Book Review: Jesus Creed for Students

the first sentence of the forward of "Jesus Creed for Students" makes it perfectly clear why this book was written: "this book is about following Jesus." the authors (Scot McKnight, Chris Folmsbee and Syler Thomas) explain that this book is to be read alone but dissected in a group setting. the "Jesus Creed" is straight from Matthew 22, "love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." in short: life is about "loving God and loving others."

this book has been rewritten from the original version specifically for students to connect with, and it does an incredible job of being relevant, stylistically conscious, and, ultimately, very applicable for the life of every teenager.

relevance: this book takes questions that ever student deals with and packages them in a way that students can understand and wrestle with. questions like,

- who am i?
- who does God want me to be?
- how does God want me to live?
- is there more to Christianity than just being "good"?
- how do i talk with God?
- what is life all about?

but even more than providing accessible answers to those and similar questions, the authors are contextually relevant to today's teenagers. topics like social media, respecting parents, school life, labeling and judging. there is so much insight that can be gained from so many books, but very few books are written so that students can connect with them. students pick up a book, read the first couple chapters (maybe) and then put it down because it never connects with their world. this book does that very well and is very relevant for youth. my personal guess is that this book would be perfect for the 8th-11th grade age group.

the answers to these questions also push against the religious stances of today's American teenager. in the book, "Soul Searching", sociologists Christian Smith and Melina Denton study the religious life of the American teenager in ways no one has before. they concluded that rather than the true Gospel of Jesus, today's youth are following what Smith and Denton call "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism". this idea affirms the existence of God as a Creator and supreme being, but that he is only essential in hard times and that the most important parts of life are being nice, morally good people and to be happy about oneself. clearly, this is an incorrect view of the gospel, but it is a reality of today's students. the questions that "Jesus Creed for Students" asks are exactly what is relevant.

writing style: this book is a quick read - students won't have to stumble over cumbersome wording like they may when reading a book written for adults. the authors do an amazing job of articulating the Jesus Creed in a way that is accessible to youth, but also that it doesn't lose any of its overall message. the book paints what the true Gospel is all about in a way that students can read and not be bored or turned off.

it does this in a few different ways: first, the book uses this generation's lexicon. words like "wannabe", "grunge", and "popularity" - subtly, the authors have inserted the language that students can understand and connect with, thus, making them more effective in reaching their target audience. they avoid complex language and colorful sentences and instead employ hyphenated descriptors and culturally conscious creations.

- instead of "disciples" it's "Christ-followers".
- instead of the "second commandment" it's the "love-others statement".
- instead of "material possessions" it's "iThings", "iWants", or "iNeeds".

they're youthful enough to connect more effectively, but not childish enough to lose focus or impact (or to become overly silly with their creativity). students will connect with this book - with the concept of "loving God, loving others" - because it is written in their vocabulary.

practical application: in my opinion, application is the easiest way for students to connect well or to not connect at all with a certain concept. if i say, "pray more," then students may or may not actually pray more. but if i give them a exact prayer to pray with guidelines and a terrific explanation of how to pray and when and why, then they are absolutely going to apply "praying more" in their lives. this book's greatest strength is providing practical application points for the concepts introduced.

at the beginning and the end of every chapter it either states "Recite the Jesus Creed" or "Say the Lord's Prayer". it encourages this repetition as a way of establishing a spiritual rhythm in life. they suggest reciting the Jesus Creed every morning and every night and upon both coming and going from their home. and then add to it by reciting the Lord's prayer with it at the same times for a month solid.

the authors also encourage students to get involved serving somewhere without anyone else knowing: a way for students to grow strictly with God, and to develop their desire to serve for the right reasons.

they are also very specific when it comes to asking questions. there aren't any vague or unclear questions; they are focused and intentional:

- "what do you think 'whenever you pray' means?"
- "how are you doing on reciting the Jesus Creed daily?"
- "what is your biggest temptation when it comes to branding yourself?"
- "what do your possessions reveal about where your heart is? are you serving two lords?"

questions like these interrupt the text so that students can think about them as they are reading the next paragraph - simultaneously reading and applying the text. students need this sort of dialogue within the text if they are going to process what they are reading. the application is consistently the most effective aspect of this book.

cover to cover, this book is a home run. students can connect, comprehend, and have perfect outlets to apply the Jesus Creed. i would 100% recommend this book - in fact, in the season of planning summer activities and curriculum, this book will certainly find its way into the conversation.

