Singing in the rain, just singing in the rain

God's pretty sweet. I spent almost all of Evensong tonight not singing. My singing was becoming more important than the words I was singing, so God said, "Cut it out." It was cool.

I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the m ud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.
Psalm 40:1-3

Create in my a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore me to the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
Psalm 51:11-12

So, yeah. The End.

An Adventure Story

I woke up today thinking that I would get so much done. My one Thursday class was cancelled and I only had Honors this morning at nine. That left from ten to four to do whatever I wanted to do. I was going to finally finish my resume and send it to Hoffmantown West for their internship over the summer. I was going to memorize lines. I was going to get a jump on next week's homework. Instead, I got to be a blessing to one of my friends (that's a story in itself...).

Around noon, I get a call from my friend Bryce. He asked me if I had a car on campus. I do. To make a long story short (yeah, right...), he got a flat tire last night and drove it home. By this morning, it was completely flat, so he put the donut on it and started driving to the tire repair place. On the way, his donut imploded or something and he was stranded outside of Meijer. I get over there, pick him up, and we take the tire to get repaired on the other side of town. They can't repair the tire, but there is a used tire that he can buy for cheap. We go back to his car and start to jack up the car to put the tire on, but we didn't notice or think much about that fact that the car sat on an incline. The car bent the stupid jack. We put down a chalk to stop it from moving, pulled my jack out and started working, but it started bending. We drive the car up to a flatter part of the parking lot, try again, and again, the jack started bending. We drive the car to a spot that we know is flat, try again, and it finally works. We extended the jack almost as far as we could, barely fit the tire on, and started tightening the lugnuts. One of the lugnuts was stripped. Grr. Then, we went back to the other side of town to make sure that everything was okay, got a new lugnut, and went out to lunch. By the time I got back, it was 3:30 and I had to go to rehearsal. Unfortunately, because I was helping Bryce, I didn't get to work on lines...

Anyway, the point is that I didn't get enough done today.

Oh, well.

I did make some progress on my resume, though. It's hard to write down my "ministry philosophy." To work through it, I made a list of things I would do if I started a Youth Ministry. It kind of helped, but it's still tough to put it into words.

Tomorrow shall be a busy day.

I just want you to know

It feels good when the gaming community agrees with you. I was reading an article on Gamespot.

Anyway, it talked about industry analyst Mike Wallace's predictions for the coming year in the gaming industry. He predicted that the Xbox 360 would come out on top in the next-gen console war, that the Revolution would only sell 1 million units, and that the PSP would gain dominance over the handheld market. By 2007, he predicts that the total installed base for Xbox 360 would be 10 million units, the PS3 would be 7 million units, and the Revolution would have sold only 3 million units.

Personally, I think the Xbox 360 still doesn't have firm software support. If the trend from the current generation continues, most of the games for the 360 will also be available for the PS3, making it unnecessary to buy both the Xbox and the PS3.

One thing that I don't think Mr. Wallace is taking into account is the price of the console. The president of Sony has warned that the PS3 is going to be very expensive. The Xbox 360 is going for $502 on Ebay right now. Reggie Fils-Aime, the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America, has said that the total startup cost for a Nintendo Revolution will be around $300. In 2006, I think that the low cost and retrogaming possibilities of the Revolution will bring Nintendo back into the fold of mainstream gaming. If not, then they'll become pioneers for the "indie gaming" industry that I believe will one day come about.

I'm done now. Homework time is now.

Don't Panic

So things are getting better. I went to Evensong tonight and had a bit of a cry and I've begun to settle things with people...

I'd love to put a generic, "If I've ever wronged you, I'm sorry," but that just doesn't cut it. Ever.

God's had my back this whole time. I've felt like He's been completely gone, and I'm not necessarily right next to Him, but I finally feel like I'm moving in a positive direction in my spiritual life. Now the rest just has to follow...

A Thought (okay, more than one)

We know that the law is unspiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin lving in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Does that mean I am not responsible for my own sin? Does it mean I can blame any sinful actions I take on the "sin living in me?")

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law (do i?); but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:14 - 24)

If you didn't get it the first time, read it again. That's how I've felt lately. I'm sure you've all been there, too. The problem is I'm having difficulty reading the next verse: "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Pray for me.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" (Rom 8:35) I haven't gotten far enough to get to those problems coming between God and I. I'm taken care of, yet I am am malcontent. I am supported, and yet I feel as though I have no foundation.

Paul wrote so powerfully. I don't understand how. The only explanation is that it's God. God made him do it. I just wish God would help me do something. Maybe I'm just not letting him.

