Lent

I always find Lent to be one of the better parts of the year. Yes, partly due to the fact that the Tourny is taking place, but mostly because of the music. There is just something about Lenten music that is so beautiful. The starting point would have to be the fact that pretty much every single piece is in a minor key. There is just something about how the harmonies flow better and crisper in a piece written in a minor key. They say that D minor is the saddest key, well Spinal Tap says it atleast, but it still doesn't hold a match to the quality of A minor. Maybe it is because some of my favorite songs are written in that key. ("When David Heard"- Eric Whitacre "All Along the Watchtower" - Bob Dylan "Stairway to Heaven"-Led Zeppelin "Blindman" just to name a few...) Maybe, though, they appeal to me because they are written in A minor. But anyway, back to the music of Lent. The best pieces in Lent use a Picardi 3rd to end them. This is where on the last chord of the song, the tonic, (or "do") you raise the 3rd, making it a major chord. I have come across many music majors who love to argue the fact that it is a cliche ending, and it is too corny. But alas, it is the perfect ending to a Lenten peice. It gives that hope that we have in Christ Resurection. Granted it has to be done properly, "By My Side" from Godspell does it to absolute perfection, but I don't think there is a more fitting progression to end a piece. So enjoy the season, for this is what is the true foundation and begining of our beliefs as Christians, not Christmas, but Easter...

My motto, or creed, or credto if you will

"Know this my beloved bretheran. Let every man be quick to hear and slow to speck, slow to anger, for the anger of a man does not work the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rank gorwth of wickedness and recieve with meekness the implanted work, which is able to save your soul. But be doers of the word and not just hearers, lying to yourself. For if anyone is only a hearer, they are like the person who looks in the mirror; for they see themselves, but forget what they look like as soon as they step away. But those who read the word, and act upon the word, and do not forget, like the hearers, they shall be blessed in all their doings. If you think yourself religious, yet do not think before you speak, and decieve your heart, then your religion is in vain. Religion must be pure before God, and tend for those in need, while remaining unstained from the world. Whoever know what the right thing to do is, yet fails to do it, has sinned against God." James 1:19-27, 4:17 (SV)

"And I claimed, 'Woe is me! For I am lost; I am a man with stained lips, amongst people with stained lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Then an angel flew down from heaven, and in his hands, a burning coal from the alter of the Lord. And he touched it to my lips and proclaimed, 'Behold, this has touched your lips; let you guilt be taken away and sins forgiven!' Then I heard the noice of the Lord saying 'Whom shall I send, who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here I am, send me...'" Isaiah 6:5-8 (SV)

These are two verse read in church today, well the scuba translation atleast, I think there were just what I needed to hear, and I hope they help you like they did me...

Home

Tonight I think it finally hit me that I am home. It happened when I went to go see my sister Jacqui in "Grease" at DHES. Once again I found myself in the middle of the WASP (White Anglo-Saxton Protestants) of the world. It truly hit me when I saw the kid sitting next to me was wearing two americian eagle golf shirts, the top one being pink, with both collars popped, a sight never seen in such a place of Brooksville Florida. To top that he played with his razor phone while listening to his i-pod and drinking his starbucks coffee...during the entire musical. He was your stereotypical "I am going to be a cool flaming liberal and save the whales while freeing Tibet...until i graduate college and realize that i am really a conservative..." This again would perpetuate the saying that all liberals are just uneducated conservatives. But this dude I bet if I asked him where he stood right now. he would tell me he was a moderate. Now this is was really steams my clams... As Justice Antonin Scalia says "What is a moderate interpretation of the text? [constitution] Halfway between what it really means and what you’d like it to mean? There is no such thing as a moderate interpretation of the text." Basically partyline politics bites ass. dont define yourself by what political party you belong to, I certainly dont define myself by being a libertarian. Be whoever you are, not some popped collar minion of the man..Andd dont play with damn phone next to me in a theatre...dumbass

The Start of Something New

Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those that mourn, For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, For the shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called the sons and daughters of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are YOU, when all persons revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you, falsely, on my account....your reward will be great in Heaven...

All is right in the world

First off let me just say that Remix's main intent with Asian's is to get them into the back seat of his car, and have a good bible study.

So all is right in the world. Nova is competing for a championship, to prove to the world that Philly is truley the Basketball center of the world. I am on track with my D-III training. Last night I played in a full 40 minute league game and ended up with 16 points and 8 assists, though we lost the game, which I take the blame because I was in foul trouble at the end of the first half and about halfway through the second half...though the team showed promise for next season, when the training goes into full swing. But most importantly, I am back set building at Grove. There is just something about doing that kind of work that is real fun.

