Hunting high and low... mostly low...

We're looking to buy a house.

We have visited SO MANY houses recently, and looked at SO MANY MORE listings online that they are all starting to run together.

Like so many things, house-hunting, to me, is a really fun idea to talk about and play around with...

But a really, really, horrible, existential, soul-reaving process in which your very notions of priority, maturity, budgeting and self-esteem are blown to pieces, baked in a pie, and served back to you in relentless perpetuity.

It's also very complicated for first-timers. No wonder so many people screw it up, get foreclosed on, and ruin the world's economy.

But hey - you know - NO PRESSURE.

I say all that to say:

We actually found a house we like. It's a little farther out from work than I'd like (it's in Katy, TX), but it's very cool, within our price range, a good size, and in a great neighborhood.

We're meeting with the Realtor tonight to work out the details of an offer.

I'm scared to death. I don't understand why everybody else is NOT scared to death of committing to something for 30 years. Renting feels very, very safe to me right now.

Nevertheless! -we are pressing forward. And yes, I'm actually a little excited. There are a lot of pieces to consider, and a lot of hoops to jump through. Plenty can go wrong.

Now I can die in peace...

Reading back over the last few posts, I noticed a couple of things I had mentioned off hand that I wanted to follow up on.

Namely -

I HAVE GENERAL ADMISSION FLOOR TICKETS TO
U2 @ RELIANT STADIUM ON OCTOBER 14, 2009!!
(Muse is opening)

Patrick Gilgour bought them for me as a "birthday present". As promised, he is hereby exempt from all future birthday, Christmas, and anniversary presents (You're still on the hook for baby showers, though, suckachump!).

Now I can die in peace.

Secondly, Abz and I leave early tomorrow morning with our friends Raine and Andrew Neilson for The World's Best Vacation of 2009 (so far)!! Codename: Project Rodent. We're going to Disney World (again)!!! We're staying at the plush Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando, and spending 5+ days park hopping, relaxing, and playing LOTS of Settlers of Catan. Wish you were there butnotreally!! Comment with your address, and I'll send you a picture e-mail from EPCOT!!

Lastly - My summer reading list.

As soon as I finish High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, I'll be reading:

Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostriecher

The Reason For God by Tim Keller

A Christianity Worth Believing by Doug Pagitt

and just for fun,

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

And hopefully LOTS and LOTS of comic books, namely the Batman: Battle for the Cowl, and Green Lantern: Blackest Night series.

What are you reading?

Also - do YOU have U2 tickets?

Marriage

Sometimes... when my wife and I are getting dressed in the morning... independently of each other... we end up wearing almost exactly the same outfit. It's weird because she usually picks her clothes out first, and I don't see her until she is almost all put together.

I guess what I'm saying is that - in a really uncanny way, I think I can sub-consciously sense my wife's color and pattern vibes and misread them as original thoughts on what I'M supposed to wear that day.

This morning we both wore jeans and a green t-shirt. Sometimes she gets mad when it happens, as if I were doing it on purpose. I actually think it's sweet, and kind of hilarious. Sometimes I even change my clothes when I notice.

Let me make one thing clear: I would NEVER intentionally dress just like my wife, unless we were going as chaperones to the Parkview Baptist School Homecoming dance in 1994.
If you live with someone for a while, you start to become like them in little ways. Have you ever heard about how if women live in the same house for a long time, their menstrual cycles can start to synchronize? Two thoughts.
A) Whew! NO THANKS!
and
B) This is kind of how I think about the whole dressing-alike thing. I don't have a menstrual cycle, so maybe this is the next closest thing.
And that, friends, is what marriage means to me.

Spinning (Seder) Plates...

Baruch HaShem!
Happy Passover, go brain, go! followers!

A lot going on right now. I'm not really the kind of guy who gets stressed out - but if I was going to pick a time, it would probably be now.
In fact, all of 2009 so far has been in such a hurry. I don't like it. I don't think it's good to live life at such a pace.

