My Life: The Early Years (Part 1)

[Without further ado, here is PART I of "my life". I'm just ad-libbing as I go, so bare with the rambling. Hope you enjoy!]

The most defining circumstance that has made me who I am is the fact I grew up in a single-parent home. I grew up in Garland, TX, in the same house until I moved to college. Homestead Place, it was. Across the street was a huge city park with little league fields, pool, rec center, etc. I have 3 half-siblings who were grown up out of the house by the time I remember anything. The oldest is my sister, followed by two brothers. They each have 2 kids each, ranging from 18 to 10. My sister informs me when I was a baby, she would take me to cheerleading practice to pick up guys who thought it was cute she had a baby.

My parents divorced when I was three (I think it was). For a time, I had regular visitation to my dad's, like one weekday a week and every other weekend. Looking back, my mom was a trooper. I can see now--however ungrateful I might have been about it as a child--how incredibly much she loves her family. They are everything to her. And there were tough times, just like almost everyone experiences. She'll openly admit to not always making the right choices, but she always made sure we had what we needed.

I lived around the corner from my elementary school, Ethridge. Before that, even, I went to a daycare called Holly Hill, until I was old enough to walk home from school. I never was the popular kid or very bold or outgoing. I had a couple of friends. In fact, my best friends in elementary school were named Dustin and Josh. I remember many a recess we would run out to the field behind the playground and pretend to be Ghostbusters or Ninja Turtles. We played two characters each. I was Donatello (the smart turtle, of course) and Master Splinter.

I mentioned tough times and I think that is what led to my mom going to church. We went to Calvary Baptist Church. I was in 2nd grade when we joined. You know how it is: a 2nd grader going down front with their parent who is joining. I didn't have a real grasp with what I was doing. I honestly don't think that was the moment where I was truly saved by Jesus Christ, but don't worry, we'll get to when I was. I remember being in kid's choir; got a lot of leading roles. Same for school. In fact, in third grade I had the lead role and had to wear this awful glittery superhero outfit. I could make Christmas cards come alive and then refreeze them. A story about that: when it was time to re-freeze a card, I would have to do this big swirling motion with my arms and chant "whoa whoa whoa..." until the actors got back to their places. Well, I got it in my head that I wasn't allowed to take a breath while doing this and would be running on "fumes" and my voice would break while I tried to finish the line. I also remember a time when I didn't have my lines memorized because I was confused by the instructions and the director took me to the 5th grade area to call my mom, rather than to the office. She wanted to humiliate me and it worked! Ha...I just remembered I was in a city-wide play too. I had one line, but I wore this itchy pajama costume and sat there the whole time scratching all over. I also nearly tripped over a giant doll, flailing my arms to many a gasp from the crowd. But don't worry, I steadied myself and kept right on going. So yeah, I was into singing and acting during elementary school.

I was also active in Cub Scouts. (Dangit, I can't remember my Pack number.) It was important to my mom that I be around some good, positive male influences. So I did the whole camping, pinewood derby, pack meetings, etc thing. I seem to remember my mom being a cub leader for a time, and I think I hated it. LOL. She would be polite to the other boys and let them go first on activities, which would make me mad. Anyway, I got through that and earned the rank of Webelos (WE BE LOyal Scouts...creative, huh?) and the coveted Arrow of Light. Oooooo!

Middle school came around. I went to Bussey Middle School. And this is when things began to get really tough for me.

To Be Continued...

The Real Cost of Video Gaming

A buddy and I were discussing the Wii and how much it costs to get all the little unique controllers. A little later, I coincidentally read an article about how the PS3 is lagging far behind the Wii and XBox in the console market. It spurred me to do a little research to see what the REAL costs of starting up one of these systems are.

For my research, I chose the best version of the console available and assume that you want to play with 4 people total. I chose only the accessories needed to fully play and enjoy any game, not things like a microphone, USB keyboard, etc. Let's also assume you buy two games. I used Amazon.com and EB Games (when Amazon didn't have it listed b/c they are out of stock) to get the prices.

