Codex Alera Series

Recently I started reading Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. I finished the first two books, Furies of Calderon and Academ's Fury. Both books were very good, the second one being much better in my opinion than the first.

The great part about the books happens to be the nonstop action. Once the book gets going, it does not let up. Which is probably why I stayed up way too late finishing each book instead of getting a decent night's sleep...

My only complaint would be that sometimes it seems a bit predictable, you know that certain characters will make it, and that could just mean that as we grow closer to them, at some point some of them will perish and it will really mean something.

The coolest part happened to be that I actually guessed something about the story, which after I read an interview with Butcher online, he confirmed. SPOILER ALERT: there is a definite Roman presence in the book. For example, the First Lord is called Gaius, the army is divided into legions. Anyways, it has a distinct Roman feel to it. My immediate thought was that this was a Lost Legion story, somehow a group of Roman's made it to the planet of Alera and conquered the natives and learned how to control the furies of the planet. Needless to say, Butcher basically said the same thing in one of his interviews, which made me happy. What can I say, I like to be right.

So yeah, if you enjoy fantasy books, and want something that will have you hooked and not take you like 4 months to read, but is not aimed at the young adults, pick this series up.

Fantasy Baseball Week 13

I lost to Miley Cyrus and Me 4-5-1, but that did not really hurt me in the standings, so oh well. I was winning most of the week, but the weekend caught up with me, apparently my guys play bad on the weekend. Jermaine Dye continues to hit the ball very well, which is funny since I contemplated dropping him or trading him for basically nothing early in the year.

There has been a debate on whether we should cap the number of moves in the league. As I said in my last recap, it all evens out. For examply, my opponent tries the same strategy and as I predicted, he won Ks, but lost WHIP and ERA. We also tied in Wins with six each. I would say that two of his wins came from one of his actual starters and not one of his daily pickups. To go through that many waiver moves and only pick up six wins, and yet basically give away two other categories, is absolutely stupid.

If you are going to try and employ this type of game plan, then be smart about it. Look at split stats, how does the pitcher you are thinking of picking up match up against his opponent?

To be honest, if I had any kind of closers, my team would be a bit more competitive. Sadly that was my huge mistake at the beginning of the year, dropping Troy Percival. I mean for real, who thought he would last all year as the closer for the Rays? And who would have thought they would be on top of the AL East after last year having the worst record and the worst bullpen ERA?

Anyways, I play G-Dizzle this week, and who knows how that will go, I bet I lose saves again.

The Incredible Hulk

Last week I went and saw The Incredible Hulk. I definitely enjoyed this one more than the Ang Lee film from a few years back. Although this film was nowhere near as good as Iron Man, it definitely entertained me and had plenty of geek moments.

I wish the movie would have retained a few things from the original. For example, in the first one the Hulk was a split off personality that witnessed his father abuse him and his mother. Now the Lee movie took that too far and ended up making the father into Absorbing Man, but whatever. In this version, the Hulk is not really a separate personality, but instead a manifestation of Banner's id. For me that ruins the great part of Hulk, he is aware of Banner, and hates him more than anyone else out there.

I guess if that is my major complaint about the movie, then I really have nothing to complain about. The action and fight scenes were very cool. Edward Norton was awesome as always. The cameo's and homages to the original show were cool, especially the theme music, which immediately made me think of Stewie in Family Guy...

Anyways, at the end of the movie, Tony Stark makes an appearance, which sets up the Avengers movie very well. From what I have read online, they may go the Ultimates route and make the formation of the Avengers, a response against a rampaging Hulk...

Comic Book Movie Grade: B+/A-

Fantasy Baseball Weeks 11 & 12

Week eleven sucked. I got beat by Singer's Sluggers, who has since moved into first place. The thing that sucks about the loss: it was 5-3. The two categories we tied were HRs and SBs. Aside from that, our hitting totals were evenly matched.

