Eason Sucks

Spencer and Becky Hines, wooo!

2006-07-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Ruby!

2006-06-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

Very very very cute.

Emails...

2006-05-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, Eason sent a confusing email out to myself and several of our friends. My favorite part:

"will have a good time go to dallas and hit of six flags why not two
day for the price of one buy a day pass and get a season ticket this
year, party."

To which Krueger replied: "I don't get it. If you buy a day pass do you automatically get a year pass and they throw you a party? If this is true I am in!!!!"

More Nouwen

2006-02-26T20:57:00.000-08:00

From "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Henri J.M. Nouwen:

"In a world that constantly compares people, ranking them as more or less intelligent, more or less attractive, more or less successful, it is not easy to really believe in a love that does not do the same. When I hear someone praised, it is hard not to think of myself as less praiseworthy; when I read about the goodness and kindness of other people, it is hard not to wonder whether I myself am as good and kind as they; and when I see trophies, rewards, and prizes being handed out to special people, I cannot avoid asking myself why that didn't happen to me.

"The world in which I have grown up is a world so full of grades, scores, and statistics that, consciously or unconsciously, I always try to take my measure against all the others. Much sadness and gladness in my life flows directly from my comparing, and most, if not all, of this comparing is useless and a terrible waste of time and energy.

"Our God, who is both Father and Mother to us, does not compare. Never. Even though I know in my head that this is true, it is still very hard to fully accept it with my whole being. When I hear someone called a favorite son or daughter, my immediate response is that the other children must be less appreciated, or less loved. I can not fathom how all of God's children can be favorites. And still, they are. When I look from my place in the world into God's Kingdom, I quickly come to think of God as the keeper of some great celestial scoreboard, and I will always be afraid of not making the grade. But as soon as I look from God's welcoming home into the world, I discover that God loves with a divine love, a love that cedes to all women and men their uniqueness without ever comparing."

The long way home

2006-02-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm re-reading "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Henri Nouwen (Click to check it out). On the third time around it's still my favorite book, every bit as moving and challenging as it was when I first picked it up 4 years ago.

I love that autobiographical connection I can have with a passage upon a second or third read as I take note of things I've underlined or highlighted in previous readings. In those situations I like to give myself a minute or two to let my mind wander back to the moment of defilement. Recalling and re-recalling spiritual lessons or cleverly phrased wisdom usually brings about a kind of satisfied nostalgia when I realize that the familiarity of a concept indicates a certain level of internalization. On the other end of that, it's also nice to come across an underlined passage that sounds totally foreign, as if brand new. For example...

(keep in mind the parable of the prodigal son)
"Recieving forgiveness requires a total willingness to let God be God and do all the healing, restoring, and renewing. As long as I want to do even a part of that myself, I end up with partial solutions, such as becoming a hired servant. As a hired servant, I can still keep my distance, still revolt, reject, strike, run away, or complain about my pay. As the beloved son, I have to claim my full dignity and begin preparing myself to become the father."

Numbers and Words, etc. etc.

2006-02-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

Four Jobs I’ve Had in My Life:
*Bus boy at Theo's
*Landscape Maintenance Specialist (lawn mower and weeder and garbage pickup) at the East Ridge Mall in Sioux Falls, SD.
*Interior Technician (shingle roofs, demolish and rebuild fire/water damaged homes, sewage cleanup, blood cleanup, etc.)
*Avacado Picker

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
*Indiana Jones Trilogy
*Back to the Future Trilogy
*Willow
*Ladybugs

Four Places I Have Lived:
*Sioux Falls, SD
*Minneapolis, MN
*Kibbutz Ma'abarot, Israel
*Kibbutz Evron, Israel

Four TV Shows I Love To Watch:
*Seinfeld
*Arrested Development
*The O.C.
*

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:
*Deadwood, SD
*Yankton, SD
*Aberdeen, SD
*Waubay, SD

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
*Gmail
*
*
*

Four Favorite Foods:
*Shrimp Fried Rice
*Lobster
*Ribs
*Strogenoff

Four Places I Would Like to Visit:
*Solomon Islands
*Irene, SD
*Japan
*Beresford, SD

Four People I Am "Tagging & Bagging":
*Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004)
*Tupac Shakur (1971-1996)
*Conway Twitty (1933-1993)
*Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

Mini Resolution

2006-02-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

Starting next week on Tuesday (one week from today) I will eliminate AOL Instant Messenger from my computer entirely. I only use it to talk to a few people that I am just as easily able to connect with by phone or email or in person, so I figure I don't need it anymore.

