The Mattcave.

2006-07-31T09:14:00.000-04:00

wonder of wonders!

i have posted again!

so here's the news--

i'm no longer employed with liberty mutual.
jennifer and i will be moving into our new house (the church's parsonage) in about two weeks. that means, finally, no more living out of boxes!
i'm almost done with summer session at North Georgia, and fall classes begin on Aug 10 (i think). and I'm officially pursuing my M.Ed. in English now, instead of just the post bacc certification program.

boring, but informative...gotta do some work now.

2006-06-09T22:34:00.000-04:00

also

my wife's new haircut is hot.

2006-06-09T22:30:00.000-04:00

r.i.p.

from www.pedrothelion.com

"Known for his tenure performing as Pedro the Lion, songwriter David Bazan has retired the band name to continue making music under his own name and his electronic side-project Headphones. Bazan's new EP will be released on June 13. He will be touring solo this summer and fall in the U.S. and will also join kindred spirits Will Johnson, Vic Chestnutt and Mark Eitzel for more dates with the Undertow Orchestra Europe. Bazan will soon start work on a full-length studio album to be released in the spring of 2007."

So, yeah, I haven't had time to post in a while, what with grad school, work, church, and such, but this demanded a post. this is the saddest news i've heard in a while. yeah, i know dave's still making music, but PEDRO IS GONE. a period of mourning is in order...

2006-03-08T22:22:00.000-05:00

I have officially been accepted to North Georgia's Graduate Program. I am now awaiting my acceptance letter for the education department.

In the mean time:

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Matt!

Donald Duck's middle name is Matt!
The only Englishman to become Matt was Nicholas Breakspear, who was Matt from 1154 to 1159!
The deepest part of Matt is over 35,000 feet deep.
In Eastern Africa you can buy beer brewed from Matt!
If you lie on your back with your legs stretched it is impossible to sink in Matt!
Reindeer like to eat Matt.
The colour of Matt is no indication of his spiciness, but size usually is.
The ace of spades in a playing card deck symbolizes Matt.
Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than Matt.
68 percent of all UFO sightings are by Matt.

2006-02-16T20:30:00.000-05:00

i want to move to new york now

here is the reason:

Overheard in New York

it's a website consisting of, wonder of all wonders... conversations overheard in new york city. i heard about it on NPR today. for those of you that don't know, most of my day at work recently has consisted of producing policies for new york city and the rest of the state, so my job is fairly NY-centric lately. anywho... enjoy the site. life is good. i'm waiting to hear from North Georgia College and State University about my acceptance to grad school, and i'm a youth pastor at the River Community Church now. Rock, rock on.

2005-12-28T16:44:00.001-05:00

and all the ladies weep

And here it is, my first post-wedding blog entry. i'm hitched, and i like it.

major changes so far:

1. i don't have to go back to my own house at night after spending the evening with jennifer because i'm already there.

2. i wear gold now.

3. even though i was going over to the apartment every day after work before the wedding, seeing jennifer after work now has a more official "having someone to come home to" feel to it.

4. i am now the adoptive father of a squirrelly looking little dog.

5. i'm much less frustrated than i have been recently.

6. i can expect no more inundation of gifts until it's time to have a kid.

so yeah, married life is great. i highly recommend it.

2005-12-11T09:58:00.000-05:00

thank you, slate.com!

here's an article emailed to me recently. thanks to jana and jennifer...

A song so awful it hurts the mind.

Vindication for one's musical righteous anger can feel nice.

there will be more posts from me in the future, but for now, i have a wedding, honeymoon, and christmas to keep me busy.

2005-11-17T17:31:00.000-05:00

my secret shame...internet quizzes.

i took the bait and took the OKCupid Politics quiz that I saw on Iris's blog.

You are a
Social Liberal
(70% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(10% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

Yup, that's me, nestled in the bosom of Hillary Clinton. How the times have changed.

2005-11-01T18:13:00.000-05:00

another month, another post

i'll try to do better. i (almost) promise.

so here's my current list o' things:

currently reading: the violent bear it away by flannery o'connor.

finished reading recently freakonomics by steven levitt and the sound and the fury by william faulkner. reading on my breaks at work has helped me be more focused in reading one book at a time. good for me.

last move seen: elizabethtown. i enjoyed it a lot. kind of a blend of garden state, sweet home alabama, and better off dead.

still not disappointed with: my name is earl. still funny. watching it tonight.

states recently visited: florida. we had a wedding shower and got stuff. the gainers are good people.

marrying in a month and a half: jennifer.

hanging over my head because it's not finished: the sending of wedding invitations.

that's it for now. you will love my post.

2005-10-18T17:24:00.000-04:00

the radio hates me.

ever since an ice storm at the beginning of the year claimed the life of the radio antenna on my car, my musical selections have been rather limited when i'm driving. it was alright when the antanna was bent in half, as i could still pick up a decent amount of stations around athens. but in the last couple of months, it finally fell off, leaving me with two musical selections: 99x and 95.5-The Beat. In my morning and afternoon commutes I've become acquainted with quite possibly the two worst songs i've ever had the misfortune of hearing on the radio. Let us discuss these offenders:

1. Rehab "Last Tattoo"

George Santayana, a notable philosopher, coined the phrase, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Now, I thought that the late 90s taught us what atrocities can be committed in the name of rap-rock, but apparently, we have not learned our lesson. I don't know if it's the strained, irritating melody that makes up the chorus, the scratching of records that hasn't been cutting edge in rock music for at least 8 years, or the idiotic whiteboy rap verse, that does more to elevate this song to such epic heights of poor songwriting, but on the Mount Olympus of godawful rock music, Rehab could stand well among the pantheon of Limp Bizkit, Staind, and Hoobastank. Some examples of the bands wordsmithing:

"This will be my last tattoo/to cover the memory of someone I thought I'd always need./Cover her name with a [poorly articulated series of words i can't make out]/ Make it hurt as much as possible and make it bleed."

"Now you know when I woke up this morning, she was long gone./I thought she heard me say she was my vertebrae, my backbone."

I do have one positive thing to say about this band. Were it not for this band being in existence, we wouldn't have gotten this unfortunate photo:

2. Black Eyed Peas "My Humps"

I figure the lyrics to this gem can say infinitely more than I can about the depths to which this song sinks (and that's with the already low bar that recent hip hop has set).

"What you gon’ do with all that junk?
All that junk inside your trunk?
I’ma get, get, get, get, you drunk,
Get you love drunk off my hump.
My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump,
My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely little lumps. (Check it out)"

While I had to resist my initial Fergie-like reaction at how hilariously awful this song is, my response now is simply this: Thank God for Kanye West.

2005-09-21T22:12:00.000-04:00

a reason not to lose faith in primetime television

Who would have thought? There's a new show on tv that is none of the following:

1. A "Friends" ripoff

2. A remake of a British show

3. A "reality" show that makes me want to plunge a fork into any convenient bit of flesh nearby.

After first seeing a commercial for "My Name is Earl," I had high hopes that this show would be something worth watching. Needless to say, my expectations were fully met. The story of a dirtbag who begins on a mission to find redemption after an epiphany involving a morphine drip and Carson Daly's philosophical musings is right up my alley.

It's good to see a show in primetime that deals with issues of redemption and atonement, rather than the stale premises of "here are a bunch of quirky people (a)having a family, (b)trying to have sex with lots of people, (c)having zany adventures with their robot sidekicks." It feels a lot more like a movie than a sitcom, or at least more like an "Arrested Development" sort of sitcom, choosing the single camera sort of filming rather than the "filmed before a live studio audience" way of doing things.

Did I mention I laughed my butt off at this show? Perhaps the most memorable line of the night--"Now some people would think that drinking so much that you don't realize you're marrying a woman that's six months pregnant is a good reason to stop drinking, but I see it as a great reason to keep on." It's a show that doesn't have a laugh track because you don't need canned laughter to know that this show is funny.