Playstation 3

Console (80 GB harddrive): $399.99
Dual-Shock Controller: 3 x $54.99 = $164.97
Games: 2 x $59.99 = 119.98
Total: $684.94

XBox 360

Console (Elite): $399.99 (Pro - $299.99)
Controller: 3 x $44.99 = $134.97
XBox Live 1 yr: $44.99
Games: 2 x $59.99 = $119.98
Total: $699.93

Wii

Console: $249.99
Wiimote: 3 x $35.99 = $107.97
Nunchuck: 3 x $17.99 = $53.97
Classic controller: 4 x $19.99 = $79.96
Games: 2 x $49.99 = $99.98
Controller Accessories:
Balance Board: $89.99
Zapper: 4 x $19.99 = $79.96
Wheel: 4 x $9.99 = $39.96
Total: $591.87
Or with controller accessories: $801.78

It has always been Nintendo's hook to be death-by-accessory. I remember a few Gamecube games that you couldn't 100% complete unless you had a DS. My findings: even though the PS3 console is the most expensive, to get started with everything, it is the cheapest. (A caveat being you go all out on the Wii controller accessories. If not, the Wii is, in fact, the cheapest.)

A few other things to consider: the PS3 is a blu-ray player and a darn good one. Its online gaming is free. It is not fully backwards compatible. The XBox has Netflix streaming. The Wii is Gamecube-compatible but you must have the classic controllers. A lot of cool old-school games are available for sale via download.

For me, the Wii doesn't make sense because it is only fun if you play with someone. I live alone, so no point. I miss some Nintendo titles though. I've just never really been interested in the XBox. Can't really pinpoint why. My draw to the Playstation really has its roots in the Final Fantasy series, but for the PS3, it was definitely the Blu-Ray player that got me.

A new direction

In the next couple weeks, my community group is going to try something a little different for a while. We're going to take the next couple of months and just learn about each other. One or two stories a week, person by person.

We got the idea from a concert a while back. The artists, Andrew Osenga, talked about his community group wanted to get to know each other before getting to know Jesus better together. What a great statement! I mean, really, how can we expect this to be the safest, deepest, and most active source of our growth without really knowing who each of us is growing with? We're not talking a testimony, in the pure sense of the word. And it doesn't have to be all about the dark pasts, which is often the first thing people think about. Just our story. Who we are. What and where life has brought us that makes us who we are today.

I'm up first.

I thought it'd be fun to provide a lighter version on my blog. Sorry, no gritty details for you here. Ha ha. So if you might be interested on who I am and what my take is, stay tuned!

When We Disagree

Last week I had an interesting, uh, conversation. I was at a friend's house for dinner. Conversations typically range widely between the hilarious to the inane to the serious. I don't even remember how we got to talk about it, but the ol' Anne Pressley crime came up. One guy mentioned how he wished the assailant would suffer the same horrible death she did. I think the next thing said was something to the effect of "yeah we want that kind of justice but that's not really how God wants us to think about it." This really set the guy off and a very long debate ensued. In the flesh, I agree with the guy. If someone attacked a friend or family member, I would want equally bad things to happen to them. I hate the great treatment prisoners get because as far as I'm concerned when they took the rights of someone else, they lost theirs. But I'm not "of the flesh" anymore when I became a Christ-follower. I must allow the justice system to do its thing, accept God's vengeance on the man, and even be open to the fact that the man could be saved and forgiven. That last statement in particular is hard to swallow. This fellow just seemed like he wouldn't hear any of it. (Early on, another friend pointed out how no one was using scripture to back up their opinion.) To him: the guy is guilty; he DESERVES what he gets.

