i'm a nazbeen

for any of you who may not already know, i was raised in the church of the nazarene (CotN) for most of my life, and in fact, a look into my lineage reveals a long-standing heritage with the CotN for several generations. and, being the good little nazarene that i was, i began my college career by majoring in religion & theology at southern nazarene university. of course, i graduated with a degree in psychology, and have long joked that "once i found god, i became a psych major." i suppose there is a great amount of truth in that joke...

anyway, in facebook world i am a faithful member of a group called "Nazbeens." to quote the group page, it's "a group for facebook members who grew up in the Nazarene faith and have since left it (often due to ignorance or lack of gravitas in the church)." there's all kinds church- and denomination-related dry humor there, as well as interesting stories of how we all became nazbeens. we have 61 members, including several faculty members (past & present) and multiple individuals who are currently in the mission field.

as i was deciding what to post here, i came across a blog post by a good friend of mine, Dr. T. Scott Daniels. in one way or another, scott has had a significant impact on the development of my conceptualization of christ and the church. and in his post, i think he is quite accurate in his view of what we nazbeens have experienced. for simplicity, i have quoted his post here, in SNU crimson storm technicolor:

The Naz-beens: Funny and Depressing

A former student of mine sent me the following link today - http://www.cafepress.com/nazbeens

It is a link for the "Coterie of the Nazbeens" - translated as an organization for "those who grew up in the Nazarene faith and have since left it (often due to ignorance or a lack of gravitas in the church)." The site offers a line of apparel, housewares, and buttons for all Nazbeens (I assume it is pronounced like Has-Beens).

I cracked up at the marvelous creativity it takes to come up with this stuff. At the same time I continue to weep over the drain of intelligence, commitment, and passion for transformation that is taking place as we lose a generation or more.

I believe we are losing them because we have given them a non-fundamentalist heritage of intelligent wrestling with the questions of faith and a passion to see the poor and broken transformed by the universal grace of God - but we have stopped living out that heritage ourselves. So although many of our young people have left the church to pursue secularism or sensualism, I believe many more have left as a faithful response to the gospel we have given them.

Although this may sound strange, I am proud of those who have left as a response to Christian faithfulness. I wish all of you were still here in the denomination fighting it out and helping her to re-tradition herself, but I understand why the desire to pursue God's call would lead you elsewhere. Keep the passionate faith of Christ embodied in Wesley and Bresee alive. As soon as the rest of us quit majoring in the minors we'll come and join you.

canadian gambling

i'm not a big gambler (well, except for poker...and the occasional lottery ticket...and march madness brackets), but i am diligent in following through with the surveys listed on receipts at places like walgreens, walmart, target, chili's, taco bell, etc. i figure, hey, if i'm gonna give them my money, i might as well try to win some of it back, ya know?

anyway, i just filled one out for chili's, and upon reading the sweepstakes rules, i came across the following line:

If a potential winner is a Canadian resident, such person must correctly answer a mathematical skill-testing question prior to awarding of prize.

weird, huh? those crazy canucks make their citizens pony up some math skills before they can win money. here's the link if you want to read the rest.

marriage manifesto [repost]

i thought it appropriate to repost something i wrote over a year ago, before i started dating my wife.

In a word, reciprocal. I want a marriage that is an equal yoking of two individuals, each who give 100% effort and contribution to the relationship. I want to be able to talk to the other person on the same level about things that are important to each of us. I want to use language that is fluid and fluent to each of us, that we can both say exactly what we feel and mean and can convey that to the other person with minimal distortion. I want a relationship built on the cornerstone of empathy, on giving the other person the benefit of the doubt before passing judgment on their motives or their action. Where both people strive to understand the other person and not simply press to be understood. I want to listen to my spouse's concerns and hopes and dreams - and for her to listen to mine as well. To really hear what I'm saying, picking up on and understanding the underlying emotions that fuel my fire in life. I want equality in purpose and drive. I want to not feel like we are competing for justice or love or time. I want openness and honesty and trust from both sides, so that each person feels completely, 100% able to say what they feel about a situation - to express their deepest fears w/o ridicule, to be transparent and vulnerable without fearing the other person will fail to acknowledge (or worse, trample upon) their heart. I want passion in the relationship, in making daily efforts to understand the other person and what goes in to making them who they are. A passionate, deep-seated current of love that runs through the relationship, saturating it at every level. A passion that joins both people together at the heart, filling them each so that they feel they cannot contain the emotion in their own body, and that it flows out through the way they interact with one another - and with the world. That the fierce love and appreciation of one another as individuals and as members of humanity so impacts them that they cannot help but respond to one another - and to the world - with reciprocal love. I want a love that is truly the opposite and total abdication of power and control. A love where neither person feels the need to have control in the relationship, that there's no need to hold back. A love that is not perceived to be constantly at stake, a love that does not have to be earned through actions. A love that permeates and persists despite the ups and downs we each have internally. A love that exists in the relationship because it exists in each individual. I want freedom - not freedom from the relationship, but freedom within the relationship. Freedom for both people to express who they are without judgment, freedom to embrace time apart with the same fervor as time together, for it is in the presence of each that the other has value. I want to feel cherished, to feel that I have value as an individual, as a person, as a member of the community of humanity. I want to feel like my desires and dreams in life, however far-flung or ludicrous or ill-formed at the moment, are valuable and worthwhile. I want to laugh and have fun in life with my spouse, to easily see and dwell on how funny life is, even in the tiniest of moments. I want to laugh at the differences between people - not simply at humorous things, but a sort of heh-oh-wow-look-at-that-how-interesting-I-can't-help-but-be-wonderfully-amazed-at-the-world-and-it-makes-me-so-happy kind of laugh, where my face smiles at the subtle differences because my heart is smiling on the inside. I want a marriage where both people strive everyday to be happy and to make the other person happy. I want a marriage where both people find fuel and vigor for life everywhere, where pain and suffering and happiness and joy and angst and confusion are all ingredients that we need to survive, and each are tasty in their own way. I want a marriage where both people strive to reduce chaos in the world. Where our shared values for what is good and right in the world directly translates to what is good and right for us at home. Where messes and annoyances are understood to be part of life, but are viewed as temporary things that each person seeks to remedy as soon as they are able; not where messes and annoyances are just tangible manifestations of the emotional condition of both people. I want peace - emotionally, physically, spiritually. I want a marriage where neither person cares about being right, where right and wrong don't really even matter, but where it is the discussion of everything that is the enjoyment. Where both people are able to look at every side of something and find truth there. Where "your way" and "my way" are truly, truly able to melt together and become "our way." A marriage where everything is reciprocal, that each gives all they can without fear or guilt or shame, and where even if they do feel those things, that its safe to talk about it, without judgment or criticism. Where excuses and defenses aren't needed, and thus aren't used. Reciprocity. Partners. Benefit of the doubt. Love. Freedom. Abdication of power. No control. Love. Laughter. Fun. Dreams. Concerns. Peace. Life.

