I love gum.

I found a dusty pack of Fruit Stripe gum on the bottom shelf of a convenience store last week, and I've been chewing my way through the pack. (Remember Fruit Stripe has the zebra and the temporary tatoos?) Fruit Stripe is simultaneously the most amazing and most repulsive gum ever. It's intended fruity flavor lasts approximately sixty seven seconds, then becomes disgusting and leaves your breath smelling like ass until you spit it out and put another piece in. That's why I've already chewed five pieces of gum today, and it's only 1:30pm.

On an entirely different note, here's an excerpt from an email from Home Community friend, triathelete, Maine resident, med student, and general Renaissance man Will Boylston. If you weren't a tiny bit jealous of him before...well, just read this.

"I also just moved to a new house that has a small river as the border to the back of the property, and got to celebrate the move by canoeing from my backyard, through some riffles, out to a major river, all at night with a full moon."

Amazing, yes? Only a little more amazing than the first ten seconds of a stick of Fruit Stripe gum.

Beware the friend collectors

So it may seem like I’m just universally unaccepting of anything mainstream. I won’t deny having that as a portion of my personality (though I promise I’m not always countercultural). With that said, my hesitance towards Facebook (and before that, My Space) had legit foundation:

1. I never wanted my students to be able to see too much into my personal life; and
2. I was always a little worried about friend collecting.

Here’s what I mean about that last part:

One of the most important sermons I ever heard was one wherein the pastor talked about how “every human you pass on the street is someone for whom your savior died.” I loved that not just because of its impressive grammar (notice for whom) but also because it put into words what appealed to me about Jesus. To Him, every person on this earth – friend or foe – was someone who could be saved. Everyone was someone of value.

Meanwhile, my whole thought about Facebook is that it causes us to devalue other people. One of my favorite series at Imago was about the core idols. Specifically, I remember how someone with the power idol was described: someone who uses other people as commodities. That, in my opinion, is exactly what Facebook promotes. Accept friends just to bolster your friend count. Invite others for the same reason. Post a note on someone’s page so that someone else sees it. And so on. This is not how we’re meant to live. Jesus had twelve people he directly influenced (and from what I understand, you can argue that number is more like three). Now it’s two thousand years later and we’re meant to believe that we – mere humans, mind you – are intended to have 367 friends?

(Note: Don't get me wrong, there are benefits to the site as well. I'd hate to sound like one of those Christians who decried the advent of TV as the devil's work. I'm just saying is all. I'm just saying)

How would Jesus deal with canvassers every day?

That's what I want to know

Segue ("seg-way") required

(I think there should be a requirement for segue between posts. They don't have to be good. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7RyqHs79l0 for inspiration.)

Speaking of injustices like Favre's back-stabbing "return" to the Jets... (I told you it didn't have to be good.)

I've been watching this show called The Pretender on hulu.com. My love for TV on the internet and eternal appreciate to Jon So for pointing me to hulu are well documented on Zloop. The premise of The Pretender is that this genius named Jarod can learn pretty much anything in a tiny amount of time. After being used by an evil corporation to do evil for many years, he escapes, and while on the run from said evil corporation, he travels around learning different vocations and righting injustices.

I used to love this show, but this time around, something has been bothering me, and I couldn't put my finger on it until the last episode I watched. Jarod was posing as a CDC investigator to expose another CDC scientist as a murderer. At the end of each episode Jarod arranges some event that exposes the murderer and forces them to confess. In this episode Jarod makes the murderer think he's been exposed to the horrible Ebola-like virus that he used to kill his victim. Jarod leaves the murderer trapped in a glass decontamination booth thinking that he's dying (although he isn't).

What I finally identified as bothering me is how ugly justice can be without grace. It can definitely be argued that this murderer deserved the terror he experienced, thinking he was dying the same way he had killed another person. Indeed, some would argue that he deserved far worse, but it just served to remind me of what I deserve and how grateful I am for grace. I'm even more grateful that God's grace isn't half-assed grace that makes us suffer part, if not all, of what we deserve.

Right now he's doing the same thing to a doctor who went back and paralyzed, then autopsied her own hit and run victim. ugh.

Couldn't Have Said it Any Better Myself

I don't even think I need to add anything. So I won't.

I also say "munce" instead of "months"

When I was a kid, I figured I'd go to Heaven as long as I got through life without cursing 100 times or more.

What I never counted on was an inability to properly pronounce words with "sk" in them,
An overwhelming ability to pronounce "sk" words as "ss" onces,
And that "asked" would be one of those words I say 78 times daily.

So here's hoping I was wrong with that >100 curses = eternal life hunch.

It's not that I particularly like the Olympic announcing, but...

For whatever reason I'm really into the Olympics this year. Maybe it's a good year, maybe I've changed, maybe I'm just looking for a reason to not write my thesis. Point is, I've been watching as much China '08 as possible. For the first time ever, this includes gymnastics.

The thing about watching gymnastics is that it all looks amazing to me. Were it not for an announcer telling me about degree of difficulty, deductions, et al, I wouldn't have any idea what's going on. Not surprisingly, this reminded me of my walk with the Lord. I'd like to think I know a bit more about life than I do about, say, the parallel bars, but the fact remains: I have to look to him to guide me. He has to be the one telling me what's right, what's wrong and what path I should go down.

It's hardly a novel thought...but it is one I should always keep in mind.

Also, it's like 127 degrees in my house.