Fitness

Well, I dropped the cash for a three year membership to 24 Hour Fitness today along with a friend. Hopefully I’ll get somewhat near to being in the kind of shape I used to be in.

It’s not that I’m currently out of shape. I’m just not in awesome shape and that bothers me.

Moved Recently

I moved recently and have been here about a week and a half. It was pretty rough at first but the place is coming together nicely. It’s old. Built in the 1920’s on the south side of the Heights in Houston and it shows in a lot of places but the layout is cool as are the well worn wood floors. It has character.

In the meantime I finally got my internet up this past Wednesday (and immediately hooked up the Airport Extreme for some extreme wireless) and am piecing together the a/v equipment bit by bit. I purchased some new cable wraps (disclaimer: I am a cable-mangagement junkie) and have spent the last few hours going back and forth between hooking up, wrapping, zip-tieing, internet browsing and espresso making/sipping. Needless to say I am almost done which is good as I am in serious Martin Logan withdrawl. Spiking the speakers and sub was fun if only because of the afore-mentioned wood floors. I ended up sacrificing $3 worth of quarters to rest between the massive floor spikes and the laquered dead trees.

After I finish setting up/tweaking speaker placement I’ll be sure to post some photos of the setup.

Creationism?

What it is about creating something? Whether it flows from your pen, brush, chisel, camera, body, mind or spirit the act of creation grows you, matures you and changes the way you look at the world around you. With time it creates a sense of vision. It changes your perspective. And often it can make you smile.

What is it that a photographer feels when he flips through a stack of prints, or an artist who walks a gallery of her work, a musician hearing her song on a passing radio, or a parent as he looks upon his child? Is it a sense of adding something new to this world, or of responsibility for that created?

And what of the pain when our created thing is hurt? Whether it be a torn photo, a smeared oil-painting or a scraped knee why does it affect us? After all, there is no physical connection.

There is a responsibility. It is not a sense of responsibility but an actual responsibility. That which we create impacts the environment around it. A photo in a newspaper, a sculpture in a gallery, a child growing into an adult interacting with those around him.

That which is created has a responsibility to its creator. A piece of music or artwork to stay true to its vision, a child to obey it's parents and us to honor God.

So are we responsible as creators? And what of our responsibility as that which is created?

Below are photos from the second half of my "spring break" beginning with the roadtrip from Laredo, Texas to Monterrey, Mexico:

Visas for Entry, Nuevo Laredo, MX

Church Amid the Slums, Nuevo Laredo, MX

Opening Bomb Bays, Monterrey, MX

Atop Chipinque, Monterrey, MX

Nature Atop Urban Sprawl, Monterrey, MX (I apologize for the compression banding in the sky; blame Flickr)

The Hottest New Drinks, Monterrey, MX

Poor Artist at Fort, Monterrey, MX

Lights in a Tunnel of Darkness, Monterrey, MX

Just Before Dinner, Monterrey, MX

Relationship

Lately my thoughts have been revolving around relationships. How do relationships work? How do they last and how are they broken? Why do we have an inherent need for them and why are they so hard?

For anyone the most painful moment in their life will come at the breaking off of a relationship. Whether it be caused by sin, distance or death the moment of realization that relationship is broken off or dramatically altered is ultimately the most heart-wrenching thing you can experience.

I was listening to a sermon from several years ago by a man named Curt Harlow where he asked what disappointment was. His answer was, "Disappointment is the expectation of success followed by failure." Curt was speaking of relationships. It's when that guy or girl tells you that it's "just not going to work out." It's when you are told there was a terrible accident. It's when phone calls and emails go unanswered and your heart just sinks.

Why are relationships so important to us? It goes back to the beginning. We are designed to have a deep, meaningful relationship with God and He wants to have relationship with us and we are created in His image. Our desire for human relationship is a manifestation of our desire for divine relationship.

Have you ever had that moment surrounded by friends, family and loved ones where you have that unexpected sharp pang of loneliness? It is because as important as human relationships are they cannot fill that God-shaped hole in every persons' heart. The spiritual, divine connection goes deeper, is far more permanent and unlike human relationship can only be broken off by us.

Friends, family and loved ones. They can all choose to break off relationships for reasons rational or not. My family has been going through this as of late and I have seen so many tears as a result. So many broken hearts. With time, Lord willing, those relationships will be mended and in the meantime I can turn to that one relationship that I cannot break.

Disappointment is the expectation of success followed by failure.

In the morning, before her coffee

Some relationships are based on food and love

Flirty

Isa folds her dolls' clothes

Me at the wheel on the way to Laredo

It has been an exhausting few weeks. First there was the crazy five day Houston to San Antonio, to Laredo, to Monterrey, Mexico to Laredo and back to Houston trip. Then my mother's wedding was this past Saturday with her rehearsal dinner the Thursday night before and as I mentioned walked her down the aisle. In between I am back at the old store in the Woodlands readjusting to the customer base, the product and co-workers.