So yeah, it's worth watching. Maybe it'll prove to you that there are still some shows on tv that rise above the category of "broadcast lobotomy."

2005-09-14T18:39:00.000-04:00

proof that i'm boring

so at my job working at the insurance company, i've been listening to streaming audio of the hearings of John Roberts. it's been quite interesting hearing more than the sound bites we all hear on the evening news. there's been lots of repetition, lots of answers that don't say a whole lot, and enough baiting of roberts to say something controversial to drive me half insane.

oddly enough, i've enjoyed listening to it. you folks probably know me well enough to know i have my fair share of issues with the bush administration, so here's a shocker for you-- i think roberts is a good choice. mind you, when it comes to issues of jurisprudence, i'm about as ignorant as they come, but it seems to me like roberts is a smart guy that seems to have some character. one thing that made a big impression on me was how little the democrats have had to throw at him. they've tried to make him out to be a misogynist who'd be happy repealing every civil rights amendment that he can get his hands on, but the result, in my opinion, is that the democrats have looked fairly silly.

[disclaimer: please don't judge me when it turns out roberts repeals the bill of rights and appoints W as supreme dictator for life of the American Empire]

so yeah, i haven't posted in a while. honestly, i'm just not in the mood for it usually when i get in from work. but i'll try to do better. here are some updates:

-the wedding planning is coming along. lots of stuff that most people won't be terribly interested in have been taken care of. i'm ready to be done with all the planning stuff and to just be married.

-we're not gonna be living in cumming. we're gonna be living in dawsonville. pluses included: 1. a more central location between where i and jennifer work, 2. we'll be really close to a waffle house, the dawsonville outlets, AND a moe's, 3. we're on the 1st floor instead of the 4th (!!!) jennifer will be moving in at the beginning of october, so i'll have my own apartment again (even if i won't be actually living there for a couple more months).

-i'm almost finished reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. this has made it through the ranks to the upper echelons on my favorite books. it's one of the funniest, most tragic, profane, and brilliant books i've read in some time. i believe i read somewhere that heller's book says things about war that had never been said before and need never be said again. i agree.

-i've been able to reconnect with some of my friends from gainesville that i haven't been able to see as much over the last few years. i'm terribly happy about that.

-life with jennifer is great. i love her a lot.

so yeah, i hope everyone is doing well. i miss you guys that i haven't seen in a while (a.k.a., lots of Emmanuel/Chi Alpha/Athens people). if you're in the gainesville area or know of anything interesting going on somewhere, lemme know. oh yeah, i have a new cell phone, too. if you don't have the number, call around. i've gotten the number to some people that can hook you up.

take it easy, folks.

2005-08-11T16:55:00.000-04:00

paying rent again, even if i'm still living with my parents

yup, i have an apartment (as well as a rent payment) as of October 5. we're going to be living in a fancy-type apartment complex in cumming called Preston Pointe. actually, jennifer will be living there in october. so as to keep our reputation as good kids, i won't be moving in until december. of course, after december, i will be adopting the reputation of "miserable reprobate." this, of course, has nothing to do with my marriage and everything to do with the fact that it seems like the cool thing to do.

so after december, if you wanna find me, check here...

2005-07-27T18:33:00.000-04:00

it's been a while

yeah, i've been busy. i've been prepping and coding policies like a madman lately, thanks to liberty mutual. jennifer now lives in gainesville. i'm happy about that. we went to the new ikea store in atlanta last weekend. i find it funny that the first place i heard about ikea was fight club. alright, this post sucks, but i have important matters to tend to. it's time for dinner with ed!

2005-07-10T22:27:00.000-04:00

theologian quiz

You scored as Anselm. Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period.He sees man's primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read 'Cur Deus Homo?'

Anselm

80%

Friedrich Schleiermacher

73%

Jurgen Moltmann

67%

John Calvin

67%

Karl Barth

60%

Paul Tillich

40%

Jonathan Edwards

40%

Augustine

40%

Charles Finney

40%

Martin Luther

27%

Which theologian are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

2005-07-07T21:44:00.000-04:00

i'm not dead, and i have a better job.

this week has been good. it's contained quite a bit of apartment shopping, housewares shopping, and stumbling onto a much better job. i got a call from the employment agency i used to work through, and they called me in to talk about a job with the insurance company i used to work for. anyways, i go in, i interview, i sweat it out for a night, and the next day i have a new job making several dollars more per hour with full-time hours. on top of that, my manager at starbucks was really cool about helping me find people to take my hours, so that i can start work at liberty mutual this monday.

oh, and the house my parents have been trying to sell finally closed out this week. there have been numerous sighs of relief around here today. that house has been the bane of our existence for months now. good riddance.

and the good news just doesn't end. jennifer has been up here for the past week, and she's moving up here next week. huzzah!

so, to summarize things with me lately in a formula:

(new job - stupid house that wouldn't sell) x soon-to-be-local fiancee = general sense of well-being

i'm done.

2005-06-27T15:37:00.000-04:00

so you like the space elevator, eh?

thanks to jennifer for the picture that spawned the feedback in my last post.

to learn more about the fascinating world of space elevator science, visit www.spaceelevator.com

2005-06-22T23:22:00.000-04:00

ways that my life is different from life 6 months ago

1. i live in gainesville, rather than athens.

2. i work at starbucks, rather than being a campus minister.

3. i'm engaged, rather than being the most eligible bachelor in athens.

4. though i currently live with my parents, jennifer and i are beginning to look into the possibility of buying a house(!?!), rather than shoveling mounds of money into the gaping maw of my landlords.

5. i have some things in my life (mainly, jennifer) that bring some certainty amid all the uncertainty about my future, rather than having next to no clue what the future would hold.

so, yeah, at this point, i don't really know how other people see me. they may think i've taken a step back, since i work a service industry job and live with my parents. as i see it, though, i'm happy with the way things are. i'm in transition, and i'm doing what i have to do. i've started thinking about the future with a lot more hope than i have at other times, and, as you may have guessed, a lot of that has to do with jennifer. i have a lot of unanswered questions about my career, education, etc., but she's a constant that i know i can rely on. it's a great feeling.

yeah, i've been pretty sentimental in this post, so i'm going to reward all of you that have read all of this with a diagram of a space elevator.

2005-06-15T00:05:00.000-04:00

i got paid to drink coffee today

yeah, so i also had to sit through a few hours of lecture about starbucks history and such, but i got money and coffee, so i'm not complaining.

i haven't done this in a while, so here's what i'm currently listening to/watching/playing/reading:

listening:
the white stripes-"elephant" (incredible! why did it take me this long to own it?)
foo fighters-"in your honor" (not "the colour and the shape." i'm hoping it grows on me)
"Avenue Q"-Original Cast Recording (funny as heck. sesame street style puppetry with songs like "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist," "It Sucks to Be Me," and "The Internet is for Porn.")

tv shows:
simpsons, king of the hill, seinfeld (mostly all in syndication)

movies:
haven't seen anything in a bit. looking forward to batman begins and charlie and the chocolate factory

playing:
champions of norrath on ps2

reading:
still working on Gandhi's autobiography
finished Franny and Zooey by Salinger for the 2nd time
other things i can't remember.

so what about everyone else?

2005-06-09T11:25:00.000-04:00

wedding bell hysteria

my family is going a little crazy right now. tomorrow, my cousin mandy is getting married, and apparently the wedding has sparked a bout of madness in members of my family. mandy and her mom are understandably stressed and busy, but it seems like sheer proximity to a wedding is causing people to get more stressed that they ought. perhaps eloping isn't such a bad idea.