Here's what's coming up:
- Abby and I leave tomorrow morning for a weekend in Baton Rouge. My sister is getting married and has asked me to perform the ceremony. What an honor! The catch? It's a Renaissance wedding. At a castle (in Louisiana? Yes.) With costumes. And the ceremony, I guess, is going to be in King James English. I should probably know that - I'm writing it. Anyway, there's something about our family that we enjoy getting married right around major holidays. Abz and I were married 2 days before Christmas. Casey and her husband are getting married 2 days before Easter. That's right - Good Friday. Frankly, I don't know how she pulled it off. Much of the celebration of Easter (these days) revolves around children. She is a Children's Minister at a church. She's going to be gone Easter weekend on her honeymoon. She's either brilliant or crazy.

- Sunday morning is Easter, of course, and our youth ministry is holding a Passover Seder that morning at 9:30 and 11:00. It's become kind of a tradition in our group (2 years in a row!) that is very cool. It does, however require a monumental amount of preparation, that I'm not sure I have time for (and yet here I am blogging). It's a beautiful experience that connects us with the history of our faith, our roots in Judaism, and reminds us of what it means to be in covenant relationship with each other and with God. If I wasn't so exhausted thinking about all I still have to do before I leave in the morning, I would say that I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe I can get some help from some students during our Journey Group meeting tonight.

- Easter Sunday afternoon my Young Couples small group is having a crawfish boil (OH YEAAH!) to celebrate the resurrection. I'm not sure how 5 pounds of bugs per person celebrates the resurrection - but I'm willing to go with it. Also - are crawfish Kosher? Who cares.
- The weekend after Easter? Disciple Now.

- Then a short break to write 3 papers, prepare for and take 2 finals (early) before our trip to WALT DISNEY WORLD in Florida May 8-15, 2009.

WHEW!
*sweat drops - sweat drops*
*worry lines - worry lines*

Left arm for sale - hardly used....

New Rob Bell tour - Drops Like Stars - is coming to Austin in November.

U2 is supposedly coming to Houston in Sept./Oct.

Time to start saving-up-slash-get-a-second-job.

You better be sure!!

Benji extols my back-in-the-day basketball virtues.
A lesson on how the universe fundamentally works.
A demonstration of my skillz.
All in under 10 minutes.
Enjoy!

I used this for part of my teaching on February 8, 2009.

Star Wars - a 3-year-old's account...

This one, too.

Hey Jude

I submit that you can't NOT watch this.

In God We Trust

"I don't see how we can have a separation of church and state in this government if you have to pass a religious test to get in this government. And I want to warn everyone in the press, and all the voters out there - if you demand expressions of religious faith from politicians, you are just begging to be lied to. They won't all lie to you - but a lot of them will. And it'll be the easiest lie they ever had to tell to get your votes. So, every day until the end of this campaign, I'll answer any question anyone has on government. But if you have a question on religion - please - go to church."

Sen. Arnold Vinick (R - California)

.....

So - funny story.
I'm doing a wedding for some dear friends tonight at 7p.m.
Last night at rehearsal, my voice was about 90% gone, which was the cause of some panic.
Since that time I have swallowed more water and more hot tea with honey than Earl Grey himself.
I'm think I'm actually doing a lot better today, but to be honest, I haven't let myself talk enough to find out how weak or strong the ol' pipes are now.
At this point I'm averaging about one cup of tea every half hour.
So my question, dear reader, becomes this:
Besides the CONSTANT URINATION - Is there a down side to ingesting such large quantities of tea?

The Robot Apocalypse...

It's coming - nay - it is already upon us.
Exhibit A - THIS article on the mind-controlled Nintendo Wii, coming in 2010.

Doesn't anyone else see this for what it is? Sure, it's designed for you to control video games with your outgoing thoughts... but it's really just opening a door for the machines to gain control of our thoughts by sending signals IN! Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated!

File under miscellaneous...

- I got a B (81.5%) in my Church History II class. Better than I thought, although my final exam grade was nothing pretty. Still waiting to see what I got in my Hermeneutics class.

- I'm not reading Jesus Wants To Save Christians anymore, so I removed it from the left-hand column. I finished it a while back, and I don't really want to do a full-blown review of it here. Suffice it to say, Rob Bell is an amazing thinker/theologian, and a pretty good writer. The book was absolutely brilliant. Anybody who knows me knew I was going to say that. It doesn't make it any less true. If you still haven't gotten hip to the Rob Bell thing, I don't know what else I can do for you. Please accept my condolences at your willingness to continue living an unfulfilled and unexplained life.

