mastering the skills of proper anticipation

The christmas (or more technically, advent) season can teach a whole lot of things to a whole lot of people. For instance, that guy I saw at target last week who was freaking out because he thought the stcking hanger was twenty cents cheaper than it rang up at the register could learn a little patience and civility. But for those of you who haven't yet found a way to benefit in your character development from the holiday season, let me offer a possibility, one that's certainly been teaching me.

One valuable life skills you can master in this season is the skill of properly anticipating. The holiday's offer opportunities aplenty for developing this attribute...I'm currently anticipating a trip to california, time with family, a package from my brother, a paycheck, a particular dinner that my wife's family enjoys, and of course the xbox 360 that I wrote about earlier, and am still waiting for. I'll admit this last one is proving very difficult.

Anyways, the point is that this season provides lots of opportuinites to wait, both for events and in places like the line at Target. And in such a wait-fest, much of which is beyond our control, iwe have the chance to shape the right kinds of attitude towards all kinds of things we have to wait on n the rest of our lives. It also makes it quite obvious to all the people around us, if not ourselves, how well or poorly developed our skills are at this point in our lives.

So, check yourself, and have a merry, character forming christmas...in a few days, that is.

Christmas Play

My wife's extended family in Fresno has a tradition where the kids put on a christmas play for the grandparents. Now, I know you all are envying me right now, but I am looking forwad to throwing myself into the mix for this year's production. I checked with a couple of cousins today, and it doesn't seem like there is any script yet, so the possibilities are wide open. Any ideas?

The best I've got so far is a story wherein the heroine goes on a rdiculous journey to purchase her grandmother's christmas present. This would allow for lots of comic interaction between different kinds of characters.

Either that or baby Jesus.

Ideas?

contexts

I'm working (loose use of that word) on a paper on the medieval rise of the university and the shift towards the university as the dominant context for theology. For starters, the stories behind the roots of the university system was fascinating. Basically you have the formation of guilds-student unions in the literal sense. the guilds of students, and soon after the teachers guilds, rose to fill some of the same functions as what we would be familiar with in the labr union movements...protection and bargaining power, keeping the groups from getting ripped off. That developed a safer context for educational disciplines, and before long the establishment of universities takes on some of the forms that we're familiar with: set curriculae, decree bestowal and requirements, and even some of the structural side of Universities.

What’s interesting for my purposes is how the development of such institutions affected each of the disciplines studied there, and particularly the discipline of theology. It seems theologians in the modern university have to be attentive to both ecclesiological and academic demands and criteria, and the competing voices somehow have to sing together to be helpful to anybody. I’m betting that’ll be enough bait for a little conversation, but if need be I’ll suggest that Theology separated from the church sucks. So, there.

XBox disappointments

Grrrrrr. there are a few things I like to do to unwind, and though I don't really feel entitled or like I've been denied some right of mind, it still disappoints me when they don't pan out. Call me a selfish sellout if you want, but I really was looking forward to picking up a nice bright, shiny XBox 360, the new game console that supposedly was launched by Microsoft earlier this week. I even preordered one about a month before the launch date, which probably classifies me as a little obsessive at the least. here's the kicker, though: About 70 more obsessive people than me paid deposits ealier than I did, and about fifty of those were too late to get machines...only about 20 available. There is a huge shortage of the machines, and if you haven't already ordered one by now, the earliest you can get one is probably February. At least that's what EBGames online reports, and most places like amazon, and BestBuy.com aren't taking orders anymore. Some freaks are already selling the machines they bought yesterday to people with even more discretionary money and less patience and self control than I have (and le me be clear that these are not my strong suits) via ebay. Current selling average for the $400 seems to be close to double the retail price. Double! I mean, granted, february is a long time away, but buying one for double the price is about the same as renting one for a couple hundred bucks a month. that's crazy.