I should update

The End.

Plays

I've seen lots of them. They're everywhere in this stinking city (which is not necessarilly a bad thing). So here goes:

The night after Spamalot we saw a play called Doubt. I really liked this play. It was about a nun principal of a catholic school's suspicions of a priest's relationship with one of her students. The priest is a great guy, well respected in the community, but the nun is relentless in her pursuit of what she "knows" this man has done. By the end of the play, I left wondering whether or not he had done it. While the nun is absolutely sure that he is guilty, his alibis all check out. He was taking the boy in as the only black student in the school, coming from an abusive home without a strong father figure. The priest thought that he was doing good building this relationship. Anyway, the point is that it was a really good play that made you think.

The day after Doubt was Edward Albee's Seascape. This is a play about an older couple taking a vacation on the beach. The first act is all setting up their realtionship. The older woman, who wouldn't stop talking, wanted to do something with the life she had left. Her husband thought that they deserved a break. He just wanted to sit. Act one ends with two giant lizards showing up on the beach. Act two reveals that these lizards came from the sea, talk in english (although they don't know some concepts, such as emotion), and left because they just felt different from the other lizards. As the older couple tries to explain the evolutionary process to the lizards and that they will eventually become like humans, complete with emotions that they are just feeling for the first time. In the end, the old man tries to teach the lizards what it's like to live while realizing that he isn't living himself.

Friday night we saw a Greek play called Hecuba. It's the tragic story of the deposed queen of Troy. Her daughter is offered up as a sacrifice to the dead Achilles, she discovers the son she sent to Thrace for safekeeping has been killed by the very person who was to keep him safe, and all the while, she can't seem to find someone to kill her also. It was very well done, with simple costumes, simple set, and good acting. One interesting thing was the chorus. I didn't know what to expect from the chorus, but I was pleasantly surprised. They didn't always talk at the same time, and when they did, it was understandable. They even broke out into creepy song every once in a while.

Saturday night we saw Abigail's Party, which I loathed. The characters were shallower than a puddle and they were soooo annoying. It was supposed to be funny, but I had a difficult time seeing the funny over the tragedy. Every single character was so intensely unhappy. Ick.

Yesterday, we went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle. It was okay. The pastor that was speaking wasn't the greatest, but the music was pretty good. Directly after church, we had a matinee of A Light in the Piazza, a love story musical. I was very impressed with it. I much prefer classic musicals, where songs happen as a way to express intense emotions on the behalf of the character, as opposed to Phantom or Les Miz, which always exist at that high emotion. Immediately following that show, Mike and I went to a play called The Mandrake in this small black box theatre with maybe 40 seats in it. It's what's called a sex farce, which had me nervous, but it wasn't that bad. Some of the humor was a bit naughty, but overall, it was a good comedy. Then, when we got back from that, I went to see Memoirs of a Geisha, which was fantastic.

Okay, now I've caught everyone up. I hope you got bored reading all that.

I got my luggage. Oh, yeah, by the way, I saw Spamalot.

I think the former is more important, but hey, that's me.

Spamalot was sweet. The ending was changed and a character was added, but it was still amazing. It dropped the witch scene and the bridge of death, but the songs and additions made up for it. There was a song about needing Jews to be successful on Broadway. It was funny.

Anyway, I'm tired after walking all over downtown Manhattan for most of the day.

Oh, yeah, by the by. I just found a button that lets me add images. I'm going to do it just for kicks.


This is a fan drawing of a character from Final Fantasy VI. I think it's based on the CG reinvention of her in the revamped version of the game, but it could be mostly imagination... I guess... Either way, it's incredibly good.

The End.

P.S. If you like video game music, check out Chrono Symphonic: Chrono Symphonic: Chrono Trigger ReMix Project - http://chrono.ocremix.org

New York

I'm in New York right now. Isn't that swell? We even found some wireless internet somewhere around here. Unfortunately, my bag isn't here. It was a HUGE red duffel bag filled with all my clothes. All. I'm hoping it will get here in the morning. My eyes are kind of dry with my contacts in right now...

We got here, though, and we're staying in this creepy catholic almost boarding house or something like that... It's used for priests staying in New York or families here for funerals, but they open it up cheap for students like us. We went out to dinner down the street and proceeded to come back, do a little exploring of the house, and leave for Times Square. It's raining quite a bit, but we went anyway. Riding the subway is fun, by the way. Times Square is huge and bright if you've never been there. There are a bazillion and one things to do, but it's great just to walk...

Anyway, I'm gonna go because I'm rambling on about nothing.