band: elvis perkins in dearland

(their site here)

my favorite song is "slow doomsday"

from Elvis Perkins' old album "Ash Wednesday" - the song "All the Night Without Love":

Well I once caused your cells to shimmer

And you once caused my cells to shimmer

Now we go all the night without love

Without love…

Quick Break: "How Not To Steal" by A.J. Jacobs

My dad is the only person I know who does not steal. Ever. When we go on a road trip, he won't stop at a gas station just to use their bathroom. He feels that's stealing the station's paper towels and soap.

During my year, I tried to think like my dad. You must be constantly aware of the impact of your actions. Because we steal all the time: We steal office supplies. We swipe our neighbor's wireless. We steal time from a friend by being late. We steal from our kids' future by leaving the lights on when we go out of the house.

You have to think absurdly broadly. Is refusing to buckle your seatbelt an act of theft? Probably. If you get injured, you're taking medical resources away from others. What about eating a plate of trans-fat-filled curly fries? Probably stealing. Anyway, it tastes too good not to be sinful.

Living Levitically #2, I think that's it...

3:17 - It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither s fat nor t blood.”

11:3-8 - Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 4 Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. 5 And the z rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. 6 And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. 7 And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, a is unclean to you. 8 You shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.

11:9-10 - 9 “These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. 10 But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is b detestable to you.

15:19-23 - 19 “When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. 20 r And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. 21 And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. 22 And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.23 Whether it is the bed or anything on which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening.

19:11 - you shall not lie to one another.

19:17 - “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but q you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you r incur sin because of him.

19:19 - nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

19:26 - You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it

19:32 - “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall h fear your God: I am the Lord.

23:3 - Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.

24:16 - Whoever q blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death.

25:35 - 35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, z you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.36 a Take no interest from him or profit, but b fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 a You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

Living Levitically #1

Next Tuesday I start my 'Living Levitically' assignment for my Leviticus class at seminary. So far in the class we have covered the first 9 chapters - which are all descriptions of the different types of sacrifices and when and how they should be given. Thank goodness I absolutely love my teacher or this would be a huge bore-fest. Even so it's hard for me to connect all of these rules to theological principles.

I looked up the fairly well-known book The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (works for Esquire). He was raised Jewish/secular and attempted to follow all of the laws in the Bible for a year. I haven't read the book but his website (here) is very entertaining.

here's a video of his TEDtalk on the book:

Rules I think will be hard to follow:

- Lev. 19:32 “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

- Lev. 19:19 " “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. v You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material."

Standing up around older people will just be hard to remember and difficult to explain. Also, most of my clothes have some sort of stretchy something in them (ahhh...). I think this whole thing sounds fun right now, but it might be like the time I made up fun punishments for my roommates and I if we didn't do our chores. They were way fun to make up but actually having to go over to Tony's house and sing "Tha Thong Song" by Sisqo was not.

i love london...

wooooow

from jakandjil

i've always wondered about under-hair tattoos and i totally dig the neck tattoo - especially because of Pharrell.

history of curse words

I've been thinking about the history of curse words ever since starting to watch the British teen show Skins. The show has tons of drug use, sexual innuendo, profanity, etc. However, much of it goes over my head, either because I cannot understand what they're saying because of the accent (and talking quickly) or because I have no idea what the word means. urbandictionary.com is now one of my more frequently visited sites.

- disclaimer: the show is really well done and i'm learning a lot about British teen culture. however, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone.

Looking up the wikipedia article on profanity was interesting. I think it's fascinating that we use curse words only for certain subjects: the supernatural, body functions and organs, disease & death, sexuality, disfavored people or groups (this is according to Steven Pinker's book The Stuff of Thought)

I wonder why...