Fresh Air, etc.

You really NEED to listen to this first-hand account of a 1930 Indiana lynching told by James Cameron, who was 16 at the time and was almost hanged along with his two friends. The story is amazing, and Cameron is an incredibly talented story teller. He was an author and founder of the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwakee, and he died last week at age 92. He tells one of the most powerful stories I've heard in a long time. WHYY


Also, the US national team is playing Italy on Saturday at 2.30 Eastern time, and don't forget to call your father on Sunday and tell him you love him.

Goodbye Michael

Bush's Favorite Author Leaving The White HouseTop Aide Michael Gerson Knew Just How to Address the President
By Peter BakerWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, June 15, 2006; A03
Michael J. Gerson, one of President Bush's most trusted advisers and the author of nearly all of his most famous public words over the past seven years, plans to step down in the next couple of weeks in a decision that colleagues believe will leave a hole in the White House at a critical period.
Gerson said in an interview that he has been talking with Bush for many months about leaving for writing and other opportunities but waited until the White House political situation stabilized somewhat. "It seemed like a good time," he said. "Things are back on track a little. Some of the things I care about are on a good trajectory."
Since first joining the presidential campaign as chief speechwriter in 1999, Gerson has evolved into one of the most central figures in Bush's inner circle, often considered among the three or four aides closest to the president. Beyond shaping the language of the Bush presidency, Gerson helped set its broader direction.
He was a formulator of the Bush doctrine making the spread of democracy the fundamental goal of U.S. foreign policy, a policy hailed as revolutionary by some and criticized as unrealistic by others. He led a personal crusade to make unprecedented multibillion-dollar investments in fighting AIDS, malaria and poverty around the globe. He became one of the few voices pressing for a more aggressive policy to stop genocide in Darfur, even as critics complained of U.S. inaction.
"He might have had more influence than any White House staffer who wasn't chief of staff or national security adviser" in modern times, said William Kristol, who was top aide to Vice President Dan Quayle and now edits the Weekly Standard. "Mike was substantively influential, not just a wordsmith, not just a crafter of language for other people's policies, but he influenced policy itself."
"He is the best and most influential presidential speechwriter since Ted Sorenson," said Peter H. Wehner, director of White House strategic initiatives, referring to the adviser to President John F. Kennedy. "Mike is one of the key intellectual architects of the Bush presidency, whether we're talking about compassionate conservatism at home or the freedom agenda abroad."
Gerson is the latest in a series of longtime Bush aides to leave, following White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., press secretary Scott McClellan and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. But newly installed Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten said in an interview that the departure is not part of his broader shakeup of the president's operation. No one is being tapped to take Gerson's most recent assignment as senior adviser.
"He's one of the few people who is irreplaceable," Bolten said. "He's a policy provoker, a grand strategist and a conscience who in many cases has not only articulated but reflected the president's heart."
Gerson, 42, said he had originally planned to leave after Bush's 2004 reelection but decided to stay when he was asked to shift from chief speechwriter to senior adviser with an office a few doors from the Oval Office. He had a heart attack in December 2004 but said his health is now fine and was not an issue in his decision. "It was never my intention to stay to the end," Gerson said.
He plans to look at writing, speaking and think-tank opportunities, with help from Robert B. Barnett, the high-powered lawyer who represents major figures such as former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Gerson stood out in a White House known for swagger. A somewhat slight, pale, bespectacled and soft-spoken Midwesterner, he nonetheless forged a strong bond with the outgoing, backslapping Texan president, in part through their shared conservative Christian faith. He found a way to channel Bush's thoughts, colleagues said, transforming a sometimes inarticulate president into an occasionally memorable speaker.
Gerson wrote or co-wrote every major speech Bush gave since announcing his candidacy, including convention and inaugural addresses and State of the Union messages. He crafted the two speeches after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that will probably be recorded as Bush's signal moments of national leadership: the service at the Washington National Cathedral and the address to Congress.
He crafted the State of the Union language that labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil" and the inaugural address that committed the United States to "ending tyranny in our world." He came up with the phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations" to focus on minority education problems.
Gerson believed strongly in the "compassionate" part of Bush's "compassionate conservatism," saying he wanted to pursue liberal goals through conservative means. To that end, he helped promote the president's No Child Left Behind education initiative, the Medicare prescription drug program and grants to faith-based charities. "It's a more activist approach," Gerson said. "That was a major change from what came before."
He also pushed for a $15 billion program to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide, telling Bush in the Oval Office that they would never be forgiven if they passed up the chance. Although he kept a hand in major speeches during the second term, he became increasingly focused on Africa and traveled there four times to see Darfur and other places firsthand, returning to describe searing scenes to his White House colleagues.
While toiling for an uncommonly polarizing president, he made few, if any, enemies, even finding admirers in circles often not friendly to Republicans.
"Mike Gerson has been an important voice," said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a global anti-poverty organization.
Although groups have grievances about how some programs have been administered, it did not redound on Gerson, said David Gartner, policy director for the Global AIDS Alliance. "He's been committed and effective," Gartner said. "To get a moral issue the kind of attention it deserves, I'm sure is not easy to do."

My beloved public broadcasting

I've found another reason to hate this Congress. A House subcommittee just voted to eliminate an enormous chunk of public funding for PBS and NPR. Not only does this mean that our children won't have access to any educational programming without an incessant stream of advertisements aimed at corrupting them into mindless consumers before they can read, it also means no Fresh Air, no All Things Considered, no News Hour-- in general, no broadcast journalism that isn't an entertainment product sculpted by multinational corporations with vested political interests. There is a petition protesting this and asking the legislature to continue funding public broadcasting (it is providing an invaluable public service, after all). I will be happy to send you the petition in an email if you email me and/or ask me to send it to you in a comment (if you don't have my email, you can get it from Andy or Dave). Here is a link with more info about the issue ( http://www.freepress.net/publicbroadcasting/ ). I don't understand how people can hate Grover and Jim Lehrer. They're both so huggable.

Tyler Thwarts Dallas

I don't know if I've ever said this before and really meant it, but Hurrah for the Feds! They have stepped in and overruled to great effect both state and local government in this fight near and dear to Tyler, and now we are going to have a national wildlife refuge!

Canoeing, anyone?

Mundial

In honor of the World Cup... the 611 national team of bygone days.

Games

I was just thinking... I'd love to play Hitman (the gateway drug that turned logemann into a raving game-aholic) again right about now. Or original battle mode mario! Oh yeah.

Anybody know of an online game we could all play together. Maybe something turn-based so we don't have to all be on at the same time. Maybe online Risk or something.

Cynical Questions

If they're so concerned about the sanctity of marriage, why don't they propose a Constitutional amendment banning no-fault divorce?

And if Canada's full of terrorists, why don't we build a giant fence along that border?

Pointless Poll Post (we needed a June entry)

On a scale of 1-10, where 1 equals having a fingerprint on your rearview mirror and 10 is being turned into a nosferatu by the un-dead, how much does it suck to get someone's voicemail the first time you call them to set up a date? You have to leave a message that sounds excited-but-not-desperate, and then you sit around wondering if she's going to call you back and how long you have to wait until you try calling again (excited-but-not-desperate, remember). How much does it suck? (The judges will aslo except answers in the form of "it's better than__ but worse than__.")

Yeah, I know. It's a terribly intellectual post, and it just oozes self-confidence.

Boston reunion

Sunday, June 25th is Wheatie Annalisa Walker's wedding in Boston, which I am planning to attend. Would any of you Bostonians be able to put me up for Saturday and Sunday night? I would be very much obliged,

Ryan Banek of Tyler

Everyday a vacation: Reality in Hollywood

So here I am, kicking back in my sweet apartment looking at the Hollywood sign. I've just come back from a tasty chinese lunch at a place called "the most likely place to see a celebrity" by the Los Angeles Times. No dice, not a celebrity to be seen. That I recognized, at least.

It's been great out here. There is a surreal quality to everyday; Because I'm living in a tower, have a fountain right outside this tower, and can walk to any possible thing I'd want to, it seems like I'm on an extended vacation. I've been out here a month, but I can't help but wonder if it will always feel a little bit like that.

I'm working at what could potentially be my dream job, which is archiving the Beach Boys tape library.

And I'll slowly try to break into the music biz, but that's not something that is hurried.

There's my update for now.

Austin Alley

a pic from that roll of FILM I shot the other day 

Fun with Current Events

Take a break from your crazy runnings to and fro and join me for a little [music cue] Fun with Current Events.

OK, so here's a new method of doing government we could start applying here: if you don't like the Bills Congregress is sending out, just send them a Czech! You could call it the system of Czechs and balances...
As Emeril on the Food Network says "BAM!"; now that's the way to get things done!

OK, well, moving on. Who knows, the Catholic Church might be the biggest criminal in the world? And what's the crime? More abuse scandals? A priest run drug ring? A secret movement to destroy the world? No; these are not so serious as the crime here! The plaintiff, Italian Luigi Cascioli (I know, by the name I thought he was French too) is charging that the Church's teaching that Jesus was a real person is a crime against the Italian people. That could get interesting, especially once the court allows The Divinci Code to be taken as part of the evidence for the case.