During the course of the debate, this guy kept changing his point, which in my experience, when someone does that, they don't have one. He was, in my opinion, perverting some scripture and misusing Old Testament references. He also brought up how we deserve what we get as sinners. (Not sure what that has to do with criminals getting the death penalty though.) I don't have answers about the stories in the OT when God wiped out nations all for the sake of his chosen people. I mean, did those killed get a chance to know Him? Was that their only point to being born? Where are they now? I don't know... But what I do know is that when Jesus came He changed the rules. It may have been "eye for an eye" and God wiping out nations, but now it is "love your enemy" and "saved by grace."

He then attacked my political opinions, calling me liberal (just because I voted for Obama) and how liberals "don't believe in the death penalty." Let it just be known that my politics do not influence my religion. And this is the point I withdrew from the conversation and let the others have it. There was no scriptural backing. And he almost came across as "that doesn't matter." The bitterness was becoming very apparent.

Okay, so if someone wants to agree with the death penalty (and by the way, please don't use the words "believe in" when talking about it), that's fine. But as a Christ follower, I can't reconcile my faith and grace with a statement like "they deserve it." To be honest, I don't know what I think about the death penalty. But what I do know is no matter how heinous the crime they committed, there is always room for grace.

Late Night in Nashville

Sitting in the lobby of the Doubletree, where I finally found internet access, answering questions on my online courses and skulking around the internet, while downloading the new iphone update. There's a wedding reception wrapping up and about a dozen people wobbling past me in nice dresses and tuxedos. Next to me is another laptop user who is doing something that makes his computer sing "Yahoo!" every 5-10 seconds and he is not turning it off. OMG....

Today was very informative. That's the best word I can use. If you've followed by Twitter updates, here are the details. I never sleep well the first night in a hotel. It didn't help that every time the heat came on it was preceded by a very loud clunking sound. So I did wake up in time to attend the early bird sessions. The one of interest was a beginners Photoshop course. I knew most of the tools, but it was still good to finally HEAR someone explain it rather than just self-learn it from a book. I won a DVD of the instructors on some more advanced techniques! :) I also found out he was having a more advanced course that afternoon. I had wanted to attend the "behind the scenes" tour of the main sessions, but I felt this Photoshop workshop would be more practical. Definitely learned some cool techniques. It makes me want to get the creative juices flowing and create some cool "Christian-esque" graphical art to put up in my house. (Yah right...)

The main sessions have been, well different. Last night they had three mini-speakers followed by a Q&A that we could text to. Problem was they got to about 2 questions each speaker because the facilitator kept asking their own questions. Actually, overall the speakers have been a bit odd to me. One guy can only speak in one tone: dramatic...and did I mention he ended by disco dancing? I did get one thing out of it though...I'm now a member of the Slow Club.

The rest of the group I came with wanted to watch the Tech/OU game, but I wanted to go to the session again, so I did. I'm really glad, too. Unknown to me at the time, I got to hear the manager of the Human Genome Project talk about how he reconciled science with faith...his journey from atheism to Christianity. The. Head. Guy. Of. The. Human. Genome. Project. He spoke. He's a Christian! OMG! I'm kinda wigging out! His talk lost a lot of the crowd, I'm not going to lie (maybe part of it was the football game coming on). And really, I don't like to get caught up in the evolution/Genesis/creation/faith argument. Cuz really it shouldn't be an argument. It's a non-essential; the questions will be answered when we see God's face in heaven. For him, the reconciliation was important. And he laid out evidence that evolution is occurring and is a tool being used by God. That Genesis isn't a framework of 7 literal days. Okay fine. Bottom line: science and faith don't have to clash; they can flow together. We can figure a little bit out of how God did things, and doing so does not challenge His position as God.

Tomorrow's a lighter day. Walking around the vendors; one seminar. Football game is in town so it is going to be car-azy around here. Good night from Nashville.

