Blog De Trevino

2010 Reading List

2010-12-31T16:03:00.000-06:00

This year I wanted to read more. I had a good sprint in August, but here's the full list:

Dune: House Harkonnen    1/23/2010
A Tale of Two Cities    2/5/2010
Necroscope      3/14/2010
Sex God      4/8/2010
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years 5/30/2010
Effective Java      6/9/2010
Mere Churchianity    6/19/2010
A Confederacy of Dunces    7/25/2010
Conan Paperback    7/29/2010
Consider Phelbas    8/15/2010
The Jesus I Never Knew       8/18/2010
Heir to the Empire    8/21/2010
Profiles in Courage    8/22/2010
Java: The Good Parts    8/30/2010
The Myths of Innovation    8/31/2010
97 Things Every Programmer Should Know 9/3/2010
Lenin    9/26/2010
The Last Word and The Word After That 10/10/2010
Blue Like Jazz      10/16/2010

Of these, here are my favorites:
Nonfiction: Lenin - having the mythology of the Bolshevik revolution busted wide open, and seeing the bloody guts of the whole thing was mind-blowing. Runner up: Profiles in Courage
Fiction: A Confederacy of Dunces - Really introspective yet ostentatious. A bizarre, poignant, disgusting, joyride. Runner Up: Conan Short Stories
Technical:  I'm in the middle of what would've been the winner (Java Concurrency in Practice), but it's not finished so it doesn't count. I'm going with Java: The Good Parts.
Spiritual: A bunch of good ones this year. The Last Word and the Word After That was really thoughtful and provocative. My Christian buddies may think it borders on heretical though. Runner Up: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Happy 2011!
-Chris

Oblique

2010-11-15T17:28:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I had the chance to catch up with an old friend online. It had been more than a decade since we'd talked last, so I was interested in seeing where life had taken him, and hear about how he was doing. At some point in this conversation, after I talked about Sophia for a minute, my friend had mentioned that my "aspirations always seemed so..." and I suggested some adjectives at that point. He seemed to suggest that I had been casually riding along in the electronic airport sidewalk of Americana. This troubled me. Has my life been a series of meaningless, blase, events in which I apathetically participated? Was I a grayish-blue Dawn of the Dead zombie, my feet erratically shuffling me on in non-euclidian circles around the meaningless mall of middle class dreams? I didn't like this idea, so I filed it away.

This last weekend, I found myself in the midst of the blue-gray horde. My computer's charging cable had come under canine attack, so I had to go to the Apple store to pick up a new one. I wandered the mall like a mars rover, trying to navigate my way to the correct logo, and I felt disgusted. I was in the epicenter of the electronic, sugary, caffeinated, chromed, fake tits, santa-claus-taking-pictures, sterilized, sanitized, sexitized heart of consumerism. I hated myself a little, and I hated the people around me. I hated that I was hating, and then I realized that..

People are beautiful.

Young, old, skinny, fat, they're all beautiful. Every human being you see is a flawed gem, not quite matching the pristine standards we place on them. When we see this swarm of humanity, we see the flaws and the cracks in people, or at least imagine them. We don't see their shining attributes. For all we know these people could be heroes, serving in unseen ways, invisibly existing as a piece of fabric in the rumpled cloth of a humanised humanity.

I think one of the easiest things in the world to do is to view ourselves as superior, in some oblique way, to the masses of people around us. And I think this is the very worst of ourselves.

MREs

2010-10-13T18:23:00.000-05:00

The absolute worst bathrooms in the world are along the undeveloped coastline of Washington state, they are emptied semi-annually via helicopter. The second worst bathrooms in the world are at the Seattle ferry terminal. The room smells of crusty, decade-old urine sprayed wildly by a blind person enduring seizures. Outhouse flies reside in the dark black cracks of the porcelain, and dine upon the ammonia-laden filth with an utterly alien and insectual glee.

I was walking earlier this week to the ferry terminal, and on the way I saw a homeless person asking for change. I don't give money to the homeless, but I did pack an MRE for just such an occasion. It had been a while since I'd been approached by a homeless person, and I was lugging around this large military-grade meal in my already overstuffed backpack for days. When you are camping, MREs are a delight. They are not a delight to carry into the wild, nor is the ample trash footprint a delight to carry out. But as far as the variety of textures and flavors they provided, as well as the sheer volume of food they contained, they were blissful in the wild. I concluded that they must be blissful to the homeless as well, since it's kind of like camping.