- That last sentence was un-called-for. I apologize. But seriously - what's your deal?

- Abby and I celebrated our 2-year anniversary on December 23rd. We went to The Melting Pot, which is a cool little fondue place, where everything you eat is pretty much cooked in a pot right there on your table. You dip stuff in cheese, broth, and chocolate. It was REALLY tasty. Really cool atmosphere, too. I really have a thing for places where they don't cook your food in a kitchen. Places like the Melting Pot, and the Japanese hibachi grills. Especially the Japanese hibachi grill. To be honest, the Melting Pot was a little expensive for me. And the food was good, but it wasn't that good. It's kind of a racket, actually - but overall a good experience that I'm glad we had, and probably won't have again.

2 years is the cotton anniversary. So we actually went to the Mall of Louisiana and to Old Navy on the day after Christmas, gave each other an allowance, and got whatever we wanted. I got 2 pairs of jeans, a nice navy blue shirt and a cool snap-brim cap. Don't knock the hat. The hat's cool. Cooler than I expected, actually. And no - I'm not wearing it backward like Samuel L. Jackson, and TobyMac (please, please click on that TobyMac link).

- Abby and I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at a pre-screening before it came out. Now that it's out, you really should avoid watching everything else until you see it. It's very, very good. Of course, I'm pretty sure Brad Pitt's my favorite actor (sorry Tom), and I'm quite sure that Cate Blanchett is Abby's, so don't confuse the bias in my tone. See it anyway. Despite my undying love for Brad and Cate - my favorite character in the movie was New Orleans. Man, she looked good!

- We also saw Valkyrie with my parents on Christmas Day. It was also very good. Not very, very good. But very good. As I sat down in the theater, it occurred to me that it was a movie about a plot to assassinate Hitler - a clearly UNsuccessful plot to assassinate Hitler. So how good could it be, right? It's still worth a look to see the ins and outs. Get this one from Netflix or your local redbox when it comes out - but don't watch it with a bunch of talky people. Wait until you can really pay attention.

- Our friends Jenny and Dylan are getting married on January 3rd. They have graciously asked me to perform their wedding, which I am very excited about. Normally when I perform a wedding, I just take the text of the last one I did, change the names, and recycle it. Don't look at me like that - that's what most ministers do. And the fact that you haven't realized that yet, tells me just how much attention people pay to that kind of thing, and makes my point. Actually, my real point here is that I'm not doing that this time. Because these are people I really care about, I am working on something new and unique for their ceremony, which is kind of fun to think about.

- My favorite CD of the past year was the self-titled Vampire Weekend CD. To me, VW is to music as Wes Anderson films are to movies. VW just reminds me of The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited and Hotel Chevalier. I don't usually listen to or enjoy a lot of new music - so way to go VW for getting my attention this year!

- For Christmas I got quite a fair amount of money, gift cards for several eating establishments, an iTunes gift card, an LSU zipper fleece (very cool), some LSU moccasins (kind of weird, actually), a framed pastel drawing of Batman with the Bat-Signal in the background (also kind of weird, I guess, but very cool), a 2009 calendar of vintage LSU football posters and game-day program covers, and a bunch of edibles. Forgive me if I forgot anything, but if you'll pardon my saying so - that's EXACTLY one of the reasons we asked not be be given presents this Christmas. My sister did do something very cool, though. She donated money in our names to be used toward a water filter for an impoverished community in South America. Now THAT's what I'm talking about.

- Every time I leave my parents house headed back to my own, my mother tries to load me down with a bunch of my old childhood crap - most of which is garbage that nobody wants, and I can't believe she still has. This time I left with nostalgia GOLD - my old set of twin-size Return of the Jedi sheets, and my Return of the Jedi sleeping bag. Now, if I could just find a twin bed to put them on....

