plastic and circuit surgery

with some cut and pasting and a bit of playing around, i got this baby bird flying.......same blog. same blogger.......but this plastic and circuitry has had some surgery.....a work in progress. and that's it.

vox populi vox dei

Copied from my Myspace:

"Why are we, as a people, so unhappy during these modern times?"

Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents:
"…we simply are not happy with our new, godlike powers."

Foundational shifts: Not just that morality has had it's boundaries have been altered: the line between right and wrong blurred. Not that we're being asked to erase the lines, but being demanded to celebrate the triumphantly try of those who have shaken off these restrictions that religions have imposed for centuries. Not just accept but celebrate those very issues that are aberrant to Christian perspective. [emphasis added]
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No such thing as an absolute out there. No sublime out there. Absolutes – right and wrong – don't exist in an objective point of view. They are purely constructs of our culture. Within those constructs those feelings do not describe something out there…but something in there:

Math is real, therefore, my head is real; food is real, therefore, my stomach is real; absolute moral order isn't out there, it's purely in here [morality/feelings only exist within us]. This will produce a generation of men with brains, men with stomachs, and men with no hearts – men without chests.
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We don't trust our time because we have made our times, and we don't trust ourselves: we played the heroes part, mastered the machines, and accomplished laborers. We have become ghosts because deep inside, we know what we really are.
-- Ravi Zacharias


Nietzsche:
Because of the "death of God" in the 19th century, the 20th century would become the bloodiest century in history and a sort of universal madness would break out.


GK Chesterton:
"Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure. When you have exhausted that last dream, and you find that it has left you barren or empty."


Malcolm Muggeridge:

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that 20th century-man has decided to abolish himself, tired of the struggle to be himself, he has created boredom out of his own affluence, impotence out of his own erotomania, vulnerability out of his own strength; he himself blows the trumpet that brings the walls of his own city crashing down until at last educating himself into imbecility, having drugged and polluted himself into stupefaction, he keels over a weary, battered, old brontosaurus and becomes extinct.

Greed – takes that which is material and defines it as essentially spiritual. The problem is not when the boat is in the water, but when the water starts coming in the boat. It wasn't that Lot's wife lived in Sodom, but when Sodom began to live in her.
-Ravi Zacharias

Intense is the agony when the eye begins to see, when the ear begins to hear, when the pulse begins to throb, when the heart begins to pound, when the soul feels its flesh, and when the flesh feels its chains"
-somebody talking about being a slave to sin


CS Lewis – "Good philosophy if for no other reason exists because bad philosophy needs to be answered"


We extol action over contemplation, doing over being, analysis over intuition, problems over mysteries, success over contentment, conquering over nurturing, the quick fix over life time commitment, the prostitute over the mother.
– Carl Stern

John Wesley's Mom: What is sin?
Whatever weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes away your relish for spiritual things, in short, if anything exceeds the authority and the power of the flesh over the spirit, that to you becomes sin however it is good in itself.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh:
"Shut up and grow up! You can destroy freedom as much by abusing it as you can by taking it away."

In an age of "anything goes", virtue is a revolutionary thing. In an age of rebellion, authority is the radical idea. In an age of pell-mell "progress" to annihilation, tradition is the hero on the white horse.
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Modernist or liberal Christians in all churches and denominations essentially reduce religion to morality. This is why they specialize in morality. Christianity to them is essentially an ethic, a way of living in this world rather than a way of attaining the next. Christ becomes essentially our human teacher and example rather than God our Savior. (He is both, of course; modernist Christianity is half-Christianity, not non-Christianity.) Ethics thus becomes supremely important for the modernist. It's his "thing", all he has left.
n Peter Kreeft: A Civilization at Risk: Whatever Became of Virtue?

"Science today has given us improved means to attain some of our damnable ends. That's not true of all science, that's not true of all of the means so do not take that as an extreme; but it is true that some of our technologies have made us more sophisticated in our evil.
Ravi Zacharias

of three dumb deer, motherly mini vans, constellations, and canyons...16 states

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beware of length...


it all started with a beer in my hand, a smirk from my mom, and a slight jeer from my dad, "would the consumer like anything else?"

"connoisseur," i corrected him, "and as a matter of fact, dessert sounds delicious!" surprise, surprise, right? no.

actually, rewind....it starts several months ago on my way to disneyland when i realize that the "end" button, which conveniently serves as the power button for my phone, stops working. luckily, i have an ever-so sweet razor flip phone. to end a call, i simply flip my phone closed. to turn my phone off, i simply remove the battery. to turn my phone on, i...well, i can't...usually.

which explains why, at 3,000 ft or so, the ringing in my bag began.
fortunately, my ninja-like reactions (i'm half-japanese...i think my ninja skills are genetic) kept the flight attendant from capturing me and my ever-so sweet razor flip phone, which has great reception, obviously.
unfortunately, my ninja-like reactions fail to remember the little power-button problem until after turning my phone off by simply removing the battery. oops.