If it weren't for the fact that Coye isn't 41, I would have thought he might have changed his name and gone on a little Lithuanian vacation during his summer break under the name Vidmantas Sungaila. Dang.

Well, that's been a fresh batch of Fun with Current Events; we're committed to keeping you afloat in the wide ocean of news related materals.

another jewel from Fresh Air

May 18, 2006 · Linguist GEOFF NUNBERG comments on the recent controversy surrounding the Spanish-language version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

If I keep on this track, I'll have to join NPR anonymous:

"My name is Coye, and I'm an NPR-aholic."


But I'm not driving a Volvo.

Spiritual Progressives

I was watching a local PBS production (Austin Now) today, and saw an interview with Rabbi Michael Lerner (editor of Tikkun). He was mainly talking about his new book The Left Hand of God (which sounds quite interesting), but he also touched on the Network of Spiritual Progressives, something potentially meaningful to all of us and the things we discuss here. (There's a conference thing this month in D.C., if anyone in that part of the world finds it terribly interesting and immediately relevant.) They even have local chapters. I think it's worth taking a look at (as are Lerner and/or his new book).

(By the way, when I grow up, I want to be Charlie Rose.)

A Personal Post (since they seem to be popular)

Yesterday (actually last night... round about 9.30pm) I turned in my last paper for the semester, and now I have a few days off before my students take their final exam (leaving me with 2 days of frantic grading before final grades are due). I think I'm a workaholic. I expected to wake up this morning with feelings of great release and joy and jubilation and all of that. Instead, I got up and wandered anxiously around my living room trying to find something to do that resembles work. I'm still trying to find something to do that resembles work. Maybe it's just a paper-halo that will wear off a little later when I realize that I did, in fact, get everything turned in already. Or maybe I'm a workaholic.

I'm driving up to the panhandle in a few days to see my youngest cousin graduate from high school, and I'm going to hang out in Amarillo until Memorial Day. After that, I'm coming back down to Austin and (for the moment) I'm planning on taking a French course over the summer (perhaps as much from wanting to be busy as from needing the class right now-- although I do need it eventually). I guess I should also try relaxing a bit over the summer. A little tubing on the river. A little local music. A little hanging out at the local swimming hole. A little revising papers and reading books for my qualifying exam.

You're all welcome-- no not welcome, invited!-- to stop by Austin and join in on any of the above activities. (I should also add "A little beer" to that list.) I realize that Austin isn't the cultural center that Tyler is (a little Texas humor), but I'm sure we could find something to do. Well, I've decided that I'm not as good at these personal posts as I am at being contentious or ridiculous, so I'm going to sign off now and think of something stupid to write later. Remember to call your mother this Sunday and tell her you love her.

More Wheaton News

I glanced over the "ballot" for alumni board representatives (though I don't apparently have a representative), and noticed at the bottom of the email, these few lines:

"We look forward to hosting nearly 800 of you during Alumni Weekend, May 5-7. View the full schedule of events, which includes a lecture by Dr. Mark Noll on the intellectual history of the College during the last 50 years. This month marks the end of Dr. Noll's tenure at Wheaton College; beginning in July he will become the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana."

So, there goes Wheaton's most respected scholar. To a Catholic university. To the same Catholic university that granted Joshua Hochschield his Doctoral degree in philosophy. It should be an interesting lecture, though-- especially if he still holds the same opinions as in his Scandal of the Evangelical Mind days (ah, the inspirational Duane Litfin).

Petition for T6 Marriage and Reunion

We, the former members of T6, being in sound mind and body (perhaps) petition the bachelor members of T6 who are not led to a life of singleness to pursue marriage (but not all simultaneously, let's space these suckers out) in order that we might reunite in raucous celebration. Send single-T6ers the message: "Get married, you know you want to." Here's to the future 2007 bash! Unless someone wants to step up and make it '06.


Petition drafted by Plankeye, Inc.

Dave Update

So, here I am in my apartment, sitting and typing on my mom-in-law's little white iBook. Sarah's making the rounds, turning off the lights and picking up the various and sundry things that the smallest member of our family left in his amazing wake. He's fast asleep now; he doesn't yet share his father's latest talent of lying in bed for hours without falling asleep.

This has been a hard semester. A hard last couple of months. Emotionally, it has reminded me of the times I used to lie stacked up near the ceiling of traber six, focusing on the simple action of breathing because any mental inch past that would hit the unstable complexity where things fall apart. Circumstantially, things are a bit more layered than they were back then. I am a father, a husband, a student. In those senses, it's a lot more scary when things don't hold together as neatly as I'd like them to.

Ok, Dave, enough poetics, what do you have to update?

Who are you?-- so rudely interrupting my descriptions-- I'm not sure I was finished.

I don't know, I just thought you actually might be getting to something that has anything to do with your title. Just a thought.

You're right--you know, that is my problem. It's my problem with the papers I try to write. It's the problem with the essay exams I try to compose. It's the problem with my grand schemes to change the way Churches operate in an urbanizing world. I've got a lot of grand ideas floating around in my head--then when I go to put them down in any logical order, all I do is start blabbering about obscure details which have little to do with....I'm doing it right now. Sorry.

Since I last wrote, I've completed another semester of terribly interesting but terribly confusing courses. Seminary definitely raises more questions than it answers. True, I knew this would be the case when I came; but simply cannot avoid the emotional process of actually walking through complex confusery, if you know what I mean.

I applied for a job that I knew was a bit out of my reach and made it to the first round of interviews but no further. Gordon College (not the seminary) has started a partnership with the city of Lynn through which they connect student interns with urban development opportunities. This is a growing program, and the woman who has developed it (through Gordon) has big visions for it--she hopes both to engage in wide scale urban development as well as wide scale educational reform (turning the current incubator model of education into a service-learning model). Anyway, it's a growing program, and they have just added an Associate Director position to it. This is the position to which I applied. So, on the one hand, it's been hard dealing with the disappointment of a dream job not working out. On the other hand, it's encouraging to know that there is a type of job out there that I can get really excited aobut.

This week, Sarah and I will be traveling with Andrew down to Florida to pick up my parent's car (long story) and slowly drive it back up to MA over the course of the week. I'm looking foward to spending some time just letting my system reboot (ha! the metaphors that emerge with technology!).

OK. I'm tired. I hope this hasn't been to confusing of a post for you to progress through.
I miss you guys. We should do more writing about our lives. It's hard to get things out in type, but I think it's worth it.
Anyway. Over-and-out. Until next time.

Bringin' in a couple o' keys

Well friends, did you know that at the time of Julius Caesar's famous quote "veni, vedi, vici" it would have been pronounced "weenie, weedie, weekie"?

That's totally beside the point. The Point, as Harry Nilsson might not say, is that Tomorrow morning, I will be embarking on a cross country drive that will consumate my move to Los Angeles. I've decided to move to LA for several reasons, most of which involve unbridled hedonism of the highest order.

As a footnote to my undoubtedly nightly romps, I also have the opportunity to be working doing something I really enjoy: researching the music of the Beach Boys. There's also a chance I could work at the TV station "The Style Network."

It will be interesting, to be sure. I've been wanting to move back to LA after moving away almost 16 years ago, so I'm really happy and excited. But it will be a new challenge that I'm not used to.

I'll let you all know how it goes, when I'm not floating on a raft in the waters of scandinavia, that is.

Has anyone heard from Aeijtzsche lately?

Because this sounds like it could be him...

well, it sounds like the kind of story he would tell the authorities, anyway.

A letter from A. Duane Litfin

So, I don't know whether or not the rest of you are receiving alumni emails from Wheaton (I assume that most of you probably are), but I thought I'd share this letter from Dr. Litfin just in case. I find the format interesting, though I'm trying to interpret exactly what some of the phrases mean and-- more importantly-- why THIS PARTICULAR event warrants an email to all the alumni of the college (and why the administration feels that they need prayers more at this moment than at others). I will be praying for Wheaton during this visit, but not the exact prayers that seem to be solicited by this email. I'm praying that the interaction will be free from condemnation, moral assuredness or closed-mindedness. I'm praying that there will be fear and trembling in the interaction and a genuine trepidation when speaking to people about something as central to character and identity as their sexuality. I'm praying that the encounters facilitated by this event will provide students with an opportunity to think-- not merely receive answers or reify prejudices-- and that, whatever tentative conclusions they come to, they will have thought carefully, seriously and openly (a prerequisite condition for the other two) about sexuality and about what their roles as Christians should be in a culture that often persecutes homosexuals.

I know that we do not all agree on all aspects of Christianity's prescriptions regarding sexuality, identity, community and other issues raised by this letter, but I do think that each of us here could gladly offer similar prayers for our alma mater (which, interestingly, means our "soul mother") at this time. I hope that we can all pray for a soul-birthing for Wheaton's students through this experience.


