Book Review

I just read the book The Dive From Clausen's Pier (which was set in Madison, WI, btw) and I have to say, I really enjoyed it! I think this is the quickest I've ever read a book of this size - 370 pages in 2 days, which is really good for me. The book was extremely liberal and I could have done without a lot of the subplots, but the story line itself and the way the book was written was captivating, and satisfied me enough to overlook those objectionable parts. The middle sagged a bit, and I would have changed some parts if I had written the book, but overall it comes recommended by me if you can handle some of the "(extremely) overly intimate" parts and the obscene language.

Anyway, reading books like this makes me feel so inadequate as a writer - or should I say potential writer ... I do enjoy writing fiction, but I think I'm better at creating a story in my head than putting it into novel-worthy literature that someone would actually be persuaded to read. I can go strong for a few pages, then all of a sudden it's just dull dialogue OR it's just description and I've glossed over the need for people to converse in a good manuscript, and it's hard for me to edit those essentials back in in a real-life way sometimes.

I suppose the more I practice and the more I read, the better I'll get. But sometimes I wonder if I have this notion about writing something publishable simply because of how much I like to write ... or more so because I want to feel like I'm good, really good, at something - anything - and I think writing is my best chance at potentially being recognized in that way. I'd hate to think the latter is what's behind my motivation, although the truth seems to have me leaning in that direction. I guess it's just one more product of a society pressuring us to "do" instead of just "be." I've had some conversations with friends about how, especially as Christians, we are so often focused on what we can "do" to prove ourselves, to please God, to show others that we are good people ... when sometimes, I think God doesn't want us so focused on the "do" part of our lives that we forget the importance of who we "are" - the "be" of life.

Thanksgiving and Other Stuff

Well, I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Jason and I went to a family's house from the church and had a really good time! I was thinking it would be a hard day for me, being away from home and without my dad and all, but it ended up being really fun and the family we spent the day with was super nice. We ate food, played disc golf at a nearby park (I suck, by the way), and played Catch Phrase (now that's more my style :)) ... It was the mom and dad, their 2 teenage kids who are in our youth group, and their adult daughter and her fiance, from San Diego (although he just moved out to Vegas where they will live after the wedding, as he just got a youth pastor position out there). They were all so nice and fun! They also had a guy over that the mom works with, so we weren't the only non-relatives :)

We saw The Incredibles and National Treasure recently. I didn't really care to see either, but we were asked by different people to go with them, so we did. They were actually both pretty good. I would recommend National Treasure for sure, as it had more of a storyline than I thought and was pretty well done.

"In other news," ... I saw a web design program on the website of a local business college and emailed for more information (I figured it was a handy skill and would make me more marketable in the future). The lady called me back and set up an appointment to discuss, and the first thing she said when I got to her office was, "We no longer have a web design program." ... Um, ok ... you couldn't have told me that over the phone? But she wanted to discuss other options like a business admin degree or a paralegal degree. No thanks! Especially not for $12,000 a year, are you joking?

Anyway, one last tidbit - I just reread the book "A New Kind of Christian" which talks about how Christianity looks or will look in the postmodern world compared to the modern model of Christianity. It totally stretches the mind, and almost offends at times. But if anyone is interested in reading a very intellectually written book about this, I highly recommend this book. It is really an extended conversation between two people and it feels like a true story, even though it's fiction that is loosely based on true situations and conversations the author has had.

Bummed

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I have no news to share. After being strung along for 2 months, I was beat out by an internal candidate at ACS (although I wonder if that person's previous position is now open .... hmmm ....) and it seems that my attempts for employment are foiled at every turn. Wow, I just used the word "foiled" ... I feel so Shakespearean or something. Anyway, I wish I had some exciting story to tell, but alas, discouragement abounds. Hey, I'm on a roll with unusual words tonight!