2005-06-06T20:16:00.000-04:00

unemployed no longer

as of today, i am now officially employed by the starbucks corporation. now, before any of you that may remember my past anti-Starbucks rants pipe up with all their "you sold out!" talk, let me explain how i made peace with Starbucks (before i ever thought of working for them, by the way...)

in the past, my reason for dislike starbucks hinged on two main premises:

1. starbucks is an evil corporation, so their bottom line is more important to them than any sort of human impact of their actions.

2. starbucks encroaches on independent coffeehouses.

these ideas were changed over time when i started listening to other people talk about starbucks.

1. starbucks treats their employees really well. they have a line of fair trade coffee. they do quite a few things for the community. you can read their corporate social report here

2. while i'm sure a starbucks popping up on every corner could very well hurt the business of local coffeeshops, i heard from the owner of one local shop that all the advertising starbucks does tends to draw new people to an area, and if said customers see a starbucks next to a local joint, quite a few will choose the local place. now if i'd heard this coming from some starbucks PR guy, i wouldn't have paid much attention. however, i heard this from a coffeehouse owner, so i'd say that has some credibility.

so that's why i don't hate starbucks anymore, and why i have no problem working for them. of course, the fact that i've had no source of income for almost a month now sure doesn't hurt either.

2005-06-02T10:36:00.000-04:00

where i'll be at 7:30 pm on September 28

2005-05-31T22:38:00.000-04:00

gainesville, again.

the drive back from florida wasn't bad until i got halfway through atlanta, at which point i must have displeased the gods of traffic incidents. i was stuck on I-285 for what seemed like a solid month and a half.

so here's a quick rundown of the last few days:

-i visited jennifer in florida (the only person i've ever driven a total of 32+ hours within one month's time span to see).

-i went to busch gardens for the first time, where i rode roller costers and became an official beermaster (i.e., i sat through a budweiser propaganda session--"budweiser is crisp and refreshing...must drink cheap american beer...").

-i purchased a boston red sox baseball cap, even though i am not a fan of baseball or the red sox. actually, i'll consider myself a red sox fan as long as i don't actually have to watch an actual baseball game.

-i went to a swing dance and made a fool of myself on the dance floor, once again proving that approximately 95% of all the rhythm in my body is located in my right index and middle finger (dubbed by the American Medical Association as, "bass player arrhythmia).

-i developed some sort of nasty sinus infection that made my trip back to georgia mucus-tastic (note:"mucus-tastic" will be the most disgusting adjective that i use in this post, unless i end up breaking out the term "open-sores-ariffic" before i finish typing).

-i brought a couple of chests of drawers of jennifer's back with me to georgia (sort of a down payment on her).

so that's about it. it's a week and a half until my cousin gets married, two weeks before i see jennifer again, hopefully a short, but as yet unspecified amount of time until i'm a working man again, and 6 1/2 months until i'm a married man. that should be about enough to keep my busy the rest of the year.

to close out this post, i give you picture of me and jennifer on a beach, a wookie, and a sock monkey. the common denominator? all pictures i have saved on my pc.

2005-05-26T21:06:00.000-04:00

exciting news

link it up, yo.

2005-05-23T14:13:00.000-04:00

words of the unemployed

i'm reading a lot these days.

when you're looking for a job, even when you're looking pretty hard, there's only so much time one can occupy in any given day. my current plan is to find whatever job i can that will hopefully (a)provide enough of an income to pay my bills/build up some savings and (b)not suck the life out of me.

i've mostly avoided the "oh, woe is me" crap, aside from a day last week, and after a venting session with jennifer, i got over it. i'm keeping pretty upbeat. i figure even if i'm not making any money right now, at least i'm not spending my days in front of the television. i've just started exercising again (with hopes of banishing this gut of mine), and i do a good bit of reading. currently, i'm working on Gandhi's autobiography (i may have mentioned that before?), and i'm rereading Franny and Zooey by Salinger. I also made it through Book I of Paradise Lost, and enjoyed it immensely. I'll go for more once I finish F&Z. I finished off The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while I was in Florida.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm gonna go scout out good intersections where I can wash people's windshields for spare change.

well, that or see if maury povich is on.

2005-05-16T17:38:00.000-04:00

back in georgia

my butt hurts from being in the car all day, but i made it. now the job search and moving back to gainesville begin in earnest, because i'm now official unemployed and not on vacation. it appears that there are a few places to look for job opportunities. we'll see if any of them work out.

and now for the statement that i never thought i'd utter:

i'd much rather be in florida right now.

2005-05-12T11:54:00.000-04:00

AWOL no longer

yeah, i've been missing for a while now. as you may or may not know, this is because i've been in the lovely town of Lithia, FL, visiting my beautiful fiance. so there hasn't been much time for the internet. so, what's happened since last i posted?

1. i attended Emmanuel's graduation ceremony and witnessed a killer speech from w3's very own ian cole. any speech that involves mention of the gallon challenge, wellons lovin', and dr. moon sex talks is okay in my book.

2. i ate animal flesh and homemade ice cream at kevin sneed's graduation party at tugaloo state park.

3. i went home for the weekend, since it was mother's day and all. i'm a good son.

4. i made an eight hour drive that's gonna seem like a lot longer when i have to make the trip back on monday.

5. i've spent copious amounts of time with jennifer and her family. it's been great to see her again. the thing about long-distance relationships, though, is that your time spent together is tempered by the fact that you know you're going to be away from each other again before too long. so, yeah. i'm ready for us to live in the same state. eh, enough thinking about that, though. this week has been awesome. jennifer and i went to hear jim wallis speak in tampa last night. i really liked what wallis had to say (and he signed my copy of God's Politics).

6. the job hunt continues. i'm trying my best to not get discouraged this early in the game, especially with all the options i still have open. i guess i just have my fair share of dread that i'm gonna get stuck in a job that i hate. i'm trying to think positively about things...

alright, that's pretty much all for me right now. yeah, this wasn't a very interesting post, i guess. but alas, i mustn't keep my adoring public waiting any longer.

2005-05-03T11:48:00.000-04:00

a last minute trip to the 40 watt

last night, around 9:15, i was informed that there was an extra ticket to see the shins at the 40 watt downtown. my reaction? a great deal of speeding through the streets of athens. a band from new zealand (i think) called the brunettes opened up for them. it was one of the more interesting opening acts i've seen in a while. due to the multi-instrumental nature of several of the band members, a clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, banjo, glockenspiel, and a melodica all made appearances during the set.

i enjoyed the set the shins played. i have the feeling i would have been more into it had i been more familiar with their chutes too narrow album, but it was a good show, nonetheless. one thing i learned from the band's commentary last night-- though the songs would give no indication to the fact, approximately 1/3 of all shings songs are about either vampires, zombies, or gremlins. which leads me to a reason why i like the shins so much--they're geeks. and not in that "we're weezer and we make being a geek cool" sort of way. they seem to be all around average guys, and they make good rock music that sells out the 40 watt. here's to populist rockers, fighting against the tyranny of the oligarchy of pretty bands that The Man wants us to listen to. wait. subpop records is still indie enough for me to rail against The Man using an illustration from one of their bands, right? indie rock elitism can be a complicated thing sometimes...

i'd post more now, giving my expert musical opinion, but i have to run some errands before work.

[/cop out]

finally, here's a picture of the shins playing bingo. my grandma would be so proud.

2005-04-28T10:47:00.000-04:00

my google birthday

so i wondered what i would get from a google search for "birthday." "what were the results?" you ask? why, i'll show you.

there were some standard ones--

birthday cakes...

(virtual) birthday parties...

and, of course, boxes of Zen cereal

but there are also some more unexpected things, like talking animals,

weird japanese kids,

and stalinist soldiers

...all of whom are there just to wish me a happy birthday.

but what would a birthday be without an appearance by the immortal victor borge?

so, i leave you today with my favorite find on google-- Matt's Birthday Blessing.

[from the description of this fine piece of literature]
"Turning nine is just fine with Matthew Day. He's picked out a special birthday present, and knows how to get it. With God on his side, he can't go wrong. Or can he?"

