More of One

Ok, I had a conversation with my dad about the One Campaign and I have a few new thoughts on it. I still have the same reservations that I did in my last entry, but I've softened a bit on it. First, I should place a higher value on the job One is doing in educating the American people about the problems and conditions in Africa. I think that the number one (get it, one) thing that can be done towards a long term solution to the problem is to educate those people that have the resources to help. So bravo, good job, keep it up on the education. Second, I still think there is a serious problem in how the money is transferred from the givers to the people. The corrupt governments and warlords in Africa who would be receiving the money from the US government would only be passing along pennies on the dollar to the people who really need it. If One can do something about that, or spur some kind of reformation that will ensure the people who really need the money get it, then I will be much more inclined to support the campaign. Third, I'm still bothered that One is a campaign to get enough people to bug someone else to deal with the problem. However, my dad said it was explained to him like this: One is trying to get the American people to give the government permission to spend their money in Africa. That makes more sense I guess, still though, I would like it better if One also collected donations to send to Africa (which they don't). That would kind of be a show of good faith, a token that they are serious about this, by having those who support this movement to give some money to take to the American government and say "hey, look, we collected this much, we are serious about this, now will you help us out by giving more." That I think would be awesome. And finally, I think they need a new slogan. "The campaign to make poverty history." I can tell you right now that will never happen, there will always be poverty in African and in America. But that ain't so bad, people can survive poverty, even be happy in poverty, but a campaign to make suffering, starvation and disease history is a very good thing.

Bow to your Sensei

Welp, I missed my second entry last night. Oh well. Wasn't really up to the task last night. The Cowboys lost depressed me, I spent 3.5 hours in a poker tournament (staying later than I wanted) only to finish one spot off a $200 pay out, and to top it all off I felt pretty lousy. So that's my excuse. I went into work to take care of a few high priority items and then left at lunch and slept all afternoon. I'm going to bed early tonight too, so I should be at 100% again tomorrow. Anyway, on to my next entry... by the way, I'm purposefully leaving off the last names of any non-famous people, so some of you will know who I'm talking about and some won't, sorry...

Mentors. I dig the concept of mentors, like Mr. Miyagi for Daniel LaRusso. And there are different kinds of mentors. First, let me say that I consider a mentor to be someone outside of your family who takes you under their wing and teaches you and encourages you. My parents have taught me and encouraged me a lot, and not that I don't greatly appreciate, but that is kind of expected from your parents. Plus, children will sometimes tune out their parents on certain issues and need to be taught from a new direction. Also, mentors come in different shapes and sizes, there are general life mentors, like the kind you often find at church, who are just the kind of people you can go to for advice or to talk, and there are mentors for specific areas of your life. For example, I have a poker mentor, Martin, we I was first getting serious about poker he took me under his wing, taught me a few things and pointed me in the right direction for me to better my poker play. Mike and Rick from SCC used to be life and spiritual mentors to me. Despite how much I've written, or tried to write, I've never really had a writing mentor. Dean Koontz kind of mentors me from afar, and Reg has given me some tips from time to time. By far my dad has helped me out most with my writing, but he is family. Although, now that I think about it maybe a family member can be considered a mentor in specific areas, it is only life in general that you kind of expect that teaching. After all, I'm sure Todd Brunson would consider his dad to be his poker mentor. I can't think of any other areas where I've had a mentor, at least not off the top of my head.

I can't remember now what made me think of mentors as an idea for an entry. I guess I just kind of want to have that kind of relationship again, to have a mentor as kind of a safety net for life. Someone that I can go to with issues that I might not feel comfortable going to my parents with. Someone who might have gained from experience answers to questions that my friends can't help me with. And I also want to be a good mentor when the time comes. I've kind of mentored my brother in poker, but not so much since I moved out. I used to mentor some middle school guys when I lead their small group at church, or at least I was suppose to mentor them, not sure I did that great a job.

Anyway, that was kind of a random entry. Something just made me think about mentors and mentoring a couple of days again and I wrote down the word mentor, but not what made me think about it. The mentor apprentice relationship just seems to be a special one, in many ways mirroring the father-son (or to be more generic parent-child) relationship. Perhaps that is why I don't attach the word mentor to parents, because it is similar, but one notch down from a healthy parent-child relationship. Just a think, let me know if you have any thinks on this topic.