The first person I gave an MRE to was an elderly guy who was pulling a half-eaten burger in a styrofoam container out of the trash. His eyes glinted with a mad lust at its warm, fresh contents. His ancient, weathered fingers ever so lovingly stroked the half-gnawed bun, nary disburbing a sesame seed. I physically wretched at the idea of a human being eating out of the trash. We are not insects. I gave him my first homeless-bound MRE. He looked at the MRE in a very confused manner, as if I had just handed him an alien computer embossed with sanskrit symbols and LED lights. I was late for my ferry, so I continued on, trusting that he either figure it out or someone would help him out.

A few days later I packed my second homeless MRE. Combined with running shoes, a coat, a computer, lunch, breakfast, a kindle and 2 other books for the hell of it, my backpack looked like a pregnant belly filled with twins bursting out of my spine. This time on the way home I was encountered by a homeless person who was asking for money because he wanted to buy a $5 footlong from Subway. He said he's only eaten half a bag of chips that day. You hear that often from
the homeless, and I'm not sure if it's because there are insufficient services and shelters, or if it just helps their sell. Excited at the chance I pulled out my MRE and handed it to him, feeling proud of my humaniarian accomplishment.

"What the heck is that?" he asked.
"It's an MRE."
"A what?"
"A military ration."
"...Ok..."

He took it, with a frustrated kind of look, and set it on the ground next to him as I hustled towards my boat, which I wasn't quite sure I was going to hit. I suppose he saved it for backup in case his meatball marinara didn't work out. I felt really akward about this encounter. "People should be grateful," I told myself. But there was something else to it. I know how delicious MREs are, but most people don't, and admittedly it is an acquired taste. An MRE is delivered in a square, brown, plastic recepticle. In addition to "MRE," two words are printed on the front of this standardized military-grade ration. These words will give the eater some kind of clue as to what kind of entree they are about to dine upon. It's usually something like "BEEF STROGANOFF" or "MAC CHEESE." From his shoes, I imagine it was kind of dehumanizing. Imagine you're a poor tramp on the street, and you smell delicious Subway smells hang on the air in a crisp, Seattle afternoon. Your stomach is demanding satisfaction, and is lured onward by a 12" meaty mirage. If you beg just enough, if you get just enough
quarters, you might be able to have a brief, warm piece of satisfaction in an otherwise cold existence. Now along comes self-righteous Mr. Orange Coat, clearly well fed, with his smug smile. He's got just what you need: a brown plastic box with "COLD OATMEAL - STANDARD UNIT" written on the side. Awesome.

I'm trying to change my heart in how I deal with homeless people. Mostly I just pretend they're not there, whimpering ghosts begging for crack-money. I don't know how to fix the world, but maybe what these people need isn't a standard, heartless, military-issue package of survival calories, but something much deeper and more essential: to be treated like a human.

U2 Tickets

2009-03-31T12:51:00.002-05:00

When I first signed up for my U2 fanclub membership, I knew that someday it would reap dividends. I scored 4 GA tickets for the October concert in Vancouver. w00t!

Liz and I just got back from Cabo; we had a great time in spite of being offered lots of drugs on the street. Mostly we just laid around on the beach and drank margaritas. I posted all the pictures on facebook; so if you're interested, head on over there.

The Omegathon

2008-09-01T16:23:00.002-05:00

So as most of you know, I was selected to enter the Omegathon at PAX this year. Being an Omeganaut was a major blast. The biggest perk was being able to jump all of the lines (and they were CRAZY). But the Omegathon kept me pretty busy, so I wasn't able to abuse this to its fullest extent.

Here's how the competition went:

Round 1: Peggle
We had 30 minutes to come up with our "best" score on a custom PAX-2008 level. If you wanted to keep your current score, you had to stop playing, and if you wanted to keep playing, you had to lose your current high score.

It sounds complicated, but basically it worked out so people's worst enemy was themselves. Quite a few people got scores over 400K and let those go, only to be kicked out at the end. About 10 minutes in I scored 360+k. I pondered my decision for a few, tense minutes and decided to let my score stand. It turned out to be the right decision.

