a return to a worthless world.

i came back: http://mattfrancisco.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/vintage-ads-that-make-me-grin/

prayers appreciated

Hey guys! Long time, no see. I hope you all are doing well. I just wanted to ask for prayer for my grandfather, Ted, Mimi's husband (the grandmother who acted out the woman at the well:)). He is not doing well: fell and broke his hip, because of poor circulation had to have one leg amputated last week with possibilities of the other leg being amputated as well. Today the doctors took him off all medications (because they were making things worse) and said he probably had about 3 days. My family, especially Mimi, would appreciate your prayers during this season.

I'm looking forward to seeing y'all around the New Year! (yay Pat and Keri!)

Miss you friends:) thanks for praying!

The Samford Crimson

I think I did my family proud...

the title of the article: "Samford Redheads Face Wave of Bigotry."

Please check out pages 3-5. Nice..

Davis's House on the 18th!!

Please reply to this post by three monday if you plan on coming and let us know if you're bringing anyone else. We hate to pull this but if you're a regular and haven't responded and show up you will have to wait until everyone's served to make sure the ones who RSVP'd got something to eat.

We're excited about having people to our house!

Thoughts on looking at a peace sign

In the top floor of O'Henry's Brookwood, there's a big metal peace sign hanging on the wall (it's for sale, which is kind of an ironic statement I won't explore now). I've also been reading Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis," a novella about life in college in the initial months of the Vietnam War, which has had this whole thing on my mind to a greater extent. Also, I'm bored with this paper I'm writing.

Preface: none of these thoughts may have any ultimately valid conclusion; they're rough.

In the sixties and seventies, the peace movement was deeply provocative. It was widely cherished as an ultimate ideal by many (mainly, but not only, youth), and hated as anarchistic and unprogressive by many (mainly, but not only, then-adults). It was an ideal for those who held it, kind of a personal and social savior that, fully realized, would totally transform the world for good (as we see in "Imagine" or the unfortunate "Age of Aquarius"). Thirty years later, though, we see the aftermath of the ideology. Many people who remained fully committed to the peace-and-love ideal have burnt out on drugs or are hopelessly out of touch with the world, longing to bring back the promise of the late sixties/early seventies. Many who were only half-committed to or "grew up" from that youthful idealism now see it as distantly fondly as bell-bottom jeans, which is why someone could sell a peace sign sculpture for forty bucks in a coffee shop now.

I say all that because I've been thinking about how that was one of the last expressions of a popular social idealism we've seen (the major exception I can think of is the Obama-centered idealism, which has largely dissipated). At its heart, the peace movement thought that if there were just enough peace and love in the world, everything would be better. The concept was heavily explored in art, but did not motivate people to many practical peace-promoting innovations.

Since then, it seems that popular social philosophy has come to center more and more around pragmatism over idealism. In the eighties and nineties, we saw a lot of self-centered pragmatism: what works best for me and for my own advancement? Now, there is a growing heart for social good that is being approached with the determination to find out what works in effecting social change. An excellent example of this is the series of programs in Greensboro, AL, which has "with not for" as its motto for community development. It follows the adage, "give a man a fish...teach a man to fish." And most of us would agree that that is a better system, especially when we consider the effects of foreign aid on the receiving nations' citizens' views of their governments.

While those programs are worth praising in their own regard, I mention them to support how we are becoming a pragmatic society, in many ways. We sidestep rules and codes when it behooves us (how many of us have distributed music that we promised Itunes we wouldn't?); we seek philosophical and religious systems that work for us, and tend not to impose them on others when they have one that works for them.

Okay, a qualification: there's been an upsurge of idealism from somewhere in the nineties, currently focused on an ideal of authenticity or personality (e.g., the love of vinyl records, antiquated clothing, furniture, and houses, microbreweries--anything in Stuff White People Like, really). But it's by-and-large a pragmatic idealism; we implement ideals carefully and with a healthy infusion of irony and self-deprecation so nobody thinks we're weird.

