-Fix You-

Say What?!?

2008-05-26T09:04:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine on facebook put this as their status. Can anyone make sense of it???
"If you turn your back on selfeshness, and your thoughts are for someone else, cause they've changed your life... thats how you know."

Classically above the Class

2008-03-13T15:51:00.001-07:00

I'm taking inventory on my iTunes the other day and come across all the soundtracks I have. Some key note soundtracks:

Last of the Mohicans
Gladiator
The Passion of the Christ
Braveheart
The Rock
Requiem for a Dream
Lord of the Rings 1-3

Now I've compiled my favorites from those and realized how gripping classical music can have on ones emotions. No other music can capture the purity of beauty, power, and grace than what classical can offer.

My recommendation: flip on some classical right now

A Good Day

2008-02-03T08:50:00.000-08:00

It should be I hope. My buddy Isaac and I are going to the Gopher men's basketball game where they host #13 Wisconsin at the Barn. Tubby Smith has done an incredible job with the misfit team he inherited this year--his first with the Gophs. I went to a Gopher game about a month ago when then #9 Indiana came to town and was blown away by the tremendous experience. It truly was one of the greatest spectator events I have ever been a part of. The elevated floor makes "The Barn" unique, the pillars stimulates one to understand that it's one of the oldest arenas in America, and the noise from the crowd can dishearten the most savvy oponent to drop to their knees and beg for mercy. The Barn can be a wretched place for opponents to play in. I'm expecting nothing less this afternoon.

It's also Super Bowl Sunday. Whew, I think the line (I think it's 13 1/2 points in favor for the Pats) is a bit bloated. The Giants have done a phenomenal job winning away from home in every game of the playoffs. Two key wins to point out: the upset at Dallas and the upset at frigid Lambeau. I'm still puzzeled how they beat Farve in his frozen fortress. They did and if Manning can stay poised like he has this then should be a Super Bowl actually worth watching since I can't remember the last good one. Oh yeah, the Rams and Titans was a great game going to the one yard line on the last play. That was 8, yes I said 8, years ago. It's time for a good one.

Osmosis Land

2008-01-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

Back in my glory years of junior high school I had a wonderful math teacher, Mrs. Carlson, that would paranoy us kids about establishing good math habits now otherwise when we'd graduate to high school our then math teacher, Mr. "I" would pillage our work with a red marker. The marker wasn't to star a correct answer. On the contrary, it served as a tool that acted as a syringe pulling blood from our bodies and transposing it on our work. Mr. I was a cruel man. Haha, I'm just kidding. He's actually one of the greatest man I've ever known.

Getting back to Mrs. Carlson's prealgebra classes...She had a poster that had Garfield the cat lazily lounging around with textbooks on top of his head. Apparently he "Learns by Osmosis," which made me so mad because that would make life so much easier for a student. Am I right or am I right about this one?

Upon further examination, though, I realized that we humans use the process of osmosis quite frequently--not with scholarly books but, rather, with life. We become what we behold. I've beheld hunting since I can remember therefore I've become a hunter. I behold great tasting food therefore I am food. Wait, that's terrifying...

Case and point: the beholder becomes what is beheld. Who/what do you behold? There are close friends and family that I behold. It's kinda scary/funny sometimes because as I'm getting older I've realized that I'm taking on many of the traits/sayings of my dad. I know many of us have been shocked when we realize this. Hopefully it's the noble, true, and good things that are our takeaways from these significant others.

I post this reflectively asking myself what I behold and what I should behold. I have some work cut out for me in some areas. In others, I'm happily content. So what do you behold?

"God above invade my soul, I become what I behold."
-Lyrics from "Osmosis Land" by Earthsuit

Get Up

2008-01-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

Is this a New Year or just another desperation?
There's much promise in 2008. There's also much doubt in 2008.
Regardless of the circumstances, I wish we'd all resolve one change. I know I've my own.
Where to begin but by just take that first step. Falling will be inevitable. Just rhetorically ask a baby. Fortunately for a young one their fall isn't as drastic as an adult. Hopefully you're making the connection there. If not, think about it...

