Last DMA Post

With my last DMA post I just want to take time to write about what I learned in this class. At the beginning of this class I was very skeptical and uninterested in everything we were talking about, because I was not in the right mindset for the class at all. My mindset was, get through this class as easily as you can because you are a psychology major in a DMA class, you will never need to know any of this. However, as the class continued I became more interested with what we were talking about and the media in which we were covering. What changed it for me was the sand animation. It blew my mind that someone could make animation with just sand and moving it around, something that I would never be able to do or even have the patience to do.



Caroline Leaf's sand animation is absolutely amazing, and to have the ability and patience to do this is amazing. At this point in the class I changed how I was viewing everything. I now valued the things we were watching and talking about. Through this class I have expanded my horizons and have a greater appreciation for all the types of media we have talked about. We have talked about things that I have never talked about before, and the best part about this class is that Leeper is not afraid to say what is on his mind and not afraid to play the devils advocate to stir things up. Overall, I am glad I took this class and it has given me an appreciation for all digital media arts, kudos to all you DMA majors.

Oh, and MERRY CHRISTMAS

Passion of the Christ

Passion of the Christ is the story of Jesus' crucifixion. If you have not seen it, I believe it is a must see, no matter of you're a Christian or not, but I do think this movie impacts Christians greatly.
 
This is a motion picture by Mel Gibson, who is a catholic. There are many movies that attempt to capture the magnitude of Jesus' crucifixion, but fall short because they are too scared to show truly how gruesome and cruel Jesus was beaten, mocked and scorned. They make it less than what it truly is so they don't put people off. Also, many times people who try to make movies about the bible do not get there facts correct, or put a Hollywood spin on it to make it more interesting and bring in Hollywood actors and actresses. This is not what Mel Gibson does at all. In Passion of the Christ he does not hold back anything. There are no actors we would be familiar with, and he is spot on with the bible. When I watched this I honestly was very close to being in tears, my eyes were watering, because I was awestruck with what Jesus' went through. I am not ashamed at all that I shed tears during this because it made me realize exactly what Jesus went through. It was VERY hard to watch, but its something I think we all need to watch.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS GRUESOME AND VERY HARD TO WATCH

Just watching this short video gets to me, but I will never regret watching it. It depicts truly how inhumane and cruel Jesus was treated and that is a massive understatement. Mel Gibson does a brilliant job with this movie. It is so authentic and truthful.

Christmas Favorite

I love Christmas time and not a Christmas goes by that I do not watch one of my favorite Christmas movies, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Its an old classic. Its 48 minutes and I love every minute of it. It was directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. The writer was Romeo Muller. However, those names to me and most of us probably do not ring a bell because this film came out in 1970. This movie is about a baby whos name is Kris who was left at the doorstep of the Kringle family, who are toymakers. Kris grows up and he wants to bring toys to all the children of Sombertown. However, the mean king Burgermeister doesn't want to let that happen. Also, there is a winter warlock that lives between the Kringles house and Sombertown which also complicated things a bit. (SPOILER ALERT) Kris melts Winter's heart (the warlock) and delivers the toys to Sombertown. Probably my favorite scene in this movie is when Kris manages to melt Winter's heart and the great song ensues, "Put one foot in front of the otherrrrr and soon you'll be walking out the dooooooor!" Well, just watch for yourself.

This movie is so great! Everyone should watch it this winter!

Stereotypes and How the Media Fuels Them

Stereotypes are everywhere about everyone. There is a stereotype of "the basic white girl" going to get Starbucks, or the British liking tea, Irish loving beer, Asians being smart, tall people play basketball, black people can jump high and white people can't. There are plenty more like men being better drivers than women, old people drive slow, Christians don't like gay people, Muslims are terrorist. Took a bit of a turn at the end didn't it? Some stereotypes are funny, but many are not. Let me repeat the last two. Christians hate gay people. Muslims are terrorists. We have all seen these in the media whether it is said straight up or alluded to. The media fuels these stereotypes that are both FALSE. Christians have got a bad reputation of hating gays and being very judgmental.



