Sense Say

jailbreak your iphone

2009-08-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

The iPhone is an incredible piece of hardware. So incredible, in fact, that most users sticking with Apple's untainted UI and App Store ecosystem have only scratched the surface of their phone's functionality.

I'm sick of waiting around for Apple and AT&T to finish their spotlight dance and have instead opted to Jailbreak my iPhone. What does this mean? I can do whatever I want with my iPhone, regardless of what artificial software barriers Apple erects to prevent me from doing so.

Jailbreaking your iPhone is safe and easy—you won't lose any data, and you can still be a part of the official Apple ecosystem (sync with iTunes, use the App Store, etc) whilst running your own jailbreak software simultaneously. The installation process is extremely simple, and will mostly require you to sit around while packages install and your phone reboots.

1. First, you'll want to download the iPhone 3.0 firmware, which I have conveniently linked below. Don't skip this step, even if you already have the latest firmware installed. You'll want to save this file (do NOT open with iTunes) to your desktop or some other folder you can access easily.
iPhone 2G (3.0)
iPhone 3G (3.0)
iPhone 3GS (3.0)

2. Download redsn0w.
Mac version (direct download)
Windows version (direct download)
Linux version (direct download)

3. Launch redsn0w and follow installation instructions. The process is very straightforward, but if you're more comfortable with a guiding hand, follow the instructions on this tutorial from step 3.

4. Enjoy your newly found freedom.

The only visible change at first will be a new app on your phone called Cydia. You can use this app to download jailbreak apps (like Winterboard if you plan to install custom themes or Cycorder if you want to record video on older iPhone models). For more info and recommendations, just visit this extremely helpful website!

what's up with the tweets?

2008-12-26T23:22:00.001-08:00

Many of you have been asking why my status updates on Facebook always begin with the "tweets:" prefix. It's because I've linked my Facebook status to my Twitter account.

Twitter is a way to keep your friends/followers updated on whatever is happening in your life. You can also use it to share articles, videos, photos, etc. that you think are relevant or interesting to your following. It's a difficult concept to sell, because most people simply retort with the point that you can do all of this and more on Facebook.

All I can say is that Twitter is something you have to try and use for a while to understand. Each post is limited to 140 characters, which means your updates must be concise, succinct, and worth the effort. Believe it or not, this cultivates an entirely different community from that found on Facebook or other social networking sites. Since Twitter is really nothing more than a simple feed (with a few advanced commands like replies and private tweets), the technology can be implemented in a variety of ways and on numerous devices (both stationary and portable). It's perfect for iPhone/smartphone users who want a quick way to keep people updated and get updates from other people. It also means I can link my Facebook status to my Twitter updates via a Facebook app called Tweeter.

For those of you who want to give this service a try, you can visit Twitter.com to set up an account, then visit twitter.com/hijohnmark to follow me! Twitter is becoming increasingly pervasive socially and even corporately. There are quite a few City Church staffers who use the service (including my dad), and City Church even has its own feed to keep followers updated on the latest church happenings. Need more incentive to join? You can even follow updates from well-known celebrities and politicians like MC Hammer, Lance Armstrong, Kanye West, and Barack Obama. Happy tweeting!

new blog: XNRES

2008-08-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

Check out my new blog!

http://xnres.blogspot.com

I'm hoping to make it more of a cultural epicenter for my thoughts, making this blog primarily set aside for journalistic purposes/sharing whatever cool stuff I find on the internets.

my brother, Lucas, and the Kingdom of Heaven

2008-07-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of my brother, Lucas, taken from my dad's iPhone on June 19th, 2008, his fourteenth birthday. After completing a nine-week wilderness program (with flying colors, might I add), Lucas and his disgusting mop of hair traveled to Washington, where he is attending boarding school and will be for another year.

I miss my brother terribly. These last few months have been an emotional roller coaster ride for me—my 18th birthday, graduation, knowing some people I used to see every day will have all but disappeared from my life—but not having my brother around has far outstripped them all in its emotional complexity and significance. I (we) have moved through stages of shock, bitterness, astounding realization, and restorative healing since his sudden departure from our lives, with tears of joy and sorrow sprinkled throughout. My brother and I are closer and farther from each other than we've ever been.

A broken world is one of broken relationships—parts of oneself invested in others that have been lost, and will never be recovered. The deepest longing of every human heart, from womb to grave, is meaningful, profound, vital relationship. Many of us have experienced broken relationships, and try to keep from investing in other people's lives for fear that we will once again know the pain of separation. We do this by investing ourselves in objects, both material and immaterial; our possessions, our sexuality, our careers, our talents, our religion. In some way we are all victims of this destructive practice. Each of us has some part of ourselves that we give away to something, rather than someone.

There is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother, who doesn't rot and wither away like everything we know. At its very core, my faith comes out of a deep, growing cry of desperation that comes from the innermost depths of my soul. The one I have placed my faith in tells me that this cry is not in vain; that the longing of my heart is meant to be fulfilled, that I have been created for a world of everlasting, unbroken relationships. He promises me that the Great Dawn approaches and will blast away the midnight of the world we live in. One day I'll see my Father's face and bow at His feet, and the parts of me that have been hidden away in worthless fragile objects will be collected and restored in Him. I'm staking my life, my hopes, myself on it.

The dawn for this comparatively small darkness of my life is coming. The day my relationship with Lucas is restored will be a day of joy and tears. I can't imagine what it'll be like, the day all of creation is made right and the sorrows of this world will be nothing more than a distant memory. But somehow I think the day I embrace my brother again will be a small foretaste of the day I finally embrace the one who knows and loves me more intimately than I can imagine.

time for change

2008-07-13T22:38:00.000-07:00

As the time swiftly approaches for me to embrace the rigors of higher learning, I think it's appropriate to refresh the look of my blog. It's definitely more subdued than my last iteration. Let me know what you think!

For those of you who don't know, I'll be heading north to the University of Oregon this fall. Though I was briefly tempted to show some spirit and plaster my blog with splashes of yellow and green, I decided in favor of a more mellow color scheme, which I hope will accompany a trend of more simple, focused writing to contrast the lengthy tirades of years past.

Currently of interest:
Jon Foreman's Summer Album
The Reason for God
Surprised By Hope
The Shack
Mass Effect
Root Beer Tapper
iPhone 3G
Stadium Park Apartments
Lucas

how to make firefox look like safari

2008-06-24T10:28:00.001-07:00

My hope is that by now all of you have had the privilege of experiencing Mozilla's latest masterpiece, Firefox 3. As a design freak, my first priority when dealing with any program is the visual aesthetic. Firefox 2, though incredibly useful, secure, and flexible, looked and felt like the garish hunchback relative of Safari 3, which features not only impressive browsing speeds, but a clean, streamlined interface that fits in with the rest of the Mac OS X experience. Firefox 3 offers a marriage of the two–a beautiful, OS X-friendly interface, as well as speeds that rival even the latest Safari 3.1 release. Being extremely picky, however, I couldn't help but wish that Firefox could integrate exactly like any other Apple-made application. One key difference that actually bugs me a little is the added gradient in the bookmarks bar, which to me just makes it look more pieced-together and bulky. If you feel the same way (and chances are you don't even have the slightest idea what I'm talking about at this point), this post is for you. Herein lies my little tutorial on how to transform Firefox 3's aesthetics to match those of Safari 3 almost exactly.

Here's what Firefox 3 looks like by default in Mac OS X. Not bad.

The first step is to find the right theme. I used GrApple Yummy Graphite, which matches the Safari look pretty much exactly. The maker of this theme has several different varieties, including Yummy Blue for those of you with the default blue color scheme. There's also GrApple Delicious, which is basically the same, but with different-looking tabs. I decided to go for the closest match, and here's how it looks after you install it:

I'd say we're off to a good start. Now, the next aesthetic difference in Safari is that the thin status bar framing the bottom of the page. It's nonexistent by default in Safari (and I like it that way). That option can be changed in Firefox by going to View > Status Bar. But how do you track the progress of a loading page? Safari transforms the address bar into the progress bar when a page is loading. Thanks to an extension called Fission, the same can be done in Firefox. Fission's preferences allow you to change the color of the loading bar, and even use your own image if it tickles your fancy. I stuck with the default graphite, and here's the result:

There's one more thing for us to change in order to make Firefox as similar aesthetically to Safari as possible. Safari combines the "stop" and "reload" button to save space, and an extension aptly named Stop-or-Reload Button allows the same to be accomplished in the Firefox navigation bar. Here's the button in action:

The final result:

Enjoy your new browser!

chastity and the art of manliness

2008-05-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

The Art of Manliness, a blog I've discovered and come to love more and more through Digg, has recently posted a gutsy article about the idea of chastity in our modern culture. It's actually a great article, in my opinion, because it presents a perspective from a nonreligious slant, and merely puts forward some great reasons men should, at the very least, seek to confine their sexual activity to intimate, meaningful relationships. While I may not agree 100%, I certainly think we can all appreciate and applaud the effort of these blog writers for tackling such an unpopular issue. An excerpt, which basically sums up the meat of the article, is pasted below:

People today approach sex just as they would approach buying a widget. The focus is on YOUR satisfaction and YOUR pleasure. A man thus fantasizes about his next “purchase.” After that hook-up gives him the pleasure he was seeking, he shops around until he finds another person that can satisfy the urge. When he gets tired of that woman or he sees a better and higher end model, he trades-in that person and goes after the upgrade. The problem is that people aren’t things; they’re, well, people. They have hopes, dreams, feelings, and aspirations just like you do.

I'd encourage you to check out the rest of this relatively short article. It's worth the read.

expelled: a review

2008-05-01T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today I had the privilege of taking a break from school to go see a documentary hosted by Ben Stein about the controversy surrounding the evolution/Intelligent Design issue. I was a skeptic at first, because I tend to oppose ID and creationist propaganda against evolution, which portray the theory as godless and evil–but this film wasn't like that at all. Rather, it was a fascinating look at what is happening in the world of science today. Highly acclaimed biologists like Richard Dawkins claim that science is all about skepticism, questioning, and self-examination, yet when it comes to challenging the fundamentals of modern scientific premise, the academies and universities have dismissed even the notion that the hypothesis of Intelligent Design could enter the arena of debate. Thus, many capable professors, biologists, and even physicians have undergone fierce scrutiny and rejection from the scientific community, often when the rejected are not proponents of Intelligent Design, but rather believe that their ideas should be heard and their questions answered in an open intellectual forum.

While I myself would side with proven, tried-and-true methods and widely-established scientific evidence, I certainly believe that anyone who challenges these discoveries in light of his own evidence-based discoveries has the right to be heard, even if ultimately his argument doesn't quite measure up. Intelligent Design isn't a religious institution, which is why it certainly should receive more serious consideration than Creationism, whose sole purpose is to forcibly squeeze science into their comically narrow-minded interpretation of Genesis 1.

Ultimately I do believe that there is a higher power, namely the Judeo-Christian God, who created the universe and all that is in existence. In that sense I certainly would agree with anyone from the creationist or ID camp that life is, unquestionably, intelligently designed, and absolutely saturated with evidence for it. Evolution may be perceived by many as a way to explain a universe without God. I think the very complexity of the mechanism of evolution, as well as the preciseness and exact order of events necessary for human life to come about, are definitely pointers to a designer, and an impossibly brilliant designer at that.

Expelled won't be in theaters much longer (today was its last day at the Metreon), but if its still playing near you, I'd highly recommend seeing it. It's a compelling documentary and a highly engaging and entertaining film.

tim keller @ stanford

2008-03-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry to keep to this topic, folks, but this is the lecture I saw at Stanford, which is slightly different in format than the one at Berkeley, and I like it a little better. For those of you with the time/attention span to watch both, I applaud you, but if left to only one, I'd encourage you to watch this one.

For Facebook users, click here to watch the video.

Also, check out a separate video devoted to the Q&A, which was excellent that night.

Dr. Tim Keller: Belief in an Age of Skepticism?

2008-03-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege this week of seeing the brilliant Dr. Tim Keller give a lecture on the topic of his newly-published book, "The Reason for God". He is perhaps the single most influential, intelligent, and entertaining Christian apologetic of our time, and it was a huge privilege to see and hear him Wednesday night at Stanford. This video is the same talk given a night earlier at UC Berkeley. The Stanford video hasn't been posted yet, but I'm so anxious to get this out there that I'm linking this one instead. I'd encourage anyone and everyone (including any friends of mine whose names begin with a "C" and end with a "hris Knight" :P) to watch it (including the great Q&A that follows) and share what you think! Personally, I think these are some of the best arguments for God (and Christianity, if you want to take it a step further) I've ever heard.

For those of you on Facebook, check out the video on Youtube.

winter retreat 08: yeah, you knew it was coming

2008-02-22T22:15:00.000-08:00

This was the best year by far. Here's why:

1. It was the LAST. Yeah, we always have a great time, but it's good to know that high school is finally coming to a close, and even though I will miss my friends dearly, I'm really excited to start a new chapter in my life relatively soon. I was a little sad, but mostly glad to be up on stage with the rest of the seniors singing "You Alone" (the same song sung by the senior class two years ago, by the way), because it really made me realize that things are finally coming to a close.

2. There was snow! Heaps and mounds of it! It snowed almost all day Thursday, and heavily all throughout Friday morning. The best feeling was waking up on Wednesday morning and putting on my sneakers, thinking it'd just be icy and beginning to melt (the snow we had when we arrived had fallen a week ago), and stepping outside to find that the entire landscape was literally blanketed in white fluff, and the ground covered in a deep, fine, glorious powder. The next few days were, for lack of a better word, magical (no homo!) as the snow fell continuously from the sky, and all of us felt like we were in a giant snow globe.

3. As always, I had an absolute blast spending time with my friends. There are too many stories to tell, but the laughter during the trip and Friday night as my friends and I remembered some of our favorite moments was the hardest and loudest I've had in a long, long time. The snow made everything more fun, of course, but I really enjoyed spending time with some of my best friends on this trip, and hope there will be many more times like that to come.

I'm not going to bore you with any more personal details or petty criticism, because I think we all know that our Winter Retreat was awesome in certain areas and definitely less-than-stellar in others. I think changing the situation is going to require a radically shifted mindset regarding the goal and purpose of Winter Retreat, which is something that probably won't happen this year or any time soon.

The current purpose for Winter Retreat, assuming my understanding of it resonates with everyone else's, is for it to be a time of profound spiritual renewal and, perhaps for some, embracing faith as a new and defining aspect of life. Therefore most of the time and effort revolves around the speakers, sessions, worship time, devotions, etc. This, I believe, is a great way for Christians to grow closer to God, because the joy of salvation and the merits of spending time alone in God's word and in prayer have already been established. But for those who have not come to faith, and are frankly not even slightly interested in coming to faith, it is a time of extreme annoyance and perhaps even further repulsion from the idea that faith can somehow radically transform their lives, or bring them true, lasting joy and fulfillment. Yet is it not these very people we seek to reach out to?

I had an extensive conversation with many of our teachers on Wednesday night about this, and was thankful that, on most subjects, we could find a lot of common ground. Some subjects were more touchy, and a few points were tossed around that I didn't entirely agree with, but didn't feel compelled to argue against or add to at the time. Now, in the quiet cowardice of my blog, I feel more readily able to share my thoughts on how best to change the format of future Winter Retreats into something that is not only more fun, but perhaps more spiritually effective.

Having worship, message, devotions, and group time all back-to-back over the course of several hours wears people out--even me! I found myself twiddling my thumbs during devotion time, mainly because I didn't feel inspired or focused whilst being subjected to a particularly horrendous Casting Crowns album, sounding much like a nagging, never-ending chronic illness emerging with its tired, diseased aura through the speakers. But I was also feeling exhausted! I had woken up at 6:30 to attend the 7:00 devotions, which I definitely enjoyed and am glad I participated in, but was tired from nonetheless. Having already spent an hour earlier that morning spending alone time with God, praying and meditating on the word, I'll have to admit that I wasn't really in the mood to do the same thing only a little while later. I'm more of a community person when it comes to that, I guess. Certainly, I think it's essential to have time set aside to be spent alone in the scriptures and in prayer (something I still am not quite as disciplined in doing as I would like), but I think time spent in community is equally important, and perhaps even more important than an isolated, one-on-one approach to faith. To me, it makes much more sense to have a time of optional early morning devotions (as we have had), and make that time the "alone time". Therefore, any Christians who feel compelled to utilize this time for their own benefit may choose to do so, and teachers aren't under the obligation later on to patrol the grounds like jail keepers and make arbitrary judgments as to how far apart people should be sitting. I won't belabor this point any further, as I think the benefits of such a change should be evident.

The shift of mindset needs to evolve from a hollow, revivalist "get-those-poor-lost-sinners-converted" approach to a more full, meaningful understanding that the most effective, proven method for change in people's lives is through community and relationships. Emphasizing the bond of those relationships, as well as uniting the community of the school as a whole, will, I think, make a much deeper impact than the kind of forced isolated contemplation that we have attempted to reinvigorate in past years. We need a new direction--that is, we need to realize that we're not called to convert the people around us, and instead recognize our calling to love, serve, and invest in the lives of the people around us, regardless of where they stand in their faith journey.

Sounds like prescriptions for a church, doesn't it? That's because Alma Heights faces an identity crisis trying to act as both a school and a church. But that's a topic for another post. That's all I have to say about Winter Retreat for now.

Amazon MP3 part II; laptop woes and joys; Jon Foreman; Pownce

2008-01-27T16:32:00.001-08:00

There's a lot I'd like to talk about, but it's too much to fit into my Facebook status, so I'm just going to hash a bunch of subjects together in this post.

FIRST:
Amazon MP3, since my original post about it, has expanded its library to include all four major labels (basically, nearly every track iTunes has), and every track remains DRM-free (for more info on DRM and/or Amazon MP3 and why you should use it instead of the iTunes Store, check out my last post on this subject). They've recently announced their intention of expanding to a global market. What does this mean? Amazon will, with it's current rate of growth, encroach on iTunes' thusfar unchallenged global digital music download monopoly. In short, iTunes will now be competing directly with Amazon, which is awesome news for customers, who will enjoy the benefits of cheaper downloads (this has already been seen by Apple, who recently lowered the prices of their DRM-free tracks to $0.99 like everything else), convenience, and a more enhanced user experience. And who knows? iTunes may win out in the end. But if they do, it'll be because they shift their entire library to DRM-free tracks and offer cheaper prices than even Amazon (which would be quite a feat; Amazon currently has a deal for Holst's "The Planets" suite--seven tracks--for less than 3 bucks). Though iTunes might win out in the end, we'll at least be enormously indebted to Amazon for dramatically improving the kind of affordability and quality we will have come to expect from our digital music downloads.

SECOND:
My laptop, as many of you may know, has for several months been crashing at random, usually whenever I hand it to someone while it's running, or even by merely setting it down on a table or shifting my legs around when using it on my lap (thus, defeating the entire purpose of a LAPtop). I took it to the Apple Store at Stonestown Friday afternoon, and the guy merely told me that it was most likely a software issue and that I should try re-installing the operating system. So I did--in fact, I had to do it twice, because the first time my computer refused to connect to the internet. The second time it connected, but was pretty spotty. I had always had a spotty connection, but this time I was suspicious of my laptop, rather than the actual network (on which I had, up to that point, placed the blame for the intermittent service). Sure enough, sitting in my dad's office right next to the router, my laptop couldn't even complete a simple download without getting stuck. I then tapped my laptop on the bottom where the airport card is located, and lo and behold: there was a kernel panic (equivalent to BSoD on Windows).

I took it to the store downtown yesterday and told the guy about my problems. He removed the battery pack, mentioned that the wireless card was sticking out a bit too far, pushed it back in, and presto, the laptop was working just like new, with no crashes and no intermittent reception. I told the guy about my experience at Stonestown--how the guy had mentioned airport repeatedly appearing on the crash logs, how he told me I may have to send it in for a $300 repair--and he (the downtown Apple employee) expressed his disdain for the incompetent "geniuses" working at Stonestown. So a lesson for all you SF Mac users: go downtown if you want the best tech support. The fix turned out to be so easy, I could have done it myself by simply applying a small amount of pressure to the slot in which the wireless card is nestled. And the guy at Stonestown was talking about getting my RAM and/or logic board replaced!

The conclusion of this story for me is that I have a newfound attachment to my little Powerbook G4, and am actually considering keeping it through at least the first few months of college. I'd like to wait for a major re-design overhaul in the Macbook line before I purchase one (the current lineup, in my opinion, has gotten pretty bland and tired-looking overtime). Until then, I'll happily compute on my clean, compact little machine.

THIRD:
Jon Foreman, the lead singer from Switchfoot, has recently taken on a solo project of four EP's (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer), with six tracks each, and the Winter album was just released about a week ago. It starts off pretty depressing, but the words and melodies are just so profound. I rarely rave about music like this unless I really, really like it, and I can tell you that this is definitely one of those times. Check it out on Amazon MP3! I'm pretty sure it's only 5 bucks or something. While you're at it, check out his Fall album, which has been out for a few months, and is definitely worth a listen (the first track is featured on the latest episode on my podcast, JMix (subscribe), which is a great way to listen to the track in its entirety and get a feel for the rest of the album).

I love this method of releasing new content. Giving six tracks at a time over a span of almost a whole year enables Foreman to present these distinctively-themed tracks in a set that the listener can really take the time to explore and absorb until the next release. Other artists (like the Red Hot Chili Peppers) have made the mistake of composing a ridiculous amount of new material (albeit, excellent new material) and distributing it in a gargantuan mass-release that only those who are already devoted fans would take the time to really absorb and fully appreciate. Releasing a bit at a time is also a great marketing tool. As fans have time to explore the bit of new music, they'll look forward to the next iminent release and almost certainly buy the next set when it comes out (as I did). The first two of Foreman's releases are generally pretty mellow and melancholy, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how he puts his Spring and Summer EP's together. Perhaps enlisting some band mates for the more familiar energetic, eclectic, heavy rock theme Switchfoot is known for? We'll see.