summer in a small town

as promised, here are two photos from local businesses near our home:

Amazing Space (above)

(below) is self-explanatory...

additionally, here are some pictures from our the 4th of july parade we attended yesterday in round top, texas:



it seems my mind has been dwelling on content similar to that of some of my friends.

more than a wall post

a friend of mine recently spoke to me about her hardship after being laid off from work. i wrote her a reply - absurdly lengthy, admittedly - and thought it worthy to post here as well:

thought i should write a bit more than what a simple wall post should contain, so you get a full message this time. :) i apologize for the length in advance. you've got free time, though, right?

job hunting sucks, no doubt about it. back in november, i was in the same spot - working two jobs, as a therapist at a low-income clinic and also as an adjunct prof at my alma mater. my two jobs, combined with gabriele working at two different clinics, was barely making ends meet. so, i started looking for a job, even one i didn't necessarily want. i figured, hey, i'm marketable, and something will pan out here pretty soon.

as christmas approached, several things happened: some clients resolved their problems, some stopped coming due to their own financial considerations, and both gabriele's car and my truck bit the dust in quick succession. she and i pray together every night, and it seemed like our prayers kept becoming "Dear God, please help us out. Send us some money, a job, or at least some sort of hope that things will get better."

Naturally, they didn't. several weeks later, after borrowing money from our families (even my little sister, which was humbling) and hundreds of anxiety-filled, sleepless nights and tearful prayers of lament, we drove down to this small town in south-central Texas for a job interview. more prayers, and we decided to accept. that led to borrowing more money, being apart for two weeks, a host of other bizarre and unexpected problems, and our eventual arrival here in brenham. i've since received three paychecks, and we have yet to be able to pay all our bills on time. i've sold a ton of stuff on ebay to make ends meet, and we continue to be amazed at the generosity of our friends and family.

and i think that has been the point. i have always been the one in my group of friends who always had it together - i always was able to lend money, to pick up the tab, to buy the first round of drinks. the one who people came to when they needed help, advice, a place to crash, or help working on their car. in the last six months, i have been placed entirely out of my element time and time again, left feeling completely incapable of "fixing" anything in my life - and nearly everything was broken (except my relationships with God and Gabriele, of course).

in two weeks, we will get our first "joint paycheck"...and that will go to pay for our wedding. but then, on august 1st...well, that paycheck will go to pay for our car tags (which are currently 8 months overdue...so we still have our paper tags on). THEN, on september 1st, we can start paying people back. except, i know that no matter how much money i make, i will never be able to pay these people back, because what i have received from them is so much more than money. there's no price for love.

i guess i said all that to say this: things will get better. maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow - though both of those days will undoubtedly have wonderful things within them - but things WILL get better.

in the meantime, i'd also suggest moving to a small town - the people are nicer, the pace of life slower, and when you feel like you don't have anything, you can just look out the window at the beautiful flowers and landscape and realize that in fact, you have much more than you could ever afford.

life in the big city

i have been meaning to post this for several weeks now, though it's a little lacking without pics. i promise to post those as soon as we get a camera that works.

near where we live there are the following stores:

Continental Hairlines
Amazing Space Mini-storage
Blast-n-Cast Taxidermy

fantastic. keep 'em coming, brenhamites.

movie disclaimers

saw this article on wired.com today; it's funny, witty, and generally pretty accurate. i, for one, support giant warning labels in movies, provided they are like these. mpaa, take note.

an ebay story

sooo....money's a little tight around our house lately, and like many good americans, we turned to ebay in our time of need. i sold several computer parts a few weeks ago (hard drives, optical drives, keyboard/mouse combo, etc.), and then today i listed my old laptop on there. actually, i listed it at 5:56pm today...and someone used "buy it now" to buy it at 6:50pm! less than an hour and it's done.

...and the heavens rejoiced!

herd theory: the mane event?

i ran out of hair "product" this morning...well, i actually ran out of my preferred product about a month ago, and have been using something that gab had since then, but i scraped the bottom of that can today, so i am totally out now. (stop your chuckling, i know i don't have blond hair, but it works.)

anyway, with finances being a little tight 'til payday, i began to entertain ideas for how to cope with the situation, and voiced the option of shaving my head. while shooting that idea down, gabriele made an interesting point - that when men my age decide to shave their head, it seems to be a point-of-no-return decision; once its shaved, they rarely grow it back. she cited a friend and one of her brothers as examples, and it got me thinking...

my friend joe and i have discussed, at length, what i affectionately call "herd theory," and the many possible implications/examples of it in modern day society. aside from the broader sociological implications, we wondered how herd theory might translate into individual decisions. a good example of such decisions that would seem to have some root in evolutionary psychology is physical appearance - in particular, we're talking hair. (not hair.)

fur, manes, hair - they all essentially have the same purposes: temperature control and protection. joe suggested a parallel between a male lion's mane and his own efforts (earlier in life) to form his hair into some sort of protuberance (e.g., the faux-hawk). mane-like parallels could also be drawn with men sporting long locks and even afros. all of these hairstyles - and really, any hairstyle - has plentiful examples of certifiably attractive males (not pictured) to support the theory of pretty hair being the modern-day equivilant of a nice lion mane.

but what if you're bald? bruce willis, tiki barber, michael jordan, patrick stewart, even natalie portman - all are attractive bald people.

i have to go to a meeting now, but please, let me know your thoughts. my entire theory may be in danger here.

[update] just realized this is the 100th post on my blog! congrats, me!

deferring customer service

Just called my student loan lender to see about getting my loans deferred for another year, and once again realized how helpful they are with customer service. So helpful, in fact, that I not only emailed the following transcript to a friend, I also decided to post it here:


OSLA: Good morning, OSLA.
Me: Hi, how are you?
OSLA: Good, what can I do for you?
Me: I need to speak with someone about my account.
OSLA: Sure, what's your social security number?
Me:
OSLA: Okay, Andrew, how can I help?
Me: I need to see about getting it deferred for another year.
OSLA: Okay, are you still at [old address]?
Me: No, I recently moved. My new address is [new address]
OSLA: Okay, you will be getting a letter in the mail confirming the address change. Anything else I can do for you?
Me: Umm...is there anything else I need to do about getting it deferred?
OSLA: Nope, that's it.
Me: You guys are so awesome. Thanks!
OSLA: No problem. Have a great day Mr. Moore.


