I'm sitting here trying to work on an Annotated Bibliography paper for a book called The Gospel According to the Simpsons. It's an interesting book, but I'm going to have to stretch to do a ton on my subject, which is "Rhetoric in The Simpsons. I also have on "Baseball Tonight." The first game of the 2003 baseball season is tonight, though it's really the only game until tomorrow, the official "Opening Day." At 9pm I'll be going to see Bright Eyes play, which should be enjoyable. I should also be working on an article on Denison Witmer, too.

I also take breaks to handwash a few essential articles of clothing. I'm very tempted to take tomorrow afternoon off sick to come watch the first Cubs game of the year. Oh well, I suppose this is responsible life as an adult.

Earlier today I finished an essay about one of the techniques used by some youth leaders and speakers to get kids to promise to be abstinent until marriage. I think they should focus more on purity of heart rather than the importance of avoiding an act. Not only will give a better perspective going into choices, but help people approach life responsibly. I know I for one never focused on purity of heart because I figured I was fine since I'd never even had a girlfriend, kissed, etc. A pure approach to life will result in a pure approach to sexuality; we all make mistakes, we all fall, but the way of looking at life is more important than tiptoeing around a specific act. That's the gist of the essay; hopefully the whole thing will be published on our zine soon.

There's your update. I hope it's more interesting next time, eh?

With Love & Squalor,
Jo-el

I did end up making the trip after Bible study to get the new Joy Electric album. I hadn't really been in a "Christian book store" for quite some time, and was reminded why I prefer to keep it that way. Those sorts of places are far to saccharine and sanitized. I did pick up the album, though. I haven't gotten all the way through it yet; I started on the drive home and haven't been in a position to really listen to it just yet. Wasn't Ronnie going to start calling it Joy Electrical? I wonder what ever happened to that. I dig the cover, though it reminds me quite a bit of a prog rock album cover a la Yes or Styx.

I was really really hoping to get the new Joy Electric album today. Unfortunately, it's only available at Christian bookstores for now; it won't be in any other stores until May. I'm weighing right now whether I should attempt to go snatch it tonight after Bible study or hold off for another few days.

Well, I've been working on a Denison Witmer article. The transcribing is done, now I just need to have the roomful of monkeys (and squirrels) whip something together.

I've been drinking quite a bit of water today. I realize I'm the only one here paranoid about being dehydrated, but it's information I felt worthy of sharing.

My roommate Ben and I went to the park on Sunday afternoon and threw a frisbee around. Ben works out regularly, has an athletic build, and knew what he was doing. I hadn't touched a frisbee in literally years, so it probably seemed to him as if he was out there trying to toss discs with a five year old. I did get a good workout, though, running after the frisbee. That little session helped me realize how out of shape I really am. It's officially spring and while I'm busy, I do find time for good walks more these days. My next step (no pun intended) is to find some running shoes and start walking faster, jogging and running. I like to mix the 3 in together when I go out out. I tell myself it's a balanced workout when I know very well it's a way around admitting I just can't run a certain time or distance. I think maybe one of these days I need to get a football (somewhere I have a weird nerf one) and we could have some fun with that. I'm not really an athlete at all, but I could use to lose some of the extra flab I have hanging around and do something heart-healthy.

What I'm listening to:
The Clash, Sandinista!
Mae, Destination: Beautiful
Kathleen Edwards, Failer
Brandtson, Death and Taxes
Far Star, Broken Down and Wandering
Tricky, Blowback
The Byrds, Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Wilco, Summerteeth

Also, for the record...there's a situation (or two) I'm not going to really get into right now, but there are people in this world who really need to be under constant supervision so they'll just stop hurting themselves and others.

The world's largest Wind Farm is going to be located in Iowa.

Ever wonder who profits from war?
Fascinating article and more than a little revealing.

I'm too lazy to find a link, but the Midol.com website has a great educational game featuring superheroes who fight various PMS and menstrual symptoms.

Anyway, there's your happy new blurb to read. Feel free to use the "comments" to say hello, tell me how stupid I am, or ask me questions I have no intention of answering.
Now go eat some fruit.

Hello, friends.
I apologize for my lack of updates on this page. We being near the second quarter of the year mark, I have decided the time has finally come for "resolutions." So I resolve to update this more often (which shouldn't be terribly difficult in the contest of the last several weeks!), post more creative gunk on the Vagrant Cafe's "Table By The Window" Forum, and set aside blocks of time to work on zine stuff.

In case anyone is looking here to find out, I don't know why the Vagrant Cafe server is down.

As of tomorrow, I have two roommates.
They are both quite nice guys, from what I can tell so far.
One of them won't be around much, anyway.
The other is a writer type. He moves in tomorrow. The last time he was here, we ended up talking for half an hour or so about mysticism and the codes used within the Scriptures. He doesn't think he'll live here for too long, but having him around for a little while will be nice.

I'm on the third day of Lent (it starts a week later this year for the Orthodox). Lent so far has been both challenging and rewarding. Please pray for me.

Okay, I've had my time of staying away from this (due to being busy and just letting my thoughts be around without having to feel like it's absolutely necessary to post them) and I am back now.

look for more soon.

It's been a nutty week. This will most likely be a fairly short update as I'm at work (no 'net at home) and really must go back and do some homework before American Dreams comes on and I make a phone call after that.

I had dinner at Ryan & Jenni's last night. Kelly was also there. What a great time! Wonderful people. It's good to have such good people as friends.

Today after church, during our "coffee hour," I had some interesting conversations, the most interesting of which was with two people from our church who are both almost 80. We talked about death. They both have had experiences lately where they thought they were on the way out and we just had a really interesting discussion about death, being ready, etc. I swear, I must sound sick to most of you people, but it was one of my favorite conversations (not counting ones with i-know-who) I've had in quite some time. One of the people I graduated with died this past week. I just kind of always knew that not all of us would make it to our 10 year anniversary. There were fewer than twenty of us to graduate that year, but I still just somehow knew. Not that I'm not surprised...this was very sudden (a car accident) and the whole situation is very tragic. I find myself thinking about death fairly often. I'm not particularly up for talking about it right now (see the first paragraph here), but I suppose it just enters my mind fairly often.

Tomorrow is 03-03-03. For some reason, this is interesting to quite a few people.

Okay, well, time to go home and get some stuff done.