-apc.

buy the book: paraclete press.

the greatest story ever.

i am in a book club with a handful of my closest guy friends. it was suggested by someone that we read this book called "water for elephants" which was supposed to be a real gem.

we were reluctant at first - the book was written by a woman and this is the "ultra manly book club" (iUMBC* for short) - but we all agreed that if it was so highly acclaimed that this book must be worth some literary value.

we should have followed our hunch - the book is awful.**

the book developed well at first. it was entertaining and interesting and had all the details that made you ask, "man, how is the author ever going to get this story to come together in the end?" i like books like that. books that make you think there are going to be loose ends, but end up coming together beautifully in the end. where you turn the last page and you think, "wow. that was impressive work."

then suddenly, about 2/3 of the way through the book - on page 299 - [spoiler alert/saving you the frustration] two minor characters with developing story lines are thrown off a train to their deaths. no resolution. no answers. no real reason - they are just ditched from the story, and the reader is left to wonder why they cared so much about their well being in the first place.

the Bible does not do things like this.

the Bible is a mysteriously ancient book full of questions, creation, destruction, war, letters, songs, prophecies and stories. there are thousands of pages. there are countless stories - some historical, some metaphorical, some prophetical. the first 2/3 of the christian Bible - the old testament - is comprised of 39 different books written by a bunch of different people, but despite its varying authors, tones and styles, all the pieces fit together to develop the most incredible back story ever written. and what makes the Bible even more amazing is that everything comes together in the end. there are zero loose ends.

everything is fulfilled to perfection.

tonight i had the privilege of partaking in a passover seder dinner with this year's confirmation class and their parents. i had never had been to one of these jewish traditions before, and i didn't know exactly what to expect. i knew it would be a lot of symbolic foods and actions that pertain to the delivering of the Israelites from Egypt following the Exodus "passover". that's about all i knew.

i was amazed at the power of this meal. every piece of this Jewish tradition pointed to Jesus. granted, we read a modified script that detailed exactly how each piece of the dinner perfectly foretold the coming, suffering, dying and ressurecting of our Lord. i found myself thinking, "how can anyone read this text and be blind to how wonderfully Jesus fulfills everything foretold in the Scriptures?"

in Exodus, God sends an angel of death to Egypt to kill every first born son - man and animal - and the only way to avoid being subject to this killing is to kill an unblemished lamb and - without breaking any bones - spread it's blood across the doorframe of your house. that is what will save you from death.

1000 years before he was even born, God was already pointing toward Jesus - the sinless man who would bleed to death while hanging on a wooden cross.

just as the Israelites were delivered from bondage, so we are delivered. through the death of this "lamb" that was foretold about 1000, 800, 600, 450 years before he even shows up. the links between the old and new testaments are too perfect to be anything but God-breathed.

as we near the beginning of Holy Week, i am struck more powerfully than ever before by story of our God and how perfect his ways are. there are no loose ends or unexplained storylines. everything works together exactly how it should.

and that includes my storyline.
and it includes your storyline.

the same unchanging God who delivered his people from the grip of Pharoah, the same God who parted the Red Sea. the same God who miraculously provided food and water for his people in the desert. the same God who spoke to his prophets. the same God who sent his foretold son so that we too may be delivered.

that same God - the one who knitted us in our mother's womb and set us apart by his grace - has included you and me in his perfect story. and you better believe that he isn't going to chuck us off a train and dispose of our storylines because he's having trouble working us into his perfect plan.

cause clearly, that's not something our God does.
just look at the book he wrote.

-apc.

* - the "i" has since been added because one of our members is now in the country of columbia - making the word "international" essential to our title.

** - and i'm going to go out on a limb that the movie will be entirely worse. casting cedric diggory/mr. twilight/robert pattinson as the protagonist was the perfect move in making a bad book into a worse movie.

educating myself in the art of mystery.

over the last few years, i have grown to discover that mystery is something that deeply intrigues me. it has probably always been present, but only recently have i become totally self-aware of now mystery affects my soul. if i were to make a short list of the things that have sparked this discovery, the list would look like this:

1. LOST
2. exploring the old, rundown attics and bell towers on kstate's campus.
3. traveling to spain and seeing the alhambra.

suddenly i am asking questions like, "i wonder if someone hid their baseball cards between the walls of my house," or "i wonder if we drained this lake if we'd find all sorts of treasures from 100s of years ago at the bottom," or "if i hide a note in a random book the library, i wonder how long it would take for someone else to find it." those are the questions i find myself thinking on a daily basis. i wonder, i wonder, i wonder.

but here's the catch: i'm not certain that i really want to know the answer to any of these questions. the mysteriousness of the question greatly outweighs the knowledge of any of the answers. j.j. abrams (creator of LOST) says that "mystery is a catalyst for imagination...and there are times when mystery is more important than knowledge."

