:: gordon gekko was wrong...

the last few days of november are on a national scale somewhat like what those few days here in new orleans during the february or march months are on a local scale.

mardi gras is largely considered a time where people get all the debauchery out. people generally perceive that during mardi gras you go to new orleans and get hammered and do crazy crap that you'd usually never do.

traditionally, thanksgiving is considered a time for family to come together and enjoy company and a great meal. but commercially, it has become a time where americans give themselves over to gluttony. i'm not trying to sound judgmental. i've been guilty of that too. it's true. we eat way too much food in one day. it's unjustifiable.

the day after, black friday, is a day where american's give themselves over to greed. given the economic woes of the past couple months, many thought that this day would be less insane than usual. but there were still people lined up early in the morning to fight for the right to buy things they don't need at a discounted price. we don't need the excess. it can be tempting, especially with the price cut. but a lot of times we don't need it.

and this morning, in an act of mystifying greed, someone died. i'm sure it's not the first time this has happened. but every time this happens, you've got to stop and think.

the people waiting to get into the wal-mart broke the doors off of their track to get in and trampled a man to death. he was 34 years old. he probably had a family, and he was probably working the insane thanksgiving shift to help support his family. and people in line to buy things they probably didn't need trampled over him in an attempt to be the first one to the xbox 360 or that cool new cell phone. people placed junk over that guy's life.

what the hell is wrong with us? dear god, what have we become?


*friend of the blog (and mine) corey phillips also weighed in on this topic over on his blog. check it out at http://attemptatfaithful.wordpress.com/

:: now this is crazy...

in this day in sports, teams just seem to score more easily than in days past. football has seen games that have one team winning 56-3, or more (see last years patriots) and several games where both teams score 50+ points. basketball has seen teams score more and more points each year. it seems it's a rarity for an nba score to not feature both teams over the century mark. baseball saw the increase in the number of home runs hit, but that was largely linked with steroid use and those numbers are starting to trend downward as more people are aware of what's going on.

but i saw something that took place last night that blew away my preconceived notions of what a college basketball score should look like. 

last night, texas tech beat east central by the final score of 167-115. 

167 points by one team in one game.

282 total points in a game.

texas tech scored an average of 4.175 points per minute.

they scored 77 points by half time, and another 90 in the second half.

first off, this is unreal. no team should ever score that many points in a single game. were there not enough players for east central to play any semblance of a defense? even awful defenses should be able to stop this kind of madness.

secondly, texas tech's coach and team are all jerks. what the hell possesses you to score that many points on an opponent you clearly defeated? there is no excuse for scoring 90 points in the second half. maybe the first half. but in the second half, you've got to know you've got the game won when you've hit the, oh, 140 point mark. put in your bench. heck, put in 5 people from your student section. don't drive up the score. this was completely unsportsmanlike. competition is great. you should always try to beat your competition. but once that victory is in hand, you gain nothing from further humiliating your opponent. you've already won.

thirdly, if a team is awful-- so awful that you could score 167 points on them-- how in the world do you let them score 115 on you? this is clearly a lack in understanding of the basic fundamentals of basketball. you don't let bad teams score more than 100 on you. i don't care how much you're up by. play defense. this is embarrassing.

that is all.

more to come...

:: quick facts for friday, november 21st -- the procrastination edition

that's right, it's friday and i'm procrastinating. i've gotten a good bit of work done, but there is much more to do. i think i have a problem focusing on something for too long. that doesn't mean i have a problem focusing. i sat at this computer for about and hour and a half and read and summarized an article about the stress that combat exposure places on military personnel and how those individuals deal with the trauma in both health and unhealthy ways. that takes some focus. but i think my problem, and perhaps the problem of our generation, is that there seems to be too much fighting for my focus. it's hard to stay tuned into one thing. i noticed the other day that i constantly watch tv and browse the internet simultaneously. i listen to music and read. i think this has become more and more common as we've discovered the need to multi-task. we've gotten so busy that we need to do two things at once just to get everything done. we can't focus on one thing, because it seems so unnatural and like such a waste of time. 

i've commented to several people this week that i have this "spot" in the library where i have to sit because there is very little distraction there. it has windows, but you can't see much activity through them. there are very few people here now. if anything more interesting is presented, i'll be distracted from working. that's why i'm blogging. so, let's get this distraction out of the way and get to the quick facts...

current time :: 12:06pm

current location :: my "spot" in the library. 3rd floor reference section.

