More Birthdays

Today’s my birthday — which means it’s also Nic’s sister’s birthday. Happy Birthday Pammy!
I am now officially in my “late 20s.” Blech.
Shout-outs to Bill Coleman too, for his birthday on Wednesday. He remains older than me.

Getting Her Geek On

So I’m usually recognized as being the geek in the house, but few people know that my beautiful bride is quite a geek herself — and I’m not just talking about her penchant for spreadsheet and budgets. She was the one who got me into watching Stargate, and one of our first conversations together before we started dating was about Star Trek.
She isn’t a gadget hound like me, although she’s been very tolerant toward my attempts at streamlining our life with technology — even giving up her beloved PVR full of JAG episodes so that we could switch to Internet-delivered TV content. But she does like Harry Potter — which I definitely do not.
potterhallowsbook.jpgAt home she used to go with one of her best friends, Megan, to see each movie, and she’s read every one of the books. Well tonite the latest, and I gather final, book in the series is being released at 12:01, and like I checked out, then got in the line up for, the iPhone, Nic is going to go down to our local Border’s to see if she can snag herself a copy. I couldn’t quite persuade myself to indulge in this particular geek-fest, so Shannon is going along. Benjamin’s eaten his last meal of the night, and hopefully will sleep through it, because the girls just left to see the latest Harry Potter movie at the theater before they hit the bookstore at midnight.
Although I can’t share her excitement for the young wizards (I made an honest attempt to watch the first movie, but I fell asleep during that game they play chasing a ball around in the air on their broomsticks) but I do appreciate the need to geek out every once in awhile. In fact, I myself plan on watching Sci-Fi on our Internet-connected TV tonite until I pass out…

Points of Consternation

– I hate July. This is the most useless month ever. I haven’t spend so much time sitting on my hands since we moved here and didn’t know anyone. There’s nothing to do but work, and spend half the month missing my wife and son, and I hate it. Work is empty and meaningless. I miss student ministry, and I can’t wait for August.
– They opened our mail… Yesterday we received a much delayed letter from friends of ours who live in Malaysia — missionaries, in fact. It was an update newsletter, completely innocuous and certainly in no way subversive. Nonetheless, it came from a Muslim country, and we are foreign nationals. So they cut it open, apparently examined the contents, then delivered it to us — they didn’t even bother hiding it, or re-sealing it. It was like an ominous warning in our mailbox.
There was no suspicious white power around the edges. It wasn’t a parcel or package, and it wasn’t ticking. It was pictures of their new baby, and stories of their ministry to people in need… But somehow, that was worth looking into. We’re here legally, working legitimately on an American Visa, and we spend our spare time volunteering at church. We have nothing to hide, and they’re welcome to read all our mail — they can pay our bills too, while they’re at it. But it kinda makes you wonder if things are getting better or worse…

Happy Birthday!

Today is Nicole’s birthday, and for the next 6 days she’s an “older woman!”
Nic is now officially in her “late 20s” while I remain — for a little while longer — in my “mid 20s.” You can be sure I’ll bug her about this to no end.
Love you hun! Hope you have a great birthday!

Hands Held High v2.0

Editors Note: this is a re-write of a post I wrote this morning. It was pretty early in the day, and I don’t feel like I was articulate enough…
In my generation, music mixed with angry political commentary is generally reserved for bands like Rage Against the Machine. Generally most of us can appreciate the thrashing beats and passionate lyrics, but Rage is, politically, on the fringe. They are articulate and intelligent, but few people actually subscribe to the entirety of their message.
Bands like Linkin Park are much more broadly appealing. Their message and anger has always been broad enough that pretty much anyone can appreciate it and empathize (or at least rock out to it). And as a result, they’re more commonly accepted as representative of a generation. Both their style and their message resounds with their audience.
In their most recent album, Minutes to Midnight, they’ve apparently made the decision to refine and sharpen their message — and they’re likely to take a significant portion of their fans with them, both because of the scope of their appeal and because we’ve come to empathize with them.
We are a generation raised with technology. We are aware of what it means and what it does. The recent Die Hard movie reflects our parents fears of technology — that an evil hacker can crash the stock market, or mess up street lights around the country with a touch of a button. We understand much better how technology is really mis-used. We are a generation aware that we are being watched, manipulated and lied to. And Minutes to Midnight resounds with the growing anger against those in leadership who are either corrupt or inept or both — in a way that is much more relevant and effective than Rage’s most spiteful rap. To hear Linkin Park spit their frustration in lyrics like these, is to know that they represent a significant and increasing demographic. One that’s given the current president an approval rating approaching that of Nixon‘s following Watergate.
Earlier today I said, “when even Linkin Park has something to say… you know its time for a change.” What I meant was, that when a previously apolitical band like Linkin Park sings words like this, you know they represent a growing portion of a generation who’s had enough of what’s going on in the world and finally has something to say about it…
Take back what’s yours
Say something that you know
they might attack you for
cause I’m sick of being treated
like I have before.
Like it’s stupid standing for
what I’m standing for.
Like this war is really just
a different brand of war.
Like it doesn’t cater the rich
and abandon poor.
Like they understand you
in the back of the jet,
When you can’t put gas in your tank.
These [elected government officials] are laughing their way
to the bank and cashing their check
asking you to have compassion, and have some respect.
For a leader so nervous
in an obvious way
Stuttering and mumbling
for nightly news to replay
and the rest of the world
watching at the end of the day
in the living room laughing
like what did he say?
Amen
In my living room watching,
But I am not laughing.
‘Cause when it gets tense,
I know what might happen.
The world is cold,
The bold men take action.
Have to react,
To getting blown into fractions.
Ten years old is something to see,
Another kid my age drug under a jeep,
Taken and bound and found later under a tree,
I wonder if he thought the next one could be me.
Do you see?
The soldiers that are out today.
That brush the dust from bulletproof vests away.
It’s ironic.
At times like this you pray,
But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday.
There’s bombs in the buses, bikes, roads,
inside your markets, your shops, your clothes,
My dad, he’s got a lot of fear I know
but enough pride inside not to let that show.
My brother had a book he would hold with pride
A little red cover with a broken spine.
In the back he hand wrote a quote inside,
when the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.
And meanwhile, the leader just talks away
Stuttering and mumbling
for nightly news to replay
and the rest of the world
watching at the end of the day
both scared and angry
like what did he say?
Amen

Why I don't play MMPORGs

U.S. authorities say a couple from Reno, Nevada was so obsessed with playing video games online that they left their babies to starve.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, the parents have now pleaded guilty to child neglect after their 22-month-old boy and 11-month-old girl were found severely malnourished and close to death.
Read the rest…

Link Dump

Gotta get these shortcuts off my desktop…