i want to discover what it is that makes mystery so potent. i want to edcucate myself on the art of mystery - books, movies, history, stories - i want to find the best examples of mystery and pack my brain with tales of curiousity and questions and wonder. i don't want answers. i just want to learn of new ways to cultivate questions.

it's a large task, i know, but i already have a trio of ideas on where to start:

1. the classics according to the world
- sherlock holmes - sir arthur conan doyle
- the maltese falcon - dashiell hammett
- anything by agatha christie
2. every book seen in/referenced/that influenced LOST - amazon has a handful of LOST reading plans, and LOSTpedia has an extensive list of references and influences. i will begin this list with:
- "the mysterious island" - jules verne
- "the third policeman" - flann o'brian/brian o'nolan
- "everything that rises must converge" - flannery o'conner
- "20,000 leagues under the sea" - jules verne
3. The Bible* - the greatest mystery ever recorded.

so that's where i'm beginning my quest. i want to feed this new self-discovery. hopefully this is a launching pad into all sorts of adventure.

-apc.

* - side note here: how cool would it be to create a YouVersion reading plan reading the Bible from a "mystery" perspective? who knows what that would look like, but it's a fun idea.

currently reading/listening to.

currently reading:

learning evangelism from jesus - jerram barrs
your first two years in youth minitsry - doug fields

currently listening to:

of the blue colour of the sky - ok go
the unauthorized biography of reinhold messner - ben folds five
broken bells - broken bells
all killer no filler - sum 41

just if you're interested. that's all.. oh wait one more thing - i've always thought the dude on the front of reinhold looks like kevin bacon. ok now that's all.

okay fine. april fools on sum 41.

-apc.

questions should lead us - dave gibbons.

"one of the axioms i've come to believe about life and ministry is that questions should lead us. questions, not answers. Jesus showed us this time and again."

"if Jesus doesn't answer a question with a question, he tells a story."

dave gibbons
the monkey and the fish: liquid leadership for a third-culture church

-ap.

staff storehouse sale.

there's a sale going on this morning in the hillcrest storehouse for staff members. here's what happened to me:

dave gibbons - the monkey and the fish: liquid leadership for a third-culture church
jerram barrs - learning evangelism from jesus
john c. mcdowell - the gospel according to star wars: faith, hope, and the force
ed dobson - the year of living like jesus: my journey of discovering what jesus would really do

-ap.

a blog involving N*E*R*D, michael jackson, hungryboy10, youth ministry books and calculus tutoring.

i've been getting back into N*E*R*D lately. and by "getting back into" i mean that i've been listening to strictly fly or die and in search of... for about 3 weeks now. i've decided that the neptunes (pharrell williams and chad hugo) are the source of my favorite beats - maybe with the exception of mr. kanye west and the king of pop himself.

speaking of MJ: i was at 810 zone with one twittering and one non-twittering homie watching the mexico/usa officiating nightmare, and this chunky, newly-corporate, mid-20's babyface sitting at the table to my right says the following phrase to the other gentleman at his table...

"dude. did you hear michael jackson died?"

um.

have you not been out from the rock you live under/your parents basement in the last 2 months? is this boy really that removed from all sorts of media? has he not gone into a single store and seen the various magazines putting out michael jackson tribute editions at every register aisle? do you even know what the internet is? how does someone miss news like that? my guess is that he was hungryboy10 in the flesh, and that he had failed to notice due to the copious hours of world of warcraft he's been playing.

moving on.

i got two new books last week that i'm really excited about. marko's newest book "middle school ministry: a comprehensive guide to working with early adolescents" and doug fields'* book "your first two years in youth ministry". books with straightforward titles are my favorite i've decided. except for catcher in the rye. that title is in no way straightforward, but it's my favorite book. i should probably say that it holds true for non-fiction at least.

* - okay. i've asked about this before, but how do you make a name that ends in an 's' possessive? mostly i'm curious about the name "JESUS" because thats the one that comes up most often in my lifecourse. jesus'? jesus's? i'm very clueless.

also i'm tutoring my youngest sister in pre-calculus this year. i'm actually excited about it. not only do i get to see my sister, but i get to do math and get paid and do my laundry and eat a meal when i come home to help her out. it starts tomorrow. i'm going to probably have to add a math book to my list of new books too. can't wait.

anyway. thats probably enough things to talk about. otherwise my title will keep getting longer and longer. sweet. late.