The pitching is the funny part. Singer's Sluggers is one of those guys who likes to pick up any pitcher who is starting and try to get a high number of wins and Ks. This worked for him the past two weeks, but from what I have seen over the years, it can quickly backfire. The pitchers he is getting are usually 4th or 5th starters, and they can have a tendency to get shelled some starts. It will kill his WHIP and ERA (as evident from our match up), but the offset is hopefully more wins and Ks. The Ks seems most certain, but the wins part. In week 11, he picked up six wins. Which is pretty high when you look at some of the guys who got him those wins and what the scores of those games were and whatnot.

I am not railing against his strategy, just saying that in the long run, it probably will not work, right now he has gotten pretty lucky with it. Sometimes it's the only thing you can do, especially if your pitching staff has injuries or you had a bad draft.

Anyways, week 12 saw me crush Imler 9-1. Again, the hitting seemed to be pretty evenly matched, but my pitching dominated. Seven wins, 1.92 ERA, 1.04 WHIP. That is pretty impressive, also funny that if my team pitched that way the week before, it would have been a different game against Singer...

Let me say that my team is hitting the ball well, it just seems like every week, whomever I play against, their team hits just as well.

These last two weeks have seen Offord and I move out of last place, I am in 8th, with a 51-59-10 record. I play Miley Cyrus and Me this week, who is now in last place. Nice to see that the two last place teams are people who do not pay attention at all. If I can get a big win, hopefully I can get above .500.

RIP George

George Carlin died. No silly euphemisms for my favorite comedian, he would not want it that way. I cannot explain how much the guy has meant to me. As a kid, my dad would let my brother and I watch him on HBO or listen to his tapes.

Pretty much any subject that gets brought up, my brother and I can usually find a Carlin quote or skit that makes fun of it. Anyways, today is a sad day.

Almost every blog in my links has a story about Carlin with video, and here is the AP story.

Instead of posting a video or something like that, I will quote something from his book When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

During bombing raids in Iraq, the media liked to say that Saddam Hussein used people as human shields. That's not accurate. Although it's true they were used as shields, the fact is they were humans already. So if these humans were used as shields, they were human shields. They weren't being used as human shields.
Got that?

You have to love how he takes something and finds the flaws in it and points them out. He was a master of the English language.

Sunday Odds & Ends

-Not too much to say about today. I go to work and then I come home. Luckily I have off tomorrow, but Tuesday I switch to mornings which always kills my body. Hopefully tomorrow I will get a chance to see Incredible Hulk.

-My face seems to be healing up nicely, although there are two small bumps on my jaw, which annoy me. They are hard to notice, but I can feel them.

-If you notice on the side there is a RSS feed for the Freakangels webcomic by Warren Ellis. Even if you are not a fan of comics, I suggest giving it a shot. It is free and very entertaining.

-Speaking of Warren, in this week's issue he had to take a break because the artist had computer troubles, so W just wrote a nice little interlude. Here is a quote about what it is like when you get into the writing zone:

That is what has happened to me tonight. I am beaming Sex Rays across the world and my brain is all lit up with Holy Fire. If I felt like it, I could shag a million nuns and destroy their faith in Christ.

That is why he's one of my favorite writers.

-I want to pick up the new Coldplay and Deathcab albums sometime soon. I am so gay for just saying that.

-That's about it. If you have not given me your cellphone number, well I still need it. What does the picture of Amy Reid have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing.

I'm the Real Superhero

I read over at Riptor's page that he believes he is destined to be a superhero. Or at least a vigilante. Thats fine and dandy buddy, but me, I shoot for loftier goals: ACTUAL SUPERHERO!

If you see the picture in the previous post, you will notice that my face has a few cuts and bruises, well in almost no time at all, everything is just about completely healed. I must have some kind of mutant healing factor, like Wolverine. The more I thought about this, the more it becomes clear that I am just like Wolverine.

I rarely get sick, and when I do, my body snuffs it out right away. Cuts, bruises, scrapes, and injuries go away fairly quickly. Plus, I am hairy, same as Wolverine. The similarities are eerie. I just need some military group to fuse a non-existent metal onto my bones and give me razor sharp claws.

