Updated 8/22/2009.
Very few of you will probably ask yourself why I need a weblog. If you know me, you’ll note that it doesn’t take a lot to get me yammering away about any pet topic. Usually it’s about Jesus and Christianity; frequently I’ll go off on poorly-thought-out knee-jerk politics; and pretty much any kind of stupid human behavior can get me going. And then, within the space of ten minutes, I will have successfully ranted about 20 different subjects and you will be astonished at how fast I can talk. And that’s on decaf.
I am very opinionated, I admit. I will also admit that I could be wrong. I have caught myself being wrong many times. My life is a giant process of finding where I am wrong and fixing it. In Christian terms this is related to sanctification—although God is doing the sanctifying, I am doing my part by following him and trying to not be so much of a schmuck.
What kind of schmuck would that be?
Obviously the kind that likes to play with Photoshop sometimes.
Born in 1971. Yes, I am that old. I don’t act my age. Never have. The older I get, the less likely that will be.
Born in San Jose, California. Oldest of four. Dad was in the Air National Guard for a long stretch, and then the Air Force Reserves, so my family was moved around a bit, though we stuck to Northern California. I was a child prodigy; I started reading and writing at age 2, recall about 90 percent of everything I read, and proceeded from there to amaze and frustrate teachers. Many of them would take a certain sense of vengeful satisfaction in that I became a teacher myself… and would be annoyed that I find it so much fun.
Baptized Catholic, but raised Protestant—specifically, a Fundamentalist Dispensationalist Inerrantist Young-Earth Creationist. If that didn’t make me enough of a pain in the ass, I was, as I just said in the last paragraph, a child prodigy; I learned so much bible I was correcting Sunday School teachers in no time. I only got worse once my lousy youth pastors taught me apologetics, which I promptly misused to argue with people.
I got into journalism in high school, and that—instead of blogging, which wasn’t invented yet—became my means of getting my three rants an hour out of my system. I must’ve produced 60 rants an issue. Some were published. So, recognizing a vocation in it, I went to college to study journalism. Dropped out when I got a real newspaper job. Did that until I was fired as part of a budget cut.
When you’re in the wild and wacky world of news, you see a lot of freaky stuff and experience a lot of freaky temptations. I kept resisting—for the most part—’cause of my Christian upbringing. Eventually I decided either I was gonna take Christianity seriously or drop it… except I never seriously considered dropping it. So I took it seriously. The Holy Spirit responded with a serious Pentecostal experience. I started dealing with my bad behavior, started going to twelve-step groups to deal with the control-freak behavior I was picking up from Dad, and decided to drop back into school… but this time study theology.
I was in an Assemblies of God church, so I decided to look into an AG school. I went to Bethany College (now Bethany University), which turned out to be a good school. My journalism training really came in handy when studying theology—I refused to accept beliefs at face value. Still refuse to, though I am still digging through my life and discovering knee-jerk beliefs from time to time. Anyway, some might say this combination of skepticism and theology has messed me up for life… but unlike quite a few of my fellow theology school classmates, I didn’t turn heretic. Graduated in 1998.
After graduation I helped my aunt start a newspaper in Grass Valley, and was its managing editor for two years. Then I taught junior high for three years, and fourth grade for a year, at my church’s Christian junior high. I left that job to go back to Bethany and get a master’s in education… then dropped out because I realized I don’t actually want a master’s in education. I spent a year working for Barnabas Missions, then spent the last two years working for the Salvation Army. Still go to an AG church.
In my spare time I still read a lot (mostly non-fiction), listen to lots of music and news podcasts (I’m still a news junkie), and watch movies and videos. I still drink a ridiculous amount of coffee, but it’s decaf.
I’m still single. Never married. Not looking. Not against marriage, of course; I’m attracted to intelligence and I won’t date uncommitted Christians, and so that shrinks my dating pool down to nearly zero.
What else?… Well, some Photoshop skills… and for fun I translate the bible as part of my personal study.