-ap.

ps...i might get twitter? gasp.

hello U S and A.

so its been 1 month and 1 day since john buck turned 29. its no coincidence that is the date of my last blog post. call me lame, a slacker, uncommitted, whatever. i'll take it all, gladly accept it, and consider this my return to blogging.

in the last 6 weeks i've been to denver, buena vista, knoxville, eureka springs, cedar rapids, madrid nerja and granada...with layovers in paris, atlanta and detroit. also i've spent a bit of time in kansas city, not that anyone would know that. my own roommate hasn't seen me for half an hour in that time frame. in the next 4 months i have relatively no plans to leave my city. so you can also consider this my homecoming.

i've finished reading zero books and have digested zero albums in that span too. relatively pathetic. i've made some serious headway on the devil's cup though. it's a narrative about coffee, or a 'history of the world according to coffee'...where it came from, why it came from and what that means to the world. this guy goes on a pilgrimage following coffee's past - starting in ethiopia and yemen (where coffee originated). its amazing to me. probably wouldn't entice many of you. but for those of you who give a rip about the elaborate cup of dirty caffeinated water you drink each morning...you might find it interesting at least. he talks so much about the importance that each cup has to the area and how it was created. makes me sad that american coffee equals burnt corporate starbucks coffee when the rest of the world has such interesting regional cups. oh well.

oh and i almost got stuck with the gypsys in spain. you can read about that adventure here. and you can learn more about gypsys here.

also, if you're ever having a crummy day, or if you have a long drive through the middle of the night, put on some huey lewis and the news, it'll cheer you right up.

-ap.

an invitation to environmental sociology: community.

i'm taking my environmental sociology final in 2 hours - so naturally, i'm reading the material the exam covers for the first time right now: chapters 10 and 11 in "an invitation to environmental sociology - 2nd edition" by michael mayerfield bell.

unlike the course material in my other 4 classes this semester - i've read almost every page of this book. i slacked around chapters 7 and 8 due to time constraints and just skimmed it, but chapters 1-6 and 9-11 i have read word for word. interesting that my grade will reflect my dedication to the reading. i currently have a 94% in the class and have to pull a 78% on the final to keep my A. banner day - i'm proud of my grades today.

it's rare to develop a perspective on life via a textbook. well, at least it is for me. i guess a lot of people could read history texts or something and formulate their world view accordingly, but this is not something i take part in regularly. the word "text" in front of the word "book" is typically something i shy away from. perhaps i've been conditioned to avoid them by the textbook monopoly created by varney's in manhattan - overpriced and no where else to go. or it's probably just their relation to school - an institution for which i've developed a great discomfort over the last 17 years.

but i'm really excited that i spent the time to read this text. chapters 10 and 11 have taken this 350 page textbook in an extremely interesting direction. the book's early chapters center around consumption, production, and the interconnectivity of society and the environment - put simply: we shapes the environment and the environment shapes us in return.

chapter 10 centers on the idea of the "tragedy of commons" - a theory by garret hardin. a quick overview of this idea: if there are a bunch of herdsmen who share a pasture who each have a bunch of sheep and they want to maximize productivity they might do it by adding a sheep or two to their flock. but if all the herdsmen add some sheep then there will be too many sheep for the pasture and there wont be enough grass for the sheep to eat and the land will die and so will the sheep. therefore, by adding a few sheep each herdsman has now lost sheep and, in turn, productivity.

this translates over to things like pollution and hunting/fishing. lets say theres a community by a lake. one individual has some waste product that they decide to throw in the lake cause its the cheapest way to dispose of it. it's not a huge deal - just a little pollution. but when everyone does it in small portions it has drastic effects and ruins the lake. likewise in hunting and fishing, if everyone catches and kills more than they need then there will very quickly be nothing to shoot or catch. its a "you killed 589 lbs but were only able to carry 200 lbs back to the wagon" type of situation. if everyone wastes half a buffalo then there wont be any buffalo left to shoot. this is a true story. love oregon trail.

none of this probably sounds exciting to you. but what came next is why i loved it: common ownership (which we all have in sharing the environment) relies heavily on community. there is a relationship between interest and sentiment between one another. this is how hardin's "tragedy" is avoided - through communication, common interest, participation and an avoidance of individualism.

individualism versus community. that is what environmental sociology ultimately centers on? it was surprising to hear, but really awesome to hear. dialogue between people is how any sort of effective social and environmental change takes place. when we take each others interests into account we can easily avoid the destruction so imminent in hardin's theory.

