Get Away From the Big Fish Now!

Don't you just love listening to the radio? Turing it on everytime you get in the car, or get into your room. You play it while you do your homework, or just when you're writing blog posts. (Guess what I'm doing right now?) I love hitting the radio button and tuning into 89.1. So what song is playing? Awww man, not this one again.

Unfortuantely that is my reaction to most of the time when I turn on the radio. And you know what the problem is with this. It has to do with the social hierchy of mucic, and if you have no idea what I just said it has to do mainstream music. That's the music that the general audience just loves. And real music fantatics hate. Most Christian radio stations only really play the same 100 songs over and over again because that is what the general Christian audience likes. UGH!! I probably know the lyrics to every one of those songs. What is wrong with playing the variety of music and hearing stuff you've never heard all the time. That's what makes music great, right? Variety.

Please don't hear me wrong on this. I do like a lot of the 100 songs that are played over and over again. But when it is all that you listen to you really get sick of it. I want to hear something different once and a while. Unfortunately radio stations don't like that because the general audience (the audience that only tunes in once and a while) likes to hear the music they like when they tune in. So what about the rest of us. I guess we just crawl into a corner and go hysterical due to the brainwashed song listing that goes on. All. The. Time.

Lucky me, I have broken this auditory cycle, and I have found the magical cure that will help us cope with music again. Live on music die hards.

My first reccomendation is theBlast.fm. Amazing live radio station. It is an Internet live streaming music channel that plays hundreds of aritsts and thousands of songs. These songs are all christian and primarily alternative rock. I know isn't it a step off from all the sameness of your radio. And the best thing is that they minmally play anything considered mainstream. I love theBlast.fm. The last bonus is that their are minmal commercials and the commercials they do have only promote their radio. And you can't deal with that every once and a while?

My second reccomendatino is Pandora Radio. It is also a live streaming radio online...only you are the DJ, kind of. You get to pick an artist or song you really like and they will start playing songs a lot like that, non stop. And you get to say whether you like that song or not which will further shape what songs will start playing. Of course you don't get to pick exactly what you want to listen to but some of the songs do repeat, randomly and rarely. Also their is no advertisments in the middle of your music either. Oh, what sweet bliss. I love Pandora.

Well, I guess this wasn't some philosophical prompt, like my previous ones or future ones might be, but I do like to express my behavior on something like this, and give a few suggestions to those who are thinking like me, if there are such people. Hey...thanks for reading this.

Hypocrititcal Monkey

"So where do Christians get off hating everybody else in this world? Do they think that they're perfect...because their not. Christians don't have a right to hate other people in this world no matter who they like."

And you know what. They're right. Christians don't have the right to hate other people in this world. Just because we are saved does not mean we are perfect, and I hope you would realize that. Not for even one moment can you think you are above any person for any reason. And at the same time I can mention that Christians shouldn't make any judgements about other people of whether they are good people or not. My mom always gets on my case about overtrusting strangers I am. "Don't leave your car unlocked someone will steal it," and "don't leave your wallet on your desk someone will take it," and something like, "Don't tell the people at the checkout lane you social security number, you'll be liable for identity theft." O.K. Mom I get it, I trust people. But this doesn't mean that we should judge "someone" just because they steal your car, your wallet, or your identity.

You know what I really think a lot about though. What do Christians think of gay people, and how do they react to meeting a gay person. Do they hate them? Are they apathetic about them? Do they ignore them? WHAT IS IT?!??!!? (Seriously, I want to know what other Christians think about homesexual persons, so please leave comments about your views.) Here is a tough one too. How do you react to a Christian who claims to be gay? Isn't this kind of difficult to think about? I really don't understand it entirely and I would like to know more.

