The greatest beer ever!

This weekend I discovered the greatest beer ever invented on the planet...ever! As soon as I saw it I got all Ver Clempt (yiddish for "all choked up") because I knew that I had found my beer. The one and only...the self-proclaimed (and Kosher) "chosen beer": HEBREW. So far I've only had the pleasure of tasting the "mesiah bold" flavor, but plan on searching far and wide for the others.

see their website: http://www.shmaltz.com/

SMB3

So a friend an I just finished Super Mario Brothers 3 last night. pretty freakin awesome. It was pretty much the goal of this summer. I've beaten it before, but not w/o codes/game genie...so needless to say I was pretty psyched about beating it. Thanks Sullivan, good game ;-).

As I type this my office mate is playing NES games on an emulator (basically a computer program that has a bunch of the old NES and SNES games on it and lets you play them through your computer). Right now he's playing Lifeforce. It's pretty cool, you can save your spot by pressing F5 and then go back to that spot by pressing F7 - kinda cheating, but it lets you do things like this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7600002583337657706. This is a video of a guy beating SMB3 in just under 11 min....think about that...let it simmer...11 min....unbelievable, simply unbelievable.


ps. if you're wondering where my officemate got that NES emulator...well, let's just say I know a guy. send me an email and maybe we can talk...that is, if you're not a cop

Wonder

hmm...its a great night for a walk.




...ever wonder why. why God has chosen to have things go the way they've gone. why do we want to change the things that we cannot change...or the people we cannot change? who are we to know what is best for us? yet we question God as to "WHY?" and demand a knowledge too great for us. maybe someday I'll truly realize what I already know - that God's timing is not my own, and that whether He comes too fast or too slow for my tastes that, at the end of the day, He knows best.

what an awful student God must take me for, were He to think on me with a mortal heart (fortunately for me, He does not). I find it interesting, if not completely frustrating trying to figure out why God chooses to respond one time, and not another - or does he always respond and I just miss the forest for the trees....how arbitrary God may seem in the moment, but then in hindsight...20/20, everytime. why do I question His voice time and again - He has never failed or forsaken me...never. why do I question? I am as Gomer and God, Hosea...blocking my way, stripping me bare, back to what He created me to be before I clothed myself in the rags of unrighteousness. where I have built for myself a temple of self with pride as its foundation...He is tearing it down and leading me to the wilderness, where I will again learn to depend on ONLY Him....

A good frined and teacher once told me this and I have found it to be true: that "the Jews were better Egyptians than the Egyptians" - once you know what that means, then you'll know where I'm coming from and you'll know why we have to go through some of the things we go through before we get to where God wants us to be.

1:00 AM

...I'm really gonna miss this place.

God's been showing me so much lately - how He really does have everything under control and how he really does have a plan (not only that, but the plan is currently under way.....just fyi). I've been seeing his fingerprints on everything. One thing imparticular - He's given me a glimpse of what He's doing in other people's lives - people that I care about. It's really comforting to see Him working in others.....John 15.13 (No greater love has a man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends). I would for my friends, but Jesus already did it for all of us. so, since Jesus has already taken care of us, i suppose the least i can do is to follow him - give my life for him. go wherever he takes me. i can go knowing that they are safe and will be taken care of. hmm - psalm 139.9 (If i take the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea. even there your hand will guide me and your right hand will hold me fast) well, i guess i'll let you know...

There's so much to do and so little time.

Raul Rivero

So I was reading the news yesterday morning (you'd think I was working, but no - that's another story)...anyway, I was reading the news and saw this story about a recently released Cuban dissident poet who was put in jail for his writings against Castro and communisim (see here: http://www.babalublog.com/archives/002367.html). While imprisoned, he was only allowed to write love poems, which he had to submit to the guard so that they could be censored before Rivero could give the poems to his wife (who he only got to see once every three months). Here's one of those poems, called "Nothing?":

Where I used to dwell
in my autumn, with my rags
and I say dwelled
because I felt alive
inside there as never before.

Where I used to inhabit
tremulous, subtle
and I was recognized
by my sinewsand my veins
and by the air
that traveled in and out
your lungs.

There, down in your blood
streamand within your thoughts
that host now
another guest,
is there not left a remnant of sorrow?
not even some ashes?

Here's one (not written in prison) called "High Fidelity":

They'll be free from the gramophone's pain,
its torture from the rub and the needles.
Chaste, they'll not know the sin
of singing a capella while hungry
caught between the farce and the fair.

The men who stay at home
humming soft melodies
will acquire wisdom.

A fortunate life, serene happiness
will be theirs and their children's.

As light as ash. As clear as eternity.

So that's it...Now he lives in Miami (I think). Anyway, I like them - the poems...Rivero is also quoted as saying this about going to prison: "I was afraid of my own fear. I was afraid of not being able to stand it. Everything is programmed to undo you as a human being." I'll admit, it's a bit cynical, but ensightfull in it's own right I suppose. Especially knowing who it is that said it, I think it's encouraging.......like he was afraid, but that didn't change him, didn't stop him from doing what he believed in...believed was right....hmm, isn't that the definition of courage?

shit