Matt & Monica

Reminder to self: Put a title here.

2008-01-11T21:01:00.000-06:00

So, as you can probably already tell, I've become somewhat lame when it comes to posting on this thing. How many different blogs have I gone through in the past? 3! I have been feeling the need to write again, but I'm rather bored with this blog. I have been thinking a lot lately about possibly registering an actual domain and setting up my own site on a server, but I feel really under qualified to do all that. Maybe I'll make that a goal for this year. Build my own site with it's own built in blog and junk. If it ever happens I'll shut this forgotten corner of the web down. So, check back here later in the year for an update on if I ever go through with my dream. Until then may the Lord continue to grow you in the Knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

November Giveaway

2007-11-07T08:55:00.000-06:00

Blogger Tim Challies has been doing monthly giveaways of excellent material on his website. You need to sign up for this months giveaway! It's and audio bible and an audio collection of Christian classic. You know you want them. Click the image below for more info and to sign up.

I'm Still Around

2007-10-20T21:39:00.000-06:00

Haven't felt very much like writing these days. So I'll just leave you with a quote. Enjoy!

"If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age."
- George Burns

God Bless You'lls Souls

2007-09-06T21:11:00.000-06:00

I came across this headstone today as I was at the Montgomery Memorial Cemetery examining the composition of headstones and the effects of weathering on them for my geomorphology class. This one just happen to catch my eye as I was walking by and I ended up spending some time just studying it. Check out the dates. They are so young and Abi's birthday and death date are both unknown. How odd... I wish I could know the back story to all of this. I can't seem to get my mind off of it. Hmmm... oh well.

Coming Summer 2007... An Update!

2007-08-16T17:28:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile, awhile indeed. In the past few months I've gotten married, visited Mexico, moved, started a new job, said goodbye to old friends and hello to new ones.

The wedding was splendid. Everything we wanted and more. Maybe one day I (or preferably Monica) will write a post dedicated to it. For now though you can get your fill of pictures here.

The honeymoon was second only to the wedding itself. We visited Cozumel and Progreso Mexico while on a 5 day Carnival Cruise. Before the cruise though we stayed 2 nights at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in the Galleria. It was faboulous! We got upgraded to an Executive King room for free. Pictures of the honeymoon can be found here.

Now to the subject of new jobs. Mildly exciting news is that I got transfered down to the New Hasting's in Conroe and am currently working in the book department. Things are a lot better and more enjoyable down here. On a much more exciting note Monica got a job working as a Drama, Newspaper, & 9th & 11th grade English teacher at Covenant Christian School in Willis (or Conroe)! So now we can actually afford to live, yay!

This week we had to say goodbye to our good friend Jeremiah as he leaves for the Master's Seminary in Sun Valley, CA. He'll be back soon though.

Most recently Monica & I got to travel to Glorieta, NM with our youth group for Summer Camp 2007! We met up with several other churches, including Grace, and had an amazing week. No pictures for this one sorry.

That's all that I can think of for right now. I'll try and stay more faithful to this thing now that school is about to start and life is settling down. Cross your fingers.

Sorry... Updates to come soon, I promise.

2007-07-08T16:37:00.000-06:00

I know, I know. It's been too long. But Once it got time for the wedding life got bogged down. I'll get back to writing soon enough.

This one is dedicated to H.W.

2007-05-24T20:26:00.000-06:00

When he was seeing her
You could see he had his doubts
And now he's missing her
Because he knows he's missing out
Now it's haunting him
The memories like a ghost
He's so terrified
Cause no one else even comes close

He's a guy that you should feel sorry for
He had the world but he thought that he wanted more
I owe it all to the mistake that he made back then
I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

So then, along comes me,
This undeserving mess (undeserving mess)
Who would believe my life
Would be so blessed (life would be so blessed)
Two years ago
He left all that debris (left all that debris)
Who would of known
It would be everything I need

He's a guy that you should feel sorry for
He had the world but he thought that he wanted more
I owe it all to the mistake that he made back then
I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

If it wasn't for him
I would still be searching
If it wasn't for him
I wouldn't know my best friend
If it wasn't for him
He would be able to see
If it wasn't for him
He would be as happy as me

She and I settled down you can bet
That he is going to have to settle for less
He's someone that I would hate to be
I got the girl and he's left with just the memory.

He's a guy that you should feel sorry for
He had the world but he thought that he wanted more
I owe it all to the mistake that he made back then
I owe it all to my girl's ex-boyfriend

If it wasn't for him
I would still be searching
If it wasn't for him
I wouldn't know my best friend
If it wasn't for him
He would be able to see
If it wasn't for him
He would be as happy as me

"My Girl's Ex-Boyfriend"
By: Relient K

Pulpit Magazine

2007-05-17T00:21:00.000-06:00

Hey guys! I know a few weeks ago I said I would update y'all with some Blog Spotting once school let out. Well, I have still been extremely busy with working on our soon to be new apartment, but the past few nights I have returned once again to blog reading, and man I am so behind! Most excitingly though is the recent happenings over at the Shepherd's Fellowship Pulpit Magazine. This week John Macarthur has created quite a ruckus with a series of post titled Scripture, Tradition, and Rome. The "juiciest" part of the series seems to be the comment section, which has drawn the attention of protestants and catholics alike. If you feel like spending a few hours being encouraged in the sufficiency of scripture I highly recommend reading through this series and it's comments.

Here are some convenient links to the three most recent post.

