The Prodigal Blog

Haven’t reviewed a book in a while. So a miracle has happened and I have indeed finished a book and feel good enough about it to actually write something concerning it. Most of the time, when I finish reading a book I usually don’t have a strong compulsion to want to tell people to go out and read it right away. This however is not the case with “Wrestling With An Angel”. This book by author Greg Lucas has become one of the touchstone books of my life. I don’t think I am saying that too lightly. Greg Lucas operates a blog that I was pointed to by Jason Chang (hat tip engage). Gauging from how I responded to reading some entries in his blog, I clearly recall telling Susan right before I started reading, “Susan, I think this book is going to ruin me.” Wrestling With an Angel is a collection of short essays that Lucas has written, recounting experiences he and his family have with his mentally handicapped son. In humorous, heart wrenching, and pride crushing honesty, Lucas recounts

Hello. Writing in from lovely Minneapolis, MN. We've all arrived safely and I am currently sitting in the hotel room. Gotta say upfront that my roommate is a bit on the eccentric side. Oh well. Anywho, I'm going to go ahead and recount some of the events of the day so that my future self might actually remember what happened to past self. Travis spent the night. I didn't sleep too well, got up at 6am, and off to the airport. By the way, I've never really traveled within the continental US that much so this was kind of a new thing for me. Anyways, got a bit turned around within John Wayne Airport. Eventually things righted themselves, or I did, one or the other. Found Ivan, ate McDonalds, jumped on the plane, and a few hours later we found ourselves in Denver, CO. I wish I had taken a picture of some things that I saw while we were in the confines of the airport, but suffice to say that I was having a good time. Signs about tornado shelters and franchise stores that I ha

So remember that blog post from a couple days ago. That same thing basically happened again today. Except probably a bit worst since my grandmother and myself suffered some injuries. I am a tangled mess of frustration this morning. Waking up to basically a physical fight is taking a toll on me. On this morning. It is with tears that I say that I am thankful that the Lord is compassionate, even on me. It is an impressive and overwhelming statement to make to say that the Lord is compassionate and slow to anger. This morning I was the opposite of those characteristics, and in short order as well. I can't believe how patient, slow to anger, and compassionate God is to us. It is easy to be compassionate for those who have a sense of themselves. Those who can see the errors of their ways and who we perceive as being people who can 'get better'. But I perceive no such future sometimes with my brother and that weaves tangled webs of frustration, bitterness, depression. Oh how I we

This morning I realized yet again the far reaching consequences of my somewhat unorthodox upbringing. My brother got up out of bed and then proceeded to not listen to anyone about anything and decided that the best position he could be in would be a ball on the floor. This poses a problem for myself, my sister, and my grandmother since my grandmother usually has been taking him to day care. We're all usually on a schedule so there isn't always the luxury of waiting for him to decide he's ready to do something. Sometimes we just have to push him out the door and into the car. That's probably the least fun thing you can do with my brother. As I tried to coax him onto his feet he reached out to strike/scratch my hand. This provoked a response from me that I would describe as somewhere between anger and rage. I reprimanded him for trying to hit me and then we got him down the stairs. He tried to strike my face. And again later my arm. As my grandmother drove away I am fille

Hey Everyone, Just writing to let ya'll know that we recording an new, eclectic episode of Prodigal Radio. Keep an eye on ProdigalRadio.com for updates. The task of post production is quite daunting...I'll see you on the other side. Oh nut - also, here's a PSA for gamers out there: Ever play the Mechwarrior series of games? Well, Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries has recently been released for free download at mektek.net. I'm pretty sure that their site is still down from being massively overrun by the nerd masses, the best I can help you with is to either locate the .torrent of the files, or find me, I have the files on my trusty usb stick. That is all. :) -jr

Today after the youth led service (which by the way, the young folk did very well) we assisted with setting up the rummage sale. And well...I'll try and show you the rest...