FOURTH:
Pownce is a tool made by the makers of the enormously popular click-to-promote website Digg that is comparable to the slightly more popular service called Twitter, which is basically a live mini-feed in which friends can share their current status with other friends 24-7. The best way to describe Pownce is that it's like Facebook Lite. You have a single news feed, all of your friends subscribe to it (though you can choose to send things to individual or multiple select friends, or even to the public feed for everyone to see). You can use the feed to simply update your location/status, or post a link to a cool website, video, or photo you found online, or share a file of any kind, or invite them to an event. It's a super-useful, super light, zippy app that can be accessed on the web as well as a regular computer application (which runs on the Adobe AIR platform, making it a universal experience for users of every operating system). So far my only friend on there is the soon-to-be megahit radio personality Chris Knight, and although it's fun to post things for his enjoyment, I'd love it even more if I had a group of friends to share things with, as well as receive things from! Pownce was started a long time ago, but just recently entered Beta and is open to the public, rather than on an invitational basis like before. For more info, visit Pownce.com or search for "Pownce" via Google. For those of you who want a friend when you sign up, look up "hijohnmark"!

an old friend returns

2008-01-25T01:38:00.000-08:00

JMix is back. Why? Because I said so. Click here to subscribe.

For those of you who used to subscribe, you'll have to click the link above to subscribe to the new feed.

facing some decisions: project timothy 2008

2008-01-17T22:59:00.000-08:00

Well obviously, colleges :) But I don't get acceptance letters until March, so I'll save that subject for a later post.

Last summer, I had the privilege of experiencing Project Timothy, which is a youth missions outreach trip associated with the Reformed Church in America (RCA), the denomination my church is affiliated with. It was an amazing time, and I made some good friends there that I'd love to see again.

The trip is in mid-July. Here's how it works: around 40 kids from churches throughout America that are in the RCA meet up at a small college in Ontario, CA. There are several groups, each assigned to a different location, and there are typically around five to choose from. This year, there are five options: working in San Francisco through my church (which doesn't interest me, of course, though I know that the group coming here will LOVE it), helping out at a community outreach daycare center in New Jersey and helping out with a local restart mission church, doing construction on a church in Ecuador and helping at a rehabilitation center for abandoned children, working at a kid's summer camp in Jamaica, and last but certainly not least, going to FRANCE to attend a conference in Taize, which sounds so incredibly amazing that, rather than summarize it, I'll copy the detailed description from the Project Timothy website.

Taize is a retreat center founded by the son of an RCA pastor and run by monks who come from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches. Taize's primary goal is to help each participant come closer to God and with God’s people around the world. Many participants are teens from third world countries. Each teen stays in a tent with teens from other parts of the globe. Participants work for a portion of the day, attend prayer services, worship services, and discussion groups, and meet with the monks for prayer, confession, and spiritual direction. It is a place of great spiritual renewal and transformation through Christ and with his people from all over the world. Students with a mature faith who are open to explore spirituality will be considered for this site.

This sounds SO EFFING AMAZING.

My decision is this: should I go? The cost is $2250, which is pretty darn expensive. It would require a big effort on my part just to raise all that money, and most importantly, a whole lotta prayer. I mean, this is serious business, and I don't want to go into something like this unless it's something I'm really ready to take on. Staying in a tent with total strangers from all over the world? Meeting daily with monks from three very different constructs of Christian orthodoxy for prayer, penance, and spiritual direction? Holy. Crap. That's what I call intense.

So please, keep me in prayer as I face a very big decision, because it will probably affect my focus dramatically for the next few months leading up to it (including plenty of sessions with French Rosetta Stone software :P)

Now, keep in mind that just because I apply to go there doesn't mean I'll get in. I'm sure plenty of people will be applying for this location, so I'll have to cross my fingers and hope I get picked. But I'm confident that if this is something God wants me to do, then that's where I'll be going.

For those of you who have gone to PT in previous years, let me just say that as a resident of San Francisco, as well as a regular attendee at City Church, that trip is going to be THE most fun out of all of them. I'm not even kidding. San Francisco, is an amazing city, and City Church is an amazing church, and the staff at City Church is chock full of some of the most solid, hilarious, awesome individuals I've ever had the privilege of knowing. I'd highly recommend making this your first choice :)

For those of you who haven't experienced Project Timothy and would like more info, visit rca.org/projecttimothy for a more detailed description of the whole event, as well as the individual sites. Let me assure you that, if you decide to go, Project Timothy will be the highlight of your entire summer, no matter the location. I was skeptical last year, for sure (I was assigned to Arizona, along with my sister and a bunch of other girls. These turned out to be some of the most fantastic people I've ever had the privilege of knowing, and my stay in Arizona was absolutely a blast). It was also a time of profound spiritual renewal and clarity for me, something I really needed at the time. I'd encourage anyone to check this out. If you've been considering a short-term missions trip for the summer, I'd love to tell you more about my experience at Project Timothy. If you haven't, there's no time like the present to start thinking and praying about doing something like this!

As always, thanks for reading. Now get on with your lives!

uw application prompt

2008-01-13T14:17:00.000-08:00

Just FYI--I've posted my UW application essay on my applications blog (jmapps.blogspot.com). If you have any constructive advice or have a keen eye for editing, feel free to tear it to shreds!

some holiday cheer

2008-01-05T23:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok, so it's a little late for this. Still, it's worth it for the laugh.

this gives "a new heavens and a new earth" a whole new meaning

2007-12-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

I know what you're thinking. This has to be a joke, right? Can one even remotely begin to describe the absolutely insane assertions made in this video? A SUN at the center of the earth that provides a "tropical climate" for the "inner earth"? Wouldn't the earth IMPLODE on itself if this were the case? Why am I getting so worked up over this? I need some sleep.

alma heights bible: a review

2007-12-06T23:26:00.000-08:00

Abby Shapiro has just motivated me to do this by posting a similar note regarding the religious teaching at SI. Here's a review of my four years of Bible class at Alma Heights.

Freshman Year - Hours of copious note taking (but still not enough to get an "A", because SOME PEOPLE *cough cough*Rachelle*cough cough* are ridiculously insane note takers who ruin it for the rest of us) during Mrs. Fernbach's lectures on the Pentateuch, as well as Bruce Wilkinson (yes, the guy who published the borderline-heretical "Prayer of Jabez") video tapes for every book of the Bible we studied. Also, chapel notes counted for extra credit! What did we learn? Take good notes or you fail, even if they don't really help you, and never, ever spend a year on the Pentateuch.

Sophomore Year - Jesus videos of every size, shape, and color (actually scratch that, Jesus was pretty much always "white"). Random skipping around in the New Testament, the NIV STUDY BIBLE that some people STILL didn't have by year's end, no tests or homework (except reading) of any sort, other than journal entries that everyone pretty much did either in class or before class started. What did we learn? I honestly can't remember.

Junior Year - Cheesy, uppity quotes and illustrations, 10 minute "quiet" time, too many worksheets to keep track of, mandatory chapel notes, TMI (that's TOO MUCH INFORMATION) about Satan and everything having to do with Satan, including his life span, personality profile, minions, his strategy of attack (often recorded in play-by-play action), his favorite kind of steak and where to get it, his sleeping habits (as well as what our sleeping habits SHOULD be), his love life, and his horoscope. What did we learn? Did you know that the word LORD comes from the Latin word for "LOAF KEEPER"?? Isn't that cool??

Senior Year - Hebrew, and our inability to even remotely come close to the standard set by last year's intellectual prodigy of a class, and Mr. Boyd's failed attempts to make us laugh with humorous commentary that soars miles above our heads. What we've learned? Psalm 121 in Hebrew, lots of stuff about Egypt, and Mr. Boyd's endless amount of stories, and stories within stories.

Seniors, anything I'm forgetting about that I can add on? Let me know in the comments!

the golden compass, and why i support it

2007-12-03T16:18:00.001-08:00

Due to the recent controversy that has arisen over Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" and in particular "The Golden Compass" (coming out in theaters on December 7--only four more days!!! woot!), I find it necessary to clarify my views on the matter, because Philip Pullman is a fantastic author and "His Dark Materials" is one of my favorite works of all time.

I would challenge Christians who are opposed to this movie to sit down and give the book a read. It's not as bad as you might think! Pullman doesn't really introduce the more controversial aspects of his beliefs until the very end of The Golden Compass, and gradually in growing prominence throughout The Subtle Knife (the second book in the series). I am ashamed to say that I haven't entirely finished reading The Amber Spyglass (the conclusion to the trilogy), but I plan to finish it over Christmas break, when I have more reading time on my hands.

It's worthwhile to point out that Pullman's books do, in many ways, advocate the same moral values as those found in Judeo-Christian religions--loyalty, courage, love, treating others with respect, kindness, friendship, the fundamental nature of good and evil, even the existence and importance of the human soul. In this aspect, Christians can find familiar ground on which to stand when reading His Dark Materials.

Quite honestly, I couldn't put the books down when I read them. The characters in these stories are so simple in many ways, but well-developed and sophisticated and profoundly complex in their roles. You won't find very much clichéd teen drama, as can be found especially in the latter portion of the Harry Potter series (arguably due to the massive teen appeal these books garnered leading up to the release of the fourth book). And Pullman doesn't try to play ambiguous when it comes to a character's loyalties--sure, there are deceitful characters and traitors, but you can at least identify who they are and cheer for the good guys (and this is something the producer of Heroes could take a lesson from). My favorite character is Iorek Byrnison, the noble, majestic, awe-inspiring armored bear who aids Lyra in her travels intermittently throughout the series. Seriously guys, Iorek RULES.

"But John Mark," some of you may ask, "didn't Pullman himself state clearly that his books are about killing God?" Well, yes. In the series, Pullman's god (and I write that with a lowercase "g", because his depiction of the Judeo-Christian Godhead is fictional and meant to be so) is a cruel tyrant who seeks to dominate all life through the Magisterium, which is essentially Pullman's fictional portrayal of the Church. Therefore, purely in principle, Lyra's quest (a quest that she isn't allowed to know she's on, according to the prophecy) is essentially to free the world of tyranny by overthrowing the greedy, power-hungry tyrant who rules the heavens. Obviously, Pullman intends to make a not-so-subtle jab at organized religion as a whole, but seriously guys, taking such serious offense by this kind of criticism is the intellectual equivalent of crying to mommy when little Billy says "Girls have cooOOOooties!"

It is undeniable that these books do contain numerous ideas that are quite hostile to organized religion, and I thoroughly disagree with many of the more subtle points that Pullman is making--however, Pullman's capacity for storytelling, and well as the compelling nature of his arguments (despite my skepticism and the skepticism of others) are enough for me to enjoy his books as extraordinarily crafted works from an extraordinarily talented author.

For more information on what Pullman himself hopes to accomplish through his books, check out some of these quick interview clips on Youtube. Contrary to popular belief, you'll find that he's not trying to convert the children of the world to atheism in order to build an army, take over the world, and rid it entirely of religion. Far from it!

Golden Compass Author Gives Advice to Parents
Golden Compass Author Talks About His Agenda
Golden Compass Author on Religion and Theology

And for those of you who HAVE read the books, you may find this one interesting (no spoilers here, but if you haven't read the books, you won't know what they're talking about):
Golden Compass Author on the Nature and Meaning of Dust

new blog: jmDesign

2007-11-27T22:40:00.000-08:00

I've decided to branch out and create a blog specifically for my latest design endeavors. Check it out at johnmarkdesign.blogspot.com.

changing politics

2007-11-25T13:42:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to stay connected with recent political stirrings, as it was recently brought to my attention that I would, indeed, be eligible to vote in the next presidential election. I came across this great article on Digg (but by the time I returned to Digg, the link had disappeared in the hordes of popular upcoming stories), which was written in response to a work by Peter Berkowitz, who was recently added to Rudy Giuliani's foreign policy advisory team, and who essentially tries to categorize the type of people (the majority of people) who "strongly disapprove" of George Bush.

His main argument against Berkowitz is not aimed at his pro-Bush stance, but rather at his interpretation of American politics as a left-right partisan, instead of between those who favor, in his words, "tyranny", and those who favor "liberty". Here's a favorite excerpt of mine:

How disappointing, ultimately, to hear a seasoned political scientist fall into the false right-left paradigm, when, in fact, the construction of tyranny depends upon an alternation between right and left, between authoritarianism or neo-fascism on the one hand (the neo-cons) and nanny-state socialism on the other (the neo-libs).

It makes more sense to conceive of American politics today as a contest between liberty and tyranny, and not between left and right. Perhaps the degree of hatred towards Bush is an indication that - ever so slowly - Americans are drawing new battle lines.

Andrew Bosworth (the writer of this article) really hits the nail on the head. It's refreshing to see that our political situation may finally be transforming. And really, what better way to bring unity in a vast sea of diversity than being able to fight for the common cause of liberty? What better way can there be bring an end to the partisan-centric politics that have plagued America for the past two decades? The sooner politicians pick up on this scent, the sooner they'll start making a real impact, rather than having to please their own niche or demographic and push their opposition further and further away. Right now, it seems, they haven't quite gotten it. Except for Ron Paul :)

Bush Bashing Explained

flock: in brief

2007-11-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

The idea of a "social web browser" intrigued me, so today I decided to download Flock and give it a spin. And let me say, a picture is worth a thousand words:

This browser is extremely powerful, surprisingly zippy, and chock full of incredible features. I was amazed at how seamless most of features fit in together. But the interface is just WAY too crazy for me. Rather than resorting to stowing some of the more fine-tuned features into the menu system, they've tried to make a little button for every little feature. The result is a cluttered, chaotic mess of useful but overcrowded options. So basically, I'd say Flock is on the right track here, but they've got to reduce things down a bit before I consider making this my primary web browser. I mean, I'd go crazy if this was what I had to deal with during every normal web browsing experience.

college essays

2007-11-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

For those who are interested, I've created a blog for the sole purpose of posting my college application essays. Feel free to visit, read, and offer suggestions via comment if you feel inclined to do so. Anyone can comment, whether or not they have a Google account (and if you don't have a Google account, where have you been?) So far, there's only one on there (as that's the only one I've finished), but more will be on there soon.

jmapps.blogspot.com

criticism--a whole sandwich of it!

2007-11-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

Without a doubt, today was one of the most draining experiences of my life. Unfortunately, I got little sleep last night (and it looks to be the same tonight), so my exhaustion was only increased by today's all-worship chapel.

I played my instrument for nearly two hours straight (beginning of chapel through to almost the end of lunch, though some on the worship team played till the very end). Just as lunch was about to begin, and I began to look forward to eating and finishing up my English assignment, Daniel (or was it Chloe? I can't remember, but it doesn't matter) announced that we would be playing "a couple" more songs for anyone who wanted to stay. Immediately, my selfish nature provoked me to simply leave; after all, it IS lunch, and I am entitled to enjoy my only break in the entire day. But I didn't leave, because I thought it an unfair thing to do when the rest of the team was staying. Finally, after about the fifth song, I was overwhelmed with frustration. There was no way in the world I would keep playing those same five notes (the EXACT same notes--the entire chapel was in the same key, and that should never happen again if we can avoid it). I was also discouraged, because I knew that for the most part, I couldn't be heard through the abundance of instruments around me. And that's not the sound guy's fault--it's simply the inevitable consequence of having too many instruments playing at one time.

I think the playing today was the best it has been in a long time. We were staying together, listening to each other, and no one was going off into their own little world :) We were also mostly in tune, which was a plus.

Before I continue this post, I would like to clarify a few things. First, I think that everyone involved in Chapel operations (our Chaplains, our worship leader, and our Head Hancho Jake) are doing an amazing job so far this year. Rarely are Chloe and Martin conversing off the topic of the spiritual needs of our school, and how best to deal with them. Daniel and Jake are always collaborating on creative ways to improve the quality of our worship arts. Daniel never fails to call every individual team member the night before a scheduled practice to remind us what songs we're playing and when to show up, and Jake has masterfully implemented a highly useful, organize, easily-accessible electronic system that keeps everyone on the same page. I'm pleased to honestly say that our spiritual leaders this year are reliable, committed, capable individuals who thusfar have shown that their priority is serving the God they love, as well as the students they are called to serve.

With that said, it's important for me to make it clear (especially as a reminder to myself) that everything I say is meant to further strengthen and spur on the team we have set in place, and to advance God's work at Alma Heights in the best way possible. Now, on to the criticism! Brace yourselves.

Having an all-worship chapel is, for many reasons, an absolutely horrible idea. I haven't said anything before now, because I did not want to create a spirit of dissent or discontent right beforehand. This issue is so complex, however, that I'm going to have to start way back, back to our theological understanding of worship. What is worship?

It's certainly not about music--but it's most certainly not about lifted hands, a pained expression, and the whiniest voice you can muster either. Worship, by definition is "honor given to someone [in this case, God] in recognition of their merit". Essentially, it's our effort to present God with something equal to all that he has given us (in many ways a vain effort because of our inability to give God anything greater, or even remotely close to, what he has given us, but one that we are called to cherish and pursue nonetheless). It's what we naturally gravitate toward when we fully comprehend what God has done for us. For some reason, our most natural response of praise and exaltation is music. Song is our default method of worship, and always has been throughout the history of humanity--it's a beautiful, fulfilling, masterful way to worship our Creator. Of course, worship can manifest itself in many important ways (doing your best work for the sake of worship, rather than the for a reward or despite a lack thereof) But shouldn't the songs we sing reflect the purity, profundity, grace, mercy, truth, and sheer incomprehensibility that are perfectly embodied in the God we worship? This is why we hear in so many prayers, and in certain parts of the Bible, the importance of worshiping "in spirit and in truth". Also, shouldn't the music played be done so in the most artful and tasteful way? Does not our God deserve the best we can possibly offer him?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the quality of anyone's musicianship. In the same way that a professional Jazz pianist can leave his audience dumbstruck with awe and bring worship to his maker, so can a child learning to play the recorder bring joy to his Heavenly Father. The principle of excellence, however, remains. It is far more pleasing to God when the musician not only plays his instrument just well enough to strum a few chords or hit a few keys, but strives to further and further expand and perfect his craft. Therefore, I would argue that criticizing and seeking to improve and build up the quality of composition and musicianship in our worship teams is far from "wordly" or "materialistic", but rather edifying and extremely important elements of worship.

In the same way, the songs we sing are vitally important in every aspect. As spiritual leaders, we are not only representing the God we serve, but leading the students along with us. When we choose songs that poorly represent God, or only do so in an extremely shallow, limited, and/or clichéd manner, we are leading the rest of the students along in the same direction. It is also important for us to not only play to the best of our ability, but to choose songs that are conducive to a focused worship environment, one where the congregation can not only appreciate the skilled musicianship on stage, but experience communion with each other and with the God who makes it all
possible.

With all that said (and I certainly hope that any Christian reader will at least partially agree with what I've said), I'd like to continue in the topic of today's worship chapel.

Lifting up hands and contorting your face into strange positions in a song is a way many people naturally worship (and I hope no one will take offense at my description, because I mean none--this is simply how it appears.) However, under no circumstances should we expect this to be everyone's natural reaction. Therefore, when we say things like "just sing this part again like you REALLY mean it" or "just lift up your hands now and REALLY worship", we are calling people to conjure up their emotions in order to achieve some kind of "gold standard". That true worship only truly and profoundly occurs when a person is physically engaged and shut off from their immediate surroundings is a lie. A huge lie. And if anything, being aware of the people around you, as well as the people who are on stage, is essential to worship, as it reminds us of two things:

1. It's NOT all about "my personal moment with God". I hear it said often that worship is a time for you to just forget everything and everyone around you and focus on your own experience of God's presence. This notion is not only false, but fatally poisonous to anyone's spiritual life. When we cut everything out, we are failing to deal with reality--something God definitely wants us to be a part of at all times--and transforming our faith and the act of worship into some kind of escape ladder we use to get away from all of life's troubles. If anything, our faith is meant to shove us into the deepest darkness of those troubles, to grapple with uncomfortable and uncertain situations, and to rely on God for sustenance through it all.

2. It adds to the worship experience when you consider the community of believers around you, as well as the musicians on stage. Heck, even having a sense of awe at the amazing talent God has given the musicians playing, or recognizing the tremendous ability God has given these people to lead is a form of worship.

In short, when you cut yourself off from everything around you, you cut yourself off from the amazing things God has placed in your immediate vicinity for you to enjoy and thank him for. Certainly, it is important to find quiet times to spend alone with God, and this would appropriately be done through devotionals, time spent in God's word, or even listening and singing along with a song that is meaningful to you and edifying to God (notice, I'm not saying anything about whether or not this experience must involve "Christian" music). But in a community of believers, where worship is taking place in a unified manner throughout the congregation, it is important for us to engage our surroundings.

Again, let me clarify that I have nothing against any particular style of worshiping, whether it be with lifted hands or sprawled out on all fours--as long as you are not isolating yourself, and as long as you do not expect others to do the same.

This is why I internally cringe when the worship leader (whoever it may be) asks us to "sing it this time like you REALLY mean it" or "REALLY get into this song". It merely provokes a base, shallow, counterfeit emotional environment.

We need to be honest with ourselves; not all the songs we have been singing in chapel are the greatest, or even the most accurate representations of the God we serve. "Jesus, Lover of my Soul" (the non-hymn version) basically goes into great detail about how committed we are to God and all that we pledge to do for him, even if the goals set in that song are somewhat lofty and for many people (including msyelf) highly doubtful. Would I really embrace God with full zeal after my entire world has just fallen? What does that even mean, "though my world may fall"? I will worship you until the very end--but when things get hard, I'll be honest with you, it's going to be pretty difficult to keep this commitment. Is this song really a truthful reflection of God and our relationship with him? It's a rosy picture, but ultimately proves to be a shallow promise backed by nothing but how emotional we're feeling at the time we sing it. I can't be expected to meet any of those promise without some serious divine intervention. Now, there's an idea! Let's sing songs that talk about THAT!

