gRegorLove.com

More on wuv

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:31:28 -0400

In my last post I asked what it meant to you to be “in love” with someone. I said I would chime in with my thoughts, which I should have done sooner, but better late than never.

I have loved, but until recently I don't think I could say I've really been “in love.” I have loved strongly, and probably been close to being in love before, but I held myself back from it. That's another topic entirely, but suffice it to say, at least I learned from that experience and will hopefully avoid holding myself back again.

I believe love is a choice. As Doug commented, it's “seeking another's good.” I think being “in love” is a deeper connection, something within our soul or our spirit. When you're in love with someone, that person truly has a part of you, and will always have a part of you.

I think being in love means you can see things you may not like in a person, but still choose to be with them – with no intention of trying to change them. It is not rose-colored glasses. It is desiring the best for that person, above all else.

Love is patient and kind;
love does not envy or boast;
it is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.

– I Corinthians 13:4-7

Wuv, twue wuv

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:04:21 -0400

Open discussion post:

What does it mean to you to be “in love” with someone?

Do you use that term, and if so, what's the differentiation between loving someone and being in love with someone. For the sake of discussion, let's presume romantic interest / attraction – so we're not just comparing “I love my friends” to “I'm in love with my spouse”, per se.

No right or wrong answers, just had a chat on the topic so I figured I'd open a discussion post to get others' thoughts. I'll chime in with my own thoughts later.

Before and After

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 00:04:54 -0400

Before:

After:

They're both pretty great in their own ways. I'll leave it to you to decide which is better.

I'm alive

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 22:43:00 -0400

It's been exactly two months since I last wrote. I didn't plan it that way, that's something I just realized. It's been an... interesting summer for me. Interesting year.

I haven't given up on blogging, and I plan to blog some more soon. I already have a political philosophy post brewing in my mind. In the meantime, I figured I would give a brief update about myself.

Taking my should-be-final class (Physics) for my degree at IUPUI – much to the delight of some family members.
Taking some more serious steps at overcoming addictions.
Paying off my debt; I think I can be debt-free by the end of this year.
Working.
Dreaming.

I'm not too exciting in this post, I guess, but hopefully I'll get back into the swing of blogging. :)

Untitled

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 18:44:12 -0400

Curse this place
Fear never finding it again
Fear it will never let me go
Silence
Speaking loudly to my doubts
This does not matter to you anymore
Unsure exactly when that changed
Been a while
Sometimes it is so difficult to believe
The past mattered

– by gRegor Morrill

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Summer To-Do List

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 18:49:35 -0400

I borrowed the idea for this post from Rachelskirts:

Go camping at Cornerstone Festival – my 13th year there!
Finish reading the Harry Potter series – I'm on book 5 currently.
Re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Read some other good books (recommendations welcome).
Watch movies at the drive-in.
Make an app for that.
Eat corn on the cob.
See U2 in Chicago with Jenn.
Blog more regularly.
Play volleyball.
Visit Jeeves and Sarah in North Carolina.
Go to a water park.
Finish cleaning / re-arranging my office.
Walk a bunch of miles along the canal downtown.
__________________________________

Suspicionless Checkpoint

Tue, 26 May 2009 16:36:27 -0400

While listening to the Free Talk Live podcast from May 16 I was reminded of the horrible story of what happened to pastor Steven Anderson just a little over a month ago.

On April 14, Mr. Anderson was driving home from San Diego to Phoenix and was stopped at a suspicionless Border Patrol checkpoint about 75 miles east of Yuma on Interstate 8. Note, this is a checkpoint inside the United States, within 100 miles of the US/Mexico border. He declined to answer their questions or let them search his vehicle, invoking his Fourth Amendment rights. They insisted he go to secondary screening, where they brought out a dog and claimed it had alerted them there were drugs or a human in the trunk. Anderson said the dog did nothing and requested they bring the dog out again to show him the alert, but they refused.

Anderson was detained for over an hour until the Department of Public Saftey officers arrived. He again explained that the dog had done nothing. The DPS officer asked Border Patrol to bring the dog out again, but they still refused. Based on the word of the Border Patrol officers, the DPS officer said Anderson was under arrest “for failure to obey me, right now”. They warned Anderson to cover his eyes because there would be broken glass. He covered his face with his hands and leaned forward, the officers broke both the driver and passenger side windows in and shot him with two tasers. He tried to keep covering his face with his hands, but could not even control his arms because of the tasers. An officer grabbed his head and shoved it into the driver's side door where the window had just been broken out, pushing glass into his head. He was pulled out of the car, thrown on the ground, his head held down with an officer's foot, and was shot with more tasers. He was not physically resisting or fighting back at all. Finally, they handcuffed him and took him into one of the trailers, where he could see in a mirror that his face was covered with blood. He had to get eleven stitches.

Unsurprisingly, when they searched his car they found nothing. The dogs either falsely alerted, or the officers just lied about the dog alerting.

This much I have summarized from a couple videos which I recommend you watch below. The second one is actually from the car right as they break the windows and tase him. You won't really see much, but be warned that you do hear his screams of pain from the tasers and might be disturbed.