Scripture, Tradition, and Rome (Part 1)

Scripture, Tradition, and Rome (Part 2)

Scripture, Tradition, and Rome (Part 3)

1027 hours and counting

2007-05-11T22:29:00.000-06:00

I've been busy. I'm done with school and have now turned my focus onto fixing up Monica and I's future apartment. It's a lot of work but also a lot of fun. Monica graduates tomorrow with a dual degree in both History and English with a minor in Music as well. I'm so proud of her. She's going to be the greatest lil' home school mommy. I've taken up a small hobby these past few days. During the wee hours of the night when I can't sleep I have been attempting to learn more about Adobe Photoshop. My buddy Jason taught me a few tricks just the other day and I have been messing around with them. So here are some of my latest works, enjoy!

I know they're not that big a deal, but they took me awhile to do, so I'm proud of them. I'm also still poking around on Wikipedia during what little free time I have left, but haven't put a whole lot of effort into it lately. I have created a Wiki user page though. Check it out here

P.S. The above pictures are courtesy of Ashah Wood and have been edited by me with Adobe Photoshop 7. And, as always, refer to

in regards to any reproducing or altering you may want to do.

Quick Update

2007-04-24T13:12:00.000-06:00

I have been extremely busy lately. So I've had to shift some of my time around to focus on studying and other things which unfortunately has lead me to be unable to keep up with all the blog sphere happenings. Hope once school is finished with for the semester I will be able to resume reading and posting.

I do want to briefly post about my new hobby though. I am now semi-addicted to Wikipedia and have official published (or edited rather) on it. To view my latest contribution go here where I have expanded the definition of a region within the fundamental themes of geography article. It's nothing exciting. I promise

Blog Spotting & The Office

2007-04-12T10:23:00.000-06:00

This week in the Blog sphere has been pretty good. I have mainly focused on reading just two site in particular.

Over at eatbible Justin Tubbs written an excellent article titled Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? It examines several different theories out there that try and disprove the resurrection. I highly recommend reading this one, but be prepared to read for awhile because Justin is known for his gift of brevity...

The Pulpit has been focused on Christian parenting this month and it is has been most excellent. Last week they discussed the role of spanking in Christian families and this week they have moved more to how to evangelize to your children, which in turns raises the question on when to baptize children which of course leads to the discussion of what role baptism actually plays in salvation (which is today's current topic).

Also as a side note, if anyone interested in the correct way to wash ones hands then head on over to Renee Johnson's blog for a practical tutorial.

Lately I have been enthralled with The Office. It really is the funniest show on T.V. (even though I don't watch T.V., I tend to just watch dvds or iTunes). The show always has a short funny segment before the opening theme song is played, and as I have been slowly trying to catch up on the past 2 years of it I have missed, I came across what I believe to be the funniest opening ever... drum roll please...

... That's what she said...

Your Kingdom Come

2007-04-10T11:43:00.000-06:00

74 days till June 23rd!

Time is flying by and standing still all at the same time. I can't believe school is almost over. This semester has gone by so fast. But at the same time June 23rd feels so far away. Too far away...

Things for the wedding are still falling into place quite nicely. On the 15th we should be going to get suits, which is going to be exciting, and we just recently worked out all the flower arrangements with our flower person... I forget what her job title actually is.

Lately I have been praying about trying to start a small bible study group in the fall. Ever since Shepherds' Conference, eschatology has been on my mind and on my heart as I realize how many Christians simply push it aside as unimportant to their daily lives and/or reserve the topic for the theologians. Despite the fact that everyone is a theologian of some sorts, I believe that a proper understanding of eschatology can and will have a drastic affect on the way Christians live their lives. Whether or not Christ is coming back or not will have some sort of impact on how His followers will act. Will they act expectantly or live mundanely without hope? If He is to come back, when? Wouldn't His followers want to know? The disciples certainly wanted to know.

"So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6)

So I have been currently reading a pretty good book by Dr. MacArthur titled, The Second Coming: Signs of Christ's Return and the End of the Age, which seems to primarily refute the claims of preterism and vicariously gives the reader a great hope in the return of Christ. After I have finished that I hope to move on to Dr. MacArthur's new book on the book of Revelation titled, Because the Time is Near, which from what I have read is an abridged version of his two volume commentary set on the book of Revelation (which would be next on the list to read). I don't have any clue of who would actually be interested in joining the study but I hope I could find at least a few peps. As I continue studying through that (and Colosians) I may periodically post some notes or even small sermonets of what I learn. So stay posted.

Blog Spotting

2007-04-03T14:22:00.000-06:00

Blog Spotting

Today I was introduced to a new blog collaboration over at EatBible.com. You should check out Sunday's post written by a personal friend of mine.

The new subject this week over at the pulpit deals with parenting and specifically with spanking.

Dan over at teampyro has posed an excellent question that has been a recent pondering of my own.

Tim Challies has come up with an encouraging blog event known as Testimony Tuesday. If you love to hear stories about how Christ has drastically changed the lives of others head on over there.

News Flash

If you've ever wondered how to get to London from Houston, Google has it all mapped out for you (pay close attention to step 26).

-Matt-

Two nervous people trying to convert one another

2007-04-03T13:23:00.000-06:00

Today is the first day that I have neglected to bring my bible to school with me in quite sometime. My reasoning for not bringing it? I have tons of other stuff to do today. Foolishness.

While working on a historical geography paper over the creation of Yellowstone National Park during lunch I watched a guy walk around the student center talking to different people as they ate. He managed to skip over me as he progressed throughout the area, probably because I tend to seek out the area furthest from human contact. So after a brief moment of watching him I forget about him just as fast and continue my work.

