A Saturday in the life of married, working Brandon

November 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Google Image search for Weekend brings up this.

Google Image search for Weekend brings up this.

I remember way back when I was in college how glorious Saturdays seemed. They were the day after Friday, which was an awesome day in and of itself because it meant that tomorrow was Saturday, which meant there was nothing to do but sleep in and eat and nap and watch TV and eat some more. (Unless it was the spring, when we had games every weekend, or the fall, when we had practice every weekend.)

Well, here’s basically what my day’s been like today.

(Be warned, it’s boring, so don’t read it.)

Keep reading →

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There’s more to this life than pain

November 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Many times Christians pride themselves on going through life as pure and holy despite suffering and “trials.”

Lately, I feel like I’ve been putting myself through a lot of that in my intense study and analyzation of atheist and skeptic mindsets. Not only have I been analyzing; I’ve been arguing with them. It’s been getting me down. Now, I’m saying to heck with that.

This arguing is something I’ve never really meant to get into. I’m a happy guy by nature; such intense thinking and writing about such deep and dark things like whether or not God or demons exist has been exhausting. It’s been dampening to my mood. Not because it’s made me question God’s existence. That it has, but there’s been a joy in realizing how real he is.

It’s just unbelievable to me the amount of hatred some people have for him. Others don’t hate him, they just hate the Christians. To them, I raise my glass; with them, I some days agree.

But the basic tenets of Christianity are admirable ones. They are things that any good person would strive to live by; they’re just laid out by a man who was also God.

Speaking of this Trinity thing, we need to clear some things up very quickly and simply: Jesus was completely God but he was not all God as he completely exists. He was a separate entity, a separate being, from God. God was not killing himself when Jesus died. In fact, God did not kill Jesus at all. Don’t you remember the stories?

Jesus was killed by people. He was killed by religion.

Which is why I find the religiosity that’s permeated Christianity so sickening, so gut-wrenching.

Alas, I digress.

The point of this post is to simply say to the skeptics and atheists, God be with you. He’s there, and some day you’ll realize that. Until that day, I say good luck in this life, I hope you live it for all you can imagine it being worth, because it truly is all you’ll have.

This post is also to say to the Christians and my friends and others who read this blog who aren’t skeptics: I’m sorry. I’ve spent far too much time dwelling on negativity that I’ve forgotten to write about things that really  make me what I am. Stupid things like hanging out playing Halo until 3 in the morning with my bride of four months because we’re trying to live like poor people to save money instead of blowing thirty bucks a week at the movies or on dinner and such.

Stupid things like calling IHOP to ask if they deliver and then when they don’t, demanding to know why. Also at 3 in the morning.

Stupid things like having to study for the GRE.

Life’s short. Maybe God has some grand plan for me in the next, but as for this one, I believe he just wants us to be exhilaratingly ecstatic through the struggles and the fights and the tears and the plights this life brings. It’s a beautiful life, this one lived with God. If you atheists and skeptics don’t want it, great, but know that anyone who truly loves God really doesn’t care what you have to say, anyway.

Now, I’m going back to my wife, and while I probably should, I’m not proofreading this. Consider this a live telecast, one in which I’m quitting my arguing with the boring people of this world who want nothing more than evidence. Maybe it should have been censored but to heck with it, it’s a blog and nobody’s making you read this anyway.

What’s wrong with a little faith, anyway? Don’t you have faith that the people in your lives love you when they say they do?

What’s wrong with basing some belief off emotion? Isn’t that why you like a fun girl or guy? Even if you’re gay or whatever, you pick who you’re with because you like your emotional state when you’re with them. Yet when people do this with God, you call them idiots.

What’s wrong with believing in something bigger? That someone else does? Or that you can’t?

Yeah, there’s some psychos out there who hunt witches and kill babies in the name of religion, but then, there’s people who do it in the name of completely godless motives as well. It’s stupid how you don’t decry them. You say you just want truth; what so many of you really want so deep down you don’t even realize it, is for nobody to believe in God just because you can’t.

God is love. This is the entire reason the Bible and Christianity was ever formed. And I plan to live and write with that in mind from here on out.

[inspired by this, which was inspired by this]

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Aliens are as unreal as demons, says atheist blogger/expert

November 13, 2009 · 10 Comments

Are aliens real? How about what they could be…demons? Are they real?

In one of unreasonablefaith.com’s latest posts, authored by guest blogger and atheist Jesse

Galef from friendlyatheist.com, Galef takes on the issues of aliens and their abducting of humans.

It’s all in your head

Galef writes:

…while reports of alien abductions are a relatively new phenomenon, the psychological reasons behind such hallucinations are not.  However, instead of blaming aliens, people used to blame the bad boys of the supernatural world: Demons.

In “alien abductions”, people tend to report waking up, feeling pinned down and unable to move, seeing visions of visitors, and often experiencing sexual stimulation. These are the familiar symptoms of sleep paralysis and hypnopompic hallucinations.