From Florida to Power Rangers

So lets just say that this past weekend was pretty much the craziest weekend ever. And by crazy I mean, Crrrazy. First off let me start by saying this, Driving 16 straight hours, by yourself, is not a good idea. Second, amassing a total of 65 minutes of sleep over a 48 hour period is alsoi a bad idea. Much like crack, just say no. This weekend I learned just how good of a friend coffee really is. After driving staight from Florida to Pocono Plateau, I found myself facilitating Co-op High at 9:30 in the mourning, when it was a brisk 21 degrees. Just to put things in perspective, At 11 AM the previous mourning, I was playing bball with Murph in Florida, it was 86 degrees. After that it was off to be a counselor for the childrens retreat, and by counsel, I mean hang out in the shop, tear down co-op, eat lunch with the staff, and lead games in fellowship hall. It wasn't until about 4pm when I acutally was with my group as an athority figure. That night was fun Bush Remix and myself managed to get the kids to bed at 9:35, leaving us plenty of time to talk. At this point I was reaching the 48 hours on 65 minutes of sleep mark, so I was a little out of it. I know that we discussed the horrible display of racism that is the Power Rangers, and that the yellow ranger was the corner stone to Remix's Asian fetish. All in all it was a pretty kick ass weekend. It is good to be back in PA

Classic Remix

Today I had a very...well...interesting and informative conversation with Remix. I found it very fit to share with everyone. It all started with a question about my blog entry yesterday.
Remix: Whats a track?
Me: it is a little pamphlet that people hand out that tells you are a sinner and that you are going to hell and everything you do makes God cry
Remix: ah one of those, well get your self some milk and cookies, pull up a comfy chair, and have your self a good read with that one
Me: i have quite the collection
Me: this all may be steming from the time i got really drunk in orlando at a bar with murph and some friends, and there were baptist on the street corner telling us we were going to hell and i stopped and gave him a peice of my mind
Remix: like a slice or just smashed it all in their faces?
Me: oh i grabbed the bible from his hand and gave it to him good
Remix: you didn't stomp a baptist in the street did you?
Me: i was close, maybe after one more shot of whiskey, but i was quoting christ left and right and mr baptist could only mange quotes from paul...now paul is a good guy, but jesus is like the trump card, he is like 4 lerpchans
Remix: but twice as hard to catch. Yeah that Paul, always getting himself into trouble
Me: maybe if he did kill all those christians, but that probably was due to the rock and roll he listened to when he was a teenager
Me: There was something about paul i never understood, i mean here he was as saul kicking people's asses and stomping christians left and right, then god was like, whoa that aint cool, let me blind you with my radient presence and then you can come work for me as a paul, but then paul was suppse to be this old cripple dude who need a doctors car 24/7, which was luke
Remix: yeah rock and roll and video games. Breeding murders one track and level at a time
Remix: really? so what happened to that whole thing then?
Me: that is what i dont understand
Me: i mean were we gettting are asses kicked by an old crippled dude, or did he have minions, or did god like make him old and crippled when he blinded him, or did wizards do it?
Me: what is the deal with Paul
Remix: The deal with Paul is, if you cross him, he will bring the hammer down on you. Blind people are like super humans with incredible senses and butt kicking abilities. His oldness hid his true abilities
Me: yet jesus still trumps him
Remix: thats because Jesus is the freaken one.
Me: he is like neo
Me: and paul is like morpheus
Remix: Yeah but more built and less whiny and violent
Remix: yeah but less... bald and black
Remix: except Jesus recruited Paul...hmmm this is tricky
Me: and who is trinity, the holy spirit, dave matthews mary mag, or peter?
Remix: um I'm thinkin its the holy spirit, Jesus, and the cool ai.. I mean God
Me: does that make John the baptist the oricale?
Remix: Quite possibly, then who is Agent Smith or I suppose we already know that
Me: i think he is more the anti-christ as a posed to the devil
Me: i mean, he was born from the evil, he wasn't the creator of it
Remix: ah yeah this is true, though he didn't try to gain the people's trust or anything though I suppose when you use the people's to clone your self your clones will trust you
Me: the devil would be the dude that had the tv's in that room
Remix: but he wasn't really a bad guy
Remix: then would Smith have come from him or the machines?
Me: he enslaved the entire human race
Me: that would be a pretty bad thing
Me: atleast in my books
Me: this is sad we just compared the entire basis of our core beliefs to a movie
Remix: yeah, well technically 3 movies but who's counting. Yet another thing to add to the list of terrible terrible things I've done
Me: hey but havent we concluded that you are atleast going to make it to pergatory with all the un baptised babies
Remix: yeah, I'll make my way out in due time
Remix: and have an awesome crew of baby minions
Me: I think can see disney hercules Jesus rescuing you
Remix: yeah he would. Jesus the adventurer
Me: like when he dove into the river of souls to rescue his girlfriend
Me: so basically you are Jesus' girlfriend
Me: you are like a nun
Remix: ...that's just awkward, I was thinkin more like his homeboy
Me: so what have we learned today:
Me: 1 getting drunk and debating bapist can be fun, but isnt recomended unless you have Jesus covering your back
Me: and they only have paul
Remix: there should be some sort of christian battle cards that you can use to visualize this all
Remix: oh wait we have magic the christianing, all right!
Me: isnt it like redemption and youth camp uses it
Me: sounds like the work of the devil if youth camp uses it
Remix: oh that youth camp, good times...I think
Remix: ok here you go Jesus would have a theme song that would be all like how he was an adventurer and a warrior with out fear... like this one but just with Jesus instead of Conan http://www.retrojunk.com/details_tvshows/1029-conan-the-adventurer/691
Me: you hit the nail on the head my friend, the nail on the head
Remix: Yeah, I mean with out Jesus those darn serpent men would be running free and doing as they please
Me: so the second thing that we learned today is that Jesus is like Neo, Disney Hercules, and Conan the Adventurer all rolled up into one
Remix: Well he is technically like a He-Man and the apostles would be like the masters of the universe
Remix: He's trying to protect the secrets of castle gray skull and all from the evil Skeletor
Me: but he-man was gay
Remix: no he wasn't, no way...shut up...
Me: hey that is what michael ian black said
Me: and he was in wet hot american summer, where he played a gay dude, so i think he knows
Remix: he lies, that liar, with his lies...how about the new He-Man then?
phillysportsfrek: what is that though, I'm-out-of-the-closet He-Man
Me: isnt that just what "The New He-Man" is saying
Me: you need to get some truth in your life my brotha, you are in denial, just like you are in denial about almost hitting that 1 year old girl with your car
Remix: well I don't think she was one and I think we all walked away fine so what does she want to start something or what?
Me: are you picking a fight with a 6 month old girl?
Me: oh remix....you something else, you are a classic
Remix: hey she wants to throw down then we can do this