I wonder why...........
There are "Christians" out there who do things like the picture above, and claim that God hates gays and all Christians despise gays, and that is not true at all. As Christians we are called to love EVERYBODY, and that certainly includes gays. The problem is whenever there is something that happens like a protest with signs like above, what does the media do? Blast that stuff ALL over the news for the whole world to see. The whole world sees how these few Christians view gays, and they automatically make a stereotype that all Christians hate gays, that's extremely frustrating isn't it? What the world does not understand is that the vast majority of Christians do not agree with the notion that God hates gays at all, we think the complete opposite actually. God loves everyone, and so do we, but that does not make for a good story in the media now does it? All the media cares about is a good story, and controversies with this issue have been fantastic business for them, and making the Christian faith look bad.


The next stereotype I said was that Muslims are terrorists. This makes me very angry when people make this assumption or say they are afraid of any Muslim because they are afraid they might attack them or something. The same is happening to these poor Muslims as is happening to Christians, and on a major scale, especially recently with the attacks on Paris. Yes, the people who killed hundreds of people in Paris claimed to be Muslim, but that does not mean we should automatically assume all Muslims are terrorists. These Muslim terrorists are a small minority, and Muslims across the world have seen the consequences and have cried out saying that Muslims are NOT terrorists, and that their faith does not condone terrorism. And it is true, the majority of Muslims are not terrorists, just like the majority of Christians do not hate gays. Unfortunately, ISIS is not helping the Muslim case at all. When the first part of ISIS stands for "Islamic State" and is shown on media everywhere, it paints Muslims in a very bad light. So, the stereotype of Muslims needs to stop, because that is a false stereotype. Recently a Muslim stood in Paris, with a blindfold on with signs that proclaimed that he was in fact Muslim and NOT a terrorist, and asked for people to hug, Here is the video and its amazing...

Truly amazing. So before you go stereotyping about anything. Stop and think about what you are doing.

Random Thought on Commericals

This is a pretty random thought, but I was thinking about how much commercials have changed and become more and more interesting to say the least. The goal of a commercial is to obviously advertise something, but there are many different avenues people take. Some people take the boring, straight forward shoving information in your face, and some people take the route of making a memorable commercial that annoyingly sticks with you for a long time. I think it really is an art, commercial making, and its kind of interesting what people do to make you remember their company, or product, or anything like that. Some commercials are extremely annoying,  but you have a tune stuck in your head for weeks. For example, Kit Kat bars have that catchy song that when I hear it can get stuck in my head for awhile.

That song is very catchy and it is genius because when people sing it just messing around its basically free advertisement for Kit Kat. Its amazing how commercial producers make you make connections between their product and some kind of tune or word or something like that. Another example of something that is probably in the back of all our brains is this...

Reeeeeed Robin...

I guarantee just about everyone sang "Yuuuuummmm" in their heads. Isn't it interesting how advertisements can do that? Basically brain wash us if you will. I probably know too many tunes from commercials in their entirety, which just means commercial producers are doing a great job, and it really is an art.  Coca-Cola and Pepsi is a very interesting example of this art form. In a blind taste test, people actually prefer Pepsi to Coca-Cola, however, Coca-Cola remains the top selling soda, why? The answer is that Coca-Cola's advertising has brilliantly focused on making Coca-Cola associated with family, friends, and big fuzzy polar bears, so when people make that connection, they prefer Coke over Pepsi. The psychological aspect of the media is scary in a way, and pretty dang awesome at the same time.

Music Videos

Music videos can be an amazing story. I love listening to music with a meaning, and watching the music videos that go with them. I do not really watch music videos that often at all, but when I do there are always two types of music videos, ones that tell a story, and ones that are literally pointless and stupid. One of the most powerful music videos I have ever watched is the song Savin' Me by Nickelback.

This song has a very powerful message about our mortality. In this video, at the very beginning, a man is saved from getting hit by a car. After this the man that was saved starts seeing numbers above everyone's head that are counting down. He then sees an old woman taken into an ambulance and her numbers hit zero and she dies, so the man now realizes the numbers he sees above everyone's head is the countdown to their death. The man is troubled by being able to see when everyone is going to die. At the end of the video he saves a woman who's countdown almost hit zero, and he then walks away and now the woman can see the numbers and he no longer can.
I think the meaning behind this is that, if you could see these numbers, you have the ability to save someone from dying. So, you have to save them before time runs out. This guy has the unique opportunity to be able to save someone, and he takes that chance before time runs out. I think one of the most important things in life is realizing that we don't know how long we have on this world, so we need to make the most of it. Also, we do not know if a conversation with a loved one will be the last time we speak to them, so always say I love you before you leave a loved one, no matter what. Overall, I think this music video is trying to say, make the most of your life before time runs out.

