Update

I didn't want to leave the world wondering what I'm doing with all my time - or frankly, the lack of it - so this will be an uncharacteristically short post.

I spend time doing the following things, and this is a pathetically comprehensive list:

1. Work: My jobs own me. When I'm there, it's not that bad, but it's just the times that I work that makes it bad. For example, I could work four days in a row alternating 5-6 hour day/night shifts, and then work 8-hour shifts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from, say, 12-8. It's horrible because I don't have a consistent time to plan on doing anything else and it's hard for people to contact me if they so desire. The work is okay, I just need some stability.
2. Sleep: Whether sleep or work has consumed more time is a tossup, but days that I don't work until the afternoon, good luck seeing me conscious before noon. Mmm, sleep.
3. Reading/Writing: I've read some Wendell Berry and G.K. Chesterton this summer so far, and it has been uber-sweet. I've always been a fan of writing (as I hope these entries can prove) and thus have been writing a few essays and thoughts down with the intent of eventually making them a little more concrete and understandable. For example, the last entry with those two short essays are examples of things I've been doing. I'm writing an extended piece called On Christians and Atheists at the moment. It has been a pretty rewarding experience just to think about the utter basics of the world and everything in it. I originally was going to transcribe the essays onto this site tonight, but I work tomorrow morning and have to sleep very soon. Anyway, I hope the essays will be thought-provoking at the least, and perhaps God can show me things I never would have thought of as I continue to ponder the basics of life, the Christian, and the atheistic or agnostic mind.
4. Random adventures with JOPers:For those of you who don't know, JOPers are some amazing friends from high school in the journalism program that really bonded towards the end of last school year and last summer. We've been like peas and carrots this summer, hanging out sometimes 3-4 times a week, but recently has tapered off to a time or two per week, given hectic work schedules and Erica hanging out with a person not to be named (that's actually not a legit reason, but I want to poke fun at her, you see).
5. CALLNET: Like the name or not, its my only link (outside Facebook) that I've had with Grovers, and I have really enjoyed it. Perhaps I shall outline my reasons for not using AIM anymore in a later essay, but it has really been great to hear people's voices and to hear them laugh and get excited when telling me about their lives so far this summer. If there are any CALLNETers out there, keep it up! We still have two months to go!
6. World Cup: I'm not much of a soccer fan, but when it comes to the World Cup, I LOVE IT. I watch way too much of it when I should be sleeping. Enough said.

As sad as that is, that's a pretty exclusive list of the things I've been doing. Next week, some JOPers are hopefully going on an overnight camping trip somewhere to hang and gell like fellons with melons.

If you get the chance, pray for me. I'm going through some hard times now that I'd rather not discuss here, but pray that I can find my joy in Christ and not the world. I've started to dig a hole and I think I'm at the point where I realize only God can pull me out. I would appreciate it.

Later Days!

A Call For Beasts To Teach Men

I’m back! Now I didn’t see any comments in the box from my last post, but I am just assuming that people are too shy to post or they were too paralyzed by my hilarity to mechanically type a comment onto the screen. I prefer the latter, but if the former is the case, I so encourage you to leave something just so I know you visited. If I am merely talking to myself, then perhaps it was worth it.

I worked a few days at Pretzel Gourmet, went to dinner and a movie with Roland and Erica, and got to talk to a few people from Grove City in the past week. Other than that, I’m doing some reading at the moment. I’m in the middle of three books, which seems like a daunting task (okay it is), but I’m managing quite well. Since they’re all nonfiction books, it makes things a bit easier. The first book I started is by my favorite author, G.K. Chesterton, entitled The Everlasting Man. Most Chesterton fans argue that it is his greatest apologetic, so I figured I’d give it a shot. The second book is by my second favorite author and philosophic mentor, Wendell Berry, called Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community. The title sums up the book. Before you write it off (pun certainly intended) as a boring book, it really brings up a lot of good points (so far) about America’s educational and economic systems. If you want to read an absolutely thrilling piece from the book, click here and tell me what you think.

I had a lot of time at the store today to write, and I wrote a lot more than I anticipated I would. I’ve decided to post what I wrote here. If these were meant to be true essays, I would have polished them more than I had; therefore, I intend the following to be more of a discussion spark than a definitive point on an issue. It is open to criticism, but this is something that was just floating in my mind today.