During sleep, the brain stops controlling the muscles – that’s why we don’t flail around in our sleep as we act out our dreams. Sometimes when woken from a deep sleep, the brain doesn’t immediately retake control, leaving the poor person both awake and unable to move (This has happened to me, and I was lucid enough to recognize what was happening.  It was a fascinating experience.)   It can be particularly difficult to breathe.   When woken up from a deep sleep, a person is also prone to vivid hallucinations. This combination explains the commonly heard reports of alien abductions.

I’ve had similar experiences. In all honesty, I didn’t know if it was demonic activity or aliens or whatever, and I really didn’t care. What I do know is that all I really had to do was breathe a quick prayer – “Jesus” – and everything left.

(Also interesting: while I talk in my sleep ALL THE TIME – I literally had a camp counselor once check to make sure I wasn’t on my cell phone after hours –  when I have “demon dreams,” I can’t get a word out.)

But let’s go with Galef’s analysis. I can roll with that. It’s all just my mind and body operating as wired. My crediting such phenomena to demonic tomfoolery is just a result of my personal beliefs and is thusly irrational. That’s a logical psychological argument.

Galef concludes with:

John Henry Fuseli’s painting “The Nightmare” shows an evil-looking imp sitting on a woman’s chest while she lies in bed. Psychologists now believe it to be an early representation of sleep paralysis.  It’s telling that the same evidence can fit seamlessly into countless supernatural  theories.

How cool is it that we can look at ancient experiences people thought were supernatural and explain them in scientific ways?  Epilepsy, schizophrenia, sleep paralysis, oxygen/sensory/nutritional deprivation… The gaps keep getting smaller and there’s less and less room for God.

Again, I can agree. What else did people have to lean on in the late 1700s – when Fuseli’s painting came out – than explaining such things by way of the supernatural?

But to what do we attribute the experiencing of demons when fully awake and coherent?

‘In Real Life’

While I’ve never seen demons while fully awake, I’ve felt…something. Sometimes it’s while I’m alone, sometimes while around other people. It’s a sense I get, then my skin runs ice-cold and covered by gooseflesh.

But then, I get goosebumps watching movie trailers with epic music, so let’s do away with my own personal experience.

In his book Beyond Belief, Josh Hamilton tells of seeing a demon once while on the baseball field, then again in his hotel room. But then, Hamilton may have been coked out of his mind, as his book is entirely about his struggle to overcome cocaine and myriad other drugs through the power of Jesus Christ. Rubbish, the skeptics say.

Well, that leaves me with another personal account, I suppose. But this one is based off a friend of mine to whom lying and exaggeration are more foreign than China.

Now, his name’s Brandon, but it’s the Brandon from this story, not my imaginary friend Brandon I made up for myself with my same name.

It was a group of us, maybe six or seven, and we were praying after youth group. While we were praying, Brandon opened his eyes to see, by his own recollection, the figure of what could be best described as a ghostly woman, all white, hovering over someone else in the room, her hands clenched around the girl’s head. The woman-thing turned, looked directly at Brandon.

As most of us probably would in such a situation, Brandon snapped his eyes shut and tried not to cry.

What’s the point?

Now, what I’m about to say will likely make me sound like a crazy person to the skeptical of you reading this. (If what I’ve been writing already hasn’t.)

But assuming the existence of Satan, let’s imagine what his purpose is. If he’s at war with God, and God created the earth and the people who live on it, what are they fighting for? More than anything else, they want God’s most precious creation: they whom Jesus Christ lived and died for.

Now, if Satan exists, then he doesn’t care if people love him or follow him. Some do, and it’s weird and a little bit scary. But that’s not what Satan needs.

All Satan needs is for the world to forget what God looks like. To forget he’s real. All he needs is for people to find something else to believe in.

The skeptics and atheists believe in science. Others believe in other religions. Others believe in other people.

I’m all for science. It’s allowed for some tremendous discoveries and enabled us to live longer and healthier lives. And it even explains away things like demon dreams as nothing more than one’s mind and brain short-circuiting slightly as they disconnect or reconnect in between sleep.

But if Satan’s real, then he wouldn’t want it to be obvious. He’d do little things like scare us in our sleep then use science to explain it away. He’d operate within the boundaries of what we know as “science” so we can explain it and thus prove our own superior intelligence and how exquisitely powerful our own minds are.

God? Fah. Forget God. If my nightmares aren’t demons then there are no demons, thus there is no god against which they fight.

Science is to some their god and religion unto itself, worshipped by many as savior.

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Remember how I failed my driver’s license test?

November 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

It was Wednesday, April 16, 2003. I’d turned 16 years old two days before. Since I had baseball practice Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays — if we didn’t have a game — Wednesdays were the only days I could get to the DMV and take my license test.

The drive went great. I talked with my DMV officer the whole time. He seemed like a somewhat nice guy, albeit a bit on the brusque side. Had a couple of kids, if I recall correctly. Red hair, cropped in a tight, nearly-military style haircut.

