Security in the Midst of Change

Popularity Contest

2008-06-28T20:38:19-06:00

I don't like to discuss politics too often on this blog. Every once in a while, though, I get frustrated and have to talk about it.

I don't much care for Bush. I don't think he's done that good of a job during his second term and some of the policy decisions that he has made have been just downright crappy. I'm not anti-Republican, though, nor am I anti-democrat. I tend to think of myself as more of an independent libertarian.

I don't like McCain and Obama scares the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of me. Obama is one of the most liberal senators in the country if not the most liberal. He's pro-abolishment of partial birth abortion bans, because pulling a baby's head out of it's mother and then stabbing it in the neck with scissors isn't murder, apparently. He's pro-supporting overseas agencies that promote abortion. He's pro-legislation that would make it legal for abortion clinics to give abortions to underage girls without parental consent if they cross state lines. He's for raising taxes, because they aren't high enough already. He's anti-drilling for oil off-shore and in ANWR. I honestly would say that if I had to pick between Obama and Hillary, I would've picked Hillary.

But this isn't an election about policy. This is a popularity contest. Who's the better looking candidate? Who has more charisma? Who has more money? Who gives better speeches? Who debates better? Who has the best smile? The answer to these questions is, of course, Obama. If you stand McCain and Obama next to eachother you see a charismatic young senator on one side and you see an old dog with a droopy eyelid on the other.

It's sad to me that most people my age, or any age for that matter, are going to vote without actually reading up on the political and moral views of each candidate. I beg you that before you vote, look up what each candidate believes and supports. And *please* don't vote for someone just because they've got great charisma. Even the devil has charisma.

Project Vote Smart

2008-06-22T17:33:24-06:00

I know I'm not voting for Obama because of his stance on abortion and physician assistant suicide, regardless of his charisma or how much hope he has for America. (This article was originally posted on Jane Casey's blog and I stole it, so go read this.) But, I found this nifty site where you can look up policies and whether or not the candidate voted for it or against it.

Go to Project Vote Smart

If you're not an informed voter, please don't vote.

Disturbia and Rear Window

2008-01-06T21:55:45-07:00

So, on the plane to Cambodia this past summer, I watched about 14 movies (you can do that when you're on a plane for 16 hours twice). One of the movies was Disturbia, starring Shia LaBeouf. As I was watching it, I kept thinking that the movie seemed vaguely familiar. The "I've seen this somewhere before" kept getting stronger and stronger as I watched the movie, but I forgot all about it and kept watching movies.

Then, tonight, it hit me. Rear Window. Of course! How could I not realize it?? Not only did it frustrate me that someone could so obviously steal the plot of an Alfred Hitchcock film, but the fact that they didn't even allude that inspiration came from Rear Window is insulting. Now, I suppose this has been all over the internet since Disturbia came out.

But honestly... I don't understand how you can get away with it. It's so pathetically obvious. So, I suggest that instead of renting/buying Disturbia, invest in the original. Hitchcock is always classic.

Art of Abstration v.2

2007-05-18T22:33:22-06:00

Abstraction - a work of art, esp. a nonrepresentational one, stressing formal relationships.

I'd like to stress that, first of all, the majority of abstract art among artists is not about meaning at all, but more about the relationships between shapes and colors. There are five main principles among art in general, but these five principles can especially be applied to abstract art. They are: Line, Color, Texture, Shape, and Space.

The first, line, addresses the use of line within a work of art. Color addresses the use of color and the relationships between color within a work of art and how that color relates to the colors around it. Texture relates to textures used within the piece. Shape is how the forms within the pieces relate to one another. Space is how the objects sit within the space used.

So let's say that I take the form of a person and used 20 colored blocks to represent that form. I then take 20 lines and use those lines in varying widths and thicknesses to represent a wheat stalk. Before long, I could have a representational image of the Parable of the Sower.

In this case, the abstract representation of something has objective meaning.

I hope that doesn't sound like too much jargon...

So, some more questions I have to pose for you.

How much does something have to look like what it represents in order for it to be a proper piece of art for church? Should it be recognizable within 5 seconds, or should you have to study it more? How abstract is too abstract?

Tagged by PB

2006-03-06T15:15:40-07:00

The weirdest things in my room... hmmm.

1. Every movie ticket from every movie (except one) that I've been to since 2002, crowding around the edges of the mirror in my room
2. A couple Kuwaiti coins
3. Two empty glass Coke bottles from 2002ish
4. A picture of an infamous little man in orange pants and a bandaged arm stealing my purse in South Bend, Indiana in 2004
5. A rock in a sock tied to a string that keeps my door exactly where I want it
6. The "I" encyclopedia
7. Sticky notes stuck to every stickable surface on my monitor and computer desk, scrawled with notes of varying importance and legibility
8. Ibuprofen in a tic-tac container
9. Every bulliten from every church service I've been to since 2001
10. Several pictures of spigots

... can you tell I'm a packrat? ;-)

Yay for mindless posts that get my attention off of having the flu.

