Against Nothingness

The Soft Glow of Monstrosity TV scares me. I am not some luddite, and I am not about to bemoan the poor moral guidelines governing, and presented, by/on TV. No, television scares me because I enjoy it so much. I am a person with a ‘low entertainment threshold.” That’s a term I think I made up, and it means that I am easily entertained; I am not incapable of criticism, and I do have a limit, but in general I can watch pretty bad shows and still enjoy myself. Frankly though, I have no time to watch bad shows. “Of course he has no time, he is married and in seminary” Unfortunately, it’s not what you think, not at all. I have no time to watch bad shows because there are so many good shows to watch, and watch them I do. This is exactly why TV scares me; it seems to be getting better and better at entertaining me. It used to be that I had to struggle to find something to watch. I enjoyed Star Trek (before Deep Space Nine), I liked movies, and like every one else on this planet I watc...

The Path from Lament to Praise "The route from obedience to praise in the psalter is only through lament" One of the classes I am in is Old Testament Foundations, and this week we did "Songs of Exile: Psalms, Lamentations, and Song of Songs". I found this to be a very comforting and freeing lecture. The most common type of psalm in the psalter is a song of lament, however all but one of them has moved to praise by time they are finished. Indeed, the entire book of Psalms, in a rough way, is organized to move from Lament to Praise, beggining in and encompassed by obedience. The whole process culminates in the last Psalms in the book, which are the most extravagent songs of praise in the bible. In my own life, I have found that having faith in Christ and a relationship with God has often led me into a time of lament. Its not a uniform thing; and no I don't view God as some angry God bearing down on me. I lament over the state of the church, the lostness of the...

Many people have mentioned recently that "I don't update my Blog anymore." It's true, I don't, but I will now. I've been a long time gone, and I honestly didn't think I would come back again; maybe I still won't. But this can be an introductory post to the possible return of Me, TheLogo. My last post was in may, and much has happened since then. During our last months in Korea Kristina and I went to China (which was awesome), finished our year of teaching, went to Hawaii on the way home (very relaxing), moved into a new place here in Coquitlam, Kristina is working and I am nearly finished my first semester of Seminary. Coming home was in a lot of ways harder than leaving, though it was also better. Culture shock was much more pronounced, as was the difficulty Kristina and I had adjusting to different 'working' hours. Thats pretty much all done now though. Thats the short of things, I honestly don't want to fill in all the details, but ...

The Soundtrack of my Life I love music. It's beautiful. I really do just love music, pretty much all kinds. I used to say I like everything but rap and opera... then I found some rap I liked, and it wasn't too long after that when I began to find myself enjoying the occasional Opera track as well. Now I just like music. My taste in music doesn't run along the easy lines of genre, artist, or type. Instead it runs with emotional connection. I have watched a lot of shows in my life, and one of the ways you can tell wether or not I like a show, if I really connect with it or feel touched by it, is if I get the music for it. This isn't a perfect method to gauge the effect of any given video input on me, as it also requires that the show has good enough music to listen to without the accompanying video, which isn't as common as you might hope for, but its a good guideline. Its one of the reasons I love anime so much, at least some of them, and I know I enjoy shows...

Dreams of Sacrifice, Sacrifice of Dreams I often have trouble with bible verses like "Don't worry about tomorrow" or with the general idea that God will provide for us. Its not that I don't believe these things, I do, but its hard to really put my faith there, to act like it, to trust and to leave my life in that terribly uncertain place that follows. I suppose that in reality it isn't an uncertain place at all. But no matter what is said, by me or others, it is one of the most difficult areas of my life and Christian faith. There's always something; I need to have a secure future and thus ignore my calling and take the wrong stuff for a semester of university. I know the experience has been turned to good in the end, I praise the Lord for that. But the worries don't go away, or they haven't yet. I remember worrying so much about financial stuff before my marriage. My wife had trouble finding a job, and I definitely didn't have any money, already b...

