All Hallow's Eve

I recently remarked on a friends blog that "if it were socially acceptable I would still walk door to door for some free candy". Halloween was always fun in my family, we dressed up, carved pumpkins, and never gave it much of a thought. When I was a Junior in High School, I remember some friends and I were carving pumpkins in my kitchen and one of the girls told us that it was the first time she ever made a Jack O'Lantern. She went on to say that her brother had always said her family didn't carve them because they "housed evil spirits". I hear the same sort of nonsense all the time at school or work, I suppose they are the people who are afraid Harry Potter is going to turn their kids into wizards/witches. When most likely they will spend their unimaginative adulthood grinding out a living wondering where their life went... yea, much better.

Tonight we are having a "Halloween Party" at the church, should have known we would get angry parents calling us. That's what you get for not calling it a "Harvest Festival", which, to be honest, is lame as hell considering all the average American is harvesting is hours in front of the TV. Not to mention, the Roman Catholic Church was trying to get away from the Samhain, which was a pagan Celtic harvest festival. That's one of the things I love about the early church, they saw a day that was devoted to a pagan practice or ritual and rather than protest they simply said, "Ok, November 1 is All Saints Day which encompasses the evening before... that's it. Also, December 25th is ours now too, so deal with it". That reminds me, today is also Reformation Day, yet another attempt, this time from the Protestant camp, to "take back Halloween". I wish more Christians would study their own history and maybe then they would chill out and worry about the stuff that really matters.

We had another Halloween party the other night. Another murder mystery which was set as a 20 year high school reunion. I was an 80's guy with my A Flock Of Seagulls haircut. Rachelle was the cheer captain. I also got best dressed for my beautiful hair and other 80's stylings.As I come to some sort of conclusion. Let your kids wear a costume, even a scary one if they want, let them go around in a safe neighborhood and get candy, and let them know what the day is really about. It isn't something we ought to fear, the only people who ought to be afraid are members of the ADA, it is merely another day that, like all before and after it, God has made, sustained, and in fact deemed good.

Budrow's Comin For Ya!

Last week Rachelle, Eric, and I traveled up to that mystic place known as Oregon. If only they would cut down all those obnoxious trees so that Portland can be filled with useless crap like LA. Maybe one day they will see the error of their ways.

Jeff, Elaine, and Eric with some beautiful girl hair while surfing the internet.
We went to a Cirque Du Soleil production called Delirium. The musicians and acrobats were pretty fantastic.
It has sort of become tradition to do a Halloween party while we are visiting, and this year was no different. We did a Clue mystery game where some people acted like Clue characters while others had to ask them quetions to figure out who killed Mr. Body. I was Prof. Plum and Rachelle was Agent Dana Scully.
Greg and Angela aka Mr. Green and Mrs. White getting some use out of that maid uniform.

Eric dressed up as a candlestick and almost suffered heat stroke from all the foil we wrapped around him. He sort of looks like a fururistic space chef in this picture.
Meanwhile , Elaine was a sheriff and Jeff dressed in his work uniform saying that he "worked for the government". But we all know that he is a fishmonger... the Shakespearean kind.
A good time was had by all. If you would like to read a bit more in depth about our stay then I suggest hitting up Eric's blog.

"Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut"

A fellow Blogger has posted a page devoted to the beauty often times locked away in a library.
"By 'library smut' I am in no way referring to the photo books on native peoples, or the illustrated health manuals, or any of the other volumes which, in your childhood, you lurked about the library aisle to find with the sole purpose of sneaking guilty glances at naked bodies. Nor am I referring to the 'risqué' novels by Miller, Cleland, Réage, or Lawrence you leafed impatiently through as a teenager. No. What I’m talking about here is the full-frontal objectification of the library itself. Oh yeah."

Not So Constant Gardener

There isn't a green thumb between Rachelle and I, but apparently our mere presence causes plants to spring up. A once bald patch of dirt in our backyard suddenly sprang to life, producing a plant we don't currently have in out yard. I'm not sure what it even is but the flowers it produces are beautiful. Maybe those gardeners out there can tell me the heck it is.

New Threads

I just made a second purchase from Threadless. Ohhhh yea.

Dad?















I love Fried Chicken, but I hate KFC. When you have eaten my Grandma's homemade fried chicken your whole life, nothing really compares.

I Like Trees Too















I was looking at my shirts that I ordered last time from Threadless and noticed that they had animals on them. I've always loved animals and in case you didn't know, I was a zookeeper for 4 years. Plus, giraffes are just plain cool.

In The Basement Of The Alamo















This ought to be an obvious joke to those in the know. But if you are like some people *coughEriccough* who didn't watch Pee-wee's Playhouse growing up then I suppose it's just dumb. This is actually a reference to the the movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure when Pee-wee seeks the counsel of a fortune teller to recover his lost bike. The fortune teller tells him his bike is in the basement of the Alamo but when he finally arrives at the Alamo the tour guide says, "There's no basement in the Alamo!".

