Wednesday, April 4, 2007 | by nathan

…for these works of Your hands…

So, I just read this, and I think it’s pretty cool. I don’t agree with every assertion the guy makes, but since when is being a believer about agreeing with everything all the other believers say? Here’s an excerpt to titillate you:

Reason alone cannot prove the existence of God. Faith is reason plus revelation, and the revelation part requires one to think with the spirit as well as with the mind. You have to hear the music, not just read the notes on the page. Ultimately, a leap of faith is required.

But why couldn’t this [evolution] be God’s plan for creation? True, this is incompatible with an ultra-literal interpretation of Genesis, but long before Darwin, there were many thoughtful interpreters like St. Augustine, who found it impossible to be exactly sure what the meaning of that amazing creation story was supposed to be. So attaching oneself to such literal interpretations in the face of compelling scientific evidence pointing to the ancient age of Earth and the relatedness of living things by evolution seems neither wise nor necessary for the believer.

He goes on to say that he became a Christian because he could not stand living with ‘uncertainty,’ to which I would remind him that faith is often about living with - accepting - uncertainties and believing in the face of them. Whether or not you ascribe to the Judeo/Christian way of thinking and believing, I think anyone who is truly interested in logical cohesion would admit that asserting the non-existence of God is, also, a leap of faith.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 | by nathan

164 - Coach Moore

The last day of ninth grade, the incredibly hot history teacher hugged me. I spent the entire summer of 1995 reliving that moment over and over.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007 | by nathan

It Keeps You Running…i hope…

Yesterday I mailed a cashier’s check to cover the very last bit of a debt I racked up several years ago. I was expecting it to hurt a lot more than it did, financially speaking, but when I balanced my checkbook afterward I found that - oh! - I have quite a bit more money left over than I thought I would.

So!

back in the fall I bought a wonderful new pair of running shoes from NikeID, which I had designed myself on their website. These shoes have the ability, along with some fancy pieces of computerage from Apple, to act as a kind of pedometer, tracking how far you run, how many calories you burn, etc. I never bought the extra computerage because, well, no magic money had deposited itself into my account.

But yesterday, it sorta did. So, I treated myself, fought AIDS (a little), and did a tiny little something for my health. I did 2.08 miles last night, though I won’t tell you what my mile-per-minute was, because it’s kinda sad. Let’s just say it’s a good thing a pack of hungry wolves wasn’t chasing me.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007 | by nathan

163 - Valerie

My dad says that of my four siblings she and I are the most alike. To be honest, I could not think of a better compliment.

Monday, April 2, 2007 | by nathan

“You never know which STD you’re going to get…”

Okay, so Brian and I just wasted 30 minutes watching the end of Forrest Gump. I hate this movie. Truth be told, I hate almost any movie starring Tom Hanks - with the possible exception of A League of Their Own and Philadelphia, and especially anything starring Tom Hanks and having anything at all to do with Robert Zemeckis.

I never could put my finger on why, exactly, I hated this movie that so many other people seem to love. I mean, okay - it’s got more than its share of suck. Like the whole thing where he runs for 3 years? And especially the part with the yellow t-shirt? Come on, don’t tell me that wasn’t some old bullshit. It has something to do with the fact that I hate movies that seem set out from the beginning to make me cry, which Forrest Gump clearly was. 

Here’s what I realized tonight. Here’s what I hate about Forrest Gump:

Jenny.

We are given Jenny very early in the film, and from moment one until the end - when she dies of AIDS - oh, whoops, sorry: SPOILER ALERT - she’s just a big, rollocking, whoring-whore, sleeping with anything that moves, performing at one point in a nudie bar, snorting lines and lines of coke in a disco, leaving man after man, and especially our obsequious but more-or-less likable titular hero. Yes, okay, so I admit that Forrest as a character is likable, but Jenny? How in the hell are we supposed to believe that any man, even a man as stupid as Forrest, would spend his ENTIRE.LIFE putting up with her bullshit? I mean, really? And then to marry her at the end, after she reveals that, oh, by the way, I got pregnant by you - you know, before I ran off on you the last time, leaving you to spend three years running away from your own horrible depression - and I’ve been keeping this kid from you for four or five years, and now I have AIDS because I’m such a whore, but do you think you could marry me real quick before I up and die? Thanks, you’re a peach.

As far as I can tell, Jenny has not one single redeeming quality, and the fact that Forrest keeps on taking her back makes me hate him - and the movie that is named after him - even more. Just thinking about how I just spend 30 minutes of my life, which should’ve been spent writing my thesis, on watching this tripe makes me want to go punch Robert Zemeckis in the face.

Okay, so - comments are open. What movies drive you up the wall? 

Monday, April 2, 2007 | by nathan

162 - Derek Webb

One of the kinder, more gracious singers I met in my favorite job took several minutes out of his day to explain lyrics I didn’t understand.

Sunday, April 1, 2007 | by nathan

161 - Blake

Dressing hipsterish and being artistic for artistic’s sake neither makes you a good writer nor mitigates the fact that you are a shallow, whiny drama queen.