At about a good 2 minuets till class time I gather my things and head towards my next class. On my way out none other then the odd fellow I was watching stopped me. Curiosity out beat my drive to not be late, so I ceded to talk with him. He first ask me where I am from and then nervously begins to tell me about the oddest religion I have ever heard of. After a very brief and confusing explanation he shows me a textbook sized manual on his religion (complete with pictures of course) and offers it to me free of charge, in exchange for a donation. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I had no cash on me but my curiosity was fully aroused now and the urge to share Christ with this extremely lost individual was starting to tingle within my heart. So I regretfully tell him the probably apparent truth about how I am a poor college student but ask him if he would explain more to me. I then ask him about his views on God and Christ. He tells me that he (and his people) believe in one God (or truth as he put it) and from it emanates many demigods. As I again stress the question of who Christ is he admits to me that he sees him as merely a demigod and not God incarnate. I then try and tell him of the many times that Christ not equated Himself with God but referred to Himself as such. But I felt so naked without my bible, being unable to sit him down and show him that if Christ was in fact a demigod that came from the one "truth" but wasn't the actual truth, then He was a deceiving one. Being unable to actually show him scripture but merely quoting it I don' t think he believed my testimony about Christ to much and merely shrugged it off by saying, "He didn't really say that" or "that's not what He meant."

As that conversation started to fizzle I nervously tried to keep it going by asking his views on salvation and heaven. His response to this question was odder then that of the first. He first looked awkward at me (as if not really wanting to answer) and told me that it was all explained in the book he was trying to give me. I again tell him that I have no money on me and wished for him to explain briefly, if he could, to me now. He then reluctantly begins to tell me of a religion that believes heavily on reincarnation and different kinds of heavens that exist on each planet in our solar system with the ultimate one residing in an unknown area with the "truth" (God). I try and ask him how to attain this ultimate heaven but by this time he is trying to get out of the conversation. He gives me a simple universalist answer to my questions and says he must get going. I reluctantly stop pursuing the conversation but ask him his name. He doesn't tell me at first but I ask him again as he leaves and he tells me that it is Anunda (if I heard correctly). I then ask if he lives here or is staying for awhile in hopes of talking to him again later but he tells me that he is only here for the day. We again exchange pleasant goodbyes and go our separate ways.

I left the conversation with a huge burden for Anunda. My desire was to just sit down with him and tell him the wondrous truths about Christ. Ever since our conversation I have thought continuously about him, praying that God would reveal to him the truth about the preeminence of Christ and how He is the only way to obtain any kind of "ticket" into the true residing place of God. If you would, please pray for this individual this week. We may never know how God will ultimately use these prayers for Anunda but I know that we are commanded to do it. And I trust God's wisdom above my own.

What is the moral of this story? Don't leave home without your Bible!

-Matt-

Wedding Update

2007-03-27T11:18:00.000-06:00

It's now officially less than 90 days till the wedding. In celebration I thought I would update with some of the recent happenings.

Firstly, my mother has graciously decided to pay for our honeymoon! So we have decided on a 5 day cruise to the Western Caribbean on Carnival cruise lines (that is our actual ship shown). Our desinations will be Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico and Cozumel, Mexico (those are two places not five). We will have an window with a slight view on one of the higher up levels. I'm getting very excited about this because I've never been out of the country before.

Secondly, a few weeks ago Monica and I did quite possibly the funnest thing ever. We went wedding registering! We spent an entire Sunday afternoon picking out our desired home accessories at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Target. I think we may also be going to Dillard's soon to register.

Thirdly, the creation of our invitations are underway. They, as they have been described to me, are going to be magnificent. Will that comes our engagement pictures we had to take for them. This was a lot of fun to do. The Elliott's family friend, Ashah, flew out from George to do them (she'll be our wedding photographer as well). We spent several hours running around Huntsville taking pictures (380 in all) and they are all just wonderful! I have been told not to leak to many of them out into the public yet but here is one for your enjoyment...

And lastly, but certainly not least, God has blessed us and our wedding plans in so many ways. It is so encouraging to see how the body of Christ is seeking to serve us in whatever ways possible. I have literally been brought to tears by the way our friends and family wish to serve and sacrifice for us. Thank you to all you who have given anything, including prayers, toward our wedding.

-Matt-

Wal*mart - The High Cost of Low Prices

2007-03-23T10:48:00.000-06:00

Today I watched an excellent documentary on Wal*Mart. I would highly recommend that you watch it too. Here is the link...

Wal*mart - High Cost of Low Prices

I got it from a site that has tons of FREE online documentaries.

The documentary presented some great info about how truly evil Wal*Mart is, most of which I already knew, but after seeing it all packaged so nicely in an hour and a half video it made me want to resolve to never shop there again.

Watch it and tell me what you think.

-Matt-

Sorry for my truancy

2007-03-10T09:49:00.000-06:00

So yeah, My original plan was to come home every night and write a semi in depth post about the days events. Unfortunately nights out were later then expected and sleep was need more then expected. But hopefully upon my arrival home I will be able to post a brief overview of at least what happened to me (with pictures of course). Until then I would tell you to head on over to Tim Challies blog, he was in charge of writing about the whole conference. So until later I will leave you with this picture at least.

Justin, Kirk Cameron, & I

-Matt-

We made it

2007-03-06T23:57:00.000-06:00

Well, the flight out here was relatively painless. I got a lot of reading done in flight. Before the flight was were all the fun was though. Evidently I have something on my body that sets off metal detectors. After a few times of round trips through the security line without finding the culprit I was led aside where I was fully wanded and eventually frisked. And by frisked I mean I got the full frontal pat down. During this poor Stuart had all his possessions examined for about 5 minuets until a hidden lighter (that must have been his parents since he was borrowing their suitcase) was found and disposed of. After all that fun we finally arrived at our gate and had a quick lunch at Panda Express.

