Quite a party!

Hey guys,

Scott and I had a kicking birthday party together on the 16th of December. Scott's bday is the 15th and mine is the 17th so the 16th is the perfect day for a party! Give the pics and vids a minute to load. I'm not sure my site will be used to handling all that traffic!

Anyways, the camera's were present and here is a smattering of pictures of our guildies partay-ing it up at my house!

I decided to just include the links for you, so you can view them at your pleasure, instead of making a HUGE thread with HUGE pictures in it.

First off, the birthday boys, in close up!
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/FenLogyx.JPG

Now, just Scottx
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/Logyx.JPG

Here's Casey!
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/Bainton.JPG

And everyone's favorite priest(in WoW) (Brynne)(Jenn) posing with her brother (Scott)
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/BrynneLogyx.JPG

Here's me and Casey
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/FenBainton.JPG

And our good "friend" David
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/Gamaliel.jpg

A picture of all of our guild members at the partay! (Me, Casey, Scott, Jenn, Jeff, John was there earlier, but he bailed) (We aren't sure what Jeff was doing in this picture, but those red eyes are not from the camera...)
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/Guild1.JPG

And here we all are again in a victory pose
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/GuildThumbs.JPG

And now one of us going nuts! (After melting horde ph4c3)
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/GuildCrazy.JPG

And finally, us mounting up to go pwn the n00bs
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/mounting.JPG

Now, here are some video's of the fun.

This is Scott and Jerry playing Women's Tennis (if the link doesn't load, right click and save as)
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/Womenstennis.MOV

A video of Scott and Jerry fighting
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/slapfight.MOV

Ok and here is the highlight of the whole party.

Casey bought Scott a present for his bday. He wrapped it very well. Here are some pics from Scott trying to unwrap it.
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/present1.jpg
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/present2.jpg
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/present3.jpg
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/present4.jpg
http://www.breadstickguy.com/pictures/guild/present5.jpg

Enjoy everyone!!!

I Can't Post Comments....

Ok, so I was unaware that you are no longer able to post comments on people's blogs without blogger beta. I guess I'm one of the last remaining dinosaurs who hasn't updated.

I'm not a fan of beta, but I want to post on other's blogs. Oh the agony...

Edit - I updated to beta, this version isn't nearly as bad as it was...

We'll see...

Let's Live Like We're Alive

The title of this blog is stolen from another band. Nevertheless is the band I stole it from. They are a relatively new "emo-punk" band signed on Flicker Records. Jamming catchy tunes. Similar to Anberlin or Acceptance.

Anyways, the title of the blog is their album title and their title track has really corresponded with my daily reading recently. I'll give you what I've been reading and the chorus to that song so that you can read them too.

First, what I'm reading, Romans 6:1-14

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self^[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free^[b] from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

The chorus to the song, "Live Like We're Alive" by Nevertheless

So here I stand. I’m ready for anything.
Just a man, but I’m giving everything.
We’re here only for a second and then we’re gone when we least expect it.
So do more than survive. Let’s live like we’re alive!


So what does all this mean to the believer? It means that we are free. We are free to live a life free from sin. We are no longer dead, we have been made alive with Christ and he is alive in us.

So what does mean to be a free person? How can we live like we are alive?

If you listen to the rest of the song by Nevertheless you'll see that the message of the song is to seize the day and live life while you have it. Outside of preconceived notions of what we "should" or "should not" be with our lives. It's basically saying, don't wait until the last second to try new things or meet new people. Go the places you want to go, be the person you want to be. A "never say die" take on life. Live a life of no regrets.

That is only half of the good stuff though. Romans 6 tells us that we can live a life free from the bondage of sin. Our sinful nature has been crucified with Christ and raised up again with Christ. So a Christian who lives like they are alive is one who lives free from sin. Someone who lives without worry, or sorrow, and does not let their flesh entangle them in the things of this world. The best part about being a believer, is that because we can live without sin, we can seize the day and the things we want to do, go the places we want to go, and be the people we want to be.

Christ's death on the cross was the payment for our sins. For all time. Verse ten tells us, For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. What this means is that additional sacrifices aren't needed. Once we have been regenerated by the cleansing blood of the lamb, we don't need to hang our selves on the cross over and over again. We are free to live like we are alive, BECAUSE WE ARE ALIVE!

So let start acting like it! Let's throw off everything that hinders and run the race marked out for us. Let's throw off our sin and everything that entangles. Put your worry on the shelf, let your care be placed on him, do not be discouraged because the Lord our God is with us, where ever we will go.

...We’re here only for a second and then we’re gone when we least expect it.
So do more than survive. Let’s live like we’re alive...because we are.

- TBG

I have a Wii...

Yes, its true ladies and gentledudes, I have a Nintendo Wii.

Let me tell you, it is the coolest video game system ever.

Imagine, playing a tennis game where you actually move the controller to swing the raquet, or swing a bat, or bowl. Yeah, that's exactly what it is, awesome in a box.

You should buy one too, oh wait, all of the stores are sold out and will probably be until Christmas.

I guess you will just have to come over to my house and play.


Real blog to come later this week (hopefully)

Lonely for the Last Time

I stole the name for this blog from a band called Seven Places. It's title of their first album and also a title of one of their songs on that album. Here are the lyrics from that song.

Driving on the road to home, a few cars back maybe three in front.
I don't know, all I know is we are going way too slow.
The guy in front takes a left, the others follow I am left alone.
Maybe this will be the day that I'm going home.
And I feel lonely for the last time.
Walking on the road to home,
I take three steps and I fall backward five more.
I want to stop building up these walls between us.
The walls of pride, the walls of pain.
Break through these and make me whole again.
I cannot wait to be with You Lord Jesus.
And I feel lonely for the last time.
See the walls, see the walls come crashing down around us.
Now we...now we are together.
And feel lonely for the last time.


I think this song really characterizes what it means to have a desire for a close relationship with Jesus, and also, a desire to be with our Maker. It's one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. I highly recommend Seven Places to any fans of Rock music. They are 3 kinds of cool.

So what does it mean to be lonely? Here is how the dictionary defines lonely:

lone‧ly  /ˈloʊnli/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[lohn-lee] Pronunciation Key
–adjective, -li‧er, -li‧est.

1.	affected with, characterized by, or causing a depressing feeling of being alone; lonesome.

2.	destitute of sympathetic or friendly companionship, intercourse, support, etc.: a lonely exile.

3.	lone; solitary; without company; companionless.

4.	remote from places of human habitation; desolate; unfrequented; bleak: a lonely road.

5.	standing apart; isolated: a lonely tower.

Wikipedia gives us this idea:

Loneliness is a state of feeling cut off from and longing for others, due to lack of contact (physically, emotionally, etc.) with people (whether acquaintances, friends, or loved ones). Loneliness is not to be confused with solitude (where a person may appreciate the time to think and reflect without distraction.)

What both of these definitions give us is a very similar word picture of what being lonely is. Being lonely is effectually, the state of dissatisfaction with being alone. In essence, its when you are alone, or feel alone, when you don't want to be. Being lonely is often coupled with feelings of abandonment, sorrow, and hopelessness. Sometimes loneliness is trivial, like when you home alone and none of your friends are available to do anything. Sometimes loneliness is quite serious, like if your best friend of someone you count on abandons you. Or when you feel that you have very little, if not no value in society. These are the times when loneliness can lead to depression and from there, who knows. I know people who have lost dear friends to loneliness.

The terrible thing about loneliness is that it is self-perpetuating(often) and thus does not always lead the person to action to remedy the loneliness. Rather than seeking a remedy, the person may simply drift farther from others and withdraw more and more. Or when others attempt to come along side of the person, they will reject them instead of welcoming their warm embrace. Loneliness is often a symptom of a clinical depression caused from a chemical imbalance. This is often treated with anti-depressant drugs in the form of pills. Prozac is a famous anti-depressant. These drugs work by helping to re-balance the distribution of certain chemicals in your brain, evening out your mood. The problem is that for many, they only mask a much bigger problem, the need for Jesus.

Praise our Lord and Father from whom all blessings flow. Thank God that he is the friend that sticks closer than a brother, a father to the fatherless, a friend to the lonely. For without our Lord, none of us would have hope. We would always be lonely, searching for fulfillment.

Do you ever feel lonely? Do ever feel that you are sitting by yourself in a crowded room? Do you ever feel that maybe you are so good at being alone that you don't need or want other people around? Do you ever feel that everything you do is pointless and makes no impact. Do you ever wish you could see what the world would be like if you were gone, even just for a second?

I do.

I work in an office building with 300 other people and sometimes I feel like I'm the only one here. There are days when I feel that my only purpose in life is exist. Most of the time I realize that I'm just being retarded, because there are a million people that care about me and would miss me if I were gone. Praise Jesus that he found me and gave me purpose, for without him, I would be lost forever. Without Jesus I would not have survived the recovery from my snowboarding accident.

