i'm back!

got back from England on Friday night. let's see... picking up from where i left off:

the second meeting with Nolland went very well. i'm really encouraged... my next step is to learn a little bit more about research methodologies. then i'm going to be exploring the book of Acts, and see how it provides a hermeneutical window on the book of Luke, and its depiction of the miraculous. looking like my dissertation is going to focus on the meaning/significance of miracle in early Christianity.

after Bristol we caught a bus to Birmingham, and then on to Holyhead, where we picked up our ferry. on the way out of Birmingham our bus clipped another bus, so we ended up waiting there for about 45 minutes before we got underway. then we encountered a ginormous (gigantic-enormous) traffic jam on the way to Holyhead, and ended up arriving over 2 hours late! needless to say, we had missed our ferry, so had to catch another. ended up arriving in Dublin at around 10pm.

Dublin is *CRAZY* on Saturday nights, especially in the Temple Bar area. not sure if i've ever seen quite so many people packed into a few square blocks. wow! our hostel was right in the middle of it, literally next door to one of the more popular pubs. our room was tiny, and packed with 10 beds (5 bunks). i was very disappointed at how small the room was... but that wasn't the worst part; we must have been in the noisiest street in Ireland. i kidd you not, at around 1am in the morning there was someone smashing beer bottles right outside our window, for about 30 minutes. he must have been recycling or something. then at 6am they were stacking metal beer kegs right down the street.... not even ear plugs can block that.

we did some sightseeing around Dublin... the zoo, Trinity College, St. Patrick's, etc. after a couple days of this it was time to leave. headed back to Bristol to spend the night, and then off to London.

London was fantabulous. my favorite city in the world. we arrived in the afternoon, and our first task was to ride the London Eye... a gigantic ferris wheel (kind of). that was a lot of fun... great way to see the city. after that we headed to Leicester Square, where they do all the movie premiers. got to see Tom Hanks (from about 50 yards) for his premier of Polar Express. then we went to go watch a movie... this is funny; we wanted to see 'After the Sunset', the new Pierce Brosnan movie... we got confused and ended up in 'Before Sunset' by accident, an independent film with Ethan Hawke. the entire movie is a single dialogue... i kinda enjoyed it, but was definitely not what my dad was looking forward to. oh well.

the next day my dad and i headed out to Wimbledon. he's a huge tennis fan, so it was cool to see Center Court and all. then we stopped by the British Museum and saw a cool 3-D presentation on a mummy... very nice... i love that museum. ate lunch at a nice pub. then off to St. Paul's Cathedral. this was the highlight of the day... we climbed over 800 steps to get to the top, and had an amazing view of the city. i can't believe they built this thing 300 years ago... Unbelievable. people are amazing. after the cathedral we tried to make it to the Tower of London, but we were too late... it looked really cool... next time i guess.

the flight back was OK. i had exactly the same seat as i did on the way over. watched 'Little Black Book', which sucked. read a lot of an N.T. Wright book i'm working on.

hello from Bristol

...well, here we are, in Bristol.

the plane flight over was long, but not terribly bad. my dad and i were able to get emergency-row seats, which meant a bit more legroom. we flew on an airbus (i think A300) that was pretty big, but not like a 747. each seat had its own video display, so you could watch whatever you wanted at any time.. pretty nice... i watched 'the bourne supremacy', which i liked a lot. i had a feeling that some good stuff (gratuitous violence) was edited out, but still made for a great flick. later on i re-watched 'the anchorman', which was great, even the second time around. the lady next to me was, er, generously proportioned, so i didn't have a lot of elbow room, but at least she didn't snore. the flight was quite bumpy, but not too bad (i guess the plane is too big to really get thrown about). i was surprised to see that we had a 120 mile tailwind. i guess the wind really gets going at 37,000 feet! our ground speed was something like 700 miles per hour... not shabby... and we arrived about 40 minutes early.

after the plane, we had a 3.5 hour bus ride to Bristol. the bus was quite a bit more comfortable than the plane, and we were practically the only people on it. then in Bristol we had to find which local bus to take... took us about 1.5 hours to actually get to the college. so overall a good 21 hours of travelling, from airport to college. by the time i went to sleep, i had been awake for almost 40 hours.

slept like a log last night! i think i slept for about 11 hours or so. in the morning i went to use my electric shaver, which i thought would work here because it said '~250' on it, which i thought meant 250 volts. i'd used a hair-dryer from home in the past, which worked just fine here. well, i plugged it into the adapter, then into the wall, turned it on, and it died in about 2 seconds... smelled burning plastic after that... i tossed it in the garbage can. i'm thinking it wasn't rated for 250 volts after all. went and bought a good ol razor this afternoon.

