God Really Moved Today

So at church today, God made His presence felt in a particularly strong way. There was kneeling and shouting and all of that (I currently go to a Pentecostal church), but moreso I just experienced a real sense of God there. I think I often lose track of the fact that, in addition to serving God and loving Him, I'm also supposed to worship Him. True worship can be hard-it takes a total suspension of one's own pride and ego. But when you start to experience who God is and His greatness, you kind of can't help but praise Him and give Him glory-as we sang more than once, He deserves our worship.

I know this might all sound strange to a lot of people, and you might not really care (but you should know that that is always a risk when readig my posts :) ), but I really wanted to jot this down while it was fairly fresh, and I hope that it means somehing to at least one of you. As always, comments welcome should you have any.

So a quick update on some of the stuff I've posted before:

I went to visit my family for a few days and got back to Boston yesterday. I didnt get to meet my niece (9 months old) but did see pictures-she's cute :)

So it looks like there are several facebook applications that address my 'shared attraction' issue of a few posts ago (just search for "crush" in the applications page on facebook and you'll see a bunch of them). Of course these only work if you and the other person both have the application, but still...

Looks like others have also debated the taller woman/shorter man thing:
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/relationships/story/0,,2163078,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Kanye West's "Graduation" is in stores now! Go buy it (if you're into his music; otherwise don't :)). And feel free to skip over or delete "Drunk and Hot Girls"-maybe there will be some redeeming value to the song that I missed the first time I heard it, but I haven't found it yet.

Shared attraction

I've long thought that it would be convenient if people had signs that displayed if they liked someone, though i realize that could be complicated bc then you'd have to worry about whether or not they liked you back and all that. Now I'm thinking maybe some kind of electronic advice that like had the name or names of who you liked and would start beeping or something (perhaps vibrating in order to keep it more confidential) when you're around one of those people if that person also had your name in their device. Then it would get louder (or, um shakier) as you got closer to the person. Would still cause some problems (like if the members of a love triangle were in the same room) but it would help take out some of the guesswork.

I think they have websites like that, where you put in people's name and if each put in the other's name they both get emails. And I imagine facebook either has or will come up with an application to do that. Still, having it in real life would be cool.

Oh and don't read anything into the topic of this post...i like to muse about these type of things, so i dont have anyone in particular in mind as i'm typing, though i imagine the situation will come up again at some point in the future.

Dog-fighting, Hip Hop, Black People

I didnt have any intention of jumping on the Michael Vick commentary bandwagon until today, when I read an article posted on CNN by actress Emily Deschanel, who plays the lead on the Fox show "Bones." Most of the article is respectable, talking about how this case has brought attention to a problem of animal cruelty that is more pervasive than we might think. But in the middle she had a couple of paragraphs that bothered me (and several of the commenters on CNN):

"Unfortunately, legions of today's youths are being sold the lie that fighting dogs is a way to prove their bravery and machismo. This twisted mind-set is marketed by certain forces of popular culture, from high-rolling rap artists who boast about their pit bulls' prowess to millionaire sports stars like Vick.

As a result, the scourge of street dogfighting has infiltrated virtually every urban area across the country. Gang members and street thugs seek street cred by showing they have the baddest dogs on the block."

First of all, I always like it when "urban" is used as a code for "black." Second, even though my sparse and anecdotal knowledge of dog-fighting may involve black individuals (Michael Vick, some people back home in SC and...well that's about it), I doubt its a particularly African-American phenomenon. For one thing, despite the article decrying it as an urban problem, my pre-Vick knowledge of it came from living in the rural south, where I would think that white individuals would be likely to engage in such activities as well. Note that Vick is a southerner as well, growing up in VA. Furthermore, a quick glance at wikipedia's "dog fighting" entry shows that it is practiced all over the world, including Russia, India and Japan, which I doubt are taking their cues from African America or Hip hop.

Which leads me to my last annoyed point-how did dogfighting suddenly become a consequence of hip hop? Now of course you can find references to dogfighting in rap songs if you look hard enough, but it's not really something that's prevalent by any means. The fact that it's there at all just reflects that such fights happen in the real world. Are there rappers who own vicious dogs? Sure-they can be a macho status symbol as the CNN article said, and/or used for (over)protection of one's property. And I wouldnt be surprised if some rap artists had engaged in dogfighting. But to say that hip hop promotes dogfighting is a stretch. The only artist I can think of that might fall guilty of that is DMX, and even in his case he uses the image of a vicious dog in large part as a metaphor for his own personality and upbringing rather than in a "hey i fight dogs, aren't I impressive" sense (though he is no stranger to animal abuse allegations, so i wouldnt be surprised if he had been involved in a fight or two in his life). Now I'm not trying to be an apologist for rap music-certain strains of it do promote or glorify a lot of negative things. Dog fighting though-I just dont see it.

Taller Women?

I've been wondering how women feel about dating shorter guys. I've always just assumed that they didnt go for that, but I've seen/heard of enough couples with taller women to rethink that. Plus, given my modest height of 5' 6" (i think), sticking to equal or shorter does narrow the dating pool a bit, if pools can be narrowed.