Also starting next Tuesday I will be giving up pop, or "soda" as it is known in weird-speech. Yes, I know this will be a mega thing for me and I don't look forward to it one bit, but I figure a man's gotta have goals. Since I am a man (in the loosest definition of the word), this will serve as a small superficial change that will hopefully affect my lifestyle to a much deeper degree. Every day between today and next Tuesday I will attempt to ween myself from such beloved drinks as Mello Yello and Dr. Pepper. Diet pop may be allowed, but I haven't decided for sure about that yet.

In the infamous words of Kevin McCallister, "This is my house and I have to defend it."

The Colors of Morgan

2006-01-10T08:02:00.000-08:00

The sweet old border collie you're seeing here is Morgan (formerly named Colors). My brother and his fiance saw her on the Sioux Falls Humane Society website and deliberately fell in love with her. They had been looking to adopt an older dog for the reason that they're typically way less likely to be adopted, and Colors (presently named Morgan) fit the bill. She's 7 years old, super sweet, and house broken. Unfortunately her previous owners didn't take great care of her, so she's overweight, her skin and fur are pretty haggard (scaley skin and snarly hair) from having been fed crappy foods, and she's developed a strange walk from having really long toe nails. Other than that, the vet said she's totally healthy so she should really morph into a good looking dog over the next 6 months or so.

Another poem, you say? - Why not?

"Quatrain" by George Crabbe

With eye upraised, his master's look to scan,
The joy, the solace, and the aid of man;
The rich man's guardian, and the poor man's friend,
The only creature faithful to the end.

Here's to the newest member of the Hines family!

My fantastic Christmas "ague"

2006-01-04T21:17:00.000-08:00

So Christmas 2005 was one for the books. I spent all of Christmas Eve morning (starting at 1am) throwing up the previous night's spare ribs. Naturally, when there was nothing left in my stomach, I started throwing up stomach juices, which sounds a lot more appetizing than it actually is. At first I thought I had just been the victim of raunchy food poisoning. After all, the aforementioned ribs were purchased at Pickerel Lake's local lodge, which is more of a bar than a restaurant. However, as the symptoms continued, it was made apparent that I had a classic flu. Since I had just recently written a paper about a flu-themed poem (yeah, I write a lot of papers about poems), the words kept resurfacing in my mind ... between heaves:

Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one:
Inconstancy unnaturally hath begot
A constant habit; that when I would not
I change in vows, and in devotion.
As humorous is my contrition
As my profane love, and as soon forgot:
As riddingly distempered, cold and hot,
As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none.
I durst not view heaven yesterday; and today
In prayers and flattering speeches I court God:
Tomorrow I quake with true fear of his rod.
So my devout fits come and go away
Like a fantastic ague; save that here
Those are my best days, when I shake with fear.
(John Donne, Holy Sonnet XIX)

This was me! I was hot and cold, shaking, with "fits" of vile tasting puking in there as well. For three days I was back and forth between my bed and the toilet, unable to sleep, unable to drink, eat, or even bear the smell of food (Christmas dishes were wafting all over the place). It was very hard for me to comprehend how the speaker in this sonnet could refer to the pits of this disgusting illness as his "best days".

More contemplation revealed something to me. When I was sick, I was thinking about little else but being sick. It's not that I was pitying myself, it's just that my body was just physically so worn down that I didn't have the energy to think about things that weren't relevant. This speaker, equating his spiritual situation to that of a man with a violent flu, laments every moment he is apathetic to God. Again, when I was sick, I would treasure every minute that my body would give me a break and I could just lay there and wait for the next round. Donne's speaker would rather be convulsing over a stinky toilet than trust himself with freedom. This is such a cool paradox: When he is sickest, he's the healthiest. When he is experiencing Hell on Earth is when he is truly forced to acknowledge Heaven.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Donne must have read a lot of Psalms.

I'm pretty much deeper than any ocean...

2005-12-20T19:40:00.000-08:00

I don't really have time to comment about what drew me to this particular sonnet, but I wrote a paper about it last week and I still catch myself meditating on it every now and then.

John Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV:

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but O, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor even chaste, except you ravish me.

Sir, please keep your voice down. People are trying to grieve.

2005-12-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

This blog is being created only so that I may post on other people's blogs.

Perhaps there will come a day when I am struck by something funny or wise, or funny and wise, or something offensive - like a picture of my grandpa taking a dump on the floor - to post on this, the lamest of all lame blogs. Until that day comes, if it is to come at all, I will be perfectly content posting ridiculous nonsense elsewhere.

Yours, etc.