The resemblance to Wolverine is UNCANNY! Also, do I see a team-up between the vigilante and the superhero sometime soon?

Babies, babies, babies. . . .

Big news in the world of babies this week. Or more specifically, what some people have labeled as “babies having babies.” Britney’s little sister Jamie Lynn had her baby this week. Reports are that the new mother is not only living with her boyfriend, but she’ll most likely score a cool million from whichever magazine she decides to bless with the baby’s first photos. If you weren’t aware, Jamie Lynn is a celebrity beloved by young girls. . . . and she’s only 17-years-old herself.

Then there’s the rapidly unfolding story of what’s happening with the girls at Gloucester High School just north of Boston (Remember the film and story of The Perfect Storm? That all happened in Gloucester). Just in case you’re one of the few who hasn’t already heard, the 1200 student school saw a marked spike in the pregnancy rate over the course of the last year. This year, 17 girls – at least the 17 girls that the school is aware of – got pregnant. That’s more than quadruple the school’s average of four pregnancies a year.

Baffled by the high rate, school officials investigated. What they’ve discovered may seem unbelievable. But then again, in our current cultural climate, I’m not too sure any of us should be very surprised. It seems that at least half of these girls – all under the age of 16 – had entered into a pact to get pregnant, give birth, and then raise their babies together. The school reports that several of the girls kept coming into the school’s clinic to get pregnancy tests. They were hoping they were pregnant. When the tests came back positive, girls were seen high-fiving each other and excitedly making plans for baby showers. Other girls, finding out they weren’t pregnant, were disappointed. Nobody knows for sure how many other girls were part of the agreement. In addition, there are questions about who fathered the children, along with legal ramifications in cases of statutory rape. It’s reported that at least one of the babies was fathered by a 24-year-old homeless man.

Following these stories this week, I couldn’t help but think about the end of the film Lord of the Flies. Remember the story? A group of boys create their own society void of adults while castaways on an island. At the end of the film, the first adult to encounter the boys and their self-made culture is troubled and confused by the unorthodoxy of their ways. He looks at the boys and asks, “What are you boys doing?” The more time passes and the more our culture evolves – or devolves – we are left asking the same. . . . like this week.

A few weeks ago in our Sunday School class we were talking about teenagers. One of our pastors reminded us that no matter what the sociologists say about the lists of issues facing kids, the number one most basic problem they all face is the problem we all face. . . that is, sin. So true. This week’s news offers more evidence of that fact. The world is broken, and that brokenness is seen in the multiplicity of factors that have combined in a perfect storm that leads to things like teen pregnancy pacts. There are declining moral standards, celebrity role models, girls starved for father-love who look for love in all the wrong places, the equation of “love” with sex, a desire for relational intimacy, absent or disengaged parents, guys who are all too ready to prove their masculinity by fathering children, etc. In the end, confused kids lead and guide other confused kids. Then, we adults wind up arriving with befuddled looks while asking, “What are you kids doing?”

Here’s a thought – perhaps we should be so attuned to the culture and what’s going on with the kids that we look in the mirror to ask ourselves, “What are we doing to and for the kids?”

My Horrible Sunday

**UPDATE** This is what my face looks like three days later, the swelling in my jaw still has not went down, but it is not very noticeable.

Sunday night I went over to Mugshots and had a few drinks. On my way home from the bar, two guys jumped me. They beat the crap out of me and stole my cell phone. I did not have my wallet with me, just some cash and my debit card. I must have put the debit card in my cargo pocket with my cigars, which the street thugs did not take.

Apparently I was unconscious for a few moments and when I came to the cops were there. At first they thought I fell, but then quickly realized I had been jumped. They took me to some hospital near by, I think it's called Ohio Valley General. I received two stitches over my left eye and they gave me a CT scan to see if I had a concussion or any swelling in the skull area.

I stayed over night and the next morning my friend's dad came and picked me up. I guess I should mention that my friend was there as well and he too got jumped, but I am leaving him out of this because that is his story to tell and not mine.

