Hot hot! I am Curry Flavoured. I have a spicy personality. If you can take the heat, you'll love me, if not, I'll probably make you cry. I am not for the faint-hearted. What Flavour Are You?

There are a lot of people out there that think you shouldn't get tied up into TV shows, especially ones about vampyres and such. I know some people who will just read non-fiction because they feel like they would be wasting time otherwise. To those people I say, this post is not for you you might as well ignore it.

However if anyone else in my readership ever enjoyed watching Buffy or Angel I would really like to hear your response to this.

At the end of Buffy, and throughout the middle and beginning there was some joy. There was a high school girl who made it to dances and fought evil. There was that time when people where dying that she left and became a waitress to get over her pain. During the last season when she had the affair with Spike, which I thought was cool, she struggled with people, but at least it had a happy ending. The hellmouth is closed and the world has a gaggle of fully loaded slayers.

So I have seen Angel all the way to the end, then I started watching it from the beginning. Angel is very dark. Angel the once evilist vampyre in the world, is a good guy BUT he will never find forgivness. I can deal with that to a point, however, the whole thing with Jasmine was just strange. Conner hating the world, hating his father, Cordelia the mother of an evil thing that doesn't necissarily seem so evil. Angel does what he needs to do then there is a mass case of depression for the world until the dark knight makes a deal with the evil empire.
Lets look at Wesley, hardcore killer, sex machine, in love with a woman who will never love him. Ever set to watch her, then then then... of all things... she gets taken over buy some goddess thing that eradicates who she was. And Wesley the ultimate martyr hangs out with her anyway. In some strange way they end up loving each other, which we only know because of her anger at his death.

Now lets talk about the end... no closure. at all. And come to think of it, did Wesley kill Gunn?
Where Buffy had joy Angel had only suffering. Who knows... I might be misunderstanding, but, I feel bad after episodes of Angel, and it doesn't seem to ever get any better.

What do you guys think?

There is a hurricane going on right now. What I think about that is easy, what I don't know if I agree with is the media coverage. I watch a lot of the Daily show and they talk about fear mongering for ratings.

I honestly don't know. Is the media doing something beyond simple reporting. Is it important for news casters to be in the middle of the storm. Are reporters showing off that they are standing in the path of the storm? or is the bias different?

Well, I spent the weekend at home

I talked to my granparets a lot about their grandparents. My mother showed me a picture of a woman called little Grandma. Her maiden name was Martin her married name O'dell, she was born in 1840. This really lit my fire. My great uncle was the family historian, he died two years ago and I feel like I want to pick up the torch. I spent the last night I was home looking at the information stored in his computer and was amazed. He followed a line back to Little Grandma's parents. John Martin is the grand patriarch so far. Popular name heh, even appears a few times in Virginia's history. I am from West Virginia and had forgotten we were part of Virginia before the civil war so my father had to point out that of course he would be from Virginia, West Virginia wasn't a state yet. I am assuming his birth somewhere around 1805-1810.

The fun part however was tracing the Morris side instead of the O'dell/Martin side. I went on the internet to google and found the exact people I was looking for, I had found someone who did the work for me. The furthest back I found was in Weztel Country Virginia (Now WV) 1716. My uncle has over 600 names in the family tree.

I gather the old Bibles of my family members that pass on. I read my grandmother Wear's bible while I was home. My imediate grandmother had put an inscription in the front for me. I can't remember it exactly but it followed something like this.

"Vernice Wear was the mother of Mildred Martha Wear Isiminger Cater, the mother of John Edward Isaminger, the father of Brenda L McCreary, the Mother of Justin McCreary."

Grandma Wear recieved the Bible in 1940.

My great grandmother Cater, her daughter was born on January 18, 1907. If you check my profile you will see that is my birthday in 1979. All this was information I new, the part I hadn't seen before Was my grandmother Cater's Baptismal certificate that dated to November of 1979. She was born the same day as me 72 years earlier, but was born into Christ the same year I was born into life.

