For you parents out there (ht. MAU):
A cool video in itself. too bad I think they are just promoting their new CD/DVD (ht. Nate)
I’m showing you this commercial because it should disgust you. Time to rise up and say something parents. (ht. PEM)
Creative video project, but I got bored after about 1 minute (ht. Nate again)
I took a hiatus from the blog last month, featuring old writings from my college years. It seems to have worked well and so I plan on continuing occasionally. I also stopped posting on Saturday and Sunday, allowing for a nice weekend break (though I tend to write those post during the week anyways) and less posting each week. Hopefully it allows you, my faithful readers, to keep up and not get to overwhelmed. Thanks for reading.
I’ve also been working on some other writing projects at the same time. I started my citizen journalist career here, representing North Minneapolis, and had my first story published recently, about the closing of a local coffee shop. I’ve got another one coming up and I’m hoping to continue to do more stories in the future, particularly about things going on in my neighborhood and community. If you live in North Minneapolis and know of something that would make a good news article, send it my way.
I’m gonna start submitting some writings to other magazines and what not down the road here, but I’ll try and stay faithful to maintaining the blog as well. If anyone has an inside connection to a magazine or paper that you think might take some of my writing, please let me know.
Well that’s it for personal updates for the month.
Now might be a good time for you to subscribe if you haven’t:
p.s. I just bought the domain ariahfine.com (finally!) and put a site up. Let me know what you think.
photo credit: ★ Wim
(I’m putting the P.S.’s at the beginning because they’re important)
P.S. Final thought. I’m thinking about doing some contest to give away some of the nearly new books I have. Would you be interested in something like that?
P.P.S It’s my brother’s birthday. He’s the coolest freaking kid I’ve ever met. Here’s proof.
Now wish him happy birthday by commenting below, or checking out his blog (and subscribing!)
Okay, now to your regularly scheduled post…
I didn’t actually I decided to finish the book, Hokey Pokey: Curious People Finding What Life Is All about, by Matthew Turner. It was one of the books I recently received as an Ooze Select Blogger, and it was the shortest so I thought I’d pick it up first. I put it down after the first couple chapters, but then just decided to plow through.
I don’t usually like to give negative or critical critiques of other people’s writings, since I recently wrote a book myself and know I’d be bother by a negative review. However, Matthew Turner has written a number of successful books and has been the editor for CCM magazine as well, so I think he’s probably credible enough that my little review won’t bother him, if he even notices.
I didn’t like this book at all, at least the part I read. Not only did the direction it was going seem quite random, but I felt like I couldn’t really understand his points either. I think I would describe the book as being sort of ‘philosophical’ in nature, not really talking about anything specific and practical but just about the way we ‘are.’
The one story I did like, where the title of the book is derived from, is about a substitute teacher he had at his private Christian elementary school, who taught them the hokey pokey, which they head never learned because dancing was from the Devil.
Anyways, I thought I’d get my review out early so that other Bloggers who are writing reviews can feel okay about giving their honest own two cents, and to see if anyone else whose read this book felt the same way as me.
Tomorrow is the last day of school in Minneapolis. This is an important date this year because it means all the neighborhood kids will be out of school and hanging out during the day. I’ve gotten to know a handful of kids and a lot of the neighbors since we moved and the weather has gotten warmer, but I think the summer is going to increase our relationships in the community by leaps and bounds.
I’m really excited to get to know more of the kids and families in the neighborhood. Just recently I’ve been helping a couple kids with some bike fixing projects in the area (which got me thinking, it would be cool to have a Red Bike project around here). And summer also means they’ll open the water park just a couple blocks from our house, lot’s of fun there.
At the same time I want to be sure to get to know parents and families, not just kids. That will take a bit more effort on my part, but I don’t think it will be difficult.
I’m really excited for the coming months, the opportunity to really get to know the people and families that make up my community. I’m proud to say that I know nearly everyone on my block, and we’ve barely had a month of warm weather. Knowing names and brief introductions is a far step from really getting to know people, but it’s more relationships on my block then I’ve ever had. I think that’s credit to our neighborhood, friendly, outgoing, and willing to look out for one another.
We love living here.
Photo credit: Todd Baker
I found the idea of writing a six sentence story so enjoyable last time (by the way, it was published at the official six sentence site here), that I’ve tried my hand at a few more. I’ll post them on Wednesday’s till I run out.