Colors

2006-02-16T19:51:55-07:00

New colors! Can everybody read everything ok?

Tagged again...

2006-01-28T20:05:34-07:00

I got tagged by Lynea. *hates being tagged...* Here goes:

Four jobs I've had:
1. Pet Sitting
2. Babysitting
3. Fixing people's computers
4. Working at Truax + Co

Four places I've lived:
1. Little Rock, AR
2. Carlinville, IL
3. Gorham, IL
4. Selma, AL

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Yogurt
2. Dominoes Deepdish pizza...too bad I can't eat it...
3. Wheat Free Croutons
4. Granola

Four TV shows I like to watch:
1. I don't watch TV.
2. I don't watch TV.
3. Occasionally I watch a crime documentary.
4. I don't watch TV.

Four movies I could watch over and over:
1. See above comments about TV.
2. See above.
3. Ditto above.
4. You get the picture...

Four places I would rather be:
1. My bedroom reading.
2. Outside taking a walk.
3. India.
4. Illinois...

Four websites I visit:
1. Higher Things
2. Gmail.google.com
3. Fastweb
4. Classic Cat

Four People I Tag (AKA, Four people I want to torture...):
1. Pr. B
2. Mark
3. Harry
4. Hididi

Interesting article from the local paper...

2006-01-08T15:32:25-07:00

My mom saw this in the "Religion" section of the Houston Chronicle. We all found it very... interesting. :-P

CHURCH HOPPING
When just one church isn't enough
Teens are making their own decisions about what they want from their worship experience and where they go to get it

By NEELA BANERJEE
New York Times

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. - At 11 a.m. on a recent Sunday, Emily Hoogenboom, 14, was at church, her second that morning. First, she dutifully sat through a staid worship at Forest Ridge Community Church, which she attends with her family. Now she was with her 17-year-old friend and 4,000 other worshippers at an evangelical megachurch listening to six singers backed by a band and a swaying choir of 250 people.

Like Emily, a number of Christians are regularly attending different churches in the course of a week or a month, picking and choosing among programs and services, to satisfy social and spiritual needs. They are comfortable participating not only in multiple churches, but also occasionally in multiple faiths.

The practice is particularly pronounced among young people. Everyone in a family may attend one church for a service on Sunday, but the children then go their own way to youth groups, for example. In a survey of 13- to 17-year-olds conducted from 2002 through 2003, the National Study of Youth and Religion found that 16 percent of respondents attend more than one religious congregation. Four percent attend youth groups outside their congregations.

Some critics, particularly conservative evangelicals and the ministers of various denominations, decry such practices as a consumerist approach to faith. But sociologists of religion say it is a growing practice, a reflection of how Americans today are less attached to a historical, family denomination.

Parents also want their children to have an "authentic" relationship to faith, and "if you don't choose it, it's not authentic for you," said Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina and director of the survey on youth and religion.

Emily and her parents, who are evangelical Christians, say her decision to attend the megachurch, New Life, reveals the strength of her faith and the profoundly individual spiritual course each believer follows.

"I saw that my parents' relationship to Christ and my relationship to Jesus Christ were different, and my kids aren't going to relate to Jesus Christ the same way we do," said Tracy Hoogenboom, 49, Emily's mother. "And that's to be expected because Jesus Christ is your own personal lord and savior."

It remains unclear how many Christians attend several churches regularly. Most youths who go outside their family church are Protestants, from mainline denominations and evangelical churches alike. Some are from mixed-religion marriages, Smith said, but many go simply because a second church appeals to them.

"We see it all the time, everywhere," said Jose Zayas, director of teenage evangelism for Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group based in Colorado Springs. "They gravitate to where they feel a connection. They're more pragmatic than their parents' generation. They look at what works for them. I think it's healthy."

At New Life, led by Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the youth-group sessions feel like rock concerts: T-shirts are on sale outside, and bands are onstage, grinding their way through screaming songs of praise for Christ while youths dance before them. Friends often lead other teenagers to new churches, said sociologists and adolescents themselves.

Though Emily's family had attended New Life when she was in grade school, she visited the church again in junior high at the invitation of a friend, largely because Emily said she was unhappy with the popular but catty girl she had become. She stayed because the youth pastor's sermons made sense to her.

"That was just the biggest thing for me: that you don't have to be perfect, that God loves you not for what you do and for this body that we have only for a short time, but for your heart and soul and who you are inside," Emily said of what she had heard.