So what? I don't know if I have a "so what," actually. I tend to think of how these philosophies apply to the practice and proclamation of Christianity, and how they either do or can find expression in the arts (another example: Sufjan Stevens now claims to no longer have faith in either the album or the song, and is producing increasingly jagged and lengthy compositions). I think people want to have something to be idealistic about (like Obama's presidency), but everything seems to fail to bear the weight of its own promises either partially or totally. I think that our generation, which is one that cares about the world and thinks more deeply about the world maybe more than any since the sixties, desperately wants to find hope even though it doesn't know where to seek it. People are exploring ideals tentatively, cautiously, keeping most of their existential faith in themselves like someone who has been burned over and over again by romantic relationships. This doesn't describe everyone, of course, especially in the South; I think it will grow here as it has in other places, just more slowly.

Well, I've foisted enough of my absurd thoughts on you for now. I should get back to that paper.

Brian, man, I miss you already. Hope to talk to you soon (and of course I miss those of you abroad too).

P.S., if you want an example of a modern real-but-ironic romanticism that is also totally beautiful, you should check out this video for "Elephant Gun" by Beirut:

Oh Man.

So, I do appreciate the attempt to reactivate this blog over the summer. I'm specifically appreciative of Wilmore, Straw, the Francisci...and maybe the Davi, can't remember. Thanks, it strikes a deep chord within.

I've wanted to contribute as well, but I just haven't struck gold yet...until tonight. Oh, it's amazing. I sort of wish I was her, and I DEFINITELY wish I had her voice. I hope this makes you as happy as it made me.

http://vimeo.com/14190306

Love you all!

Ben's Chili Bowl.

I am adding my voice to the growing number of people who are of the opinion that the Franciscos are trying to subtly tell us something... Now to get around to practicalities of the situation: will we change the blog name to 'Thirty-One Travelers?' Baby Francisco must be accounted for.

A few things you should know about my life:

-I am repentant. I previously judged Jamie for her love of Sonic chili dogs. I found them to be repulsive and referred to people who ate them as "fart-faces." Since moving to DC, I have grown as a person and in my understanding of the beauty that is a well-made chili dog. In an effort to apologize for my ignorance and judgmental nature, I invite you all up for a midnight run to Ben's Chili Bowl. (respects must be paid to Pat and Will who encouraged me to come to the other side.)

-To go along with the previous point: people in DC know me. It's becoming rather uncomfortable. I go to Ben's Chili Bowl and a girl I've never seen before starts talking to me in Amharic. I go to Whole Foods and a fellow shopper calls me by my Finote Selam nickname- how does he know this? I ride the S4 bus in the morning and a guy sits next to me and tells me that his relative told him to look for me. But how did he know that I was me? I go to Staples in suburban Maryland and the cashier knows me by name. I've never seen these people before. I've never even been to a Staples before. It's becoming increasingly disconcerting. And startling. I'm always on guard.

-I've started a new job. I am now considered adjunct faculty at the Baltimore City Community College. When I turned in my documents to the human resources person, she asked me how I went from being unemployed for 3 years to faculty at a college. I had never considered my life from that perspective. It was eye-opening. But regardless, I am now the Refugee Assistance Coordinator for Prince George's County. To clarify, I now control the English language for an entire county. It kind of sounds fun and royal (Prince George and all), but in reality I just do a lot of paperwork.

-I've started school. To do this in the same week as starting a new job turned out to be rather disastrous. So much reading. On top of all the paperwork. And figuring out a new bus route. And I had forgotten how to read... maybe I never knew how. And so many new people. They are interesting and I am happy to be among them, but it's all been a bit much. But I have hope that this week will be better than last week and soon I will even come out of survival-mode and actually be able to take it all in. This is the hope, at least.

-I have decided to attempt to return to the 'ham at least once a semester. My rational:

1. The Remingtons are there.

2. The community there is so great- why would i stay away?

3. I miss you all.

With that being said, let me know if there is something going on in Oct/early nov and i will come... camping trip? trip to see wardo? middle of the night beach run? just some suggestions...

That's all. Your turn.

Start Spreadin' the News

Is it just me, or was there a very large number of baby mentions in the Franciscos' last post?  Hmmm.

Well, if we must talk babies, I'll go ahead and say that my sister is expecting in February.  Her last name is Hornbeak.  Funny name.  What goes best with a funny name like that?  Caspian, according to her.  Lord help the poor child.