Black Friday

Why is black Friday a thing? This time of there year every commercial and advertisements seem to be showing all the deals you can get on black Friday. It feeds our gluttonous culture. People get up ridiculously early in the morning the day after we give thanks for everything that we have, in order to buy a bunch of things we do not need because we are getting great deals. Why do we need so much stuff? Black Friday is one of the most gluttonous events in America, not to mention the greed that is involved too. We want, want, want, all that we can get. The media just fuels this appetite by showing us all the places we can  get great deals and the best tips for black Friday.





This picture speaks to how terrible black Friday is. Do we really need all the things we buy? All the things the media says we need? This does not just mean black Friday, but all the time, even though it is amplified on black Friday. Just think about it over the break. Give thanks for what we have, because God did bless us with all that we need, and do not event think about saying you do not have all that you need, because all you need is food, water, and one pair of clothes. Many people around the world do not even have that. Just be extra thankful this thanksgiving, and remember on black Friday that we have way more than we need. On that note, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

More on Documentaries

I would like to start out by saying I agree with Patrick when he said, "And the reasoning to use animation to have a less emotional affect on people is flawed. If you are watching a documentary in the first place, it is supposed to be shocking and emotional. You want to feel the struggles of those in the film itself because it connects you more to the story and allows you to sympathize with the topic at hand." I agree that an animated documentary is a terrible way to approach it. Animation takes away the real, sometimes difficult images that come with a true documentary. Watching the animated documentaries in class, it did not impact me as much as if I was seeing real world images. Like I talked about in my last post, Restrepo is a true, powerful, and emotional documentary in the real world of war in Afghanistan. Nothing can even compare to the real images, animation is not nearly on the same level.





So, I think documentaries need to be left to the people who go out into the real world and capture true images. Animation just does not have the same emotional affect, and I am not saying all documentaries have to be sad or shocking, but they all have some sort of emotional affect they are trying to convey. I was disappointed with the documentaries we viewed in class because I expected to see the real world, not an animated world. Documentaries are the history books of the 21st century, and documentaries, I believe, are very necessary in the education of society on different events and issues around the world. It brings the real world right into your home, and to people that cannot afford or are otherwise unable to see it for themselves, especially war and what our troops go through. Many documentaries are suppose to be hard to watch, that's the point of them, shielding peoples eyes from the real world through animation should not be a thing.

Importance of Documentaries

Documentaries can be very powerful films when done correctly. I enjoy watching documentaries every once in awhile, because they tell us what the world is really like, at least that's what the goal of a documentary should be. Documentaries are very important, and are the 21st century's history books, and I personally believe and I am sure many would agree, that documentaries are a million times better than reading a history book, but can also be a million times harder to digest. Just think, if we read about the holocaust of course it will be brutal and sad, but actually seeing video of the holocaust for some people might not even be bearable. They can be very hard films to watch or very interesting films to watch. I believe documentaries are very important because they shed light on issues and events around the world in an entirely different way than anything else, and can impact you emotionally. It is important to have documentaries over events such as 9/11, so we remember the lives that were lost and the heroes of that dreadful day. It is also important to have documentaries on issues such as child soldiers, like talked about in the reading. That is an issue that needs light shined on it and people need to be aware of. Like the reading said, the first step to fixing an issue is to raise awareness, you cannot fix something that no one knows about. I have a particular documentary that always comes to my mind when I think of good, important, informational documentaries. It is called Restrepo.








