just got back from a couple of retreats… one in seattle and one in dallas. retreats can be such spiritual highlights for many people, and it’s really a privilege to be a small part in that. however, retreats also remind me of how my heart has been moving more & more toward the importance of walking with God in the ordinary & everyday… experiencing God in the highs (and the lows) is important and necessary, but i think lasting transformation of our heart & character happens when we learn to seek Him in the boring old routines of our everydays lives…

retreat themes are great. i’ve seen all kinds – ranging from the goofy (“hello, my name is..”) to the simple (“first love”) to the just plain theologically wrong (“jesus is my security blanket”… no, seriously). my friend’s church in seattle settled on the theme “24” to reflect the heart of learning to walk with God 24 hours a day – not to compartmentalize our faith, but to allow Christ to be the foundation for everything….

speaking of 24, how about all those emmy nominations? i’m not sure if this past one was my favorite season, but that scheming president turn was pretty great tv. i wonder why lost was snubbed, though? i suppose lost might have suffered from some kind of sophomore slump this season, but it was still pretty compelling stuff. i wonder how much they’ll pull back the curtain on the island in the next season. on one hand, it’s kind of nice to get some concrete answers so that we’re not frustrated all the time (try watching the prisoner!)… but on the other hand, things can definitely turn downhill after revealing too much (see x-files).

anyhoo, i’ll never forget these couple of retreats – if only for the crazy skits the students created. more than one featured jesus and satan fighting. but not the old-school, carman-type boxing match… no, it’s been updated for the zoolander set, with jesus and satan breakdance fighting. one skit in particular has the jesus-character take off his shirt within the first four seconds. so wrong on so many levels….

it’s been kind of humid around here these days. you might think being born and raised in michigan (and therefore living perpetually in 1984, when our beloved and beleaguered tigers last won the world series – though they’re finally pretty good again this year), and having lived on the east coast for over ten years might have acclimated me to humidity – but, no.

anyhoo, the strange humidity has reminded me of how much i enjoy california. sure, people have their complaints about the southland (e.g., the flakiness, the smog, the traffic) but all in all it’s been great. just like anywhere else, i suppose it’s what you make of it. maybe it’s because i didn’t bring any expectations about what it would be like here…

well, that’s not entirely true. one preconception that has been trounced to bits by tahoe after tahoe is the idea that californians would all be driving tiny, efficient automobiles. you know, the kind you plug in at night – and that greets you with a warm, green hug in the morning. i suppose my thinking was: californians are environmentalists, gigantibus gas-guzzling suv’s are really bad for the environment, therefore californians all drive priuses (priae?). boy, was i wrong.

most any day on the freeway, i expect to hear an announcer echoing about how “grave digger is driving down the 91 westbound this tuesday, tuesday, tuesday” as i see that ford excursion with five-foot tall tires bearing down on me in my rearview mirror. tahoes, suburbans, escalades, navigators, hummers, h2s, titans, f-150s… all waiting to crush the poor fools who get in their way.

it’s called the topkick (the red one) and it’s usually manufactured as a dumptruck or shuttle bus, but monroe truck equipment will sell about 750 of these bad boys to napoleonically-complexed citizens each year. look how it dwarfs that h2. mpg? i think i might be more fuel-efficient than this car, if i were the one drinking gasoline. it’s like giving the metaphorical finger to all those poor fools who worry about the environment, dependance on fossil fuels, or being run off the road by overly-aggressive road-ragers. for anyone who has wanted to be grant the hunter, shooting down bald eagles and eating them on sandwiches, have i got the car for you!

better than mentos & diet coke (even that orchestrated bellagio-style fountain)…

these days, video game soundtracks are a big deal. even the hollywood bowl orchestra features an entire performance of their arrangements of video game music (including zelda, warcraft and mario). the typical soundtrack for a sports game (football, skateboarding, etc.) usually includes some combination of metal, hip-hop and punk. it’s almost always loud and it’s intended to be extreme! you know, because button-mashing is tough work and i nothing helps me gets my game on like that dude in the red hat yelling stuff over hyper-processed guitars!

anyhoo, the soundtrack for major league baseball 2k6 (didn’t we get past naming things this way?) has some very, um, interesting choices. the line-up sounds more like a twee festival in the uk than a testosterone-level-raising rawk fest. the heavy thrashing lineup includes such shredders as belle & sebastian, pavement and yo la tengo. i mean, when i hear the opening strains of “box elder” i know i need to throw that mid-90s sinker! and “big day coming” makes me want to turn that fastball to the opposite field! actually, i think this is a great soundtrack (bear vs. shark, guided by voices, mogwai)… just kind of odd.

the world cup 2006 has officially begun! well, the first match was actually last friday but, for me, it started early this morning…. korea kicked off their followup to their historic 2002 run to the semifinals with a 2-1 victory over tournament first-timers togo.

while i’m not a hardcore football enthusiast (for example, i can’t really name any european club teams beyond man u, arsenal and real madrid), i do enjoy the game. especially when the world cup rolls around! after all, what sport is more global? what tournament offers such twists and turns (trinidad and tobago!)? what soccer might lack in sportscenter-ready highlights, it more than makes up for with its strategy, finesse and brute athleticism. we’re used to seeing james posey flop on a jerry stackhouse drive to the lane – imagine instead running full-speed, while dribbling a soccer ball, and being shaolin soccered across both shins.

and, while the sport does have certain major issues with which to contend (racism, in particular), soccer endures in its ability to bring together different nations. i’ll never forget during the 2002 tournament when i met a gas station attendant in new jersey who was of turkish descent. we talked about the upcoming match between turkey and korea and, as i was leaving, he smiled and said, “we are brothers.” maybe football can offer some small gimmer of hope to bringing the civil war in the ivory coast to an end, as bono suggests via voiceover in certain world cup preview adverts. c’mon, let’s hug it out like korea and togo!