Well, I believe you all know this, but tadaaaa - I've moved to New York City!  And along with a newly acquired preference for the word "tadaaa," I've also just signed a lease on an apartment about two blocks from Central Park!  Tadaaaaa.  The amount of money I've already had to drop on it before even moving in makes me a bit queasy, but that's how it goes, I guess.  Plus, we all know that I only chew my food up then spit it out, anyway.

I'm kidding.

Thanks to Cory (and Jamie, John, Kris and Will) for helping me move up!

Many of you have expressed quite enthusiastically your desire to come visit me up here. Much more enthusiastically than you were about visiting me in DC.  I believe that this must be due to the fact that I myself have just become that much cooler and fun to hang out with.  Well, in that case, thanks, guys!  Come on up!

(Oh, and I love you all, miss you all, and tadaaaa - I've still never seen an ugly baby.)
(Double oh, if anyone cares to know, I think I'm reviving my blog.  Click on the "Jen" link to the right and post lots of comments so it looks like I'm cool and maybe I'll get a book deal!)

flowers.

braves win!

we miss you guys.

let's all hang out soon.

remember those marvelous days when we posted on this blog & knew all the intricacies & nonsenseries of each other's lives? let us recommence. immediately. otherwise, erin, patrick, and i are going to perform that long-since-promised hostile take-over of this air?-space.

in news of the awesome:

1. Ben Pittman announced to church that we're pregnant. we're not.

2. ok, so we're a little more boring than we thought...

3. portland and seattle were fantastic little spots. portland, if you are a no-good-nik. seattle, if you have a soul, character, and charm. tip o' the cap to you, brian.

4. apparently, we have a newly adopted son named david. he dreamed about me being his father and told me that he wished it were true.

5. erin & i went to the barons game last night & were showered with free Barons balls. we brought them home with glee. our internet, cable, and non-existent phone line all proceeded to fail (and incur $35 fines). upon noticing the balls were sponsored by charter, we found a local priest, had our apartment exorcized, and played wii. which then failed mid-game. damn charter.

6. i witnessed only the second pinch-hit, walk-off grand slam in major league history. true story.

7. birmingham's record show (at the cedar club) continues tomorrow. you should go.

8. adois, monsieur sharon & bienveniedos remingtons. holla back.

ps. accidental baby name of the month = z'ealous walker

your turn.  1, 2, 3 GO.

Our good friend Josh.

Hey friends!

One of the delights of my day is listening to NPR on the way to work... and I thought you all might enjoy this little nugget of happiness. Seriously, I think you can hear him smiling when he talks... though his outlook on life is so bleak. Such a confused little soul.

I conclude my post with this anecdote on life in DC:

Also on Friday, I was responsible for giving a talk on hygiene to 15 Ethiopian refugees. All in Amharic. It was a disaster from the start. It was all kind of common sense stuff (brush your teeth, take showers, wash your clothes), right before lunch time, and I was talking too slowly... I was losing my audience. So when I got to the section on lice, I decided lighten things up and say something to the effect of, "lice are very fast moving. They are like Haile GebreSelassie (a famous- and very fast- Ethiopian runner)." The class was scandalized that I should talk of Haile so. There was an uproar, students protesting saying, "no! he's not bad! he's a very good person!" Apparently they didn't want him to be equated with a small bug. Hard to say why. I guess I'll be sticking to reading straight from the handouts from now on...

Miss you guys! Much love!

Cheers from the land down under!

G'day mates! (they do actually say that here) I haven't gotten to talk to any of you guys yet since we arrived in Australia, so I figured I would post where most of my friends were likely to look.

We've been in the country for about a week and a half now, and in Armidale for a little over a week. Armidale is a good-sized town by their measuring: a whopping 20,000 people. It's also devastatingly cold by their standards, but as it turns out it's about the same as our seasons in Birmingham. We're at the University of New England, a school of about 5,000 with a lot of medical, education, and agricultural science students. I'm spending most of my time in Duval College (their colleges are like the schools in Harry Potter, for a point of reference). Students in Duval are into all kinds of things, but tend to be very sociable.

A few encouraging things: the church here, St. Mark's Chapel (Anglican), has been wonderful to us. It's weird to be a Christian here, so the believers are more committed to the gospel and take living as a Christian very seriously. They've served us in all kinds of ways, from feeding us to their pastor teaching us once a week, and we're truly grateful for them. The believers among college students have been great as well; they're genuinely seeking to grow in their faith, and have taken us under their wing socially to help us meet people. They love to rag on us--I think mockery is a love language here--and we have a great time laughing at and with one another.

