brahma? gesundheit!

click to see larger picture, eh?

tonight, lise and i went to Apna India in Clifton to have dinner. a favorite place to go and sit for 2-3 hours, eat, draw pictures of people we're mad at on the backs of the placemats, gaze longingly into each others eyes and try to forget all the stuff going on around us.

one of my favorite shops, Toko Baru, is on the same block as Apna, so we always must go in and shop around. tonight was a stunning trip certain to go down in history.

i got two Handy Hindu finger puppets. and folks, lemme tell ya: i'm jazzed.

i was able to get brahma, the hindu Creator god, one part of the hindu trinity which includes vishnu and shiva. he's credited with creating the human race out of himself, by making a goddess out of himself - half male and half female. he has four heads (and used to have five) but i'll refrain from explaining why. i'm sure you can do a Google search on brahma and find out more yourself.

i also got kali, the hindu goddess of time and of death. she's pretty wild looking, with six arms and her tongue sticking out. i'm certain that a Google search on kali would also explain more.

i was hoping they would have Ganesh (the elephant headed god - some of you will remember Homer Simpson disguised as this god), but alas they did not.

my hindu finger puppets join the ranks of my Satan Sock Puppet (thanks, Tracey!), Jesus Action Figure, Nunzilla and my catholic rosary. woo-hoo!

existentialism in the comic pages

certain friends of mine claim to not understand the comic strip Zippy the Pinhead.

click on the above strip to see it full size.

then read it.

do you honestly not get it??

20 years ago...

on january 28, 1986 at 11:39am i was in architectural drafting class at Amelia High School. my teacher, mr. shimp, let us listen to the radio at full crank while (as long as) we did our work. that's when we heard that the space shuttle challenger exploded during take-off.

it was one of those really stunning things. i'm not old enough to remember things such as Nixon resigning from office, wasn't born when Kennedy was shot. this was the first BIG thing that happened - the kind of thing that people say you'll never forget where you were when it happened. i never have.

the shuttle program has been around so long now that no one really pays attention when this or that shuttle is launched, but at this time in the history of NASA, shuttle liftoffs were still televised. a good part of the rest of the day was spent listening to the radio or watching the TV and seeing the explosion shown over and over and over and over again.

nothing profound to point out here. just remembering the awe and shock of that event. you hope that there might only be one of those kinds of events in your life, but then other things inevitably come along, both on a national / worldwide front and a personal front.

dolby's here!

click to see dolby a bit bigger.

got home with no problems! already sniffing around in things we're gonna have to move around. very goofy and playful - we're having fun exploring the house together - him finding things he shouldn't and me finding things i need to move. hah!

more pics later.

hair today, gone tomorrow

It was noted by a so-called friend that not only have the things listed in the previous post changed, my hair and hairline have changed as well.

back in '86 i had some serious hair. i mean, it was thick and difficult to deal with. hairspray and mousse were required to keep it in one place and a goodly amount of the morning before school was spent wrestling it into position.

now those of you who know me halfway decent know that my hair is not a source of vanity. i got tired of messing with it years ago and got it cut short and love it. i've bleached it and colored it purple, green, blue and pink in the name of youth ministry (lost bets, summer camp, among others) and have been mohawked at least once.

am i glad to have thinned out and moved back on top? i dunno that glad is the right word for it, but i will say that i'm glad to still have what's up there, but also glad that it's not as thick and unruly as it once was.

i made a pledge several years ago - i will never have a combover. ever.

i have only one complaint about the current state of my hair: about an inch down from my current hairline there grows one. solitary. hair. on my forehead. a reminder of where my hairline used to be. i've taken my hair loss and change in color (touch of gray?) completely in stride. but this one hair drives me nuts. it taunts me. cruel cruel hair.

reeling in the years

while getting the house puppy-proofed, moving things around and packing things that have been laying out, i came across my school ID from waay back in '86 - 20 long years ago.

what was different back then?

• i was skinny. no kidding. when you did all the things i did back in high school, there's no time to eat!
• i was in the jazz band (keys)
• i was in the choir (bass)
• the music i listened to included all the horrible stuff that the 80's produced (Chicago, Quarterflash, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Bruce Springsteen, Judas Priest, Elton John, etc.) - folks, it was a bad decade for music.
  