November is NaNoWriMo

This month is National Novel Writing Month. Funny enough, I found out about it in my Macworld magazine (they were reviewing some novel writing software). The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by December. Any time I hear or read about people writing, I always think about my project "Lord or the Ring". I started it some 4-5 years ago, now, and never finished it. In short: take the premise of Lord of the Rings and apply it to a modern-day spiritual warfare story. Not completely creative, but let me tell you the context.

When I started with the idea, I was working with the student ministry under Jack McCarty. We had come off a successful "movie" series called The Pontrix, one of my first major video projects. Wanting to top it, I started writing a script for a Lord of the Rings spoof, because they were coming out in theaters then. But as I wrote the story in script format, the characters weren't coming out like I wanted. So I decided to write it as a story. When I hit writer's block, I was up to 103 pages. That's 8 1/2 x 11, mind you. At some points, I really felt like I wasn't writing it. It was so interesting to see how my characters were coming about and the choices they were making, as if alive. But then, as I said, I hit a wall. I had pitched the video idea to the staff and was turned down due to inadequate resources. That blow took away any creativity and 4 years later, the cursor is still blinking in the place I left it.

And now here we are, National Novel Writing Month. What do you think? Should I give it another shot? To be honest, I'm not sure who my audience is here...though I know 3-4 regular readers. One of the magazine's suggests is to post the story on a blog as it is written. Would you be interested in reading it? I mean, yeah, it has some corny moments meant for teens, but I don't think it is that bad for a complete amateur writer, and I had a couple editors helping me along at the time. Not sure about the filming prospects anymore...the whole LOTR has worn off, but it could still be a fun read.
So the poll is out! You are my friends/family and I need your opinion! Should I try to finish it? Post the chapters on my blog in scheduled releases?

IMHO (In My Humble Opinion)

What a day this nation woke up to this morning. I'm excited and anxious for our president-elect to begin the tough process of repairing our economy and our status around the world, among other things. President-Elect Obama's speech was one of the best I have ever heard. The emotion was evident and substituted any words that could be said about the moment.

Some other thoughts: I'm surprised the Arkansas lottery passed as many times as it has been defeated. Perhaps the wording was specific enough and the cause noble enough this time. Texas and Missouri were both prepared to lose $30 million in revenue, I heard. So at least the money being spent will be in our state now. And perhaps the money given to students will increase retention and bring our state up on college graduates.

I'm torn about the adoption ban. Sure, I believe a child should be in a positive environment, but perhaps it really should have been a case-by-case basis. The point of the law is to prevent homosexuals from fostering and adopting, but I have a bad feeling about all the red tape and bureaucracy fostering and adoptive parents will have to endure.

I'm am completely shocked that Lightle won the criminal court position. She simply advertised better because there is no way her 3-months on the environmental court (aka the "dog barking" court) matches Finkelstein's 20 years of defending and prosecuting criminal cases. I'm sure he's in a WTF state this morning. Her connection to Gov. Beebe, which led to her appointment, really paid off.

In national news, surprisingly the ban on gay marriage in California is on the road to passing, though it is still close. Colorado rejected the "life at fertilization" law, which is probably best because of all the legal trouble that would have started. Several states were added to the list of those who ban gay marriage. And a few states will still allow abortions.

Thankfully, the Senate did not get its filibuster-proof majority. I was really concerned about this. I think it would have taken away some checks-and-balances that need to be in place. And even though I don't think Obama is as left as people make him out (he's not a socialist, people), he also needs healthy debate when he wants legislation passed.

So it's time to unite and see what happens. It is a good thing to remember that the hot topic issues of evangelicals and conservatives aren't really decided by the president. Yes, he has influence with his supreme court appointments and veto power, but so far the federal government has left it to the states to decide gay and abortion rules...as evidenced by how many of these issues were on the ballot across the nation. And if he does pick a Justice, the court will remain in its 5-4 status. So no extreme change there.

If you voted, good job! Now, no matter our differences, we can coexist peacefully as a free nation of united individuals! Go America! Yes we did!