Do you ever feel that God is calling you to do something that you really don't want to do? Like that maybe your calling in life is to be something that you are really scared to be? That maybe you are gifted in a very unique way that lets you do things that 90% of the world cannot, but it scares you more than it encourages you?

I do.

Updates...

Hey Guys,

Thanks for digging my last post. Its great when something sparks a conversation.

Yes, I've been too busy digging on my new gf to blog, oh wait no, that's a lie. I don't have a gf. /cry

Actually, I have been very busy with life and spending time with friends and playing The Burning Crusade Beta.

That's right folks, eat your heart out. I got a beta invite and you didn't! /mock

Anyways, I do have a blog ready and I'm hoping I'll get it up tonight after 7Ten.

Cya l8r

My Evil Plan to get a Wife

So, Brent and I were scheming last night. We were talking about how we are going to be living together as single men for the rest of our lives unless drastic measures are taken. We came up with a full proof way to get wives. Here it is...

See our other roommate, Brian Klontz, Brent's brother, is a complete and total ladies man. I don't mean that as an insult, he just is. He isn't out like, "playing the field" or "hooking up with chicks" he just has something that girls want. I don't know what it is, but chicks just melt when they are around him. We'll put it this way; Brian is doing all the dating that Brent and I aren't. He evens out the balance of the universe of dating. Brent + Me = 0 dates. Brian = about 1 million.

Anyways, here's our plan...

Brent and I are going to do everything that we can to get Brian married as soon as humanly possible. Why? So we can kick him out of our house, he owns another one, and get some new roommates. Only this time, we will get God fearing ladies as roommates. Brian's room is big enough to share, so two of them will fit nicely. Then we will proceed to merely, "hang out" as roommates do. Watching movies, having dinner, etc. Every single night will be just like a date. Only we don't have to take the girls home, because they are already there! Then after a while and the ladies fall in love with us, we will marry them and they will bear our children.

Foolproof plan. I don't see any flaws at all. It's perfect.

Now we just need some Christian ladies to volunteer, any takers?

The ECM Round 2 : Blogspotting

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's time to take another look at the emerging/emergent church. I had a good friend this week ask me about the ECM, wanting to know more info, so I told him what I know and also told him that I'd find some good articles and blogs that have, at least pretty solid people, giving their take on the ECM.

My personal opinion of the ECM is rather low. The ECM is exactly that, a movement. Its a bunch of people people moving in a direction, unfortunately they aren't unfied in that direction. Which is one of the ironys of the ECM. They claim to preach the gospel, but they embrace relativism over truth. They run to eccumenicalism over biblical doctrine. The ECM is typified by post-modernism and a lack luster search for truth. They are a dangerous bunch that is re-introducing mysticism to thousands of unsuspecting "believers."

So folks, feast your internet browsers on my linkage!!!

First, a Wikipedia entry on the emerging church. Useful stuff.

Emergent No a fairly popular blog that is run by some people that care about the truth of God's word. Most notably on their site is posted a transcript of Phil Johnson teaching at the Shepards Conference this past year. The links on their site are also very helpful in gathering info.

Here's a website with lots of cool links. Some interesting articles from Lighthouse Trails. They are dedicated to combating contemplative prayer and mysticism within the church.

Oh boy does heresy love company, our "friends" at Planet Preterist have jumped in bed with the ECM. That's encouraging. For those of you that don't know, hyper-preterism or pantelism is a damnable, heretical view of eschatology or "the end times". I do not recommend that you read anything of this site other than this article, and read this article with caution. I, in no way endosre anything they have posted or believe. I only posted this link to demonstrate how willing ECM leaders are to extend the olive branch to even the oldest and most obvious heretics. If you want to know more about the heresy of hyper-preterism, please study it with your pastor, elders, or other SOLID, BIBLE BELIEVING, REPUTABLE Christian teachers.

And finally, Mars Hill Seattle. Home of the infamous Mark Driscoll. The Officially, Unofficial "Leader" of the ECM. Mark and his church are surely the most conservative of the ECM. I have heard rather recently that Mark has denounced the movement officially, but I don't have it in writing, so consider it "from the grapevine." I'm not a "baby with the bathwater" person, but I would personally tread through Driscoll's stuff lightly. Check out The Acts 29 Network for a list of ECM churches that identify with the ECM through Mark Driscoll.

As always, consult your local Bible for a heavy dose of Truth. In a world of shifting sands and "new" heresies popping up everyday, the word of God stands strong.

"A timeless God does not produce dated material" - Tom Shrader

That's my quote for the ECM. If God is timeless, then why does the church need to be "hip?"

Everything in this blog is not meant to offend or be offensive. I wanted to post some info that I gathered while looking for some more details for a friend. I don't claim to know the personal beliefs of anyone in the ECM, Mark Driscoll, included. I only know what they wrote, and here are some links to that.

Do your own research, make your own decision based on the scriptures. Be like the Bereans mentioned in Acts 17:10-11.

10The brothers[a] immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Always check the scriptures to see if what people are telling you is true. This applies to the ECM and myself. Just because I said it, doesn't make it true. Ironic eh?

lol

I'm a n00b..../sob

I found out that I'm a n00b today.

/sob




It's called the NES Quiz. Take it and post your score in comments.

l33t Sp34k !!1!oneoneelevencos(0)!

heY GUy$,
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HER3 15 +hE LINK +o +h3 sI+e IF J00 W15h +O C0MM3Nt IN 1337.
Linkage

What a weekend

Hey everyone, I can't believe the weekend I had guys. It was crazy. It all started off with a down to the wire photo finish for our team and our quarterly sales goal. Unofficially we finished at 100.4% of goal. We haven't done most of the finalization yet so that number will probably go down quite a bit, so we probably won't have finished over 100%. On the other hand, I finished well over 100 this quarter. My best guess is about 130% that means boku bucks in the Bank. Yeah, it’s an obligatory plug for my roommate's workplace; I can't do anything about it. Then after work I went and hit up Guitar Center and pretty much bought a new guitar. I didn't on Friday, but I decided which one I wanted. I went back on Saturday and got this one in the Platinum Metallic Finish. It will be at my house sometime around Wednesday. It's a sweet amazing guitar, I will cherish it forever (or until I get the one with the Rosewood neck, hehe).

So that took 3 hours on Saturday, Dave and I were at Guitar Center way too long. Not because we wanted to be necessarily, but it took them forever to get the guitar ordered and everything, they were really busy and couldn't find someone's amp or something they brought into be repaired. So anyways, after that we went with my Mom to my sister Julia's play at school and then watched "The Dream Team" and then played WoW. So yeah, good weekend.

Sunday was super-fantastic. Had a good time setting up and getting ready for church, then got to hear Luke Simmons rock the Gospel on Sunday evening. Then went home, made dinner, hung out, more WoW (just a little) and now I'm at work. Waiting until 5 when I can go home and have fun again...

A must read

Hey guys,

I was going through my blog role this morning and thought that the almost famous "Gadfly" deserved a blogspot from me. Click here for the blog. His stuff is usually exceptional reading anyways, but I was very encouraged by his Sept. 9th entry. It happens to be his most recent one as of today. Give it a read!


PS - Some of my regular blog rollers are using the "Blogger Beta" now. For whatever reason I am not able to post comments on their blogs sometimes, but I am reading. So, just because I can't comment sometimes doesn't mean I've stopped reading! Keep on bloggin.

Childhood Memories

This weekend I spent about 4 hours going through old stuff at my parents place. The goal of my time there was to get my Lego collection off the display shelf and dusted and put away, which I accomplished, but I also went through my old toys and such and relived some of my favorite times as a kid.

Things I loved when I was a kid were simple. I loved action figures, Nerf guns, and Legos. I would play with them for hours. If any of you remember in my old room I had a huge 12 foot long shelf covered in Lego models. Some of them were complicated, some of them were really simple. The one thing they had in common was that I built all of them and thought that they were the bomb. And they were, I remember my friends coming over and telling me how lucky I was to have so many Lego sets. I was a lucky kid. I also loved playing with my Nerf guns. I remember having Nerf wars with my buddies all throughout my childhood. We set up targets, which were our faces most of the time, and would shoot those darts everywhere in the house. It was uber fun and not painful like Airsoft.

Then we found all of my old action figures. I’ve had some of them since I was 5, and they still work! My Superman figure still has his super punching action, my Flash still has his super running action! Why do they still work? Because I took excellent care of them. That was one of the things that I really remembered about my childhood. My parents did an excellent job of instilling a sense of value to me. I took care of things that I valued and in the end, I still have them b/c of my care for them. The same applies to our relationships with people.