I added my niece Annalynn's name to the registry... the youngest of our kin, she has a wonderful ancestry that goes back a long way. I am glad to be a part of it.

A friend of mine was driving to West Virginia today so I thought I would tag along. Mainly because my roots are in West Virginia. It is weird because my parents moved to Ohio, which i think is a step down but what can you do. I was itting in my mother's parlor chatting with her, and the dog I grew up with was sitting at my feet. It was such a natural feeling when I came home, my dog beau came to me, and I spent some time with him, mom used to call him her boy now she refers t him as Old Man. I grew up with animals in the house. I remember having two dogs and three birds growing up.

I have two birds, as I have said before, and I had to find a bird sitter for the weekend. I was feeling anxious last night because someone else was in charge of them. I suppose some separation anxiety. I enjoy having the animals around. It is neet to sit in a meeting at my apartment with Abraham (the male) on my shoulder. Sarah (The female) doesn't like to sit as well. I love having animals around... it makes places feel like... home...

Biblical Theology: Quote of the Day

I often wonder what to post about on this blog, sometimes because nothing is going on, sometimes because I don't want to be like every other blogger who wants his own personal forum on the web even though I want one. I mean who doesn't want their own forum, their own place where, like yertle the turtle king of salama-sod, the ruler of all they survey. I have been reading a lot of blogs, and I enjoy doing it, I like to see differerent perspectives, though more importantly I want to get in my say. When it comes down to it, I really want people to know what i think about whatever. And sometimes, sometimes I just want certain people to know what is going on in my life.

I suppose in the end it is important to accept that in some way I desire community, it is important to me that people know me. It is important that whoever I choose to be, people know me... not a stereotype from my chosen religion, not a stereotype of race or whatever... And maybe this is just one more way for me to ask for community.

Stella

I remember as a teenager there was this show called “The State.” It is by far my favorite sketch comedy show EVER!!!! It is a shame that it never got picked up, I will never forget Barry and Levon, Doug, Larry the guy with the catchphrase, or those crazy Sea Monkeys. As of current a new show came on comedy central called “Stella,” staring Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Waine. All three members of the state (there are also the state people on Reno 911 but I just don’t think that show is as good).

I personally think “Stella,” is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen, but I look forward to every episode of it. Tonight they are growing crops in their floorboards, and it has been so stupid I can’t help but watch, over and over again. Have you ever seen a show like that? It is so weird because I don’t think the show is a train wreck, it is just ridiculous. Wonderfully ridiculous.

I am trying something new

I am trying something new, there is an add on for MS Word where I can type in word and publish directly to my blog, so here I go.

Yesterday we threw a little party at HUGSR. I am a member of the student government of the school. So I get to help plan these official happenings. I was in charge of food. It has been fun learning to cook the last few years, and cooking for over a hundred is always fun. I started cooking a little after 2:00 and worked in prep until about 9. That was exciting because I came directly from church. After that I met a wonderful friend for some coffee. I was exhausted at the end of the night. It was very tiring but very rewarding. I love to work in the background.

It is time for a new school year to start. I am excited about that. I have known school all my life and I am comfortable with it. Being out for the summer I realized that I crave structure. I had way too much time where I didn't have to do anything over the summer. At first I thought, I won't have a big summer it will be great chillin with people and just kickin it. In reality most of my friends left town or found internships for the summer. Most of my friends weren't here. I look forward to the school year starting for the acedemics of it as well. I have three classes this semester, at the seminary level of grad school that is what is considered normal.