This film documents the lives and hardships of a U.S. Army platoon for one year at their base in Afghanistan. These men were in Korengal Valley, which while they were there was known as the "deadliest place on earth." They were situated on a mountain, and their goal was to secure the valley and gain the trust of the locals. These men were in fire fights almost every single day, and the hardships they went through were unbelievable. Their living conditions were very hard, they had to live on guard constantly because at any moment the enemy would begin to fire at them. Unfortunately, men were killed during this documentary, and I honestly got choked up watching it. It was very powerful. It shed a whole knew light on what our troops go through and the emotional toll it takes on each and every one of them. These types of documentaries are needed, so we can see what it is like around the world for many different situations and issues. Without these films people would never know about important events or issues around the world, and progress would never be made.

I Hate GTA

I enjoy playing video games every once in awhile, I maybe play for an hour or so every 2 or 3 weeks, so I don't play often, bet when I do I prefer to play either FIFA or Halo. I do not find anything wrong with these games, FIFA is soccer game and Halo is a shooting game. Other games I do not mind playing are other sports related games, and Call of Duty. My parents never worried about what games I was playing as a kid, mostly because I grew up on the Nintendo 64 playing the greatest games of all time like Star Fox, Pokémon Puzzle League, Madden, NBA Live 98, and Pokémon Snapshot. So, if you know anything about these games you know my parents had nothing to worry about when it came to how games influenced me when I was younger, and by the time I got an Xbox 360 I was old enough to be a grown up with shooting games. However, if I grew up as a young child in todays gaming world I would be very cautious if I was my parents. Games today are so realistic. Todays youth I believe is impacted by what games they play, and some games I think can really cause problems. There are games like Assassins Creed, which I have played and enjoy, but if I was a parent I would not want my child playing it until they were mature enough to understand it. In Assassins Creed you are given a mission and a target to assassinate and you have to assassinate them to move on. Another game that would cause me to think twice about my child playing it is, Hitman. In Hitman you are exactly that, a hitman and you are given jobs to kill people, and it is very realistic and even as graphic as choking someone with a wire to murder them. As far as shooting games go, and games such as Call of Duty I would be cautious with them also, and make sure my child was mature enough to understand that its a game and should not transfer to real life. However, I have a major problem with one particular game and its called Grand Theft Auto.









Grand Theft Auto is the most appalling, disgusting, awful game to ever have been made. In this game you can do numerous terrible acts. You can steal cars, rob stores, pick up hookers, receive oral sex, mug people on the streets, do drugs, kill people whenever you want, you can even go to a strip club and get a lap dance and the woman strips naked for you and everything, to make it even worse when you are getting the lap dance it gives you the option to touch her in different ways!!! What is that all about?!? TERRIBLE AND DISGUSTING! I have never played this game before and never will play this game, but I have watched friends play it before. Under no circumstance would I ever allow my children to play this game as long as they lived in my household. The sad thing is, I know children play this. If kids play this consistently I believe it will simply just screw their minds up. Just think about how kids that are still learning about life, are going to process all this, all these things that are glorified in the game. How do you think young men are going to grow up to view women? As an object that they can pick up on the street, have sex with, then kill? Maybe do some drugs after that or rob a liquor store? All the sudden they think its okay to steal or do drugs, or maybe its okay to run from police or hit an innocent pedestrian, it becomes a "cool" thing to do in their minds. They do not always understand that it should stay in the game, even though I think it is just as appalling to do any of those acts in the game. Parents need to pay attention to what their children are playing, because games have stooped to horrendous levels. I want to go to the creators of this game and just ask, why? Why make this game? So, if any of you play it I am sorry for this post, but not really, I am sure you are lovely people, but this game is BS and SCREWED UP, but I guess that is what society has become. Glorifying sins all the day long.

Appreciation for Animation

So, I am a psychology major in a DMA class, with a bunch of DMA majors who have always appreciated short films and animation. I am only taking this class to get one of my required art credits. Coming into this class and watching the films we watched I was so confused because I did not understand how a lot of people thought all these films we watch were so amazing and great, when I thought they just looked terrible and cheaply put together, especially some of the animations we watched, and I cannot think of a specific one because as soon as I saw them I just ignored it and never thought anything of them again. I had never seen any of these films before, and I think that's where the problem was. All my life I have just been used to watching films that were the best of the best when it comes to how they were put together and films that have huge budgets, so everything was perfect. I was not used to seeing these animations that were just made of sand, and the sand is what the turning point was for me. Until then I was just watching what in my mind was just dumb films that I did not appreciate at all, that I thought looked awful. When I saw the animations with sand my mind totally changed. I couldn't fathom how hard it was to animate with sand and it blew my mind.

