It's snowing! 

In my writings I have demonstrated impatience towards bad ideas. But I don't want that to shadow a heart for humanity. I need to remember how to love as Christ loved.

In a similar vein, working in the hospital one faces an emotional rawness that the world doesn't know how to take -- when or before that limit hits, people shut it out and handle caring as work (or as they say, "Treating the disease and not the patient") . It is so much easier that way since we are still so bad at dealing with fear, grief and anger. This may be why a hospital can be inhospitable.

But there's a better way. Bringing our cares before God through prayer provides a solace for many patients without ignoring the pains of life. In turn this provide care. I need to be intentional about it because it is becoming easier to just shut it out.

"Christians are often 'chief naval gazers' -- as in 'What can God do for me?'" - Pastor Steve Mason said concerning the tendency to forget the world nor recognize there is a spiritual war at hand. Spiritual war refers to the struggle between good and evil for the hearts of people.

I'm sick of subjective New Age pseudo-"super-spirituality" fed to the American public. These include proponents like Neale Donald Walsch and Wayne Dyer -- both whom take advantage of the American sentiments and longing for spirituality, and in the process milk them for millions of dollars. It is the same philosophical bent that Oprah has bought into and spreads as gospel. Sick, sick. New Age usually involves syncretism of Western ideas of God with Eastern philosophy to create a "find God within yourself," "you are one with God," "be the master of your life," and "think positive thoughts" mush. Gross!! Of course they spout proverbs of "respect others, be free, nature is good, expand your mind, feel those spiritual vibes" la di da.

PBS periodically features Wayne Dyer and once he asked, "Is it better to be kind or to be right?" and answered himself, "It is better to be kind," while the audience nods with rapt attention. Wayne calls to disregard truth. This is the very nonsense that Harry G. Frankfurt --Princeton philosophy professor emeritus-- reprimands when he writes "sincerity is bulls**t" as postmodernism ignores truth.

Neale Walsch is part of "New Spirituality" and Wayne Dyer part of "New Thought" movements but it's all old thought in disguise. Just want to slap these guys around to wake them up out of drunken self absorption.

But it's people's ignorance and gullibility that most appalls.
Doesn't an enemy multiply kisses?

Cranberry + apple = crapple.

Sorry, I'm on colorectal service right now. "All about pus and poo!"

Testing God
Our choices today.
How?
Put off living
Godward.
Say, "It is 'good,' "
but lack desire.
So
we plan that perhaps,
maybe,
later in life
-- when I hear the call of mortality --
I may "get right with God."
But many who "get right"
too late,
too late!
...lay in the wake of wasted lives
and have put off living,
as all along
we've tested God with tomorrow.

If I'm ever in Mississippi, I would like to visit the Pig Out Inn for some good BBQ.

A dream job - what Marty Stouffer does mainly as photographer/produce of Wild America. Whether it is my dream is another story.

It is official, Microsoft sets out to make Zune an iPod killer with Toshiba.

Checked out Garls Barkley "St. Elsewhere." Coming from a first impression: Cee-Lo has a great voice and the production is great. It's old school sound, good background vocals, richly hybridized with synth sound.

But what else is on this CD with a cover bearing the phrase 'Live Sex'? I'm wary.

Man, I'm in a serious mood.

Paramount (World Trade Center, Nacho Libre, Hustle & Flow, Mission Impossible III, Titanic) has purchased Dreamworks SKG (Transformers, War of the Worlds, Gladiator, Shrek, The Ring, Catch Me if You Can).

Hmmm... Dreakworks Animation SKG is working on a CG film called "Kung Fu Panda" slated for 2008. I assume comedy.

Fall 2006 will have a lineup of weighty movies:

• THINKflim --> Half Nelsion (Aug 11) - drama - teacher in urban school (S: Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie)

• THINKflim --> 10th and Wolf (Aug 18) - drama, organized crime (S: James Marsden, Giovanni Ribisi, Brad Renfro)

• Yari Film Group --> The Illusionist (Aug 18) - period, drama- magic (S: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel)

• Sony Pictures Classic --> Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Sept 1) - foreign film, family drama, China, Japan (D: Zhang Yimou)

• Focus Feature --> Hollywoodland (Sept 8)--> period crime/mystery drama (S: Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Ben Affleck, Bob Hoskins)

• Universal Pictures --> The Black Dahlia (Sept 15) - period crime, mystery (S: Scarlet Johannson , Hilary Swank, Josh Hartnett)

• Dreamworks Pictures --> The Last Kiss (Sept 15) - drama - coming of age (S: Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett, Casey Affleck, Rachel Bilson)
  

• Miramax --> Renaissance (Sept 22) - animation, sci-fi - crime, future Paris

• Rogue Pictures --> Jet Li's Fearless (Sept 22) - period, martial arts fighting

• Fox --> The Last King of Scotland (Sept 27) - drama - Ugandan President Idi Amin and his physician (S: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy)