some bible and bball

Okay, plain and simple, I love God, but I would have to say that the there are some christians that just they really chap my lips. I mean God bless them, they love the Lord and we all have our ways, but they just give christianity a bad name. Yesterday I played bball with these three guys, and they just had poor attitudes. First off i was on another court doing my thing, and they call me over to play a game, which is cool i don't mind. As soon as I get over the one dude hands me a track and asked me if i died right then and there did i know i would go to heaven. Well i have som problems with this question. I mean do I believe I am saved? Yes, but do I know without a doubt that I would go to heaven, no i just believe, i have faith. God has not parted the clouds and said "Steve I do exist and I got you back yo." That would be to easy, I dont think God wants that. It is all about faith. So then we start playing and they just did not display a good christian attitude. First off they stacked the teams in their favor. (Granted I was on the other team but they stacked it the best they could.) Then they would just tackle someone when they went down the lane. Then there was the show boating, color comentary, and boasting. These are things that I can all deal with, I mean I been through worse on the courts, but once my team got up, they just became soar losers. the last straw was when we would check the ball up and they would roll the ball back. That is the ultimate sign of disrespect, and quick frankly a dick and a half move. I am sorry but if you are going to be handing out tracks at the begining of the game, practice what you preach brother. this is a big reason why people hate us, cause there is a small percentage of christians that are just hypocratic dicks

