My Spaceship Knows Which Way To Go

The semester is in full swing now, hence the lack of posts the last 10 days. Instead of writing to you, I was writing up a Greek assignment for Mark 1:1-13 that took around 15 hours to complete. Keep in mind, this is not a major assignment. One of these bad boys is due each week. I plan on spending the majority of tomorrow holed up in the library working on this weeks as well as getting ready to teach on Sunday.

There has actually been a lot going on. Many big changes could be around the corner. I find myself currently waiting on others in order to be able to make those decisions. That's the worst part. I will no doubt allude to them in some later posts.

*Awe Inspired Silence*

As if the world needed another reason to love Cadbury and their delicious chocolate, they went out and did this...


I was literally speechless with delight.

Malawi

I got kind of sidetracked last night while writing the "Blitzfest Malawi" post because Rachelle and I were watching Friends. There were some other things that I wanted to add and then I just forgot.

There are many questions that have to be answered before you can even start to help people in need.

How do you choose where to begin your work? Is the organization that you are going through credible? What percentage of the money you raise will go directly to the people you are trying to help? There are people all over the world in need, which makes the task seem daunting. We will be partnering with a group called Y Malawi? The reason that the High School Ministry chose to work n Malawi was because of a bond previously made through our church.

The sad truth is that over 4,000 children die everyday from preventable illnesses. In order to do our part to help in this crisis, our church partnered with African Bible College and in particular the ABC Community Clinic in Lilongwe, Malawi. This clinic sees 3,000 people every month, many of which are infected with the AIDS virus. The clinic wanted to build a pediatric ward to help with the growing number of children they were seeing but did not have the funds. We were told a few months before Christmas that it would cost $300k to build the new ward. Slightly disheartened by the sum that we wanted to raise by the end of the year, we moved forward anyway in an effort to prepare the congregation and push for what seemed impossible in the time we had. On Christmas day we took our Malawi offering, unsure what would happen as Bill asked for a miracle from the pulpit.

Part of the etymology of the word miracle is "to smile", which sounds funny at first but just makes sense when you think about it. That Christmas day we raised just over a half a million dollars, $568, 979.15 for you sticklers out there. Checks have been sent and construction has begun on a 40 bed pediatric ward as well as building a house for a new doctor that they are praying will join staff soon. Dr. Boersma runs the clinic in Malawi and you can visit his website or see a video about what they are doing here.

I often think about what is in store for Rachelle and I. Rachelle has talked about taking a leave from work to go into the mission field, I guess I could tag along with her. Nurses and teachers are needed in all kinds of communities and I'm sure we could go wherever we wanted to help. Right now we are trying to do our part from here, we just started sponsoring a little girl from, yup, Malawi through World Vision.

Maybe some day we'll be in Malawi too.

Blitzfest Malawi

I've been working on a poster for our upcoming "Blitzfest Malawi" event for a while now and I'm finally fairly satisfied with it. Here it is:

For those who don't know, Blitzfest is a one of the largest events we at the High School Ministry put on each year. We pretty much take the entire month of September to get it all together while still doing the day to day stuff. Last year we had a student art show, an xbox tournament, rides, and 5 hardcore bands of which the headliner was A Static Lullaby. We usually get around 1,000 students at the event, many who have never stepped foot on the grounds of a church; which is the whole point of the night. This year though we have a bit different purpose.


All the proceeds of this years Blitzfest will be used to bring clean water to the people of Malawi, Africa. In developing countries around the world getting water is a daily struggle. Women and children spend 2/3 of their day walking miles to wells that dispense dirty, contaminated water and then walk the long road home with 40 pound jugs. Blitzfest is part of a larger project in which we will be raising $10,000 to build four wells for needy communities. These wells will serve hundreds of people a day with clean water and allow women/children to go to school rather than fetching water.

We're excited about the months ahead.

The Biola Years Vol. 4

As I wrote previously, Stewart Hall had many traditions. They were also big supporters of "community life" and, when it came to the guys, "how to be men" meetings.

I was not a fan of either.

Looking back, I feel a bit bad for what we put our RD through... but then again he did bring a lot of it on himself. Our second year, the RD changed the name of our floor from "The Shire" to "MUNG". We were not pleased. At the beginning of the year, all of Stewart Hall participates in a Survivoresque meeting on the field at night with torches. Every floor was called to attention by their RA who would announce the name of the floor to resounding cheers of all those on that particular floor. It was a wonderful time, full of bonding, and then it got to... MUNG. When we were called upon there were no cheers or shouts, just a lone chinaman named Paul Mattews clapping at an interval of about one clap every 4 seconds and a few guys throwing "the horns". As we left the cult meeting, we passed by our RD who shouted at us, "Men of MUNG!". I figured he wanted a response of equal volume, so as I passed about 1 foot away from him I shouted, "WE'RE THE SHIRE!" and continued walking on. It was a night that would live in infamy.


