Dualities of Man

The Value of Minute

2006-07-30T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday night I was at my girlfriend's house, enjoying dinner with her family. Her 10-year-old brother Logan and I were laughing histerically at a booger joke her other brother, Jake, had made. We finished up dinner and Logan went for a bike ride with his friend that was over.

Ali and I were walking to her room when her mother said Logan had fallen on his bike. We thought nothing of it because there was no severity in her mom's voice. We walk down the the corner to see what happened. The walked to turned a sprint, because as we rounded the corner we saw Logan unconcious. His little friend had gone back to inform Logan's parents what happened, which is how we knew he fell.

Ali's dad gets there and we put him in the back of the car to take him to the hospital, Ali and Jake jumped in the back to go with and take care of Logan.

I go back to the house to tell Ali's mom that Logan was unconcious but on the way to the hospital. She breaks down instantly. The close knit network of neighbors come in a rush to take care of her while I jump in my truck and head down to the hospital.

Logan might have fallen innocently on his bike (wearing his helmet) and released a blot clot, causing in annurism. He siezed, convulsed, twitched, rolled his eyes into his head, all on the way to the hospital. There was intense bleeding on the left side of his brain, putting pressure on it. When the helicopter got to Simi Hospital to take him to Children's Hospital in LA, it had been a few hours. Surgery awaited him there to remove the clot.

It's almost been a week for Logan's coma. Bad news has been all to common throughout. We've got hundreds, maybe even thousand by this point praying, but we need more to if not help Logan, glorify God.

The Leather Shoe Maker

2006-06-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

In the old leather shoe days, it took quite a bit of work to make a shoe. You would have strips of leather soaking in water, to keep 'em good for whatever reason (I forgot). Then when it came time to make the shoe you would pound the water out of the leather with a malet so it lasted a long time. This had to be done to ever strip of leather used.
Pounding the leather was no easy task because it took so much time away from the construction of the shoe, and nobody wants to just hit leather with a malet all day.

If you were to just take the leather out of the water, let it dry, then make a shoe out of it, the shoe would fall apart much sooner than any shoe that was pounded. All so in Christian life.

In the words of Vince Neil of Poison and Mr. Deutsch, "Every rose has it's thorn."

If we don't put our time in now, pounding our leather, we won't turn into a good, long-lasting shoe, doing the owner (God) no good.

The Sin of Reason

2006-06-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

I once tried to reason with myself about why it was okay to listen to the Wu Tang Clan. The lyrics are violent, explicit, and just downright wrong. I tried to tell myself it would'nt be a sin to listen to Wu Tang. As long as I wasn't acting on what the lyrics said I figured I'd be fine.

More oft than not I try to justify things that I know are wrong. It's in my sinful nature to want to do what's wrong but it's in my Christian nature to make sure it's right. So ensues a logical clash of titans. My sin nature usually wins because it's much more immediatly pleasing, but I'm working on it.

I should just not reason with myself and give in to the Holy Spirit. It's hard, but right.

It's Kinda Funny

2006-06-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

These neo-Hippy, flaming Liberal, pinko commies, and, less extreme Democrats all complain about the culture of America being torn up or just bad. They say, "What's the matter with America?" as they burn their flag or complain about the liberation of someone other than themselves. They blame the government and Bush.

Hollywood is Liberal. The music industry is Liberal. Whoever controls the media controls the people right? Well, the media is Liberal too. Pretty much every university is Liberal, producing more Liberals to be tomorrows politicians.

Do they ever think, "Hey, maybe it's us?" I guess Liberals don't like mirrors because they discriminate to images outside of the mirror's availability of light. Mirrors show things for what they really are, not what they deny by choice. *Cough* Holocaust *Cough*

Conclusion: Liberals, you're the ones that own the culture of America, you're the ones that complain about it. If you don't like it, make an attempt to change it, not complain or write meaningless songs about it, that only yourselves listen to, making no impact on anything you want impacted.

Why Does God Give People Major Malfunctions?