I guess we'll just have to find out.

2005-04-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

my expected reaction to most jokes i make

-picture from questionable content

2005-04-23T15:41:00.000-04:00

spring retreat photos

the view from the back porch of our cabin

vanessa, shaina, and rocking chairs

dale enjoys forcing people to play ridiculous games.

a stack of students

people on a couch [this is the most exciting caption ever]

the baptism service

everybody

2005-04-20T11:39:00.000-04:00

killer robots

what's your cyborg acronym?

2005-04-18T13:01:00.000-04:00

chi alpha

well, in three weeks or so, i'll be moving on. i've been a part of chi alpha as a campus missionary aide since august 03, and my time here in athens has been great. i really feel fortunate for the opportunity to be part of such a great ministry right out of college. at chi alpha, i've found a community of believers that love each other, and that's a great thing. i'm gonna miss being a part of XA-UGA, but i know i'm making the right decision in my moving on. i could go on for a while about how swell the people are, i'm sure, but i'm just going to post some pictures instead.

*to optimize the sentimentality of your viewing experience, cue green day's "time of your life" or the theme from "cheers."*

2005-04-12T12:22:00.000-04:00

resume writing-the art of inflating your value

the job search has begun. at the end of this school year, i'll be leaving athens/uga/chi alpha, moving back to gainesville for a while, attempting to find a job in the north atlanta area, and preparing to get married in december. the times, they are a'changin'.

i have to admit, i'm a bit nervous about finding a new job. i've found a few options that could be a pretty good fit, but i dread the process of interviewing and all that jazz. i think my resume looks fairly good, but i get pretty nervous in interviews. oh well, there's no use in working myself up before i even hear from them about whether they're interested.

2005-04-07T00:55:00.000-04:00

my kind of church sign

this is the sort of church sign i would put up.

2005-04-07T00:04:00.000-04:00

our lady of the dixie cup

the other night at ekklesia (a church in royston where jennifer was part of a benefit show along with the oracle and randy and mackenzie chester), my buddy richard and i were trying to melt the bottom of the cup with the heat from a candle, thus splashing the candle with the sprite therein (it smelled awesome, by the way). i called it "creating irony." after giving up on our performance art, we set the cup on the table. upon lifting the cup, we realized that it had created an image of the virgin mary. we repeated the process, lo, we found an image of jesus. then we made nick do it, and it was the devil (we have an exorcism planned for next thursday).

we're thinking about creating a shrine. in the meantime, here are some pictures...

2005-04-06T16:11:00.000-04:00

weddings breed productivity

yup. i've been a busy fellow since jennifer got into town on friday evening. i was finally able to give her the engagement ring (maybe she can find a digital camera and post a picture on our site). i was surprised by a song that was written to me at the show at ekklesia on saturday night--a new (and rather happy, if i do say so) experience for me. i got to shoot some things at target with a registry scanner gun (accompanied by laser gun sound effects). i had lunch with jennifer's grandma. we had dinner with her friend sara and sara's husband (it was a full-on couple-y evening, and i had a good time). we visited some chalets in the mountains and made reservations for our honeymoon. and we played bingo with my grandparents (thus sealing my grandma's approval of jennifer). finally, i said a really tough goodbye before i had to go to work.

i'm sure any sort of sentimentality from me will elicit eye rolls from friends, but, eh. i highly recommend this love thing. it even works for recovering cynics like myself.

finally, here's a picture that i found to be rather entertaining...

2005-03-28T20:05:00.000-05:00

cinematic life lessons

the last movie i saw: The Last Boy Scout
the lesson i learned: don't mess with a bad guy with feathered bangs.

2005-03-27T22:25:00.000-05:00

i finally finished the fortress of solitude

ok, i'm not book reviewer, but here are my thoughts. first, a few quick details-- dylan ebdus is a white kid growing up in 1970s brooklyn with his artist dad after his mom abandons him for some kind of hippie vision quest. dylan befriends a black kid, mingus rude, the son of a coke-snorting ex-Motown singer. through the course of their friendship, lethem deals with subjects ranging from race and class struggles, to funk and motown music, graffiti tagging, superheroes, loyalty, isolation, and the past.

though some reviews i've read have accused lethem's novel of being slow (yeah, you're not going to find lots of gunfights or sinister plots to take over the world in this book), i felt it was well-written, thoughtful, and alternately funny and sad. i especially liked the peppering of lethem's prose with comic book and soul music lingo.

so there you go. i liked it.

2005-03-24T11:35:00.000-05:00

what i'm craving right now

2005-03-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

you find some interesting things on old rolls of film

while i was in florida, i finished off an old disposable camera that contained pictures from my trip to springfield, mo, last summer. here's a picture i took in nashville that i liked alot.

2005-03-21T19:15:00.000-05:00

happenings in florida, part 2

yeah, i got engaged. i posted some pics from last week on the other blog, and jennifer told the story of how it happened, so keep an eye out over there if you happen to be interested in love/sappiness/automotive repair tips.

so, in other news, i picked up a copy of bjork's post at the virgin megastore in orlando, and i've been getting a lot of airplay in my car. i recommend it. i'm nearly finished with lethem's fortress of solitude. who knows? maybe i'll post some thoughts on it after i finish it (which has taken me long enough). i think gandhi's autobiography may be next on my list. i picked up a copy a while back.

2005-03-20T22:00:00.000-05:00

some news

click here

2005-03-16T21:00:00.000-05:00

a spring break in florida that doesn't involve funneling cheap beer

happenings in florida so far:

dinner at the polynesian resort at disney ("polynesian" means "more than one nesian").

visiting mandy and boomer in lakeland today, as well as their hooligan bulldog, hoover.

heartwarming threats of bodily harm from jennifer's family.

rather...interesting home videos courtesy of mrs. debbie.

oh yeah, and i get to see my girlfriend.

huzzah!

2005-03-11T18:48:00.000-05:00

science + preservative packed cylinders of sugar = pure entertainment

http://www.twinkiesproject.com/

i wanna be a scientist now.

2005-03-09T22:24:00.000-05:00

congratulations

to nathan and mary gilmour! they became parents this past monday. check out his blog for an endless stream of pictures. :)

2005-03-07T16:04:00.000-05:00

you see, jason? i really AM metal.

.

2005-03-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

photographic evidence of me doing things

this was the look of determination that was quickly wiped off my face by the terrible game i played last night.

jennifer and i forced a rather hurried fellow to take this picture of us in front of the fountain on the marietta square on her birthday.

this is my grandpa in his barbershop in gainesville. he's my hero and has a lot of hats (the second part you can ascertain from the photo. the first part, not quite as much).

2005-03-02T17:39:00.000-05:00

life right now

ok, here goes...

i just finished my message for Chi Alpha service tonight. i really hope i get my point across, because i'm speaking on God's concern for the poor, and i don't wanna screw this up.

jennifer just left town yesterday. yeah...i'm smitten. i'm in deep smit.

i ate some leftover pepperoni pizza today, because i was in a hurry to eat (what with the manuscript for my message to finish up and all). some vegetarian i am...

and in honor of jason's list of battles he would like to see, i present my most desired cage match:

barry white vs. zombie marvin gaye

2005-02-23T08:53:00.000-05:00

look out, europe!

Which Horrible Affliction are you?
A Rum and Monkey disease.

2005-02-21T01:20:00.000-05:00

i just closed that last post with "matt out," didn't i?

i'm never posting this late again.