The reason I love hymns so much is not because I'm in love with Old English poetry, or that I can't live without my daily fix of elderly choirs singing along with a droning church organ. It's because the meanings they express and the ideas they bring across are so deeply, profoundly true. And with more and more musicians embracing these hymns and composing modern tunes for them, it makes more sense than ever to embrace these songs and sing them ourselves. I'm not "harshing" modern praise songs' "mellow" either, mind you. In fact, if we just sang all hymns all the time, I'd be complaining in the other direction. "Modern hymns" have the unique ability to connect with our culture and speak to certain issues that older hymns can't touch. But older hymns portray beautiful, deep theological truths in such a way that modern hymn writers are rarely able to emulate. Therefore, a healthy mix of both is the best idea. Too much of one or the other will turn you into a shallow, base moron or a rigid, monotonous dead person :)

Today's chapel, was certainly emotionally stirring for many people, and did in many ways yield the desired results, but Martin's speech on the importance of this not turning into some kind of "spiritual high" was comically ironic, since that was basically exactly the goal (though I doubt anyone would have put it into those words). And what other goal can there be, when the lights are turnd down low, the shades are lowered, and aromatic candles are lit to give the room a sensual, intimate atmosphere? The evidence of an attempt to emotionally stir a large number of people in a relatively short amount of time is overwhelming! How should we expect people NOT to simply lose the "high" they get when they step out into the real world, where it is certainly not dark, and where there aren't any pleasantly-scented candles or small wooden crosses in corners to nail your prayers (or sins or confessions, or whatever the heck people were supposed to nail into a piece of wood), and where you are not surrounded by an emotionally-charged congregation at all times? Let's be honest, here. The intention of an "all-worship chapel", especially one set up like today's, can never go beyond a mere temporary emotional display. I also think it is irresponsible of us to think that a worship chapel is beneficial to everyone. Those who weren't somehow emotionally engaged felt extremely awkward and uncomfortable. Those who have a more intellectual understanding the world must surely have been repelled by what appeared to them a display of mindless emotion for that hour of their day.

I try to be a flexible person. As a leader, my number one goal is not to push forth my own interests (though, being the selfish person that I am, this often turns out to be the case), but to make sure I am representing the interests of those I serve. And in this case, I feel that it is my duty to represent the numerous individuals who were ignored and whose impression of Christianity and what worship means was severely marred today.

I read an article recently, and it said that it's best to sandwich criticism with complements. Having placed the patty on the bottom half the bun, I now proceed to add the tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce (if that's your thing) and top bun to this thick (interpret that how you will), juicy burger of criticism.

Often, we learn best from our mistakes. I don't think today's operation was a total failure. Who am I to draw limits on what God can do in any situation? To be certain, God moved today at Alma Heights. In fact, he moves every day at Alma Heights. I always chuckle internally when someone says that they really felt God "move" in a certain situation; I want to say, "Well, DUH!" But seriously, no matter what we do, God always works for the good of those who love him, and unlike our own empty promises, God's words are always reliable, even if they are not immediately apparent. Let us, then, press on toward the goal that is set before us. Let us build each other up, encourage one another, and strive for excellence in all that we do. Let us look back on this day as a day that God taught us something, a day that God worked in our hearts and in the hearts of others, and let us look forward to the many things God has yet to accomplish through us.

May God bless the student ministry at Alma Heights, and may we continue to pursue, understand, and interpret his will with all purity and truth.

Leopard: Worth the upgrade?

2007-11-02T19:10:00.001-07:00

After installing Leopard onto every Mac in my house and playing around with it extensively, I feel at least someone qualified to offer my opinion on the big question for many Mac users out there: to upgrade, or not to upgrade?

The features in Leopard, as any informed Apple admirer might know, are somewhat lackluster and uninteresting compared to some of the installments made into new operating systems in the past. To be certain, Leopard's strongest feature is Time Machine, and Apple definitely made a wise decision when they placed this feature at the forefront. Not only does Time Machine let you recover files you may have accidentally deleted (which I honestly never do, so this feature is nearly worthless to me), but it also serves as an extremely simple, elegant way to automatically back up your hard drive. How simple? There are two options for Time Machine: On and Off.

By making the backup process simple (and really, quite fun) through a simulated "time travel" experience, Apple has made a task that every computer user should do (but that most computer users never do, including myself) into something every computer user wants to do.

Also notable: iChat! I'm not planning to download Adium (at least not yet), as iChat has proved to equal and exceed Adium's capabilities (except the ability to use my Yahoo! Messenger account, which isn't too lamentable). I have yet to test out the screen sharing feature, but the new backgrounds work like a charm, and are really fun to play around with.

I never used Safari before Leopard, and mostly I still don't, but the ability to make web clippings into Dashboard widgets is a really useful feature. My first clipping? Top ten in all topics on Digg. It's awesome.

The other features in Leopard don't merit too much time to go over. Spaces works as advertised, but I don't ever plan to use it, as it proves to be more of an annoyance to me than anything else. The new Finder is pretty, but hardly any more useful than it was before--except Quicklook, which is super useful. The new dock is one of the most controversial items in Leopard. Personally, I don't mind it so much, but this dock is definitely all about eye candy; really, it only ends up taking up a marginally greater amount of screen space than the last dock. Stacks are nice, but eh, I'll probably never use them. I do like the way it looks to the side, although I feel like theres some wasted space they could have cut out.

But here's the redeeming factor: this upgrade has significantly boosted the performance of my computer. I feel like I've gotten a RAM upgrade--and if your experience is anything like mine, you'll definitely feel the difference. My startup time is faster than before, as well as my overall computing experience. For this reason, I consider the investment totally justifiable.

So here's the verdict: Upgrade. For $129, you get a brand new full-featured operating system with a performance boost, compared to Vista, which requires much higher processing speeds to function properly, and whose entry-level version "Home Basic" (dramatically stripped down for the most dated computers) will set you back $180.

dell tech support

2007-10-23T21:04:00.001-07:00

Wait for the end. You'll know what's coming, but it's just priceless.

Apple's iPods

2007-10-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been reconsidering switching to a newer iPod, financed mostly by selling my current model. At first it was the Touch, but then I began to consider the iPod classic.

For $50 less, you can get 10x more memory than the iPod touch, which means either the iPod classic is a great deal, or the iPod Touch is way overpriced. Today I visited the Apple store, and decided I'd get a verdict once and for all by playing around extensively with both versions.

The iPod Classic is a great product for many reasons. The screen is amazingly crisp and sharp, noticeably more than the 5G iPod. The aluminum casing is REALLY cool, and makes so much more sense than the impossible-to-protect glossy plastic on all their previous models--although I will say that the silver casing is about as exciting and appealing as a bowl of oatmeal (but not the kind with dinosaurs in it). I only wish they continued this trend on the back side of the device, which remains, unfortunately, just as scratch-prone as always. The hold button on top is noticeably "clickier" than previous models, which gives it a really high-quality feel.

I'm not crazy about the menu system though. The split display seems to be a surprisingly dumb move by Apple, as it only makes the user feel more cramped. It really doesn't look that cool to me, and certainly contributes to the overall sluggish performance of the device. The MAJOR flaw with the iPod Classic, and really the dealbreaker for me, is the fact that it simply couldn't handle multitasking. Even the simple task of switching from menu to menu (I haven't even started talking about Coverflow yet) consistently made the song skip and jump. When playing a song and attempting to use Coverflow, the song skipped horribly, the kind of skipping where one millisecond is repeated rapidly like machine gun fire, until the album artwork loaded (and this took a couple of seconds). To make sure this wasn't a defect, I switched iPods, but found this to be the case consistently in every unit I tested. WTF?

The new iPod interface is a classic (no pun intended) example of one of Apple's greatest pitfalls: form over function (and in this case...way way way over function). When they hit the mark, they produce a product that not only looks stunning, but functions beautifully. But with some of their products (good luck trying to find an iPod Hi-Fi these days), they simply overlook the functionality.

It is important, however, to note that I tried doing the same things on the new iPod nano, and actually found it to be almost perfectly smooth, and certainly without any song skipping. Of course, this is made possible by the flash-based memory, as it takes the iPod Classic a longer time to access information from it's enormous, spinning hard drive. Another notable factor is that the iPods in the Apple store have a minimal amount of media on their hard drives--a tiny sliver on the capacity meter at best. If the performance is sluggish with this marginal amount of media, I can't imagine what 160 GB or any amount close to that would do to affect the iPod's performance (actually, I can, but I'd rather not think about it).

The iPod Touch, of course, is an amazing product in just about every way. The thinness, the gorgeous screen, and the Wi-Fi capability make it just about the coolest device ever sold outside of Japan. But the price point is just unacceptable. For the pitiful capacity offerings, AT LEAST the same pricing as the iPod Classic would seem fair enough. I just can't bring myself to invest in this product until they settle on a more compelling price point, or dramatically increase the capacity.

My current iPod model has an awesome amount of memory that I've only filled up to half way so far. It's zippy, stylish, and simple, without too much flashy nonsense that slows it down. It plays video on a beautiful, bright display, and the battery life never ceases to amaze me. Apple currently offers no compelling reasons for me to upgrade my current device. Therefore, my verdict has been reached, and I happily await the next generation of iPod devices.

why i'll never download from iTunes ever again

2007-10-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

With the recent release of Amazon MP3, I was hopeful, albeit skeptical, that someone would finally be offering a decent, DRM-free music downloading service. After giving it a try (I bought OK Computer by Radiohead, an artist the iTunes Store has never had), I must say that I am thoroughly impressed. Here's why Amazon MP3 is my new favorite music store:

1. NO DRM!!! Digital Rights Management is a codec that iTunes places on nearly all of their songs (up until recently, iTunes had zero DRM-free tracks)--however, its worth mentioning that the DRM-free tracks on iTunes come at an extra 30 cents per song, and includes a limited selection at that. DRM is "copyright protection" placed on downloaded MP3's by a deluded organization called the RIAA. They legally demand that labels under their influence (i.e. nearly every major label) place this copyright protection on their downloadable tracks. Frustrated that you can't play your iTunes music on more than five computers? Tired of having to give people your iTunes account information in order for them to listen to your music, or in order to stream your music (for others to STREAM and enjoy, not DOWNLOAD and keep) across multiple computers? Do you hate how you can't upload, email, or IM music you bought on the iTunes Store? That's what DRM does. ALL content on Amazon MP3 is DRM-free.

2. It's cheaper. Not only does Amazon MP3 NOT charge you extra for the DRM-free tracks, but their prices are actually lower than the DRM-ENCRYPTED content on iTunes! This includes brand new releases from popular artists--and get this, new content. Some of you might be familiar with KT Tunstall and her new album, Drastic Fantastic. On iTunes, the album is $14.99, and each track is $1.29 (because it's DRM-free). On Amazon, each track is also DRM-free, each track is 89 cents, and the album is $8.99.

3. It's incredibly easy. All you have to do is download the Amazon MP3 Downloader (a free download that leaves a minimally small footprint on your computer's hard drive, available for both Mac and Windows), and when you buy an album on Amazon, the Amazon MP3 downloader opens up, downloads your tracks, and adds them automatically to the digital jukebox of your choice (including iTunes). If you're an iPod user like me, all that's left is to sync up your songs and listen to the high-quality, cheap, DRM-free bliss.

I can see no reason to support the iTunes store with my business any longer, as Amazon MP3 is obviously the superior alternative. My final verdict: It's ABOUT F---ING TIME!

To try it out, just go to Amazonmp3.com.

[Update: There is a catch. As of now, only a few record labels are distributing their music without DRM. Granted, "a few record labels" means a lot of artists, so there's a good chance you'll find what you're looking for. Supporting DRM-free distributors like Amazon MP3 is important, because if the sales are high, other record labels will catch on and follow suit, and soon we'll be able to enjoy all the music we can think of, sans DRM.]

the iPod Touch

2007-09-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

So, today at church, a friend of mine let me play around with her newly-acquired iPod Touch.

To give you some background information, I like the iPhone, but have been pretty jaded toward the possibility of ever owning one (the price was a factor, but also the fact that it was pretty impractical for my own purposes). So naturally, when the iPod Touch came out, I was fairy excited, but did not feel like I needed to race down to the Apple Store just to play around with one. The capacity is also wildly disappointing. I really think thin-ness is way, way over-rated, and would much prefer a slightly thicker iPod with a hefty capacity than a "super-thin" iPod that holds far less that fullscreen media players that are offered by competitors (see: Zen Vision W). And though they offer ridiculously high capacities in their new line, the "iPod Classic", lets face it: it sucks. Personally, I think the brushed-aluminum look is extremely dull and tired-looking (although the same may be said of their characteristically glossy models in the past).

After playing around with the iPod Touch today, I can say that I was thoroughly impressed. Though iPhone owners may yawn at the notion, I find the idea of a fullscreen media player with wi-fi connectivity (not to mention a web browser that is Web 2.0 compliant) sans the rather expensive data contract with a phone company to be QUITE compelling.

I've been considering getting a cheap palm pilot, because my data is currently scattered all over the place. My trusty Moleskine notebook has been very handy, but I pretty much write down anything and everything I need to in that notebook, with no particular order. Organizationally, it's been more of a hassle to figure out where I wrote something or how I'd like to categorize what I write.

With the ability to use Google Apps on-the-go (as well as sync with iCal, should I encounter a wi-fi-free zone), I'd be cooking on the front burner, as Mr. Joe Gross would say. I'd also have an OMFGSTFU AWESOME device that combines my media player and my calendar, notes, and contacts, rather than filling my already full pockets with yet another device. Some of you might say, "The iPod Touch doesn't come with a note pad, or many other useful features that are pre-installed on the iPhone, silly!", but it's really only a matter of time before someone makes the iPhone apps available for use on the iPod Touch. It's the same OS, after all :)

The downside, of course, is the capacity. Sure, there are plenty of things I never listen to/am embarrassed to have on my iPod that I could clear out, but that sill won't narrow my library (including video) down to 16 GB--this is, of course, the size I would purchase. It'd be a sacrifice for me, and the first time I'd have to rotate music according to listening priority. I'd definitely have to sell my 80 GB in order to get it.

I'm willing to make that sacrifice for such a sleek, cool device. But I'm wondering what you guys think.

Is it foolish for me to sell my my fully-functioning, perfectly capable 80 GB for a device that I don't REALLY need (but REALLY want :P), and should I just "suck it up" and figure out how to organize my things according to their current setup? Or, should I go for it, sell that 80 GB for 299 on Craigslist (it's in tip-top shape, thanks to the superior protection of my hard case) and save up the rest in order to buy a media and organizational device that will make my life much simpler?

Comment away, my friends. And of course, as Chris put it when he was considering his iPhone purchase, even though I may decide to get one, I'll still have to go through Accounting (i.e. my Dad:). Thanks for reading, as always!

[Update: It's only fair for me to point out that all iPods (last gen and current) have contacts and calendar built-in. Of course, it's much better to be able to add contacts and calendar appointments on-the-fly, but I might just be getting too picky about it. Consider this when formulating your answer.]

interesting thread

2007-08-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this thread on a Facebook group dedicated to Ayn Rand and her teachings, namely the Objectivist philosophy. The discussion was started by a guy who is a practicing Catholic, but who also admires the philosophical teachings of Ayn Rand. Since Objectivists are almost exclusively atheists, the follow up has been extensive and, in many cases, heatedly condemning. I found it all to be exceedingly fascinating. Read it for yourself:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2204657931&topic=1939

It seems that Rand and her followers are convinced that Objectivism and theism are totally incompatible on the sole basis that the latter requires the believer to defy natural logic and reason in order to believe it. Richard Dawkins quotes were brandished like Bible verses in response to those who said otherwise. However, I fail to be convinced of some things (and really, they are some of the key things that prevent me from really taking belief systems like Objectivism and atheism seriously).

How does belief in God require abandonment of all logic and reason? Simply because no one can see him? Let's take Santa Clause, for example. I do not believe in Santa Clause because there aren't, in fact, stockings full of coal that appear for the naughty children and little bicycles or dolls for the nice ones. The claims made by all the folklore and stories simply are not fulfilled. Disbelief in Santa Clause, therefore, does not totally rest on our ability to observe the actual person, but the lack of evidence for his existence (i.e. no naughty or nice list!)

I'm not saying there aren't people who mindlessly accept religion without looking at the evidence for themselves, or who know of the evidence but purposefully choose to ignore it in favor of their emotional response (see: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), but it's terribly unfair to generalize every religious person under that category. Truly, there are many things in our world that do not have a physical explanation: morality, the human condition, a basic sense of right and wrong, the need for justice, and so on. There are plenty of religious people who not only know the scientific data, but embrace it and study it and love it, but also maintain their beliefs in a religion which, they believe, provides the best explanation for all those things which science fails to address.

Atheists love to point out how many horrible things religious people have done, but in turn shoot themselves in the foot, as they have merely been distracted from the equally brutal human crimes committed by atheists around the world. An Objectivist is just as prone to make a mistake as any religious follower is, and you don't have to be a Christian to observe that. No Objectivist will ever perfectly adhere to his beliefs--they will, once in a while, succumb to the temptation to violate the rights of others in order to fulfill their own desires. In the same way Christians will never fully be able to represent the teachings and attitude of Christ (and indeed, if they could, there would be no need for a Christ in the first place). It is not, therefore, religion or a lack thereof which determines man's general "default-drive" behavior; rather, it is the very framework of mankind as a whole which is to blame for the corruption and evil that has always existed in the world as we know it.

Atheism and its many branches of philosophical thought, including Objectivism, may (and probably do) have valid, legitimate answers to these questions, and who knows, they may even be right! But thusfar, they have failed to take these matters seriously, which makes it exceedingly difficult for me to treat their beliefs any differently.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

things to look forward to (alma heights students only)

2007-07-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

One of the goals for next year is to keep everyone up-to-date and connected with what's going on, so I've decided to do my part and tell you everything I know about next year. I had a meeting the other day with Mr. Gross, and we discussed some of the things that I will now describe in detail. For those of you who care, you'll enjoy knowing some new things about next year. Since this is such a huge post, I've divided it up into sections, so that you can skim through it however you like, depending on what topics grab your interest.

TEACHERS

We have new teachers! For those of you who might not know, Mr. Davies has moved to Eureka, where he's taken the position as headmaster at another school, and Mr. Gross is once again the high school principal. We have a new Spanish teacher, and apparently he really knows his stuff. English is his second language, which is very reassuring. We also have a couple of other additions to the staff who, according to Mr. Gross, are highly qualified and experienced. They'll be teaching Physics, Calculus, and some other courses as well. The bottom line is this: we won't be understaffed. Mr. Gross is extremely pleased with this year's lineup, and says that teachers definitely will not be stretched too thin like last year, enabling them each to stick with their areas of expertise, and to teach them well. This is a HUGE answer to prayer, as lots of the frustration that occurred last year was centered around this problem.

FUNDRAISING AND SENIOR CLASS

Fundraising will be different next year. The official system has not yet been decided, but here's what we do know: it will NOT be a shared, communist system like last year.

There are some issues revolving around the question of Fundraising. In previous years, Senior classes have raised enough money for many of the students to go, but often others were left out (some of their own will, others out of inability to afford whatever couldn't be fundraised). Mr. Gross said that he would also like to see more service involved in Senior trips (less "centered around selfishness", as he described it). This might be true--and I'm not saying I agree 100%--but I don't think it hurts to consider the good that could be accomplished after four years of preparation and work. He emphasized that Senior trips are really about being with each other, hanging out with other people in our class. And when we're having fun with friends, it doesn't matter that we're picking up garbage or sorting cans at a food bank--we'll still have a blast, because we're doing it together. Sure, it's fun to go somewhere "exotic" or "luxurious", there's nothing wrong with that. But the fun level is the same in both cases, as long as good attitudes are included. Fortunately, that's something that seems to be pretty easy for you guys to pull off :) Mr. Gross just happens to be the Senior class advisor this year, so this issue will probably come up in the first few weeks of school as we try to figure out what we want to do.

Each class next year will have 15 min. per day of class time, where the reps will have the opportunity to plan things with the class, have class discussions or votes, etc. Personally, I'd rather be given 20-30 minutes once or twice a week, because there's only so much that can be accomplished in 15 minutes. And you can't really start discussions in that short period of time, because there are many people with different opinions and even more distractions. Mr. Gross was with me on this one, but the schedule next year is tight as it is, so it's unlikely that this will change. However, if it proves to be enough of a need, the faculty may be able to adjust our schedules to accommodate a different approach to class meetings. If this is something you feel strongly about (reps, I'm talking primarily to you), let me know what you think and I'll pass it on. The academic council is primarily responsible for scheduling these kinds of things, so speaking to any member about your concerns is a good idea (off the top of my head: Miss Herber, Mr. Boyd, Mrs. Travis, Mr. Quiring? There are other teachers as well.)

The Senior class will have around 3 weeks after the start of school to get their act together and plan a course of action for the rest of the year (trip location, committee for planning the trip including parents, fundraising, etc). Obviously, every detail doesn't have to be planned out by then, but a general idea of trip type/location and a definite set of committed individuals who will be involved in planning will be necessary. If not, the administration will be forced to intervene. This seems fair to me, as long as we have advance warning and are allowed to do as we please (within reason) for the alloted time. A month is plenty of time to get the ball rolling (and it should be done by then, even if we're not on a time limit).

There are other details about fundraising that I will save for a later post, because they're more ideas than anything else, and this post is already lengthy after only the first topic.

STAYING INFORMED

A change that will definitely occur next year will be the level of secrecy. Committees will report to the Student Council with their latest decisions, but it will be up to the Student Council to nullify or confirm the decisions. In other words, the Student Council will have veto power over all committee decisions. Why are we doing this? Because the Student Council last year hardly knew what was happening in any of the committees (especially banquet committee), and many questionable decisions could have been prevented or at least contested if they were brought before the Student Council for consideration. In turn, the Student Council will be able to notify the student body of committee happenings, keeping us all on the same page. Gone will be the days of rumors being the primary method of communication. The biggest change will come with the banquet committee. You won't be kept completely in the dark until a month before like last year. It's not going to be a huge surprise anymore, unlike previous years. The reason the location has been such a closely-guarded secret in the past is because the committee was concerned that students would complain about it prematurely. But if the students are strongly opposed to having it at a certain location (e.g. our own gym), then it's important for the committee to know so that they don't plan it there! Makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, isn't the whole point of having a committee to plan banquet to make it someplace we want to go?

Last year, toward the end of the year, we started posting meeting notes on the bulletin board as a way of keeping people up-to-date on what was happening at our meetings. Did anyone read them? I didn't read them. Heck, I was having trouble staying awake during most of those meetings. So what I'd like to do is tell people ahead of time the main topics of upcoming meetings, so that if people are interested, they can come to the meeting and share their opinions on the matter.