2006-05-13T23:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight I took my girlfriend, Ali, out to get Cold Stone ice cream. Standing in line for what seemed like forever even though there was an army of employees behind the counter, I found myself leaning on a rope-divider-pole-band pole....you know the things they use to forms lines at the movies or at a bank, and it's a retractable band? Yeah, you know. Well, anyway, I was leanding on the pole holding it up and my foot that was counter-balancing my weight against the poles weight slipped causing me to fall backwards a little bit and I bumped, not lightly but not sternly, a late-teen or early-twenties year old girl. I said the casual, "Owhp, sorry." No big deal. I guess I could not have been more wrong. As I was paying for our icy treats, she says is a rude fashion, "Are you the guy that bumped into me?" I admitted, thinking it was still nothing. She says, "Well you have to stay here because the cops are coming because I'm filing a report because now my back is in pain, and now I have to go see a doctor because of you. *insert snotty face here*" I say in utter shock, "Are you serious?" Her little sister, probably 11, replies back with attitude "Mhm!" with a snobbish grin. So I wait with her and a family comes up to me and says "We saw and heard the whole thing and when the cops get here we'll talk to 'em on your side, because it was a harmless accident." Even though she was playfully hugging who I assumed was her little sister in the ice-cream parlor, I guess she was just toughing it out long enough to finally be in such dire pain from a bump on the back of her arm that she couldn't bare it anymore and felt the need to try and bring the Long Arm down on me. While we were outside I motioned to shake her hand and say "My names Max, and I'm sorry for all this. " She looked down at my hand and says something snotty, I don't remember what, but it was snotty, and didn't shake my hand disrespecting me for my malicious crime. We wait for ol' Johnny Law, and Ali, bless her heart, starts saying things like "So what exactly are you gonna tell the police, he bumped into you, kinda? What do you plan on having them do about this? What are you gonna put in this 'report', assualt?" Me, being disrespected and a wise-guy, I say, "Don't you know? Thats a 1219, bumping in the back. Thats 5 to 10." The police station called her back and said they aren't coming because it was an accident, so she pulls out a pen and asks me for my name and number and info. In utter shock that Simi's finest didn't show up for such an atrocity, refused to tell her anything, told her to have a good night, and we left for the car. She asked where we were going, and I told her about a SavOn down that street that has advil. We get in the car and as I'm backing up she writing something down, my license plate number I'm sure, and I drive away.

I guess if you don't hear from me in a while, it's because I'll probably get sent up the river.

What malfunction in your brain do you have to have to be that person tonight? What chemical issue do you have to have in your brain that completely removes rationality and logic? Under what circumstance does a person make it a point to have me pushed around by my buddies in blue for being suseptable to gravity?

Final thought: She can come and get me and so can the fuzz.

Things I Have Learned

2006-05-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

This last year and a half has been interesting to say the least. I learned alot about myself and realized, after 16 years, I don't know me that well. I find new things out about me every day. I don't just mean that I learn that abalone tastes like a tire, or Jersey Mikes is always inconsistent with my particular orders and never anyone elses, but I mean how I think and reason, and why I think and reason in the manner which I do. It all comes through experience. I'm going to list the things I've learned in the last year and a half that I've experienced.

1. As much as I say I can, I can't drive a stick.
2. Cops do me no favors.
3. The Bible has all my answers, but I don't know where to look for them, and usually don't because I figure stuff out just by the nature of the Bible.
4. When you have a talk with Mrs. Murphey, it's more of a listen to Mrs. Murphey.
5. Stereotypes are not wrong, but are actually necessary.
6. Pinko Commie Liberals are part of a cult and don't even know it.
7. Spite has it's ways of coming back to you in a non-karmic fashion.
8. Patience is the lonely man's answer prayer.
9. I will eventually refute most of my social beliefs in about a year or so.
10. Sin is more painful than the satisfaction it brings, but you'll always forget, you'll never know until after.
11. A Thug-Life is so appealing because it's life without morals.
12. I was born 40 years too late.
13. If I die before I reach my goals, I'd like to say I'd be pretty pissed, but I'll be busy.
14. The littlest things in life make you the happiest and the smallest things you the most furious.
15. A man that dies with principles is a man that dies with honor.
16. If before I die I can acheive uncommon valor, I can die satisfied without a single possesion to my name.
17. As much as the commercials tell you different, you don't have that much opportunity to be heard, but it's just the manor in which you want to be heard, makes you heard.
18. As smart as I think I can be, I think I'm no smarter than the dumbest person thinks they are.
19. Stupidity is never an excuse when your intelligence can grow, and so can your limits.
20. Lies are all to common and all too acceptable.

Having taken an AP test today, I don't think I wanna think too much more right now.

Good Day,
M

Old Guys Aren't Boss

2006-04-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been some place, tried to have your harmless fun, and some old or older guy tried to stop you?

Well, this happens to me all the time. I can't stand old guys that try to opress me. Who do you think you are, keeping me from doing what I'm doing, that's completley llegal? I don't see a badge, therefore I don't see a reason to stop. Quit being so old and let young people do what they do.