Seriously, you don't get that good of service at a gentlemen's club.

blogger resurgence

15 minutes til i start my weekend...guess i'll spend it blogging. :P

recently i have experienced a resurgence in my blogging, the strongest since i first began this blog several years ago. at that time, many of my friends had blogs (most of them on xanga), and it was not uncommon to have a post stimulate 30 to 50 comments and essentially becoming a bulletin board of sorts. but then our blogging began to wane...

myspace took over, and facebook to some extent. everyone was on there, always commenting, messaging, posting bulletin surveys, browsing profiles for hours, etc. and then we all withdrew into ourselves, just checking our profiles to see if someone else had messaged, but rarely sending a message ourselves. again a quietness ensued...

and then i moved to brenham, and gab and i decided to start a blog dedicated to track her/our experience with rheumatoid arthritis. in doing so, i realized i should update my profile on blogger to reflect our present location. little did i realize that that action would stimulate a flutter of activity and surprise meetings of other BOBs (born-out-of-brenham, as opposed to those who are born-in-brenham) and the entry into a new group of friends and even a church. tremendous!

along with the active blogging, i have again taken to facebook, increased my instant messaging, and even started twittering. it has been rewarding, and i feel that it has again enabled me to draw closer to many people, whether they live in brenham, okc, or even minnesota or wisconsin.
ah, the power of the interwebs. thank you, al gore.

sweet, only 2 minutes left. another useful aspect of blogging makes itself known.

twitter

i decided today to give twitter a try. admittedly, when i first read about it a couple of years ago, i thought the idea was batty. but then myspace and facebook rolled out their "status update" spots, and i enjoy reading what my friends are doing/feeling/whatever in those little spots. since twitter serves a similar purpose, just more frequent and easier to do (i.e. from IM, email, SMS, etc.), i'm going to give it a try. and it appears i will be an early adopter amongst my friends.

so, thanks casey, for the subtle invitation. my uber-connected soul thanks/curses/taunts you.

and for the rest of you, you can read my twitter feed in the sidebar, and even follow me, if you'd like.

the end is near!

umm...wow. okay, i'm not usually one to be interested in end-of-the-world theories, particuarly those involving some sort or religious overtones, but i have to admit that this news report is a bit too close for comfort:

background. the asteroid 99942 Apophis, discovered just recently in 2004, is expected to pass by earth at a distance no closer than 18,300 miles - that is significantly less than the orbits of most geosynchronous satellites. oh, and this is predicted to occur on Friday, April 13th, 2027. yes, you read that right: Friday the 13th.

bad luck. so, this asteroid is going to pass by earth on friday the 13th, but what's the big deal? you said it wouldn't be any closer than that, right? yes, that's correct, for that particular date. however, 7 years later Apophis will again pass by earth. the tricky part is that should Apophis strike any of the hundreds of satellites we have up there, its path will be altered enough that it may hit earth directly. oh, and this is predicted to occur on Sunday, April 13th, 2036 - Easter Sunday. i'm serious.

so, in summary, if we have the most unlucky friday the 13th ever and Apophis hits a satellite, we may all meet our maker on easter sunday seven years later.

but andy, what are the chances of this even happening? well, NASA's Near-Earth Object Program said there's a 1 in 45,000 chance that it could happen. better than the lottery, but still a crap shoot. but wait - while doing his research project, a 13 year old german kid calculated the risk to actually be a 1 in 450 chance. still very small, but waaay too close for comfort.

what are we going to do?! well, NASA is looking at several different plans, and from reading this article, it sounds very much like the discussion in the movie armageddon. they haven't decided to send up a crew of oil field workers, but they have talked about trying to cover the rock in some sort of reflective coating and pray that the solar rays push it away from earth. which is like someone throwing a baseball past you, and while it's going past, you try to throw a water balloon up in the air in front of it. i don't know about you, but my money would be on the oil field guys at that point.

there are a ton of other factors to be considered in this. the asteroid is too close to the sun right now, so we can't even get a good look at it until 2011, and won't be able to get a radar measurement until 2013.

magic brush

can someone explain to me how these mr. clean "magic eraser" sponge things work? they are truly amazing. makes me want find caked-on spills just so i can clean them up.



\not really, but they are really cool and effective.

new blog!

hey all, gabriele and i are starting a new blog centering on rheumatoid arthritis, both in general and the specific experiences we have with the disease. check it out here:

jointogether4ra.blogspot.com

(i'll still post mindless stuff here, don't worry. don't want to clutter up that blog w/ my weird stuff.)

south bound and down, loaded up and truckin'

well, looks like i'm moving after all! finally found a place to live in texas, and plan to be headin' on down there this weekend will all my schtuff and officially move in. btw, check out the events of the past week:

tuesday. no available apartments in brenham. also, a water pipe busted at matt & tasha's, so we had to shower uber-quick before turning off the water to the house. for the night...and most of the next day.
wednesday. plumbers finally arrive after 5pm, so we had water again. still no place to live in brenham.
thursday. still no available housing. argh. also, my mom's car broke down in the pouring rain while i was at work. had a coworker drop me off at walmart, where i wandered for a couple of hours, then walked (in the rain) to starbucks, where i sat reading for until they kicked me out at 11pm, then walked back to walmart until my dad arrived at 12:20am.
friday. had car towed to dealership, and they were able to fix it! (yay!) cost $1200. (boo!) oh, and still nothing available for rent. gabs arrived in town. (yay!)
saturday. still nothing available, but we did call about a skeezy looking rent house. went to dinner with gabs' family.
sunday. upon arriving at chipotle in college station, gabs & i discover that apparently someone failed to stop properly in their parking spot last night at the restaurant, thus smashing our trunk in. still nothing available, but we looked anyway...busted trunk and all.
monday. lady called us about an available apartment! i put down deposit on said apartment! the heavens rejoice!

now, just have to figure out how to afford the U-Haul necessary to get us from okc to brenham. any suggestions?

the eyes of texas

my life has been through some significant changes last year, and so far 2008 seems to be equally eventful. for a variety of reasons (and several different offers), gabriele and i have made the decision to move to texas. i have accepted a job as an associate psychologist with the brenham state school (BSS) in brenham, tx, and began work there yesterday. it's a nice facility on a beautiful campus, and from all indications both the location and the job itself will be considerably better than my previous experiences with mental health agencies.

so, aside from sitting on my tush in training classes for 8 hours a day, i am desperately trying to find a place to live in brenham, so if you happen to know anyone with connections here, let me know.

also, on an unrelated note, i was pleased to discover that brenham sells dr. pepper bottled in dublin, tx, which is one of the few locations that still uses imperial pure cane sugar in their recipe. they only deliver within a certain radius of the plant, and it's tasty stuff, so i'm pumped. my dad has already requested i bring him some.

and now, some pics of my drive from bryan/college station to brenham:

prayer | meditation | request

i need a money and/or a job, pronto.

humor

recently i've been struck with how funny our day-to-day lives are, usually without even trying. often it is the random, individual comments that stand out to me, and i believe they are worth collecting (a la overheardinnewyork.com). and so, here are a few from my life recently:

gab: "i have to brush my teeth...they feel gross, and it's interfering with my ability to hold a conversation."
____________________

gab: "hey, that cox has a wreath on it!" (referring to a cox communications van)
____________________

gab: "oops, i sat on the bread."
____________________

andy: "i have to go doody."
gab: "'DOODY?!' baby, that's worse than 'boom-boom!'"
____________________

gab: "women shouldn't have sideburns."

more to come...