Digging into the code

If you will look to your right you will see I've made some additions to the sidebar content. Did some digging into the code of the site and added a bit of content. Basically I just stole from other blogs I read. That's about it, just wanted to point that out, cause I'm proud of it. I have an idea for my second post this week and I'm going to try to get to it before midnight on Sunday at the latest. But if I can't, I reserve the right to call this my second post.

Letters and such

William Munny: "You sure you ain't armed?"
WW Beauchamp: "No. Look, I'm not. I don't have a gun. I never had a gun. I write. I'm a writer."
William Munny: "A writer?"
WW Beauchamp: "Yes."
William Munny: "Letters and such?"

from Unforgiven


I was sitting at my desk the other night, writing a letter to my Uncle Jack, thinking about, among other things, how little we write letters these days. With email, instant messaging, cell phones and what not the need for the hand written letter has decreased substantially. I probably write twice as many letters as most people (which ain't saying much), but it seems that just about everyone I correspond with grew up during a time when writing letters was the norm (that is to say they're old). In some cases writing letters is the only reliable way for me to correspond with these friends and family members since they don't have access to the internet, and in other cases it just seems more personal than email.

These days I throw away or shred more than half of my mail. It seems the letter is only good for mass communications, advertising and solicitation these days. Any time I open my mailbox and see hand writing on an envelope it is about as surprising as finding a snake in my boots... or something like that. Hell, some solicitors these days try to simulate hand writing on their envelopes and letters just cause it seems more personal and gets your attention better. Of course, when you then see that it is mass produced it just turns you off to the offer even more.

I think we should try to write more letters, and keep the letters that we receive. Think of the historical significance of letters in the founding of our country. We first look to the Declaration of independent and the Constitution when trying to determine the founders' intent, but then we start looking at the letters they wrote. Thomas Jefferson's views on the structure of government can be better understood by how he wrote about it to his friends and family. Ben Franklin's designs for democracy are evident in the letters he wrote to others. And let's not forget that a large portion of the New Testament is Paul's letters to his friends, rather than a journal or mediations on his faith.

Let's not forget the significance of the letter, how it can come to be more than simple communication over time. Do you remember the joy you used to feel as a kid when you learned that you had mail, when you got a letter? There is no reason you can't feel that way again, or make someone else feel that way again. Give it a shot, see if you like it. Write a letter.

Quick Hits

I know that technically Sunday starts the new week, and so I should have posted my second entry for last week before today, but let's just pretend on this one. I'm just gonna do some quick hits for this one anyway.

So, I got a second job. I had kinda been thinking about doing that for a little while, just to help me save more cash for a down payment on my house. I saw a help wanted sign at the little Italian restaurant by my apartment and thought that maybe I could work two shifts on the weekend, and maybe the occasional week night shift. I'm not sure whether I would have actually done it, luckily I don't have to find out cause I found a second job that I enjoy much more. Dealing poker. I've hooked up with a local event planning company to deal charity poker tournaments as well as the weekend freeroll tournament at the office. Right now the money is pretty good, not what I would like it to be, but I think that it will get better the longer I'm with the club.

Here are topics that I wrote down once as possibly making good entries, but which will never see the light of day now:
- The government spending money on public TV and radio stations, bad idea, leave that as a private market
- People leaving the country since Bush got re-elected, funny
- Liberal bias in universities
- Why can't intelligent design be considered science, science needs a new definition, it has been hijacked
- Scientists are trying to find out where sex came from, its a mystery to them because they through God out of the equation
- The phantom girlfriend itch, people who have limbs amputated say they can still feel them sometimes, does that translate to relationships too?

And now, for one of them survey/profile type things:

10 years ago: I was 13-years-old, in eighth grade at Webb Middle School. I worked on the yearbook and newspaper staff at school and had to decide that year what high school I was going to go to. Had my first girlfriend, that was quite the learning experience. Was still at Richland Bible Fellowship. Finally decided to go to GHS and do the IB program, that kind of threw my best friend for a loop as he was locked in to another high school, but we stayed friends through high school.

5 Years ago: I was 18-years-old and into my second semester of college. My first semester had been rough so I was trying to recover, get my GPA up and keep my scholarship. I was beginning to realize that computer science wasn't for me. Was into my second year at Springcreek Community Church and had just started the Acts 29 college group with a bunch of friends there. Was still working at Beckett and enjoying it for the most part. Still wasn't really sure what life as an adult meant yet.

1 year ago: I was 22-years old, had been at my first "real" job at Washington Mutual, since graduating college, for only two weeks and was still getting a handle for how everything worked. Was quickly making plans to move out of my parent's house and start living on my own, supporting myself and taking care of myself.