I have fallen behind in my reading which disappoints me although I have been taking more photos (still not as consistently as I would like). Finally yesterday I feel as if I finally caught up on my sleep.

Hopefully I will be able to post something more thoughtful in the next few days but in the meantime I'm halfway done with the photos from the spring break trip. These photos go through San Antonio:

Isa eating breakfast; she is four and understands she is the center of attention

Isa "doing her tia's hair"

Banana for breakfast?

How badly does she want that cake?

This bald eagle is grounded in captivity as it was shot by a poacher and had part of its wing removed

A Moment Suspended in Time

I'm somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way done with the photos from below-mentioned trip. Hopefully I'll be done early this upcoming week.

Also, my mother is getting married today; I'm walking her down the aisle.

Well, I'm back in Houston and very tired. I have quite a few photos to sort through and some stories to tell. All will be revealed in the next few days.

Truncated Roadtrip

I'm currently away in San Antonio. It's the first vacation I have had since September 2006 when I visited New York City for the fifth anniversary of 9/11. Thus far it's been very nice. Later today we leave for Laredo and tomorrow to Monterrey.

I have been to the zoo (sadly I was not able to fight a bear while there) and had a few fun adventures. I'll be sure to post photos when I return.

So I suppose I should give an introduction.

This blog is a place for me to express my thoughts, share what I have been reading and get comments and critique on my photography. It's also a way for me to record what is happening in my life.

I'm a reader, a thinker, a debater, a photographer, passionate about theology/philosophy, cars, photography and a/v gear. I love to travel although rarely get to anymore. I cook, grow my own plants and want to go to Alaska and fight a bear when I turn thirty. I suppose you could say I'm an eclectic individual.

I come here from Xanga and this is where you can view my photography.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to do so below.

I always think of some trendy clothing ad when I look at this photo

It was a gorgeous late winter sunset

I love the color and texture of her fur

Believe it or not, this is not an uncommon sight with these two; the dog is part parrot

I was trying hard to work with what I had. Taken during a pickup game of Scrabble with strangers. I ended up getting my butt handed to me. They were all grad students at St. Thomas and smarter than I.

This hat kind of made its rounds throughout the game

This guy had two masters degrees. Can't judge a book by it's cover.

Uncharted Seas

"Having come loose from our moral moorings in this brave new world, we find ourselves adrift in uncharted seas and have decided to toss away the compass. Boston college professor Peter Kreeft, in this Three Philosophies of Life, stated it very succinctly:

Ancient ethics always dealt with three questions. Modern ethics deals with only one, or at the most, two. The three questions are like the three things a fleet of ships is told by its sailing orders. [The metaphor is from C.S. Lewis.] First, the ships must know how to avoid bumping into each other. This is social ethics, and modern as well as ancient ethicists deal with it. Second, they must know how to stay shipshape and avoid sinking. This is individual ethics, virtues and vices, character-building, and we hear very little about this from our modern ethical philosophies. Third, and more important of all, they must know why the fleet is at sea in the first place...I think I know why modern philosophers dare not raise this greatest of questions: because they have no answer to it."

Ravi Zacharias The Real Face of Atheism

The more observant of you will note that there is a distinction made between morals and ethics above. Some may be familiar with the distinction while others may not. Essentially, ethics come from man while morals come from God.

Now, we have abandoned most of the ancient questions. Regarding them as outdated we banish them to those books dealing with history, ancient philosophy and classic psychology. Today we deal with the why and if of ethics as opposed to the what and how. This creates some serious issues. How as a society do we deal with individuals and how do we come to agreement upon where to "steer" society? How do we determine what we stand for? You see, without a solid foundation you have nothing to build upon. Does anyone else agree this is the reason our culture slides into ruin around us?

Now, we actually have and had the foundation in place for millennia although we choose to ignore it today. Without that ageless foundation the building would have come down long ago. In the meantime we have chosen to construct poorly upon it and are moving closer daily to a time where a large enough gust of wind will blow it all down and all we will have left is the bare foundation to rebuild upon.

We have two options: tear out a variety of walls, undo some of our current framing and reframe with suitable reinforcements or wait for the storm to come full force and start from scratch. Do we follow the paths of the Greeks and Romans before us into ruin or do we pull the compass back out and re-chart our course midway?

Sculpture Garden across from Houston MFA

Sculpture Garden across from Houston MFA

Dog on porch along Montrose

Pillar Fountain near Houston MFA

Annunciation Orthodox School