Desire Armed

I guess they call it amortality instead of immortality because it is sustained by synthetic means rather than spiritual. Makes terrifying sense.

Amortality is a stranger, stronger alchemy, created by the intersection of that trend with a massive increase in life expectancy and a deep decline in the influence of organized religion— all viewed through the blue haze of Viagra.

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Amortals live among us. In their teens and 20s, they may seem preternaturally experienced. In later life, they often look young and dress younger. They have kids early or late—sometimes very late—or not at all. Their emotional lives are as chaotic as their financial planning. The defining characteristic of amortality is to live in the same way, at the same pitch, doing and consuming much the same things, from late teens right up until death.

From Amortality, number 5 in Times, "10 Ideas Changing The World Right Now."

Post Script: Bible College parties are crazier than the one in this video. In the spirit of Luther, sin boldly.

I love this song. When he played it at the concert last night, a crazy number of people started dancing and singing along with him.

Great motto. Also, dang good pickin'. It's hard to believe this video is from less than a year ago. The recorded version of this song is great too.

The writer does the most good who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.

Sydney Smith

Blogs really stretch the limits of brevity. You have maybe four lines to grab a new reader's attention. It's great if you do this once, but to consistently achieve this is...well, it's difficult.

He was amazing tonight. I'm going to acquire his albums as soon as possible.

I think Justin took some good pictures of the event, and he will probably post some of these soon. We'll keep you updated.

The original post follows this. It turns out that the artwork we were planning on using for our conference was too risky. I've replaced it with the new banner (I was asked to by my ministry's coordinator).

Sadest part: Jokes about sex and procreation don't work any more.

The Artwork for New Wine, New Wineskins Spring Conference came in today. I thought it was clever. Man, I need to learn some photoshop skills.

Justin and I are going to a concert tonight to see Brett Dennen. I'd never heard of him before, but Justin showed me the video below.

He's a funny looking M-F-er. But I love this song and video.

This is what Brett Dennen has to say about the song and video.

It is our routines and our comforts that allow us to ignore social issues. For some of us, it is our privilege to be ignorant. This video tells the story of social issues challenging our privileges and entering our routines making them impossible to ignore. Social injustice cannot be ignored when you are forced to deal with them. That is the idea behind this video.

What would happen if you were forced to deal with something that you may think has nothing to do with you? If suddenly the world's problems came into your own home? You would have to realize that you are connected to everything and everyone one earth.

The story behind the Codex Gigas--such an interesting manuscript--is definitely a fun one, but the picture of Satan was drawn opposite a picture of heaven. Why isn't the Codex Gigas nicknamed, "Heaven's Bible?"

Just another example of how fascinated we are with evil, and how boring we find good.

I tried to find a video fluffed a little less than this dramatic one, but I couldn't. Although, I think it serves to further the point about what we really find interesting.

So I guess the guy I reference in the previous post never actually wins the spelling bee. He seems mildly obsessed, mildly crazy, but he never wins.

I just ran across this diary of a Professor(?) who was preparing for a spelling bee competition by reading through the entire dictionary (Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary) at a pace of 26 pages a day.

I've already learned the word anonymuncule: petty anonymous writer

I've also learned that douche-bag started being used as an insult around 1963.

Perhaps the thing that makes this project really interesting is how into words this man is. For instance, he anticipates distractions like this one:

Or, when I was doing some examples from pages 490-515, to "warm myself up" for the larger task, I ran into frenum, not a particularly difficult word to spell, but with a fascinating story behind it. A "frenum" is a band of tissue which connects organs to each other in the human body. The more usual example of it is the band of connective tissue between the tongue and the floor of the mouth.

Fine, I know an example of frenum. But then I dig deeper and find that it can also refer to the band of skin between the testicles and the shaft of the penis, and that many tattoo artists offer frenum-piercing services. Then, I find myself lost on the internet learning about how tattoo artists do their work and all the body parts they can pierce. I learn also the various names they give to their techniques, and then I find myself memorizing their techniques rather than difficult words. Thus, I stray and have to discipline myself to return to the dictionary.

I wish I had the discipline to read the entire dictionary.

I am not completely sure of the real details concerning Hinduism, but I find the presentation I have been given interesting.

For instance, I once heard a preacher quip that in India, there are millions of starving people who would rather go without eating than eat one of their sacred cows. He finished this brief aside of his sermon by belittling Hindus with the following statement, "I guess in India, they don't really know what a cow is for."

If these things are true, at least they are consistent with their objects of worship. Even to the point of pain and discomfort. Even to the point of death.

I hope that in India there isn't a young Hindu being told things about American Christians.

I hope he isn't told things to make us look ridiculous.

For instance, if this young Hindu was told that the founder of our religion said that the peacemakers would be blessed. I hope that he isn't told that American Christians would rather fill their lives with violence in the form of video games, movies, foreign policy, and hostile interaction with other people. That instead of promoting peace, we find clever ways to justify conflict.

I hope this young Hindu doesn't picture American Christians as people gorging themselves on a sense of entitlement, fat and happy with their right of retaliation.

I hope the young Hindu doesn't say, "American Christians don't really know what sacred truth requires."