Please?
If you stumbled upon this, I most likely follow you and posted on your blog. But not in a creepy stalker way. In a "wow, I think your blog is cool so I'll put an rss feed in my google reader and check it out when you update it" way.

Hopefully, you'll think my blog is cool too. We'll see. Or maybe you just feel bad for Aerin sitting all alone in the follower box. I don't mind if you pity follow.

Scum, "a church for the left out and right-brained," is located in Denver, Co. About 20 hours by car from my house. A little too far for a weekly drive, I think. But through the wonders of technology and intarweb, the sermons are available via podcast. There's usually a week or two lag between the Sunday night sermon and the posting of the podcast. Luckily, the archives are extensive and FREE.

Living in Smallstown, Southland has its advantages, but the sermons are generally liturgical or anecdotal. Sometimes you need a little spiritual B12 booster shot. And that's where Scum comes to the plate for me.

I really dug this one. It's called "The Rending and the Remaking," but I think a better title would be "The Unseen Seen and the Why of Hope."
The text is from Isaiah 64, I think. And that's something else, the sermons are generally from segments or chunks of text, not sentences or phrases.

Taddy came to town and a group of us ate hot wings and smoked cigars. During the "death stick" portion of our evening, there was some interesting conversation re theology. It's very late, and I may not be entirely coherent in my recollection. Below are some ideas that I tried to express.

1. The possibility of evolution does not exclude the existence of God.

2. The first phrase of Genesis ("In the beginning") identifies the entire book as a story (emphasis mine) told from within human understanding. (Time)

3. To define God as "he" entraps the concept in anthropomorphic terms.

4. God does as God wills and (to quote my OT prof) YHWH chooses whom YHWH chooses, and if I am unable to understand the reasoning behind it all, my incomprehension does not deny God.

And the overall theme of the evening: Disagreement does not spoil a fine cigar.

Cigars smoked: AF Hemingway, AF Chateau Fuente, AF Chateau Fuente Cuban Reserve*, AF Exquisito* (a cute little thing with a wicked bite)

*I smoked these.

"death stick" courtesy of my lovely wife.

Scene: Freshman year of high school. English class. Boring teacher. Bored class.

Dramatis Personae
Teacher (let's call her Ms. Squelcher)
Student (It was me)

Teacher: Now let's look at the picture on page 133. It's a picture by Edward Lear called Two Poets. There are two birds with human heads wearing hats. What does this picture mean?

(silence)

(silence)

Student: Well, the background of the picture is textured, but around and between their heads is a a circle where the background is smooth and a different color. This shows that the world is a confusing place, but when poets talk, it makes sense of the chaos.

Teacher: (blink) No. It's just funny.

- - -
Suffice it to say, I did not volunteer anything in that class again. And yes, it still eats me a decade later.

btb, does anyone know where I could get a copy of that picture? I tried googling it, but nothing with that title by Edward Lear shows up.

via 100 Scope Notes
via Random Complexity Writer's Challenge



CREATE YOUR DEBUT FANTASY BOOK COVER

1 - Go to “Behind the Name”. Hit “Generate a Name!” or click http://www.behindthename.com/random/

The first name you get is your author name.

2 - Go to “Fantasy Novel Title Generator”
or click http://nine.frenchboys.net/novel.php

This is the title of your book.

3 - Go to Photobucket and click on “surreal art” or click http://photobucket.com/images/surreal%20art/

Add the two numbers of your age together (ex. 2 + 7 = 9). Go to that page of results. The fourth picture, no matter what it is, is your cover.

4 - Use photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together.

5 - Post it to your site along with this text.

Let me throw some names at you: Joss Whedon, Captain Malcom Reynolds, Doogie Howser, Barney Stinson. Ok, yes, the last two are both Neil Patrick Harris and the first is Joss Whedon's actual name. But this is something that you NEED to check out. I posted a button on my sidebar that should direct you to the Dr Horrible website or you can go directly to hulu.
A 42 minute Supervillain/hero Musical! How awesome. Did I mention the singing? Musical!
Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it is available on hulu outside of the US. Also, hulu won't work very well if your internet speed is less than 1000 Kbps. You can test your speed at Speetest.net. However, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog is currently broken up into bits on youtube. But that could disappear at anytime.
Did I mention that I love it and can't get the songs out of my head? Especially Freeze Ray (Act I, first song).

****Addendum
Link to youtube video of the first part of Act I. The following part and Acts are on the right.