Round 2: Boom Blox
I'm all about hitting hard and fast, so I made an alliance straight off the bat (with the final winner Joey Geko) and went after the Omeganaut Plutonium. He then decided to act like a bit of a dick and tossed out some choice insults. It was my pleasure to clean him out of that game (he survived the loser bracked though).

Round 3: Geometry Wars
I was paired with MNC Dover and the last remaining Omegachick and we played King mode. The first time I played this game mode was the night before (and holy crap I was glad to get a little practice in) . Jenn2D2 wasn't as familiar with the game as we were and we were able to get by pretty cleanly.

Round 4: Rock Band
At this point, I'm in the final eight, and I felt pretty damn good. I was paired up with Plutonium, MNC Dover, and Pikachoochoo (who had been cleaning up the games). They were all good conteders and I thought we stood a hell of a chance. The song was Eye of the Tiger, and we all had to play on Medium mode. We named our band The School of Hard C**ks, our nemeses were Omegadeth During the practice round we performed solidly and were confident that victory was ours. Omegadeth threw the gauntlet down though and scored a massive 480k. None of their players scored below 97%. We came out and almost caught them with 460k, (I got a 99% on the drums, I might add...and some sick-ass drumrolls). I took this moment to live out my rock star dreams and toss the drum-sticks to the crowd and make out with my lady. It was a bittersweet moment indeed.

Alas the Green Dragon

2007-08-29T23:34:00.000-05:00

A green flash of light
Oh, how my feet give you strength
Your time was too short

Black Snake Moan and Covenant

2007-08-13T10:26:00.001-05:00

I saw Black Snake Moan last night, and I have to say that it was a whole lot better that I expected it to be. I didn't really know what to expect, seeing as how the central plot device is Sam Jackson chaining a crazy white woman to his radiator. As the film goes along, you realize that there's a bit of symbolism going on, and that the film is going to be a bit deeper that initially expected.

You see, the central symbol of the film is the chain, which represents, as the director has said "being fettered to another." This is analogous our Covenant relationship with Jesus, and the Covenant relationship of marriage. The central idea of a Covenant, as opposed to a contractual relationship, is that it is unbreakable and final. We are fettered to Christ utterly and eternally, and our marriages should be wholly undoable except for death and infidelity.

Lazarus (Sam Jackson), is eponymously named after the New Testament figure who rose from death after being called by Christ. In this film he is a Christlike symbol for rebirth and renewal, determined to "fix up" Rae, who is chained to his radiator. Both his dogged determination, "I aint gon' be moved on this", and the unbreakable fixture of the radiator are signs of a covenant. Throughout the movie Lazarus tends to the physical needs (clothing, food, etc) of Rae as well has her personal needs of genuine friendship and fellowship.

Now througout the movie, Rae has like 5 sex scenes and gets crazy trashed on drugs an alcohol. These activities of hers are her way of acting out about her childhood sexual abuse. It's her way of trying to find love in the arms of all these different men, but it always undoes her.

At the end of the movie, there is a scene where she is driving with her recently acquired husband who earlier left for the army. She's wearing a white dress, and a gold chain around her waist. Her husband has a panic attack and she has one of her "attacks." She swoons into her lustful rythym, the familiar images of the past filling her head. She then hold fast to the gold chain around her waist, you then see a cut of the large iron chain pulling against the unmovable radiator, and the attack passes. The Covenant has changed her.

Oh that's right, I have a blog

2007-07-20T11:47:00.000-05:00

What's up hombres!

So...in the last year or so I've finished grad school, beat guitar hero and guitar hero 2 on expert, and have showered myself at least a dozen times.

I made this song clip a couple weeks back, it's for a theme-song contest at Rifftrax.com (the guys who made MST3K). w00t!
I also did some hiking on the Washington Coast (some 23 miles), it was pretty badass. Here are the pictures.

I'll post some more pictures and stuff later!

Oh that's right, I read Tolkien's new book too. Apparently he's been hanging out with Tupac, releasing works posthumously.

Rock out With Your Sock Out!!

2006-10-12T20:13:00.000-05:00

So Liz and I are totally digging Guitar Hero. I know, we're like 2 years behind the world. I've played it mostly at best buy, but recently we got a PS2, and I HAD to get it. Here's a great rock-pose.

P.S. If you want to hear the real thing, you can listen to some music I'm working on here.