we had a 'continental' breakfast... cereal and toast. then i met with my advisor at around 11am. the meeting went well. he had read my thesis, which he said he enjoyed. he said it was 'well organized' and that i was a good writer (apparently a lot of people who do graduate work have to really improve their writing skills first). after those nice words he went on to tell me that while it was a good paper for what it was (a master's thesis), it was not to the level i'll need for a successful Ph.D. dissertation. he then went on to tell me why: basically i made too many implicit assumptions in the course of the work. in my dissertation i'll need to write for both a secular and religious audience, so have to be careful about that. he also said i pulled some ideas from sources without taking full consideration of their overall context. also that i too often assumed that the texts were transparent windows into history, without taking enough consideration of the author's motives... also that i need to figure out what kind of research i'm doing: history or biblical theology, or both... that i need to be careful that i have 'methodological clarity' when i pull from such a wide variety of sources. you can't pull something that takes a sociological approach then something from a historical approach and then something from a theological approch without making sure they form a coherent unity. also that i neglected the role of the cross & resurrection in my discussion of miracles... how does jesus' suffering and death impact my understanding of the miraculous.

all these were very good points, and i'm not surprised or discouraged that my thesis was a far cry from what my dissertation will need to be. i'd actually be a bit depressed if it wasn't, since i wouldn't have to learn much in that case. it also means that i can pretty much focus on the same topic for my dissertation, since nothing i wrote thus far can be taken over directly (you can't use the same work to fulfill two different degrees). i meet with nolland again tomorrow morning at 11, and hope to hammer out the direction of my work in the next year or so.

well, that's all for now... i'll write again soon.

England, here we come!

well, i'm heading out this evening for London with my dad. my flight leaves at 9:30pm this evening, and i arrive in london at 10:05am their time, wednesday. i usually don't get any sleep on flights, but i'm hoping to break that pattern... it makes for a really long day otherwise (basically awake for about 40 hours straight... ouch!) i think it's going to be a total blast hanging out with my dad. i'm going to miss julie a lot, but hope she has a good time with friends while i'm gone.

We'll first head to Trinity Theological College where I'll be meeting with John Nolland, my advisor. After Bristol, we'll head to Dublin, where we'll stay at Barnacles Temple Bar House. Then it's back to London, where we'll be staying at YHA City of London. Hoping to see lots of fun things!

Cloudy

It's been really cloudy here lately... I've only seen the sun a few times for the past few weeks. I don't mind the cold weather, don't mind the snow... but I really dread overcast skies day after day. I wish there was some technology that would get rid of it! That's what needs to be invented... a cloud disperser; then we could build a mountain maker (I'm thinking of a GIGANTIC bulldozer). Build some really big mountains, dig some new lakes, get rid of the clouds... oh yeah.

Wow, can't wait until this election is over. These TV ads and mailings are just *lame*. Are people really this stupid? Do these attack ads really work? Some little part of me is thinking that democracy is overrated. Seriously, I'd feel a little better about it if I thought most voters had any clue about the issues. On the other hand, the "smart" people don't seem to agree on anything either, so I guess democracy is the best bet. At least we can blame ourselves if the leadership sucks (at least 49% of us).

I've been feeling a bit sick lately. Haven't been sleeping well for the past 1-2 months, and this last week I've had some sort of flu bug. I'm waking up every morning congested, and I'm having interrupted sleep... feel tired all the time. I have some suspicion that something is in our room/bed that I'm allergic to. I have a doctor's appointment on Monday.

I'm really excited about the new Biblical Greek for Everyone class that Brown Kinnard and I will teach, starting tomorrow. We've had really good sign-ups, and looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Only one and a half weeks left until I go to England! Yeah! Can't wait. Only bummer will be not seeing Julie for 10 days... that sucks. Please pray for a safe trip.

stuff this week

Darn... I wrote a bunch of stuff but accidentally erased it. Oh well... here goes again:

I returned the Sennheiser headphones and ordered the Bose Triport. Can't wait! I love relaxing in bed at night getting deep into some good music. Really been enjoying Yo-Yo Ma lately. A friggin musical genius. Can't wait for U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb". It's got a track named "Yahweh" on it--cool.