The flight was shorter then expected and once we landed we had little difficulty getting our luggage and heading to enterprise.

From there we all split up into our assigned vans and headed off to dinner. Justin and I are with Jason and Claire and Ken (pastor) and Kelli. We all kinda split up for dinner and Justin and I got our wish of having sushi, and boy was it great. We had two philadelphia rolls (salmon & cream cheese), one huge dragon roll (crab, avocado, & eel), two pieces of fatty tuna, and sake. Yes sake. We decided that you can only live life once and since neither of us had ever had it before we ought to together.

Now we are at our host home (the Carpenters) somewhere in between L.A. and Sun Valley. I would tell you more exactly but for some reason my GPS doesn't want to receive any signal here. Maybe in the morning I'll get it on the map for y'all. Until then I'll just have to say goodnight because I am starting to get mighty tired. So on behalf of Justin and I both. Goodnight!

-Matt-

L.A. in 3, 2, 1...

2007-03-06T10:36:00.000-06:00

In a little over 5 hours I'll be in route to L.A. for the Shepherds' Conference. It's going to be a great time of fellowship and learning. I just heard word that John Piper had to cancel his scheduled speech at the conference because his father is close to death. Please pray for me as I travel out there as well as the other 3,000 men. See you in L.A.

-Matt-

News Flash

2007-03-01T13:46:00.000-06:00

Google maps Now has traffic data on most major cities

Current Houston map with traffic analysis

Also there is a Google map for the moon.

-Matt-

Untitled

2007-03-01T11:56:00.000-06:00

It’s hard to believe that in only 114 days I’ll be married. This semester has been the semester to top all semesters. I feel like everything is happening during and after this one. Shepherds’ in 6 days (Cali in 5). I have been thinking lately about what I want to do while in L.A. and one thing that keeps coming to my mind is to find an excellent * genuine * sushi bar. It’s been awhile since I’ve had some and I’ve always heard how great west coast sushi is. So, if anyone knows of some to die for spots in the L.A. /Sun Valley area let me know. Adam (our youth pastor) informed me last night that Justin and I would be rooming together while in Cali., Most likely by ourselves. That would be great! I feel as if I hardly see that fool now a day.

Justin with CJ Mahaney

As far as blog spotting goes head on over to today’s pyro post where Phil discusses Christian conformity to modern trends.

Lastly and certainly not least yester day was technically Monica’s birthday. She turned 5 ¾ (23) years old!

-Matt-

Just a quick post

2007-02-20T11:42:00.000-06:00

My test today was harder then I thought it would be. Well, actually it was just as hard as I imagined but harder then I was praying for. I am glad to be done for awhile though. If weren't for work tonight I'd go home and not wake up until tomorrow.

News Flash

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to shoot your LCD monitor then wonder NO more!

It looks like Houston will finally be getting a city wide Wi-Fi network. But will it be worth it? (why can't they just make it free?)

Dell decides to actually listen to it's customers.

-Matt-

A bad case of the Mondays...

2007-02-19T15:14:00.000-06:00

Life has been extremely busy lately. I have been falling behind on the blog reading, instead subjecting myself to the drudgery of Texas history, Map interpretation, Historical geography, and the Philosophy of Critical thinking. This past week and a half has been test/paper/project time at school. This time tomorrow I will finally be free from having the feeling of impending doom as the next thing becomes due.

Weekend last was our Church winter camp for our youth. It was so much fun! Kurt Gebhards from Grace Community Church was our camp speaker. He did an excellent Job presenting the Gospel and encouraging us to actually live out our Faith. I really look forward to seeing him in a few weeks while at Shepherds'.

Hopefully I will have more to update on soon. Until then mosey on over to Tim Challies for a live blogging of the Resolved Conference.

-Matt-

Because it is possible...

2007-02-11T18:52:00.000-06:00

What, might you ask is possible? Well, there are many things that Matt can do better than me. A few examples include, but are certainly not limited to: making fudge, following a map, being nice (stop laughing, Renee), researching anything, using self-control, making any coffee beverage, and definitely blogging. One thing that we do run a pretty close tie in, however, is procrastination. And yes, that is what I'm doing right now. I do have a quiz and a test tomorrow, not to mention the rest of the week. In order to keep peace within the relationship, however, I decided to take this opportunity to do what Matt never thought possible: Monica actually posting a blog!! Thanks for reading!

-Monica-

Brother Jed

2007-02-09T01:38:00.000-06:00

After my procrastinating lunch I walked out of the LSC to find a huge crowd congregated outside. As per usual I am totally void of any of the happenings around campus but evidently this preacher, Jed Smock, has been at our school for the past two days preaching and ranting. Of course this fire and brimstone style of preaching draws quite the crowd. Today there was a huge homosexual (or at least pro homosexual) group as well as the agnostic/atheist group. Hard to tell how many actually were in audience but if I had to ball park it I would say 200 (+/-). I had a hard time following what he was saying because of the continuous yelling of those around me. You would think that for someone who has dedicated their lives to traveling around the nation to different schools he would at least splurge on a megaphone.