skeleton follow-up

youtube has quite a few videos of the parade from last weekend; here are a couple of good ones:

march of 1000 flaming skeletons

last night a large number of people ("it looked like a thousand...") answered the call of the flaming lips and showed up to take part in the oklahoma gazette's inaugural "ghouls gone wild" parade as members of the lips' own "march of the 1000 flaming skeletons." representing my our tribe was joe, amanda, gabriele, and me. despite the efforts of some of those around us, no one was lit on fire, and the march went off without a hitch. also, wayne spoke directly to us, which was a quite a significant moment of the evening. link to pictures below:

scooterists...mount up!

recently, we held our 3rd annual scooter rally, with this year's title being "Pandora's Big Round-up." we chose a western theme to coincide with the state of oklahoma celebrating their centennial this year as well. activities included a buffalo hunt, rock-a-billy concert, and scooter rodeo (complete with saddle and live ammo).

i definitely need to give credit and massive appreciation to joe for letting me borrow his scooter for the rally, as mine remains in the shop.

and now, some more pictures!

herd theory

awhile back i developed what i call the "herd theory of relationships," and have discussed it at some length with a couple of friends. since that time, i have come to see further implications of the theory, and thus felt it necessary to share here.

the herd theory is built upon the basic premise that humans have evolved over time from some lower species that operated in large herds that contained one (or at most, just a few) males and a large number of females. similar to a pride of lions, perhaps...think of the lion king.

to apply this to modern day mankind, i believe that each male views the females in his life - especially the single ones - as members of his "herd." as members, the male feels a need to protect the females and watch over them, provide for them, and be strong for them in times of weakness.

females (who, by the way, may or may not be aware of the existence of herds at all) may be members of several different herds, each headed up by a different male. when a female marries another male, the head male of her original herd mourns the loss of one his members, as she then the key member of her husband's heard. when a male meets a female whom he deems worthy and desires her to be in his herd, and finds out she is already a member of another herd (i.e. married, dating, etc.), he ignores/suppresses this fact until he meets the other male. at that time, a handshake occurs, which is the modern day equivalent of two antelopes butting heads on the plains.

with this in mind, lets take a darwinian fast-forward to look at the transition from tribal to modern-day urban communities. it seems that over time, certain qualities evolve to become more desirable than others. the primary example of this is that while being big and strong may be beneficial in a tribal community, it is less important if you live in, say, 21st century minneapolis. so how have all the weaklings survive? was it solely the work of being protected by the strongmen?

i'd like to think that at some point, people realized that being strong may not always be the best status, and that being intelligent (or better yet, wise) might be more advantageous, as having the discernment to know what fights to pick and which ones to avoid might keep you alive longer. and so, the wisest people in society started to become the Chosen Ones. wise men married wise women, as they were the best at raising wise children and thus perpetuating the lineage of wisdom.

and so, that's my narcissistic argument for why the modern day guru - the psychotherapist - is the top of the food chain.

blame it on the rain

gary england said today that okc has received rainfall for the last 15 days straight. the map (left) shows total rainfall for this area over the last 30 days. cripes, i feel like an extra in evan almighty.

incidentally, a few days ago john stewart poked fun at gary england an episode of the daily show. definitely worth a look.

damn rain.

i think we're dying

love

i suppose this is somewhat related to my marital manifesto that i posted on my [former] myspace blog (and recently copied to this one), though i feel this is of infinitely greater importance, for it is this upon which a marriage should be based. also, i realize that my beliefs are likely in opposition to those by whom i am employed. i can't help but feel that they're missing something.

i was asked how this relates to marriage, to how i see god being invovled in marriage. to answer, my reply must begin with my conception of god.

i maintain a belief in some sort of higher being, though i readily admit that i relate to this greater reality in many different ways, because i feel that we cannot adequately describe whatever he/she/it is with even the most eloquent language. because i was raised in the southern united states, i have been taught to describe love in terms of the Christian God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and so that is the default method of how i relate to this...presence, being, whatever. for me, god is love.

for me, the description of god and the description of love begin at the same place. i'm convinced that if all languages had a singular term for love (or equally different terms for different types of love), and that all the terms for love and for god or gods or supreme being or great spirit or enlightenment or allah or greatest whatever were replaced with this term that crosses all geographical, cultural, and religious barriers, that the world would look at their religion, at the key tenets of belief in humanity and everything else, in a considerably different light. it would cease to become my god vs. your god or my beliefs vs. your beliefs, and would shift to my love is your love is also how we all know and experience and share love.

as a child, my family would convey love by saying things like "i love you thirty bushels" or "i love you a million billion trillion bushels," with the intent to try and top the other person's concept and amount of love. similarly, i have a dear friend who speaks love with her child by comparing it to numerous things in nature, such as "more than all the grains of sand on the earth" or "more than all the stars in the heavens." the truth is, our attempts to try and imagine all the love in the world, to feel its height and width and depth and density, is an ultimately futile endeavor, because the love of god (that is, love itself) is far greater than our minds are capable of imagining. picture the largest thing you can imagine, and love is still greater than that. makes your brain hurt.

love is. it is the life-force that exists within every person, between every person, in the air and water and land around us. i suppose i crudely equate it with the idea of the Force on star wars, in that love is in an around everything, and that for some it is stronger than for for others. and we all experience love (and if you will, god) in different ways. i have a very difficult time imagining that god is limited to merely the ways christians experience god - i personally feel that i can equally experience god through a traditional christian worship service, buddhist meditation, laughing and playing with children, song and dance, helping the poor and needy, and reading the stories of humanity's past that have been enscribed as sacred texts for many different religions. who am i to limit the way god reveals himself to humanity? love crosses all borders.

can you imagine if everyone embraced love with the same fervor? if everyone embodied love to each person they interacted with each day - imagine what it would be like to feel safe when you were vulnerable, to be transparent with others and let the know the true you without fear of judgment or retribution or obliteration! imagine what it would be like if even every person took this approach with just one person in their life! what if everyone truly loved just one other person?

and so, i suppose this bring us to marriage. in my observation of humanity and interpersonal interactions, it is hard to not acknowledge how some people seem to just fit together better than others. (i have often debated the idea of the soulmate, and i am still undecided on the issue, but have new thoughts on it.) for me, marriage is a wonderful institution; it is a sacred union between two people who are best suited for helping one another experience love. it needs to be the combination of two whole persons, both of whom are filled to the brim with love, perhaps even overflowing with it, so much so that their union produces a third aspect of life, a whole 1+1=3 phenomenon, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. this is the true experience of love in a marriage! - where both people are so deeply committed to embodying love to humanity as a whole that their combination creates an outpouring of love to all they encounter, both individually and together. it's like little individual all-star teams, where both parties work so incredibly well together that they enhance each other's ability to perform. (this compounding effect of love is explained very well from a christian perspective by rob bell in his video flame. definitely worth a look. you can also look at his nooma website for additional videos; rhythm is incredibly appropo as well.)

