Hey, not too much time to blog lately. I've been busy working on a Sunday school lesson that I'm doing tomorrow.

I've decided to lead off the class on Evolution v. Creation with an in-depth look a the worldview of Naturalism. We'll be looking at it's presuppositions and faith claims and why it is internally inconsistant with itself. I figure that before we look at the facts, it's important for the student to understand that the facts don't speak for themselves. Hopefully it'll prepare them for the mindset that they'll be up against when they discuss these things with the evolutionist. Lord willing it'll not only teach them humility in debate but also increase their confidence as well, knowing that it's not the sophistication of their arguments that will win their opponents over, but the merciful regenerating Spirit of God.

It's been a great refresher course for me and I can't wait to get it started.

Cool...comments are back up!!

Have your say.

For those of you who wonder what I look like as a South Park character.



Go here and make yourself over.

Now if I can only learn how to tweak the pic to fit it in the link/archive part of the template...that would be sweet.

Oh, the flushing sound you're hearing??



That would be the Dodgers season.

You have to hand it to them though, no one expected that they would be playing meaningful games in September, not even me. Especially with that windmill farm they call an offense.

However a brilliant pitching staff with some excellent surprises (Odie Perez, the resurrection of Nomo, Ishii) can only keep fighting for so long with so little run support and no Kevin Brown.

I know, there's still 12 games left and only 2 behind the Giants...too early to start adminstering the last rites. But seriously folks, with Ishii out, Ashby's blister problem and Omar Daal being...well, Omar Daal, we are now forced to rely on Kevin Beirne and Giovanni Carrera to lead us to the promised land.

Ohhhhhh my head.

My two buds named Dave have used this time to remind me that there's still room on the Angels bandwagon. OK OK...They are no longer the "red headed stepchild" of So Cal alright? They are no longer the Dodgers' JV club. There that should pacify the Daves.

In all seriousness I have gained much respect for the Angels over the past couple of months, they really look like not only a legit playoff team but a World Series team and I'll be pulling for them.

Well let's see, with today's Mexican potluck at work that makes it three straight days I have had Mexican food for lunch and dinner.

No mas

UPDATE:

Quick status check...comments are down but new template is a go!!

I like it..no more straining my eyes!!

From the Orange County Times:

"California's Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin apparently believes that the thousands of California parents who home-school their children should be given a stark choice: Send their kids to public schools or to state-approved private schools, or face charges and, at worst, maybe even have their children placed in protective custody"

Disturbing? Yes!
Infuriating? Yes!
Encouraging? YES!!

Maybe now Christians will see this and start to leave behind thier silly quibbles about school prayer, equal time for creationism and leaving out any mention of "The Faceless Deity" out the great unitarian State creed (Pledge of Allegiance) and start getting down the real issues: Humanism vs. Christianity. Obedience to the State vs. Obedience to God.

Maybe now Christians will get serious about the call to come out and be separate and take their kids out of the official State Church...public schools.

With all the poormouthing of baseball today by "ex-fans" who complain that the high salaries are ruining the game, this quote from Rob Neyer's ESPN article is like a breath of fresh air:

"For the most part, "baseball" just needs to get out of the way, and let baseball do what it does. If people like Bud Selig and his cronies can just learn not to un-market the game with all their doom and gloom, the sport will be just fine. Greed may or may not be good, but it hasn't yet come close to killing baseball. And there's no reason it ever should."

The article shows that people have been crying foul due to high salaries since 1958. In 1970, Neyer writes about an Sports Illustrated article about "BASEBALL IN TURMOIL" that mentioned the then owner of the SL Cardinals, Gussie Busch as being upset due to a payroll that was fast approaching one million dollars. All at those times predicted gloom and doom for the future of baseball and still here it is.

"What's really misleading is the suggestion that "turmoil" is anything recent. You give me an hour at the National Baseball Library in Cooperstown, and I'll find you a story detailing baseball's "problems" from any year you care to choose. Baseball certainly does have its problems. Always has, always will. But what doesn't? It's baseball's particular burden is that its problems are written about in loving and sometimes hateful detail, in the most-read section of every important and not-so-important newspaper and magazine in the country.

All of this angst doesn't tell us that baseball is ailing, though; it tells us that baseball is still in our hearts and minds. If it weren't, would so many people bother writing about it?"

Read the article by Neyer.

All Tied Up Again Baby!!


Somebody must of woke Brian Jordan up and told him the season was still on.

I don't know if my heart can take three more of these games.

I have to figure out how I want to proceed on my Sunday School lessons. For the first time in awhile, I have been charged with developing a lesson plan and individual classes for the high school curriculum. The guy I'm teaching it with sugggested "Creation vs. Evolution" and I agreed. There are a few kids in our church that go to public school and undoubtedly they'll be dealing with it. This has been kind of tough though. I haven't studied this stuff in ages and now I'll be doing a crash course on fossil records and peppered moth myths for the upcoming weeks. Well good! It should be an edifying experience and one that should teach me a great deal.

I'll be teaching from a six, twenty-four hour, days position, something popular in mainstream evangelicalism but not too popular in Reformed churches these days, which is unfortunate. I'm thinking about starting the first lesson by introducing the fact that facts can only be interpreted according to one's worldview. So the naturalist will see things through the lens of naturalism and the creationist will se things through the lenses of creationism. It'll be a basic intro to presuppostional apologetics and then we'll flesh out and debunk some of the most popular sacred cows of the evolutionists' over the coming weeks. Yep should be fun!