If you value your friends and relationships and take the time to take care of them, they in turn will take care of you and be around when you need them. The typified response to relational management is most often the best. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you,” more commonly known as the “Golden Rule” is the epitome of relational maintenance. If you want to be treated fairly, treat other with fairness, if you want other to show you grace and mercy, show them grace and mercy. Not only is this idea recognized as a standard within the academic community on relational maintenance, it’s Biblical. Isn’t that ironic that the God of the universe setup a system that works? Actually, it’s not ironic at all, but its funny to think it is. Matthew 22:34-40 says,
“34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."”
Love your neighbor as yourself, hmmm, sounds kinda like the Golden Rule eh? The other thing that really stands out to me about this passage is the last phrase, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Basically what I take this to mean is, its not only recommended that you treat others with care, but a requirement for a successful relationship with Christ. The Christian life is relational, not only between you and Christ, but between you and other believers. Last night at Fuel, one of Tim’s points was that the Christian life cannot be lived alone. In fact we are commanded to interact with believers and encourage each other. 1 Thes. 4:18 says “18Therefore encourage one another with these words.” 1 Thes. 5:9-11 also states “9For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
So if that’s not biblical proof that we should treat each other with respect and dignity, I don’t know what is.
So what can we learn with my trip down memory lane? Love God first and then love people. If you do, everything will work out fine.

Publicons

Fun site I found, www.publicons.de.

Its in german but its not difficult to figure out. Here's what it can do.



Pretty cool IMHO. Talk about branding

For my Jr. Highers...and everyone else

While we were at summer camp this year a couple of my guys and I made a video. It's called "Where's My Money?"

It's in several parts so you have to download them all. You will also need QuickTime to watch them. I know it's an Apple product, but its the format that I got the videos in off my camera. Not a choice of mine. Quicktime is a free download that won't corrupt all of your system files like iTunes will so feel safe. I promised to get them up so here they are!

Here are the links for the vids!


Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Enjoy

Update : Some of the links are a little funky so right clicking and then picking "Save As" may work better than using the QT web plugin. All of the links do work

Don't Stop Rocking!

Greetings and salavations to you all.

I thought I would write a blog about all of the bands that I have been in over the years. I have listed, every band I've been in, no matter how short we were together, and the band mates, and the style.

We will start from the very beginning, its a very good place to start (Name that movie)

Homeskooled - I was 15 when I started this band with my friends
Style - SkaPunk
Members - Jar Jar - Guitar/Vocals, Claydoh - Guitar, Pineapple/Joelsef (Joel) - Trumpet/Dancing, Lag Morbid - Bass, Jack - Drums, Davey Baby - Vocals
Notable Moments - We only played two shows together. One by my pool and one in my garage. This is the band that I actually wrote the song "Consumed" with. It was originally called "Ember"
Songs we played - Dadgumit, Child of Sod(cover), Dandelions(cover), Handbook for the Sellout(cover), Every New Day(cover), Consumed

xStatx - I was 16 when I was in this band.
Style - Rap-Core. We sounded just like Linkin Park
Members - JJ - Guitars/Singing, Jeff - Rapping/Screaming, Jeremy - Drums, Doug - Bass
Notable Moments - I was in it for like 4 weeks before my band mates moved to LA to record an album. My mom wouldn't let me go. Two and a half months later, they moved back here because their demo sucked and they couldn't get a record deal.

Two for Tuesday - I was about 18. Right before I broke my arm.
Style - Emo
Members - JJ - Guitars/Vocals, Clay - Drums, Dan - Bass
Notable Moments - We started this band in like November and started writing some pretty sweet emo stuff. The problem is that none of us were really good at drums and we couldn't get our friend Jack to play for us. I broke my arm in January and was kicked out of the band. The band then changed it's name to eCapricious and did only acoustic stuff like Tendcious D. Clay left and Josiah joined. They recored a 38 track demo tape of almost all completely random songs that they made up on the fly. It was pretty funny.

Charley's Unlucky Thumb - We formed once I got the use of my arm back.
Style - Punk
Members - Max Power - Guitars/Vocals, Shagy - Guitars, Torg - Bass, Dexter - Drums
Notable Moments - This band actually started as a joke. Me (Max) and Steve(Shagy) were playing a joke on David(Torg), we never thought that we would actually start practicing. But we found a drummer, Soli (Dexter), and started playing. We un-formed and later reformed under another name. We stopped playing punk b/c Dexter couldn't keep up with our blazing fast punk rock.
Songs we played - The Perfect Girlfriend, Frozen Paper Clips, and Eggs Benedict.

Exodus Falling - We formed out of the remains of Charley's Unlucky Thumb
Style - Post Hardcore/Melodic Hardcore or Haremock(Hardcore/Emo/Rock) as we affectionately called it.
Members - JJ Guitar/Vocals(Are you seeing a trend?), Steve - Guitar/Screams, David - Bass, Soli - Drums
Notable Moments - All of them. This was the best band that was ever in. We played shows and went on my first out of city experience with a band. We played Flagstaff, oh yeah! We also played for a crowd of 80 screaming Jr. Highers one night. That was the peak of our career. We actually got paid for it, in hot dogs and soda. We broke up because our drummer joined the military and moved to Germany. Then Steve got married, and Dave and I got lazy. Also, Steve's screams were more like yelps.
Songs we played - Consumed, Numb, 45, Blood Red Stains, Song 11, Chronic, Missionary in My Backyard, Saving Myself a Stamp, The Intertwined Destiny of Unknown Consequences of Things That Don't Really Make Sense, Screaming in Silence, Memoir of Things to Come. We had a couple others, but I can't remember the names. I didn't really like them.

Dependantcy - My most recent failed project
Members - JJ Guitar, Jordan - Drums, Scottie - Vocals, Steve - Guitars, Nate - Bass/Guitar, Robby - Bass/Guitar
Style - It was evolving but it was basically post-hardcore or "Emo-core"
Notable Moments - The revolving door we had on guitar players. We started with Steve, then he quit and Nate moved from Bass to guitar. Enter Robby on bass. Then Nate decided he wanted to get married and he quit so Robby moved from bass to guitar. Enter, no new bassist. Now Scottie quits. Enter Robby on vocals with me planning on singing back up. Enter broken wrist for JJ. Band breaks up. Jordan moves on to join Roger That with Mitchel and Josh. They are cool.

So there's my musical musing for the past almost 10 years. I'm actually working on a side project atm. Writing some stuff, we shall see what I do with it.

I noticed that I only have clips of songs from Exodus Falling on the download page atm. Getting to fix that.

For those of you who are not convinced of the absurdity of the ECM

I found this article about Rob Bell, the teaching pastor of Mars Hill of Michigan and leader within the ECM.

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/billygraham.htm

This just demonstrates to me that once again, the ECM is not based on a scriptural desire to see the lost come to know Christ. It is simply sensationalism and seeker sensitivism repackaged for our coffee cup culture.

My favorite line from this article,

"As with most emergent and contemplative leaders, the Christianity of the Bible is not enough for them, and there is one main reason it isn't ... meditation. Since the Bible lacks any instruction on a self- induced mystical trance, other than condemning it in the Old Testament, contemplatives must turn to Eastern religious techniques adopted by Catholic mystics such as Thomas Merton or Basil Pennington, who have grasped onto Hindu style meditation or latched onto New Age mystics."

Great, just great.

I say to the emergent, no

Things I have learned from living on my own

Hey all you l33t people out there in internet land. How's it going?

That's super-fantastic. Anyways, since it seems to be the trend at them moment I'm going to write some things I miss/have learned about living on my own. By living on my own I mean without my parents.

1. Living is expensive. I mean I knew this before I moved out. Everything costs money, gas, food, movies, everything you need to survive. I am lucky that first, I have a job that pays me well and that I have learned some great budgeting and forecasting skills from my accounting classses and Crown. My Dad taught me some stuff too. So while its expensive to do the things I want to, I can budget my money and plan for expenses.

2. If left to myself, I would probably just play games all day. Well, maybe not all day, but a lot. There are just so many cool games out there. I mean, I would probably get bored eventually, but that would take a while. WoW is just so addictive!

3. I don't sleep enough. Not much else you can say about this. I like to be awake and interacting with people. Like last night. I was tired and wanted to go to bed at like 10:30. But instead a had a good convo withe some good friends. So it was worth it, but I really should sleep more.

4. Making food is more work than buying prepackaged meals, but is often very worth it.

5. Your roomates are often very interested in helping you eat your food, but not interested in cleaning the bathroom.

6. New carpet gets lots of fuzzies that stick to everything. You have to vacuum a lot.

7 . At night, I like to sleep cold, but my house is already cold, and I have the fan on. So its really cold. So I put a blanket on, but its too hot, so I wake up all sweaty and gross. Where is my 14 x 12 room when I need it.

8. Playing guitar really loud in the theater when no one is home is way more fun than having to turn it down b/c your dad can't hear the TV.