Liz's New Haircut

2006-10-12T20:06:00.000-05:00

Musicalityology

2006-08-15T10:31:00.000-05:00

My brother came out this weekend, and it was quite cool. Mostly we bummed around and watched crap movies, ate stir fry, and played video games. (w00t Dead Rising!). What was really cool though is that we spent a couple of hours toying with my ghetto-studio. I had some guitar ideas in kernel form that I recorded, and we were able to bounce ideas off a little bit and grow them a bit. Although it was short it was quite refreshing, as I haven't really worked with other people when it comes to writing music. All of my musical experience has either been at church playing worship standards, or solo. I found that my brother was super cool when it came to working out musical ideas.

I'm still reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and I imagine I'll be reading it for a while (it's quite a thick book). But it is so fascinating, I cannot help but wonder how an Austrian tramp who got rejected from art school so determinately took the reigns of power from his government, and enacted a wholly bigoted and skewered plan for his country. It's scary too, as if it were happening right now, and I keep hoping that some German hero, or even a normal person of courage, will stop him before it gets too bad, but I already know how that story goes.

This Weekend

2006-07-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

Hey There Internet

I told you I would write again and so I am. This weekend I had a great time in Houston, TX. My friend Christian got married to a lovely young woman named Erin. I didn't get much of a chance to meet her, brides are usually busy at weddings, but she seemed like the right kind of girl for Christian.

I forgot my camera, but my good friend Dan was there like a military photojournalist snapping away at everything, as if the scenes of a wedding contained the secrets of the universe. I'll post some when I get a hold of them.

I've done a bit of reading since my last post, so here's the quick recap:

1) Finished Les Meserables (one life goal down, Pacific Crest Trail next). It was quite a beautiful book, full of energy and life, but it deserves its own post, perhaps later.

2) Tried to read Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, but moving from Victor Hugo to Star wars is a little like going from Pinot Noir to KOOL-AID. Total trash.

3) Read Animal Farm, which, surprisingly, wasn't as anti-communist as it was anti-propagandist and totalitarianist. Because of this, it seemed surprisingly relevant even today.

4) Currently Reading: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich..frigging huge..I'll let you know how it is in 2007, but it's very good and extremely thorough so far.

Ahh, oh yea, so I flew back on the 4th, whereupon I drove to my brother's base in Fort Leonard Wood and saw the fireworks show at the closest-possible viewing vantage: quite sweet.

More Later, Kick back at me!!

-Chris

technorati tags:Journal, 4th, of, July, Hugo, Wedding, Hetticks

Blogged with Flock

My Frustrations With the Cinema

2006-01-08T23:30:00.000-06:00

I really hate that I am complaining about this. The reason being that I love going to see movies in the theater, and I want to continue enjoying it.

But in the last year or so, a reluctance has been boiling. It has to do with a few factors, both positive and negative. The positive factors are the flexibility and media quality of watching movies at home. I have a 7.1 speaker set up and a component video television. Most of the time, this gives me better quality sound and picture. The spaciality of my sound system destroys any theater I go to, lacking only the "bigness" of a theater. The analog of that could be said for me television. Other factors include the flexibility to pause, and the ability to serve more than just popcorn and sour strips.

So as the theater-to-home-theater quality gap is decreasing, my irritation at the patrons of cinemas grows.

I can't stand seeing a horror movie in the theater anymore. These movies tend to attract the high school crowd, which tend to bring along their cell phones. You know, cel phones are fabulous devices, but a high schooler with a cel phone in a theater is a recipe for ruining my experience. If they're not talking and planning their next party they're texting each other and laughing at their funny pictures. It's not like there's a dark theater around them where everyone can see their phone....jerks.

When I saw the grudge in 2004, there were so many kiddies laughing and talking, I had to let out a semi-discrete "shut the hell up," which worked to a limited degree.

Over Christmas break I saw the Chronicles of Narnia with my wife and my parents. All around us were little kids conversing with their parents about the movie, and how it compared with the book, and how they felt about it...friggin kids.

After that I saw Memoirs of a Geisha with my wife and some friends of ours, there was this lady behind us who kept asking questions like "what's a geisha?", "what's going on?", and the most frequent comment "I like her eyes, I think those are contacts.".. please save the dialogue the post-film coffee.

