Jaybrams.com

Not that I owe it to any of you but because I want you to know… I’m still “undecided” and plan on watching the convention speeches along with a few other vids over the next several weeks. Of course, then we’ll have the debates and all that jazz and I’ll have ample opportunity to make my decision. Yes, I lean twoards Obama, but there’s no finality to it.

During the primaries i took a quiz at govote.com, but I don’t recall the outcome. Last thursday I did the same and the results were surprising… It said I matched up 43% with Obama and 43% with McCain… that doesn’t really help much. I played with some of the questions where I was wish-washy (only about 5) and neither candidate got above 48%. The largest gap was 43% Obama, 33% McCain…I don’t know how much stock I can put into this site, but it was an interesting 45 minutes of my life (that also caused a couple of small civil arguments with Blake).

In anycase, I guess it comes down to what I think is most important based on where I am in my faith and in my life. I wonder, though, if fellow Christ followers are willing to let me decide what those issues are and respect the decisions… hmm… not so sure on that yet. I’ve been vocally called a “gay lover” (it was sarcastic, but still applies) and “unbiblical” and can guess some of the other terms thrown around, perhaps not about me specifically but about Christians who tend to lean towards Obama… Murderer, naive, uneducated, sheep, and *gasp* Socialist! …

I’ve got a draft working called “beyond the status quo” which is a list of things thing I generally tend to feel somewhat differently about than most Christ followers. I don’t know if I’ll post it or not… I’m not ashamed of it (and talk openly about them when the issues come up in person), but I don’t know if it benefits any thing to put it out here. But let me end my clarification by echoing the first line of the draft:

Can we not just put the flame throwers down and work together for the common good of God’s kingdom?

Thanks

Popularity: 32% [?]

Category : Church, Culture, Current Events, Politics

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I don’t educate myself enough on politics and have never voted in any election for a reason… God’s sovereignty. I know that is a bad excuse and we should be responsible with our vote and our privilege that so many people around the world don’t have… yada yada yada. But this year has been different in a weird way … I’ve still not educated myself to the degree I need to in order to make a responsible vote, but I somehow get sucked in to the political vacuum whenever the subject arises. And boy do I get riled up…

Two things are helping my sanity:

1) Rick summarizes the most level headed thing I’ve read about politics in a while:

Two groups of intelligent people watching the same coverage and hearing the same speeches, but hearing vastly different things, I think, based mostly on your own opposing perspectives.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that everyone else must be idiots for disagreeing with me. I’m fairly intelligent, I heard this or saw that and of course made the correct assumptions and analyses, right? You do it, too, wondering how anyone else missed what was so blatantly true in your mind. Two same intelligent people see the same thing, hear the same thing, and somehow come to opposing “truths”. How does this happen?

As much as we all hate to admit it, there is intelligence on both sides of this political argument. I know not everyone who disagrees with me is an idiot… i know there are glaring issues with Obama the guy I support, just as there are glaring issues on the other side. Yet, we all get all loud and demonstrative when someone sees things from a different angle… even if none of us are educated… we make claims that we supposedly “know without a doubt” but we’re usually just regurgitating it second hand from Ron Suskin or Glenn Beck (not that there is anything wrong with regurgitation, birds and pregnant women do it all the time)… At the end of the day, though, it’s just perspective and I can live with whatever yours is…

2) When all else fails, i throw the headphones on and head over to Pandora.com for a bit of the “mellow mix” if i need to calm my nerves, or the “alt rock” if i want to feed the fire.

Anything else i should be doing?

Popularity: 36% [?]

Category : Culture, Current Events, Politics, Quotable

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The Olympics have always been a big deal in our family. It was the only time during the school year I was allowed to stay up late, summer or winter, and we spent hours watching and chatting about the ongoings in every event, large or small. I’ve struggled with sleeping problems for as long as I could remember, so it was common to find me up at two or three in the AM watching things unfold live even as recently as Athens. Over the past couple of years my old age caught up with me and I’m barely able to make it through the prime time showings this year, but this weekend it was still NBC/MSNBC/CNBC/USA from wake-up through lights-out.