What I found more interesting (and certainly more depressing) than his preaching style and content was the crowds response to him. In preparation of day two of his teaching many brought home made signs with phrases such as, "Cast the first stone here", " Separate church and hate", and my personal favorite " Homophobia is gay". Among these signs other marvelous spectacles were taking place such as the standard getting in his face and yelling at him but some of the most extreme things that I saw were two lesbians approaching him and start making out with each other as he preaches against it, and people messing with his personal possessions. Some of the more amusing events were a group of guys managing to get the entire crowd to participate in group wave and someone grabbing a SHSU flag and running circles around Jed (which I caught on my video phone).

At one point a gentleman decided it would be funny to walk out to where he was and sit down in his chair. Well, Jed evidently didn't like this and pulled the chair out from under the man. Well, this set a few people off and decided to rush the scene which caused the police to have to intervene. During this altercation someone managed to steal Jed's bottled water and poor it out right in front of him. This is when I decided to leave. Things were getting somewhat out of hand and I was beginning to relive the Jr. high playground all over again.

I haven't had a lot of time to research brother Jed but I know there's plenty online about him.

-Matt-

P.S. The video will only be up for a limited time due to the limited server space the school gives me.

Procrastinating & Blog Spotting

2007-02-08T11:20:00.000-06:00

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:13-20)

I have been reading over Colossians Ch. 1 everyday this week. The pre-eminence of Christ is such an encouraging thing to dwell upon.

Right now I am enjoying a darn good cup of coffee and a bagel at our school latest addition, Einstein Bros Bagels. My original intent was to study for my upcoming Critical Thinking exam but my mind has grown weary of it.

I realized today that Shepherds' Conference is only 3 1/2 weeks away! Flying to Cali. and spending a week at Grace Community with 3,000 pastor/teachers listening to the teachings of John MacArthur, John Piper, Phil Johnson, etc... is way worth missing a week of school.

Blog Spotting

Tim Challies has a great discussion about Christians and the use of birth control

Nathan Busenitz & John MacArthur do separate studies on cessationism

Renee Johnson goes on a political rant

-Matt-

Dr. MacArthur to be a Guest on Nancy Grace Show

2007-02-02T12:03:00.000-06:00

I received the following text in a forwarded email today. Just thought I would pass it along to all of y'all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends of TMS,

John MacArthur has been requested to join a panel on the Nancy Grace show tomorrow, Friday, February 2, at 8:00 p.m. (EST), 5:00 p.m. (PDT). The topic will be “A Sinner Versus a Hypocrite,” regarding Pastor Ted Haggard and the accusation made by a male prostitute. The panel will be made up of a local reporter to give the highlights of the story, Mike Jones (the “gay escort”), and someone from the New Life Church. John MacArthur has been asked to give the bigger picture, i.e., the biblical view of homosexuality.

It is very possible that the program will be canceled at the last minute. Therefore, we request that you do not call the seminary or Grace Church to find out if it’s really going to happen; instead, please check the CNN website to verify that the show will be broadcasted as originally planned: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/nancy.grace.

As a note of clarification, there are two different CNN channels: CNN and Headline News. Both are owned and operated by the CNN network, but Nancy Grace is on the Headline News channel (not the CNN channel). At 5:00 p.m. (PDT), the program on Headline News is Nancy Grace, while the program on CNN is Paula Zahn Now.

Thank you for your prayers on Dr. MacArthur’s behalf.

Me Church

2007-01-31T12:38:00.000-06:00

Updates & Blog Spotting

2007-01-30T14:12:00.000-06:00

Updates

As of right now I am enjoying my new phone. Similar to the Razr but bigger and more options.

Monica and I have set a date for our wedding, June 23rd! More updates about all that coming soon (hopefully from Monica herself).

I want one.

School + Work + Life = Insufficient amounts of sleep.

Blog Spotting

Phil Johnson has gone on a hiatus over at teampyro

Tim Challies has posted an excellent two part article on Self-Centered Sex and also an interesting book review

And last, but certainly not least, the Stire family (soon to be missionaries to Albania) have created a blog, which will be run by Chelle, in order to document their time overseas and establish a connection to those of us back here in the states.

Insurance?

2007-01-20T13:15:00.000-06:00

The year: 2005
The Phone: Motorola Razr
The Story:
It was a year like every other year. Apple was selling iPods faster then they could make them. Windows still hadn't released a new operating system. And Motorola was set to release a revolutionary new phone, The V3 Razr. I being the technical groupie that I am had to of course be the first to own one. So I willingly shed the $200 + for the phone and never looked back. I of course couldn't pass up insuring this bad boy. So I signed up for the $4.99 a month insurance plan praying that I would never have to use it. Well, that day has come. Ole' Betsy has about reached her end. Her screen hangs only on one hinge and her battery life after 8+hrs of charging is 30 minutes. So today I wrangled up the courage to call in the insurance claim and all goes well until the last 60 seconds of the call... they are out of refurbed Razr's and there's no sign or telling of when they'll be back. So what are my options? Only one. Settle for a "comparable" model. (::insert menacing music::) So who is this evil half brother you ask? The LG CU500.

So, today's question. Why even bother purchasing insurance for a product when there's only a minimal (if even that) chance of being able to replace it?

-Matt-

Risky Business

2007-01-19T21:22:00.000-06:00

Here's an interesting article I recently came across. Although I don't agree with every aspect of it, it does bring up some interesting points about America today.

Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006

How Americans Are Living Dangerously

By Jeffrey Kluger

Correction Appended: November 27, 2006

It would be a lot easier to enjoy your life if there weren't so many things trying to kill you every day. The problems start even before you're fully awake. There's the fall out of bed that kills 600 Americans each year. There's the early-morning heart attack, which is 40% more common than those that strike later in the day. There's the fatal plunge down the stairs, the bite of sausage that gets lodged in your throat, the tumble on the slippery sidewalk as you leave the house, the high-speed automotive pinball game that is your daily commute.

