Fan-atic

"How did the Sox do this weekend?"

"Well, we really sucked. We got the crap beat out of us. When the Yanks come into town this week, we better find our sticks or I will go crazy."

I have known plenty of folks over the years who closely follow one sports team or another with obvious passion. They know the player's names and stats, and they advertise their loyalties with t-shirts or caps emblazoned with their team's colors and logos. Most often they also tend to use the word "we" when speaking of the team and their performance. Somewhere along the way "them" became "we". A recreational activity, a light diversion, somehow became internalized and personalized. These fans watch and follow with such fervor and intensity that they feel they are somehow a vested part of the team, that their screaming and their antics somehow are an essential aspect of the team's success.

However, there is a thin line that can be crossed between an enjoyable hobby or pasttime, and over-the-top, fanatic, or rabid conduct. Just in the last year there have been several stomach-turning stories that have spilled across national headlines of people being beaten to within an inch of their lives or gunned down with murderous intent just because they wore the "wrong" jersey or cheered too loudly for "their" team. There is also far too thin a boundary between acceptable and healthy passions, and aggressive, animalistic, and criminal behavior.

Mountains

Have you ever heard the expression, "Edweena, you're making a mountain out of a molehill!"? Yeah, likely not with this exact phraseology if your name isn't Edweena. However, I'm sure that you have come across this sentiment. Today I wish that I could use my genie powers and do the opposite, namely, turn a mountain into a molehill. Perhaps I could proceed by folding my arms across my chest and quickly nodding my head whilst sporting a snappy fez type hat. Maybe I could try to wiggle my nose in an endearing manner like Elizabeth Montgomery on Bewitched. I have got to do something, ..., anything.

This isn't some thought exercise that I am blathering on about here, this is the real world where the pavement hits the road or where there is a bush in my bird. To be clear, look at the photograph that I have added along with this post. It shows a huge mountain of topsoil that, for some crazy reason, I had delivered to my house and for which I paid good money. If you have discerning eyes and are not some kind of cretin, you should be able to see me sitting atop my mountain. I have zoomed in using close-up mode in the inset on the right. Yep, that's me sporting the crash helmet and the white velour jump suit. A mountain by its very definition.

Somehow, someway, I have set myself up to move this dirt to various areas of my yard that have been plagued by erosion. Yep, erosion, the geological process that normally takes millennia to affect the landscape, has somehow happened in a few-year time span in my yard and demands my attention. I have been cautioned by several local contractors that my house is in very real danger of falling into a giant sink hole that might ultimately take out the entire sub-division. I don't have to tell you that I am moist with fret. Please hold me!

But as I prepared for this post, I realized that there is an important Chinese proverb that I can share with you as you face whatever mountain stands before you in your life. Who knows, maybe this will somehow ease your burden and your anxiety to some small degree. A journey of a thousand miles begins with but one step. Sure, when we face our mountains, our first few steps nearly always seem tentative, pointless, ineffectual. However, after a short time, if you stay at it, you are nearly certain to be able to recognize some progress. Let this spur you into taking that next step, moving another wheelbarrow full of dirt, dealing with life another day.

Chaos

In an offshoot of his Circle series, Ted Dekker gives us the six-volume Lost Books series. This set of adventures takes place in the nearly 15 years between his Circle series books Black and Red. This is a time when the evil Horde, worshippers of Teeleh, led by Qurong, and the remnant of the forest people, worshippers of Elyon, led by Thomas Hunter, face off in an ever-spiraling conflict.

The fourth book in the Lost Books series, Chaos, continues seamlessly where Renegade left off. In order to escape the evil Teeleh and his lieutenant Alucard, as well as the legions of blood-thirsty Shataiki minions, three of our four teenage protagonists (Johnis, Darsal, Silvie) and the tag-along child Karas, use the four lost books of history they have gathered to escape into present day earth circa 2033. Any continuity in thoughts and planning of our band of heroes is seemingly lost when Silvie and Johnis materialize on the outskirts of Las Vegas with no signs of Karas or Darsal. They are used to a fairly primitive life in their forest lands, and are totally ill-prepared to deal with the technology at hand. While trying to make their way to the city to find their comrades, they cause a major ruckus. However, this to-do helps Karas, who materialized in Las Vegas 10 years earlier along with Darsal, to find them. Karas and Darsal each worked separately following whatever leads they found to locate the three remaining lost books. Ultimately, it seems that Karas had made some progress, but Darsal was killed by the dark forces when she got too close to the truth.

However, present day earth is the true domain of Alucard. The purpose of his entire existence has been to gather the seven lost books. When they are brought together as foretold in prophesy, a portal to future earth will open to allow the legions of Shataiki to emerge and enslave all of humanity. With plans that have been carefully designed over several millenia, the clever Alucard uses his evil cunning and his assistant Miranda to outwit the heroes and steal the seven books. He then proceeds to open the portal and to call Teeleh's armies to come and do his bidding. At this moment when all seems lost, Alucard is betrayed by his assistant, who is actually Darsal, who had turned away from Elyon and her role as a chosen one when she lost her beloved Billos in Renegade. In the instant that she remembers who really saved her, the tide turns and Elyon's chosen defeat the forces of darkness. Now, onto the fifth book in the series, Lunatic.