We pulled back into the parking lot. There’d been literally zero problems. I didn’t run any red lights. I’d skillfully avoided a pair of daredevil squirrels. I’d even remembered not to cut across the parking lot, recalling a conversation with a friend of mine from school who’d told me that when she did that her instructor cautioned her to never do that in real life or you could get a ticket.

I turned, grinning huge, to get his approval.

“You did not pass.”

What!? I thought. My face felt like it caught fire.

“What!?” I half-yelled, half-yelped.

“You did not pass. You failed to come to a complete stop at the stop sign on Thomas Langston Road.”

The cruel irony of this was that I lived literally one minute away from that exact stop sign. I didn’t remember not completely stopping….but then I couldn’t remember completely stopping, either. Still….I hadn’t come close to getting in a wreck. I’d had my hands at 10-and-2. I’d gone maybe two miles per hour over the speed limit. (Something else ironic considering the tickets I’d accrue over the next few years.)

But I’d done the impossible. I’d failed my driver’s license test. I’d return to school driven by my parents tomorrow. No, worse — I’d have to call my friend to pick me up for church this afternoon!

It was, to say the least, traumatic.

But I bring all of that up to set up this video. Maybe I failed my first test, but I really, really want to know how this chick ever got her license, parking like this.

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Lil’ bro’s first game with the new school

November 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Lil’ bro Logan, a junior at Greenfield School in Wilson, N.C., plays his first game of the basketball season tonight.

The first game of any season’s always a somewhat big deal, but tonight’s a bit more so for us Sneeds.

See, Logan loves basketball. Let me rephrase that. Logan and basketball are like Cooper, our dog, and his ball. If playing at a Gonzaga or a North Carolina — Logan’s two favorite schools — are the tennis ball, then Logan’s Cooper. He will do and does everything he knows to do to get the thing.

Also, Logan is the first Sneed child (there are five of us) to ever leave the school from which I graduated. And he was supposed to be their stud this year. And the coach was not happy when he found out Logan was leaving.

He left because Greenfield is a great basketball school with a great coach in Rob Salter, and he’s like Cooper chasing a ball. Plus, the people at Greenfield are awesome people. I interviewed a number of them for my book about Anthony Atkinson. Quality, quality human beings.

Lil’ bro got written up yesterday in the Wilson local paper, which is kinda cool, too. Some highlights of the article:

Head coach Rob Salter will have an assortment of weapons as the Knights, 31-6 last year, embark on one of their most ambitious seasons in his 12-year tenure.

“This is the most talented team I’ve ever had,” Salter said. “I’ve got the most seniors. We’ve got the chance to be very, very good.”

[Logan] Sneed, who comes from Greenville Christian, earns praise for his heady play.

“He understands the game so well and is an extremely good passer and a good shooter,” Salter said. “He’s come in and been one of our hardest workers all year.”

[full article if you want to read it]

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Great white shark spotted off Wrightsville Beach coast; also, I’m never going in the ocean again

November 11, 2009 · 1 Comment

I’m probably overreacting, but a great white freakin’ shark was spotted off the coast of Wrightsville Beach. And I’m probably a moron, but I thought great whites only lived over in the Pacific Ocean or somewhere else very far — and thus, safe — distance away from here.

Whatever good I’d done conquering my fear of the ocean just got obliterated. I’m never surfing again.

Steve Boehling said he was in awe when he came across the largest ocean creature he had ever seen while fishing about a mile off the coast of Wrightsville Beach. Apparently that large creature lurking off the coast of New Hanover County was a great white shark.

“First I saw a fin, and the first thing I thought was it was another dolphin,” he said. But then he and his fishing partner Mike Ross pulled their boat alongside the object and noticed it was just a foot or two shorter than their 18-foot boat. He said the shark had no markings and had a white underbelly and very large teeth.

“I’ve never seen a shark that size anywhere,” said Boehling…

[viafull article]

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The Choice, Part I: My Journey of Questioning God’s Existence

November 11, 2009 · 1 Comment

The past few weeks, I’ve been reading a few blogs by atheists and skeptics and listening to others. I’ve been watching The Atheism Tapes (2004) by Jonathon Miller. This interest in the other side of belief in God began my junior year of college, when I initially stumbled across Daniel Florien’s blog, unreasonablefaith.com. The past few days, I’ve been wrestling hardcore with my faith. Why in the world do I believe what I do when there’s so much logic against it?

Keep reading →

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Obama: ‘No faith justifies these acts’

November 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment

 

POLITICS-US-TEXAS-SHOOTING-OBAMA

U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement about the shootings in Fort Hood, Texas... REUTERS/Jason Reed

“No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice — in this world and the next.”

 

President Barack Obama, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009, in his speech at Fort Hood, Texas, where 13 people were slain by Maj. Nidal Hasan, the military psychiatrist accused of the killings. Reportedly, Hasan, a Muslim, went on his shooting rampage last week in the name of Allah.