I’m not sure that I like this one as is, I think it could be written better, but who said it had to be perfect. Let me know if you have a better suggestion for the title as well.
“Oreo!” they had shouted at him, said and intended in a derogatory tone not often associated with a cookie. What they had meant, and it came across quite clear to him in the way they turned down their eyes and snarled their lips as they said the word, was that, though his skin might look similar to theirs, he was most definitely not one of them. This revelation had only become troubling recently – previously he hadn’t even wanted to be one of ‘them’ – but now, he’d slowly become aware that his adopted ‘family’ might say he was “part of the family” regardless of what he looked like, but everything else in their actions spoke otherwise. He was alone, those who looked like him, to whom he felt a connection that resonated in his bones, would not accept him; and his ‘family’, amongst those who raised him, the clothes, the privilege, the power and respect, it was not truly his, it never would be, it was only a charade, a display of charity at best. So he killed a man; in cold blood; as an act of justice, to prove his allegiance. The man had wronged his ‘people’ (though they did not consider him such), and though he thought the act would bring him into the fold, instead he found himself a fugitive, with no place to call home.
A creative way to use your purchasing power when you have clear values
(A side thought: The mob spent over $9000, the business promised $1800 toward being more energy efficient, and then to celebrate the mob had a free concert (which cost $1500 for the band and $4000 for the park permit), so does that make the net result of the activity still over-all positive?)
A Cool Muslim Street Artist (next three videos ht. Nate)
I just think these guys are pretty awesomely creative.
Another street artist:
I was browsing the Freakonomics blog the other day and ran across this great quote by Ehrenreich, when asked this question:
You are walking down the street in New York City with $10 of disposable income in your pocket. You come to a corner with a hot dog vendor on one side and a beggar on the other. The beggar looks like he’s been drinking; the hot dog vendor looks like an upstanding citizen. How, if at all, do you distribute the $10 in your pocket, and why?
She said:
Although I’m atheist, I defer to Jesus on beggar-related matters. He said, if a man asks for your coat, give him your cloak too. (Actually, he said if a man “sue thee at the law” for the coat, but most beggars skip the legal process.) Jesus did not say: First, administer a breathalyzer test to the supplicant, or, first, sit him down for a pep talk on “focus” and “goal-setting.” He said: Give him the damn coat.
As a matter of religious observance, if a beggar importunes me directly, I must fork over some money. How do I know whether he’s been drinking or suffers from a neurological disorder anyway? Unless I’m his parole officer, what do I care? And before anyone virtuously offers him a hot dog, they should reflect on the possibility that the beggar is a vegetarian or only eats kosher or Hallal meat.
Is it interesting to anyone else that you have here an atheist (a well known one at that, and on a very popular media outlet), invoking the commands of Jesus as a guide for how we are to respond to those in need? It seems God’s really struggling with supposed “followers” when it takes beggars on the street to confront christians to follow the command to give, and an atheist in the media to remind christians of those commands.
Now, I don’t know him personally, but I’d guess Edward Gilbreath is an all around nice guy. Some how he managed to write a book, Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity, about race, racism and the church, and, from what I can tell probably didn’t really upset anyone.
Gilbreath some how manages to talk about the topic of race, pointing out difficult points, injustices, and disagreements, but in such a kind way, that I think any reader would go away willing to consider the points he made. And this is not to say that he loses anything in his critiques in an effort to please everyone, he just doesn’t go off to any extreme (which I am often guilty of), and when he talks about his own experience, he does so with an authenticity and honest that leaves you with a feeling of genuine connection and understanding.
I was very impressed by this book and I felt Gilbreath wrote in such a way that this is a book I could pass on to others that might not willingly listen to some of the more extreme (though I believe often factually accurate) information regarding race and structural racism. If you have a friend or family member who you’ve been looking for something to share with them to address the topic of race, I’d highly recommend Reconciliation Blues.
Sorry for keeping my comments brief. For an interesting discussion, and maybe one you should jump into, regarding some of what the book covers, check out this other book review on Reconciliation Blues.
This is a brief journal entry from my first Job interview in Nashville (I didn’t get that job)…
7/10/05
So, I was sort of ready for the day, except I went to bed a little late. Then about 5am I woke up with a bad stomach ache, not something that usually happens to me. It went away but I lost my last hour of sleep. Then it was time to get ready to go. I quickly realized to major flaws in my attire: 1) I forgot to get a black belt, and Chip (whose house we are staying at momentarily) has a smaller waist then me so I’m out of luck. And 2) The shirt that was best ironed (and since it was nicely ironed I didn’t bother ironing anymore), turned out to be far too small for me (who gave me that darn shirt, I think it was Nate). I had trouble tying my tie too, which was frustrating. So after a quick breakfast I still had on the agenda to buy a new shirt and belt before the interview.
