Hello all,

I’ve haven’t been online much recently since I’ve been super busy with shopping, wrapping, going to Christmas parties, playing games, and just hanging out with people.

It’s been an interesting Christmas. In most ways by interesting I mean good. I was able to spend quality time with the friends and family that I don’t see all that often and I enjoyed it immensely. However, by interesting I also mean unusual. Here’s why:

My step-sister Mia and her friend Shawaii got in a bad car accident on the way back from visiting Shawaii’s family around 9Am Christmas morning. As they were driving, a dust storm came out of nowhere and completely obstructed their vision. As they slowed down, someone hit them from behind, which quickly became what I believe was a 5 pileup. Fortunately, they were the first car and were pushed out of the way so that no other cars hit them. The car was totaled and the windshield broke, flooding the whole car with dirt flung in by the wind. They have suffered no external injuries though Shawaii had to go to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing. As of now, they are both doing well though physically feeling a little stiff and tense. Time will tell what sort of internal problems might come from the crash. Needless to say, the whole ordeal threw a wrench in our Christmas plans but, fortunately, we were still able to get together before the day was over.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful (and perhaps a little less eventful). Feel free to check in again when 2008 rolls around, I’ve got some fun posts in mind for the new year.

This is really more like 4 posts in one, but I figured why spread them out when I could just post them all at once? I guess (depending on how you look at it) it’s better for you and more work for me.

Christmas is nearly upon us now and I’m as busy as a beaver in a brook, as anxious as an aardvark on an anthill, and as giddy as a goat in a garbage heap (well, maybe not that giddy). I’m looking forward to it and yet I have a lot of events going on and a good deal of shopping left to do. I always find myself wishing I’d done my shopping sooner and yet I know I just wouldn’t be able to work up enough motivation to get it started until I’ve realize that I have very little time left. Still, I’m sure it’ll all work out, as it somehow always does. I’m just thankful it happens at least/only once a year.

—–

I finished reading the Confessions of St. Augustine. What a wonderful book! The beginning chapter (or book, since it is divided into 13 books) blew me away with its sincerity and depth. The translation itself was simple enough to understand, and yet many times the ideas were hard to take in at once while still retaining a comprehension of them. Though I enjoyed both the poetic/worshipful sections and the retelling of his life including the events and thought patterns that led up to his salvation, my favorite parts were his philosophical investigations (or would that be dissertations?) into the human memory and the concept of time. His questions and ideas were eye-opening and thought-igniting. I’d say this would be excellent required reading for high school students, if public schools weren’t so anti-God these days.

—–

I overheard this at work today from someone using the copy machine:
“Does this have a cancel button?”
“Yes, it’s the one that says cancel on it.”
“Oh.”

—–

Following continuing situations with a certain someone (most of you can guess who this is) I’ve been pondering the idea of craziness and what we mean when we say that someone is crazy (mostly in the negative sense). The characteristics that accompany someone who we might label as mad, crazy, or insane might include irrational behavior or speech, unexplained violence or anger, a lack of foresight, little understanding of one’s surroundings, and an incredibly self-centered mindset. However, as I think about it, aren’t those things common human characteristics? But not everyone is crazy (at least, not in a defining manner). So crazy people are those who exhibit extreme amounts of said characteristics. In which case, it might be more appropriate to say that crazy people are just common to the extreme or extremely normal. Perhaps the people who are truly crazy are people like Christ who do things very uncharacteristic of the way humans normally act or how society expects them to act. People like Jim Elliot and his crew who risk (and loose) their lives to spread a message to a little known tribe in Ecuador, people like Brother Yun who fast for 74 days in the already harsh conditions of a Chinese prison, people like Mother Teresa who give up their whole life to help those who are shunned by their community, that’s what I’d call crazy. So I guess you could say my goal in life is to be absurdly insane, sounds crazy huh?

And one last note, I updated the “who” (aka about me) section of this blog, so feel free to check it out if you feel so inclined.

I had planned to write something more in depth, but it’s gotten late and my longer posts tend to take a while to write. However, not wanting to miss my once-a-week goal, I figured I have to at least say something, if only for the sake of…well…saying something. How about a little ol’ personal life update?

It’s been an interesting week at best, though not an entirely unpleasant one. I was going to have to look very quickly for a new place to live while in LA, (or LaLa Land as some of my friends call it, though I couldn’t think of a less appropriate name), but things have changed (as they often do) and I have half a year left to figure out where to go next. While once again hunting for an ideal place wouldn’t be a lot of fun, I really wasn’t going to let it be a huge deal. I think I’ve gotten better in that area, just praying and not stressing. Still, there’s much progress to be made. I was also reminded much really hangs in the balance and how little I am conscious of it. My simple mind doesn’t like to think of how suddenly and drastically life can change. Or maybe it’s for the best that I don’t worry about such things. I certainly can’t claim to know what will happen tomorrow, but I hope I can take less things for granted today.

I wanted to say more, but it really is late now and I’d like to be awake for my drive home tomorrow night, especially if it’s in the rain. I’ll end with a quote from myself that some of you might have seen before. It’s from my first Threadless Submission. Oddly enough someone replied to it with “woah. very c00l. its like the story of my life.” I have no idea what that means, but I did find it amusing.

The future is like a shadow, always beneath us. We find it already waiting with every step we take. The setting of the moon and the light of each new day reveals it to us. It is something never to be grasped with our hands but often to be contemplated with our minds. It is a thing to behold.

Also, my friend and co-laborer Ben is about to get his much-awaited shipment of games, including a copy of El Grande that he threw in for me. I’m looking forward to playing it along with a bunch of the other games he purchased.