Of late...

Among other things, I've...

been working. Going well, lots of fluidity and flexibility, and it looks like i'm to be learning Flash in the upcoming weeks.

been reading. This, That, and The Other. All commendable, as was this mid-July read.

been playing softball. Summer season is over, and the Legion of Doom finished with a record of 1-11, with the lone victory coming via forfeit. Next season we don't name our team after supervillians...

been sleeping. Four-to-six hour nights interspersed with ten-to-twelve hour nights, capped by a 6pm-6:30am Wednesday last week. Whoa.

been YouTubing. And that shall be the inspiration for my next post...the evolution of mic skills.

Degrees Fahrenheit

It's been really hot this summer, and this week was no exception.
Temperatures in the triple digits into the evenings have been the norm.
Today, Los Angeles decided to try out for the role of 'Atlanta,' putting on extra pounds of air moisture in an attempt to really become the part. I hope this is the first step to the city breaking its fever...it's not pleasant.

Been a long while...

Much has transpired since our last post, and i've gradually disappeared from the blogosphere. [One might say that the levels of activity in my virtual and offline lives have been inversely correlated. Anyone know who that 'one' is?]

As for the 'online' life, it may soon undergo some revisions. I don't intend to abandon this blog, but expect it to be more random musings and events of my days than content-specific posts, such as those found at Fantasy Wrap-Up. On that note, I'm in the process of creating a wordpress blog dedicated to my writing endeavors, and am looking into domain name licensing, with the hope of creating a central outpost for all things Work.

Among those things: I enjoyed the blogging assignment for Ryan's class this past term. In brief, we read four main works for the class, and blogged our reflections on the texts, one book a week, five posts a week. I found it quite helpful and may well dedicate future collections of posts to similar endeavors, either here or elsewhere.

However, it won't be for class. IRL, I graduated from Fuller two weeks ago, and am done with coursework for the time being. The book-buying moratorium has been lifted, and I'm making (slight) headway on the reading list, which continues to expand...

In other news, my plans for the remainder of the year have been changed since the last update, and in a big way. Last month, I applied for a full-time position at Fuller. This past week, I was offered the position, and will be starting full-time on Monday, working as a course developer for the distance learning office, specifically Fuller Online. The two words that best characterize my state at the moment: excited and grateful.

Print Piece Plug: the SEMI

I recently wrote an article for the SEMI, Fuller's student paper, regarding technology and the church, particularly the connection between web 2.0 developments and community formation. You can find it here.

Any feedback and comments are welcome. Thus far, I've received some kind words. One of my professors suggested that I could expand on the dynamics of real-time and virtual relationships as part of my major paper in her class. I'm excited by the prospect, particularly since it ties into long-running narrative threads of my life.

I was honored that Michelle, my editor, thought enough of the piece to put it on the cover, especially given the caliber of my fellow contributors. The bulk of her editing work related to my footnotes, which were cut. Of those, two things may be of interest. First, I recognize the complications surrounding predatory activity on the internet, google stalking, and the extent to which publicly-shared material makes this easier than previously; wisdom and caution are paramount, and my suggestion for parents who want to teach their kids this would be to do so parabolically, over the internet (since i never really 'got' the sit-down talks, and tended to just blow them off). Second, I draw quite a bit of my thoughts around shame, coherence, and the self from Alan Mann's Atonement for a 'Sinless' Society, particularly the first section of the book.

I look forward to next week's issue, focused around community. My friend Jim has written a piece; I'd thought about contributing an article about the tenability and viability of community within the seminary, and it looks like Jim drew out some similar themes in his own way.

Previous Articles I've Penned:

Winter 2005: The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty (pg 3)
Nov. 1-4, 2005: The Most Unsightly of Traffic Jams (pg 8)
Feb. 6-10, 2006: What, Time Alone? (pg 5)

Arrgh moment...

Now, what did i want to write about again?
I'll remember tomorrow...

Tell me I did not just see that...

I don't really like Kobe Bryant at all. The guy's a tremendous athlete, no question, and I'll give him credit for his game, but beyond that...