Later in the semester there was one of the many "How To Be Men" meetings, or what I called "Real Men Spit And Growl" or "I Read Too Much John Eldredge" meeting, that was supposed to be mandatory for all guys. I think I'd take castration over becoming what they thought men ought to be like. It was my responsibility, my duty if you will, to keep The Shire safe. I was the elder and "Godfather" of the floor; believe it or not I was looked to for guidance. Papers were taped to all the doors advertising the upcoming meeting. When I saw the papers, I knew what must be done. When I walked outside my door I ripped the paper off, balled it up, and threw it on the ground right outside the door so that people would know there was disapproval and that they had not simply been brought inside. As I walked to class I stopped at each door and did the same for each of my brothers on the floor. Jeff would tell me later that when he came back after class, our RD was there beholding the carnage. Jeff stopped to watch him bend down, grab an advertisement that had been tossed by the wayside, turned to Jeff and asked, "Who would do such a thing?".

You think it would have been obvious.

More fun with the RD another time.

NYPL Digital Library

I ran across this the other day while looking for inspiration with design projects.

The New York Public Library has digitized over 550,000 images in their possession including manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. If you have the time, I suggest spending some time perusing the images.

The Biola Years Vol. 3

Eric, Jeff and myself lived in a dorm called Stewart. Stewart was one of the older dorms and had many traditions; traditions that were forced upon unwitting students like myself that just wanted to be left alone. Under the pretense of “bonding”, many floors did things at the beginning of each year that were usually dumb or disgusting. The floor called “Lemonheads” would eat whole lemons, the floor HoM would chug milk and throw up, the dorm as a whole would participate in the “kilt run” where they ran around campus once a year in boxers.

I did none of these things, and I’m a better person for it.

My first year in Stewart was 2001, a watershed year in cinema as “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” was released. Our floor had been re-named “The Shire” in honor of it. The best way to describe our floor is to use a quote from Old Ben Kenobi, “The Shire: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious”. It was as if Biola had intentionally taken all the sarcastic, cynical, best people and hid them on our floor. We started some illegal poker nights, at least twice a week we’d be playing cards. Those nights would evolve into biannual no limit hold’em poker tournaments, with hundreds of dollars at stake. If we weren’t playing cards, we were in Hollywood going to Amoeba Records and Roscoe’s House of Chicken N Waffles. Or at the Troubador to see Hopesfall, Coheed And Cambria, From Autumn To Ashes, Thrice, any of a plethora of bands. And if we weren’t at any of those places, you would find us at our computers playing Starcraft and Diablo 2 for hours upon hours on end. Going to Taco Bell at 1am, buying 20 tacos and eating them all while watching “Shanghai Noon”… always “Shanghai Noon”. This was our bonding time, relationships that I still hold dear, made through the non-sanctioned events and practices of Biola. Homework was done somewhere in there too, I think.

More about Stewart tomorrow.

The Biola Years Vol. 2

For some reason Jeff owned a rubber ball named Mr. Strawberry. It was the size of a normal dodge ball, red, a face painted on it, it’s named printed on the back, and it had a scent. The smell made you think the manufacturer had a picture of a strawberry and guessed what it must smell like, since he himself had never actually seen one in the flesh.

One night, Jeff and I watched one of the best movies ever made, “The Shawshank Redemption”. Afterward, Jeff decided to take a shower while I sat alone on the couch with Mr. Strawberry. As Jeff showered, I recalled a certain part of the movie where Andy Dufresne goes into the prison shower and is confronted by Bogs who, in an ever so nice way, let’s Andy know he plans to rape him. Inspired as I was, I grabbed Mr. Strawberry, went into the bathroom, and placed him above the shower door so his face was looking down at Jeff’s disgustingly naked body.

Then the callous Mr. Strawberry said to Jeff:
“Hey, anybody come at you yet? Anybody get to you yet? Hey, we all need friends in here. I could be a friend to you. Hard to get. I like that...”

By the end of the night Mr. Strawberry had been defaced. A bubble shot from his mouth with the words “I could be a friend to you” oozing out his horrible cheshire grin. On the back his name had now been changed to “Gay Mr. Strawberry” and below it Red’s quote stood etched as a reminder for all to see: “Bull queers take by force. It’s all they know or want”.

