In the last several years, some terrible crimes have been committed in Lapeer, MI (city pop. 9,000; county pop. 90,000), but this year has been particularly appalling. This summer, a young man and woman went on a killing spree, mercilessly torturing at least 3 victims. This fall, a gang of thieves brutally murdered an 80+ year-old widow in her bed; to avoid capture, they cut off her fingers and dumped her body in a field. On Monday, a group posing as FBI agents tortured a young family, ransacked their home, and stole undisclosed amounts of property. Click here for the story.

Mom and Dad, I'm putting my foot down: either start locking your doors or start packing; it's your choice.

For those of you who took the cataract test, I apologize. In an attempt to get me in trouble, Sarah hacked onto my blog and put up that monstrosity. Hopefully you weren't terribly scarred.

If you were scarred (or scared), and you'd like to yell at someone, please contact my good friend JP in Chicago; he was kind enough to try and trick me with the 'test'. If yelling at him isn't satisfying, please contact your local legislature.

~The Management

Most of you know about the young boy from our church who was recently diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The diagnosis was given four weeks ago, and his doctors assess that he has about two weeks to live. As of today, his condition continues to worsen; he can no longer stand or eat on his own.

If you'd like more information about Anthony and his family, click here. Currently, our church is trying to mobilize people such that there will be someone praying for him (and for his family) at any given time during the day. If you'd like to sign up to pray, follow the links on the left side of the page. If you'd like to pray but don't want to sign up, feel free to do that as well...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here's 7,000 words on what happened at Thanksgiving. Especially note the final 3,000 words. They tell an interesting story.

Apparently, this test will help diagnose an early stage of cataracts. I would encourage you to take it (make sure to follow the directions).

I seem to have seriously injured my foot. And it's really not a great story. I was making dinner, and I had a plate balanced on the edge of the counter. Somehow, I turned away and the plate slipped off the counter. Our plates are stoneware, mind you. STONEware. Anyway, the plate slipped and crashed, still perfectly vertical from the fall, onto my metatarsals (the five little bones in the foot).

Just so you understand, the plate was VERTICAL. So, it was like a karate chop. A karate chop of stone. The plate broke perfectly in half. IN HALF. Are we clear? The stoneware plate smashed so hard into my foot (vertically), it broke in half. My foot is quite swollen, and my whole calf actually hurts (I think there might have been some nerve damage). Maybe some basketball will help...

This time, the late night is turning into an early morning. Only five more pages to go. And then I go to class for four hours.

Another late night tonight; another big paper due (Friday). But instead of working on the paper, I've spent most of my time trying to figure out what classes to take next semester. Unfortunately, I haven't really come up with a combination I find appealing; the trouble is that I'm having difficulty seeing how the courses offered will apply to my life and/or career. I would imagine they will, but I've been pretty bored (and busy, paradoxically) this semester and would like to ensure that next semester is a bit different. At $4300 a semester, I don't think it's okay to be bored; I might as well take interesting classes for $20 a unit at the local community college.

In any case, I've found that theology and biblical studies are truly academic disciplines. Biblical studies is the field that examines the Bible as an ancient document and piece of literature. Optimally, theology would be the life-application of the truths in that literature; unfortunately, it seems to be riddled with speculation about questions that literature never attempted to answer. Ultimately, both fields do not speak directly to the simple truths about Christianity and the Bible. In an attempt to simply state the tenets of the faith, C.S. Lewis wrote "Mere Christianity". Here's my version, in even simpler form than Clive's.

The Bible attests to three things:

1) Throughout history, God has sought to engage humanity in a relationship.
2) The climax of God's efforts occurred in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
3) As humans, God hopes that we will respond by a) loving God, and b) loving others.

I've found that our faith is not a discipline that requires a doctorate to better understand. Yes, the Bible as a piece of literature requires a doctorate to better understand. Yes, the finer points of theological discourse require a doctorate to better understand. But our faith is simple. Faith is about living in response God's love and action in our lives. Difficult, at times, but still simple: we must live in response to God's love. Now I just have to go and find another career, because I don't like literature.

But first I have to write an exegesis about Matthew 18:1-4, summarizing the historical context and cognitive schemata that were likely in place in the first century population.

No bruised tongue this time, but I ended up subbing in the basketball league again tonight. We had to play 4 on 5 because not enough guys from our team could make it. I wasn't shooting well, and we were down big in the first half. After the half, they were up at least nine, and then my shots started to fall. I made a couple three-pointers in a row, and my teammates started to get back into the game. We ended up winning by 12, and I think I scored about 20 points in the second half. It was a lot fun. If only I could have that much fun when I don't play well...