I just got back tonight from Munich, were there were 3 people in front of us acting like complete retards. Seriously Beavis and Butthead stonerish retards. "hahah, they sound funny because they're speaking Arabic" "hahahah, he's funny 'cause he's Jewish." I ended up having to move a dozen rows back, but not after informing them "this isn't Harold & Kumar go to White Castle."

I think I'll save the dramas & horrors for home. These days all I can stand in the theater is a good comedy.

I'll leave by reminding you that there's a special level of hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theater.

My Brother's New Dog!

2006-01-04T18:31:00.000-06:00

U2's St Louis Concert

2005-12-16T16:51:00.000-06:00

I got to see U2 this week at the Savvis center. I had seen them live earlier in the year, but it was just as enjoyable, if not more so, than when I saw then earlier.

Some of my favorite moments in the concert:

When they played Miss Sarajevo. Wow, Bono sounded better singing baritone in Italian than normally. It really, really surprised me.

Sunday Bloody Sunday when they brought the little kid out of the audience. Hehe, “No More, Son of Abraham,” it was great.

When they completely slaughtered Instant Karma by Jon Lennon. Larry’s sheepish look at Adam when he misdrummed was better than Bono’s “f*** it, we’ve destroyed this song!” look.

Kanye West opened up for them, and he did a really good job. I thought he was a lot more exciting than the Kings of Leon (U2’s opening act in Seattle). However, a significant portion of the crowd booed when Bono mentioned Kanye during the U2 set. That seemed pretty unclassy to me, at least genre-ist but perhaps racist. I think the people who were booing weren’t there for Kanye’s act anyway, (The audience was pretty excited about it actually).

Updates!

2005-08-29T09:43:00.000-05:00

1) The White Stripes completely ruled! They were an excellent band to see live and I have to get some of their older albums now!

2) My wife and I just got back from Chicago last night. We had a great time cruising around Michigan Avenue, seeing the musical Wicked, and eating really good italian food. We tried our first Pinot Noir, Kim Crawford, which was excellent. It was probably the best wine we've had so far. (Our previous favorites being a Shiraz).

3) I am a genius. Proof?

Your IQ Is 130

Your Logical Intelligence is Genius
Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional
Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

IN THE RED!!! IN THE RAIN!!

2005-08-24T14:39:00.000-05:00

Score! I got a ticket to see the White Stripes tonight! Unfortunately I only have one... So I'll have a great time rocking out by myself!! w00t!

Out Camping this Weekend

2005-08-07T13:22:00.000-05:00

Hey! I apologize if you couldn't get a hold of me this weekend, Liz and I were off camping with some college friends. I caught a couple of Bass, Liz mostly caught some sun. I'll post some pictures if I get some.

So I ran across this on Fark.com earlier today. Pretty hilarious if you're into Lovecraft.

2005-08-03T16:59:00.000-05:00

Omg my wife is cooking!!1!

2005-06-09T20:45:00.000-05:00

Those Crazy MSR Guys

2005-06-09T11:16:00.000-05:00

So as my homies know, my water purifier lost its pumping ability late in our hiking trip. I was seriously bummed and thought "dammit, now I'm going to have to drop another C-note on a water purifier...damn that plastic bit!!!"

But the nice folks at MSR helped me to diagnose the problem (it turns out I dropped a tiny plastic bit while cleaning it), and they are shipping the missing part out for free *sweet*. I was totally expecting them to charge me $10 for the piece, but they are totally kosher.

MSR's customer service rocks..buy their things

Last weekend's camping trip!

2005-06-08T20:52:00.001-05:00

So last week I flew out to Washington to go on a backpacking trip with some of my homies from Washington State University. We had some pretty heavy rain going in (9 miles)(which drenched my sleeping bag incidentally...*drat!*).

The second day was beautiful. It was a foggy, mist-laden morning but that burned off as noon passed. We went for a pack-less hike and had a great time firing Nate's .45. It was a clear night and we made a huge fire, BSing and jibba-jabbering until deep into the night. My water purifier broke down that day..but it's going to be a minor repair.

On our way out (9 miles) we got some more rain, and while we were all drenched in the outhouse waiting for our cars to come back we dreamt of hot-bows of Pho goodness.

That's the long and short of it. Lots of dehydrated foods and instant coffee. Wet, nasty, soggy, dirty clothes. And some excellent long hikes. By the end of it my feet had about as much as they wanted to take, and I was ready to head home and...hang out... with Liz.

