i have an iphone!

and my life is still the same. i try to use it as much as i can, and the interface is really cool and intuitive. but in the end, it's still a phone, and still nobody calls me. on top of that, i barely leave the house so i can't take advantage of the (slow) EDGE network. i've debated for a while if i should get one, but now that i have one i can't really beat myself up, cuz it was a pretty good buy. especially when i compare it to the $400.00 parking pass that's sitting next to it on my desk right now. $400 for a little spot on the top of some parking deck next to a field of cows. oh well.

i had a pretty good scruffy look going for a while, but i shaved and got a haircut so i look like a 15 year old again. just in time for my ag econ orientation tomorrow. should i play it cool and just go to stuff i find interesting, or should i be fully engaged, meet people and smile a lot? i guess we will see.

i went to this church in davis last sunday called University Covenant Church. it was one of those big churches with the big screens on the walls. it did have a very homey feel to it, and the people didn't seem very cool or hip. you could tell because even though they had all this multimedia stuff going on, most of it was pretty shoddy and nobody seemed to care. anyway, it was an enjoyable service and i'm glad i went. buuuutttt...

their worship time really got me thinking. "worship time" as in singing time. everyone was pretty much standing there, looking at the screens or looking at the very polished band. i guess i just thought that the singing didn't really fit in with the rest of the service. i mean... what's the point of singing if the whole congregation is going to just stand there. was it supposed to be an offering of celebration? some outpouring of their hearts? in human terms, i know boyfriends sing songs to their girlfriend and stuff like that, but they don't do it every week on command. and i know it is a command to sing to the Lord. but why at sunday services?

and then i thought - what is the most valuable aspect of a sunday service? yeah, singing, community, prayer, stuff like that... but i think the distinguishing thing is the sermon. which is important because it's not every day that you get to hear an expert's take on a Bible passage that can be confusing, misunderstood or just understated. so, wouldn't it be awesome for an alternate service to kind of "cut the fat" and go straight for what's really important? like, not even a sermon but more like a biblical scholar doing his bible study out loud. after all, the most memorable moments of teaching for me weren't from sermons or group bible studies, but from someone explaining the bible in a way that made me realize that it's alive. and, i bet people can learn how to do their own in depth studies if they hear/see someone else doing it effectively.

i say alternate service because it'd probably be really boring for a lot of people. i went to a service like this in florida (r.c. sproul's church) with my friends, and more than half of them fell asleep. but i do think it would work, maybe if it's less formal than i proposed. kind of like how muslims get together by the pillars of the mosque to learn from a quranic scholar. its working for them - look at all the muslims willing to die for their faith!

just kidding. and i don't know why i'm going on and on about this idea. maybe just thinking out loud. i should reward those of you who have made it this far in the post. i will end with a riddle, but i will not make a new paragraph for it in case someone tries to skip down to the bottom. also, i will add another paragraph of nonsense at the bottom to further prevent skippers. anyway, here it goes - what two coins do you need to make 30 cents, one of them is not a nickel. i got this one from an episode of scrubs. i guess u can google the answer cuz its pretty easy and common.

also i didn't know how to spell nickel so i had to google it. i had to googel it. lol! goo gel. anyway thats what nickel is. nic kel. cuz you'd think it would be nickle but it's not. i used to get pissed off at how stupid the english language is when there were spelling quizzes back in the day. i remember not spelling the word "dollar" correctly, and throwing a tantrum afterwards, complaining that it wasn't fair for a word to be pronounced "doller" yet be spelled with an a. i guess i'm always blaming something else.