for some (we often refer to them as saints in the catholic church), this union need not take place with another human, but with love (god) itself. and really, i'm increasingly convinced that it should be the realization that such a union would be acceptable and agreeable and beneficial that is the precursor to even considering marriage to another human. if we cannot be whole and filled with love on our own, how is it that we are able to give it to someone else? i feel far too many people enter marriage with the expecation that the other will complete them somehow, and this is unhealthy. we need not complete someone, they need to complete themselves, and then are capable of rolling alongside us.

for me, marriage is peace, not chaos. marriage looks like deep green grass blowing in the breeze; it is dark hardwood floors and neutal colored walls, lots of windows with sheer curtains, contemporary leather furniture, clean lines, soft linens. it has lots of mirrors for good self reflection, and it also has bright works of art on the walls that puncuate the peace by which they are surrounded. marriage is not a cluttered apartment with red walls that are splattered with orange and yellow paint; where tables and chairs must be cleaned off in an effort to create a momentary spot of peace in an otherwise chaotic space. marriage is refuge, marriage is rest, marriage is love.

no more myspace

well, today i deleted my myspace account. i realized i better blog about this because, well, i can't quit being online completely. also, the benefit of just blogging over myspace as a whole is that everything i post on here is public domain - there is no significant aspect of my online persona on this blog that is hidden from those who read it (i.e. no personal messages being sent or received).

What I am trying to say is basically my explanation for deleting my myspace. I have come to believe that the internet and its numerous online communities (such as myspace, facebook, friendster, chat rooms, and other social networking sites) create a seemingly limitless number of opportunities for us to compartmentalize our lives. We can create ourselves new each time, even multiple times within the same community, thus embodying whatever version of ourselves we wish to be in order to interact with whomever we like.

i'm not saying that compartmentalization is entirely bad, and certainly for some people it's different than for others. for me, right now, i'm looking for wholeness; for a greater sense of unification within my self. and really, for a greater richness of relationship with everyone in my life. transparency. honesty. openness. love.

marriage manifesto

In a word, reciprocal. I want a marriage that is an equal yoking of two individuals, each who give 100% effort and contribution to the relationship. I want to be able to talk to the other person on the same level about things that are important to each of us. I want to use language that is fluid and fluent to each of us, that we can both say exactly what we feel and mean and can convey that to the other person with minimal distortion. I want a relationship built on the cornerstone of empathy, on giving the other person the benefit of the doubt before passing judgment on their motives or their action. Where both people strive to understand the other person and not simply press to be understood. I want to listen to my spouse's concerns and hopes and dreams - and for her to listen to mine as well. To really hear what I'm saying, picking up on and understanding the underlying emotions that fuel my fire in life. I want equality in purpose and drive. I want to not feel like we are competing for justice or love or time. I want openness and honesty and trust from both sides, so that each person feels completely, 100% able to say what they feel about a situation - to express their deepest fears w/o ridicule, to be transparent and vulnerable without fearing the other person will fail to acknowledge (or worse, trample upon) their heart. I want passion in the relationship, in making daily efforts to understand the other person and what goes in to making them who they are. A passionate, deep-seated current of love that runs through the relationship, saturating it at every level. A passion that joins both people together at the heart, filling them each so that they feel they cannot contain the emotion in their own body, and that it flows out through the way they interact with one another - and with the world. That the fierce love and appreciation of one another as individuals and as members of humanity so impacts them that they cannot help but respond to one another - and to the world - with reciprocal love. I want a love that is truly the opposite and total abdication of power and control. A love where neither person feels the need to have control in the relationship, that there's no need to hold back. A love that is not perceived to be constantly at stake, a love that does not have to be earned through actions. A love that permeates and persists despite the ups and downs we each have internally. A love that exists in the relationship because it exists in each individual. I want freedom - not freedom from the relationship, but freedom within the relationship. Freedom for both people to express who they are without judgment, freedom to embrace time apart with the same fervor as time together, for it is in the presence of each that the other has value. I want to feel cherished, to feel that I have value as an individual, as a person, as a member of the community of humanity. I want to feel like my desires and dreams in life, however far-flung or ludicrous or ill-formed at the moment, are valuable and worthwhile. I want to laugh and have fun in life with my spouse, to easily see and dwell on how funny life is, even in the tiniest of moments. I want to laugh at the differences between people - not simply at humorous things, but a sort of heh-oh-wow-look-at-that-how-interesting-I-can't-help-but-be-wonderfully-amazed-at-the-world-and-it-makes-me-so-happy kind of laugh, where my face smiles at the subtle differences because my heart is smiling on the inside. I want a marriage where both people strive everyday to be happy and to make the other person happy. I want a marriage where both people find fuel and vigor for life everywhere, where pain and suffering and happiness and joy and angst and confusion are all ingredients that we need to survive, and each are tasty in their own way. I want a marriage where both people strive to reduce chaos in the world. Where our shared values for what is good and right in the world directly translates to what is good and right for us at home. Where messes and annoyances are understood to be part of life, but are viewed as temporary things that each person seeks to remedy as soon as they are able; not where messes and annoyances are just tangible manifestations of the emotional condition of both people. I want peace, emotionally, physically, spiritually. I want a marriage where neither person cares about being right, where right and wrong don't really even matter, but where it is the discussion of everything that is the enjoyment. Where both people are able to look at every side of something and find truth there. Where "your way" and "my way" are truly, truly able to melt together and become "our way." A marriage where everything is reciprocal, that each gives all they can without fear or guilt or shame, and where even if they do feel those things, that its safe to talk about it, without judgment or criticism. Where excuses and defenses aren't needed, and thus aren't used. Reciprocity. Partners. Benefit of the doubt. Love. Freedom. Abdication of power. No control. Love. Laughter. Fun. Dreams. Concerns. Peace. Life.

arm tattoo version 3

my right arm started with just the Texas, which, admittedly, wasn't the best tattoo i've ever seen. though i did get it done here in oklahoma on the day the tattoo law was passed (it wasn't yet in effect then, of course). so, several months later i had it re-done, as well as added the outlines of numerous stars. last week, those stars were colored in, so now it looks like this:


much more to be added to it in the future. hopefully by summer. until then...

uncle andy

Val had her kiddo on Feb 21st, named her Layla Lee Boucher. 8lbs 6oz. And yes, I have pics:

Birthday:


Since then:




Cute little thing, isn't she?

adios bushy

launched a new cafe press store today: Adios Bushy. Buy something!

merry scooter christmas

From OKCCSC Xmas p...

pics from the okc curiosity scooter club x-mas party are here.

wait...no, nevermind

i just spent the last hour or so reading over all of my past posts, dating back to July 2005. i've never been big on journaling, and this blog has definitely been the longest running diary-type device that i have ever completed. realizing that, i decided that i could not, in good conscious, cease to post to this blog. i may post identical entries to both myspace and here henceforth, but i cannot abandon this. not yet.

blog on!

this is the end. my only friend, the end.

my browser is set to use this blog as its default home page, which means i see the same post every day, and everyday i see that i haven't posted a new entry in a very long time. almost two months now, actually.

