Against Nothingness

How to become a MAN We recently went to a korean folk museum, and among other interesting things, we found out how to become a man. A long time ago, in Korea, everyone had a coming of age ceremony. For normal young boys, i.e. not royalty, the ceremony was very simple. A boy was a man when he could lift a very large stone. Meanwhile, a woman's coming of age ceremony was held on her wedding day. What happened to the good old days, eh? P.S. I wouldn't really want to go back to those days

The King's Road While in Seoul, Kristina and I have been able to take in a few of the more cultural sites. By far the one I enjoyed the most was the guided tour of Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was beatiful to look at in the first place, but having things so well explained, and getting all the little details makes it a much better experience. Among all those things we learned, we were told about the king's road. Starting right from the entrance, the pathway through the middle of the palace grounds (which, incidently, goes right through the 4 most important buildings of the Palace. The ceremony hall, the kings office, the king's house, and the queen's house) is divided into three sections. The middle section is elevated and, as you probaly guessed, this is the king's road. Civil officers walk on the right, military officers on the left. What struck me about this were several things. I was walking on a road that, for hundreds of years (the entire Joseon Dynasty...

I have, in the last weeks, joined with the majority of the rest of the blogging community in abandoning my blog for the joys of holiday busy-ness. Though the holidays, for me anyway, are not over yet (not until next monday), I am not so busy anymore and am going to blog again. More blogs will, hopefully, be posted in rapid fire succession over the next few days, but in the meantime, here is an update on what I have been up to. Christmas was busy; finishing things up at school (the semester/grade change in Korea is at the end of december, so we are getting new students and such after Christmas), plus kindergarten christmas concerts, all the normal end of the month stuff, and Christmas preparations on top of that. Christmas was hard. I am sure I mentioned previously that this was our first christmas away from family, and it was tough. But mostly, Christmas was wonderful. It was.. well.. it was christmas. What more needs to be said? Over the holidays we are taking of a friend...

Christmas is coming? Over here in Korea, and in the rest of the world, Christmas is fast approaching. But for me, this christmas is a little bit wierd. It is my first Christmas married and away from home. Also, I am working right up until the day before Christmas, which is wierd because for as long as I can remember I have had at least 2 weeks of holidays before Christmas, and another 1-1.5 weeks after it. I guess thats what I get for not going to school again this year. Its also different because I am in Korea. Out here Christmas isn't nearly as big a deal as it is at home. Sure, all the big stores put up decorations and sell stuff, but there are no Christmas lights, apparently about half the families out here don't really do anything for Christmas, all the little stores are just normal. Plus, since we don't watch TV, we don't see any Christmas commercialization, at least not on a big scale. Now, I have to say, that I have long complained about the Christmas becomi...

Another One Bites the Dust Another one of my friends has started a blog. Actually, I shouldn't just say another one of my friends. This is THE friend I have known for the longest time; you might say he is 'The Man'. We met in grade 9, it was my first day of school, I had moved over the summer, and I was a replacement for Bob, his invisible friend who got hit by a bus in the middle of the classroom. Anyway, we have kept in touch ever since. Many of you may have noticed that most of the links on my blog are of a religous nature; my religion is central to who I am and my life. The links that aren't there for that reason are there because they are my friends. This guy, Bucky Jr. as he calls himself on his blog, is here becaues he is my friend, and because he is hilarious. If you want a good laugh, his stuff is worth reading. A while back he emailed out a few short stories to all his friends; great stuff. I hope to see more of that, but I guess we will see. ...

Whats Goin On I just felt like blogging, so this blog isn't really about anything. Its just whats happening with me. Life is going well in Korea. We are both continuing to enjoy teaching, I don't know how much more there is to get used to in the culture. Both our shower and our washing machine broke this week, but the school was excellent and fast at taking care of those. Broken monday, fixed wednesday. We have a new washing machine, that actually mixes hot and cold water (our old one you had to pick), and a new shower head that doesn't get half the pressure of the old (but it doesn't spray all over the place either, so I shouldn't complain). We found a nice little restaurant today that serves really good Tonekasa, pork cutlets that is. Maybe, or so I am hoping, we are both over our string of colds. We will see. It is two weeks until Christmas, or just over, and I imagine that, in spite of the holiday we get, this will be a hard time for Kristina an...

Matrix, and Terminator??? are Ripoffs!!!! So, here's news you don't see everyday. Apparently some woman, Sophia Stewart, has succesfully sued the Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver and Warner Brothers for copywright infringement. These famous and highly popular movies are stolen from some 1981 manuscript she wrote and submitted to the Wachowski brothers (or at least this is the case as far as the matrix is concerned, I am not sure where Terminator comes in). I find this amazing for several reasons. Apparently the case has been going on since 1999 and was only made public in 2003. This is no surprise, considering that the parent company of Warner Brothers is AOL-Time Warner. All of the above you can find on the article. My issue is with media control. The vast majority of the media that we consume daily is owned by, what, 3 companies? This is one more proof that these companies control their media almost solely in their own self interest. Does anyone doubt the da...

It's Finally Here I posted it on the other blog Superman and I have started; my thoughts on the atonement that is. Go HERE to check it out (or just to our other blog, it is the newest one right now).

True Understanding T here are so many things I think about, and so many things I have opinions on. Lots of them are very strong opinions. I really don’t like President Bush, not as a person, but his actions, policies, and publicly demonstrated character. I also belong to a small group of people, I think it is a small group of people anyway (I have no way of really knowing for sure), who believe that most of the modern Christian church and its “gospel’s” are missing the point. I haven’t fully decided on the issue, but I lean towards open theism, and I have some interesting ideas about hell (slightly past the metaphorical view… I can’t remember if there is a name for what I think). I am economically under-informed, yet I know I don’t like capitalism in its current forms. I could go on. W hy do I bring this up? I have been thinking lately about how I go about forming my opinions, how I think and such, how people should deal with disagreements and so on. Read ...

A New Thing Since Superman and I have started to actually write long and involved posts on this issue of theories of Atonement we have made a decision. We are starting a new blog, or I think we are anyway (its our first try at this joint blogging thing... hope it works). It will be specifically a place for debate, both of us will continue to post on our regular blogs. We have no idea how long it will last, maybe only until the atonement discussion is over. Who knows, who cares. It is going to be fun. So if any of you were very interested in the discussion that got started a few posts down, you can follow the continued discussion at our new blog. " Just Two Guys " My follow up post, promised to superman a few days ago, should be available there soon. I will also, most likely, post teasers or begginings on this blog, which will link to whatever it is I/we have written over there. I think I will only do this with substantial posts though. If anyone is very intereste...

Say What?!?!?!? I have promised superman a more in depth resopnse on the atonement stuff, but in the meantime I found out something that has shocked me quite a bit. Apparently NBS and CBS have rejected a 30 second "United Church of Christ" advertisement because it is too controversial. The part of it that is too controversial? Acceptance of homosexuality. Say what?!?!? I am just not sure how else to react. Here is the UCC page on it. I found this thanks to this blog.