Once I was home I realized that I lost something more valuable than my cellphone. My GREEN LANTERN RING!!! That was a gift from my dear wife, Allison, and I have no idea if I will be able to find another one. That thing has become my trademark. People always ask me about it.

Anyways, my new phone will be here tomorrow, apparently it came this morning, but I was asleep. So at some point I will need you all to either IM me your number, or send me a text message, best bet would be Thursday.

The purple spots indicate where the bruises and cuts are. Also, if you notice my jaw is quite swollen which makes it hard to chew. Damn, I really need a camera or a phone with a camera.

Annoying Movie Trend

The other night I watched The Sentinel and I noticed something that needs to stop right now. Before I explain what that is though, let me first say how bad the movie was. It was predictable and very boring, but I digress.

Movies love to play the whole cops versus other agencies rivalry to the point of unbelievability. Whichever group the movie is about is made to seem like they are geniuses while the other group comes off as morons. In the crappy movie named above, Kiefer plays a Secret Service investigator, who makes the D.C. detectives look silly with his uncanny ability to search a crime scene. Or in Boondock Saints, the cops are inept, but the FBI agent is brilliant.

It also works in reverse, Marky Mark makes the great comment in The Departed: "My theory on Feds is that they're like mushrooms, feed 'em shit and keep 'em in the dark."

The problem as I see it, the film makers want us to believe that their character is superior in some way, but why not just point out his achievement, why point out the failure of someone else. Plus, why make law enforcement agencies look bad, is there some message there? I am pretty sure most of those people, in whatever department, can do their jobs.

That's just the way I see it. Who agrees with me? Or wants to name more movies where they do this sort of thing? A great movie where this was not an issue, Inside Man, which showed the detectives being smarter than the beat cops, but the beat cop being decent at his job and not being the guy screws it all up...

Girls kissing girls. . . .

A few weeks ago, CPYU’s Chris Wagner gave me a heads-up about a new artist he thought was positioned to land very, very soon on the landscape of today’s youth culture in a big, loud way. He emailed me a link to the video “I Kissed a Girl” on Katy Perry’s website. The site touts Perry’s upcoming album, One of the Boys, which will be released this coming Tuesday.

Anticipating a big splash, I decided to view Perry’s song and video through the “3D” evaluation tool we use and promote here at CPYU. Two weeks ago I wrapped up my evaluation of “I Kissed a Girl” and sent it off to the editor for inclusion in the Summer 2008 edition of ENGAGE (which will be out next week by the way). During the research process, I learned that Perry – real name Katy Hudson and the daughter of two conservative church pastors – is really not a newcomer to the music scene. In fact, she released a self-titled debut album, Katy Hudson, in 2001. At that time, she was pursuing a career in contemporary Christian music (you can read Christianity Today magazine’s review of that album here).

Katy Perry is one to watch. I think she offers us an interesting and sad case study in youth ministry, faith development, and contemporary adolescent values, attitudes, and behaviors. Since Chris sparked my interest in Perrry, I’ve had numerous culture-watching friends email (Josh Keller, among others) or call (thanks David Fraze!) to ask if she’s on our radar and if we're going to post something. The answer is “yes.” Because there’s such interest and because her album hits stores next Tuesday, I’ve decided to pop the lid off of the “3D” review that will appear in the Summer 2008 edition of ENGAGE, and give it to you here in its entirety (below). This is an artist and song you must talk about with your kids.

Song/Video: "I Kissed a Girl"
Background/summary: This is the first single release off 23-year-old rising star Katy Perry’s debut album, One of the Boys. Born Katheryn Hudson, she grew up in a Christian home where both of her parents were conservative pastors. She released a Christian album under her real name in 2001. Claiming she was not a good Christian girl during her adolescence, she is pursuing her music career with a new name, new sound, and a new message/worldview. The single was pre-released on April 29, 2008, and quickly rose on the charts. The full album debuted on June 17, 2008. Perry has been dubbed “the next big thing” by Blender magazine, and the “one to watch” by Teen People.