2005-02-21T00:55:00.000-05:00

it's 1am. do you know where your children are?

i have work in the morning, yet i'm still up at this indecent hour (further proof that i'm an old man now--1am is an "indecent hour" now). basically, this post is just my attempt to keep regis from staring me down whenever i see my blog.

i'm in a good mood. so, why am i in a good mood now, rather than the slack-jawed zombie that one would usually find in my stead at this time of night, you may ask? well, i'll tell you, oh purveyor of rhetorical questions. my lady-friend's gonna be in town tomorrow. so...yeah, there's that.

in continuing with my non sequitur post, here's a link to a site with some rather breathtaking photos of Earth, as well as an interactive map of satellite photos. i'll find athens on there at some point, and then my old college dreams of launching my Junk-Com 1 website will be on their way to fruition! so that means you'd better start rustling up some shots of lima, jason. it's go time.

alright, that's my cue to wrap this up and go to bed. matt out.

2005-02-16T14:35:00.000-05:00

Which Annoying B-list Celebrity Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey.

2005-02-15T22:57:00.000-05:00

new stuff to check out...

i just found out that they might be giants has just released a new children's album. they've also release another not children's album (in their words when i saw them live: a children's album is like their regular album without any swearing or extreme death metaphor).

also, dave eggers has a new collection of short stories out called how we are hungry. i really enjoyed his memoir, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. as tongue in cheek as the title may seem, i think the work lives up to the claims of its name.

must locate money...

2005-02-15T12:26:00.000-05:00

why i am not a programmer

html is a scary thing. many thanks to amber for guiding me through the process of creating the links in my sidebar. you are a computing goddess.

2005-02-14T15:46:00.000-05:00

so it's that day, eh?

i'm pretty sure i gave some of these out as a kid...

and the winners in the most disturbing category:

i always did have my suspicions about Bebop and Rocksteady. Oh well...at least they're happy.

2005-02-10T10:35:00.000-05:00

and so the lenten season begins...

"Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and ackowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Joel ii. 12.

"Turn ye even to me, saith the Lord, with all your mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and marciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentethhim of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber,a nd the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, teh ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heather should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?"

Matthew vi. 16.

"When ye fast, be not, as of the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourelves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, andd where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

taken from the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church

2005-02-04T22:36:00.000-05:00

proof that i have the dullest blog around

let's see...what did i do this lovely friday evening?

1. ate a nutella sammich.
2. watched the remaining two episodes of alias, season 1.
3. watched trailers for charlie and the chocolate factory and batman begins.
4. blogged about it.

tomorrow should be fun, though, for we're celebrating our dear friend wonka's 22nd birthday.

okay, to liven things up around here, i'm including a list of recommendations based on my current reading list and musical tastes:

1. Angie Aparo -musician from atlanta. caught him at tasty world not too long ago. wrote "cry" that faith hill sang. his version is better.
2. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem-The story of a kid growing up in 1970s Brooklyn. According to people who write about books for a living: "the plot manages to encompass pop music from punk rock to rap, avant-garde art, graffiti, drug use, gentrification, the New York prison system-and to sing a vibrant, sometimes heartbreaking ballad of Brooklyn throughout." There you have it.
3. God's Politics by Jim Wallis-I've already talked about Wallis in my blog recently, so I'll leave it at that.
4. Iron and Wine-Combine indie rock with folk music, add in lyrics that seem to reflect southern gothic stories, and you have Sam Beam's music.

you will be interested in what i've written. now.

2005-02-04T11:19:00.000-05:00

jim wallis on the daily show

wow, two of my heroes on the same stage: jim wallis, founder of sojourners, and jon stewart, the #1 voice in fake news (who has more journalistic integrity than most of the political talking heads on the cable news channels). wallis clearly articulated his position, received an enthusiastic response from the audience, and held his own keeping up with stewart's schtick.

here's a link to the interview.

2005-02-03T23:45:00.000-05:00

can you tell...?

that i've just figured out how to do the html stuff on my blog?

2005-02-03T23:44:00.000-05:00

What Kind of Drunk Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

2005-02-03T23:39:00.000-05:00

Which Famous Homosexual Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

2005-02-03T23:32:00.000-05:00

i'm on a bit of a internet quiz binge at the moment

INTJ - "Mastermind". Introverted intellectual with a preference for finding certainty. A builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models. 2.1% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs)

Introverted (I) 59.46% Extroverted (E) 40.54%
Intuitive (N) 60% Sensing (S) 40%
Thinking (T) 58.06% Feeling (F) 41.94%
Judging (J) 56.67% Perceiving (P) 43.33%

2005-02-03T23:05:00.000-05:00

Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

2005-02-03T01:31:00.000-05:00

but before i go to bed, here's a picture of the EC crowd at the Bean'ry farewell party...

2005-02-03T01:20:00.000-05:00

home sweet home

i'm glad to announce to all of you that i'm now typing at my desk in my bedroom/office. today, that cursed green flashing light on my DSL modem turning into a steady green light, a beacon signifying all that is right and good in the world. so far, my favorite aspect of having my office in my apartment: i wear pants to the office, not because i have to, but because i choose to. so take heart, ye huddling masses, desperate for a single word from the keyboard of matt, for now that DSL has come to East Paces Drive, ye shall have your fill.

...yeah, i'm really sorry for that last sentence. i've just come from the grill, and i'm all hopped up and mildly delirious from the several cups of coffee and goofball company i had.

i'll end my post with this: if there's anything that i learned from my last post, it's that ending your post with a cryptic remark gets one a lot of comments. and if i were in any state of mind to come up with another veiled statement right now, i would. but, alas, i'm getting tired.

goodnight all.

2005-02-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

let's see if i can make a picture appear on my blog

2005-01-31T15:33:00.000-05:00

a post devoid of sentence fragments (aside from the title)

alright, life is good these days. here's a brief summation of my life:

1. i have a bit more money, thanks to my new part time job at Costa's Cleaners.

2. things with chi alpha have been going really well.
a. our teaching focus for the semester revolveds around the issue of "loving your neighbor."
b. i'm speaking the first week in march on the topic of god's concern for the poor and the Church's response.
c. the guys in my small group are awesome.

3. i should have a DSL connection at my house by the end of the week, effectively eliminating my need to use library internet access.

4. i survived a Lord of the Rings-Extended Edition marathon at my house when i was snowed in on saturday.

5. i find a dopey grin on my face at random intervals the past week or so thanks to... certain circumstances.

so that's it for now.

2005-01-21T10:06:00.000-05:00

quick note

maybe i'll be able to post more later. first access i've had in a bit. internet access coming soon. full sentences possible then.

okay, things have been going well. i have a part time job in addition to my work with chi alpha, which gives me less time to goof off, but i'm still making time. i saw angie aparo at tasty world last night. great show. great night. gonna have to check out more of his music. ok, gotta work.

2005-01-10T22:11:00.000-05:00

today i earned my keep

dale and i spent the entire day today frantically working on the new display for Chi Alpha's info table, so we can have it ready for tomorrow. after quite a few hours of brainstorming, wandering around home depot, cutting, painting, and critiqueing...

we're still not done.

we'll get to it tomorrow, though. i'm surprised we spent so much time with a hand saw in dale's apartment without getting the crap kicked out of us by dale's upstairs neighbor. i don't think i would have put up a very good fight, due to my senses being dulled by the spraypaint fumes.

so a quick update on life in general:

[warning: matt is about to speak, not of his life, but his vicarious living done through his friend, nick]

nick has a new lady-friend, and i think she's fit in quite well with our group of friends so far (God help her). i'm happy for the guy. she's good people (and i realized that she used to hang out at the bean'ry all the time--further proof of her coolness).

this past weekend was spent hanging out with kevin, wonka, andy, nick, nick's new lady, and her friend. i finally saw The Life Aquatic and Pirates of the Carribean. good films. i also spent some quality time with jennifer garner. yup, that's right. let your mockery begin--after watching the season premier of Alias at ouida's place last week, i've started catching up on the series on DVD. not exactly intellectually stimulating, but there's lots of butt-kicking and beautiful people.

alright, i'm sitting on the computer, shunning human contact when there are 4 or 5 chi alphans in the next room, so i'm going to be social for a bit. and by that, i mean i'm going to vegetate in front of the tv while they watch real world/road rules challenge. actually, i'm only guessing on the show. i'm hearing lots of melodramatic whiners and censored obscenity, so i think it's a good guess.