Only four days in and there is so much to talk about: the opening ceremonies; the tragic murder of the volleyball coach’s family; last night’s amazing Men’s 4×100 relay; Russia and Georgia escalating to a war; Chinese humanitarian issues; George Bush’s presence…. I could go on and on.

At the very least, Bush was spot on last night when he told Bob Costas (paraphrasing) that it is important for us to remain engaged with China despite our differences and disagreements. We have a better chance at being a positive influence in reforming the authoritative nature of their government and their poor humanitarian track record if we build an amicable relationship between our governments. We’re dealing with a major powerhouse who is still “up-and-coming” in modern power / politics. I know we want to think we live in a world that is above expansion through force, but we’re not. WWII was about expansion of power. Even in our short history it was only 100 years ago we got into with Spain over Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the like and only 150 years ago that we wrestled away much of the south from Mexico. *sigh*….

I know i’m getting far too historical on your rears (perhaps even out of my league) and losing half my audience to boredom… but I can’t help but see a shift of world power taking place over the last several years; not necessarily a shift towards China, but certainly away from America. The view of America has quickly taken a turn for the worse world wide. If there is one thing I’ve learned in my World Civ classes these past two semesters, most “world powers” only remain the world power for about 300 years… lets see… 2008-1776= 232 years of dominance…. hmmmm…. I don’t think the decline is going to reach its peak (or… valley i guess) in my life time, but “soon;” I also think it will look more like Britain’s decline, where we are not destroyed by any means, just less of a force politically and influentially around the world but not so much that we can’t rebuild our influence, much like Britain has done. I hope I’m wrong on all accounts… I hope we can recognize our shortcomings and rebuild from this point rather than falling further into decay. There is still so much good in what we are and what American is supposed to stand for, but I fear we are blinded by green (i’m talking economic green, not environmental green) and perhaps by our own sometimes-hidden-sometimes-blatant elitist attitude.

blech… rambling too much as it is and about to get into other things that would just convolute this site… stuff about “illegal” immigrants, American pride, the war in Iraq and such… I guess seeing what China is doing and reading up a (very) little bit on the Russia/Georgia conflict got my mind to wandering again… struggling with the whole concept of American Identity vs Christian Identity vs American-Christian Identity.

So, anyways, I haven’t had any Dr. Pepper since Friday and I started the hundred push up challenge… Go me!

Popularity: 43% [?]

Category : Culture, Current Events, Empyreal, Family, Politics

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I brought this up a while back, but i should probably say it again:

I … am … fat(ish).

Dang it! See… i can’t even write it correctly. *sigh*… anyway, i’m overweight, it’s causing issues in several areas of my life (though obviously not in the baby making part of life *HIGH FIVES GUYS AROUND HIM*!), and its getting old fast. More accurately, its aging me fast. I have a few problems that a 27 year old shouldn’t have such as really jacked up knees flaring up over the course of this summer.

My lack of discipline is nine four fold:

* I love me some Pizza and Dr. Pepper (and cheese, mexican food, etc).
* I’m lazy when it comes to working out. I’m not lazy in every area of my life, but this is one of them. I enjoy working out, I just don’t enjoy the sweat and the working part of it. I like the adrenaline, though.
* My dad is fat(ish). I know that isn’t nice to blame it on genetics, but he didn’t exactly provide a good example for me growing up. I love him deeply, but he missed the boat on this one.
* My mom loves me too much. She does, and thats great. Growing up she made me eat my veggies, but nachos and quesadillas weren’t off limits when i was fending for myself. Now she tells me I need to lose weight, but her fridge is always stocked with DP despite the fact that she doesn’t drink DP (mom, i know you read… stop buying stuff for me…).
* I don’t really believe i’m fat. I believe i’m overweight and need to lose weight, but not to the degree of many people that I know, see and work with every day. As long as I think like this, its too easy to ignore.
* I work a desk job. In high school i wasn’t some buff athlete, but i was active. Street B-Ball, riding bikes, and general screwing around (TPing your pastors house is quite the aerobic workout… especially when your Youth Pastor thinks it’s funny to lay on the horn and drive off).
* My cardiovascular system sucks… and blows, but doesn’t do either very well. I know, it’s because i’m fat(ish), but I can’t do as much during exercise that I want to do, which discourages me and makes me feel like a loser. Who wants to feel like a loser?
* Xbox 360, PS2, and Freekick.org are far more entertaining than a punching bag (although of the workouts I have available, i do enjoy the heavy bag the most). When I have free time away from work, school, and family, these things call my name louder than exercise… almost like an addiction.
* Jesus didn’t work out. I’m going to toe the Church of Christ line here and say since it’s not mentioned other than in an analogy in the new testament, than it’s sinful (i.e. - instruments in church). He probably didn’t have to work out, he walked everywhere and built awesome stuff with his hands… and you know, he’s God… but lets not worry about that, okay?

If you could fight through the stricken text above, you know the real reason, don’t you? I don’t take responsibility for my lack of discipline. I blame my situation, my surroundings, my upbringing, and everything but myself. But I have a plan; some of it you will see on here, starting with the One Hundred Pushup challenge that my bloggin’ buddy Blake threw down. We’re rolling with it this weekend.

Today, the fat me is dying, and the new me is emerging…

WHO’S WITH ME!?!

(cheers and applause, feet stomping and fist pumping, all that revolutionary jazz fills the air)

Good… now lets get started! … just as soon as i finish this Dr. Pepper.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Category : Culture, Enabling, Family, Fatness, Friends, Me Dang It!

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Movies don’t generally live up to their hype anymore, and as a result I don’t get excited about movies or the pricetag that comes with seeing them as a new release. If we do make it to the theater, you can bet on it being a dollar flick. I know the experience isn’t up to par and sometimes the reels are dirty or whatever, but it’s a fraction of the cost and the movie still works.

Then the Dark Knight came along…

I wanted to see it, but i’m callous towards any public hysteria about a movie. I know it’s setting records, I know Heath Ledger supposedly does the most amazing acting job in the last 3.2 million years or something, but it’s just another comic book movie (which are getting old) getting far too much rave reviews for me to get all hot and heavy over. Understand, of all the movies out it’s what i want to see the most, but I just have this fear that it’s not going to live up my expectations based on everything I’ve heard. I have a tendency to fight the norm anyway… sometimes for no reason at all… it’s stupid, i know, butthat’s how i roll, dog… just keepin it real, yo… just manny being manny…

anyway… date night Friday, neither of us wanted to do anything too active so bowling was out as was dave and busters… Nothing good on at the cheapie theaters and I was off early enough for us to beat the crowd and go to the 5:35 showing of The Dark Knight, so I gave in.

I’ll spare you the suspense…

That… was… freakin’… awesome. Probably the best movie I’ve seen in theaters since Gladiator, and it immediately jumps near the top of my personal favorite all time movies (just to keep you in perspective, i’m pretty much into epics or dark movies. Probably the only non-epic, non-dark movie on the top of my list would be Shawshank Redemption, so take my claim that it’s an all time favorite with a grain of salt). They hype is legit. Nearly three hours of complete greatness. The acting was top notch all the way around. I know I know, Heath died so I assumed people were overstating how good he was in this movie, but when you see it, you realize just how amazing of an actor he was. I knew he was good, I’ve liked him for a while now, but this would’ve propelled his career to the upper echelon of actors. I’ve not paid twice to see a movie since tickets were still south of 6$; I might consider it with the Dark Knight, especially once it goes to the dollar theater, just to see it on the big screen one more time.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Category : Culture, Current Events, Family, Movies, Reviews

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At this point we have eliminated all of the easily visible churches in our immediate area - i.e. - within a few block radius of us - either through visiting, website, or general understanding about a particular denomination. Dionna jumped online to scour for other nearby possibilities and found one about seven minutes from our house that looked promising. The website was a bit fruiffy (fluffy/fruity mix) but nothing that turned me off theologically or aesthetically. Unfortunately there were no recent sermons posted, but all of the calendar items seemed to be up to date.