the interesting thing for me reading this is how central to christianity this sounds. in terms of taking care of "God's green earth" but also in terms of life in general. the idea of change and growth through community is something that America has lost sight of almost entirely. urban sprawl has us driving a car by ourself every day to work and having very little interaction outside our home. and when home becomes work - as it does for most everyone through taking care of kids, paying bills, cleaning and fixing things, etc - then it increases this disparity even more. but that through communication and interaction we can not only increase our own growth and achieve our own interests, but also assist in the growth and interests of others. the fact that production and consumption culminate to an ultimate emphasis on community is something very cool about society and how it functions.

it paints a really cool picture about what really matters in life. typically there is the phrase "you can't take it with you" when we talk about material-related topics like production and consumerism. but this trust-based and community-centered relationship between sentiments and interests boils material success and personal gain down to the importance of community anyway. which is what is really matters in life.

success is more effectively achieved through relationships and communication. what an awesome idea. one that ought to be focused on more in this success-driven (yet completely individualistic) society we live in today. very interesting.

-ap.

an attempted solution to our waste.

some days i have monumentally grand ideas. today was one of those days. sorta.

i'm currently reading the book gone tomorrow: the hidden life of trash. essentially it's all about how this country is consuming more and more and, as a not-so-shocking result, our waste is rising at an equal rate. the book covers the history of garbage in the US: how human excrement and food waste used to be a terrific system of trade with farmers for fertilizer and pig slop, and in return the farmers provided the city with fruit and meat. is was an effective social system.

but then the industrial revolution happend, and in war times it was necessary that we mass produce in order to compete with other countries making weapons, transportation, packaging, etc. as production increased, so did the possibility of buying new goods rather than recycling old ones at home. thus, consumption rose drastically and we were presented with a problem of what to do with all the garbage.

enter modern landfills.

these landfills are huge, but no one notices them because they're typically discretely located in the poorer areas surrounded by huge walls and are virtually inaccessible to the public. there are a number of ways the waste companies deal with the trash, but none are anywhere near perfect. many simply bury the waste creating leaching into the ground water. others burn it releasing dioxins into the air.

enter adam's idea.

so i'm thinking. what is some way that we can manage to reuse some of this filth like they did in the 1800s? how can we balance this somewhat? what is the one thing that this country produces that could assist in the excess waste we have going on? my answer was concrete.

so i had this idea: why don't we figure out ways to take the elements in trash and stick them into the roads and buildings? that way we could dispose of it in a way that a) wouldn't pile it up in nasty relatively ineffective landfills or b) pollute the environment at all.

buzzkill number one: the thing i quickly realized is that just grinding it up and sticking trash in the cement would compromise the structural integrity of the concrete - so that's out of the question as far as buildings and major highways go - but what might be possible is to extract aluminum and iron from the pile and piles of waste and at least utilize it.

concrete is made up of mostly calcium (from limestone), with silicon (from sand and clay), and some metals (mainly aluminum and iron). the mixture is crushed, powdered and turned into cement. so my idea is to pull recycled aluminum and iron instead of going straight iron and aluminum ore producers.

buzzkill number two: turns out they already do this sometimes too, so that made my idea relatively ineffective and ultimately boring. essentially the idea i was proposing is that we recycle cans. gosh. how freaking revolutionary. i guess i need to move on to figure out how one could utilize typically non-recyclable materials to produce other goods. like figure out a way to turn packaging (accounting for 51% of landfill trash) into buildings. maybe it'd be possible to produce some sort of building compound out of bulk paper. or maybe its possible to harness the dioxins produced and bond them with something else to make them useful. got me. i'll look into it though.

for now, i'll just support recycling even though i'm completely aware that is isn't good enough. sigh.

-ap.

Something Beautiful for God.

there are few people in this world that are truly Christ-like. that is not to say that there aren't many people that exhibit Christ-like qualities, but there aren't many that i could easily refer to as being truly Christ-like.

Mother Teresa is one of them. I've heard of her for my entire life and what a saint she was, but i'd never actually looked into it myself. sorta like when people tell me that the Empire State Building is tall or the Grand Canyon is breathtaking - i believe it, but i've never really experienced it or felt it for myself. such is the case with Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa moved to Calcutta from Yugoslovia when she was a teenager to live among the poorest in the world. She set up Homes for the Dying for the social outcasts with nowhere to go but the grave and addressed what she believed to be their most important need: the need to be wanted. she took in the thirsty, poor, naked and sick and treated them as Jesus would, but more imporantly she did so with extreme joy that allowed every dying leper to get a glimpse of Jesus before they passed.

this is remarkable, yes, but the thing that i truly love about Mother Teresa is not how that she had such joy, but it was where that joy came from: through sacrificing something great for Jesus in order to be truly joyful in the life you're living. if life is easy then you're not truly serving as Christ intended, and Mother Teresa was the epitome of a life in Christ - and that is what brings true joy.

this book inspires change. she cncourages people to do "something beautiful for God" no matter how small it may seem. it isn't about how grand scale or how successful you are in doing it, - "what matters is the life of the individual." when asked about the significance of her ministry she said the following:

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is but a drop in the ocean."

everyone who already owns a Bible and stil wants to see more of Jesus should read this book. buy it now. i got mine for $4 after shipping...which is like 1/5 of the money in my bank account.