even more sad is that i have posted a new entry to my myspace blog in that time period. (okay, so it was just this week, but still). and so, i think i'm going to have to bite the bullet and own up to the fact that active blogging is a thing of the past for me, and since i don't do it as much, i am going to just let this blog die. as much as i like blogger's format and ease of use, i realize that my peak blogging behavior (as well as that of many of my formerly frequent-blogging friends) has waned considerably. this is primarily due to the rise in popularity of myspace, i'm sure. and, as much as i hate to admit it, despite it's ugly, ad-ridden interface, frequent downtime, and infestation by ridiculously annoying bands, adolescents, fake profiles, spammers, phishers, pornographers, and friends, i am a myspace addict, and i must feed my addiction. and to be honest, i like having everything in one place.

so, thanks for the laughs, the cries, and the conversations, blogger. i won't even delete you...i'll let you live on in legacy, until google says you've been inactive for too long and casts you into the darkened void of electromagnetic oblivion.

adios.

mas fotos

Here's the link to all the pics from the Pandora Strikes Back rally that have been posted on scoot.net:

http://scoot.net/gallery/2006/09/pandora/alltinyindex.html

Good stuff.

ukulele

the other day i was referred to the following video:


then today, i found the midnight ukulele disco. contains some pretty interesting covers, and several very funny/odd songs, such as angels gave me roofies, transgender bender, and who's got the crack.

moore's honor

to celebrate my sister, i am including four fantastically gross pictures from an episode several years ago. while sitting in a graduate school class, i received a text message that said "bambi won't sleep well tonight!" upon arriving home to my apartment, i parked next to val's chrysler sebring, and then saw this:she had loaned her car to a friend, and he was involved in a multi-car collision with a deer (he was the 4th vehicle to hit the animal). car was totalled, and val let it sit in front of the girls' dorm for several days while she waited on the word from state farm.

so here's to you, val: to all the black eyes, car accidents, and living with sloppy roommates; to conquistador andy, hallway rivalries, and throwing tonka trucks; to jerky boyfriends, kaybee toys, el chico, and chili's; to old lady perms, bee stings, legos and barbie; to being a moore and not liking chores; to liking to party and eating real hearty. may the best be yet to come. you are...conquistador valerie!

gonzo

despite my best efforts to always back up my computer data, i lost everything last night. i'll spare you the details here, but rest assured that the always prepared andy was out maneuvered by a box of wires and metal. the bastard. it's all gone - pictures, mp3s, banking information, bookmarks, quickbooks data, clinic- and school-related files - everything. gone.

i feel like my dog just died.

so, after hours of re-installations and updates, i think that i am officially back to the beginning. perhaps this event will help my wife see the need for that second hard drive on the RAID controller...

do you realize??

Finally, here are the pics from the Flaming Lips show. A couple of comments to begin: (1) No, I didn't take these personally. More on that later. (2) Though I didn't take them, I apologize on behalf of the person who did for their semi-poor quality. (3) I don't know whose hand is in several of the photos. I think it was the short girls in front of us. Consider this public flogging for their henious act of overt photo terrorism. Now, more pics!

Steven Drozd (below), guitarist, keyboardist, and very generous soul who made it possible for us to have the VIP passes. Gracias, my friend.

(below)View from our position looking back into the crowd. Does not do justice to the number of people who turned out for the show. I do like the woman in the habit, though, especially because she appears to be nine feet tall.

(below) An innumerable amount of confetti and balloons were released during the show, shooting several hundred feet back into the crowd. At times, it felt like it was raining happiness.

(below, both) Wayne hypnotizing/communing with the crowd. Frickin' girls and their hands.
(below) Girls on left side of stage dressed as aliens. Opposite them were people dressed as Santa Claus. All were from the crowd; they just happened to be lucky enough to get pulled onstage. All around, it was an amazing show. The degree to which Wayne was able to involve the crowd - physically, mentally, emotionally - added an extra umph that continues to make Flaming Lips concerts not just a musical performance but a participatory event for all who attend. One of the most powerful moments during the show occured when Wayne said that one of the best things about a Flaming Lips concert (and indicative of their fans) is that no matter how crazy or insane a crowd may be at one of their concerts, you never have to worry about something dangerous or harmful happening.

synæsthesia

recently i have had several discussions with my lpc supervisor, stacey, concerning our experiences as synesthetes, that is, having the condition of synesthesia. a brief explanatory comment:

neuroscientists have verified that synesthesia is a specific condition, which occurs when an individual who receives a stimulus in one sense modality simultaneously experiences a sensation in another, e.g. hearing sound in color. (see the wikipedia link above for specific descriptions of the various types of synestheisa)


our first conversation about synesthesia was rather eye-opening (pun intended). since that time, my investigations into the phenomenon have yielded an increasing amount of self-affirming information, helping me to gain a greater understanding of how i have always related to the world.

while many synesthetes report experiences during childhood where they made comments such as "play the purple music," i fear that my desire to conform to what i believed to be the right & proper way of viewing life instead caused a suffocation of expression and creativitiy. obviously certain aspects of my synesthesia have been quite useful, such as how i view the calendar (as a whole year and as it breaks down into months, weeks, days, etc.). to say to someone "this weekend is a couple of tall towers" would likely result in a reprimand of some sort; however, viewing upcoming days in terms of color and size is quite helpful if you are making plans. perhaps that has contributed to my rejection of a daily organizer for the majority of my life.

i am excited at this [seemingly] new lease on life. as my superego allows my id's color to flow into my ego, my perspective on many aspects of life is changed. emotional content that was once reigned in by monochromatic conformation powerfully bursts forward. i feel as if i am living the life of pleasantville.

partially unrelated, this is a red-letter weekend. tonight (thursday) i will be seeing jason boland's acoustic show at the wormy dog saloon, followed by tomorrow's "margarita friday" celebration and the flaming lips (see below). naturally, reviews and pics to follow.

Toe - Day 1: Well, we won.

My indoor soccer team, The Ticks, won our fourth game of the season last night. With a 9-2 victory over first-place rivals Code Blue, we launched ourselves into a commanding first place position going into the second half of the season.

However, about halfway thru the first half, I attempted to "clear" a ball out of our end of the field, and in doing so drove my foot into the heel of an opposing player. While he did have to take a seat for a little while, it looks like I may have received the worse end of the deal:

I feel I should note that I decided the injury was not life threatening, and being that we only had 2 subs, I played most of the second half, albeit at a slightly slower pace than usual. And yes, I did score a goal with the afflicted foot, but boy did it hurt.

The colors continue to worsen as time passes, so I'll try to post some daily pics over the next few days in case it gets real pretty.

For another nicely-colored past injury, see here. I kicked myself.

100 mpg

New toy is taking up space in Mantown:

wikiality

Fantastic Colbert clip.


And to save you time, a link to African elephants and Idaho.