9. Having a movie theater in my house makes me cooler than you. As if I needed that.

10. Non-Wow-ites do not and cannot understand why you play WoW. Don't bother explaining it to them. Just find some other game that they can get addicted to and play for 9 and a half hours last saturday (Guitar Hero and Brent for example)

11. Carpooling is great, except when the person you normally carpool with is in Philly with his wife. Then it sucks b/c you have to drive to work by yourself.

12. Being frugal is better than being cheap. Both frugal and cheap people live at my house. (The question is, which one am I?)

13. If it weren't for the Internet, life would not exist. In fact I believe that the internet is actually what created life in the first place. God used the internet to put the spark of life in Adam. The internet then went into hiding for about 6000 years, thinking its purpose was complete, only to be dug up by Al Gore and exploited for awesomeness.

Updates Updates Updates

Well,

It has been a little bit since I blogged so I thought I hit you all with some awesomeness.

Pretty much everything has been just same old same old. Working hard and getting paid all for the glory of God. He really blessed me last month with the numbers. I finished at 105%. That's an unofficial number, but it can only go up from there. My success was because of a lot of hard work and staying the course. Its a great way to start out a new quarter with over 100% attainment. We are making some more changes to things at work so we shall see how the rest of the quarter pans out.

As far as living goes, just hanging and chilling a lot. I'm still loving having a place with Brent and Brian. We have people over all the time to chillax and watch movies and stuff. It's great.

I haven't really been doing much recently and haven't had a ton to blog about except me being awesome. My new PC is running great and I'm able to max out the resolution on almost all my games. Quake 4 still jumps a little at max everything. But I'm finding that its getting too hot. Both the GFX card and the CPU. So I bought some better coolers and some thermal grease, we shall see if it helps.

I'm sorry my life is boring atm. I'll find something to blog about and deliver a real one this weekend probably.

Life on my own...

Well,

I have been living on my own for over two weeks so far. Its been a great experience, I really love living with Brent and Brian. Its a great house, even if I haven't played WoW in over a week b/c our freaking cable has been out. Darn you Cox!!! I'm enjoying the freedom and decision making that I get to do. I also enjoy having a freaking movie theater in my house. Anyways, I was a little under tha weather yesterday and so I decided to start working on upgrading my PC. I'd been meaning to for a long time and just had not gotten around to it. So I did.

Here are the new specs.

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2 GHZ Venice Core Proc
2.5 gigs of RAM
240 total gigs of HD space
MSI Geforce 7800 GT
MSI Diamond Plus mobo with Creative SoundBlaster 24 bit audigy built in.

Yeah, its a pretty decent comp. I don't have the internet so I'm struggling with getting everything working tip top but it still RoXoRs. I don' t think I got the sound card plugged in quite right b/c it doesn't work and there isn't a driver issue from what I can tell.

Anyways, a life without WoW is a life not worth living. I miss it so much... /cry.

Arbolita Pan Hombre

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The title of this blog is how you would say my name "Breadstick Guy" en espanol. Literally translated it means, "Little Stick of Bread Man." Pretty darn close if you ask me.

Also, I have been dianosed with psoriasis which explains the strange red rash I've had on my hands and ankles. it also explains a little of why my knuckles get sore all too often. Its ok, its not contagious. You can still snuggle up to me for warmth at night Brently. It can only be passed through genes (yet I can't think of any family members that have it). It is treatable and I have some meds for it. So no need to worry.

BTW the way that the Doc said to treat it is to rub this stuff on it and play outside. Apparently I spend too much time indoors...that's just non-sense. I mean, I only play WoW what, 30-90% of the time I'm not at work?

Happy 4th...

Well I know its the 5th now and all, but Happy 4th to you all.

I hope you did something patriotic like shoot a gun or eat some beef. I was moving over the weekend, yes it is true.

JJ BRENNER DOES NOT LIVE WITH HIS PARENTS ANYMORE!!!!!!

wOOt l33t HaXoR lA3oRBeAmZ!!1! PeW! PeW!

So yes, I moved into Brent and Brian Klontz's house. It is awesome and we have a movie theater in our house. I'm not even kidding. We have a 92" projection screen on the wall, surround sounds built into the walls, and the DLP projection has a contrast ratio of 5000:1. (For reference the average HDTV has a contrast ratio of 2500:1. So the picture is uber clear.) I really enjoy it so far. It is a great place to hang and chill. Besides the movie theater we also have a pool table, foosball, and ME!

It was a lot of work getting moved but my buddies helped me out. We got all my crap loaded, moved, and unloaded in about 2 hours. And that included a break where we ate donuts that my Mom bought. I was unpacking my longer than that but we got it all moved. It was great. Thanks again Rory, Justin, and Dave.

In other exciting news I finally hit 60 in WoW. Now I can start running some of the End Game instances and FINALLY KILLING THE HORDE AND MAKING THIER LIVES MISERABLE!!! Scott and I have started my PvP training and so far I have been doing quite well according to Scott. (He's really good and plays the hardest class for me to fight)

Anyways, I love living with Brent and Brian. I have already been encouraged by their constant joy in life.

Signing off - The Breadstick Guy

Ahhh, The Democrats

Ladies and Gentlemen, Our friends at the DNC never cease to amaze me. Today, I was listening to the radio and they were playing clips from the weekly Democrat radio address. This week our friend Howard Dean was the one speaking. I must preface my next couple comments with these remarks. The weekly Democrat radio address is a prepared, edited, pre-recorded speech that is played on the radio. There are no "off the cuff" remarks in this speech, anything and everything they say has been carefully calculated and decided upon. Our friend Howard Dean has decided to use a war memorial as a political weapon. He has once again compared Iraq to Vietnam, and now he is using the Vietnam Memorial as a weapon for political gain. Here are his exact words,

"The parallels between the mistakes being made today in Iraq and the behavior of our government a generation ago are striking. Troops are sent to fight by an administration that refuses to listen to the advice of military leaders. The Administration decides it's ok to conceal information from the Congress and the American people. Promises like "stay the course" "Peace is at Hand" or "the insurgency is in its last throes" are made by an increasingly desperate Administration. A majority of the American people don't believe the President is telling the truth, while the Administration and its supporters question the patriotism of veterans who disagree with them, accusing them of "cut and run". And among the victims are brave American soldiers who are the targets of an insurgency because of failed political leadership and a lack of foresight and planning. We don't want another wall with 55,000 names of courageous Americans who were let down by their Government."
- Howard Dean, taken from a transcript of his radio address. URL http://dnc.org/a/2006/06/dnc_chairman_ho_30.php

I find it appalling that even our country's most sacred monuments to honor those who gave their lives in defense of this great nation are now simple fodder to be shot in smear campaigns. I don't care if you think Iraq is another Vietnam or not, dishonoring our veterans and those who died for our freedom is absolutely deplorable. If the Democrats have truly sunk to this level of "We don't care who we smear or whose lives we dishonor, just so we can regain power," (which they have IMO) then I urge all Americans with a conscience to go out and vote this November. Vote for candidates that still have some sense of dignity and pride in our country. Vote for someone who stands for your ideals and will give you the voice that made our country great. (If you share Dean's ideals, I really feel sorry for you.)

SC '06

Well, it’s that time again; time to talk about summer camp!

Yeah, cheers, loud noises! Excellent, well I went to summer camp a couple weeks back and just haven’t had time to blog recently. I’ve been racing Scott to 60 on WoW and I’m losing so I’m trying to make up some ground. That’s why I haven’t blogged in a couple. Anyways, summer camp.

Summer camp was again a great time of fun, fellowship, and learning for me. I love the chance to get away for a few days and stay in San Diego. Point Loma is beautiful and the weather is so nice, I love it. If that wasn’t enough, God comes and really just lays on us hard. Convicting sin, saving sinners, pushing believers to know God more. I don’t know what it is, but God always seems to do more work at summer camp then on regular days. I know that this is just simply not true, but maybe the event just serves as a catalyst for people. Anyways, what God did…

First and foremost, he brought me and my guys closer together. I am truly their friend now, and that’s awesome. They aren’t as scared to say what’s on their mind, they don’t fear my judgment (although I do come down on them once in a while if they are jacking around too much) and they know that I love them. My guys also grew closer to each other. I’m beginning to see more comradory between both my 8th and 7th graders and how they interact. My group has been a little clique-ish in the past and I’m glad to see walls coming down. This is way encouraging.

Also, God has been breaking down the defenses of some of my guys for a while. I really got to see him move in two of my guys, Noah and Matthew. They are brothers and are both in 8th grade. Their Mom has two forms of nasty cancer. They never talk about anything that is going on at home. This weekend, they admitted that they weren’t sure they were going to heaven if they die. This is the first thing that they have ever said that was personal. They always just talk about how they are fighting with their brother or how they built something cool with Legos. I’m really glad that these guys are starting to open up and share what is on their mind. They are both really “young” in their maturity so I’ll take anything I can get.

