schedule change has occurred on your itinerary." Nope they never do that. If for some reason they did, I wouldn't know would I? I wouldn't be able to log on, check in, print out my itinerary and my e-receipt, either. Not a friggen' chance.

Christmas Wish list

anywho, need to post, so i decided to throw this up here.
Large hoody ( plural)- i have a medium and it works pretty well, but still has issues getting my hand in and out of it ( cast and all that), not to mention its now shrunk. It'll fit like a dress, but at least i'll have something to wear in the cold that i can get my hand into ( unlike my coats)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781593070946&itm=11
Hellboy:Seeds of Darkens
as far as i can figure this is the first Hellboy graphic novel. I like the art work and the movie, also raises some interesting questions about free will... not to mention he carries a freakin' big gun, and is sarcastic, which makes me happy
Books, clothes
well have a broken hand so i'll be seeing you.

Openmindedly closed minded

So another reflection on my Assembly-line theology class. So personally, I think the mans an douche, but whatever. So I was bracing myself for an Why Music in worship invites the devil to join us class. However, this ( thankfully) did not happen. He started with worship, and what he said about worship was amazing. I'm pretty sure I know his argument now ( music not being a way to worship cause it isn't mental and it being a distraction, not to mention it wasn't exemplified clearly by the early church so its therefore tabboo), but once I managed to put aside my innate dislike of what I knew he was going to say in the next class and listen to what he was saying. First, and it was actually the last point, was that worship isn't about getting, its about giving. I think worship is a bit more balanced, that you should give something and get something out of the service, but it seems to me a lot of people want instruments in a " contemporary" worship service cause a lot of times they turn the worship service into a bad rock concert and the service becomes about how entertained you are, and requires very little input by the chum in the pew ( which is also apealing cause people are naturally lazy) 'cuase the band is doing all the worship. Worship becomes about me and not about God and thats when worship ceases to happen. He also had this acrostic ( I hate stuff like this but the point was good, so we'll overlook the shitty method) P.A.C.E. P stands for Proclaim, A for adoration, C for confession, and E for encouragement of the saints. That is we proclaim stuff ( in our songs, communion, so forth), we adore God, we confess our needs and faults, and we encourage our fellow Christians. He went a bit deeper and was a bit more passionate and amazing than I was but it was good stuff. Not that i don't intend to get my five cents in next class and argue with him, but he's still has good stuff. Inf act it makes me sad that probably a lot of the class missed this cause they knew the crap he was going to say about music, so they missed the great stuff he said about worship. Reminds me of that verse that talks about Respecting old men. Sometimes I think my generation spends to much time on the stuff that old people got wrong and did wrong, as apposed to the stuff they really know right, and did great. I know I do. God helps us see the good in them, and the bad in us ( which incidentally we can change, as apposed to an old geezer who cant change cuase he's all set in his ways)

Job

So hopefully I have one. It's at the caf so I'm a little worried that when i go over tomorrow to fill out paper work, they'll be like, hey you can't do this unless you qualify for work studies. Well who knows. It'll net me ( minus takes, plus change) something like 45 bucks a week, which adds up to 90 bucks every two weeks, which should see my meager needs through till Christmas, hopefully with some in the bank for presents and doing stuff over the holidays cause i probably wont be working first week home ( g/f's coming with me for the first week). Think it might have helped that I mentioned that I've worked in a Deli, was a mop boy, and can bake. But, not sure. The extent of my actual conversation ( my "skills" were in an email with my schedule) was send me your schedule over email. Gets me out of chapel 3 days a week though. Pysched.

More low down on the major change

So, in a brief minute of lucidity, I was looking over my activities since coming to college. And I came to an interesting conclusion. Since coming here I have been in four plays, spent most of my time acting, in the scene shop, hanging out with the theater crowd, looking for props, in the costume shop, and in short basically orienting my life completely around acting. Kinda made me think that maybe I should change my major to what I'm actually doing. That and I don't have much aptitude in the bible side of things. I love my bible classes, and my teachers are amazing. I learn lots, am challenged constantly, but as one teacher wrote on a paper, my hermeneutic is sufficient ( besides off course, the stereotypical diatribe), my exegesis horrible and my grammar deplorable. Not to mention I have no global focus. I see people around me, and that most people ignore them for all the folks "over there". well I'm tired and the old bunk bed is calling me in sweet, dulcet tones.