Development is pinnacle and it takes many desired characteristics to further along. Personally I think the whole 21 day habit thing is kind of a hoax. For some reason whenever that's presented to me I think that I'll wake up on that 21st day with a new step. Well, I still put my pants on the same way every day.

Habits can be broken though. They also can be maintained. Which of the habits needs to be severed? Which need to be nurtured? Find the resolve and make it happen. I'm almost sure I'll fail along the way and I'm sure you will too. Just get up.

Juno

2007-12-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

Three cheers for Juno, quite possibly the best movie I've seen all of 2007. You're going to ask me the typical question, "What's it about?" Glad you asked...

It's about a 16 year old, named Juno (Ellen Page), dealing with pregnancy. Gulp ______________. There, that long underscore is there to stomach that heavy statement stated prior. Ironically I'd consider the flick a comedy. I don't know how the now Minnesota native writer, Diablo Cody, did it, but she pulled it off brilliantly. Polarity between the vulgarities of the situation and the brutal honesty that Juno had to face forced a strange, comedic tension that left me continuously sitting forward in my chair.

Before I go into how Cody masterfully orchestrated such an interesting comedy I want to lay the artistic foundation of the movie. Now I will say that Cody's multiple references to places in Minnesota (Ridgedale, St. Cloud, etc. and even Minnesota license plates) really created a slight bias of enjoyment. As an art form, though, I enjoyed how Cody and director, Jason Reitman, created the setting. It seemed as each trimester was a different season that Juno was experiencing. It started in the fall where life was a noticeable change to the cold. Enter the second trimester of winter where relationships with the ones you think were congruently fluid in the beginning turned to a frail icicle awaiting just the slightest nudge from the frigid wind that’s anticipating how to destroy everything. Like most movies, though, there has to be new life and healing that the spring season/third trimester graciously bore.

On to the comic polarity...
The diction is innocently vulgar, much like the Minnesota nice dialect is came primarily from Juno and her boy next door buddy that got her pregnant (Michael Cerra). Mix that with some bluntness from her father (J.K. Simmons) and you got yourself some things to laugh about.

The second aspect deals honestly about the ills (as Juno's step mom questioned, "You barfed that blue slushy in my urn that I bought out in Stillwater?"), repercussions of teenage pregnancy walking down the hall as if she's swimming upstream as a sea of acne clad good for nothing youth gawk at the site of the growth coming from her midsection, and the beauty of giving life—which almost put this grown man to shed perspirations from his hazel eyes.

Look it up. Sometimes its fun and troublesome playing with two magnets that are flipped so they can't ever connect. Life bears is own pain and tears at times. Maybe with a dash of humor and honesty we can understand that there's life and rest beyond bitter circumstances. I know Juno did.

"I Celebrate the Day"

2007-12-25T07:56:00.000-08:00

With this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know
How much You've touched my life because
Here is where You're finding me
In the exact same place as New Year's Eve
And from the lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I wanna be

And so this Christmas I'll compare
The things I've felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
And the hope that
That You give
That You were born so I might really live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me…

And the first time that You opened Your eyes
Did you realize that You would be my Savior?
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever?
And the first time that You opened your eyes
Did you realize that You would be my Savior?
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever?

And I
I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day
Pray for You to save my life
Pray for You to save my life
Pray for You to save my life

This song, from Relient k has grown to be one of my most favorite Christmas songs. If you haven't heard it, you should probably stop what you're doing and get to listening to it. Simply, yet so eloquently, it truly captures the essence of why we should celebrate Christmas. The greatest gift of all, born to die, so one day we can have His Life.

The Storm

2007-12-22T05:36:00.000-08:00

"Storm"

Why the wind blows
high the pensive brail,
An arousing motion of apathey

Where the flower grows
wear the petals flail,
An open sky of melancholy

When the water pose
bend the poinient hail,
A musing cloud of mutability

How the fire loathes
sow the preemtive wail,
A perpetual state of corruptibility

For Jake

2007-12-21T17:48:00.000-08:00

Since one of my best friends pouts that because he doesn't have a myspace or a facebook, I figured this would be a good avenue for him and anyone else to stay in touch.

The man,
The myth,
The legend in his own eyes,
Jacob Andrew Schlegel,
This one goes out to you.