So, I'm at a Blue Oyster Cult concert, this past Friday night, and there's a crazy bass solo in the middle of Godzilla, and suddenly, I'm pumped. People who mosh know that moshes just happen. Being in a crowd of older people, I guess I should enjoy the music by just standing and kinda nodding my head, but instead, the music takes hold and me and some other friends go loco. Mid mosh, Old Man River comes up and grabs my friends shoulder and starts yelling at him to stop. "Hey there, Mr. McGregor," I say, "chill, man." I guess his name was Mr. McGregor and I was in HIS garden, so he just got more pissed. I wasn't hurting him or anyone else, yet he seemed offended. I've killed men for less. He should consider himself lucky.

It's people like him that give companies that make Prozac a purpose. I hope your grave is 12ft. deep.

To All The Mexicans Protesting: Shut Up

2006-04-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

Being a young person in America that watches the news, I can't help but get riddled with all the crap about the protests across America about the Mexicans and what "dey haive tu tsay bou' dee eemeegracion."

My parents work for their money, and when I am able to cut myself off from the free ride, so will I. If I will, and my parents do, why shouldn't they work for their money?

Now, I do respect the Mexicans that come over here and get jobs, because, c'mon, I'm not gonna be the guy that's out there mowing a lawn at 7am on a Saturday. I respect them, but the ones, and there are many, that come over and milk the system for welfare, you have no right to be in MY country waving YOUR flag. I say "my" country because it's not "your" country until you legally become a citizen.

What makes you better than my ancestors that came over from Croatia and became citizens legally? What makes you so much better than my ancestors from Norway that came here legally? So, because you're Mexican you have the right to do things in MY country illegally?

If you're an immigrant you have no right to get pissed and wave a Mexican flag in MY country if you're illegal. If you're here llegally, by all means, get pissed and do nothing for good and change in the streets.

Final thought, Hayden and I have devised a much more unconventional and violent means of solving the problem. We predict the crime rate to be reduced by 60%.

Look at Civilization Different

2006-03-31T14:16:00.000-08:00

Have you ever just looked around you and not seen a city, a place, scene, or area you're in, but as results of years and people interacting to pass time?

Look at restaurants, for example. We need food to survive. These people make you food. You survive. If you were to get bad service, you get pissed and say, "I'm not paying for this bad service!" Or you just leave a crappy tip. We eventually factored in service to be a part of the check.

Look at sports. It's just people throwing a ball around and people lining up around it and playing around it. Football is just a bunch of rules around grabbing other guys and throwing them to the ground. Look at the simplicity of things.

We look back on other societies and we're amazed. Look at the Greek theatres. They're everywhere in Greece. People went to go watch people pretend to be other people. We think, "Wow, what culture they had." Yet we watch a box at home that has people and everything else on it that we don't want to do outside.

I guess there's no real point to this blog, other than look at stuff different, or I'll kill you.

It's the Little Things

2006-03-27T17:40:00.000-08:00

One day, the time passed from that day are out of memory, but one day, I walk up to the countre at a local Carls Jr. I ask for my usual Spicy Chicken Sandwhich. I pull out a one-spot from my wallet and I go to grab a quarter from my coin pocket, which pains me because I acutally use quarters, but I find exactly one dime and one penny, on top of having a quarter. I could've been having a terrible day, but at least I had a perfect $1.06 for a meal.

Often in life we try to look for the bigger pleasures. The cars, the houses, the jobs, the blingage. No one ever talks about how the little things are making them happier. People try and make them selves feel better by saying, "I broke up with my girlfriend, but I still have a Mercedes." Good days are never measured by all the small stuff that happens. When asked on how your day went, rarely do you hear, "Today rocked. First, I got out of the house at exactly 7:30, then I hit every green light to school."

It's emotions that make us happy, not things. Today, for example, I thought I had my $90 cleats thrown away in a locker-room clean-up. From the begining of the day, I dreaded having to tell my dad I needed new cleats because a pair of perfectly good ones were gone. I couldn't function the same because under everthing I said, there was anger. It wasn't even about the cleats anymore, it was about the way the person told me they were gone. How dare he make light of my situation with my potentially anger father. Who does he think he is saying it was my fault when it took just as much effort to put the cleats in a lost and found as it does to throw them away. I got the cleats back, which I was excited, but today was miserable stemming from that.

In conclusion, realize emotions make the person, not the possesions. It's the little things in life that make us happy.

Adieu,
Joseph Penich V