-ap.

robert m. franklin

"Well-paying low-skill jobs in the manufacturing sector were disappearing and in their place came low-skill, low-paying jobs in the service sector, often many miles outside the city. And increasingly, the better jobs required education and technical skills that were virtually out of reach for most of the urban poor. America has ceased to be a place of opportunity, upward mobility, and personal improvement."

- Robert M. Franklin, Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities (emphasis mine)

-ap

manhattan public library (say shhh).

before we start...you can just listen to this while you read.

The Seed (2.0) - The Roots

so today i decided to hit up the library. this turned out to be somewhat troublesome after i left with 4 books and 6 albums that i didn't have when i got there. so now instead of 4 books to read, i have 8 books. i'm not sure i have the time for that in the upcoming weeks, but i'm going to make time.

the brightside is that i loaded up on the blues and some gospel, and i'll have plenty of time to digest all my new music as i digest my new reading material simultaneously. the books i'm starting with:

1. The Scandel of Evangelical Politics (Sider)
2. Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities (Franklin)

i added some al green, patti labelle, and smokey robinson to my collection today too. i'm currently obsessed with libraries and may just spend all my free time there this semester. it's not just interlibrary loan anymore. the whole atmosphere of the situation straight up rules.

i think i've devoted these last couple semesters to reading and planning for my future. i'm not certain i'll ever have another part of my life with so much time to research the things i want to learn. plus it'll provide me with something to do while all my roommates enjoy their lady friends' company - i'm much more interested in books and music than women right now.

actually, what am i talking about "brightside"? this whole situation rules.

ap.

okay. i'll update.

a few pointers about me that may be interesting to read:

1. i've started apartment hunting for places in kansas city for next summer. yes, it may be a bit premature, but i'm more looking for areas rather than actual apartment complexes. i want to move downtown. like in the city or just outside. i want my suburban mindset to be challenged and i want to be among those in poverty.

2. i've been listening to a lot of bobby bland and al green which is an interesting juxtaposition. the latter sings about love and how great it is and the former sings about how much he's been burned by women and is so bitter about it. i think i lean more toward bobby. i've been offsetting these two with john mayer and ben folds who sing about both and make everything seem more balanced. and akon too.

3. books i'm reading: gone tomorrow: the hidden life of trash, something beautiful for God, and the audacity of hope. i'm farthest in obama's book (almost done with it), and i've just started the other two. i haven't really gained a whole lot of new insight from obama's book but i have confirmed a lot of the thoughts i had about him already. he and i share at least one opinion: there is extreme inequality in this nation and something needs to be done about it.

4. okay, this one isn't about me. aaron rodgers is a stud. i completely understand why the packers wouldn't want brett favre back (although brett favre wasn't too shabby for the jets yesterday). aaron rodgers also looks very much like ryan from the office (season 4).

5. this shirt came in the mail a few days ago:

also, watch kanye's VMA performance: love lockdown.

6. seirra nevada pale ale is officially my favorite beer. it can join ranks with vanilla coke, red bull, white cherry freezoni, and guatemalan coffee as my favorite of a certain beverage type. (soda, energy drinks, slushes, and coffee respectively.)

-ap.

eggshell off-white like a dupont finish.

september should be one of the more exciting months of the year. football starts. pennant races are building in suspense. and kansas is provided with simply perfect puffer vest weather.

however, this september - though the weather is indeed perfect - provides me no sporting excitement whatsoever. my teams are all expected to flounder or have already gone under, and i have yet again failed to join a fantasy football league. i don't understand how i've always managed to surround myself with individuals who don't give half a crap about sports once september arrives. but alas, another year.

the good news is that football is still amazing even though the chiefs are not. so sundays and mondays will continue to be ruled by quite a bit of read-while-watching time. which is probably good - reading is something i've really come to enjoy recently. i'm in the middle of obama's book right now; this probably wasn't the best decision. only one of my eight books i ordered online has come in yet, so i've got some catching up to do.

other things to be excited about in september: ben folds, nelly and robin thicke all have cd releases. burn after reading - the latest coen brothers film - comes out in theaters on the 12th too. i'm not sure if the theater in manhattan does midnight showings (probably the only downfall of this town), but nick and i are seeing that movie.