The amount of hard work and endless hours of just moving the sand around is incredible, and to make it move how Caroline Leaf does is just amazing. Its not just the animation though, its the story behind all of the animation also. Telling a story with just sand is something I have never seen before. So, I have a new found appreciation for all the films we have watched and especially animated films. I wish I could come into the class with the mindset I have now and watch all the films again.

Geri's Game

Geri's Game is one of my favorite films that have been shown in class. Its simple but complex at the same time. The work on the film is incredible and well done. However, its not the incredible picture that captured my attention, it was the story, which I think is deeper than an older man playing chess with himself. In our reading over Pixar we did, the article says that the true beauty of Pixar lies in the storytelling. "Its in the telling of a tale that the emotional appeal takes hold." The story in the hands of the wrong storyteller would just be a boring game of a man playing chess with himself, but even without words, in Geri's Game I actually felt emotionally engaged in it, because I felt bad for the old man that he had to play chess with himself, even if it seemed like he enjoyed it.

To me, this was a story of an old man that longed for companionship. Geri longs for someone to be able to go through his later life with. It made me sad to see that he had to play by himself, and I wanted to hop right in the film and start playing with him just so he had someone. He seemed to have had fun, but deep down we all know he is in pain and longing for a relationship with someone. So, clearly there is a deeper meaning to this film, and I think Pixar's storytelling was brilliant and the true beauty of the film.

Soundtrack to Peter and the Wolf

The soundtrack to Peter and the Wolf was absolutely horrific. I know it was suppose to go with what was happening in the animation, but I don't think you can even call it any sort of music or soundtrack. I could have gotten a bunch of random instruments in a room and told everyone to play all at the same time whatever they wanted, and could have made the same soundtrack to this animation. I'm not saying I am a musical genius because I am not, but after all isn't the point of making a soundtrack to add to the beauty of the animation and make the audience get into it even more. That "music" in Peter and the Wolf made me want to stop watching the film, or put on noise cancelling headphones. Now if you want to talk about a soundtrack that really adds to the greatness and emotion of the film, listen to the soundtrack to the movie Interstellar.





Now I know this is not an animated film and Peter and the Wolf is, but there is a massive difference between the soundtrack in Peter and the Wolf and Interstellar. In Interstellar the soundtrack, for one is actual music, not just the sound of a bunch of instruments playing at the same time. The music from Interstellar actually made me glued to the screen even more, and get emotionally into it, as opposed to me wanting to stop watching Peter and the Wolf completely. That's what I want as a viewer, music that goes along with whatever film it is and adds to it. I believe that a films soundtrack is very important, and not something to take lightly, because I think a good film can be ruined by what the music is, but Interstellar hit it right on the mark. Its sad that the soundtrack to Peter and the Wolf was so bad, because the animation was beautiful, and something I admired. Maybe I'll watch it again on mute.

Envy is Destroying Us

The media today is training us to commit the seven deadly sins, especially envy. It is everywhere, today its all about having the latest and best things, such as phones, clothes, cars, and any other material thing you can think of. Its driving all of us to have envy. To clarify, envy is when you want something that someone else has, and you do not want that person to have it. As far as media goes, social media is the biggest platform for envy. Many people scroll through Instagram looking at these picture of everyone and they see a car someone got or new clothes that someone got and they wish they had what they had. They wish they could be that person with the cool car or cool new fashion and not the other person. It is not just people getting envious, social media is a platform that people try to make people envious of them, which is just as bad as being envious, because you are now leading people to commit one of the deadly sins. We all do it, we all try to make our pictures look the best they can, or try to make sure our Snapchats perfect, make sure our Facebook posts make it appear to our friends and family that everything is perfect, when that's not always the case. We post all the new stuff we got or post things making it seem like we have the perfect life, and we have the perfect material things, or significant other, or brother or sister, anything. People see that and they think, "Wow they have it all and I don't, I want that, but I'm never going to be able to attain that. Why can't I be like them?"
 