2005-01-04T16:30:00.000-05:00

i find refuge from the arid wastelands of a string of internet-less days in the oasis of the Athens-Clarke County Public Library.

and here i am. SALT (the chi alpha conference i attended since last i posted) was great. earl creps was the speaker, and he's one of the people i respect the most within the assemblies of god. i missed the van gogh exhibit at the high museum of art, thanks to the ridiculously long line, but the rest of the week was quite nice.

so here are my current thoughts about my plans over the next year. i'm thinking after my current commitment with chi alpha comes to an end, i may take a year, earn some cash with some paying gig in athens, continue with the friendships i've made (thus, i don't see myself "getting out of ministry," just changing around the vocational aspect of it for the time being), and get myself completely financially independent from the parents. even though my parents give money to the assemblies of god (as my biggest financial contributors), and the a/g pays me, i still keep thinking, "man, i hate being a burden to my parents." my tentative solution? work. get completely independent, and then i can make whatever dumbass decisions i want to make, whether it's seminary, goat-farming, or professional tap-dancing. i figure once the money trail is erased from my parents, i can take the risks i want to take and not feel like my parents are paying for my decisions instead of me.

so that's what i'm thinking at the moment. i'll let you know when i get a new idea in five minutes.

2004-12-27T21:15:00.000-05:00

post-Christmas report

consumerist, shallow side:

i got halo2 and some new clothes.

familial side:

i got to see my family. that was good. my cousin's fiancee got a bulldog for christmas. he was a lazy little bugger, and i love him. i mean the dog, by the way.

spiritual side:

i've been reading The Crucified God by Jurgen Moltmann lately. I put a substantial chunk into it while i was in gainesville. he paints a rather striking picture of Jesus' solidarity with the suffering and those "abandoned by God." he's a lot better at discussing it, though, so i won't do him the injustice of trying to summarize his view. maybe i'll post a passage from it later.

in a similar vein, here's a link to an article from oxfam, a relief organization, about the tsunami and relief efforts. the tv was covered this weekend with images of the aftermath. maybe donating to some of the relief efforts would be appropriate around now.

2004-12-19T22:04:00.000-05:00

an article on advent

great thoughts

2004-12-18T22:49:00.000-05:00

helping out the ooze

interested in spiritual formation? check out the ooze.

2004-12-17T11:57:00.000-05:00

ok, so i'll let you know when i have my FIRST post somewhere else, ok?

now that THAT'S squared away, here are some

thoughts from someone else

Too late have I loved You, O beauty so ancient, O Beauty so new,
too late have I loved You!
You were within me but I was outside myself, and I sought You there!
In my weakness I ran after the beauty of the things You have made.
You were with me, and I was not with You.
The things You have made kept me from You--
the things which yould have no being unless they existed in You!

You have called, You have cried out, and You have pierced my deafness.
You have radiated forth, and have shined out brightly,
and You have dispelled my blindness.
You have sent forth Your fragrance, and I have breathed it in,
and I long for you.
I have tasted You, and I hunger and thirst for You.
You have touched me, and I ardently desire Your peace.

Augustine of Hippo

2004-12-16T15:43:00.000-05:00

ok, so maybe this is the last post from the bean'ry

american press coffee

2004-12-16T11:53:00.000-05:00

"goodbye office"

over the last couple of weeks, i've been saying "bye" to different parts of the bean'ry:

"goodbye open mic night"

"goodbye hanging out on friday night"

so now, we've reached the last stage. all the staff has been clearing out their stuff over the past couple of weeks, and all that remains of my things in my office (since my office seems to double as the repository of crap we have no place for: a copier that needs repair, an air conditioner we never installed, a box of commercial toilet paper and paper towels, the list goes on...) is as follows:

my computer (i'm milking the network for all it's worth)
an empty bookshelf
a tupperware container that's steadily being filled with various smaller items that i find around the office (including a copy of "The Princess Bride", a map of Sanford Stadium, a Bible, several photos, and cds of my friends Vanessa and Michelle, and my homestar runner action figures)
half a bottle of cologne that i forgot i had
an issue of stomp and stammer with an article on sam beam of iron & wine that i never finished

so i suppose this may be my last post from the bean'ry, or it may not. it will indeed be a sad day when i'm cut off from the lifegiving force of free internet access provided by the bean'ry.

and i'll leave you with my most recent etymology that i looked up on dictionary.com:

God·speed ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gdspd)n.
Success or good fortune.
[From Middle English God spede (you), may God prosper (you) : God, god; see god + spede, third person sing. present subjunctive of speden, to prosper (from Old English spdan, from spd, success. See speed).]

2004-12-14T13:13:00.000-05:00

pretty soon, my fingers will be frozen to the keyboard

it's terribly cold in my office. i've been doing some prep work on my seminary application essays, but i'm getting to the point of shivering-induced typos. we've already cancelled gas service to the bean'ry, so, alas, we have no heat. if only gloves were more conducive to typing. i think the answer to my problem lies in writing out my outlines down at Espresso Royale Cafe downtown, my home away from home downtown that actually has a working heating system. plus, who knows? maybe that one of the several pretty baristas will be working today...

this weekend was great, as well as a bit melancholy at times. jennifer got back from ukraine, the bean'ry farewell party assembled a bunch of the old gang for one last shindig, i played a small part is cooking some really killer lasagna (i.e.-"alright, matt, you get to chop the onions now"), and i got to introduce two more oozers to each other in person. there were a few moments this weekend that reminded me of some of the old times, hanging out with my friends from college without people being pissed off at each other. it made me glad to have the friends i have. and that's all the sentimental crap i'm typing today.

it was odd. as fond as the memories i have of the "good ol' days" are, i'm glad i'm where i am. i've idealized the past enough over the course of these 23 years. i can cling to security all i want in keeping things like they are, but i've found that can just do a solid job of aborting any future good that may be in the works. so what do i do with these thoughts? i don't really know yet. i figure seeing what comes out of these applications to seminary is a step in the right direction. that is, assuming i can pull my index finger off of the "F" key by the time i'm done typing.

2004-12-08T18:51:00.000-05:00

slapped in the back of the head by holiday cheer

well, it officially happened yesterday. i started feeling the holiday spirit, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, yesterday. i had to run to the great temple dedicated to the god of corporate greed that is WalMart yesterday, and i ended up buying a little plastic tree (think "A Charlie Brown Christmas" size), along with the electrical accoutrements to make it festive. I also ended up getting the "Charlie Brown Christmas" soundtrack. My gifts for the family came in the mail from amazon.com (I LINKED TO YOUR SITE! GIVE ME MONEY, YOU BLOODSUCKERS!), so once i got the tree up, i grabbed a pile of old newspapers and began wrapping presents. with this combination of elements, there was no escaping it. today, i found myself on more than one occasion humming "O Christmas Tree."

well, i guess this shows that even cynical bastards like myself can enjoy the holidays. maybe it has something to do with the lack of television, thus effectively eliminating holiday greetings from Budweiser, Coke, Tampax, Halliburton, etc...

ho ho ho, sucka.

2004-12-03T11:17:00.000-05:00

it's the end of the world as we know it

okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, but i still feel fine. tonight's the final open mic night at the bean'ry, so this could prove to be a rather bittersweet evening. Here are some possible songs on the setlist this evening:

Karma Police by Radiohead
Green Eyes by Coldplay
(both favorites of mine at open mic, so i may get around to them if there's time)
Political Science by Randy Newman
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2

And now, I'd better get things together for tonight. We can't have a coffeehouse without milk, now can we?