In addition, our team (10 students) has been really faithful to pray for and seek out the non-believers here. As I'll explain in a bit, this is very difficult here, but our guys and girls have been champs about encouraging one another and building community here. I'm really thankful for all of this.

If I could ask you to pray for anything, it would be for our relationships with non-Christians. They've seen us as outsiders coming into the communities they have, and they have no real reason to try and build relationships with us: the burden is totally on our initiative, and oftentimes they don't care to respond to us well. We are having some victories--two of our guys are practicing and maybe even playing with one college's rugby team--but it has been slow progress. It's disheartening to have efforts at loving others rebuffed, so please pray 1) that God would provide us with friendships among non-believers and 2) that we would trust in Christ's sufficiency so as to not depend emotionally on their responses to us.

Another prayer request is related to this. Generally, Aussie non-believers are very apathetic towards the gospel. It takes the average Aussie female 1.5 years to come to Christ after first hearing the gospel, and the average male twice that. In light of that, we don't really expect to see anyone come to Christ through us this summer; we may have people we get really close to with whom we may not get to share the gospel at all. We're constantly reminding the team that God provides all spiritual growth, and that what we are to be faithful to do is to love these students and scatter what seed of the gospel we can. It is difficult to minister without the expectation of visible results, however (even though we know it's an idol), so please pray that God would give us the courage and the will to be faithful rather than needing success.

If I could give you a few specific names to pray for in Duval, Benny and Pete are two Christians who are intentionally laboring in the college. Pray that they would be encouraged and equipped. Amos, Aaron, Josh, and Anthony are the only other Christian guys there, and they are struggling to courageously love non-Christians: pray that God would give them boldness and satisfaction in themselves. Dale, Joshua, Cale, Pinky, and Eldin are non-believers we've begun to build relationships with: please pray that God would prepare their hearts for the gospel and allow the love we have for them to ultimately point them to Christ.

Sorry to post such a huge blog, but we've had a busy week. I'd love to hear how you guys are doing, what God is doing in your lives this summer, and any way I can be praying for you, so please let me know. I love you all, and hope to hear from you soon!

I Stole Hair Clippers

I stole someone's set of hair clippers while at Will's house this past weekend. They looked like mine. I'm not sure why I took them. I think it was early in the morning. I really am sorry.

Let me know if you're yours and I'll give 'em back.

an awesome song/video

I just wanted to share this video I found and haven't been able to get out of my head. It's a version of "Too Much Time" by John Vanderslice, performing with the Magik Magik Orchestra. It makes me wish there were more string sections in pop music. *sighs* ah well. Enjoy!

memphis wedding

hey friends!

so, our very own andrew donald sisk is getting married may 1 in memphis, which happens to be my hometown. any and all are welcome and wanted to stay at my house that weekend, but i'd love to get a head count of sorts for my incredible mother. please comment for a sort of rsvp.

also, my ridiculously cool girlfriend will* be joining us :0)

love yall,
will in the beautiful springy mid-atlantic

*may

why should i be surprised by this point?

(picture taken from article)

birmingham made rolling stone magazine. awesome.
read the article here.

will you read about this guy?! unbelievable... the real life Good Will Hunting but better

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman

he solved one of the seven hardest problems in math ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Prize_Problems ) , The Poincare Conjecture, which was proposed in 1904, turned down the fields medal, the most prestigious medal in math, and just turned down the 1 million dollar prize money and medal for solving a Millennium Prize Problem.

he proposed his solution in 2002, it was verified in 2006! a quote, "It has taken us some time to examine Perelman's work. This is partly due to the originality of Perelman's work and partly to the technical sophistication of his arguments. All indications are that his arguments are correct."