"Every time I went to church," she continued, "I felt God loved me, that I don't have to worry about sin because he forgives me. So I looked forward to going back. I don't really understand all of it. But I have the passion to learn more."

Many children in evangelical families also see the example their parents have set, leaving the denominations they grew up in to embrace evangelical Christianity as young adults.

"I left the church of my upbringing to find Christ on my own," said Chad Wight, whose 15-year-old daughter, Hannah, attends Pulpit Rock Church here with her family, but also goes to a youth group at Woodmen Valley Chapel, both nondenominational evangelical churches.

Wight said his family looked for a church that would nourish his children.

"Their spiritual health is really important right now," Wight said, "and if they continue their walk with the Lord, that's crucial."

Parents largely accept their children's choices, as long as the other churches espouse a similar theology, said Nancy L. Eiesland, associate professor of sociology of religion at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. "Many of them are happy their kids will go to anything in their teenage years," Eiesland said.

As a hub of evangelical Christianity, Colorado Springs offers many churches that preach similar doctrines, like the inerrancy of the Bible and the need for a personal relationship with Christ. But here and elsewhere, many devout Christians, especially clergy, take commitment to a particular church very seriously.

"If families spread their loyalties around, it's been my experience that they don't benefit as well as they could," said Peter Beringer, a youth pastor at Pulpit Rock Church, which has about 1,000 adults in attendance every Sunday. "They don't seem to have relationships in the church that are as deep. From what I have seen of students who have done this, they find it easier to disengage and be the kid on the fringes."

Hannah Wight, a soft-spoken girl who deliberates over her words, stands by her choice. She said she felt more connected to Woodmen Valley after attending a series there that helped kids discern their "spiritual gifts," like the desire to serve.

"The message spoke to me a lot," Hannah said. As for attending two churches, she said, "It's not hard for me at all because I feel like my needs are being fulfilled."

Still, her parents said, people note Hannah's less-than-regular appearances at the family's primary church, Pulpit Rock. And her 13-year-old brother, Brian, does not understand her decision.

"I will defend her when necessary, but overall I'm on their side," Brian said, referring to how others at Pulpit Rock have reacted to Hannah's choice. "I don't know why she has to make things inconvenient for the rest of us or why she picked that church when she has been going to Pulpit Rock as long as the rest of us."

Emily Hoogenboom said she went to Forest Ridge largely out of respect for her parents, whose friends founded it about five years ago. But when Emily steps into New Life, she embraces a second family. Other youths come and hug her. They hug all the time, boys and girls showing affection for one another without risking trouble.

One Wednesday evening, boys in thrift-store jackets and porkpie hats, pale Goth devotees and petite girls with the same mascara, lip gloss and tight, flared jeans, about 250 teenagers in all, streamed into New Life for their youth group. By the hall entrance, Chad Fritzsche, 17, and Esther Saforo, 15, two of Emily's friends who also attend New Life on their own, were playing guitar and singing songs they had written.

Youth pastor Brent Parsley entered on a sleigh dressed as a hip-hop Santa. "I'm going to break it down for you, Clarence," Parsley told an actor in the Christmas play. "Christmas ain't about presents, yo! The true meaning of Christmas is my main man: J.C."

At this unbuttoned church, teenagers channel the roiling passions typical of their age into devotion. And Parsley egged them on. He told them in an overcaffeinated tempo that God has much in store for them. He reminded them that David was young when he slew Goliath and that Mary was probably quite young when she bore Jesus.

"God loves to use young people. I want all of us to live our lives as if God had something extraordinary planned for us," he said. "Don't dream small."

From the Houston Chronicle's website: http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/religion/3570961.html

Gimp 2.0 and a New Banner

2005-12-29T09:03:59-07:00

Got XP last week. I can finally use Gimp 2.0. I had to try it out on something, and voila! There you have it.

Tagged... three times!

2005-12-26T20:06:07-07:00

So Bean, Anna and Mark all tagged me to force me to blog. Well... it worked. :-P

Write 5 random facts about yourself -
1. I love the smell of vanilla - pure vanilla, the kind in the bottles that you use for baking.
2. I love Italian operas, but I hate German operas. (Wagner... ewwww!)
3. I've lived in Texas all my life and taken Texas history twice, but I've never been to San Antonio, much less the Alamo - I think I'll convince somebody to take a road trip with me soon...
4. I loathe shoes. Flip flops are okay, but closed toe/closed heel shoes are bad news. Barefoot is the best!
5. I speak to my dog in a weird/funky accent, in which my dog's name is "T-Butt" (his real name is Laddie). I have nooo clue how we came up with T-Butt...

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas Day, and have a good rest of the season!