Atown’s Place to Think

ya stuff has been busy as of late but thats ok. I recently went on a camping trip and it made me think alot. the reason i thought alot was because i had alot of time to myself which is why i thought of something to write here

So essentially i’ll admit im not a great camper, outdoors person, etc. and i even fell asleep in the sun and burned a little bit which, if you knew me irl, is very hard to do. But the fact of the matter is, i really dont interact well with others. one girl kept saying through the whole weekend how creepy and weird i was (known her for 2 years). Now i admit im nerdy, but im not THAT weird. but apparently my social skills are not usually up to snuff.

Now i recently also had some hits to my self esteem, and it really made me wonder why in the world im even leaving my house because of what everyone says and does. mind you this is in the context of a church/bible study group atmosphere. As christians are we that judgmental to the point of even little things are weird or creepy? I know no one is perfect and everyone judges but seriously, i dont blame people for not wanting to be or hangout with christians.

I also began to wonder if alot of things that God even blesses us with are worth it sometimes. but thats a rant i dont feel like going into today.

Patience, and long suffering are the keys though in my opinion. God tells us to wait, and know that his plans are above our own. i would agree and do my best to walk out in obedience.

well in an effort to generate more traffic i have permalinked everything to a better pattern. hopefully it helps. me and my boss might put together a marketing website that we update every so often with some resources and strategies. dunno if we will yet or not but that could be alot of fun.

Well Its been a while and I feel I need to finish this argument before beginning my next blogging schemes. I also recently began reading mere Christianity, from which i will borrow some argument type elements.

To be able to define laziness for the most part, there is an opposite by which to help define it. likewise, fast or high rate of speed is contrasted and opposite of slow or low rate of speed. Darkness is defined as the absence of light. These terms although opposite can hardly exist without one another. So truly what is the opposite of lazy? I would say that it would be that which is ultimately productive, and a balance in the middle riddled with exceptions. These exceptions may include sleeping/resting, which although can be considered lazy for the lack of productiveness, is actually a productive action because you are resting your body and regenerating energy.

Motivation being more of a state of mind can be altered. Happiness Happens, Joy is Everlasting. Music, food, life, people, stuff, traffic, weather, almost everything can affect our moods. For this reason we must capture our mind and our heart. Psalm 119:15-16 says: “15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” Proverbs 4:23, “23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (NLT) or 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (NIV). I think if we let despair or helplessness it can drain not only our spirit, but drag on our minds and our hearts. Depression can steal away our promises, minimize them. However we can make a choice to get up and move and take steps. We are called to meditate on Gods promises and his precepts and principles. Guarding our hearts we must not let evil come out of it. We have been saved and purified. Despair should have no place for our hope is in God, the one who destroys the impossible.

Meditating on our hopes and promises that God has given us and What we have and have to come will help keep us motivated. With our hope put in something firm, we will always be taken care of. Motivation to do something successful and our hope put someplace firm, man think of the things we could do to change this world and live full lives with blessing and storing of treasures in heaven.

So how do we know what that is? Well we have to practice listening to God, spend time in prayer, fasting, reading the bible, seeking wise council consistently and on a regular basis, asking the holy spirit to help lead and guide us, getting plugged into a church. All of this and more can help us be motivated, not only in the physical but the spiritual too.

Lately its come to my attention that the factors in life can be broken down simply, over simply, into two main categories. motivated and unmotivated. Motivated being, you have the drive and will to do something, and unmotivated indicates that you have no will to do anything.

Motivation is defined as, the condition of being motivated. Synonyms include, predetermination, encouragement, and desire.

“will” as it stands will be defined by a rather large definition, the faculty of conscious and especially of deliberate action; the power of control the mind has over its own actions. the act or process of using or asserting one’s choice. wish or desire. purpose or determination.

These definitions were pulled from Dictionary.com but I believe they have been appropriately attributed and referenced for the purposes of my thoughts.

so how does my title of laziness fit into thoughts of motivation? Well, that is very simple. Unmotivated people seem lazy. Desire, encouragement, and purpose of determination and the lack thereof, is what drives unmotivation. Unmotivated people are not necessarily lazy, they are just have no drive, no purpose, or (not always, but some cases) no encouragement. With this notion in place, it can explain why students dont do well in school, why people are on welfare and stay there, why people at work can perform better but dont. Students may have no drive to succeed because they dont know what that brings. Those on welfare get fed and have money, so no purpose is created for their lives. Employees do not excel or perform at their highest because there is no encouragement.

The latter of the three is clearly pointed out in popular illumination studies that suggested that, more lighting would increase worker productivity. whether it was darker or lighter had no effect, what was found was that the workers were having constant contact with their bosses and had encouragement and general contact.