Now my roommate Oscar, yeah, he's gone over to the dark side. Today's comeback induced shouts of jubilation from him, and a series of 'No!'s from me as he celebrated team Bryant's comeback victory over the Suns. I could only watch the end of regulation before checking out, but popped by later in the pm and only had to check his face to know what happened. Lakers in OT. Great.

Joe C said it best, "From now on, I'm rooting for the Lakers to win, just so the Clips can crush them in the semis."

Lacking faith in Phoenix without Amare (even though i dig Nash's game), I'm down with that.

The Stuff We Drink...

One of my housemates works in television production. As such, there've been weeks and months where it's been rumored that we live together, but very little evidence of it. However, we do reap some benefits from his career, namely well-prepared office lunches; i've had some particularly sumptuous leftovers over the past six months, and can credit the folks in production for their choices in catering, at the very least.

Two weeks back, he brought home two cases of Socko, a new energy drink which contains healthy doses of caffeine, taurine, vitamins B12 and B6, as well as extracts of ginseng, yerba mate, and guarana, as well as something called 'horny goat weed extract,' which qualifies as an innovative ingredient, i guess. Judging from the Flash-y company website, they're certainly committed to snazzy promotion, although i don't quite understand why an energy drink would have a street team. The cans are also twice as big as Red Bull, a sell point for bars and nightclubs, and probably appealing to anyone seeking a caffeine fix.

I wasn't quite sure what to think of this green liquid, but it seems to be popular with at least one roomie, who has left a trail of empty cans in his wake. So when I woke up two hours ahead of my alarm, and nine hours before deadline (will cross-post the piece upon publication next week), I figured it as good as anything to get me into writing mode. Plus, with summer approaching, it might be helpful to move from coffee to energy drinks when seeking out caffeine, on account of the chill factor.

So what's my take? First sip was a bit syrupy, but it went down fairly clean. Effects so far? I'm more lucid than beforehand, yet not jittery and internally unsettled (which tends to be the second-cup effect). All in all, it's not hideous, but not a drink that i'd regularly seek out were it not already here. Barring significant price differentials, I'll likely gravitate to the familiar Bull.

Wed. 04.26

Cross-posted from my class blog, with slight modification.

One regular feature of the course is a daily discussion of a section of our readings. Today's discussion centered around chapters 5-7 of NT Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God. Timmy B, Kenji, Eric, Ted, and myself started talking during the break, and I found myself wishing out loud that we'd been able to video that conversation and start the discussion on that note. Turns out that wasn't necessary, as the presentation soon became a conversation, first amongst ourselves, and then moving to a class-wide forum, with helpful guiding questions from Ryan.

As our time together drew to a close, a number of people reflected upon the difficulty of following Jesus, and stories of failure to live up to our ideals surfaced. I was reminded of Hans Kung's statement that the church lives between the two extremes of sectarianism and syncretism, tending to either ignore (or flip off) the surrounding culture or become so like it as to be indistinguishable. The Judaisms of the day were not very different, and could be charted between these extremes, rather than being salt and light (BTW - never thought about Isaiah 43:6/49:6 as background for that statement before today...Tom Wright has that thought-stimulating effect). In between, we live in the tension, with the marching directive 'follow me.' That's really difficult...but worth going for.

Many christians in the bible belt (where i first encountered god) cited verses like John 14:6 and Matthew 7:13-14 in an exclusionary fashion, using them to rationalize narrow-mindedness along the lines of 'if you're not with us, you're going to hell.' The peer pressure that was exerted in certain circles was pretty cruel, and, I'd now argue, contrary to the spirit of Christ. Yet as was reiterated today, Jesus didn't hide the challenges of discipleship from those who encountered him. He challenged his hearers to a new way of life, counter to the prominent options of his day. Among those options taken by first-century Jews: armed insurgence against the occupying Romans, which turned out pretty nastily each time it was attempted.

Jesus' "follow me" is the rubric through which I now read the words "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

The road isn't easy to walk, nor will it be the most popular, but it leads to life.

Maybe this text can be preached after all...