Dear [Coye],
I write to ask you for your prayers.
On Thursday and Friday of this week we will be visited by a group of homosexual activists traveling on a bus tour across the United States to various Christian college campuses. Their agenda is to draw negative media attention to institutions who maintain an historic biblical stand on the issue of homosexuality. This, of course, Wheaton does. (See Wheaton's Community Covenant) Hence our place on their list of targeted institutions.
We did not invite these visitors to our campus. But since they are intent on coming anyway, we decided to make a virtue out of a necessity by turning their coming into a teaching opportunity for our students. Given the ongoing changes in our culture, today’s students are potentially facing a lifetime of confrontations over the issue of homosexuality. What should be their Christian response? We have endeavored to prepare our students to respond to these visitors with the biblical balance captured in the injunction to “speak the truth in love.”
Wheaton’s provost, Dr. Stan Jones, a psychologist who has done extensive work in the area of human sexuality, has prepared a biblical rebuttal to the false teaching of this group. (See “CACE Resources on Homosexuality”) These and other written materials, along with various scheduled meetings and chapels, have been devoted to helping our students understand the many issues and shape a balanced Christian response. This process has been highly educational for all involved.
After this event is over, we will let you know how it went. In the meantime, please pray for us, asking that God will be glorified, His truth will be upheld with grace and humility, and our Christian witness to a watching world will be an effective one.
Thank you.
Duane LitfinPresidentWheaton College

Alan Jacobs Article

I stumbled across this article today from First Things.

new pics

Steve, those are some pretty sweet pics you posted. What software did you create your online gallery with? I now organize my pictures with coppermine. www.marlett.net/photos

I Dub Thee Judas the Good

Forget everything you’ve ever heard about Judas. You know, the treachery, the greediness, the betrayal. That whole, tired story was just a huge misunderstanding. It turns out that Judas was the confidant of Christ, and that Christ asked Judas to betray him to the Romans. In fact, Christ apparently said to Judas: “you will be cursed by the other generations, and you will come to rule over them."

Now, I know what you’re thinking. No, Dan Brown did not just finish a new novel. Actually, scholars have just rediscovered and translated the long-lost Gospel of Judas. Click here for the New York Times story, and here to take a look at the actual document on the National Geographic website.

Symbolic Action

There's plenty to be read here.

Here's to Cinderella!

So I now attend a school that is in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. I didn't expect this to ever happen, but I have sincerely enjoyed shouting at the television set over the past couple of weeks. It's tempting to camp out on campus overnight to be in line for tickets to the Final Four in Indy, but it's hard to justify the move. Not much to report here on a more personal note. I'm swamped in midterms which I sort of need to do well on.

Go GMU!

Anyone interested?

My spring break is coming up soon, and I think I'm going to spend it on a tropical island in Thailand chilling and snorkelling. Would any of you guys be interested in joining me? The beach bungalows are really cheap. Or we could camp. It'd be from like March 27-April5.

I hate big decisions

A few new updates. Besides fighting a war in Iraq, I have made a couple of big jumps. First, I am having a new house built while I am away. Becoming a home owner is a scary yet exciting process. The scary part is that I have not even seen the lot, but I saw the floor plan and the builder is one of the best around. One of the interesting features is that he has hidden speakers in all of the rooms. I think it would be fun to have a house filled with music!

The second piece of info is that I was selected by commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division to attend graduate school (around year 2011) at the school and program of my choice. The army would pick up the tuition tab, and unlike ROTC, I would continue to be paid my full salary and housing expenses. This commitment would obviously take me well beyond my current commitment and propel me farther up the food chain. I don’t want to spend my life in and out of deployments, but retiring at age 42 with a life pension does not seem like a bad idea. For the time being I will keep this grad card in my back pocket. I am still applying for my other grad school options.

Iraq is going well. I am looking forward to pinning on Captain sometime this summer or early fall.

Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin

Both I and Calhoun Hall (English) are reflected. 

Popcorn and Ice Cream

Ahhhh... the joys of being an adult. Tonight I had popcorn and ice cream for dinner. If you remember being a kid and wanting popcorn and ice cream for dinner-- or maybe chocolate milk and an ice cream sandwich, or Cheetos and root beer-- and if you never actually had those things for dinner, then I say go for it now. Carpe diem! Chances are, it won't even make you sick (like your mom said it would), and even if it does, you'll still be living that childhood dream. That's what it's all about, boys: taking every opportunities and enjoying the small things in life. Small things like popcorn and ice cream. For dinner.

news from Ryan

I've been substitute teaching the past two months and it has been excellent. That is, bad pay, but great experience. It has given me an overview of how Christian education is done in Tyler and particularly how it is done differently by baptists, anglicans, and catholics.

It has been easy to see theologies in action...very easy.

But I am postponing this survey of pedagogues. I am going to become a full-time ESL teacher at one of the schools. Incredibly (to me), there are about 30 international boarding students here and there is even one student from Japan. Most of the others are from Korea or Taiwan and otherwise, 2 Croatians, and 2 Mexicans.

My job will be to help them out of any and all English-related difficulties in their life in America.
It's going to be good. I start Monday.

As a bonus, the school has some connections to Wheaton. The headmaster is from Wheaton. The Wheaton college orchestra visited there recently. And, tell me if you don't think so too, it even looks like Wheaton: http://www.brookhill.org/

Snoop Dog's translation

click here

Confucius

Tzu-chang asked whether we can know what is to be ten generations hence.

Ryan said, "Whoa. I like that question."

The Master said: "The Yin inherited the manners of the Hsia; the harm and the good that they wrought them is known. The Chou inherited the manners of the Yin; the harm and the good that they wrought them is known. And we may know what is to be, even an hundred generations hence, when others follow Chou."

Ryan said, "That's right--where can I learn more from you ancient Chinese wisemen?"

The Master said: "Learn from my book of sayings and also from Sun-Tzu. Also, ask your friends if they know anything about me or other ancient Chinese wisemen."

respectfully submitted,

-Ryan

Old Man Steve

Happy Birthday, Stephen! I hope your cold has improved enough to facilitate a little celebration. (Is this the quarter-century mark for you?) Your aging like a fine wine, I'm sure: a little better every year. [at this point, you have to imagine the guitar riff from the Beatles' "You say it's your birthday" starting up in the background] Happy birthday and "sake o onegai shemas" (I know it isn't a proper transliteration, but sound it out and see if you can get it)!

Global Warming and Wheaton

Litfin got quoted on the matter of global warming.

link

Should the college be taking a stance on this issue? Personally, I'm cool with it, but I don't have any better defense for it than I am for reducing man's impact on climate shifts.

I live in a great house. My room is on the second floor and it is like forest tree house. Since moving in here last October I have been putting birdseed on the ledge outside my window and throwing it down to the ground and I have even payed $40 for a hanging bird feeder. Today I added two more species to a list of birds I have patronized. Here is my list:

cardinal
sparrow
titmouse
bluejay
house finch
grackle
chickadee
flicker
downy woodpecker
carolina wren
goldfinch
mourning dove

isn't THAT interesting? heh :) To me, it is delightful.

More than 2 will be interested

Well, here in Japan (not India, not America) I have been cut off from most English language manifestations of one of the means of grace: the preaching of the Word. BUT there is the internet, which can feed me streams of audio from any preacher I can think of (including my home church pastor) and at any time I want. I have been especially drawn to internet sermons and lectures since getting an iPod for my birthday.

One of my favorites is Ravi Zacharias (though he does go a bit heavy on quotes I think). Anyway, I went to his site just now (www.rzim.org) and something near the top-left corner of the page caught my eye. Is that? Yes, that is a name I know. Could it be the same one that I knew from Wheaton? A little investigation...wow it IS the same! And now she's working for Ravi Zacharias? That's cool!

(in case they've changed the front page, here)

Maybe some of you already knew this, but it was news to me.

this will probably shock some of you

Dear friends,

-It's been some time since I last posted anything on the blog. In fact I've even had a few of you contact me to make sure I was o.k. (which I greatly appreciate). I haven't suffered any great calamity or misfortune but I have been extremely busy in the last six months. That's what happens when you're working three part-time jobs and going to school and taking odd gigs and side jobs. But in spite of the crazy schedule I'm still much happier with my life right now than I was when I worked for McDonald's.
-But there is also another reason that I haven't been in contact with any of my friends from Wheaton and that one is much harder for me to write about. In fact this is one of the hardest things that I've ever had to tell anyone, especially you my friends, and is that I'm gay. I've dreaded telling you guys but I think that the time has finally come. I don't know what your reactions will be. I'm not asking any of you to approve or condone my life decisions. I will say that the decision to come out and be gay was not, I repeat, not, a sudden or an easy decision for me and one that I've struggled with for as long as I can remember.
-I will ask this of you though. Please do not write or call me with the intention of arguing or impressing upon me the wrongness and/or sinfulness of my being gay. I grew up, as did many of you, in an extremely conservative, republican, and christian family in addition to being in a conservative, family values minded church. I don't know yet how this is affecting my faith. I'm still working through that myself.
-I've heard a great many arguments on both sides of the gay issue but I've decided that ten years of trying to be someone that I'm not is enough for me. If after reading this any of you still wish to talk to me you can get my info off my profile or from Strauss. Thanks for your love and your friendship.

Which country am I in?