Under Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Martinez-Fuerte, apparently these type of checkpoints are permitted within 100 miles of an international border, as long as they're aimed at catching illegal immigrants or smugglers. Technically, based on Census data, 190 million Americans live within this 100 mile zone of our borders and coastlines, meaning nearly two-thirds of the population could essentially be denied their Fourth Amendment rights rather arbitrarily, just by driving somewhere.

My opinion is that this was ridiculous, violent behavior exercised against someone who was not violent or threatening violence against anyone. Furthermore, it's an obvious violation of his Fourth Amendment right to be secure in his person and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, particularly lacking a search warrant. There's more reading below if you are interested. The last link is actually an opposition article, critical of Anderson and his family because they are quite “right wing.” For me, while I know I disagree with the Anderson family on some political and spiritual matters, that does not change that what happened here is reprehensible.

Baptist pastor beaten + tazed by Border patrol - 11 stitches

ACTUAL FOOTAGE Pastor Beaten & Tased by Border Patrol & DPS

More reading

The camera is the new gun
Arizona DPS Delivers 'Service' With a Smile
Checkpoint Diego
Pastor Claims Abuse at Border Patrol Checkpoint on Interstate 8
Pastor Tased and “Beaten” at Checkpoint Plans to Sue; Admits He's Been Resisting at Checkpoints for Months
I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea...

Hurt

Wed, 20 May 2009 13:58:51 -0400

Everyone and their brother has (probably – hopefully) heard this cover / seen the video already, but I was just reminded of it yesterday.

It's flawless. Moves me every time.

Worn

Fri, 8 May 2009 21:49:34 -0400

I have been feeling pretty worn and heavy-hearted lately. There's just a lot of stuff going on, and I tend to empathize.

Sheryl's dad passed away in March. Now her brother is having some health issues and is in the hospital. Matt's mom has cancer again, and it's apparently stage 3 or 4. She's having surgery sometime this summer. A marriage is dealing with the repercussions of an affair, as well as the friends around them. There's other things I can't really go into, but those are some key examples. On top of that are my own battles with self, which is another post entirely.

Lately, it just seems like everytime someone turns around, something bad is happening. Most of the time they are things I cannot really do anything about – it feels helpless. I feel like I'm sometimes looked to – even if I cannot “do” anything – to be strong, at least. Not sure how well I'm doing at that. I just feel discouraged. I am weak. I am worn.

I have been reading through the Harry Potter series and it feels like there's a dementor around:

“Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can't see them. Get too near a dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soulless and evil. You'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.”

– Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

It's not to that extreme, thankfully, but I thought the analogy to current happenings was uncanny. I know that I am loved, and in that I have hope, even if it is often hard to see or grasp that hope. I am still trying.

Mystery trip

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:21:48 -0400

This past weekend I ventured out on a mystery trip that Myssi and Adam organized. I had no idea where we were going, just that we were to meet at 6pm on Friday and wouldn't be back until late Sunday night. There were seven of us, 5 guys and 2 girls. My initial guess was Chicago, but we soon got on the highway going south. After passing Louisville, I guessed we were going to Nashville.

The ride down was fun. Myssi and Adam play this game that the first person to get within a state “claims” that state. While driving, they both suddenly reach forward on the dashboard right as we crossed into Kentucky (Myssi got it). This happened suddenly and we had no clue in the backseat what was going on until they explained. As we approached the Tennessee border, Adam said he was going to pull over on the shoulder, get out, and run across the border because he was sure he could run faster than Myssi. We mocked them from the backseat, because they're both really competitive about... well, most things. Adam actually did pull over and I surprised both of them by getting out first and running like the wind, claiming Tennessee. They were surprised and we were quite amused.

We arrived at our hotel in Goodlettsville, not far from Nashville. They gave us the itinerary for the weekend, but they named things cleverly so we weren't really sure what we were doing. For example, dinner at “Krustellos” - Krystal, similar to White Castle (but better since they had chili dogs). After dinner we drove a few miles away and there was difficulty finding our next destination. We were supposed to go to a cemetary to tell scary stories, but apparently it didn't turn out to be a cemetary after all. Most of us were tired, so we just went back to the hotel.

Saturday morning we went to the Nashville zoo which was a pretty cool zoo. They have one of the coolest jungle gyms I've seen in a while - big enough for us big kids, too. Afterwards we went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch (it only seemed appropriate, being in Nashville). Then we went to Centennial Park, which is quite a beautiful park. There's a replica of the Parthenon there with a museum inside. We checked that out, then lazed around outside in the sun. The weather was beautiful, 70s and sunny. That night we went to Opryland which was pretty impressive. It's a combination of convention center, hotel, and lots of restaurants, shops, and gardens - all beneath a huge glass ceiling. We walked around there quite a bit, getting our exercise in.

Sunday we went to the Tennessee State Museum which had a lot of interesting information / exhibits from the Civil War era. Unfortunately, I was rather worn out by that point, so probably did not appreciate it as much as I could have. Finally, before heading home we stopped by Rocketown, a nice little venue / cafe started by Michael W Smith.

Thanks to Myssi and Adam for organizing such a fun trip!