He had previously turned down a prestigious prize from the European Mathematical Society,^[19] allegedly saying that he felt the prize committee was unqualified to assess his work, even positively.^[15]

haha i love this guy...

currently, he has quit math, and

According to a 2006 interview, Perelman is currently jobless, living with his mother in Saint Petersburg^[5] where he plays table tennis against the wall^[25].

real life is stranger than fiction,

John

music that i want to come home to

Having given up music (under most circumstances) for Lent has made me think a lot more about what I listen to. As I've thought about music that I actually get excited to be able to hear, I've found a playlist shaping itself over these weeks. I figured I'd post it, so that you can validate my interior life, and also because I'd love to hear what music excites you right now. I charge anyone who reads this to respond with at least one song that fills you with joy, be it profound, silly, or shamelessly boogie-inducing. All categories are included here.

Sufjan Stevens- "Vito's Ordination Song"
Ryan Adams- "Sylvia Plath"
Bon Iver- "Blood Bank"
Beirut- "Scenic World" (Lon Gisland EP version)
Animal Collective- "My Girls"
Paper Route- "Gutter"
Radiohead- "Reckoner"
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists- "Me and Mia"
Josh Ritter- "Good Man"
Arcade Fire- "Wake Up"
Common Market- "Tobacco Road"
Neutral Milk Hotel- "The King of Carrot Flowers, pt. 1"
Iron & Wine- "Sodom, South Georgia"
Freelance Whales- "Location"
Sufjan Stevens- "The Dress Looks Nice on You"
Josh Ritter- "Kathleen"
Freelance Whales- "Broken Horse"
Old Crow Medicine Show- "Down Home Girl"
Andrew Bird- "Anonanimal"
Common Market- "Nothin' At All"
William Cowper (performed by Matt Francisco, Alyson Snow, Judson Mallory)- "God Moves in a Mysterious Way"

when you're right, you're right

and me? i'm kind of maybe rarely right.

but about this, i feel pretty good.

man, i miss you guys. blessings from the cold north.

will

xkcd (intellectually silly humor)

This one struck me as particularly funny, but I'm still not sure why. My thanks to John for pointing me to the comic.

Your Newest Birmingham Celebrity

boom.

short story

I've talked with some of you about my recent efforts at writing stories, and it's been a lot of fun to do it. Here's a link to one I've finished and of which I'm pretty proud. I'd love for anyone to read it and let me know what they think (don't worry Matt; this one's not a fantasy story). It's called "The Show Must Go On," and is about 3500 words. Peace!

Joseph

wild things have hearts too...

I'm sorry that I missed two weekends ago and that I am late for this past one. As you can tell, Elaine wears the "blogging" pants in our marriage.

So I hope everyone knows that I have a new friend that lives outside our appartment. Toby is a beagle. One of my favorite things about being friends with Toby is how encouraging he is when I come home or leave in the morning. It's so great to have this great dog who is so glad to see me. He sort of looks like this...

Most Saturday mornings I take him for a walk to Crestwood park. We are working on playing catch. He can't really look up well so if I throw it up he won't chase it. We're working on it. Anyways when I put him back up after the walk is over he goes through this routine where he howls nonstop for 15 minutes. It's really pathetic but it sort of makes me feel good inside. I feel like he's saying, "I had so much fun and I don't want it to end." I appreciate that.

So that's where Where the Wild Things Are comes in. I LOVED the part at the end when the wild things howled for Max. It communicated so much that words would have left out. There is just this deep groaning that needs to get out.

All this to say that if I start howling when you say you have to go home after an evening of hanging out, know that I'm not angry at you but it's my way of telling you I think you're awesome.

Killer Bunnies.

I just played this game:

and we would all love it. It looks ridiculous... and it is. Wonderfully (and morbidly) so. All I'm saying is... it might be more enjoyable than Settlers. Big words, I know. So think about trying it out, do some research here, and pray about how you feel about inflicting unspeakable acts of violence against little bunnies. That's all.

Why soccer is better,

A typical broadcast (185 min.) of a football game on TV consists of:

-65 minutes of commercials
- 75 minutes of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage, or just milling around.
- 34 minutes of random stuff (ref, injury, or coaching shots, other games, etc.)

and...

11 minutes of action.

I'd hate to see the stats on a baseball game.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html

Vulcan Family New Year's

So... the quality of these tracks leaves a lot to be desired (my apologies), but, for anyone who wants the sweet music we made (pun intended) ringing in the new year, go here & download the zip.

fern gavatar?

Pocavatantas?

source- failblog.org

commercial

Here's what happen when you give a couple of stoners $100 to do a commercial in Birmingham