[quote and picture via]

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What I’m trying to do with my life and why

November 9, 2009 · 1 Comment

Jeff Pearlman captures the bane of sportswriters’ existence in his latest blog. You can visit that link or read the part that inspired this post of mine below.

Growing up, I loved two things more than anything else: Keep reading →

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Evidence for God

November 9, 2009 · 3 Comments

Not my story, but I can’t find where I’ve read it before, so this is my best attempt at telling it from memory:

One night a baby was crying as babies always do, and his parents, groaning, awoke, debating about if they should go quiet him and which should be the one to do so.

Then the baby stopped, suddenly, as he’d never done before. Concerned, the father walked to the bedroom, stopping when he saw his three-year-old daughter standing beside her brother’s crib, cooing at him and stroking his head.

Then she asked a question: “Baby brother, can you tell me again what God is like? I’m already starting to forget.”

Many of my thoughts on Christianity are inspired by reading atheist/agnostic/skeptic blogs, such as unreasonablefaith.com by Daniel Florien.

I’ve had many sleep-deprived nights wrestling with questions to which such writing gives rise, but it’s very healthy for us to read outside of our traditional sources of information. It’s healthy for us to be challenged, to doubt, to question, to even fear that we may be wrong.

I’ve been there. Had those doubts. Felt that fear.

But I haven’t left. And it wasn’t until just recently I realized why.

The only real problem many people have is how insanely difficult it is to believe in the supernatural. That is it.

I only know a few things, and sort of know a few others, in regard to the evidence for and against Jesus Christ. But I know that there does exist historical evidence beyond the Bible for his existence, that he claimed to be God, that he led a revolution of his own kind, that he was killed for that revolution, and that he came back to life by his own power three days after being as brutally slaughtered as a human being can be.

In the words of Andy Stanley, I’ll go with the guy who raised himself from the dead.

But why? Am I just crazy?

Maybe a little bit. But I began to find my evidence also in the lives of others, in the lives of people I’ve met over the past few months and people I’ve known for more than a decade. The evidence of Jesus Christ is stacked high in the changed lives of individuals who don’t “follow him” for obligations’ sake or for peace’s sake. They follow him because they’ve found what is nigh impossible for many others to see: they’ve discovered his love.

I will begin writing about those people on this blog. Some wish to remain anonymous, so I’ll give them pseudonyms. But I’ll tell all their stories as I’d write a profile for a magazine.

[inspired by]

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Why I blog (or, the reason for life)

November 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I somehow rediscovered my old MySpace page today and on it, some old blogs I’d written like, two years ago. Finding old thoughts like these are one of the reasons why I blog.

It’s really cool to look at what I wrote then, how I lived between then and now, and how it all ties in together. I lived the way I wrote about wanting to live in this blog. Not every day, and not perfectly, but I’ve lived it. And that’s really cool to look back on.

This is why I recommend journaling, too. It’s good to look back and relive your thoughts, so that you can see how you’ve grown.

The blog: Keep reading →

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A man walks into a bar, takes off his wedding ring….

November 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Imagine with me this sequence of scenes, if you will….

A man’s driving. It’s dark. 11:17 shows on his car clock. Green light from the stoplight in the intersection he’s driving through glints off his wedding band, silver, on his left ring fingers. He parks. A bar’s across the street.

The man looks at his ring, takes a deep breath. Pulls it off, puts it in his pocket. Goes into the bar. Keep reading →

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Pastor faces child sex charges

November 4, 2009 · 3 Comments

James T. Johnson

Pastor James T. Johnson of The Olive Branch Church in Leland, about twenty minutes or so from Wilmington, where I’ve been living the past four months (and which feels incredibly like where I’d like to call “home” for good some day), was arrested today on sex offense charges. Specifically: two counts of first-degree sex offense with a child and one count of attempted first-degree rape of a child, according to the Wilmington StarNews, which obtained its information from the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office.

The full story is below, after the break.

Stories like these rip my heart from my chest. Not because I’m angry at the pastor in question. Because there’s no telling what’s really going on. I’m hesitant to speak out on this because of that fact, but it’s a no-win situation for everyone involved now. If he’s guilty, the ramifications will be horrible for him and his family, and what he’s done is horrid and despicable.

But even if he’s innocent, and been set up or framed for reasons only heaven and hell could know right now, his family’s life and his reputation are wrecked. People never forget allegations like this, true or false. His family now lives a nightmare.

It’s such a heartbreakingly broken world, this world in which we live.

I would love an opportunity to sit down and speak with Pastor Johnson and see what he has to say. I might try. Such insidious accusations against men in such leadership positions always astound me.

Leland | A 46-year-old pastor from Leland has been charged with felony sex crimes against a child, officials said.

Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested James T. Johnson of Leland on Tuesday, according to a detective with the office. Johnson is the pastor of The Olive Branch church on Mt. Misery Road in Leland.