2005-06-08T20:52:00.000-05:00

And here is nate looking like a pirate. (notice the badasness the sun and the aviators make!)

2005-06-08T20:51:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I didn't want to post these because they're way cooler than my badass shot. But here is will looking like an old-timey sea-faring type.

2005-06-08T20:50:00.002-05:00

A valley shot on the way back!

2005-06-08T20:50:00.001-05:00

Nate and I being homies.

2005-06-08T20:50:00.000-05:00

This was the view from my tent.

2005-06-08T20:49:00.003-05:00

A sweet landscape shot by Chuckles.

2005-06-08T20:49:00.002-05:00

Badass cigar shot (my friends Will and Nate had far better ones though!)

2005-06-08T20:49:00.001-05:00

I don't usually do sky shots, but this one was cool.

2005-06-08T20:49:00.000-05:00

Another look over the valley. This time with a broken sign.

2005-06-08T20:48:00.003-05:00

A nice look over the valley when the mist burned off.

2005-06-08T20:48:00.002-05:00

A mountain shot!

2005-06-08T20:48:00.001-05:00

Blazing a trail in the mist.

2005-06-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

Here I am about 20 yards from our campsite.

2005-06-08T20:47:00.000-05:00

Some ponchoed hiker buddies

Fight the Man!!!

2005-06-01T00:57:00.000-05:00

Tonight I went to Creve Couer Lake to have a midnight stroll with some friends. This lake is right by my apartment and I go there all the time. There is a sign up stating that the lake (and all other parks in the county) close 1/2 hour after sunset. I figured that this was one of those lax rules that nobody really paid attention to unless kids were smoking weed by the lake or something.

As it turns out walking around the lake after dark can get you arrested. My friends and I got carded and luckily we all had out-of-state licences so we could pretend like we didn't know what was going on.

But the point remains, that cop had just arrested four people for being at the lake after dark. For just being there. We got pretty damn lucky, but I still think that it is total BS for being at a park after dark to be an arrestable offense. I imagine next they'll impose a curfew on everyone and force us to pass what we blog about through their Orwellian filter.

I hate to use the word fascist..but that's what it struck me as.

Skating Wounds

2005-05-31T21:53:00.000-05:00

I went skating the other day, and it was most likely due to my untrained technique, but my skates tore into my ankles and gave me some faux-stigmata.

2005-05-31T21:33:00.000-05:00

And here is Lando in a box.

2005-05-31T21:32:00.001-05:00

And here is Lando looking pensive.

2005-05-31T21:32:00.000-05:00

Most of you should know, but here is a picture of our cat Lando doing what he does best.

The REAL Darth Vader

2005-05-31T18:59:00.000-05:00

Back at WSU, I invented a drink for my friend's birthday. It was called the Darth Vader. It was quite the aptly-titled drink, it totally took us to the dark side, and I will now share it's secret with mankind. For all of you aficiandos out there, take note:

Step 1: (With a friend)Drop a shot of 151 proof rum into a glass containing a pint of Guinness.
Step 2: Hold up your glasses and speak aloud a Darth Vader quote. The very first shot's quote was "Now your failure is complete."
Step 3: Drink fast.
Step 4: Give your car keys to your friend (not the one you took the shot with!!).

Enjoy!

2005-05-16T08:22:00.000-05:00

...I think this was right after my 21 run. I think it was just really hot in that room...

2005-05-16T08:21:00.000-05:00

Here's us throwing out our shoutouts

2005-05-16T08:20:00.001-05:00

Another Icy Hot Stuntaz Pic...This one was used in Paint.NET

2005-05-16T08:20:00.000-05:00

Another random WSU shot. My roommate and I were pretending we were Icy Hot Stuntaz

2005-05-16T08:19:00.000-05:00

Random WSU Short (No, its a root beer...and that's a dead cell phone)

Redmond Church blocks Microsoft's Gay Rights Support

2005-04-22T16:35:00.000-05:00

Let's start here: http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/21/162247&tid=109&tid=219

It's about Microsoft removing support of a bill that would extend equal rights (in employment, banking, insurance, etc..) to gays.

