I can FLY!

Well, it finally happened. Slick and I hit level 70! That meant that I could learn how to use a flying mount. So, now I can fly around Outland. (That's the expansion world in our World of Warcraft game.)

So now what? The thing is, now that we are maxed out on level, the game changes. Now we have to do all this "prep-work" so that we have all the right equipment and access to the coolest and most challenging areas. At least that's what our guild leaders (other players running the group we are in) tell us. Yes, this is what the wife and I do for fun! Go fig!

Play to win...stupid

So, I'm a huge believer in statistics and I'm a big basketball fan. The crew at work did an ESPN March Madness thing. I had my bracket filled out and believed in my final four. But then...doubt set in. No way I'd win. It's just a waste of money. And we're trying to be better with money. So, I didn't play. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Not only did I pick several upsets, (ie, Duke.) but my Final Four is THE final four. SIGH! Hopefully, UCLA doesn't shock everyone and beat Ohio St in the final! Because, that would REALLY annoy me!

Maybe I should consider playing Powerball after all!

Greetings from Beautiful Nagrond!

What's in a name?

I'm very interested in the connection between names and identity. Why, for example, did I choose “LRNs” as my screen name? Why is my sister's blog name “Cat's?” And then there's my college roommate who named himself “nothingknew.” Each name has a history or a reason. Nothingknew seems simple. It connects with his blog name “There Is Nothing New Under The Sun: and I Aim To Prove It.”

Names have power:

The Hebrews do not say the name of God. The characters in the fantasy books “EarthSea” have two names: their name and their true name. If you know someone's true name, you have power over them. Perhaps that's why a number of bloggers and online people don't use their real name.

Masks create a new identity:

Online I am known as LRNs and as Beroth. In some ways those names are like masks enabling me to be someone else. Bruce Wayne took on the persona of the Batman. This enabled him to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies and to protect his real life from his enemies.

Who is LRNs? The history of a name.

If you're still with me, great! I would have tuned out by now. The story of LRNs is actually kind of interesting. It all started with a really long movie: Lawrence of Arabia. My best friend (and sometimes girlfriend) in high school took me to a reshowing once. I was hooked from that moment on. The idea of not fitting in, but suddenly being transformed into a “hero” connected with me. probably connected with a lot of 16 year old boys (who actually sat through the movie.) The character has survived with me to this day by becoming one of my signature D&D characters and eventually LRNs, my simple screen name.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the bonus post from the man with insomnia.

My three basic principles

Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. - Allen Saunders

A few years ago I started working on a personal code. So far this code has three basic principles.

Acknowledge, move on!

The chosen name for this blog and essentially my own personal serenity prayer. Oddly, the statement itself is a throwaway line from an old 80's cop movie. The movie name and the scene is completely lost to me, but the concept isn't. It's about recognizing your past, but not dwelling in it. It's about understanding grief and loss, but also moving forward. It's not an easy thing. My current health issues are a perfect example. In many ways I'm grieving the “old” me, but I'm also moving forward with hope for the future.

In all things Balance!

This is a concept I got from my Frisbee golf days during that short stint in seminary. We all wrote bible verses on our Frisbees. Mine was from the Song of Solomon, 11.1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. Over the years, this phrase has stuck with me as a source of incite into my own life. Now, with my medical problems, I have to have “balanced” amount of physical activity. Too little or too much both trigger fibromyalgic episodes. Yet, the concept of maintaining a balanced life goes beyond that. It touches work and personal life, responsibly and play, eating right and enjoying something naughty, following the rules and bending them. It is a state of personal “perfection” for which I daily strive. Balance.

Seek a just and equitable society.

This is the culmination of a personal faith journey. Raised a Lutheran and constantly struggling with the complete failure of most doctrinal teachings to show me how or why God would still leave a chance for failure after giving up his only son, but cautious about the heretical option of Universalism, I applied acknowledge and move on! I moved on to seeking a just and equitable society. I trust God to take care of the rest. For a full treatment on this topic, see my post This I believe.

Something funny & Blog etiquette

OK, so what do you do if you see something on someone's blog that you want to share? Link it directly? Give them a shout-out? Just link the thing? Well, my good friend and old college roommate links some great stuff (between pictures of his bathroom remodel.)

Did you see the SNL opening with Chris Rock? Funny commentary on the Presidential race...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1RlVtsAvKfs

And here's your shout-out...
Found when reading Nothing New

Blog Updates

On the advice of a friend and to keep from going insane this week, I went ahead and started making some changes to my blog.