I thought two of you might be interested to know that the Japanese guy who owns an Indian curry restaurant near my house has been playing Sitar for 8 years and gave me a demonstration, and that I asked if I could try, so he let me.
So, following his instructions, I rubbed the first and second fingers of my left hand in coconut resin to make them slide easier up and down the strings (because you only use those 2 fingers to push down the strings), fitted the metal pick-like implement onto the first finger of my right hand, took off my shoes, sat in the classic sitar sitting position on a mat he had laid down on the wood floor for me, and played around for 10 minutes while a few other patrons continued eating their dinners (it's a small restaurant, with a bar and 4 tables). I was surprised to see that there are 2 layers of strings: you strum and pluck the upper layer, while the layer underneath just resonates.
Seeing how skillfully I played, he asked if I played guitar, too. He also lent me a book he has explaining the basics of playing sitar.
I'm tempted to take either sitar or shamisen (like a traditional japanese banjo) lessons.

201

I couldn't resist puting up a new post when I discovered that my profile broke the 200-view mark. It would appear my egoism knows no bounds.

Happy lunar new year! Congradulations on making a fortune! [as an English-speaker would say today in Hong Kong]

new article

The Wall Street Journal - A Test of Faith: A professor's firing after his conversion highlights a new orthodoxy at religious collegesJan. 3, 2006
By Daniel GoldenCopyright 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
The Wall Street Journal reports about hiring practices at religious universities, including Baylor.
WHEATON, Ill. -- Wheaton College was delighted to have assistant professor Joshua Hochschild teach students about medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas, one of Roman Catholicism's foremost thinkers.
But when the popular teacher converted to Catholicism, the prestigious evangelical college reacted differently. It fired him.
Wheaton, like many evangelical colleges, requires full-time faculty members to be Protestants and sign a statement of belief in "biblical doctrine that is consonant with evangelical Christianity." In a letter notifying Mr. Hochschild of the college's decision, Wheaton's president said his "personal desire" to retain "a gifted brother in Christ" was outweighed by his duty to employ "faculty who embody the institution's evangelical Protestant convictions."
Mr. Hochschild, 33 years old, who was considered by his department a shoo-in for tenure, says he's still willing to sign the Wheaton faith statement. He left last spring, taking a 10% pay cut and roiling his family life, to move to a less-renowned Catholic college.
Mr. Hochschild's dismissal captures tensions coursing through many of America's religious colleges. At these institutions, which are mostly Protestant or Catholic, decisions about hiring and retaining faculty members are coming into conflict with a resurgence of religious identity.
Historically, religious colleges mainly picked faculty of their own faith. In the last third of the 20th century, however, as enrollments soared and higher education boomed, many Catholic colleges enhanced their prestige by broadening their hiring, choosing professors on the basis of teaching and research. As animosities between Catholics and Protestants thawed, some evangelical Protestant colleges began hiring faculty from other Christian faiths.
But now a conservative reaction is setting in, part of a broader push against the secularization of American society. Fearful of forsaking their spiritual and educational moorings, colleges are increasingly "hiring for mission," as the catch phrase goes, even at the cost of eliminating more academically qualified candidates.
Addressing faculty at the University of Notre Dame, the school's new president, the Rev. John Jenkins, recently expressed concern that the percentage of faculty who were Catholic had fallen to 53%, compared with 85% in the 1970s. Today's level is barely above a line set in 1990 by the late Pope John Paul II, who decreed that non-Catholics shouldn't be a majority of the faculty at a Catholic university.
Notre Dame is compiling a database of candidates who can contribute to the university's religious mission. Administrators say that instead of reducing quality, Notre Dame's religious identity has lured some premier faculty, such as associate professor Brad Gregory, who left a tenured job at Stanford in 2003 for an equivalent, higher-paying position. "Notre Dame's Catholic character wasn't only a factor, it was the factor," says Mr. Gregory, a Catholic, who specializes in the history of Christianity. "By any ordinary measure, you'd be crazy to leave Stanford for Notre Dame."
At another Catholic school, Boston College, some administrators would like to hire more people committed to its religious mission, but its faculty has proved "particularly resistant," says a 2004 report by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. To achieve its goals, the college is contemplating establishing research centers on Catholic intellectual tradition and Catholic education. Georgetown University, also a prominent Catholic school, appointed its first vice president for mission and ministry, a Jesuit priest, in 2003.
About 400 U.S. colleges cite religion as an element in their hiring policies. And many of these colleges, such as Brigham Young, an almost entirely Mormon university, are growing fast. At the 102 evangelical Protestant schools belonging to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, full-time faculty rose 36.2% from 1991 to 2003, the latest available data. These schools hire only Christians, mostly Protestants.
Defining evangelical schools isn't easy to do, but in general they are populated by people of various Protestant faiths who share a common religious vision. That includes a commitment to spreading the word of God and a literal interpretation of the Bible.
Many, like Wheaton, bar Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faculty. "We've got a marvelous Greek Orthodox person we'd kill to hire and we can't," says Wheaton sociologist James Mathisen. Mr. Mathisen says he has mixed feelings about the Protestants-only policy. He understands the religious rationale but also feels it deprives Wheaton of quality faculty.
Such hiring policies would be illegal at most universities but the 1964 Civil Rights Act carves out an exemption for religious colleges. Their students qualify for federal financial aid. Partly because of their hiring practices, evangelical Protestant colleges have been denied certain kinds of aid in California and Colorado under laws barring support of "pervasively sectarian" schools.
Phi Beta Kappa, the honors society, hasn't established a chapter at any of the evangelical colleges that make up the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, including Wheaton. Kelly Gerald, a spokeswoman, says the society wants to uphold what it sees as the values inherent in the liberal arts and sciences, such as tolerance for diverse points of view. The American Economics Association, which operates a Web site for academic job seekers, deletes references to religious preferences in job listings.
Injecting faith into hiring decisions often runs counter to decades of tradition -- even at religious schools -- and as a result has sparked fierce debate. Robert Sloan stepped down last year from his position as president of Baylor, a Baptist university in Waco, Texas. He alienated some faculty by questioning job candidates about how they would infuse religion into teaching and research, and vetoing some who didn't answer satisfactorily.
Mr. Sloan, now the school's chancellor, says the unhappiness was "one of the central factors" in the "turmoil" that led to his resignation. John M. Lilley, the new president, won't interview faculty candidates, says Baylor Provost Randall O'Brien, a high-ranking administrator.
Baylor hires only Christians and Jews. According to Mr. Sloan, Jews were included because a prominent Jewish scholar was on the faculty at the time the policy was formulated. Mr. Sloan says the school gives hiring preference to Baptists first, followed by other Protestant evangelicals, then other Protestants, other Christians, and lastly Jews.
Wheaton College, founded in 1860, is ranked the 55th top liberal arts college by U.S. News and World Report. It has an endowment of $294 million. On the 1600-point SAT scale the average combined verbal and math score of entering freshmen is 1336, similar to the average scores at University of Virginia and Bryn Mawr.
Wheaton has a handful of Catholic students, houses papers of Catholic authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and welcomes Catholic visiting professors. But it has never hired a Catholic professor full time and tells Catholic applicants it won't consider them for such posts.
In 1993, Wheaton's English department did venture outside Protestant circles, bringing in visiting professor Thomas Howard, whose conversion to Catholicism had cost him a job at an evangelical school in Massachusetts. That same year, Wheaton hired a minister from an evangelical church in Tennessee, Duane Litfin, as its president. One of Mr. Litfin's early acts was to prevent Mr. Howard from giving a speech in the college chapel. Mr. Litfin says his decision was in line with college rules.
Since then, Mr. Litfin has mostly stuck to tradition. An exception in 2003 was easing Wheaton's ban on faculty drinking, which was considered a disadvantage in recruiting.
In a 2004 book titled "Conceiving the Christian College," Mr. Litfin argued that hiring Catholics would start Wheaton down a slippery slope. Wouldn't having Catholic faculty, he asked rhetorically, "lead to a gradual sacrificing of Wheaton's distinctives?"
In an interview, Mr. Litfin acknowledges that a ban on Catholic faculty "narrows the pool that you can draw from." But he says that the school's niche is also a key to its success. "If you look at the caliber of our faculty, this is an amazing place. It's thriving. Why do genetic engineering on it? Why muck up its DNA?"
As president, Mr. Litfin was forced to tackle that question, which came unexpectedly from a young professor traveling a roundabout spiritual journey.
Joshua Hochschild grew up in Plainfield, Vt. His father, who died when Joshua was 9, was Jewish; his mother came from a Lutheran family. Neither was observant. Josh edited the student newspaper and was valedictorian at his public high school before enrolling at Yale.
There, for the first time, he made friends who took religion seriously. Studying philosophy, he came to believe that many important philosophical questions ultimately lead back to religious ones. Evangelized by an Episcopalian friend, he converted as a sophomore and was later baptized. Of Protestant denominations, Episcopalianism is closest in doctrine, liturgy and hierarchy to Catholicism.
Mr. Hochschild's brother Adam, a St. Louis lawyer, says he was appalled by his brother's religious turn at the time. "I just thought he had been lost to the dark side," he jokingly recalls. Eventually, Adam also became a Catholic -- on the same day as his brother.
Mr. Hochschild pursued his philosophy studies in graduate school at Notre Dame. "I had friends who thought, 'You're going to Notre Dame, you'll convert,' " recalls Mr. Hochschild, who says he gave the matter little thought. His Ph.D. dissertation analyzed the 15th-century writings of a Vatican cardinal, who was later sent to urge Martin Luther, the founding father of Protestantism, to recant.
When he got his doctorate, Mr. Hochschild was offered jobs by Wheaton and a Catholic school -- Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Md. Says Carol Hinds, a former Mount St. Mary's provost: "He was a Protestant, but he was a faithful person. He could contribute to the mission." Feeling "in between" the two schools' spiritual traditions, Mr. Hochschild chose Wheaton.
He signed Wheaton's faith statement, which asserts that the Bible is "inerrant," meaning without error, and "of supreme and final authority." Wheaton President Mr. Litfin asked in a job interview how Mr. Hochschild understood that passage, according to their later correspondence. Mr. Hochschild said he agreed, but added that the Bible should be read in light of "authoritative traditions," an example of which would be church councils. Although that view is closer to Catholicism than evangelical Protestantism, the president approved the appointment.
Mr. Hochschild got on well with colleagues and students, and University of Notre Dame Press agreed to publish his revised dissertation. "He was excellent on every score," says Wheaton's philosophy department chairman, Robert O'Connor.
Yet a question nagged Mr. Hochschild: Why am I not a Catholic? As he saw it, evangelical Protestantism was vaguely defined and had a weak scholarly tradition, which sharpened his admiration for Catholicism's self-assurance and intellectual history. "I even had students who asked me why I wasn't Catholic," he says. "I didn't have a decent answer."
His wife, Paige, said her husband's distaste for the "evangelical suspicion of philosophy" at the school might have contributed to his ultimate conversion. The Hochschilds say some evangelicals worry that learning about philosophy undermines students' religious convictions.
During a 2003 academic conference at Notre Dame, Mr. Hochschild revealed his anguish to another attendee, a priest. The priest replied that Mr. Hochschild seemed, in his heart, to have already embraced Catholicism. Although he had taken Communion in the Episcopalian church, Mr. Hochschild realized after the conversation that he longed to "obey the Gospel commands to eat the flesh of Christ [as a Catholic]." Returning home, he signed up for a Catholic initiation class.
Aware of Wheaton's Protestants-only policy, Mr. Hochschild recalls thinking he would probably lose his job. In September 2003, he told the philosophy chairman, Mr. O'Connor, of his intention to convert. Hoping Mr. Hochschild could stay, Mr. O'Connor notified the administration.
In general, Catholics believe the Pope is the final authority on religious matters. Protestants reject that authority and generally profess a direct relationship between the individual and the Almighty.
A months-long debate followed between President Litfin and Mr. Hochschild. They argued over whether the professor could subscribe to Wheaton's faith statement, which faculty must reaffirm annually. Like most evangelical colleges, Wheaton bases its employment practices on such a document.
Wheaton's 12-point statement doesn't explicitly exclude Catholics. But its emphasis on Scripture as the "supreme and final authority" and its aligning of Wheaton with "evangelical Christianity" were unmistakably Protestant, Mr. Litfin wrote to Mr. Hochschild in late 2003. Because Catholics regard the Bible and the pope as equally authoritative, a Catholic "cannot faithfully affirm" the Wheaton statement, he continued.
Mr. Hochschild disagreed. The Bible, he wrote, is indeed the supreme authority for Catholics, who turn to the Church hierarchy only as Protestants consult their ministers. While acknowledging the college's right to exclude Catholics -- and knowing his position was endangered -- he replied that as a matter of principle, "I see no reason why I should be dismissed from the College upon joining the Roman Catholic Church."
Mr. Hochschild was "quibbling," the president retorted four days later. "Perhaps Wheaton College has come to a point where, because of challenges such as yours, it must revise its documents to make more explicit its non-Catholic identity."
Mr. Litfin said the college would terminate Mr. Hochschild's employment at the end of the 2003-2004 school year. He later agreed to let Mr. Hochschild stay another year to find a job. On the eve of Easter 2004, Mr. Hochschild was received into the Catholic church.
President Litfin's office is across the street from the Billy Graham Center, named for the famed preacher and Wheaton alumnus who has sought to reconcile Protestants and Catholics. The president says he has also been "a part of this rapprochement." But, he maintains, the core doctrinal issues separating Protestants and Catholics "have by no means gone away."
The president wouldn't discuss the specifics of Mr. Hochschild's case, which he calls a personnel matter. He did say, "Josh is a terrific young guy. We would have loved to keep him."
The decision disappointed some at the college. Describing his ex-colleague's conversion as "a real act of intellectual and spiritual courage," philosophy professor W. Jay Wood says Wheaton could enhance its quality by "expanding the extent to which it draws on evangelicals within the major Christian traditions -- Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant." Indeed, not all evangelical schools are so strict. Messiah College, in Grantham, Pa., counts a dozen Catholics among 170 faculty.
Josh Carlton, a 2004 Wheaton graduate, says Mr. Hochschild excelled at guiding discussion. "I'm thinking about graduate school, and I don't know if I would be doing that if I hadn't had him," says the philosophy major, who complained to trustees about the dismissal. Mr. Litfin says the majority of faculty, students and alumni support the Protestant-only hiring policy.
At home, Mr. Hochschild encountered doubts within his family. His wife, a Canadian native, remains Episcopalian. "I hoped she would convert to Catholicism," Mr. Hochschild says. "I tried for a while to press it, but that's not the kind of thing you can force."
Mrs. Hochschild, who recently finished her dissertation in theology at the United Kingdom's Durham University, says she sometimes wishes her husband would have "waited for the rest of the family to be on board." But, she says, she trusts his reasoning and convictions. The Hochschilds are raising their three children, ages 11 months to 5 years, as Catholics.
His brother Adam says Mr. Hochschild "knew he was supposed to be doing what he was doing" and was calm about the decision, even though he was his family's sole breadwinner.
In what was at best a lateral move, Mr. Hochschild accepted a lower-paying assistant professorship at Mount St. Mary's, the college he once spurned. Mr. Hochschild applied to both secular and Catholic colleges, but only the latter invited him for interviews.
Mount St. Mary's has a lower average freshman SAT score -- 1094 -- than Wheaton and a much smaller endowment of $33 million. The transition delayed his opportunity for tenure by two years, increased his teaching load and uprooted the Hochschilds from their home in an affluent Chicago suburb. They now live in a smaller, rented house on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border.
On Sundays, the family worships at a Catholic church, St. Anthony's Shrine, though Mrs. Hochschild sometimes slips out early to an Episcopal one. Mr. Hochschild wishes the service, which features modern hymns, was more traditional.
For Mount St. Mary's, Mr. Hochschild's newfound Catholicism was a bonus because the school was just starting to reassert its own religious mission. The Rev. J. Wilfrid Parent, the school's executive director for Catholic identity, says he will be involved in hiring new faculty, asking candidates about their faith and tracking the proportion of Catholics.
Meanwhile, Wheaton hasn't replaced Mr. Hochschild. One obstacle: Most scholars of medieval philosophy are Catholics.