Well, my current employment situation just goes to show that it DOES in fact matter what you major in in college, despite what OCHS guidance counselors tell you. Seriously, what was their role anyway? They certainly didn't guide or counsel me ..... but I'm not bitter :) Ok, Ok, enough of my cynical remarks. Next week is Thanksgiving, my sister is visiting the weekend after that, and I have a flight booked to be home for Christmas, so I certainly can't complain. I do have a lot to be thankful for! I've just felt a little "blah" lately. Is it a holiday thing, especially considering that I'm away from home and our family is one person short this season? Or could unemployment be to blame? Regardless, I'll try to be more positive in my next post!

Movie Reviews

I just watched the documentary Super Size Me and the movie Saved. Super Size Me was an interesting and disgusting look at the fast food industry and the crap in general that we put into our bodies. Considering the fact that I had just eaten at Red Lobster, my stomach literally hurt after viewing the documentary, and I needed some fresh air afterwards. It made me really worry about what we put into our bodies, not just because I don’t want to gain weight, but more so because I don’t want to have heart disease or get diabetes or have any other health problem that seems to be associated with bad eating habits. This guy’s cholesterol, triglycerides, and all sorts of other tests and readings were off the charts after eating nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days, and he wasn’t even remotely fat (although he did gain over 20 pounds). So weight is not the only indicator of an unhealthy lifestyle, and thinking about what I typically eat is kind of scary sometimes!

Anyway, as for the movie Saved … well, I thought I would be offended, but I actually rather liked it. Of course, you can take “lessons” away from this movie in many different ways – non Christians will use the movie’s themes as further evidence of why Christianity is rigid and outdated and judgmental, which is a shame, since I think the script was one-sided in how it portrayed Christians. On the other hand, as a Christian, I think it is a good look at how the world tends to view Christianity, but not how Jesus intended for us to behave. And it is wise for Christians to compare how we live and act, and what motivates us to do the things we do, against how the “Christian” characters in this movie lived - they were definitely not a model we should strive to live up to, but rather a good example of the stereotype we must attempt to discredit. All religious undertones aside, I enjoyed the storyline and would recommend it to people as long as they were able to weed through the falsities and extract useful insight - which would be hard to do if you had limited knowledge of the Christian faith to begin with.

For a decent review of Saved by Walt Mueller, head of the Center for Parent and Youth Understanding, go to http://www.youthonfire.com/culture/films/Saved.html. I don’t agree with everything he says, but I found it interesting.

Headed for Retail?!?!

Well, I had my second ACS interview yesterday. I'm not sure how I feel about it, it was almost an hour of a lot of Q&A. Right away, I was informed that the candidate pool was narrowed down to 2 - me and an internal candidate. All this anticipation, only to find out that the odds are stacked against me. I took labor econ, folks, I know the best way to go is to hire internally. So who knows ... I do have yet another interview on Monday for a school secretary (yes, I'm almost a professional interviewee by now) - the exciting part about that is getting holidays off when students are off and at least a month in the summer. But really, at this point, I'm about ready to just work at Pier 1. At least I'd get a discount for my holiday shopping!

Anyway, short post, but that's all the news I have right now. Adios :)

Gallon Challenge – not for the faint of heart

Warning: If you have a weak stomach, read this post with caution. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

After church today, I witnessed a “Gallon Challenge” in the basin on the land next to our church building. A student (we'll call him "Burt") took up Rocky, Jason’s intern, on his offer of $100 if Burt could drink and keep down one gallon of milk (2%) in 30 minutes time. Rocky has done this dozens of time and has never had to fork over the money, because without fail, the “victim” cannot handle that much lactose in that amount of time. He was also smart enough to get Burt's dad to sign a consent form!

Well, this stunt was, in a word, gross! And pretty darn funny to watch, too. It turned into a fifteen minute event of drinking, gagging, and projectile vomiting, and as expected, Burt went home emptyhanded. Two pretty interesting thoughts came out of this stunt, in my head anyway. First, our church has amazing facilities! We have so much land on which the youth can play – a playground for little kids, open fields for students to play battleball, ultimate frisbee and such, and an empty basin for the aforementioned display of puking. Of course, we need more indoor classroom space for our growing congregation, but at least we have the land on which to build! Definitely a different church experience than I'm used to.

