Timothy - Dog Year

Memorable Melodies

Songs can define a generation.  On a smaller scale, they help define a year.  As the year winds down, below are my top ten songs that peaked in 2006.  Select the song title to see the music video.

1. "We are One Tonight" - Switchfoot
   Great video and message on the need for unity and forbearance in a world that often doesn't make sense.
2. "Breathe (2 AM)" - Anna Nalick
   Great song for the lonely, frustrated, and vulnerable among us.
3. "Unwritten" - Natasha Bedingfield
   Presenting a positive approach to how we view our personal future - with determination and excitement for what we don't yet know or see clearly.
4. "Walk Away" - Kelly Clarkson
   A simple request - if you're unwilling to commit to a relationship, just go away.
5. "Photograph" - Nickelback
   Ah, the power of photos to simultaneously evoke the past's sweetness and bitterness.
6. "Bad Day" - Daniel Powter
   We've all had them.  And for me, there seemed to have been more than usual in 2006.
7. "White and Nerdy" - Weird Al Yankovic
   One of most hilarious lyrics to any song, ever.
8. "Ain't No Other Man" - Christina Aguilera
   Nice dance tune and vocals.
9. "Dani California" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
   Despite the typical outrageous band video, this song revolves around the harsh and sad life of a poor girl.  And this tune may remind you of a certain TV show (based on Orange County...).
10. "You're Beautiful" - James Blunt
    Another angst-filled song about unrequited love.

Season's Quizzings

Christmas music.  We've all heard them.  Every year.  We're hearing them now probably.  But how closely are we paying attention to what they say?  Below are my favorite Christmas songs.  See if you can identify what song each line comes from.  No matter how many you get correct, happy holidays!

Christian Carols:

1. Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.
2. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
3. In your palace warm, mighty king
4. To save us all from Satan's power, when we were gone astray.
5. I played my best for Him
6. The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.
7. Son of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
8. Ox and ass before Him bow, and He is in the manger now
9. I love Thee, Lord Jesus; look down from the sky
10. That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear

Miscellaneous Songs

1. Mom says the hippo would eat me up but then, teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian
2. Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing
3. I don't need expensive things, they don't matter to me
4. Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more
5. There's a world outside your window, and it's a world of dread and fear
6. But if you'll really hold me tight, all the way home I'll be warm.
7. To face unafraid, the plans that we've made
8. May your days be merry and bright
9. Let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or two
10. And so I'm offering this simple phrase, to kids from one to ninety-two

Answer Key (or "I give up")

Catch a Falling Phrase

TV Land channel has come out with their top 100 TV catchphrases of all time.  It's a solid list covering decades of memorable shows and events (the scary part is that I know three-fourths of these phrases).

Given the restriction to 100, many catchphrases were left out.  So here are my supplemental 100 from past TV sitcoms, cartoons, commercials, news, and drama.  TV indeed has had a deep impact on my mind - it was very easy to come up with the items on this list.

Prayers that Avail Zilch

The most popular prayers are intercessory, petitionary, for other people.  It's right and necessary to pray for others, but what mindset or attitude do we have when we make such prayers?  If we ask for the following without the willingness to allow God to use us however He chooses in the situation, our prayers are ineffective at best.  Of course, I admit to making such hypocritical, lazy prayers myself many times - may God help us all be honest with ourselves and repentant with Him first and foremost.

• for God to bring someone back into your circle, when deep down you're celebrating your new freedom under that person's absence.
• for God to put joy and peace in a person's life, when you don't care that that you were the cause for the misery.
• for God to put discernment in a friend's decisions, when you continue to support every choice that person makes.
• for God to discipline a person, when you yourself refuse discipline and admonishment from others.
• for God to help make the person speak more directly, when you can't stop gossiping and criticizing the person with others.
• for God to help a person find a job, when you don't want to spend any time yourself helping with training and preparing (as best you can).
• for God to open up a person's heart to you on intimate matters, when you reveal only a partial picture of yourself with that person.
• for God to provide a friend of the opposite gender a suitable mate, when you've already ruled out yourself (assuming you're still single and haven't been turned down by that person) as a candidate because of self-made criteria.
• for a person to give over a problem area of life to God, when you excuse or even approve similar attitude/behavior in yourself or someone else.
• for a person to mature in God, when you know you yourself are even less mature and unwilling to grow.

<

This posting's title is not a typo.  "<" means "less than" and is a core operator in computer programming syntax.  On this day of giving thanks, it can express (1) that most of us are less than thankful for everything, and (2) like John the Baptist, we give thanks and all glory to God so that Jesus becomes greater while we become less.