Wheaton Alum Opens Bar

Us DC T6ers seem to be doing alright these days. Brett has started a side job as a SAT prep teacher. Dave's social life has taken a twist, and I've been enjoying the break in between semesters for grad school classes, as I'm still doing stuff to prep for applying for a PhD program. So I currently have all sorts of free time, as I have no business committing to anymore activities, but much of what I have committed to has not started yet.

I'm enjoying the time off and doing stuff such as turning my place into a sports bar for the NFL football playoffs. (If the Bears bomb out this evening, I'm not going to be happy.) I've been getting about 7 people per game on average. If only hospitality was always as easy as having a kitchen stocked with lots of beer and junk food.

Daily Grace

Today’s New York Times contains this astonishing (for you), alarming (for me) article on diabetes in the United States and in NYC. I know I told some of you in a somewhat bizarre fashion, so in case you missed it, here’s the story behind that last cryptic post: I have type 1 diabetes. I was diagnosed on October 4^th. Eight days before my 25^th birthday.

It’s difficult to convey my emotions on reading this article. It reminds me of painful realities that are easy to forget about within the day to day bustle of life. My life will probably be shorter than yours. I have much better odds of getting heart disease and stroke, of going blind, having nerve damage, or even losing my leg than you do. It may be that I will not be able to provide for my wife and (future) family the way I’d hoped. These are hard things to understand at any age, but especially at 25 when possibilities are supposed to be opening up instead of closing down.

What is one to do when faced with such news? While I can manage and monitor the disease remarkably well thanks to get technological advances and health insurance, I cannot fight it. What can I do but trust Jesus to provide for my needs? My life and health, which have always depended on Christ for sustenance, do so more obviously now. I am not angry anymore, though I was a little at first. At times I am sad, but mostly I am content. I will trust that there is a plan in all of this. I’ll keep you posted.

A Post

A post:
A thing that holds symbols, not signs or things. Not a tree (though it may hold life, represent judgment, give food of sorts, and point toward the king of the universe); made of zeros and ones encoded decoded and encoded once again.

Why am I writing this? I don't know. Just sat down at my computer and thought to myself: it is high time for a post. A post: a thing that holds symbols. . .