Another thing that God did that was amazing was that he saved on of my old guys, Austin Greene. A year ago at camp, Austin admitted to me that he didn’t think he was a Christian. We immediately started talking about the gospel and what we need to do to be saved. We also talked about things that should be in your life if you are saved. The tough thing about it is, Austin was the one guy in my group that would always read the Bible, he was always the one who had input when we did Bible studies, and he was a really compliant kid. The thing is, none of those things merit salvation. Only a saving faith in Jesus saves you, and he finally realized that was what he was missing. I’d been praying for this kid for over a year and God finally answered mine and others prayers. He’s now one of the King’s kids and I’m so excited to see how he grows.

God also confirmed some of my guy’s salvation to me. I really got to see a couple of my guys who I had been wondering about, be broken over sin, overwhelmed by their salvation, and really "rededicate" their lives to living for Jesus.

Some other weird things were going on at camp too. Some of my guys were really disconnected from reality while we were there. I had to fight a couple of them going to sleep during services and such. Also, I found a group of Jr. High boys that were looking for ghosts in my room one day. That was weird. We confronted them on it and dealt with the situation but it was still weird. I guess it was more of a reminder that the devil is prowling about like a roaring lion and that all of our kids aren’t saved.

So, what God did in my life, God has really been breaking me over an area of sin recently. He’s been working on me with my gift envy. My last blog was about this area that I have been working through and God really just showed me my selfishness in this area. He’s also been breaking me in other areas of selfishness preparing me to move in with Brent and Brian in about a week. God also reminded me that he does answer prayers, always. Austin getting saved is a testament to that. Never give up on God, because he never gives up on you.

Gift Envy

Do you ever wish that you had other people's gifts? Not just the ultra cool Nintendo 64 that you friend got for his 10th birthday, but other people's spiritual gifts? I have to be honest, I do.

I have struggled with gift envy off and on over the years that I have been serving the body. Ever since I got into college and started exploring what ways God had gifted me to serve, I have always wanted more than just those gifts. My spiritual gift is most definitely the gift of service. I am the guy who does all of the things that need to get done, but don't require a special or innate ability to understand scripture or teach. I'm the guy who shows up two hours early to set up the speakers for church, or who makes sure that the PowerPoint presentation has all the correct words. And I'm the guy who makes sure it all gets put away. I guess you could say that I'm a behind the scenes guy. You may not see me, but I'm there, helping out.

Now I know what you guys are saying, "what’s wrong with the gift of service?' Absolutely nothing is wrong with it. It's a good gift to have; I really enjoy doing what I do. My problem is I often feel that I have been shorted, or have a second class gift. Since I began serving the body, I have always wanted more ministry. My prayer has always been to have more ministry. I want to be serving God in all of the ways that I possibly can. God has continually been giving me more ministry. I've moved from being an attendee of church, to someone who is there, making sure everything gets done. I've been given a small group of Jr. High students to Shepard and a chance to lead them closer to Christ. I've been given so much ministry that I can't always find the time to make sure it all happens. Why am I not satisfied with this? Because I have gift envy.

Even though God has given me lots of ministry to be working in, I want more, or something different. I want to teach or be knowledgeable. I want to the one that people look to with questions about the faith. I want these things, seemingly to serve, but there is some selfishness down there too. My envy is compounded by the fact that I am very close to others who have spiritual gifts that I want. I have a couple friends who have the gift of teaching, or of knowledge, or of preaching, or of evangelism. Gifts that seem like they mean something or are important. Gifts that matter to people’s lives, gifts that make a difference.

The reality is that it isn't God's problem that I don't have certain spiritual gifts, it’s my problem for not being continually content with what I have been given as far as giftedness. God has gifted each individual according to his calling and ability. If I am forever called to be the guy who makes the coffee, or setup the speakers, and check the PowerPoint, I'm ok with that. I know that I have been uniquely gifted by God to perform the work of the ministry. And as I am faithful, God will be faithful to complete the work in me. It's not my job to question why God wouldn't give me the chance to do certain ministry, it's my job to do the ministry that I have and God will provide more when I am ready.

- The Breadstick Guy

No lives were lost, so I'll have to call this a victory

The DaVinci Code......zzzzz

Well ladies and gentlemen,

The DaVinci Code is officially in theaters and guess what, it stinks.

Putting all of the historical fallacies and religious attacks aside, the movie is simply poorly made. I was bored, almost the entire time I was in the theater. Fighting sleep is not how I want to spend $9 and two hours of my time. How you can turn a page-turning murder mystery novel into two hours of boring film is beyond me. Yet, Ron Howard has managed to do it. With big names like Tom Hanks, Ian McKellan and Ron Howard behind the force of a film, you would expect a film of decent proportions, or least one that is entertaining. The Code fails on almost all accounts, the story is told through conversations in hallways with bad dialogue and a murderous albino monk who flagellates himself on a job well done.

I actually liked the book, The DaVinci code and thought the movie would be a good adaptation or it. It wasn’t. The book is anti-climatic enough and the movie just makes it worse. Also, throughout the film, it contradicts itself over and over. One particular contradiction that sticks out to me is their obsession with the Gnostic gospels. At one point in the movie, towards the end if I remember, Hank’s character says, “Maybe flesh is divine,” whereas the Gnostics were obsessed with immaterial and would never say that flesh is good at all. Much less divine. Its errors like this one, and others, that shows me that Opie didn’t do his homework when he picked the script or while directing it.

It was cool to see inside the Louvre though. Seeing the artisanship of some of the corridors and hallways (in which the lackluster dialogue takes place) is actually quite astounding. The gift of artistic ability that our God has given to some is so amazing. I’ve never seen “Mona Lisa” or Sistine Chapel, but I’ve seen pictures and it always amazes me.

As far as the historical fallacies in The DaVinci code, I could tell you what I think, but its easier for you to read a book. I recommend a book by Richard Abanes called, The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code. This is an excellent book and in my opinion a one stop shop for an intelligent believer who is looking to become educated on the Gnostic gospels and the claims of wacko-yoohoo’s like Dan Brown. So read the book, you can get it from EVBC for like $5 if you want.

Anyways,

The movie sucked, the book was good, and Richard’s refutation of the book is impeccable.

Thanks,

- The Breadstick Guy

Graduations glore!

Well everyone,

As I said in a previous post, my sister Michelle recently graduated from college. Now my sister Julia is graduating from High School. Wow, big year at the Brenner household. I got a job, both my sister's graduated, wow.

Crazy go nuts,

Yep. Just a quick update. Level 50 on WoW now. Gaining more converts everyday.
(Nods to David, Chase, John, Jeff, and Josh)

A weekend away...

Last weekend was my sister Michelle’s graduation from Bryan University. My other sister and I flew out to go to her ceremony and hang out in general. Here is the run down from the weekend.

We flew out Friday morning bright and early. We had a 7:30 A.M. flight that my buddy Kyle Ryan was gracious enough to pick us up and take us to the airport. We were quite early so we had some breakfast and sat there waiting for a little bit. Not too terrible, typical airport stuff. Then we flew to Houston. In Houston we had a four hour layover, arg…..boring. So my sister and I went to the airport bar and got smashed. Let me say, Julia, cannot hold her liquor. Just kidding of course, we had lunch at the mini-Chili’s inside the airport and hung out by the gate for like 3 hours. Thank God for the Nintendo DS. I just got Metriod Prime: Hunters and have been enjoying that so the time passed. A bummer about our gate in Houston was it was on ground level and the doors to the “gate” where just sliding doors that opened all the time, so it was really freaking hot and humid. Perfect weather to sit in a chair for 3 hours. Then we flew to Chattanooga and were pretty much exhausted so we met up with our parents and checked into the hotel. I then proceeded to fall asleep for an hour before I was awakened for dinner.

The next morning was graduation for Michelle. Pretty quick ceremony, pretty small school. I thought it was cool how the speakers really placed God as the most important thing in life, which he is. Not something you’ll hear from a secular university or larger Christian college even. It was cool. Then we helped Michelle pack her life into boxes and get ready to move. Yeah, it was thrilling. But, the trip wasn’t about me; it was about being there for my sister when she graduated.

Sunday Julia and I spent the entire day on planes or in airports. Our evening flight got cancelled so we had to move it earlier in the day, which was fine, but the airport was about an hour away from where Michelle was. So we had to go to the airport early and wait around otherwise we’d be mega rushed. Anyhow, it was a nice diversion from life for a while. And all in all, it was fun.

- The Breadstick Guy

Since no lives were lost, I’ll have to call this a victory

Blogspotting...

My friend Dave's blog is really hilarious this week.

You should all go check it out.

For those of you who don't know how to use links, www.ponderless.blogspot.com is the addy.

The End of an Era...

Ah last night marked the end of an era in my small group.

