out of

This will just be a brief reflection on a thought that came to me while listening to Francis Chan's book "Forgotten God". He recounted the point when Jesus lifted up the example of the poor widow who gave an offering at the temple. Others had gone before her and given from their wealth, but she gave out of her poverty, and before God it was admirable/worthy/costly/sacrificial/accepted. The phrase "gave out of her poverty" struck me and I wondered to myself, "What is my poverty?"

I understand the context of the verse, and that financial giving is the "norm" but hear me out for a minute. I feel like the challenge here is not only to give from our poverty financially (we all can, with joy, give more than we're comfortable giving), but from other aspects of our lives which are limited. What do average Californians feel they don't have much of?... time. Our time is costly, precious, and very limited. That doesn't mean that it isn't wasted as well, but we can easily fill every ticking second DOING things, even all good things.

In relation to the poverty of time, I am particularly at a point where time is fleeting. Just this past night I finished a class, but I still have four more to complete before the middle of December. Two of those classes are compressed and only recently started. I'm genuinely wondering if I can conceivably survive all the homework that is marching towards me (with bayonet points it seems). It is out of the poverty of my time that I give it to God for fellowship and the ministry of the Spirit. This isn't a sly way of slacking or socializing. Chan emphasizes the importance of spending time "alone", unplugged, communing with God and listening to the Holy Spirit. With my time as precious as it is to me, I give at no small cost because I count Him worthy.

What are the things which you are poor in? Is it serving others? Speaking words of encouragement? Expressing thankfulness? Loving people who smell bad? Listening to people who talk too much and/or entirely about themselves? The list of things which we're simply terrible at goes on and on, but knowing what you're poor at is an opportunity to commit to doing it (at least occasionally) as an offering to the glory of God. One just came to mind for me: Doing homework. I'm terrible at it, but perhaps I can do it as an offering or "difficult worship", because I consider Him worthy of it.

Recent flights!

So the most recent flights have been just TOO interesting to not mention them.

Backstory (very brief): I went out to visit my brothers in Michigan this past weekend.

On the flight to Michigan I left just after midnight and had a nice little chat with both my seatmates before take-off. All the usual stuff, "Oh, where's your destination? Why? How long has it been since you've seen them?" etc etc. The lady on my left was friendly and quickly fell asleep after take-off, only waking up a couple of times along the way. (nice lady, btw) The guy to my right was local to where I live and studying his Masters in Film at a local University. He had a sort of.. eye issue and was pretty fidgety, but I've met a lot of quirky people and chalked it up to ADD/ADHD (i know they're different, but hey, it's "attention deficit" regardless). Sooooo, we take off and it isn't long before the guy acted a biiiit strange. I did a bit of research (afterward) and found out that he was probably taking Fentanyl (a powerful pain-killer likened to heroin). He kept stickin' small things in his cheek. Ohhhkay. SO, active drug abuse while flying!

This morning, on my flight back home I was seated between two beautiful ladies. I'd guess that the woman on my left was about 30, and on closer inspection maybe 32. The woman on my right was probably 28 or so. Harder to tell (and somewhat irrelevant). I had a great conversation with the woman on my left, the usual stuff (see above) and she showed me an adorable picture of her.. daughter? no.. Granddaughter! Whoa! Very cute kid. She did have a son who was probably about 6 years old though, which I thought was a bit more normal.

The woman on my right was not nearly as talkative/friendly. She was dealing with a mass of papers and finally settled down to editing a piece of literature. That piece of literature was a steamy (lusty), blocky (really. blocky, can't think of a more accurate word), short story narrating (1st person) a man falling in love with a woman, being rejected, rejoined, and later betrayed by her to a lesbian lover. Fascinating. I'm not an English major, but I desperately longed to caress away the trite phrases and delve oh so deeply into developing powerful emotive characters.. because the story seriously needed help. There was a whole list of questions and suggestions I held back. I realized on that flight that I want to help people write better, and I need to start by not writing so poorly (myself?).

Fun flights!

Sunshine streams

Sunshine streams, originally uploaded by rafta.

Maps, Coffee and "the norm"

On Saturday I drove out to Long Beach to meet up with a German friend (Fabian) who was in port for just a day or so. He works with a merchant ship line as a navigator. We had a great visit and were mutually encouraged. God has been working in amazing ways in his life, bringing people for him to fellowship with onboard his ships, as well as a good "home church". But all of that isn't really why I'm putting up this post.