Mowed the lawn yesterday. Getting brown--that time of year. Ground is pretty lumpy... i'm going to have to rent a lawn roller to smooth it out in the spring... don't want to sprain an ankle while playing lawn croquet! Also had some moles digging tunnels earlier this year. I sprayed some mole repellent and they went into the neighbor's yard. Then they spray the repellent and it comes back to my yard! Hate to have to kill the thing, but it really makes a mess. What to do?!

Can't wait for the trip to England in November. Really looking forward to the time with my dad. We've already got all the tickets, travel, lodging... everything is booked. I've never had such an organized trip before. My dad is really into seeing everything, so I think I'll be exhausted by the time I come back. It will be fun to see Dublin again... haven't been there since 1995. I like the Irish people... pretty warm and fun, although they can get a bit crazy at the pubs.

Went and saw Friday Night Lights with Jesse last night. I really enjoyed it--a lot more than I thought I would. Kinda reminded me of basketball camp when I was in high school. I remember the coaches talking about their high school basketball glory days, like it was the pinnacle of their lives. Sorta depressing... It's funny how sports seems to bring out the best and worst in people-- the aggressiveness, pride, ego, anger, selfishness, cruelty... but also (hopefully) sacrifice, honor, excellence. Sometimes I wonder if the good outweighs the bad.

Home life is really good. I love being married; love Julie. Marriage has definitely improved over the last couple of years. God is really good, merciful, patient....

Willow Creek Conference

Just got back from a conference at Willow Creek Church. Wow! What a place! The new sanctuary seats 7,500 people... their 'small' sanctuary seats 4,500. There were waterfalls, elevators, escalators, cafe's, wireless internet, dozens of giant LCD monitors... very cool. The conference was great; lots of good ideas and inspiration for neighborhood small groups. Can't wait to implement this stuff here at the church.

I'm getting better with the orthodontic device... still slurring certain words a little bit, but I'm sounding more normal than before.

Really looking forward to the November trip to England with my dad. We're flying into London, then taking a bus to Bristol, where I'll spend a few days at Trinity Theological College working with my Ph.D. advisor John Nolland. Then we'll take a ferry over to Dublin, Ireland, spend a few nights at a hostel, and then head back to London for a few remaining days.

It's starting to get cold here! Down into the 30's last night... I *love* the fall; the leaves, the crisp, cold air, cider & donuts, fireplace, down comfortor...ahhh.

I got my new Sennheiser 555's... they're awesome, but unfortunately they don't insulate the sound very well, so others can hear them... I may have to return them. I might get the Bose headphones, unless Sennheiser has something better.

Yipeee!!

South Beach

Well, I'm doing the South Beach Diet thing. Can't believe it... two weeks ago I can't believe all the people doing it, and now I'm one of them. I was in Sam's Club and saw the book there on the shelf... and BAM! I'm doing the diet. I've been way under-active and eating too much junk... this is sort of a nice jump-start to eating better. Plus it's not un-healthy like Atkins... you still eat carbs and you don't eat bad fats.

Life is good! Things are going well at church, Julie and I have more time at home now, i'm done with the thesis, and the German class is easy. I'm going to a small-groups conference at Willow Creek church later this month. Should be fun... it's a huge church doing lots of cool stuff. I'm hoping I get to drive the Matrix out there... haven't talked to Julie about it yet.

I'm looking forward to seeing Agent Zero soon... right up my alley... looks cool.

Speech Impediment

On monday my father-in-law (Julie's dad) put a new "device" in the roof of my mouth... it's connected to the braces on my upper teeth and is designed to spread my upper jaw apart. Apparently the arch of the roof of my mouth is too narrow, and is preventing proper placement of my lower jaw.

Well, this device is a convoluted piece of steel wire that hangs about 3/4 inch below the roof of my mouth, from side to side. Problem is, I can no longer touch the roof of my mouth with my tongue, so it's pretty much near impossible to make a "y" sound, "eeee", "r" is hard (or any of the "velars" for you linguists).

Plus, I just started a new German class at WCC, so i'm trying to say German words and can't even speak English right now... ugh! So I'm trying to tough it out until Monday... apparently it takes about a week for your tongue to adapt, so patience....

Dun!

I was up until 6:30am this morning finishing the rough draft of my thesis. Did it! Thank you Diet Mountain Dew. Haven't stayed up that late in a LONG time. Did you know that the sun rises in the east?! Amazing.

I'm hoping to have some relaxing down time soon... I have to do a funeral tomorrow at 2pm, but after that it's back to a slower pace of life. Maybe get some exercise, breathe some fresh air, take a walk, ahhhh....