Last night was the final evening that my current 8th graders would be in my small group. They are now moving on to bigger and better things, namely high school. This was a banner year for 8th graders from my group too because this is the first batch of kids that have been with me since the beginning. John and Kevin were my faithful two that have been with my during all three years of my time on staff. They were consistant in being there every week, they were the ones who encouraged me and others in the group, and they were the ones I have the most memories with. I have spent several camps with John and Kevin, specifically, and have seen them really change over the years. I got to be there when John was saved at summer camp, I got to be there when Kevin grew out of wearing Zelda shirts everyday. I got be there when Kevin had his first girlfriend and then realized that it was totally selfish and stupid to have a girlfriend in 8th grade so he dumped her. So many things we have done and seen and experienced together, and now its all over.

I have more than just John and Kevin though. I have like 8 8th graders in all. Christian, Austin, and Luke were all transplants from another group after their leader stepped down. They made their home in my group after being passed around from several leaders who stepped down. They have all been a joy to have in my group since they joined last summer. I will miss them all.

Carter, Dillion, Zack, and Dylan were also part of my group. Even though they were not there often becasue of sports or other activites, they were still part of the group. They are moving on to bigger things now too.

To all my eighth graders, I pray everyday that you will continue to pursue Jesus with all of your hearts. All of you have made an impact in my life and I hope I have in yours! Thanks for having fun with me and letting me be your leader for a while. Have fun in High School, you are in good hands!

My new guitar setup rocks!

Ladies and Gents,

I promised you a blog about my new guitar stuff and here it is.


I present to you, my setup

Isn't it B-E-A-utiful? Let me give you all the specs here.


First the head, this is the part that generates the noise. I have an Orange Rockerverb 50 head. This thing is 50 watts of pure awesomeness. I can do everything with this head. Classic rock? You got it. Blues? You got it. Super leads and awesome rhythms? Again, Yes. Scooped out NuMetal tones? Deaf-inetly. This is one of the most versatile and sweet sounding heads I have ever played. It was definetly worth the price!

On to the cab(the big black thing). Its a Mesa Engineering Rectifier Cab loaded with Celetion Vintage 30 speakers. These are arguably the best speakers on the market in terms of sound and affordablity. They handle the head like a dream, classic mids, great highs, and nothing beats Mesa's cabs in terms of lows. These things handle the bass like it was nothing. Nothing at all.

Now my guitars. I have had both of my electric guitars for some time now. The first, with the awesome crackle finish is my Epiphone Les Paul "Nuclear Edition." A great guitar all around. All mahogany body, great action, super tone. If I didn't know better I would think it was a real LP and not a knock off. Although, Epiphones are the best knock-offs around. The second one, in totally awesome black satin finish is my Gibson SG Standard. This thing is so my favorite guitar so far. The neck on this thing is so wide, I love it. The action is fast and it sounds amazing. This is the guitar that launched a million great classic guitar riffs. AC-DC, Deep Purple, and many many modern guitar players use SG's to put out that classic crunch.

I have a pedal board too that I am using, too many different ones to get into but they are all awesome. Only Boss and Line 6 for me!

The other thing that this setup reminds me of is how great my God is. He has blessed me with not only the ability to play guitar, but the funds in which to buy expensive gear so that my guitar sounds totally awesome. I have always wanted to use my gift of music to glorify his name and got a small chance to a few years ago with my band Exodus Falling. I would readily welcome another chance to do this either for a church or with an original project. My heart's longing and prayer is that whatever I do I do it for God's glory and not my own. To whom much is given much is expected. This applies not only with our money, but our gifts and abilities as well.

Still rocking in the free world,

- JJ The Coolest

Congratz Dave, on being less lame

Everyone give David Culver a huge round of applause, he has successfully demonstrated his ability to consistently blog, therefore he had been moved off my "Friends who don't update their blog so you might be wasting your time list."

So go read his blog. Its pretty cool.

On another note, they just annouced that Guitar Hero is going to have a sequel. Guitar Hero was possibly the coolest game ever released, other than WoW of course. So watch for Guitar Hero II in stores this fall. It would make a great christmas present for the rock 'n roller in your family.


Or for me...

BTW, Level 40 this weekend. Oh yeah I'm cool!

Updates

OK, so here is a fly-by update of my life right now.

God is still good, I'm almost to 40 on WoW(mounts will be so awesome), I bought a new guitar amp and am getting a cab this week(so awesome sounding, check for blog on it later this week) and my good friend Scott Nelson is maybe gonna move back from Texas.

Yep, all good!

Multiculturism at its finest

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Multiculturalism has reared its ugly head again folks. Welcome to the suburbs of Denver, Longmont CO to be specific. It is now against a certain high school's rules to have an American flag in any form. You can't bring one to school, have one on your car, have one on your shirt, etc. Why? Because of some tempers flaring during some "protests" started by illegal immigrants. Then taken to the schools by students that think that they need to demonstrate their allegiance to a country that their parents fled just quickly enough so they would be born where and aren't illegal. Apparently, especially in Colorado, there have been a bunch of High School students walking out of classrooms to "protest" some of the legislation that is in the US congress right now.

Now I was a High school student once and if I got wind of a walk out because of a protest, I wouldn't care what they were protesting, I would just walk out of school. If I wanted to take a day off, I would just claim I was protesting. "I am protesting the unfair system of grading in this school. I can't believe that they would fail someone who doesn't do homework and never attends class. It’s not fair; they just want a better life for their kids." Now this sounds ridiculous, at least I hope it does, but this is the same thing as kids walking out of school because of them protesting legislation to make illegal immigration a crime.

Now, if you are an American citizen you have certain unalienable rights. If you want to wave a Mexican flag, you can, if you want to wave an American Flag, you can. That is your civil right to do so in a peaceable manner. I don’t know why you would want to wave a Mexican flag instead of an American flag, because aren’t we in America? Isn’t the reason you can to America to become an American and enjoy the freedom in the most prosperous nation in the world? It isn’t? You mean you traveled all this way just work in a near slave labor environment and then demand welfare and other rights of citizens while slowly bleeding a stalwart economy dry? Wow. (While this may not be the intent or heart’s desire of an illegal, it is effectually the effect of their actions.)

This is the problem with many of the illegal and their “protests” in general. First off, an illegal immigrant has no right to assemble peaceably and protest government actions. Why? Because they aren’t citizens. Second, by waving a Mexican flag, you aren’t showing that you want to be part of the American system and be a productive member of society. You are saying, I want free healthcare, money from a system I don’t contribute to, and maybe I will devalue myself by working for someone who mistreats me, pays me too little for my work, and treats me like a slave. Isn’t the purpose of schooling and education in America to have children learn how the system works and become productive members of society? Isn’t the purpose of education to prepare for life in the real world and to teach them they are responsible for their actions? What are we telling our youth if we say, “Ya know, what you did by walking out of school was wrong, but we realize it’s because you were being oppressed by the system. So we aren’t going to hold you responsible by suspending anyone who walked out. We are going to ban any display of patriotism by any individual. We are going to punish everyone for some people’s mistake.” Welcome to Red China.

Multiculturalism is a product of liberalism, and liberalism is a plague. I have met so few liberals that actually believe in their ideology and will politely disagree with you. The, even though they disagree with your viewpoint, will allow you to have your own viewpoint. In fact, my friend at work, Matt Ekstrom is the only one I’ve ever met. I disagree with Matt on politics almost 100% of the time, but deep down inside, he’s a nice guy

What is happening in CO is wrong. Students should never be allowed to walk out of school without suspension. There could be exceptions but I think not. What is even more wrong is to punish all of the students for the behavior of some. If I am a legal American citizen and I want to have a flag on my car, be it Mexican, American, Polish, or English, I should be able to. It’s when the system (which in this case happens to be liberal) tells me I can’t there are issues.

Oh and it’s ridiculous to compare these movements to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. The main difference between them was that the African-Americans were citizens, therefore they had the rights and they were being denied. Illegal immigrants have no rights (under the American system), which is why people can treat them like slaves.

On a completely unrelated and much more positive side note, Tom’s message was uber-encouraging this Lord’s Day. Reminding me of a lot of reasons why we do what we do. It’s definitely worth a download.

Why Emery rules the world

I got the chance to go see Emery perform on Tuesday at the Marquee theater. They played with Anberlin, Jonzetta, Far-Less, and The Classic Crime. It was an awesome show.

The Classic Crime opened up, they weren't terrible. I really liked their sound but you could tell that they were a new band. They didn't really interact with the crowd and weren't very energetic. Their bassist was pretty into it, but their guitar players just kinda stood there. That may have been because everyone in the band sang at one point or another. They had some really cool harmoies and stuff. I liked them, but they weren't that great.