• Universal Pictures --> Children of Men (Sept 29) - sci-fi, drama - hope in an infertile near-future (S: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore)

• Warner Brothers --> The Departed (Oct 6) - drama - cops & crooks (D: Martin Scorsese | S: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg)

• Warner Brothers --> The Fountain (Oct 13) - sci-fi - The Fountain of Youth, across time (S: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz)

• Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures --> The Prestige (Oct 20) - thriller, magic (S: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale)

• Paramount --> Babel (Oct 27) - drama - security in cross culture (D: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu | S: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho)
• 
  
• Sony Pictures --> Casino Royale (Nov 16) - action - 007 film (S: Daniel Craig - the new James Bond, Eva Green, Madds Mikkelsen, Catarena Mureno)
  

Crutch
Alistair Begg asked, "Is Christianity a psychological crutch?" No. Why? Because Christianity is hard. It hard to swim against the current; whereas it's easy for dead fish to be carried by the flow.

Consider how more Christians were killed for their belief during the 20th century than the sum of all Christians murdered for their faith in all time before the 1900's. In fact such persecution has not waned and in many places they've intensified despite the reduced numbers of Communist nations.

In having such conviction to live for Jesus Christ, many lose their livelihood, family, and life. And some say crutch, hah! Not quite. If everyone is moving in the same direction, no one notices they head towards destruction. He who holds fast to the anchor of God sees the shifting currents and is buffeted.

Angry? Chicago
I'm told by some people from other U.S. cities that Chicagoan's are generally angry with an anger on par with New Yorkers, but New York throws it straight at you -- that proud bluntness.

Is Chicago really so? Is there this so-called undercurrent of anger in Chicago? One can argue for angry traffic but I don't think that's comparable to New York.

Rose
Played a short dice puzzle game called "Petals Around the Rose." It supposedly stumped Bill Gates for a while (but he eventually figured it out) as it's not a gauge of intelligence. To people it's either gimmicky or frustrating.

AMD & ATI are merging. Two chip powerhouses join forces to take on other chipmakers. Just in time as Intel releases Core 2 Duo. Woohoo more fireworks!

We happened upon the largest cross in the western hemisphere.











BBQ Texas.

In Texas we called it a night at Vega. "I love tech-no-lo-gy." Cell phones are useful since my friend's father tracked us periodically by Google Earth (awesome software if you have high speed connection). We never felt lost with the GPS. No only that, all the hotels we stayed at had wireless Internet.

Anyways, the clerk at the Comfort Inn welcomed us to the "edge of civilization" because we were on the border to New Mexico.

We stopped at a town named Amarillo which was along our route. This town has an airport and a rodeo. We ate at the Big Texan Steak Ranch which was interesting for the atmosphere but disappointing in terms of food. The outside had a huge sign, bright lightbulbs outlining the building (tacky but maybe it draws unsuspecting tourists). When we walked in we heard loud yee-hawing and a trio playing "You Are My Sunshine" on the guitar, fiddle, and bass. We saw cowboy hats and a plethora of mounted animal heads on all the walls. The restaurant's claim to fame is a 72 oz. steak that is free if you eat it within 1 hour. That's 4 pounds of meat. (Kobayashi where are you.) A newsarticle on the wall reported the record time as several seconds above 9 minutes.

We ate some steak, but taste was lacking. "Steak tomatoes" were just tomatoes cut in half with black pepper sprinkled on it. "Steak onions" were raw rings of red onion. "Steak fries" were fried from processed frozen stuff. My ribeye steak was decently grilled but my friends were quite disappointed with their sirloins. "You Are My Sunshine" played a few more times in the background. Overall: limited effort in preparation. (For the same price, Chicago steakhouses far surpass this place in taste.)

Near the end of our meal a couple got up and started dancing while the trio played away. The waiter was a nice fellow who sat down and chatted with us. We commented to ourselves that this is part of the southern hospitality where strangers readily strike up conversations with you.

We drove across Oklahoma today and stopped in Texas. Oklahoma is hilly and the soil is interesting because it is like red clay. When we hit Texas, I noticed 2 things: the price of gasoline going up and the landscape turning to shrubbery. The cheapest gas prices were in Missouri and Oklahoma. You would think Texas with all its oil refineries would have cheaper gas. Shrubbery stretches from Texas to California. You wouldn't have much use for a lawnmower and mowing shrubs would be difficult and if you removed the shrubs all you would have is dirt. Here are some interesting plants.

The first picture shows one of the weeds, they're like dark hairy fists.





"They came from pods!!!" Actually, I believe these are the fruit of the yucca.















Here is a plant with pink wisps and white flowers.