Two-Parter

Got to preach again this weekend, as well as last weekend. My first 2-part series! I did "Hearing God's Voice"; you can listen to the audio or read the notes here. Had a good time, but felt a bit tired and repeated myself a bit too much.

I'm really beat... this was one of the most grueling months I've had in years. Replacing the clutch on my truck, fixing the house for the home tour, thesis, 2 weeks of preaching, trip to NH. Man, I just want to do *nothing* for about a month after this... maybe watch some TV or see a movie if I feel really motivated.

I'm heading to see the in-laws in Kalamazoo Sunday evening after the home tour... looking forward to a few hours of down-time, although I'll be taking the 'puter for evening thesis work.

Vacation, Car, Thesis, House

Wow, what a busy time...

Julie and I had a nice family reunion with my side last week in New Hampshire. We stayed at a Baptist Conference Center in Rumney, NH. It was a bit cramped, but enjoyed just hanging out with my dad, brother, sister, her husband and 2 kids. I finished The Waste Lands, and started a Tom Clancy novel, The Teeth of the Tiger.

We just picked up our new 2005 Toyota Matrix XR today (phantom grey pearl). I love it... lots of head room and a smooth ride, fairly affordable. Not a lot of power, but great gas milage. Nice to have a dependable vehicle now.

The thesis is coming along nicely (I'm at about 98 pages, 25,000 words, hoping to end up with about 30,000 words) ... I'm hoping to finish the rough draft by the end of the weekend. What a lot of work!

We're on the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival's home tour this year. We're trying to get everything cleaned up and fixed before Friday...

Well, that's all the time I have for this blog right now.

The Village - The Waste Lands

Julie and I sawM. Night Shyamalan's The Village last night at Quality 16. I really like his movies... they always get ya thinkin, and this one is no exception. My favorit is The Sixth Sense, but I also really loved Signs. I really appreciate Joaquin Phoenix... great actor!

I finished King's The Drawing of the Three last night, and just checked out The Waste Lands (Dark Tower III). They're totally different from the other King novels I've read, but I'm really enjoying them... great escape reading.

Still plugging away at the thesis. I'm probably about half-way through my third big chapter, and it's currently at 75 pages... just for this chapter. I'll probably have to trim it down to about 40-45.

Bummer

Yesterday (Sunday) after church, I spent the entire afternoon and evening working on the house.  I put up three lights: one over the side porch, one in the foyer closet, and hung a chandelier in the foyer.  Then Julie and I worked outside, putting in a bunch of edging.  After that, I cleared out this vine that was attacking our Magnolia tree and my gardening shed.  I had plans to see a movie (Bourne Supremacy) with some friends (Ken, Donnell, John, et. al.) at 9:05pm at Quality 16.  When I walked in the house and checked the clock, it was already 9:03.  I was extremely bummed, to say the least!  Then, around 10:45 (after sulking for a long time) I called up Jesse to do some online computer gaming.  Once I had my desk ready, I went to set up the computer... and remembered that I hadn't brought my computer home!  By then it was too late for me to go get it... what a day!  Ugh.

Free iPod

Hey, I found out about a cool deal from Jesse's blog... a way to get a free iPod.  Of course, since I got this idea from Jesse, it's only fair that if you know him you should help him get the free iPod, not me.  Otherwise, you could sign up for a free promo and help me by clicking:

click here

You might consider doing the eBay promo... all you have to do is register and place a bid on something, you don't even need to win the bid.  So you could bid on something that costs a penny, and you'll surely not win... sound good?  All you have to do is get 5 other people to sign up and YOU get a free iPod.  Thanks for the idea Jesse!  I'll see if I can do one of your promos to help you with your free iPod too.

Thesis

Plugging away at my thesis this week. I have to have the rough-draft finished by the end of this month, and then the final draft done by the end of August.  I have two chapters done, and I have about 30 pages of notes for my third chapter, which I will probably begin writing on Monday.  After that all I need to do is write an introduction chapter and an 'application for today' kind of chapter.  Can't wait to finish!  I've been working on this degree since 1996!

I finished The Gunslinger, and am currently reading The Drawing of the Three, both part of Stephen King's Dark Tower series.  I'm really enjoying this series so far... very happy that it's a long series that will keep me occupied for a long time to come.  I love post-apocalypse/sci-fi/fantasy stories, so this is perfect.  I've always liked Stephen King a lot... I've read It and a few others... I haven't read The Stand, but I hear it's his best work.