A Spaceboy Retrospective















When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut, I even went to Space Camp. Here's to all those who dreamed of going to space.

Poetic Irony















What can I say... this design is amazing.

My Busiest Week Comes To A Close

All two of you that read these ramblings, Eric and Jen rock your socks off, might have noticed the blog hiatus the last 8 days. That's because this was the busiest week I've had in months. Last week I was busy with work and writing 2 papers that were due on Monday, then I had a midterm on Tuesday and another on Thursday. I went into work on Tuesday afternoon for a while, Wednesday I was at work from 11am to 10pm like normal, Thursday I was at work 7-9pm and the week culminated with Blitzfest.

We have been planning Blitzfest since the end of summer and it finally arrived last night, Friday October 13. Consequently, I just got home from cleaning up after Blitz. Blitzfest is a night of bands, rides, all you can eat pizza and drink soda, xbox tournament, student art show, and more going from 7-11pm. Three of the bands were local bands, Castle Black, Adora, and Repeat Repeat, and our headliner was A Static Lullaby. Actually members of Castle Black and Repeat Repeat go to WACC. Dragonforce (listen to this madness) was in the area recently and we joked about getting them to play, actually we discussed hijacking their bus and making them come. Anyway, I got to work at 10:30am and got to work setting up tables and chairs, hanging art, painting signs, stringing extension chords all over, setting up tvs and xboxs, etc. The other day we bought and transported 3,000 sodas to give out at Blitzfest and we ordered 300 pizzas from Little Cesars. I spent most of my time overseeing the Spiritual Direction area where we gave out hot chocolate, cookies, and talked with kids about life, God, whatever they wanted. It was a good night, we had around 800 kids turn out and we only had to kick out 2 people for being drunk. After the night was over we stayed to clean up until 1am, I'm beat. Time to go back to living like a hermit.

Friends Don't Let Friends Play World Of Warcraft

As many of you may know, I used to spend all my waking moments that I wasn't in class playing WoW. I played for over 1 1/2 years, had many level 60 characters on Alliance and Horde side. I was part of a raiding guild with my Night Elf Priest and then quit to do more PVP with my Troll Rogue. For those who might be wondering why I quit, the answer is simple. It was boring! When I played I was spending hours in BWL or hours in the Battlegrounds and the whole game became a giant grind. But I have to say that the Player Vs. Player was my favorite part, especially in the 40-49 bracket. There were some amazing players that stayed at level 49 on purpose so that we could all work over the Alliance. I'll toot my own horn and say that I was a terror. In fact, on the last day before my account expired I was giving away all my gold to newb Hordies and had a guy who fought against me say I used to piss off his entire team because they couldn't kill me. That was nice to hear.

But let me get to the point of this blog. South Park has gone and done the world a friggin service and cut this new episode called "Make Love, Not Warcraft". I had a youtube link that had the entire episode but now it's gone due to "copyright infringement"... blah blah blah. So here is a clip of the show and the kid's different WoW toons fighting a gamer that can bend the rules of WoW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEPMfDRGafg

"The Tree"

I wrote this story, which will be shown over many posts, quite a while ago. In fact its coming up on maybe 2 years, before I read any of Tolkien. I say that because I remember when I had Eric read it he said it was Tolkienesque. At first it was only this section with a different ending, but then I decided to expand it and as you will see it turns into something more akin to Douglas Adams.

I saw the tree. Old, dark, barren of leaves and mossy from its dilapidated life deep in the forest. It was the only one of its kind left, surrounded by new birth all around as saplings and seedlings clamored close around the base of its thick, bulbous trunk. Smooth cobblestone littered the soil next to the raised roots of the tree where once flowed a brook through the forest… but no more. Empty now, the tree had seen to that. The rocks like small tombstones are the sole reminder of the long war raged between the elements. The tree had grown enormous from victory, depriving the others of the life giving liquid that it took for granted. Slowly the forest surrounding the tree had begun to darken, the bright colors of the seasons no longer flashed with the vibrancy that they once did. The greed of the tree was slowly killing them off. And as the years passed, as they often do to a forest like a blink of the eye, the tree’s strangle hold began to slip through its splinters. A great drought had overtaken the land and not even the Tree was able to withstand the unrelenting heat, yet the forest began to live again. At any moment the tree’s roots, which spread tentacle-like along the topsoil, were ready to soak up even the smallest drop of rain. For years it had soaked up the easily gathered water until all its roots were at the surface. Meanwhile the rest of the forest deepened its roots hoping to live another day. And their hope was not in vain. Digging, churning, never ceasing the forest had found the one thing that they thirsted for the most. The brook that had seemingly been obliterated on the surface above by the Tree had merely gone into hiding and found a new home deep beneath the earth. Icicles of rock hung from the ceiling of the cave, the evidence of the refugee raindrops that battled their way deep beneath the earth. Forming over a thousand years from a single drop of water, the cave was now a powerful, rushing river. It would eventually find it’s freedom some hundreds of miles later when it reached the deep blue sea. And in the midst of it’s great escape it unwittingly nourished the forest above. All except for the Tree, of course, which stood in opposition to all, including me.