The initial impression of the church once inside was similar to that of the website. You could tell they spent time on keeping the place presentable without going over the top to try and impress. It had a bit too much feminine touch in some areas but wouldn’t make an average Joe feel uncomfortable. Our first interaction with humanoids was pleasant as well. I’m not sure if they knew we were new, but they acted natural and inviting.

We found our way to the toddlers area and we were treated with pleasant surprise #1 of the morning: Mac didn’t cry! She just walked in, albeit solemnly, and looked for someone to play with. The helper was great in getting a slightly older girl to “show her around” the room. It helped that they built a castle into the wall which even called my name (seriously, castles are awesome). I think we were in so much shock at Mac’s willingness to go without crying that we lingered a little longer than expected.

After we snapped out of it, we walked around the corner to Tristen’s area. I guess we were a little early and they were still having Sunday School (i’m not sure what they call it, but essentially that is what it is), which i found odd because we were only like five minutes early according to the times on the website. This made for quite an awkward exchange between us and the teacher (who we later found out is the children’s director). After we sorted it out and interrupted him far too much, we just kinda left her there in hopes she’d have a good time.

Now it was our turn. Walking into the back of the auditorium, we found ourselves in the proverbial coffee shop: donuts, tables, literature, and a catchy name (which escapes me now). We decided to go ahead and have a seat near the middle of the main seating section. Interestingly enough, the center aisle and the far left / right aisles were removed for more tables and chairs, inviting people to bring their coffee or other beverage of choice right into the main service, but allowing enough traditional seating room for others.

Enough about the atmosphere. I hate to say it again, but I have to… the worship fit right along with the website and the atmosphere: Very well put together, up to date, with a balance of tradition, solid musicianship, but nothing showy… This is a very good pattern I’m seeing here… There was a break in the middle to highlight the ongoings of the recently finished VBS through song, dance and video (+1 family focus). The end of VBS week was capped off with the kids putting packages together for missionary contacts in Chile (+1 missions).

Then came the message. The story of this church visit isn’t really what the message was about or even who spoke. The pastor was there, but taking a break and letting a member of the congregation preach before he heads off to the Philippines for six months. Rather it was what the pastor said in the introduction when he stated that the speaker had been learning under the pastor for the past couple of years. The church not only encourages their staff to take on mentors (which i’ve heard before) but *gasp* they actually do it!! (+1 Discipleship). To top it off, they had a meeting afterwards to discuss further involvement in Chile and another country (+2 missions).

There were several other pluses to this church and only one evident “minus,” but it is such an insignificant thing that it would never keep me from coming back (they need a lot of help in the A/V department). But it is still far too early to tell seeing as we haven’t heard the pastor preach and have only experienced one week’s worth of the people. But by far, church # 4 has had the most promise of any of the other places we’ve visited. We’ll definitely be back soon and often to get a better feel for everything.

This past Sunday we saw more familiar faces and enjoyed visiting a church we used to serve at. I’ll be back at some point to let you know how it went. Thanks for journeying with us.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Category : Church, Culture, Empyreal, Enabling, Family, Friends, Pastoral, Sundays

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We had another church picked out with an amazing location… only about 2 blocks from our house! Wouldn’t that be great! So I checked out the website on Saturday night and found a few snippets of the message… I listened to about five minutes of it and it was evident that this was not the place for us…

The next morning, we headed to another church that was close by. We had actually been to the church several times before, but never for a service. For a while, they held concerts showcasing local bands (with the occasional national act) every weekend. We knew a little history of the church and knew the basics of what to expect. I honestly did not think it would be a match for us, but since we had to change our plans last minute it was at least worth a shot.

