For The Love of the Game

I have always been enamored with street art. I think it is incredibly fascinating that these people would spend so much time putting something on a run-down urban wall somewhere when they know that it could be covered or washed off the very next morning. I don't tend to keep them very close but I really like intensely opinionated people and I feel like the street art community is the last of the opinion in most art circles. Artists are known for their outspokenness but they are also selling their art to all the people who agree with their views, but the street artist has a way of pushing his opinion and thoughts into the the minds of the most populated cities in this world. They are purely reputation and very far from pocket book driven.

Their mindsets inspire a material driven culture to have substance.

Here is one of my favorites. The name is elbowtoe:





Some giraffe



Enjoy this music please.

Things I Don't Understand

As you might have gathered from the title I will be presenting a few things that have been on my mind lately that baffle. I don't get um.

1. Why white people like "Sea Salt" so much. Is one more salty than the other? I guess it could be a product of a more green lifestyle, but is it really anymore healthy than typical table salt.Has anyone ever put Sea Salt in a regular salt shaker and their guests have asked, "Wow, friend this salt is irregularly salty and fresh like the ocean. Is it sea salt?"

2. Why my mind so naturally separates science and theology. It seems to me that the belief in the latter would have you greater appreciate the former because of the intricacy of the creator while ultimately embracing the former often leads to a rejection of the later. So, in response to the hostility of the scientific community the church drives science completely out of it's view. I am a product of this hostile and odd relationship between the two so i naturally separate the two to not create hostility within myself.

3. How situations can be confusing and ambiguous yet people are content to be passive and closed. Nothing in history was ever accomplished through a lack of communication. They then expect you to know. This has absolutely no logic to it and a reversion of blame would always be unjust because you cannot deal with what is not on the table.

These are just a few. One scratches the surface and the others get a little more personal.

I'm diggin this:

I just got beck from India. I went with three awesome people, and God taught me so much about every piece of life.

My Pergatory

I have been investigating the orthodox Church very avidly since I have moved back home. I have to tell you that I sort of wish that I had remained ignorant right now. This sounds like a horrible standpoint to most people and especially the Orthodox faithful, but i can't help but feel like ignorance would definitely be bliss at this point. There is a wealth of information, tradition, and spirituality that is undeniably beautiful in the Orthodox church that the protestant church has ignored and these are the things that draw me in. I sat and spoke of these things with Father Jim today. This was great but also very frustrating to realize that I am ignorant and very arrogant when it comes to the ways that I view God and the church. I got to go up on the scaffolding in St. George church here and see the paintings that are almost finished and it was very powerful, and i could help but feel like I got a little taste of the divine. Needless to say I thought I had it all figured out....I'm wrong. Both sides have incredible beauties and i just have to sift through the rubble and surface the foundations to really get to know myself greater within the Church.

One thing is for sure though. The Orthodox Church knows Christian art...

I am in my city library right now. The central valley has many drawbacks but one of them does not happen to be the county library system. It is incredible. I can request a book, CD, or DVD from a county thrice over online. This is nice because it takes a while for them to deliver it to the library closest to you so it is a lot like getting mail...and I love getting mail. So I just requested like 3,600 Neil Young and Paul Simon CD's. Who knows when they will get here but I am excited to receive them.

For now:

Old Town New View

So I am officially moved into Fresno, CA. It is a very strange feeling doing something you had never thought you would. I never thought i would live with my parents or in Fresno ever again. It's a bit like the feeling where you see a shadow passing by and you are almost positive that no matter where you move your head that shadow is going to collide with it and destroy your brains, but the tense feeling fades to relief and that new found relief leads to a feeling of stupidity. I actually believed that I was going to move home and be knocked unconscious immediately. I had such little faith at the end of a faith filled situation and I am ashamed to say that I steel feel like I am in the blurry stage of exiting a tunnel in broad daylight. It is almost impossible to put your finger exactly on the feeling but I can tell you that you should never say never to God. You challenge Him, even unknowingly, and He is going to kick you in the rear. I am in an old situation with an entirely new twist and it is terrifying but i can tell you that i am now excited. I thank God every day for the life I have had and the support given through my friends in Riverside, and I am asking Him now to help me thrive.

I'd like to share with you now a passage from a book I have now read through twice since i have been home that deals largely with the theme of help. I took from this book many things but in this transitional time in my life it brought to life in me that I need to want life and to move in a positive direction. I don't know if you will understand this but I feel good knowing that it is out there. It is the closing paragraph of "A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean, and it is a somber paragraph but it was strangely comforting to me.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.

A Different Perspective

Did you ever wonder what the world would look like if we viewed it through infrared eye's? I didn't. until today. Here's a different perspective on the same stuff.









Kinda nuts huh?