The media is making many people feel inadequate. On social media you can do all kinds of things to make it appear that your life is perfect. On Instagram there are many different filters people put on their pictures to make them look better. Advertisements use Photoshop to create unrealistic pictures of men and women and they put these pictures everywhere, today we cannot get away from it. Envy makes us have feelings like the picture above. Today's world demands us to be something that is unreachable and to have everything. Its not possible. Social media has caused envy to explode, and the more envy there is, the farther we are away from God.

Childrens Media

Last Thursday we talked a lot about how the youth is affected by media in today's society. I believe that children are highly impacted by what they see and listen to, however parents also have a huge impact on how much media affects their children. The youth today has access to endless amounts of media. They can get on a computer and look up whatever they want, and flip on the TV and watch tons and tons of different programs and shows. I remember when I was a kid one of my favorite things to watch was Power Rangers. I wanted to be a power ranger so bad, and I remember acting like I was fighting this small blow up punching bag. So, clearly I was impacted by watching the power rangers, and wanted to fight something. However this is where parents come into play. I never once thought of going to school and fighting a kid or anything, because I was taught I could only be a power ranger if I was fighting the little blow up punching bag. So, that media did not negatively impact my life because of good teaching from my parents. However, there are some kids that watch something like that, and are never told that its not okay to go hit someone or fight them at school, so they carry what they see in Power Rangers over to their school and with their classmates. This is when the media negatively impacts children.

It is my belief that parents ultimately have the say in how much media impacts their children. Their children can see all the bad stuff in the world, but depending on how they are taught to view that media, correlates to how much it impacts them negatively. I do not think it comes down to parents putting up child blocks and all that kind of stuff, because kids ultimately will see the media anyway, and a lot of the time putting up child blocks makes kids pursue that media even more. I believe you need to teach them good morals to begin with, and teach them what is right and wrong, and then when they see media that is bad, they will understand. It will not be a perfect form of protection from bad media, because no matter what I think children are impacted, but its the best defense for it.

Childrens Books and Movies

This past reading assignment made me think about all the children's books and movies that I watched when I was little. I use to love reading Dr. Seuss and watching all kinds of different Disney movies. I enjoyed them when I was little of course, they were all brilliant, but honestly I think I enjoy them more now in the present, than I did then. When we are little we don't quite get the meaning behind many different types of stories, we only see the surface, however now that we are hopefully more mature and intelligent, we can unpack all of the stories and realize some of the deeper meaning behind them. One of the best examples of this is from Dr. Seuss, Oh the Places You'll Go. I am sure just about all of us have heard this multiple times in the past, I heard it when leaving elementary school, middle school, and high school. It might be overused but its so well written and applicable to life, but the kicker is, its a children's book. Children love it, however, I think adults can get more out of it than children.



You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.


This is perfectly applicable to all of us right now. We are in a new stage of life, college that is. We have the freedom to choose what we want to be and what we want to do, we have the brains to do it and the resources to do it. We are completely on our own now, and ultimately we are control of our own future. Dr. Seuss writes this so well, its mind blowing. We all can learn from what he wrote, its not just for kids. Children's media is for everyone, we can learn a lot from them. Honestly, adults are probably the ones that need to learn from it the most.

Painting of Jesus

We viewed many pictures of Jesus in class today, and whenever I think of art of Jesus I think of the book Heaven Is For Real. In this book a young boy claims to have left his physical body while laying in a hospital bed, the young boy said he saw his body on the hospital bed. He then also claims that he walked with Jesus and Jesus showed him many different things, including telling him things about his family that he could not have known at all, according to his parents. This story in itself is amazing. I saw the movie and at the end of the movie the boy sees a picture painted by a little girl halfway around the world and says that it is the man that he walked with, that the painting was the exact Jesus that he saw.



It is truly amazing that a little girl painted a picture of a vision she had of Jesus and a young boy halfway around the world saw it and said that it was Jesus, the one he walked with. Could this be the true picture of Jesus? Or did it just happen by chance that this 12 year old girl drew a similar Jesus that the boy saw. Its safe to say we will not know the truth until we actual meet our King.