Follow the thread a little further:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/04/take-action-microsoft-abandons-gays.html
and
http://www.thestranger.com/2005-04-21/feature.html

This is where it gets interesting:

The Stranger has learned that last month the $37-billion Redmond-based software behemoth quietly withdrew its support for House bill 1515, the anti-gay-discrimination bill currently under consideration by the Washington State legislature, after being pressured by the Evangelical Christian pastor of a suburban megachurch. The pastor, Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, met with a senior Microsoft executive in February and threatened to organize a national boycott of the company's products if it did not change its stance on the legislation, according to gay rights activists and a Microsoft employee who attended a subsequent April 4 meeting where Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, told a group of gay staffers about Hutcherson's threat. Hutcherson also unsuccessfully demanded that the company fire two employees who had testified in favor of the bill.

Now what is interesting is that my wife used to go to that church in Redmond. Since then she has moved out to St. Louis with me. Her family still goes there AFAIK. I visited there once, and I was very struck by their political involvement (something unique for a *cringe* nondenominational church). I don't really know all of the details but it seems to me that this is a bit heavy handed. In my estimation basic civil rights are guaruanteed to everyone regardless of creed, and basic civil rights are a far cry away from affirming that kind of lifestyle or extending marriage to them. I understand the need to say that you disagree with issues like this, or that you believe that God finds it distasteful, but denying equality in employment and health care seems like straight up discrimination to me. So what do you guys thing? What political causes should the Church stand up for? Where do we draw the line in how forcefully we deal with the world?

2005-01-27T18:42:00.001-06:00

Some sweet catlike thing from the San Diego Zoo

2005-01-27T18:42:00.000-06:00

My bonita wife

2005-01-27T18:41:00.002-06:00

An Elephant looking sad at the San Diego Zoo

2005-01-27T18:41:00.001-06:00

Arizona Mountainry

2005-01-27T18:41:00.000-06:00

Texas Sunset

2005-01-27T18:40:00.004-06:00

Some Meercats

2005-01-27T18:40:00.003-06:00

Liz and I at the zoo

2005-01-27T18:40:00.002-06:00

This peacock was walking around harassing the zoo patrons.

2005-01-27T18:40:00.001-06:00

King Chimp, defender of the pack

2005-01-27T18:40:00.000-06:00

More Orangutan action from the San Diego Zoo

2005-01-27T18:39:00.002-06:00

An Orangutan from the San Diego Zoo

2005-01-27T18:39:00.001-06:00

Liz asleep in Northern California

2005-01-27T18:39:00.000-06:00

I broke Liz's toenail at Carmel Beach, here she is nursing herself back to vitality.

2005-01-27T18:38:00.003-06:00

Carmel Beach

2005-01-27T18:38:00.002-06:00

Liz and I at Carmel Beach

2005-01-27T18:38:00.001-06:00

First view of the California coast

2005-01-27T18:38:00.000-06:00

Northern California Mountainry

2005-01-27T18:37:00.001-06:00

Another shot of the Oregon coast

2005-01-27T18:37:00.000-06:00

The Oregon Coast

2005-01-27T18:36:00.000-06:00

My beautiful wife at the San Diego Zoo

Today's Update

2004-12-03T13:19:00.000-06:00

Hey Guys-
Well, as it turns out, all that posting of the U2 stuff was turning out to be pretty lame. There is some interesting stuff in that book though, so if you get the album, get the version with the book, and sit down and read it.

Be prepared to look goofy though, spinning this little book around trying to decode it. I got some pretty strange looks. :-)

Politics...It Had to Happen

2004-11-16T22:49:00.000-06:00

...It had to happen. So I'm a few weeks late on it, but I thought I would express my political opinions this political-season around.

So first off I should say that my POV is that I am a Christian, and that I was raised pretty republican. I grew up believing that Bill Clinton was the antichrist, or a foreshadowing therof. I also believed that all Democrats were babykilling, bloodsucking, anti-american, anti-Christian communists.

Now, I like to listen to Christian radio around here (St. Louis) now and then, as once in a while you find a really sweet sermon that really hits it on the money. However, there are some crappy ones now and then, and as I found out, everyone's political colors come out.

I've grown up and gone to college and I believe that I have a more balanced opinion about the world in general. And to be honest, it was really scary listening to these radio personalities talking about how separation of church and state is a heresy, and that the tax-code preventing churches from endorsing a political candidate were outdated and wrong. The whole time they were just a breath away from saying "VOTE FOR GEORGE BUSH AND EVERY OTHER REPUBLICAN YOU CAN FIND".

