Author Archives: andy

Standing in the Middle

Title: Standing in the Middle

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FADE IN:

EXT. THE STEEPLE – MORNING

JONATHAN slowly walks across the grass toward the front entranceway of The Steeple as a late fall mist floats softly to the ground.

JONATHAN (V.O.)

(inner thoughts)

Almost late again...

INT. THE STEEPLE – MORNING

Jonathan steps inside the front doors of The Steeple and is unexpectedly greeted by a smiling KOBE amongst a crowd of youth.

KOBE

(shakes hands with Jonathan)

Hey--

JONATHAN (V.O.)

(inner thoughts)

Are we friends now? Or...

Jonathan slips past the crowd and grabs a drink of water from a nearby drinking fountain. Jonathan soon finds himself included in another group when NIKO turns to Jonathan.

NIKO

(ever smiling)

How’s it going, Jonathan?

JONATHAN

Oh, same as usual; how are you?

NIKO

(still smiling)

I’m doing alright;

The conversation continues for a while until Niko begins to motion toward MR ANGEL.

NIKO

Hey, this is Mr Angel’s last week before he moves... so you should probably talk or something before he leaves. Maybe we can have dinner this week or something?

JONATHAN

It’s already that time? Yeah, that’d be cool;

Jonathan eventually walks over to catch up with Mr Angel... and soon the SAILOR joins the conversation. Jonathan ends up facing toward the dining room where a studious Willow and others can be seen hanging out at the dining room tables.

MR ANGEL

So, yeah, I’m just trying to get everything sold before I leave, you know?

SAILOR

Hey guys. Yeah, I know what you mean...

The four continue to chat for a while and the conversation eventually ends up on the topic of technology.

MR ANGEL

It’s like those new 4Ks, right? 4,000 dollars, ha ha ha!

SAILOR

Oh yeah;

Mr Angel looks over at the Sailor with a smile.

MR ANGEL

You like those 4Ks, too?

The Sailor pauses for a moment...

SAILOR

Nah, you know, I’m just not a tech guy...

MR ANGEL

You were doing pretty well there for a while, though, ha ha!

SAILOR

I know, I just had to keep hangin’...

The conversation eventually begins to die down as Mr Angel and Niko take off. Jonathan walks over to the entrance of The Assembly, where the meeting in The Steeple is taking place.

JONATHAN (V.O.)

(inner thoughts)

I’m so late now, though... I wonder if I should even go inside...

Jonathan stands outside the doors of The Assembly, glances at his phone, and begins to listen to the Father’s voice drifting from The Assembly to his right while conversations from the dining room echo to his left. The sound of affected accents fill the dining room as XI SHI and FOLLOWER happily play along.

JONATHAN (V.O.)

(inner thoughts)

Wait, how did I get trapped in this hallway corner? If I leave now, the Father will see me leave... and if I walk past the dining room, I’ll be seen by Xi Shi and the others. So awkward; standing in the middle.

Online Dev

As much as I hate to talk about tech/programming… just wanted to note that I’ve been using Nitrous.IO to develop a Rails application for a database class… and it’s been great! Nitrous.IO is some sort of virtualized server/IDE for developing applications via a web browser; pretty convenient!

But, as for anything, I’m not sure if I’d be willing to use this type of service for more than anything non-essential (because of questions related to overall security, reliability, and backup plans…) but I can definitely see browser-based coding becoming the way people develop web and mobile applications in the near future.

The local machine, no longer.

From November

11/22/06
I have all of this “stuff” I don’t really want or need. It’d be nice to be able to run away from books, CDs, computers and just live in a little fort outside and listen to the rain fall overhead.

Music and Memories

Isn’t it interesting how music can evoke memories of the past? Lately I’ve been thinking about the possibilities of using music to store information in the mind. I’m not sure how this could actually be done, though, and music might work better for memories or feelings instead of non-emotional data. It’d probably make studying for tests a lot easier, though!

Money and Leprosy

Woke up around 4:00 AM, for some reason… probably from not having had enough water. Went back to sleep hours later… and was able to remember some of my dreams.

I had a dream where I was walking around some city and randomly began to notice some dropped, folded-up money on some nearby park benches. Altogether, it came to a total of one or two-thousand dollars! It was so unbelievable! But I wanted to keep the money for myself (without even trying to return the money to some sort of authorities.) I eventually realized, though, that I would probably have to write this down as some sort of income for my taxes… were I to keep it. Later in the dream I started giving away some of the money to help a friend do whatever it was he needed to do. But my initial reaction reminds me of how greedy and self-centered I yet am, inside. I don’t want to be like that, though… money is not worth the focus of my attention or my excitement.

Later on (in the dream) I was at some sort of Catholic convention or gathering in whatever city I had been visiting. There was this one older, middle-aged lady there who was in the same room as myself, and she had leprosy. At some point, I was introduced to this lady by someone else… and I had to shake her hand. I reluctantly shook her hand… thinking that I might get leprosy in some way, simply by being around her during my stay. After thinking about this dream, though, I’m reminded of how I hesitated before shaking the lady’s hand; how selfish I am in trying to avoid “unclean” people.

I think I failed both tests.

That Jealous Balance

(On Jealousy and Relationships)
I wish I knew where to draw the line between having a healthy jealousy and having an obsessive jealousy for someone else.

When it comes to having a healthy jealousy (or having a “normal relationship”, for that matter,) one might think of the old adage: “If you love somebody, set them free.” It seems like this idea that one should both “care” yet “not care” for a loved one has quickly become ever more socially acceptable (at least in the United States.) If one cares “too much” for one’s significant other, it may be a sign of further, underlying issues at work. But on the other hand, if one does not give love, time and attention to one’s significant other, the relationship may become hard to maintain. Is there any middle ground, here? Is there any way to care for a loved one while still maintaining a healthy level of jealousy?

When it comes to having an obsessive jealousy, one might be tempted to think of the relationship between G-d and the Israelites. The jealousy of G-d is a curious thing. When reading Exodus 20:5 or Deuteronomy 6:15, one word for jealousy (“qanna“) can be found (and this is just a superficial look at the meanings that accompany and make up the word “qanna”.) This word “qanna” is interesting in that it appears [1] to also translate to the word “zealous”… which (in English, at least,) can also be interpreted as a good thing, depending on the context. Is there any middle ground, here, as well? It would seem that there could be a way to be jealous (zealous) without obsession.

I suppose this balance between healthy and obsessive jealousy has something to do with trust… and, perhaps, not putting one’s every hope, whim, and concern into a loved one. Still, I wish I knew how to find that jealous balance…

1. Skip Moen, “Till Death Do Us Part”, Hebrew Word Study, October 12th, 2012.

Consolidation

Been working on consolidating the different branches of this website into one “easy to navigate” collection. Not sure if that “easy to navigate” part has happened yet… but at least the sites have a common navigation bar at the top (kind of like all those other websites on the Internet…) so that it’s at least a little harder to get lost when browsing the sites.

At the same time, I’ve been trying to add more detail to entries in the Music Scrapbook so that I can then automatically pull information from the Scrapbook for display on the main website. Trying to reduce the number of times I repeat myself… and maybe it’ll work out this time…

Still Waters

A few days late… and a few dollars short… but the Christmas Gift for 2012 was finally finished around the 1st of this new year. Good timing, eh…? I’ll try harder next year… like a good rover should!

Anyway, if you’d like to hear (or download) the songs for the “Still Waters” album (also known as the “Christmas Gift 2012” album…) here is the album link:

still-waters-cover
Still Waters Album Booklet

Thanks for listening!
And I hope you have a good new year!