I just got home from picking my aunt up at John Wayne Airport in Costa Mesa. Her flight was scheduled to arrive at 10:50pm; I arrived 30 minutes early just in case. I've never picked anyone up at that particular airport before, so I was somewhat bewildered and dazed beyond what might be normal for me. I walked around, checked the flight information, and then made my way to a bench off to the side of the more trafficked parts of the airport. That is to say that I was not hidden from view, merely on the fringes of the main thoroughfares. I sat down, and instinctively pulled out my phone to thumb through the cheap games that come bundled in with any phone that is not intelligent enough to be considered a 'smartphone'. After failing in Snake3 for the third time, a strange thought came to my mind. "Why am I so instinctively interested in appearing busy?" I returned my phone to my pants pocket, said a prayer, and looked up and out. Someone had taken a seat on the same b

The Consumerist posted some links to the Health Care Reform bill that is passing through the halls of our government. Honestly its very difficult to pay attention, or even want to, when the public dialog around health care reform is so polarized. So, I went ahead to take a look at the source material that's generating the controversy. Oh snap. It's 2,409 pages...I'm making these notes based the summarized version from the House Ways and Means Committee. Not noting everything, just things that strike me as interesting. CBO says that insurance coverage 32 million more people will be covered as a result of the legislation (95% of Americans) Will apparently reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over 10 years, $1.2 trillion in the following 10 years. Major tax cut for low and middle income Americans in the form of tax credits and cost-sharing assistance. Increases payments to primary care doctors in Medicaid. Provides new, free annual wellness visits, and eliminates out‐o

If you've been around me recently, you might have heard me babbling about making a podcast...well...we're doing it! No really. I think we're going to do it. Here's an unedited look at the creative process that we went through in naming the podcast. The place the mp3 is hosted is a temporary solution for now until we're able to come up with our own hosting solution for the mp3's. I'll be posting updates here on the progress of each episode as we're producing it. Hopefully in the future though we'll be migrating blogs to our new domain name ProdigalRadio.com. Anyways, here are some of the things to look forward to from the podcast: Unique takes and discussion on a wide range of topics including: news, music, games, movies, technology, Christianity, and Christian subcultures Musical guests and interviews Profile interviews with special guests that you may or may not know Let me know if you guys have any topic suggestions, ideas, or criticisms.

OK. Maybe it would be better to say that music can be dangerous. Let me preface this post by saying the following: 1. Music is not evil. 2. Me calling this a rant, isn't an attempt to escape genuine criticism. Fire away! 3. God has often used music to lift up my soul from the depths of indifference and sadness. 4. I believe that God uses music, and those who play it. So what exactly am I trying to get at then? I think I am trying to voice concerns about our Christian liturgical culture. Music has always been part of the worship of the people of God. Throughout time, and even into eternity we will not only be worshiping God with our hearts and our minds. But also with our singing and playing of instruments. The worship of God through music is printed throughout the entire bible. Consider the following: "David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps , lyres , tambourines , sistrums and cymbals ." 2 Samu

I am currently star struck. I don’t know when the last time was that I felt this way. I just saw two celebrities…in the flesh…and they interacted with me…answered my question…nay even signed my book. Honestly, I haven’t been at such a loss for words in sometime. I just met Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of PENNY ARCADE. Yeah. I know. Freaking awesome. That’s my assertion at least anyways. Don’t assume though that it was a raucous party. Because, well it was in a Barnes and Noble, and it was really just a book signing for their latest book. But still. Given their fame I’m surprised there weren’t more than the hundreds already there (ok there were maybe 100+ people there). They took questions from the gathered audience for an hour. I asked a question! They answered all sorts of questions. Mostly all heavy hitters: favorite game of all time, direction of the gaming industry, favorite novels of all time, who their romantic interests were in certain RPG’s, how they deal with games and

.../theprodigalblog.blogspot.com/ant start projects . . . start: Hi everyone just writing to post up some things I'm up to and that have been exciting me. . . warning: LOST starts in 3 hours. . . verbose: I've been a wee bit busy with work and a few side things... Went hiking around Chantry Flats and checked out the waterfall up there since the recent rains. Pretty awesome. [no photo found] Played through Mass Effect 2 (very fun, definitely makes it pretty high on my favorite games played list) . . . Projects: things I will be up to... . . verbose: So I've got a few things that are coming out of the factory of my mind that I'm thinking of wrangling down 1. Wanting to read more. I am going to read the following books, starting from left to right. From left to right...Love or Die, Crazy Love, The Prodigal God, a Shelter in the time of Storm The plan is to read these books by the end of March. None of them is particularly long. I will report back with the results...or not.