I took off to the nearest store and quickly bought a shirt and belt, and then took the close into the bathroom and changed there. Then I was off. Our air conditioning doesn’t work so I’m cruising with the windows down hoping I don’t hit any major traffic lest my natural air conditioning stops working (did I mention it’s hot in Nashville?). Fortunately, Nashville isn’t nearly like Chicago and I flew through the city, with more then enough time on my hands. Which is good because I missed the exit and had to cross the big river in Nashville before I got to the next exit to turn around.
I end up getting near the place still an hour before my interview time, so I’ve got a little time to kill (I wanted to show up about 20mins early to fill out the application they had). I figure it’s a business area so they should have a cafe or something, I don’t need coffee, I need air conditioning! I drive slowly from the place and can’t find a coffee shop or anything around. I’m getting really hot when I see the oasis in the desert, Kroger! (it’s a grocery store for all you northerners). I park the car and go inside. I’m sweating which is not good. 
So I randomly stroll through the frozen foods section, stopping at each door and holding it open while I stare at a TV dinner and ready the health content (they aren’t really that bad actually). After about 20 freezer doors I’ve cooled down and am feeling quite fresh. I had back to the interview (Which is at Second Harvest Food Bank), and start filling out the application.
(note: Originally written my sophmore year of college in January 2003)
Continued from part VI (part V, part IV, part III, part II and part I)
Try and imagine that nothing you have ever taken for granted in your belief system is true. What am I trying to say? We look at scripture through a lens, that lens is our American society, our peers, our neighbors. That is not the lens through which we are to be looking at the Holy Scriptures. Rather we are to be looking at the text from the same perspective that we get from the text. We are to give, give, give. We sing about it in songs all the time, but some how in our rationalist, emotionalist type of society we can somehow sing those words offering in a sense our entire lives up to Christ, walk out the door and go about our life exactly how we want to. What really though does it mean to give it all up for Christ? The rich man was to sell everything. Another was not to go home even to bury his father. Maybe in our pleasure oriented (And please don’t think I’m saying pleasure is a bad thing) society, what we need to be giving up is those things which we and the society about us tells us, and believes is pleasurable. What if we were to give up drinking alcohol, completely. Not because alcohol is inherently bad or wrong in anyway, in fact it is God given and for our enjoyment, Jesus drank wine and even made wine from water. But, by drinking water and not alcohol we save X amount of dollars which we can give to those who do not even have bread, let alone clean drink. Even greater, what would it tell our neighbors when they see we can have just as much fun without alcohol? You might be saying, well they don’t see it that way. They see Christians not drinking as a command they have to follow or they will go to hell and they see Christians as stuck-up and holier-than-thou because of it. Maybe, so let us take this concept to things we never really think of. What if you choose not to go see movies in the theater? Not because there is anything inherently wrong with movies, or theaters (although many movies today feed a visual stream of images that leads us to anything but godliness). Rather, again it saves finances that can go to those who don’t even know the concept of entertainment, because their days are filled with the overwhelming desire for food. In addition, it would again show our neighbors there is something oddly different about us. It might say to them that we don’t need to escape in the action or drama or love of a movie to experience those feelings and emotions and longings of our human nature. Now, before I move any further I need to point something out. These assumptions that your neighbor will wonder what is different about you are based on the assumption that you yourself our still happy with out watching movies, without drinking alcohol, without a nice new car. It’s easy to say God is what truly makes you happy when your life is full of material blessings which you enjoy everyday, but is it really God that makes you happy or the things he gives you? Do you still feel empty sometimes? And have you ever felt down on yourself because you are sort of depressed and you feel ashamed because you have all this stuff and tons of other people don’t so you should be happy and feel blessed. Maybe the point is that stuff has nothing to do with the happiness thing at all. Maybe it’s that you somehow mistook the stuff God gave you for the place where you would find happiness. But rather God meant for you to have happiness in Him and experience the joy of that happiness in giving those things which you have been given to others. Who knows?
(This is the end of this series. Not because it’s complete, it’s just that’s as far as I got my sophomore year)