Time for that infamous feature of most blogs, the catchup post. Life continues to be good over here in S. Korea. I still have no accounts for showing photos or anything, and have been to lazy to really look into anything much. I have been looking into buying an MP3 player and have narrowed my choices down to two IRiver's, the H10 and H320 models. The idea would be to record university lectures as well as listen to music, but we will see how it all works out. I have been trying to make better use of my free time of late, not playing so many computer games and watching so much anime, and it has been very good for me. Every day that goes by brings me closer to returning home, and I am looking forward to it. Family, friends, a familary environment, the uneviable con of once again being able to understand everyone around me (and will understand me too....). I know it sounds wierd but its kind of nice when most of the people around you don't understand you and you don't unde...

quick note: Heard of "Broken Saints"? Amazing comic, done in flash (so I think it is better than a normal comic, it has music and stuff :), I haven't finished yet (only on ch. 4 so don't spoil anything for me). Apparently its 12 hours long. Its worth checking out: their website: www.brokensaints.com Comic available at: http://www.newgrounds.com/collections/brokensaints.html

In Response to Anthony and Aaron First off, as you can see Aaron, you did not comment as other :) Anthony I am surprised that someone who believes in the total constructedness of sexual identity seems to fail to apply the same concept, at least in some degree, to your idea of love. I guess my problem with the whole thrusting of the concept of desire into love is that it, in my mind, seems to rely heavily on very modern day concepts of love, and even relationships. I believe there is good reason that 1 Cor. 13 has been given to us, among other biblical texts, as guides to love. As is oft noted by those who defend homosexuality within the debate in the church, ideas were not the same then as they are now. Its great that you can say the feelings you have for your boyfriends are often the same as those you have for God, this despite the fact that you insist on rejecting the very idea of a relationship with God. It is also natural, in my opinion, and especially so if, at least in the abstra...

I recently began reading "The Way Forward? : Christian voices on Homosexuality and the Church." It has been very interesting, to say the least. It is a collection of articles by various authors, from differing positions. So far they have all been pro-homosexuality; some of them I have found very interesting, others very weak, and some so wishy-washy in the air that I wondered how they got into the volume. The last one I read had a quote from a brazilian theology, Maria Clara, which I don't quite follow. "If Christians wish to assert that God is love then, in the beginning God can only be object of desire - not of necessity nor of rationality. Theology - which seeks to be reflection and talk about God and God's word - must therefore be moved and permeated in its entirety by the flame of desire... Born of desire, theology exists as theology only if it is upheld and supported by desire." Now, I am well aware of the mysticial tradition within Christianity, bu...

Trips and Propaganda It's been awhile since I last posted. My mom came out to visit us in S. Korea, which was wonderful. She left today, after being here for 1.5 weeks. We already miss her, and having her here and leaving has awoken in both Kristina and I a very strong desire to come home. We did lots while she was here. We went to Gyongju and Seoul and the DMZ tour, and did lots of games and good times. We have had the use of Kristina's brothers digital camera, and we bought our own while we were in Seoul, so if anyone wants to see pictures, of our trips, or just Korea and our apartment and stuff, let me know. I will try to figure out how to put them up here, or get on of the picture account thingies....? anyway, I will probably be putting up pictures sooner or later. Gyongju was the capital of one of the three kingdoms that made up Korea at the time (the Silla Kingdom) for 1000 years, from approx. 0 to 1000. We kind of got historied out there, we saw sooo much stuff. ...

An Earthquake and Another Awesome Movie I felt my first earthquake this last sunday, or so I am told. You may have heard about the 7.0 quake that hit southern Japan this weekend, injuring some (I don't think anyone died) and doing some property damage. Apparently, in a very minor way, it's effects extended to Daejeon and beyond. Sunday morning I was sitting on this very computer, checking my email I think, when I felt the apartment swaying slightly. I recognized the feeling immediately, having worked on a tenting crew, in positions with much more sway than this apartment could ever give without falling down. At the same time, someone was moving in (or out) a floor or two above us. Out here, since everything is apartments, they have designed these machines that raise a platform up to your door, or balcony, to ease the moving process. You can load your furniture and appliances on this platform, and it takes them down for you. I mentioned that the earthquake was slight didn...