current atmospheric conditions :: from my window it looks deceptively warm. but i was just outside and i know better. the temp is 41°F, though it feels like 35°F with the 16mph shearing winds...

currently listening too :: the sound of silence (not the simon and garfunkel song, the actual silence. it sounds like my computer humming).

current rambling thought :: "i might have to write a whole 'things i don't understand...' article on beyonce and her crazy cyborg hand..."

current song stuck in my head :: "a kiss is not a contract" by flight of the conchords.

current price of a gallon of gas in starkville, ms :: $1.86

current number of days 'till thanksgiving :: 6

current number of day in the year :: 40

current number of days 'till pres. bush leaves office :: 59 (22 hours, 41 min, 40 sec)

today in history :: 

• judas maccabaeus restores the temple in jerusalem in 164 bc. now jewish kids everywhere get presents on 12 days instead of one...
• the plymouth colony settlers sign the mayflower compact in 1620. apparently they didn't read the fine print, where it outlined the freezing cold winters and how more than half of them would die within a few years...
• the dow jones industrial average closes above 5,000 for the first time in 1995. now, it looks like we're heading back there again...
  

born today in history ::

• voltaire 
• josiah bartlett
• steven curtis chapman
• björk
• troy aikman
• ken griffey, jr.
• michael strahan
• chris moneymaker (he's a poker player, not a porn star)

today's obscure holidays ::

• world hello day
• world television day 

(hmm, these two seem to be working against each other)

video of the day :: 


more to come...

:: quick facts for tuesday, november 18th

is it normal to be tired all the time? is this something that everyone is experiencing? because i'm always tired. i slept until noon today, and i was tired two hours later. i cannot explain this, so the best i can do is rationalize it. it seems like so much of life now is run on empty. i'm always tired. my gas tank is almost always barren.  my bank account is always low, and moths inhabit my wallet. if i didn't have friends, i'd be pretty depressed. 

don't worry, i'm not depressed. although i am keenly aware of my emptiness, i'm also aware of how full my life is too. to list all the good things might sound pompous. then again, i suppose listing the bad might sound emo.

with that in mind, let's get to the quick facts.

current time :: 11:47pm

current location :: the apartment couch

currently watching :: whose line is it anyway.

recently listened to :: sean lennon's album friendly fire

current price for a gallon of gas in starkville :: $1.86

current price for an amazing 16oz. up of hot chocolate from strange brew :: $4.02

current balance in my checking account :: somewhere south of $10.

currently thinking :: "why the heck does everyone think kentucky's basketball team is going to the ncaa tourney this year? they have been awful thus far. and alabama is picked to win the sec west? they lost to lowly mercer. why aren't my bulldogs getting any love?"

today in history ::

• william tell allegedly shoots an apple off of his son's head in 1307. what they don't tell you is that his son, who was obviously mortified by this event, later shot william tell's head off of his shoulders...
• sigma alpha rho, a jewish high school fraternity, is founded in philadelphia, pennsylvania in 1917. unlike the fraternities we discussed yesterday, this fraternity was devoted to singing the torah in hebrew and an embarrassing, pubescent pitch.
• george bernard shaw refuses to accept the money accompanying his nobel prize, saying "i can forgive alfred nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the nobel prize". that's funny, when he won the oscar, all he said was "you like me! you really like me!"
• disney releases steamboat willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, featuring the character that would later become mickey mouse. aren't we all glad they changed his name to mickey... "hey willie you're so fine..." (i think i might have just made myself throw up a bit in my mouth)
• the mad bomber of new york city places his first bomb at a manhattan office building used by consolidated edison in 1940. even though he was not born yet, it is believed that barack obama palled around with this guy (or would have if he were given the chance!)...
•  jim jones leads his cult, peoples temple, in a mass murder-suicide in 1978.

born today in history ::

• alan shepard (astronaut)
• ted stevens (former alaska senator, convicted felon)
• alan moore (comic book writer, graphic novelist)
• kevin nealon (comedian)
• owen wilson (actor)
• dustin kensrue (musician)
• jeffrey jordan (college basketball player, son of a legendary basketball player)

video of the day ::

 

more to come...

:: sinners in the hands of a gracious god

i like to read. there, i said it. this hasn't always been true. those who knew me best in high school might laugh at that first statement. indeed, it wasn't until i got to college that i really started to read. and not just books with pictures, real books, engaging books. and not just books. in college i discovered relevant magazine, a christian magazine for twentysomethings that delves into the intersections between god, life, and progressive culture. (if this sounds like something you might be interested in, go here and subscribe. i guarantee you'll enjoy it.). after reading my first issue, i was hooked. i decided to sign up for the weekly newsletter, 850 words of relevant. i say all of that to share this. last week's newsletter was especially awesome. it's written by adam smith, an editor/contributor to the magazine that i've come to admire through his writings. i thought it was something everyone should read. so, instead of sending this off chain-letter style, i thought i'd post it here on the blog. i hope this impacts you the same way it impacted me.

