A Free Simpleology Course

In order to check out this new course on blogging, Simpleology requires that I post the following:-------I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.It covers:The best blogging techniques.How to get traffic to your blog.How to turn your blog into money.I'll let you know what I

The Media and Messages

Last week I heard a statement of a sentiment that is oft repeated: "The World" "sends you messages" about what will "make you happy" or "this is how you should live". This kind of talk is rampant throughout "religiondom" and is the motivating force for much of Christian media. "We must counteract this affront to our worldview and morals" the concerned religious say. "We have to get our message

God and the "Gay Grene"

I'm not sure how the conversation got there, but somehow a discussion I had at a Christmas Party tonight turned toward personal responsibility. The questions center around why God would allow sin to enter the world if by allowing such a thing people will be damned. This reminded me of something I read in a very fascinating book recently about the emerging research that points toward the genetic

"Brown" and "Candleflame"

I wrote another short story last night while waiting for my wife to log out of World of Warcraft. After posting it to writing.com, I realized that I hadn't posted here about my first short story I posted there: "Brown"."Brown" is the result of my wife asking me to tell her a story. I didn't have a good one, so she pressed me to write one. My goals for "Brown", as with most of my creative writing,

"Mischief. Mayhem. Soap."

Title link here.I saw "Fight Club" back in college. This was pre-"Sin City" so it was disturbing in places. It was also profound and hinted at a path that men should walk down.Now, in the past week, I've heard of two books that seem to push a similar line, just without quite as much violence and more contained graphic sex: "The Barbarian Way" and "No More Christian Nice Guy". I haven't read

Frustration

I got booted from a film set today. That's frustrating.I was working on a Tutorial for Production-Now.com and found out that all free NLEs do not support multiple video channels. That's frustrating.I want to help people make movies but I get kicked off sets and run into software limitations. That's frustrating.So what should I do with my time? I should edit some past projects that have yet to be

Images from Italy

[NB: The following contains images from art history that depict nudity. I will refrain from further comment at this time if you have a problem with that.]No, this is not a post of photos I took. That will come later... maybe.For those of you who don't know (which would be almost all of you if more people read my blog, Jason), I just got back from Italy with my family. It was a good experience. We

Funds, Fads, and Fun

I've long felt that I needed to post something about Tithing. It started way back in the day when I was chatting with a few college buddies about tithing and taking a Sabbath (both of which seemed completely foreign to them). It happened again when one of the snot-nosed kids we were teaching belligerently told me that he wasn't going to give his nickel because he didn't want to "waste it". Okay,

I Don't Wanna Be Like Mike

I did it. I finished Michael Pearl's "Sin No More" series. It's been a few days now and I decided I needed to report, review, and respond to the 10 or so hours of material presented. Naturally, this is not going to be exhaustive (thankfully), and merely an overview of my thoughts and reactions. If you are at all interested, I would recommend checking it out. If nothing else, it will allow you an

Captive or Captivated?

I like pretty girls. I think everyone does. If you don't, something is wrong with you or you're lying. I don't like people lying to me. We like pretty girls.But this raises an awareness of a perplexing reality: Since we like them, what do we do about it?In a past post I wrote:[Michael] talks about "husbands [who] are secretly following porn queens". Sure, there are certain girls (Camilla Belle is

The Myth of Moral Relativism

This struck me last week and I forgot, but I was reminded of it this morning: I don't know any "moral relativists". I hear it from well-meaning religious folks all over the place: This world is no longer one of absolutes but rather full of moral relativism, the teaching that what is right for you may not be right for me. This is supposedly the problem today. This is at the very least a major

The Good, the Bad, and the Tasty

Not that anyone cares, per se, but I've been down lately. That's the kind of thing people visit blogs to read, I'm sure, so I'll try not to belabor the point. I'm not depressed, but rather perturbed. I have many things I want to get done, be done with, and otherwise incorporate or expel from my life. But nothing's moving, or so it seems.The good news is that, if I haven't told you a million times

Waiting, Wanting, Willing to Die

As we've been reading "Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter" in preparation for figuring out what to do with our lives and as a family, we ran across the passage where "Jay" and his team ask people (mostly elderly) if the best years were before them or not, and why. Many say that the best has already been, that the good-old days were better, and that now it is mostly a

Sin No More Now

...in 9 lessons.After the fiasco (well, it probably wasn't exactly a fiasco but I don't know what it was) of a couple of weeks ago, I've been listening to Michael Pearl's "Sin No More" series. It's interesting.It's also frustrating.First, his use of Scripture could we way out to lunch and I wouldn't know. I should be listening to this with my Bible, Strong's and IVP's Bible Background Commentary,

Does God Save Sinners?