One thing I do know though is that God teaches us not to hate anyone for any reason. This is why I love the saying "Love the person, hate the sin." It tells me that I can love everyone but I can still hate what they do as a sin. You know my brother is just like this. He is a Christian and believes Jesus died for him and his sins and that He loves him and he has asked for forgiveness. Great news, right? Here's the problem: every other doctrine about his relationship with God is distorted. The people he hangs around with and works with twist the teaching of the Bible in order to make themselves not look so bad. Isn't that kind of creating your own god? I mean you have to change the rules in order to make you a better person but you won't change your lifestyle whatsoever, and because of this my brother is very confused. He thinks that now that he is saved he will do whatever he wants, regardless of God's will. It doesn't matter what God says because he is always a good person.

If you hadn't aleady figured out what my reaction it would have to go something along these lines.

"MAFJEPGFHEJEFJEOWELEFJ... WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!???!?! WHAT IN GOD'S HOLY NAME HAS POSESSED YOU? SOMEONE GET ME A BIBLE WE ARE ABOUT TO PERFORM EXHORTATION!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ok, it wasn't exactly like that, but you get that I was furious. The thing is that I wasn't furious at CJ I was furious at what he was doing. I still loved my brother...well like a brother. It goes the same with parents and their children. When a child does something wrong parents are angry with the child's actions, but they still love their child just as much, if not more, than before.

So is that the same way with our views on homosexuals? Do we still love them like brothers and sisters and dear friends, and possibly children and still hate their sexual orientation? How do we cope with our loved ones directly going against God's Word? It is all too much for me. Right now I can just avoid being a hypocritical monkey and love them for now, even though it pains me to see loved ones dying to sinfulness.

"No I don't hate them. I love them with more heart than anyone I know. And with all the might God gives me...I pray for them."

Playing With Life

Oh life is just a funny thing isn't it. And it becomes only funnier when we begin to play our lives. You know, get on the computer and start your life again for the day. If you havn't caught on yet I'm talking about the Sims. This is the game where you create your own little Sim which is the human of the game and then proceed to live life. You can look for a job, make billions of friends, and you can go shopping in the largest catalog ever for everything your Sim could ever want. So...what's the point? Is it just to live life again. I'm not sure if Sim players acutally think about the underlying meaning of the Sims. (And believe me their is one.) I myself have fallen under the spell of this lifelike game merely on the point that it was fun, for a while.

I was reading a particular author for my Language & Composition class in school. His name is Chuck Klosterman, and he writes primarily essays about a variety of topics and discussions. He's completely over analytical about EVERYTHING possible and he has a lifestyle that is...well, let's just say I would never reccomend him to anyone. But none the less, I read some of this essays and he did the exact thing I am doing right now. He analyzed the Sims and it's promblems and it began my thinking process on this game acutally.

My problems with playing the Sims are that it is impossible to settle upon my goals and the unknown goals of my Sim. I want to be successful for my Sim, climbing the career ladder, obtaining enough cash to be well off, raise his skills to amazing levels. Of course, all he wants to be is happy: well fed, entertained, clean, etc. Now don't get me wrong I want him to be happy too, but everytime I try to aspire a little in my own goals he drops in his level of happiness. If I want him to read he drops in entertainment, if I want him to paint he drops in energy, if I want him to go running he just plain becomes depressed. Come on Sim why won't you work with me.

Then when I do get promoted so much on my social ladder I am required to make friends. "Make what?!!?!" I say. It never even came to my mind that I was required to socialize with other people, and what if my Sim won't socialize? Do you even know how long it takes to form a strong relationship? I can't do that on this game, that will take way too long. Ugh. But I guess it would be good for my Sim. Not that he cares.

Klosterman ends his essay really interestingly. He ends up realizing that in his idiotic efforts to get his Sim married he realized that he tortured his Sim to the point of no return. That it was filthy, depressed, hungry, dying probably, maybe suicidal, who knows. So he makes a dramatic effect that he will let his Sim do whatever it wants now and then dramatizes his decisions to click the option button and check "Freewill."

You know I think that is the problem with my Sim. He only sees the short term effects on things. He won't and can't put himself through problems and be happy because he knows that in the end it will be better off in the end. How selfish can a Sim be? But then again this could be a great lesson for us. Nobody aspires to be a Sim someday, so that means we shouldn't be like that. We shouldn't procrastinate and we should realize what greater things await us if we just wait and stick it through.