(Originally it ended here with something like this: I straightened up and casually swung the axe, whose handle had been supporting my weight, onto my shoulder. And as I beheld the great Tree I knew... this would be a warm winter.)

to be continued...

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Nintendo recently announced the release date for their upcoming game console, the Nintendo Wii. It will hit the American market November 19, this will be the first time Nintendo released in America before Japan. I have to say that I'm pretty excited about the realease and I'm sure the Wii is going to demolish the Xbox 360 and PS3.

So in honor of the upcoming release, and my desire to have as many useless widgets as I can possibly find, I downloaded the Wii release date widget. It ticks off the seconds, minutes, hours, and days until November 19. Yea, yea, I'm a nerd, I know. I miss the good ol' days when I got my first Nintendo for Christmas. A few years later upgrading to the Super Nintemdo. Then marveling at the Nintendo 64's 3D capabilities and first-person views. I think it's funny that the first console the High School kids I work with played was the 64. They don't know the gaming heritage they're missing... I didn't even get into the Atari 2600 days.

44 Days, 22 Hours, 6 Minutes, 11 Seconds Left

The Jublin

... continued from "Frankie Says Relax"

As I type, the professor makes jokes as he teaches that has the class in stitches; I’m not laughing. This is all well and good except that it makes certain students want to join in on the act.

The man sitting next to me keeps making jokes to the class, usually in response to the Prof’s jokes. But he isn’t quite loud enough, so it ends up that I’m one of the only people who can hear it and he keeps looking at me to laugh at them or give him some sort of emotional pat on the back. I haven’t acknowledged him in the slightest yet, I keep looking at the screen. Don’t make that eye contact he so desperately needs.

He just did it again, I swear. From now on I’m going to refer to him as “Jublin”.

Jublin almost did it again, he stopped himself and made a “ugh” noise. Maybe he has given up.

I sort of feel like an ass. I could give Jublin a reassuring smile or courtesy laugh, I think that’s what Jeff would do. I’m not sure why I don’t. I could sit in the middle of the class and be close to people; I’m not sure why I don’t. Other than Jublin, the closest person is at least a desk length away and I am in the furthest corner in the back of the room. I do have a few “school friends”, which are people I talk to at school but never hang out with outside of school, but I’m satisfied with the rest remaining among the nameless masses.

Jublin is at it again.

Jublin just referred quite loudly that someone is “whacked”. You can’t make this stuff up.

Class is coming to an end. In 2 hours and 40 minutes I haven’t gotten up or said a single word, took a few notes and wrote out some musings. Now is the most difficult moment to avoid social discourse… packing up chitchat. Most people after sitting quietly for nearly 3 hours need some sort of release or interaction, often times this is when a man like Jublin might venture to start a conversation. I, however, have had nearly 7 years of experience in avoiding people, so I pack up my belongings with all swiftness and am out the door. Success.

It Will Be Mine. Oh Yes. It Will Be Mine.

If you haven't gone to my Threadless link then do so straight away. This little beaut is in the running for a contest and I hope it wins because I can almost feel it on my malnourished frame. If they don't pick this shirt... well I may do something drastic.

Frankie Says Relax

I have never felt very relaxed amongst my fellow students at Biola. I was never in to the same music, movies, or whatever they considered fun. I welcomed new thoughts on the Bible and God to consider, I weighed them and came up with my own ideas and because of that was called on more than one occasion a “heretic”. I was always too liberal for Biola and still am for Talbot, but according to the liberal scholars I’m still a flaming rightwing conservative. The fact that believe the Bible to be inspired by God and inerrant would send the seminary students at Duke, or some other liberal school, into a frenzy of haughty scoffing.

I had a difficult time with this when I was an Undergrad at Biola. I went through many depressing times, the only thing that kept me at Biola, and sane, were my friends. I remember one time in a New Testament Theology class the professor said something, for the life of me I can’t remember what we were even talking about, and I remember being dumbfounded in unbelief at his statement. I looked around the room in hopes to see other like myself in unbelief, but all I saw were nodding heads entranced with whatever drivel he was spilling. I find it humorous that going to a private Christian university made me more cynical than when I first got there. But, to give credit where credit is due, the greatest thing that Biola taught me in 4 years was this… to think for myself. When I first got to Biola I simply regurgitated whatever my professors told me word for word, it’s much easier than thinking it over. However, a necessary consequence of this is that you will butt heads with the majority, many of which are people who accept all they’re told never having given it a thought. I’d rather be the black sheep than the blind sheep.

To be continued...