The detective declined to further discuss the case. Johnson faces three counts of indecent liberties with a child, two counts of first-degree sex offense with a child and one count of attempted first-degree rape of a child, according to the sheriff’s office.

Johnson was taken to the Brunswick County jail and held on a $250,000 secured bond.

On Wednesday night about 20 cars were parked outside the church – a white building with a temporary red-and-white-striped canopy out front.

Bobby McKnight, The Olive Branch’s assistant pastor, said those inside were holding a prayer meeting in support of Johnson and his family.

Much of the church’s congregation has known Johnson faced an allegation of sexual misconduct since it surfaced four months ago, McKnight said. But they didn’t think anything was going to come of it and were surprised when criminal charges were filed this week.

McKnight said he didn’t know the details of the allegation, but that he doesn’t think it involves anyone at the church. If sheriff’s deputies had come to the church they would have found people who defended Johnson, McKnight said, but they have not interviewed people at the church.

Johnson founded The Olive Branch church, which moved into its current facility two years ago, McKnight said. He also said Johnson helps out in the community, especially through the church’s food pantry and occasional yard-sale-style giveaways.

“If he’s in the wrong, then he’s in the wrong,” McKnight said. “We’re not hiding anything. But nobody here believes it.”

[via]

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Fella tackles his own punt returner

November 3, 2009 · 1 Comment

I know, it’s mean to make fun of anyone, especially semi-pro football players because they’re just playing for the passion of the game and all that good stuff.

All that aside, it’s not often you see a guy tackle a teammate as said teammate is appearing headed for a touchdown off a punt return.

Here’s the clip:

[via]

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So this guy finished this half-marathon and he was covered in blood….

November 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

BLOG_P_Bearded_runner

As for pictures....it wasn't my job for the day, but while I was waiting for everyone to file out of the access road I was ordered -- by Marines -- to pull over to the side of the road. Getting bored, I pulled out my camera and snapped a few pictures just for practice. This guy was my favorite.

I was covering the 2009 Carolina Sports Medicine Battleship Half-Marathon (and Bay Six 5K) at the USS North Carolina on Sunday. I just needed a standard 450-word story about the event, some of the more interesting people running in it. I never am quite sure how to go about handling such assignments, in all honesty. There’s loads and loads of people. There were literally thousands of runners. Who the heck do I talk to? Keep reading →

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Planned Parenthood director leaves after viewing abortion ultrasound

November 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Planned Parenthood has been a part of Abby Johnson’s life for the past eight years; that is until last month, when Abby resigned. Johnson said she realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure. Keep reading →

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Product placement….in the news?

November 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

OK. We’re beyond the point in society where we expect product placement in our TV programs and movies. But in news programs? Seriously? There are so many ethical issues around this that it’s dizzying.

Basically, some news program sold out, advertising for McDonald’s in the middle of the newscast. It’s just….well, just watch.

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Soft drinks: deadly

November 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I always knew soft drinks were horrible for you. (I also know that Mountain Dew is, to borrow from an old friend, the nectar of heaven.) But I didn’t realize exactly the extent to which their horribleness reached.

Many thanks to Dr. Mao with Yahoo! Health for laying it all out there. Read, but with caution: you’ll probably never want another soda again. Keep reading →

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Dog chews on XBox controller, buys $60 worth of Microsoft points

November 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Meant to post this the other day, but got distracted by shiny objects.

My theory? Kid had serious buyer’s remorse. But oh well. No big deal.

Man’s best friend? Not when he runs up your credit card.

Meet Oscar, faithful companion of Greg, a reader of top gaming blog Kotaku. As a one year-old Lab/Hound, Oscar has a bit of a chewing problem. Shoes, underwear, blinds, and pillows have all been targets for his gnashers, but when he turned his attention to Greg’s Xbox 360 controller one night, an expensive (and immensely unlikely) sequence of events ensued.

As Oscar chomped down on the wireless controller, he successfully turned on the machine, navigated to the Xbox’s online store and purchased 5,000 Microsoft Points, at a cost of over $60. That was charged directly to Greg’s credit card, as Greg discovered when he woke up.

“What are the odds that he chews on the right buttons, in the right order and moves the stick in the right directions to navigate and purchase points?” asks Greg. “1 in a billion? More?”

Perhaps, Greg, perhaps. Maybe Oscar just wanted to pimp out his avatar, rent a movie or two, and play some Shadow Complex. We’ll probably never know.

[via]

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Short stories are fun

October 31, 2009 · 4 Comments

You know, I’ve never really even tried to write short stories — as in, fiction — until recently. I always thought whatever fiction I’d write would just be books. I’m not sure why I thought that. Maybe I thought it was too much work to make up a bunch of stuff if it wasn’t going to be a book-length piece of literary heaven. Because, you know, I am the best writer in the history of writing.