And since I was on Wikipedia anyway, today (August 1) is the day the following musicans were born:

Jerry Garcia
Chuck D
Joe Elliott
Coolio

a zaireeka reflective

sunday afternoon, about tea time, i had the esteem privelege of joining fellow bloggers joe, amanda, jenn, cody, ryan, jon, and a few others for a listening part for the flaming lips album zaireeka. sadly, wayne coyne was not present, as he had to leave the state for a prior engagement.

i'll get it out of the way and explain that "zaireeka" is a combination of the words "zaire" (yes, the african nation) and "eureka" (not the springs in arkansas). "zaire" represents chaos in life (and, i suppose, in music), and "eureka" represents that serindipitous moment where something occurs to us (again, both in life and music). and truly the album had a certain zaireekan quality to it, a sort of chaotic jumble of sounds that gave life to auditory epiphanies from time to time.

my most striking acknowledgement is that the listening experience was distinctly different for each person in the room. while jon & i manned disc number 2, joe was enveloped by disc 1, ryan and jeff huddled closest to disc 3, and amanda was near disc 4 (though cody handled it's play/pause duties). jenn split the distance between 1 and 2, though she probably had a better angle on 3 and 4 as they were both pointed at her. likewise, cody had good angles on 1, 2, and 4, with the wine rack blocking much of 3.

and i think the varieties of listening experience is the essence of what wayne was seeking to create in recording the album. in the liner notes, wayne notes that not all CD players play at the same speed, which inherantly provides some degree of mismatch between the sounds of the discs (we witnessed this as well). Perhaps this is most appropriately conveyed by quoting said liner notes:

"From what I can tell, CD players will not play in synch with each other. They get close, depending on the quality of the players, but for the most part it can be pretty random. It was this part that excited me, the fact that they played close enough together that you could tell what was going on, but also played unpredictably in front of or behind the other making it confusing. Sometimes one would start behind and catch up to the other, other times the opposite. What I like best about it was how different and out of whack and otherwise simple song could get...and with that in mid I started to think with an "expanded" view of what music and songs could be... I would try to present music that was both clear and confusing, where rhythms fought each other, where time signatures were simple yet unpredictable... music that would be unfamiliar even after a thousand listens. Music that, according to the normal ideas of what music is, doesn't work... instead of listening to a song and passively being either entertained or bored the listener would be engaged and agitated.. soothed but suspect.. in a state of suspended anticipation.. The listener could hear an exaggerated dimension of sound where sometimes reverb comes before a sound occurs, other times it's delayed.. Where a melody that's pleasant and uplifting, upon being shifted slightly, becomes dissonant and interruptive.. Where crescendos miss their cues either late or early or both... making music that purposely destroys its own momentum... and instead of hearing these things and thinking of them as being wrong or annoying... I heard the possibilities of a bizarre new format."

blog version ?.0

I have an insatiable habit of choosing new blog layout themes every few months. Forgive the lack of consistency, but like my underwear, this thing's gotta be changed sometime.

All undergarments aside, in case you didn't see Zidane's headbutt from the World Cup finals, here it is:

thrINK

Went under the needle again yesterday. Props to Boogy for the work.

still funny

This vid still cracks me up every time.

i'll raise you a spamburger

Got another $50 of free money for Party Poker. I'm back in business.

And just because they entertain me, here are some of the phrases from my recent spam that were particularly enticing and/or ridiculous:

FW:NarlyErection

-=LonelyHouseWives=- WouldLikeToGetLaid

Tiny~Tina Do yyouu wwantt to mmeett tonnigght?

I am continually amused at how many ASCII and alpha-numeric ways there are to refer to sex and genitalia. Thank you, spammers, for your humor.

hosed

Final night of the sleep study. In 12 hours, I will be $400 in the black on this deal. Let's hope it goes better than last time. Sounds like Joe had a similarly bad experience with his first night.

Goodnight.

slave to money

Had the first night of my current sleep study this week at the lynn institute this week. If nothing else, I made 200 clams just for lying there with a tube down my throat and wires glued to my head.

On an unrelated note, I also took part in the 2006 NAMI Oklahoma NAMIwalk today. It was crowded, rainy, and slightly cold, but otherwise a good time. I got to see a number of clients from my former employer, Hope.

In seeing these people today I was reminded of why positions at community mental health facilities have such a high turnover rate for employees...and likely for clients as well. More than anything, the lack of change in the individual clients' lives is difficult to face. Today I saw four clients who, due to the severity of their mental illness and/or cognitive deficits that they possess, will probably never be able to reach the level of recovery for which they strive. And after seeing those people day in and day out for two years, with their constant struggle to just stay afloat, a person gets disappointed. To be one of those unfortunate people is even more of a struggle. It's diffifult to find the motivation to work on your recovery when you're surrounded by people who are content with complacency.
That to say, I was inspired in my efforts to be a licensed professional counselor, becuase I, like many others, need to see results for my actions. Fruits of my labor, if you will.

Also this week I found out that I passed my LPC test. Studying is overrated.

one of those days

Not my garage, but I know how this guy feels.

ink number 2

Newest tattoo. Ah, my new addiction.

I suppose having this permanently etched on my body fully qualifies me as a redneck.

"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas."
- Davy Crockett

summertime

Shimmers is open again to fulfill your shaved ice dreams.

(Caption: K-Poo showing her excitement over the Grand Re-Opening of Shimmers in OKC)

Neverland

Think you're a Peter Pan fan? You have nothing on this guy.

Thanks to Noel for this link.

holy week

I'm back, baby. The 2006 Lenten season is drawing to a close, though by my nearly obsessive use of MySpace, you'd never know it.

New pics to come, new stories to tell, new links to follow. Gimme two days, maybe less.

Excited?

Hiatus

No new posts for awhile. I will be back...oh yes, I will be back. Check back in April.

you like to put jelly on a lady?

If you haven't watched the trailer for the upcoming Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, you are missing out. It's a pretty funny promo, right up there with the one for Saving Silverman.

Speaking of movie trailers, there is also a new Jack Black film entitled Nacho Libre due out soon. Looks decent, has potential, hope it delivers.

Two other links worthy of mention:
1. Guy gets speeding ticket w/ wrong info on it. Writes very humorous response to gov't, and gets a reply.

2. Why [this guy] will never have a girlfriend. Probably b/c he is a huge math nerd. This has been around awhile, but is still funny, even if you don't like math. Nerd.

Keepers of Lists - The Keepers Welcome You

I'm blogging about this site primarily so that I can add it to my favorites on my home computer. Aside from that, it is funny and perhaps even somewhat useful.

Keepers of Lists - The Keepers Welcome You

times have changed

I realized today [actually, it was about a month ago] that blogging amongst my friends has dramatically declined in frequency from what it was at its peak, which occured in the neighborhood of six months ago. Back then, in the "glory days," we had the hopeless blog, regular heated discussions on TC and Alt's blogs, and near-weekly updates on sjolin and my own. Now, however, there is a new girl in town, and her name is MySpace. She is taking up our time by allowing us to find friends of yesteryear, now scattered across the country, and rekindle the friendships we never had. But tonight, MySpace's server is down for updating, so I'm posting on here.