Sting Concert

Had dinner with Peter & Tonnie Thursday at Mediterrano to celebrate Julie's birthday.  Then went to the Sting & Annie Lennox concert last night with Julie at the Palace.  Great show!  We were a bit surprised that Annie Lennox performed for so long--just about as much as Sting.  He did most of his songs from Sacred Love, but not all of them.  We were a bit shocked at the risque videos that were playing during some of the songs!  Who knew that so many of his songs (like Sacred Love and Dead Man's Rope) were about naked women!  The most entertaining thing we saw was a middle-aged woman who danced (quite badly) at the top of the nearest stairwell during the whole show... but she looked to be enjoying herself!

Healing Prayer

Had a great time preaching this last weekend. (Click here for the sermon audio and notes). It was probably the easiest time I've had doing prep... mostly because I had two really great healing stories I got to show, and also because I "borrowed" several good sermon points from a Rich Nathan sermon.

I've been working like crazy to get the electrical finished in our house. I've been working on this for the last 3 years, and I'm ready to be done with it. My hands are sore and have cuts all over them. It's fun to literally see the fruit of your labor though, when you turn on the lights and they work!

I'm reading a Stephen King novel, The Gunslinger, part 1 of the Dark Tower series. Pretty good so far...

Sermon Prep

I have the opportunity to preach this weekend! I should be reading and praying, but instead I'm here typing in my blog... I'm a procrastinator. I have a love-hate relationship with this phase of sermon prep--I don't have a text or topic yet, which is good and bad... it's fun because I can choose whatever I want to preach on, but there's literally a cornucopia of possible topics floating around in my brain. (note: i threw in "cornucopia" to add a little panache to this blog) (note: I threw in "panache" for the same reason) (note: i'm aware of my misuse of the term "literally", since there is not a "goat's horn overflowing with fruit, flowers, and grain, signifying prosperity" in my head [at least I hope not]) I hate it when people misuse the word "literally." I had a friend who said, speaking of his large and bulky car, "it's literally a tank." That literally made me puke (speaking figuratively). Speaking of which, what's with the parking situation at Arborland Mall? What were they thinking?

Stuck on You

On Thursday Julie and I ate dinner at Jesse & Ronni's and watched "Stuck on You"... a movie about conjoined twins (Matt Damon & Greg Kinnear). Very funny! The humor was raunchy at times, so I'm glad I wasn't the only one laughing. Also, Jesse picked up a couple copies of Ground Control 2, a new real-time strategy game. Lots of fun! Can't wait to learn all the units.

Had a good men's group on Friday, at our new time (noon)... we used to meet at 6:45 on Thursday mornings, but every week someone would oversleep. Dave Wild showed up, the other guys couldn't make it this week.

I'm starting a Tuesday evening Guy's Poker Night, beginning in August... definitely need some more hang-out time with guy friends. Looking forward to it! Also doing Diplomacy night this Tuesday. Haven't played in ages, but should be a blast.

Lose Yourself

Had karaoke night at church tonight... what a blast! Last time, Ken, Donnell and I did the Rightous Brothers "That Loving Feeling"... Tonight I did two Eminem songs. I actually like rap a lot, when I can stand the lyrics. Next time I might try a couple of 50 Cent songs!

Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted- One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

Yo

Life of Pi

Reading a cool book called "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel... very cool story about an Indian boy and his religious/oceanic adventures. Really diggin it... especially the battle scene between the tiger and the hyena. (You can tell I'm appreciating this book for all the wrong reasons.) Before this I read a few Tom Clancy novels... was last reading Red Storm Rising, but lost interest pretty quickly... hard to get enthralled with a story about the Soviet Union now that it's dissolved. I'd like to read a good thriller about middle-east terrorism, and I think Clancy has one like that.

Contact Lenses

Ouch! I just got contact lenses for the first time today, and I'm wearing them now... putting them in was worse than I thought! I'm not used to touching my eyeball on purpose :(

My eyes are going to take some time to get used to this. Hey, I have braces and contacts... once I get the braces off I'm going to be SEXY! (just kidding)

Man, I did something really stupid... I was reading about Michael Berg, the guy who got executed... did a search on Google, clicked on a link... then saw his execution video. Big mistake; don't know what I was thinking. Somehow I figured it was news, so what's the harm in doing some research. Also, I kinda thought that it's my duty as an American to really understand the nature of the people trying to kill us around the world - don't want to underestimate their brutality. But, I regret watching it.

My Blog

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Created a blog today.