But I’ve had a few ideas for fiction lately and just started writing them out and you know, it’s fun. It’s almost like a release, kind of like how you feel after a good workout. And it’s easier to work towards their completion because you know it’s not going to be this year-long project. You get it written, maybe over a week or two, then revise, revise, revise until it’s amazing.

Of course, I have like, three or four half-finished right now. I don’t know if I’ll pursue getting them published anywhere or anything, but at the worst I’ll just throw them up here and maybe put them up for sale on Amazon. Can you even do that? I dunno. But it could be fun.

Alright, that’s all.

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Mark Sanchez continues to become my new favorite quarterback

October 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Mark SanchezMark Sanchez, the 22-year-old former USC QB who signed with the New York Jets and has played superbly for them most of the season thus far, was caught by CBS’s camera putting down a hot dog — with mustard at that — during a timeout in the midst of New York’s blowout of the Oakland Raiders this past weekend.

To apologize for….I’m not exactly sure what….Sanchez donated 500 dogs and 500 burgers to a homeless shelter.

It’s an amusing and kind gesture on Sanchez’s part. It’s sad, really, that it’s come to ill quarterbacks not being allowed to eat on the sidelines. Our society’s weird.

But I like the kid. Has a great head on his shoulders, interviews well, has tremendous potential. I’m looking forward to seeing how he turns out a few years from now.

The postgame interview: Keep reading →

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The most important thing in life is love

October 28, 2009 · 2 Comments

(An offshoot from my previous blog. Thoughts I’ve had for a long time.)

To make this post extra epic, start playing this video (after clicking Keep Reading) and listen to the song while you read.

(Click Keep Reading to read this blog.)

Keep reading →

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When it comes to this whole homosexual debate, some people don’t quite get it

October 27, 2009 · 16 Comments

Equality March DC 2009

I have a couple of thoughts about this chap’s sign:

  1. By “Leviticus” he means Leviticus 18.22, which reads: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” Or, also, Leviticus 20.13: “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own hands.”
  2. By “no hair cuts,” he likely means Leviticus 19.27: “Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.”
  3. That sign’s quite artistically done. Quite impressive, actually.

Now a few thoughts on this whole homosexual issue. Rather, issue of homosexuality. I wasn’t inferring that the issue was gay. Except that it kind of is, but not in the derogatory joking way that could be inferred….oh never mind. Onward.

Thought 1: You don’t really need the Bible to know how unnatural homosexual sex is. I feel no need to get graphic here, but my goodness. The bodies were clearly designed for relations of only the heterosexual variety. Homosexuality is no more natural than having sex with animals.

Thought 2: I’ve never been a fan of Christians referencing Leviticus when it comes to the homosexual debate. I’ve never been much of a fan of debating it, either, but here I am. That said, if we’re going to be playing with the logic of Leviticus, homosexuals — only by this logic, remember — should be grateful! Christians aren’t calling for their heads, after all. They’re just saying they shouldn’t get married. Or be doing the dirty with dudes. Or women with women. But they’re not saying gay folks should die. Well, some probably are, but they’re crazy.

Thought 3: While we’re playing with the logic of Leviticus, shouldn’t we look at all the other things also considered detestable that for some reason aren’t a problem for people?

  • Leviticus 18.7. Don’t have sex with your mom.
  • Leviticus 18.8: Don’t have sex with your dad’s wife if he’s remarried.
  • Leviticus 18.9: Don’t have sex with your sister.
  • Leviticus 18.10: Don’t have sex with your grandchildren.
  • Leviticus 18.11: Don’t have sex with your step-siblings.
  • Leviticus 18.12: Don’t have sex with dad’s sister.
  • Leviticus 18.13: Don’t have sex with mom’s sister.
  • Leviticus 18.14: Don’t have sex with your dad’s brother’s wife.
  • Leviticus 18.15: Don’t have sex with your children-in-law.
  • Leviticus 18.16: Don’t have sex with your siblings-in-law.
  • Leviticus 18.17: Don’t have a threesome with a woman and her daughter.
  • Leviticus 18.21: Don’t sacrifice your kids to Molech.
  • Leviticus 18.23: Don’t have sex with animals.

Leviticus 20 goes on to lay on punishments for such actions, like all manner of death, namely being burned. Fun.

Now, obviously the laws of Leviticus have become archaic. We cut our hair now. We shave our faces. We wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.

I just felt like throwing all of those up there to prove a point. The Bible can be taken to mean anything by anybody. It can be twisted to mean whatever you want it to mean. This is dangerous. This is deadly. This is what creates so many problems today.

And this is why Jesus Christ himself superseded every single commandment with one, as recorded in Mark 12. He was debating ancient laws with the intellectuals of his day. They asked him, “What is the most important commandment?”

And Jesus says one that’s never before been said: Love God with everything you have. Of all the 600+ laws named throughout the Torah, this one Jesus Christ says is the most important. To quote the NIV: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

That is it. Love God. That is what we’re on this earth to do, guidance as imparted by Jesus Christ himself. It’s really so simple. People have a way of complicating things. But that is it. No door-knocking. No condemning of the homosexuals. No burning of Bibles. Simply: Love God.