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Discover: What is the message/worldview?
• The video for this catchy and musically formulaic pop song opens with a quick image of Perry lying seductively in bed. Images continue to flash across the screen quickly for the video’s duration, showing Perry and numerous other scantily lingerie-clad girls caressing themselves and flirting seductively with the camera while in close proximity to each other.
• While the song’s visual content serves almost as a soft-porn teaser that is sure to be a draw for sexually-curious young male viewers, the song’s title and lyrical content tell Perry’s story of kissing another girl. This is really a video for young girls.
• In the song, Perry says she didn’t plan or intend the kiss. Rather, with a “drink in hand” she lost her discretion and satisfied her curiosity over another girl that had caught her attention.
• After the kiss, she says, “I kissed a girl and I liked it/The taste of her cherry chapstick/I kissed a girl just to try it.”
• As she processes her response to the kiss, she describes how it felt both “so wrong” and “so right.” Still, this “don’t mean I’m in love tonight.”
• The random and boundary-less nature of sexual experimentation in today’s culture is captured in the fact that Perry says she doesn’t even know the girl’s name, and that the girl is her “experimental game.”
• Perry goes on to justify the kiss by describing “us girls” in purely physical terms as “so magical, soft skin, red lips, so kissable, hard to resist so touchable, too good to deny it, ain’t no big deal, it’s innocent.”
• As the video draws to a close Perry says, “I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it.” The camera draws back and Perry is seen sleeping in bed next to her boyfriend. As she opens her eyes she realizes she’s been dreaming, but the smile on her face as she rests her head back on her pillow indicates that she enjoyed the dream.


Discern: How does it stand in light of the biblical message/worldview?
• The video clearly depicts a current cultural reality related to our fallenness as human beings, particularly how the fall effects our God-given sexuality. The Scriptures tell us that God made all things and pronounced them all “good.” In Genesis 3:6 all things are polluted by sin. "I Kissed a Girl" offers lyrical and visual evidence of this brokenness and how it is being uniquely embraced, expressed, and celebrated in today’s youth culture through distortions of sexuality.
• God’s clear plan for celebrating and experiencing our sexuality in all its glorious fullness invites us into exercising that gift in the context of a committed, life-long, heterosexual marriage. Fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are wrong.
• We all make decisions based on some authority. In this case, Perry opts out of making behavioral choices based on God’s plan as revealed in His Word, instead choosing a personal, feeling-based ethic. She does what she does based solely on feeling and attraction, thereby justifying any of the choices she makes. The Scriptures call us to make our choices and live our lives according to the revealed will of God and to His glory, not our own satisfaction.
• Women are depicted as objects. The Scriptures teach that God looks on the heart, not on outward appearance. In addition, we are to find our identity in who we are in Christ. Not on what we look like on the outside.

Decide: What do I do with it?
• Because it mirrors our culture, "I Kissed a Girl" offers those called to love and lead kids an eye-opening glimpse into several rapidly developing mainstream cultural realities. Homosexuality is no longer stigmatized, but is now accepted and celebrated as normal. Feelings are the guide for life. Girls are taught to assume the role of objectified boy toys. Our teenage boys increasingly enjoy watching girl-on-girl sexual activity. Our teenage girls – even those void of lesbian leanings or feelings – are engaging in what we might call “experimental homosexuality.” While it’s not pretty, these are realities that we must recognize and understand if we hope to address them.
• Because it serves to direct young viewers and listeners, "I Kissed a Girl" is more than a song kids will listen to. It actually serves as a map to life, guiding impressionable kids into accepting and practicing the values, attitudes, and behaviors that are depicted and promoted in the song. This includes a postmodern ethical relativism, and homosexuality.
• The song and video should be played for parents and youth workers. Use it to spark discussion on evolving values, attitudes, and behaviors, along with how to bring the light of God’s Word to bear on those realities in our day to day living with and ministering to kids.
• Since Katy Perry and her music are finding their places in the collective consciousness of today’s youth culture, she and her music are realities that we can’t ignore. Kids are seeing and hearing the music of Katy Perry. We suggest that after securing parental permission, youth workers view the video and deconstruct its message with their middle school and high school students. The exercise will not only offer opportunities to bring the light of God’s Word to bear on the song’s faulty messages, but will serve to teach kids how to think Biblically and Christianly about their media choices.
• Katy Perry’s own personal story and transformation can be used to spark a discussion on the true nature of being a Christ-follower, how to integrate faith into all of life, and how to guard ourselves from falling prey to dominant cultural values that oppose the way and will of God.