I was up late last night.I was up early this morning.I didn't need to be, but I was.Why? Because of some nagging and disturbing thoughts. I mean, I just read an article that had damned me to hell. I was damned by some really holy people. These people have a ministry centered around joy and freedom in their holiness before God (scroll down to "The Christian Walk"). They believe that holiness is

No Greater Harm

Edit: It has come to my attention that Michael (not Debi) wrote this article. The original letter was address to Debi, and I mistakenly assumed. My apologies. Please make note of this error as you read my post. However, since they are "one" there is much difference between the two.My sister sent me an article. She said that she and her husband "really like" it and thought it would be a good

What Makes Boys Cry?

aka: Love, "Love", and Love ActsI watch a lot of movies. Currently, I get through at least five a week, often more. I also watch just about anything, so I've seen some pretty odd, lame, terrible, disgusting, and disturbing flicks.But I just watched "Boys Don't Cry" which reminded me a lot of "Monster", both of which I would not recommend. I first heard about "Boys Don't Cry" on the radio way back

Faggots, Thongs, and Britches

I was reading "Saint Frances of Assisi" by Chesterton and he said something about being the "fag-end of the faggot" and it got me thinking. Nothing concrete, see, but just a whirring in my mind. This man spells the phenomenon of the perception of a specific spectrum of light "colour", so we should take what he writes with a hand on the dictionary. There are other words, like faggot, that have

Zeitgeist - Our Era

While dumping some footage this evening I had time to poke around what videos are big on Google Videos and found a documentary on "Christianity, 9/11, and the Federal Reserve". Curious, I watched it. Granted, it's two hours long and could really use some editing, but the content is certainly provocative if not sensationalistic, biased and wrong.After watching the whole video, I followed the link

The Internet is for...

So, I happened across this today. If you happed to feel like I just ruined your virgin eyes... I'm not sorry. I am sorry if you are 4 and have not been exposed to pornography as of yet, but I started that when I was six. And, considering I doubt anyone younger than 6 will be reading this blog, I don't think I did anything new to you.The picture made me laugh. Why did I chuckle at such an

Heroes of Old

I've recently started watching a TV Show based on a very X-Men-ish storyline. Basically, "Evolution" has begun to shape men into Heroes with super-human abilities (including flight, "cell regeneration" [which is a misnomer because she can actually come back from the dead], and telepathy). The show is quite enjoyable, but would be much better without the horrible "recaps" every few episodes (the

Rooting Out the Problem

Believe it or not I am posting about my plumbing again. Yes, yes, it feels like yesterday that I was shelling out $300 for a guy to come to my house and push a metal cord down my pipes, but I had to do it again yesterday. This time the bill was "only" $210. It would have been 50 bucks more if I had not pulled out the toilet myself. I'd never removed a toilet before, though I had seen it in a

Flirting with Sexual Jerks

Okay, so I'm writing a book with my best friend. It pretty much rules. Because of this, Jason sends me stuff all the time to consider and reflect upon, and to which respond. It's good because it helps keep us up-to-date with what the Christian culture is saying and how we need to respond to it. Jason just sent me an article and asked for my thoughts. These certainly belong in our book, but that's

The Children and the Arrow

I recently finished reading "The Tipping Point" and it got me thinking. There were several thought-worthy ideas in the book, but I'm only going to touch on one of the last impressions: The idea of parenting.Gladwell, and others whom I have read, all point to research that indicates the complete lack of "parental influence" on children. Studies have shown that it doesn't matter who you are as a

"The Jerk" from Rags to Riches to Rags...

"My story?" I didn't even like the film but it's appropriate.I was standing in an inch of greasy, chemical water, a hose stuck in the drain, two plumber's snakes and two empty bottles of drain cleaner as well as a disconected pipe with wretch attched to it. Life was going down the drain, mostly because the water was not.I'd been told for several weeks now to just hire a plumber. Stubborn as I am

Dropped Frames and Frames of Reference

Returning from a foreign country, or any trip, is rough for me. Of course, going on a trip is hard as well. I don't like traveling and foreign countries don't impress me. The shrubs may be different, the sky more polluted, the streets more smelly, and the language incomprehensible, but it's still earth and I've been to places at least a little like it before. It's all strangely familiar and so I