They had this formula set up. It basically went like this:
1) Give to Caesar what is Caesar's (a quote from Jesus), means hermeneutically today that it is a sin not to go and vote.
2) The liberal agenda is pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality, both of which are clear and present dangers to the moral fabric and God-blessedness of our country.
3) Go out and vote thusly.

Now notice that I must have heard a dozen sermons on abortion and just as much on gay marriage. But I never heard a thing about unfettered deficit spending, kids without healthcare, the general state of healthcare in America, the war in Iraq, a pre-emptive war policy in general, the skewing of wealth in America towards the rich, the environment, or foreign aid to countries in poverty to prevent terrorism.

Now, you saw and I saw and the whole world saw that 20-something percent of people in the exit polls voted for "moral values" which means:
1) abortion
2) gay marriage

Now let me make my stance on these issues clear. I think abortion is murder, and that we should stand up for the unborn like we stand up for anybody who cannot stand up for themselves. To date, I do not think that George W has taken a radical stance on this issue, except to ban partial birth abortion and stem cell research. He has openly stated that eliminating RvW is not a prerequisite for his justices.

I think gay marriage is between gay people, and that the Church doesn't really have a say in the private lives of consenting adults. (I do, however, oppose gay clergymen in the Church.). The point here being that there needs to be a clear and sharp division between the morals we espouse and strive for in the church and the ones society in general goes by. For proof I present CS Lewis in Mere Christianity, the chapter on Christian Marriage:

Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question--how far Christian, if they are voters or members of Parliament, out to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make diforce difficult for everyone. I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mohammedans [Islamic folks] tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. My own view is that the Chruches shoudl frankly recognize that the majority of the British people are not Christian and , therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced on her by her own members. The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not

. ..sounds awful liberal doesn't it? It shocked me when I read it.

Now if there is any threat to marriage in the country, it is divorce. Gay marriage just isn't an issue in the Church, and the church shouldn't make it it's issue. My opinion is that too many pastors and too many denominations making AMERICA = THE CHURCH. This is wrong.

Back to my point. I welcome that fact that Christians came out in force to rock the vote. I think that's great, and it will force the left to deal with Christianity more. For too long it has been considered that to be a Christian means to be a Republican.

I remember clearly when my friend Tobin first told me that he was a Democrat. I was stunned. But when he explained to me why, and that he voted Democrat because they were helping out the needy and the down-and-out more, it made sense to me. To this day, Tobin has been one of the finest Christians I have ever met (top 3 at least).

We as the Church need to quit flirting with being a major political player and start worrying about getting the gospel out. It is one thing to inform your congregations of Christian morality, and take a stance on issues. It is quite another to pretty much coerce your congregations into voting for a specific candidate. I am tired of seeing books in Christian stores about the faith of George W and Ronald Reagan without spot or blemish on their character. I am tired of Jerry Falwell saying that he is going to create a brigade to ensure that "a conservative candidate is elected in 2008, and [that he is going to] work to make George W's second term the best in history." And I am tired of Christians saying that Bill Clinton was an antichrist.

In summary:
America != Church
George W != King David
Bill Clinton != Nero/Antichrist/Etc..
Jesus cares about the poor.
Our Ethics != Their Ethics
Jesus cares about those who can't stand up for themselves.

When you vote (next time), make an informed decision based facts and character.

This seems a bit disjoint. I might fix it up later/

Since when was Megadeth Alive??

2004-10-01T17:51:00.000-05:00

Two years ago, almost to the day, I was working on a project for digital logic design. I remember going to Megadeth.com, one of my favorite bands' websites and seeing that Dave Mustained had fallen off the wagon, seriously wrecked his arm, can't play guitar anymore, and broke up Megadeth.

NOOOOOO!!! Megadeth was the Metal Cum Laude of the Metal world! They helped get me through my teenage angst! They were in the middle of a comeback!

Just as spontaneously and out-of-nowhere as their disappearance is their re-appearance. Dave Mustaine went through physical therapy, lifted 3lb pink weights, and built his strength up again. He then recorded a seriously badass album, and said it was the final Megadeth album.

And I mean out of nowhere. One minute he can't play guitar and says it's all finished, the I'm walking through Target and spot The System Has Failed. A Compilation? A Remixing of sorts?? No, my friend, Megadeth is back..at least for one more album.