Last weekend was our church's annual Men's Retreat, with the theme of "Living Intentionally." Though I was only able to attend a portion of the time due to work, some of the conversations crystallized long-percolating thoughts. To wit (gosh, I've always wanted to say that), living in a culture of seemingly near-infinite choice, I am usually the ( Read more... )

So there's some thing with Tiger Woods going on? I don't know what it is, and I love that. I couldn't identify Jon (John?) or Kate or any of the eight in a lineup. I had to look up who Glenn Beck was. I don't know which stars are dancing or who's dancing with them, which Americans I'm supposed to be idolizing, or whether any of us have talent. ( Read more... )

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire;
    he breaks out against all sound judgment.

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,
    but only in expressing his opinion.

-Proverbs 18:1-2
Funny that these proverbs are right next to one another-each applies to my life lately ( Read more... )

Getting a huge kick out of a recent article in The Stranger cataloguing "the different kinds of people that there are." Here's my favorite so far:People Who Don't Watch TVSymbolically not doing something for the sake of not doing it is almost never evidence of sophistication. It is evidence of not knowing what you're f&^*ing talking about. Are we ( Read more... )

I still think Grant Morrison may be clinically insane, and his work frequently drives me nuts, but when he has a point, sometimes it's worth repeating:I don't know if we're so much inured to apocalypse as almost sexually obsessed by it…Think of all those videogames where the Earth's overrun by insect-aliens or there's been an atomic war and we're ( Read more... )

Righteous consumers make me a sad panda when they can't own up to their failings inconsistencies. This quote is a great example: Whenever possible, I do not buy products made in any country that tolerates poor working conditions.

Dude. It's always possible. You don't have to buy anything, and the very fact that you've left yourself a back door ( Read more... )

Woke up early and couldn't settle back into sleep, so opted to just go ahead and get started with the day. Surprised to see snow falling and staying on the ground; very unusual for Seattle on the cusp of March. Beautiful, too.

In a previous entry, I mentioned that my habit of gorging on feeds of information and entertainment from the internet and ( Read more... )

I'm perpetually trying to jam more content, and more of the wrong kinds of content, into my life than it will hold. With near-constant, low-cost access to an almost limitless amount of information and entertainment, I'm a glutton to the point of overload. It'd be easy to complain about being overloaded, but the truth is, I'm the one doing the ( Read more... )

Jokingly, I've mentioned my desire to be a completely useless organ donor-when I'm gone and the doctors take a look under the hood, I want them to find that everything has been completely used up. Because really, who wants to be in perfect health except for being dead? Seems like a waste.

Joking aside, however, this article has awakened other ( Read more... )

After last week's social bonanza, it's nice to have some downtime today and tonight. With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday and the Presidential Inauguration Tuesday, it hasn't felt quite like a "normal" week (whatever that means). Witnessing the beginning of a historic presidency has been surreal in many respects. Some lingering thoughts:

• Heard ( Read more... )