The main focus of next year will be to eliminate secrets. There's no need for them--they start rumors, cause frustration, and are always to blame for misunderstandings. Out of respect for intellectual property, I will say that this issue was first brought to my attention by my friend Chris Knight last year, when the whole banquet fiasco was unfolding. He was right!

SCHOOL SPIRIT/SPORTS

We're going to try to make next year funner. One of the complaints I heard a lot last year was regarding the boring, monotonous school schedule. While we did have some fun surprises every now and then, it seemed that most of the time, things were pretty normal. First off, let's face it, school is school. There's only so much fun you can expect to get from it, aside from being with your friends all the time. However, there are some things we can do to make school life a little less miserable :) One area that Mr. Gross saw as extremely important was that of school spirit, particularly in sports. Providing incentives and jazzing up sports games with entertaining half-time shows are just a few steps we can take to really get the gym loud and crazy during home games. Also, some random surprises would be fun, perhaps during chapels every few weeks. This is an area that you can be a huge part of by giving us some ideas! And speaking of which...

SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS

We're going to have easier ways of giving the Student Council a piece of your oversized noggin by having a suggestion box, and perhaps other methods of easily submitting your ideas. Ideas on how to submit ideas are also welcome. Many people like to be anonymous in their suggestions, and we'd like to cater to that preference as much as possible.

I hope this information has been reassuring and helpful to you. Mr. Gross is extremely pleased with the potential we have in several areas next year, as am I. As always, if any of you have comments on ANY issue discussed above (whether or not I specified that it was open to discussion), don't hesitate to do so by replying to this post or sending me a personal message. I won't post my email address on here for obvious reasons, but if any of you would like it, I'm happy to give it to you. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all enjoying what's left of your summer. Ciao!

Grand Canyon on friday

2007-07-10T23:15:00.001-07:00

I'm going to the Grand Canyon on Friday! I want to kill myself for not bringing a camera with me. But I'm looking forward to the experience nonetheless. That's all.

reflections: junior year

2007-06-06T23:32:00.000-07:00

I know everyone says it, but this year really has gone by fast.

I'm mostly grateful for that. This year was a frustrating, confusing one for me. I generally found my classes to be more interesting this year than last year (although that factor varied from time to time). I really enjoyed History class, which is significant, because that subject has always been one of my least favorites in the past. Some of you might ask, "Are there any subjects that AREN'T some of your least favorites?", and I must admit that you are asking a very good question. I enjoyed Yearbook on occasion, although toward the end of the year (and during other times throughout the year) it become slow and dull. There were issues with our staff, as it was drastically changed and downsized during the second semester. Mrs. Bernson and Saris had issues, and eventually Mrs. Bernson took over completely because of a lack of cooperation--Saris was discouraged, and she had finished her high school credits, so she left. Fortunately, this cutoff did not generally manifest itself in the yearbook itself; however, it greatly affected the chemistry in that class, and it was mostly negative. The fun times were a blast, but they were few.

As far as my leadership positions, this year was definitely a preparation and learning experience for me, as I learned many valuable lessons from Meg and how she dealt with other people in difficult situations. I can't help but feel a sense of anxiety about being president next year, as I'm sure is the case with all who have been elected to my position in the past. I'm worried that people are placing too much faith in me, and that I won't be able to live up to their hopes. I suppose my thinking is similar to most students at our school, but my ability to actually make changes is affected by many uncontrollable factors. I'm just an ordinary human being, like everyone at our school, with strengths and weaknesses. I was faced with doubt regarding my decision to run for office, and at one point had even determined that I would run for Chaplain instead. I'm happy with my decision, because I know that God has me in this position for a reason, and that he will fulfill his purpose through me somehow.

I want Student Council to be fun again. This year, especially toward the end, I had enormous trouble paying attention during Student Council meetings, or finding in myself the capacity to care about what was being discussed. Of course, I doubt there's any way for people to actually look forward to Student Council meetings--however, I don't think they have to be dreaded either. I'm happy to say, though, that after today's meeting, I was reassured that my work in that area is already cut out for me. The atmosphere was incredible--every member has a fantastic personality, as well as great ideas and insights, often regarding things that I wouldn't even have thought of. I can't thank God enough for blessing me with such a mature, intelligent group of leaders to work with, and I really mean that with the utmost sincerity. It was really a blast for me to see the kind of commitment and potential our next Student Council has to offer.

I've learned things about myself this year, and am always growing in that knowledge. I'm not going to pretend that next year will be the most fun, and that everything will finally fall into place and that it'll be my best year ever--but I can always hope that it will be better.

And finally, regarding this year's senior class: You are all extremely dear to me, and words cannot express my gratitude for the way you've accepted me and treated me as an equal, even during my unruly freshman days. I will miss you all profoundly, but am equally happy to see you heading off into your adult lives and embracing your futures. I'm sure we'll see each other often, but of course, it will never be the same as our high school days. I've never had such a caring, consistent group of friends as you guys, and I can honestly say that I would be a completely different person without your impact in my life. I can think of few times when it's been this hard to say goodbye, but life continues whether I'm comfortable with it or not. Therefore, I bid you all farewell, and may God bless you.

the evolution of faith

2007-05-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

I'd like to begin this topic by discussing faith. What is faith? Is faith, as Richard Dawkins would put it, "blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence?" Well, I wouldn't say so. The Bible defines faith as being certain of what cannot be seen. Is faith totally blind, simply because it cannot perceive the object? Can we not assume that there is a fire to our right when enormous amounts of heat are coming from that direction? Must we see the wind to know that it is there?

My faith is based on the evidence of the world we live in. God doesn't stand outside my front door, proclaiming "I AM!" in bodily, viewable-by-the-human-eye form. But His glory can be dsciovered through creation, which is described as his masterpiece, his canvas, even his mirror. This topic can be discussed more in-depth in another blog post; however, I precede my topic with faith, because it seems that many people (including Christians) have some serious misconceptions about what faith is.

To be certain, part of faith is trusting something, despite the fact that you don't know everything about it. For example: if I am going to sit in a chair, I must have tremendous confidence that it will hold me up without collapsing. Though I have not actually sat in the chair, I can deduce that it will be sufficiently stable, based on the structure of the chair, the size of the chair, and observing the experiences of others who have sat in the same chair. I can then judge for myself whether or not the chair is safe to sit in, and based on that judgment, take action.

Faith is not blind. Faith rests upon solid evidence and careful observation before delving into the not entirely known. Folly would be to look upon the chair, notice loose screws, and perhaps even see others who have caused the chair to collapse, and to choose to place faith in the chair despite it. According to Dawkins, faith is, indeed, folly.

What is our response to this, as Christians? We must, in all things, seek to make our faith believable, relevant, and solidly backed by proof. One key area, which, among American Christians in particular, is greatly lacking, is the area of the harmony of faith and science.

I'm going to start off by giving you what Christians argue, in response to evolution:

1. Evolution is unbiblical. It tells us that the Earth was not created by God in seven literal days, but rather by a tremendous, random explosion, which somehow resulted in life.

2. Evolution leads to atheism, because, if it is true, it disproves the existence or need of any god.

3. Evolution is not scientifically credible, because our natural observations lead us to the inevitable conclusion that a) the earth is 10,000 years old, b) no "missing link" has been found, and d) the chances of a "big bang" or the process of evolution occurring is infinitesimally improbable and therefore unbelievable.

4. No bible-believing Christians believe in evolution: since evolution is unbiblical, Christians who believe it do not consider God's word to be authoritative, and therefore, deny God's power and deity.

I'm going to start with the easy one: Evolution is unbiblical. To begin this argument, we need to establish some things about the Bible itself.

First of all, the Bible IS God-breathed and inspired. I'm not denying that at all. But the Bible is, in it's very essence, a work of literature. And many decently-written works of literature has several different writing styles within them: poetry, satire, metaphor, narrative, parable, and so on. It doesn't take a well-trained Biblical scholar to notice something strikingly synchronized and, dare I say it, poetic about Genesis 1. Without a shred of a doubt, these opening passages of the Bible are not your everyday historical account. There are verses, choruses, and various repeated syncopations. I don't need to press the point any further here: Genesis 1 IS a poem, and the only evidence one needs is to read it aloud.

With that in mind, we can draw some conclusions:
1. We can say that, since it is a poem, chances are that every historical detail is not precisely laid out accurately or even chronologically. Poetic language is expressive, not informative. Words used in poems often have different meaning than they would if used in a literal context. The word "Day", for example: when an elderly person recounts the adventures he had in his youth, he may start his stories by saying "Well, back in MY day..." This, obviously, does not mean that his youth lasted for one day, and one day only. Rather, "day" is used to describe years, even decades, of passed time. In other Biblical passages, when "the DAY of the Lord" is described, they are not describing the one single 24-hour period that God will have all to himself--obviously, they are referring to the time of God's victory, his vengeance against wrongdoing, and his rewarding of righteousness. With this in mind, how can we possibly assume that "day" can't possibly mean something similar in these opening passages? What makes this poem different from all the others? In addition to this, DAYS aren't even possible without the presence of a sun to rotate around--since the earliest days of humanity, days have been defined by the sun's rise and set. How can there be a "day", when the very definition of "day" had not yet even been made possible? Light and darkness aren't created until the fourth day, and it says: "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years."

2. In light of this, we can accept a variety of theories on how the universe first came about. One such theory is the dreaded Big Bang, which has become, to many Christians, the antithesis of their most beloved truths. Evolution is made possible, because we are not confined to the ludicrous theory that the earth HAD to have been created in seven literal 24-hour periods. God could have just as easily been the force behind the initiation of the universe, making sure everything happened just so, in order that human life would eventually be made possible.

I believe enough has been said in this point, so I will therefore carry on to the next topic: Evolution and atheism?

A book I read a while ago, called "The Language of God", written by Francis Collins, discusses this topic well. God, being a spiritual being, and theoretically speaking, the inventor of matter, cannot, therefore, be disproved scientific means. There may be reasons to disprove God, and there may be reasons to prove God (and discerning Christians should lend their ears and minds in BOTH directions, by the way). I believe that evolution is a powerful example of the complexity and incomprehensibility of God's design in nature. That he would use such spectacular means to bring about his creation is absolutely astounding, and no less than awe-inspiring to me. In no way does evolution limit or reduce God's omnipotence; rather, if God is the author of creation, it is another manifestation of his inconceivability.

Evolution doesn't lead to atheism any more than it leads to rheumatism. Objective analysis of scientific data leads only to neutral agnosticism--the existence of God can be neither confirmed nor denied by scientific methods.

Creationists might question the scientific probability of the theory of evolution, however, they face an entire field of study whose very foundation and progress is based on this theory. Just because something is improbable doesn't make it impossible. Scientific research has shown that, though it may be the most improbable occurrence, evolution does happen, it explains much of what we did not previously understand about our natural universe, and thus far coincides with every facet of modern science.

It is a lie that there have been no transitional forms found. Countless transitional forms have been found, and more are being uncovered every day. To use this as an argument against evolution is absolutely mindless, and fortunately is one that (to the extent of my knowledge) has been silently discarded among creationist circles.

Again, we run into a problem of narrative when we approach the story of the flood. Two of EVERY species fitting on one water-borne vessel? We can hardly imagine that today. Imagine how many species there were in Noah's time! I'm not saying this story can't be literally true--but I think we can safely say that, according to our scientific findings, a worldwide flood is a far-fetched theory that attempts to explain otherwise-provable phenomena. If scientific reasons against a worldwide flood can be established, then we, as Christians should embrace them, and continue to revere the story of Noah as an invaluable lesson of trust and promise.

Let me wrap this up by saying that there are many, many solid, Bible-believing, born-again Christians who have embraced evolution in their field of study. Francis Collins is the head of the Human Genome Project, which received worldwide recognition for decoding the human gene in the late 90's (one of the most profound scientific breakthroughs in human history). Numerous times in the Bible, we encounter the command to learn about creation, to dig deep into the secrets of the universe, and to delight in the works of God's hands. A Christian can embrace whatever scientific theory comes along, no matter if it's evolutionism or icklezitutionism, as long as scientific data supports it. I would not claim myself to be evolutionist: I would choose, in the words of Francis Collins, "Bio Logos", which basically means "in harmony with science". This allows us to not only say "yes" to evolution as our best guess to explain today's universe, but also acknowledge and open ourselves to the possibility of other explanations in the future, as long as they are backed by solid evidence and wide respect from the scientific community.

As Christians with a missions-oriented mindset, we should constantly try to make our faith relevant and tangible to the unbelieving around us. It is shameful and embarrassing that we have turned down so many seekers based on their scientific beliefs. Faith in Jesus' atoning sacrifice on our behalf is what defines a Christian. Let's focus on the gospel, and not let ignorant interpretation of Biblical texts prevent us from doing so. We can STILL point to the complexity and order in the universe as an evidence of design and purpose. But a desperate attempt to fight science is not the answer. Faith and science should go hand-in-hand, not in opposition to each other.

We should all have solid reasons for believing what we believe. Christians should listen to what atheists and others present as evidence for their belief and consider their words, and others should do likewise. I have not been convinced by other belief systems, because I believe in the reality of original sin and total depravity, and don't see another religion that addresses them as relevantly and realistically as Christianity; however, my mind is open to other ideas and opinions. As Christians, we must search for answers to difficult questions within our own faith by reading the Scriptures, and also by reading works of similar Christians who have struggled with the same questions. While we can trust God's goodness and God's faithfulness to sustain us and work for our best, we must never stop searching for answers: for while our primary goal is to present the gospel to those around us, we must always be honest and critical of ourselves and our own assumptions.

Certainly, there is more to discuss regarding this topic. I'd like to keep the dialogue going here, and to hopefully clear up some discomfort that seems to be surrounding this issue. Agreements, disagreements, or otherwise are welcome. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

new template, the new testament and historical christianity, women in ministry

2007-05-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

I've changed my template, and am proud to say that the header was created by none other than yours truly. I also made a cool little Favicon for the URL, which is pretty darn awesome, in my opinion.

The Sunday after Easter, City Church hosted another Open Forum, this time featuring the knowledge and insights of Dr. Ben Witherington III, who is a New Testament scholar from Kentucky. He spoke lucidly about the reliability of New Testament accounts, and responded to the challenge of gnostic gospels, as well as other arguments against the validity of the historic Christian gospels. It was really a fascinating talk, and quite a few great questions were asked and answered afterward. Listen to the audio here.

Also of interest, this Sunday my dad spoke about equality in the gospel, and touched on a particularly touchy subject: women in ministry. Those of you who are interested/concerned about this subject will probably enjoy it. The audio for that is here.

That's all for now! Critique on my new layout is, of course, welcome. For those of you who are reading this via RSS feed (this includes Facebook users), click here to visit my blog and check out the new look.

concerning my candidacy

2007-04-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's official: I'm running for President. My nomination slip was submitted yesterday at the start of fourth period.

The reason I'm writing this blog post is to clarify my stance on the issue of student-teacher relations. It seems that people have become a tad over-zealous concerning my previous blog posts, which openly criticize some of the decisions made by the teachers this year.

I would like to start of by saying that, it doesn't matter who's in charge, we students will always have grievances against the school Administration, simply because they are the authority and ultimately in charge of us during school hours, and we would much rather be allowed to govern ourselves. As Christians, however, we are called to respect and honor the authority placed over us. I apologize if my previous comments have been disrespectful in any way--however, I would like to emphasize that I am NOT backing down from my aforementioned convictions. My main criticism is that the faculty has too tight of a grip over student affairs (senior sweatshirts, anyone?)--however, they do happen to have our best interest in mind. So while their decisions may make no sense to us, and sometimes ultimately make little sense at all, we are still indebted to their tireless efforts and genuine care regarding our well-being.

So my goal next year is not to widen the gap between teacher and student, but rather to help heal this festering wound of dissent and apathy. The purpose of the student council, at its core, is to represent the interests of the student body, and to do so in a respectful, honorable, and effective way. The more we remember who we represent, the more relevant of an organization we can be become. Next year, I plan to lead a student council FOR the students.

reflections on mexico 2007

2007-04-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Third on my list after I got home today was to write out my thoughts about this trip, before reading my emails and catching up with friends. This is not to say that I would rather avoid them, but I feel it is necessary in order to clearly express my raw impressions, without the "buffer" (for lack of a better word) of my current realities. So I will try to make this quick so that I can talk to some people I haven't seen in a while.

The trip this year was wonderful, memorable, and most definitely final. I enjoyed my time, grew in my relationships with many people, and experienced the power of God as He continues to grow and bless the ministry at Rancho De Sus Niños. But while God was showing me His power, His ability to reach through the bleakest of circumstances, and His faithfulness to even those who lack faith (*cough cough*me*cough cough*), I strongly felt that I would not be returning. God has shown me great things in Mexico, and I believe that he will continue to do so elsewhere.

There were discouraging things about this trip that contributed to my feelings of conclusiveness. For one, we do the same thing every year--that is, we have the same effect when it comes to evangelism, which I would compare to the effectiveness of a door-to-door salesman advertising something one has little interest in. This comparison, however, may not be adequate, as even door-to-door salesmen share the same culture with their victims. To be certain, a Spanish-speaking salesman with an extremely limited knowledge of the English language (i.e. A few basic phrases) would be far less impacting than a salesman who speaks English natively and can actually articulate the product in a more personal, relevant sense.

This year, and in previous years, we have walked through the neighborhoods surrounding churches (often exploring far beyond the vicinity of the building), knowing nothing of the people who live there, or even the direction we are headed. While some might point out that I am a native Spanish speaker, I cannot be expected to personally and culturally bond with those we encounter as we attempt to invite them to church. For one thing, few people had any knowledge of what was on the waivers that were handed out. No one knew how to give directions to the actual church building, and often the directions on the waiver were vague and inadequate. One man, after receiving the invitation from me, asked me where said building was located (with sort of a joking air, which I sensed). He knew that we had no idea, and I was honest with him. "I don't know, it's somewhere in that direction," I said. "Then why are they sending you out if you don't even know where the place is?" [This exchange was in Spanish, of course]. All I could do was laugh politely and shrug, and encourage him to look at the directions and bring his whole family.

The impersonal "Hola", handing them the invitation, and "Adios" were not very convincing, and I could never imagine being enticed to come to any church service that was advertised in such a way. Most of the church attendees were regulars, and those who hadn't been previously were there because they were brought BY the regulars. And praise God for that! Building on relationships with people is the best way to evangelize, and this was certainly accomplished by those who live there.

On Sunday, each group had a native resident accompany them, and it was a HUGE factor. Our guide not only gave a paper to the natives, but was able to accurately describe what they could expect when they went there, where the church was located, and even began conversations with people regarding their personal needs. This really opened my eyes to the importance of relationships, cultural relevance, and effective ministry.

As foreigners, we should not be pushed to the forefront of any representative body, but rather work behind the scenes to aid the ministry of RDSN and the churches as effectively as possible. There was quite a bit of that, to be certain: the construction projects we helped with were difficult and exhausting, but extremely rewarding, as this year we were able to see the impact of our contruction last year: buildings we had laid the foundations for had nearly reached completion. Also playing with the children, praying for them, sponsoring them, and in so doing, sharing our love for them, was a wonderful witness and worthwhile use of time.

There are tons of strong points in RDSN's ministry strategy, and to be certain, the greatest is their abundance of faith and prayer. Much of what they have received has been through miraculous donation or last-minute provision that could never have been planned or foreseen. The faith and perseverance of Steve Horner, the founder, and the entire staff, as well as the pastors of its various church plants, is truly an inspiration and source of great hope for me and all who came.

I learned a few things on this trip. I learned to see that, though our ministry strategies may not be perfect, and though everything might not be just the way we would plan it, God works through all lacking and failings. Proverbs 16:3 says "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." This, I think, can be applied to the large scale, in that we can make huge plans for evangelistic undertakings, but the Lord will be the one who makes it a success.

Overall, the trip to Mexico was a positive, unforgettable experience. I will treasure the time of fellowship I shared with all who went, and will certainly have some stories to tell later on (Jesus died for DICKS, kids!). Thanks to all who came for making it a great adventure. For now, it's time to turn the page to a new chapter, and await whatever other foreign missions God might have in store for me.

some passing thoughts

2007-03-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

It seems that God has been teaching me things through the most unlikely mediums imaginable.

Just when I start to think I'm getting pretty wise, that I'm on good terms with all my friends, and that I've done a pretty good job of things, the cover is stripped back, and I am fully exposed, without any pride left to keep me in high spirits. In this condition, all the fancy phrases and words I can conjure fall to ruin, and I am left with nothing but God's mercy to cling to.

I learned something new about myself. Apparently, I'm so obsessed with being accepted, I'm willing to put the trust of other people at risk by faking my identity, and by pretending to be a person I'm really not. I'm a PK, and I have been exposed to little in the outside world. This isn't really my parent's fault, or the fault of the school I go to, or anyone else's. It's simply part of who I am. I'll always be uncomfortable with certain subjects, around certain types of people, and in certain contexts. That's something I'm going to have to deal with--finding a way to cope with the reality that discomfort is a prerequisite for anyone who believes what I do.

I'm a fixer. I find problems, and then I relentlessly try to fix them. This is often to the point of obsession, which has destroyed many of my relationships, as well as my credibility with many people. It has also torn me apart on many occasions, because my attachment to a certain issue becomes unhealthy and ultimately proves to be my weakness.

I'm great at explaining how only looking to God for grace and validation is the only way to live as a Christian. But I can't really remember the last time I actually totally depended on God for something. I'm not quite sure I understand how this whole growth process works. I say that there isn't a formula to Christian growth, yet it seems like my time is consumed with trying to find it. But I'm never going to be satisfied if I think I can somehow fix everything. I'm frustrated, because I'm not quite sure why I have this desire, if ultimately there's nothing I can fix. Maybe it was meant to emphasize the fact that I'm inadequate, and the God is really the only person who can make sense of things. If I could fix things, heck, I'd probably think that I don't need him.

As I spend time with my friends and encounter different experiences, I learn new things about myself. Daily, God is giving me wisdom in certain areas, without failing to pull back the curtains on some particularly nasty areas of my personality. But with every revelation comes grace, and with grace comes growth, which I am truly depending upon God for. The Author and Finisher of my faith must, indeed, live up to his name if I'm going to be whatever he wants me to be. But I'm confident that he hasn't given up on me, and that he will, indeed, bring to completion the good work that he has started in me.