I have also watched many friends leave for good this summer. My roomate of three years moved to Texas by way of Rwanda, one who is very dear to my heart moved to Kansas, another got married, and for the single buddies of the guy that is like him moving away. Four incredibly close people left this summer for good, but I know with each leaving God will fill that void, sometimes with people, and the more I am ready, with his essence/presense. Sometimes I would wonder, what is the point of taking the time to build relationships if everyone is just going ot leave. Then I realize how self centered that is. Pour me pour me pour me a drink right? I have chosen the life of a vagabond therefore while I am in that life I should be reminded that many will come and go, but what I learn and cherish of those relationships makes it worth it. Some people will walk with me longer than others... some run by and say hello, some stop and stay for a while... shoot, I might even find one day someone who is in for the long hall. But until then... I will live, I was reading in a Kempis today that Humans need two things: food, and light. The food is that of the Eucharist, or the body of Christ. The second a Kempis refered to as the light is the Bible... Food and Light... every sunday, every day... always communion

I am currently listening to a Grateful Dead song called ripple, it carries a feel of a slow movement, and renewal.

Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men

I was sitting in Wendy's today. I have eaten out a lot, mostly because i haven't gone to the store. Today I was hungry and in need of getting out of the house so I grabbed my journal and a good book and went. Wendy's isn't normally a place one goes to write in a journal, starbucks is more like the place for that. I was writing about what it means to be where I am in life. I am not elder, I am not child, I am adult... yes I am... It took me a while to want to be an adult.

I realize how important it is for the younger to learn from the older. I am blessed to have two mentors, one in ministry one in spirituality. There is so much wisdom that if just passed down would aid so well. Sure, we youthful folk need to make mistakes and mess things up for ourselves, but it is good to have a helpful hand reach into the big pile of crap that I just fell into and help me out. Sometimes I would get frustrated preaching at my old church in West Virginia because I was always told how good I did and that I would be a good preacher some day, and having graduated college and being at least halfway through seminary I was thinking, am I not a preacher now? Can you not hear my words as helpful instead of me being the little kid who gets up and has to be told he did great just because he didn't run out of the pulpit crying (my own words)? Well of course they look at me that way, they have listened to me preach from 12. They watched me grow up, what does a college, or even post college young Adult know about life?

I understand now how lucky I am to have men some twice my age some more some less that can help guide me. The Bible always talks about how the youth should relate to the elders. I don't think Elder is just a position in the church for servant leadership, i think it refers to the people who have gone before me, and can guide me. Of course I think I can learn from them and teach them in dialogue, I believe I do have something as a man in my mid 20's to offer.

Of course that means there is a whole generation below me who can learn from my experience. And people below me I can learn from. It is a neat little circle. For the longest time I didn't like "the man" telling me what to do, what does he know about me. Having been in the position where I am "the man," it makes more sense now.

eharmony boasts its 29 dimentions of matchability. I wonder if they have really tried to understand the consequences of their actions. For instance, since they have gone up to the 29th dimension they must have dealt with the fourth dimension which we know of as time. So what if I am to go to eharmony, and find out that Joan of Ark, who has also joined eharmony is the best match. Sure that is great for Joan and me but what about all the history that takes place between us. What happens to Europe if they lose Joan of Ark, or worse what happens to midevil Europe if they need to learn to deal with me, in all my post libral greatness. The hitchikers guide to the galaxy warns us of the dagers of time travel, and we have all seen back to the future, what happens when evil biff steals the time machine and changes the past. I think we must all ban together to make sure eharmony knows that their consequences will not just harm them but, will also destroy us.

Also, I posted a neat pic of my parrotlet Sarah

Today was a very warm day. It is quarter after ten I have missed "Stella," and I have a headache. The apartment carpet was cleaned today. Wow, that was exciting. I was thinking earlier today, "I have something really good to blog about," and now I am so tired I can't remember.

Later

If you have never been in a Native American Sweat Lodge I recomend it. I have some Choctaw friends in middle Mississippi that let me sweat with them. It is an interesting process. There is this lodge built so that no heat can escape, and they keep bringing in pumice rock that has been in the fire for a couple hours.

It is a wonderful experience. I am writing about this because I have been invited to sweat again. Of course I am going to go, my last sweat was a couple months ago. There are points during the sweat I feel like I am going to drop dead and I put my face directly against the ground searching for cool air. If you have never done it I recomend you make some Native American friends and try, even for a Christian there are deep spiritual benefits.