This Goes With Today

Since work has been filled with Hawaiian shirts and what not, here is a fun clip from Aqua Teen.

Friends Section Changed

I changed the Friends to Read section into a blog list, that way I know when some of you update your blogs and whatnot. Which leads me to this point: some of you need to update. Hell write anything, that means you brother.

Anyways, to help you motivate everyone, here is a hot chick:

Fantasy Baseball Week 10

Honestly, there is a reason Offord's team and my team are at the bottom of the standings. If your team had to face this line: 24 Runs, 8 HR, 28 RBI, 5 SB, .259 AVE, 2 W, 4 SV, 68 K, 4.02 ERA, and 1.49 WHIP, you would probably be pretty pumped that it would be an easy win.

Sadly, that was Offord's team, I lost week ten, 6-4. My pitching beat him this week, yes I won saves for once, four of mine coming from Capps. My hitting was atrocious, although to be fair, his was not much better.

Zack Greinke may be about done for me, after a great start, he has slowly went downhill. Once Dice-K comes back, Zack may get das boot.

Great Weekend

I rarely tell people about my weekends, but this is one of those times where I feel I must share it. I cannot say that it was one of those weekends where crazy shit happened, nor were there many great stories from it, yet it was absolutely relaxing and a ton of fun.

Saturday
I went to my mom's house and washed my car and tried to get a little bit of sun. My mom and brother came home and we played a few games of rummy, which I lost every time. Adam left and I decided to get a shower, where I noticed that I got a little bit more sun than I realized, my back had a slight burn to it.

It is funny because I have not really had much of a chance in the past bunch of summers to really be outside and get any kind of tan. Well this weekend helped change that for awhile.

I went over to State College and picked up Kacie and we went for ice cream at Meyer's Dairy, which has delicious ice cream, I recommend it. We tried to go miniature golfing, but oddly enough the place was closed. Every time I go there it seems to be closed.

We then dropped my car off at her place and walked over to Champs. We sat out on the deck and had a great time BSing and making friends with our server who happened to be very funny and friendly.

Sunday we went to the pool and did a little swimming and laid around just relaxing. I got to read some of my comics, which is always a plus. I left State College and headed to my mom's house to get the rest of my laundry and then made my way back home to Crafton.

Like I said, nothing mind blowing, but a very nice weekend.

Blood Everywhere. . . .

During my college years I had a summer job that was very eye-opening. I worked as a Mental Health Technician in a private psychiatric hospital that was in the middle of shifting from an old school sanitarium for chronic cases (think One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) to a more modern facility that was focused on treatment and cure. Having grown up near the hospital’s property I had heard, believed, and spread many of the myths and legends about what went on deep into the grounds of the old stone estate that lay at the end of the long, long tree-lined driveway. To put it bluntly, the place was scary. I learned much about the old ways of treating mental illness, along with the emerging new treatments that were rapidly unfolding.

It was the mid-70s. And lost in the transition of what was really going on at least several times a week on the 20-bed adolescent ward that I helped manage during the afternoons and evenings, was a frightening regular occurrence. A not-so-unusual and all-too-frequent behavior we encountered was self-inflected cuts – usually on the arms and wrists – among our population of young patients. Because we were in supervisory roles, we worked with the nurses and doctors as part of the mental health team to record behaviors and enact treatment plans. I distinctly remember – most likely because it was happening regularly – that we were instructed to first seek medical attention for the bleeder, and then to make a chart entry indicating a “suicidal gesture” or “attempted suicide.” Based on what we know now, we were totally missing it.