2004-12-02T18:19:00.000-05:00

let's see if this html stuff will actually work...

alright, i can't get this silly html stuff to work, but according to rumandmonkey.com: I am Megazord!

Holy Voltron rip-off, you're Megazord!
You own being huge. You are the hugest guy around, without a doubt. Even really huge people whimper at your hugeness. And you are made of really huge robot dinosaurs. Huge. You are so huge it takes five power rangers to control you. And you can mash anything. Even mounds of foam rubber the size of cities. Because you're huge. Sorted.

Which colossal death robot are you?

2004-12-02T15:42:00.000-05:00

my quote of the day

--warning--a quote from pulp fiction follows--i didn't censor it--

There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. Now I'm thinkin': it could mean you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd.

-Jules- "Pulp Fiction"

2004-11-24T01:45:00.000-05:00

it's late

and i'm tired, but i'm posting anyway, because it's been a while, and i have a computer to post from. ["from which to post." damn my grammar.] i just posted a fairly lengthy (for me) response about anti-intellectualism within Pentecostalism on the ooze, and i'm pretty sure that once i read it in the morning, it will make no sense, so i figure i'll capitalize on my dazed consciousness at the moment writing some haikus and seeing what they look like tomorrow. here goes:

touch lamp across room
cannot reach to make things dark
will sleep ever come?

i'm getting groggy
pink elephants are my friends
like disney's "dumbo"

surreal head trip
phantom pachyderms, these are
they can flip the lights

ok. i'm done. happy thanksgiving to all if i'm unable to post again before the holiday (a likely scenario).

2004-11-15T13:30:00.000-05:00

this weekend

let's see, a quick rundown...

worked my tail off at the bean'ry on friday night. we had a benefit show, and it was the busiest i've seen the place in a LONG time. also got to hang out with nathan gilmour (*here i insert the "shout-out" that was omitted in my previous post--yo yo yo, word up to mah dawg ngilmour, keepin' it real in da hizzy), his wife, and their friend bethany whenever there was a lull in the drink making.

did some shopping with wonka and kevin. wonka is now the sexiest man at emmanuel college, and we prevented kevin from buying yet another pair of khakis. mission accomplished.

trying to finish up some essays for the seminaries to which i'm applying. i figured i shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition, since i'm talking about higher education there. several of the seminaries ask for similar things in their essays, so i'm hoping to do plenty of cutting and pasting to get those ready to mail off. right now, i'm thinking (with the right scholarships and some divine providence) i'll be starting in Fall '05, but i may end up deferring enrollment for a year and work to earn enough money to cover costs while i'm at school. speaking of costs, all these application fees are a real drain on the bank account. the fuller application is 100 bucks, for pete's sake! fortunately, the others are more reasonable. right now, my top choices are fuller, gordon-conwell, and columbia. vanderbilt still hasn't sent me the application packet and catalog, so they'd better hurry their butts up if they want their hallowed halls to be graced by this scholar.

alright. no witty ways of ending this post are forthcoming, so i'm i'll bid you all farewell.

2004-11-11T16:06:00.000-05:00

halo2

need sleep...need to do work...going to play halo...

2004-11-09T01:25:00.000-05:00

a new haiku

here's one inspired by a dream my buddy wonka had:

i must now battle
army of johnny cochran
i will fly away

*special thanks to wonka for letting me use his computer tonight. rock, rock on.

2004-11-08T09:49:00.000-05:00

nerds of the world unite!

okay, that has nothing to do with my post, but it's on the wall of the Athens-Clarke County public library, and i thought it was amusing. why am i posting from the library when i have a perfectly good computer at my office, you may ask? because my computer (or wireless network card, or maybe our server) needs a good thrashing. i realized last night that i had to get information on our benefit show on friday to flagpole magazine by this morning if we wanted to make it in this week's issue, so off i go in search of an internet connection on my day off. well, that's done, so i figured i would spend the, oh... 36 remaining minutes at the library catching up on my internet correspondence.

uh oh, make that 16 minutes now. too many emails to send. so opening my email inbox this morning was nice, when i saw a plethora of blog reply notices awaiting me. i'm now considering myself famous, since i have a readership of, what...six? not too shabby, if you ask me. i was going to reply to the various comments, but apparently i can post on my blog at the library, but it won't let me post comments, since that's considered "chat." so i'll do it here, since i don't have much else that i can get into in 11 minutes (though i have been reading some interesting books--The Crucified God by Jurgen Moltmann and The Sickness Unto Death by Kierkegaard) and at this point, i'm changing the title of my post to...

to all you beautiful people

erin- a-thankyou.

beth- i'm taking your advice to heart, and next presidential election, i'm voting for toby keith. he'll show those terrorists what for!

awtraughber- the election results didn't really get me angry, but i did feel pretty down after kerry's concession speech (though i'm not sure i would have felt too much better had he won).

jennifer- i thought you were my friend because i paid you.

2004-11-03T15:50:00.000-05:00

four more years...

well, looks like that's it. don't have much more to say. check this out instead...

confessing christ in a world of violence

2004-11-02T16:05:00.000-05:00

no lining up at the polls for me today

because i stood in line for an hour on friday to vote early. i've kept my mouth shut about who i voted for with a lot of folks (yeah... i went the kerry/edwards route). i was more vocal with my plans to vote for nader. my conservative friends didn't seem to mind a vote for nader. i think the main reason was because i wasn't so much the enemy as an innocent little mutant. "aw, isn't he cute...? he's voting for the guy that'll never win... can we feed him?" but since i voted for kerry, i have this fear that all of a sudden, my friends will turn into flesh-eating sean hannity zombies and tear me limb from limb.

to tell you the truth, i really didn't even care about voting for the presidential candidate. whatever i do, those 15 precious electoral votes are going to Dubya. i did my best to research all the local elections, so i feel like i made fairly informed decisions. i voted mostly democrat, but i believe there was one republican and one libertarian in there somewhere.

and, for the record, yes, i did vote against the marriage amendment. i don't like the idea of constitutional amendments restricting rights, and i certainly don't appreciate the pandering to the religious right that this amendment represents. i'm sure plenty of christians that i know wouldn't like the fact that i voted the way i did, but i'm alright with that.

and while i'm on the topic of god and politics, check out the Sojourners website (especially their God is not a Republican or a Democrat statement--good stuff).

So, uh, yeah... Rock the Vote, Vote or Die, and all that jazz. And remember, if you don't [insert patriotic action here], the terrorists have already won.

2004-10-27T10:57:00.000-04:00

my chomsky costume didn't go over all that well

yeah, so i thought i had the greatest halloween costume known to man--MIT linguist and harsh critic of the American media and foreign policy Noam Chomsky. It was basically just stuff i would normally wear--my corduroy jacket with the suede elbow patches, an out of style tie, and some slacks--but i created a chomsky mask from an image i printed off the internet and a paint stirring stick that i attached the picture to. beautiful, eh? i thought so.

apparently i was one of the few that thought so. after about the 15th "who?" response, i got tired of it, went into my office, and with the help of a sharpie, transformed my costume into "Evil Zombie Noam Chomsky." i still got a lot of "who?" remarks, but people at least laughed at the makeshift fangs, evil eyebrows, and mutterings of "mmm...brains." as soon as i get pictures developed and figure out how to post pictures on my blog, i'll try to put some pictures up.