Far-Less followed up with an absolutly terrible performance. I had heard them before from their CD and I liked their CD. But they were terrible live, their singer was high or something. He kept like contorting his body and rubbing his face and making like finger shadows on the wall. Plus he just stood there with the mic in the stand. In the time I was watching them I don't think he left center stage the whole time. To top it off, their bassist was this old guy who played the bass way up under his armpit. They absolutely sucked. I left and went outside while they were playing. Couldn't stand to watch them.

Jonzetta took the stage next, and while you could tell they were new at performing, they put on a great show. Their music was a little odd, lots of off beat syncopation, but they did a good job.

Next came Anberlin. I've seen Anberlin before in concert and they have definetly improved. The first time I saw them was right after the release of their first album, Blueprints for the Black Market. It was their first tour ever and it showed. They managed to put on a great show then and really did a great job this time. Very energetic, their singer hit every single note of his incredibly high range just like a pro. You could definetly tell that they have been practicing alot. And their guitar player just nailed his few solos. Just like the album. The only thing I didn't like about Anberlin was that they have picked up a new back up guitar player who doubles as a screamo singer. Anberlin has a great emo-punk sound, I don't understand why they think they need to be screaming too. But they were great.

Next entered the band we were all waiting to see, Emery. This band from SC has literally blown up the emo-core scene. They went from virtual obsurity to near stardom in only a year. Their first album, released in 2004, shot them into the "emo" scene as the leaders of the pack. Now that "emo" is cool, they have only become more popular. Its barely 2006 and they are headlining a major tour across the US. And not without reason. Emery has one of the best live performances I have ever seen. They are so energetic, they are mega talented, they interact with the crowd really well, and they nail every song perfectly. Sounds just like the album. Toby(Lead Vocals) and Devin(BGVs and guitar) nailed all of the harmonies. They finally got smart and let their keyboardist, who doesn't normally sing, handle most of the screaming for them. He was good at it, but I think Toby and Devin are much better. Another thing that Emery is famous for is their keyboardist(Josh). He is absolutely nuts, runs all of the stage, picks up his keyboard and swings it around and is just energetic in general. Adding him as the screamer for live shows only makes him more influential and helps him perform better. One thing that they did that I really enjoyed was switch places in the band. On their second album "The Question" Devin does a lot more singing on some of the songs. On the songs where Devin is the main singer, Toby put on a guitar and played while Devin took the job of lead vocals. They were absolutely excellent. Played all my favorites plus some songs that I didn't expect them to play. Emery is the best emo-core band out there. No one else even touches them. This was the third time that I have seen Emery and they only get better.

I encourage everyone who is a fan of hard music or emo in general to pick up both their albums. The Weak's End was the first album and "The Question" their second. The latter of the two is a little more "people friendly" being that it "catchy." The first album is qutie slow moving but musically amazing. I can't say that I have a favorite Emery album but they are both on infinite repeat on my Zen right now.

I am recruiting for the military

The military of God, Jr. High division.


HE WANTS YOU...to Join Jr. High Staff at EVBC.

Ok, so its shameless, but I don't care. We could really use more Jr. High staff at EVBC. Especially Godly guys that want to serve. Summer camp promos are in full swing so we expect that small groups will be growing again. And this year we are going to Sea World as part of summer camp, so we need more people just for crowd control issues.

So anyways, I am manifesting myself as the voice of God and telling you to JOIN UP NOW!!!!

DISCLAIMER:The writer of this blog claims no actual power of God other than that which is given to every believer at the moment of salvation. The writer does also not claim to know the particular will of God in this or any instance, except in the instances of WoW, in which the will of God is for the Horde to die. Repeatedly.
The writer of this blog does claim ultimate coolness and tags you with blog tag. You're it, no tagbacks.

My blog has changed over the years

Wow,

I was just reading some old posts that I had. They were fricking histerical. Somewhat pointless sometimes, but histerical.

Go read some of them. Like, Soy Milk is Killing the Youth of America. Or the one about awesome teams that I am a part of.


Myabe I will start writing some more, longer blogs, discussing more things. Maybe. No, probably.

Or maybe I'm just not as interesting as I used to be.

Nah, that's not possible.

Is it necessary?

       I have been having some conversations recently with people. Some conversations about church. What is church? How should it work? What is a “worship service?” Is the American tradition of singing songs in church appropriate? If so, what kind of songs? Hymns? Praise Choruses? Rock ballads? All these questions and more.

       As someone who is actively involved in my church, East Valley Bible Church or EVBC for short, I want to constantly be evaluating where my church is and involve myself in accordance. The topic of Sunday46, our two evening services, has been something I have been thinking about with some fervor. For those of you not intimately familiar with what Sunday46 is, they are “modern” style services at our church. At these services, the music is loud, the songs have rhythm, and sometimes, people have been caught dancing. Not a “Hey, look-at-me dance,” but a, “I’m-excited-to-be-here-slightly jumping-in-place-dance.” The room is full of energy, which one could say is fostered by the environment. The question that I have always asked of this is, why? Why do we have a “modern” worship service? Why do we have more than one style at all? And perhaps most importantly, why do we need to call it something? Why does it have to have a name? Why can’t it just be the 6 o’clock service at EVBC? Why do we feel the need to differentiate it from the rest? Why don’t we have Sunday 8:301146? (Those are the other service times.)

       Here is some background for where “Sunday 46” came from.

       We used to have a Wednesday night youth event called Fuel. Before that, it was Rock.com. Rock.com was an attempt at having a stereotypical “outreach” night for the student ministries. It was a time where you were encouraged to bring your friends while our teaching team, through the exposition of scripture, talked about what the Bible had to say on issues like relevant to a Jr./Sr. High school student. Fuel changed gears a little. We took the focus off outreach and placed it on believers. Fuel was a no-holds-barred rocking “youth service.” It wasn’t intended for non-believers, although if they came they would hear the gospel over and over. Fuel was a time of “modern” worship songs and then solid teaching from the book of Acts. The teaching team, specifically Tim Maughn, went through the book of Acts slowly and with an excellent exegesis.
All during this time, the elder board was meeting. They came to Fuel, they saw some of the passion with which students expressed their worship of God. Not only through song, but through the careful study of his word. The elder board began thinking, “what if we had adults here?” “What if some of the parents of these children saw their passion for God?” “What if…?” Thus was born what is now called Sunday46. Fuel as it was, eradicated and replaced with more small group time for student ministries (a decision I thought was long past due). Sunday46 is a couple services at EVBC that have a certain style. This “style” is conducive to a “free” environment. What I mean by that is their intention is to create a place where parents, children, young and old, can and will all worship together. Not only worship together through song, but the study of his word and through the solid expository teaching of it.

       The question that this raises is an interesting one. Why? Weren’t the services before sufficient? Or is music that big of a deal? What is the purpose of church? Is it for enjoyment or the exhorting of God’s name? Should you have different styles of a service? The elder board wanted to try it out, and Sunday46 has become a very popular service each week(We have on some nights, in excess of 800 people there. With only 652 chairs.). These discourses are things I have done before with people, but I need to have them again.

      I do know one thing, when solid churches take even the smallest of cues from the ECM. One has to ask the questions.

The most useless statistic ever

Its been awhile since I updated. Huh. We will have to fix that.

I was at church on Sunday, as I usually am, and I was particularly struck by our pastor's sermon. Being that we did not have Jr. High this week, I have the priveledge of hearing it twice, so it was double good.

Tom has been going through a series on James recently. This weeks question, was are you living a life of obedience. Tom shared one stat that he read from a study. This study was part coupled with an article saying that it was the most disturbing statistic you will ever hear. This study said that over 90% of the people in America attend church and that the average church goer acts no different from a non-church goer. (gasp....) Tom, being the realist that he is, quickly dissected this information for us. He said, "So what, just because you go to church doesn't mean you're a christian." He then shared some more stats that he has read before. While an overwhelming majority of Americans say they are christians, once you add in some basic christian fundamentals (The deity of Christ, salvation by grace through faith, etc.) that the number drops to below 10%. (7% if I remember correctly.) Only 7%, wow. Tom followed that up with, "So who cares if church people act like non-church people. If they aren't believers then how can we expect them to act any differently. Because its the change that Christ makes that causes our lives to be different, not going to church. So Tom called this stat (over 90% of people go to church) the most usless stat ever.

While that was interesting, it wasn't the focus of Tom's message. His message was basically on being a doer of the word. He equated the obedient life with being a doer of the word. He said one way to tell if you were a doer of the word was to ask yourself the question, Does my life look different? James 1:22-25 says,

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Tom described the mirrors that they had in this time period. The wouldn't be polished glass like ours today, but rather polished bronze or brass. So they couldn't get the clearest image of themselves, but well enough to see. The passage also describes the man looking intently at the image. So it's not just a cursory glance. He was taking the time to analyze what he looked like. The main thing that I take away from this passage is an application point. I would say that James is describing a person who is wasting their time with looking in the mirror. Because they forget right after they look away. So what was the point of looking in a mirror? I would say that this applies to our lives in context of scripture. What point is there to reading it or studying it if we don't apply it to our lives? Is there one? Does mindless reading of scripture produce fruit in a person?