If we just try to love God, and we eventually fall in love with God, we’ll learn to do what he loves us doing and hate what he hates us doing. But it takes time. In the meanwhile, there’s no worries about being imperfect. Even the most perfect people in the world are imperfect, so don’t listen to them when they tell you that you need to be perfect. Should we try to be perfect? Sure. It makes us better people. And it’s even OK for it to bother us if we’re not perfect.

This is all based solely on my experience, so don’t take it as the perfect answer. But when it comes to life as a Christian, it’s all about falling in love with God. I figured that out about halfway through my senior year. I asked God to help me do exactly that. I asked him not to let it be some emotional experience. I’ve never had the “come to Jesus” moment in my life. I prayed with my dad with I was four, and went on a journey from there. Today, my journey’s left me convinced that it’s as simple as getting on your knees and asking God for love. Because immediately following that commandment, Jesus mentioned the second greatest commandment, just as a bonus.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

If more people — Christian or not, and a lot of times it’s the non-Christians and even the homosexuals who are better at this than anyone else — bought into this, the world would be a much greater place.

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Researchers discover what happened to Amelia Erhart

October 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Amelia ErhartThis is one of those historical mysteries that I’ve long been enraptured by. Amelia Erhart, the most famous missing person in the history of the world, it seems, tried breaking an aviation record by flying around the world in 1937. She disappeared; nobody knew where or how. It was presumed that she crashed in the Pacific, her and her plane’s remains never to be found again.

Until now.

Oct. 23, 2009 — Legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart mostly likely died on an uninhabited tropical island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati, according to researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR).

Tall, slender, blonde and brave, Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Oceanon July 2, 1937 in a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator. Her final resting place has long been a mystery.

For years, Richard Gillespie, TIGHAR’s executive director and author of the book “Finding Amelia,” and his crew have been searching the Nikumaroro island for evidence of Earhart. A tiny coral atoll, Nikumaroro was some 300 miles southeast of Earhart’s target destination, Howland Island.

A number of artifacts recovered by TIGHAR would suggest that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made a forced landing on the island’s smooth, flat coral reef.

According to Gillespie, who is set to embark on a new $500,000 Nikumaroro expedition next summer, the two became castaways and eventually died there.

“We know that in 1940 British Colonial Service officer Gerald Gallagher recovered a partial skeleton of a castaway on Nikumaroro. Unfortunately, those bones have now been lost,” Gillespie said.

The archival record by Gallagher suggests that the bones were found in a remote area of the island, in a place that was unlikely to have been seen during an aerial search.

“Propagation analysis of nearly 200 radio signals heard for several days after the disappearance make it virtually indisputable that the airplane was on land,” Gillespie said.

Eventually, Earhart’s twin-engine plane, the Electra, was ripped apart by Nikumaroro’s strong waves and swept out into deep water, leaving no visible trace.

“The evidence is plentiful — but not conclusive yet — to support the hypothesis that Amelia landed and died on the island of Nikumaroro,” forensic anthropologist Karen Ramey Burns told Discovery News.

The author of a book on Earhart, Burns believes that the strongest of the amassed evidence comes from the report related to the partial skeleton found by Gallagher.

“The skeleton was found to be consistent in appearance with females of European descent in the United States today, and the stature was consistent with that of Amelia Earhart,” said Burns.

According to Burns, another piece of documentary evidence comes from the accounts of Lt. John O. Lambrecht, a U.S. Naval aviator participating in the search for Earhart’s plane. Lambrecht reported “signs of recent habitation” on what was an officially uninhabited atoll.

Lambrechet’s report begs the question: Why did no one follow up?

“I have stood in plain sight on Nikumaroro in a white shirt waving wildly as a helicopter flew over me and was not noticed until the video tape of the flight was examined,” Burns said.

“I find it very easy to believe that Amelia and Fred would not have been seen by the pilot. If the Electra was not visible at the time, their last chance of rescue was lost in Lambrecht’s notes,” she added.

Abandoned on a desert island where temperatures often exceed 100 degrees, even in the shade, Earhart and Noonan likely eventually succumbed to any number of causes, including injury and infection, food poisoning from toxic fish, or simply dehydration.

The coconut crabs’ great pincers would have done the rest, likely removing some of the last physical traces of this pioneering aviatrix.

(via)

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Port City Community Church: church done right

October 25, 2009 · 2 Comments


Port City Church front picture

I’ve long thought about writing an article about Port City Community Church for the StarNews. Really, since I started attending about three months ago. I had the outline in my head, I had the various sections broken down, I knew who I’d talk to and what I’d say and how I’d write it. I’ve already talked with its pastor, Mike Ashcraft, once before. (While floating half a mile down Wrightsville Beach on surfboards, at that.)