Please pray for me, as well as all those who are struggling with their spiritual growth, and who are just as lost, confused, and reliant on God's grace as I am. Also pray for those who I have successfully wronged in the process, that their wounds would be healed, and that I might learn from my mistakes and prevent them from happening again.

don't just take my word for it!

2007-03-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hey, turns out I'm not crazy after all! Here's what other students, from Alma Heights and from other private Christian schools, have been saying:

Blogger:
Dude just one more year for you, I have two, quit your complaining...lol
Alma Heights sucks, we all know! You hit it right on the dot, that it is mainly the teachers fault for everyone being the way they are and act. I'm positive that a majority of the students would enjoy going to this school more if it wasn't for the teachers making dumb rules and changing everything with no ones consent.

Banquet on the other hand....LOL what a waste of time and money is going into that whole production. Maybe you'll get 5 more people to your banquet than we did to ours, which would make the grand total to ...tabulating .... 5!

Ahhh I love making fun of our school.
[-Nick Knight]

Facebook:
thank you for recognizing our hard work.
the apathy, on the students' part is so discouraging, everyday hear complaints about everything...but few people actually stand up and do anything about it or even back up the statements they make in their whining, which is why i always appreciate your opinion on these things...

i totally agree with what you said, it happens in our senior meetings too, it's over stupid things like senior sweatshirts...we want a certain design on our sweatshirt but the faculty member who has the power to approve or deny our design wanted changes made, not because it was inappropriate but because that person didn't like the composition...("this little part is a little distracting)...it's infuriating. and this is one reason i'm glad to be graduating. i have had some amazing teachers these past four years and i'm so grateful for them but this year has been ridiculous...between unproductive spanish classes and stressful banquet meetings...it's just too much.
[-Janice Li]

Wow, it seems as though you could be talking about LCS! The control by the adminstration and faculty is ridiculous here, too. Being senior class president and on student council, we have suggested numerous ways to improve the school and events, but all recommendations are immediately shot down, with no consideration. It's certainly frustrating because it seems like they don't trust the students. And, I'm with you on the dancing issue as well :) Hope you're doing well and good luck trying to change all of these things!
[-Kate Bean, from Lakeland, Florida]

Myspace:
This sound way too much like the stuff at my school. Seriously. It's almost the same. Our "prom" is a banquet with minimal entertainment and where the "six-inch rule" is enforced. One good thing is that parents have taken it into their own hands to plan dances after the banquets for the kids to enjoy.

Keep up the great blogs, John Mark!
[-Joe Nederveld, Lakeland, Florida]

Xanga (my personal favorite):
Wow. For once (usually I have one or two objections, but not this time), I completely, utterly, and totally agree with every word you just wrote. You've just about summed up every student at Alma Height's frustrations, rages, anger, and scorn for the hypocrisy that goes on at good ol' AHCA. Unlike you, though, I'm a lot more vehement and angry, as an "underclassman". I could really learn to hate that word.

Before this year, I didn't have any idea what that really meant, but now it's arrived like some kind of nasty term of derision. Last year was one of the best schoolyears of my little life. I felt really connected to all of the classes and the school seemed great. But now, it's been stripped away. We've been herded away like little inferior sheep from the rest of the flock, from electives to the play to banquet. Only a handful, and mostly the sports teams, really have much interaction with the upperclassmen AT ALL. Those of us who can't join sports teams or be on student council are cut off. To the underclassmen that I've spoken to, we've just about had it. Banquet was going to be the one redeeming point (if we could find a compassionate and kind upperclassman to take us, the stinky little runts, as dates), but now we're not even allowed to go? And for what purpose? Why is it so harmful if a handful of little inferior sheep make it into the banquet? Do they think we're going to be rowdy, immature, and careless? What is their problem with us this year? A night at Elephant Bar and watching a BALLET cannot appease us. I went, and I had a decent time, but it just wasn't the same. Not in the least. It was me, three of my friends, and the freshmen, who are blissfully ignorant the degrading situation we underclassmen are in.

We have next to no voice. Our reps have tried hard to put in words for us with the faculty, only to have their words fall on deaf ears, even when their arguments have no error in them. More often that not, the teachers refuse to listen to reason. I could name the two that make my blood boil in particular, but I'll refrain for the safety of my own life. :P

It's beyond frustrating to be an "underclassman" this year. My only happiness about this schoolyear is that it's just about over.

~*a sickened underclassman [Rachel Grussi]

Well there you go! I haven't lost my mind. Mature, upright, law-abiding students are expressing the same concerns. Isn't that interesting?

manifesto

2007-03-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

This whole year, apathy has possessed the student body at Alma Heights, like a virus. The hardworking, dedicated student council has turned into an ineffective conglomerate of useless peons.

It's been a problem since the beginning. The faculty has told us repeatedly that we must keep our spirits up, and we must motivate and rally our fellow peers. It's a theme that has pervaded every event, every student council meeting, and every chapel message this year. I remember with fondness the few times that a speaker failed to instruct us on how we needed to become "serious" in our relationship with God, or to "release the inner fire", or to "give your WHOLE life to God", or something equally ambiguous that can lead to false conclusions. What is the root of the problem? The faculty.

Yes, the faculty. I'll start with banquet. Our banquet this year was ruined by the faculty. I support the event, because the committee has put long hours into planning and figuring out details and trying to work with the tyrants that dominate their every decision. I want people to go, because it is not fair to all the hardworking students who have put so much effort into the event if a small population shows up (which, I'm afraid, is likely to be the case).

So here's our banquet, in short:
1. Junior/Senior splitoff - unless circumstances have changed without my knowledge, Juniors and Seniors are not even allowed to invite underclassmen as dates. This has decreased the potential population by half. The approximate attendance number this year is 40--and this tally was taken before people began to find out it would be held in the gym. The sophomores and freshmen were forced to have their formal event at the Elephant Bar this year, which is the equivalent of going to Chili's with gowns and tuxedos for a "fancy dining experience." Most of the sophomores refused to go, and instead planned an anti-formal party, of which I know nothing.

2. Gym - because there is such a small attendance, we cannot afford to rent a nice place for our event. Theoretically, we could, but attendees would have to pay a ridiculous price to compensate (over 100 dollars per person, most likely). There is no way we could have held this event somewhere else without the cost per person inflating to a ridiculous amount. Can we really expect to get away with this next year?

Why must we split up the classes? The answer is simple. It's NOT because we, the students, wanted it that way. On the contrary, the entire banquet committee has desperately pleaded for things to return to normal. But the faculty was obstinate and resistant. Last year, the faculty was unable to monitor every couple, and therefore decided to lessen the problem by splitting us up.

Why is the faculty so sensitive about our sexuality? I really have no idea. They might care about us, and they might not want us to make mistakes, but at the end of the day, it's none of their business. The teachers are paid, not to monitor our heterosexual relationships, but to teach us and fill us with the academic knowledge we need to survive in today's intellectual society, perhaps, in this case, with a Christian slant. But our parents are the ones responsible for our personal lives. The faculty at Alma Heights needs to realize their responsibility, and to stop crossing the limits of their authority.

Countless times this year--countless times--the student council has come up with ideas to brighten the school atmosphere, to make an event more exciting, or to simply change things up a bit. But the faculty will have their way, and most often they are extremely, if not totally, inflexible. The teachers are making all the decisions for us, which leaves us with nothing but grunt work. We have meetings, we come up with ideas every now and then, but ultimately what the teachers want will rule the day, and we are simply their specialized police force.

It is maddening and utterly ridiculous that our faculty persists in its prohibition of dancing at Banquet. Their argument against rhythmic movement holds absolutely no water, because they are basing it on speculation, fear, and prejudice. There is no logical reason why we should not be allowed to dance. Dancing is fun, dancing is not, by definition, sexual, and dancing is not only mentioned but encouraged and described in the Bible itself. And yes, this includes TEENAGERS. The Bible didn't say "Dance and praise the Lord--as long as you're married, are faithful, don't have a problem with sexual thoughts, and stay 2 inches away from all females." Dance is a form of worship, and it's also a form of enjoyment and harmless entertainment. Adults may see teens dancing at public schools and interpret their motions as sexually-charged barbarism. But as a teenager, and as one who has danced at formal and nonformal events, I can say with absolute confidence that we pursue no such thing. We want to dance because dancing is fun. We don't want to dance so that we can "get it on" and see how many vulgar displays of sexuality we can express.

Dancing among teenagers and unmarried couples is NOT a sin, nor is it an open gateway to sin. The fear that dancing will somehow trigger sexual intercourse is pretentious and deceitful. Any contact with the opposite sex will trigger sexual responses in some way, shape, or form. Dancing is NOT an enhancement of any kind, and the fact that the teachers use this argument against us is a blatant display of their ignorance toward us. As Christians, we cannot argue on the basis of what might be, or of what has not yet come to pass, because the reality is that we simply don't know. We do know, however, that God has enabled us to enjoy activities (like dancing) in order to enjoy them, and to further increase our delight in the blessings he has given us. Certainly, some activities are only appropriate during specific circumstances (sexual intercourse, for example, is to be reserved for the sacrament of marriage). But dancing does not fall into that category.

Now, my main purpose here is not to criticize the teachers for their lack of competence or ability to see clearly. Rather, I want to let them know the frustration that many of us are feeling. If they want us to care about anything, they have to give us something to care about. We will continue in our apathy as long as we are forced to wear the mask of complacency. We're teenagers! We're stupid, we do stupid things, and we stupidly have fun doing them. The more the teachers try to suppress this inner-stupidity, the more likely students will simply gratify themselves in unhealthy ways outside of the clutches of school authority. And this isn't just my own philosophical rambling--this is what actually happens. In light of this, what could be more beneficial than to encourage dancing and enjoyment? Why can't we show people that we can have normal social activities and glorify our God in the process?

Everyone hates going to school. It's a universal principle. But Alma Heights is hated not just because the subjects are dull, or because the homework isn't fun, but because the teachers try to do more than just teach. It comes from a genuine concern and passion for the spirituality of students that I can understand and appreciate. But doing more than what they are paid to do is far more destructive than protective. This is my cry; my Manifesto; my plea; that the teachers would be teachers, and that the students would be allowed to be students. I mean no disrespect to the teachers at our school, as they work tirelessly for our well-being, and try very hard to make wise, beneficial decisions. The teachers at our school need prayer, insight, and understanding as to what is going on in their student body. I can only hope that my sprawled rambling will somehow make a difference.

free will song

2007-03-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

Oh man.

The poster was not joking around with this one, but some people took it as such:P Some of my favorite comments on this video:

"Wow, that was hillarious! Thanks for posting that, I'm going to show all of my friends for a good laugh."

"The theology in this song is so bad that it is beyond words."

"Man has free will, but God does not. Man gets what he wants, but God does not. God will not thwart the will of man, but man thwarts the will of God. When I first saw this, I thought it was a joke, but I guess not!"

"Perhaps we should be grateful for someone who can confidently give us 'God's own perspective.' I hear that is hard to come by."

"'Joy Quartet', collectively walk into a deep mineshaft. Please."

"holds everything in his hands? everything but... us? oh, i get it now. ha!"

"The opening part is so flat, it demonstrates that he used his free will not to learn how to carry a pitch."

"HAHA!!! RFLMAO!!! HILARIOUS~ please make more like these!"

That pretty much sums it up for me!

RSS + facebook = convenience + genius

2007-02-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

Facebook, which is basically Myspace on PCP and steroids, allows you to import blog posts from an RSS feed. Now, when I post an entry on Blogger, it automatically displays as a "note" in Facebook.

So to all you Facebook users: because FB is strict with HTML usage, some of my blog posts may not appear completely (those with video embedded). So some previous notes, like "Mother, there ain't no other!" are actually meant to supplement a hilarious video by Mr. T, which can be viewed on my blog (sensesay.blogspot.com). Aside from that, there shouldn't be any confusion.

Go to Facebook.com if you don't have an account on there, and get ready to know everyone else's business, whether you like it or not.

treat your mother right

2007-02-02T07:06:00.000-08:00

"Mother--there ain't no other!!"

welcome to the so-so

2007-01-30T07:42:00.000-08:00

I just couldn't resist.

ok, Clarence is really dead now.

2007-01-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

It froze up midway through the recovery process. Goodbye Clarence.

Clarence lives?

2007-01-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

Unable to cope with the loss of my beloved Clarence, I continued in my seemingly futile efforts to revive him, and managed to start the factory settings recovery process.

If it doesn't freeze, I may be able to use it again. Of course, my documents and all those hours of toil and labor will be gone, but hopefully it will be operational again soon.

rest in peace, Clarence.

2007-01-27T17:10:00.000-08:00

My IBM ThinkPad T40, Clarence, was declared dead at 5:00 pm, January 27, 2007.

This morning we had a student council meeting, and I was typing out the amendments we were adding to the constitution on my laptop. Suddenly, after two long hours of deliberating and typing, the laptop completely froze, and I was faced with no choice but to rely on Microsoft's extremely unpredictable AutoRecovery to salvage my unsaved document as I shut it off perforce, after waiting for an extended period of time.

It was never the same after that. I would start it up, and it would freeze in the middle of booting up. Most of the time, it wouldn't even start booting up. Finally, I managed to get it started with Safe mode. The document had been recovered, so I saved it to the hard drive immediately. Then, restarting, I was able to reboot with the last workable settings. Miraculously, it started up normally and I was able to function for a while. I emailed the document to everyone and uploaded it to the web (now I wish I had done so with all my other documents, as I will probably never see them again).

I can't get it to start up, and when it shows signs of life, it freezes before I can run any diagnostics or start in safe mode again. After removing the battery, replacing it, running on sole battery power, running on sole outlet power, and holding down various keys at startup, I have gotten no responses, and have therefore declared it dead. It was nice to have while it lasted, but after four long years, I think its time finally came. It's really a shame too, because I JUST bought a $50 replacement battery for it.

So...anyone know where I can get a cheap used laptop (preferably a mac) that will last until next summer?

stephen colbert and the iphone

2007-01-12T19:27:00.001-08:00

concurring with Rachel's well-articulated insight

2007-01-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

Rachel Grussi responded to my post on Xanga with an insightful comment, which is the subject of my post below. If you would like to read it, visit http://www.xanga.com/Sense_say/562373348/the-masters-commission.html

Thanks so much for you input, Rachel. This is actually one of the only comments that had some counterpoints to my post that I actually liked. So congratulations.

God can use anything, you're right. And I've used the "tool" analogy before regarding that idea. It is true that worship styles can differ greatly, but my blog post was mainly aimed at the actual content. I totally agree with you that the shouts from the crowd were quite distracting and unnecessary.

It's sad for me, personally, because I have many friends at school who are not saved. These speakers and groups who come in weekly tend to increase their hostility toward Christianity all the more. In fact, the people who support those people coming and are affected by them are almost always professed Christians! That speaks volumes to me on the overall failure of our school to make the gospel of Christianity understandable to believers and nonbelievers alike.

Part of the problem, I think, is a misunderstanding of what I mean when I say "gospel". Everyone knows the story of Jesus, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again, and that he will readily forgive us for our wrongs. And that's perfectly true, and it's wonderful, and it's essential to our teaching. But there's much more to the gospel than just that. The gospel is a radical, life-altering truth that forever affects those who accept it.

However, speakers who speak of this life-altering truth express it only in terms of how WE are somehow supposed to alter our lives. The fact is, we don't become godly people the moment we become Christians, and should not be expected to do so. Often, it takes years before old habits are broken and past sins are thrown away. In fact, for some people, certain sins continue to haunt and affect them for the rest of our lives. OF COURSE we're losing our passion! OF COURSE we're not living our life like we should! We're human beings!! The pursuit of holiness is impossible for us; but God, being the embodiment of Holiness, is the one who works in us to gradually transform us into his likeness. It's not simply a matter of scolding ourselves for doing wrong. It's acknowledging that we are always going to do wrong, and that everyone, from the preacher to the prostitute, is equally and desperately in need of God's grace at all times.

The way the gospel is presented at our school right now, it feels like clicking on one of those web ads that says I'll get a free iPod, only to be faced with pages and pages of surveys and agreements. We are told "All you have to do is ask for forgiveness and you're a Christian", but then we are told "You have to devote absolutely everything and live a holy life, or you're not a Christian." Is it any wonder that people are not grasping the concept?

No matter how hard we try, we can never motivate ourselves enough to live the lives God wants us to. And that's the whole reason Jesus came in the first place. Because he KNEW that we can't. Our only motivation is the gospel of grace, which fills us with a DESIRE to do what pleases God. Sure, we'll mess up, and continue to do so all our lives. But somehow, the Holy Spirit will work in us to make us more and more like Christ. It's a profound mystery, one that defies any kind of step-by-step formula. But it happens, and we must have faith that somehow, God will never leave us or let us wither away; rather, he does the impossible, and uses inadequate "jars of clay" to spread his love, his hope, and his grace. Our school has strayed from this teaching, and it shows. It has been showing for a long, long time.

the master's commission

2007-01-11T17:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, a group of well-meaning teenagers and youth leaders came and stirred up quite a bit of emotion. I felt like I was watching the Jesus Camp trailer, and it really scared me.

I've posted about this before, so I'll skip straight to the point. Yesterday's collage of emotional, fire-and-brimstone, guilt-driven manipulation was, without a doubt, one of the most empty experiences of my life. There was no solid Truth in the performance yesterday. None whatsoever.

Of course, there are those who will say that "it could have affected someone in a very positive way". But I'm afraid the only effect that can be produced from it is a shallow, empty view of what Christianity means. Christians are not simply people who won't go to Hell when they die. It's so much more complex and whole than that, and it's very harmful when we fail to communicate it.

The Truth has not been spoken, and the consequences of that are what we see at Alma Heights. People have to THINK. We do not provide a clear basis for belief; rather, we dim the lights, play sappy ballads, and scare people into belief. THAT, my friends, is directly from the pit of hell, and I grow weary of seeing it at our school. We have got to stop hiring Jesus-squads and start treating people like adults. We have got to stop manipulating people's emotions by subjecting them to PDF's and altar calls. We have got to give people reasons to believe, solid reasons, truthful reasons, intellectual reasons. If we do not change this, we are raising up soldiers and sending them into the battle with no armor.

We don't need people telling us how ungrateful we are that we go to a Christian school. We don't need people telling us how we aren't trying hard enough. We don't need people telling us how much we'll regret going to Hell when we die. We need the gospel of grace, and we need it desperately. Until that happens, Alma Heights will continue in it's apathy and hypocrisy, and there will be no end.

Please pray for me, and for our school, as we are in desperate need of it.

i got a wii!!

2006-12-30T11:55:00.000-08:00

As I'm sure you all know, the Wii is very hard to come by. I got the money for a Wii on Christmas morning, and I really didn't think I'd actually purchase one until I got home, since all the places I checked seemed to suggest that there wouldn't be any shipments for a long time.

Fortunately, one of my cousin's friend's dad discovered that the Toys 'R Us had 8 of them shipped to their store. They hid them away, only selling them to the people who asked specifically for them. He bought three, gave one to a friend who had been looking for one, and planned to sell the other two on eBay. I didn't know him well enough to beg him for one, but I was hopeful that the Toys 'R Us had at least one left. I learned this late at night, so we had no choice but to try the next morning. I got little sleep that night.

Next morning, we arrived 10 minutes before it opened, along with another family (but they weren't there for a Wii, they just didn't know how late the store opened). The manager opened the doors for us early, and we rushed in to the "R Zone"--the area of the store with all those newfangled doohickeys. We asked a few employees about it, and they all responded mechanically, "no, we don't have any" as if they had been saying it over and over for the past few days. Finally, we were able to convince a guy to check the back. A few minutes later, he walked out with the Wii box, exclaiming that it was the last one. I was elated. There was a man behind us who had just walked in (which was technically when the store was supposed to be open), who asked after seeing ours if there were any left. If he had come just a few minutes earlier, I wouldn't be making this blog post right now.

While I was there, I bought "Rayman's Raving Rabbids", and later at Target I grabbed the last three nunchucks they had. Now I just need two more "wiimotes" (one's coming in the mail from Amazon, another last-item grab), and I'm set. I also have four wavebird controllers for all those classic/gamecube games.

So far, for multiplayer, we've been sharing the one wiimote and have bowled like crazy. It's really a blast, and I've enjoyed playing by myself as well (RRR is a single-player game, highly recommended). If any of you happens to come by a couple of wiimotes, be sure to give me a call ;)

I'd post pictures, but I'm camera-less at the moment, and I'm pretty sure you all got the hands-on experience at the Jingle Ball.

Anyway, that is the extent of my adventures. I'm looking forward to getting all the wiimotes and having full Wii functionality.

nerdcore for life!!!

2006-12-15T06:59:00.000-08:00

LOL

I love it when that guy uses DnD to illustrate people's rapping abilities. Classic.

skipping back a bit

2006-12-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

Little did you all know that on Myspace, there is still discussion on one of my previous blog posts, don't tell me what i don't want to hear. Ben Cantwell commented first, then Paul posted his tonight. I figured it was substantial enough to keep you all updated. Feel free to elaborate on anything that's being said.

Ben Cantwell:
i would have to ask, "How do we learn?". Usually through repetition. So these points that the skits where making may seem repetitive and wearisome to you and others, but to some it may be what they need. If a speaker was to come to Alma and start getting into a deep theological speech, to you and a select number, it would probably be gripping, but to others it would be completey pointless. As 1 Corinthians 3:2 points out some people need "milk", or to be taught the basics, while others are ready to handle "solid food", or the meat of the Bible, the deeper questions. Be patient.

Ok i dont know anything about the Jonah guy, so i wont really touch that subject. But remember to not speak for the whole High School. Maybe im wrong and you did go around and talk to everyone or a survey was taken, but maybe someone was intrigued. Maybe it actually caused the story of Jonah to stick in someones head. Maybe it helped. It is the word of God, it is powerful. I would encourage you to balance your pessimism of sorts with some optimism. There might be good in something that may be childish to you.