So what is the key to staying motivated? I’m not sure, I’m going to try and find that out myself find a way to present it an a relatively academic form.

So….. apparently all of America and the world is scared about this thing. Honestly I’m not worried too much. Being a christian, I’m not afriad to die, I do worry sometimes the manner in which I will die but meh, Death is chill with me.

To bring another side of things, heres something that has been researched and looked at by different researchers to study pandemics. I present to you, Corrupted Blood.

Well, lately I’ve been feeling like I’ve been hitting a peak in my christianity and life and in that, I realize that a valley or platue is inevitable and may ensue. To delay that or prepare for that, pray with me as I try and find more ways of expressing my faith, growing and reading in my faith, and working to build my relationship closer to Christ in all things.

In other news:
this is a really interesting article

Living on Air: A Windows guru spends two weeks with a Mac

The authors ending words sum up the article fairly well:

That’s not to say that every aspect of the Mac is superior to the PC. Vista’s Network and Sharing Center, and especially the Network Map, is an excellent, simple, all-in-one destination for networking that Mac OS X would do well to emulate.

Overall, though, Mac OS X beats Windows. There, I’ve said it. And lightning hasn’t struck me yet.

RELATED BLOGS:
Preston Gralla: Five reasons a Windows fan also loves the Mac
Sharon Machlis: Mac at work

However, there’s no doubt that you often pay extra for a Mac; there really is a Mac tax, even if Microsoft has overstated the amount of that tax. But after living with a Mac, I can understand why people would be willing to pay the tax.

Am I giving up PCs for the Mac? Certainly not. I’ve got multiple PCs at home, including those that run Windows XP, Windows Vista and a beta of Windows 7. And I’ve got one that dual-boots into either XP or Linux running Ubuntu. Replacing all those machines with Macs would be prohibitively expensive, and simply not worth the effort.

As for the MacBook Air, for a portable machine, it’s perfect in just about every way but one — its price tag. Still, I’ve bit the bullet and am buying one, used. This isn’t about productivity or getting work done; it’s pure machine lust.

Well I migrated some stuff so this is my official blog now and not a sub-domain.

In other news, The supreme court wont even listen to jack thompson. thank you courts for doing something right

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/04/20/breaking-us-supreme-court-declines-hear-jack-thompson039s-appeal

well I have 20 minutes and alot of stuff going through my head. I wanted to post stuff earlier but I felt I needed a little time. Been getting overwhelmed as of late, but lets give this a shot.

In the last few posts I’ve gone toward affections, emotions and relationships. Today I’ll gear towards that, however this time being more mindful of the opposite side of the situation. I had made mention of pinnacle life moments and of repulsiveness and hope, these things, although not highlighted, deserve some time because they are evident and play large roles in reality. 

Reality dictates that although God is supreme ruler, we live in a fallen world. Because we live in a fallen world,  pain (emotional, physical, and spiritual) will occur with the garuntee of occuring. It is really such a reality that bears no “if” but only “when.” Some may occur in rapid progression, others are more spread out. I met a lady recently whos father and uncle passed away within 2 days of each other. that to me would seem rather rapid and who knows how long it will last (considering spirituality of the situation and if inherentince fueds arise). My own parents have had cancer, although still living, the two struggles were spread out over many years and the diagnoses with almost 10 years different. Life sometimes happen.

 Hope, as stated before is our “greatest strength and greatest weakness” and considered a dillusion beyond reason. Being a dislusion means that it could possibly be hiding a fact. Whether the fact is pleasant or not is irelevant, in the context im speaking towards, hurt can be a result. great joy and gladness can also be a result, consequence or envitability however life can jade us toward what little good happens to be in this world. When I say little good, im obviously not applying that to God for He is love and love in His expressed essence could not be described as anything but pleasent. 

I’ve come to realize religiously, politically, and on a relational level im very different from those who would consider themselves conservative and liberal. I’m obviously very conservative and by some liberals, a right wing fanatic. However I’ve found true right wing fanatics that are even more conservative then my own dealings. Something that I have noticed in these sectors, is the more you get deeper into the core of it all, regardless of what it really is, “jadedness.” Jaded according to Dictionary.com,

To wear out, as by overuse or overindulgence. See Synonyms attire¹. 
v.   intr. 
To become weary or spiritless. 
n.  

1. A broken-down or useless horse; a nag.

 

Weary, is another keyword I would like to bring up since it can affect what we consider our strength in this context, Hope. Weariness can weigh us down like water drenched clothing, we can hope and have strength but each step is heavier. This being the case, the more we belief in something, the more weary and jaded to external events, circumstances, people, personalities, events, or schools of thought that may oppose the original belief, can have a negative impact and even hurt us. What we must come to realize is that there is a difference between having tuff skin and having a jaded heart. Think of it this way, if a moderate conservative was told he was a luney freak of nature and that fiscal conservatism is inherently rediculous, then he will either have tuff skin and understand where the other person is coming from or he will write the other man off as just another dumb liberal hes spent his life fighting in washington d.c. Now this situation can be vice versa with ease but thats not really the point.  The point through elaboration of examples and circumstances is that as humans we can get hurt. Evident in reality, it occurs. We think that becoming weary, untrusting, and unhappy is just a fact of life and write it off as nothing. 