With that backstory, I just found myself surprised this evening at how integrated my life is with technology these days. E-mails back and forth to coordinate with Fabian about if/when we'd meet. Then text messages giving some clarifications as to where to meet. On top of all this, I looked up the pier on maps.google.com and then sent the link to my phone so I could use my gps and built-in maps to get there. But before that, I looked up potential coffee shops in Long Beach where we could hang out after I picked him up. Sent those to my phone as well, (though it wasn't really necessary 'cause I can look up the same info on the phone). And all went as smoothly as can be.

I could drive right up to where I pick him up, drive straight to the coffee shop where I'd never been before, and drive home without concern that I'd get lost. Strange times we live in. And yet, they aren't strange at all, because it feels so natural and "the way we do it." I do feel like something is lost though... the mystery or adventure of discovery.. but it isn't mystery or discovery that a person wants when they just want to sit down and catch up. I'm thankful for the tech, but much more thankful for the fellowship and encouragement shared over the electronically discovered and navigated coffee.

He sent a nice text message blessing as his ship pulled away from the habor, a few hours after I dropped him off for his shift.

Parkour in Pasadena on the 17th (of Jan '08)

Hey all,

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Like one of my brothers said, "I guess facebook put an end to blogging." Not an end! It's just less frequent now. dc:

So I went up to Pasadena to do parkour with the LA Parkour Meetup group. I had a blast and everyone there seemed to have a lot of fun as well. There's nothing quite like being with a group of people who share a common active interest. Lots of smiles, laughs and people helping each other out. This coming Saturday they're meeting at UCLA and I hope to make it to that one as well.

Here are a couple pictures from the event:

Here a guy is performing a "tick tack". He's using the wall on the right to launch himself up to the left. It's a fun move and takes some practice to get the force and angles right.

Here's a picture of me running up a wall. There are a lot better pictures out there of parkour, and even great ones from the meetup on Saturday. I included these two because they have me in them, 'cause hey, this is my blog, right? The second photo I got from this guy's picasa web set.

One interesting thing about the group that met on Saturday was just how many people came to the meetup. Usually there's... about 16-25 people.. but for some reason 60+ showed up! Weird, but still doable and it went great (and no serious injuries, though I mildly sprained my wrist).

so much to write!!

Alright. There is so much to write that I'll try and keep it short, and probably miss a lot.

First up is things in the astronomical realm. Yesterday there was a -4.0 magnitude brightness (very bright!) passing of the ISS (International Space Station). It went straight overhead. If you're interested in finding out about future passes and when you can see them, let me know and I'll send you the link. It gives you the times based on your zip-code. (works internationally as well).

Also happening in the sky is a HUGE full-moon on Friday. It'll be the biggest full-moon of the year 2008 as it is a "perigee moon". Spaceweather.com says it is at least 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser full-moons this past year. Last night I got home quite late from work, about 12:30am, and even without a full-moon it was very bright. It may have been so bright that my complex's lights didn't come on!

Other news... Thanksgiving week was so much fun! I went out to Michigan to spend time with the mid-west Shack brothers and there respective families. Here's a link to the photos on flickr. Those photos are almost all pictures of people. Other pictures are on the flickr site, but I know those aren't nearly so interesting, especially to you readers of this blog. (c:


Well, I might have been wanting to write more, but got called in to work early, so I'd better wrap this up! I fully intend to write again between now and the 20th! Take care all fam's and fren's.

Today's Flat-tire Adventure

I woke up really early, 4:30am or so... mostly because I had a coffee late in the evening which kept me waking up through the night. The goal of the trip was to visit Timothy on his last day working at Starbucks. Success! It was a fun adventure, though I did have to cancel a breakfast I'd scheduled with a friend (which would have been MILES in the opposite direction, and a fun challenge as well). Bike is holding up well. Glad to be back on the bike again. The portion of the map where the line is violet or red (it's red, but overlaps blue) is the part where I walked my bike.

Total journey: 17 miles
Walking distance: A little over 4.5 miles.
Gas saved.. about.. 3/4 of a gallon. Which is.. about $1.70
Hrm. Seems less amazing when you put it in that perspective. The trip really was a blast though. (c:


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moralism...

modern proverbs (a group project)

I was thinking about modern day proverbs that would be good for passing on to your children. This thought came to me while I was chatting with Lem and said, "There is certainly no backspace button with words from the mouth." Does that sound too tech/computer centric? A lot of the proverbs in the book of Proverbs are that simple and "obvious". But the author still thought they were worth saying. What are some other modern proverbs or modern translations of ancient proverbs which would be valuable to have?

depth perception

A post I wrote in April of '06, but never posted
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Sometimes I feel claustrophobic to this world, like I can't see far enough.