One of the Funniest Movies Ever Today Kristina and I watched one of the funniest movies we have ever seen. It was our first Korean movie, "Saving my Hubby". I couldn't believe how hard we laughed. It's about a husband and wife who have a young baby and are very tired and stressed out, as new parents often are. The husband goes to his first day at a new job, and reluctantly ends up going out drinking with the guys from work. He ends up drugged and in a scam to take his money, but he has no credit cards, so the scammers take his cellphone and call his wife so she can come pay. Now its up to her to save her husband. Naturally, things don't go very well. Her mother and father and law are visiting the next morning at 5 a.m, and she has to make a good impression; meanwhile in trying to find her husband, let alone save him, she nearly starts a gang war. Most people, if they watch asian movies, watch martial arts or anime. I like both of those a lot, and I have w...

Disappointed by Crichton I have long been a fan of Michael Crichton. His books number among my favorite fiction novel's. I have a cynical streak, and so I quite enjoy reading about futuristic technologies going terribly wrong due to lack of wisdom on the part of humans. I had been under the impression that, while still fictional, they were generally well researched. Well, they are better researched than most fictions, or I think so, but his newest book "State of Fear" was disappointing. It's a decent fiction, I read it fast and it held my attention, but the characters were far from beleivable. The plot was interesting, took quite a twist on the usual: a supersmart intellectual turned government agent travels the world thwarting environmental terrorists (who plot strikes which would, or it seems to me, have a negative effect on the environment... but then these environmentalists only care about money, not trees) while debunking the idea of global warming to anyone...

Sickness and Following Jesus Since coming to Korea both Kristina and I have been sick quite frequently. Much more than at home. I think I have mentioned this before. It's fairly common for foreigners to repeatedly get cold's, flu's, and various kinds of sinus infections. So this is not surprising. I have to say though, it sucks. Nevertheless, I can't say nothing good has come of it. Kristina has been sick more than I, and more often. One of the side effects of this is that I have to take care of her a lot. I love doing this, no hardship there. One of the other side effects is that I have to do basically all the household chores. You would think that if taking care of her is no problem, this would the same, but its not. I have discovered I very easily get frustrated and selfish; I strongly desire a certain amount of 'me' time, relaxing time, stuff like that. I don't like doing housework. I recently read an article, an interview with Eugene Peters...

A Picture Held Us... "A picture held us captive. And we could not get outside it, for it lay in our language and language seemed to repeat it to us inexorably." ---- Ludwig Wittgenstein 'Philosophical Investigations' This quote, given in a very different context from the one in which I am going to use it, definitely applies to me. I get pictures in my head. I imagine certain things happening, ideal images, snapshots of a life, and once they come into my mind I am very often driven to carry them out. The picture is repeated again and again everytime I revisit the context in which it was created. Let me explain by example. A few weeks ago Kristina's brother visited. Among other things, he brough us English tea. Something Kristina and I both enjoy, but have discovered it is impossible to buy in Korea. Very shortly after we had this tea, I got a picture in my mind: There I was, relaxing in the lounge chair in our living room, wrapped in silence and a warm bla...

A Call to Faithfulness It is likely the Roman Empire as a whole, and the majority of the people in it, took absolutely no notice of the crucifixion of yet another trio of political revolutionaries. That one of them would, in name, spirit, and fact, far outlast the empire itself could scarcely have entered the mind of anyone but His most devout followers. Still less would this empire or its people have noticed the clamor of those same followers three days later, as they shouted “He is risen!!!” Yet, in 300 years, the emperor himself would bow before this crucified criminal. It took years for the followers of this executed man to become big enough to even be a target for persecution by Rome, which was hardly a large matter if we remember how many other rebellions Rome crushed around this time, including the destruction of the Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Historically, this all seems very fast. And, indeed, it is. A group of people were formed, grew, took o...

