The significance of an asterisk

I voted to brand it.

Now do I think any of the publicly-lauded heavy hitters are completely performance-enhancer clean? No, of course not. Anyone who is currently perceived as having a shot of breaking the HR record has probably used something, and their records would be similarly tainted.

I don't want it branded because of steroids or other enhancers. I want it branded because of the one thing all those chemicals failed to enhance - Barry's charm. He's a jerk, plain and simple, and I want that asterisk on that ball for all to remember that he went about his career with such a lack of grace and class that it bears mentioning in the footnotes of baseball history.

The order of things

Jack Bauer may save the world sometimes, but Jason Bourne saves Jack Bauer. Don't ask me which is better or cooler...that's like asking if the NSX or 300ZX twin turbo is better. You'd take either and like it.

I saw the Bourne trilogy in its entirety this past weekend and was pretty impressed. Good action, good plot, good acting. Over the top, granted, but what modern action/spy movie isn't? That's part of the fun of it.

Bourne is incredible, as are the rest of the "Assets." Independent, creative, brilliant, stealthy killing machines. Simply amazing. If I were going to be an assassin, I'd want to be like that, sans amnesia. Oh, and throw in some throwing knives or a bow and arrow or something...some kind of long distance silent killing method.

Jack Bauer is definitely cool and definitely a killa, but Jason Bourne and the Bourne trilogy is more my speed.

Ready, set, BUSY!!!

5:00AM, get woken up by cat. Resist urge to kill cat and go back to bed.

5:45AM, get woken up by girlfriend's phone call. Forgives girlfriend and go back to bed (this interruption isn't so bad, really)

6:30AM, get woken up by alarm. Put the alarm clock under a pillow w/o turning it off and go back to bed.

7:00AM, get woken up by alarm again and finally get out of bed.

8:15AM, get into work, realize I shouldn't have gotten out of bed.

9:20AM, blink.

10:25AM, get call from former and soon to be again boss, thinks about running back home to bed.

10:55AM, meet with former and soon to be again boss, realizes prior thoughts about running back home to bed were spot on.

1:30PM, breathe

2:00PM, realize what I forgot to do while blinking earlier, attends to late tasks

2:30PM, receive message that my employees have been removed from training classes

2:31PM, head to the Training department with Nerf dart gun in hand to aggressively negotiate to get employees back in training classes

2:33PM, picture a Nerf dart impaling a Training employee for removing my employees from training classes

2:41PM, worry girlfriend by not responding to attempts to contact me

4:30PM, against better judgement, breathe again. Fourteen tasks delayed during said breath.

5:45PM, install new wireless keyboard and mouse...too mentally fried to realize I should go home.

6:00PM, see boss heading home and join her in the elevator down to the first floor.

Welcome! (I know...it needs work still)

For all those that are visiting from the old blog, welcome to the new home! I truly appreciate your visit and continued viewership.

And yes, I know it needs work. Gotta get some links and the hit counter and other little trinkets like that. Give it time...it'll get fleshed out.

But now, on with the show!

Imagination Uncuffed

Never did I really imagine that I would be as blessed as I've been recently.

I've been dating the FGF Abby for a few months now and I'm happy to say that we'll be getting married sometime in the first quarter of 2008, likely Jan 19th.

I've know Abby to some degree since we were in high school, however every day that I get to know her better is a day that I'm more amazed by who she is and her character. And then there's her family, a fantastic group of people that I'll get to share my life with.

And then there's the things that we'll have to look forward to as part of the future...details that there's no call to go into here, but suffice it to say that the blessings are simply amazing.

Things like this don't happen to me or my family much. No, not ever. We're the family that has flat tires and dead batteries all the time, that gets into an auto accident and totals the disabled-conversion van two days before the folks are set to go on their 30th anniversary trip. We're the family that needs a root canal after the credit card gets paid off. We're the family that refi's the house only to have the AC, water heater, and dishwasher go bad at the same time. So for something like this to happen to a guy like me from a family like mine...it's beyond anything I've ever imagined.

I'm a romantic, yes, but I'm a realistic romantic. And the realist in me says this doesn't happen to me. But it is, and I'm lovin' it.

Thanks for being you, Abby. You'll get your ring in good time.

A thing of beauty...

You should figure out real quick that I'm a football fan, and to a greater degree an Ohio State Buckeye fan.


With that being said, I present to you this picture...

The Blog Title

A Boy and his Sword.

It's simple, really.

The Boy is me. I'm a guy, yes. A male. But for me to call myself a man just sounds weird. I play with nerf dartguns at work. I enjoy video games. I get excited about explosions. Cars and football and most other sports are cool. So are UFC fights. I attend gaming and anime conventions. Most of this isn't stereotypical rugged "man" stuff.