Yesterday: I was 23-years-old and I was still alive, so I guess everything was going well, eh? Slept in and then went to hang out with my two best friends at Skoots and then Chase Place. Good times, life is going well.

5 snacks you enjoy: Flamin' Hot Cheetos, ice cream with Magic Shell, Puppy Chow, Texas Dirt, chocolate covered pretzels

5 songs that I know all the words to: I know the words to more than five, a bunch of Billy Joel, The 77s, David Wilcox and country songs

5 bad habits: smoking, drinking, cussing, eating, gambling

5 favorite quotes: Among others...
- "You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with until you understand who's in ruttin' command here."
- "If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special level of Hell, a level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk in the theater."
- "No power in the 'verse can stop me."
- "I try to save a life a day... usually it's mine."
- "Don't move or I'll fill you full of... little yellow bolts of light."

One noble purpose, One bad idea

Several of my friends and my church have gotten involved with the One Campaign to "Make Poverty History." And when I say involved I'm not really sure what I mean, because I'm not sure how deep my friends or church have gotten involved. All that I'm sure of is that my church has sold a few t-shirts and my friends have worn them. I'm not a part of the One Campaign and I would even go so far as to say that I'm not a fan of it either. I wouldn't really say that I'm against it, after all how can you be against an organization that wants to feed hungry kids, but I would say that I'm uncomfortable with it. There are many reasons I could list, but it basically comes down to two.

Numero Uno: One wants the US Government to give an additional 1% of its budget to the poor in Africa and elsewhere. Trouble with that is that the US Government already gives billions to foreign aid, much of it in Africa, and without much success. That is because the only way a government can effectively give tons of money to another country is through that other country's government, but just about every government in Africa is corrupt and only a handful of nickels on every dollar get to the people. Thus this seems an ineffective way to attempt to eridicate poverty.

Numero Dos: Just the whole fact that there is a public movement to bug someone else to help out poor people bugs me. If the organizers of One really wanted to help out poor people why don't they take up a collection of money and then take it to the poor people. It just strikes me as wrong that thousands of people would waste their efforts shouting at the US Government give more money when they won't give any themselves. It just seems to me that the energy would be better spent education people on the situation of the poor and encouraging them to give what they can to help the situation. But that's just me.

Anyway, like I said, not really against One, but not a supporter either. Just my dos centavos. Hasta luego.

You'll Never Make a Saint of Me

Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, you'll never make a saint of me... Ok, I'll stop singing. This is one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs, mostly just because of the hook, I think its groovy. The majority of the lyrics, well, I might not groove with so much, but the chorus has been taking on a new meeting for me recently. A lot of my friends have been going through a sort of spiritual searching period lately, as I suppose is common with all folk around what has traditionally been considered the college years. I have continued to attend church on a more or less weekly basis through this period while some of my friends have not, but that doesn't mean I haven't been asking myself the same questions they have. Thinking on these issues more seriously than ever before in my life has led me to many conclusions, which I hope to write down one day, but one in particular has been on my mind lately. Authenticity. I hate fake faith. Psuedo spirituality. Counterfeit Christianity. Nothing drives me up the wall more than someone spewing out sayings and cliches, trying to sound spiritual to impress someone. It doesn't suprise me that so many people leave church, whether they were regular attenders or not, when you are confronted with people who pretend to have all the answers, who never have any problems and who aren't really interested in you so much as telling you how to do better (or how much better they are than you). And so lately, I've come to appreciate the theology of sinners over the theology of saints. I will be more receptive and learn more from a lesson from someone who admits they don't have all the answers and who doesn't shy away from their faults, than from someone who never admits to stumbling, who claims to be a modern day saint. If those people are saints, then you will never make a saint of me... oh yeah, oh yeah.

Please put down the radioactive waste

Which is just what this blog might end up being. But until the EPA tells me to stop dumping (insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here) this blog will be coming at you twice a week... I hope. My goal is for these posts to be original (or at least stolen from several different sources at once) and "not suck." unfortunately that is all I can promise. My blogging habits having been inevitably sliding towards a giant hole in the desert where they will be slowly digested over the course of 1000 years. Oh well, I've accepted my blog's fate, but until that day I will makes use of this blog for my own selfish reasons. It is a good avenue for me to practice writing (or typing) and to rant. So that's it, that's what to expect. Welcome to the Reactor, hope you enjoy.