The people were much more welcoming and even talkative at times! They were not shocked at having visitors and they handled themselves nicely. We did feel a bit under-dressed ( i wear jeans and a casual button-down un-tucked every Sunday), but no one made mention of it. The first thing that we really enjoyed is the pre-service worship. About 5 minutes before service officially started, the worship leader took his spot at his keyboard and just started playing / improvising. It was nice. Slowly the rest of the band made their way to the stage… all 13 of them (4 singers, 2 percussionist, 2 guitars, 1 additional keyboardist, 1 upright bass, 1 electric bass, 1 drummer +leader = 13). It was a strange dynamic/ratio since only about 25 people found there way into the auditorium at the start and maybe 35-40 by the end of worship.

The worship experience exceeded typical Charismatic standards, all it lacked was a prophet with a SHOFAR (see pic). The set went on for a long time and there was plenty of room for “flowing in the Spirit” … i.e. - Extending songs far longer than necessary and improving lots of verses. A few older youth and younger adults congregated on the far side of the auditorium and danced elegantly as to make any born and bred charismatic woman proud… my legs started hurting…

The message was… i have no idea. I don’t remember what it was about. Something in psalms and eagles. But it was very energetic. The music team still hadn’t stopped yet, but at least we were sitting.

There really isn’t much else to say nor much else we needed to see. We saw no signs of the majority of things we are looking for… Family, Community, Missions focus were not evident on first visit; nor was there any inkling of a discipleship / Christian education program. They may very well have had them, but nothing was apparent.

Despite the length of the music portion, we enjoyed being a part of a worship set where at least people seemed interested. But the atmosphere, comfort level, and over-the-top spiritualism is not where we want to be nor where we want to raise our kids. Dionna put it best as soon as we were back at the car: “Just because we know that a place isn’t right for us doesn’t mean I didn’t get anything out of it. I really needed the worship [music] that we got today, but there’s no need for us to come back.”

Popularity: 18% [?]

Category : Church, Culture, Empyreal, Family, Sundays

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There is something intriguing about MMA (click if you’re out of the loop)… It’s modern day Gladiators with a few rules. I’ve been pretty adamant against the UFC/WEC popularity for a few reasons, the biggest being how imitative the sport is. There are stories and videos of kids/teenagers staging their own MMA bouts with no adult supervision… basically backyard brawls leaving kids battered, bruised, and bloody.

But, there is a reason MMA is the fastest growing sport in America so I wanted to give it a fair shake. I think part of my disgust with it came about because my exposure to it is YouTube videos and Outside the Line specials, both of which are only going to show the most gruesome of moments. Last night was supposed to be a big night in the WEC series. Four fights, two of which were championship matches, including the much anticipated Faber vs Pulver.

I think i can sum up the effect of the night with two short sentences:

1) “I was wrong” - In the sense that it is a bit barbaric and the Aughts version of gladiator games I am probably still right. In the sense that it is imitative? Yeah, it is… but the more I watched the more I realized that the guys that are going to imitate this are already fighters. They’re the guys at school who already act tough, who already don’t back down, and who already probably cause problems. This isn’t to say that all MMA guys are “bad guys” but there are gyms where you can, as a teenager, go and train in MMA… The ones that stage the illegal backyard brawls are not the type to go to the gym anyway. The ones that want to do it right are going to go about it the “right” way… with exceptions on both sides.

Also, it’s not as gruesome as I thought. Yeah, it looks painful and there are a lot of “holy crap!” moments… plenty of turn your head moments and the gut-wrenching “just stop the dang fight!” moments… but i never thought someone was about to die or have a bone break in half.

2) “I’m hooked” - I could never do that crap. I’d tap out as soon as my opponent walked towards me (even though the banner behind one of the guys said “JesusDidn’tTap.Com“, i’d still have to tap (please forgive me Lord)). I’m a fan of a good boxing match, but the square ring action doesn’t even come close to comparing to the octagon action. These guys are skilled, its not just wild-arse beatdowns.