Imagine a dark, misty day, where there is fog everywhere. Actually, you don't know that there is fog everywhere, you just know it's all around you. It's all you know. That feeling for me is that it's all just too close. No room to breathe. I feel that way even when it is open, blue skies above. Even night time, with the infinity of blackness, it's just too close, I need more room. Room to breathe.

I need to see past the horizon, because it's holding me in.

virtual telepathy

A post from March of '07 (unfinished)
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I was just thinking about how people used to wish for/dream about telepathy. I think there are a lot of people who still do.. but, really, cell-phones are basically the same thing. Just a bit more vocal. (c: I used to think about telepathy quite a bit and what it'd be like. I don't think about it any more. I think mobile phones do well enough.

Do you ever get those nagging doubts about technology? Those thoughts that maybe life isn't really better for all the "improvements" we make? Cities pack people in, jobs keep massive economic empires running, systems efficiently coordinate food distribution, it's all grand and amazing, but is it better? We create more complexity, more masters to serve, material to aggregate, rules to abide by, and ways to break them. I'm not certain that it is a better life than say, the Masai, who work about ten hours a week, and spend the rest of the time telling stories and simply being with ones neighbors. True, a drought could come and kill many....

the future of interface?

Ok, time for a really geeky/nerdy post. I was reading one of my usual tech sites and saw this new technology which enables a person to use hand gestures to control their computer. The system they have set up looks pretty sweet, though a little slow on the response time (something which isn't really a problem for "the future").

So the problem next is typing, because typing really is a very fast way of inputting information into a computer. Gesturing may be good for general mouse-like controls and short-cuts, but typing.. is pretty much necessary for written stuff. Unless!! (and here is where sci-fi comes into play) We should develop some form of subvocalization (or more accurately "subvocal recognition"). This would cover both forms of user interfacing with a computer and be better than what we have going now. What an exciting future! While we're at it, where's my jetpack?

What're your thoughts on this?

verses for the day

I was re-reading over a quick study I did in Proverbs 15, the two verses that stood out to me at the time were verse 15 which says,

"All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast."

and verse 30 which goes as follows,

"The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones."

My internalization of that was as follows:

Do not be as the afflicted who always feel the days are evil, rather, have a cheerful heart and every meal will seem as a feast. Be aware if your countenance is darkened, that you do not say, "the days are evil," seek to be free from the spirit of the afflicted. God is the ultimate deliverer and has already proclaimed freedom.
Be a bringer of good news to the world, not simply the gospel but also day-to-day blessings. For you will strengthen the bones of those who hear and they will bless the Lord. Let your heart rejoice when you see light in one's eyes, for there is hope and peace.

I thought this was particularly apt as the election day is tomorrow and many around me are "afflicted" and calling these days evil. Hope in the Lord and consider how He directs the hearts of the leaders like a stream. May this good news refresh your bones, bring light to your eyes, rejoice your heart so that it may be as though you have a continual feast set before you.

Magic words

Ok, this is kinda goofy, but I couldn't help writing it down while I had it in my head. I was talking with Philip earlier on the phone and he remarked a little sheepishly that he started reading the Harry Potter series and is surprised by how much he's enjoying it. That's the preface to my thought (as I lay in bed getting ready to fall asleep). The thought:

In the movie (which is, so far, the only way I've interacted with the Harry Potter tales) Harry waved his wand around quite a bit pronouncing latin sounding words with such conviction that I think magical things actually felt obligated to happen. I think that is kind of funny, how they take latin-ish words and use them as "magical" words. So I wondered if they used those words in the book.. and thought how next time I see Philip I'll point at a car and declare "PETROLEUM!" (the endings of the words seem to be the critical characteristic. -leum, -eous, etc.. Point to the floor and say with climactic conviction, "LINOLEUM!" (c: A silly thought, I know, but it made me laugh.
And the last "magical" word, when someone makes a stupid statement point directly in their face and pronounce emphatically, "ERRONEOUS!"

I'm not working for UPS

So.. there seems to be a misunderstanding going around from an earlier post that I am working for UPS. No... that's not the case. I went to the UPS to take an exam for Traffic-School which I did online to eliminate a ticket I received. That is all.

Also! I went up north this past weekend to Portland and Eugene and had an awesome time. Got to spend time with sisters and their respective families (too short a time, i know..) and spend the weekend with Wilrah Krzy. There's a photoset from the trip .

Here's a fav:

prep for take-off

prep for take-off, originally uploaded by rafta.