Sadly, Gay Mr. Strawberry would eventually find his demise one night while trying to force himself on Jeff. He got too close to Fenchurch, our stuffed puffer fish, and expired shortly after. He was soon replaced by Mr. Grape… but we were never the same.

The Biola Years Vol. 1

I was thinking over my time at Biola University.

Those were simpler times. Now that I think about it, I realize now that I haven’t talked much about my years at Biola with anyone other than Rachelle and those who were friends at the time. We didn’t do any partying, drinking, or any of that stuff. We were more the cynical underbelly that dwelt just below the, often times, fake facade of Christianity.

When I say we, I mean Jeff Eckmann, myself, and the intrepid Eric Sorensen. So, I plan on starting to disclose certain tidbits from the past so that everyone can feel the joy and because it’s funny (at least to us it was). Thus begins a blog series…

Jeff and I knew each other only slightly when we became roommates. It was sort of awkward in the beginning. I think the thing that galvanized our friendship in those early stages was Trance. (I just lost bout half the readers I bet). Jeff explained Trance music to me and, to his surprise, I understood and enjoyed the music. He would go on to have the most spectacular catalog of electronic music at Biola, to which I contributed a bit. One day as we drove back to Biola from Best Buy, we saw a banner over a door that said “Free Trance”. We both did a double take, bemused at where this musical gold was, apparently, being given away to the public. The building in question was the auspicious “Taboo Gentleman’s Club”, where fine young women dance naked for money. We looked at each other, the question on our minds was obvious. But before it could be asked, a breeze caught the banner which had been hanging limply revealing a much needed “En”. Assuring the customers that there was “Free Entrance”, not the music stylings of Paul Van Dyk. We both laughed and then I asked Jeff the question that was on both our minds: “So, would you have gone in for free trance??” his response “Yes, yes I would have”.

It’s been 5 years since I lived with one Jeffery O’Brian Eckmann as an Undergrad at Biola University. I guess the nostalgia comes from the fact that very soon we will be roommates once again. Jeff has been offered an internship at the Aquarium Of The Pacific and if he takes it, then he will be staying with Rachelle and I for 15 weeks.

Pray for Rachelle.

Audiobooks

While bouncing around the world wide web tonight I stumbled upon a website full of public domain audiobooks called LibriVox. I already downloaded Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice and Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. They have quite a large catalog to choose from including: Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Dante's Divine Comedy, Homer's The Odyssey, Melville's Moby Dick, and more.

Enjoy.

It's Strange...

Last week I turned 26. Yes, one of those inconsequential birthdays that only mark the unstoppable progression toward... 30 *gulp*. The day came and went and I barely thought about it, unlike last year when I turned 25 and had a minor "quarter century crisis". That year I wrote what can only be called a treatise on my life with emphasis on ways not to make the same mistakes I did.

This year was a bit different. One thing that I did spend a while thinking about was how this year marks 10 years that I have known, dated, been engaged, and married to Rachelle. And that in a few short years we will have been together longer than we have been a part. That's pretty crazy to think about.

New Threadless Threads

It's been a while since I purchased anything from Threadless. Frankly, nothing had jumped out at me until recently. Here are some newer shirts that I couldn't pass up.

The Swirl Of The WorldI liked this one from the second I saw it. It's a complex design yet simple in it's execution. I love the tiny little submarine firing the tiny little torpedo!

Parable Paranoia
I love the olive color, the gold foiling around the border, and the fairytale theme. The picture is huge and on an American Apparel shirt. I was just reading that some people have said the image faded after wishing, which I hope won't be the case. I just washed it, I guess we'll see.

Poker Hand Values
When I wear this one around I look like I belong in the Queen Of Hearts' card army from Alice In Wonderland. I can't wait to wear it the next time I go play poker at the casino. This shirt probably grabs the most attention of any of my Threadless shirts. I actually caught a guy taking a picture of me on his camera phone as I sat in a waiting room. The image cover the entire shirt and is printed in a thick, puffy ink.

Go buy some shirts, and make sure to do it from my link so I get free credit!

Hume Lake

I will be heading off to Hume Lake in a few hours with the High School group. This summer the theme is based around the Book of Daniel.... only with Vikings instead of Babylonians.

YAAAARAGGGHHHH!!! VIKINGS!!!

Wait, do Vikings say, "YAAAARAGGGHHHH!!!" or is that only Pirates? Whatever the case, Pirates, Ninjas, and Vikings agree... Cowboys suck.

See you in a week.

More Adobe

As part of my ongoing trek into the uncharted waters of Adobe, I began to play around with Adobe Illustrator tonight. While the principles seem simple enough, I'm still far away from ever figuring out the finer details. Tonight I made Rachelle a flower. It's a vector flower but a flower all the same. Next she will want a vector bouquet.