My Supreme Arrogance I recently read through James. I was struck by a particular section (4:13-17): 13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. I can tell you exactly why it struck me, and it wasn’t a profound thought, a deep realization, or a piece of some puzzle that clicked together in my head. No, it was simply this: I am, right now, in S. Korea, with my wife Kristina, teaching English for a year. Did you catch that? I was just such a person as these verses describe, and not just in my assumption...

Simple Plan - Crazy Tell me what's wrong with society When everywhere I look, I see Young girls dying to be on TV They won't stop till they've reached their dreams Diet pills, surgery Photoshopped pictures in magazines Telling them how they should be It doesn't make sense to me Is everybody going crazy? Is anybody gonna save me? Can anybody tell me what's going on? Tell me what's going on? If you open your eyes You'll see that something is wrong I guess things are not how they used to be There's no more normal families Parents act like enemies Making kids feel like it's World War III No one cares, no one's there I guess we're all just too damn busy And money's our first priority It doesn't make sense to me Is everybody going crazy? Is anybody gonna save me? Can anybody tell me what's going on? Tell me what's going on? If you open your eyes You'll see that something is wrong Is everybody going crazy? Is everybody going cra...

Tootie Frootie the Turtle Tootie Frootie the turtle was afraid of water. It happened that when he was very young he fell into a can of orange paint, which had never really come of, and that was the origin of his fear of water. Though a sea turtle, Tootie Frootie found that he could live happily at a pond, a little ways inland from where he had been born. He could enter the water to wading height, eat fish and minnows, and lived well. This continued until one fateful day when the pond was developed for a luxury resort. Upon finding the strange orange sea turtle that lived in a pond, the hotel made Tootie Frootie their mascot. While not as satisfying as his pond life had been, Tootie Frootie was comfortable in his new role. He was well fed, and didn’t have to go in any water. Still, a life of captivity, no matter how good, was something he could only handle for so long. So he embarked on a fast action, daring 3 year escape. During the course of his escape, the orange paint was was...

Penny the Penguin Penny the penguin was a penguin who could fly. Not very well mind you, but some. Through freak genetic mutations he had been born with larger wings than most penguins, and a lighter body. All of the other penguins made fun of Penny and laughed at him when he tried to fly. He was far from graceful, and it just wasn’t something penguins were supposed to do anyway. So, for a long time Penny didn’t fly. One day, as the large penguin family was trekking across some ice, disaster struck. A strong current came from nowhere, tearing the ice apart, and three baby penguins were swept away from everyone else. The mothers tried to swim to them, but they couldn’t make it. Penny realized that the only way they could be saved was if he flew to them. And so he did. Or he tried. Unfortunately, because he had flown so little, he was even worse than normal, and he couldn’t make it either. The penguin family watched sadly as the babies quickly floated away. Penny wa...

Animal Stories My wife frequently gets headaches. Bad ones. A long time ago, when this blog was new, I posted a narrative about my wife on MAO's (read the post if you want to know. And she wasn't my wife back then either). Anyway, now that we are married, I make random attempts to help her avoid drug use to get through the headaches. Among other things, I make up stories to tell her. First off, we make this together, in some way or another. Secondly, we both have odd senses of humor. For example: Kristina, who will, among other things, be a nearly perfect mother, likes dead baby jokes. So this is the first of, so far, four animal stories that I will be posting on here that have arisen from these attempts to avoid habitual... medicinal... drug use. Alfie the Elephant Who Eats Little Children Alfie was an elephant, in most ways like any other Elephant. The major difference was that he was purple, and that he ate little children. He lived in a zoo, housed carefull...