The Westboro Baptist Church announced last week that they would picket the funeral of President-elect Barack Obama’s grandmother. A solemn family memorial for a woman who will never get to see her grandson sworn in as the nation’s president will be beset by people waving angry and vulgar signs, spewing hate.

Sadly, the placard-waving street preacher is not an uncommon sight in America. They stand on corners, yelling at wide-eyed and innocent girls for being tawdry Jezebels. Shouting through bullhorns and brandishing angry and esoteric signs, they paint a grim picture of hell as the destination of everyone who happens to pass by.

Theirs is a brutal and atavistic god. A dark, old-world titan of blood and fire. It is a pagan deity born from the smallness of man. Such a god has its genesis in our own insecurities. Our own pride and hesitancy to accept unmitigated grace, believing on some level that there must be some Puritanical way we can earn it. This god doesn’t know grace. It demands perfection, knowing full well it will never get it—because that’s the game. It doesn’t want perfection. It wants to laugh at failure and then grind the accused to a paste between its stone molars.

Very few Christians identify with this kind of gospel, and most of us have a visceral reaction when we see the street-corner shouter, condemning strangers to hell. It seems more bad news than good. I often wonder, though, if on some bent level we can learn something from this. Surely, this message sacrifices the true message of the cross to revel in judgment. But how often do we try to be the counterpoint to that grotesque display, only to end up sacrificing the forth-telling of the Gospel at all? And how often do we cling to grace as a cheap catch-all to validate our own broken behavior?

One thing is certain: God’s grace is limitless. He loves us through our faults, forgives us any sin and never desires to see us cut off from His Kingdom. However, at what point do we use this to justify sin? When do we decide we will no longer languish in the same pitfalls over and over, and get down to the hard work of being more like Jesus?

The natural reaction would be to assume that we should tone down our rhetoric on grace and throw in some good, old-fashioned Jonathan Edwards brimstone. I think if anything, it’s not that we emphasize grace too much, it’s that we don’t take it seriously enough. You see, grace of this magnitude should inevitably motivate us toward the one who issues it. Not in the sense that we believe we can somehow pay God back for what He’s done. That’s impossible. Infinite grace can’t be repaid. Rather, we should be compelled to be molded into Christ’s image because grace is so beautiful as to lure us toward its author. It just so happens that, as we chase after this desire, it makes us more like God and less given to filling our lives with garbage. Grace is so stunningly gorgeous that the delights the world has to offer seem ugly and trivial by comparison. If people really understood the lavish depths of grace, the true breadth of God’s love for us, all the sinful acts the sign-wavers condemn would begin to lose their appeal.

This is why the street preachers rarely succeed in truly drawing people to Christ. At best, they make people over in their own perverted image. I once heard an evangelist defend hate-filled condemnation by saying that people don’t understand they need a savior until they understand the depth of their sin. I couldn’t disagree more. Perhaps some people do come to God as a result of recognizing their own depravity. But I tend to think that the beauty of God’s grace can draw people in of its own accord.

Certainly, rebuke has its place. After all, we see Paul engage in it a number of times. But that rebuke is, first of all, always born of prior relationship. Paul didn’t shout judgment upon people who had the unhappy coincidence of wandering by. He formed a deep, loving relationship with the churches he admonished. Secondly, true rebuke is not a slap in the face for screwing up. It’s a reminder that people have sacrificed something of greater fulfillment for something of paltry value. It points people back to grace and helps them recall how extravagantly good it is compared to the pursuits of the flesh. The crazy thing is this: The pursuits of the flesh also include trying to pridefully repay God for our own salvation.

I recall hearing a pastor say once, “If Paul could see the Church today, he wouldn’t even think we were Christians.” In the context of the message, he was insinuating that we had become too worldly to qualify for the term. I agree with the statement, but for entirely different reasons. I wonder sometimes if Paul would scratch his head in bewilderment at much of the modern Church, and then speak lovingly to us, saying:

“You foolish Galatians! Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?” (Galatians 3:1, 3)

Our human effort always comes up short. When we view grace cheaply, it leads to our desires being drawn away to ultimately unfulfilling pursuits. It leads to arrogantly assuming we can accomplish holiness through our own strength, and we find ourselves repeatedly falling short.