Me:
Thanks for your comment, Ben, and I would like to apologize if I made it seem as if I believe their ministry to be totally ineffective and useless. Obviously, because they are still around, there is a marginal group of people who are affected on a deep spiritual level by that kind of performance. And I would not subtract from it at all by saying that they, as an organization, are dim-witted and careless. They were sincere believers who found joy in proclaiming "the gospel" (if you want to call the emphasis of their teaching the gospel, that is--which I believe is seriously lacking).

My question is, "What did we learn?"
Perhaps there were a few people in the audience who were deeply affected on Wednesday. But what were they affected by ? Do what God says? Be a good person? Keep trying hard? Trust God? Certainly, all of these are wonderful morals to treasure, but by no means should they express any life-altering truth. You can almost see it this way: the gospel--the story of Jesus--is life-changing. Morality and Christian growth is like a side effect (a good, natural side effect, that is). I've talked about this many times in other blog posts, about how grace and works mesh together when it comes to the teaching of the gospel, but the harmony between the two is never discussed. It's always one or the other.

The "solid food" and "milk" analogy is definitely applicable here, though I'm not sure in the same way you might be implying. I see no reason why the milk teachings and the solid food teachings must be separate. In fact, I believe that all Christian doctrinal teaching (i.e., sermons and our own school chapels, bible classes) MUST include both. Christians must constantly chew through the meat, while at the same time be reminded of and nourished by the milk. Just because a child develops teeth to eat meat doesn't mean the child should stop eating vegetables or drinking liquids.

Teachings like the ones we received this past Wednesday are certainly important, but I would actually consider them to be the "meat", which is where (I believe) you and I disagree. The milk, which I'm going to assume is the gospel, is something that must be applied to everything. ANY teaching without gospel application is not Christian, because there are plenty of religions that teach us how to be good people and follow God--in fact, I'm pretty sure all theistic religions (religions that hold some kind of divine authority--which would include atheism, but in a more nuanced, subtle sense) follow this concept in one way or another.

My main gripe about this past Wednesday was not necessarily that the style was cliched--and, if it was effective, on a purely emotional basis--but that the gospel was not applied, which made it seem like just another moral pep rally.

I'm fully in favor of raising up those who are new to the faith, and teaching them the basics of Christian living. But I'm also fully in favor of continuing that process, of continuing to apply the gospel to Christian living, for those who have just started, and for those who have had their faith for a large portion of their lives.

While it is true that God can use any tool for his glory, I don't think this gives us license to pick up whatever rusty, crappy tool we find lying around. I'm not charging people in Covenant Ministries with being lazy about their ministry and not caring enough to do their best. But I would definitely argue that there are much more effective ways to minister the gospel.

I haven't surveyed every student in the school to get their opinion, but I doubt you have either, so I wouldn't really consider that to be a valid argument in this case for either of us. I'm operating from my own experience, and by my general knowledge of how we highschoolers think; what is effective, and what isn't. I also have had credible sources of feedback, affirming my statements throughout the post. Mr. Quiring is one such example (he wasn't there, but he wasn't sad to miss it when he found out what it was--read his comment here).

Again, thank you for your comment Ben, and I'm glad to see that you're still concerned over the affairs of our puny little school :P. I hope God can make many changes for the better at Alma Heights, and that his ministry will more and more be shared effectively through those he loves.

Ben:
Are you saying that obeying what God commands, being a good person, persevering, and trusting God are not life altering truths?

Also i was not speaking for the high school as a whole. Just pointing out possibilities or 'maybes' since i really have no idea whats going on at Alma, haha.

Me:
Are you saying that obeying what God commands, being a good person, persevering, and trusting God are not life altering truths?

Without the gospel, yes. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Ben
ah thanks for clarifying

Paul Sieger
I'd like to offer my two cents on this, although judging by the length and depth of your blog and also your reply to Ben, you're hard set on this and most likely won't be swayed. Anyway, it seems that the way your mind works, you need some hard truths, some challenging questions, or some criteria of intelligence to be moved or to be able to label something as "effective." I was in student council with you and I've read your other stuff and that's what I've seen. You're intelligent and so you associate with what you feel is intelligent. I don't know if Alma Heights is still the same, but from what I remember, not everyone there is like that. A lot of people's minds don't work the same way yours does. So if you weren't moved or impressed, that doesn't mean nobody else was. The way I see it, even if they didn't focus on the gospel and the truth of the resurrection, that doesn't lessen their message. You said that they emphasized good morals and trusting God and trying hard and all of that, and I wasn't there, but I don't see how there's any negative aspect to that. Like Ben said, the best way to learn is through repetition. You may have heard it a million times, but it's never bad to hear it again. You have to keep in mind that this is an entire school, no matter how small it may be. Just because you felt it was innefective does not mean it wasn't ineffective.

As far as the altar calls go, I was never a fan of that either. But it was only because of how people reacted to it. People will go up and give their lives to Christ on a complete emotional whim, and then go back to the exact same way things were in their lives. But I don't think that's a bad thing. You can never know what God is doing in someone's heart. The most you can do as a Christian is witness to them and pray for them and wait for God to move.

Anyway, I'm a little distracted right now and lost my train of thought, but I'm interested in hearing back from you and hopefully I'll be able to collect my thoughts better.

Me:
Thanks for the comment.

I fail to see the extreme depth and complexity to my arguments. When I talk about predestination, yes, that's when things get sticky:) But the topic of the post above is, I believe, quite elementary: apply the gospel.

I would agree that there is nothing inherently wrong with teaching good morals and proper behavior. But without the gospel, these teachings are shallow, futile, and meaningless. You can hear good morals and fidelity being taught at any mosque or Bhuddist temple, but Christianity is unique because of the gospel.

What I mean by that is this: when we're told to do good things and try hard to be nice to other people (and when we fail, to simply be told to "try harder"), it may be effective for a little while. But eventually, we will all get burned out, and often give up/stumble and fall. The whole reason Jesus came and died was to not only "save us from the fires of hell", but to enable us to live a life pleasing to God. We cannnot believe that Jesus came simply as a megaphone so that God could shout his commands louder than before. Rather, we must be driven by the sole motivation of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Only out of a heart of gratefulness and thankfulness can we truly and commitedly pursue the life God wants us to live.

How do we keep ourselves in a thankful and grateful attitude? By constantly reminding ourselves of the gospel: that is, reiterating (on a daily basis) that all we have, all we are working for, and all we are able to do is a result of the sheer act of grace God gives us always. Repetition IS important, I definitely agree. But repetition without meaning (void of the gospel) is, to put it redundantly, meaningless.

If someone says that the above is "too theologically complex" for the masses, then I would argue that "the masses" have not fully grasped what the gospel really means, and that we are in some serious trouble. I honestly do believe that the above is understandable, simply because it is a theme repeated over and over and over again in the New Testament. It is absolutely vital to the daily life of every Christian.

I can tell you (from factual observation and knowledge) that those who are not saved at Alma Heights remain that way simply because the argument for Christianity is simply not convincing--assuming any argument for Christianity is actually ever given. We talk about how "deep down inside, we all want to have a relationship with God". That may be true, but the entire argument is staged on an emotional basis, along with the presumption that there is a God in the first place. There are plenty of intellectual arguments that can be made, and none too complex (Creationism, by the way, is NOT one of them and should be avoided as an argument for God at all costs).

I agree with you that altar calls are usually ineffective. So why have them? When people come to faith on their own, after working it out in their own heart and mind, and indpendently seeking to pray with others (who should always be open and available to do so) in order to act on it, I'd say they're making a fairly solid and serious commitment. It's very easy to make a commitment when you're emotionally pressured to do so. Altar calls should become a thing of the past, as well as all forms of hand-raising, standing/sitting, and whatever other "displays of faith" speakers decide to plague us with. These are well-meaning but ultimately corrupt methods of doing ministry.

Thanks again for your input, Paul. I hope you're doing well, and perhaps I'll see you soon! (?)
jm

Francis Collins' brilliant piece of literature

2006-12-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

Because of his book, I would confidently call my scientific approach "BioLogos".

You'll understand when you read it, and right now the context of that belief would be Theistic Evolution. BioLogos is not dependent on or limited to Theistic Evolution, however.

Francis Collins, head of the history-making Human Genome Project, is an openly-professing theist (Christian, more specifically). His book talks about the harmony between faith and science, and how a Creationist or Intelligent Design approach is not required (and is, in some ways, deterrent of) a committed, legitimate faith. I also covers his view of Atheistic Fundamentalism (widely known to be held by influential scientists like Richard Dawkins). As a sidenote, my favorite British biochemist Alister McGrath is publishing a book in direct response to Dawkins' The God Delusion, entitled The Dawkins Delusion: Atheistic Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine (more info on that book when it's available). Collins' book differs from McGrath's, in that it covers many topics of interest, not just atheism.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested. Let me know if you want to borrow it and I'd be happy to let you give it a read.

macworld expo

2006-12-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, because I've gone the past few years, I got a free registration to go. Sweet!

But I'm not just posting this to gloat. They sent me a code for $10 passes to give to friends (and family, but we won't go there :P). Anyone want to go? The dates are January 8-12, and we can go any time that week (even more than once, if we so choose). Hopefully, we'll get some first looks at brand new products from Apple that they'll announce that week, including their latest OS, Leopard. It'd be a cool time to geek out over all the stuff. Heck, if it turns out to be boring, we can always walk right across the street for some PS3 action (the Moscone Center--where the Expo is held--is right across the street from the Metreon), or whatever else there is to do downtown. I'm thinking Friday would be the most likely day to go, because it's not a school night. Those details can be discussed later, of course.

Just as a side note, 10 bucks is a really really cheap price (the early bird special, already considered to be cheap, is $25). Be sure to let me know by December 11 though, that's when it expires.

blogger on the go

2006-12-03T21:37:00.001-08:00

Beautiful sunset.

_________________________________________________
The above is my first mobile phone post. Send a message from your phone to go@blogger.com to configure your phone for blogger use. When you first send the message, they create a new blog for your phone, and they give you a code. You then go to go.blogger.com to claim the blog with the code, and have it optionally rerouted to any existing blog of your choice. Now, when I'm away from a computer, I can still keep people posted on my whereabouts and happenings. Pretty cool!

don't tell me what i don't want to hear

2006-11-29T22:29:00.000-08:00

Today, we had a unique, interactive, and entertaining "chapel", where a troupe of "Covenant Players" performed a couple of skits, and played an interactive game of trust. It was fun to see some of our friends up there playing the game, stepping on little children, and coming up with brilliant out-of-the-box strategies (e.g. Mariah's "innovative" approach to getting her team mate across the finish line). But what was the point?

Trust in God. Pray to God and He'll help you. Don't try to pretend to be something you're not. These were the basic principles we learned today, and we've been hearing them since our days in Sunday school.

Now, I completely understand the difficulty of combining the 5th-8th graders with the High School, but perhaps that should be the very reason we don't hold events like this. The last time this happened was when the talented but strange man came and recited and acted out the entire book of Jonah from memory. I admire him for his passion, talent, and commitment, but I'm afraid the most he did for the High School was weird us out.

We need to stick to speakers. I hate to be so dogmatic about it, and perhaps I'm sounding like some kind of stingy adult who can't stand to have fun. But these strange speakers and troupes that perform for us aren't even fun. They grow wearisome, and we feel like we're being treated like babies who are incapable of a sophisticated, intelligent presentation. The girls may go "aww" when something cute happens, but unfortunately the profundity stops there.

Why should I believe this? How do I know what you're telling me is true? What makes the Bible a reliable source of authority?

We need some answers to these questions, and something other than the idea that reading the Scriptures invokes some kind of emotional feeling that convinces us of the truth--the Latter-Day Saints do that. And we can't say the Bible is true because it is airtight both literally and historically--the fundamentalists say that. There are plenty of religious books which cause the reader to feel emotion and conviction, along with accurate descriptions of the human condition (the Bible is not the only religious writing that talks about Sin). There are also plenty of other religions that make claims for the historical accuracy of their own sacred writings (the Latter-Day Saints actually argue that Native Americans did NOT come from Northern Asia--contrary to factual evidence--but that they were early descendants of the Israelites). Certainly, the Bible does move me when I read it, and I am often amazed at the accuracy of its description of the human condition and how it speaks to me on a personal level. But that's not a sufficient condition for the Bible to be as true as it claims to be. There is one reason and one reason alone that completely validates the Bible as God-breathed and authoritative: Jesus rose from the dead.

Jesus rose from the dead, which means all of his claims were true. Numerous times, Jesus described the scriptures as God-breathed. Because he rose from the dead, we know that he was, indeed, the Son of God. The resurrection was either the grandest, most elaborate hoax in history, or the most groundbreaking truth ever revealed to mankind.

Now, to return to the original topic of this post--the people who performed today were wonderful, entertaining, and passionate people. I didn't disagree with anything they said, and sometimes they even made me laugh. But it just didn't work. The man who came about a month ago was equally passionate about his work, but the the effect he produced was not what was intended.

I'd like to also add a side note about altar calls. The other day in Bible class, we were talking about impatience, and I used speakers who insist on seeing a show of hands as an example. Mrs. Travis mostly disagreed with me, saying that sometimes people need that kind of opportunity in order to express their faith. My question is: if someone is fully ready to come into a relationship with Christ, why do they need emotional or peer pressure from someone else to fully make the commitment? It seems that altar calls, rather than giving an opportunity for a full, decisive commitment, are actually damaging; the people who respond to them are still struggling with the idea themselves, and would not have come up of their own will in front of all the masses of the people had they not been pressured to do so.

If someone is TRULY changed and committed, they WILL come to faith and confess that faith to their pastor or close friend. Emotional pressure on a person to come to faith is the best way to make the conversion experience shallow and short-lived. Often, those who respond to altar calls start new lives of genuine change and purpose. But almost always, altar call responders will eventually have to re-dedicate (get an emotional boost, often several times) or pray seriously with a friend sometime afterward.

I continue to pray for the advancement of the ministry at Alma Heights. It's time to migrate away from emotional manipulation, and move in a direction of genuine truth and clarity for believers and non-believers alike. We are constantly in a mission field, whether it be roaming through the jungles of Africa or standing in line for lunch.

imagine a world without john mark

2006-11-06T07:13:00.000-08:00

Rest assured everyone, I'm still here. Tell your frightened children that everything will be just fine.

real men talk about God

2006-10-31T07:18:00.000-08:00

HAHAHAHA
This is both sad and hilarious.

Read the Newsweek Article

open forum with alister mcgrath, who makes dawkins look like child's play

2006-10-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

You will be hard-pressed to find a more brilliant man than Alister McGrath. Last night was one of the most high-stimulating intellectual experiences in my life. He's one of the greatest scholars of our time.

The lecture is the big thing. You might be interested in the questions afterward, but he generally makes his point in the lecture prior to that. It's really, really intriguing. His focus is not necessarily on why Christianity is the answer, but rather a critique on Dawkins' The God Delusion, which is perhaps one of the most influential works of our time.

McGrath's book is called Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life, and I am already starting to read it. Let me know if you want to borrow mine, though I would encourage getting a copy for yourself (it's worthy of ownership, in my opinion).

Hopefully some of you will be able to make it to our next event. Enjoy!

Click here to download the lecture for your own listening enjoyment.

fasting

2006-10-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

The computer has been the cause of most of my problems lately. I spend way too much time on it. Every time I get on, thinking I'll just quickly check my email and get on with life, I always get sucked into other activities, like wasting time in the iTunes Store or logging on to AIM or myspace or whatever. Enough is enough.

I'm not fasting from the computer indefinitely. But I will be off for the next two weeks. I need get myself back into reality again, because right now my reality has been hours in front of this screen. I'll spend time doing useful things, like doing homework, studying, practicing instruments, and reading. I need a break.

I've stocked up my iPod with tons of new music to go through, so that shouldn't be a problem. I actually may need to get on tomorrow to complete an assignment given by Mr. Shapiro (he makes us turn our things in to TurnItIn.com), but after that there's nothing on his schedule. Any other essays that pop up in other classes will just have to be written. If you absolutely must contact me (and you can't wait until you see me next), ask me for my cell phone number and I will give it to you. I'll probably check my email once or twice at school, when I deem it to be necessary.

So I bid you all goodbye for a while, but don't worry, you'll still get to see me in person like you usually do! I'm hoping this break will help me get a bit more balance into my life. I'm publicly announcing this so that there is some accountability involved, because if I just make a private resolution I'll have no problem breaking it. The only time I'm allowing myself to use a computer is at school, for newspaper/yearboook purposes. I'll post my reflections on October 29th. Ciao!

stephen colbert on the morning shows

2006-10-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

miserable day

2006-10-11T20:25:00.001-07:00

Today didn't go so well. I had high hopes of releasing the newspaper today, but it looks like it'll be at least another day or two before we can get this thing out there. Not too thrilled about that. It's not looking good in the sports department either, since niether of our sports columnists can write. I'm thinking we're just going to have to axe that section, because I can't really get a reliable news source about sports from anyone, the game times are always changing, and it seems like every time I ask about when something is or what the stats are, no one knows the answer. Who does?? Someone PLEASE tell me. That's how I feel sometimes.

We need someone to do sports who can write well and knows what they're talking about. Fat chance on that one, I guess.

I'm pleased with most of everything else, though. The articles we have are well-written, including a couple from our very own Sir GHC Think. We don't have any comic strips or poems, but we have a movie, music, and game review. I doubt the game review will be published, because it's a MA-rated game (Splinter Cell, I forget which one it is). Joe's working on a review for a cleaner game today, I think. Also, the music will have to be screened by Mrs. B. All this sensitivity is understandable, but I think it's an unnecessary hassle. If I select an album that has one single swear word in the entire thing, does that mean I can't do a review on it? It's an interesting dilemma, but that could go far in another direction that I don't really feel like talking about now.

I made a mistake in titling the Boys' Soccer section "Men Kicking Balls." In a moment of stupidity and boredom, along with the fact that the article itself was hastily written and had no title, I thought of it and chuckled to myself. Foolishly, I submitted it thus to Mrs. Bernson for proofing and was returned with the some scolding remarks. Mr. Davies even told Mrs. Bernson that whoever wrote that title should be put on probation. Ouch! I will admit that what I did was immature and unnecessary, but I also thought perhaps that people would take the joke. I didn't really think it would be published that way, but I stuck it in there mainly as a filler. I was wrong, but I think the teachers' judgement may have been a bit harsh.

I feel like Mr. Davies is bothered by me. Every time I'm around, he seems to treat me like I'm some immature complainer who whines about things to him all the time. I will admit that I can be quite critical about things, and often express that criticism loudly and vocally. I can't really be friendly or informal with him like I can with most teachers. Of course, I understand that he is my teacher and Principal, which merits a high degree of respect. But I think maybe he needs to loosen up.

I had a critical outburst today in our student council meeting when I adamantly opposed the idea of having Pajama day as part of our Spirit Week. To me, that day is boring, stupid, and uncreative. It's just an excuse for people to roll out of bed and come to school instead of having to come up with something wild and unique. We might as well have "Uniform Day" where everyone wears black shirts! Yay!

Anyway, I'm going to end this blog post and in doing so end what has been a very long day.

open forum with alister mcgrath

2006-10-08T14:11:00.001-07:00

Anyone who reads this is invited to come to what is promising to be a great Open Forum. Alister McGrath is brilliant guy who is a Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford and has PhD in molecular biophysics. He'll talk about how science and faith interact, focusing mainly on his book Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life. He is an acclaimed lucid writer and compelling speaker.

He'll give a lecture, followed by an interview which will involve taking questions from the audience. This isn't really a church service, just an educational experience, and is great for those who are either unfamiliar with Christian faith and/or have scientific reasons not to believe. This would be a great opportunity to bring your friends (both Christian and non-Christian). While this isn't exactly going to be an evangelistic outreach, it will (hopefully) make us think a little more, as well as give a fresher insight into the Christian faith for those who have misconceptions of it. Christians will be greatly benefitted by this as well. Most of the time, people who don't go to church (or don't like to go to church) attend these forums.

It'll be on Sunday, October 22 (two weeks from now) at 7 pm, and usually doesn't go past 9. The location is the Russian Center (2460 Sutter St., between Divis and Broderick). I'm sure I'll see ALL of you there ;)

Click here to check out the Open Forum website.

blogger beta

2006-10-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

On a completely different note, I've switched my blog over to Blogger beta today. The Blogger navbar is different, and seems to be working only when it feels like doing so, though once I caught it displaying the top row of my Flickr badge. Weird.

The new features in Blogger beta are very cool. My favorite is the instant and automatic publishing. Gone are the days where you have to remember to republish after you change so much as a character of code on your template! Gone are the waits as the percentage uploaded slowly increases. Now, the uploads are instantaneous, and it automatically saves changes you make to your template or settings without having to go through the republishing process. There are also some new template customization tools (which I haven't used, because I've worked too long on mine) that seem pretty cool and could potentially be useful. Also, the user interface is just slightly different, and a bit more intuitive in my opinion. If you want to make the transfer, go to the Blogger beta homepage, beta.blogger.com. The only catch is that some third parties won't be able to integrate with the beta (Flickr, Digg (?), etc), along with the usual quirks and oddities that are to be expected with any beta.

deficiencies

2006-10-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

Deficient. I used this word to describe the limiting factor in a chemical equation today. Mr. Ogden has been trying to explain some of these concepts to us for days, and today some things clicked for me. In a gasp of discovery, I exclaimed "So the limiting factor is the one that's deficient!" Mr. Ogden looked quizzical, and responded saying "I guess saying that 'it's the number that runs out first' is too simple for you!" Chuckles and giggles.

Rachelle told me that I'm more of an artistic person than Mathematical or logical. I think she's right. Some words are just fit better in situations like the one in chemistry. If Mr. Ogden had used the word "deficient" early on to describe a limiting factor, I probably would have caught on earlier. "The number that runs out first" is a very general expression (especially in math).

Speaking of deficiencies, how about that message in chapel today? I literally shuttered with disbelief at the climax of the sermon, when I distinctly remember Pastor Markham--while discussing the problems Christians have when they are stuck in a slum of no motivation or desire to grow--telling us that "the only person who can change that is YOU! Are YOU up for the challenge?" You can say that in a synagogue, in a mosque, in a temple, or whatever religious edifice you can think of. The heart of the message we heard today was "try harder, REALLY focus on God, be good, and you'll start to get better." No pastor, teacher, or preacher should EVER deliver a message without relating it to the gospel that makes Christianity unique and true. Otherwise, it is simply not a Christian message. What we heard today was not a Christian message. Plenty of other religions teach you to try harder and do better and serve a god. And that's exactly what we learned today. Is anyone else bothered by this?

