I saw thiss on Rachel Jones' blog ... sweet goodness, this is so incredibly true, I almost want to cry ... because I know how selfish I am, even now my heart revolts against this ...

if you want more out of Christmas this year, start by watching this...

One movie ...

One movie I recommend to everyone ... Legends of the Fall, especially for any brother who has a brother. Sweet goodness. Its amazing and tragic, but unbelievably great. Its one of my favorites and an epic movie, if ever there were an epic movie!

Its a 1994 drama film, directed by Edward Zwick and stars Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Aidan Quinn. The film won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

The movie's timeframe spans the decade before World War I through the Prohibition Era, and into the 1930s, ending with a brief scene set in 1963. The film centers on the Ludlow family of Montana, including veteran of the Indian Wars Colonel Ludlow, his three sons Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel, and object of the brothers' love, Susannah.

This movie was shot in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.

Thanks wikipedia! 

PS - there is a little nudity, other than that its clean

ukulele dreams...

lately, and this is very random, I have had dreams, not of gumdrops or whatever the kids dream of in the story Twas the Night Before Christmas, but rather of ukuleles ... or ukes. 

I really want one. in fact have asked Santa for one this year. songs like somewhere over the rainbow (Hawaiian version), I'm yours (jason marz), amongst others are some of my favorites and ukes are a key instrument in those songs. 

I cant really express what the music of a uke does for my soul ... literally. it makes a part of my soul come to life, that nothing else can ... i feel like ukes stir up, in my soul, some unanswered longing for heaven, that no other sensation of experience does or has for me

I think, in heaven, ukuleles will be played just as much or more than harps ... no offense my harp-loving brethren!

so, I say keep the dreams coming, cause they are fun and sometimes funny, and keep me longing

4 Stitches ...

Earlier today, I was working on building something, and trimming down some piece of the wood which I had previously cut ... like i was whittling, to shave off the last little bit to make my cut perfectly even!

It turned out well, but I had one more swipe left ... and the one time in several hours of working on this today, the knife caught on the wood, then slipped (as it were) from being caught ... then my arm, and hand, and subsequently this awesome new knife I have, all jolted back toward me! the end of the knife was still pointed away from me, but was flung with the tension towards me ... towards my leg in particular ... sure enough, to make life interesting today, I sliced open my leg just above my knee. 

That may sound dramatic, but it really wasn't, more just silly on my part, for pulling an extremely sharp knife toward me! the cut is about 2" long, all the way through the 3/8" of skin there (according to the Doc I spoke with), down to fatty tissue! 

But oh so luckily for me, I am first aid certified and knew exactly what to do ... so I dashed three steps across the room to my first aid/random medicine draw and bandaged away, gathering supplies ... checking the patient ...

breathing? - check

heart beat? - check

EAD (electronic automatic defibulator)? - check (just in case)

gauze? - check

large band-aid? - check

ace bandage for pressure? - check

That was that, and I went back to work - crazy thing is, it was more shocking than actually painful ... go figure, by the way, this all happened about 5 or 6 pm today.

Later, my roommate, another buddy and I went to dinner, came back to my place to hang out a little. I checked my leg, and sure enough, after taking the bandage up to look, the blood was boiling up and out of the wound, as if it were brand new, and not 4 or so hours old!

Sure enough, I have 3 or 4 stitches in my leg just like that ... didn't assume this is how my day would end ... it the little things in life, like slicing your leg open, than make life memorable and exciting!

ADOPTED BASTARDS

I will explain the new title more later, but for now, it comes from a conversation I had with my roommate about who we are in Christ ... we eventually got to the point that we truly are adopted bastard children, redeemed and adopted in God's great work of reconciliation in the life and sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the one Mediator between God and man!

revolt

about the manipulation and selling of a false dream buy shopping centers like, the summit (Bham, AL) and Ashely park (Newnan, GA)!

now a short story:

last week (Tuesday & Wednesday), i traveled to Atlanta, driving a van full of undergraduate students among four other vans - quite the caravan - for a overnight filed trip for a landscape construction class. and my qualm is not with the trip, or the people, or the the incredibly excessive amount of driving, but more with the last sight we visited.

the destination: Ashley park, in Newnan GA. this place is a monstrosity of a shopping center. its massive. and IF i ever wanted to go shop (which i don't and never will) i would want to go to Ashely park ... or so that's what the developers want me to think. this place is ridiculous. there are water features and water "fountains" to serve as miniature rivers to white water raft. there are sitting areas, there is such a degree of detail work, that for those people who like to shop, this place would be like a dose of cocaine ...

so we are walking, touring this place, looking at the design and lay of the landscape - which is pretty awesome - but then the guy walking us around said something ...

"live Ashely park"

and this made me want to throw up a little in my mouth ... the idea of a commercial developer wanting me to live Ashley park ... makes me sick, and makes me want to revolt against these superficial, worthless selling points of American culture. there is a massive degree of manipulation, sly tactics to make consumers want to go there just to hang out. for those of you in Bham, this place is the summit on steroids.

i hate this kinda stuff so much is b/c the idea of me (the consumer) living the style of life that a shopping center sells to me, is several things 1) the empty dream of American culture and society, and 2) the very mindset and greed or desire for more that has found us (as a country) in the economic crisis we are in!

this place is selling a worthless, empty, and hollow dream of shopping to satisfy and satiate appetites for more and more materials, which our culture and society has so fully and dangerously embraced as the purpose of our existence!

i will leave it as that

In just one year ...

So, it has just dawned on me that my professors want me to be done with my second degree a year from the 8th of this month ... thats one year from now, more or less! 

sweet moses! 

by the beard of zeus!

by the lions mane!

thats incredible ... so come next semester, I am gonna have to find some time to start talking to mission agencies and/or schools for potential pursuit of a PhD! Thats outrageous!