Cel Walls

Among the favorite activities that my daughter and I share together is watching old cartoons. We have a full cabinet of DVDs with cartoons like Tom and Jerry from the 1950s and 1960s, Scooby Doo from the 1960s and 1970s, Dyno-Mutt from the 1970s, Smurfs from the 1980s, and my favorite, Pinky and the Brain from the 1990s. However, the older cartoons from the days when they were hand-drawn have always sparked our most careful viewing. Not because we find these old shows overtly challenging from an intellectual standpoint, but because as these cartoons were churned out in a more mass-production mode, they tend to feature quite a few more mistakes. So, for us, the activity within the activity is to spot the errors, pause the video, and then to engage in discussion.

Usually the mistakes are logical in nature, where the cartoon makers, whose goal was to minimize the number of new cels that had to be drawn and colored, often tended to liberally re-use stock drawings that were already made and to splice them into the show. Often this results in characters showing up that in the previous scene or view were not present or characters changing size from scene to scene in relation to fixed background objects. We have seen some pretty egregious things over the years. Another type of issue is coloring mistakes, where some part of the background or the characters themselves are either not colored at all, or change colors from frame to frame. We have also made quite a nice collection of digital photographs of character parts and pieces that were not drawn at all. A few that I could quickly find have been sewn together in the accompanying photo from the old Scooby Doo cartoons. Enjoy.

Toil Period

Ahhh Labor Day. A day off from work for most folks. The last day of freedom for our children before school starts. The unofficial end of summer. House parties. Grilling hamburgers and hotdogs. Perhaps a last trip to the beach or a last dip in the pool before that old nip returns to the air and our autumnal visitor returns.

So, I hope that you have a wonderful and relaxing day. A day eased of pressures and expectations. Some time to unwind and enjoy yourself. Enjoy some laughter and find your smile. Even if summer went by too fast, or you didn't get to do anything or everything that you wanted, don't let this artificial "end of summer" sign-post bring you down. Don't let woulda, coulda, shoulda pull you down or pull you under. The past is past. Embrace this day, this day in front of you. Ahhh Labor Day.

Renegade

In an offshoot of his Circle series, Ted Dekker gives us the six-volume Lost Books series. This set of adventures takes place in the nearly 15 years between his Circle series books Black and Red. This is a time when the evil Horde, worshippers of Teeleh, led by Qurong, and the remnant of the forest people, worshippers of Elyon, led by Thomas Hunter, face off in an ever-spiraling conflict.

The third book in the Lost Books series, Renegade, picks up immediately after Infidel leaves off. This book centers on the renegade Billos and his dark thirst for the power of the lost books of History. In Infidel he got just a brief taste of this power and he became of single-minded purpose to embrace that power more deeply. At the first opportunity, he ran off with the three books that he had helped to collect with Johnis, Darsal, and Silvie, and then used his blood to enter into the cover of the book. With that decision he vanished from the forests along with the books. Darsal is deeply in love with Billos, and she realizes that the only way to bring him back is to find another of the lost books. Darsal, accompanied by the sweet child Karas, then sets out on a dangerous journey to the lair of Alucard the vampire bat, lieutenant of Teeleh. Darsal suspects that Alucard has one of the lost books. Ultimately she is proven correct and strikes a deal with the evil creature. Upon rescuing Billos, she will return to him the book he provided as well as the three that Billos has. The escape clause from this deal is to substitute either her life or that of Billos.

Billos meets a mysterious man in the world that he is transported into. Marsuvees Black promises Billos power beyond his comprehension. The more Billos tastes that power, the darker his soul becomes. This world, which is designed to look like present day Earth, turns out to be a sort of virtual reality, a portal to help find the other three lost books. The quest of the chosen four, Johnis, Billos, Darsal, and Silvie, is to find all seven of Elyon's books of history. Ultimately, Darsal rescues Billos, but there is a showdown with Alucard. They cannot hand over the four books, their power is just too great. Billos agrees to sacrifice himself to Alucard. To avoid losing the books they have, the remaining cadre of the chosen, escape into the pages of the books and end up in present day earth. Now onto the fourth book in the series, Chaos.

Omega

    Never take lightly that the rules of the game are dynamic ...

It is amusing how adolescent boys think they can see forever when it comes to attraction and interacting with adolescent girls, but in actuality, they can't see past the end of their "noses".

Somehow most people end up getting married. Somehow in the endless sea of humanity, most find someone that attracts them on multiple levels and they decide to make a committment. Of course, the statistics tell us that more than half of all marriages end in divorce. Of these folks, many will find love and marry again. Yet it is interesting how different the selection criteria are for men the second time around.

A few years pass after the divorce or the loss of a spouse and the dust settles. A new equilibrium is found. Likely an intricate pattern is deeply ingrained on his life. A few kids, a career, a mortgage and other debts, a circle of friends, and a particular lifestyle. There is also the important aspect of faith. All of this forms the backdrop for any future decisions on a potential spouse. Instead of a much simpler and decidedly naive list of criteria that were considered in the past, he now automatically considers income, education, faith, mothering abilities, debt levels, baggage, and a host of other things. I would strongly venture that none of these even rated a stray thought the first time around. Now they are the dominant filter through which he views potential attraction. - Omega

(Part 2 of 2)