....inevitably, my luggage is always first off the plane. lucky me, right? no. first off the plane means first on the cart, which means last off the cart, which means last on the conveyor belt, which means i stand around for far too long for a piece of luggage that could've fit in the overhead compartment except for the fact that my toiletries serve as potential terrorist threats......anyway.

while waiting for my one piece of luggage that eventually places second-to-last in the race reuniting owners and possessions, my phone miraculously turns on revealing the message left by the caller who i hung up on while attempting to silence my ever-so-sweet razor flip phone at 3,000 feet elevation: "janean, our flight's delayed. take a shuttle to the hotel, and we'll meet you. love you, bye!"

i love you, too, mom.

$1.25, 2 subway rides, 15 minute walk with rolling luggage in-tow, i make it to our hotel. family's enroute, i'm hungry. s urprise surprise, right? no. after nearly 20 hours of traveling, i assume my family's appetite will match that of mine.

turns out, their appetites exceed my expectations, which explains why they picked up fast-food on their way to the hotel, which explains why none of them were hungry when they arrive at the hotel, which justifies my initial frustration as they expect me to help them unload their luggage further fueling my irritable hunger...which doesn't explain why they didn't get me something to eat. thanks, family....

fast-forward two hours: beer in hand, motherly smirk, fatherly jeer...dessert -- enroute.

two brothers, one sister, one mother, one father, one janean (thank god, right?), one dessert. all at one table. three hours lapsed since they arrived at the hotel to meet a hungry, frustrated me.

irritable hunger quenched. initial frustration passed.

fast-forward two weeks: three dumb deer almost die, motherly mini van houses six family members across 16 states while gazing at constellations during star parties, hiking into desert canyons under the summer sun, exploring hills and history, eating, eating, eating. driving. driving. driving.

we sleeping, arguing, laughing, singing, conversing, playing eatingdrivingsleepingrunningtalking. we having a good time.

how often does me get in the way of we?

horrorscope

as of late, i've been interested in astrological origins -- how'd it start, where did the interpretations begin, etc. basically, i've learned that astrologers practiced this art to predict weather and eventually moved on to natural disasters. as predictions began to prove accurate, astrologers took a bold step into the realm of social/personal predictions. this form or avenue of astrology captivates its believers with personality profiles and predictions regarding everything from love to finances.

i still don't fully comprehend this practice: we figure out who we are, where we're from, what's going to happen, etc., etc., all from the stars, moon, and sun -- inanimate objects that most astrologers claim were formed from nothing...naturally evolved...chaotically exists in a universe we practically know nothing about...how can all these accurate predictions and interpretations be derived from chaos...purpose derived from purposelessness...

and at the same time, i've read horoscopes and am astounded at the accuracy of some of the interpretations from the stars above. how can we rely on such inanimate, unloving, distant, unknown, pieces of rock that for all we know no longer exist??? and people think christians are foolish to rely on god. i think we all, to a certain extent, unreasonably rely on someone or something....

if only...

if only he was this...if only he was that...if only he hadn't done this...if only he hadn't done that...

it's too easy to see all the "if only's" and "what ifs." but if we're constantly pondering alternate realities via "if onlys" and "what ifs," we're missing the point of today. granted, the past is important...but the past is the past. our desire to fondle the endless possibilities and opportunities that our 20/20 hindsight provides leaves our present aldulterated and cheated.

love the past: log it, learn from it, and leave it.

we all have a past. don't be harsh on yourself or anyone else...life is too short to always be looking over our shoulder -- missing out on today's opportunities and providing the "if onlys" and "what ifs" of tomorrow.

"my weakness is that i care too much..."

i know taking risks can be a good thing, but what about consequences? how do you weigh your options when one of the consequences could result in compromising yourself, who you've been, who you are? there's really no way to tell.

are there times when we should suspend the future, the consequences, the probability of failure in order to take a risk that you feel you can avoid or you don't want to avoid? i almost always make good decisions enlight of the consequences...but perhaps at the cost of negotiating the future, i miss present opportunities...

could consequences tomorrow be worth an experience today? could heartache next year be worth the opportunity to whole-heartidly encourage, support, cherish, adore, challenge, teach, learn, and grow?

how the hell am i supposed to know? that's my problem!!! i won't ever know...unless i try.

is it worth it? you tell me...

"I need to know and love you as you are, understand where you have been, accept who you have become and still invite you to grow." -- Anonymous: as quoted by a sixth grade grad speaker on the subjece of friendship

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." -Benjamin Franklin.