A Call For Beasts To Teach Men

It’s a shame how people write off the old. They are not the waste of space the country makes them out to be. They only seem that way because we make them like so. When someone hits age 60, the only jobs we offer them are small-scale janitorial work or greeters at Wal-Mart. We hide them from the places they really ought to be: the public.

Why? They simply have more wisdom and knowledge than we do; and in our turbulent times, we could certainly use their assistance. Despite man’s cry that that was their generation and this is ours, man is still man and there are many things our elderly population knows that touch on the foundational aspects of mankind. They worship the same God, struggle with the same earthly sins, have fought for their beliefs (something less common today), know what it means to work for a living and a life, manage a household, love a wife, children and land, and have learned the importance of being thrifty and perhaps even frugal, especially in turbulent times.

No dishwasher, television, Internet connection, XBOX 360, Hummer, birth control pill, pleasure-increasing condom, cyclone vacuum or robot has changed man’s essential responsibilities. Technology and time have not changed man, but merely culture. Man will always have to love. Man will always have to fight for what he deems right. Man will always, as it always has, fall short of the glory of God. Man will always live on land, whether rural or urban, no matter how many feet in the air. Man will always have a finite sum of money. If one denies any of these, he is not a man and truly the one that is a waste of space; for he might as well be the beast, living purely for self and always consuming, and locked up on a cage.

This is what we have done to our old people. We have dubbed them beasts and claimed that they ought to be in cages (“homes”) because all they do is consume. We have trampled upon the responsibilities of man in our culture today in favor of pleasure, money, and ceaseless, bitter competition. We live for our selfish desires and deny humanity’s responsibilities. We have locked up the true men to let the beasts run wild.

This is not to say that the entire elderly population is righteous and the rest of us condemned as fulfilling our role as humans, but our view of the elderly as a hindrance on society and the youth as the truly wise shines a bright light upon our culture. The youth have not experienced what our elderly have; it’s time we reverse our current presupposition and have the former learn from the latter.

Our youth need to learn what it means to live a responsible life, and who better that those who have spent their lives living it (or not living it and dealing with the consequences) to teach them. It’s time we let the “beasts” out of their cages. The elderly ought not to be secluded from mainstream society or reduced to a lower class. They may no longer contribute to the economy (or, for some, the Economy), but what they possess collectively is something far more valuable: wisdom and a history of lives, however they lived them.

Release them. Let them visit schools. Allow them to be active in parks, malls and markets. Moreover, listen to them; they have plenty to talk about. They know more about what it takes to tame the true beast: us.

A Thought On Wal-Mart

For a store that has “everything,” Wal-Mart lacks the canon, books that have wrestled with the human condition and have stood the test of time. Rather, they sell what will make them the most money: bestsellers and romance novels.

Fools and Whores and Sad Highs

The band Augustana is more accurate that they perhaps envisioned when they penned, “We’re nothing more than fools and whores and sad highs. We’re living in a wasteland.”

Against Bratz

Walking down the aisles of the toy section of a department store, I discovered a lot about our present culture. The girls’ play doll section struck me in particular. Now enough has been said about Barbie regarding the near impossibility of a human female having her body proportions and how she has become increasingly immodest over the years. While Barbie has endured her share of attacks, it was a new breed of doll that most disturbed me.

The line of dolls, Bratz, is larger and thicker than its archetypal thin counterpart. Bratz are mostly dark-haired and have fuller lips than the blonde, thin-lipped Barbie. But what makes a Brat a Bratz is its attire, or the lack thereof. Every miniature Angelina Jolie look-alike wears clothes one would expect to see in a red light district. From short skirts to halter tops to leather high-healed boots, Bratz pack the attitude of a whore on her way to a night’s work.

Bratz even come in baby edition! They are scaled up in size so its human playmate can cuddle with her easier, but they still wear the same sleazy itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini as its elder sisters. Bratz are plastic prostitutes sold to children.

So what’s the big deal? Children aspire to become like their playthings. Boys who go into with GI Joe wish that they will someday become a war hero. Girls who play with horses hope that some day they will be as magnificent as the animal they hold. Girls that play with Bratz cannot put them in roles as housewives, teachers, business leaders or politicians. Bratz are bad; they make their own rules and morals, defy parents and live in the moment. Bratz are whores and girls who spend leisure time with these dolls can do nothing but pretend to be a whore and immoral like they.