Secondly, Rocky, who videotaped this little challenge, is going to turn it into a short video for X-Service tonight by no doubt creating a “Burt's burping” sequence of sorts set to music, and then showing the vomit going in and out, in and out, of the poor guy’s mouth to make it appear as though he ate his own vomit. And I got to thinking how amazing it is that we have the capability to create a mini movie of sorts, with special effects and believable dubbing, right here at our church! I mean, compared to my parents or grandparents, I have such incredible computer knowledge. But compared to the tech guys here, I’m still using the “Atari” of the 21st century. Our vast advances in technology are pretty amazing and cool on one hand, but also depressing on the other because I almost feel like what’s the point of learning a new program or concept or machine if it’s just going to be replaced by something bigger and better by the time I learn to master it?

Yes, I got all this out of the “Gallon Challenge” that some poor, misguided teen agreed to. What can I say, my mind is at work :).

Anyway, in other news – I have a second interview with my top job desire on Tuesday, and hopefully I’ll know shortly after that if I am the chosen one. Crazy how strung out the job searching process can be, considering that this is the job I sent my resume in for while in Wisconsin for my dad’s September funeral! Hopefully it will be worth the wait …

A Visit With Mom

My mom left this morning after a 4 day/5 night visit. I was so glad to see her! Here are the highlights of what we did while she was here. She got here in the wee morning hours on Thursday, so after sleeping in a bit, we went to a Danish shopping district in the nearby city of Solvang and bought a few things – including ice cream and fudge of course! That night, we went to San Luis Obispo, which is a college town about 30 miles north of here, as they were having their weekly Farmer’s Market. Every Thursday night, they block off a whole street for various restaurants, farmers, musicians and special interest groups to put up little booths/kiosks around the area where you can buy fresh fruits and veggies, breads, flowers, and regular food sold by local restaurants. The central coast is famous for their “BBQ tri-tip”, so I tried some of that. All in all, it was a pretty fun time and I’d take visitors there again in the future – plus, it was trick or treating night there, so we got to see all sorts of kids in costumes. Very cute!

Friday, we went to Avila Beach (about 20 minutes north of here) and ate at The Custom House, a restaurant right on the ocean where Jason and I ate with the pastor and his wife while we candidated back in July. We walked along the pier and saw several sea lions swimming and poking their heads above the water. It was a windy day, but sunny and nice. On the way home, we stopped at the Avila Barn for pumpkins and a few other goodies; it’s very overpriced, but a cute place to shop for fruits and veggies, pies, gifts, candles, etc. That night, we went to the youth Halloween party at the church. It was an 80’s theme night, and some of the kids really got into it. As I was tight rolling my jeans, I couldn’t believe that I used to think that looked cool! Anyway, we bobbed for apples, played glowstick dodgeball, ate food and watched movies. Good turnout, fun time.

The next day, we toured some new homes in the area - they were outrageously expensive. They were your average 3 BR, 2 or 2.5 bath and they started in the mid-$400K's on up to almost $600K. After that dose of sticker shock, we got some lunch at “Stinky’s Grill” and then decided to go to the free air show at the nearby Vandenberg Air Base. It was so windy! But there were some neat exhibits and flying stunts that were pretty cool; it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. Sunday was church, shopping, tennis, and Family Feud :) … and the X-Service at night. We couldn’t believe the low turnout there was because of Halloween! I had no idea trick or treating was such a big thing for older kids to do around here. It was a nice cozy youth group though, I didn't mind. Anyway, I dropped mom off at the shuttle at 4 a.m. this morning so she could make it to LAX in time for her morning flight home. Thanks for coming mom! I had a lot of fun!