He who has a “why” to live, can bear with almost any “how.”

So true, both on the grand scale of things and on an individual event-by-event basis. Keep that “why” in focus and you’ll be set.

We also went to Zion National Park for dinner on Friday, which was nice. Except the power was out at the lodge, so we were going to have to make do with cold sandwiches, but then a few minutes later it came back on again and I had some nice tilapia. I should also mention that we accidentally locked our keys in the van while there. Had to call in a park ranger to get us out. (It was the first time I’d seen someone do the whole wire-through-the-window thing, to tell the truth, and it was very cool.)

Anyway, the trip was fun and I enjoyed myself, but I’m also glad to be back. I’m somewhat of a homebody, I think. :) And yet I also think the travel bug has bit me, and now I’m itching at the bit to plan out some other trip this summer, somewhere. It doesn’t really matter where, even. So, any recommendations on cheap travel destinations that aren’t incredibly boring? :P

One is from an interview McKinsey Quarterly recently did with Brad Bird of Pixar. Brad said, “The first step in achieving the impossible is believing that the impossible can be achieved. You don’t play it safe — you do something that scares you, that’s at the edge of your capabilities, where you might fail. That’s what gets you up in the morning.” Mmm.

The second is from Dennis Rasmussen’s book The Lord’s Question, page 88: “Men can become unable to tell a want from a need. There are forces in this civilization that for their own profit try to create wants and keep the desire for material things at fever pitch. Always they have something new to offer. They seek to maintain in people a continual state of discontent, and utter inability to be happy.”

P.S. Sorry about the comments being whacked out on here the last few days. I made a change to the theme and it was working fine on my home computer, but when I checked it from a lab computer here on campus, all the comments on each post were conflated into a single typographic blob. It looked kind of cool but was rather hard to read. :) Anyway, it’s fixed now.

What I think it means by fulness is something a little different. It’s like a painting: you start out with broad swashes of color, getting the composition of the piece down, putting the basic elements into place, and then you start adding in more and more details. And eventually you end up with a finished painting.

When we say the fulness of the gospel, I believe we’re talking about those big paintstrokes. We’ve got the overall picture, the outline, the skeleton — the plan of salvation. And that’s something that nobody else really has, honestly. The core elements — who we are, why we’re here, where we’re going, how God communicates with us, how we represent God here on earth, and so on — are all there.

But what we don’t have yet are all the details. We have some, yes, and in some areas we even have quite a good picture (we think), but I wouldn’t be too surprised to get to the next life and find that we’ve been working with a simplified model here on earth, and that the real thing is even more amazing than we ever realized. (Which isn’t to say that what we’ve been given thus far is any less true, by the way. It’s just milk before meat.)

I suppose it bothers some people that we don’t know everything yet. If this really is the true and living church of Jesus Christ on the earth, then how can God leave us in the dark, right? If there are things we don’t yet know, questions we don’t have answers for, then…well, doesn’t that mean the Church isn’t true after all?

Not for me. I like having a living church. A changing church. But one changed by God, not by men, and that’s a big difference. :) And this is just me, but in all honesty I love not having all the answers. In some ways life is a big cliffhanger, and that’s exciting because it means there’s a resolution coming in the next act. It’ll be good. :) (I think we do have the answers we need to deal with life, though. We may not understand everything that happens, but we know that we can rely on Christ, and we know that the Spirit will tell us what we should do. That’s enough for me.)

Spring makes me want to roll down a grassy hill, lie on my back and watch clouds sail by, sit on the bank of a river while a fresh breeze dances around me. It’s times like these when I regret the modernization of man; why on earth did we have to become inside-dwellers? Sure, there are a few problems with living out of doors — skin cancer, the elements, etc. — but you can work around them.

I’ve got an odd mix of longing for both the country and the city, I’ve found. I love the busyness of the city, people walking around like ants, shops on every corner, so much to see, so much story potential. And this is admittedly a little weird, but I’m in love with the smell of exhaust fumes as I walk down University Avenue — reminds me of my mission in Bangkok.

But at the same time there’s a very pastoral part of me, absolutely in love with the country. And the quiet. And nature — far, far away from all of man’s industrial creations, out there with wide open spaces and green green grass and apple trees and brooklets and hills and valleys. Mmm. Spring reminds me that there’s a wonderful world out there that isn’t man-made. It’s God-made, and it’s good.