I believe the aforementioned statement of being, mindset and/or lifestyle to be folly. To become jaded and weary is to set yourself for contentment in the worst way, not allowing yourself to be able to enjoy Gods funnest gifts. Truth be told, from my own opinion, it can be absolutely hilarious to watch as someone gets all riled up over a simple political statement, or watch the neighbors dog harrass the mailman, or the predictability of some blond talking on the phone and not paying attention while driving, or the obnoxious luaghter coming from the other side of a restauarant. Sure they might be serious issues but those are only serious if you take life too seriously and become weighed down by the rain of life’s seasons. 

I would like to take a minute to also talk about relational issues, hurts and hopes. I think I can save us a paragraph or twenty when I state that we have all hoped for something relationally and our hopes were dashed when something didt work out just the way we wanted it to or with the person we wanted to get to know better. The obviousness of this statement is in the obviousness and predictability of life itself. We become affectionate toward others and it grows but then dwindles as we realize (and sometimes occassionally realize incorrectly) that there was nothing ever there to begin with. Whatever chemistry we thought existed, shared personal values, thoughts of perfection of the other party, future goals, etc, can all be potentially rubish because of a dilusion we allowed and even encouraged ourselves to believe in. A dilusion called Hope. Now this may sound horribly jaded mind you, however it is a fact of reality. For the record, I would, will and continually choose to believe in “Hope” because of the things it promises and allow myself to be open to hurt. I choose this because theres no other fulfilling way to live life. If I lived without hope and vulnerability, then my Christian faith and walk is completely meaningless. Christ gives us hope because of the hope of a life better spent with Him. Remember this as well, 1st John 4:19,  ”We love because he first loved us.” Jesus took the first step and ultimate step to extending His hand toward us in HOPE that we would say yes. We are the essence of repulsive because of our sin and God loves us all the same and wants to build that relationship with us.

As for pinnacle moments, I implore you to spend a life full of expectancy with Jesus, taking those steps, talking to those people you are called to at the bus stop, grocery store, at the coffee shop, after class, the guy who wants his red stapler, EVERYONE. That is one example of living in pinnacle moments and moving on them. If you want to view this relationally with a member of the opposite sex, well then stop dawdling. We could all be dead tomorrow and you’ll miss out. Although if we’re all dead we get to be with Jesus, but I think God allowed us to be here to enjoy life and his creation, especially the beautiful ones.

Wow I cant believe it has been almost like 3 weeks since i last posted here so here are some thoughts and perspectives that deal with what the current slot of time is in concurrance of (eg. valentines) and with the spirit of my semi recent posts. 

We spoke before with regards to affection and eros among other things. I want to bring up another aspect that systemically is needed throughout the whole process of these things to work and fufill relationships. It is also a word that was used several times in a conversation dinner date I had last night and something Jesus said when he was about to say something extremely important. We use the term, “honest” alot in our society but with the way we use it, we can imply a factual truth, validity to our statements and construed what we believe truly “is.” Jesus usede the term “Verily Verily.” as taken from verilyverily.org, “Verily, Verily” is the KJV translation of the phrase used by Jesus to introduce a strong foundational truth.  It literally means “firm” and signifies that what follows is a trustworthy fact that defines reality.” 

When we use the phrase “Honestly” and follow it up with something, we are telling a person that we are defining a fact that defines reality, eg. “Honestly, I want to adopt kids and provide homes.” This statement whether it actually true or not is not the issue, but the defining of a perception to the reciever of the message. I will use the term reciever in describing communications within people, mostly because that is an ingrained habit from being a broadcast communications student.  

A huge thing to understand from the sender point of view, sender referring to the person who made a statement, is that reality was defined to the reciever, even if that reality is untrue. If its an untrue statement, yet you put forth “honesty,” its truly a contradiction in its simplest nature, but also how is that relationship/friendship really growing and maturing when the honesty cant be fully expressed? The point is not to judge or put blame on anyone for doing such things, this can be reasoned by either parties or either party can be blamed, however you want to look at it. To lightly digress, the “blame”, if you want to call it that, can truly be on the original sender for not trusting the reciever to understand reality therfore the sender chooses to protect in a way the reciever from percieved hurt. The originally intended reciever however can also portray an attitude themselves that may not be worthy of trust or invoke trust with others. I myself have committed the “contradiction of honesty” as defined as an act of protection and also against people who dont invoke trust within their attitudes. 