I know I posted about this two posts ago, but I still find it very wierd to see headlines here like "Government approves plans for Cloning center" Meanwhile, from national to personal, our school seems to be undergoing a management change... two of the three main supervisors are leaving or changing positions, the two nice ones. A few of us English teachers are a little bit pensive about what this change is indicating, as up until now the school has been a very atypical Korean workplace. Hopefully, the changes are indicative of personal issues or something (Which is not really better, since we like the supervisors) and any kind of philosophy change. Hopefully were just being selfcentred and this has nothing to do with us english teachers.

It's been a while hasn't it? Lately I have been strongly convicted about my 'mental discipline'. I am so used to being in school, being forced to excercise my brain, that I find I have very little discipline in keeping my brain active without the normal pressures of exams and essays and class discussions. So I have been trying lately to make sure I am spending more time with good books, and articles and things online. Its been very good, I think my brain is finally revved up again. I have also completely lacked any motivation to write. Firstly, I haven't had much to write about. Which might sound wierd if you were paying attention on my last post. Despite spending time reading, I haven't run into much that I want to write about. I have to admit that I am a little bit discouraged with the whole academic, thinking, etc. thing right now. I just have trouble seeing what difference that will make, when how I live is so much more important. Which is n...

Technology in Korea In spite of the lack of movement, or progress, or cheaper prices :) in some areas of technology, it does appear that Korea is ahead in some ways compared to home. I came to Korea expecting to buy, among other things, a cheap laptop (a digital camera would be nice to). To my chagrin I found out that laptops are not only ridiculously expensive out here, they are behind. I have no idea why... they just are. I could, and did, order a computer from the U.S. that was, after shipping and customs fees, cheaper than I would have paid to get a worse computer out here. Digital cameras are also more expensive out here than on the internet from N. American websites, but not by nearly as much as the laptops were. Meanwhile, cell phone technology, from what I know, is quite far ahead. Maybe I am just out of touch with what they have at home? but in march they are releasing a new phone with a whole array of sensors so that it can detect movement in a three dimensional plane....

Alvin Toffler Have you heard of Alvin Toffler? Over the Christmas holidays I picked up two of his books, kind of by fluke in a korean bookstore. You see, in order to find English books in Korea (outside of the internet) you have to go to some of the bigger bookstores in Seoul. But, even they don't have much selection. This really sucks when you are looking for specific authors in the Sci-Fi or Fantasy genres... every bookstore here has been pretty weak in those areas, and pretty much every other area when it comes down it. But what makes it interesting is that you are able to look at most of, or all, the books in a particular section, or all the sections :), without much problem. This would be pretty much impossible at home in a Chapter's or Indigo. While doing that, I find that I see some books I probably never would have noticed before. Such as Alvin Toffler. I guess he's a 'futurist'? writing about what will happen... I know, sounds vaguely apocalyptic and...

Thinking I have been thinking about a lot of things lately. So much so that I am having a hard time focusing on anything long enough to get some clear ideas flowing. So much so that I have been avoiding thinking about just about anything so that my brain doesn't overload. Maybe I'm thinking about nothing, not like I would know, being such a jumbled mess right now. So, WEEEE, here we go. First, the Tsunami. Who hasn't posted about this in the last couple weeks? Tragedies such as this come in with a bang, and set off millions of psycological bangs immediately afterwards, and for years to come. From politics to theology (oh, those two much loved dinner topics), personal reflection to on the spot footage, no area is left untouched. I have been very impressed with the response to this disaster (not going to go into who is giving more based on what percentage... I just don't care right now). Being over in S.Korea makes it a little more personal for me as well. Why? Wel...

Time Well Spent I have two places to send you, if your interested. First, do you like brain tazers? If you do, try The Dark Room . Its a good puzzle game: you have to find out how to get out of the 'hi tech' room. And it is a brain tazer, not a teaser. My wife and I took about an hour to do the whole thing; our brains hurt. A lot of fun Second, if you enjoy short films, here is an excellent one, entitled " More ." It is hard to say what its about.... its interesting, and worth the six minutes.