I have a laptop on my lap top, just to the left of which sits my wife on whose lap top sits my son. She just asked him, "what are you trying to see, honey" (he is looking intently at something to his right), he grunts back something unasperated or consonated, as if he is trying to pick up something heavy. I cannot write fast enough to keep up with his motion. He is in a hunderd differnt positions as my fingers fly across these crazy keys.

Sarah just asked me to speak what I'm writing because she sees me smiling at this screen. I have read all but this paragraph to her; to her, and not to andrew because he cannot recognize as many words as appear in these sentences.

Our guests are coming now. That means that, unless I want to be absolutely rude (in any culture) I must stop this post.

End of the year means end of the year lists...

All the magazines and newpapers are publishing their "best of 2005" lists for various categories. However, since I didn't really care for 2005, and since I do enjoy drawing attention to myself, I've decided to create a list of my own. Nothing to do with 2005.

Aeijtzsche's Top 10 songs that clearly rip-off the Aeijtzsche & H Hitt Facktory

10. Yes: Owner of a Lonely Heart

If the Hitt facktory were slightly guilty of overuse of Orchestral Hits, then Yes needs to be locked up for life for the outrageous orchestral hits that adorn this song.

9. Weather Report: Teen Town

Ridiculous, meandering barely melodic bassline. Total rip-off.

8. Jan & Dean: Batman

Jan and Dean actually stole their entire schtick from the Hitt Factory. A duo writing music that can bring a grown woman to belly laugh.

7. Snoop Dogg ft. Pharell: Drop it like it's Hot

They used an aerosol can as a "snare drum." Gimme a break. So Aeijtzsche and H.

6. The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations

Brian Wilson recorded tiny snippets of music, then later patched them together to form a semi-cohesive whole. Sound familiar? I thought so.

5. The Police: Spirits in the Material World

The skipped first beat followed by nice little guitar up-beats and an off-beat bassline make for a hitt facktoryesquely unsettling rhythmic experience.

4. Mahavishnu Orchestra: John's Song #2

Long, fast melodies, followed by a tight 7/8 groove. Way to be original, guys.

3. Bjork: Where is the Line?

Mouthdrums.

2. Brian Wilson: The Vege-Tables Arguments

Brian taped a whole series of friend Michael Vosse arguing with session drummer Hal Blaine about vegetables. Mommy Mommy?

1. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 2

If you only seek out one song from this list, let it be this one. The Flaming Lips actually took a time machine into an alternate future, where the Aeijtzsche and H Hitt Factory have a huge recording budget. They stole a final mixdown of a Hitt Facktory song completed in 2017. This is that song. Gurgling synth bass, screaming, animal noises, childishly coincident ascending and descending melodies into eternity...


Happy New Year, everyone!

hey

You guys should join the MySpace community.

An old conversation

Since this is our 1 year aniversary month on the blog, I thought I would add a little to one of our previous conversations. I heard this on NPR (Fresh Air) last Wednesday and thought it would be interesting for several of us here. It's called "Misquoting Jesus" and here it is: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5052156

Alan in the Archives

I was searching the 611 online archives for certain tour de force performances featuring our friend AG. You can imagine my disappointment-- despair, actually-- when I couldn't hear the beloved Fed say things like "stop playing games with my face" and "is that really my voice?". I assume their disappearance has something to do with verdak. So, Dave... can you possibly make them available somewhere else? Please? I'll beg. I'll whine. I'm not above flattery, bribery or empty threats. It would be like a giant anniversary present for the blog. And Andy would be happy. Very happy.

New Post

This is long overdue, considering how often I check the blog and how much (really) I care to keep my friendship with you guys.

I am back in America and living now in my hometown, Tyler, Texas. It is a great place. And I am friendly. Come visit.

:-)

Midway In Our Life's Journey

If you want to know the truth, I began this disorderly and almost endless collection of scattered thoughts and observations in order to gratify a good mother who knows how to think. But even that’s not the whole story. Actually, in my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.” What’s this about advantages? What is it that you’re trying to say? If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. So I won’t. I’ll begin in medias res, with this reassurance only: You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. I know now where to begin, but when… ah, that’s a different question entirely. At the beginning of July, during a spell of exceptionally hot weather, towards evening, a certain young man came down on to the street from the little room he rented from some tenants in S--- Lane and slowly, almost hesitantly, set off towards K---n Bridge. Or maybe it was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. No, no it was September—of that I’m certain. On a day during which we celebrate labor with recreation. Yes, those were halcyon days. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. Well, let’s not get carried away. But although I stood at the brink of darkness and fear, I was not nearly so bad off as Gregor Samsa, who awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.

So the beginning of September, as I said, opens this tale of woe. I found myself steadily losing weight. 180. 178. 174. 170. 168. 162. 159. I took my belt in a notch. I tightened my watch. I started eating and drinking more. And I went on with my life, but decided to visit the doctor. This doctor poked and prodded and relieved me of various and sundry bodily fluids and diagnosed me with an incurable disease. Call me Ishmael. Incurable, but treatable. Treatable, but deadly. Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York. Why did this happen to me? No one knows. All they would tell me is that all children, except one, grow up. Should I take comfort from this promise? I don’t know that either. When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning or in rain?

In the beginning…

wow

This place needs something new to spice it up. You can't tell me that no one in the group has something new and exciting to talk about. I know someone must be hiding something.

161

I am back in Amarillo at my parents' house for Thanksgiving. Hope everyone had a good one. I'm taking advantage of this being a holiday as an excuse not to do any work (I have a tidy stack of books and journal articles in the guest room (that's strange. It's one thing to leave home and go off to college and come home on holidays to your own room with your own stuff, but it's quite a different thing to take all your belongings with you and then stay in your parent's new guest room. Austin feels more like my home now (as I sit in Amarillo) than it has at any point over the last four months of living in Bat City (a nickname for Austin, based on the number of bats that live in the area (there are over 2.5 million bats under the Congress Avenue bridge alone)). I'm really looking forward to going HOME at the end of the weekend, taking the bus through my new city and sleeping in my own bed in my own appartment. It wouldn't be that strange at this point to tell someone that I'm from Austin (unless of course I was speaking in Spanish (in which case you are always FROM the place you were born (soy de (I now have 161 views of my blogger profile (beat that chumps)) Amarillo))). At the same time, I haven't really seen as much of Austin as I would like (grad school keeps one rather busy), and I am looking forward to spending some time at HOME in AUSTIN over the Christmas break. At any rate, I feel much more independent, more... grown I guess. It feels nice.)-- a combination of books by and articles on Philip Roth, Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas. It's good reading, but it's all I've been reading for a very, very long time. Centuries perhaps.) I know it seems stupid to try working over a holiday break (you probably noticed that that was the last closing parenthesis, if you were paying attention), but I have two twenty-page rough drafts due next week, and I can't afford not to work at least some. Happy Thanksgiving!

Have we lost the plot?

So... I was at Bible study tonight, and come prayer time somebody in the group said that we must pray for "In God We Trust" to stay on our money, as though all good Christians should be praying for that. It bugged me a lot.

It was presented as a need for us to pray about it because it's part of a slippery slope of persecution. I don't want to see Christians in America persecuted, but I do not think that defending In God We Trust on money is a matter of persecution. Also, I think that praying for relief from true persecution is perfectly acceptable, but where do we get off thinking that the Christian life is supposed to be cushy? Some persecution might be part of God's plan for the Christian Church in America in order to strengthen it. Not that all topics of early church prayer made it in the Bible, but the prayers from the early church recorded in the Bible seemed to focus on significantly different matters than where the government allows reference to God, let alone much more significant forms of intolerance/persecution. I hate it when Christians hold the opinion that all good Christians must go along with and pray for whatever stance the political Christian right takes, while failing to pray for so many other things that we should!

In God I do trust, and happy Thanksgiving. Let the fireworks begin.

Another Austin Afternoon

I stood facing my appartment from the bus stop across the street. The bus wasn't scheduled to arrive for several more minutes, but I was enjoying the wait. A cold front finally blew through last week, and today has an almost perfect mixture of cool air and sunshine. I looked left to see if the bus was coming-- I could see it a couple of blocks up the street, one more stop and one traffic light away. I looked right and saw a middle-aged man, clean-shaven with a fishing hat and a pair of New Balance shoes, jogging towards the bus stop with a trumpet in his left hand. He stopped under the little shelter, tucked the trumpet under his arm and produced a small bottle of Lord Calvert from his left hip pocket. Unscrewing the white-plastic lid of the half-empty bottle, he made a moments eye contact with me, took a sizable belt and slid the bottle back into his pocket, replacing the lid with one fluid motion. I commented on the weather. "The weather's perfect," he said, sitting down on the bench. "Did you see the sunrise two days ago?" "I saw the end of it, I was waiting here for the bus." I have to be on campus before eight on Thursday mornings. "The clouds were stacked up in layer on layer, and the color was unbelievable!" He went on to describe, quite accurately, how the sunsets this time of year take on a color that isn't quite pink but isn't exactly red: "We don't even have a word to describe what it is, but it's beautiful." All the time he spoke, he fingered the keys of the trumpet absentmindedly. I think his hands were playing wordless colors, silently. Just before the bus pulled up, he put his head down to the trumpet and blew out a couple of smooth Jazz runs. "I love this trumpet; only sixty dollars." He boarded the bus behind me and took a seat near the front. Glancing up to make sure the driver was distracted, he took another quick pull from the bottle, settled back into his seat and fingered out a melody with the trumpet's mouthpiece resting under his chin.