My intent of this short piece is to have you look in retrospect to conversations and interactions with others and how they may have either been misinterpreted or have been impacted by the defining of reality by statements. To have someone look at the power of the words we use on a daily basis and realize and understand that we use words without thinking fully about their meaning sometimes. Jesus intended messages to be remembered and reality to be defined in the purest sense especially when He said in Mark 3:28 ”Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men” or as the NIV puts it, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.” or to paraphrase it, Honestly all the sins and and blasphemies of men will be forgiven. 

In the last discussion we ended with the theme:

“Love, as something we are commanded to do, in light of a relationship is a tall order and not just something that is flighty or easily swayed. So where is affection in this? Affection has its place in our lives as we grow and develop our relationships into Eros fashion. Where is the source? It comes from God as not only as a feeling but a command as well.  Then why are relationships so awkward and we have the fear of rejection in our lives in regards to relationships and affection?? That my friends is a discussion for another day.”

Well Its another day and after spending some time meditating and praying alot lately, I think that rejection ultimately can be blamed upon the negative impacts and experiences that the conceptual choice known as “hope.” I truly believe that the Architect from the Matrix: Reloaded defined supremely when he stated, “Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.” Hope is a delusion in the way that our minds become convinced beyond reason sometimes. With no logical proof we believe, trust and hope in things. It is our greatest strength because when we “hope” in things beyond reason, expectancy has a knack for working things out. We place our hope in God for a life better spent with Him and our lifes can be expressed in great elements of joy. Consequently we can place our hope in cars, money, careers, people, and relationships and when they do not satisfy or come through for us, we get disappointed, rejected, discouraged, and dismayed by these events. Now can we hope for jobs that would be awesome careers for us and be happy with it? Of course! But you must remember happy-ness is a flighty thing and the next day after we get the job we can conceivably hate it beyond reason. I do not intend to get into the discussion of contentment and life events and how they affect us, however a great amount could be said about them in their separate regards, however our focus is elsewhere.

Rejection is defined by dictionary.com as :

Now the last couple definitions can be aligned with the idea of being repulsive. In the context of relationships, our carried theme, and the thought of rejection, we can hold affection for someone and never get to the Eros stage because we are afraid that we are repulsive in some regards. We feel we might be too repulsive and be rejected, “discard[ed] as useless or unsatisfactory”, and become disappointed. Hope plays the role in the middle stage between Affection and Eros, because hope will sway us either way, being “simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.” In some essences, we can allow for self-confidence to play a role in this but it truly comes down to how much we hope, believe and within the context of Christianity, how much our hope is affirmed.

Hope affirmed can greatly influence our ultimate decision to attempt a relationship and let Affection flow further. Whether it be a word from God, confirmed expressions of encouragement from humans (likely friends and family or the occasional stranger that tells you your about to miss the boat), or precedent in our lives leading up to the decision point. Essentially what I am trying to state here, is that Hope, although being our of our own decision making and willful expression thereof, can be greatly influenced by the people and actions around us, including God in the way that He is in control of all people and actions but also speaks to us in various ways.

Ultimately because of Gods love, we have free will and free choice. God loved us so much he gave us the decision to love him back and create a relationship, meaning he also gave us the decision to not follow after him. A relationship is a choice on both parts, God wanted it that way. Because of free will, no matter how much hope we have, the decision is ours to follow after God, or after a relationship – willingly expressing our affection, and our decision alone.

So we come to an interesting cycle of continues pinnacle moments where we could step out in hope, change our lives in some area for the good or lame (bad is an exaggeration), leave ourselves vulnerable, dismiss the self-inflicted ideas of repulsiveness, and hope beyond logic or reason that whoever we’re interested in will concurrently leave themselves vulnerable enough to say, “yes.” We get many of these opportunities, especially with technology. We could send an e-mail, a text, a phone call, a tweet, facebook message, or heck be old fashion and request a meeting to talk (which I personally would encourage), at any point of the 24 hour cycle we live in. Every moment we could be living life expressing and flowing with hope, expectancy and in cases love (whether for God or someone, the first being more important), and experiencing life in so many more faucets than we could imagine. But fear and rejection stop us from it all. We allow for pinnacle moments to pass us by every minute of the day we sit and wait and ponder without doing something constructive (either praying and meditating on the situation or acting and choosing in regards to it).

Even though there is alot, not only in this blog but other places as well, writen about this particular topic, it can all be summed into two decisions. the first one is are you going to go out and ask? The second one is, will the other person say, “yes” or “no” ? If its in the case of God, He will always say Yes and then some. If its a person of the opposite gender, then they may say something different, depending. My only advice in that regard is found in Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT, “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”