is yourself.

My friend is heading to the Czech Republic this summer and he needs some help raising the money to go. Clicking on the link will take you to his site where you can read up on all the details.

Czech Republic: "

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Being at ASU for psych lab intro and half asleep looking at their sources of light I am inclined to ask 'how does this make you feel?'

One of the quirks that I have is the uncanny ability to notice the small details in the environment that I live (strictly city) to give me insight into my plans. For example, when I go to coffee shops (there are only 3 I go to on a regular basis), I do a quick scan of the parking lot looking for my friends autos to see if they might possibly be inside. Call me weird but it happens instinctively for me.

Another small detail I notice on a regular basis in regards to automobiles is that of the origins of peoples' license plates. Doesn't matter if I'm driving to school or am sitting as a passenger in a friends' car, I will always take note of where people have come from. For me, such references to distant locations stir up thoughts ranging from impersonal ones (wanting to travel there or thinking "that's a nice place") to very personal ones (to be brutally honest, of places or times or people that I do not want to come to mind). With a heavy heart I wish this wasn't so because it becomes all to easy to resent memories associated with said reminders. It is not my intentions to think both highly or negatively about the reflections brought about by subtle reminders in the details, but to look back with an eye of gratitude. Such recollections in reality with my thoughts removed are truly joyful moments of life lived with certain people in certain places at certain times. Unfortunately, I have issues removing my thoughts and emotions from past events. Oh that I would see the beauty of recollections and reflections on past memories, and value the lessons learned.

If there was one thing I wish I could be better at, it would be to notice the subtle and small details that abound within social interactions so as to better attend to peoples' needs.

This week marks the school semester's eve. As befitting of such a week, I went and saw James Cameron's Avatar movie in 3D at IMAX in the spirit of freedom that this week holds. What a film it was! One of the best movies I have seen in a long while. However, the focus of this post is not on the movie directly but rather on the thoughts and feelings of people after seeing such an epic film. I recently read an article delving into people's reactions after seeing the film and what was found was that a decent number of people were experiencing depression brought on by the portrayal of an alien utopia undefiled by its inhabitants. Apparently, many people walked away from Avatar longing for that utopia to exist rather than face work the next day or deal with another family crisis. Is it really the undefiled, mysterious environment that people longed for or something else? Perhaps the draw existed in the simplistic nature of the Na'vi people or Pandora... Or perhaps fans longed to be the hero or part of the winning team in the movie... What wrong did Cameron do in making this film? Nothing as far as I can see because as a film, the director strives to draw people into the film and make it feel as though the viewer is actually a part of the movie in some sense, and Avatar does just that. But at the end of it all, stuck when the movie ends, people find themselves struggling to give purpose to what they saw because on some level it connected with them. It gave them hope for something...but what?

Hope deferred from the gospel of Christ causes the heart to be anxious. Purpose is assigned elsewhere and thereby divorced of hope. Purpose and hope in the gospel must be found together or else a crisis is at hand.