And, if we’re not careful, it leads to waving signs and shouting at people.

good stuff.

more to come...

quick facts for "manic" monday, november 17th

if this week doesn't kill me, it will make me very tired. i've got a crazy week ahead of me, and things always look the bleakest on monday. without boring everyone to death, i'll just say that i've got a lot of work to complete this week. if you're a friend of mine in the starkville area, you might not see me very often this week, unless you are also confined to the library. (3rd floor is the quietest place i've found...).

with that in mind, let's quickly hit the quick facts ::

current time :: 10:34pm

current location :: the mitchell memorial library computer lab (desk #68, to be exact).

currently listening too :: okkervil river's album black sheep boy. (the song no key, no plan, again, for exactness sake)

the current price of a gallon of gas in starkville, ms :: $1.86

fact :: my mississippi state bulldogs basketball team defeated the university of louisiana - monroe warhawks by the final score of 78-49. the bulldogs are now 2-0 on the season.

today in history ::

• queen mary i of england dies and is succeeded by her half sister, cate blanchett, in 1558.
• the united states congress holds it first session in washington, d.c, in 1800. now, congress mostly takes vacations in aspen.
• the delta phi fraternity is founded at union college in schenectady, new york in 1827. essentially, they just decided since they all got drunk and ended up passing out at the same place, they'd make it a club.
• the national rifle association is granted a charter by the state of new york in 1871. this was primarily to combat the public drunkenness perpetrated by the delta phi fraternity.
• the omega psi ohi fraternity is founded in 1911 at howard university in washington, d.c. apparently, these guys liked what the delta phi guys were cooking and wanted to get in on the action.
• the united state recognizes the soviet union in 1933. this replaced the practice of covering that portion of the globe with the right hand and pretending that it didn't exist.
• president lyndon b. jonson states that the united states armed forces were "inflicting greater losses than [they were] taking" and that they were "making progress" in the vietnam war in 1967 (8 years after the war had begun). the war ended on april 30th, 1975. at least he didn't have a huge "mission accomplished" banner behind him...
• douglas engelbart recieves the patent for the first computer mouse in 1970. elderly people everywhere have trouble understanding how mice could possibly control the arrow on that electronic window.
• president richard nixon tells 400 ap editors that he is "not a crook" in 1973. he was probably lying, making him both a crook and a liar, or a good politician...

born this day in history ::

• rock hudson (actor)
• gordon lightfoot (musician)
• martin scorsese (director)
• danny devito (actor)
• lorne michaels (producer)
• butch davis (football coach)
• jeff buckley (musician)
• kimya dawson (musician)
• reggie wayne (football player)
• rachel mcadams (actress)
• brad bradley (wrestler, guy with the same first and last name)

video of the day ::

more to come...

:: quick facts for friday, november 14th

life can be beautifully awkward sometimes. that's something to celebrate every once in a while. today was a day for that. first off, i celebrated our collective awkwardness by watching two great shows: arrested development and the office.  the office is probably best known for it's awkward moments. seasons one and two were filled with them. some were actually turned off by just how awkwardly funny they were. i, personally, love the awkwardness. arrested development, while not as awkward, per se, as the office, is brilliant and does have some awkward story lines (george micheal's crush on his cousin maeby, lucile's relationship with her kids, buster's relationship with lucile two, virtually everything tobias says...). afterwards, i got the chance to experience some awkwardness myself. the professor of one of my pretty important classes gave us an extra credit assignment for today, stating that if we showed up for a "student affairs conference" and stayed for half an hour, we would get ten bonus points added to our final exam grade. since i didn't have anything to do this afternoon, i figured it would be foolish to pass up this opportunity. so i went. little did i know that this thing was (a) supposed to last for 3 hours and (b) it obviously hadn't been well publicized, as there weren't very many people there. i signed in, grabbed the complimentary pen and box of msu mints, and headed to one of the first breakoff sessions. each session lasted exactly (and conveniently)  half an hour. so i sat through the presentation on the housing department, and afterwards slipped back into the main hallway to sign out and get credit for being there the required time. then things got awkward. i notice that almost everyone else is moving to sign out as well. it turns out that a good number of people that actually came, did so for the same reasons i did. the people who were running the thing were a little confused and i'm sure a little upset to see people rushing out of their already under-attended conference. one lady even said, in my direction, "there are more sessions, you can stay if you want". i don't know if you've ever been confronted by a situation in which you cared what other people thought and felt about you-- enough to make up a story that somehow validated your behavior and got you off the hook-- but not enough to actually change your behavior, but i have. i felt bad for the people who were running the conference, and i didn't want them to think that i was ungrateful for the service they were providing, so i muttered to a friend who was near me, "i have a class to get to". this, however, was not technically true. but i wanted to get out of there, so i did (quickly).