I hate to lose

If there is one thing I hate more then Shaq, the cowboys, bucs, yankees, pittsnogle, ohio st, the possession arrow, all mid major conferences west of the mississippi, wachovia, joe lunardi, and eric crouch, is losing. Scratch that, I hate losing to people that I should beat even more. Like Yesterday, When murph and i lost to a pair of punks in 2-2. Granted, we were in the middle of playing a 1-1 game to 100 when they call us over to play, (We were at 63-56 and put the rest of the game off until tomorrow) and the Lactic acid, which is no ones friend, was flowing, it is still no excuse. I mean the one dude was like 5'2" with detriot tattooed all over him, and his pal was all of 5'6" and was wearing a bathing suit, and a generation next denim cap. granted we won the first game 11-5, we technically won the second game 11-9, but then they were like, "game is to 12." First off, who the fuck plays to 12? There is a very distinct sequence of numbers you play to on the streets. 5, 11, 15, 16, 21, 35, 100. Thats it, and thats all, it is the bball sequence, no one knows where it came from, rumor has it you can find it in the bible, but those are the only numbers you play to. but again, no excuse, we should have scored a bucket, and won. But we didn't, they hit a 2 and then we exchanged buckets, and then they hit two in a row, and won. It just really steams my clams we lost.

Ps: GMac is amazing....."10 fucking games, not 10 fucking games..."

Yesterday

Yesterday was a day of highs and lows...It started of great, Murph and I got up early and went golfing, and then went to a place to get breakfast. While eating, Murph got a paper and we learned of the very sad news that Kirby Puckett had died. Then I went into work, where the spoiled old people complained that the iced tea was too weak, when the fact of the matter was they would ask for a glass filled with ice, then let it sit there and melt then drink the stuff and complain. I hate how people who are "rich" (I put rich in quotation marks because members of brooksville country club are by no means rich, I could be a member there, it is only 200$ a month for the Elite Membership, my credit card bill is higher then that in a month.) The owner of the club was there and he got iced tea, but he didnt complain, he is cool. Then I played another round of golf by myself, where I drove the green of a par 4 (Hit the ball on the green in one shot) which was pretty sweet. Then came home played some bball, tended to my new tattoo, which itches like a bitch and I can't scratch it, drank some crown royal wiskey and had a stogie and talk about God with Murph. A pretty solid packed day I would say.

Beer Man

Could there be anyone less cool then the person who delivers beer to bars and restaurants for a living. I think the first thing that enters their mind when they see the help wanted add is, "Beer Delivery person? That has to be the coolest job ever, I get work with beer, hang out a bars all day. I will wear a collar shirt with a beer logo like Luke Clausen, gel up my hair and wear my lucky jeans shorts that I haven't washed since I hit that home run in the bar league back in 86. Plus since I will be driving, so I can wear my sunglasses, my hot neon green and pink ones with the single blade lens that I got in 1992...The chicks are going to love me..." Hey Beer Man!! The high school nerds from 1996 called, they say you are cramping their style. Dude whatever times you are in the bar, it will be 10AM, and the only women there will be the passed out drunk chicks from the night, (or two nights) before, or the 60 year old grandma of the drummer from the band that was there the night (or two nights) before who forgot to take her home because he was with 4 groupies. The only deliveries you will be making at night will be to the shady chevron down the street where you have a better chance of being shot in a drug deal gone wrong then even seeing a girl...I mean you have a better chance of picking up a STD from the floor...Boy Beer Man, you are just living the dream...

A Lesson Re-Inforced

Today, yet again, I was reminded that God is a lot like Lee Corso and we are like Kurt Herbstriet. We will get on a roll starting to do things right and making the right choises, but then when we think we can never again do any wrong, God comes in as says, "Ah ah ah...Not so fast my friend!" and remindes us that all we ever amounted to was being a shitty QB at a shitty school, (The Ohio State) and that we aren't all that and a bag of chips.

RIP Nates shampoo....you are a good shampoo, who was bold and didnt take any flack for being a purple squeeze bottle...

Another Open Letter

Dear people who watched the jerl who stole the front wheel of my bike,
Well, you knew it wasn't his wheel! What did you think? He was coming back for the rest of his bike later? Well, why didn't you do something? Why didn't you say something? You human piece of apathy! Why didn't you say, "Hey! That's not your wheel! That could be Steve Wagner's wheel! We love him! And he loved that wheel!" Just eatin' brunch. Well, didn't you think I needed it? I did! Well, look at that! Feast on that act of violence! Good work, Einstein! Pus!
In Christian Love,
Steve

Open Letter

Dear person who stole the front wheel of my bike,
Well, why did you do it? Are you some sort of jerk or something? It's *my* front wheel! What did you think, that I'd -- I'd drive home and not notice it was stolen? What are you then? Some sort of *prick*? Some sort of idiot? Some sort of thief? What would you do with just my front wheel anyway? What good would just one wheel be? You human loser! Well, why didn't you buy your own wheel if you wanted one so badly. That's what I did. Well, don't you think I need that wheel? Well, well, what were you thinking? JERK!
Steve