If the unknowing girl fails to recognize the doll as unacceptable, she will assume her attire (and suggested implications of that attire) is acceptable. Unless an adult tells her that Bratz are prostitutes, they girl will see nothing wrong with promiscuousness.

Do we really want to glorify prostitution to our children? What makes the Bratz so appealing in the first place? Is it because they are more lifelike? I doubt it. Most girls will not achieve the beauty of Angelina Jolie. It is either because they are not Barbie, or because of their dress. They are “trendier,” thus more provocative.

It appears as if the pattern of wearing this “trendier” style is now starting increasingly younger. Girls in high school exhibit fashion that only the most daring college students would wear. Middle school-aged girls, instead of going with friends to a movie, take trips to Victoria’s Secret. The world places such a high standing to beauty that it has started to have damaging effects. School-aged girls should not be concerning themselves this early with how they look compared to other girls. It inevitably turns into a competition to discover who can dress most like the scantily-clad models on European runways and Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs.

The Bratz attitude has got to go. Immodest dress is not acceptable and can only lead to trouble, especially for younger girls. If you’re ever considering buying your daughter a Bratz doll, don’t. Instead, buy her a good book and spend time together reading it in the evenings. You, instead of a prostitute, will then be her role model.

I Was Robbed at Cane-point by an Elderly Gentleman on His Way to Albuquerque

Welcome!

So I was looking at my old LiveJournal, and it was looking pretty horrific. Seriously, the thing was varying shades of bad and wasn’t attractive by any stretch of the imagination outside the handsome Steelers logo. So I’m here, and I feel a little better in that I have my own website by some stretch of the imagination and it looks way cooler than the other side of the pillow as of now.

However, this place is much more sophisticated and I feel as if I have to have a BA in Computer Science just to indulge in its majesty. Who knows, by varying shades of bad may be my home, but I’m going to enjoy my run here while I can.

It has been a really embarrassing long time since I have updated and to attempt to bring everyone back up to speed with my life would be first, very uninteresting in the long run, second, very taxing on my mind, and third, a bad idea. So I’m going to stick with the new, rant about a few things that have been on my mind lately, and see where this goes.

I’m starting to think that by having a “blog” I am therefore condemned to write about what irks me in the political, economic, or worldly realm. The difference between a blog and a journal probably should be different, but I’m not going to let that scare me. Perhaps I’ll keep things a little more professional, but I prefer to be my usual, ridiculous self than to give in to hoity-toity establishments.

I opened Explorer today and the first headline included the words “Joe Pa.” Before I read the content, all I could think was, “oh geez he died!” As the page loaded, I remembered that Joe Pa is (duh) immortal and went on without skipping a heartbeat. The story, found here said that Joanne Tosti-Vasey of the National Organization for Women in Pennsylvania (NOW) was appalled by statements made by our beloved Joe Paterno last week at a press conference when Paterno commented on the nature of the suspension of Florida State linebacker A.J. Nicholson. Paterno said:

“There's so many people gravitating to these kids. He may not have even known what he was getting into, Nicholson. They knock on the door; somebody may knock on the door; a cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do?"

“Geez. I hope - thank God they don't knock on my door because I'd refer them to a couple of other rooms," Paterno continued. "But that's too bad. You hate to see that. I really do. You like to see a kid end up his football career. He's a heck of a football player, by the way; he's a really good football player. And it's just too bad."

Mrs. Toasty-Facey failed to put in her hearing aid (or perhaps reading glasses) and heard/read: “Those damn women are always parading around college students hoping to get sexually assaulted. They knock on door after door until they find someone they recognize from ESPN College Gameday and go in for the kill of the player’s college career. Thank goodness they have never knocked on my door because I’d call down Levi Brown and Calvin Lowry and have them show her a good time. It’s all in good fun, she gets what she deserves. All women suck and should stay away from men unless they’re married and then not be able to wear clothes…yeah, that’d be nice.”

In short, Mrs. Tosti-Vasey can take her and her burnt-vased friends and start picking on all of the other prestigious upright men in this country. While you’re at it, why not accuse the President of thinking women should all be textile workers and Bill Cowher of seating his wife in the press box instead of making some play calls on the field. Joe Pa, just ignore the pesky National Organization for Women. Last time I checked, the NOW was right below the ACLU and the KKK on the list of America's worst organizations.