I think I must have saved it improperly because when I tried to transfer it into Photoshop I didn't have much ability to mess with it.





I was, however, able to do this.












It's still a work in progress.

What I Do At Work

I've always wanted to have Photoshop on my computer but the price was way too steep. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on a copy of Adobe Creative Suite CS3, which can go for $1700, from work.

I thought I'd share some of the stuff I've been making at work as I learn how to use the software.

Go Read A Book

A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. ~Franz Kafka

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. Many do not even graduate from high school.

58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.

42% of college graduates never read another book.

80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

57% of new books are not read to completion.

Stats found at http://www.parapublishing.com

Advertising Helps Me Decide

The Steve has a shirt that proudly explains "Advertising Helps Me Decide". Just how much does advertising influence us?

Viva La Computadora

My beloved, my firstborn, died Friday night rather unexpectedly...

Yes, my 12" Powerbook decided to eat itself the other night. They say children are the image of their parents, and this case seems to prove it. Annoyingly, it decided to croak at pretty much the worst possible moment for me. Pretty much giving me the middle finger. You see, it decided to bite the dust as I was finishing up what I would be teaching on Sunday which meant that I had to retype a bunch of stuff on Saturday. I wasn't pleased. The culprit of this catastrophic system failure? According to the computer demigods, The Steve and The Eric, my video RAM and logic board are kaput. Most likely due to the high levels of heat that have been associated with the laptops. It used to get extremely hot during gaming, video editing, even just having Microsoft Word and iTunes open.

The sad thing was that it had just met it's new younger brother. Little Pan is new to our household and yet we love him so very much.

Let me introduce Panasonic's new 50" plasma TV displaying in 1080p. That right there is a little game we like to call Gears Of War which looks phenomenal in HD. I've also been playing Super Mario Bros. on it, in all of it's pixelated glory. The Koopa Troopas are like the size of my fist!

Rachelle and I are back to sharing a computer at the moment. Sometimes I browse the internet on the Wii but that Opera browser on there has been a bit buggy. Hopefully I will soon be posting about a replacement child in the near future.

I Welcome Our New Rulers

Have you ever looked into the face of a god and said to yourself, "I think I could take'em!"? Perhaps I spin of the impossible. Not because there is no god, but rather because we have set them up so that it would be impossible; and therefore have already lost if we were ever put in a position where it would be essential to, to use the common vernacular, "bodog a god".

Let's set our sights lower then. Maybe not a "god" per se, perhaps a demigod. A man or woman with a fiery look about them that you knew was not of this earth. Certainly there was some sort of cosmic knocking of the boots that hewed them from their fleshy progenitors. Have you ever looked into the face of a demigod and said to yourself, "I think I could take'em!"? Of course you have. I don't believe there is a man, woman, or child on the planet who hasn't. The reason: handguns.

The 28th Amendment clearly states that, "Every citizen able, willing or not, to carry a handgun must do so in order to thwart the ever increasing threat of demigods aka 'freaks'". It is our moral and national obligation to send these sons and daughters of the pantheon back to Hades... with extreme prejudice. What? You say the complex loading mechanism is too difficult for your toddler to handle? If The Simpsons have taught us anything, it's that a piece of wood with a nail in it is sufficient to drive away an evil alien overlord. Even sharpening their beloved linkin logs into miniature stakes can be an effective tool.

Don't think of it as an obligation, it is though, rather think of it as a joyful expression of patriotism. Nothing says "God Bless America" like a decapitated Cupid at your feet. You may be thinking what I'm thinking. Whose going to clean up all this blood and the sheer volume of limbs strewn about? A recently discovered avian species, pigeonis giganticus, are being sailed into port. One Longshoreman was quoted to have said, "Whooooaa, that's a big pigeon". He later slipped and fell into one of the bird's droppings which was the size of a Buick. His memorial will be held Friday.

The Whale Spat Me Back Out

The rustling of keys is heard along with muffled profanity from outside the door.

The door finally squeaks open, displaying an emaciated gentlemen with a bowler cap under one arm and fist tightly clinching the handle of a worn, leather attache case.

He stumbles into his living room, tripping over the steamer trunk he used for a coffee table. It was all he had to use since Marigold left him.

Collecting himself, he surveyed the surroundings that he had once know so well. Now foreign to him.

He straightenedup, which to the casual observer had the effect of an increase in height no less than one half inch, and said, "I havn't always been faithful. I have, in fact, behaved rather caddishly. But, we will always have each other."

It was obvious he had been rehearsing the speech, but the room was happy none the less.