Other dangers stalk you all day long. Will a cabbie's brakes fail when you're in the crosswalk? Will you have a violent reaction to bad food? And what about the risks you carry with you all your life? The father and grandfather who died of coronaries in their 50s probably passed the same cardiac weakness on to you. The tendency to take chances on the highway that has twice landed you in traffic court could just as easily land you in the morgue.

Shadowed by peril as we are, you would think we'd get pretty good at distinguishing the risks likeliest to do us in from the ones that are statistical long shots. But you would be wrong. We agonize over avian flu, which to date has killed precisely no one in the U.S., but have to be cajoled into getting vaccinated for the common flu, which contributes to the deaths of 36,000 Americans each year. We wring our hands over the mad cow pathogen that might be (but almost certainly isn't) in our hamburger and worry far less about the cholesterol that contributes to the heart disease that kills 700,000 of us annually.

We pride ourselves on being the only species that understands the concept of risk, yet we have a confounding habit of worrying about mere possibilities while ignoring probabilities, building barricades against perceived dangers while leaving ourselves exposed to real ones. Six Muslims traveling from a religious conference were thrown off a plane last week in Minneapolis, Minn., even as unscreened cargo continues to stream into ports on both coasts. Shoppers still look askance at a bag of spinach for fear of E. coli bacteria while filling their carts with fat-sodden French fries and salt-crusted nachos. We put filters on faucets, install air ionizers in our homes and lather ourselves with antibacterial soap. "We used to measure contaminants down to the parts per million," says Dan McGinn, a former Capitol Hill staff member and now a private risk consultant. "Now it's parts per billion."

At the same time, 20% of all adults still smoke; nearly 20% of drivers and more than 30% of backseat passengers don't use seat belts; two-thirds of us are overweight or obese. We dash across the street against the light and build our homes in hurricane-prone areas--and when they're demolished by a storm, we rebuild in the same spot. Sensible calculation of real-world risks is a multidimensional math problem that sometimes seems entirely beyond us. And while it may be true that it's something we'll never do exceptionally well, it's almost certainly something we can learn to do better.

AN OLD BRAIN IN A NEW WORLD

Part of the problem we have with evaluating risk, scientists say, is that we're moving through the modern world with what is, in many respects, a prehistoric brain. We may think we've grown accustomed to living in a predator-free environment in which most of the dangers of the wild have been driven away or fenced off, but our central nervous system--evolving at a glacial pace--hasn't got the message.

To probe the risk-assessment mechanisms of the human mind, Joseph LeDoux, a professor of neuroscience at New York University and the author of The Emotional Brain, studies fear pathways in laboratory animals. He explains that the jumpiest part of the brain--of mouse and man--is the amygdala, a primitive, almond-shaped clump of tissue that sits just above the brainstem. When you spot potential danger--a stick in the grass that may be a snake, a shadow around a corner that could be a mugger--it's the amygdala that reacts the most dramatically, triggering the fight-or-flight reaction that pumps adrenaline and other hormones into your bloodstream.

It's not until a fraction of a second later that the higher regions of the brain get the signal and begin to sort out whether the danger is real. But that fraction of a second causes us to experience the fear far more vividly than we do the rational response--an advantage that doesn't disappear with time. The brain is wired in such a way that nerve signals travel more readily from the amygdala to the upper regions than from the upper regions back down. Setting off your internal alarm is quite easy, but shutting it down takes some doing.

"There are two systems for analyzing risk: an automatic, intuitive system and a more thoughtful analysis," says Paul Slovic, professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. "Our perception of risk lives largely in our feelings, so most of the time we're operating on system No. 1."

There's clearly an evolutionary advantage to this natural timorousness. If we're mindful of real dangers and flee when they arise, we're more likely to live long enough to pass on our genes. But evolutionary rewards also come to those who stand and fight, those willing to take risks--and even suffer injury--in pursuit of prey or a mate. Our ancestors hunted mastodons and stampeded buffalo, risking getting trampled for the possible payoff of meat and pelt. Males advertised their reproductive fitness by fighting other males, willingly engaging in a contest that could mean death for one and offspring for the other.

These two impulses--to engage danger or run from it--are constantly at war and have left us with a well-tuned ability to evaluate the costs and payoffs of short-term risk, say Slovic and others. That, however, is not the kind we tend to face in contemporary society, where threats don't necessarily spring from behind a bush. They're much more likely to come to us in the form of rumors or news broadcasts or an escalation of the federal terrorism-threat level from orange to red. It's when the risk and the consequences of our response unfold more slowly, experts say, that our analytic system kicks in. This gives us plenty of opportunity to overthink--or underthink--the problem, and this is where we start to bollix things up.

WHY WE GUESS WRONG

Which risks get excessive attention and which get overlooked depends on a hierarchy of factors. Perhaps the most important is dread. For most creatures, all death is created pretty much equal. Whether you're eaten by a lion or drowned in a river, your time on the savanna is over. That's not the way humans see things. The more pain or suffering something causes, the more we tend to fear it; the cleaner or at least quicker the death, the less it troubles us. "We dread anything that poses a greater risk for cancer more than the things that injure us in a traditional way, like an auto crash," says Slovic. "That's the dread factor." In other words, the more we dread, the more anxious we get, and the more anxious we get, the less precisely we calculate the odds of the thing actually happening. "It's called probability neglect," says Cass Sunstein, a University of Chicago professor of law specializing in risk regulation.