Some 20 years later – back in the early 90’s – I received a letter from a local woman whose two teenaged children were attending a local Christian high school here in Lancaster County. The woman described some strange behavior her two kids were encountering among a growing number of their friends at the Christian school. They were cutting themselves. I embarked on a mission to get more information, knowing that there had been some significant developments in our understanding of this behavior. I went to the medical library at the local Penn State University teaching hospital in Hershey, and began my search. I found very little in the journals. In fact, the other day I pulled out the file and saw just how little there was. . . . not just in volume, but in understanding. Researchers at that time knew this much: it was happening more, it was happening mostly among young teenage girls, it was largely hidden and not discussed, those who did it were finding emotional relief, there seemed to be a common-thread of sexual abuse victimization in the past history of cutters, and there was a desperate need to do more research in order to gain understanding.

Fortunately, we have been learning more. Unfortunately, more and more kids are cutting and they are doing so with greater frequency and intensity. If you know anything at all about youth culture, you know that cutting is far more common and widespread in today’s world. Just this last week I spoke with another group of Christian college administrators and faculty who say that on their campus – like all other Christian college campuses – cutting and disordered eating continue to populate female dorms at epidemic levels.


This is one of those trends that we cannot ignore. My good friend Marv Penner has been counseling and working with cutters for years. He continues to research the problem and his understanding runs deep. I’m on a mission to get the word out to every youth worker, pastor, and parent about Marv’s new book, Hope and Healing for Kids Who Cut: Learning to Understand and Help Those Who Self-Injure. Each of us plays a vital role in identifying, helping, and referring cutters so that they might find the healing that comes not through the shedding of their own blood, but through the bloody wounds of the one who heals all wounds.

Several years ago I was speaking to a group of youth workers from a large national youth organization. I consider them to be some of the best at reaching kids. After I spoke, I had some great conversations with stragglers. I had difficulty listening to what one straggler was asking me. His arms interrupted my ability to listen. From his wrists all the way up to where his arms disappeared underneath his sleeves, every bit of his skin was covered by horizontal scars. It looked like scars on scars. He didn’t cower from my question nor did he think it rude when I asked, “Would you tell me about your arms?” I learned a lot more about cutting that day. I learned a lot about that young youth workers life and his past struggles. I learned about the redemption he had experienced. I saw why he was so effective in his ministry with kids who cut. This is stuff we all need to learn.

Work Attire

This is the great thing about a weird promotion at work. Yes I get to wear a Hawaiian shirt for the month. No I do not care how ridiculous they look, it beats wearing a long sleeve shirt and tie every day.

The Boondocks

As of right now, one of my favorite things to watch is The Boondocks. If I miss it at 12:30, I will stay up until 4 a.m. to watch it. There are so many fantastic things about the show, but I think a clip from last night's episode helps explain my addiction.

Oh and for the fun of it, a second clip from the same episode.

Mugshots Pens Victory

This is what happens when the Pens win in 3OT at Mugshots. We drink from Danny's makeshift Stanley Cup. GO PENS!!!

Good Job Adam

Finally my brothers undying love for shows on E! has paid off. He told me about this clip from The Soup which is pretty hilarious.


I love that Drew Carey even questions the tactic and the lady does not even realize she is a moron. I hope after the show someone hit her with a tire iron.

Fantasy Baseball Week 9

Nothing worse than leading 6-1 going into the weekend and watching your team self destruct. My hitting still continues to do damage, yet trading away Crawford has hurt my stolen base production.

Pitching was rocking it, my team was leading in every category except saves, then Cole Hamels single handedly destroyed me. His 11.12 ERA and 1.59 WHIP shot my score up to the point that I lost both categories. Also not picking up a win from my ace killed me since that left us in a tie for wins.

Sunday was the worst, my hitting dipped and my AVE dropped like 40 points causing me to lose that category and the match up, 5-3-2. Still in next to last place, a few games ahead of Offord, who I play this week.