To more fully express my thanksgiving list and thoughts, I chose to write the following code.  Computer programmers should have no problems understanding its logic; others will probably just need to study it a bit longer:

PRIVATE SUB CheckPulse(ByVal Me AS Person, ByVal Lifespan AS Integer)

DIM i AS Byte
DIM Thankful AS Integer=32767
DIM ThanksGod AS NEW ArrayList()

IF Me.Attitude<Thankful THEN

    Live(Me).Purpose = Me.ID
    Live(Me).Continue(FALSE)

ELSE

    FOR i=1 TO Lifespan
       ThanksGod.Add("God")
       ThanksGod.Add("Salvation through Christ")
       ThanksGod.Add("Bible")
       ThanksGod.Add("Heaven")
       ThanksGod.Add("Family")
       ThanksGod.Add("Health")
       ThanksGod.Add("New day")
       ThanksGod.Add("Trials")
       ThanksGod.Add("Daily food")
       ThanksGod.Add("Water")
       ThanksGod.Add("Nature")
       ThanksGod.Add("Art")
       ThanksGod.Add("Real friends")
       ThanksGod.Add("Income")
       ThanksGod.Add("House")
    NEXT
    Live(Me).Purpose = Know("God")
    Live(Me).Continue(TRUE)

END IF

END SUB

Dim Tim AS Person

CheckPulse (Tim, Session("TimLife"))

Triangulation is Evil

In a recent "team-building" workshop on stress at work, the facilitator discussed how one of the chief causes of interpersonal conflicts is triangulation, the involvement of a third-party person, object, or activity to serve as additional allies or distractions in conflicts.  It got me thinking, "what symptoms might real-life triangulation produce?"  Then it dawned on me that I needed to look no further than Galatians 5:19-21, the acts of the sinful nature, to know exactly what the answer is:

• Impurity - it all begins here, with a small seed.  Getting third parties involved makes things more, not less complicated.  What once was an open, direct, honest one-to-one communication line twists into a convoluted mess.
• Sexual immorality, orgies and debauchery - such symptoms need not be limited to sexual escapes, but any form of escape or desire for substitutes.  Things didn't work out with that other person?  Just go make friends with someone else more accepting or supportive of your position, or kill time in some mind-numbing work and activity.
• Idolatry and witchcraft - idolatry is a natural response when someone you respect or even find "heroic" lets you down or disappoints you.  So, you turn to alternative heroes and things to admire, worship, or prostitute yourself on.
• Drunkenness - what better way to complete the triangle than something that will numb you and help you forget all the pains and bitterness, even if only temporarily?
• Hatred - in triangulation, your confidant becomes your primary energy to fan the flames of your self-righteous indignation.  The more blindly supportive he/she is, the more justified you feel in hating your antagonist, and the more you treasure the confidant's "friendship."
• Discord, dissensions, factions - as the conflict becomes more complex and heated, mutual friends and acquaintances begin taking sides.  Battle lines are drawn, as the army on each side amass larger troops in a cold war.
• Fits of rage - reliving your past grievances of someone through another person more often than not aggravates old wounds and promptly prevents any possible healing.  And if someone you want to add to your triangle doesn't care to or even takes the other person's side, your blood boils.
• Selfish ambition - triangulation is all about ME - how good I can look in front of my friends in the conflict, and how bad I can make the other person look.  I'm right, he's wrong.  I need protection and space, he needs to back off.  I'm entitled to everything, he nothing.  I need to grow closer to God and my real friends, he needs to go get own life.
• Envy - if your "enemy" becomes more prosperous or gains more friends amid the conflict, triangulation leads you to believe, "God's just not fair."  You conclude that there's some universal conspiracy at work against you and for the other person, and you feel sapped of all motivation or purpose for living.

We all triangulate, because we are all sinners.  We have all sought to fulfill and please ourselves through the people and things of this world, rather than through God.  It took another form of triangle, the triune God, to break up the triangulations mankind has constructed with each other and with Him throughout history.  It is still left up to each individual to decide whether he or she wishes to lay claim to that freedom and victory.  Choose wisely, for nobody else can make this decision for you, not even your favorite person.  Sooner or later, all manmade triangles fall apart and fail their makers.

Too Early

With November come signs of the year's end.  Yet, not quite there.  Nonetheless, most of the following are already happening.  Some are too early because it's November, other ones will be too early for a long while, and a few will always be too early because the underlying truth will never change.

It is too early

• for any radio station to be playing Christmas music 24 hours a day
• for Ohio State University football fans to determine whom OSU will beat in January's national championship game
• for any politician (Democrat, Republican, Independent) to guarantee that he/she will carry through on any campaign promises
• for a film critic to declare what this year's best film is
• for meteorologists to know what the year's highest and lowest temperatures are
• for me to know how much monthly pension I'll collect every month after retirement
• for you to tell me that God has a special someone planned as my spouse in the future
• for either optimists or pessimists to tell each other, "I told you so"
• for anyone to believe that life is not worth living
• for God to do or allow anything not according to His timing

13

Oh no, it's Friday the 13th, in the month of Halloween!  What are we to do?  How about a list of 13 phobias most people aren't aware of -

• Bilinguaphobia: fear of speaking the wrong language to your intended audience.
• Caliphobia: fear of people too into themselves and their own little world.  Acute form is known as Losangelianphobia.
• Castephobia: fear of meeting family disapproval for dating someone outside your social class.
• Feefiefoefumphobia: fear of not marrying someone much bigger or stronger than you.
• Fengshuiphobia: fear of irrational requests to rearrange your lifestyle.
• Flatphobia: fear of wasting tons of money on a wrong choice between a plasma, LCD, or DLP TV.
• Gettaliphobia: fear of superstitious people.
• Kimchiphobia: fear of irregular sleep pattern and daytime fatigue from excessive addiction to long Korean dramas.
• Narcissphobia: fear of everything you read on a blog as being about you.
• Perraphobia: fear of women who are embarrassed to be seen alone with you.
• Phileophobia: fear of always being seen by the opposite gender as just a brother or common friend.
• Skindeephobia: fear of superficiality.
• Youvegotgossiphobia: fear of private emails being forwarded to other people.