The same is true for, say, AIDS, which takes you slowly, compared with a heart attack, which can kill you in seconds, despite the fact that heart disease claims nearly 50 times as many Americans than AIDS each year. We also dread catastrophic risks, those that cause the deaths of a lot of people in a single stroke, as opposed to those that kill in a chronic, distributed way. "Terrorism lends itself to excessive reactions because it's vivid and there's an available incident," says Sunstein. "Compare that to climate change, which is gradual and abstract."

Unfamiliar threats are similarly scarier than familiar ones. The next E. coli outbreak is unlikely to shake you up as much as the previous one, and any that follow will trouble you even less. In some respects, this is a good thing, particularly if the initial reaction was excessive. But it's also unavoidable given our tendency to habituate to any unpleasant stimulus, from pain and sorrow to a persistent car alarm.

The problem with habituation is that it can also lead us to go to the other extreme, worrying not too much but too little. Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina brought calls to build impregnable walls against such tragedies ever occurring again. But despite the vows, both New Orleans and the nation's security apparatus remain dangerously leaky. "People call these crises wake-up calls," says Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness. "But they're more like snooze alarms. We get agitated for a while, and then we don't follow through."

THE COMFORT OF CONTROL

We similarly misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it's an illusory sense. The decision to drive instead of fly is the most commonly cited example, probably because it's such a good one. Behind the wheel, we're in charge; in the passenger seat of a crowded airline, we might as well be cargo. So white-knuckle flyers routinely choose the car, heedless of the fact that at most a few hundred people die in U.S. commercial airline crashes in a year, compared with 44,000 killed in motor-vehicle wrecks. The most white-knuckle time of all was post--Sept. 11, when even confident flyers took to the roads. Not surprisingly, from October through December 2001 there were 1,000 more highway fatalities than in the same period the year before, in part because there were simply more cars around. "It was called the '9/11 effect.' It produced a third again as many fatalities as the terrorist attacks," says David Ropeik, an independent risk consultant and a former annual instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Then too there's what Ropeik and others call "optimism bias," the thing that makes us glower when we see someone driving erratically while talking on a cell phone, even if we've done the very same thing, perhaps on the very same day. We tell ourselves we're different, because our call was shorter or our business was urgent or we were able to pay attention to the road even as we talked. What optimism bias comes down to, however, is the convenient belief that risks that apply to other people don't apply to us.

Finally, and for many of us irresistibly, there's the irrational way we react to risky behavior that also confers some benefit. It would be a lot easier to acknowledge the perils of smoking cigarettes or eating too much ice cream if they weren't such pleasures. Drinking too much confers certain benefits too, as do risky sex, recreational drugs and uncounted other indulgences. This is especially true since, in most cases, the gratification is immediate and the penalty, if it comes at all, comes later. With enough time and enough temptation, we can talk ourselves into ignoring almost any long-term costs. "These things are fun or hip, even if they can be lethal," says Ropeik. "And that pleasure is a benefit we weigh."

If these reactions are true for all of us--and they are--then you might think that all of us would react to risk in the same way. But that's clearly not the case. Some people enjoy roller coasters; others won't go near them. Some skydive; others can't imagine it. Not only are thrill seekers not put off by risk, but they're drawn to it, seduced by the mortal frisson that would leave many of us cold. "There's an internal thermostat that seems to control this," says risk expert John Adams of University College London. "That set point varies from person to person and circumstance to circumstance."

No one knows how such a set point gets calibrated, but evidence suggests that it is a mix of genetic and environmental variables. In a study at the University of Delaware in 2000, researchers used personality surveys to evaluate the risk-taking behavior of 260 college students and correlated it with existing research on the brain and blood chemistry of people with thrill-seeking personalities or certain emotional disorders. Their findings support the estimate that about 40% of the high-thrill temperament is learned and 60% inherited, with telltale differences in such relevant brain chemicals as serotonin, which helps inhibit impulsive behavior and may be in short supply in people with high-wire personalities.

CAN WE DO BETTER?

Given these idiosyncratic reactions, is it possible to have a rational response to risk? If we can't agree on whether something is dangerous or not or, if it is, whether it's a risk worth taking, how can we come up with policies that keep all of us reasonably safe?

One way to start would to be to look at the numbers. Anyone can agree that a 1-in-1 million risk is better than 1 in 10, and 1 in 10 is better than 50-50. But things are almost always more complicated than that, a fact that corporations, politicians and other folks with agendas to push often deftly exploit.

Take the lure of the comforting percentage. In one study, Slovic found that people were more likely to approve of airline safety-equipment purchases if they were told that it could "potentially save 98% of 150 people" than if they were told it could "potentially save 150 people." On its face this reaction makes no sense, since 98% of 150 people is only 147. But there was something about the specificity of the number that the respondents found appealing. "Experts tend to use very analytic, mathematical tools to calculate risk," Slovic says. "The public tends to go more on their feelings."

There's also the art of the flawed comparison. Officials are fond of reassuring the public that they run a greater risk from, for example, drowning in the bathtub, which kills 320 Americans a year, than from a new peril like mad cow disease, which has so far killed no one in the U.S. That's pretty reassuring--and very misleading. The fact is that anyone over 6 and under 80--which is to say, the overwhelming majority of the U.S. population--faces almost no risk of perishing in the tub. For most of us, the apples of drowning and the oranges of mad cow disease don't line up in any useful way.