2004-10-26T14:57:00.000-04:00

the future...?

i don't know what i'm going to be doing a year from now, but i've been thinking a lot about it lately. i think part of the reason may be so that i don't go crazy thinking about all the crap that's going on right now. we may have an internship program in place here at Chi Alpha UGA by next year, we may not. I may go to the internship program at FSU--it's another option. i may go to seminary, if some school wants to give me enough money to grace them with my presence. Here are some of the schools i'm looking at applying to:

Columbia Theological Seminary
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Asbury Theological Seminary
Candler School of Theology
Fuller Theological Seminary

or i may just get some 9-5 job and work to pay off student loans, save up money for seminary, and generally get myself more financially stable. i'm not really sure right now.

i was thinking the other day that i've had this ridiculous pressure on me to be a total success at 23. it's absurd. why the hell can't i fail at this age? do i really expect that i'm going to get a job earning $100k a year, become the most widely respected and knowledgable person in ministry (yeah, those two don't fit together very well, i know...), and sweep the girl of my dreams off her feet, settle down, and have two and a half kids right now?

i don't like failing at things. hell, i didn't like making B's in school. i want people to think that i can handle things.

but the truth is i need to screw up sometimes. for whatever reason, whether it's to deflate my ego, to teach me something about the situation at hand, or to make me rely more on God, it's good for me to have stuff go wrong.

nonetheless, i still hate it when things go south. even worse, i hate when i see people that i love, who've worked their butts off and done so much for me, struggling against some pretty rotten odds and worried about what may happen.

okay, i think my little rant has run out of steam at the moment.

2004-10-22T16:32:00.000-04:00

Jon Stewart handing Tucker Carlson's butt to him

thanks to mike at Emerging Pensees for first informing me about this story.

Jon Stewart's interview on Crossfire last friday is one of those rare occasions that make me wish i still had cable (if you want to see it for yourself, click here). It's funny how the most intelligent thing I've heard on CNN in the past few years comes from "the most trusted man in fake news." Stewart accused Carlson and Begala in particular, and the news media in general, of hurting the democratic process by playing the game of partisan politics. Here are a few excerpts from the interview:

------------------------------

STEWART: In many ways, it's funny. And I made a special effort to come on the show today, because I have privately, amongst my friends and also in occasional newspapers and television shows, mentioned this show as being bad. And I wanted to -- I felt that that wasn't fair and I should come here and tell you that I don't -- it's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting America.

------------------------------

STEWART: Here's just what I wanted to tell you guys.
CARLSON: Yes.
STEWART: Stop.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.
BEGALA: OK. Now
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: And come work for us, because we, as the people...
CARLSON: How do you pay?
STEWART: The people -- not well.
(LAUGHTER)
BEGALA: Better than CNN, I'm sure.
STEWART: But you can sleep at night.

----------------------------

STEWART: But the thing is that this -- you're doing theater, when you should be doing debate, which would be great. BEGALA: We do, do...
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery.

----------------------------

I think Stewart did as good a job as anyone could hope for in expressing the frustration that I know many of us feel in regards to the constant stream of disinformation, twisted statistics, and spin that comes from politicians and the media.

Of course, the Crossfire boys refuse to get the point.

The New York Times seemed pretty happy with Stewart's appearance, though.

2004-10-20T13:19:00.000-04:00

sickness: a haiku

coughing and sneezing
gone through a box of tissues
need decongestants

2004-10-20T11:31:00.000-04:00

my head is full of crud.

well, i've been feeling the onset of some form of sickness for a couple days nows, and now those blasted bacteria (or maybe it's a virus...i just know i feel like crap) are in the midst of their onslaught against my immune system. Those white blood cells are fighting valiantly, but I'm imagining it as a microscopic battle of Helm's Deep. as many little buggers that get killed off, there are more there to swarm the gates. right now i think they're lodged somewhere in my sinus cavity, but enough have stormed through the first line of defense to make my chest congested and wheezy.

i'm going to get some drugs.

2004-10-15T13:37:00.000-04:00

SEC football with a side of existential despair

It's definitely fall in Athens. On the weekends, the town is overrun by hoardes of football fans. The streets are already beginning to clog with all the extra traffic. I usually just stay away from campus, downtown, the Loop, and pretty much anywhere within a few miles of Sanford Stadium, but tomorrow I brave the madness to see Georgia play Vanderbilt. Hopefully, we should have a much cheerier day than last Saturday. Losing to Tennessee--that was a dang shame. My two cousins, accompanied by their significant others, are coming into town for the game tomorrow, so we're starting off game day with brunch at the Grit. Tomorrow promises to be an excellent day.

I've been reading The Moviegoer by Walker Percy lately, and so far I'm enjoying it. I fear that a novel that revolves around the concept of Kierkegaardian despair isn't the best reading material to put one in high spirits, so it's a good thing I like being in a pissy mood from time to time.

Actually, maybe that isn't such a good thing.

2004-10-12T13:08:00.000-04:00

movie haiku time

reservoir dogs

chromatic naming
foiled heist and bloody robbers
pink gets the diamonds

donnie darko

tangent universe
crushed by huge airplane engine
creepy bunny man

harvey

another bunny
but not apocalyptic
he just screws with heads

high fidelity

wear cosby sweaters
we're pretentious music snobs
and yet we still love

2004-10-08T10:24:00.000-04:00

I don't remember taking any mescaline yesterday

Last night was full of tripped out dreams. I had several, but I only remember a couple of them. The creepiest was another tornado dream. This has been the only reoccuring dream I've ever experienced. In this one, I was in my car with my mom driving, me in the passenger's seat, and dad in the back. The weather was ominous, but there wasn't any rain. It was then that I noticed a cloud swirling around in the sky ahead of us to the right. I freaked out and said we needed to turn around, but the parents assured me that it was far enough away that we'd be safe.

Of course, the cloud stretches down and becomes a full fledged tornado, and before I realize it, the thing is less than 50 yards away and beginning to cross the road. We stop the car, and it heads right for us, grazing the front of my car. As soon as that happens, I wake up with my heart pounding.

I hate tornado dreams.

The other dream I remember is a bit more amusing (and the reason I suspect someone slipped a mickey in my drink last night). I was visiting the house of a family that I'd just met. They were a nice happy nuclear family with four kids and a beautiful house. I noticed there was art all over the walls, so I decided to take a look. The father said, "Now THIS is my favorite artist!" and pointed to a canvas that had one of my friend's names written in weird 60's hippy bubble lettering. I turned around, surprised that my friend had even begun selling her art (and also that she'd sell such a self-absorbed piece with nothing more than her name), when I realized that the guy's kids (between the ages of 4 and 8, I'd say), as adorable as they were, all had goatees. I was rather taken aback. The father, of course, noticed my surprise and, stroking the chin fuzz of his youngest, replied, "Pretty nice beards, huh?"

And with that, I awake.

2004-09-29T16:32:00.000-04:00

what is it...

about some of my friends that turns my life into an afterschool special?

2004-09-28T15:40:00.000-04:00

Back in Town

It's been a while since I posted, so here's an update on life in general:

I just got back from fall retreat. I went up with the early group to get the tents set up, and I'm glad I did. While we were roasting marshmellows, eating steak (or portobellos, as the case may be), and telling stories about our idiot friends, the other group was getting lost down some desolate stretch of highway in Tennessee.

I spent yesterday in Gainesville visiting the family (and bunkering down for the remnants of Jeanne). It was nice getting to visit with the family for a bit. There was quite a line at my grandpa's barber shop (I guess the threat of tropical storms drives the shaggy-haired southerners out of their nests), so I spent over an hour there shooting the bull with a bunch of good ol' boys. I talked some SEC football with a guy that was decked out from head to toe in NASCAR clothing. We're both hoping UGA can do something against LSU this weekend. The guy in the barber chair when I first arrived made me chuckle a bit. It seemed that his adjectives of choice all contained four letters. It's not that swearing is something that particularly stands out or shocks me. I just noticed that he used the words "damn" or "sunuvabitch" about as often as I would use "um."

Anyway, today has contained its share of weighty conversations, from eschatology to the direction of the ministry to whatever else came up. I'm feeling the need to do something mindless after work tonight.

2004-09-17T20:54:00.000-04:00

Tonight's Set List for Open Mic Night:

"Fight Test" by The Flaming Lips
"Exit Music (for a Film)" by Radiohead
"Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show