PC3 is, in my humble opinion, the first church I’ve ever been in that does everything exactly how I’ve long imagined churches should be done. I went through an incredibly bitter (and, I might as well add, immature) phase with Christianity largely because of the various churches I’d attended. I’m a happy guy by nature, but the flaws I saw with so many churches I found intolerable. There were good ones along the way, but even in those I saw vast room for improvement. The world is badly starved for church done right. PC3 nails it.

I remember being recommended PC3 by Aaron Kennedy, one of my pastors from my home church, Open Door Ministries, in Greenville. He told me it was pretty much a megachurch, so I, naturally, dismissed it, passing it off as flawed simply because it was huge. I didn’t like what I’d seen of any other megachurches out there. Not that I’ve seen all or even many, but the idea of a church of 5000-plus said to me that somebody was in it for more than just helping folks live right.

I remembering hearing Mike speak and (1) thinking he was some guest speaker from some college ministry or something filling in for the day, he was so laid back, in his jeans and short-sleeved shirt and slip-on shoes and spiked-up hair; and (2) being amazed at how authentic he seemed. He spoke as though without pretension, even hidden ones, and he carried no metaphorical shields. Did he pass out lists of his sins? Of course not. But you knew you were hearing from a broken, humble, honest man who genuinely experienced God and simply wanted to help others do the same.

That word – authenticity – captures the essence of Port City.  I’ve never heard someone I more enjoyed hearing. I told Mike this: I’m one of the most critical people I know. Not of people, but of false Christianity. The Christianity as lived and defined by the people who tell you that the way you wear your hair and your clothes determines your righteousness. Christians who obsess over convincing their congregations that one version of the Bible is more holy than another; that certain music is the devil’s music; that we must convert the world.

I remember telling Katie so often how I just wished I could do something to convince the world and Christians like those that it wasn’t about conversions or perfection, that it was just about getting to know and fall in love with Jesus Christ.

Then I heard Mike. I felt like he’d already done what I didn’t know I wanted to do. It was pretty relieving, actually. Later, one of my cousins-in-law told me the entire staff is all paid virtually the same, meaning that nobody’s really getting rich off running the place.

I told Katie, “I gotta talk to this guy. I gotta know if he’s for real.”

Two weeks later I nearly hit him in the Target parking lot. Didn’t speak to him then, but his reaction was awesome. He just laughed, put his shopping cart in the racks, and walked back to his car. Three weeks after that, Katie and I hit the beach, trying to surf for the first time together.

You gotta understand the circumstances surrounding this venture. We’d just bought two surfboards. One was really good, a 7’3” BIC that by all accounts on the Internet was great for beginners. The other was that piece I can’t sell off. That we were even out there was completely spontaneous that day. I didn’t even have fins in the crappy board.

I walked right past Mike on the way to the beach. “Dude,” I told Katie after we passed him. “I think that was our pastor.”

A few minutes later, as I was failing miserably on the board, it shot out from under my feet and, as it was sans leash, flew practically onto the beach. Mike came up. “Dude, I don’t want to be one of those guys,” he said, “but you can get fined $150 for that.”

That would have sucked, getting fined $150 for using a $40 surfboard.

We ended up asking advice, Katie and I, about surfing and surfboards. He answered everything, joked about the crappy board, was totally cool.

Then, later, when he drifted back our way he and I started talking about the church and its growth and our own stories and backgrounds, which were, though with differences, strangely similar. I’m actually going to write out my story, the full story, sometime in the next week or two and post it on here as a focal foundation for the blog.

Mike talked with me for about thirty minutes. We drifted about half a mile down the beach. Eventually he realized that and said, “Whoa, how long have we been talking? I’m supposed to be watching my kids!” With that we said take it easy, see you around, and he was off, paddling away, back to his kids.

Yesterday afternoon, PC3 (as it’s commonly called) celebrated its 10th birthday. (Check out the intro video here: http://vimeo.com/7229759 In the words of Millie Holloman, EPIC!) I heard the story of the Kenyan pastor who emailed Mike a few years ago, literally out of nowhere. Sold his car to fly to the United States just for a chance to meet Mike. Today, the two are great friends. I’ll be writing that story for the StarNews, so keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks for it.

However, I won’t be writing the story about PC3’s meteoric rise since 1999, when it was 80 college students meeting at Mike’s house. Burke Speaker at the StarNews already did in May 2009. Some reporter I am. Just discovered that a few minutes ago at starnewsonline.com in the archives. Burke did a fantastic job capturing the essence of Mike, who is as real speaking to thousands as he is floating on a surfboard. Burke’s story is an awesome read. I just sat here and read the whole thing, which I’ve pasted below for you if you want to check it out. Enjoy.

Growing a few college students into a megachurch

In the moments before he’s scheduled to take the stage in front of a sanctuary overflowing with devoted followers, a noticeably anxious Mike Ashcraft Keep reading →

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