Subscriptions:

I added a feedburner feed and an email subscription option (see them on the right!) This will allow you to follow along without having to constantly check the site. Why? Well, I simply don't publish everyday. But please come to the actual site from time to time. I am working on the layout and content too!

Understanding my symptoms

The following is an email I wrote today to some friends.

Good morning. I'm home, unfortunately. I'm hoping that today is a "recovery" day. We shall see. Yesterday, I clicked on my first google ad in gmail. It was a link to a company that specializes in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue. Anyway, I know that both of you "chronically healthy" people have questions. The page I'm linking is the symptom page. I hope that this will help you understand a little more.

Symptoms

I've had every symptom under the Fibromyalgia heading and most of the symptoms under the Chronic Fatigue heading. My answer is "yes" to all the questions in the "ask yourself a few questions" section.

Below is a list of my major symptoms listed with a 1-10 scale (10 worst)

Symptoms - Today - Worst this Month - Worst this Year
Fatigue - 5 - 10 - 10
Fog - 5 - 10 - 10
Headaches - 3 - 10 - 10
Muscle pain - 2 - 6 - 8
Body aches - 4 - 8 - 8
Insomnia - 3 - 8 - 10
Irritable bowel - 3 - 6 - 8
Multiple reoccurring infections - 1 - 8 - 10

You can't weigh these equally. I can deal more with a high score in aches than a high score in fatigue or headaches. Fog is the most benign sounding and yet one of the worst symptoms. Try cooking, driving or multitasking when you can't focus and forget what you are doing. I'm wondering how coherent this message really is.

I would say that overall today I'm feeling like a 4. I'm nearly functional. If it weren't for the fact that I felt like an 8 yesterday, I might have tried work today.

Treatment? No two people respond to treatment the same. I've found stories about people who have been diagnosed that lead completely normal lives. I've met people who are on long-term disability and collecting government benefits. I'm somewhere in the middle.

World of Warcraft Commercial...or is it?

OK, you all know I'm a huge World of Warcraft fan. Heck, even the wife loves it. There are a lot of jokes about Warcraft players. Have you seen this video?

Funny

Enjoy!

The clogged ear

It seems like I can't win. I've decided that it's the ear. It's always clogged and it sucks! The body is an amazing thing. It all works together some harmoniously and falls apart with equal disharmony.

My main to issues are neurological and sinus in nature. Often the sinus problems aggravate the neurological problems. And with equal frequency, the neurological ones seem to mimic sinus problems. Since both are hitting me all the time, it's impossible to know if a treatment is having any real affect until I feel better. Then I ask myself, was it the meds or the time?

Anyway, this week is all about the sinuses. My sinus passages are clogged, my left ear is clogged, I've got phlegm to spare and it's giving me fibromyaliga symptoms: fatigue, focus problems and body pain. I'm not sure which I prefer, this or the migraines!

Well, health post or rant? Sigh!

Hypocrisy Rant

Let's take a moment to recognize the hypocrisy and evil of Ann Coulter.

If you didn't hear (and I'm not going to bother linking it) she made a "joke" in a recent speech. But it wasn't a joke, it was a bigoted slur. She called John Edwards a "Faggot." Why? Who knows what's going on in that insane, self-promoting head of hers. The point is that we should ALL be offended.

There is some debate on the actual connection of the epithet Faggot to actual "stacks of wood" but in this case thought forms reality. Anyone who's taken the time to consider this word, even in casual conversation, has probably made this connection. It doesn't matter if you relate the term to burning homosexuals at the stake in medieval England OR if you sing about it's connection to the Nazi Holocaust (Indigo Girls, This Train.) The bottom line is that the term is EVIL! Not just a slur, but EVIL!

I don't care what your actual position is on homosexuality. No one, especially not a Christian, should be using a term of evil. It is wrong. She is wrong.

And my rant is over...

Fun with Feather Fall

If you have a horde mage (like Narah, my bloodelf) you too can feather fall onto the big rock formations in thousand needles and take a screen shot!

My alter-ego

Well, here he is, Beroth. He's my lvl 65 night elf hunter. The grind to lvl 70 continues. I'm distracted by general life and the fact that I'm playing two other alts with my friends.

Last year, my friends and I started our own guilds "Ordo Serpentus" for our Alliance toons and "Dark Serpent" for our Horde. We collectively call it "United Serpents."