Briar Patch! if you know what I mean

Here's a neat Where's Waldo game with an interesting ending when you find him. (hint: it's not the effeminate look-alike eating cotton candy in the front).

http://www.office-will.com/freewill/w/

still hot

The calendar tells me that the season is changing, but the weather around here apparently hasn't got the message. To paraphrase Henry Ford, calendars are bunk. I want to wear sweaters. I want to be cold. I'd settle for not sweating. I will see. In other title-related news, I'm still hot. But the ladies apparently aren't getting the message. To paraphrase Henry Ford, Coye is bunk. Speaking of bunk, I'm interested what kind of odds you guys are giving Bush's new Supreme Court nomination. I kind of want her nomination to fail just so I'll feel like the congress still functions and isn't just a rubber-stamping machine. So, I'm going to suggest an optimistic 60/40 chance that she gets the boot instead of the bench. And speaking of changes, I like the all black layout. Tres chic.

whew

Sweet action, my CPO box is MINE forever! I think I will somehow integrate this fine piece of American workmanship into the decor of my house.

Dave Update

The first brave leaves outside my window have already begun their pilgrimage toward the soil; they've given up their green without a sound, and slowly they're loosening their native bonds and waiting for that sudden moment of release. It won't be long before all the host of leaves follow in these fading steps-- before the skeletons of bare bark are left standing in the fragrance of this yearly sacrifice.

Fall: my twenty-sixth. I find it's the season with which I resonate most strongly--there's a strange hope about its dance toward death: an silent longing for rebirth--a longing which turns dreadful decay into a beautiful altar of love.

+++

If you have google earth (pretty much the coolest program out there), and plug in 142 Essex Street, South Hamilton, MA, you'll see the earth tilt and turn and the camera will zoom in toward the northeastern coast of the United States. You'll see Long Island and Cape Cod grow and disappear below view, then northern Boston and Cape Ann, and then you're all inland with streets, clusters of trees, and clearings. When you stop, you're hovered just to the right of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary's main entrance. The campus is to the North. A small road drifts up past a rectangular pond and splits into a circuit around the "great field" where we play soccer and Ultimate Frisbee. The field is shaped like a thin pear; my apartment is up where the imaginary stem would be. To the west (up on top of the hill), you'll see the administrative and academic buildings.

So that's my little world. Any of you are welcome any time.

This coming week is reading week, so classes are off and we're all trying to catch up on papers and readings and so on. I'm taking four classes: Biblical Hebrew I, Systematic Theology I, Church to the Reformation (History), and The World Mission of the Church (Missions). It's been interesting to go over in the classroom all the material that we've discussed on the blog (things like Tradition and Scripture, Truth and Method, Love and Presence). As you can imagine, the contours of the conversation are quite different here. I hope we're not finished talking about these things; they're important.

That's what goes on up on the hill, down in the apartment the world's a bit different. Andrew's now 14 weeks old. He's talking all the time (though I have no idea what he's saying), and laughing. I love it when he laughs; its one of the most incredible feelings in the world when he's laughing and I'm laughing and we're simply enjoying the beauty of this relationship that God is giving to us.

The major bummer has been that I've been unable to find a part-time job around here. That's been hard. It's like holding your screaming and inconsolable infant: you know that there is a terminus--it will end--but that doesnt exactly make it less horrible.

OK, maybe it's not that bad, but it's not fun not being able to get the work you want.


+++

As you might imagine, it's taken a few sittings throughout the day to finish this little update. It's dark outside now, humid and warm and dark. Another day has passed, another day will come. My body's tired and achy--my mind is warn and fading--sleep comes soon, and with it: the grace of letting go of my weary mental grip on this massive world.

The Law and the Body

I remember the Logemonster bringing up some issues about governmental control of the body-- particularly the force of the law over particular bodies. (I think it might have been during the Schaivo power grab.) Anyways, I saw this news piece today on the AP news-wire, and I thought I would see if anyone has comments or ideas about this sort of invasiveness. I'm not entirely comfortable with the ruling myself, but I'm not sure whether or not to blatantly condemn it. Let's just say that it makes me anxious...

sad news

http://www.wheaton.edu/Athletics/mbasketball/will.html

NPR: Music from Iraq

Fellas,
I heard a story on NPR la otra dia about an army reservist who is a jazz musician back in the world but who continues to compose music while in Iraq. He composes electronically-- not unlike 611 studios-- and posts his music on the internet-- not unlike 611 online. I thought that this would be particularly interesting to a lot of us here (especially Dave, Steve and Aeijtzsche), so I'm puting up a link. You have to love "All Things Considered."

Lifestyle changes for Jon

Hello guys, in the last month I've made some pretty radical changes (for me) in my life and am finally here to give everyone an update.
But first I'd like to say a huge thank you to Strauss, Dave DeGroot, Brett, Liz, and Carrie for giving me places to stay during my vacation in August and for spending time visiting with me. It was an awesome trip and very relaxing. It felt great to see such good and dear friends again. Hopefully it won't be another three years until I can see you guys again. And now the update....

As we went into September and right before my vacation I turned in my notice to McDonald's. While the job certainly filled a need for me in the past it had become a great source of trouble for me in the past six months or so. It was almost impossible for me find ways to keep advancing myself musically except for the odd lesson or so because I had to schedule everything at least a month in advance. I was also almost never able to attend church because there were only three of us salaried managers to cover all the shifts in a week. And I had zero time to unwind with friends and family whom I was seeing about once every two weeks or so. Add to this an ever growing sense of frustration and depression and this job had to go.
I'm now doing several things part-time to earn money. On Monday through Wednesday I'm teaching piano lessons and accompanying a few singers at East Central College. I only have a very few students or singers right now though so it's not as much money as it will hopefully become. And for the other part-time job I'm now a bartender at a local restaurant called the Pasta House Company. It's been a lot of fun lately and once I learned the different alchohols and drink recipes it got a lot easier and while I'm not the best bartender they've got I definitely not the worst either.
Since I can no pretty much set my own schedule I auditioned for a select choir in St. Louis and made it in. They're called the Bach Society Chorus. You can check them out at www.bachsociety.org if you want. It's really been a great choir to be a part of everyone in it is such a high caliber singer that it's really a joy to be in rehearsals with them. And almost everyone in the choir is a Christian and most of the pieces that we perform and sacred in nature. Almost all of our concerts are performed in the great cathedrals and churches in St. Louis. All in all it's going to be a blast I think. Hopefully if I'm a member again next year I can actually earn one of the paid positions but we'll see.
I'm also able to take lessons right now from two really great teachers, Dr. Leon Burke and Jim Uselman. They are both really great guys and I feel blessed to have them both as mentors and teachers. Which I've been sorely lacking for the last few years. I think that under their tutelage I'll be able to grow both as a musician and as a person.
I'm going to go now but I'd like to leave a note of encouragement for anyone who might need it. If circumstances in your life are making you feel miserable and depressed, whether they are from a job or whatever the cause. Don't be afraid to change your life. It can be pretty scary to leave the safety of the known for the uncertainty of new things. But if you don't make the changes you need to, then the only thing you can be certain of is that no one else will do it for you. Think hard, pray hard, and then act. You'll be much happier in the long run if you listen to your heart and what God is telling you. Bye guys I'll talk to you all later.

The Struggle to Find Us

I decided to see how hard it is to find our site using the new google blogsearch.

It couldn't find us using Traber 6 or Traber6.

It couldn't find us in a search for TEFKAMS.

It couldn't find us in a search for Traber Wheaton either (but it did provide some mildly interesting results).

Nor could it find us in a search for Strauss Greenspan or Glubby Jones.

I did find us when I searched for Dusty Marlett.
Dusty rollin' in the dough
16 Jul 2005 by Stephen
Dusty, what happened to your site?? http://www.marlett.net/ Did you sell the
domain name for the big bucks?? "This site is currently under contruction If you
are looking for Dusty's personal site, it has moved to a folder inside of this ...
611 Online! - http://traber6updates.blogspot.com

I also found us when I typed in 611 online.
611 Online! - Welcome friend! Consider this your online Steve-and-Adam's room! Traber 611 Online! So kick back, grab your favorite SAGA-esque snack,...



Personally, I don't see what the big deal is. I'm not ashamed by our site. Plus, our site is stinking hard to find even with blogsearch unless you know to type in 611 online, or you have a fascination with Dusty. If we really feel that this situation needs to be remedied, the easy solution is to expel Dusty from the blog and wipe out all 611 online records of his existence. I don't see wordpress as necessary.

For Dusty: John 15:13*


* Disclaimer: Expulsion of Dusty is a tongue in cheek suggestion that I do not feel should be carried out yet.