-asap.

HP and the DH: Post-game.

i made the mistake of starting harry potter and the deathly hallows yesterday afternoon. this was only a mistake because i finished it at 5 am. but since i don't have class until 1 on tuesday then it wasn't necessarily a long term problem.

i read it in 22 hours the first time. round two took a couple months. round three: 11 hours. i'm not sure if i'm considering it a waste of time or not.

as i layed down to sleep late last night with the adrenaline pumping through my system it occurred to me that i hadn't written anything substantial in the wake of the release of HP and the DH in july of 07. i had written a fantastic pre-game entry with all my expectations, predictions and love confessions.

somehow i failed to write a post-game entry. i don't know how, i can't explain how i could've had anything more important cycling through my brain than the contents of this bulbous novel. i'll claim that i intentionally waited as to not spoil the book for any one who hadn't had the chance to pour through its pages yet. so here are the "more thoughts to come."

i made a list of predictions in my pre-game: a list of things i needed to have happen in the seventh book. let's see how if i came out on top in my predictions.

harry versus draco cage match: it didn't come as i anticipated. i wanted a full on duel, but i suppose one could argue that it did happen anyway. to some extent at least. harry swipes draco's wand (therefore - as far as the wand is concerned - defeating his opponent), and they did have somwhat of a row in the Room of Requirement, but not a "cage match". however, harry also saves his rear twice during the battle of hogwarts. my wish for ron and hermione to get involved was fulfilled though, coming to a climax when ron suckerpunches him from under the invisibility cloak after saving him the second time. i was somewhat correct, but not entirely. no points awarded or deducted. Correct/Incorrect: +0

snape has to be good: thank goodness. if snape was evil i would've been flabbergasted. however, he definitely had quite a bit of loyalty to voldemort and wished to follow him, but his love for harry's mom ran deep tipped the scale easily toward good. Correct: +1

snape under imperius curse in book 6: i should've known it wasn't going to be that easy, but being so in love with lily potter?! whoa. snape develops to be maybe the 4th or 6th most important character in the whole novel (depending on if you ran him above or below ron and hermione in importance, clearly he ranks after harry, voldemort and dumbledore.) the chapter late in the book when harry is in the penseive watching snape's memory was one of the most enlightening and answer-filled chapters in the whole series. Incorrect: -1

ron and hermione kiss: there were so many moments when i thought this was going to happen - starting all the way back in like book 2 - and when it actually did happen i dropped my book and gave a double fist pump. this is one of the things that could've really messed up the whole series for me if it hadn't happened. i've been banking on it for years and reading it like they were already a pseudo-couple forever. probably Rowling's exact intent. Correct: +1

ron dies: wrong. however, fred died...kinda a consolation. Incorrect -1

Hogwarts finale: candy from a baby. easiest prediction ever. where else would it have happened? Godric's Hallow? no way. the Ministry of Magic? so book five. Dursley's?! get real. it had to be Hogwarts. the only thing that would've enhanced it at ALL would've been if she'd incorporated two things: the Quidditch field and/or Harry on a broomstick (which we still got a taste of early in the book). i wish they'd kept all the Slytherins hostage too and made 'em squirm a bit. especially Pansy Parkinson. Correct: +1

lucious malfoy dies: wrong. the dude didn't even have a wand the entire book and he was scared the whole time. all he wanted was his son's safety - very unlike him. i thought he was done for when voldemort borrowed his wand and it didn't work. voldemort wasn't quite as merciless as i thought he'd be. Incorrect -1

draco is cornered by harry but harry is merciful: boom goes the dyno. starts to duel but then pulls him out of a flaming Room of Requirement and then saves him from a Death Eater. Correct +1

voldemort dies: this is like stealing. Correct +1

hagrid dies: wrong. i'm happy about it. Incorrect -1

peter pettigrew dies via grawp: got it, then missed it. Correct/Incorrect +0

Those-Who-Cannot-Die: " hermoine, ginny, neville, snape.....tonks." i got the first three, got snape wrong, but saved myself on tonks by my next call. 4/5 ain't bad. Correct: +1

Lupin/Tonks Combo Death: here lies my loophole prediction for tonks. i figured that whatever lupin did, she would do also. i'm on a roll here. Correct: +1

Neville is a badass: okay okay. i totally nailed this one. neville steps up huge and takes out Nangini, Voldy's snake Horcrux. this is what i would refer to as neville "saving the eve." it's the event immediately preceding the climax of the book (the harry potter/tom riddle duel, thus, neville flashes his chops and rules just as i'd called. Correct +1