Anyway, I’m realizing perhaps a little too late that I prefer longer hair. (By “longer” I mean around three inches. Yeah, it’s all relative. :)) Short hair is nice, but my head seems to need longer hair. Not to mention the whole frenzied artist image I’m trying to portray. ;)

This same cousin also took my phone and started texting girls in my phonebook, asking “will you go out with me”. Luckily I realized this before she’d gotten too far with it, and luckily I’m usually a stickler for punctuation and such in text messages, so most of the girls who got them could sort of tell it wasn’t me by the lack of the question mark. Now I’m glad I punctuate — though it is tempting to just let go. And it’s faster. But punctuation has apparently become my signature, so I’d better keep it up. (I’m just glad she didn’t text any of my married friends. Can we say “awkward”? :P)

It’s running off a zenphoto installation, rethemed to fit the look, of course. And I’m pleased. Zenphoto’s very nice to work with.

Anyway, take a look around, feel free to leave comments if you want. And if you notice something that doesn’t seem to be working, let me know. :)

I love fonts. :)

Speaking of which, I’m thinking of biting the bullet and buying Sabon. Fonts seem so expensive, but I guess that’s just the way things are.

One of these days I need to start designing my own, probably with FontForge for starters.

If you like fonts and you like the web, be sure to check out The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web (Bringhurst on the web, basically).

1. The list matters, but synergy matters more. What I mean is that it’s not just about the person’s qualifications — it’s about the sum of all the parts, both on paper and in person. In reading resumes I try to look beyond the bullet points and see the person as a whole, since I’m not hiring a bullet point. Similarly, with dating it’s not about how good the person looks on paper, because let’s face it, lots of people do. Sometimes the right person isn’t the one who’s got every single bullet point on your list. (Good quote from Henry B. Eyring here: “Don’t set your standards so high you walk past the person the Lord would make perfect for you.”)

2. They’ve got to fit in. No man is an island, and employees generally don’t work in a bubble. (Okay, this doesn’t apply to all jobs. Sorry.) Not only do they need to be as qualified as possible, but they also need to fit in with you as an employer, with the other employees, and with the work environment. Someone who’s qualified but doesn’t fit in isn’t as hirable as someone who’s not quite as qualified but does fit in. And in dating it’s not just about the list, it’s about how well you work together, how well you fit as a couple. In a word, chemistry.

3. GPA doesn’t matter. That’s all. I mean, if someone had an abysmally low GPA, then maybe I’d think twice about it, but for the most part I don’t care what the person’s GPA was. Same in dating. Maybe this is because of my own outlook on school, though. :P

4. Overeager is a turnoff. There’s a fine line between being passionate and being desperate, and you do not want to cross it. I’m not entirely sure why this is, and it doesn’t really make sense to me, but it’s real. The dating application is obvious.

5. Cover letters help a lot. While this is definitely true with hiring — I think my decision on whether to interview someone is based more on their cover letter than on their resume — I have no idea how it applies to dating. :P (At least I’ve never gotten a cover letter from a girl wanting to date me. Oh, wait, I take that back. I got one a few weeks ago. And I got one last night from a guy who wanted me to date his sister.)

6. It’s hard turning people away. Inevitably there are going to be people you don’t end up hiring, and it hurts a little to reject them. But that’s just the nature of the game. You do the best you can to soften the blow, and then you move on. Same with dating — you can’t marry everyone, after all.

One last observation: being single myself, I try hard to keep my own personal interests out of the equation. It is really tempting to hire just attractive single females, but I make a conscious effort to focus on the other qualities that do matter as far as getting the job done and such. Before I found myself having to hire people, I never even thought about this being an issue, but it’s a real one.

You see, movies are (on average) two hours long. The film may take place over a longer period of time — a lifetime, even — but you’re still watching a relationship develop in a fast real-world timeframe. And even if you were to stretch it out somehow, it still wouldn’t mirror real life exactly — movies are concoctions, imaginative journeys, often the way we wish things were rather than how they really are. (The same applies to books, of course.)

I don’t think this is a problem in and of itself, but when your idea of love is based almost entirely on what you’ve seen in movies and read in books, somehow I have a feeling you’re going to be at least a little disappointed when reality confronts you. Most of the time life is not like the movies. And if you’ve got a relationship that blossoms within a mere two hours, you might want to slow down a little and do a reality check. :)

What other ways do movies and books adversely influence us? (And spinning the coin around, what good things come out of it?)