Commercial Hits

TV commercials - never been a big fan of them.  They're loud and disruptive, and consequently I skip out on them whenever I can.  But the power of advertising is such that even I can't avoid watching, and liking, some of these commercials through the years.  From what I can remember, here are my favorite 15 American TV commercials, entertaining for their catch phrases, visual creativity, drama, or humor:

1. GEICO: soap opera
   A very typical-looking soap opera love triangle scene, from the warm lighting to the cheesy dialogue.  The hunk tells his girlfriend that he has great news, and she asks him if he's leaving Jessica.  He replies, fully serious, "No, I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance."  She cries and storms out of the scene, and he says, perplexed and hurt, perhaps the best line in commercial history: "I saved!  I thought that meant something to you."  Other great GEICO TV ads include "tiny room," a fake reality show trailer, and a spoof on Speed Racer.
2. Right Guard (deodorant stick): weightlifters and tigers
   Tom Green is generally too obnoxious for my liking, but even he can't ruin the accurate premise of this commercial.  A group of macho musclemen are calmly pumping their big irons, looking cool and hard.  Suddenly, tigers are released into their caged courtyard, and all these "men" instantly turn into crybabies and start trying to climb out.  For you ladies who want to hook up with tall, built guys for "security," here are your "hot guys" in the real world of God's food chain.  And these are just tigers - imagine how scared they'd be if they had to fend against 11 feet tall bears or 20 feet long crocs.
   
3. Wendy's: fluffy buns, aka "Where's the beef?" (1984)
   Thanks to Clara Peller and her two elderly buddies, we have one of the most famous catch phrases in recent decades.
   
4. AFLAC: duck
   Is it a duck or a goose?  Doesn't matter when it comes to this lively, endearing fowl on a mission.
   
5. Alka-Seltzer: spicy meatball (70s)
   A hilarious presentation of a scenario when the advertised product comes in handy.  Another famous catch phrase from this company is "I can't believe I ate the whole thing."
6. California Raisins: animation (1986)
   These cute characters did much to reintroduce to the world the wonders of claymation.
   
7. PBS: goldfish
   This inspiring commercial, ending in the line "Be More Empowered," is a fitting ad for educational broadcasting.
   
8. Hewlett-Packard:
   Multiple commercials worth mentioning, some for their innovative video effects (1, 2), and other ones for their "cute factor," including one where a guy wakes up to a big mastiff staring down at him on his bed.
9. Nike: seamless transitions
   This commercial introduced the first time the effect was used.  Switchfoot later used the same technique in their "We Are One" music video.
10. Partnership for a Drug-Free America: eggs
    Messages don't come across much more directly and simply than this public service announcement.
    
11. Bell: parents (70s)
    A sentimental commercial that made many people cry when it came out.
    
12. Energizer: rabbit
    Nice, cute parody commercials, but then too many were made in the series, when they just seemed to "keep going, and going, and going..."
    
13. Marines
    These commercials feature some of the most innovative 3D computer animation for their time.
    
14. Isuzu: Joe Isuzu
    Like the Energizer rabbit, this character starts wearing out after a while, but you have to admit that David Leisure makes a perfect pathological liar/car salesman.
    
15. Pepsi: Michael Jackson and the kids
    A classic example of how something that was the coolest for its time now looks totally dated.  Was this commercial when MJ began enjoying hanging out with the "New Generation"?
    

MA'AM

It's a club I wouldn't mind forming - I call it MA'AM, Men Against Assumed Manipulation.   Only men who have been falsely accused as manipulative need apply.  As a starting charter, perhaps I can include the following list.  While manipulation comes in many forms, I can say with certainty that nothing listed below equates to manipulation.  So, a man is not necessarily manipulative just because he

• knows something about you you didn't think he knew
• can argue more logically than you
• likes to pause and think before speaking
• doesn't always agree with you
• doesn't perform in front of your friends as you like
• admonishes you
• is merely sarcastic
• doesn't tell you everything about himself
• seeks clarification on an issue with you
• enjoys talking and spending time with you
• gets hurt and remembers when you lie to, ignore, stereotype, or misjudge him
• has higher standards on various matters than you
• wants what's best for you because he sees your potential
• has a different sense of humor than you
• enjoys different ways of having fun than you
• occasionally needs time alone

If you qualify to be a member, please call 1-800-878-7863 (1-800-TRUSTME).