The Unfaithfull amongst us

So I've been purveying blogs, specifically about tattoo's, for a play I'm going to submit to a ten minute play contest. Trying to get an idea what the Artist's actually think 'cause my main character is going to be a tattoo artist. But this isn't about my character, or my play, its about blogs. I have for the last thirty minutes swam through a host of blogs. Or rather could have been blogs that never got past a clever name and a hi, there, or maybe a welcome, then there was this clever one about crap. But do they get past the first post? Nope. The other blogs stopped in '05. apparently those among the blogging faithful are few ( ahem, not to pester some of my readers, but some of you don't post anymore, not even once a week). I, however am committed. I will continue to tell an uncaring world about my life. Makes me feel important. Gets me out of doing stuff. I mean, I'm developing my witting skills. Yes, thats what I meant.

Major Change

So very soon i'm going to be a theater major. Its just been a naging thought in the back of my head all semester, something along the lines of, " Brent, you'd actually be motivated if you were a theater major, if you had a theater class to go to next, you'd do better in the boring class your in right now." Not gonna lie, when the teacher said in comm 3 that we got to present our stuff to the class, i was really excited. I get to get up in front of people and talk. I get to act ( basically). That makes me happy. Writing papers about a subject that sounded good six weeks ago and now bores the heck out of me does not. I want to act. I need a stage. So i'm going to get one. I'd love to integrate missions into this somehow, but thats still on the drawing board.

Welcome to the Oc, this is Bob, on station S.N.A.F.U, broadcasting live from the World Mission's Workshop!

So, it made me laugh, as well as annoyed me. All the people in the caf were spiffed up, I'm pretty sure I saw a bow tie on one on a guy serving eggs. Who are they trying to kid? Oops, I mean pull the wool over the eyes off? Oh thats right, all the visiting smoe's from other colleges, they want them to think this is how it is everyday. However, there is also a practical side to this. The real reason their serving the eggs is because they want to control portions, so people don't take to much. Cuts down on cost. Not to mention slowing things down. All this freakin' personal sevice takes time. Example: Say this dude asks you how you are? you have to answer the magic question before you can get your eggs. Then you have to tell him what you want, then he has to serve them. I wouldn't be quite this irritated if I didn't know why we were having all this "exciting" extra service. Is it to much to ask for my damn eggs, no conversation, and let me get them myself like the big college boy that I am? Well, this is Bob, saying happy morning to all of you, broadcasting across the internets on station S.N.A.F.U, live from the World Mission's Workshop! Oh boy!

Global warming

Ok so I just almost read an artical, obviously not written by someone from the area, about global warming being the cause "waining" fall follage. Ok first and foremost, one freakin year means jack. Any vermonter will tell you that some years we have lots of leaves, sometimes we dont, it really depends on the frost and snow. Every so often we have a bad year. It just happens. Nothing earthshattering. It kinda like snow. Most of the time we have snow in the winter, sometimes we dont. One year doesnt mean the earth is about to explode. Not saying global warming doesnt exist, but that one year means nothing. Give me twenty years of statistics and I'll beleave you. well now I feel better. better get back to class.

Hot dogs, hordes of people, and stuff

So i pretty much spent the day putting buns on hotdog trays, putting hotdogs on buns. Ok so i did some setting up and cleaning up to. Yes, and a serious amount of hot dog eatage ( i'm thinking six or seven). So it was a give away to poor people. Funny thing, I'm not sure america actualy has them. Or at least, not in a reall desperate needy sort of way. I'm sure some of them must not have had cellphones, had to be some that didnt (I dont have a cellphone), but I didnt see any of those. Pretty sure some of them were illegal ( ironic that the police was there for security and crowd control). All of them had about four to many kids. Most of them drived. In decent cars no less. I feel like we were blessed, and we blessed, but after seeing Mexico, I've decided that on the whole, Americans are wimps. No offense to the really poor people, and I think Jesus would have been there grilling with us, feeding them, but America doesnt have any citties in which family's live in cardboard boxes and nothing else.

Hurray for no context

Context? Who really needs context? I mean it is really necessary? I mean when we can rip a bible verse out of setting, which makes it say the same thing as the other verse's we ripped out of context, life is just so much easier , isn't it? Sorry, I'm mad at me personal evangelism and a free car wash teacher. Once I reach 350 souls I get a WWJD bracelet. I'm so freakin' excited. Its got +20 conservative knucklehead theology. Yay for me.