I went with my roomate today to the Circuit Playhouse in memphis. "tuesday's with Morrie" was playing, I had read the book. I have read it and Mitch's other one "The Five People You Meet in Heaven." I really like a lot of what Mitch Albom has to say. If you have never read either of the books I recomend both.

The first is about living life, the second is about understanding the life you have lived. It reminds me how easy it would be for me to waste away in front of the television or the internet or even with a good book. I have a hard time experiencing life, living in the day, making the best of the relationships I have and have had. I often get into a rut of looking back on my life with displeasure. Through some parts of my life I was like a tornado leaving a wake of disaster behind me, ask a few of my exgirlfriends. Some parts of my life were so lifeless that it was like I didn't even live.

I was sitting in the theater today thinking, "I wish I could have already seen this play instead of sitting through it now." Not because I didn't like the play but because it is so hard for me to focus attention. Having said that I also want to say I love the theater. I prefer it to the movies, because the people, I believe, are doing harder work, they can forget a line, have a bad day and so on.

I cried in parts of this play, and wept in others. Morrie was a college teacher, and though he moved data from his mind to that of his students, that wasn't his whole philosophy of teaching. Morrie inspired. When I preach or teach I move data, but more than that I want to inspire and give hope.

In the end, I look back on my past, in friends basements doing things that the good kid everyone saw wouldn't do, the pain I caused other and has been caused in me because of others. My favorite movie is called "Shadowlands." It is about really understanding what it means to love. to love will cause one to feel pain. The statement in that movie concerning the death of his wife joy, spoken by his wife, in the movie, is : the pain then [after her death] is part of the joy now.

Some wonderful friends left me this summer and I debated as to whether or not it is even worth loving just to lose the closest people to me. However I know, of course it is worth it. The pain in loss attests most of all the sweetness of the relationship.

As Morrie said, " Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you."
-tuesday's with Morrie., 157

I was translating from Codex Beza today. In class we were translating a section from Mark but not from the normal UBS or NA text. It was so cool to be reading from a text, even though it was a western text, that wasn't cut and pasted together from differernt readings.

I had the last meeting of my last summer course. A greek class worth one hour. We met weekly and translated. Parts of it were very fun but I got very tired of it in the end. My translations actually got sloppier as the summer went along. I think part of it was that I was in summer mode and didn't care to do much work.

Here is a quote to think of:

Generally bu the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.

Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Some time ago I helped a dear friend load up her moving truck and go. My help was paid for with what is called a Sorbet Fizz. The Sorbet Fizz is TCBY's mix of sorbet and sprite. It is an amazing drink. There is a fizzy creamyness to it that tingles the tummy and brings joy to the palat. This certain Fizz I drank was Orange Sorbet. I love that orangy taste especially when it is mixed with the tingle of soda.

Yesterday I was going to treat myself to a sorbet fizz, just as I had it before. The Orange, the fizz... wow what a combo then after standing in a long line at TCBY I found they had no orange sorbet. So without thinking I just figured they were out and went to another TCBY, this is memphis we have like fifteen of everything in driving distance and like fifty starbucks shops.

So I walked into the other TCBY and made my request, "One large Sorbet Fizz please," and the individual behind the counter began to make my fizz, I had figured it would be just like that first one I had that brought so much joy to my palat. Then he finished, and set it before me, it was green, not the wonderful orange that I had before. I said to this man, "last time I had this it was Orange," and his reply almost broke me.

"The flavor changes with the sorbet of the day." I didn't take the green monster before, hung my head and walked out the door.

Today I went to the supermarket, picked up some Orange Sherbet, and Sprite. I mixed them together using my hand mixer. After two tries, I never matched the taste of that Sorbet Fizz. Maybe it is because of the sentiment of the situation... something I will never taste again because the taste was not simply the mix of two wonderful ingrediants but also the situation of seeing a dear friend leave... The bitterness of an event showing me the depth of the sweetness for so long I had been a part of.