I dpn't know how many were available here in Little Rock, but it seems like maybe a couple of hundred. If there had been enough, they'd have sold several thousand. Eventually they probably will anyways, but It'll taste more bitter.

C'mon Microsoft. Most folks already hate you, but we buy your crap anyways. Or at least we would if you would let us.

Why can't apple make a game console? Something like an ibox or something.

Living in a HUT

This past weekend we took some of our 8th and 9th grade kids (and lots of parents!) to HUT, on a retreat oriented around being conscious of poverty issues around the world. HUT is a mock global village, with living environments from southeast Asia, Latin America, Haiti, Appalacian America, and East Africa. The retreat basically involves a lot of situational role play, and experience in different kinds of work projects.

For the most part, it is amazing how unaware of both our wwealth and of global poverty. It's impossible to get into our American heads how extremely different our situation is from the rest of the world around us. The way we define things like "adequate" and "comfortable" is somewhat ridiculous. I can't even put this thought in concrete examples, becaues it sounds silly to say things like "I think that soft couches are important for me, but really it is nice to have a house.

HUT is kind of a silly thing because it tries to simulate things that are so out of our minds that we can't really even process them. It's not even really just a matter of selfishness (though it's pretty close) but just a matter of understanding reality. I really am blind to world poverty. I can't see it, can't process it as reality.

Okay, I've got to go, but There's more about this to come.

reboot

Sometimes things just get crammed, and instead of piking up the old thread, it's just better to start another.

Okay T-Rev, this is for you.

I've been on the go like crazy over the past month, buying a house in the process and getting moved in. A remarkable amount of work went into pulling down the freaking wallpaper, but now it's all painted up and ready to go.

I've also been working my tail off trying to keep up with grad school homwework and general work, but it's all been really fun. I've enjoyed the greek, learned a whole lot about the medieval church, and after tomorrow will have a functioning hot tub at my cozy home. So life is good.


And I'm thinking a lot about the incarnation and the trinity.

ouch

Last night I scrimaged with my new soccer team for the first time, and I woke up this mornign with the stiffest neck ever. I've applied ice-hot, swalled some Ibuprofin, and rubbed it down as well as I can, but still the stiffness remains. But oh, was it worth it!

Despite being out of breath about two minutes into the scrimage, and sucking some serious wind for the remainder, I had a blast. It was just excitiing to be in that kind of a competitive forum again, to be able to run and play and strive. It was serious good times, and I squeezed in a goal to end the game, and that sealed the fun up nicely for me. You would have been proud Hobbes, even thought you'd probably make me run ten miles today so that I wouldn't be such a slacker next time around. Of course, I also botched a couple of chances, but felt like on the whole I got some good work in, and really just enjoyed geting to meet some new teammates. I'm sure the adventures will steadily increase for some time. Let's just hope the pain in my neck takes a different path.

Vonnegut and Bama

Last night I finished Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse 5, a really funny anti-war polemic about the Dresden bombing in WWII. It's a really witty book with some pretty stout power behind it. Vonnegut uses the same kind of repeition that I like in Chuck Palahniuk's novels.

In other news, I keep being drawn to various news sources (www.al.com) for whatever scrap news I read on the upcoming college football season. It makes me nervous to read some of this stuff, just because I can feel the emotional pull of it. I think Bama will be fine, but you just never know until the ball gets kicked over the field that first time. I think that Croyle staying healthy could give us a great chance at the west title, but that less is pinned on him than it was last year, regardless. the new O-line makes me a bit nervous...so much of what they do changes the game, and I think I'd almost rather have a rock solid O-line than just about anything else. All in all, though, I think they'll be fine, if they can use those early games and get some quick experience. South Carolina will open conference play for us, and that's usch a wild card with spurrior out there. Still, I can't imagine that they'll be ready yet, with all the off the field problems.

Of course, I'm reasonably confident that Arkansas is going to suck, and that makes me feel better. At least in sports the tendency to define ourselves against others can probably go unchecked.