Tabla

Steve and I went to an new Indian restaurant in our area tonight. We were the only ones there for most of the time, so we started talking to the (Japanese) owner and asked him if he had any cool Indian music to play on his CD player there. He played a 'tabla' drum CD and the reason I'm telling you this is 1)Steve made me, because I never post to the blog and 2)I'd like to know what other intellectual-friendly tear-inducing brooding and esoteric music you guys know about and I don't...said music retaining intricate chord structures and penetrating and voice-shatteringly high melodies and at the same time remaining radio-friendly.

If that's not clear, just tell me and the rest of us some music worth listening to that we don't know about. (And for me, remember, I really know nothing.)

I Have Seen the Future...

Alas, fair friends, it is true. For those of you, like Dusty, who have been fearing this for some time, I bring to you grave tidings of a new and insidious search engine, developed by Google, to infiltrate our fair blogosphere. I can bearly bring myself to speak its name... blogsearch. Oh, the humanity!

Adam's Road Trip

Adam, I expect you to fill this post or a new one with an personal update if you ever get some down time while in Wheaton. I hope you got there safely.

Coye

Coye, I will be in Austin this weekend! Just think, we will be in the same great city at the same time! Do you ever cruise down 6th street?

H

H, How is Meyers coming along? Still working there? I know I probably spelled Meyer wrong, and I sure have no motivation to attempt the proper spelling of your name, but oh well.

Does anyone have a digital copy of the Wheaton song? I am referring to the one in the college hymn book. Thanks

Look at what's hot!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8939242/site/newsweek/page/3/

HOTTEST CHRISTIAN COLLEGE Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill. This is not a Bible college, Wheaton officials say. Bible colleges mostly train ministers. Wheaton, with 2,400 students, instead is a place committed to evangelical Protestant Christian faith, as part of the education of students going on to hundreds of different vocations. "We all have one thing in common: our love and our devotion to Jesus Christ," says junior Erin Tanana. The school is known for strong academics and its honor code. Alumni range from evangelist Billy Graham, '43, to Michael Gerson, '86, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

Proof of My Son's Absolute Cuteness!

Post on UK Acts of Hate

Acts of hate: full list of 'deportation' actsBy Times Online
The Home Office today published a list of "unacceptable behaviours" which will lead to the deportation or exclusion of any foreign national who commits them from the UK.

According to the Home Secretary the list is indicative rather than exhaustive and covers any non-UK citizen whether in the UK or abroad.

Terrorist violence
Cannot foment, justify, glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs

Terrorist acts
Cannot seek to provoke others to terrorist acts

Criminal acts
Cannot foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts

Inter-community violence
Cannot foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.

Method
Individuals who do the above by any means or medium are caught by the legislation, including:
- writing, producing, publishing or distributing material;
- public speaking including preaching
- running a website
- using a position of responsibility such as teacher, community or youth leader

138

Hook 'em, Horns! Well, I made it. The drive was long, the weather was hot, the furniture was heavy, the weather was hot, the unpacking was tedious, the weather was hot and the weather was hot, but I made the move down to Austin. I am still getting a few things set up in my appartment, but it is starting to fall together pretty well. I am spending this week trying to get as much of the tedious preparatory things done for school before everyone else shows up and I have to wait three hours in line to jump through the same hoops. I got my UT id on Monday, which lets me ride Austin buses for free, and I got my keys and my computer accounts and my financial aid worked through and the list continues. It has been strange to be in a city where I don't know anyone and not really have anything to do (the above chore list sort of counts, but it's not exactly a full time employment). This living alone thing could get sort of lonesome, although I'm sure it will be better when I start classes and have tons of work to do all the time. If anyone knows any tall, attractive young women between 21 and 24 who are looking for a place to live in Austin... just kidding (not really). Actually, the problem may be that there are too many single twenty-somethings in Austin. And I think we may have all missed out on some things by not going to school in the South... Anyways, I am really looking forward to starting classes and academic life in the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it's going when it gets going.


138 is the number of times my profile has been viewed since we started the blog in December. That means that either you guys can't get enough Coye and read my profile compulsively, or we must have had a number of interlopers on the site. Either way, I think it's pretty cool. Love you guys!

Weddings bring reunions

I was at a Wheaton wedding a couple of weeks back, and a couple of T6 guys (sahv and Jon Steimel) mentioned that what interests them most about this site is the personal updates, so I'm just going to say that weddings are great. You get to celebrate two people getting married, and you get to see old friends.

In this case, the wedding was Vince Campbell and Diana Mojica's, and the old friends were Jon Steimel, Steve Hunter, Kristin Brostrom, and Carey Stamps. Wheaton probably would have loved having a photographer there to advertise Wheaton's efforts at diversity and multi-culturalism. It was very evident that Diana and especially Vince did a great job of breaking down color barriers while at Wheaton. Guests backgrounds included Puerto Rico and at least a dozen Latin American nations, various regions of Africa, Korea, China, Japan, probably some other Asian localities. Of course, us people of European descent were represented as well. Wedding guests were encouraged to dress in traditional clothing of whatever country they come from. I could not help but think a little bit of the wedding feast of the Lamb, while at the wedding. The entire ceremony was in both Spanish and English. For those of you if any who knew Kerlie (pronounced Curly), she did a great job translating.

The wedding being on Friday left another two days, before we all had to get back to our lives. It wasn't hard to convince Jon Steimel to come in to St. Louis from Gerald, MO. to be our tour guide for the day. It was a wonderful day, mostly because of all of us just enjoying each other's company. (The weather was perfect, too, which helped.) The day was so pleasant and relaxing, that I would go so far as to call it therapeutic. We went to the St. Louis arch and learned about Lewis and Clark through a movie before going up to the top of the arch in the most clausterphobic elevator that I have ever been in. They were more like pods than cars. We had lunch at the Hard Rock and wandered around the mall next door to it, before meeting up with coy. There was a shallow pool outside the mall where you could lounge around and feed the fish for a quarter. I guess we were easy to entertain. That night, we hit the St. Louis city museum, a one-of-a-kind place that Jon highly recommended. We spent the next few hours exploring tubes, caves, slides, planes, fire engines, and other types of art designed to be played on. The place had an indoor, and outdoor bar to boot. If you have any kid still in you and you are in St. Louis, that place is a must visit. The fellowship was broken at Steak 'n' Shake very late that night with goodbyes to the girls. Then, Steve and I said goodbye to Jon back at the house that we were crashing at. Steve and I parted ways. Goodbyes were easier for me than they might have been as I am seeing Jon in a week when he comes to DC, and I've seen Steve 3 times now since graduation. Then, Carey is just down the road in Baltimore.

In separate wedding reunion news, DeGroot, Brett, and myself met up with Dusty and his girlfriend Liz when they were in town for Andrea Ratzloff's wedding, on a Sat. night a few weeks back. I have very little to report other than what Dusty has already told everybody other than that Liz is tall and evidentl self motivated based on the fact that she is already almost done with dental school at the age of 22 if I remember right. I'm sure Dusty will correct me if I am wrong.

If anyone wants a more personal update, I'm giving one, but I'll keep it short. Work is going well. I restart part-time graduate school in the fall. I'm praying about how to get more involved at church as my current responsibilities ended when the summer started. I'll likely help out with youth ministries in some capacity. Given the lack of school and church commitments currently, I've had a lot of free time, which I've largely filled with fun. I saw Chelsea of the British Premier League take on DC United with Dave and Brett. Very cool. This past weekend I tubed down a river near Harpers Ferry, WV with some non-Wheaton friends, and next weekend I'm taking Monday off from work for a two day hang out at the ocean with Jon Steimel and Dave De Groot. Here's hoping that other people's summers have been as good as mine or better.

what are the odds?

Guys, do you think he can pull this off... Hyde's spot would be a tough spot to win, don't you think? I wonder if this is more of a show run, just to tell the students and grandkids?


WWJD for Congress?
By The Duke
From: 2006 Elections Table
Wheaton College professor Lindy Scott is exploring a run for retiring Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde's seat in Congress. Prof. Scott is the Director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics, and he apparently is taking his own teaching to heart."I would want to serve as if Jesus were serving," Scott says. A pastor in the Evangelical Free Church, Scott was a missionary and an author before joining Wheaton's faculty.But before all of you blue-staters get your britches in a bunch, you need to know that Scott is a Democrat. He calls himself a compassionate Christian who is conservative on some issues and progressive on others. He opposes the death penalty and privatization of Social Security, and supports gun control, increased education funding, and steps towards universal health care. Foreign policy experience? Scott is the author of a book called Terrorism and the War on Iraq, and he lived in Mexico for 16 years. As the Duke has said for a long time, the evangelical community is not the monolithic conservative institution that Republican political strategists would have you believe. Wheaton College is a strong academic institution that is the alma mater of both Billy Graham and Denny Hastert. Some even call it the "Harvard of Christendom," a reference to its prominent standing among Christian colleges, so do not underestimate the impact this announcement could have across the evangelical community. The Washington media have accepted the Republican spin that people of faith are all conservative Republicans. In part this may be that there are too few Democratic elected officials who are comfortable speaking from an evangelical perspective. Lindy Scott in Congress might begin to change that.

Click on the following link!
Lindy Scott for Congress