I'm also something of a boy in my spirituality again. I once was strong but I allowed my muscles to atrophy. I've been slowly building them back up for a while and have re-entered the ranks of youth ministry (although it still sounds funny for me to say that the college group is a "youth" ministry...then again, frequently the guys in the dorm acted like jr. high kids so maybe it's not so far away).

As for the Sword, that's scripture. "...the word of The Spirit, which is The Word of God." Through the majority of my schooling I was fairly strong in my faith. I dare not say I was a "good Christian" (I don't know the meaning of the term...it *almost* seems like an oxymoron) but I was most certainly at peace with my Maker. After a period of being kicked around for a while I started returning my attentions towards my faith, and in doing so it was like I was an old knight wielding his sword for the first time in decades - it felt a bit heavy in my hand and weilding it was awkward, but memories fled back into my mind along with a rememberance of how I used to use it...and will come to use it again.

It's not that I've forgotten how to use, read, or study the Bible - to the contrary, that knowledge never left. It's the extended tools...my bible software and concordances and other such references...along with the proper application/interpretation of scripture that is a bit rusty. That's alright, though. Fortunately scripture is for everyone, not just those that "know" how to use it. Heck, sometimes I wonder if those less formally trained aren't actually better able to understand scripture, anyway. The more we "know," the more we tend to lean on that knowledge; but I think it's the Holy Spirit, not our brains, that is the real key.

Entry the First (sort of)

(This will be a bit longer than mosts of my posts...some history is necessary to make everything relelvant)

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away (aka sometime around the year 2000 in the Southwestern College dorms) I started a journal of sorts. It was something of a prayer journal blended with a "diary" of my spiritual walk.

Let me just tell you that the journal hasn't gone well.

The reason I started the journal in the first place is two-fold. My Dean of Students and supervisor as an RA, coach Steve Morley, once commented that he hadn't encountered a person of greatness or of high repute that didn't keep some sort of a journal. Shortly after that my roommate and fellow RA, Brad Petry, quoted a book that he'd read saying, "People who write things down get things done."

It's rather uncomfortable for me to say that I've found both of their statements to be true; when you look at my journal, there might be ten entries in it. I'm not even sure if I know where it is any more.

While I was spiritually strong while I was at Southwestern my walk greatly diminished upon graduation and entering "the real world." My testimony was further tarnished after my divorce - I made some pretty poor choices out of my emotional distraughtness during the following months.

I've been attending Open Door Fellowship for the past few years - sometimes off-and-on, sometimes more stabley (is that a word...eh, screw it...I majored in English so it's a word now). Their body has been patient with me, accepting me as I was and allowing me, encouraging me to grow strong in the Lord again. Slowly that happened, and slowly that happens. Both past and present tense.

Hooray God for being patient with me.

All the while I've been slowly focussing my attentions back to where they should be, I've also been blogging. Some friends of mine in the game industry initially piqued my interest in it so I started one of my own. That was over two years ago. I wasn't sure if it would maintain momenum or not as I've traditionally hated writing, but it's mostly thrived, averaging about one post every other day. Slowly the blog developed from a way to allow my friends and I to share our chronicles into filling a need to be heard, as well as a recultivated drive to be active and successful. I've always been interested in radio and broadcasting which harkens back to this inherent desire...no, need I have to communicate. So my trusty blog filled all of that.

That is, of course, until someone mentioned that I swear a fair amount in my blog.

*ouch* That stung a bit. Then again, healing salves and truth usually do.

I realized that my blog is one area of my life where I haven't really been walking the walk, or even talking the talk. If you care to download the past couple years of my life to see where I'm coming from, visit onefinalfantasy.blogspot.com. I warn you, though...a portion of the content is R rated. Nonetheless the blog as a whole is a fair representation of what I've spent my time doing for the past two years. A fair representation of me.

So now I start a new blog. Included in it shall be all of my same snarkiness, odd thoughts, and love for football. However this one shall have a spiritual element as well. Where in my previous blog I never really touched on spiritual topics, here I won't be afraid. I find myself chuckling a bit right now, really...it's funny how I can go ahead and spit out my thoughts on everything else, exposing myself to the world, yet the one thing I shouldn't be afraid about at all I hid like it was a virus. Go figure. Stupid fear.

This kinda picks up where my old prayer journal of ten or so entries left off. I strongly suspect this one will be more successful (if for no other reasons than that I can type faster than write, and that I can access the net from just about anywhere).