On a lighter note, I’ve started to learn how to play the guitar. As soon as you read that, some sort of emotion escaped your mind, and I’m willing to place bets that it was either the thought of pity, scornful laughter, “Silly Tyler”, “He just wants girls”, or “You’re finally becoming a man.” I appreciate the encouragement, but I’ll lay out my reasoning now:

1. Boredom. (I sense you are still lacking sufficient reason, so I’ll continue.)
2. I’ve considered myself moderately decent at writing, and feel that songs might be another outlet of my creative energy. (You are saying, “Okay, but you still haven’t debunked my argument.”)
3. I’ve always been one who has loved to perform in public, and while journalism has allowed me to do so in writing, there’s nothing like live music.

I doubt I have swayed everyone, but I guess those are my reasons. If I end up sucking, I will have gone through the experience with calloused fingers, knowledge of guitar tablature, and some words trapped in the depths of my mind finally in song form. Ah, that was better. Progress has been surprising actually. The first time I picked it up, I tried tuning it by ear (who ever heard of electric tuners?) and broke the 1 string (whoops). With a fresh set of strings and some time to contemplate whether the broken string was a sign from God for me to stop, I picked up the portable music device and strummed away. My dad proudly whipped out his old songbooks, and pointed me to Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” as the first of my songs to learn, which I tried, and then went online and found the Athlete song, “Wires,” which I preferred much more. So I have spent the past two days with hurt fingers but a determined spirit and have done pretty well (I think). Some will say that I’m too late, but I figure if I want to learn, this is pretty much my last chance.

I want to dispel some rumors. I have been walking down Allen Street quite a bunch (not really) and heard some people chattering about some handsome man returning to the Nittany Mall to work a petite pretzel store, the Pretzel Gourmet. Yes, those rumors are true. The other ones claiming that I was robbed at cane-point by an elderly gentleman on his way to Albuquerque are only moderately true…the cane had a gun inside, but he was so nice! Anyway, I have returned to the PG under a measly salary and am now the only person working at the store whose permanent residence is in State College (insert exclamation or scornful comment). While I am the most experienced, I am the most underpaid; while I am the most recognizable to the mall patrons, the crew is completely new and couldn’t pick me out of a police lineup. So I guess you could say things have been interesting, but I’ve met some new people and it has definitely been a different experience. Holidays have sucked, and when people at the mall wouldn’t stop coming, my mood was usually unusually snappy. But I endured (with God’s help) and things are peachy now.

I have to add a specific moment to my archive of PG Ridiculous Moments. This is probably the moment that confused me the most. Okay, I lie, when one customer complained that his Icee was too airy, that was a bit confusing if not stupid, but this moment is up there. Before requesting a 21 ounce cup of our world-famous Strawberry Sensation Smoothie (oh, they’re sensational all right), one young woman inquired, “Is the yogurt you use active yogurt?” Yeah, we have our yogurt base in the back running on the treadmill to keep it’s calories down. Let me go make sure it’s in its target heart rate zone. Completely blown out of the water, I drag the yogurt box to the counter and prop it up so she can read the label. “Okay,” she sighed, “It’s not active, I can’t have it. Bye.” C’mon yogurt! Bring up that heart rate! You’re slacking today! I’m adding three more miles to your run today. I now know that when customers ask about our yogurt, I will politely tell them, “Yes, our yogurt base is 5% low-fat and inactive. If you’re looking for active yogurt, either supply us with a yogurt trainer or hit the road, buddy.” I’m working there until I leave for the Grove once again on the 20th, so if you’re cool, come see me!

As I said before I stopped leaving regular posts, I have been reading quite a bit now that I have had more time off. If you’re interested in some good reads, I will suggest Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. It’s a good mystery novel that is deeply entertaining. I am also in the middle of The Man Who Was Thursday by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (probably my favorite author) and also recommend that book for those looking for something to do.