But such statistical straw men get trotted out all the time. People defending the safety of pesticides and other toxins often argue that you stand a greater risk of being hit by a falling airplane (about 1 in 250,000 over the course of your entire life) than you do of being harmed by this or that contaminant. If you live near an airport, however, the risk of getting beaned is about 1 in 10,000. Two very different probabilities are being conflated into one flawed forecast. "My favorite is the one that says you stand a greater risk from dying while skydiving than you do from some pesticide," says Susan Egan Keane of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Well, I don't skydive, so my risk is zero."

Risk figures can be twisted in more disastrous ways too. Last year's political best seller, The One Percent Doctrine, by journalist Ron Suskind, pleased or enraged you, depending on how you felt about war in Iraq, but it hit risk analysts where they live. The title of the book is drawn from a White House determination that if the risk of a terrorist attack in the U.S. was even 1%, it would be treated as if it were a 100% certainty. Critics of Administration policy argue that that 1% possibility was never properly balanced against the 100% certainty of the tens of thousands of casualties that would accompany a war. That's a position that may be easier to take in 2006, with Baghdad in flames and the war grinding on, but it's still true that a 1% danger that something will happen is the same as a 99% likelihood that it won't.

REAL AND PERCEIVED RISK

It's not impossible for us to become sharper risk handicappers. For one thing, we can take the time to learn more about the real odds. Baruch Fischhoff, professor of social and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, recently asked a panel of 20 communications and finance experts what they thought the likelihood of human-to-human transmission of avian flu would be in the next three years. They put the figure at 60%. He then asked a panel of 20 medical experts the same question. Their answer: 10%. "There's reason to be critical of experts," Fischhoff says, "but not to replace their judgment with laypeople's opinions."

The government must also play a role in this, finding ways to frame warnings so that people understand them. John Graham, formerly the administrator of the federal Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, says risk analysts suffer no end of headaches trying to get Americans to understand that while nuclear power plants do pose dangers, the more imminent peril to both people and the planet comes from the toxins produced by coal-fired plants. Similarly, pollutants in fish can be dangerous, but for most people--with the possible exception of small children and women of childbearing age--the cardiac benefits of fish easily outweigh the risks. "If you can get people to compare," he says, "then you're in a situation where you can get them to make reasoned choices."

Just as important is to remember to pay proper mind to the dangers that, as the risk experts put it, are hiding in plain sight. Most people no longer doubt that global warming is happening, yet we live and work in air-conditioned buildings and drive gas-guzzling cars. Most people would be far likelier to participate in a protest at a nuclear power plant than at a tobacco company, but it's smoking, not nukes, that kills an average of 1,200 Americans every single day.

We can do better, however, and leaders in government and industry can help. The residual parts of our primitive brains may not give us any choice beyond fighting or fleeing. But the higher reasoning we've developed over millions of years gives us far greater--and far more nuanced--options. Officials who provide hard, honest numbers and a citizenry that takes the time to understand them would not only mean a smarter nation, but a safer one. [This article contains a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy or pdf.] TOTAL ANNUAL DEATHS 2.5 MILLION Homicide 17,732 Suicide 31,484

Terrified of bees, snakes and swimming pools? ACCIDENTS 109,277 Maybe you should worry more about your heart DISEASES 2.3 million Other diseases 681,150 Diabetes 74,219 Chronic lower-respiratory disease 126,382 Stroke 157,689 Cancer 556,902 Heart disease 685,089 All other deaths 8,364 Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; National Transportation Safety Board

Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly identified David Ropeik as a "former professor at the Harvard School of Public Health." In fact, Mr. Ropeik was a former annual instructor, not a professor, and he was not a member of the school's faculty.

With reporting by David Bjerklie/New York, Dan Cray/Los Angeles

Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1562978,00.html

-Matt-

Quote

2007-01-19T20:50:00.000-06:00

"I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down."
- Mitch Hedberg

-Matt-

Recent Happenings

2007-01-19T11:53:00.000-06:00

This Semester has been off to quite the different start. First and foremost on January 12th at 1:15pm I asked Monica Elliott to be my wife! I decided to be very simplistic about the whole matter, knowing that would be the most romantic for her, and asked her during one of our daily walks around the avenues of Huntsville. She of course said yes and we have a tentative wedding date for mid-late June.

So along with that comes a lot of changes. I for one have to start becoming a wiser manager of my finances. Weddings aren't cheap I hear. Secondly, this exponentially increases the amount of work/planning/stress of this semester. If you seem to be missing the optimism in my words don't get me wrong. I am excited beyond belief. I know this is going to be one of the biggest moments of my life. I also know that it will also be one of the most trying times of my life. The next few years of planing and adjusting to the lifestyle that of marriage seems almost overwhelming because of it's unfamiliarity. Nevertheless I am looking forward with great excitement. Why? Because I know our wedding is going to be the best one there ever was.

-Matt-

A new year a new blog

2007-01-18T18:16:00.000-06:00

I know, it seems a little late (18 days to be exact) but Happy New Years!

So, as you can tell, I'm back in the blogging world... I lost interest about midway last year and hadn't really thought about coming back. How could you possibly lose interest you ask? Well it was a number of things but mostly I grew tired of the Xanga side of the blog sphere.

So after spending the past month reading post on Phil Johnson and company's blogspot I decided I'd try out this Blogger.com, so here goes nothing...

My plans/hopes for this new blog is that it will actually end up being a tag team blog between my finance Monica Elliott (yeah, that's recent excitement, I'll update everyone on that and other happenings in a later post) and I. This is of course all dependent on if she jumps on the blogspot bandwagon with me...

-Matt-