I don’t like that I like it though I never thought it was wrong to enjoy it… and I still don’t like certain aspects of it… but at least now that I’ve given it a chance, I understand the appeal and understand the proponents.

So, anyone wanna join me next week?

Popularity: 36% [?]

Category : Culture, Sports

2 Comments »

This weekend, the wife and I took in a movie. Due to scheduling, we had to wait until 9:55 PM to see this puppy. The lines, even for the late showing, were overwhelming… starting in the front lobby, curling around all the way to the side exit, and doubling back all the way to the lobby… Listen, i know a few of you guys live in a town of about 3000 and your biggest theater has three screens or something… This theater has 18 screens, most of which are of the largest variety available. These people were absolutely insane, waiting in those kind of lines for a freakin’ comic book movie!

We, on the other hand, are civilized and proper. Waiting in NO lines to enhance our lives and see something worth the price of admission… Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (okay, really it had nothing to do with how hoity toity we are, we were paying to watch it for school… but still, c’mon now).

Lets get serious for a minute… We rarely go to a movie, unless its at the dollar theater (which has 15 screens), largely due to the price of admission. But with Expelled, it was well worth it if only to show support in the box office numbers.

Most of you probably know a little of what it is about… The tension in the scientific world between neo-Darwinists / Evolutionists and those who support Intelligent Design (henceforth “ID”). Supposedly the story behind this is that Stein (well-known intelligent Jew who supports ID) heard of a scientist working at the Smithsonian losing his position for the slightest positive mention of Stephen C Meyer (Christian ID proponent, author, etc) and a small implication that ID may have some merit. The first thirty minutes of the film follow similar stories (with immense quickness) to show that this is indeed not an isolated event. I’ve gotta be honest with you… it was interesting, but just seemed like more of the same old tired “evolutionists vs creationists” debate only changing the players to “neo-Darwinists vs Intelligent Designists”…  eh… it was neat to see Richard Dawkins interviewed and hear some of the conflicting views, but so far I wasn’t entrenched in the story…

Then IT happened. You know that point in a film, fiction or not, where your head says “wait a minute… this changes EVERYTHING!” But it doesn’t stop with your head… your heart kinda skips a beat and your gut starts twisting in knots…  And you can see it in Stein’s face as well. Up to this point, it looked scripted all the way around, but out of nowhere you, the audience and Stein realize that this has nothing to do with Science and everything to do with world-views. …

Sounds too obvious to be the “IT,” doesn’t it?…

But it changes everything and takes Stein on a completely different gut-wrenching, hand-sweating, disgusting path, climaxing with a head-to-head with Dawkins, world-renowned atheist, hater of all things religious, and maybe one of the most influential people of our time (behind the scenes and through his books)… It may be one of the most beautiful interviews in a documentary I’ve ever seen…

Sure, Stein wants ID to win, but it’s not Stein who says the ridiculous things that Dawkins and other neo-Darwinists say. They shoot themselves in the foot, over and over and over again. Dawkins isn’t even the craziest one of the bunch, he just has the loudest voice in our society…

(i’m leaving a great deal out so as not to play spoiler, but at some point, i’d love to discuss it) …

So, boycott the long lines at Iron Man, and take in Expelled. It’s beyond worth it. When the DVD comes out, buy it… Do everything you can to help Stein tear down the walls… society will be in better shape for it…

Popularity: 62% [?]

Category : Culture, Current Events, Empyreal, Movies, Reviews

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Let me distance myself from the last post… Somewhere in that mess of a post below, I made some valid points, but it took a different direction and invalidated itself when I focused on, er… attacked… one example rather than expanding on the validity of the thought that we tend to enforce our way of Christianity on people… So maybe i’ll revisit the idea later and see if has any real legs…

in the meantime, there is a running joke in the community of radio that I listen to which states that once you realize how much you’ve failed, just stop broadcasting and play only Beatles songs… so use this one to distance from the last post AND as a bit of preview for a post coming probably later today…

Popularity: 13% [?]

Category : Culture, Eh... Whatever, Music

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