that may not have been as awkward as an episode of the office and may make me look like an awful person. with that in mind, let's get to the quick facts...

current time :: 6:25 (exactly 3 hours from when i'll *hopefully* be sitting in a movie theatre watching  the new james bond flick quantum of solace)

current location :: the apartment couch

recently listened to :: radiohead's album hail to the theif

currently watching :: my roommate michael playing pac man. i just beat my roommate james' high score, now he is giving it a shot. he's good for his first time playing. freaking german, always good at everything...

current rambling thought :: "what is a 'quantum of solace' anyway?"

current atmospheric conditions :: it's raining proverbial cats, dogs and men (although i'm not as excited about it as the weather girls are. also, the temp is 64°F

number of days until thanksgiving :: 13 days

today in history :: 

• president abraham lincoln approves general ambrose burnside's plan to capture the confederate capital at richmond, virginia. now, most people approve of burnside's lesser know plan to grow hair all over their face.
• journalist nellie bly begins her journey around the world in eighty days in 1889. she completes the task in seventy-two days. my only question is, "why is eighty days always the goal? why eighty?"
• czechoslovakia becomes a republic in 1918. they aren't speaking now, and go by different names.
• the bbc begins radio service in the united kingdom 1922. parents started to worry that kids would go deaf by sitting too close to the radio. 
• nasa launches the second manned mission to the surface of the moon, apollo 12, in 1969. hollywood decides to make a movie about the next mission instead.
• southern airways flight 932 crashes near huntington, west virginia, killing 75, including members of the marshall university football team. hollywood decides to honor their memory with a super sad movie staring matthew mcconaghey. 
• the dow jones industrial average closes above 1,000 for the first time. now, it looks like things might be headed that way again.

born today in history ::

• leopold mozart (composer)
• claude monet (painter)
• julie manet (painter)
• sen. joseph mccarthy (paranoid)
• sherwood schwartz (writer/producer)
• condoleezza rice (secretary of state)
• patrick warburton (puddy)
• rev run (reverend, rapper)
• curt schilling (loud-mouth, baseball player)

strange holiday of the day ::

• world diabetes day
• the start of national children's book week

video of the day ::

more to come...

:: hypothetical situation of the week

i'm reading chuck klosterman iv by (you guessed it) chuck klosterman. in the second half of his book, he poses hypothetical situations before each of the chapters. each hypothetical in some way relates to what is discussed in the following article/chapter. i really like them. so, i figured it would be interesting to post them here and get a response from you, my friend the reader. i'll try to post one a week until we run out or people stop answering.

let's start with a hypothetical entitled the two motives, a precursor to chuck klosterman's article bonds vs. america.

think about your life.

think about the greatest thing you have ever done, and think about the worst thing you have ever done.

try to remember what motivated you to do the former, and try to remember what motivated you to do the latter.

how similar are these two motives?

so, what's your response?

more to come... from you hopefully.

:: quick facts for thursday, november 13th

i semi-dressed up today. nothing to fancy, but certainly better than i usually do. those who know me know that while i don't dress poorly, i don't dress-up too often. today, i just felt like trying out that oft seen fall look:: dress shirt under sweater, with the cuffs of the dress shirt rolled up a quarter length, jeans, brown shoes, some form of accessory (in this case my messenger bag), and a stoic look. i don't think i had the look down, but everything else was there. you should try it sometime. especially on days like this, and especially on a college campus.

let's get to quick facts ::

current time :: 8:03

current location :: strange brew coffee house. i think i'm the only one without a mac, and the only one not drinking coffee. they have great hot chocolate, though.

currently listening to :: the great music mix at strange brew. i'm not certain who's on now, but they had a string of greatness with r.e.m., wilco, john mayer, and radiohead just a second ago.

current atmospheric conditions :: clear with a temp of 54°F

current meandering thought :: "why have i never liked coffee? i'm in college. there is coffee. conditions are perfect."

on the schedule for tomorrow :: see quantum of solace. that's about it. friday's are good days.

songs currently stuck in my head :: justin timberlake's "cry me a river" and moosebutter's "star wars" (more on that below...)

video of the day ::

more to come...