Korn and Bollywood

I read today in a newspaper an interesting and rather exciting (to me) bit of news: Brian Welch, the guitarist and one of the founding members of the band ‘Korn’ has left the band, given up his ‘rocker’ lifestyle, and become a Christian. My impression of Korn was that they were just shy of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails – if at all. I wonder: POD toured with them for a while, could this have had any affect on Brian Welch? This certainly should make Christians everywhere excited: if he can convert, dude, there’s hope for ANYONE! I would love to talk to him; there’s one man who probably has such a tangible view of God’s grace – what a testimony he probably has! May he be led by God closer and closer to Him and be discipled well.

As reported on MTV's website, when he spoke to 10,000 people at a church in California about his conversion 200 people accepted Christ as their personal Savior, including members of the media who were covering the event! If you're interested in his new website, I have it under my links.

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I may have to move to India. My reasoning rests upon 3 things:

- Indian food is yummy (curry!)
- I love Indian clothing – it’s so colorful and happy!
- I love Indian movies

I think Bollywood has Hollywood all beat. Don’t even get me started on their music! I saw Bride and Prejudice last night and loved it! The premise is great: An Indian movie based on the Jane Austen book Pride & Prejudice. With its Indian dancing and singing and peek into Indian life – how it’s a funky blend of traditional and modern, it was almost as good as the other Indian movie I’ve seen Monsoon Wedding. I recommend both.

And I may not be around much longer to recommend movies – as I am soon moving to India

WHAT is the world coming to?

Check this out. You will definately regret it. :-)

Finger Food

Theological Cliffhangers & Legislative Work

I get a daily sermon from John Stott ministries, as I am sure you ALL have deduced by now. This is a wonderful thing that I wallow in luxuriously every morning, soaking my mind in theological dissertation as I contemplate the merits and truths contained in the day’s sermon. It is as intense and as cleansing for my mental palate as a good, long soak in a steaming bubble bath is for my skin. Today though I am stuck on the edge of a theological cliffhanger. The sermon was cut in half and I got the first half – the second will come tomorrow. I am really interested in seeing where he’s going with his discussion and where his theological point ends up, and I feel as excited as a soap opera fanatic waiting for the next day’s installment. (Will John end up with Marsha?!) So, my mood is a peculiar hue of ‘theological edginess’, and I bet THAT is not in any psychology textbook!

The really sad part is that I won’t be able to check my email until Monday! It’s the really good part too though; I don’t have to work on Good Friday. The following conversation did happen and not just in my head!

Chief-of-Staff: Do you observe Good Friday?

Me: Usually, I kill people.

Chief-of-Staff: But is it a day that you observe or recognize in any special way?

Me: It is very important to me, yes.

~After he talks to our boss~

Chief-of-Staff: Well, we have Good Friday off; now you can go kill people during the day.

Me: Hey, thanks!

Onto legislative work: It looks like I’m going to do my first work here on bill-writing! If it passes and doesn’t get vetoed etc, it’ll be a law and just think (!) I will be able to point to that inch in the Michigan Compiled Laws and go, “Look! There’s MY inch!” It’ll be my own, dear part of red tape. There’s something immortal about that.

Trompe l’Oeil or How to make a fool of one’s self

This weekend I went to see a Trompe l’Oeil exhibit. Despite what it may seem from the spelling, it has nothing to do with trumpets, but rather with art. “What, you’ve never heard of Trompe l’Oeil??!!??!” This was the response of my wonderfully artistic friend Sarah when she heard the rather blank tone in my voice after she pronounced that she was coming here to see a Trompe l’Oeil exhibit and that it should be just wonderful. For the uneducated (of which I was so recently a part) ‘Trompe l’Oeil’ means, literally, “fool the eye”. This means it was a bunch of stuff lying or hanging around, that looked like one thing, but was actually something else. For example, my favorite work was a sculpture that looked EXACTLY like a roll of toilet paper. There were also paintings which were very similar to still-lifes, but apparently were not. (of course not! They were Trompe l'Oeil!) It was a very enjoyable exhibit, but to my non-discerning eye it meant one thing: it was an art exhibit evilly designed to make me look like a fool.

In the first room, I circled around looking at pictures that looked like they were of masking tape, but were actually painted to look like that and clay tools that were very realistic and usable-looking when I noticed a blank spot on the wall. “How interesting” I thought to myself. “I wouldn’t think they would need to take down a painting to fix it up on a traveling exhibit that is leaving in a few days anyway.” Then I shuddered, “Ugh” I thought to myself “A spider. How could a spider sneak into a museum? Maybe I should tell someone about it, so they can kill it.” Then I looked at the plaque and realized that the piece artwork was entitled “Daddy Long-Legs”. Well, it really DID fool the eye…(and the fool…)

The climax was definitely in the final room. I had been inspecting all the paintings and sculptures that were done with varying degrees of success as to their object when, in the corner, I spotted a very good piece. It was on a stand and looked like a box – the type computer paper might come in, and a mug full of pencils. I went and inspected the box closely and was thinking various things like, “This is amazing! It totally looks real! How do they DO that?!?!” when I realized it WAS real and I was supposed to vote on my favorite of 2 paintings and stick my answer in the box.