Maybe I will never have another good sorbet fizz, but I will always have the wonderful memory of that sweet mix of orange sorbet and sprite.

I feel like the Lord lead me to Ezekiel 34 today. It is a wonderful passage of scripture. The thing is to me that I don't know a lot about the book of Ezekiel, only that a lot of weird stuff goes on in it. Before writing this I had to consult a commentary and at that I have found that the book is very complicated. Ezekiel is among the exiles in Babylon, and I can't talk much about the message he is carrying and to whom he is carrying it. Regardless, this leads me to study the book of Ezekiel better in the future. I believe the temple has been destroyed by this time Jews are in exile, it is looking pretty bad and they aren't expected to get out of exile any time soon.

Chapter 35 is intersting, it is about a shepherd, and sheep. You see the shepherds had grown fat, so they were judged in their obesity. Then there were the sheep, they had gone astray for lack of leadership. Ezekiel points out (as I take the cannonical purpose of Ezekiel) that God makes the decision to gather his sheep back together. Chapter 37 is one of those well known chapters about the dry bones comming to life. The dry bones represent Israel and they, as Israel will come back to life.

These allagories strike me from the perspective of one who wants to be clergy. I am reminded about how easy it is to make my Bible study a matter of acedemics instead of God. See, the greats, St Basil, Athenasius, even Augustine, the entire purpose of their writing was to bring people closer to God. If you read my booklist below you might even note that I add CS Lewis to this. All of these men had their flaws, but their point it to help people understand God and the things that keep us from him.

Things like that were all thrown out the window in the 19th century with the rise of modernism and of German Libralism (Libral meaning the critical study of scripture apart from faith). There is currently a rise in the desire to go back to faith based study. To making it be about knowing God.

Of course let me get back to why this chapter strikes me. Will I be a fat shepherd or a good shepherd. This has nothing to do with my weight but how I vew my ministry. Simply put will I make it God centered or me centered. One way that manifests istself is in my desire to work and play well with others. I don't think during the day, how can this bring me closer to God, I think , "what can I get out of this?" As a leader people will depend on me. That is why I have been so thankful that I have the chance to be in seminary. My time around spiritual giants changes me, humbles me, and helps me understand there is a mystery to all of this. But still, I fear, I fear of falling into the pit of being a fat shepherd.

Now I take into account that we read this section as a messianic prophesy and that I am not the "Good Shepherd," but it also makes me ask, "What kind of leader am I amongst the sheep?"

My computer is sick, I think it has had some unprotected contact with other computers. What is funny is that I have an antivirus program, a spyware thing, and a firewall. What the heck.

Anyway... I want to give a "must read," or a "books I like" list.

Non Fiction
Mere Christianity- CS Lewis
1 Corinthians - Richard Oster
Practicing the Presence of God- Brother Lawrence
The Imitation of Christ- Thomas a Kempis
1 Maccabeas
Tobit
The Book of Commin Prayer
St. Chrysostems Liturgy

Theologcial Fiction
Chronicles of Narnia- CS Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet- CS Lewis
Till they Have Faces- CS Lewis
In the Beginning- Chaim Potock
Davida's Harp- Chaim Potock
Night- Eli Wiesel
Dawn- Eli Wiesel
Jacob's Ladder- Noah Ben Shea

Fiction
The Unabridged Hitchikers Guide- Douglass Adams
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul- Douglass Adams
The Lord of the Rings- Tolkein
Blankets- Craig Thompson
Arabian Nights - Any Good Translation
For one volume Jack Zipes/ Malphers and Mathers in 4 Volumes

This is a working list, what do you think?

I was sitting on my couch this evening with Abraham, one of my birds, sitting on my shoulder. I made pirate sounds a few times because, well I mean, do I really need to explain it? I really wish I had a picture of it to post but what can you do?