In a believer's life, if they are truly reading, the scripture will affect their life. But if I'm a pagan, then its just another book to me.

Live your life doing the word, because life without it is pointless.

I'm addicted to talk radio again...

Hey all,

I decided to start listening to talk radio again in the mornings. I also listen all day at work when I can. Its an addiction and I'm seeing a counsler about it.

Today and the Laura Ingraham show, she was talking about the war in Iraq(as many of them are). She mentioned this article, I read it and loved it. The points made about our progress in the war are excellent!

"At War With Ourselves We're winning in Iraq. Let's not lose at home. BY VICTOR DAVIS HANSON Wednesday, March 1, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

Last week the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra was blown apart. Sectarian riots followed, and reprisals and deaths ensued. Thugs and criminals came out of the woodwork to foment further violence. But instead of the apocalypse of an ensuing civil war, a curfew was enforced. Iraqi security forces stepped in with some success. Shaken Sunni and Shiite leaders appeared on television to urge restraint, and there appeared at least the semblance of reconciliation that may soon presage a viable coalition government.

But here at home you would have thought that our own capitol dome had exploded. Indeed, Americans more than the Iraqis needed such advice for calm to quiet our own frenzy. Almost before the golden shards of the mosque hit the pavement, pundits wrote off the war as lost--as we heard the tired metaphors of "final straw" and "camel's back" mindlessly repeated. The long-anticipated civil strife among Shiites and Sunnis, we were assured, was not merely imminent, but already well upon us. Then the great civil war sort of fizzled out; our own frenzy subsided; and now exhausted we await next week's new prescription of doom--apparently the hyped-up story of Arabs at our ports. That the Iraqi security forces are becoming bigger and better, that we have witnessed three successful elections, and that hundreds of brave American soldiers have died to get us to the brink of seeing an Iraqi government emerge was forgotten in a 24-hour news cycle.

Few observers suggested that the Samarra bombing of a holy mosque by radical Muslims might be a sign of the terrorists' desperation--killers who have not, and cannot, defeat the U.S. military. After the furor over Danish cartoons, French rioting and Iranian nuclear perfidy, the entire world is turning on radical Islam and the terrorists feel keenly this rising tide of opposition on the frontline in Iraq.

True, the Sunni Triangle, unlike southern Iraq and Kurdistan, is often inhospitable to the forces of reconstruction--but hardly lost to jihadists and militias as we are told. There is a disturbing sameness to our acrimony at home, as we recall all the links in this chain of America hysteria from the brouhaha over George Bush's flight suit to purported flushed Korans at Guantanamo Bay. Each time we are lectured that the looting, Abu Ghraib, the embalming of Uday and Qusay, the demeaning oral exam of Saddam, unarmored Humvees, inadequate body armor or the latest catastrophe has squandered our victory, the unimpressed U.S. military simply goes about what it does best--defeating the terrorists and training the Iraqi military to serve a democratic government. They stay focused in this long war, while our pundits prepare the next controversy.

The second-guessing of 2003 still daily obsesses us: We should have had better intelligence; we could have kept the Iraqi military intact; we would have been better off deploying more troops. Had our forefathers embraced such a suicidal and reactionary wartime mentality, Americans would have still torn each other apart over Valley Forge years later on the eve of Yorktown--or refought Pearl Harbor even as they steamed out to Okinawa.

There is a more disturbing element to these self-serving, always evolving pronouncements of the "my perfect war, but your disastrous peace" syndrome. Conservatives who insisted that we needed more initial troops are often the same ones who now decry that too much money has been spent in Iraq. Liberals who chant "no blood for oil" lament that we unnecessarily ratcheted up the global price of petroleum. Progressives who charge that we are imperialists also indict us for being naively idealistic in thinking democracy could take root in post-Baathist Iraq and providing aid of a magnitude not seen since the Marshall Plan. For many, Iraq is no longer a war whose prognosis is to be judged empirically. It has instead transmogrified into a powerful symbol that apparently must serve deeply held, but preconceived, beliefs--the deceptions of Mr. Bush, the folly of a neoconservative cabal, the necessary comeuppance of the American imperium, or the greed of an oil-hungry U.S.

If many are determined to see the Iraqi war as lost without a plan, it hardly seems so to 130,000 U.S. soldiers still over there. They explain to visitors that they have always had a design: defeat the Islamic terrorists; train a competent Iraqi military; and provide requisite time for a democratic Iraqi government to garner public support away from the Islamists.

We point fingers at each other; soldiers under fire point to their achievements: Largely because they fight jihadists over there, there has not been another 9/11 here. Because Saddam is gone, reform is not just confined to Iraq, but taking hold in Lebanon, Egypt and the Gulf. We hear the military is nearly ruined after conducting two wars and staying on to birth two democracies; its soldiers feel that they are more experienced and lethal, and on the verge of pulling off the nearly impossible: offering a people terrorized from nightmarish oppression something other than the false choice of dictatorship or theocracy--and making the U.S. safer for the effort.

The secretary of defense, like officers in Iraq, did not welcome the war, but felt that it needed to be fought and will be won. Soldiers and civilian planners express confidence in eventual success, but with awareness of often having only difficult and more difficult choices after Sept. 11. Put too many troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we earn the wages of imperialism, or create a costly footprint that is hard to erase, or engender a dependency among the very ones in whom we wish to ensure self-reliance. Yet deploy too few troops, and instability arises in Kabul and Baghdad, as the Islamists lose their fear of American power and turn on the vulnerable we seek to protect.

In sum, after talking to our soldiers in Iraq and our planners in Washington, what seems to me most inexplicable is the war over the war--not the purported absence of a plan, but that the more we are winning in the field, the more we are losing it at home.

Mr. Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and the author most recently of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War" (Random House, 2005). " - Taken from the Wall Street Journal Online http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008030"

We are making headway in Iraq, dispite what anti-american Senators say. The Iraqi forces are standing up to more and more and will soon be able to police their country without the aide of U.S. forces. Our plan in Iraq has always been clear, just because the general populace wasn't always 100% in on military plans doesn't mean they weren't there. We knew that there was a purpose and details have come when it has been safe to tell us.

I for one am confident in America's ability to finish what we started. We aren't losing.

I Like Coffee

Yes its true, I like coffee.

Alot actually.

I swore off drinking the coffee at work because its terrible. But I forgot how terrible it was and had a cup yesterday, blech. Sludgy and gross.

Starbucks is the way to go. Even if it is a little pricey sometimes. Its worth it.

BTW I'm Level 20 on WoW now. That mean, cos I'm a druid, I can shapeshift into a big cat and clash people with my claws. Its quite cool!

Happy Monday

Hey everyone,


Happy Monday to you all.


I had a super cool weekend. I had my Jr. Highers over Friday and Saturday. Yes, they were at my house all evening. It was a blast, we watched movies, played games, made fun of each other, ya know the usual. Then Saturday evening we had another Jr. High event. DODGEBALL!!!!!!

I had a blast. I'm pretty sure that the Jr. High events are organized for the staff. We have more fun than the kids do. In fact, in a round of dodgeball, the 6 staff guys beat down the like, 40 Jr. High boys. It was a match to remember. My shoulder is a little sore from all the hard throwing on Saturday, but I'm good all in all. I also saw Firewall this weekend. It was better than I thought it would be. I have to say that I enjoyed it.

Been playing WoW too. Its super awesome, as you would expect.

It was a good weekend. Ended with the Lord's Day and served as I always do. Definetly fun.

The Olympics are on?

Did you know this? Because the majority of American's don't. Either that or they just don't care.

People aren't watching the Olympics this year. Ratings are in and American Idol romped all over the great games on both Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Anybody wanna venture a guess as to why?

I personally have never really gotten into the Olympics. Some of the events are cool but over the years it's really become a commerical event. Every three seconds an olympic althelte is starring in a commercial. Or they have a special on some arrogant jerk that happens to be able to ski and how awesome he is. I think this is one of the reasons that people aren't watching them. They are sick and tired of networks expoliting our desire to see our atheltes play their games. I also think that Americans are less patriotic than they used to be. If you think about the movie "Miracle" it was about the US hockey team beating the U.S.S.R. in the Olympics. This event united a nation, why? Because Americans cared about being proud of their country. They wanted to see the athletes representing them succed and know that their team was the best in the world. Now, thanks partially to a media that tells us being American is wrong, we don't care. We are the MTV generation that can't sit still for more than 5 seconds and have been indoctrinated with a philosiphy that we are bad. We are not bad, America is the greatest nation on God's green earth and it will stay that way if we can get Republicans to start acting like conservatives again. But that's another blog.