Incidentally, if you are an aspiring evil overlord, this guy has a pretty decent handbook to follow.

holy hair bands from holland!

I just saw this on my friend's MySpace and had to share. Sweet Jesus!

links of interest

I'm happy to say that I have corrupted several others in my advertisement of the StumbleUpon toolbar. For those of you who aren't Firefox users, you can stumble by proxy via my blog.

And so, here are this week's Links of Interest:

crash different. Hilarious video of a guy complaining about Macs. New fav video.
rock, paper, saddam. If you haven't already seen this flash movie, it's worth the time.
broke mac mountain. While we're making fun of Macs, here's this.
The Always Amusing Euphemism Generator. Marginally funny.
McVideogame. Try to run the McDonalds corp w/o running into the ground. Go ahead, try.
And to top it all off,
Oklahoma Full Auto Shootout. Festival where overweight Okies and thier young children get together in the hills to play with high-powered automatic weapons. On video. With tracer bullets. And explosions.

stumbling with firefox

If you don't already use Mozilla Firefox for your web browswer, you should definitely consider switching. Tabbed browsing is the way to go, plus it's considerably more stable than IE, it's skinnable, and it has cool extensions you can download.

One such extension is the StumpleUpon toolbar, which gives you a button that, once clicked, takes you to a random website (you select various categories of subject matter) that you probably wouldn't otherwise find. In the spirit of other link-driven sites such as Fark.com and CollegeHumor, here are a few of the links I have "stumbled upon" this week:

Indian [Eastern, not American] music generator. Prepare the Quicky Mart.
Finger puppet DJ thingy. Funny and pretty cool.
Badass drumline guy. Dresses like a douchebag, but he wails on the drums.
Stories from a suicide-watch nurse. Insightful, thought-provoking.

More to come.

HAHAHAHAHA. Just found out that the city of Detroit gave Jerome Bettis a key to the city. The last person to receive one was none other than Saddam Hussein back in 1980. Seriously. Sometimes the jokes just write themselves...

in other news...

Whew, sorry about that excessively long post.

Your news in brief:

Teaching is going well. Still barely ahead of the students in reading, but beginning to get into the groove of teaching. Realization for the week: the down side to teaching is that you can't just wake up and decide to skip class. This will be the first semester - ever - that I attended every session of every class.

Started seeing clients. If anyone you know expresses a desire to seek counseling, feel free to give them my name and number. Unless I know them, of course, as that would be unethical. Not that I want to know any of my friends that well anyway.

Finally beat GTA:San Andreas. Just the missions, not all the other little stuff. Damn long game, and I enjoyed it.

Super Bowl party, anyone?

reality is a nice place, but i wouldn't want to live there

It occurred to me the other day that our concept of reality is quite slippery. Each person is largely responsible for recognizing what is "real" to them, and thereby create their own sense of reality, to some extent at least. However, because some portion of a person's "reality" will inevitably vary from another person's "reality," we are left to argue over which reality is correct.

An example of this is the SNU bubble. I asked the students in my Gen Psych II class to complete a story based on a short prompt provided to them. Without fail, all five groups developed the story as if the main character was a student at SNU. While something similar to this university-centric pattern may or may not occur at a larger university (e.g. University of Oklahoma), the point is that the students in my class shape their reality by the environment they experience everyday.

The difficulty I have had this week is when people say something to the effect of "Well, just wait until you get out in the 'real' world," or "Wait 'til 'real life' hits." It seems to me that those statements are used to put down the person who is doing the "waiting," as if to imply that their lack of experience in the "ways of the world" have somehow made them inferior. Commonly used in the context of people who are sheltered from "bad things" in life, they are viewed as being immature and inexperienced. Is their situation in life considerably different than a Bushman from southern Africa who sees a city for the first time? Or any different than an individual who was raised on the streets of Harlem attending the University of Iowa? (I can hear the flame war beginning...)

Sure, maybe the Bushman would have a hard time adapting to life in an industrialized nation, and so he remains with his people in Africa. Sure, maybe the hoodlum will find it difficult to believe that people on campus care about him, and go on to sabotage those relationships. And sure, maybe the sheltered SNU student will live their entire life in the Oklahoma City area and only experience the "real world" through biased mass media presentations. But, should any of these three example people venture out into the new "real world" that they are privy to, they would still only be able to experience it from one vantage point.

My argument here is for tolerance. Tolerance of other's experiences, however myopic they may be. If you have a wider variety of experience than someone else, share it with them! Talk to them, tell them about your experiences and let them make the comparisons. Berating someone for not immediately or innately understanding what your perception of the "real world" does nothing, save for possible solidifying misconceptions they may have about you. Just because someone doesn't "know" doesn't mean you should write them off. Patience. Talk. Live. Love.

hipster trap

Hot Fuss finally arrived today in the mail. My first new CD since...The Ramones Greatest Hits, I guess. I wonder how long until CDs are completely obsolete...

Yukon burning

Yikes! As I was driving home a few minutes ago, I noticed some smoke in the air. Turns out, there is a decent-sized grass fire burning about a mile south of our house. Ooh, wait, "Chopper 4" is in the air on the scene...

Okay, looks like the fire will probably continue to move to the east but remain south of our neighborhood. Good news for us, bad news for the folks that live across I-40 from us who are in the path of the fire. Hopefully the OKFD & YFD will be able to hold it at Czech Hall Road. Also, there is an active oil well not too far from the current location of this fire. That could be real bad.

I think I'll go water the lawn now...

first day and conspiracy

I'm exhausted, so this will be short.

Managed to make it through the first day of classes today without too many problems. Bought new mountain bikes. Found this interesting site convering ten of the wackiest conspiracy theories. After just watching Syriana, they were especially entertaining.

professor andrew moore

I will indeed be teaching three classes this spring at SNU: General Psych I, Gen Psych II, and Psych of Children & Youth. Much preparation is needed.

Herald Sun: See what the booze can do

Holy crap, check out this article. Woman did a Super Size Me type documentary on the effects of alcohol onher body. Interesting...and eye-opening.

Herald Sun: See what the booze can do.

academia

So it appears I may become one of the newest adjunct professors of psychology for the undergraduate program at SNU. More info on this in coming days.

In a somewhat related career note, I did finally get approval to do my LPC licensure supervision at Life Counseling Center, which is a considerable relief. Should receive my first batch of business cards relatively soon, however, if you know anyone who is seeking counseling, please feel free to give them my name and phone number.

hell yeah

HOOK 'EM!

now, time to watch sportscenter to see the highlights over and over and over...

i want my free ipod, dammit

again, i thought i'd post my referral link so that i can get a free ipod. i've had one person sucessfully complete an offer, and so i just need 4 more. if you spend $5 on completing an offer for this noble and worthy cause, let me know, and as soon as it posts i will reimburse you, if you so desire. in advance, thank you.

here's the link: http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=15144288.

should you have any doubts on the validity of this offer, please read this.