Neville avenges his parents: man. this one surprised me, but i think i was just being idealistic in this prediciton. i thought neville would take out bellatrix lestrange for sure, avenging his parents' torture and death at the hands of the witch. turns out bellatrix was replaced by nangini and EFFING MOLLY WEASLEY WENT OFF INSTEAD. holy crap what a moment. never ever ever saw that coming. incredible. Incorrect -1

viktor krum is saved by ron: too bad he had an insignificant role and never shows up again after bill and fleur's wedding. Incorrect -1

fawkes is inherited by harry: i actually really thought this would happen. and then when hedwig dies in the first 100 pages i was certain that dumbledore's phoenix would show up to replace it. i figured that dumbledore was going to have a large role somehow, and i thought it would've been through fawkes somehow. dangit. i loved this prediction. Incorrect -1

minerva mcgonagall turns out to have some chops: as if we didn't all see this coming. dumbledore's gone, so it makes sense. when she runs off snape right before the battle - so much attitude. i'm pumped to see her duel when the movie comes out in a few years. Correct +1

overall: +1 i'm not sure what this tells me other than i predicted more things write than wrong. i suppose i'll give myself a pat on the back.

predictions about the movie still to come:
cameo appearance by either chris brown or beyonce.
linkin park for the credits music.

-ap.

three books for thought.

my blog is tanking. i can't come up with anything spectacular to write about, and even when i can think of something great - it's gone by the time i think to actually write about it on here. which is unfortunate because i'm actually learning and growing a ton right now. i'm just not necessarily in the correct mindset to put it all into text form on here.

i will say though - i'm in the middle of three incredible books right now: dangerous wonder, jesus for president, and they like jesus but not the church. i'm not sure which one i like the most right now. i've read dangeroud wonder before, but it's always nice to have a good kick in the booty about what it looks like to have childlike faith and how we can see Christ for the 'dangerous wonder' that he is. the other two are new to me - the idea of individuals not liking the church/christians in comparison to Jesus isn't a new one to me, but its nice to have some words to those thoughts. jesus for pres is very interesting thus far as well. it's a look into what being a political christian can look like and the effects of living simply in life.

anyway. hopefully i'll have more to come on those. i reccommend them all three so far.

-ap.

excerpt from buck.

reporter: do you ever have a bad day?
buck o'neil: what is that?
reporter: really. do you ever have a bad day?
buck: no. there are no bad days.
reporter: but you would have so much reason to be bitter...
buck: i stayed at some of the best hotels in the world. they just happened to be black hotels. i ate at some of the best restaurants in the world. they just happened to be black restaurants. in fact, those were better than most of the white restaurants because some of the best cooks in the world at the time were black.
reporter: but i guess someone would say to you: how could you not hate?
buck: where does hate get you?

- The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America - Joe Posnanski

-ap.

the magician's nephew.

my ever-so-generous grandparents sent me a gift card to target for my birthday, so i went searching for something great. at first i was going to purchase common's latest cd but decided against it. then i was going to purchase some new drawls but they didnt have what i wanted. then i started looking at the best selling books section but since i decided i didnt need a self-help book, a sudoku book, or 'skinny bitch in the kitch.'

but then i saw the chronicles of narnia complete set on the bottom shelf. so solid. i've never read any of them and i've been wanting to for so long. especially since prince caspian is coming out this summer i felt like now was the time. i debated whether to read them in order of publication or chronologically, so i got online to find out what c.s. lewis thought himself. i guess he never intended to write more than just one book, they just kept coming. so he supposes the chronologically makes the most sense now. so i went with that.

after reading The Magician's Nephew i've come to three conclusions about c.s. lewis:

1. he can describe made up feelings and events so well - like what it's like to warp to other places, or what it feels like on Charn, or how exactly animals grow out of the ground.
2. he very well could've written a book of the Bible - like Job or one of the narrative OT books.
3. he was probably so stinkin goofy.

MN turns into a version of the creation story kind of - well, that of Narnia at least. He lays down the mapwork for how the Witch gets there, how Narnia comes into existence, and how the humans work their way into the land. he establishes (beautifully i must say) everything that is to come. and oh man will it come.

his portrayal of Aslan is just perfect, and the whole time i'm just kicking myself that i haven't picked up these books earlier. how can anyone dislike what he's laid down here? its beautiful and so true.

anyway. i'm thrilled to get deeper into the series. the best is yet to come and i know it. but i gotta wrap this up cause i'm already on page 25 of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

-ap.

ps - favorite line: "pooh! grown-ups are always coming up with uninteresting explanations!"
- digory kirke.

HP and the DH

wow.

more thoughts to come.

-ap.