I forgot how much I missed this (and other randoms)

I really had forgotten how much I like to blog. I actually have to hold myself back so I don't post all the time. So I started reading Shane Hipps book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media shapes Faith, the Gospel and Church yesterday, and I finished it less than 24 hours later. All I can say is WOW! This books is incredible. In fact Shane Hipps may just be one of my new favorite authors. He takes the best things of Neil Postman's and Marshal McLuhan's writings, simplifies them, and then applies them directly to the church today. I really think that this book needs to be on everyone's must read list. He really shows the way that "Media forms, regardless of their content, have a profound and subliminal power to shape the way we think" (p. 82). I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

In other news, school is still a ways off. However, I want to get my Thesis proposal written before school starts, so I have also been doing some reading on that. If anyone comes across anything about the wrath of God please pass it on to me. I'm not sure yet exactly what direction I am going, but I am pretty sure that the wrath of God in the scriptures is not quite what I have always pictured it as. More to come as I develop my thoughts on the subject.

I am also back to working out. After almost two months off I went a little too hard yesterday and was almost puking in the gym. So I'll be a little kinder to my body today. I also have a new workout partner which will be cool, we'll be doing some weights and then playing Racquetball after for some cardio. Should be good. I weighed myself and I discovered that I put on a few pounds over Christmas so unfortunately that means eating right again and being faithful to working out. Can anyone tell me, is it better to just work one or two muscle groups a day, or a full body workout every other? I would be really interested in your takes on this.

p.s. I should mention that it is beautiful outside in California today. Our front door has been open letting a nice warm breeze come through. What a great place to live in the winter!

Hitting the Weights

Well life here seems to be getting back into a routine! Youth starts up this week, and I have to say that this (our 3rd youth year in Altona) is shaping up to be my favorite! Speaking of shaping up... it is also that time of year, when you realize that all your big work out plans for the summer fell through, and that if you want to be in shape for next year at the beach it would be best to start now. So now I'm on this healthy eating thing, fruits, veggies, Rye bread... and such, and I've also started working out... and I've actually done pretty well in the last three weeks. I'm pretty stoked about it, and depending on what time of day I weigh myself, and how much is in my pocket it looks like I've already lost around 5 pounds. Maybe the biggest difference though is this time I have set a goal for myself. I want to lose another 30 pounds and weigh 165... which I don't think I have actually weighed since I was.... 16 maybe... anyway, that's the goal. I'm sure there will be more posts about this as the year continues.

But all this thinking about shaping up and working out and stuff has made be very aware of eating habits and other people who are in shape. When I see someone who is totally ripped I ask myself, "I wonder what he does?" But there is one thing that I saw this weekend that sort of bothered me.

On the MTV VMA's on Sunday there was a lot of hype about the return of Britteny Spears, which was basically a disaster. She looked drunk on stage, did a horrible job of lip syncing, and basically the performance was a dud. But what bothers me most is how many pictures I have seen of her in her tiny little outfit with the caption "Out of shape Britteny Spears."

What bothers me most about the whole thing is not her tiny outfit and how she promotes a life style of sex and promiscuity that we just don't need in our society, and let me be clear, that does bother me. What bothers me most is how every commentator is calling her flabby and out of shape, when really in those pictures she looks to be a healthy weight. No she doesn't have rock hard abs, but neither do most people. The media is big on telling us that we put too much emphasis's on how we look. Tyra Banks has been positive spokeswoman for models that aren't a size zero, and has encouraged people to be healthy, but also to feel comfortable and beautiful as they are. And yet... here is the same media telling us that Britteny is "fat", "flabby", "dumpy", and out of shape, when she clearly is not.... she's just not a size zero. It bothers me the images that we feel we must live up to, and I can only imagine the anguish that a young girl must go through hearing these thing said about Britteny and realizing that she isn't even in as good shape as her. It is just plain wrong! And so that is my rant, I hate the way the media has dumped on Britteny, and the way that the media is two-faced, on one side saying that it's o.k. not to look like a size zero model, and on the other blasting anyone who doesn't meet their standard. I hope that today if you are reading this you realize that you are a beautiful/handsome person and you do not need to aspire to the false concept of beauty that the media feeds you.