This may be my all-time biggest "stupid moment".

We Are Guilty

"[W]e ourselves are also guilty [of Christ’s crucifixion]. If we were in [the Jews] place, we would have done what they did. Indeed, we *have* done it. For whenever we turn away from Christ [and sin], we 'are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace' (Heb. 6:6). We too sacrifice Jesus to our greed like Judas, to our envy like the priests, to our ambition like Pilate…[T]here is blood on our hands. Before we can begin to see the cross as something done *for* us (leading us to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done *by* us (leading us to repentance)." - John R. W. Stott from The Cross of Christ

You know you're in Michigan when...

There's still snow and ice on the ground, but they're already starting on the road construction so they have enough time to complete it before the summer's over and the snow starts AGAIN.

*sigh*

On a happier note, I am going to the rodeo tonight. (Yes, this is another indicator of being in Michigan.) I am also planning on tobogganing tomorrow. (a THIRD indicator that I live in Michigan. For heaven's sakes it's MID-MARCH!) You know that famous book "The Ides of March"? Well, if the author had been from Michigan it would have been called "The Ice of March".

Definately my most engrossing and heavy comtemplation now is this: "What shall I wear to the rodeo?"

I may even wear my hair in pigtails:-)

"The ultimate issue in relation to Jesus Christ is not one of semantics (the meaning of words) but of homage (the attitude of the heart), not whether our tongue can subscribe to an orthodox formulation of the person of Jesus, but whether our knee has bowed before his majesty. Besides, reverence always precedes understanding. We shall know him only if we are willing to obey him." - John R. W. Stott

Facial Expressions

When I hear something my brain does 1 of 3 things usually:

-I weight it against the knowledge I possess and accept it.

- I weight it against the knowledge I possess and reject it.

- I weight it against the knowledge I know, realize I don't have enough information to process this new bit of data, and then file it away for further cogitation.

Apparently the expression on my face as I process new information makes me look like I sincerely disapprove of whatever if being said. This may be because as new information enters my brain I am first skeptical until I run it against the store of knowledge I accept that pertains to the particular issue at hand. If I take some time to dredge up the information I know to check it against what I just heard, I guess my facial expression is skeptical, sometimes to the point of being intimidating. I was informed of this fact last night. Now, I might have decided that this was a onetime phenomenon if it weren't for one thing: just that morning I had been told this by an entirely different person. To all those who have been intimidated by me: I'm sorry.

I think some people are taking crazy pills

I seem to be entering a phase of my life where I am becoming increasingly cynical about relationships, marriage, and men in general. Men after they are engaged or, better yet, married are fine and even enjoyable people to be friends with occasionally. However, single men are a scary prospect, to say the very least. Older single men are pathetic and desperate, younger ones are immature and those my own age are both.

All of this does not bode well for the continuation of the M** - Moore DNA, seeing as my sister is unsure of whether or not she wants to forward her own genetic lineage. Although this may be something that gives many a reason to heave a collective sigh of relief, I find myself a little saddened at the thought. After all, child-bearing hips and long eyelashes combined with a keen intellect and good sense of humor seems to be something we M** - Moores are inclined towards. Of course, this could be pretty devastating to a child of the male persuasion, but at least he’d have the humor to laugh at it.

Not that I don't know any cool and/or decent single guys. I do. They just all tend to reside in the pages of Jane Austen books.

I guess my parents' experiment has succeeded:

Me: I am just so independent - I rather doubt I'm getting married

Father: Good, our experiment succeeded. We tried with your older sister, but now she's getting married - so we failed. With you, we have successfully trained you to be you so independent that no man will ever want to marry you, so you can take care of us in our old age.

Me: Uh...Thanks Dad

I really will endeavor to snap out of this cynicism. Then I can get back to scaring and intimidating men again.

Hillsdale Alumni Week

This week I was thrilled to have Metzger come and visit me. I had been calling him to see how he is doing and mentioned that he should come visit me and lo and behold he called me.

Metz: Hey, I’m coming into town on Tuesday, you want to have dinner?

Me: Sure!

Metz: Well, how are your cooking skills? I should come over.

Me: I am a GREAT cook!

Metz: Do you have cool friends?

Me: Um….yeah.

Metz: Well, you could invite them too.

Me: Uh….thanks.

All of my witty repartees were of course thought of 2 minutes after our conversation. I invited all my friends from a group I’m involved in that is affiliated with my church and it seemed to be going pretty well, when Metz and I stepped out on my *frosty* porch for a cigar.

Metz: So…..you know all these people from church don’t you?

Hmm, I hope he enjoyed the get-together as much as I did…:-)