The more we talk about how we need to improve ourselves, the farther we drift from Christianity. The more we talk about our need for God's grace as the driving force in growth, the closer we come to Christianity.

People know they're supposed to be good. They get it.

People don't know why, and they have a twisted view of how (by our own efforts).

I'm not saying that we have absolutely no responisibility in our growth. But I am saying that we are hopeless unless we realize the why and the how.

WHY: because I love God. He has filled me with thankfulness and a desire to embrace my freedom and live life as he would have me live it: to the fullest. It's not because I'm under some kind of obligatory contract.

HOW: by His sustaining grace, and by daily recognizing my need for it. Not by relying on my own efforts to get me through the day, or by weighing my own performance with God's standards, but by daily seeing that righteousness comes not from me but from God.

This was not preached in our message today. Pastor Markham, though undoubtedly a Christian himself, did not preach a Christian message. He gave us a pep talk on how to be moral.

I pray that God will send wise speakers our way, who teach not only the moral implications of the law but also the application of the gospel of grace to that law.

new sidebar addition

2006-10-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd draw your attention to the new sidebar addition, "This Week's Sermon". I'll try to make sure I update it every week, and would encourage anyone to listen. Right now we're in a series on the Apostle's Creed. Enjoy! Feel free to comment if you feel the need to do so.

why are we hiding? continued

2006-09-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Mr. Quiring--Loud applause and a resounding AMEN!!!! You're not blind to the problem at all, and I'm very glad that you're praying about it and seek to fix it.

Once again, you're right in saying that I was making a generalization about "everyone" pretending to be a Christian, but I would definitely say with confidence (and sadness) that most are like that. Yet what grieves me even more is that the fault lies with us. The fault lies with the actual Christians at our school, including myself.

Fixing this problem will require a radical change in our approach. We can't have a speaker come in and just talk about how to be a good person. It is absolutely imperative that we apply the gospel to all that we teach, and explain the significance of God's grace as it applies to every day of our lives, and not just the moment we are saved.

In fact, we have to go back to basics. Most people I have talked to have no reason to believe in God, because they have not been presented with any sort of argument for his existence (other than the shaky argument that "all of this creation couldn't possibly have come together by chance!" The fact is that, from a logical perspective, it very well could have, even if the odds are highly against it.)

Most of the non-Christians at our school (the number which is, by the way, becoming increasingly populous as people are starting to get tired of the charade) say that they don't need religion to be a good person. After all, there are plenty of good Christians, and there are plenty of good Atheists; just as there are plenty of mean, bad Christians, and many mean, bad Atheists. So what's the difference? Why should they have to practice any religion? They know that they don't need a religion in order to be a good person.

And that's a legitimate, true argument. But what they're missing is the fact that Christianity is not a religion, and a Christian is not someone who has it all together. In fact, it's quite the opposite. A Christian is not only someone who doesn't have it all together, but they acknowledge this fact and rely on God's grace for their validation. Christianity isn't about being a good person. It's about knowing that you're a hopeless, screwed up, broken, bad person.

In the words of Flannery O'Connor, the best way to avoid Jesus is to avoid sin.

So the problem in our teaching emphasis is twofold:

-People don't understand the gospel.
-People don't have any reason to believe in the existence of God.

We also need to trash the idea that some are Christians but they're "just not committed." Jesus says that you cannot serve two masters. Either you're in, or you're out. Those who claim to be Christians but have not been changed by the Holy Spirit are not Christians. The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These attributes are defining characteristics of the work of the Holy Spirit. Faith without works is nothing. But works are no obligation. Logically, works are no longer required of us after we are saved, since we are indeed saved by grace. However, the apostle Paul makes it clear that those who truly experience a rebirth in Christ will not only be saved, but will be filled with a desire to do what is pleasing and right in God's sight. They will not be judged by these actions, but the desire to do them will be the default drive. Therefore Christians will not always get it right, but they will always be striving toward a Christlike character. Again, it's NOT an obligation. Becoming a Christian doesn't REQUIRE good works. Rather, it induces them. Knowing that we are saved by grace, we are spurred on to spread it to those who are just as deserving of it as we are.

The beautiful thing about Christianity is that we are not only more screwed up and helpless than we could ever imagine, but we have more hope than we could ever imagine. God doesn't judge us by our performance, or how "good" we are. He is grieved by our rebellion, but his love for us is unconditional, and we are justified in his sight by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. That's why when a Christian fails, he feels grieved in his heart, because the Holy Spirit that reigns in him is grieved. But a Christian has no need for guilt! Even on days when we feel like we've screwed everything up, God's grace is the same.

To quote Jerry Bridges yet again, "Our worst days are never so bad that we are beyond the reach of God's grace, and our best days are never so good that we are beyond the need of God's grace."

The sooner we start incorporating that into our teachings, the sooner people get a better understanding of what Christianity is really about. Right now, there's plenty of discussion on how to "avoid Satan's attacks" and how to live a holy life. And that's a perfectly valid topic! But it can't end there. Plenty of religions teach fidelity to God and living good lives. But Christianity alone teaches that our performance is not what validates us; it is solely the grace of God and the work of his Son Jesus Christ on our behalf.

I have great, great respect for those of you who are stepping out, whether you are a Christian or not, and establishing your honest, true beliefs. I'd rather have a school full of honest Atheists than faking Christians.

The Christians at our school must encourage and respect people who admit that they don't share our beliefs. Pray for them, love them, and treat them with the same dignity you would with any of your friends. Though we, as Christians, have a hope in Christ Jesus, we are no more deserving of it than anyone else. As I have said before, I'm no more deserving of God's grace than the prostitute on the street corner. With that in mind, who am I to treat my friends any differently? I'm not a Christian person because I'm a good person. I'm a Christian person because I'm a sinner. When we approach our salvation in this way (the correct way), we can level with those around us, and they can more easily approach us with questions and know that we'll respect them. It's very important that we establish ourselves as down-to-earth, kind people.

To those of you who are not Christians, or who are unsure of your beliefs, don't be afraid to question! If you hear something and have a problem with it, talk to someone about it! Argue against it! Puzzle your friends and peers! Make us THINK!! Don't be afraid to be skeptical of and honest about Christianity. If the person you ask for help from is really a Christian, they will respond with respect and will earnestly seek out the answer to your question if they don't know it themselves. When we ask questions, we get answers. So ask questions!! Voice your opinion! Go against the norm! If a speaker asks those who are Christians to stand up in chapel (God forbid) and you don't necessarily feel comfortable doing so, DON'T DO IT! Stay seated. Those who remain seated in those situations will actually make a louder statement than those who stand. It's ironic how that works.

I will pray for the Christians at our school, that God will be with them in puzzling situations, and I will also pray for those who are not Christians, that God will work in them and bring about a new life, and make known to them his life-giving gospel of Grace. And I will pray for those in leadership at our school, that God will daily use them to accomplish his purpose, and that they will clearly and effectively communicate the message of the good news to everyone in their lives.

Grace and Peace be with you all.

why are we hiding?

2006-09-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember Danielle Cardona's blog post a while back, when she was still a senior at Alma Heights (*sniff*). I copied it over to my blog for your reading enjoyment/commenting, and some of you (Mr. Quiring and Chris, who acknowledged that he was a godless heathen :P) shared your thoughts on it. Months later, here I am addressing it again. Why? Because as I attend school this year, I see more and more clearly what Danielle was talking about. Perhaps it's because I'm an upper-classman, or maybe I've just been a little naive this whole time. But it's a huge, huge problem at our school. People are hiding. Everyone pretends to be a Christian and does whatever they need to do in order to get by. Why would they be driven to pretend all the time?

They hide because of fear of judgment, and rightly so. If one is caught doing something wrong, three things will happen:

1. The whole school will know about it.
2. The whole school will develop an opinion of that person based on what they heard.
3. The faculty will confront/discipline them and continue to do so until they appear to have changed their ways.

I would venture to say that in most cases, rather than actually correct the problem, the person merely shuts down their real self and puts on a mask of ideal behavior while at school, and lives their normal lives when they're outside of school or distanced from a teacher. Certainly there are those who have experienced a genuine change by God's grace and live their daily lives in the genuine, healthy pursuit of holiness.

Then there are those who actually put on the disguise outside of school. They "act Christian" everywhere, at home, at school, at church. But they don't know why they do it, and often get burned out. They're just being good because every speaker, teacher, and authority figure tells them to. They follow God because their parents (or pastor, or teachers) said so. They have fallen into a pattern of Pharisee-ism, and have no meaning in their life. Most often, they have highly emotional experiences during worship or dimly-lighted altar calls, but require a boost of energy every now and then.

Though these people are different, they share two things in common. They are not Christians, and they do not have a proper understanding of the gospel and how it applies to their daily lives.

People have often asked this question: "If we are saved by grace, why are we obligated to do good works, and why is faith validated by our good works?" That's a very good question to which they receive no answer. They either ignore it, or they conclude that the two are noncohesive and therefore decide to go with the Gnostic theory that to God, it doesn't matter what we do, because we're saved by grace. This question is EXTREMELY important, perhaps the most important question to be asked of the entire Christian faith, and yet it is NEVER addressed.

Why is it never addressed? Because the people in authority have given this problem the wrong diagnosis. They think it's because they aren't in a practice of regularly checking themselves and seeking accountability with others. In short, people are just being lazy and uncaring about their faith, and they need to "snap out of it!" Is this really going to solve anything, or is it only going to drive us further down the same hole? People understand that they're supposed to be good. They get it. They don't get why they have to be good. And since no one talks about that, they dismiss it and draw their own conclusions.

It's time for us to wake up. It's time to see the root of this problem, which is not just "spiritual laziness".

In Romans 6, Paul outlines the dilemma of grace vs. works in detail:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sinÂbecause anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

In The Discipline of Grace, Jerry Bridges discusses this passage in great detail, and I would highly recommend reading what he says about it. According to this passage, there is certainly the idea that we need to offer ourselves as instruments of righteousness and not wickedness, but with the undercurrent of grace. Grace frees us from the bondage of sin and allows us to say "no" to it. It gives us freedom to live life to the fullest, to say no to that which is harmful, and yes to that which is pleasing to God. When one fully understands the gospel of grace and the impact of it on his life, he automatically receives the ability to live a life full of genuine desire to grow in Christ. Rather than trading in the burden of sin and picking up the burden of trying to be good all the time, this passage depticts it as trading in the burden of sin for the freedom of being able to abstain from it. By God's grace, we are able to live Christian lives. Certainly, we don't automatically become perfect, and we will always struggle with sin in our lives as long as we are on this earth. And that's exactly why there's no need to hide from it!

You see, when we realize that grace is what defines us, we see that we are on the same level as everyone else. Christians, though free from the dominion of Sin, still struggle with it. Our righteousness, therefore, is not found in ourselves, but solely in Christ's work on our behalf. When Christians begin to see that they are no more righteous than the prostitute on the street corner, he begins to level with them, to love them, to care about them, and not to judge them. When we stop putting on our perfect masks every day to school and come as we are, without judging others for doing so, we are truly experiencing the freedom that results from the undercurrent of God's grace. When people realize that they are define by grace, they can come out of hiding. They can be themselves: imperfect, broken, often stumbling, but reliant on God's grace for their justification, and not their own deeds.

Now, certainly, when we are filled with this grace, we are equally filled with the desire to do better. So while we are totally honest with ourselves and others, we also strive to lift each other up and encourage each other in our struggles. There's a big difference between that and what's actually going on in the present at our school.

"All our efforts to teach godly living and spiritual maturity to others must be grounded in grace. If we fail to teach that discipline is by grace, people will assume, as I did, that it is by performance." Those are the words of Jerry Bridges.

I'm always praying for Alma Heights, and for the people who go there. Ultimately, God is the one who changes people, who awakens them to the truth of his gospel, and strengthens them in their relationship with him. I pray that he will have mercy on me and on everyone else. I myself am not above judging others by their imperfect actions. I am no more worthy of God's grace than anyone around me.

To wrap this up, I will give an example of judgment that occurs all the time at our school. The Wednesday before last, the speaker asked all those who were willing to stand up for Jesus to stand where they were. Why did he do this? Most people didn't stand up because they wanted to. They stood up because of peer pressure, and because they would be judged if they didn't. Asking people to stand up or raise their hands as a sign of belief is a horrible practice that must be stopped. We don't need to be polled on our fidelity.

For the sake of not increasing this already lengthy post, I will stop here. This problem can be expanded and disputed in many more branches of thought, and there are certainly more questions to be addressed. I do feel, however, that what I mentioned above is the root of the issue. I would like to hear what you all have to say, whether it be agreement or disagreement, and perhaps we can establish some kind of direction in this argument. To those of you who are Christians, I ask that you please keep Alma Heights in your prayers.

iPod--full review

2006-09-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I got the newly-updated 5th generation 80 GB black iPod, and so far I really like it.

First of all, it looks amazing. The black iPod is one of the coolest-looking things ever. Apple really takes the cake on this one. The white iPod is good-looking, but the black (in my opinion) is beyond words. The screen is dazzling. It comes automatically set to halfway brightness, and you can raise and lower it as you please. It hurts my eyes when the brighness is all the way up, so I keep it halfway. I'm sure the brightness will come in handy in situations with more light.

The feel is nice. The thickness of the 80 GB is a good, solid thickness. I love the classic, flat front surface. The headphone jack is in an odd position (over to the right), and I don't really know if I like it there. It certainly looks cool, but I have to actually hold the iPod a bit more firmly when inserting my headphones, unlike before when I could just stick them in. The clickwheel is also a little bit awkward, since it's slightly smaller than previous clickwheels, and the center button is flat instead of raised. I can't really feel my way around it as easily, and it really made me see how much I used that raised center button as a reference point. I'm sure I'll get used to it though. The clicking response is good, though the forward skip button's click is duller and softer than the other four controls. Not a major setback though.

The song transfer rate is significantly slower than my previous iPods. It took almost all night for my iPod to transfer my 3607-song library (and a few short videos) onto itself. I haven't put any pictures on there, as I don't see any point in doing so (I never really utilized that feature on my old one). So that's a bit of a pain.

The new software is pretty cool. I like the letter scrolling feature, though it's a bit jumpy. The iPod is generally slower than the previous generations. The stopwatch works well, and the world clocks are pretty cool too. The search is pretty effective, though it may not be all that useful, as it takes a little while to punch it in. The screen lock feature is great, and will probably actually come in handy for me in my effort to keep my pesky siblings from using it when I'm not around.

The video playback is, of course, spectacular. Again, the screen is what makes it. It's really clear, crisp, and very comfortable to stare at for long periods of time. The battery life is really great, and is hardly effected playing music with no backlight (my backlight timer is set to 2 seconds). The video tends to suck it up a bit, although playing video on this iPod takes about the same amount of charge as music did in my previous iPod. So it's all good.

Finally, and most importantly, the sound quality is better than ever. My last iPod had a problem with music that had deep, resounding bass (usually classical pieces), causing a weird, annoying, cloudy buzz. It's hard to describe. But it was annoying. This one, however, plays these same songs beautifully and clearly. The gapless playback is truly gapless, might I add. This is especially convenient for classical pieces and recordings of live performances. It's come a long way from the tinny, shallow sound of the 3rd Generation iPod.

I'm happy with my purchase. I think I'll be sticking this one for a few years, just as long as it sticks with me. You'll all get acquainted with it on Monday, I'm sure:).

ipod...arrived!

2006-09-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

It arrived today in the mail, and is currently importing my iTunes Library. It's been updating for the past three hours, and has hardly gotten to the 1/3 mark. This'll have to be an overnight type of thing. I'll post pictures later when it's up and running. I can tell you that it looks beautiful and that I can hardly wait to start using it.

new ipod...coming soon...

2006-09-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited that I just had to post about it. I just ordered an 80 GB black iPod. It's going to be awesome. I sold my palm pilot AND my old iPod to come up with the funds for it. The only reason I'm getting a new iPod is because I ran out of space on the old one...hopefully, I'll never have to buy a new iPod ever again!! Hehehe yeah right.

Nothing says macho like The Godfather playing on a black 80 GB iPod. Of course, Apple has to get their act together and give us a bit more of a selection (somehow I'm not too keen on seeing the latest "Brother Bear.")

christian college??

2006-09-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

LOL!

http://www.cafepress.com/larknews.23099703

I'm SO wearing that shirt next spring.

my current stream of consciousness

2006-09-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

There's a difference between what we want and what is wise. That's a principle I'm trying to force myself to think about these days. Yearbook has been a continual frustration as far as computer delays, and the delay (as I predicted) was set even later (until next Tuesday "at the latest"...which means it will be Tuesday and no sooner, though perhaps later). Anyway, I understand the complicated process of finances/picking out the right computers, and am pleased that we're getting the Core 2 Duo chips. I'm sure it'll all be worth the wait.

My only concern is the newspaper. I've received mixed reports about whether or not we (the newspaper) will actually be able to use one of the Macs. Mrs. Bernson informed me that the newspaper would probably be using the old PC's with new processors, and linux. The other day, though, Mr. Boyd asked me of my preference in tools to make the newspaper, and I told him honestly, "Pages." Pages, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is great for desiging cool documents, but still a step behind Microsoft Word as far as practicality. The formatting is a little weird, and complicated to customize. As you can probably imagine, writing a paper with a teacher's specific standards can become a frustrating process. Microsoft Word is still better for the boring stuff :). But Pages would be perfect for making a good-looking, well-put-together Newspaper. Mr. Boyd seemed to respond positively, and confirmed with me that he would have to buy iWork. Do we get a Mac? I don't know.

I spoke with my dad the other day, and put together a keynote presentation for him filled with reasons to get a Macbook Pro. Powerschool makes everything much more computer-based, and I don't know how I could bear trying to piece together a newspaper on something like OpenOffice. In other words, if we don't get to use the Macs, I'll have a good reason to get a laptop.

But I'm still hesitant. If I buy one now, it'll have to last me a while. I won't get a new computer for college, which means I'll enter college with good, but below-the-standard technology. I think I would like it better if I waited until then to get the latest, greatest technology. Another factor is that if I bought it now, it would all come out of my pocket. My dad would grant me the money I need now, but I would make payments to him every month (basically everything I make), for the next 8 months minimum, according to my calculations. I'd not only get a good computer now and possibly regret it later, but I would also lose a lot of my independence, since I would have little to no spending money. If I waited for the end of Senior Year, my parents and grandparents and maybe some others would band together and buy me the greatest configuration I could ever want as my graduation present. And by then, who can fathom what that might be?

So I face this decision with hope, but with doubt. Aside from yearbook, it would be incrediby convenient to carry my computer with me in my bag and have the ability to access it at any moment. Not to mention My Dad's still thinking about it, so it's not even a definite possibility. I think, though, that it's very likely that it will be. It's a hard decision.

On a different note, today was an interesting day for me. It started off well; Katie and I agreed to share history outlines, which has taken a huge workload off for both of us. In History, Mr. Shapiro talked about the Puritans' doctrine and theology, and we delved into reformed theology, which of course teaches the Biblical principles of predestination. It was an interesting experience: I was at Alma Heights, learning reformed theology in History class. Mr. Shapiro tried to be unopinionated about it, simply trying to teach us what the Puritans believed and set in place for generations, but he spoke of it as if it were a common theological belief (which it is, but not in the Alma Heights context, of course).

The irony of it is that we learned better theology in History class than we did in Bible class:) Bogdan, who has been quite loud lately, contributed to our discussion of the question, "Why did God make us?" He immediately brought up the idea that God had the desire to create beings that actually wanted to love Him, so he gave them a free will so that they could choose him. Just this morning, Mr. Shapiro had told us that our sinful nature controls and dominates us, leaving it up to God to free us from it. But no one seemed to notice this apparent contradiction in teaching.

Bogdan's observation (to which Mrs. Travis heartily agreed, along with most of the class) has a critical error. It places God in a place of need. God needs us to love him. Poor God! Most people don't love him!! I think he needs a hug. A small one, since most people would rather slug him in the face.

Is God really that naive? Did he really think that, given the option, we would choose him over the attractive sinful pleasures of the world? I think he knows better. I think he knows that our state is corrupt and unfixable, except by his own power. Originally, when all was perfect, Adam and Eve were made to glorify him and bask in his creation. He created them for his own enjoyment, yet is wasn't just simply that. It was relationship.

I would agree with someone that God desires a relationship with his creation. But I would disagree with those who think God is pitiful enough to leave that decision up to us. We're in a more screwed-up state than we even know. We are like dogs who return to their own vomit, as the Proverbs say, constantly returning to our sin. The sway of the entire scriptures is that we can't do it ourselves, that we continue to mess up, and that we are born with this tendency. Our tendency imprisons us, it reigns in us until God frees us from it and frees us from its bondage. In short, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Of course, we continue to struggle with sin. The difference is that we have the ability to override our sinful nature, thanks to God's empowering of us to do so. We actually have the ability to say "no" to our sinful desires. Someone without God sins even when he intends to do good, since the very act of good is performed under the motivation of self-promotion. And self-promotion is not only selfish, but futile. In Isaiah, even our good deeds are described as "filthy rags" compared to the holiness God requires from us. The act of doing good for the purpose of somehow making ourselves legitimate is the opposite teaching of the gospel. Can a creation so corrupted and chained really free itself from it's terrible curse? The Bible strongly emphasises that we cannot, but with equal emphasis tells us of the hope we have in a merciful God of grace. That, to me, paints a much more beautiful picture than that of a needy God hoping his creation will pick him.

I didn't quite intend to get in-depth theologically with that, but there you go. It's been a long time since I wrote a post this long, and that's probably a good thing. Hasta luego.

minor change

2006-09-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for yet another change in address. My welcome page idea was completely useless, because it wouldn't work on Xanga or Myspace. That, and I ended up giving people my actual blog address anyway, and got tired of saying "sensesay1." It's back to sensesay.blogspot.com. Change your RSS feeds! And rest assured that no further changes will be made to my blog url.

potential yearbook cover

2006-09-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

fade to color
Originally uploaded by hijohnmark.