Recently, Aynd (not his real name) got all our Aliance mains into a raiding guild called Entropy Dawn. The only problem was the fact that the new expansion came out. So, the push to level 70 started. Until I hit it, no raiding for me.

If none of that made sense to you, don't worry about it. Just know that it's fun. More screen shots to follow.

This I believe

I am a NPR listener. Are you? Anyway, one of the best features is the This I Believe series. If you've never heard it, you should. Anyway, it inspired me to consider my own beliefs. I wrote this several months ago, but I figured it was a good kick-off to the faith portion of the blog.

My statement of faith & purpose

The following is my statement of my faith. As I grow, it has grown. You, the reader should know that this statement does not focus on salvation. In my journey I have learned to focus on something my father calls the “penultimate.” I am, right or wrong, focused on the sanctification of God’s creation. The following statements are both my inspiration and my conclusions. You may ask yourself why I choose to ignore the question of salvation. I have not. Instead, I am comfortable that the answer has already been given. Call it faith! But, I digress…

I believe in Jesus and in the redeeming power of his resurrection. Yet in a world of conflicting ideologies and polarizing diatribes, I fear that this simple phrase says little. For this reason, I have adopted the following concepts as my fundamental truths.

I believe in Justification by Grace through Faith. (Romans 5: 1-2) Through Christ’s sacrifice God has intervened on the world’s behalf against our infidelities, our hate, our fears, our wars, our poverty, our hunger, our gluttony. We are made whole even in the face of all these things. We are forgiven! My faith in this forgiveness empowers me to share grace with others.

I believe that all Law hinges on Grace. (Matt 22: 34-40) Christ said that we are to love God and our neighbor with all our heart. He also said that the law hinges on these two things. Some may argue that this is an over-simplification of the Ten Commandments. That is not the case. This is a test for all laws both from God and of humanity. A religious law that does not conform to this simple idea should not be followed. A human law that does not conform to this simple idea should be challenged.

I believe that Christians should seek a Just and Equitable Society. If we believe that we are saved and we believe that laws should stem from love for God and humanity, then I conclude that we have a fundamental responsibility to sanctify that which God holds most dear. God holds us most dear! As God’s creation, all of humanity is sacred. If that is so, then we are all equal under God. We are not, sadly, equal in our society. If a human law does not show love for our neighbor then it is not equitable. If a human law does not show compassion for our enemy then it is not just.

These principles are the ones that I strive to live by. They are the ones that I use to consider what I hear from the pulpit and what I see coming from our political leaders. Too often I see society creating rules to punish and segregate. I hear the name of Christ used to condemn or dismiss. My faith tells me to look for justice tempered with compassion. I remember Christ saying to love your enemy. (Matt 5:43-48) An eye for an eye is not justice; it is vengeance. This is not the way of Chris. Instead, Christ warns us that those who live by the sword die by it.

In these principles I find Christ and it is with him that my faith, my trust and my hope lies. This is what I believe.

Fresh Start

Welcome to the re-start of my blog. I've been thinking about it for a while. A good friend recently started blogging. Nothing New

I'm not officially publishing this blog. Rather, I need a place to journal my thoughts and share them with friends and family.

About Me:
Who am I? I'm a 30-something guy stuck in the rat-race. I suspect that my wife "Slick" and dog "the Moose" will be mentioned often in this blog. They are a huge part of who I am. I'm also a man of faith, a huge fan of science fiction, a bleeding heart liberal and a really bad artist.

Blog Topics:

My Health
Over the last few years, in addition to chronic seasonal allergies, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Migraines. This was the primary topic of Acknowledge...Move on! "1.0" And it will be a major one moving forward. Most recently, I spent 3 weeks on short term disability with 1 persistent migraine.

My Spiritual Journey
Over the last few weeks, I've skipped church a lot. Sundays have become a day of rest and recovery. I'm working hard at finding a balance between my "needs" and responsibilities. I'm not really missing it. I'm not saying I've lost faith. Anyway, more on this to follow.

World of Warcraft
If you've never heard of it, World of Warcraft is the best MMORPG around. Slick and I both play. It's insanely addictive, but it also has some seriously good qualities. Because it's a "group" online game, it allows us to socialize with our friends across hundreds of mile on an almost daily basis.

Rant
Here's where I get to comment on just about anything. Expect me to spend lots of time here on intolerance. I'll complain about people who are narrow-minded, but I'll also try to challenge my own hypocrisy.

General Topics
Ah yes, the catch-all topic. If it doesn't fit in any of the above topics...