As it turns out, the recent theft of my identity (you know, the credit card debacle) was part of a larger operation. According to some reports, at least 550 other people also had their accounts illegally accessed. The numbers continue to rise, and the latest estimate is that the thieves got away with at least $100,000 in cash. Police suspect that an organized crime ring may have been involved. You can read an LA Times article here. What you can't read in that article is that I figured out that all the scamming occurred at a local gas station (actually three stations were involved). The case broke on Friday, but what the reports don't tell you is that I TOLD THE POLICE TO CHECK OUT THAT GAS STATION TWO WEEKS AGO!!!! (of course, I told the Newport Beach PD; the Costa Mesa PD and Secret Service are actually on the case, so I don't know if the officer I talked to actually passed on the information).

In any case, the police (and me, as of two weeks ago) figure that the thieves put a device on top of the actual card reader at the station. People swipe their cards, and the device (as well as the actual reader) collects their information. As they enter their pin number, a camera records their pin information. Later, the thieves make fake cards and use the stolen pin numbers to access the victims' (e.g., me) accounts. I became aware of the danger when I saw a report on Dateline or 20/20 or something.

Either way, when I put my card into the machine at that particular gas station, it felt odd, difficult even. I specifically remember thinking, "Gee, I hope there isn't one of those things on here that can steal my information." I went to the car and told Sarah that there might be something amiss. I even said, "Well, if there are strange charges on our account in a month, we'll know what happened." The fact is, I didn't really believe that it was going to happen. I just figured I was imagining things. I GUESS I WAS WRONG.

Not only did I break the case and not get credit for it (when I told the officer my thoughts after our money had been stolen), I also probably could have prevented the whole thing if I'd pursued my concerns like some sort of obsessed info-phobe. Oops.

Sarah and I used to live in Grand Rapids; right nextdoor is Cascade Township, MI (where the nice grocery store, "Cascade Meijer", is located; we lived closer to "Ghetto Meijer" and usually shopped there).

Anywho, I read today (AP national news) that a deer got a plastic pumpkin stuck on his head in Cascade Township. Wildlife officials were trying to figure out how to get it off without hurting the deer.

Here's a thought: eat the dear and then let your kids use the bucket to store crayons in until next Halloween. ATTENTION NEWSPEOPLE AND ELECTED OFFICALS: THERE ARE BIGGER ISSUES TO SPEND TIME ON.

In an unrelated matter, Hannah: keep your eye out for a deer with an orange smiley face.

Randy and Jan used to live near the town of Lorrach in southwestern Germany. I've been there a few times to play and watch basketball, do shopping, etc. Recently, there was a brawl in front of the town hall (the rathaus, I believe, in German). Apparently, a woman was 230 feet up and threatening to jump, and some teenagers (among the crowd of hundreds) began encouraging her to hurry up. A number of homeless people tried to stop the teens, and a brawl ensued. I think it says something about society when homeless people are more moral than young people.

You can read the article here. You can read another account of of morality in a person without a home here. Actually you can't. I thought Yahoo archived their news stories, but they don't. This means all my news links will eventually be deactivated. Bummer. Oh well, you can read what I wrote about it here. It's under July 26.

We had a pretty good weekend. Very restful. Unfortunately, I really have to get back to work (starting about five minutes ago). More unfortunately, our TV seems to be dying. It used to be that it would turn on after a few shakes. Now, it sometimes won't turn on for an hour or more of shakes. If you think watching TV is a waste of time, try shaking your TV for an hour. THAT is a waste of an hour.

I'm going to finish my papers with about five minutes to spare (I say "going to" because I'm taking a brief respite before my final edit). Hurray. Maybe someday I will sleep. Not now though.

For those of you wondering whether Vanguard was supposed to be easy, let it be known that assignments can be both 'easy' and 'lengthy' simultaneously.

There's must be something I like about writing papers all night. I did it today. And last week. And the week before that. And the week before that. Actually, I think it has something to do with the frequency of assignments in a particular class. For the record, I believe that assigning two ambiguous research papers a week for four consecutive weeks is a bad idea. In other news, I have a Hebrew test today. I should probably sleep before then. But if I do, I'll have to stay up all of Thursday night writing a different set of papers (due Friday). Saturday will bring rest.

At least I have my health. And $2004.50.