• i owned (and still have somewhere here in the house) those skinny little ties with the silly stuff all over them (my favorite was the white one with the keyboard going up the side).
• i didn't have a car.
• my best friends were the reason i made it through without killing myself
• my girlfriend at the time and i were involved in ALL the drama that so drives me crazy with high school students today (but she said that you said that omg i'm going to effing kill her and omg did you see what he is wearing and kiss me eww get away from me you stupid jerk i love you i hate you come closer get away).
• my best friend and i would spend our friday and saturday nights driving around the back roads of clermont county by the satanic church and chase kids, or maybe buy beer or wine coolers from those places we knew wouldn't ask me for ID and sit on the side of the road and watch the stars and drink.
• i wasn't a christian and thought all christians were buttheads. the strange thing is that now that i am a christian, i still think christians are buttheads. am i calling myself a butthead, too? but of course.
  
• i was afraid of nothing and did so many stupid and reckless things it's a wonder i made it through those years at all.
• i had no plan for life beyond right where i was at the time i was at. very very shortsighted and had no hope for the future at all.
• one of my friends and i tried out for a lip-synching contest/dance at school - we put on long beards, cowboy hats and had 2 tennis rackets and we lip synched to ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man - we were rejected.

here i am, 20 years later, 37 years old. it's a strange thing, getting old. whether it's good or bad, the jury is still out. i know for certain that i wouldn't go back to my high school years for anything. they weren't the "good old days" but i suppose they could have been a lot worse than they were.

we've adopted a puppy!

lise and i took the plunge this weekend and went to visit a labrador retriever rescue here in cincinnati. we had talked for months about getting a dog but never very seriously. this past week we decided to go for it - we wanted to get one from a rescue and this one seems like a great group of folks.

i was up late thursday night filling out the 4 page application - we figured it would be a couple weeks before we heard anything and got through the process of interviewing, etc. hah! friday morning we got the word that we were approved and we could come saturday and visit!

the first two dogs we wanted to see (Cassidy and Aero) were not going to work out for us. :-( we had decided before going that we weren't up to getting a puppy (too young, too much training, not house broken, wanted an adult dog that maybe no one else would want) but we were willing to look at them. BIG MISTAKE!

Dolby was adorable. of the 8 puppies they brought out (all at the same time) dolby was the sweetest, most laid back and cool dog of the bunch.

we didn't bring him home yet - he's being *ahem* "fixed" this week - between that and our need to dogproof the house (and buy lots of stuff for him), we'll be picking him up on friday.

excitement! nervousness! happiness! fear!

make an appointment to come see him next weekend.

my sentiments exactly...

click on the image to see it bigger

theory on christian thuggery

over the past couple months i've been trying to work a theory out on why christians treat each other as they do. why the backbiting? why the rude, accusatory way we treat each other? why the suspicion? why the doubt and questioning? why, especially, the lack of forgiveness (or even opportunity to attempt to make things right - achieve forgiveness and mend brokenness)?

is the answer really as simplistic as the fact that we're all broken sinners living in a broken world?

aren't we supposed to be set apart? aren't we supposed to be models for the world-at-large of how forgiveness and restoration are achieved? are we not supposed to be mirroring to each other (and the world) the very thing that Jesus came and showed? that Paul explained further?

i realize that this may sound like a knee-jerk reaction to recent events but the truth is that it's been in my mind since realizing my need for Jesus 17 years ago. in the 17 years since then, i've seen so many hurting people hurt other hurting people in the christian community and it disgusts me.

i'm certainly no saint and have done my share of the hurting (intentionally and not). upon realization of the hurting i've caused, i'm always needing to seek forgiveness - my conscience doesn't allow me to let these things go without acknowledging my part in it. mending what was broken and being given the opportunity to make right, or at least attempting to, is crucial.

but having discussed this with several people whose grasp of Jesus seems stronger than mine, the overwhelming sentiment is that we're sinners. broken. we don't play well in the sandbox together.

one person said, "scott, you're not REALLY surprised by all this!" "of course i am," i replied. "no " he said, "you're just shocked because it's your turn on the receiving end."

we're all just broken sinners?

seems like a copout.

I Love the Washington Post. I Miss DC.

people ask me why i miss living in the DC/Baltimore area and this is only part of it.

where else could you get a full article on the legality of mooning?

and to think - i lived there for 10 years and not once did i moon anyone in public. drat!

i did give the finger to a cop, however. that story has since become a great youth group illustration. i don't suggest trying it for yourself just to be able to tell the story. you can use mine.

Christmas in Pensacola

well, not exactly IN pensacola, but the week before christmas was spent there. they say a picture paints a thousand words, so let the pictures speak for themselves.

check them out here.

this was easily the best vacation we've ever had.