Eh? Eh? It's a work in progress, and this is merely a concept, but it's the general theme wer'e going for. We'll probably end up using a different photo, but I'd really like the dominant color to be blue. It's a bold, refreshing color that I really like. We're going for a classy, clean, simple look this year. Our set theme is "perception: the way we see it." Comments? Questions?

Other concepts can be found here.

blue coconut

2006-09-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

This is an awesome app for Mac users.

Basically, it allows you to download music from shared libraries, which means I can download music straight from my Dad's computer, without having to ask him to burn me a CD (or even having to ask his permission:). No more wasted CD's, no more tracks burned in the wrong order (which seems to happen almost every time he burns me a CD in one way or another). Just a quick (very quick) download, and that's it. It even downloads the album art. A screenshot for you:

I'm sure there's a windows equivalent to this program, and if you can find one, see if it works. Do you know what this means??? This means you can sit in an airport or a Starbucks and download music from anyone's computer that happens to be running iTunes, as long as it's not purchased from iTunes (unfortunately, it doesn't remove the protection from Music Library files--JHYMN needs to get their act together!!). I can easily see this program put to even more illegal use, since technically the iTunes Music Store is like one big library...I think you catch my drift.

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with Shared Libraries on iTunes, an excerpt from Wikipedia should be sufficiently informative:

iTunes Library songs can be shared over a local network using Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous) – Apple's implementation of the Zeroconf (zero configuration required) open network standard – which allows shared lists of songs within the same subnet to be automatically detected. When a song is shared, iTunes can stream the song but won't save it on the local hard drive, in order to prevent unauthorized copying. Songs in Protected AAC format can also be accessed but authentication is required. A maximum of five users may connect to a single user every 24 hours.

Originally with iTunes 4.0, users could freely access shared music anywhere over the Internet, in addition to one's own subnet, by specifying IP addresses of remote shared song libraries. Apple quickly removed this feature with version 4.0.1, claiming that users were violating the End User License Agreement.

Music sharing uses the Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP), created by Apple for this purpose.[10] DAAP has been reverse-engineered and is now used to stream playlists from non-Apple software.

To share your library and use other shared libraries, simply go to the "Sharing" tab in the iTunes preferences and select "Look for shared music" and "Share my music." Then you're set! Make sure everyone in your house does the same, that way you can share with everyone on your network. If you want to download something, all you do is select it/them, Blue Coconut shows what you've selected, and then you click the "download" button. That's it. It adds them to your Library automatically when they're done downloading.

It's a beta, so it still has a few quirks, but it gets the job done. To download Blue Coconut or read more about it, go to http://husk.org/apps/blue_coconut/beta.html.

back to school

2006-08-31T16:59:00.000-07:00

Monday was our first day of school, and since then it's been pretty good. The schedule and timing has been pretty confusing, but it ultimately works. My concerns below were addressed accordingly, and I'm taking my necessary math class and Bible at the same time. I couldn't take Advanced Math at the same time even if it were available, since Algebra II is a prerequisite. I'm hoping to do some good work in the Math Lab and finally catch up with my peers in that area.

On Monday, I met with a high school counselor to discuss my next two years, and I pretty much have it all figured out. I'll get my required courses, and then some. I was really freaking out in my previous post regarding the school schedule, and for that I'm sorry. I really need to be more flexible with stuff like that. I also need to remember that God has it all planned out anyway, so whatever happens, happens because He wants it to. I always have to remind myself of that.

I'm happy to say that my hopes for starting a school newspaper are about to become a reality. We'll have the computers on Monday and have our first issue out by the 7th of September. We're going to make printed copies, which is a wonderful thing. I was worried that we would only be allowed to post it on the internet, which would not make it very popular at all. Most people don't want to log on to the Alma Heights website (no offense to Mr. Quiring) and read whatever the latest edition is. Sure, people could subscribe to an RSS feed if we decided to do something like that, but most people don't even know what that is and aren't going to bother learning just so they can read our bi-weekly paper. Having hard copies is a great way to make people interested and read our materials immediately, AND it would give them motivation to check out the online version, which would be (hopefully) loaded with media options and more extensive information. The 6th period will be dealing with the electronic version of this paper, while Joe and I will be working with the printed edition. Both of our groups will be gathering materials for the paper, and it will be released bi-weekly (every other week). Mrs. Bernsen plans to have a lunch period where all yearbook/newspaper students meet together to collaborate. We plan to start interviewing and gathering information tomorrow at the Half-Day Retreat, so be prepared to be interrogated!

School's been great so far. God has blessed me with a desire to learn, and I'm starting to take interest in all of my subjects. Certainly, this year looks brighter academically than last year. I just wish I had felt this motivated my since my freshman year. I also hope that my desire and resolve do not fade as the year progresses and as things get harder, particularly with the college application process and the SAT's.

I'm very happy to see how far the Alma Heights High School has come since I started as a freshman. The scheduling this year, though mixed up and not perfectly convenient for everyone, is more efficient than last year's, and allows for a better use of time. I only wish we had one more period (even though it would add more time to our day), so that the schedules were more flexible. I think it would wonderful if we could make Spanish a normal class, so that I have two electives periods. But I'm sure there's a reason for all of it which I'm not aware of. Alma Heights is always in my prayers. I'm very thankful for all the hard efforts and cooperation of the faculty during this momentous transition, and am truly sorry if I have seemed ungrateful.

By the way, if you happen to be looking for a great read, Check out The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges. It's a really great book, and talks about how a Christian should live a life of holiness, and how God's Grace ties into it. It's theme is along the same lines as Mr. Quiring's post on holiness. I haven't finished it (due to homework), but really like it so far. You can buy the book for cheap on Amazon.

oh oh oh oh oooooh!! i can't breathe!! ooooh!!!

2006-08-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

LOL OMG THE SOUND SHE MAKES AAAAHAHAHAHA

N.T. Wright at the City Church Open Forum

2006-08-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

N.T. Wright is a brilliant apologetic of the Christian faith, who I had the privilege of hearing when he visited our church for an open forum in the spring. In this discussion, he talks about his latest book, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. You might notice similarities between his themes and those found in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity.

confused, frustrated, and everything else

2006-08-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

What a kick-start to the school year I've been having.

Today was registration. There are ways to describe it. Organized to a degree, yes. But I'm very distressed about the scheduling. I know that it's confusing, that they're going to change a lot before school starts, but still I worry.

This would mark the third year that because of unforeseen circumstances, Yearbook is unavailable. That's only if they don't switch it to 7th period.

Also, what's up with the electives? How is it that ALL of the electives that I'm interested in are in 6th, and all the ones that I've already taken or have little to no interest in are in 7th? I can't take anything except Spanish 2 during 6th because I have to have another year of foreign language. Of course, if I had been able to take a foreign language my freshman year, this wouldn't be a problem. I'm happy that they're changing that now, but I wish it had happened a long time ago.

And then there's Bible class. There are two Bible periods, 3rd and 4th. In 3rd period, I have to take Honors Literature, giving me no choice but to take it during 4th. Only problem is, Algebra 2 isn't offered as a course, so I would have to (and actually would prefer to) take in a Math Lab, so I can go as fast as I want. Also, I would be able to take Advanced Math simultaneously, which would fulfill my goal of taking Calculus my senior year. But I can't take Math Lab, and without Math Lab I can't take Advanced Math (which requires Algebra 2). What's the problem? Bible class is the problem. If the schedule doesn't change in that regard, I'm going to have to say goodbye to Bible class and take a course that actually matters for my education, which is Math. I receive plenty of Bible instruction from qualified experts who have been to a seminary at my church, every Sunday and throughout the week. I appreciate the concerns and care of the faculty for the spiritual life of their students, but the school must remember that they are first and foremost a school, an academic institution, not a church.

If they can make Bible class fit into my schedule without conflicting with the best possible academic options, I'm fine. I'm sure they'll figure out how to get me into my Math class without having to skip Bible, but I won't be able to take two math classes at once like I had hoped. And I see no reason why I shouldn't be permitted to do so. I'm paying tuition at Alma Heights, not to receive Biblical instruction, but to receive academic instruction and knowledge in the liberal arts. That's why I go to church! So that I can receive sound instruction on the Bible and it's teachings, in a community of believers. If evangelical outreach is the school's concern, I would question whether requiring a course on the matter is best idea, much less GRADING them for their performance. Something about that just doesn't seem right at all.

As far as colleges go, they're not going to look at my application and wonder why I didn't take any Bible classes!! I'm pretty sure they're more interested in what kind of math classes I've taken, my foreign languages, extra-curriculars, etc.

Again, things are always confusing before school, and i'm sure things will work out, but I'm frustrated at the moment, and thought that I would share that with anyone who cares. I'm sure most people will disagree with me on the Bible class issue. But I already know your arguments, so before you tell me that we need to be "nurtured in a stable christian environment" in order to grow, I'd like to state in advance that I entirely disagree, and believe quite the opposite. I'm willing to expand on that, but only if called upon to do so. I'm hoping people will just "get it", but most likely that won't happen.

making some changes

2006-08-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

I've made some changes to my blog, which I think are refreshing and more exciting. Compare that to the dull, blue, tired look of my old blog.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh. I really did like the old layout, but I got tired of it after a while. I suppose I'll get tired of this one too, and change it eventually. But for now, I really like it. If you guys absolutely hate it, I can always switch back, since I saved the template code in a text document. I also finally figured out how to put a little divider under my "Quote of the Week" section, so it doesn't look like it's attached to the "Links" section. I had tried to do the horizontal rule (hr) code, but the line ended up being too thick. The key is to make it an unordered list (ul), which is what all the other sidebar sections are.

announcing: the student council website

2006-08-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

The website is almost finished, but I thought I'd go ahead and make it public, for your previewing pleasure. Mr. Quiring, I'm especially hoping for some good advice from you :) Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think, how improvements can be made, etc. This website has undergone several changes/"facelifts" since it's original conception, and overall has a more consistent theme and feel than before. Some pages still need information to be filled out/corrected (such as the "Offices" page), but that has to wait for when I get my hands on a copy of the constitution (which Mrs. Travis doesn't seem like she's going to email it to me like I asked, though there must be some reason for it). That page does have the layout complete, so you're getting a good idea of what the finished product will look like. Here and there, different pages have bits of missing information, but all of that will be filled once we determine what committees we'll be having, who will lead them, etc. Also, some SC members don't check their email, or they do and never respond to mine, making me unable to fill some of the gaps on the "Leadership" page.

I'm hoping this will become a useful tool for students and not a complete waste of my time. Every picture used in the heading (except for the "Upcoming Events" page) is an original, which obviously curtails any copyright issues.

The easiest way to get there is by going to ahcouncil.blogspot.com, which will redirect you.

jmix tees

2006-08-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking about ordering some JMix t-shirts, but don't really know if anyone would buy them. It would be less of a profit thing (in fact, I'd probably lose some money) and more of a "getting the word out" thing. They'd be fifteen bucks a pop.

Eh? Eh?
I think it's pretty cool.

Nutty-Honey sandwich

2006-08-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

While lamenting over what was sure to be a boring lunch, I decided to experiment with some of my available ingredients, and the result was what I like to call the Nutty-Honey sandwich.

Ingredients:
Two slices of bread (duh)...whole wheat recommended
Pistachio nuts (Trader Joe's has them already shelled)
Honey
Cashew Butter (Peanut Butter works, but Cashew Butter has a creamier taste, and is better in my opinion...you can get it at Trader Joe's)

Toast your bread. After it's toasted, spread on a thick layer of Cashew Butter, then a layer of Honey (fairly thick, some like it sweeter than others), and finally some pistachios for a nice crunch. Add as much or little as you want, depending on your taste. I've tested it on my siblings, and they llike it quite a bit. It's a sticky sandwich, though, and goes best with a tall glass of milk.

Colbert interviews Senator Eleanor Holmes Norton

2006-08-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

reflections on the summer

2006-08-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I arrived safe and sound at the San Francisco International Airport. It's good to be back home.

The day after Senior Graduation, I flew to Florida, where I would spend the majority of my summer with extended family. The second and third weeks were our beach weeks, where we spent time at our usual spot in New Smyrna Beach, near Daytona Beach (where they have the race track and more importantly, the Krispy Kreme). After those two weeks, I went directly to a camp called "Elevate", held by Southland, a youth conference organization in Florida. The actual camp was held in Lookout Mountain, Georgia at Covenant College. It was fun, but I hardly knew anyone that I went wiht (except for a few, of course), but didn't find it to be a life-changing experience. Wayne Kerr's worship jams were getting pretty old.

After three weeks of nonstop activity, I was pooped, but preparing for yet another youth conference the following week at RYM (Reformed Youth Movement). Though the camp itself is supposedly wonderful, I was too exhausted and unmotivated (due to the fact that I wouldn't know anyone when I got there), and dreaded yet another week of camp. Luckily, that week was cancelled because of transportation complications. That week (the fifth week) and the four weeks that followed were spent with my cousin, Jeremy, hangin' out and just being guys. We must have driven in his truck to get slurpees from 7-11 at least a thousand times. We had a good time together.

There were a few notable activities in those last four weeks. The 21st-23rd of July were spent in Fort Myers (the most abysmal city on the face of this earth) for my cousin's wedding. Fort Meyers is absolutely the last place I would want to live. There's one main road, and it leads to everything, but it takes forever to get anywhere because of constant heavy traffic and ridiculously long stoplights. The wedding was fine, a bit cheesy/awkward at times, but enjoyable and memorable indeed.

My sister, my friend Jessica Thompson, and I spent a few days in Universal studios the week before the wedding, and we had a great time together, though Universal Studios was generally a disappointment. Most of the rides were pretty stupid. We had some great Lebanese food, though, which I have constantly craved since that day. If you ever get the chance to try that stuff, don't miss the opportunity, it's pretty amazing. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Nothing else really happened. Jeremy and I hung out, got a lot of slurpees, watched a lot of TV. That's a good snapshot of what I do every summer. This one has been the longest.

What is Lakeland like, some of you might ask? It's not a podunk little town, though it is small. Because of various franchises (ownership of Publix, which is like our Safeway), Lakeland is a wealthy city. It's a nice place to live, and it's clean. The city council has some strange obsession with abstract art, randomly placing gigantic steel somethings in random places. One in particular is in front of a lake, and looks like a bucket of confetti is being dumped into it.

Lakeland doesn't have much of a restaurant selection. They have some decent places, like Chili's and some other chains, along with Palace Pizza, which is one of the most exciting places to eat pizza because it's NOT a Pizza Hut, or a Dominoe's, or a Papa John's, or a Hungry Howie's, all of which have horrible pizza. Palace is decent, but you would think it's the best thing in the word by the way people talk about it and the frequency of their visits. I ate at Palace Pizza at least twice a week, often three times. Generally, though, there isn't much variety, and that's a bit disappointing. People who live there, generally speaking, don't like to try different foods. American food, Italian food, crappy Chinese food, and Mexican food are plentiful, but not much of anything else. My grandmother orders a plain salad with ranch dressing almost everywhere she goes, and she eats out every night. I had two home-cooked meals; the first was tacos, the second was taco salad (which is tacos without tortillas). One girl said she would give me five dollars if I ate a slice of vegetable pizza, as if it were some kind of huge feat or dare. I looked at her, stunned, disbelieving, but she was completely serious, and cringed when I said that I had already been considering a slice. Not everyone is that extreme in their pickiness, but most are very reluctant when it comes to trying new things. It's frustrating to have people constantly gag and moan at the mention of some of my favorite foods, especially when they haven't even tried it (which is almost always the case). San Francisco has made me appreciate a variety of foods, from a variety of cultures. My Aunt, who will remain nameless, was ordering Cuban food from a menu with my Mom's help, and refused to order an impanada, which is a delicious, crispy pastry (about the size of a taco, but not a corn tortilla) with seasoned ground beef inside, sprinkled with sugar. It's one of the most divine dishes in the world, and I could probably eat twenty of them without thinking twice. Without even thinking, she scrunched up her nose and insisted that she didn't like it. "Have you tried it?" my mother asked. "No." The point is, God didn't make all kinds of different foods for us to never enjoy it. He meant for us to have countless possiblities in our diets, and I know that because he gave us taste buds. If He wanted us to eat the same, we'd eat gray hash every day.

Gay jokes get old. Whenever I meet new people, they seem friendly enough, but usually they act differently upon discovering that I live in "Satan's Vacation Home", otherwise known as San Francisco. "Wow, so you must know some gays." That's usually the response I get. That type of thinking among Christians is so twisted and anti-gospel, I can hardly contain my frustration. All the time, pastors from our previous denomination (the PCA) would ask my Dad, "So, what are you doing about all those gays?", and in response, my Dad would ask, "Well, what are you doing about adultery?" Homosexuality, for some reason, is held on some high pedestal of grand importance above all other sexual sins. San Francisco is the political seat of the gay population, but certainly not the most populated. There are more gays in Atlanta, Georgia than in San Francisco, California. And that's a city in the south, where you would think there are no gays at all, by the way people talk about them. Not that the amount of gays even matters. I'm tired of my city being regarded as a more sinful place than anywhere else. It's un-Christian and anti-gospel to think otherwise.

I love living here, but I hate it when people are out of touch with reality, particularly Christians, who should know better.

thankyou for clarifying

2006-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

I knew there had to be more to it. That makes sense, though I guess I won't be able to take photography AND yearbook :(. Oh well, yearbook it is. Thanks Mr. Quiring!

please, clarify

2006-08-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Mr. Quiring!! I have just now heard that there won't be any electives and that it will be replaced with economics and family living instead. Please, clarify this decision, because there must be something I don't understand. Aren't electives required? Don't we have to have 2 years of art? I wanted to take photography!!!! Please, please, explain.

let's discuss

2006-07-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my cousins and I were watching Ellen DeGeneres, a widely-known lesbian and a comedian, who happened to be performing a stand-up routine. She was hilarious, and the routine was relatively clean.

My Grandma walked in and, being very conservative in her beliefs, demanded that we turn off the TV, because Ellen is a lesbian, and she wouldn't have us watching it in her house.

Is this a correct judgement? Should we stop watching Ellen or any other gays because of the very fact that they are gay, and watching them would indirectly support them and possibly even their lifestyle?

What do you think? This could be a good discussion topic, and is also a good way to see where we all stand on our theology. Is she right? Is she wrong? And why?

The De-Deification of the American Faithscape

2006-07-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Great stuff from Colbert.

By the way, that's the entire Nicene Creed, word for word.

two cents fixed

2006-07-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Mr. Quiring's skills, the Two Cents page is up-and-running for all to enjoy, on any browser.

sufjan stevens concert

2006-07-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

Sufjan is coming to San Francisco October 11, based off of his brand new album, Avalanche (outtakes from Illinoise). I myself haven't heard it, but knowing Sufjan, it's sure to be marvelous.

Who's in?!?? I'm probably going, and a bunch of fans from my church are going as well. Tickets aren't on sale yet, I'll get those details out as soon as I get them.

regarding "two cents"

2006-07-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

Does anyone using FireFox encounter a page that looks like this when you visit the Two Cents page?

It's not supposed to look like that. Here's how it's supposed to look, and how IE is displaying it on this computer:

Let me know if you're encountering this problem, and perhaps offer some insight into why this is happening. I'm hoping this is only a problem with the computer I'm using.

no more navbar

2006-07-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

I found CSS code that can get rid of the silly Blogger NavBar at the top of your page. It makes my blog look a bit more legit, I think. You all probably already knew this, and have for one reason or another decided not to do so, but just in case:

#b-navbar {
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
display:none
}

Just paste that anywhere under the styletype="text/css" tag. Nifty stuff.

two cents

2006-07-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

My cousin and I have endeavored to start a blog filled with our mutual opinions about various subjects. Some of you might say, "So what? You do that on your blog all the time." You're right. But perhaps you'll like the other blog better.

It's called Two Cents, and since twocents.blogspot.com (which is actually a Canadian guy criticizing American politics) and 2cents.blogspot.com were taken, along with several variation of that theme. We eventually decided to go with jerzjm.blogspot.com (combining both of our names; my cousin's name is jeremy <"jerz"> and of course jm is for yours truly).

So far we have only one post and it's about subway, and we had fun putting it together. The template style is similar to my blog and Matt's, so it's like a fusion of the two, with some original elements as well.

I hope you enjoy it. Jeremy wants to make it a big deal, but we'll see.

Also look forward to the creation of a picture blog (similar to Nick's), just to post up some cool pictures I've been taking lately. I'm REALLY looking forward to photography. Thanks for the inspiration, Nick:)

the devil wears prada

2006-07-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

Best movie I've seen all summer, by far. Streep did an amazing job. She was absolutely perfect for the role.

I'll be curteous and not give away any spoilers. But you HAVE to see it.

chris knight's little sister

2006-06-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

I swear Chris, this is the sister you never had. She's got tons of movie reviews like this one on YouTube. I liked this one though, because she goes off on a tangent that has little/nothing to do with the film. I also like how she doesn't even try to hide the fact that she's reading the details directly off of Fandango. Half of the time, she doesn't even give her opinion, but merely reads Fandango's review aloud.

Oh yeah, let's not forget that she hasn't even seen this movie. Truly, her philosophical analysis of Lucha Libre vs. WWE will allow me to watch the movie with a whole new perspective. What would we do without insightful geniuses such as her?

If you care to bore yourself further you can check out her other videos on YouTube. If you decide to comment, please be nice. She's had a lot of nasty comments. My personal second favorite is her review of Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.

xxooxxooXxOOXXx

2006-06-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

Today I saw Nacho Libre and laughed harder than I have in a long time.

Really guys, if you liked Napoleon Dynamite, you'll like this one. I really enjoyed it.

p.s. if you saw the movie, you'd get the title

desperate days

2006-06-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

So when I got out here, I found that they uninstalled Firefox on my Grandma's computer ("they" meaning one of my cousins). This has happened about 1000 times, and this time was the last straw. I removed all internet explorer icons from the quicklaunch and desktop, and replaced them with Firefox shortcuts. However, if anyone should go through the trouble of actually searching through the programs menu just to find IE, this little image awaits them (I created it on Microsoft Paint). Click it to see it in it's full size. I set it as the homepage.

Feel free to use this for whatever crazy people you encounter who STILL use IE. I'm just hoping they don't dash my efforts yet again.