That story brings me to what I am wanting to get at with this post. We talked about and looked at many paintings of Jesus today in class. The paintings were amazing, but sometimes I think we put too much into what we think Jesus looked like. Does it really matter? Our faith will be the same, nothing about Christianity will change if Jesus was attractive or ugly, so why does it matter? We will meet Jesus one day and He will be the most beautiful thing we ever have seen, until that time I think we can be patient. We better hope we are not insulting Jesus with the attempt of creating images of Him. Although I bet Jesus is a little amused by seeing all the art we have of Him. Overall, I think art is beautiful and art of Jesus is beautiful, but sometimes I think admirers of the art might start believing that the image is actually what Jesus looked like, and I think that can become dangerous. Patients, my friends. I think God purposely does not want us to know what Jesus looked like, because then we might start worshiping an image, although it would be an image of Jesus, I think that can become sketchy.

A Christian in Today's World

Reading The Christian in a Changing World by Hans Rookmaaker made me think about a lot of different things. It made me think about Christians in todays society and just how hard it is to be a Christian in these modern times. It makes me sad to look at the United States today. The U.S. was founded on Christian values, and we have gone so far from God it makes me sick. A lot of Americans claim to be Christians but unfortunately I think a lot of people are lying, or do not know what exactly it is to be a Christian.

It is harder to be a Christian today than ever before. Non Christians today view Christians as judgmental people when in reality we just stand up for what we believe in, at least I think we use to. There was even a Christian put in jail for, in my eyes, was for her beliefs. Recently a county clerk got put in jail for not issuing marriage licenses for gay couples because of her strong Christian beliefs. That outrages me, because she was not saying she hated gay people she just was saying that a marriage should be between a man and a woman according to God. The world needs Christians now more than ever, which part of what I think Rookmaaker was trying to get at. We are called to get the world back to God, whatever it takes. He says we are to stand for freedom and humanity. We need to stand up for what we believe in, because nowadays Christians are afraid to do so because they will be judged and struck down. We need more people like the county clerk who won't succumb to what a society distant from God wants us to do, we have to take a stand to turn the world back to God. We have to have courage to state our beliefs and live them out.

God's Humor

Today in class we talked about God's humor in the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah having a child. We talked about how God told them to name their son Isaac which means "laughter." Some people in the Christian community do not believe God has humor and that this was just God telling them to name their kid this because Sarah and Abraham laughed when an angel told them they were going to have a son at such an advanced age. Others say that God laughed with them and this was a showing of God's humor. I believe God does have humor and I love it. Many people dislike the idea of God having humor because it may make them feel as if God does not care as much as he should, and that humor in God might be a weakness. However, I think laughter is important, and a God that has a humorous side makes me love Him even more.







Examples of God's humor are everywhere. God loves to have fun, especially with his children. He knows that all of us need a laugh every now and then. For people who do not think he has humor, I just look around in everyday life and could point out things all the time. For example, don't you think sometimes God gives us a great big jolt of thunder and makes us jump, then kind of laughs to himself a little bit, as we probably would be too. Or maybe he is just continuously playing a prank on Indiana with the weather that never knows what it wants to do. I think God is more humorous than most people think. I think God understands that we need laughter in our life. You can't tell me that you haven't laughed when someone gets pooped on by a bird, or someone gets a pie in the face. Don't you think God maybe planted that thought in someone's mind to throw a pie in the face of a friend because some laughter was needed, so he gave us laughter. People may not like the idea of God being humorous but I personally love it.

Hayden Suter

Hello, my name is, what? My name is, who? My name is chika chika Hayden Suter. I am a sophomore psychology major and I am also minoring in Spanish. I hope to go on to get my doctorate and become a psychologist, possibly opening up my own practice. I am from the little town of Coatesville which is just west of Indianapolis. I have lived in the same house my whole life, and attended a small school called Cascade. I played basketball and soccer all four years. I continue to play soccer for HU, my position is center forward.
I have a pretty large family, which consists of 5 siblings. I have three sisters and two brothers, and I am the youngest. I also have four nieces and four nephews. When they are all together it can get pretty crazy. I have been an uncle since I was seven years old.
I would consider myself a pretty outgoing person and an extrovert. I like to hang out with my group of friends often, and love playing sports. My friends and I often play urban golf, and pick-up basketball. I love the outdoors too, and going on hikes, and camping.

This is my soccer team and I last season huddled up before a game.