Fourthmeal - my little emo girl

Yes, Fourthmeal is a couple of guys from my youth group.
Yes, they are actually quite talented.
Yes, it appears they are the heirs-apparent to Nosferatu-tu.
No, you can't really understand all the words to this song.
It's probably better that way.

Art imitates life imitates art

From IMDB.com:

According to an article in The New York Times (29 October 2008), shortly after then-Illinois state senator Barack Obama spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, "The West Wing" (1999) writer Eli Attie had several long telephone conversations with David Axelrod, a political consultant who was then working on Obama's U.S. Senate campaign. From those conversations, Attie modeled the character of Matthew Santos after Obama's political and personal life. Like Santos, Obama eventually won his race for the presidency. Likewise, according to an article in The Guardian (6 November 2008), the character of Josh Lyman was modeled after Rep. Rahm Emanuel; on the show, Lyman became President Santos' Chief of Staff, while Obama's first staffing announcement after his 2008 election was to name Emanuel as his Chief of Staff.

Next: John Goodman wins Congressional seat in Louisiana - elected Speaker of the House...

Verily I say unto thee - Nip it in the bud!

In the preparation/Background material for the small group curriculum we use here at the church, I came across an interesting comparison this afternoon. As I was preparing to give a short background talk tomorrow night, I read this:

On “The Andy Griffith Show,” Don Knotts played a small town deputy who constantly sought to prove his authority as “the law in these parts.” Because his job held very little authority in Mayberry, he relished every opportunity he got to investigate a crime or put someone behind bars. Trouble awaited anyone who tried to step between Deputy Barney Fife and his authority.
Although the Jewish religious leaders during the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry were not comical, they too felt the sting of a powerless position and relished every opportunity they had to prove their authority. The Roman government had come in and taken many freedoms away from the Jewish people, as well as most of the authority from the religious leaders.
The Romans considered religious matters petty and a waste of time. Only in this area did they step back and allow the Jewish people to govern themselves. Therefore, the Pharisees found themselves in a position similar to that of a small town deputy. Matters which the Roman government found inconsequential were monumental to them. They worked hard to maintain their authority among the Jewish people and held onto the little power they had with clenched fists.

That's right. First Century Jewish Religious Leaders = Deputy Barney Fife.
Interesting, no? I'm willing to bet you know people like this in your church, or office. People who have appointed themselves arbiters over meaningless things, because they have nothing really meaning-full in their lives. Please don't use my comments section to name names.

Dear Diary,

Today at Fall Retreat - 17 people threw up.

In my youth group, we call that a WIN.

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas...

Abby and I finished all of our Christmas shopping the other night. We did it in about 10 minutes.
This year we bought all of our gifts from Heifer International. We purchased some chickens, some ducks, a goat, and some rabbits on behalf of our families. Everybody wins! No hippopotami, though. Sorry.

ASBO - December 4, 2008

Unfunniest thing ever...

Comedy Driving School

I didn't think it was possible, but Comedy Driving School Defensive Driving successfully walks the fine line between being intriguing enough that you would choose it over another alternative, and still being so much of a beating that you want to do whatever it takes to never, ever, ever have to sit through it again.

It also manages the loosest definition of the word "comedy" I have ever encountered.

It happens...

I'm sure this picture will probably get me added to some terrorist watch list, but let me say, for the record - I AM NOT A TERRORIST. I know - that's what all the terrorists say, right? You got me there. Well, maybe I am one (a t-word), in the sense that the above image, and the link that you're about to follow may inspire terror. By that rationale, I might also be called a Laughterist, or a Confusionist - because it is likely to move to you either or both of those.

Here's the story.
Apparently, in nativity scenes in certain parts of Europe, it is customary to include a figurine of someone defecating - usually in the back somewhere, "far away from the manger", for the children to find. The figures are called "caganers", literally "defecators". This link is to a Telegraph story which details a shop that sells caganers in the likeness of world leaders and sports celebrities.

ENJOY!

Man, I really wish I was teaching this weekend, instead of last weekend. You can bet this would have made my powerpoint slide show. Maybe as an illustration of how people are always adding crap to Christmas that doesn't belong there, and we need to get back to what it's really about. Yeah - that's good stuff. Feel free to use it if you're speaking anywhere in the near future, lol.