Wow, I went one paragraph without a joke, nice! So I don’t think I would be doing my audience any service if I didn’t comment some on Grove City. After all, GCC is where my heart is…so yes. Laura, my awesome friend from school, left last week for Mexico on a two week missions trip. She is majoring in Spanish and International Business, so this trip is right up her alley and I pray that she’s having an awesome time serving the people there but moreover serving God and fulfilling his plan for her. The guys of Third Floor Memorial Crawford are still the best group of guys with which I’ve ever been. They’ve taught me a lot about things, especially what it’s like to live for God, I can’t imagine a college experience without that awesome supportive environment. So guys, if you’re out there, you rock, and I can’t wait to come back to school. People always ask me, “So how’s school going?” I tell them, “Amazing, best time of my life! I can’t wait to go back,” and sometimes I get, “Why?!” as if school were something not to be enjoyed. School has never really been that way, and now that I feel that the things I’m learning matter all the more, the experience is magical. Combine the education with the extra-curricular experience, and I can’t see being anywhere else. God placed me in Grove City, I’m trying now to discover what he wants me to do.

Majors are a tricky thing. We all choose majors, but I don’t think we see their magnitude. I guess I’m being general and specific at the same time. I suppose majors like Business or Economics aren’t very specific and can open up lots of opportunities; but when you talk about Electrical Engineering or Math Education, that’s what you’ll do once you leave. So I guess you can say that I’m having my doubts. For those of you who don’t know, I have changed my major from History Education to Math Education. I am still doubtful, but I remain in prayer and I am confident that if I continue to seek God that he will reveal his plan for my life.

I’ve been doing a lot of Bible verse memorization lately. When I set out to do it at first, I had my usual, mortal doubts, but (and I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised) it has been amazing how much I have been blessed through it. In my third month now, I have written a Bible verse on an index card and carried it around in my pocket, whipping it out whenever a dull moment arises (trust me, there are more than you think). Now, I do not profess to know every single one of the verses I have memorized, but I am familiar, and I do know a decent number of them through and through. Stale time at the PG has been wonderful because it has allowed me to go back and memorize a big stack of verses I tug along with me to work, and it’s awesome to feel God tugging at my heart whenever a verse comes up. The PG has been a blessing in disguise because I mostly work alone during not very busy times and it has allowed me to do a lot of thinking.

My spiritual walk has had its highs and lows lately. As I said, the verse memorization and the introduction of continual devotionals and prayer have been tremendous highs, but I can feel the world always trying to pull me away from spending time with God, perhaps this here is one of those things. There are days where I can really feel God with me, and days I feel him faintly, and I think I sense that because he’s trying to make me realize that he truly is the most important thing in my life. I say that a lot, and if people ask me that in person that’s what I will tell them. But when it comes down to knowing in your heart if God is the one thing in your life that you love the most, it means showing it! And for me, showing has turned into a lot of talk, and a walk that isn’t where it could be. Romans 12:1 is perhaps my favorite verse: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”[my italics] I’ve been frustrated lately concerning my call and where God wants me to go, but I think God is just telling me, “Alright alright, Tyler, calm down. Be patient. I’m in control. You need to live completely for me and stop concerning yourself with things that are of this world, things that are fleeting. Rather, renew your mind; then, and only then, will you be able to discern my will for you.” That’s exciting! So many verses are popping into my head as I write and I could write on each of them for hours, but I want to finish my thoughts here. To know that there is a God who loved me so much by granting me eternal life in Heaven, and that he has a plan, a purpose(!) for me, is astounding. The Bible says, “It’s in Christ that we find who we are and what we are living for. Long before we heard of Christ…, he had his eye on us, and designs on us for glorious living part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.” (Eph. 1:11-12) Nothing, anywhere, can offer me more intrinsic value and worth that those verses. There are countless more that affirm those statements, but if I ever need a shock, a spark of something that just fills all that I am with life and a sense of worth, it’s right there, and that something is God. If only everyone lived with that sense of worth. If only everyone knew that God has a purpose for their life, and that that God-given purpose is “good, pleasing, and perfect,” how different would the world be? I started this paragraph saying I’ve been having my highs and lows; this is a high. God “is a rewarder of those who diligently seek his will.” (Heb. 11:6). I’ve been distracted the last couple of days because I’ve conformed to the ways of this world; I think the momentum has just taken a turn for God.

Thank you faithful readers for sticking with me through the website change. Because I am rarely on AIM at home (because of some weird problem I cannot resolve), stick this site on your favorites and jump back here every so often. I should be updating more, especially since Penn State students are back in session and I’ll be bored. My guitar-stricken fingers have had just about enough for now. To think I’ve written the equivalent of a nine-page college paper is kind of sickening. I need some Nyquil.