Oh, and I hope none of my taller female friends start to panic, this wasnt inspired by any one person in particular-more of a general musing, as i tend to do.

TV-less

So i've entered Day 3 of not having a television. I've still managed to keep my sanity, but it ain't pretty. No Sunday morning talk shows to tell me which politicians think they will make the best presidents, no judge shows to explain to me why i can't lock out a roommate without giving him proper notice (triple damages ya'll!), no reality shows to show me what happens when people stop being polite and start being real! If only they would put shows on the internet. Wait, they do? Sweet!

As always, comments are welcome on any of my posts, even the inane ones.

Haircut

It's gone, all gone! "It"=my hair, aand "all"=99%
My head looks a lot smaller now. And a little egglike. You're right, an omlette would be good now.

"Graduation" (the album) is comin!

I havent been feeling this year musically, but Im actually kind of excited about this new Kanye West album. Sure he's a bit immature at times and has no shortage of ego (a trait that stands out for him even among big-name rap acts, which says something), but darn if he doesnt make good music. "Stronger" is a cool song, and i really like "Can't Tell Me Nothing"...especially, and this is a small part, Young Jeezy's ad-libbed "Haha" in the background of the chorus. And seriously, anyone who puts a teddy bear on all of his album covers has to be kind of cool, no? Who's a good dropout bear? You're a good dropout bear! Yes you are, yes you...ahem. So yeah, Graduation. Might be a pretty good album.

Solitude

One roommate moved out, the other is on his way out of the country, leaving me in this big apartment. Where is a helper monkey when you need one?

Crank Dat

For any one who hasnt heard of the "Crank Dat Soulja Boy," here is the dance (to what I think is a slowed down, or screwed, version of the song). you may have to copy the address and paste it to a browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEgioIoKySE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs%2Esohh%2Ecom%2Fdirty%2F2007%2F07%2Fgangstas%5Fdont%5Fdance%2Ehtml

and here are a bunch of knockoffs and parodies (Crank Dat Soulja Boy being the original):
http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=12509

Be warned that these may contain some not nice language (which I'm not endorsing of course).

"Summer, Summer, Summertime"

Arg, it's almost September! How in the world did my summer fly by so quickly. I did get a couple of things done (a little research, some planning for a black Christian conference in the fall, attending a couple of weddings), but not nearly as much as i wanted to. I've been wondering a bit how cut out I am for this whole grad school thing. I mean i can be pretty productive in spurts, which tend to coincide w/ being within 24 hours of a deadline, but when my backs not against the wall, I'm easily distracted or willing to put it off to later.

Things I didnt get accomplished: learning French, brushing up on math, reading through economic development reading list, more research, writing a paper (though hopefully that will happen), getting a haircut, conquering small nation and ruling with benevolent yet iron fist, and going to the gym.

Feel free to comment

Test Post

Hey all. Since I havent blogged in a long time, i figured i'd see if anyone was still interested in reading this thing. If you think you would be interested in me blogging again, please leave me a message in the comments (long or short, named or anonymous) to let me know that someone is still reading this thing. I'll see what (if any) response i get, and proceed from there.

So i have another ambiguous I dont intend for it to be a date and don't think she thinks it is but i'm not quite sure thing coming up tomorrow.

And if you've been wondering why i haven't been blogging, which i don't think you were, i blame it on (laziness and) an insanely busy workload. at least i have my girlfriend. oh wait, she's not...nevermind :)

ok so i know i haven't been keeping up with this recently. School and whatnot has been keeping me really busy (have 800 or more pages of material to read each week plus other things to do). So school is what's occupying most of my time. It's also getting cold, which is expected but not welcomed :)

Also today or yesterday i had a mini revelation that when I pray/worship i kind of take a tone of tallking at God (i.e. treating Him as if He were far away and i was sending a message off to Him) instead of talking to Him (as if He were right there, which of course He is). Just wanted to share that

First day of school! (well first day for me, as i don't have any Monday classes-score!).

And one of my most favoritest people in the world should be back in town today :)

So hears a rundown/update on my life:

Got to see my brothers before i left MD. That was really cool. The oldest seems to have picked up a talent for picking up women that i did not inherit, as evidenced by his interactions with the waitress at the restaurant we were at. Not that I would be picking up random people left and right if i had the ability, but it is still interesting to see.

I'm gonna be an uncle! (courtesy of the other brother).

New apartment is nice. My room is messy, partially bc its small and i haven't figured out where to put everything yet (and mainly bc i m messy), but the rest of the place is sweet. and i get cheap rent for having the small room.

My new roommate is unbelievably handy, which i may have mentioned before. And he doesn't even think its a big deal that he's building all these really cool things for the place.

Lost one Weld 12 freshman year roommate to Columbia (though he visited last weekend and will again today, so i may end up seeing him as much as i did when he was in town :)) and another to Philly, but regained a third, the cool KK (no jokes please), who i'm living with again as he starts the History program.

Most of my friends from grad school seem to be back in town, though my closest friend from the program is not coming up until next week (miss you, in case you're reading) and i havent yet seen another though she and I (Ms. J.L.) are suppose to get together today.

So yeah thats most of the new stuff in my life. not too shabby (as a fellow grad student told me once, "sufficiently shabby")