Well still alive, seven hours into my work day. It's still a little hard to swallow but nothing compared to what it was on Friday & Saturday. I have my trusty companion, Cup of Ice Water, by my side to soothe the burny throat and I'm doing alright.

I go to the doctor's on Saturday and he looks at my throat and tells me that it looks fine. Here's a suggestion for all you future physicians out there, when your patient says that a certain body part has been agonizing him/her for a day or so DON'T tell said patient that the body part looks fine. Humor the poor sap, EMPATHIZE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

Anyway, he tells me that my ears look a little red and he prescribes the go-to drug for all busy or confused doctors: Amoxycillin. This is the wonder drug apparantly. If you ever get your arm caught in a threshing machine, do not grieve. You can surely grow a new arm by taking a few hits of Amoxycillin. Everytime I go to the doctor's it's Amoxycillin this, Amoxycillin that. I should buy stock in the stuff.

So I sit in the pharmacy, feeling quite awful, and I start watching some cheesy movie with John-boy in it. My number gets called, I score my fix and head home.

[Tip] When you go to the hospital and you need to bring a book, don't choose one that has a title like "The Failure of the American Baptist Culture" unless you wanna get some unpolite stares.[/Tip]

The kids were at my Mom and Dad's house until nine o'clock pm. I was able to get in some primo nap time, uninturrupted except by my occasional feverish babbling.

It wasn't until last night around 7 PM that my head got out of the spirit world, and I'm feeling much better.

Back from the Dead

Well, not exactly the dead but back from an uncomfortable bout with an ear infection which began Thursday as an annoying little sore throat and turned into by Friday night a 102.3 degree fever with sharp, fiery knives shoved into the back of my mouth.

The bad stuff started Friday afternoon when the sore throat turned into muscle aches and pains. I quickly wrote those off as the unhappy consequences of being a slug at work (I sit for 8 hours a day sans breaks & lunch), anyways no time for a little tightness in the joints, I'm going to an Angel game.

So 5 o'clock rolls around and I hop in my friend Dave's car and off we go, the throat being a little more agitated than normal, I start to get concerned. We go to Rubio's for some fish tacos (the only fish I eat) and I start sweating profusely as my teeth begin to chatter, so like the genius I am, I get up, go to the salsa bar and pick up a couple of pickled jalapenos and proceed to down them along with my fish tacos. Now...what posessed me to even begin to imagine that that was a good idea, I don't know. My throat, appreciating my kind gesture, returned the good deed by flippingthe pounding headache switch to 'ON'. Dave looks at the clock and suggests we go to the ballpark, all I want to do is to lay down and take a nap under the table.

We get to the ballpark and find that our seats are on the top level, wonderful. By this time I'm walking in a...well, remember that scene in "Young Guns" where the Regulators all drop a hit of peyote and start freakin' out shooting at imaginary chickens? Well that was me..in the spirit world, colors flashing, voices echoing, things starting to spin. We get to our seats and sit next to a guy who was really friendly (they were his seats, he gave them to Dave's brother who gave them to us), but to say the dude liked to talk was an understatement. I squeeeeeeeze my fat carcass into the seat right next to him and all I smell is the garlicy orange chicken from Panda Express that he's eating, which doesn't help matters. The evening is a little chilly and here I am, in a polo shirt, shorts and sandals, no jacket, no pants...way to plan ahead.

Note: I gotta give props here to my bud Dave, the guy is like the Boy Scout motto personified "Be Prepared". He's always brings a jacket, breath mints, comb in the car whatever you need. He's the one guy I'd want to be with if the bomb ever drops, dude would have an extra radiation fallout suit in the back of his truck. Endnote

Anyway, nine o'clock rolls around and my teeth start chattering as I start shaking pretty hard. I'm hearing no audio at this point, everything's an echo. I am watching the Angels on the field and right now that's all I'm focused on. The game can't move any slower, it's only the top of the fifth innning at 9:30. I cease all communication with my neighbors, saving all my energy for cheering at good plays. Mind you, I don't want to give any indication to anyone that I'm feeling sub-par. Dude next to me is still talking, he hasn't stopped since 7 o'clock. I mean, the guy is nice enough and I'm sure I'd enjoy his banter under normal circumstances but at this point DUDE SHUUUUT UUUUUUUUUUP. My throat feels like the sword swallower's after he missed, my head is throbbing, sweat is pouring down my face and I'm having a pretty consistent bout of the shakes. I'm almost positive I'm freakin' out Chatty Mc Blabberpants next to me.

Finally the ninth inning rolls around at about 10:30, PRAISE YOU LORD JESUS. I'm certain they're about to call security on me as I look like a basket case. The game ends and Talky Von Jibberjabber gets up to leave, as he's walking out I get up to shake his hand and thank him for the tickets. I lose my balance and nearly fall over the rail, but I stabilize myself and say what at the time I thought was a "Thank You" but looking back now I can't be sure. I walk, what feels like a mile, to Dave's car, praying all the way in between huffs and puffs, for God to give me the strength to stay vertical. We get to the car and drive back to my car which was still at work. I get in, switch on the heater at full blast and let the scorching air pummel me on my drive home.

I get to Walgreen's by my house and stop of to get some vitamins and some Chloraseptic.

[mini rant] Can somebody please tell me why they have the freezer section right next to the vitamin section? I mean nothing says comfort like picking up fever, aches and chills medicene right next to the frozen pizzas. I was about to lie down and scream for the paramedics. [/mini rant].

Anyway I get home, slam some medicene and go straight to bed where I pretty much remain for the next 36 hours. I'll post some snippets of Saturday when I get the chance tomorrow.